Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A62092
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Submission to the will of God in times of affliction asserted, in a sermon from I Sam. 3. 18 / by a Reverend Divine.
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Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing S6332A; ESTC R41
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15,126
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41
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him Therefore the best way is to submit and refer all to him Job 9.12 He taketh away who can hinder him So Job 33.12 13. God is greater than man why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his Matters Now this should lay Men low before God and silence all their Quarrellings We all acknowledg that God's Power is Infinite yet what Worm is there that will submit willingly to him do further than themselves please 'T is evident do what they can God will be Master and take his own Way All Events are in his hands Our strivings may be sinful but they cannot be helpful to us Mat. 6.27 Which of you by taking Thought can add one Cubit to his Stature We cannot make our selves taller or shorter yea not change the colour of an Hair to make it white or black We may busy our selves with anxious thoughts about Events but what do we get by it We cannot cure a Disease in our Bodies nor prevent a breach in our Relations Nor increase our Trading nor draw Buyers to our selves The Hearts of all Men are in God's hands and when we have done all we must stand to God's allowance therefore 't is best at first to refer all Events to him God's Soveraignty sheweth that it is unjust if we consent not to it but God's Almighty Power that it is fruitless if we do otherwise God's Will doth and must govern the Affairs of the World if he require our consent and submission 't is for our Profit that we shew our Obedience and Adoration 3. The third Ground is He is incomprehensibly good and gracious to his Children that love him and fear him and will convert all that befalleth them to their Everlasting Good So that God as powerful can do what he pleaseth God as kind will do what is for the best Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God And Cant. 4.16 Awake O North Winds and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Out of what Corner soever the Wind bloweth it bloweth good to the Saints The goodness of God is many ways seen in the Dispensations of his Providence partly in this resigning is not the way to lose the Comfort which would most please us but to keep it still Abraham by offering Isaac to God had him nevertheless Heb. 11.19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a Figure There is a kind of a Resurrection of our Comforts from the Dead which maketh them the sweeter to us We gave them to God and he giveth them back again partly because we shall have better things of God for we must not resign out of an hope that God will not take the Offer as the promise of an hundred fold in this Life with Persecutions to those that have left Houses and Lands and Relations for Christ's sake and the Gospel's Mark 10.30 But he shall receive an hundred fold now in this Time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mothers and Children and Lands with Persecutions and in the World to come Eternal Life Meaning thereby Peace of Conscience And the least Blessing of God with a quiet Conscience is more worth than all the Goods in the World Partly by support God will not be wholly wanting to his People nor leave them utterly destitute 1 Cor. 10.13 God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the Temptation make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Two things are promised here First The Gentleness and Wisdom of his Conduct Secondly A comfortable Issue For the present when our Condition is at worst if it be not comfortable it will be tolerable For the future he will give you a way to escape You are not cast into the deep Ocean where there are no Banks nor Bottom As long as a Man can look to the end of an Evil he is not quite discouraged As a Man in the deep Waters strugling for Life hath hope as long as he can see Shoar So that Afflictions are qualified both as to the Grievousness and Continuance by the Support and the Issue we may expect from God's Goodness Now that this may the more prevail with us God is represented under the Notion of a Father he doth not only act as a Lord out of Sovereignty or a Judge according to Justice but as a Father who loveth his Children and will not neglect them or any of their Concernments Mat. 6.12 Your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things As Children naturally expect Food and Rayment from their Parents So the Children of God may in all Estates refer themselves to his Fatherly Providence A Mother cannot be so tender of a Sucking Child as God is of his Children Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her Child her Sucking Child her only Child the Fruit of her Womb they may forget deface the feelings of Nature but I will not forget you saith the Lord. Fix but this one Principle that you have a Father in Heaven and then why should you disquiet your Thoughts about future Events Your Father knoweth how to breed up his own Children and will order all things for their Good 2. The Causes of it or the Subjective Graces it floweth from 1. Faith or a sound belief of God's Being and Providence and gracious Promises They know there is a God and that he hath a particular care of Human Affairs and hath made Promises that he will not leave his People to insupportable Difficulties Therefore they depend upon him and refer all Events that concern them and theirs to the disposal of his Fatherly Government Heb. 12.5 6. They know not how he will cast the Event but they wholly leave it to him Now this Submission is an especial act of Trust and the great Trust required of us as to Temporal Things For we cannot be confident of Success We are to go on with our Duty and refer the Event to God Submission after the Event is Patience but before the Event is Faith for it argueth high and honourable thoughts of God when we can blindfold trust our All in his Hands and refer all to his Pleasure tho we know not what will come of it Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord and he shall bring it to pass And Psal 55.22 Cast thy Burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee And 1 Pet. 5.7 Cast all thy care upon the Lord who careth for thee All this argueth a sound belief of God's Being and Providence that he will cast all our Matters so as may be for his Glory and our Good Now on the contrary carking Care and anxious thoughts about the Event shew little Faith Mat. 6.30 Shall he not much more cloath you O ye of little Faith You have not honourable Thoughts of God's Wisdom Power