Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A50858
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A beame of light darted thorough [sic] the clouds, or, Truth breaking forth from under a veil by Joshua Miller.
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Miller, Joshua, 17th cent.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing M2062; ESTC R35047
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30,283
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75
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act and speak divinely 14. No grief goes so neare his heart as his grievous strayings from the life of God he holds it as necessary in some respect to sorrow for sin as to joy in God they that sowe in tears shall reap in joy there must be a seed-time before a harvest as David speaks so doth he Psal 51.4 Against thee thee onely have I sinned that which aggravates an evill is that it 's committed against love Peter thus went out and wept bitterly Semper Lachrymis suffusos habuisse oculos some observe that ever after Peter had his checks furrowed with continuall tears relapse into sin makes relenting 15. He receives strikings as well as strokings with patience and thankfulnesse a true son of Job the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be his Name not curse God and die as the woman counselled him This effeminate woman the world is mans Tempter to miscall his Maker look on God saith she he afflicts thee to destroy thee he will damne thee at last a gracious heart answers thou speakest like a foolish woman Rom. 8.28 I know all things worke for my good frownes as well as smiles whatever is called good or whatever is called evill God brings light out of darknesse unity out of disparity as God speaks so doth he Esa 54.17 No weapon formed against me shall prosper the true prosperity of a thing is in its continuance but all things against me shall have a change therefore not prosper he ecchoes to David it 's good for me that I was afflicted affliction in Gods Schoole makes us proficients The more you beat the wallnut-tree the more it bears so the Saints gaine by losses after such an afflicton such a mercy I had contraries frustrate one another life doth death joy doth sorrow affliction first comes and ploughs up the fallow ground of my heart then is the seed sowne he speaks not as that wicked King 2 King 6.33 This evill is of the Lord why should I wait any longer but rather what evill in me brought this true and just are all thy Judgements O Lord God 16. He sees nothing of the flesh dwelling in another but asks at home Is not this evill in me As Plato when he saw any one dumb in the street would speak to himself Num ego talis Am not I such a one the more inward any thing is the more strong whether it be good or evill sin is most aggravated by a supposing secresie he makes inquiry as the Disciples Mat. 26.22 Master is it I He loves to ask though he be not guilty 17. He is as holy in his Closet as in the Church when from the Saints as well as with them in all his walkings he is as light in the world Mat. 5.16 no society of men can extinguish his fellowship with God 18. He so pursues holinesse as if he held free-will yet he prayes for it as if he had power to do nothing 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to thinke one good thought man cannot work in Gods Mystery 't is an Art which all the Masters of Art are yet but punies in this School divine lessons are weightier harder and higher then their divinity Lectures 19. He counts no sin small but believes every sin hath weight enough to weigh him to death if he discern a mote in his brothers eye he thinks there is a beame in his owne he had rather make sin more then it is by aggravation then seek to make it lesse for he that hideth his sin shall not prosper 20. He is more zealous for power then forme he had rather leave undone smaller matters then neglect the weighty things of the Law righteousnesse justice truth these have Gods proper stamp upon them therefore to be most looked after These are some cleare demonstrations of a practicall Christian for there are many false Christians now gone out in the world CHAP. II. Whether Repentance precede Faith and which is first to be preached GOD in this last age is making out his truth in plainnesse whereas in former ages it hath been much clouded therefore marvell not if thou readest that which will be gain-sayed It hath been a great dispute amongst men whether Repentance go before Faith or Faith Repentance I shall not erre against truth nor yet disagree from some men to say that Faith is alway before Repentance in the conversion of a Sinner to God and if this be true then it will necessarily follow that Faith ought to be preached before Repentance For I judge Faith to be the instrumentall cause of Repentance and not Repentance the cause of Faith It is true that in the conversion of a sinner to God Faith and Repentance ever go together yet Faith is the first-borne and may challenge the right hand of fellowship Now the difficulty seems to be opened in this particular It is very true that Repentance is for the most part discovered before Faith to men therefore men judge that Repentance is and must be before Faith I answer First that it will not follow alwayes true that the first in appearance is first in the soul Faith I compare to the seed cast in the ground Repentance I call the blade sprung up from that seed Now no man will judge so weakly that because he seeth the blade first spring up therefore the seed is not there Againe you may understand it by this allusion when a candle is lighted in a room and I come into that room true it is I have the light first in my eye and see that first yet the candle was there before the light was so it is often true that repentance is first apprehended but not first wrought Consider secondly that if Repentance be before Faith then I ask what doth that Repentance avail man If that place be true Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God I may then safely conclude if Repentance is first why was not Ahab and Judas their repentance accepted was it not for want of true Faith I never found in Scripture that any did truly repent before faith Job in his last Chapter when he had seen the Lord he abhorres himselfe Isai 6.5 so Isaiah when he had seen the Lord he cries Woe is me I am undone so that generall promise runs Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn for him all implies a seeing before sorrow I put the case thus Suppose a man should meet with his friend but disguised and so should take him for his enemie and kill him now when his vizard is taken off and he finds that it was his dear friend what think you will not sorrow follow so untill a soule come to apprehend that against his Saviour his Father and Friend he hath wounded him that loves him when he seeth this he will sorrow kindly indeed For a man will never be willing to account his own state bad untill he is brought into a beliefe
