Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	devil_n	seed_n	serpent_n	4,337	5	9.5644	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69777	The intercourses of divine love betwixt Christ and his Church, or, The particular believing soul metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first chapter of the Canticles, or song of songs : opened and applied in several sermons, upon that whole chapter : in which the excellencies of Christ, the yernings of his gospels towards believers, under various circumstances, the workings of their hearts towards, and in, communion with him, with many other gospel propositions of great import to souls, are handles / by John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing C5324; ESTC R16693	839,627	984

presently after his death and troubled the Church for 300 years together the root of them was doubtless the worlds hatred this our Saviour hath learned us and in some measure armed his people against it John 15. 8. If the world hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love his own But because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you God hath put an enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent Christ and his Seed the Devil and his Children but in regard we must not so understand that Text Gen. 3. 15. as if God infused those evil habits of malice and envy and hatred of God and goodness but only that God would infuse such Spiritual gracious habits into the Souls of his People as through that native malice envy and corruption which is in the hearts of such as God pleaseth not to change by his special grace would provoke such an enmity in them we must inquire into the root and grounds of that hatred which produceth this enmity and hostility and that is 1. Their natural aversion to all piety and goodness And 2. That Pride which is in their hearts which suffereth them not to be patient of the preference of godly men in the favour of God nor of being excelled by them before men in such a conversation as their lusts will not suffer them to lead much less to be condemned by their Doctrines and reproofs hence they both hate such as will reprove them either in the Gate or from the Pulpit and because the Ministers of Christ are those to whose Office especially the latter belongeth hence they have in all times been made the buts and objects of their fury But though these afflictions come immediately and proximately from men yet they are also the appointments of God the counsels of God executed by his permissive Providence not restraining the malice and lusts of wicked mens hearts but suffering them to exert and put it forth the same account must be given of this sort as of other sorts of Gods afflictive dispensations 1. The punishment of his peoples sins 2. The trial exercise and manifestations of his peoples graces 1. The punishment of his peoples sins and this is for the most part evident in such Persecutions as fall upon whole Churches I say for the most part it is rare that God lets loose Enemies upon a setled Church to disturb its quiet till it hath losts its first love and admitted sinful mixtures Thus it fell out to the famous Churches of Asia to whom the Epistles were written in the Revelations and it may be the obvious decays of Religion in the Primitive Churches were no small cause of the Persecutions which vexed and destroyed them for three hundred years together 2. The trial exercise and manifestation of his peoples graces was also another cause this we are often told in the Epistles of the Apostles nor did the Church of Christ receive a small augmentation and increase by the courage and constancy the faith and patience of the Martyrs 3. Lastly God also by this means obtaineth another end viz. Wicked mens filling up the measures of their iniquities That upon them might come as our Saviour speaks all the righteous blood that hath been shed by their Fore-fathers But all this is a digression from the principal thing in the Proposition which is to shew you how these blacken the Spouse of Christ That is either 1. Really by drawing out corruption Or 2. Appearingly in the Eyes of the world 1. Afflictions often really blacken the Spouse of Christ as they draw out that latent Corruption which is in their Hearts This is true both concerning the Church and concerning the particular Soul 1. As to the Church which is by our Saviour compared to a Field of Wheat in which are Tares as well as Wheat and to a Net which within the swallow of it hath bad as well as good fish Now Persecution makes a great discovery of Hypocrites they that received the Seed into stony ground having no root in themselves fall away enduring but a while and when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth for the Word are immediately offended the Dragons Tail Revel 12. 