Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	mark_v	peace_n	upright_a	1,413	5	10.3964	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66558	The vanity of mans present state proved and applyed in a sermon on Psalm 39.5. With divers sermons of the saints communion with God, and safety under his protection, in order to their future glory, on Psalm 73. 23, 24, 25, 26. By the late able and faithful minister of the Word John Wilson	Wilson, John, minister of the Word.; Golborne, J.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2905; ESTC R218560	137,734	239

8. Isa. 58. 11. To the goodness of his nature he adds his promise This he doth not to secure himself either from unmercifulness or inconstancy but to quicken and encourage them to faith and prayer Such is the veracity and faithfulness of God that when he hath engaged his word of promise he will be sure to perform Though men break their words and covenants are perfidious yet let God be true Let the difficultie as to the performance be what it will his word shall not fail nor his servants that trust in him be disappointed in their hopes Notwithstanding all the appearing unlikeliness that Gods promise to Abraham should be fulfilled to Israel his Seed that they should possess the Land of Canaan when they were in Egypt and sighing under their burdens and Taskmasters yet he will make himself known by his name Jehovah Josh 23. 14. Joshua amongst some of his last words tells the Elders and Judges of Israel and appeals to their own knowledge that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord spake concerning them All things saith he are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed hereof This is farther attested 1 Kings 8. Blessed be the Lord saith Solomon that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant God will shake even heaven and earth and overturn them rather than one promise of his shall fail 5. He guides them that he may at last take them up to his glory All that care and pains God exercises towards them here is that he may do them good in their latter end Deut. 8. 16. All the Afflictions upon Israel were that he might humble them and prove them and do them good at their latter end See the difference there is betwixt Gods proceeding with the wicked and the righteous All the mercies and judgments of God on them do but ripen them for vengeance and ruin them in the latter end Psal. 92. 7. When the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever He puts them in the fat pastures and thereby they are fatted for slaughter Job is a notable instance of Gods dealing and design with the righteous Job 42. 12. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more then his begining And the Apostle mentions that ye have heard of the patience of Job and what was the end of the Lord. Psal 37. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace So in the Text Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel here and after receive me to glory This is not only a part of his kindness but it is in order to farther kindness He leads them saith Gejerus per Aspera ad Astra even by Hell to Heaven Object The next thing is to answer an Objection Doth God guide his people with his Counsel here How then comes it to pass they fall into such mistakes and miscarriages and those of an hainous nature As David guilty of gross miscarriages that complicated sin in the matter of Uriah Peter denying his Master with Oaths and execrations Did they look like those that were guided by Gods Counsel or Satans temptation an enemy to mankind and especially to the Church and people of God To this it is answered Answ. 1. This was not because he did not afford them Counsel but because they did not take his Counsel There was Counsel enough in the book of nature reason Conscience and the word of God that if they had taken heed to it they had not fallen so foully as they did 2. When I said he is an effectual guide I did not mean as to the preserving them from all sin but for the working of them to a state and life of saving holiness here and the lifting of them up to glory at the last Christ prayed for Peter that his faith should not fail the root of it dye though it was much weakned as to the act of confession which is the fruit of faith with the heart man believe thunto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made as a fruit and sign of the inward perswasion the current of Peters faith was stopt but the spring remained God hath entered into a Covenant of grace with his people by which he hath engaged himself to lead them through the valley of Achor unto the Land of rest though they may have many wandrings yet they shall not perish in the wilderness 3. Whereas he doth not guide them so as to preserve them from all sin but lets them fall into mistakes and miscarriages it is that he may make them more humble and exalt his own grace in the pardoning and saving of them As to instance in Paul that after he had faln into such mistakes and miscarriages God should receive him into favour He was a great sinner yet adhered to the letter of the Jewish Law as touching the Law blameless he was injurious a Persecutor he breathed out threatnings he was mad against the Church a zealot to do mischief Christ lets him go on after he had consented to the death of Stephen not only go so far when he might have laid him at his feet before but he lets him run on that in him he might manifest the riches of his grace and make him base and vile in his own eyes God who is rich raiseth to life those that were dead in sins Now was that eminent vessel of mercy ravished with the sense of Gods great goodness that had mercy on him and made him a Minister of reconciliation Ephes. 3. 8. Whereof I was made a Minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given Oh that I should preach the Gospel how astonishing love and grace is this that the glorious Gospel of the blessed God should be committed to my trust that I should be enabled and counted faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and injurious He thinks he can never think speak enough of this grace never acknowledge and give praise enough to God Amongst all the Apostles none so great an admirer of free grace as Paul How low thoughts hath he of himself not worthy to be called an Apostle because he persecuted the Church of God Thus notwithstanding the enormous outrages of those that are Gods chosen his grace shall fetch them in and notwithstanding great failures his called shall have grace enough to bring them unto glory 2. Use of Informat 1. Of the goodness of God as he expresses it in admitting them into Communion with him and holding them by the right hand So in receiving them up into glory Ephes. 2. 6. He hath raised us up

