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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	truth_n	word_n	7,274	5	4.1793	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91893	The birth of a day: being a treatise theologicall, morall and historicall, representing (as in a scene) the vicissitudes of all humane things, with their severall causes and sacred uses. Compos'd for the establishing mans soul unchangeable in the faith, amidst the various changes of the world. / By J. Robinson Mr of Arts and preacher of Gods Word.	Robinson, John, Preacher at East-Thorpe.	1654 (1654)	Wing R1698; Thomason E1493_4; ESTC R203378	52,211	117

therefore to have an overweening conceit of our selves and our own causes above others as if God upon this ground had tyed his speciall love either to us or them For you know that when God would chuse a King for Israel he chose him not by outward and perishing excellencies 1 Sam. c. 16. vers 8. 〈◊〉 and 10. for then he would have chosen in the room of Saul Eliab Aminadab or Shammah who were the three elder brothers of David and men of goodly personages to look upon yet God chose none of these sayes the Text but David the youngest of them though not so outwardly yet in wardly glorious being a man after his own heart It is the chief argument the Turks use at this day to prove themselves the only Musselmen or true believers We thrive say they and prosper in the world for how hath our Mahometanisme over-run all Asia Africk and the greater part of Europe too And do not they among us then reason more like Turks then Christians who speak after this manner Come see how we bear down all before us and ride upon the backs of the poor in triumph Thus and thus do we prosper in the world and do even what we list and is not this an evident signe we are Gods children and that the right end of the staff is ours Sure if we were other then Gods peculiar people he would not blesse us so much as he doth But to these I answer That these and such like are only Bona Scabelli as Divines distinguish well out of that place of Isaiah and not Bona Throni the goods of Gods Footstool but earthen ware Isa 66. 1● and not the good things of his Throne which are Grace and Glory and therefore can set upon us only an earthly mark for men here to take notice of us but not any heavenly cognizance for God to look upon us as upon his dear and elect children For else it would easily follow That the Alchoran were better then the Bible and the Turks fancy better then our Faith of Christianity And were there no other signall place of Scripture for this then that of the Prophet David in his 73. Psalm as indeed there are very Consule Ecclesias●es 7. vers 15. See Ecclesiastes chap. 8. vers 14. Malachy 3. vers 13. and 15. Luke 16. 25. Remember how thou in thy life receivedst thy good things c. many this alone methinks were enough to impresse this as a truth upon us where he speaks of some that are not in trouble like other men but pride compasseth them about as a chain violence covers them as a garment their eyes stand out with fatnesse and they have more then their heart can wish yet these sayes he vers 12. are the ungodly who prosper in the world And the Prophet Jeremy makes bold to question with God about it in these words Jer. 12. 1. and 〈◊〉 verses Wherefore sayes he doth the w●●ked prosper and why are all they in wealth that rebelliously transgresse and he rests satisfied with this vers 3. That God did by that prosperity of theirs fatten them as sheep to the slaughter and prepare them for the day of destruction And this is that prosperity of fools that the Wise man speaks of which will destroy them Prov. 1. 32. It is not then our thriving in Temporalls but in Spiritualls that speaks us and our Faith to be accepted of God For the truth of Grace or Religion and the goodnesse of a mans cause is not measured by the Souldiers Sword but by the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit God Saints no man for his goodly Ethnicus Deum sic loquentem inducit Isti quos pro felicibus aspicitis fi non qua occurrunt sed qua latent videritis vere sunt miseri Intus enim omne posui bonum Sen. lib. de Provid cap. 6. personage for his riches for his politick head-piece of contriving and bringing about his own worldly and sinister ends or for his armes and conquests for then Saul and Craesus Ahitophel and Alexander the Great had been high in Gods book but he values men only by their spirituals as their graces of Faith Humility Patience Meeknesse Obedience and the like and where he finds these how unfurnished soever they are otherwise yet these are mine saith the Lord and in that day when I shall make up my Jewels I will spare Malachy 3. 17. 18. them even as a Father doth his Sonne and then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that feareth God and him that feareth him not Indeed God may sometimes permit evill to prosper in the world but never approve of it for so acknowledges the Jewish Church Lament 3. 