A09339:3824
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.
First we must make a new examination of our ⟨p. 794⟩hearts and lives, and say as the Israelites said in affliction,1 Let us search and •ry our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Secondly we must make a new confession to God of our new and particular sins, as God sends new corrections and chastisements.2 When David had the hand of God very heavy upon him for his sins, so as his very bones and moisture consumed within him, he made confession of them unto God, and thereupon obtained his pardon, and was healed. The third thing is to make new prayer and more earnest the ever before, with sighs and groans of the spirit, and that for pardon of the same sins, and for reconciliation with God in Christ. In the exercise of these three duties stands the renovation of our faith and repentance whereby they are increased, quickened, and revived. And the more sickness prevails and takes place in the body, the more should we be careful to put them in ure: that spiritual life might increase as temporal life is decayed. When King Hezekiah lay sick, as he thought upon his death-bed, he wept as for some other causes so also for his sins, and withal he prayed God to cast them behind his back. David made certain Psalms when he was sick, or at the least upon the occasion of his sickness, as namely the 6. the 32. the 38. the 39, &c. & they all are psalms of repentance: in which we may see how in distress of body and mind he renewed his faith and repentance, heartily bewailing his sins, and entreating the Lord for the pardon of them. Manasseh, one that fell from God, and gave himself to many horrible sins, when he was taken captive and imprisoned in Babylon,3 he prayed to the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and God was entreated of him, and heard his prayer, and brought him again into Jerusalem into his kingdom, and then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Now look what Manasseh did in this tribulation, the same thing must we do in the time of our bodily sickness.
First we must make a new examination of our ⟨p. 794⟩