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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	lord_n	see_v	5,118	5	3.3465	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31997	The Godly mans ark, or, City of refuge, in the day of his distresse discovered in divers sermons, the first of which was preached at the funerall of Mistresse Elizabeth Moore : the other four were afterwards preached, and are all of them now made publick, for the supportation and consolation of the saints of God in the hour of tribulation : hereunto are annexed Mris. [sic] Moores evidences for heaven, composed and collected by her in the time of her health, for her comfort in the time of sickness / by Ed. Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1658 (1658)	Wing C248; ESTC R22111	99,589	306

more they are stricken the harder they are Such a one was King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distress hee did trespass yet more against the Lord There is a brand put upon him This is that King Ahaz that wicked King Ahaz that reprobate King Ahaz As Pearls put in Vinegar lose their colour and beauty so many when under Gods hand lose all their glory and excellency and begin to distrust Gods Providence to call his justice into question to murmure and repine against Gods dealings and to use unlawful means for their deliverance Of these the Prophet Isaiah complains Isa. 1. 5. Why should you bee stricken any more Yee will revolt more and more Such was Ahaziah 2 King 1 2. that sought for help from Baalzebub the god of Ekron and such was Saul who sought to the Witch of Endor for health in the day of his distress Both of these sorts are in a sad and miserable condition For God hath two Furnaces the Furnace of Affliction and the Furnace of Hell-fire If the first Furnace will not purge us the second will everlastingly consume us As the Roman Consuls had a man appointed to go before them carrying a Rod and an Axe a Rod for the punishing of corrigible offenders an Axe for the destruction of incorrigible So God hath his Rod and his Axe his Pruning knife and his Chopping-knife his Warning-peeces and his Murdering-peeces Afflictions are his Rods to correct us for our sin his Pruning-knife to pare off our luxuriant branches his Warning-peeces to call upon us to repent But if his Warning-peeces will do us no good wee must expect his Murdering-peeces If his Pruning-knife will not amend us his Chopping-knife will confound us If his Rods will not reclaim us then his Axe will hew us down and cast us into everlasting fire God hath three houses the house of Instruction of Correction and of Destruction The place where Gods people meet to hear his word is his house of Instruction And if wee profit in this house hee will never carry us unto the house of Correction But if wee bee stubborn and rebellious in the house of Instruction then hee will send us to the house of Correction And if wee profit in this house hee will never send us into the house of Destruction But if wee continue incorrigible in the house of Correction hee will inevitably send us to the house of Destruction that is unto hell fire And therefore whensoever God brings us into the School of Affliction let us labour to bee good Schollars in it and to answer all those ends aimes and designes which God hath in afflicting of us Let us pray to God that our afflictions may bee Divine Hammers to break our hearts for sin and from sin may make the world bitter and Christ more precious may prove and improve our graces and may put an edge upon all holy duties There are two things I would have you in an especial manner to labour after 1 Labour when afflicted to know the meaning of Gods Rod. 2 That the good you get by afflictions may abide upon you after your recovery from them 1 You must labour to know the meaning of Gods Rod and what the particular arrant is which hee hath to you in the day of your distresses you must do as David did 2 Sam. 21. 1. hee inquired of the Lord to know the reason why hee sent a Famine amongst them So must you you must pray as Iob doth Iob 10. 2. Shew mee O Lord wherefore thou contendest with mee When the cause of a disease is found out it is half cured Your great care therefore must bee to study to know the particular cause and reason why God turns your prosperity into adversity The Prophet Micah tells us Micah 6. 9. That the Rod hath a voyce and that the man of wisdome shall see Gods Name upon it There is a great measure of spiritual Art and Wisdome required to inable a man to hear this voyce and to understand the language of it A spiritual Fool cannot do it Quest. What must wee do that wee may understand the voyce of the Rod Ans. You must know that the Rod of God ordinarily speaks three languages it is sent for correction for sin for the trial and exercise of Grace and for instruction in holiness Sometimes indeed it is sent only for trial and instruction and not at all for sin Upon this account was Iob afflicted and the blinde man Ioh. 9. 3. But for the most part it hath a threefold voyce it is appointed for instruction probation and also for correction Lam. 3. 