A29709:105
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse…
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favourable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favorable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
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.
Thirdly, (If God be with us, who can be against us?) I answer, None can be so against us, as to be able to separate us from the love of God; and the love of Christ. Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distresses, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Verse 36. (As it is written, for thy sake are we killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Verse 37. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. Verse 38. For I am persuaded, that neither ⟨p. 65⟩death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Verse 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other Creature, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus It is not the pleasures of life nor the pains of death, it is not evils felt nor evils feared, it is not the height of prosperity nor the depth of adversity, it is not bonds nor banishment, it is not power nor policy, honour nor baseness, it is not violent persecutions nor multiplied tribulations; it is not the scorns of men, nor reproaches of men, nor revilings of men, nor designs of men, nor any thing else, that can separate us from the love of the Father or the love of the Son. In the 35. Verse is a position, that no crosses nor creatures can deprive us of the love of God, which is set down in a double interrogation, that he might add the more force and life to it, and ravish the Readers: Who shall separate us? That is none can: But he speaks with contempt; Who shall? shall tribulation? as if he should say, I scorn it; As Goliath defied David, saying, Doest thou come to me with a staff? so Paul with a better Spirit defies all crosses, sufferings, trials, &c. as things not able to deprive sincere Christians of Christs love; shall tribulation, &c. He had before spoken of Persons, now here he speaks of things, because Satan and his sworn Slaves think by such things to separate between God and his People. Chrysostom observes Paul's wisdom in three things: 1. That he saith not, Shall the love of riches, pleasures, honours, &c. which have a mighty force in them to bewitch us; but shall tribulation, distress, &c. 2. That he begins with the lighter, and so riseth to greater troubles, placing them in this order not casually, but, by singular art. 3.
Thirdly, (If God be with us, who can be against us?) I answer, None can be so against us, as to be able to separate us from the love of God; and the love of Christ.