Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n
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A61667
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The voice of the rod, or, God's controversie pleaded with man being a plain and brief discourse on Mich. 6, 9 / by Samuel Stodden.
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Stoddon, Samuel.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing S5716; ESTC R26260
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166,900
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354
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long but when it bursts look for a sweeping Judgment Now lay all these things together and by these and the like judge how farr we are under both the symptoms and the strokes of the Lords Rod. 2. In the next place I am to prove the Doctrine and to evince the duty That you ought to be sensible not only of the rod it self but of the symptoms of an approaching Rod. I hope I need not spend much time here Is it not pity that words and threatnings should not prevail with rational creatures without blowes why consider should God shew his skill to hit he might strike thee in the secret parts unawares and come upon thee in the dark 1 Sam. 24.4 Iudg. 4.21 how easily might he find thee as David found his enemy and serve thee as Jael served Sisera He is not bound to sound his Trumpet before he takes up his sword Gods threatnings are in mercy he threatens that he may spare the Ambassadours of his Judgements are conditionally Ambassadours of Peace every Warning offers you reconciliation upon Gods terms the Motto of his sword is Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Now I shall knit up the Argument of this Assertion in this threefold Motive 1. 'T is the best way to prevent the coming of the rod. What sworn witnesses might I produce you from Scripture-Records Ah! my brethren shall the men of Nineveh rise in Judgment against us shall we justifie Sodom and Gomorrah and Ierusalem whom the just vengeance of God hath pursued to their utter ruine and set up for warnings unto us See Joel 2.12 Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rent your hearts and not your garments God had threatned to rent them with his Judgments Blow ye the Trumpet â—n Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the Inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh for it is â—igh at hand A day of darkness and of gloominess c. yet turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Observe Gods method and carriage in the course of his Judgments he threatens that he may not correct he corrects that he may not destroy if less ado will compass his ends he sits down and proceeds no farther he will spare every blow that may be spar'd and will not adde one grain more than â—s of necessity 2. It will arm thee for the coming of the rod if it do come The prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself Prov. 22.3 Though thy foreseeing of it and humbling thy self under it may not prevent the coming of it yet it will be a hiding place for thee when it doth come 'T is true the storm may fall on the fields of thy profits on the gardens of thy delights on the house of thy rest and peace but it can't reach thy soul as long as thy life is hid with Christ in God Indeed Jonas cryes out that the waters compassed him about even to the soul Jonah 2.5 And David complains that his soul was among lions Psal 57.4 Bus this may be spoken in an Hyperbolical phrase and may be true of the animal part of the soul their lives and the support and comfort of their lives being in extreme hazzard Nay and 't is true too that the dearest of Gods servants have been sometimes guilty of Dilapidations and by their neglects have let it rain in upon them to the despoiling the present state of their spiritual comforts and yet the foundation which is of God hath stood sure Thus oftentimes iâ— comes to pass through her own weakness or unwatchfulness that the poor Soul is forced to scrabble to shoar like Paul's companions on the Planks of broken peace and shatter'd comforts 'T was the blessed temper of a holy man now in rest under all the tortures wherewith his body was rackt that he could truly and chearfully bear witness for God Not one drâ—â— of wrath in all this Though thy losses bâ— great and thy sufferings great though thy Credit be gone thy Ease thy Plenty thy Liberty thy Friends thy Hopes and all be gone the are but gone a gathering as Bees from their hives anon thou shalt see them come flocking home as heavy laden with the blessed gains and overplus as ever they can flye Thy Credit with man hath brought thee home credit and favour with God thy Broken name is return'd 〈◊〉 New name Rev. 2.17 a title of honour and royal dignity and no bare title neither as that was thou hadst lost 2 Cor. 1 22. but the Crown it self is come and the Seal of the Inheritance Thy painful unconstant ease is not come halting but dancing like David before the Ark 2 Sam. 6.16 Psal 24.13 Luk. 12.19 from henceforth thy soul shall dwell at ease other manner of ease than what the Fool in the Gospel could boast of or any other the world can produce Thy spoiled Plenty is come home with a spring tide of richest increase Oh! who could ever have hop'd for such Advantage Lord if thou hadst given me leave to ask I had never askt half so much 'T was but a handfull of dust thou adventured'st and behold 1 Tim. 4.8 heaven and earth is now little enough to hold the Increase Thy Liberty which went Captive away is come Triumphing home to what a height is Joseph the poor barter'd Lad advanc'd See what a Repeal is endorsed by the Parliament of Heaven on the backside of thy Mittimus or Proscription He that is called in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.22 though a servant though a bond-man though an exile yet is the Lords Free-man Ioh. 8.36 And if the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed Eph. 2.19 Now therefore thou art no more a stranger and a forreiner but a fellow-citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God Act. 21.39 A Citizen of no mean City sayes Paul Are thy Friends gone lift up now thine eyes Gen. 13.14 and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward Thousands and ten thousands of Friends for one and never a one but a Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.26 whose love is wonderful passing the love of women and whose power comes not short of their love A whole heaven of friends above thee a whole volume of friends before thee and a thousand witnessing Friends within thee Are thy hopes down why pluck up thy spirits the waggons are come Gen. 45.27 richly laden and full fraught with highest satisfaction O blessed Adventure O happy Merchandise O Christian if this it be to sow never bethink thy Seed if this be the harvest never bethink thy Patience 'T is threatned as the plague of the wicked that their miseries shall come upon them as pangs upon a woman in travel