A29699:81
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
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.
nor to cast himself into a suffering state, so long as God hath left him a plain open1 way to escape suffering without sinning; not but that most men are more apt and prone to sin themselves out of smart sufferings, than unwarrantably to run themselves into sufferings; but it is good for every Christian to be upon his Guard, and not run till God sends him. As a Christian must not sh•n sufferings, so he must not seek them.
- 1Act. 9. 23, 24, 25. Joh. •0. 19, 20.
Secondly, that Afflictions, Sufferings, Persecutions, hath §2been the common lot and portion of the people of God, in all the1 Ages of the world; witness the sufferings of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, the Primitive Christians, and the Martyrs of a later date: Abel was persecuted by C•in, 1 Joh. 3. 12. and Isaac by Ishmael, Gal. 4. 29. and Jacob by •sau. That seems to be a standing Law; All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution, 2 Tim. 3. 12. A man may have many faint wishes and cold desires after Godliness, and yet escape Persecution; yea, he may make some essays and attempts as if he would be Godly, and yet escape Persecution: But when a man is th roughly resolved to be Godly, and sets himself in good earnest upon pursuing after holiness, upon living a life of holiness, upon growing up in holiness, then he must expect to meet with afflictions and persecutions. The History of the Ten Persecutions, and that little Book of Martyrs, the 11. of the Hebrews, and Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments, with many other Histories that are extant, do abundantly evidence, that from Age to Age, and from one Generation to another, they that have been born after the