A09990:689
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.
First,1 you see hence then, that there are but two places hereafter for men, as there are but two ranks of men; there is no middle place, as the Papists affirm, there is no Purgatory, or Limbus, either for the Fathers before Christ, or for Children now; As they are all in one of these two ranks, in one of these two conditions, so there are but two places into which all men are divided, some to the one, and some to the other.
First,1 you see hence then, that there are but two places hereafter for men, as there are but two rankes of men; there is no middle place, as the Papists affirme, there is no Purgatorie, or Limbus, either for the Fathers before Christ, or for Children now; As they are all in one of these two rankes, in one of these two conditions, so there are but two places into which all men are divided, some to the one, and some to the other.
- 1Use 1.Vse 1.
But secondly;1 The chiefest use that we are to make of it is this; If it be so, if a mans condition must be one of these two, that either he is within the door in the Kingdom of God, or without, that though some are come near the Kingdom of God, some are farther off among those that are without. And again, among those that are within the door, some are farther in, some are not so far, some have proceeded farther into the Temple, some a less way, yet there are none in a middle way, but all are either within, or without, let us then learn to consider, what our condition is, let not our persuasion and opinion of our selves, hang between both, but let us come to this conclusion, to this disjunctive proposition, Either I am in the number of those that are good, or that are bad; either I am within the Covenant or without; and so consider in which of these two conditions we are: Men are exceeding apt in this case to deceive themselves; and therefore when the Apostle hath occasion to speak of this, he premiseth that still, Be not deceived, such and such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God: