A81235:104
Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions
Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions: first conceived by way of private meditations: afterward digested into certain sermons, preached at Aldermanbury. And now published for the help and comfort of humble suffering Christians. By Tho. Case, M.A. sometimes student of Ch. Ch. Oxon. now preacher of the Gospel in London.Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions: first conceived by way of private meditations: afterward digested into certain sermons, preach'd at Aldermanbury. And now published for the help and comfort of humble suffering Christians. By Tho. Case, M.A. sometimes student of Ch. Ch. Oxon. now preacher of the Gospel in London.
London: printed by J.M. for Luke Fawn, 1652London: printed by J.M. for Luke Favvn, 1652
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 affliction gives out the experience of Gods faithfulness, 1so also of his mercy: mercy in the moderating of the chastisements: In measure ⟨p. 86⟩thou wilt debate with it, &c. Isai. 27.8. In the midst of judgment he remembereth mercy, Habak. 3.2. Even when God in his compassions saith of his afflicted Church, 2She hath received double of the Lord for all her sins; in the sense of her own merits and his mercy she can reply, 3Thou hast punished us less then our iniquities deserve: too much says God, too little saith the Church. Oh blessed sight, thus to see God and the Soul contending together! It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not, crieth the Church in Babylon; q. d. it is banishment, it might have been destruction; we are in Babylon, we might have been in Hell; and it is the Lords mercies, and his mercies alone, that we are not there. So faith the afflicted Soul; If my burning fever had been the burning lake, if my prison had been the bottomless pit; if my banishment from society with friends had been expulsion (with Cain) from the presence of God, and ⟨p. 87⟩that for ever; God had been righteous. It is never so bad with the people of God, but it might have been worse: any thing on this side Hell is pure mercy.4
As affliction gives out the experience of Gods faithfulness, 1so also of his mercy: mercy in the moderating of the chastisements: In measure ⟨p. 86⟩thou wilt debate with it, &c.