Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	let_v	lord_n	pharaoh_n	2,368	5	10.5791	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42547	God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.; Gearing, William. No abiding city in a perishing world.	1667 (1667)	Wing G435A; ESTC R18630	101,655	265

God removed that plague then he put Pharaoh upon the tryal whether he would be as good as his promise but then he hardened his heart again and would not let them go By this God made a discovery of the grand hypocrisie of his heart hath it not been so among many of you in the time of your sickness in the day of your calamity when you supposed your selves to be very neer to death did you not then promise to let your sins go God was pleased to give you a respite to set you at liberty and have not many of you again hardened your hearts and refused to let your sins go therefore you may think God hath now suffered this late fire that was kindled among you to devoure your habitations Certainly it were better to have no respite given at all than to have it and abuse it it were better to be taken away by the first judgement than to have a respite between judgement and judgement if you repent not for now ye become greater sinners and you treasure up for yourselves more wrath the more respites you have given you and you abuse them the greater will your condemnation be To such the Lord saith Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Isai 1.5 They were never the better for all the stroaks of God upon them but encreased their revolts now see what judgement follows hereupon Ver. 7. Your Country is desolate your Cities are burnt with fire and your Land strangers devoure it in your presence Scultetus on this place saith it is Theologica Pictura Germaniae a Divine Picture of Germany I may say it is Theologica Pictura Londini nec-non totius Angliae it is a Theological description of London yea of all England I mean of the wicked in City and Country Isai 26.10 Let favour he shewed to the wicked i. e. let a respite be given him from destruction yet will he not learn righteousness but return to their former wickedness see how God threatens them Ver. 11. The fire of thine Enemies shall devoure them Though thou bray a fool in a Mortar with a Pestle among Wheat yet his folly will not depart from him Prov. 27.22 Though God doth pound them even to powder following them with stroak upon stroak yet their folly remaineth with them SECT V. Whoredome is a sin also which God threatens to punish with fire Sodom and Gomorrha burned with lust and God overthrew and consumed them with fire and brimstone from heaven O how many have been guilty of this sin in City and Country how many are there who have eyes full of adultery 1 Pet. 2.14 How do multitudes of men make lusting after a woman the end of their looking upon them they look in order to their lusts making no other use of their eyes than a man doth of a Burning Glass meerly to set their own hearts on fire of unclean lusting yea many continue looking till their hearts be enflamed with lust after women pulchris vultibus oculos Affigunt they nail their eyes and fasten them to beautiful faces as Chrysostome speaks delighting to feed their eyes with the sight of women and seeking after beautiful faces to feed their eyes with them and as the same Father saith not so much that they would commit corporal uncleanness with them but only that they may lust after them As often as a man looketh on a woman with a fixed eye or a glancing eye it mattereth not much if it be accompanied with a lustful motion this is adultery before God how many such adulterers are there every where And as with the eye so there are many that commit adultery in the heart as by unchaste imaginations and unclean fancies and by lodging unchaste thoughts in their hearts and giving entertainment to them how many are there whose hearts do long lodge dwell and insist upon unclean things which is abominable heart-adultery in the sight of God inwardly wishing to have their lusts and desires satisfied with an actual Commission of carnal uncleanness with those persons they lust after yea many take great delight in such wanton and unchaste fancies and contemplations this is an high degree of adultery in the heart I know it is a question whether every such thought and motion of the heart be a sin as long as a man doth not consent unto them Papists will not acknowledge them to be sins till they are accompanied with delight and consent but Paul determineth the question Rom. 7. who there tells us tha● such motions are sins whether consented to or not delighted in or hated Paul did not consent to them yea Pau● hated them yet he acknowledged then to bee sins whatsoever is a transgression of the Law is a sin now to covet or lust is forbidden by the Law whether a man consents to it or not consents to it hateth or delighteth in it yet because he coveteth he sinneth to consent to them is a higher degree of sinfulness the fuller consent men give the more hainous sins are the more men delight in such lustings it is an higher degree of sinning against God Hence you see the reason why our Saviour doth so much condemn the filthiness and uncleanness of the heart Mat. 5 27 28. Heart-adultery is minoris infamiae of less infamy because it is secret and unknown to any man but it is majoris culpae a greater fault the reasons are these 1. Because heart-adultery argues Atheism