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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	day_n	lord_n	sanctify_v	2,918	5	10.6613	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78903	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. 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, B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Moore, Elizabeth, d. 1656?	1657 (1657)	Wing C247; Thomason E1616_1; ESTC R209627	96,958	299

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 be 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 not 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 more they are strucken the harder they are Such a one was King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distresse hee did trespasse yet more against the Lord There is a brand put upon him This is that King Ahaz that wicked King Ahaz that reprobate King Ahaz As Pearls put in Vinegar lose their colour and beauty so many when under Gods hand lose all their glory and excellency and begin to distrust Gods providence to call his justice into question to murmure and repine against Gods dealings and to use unlawful means for their deliverance Of these the Prophet Isaiah complains Isa 1. 5. Why should you bee stricken any more yee will revolt more and more Such was Ahaziah a King 1.2 that sought for help from Baalzebub the god of Ekron and such was Saul who sought to the Witch of Endor for health in the day of his distress Both of these sorts are in a sad and miserable condition For God hath two furnaces the furnace of affliction and the Furnace of hell-fire If the first Furnace will not purge us the second will everlastingly consume us As the Roman Consuls had a man appointed to go before them carrying a Rod and an Axe A Rod for the punishing of corrigible offenders an Axe for the destruction of incorrigible So God hath his Rod and his Axe his Pruning-knife and his Chopping-knife his Warning-peeces and his Murdering-peeces Afflictions are his Rods to correct us for our sin his Pruning-knife to pare off our luxuriant branches his Warning-peeces to call upon us to repent But if his Warning-peeces will do us no good wee must expect his Murdering-peeces If his Pruning-knife will not amend us his Chopping-knife will confound us If his Rods will not reclaim us then his Axe will hew us down and cast us into everlasting fire God hath three houses the house of Instruction of Correction and of Destruction The place where Gods people meet to hear his word is his house of Instruction And if wee profit in this house he will never carry us unto the house of Correction But if wee bee stubborn and rebellious in the house of Instruction then hee will send us to the house of Correction And if wee profit in this house hee will never send us into the house of Destruction But if wee continue incorrigible in the house of Correction hee will inevitably send us to the house of Destruction that is unto hell fire And therefore whensoever God brings us into the School of Affliction let us labour to bee good Schollars in it and to answer all those ends aimes and designs which God hath in afflicting of us Let us pray to God that our afflictions may bee Divine Hammers to break our hearts for sin and from sin may make the world bitter and Christ more precious may prove and improve our graces and may put an edge upon all holy duties There are two things I would have you in an especial manner to labour after 1 Labour when afflicted to know the meaning of Gods Rod. Gods people are to labour to know the meaning of Gods Rod. 2 That the good you get by afflictions may abide upon you after your recovery from them 1 You must labour to know the meaning of Gods Rod and what the particular arrant is which hee hath to you in the day of your distresses you must do as David did 2 Sam. 21.1 hee inquired of the Lord to know the reason why hee sent a Famine amongst them So must you you must pray as Job doth Job 10. 2. Shew mee O Lord wherefore thou contendest with mee When the cause of a disease is found out it is half cured Your great care therefore must bee to study to know the particular cause and reason why God turns your prosperity into adversity The Prophet Micah tells us Micah 6.9 That the Rod hath a voyce and that the man of wisdome shall see Gods Name upon it There is a great measure of spiritual Art and Wisdome required to inable a man to hear this voice and to understand the language of it A spiritual Fool cannot do it Quest What must wee do that wee may understand the voice of the Rod How wee may know the meaning of Gods Rod. Answ You must know that the Rod of God ordinarily speaks three languages it is sent for correction for sin for the tryal and exercise of Grace and for instruction in holiness Sometimes indeed it is sent only for tryal and instruction and not at all for sin Upon this account was Job afflicted and the blinde man Joh. 9. 3. But for the most part it hath a threefold voice it is appointed for instruction probation and also for correction Lam. 3. 39. Isa 42. 24. Luk. