A09339:3160
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.
A man in this desertion cap discern no difference between himself and a cast-away: and the rather if with this desertion be joined a feeling of Gods anger: for then ariseth the bitterest temptation that ever befell the poor soul of a Christian man, and that is a wrestling and struggling in spirit and conscience, not with the motions of a rebelling flesh, nor the accusations of the devil, which are oftentimes very irksome and terrible, but against the wrath of a revenging God. This hidden and spiritual temptation more tormenteth ⟨p. 681⟩the spirit of man, then all the racks or gibbets in the world can do. And it hath his fits after the manner of an ague, in which even Gods own servants overcarried with sorrow may blaspheme God, and cry out that they are dā ned. Job was in this estate: as he testifieth, aOh that my grief were weighed (saith he) and my miseries were laid together in the balance: for it would be heavier then the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up; for the arrows of the Almighty are in me: the venom thereof doth drink up my spirit, and the terrors of god fight against me. And further he complains that the Lord is bhis enemy, that he writes bitter things against him, and that he csets him as a But to shoot at. This was Davids temptation when he said,d O Lord rebuke me not in thy anger, neither chastise me in thy wrath, have mercy upon me O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord heal me, for my bones are vexed, my soul is also sore troubled: but Lord how long wilt thou delay? Return O Lord, deliver my soul, save me for thy mercies sake.
A man in this desertion cap discerne no difference betweene himselfe and a cast-away: and the rather if with this desertion be ioyned a feeling of Gods anger: for then ariseth the bitterest temptation that euer befell the poore soule of a Christian man, and that is a wrastling and strugling in spirit and conscience, not with the motions of a rebelling flesh, nor the accusations of the deuill, which are oftentimes very irksome and terrible, but against the wrath of a reuenging God. This hidden and spirituall temptation more tormenteth