A81235:71
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.
A ninth is this; In the time of our trouble God causeth us to see what an evil and a bitter thing it is to grieve the good Spirit of God. When we are in the bitterness of our spirits, and want the Comforter, then we begin to call to mind how oft we have grieved the Spirit, which would have been a Comforter to us, and have sealed us up to the day of Redemption; and say within our selves, in reference to the Spirit of God, as sometime the sons of Jacob said one to another in reference to Joseph; 1We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his Soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. 2In some such language I say will the Soul in the hour of temptation bespeak it self. Ah, I am verily guilty concerning that tender Spirit ⟨p. 43⟩of Grace and Comfort, which hath often besought me as it were in the anguish of his Soul, saying, 3Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate; but I would not hear. Is not this He whose rebukes I have slighted, whose counsels I have despised, whose motions I have resisted, whose warnings I have neglected, whose warmings I have quenched, yea whose comforts I have undervalued, and counted them as a small thing? Ah wretch, how just is it now that the Spirit of God should withdraw? that he should despise my sorrows, and laugh at my tears; shut out my prayers, quench my smoking flax, and break my bruised reed? How just were it that He, whom I would not suffer to be a Reprover in the day of my peace, should now refuse to be a Repairer of my Soul in the hour of my temptation! How righteous a thing were it, that I, who so often have carried my self strangely to his Counsels, should now in my sorrows be a stranger to his Comforts! that I, ⟨p. 44⟩who have walked in the sparks of mine own kindling, should now at length lie down in sorrow. Well, if the Lord shall please indeed to bring my Soul out of trouble, and to revive my fainting spirit with his sweet Consolations, I hope I shall carry my self (for the future) more obedientially to the counsels and rebukes of Jesus Christ in my Soul, and hearken to the least whisperings of the Spirit of Grace.