Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	psal_n	zion_n	17	3	9.1699	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30592	Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of a self-denying heart, delivered in a treatise upon Hebrews II, 25, 26 / by Jeremiah Burroughs.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.	1650 (1650)	Wing B6095; ESTC R8121	454,946	722

for the encouragement of those who are willing to part with any thing for Christ even there perfecution is annexed for so the words are Mark 10. 29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this life houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Persecutions come in amongst all those great things that are there promised Israel is a people afflicted from their youth Psal 129. 1. When God appeared to Moses to send him a deliverer of his people he appeared to him in a burning bush to set out the afflicted estate of his people If the people of God might have a Herald to give Arms to them as some other Professions and Societies have the best and most sutable would be such as Mr. Hooper that holy Martyr had when he was made Bishop of Worcester A Lamb in a flaming bush with rayes of the Sun from Heaven shining on it a Lamb for meekness in a bush burning amongst wicked men who are as brambles and thorns burning with malice and yet the sweet influence and comfortable light of heaven let out upon it When Ignatius came to the wilde beasts to be devoured of them and his bones crushed between their teeth Now says he I begin to be a Christian Blessed Mr. Bradford writing to the Town of Walden to encourage them to suffer saith that that Christian hath not learned his A. B. C. in Christianity who hath not learned the lesson of the Cross A. Christian is a Cross-bearer says Luther As God made the evening and the morning to be the first day and so the second c. So the day of Gods people God hath made to be the evening of troubles here and the everlasting morning of glory and happiness hereafter It is an expression of Mr. Calvin The godly says he have their dark shadow of troubles before them and their brightness of glory behinde to come hereafter but the men of the world have their brightness before them Men use to bring out their best first and reserve the worst till afterwards but Gods dealing with his people is otherwise their worst is first with them The way to Canaan is through the wilderness even after a sore and tedious bondage yea and when God brought his people into Canaan he brought them into the worst part of Canaan first into the southern part which was the most dry and barren part of the land The way to Zion is through the valley of Baca Psal 84. 6. Many are the troubles of the righteous saith David Psal 34. 19. According to that of the Apostles Acts 14. 22. Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God Psalm 22. is a prophetical Psalm of Christs sufferings and the title is upon Aijeleth Shehar which signifies the morning Hart or Stag such a one as the Huntsmen sever out in the morning from the rest to hunt for that day Such was Christ and such is his Church as the morning Stag severed out to be hunted and worried by the world In the world ye shall have tribulation saith our Savior to his disciples John 16. 33. we cannot follow Christ and be his Disciples but upon these terms Mat. 16. 24. Others use to invite Followers with promises of honors and riches but Christ tells the worst at first what we are like to finde we must be content to take up our cross not to endure it by compulsion and constraint but to take it up willingly and cheerfully Secondly not what cross we will we must not choose our cross but what is appointed for us He must take up his cross But this cross it may be shall be but now and then Yes Luke 9. 23. He must take up his cross daily But if every day I hope it is an easie cross Nay it is a killing cross 1 Cor. 15. 31. I dye daily saith St. Paul But yet I hope there may be refreshings some part of the day Not so neither Rom. 8. 36. For thy sake are we killed all the day long that is in regard of the danger of death Secondly in regard of some beginnings that we suffer Thirdly in regard of our willingness to undergo it Since the days of John Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. this is ordinarily taken for the greediness of the peoples embracing Johns Ministery but it rather seems to be spoken of another kinde of violence namely the violence of opposition and persecution in which the enemies of the Gospel seek to lay violent hands upon it for he tells them presently Verse 16 17 18. that the Jews were as wayward children that nothing would please them but said that John had a Devil they were therefore rather violent against his Ministery then violent in embracing of his Ministery 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly must suffer persecution First all Every one must expect it although it is true God calls not all to the like sufferings yet he exempts none from some degree or other let him be as wise and as discreet as he will yet if godly he shall not escape Christ was the best Preacher that ever was he lived the most inoffensively that ever any did and yet while he was preaching the Pharisees blew their noses at him in scorn and derision for so the word signifies in the Original Luke 16. 14. which is translated derided him And at another time they would have broke his neck by casting him from a steep hill after he had done his Sermon Saint Paul the most famous Preacher next to Christ that ever was and yet he was accounted a babler a pestilent fellow his Sermons were accounted factious and seditious Secondly He that will live godly The Devil will let a man have many wishes and desires these are not persecuted but he that will if he be set upon it absolutely resolved that he will and nothing shall hinder then he must make account to suffer When the woman in the Revelations Chap. 12. was ready to bring forth her Childe the Dragon sought to devour it he medled not with her all the while she was a breeding Thirdly he that will live If he keep his godliness in his heart and not discover it in his life he may go on well enough but these shews of godliness the world cannot endure Wickedness must appear with open face but godliness must keep within doors Wickedness trades openly but godliness must keep in as a bankrupt that dare not be seen Fourthly he that will live godly Not civilly onely for a man to live fairly lovingly justly amongst men to keep from crying sins and here to rest this man perhaps may escape sufferings but if he begins to

