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
A62128	XXXVI sermons viz. XVI ad aulam, VI ad clerum, VI ad magistratum, VIII ad populum : with a large preface / by the right reverend father in God, Robert Sanderson, late lord bishop of Lincoln ; whereunto is now added the life of the reverend and learned author, written by Isaac Walton.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.; Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.	1686 (1686)	Wing S638; ESTC R31805	1,064,866	813

Beloved it is admirable to observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's gracious courses which he useth for the calling of men to repentance In this particularity whereof we now speak see how his Mercy and Truth are met together and do most lovingly embrace each other Where he spareth in the end it is most certain he ever meant to spare from the beginning but that his everlasting purpose is part of his secret counsel and unrevealed will which as we cannot learn so we may not seek to know till the event declare it Now to bring this his secret purpose about he must work those men to repentance whom he hath thus everlastingly purposed to spare else his Justice should become unquestionable in finally sparing the impenitent Amongst other means to work men to Repentance this is one to threaten them with such Judgments as their sins have deserved which threatning the more terrible it is the more likely it is to be effectual and the more peremptory it is the more terrible it is So then God to bring those men to Repentance whom he meaneth to spare in his Word and by his Messengers denounceth against them such Iudgments as their sins have deserved and as his Iustice without their Repentance would bring upon them denounceth them I say absolutely and in a peremptory form without any express Clause of Reservation or Exception the more to terrifie and affright them and to cast them down to the deeper acknowledgment of his Justice and their own unworthiness which are yet to be understood conditionally and interpreted with reservation and exception of Repentance You have heard Evidence enough to acquit God's Truth and do by this time I doubt not perceive how as in all other things so in the revoking of his Threatnings God's Mercy and his Truth go hand in hand together Let us now see what profitable inferences may be raised hence for our use The sum of all we have said is but this God's Threatnings are terrible but yet conditional and if he spare to execute them when we are humbled by them it is a glorious illustration of his Mercy but without the least impeachment of his Truth Here is something for the Distressed something for the Secure something for All to learn First for the Distressed Consider this and take comfort all you that mourn in Sion and groan under the weight of God's heavy displeasure and the fearful expectation of those bitter Curses and Iudgments which he hath threatned against sin Why do you spend your strength and spirit in gazing with broad eyes altogether on Gods Iustice or Truth take them off a little and refresh them by fastening them another while upon his Mercy Consider not only what he threatneth but consider withal why he threatneth it is that you may repent and withal how he threatneth it is unless you repent He threatneth to cast down indeed but into Humiliation not into Despair He shooteth out his Arrows even bitter words but as Ionathan's Arrows for warning not for destruction Think not he aimeth so much at thy punishment when he threatneth alas if that were the thing he sought he could lay on load enough without words No it is thy amendment he aimeth at and seeketh therein and therefore holdeth not his tongue that if thou wilt take it for a warning he may hold his hand If the Father do but threaten the Child when the Rod lyeth by him it is very likely he meaneth not to correct him for that time but only to make him the more careful to obey and the more fearful to offend for the time to come Canst thou gather hope from the chiding of thy Earthly Father and wilt thou find no comfort in the chidings and threatnings of thy Heavenly Father whose bowels of tender compassion to usward are so much larger than any Earthly Parents can be by how much himself the Father of spirits is greater than those fathers of our flesh Yea but who am I will some disconsolate soul say that I should make Gods Threatnings void or what my Repentance that it should cancel the Oracles of Truth or reverse the Sentence of the eternal Judge Poor distressed soul that thus disputest against thine own peace but seest not the while the unfathomed depth of Gods Mercy and the wonderful dispensations of his Truth Know that his Threatnings are not made void or of none effect when thou by thy Repentance stayest the execution of them yea rather then are they of all other times most effectual for then do they most of all accomplish their proper End and the thing for which they were intended in thy Amendment Neither let his Truth make thee despair but remember that the tenor of all his most peremptory threatnings runneth with an implicit reservation and Conditional Exception of Repentance which condition if thou on thy part faithfully perform the Judgment shall be turned away and yet God's Truth no whit impaired This for the Distressed Now for the Secure Moses in Deut. 29. speaketh of a certain Root that beareth Gall and Wormwood that blesseth it self when God curseth and standeth unmoved when God threatneth Here is an Axe for that Root to hew it in pieces and unless it bring forth better fruit to cleave it out for the fire If therebe any sprigs or spurns of that Root here let them also consider what hath been said and tremble Consider this I say and tremble all you that make a mock at God and at his Word and imagine that all his Threatnings are but Bruta fulmina empty cracks and Powder without shot because sundry of them have fallen to the ground and not done the hurt they made shew of But know whosoever thou art that thus abusest the Mercy and despisest the Truth of God that as his Mercy never did so his Truth shall never fail Thou sayest some of his Threatnings have done no harm I say as much too and his mercy be blessed for it but what is that to secure thee If any where God's Threatnings did no harm and wrought no destruction it was there only where they did good and wrought Repentance If they have turned thee from thy sins as they have done some others there is hope thou mayest turn them away from thee as some others have done But if they have done no good upon thee in working thy Repentance certainly they hang over thee to do thee harm and to work thy destruction Gods Threatnings are in this respect as all his other words are sure and stedfast and such as Shall never return void but accomplish that for which they were sent if not the one way then without all doubt the other If they do not humble thee they must overwhelm thee if they work not thy Conversion they will thy Ruine As some strong Physick that either mendeth or endeth the Patient so are these And therefore when judgments are denounced resolve quickly off or

