Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	angel_n	earth_n	sin_n	2,922	5	4.1926	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89716	Gods great care of his good people in bad times discovered in several sermons / preached by Mr. James Nalton (late minister of St. Leonards Foster-Lane) immediately upon his return from Holland, about twelve years since ; published by J.F., teacher of short- writing, who took them in characters from the said Mr. J. Nalton.	Nalton, James, 1600-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing N122A; ESTC R42508	60,551	169

them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose And Hebr. 12.10 He chastiseth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness And hear but David out of his own experience Psal 119.71 75 v. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes and I know O Lord that in very faithfullness thou hast afflicted me But for the better confirmation and explication of this truth because it is a truth that flesh and blood will hardly believe that God in his severest providences should intend our good There are these three queries that would be satissied Frst What good it is that God doth intend in his severest providences towards his Children And secondly Who they are that shall experimently find this Doctrine verified of them And thirdly How or with what limitation this Doctrine must be understood Frist What good it is that God doth intend his people Briefly there is a fourfold good that God intends unto his people in his corrections and chastisements and in the wayes of his severity towards them 1. In reference to their sins 2d In reference to their graces 3d In reference to their present comforts 4th In reference to their future hopes First In reference to their sins God intends a fourfold good 1. To prevent sin 2d To discover sin 3d To imbitter sin And 4th To destory sin First God in reference to the sins of his people intends this good to them namely to prevent sin If Saint Paul such a heavenly man or an earthly Angel as one cals him had need of a thorne in his flesh to prevent that spirituall pride and self exaltation that otherwise he might have fallen into O How much more have we need of some affiction to prevent those sins that otherwise we might run into That as Physitians tell us they have two sorts of medecines They have Preventing Physick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as healing Physick so God makes afflictions to be preventing Physick as well as healing Physick unto his own Children And as Themistocles said in the like case Periissem nist Periissem If I had not been undone I had been undone So may many a child of God say if God had not hedged up my way with Thornes I had run post to the pit of hell and had rushed upon the rock of my own ruin long before this time That is one good in reference to sin to prevent it Secondly Another good God intends his people by afflictions in reference to their sin is to discover it in standing waters you cannot see the mud that lies at the bottom of the Pool but when once the water is removed then the mud is discovered So here while we are at peace and case in times of prosperity and whiles we are not emptied from vessel to vessel we are setled upon our lees as 't is said of Moab Jer. 48.11 and the dregs and mud of our corruptions are not discovered but now when we are emptied from vessel to vessel that is emptied of our outward enjoyments and of our outward comforts and God begins to take the rod into his hand then he makes us reflect upon our selves and to say as Job did in the day of his distress Job 13.23 24. Make me to know my transgression and my sin Remarkeable is that speach of the Shunamitish woman unto Elijah 1 King 17.18 Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son Pray marke the death of her son made her reflect upon her sin she would not have called her sin to remembrance but that her son was now ready to be taken away affliction it is a sharp tyrant I but it is a just judge it represents our condition truly to us and lets us see the inside of our selves it doth discover self to self a man never comes to know himself and to know the plague of his own heart so well as when the rod of God is upon his back that is a second good afflictions work in reference to sin to discover it And thirdly God intends this good to his people in reference to sin to imbitter it that in the bitterness of sorrow we may tast the bitterness of sin that is the cause of sorrow that we may see and say as in Jerem. 2.19 'T is an evill and bitter thing that we have forsaken the Lord our God and that his fear hath not been in us And brethren sin it is a very bitter thing nay sin is bitterness it self Hos 12.14 Ephraim hath provoked him to anger most bitterly in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephraim hath provoked him with bitternesses Sin it is that which caused the Lord Jesus Christ to drink that bitter cup of trembling It would have made all the men on earth nay all the Angels in heaven to have sunk under the burden of that wrath that he drunk of so that sin is I say a bitter thing and therefore God afflicts us to imbitter sin to us and that we should be in bitterness for sin as a man is in bitterness for the loss of an onely childe Zech. 12.10 And then fourthly In refrence to sin God afflicts us to destroy sin to make a separation between sin and the soul A sucking child that loves the mothers breast yet you know when Worm-wood is laid upon the breast then the child loaths it and is willing to leave it and it becomes but a ●a dead breast to him though before he delighted in it So likewise when God is pleased to imbitter sin he doth as it were kill the sin to us and makes us willing to leave it though before we did dearly love it and indeed it is but fit and equall that that sin which hath been contracted with joy should be dissolved with sorrow sin is so rooted and setled in the heart that a separation cannot be made without a great deal of sorrow but when once we feel the smart of sin then we can say with holy Job Job 34.32 That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will doe no more And saies he Once have I spoken but I will not answer Job 40.5 yea twice but I will proceed no farther This then is the first Good God intends his Children in the severest of his providences in reference to sin to prevent it discover it imbitter it and destroy it But then secondly God intends another good unto his people in the severest of his providences in reference to their graces both to try their graces and likewise to exercise their graces First To try their graces God he sometimes proves and tries his Chidren whether they be legitimate Children or whether they be bastards yea or no Psal 66.10 For thou O God hast proved us thou hast tryed us as silver is tryed And Hebr. 12.8 If yea be without chastisement whereof all are partakers

