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
B02276	The spouses hidden glory, and faithfull leaning upon her wellbeloved. Wherein is laid down the soules glory in Christ, and the way by which the soule comes to Christ. Delivered in two lecture sermons in St. Andrewes church in Norwich. / By Iohn Collings Master of Arts, and preacher of Gods word in Saviours parish in Norwich.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1646 (1646)	Wing C5340A; ESTC R174086	70,368	91

this be not Repentance I know not what is not taking Repentance for the whole worke of conversion as sometimes it is taken in Scripture but taking Repentance for a wearinesse of sinne and sorrow for it But those of our Brethren here that are so afraid of Babylon that they will runne quite beyond Ierusalem so afraid of being Arminians or Papists to ascribe any desert to duties or tye that God hath to concurre with our duties that they are resolved they will not be sober Protestants So afraid of being Heterodox that to avoyd it they will not be Orthodox Tell us that this is a legall not a saving Repentance it soundsill to distinguish betweene a legall and saving Repentance I will digresse a little to rend this Fig-leafe being all they have to cover the nakednesse of their Opinion I would faine understand that terme saving Repentance in what sense they take it the Scripture warrants no such distinction If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as merits Salvation or such a Repentance as God is tyed necessarily to concurre with with his saving grace I say no Repentance can be saving Repentance No Repentance saith Learned Davenant can so dispose the heart Ut ex merito congrui teneatur Deus gratiam cuiquam infundere If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as of it selfe without any more adoe shall be sufficient to Salvation I say againe no Repentance can be called a saving Repentance For Without Faith it is impossible to please God If they meane by saving Repentance a repentance that conduceth to Salvation I say this kind of Repentance let them call it legall or what they please is a saving Repentance If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as is wrought ordinarily in such as shall be saved I say in that sense this Repentance is a saving Repentance Now Whether it ought not to be preacht as well from law as Gospel-motives is a question lyes not in my way to determine only I hear my Saviour though he were Gospel it sell preaching it from a Law-motive Luk. 13.2 Except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish Let the unprejudiced Reader judge if damnation be not there preached as a terrible motive to Repentance Surely I then may learne to preach from the Best of Preachers and preach Repent or you will goe to Hell Repent or you will be damn'd as well as Repent because God hath loved you Yea and John too preacht Repentance as well because The axe was laid to the root of the tree and whatsoever tree brought not forth good fruit should be hewen downe and cast into the fire as because The Kingdome of Heaven was at hand I dare not learne contrary to Christ and Baptists Copy I will preach Mercy and Judgement The Law and the Gospel goe well together I will not be accursed for seperating what God hath joyned But Lastly I conceive Wee cannot call any Repentance saving Repentance till the worke of conversion be fully wrought in our soules Nay I make a question whither any man without the grace of Assurance can properly call his Repentance saving Repentance till he comes in Heaven And for my owne part I am full in the Negative But I have digressed too farre to convince some who I feare are not so willing to suffer the word of conviction as I to speak it We left the Spouse in the second wildernesse The wildernesse of sorrow 't is time wee now returne to her and comfort her and shew you how she comes out of that leaning upon her Beloved Here now the beloved Soule is mourning like a Turtle and crying O what shall I doe to be saved I am lost oh how shall I find the way out of this wildernesse O my sins pull me back I cannot set a step forward Sin trips up my heeles The Devill tels me I am his and my sins beare witnesse to his words Now she that is not the Spouse of Christ sinkes in these mighty waters she sinkes to hell in despaire is quite lost if once she comes into them But he that said not one of those whom his father had given him should perish seeing the poore soule like Peter Math. 14.30 that thought to have trode upon those waters sinking in them and crying Lord save me or else I perish when he sees such a poore soules ship in which he is though he seemes to sleepe tost in these bitter waves when the tempest ariseth and hearing the soule in this Agony crying out Master save me or else I perish now he begins to arise and stretch out his shoulder for the soule to leane upon speakes and rebukes the winds and calmes the busie tempests when the Whale of sorrow hath swallowed up these Jonahs and they are in the bottome of the Sea in the Whales belly they cry their God heares and causeth the Whale to vomit them out on the dry land Me thinkes that voyce of Ionah is the voice of every penitent soule Ionah 2. The soule cries by reason of her affliction unto the Lord and the Lord heares her out of the belly of hell she cries and he heares her voyce for he hath cast her into this deepe into the midst of the Seas and the flouds compasse her about and all the billowes and the waves past over her Then the soule saith I am cast out of the Lords sight yet I will looke again towards his holy Temple The waters compasse her about even to the soule the depths closed round about her the weeds were wrapt about her head she went downe to the bottome of the mountains the earth with her barres was about her yet her Lord her God brings up her life from corruption when her soule faints within her she remembers the Lord and her prayers come unto him even into his holy place And when the soule is in this wildernesse in the deepes of sorrow then her Beloved doth throw her his shoulder of supporting grace to leane upon that she saith as David Psal 94.17 18. Unlesse the Lord had been my helpe my soule had almost dwelt in silence when I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up When the soule cries O I am drowned Then the Lords mercy holds her up No saith God thou art not drowned here is a cord of mercy for thee to lay hold upon and I will draw thee out by it Here is my hand be still O ye waves this soule is mine When the soule is burthened with sins laden with the sense of them and in the sad apprehension of them cries out my burthen is too great for mee to beare O I sinke I sinke under it then Christ lookes out of the heavens and saies Cast thy burthen upon the Lord man and he shall sustaine thee Psal 55.22 or Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11.29 The supporting grace of God is the Anchor of the soule which

