A12166:752
Beams of divine light breaking forth from several places of holy Scripture, as they…Beames of divine light breaking forth from severall places of holy Scripture, as they…
Beams of divine light breaking forth from several places of holy Scripture, as they were learnedly opened, in XXI. sermons. The III. first being the fore-going sermons to that treatise called The bruised-reed, preached on the precedent words. By the late reverend and judicious divine, Richard Sibs, D.D. Mr. of Katharine Hall in Camb: and sometimes preacher at Gray's Inn. Published according to the Doctor his own appointment subscribed with his hand; to prevent imperfect copies.Beames of divine light breaking forth from severall places of holy Scripture, as they were learnedly opened, in XXI. sermons. The III. first being the fore-going sermons to that treatise called The bruised-reed, preached on the precedent words. By the late reverend and iudicious divine, Richard Sibs, D.D. Mr. of Katharine Hall in Camb: and sometimes preacher at Grayes Inne. Published according to the Doctor his owne appointment subscribed with his hand; to prevent imperfect coppies.
London: printed by George for N. Bourne, 1639
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.
Now for this inward soul of man, which is so excellent a thing, fitted by God to cleave to better things, for communion with himself, and everlasting happiness; for this, to be a drudge to base pleasures, and profits, to the windy empty things of this world, to vain titles, & such like empty things, and to place its happiness in these things; it is a pitiful degeneration, that so excellent a thing as the immortal soul of man, that shall never die, should join with those things that shall ⟨p. 16⟩make him miserable; that it shall be better for a man that he had never been, as it is said of Judas; It had been better for that man that he had never been borne.
Now for this inward soule of man, which is so excellent a thing, fitted by God to cleave to better things, for communion with himselfe, and everlasting happinesse; for this, to be a drudge to base pleasures, and profits, to the windie empty things of this world, to vaine titles, & such like empty things, and to place its happinesse in these things; it is a pittifull degeneration, that so excellent a thing as the immortall soule of man, that shall never die, should joyne with those things that shall ⟨p. 16⟩make him miserable; that it shall be better for a man that he had never beene, as it is said of Iudas; It had beene better for that man that he had never beene borne.
4In the next place, consider that that follows this thraldom and baseness to our lusts:1 there is a double fruit of it. The one, is uncertain: I mean, for our yielding to our base affections, what get we? The pleasures of sin for a season, a little pleasure, or profit, perhaps not that neither: but if we have it, it is a fading commodity, that goes away quickly; when they are gotten, what are they? vanity; they promise more before we get them, then they perform when we have them. But then, there is another wages, that God in justice hath appointed for it, that is damnation; The wages of sin is death: it cries for wages. When we are under sin we can look for nothing but death; and therefore he joins them together here; the law of sin, and of death; an expectation of eternal misery. This a man hath that is wedded to himself, that hath not learned the first lesson in the Gospel, to deny himself; he is a wretched slave to the Devil, in his best part, and power; his lusts imprison his will and affections; his wit, that should devise how he should be happy for for eternity, it is only a drudge to his base lusts. There are a company of men, that are the shame, and blemish of the Gospel, that set their wits a work only how to devise to