A55754:245
Sun-beams of gospel-light shining clearly from several texts of Scripture, opened and applied. 1.…Sun-beams of gospel-light shining clearly from severall texts of Scripture, opened and applyed. 1.…
Sun-beams of gospel-light shining clearly from several texts of Scripture, opened and applied. 1. A heavenly [sic] treatise of the divine love of Christ. 2. The Christians freedom. 3. The deformed form of a formal profession. 4. Christs fullness, and mans emptiness. By John Preston, doctor in divinity, chaplain in ordinary to King James, Mr. of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher at Lincolns Inn.Sun-beams of gospel-light shining clearly from severall texts of Scripture, opened and applyed. 1. A heavemly [sic] treatise of the devine love of Christ. 2. The Christians freedome. 3. The deformed forme of a formall profession. 4. Christs fulnesse, and mans emptinesse. By John Preston, doctor in divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to King James, Mr. of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher at Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed for John Stafford, 1644
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.
A SOLILOQUY OF A DEVOUT SOUL TO CHRIST, PANTING After the love of the LORD JESUS.
A SOLILOQVY OF A DEVOVT SOVLE TO CHRIST, PANTING AFter the love of the LORD IESUS.
O Thou Love of all loves, thou chiefest of ten thousand; thou lovedst me before I was, thou dost love me when I am, thou doest love me (if I be thine) when I am here no more. Thy Loves are better then wine, but mine are worse than gall and wormwood. Thou lovest me who deserve less then nothing, I love not thee who deservest more then all things. I have hid my self from thee as Adam, yet thou hast pierced through the dark cloud, and loved me. Thou hast opened thy self in the face of my soul, yet in the sight of this Sun I have not loved thee. No baseness ⟨p. 90⟩of mine hath closed thy eyes, and kept thy heart from me: yet every base pleasure, and pleasing lust hath kept my heart and eye from thee. Without my love to thee I cannot have my happiness applied, and enjoyed. It is Faith that marries thee to me: but this faith must work by love, or my marriage will end in a fruitless barrenness, and faithless separation. Hitherto therefore I have loved thee, but for lust, not for love. I would have thee save me, but I would not honour, and please thee. I can thus think of my disloyalty towards thee; but thou knewest it before I thought it, and more then I can speak or think. Thou doest think thoughts of love and peace to me, but I mind the abuse of thy love, and the too late repentance of thee upon my own terms. How can I be acceptable to thee, (My Love, my Dove, my undefiled,) Thou spreadest out thy hands, and art ready for blessing me: but if I open my head, heart, hand, I am apt to receive nothing but Anathema, Maranatha from thee. Can love come to enmity, heaven to hell? I am hell (my Lord) thou art heaven: I am hatred, thou art Love. Thou showest hatred, yet in my wisdom am I very enmity. Can I then expect either to have the blessing of Love, or to avoid the curse of not loving? Oh show me thy face, for it is comely. Thou hast often showed me thy riches, and I have loved them: but oh show me thy self, that I may love thee. I have seen by goodness, mercy, compassion, merit, salvation, and have cried out, (My blessed Jesus) make these mine. Now