A09339:1683
A Golden Chain
A golden chain: or The description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seen in the table annexed. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting afflicted consciences.A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seene in the table annexed. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting afflicted consciences.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1600Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1600
AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I believe in God. &c.AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I beleeue in God. &c.
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.
Secondly, Christ saith of himself,1 as Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up: the comparison is excellent and worthy the marking. In the wilderness of Arabia the people of Israel rebelled against God, and thereupon he sent fiery serpents among them, which stung ⟨p. 334⟩many of them to death: now when they repented, Moses was commanded to make a brazen serpent, and to set it upon a pole, that as many as were stung might look unto it and recover: and if they could but cast a glance of the eye on the brazen serpent, when they were stung even to death, they were restored to health and life. Now every man that liveth is in the same case with the Israelites; Satan hath stung us at the heart, and given us many a deadly wound, if we could feel it, and Christ who was figured by the brazen serpent was likewise exalted on the cross, to confer righteousness and life eternal to every one of us: therefore if we will escape eternal death, we must renounce our selves, and lift up the eyes of our faith to Christ crucified, and pray for the pardon of our sins: and then shall our hearts and consciences be healed of the wounds and gripes of the devil: and until such time as we have grace to do this, we shall never be cured, but still lie wounded with the stings of Satan, and bleeding to death even at the very heart, although we feel no pain or grief at all. But some may ask how any man can see him crucified now after his death? Ans. Wheresoever the word of God is preached, there Christ is crucified, as Paul saith,2 Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, to whom before Jesus Christ was described in your sight, and among you crucified? meaning that he was lively preached among them. We need not to go to wooden crosses, or to golden crucifixes to seek for him; but where the Gospel is preached, thither must we go, and there lift up our eyes of faith to Christ, as he is revealed unto us in the word; resting on him and his merits with all our hearts, and with a godly sorrow confess and bewail our sins, craving at his hands mercy and pardon for the same. For till such time as we do this, we are grievously stung by Satan, and are every moment even at deaths door. And if we can thus behold Christ by faith, the benefits which come hereby, shall be great: