A81235:111
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.
The sixteenth Lesson is like unto it; and that is, The privilege of a suffering condition: In the School of Affliction, one Lecture which the Holy Ghost readeth is the fruits ⟨p. 95⟩and advantages of a suffering condition. There is in every state of life a snare and a privilege; and it is the folly and misery of man left to himself, that he willingly runs into the snare, and misseth of the privilege: he is only able to add to his own misery, and to make his condition worse then he finds it. Those whom God loveth, he teacheth; he teacheth them to study, as the duty of their present state, so the advantage. When God takes away creaturecomforts, he doth not only necessitate, but by the secret impressions of love upon the heart, he emboldens the Soul to look out for reparations, and to urge God for a recruit in some richer accommodations: Lord, saith Abraham, What wilt thou give me, 1seeing I go childless? God had denied Abraham a child, and He must make Abraham amends for it. In like manner, Lord, what wilt thou give me, saith a suffering Saint, since I go wifeless, and friendless, and landless, and houseless? &c. yea Lord, what wilt thou give me, since ⟨p. 96⟩I go Ordinance-less, Sermon-less, Sacrament-less? &c. So the Disciples, 2Lord, we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall we have therefore? Faith may be a loser for Christ, but it will not be a loser by Christ; and accordingly Christ maketh an answer of faithfulness to this demand of Faith: Verily I say unto you, 3there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, &c. Advantage enough; an hundred for one was the best year that ever Isaac had, Gen. 26.12. I, but how shall this be made good? why with persecution; Houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, WITH PERSECUTION: Persecution must make up the account. It is very observable, That year wherein Isaac received his hundred fold was Isaac's suffering year; the year wherein famine had banished him from his own