A10024:356
Sins overthrow
Sins overthrow: or, A godly and learned treatise of mortification Wherein is excellently handled; first, the general doctrine of mortification: and then particularly, how to mortify fornication. Uncleanness. Evil concupiscence. Inordinate affection. and, covetousness. All being the substance of several sermons upon Colos. III. V. Mortify therefore your members, &c. Delivered by that late faithful preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns-Inn.Sins overthrow: or, A godly and learned treatise of mortification Wherein is excellently handled; first, the generall doctrine of mortification: and then particularly, how to mortifie fornication. Vncleannes. Evill concupiscence. Inordinate affection. and, covetousnes. All being the substance of severall sermons upon Colos. III. V. Mortifie therefore your members, &c. Delivered by that late faithfull preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes-Inne.
London: printed by I. Beale and Augustine Mathewes for Andrew Crooke, 1633
HOW TO MORTIFY EVIL CONCUPISCENCE.HOVV TO MORTIFIE EVILL CONCVPISCENCE.
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, the habitual concupiscence, and secondly, the inordinate lusts and desires that do arise from it, one we call habitual, and the other actual. Now the Apostle would have the habitual concupiscence in nature weakened, and secondly, he would have the acts of the lust to be suppressed. Now that it is the Apostles meaning, that he would have them mortified and that which is to be mortified is sin, mark that place I did cite before, Rom. 6. 12. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies. In these words are three things observable, First, there is a sin, secondly, a lust to the sin, and thirdly obedience to the sin, that is a will to execute the desire of this lust. When the Apostle saith, he would have them mortified, he would have the heart to be cleansed from the habitual custom of evil concupiscence, and secondly he would have them ⟨p. 194⟩so subdued, as not to obey them. That you may know the Apostles meaning, and not to lay a straighter charge upon you, then the holy Ghost doth aim at he would have all these three to be mortified, the lust, the consent to the lust, and the act of ill. Consider the nature of the things that are to be mortified; If you take the evil inclination, and compare it with the strength of the mind, in committing of any sin, they are all of the same nature, they differ but in degree, a lesser evil in the thought, before consent unto it is of the same nature as a greater, as it is in murder: He that is angry with his brother unadvisedly, committeth a degree of murder; So he that slandereth his brother by taking away of his good name, committeth a degree of murder, and is a sin of the same nature, as if he took away the life of his brother. So as in taking away the comfort of a mans life, it is a degree of murder, in as much as that man would take away the life of his brother if he might; So in lust, if a man desire to commit adultery with a woman, and cannot come to the execution of his will therein, to the committing of the actual sin, yet the adultery of the thoughts and affections, are degrees unto this sin, and are of the same nature, as if he had committed the sin it self. The Commandments say, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours 1wife, that is, in no degree at all to hurt her, or to wrong her. If all be of one nature, and differ in degree, then all are to be mortified.