Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	death_n	see_v	sting_n	3,674	5	11.8588	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52387	The cross crowned: or, Short affliction making way for eternal glory Opened in a sermon preached at the funeral of Daniel Waldoe Esq; in the Parish-Church of Alhallows Honey-lane, May 9. 1661. By James Nalton, minister of the gospel, and pastor of Leonards Foster-lane London.	Nalton, James, 1600-1662.	1661 (1661)	Wing N121A; ESTC R219314	34,657	97

us we are ready to say as Ahab did to Elijah 1 Kings 21. ●0 Hast thou found me out O mine enemy But pull off the vizard from this unwelcome guest and ye shall find that the crosse has more sweetness then sharpness in it It is true no affliction or chastening saith the Apostle Hebr. 12.11 for the present seemeth to be joyous but rather grievous neveetheless afterward it yeelds the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby The pleasures of sin are sweet for the present Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant Prov. 9.17 But afterward they are more bitter then gall and wormwood they may well be compared to the lips of a strange woman Pro. 5 3●5 They drop as an honie-comb and her mouth is smoother then oyl but her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword for her feet go down to death and her steps take hold of hell Or the pleasures of sin may be compared to the Locusts which John saw at the sounding of the fifth Trumpet Rev 9.7 10. Their faces were as the faces of men and they had hair as the hair of women but they had tails like unto Scorpions and there were stings in their tails on the contrary affliction is bitter for the present but profitable afterward to every one that can rightly improve it It is a sharp Schoolmaster but it makes good Schollars Schola crucis est schola lucis the school of correction is the school of instruction and in this school we many times learn more in a moneth then we did in seven years before witness Manasseh who in all the time of his prosperity had not learnt that one lesson To know God aright h. e. to know him as a sin-hating sin revenging God who will not spare the proudest Potentates upon earth if they do provoke him but when he was brought to the school of correction he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 2 Chron. 33.12 and the Text saith Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God ver 13. Affliction in this regard may be compared to a frosty morning in the winter-season it is somwhat sharp but it helps to clear the blood How many Christians have you and I known in our Observation that have been whipt to heaven by adversity whom prosperity would have suddenly and yet insensibly drawn to hell Is there never a soul here present that can say experimentally as Themistocles did Periissem nisi periissem I had been undone if I had not been undone Lord if thou hadst spared the rod thou hadst lost thy child but blessed for ever be thy name thou didst not suffer me to run post to hell for the want of a fatherly whipping Second Lesson The second Lesson by way of Inference is this That the wisdome of God is infinite and unsearchable in that he can make good Sampsons riddle to all them that fear his name Out of the eater comes forth meat and out of the strong comes forth sweetness Judg. 14.14 The Lord can for the godly's sake bring good out of evill grace out of sin light out of darkness glory out of affliction yea heaven out of hell The ways of God as one saith excellently seem full of contradiction to us because it is his usual manner to bring things to passe by contrary means Sibs soul-conflict for example when he means to justifie a sinner he condemns him first when he means to comfort a sinner he casts him down first when he intends to bring a sinner to heaven he brings him by the gates of hell first when he means to set a crown of glory on his head he will have him to wear a crown of thorns first Oh how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 Well may we conclude with the Prophet This wonderful dispensation of providence cometh forth from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isai 28.29 2 Use A second Improvement that live may make of this Doctrine is this If afflictions make way for glory it would be a profitable and needful inquiry for every one of us by a serious self-scrutiny and impartial examination to call our selves to an account to search and sift our hearts and lives whether the afflictions that we have met with have had that kindly operation on our souls yea or no I beleive there are none of you that hear me this day but ye have had your tryals in one kind or other and in some degree or other but the question is What spiritual advantage have you made by them Have they been sent as Gods messengers in a tendency to that eternal happiness that ye look and long for Quest It may be you will ask How may I know that affliction is working for me this eternal glory that the Text speaks of Ans Take this for a certain rule If affliction be sanctified doubtlesse it is making way for future glory for Sanctification is the way to Salvation Therefore sanctified affliction is better then unsanctifi'd prosperity sanctif'd sickness is better then unsanctified health sanctified losses are better then unsanctified gain For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he has gained a great estate when God takes away his soul Job 27.8 or what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mark 8.38 This thou shalt find by experience whoever thou art that hast been train'd up in the school of affiction let thy condition be what it will be never so poor or low or friendless or comfortless yet if it be sanctified to thee it is a mercy yea it is a greater mercy then if God should give thee all the treasures or pleasures the earth can afford thee for God may give riches honors and these outward accommodations in anger Hos 13.11 I gave thee a King in mine anger took him away in my wrath But God never gives a sanctified use of any condition in anger but it is always in love and favour Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten though he may severely chasten thee he may at the same time dearly love thee Quest But then it may be demāded How may I know that my affliction is sanctified to me Answ Signs of sanctified affliction I answer Then is affliction sanctified to thee when thou art sanctified by the affliction For example 1. If it make thee more humble and base in thine own eyes If thou canst say feelingly with the Church in Babylon Remembering my affliction and ●ny rebellion so some read the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wormwood and the gall my soul has them still in remembrance and ●s humbled in me Lam. 3.19 20. Sound ●umiliation is a special fruit product of sanctified affliction for the more the soul ●s humbled the more it is emptied of self-righteousness self-confidence

