A09339:3784
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.
It will be said, what warrant had Hezekiah to pray against death for this cause. Answer. His warrant was good: for God had made a particular promise to David and his posterity after him,1 that so long as they feared God and walked in his commandments, they should not want issue to sit upon the throne of the kingdom after them. Now Hezekiah at the time of the Prophets message remembering what promise God had made, and how he for his part had kept the condition thereof, in that he had walked before God with an upright heart, and had done that which was acceptable in his sight; he prayed against death, not so much because he feared the danger of it, but because he wanted issue. This prayer God accepted & heard, and he added fifteen years unto his days, & two years after gave him Manasseh.
It will be said, what warrant had Ezechiah to praie against death for this cause. Ansvvere. His warrant was good: for God had made a particular promise to Dauid and his posteritie after him,1 that so long as they feared God and walked in his commandements, they should not want issue to sitte vpon the throne of the kingdome after them. Nowe Ezechiah at the time of the Prophets message remembering what promise God had made, and howe hee for his part had kept the condition thereof, in that hee had walked before God with an vpright heart, and had done that which was acceptable in his sight; hee praied against death, not so much because hee feared the danger of it, but because he wanted issue. This praier God accepted & heard, and he added fifteene yeares vnto his daies, & two yeares after gaue him Manasses.
The fourth objection is this, that those which have been reputed to be of the better sort of men oftentimes have miserable ends: for some end their days despairing, some raving and blaspheming, some strangely tormented: it may seem therefore that the day of death is the day of greatest woe and misery. To this I answer first of all generally, that we must not judge of the estate of any man before God by outward things, whether they be blessings or judgements, whether they fall in life or death. For (as Solomon saith) all things come alike to all: and the same condition is to the just and the wicked, to the good & to the pure & to the polluted, & to him that sacrificeth, & to him that