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Quest How shall a man know whether his afflictions bee only for tryal and instruction and not at all for sin Answ The safest and best way for a Christian in this case is to beleeve that all his afflictions are both for tryal and instruction and also for sin Indeed when hee seeth another man who is very godly grievously diseased hee may charitably beleeve that this is for his tryal and not for his sin but when it is his own case then as D. Ames saith most excellently aequissimum tutissimum Dea gratissimum est ut in afflictionibus omnibus peccata nostra intueamur quae illas vel directè procurarunt vel saltem promeruerunt Quamvis enim omnes afflictiones non imittuntur semper directè precipuè propter peccatum peccatum tamen est omnium afflictionum fons fundamentum Rom. 5. 12. It is most equal most safe and most acceptable to God to have an eye upon our sins which have either directly procured them or at lest

The stony ground when persecution arose parted with all its joy and faith rather than it would lose its estate or life As a godly man rejoyceth in worldly things as though hee rejoyced not 1 Cor. 7. 30. So a wicked man rejoyceth in spiritual things as though hee rejoyced not In the old Law those Fouls that did both flye and swimme were unclean A wicked man would many times flye aloft in spiritual delights but hee would also bathe himself and swimme in carnal pleasures and his heart is more affected with worldly advancement and bodily-recreations than with heavenly and this is a sign that he is an unclean Christian and that his delights in God and his Word are not right because they are not overtopping and superlative 4 It is powerful and soul-strengthening full of life vigour and activity it will inable the soul to do and suffer any thing for God it turns a prison into a Paradise it makes Martyrdome to bee as a bed of Roses it is armour of proof to steel us and make us fit to indure Afflictions both for God and from God therefore David saith in the Text. Unless thy Law had been my delights I should then have perished in mine Affliction His delight in the Law supported him from sinking It is like Oil to the VVheels like Sails to the Ship and wings to the bird but the delight that a wicked man hath in the Word is a powerless dead fruitless and strengthless delight It is as a paper helmet and a painted fire it will not support him in the hour of adversity The persons represented by the stony ground fell away notwithstanding their joy assoon as ever persecution arose for the Gospel But the joy of a true Saint is soul-supporting and soul-upholding The joy in the Lord is their strength Ne. 8.10 5 The delight that a godly man hath in the Word is sin-excluding It cannot consist with a delight in any sin therefore David saith Psal 119. 11. Thy VVord have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Sin is as a woodden window to shut out the true joyes of the Spirit But now a wicked man though hee may delight in the VVord yet hee also delights in sinning against the VVord Although Herod heard John Baptist gladly yet hee kept his Herodias And though the Israelites delighted to know Gods waies yet they did not delight to walk in his waies They were as a Nation that did righteousness hee doth not say they were such but quasigens c. as a Nation that did righteousness And though they delighted to approach to God yet they did not delight to obey that God before whom they approached they took pleasure in sinning against God as well as in serving of God Isa 58. It was not a sin-excluding joy and therefore it was false and counterfeit 6 It is grace-increasing The more a Saint delights in the VVord of God the more careful hee will bee to obey the VVill of God and to grow and increase in the grace of God therefore David saith Psal 119. 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies for I love them exceedingly And Psal 40. 8. I delight to do thy VVill O my God yea thy Law is within my heart because the Law was written in his heart therefore hee delighted to do it Hee that delights to keep Gods Law God will give him more grace to keep it according to that remarkable Text Psal 119. 55 56. I have remembred thy Name O Lord and have kept thy Law this I had because I have kept thy Precepts What had David for keeping Gods precepts Hee had power to keep his Law that is to grow and increase in keeping of it As the Prophet Hos 6.3 speaks of the knowledge of God Then shall wee know if wee follow on to know the Lord that is if we industriously labour to know God wee shall have this reward to bee made able to know him more So may I say of the grace of God Hee that delights to keep Gods Law shall have this reward to bee inabbed to keep it more perfectly A true delight in Gods Word is Grace increasing Grace is the Mother of all true joy Isa 32 17. and joy is as the Daughter and the Mother and Daughter live and dye together True spiritual delight ebbs and flows as grace ebbs and flows As the wood is to the fire oyl to the flame the shadow to the