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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	become_v	rod_n	20	3	8.9760	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26794	The great duty of resignation to the divine will in afflictions enforced from the example of our suffering Saviour / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1111; ESTC R22116	57,272	226

l. 11. for their subtilty r. stability Page 120. l. 10. for now Joseph r. now that Joseph THE GREAT DUTY OF Resignation Matth. 26. 39. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt THE Words are our Saviour's Prayer at his private Passion in the Garden In Paradise was the first Scene of Man's Sin and in a Garden the first Scene of Christ's Sorrows He was now in the near view of his extream Sufferings the fatal hour approach'd when he was to die with all the concurrent circumstances of Shame and Cruelty His Nature was Humane and Holy and therefore apprehensive of Misery and the Wrath of God In this Exigency He fell on his Face a posture of humble Reverence and with earnestness prayed saying O my Father an expression of his stedfast Trust in the Love of God If it be possible not with respect to his Absolute Power for by that he could easily have preserved him but with respect to his Sovereign Pleasure and Eternal Decree Let this Cup pass from me that implies a compleat Deliverance from the rage of the Powers of Darkness and of the perverted World in conjunction with them He suffered innocent Nature to act as Nature for he submitted to our Infirmities but without our Imperfections Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt His Petition was qualified with an Act of Submission the desire of his Nature that recoil'd from such Sufferings was over-ruled by the resignation of Grace There was no repugnancy but a subordination between the Sensitive Will and the rational Will directed by his Mind that foresaw the blessed effects of his Sufferings the Glory of God with the Salvation of lost Mankind And that just horror with the strong aversion of his Nature from such a terrible Death renders his willingness more conspicuous and meritorious As Man the apprehension of it put him into an Agony but as Mediatour by a firm resolution and clear choice he submitted to it Now the example of our suffering Saviour lays an obligation on us to transcribe his Copy his Titles in Scripture declare both his Eminency and Exemplariness He is our Head and our Leader the Captain of our Salvation whom we are bound to follow in taking up our Cross His Sufferings were designed not only for our Redemption but for our Instruction and Imitation What he commands as God he perform'd as Man that we might voluntarily yield up our selves to the Holiness and Equity of his Law Thus from the patern of our Saviour's Deportment the point of Doctrine is this The entire resignation of our Wills to the disposing Will of God is the indispensible Duty of Christians under the sharpest Afflictions In the explication and proof of this Point I shall I. Consider what is consistent with this Resignation II. What is implied in it III. The Reasons to convince us of this Duty of resigning of our selves and all our Interests to God and then apply it I will first Consider what is consistent with this voluntary Resignation That will appear in the following particulars First an earnest deprecation of an impending Judgment is reconcilable with our Submission to the pleasure of God declared by the Event Our Saviour with humility and importunity desired the removing of the Cup of Bitterness We must distinguish between God's Law and his Decree and Counsel The Law is the Rule of our Duty and requires an intire exact subjection in all our Faculties even in our internal Desires in the first motions of the Will the least velleity or rising of the Heart against the Divine Command is irregular and culpable for not only the acts of Sin are forbidden in every Command respectively but all the incitations of Concupiscence before the deliberate judgment of the Mind or the actual consent of the Will But the Decree of God is not the Rule of our Duty and Secret till manifested by the event of things This being premised the Reasons are evident why we may pray against an Affliction that threatens us without violating our Duty First Because Afflictions are Evils which the Will naturally declines and are not desirable things in themselves They are not beneficial and productive of our good by any proper efficacy and operation but by the over-ruling Providence of God and the gracious assistance of his Spirit When Aaron's Rod was put into the Sanctuary and became green and flourishing with Blossoms and Almonds 't was not from any inherent vertue of its own but from the special influence of the Divine Power for the other Rods remained dead and dry thus the happy effects of the Afflicting Rod are from Divine Grace Secondly There are proper Temptations that attend the afflicted State Many are encompass'd in a sad Circle their Sins procure Afflictions and their Afflictions occasion many Sins Indeed Tribulation that is sanctified by a happy gradation worketh Patience and Patience Experience of the Divine Mercy and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed But when it meets with a stubborn Spirit there are fearful descents of Sin Tribulation excites Impatience and Impatience causeth Perplexity and that Despair and Despair Confusion The Devil lays his trains in every condition and sometimes by immoderate Sorrow sometimes by inordinate Joy doth mischief to the Soul And as more perish by Surfeits than Abstinence yet the Diseases that are caused by emptiness are more dangerous and incurable than those that proceed from fulness So more are ruined by Prosperity than Adversity But the guilty Passions that ferment and rage in Adversity are more pernicious and more hardly temper'd and subdued than the Luxurious Appetites that are fomented and drawn forth by Prosperity We are directed by our Saviour to pray that we may not be led into Temptation and to be delivered from all Evil. Secondly a mournful sense of Afflictions sent from God is consistent with a dutiful resignation of our selves to his Will 'T was the vain boast of the Philosophers that their Instructions would fortify Men with such magnanimous Principles and generous Spirits as with an equal calm tranquillity of Mind to encounter all the fierce and sorrowful Accidents to which they might be exposed here They speak high against Fortune and Fate and resolve stubbornly that no misery whether Poverty or Disgrace Torments or Death should extort from them a confession that it was Misery 'T was one of their Axioms That a Wise Man is not subject to the vicissitudes and instability of things here below That he suffers no conflict of contrary Passions in his Breast that he is always above in the Serene where no Tempests can disturb no Eclipse can darken his Mind But these proud pretensions were empty of reality Indeed such a perfect exemption from all afflicting Passions is neither possible nor regular in our present state not possible for