4. drew down the third part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them down to the Earth Thus it is seen in all Persecutions they alwaies discover a great number of Hypocrites false Brethren yea and often many of Gods People at first shrink and fall under the greatness of the temptation so you know it sell out as to Peter in the High Priests Hall and so it hath been with many of such as have at last dyed in the testimony of the truths of God These things make the Church black when the Sun looketh upon it though in the issue the melting of the Church proveth the purifying of it and making it exceeding white as you know it is with many things purified by fire though the fire maketh them at last more bright and pure yet at first till their dross be cleansed they look more black so it is with the Church of God in the day of its fiery trial So it is also as to Particular Christians Tribulation in them at last worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope Even such an hope as will not make ashamed but this is after some excercise therein Hence saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present see●oth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby How black did holy Job look Chap. 3. When he Cursed the day of his birth Who afterward being exercised with a long affliction came out white Till by Tribulation the Soul cometh to be humbled and tamed to the will of God and to have his will melted into a resignation to the will of God till his faith and patience come to be both tryed and to have their perfect work Tribulation and Persecution maketh the Spouse really black like the Person that hath taken Physick to purge out some ill humours so long as his Physick is working and strugling with the peccant humours he is sicker and appeareth worse then before he took it 2. But secondly Tho Persecution and Tribulation may at first make the Spouse really black yet they make her appear much more black then she is in the Eyes of the world and the generality of men and women in it of which a various account may be given I will instance but in two or three things 1. The first is the impressions which the calumnies and slanders of Enemies thrown upon the Church and upon believers have upon many people There is nothing more ordinary then when the Enemies of God are in their highest rage against his People to have their mouths fullest of obloquy and slander

giveth an allowance both for their infirmimities and temptations upon which account he calleth to us to behold the patience of Job though Job had his fits of frowardness and impatience and often calleth his Spouse fair and undefiled though she hath many defilements But. 1. The Spouse upon these accounts is black in her own Eyes 2. In the Eyes of others 1. In her own Eyes she is black two things make her so 1. Her Humility 2. Her Love jealousy The Child of God is alwaies vile in his own Eyes and hath a very low and mean opinion of himself and therefore condemneth himself for every motion and prevailing of corruption I am a worm saith David and no man a reproach of men and despised of the peopl● Psal 22. 6. O wretched man that I am saith St. Paul who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. in another place he calleth himself the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints Woe is me saith the Prophet I am a man of unclean lips the sense of former sins makes them call themselves black I am saith Paul not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of Christ The sense of present corruptions also makes them so judge Iniquities saith David prevail against me Hence is the ordinary dialect of pious Souls There was never any had such unbelieving hearts such proud dead false hypocritical hearts as ours are Those who are most eminently comely in the Eyes of Christ are usually most black in their own Eyes 2. Their Love-jealousy is another cause Their love for God is so great that they suspect every frown of Providence as speaking God out of favour with them for their sins Hence it often proveth as great a matter of difficulty to persuade the Child of God that God hath any favour for him as it is to persuade a sinner that God hath any displeasure to him 2. Secondly which possibly is here chiefly intended She is black in the Eyes of others The World dealeth by the Disciples of Christ as it dealt with him nor is it reasonable to expect that the Disciple should be above his Master or the Servant above his Lord they saw Christ despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs they hid their faces from him and esteemed him not The men of the world see the people of God men of sorrows and acquainted with griefs they despise them and esteem them not yea for the most part their business is to blacken them loading them with reproach and calumny and laying to their charge things which they know not and all this through an implacable enmity put betwixt the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent or because they see themselves condemned by the more righteous conversation of such as fear God Nay it often so falls out that the People of God are black in the Eyes of their Brethren through mistakes as Eli mistook Hannah or through envy or prejudice c. But this is enough to have spoken concerning the Spouses blackness 2. Let me now come to shew you how and in what sense she is comely 1. She hath a comeliness besides her blackness 2. In some of her blackness there is a comeliness 1. The Spouse is not wholly black besides her blackness she hath a great beauty and comeliness Every believer hath something of unbelief in him but he is not an unbeliever he hath a truth of faith in him there is his comeliness Paul had a law in his members that was his blackness but he had also a law of his mind that was his comeliness All sin and lust is blackness all gracious habits are the Souls beauty and comeliness The unbeliever the natural man is wholly black the godly man is not so there is a mixture in his Soul he is come into Canaan tho some Canaanites yet dwell in the Land the faith and love and obedience of a good man his pantings and