and contempt of Gods presence more than the outward act thou actest that in the sight of God which thou wouldest not act before a poor sinful man Moreover 2. Heart-adultery is more directly against a mans own soul than other sins here a man makes his own soul the adulterer and the adulteress the Bed and the Brothel-house the Incubus and Succuba the Agent and Patient the Whore and the Whoremonger 3. Adultery in the heart is far more frequently committed in the heart than the outward act is or can be opportunity can never fail the Adulterer in his heart he can have an opportunity when he will The heart-adulterer can never want an adulterous subject he can frame one in his mind and can with delight commit folly with his own imaginary Strumpet he can do it in every place and company yea though a thousand eyes be upon him and when he wanteth strength and ability of body yet then his will and fancy is strong to act this wickedness sick men old men can then commit mental uncleanness with greediness yea many there are that come into our publick Congregations chiefly to look after and look upon beautiful faces and when they are outwardly conversant in the Worship of God when they are hearing the Word their eyes and heart may then be full of adultery What cause have we all to bewail the woful pollutions of our hearts Who can say my heart is clean Now for corporal uncleanness never was this sin thought to be more frequently

upon his wit and gave evil counsel to Absalom 2 Sam. 17.1 2. for thus he said unto him Let me chuse out twelve thousand men and I will arise and pursue after David this night and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed and will make him afraid and all the people that are with him shall flee and I will smite the King only and I will bring back all the people to thee and the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned so all the people shall be in peace and the saying pleased Absalom well and all the Elders of Israel This plot was fairly laid but chance hapned to him now Hushai forsook David and fled to Absalom on purpose to defeat the counsel of Achitophel and a strange chance it was that Absalom should admit him to be of his Privy Council and yet more strange that he should ask his advice after Achitophel's whose counsel in those daies was as if a man had enquired at the Oracle of God and that he and all the men of war should prefer Hushai's advice better than Achitophel's thus chance hapned to this grand Polititian that he immediately withdrew himself from the Court. When he saw that his counsel was not followed he sadled his Asse and arose got home to his house unto his City put his houshold in order and hanged himself But none of these came as a chance to God no contingency in this was to him for v. 14. The Lord had appointed or commanded as in the Margin to defeat and bring to naught the good counsel of Achitophel that he might bring evil upon Absalom 2. For courage and valour that neither is to be trusted to bee a man never so stout hearted let him have the heart of a lion yet courage may fail the most valiant when they have occasion to make most use thereof Who more valiant than Joshuah and his army yet the little Town of the men of Ai smote the Israelites and the hearts of the men of war melted away like water Josh 7.5 their natural valour proved then but a meer vapour for the Lord withdrew himself from them because of the accursed thing that was in the Camp of Israel 1 Sam. 14. chap. we read a strange story of Jonathan the son of Saul that hee with one man his Armour-bearer assaulteth a whole Garrison of the Philistines killeth many of them scattereth and pursueth them and raiseth a great fear upon them and there was trembling in the host in the field and among all the people the Garrison the spoilers they also trembled and the earth quaked so it was a very great trembling and the watch-men of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked and behold the multitude melted away and they went on beating down one another Vers 15 16. Yet this valour of Jonathan was not to bee trusted to for wee read 1 Sam. 28. chap. that Saul gathered a great army together to fight against the Philistines and chap. 31. when the Philistines fought against Israel the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his Sons and Jonathan with the rest of the army fled away from the face of the Philistines and the Philistines slew Jonathan Abinadab and Malchishua Sauls sons in Mount Gilboa The reason why none of these things are to be trusted to is because God is the only fountain of all those excellencies and good things whether of body or minde that are upon any men upon earth and therefore as the greatest streams that run with the fullest current and carry the biggest vessels if they be not continually relieved with a constant spring they would soon fail leave their channel dry So men of the greatest natural or moral endowments unless they are relieved by a constant influence from Heaven from the Fountain of life they will soon wither and decay II. Then much less is there any trusting to sin or any sinful course Trust not in oppression Psal 62.10 do not study how by defrauding and circumventing others you may enrich your selves and work out your own ends by base and wicked oppression if a man would undertake some dangerous enterprize to the hazarding of his life upon promise of some reward from another man it