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A19490
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A conduit of comfort Preached at Sainct Iames before the Commissioners of the Vnion of the Realmes. By W. Couper, Minister of Gods word.
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Cowper, William, 1568-1619.
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1606
(1606)
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STC 5916; ESTC S114683
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33,427
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48
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A Conduit of Comfort Preached at Sainct Iames before the Commissioners of the Vnion of the Realmes By W. Couper Minister of Gods word The Lord is my Comforter Imprinted at London for W. Ferbrand and are to be sold at his Shoppe in Pops-head Allie neare the Exchange 1606. A CONDVIT OF COMFORT Rom. 8. 28. Also we know that all thinges worke together for the best to them that loue God euen to them who are called according to his purpose My helpe is in the name of the Lord. THis Chapter may be conueniently âearmed A Cââpânde âf Chrâstian consolation for whereas many kindes of comfortes are dispersed throughout the holy Scriptures for the strengthening of the man of God some of euery kinâ are heere gathered together in one and like chosen Flowers picked out of the Garden of God are knitt together in one bunch and presented to thee who art a Christian. There are two thinges onely which trouble vs in this life The first is the remanents of sinne in our corrupt nature this was such a matter of griese to the holy Apostle that it made him to cry out O miserable man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of ãâã So despleasant was it to him to liue in that body wherein he found the motions of sinne rebelling against the law of his God And if the Apostle accounted this buâthen so waightie to him Alas how should we complaine and what cause haue we with Ezcchiâ to walke weakely in the bitternesâe of our âouâes all our dayes in whom the life and power of that sinning sinne is âarre lesse restrained Yet least wee should be so cast downe with the sense of sinne that we despeare perish being swallowed vp with griefe the Lord furnisheth vs with many comforts against it froÌ the beginning of this Chap. to the middest of the 17. verse The other thing which may discourage vs is the manifold troubles which follow vs in the following of Christ. For our Lord is like a Lillie among Thornes and at an Apple tree among the trees of the Forrest If wee delight to sit vnder his shadow and if his Fruite be sweete in our mouth wee must be content to walke toward him through many sharpe afflictions therefore are we commaunded not only to suffer afflictions as the good Souldiers of Iesus Christ but also to reioyce in tribulations and if we cannot attaine to that perfection at the least to count it exceeding ioy when we fall into diuerse temptations Yet because no chastisement is sweete for the present it hath pleased the Lord of his fatherly indulgence and pitty toward our weakenesse to seyson the cupp of our bitter griefes with his sweete comforts which as he doth in many other parâes of holy Scripture so specially from the 17. verse of this Chapter to the 30. wherein the Apostle aboundes with consolation shewing himselâe a faythâull Steward in the house of God most carefull to lead as it were by the hand the weary Sonâes and Daughters of the liuing God into the Lords Wine-seller there to refresh and stay vs with the Flagons of his wine and to comfort vs with his Apples to âârengthen vs with his hid Manna and to make vs merry with that Milke and Honny which out immortall Husband Iesus Christ hath proulded for vs to sustaine vs if wee faint not through these manifold tribulations wherewith we are compassed in this barren Wildernesse That this is the Aposâles purpose and order of proceeding in this Chapter I thinke his conclusion makes it manifest which you haue from the 31. verse to the end wherein he drawes all that he had sayd into a short summe conteyning the glorious triumph of a Christian ouer all his enemies the triumph is first set downe generally in the vers 31. What shall we say then to these things If God be with vs who can be against vs thereafter hee partes this generall in two there is would he say but one of two that are against vs either sinne or affliction as to sinne he triumphes against it verse 33. and 34. Who will lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen It is God that iustifieth Who shall condemne It is Christ who is dead or rather who is risen againe who is also at the right hand of God and makes request for vs. As to Affliction hee begins his triumph against it verse 35. Who shall separate vs from the âoue of Christ his answere mountes vp by a gradation Will tribulation or anguish do it yea will death it selfe do it or that which is much more Will Principalities and Powers doe it no in all these thinges we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs Thaâkes therefore be vnto our God who alwayes makes vs to triumph in our Lord Iesus Christ. Now in this verse as Iacob gaue his sonnes his greatest blessing in the last roome so the Apostle giueth to Christians his greatest comfort in the last roome wherof this is the Summe Our afââictions are so far from being preiudicial to our saluation that by the contrary through the Lords marueilous working they tend to the aduancment thereof he enlarges the comfort Not only afflictions but all other things workes for the best together to them that loue the Lord. The partes of the Verse are two the first conteynes the comfort the second a description of the persons to whom the comfort appertaineth Now I come to the wordes Also that is besides all the comfortes which I haue giuen to you before I giue you yet this further learning vs that albeât our troubles be many yet our comforts are more Many sayth Dauid are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord deliureth him out of them all As if he would say for euery trouble the Lord hath a seuerall deliuerance Euery temptation sayth the Apostle hath the owne issue Euery horne that riseth against vs to push vs hath attending vpon it an hammer to represâe it saith the Prophet Esau mourned vpon his father Isaac although he was prophane yet he cried pittifully Hast ãâã but one Blessing my Father But wee with the holy Apostle may blesse our heauenly Father who comforteth vs so in all our tribulations that as the suffeâings of Christ abound in vs so our consolations abound through Christ not one but manifold are his blessings and the storehouse of his conâolations can neuer be emptied The Lord our God hath not dealt ãâã nor spaâingly with vs but a good measure of coââolatioâs prâssed downe and running ouer hath he giuen to vs in our bosome his name be praysed therefore and yet how little is all this that we now receiue in compaââson of these ãâã ioyes of God that he hath prepared for vâ the like whereof the eye neuer saw the eare neuer heard of and the heart can not vnderstand Surely the greateââ measure of comfort that we