A81235:185
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.
When the earthly heart of man is so dried and hardened by a long sunshine of prosperity, that the plough of the spiritual Husbandman cannot enter, 1God doth soften it with showers of adversity, maketh it capable of the immortal seed, and blesseth the springing thereof: The seed falleth upon stony ground, till God turn the stone into an heart of flesh.
When the earthly heart of man is so dryed and hardened by a long sunshine of prosperity, that the plough of the spiritual Husbandman cannot enter, 1God doth soften it with showres of adversity, maketh it capable of the immortal seed, and blesseth the springing thereof: The seed falleth upon stony ground, till God turn the stone into an heart of flesh.
Thirdly, 1By Chastisement man is made more attentive unto God: In prosperity the world makes such a noise in a mans ears, that God cannot be heard; 2He speaks indeed once and twice, again and again, very often; yet man perceiveth it not: he is so busy in the crowd of worldly affairs, that God is not heeded. In the godly themselves there is much unsettledness and giddiness of mind; naturally ⟨p. 166⟩our thoughts are vain and scattered, the spirit slippery and inconsistent, which is a great impediment to our clear and full comprehensions of spiritual things: And therefore God is forced to deal with man as a father with his child playing in the market-place, and will not hear or mind his fathers call, he comes and takes him out of the noise of the tumult, carries him into his Counting-house, lays him upon his knee with the rod in his hand, and then the father can be heard: So doth God, I say, Verse 6 with his children; He openeth their ears, Hebr. He uncovereth their ears, which the Worlds vanity had stopped, and then instruction will enter. When Joab would not come to Absalom, he sets his field on fire,