A09339:3107
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
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.
Christian. But David never prayed so many years without receiving an answer as I have done.
Christian. But Dauid neuer praied so many yeares without receiuing an answer as I haue done.
Minister. Good Zechariah waited longer on the Lord, before he granted his request,1 then ever you did: it is like he prayed for a child in his younger years, yet his prayer was not heard before he was old. And further, you must note that the Lord may hear the prayers of his servants, and yet they be altogether ignorant of it: For the manner that God useth in granting their requests is not always known; as may appear in the example of our Saviour Christ,2 Who in the days of his flesh, did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was also heard in that which he feared. And yet we know that he was not freed from that cursed death, but must needs suffer it. How then was he heard? On this manner: he was strengthened to bear the death, he had an Angel to comfort him, he was afterward freed from the sorrows of death: And so it is with the rest of Christs body, as it was with the head. Some being in want pray for temporal blessings: God keeps them in this want, and yet he hears their prayers, in giving them patience to abide that want. Some being in wealth and abundance pray for the continuing of it, if it be the will of God. The Lord flings them into a perpetual misery, and yet he hears their prayers, by giving them blessedness in the life to come. You pray for the increase of faith and repentance, and such like graces: you feel no increase after long prayer: yet the merciful God hath no doubt heard your prayer, in that by delaying to perform your request, he hath stirred up in you the spirit of prayer, he hath humbled you, & made you feel your own wants, the better to depend on his mercy: for the beginning and increasing of every spiritual grace.