A09990:52
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
Part › Sermon 1: OF GODS ALL-SUFFICIENCY.Part › Sermon 1: OF GODS ALL-SVFFICIENCY.
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.
1So the meanest creatures, the fire, and the air, and whatsoever they are, they are all at the Lords command: and therefore think not, that the creature is able to do any thing for us.
1So the meanest creatures, the fire, and the ayre, and whatsoever they are, they are all at the Lords command: and therefore thinke not, that the creature is able to doe any thing for vs.
There are but two things, one is our everlasting happiness,1 and there the creature by fruition of it self, is able to do nothing; there it is wholly excluded, for it is inferior to us. Besides, there is a curse upon the creature, there is an emptiness in it: besides, it is under the Sun, and therefore it cannot help to the happiness, that is above the Sun. These arguments you shall find in Ecclesiastes. Besides, it is temporal, whereas we must have an eternal happiness; for, our souls are eternal, and therefore, for eternal happiness: for the chief good of man, the creature is nothing at all, it helpeth but in particulars. Take credit, it doth but help against ignominy and obscurity: learning doth but help against ignorance: health is but a remedy against sickness, and distemper of body: riches are but an help against poverty: and so go over all the creatures in the world. But the Lord is universally good, he gives us all things, and therefore godliness is profitable for all things: he gives us all things to enjoy: that is, he fills the soul of man every way, not, Beloved, that simply an infinite object is necessary, as it is usually understood, (I see no ground for that) I see it not necessary, that a finite faculty, should have