Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	good_a	seed_n	sow_v	1,957	5	9.8778	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29159	A sermon preached at White-hall, March 3, 1694/5, upon occasion of Her late Majesties death before the Right Honourable the Countess of Derby, and the rest of the mourning ladies / by Nicholas Brady ... ; published at the request of that honourable audience.	Brady, Nicholas, 1659-1726.	1695 (1695)	Wing B4178; ESTC R37127	12,889	36

reign over them and slaying them openly before his face And this is one of the great ends which God aims at by afflicting he does not delight to grieve the sons of men he takes no pleasure in the miseries of his Creatures but inflicts a less punishment to secure us from a greater and chastises us in mercy to lead us to Repentance And how then should he rejoyce that is under these circumstances when he contemplates upon the tenderness which God expresses herein how ought he to kiss the Rod that is laid on with so kind and fatherly an intention how chearfully should he endeavour to answer the blessed end of his inflictions that so God may be entreated to withdraw his heavy hand who notwithstanding that he seems to hide his face from him yet has not forgotten to be gracious nor has shut up his loving kindness in displeasure But Secondly God sometimes is pleased to chasten and correct us for the tryal of our Faith and the exercise of our Patience It is easie to pretend that we will rely upon God that we will put our whole trust and confidence in him when nothing more is required to prove that we are real but our own bare affirming that we are so it is easie to believe that God will seed and cloath us when our Faith is supported by a plentiful Estate it is easie to believe that God watches over us when we enjoy the great advantages of health and prosperity but when God shall strip us bare of all these comforts when hunger and nakedness and sickness and adversity beset us round then to have a Faith that is stedfast and unmovable in all these changes this is praise worthy and acceptable with God we may think we are willing to depend upon him but our hearts which are deceitful above all things may delude us and we cannot be sure of our own Integrity till we have gone through a Temptation of this nature he that has passed this fiery Tryal and has been thus refined in the furnace of adversity has then been examined by the truest Touchstone and has sufficiently demonstrated that his Faith is not counterfeit But as afflictions are sent for the Tryals of our Faith so also are they for the exercise of our Patience This is a Grace which can never be practiced but in the rough Tempests of Adversity it rppears like the Rain-bow only in Storms but is like that a sign of Mercy and the happy fore-runner of a Calm When we are possessed of an influence of all things desirable and have nothing that pinches or contradicts our humour it is easie for us to comply with the will of God because we find it so conformable then with our own it is easie to be contented with the Divine dispensations because our affairs are then carried on as if we our selves had the disposal of them but to have our wills resigned to Gods good pleasure when that thwarts all our Interests and all our Desires to submit chearfully to whatsoever he imposes how contrary soever to our own Inclinations this is such a patience as becomes a Christian and which God will not fail abundantly to reward for this is another of his designs in visiting us with afflictions to wean us from our selves to break our stubborn wills and bend them to the yoak which he would put upon us and then he will take care when this end is obtained to make his yoke easie and his burthen light and the brightest Crown of Glory shall be then set apart to reward this faith and patience of the Saints These considerations of Gods gracious designs in all his Inflictions either to work our amendment by a sense of our unworthiness or to encrease our recompence for the exercise of fresh graces should buoy up our Spirits under all our Tribulations and should forcibly perswade us to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations But Thirdly and lastly From the consideration of those consequences which attend our afflictions it will evidently appear that whensoever they befall us if we meditate upon them duly as Christians should do they afford us just matter of Joy and Consolation A good Christian is always bettered by afflictions he is improved by sufferings and made perfect through tryals he is purified like Gold by passing through the fire his dross is purged away and his value made unquestionable Pride which was the destruction of our humane Nature can find no place in the midst of Sufferings and Humility which is the Ground work of all Christian Graces is most successfully advanced and cultivated by them when the heart is made soft and tender by adversity then is our Charity most likely to be enlarged and we are never more apt to compassionate our Brethren than when we our selves are objects of Pity This gives us a fellow-feeling of the miseries of others and convinces us how inhumane it is to be unaffected with them by the sence which we have of the bitterness of our own This withdraws our dependance from the things of this world and makes us throw our selves for succour entirely upon God because it gives us a sensible Experience that he only is able to administer Relief then is our hope most quick and lively when it has so large a field to range in and that we find our selves possessed of nothing but all things lye open to our expectations then will the Flesh be most manageable and submissive when all the Delights and Entertainments of it are utterly withdrawn then will the World be least able to seduce us when we are least involved in its bewitching vanities and most fully estranged from its inviting allurements Thus will afflictions refrain our Souls and keep them low even as a Child that is weaned from its Mother and a constant disposition to Innocency and Purity will be one happy consequence of these Temptations But a greater consolation than any we have mentioned is the blessed result of these Calamities and of that devout temper which is produced by them and that is the favour and protection of our God if he takes away from us all other supports it is that we may fly to him only for succour and affistance and what can more fully recommend us to a merciful Creator than a view of the miseries which his Creatures lye under and that submiss frame of mind to which those have reduced them they have had their evil things in this world and therefore shall like Lazarus be comforted in the other whilst those who with the Rich Glutton had their good things here have unless they have used them with extraordinary care the less to expect of happiness hereafter Blessed then are those that mourn for they shall be comforted their heaviness may endure for a night but joy shall come to them in the morning they may sow in tears but they shall reap in joy and he that now goes on his way weeping and bears forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and shall bring his sheaves with him These Considerations therefore of the happy consequences which attend our afflictions that they make us better in this world and prepare us to be happier in the next should powerfully engage us to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations Let us all then in the name of God whenever it shall please him to try us with afflictions and particularly in that heavy one which he has laid upon us at present submit to them with that willingness and chearfulness of Spirit that becomes professors of our most holy Religion let us never be distracted as the Natural man is who being destitute of the helps of Grace and Religion finds nothing in them but sorrow and distress but let us consider that other things are expected from us suitable to the advantages we stand possessed of Let us reflect upon the nature of them as Christians should and that under all their several circumstances whether loss of Reputation of Riches or of Liberty of our Friends our Health or Life it self and we shall find them to be matter of Joy and Consolation Let us examin the design of Gods inflicting them and we shall find them directed to those comfortable ends of our being exemplarily penitent in this world and eminently happy in that which is to come Let us reflect upon the consequences which necessarily flow from them and they will appear to be these great advantages of Constancy and Perfection in all Christian Duties and a reward proportionable to such performances So shall we learn to value afflictions as we ought to sanctifie and improve them to our comfort and advantage and to place them amongst the instances of Gods favour and affection so shall we be qualified to count it all joy when we fall into divers Iemptations Consider what hath been said and the Lord give you a right Understanding To him the Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons but one God be ascribed all Honor Power Might Majesty and Dominion henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS