Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	anger_n	displeasure_n	51	3	9.7768	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34193	Sermons preach'd on several occasions by John Conant.; Sermons. Selections	Conant, John, 1608-1693.; Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1693 (1693)	Wing C5684; ESTC R1559	241,275	626

of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession

Though we may in some Cases take the Liberty of humble and reverent Expostulation with God yet we must take heed of any unmeet Reflections upon his Justice or Goodness and still remember our Distance from him that God is in Heaven and we are upon Earth as Solomon speaks Eccles 5.2 And that he giveth not account of any of his Matters as Elihu excellently represents him to Job chap. 33.13 So then all these sorts of Complaints being allowed us the Complaint condemned in the Text is that which either proceeds from or is joined with Impatience under God's Hand and Discontent with his Providence 't is the Complaint of an unquiet and sinfully disturbed Spirit which the Scripture sometimes expresseth by murmuring so here the Word in the Original may properly enough be translated and so the same Word is rendred Numb 11.1 Now the Evil and Unreasonableness of this kind of Complaint under the Hand of God may appear several ways 1. 'T is long before God takes the Rod in Hand to correct he bears long even with the vilest of Sinners and exerciseth much Patience towards them He is slow to Anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 He is merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness Exod. 34.6 He takes no Delight in Severity further than we provoke him thereunto He doth no● afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men Lam. 3.33 And should no● this Consideration be of Force to suppress all our discontented Complainings and Murmurings that God is so unwilling to use Severity against us that he is so hardly drawn on to chaster us and that he never doth it till we have given him much Cause so to handle us 2. When we by our many Provocations have put the Rod into his Hand he is soon prevailed with to lay it aside again He is not of that implacable Temper that he can never be reconciled to those against whom he hath once taken up any Displeasure Upon our humble Submission to his Corrections and sincere Resolutions and Endeavours to reform what hath been amiss he is graciously inclined to lay aside his Displeasure He is ready to forgive Psal 86.5 most ready to shew Mercy as soon as we are in any measure fit for Mercy He doth not always chide Psal 103.9 nor keep his Anger for ever Was this only David's particular Experience and is it not ours also Do not we find how easy he is to be entreated and how ready to pardon Have we not had manifold Experiments thereof in the Course of our Lives And should not this perswade us quietly and patiently to submit to his Corrections while he is pleased to keep us under his chastning Hand 3. While he judgeth it fit to correct us he lays no more upon us than our Sins deserve When we are most severely handled and are apt to complain we have hard measure yet even then do not his Severities in the least exceed the Demerits of our Sins God doth us no wrong nor is it possible that he should for his Will is the Rule and Measure of Righteousness The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his VVorks Psal 145.17 The just Lord will not do Iniquity Zeph. 3.5 What Cause then is there or can there be of complaining where no Wrong is done With this the Church of God silenceth her self and stops her own Mouth when under the most dreadful Effects of God's Displeasure Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous saith she for I have rebelled against his Commandments And with this God stoppeth the Mouth of his People VVhy criest thou for thine Afflictions Jer. 30.15 Because thy Sins were increased have I done these things unto thee 4. When God afflicts most grievously his Severities are far short of what our Sins deserve Under the heaviest Weight of Punishment Ezra's Acknowledgment in the Name of the Church must be ours Ezra 9.13 VVe are punished less than our Iniquities deserve Our Sins deserve not only all the temporal Plagues and Judgments which we are capable of undergoing but Hell the unutterable and endless Torments of the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Wherefore whatever our Sufferings be in this World so long as we are on this side Hell so little Cause have we to complain that we have great Cause to be thankful that it is not far worse with us than it is 5. How much soever God is pleased to afflict us yet still we enjoy many Mercies in the mean time by which the Bitterness of our Afflictions is much allayed and the Smart of them much abated For one or two Crosses we are compassed about with Variety of Blessings In Sickness we have the Pity and Compassion of Friends and Acquaintance we have all that Service and Assistance that many Hands about us can afford us we have all those Means of Relief that either Love or Art can supply us with And all this besides those inward and powerful Supports which we have more immediately from God Again if it so be that God afflicts us in one of our Relations we have Matter of Comfort in divers others of them If we have Losses in our temporal Estate yet our spiritual and better Concernments are safe and untouched If Man be at Variance with us yet we have Peace with God How sadly soever we may in our Afflictions represent things to our selves God never stirs up all his Wrath against us at once nor suffers his whole Displeasure to arise God never so mingles the Cup which he puts into our Hands but that there are some Ingredients of a benign and friendly Nature to qualify the Malignity of the rest The Malignity did I say There is indeed no real Malignity in any of the Ingredients of that spiritual Physick which God administers to his All things have a kind and beneficial Influence for promoting our Good and furthering our highest Interest And where now is there any Place left for complaining Amidst so many Mercies can we yet find in our Hearts to complain Be it so that some things are not only unacceptable but very grievous to us Shall we receive Good at the Hands of God and shall we not receive Evil Shall we bear nothing at the Hands of him who is so good and gracious so kind and bountiful to us many other ways Let us not suffer two or three Afflictions so to imbitter our Spirits and vitiate our Palats as that we should not relish the Sweetness of any of those Mercies which in our most afflicted Condition we still enjoy 6. Add to all this that God hath a Sovereignty of Power and Dominion over his Creatures by virtue whereof he may deal with them as he pleaseth According to this his absolute Power though the Creature had never sinned yet God might expose it to such Miseries as exceed not the Benefit of that Being he has given it He that made the Creature out of nothing as he might turn it into