breathings after God his complacency delight and rejoycing in God these are all his comeliness The Church of God may have spots in her assemblies these are her blackness but she keepeth up her assembl●es and hath the Ordinances of God in them that is her comeliness she may have several hypocrites meer seeming professors these are her spots from these is her blackness but she hath many that love the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity these are her comeliness she may-suffer some erroneous principles to be published in her that is her blackness but she keepeth the foundation doctrines of faith and holiness pure and incorrupt that is her comeliness 2. In much of her blackness there is a beauty and a comeliness It is Bernards note whatsoever is black is not therefore uncomely The Eye is black yet comely Marble is black but yet it is comely Christ is black but yet he was comely Look upon him saith that devout man clothed with raggs blew with Stripes daubed with his Enemies Spittle pale with death you will say he was black but yet he was comely yea the Chiefest of ten thousand The Apostles saw him comely when upon the mountain they beheld his glory at his transfiguration Nay in his blackness there was comliness to see him under all this becoming obedient to his Fathers will even unto death the bitter death upon the Cross working out the redemption and Salvation of all those whom the Father had given him this was comely When the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us saith St. John we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth Look upon the Child of God as daubed and besmeared with the filth and obloquy which the men of the World cast upon him Scorched with Afflictions followed with dark and hellish temptations so indeed he looketh black in our carnal Eyes but in other respects he is comely even in this blackness 1. As by these afflictions Christ is magnified in his body and he is made conformable unto Christ and filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ So he is comely All conformity to Christ is beauty Paul desired no more then that he might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made comformable unto his death Philip. 3. 11. This is what our Saviour told his disciples John 15. to comfort them under the Worlds hatred which he knew would make them to appear black If the World hateth you it hated me first The suffering child of God lookes black but as Christ is by his sufferings magnified in his body as he is by his sufferings made more like to Christ so he is comely 2. Secondly As a believers afflictions perfect him for glory so even in his blackness there is a comeliness The Captain of our Salvation was made perfect as the Apostle tells us through suffering Heb. 2. 10. and so must the Souldiers

Name I will mention but three things First His Word is his Name The Gospel of Christ is his Name that expresseth to us what Christ is Christ saith that he had manifested his Father's Name unto the men whom he had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6. that is his Fathers Truths the Doctrine of his Gospel The Lord Jesus is made known by his Gospel That doth the same thing for Christ that our Name doth for us it lets the World know whose Son Christ is what he is what he hath done and suffered for Sinners and this is to the Soul exceeding sweet as an Oil that is poured forth Secondly His Mercy is his Name All those declarations of his love and good will towards his Peoples Souls of which his Gospel is full All the Emanations of his Love When the Lord telleth Moses his Name he thus proclaimeth it The Lord The Lord merciful slow to anger As God gets him a great Name upon Pharaoh and the wicked of the Earth by executing Justice and Judgment so he gets himself a great Name amongst his Saints by shewing me●cy His Name is I even I am he that blotteth out transgressions for my own Names sake I will heal your backslidings and love you freely Lastly His Truth is his Name By Truth I mean his Faithfulness in fulfilling his Word Thy Truth reacheth unto the Clouds saith David Psal 108. 4. David Psal 138. 2. resolveth to praise God's Name for his Loving-kindness and for his Truth Jesus Christ is much known to us by his Truth and Faithfulness to his Promises making good to his Peoples Souls what he hath said hence he is called the Amen the Faithful and the true Witness Rev. 3. 14. Pareus upon that Text saith that Christ is called the Amen for that reason which the Apostle giveth 2 Cor. 1. 19 20. because he is not Yea and Nay but he is Yea and because all the Promises of God in him are Yea and Amen Thus I have opened to you what that Name of Christ is which the Spouse compareth to an Oil or to an Ointment poured forth 2 Qu. But why to an Oil poured forth Certainly for the usefulness of it under that circumstance Ointment in the Box Oil inclosed and kept up in the Vessel is no way so useful as when it is poured out If we use it for food it must be poured out if for Medicine if for Ornament which way soever we use Oil or Ointment it must be poured out then it becomes useful to us But that which I take to be what is principally intended is Thy Name is exceedingly infinitely sweet Oil is sweet in the Vessel where it is kept it is sweet if but dropped out by drops But saith the Spouse of Christ Thy Name is as an Oil or Ointment poured forth Thou hast not only a sweetness and excellency in thy self but all the grace and mercy in thee is communicated and that not in drops or little measures but as Oil poured forth that hath scope of Air enough to diffuse it self in and by If Christ had No Name by which he could be made known to us yet there would be in him as God blessed for ever infinite goodness as well as Majesty and Glory the fulness of the God-Head would be in him he would be full of Grace and Truth but now his Name makes him to be as an Oil poured forth by that we behold his glory the glory as of the begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. When the invisible incomprehensible excellency love and grace of Christ is made known unto us either by the Gospel or by the emanations of his grace and mercy or the demonstrations of his truth and faithfulness by any of his personal names or names of Office w●ich are given to him then like Oil or Ointment poured out he appears to the Soul transcendently incomparably sweet This now appears both from Scripture and from experience 1. From Scripture how sweet are thy words unto my tast faith David Psal 119. 103. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than Honey and the Hony-comb Psal 19. 10. In his name shall the Gentiles trust Mat. 12. 21. Adam had a little of Christ made known unto him One promise we read of no more The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. It was like Oil poured forth and kept him from a deliquium in the sense of the first sin and his being turned out of Paradise Abraham heard a little of Christs name it was to him like Oil poured forth he saw my day and rejoiced saith Christ John 8. he saw the day star arise afar off he saw but the morning the dawning of the morning too of Christs day and at a great distance how sweet was it to him He saw my day saith Christ and he rejoiced I might give you very many instances of the sweetness which the Saints of God perceived upon the several discoveries of Christ made to them But what needs any further demonstration than what ariseth from the consideration of the thing and from the experience of any Child of God to whom Christ is or hath been made known how sweet must rest be to one that is weary ease to one that is heavy laden both these are promised from Christ Mat. 11. 29. how sweet must the name of a Saviour be to one that is lost and undone the name of Redeeme● to one that is a Captive The name of a Mediator to one that hath offended a potent adversary able to crush him every moment 2. I appeal further to the experience of every Child of God even every Soul who hath tasted any thing of Christ and who hath heard any thing of his Name when a Soul is troubled to think how often how heinously it hath offended God how sweet is the name of a Mediator when it is brought to a sense of its sin and apprehends itself lost and undone how sweet is it to remember the name of Jesus given unto Christ because he was to save his People from their sins when a Soul considereth that without Blood without a Sacrifice there is no remission of Sin how sweet then is the name of an High Priest over the House of God who offered up himself once for our Sins and having done so ascended up into Heaven and ever sitteth at the Right Hand of God to make intercession for the Sins of his People How sweet to the Soul that is afraid lest its lusts should have dominion over him is the name of Christ as a King given unto him because he is to rule in the hearts of those who are once subjected and subdued unto him How sweet are his mercy his truth his promises when at any time the latter are applied to the Soul and the former any way made known in the Soul Doth any one ask whence it is that the name of

was in my blood live he hath fixed his Love upon me who was by birth an Ethiopian he hath hung a Chain about my neck I am black but I am comely I have met with a story of a Minister who going to visit and pray with a poor creature● possessed by the Devil the Devil thought to have stopt his mouth by objecting to him some sins committed by him in his youth The holy man answered confessing the charge but Satan saith he upon my repentance Christ hath since that washed me with his blood Another story I have met with of a worthy Person who lying upon his sick bed and being alone one opens the door and comes in in the habit of a Scrivener with a Pen and Inkhorn and Paper andsetting himself down at the table in the Chapter called the sick man by name and told him he was sent from God to take account of him of all the sins he had done for which he must presently go and answer to God before his Judgment seat The good man rightly apprehending that it was the Devil had assumed an habit to tempt and distrub him bid him go on and write first Gen. 3. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Upon which the evil Spirit presently disappeared Speaking only from my memory I may forget some circumstances but this is the substance of the story What the Devil in these cases did by a more audible voice he doth yet every day by impressions made more secretly upon the Spirits of some or other that fear God For tho conscience will of it self often bring sin to remembrance and reflect sins upon the Soul committed long before yet they are some times reflected with such violence and degrees of terror and attended with such strong motions and sollicitations to despair of Divine mercy and to self murder that it is but reasonable to judge there is more in them then the ordinary workings of conscience In such a dark hour as this it will be a great relief to a Soul to think that the Spouse of Christ is black but comely Doth the Devil then object thy blackness whether by reason of past or present sins in bar to thy trust and confidence in God for the forgiveness of them through the blood of Christ Reply to him Satan I have been black I confess it I am black but I am comely also having my Garments washed and rouled in the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World I am as the Tents of Kedar they are black but I am also as the Curtains of Solomon they are exceeding beautiful 3. It also relieveth a Christian under Persecutions and afflictions and against the Worlds upbraidings because of them The Barbarians concluded Paul a Murtherer because they saw a Viper cleaving to his hand and the men of the World are very prone to judge and condemn the People of God for what happeneth to them in this life they see the blackness of Gods Peoples visages under affliction and persecution but the love of God in chastening them that they might not be condemned with the World the exercises of their faith and trial of it and its appearing more precious then that of Gold their patience its perfect wor● h●se are things in which their comeliness appeareth in and under afflictions these are things which they do not see Gods People are also ready to conclude against themselves because of their tryals but there is no just reason for it afflictions are but a blackness of the skin the Child of God may notwithstanding them be within exceeding beautiful and comely The tents of Kedar though they had black and unlovely coverings and outsides yet within might be fill'd with Spices and Riches I shall shut up this discourse with some few words of exhortation to that duty which this notion of truth calls to us for 1. It calleth to all the People of God for humility a mean and low opinion of themselves beauty is often a great temptation to Pride whether it be natural or artificial The Daughters of Sion were haughty and walked with stretched forth Necks and wanton Eyes Isaiah 3. 16. Spiritual beauty gives no advantage to a Soul to think of it self above what it ought to think In all reason we should have been some cause to our selves of that whereof we glory we should have some propriety in it and there should be in it some perfection The comeliness of Gods People is neither natural nor any acquest of their own There are three things which may keep the most comely of Gods Children humble First The consideration of their former blackness Let but any of them look back to the rock out of which they are hewen and to the hole of the Pit out of which they were digged and they will see no reason to be exalted above measure their Father was a Syrian their birth was of the land of Canaan their Father was an Amorite their Mother an Hittite and in the day wherein they were born they were cast out to the loathing of their persons not salted not swadled at all Nor was this all there is none of them but had their conversation in times past according to the Prince of the power of the Air fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Children of Wrath by nature c There is none of them but hath reason to pray that the Lord would not remember the sins of their youth against them and to beg of God that for them he would not write against them bitter things nor make them to possess their years of vanity None of them but before Christs comeliness was put upon them had been guilty of sin enough to make them to walk softly all the days of their lives Secondly The consideration of their present blackness is enough though they are comely yet they are black still they have a body of death a law of their members the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit sins that easily beset them weights that often press them down the beauty of the best of Gods People is but like the beauty of the Moon which is full of spots hath a dark part and often suffers great Eclipses and all whose light is borrowed He observeth not his own heart that doth not see enough in the imperfect and extravagant motions of it to keep him humble Thirdly The third is the consideration from whence he deriveth his beauty If men and women would but debate a little with their own reason they would see no reason to be proud of a comeliness arising from any external Ornament it is something beneath a Reasonable Being to be beholden to a Stone Jewels are no more or a little Earth such are Gold and Silver a Plant or a Fly or a Silkworm or a Sheep a little Wool or Flax for

c. It is true the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel the Propositions of truth contained in both are much one and the same The moral precepts the same and the promises the same c. Yet that great Proposition of truth De M●ssia venturo concerning the star that should come forth out of Jacob the coming of Shiloh The raising of the great Prophet like to Moses c. This Proposition was perfected in the Gospel and turned into another of far more comfort to us viz. That Christ is come and hath dyed for our si●s c. But all the Propositions of the Gospel are of eternal truth and all the Ordinances of the Gospel are like Beams of Cedar that shall never decay That 's the first Inference 2. Observe from hence The blindness of many Peoples Eyes and the hardness of our hearts together with the unreasonableness of unbelief You have heard that there is a Beauty and a sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God