sheweth he did relie much upon that man else hee would never make so dangerous an adventure upon such a mans woid many men relie upon sins they promise fair pleasure profit and hereupon they hazard their souls upon uncertainties if thou trustest in any sin thou wilt be exceeding vain because sin is the greatest deceiver in the world sin is deceitful all over root and branch the inward lusts are deceitful and all the issues succours roots and branches that proceed from it are deceitful III. God would have us also to understand that there is no trusting to riches Riches are called deceitful riches Mat. 13.22 They promise or seem to promise much more than they perform they are therefore compared to thorns by our Saviour many are taken with the green leaves but are never sensible of the thorns that grow under them they bring many troubles to those that have them and lay many loads upon their backs and prove snares to their souls leaving them under great discontent and hindering the souls of many men in the pursuit of eternal happiness And many times they are deceived in the very thing it self as to the ends themselves most aim at Prov. 12.26 The way of the wicked seduceth them V. 27. The slothful man rosteth not what he took in hunting As hunters many times lose their prey sometimes the dogs eat it sometimes others catch it out of their hands Achan hunted after the wedge of Gold but lost his life by it and Saul got fat cattle but lost his kingdome by it Many a wicked man gets much wealth and riches but never reap that comfort by them as they expect neither do they get the blessing of God to sweeten those outward comforts to them though they have them and in the mean time perhaps their Conscience woundeth them and although they feed upon the sweet of Gods creatures yet they become as gravel in their bowels like the book which St. John did eat which was in his mouth as honey for sweetness but bitter in his belly Rev. 9.10 The remembrance how many men came by their wealth and riches proveth very woful and bitter to them Finally there is no creature to bee trusted to not friends nor relations nor great mens favours Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie Psal 62.9 The furest friend thou hast in the world is not sure of himself therefore thou canst not promise thy self he will be sure to thee SECT II. A second and God aims at is to learn you that when men take too much delight in their outward comforts and enjoyments it is his usual course to deprive them of what they

these fading helps he placed all his trust and hope in God who would heartily embrace those that came unto him and never forsake those that trusted in him SECT IV. A fourth end God aims at in taking away these things from us is to have us to be instructed in this that mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Luk. 12. 15. By life two things are understood 1. That a mans happiness doth not consist in the abundance of the things he doth enjoy only Christ and a right to assurance of heaven that is a mans happiness in this life and the fruition of Christ and heaven hereafter is the eternal happiness of a man Lazarus was an happy man though he had nothing and Dives a miserable man though he had abundance Earthly-minded persons seek for satisfaction from earthly things therefore there be many that say Who will shew us any good 1. Such a satisfying good as may make our souls happy they look downward and think to find this happiness in outward things But David opposeth his resolved choice to their vain wandring desire Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me as if he had said I know where to have enough Lord let me enjoy thee and have the light of thy countenance shineing upon me and I am satisfied Then he speaks of his former experience that formerly he had found satisfaction from God Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased Psal 4.6 7. as if he had said the fullest Barns and Wine-cellars cannot yeeld that content to an earthly heart that my soul hath formerly found in thee when they are as full as they can hold yet their immortal soul is not satisfied but I by enjoying thee am fully satisfied Then David compareth the satisfaction he had found in God not only with the abundance of these things but with the encrease of them for it is the encrease of outward things that is apt to win the heart a lesser estate encreasing doth more win the hearts of natural men than a greater estate not encreasing But David found more content in God than worldlings did not only in the abundance but also in the encrease of corn and wine Lastly saith he Thou hast put gladness into my heart Thou hast infused it into my soul it is God that sheddeth sweet consolation into the spirit of a man he doth not only give matter of joy and ground of comfort to a believer but giveth as it were the very affection of it to the soul As for earthly things they put not comfort into our hearts if a man will have any good from them he must extract and draw it out and when the heart and the world do close most yet it then falls short of satisfaction but God doth put gladness into the heart and he can satisfie it 2. By life is meant likewise that although a man had never so many possessions had an house full of gold and silver yet all his wealth cannot prolong his daies nor adde a minute to his life as if our Saviour should reason thus I wonder to see men take such great pains for