Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	fruit_n	good_a	tree_n	12,773	5	9.6998	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94160	A sermon preached at Nevvport in the Isle of Wight, October 1648. In the time of the treaty. / By Robert Sanderson, D.D. chaplain to the late King, and Regius-Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxon.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1653 (1653)	Wing S628; Thomason E702_15; ESTC R203446	18,328	25

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 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 then brackish water certainly what is born of flesh can be no better then 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 onely 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 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 endeavor to mend the fruit by altering the stock you shall find your 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 Aethiopian white as to purge the flesh from sinful pollution The work therefore must be done quite another way not by alteration but by addition that is leaving the old Principle to remain as it was by super-inducing ab extra a new Principle of a different and more kindly qualitie We see the experiment daily in the grafting of Trees A Crab-stock if it have a cyon of some delicate Apple is artificially 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 sowr and styptick but the fruit that groweth from the graft will be pleasant to the taste because it followeth to the nature of the graft We read of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} An engrafted word James 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 fruits 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 vertue of that word of grace that is grafted in us 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 as much diligence about our hearts as good husbands do about their fruit-fruit-trees they will not Suffer any sucker or luxuriant branches to grow from the stock but assoon 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 graft thrives the better and brings forth fruit both sooner and fairer God hath intrusted us with the custody and culture of our own hearts as Adam was put into the Garden to keep it and to dress it and besides the charge given us in that behalf it behoveth us much for our own good to keep them with all diligence if we husband them well the benefit will be ours he looketh for no more but his Rent and that an easie Rent the glory and the thanks the fruits wholly accrue to us as usu-fructuaries but if we be such ill husbands so careless and improvident as to let them sylvescere overgrow with wild and superfluous branches to hinder the thriving of the grafts whereby they become ill-liking and unfruitful we shall neither answer the trust committed to us nor be able to pay our Rent we shall bring him in no glory nor do our selves any good but run behind hand continually and come to nought at last It will behove us therefore if we will have our fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life to look to it betimes lest some root of bitterness springing up put us to more trouble then we are aware of for the present or can be well able to deal withal afterwards The flesh will find us work enough to be sure it is ever and anon putting forth spurns of Avarice Ambition Envy Revenge Pride Luxury some noysome lust or other Like a rotten Dunghil that 's rank of weeds if we neglect them but a little out of a thought that they can do no great harm yet or that we shall have time enough to snub them hereafter we do it to our own certain disadvantage if not utter undoing we shal either never be able to overcome them or not without very much more labour and difficulty then we might have done it at the first In the mean time whilst these superfluous excrescencies {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I know not how to call them are suffered they draw away the sap to their own nourishment and so pine and starve the grafts that they never come to good {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. James we 'l translate it Wherefore laying aside perhaps it may import a little more the whole verse is worth the further considering if we had time to insist upon it it seemeth to allude throughout to the lopping off all those suckers or superfluous branches that hinder the prospering of Grafts as if he had said If you desire the holy word of God which is to be grafted in your hearts should bring forth fruit to the saving of your souls suffer not these filthy and naughty superfluities of fleshly lusts to hinder the growth thereof but off with them away with them and the sooner the better that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I should from this point before I had left it but that I have other things to speak to and may not insist have pressed two things more First the necessity of our Prayers It is true our endeavors are necessary God that doth our work for us will not do it without us but without the assistance of his holy Spirit all our endeavors are bootless and we have no reason to presume of his assistance if we think our selves too good to ask it We may not think we have done all our part toward fruit-bearing when we have planted and watered until we have earnestly sollicited him to