35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High or to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approves it not And therefore to argue from Gods permission to his approbation is a grosse Non sequitur Psal 55. 3. nay more a laying our iniquity on Gods back as if he would take it well at our hands to be made a Pack-horse at every turn to bear all our execrable burdens and were as David speaks such Psal 50. 21. a one as our selves to favour evil courses or else to own them as his off-spring Which made Dionysius the elder conclude Videtis inquit quam prospera navigatio à Diis immortalibus detur Sacrilegis Va●er Max. lib. 1. cap. 3. Sacriledge to be no sinne when he had rob'd the Temple at Locri because the Gods seem'd as it were to smile upon the action in giving them fair Winds and Weather both in their voiage thither and return back again But as it was a great blasphemy sayes one Sr Franc. Bacon Essay 3. for the Devill to personate God when he would be similts Altissimo so is it greater to make God personate the Devil And yet this he doth that makes God patronize his evil because he Prosperum scelus virtus voeatur Sen. trag in He●e fur prospers in it for this brings in God saying That he will be like the Prince of Darknesse and makes the Holy Ghost to leave his Dove-like shape and come only to us in the form of a greedy Raven or Vultur 2. As our prospering in worldly things swells us up too high with an opinion of our own Goodnesse and makes us think better of our selves then is meet so also doth it on the other side lift us up too farre with thoughts of evil towards our brethren and make us think worse of them and the wayes of God they walk in then we should by charging them as utterly deserted of God because Adversoeres etiam ba●●● detrectant Salust we see not now the same hedge of Gods favour about them as heretofore we did but the stakes that then prop'd them up are now thrown away as uselesse and unserviceable Whereas Afflictions on this

an Italian and kinsman of his that had in one In lib. 18. subtil night his hair metamorphosed from black to white And I apply it thus That although now Gods people may ly as the Israelites did among the pots to use the Prophets words and be like some Scullion Psal 68. vers 13. fullied and black'd with the burning coals of Affliction yet may one day of Gods favour to us work a great alteration with us and put such a candy of Prosperity upon us as that we shall be as it is there vers 14. even as white as the snow in Salmon And therefore as Jobs resolution was to wait all the dayes of his appointed time Job 14. ve●s 14. untill his change should come so should every good man wait upon God all the dayes that he shall be pleased to lay trouble upon him whether immediately by Accepimus peritura perituri quid querimur Ad hoc instituti sumus Sen. lib. de provid c. 6. himself or else mediately by the hands of evil men as his instruments in it as knowing that it is appointed but for a little while at the most but a biduum or a triduum and then a change shall come and bring him deliverance from it For in mount Sion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance as the Lord hath Joel 2. 32. said neither shall the rod of the ungodly alwayes lye upon the back of the righteous Psal 125. 3. but after two dayes he will revive us and the third day we shall live in his Hos 6. 2. sight Wherefore seeing we are compass'd about as the Authour to the Hebrews speaks with such a cloud of witnesses let us run Heb. 12. 1. 2. and 3. on with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame Yea let us consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners that so we may not be faint and weary And now Comfort Jerusalem saith my Isa 40. 1 2. God yea comfort her at the very heart and tell her that her sinnes are pardoned and her warfare is accomplished For the Lord knows sayes Saint Peter how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to 2 Pet. 2. 9. make a way for them to escape That as the sufferings of Christ in them do abound so hath God many wayes to make their 2 Cor. 1. 5. consolations abound also If the Devil and his Engineers have Mille nocendi artes a thousand wayes to hurt and destroy them God will either find or make as many wayes to preserve them whereof some he will have to be more secret and under ground others again more open and obvious to the eyes of the world as either by restraining the fury and malice of their persecutours and stopping their mouthes that they shall not hurt them as he did the mouthes of the Lions from hurting Daniel or else by taking them off by his destroying hand of judgement in the full carreer of their pride as he did Pharaoh Antiochus Herod Agrippa Julian the Apostate and many such like or if none of these wayes yet by ingratiating them and giving them favour in the sight of their enemies as he did the Israelites in the eyes of the Aegyptians And as God knows how to deliver the godly so also when to do it and a great deal sooner it may be then they expect even within