Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	bring_v	fruit_n	hew_v	3,413	5	12.3365	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34193	Sermons preach'd on several occasions by John Conant.; Sermons. Selections	Conant, John, 1608-1693.; Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1693 (1693)	Wing C5684; ESTC R1559	241,275	626

must not expect that patience and forbearance at his hands which he was pleased to exercise towards those who lived in darker Ages and times of Ignorance Barren Trees might long stand before Mat 3.10 but now the Ax is laid to the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire The main Errand and Design of the Gospel is that men be turned from darkness to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan unto God To this purpose is that of the Apostle Rom. 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And again Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present sent world 2 Tim. 2 19. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity But this is that which the corrupt Heart of man can least of all endure Men are unwilling to see their sins but much more unwilling to forsake them Whence else are those excuses which many frame when they are invited to come unto Christ One is ingaged in this business and it must be dispatched he must be dispensed with till it be over Another is ingaged in that Affair Luke 14.18 19 20. and he is not at leisure Whence else are those downright and peremptory Refusals Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Yea you would not be gained and prevailed with to come by the largest Proffers by the most rich and excellent Promises The greatest Love and Tenderness the most Compassionate Solicitations and Importunities are not able to overcome them into a willingness what to do To be undone No to be made for ever to be gathered under the Wings of Christ's most tender Care and Love that they might be everlastingly Happy in the Fruition of him That sin is the cause of this peremptory refusal cannot be denied for nothing but sin could so bewitch and transport them that they should with so much obstinacy stand in their own light wilfully thrust away from themselves Everlasting Life and forsake their own Mercies 'T is agreed on that all men naturally desire happiness 't is Nature's Language Who will shew us any good Psal 4.6 Could men therefore reject Eternal Happiness and Glory upon any other Consideration than that the Terms on which 't is offered seem to be too hard They must part with their sins if they will be happy and O how hard a saying is this to Flesh and Blood The Friendship which is between the heart of man and sin being so strict and entire can that light of the Gospel be welcome to him whose Errand from Heaven is to make an everlasting separation between him and his sins Most clear it is that wicked men while such cannot abide the light and that however they may endeavour to cover over their Enmity against it with other pretensions yet the true reason why they hate it is the wickedness of their hearts and lives they therefore hate it because their deeds are evil as our Saviour gives us an account of the ground of their hatred thereof But it may here be objected That the Holy Scriptures elsewhere seem to give other reasons of mens not entertaining the light of the Gospel Sometimes they seem to impute it to the sublimity and to the mysterious Nature of the great Truths contained in the Gospel 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Sometimes the Scriptures impute it to the subtilty and malice of Satan darkening the minds of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them And lastly otherwhile the Scriptures speak of God's concealing the Mysteries of the Gospel from some men so our Saviour speaking to his Father saith Mat. 11.25 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent There being also these other reasons of mens not embracing the light of the Gospel how is it that our Saviour seems to lay the whole stress of this matter upon this that mens deeds are evil To this I answer 1. That it is not necessary that we should so understand our Saviour as if he intended to make man's sin the sole or only cause why he hates the light but one principal cause And that 't is a principal cause thereof hath already appeared from what hath been spoken and will yet more fully appear by what shall be further spoken in answer to the Objections Wherefore 2. Though there may be some other causes of mens hating the light and preferring darkness before it yet they may for the most part be some way or other resolved into this which our Saviour here mentioneth Other things may concur sometimes but there is scarce any thing that hath so general and almost so perpetual an influence upon mens hating declining running away from opposing and rejecting the light as mans sin That mostly all other causes may be resolved into this I shall endeavour to shew in answer to the forementioned Objections As to the first of them 't is most true that in Spiritual things there is a great disproportion between the Intellective Faculty as now 't is since the Fall and the Object The Mysteries of the Gospel are high and sublime our understanding is dark weak and shallow But 1. Whence came this disproportion Was it not very much from the sin of man at first who put out his own Eyes wounded his Intellectuals and weakened his natural Powers It cannot be denied but that Adam in the state of Innocency and Integrity though he could not have found out those deep Mysteries of the Gospel concerning our Redemption by Christ and the things relating thereunto they being things that have no natural cause from whence the highest created reason might deduce or collect them and many of them being things above Nature and such as depend meerly upon the good pleasure of God unknown to us until by himself revealed I say though Adam could not by the strength of his Reason and Natural Abilities have found out these deep things yet it cannot be denied but that if these things had been propounded to Adam to be assented to and believed

