A55752:734
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...
London: printed by J.T., 1658
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.
This only I add, that when I have exhorted you not to content your selves with moral virtues, that you may know in a word what this godliness is. That it is first a thing that is alway exercised with reluctancy, alway with difficulty, you shall alway find a contrary stream of corrupt nature running against it, you shall alway find the flesh rebelling against it. And secondly, it is alway wrought with ploughing and sowing. And if you find not these two in your selves, be assured that that which is in you is not godliness. So much for this first Consectary or Use that we draw from this doctrine.
This onely I add, that when I have exhorted you not to content your selves with moral vertues, that you may know in a word what this godliness is. That it is first a thing that is alway exercised with reluctancy, alway with difficulty, you shall alway find a contrary stream of corrupt nature running against it, you shall alway find the flesh rebelling against it. And secondly, it is alway wrought with plowing and sowing. And if you find not these two in your selves, be assured that that which is in you is not godliness. So much for this first Consectary or Use that we draw from this doctrine.
Secondly, we must exhort you from hence now to do the thing, and exalt God for God in your hearts; to be 1godly men, (to use the phrase of Scripture) to make him your God, and to have no other gods before his face. You will say, What other gods? Not to make your riches your god, as covetousness is called Idolatry, 2not to make your belly your god. Now that is but a part for the whole; that is, to make no kind of creature your god, nothing in the world; not to make the praise of men your god, &c. Now what is it to make these things a mans god? It is to exalt these things for God in a mans heart, when you place your summum bonum in any of these, that if they be taken from you, you think your selves undone, and if you enjoy them, you think your selves well, and in a happy condition. ⟨p. 253⟩