39. Isa. 42. 24. Luke 1. 20. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Quest. How shall a man know whether his afflictions bee only for trial and instruction and not at all for sin Answ. The safest and best way for a Christian in this case is to beleeve that all his afflictions are both for trial and instruction and also for sin Indeed when hee seeth another man who is very godly grievously diseased hee may charitably beleeve that this is for his trial and not for his sin but when it is his own case then as D. Ames saith most excellently Aequissimum tutissimum Deo gratissimum est ut in afflictionibus omnibus peccata nostra intueamur quae illas vel directe procurarunt vel saltem promeruerunt Quamvis enim omnes afflictiones non immittantur semper directè precipuè propter peccatum peccatum tamen est omnium afflictionum fons fundamentum Rom. 5. 12. It is most equal most safe and most acceptable to God to have an eye upon our sins which have either directly procured them or at least deserved them For though afflictions are not alwayes sent directly and especially for sin yet sin is the original and foundation of all afflictions Quest. VVhat course must wee take to finde out what that sin is in particular for which God corrects us Answ. 1. Sometimes wee may read our sin in our punishment Adonibezek though a Heathen King did this Iudg. 1. 7. Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited mee I read of holy Ephrem that hee was converted by the suitableness of his affliction unto the sin hee had committed for hee saw clearly that his misery came not by chance but from God immediately and for sin As a man may sometime gather the disease of the Patient by observing the Physitians Bill so hee may guess at his sin by considering his punishment 2 Consider what that sin is for which they conscience doth most of all accuse thee Conscience is Gods Vicegerent his bosome Preacher And when wee sleight the voyce of Conscience God seconds it with the voyce of his Rod which speaks the very same language that Conscience doth 3 Consider what is the sin of thy Complexion and Constitution what is thy

perdition Hee that seeks things below shall have his Heaven below The Apostle saith expresly that they who minde earthly things their end is damnation Therefore let mee once again repeat it Take heed lest you bee like the Thorny ground Let not the cares riches and pleasures of the World choak the good seed that is weekly sown in your hearts 8 Let it bee your morning and evening thought what shall become of you to all eternity and labour so to use things temporal as not to lose the things that are eternal Remember that this life is a moment upon which eternity depends and according as you spend this moment so you shall bee for ever happy or for ever miserable Remember that the pleasures of sin are but for a moment but the punishments of sin are everlasting 9 Look upon Sin as the greatest 〈◊〉 evils greater than poverty imprisonment banishment or death it selfe chuse the greatest Affliction rathe● than commit the least sin If Hel● were on the one side and Sin on the other chuse rather to go into Hell than to sin against God For Sin is a greater evill than Hell because it is the cause o● Hell and more opposite to God who is the chiefest good than Hell is For God is the Author of Hell which hee hath provided for all unbeleevers and impenitent persons But it is blasphemy in the highest degree to say That he is the Author of Sin Look upon Christ as the greatest good greater than health wealth liberty or life Love Christ more than you love your estates or lives Hee that loves Christ more than the world will not forsake Christ to imbrace the world Hee that fears sin more than affliction will not sin to avoid affliction 10 Rest not contented with that measure of grace you have attained unto but labour to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that the Scripture doth not only perswade you to get into Christ but to grow up into Christ not only to bee Righteous but to bee filled with the fruits of Righteousness c. Remember that saying of Christ To whom much is given of them much is required God hath given you much you have plentiful means of salvation and you have had them for many yeares hee expects from you not onely good fruit but much good fruit not only thirty-fold and sixty fold but an hundred-fold Where the Husbandman bestows most cost hee expects most fruit The more a Merchant adventures by Sea the greater return hee looks for God hath done more for you than for many others and therefore hee expect that you should do some singular thing for him Hee looks you should be more humble more heavenly more knowing than others If the Sun should give no more light than a little Candle to what purpose hath God given it so much light If you that have Sun-like abilities do no more good than those who have but half your abilities to what purpose have you them It is a true saying As our gifts increase so must our account increase You shall answer at the great day not only