Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	6,232	5	10.0779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

Objection behinde which when I have answered I have done For a distressed Christian will object and say Object Though the promises are rare cordials and shall all of them bee certainly fulfilled yet God is oftentimes long before hee fulfills them and while God is fulfilling of his promises I may in the mean time perish in my affliction Ans. It cannot be denied but that God is oftentimes very long in fulfilling his promises He promised that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head but it was Four thousand years before that promise was actually accomplished Hee promiseth to avenge his elect of all their enemies to do it speedily And the souls under the Altar cry How long Lord when wilt thou avenge our blood c. But this is not yet fulfilled Nay I must adde That God is not onely a long time performing his promises but sometimes instead of performing them hee seems to the eye of flesh and blood to walk contrary to them Sometimes the Providences of God run cross to his Promises God promised to make David King instead of this hee is persecuted by Saul as a Partridge upon the mountains hee is driven to that extremity that hee begins to doubt of Gods promise and to say That one day hee should dye by the hand of Saul God promised to Ioseph That the Sun Moon and Stars should worship him and that his sheaf should bee lifted up above the sheaf of his brethren But hee findes the quite contrary his brethren seek to slay him sell him into Egypt and there hee is put in prison as one quite forsaken of God But yet notwithstanding all this you must know That though the way of God in performing his promises bee very mysterious and secret yet hee will at last perform every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tittle of them Thus David was at last made King of Israel and Ioseph Lord of Egypt and his brethren came all to worship him Quest. How must wee carry and behave our selves at such times when Providences seem to run cross unto Gods Promises Answ. At such times there are three things required of us 1 It is our duty to wait patiently and beleevingly till Providences and Promises meet together Hee that beleeveth maketh not haste The Prophet there speaks of a glorious promise and adds That a true Saint will wait Gods time which is the fittest and best time hee will patiently expect till God fulfil his promise Hee will do as the Martyr did who might have escaped privately out of prison and was tempted to it by his friends But answered Hee would not go out of prison when his enemies would have him for they would make him tarry longer than hee should nor yet when his friends would have him for they would make him tarry a lesser time than hee should but hee would come out when God would have him Gods time is the best and they are soon enough delivered who are delivered in Gods way and at Gods time This then is thy great duty O Christian to wait patiently and beleevingly and not to seek by unlawful waies to bee rid of they miseries as David did by going to the Philistims and as many in Queen Maries daies did by yeelding to the Popish superstitions To help you to wait Gods leisure holding Faith and a good conscience you have 1 Many rare and precious Promises made to those that wait upon him which I have formerly named 2 You have four attributes in God to support you his faithfulness almightiness infinite goodness and wisdome Hee is faithful and not one tittle of his Word shall fall to the ground hee is Almighty and able to do whatsoever hee hath promised hee is infinitely wise to know the best time and season and infinitely good and loving to his children and doth not willingly afflict them but will make haste to help them 2 It is our duty to live upon Promises while Providences seem to run cross to Promises This is the meaning of Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by Faith They shall live by Faith when they have nothing else to live on When sense and reason tell them they are undone then shall they live by Faith in the Promises and not only live patiently but comfortably and joyfully as the same Prophet Hab. 3. 17 18 19. saith Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit bee in the Vine and the field shall yeeld no meat c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation This life did Paul live when the ship in which he was was ready to bee drowned when there was neither Sun-light nor Star-light yet hee was exceedingly chearful because God had promised to preserve him and those with him By living this life God is much honoured and our souls much quieted and refreshed 3 It is our duty to continue praying till providences and promises meet together For it is prayer and prayer only which will at last reconcile Gods Promises and Gods dispensations and cause them to meet and to kiss one another For as the Promises are the ground and rule of our prayers so our prayers are the divine waies and means for the obtaining of the Promises I say as the Promises are 1 The ground of our prayers For wee cannot pray in Faith unless wee have some promise to bottome our prayers upon therefore David often chargeth God in his prayers with his promise Hee harps eight times upon the same string in one Psalm to teach us that the greatest Rethorick and Oratory wee can use in our prayers is to urge God with his promise 2 They are not onely the ground but the rule of our prayers As wee must pray for nothing but what God hath promised so wee must regulate our prayers according to Gods Promises Those thing which hee hath absolutely promised wee must pray for absolutely and where God hath put conditions and exceptions there our prayers must be conditional Now as the Promises are the ground and rule of our prayers so our prayers are divine means and helps for the obtaining of the promises Though God hath made many glorious and precious promises to his children yet hee will perform none of them but to those who by prayer seek them at his hands When Nathan told David what great things God had promised to him hee went into Gods house to pray for them 2 Sam. 7. The Prophet Isaiah mentioneth a glorious promise Isa. 43. 25. but hee adds Put mee in remembrance vers 20. Thus Ezekiel 36. 37. I will yet for this bee inquired of by the house of Israel and therefore when you read the Promises of the Bible remember whatsoever God makes a promise you must make a prayer and that prayer will hasten the fulfilling of the promises You must continue to pray and faint not for the vision is but for an appointed time though it tarry wait