the things of this life to toil and labour in a restless manner if every pound they got and had would adde a day or year more to their lives there were some reason why men should thus toil for riches but can a rich man redeem his life from death with thousands of gold and silver for a day would not a rich man that feareth death and hell give a world if he had it that he might not die and be damned and yet ten thousands of worlds cannot redeem a mans soul from death and hell therefore why are men so greedy after these things that cannot make their lives any longer Let us take a view of the Parable which our Saviour spake upon this very occasion of a rich Farmer wherein several things are to be observed 1. His Trade was very gainful intimated by his ground which brought forth plentifully the world was coming on upon him apace 2. He had heaped together abundance of riches he had so much he could not tell where to lay them 3. See what he resolved upon viz. to follow his pleasures and contentments without all controul as the Proverb is What is a Gentleman more than his pleasure he would take his pleasure as well as the best man in his Country he would play the Glutton and Hunt and Hawk and Whore and Drink and Swear and Swagger and let him see what man would dare controll him he would make the Town and Country too hot for him Thus saith he to himself Soul thou hast riches enough and that not for a day or a moneth or a year but for many years go take thy pleasure eat drink and be merry thy abundance of riches will maintain thee in it here you see the prosperity of a rich covetous fool Mark now the end and conclusion of him behold the lamentable Tragedy of an Earth-worm behold what God saith unto him Thou fool He was but a fool for his labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insipiens an unwise man so the word signifies one that lived by sense like a bruit not forecasting for the future This night they shall take away thy soul Mark the words This night Thou hast to day promised thy self long life mirth and pleasure thou art deceived thy riches shall not lengthen thy life for this night thou shalt die They i. e. the Devils shall come and take away my soul And thou that didst dream of many years pleasure shalt burn in hell to Eternity Salvian hath a good meditation on this place With his goods he prepareth happiness for others misery for himself mirth for others tears for himself a short pleasure for others everlasting fire for himself His Heirs that enjoyed his riches did game eat drink and were merry and this poor covetous wretch was howling and roaring weeping and wailing in hell Now see our Saviours use of this Parable So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God that is so is every covetous wretch that laboureth more for temporal riches than for grace and godliness such a one is a fool though he gets abundance of riches such a one will God cross in his plots and purposes and when he thinks to enjoy his pleasures then God will cut him off and throw him into hell his children after him shall spend his wealth he shall be tormented in hell when they are merry and jovial upon earth SECT V. A fifth end is that thereby we may learn to mortifie our selves Clemens Alexandrinus spake to the purpose The Vine turneth wild and degenerateth unless it be pruned man proveth exorbitant except he be scourged for as the luxuriancy of the Vine-tree runneth out into wilde branches except it be cut and curbed and bringeth forth

avenged and will avenge with the forest destruction the Temple in Jerusalem was afterward burnt and utterly overthrown by the Romans no flame is more fierce than when oyl wine or sugar are fired if you will know when the sins of a people are at the full and ripe for the sickle of destruction it is when the Gospel is rejected and his Messengers despised and misused They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Caldees who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old men or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand and all the vessels of the House of God great and small and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King and of his Princes all these brought he to Babylon and they burnt the house of God and brake down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt all the Palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof 2 Chron 36.16 17 19. Whether you are guilty of this sin you best know SECT III. A third sin is the sin of oppression when men grinde the faces of their needy Brethren and make the necessities of others their advantages to oppress them the more how can the love of God dwell in such hearts I may say to such you rob the poor because they are poor and grieve their sad hearts rather than relieve them dealing with them as the Jews did with our Saviour in their extreme sufferings give them gall and wormwood to drink instead of waters of comfort their own poverty like Solomon chastiseth them with whips and your oppression like Rehoboam whips them with Scorpions and as he told the oppressed people that his finger should be heavier than his Fathers loins it is most true of your oppression it is far more tyranny than their wants whereas you should pour oyl into their hearts you pour in vinegar to aggravate their calamities whereas you should shew mercy to them in misery you shew all cruelty to the miserable your bounty should relieve them your cruelty