A09990:429
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.
I answer,1 it is true, you see it was so in Job; though he were a man of an upright heart, (God bears that witness to him, he was a just man, one that feared God) and likewise this grace was perfect in him, (as that witness is given him, Jam. 5. 11. 2You know the patience of Job,) yet, notwithstanding this, it seemed to be interrupted, it seemed not to have its perfect work. Beloved, to this I answer; that it did not rise from the hollowness of his heart, or the imperfection of the grace, but it ariseth many times from ⟨p. 56⟩some other impediment, some other accident, from some distemper that may arise in the soul, that sometime or other may hinder even a perfect grace, from having a perfect work; as you see in the works of nature, there may be a perfect Spring, and yet sometimes it may be hindered from running, by some outward impediment, it may some way or other be dammed up: so, it may be a perfect Drug, fit and apt enough to work, and yet some impediment there may be that may hinder it, and choke it, and dead the virtue of it for a time, but it is but for a fit; ordinarily, and in ordinary course, every grace will have its perfect work; and as I say of patience, so likewise, you see, in all other graces, (to give you another instance, the same the Apostle gives there of faith) faith, when it ariseth, when it dwells in a heart that is entire, that is perfect, it hath a perfect work: when it is otherwise, it works but imperfectly, and but by halves. I will give you an experiment of it; you shall see two notable examples of it, one in Amaziah, 2 Chron. 25. 3you shall find there what work faith had in him; you see, in the 8, 9, 10. Verses, Amaziah was to go to war against the Edomites, he hired 100000. of Israel, that was half his Army, to go and assist him in the battle: there comes a Prophet from the LORD▪ and tells him, Amaziah, know this, the Lord is not with Israel, and therefore separate these men, and send them home; if thou do not, thou shalt fall