of the Law that he doth with much vehemency affirm the contrary Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the law through faith God forbid saith he yea we establish the law 2. Our Saviour in his preaching every where presseth Obedience to the Moral Law and urgeth the Duties thereof And in particular his most Divine and Excellent Sermon on the Mount doth in great part consist of that subject 3. In that Sermon he doth not only press the Duties of the Moral Law but vindicate the Law it self in many particulars and more strictly enforceth Obedience thereunto and severely threatens the Disobedient 4 He declares Mat. 5.20 that if our righteousness exceed not the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went very far in many things we shall never enter into the kingdom of God Promising Mercy to no Sinners but such as take his yoke upon them Mat. 11.29 And letting all workers of Iniquity and wilful Transgressors of the Law know that he will never acknowledge them for his but utterly disclaim them and cast them off at the great day of their appearance before him notwithstanding all their pleas and pretensions for being owned by him Mat. 7.23 5. As Christ himself ever called for Obedience to the Moral Law and urged the Duties thereof so did the Apostles after him St. Paul in his discourse with Felix Act 24.25 reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come And writing to the Corinthians he saith 1 Cor. 69 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God All which being Sins against the Moral Law exclude Men out of Heaven so strictly doth God still even now under the Gospel insist on and require Obedience to the Moral Law Rom. 13.1 2. And thus the Apostle presseth the Duty of Subjects to Magistrates the Duty of Parents to Children and of Children to Parents Col. 3.18 19 c. Col. 4.1 as also the respective Duties of Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants He that peruseth these Scriptures how can he think that the Moral Law is now out of date and no longer in force to them that have embraced the Gospel and by Faith received Christ 6. The Gospel is so far from discharging the Professors thereof from Obedience to the Law that it more strongly enforceth Obedience and lays an higher Obligation thereunto upon Christians than was laid upon the Jews in regard that greater Light and more powerful Motives and Inducements to Obedience are now afforded Hence those severe and terrible threatnings in case of Disobedience This is the condemnation Joh. 3.19 that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Mat. 3.10 Now is the Ax laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire Christ comes with his fan in his hand Luk. 3.17 and he will throughly purge his floor and gather the wheat into his garner but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thes 1.7 8. in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel Tit. 2.11 12. And what doth the grace of God revealed in this Gospel teach us but to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 7. Did Christ ever intend by his death to purchase for us a liberty of sinning Did he not therefore give himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And lastly on whom was the injunction of walking circumspectly here in the Text imposed Was it not on Believers And this may suffice to have been spoken to that Objection Obj. 5. If so much heedfulness and circumspection be required of Christians what will become of many that profess the Christian Religion We see no great numbers of them that are so strict and circumspect shall they all perish notwithstanding all the Priviledges which they enjoy in the visible Church who attain not to this circumspection A. Our Saviour hath plainly declared Mat. 20.16 Mat. 22.14 that many are called but few are chosen And again That wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat and that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life Mat. 7.13 14. and few there be that find it What can we say against such plain express and absolute passages of Scripture delivered by the mouth of him that is Truth it self and can neither deceive nor be deceived A very weighty and dreadful Truth it is that calls upon us all to give all diligence that we may be found in that small number which we are never likely to be unless we walk circumspectly If to walk circumspectly be a Duty incumbent on all Christians who is there amongst us all that may think himself exempted from it Who can plead for himself that he hath a particular Dispensation to lead his Life in another manner and to go to Heaven upon easier terms than others may But perhaps you will say though we are all enjoined to walk circumspectly and though it be a Duty incumbent on all yet 't is not enjoined as absolutely necessary to Salvation We may hope God intends not to shut all out of Heaven that have not walked circumspectly This were very hard A. I answer briefly If it be a Duty to walk circumspectly then 't is a Sin not so to walk and every Sin unrepented of excludes a man out of Heaven If any Man think this to be hard he must know that as hard as it is God will never alter the terms on which Eternal Life is offered men and frame more favourable and cheap terms to gratifie mens corrupt Affections Obj. 6. Many who never walked with so much circumspection die peaceably When they are going out of the World we hear of no complaints no discovery of fears no trouble of conscience A man would not wish to leave the World with more peace and quiet than many of these do A. To die without dread and horrour or free from inward troubles and conflicts is no certain and infallible Argument of a good Estate Their Estate is never the better or the more safe because they die quietly Their Consciences may be seared and their Hearts may be so hardened as they may have no sense of their Spiritual condition We find by Experience that this is the case of many a wicked man that hath led a very lewd and ungodly life Ask