draws more from them Oppression is like unto a Grindstone yea it is as a Milstone hung about the necks of the needy and sinks them deeper and deeper into want and misery the poor are the grapes and you are the Wine-pressers squeezing out the blood of the poor It is a notable phrase of Solomon Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel it is in the Hebrew the bowels of the wicked are cruel The tender mercies that is when men seem to shew mercy to their needy brother their words and actions carry fair shews of compassion as lending money to them in their necessity yet there is much cruelty in those mercies in the event ensuing thereupon How often do Oppressors fetch home their money lent to needy brothers with a vengeance and unconscionable exactions How often do they take the garments which should cover the nakedness of their needy brethren for a pledge aad instead of cloathing the naked they expose them to nakedness Exod. 22.22 23. God threatens if thou afflict any stranger widow or fatherless childe and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry Oppression is a crying sin it cries for vengeance yea Gods anger will burn against such merciless men And my wrath saith he shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword God threatens to meet with the Oppressor by one judgement or other and God will make your Wives and Children to be in the same extremity that your needy Brethren are The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it Habak 2.11 Suppose the poor and needy whom you oppress do not cry against you yet these dumb inanimate creatures will cry out against your oppressions for vengeance upon you Amos 5.11 Forasmuch as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat ye have built houses of hewn stone but ye shall not dwell in them God threatens to take away the habitations of such as oppress the poor and needy SECT IV. A fourth sin I will set before you is incorrigibleness under former judgements God sent the Plague to the great City of this Land the last year which swept away many thousands of the Inhabitants week after week for a great while together and even to this day the Plague rageth in many Towns Cities and other places in this Land But my Brethren who is the better after this sore Visitation Did not sins of all sorts and kinds abound in the great City before God consumed great part of it with fire Oh what wicked and profane practises hath over-spread it since the late devouring Plague like the Sluggards Field that Solomon speaks of that was all over-spread with thorns and thistles and not only so but persons of all ranks and conditions and estates it is to be feared have been Actors Factors and Abettors of sin most men have run into sin with more greediness than before As Noahs flood covered hills dales mountains vallies so the flood of ungodliness hath covered high and low rich and poor Though God justly punished us yet in the time of his just wrath he remembred to shew mercy Habak 3.2 The mercies of God are over all his works even over his penal judiciary works Psa 145.9 his mercy is most conspicuous in times of judgement to command deliverance when we are in the mouth of danger in the Den of Lions in the Burning Furnace is mercy indeed to save a people being in the very jaws of death is mercy indeed it is the Lords mercies you were not utterly consumed the Sword would have consumed the Plague would have devoured all these judgements like fire and water are merciless had not God interposed his own mercy you had been utterly consumed if mercy had not rebuked his judgements they had swallowed you up quick you can no more resist an overflowing judgement than a level of Sand can withstand the inundation of the Sea The Lord gave you a respite after the last years wasting plague he moderated his wrath and did not make a full end of you the Lord would make tryal whether you would act according to your resolutions vows and promises made in the day of your distress When the plague of Frogs was upon Pharaoh when the Frogs were crawling on his bed on his table in his chamber when he heard Frogs every where croaking and saw all Egypt to be filled with them then he sent for Moses and Aaron and begs them to pray for him Entreat ye the Lord to remove the Frogs and then he promised to let Israel go and they should serve the Lord Moses prayed and

up this very Wormwood this meer Aloes this bitter Gall Why then sayest thou The Cup which my Father hath given me This Cup was the Cup of his sufferings which God put into his hand ut Pater non ut Judex as a Father not as a Judge saith Rupertus amore non irâ voluntate non necessitate gratiâ non vindictâ it was of love not of wrath it was voluntary not of necessity it was of grace not of vengeance that this Cup was given to him This Cup saith Christ cometh to me from a most loving hand is it not fit that I should drink it the Father drinketh to me and though there be many things which commend this Cup as the restoring and redemption of the world the enlargement and augmentation of the Kingdome of heaven yet above all these my Fathers hand doth most of all commend this Cup unto me it is indeed a most bitter Cup but my drinking it will be profitable to many people therefore because my Father gives me this Cup to drink I will drink it As my Father gave me Commandment so I do Joh. 14.31 And saith he Luk. 24.46 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things