cannot receive any comfort by it in the day of his distress Iacob was not at all quieted in his spirit for Iosephs being alive till hee came to know of it And therefore wee must not onely provide grace but the assurance of grace that wee may bee able to say with confidence as Iob did upon the dung-hill Iob 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth and with the holy Apostle Rom. 8. 38. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. That man who hath got a Scripture assurance of his salvation will bee more than a Conqueror in the day of his distress 3 A stock of Divine Experiences Happy is that man that lodgeth up in his heart all the former Experiences he hath had of Gods love and mercy towards him and knoweth how to argue from them in the day of calamity Thus did Moses in his prayer to God Numb 14. 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even untill now Because God had forgiven them therefore Moses intreats him to forgive them this Argument is drawn from former experience And thus David incourageth himself 1 Sam. 17 37. The Lord hath delivered mee out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear and hee will deliver mee out of the hand of this Philistine Thus also Paul reasoneth 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver and in whom wee trust that hee will yet deliver us Divine experiences are the Saints great incouragements in the day of Affliction Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of these arrows 4 A stock of Sermons Wee must do with Sermons as the Trades-men do with the mony they get some of it they lay out for their present use and some of it they lay up against the time of sickness That man is an ill husband and an unthrifty Trades-man that makes no provision for old age or for an evill day and that man is an unprofitable hearer of the word who doth not stock and store himself with Sermons whereby hee may be comforted in the hour of affliction And therefore the Prophet Isaiah adviseth us Isa 42. 23. to hear for the time to come or as it is in the Hebrew for the after-time Sermons are not onely to bee heard for our present use but to bee laid up for after-times that when wee lye upon our sick-beds and cannot hear Sermons wee may then live upon the Sermons wee have heard 5 And lastly Wee must prepare and provide a stock of Scripture-promises which will bee as so many reviving Cordials to chear us and as so many spiritual Anchors to uphold us from perishing in the day of our tribulation What these promises are you shall hear afterwards These upheld David in the hour of his distress and therefore hee saith in the Text Unless thy Law had been my delight I had perished in mine affliction If this our dear Sister had not had this stock shee had been quite overwhelmed under the grievousness of her tormenting pains Bee wise therefore O yee Saints of God and prepare these five provisions in the time of health that so you may live joyfully in the time of sickness 3 As wee must expect and provide for afflictions so also wee must labour when afflicted to improve them for our spiritual benefit and advantage Wee must pray more for the sanctification of them than for their removal It was not the staffe of Elisha that revived the dead childe but Elisha himself It was not the troubling of the waters of the Pool of Bethesda that made them healing but the coming down of the Angel It was not the Clay and spittle that cured the blinde eyes but Christs anointing them with it It was not the cloak of Elijah that divided the waters but the God of Elijah Troubles stroaks blows afflictions and distresses will do us no good unless the Lord bee pleased to make them effectuall And therefore let us pray unto God that hee would give us grace together with our affliction That hee would adde instruction to his correction that hee would make us good schollars in the school of afflictions and inable us to take out all those excellent lessons which hee would have us to learn in it that thereby wee may come to know God more powerfully and experimentally and tok now our selves and our own frailty and our absolute de pendene upon God more effectually that thereby wee may bee more purified and refined that the wind of temptation may cleanse us from the chaffe of our corruption that wee may learn righteousness by Gods judgements and bee made partakers of his holiness Such a good Scholar was Manasseh hee got more good by his Iron chain than by his Golden chain Such another was the Prodigal childe who was happìer amongst the Swine than when in his Fathers house Such was Paul his being strucken down to the ground raised him up to Heaven by the blindness of his body his soul received sight and hee was turned from a persecuting Saul to a persecuted Paul Such another was David who professeth of himself that it was good for him that hee was afflicted and such Scholars ought wee to bee There are some that are arrant Dunces in this School that are like unto the bush which Moses saw which burned with fire but was not consumed the fire did not consume the thorny bush Many such thorny sinners are burnt up with the fire of divine afflictions but their sins are not consumed Of these the Prophets complain Amos 4. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Yet they have not returned c. Jer. 5. 3. Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return Rocks and stones by hewing and polishing may bee made fit for a building But there are some men who by no afflictions will bee amended The Mountains melt at the presence of the Lord and the rocks rend asunder when hee is angry But there are some that have made their faces harder than the Rocks and the Mountains and are not at all affected with Gods anger Of such as these Bernard complains Multi humiliati pauci humiles corripimur sed non corrigimur plectimur sed non flectimur Multo facilius fregeris quam flexeris Non cessant vitia civium usque ad excidia civitatum Prius est interire quam corrigi Prius ipsos quam in ipsis vitia non esse There are others that are the worse for their afflictions like the Smiths Anvil the