the space and turning about of one day Since none of us know what a day may bring forth Trin uni Deo Gloria Aspiratio ALmighty God who rulest the Sea of this World by thy power whose paths are in the roughest waters We the unworthiest of all thy servants commit our frail Barks with all that we have to the steerage of thee our great Pilot faithfull Preserver beseeching thee so to order by thy good hand of Providence all outward contingencies to us that we may be able to beare up through them with a steady and even course against the severall storms we shall meet with in this passage to our blessed Harbour of Eternity And however earthly things may like watery Billows be every day rowling up down in their vicissitudes about us yet suffer oh suffer not the heavenly truth of our Reformed Religion to flote about any longer so uncertainly among us nor our selves to be as children toss'd to and fro with every wind of Doctrine But let us be constant and unwavering in the profession of that holy faith we have received and Thou that art the God of Truth be graciously pleased to stay us up firmly in it by the sacred Scriptures which are thy word of Truth and the sole Anchor of our faith to rest upon Lord pull in the sailes of our desires towards fleeting and transitory substances for who will cast his eyes upon that which hath wings to flee away as an Eagle towards heaven Bailast our spirits with Humility in a prosperous condition and when we have the highest and most pleasing gale of the worlds favour for us give us to strike our spreading sailes of Pride and to make our Lenity and Moderation to be known to all men for the Lord is nigh at hand But if thou in thy just judgement against us for our manifold and hainous sins shalt cause some cross wind or other to blow upon us and give us over to shipwrack in our temporalls Supply then we entreat thee their want with thy spiritualls of Patience Faith and other suffering graces That although the tempest be never so boisterous without yet we may enjoy within a Christian calmness of spirit in a happy quietude and contentedness of mind with all thy dealings towards us and not set down our rests upon the creature which is so restless with us but amidst the sundry and various changes of the world may there fix our hearts where only true and unchangeable joys are to be found through Iesus Christ our Lord. Trin-uni Deo Gloria

hand are every way as temporary and transient as Prosperity was on the other and being so must needs be as a broken reed or a reed of Aegypt wherewith we cannot exactly measure Gods Temple nor the spirituall estate of his Children It was a hard stumbling-block to the Prophet David for a time when he sayes that his feet were almost gone and his footsteps Psal 7● ver 2. had well-nigh slipt upon his sight of the wickeds prosperity untill he went into the Sanctuary of Gods Word where he learnt to settle his wavering and distrustfull thoughts for there he saw that notwithstanding his outward afflictions that God held him up under that sore temptation with his right hand and would ver 23. in opposition to transitory goods which are the proper blessings of the wicked because they have no others but these to trust unto guide him with that which should infinitely exceed them to wit his Counsell ere and his Glory hereafter And it was the great question so much agitated betwixt Job and his Friends Whether those dolefull changes that befell him were the cognizance of his insincerity to God and of Gods disfavour to him upon it yea or no. His Friends taking advantage upon his present weaknesse and distemper maintain it strongly against him in the affirmative that they were untill at length God himself steps in to the rescue of the weaker side and makes the conclusion as all logicall Conclusio sequitur debiliorem partem Keck log pag. 424. conclusions do to follow the weaker part determining it for Job against his Opponents in the negative and telling them that they spake not of Job nor of his proceeding towards him that which was right Job last vers 7. Seneca a Stoick Philospher hath a set In libro de provid cap. 4. discourse to this purpose Cur bonts varis mala eveniant why the evils of this life most commonly fall out to good men and he concludes it thus That temporall evils are no sign of Gods hatred to them Numquid tu invisos esse Lacedemoniis suos liberos credis quorum experiuntur indolem publice verberibus admotis Non est hoc soevitia certamen est For dost thou think sayes he that the Lacedemonians hated their Children when as they experimented their disposition to virtue by stripes in publick No. So do we think Gods children in disfavour with him because he layes here sore blows upon their bodies and estates by evil men as his rods So Tamerlain the Scythian was call'd Fla● gellum Dei and scourges in it No for we see and feel many times sayes an experimentall patient of our own well the deep lines and strokes of Gods hand Sir I. M. upon us when as we cannot by our skill in Palmestry decipher his meaning in it no more then the Malteses could by the viper upon Saint Pauls hand judge of his condition to God-ward Acts 28. 