for your gifts but for the measure of them Remember that God doth not only require service from you but service proportionable to the means and mercies you injoy Hee that hath but one Talent shall answer but for one but you that have five or ten Talents must bee answerable according to the quantity as well as the quality of them 11 Labour to diffuse those graces which God hath given you and to communicate them to those with whom you converse True grace is of a spreading nature and therefore compared to leaven which diffuseth it self into the whole lump and to Salt that seasoneth all those things with which it is mingled Assoon as the woman of Samaria had found out the Messias shee leaves her water-pet and goeth into the City to tell others what God had done for her Assoon as Cornelius had received the Message from the Angel to send for Peter hee calls together his kinsmen and neer friends that they together with him might bee made partakers of Gospel-grace A true Christian is like a Needle touched with the Loadstone A Needle truly touched draweth another and that will draw another and that another Whosoever hath his heart truly touched by effectual grace will labour to convert others and they others Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter And Peter being converted will labour to strengthen his Brethren There is a natural instinct in all creatures to make others like themselves as fire will turn all things that come neer it into fire and there is a spiritual instinct in all converted Christians to convert others It is as natural to a true Christian to make others true Christians as it is for a man to beget a man True grace is not only of a communicative but of an assimilating nature See then that you labour by seasonable and religious admonitions and exhortations by communicating of experiences and especially by the shining pattern of a holy life and conversation to bring all those with whom you converse unto Iesus Christ. That man hath not grace in truth who puts it in a dark Lanthorne 12 Labour to bee good in your Relations good Husbands and good Wives good Parents and good Children good Masters and good Servants Remember that that man cannot bee a good man who is not good in his Relation Hee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Husband or a good Child or a good Father c. Shee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Wife and so of the rest and the reason is Because the same God who commands the Husband to love God commands him to love his Wife the same God who commands the Woman to obey God commands her to obey her Husband There is the same stamp of Authority upon our duties towards our Relations as upon our duties towards God therefore bee sure to make conscience of relative duties 13 Ioyn works of mercy and charity together with your profession of piety and holiness For God hates a penurious niggardly and covetous professor of Religion Let that saying of David abide upon your hearts God forbid I should serve the Lord with that which cost mee nothing God hates your obedience to the first Table if it bee not joyned with obedience to 〈◊〉 second Works of mercy and charity ar● made in Seripture the touchstones 〈◊〉 the truth of our piety and holiness This is pure Religion saith the Apostle and undefiled before God and the Father to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world If any man say saith St. John I love God and hateth his Brother hee is a liar for hee that loveth not his Brother whom hee hath seen how can hee love God whom hee hath not seen An

though there are starrs of divers magnitudes differing from one another in glory yet every star hath its beauty and benefit So though some Promises are more glorious than others like the Sun in comparison of the Moon yet every promise hath its beauty and lustre and as star-light in a dark night is very comfortable so in the dark night of affliction every little promise will afford unspeakable comfort to a troubled soul. To help you in making this Catalogue give mee leave to suggest three things 1 Bee sure to make it in time of health Woe bee to those that have their promises to gather when they should make use of them You that sleight the promises in prosperity shall receive no comfort from them in adversity 2 Forget not to treasure up all those promises which God hath made to his children in the day of their adversity As for example God hath promised in all our afflictions to bee with us Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest through the waters I will bee with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee c. hee will bee with you to protect and direct you to support and comfort you If three Saints bee put into the fiery Furnace the Son of God will make the fourth Dan. 3. 25. 2 God will be afflicted in all our afflictions Isa. 63. 9. he suffers in all our sufferings Act. 9. 4. 3 Hee will make our beds in our sicknesses Psal. 41. 3. hee will condescend to the lowest office for our ease and refreshment 4 Hee will know our souls in adversity Psal. 31. 