A29368:389
The freeness of the grace and love of God to believers discovered in reference…
The freeness of the grace and love of God to believers discovered in reference to 1. their services and suffering, 2. their consolations, and 3. their salvation and eternal glory : together with the excellency of the fear of God, the goodness and pleasantness of brotherly love, the wisdom of hearing the voice of the rod, repentance the only way to prevent judgements / delivered in several sermons by the late reverend and faithful minister of Christ, Mr. William Bridge ...The freeness of the grace and love of God to believers discovered in reference to 1. their services and suffering, 2. their consolations, and 3. their salvation and eternal glory : together with the excellency of the fear of God, the goodness and pleasantness of brotherly love, the wisdom of hearing the voice of the rod, repentance the only way to prevent judgements / delivered in several sermons by the late reverend and faithful minister of Christ, Mr. William Bridg ...
London: printed for Nath. Crouch, 1671
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Fourthly, Though God doth visit the transgressions of his people with a rod, yet it is in season, it is but what is very seasonable, they are so cut and lopped, as that they may grow again, Proverb. 13.24. He that spareth the rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes, or in the morning, that is, he doth it in season; but now the wicked are so cut off, that they never grow more;
Fourthly, Though God doth visit the transgressions of his people with a rod, yet it is in season, it is but what is very seasonable, they are so cut and lopt, as that they may grow again, Proverb. 13.24. He that spareth the rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him chastneth him betimes, or in the morning, that is, he doth it in season; but now the wicked are so cut off, that they never grow more;
Fifthly, Though God visiteth the transgressions of his people with a rod, yet his loving kindness he will never take away from them: If they sin, saith God, I will visit them with a rod, but my loving kindness I will not take away from them, Psalm 89.33. But it is not so with the wicked.
Sixthly, Though God doth visit the transgressions of his people with a rod, yet he will not suffer the rod to rest upon their ⟨p. 138⟩backs: if your Garments be dirty or dusty, you take a Rod or a wand, and beat out the dust, but when it is out, you do not let the rod rest upon the garment; so God causeth his rod to pass upon his people, but when their dirt and filth is out and removed, he will take away the rod from off them, and will not suffer it to rest upon their backs: So that you see there is a vast difference between the rod of the wicked and the rod of the Godly in these particulars; The rod of the wicked is a breaking rod: but the rod of the Godly is a correcting rod; The rod of the Godly is thrown into the fire, the rod of the wicked is not so; The rod of the godly is seasonable, the rod of the wicked is not; the rod of the godly is in love, the rod of the wicked not so: And lastly, God will not let the rod rest upon the back of the righteous, but the rod of the wicked shall never be removed, and that is the second proposition.