Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53376
|
An epistle of information, exhortation, and consolation to all such as are distinguished by names of reproach and ignominy ... : containing also, a sober rebuke for former sloathfulness / by John Onley ...
|
Onley, John.
|
1661
(1661)
|
Wing O346; ESTC R10781
|
10,212
|
15
|
Joynt-heirs with Christ and all Strangers and Pilgrims here on Earth having no continuing City but are looking after one that hath a foundation whose maker and builder is God c. Let 's lay aside our dividing Principles and formal lazy key-cold Profession and Unchristian-like Imployments and with one Consent make exact and speedy search into those things in which we have grievously offended and pour forth our souls before the Lord Repenting and humbling our selves and that with all speed Peradventure we may prevail to a diversion of God's intended Judgments against us if not that then they may be of excellent use to us for when we have once seen the want of that which when we had we saw not the worth of nor had no hearts to use It will then be more precious in our eyes more desirable and delightful to our souls Should the Lord scatter us abroad into other Nations to wander up and down amongst Mountains Desarts Dens Caves and Desolate places of the Earth destitute afflicted and tormented yea from Sea to Sea from North to South running to and fro to seck the Word of the Lord and shall not find it Oh how precious would the Communion the Company the Fellowship of those be then notwithstanding circumstantial difference with whom now we have been at Irreconciliable Variance how delightful that Presence of the Lord that once we enjoyed in his Sanctuary how piercing and lively would the fence of those former neglected Mercies come fresh and bleeding in our memories how satisfactory would the Word of the Lord be to our hungry starved empty Souls then how vivifying and comfortable to our Hearts though now being full we loath the Honey and the Honey-comb how little should we value a weeks time then in the performance of that which a dayes time now hath wearied us in how near would our Hearts be brought to God our Affections to Heaven and from the World how un-interrupted the course of our Faith and dead and crucified to the Pleasures of this Life how desirous to be dissolved how pained to be delivered how watchful for our Redemption and Day of our Lord's Appearance how attentive to our main work preparing our wedding Garment how quick in our motion and steady in our expectation looking right on moving regular in our Journey turning neither to the right hand nor to the left c. Should we then be when the Lord with a Witness hath discovered and uncovered our Covering which He is now about and hunted us out of our Rests that were polluted and would have destroyed us with a sore destruction and scorched us with the fire of our own kindling and made those sparks we incompassed our selves about with and walk'd in the light of like those Oaks we have desired of which we are now ashamed going away from them the Lord having rejected that Confidence which we put in them How admirably lovely and desirable will Christ his Truth and Kingdom be when it stands in competition with Goods Liberty Wife Children and it may be our own Life also when we shall be brought to that parting-point to receive Him singly or reject Him wholly Then will be the time to see the worth of that which whilst other things stood betwixt we saw not the full glory of Oh then let 's not fear nor be dismayed at that which if rightly used we shall be such gainers by but rejoyce and leap for Joy in that Day when men shall hate us imprison us separate us from their Company and speak all manner of evil of us falsly and take away our Goods our Houses and Lands and Liberties from us c. For if we stoop under the Cross and deny our selves and forsake Houses Brethren Sisters Fathers or Mothers VVife or Children or Lands for the Name sake of Christ we shall receive un hundred fold and shall inherit Everlasting Life Matth. 19.29 Only let 's be careful to suffer as Christians not as Thieves Murderers busie bodies in others matters self-revengers c. for which we shall have a double punishment but if as Christians let 's not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf and commit the keeping of our souls in wel-doing as to a faithful Creator Considering Him that could have called for the Host of Heaven to have rescued Him and avenged Him of his Enemies yet endured the Cross despised the shame and the Contradiction of Sinners against Himself and is set down at the right-hand of God expecting till his Enemies be made his Footstool And let us not envy the Prosperity of them that know not God that laugh whilst we weep and sing whilst we mourn for they have received their Consolation and are in the flower of their Kingdom but ours is in Reversion which when we come to the possession of out Sorrow shall be turned into Joy our Tears to Praise our Poverty to Plenty and we shall come to Sion with Songs and Everlasting Joy upon our heads Sorrow and sighing shall flee away when we shall be made an Eternal Excellency the Joy of many Generations For behold the Lord will take out of our hand the Cup of Trembling even the Dregs of the Cup of Fury we shall no more drink but it shall be put into the hand of them that afflict us that have said to our souls Bow down that we may go over And we have laid our body as the ground and as the street to them that went over when he hath purged away our Dross and performed his whole work upon us He will extend Peace to us like a River and Judgment shall dwell in the VVilderness and Righteousness remain in the fruitful Field and the work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever Which when we see our hearts shall rejoyce and our bones flourish and we shall discern the difference betwixt them that serve God and them that serve Him not though now the Proud are called Happy c. The hand of the Lord will be known toward his Servants and his Indignation toward his Enemies when he shall render his Anger with Fury and his Rebukes with flames of fire For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an Oven and all the Proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be as Stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch 〈◊〉 in flaming Fire will He take Vengeance on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ For behold He cometh with Ten Thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Wherefore let us enter into our Chamber and shut to the doors till the Indignation of the Lord lie over-past and bear it with patience for we have sinned and gird up the loyns of our mind and be sober and hope to the end and take up the Cross and walk on with patience lifting up our hands that hang down and making strait paths for our feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way and run with patience the Race set before us not being mindful of that Country from whence we came out though we may have opportunity to return Remember Lots Wife but desire a better that is an heavenly And God will not be ashamed to be called our God for he hath provided for us a City and let us not draw back lest the Lord take no pleasure in us for he that seeks to save his life shall lose it whilst he that seeks to lose it shall find Let 's not then cast away our Confidence that hath great Recompence of Reward for we have need of Patience that after we have done the Will of God we may receive the Promise For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry whose Reward is with him and his Work before him to give to every one as his deeds shall be In the Expectation of which and waiting therefore I am and remain Your Brother in the Faith Patience and Tribulation of the Gospel John Onley 3d day of the 3d Month 1661.
