A39658:149
The balm of the covenant applied to the bleeding wounds of afflicted saints First…
The balm of the covenant applied to the bleeding wounds of afflicted saints First composed for the relief of a pious and worthy family, mourning over the deaths of their hopeful children; and now made public for the support of all Christians, sorrowing on the same or any other account. To which is added, A sermon preached for the funeral of that excellent and religious gentleman John Upton of Lupton esq; by John Flavell, preacher of the gospel at Dartmouth in Devon.The balm of the covenant applied to the bleeding wounds of afflicted saints First composed for the relief of a pious and worthy family, mourning over the deaths of their hopeful children; and now made publick for the support of all Christians, sorrowing on the same or any other account. To which is added, A sermon preached for the funeral of that excellent and religious gentleman John Upton of Lupton esq; by John Flavell, preacher of the gospel at Dartmouth in Devon.
London: printed for J. Harris, 1688
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.
Sol. I reply, And why may not we know it with as full a certainty to whom God is pleased to make it known in his ordinary way? Think you his Word and Spirit cannot ratify it as fully and firmly to our souls, as Nathan's discovery of it did to David's soul? God give me but such a Seal of it in his ordinary method and way of confirmation, and I will desire no more of him in this World for my relief and comfort, whatever Afflictions it shall please him to lay upon me.
Sol. I reply, And why may not we know it with as full a certainty to whom God is pleased to make it known in his ordinary way? Think you his Word and Spirit cannot ratifie it as fully and firmly to our souls, as Nathan's discovery of it did to David's soul? God give me but such a Seal of it in his ordinary method and way of confirmation, and I will desire no more of him in this World for my relief and comfort, whatever Afflictions it shall please him to lay upon me.
And thus you see all the Properties of a complete Remedy in the Covenant, and of it every Believer may say, This is all my salvation, and all my desire, though he make not my house to grow. And now what hinders, but that all Gods afflicted should say from henceforth,1 Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. I have all the desires ⟨p. 82⟩of my heart in the Covenant of God, though he take away the desire of mine eyes upon earth with his stroke. In this Covenant my soul is at rest, and my very heart is centred. No Affliction can be great enough to make the Consolations of the Almighty seem small in mine eyes. Worldly sorrows may swallow up worldly comforts, but no sorrows upon Earth can swallow up the consolations of the Covenant.
And thus you see all the Properties of a compleat Remedy in the Covenant, and of it every Believer may say, This is all my salvation, and all my desire, though he make not my house to grow. And now what hinders, but that all Gods afflicted should say from henceforth,