together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus By virtue of our union with Christ our head that is ascended into glory and the unchangeable decree of God that will perfect for us what he hath begun in us we are glorifyed That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. For a man that sees his neighbour in distress to be so neighbourly as to go and give him such Counsel as may make him happy argues great kindness What is this to the goodness of God that condescends to bow the Heavens and come down to visit and Counsel poor miserable wandring and distressed sinners in the way wherein they should walk leads them by the hand through all the difficulties of this life into the Kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world Psal. 73. 1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 2. This may inform us of the happiness of the servants of God that have such a friend and Counsellor as none other people in the world If a man have a friend that is a great Counsellor and ready upon all occasions to advise him in his affairs how great a priviledge is it and how happy is he accounted How happy then are the people of God that have the great God for their guider and counsellour from whom they may have direction and instructions what to do in all their straits They may go to him when and upon what business they please for their good and find him at hand a very present help without any money or fee. If it were happiness to Solomons servants to stand about him and hear his wisdom 1 Kings 10. 8. What happiness then is it for the people of God to be in the presence of God to hear his counsel What would the servants of God do if they had not God to look after them Prov. 11. 14. Where no counsel is the people fall Were it not for this counsel when Satan and the world rage when temptations and corruptions are many and the soul full of fears and perplexity it would go very ill with the people of God 3. It informs us whence it comes to pass that the people of God break through such straits and conquer such difficulties it is the conduct of God that leads them into the land of rest that makes way for them through dangers and exposition Thus the Israelites passed through the great and terrible wildernss wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought Whence had they ability to do it Why the Lord did lead them 4. It informs us of the reason wherefore the Salvation of good men is so infallible and certain A good man is as sure of heaven as if he were already possessed of it and though it may be doubtful to his sense and distrustful fears yet his title is good and there is a certainty of the thing The Kingdom is assured to him He may have his temptations sins doubts fears yet is he sure of heaven Psal. 37. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace this man is remarkable and it is remarkable how sweetly this man ends what a blessed end hath he Consider not only his great afflictions how the hand of the Lord is upon him as Job but what all ends in the end is peace and prosperity for ever Though he usually doth meet with a wilderness betwixt him and his Canaan yet his end shall be happiness 5. If God guide his faithful servants with his counsell then it is good in matters of Religion to advise with the people of God consult those that lie in the bosome of Christ to them he discovers his secrets he makes known his counsel John 13. 23 24. There was leaning on Jesus bosome one of his Disciples whom Jesus loved Simon Peter beckned to him that he should ask of whom he spake when he told them one of them should betray him Use 2. By way of reproof to such as profess themselves Gods servants and yet in their straits do not advise with him Though he offers his counsel and is ready to afford it yet they will not have recourse to him Oh how many businesses are undertaken without any advising with God! They advise with others instead of him Hos. 4. 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declareth unto them By stocks we are to understand their Idols or images made of wood which they were so blockish as to consult Like unto them are they that make them Therefore the Prophet spake of their Idols that they asked counsel of under the name of stocks by way of indignation and scorn And then for their staff we are to note that in former times Magicians had staves or rods whereby they divined Exod. 7. 12. To this purpose is thatin Virgil. Hac animas ille evocat Orco T' was sad that any should be so sottish and such images of men as to worship what they had made and to ask counsel of wood part whereof makes a fire and part an Idol but that a people in Covenant with God so graciously dealt with so delivered conducted encreased was sad indeed And it s laid to the charge of Asa 2 Chron. 16. 12. That in his disease he sought not unto the Lord but to the Physitians Though God allow and require the use of means that are proper yet he forbids confidence and trusting in these he would have us in the use of them to look beyond them but stocks and stones were not proper means for counsel yet his people went to these and neglected him How God resents this we may see by the punishment he inflicts for it Psal. 107. 11 12. Because they rebelled against the words of God and contemned the counsel of the most High Therefore he brought down their heart with labours they fell down and there was none to help Prov. 1. 24 26. Ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh so far will God be from helping those that make small reckoning of his counsell that he laughs at them Use 3. Exhort 1. Let us bless God for his gracious condescention and goodness that he favours us so far as to guide and counsel us Psal. 16. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel Though he were a King of great personal worth yet he looked upon it as a piece of great condescention in God to favour him with his counsel and blesses him for it what then should we do who are every way so far below him How desirous of and thankful for his counsel should we be How should we acknowledge his condescention that looks through troops of Angels multitudes of Saints upon us sinners 2. When we are in straits let us make