We are apt under our losses to cry out such a one hath done me a mischief the Devil set such a one on to fire my house to consume my goods Satan himself hath thrown down his Thunderbolt upon me Oh such complaints are foolish as it pleased the Lord so things have been are and shall be done nay so they are best done not so much as one hair of thy head falleth to the ground but God foreseeth and willeth the same What hurt is it if fire consume thy house if God himself be thy habitation What evil is it though an Enemy tear thy body to pieces when as thy God numbreth thy hairs Whosoever was the Apothecary to mingle the Cup yet drink it off if thy Father put it into thy hand The Prophet Micah saith that evil came from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem Mic. 1.12 Behold against this Family do I devise an evil from which ye shall not remove your necks Mic. 2.3 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it All losses crosses all evils of punishment do come from God and from his divine will God is not the Author of any sin but he is the Author of all punishment for sin nor are we hurt by him but only corrected for our amendment saith Origen Remember this word saith S. August The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away as it pleased the Lord so come things to pass They were unjust who sate by Job on the dunghill yet he was scourged and received they were spared to future punishment God reserveth all to his own judgement Good men labour and are punished as sons the wicked rejoyce and are punished with condemnation That which afflicteth us shall exercise us not hurt us CHAP. XI IF God hath taken all away from you then content your selves with Gods promises if thou hast an interest in the Promises thou hast enough Answer all wicked worldlings as Esau did Jacob I have enough I have enough my Brother so say thou I have a heavenly Mansion in the promise which is more worth than my earthly house which is consumed I have heaven in the promise which is more worth than a thousand worlds in present possession Eternal glory is better than fading honour eternal delights are better than momentany pleasures eternal habitations are better than our Clay-tabernacles what if I have lost my goods in heaven there is a more enduring substance worth more than all present enjoyments What if the world be a Wilderness so long as I have Canaan in the promise and thither I am going Oh how good is it for Christians to store up promises afore-hand and to let the Word of God dwell richly in our hearts especially the promises which are the quintessence of the word we use to say of a rich man he is worth God knows what this may we say truly of him who is rich in promises we are subject to variety of estates and conditions here no mans Mountain is so strong but it may be removed Now as the Astronomers say there is no herb growing on the earth but hath its star in heaven from which it receiveth sweet influences so there is no estate or condition wherein a Christian possibly may be in this life but there is a promise to it in the holy word of God from which he may receive sweet influences by faith And considering that all Promises are yea and Amen in Christ under all your losses and afflictions labour wisely to apply them depend on Christ in them he will faithfully perform all and every promise in due time to thee for faithful is the Promiser urge him with his promises produce to him his hand and seal Lord thou hast promised this or that good thing oh make it good be it to thy servant according to thy word that soul may walk on thorns on tempestuous Seas whose feet are shod with the Promises he may walk in the very valley of the shadow of death who hath the staff of a promise in his hand he may fear no ill but expect all grace glory and every good thing who hath a promise from Christ CHAP. XII STudy to behave your selves Christian-like under all your losses endure them Patiently Thankfully Chearfully With submission to the will of God SECT I. Learn to bear them patiently what the Apostle saith of the distressed Hebrews after the spoiling of their goods Ye have need of patience Heb. 10. So may I say to you that have sustained the loss of your houses goods and possessions ye have great need of patience As Souldiers have need of good Boots or Shooes to save their feet and legs from being hurt with gravel stones thorn-bushes sticks or other impediments that may either lie or be hurled in their way so a Christian-souldier being armed and having his feet shod with patience may by help thereof pass the pikes and go thorow all losses crosses and calamities that may betide or befall him in the warfare of this world In patience possess ye your souls saith our Saviour Luk. 21.19 As faith gives us possession of Christ so patience gives us the possession of our selves An impatient man is so far from possessing himself that he loseth himself and tearing himself in his passion throws all reason out of door whereupon follows a great loss the dominion of the mind is not attained but by patience the soul is not possessed by your deep counsels nor by your prudence nor by your wealth but by your patience Impatience exposeth a man to the greatest hazards and dangers if the Waggoner hath not reason enough to guide the Waggon saith Augustine but suffereth the horses to have their heads they will draw both him and it into destruction The impatient man is