4. For God sometimes that we may not thus judge inverts humane order and runs out his dealings towards us in the ordinary chanel of his universall providence justice and equity by which he waters here all alike Indeed they may seem I grant to go counter to our apprehended rules of common right yet are they alwaies agreeing both with Gods secret and revealed will though like the sunne in its sphear not perceptible to us because too mysterious and dazzling however many pretend to interpret them by a blaze of fire lighted at the naturall pride of their own private spirits and that dimme twilight of knowledge which is in them whenas they are altogether in the dark to the true light of Gods word and works herein And here take in the opinion also of Epictetus another Stoick Pia Epicteti sententia Non esse omnes Deo exosos qui aerumnarum varietate luctantur sed esse arcanas causas ad quas paucorū potest pervenire curiositas Aul. G●ll. noct Att. lib. 2. cap. 18. and Heathen man which speaks most Christianly to this point namely That all are not hated of God who do wrastle here with variety of Miseries but that there are with God good causes of it though so secret that few can reach them And therefore albeit we cannot see how these actings of God may stand with his tender love to his children and so may conceive an ill opinion of them yet when we shall think seriously that Gods thoughts and wayes are not as ours it will teach Isa 55. 〈◊〉 us to give them a more favourable interpretation For how dare humane rashnesse sayes Quomodo humana temeritas audet reprehendere quod comprehendere non potest De Consid l. 2. Saint Bernard reprehend that which it cannot comprehend in giving demonstrative reason why worldly prosperity should Noverca virtutis prosperitas P. Chrysol lib. 1. de curial nugis be virtues stepdame and not her naturall mother But to close up this discourse you see here by what hath been said that it is a great errour howbeit now grown more then popular to judge of persons and causes by the events whenas all outward things sayes Solomon fall alike to all neither can any judge of love or hatred by Ecclesiast c. 9. ver 1. what is before him See also Mat. 5. 45. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good c. Prosperity and Adversity being but separable accidents to them and no essentiall properties of them because they are grounded upon worldly things that have so loose and mouldring a foundation as that a man cannot tell concerning them what a day may bring forth Again 2. As worldly prosperity swels us up with a high opinion of our own Goodnesse above others so likewise of our own Greatnesse And this makes us slight those that are under us and deal hardly with them as to temporall things which we would not do if we once consider'd the mutability of it And therefore if at any time God shall give up unto us those we conceit our enemies to be dealt with if we will by all harshnesse and extremity yet are not we then to trample upon them in the pride of our hearts nor to adde more load to that which God hath already laid upon them but rather to take off from it what As the virtue of adversity is fortitude so is temperance and moderation of prosperity S●r Francis Bacon Essay 5. we can and to use them with all gentlenesse and compassion with all mildnesse and moderation as considering our selves that we are not here to live alwayes as Gods upon earth the same yesterday to day and for ever but what is the bitter cup of their portion to day may be ours to morrow It speaks out but a course and ignoble spirit to crow and insult Faciles motus mens generosa capit Ovid. Trict. lib. 3. eleg 5. over those that are down The very Heathen thought it so who had only

erit Horat. lib. 2. ode 10. we ly under is not of a continuant but of a changeable nature And to this end we have the sure staff of Gods promise unto his children to lean upon as in the tenth chapter to the Hebrews where he sayes thus Yet a little while or rather as it runs in the Greek yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 37. how very very little while with a double diminutive and he that shall come will come and will not tarry And in the precedent verse he tells them they have need of patience that they may receive this promise And in the twelfth chapter to the Hebrews the Apostle takes up an exhortation to it from the Wise man and Prov. 3. 11. makes a consolatory use of it to his Hebrews withall taking them to taske for their forgetfulnesse of it And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto Heb. 12. 