as welcome as any thing to him but he is loath to sue a divorce for this Beloved he is loath to part with his old love for a new till he seeth how he can love him But at a venture he will take him in p●rtem amoris O wretch flatter not thy selfe if Christ be thy Beloved he will endure no Polygamy you must leave your sins or be without your Christ The true Spouse leanes upon her Beloved not upon her Beloveds upon her now Beloved she forsakes her old Lastly this may serve to reproove 1. Those that would leane upon Christ but they dare not trust their soules upon Christ alone Forsooth he will be the Spouse of Christ but he must leane upon Christ with one hand and his good workes with the other The whore of Babylon commits adultery with her selfe 2. Under this lash comes a better ranke of people that when God hath shewed them their owne sinfull sad condition they do not only performe duties pray and mourne and repent and be humbled all which they ought to do but they are ready to rest in them and make them their Beloved It is naturall to the soule that God hath made to loath its sins to love its duties it finds duties almost as consentaneous to its nature as sins were before and it is too ready to thinke that its saving or damning depends upon such a quantity of teares and humiliation Hence you heare soules in this condition often complaining oh I could beleeve if I were humbled enough if I could but mourne enough This soule doth well to be sensible of the hardnesse of its own heart and it is too true it can never mourne it can never be humbled enough But it doth ill to thinke that free-grace stints its operation and blessed influence to such a quantity of teares if it be humbled enough to see its want of Christ The water runs through the river that is the way to the Sea but it doth not rest in the river but with a swift and continued motion runs betwixt the banks till it comes and is swallowed up in the Sea Even so the soule ought to run through duties but not to rest betwixt the bankes of duties but to run through till it come to the Sea of free-grace where it will be swallowed up of infinite mercy and our imperfections will be drowned in his infinite perfection we ought to take duties in our way to Christ but not to make duties our Jesus God hath ordained that they should fit us for him but it is written My glory will I not give to another The glory of the Lords free-grace is his greatest glory he will not give that to any other None shall share with him in his Spouses love he is a jealous Saviour The Spouse leanes upon her Beloved not Beloveds Thus I have done with my use of reproofe The next use is for examination here may every one try himselfe whether he be the Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ or no Even by what hath been already said I will reduce it all 〈◊〉 three heads First Examine thy selfe whether thou beest out of the wildernesse of sin yea or no. Secondly Whether thou wert or art in any other wildernesse yea or no. Thirdly What was or is thy demeanour in these wildernesses thou hast been or art in and how hast thou come or dost thou come out Examine whether thou beest not in the wildernesse of sin yea or no It was given as the Character of the Spouse to come out of this wildernesse O but how shall I know that will the soule say I will name two or three notes by which thou mayest suspect thy selfe as from probabilities 1. The wildernesse it is an incult place a place where the soyle was never tilled it is as hard almost as a milstone the over-growne Trees were never pruned the unruly boughs never lopt the bushes never cut or stubbed dost thou finde thy heart in such a condition that it is as hard as ever neither judgement breakes it nor mercy melts it the fallow-ground of it is not plowed nor the seed of righteousnesse sowne in it Thy unruly lusts are not tamed thy life is as much overgrowne with sin as ever it was thy sins were never yet cut off from the body of thy life O friend suspect thy selfe Thou mayest justly feare yea and know too that thou art not the Spouse of Christ thou art in the wildernesse in thy naturall estate Secondly The wildernesse is a barren place it brings forth no corne for the sickle no wholesome fruit no figgs no grapes for mans pallat for can a man gather grapes of thistles or figgs of thornes No pastures wholsome for the beasts The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wildernesse Joel 1.19 And God complained that Nineveh was dry like a wildernesse Zeph. 2.13 Art thou a barren and unfruitfull creature that dost nothing for God thy heart is a barren heart no seeds of good are sowne there thy tongue is a barren tongue no good words come out thence thy whole soule a barren soule not a good action upon the record of thy life Indeed no soule can be barren the soule is of a working nature but sinfull workes are unfruitfull workes in the Apostles language The unfruitfull workes of darknesse and what fruits had ye of those things whereof you are now ashamed Gods Spouse is a fruitfull creature Gal 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering c. A barren soule is alwaies a wildernesse soule Those that are borne of God bring forth fruits unto God Thirdly Thou mayest know whether thou beest in the wildernesse or no by the company thou delightest in It is a known rule Noscitur ex socio qui non dignoscitur ex se He that is a wildernesse creature loves wildernesse company the wolves and beares and foxes but he that is out keeps the company of men dost thou love the wildernesse company the swinish drunkard the politike Foxe the malitious Lyon the venemous lyar and slanderer the lascivious wanton more then the Children of God oh suspect thy selfe By this we know saith John that we are translated from death to life if we love the Brethren Lazarus when he was raised from the grave we do not read he went to keep the dead men company again those that God hath raised from the death of their sins live amongst living men and delight in living mens company Thus examine whether thou beest come out of the wildernesse of sin or no. Secondly As comming out of the wildernesse is a sign of the child of God so being in the wildernesse is likewise a note whereby thou mayest know thy selfe Gods Spouse comes out of one wildernesse into another out of the wildernesse of sin into the wildernesse of sorrow and out of that to their Saviour Wouldest thou know whether thou art found or no Examine whether thou wert ever lost or no wouldst thou know whether ever