A29709:167
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.
Tertullian writing to some of the Martyrs (who had a mighty presence of God with them) saith (Non tantus sum ut vos alloquar, &c,) I am not good enough to speak unto you. Oh! that my life and a thousand more such wretches might go for yours, &c. In Queen Mary's days (not of blessed but of abhorred memory) the People of God met sometimes 40. sometimes 100. sometimes 200. together; the fiery persecutors of that day sent in one among them, to spy out their practices, & to give information of their names, that they might be brought to Smithfield 1shambles: But there was such a presence of God in ⟨p. 115⟩the Assembly of his People, that this Informer was convinced and converted, and cried them all mercy. 1 Cor. 14. 24. But if all prophecy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. Verse 25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. It may be before they came to the Assembly of the Saints, they had hard thoughts of the People of God, they thought that folly was in them, or that disloyalty was in them, or that madness and rebellion was in them, or that plots and designs against the Government was in them, or that the Devil was in them. O but now such a Majestical presence of God appears in the midst of his People, that the Unbeliever is convinced and confesses that God is in them of a truth. Blessed Bradford had such a signal presence of God with him in his sufferings, as begot great reverence and admiration, not only in the hearts of his Friends, but in the very hearts of very many Papists also. Henry the Second King of 2France, being present at the Martyrdom of a poor Taylor; who was burnt by him for his Religion, the poor 3man had such a signal presence of God with him in his sufferings, that his courage and boldness, his holy and gracious behaviour did so amaze and terrify the King, that he swore at his going away, that he never would be present at such a sight more. As the presence of God is the greatest ornament of the Church triumphant, so the presence of God is the greatest ornament of the Church militant.