A30241:2102
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
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.
But to open this Consider,
1. That it's Gods special Gift and his power only that keeps his people from sin in their afflictions: For did not God sanctify, Did not God teach as well as chasten, the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Punishment would always go together, the time of our trouble, and the time of our transgressions would never ⟨p. 445⟩be separated; When David could say, That out of very Faithfulness God had afflicted him, that before he was afflicted he went astray, This was wholly from the Grace of God, for how many in their distress are like Ahaz, that then did worse then ever before, for certainly Afflictions to wicked men are like the fire or pouncings to ill and unsavoury Herbs, the more they are meddled with the more they stink: As the damned in hell, their Torments make them rage and blaspheme against God, Thus it is with the wicked on the Earth, their present troubles draw out their corruptions; They are more impatient, more discontented, and never more evil then when they have the greatest cause to be exceeding good; But to the Godly it is otherwise, that light which burneth the wicked enliveneth the Godly, as the fire in Nebuchadnezzars Furnace did lose the bonds that the Worthies were bound in, and made them at Liberty, when it consumed the ungodly; Thus Afflictions many times set the Godly at Liberty from their sins, loose their hearts more from the world, but how comes this about, it's the mere Gift of God, Did not God support, as Christ did Peter, in these waves, we would presently be over-whelmed; Oh then reflect on thy self, Hath any trouble? Have any Afflictions made thee more humble and more upright? Hath Believing outed thee from the world and earthly things, know that it's God that hath kept thee from the evil.
1. That it's Gods special Gift and his power only that keeps his people from sinne in their afflictions: For did not God sanctifie, Did not God teach as well as chasten, the Evil of Sinne and the Evil of Punishment would alwaies go together, the time of our trouble, and the time of our transgressions would never ⟨p. 445⟩