benefit is as nothing and in the service of God the benefit so great that in comparison thereof the pain is as nothing Where the flesh ruleth all the work exceedeth the fruit and therefore without ever mentioning the fruit they are called the works of the flesh But where the Spirit of God ruleth the fruit exceedeth the work and therefore without ever mentioning the work it is called the fruit of the Spirit If in this passage onely this different manner of speaking had been used by the Apostle it might perhaps have been taken for a casual expression unsufficient to ground any Collection upon But look into Ephes. 5. and you cannot doubt but it was done of choice and with this very meaning speaking there of the duties of Holiness even as here without any mention of work he calleth them by the name of fruits The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth verse 9. But by and by verse 11. speaking of sinful actions he doth not onely call them works but positively and expresly calleth them fruitless Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of Darknesse Works but without fruit unfruitfull works of darknesse This justifieth the Collection to be evident and naturall and without enforcement The waies of sin are very toilsome yet withall unfruitfull but in all spirituall labour there is profit the fruit wil countervail the paines and recompence it abundantly We may not unfitly apply to these two his words in the Comedy In his fructus est in illis Opera luditur The paths of sin seem indeed at the first hand and in the entrance to be very pleasant and even The Divel to draw men in goeth before like a Leveller and smootheth the way for them but when they are in he driveth them along and on they must Be the way never so dark and slippery never so crooked and craggy never so intricate or perplext being once engaged they must go through it per saxa per ignes stick at nothing be it never so contrary to the Laws of God or men to all Natural Civil or Religious Obligations yea even to the Principles of common humanity and reason that Avarice Ambition Revenge or any other vitious Lust putteth them upon Ambulavimus vias difficiles they confess it at last when it is too late and befool themselves for it We have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction we have gone through dangerous waies c. Wisd. 5. They have wearied themselves to work iniquity saith the Prophet Jeremiah And the Prophet Habbacuk The people labour in the very fire The Greek word that signifieth wickedness cometh of another that signifieth labour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And how often in the Scriptures do we meet with such like Phrases asthese to work wickedness works of iniquity Saint Chrysostomes eloquence inlargeth it self and triumpheth in this Argument more frequently and with greater variety of invention and amplification then in almost any other and he cleareth it often and beyond all exception both by Scripture and Reason that the life of a wicked or worldly man is a very drudgery infinitely more toylsome vexatious and unpleasant then a Godly life is Now if after all this drayling the fruits would though but in a scant proportion answer the pains it were the more tolerable but there is no such matter the sinner hath but his Labour for his Pains Nay I may say it were happy for him if he had but his Labour for his Pains and that there were not a worse matter yet behind The best they can hope in the mean time is nothing but vanity and vanity is nothing Man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain saith David The work disquietness the fruit vanity The people labour in the very fire you heard but now from the Prophet his very next words are They weary themselves for very vanity Saint Peter therefore calleth the conversation of a sinner a vain conversation And S. Paul putteth the question home to their consciences after a sort challenging them to answer directly to it if they could What fruit had ye then of those things c. Rom. 6. No great reason then if we well consider it why we should envy sinners though they prosper never so much in wicked designes and seem to reap the fruit of their labours in the success of their affairs All temporal advantages of Wealth Honour Power Pleasure and the like which are the utmost fruit that a sinner can fancy to himself of all his labours have but the shew and semblance not the truth and reality of fruit both because in the mean time they give not that satisfaction in the injoyment which was desired and expected from them in the pursuit as they write of the Apples of Sodom that look very fair and full and tempt the eye but as soon as touched Fathiscunt in vagum pulverem like a Fussbal resolve all into dust and smoak as also because they have a very ill farewel with them at the last Honey in the mouth perhaps and that but perhaps neither but Gall certainly in the stomack if not rather rank Poyson Know they not it will be bitterness in the end Shame Sorrow and bitter repentance and that is the best end imaginable of such bad beginnings but without repentance eternal death and damnation not to be avoided For the end of those things abused and continued in is death Let us not therefore either envy their prosperity or yet follow their example Wherefore should we lay out our money for that which is not bread or our labour for that which satisfieth not when we drive a far easier trade with far more profit another way have less toyl and yet reap more fruit and that is by walking in the holy wayes of God and taking upon us the yoke of Christ that we are told is an easie yoke at least in comparison of the other that of Satan and a light burden And we have no reason to disbelieve it Truth it self having told us so especially considering that he putteth under the shoulder himself also and by helping to bear with us beareth off in a manner the whole weight from us leaving no more for us to carry then by the strength he giveth us he knoweth we are well able to bear if we will but put to our good wils and use that strength Nay do but compare the works themselves and you must conclude that his Commandments are more equitable and less grievous then are the imperious commands of our own raging and exorbitant lusts Will not any reasonable man upon the hearing of the names of the things onely presently yeild that Love and Joy and Peace and Gentleness for example which are fruits of the Spirit are far more lovely and desirable more easie and delightful fuller of sweetness and