Semen Dei as St. Iohn calleth it the seed of the second Adam Iesus Christ God blessed for ever derived unto us by the communication of his holy Spirit inwardly renewing us together wherewith is also derived a measure of inherent supernatural grace as the inward principle whence all these choice fruits of the Spirit do flow 11. So that upon the whole matter these two Points are clear First clear it is that all the wicked practices recited and condemned in the foregoing verses with all other of like quality do proceed meerly from the corruption that is in us from our own depraved minds and wills without any the least cooperation of the holy Spirit of God therein It cannot stand with the goodness of God to be the principal and neither with his goodness nor greatness to be an Accessory in any sinful action He cannot be either the Author or the Abettor of any thing that is evil Whoso therefore hath committed any sin let him take heed he do not add another and a worser to it by charging God with it rather let him give God and his Spirit the glory by taking all the blame and shame of it to himself and his own Flesh. All sinful works are works of the Flesh. 12. Secondly it is clear also that all the holy affections and performances here mentioned with all other Christian vertues and graces accompanying Salvation not here mentioned though wrought immediately by us and with the free consent of our own wills are yet the fruit of Gods Spirit working in us That is to say They do not proceed originally from any strength of nature or any inherent power in mans free-will nor are they acquired by the culture of Philosophy the advantages of Education or any improvement whatsoever of natural abilities by the helps of Art or Industry but are in truth the proper effects of that supernatural grace which is given unto us by the good pleasure of God the Father merited for us by the precious blood of God the Son and conveyed into our hearts by the sweet and secret inspirations of God the holy Ghost Love Ioy Peace c. are fruits not at all of the Flesh but meerly and entirely of the Spirit 13. All those very many passages in the New Testament which either set forth the unframeableness of our nature to the doing of any thing that is good Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good thought In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing and the like or else ascribe our best performances to the glory of the grace of God Without me you can do nothing All our sufficiency is of God Not of your selves it is the gift of God It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed and the like are so many clear confirmations of the Truth Upon the evidence of which truth it is that our mother the Church hath taught us in the Publick Service to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would ●ndue us with the grace of his holy Spirit to amend our lives according to his holy Word And again consonantly to the matter we are how in hand with almost in terminis that he would give to all men encrease of grace to hear meekly his word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit As without which grace it were not possible for us to amend our lives or to bring forth such fruits according as God requireth in his holy Word 14. And the Reason is clear because as the tree is such must the fruit be Do men look to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Or can they expect from a salt Fountain other than brackish water Certainly what is born of Flesh can be no better than Flesh. Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean Or how can any thing that good is proceed from a heart all the imaginations of the thoughts whereof are only and continually evil If we would have the Fruit good reason will and our Saviour prescribeth the same method that order be taken first to make the tree good 15. But you will say It is as impossible so to alter the nature of the Flesh as to make it bring forth good spiritual fruit as it is to alter the Nature of a Crab or Thorn so as to make it bring forth a pleasant Apple Truly and so it is if you shall endeavour to mend the fruit by altering the stock you shall find the labour altogether fruitless A Crab will be a Crab still when you have done what you can and you may as well hope to wash an Ethiopian white as to purge the Flesh from sinful pollution 16. The work therefore must be done quite another way not by alteration but addition That is leaving the old principle to remain as it was by superinducing ab extra a new principle of a different and more kindly quality We see the experiment of it daily in the graffing of trees A Crab-stock if it have a Cyen of some delicate apple artly grafted in it look what branches are suffered to grow out of the stock it self they will all follow the nature of the stock and if they bring forth any fruit at all it will be sowre and stiptick But the fruit that groweth from the graft will be pleasant to the taste because it followeth the nature of the Graft We read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an engrafted word Jam. 1. Our carnal hearts are the old stock which before the Word of God be grafted in it cannot bring forth any spiritual fruit acceptable to God But when by the powerful operation of his holy Spirit the Word which we hear with our outward ears is inwardly grafted therein it then bringeth forth the fruit of good living So that all the bad fruits that appear in our lives come from the old stock the Flesh and if there be any good fruit of the Spirit in us it is from the virtue of that word of grace that is grafted in us 17. It should be our care then since the Scriptures call so hard upon us for fruits to be fruitful in good works to bring forth fruits meet for repentance c. and threaten us with excision and fire if we do not bring forth fruit and that good fruit too it should be our care I say to bestow at least as much diligence about our hearts as good husbands do about their fruit-trees They will not suffer any suckers or luxuriant branches to grow from the stock but as soon as they begin to appear or at least before they come to any bigness cut them off and cast them away By so doing the grafts thrive the better and bring forth fruit both sooner and fairer God hath entrusted us with the custody and culture of our own hearts as Adam was put into ●he Garden to keep