souldiers and servants enter the same way yea we shall never be freed from the body of death that we carry about us but only by the death of the body that look as sin brought death into the world so death shall help to carry sin out of the world God will have such a cursed Dam to perish by such a Daughter Ye see the outward troubles to which the Saints on earth are exposed Ignominy poverty c. I might add to these they are often exercised with crosses and disappointments in their children and this is a very sharp affliction that those children which God hath drawn out of our loins should miscarry to all eternity and rush upon the rock of their own ruine yet thus it often falls out that God punisheth a good father in a bad son and then it is a cure to the father and a curse to the son thus he punished David a good father in Absalon a rebellious son that was taken away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act of his rebellion Thus faithful Abraham had a scoffing Ishmael upright Jehosaphat had a wicked Jehoram zealous Josiah that was anon-such for piety had not one good son to succeed him in the throne In brief that I may dispatch the first Querie the godly here on earth meet with sufferings from God and sufferings from men and sufferings from Satan and sufferings from their own hearts which usually work them more mischief then all the Devils in Hell can do sufferings for sin and sufferings for righteousness some are exercised in one kind some in another some more and some lesse but all have their portion in affliction Deus unicum habuit filium sine flagitio nullum sine flagello God had one only Son viz. the Lord Jesus without sin but he hath never a Son without sorrow and affliction 2. Querie for Explication is this Why God will have his children exercised with these afflictions Answ Many Reasons may be rendred but I will reduce them to three heads In reference to their Sins In reference to their Graces In reference to their Duties For the first God is pleased to exercise them with afflictions in reference to their sins either To Prevent sin To Discover sin To Purge out sin 1 God does it to prevent sin He hedgeth up their wayes with thorns that they may not find their crooked paths Hos 2.6 He lets them blood that he may prevent the Plurifie of Pride and self-confidence and creature dependance He never administers this spiritual Physick but when there is need 1 Pet. 1.6 Ye are in heaviness if need be through manifold temptations and God sees we have need of preventing physick as well as refreshing cordials yea it is a great mercy that God layes stumbling blocks in the broad way to hell that if we set foot in that way we may break our shins to correct us rather then break our necks to destroy us 2. God does it to discover sin as appears by that Text Deut. 8.2 The Lord thy God led thee these forty yeers in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thy heart to know that is to let thee know they had never known so much of the baseness and sinfulness of their own hearts if God had not brought them into a wilderness every rod ye must know hath a voice Micah 6.9 The Lords voice cryes to the City Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it this voice bids us search our hearts and say as Job did when the rod was upon his back Job 13.23 24. How many are mine iniquities and my sins make me to know my transgression and my sin h. e the particular bosome-sin to which by nature I am most inclined Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Put a quart of Ale in a skillet and ye see not the scum or dross that is in it but when you have set the Ale on the fire then the scum appears which did not before so here there is a great deal of scum and dross and filth of corruption that lies hid in our hearts but the fire of affliction does discover it and makes us more sensible of it then ever we were before It was the speech of Gasper Olevian a German Divine I never knew so much of God and his purity nor of my own heart and its impurity as I did in a long sickness 3 God does it to purge out sin Isai 27.9 By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin There are three desperate diseases that would destroy the soul which can be purged out no other way then by this sharp physick of affliction viz. Pride Security and Earthly-mindedness But now by affliction God hides pride from man Job 33.17 By the Rod God awakens the sinner that he sleep not the Sleep of Death When David was so fast asleep that he said in his prosperity I shall never be moved Psal 30.6 God by hiding his face from him ver 7. did so trouble him that he was awakened out of his Security And lastly By the bitter potion of affliction he weans us from the world and the love of it My soul is even as a weaned child Psal 131.2 By laying mustard on the Teat he keeps us from sucking too deep a draught of earthly contentments It was a savoury speech of worthy Dr. Sibbs God embitters all other things to us that himself only may be sweet For the second Head God is pleased to exercise his children with affliction in reference to their Graces that they may be tryed exercised and increased Our Saviour counsels the Laodiceans to buy of him gold tryed in the fire Revel 3.18 By Gold is meant the golden Graces of his Spirit and those graces are best tryed in the fire of affliction If our Graces be such as will abide the fiery Tryal then are they true graces indeed and not counterfeit That faith doubtless is a true saith that is a Furnace Faith such as was the faith of those three Worthies Dan. 3.17 18 Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O King but if not be it known to thee that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden Image which thou hast set up Fiery Tryals make golden Christians And as affliction tryes the truth of our Graces so does it also try the strength of our Graces Some Graces are like stars quae interdiu latent noctu lucent They shine not in the day time of prosperity but in the night time of adversity The strength of a Fort or Castle is not known but in the time of a siege when it is assaulted with batteries and onsets So here the strength of faith and fervency of love and constancy of patience should never be known were it not for the batteries of hell