Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
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A41106
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Christs alarm to drowsie saints, or, Christs epistle to his churches by William Fenner.
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Fenner, William, 1600-1640.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing F682; ESTC R25397
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286,079
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411
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but now the Lord hath put a vaile of flesh upon himselfe by incarnating his owne Son now we may make bold The use of this is First Is it so that Christ hath the seven Spirits of God Then what hath he not He is an all sufficient Saviour He is Gods Steward God hath put all his goods into his hands No man can be assured of any thing that is good but by comming unto him All things are delivered to me of my Father Mat. 11. 27. That is I have all my fathers goods in my hand Favour Pardon Mercy Grace Comfort Heaven it selfe yea and his holy Spirit and all I have the distributing of them all He is the store-house whither all needy soules are to goe He is full of all manner of good things as John saies Of his fulnesse have we al received Joh. 1. 1â— Looke what grace any of the Saints have they have it all of him he is Gods Conduit-pipe the Lord opens himselfe only in him he is the tap he lets out Gods Blessings and Graces and Spirit like a sluce Hee is the Lord Treasurer of Heaven and Earth As Joseph in Egypt if any one would have Corne they must goe to Joseph for it if they came to Pharaoh but for a pecke or a gallon presently he sent them to Joseph so the Lord sends all that will have any drop of mercy to his Sonne if yee will not goe to my Sonne yee shall not have one drop yee shall dye in your sinnes This is my welbeloved Sonne sayes hee looke yee heare him hearken to him obey him be ruled by him bow down unto him doe as he bids you if ye anger him and will not stoop unto him if your hearts will not burst if your minds will not off from the world and other things and be wholly intent unto him if yee slight him and suffer vain things to draw away your affections and thoughts and meditations from him there is no redemption for you No Salvation but onely by beleeving in his name he hath all the seven Spirits of God no Spirit of Grace at all can be had but onely of him he was the Rocke that Moses must stand on that the glory of Gods goodnesse might passe before him Secondly Another use is hath Christ the seven Spirits of God then wee are without excuse if wee be without the Holy Spirit of God Christ hath him to give and yet how few will seeke him of Jesus Christ as Christ sayes Yee will not come unto me that yee might have life Joh. 5. 40. That is if yee would come unto me I would make your dead hearts to live I would quicken you to all goodnesse I would powre my Holy Spirit upon you But you will not come unto me for it This makes us without excuse That Christ hath the Spirit in him for all that have a minde to him and wee have no minde How few among you to this very day have gotten yet Gods Holy Spirit Yee pray but yee have not the spirit of supplieation to pray by to lift up your hearts to enliven your desires to be able to wrestle with God to any purpose no Spirit of grace stirring in you When ye come to the house of God ye heare Sermons but the Holy Ghost does not fall upon you to make them effectuall and mightie in operation to convert you to God to knocke off your base lusts yee are dead in all holy duties voide of all Heavenly graces dull to every good thing even as the Body without the spirit is dead Nay the Spirit of the world dwelleth in most men tying and glving them to the things here below and will not let them savor and rellish the things of Heaven Whereby they cannot cease from sinne nor work the works of God Rare is that man now-a-dayes that hath the Holy Spirit of God remaining in him in any measure nay if people were asked whether they have the Spirit of God yea or no their owne Conscience could answer No they have not they never felt any such Divine ghuest their earthlinesse and lumpishnesse of heart in all the ordinances of God their unaquaintednesse with God their unsettlednesse and nakednesse and blindnesse in all the wayes of peace plainely does declare it and yet they will not come unto Christ that they might have life he hath the seven Spirits of God and yet they cannot finde in their hearts to be instant and earnest with him when Pharaoh appointed Joseph to distribute corne to all comers Goe to Joseph sayes he Gen. 41. 55. the Text sayes all Countries came to Joseph for Corne because the famine was sore in all lands But God hath appointed his own Sonne to be a dispencer of the Spirit and there is a sore want of the spirit every where in all Townes and Parishes and yet hardly any will come in Certainely this is the condemnation that men intend their pleasure and their profits and every outward thing and never seeke to Jesus to have the Holy Spirit of God For First many of us have hard hearts that cannot melt at our owne sinnes nor the publike provocations whereby God is provoked nor the generall calamities of the Church our hearts are like a stone and wee are not affected nor can be affected no relenting at the Word no bleeding in any other good dutie nothing moves us the spirit could soften yea and take the stone away and Christ saies hee would give him unto us if we did desire him I will put a new Spirit within you and take the stony heart out of the flesh Ezek. 11. 19. Hee hath spirit enough in him to doe it and yet we will not sue to him but in a feigned manner and so a hard heart possesseth us still which marres all our familie-duties and all that wee doe in the publike assemblies nothing comes of all that wee doe If our foolish hearts would come downe to be fervent after Christ this might be be remedied He hath the seven Spirits of God for the nonce But a spirit of slumber bewitches us and and nothing can awaken us to this very day Never was there a more hard-hearted time never more hard-hearted Christians nummed and past feeling wishing indeed the things mought be mended but never putting forth our hand to have them mended Secondly scarce any of us can pray but in a blunt-hearted-wise our prayers never stirre Heaven never give so much as a lift to any of our lusts neither are they any whit answerable to the miseries that are on us whether Personall or Nationall the spirit could helpe us and enlarge us as Paul saies of the good Romans Yee have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby yee cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. and Christ hath this Spirit in his hand to give But we would rather sit woulding and yawning then be downe on our knees before God Every one almost hath heavy things that he is consciencious of terrible guiltines horrible