the earth more easily than you can toss a tennis ball nay fear ye not me that can cast soul and body into hell fire Mat. 10.28 When there is a mighty Prince or Potentate that hath power in his hands to strip you of your liberties of your estates and lives and he is incensed against you O! what terrour and trembbling takes hold of you and how do you crouch and cringe and comply and make friends and study all the ways that ever you can to get the favour of that Prince or Potentate as you read Acts 12.20 When Herod was highly displeased with the men of Tyre and Sidon they got Blastus the Kings Chamberlaine to be their friend and beg tearms of peace for them Now art thou afraid of a mortall man whose breath is in his Nostrils and art not afraid of the great Creator of heaven and earth Isa 51 12.13 Who art thou that art afraid of a man that shalldy and of the Son of man which shall be made as grass and forgetest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Consider this all you that are great ones or men of great estates and therefore think you may bolster up your selves in your wickedness no no know thus much this great Jehovah against whom you sin he is the great Lord he is greater than the greatest it is he that can visit with his anger and with his fury and with his indignation poured forth Nah. 1.5.6.7 The Mountains quake at him and the hils melt and the earth is burnt up at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks melt before him Psal 149.8 It is he that can bind Kings in chains and Nobles in fetters of iron It is he that is the Lord of hosts that hath all creatures in heaven and earth to avenge his quarel It is this great God likewise that can punish great and small without respect of persons and therefore they on whom God bestows great mercies if they abound in great sins they shall have great punishment inflicted upon them Potentes potentèr punienter as one said Mighty men shall be mightily tormented O whence is it that we no more fear this great God before whom the rocks melt nay the devils tremble Are our hearts harder than rocks Are we more fearless than devils Stand in awe then and sin not most men sin and tremble not but do you tremble and sin not Consider we are all in the hands of this great God as a little fly in the paw of a roaring lion we are all before him as clay in the hands of the Potter nay we are all before him as dry stubble before the consuming fire Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie Are we stronger than he 1 Cor. 10.22 Consider what advantage he hath against us and consider also what dependance we have upon him and then learn to sear him and to stand in awe of him This is the first Use it is the great God that hath the rod in his hand and he is the Author of all the miseries that come upon us therefore let us tremble before him The second Use is for instruction and admonition If God be the author of all the miserie that befals us then let us take off our eys from instruments and second causes look not so much at man at the instruments of our misery but look upon God who is the author of our misery O that every one of us could but say as that good woman Naomi Ruth 1.13 saies she the hand of the Lord is gone out against me Could we but look at God the author more than at the instruments of our misery we should have great advantage by it You will say what advantage there is a fourfold advantage we shall have by it First This will work the sweet effect of contentment and quietation in our hearts it will meeken and quiet and calme our spirits that we shall not fret and fume at any dispensation of God though it seem never so harsh and severe Psal 39.9 I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it and 1 Sam. 3.18 saies Eli when a heavy message came to him It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Secondly This will root out that spirit of revenge that usually is in our hearts when they are burning and boyling against those that are the instruments of our misery We are many times like the Dog that snarles at the stone and looks not at the hand that cast it so we snarl and fret and boyl in our spirits against those who are the instruments of our troubles whereas did we but look at the hand that cast the stone it would take the spirit of revenge out of our hearts Such a spirit was in David as I shewed you even now he looked not at Shimei cursing him but at God that bid him curse and therefore would not be revenged on Shimei Such a Spirit was in Joseph Gen. 45.8 Saies he to his brethren It was not you that sent me hither but God Why may some say it was his brethren for did not they sell Joseph to the Ismaelites and by that means was he not carried into Egypt I but Joseph looks not to the instruments but to God and therefore though his brethren had misgiving thoughts surely our brother will remember this Gen. 50.15 and be avenged on us for all the wrong we did him yet Joseph answers them otherwise 't is true sales he you intended evil to me but God turned it for good therefore be not troubled I have no revenge in my heart and fear not for I will nourish you and your little ones He lookt at God in all And Thirdly this will provoke us to repentance and to return to God that smites us Hos 6.1 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up As in the case of mercies if we do not look upon God as the author of our mercies we can never be thankfull and improve them to his Glory So likewise in the case of afflictions if we look not upon God as the Author of our miseries we can never be penitent and humble Fourthly We shall have this advantage also this will work our hearts to a patient and quiet waiting upon God with faith and confidence for deliverance 2 King 6.33 you read of King Jehoram a prophane King yet he taught a true doctrine saies he this evil is of the Lord. A true Doctrine but he made a false use and application of it therefore why should I wait upon him any longer For the reason holds strong on the contrary side this evil is from the Lord therefore I should wait