AN EPISTLE OF INFORMATION EXHORTATION AND CONSOLATION To all such as are distinguished by Names of Reproach and Ignominy Nevertheless retaining the Testimony of a good Conscience towards God and all men Containing also A Sober REBUKE for former Sloathfulness By John Onley a Servant of Jesus Christ London Printed for Francis Smith at Sign of the Elephant and Castle without Temple-Bar 1661. An EPISTLE of Information Exhortation and Consolation to all such as are distinguished by Names of Reproach c. TO all the Children of God through Faith and Obedience of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of what Sect and by what Name soever disgraced dignified or distinguished Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus With all Spiritual Wisdom Strength Valour Stability Patience Selfdenyal c. to you be continued multiplied and encreased that as on the one hand the Nobleness of our Extraction and most Magnificent Possession and yet greater and far more admirable Right in Reversion may make us elevate our Minds in the highest Region above that gross and earthly Body that the black Monarchy of the Prince of Darkness is erected in the poor blind World is benighted with and captivated by scorning and utterly contemning those earthly Pleasures and faint Conceptions the Earthly Mind is forming to it self to take Comfort from that shall shortly be ingloriously dash'd and precipited being Expiring Glories whilst we moving in our own Sphear beyond and above their Region may be without fear of being Let by their faint Opposition go safely on from strength to strength till we all appear before our God in Sion Yet on the other hand Considering how unworthily we have walk'd of this Vocation and unsutable to this Profession and unbeseeming the Children of so high a Father and Heirs of such a Glory though we were taken from Prison Death and Condemnation and raised undeservedly to such an Eternal weight of Glory yet have we grieved the Spirit of our God by our estrayings from him from the sight of which which I shall in a few words present to my self and you shame sorrow and confusion of face lies before us yet through a right use of it we may be bettered by it when we have seen it and have smarted for it 1. What a deal of Rust Dross and Corrupted matter hath contracted it self to us by our Motion through various Dispensations even to the provoking of the Lord to arise and shew his Displeasure against us by the Symptoms of some straits approaching near us that are the best and only Remedies for us as of old when Israel was in a waste howling Wilderness in a Land of Desarts and Pits and the shadow of Death she was then Holiness to the Lord but when to crown all their Sufferings with signal Mercies the Lord brought them into Houses that they did not build and Vineyards that they did not plant how quickly was those occasions of Praise turned into a dreadful Apostacy from the Father of those Mercies Shall we need to parallel our Conditions our former Egyptian slavery with God's eminent Deliverance by the out-stretched Arm of his Power and Providence with our yearnings of Spirit then after him is yet memorable and for our after-declinations we may it's probable have it so legible that we may run and read our Sin in our Punishment There is a Judgment begun and it will go round the Furnace is preparing and that Fire therein will be that Proving that will manifest the Verity of each man's building only the Refined Gold will remain and it 's the Dross alone we shall lose and by that Loss become Rich though the Sinners in Sion be afraid and fearfulness surprising the hearts of the Hypocrites our number being thereby lessened and much of that bulk we made a shew of in our selves being consumed yet shall we be not thereby weakned But Oh how mighty Oh how great Oh how strong shall we be by that Loss that Little and those Few that will be left standing by it self will exceed even it self as it stood in common with the rest why then should we stand afraid of that Poverty by which we become rich or that Loss by which we get gain 2. What a Stir and Commotion and Hurli-burly hath been raised in our Souls partly by false and contrary Interests we had espoused to our selves partly by our various Expectations Helps and Reliefs to secure them to us having plodded on in a heartless lifeless Profession in conjunction with a vigorous pursuit after overtaking of and being possessed with Rest as we thought in the World running in the way of Egypt after Asher and Jareb putting Confidence in an Aim of Flesh saying to the work of our hands Ye are our gods when in Returning and in Rest we should have been saved Quietness and Confidence should have been our Strength but we would not c. Therefore are we like to be left as a Beacon on the top of the Mountain our way hedged up with Thorns that we may no more find those Paths but reduced into the Wilderness a place of Desarts Pits Drought and shadow of Death that necessity and want of what we would have enjoyed might we had our wills may inforce us with the proud Prodigal to return to our Father thankfully accepting what we formerly lightly esteemed which his ever-to-be-magnified Grace still holds forth to us which now we begin to experience the worth of the Commotions in our Souls being stilled and our prodigal Expectations come to nought that formerly so clamored in our Souls that the Voice of the Lord could not be heard Oh how attentive watchful and diligent are we now for which formerly we took little notice of how home direct and facile is its entrance Now speak Lord saith the Soul and I will hear appear and I am ready lead and I will follow command and I will obey wee 'l never say more to the works of our hands Ye are our gods for in Thee alone the Fatherless findeth Mercy 3. What a large measure of Light Time Peace and Liberty have we had from the Lord beyond what former Times and it may be latter shall enjoy whereby through the faithful Improvement of which what manner of Persons might we have been not only in our own inward Injoyments and Fellowships but also to the poor blind World captivated by the Devil as also to those who hang in the Birth betwixt Heaven and Hell that see but like the half-cured Blind-man Men like Trees that fain would move toward Sion but through the weakness of their sight the false Representations of the Devil together with the Dust we by our Contentions have raised and darkned the way with that he knows not how hardly to set one foot forward in order thereto And yet Oh how too truly may we behold how we have hid our Talent in a Napkin put our Light under a Bushel whilst we industriously imployed our Wit and earthly Mind