follow it on with all your might let no opportunity slip do to the utmost you can for God and when you see his minde to lay you aside and to use you in another way although it be of affliction and grievous sufferings yet be as willing to yield to God in this as in the former way and thereby First you shall shew the most glorious work of self-denial that may be it is more to deny ones self here then in outward things there is nothing goes more near to a true generous heart then to be laid aside and to be denyed to be used in service Secondly it may be if you bring your hearts to lie at Gods dispose in this he will use you the rather and you shall not be taken off this may be the means of continuance of you in his work Thirdly if you go on with such a disposition as this it is more like that God will bless your service while he does use you Fourthly or if you shall be taken off for a while and put into an afflicted condition wherein it shall not appear that you are of any great use although sometimes sufferings are the greatest services yet your afflictions shall but prepare you for higher service afterwards as it did in Moses How did God use him afterwards in great and high employments few men that ever lived upon the earth were employed more for God then he was The Magdeburgenses Centuriatores think that Barnabas the Apostle was the same that Joseph was who was one of the two upon whom the lot was cast for the Apostleship when it fell upon Matthias and he was refused Acts 1. which Joseph was afterwards called Barnabas by the Apostles Acts 4. 36. in stead of Barsabas they making Joses to be the same with Joseph Joseph was a gracious man and when he saw it was Gods minde not to use him in that work he was content to go on in that way which God would have him although it were in a far lower condition then in the work of an Apostle and therefore afterwards God called him to that high and honorable work Fifthly howsoever your reward shall be as great as if you were used in the greatest service in the highest highest work you could have desired to be used in But if you shall not be willing to lay down all when God calls you thereunto and to be put into any low suffering condition that he shall please to put you into it is an evident sign that you went on before in your way with self-confidence that you aymed at your self that you did not give God the glory of your service and if so although God might use you for the good of others yet there will come no blessing of it upon your selves This in the general CHAP. II. The opening of the words with the several doctrines in this Text. BUt for a more particular handling this verse I shall first give a short paraphrase of it secondly shew the several doctrinal conclusions contained in it He chose Choyce notes a comparing of one thing with another and the deliberating of the minde about the things compared and at the last a free determination of the will which way to go Thus Moses compares the estate of Gods people and the pleasures of sin one with another he deliberates in his minde which is the safest and the best way for him to go and at last freely yet throughly and fully determines the case He chose rather to suffer affliction he did not choose affliction absolutely for affliction in it self is an evil but rather then the pleasures of sin afflictions are to be chosen Job 36. 21. Elihu charges Job that he chose sin rather then affliction this choyce is an ill choyce Moses his choice was a wise and gracious choice he chooses affliction rather then sin Affliction that is any affliction not this or that affliction but whatsoever affliction God should think fit Many think themselves willing to suffer affliction in the general until they be called unto some particular affliction and then they think Oh if it were any other we could bear it but this we know not how to bear whereas the true subjection of the heart to God is to bear what God himself shall appoint He chose to suffer affliction not to bring affliction upon himself Religion teaches no man rashly and headily to bring himself into misery To suffer affliction with the people of God That is either in joyning with the people of God in the ways of godliness in which they were or in appearing for them or in joyning in communion with them Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin The words are in the Original Then the enjoyment of sin The pleasures of sin that is either such pleasures as are in themselves sinful or secondly such as cannot be enjoyed or maintained but in a way of sin or thirdly such us would be means to draw the heart unto sin The pleasures of sin for a season that is either for a short season or for an uncertain season The doctrinal Conclusions in the words are these First the usual condition of Gods people in the world it is an afflicted condition Secondly when Gods people in Gods way are under grievous afflictions wicked men in the way of sin have much pleasure Thirdly afflicted godliness is to be chosen rather then pleasant wickedness Fourthly a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though they be in never such a low afflicted condition Fifthly a gracious heart is willing to appear for Gods people to be on their side although it be with much hazard to its self Sixthly there is so much good to be had with Gods people that it is worth the enduring hard things to be with them Seventhly nothing that is but for a season can satisfie a gracious heart that which must satisfie it must be beyond any temporary thing it must be an eternal good CHAP. III. Gods people though dear to God yet usually have been in an afflicted estate FOr the first Gods people although dear and precious in his eyes yet they have usually been an afflicted people in all generations unto this day When God was making his Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 12. at the going down of the Sun a deep sleep fell upon him and lo a horror of great darkness was on him and ver 17. a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between his sacrifice and the Lord tells him of the bondage of his seed in Egypt The afflicted condition of Gods people who were to come from Abraham was shewn by the horror of darkness and the smoking furnace And this is observable As at the first great Promise that was made for Gods choosing of a people to himself out of Abrahams loyns their afflicted estate was set out so where we have the great promise of the Gospel the largest of any in the Gospel