5. you as unto children My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint or be not broken in mind Ne animo frangitor 〈◊〉 sic B●z● as others translate it when thou art rebuked of him For we had sayes he the fathers of our flesh who verily chastened us a few dayes after their own pleasure and we were patient under their rod and gave See the 9. and 10. verses them reverence but God a few dayes only for our profit Shall we not then be much rather in subjection to him who is the father of spirits and live Thus when Boetius that Christian Co●sul and Martyr at Rome was wrongfully deprived by Theodoricus of his Honours Estate and Liberty Philosophy brings in what we call Gods providence comforting him in these words I turn about my wheel continually and delight to tumble things Rotam meam volubili orbe semper verso in●●is 〈◊〉 summisque infima mutare gaudens Quid igitur animo contabescis c. Boet. de Consol lib. 2. Pros 2. upside down why then doth thy heart shrink within thee when as this changeablenesse of mine is cause enough for thee to hope for better things And so also when many of our brethren were heretofore in exile for their Religion in Queen Marie's dayes what I pray did that Jewell of our Church comfort them In Juelli vits with but only this Haec non durabunt aetatem These will not endure an Age as indeed you know they did not her reign being not full out six years time And with the same consideration also should we cheare up our selves now under that black cloud that hangs over the Church that it will Non semper imbres nubibus bispid●s manane in agros Hor. lib. 2. ode 9. not endure an Age but be as Ephraim's righteousnesse was even Hos 6. 4. like the morning cloud or as the early dew that passes away To this end it will not be amisse to note how the afflictions of Gods people in the Scripture are run out not by any long tract of time as by an Age Year Moneth Week or the like but by the shortest measures that can be as by a Day now a Day you know holds not long but is quickly gone even as a flying bird or a poast that runneth by And this good Hezekiah calls the time of Sennacheribs rage against Judah a Day of trouble Isa 37. vers 3. Or if this be not enough you have them then contracted within a lesser room and measur'd only by a Night which is no more but the dark side of a naturall day and therefore is a great deal shorter And this made the Prophet David say Psal 30. vers 5. That heav●nesse may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning The time then that heavinesse shall endure to the Godly can be but a Night at the longest but whether it shall be so long or no the Prophet is very uncertain and unsatisfied for which cause he expresses it here with a May be Heavinesse may endure for a night But if this expression be not full enough to set forth the brevity of them our Saviour doth it then by an Hour which is shorter yet and but the four and twentieth part of a naturall Day for so he calls the time of his persecution by the High Priests and Elders of the people Their hour and the power of Darknesse Luk. 22. 53. Or if this be yet too long a space to set forth the brevity of their afflictions and to give a through Comfort to Gods people their little continuance is then express'd by a Moment which I am sure is short enough so you have it Isa 54. vers 7. For a small moment sayes God to his Church have I forsaken thee but with great mercy will I gather thee And again vers 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy upon thee Or last of all if any time can be shorter then this it must then be the present time yet such are the sufferings of Gods children in Saint Pauls account but the Sufferings of the present time Rom. 8. 18. and a shorter time then this there cannot be For as the French our Howell in the life of Lewis the thirteenth neighbours are said to be for their inconsideratenesse Animalia sine praeterito futuro Creatures that have respect neither to time past nor time to come so may we say of the present time That it is as short a measure as can possibly be imagined having in it nothing either of time past or future the first of the two being dead already and the later of them being not yet born unto us And yet we see here for all this that Saint Paul when he had cast up the account of all which he suffered in the cause of Christ how he reckons and concludes it to be only the suffering of the present time and not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed He that observes the wind sayes Solomon shall never sow and he that observes Ecclesiast c. 11. v. 4. the clouds shall never reap Such are our Troubles such our Afflictions which although they blow strong against us yet like some high and mighty wind they will not hold yea though they fall upon us as thick as hail yet are they not so fix'd for ever but a change shall come which should make us in any temptation to despair and distrust of Gods providence check and chide our spirits as the prophet David did his with that objurgation which for the remarkablenesse of it is thrice repeated in the two and fourtieth and three and fourtieth Psalms Why art thou cast Psal 42. vers 5. and 11. Again Psal 43. last verse down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Still hope in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Scaliger tells us of one Palavicine