A29709:38
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.
So Dan. 3. 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King: O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Ver. 17. If it be so, our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. In the fiery Furnace they are protected by 1a divine providence, they escape death beyond all mens expectations, for the fire touched them not, neither could it burn during their abode in the Furnace, for God so fortified their bodies that they could not be consumed by fire; which accident made them in great estimation with the King, for that he saw, that they w•re ⟨p. 18⟩virtuous, and beloved of God, and for that cause they were highly honoured by him. Here is a fiery Furnace before them, and a proud, boasting, tyrannical, enraged Prince domineering over them, for not obeying his Idolatrous will. Now to what a mighty pitch is their faith raised? [Our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us.] Their faith was bottomed upon their propriety in God. [Our God,] and upon the power, providence, and all-sufficiency of God. [Is able to deliver us,] and upon the gracious readiness, and willingness of God. [And he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King.] When dangers are greatest, then God commonly raises the faith of his people highest, faith doth most and best for us, when we are at a dead lift. It 2quenches the violence of fire, as the Apostle speaks, pointing at the faith of these three Children, or rather Champions; though now the fiery Furnace was heat seven times hotter, then it used to be at other times, yet such was the strength, and might, and power of their faith, that it so quenched the flames, that they had not one hair of their heads singed, nor their coats changed, 3nor the smell of fire found upon them; and thus the blessed Martyrs may be said by their faith, patience, and constancy to quench the violence of the fire, though their bodies were consumed to ashes in the fire. So