A09990:762
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 because the Judge of all the world must needs be righteous, as saith Abraham; As if he should say, the first standard of Justice, the first rule, the first measure, either that must be right, or else there can be no rectitude in the world. Now that cannot be; you see there is a rectitude amongst men, there is a justice amongst men, there is a kind of even carriage among the creatures, and therefore the judge of all the world that gives all these rules, that sets all these measures, all things in this evenness, and that keeps up that which otherwise would fall in sunder, surely he must needs be righteous, and therefore he must needs do well to the righteous, and reward evil to the wicked.
First,1 because the Iudge of all the world must needs be righteous, as sayth Abraham; As if he should say, the first standard of Iustice, the first rule, the first measure, either that must be right, or els there can be no rectitude in the world. Now that cannot be; you see there is a rectitude amongst men, there is a justice amongst men, there is a kinde of even carriage among the creatures, and therefore the judge of all the world that giues all these rules, that sets all these measures, all things in this evennesse, and that keepes vp that which otherwise would fall in sunder, surely he must needs be righteous, and therefore he must needes doe well to the righteous, and reward evill to the wicked.
- 1Because God is a just judge.Because God is a iust judge.
Secondly, this is clear from his immutability: look what God hath done in former times,1 he must needs do the same; Go through all the Scriptures, and you shall find that still the evil in the end were punished, and the good in the end were rewarded; he is the same God still, he is still