A09990:378
The new covenantThe nevv covenant
The new covenant, or the saints portion A treatise unfolding the all-sufficiency of God, and mans uprightness, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteen sermons upon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Whereunto are adjoined four sermons upon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ John Preston. Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The nevv covenant, or the saints portion A treatise vnfolding the all-sufficiencie of God, and mans uprightnes, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteene sermons vpon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Wherevnto are adioyned foure sermons vpon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithfull and worthie minister of Iesus Christ Iohn Preston. Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiestie, maister of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by I. Dawson for Nicolas Bourne, 1629
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thirdly;1 as there is a difference in this; so there is a difference in their manner of overcoming, and in their manner of returning, when they arise out of a sin, when they preserve themselves from it after a relapse, by which you may judge likewise; for you may judge the one by the other: A man whose heart is unsound, may take to himself a strong and fixed resolution, by which he may resist the sin, and yet this bank may be borne down by the violence of Temptation: But, in a godly man the resistance is otherwise, and accordingly the relapse is of a different nature: for the resistance is after this manner, it is as when you see one stream resist another, as you see in Rivers that are subject to ebbing and flowing, there runs a contrary stream that over-bears it; so it is in those that are sound-hearted, there is a strong inclination, that carries them another way, such as that expressed, Gal. 5. 17. the spirit lusteth against the flesh: so ⟨p. 9⟩that, if you mark the manner of their overcoming, the manner of their rising out of their relapses, you shall find them to be in this manner; put the case the flesh, for some brunt, for some fit, have gotten the better, notwithstanding, saith he, the spirit lusts against it, and suffers not the flesh to do what it would; that is, there is a contrary stream within him, which resists those desires of the flesh, that binds them again, and leads them captive, as, before, the spirit was led captive: In others it is not so; there may be a certain fixed resolution, which may resist a strong temptation, as a Bank or a Rock resist a strong billow: but there is a great deal of difference between this and those risings out of relapses that are done by a contrary stream, by the lusting of the spirit: for they have no such spirit in them, to lust against the flesh, and so to bind it, as it were, to overcome it, that they return no more to those sins to which before they were given up.
Thirdly;1 as there is a difference in this; so there is a difference in their manner of ouercomming, and in their manner of returning, when they arise out of a sinne, when they preserue themselues from it after a relapse, by which you may iudge likewise; for you may iudge the one by the other: A man whose heart is vnsound, may take to himselfe a strong and fixed resolution, by which hee may resist the sinne, and yet this banke may bee borne downe by the violence of Temptation: But, in a godly man the resistance is otherwise, and accordingly the relapse is of a different nature: for the resistance is after this manner, it is as when you see one streame resist another, as you see in Riuers that are subiect to ebbing and flowing, there runnes a contrary streame that ouer-beares it; so it is in those that are sound-hearted, there is a strong inclination, that carries them another way, such as that expressed,