A39658:83
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.
Therefore the Covenant of Grace must needs be a complete ⟨p. 36⟩Relief and Remedy to the afflicted Soul.
Therefore the Covenant of Grace must needs be a compleat ⟨p. 36⟩Relief and Remedy to the afflicted Soul.
The sting of all Afflictions, is the guilt of sin; when God smites, Conscience usually smites too: and this is it that causes all that pain and anguish in the afflicted. 'Tis plainly so in the Example of the Widow of Zarephath, 1when her son, her only son, and probably her only child died, how did that stroke of God revive guilt in her Conscience, and made the affliction piercing and intolerable! as appears by her passionate Expostulation with Elijah, who then sojourned in her house: What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? Q. d. What injury have I done thee? Didst thou come hither to observe my sins, and pray down this Judgment upon my Child for them? The death of her son revived her guilt, and so it generally doth, even in the most holy men.
When Job looked upon his wasted body under Afflictions, every wrinkle he saw upon it, seemed to him like a witness rising up to testify against him.1