A62050:147
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an…
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Balliol College in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Baliol Colledge in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.
London: printed by E.M. for Tho. Parkhurst, 1659
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.
As sin is the original cause of all, so it's the final cause of most afflictions. Sometimes they are for probation (as we shoot at good armour, that we may prove it, and that we may praise it) but most commonly they are for purgation, to amend something that is amiss: the fathers of the flesh chastise for their pleasure; but the father of spirits for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness, Heb. 12.6. the quiet fruits of righteousness blossom from the correcting rod: bitter Aloes purges the worms, winds and thunder clear the air, frosts and showers whiten clothes; the husbandman useth the flail to separate the chaff, and the refiner the fire to consume the dross; but when the wheat shall be clean, there will be no need of the flail, when the gold pure, no use of the fire: now saith the Apostle, if need be, ye are in heaviness, 1 Pet. 1.6. Mark, now if need be, now men have hard knots, and therefore need ⟨p. 29⟩sharp wedges: now men have strong corruptions, and therefore need strong corrections; now the rod is as necessary as our daily bread: chastisements are to teach men in Gods law, Psal. 94.12. to search and heal their spiritual sores; but now at death the Scholar in Christs school will have perfectly learned his lesson, and therefore there will be no need of a rod; then the wounds of the soul will be perfectly cured, and these plasters will fall off of themselves: Death will make him whole, that he can sin no more; and so no worse, or so bad thing shall come to him.
As sin is the original cause of all, so it's the final cause of most afflictions. Sometimes they are for probation (as we shoot at good armour, that we may prove it, and that we may praise it) but most commonly they are for purgation, to amend something that is amiss: the fathers of the flesh chastize for their pleasure; but the father of spirits for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinesse, Heb. 12.6. the quiet fruits of righteousnesse blossome from the correcting rod: bitter Aloes purges the worms, winds and thunder clear the air, frosts and showers whiten cloaths; the husbandman useth the flail to separate the chaff, and the refiner the fire to consume the drosse; but when the wheat shall be clean, there will be no need of the flail, when the gold pure, no use of the fire: now saith the Apostle, if need be, ye are in heavinesse,