body so is joy to grace Quantum crescis in gratiâ tantum dilatâris in fiduciâ But now a wicked man though hee may have a kinde of delight in Gods word yet it is not a delight of the right kinde It doth not argue that hee hath true grace in him An hypocrite is all joy and no grace a Giant in joy and not so much as a dwarf in grace like a green bough tyed to a dead tree Hee is in the highest form of joy and not so much as in the lowest form of grace 7 The delight that a godly man hath in the word is not onely a delight in spiritual things but a spiritual delight grounded upon spiritual aimes and reasons But the delight of a wicked man though it bee in spiritual things yet it is but a natural delight As a godly man spiritualizeth carnal things So an ungodly man carnalizeth spiritual things Austin before his conversion rejoyced much to hear Ambrose preach but it was because of his eloquence as hee saith not upon a spiritual account A wicked man may follow a Preacher and delight in his preaching because of his elegant words and Rhetorical expressions because hee is unto him as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce c. as it is Ezek. 33.32 Or out of novelty because newly come as the Israelites delighted in Manna at first but afterwards loathed it or because hee loves his person or out of a desire to obtain a form of knowledge in heavenly things The Pharisees delighted to do many spiritual things out of vain-glory John delighted to do the will of God but it was for his own ends Pauci quaerunt Jesum propter Jesum Stella is of opinion that the Devil perswaded Herod to hear John Baptist gladly and to reverence him and to do many things that so hee might hold him the faster in his possession The Devil had him sure by one sin and therefore hee provoked him to do some good things that so hee might rock him asleep in presumption and by his good things hee might quiet his conscience and put a fair gloss upon his incestuous practices A man may rejoyce in spiritual things upon sinful grounds and reasons But now a true Saint delights in the word upon a spiritual account because it is Gods word and God would have him delight in it because it is his guide to glory the way by which he is sanctified It is both concha canalis A Cistern to contain the glorious mysteries of salvation

Disciples and makes them beleeve it is God that appears and not the Devil Thus hee appeared to Saul in the likenesse of Samuel And if God should now at this day discover his way of worship and his divine will by Revelations how easily would men bee deceived and mistake diabolical delusions for divine Revelations and therefore let us bless ' God for the written word which is surer and safer as to us than an immediate Revelation There are some that are apt to think that if an Angel should come from Heaven and reveal Gods will to them it would work more upon them than the written word but I would have these men study the conference between Abraham and Dives Luk. 16. 27 28 29 30 31. Habent Mosen Prophetas c. They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not profit by them neither would they profit by any that should come out of Hell or down from Heaven to them For it is the same God that speaks by his written Word and by a voice from Heaven The difference is only in the outward cloathing and therefore if Gods speaking by writing will not amend us No more will Gods speaking by a voice O bless God exceedingly for the written Word let us cleave close to it and not expect any Revelations from Heaven of new truths but say with the Apostle Gal. 1. 8 9. Use 2 Let us prize the Word of God Use 2 above gold yea above fine gold Let us read it diligently reverently praying to God to give us the same spirit that wrote it to inable us to understand it and conscienciously to practice it Let us make it the joy and rejoycing of our heart and as it is in the Text Let us make it our delights but of this I spake in the former point The only motive I shall now use to perswade you to make the Word your delights shall bee this in the Text. Because it will keep you from perishing in the time of your greatest affliction It will comfort you when you have most need of it that is under heart-sinking afflictions and at the hour of death and it will comfort you when all outward comforts and creatures fail It will bee food to strengthen your weak Faith physick to cure the remainders of corruptions it will bee a cordial to revive your drooping spirits and fainting souls It will make you more than conquerors over all temptations and distresses Quest But now the great question is How a child of God ought to manage and make use of the word of God so as to make it a conduit of support and comfort in the day of his greatest afflictions Answ To bee able to do this there is a great deal of spiritual wisdome and understanding required For the word to many people is like Sauls armour to David which was so cumbersome to him that hee could not wear it There are many know not how to use the Word so as to bee comforted by it As the woman of Samaria told Christ Joh. 4. 