not be restored for every creature in its kind doth conduce to the life of man as might be made easily to appeare For whatever concurres to life may be called food and cloathing so that if any creature may be excluded from this liberty by the former opinion then all may But doth not that place testifie that all shall not be restored Isai 60.19 The Sun shall be no more light by day nor the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light I might give a spirituall sense of these words but shall only answer as to the question it seems by this place that the Sun and Moon shall be destroyed I answer The Prophet speaking of the glorious appearing of God intimates all such lights shall be darkened as we have walked in without himselfe But if it may be litterally understood then mark the words he saith not the Sun and Moon shall be no more but they shall give light no more that is to say their light shall be no more in respect of that profit man hath had by them for God shall be our light our state will be beyond the creatures perfection much lesse shall we want their light Yet they may be though we have no benefit by them as no man is so blind in judgment as to say the Sun is not because it is under a cloud and as the greater light swallowes up the lesse so this testifies onely that the light of God will swallow the light and lustre of all excellencies as to our advantage yet they may still be So then I judge there will be a restauration of all things and those words witnesse it Rom. 8.21 The creature it self was made subject to vanity and it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God Now then the bondage of the creature what is it but a subjection to corruption Look then what liberty the sons of God expect the same all creatures are to have but it is in suo modo in their kind or according to their nature I say not a part of the creation but the whole creation or every creature groans for the manifestation of the sons of God And although they have not a sense of liberty yet they have of misery so Acts 3.21 mentions a time when there must be a restitution of all things Now if the whole creation hope for that which they should never attain to why are those Scriptures mentioned so fully to this point Therefore I conclude that there will be a generall restauration but whether they shall be restored to the state in Adam or more glorious I will not fully determine yet suppose it will be a more glorious perfection CHAP. VII When or about what time will this change be THis question being more difficult then necessary I may not search into the time holding it godly wisdome to be ignorant of it yet many men have weakly betrayed their wisdome in spending much time upon this particular I will onely hint at some probabilities that divers have supposed about it First there were many Jewes got an opinion from one Elias a man eminent amongst them who said that as the world was made in six dayes and the seventh God rested so the world should stand six thousand years and no longer and strengthened his opinion upon 2 Pet. 3.8 One day with God is a thousand years and a thousand years one day and thus taking a day for a thousand years six dayes make six thousand but alas he considered not the ground of this expression which Peter onely useth to confute the sleepers of those dayes that thought God was far enough off he condemns their security and informes them time is nothing to eternity A second sort were such as by Arethmetical numbers as by a witty invention calculated the time as one did out of two words ConfLagratIo MVnDl finding so many numeral letters in these words as make up 1657. from thence concluded that in that year the world must end and to hold up this opinion they say Noahs flood was in 1657. So others as Picus Mirandula said it should end in 1905. And formerly in Germany divers went about saying in such a year it must end As I have read one Thoda a woman in Germany in 848. went about streets and told people that she had it from an Angell that the world should end that yeare whereby many became prodigall of their goods fearing they should not spend them in so short a time Others more moderately divide the world into six Ages and say the seventh Age the end must be the Ages are thus divided First from the Creation to the Flood Second from the Flood to Abraham Third from Abraham to David Fourth from David to the Captivity Fifth from the Captivity to Christ Last from Christ to the end of the world so that the beginning of the seventh age will be the full restauration And as Enoch was the seventh from Adam and was translated for God took him so this may be a figure of this state that the seventh Age God shall be fully manifest This opinion my judgement leads me to believe nearest to truth for certainly this is the last age as Heb. 1.2 witnesseth Now to such as will descant upon time to shew their learning I will leave them to learne what those words meant Mark 13.32 But of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Son save the Father CHAP. VIII What sure ground we have to believe this change is nigh ALthough I am against such as prefix a time to this change yet as great men send Harbingers before them to give notice of their coming so God hath divers messengers that proclaime this coming 1. First is the unsealing of the Scriptures God reveals not all at once as time shuts up truth opens God hath truth for severall ages Daniel was bid to seale up the book till the end Dan. 12.4 the nearer the end is the more open will such truths be as concerne the end God will not draw his curtains fully open not shew all at once men shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase First this intimates an inquisition in people after the Lord they shall inquire the way to Zion with their faces that way as snow gathers by rowling so truth shall mightily increase by going to and fro the nearer the Iudge is the more the people run and inquire when he comes Secondly to and fro notes the sweetnesse of fellowship amongst brethren they shall run to and fro backwards as well as forwards not to this friend or that friend but to back friends as well as bosome-friends there will be no respect of persons in this sense this notes his coming nigh who is himselfe no respecter of persons The poor and the rich will be one with a knowing soule the language will not be I will go to the rich mans house no the rich hath many