digest it neither have they any minde to concoct it therefore mark there what follows Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord ver 11. that is you are more afraid of a famine of bread yee would bee more troubled if you had no Bread to eate nor liquour to drink you care not so it bee not that famine But think what you will I will send you a worse famine than that a famine of hearing of Gods Word Yee shall have Preaching little enough Little enough food for your soules seeing yee will bee filthy yee shall be filthy seeing ye will be heartlesse towards heavenly things ye shall bee heartlesse yee shall be hardned yee shall be let alone and the blinde shall lead the blinde and both shall fall into the ditch the wicked shall lead the wicked wicked Ministers the wicked people and both shall perish together and then though yee would never so fain have a Sermon that may come to the Conscience yee shall be long enough before yee shall hear it Yee shall starve for want of spirituall knowledge starved to death for want of life Seared in your sins yee shall have no Sermons to dispossesse you of Satan no teaching to purge your hearts to humble your soules before God or to minister the Spirit unto you yee are weary of the sound Ministery of the Word therefore ye shall not bee troubled with it This then is another sign that God will take away those few Stars that are yet remaining And then woe bee to you Fourthly when there are hardly any sonnes of peace that the Ministers peace may light upon then the Lord bids them pack away Like the Market folkes when they see their Commodities lie upon their hands they take up their Commodities lie upon their hands they take up their Commodities and goe home O say they people will give nothing they will not give our price wee and our children will have them for our own selves rather then wee will part with them for nothing So they goe away so Gods Ministers goe away when the Market is dead no Customer will come to their stalls So Paul and Barnabas went away from the Jews Yee put off the word from you and therefore lo wee turn unto the Gentiles Act. 13. 46. q. d. yee will have none of it wee have offered it to you and we were bid to doe so but ye put it off from you therefore fare yee well Die in your sins So people now put off the word of God our Doctrine sinks no where almost one puts it off from him another puts it off from him Like as the Cities of the Philistims did with the Ark. The men of Ekron they cryed out and doe you bring it to us and so the men of Ashdod said and it shall not abide with us 1 Sam. 5. 7. Every one put it off they would have none of it Fifthly when people oppose they are so farre from repenting at the preaching of the Word that they fall to oppose and to mis-use the bringers of it as the Jews did Saint Paul The Text sayes Hee shook his rayment at them and told them your blood bee upon your own heads and away hee went Act. 18. 6. when people lay their heads together how they may heave out the Minister many times God gives them leave for to doe it that they may bring evill on their own heads the Lord lets them have their cursed wills to their own utter destruction and condemnation Sixthly when God hath sent all his Ministers that ever hee means to send Hee sent one Minister and they would not hear him hee sent another after him and they would not hearken to him neither a man would wonder surely God will send no more well may be God in his great goodnesse sends another good man and he does what he can but the people will doe wickedly still Yea but when God hath sent all that Hee means to send now he will send no more as God did with Judah I have sent unto you all my servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them saying return from your evill wayes but yee have not inclined your eare unto me Jer. 35. 15. when God had sent all then hee would send no more You will say how can this bee a signe when God hath sent all that he means to send who can tell that I Answer Beloved God may shew it plainly that God hath sent even all that he means to send when he blocks up the way that more cannot bee suffered to come to us then those that are come when such courses are laid that ne're a faithfull one more is permitted to enter when Gods faithfull ones are forbidden to Preach as Paul sayes They forbid us to Preach When people will have Pashur's and not Jeremiah's When there be Laws made Look yee speak no more in his name When they say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie it When the good Levites are made to goe away and to leave their own places as it was in Jeroboams time 2 Chron. 11. 14. Again when the shadows wax long it is a signe that the Sun is going down The reason why God will take away all his Starres when matters are come to this passe is First because it is but lost labour and Cost cast away to administer phisick to such patients whose diseases are desperate my Brethren God is a wise phisician and he knows whom hee hath to deale with when hee sees men rend in pieces his Prescripts and pull off his plaisters and vomit up his wholesome potions that he gives them for their good he gives them up for gone hee will bee their Physician no longer This was the reason why God did leave Judah Thy disease is incurable Jer. 30. 12. Secondly because it is not only lost labour but it is worse then lost to let such people have the Ministery of the word it makes them much worse Why should yee bee smitten any more yee will revolt more and more Esa 1. 5. why should yee bee preacht to any more yee will c. Thirdly Because if men will needs goe on in their sins God would rather they should doe so without his word then with it as a husbandman if the ground bee stark barren he would rather never plough it and sow it with seed then to have it barren after the seed sown when people will needs bee wicked God would rather have them doe all their wickednesse out of his sight then in it I will cast you out of my sight Jer. 7. 15. God cannot abide to look upon a people that will have their own wayes they anger him more when they commit all their wickednesse under his Word God looks towards a people when hee sends them his holy Word hee looks upon them to doe them good