11. The well is deep and thou hast nothing to draw with So may I say The word of God is a deep well Isa 4. it is a well of salvation but it is deep and the deeper the sweeter but most people want buckets to draw with they want a spiritual Art to fetch out of these wells of salvation divine supportation and consolation and therefore to help you in this great work you must know That the word of God may bee divided into three parts Into Commanmandements The word of God divided into the commanding threatning and promising Word Threatnings and Promises And though a Christian must not neglect the commanding and threatning word yet if ever hee would make the word a channel of divine comfort hee must study the promising word for the promises are a Christians magna charta for Heaven All comfort must bee built upon a Scripture promise else it is presumption not true comfort The promises are pabulum fidei anima fidei the food of faith and the soul of faith As faith is the life of a Christian so the promises are the life of Faith Faith is a dead Faith if it hath no promise to quicken it As the Promises are of no use without Faith to apply them so Faith is of no use without a promise to lay hold on And the great reason why the people of God walk uncomfortably in their afflictions is because they do not chew the promises they are rare cordials but as a man cannot taste the sweetness of a cordial unless hee chew it no more can wee receive any spiritual refreshment from the promises unless wee meditate on them The promises are as a Mine full of rich treasure but as Mines unlesse wee digge deep into them wee can never get the gold and silver hid in them no more can wee injoy the soul-ravishing comfort of the promises unlesse wee digge into them by a serious consideration of them They are as a garden full of rare flowers able to sweeten any condition But because wee do not walk in this garden and pick out these flowers hence it is that wee live so disconsolately and dejectedly under our afflictions There are many rare stories declaring the comfort that some of Gods Saints have received from the promises in the day of their distress Mr. Bilney that blessed Martyr was much wounded in conscience by reason of the great sin hee committed in subscribing to the Popish errors but hee was much comforted by reading those words 1 Tim 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of which I am the chief Beza was supported under his troubles by the words of Christ John 10.27 28 29. Mr. Bolton tells us of one that was upheld under great affliction and comforted from Isa 26. 3. Of another from Isa 57.15 I knew a young maid that went triumphantly to Heaven by the refreshing shee found in that well known Text Matth. 11. 28. and many that have been wonderfully cheared by reading the eight chapter of the Romans and by that Text 1 Joh. 3. 14. VVee know that wee have passed from death unto life because wee love the Brethren The truth is there is no promise but if God bee pleased to illighten it and shew us our interest in it will afford a harvest of joy It is with promises as it is with Sermons That Sermon which once heard did not at all work upon us the same Sermon heard at another time may exceedingly affect us And the same Text of Scripture which sometimes doth not at all comfort us may at another time convey much comfort to us Two men troubled in conscience may both of them read the same chapter and hear the same Sermon and one of them may have his troubled minde pacified and the other continue troubled and the reason is because the Spirit of God makes the Word

better than the riches of many wicked Psal 37. 16. And the reason is 1 Because blessings given by vertue of a Promise are signes of Gods special love and come flowing to us from the same love with which God gives us Christ they are the fruit of Covenant-love 2 Because wee have them as blessings A man may have a blessing and yet not have it as a blessing The Israelites had Quails sent them immediately from God which was a blessing in it self but was not sent to them as a blessing For while the meat was in their mouthes the wrath of God came Psal 78. 30 31. upon them The wicked have blessings but not as blessings but as the cup in Benjamins sack which proved a snare to him rather than a mercy But the godly have blessings as blessings They have grace with them to improve them for Gods glory they have not only the blessings but a thankful heart for them and a fruitful heart under them which is a certain sign that they have them as blessings 3 Because they are pledges to them of better mercies and beginnings of better They are not merces but arrha not their wages but an earnest of Heaven Now a farthing given as an earnest of a thousand a year is more worth than many pounds given as a reward A wicked man hath outward blessings as his portion his Heaven his All but a godly man that hath them by vertue of a Promise hath them as a pledge of Heaven and as a beginning of eternal mercies 5 The Promises are precious because