they are beautiful to the Eye and they are sweet unto the tast and to the smell the lips of Christ drop sweet smelling Myrrh what is the reason then that the most of People can tast no sweetness in them nor see any beauty in them Alas the most men and women in the World have no more savour of a Sermon or Sacrament then in the white of an Egg They see more beauty in a play-book or an history then they can see in the holy Word of God the reason is this they are void of Spiritudl senses they have their exteriour carnal senses they can tast sweetness in an Hony-Comb but they have not any Spiritual sense they can tast no sweetness in the Word of God which to Davids tast was sweeter then the Hony-comb They must needs want Spiritual sense for they want Spiritual life they are dead in trespasses and sins no sooner doth the Lord quicken a dead Soul but it savoureth the things of God and tasts that sweetness and sees that beauty in the Word of God and in the Ordinances of God of which I have been discoursing 2. As it discovers the want of Spiritual sense in an unbelievers Soul so it also discovers the hardness of mens hearts The Word and Ordinances of God have a power and Efficacy in them but alas how few do they make any impression upon But I shall not insist upon this as not so proper to the resemblance of the Text. Let me rather 3. Infer the unreasonableness of unbelief from what you have heard of the supporting power of the Word of God The Word of God is the greet supporter of Souls under all afflictions temtations in all distresses and agonies c. God is indeed pleased as to some of his People to give them in sensible evidences of his love sealing them up by way of assurance of his love unto the day of redemption and blessed are they who are in such a case but this is not the portion of all the People of God the most of Christians have nothing but the royal Word of God to trust to and upon this all their hopes hang as to Eternity And we are so carnal that we find it an hard thing oft-times to keep up the building of grace faith and hope upon this foundation but are ready to sway and sink through distrust and doubtings through unbelief and anxiety of thoughts c. This is that which we call unbelief The unreasonableness of which is sufficiently evidenced from the stability of the Word of God it is a Beam of Cedar Thou that thinkest it an hard thing to have nothing but a bare Word of God to trust to unless thou hast some sensible evidence that canst not believe without a sign consider 1. That the Word is the Beam of the Church The whole Church of God is built upon the Word it is that which God hath judged sufficient at all times for his People God the Father had no more than Christ's word for the price of all the Souls that were saved from the beginning of the World until the time of Christ's Death and Passion when the price was actually paid into God's hand All the Believers that were saved from Adam till Christ's coming in the Flesh had no more to trust to for their Salvation than the Royal Word of God That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head That a Messiah should come and be slain to make reconciliation for iniquity c. They all trusted on these words of God and were saved 2. Consi●er This Beam is a Beam of Cedar it is an incorruptible thing The Apostle calls the Word and Oath of God two immutable things It must needs be so because of the immutable Nature of God he is a God that cannot lye that cannot speak that which is false he is a God that cannot repent he cannot like man eat his word or recede from it David saith That the Word of the Lord is settled in the Heavens The Grass may wither and the Flower may fade but the Word of the Lord must stand for ever Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle thereof cannot fail Hath he said it and shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall not he bring it to pass The Apostle calls the word of Prophecy a sure Word The word of Prophecy is sure and the word of Promise is sure therefore trust to it 3. It is a Beam that never yet brake never Soul miscarried that trusted its whole weight upon it What greater Arguments can any have to persuade his Soul to trust to the Word of God than these two First That the Nature of the word is such that it cannot fail The truth of God cannot be turned into a lye Secondly That no instance can be produced of any Soul that miscarried in its confidence Look over all the Book of God and find me Gods Word given to any Soul for anything whether temporal or spiritual and it was not made good unto him indeed the Visions have sometime tarried beyond the patience of God's People but they have alwaies been fulfilled in their seasons 4. Consider how unreasonable a thing it is that thou shouldest trust to the word of a man and distrust the Word of a God You think your selves concerned to trust in the Royal word of a King in the serious word of a Noble Person in the word of an ordinary Friend who is but accounted morally honest how unreasonable a thing then is it that thou shouldest not take the word of a God the word of him who cannot lye To sum up this then Christian what though thou hast nothing but the word of God to trust to either for those things which concern thee as to this Life or for those things which concern thee as to another Life yet the Word of God is enough it is the Beam of Christ's House and it is a Beam of Cedar which cannot corrupt or putrifie