A09339:3833
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.
The meditations which serve for this purpose are innumerable, but I will touch only those which are the most principal & the grounds of the rest: and they are four in number. The first is borrowed from the special providence of God; namely that the death of every man, much more of every child of god, is not only foreseen, but also foreappointed of God: yea the death of every man deserved and procured by his sins, is laid upon him by God, who in that respect may be said to be the cause of every mans death. So saith Anna,1 The Lord killeth and maketh alive. The Church of Jerusalem confessed that nothing came to pass in the death of Christ,2 but that which the foreknowledge and eternal counsel of God had appointed. And therefore the death also of every member of Christ is foreseen and ordained by the special decree and providence of God. I add further, that the very circumstances of death, as the time when, the place where, the manner how, the beginnings of sickness, the continuance, and the end, every fit in the sickness and the pangs of death, are particularly set down in the counsel of God. The very hairs of our heads are numbered (as our Saviour Christ saith) and a sparrow lights not on the ground without the will of our heavenly father. David saith excellently,3 My bones are not hid from thee, though I was made in a secret place, and fashioned beneath in the earth: thine eyes did see me when I was without form, for in thy book were all things written, which in continuance were fashioned, when there was none of them before. And he prays to God to put his tears into his bottle. Now if this be true,4 that God hath bottles for the very tears of his servants, much more hath he bottles for their blood, and much more doth he respect and regard their pains and miseries with all the circumstances of sickness and death. The careful meditation of this one point is a notable means to arm us against fear and distrust, and impatience in the time of death; as some examples in this case will easily manifest, I held my tongue and said nothing, saith David: but what was it that caused this patience in him?5