they produce great and precious effects They are not only excellent in themselves but are also very powerful and operative upon all beleevers The Promises as one saith sealed by the blood of Christ ratified by the Oath of God testified by the spirit of truth delivered by the hand of mercy and received by the hand of Faith are operative words and produce rare effects in the soul They have 1 A Sanctifying Power 2 A Comforting Power 1 A Soul-sanctifying Power Therefore they are said to make us partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. I say of the divine nature not by the communication of the divine essence but by participation of divine graces Not in a Familistical sense as if wee were Godded into God and Christed into Christ but in a spiritual sense wee are by the Promises made partakers of the divine nature that is of the divine graces by which wee are made like to God in holiness The Apostle tells us that they have a power to cleanse us from all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit and to inable us to perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7. 1. 2 A Comforting Power They are able to comfort us in the worst of daies and dangers O how precious is a Promise to a distressed Christian in the hour of extreamity The Sun is not more comfortable to a man in a dark dungeon or food to a man ready to starve or water to a man ready to die for thirst The Promises of God are alwaies precious but never more precious than in times of misery and calamity and therefore let us in such times especially meditate upon the preciousness of them 3 You must meditate upon the Freeness of the Promises The Promises The third Meditation meditate on the freeness of the Promises are the outward discoveries of Gods eternal love to his people Now nothing moved God to enter into Covenant with them and to ingage himself to them by Promise and thereby to become their debtor but his free love and mercy and therefore they are said to bee given us of God 2 Pet. 1. 4. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises God promiseth in his Word not only to love us but to love us freely Hos 14. 4. I will heal their backsliding and love them freely The reason why God makes us his people is not from any worth in us but only because it pleaseth him so to do 1 Sam. 12. 22. The Lord will not forsake his people for his great names sake because it pleased the Lord to make you his people The Lord Jesus Christ who is the great and fundamental Promise the root of the other Promises is freely tendred in the Gospel and freely given Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the World that hee gave his only begotten Son c. Rev. The fourth Meditation Meditate on the stability of the Promises 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely 4 You must meditate on the firmness faithfulness unchangeableness and immutability of the Promises they are the Promises of that God who cannot deny himself Promissa haec tua sunt Domine saith Austin quis falli timet cum promittit ipsa veritas Heaven and earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of the Word shall not pass There Mat. 5. 18 is no Promise which God hath made though never so improbable and impossible to flesh and blood but it shall come to pass in due time whatsoever hee hath promised in his goodness hee will perform by his power God is not a man that hee should lye neither the Son of man that hee should repent Hath hee said and shall hee not do it or hath hee spoken and shall hee not make it good Numb 23. 19. God hath promised that the same bodies that dye shall rise again at the last day This is incredible to natural reason The Stoicks and Epicures derided it when it was preached by Paul Act. 17. 32. But hath God said it and shall hee not do it Is the Lords hand shortned Therefore Christ tells the Sadduces Matth. 22. 27. You erre not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God God is omnipotent and therefore able to do above what wee can ask or think God hath promised at the Resurrection to make our vile bodies like unto the glorious body of Christ This is impossible to natural reason but mark what the Apostle saith Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies and fashion them like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby hee is able even to subdue all things unto himself God hath promised that before the end of the world there shall bee a national conversion of the Jews that the Kingdomes of the world shall become the Kingdomes of our Lord and Saviour And that Babylon shall fall These are the Promises of God who cannot Rom. 11. 25 26. Rev. 11. 15 Rev. 18.2 lye Faithful is hee who hath said it who also will do it 1 Thes 5. 24. though the things promised seem impossible to men yet with God all things are Mat. 19. 26 possible Therefore the Apostle proves the future conversion of the Jews by an Argument drawn from the power of God Rom. 11. 23. God is able to graft them in again The like is brought to prove the ruine of Antichrist Rev. 18. 8. Her plagues shall