and support the Spirit in the greatest Agony The first is God scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And the other that is joined with it is Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth The Rule is general First All his Sons are under the Discipline of the Rod and who would be so unhappy as to be exempted from that number for all the prosperity of the World Afflictions sanctified are the conspicuous Seal of their Adoption and Title to Heaven And who would forfeit the honour of that Adoption and lose the benefit annext to it the eternal Inheritance rather than patiently bear his Fatherly Chastisements Others that enjoy a perpetual Spring of Pleasure here are declared Bastards and not Sons they are indeed within the compass of his Universal Providence but not of that peculiar care that belongs to his Sacred and Select Progeny His Corrections are an Argument of his Authority as our Father and an assurance that we are his Children this should induce us not only with submiss temper of Soul but with thankfulness to receive the sharpest Correction from the hands of our Heavenly Father This was the reason of our Saviour's meek yielding himself to the violence and cruelty of his Enemies The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Secondly Chastisement is the effect of his Paternal Love He is the Father of our Spirits and that Divine Relation carries with it a special Love to the Spirits of Men and in that degree of Eminence as to secure and advance their happiness though to the destruction of the Flesh. The Soul is of incomparable more worth than the Body as the bright Oriental Pearl than the mean Shell that contains it this God most highly values for this he gave so great a Price and on it draws his Image If Temporal Prosperity were for our best advantage how willingly would God bestow it on us He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Which words among all that the Holy Ghost hath dictated to the Interpreters of God's Heart to his People are most expressive of his ●ove and Bounty and most for their comfort He that gives Grace and 〈◊〉 ●●●ost real testimonies 〈…〉 certainly withholds no good thing from them I shall produce one convincing instance of this St. Paul who by an incomparable Priviledg was rapt up to the Coelestial Paradise and heard ineffable things yet was tormented by the Angel of Satan and his earnest repeated Prayer for deliverance not presently granted Did not God love that blessed Apostle whose internal Love to Christ almost equall'd the Seraphims those pure everlasting Flames and was expressed in the invariable tenour of his Life by such miraculous Actions and Sufferings for the propagating and defence of the Faith of Christ and the Glory of his Name If we love him because he first loved us as St. John testifies certainly he that returned such a superlative Affection to Christ received the greatest Love from him Now if Christ did love Paul why did he not upon his earnest repeated Prayer deliver him from his wounding Trouble whatsoever it was That Permission was a demonstration of the Love of Christ to him as it is acknowledged by himself Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of Revelation there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh and the Messenger of Satan to buffet me That the Afflictions of the Saints proceed from God's Love will be evident by considering I. His gracious Design in sending them II. His compassionate Providence over them and his assisting Power afforded to his People in their Troubles III. The happy issue out of them First His gracious Design in sending them God doth not afflict willingly but if need be not for his own pleasure but for our profit that we may be partakers of his Holiness The expression is high and emphatical his Holiness the brightest Glory of his Nature the divinest Gift of his Love The two principal parts of Holiness are ceasing from doing Evil and learning to do well And Afflictions are ordained and sent as profitable for both these effects 1. For the prevention or cure of Sin which is an evil incomparably worse in its nature and terrible consequents in this and the next World than all meer afflicting temporal Evils Sin defiles and debaseth the Soul which is the proper excellency of Man and separates from God our supream Good Your Sins have separated between you and your God and have hid his face from you All Afflictions that can befall us here in our persons or concernments the most disgraceful Accidents the most reproachful contumelious Slanders the most loathsom contagious Diseases that cause our dearest Friends to withdraw from us yet cannot deprive us of Union with God by Faith and Love nor of the fruition of his propitious Presence Lazarus when covered with Ulcers was kissed with the Kisses of his Mouth But Sin hath this pernicious effect it separates from his gracious Presence here and if continued in without Repentance will exclude from his Glorious Presence for ever Now Afflictions are Medicinal Applications for the cure of Sin the Disease and Death of the Soul and therefore infinitely worse than the sharpest Remedies The beginnings and progress of Conversion to God are usually by sanctified Afflictions Indeed considering our folly and perverse abuse of his Blessings they are the most congruous means for our Recovery The Light of God's Law doth not so powerfully convince us of the Evil of Sin till felt in the effects of it Thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts The Instructions of the Rod are more sensible than of the Word as the feeling of a tormenting Disease produceth another kind of understanding of it than the reading of its nature in Books of Physick and they make us more attentive to God's Call and leave a deeper impression upon us It is Elihu his observation If Sinners be bound in Fetters and held in Cords then he shews them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded Affliction clarifies their Sight makes Sin to be as heinous in the view of Conscience as in its own foul nature It follows He openeth also the Ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity Gentle Methods were lost upon them but by Judgments he effectually commands they relent and return to their Duty And after Conversion we need their Discipline to make us more circumspect and obedient The Psalmist declares It is good for me that I have been afflicted For before he was afflicted he went astray He was reduced from the errour of his ways by his Troubles And 't was