7. hee will know us to pitty us and to succour and to help us 5 Hee will keep us from the evill of all afflictions Job 5. 19. God hath not promised to keep his people from afflictions but to keep them from the hurt of them Though they are not good in themselves yet hee will turne them to our good Heb. 12. 10. 1 Cor. 11. 32. Ier. 24. 5. The good Figs were carried into Captivity for their good God hath promised that all things shall worke together for our good Rom. 8. 28. not only all Ordinances c. but all Afflictions c. 6 God hath promised to lay no more upon us than wee are able to bear but either to give us less pain or greater patience 1 Cor. 10. 13. And though in a little wrath hee hide his face from us for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us c. Isa. 54. 7 8. These and many such like Promises will bee as so many spiritual Cordials to revive our fainting spirits and as so many Pillars to uphold us under the greatest Affliction 3 For the compleating of this Catalogue you may make use of many excellent Books written for this purpose wherein you shall have Promises of all kindes both spiritual and temporal gathered together Yet let mee advise you not to rest satisfied with the Collections of others but when you read the Bible and meet with a suitable promise with which God is pleased to affect your hearts take the pains to write it down and one such promise of your own writing will work more powerfully upon your souls than many others of anothers gathering So much for the first viz. Make a Catalogue of the Promises The End of the third Sermon AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER Reader THis and the following Sermon contains a large Discourse about the Promises which because it may bee thought by some to bee impertinent to the Text and rather a Digression from it than an explication of it I crave leave to informe thee of two things 1 That the Promises are the Principal grounds of Comfort to a Childe of God in the day of his Adversity They are his chiefe City of Refuge when all Creature-comforts faile when hee suffers Ship-wrack of all humane props these are his Planks upon which hee swims safe to the shoar of Heaven All Comfort that is not founded upon a Promise is Delusion not true Consolation And therefore a Discourse about them cannot rationally bee interpreted Eccentrical to the Text. 2 That there are diverse particulars added to these Sermons concerning the Nature Necessity Excellency and Vsefulness of the Promises which were not mentioned in the preaching of them And if any of them shall appeare to bee Heterogenial to the Text yet if they prove serviceable to heighten thy esteeme of the Promises and to quicken thee to a more serious and frequent Meditation on them and Application of them I hope thou art not at all injured And I may justly desire that thou wouldest not bee offended It is reported of Saint Austin in his life written by Possidius that by a digression in one of his Sermons from his Text hee converted an Hereticke from his erroneous Opinions If any passage in these two Sermons prove usefull to turne thee from thy sinfull Negligence and to awaken thee to a more diligent study of the precious Promises I shall account it a happy and blessed Digression For herein especially consisteth the difference betweene a Religious Christian and a Moral Man A Mor●l Man will abstaine from the outward acts of sinne But hee knowes not what it is to live upon Promises Hee never tasted any sweetnesse in a Promise Hee lives upon Creatures not upon Promises and therefore when Creatures faile his heart sinkes like a stone and hee is at his Wits end and Faiths end But a Religious Christian lives upon Promises and not upon Creatures and therefore when Creatures faile hee hath the Promises to live on Hee labours to taste the sweetnesse that is in them Hee lives upon Promises when Providence seemes to run crosse to Promises They are his fiery Chariot to carry him up to Heaven If then these ensuing Sermons inflame thy affections with a greater love to the Promises and a greater care to meditate on them and to get an interest in them thou hast cause to bless God and to pray for Thy unworthy Servant in Christ ED. CALAMY MEDITATE ON THE Promises SERMON IV. PSAL. 119. 92. Unless thy Law had been my Delights I should then have perished in mine Afflictions HEE that would improve the Promises so as to make them Spiritual Bladders to keep him from being drowned in the deep waters of Affliction must not only make a Catalogue of the Promises but hee must also 2 Fixedly and seriously meditate on them first hee must treasure up these Iewels in his heart and then unlock them by meditation first hee must make his Nose-gay and then smell of it The Word of God as I have said is as a Garden full of excellent Promises as so many choice flowers And it is our duty to walk often in this Garden to gather up all the flowers that lye scattered in it into several Nose-gayes to binde them together if I may so speake with the threed of Faith and then every day to smell of them The Promises are the Saints