Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	12,399	5	9.7424	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41120	Practicall divinitie: or, gospel-light shining forth in severall choyce sermons, on divers texts of scripture Viz. 1. The misery of earthly thoughts, on Isa. 55. 7. 2. A sermon of self-denial, on Luke 9. 23. 3. The efficacie of importunate prayer in two sermons on Collos. 1. 10. 5. A caveat against late repentance, on Luke 23. 24. 6. The soveraign vertue of the Gospel, on Psal. 147. 3 7 A funeral sermon, on Isa. 57. 1. Preached by that laborious and faithfull messenger of Christ, William Fenner, sometimes fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, and late minister of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1647 (1647)	Wing F693; ESTC R222658	119,973	322

cannot for shame break out into unsavory speeches and at another time and in another place endure any ungodlinesse this is not to please God but rather the contrary No no it is not limited to time not place we must please God not onely in prayer time but also when prayer is ended not in Sermon time only but when the Sermon is ended also Labour therefore to please God at all times not on Sundayes only but on the week dayes also many will read on the Sabbath but never else but this is a duty to be performed at all times 't is not as hearing that cannot be performed alwayes no it is a generall duty Aristotles Universals and Psal 116. 5. I will walk before the Lord c. Placebo Dominum will please the Lord in the land of the living This contains the summe of all Religion Obj. The largenesse of it appears in this that it is in all things 't is larger then the servants duty to please their masters yet servants must labour to please their masters in all things 2 Tit. 9. 9. But if servants must please their masters in all things then how can the duty of pleasing God be larger Sol. True it is servants must please their masters in all things i.e. in all that are commanded of God otherwise they may not for when the thing is forbidden by God 't is nothing but the privation of the thing Sinnes are privations an Idol is nothing all sinnes are as idols they are nothing 't is not an action bur the privation of the image of God that should be there and of agreeablenesse to the Word in all things that are not contrary to the Word the duty of pleasing man must be bounded within another but we must please God without limitation Fifthly it is large in that it is an everlasting duty it shall be a duty when other duties cease Prayer belief repentance weeping and mourning c. must cease when Gods children come to heaven they must pray no more fast no more no these duties must cease but this is must be a duty when they are dead and gone it is an everlasting duty it is that which we must carry to our graves yea into another world with us It is the fruit of all other duties we are tryed by prayer and hearing c. as by apprentiship that so we may learn this art of well-pleasing God if we have not learned this art we are not capable of entring into life so that in some sense it is above the commandements we will keep the commandements that we may please God this is the crown of all our obedience not as if it could be more but the pleasing of God in these is the upshot of all our obedience to God Sixthly It is large in that it is the whole duty of the new man only new men in Christ can please God unregenerate men cannot please God let them give alms c. yet if they be not new treatures they cannot please God let them do actions though never so good for manner or meaning yet they are worthlesse in the hand of an unregenerate man They that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. He speakes not of such as are married for Zacharie and Elizabeth were married and they pleased God but those that walk after the flesh as unregenerate unsanctified unpurified such as live in sin none of these can ever please God Thus you see it is the whole duty of the new man Fourthly as it is possible fit and large so it is a necessary duty The Apostle sets a must and an ought upon it 1. Thess 4. 2. It must be done there is a necessary laid upon it It must be done For first we have no saving grace unlesse we labour to please God it comes from God good pleasure and it goes to Gods good pleasure God is well pleased in his image and grace is the image of God Now then if a man please not God it is because he hath no grace Thou thinkest Christ did die for thee thou thinkest a lie why thou hast no saving grace Let us have grace saith the Apostle that we may serve God Heb. 12. as if he should say without grace it is impossible to please him therefore you see it is very necessary to please God 't is as necessary as grace and without it we are damned Secondly if we do not please God we may see what a wofull case we are in it God be not pleased to spare us we cannot be saved Now a man will be sure to please that man that can hang him if he please he will not pull his displeasure upon him Acts. 12. when Herod was displeased they laboured to turn away his displeasure and made friends so we depend on God and therefore our souls bodies and everlasting happinesse or destruction depends on God and if he be not pleased what benefit can we wretches expect Wouldest thou have mercy and wilt thou not please God thou shalt be deceived Because Hester pleased the King he shewed her kindnesse and God will never shew us kindnesse unlesse we please him There is no man so mad to heap good turnes upon a mans head that will not please him how can we have the good pleasure of God when we will not seek to please God Before Enoch was translated it was said he pleased God Heb. 11. 5. God would never have brought him to heaven if he had not been pleased with him So before he translates thee from earth to heaven before he delivers thee from damnation thou must be sure to please God Thirdly if we labour not to please God God knowes what infinite dangers we are ever in in the morning he may brain us or wee may die and perish in our sleep or in any action God knowes what mischeif may befall us if we please not God If a man prove a Traitour to the King God knowes what the King will do unto him the wrath of a King is as the roaring of a Lion Oh then what is the displeasure of the judge both of quick and dead If God be displeased with us God knowes what will become of us we cannot eat a meales meat safely wee may be choakt for ought we know we cannot be secure one moment It may be this is the moment he meanes to disgrace thee to lay rottennesse on thy heart It may be he will lay the curse of heaven upon thee before thou goe home and be no more seen but if thou please God Eccles 9. 7. come what can come nothing can come amisse to them that pleaseth the Lord but if thy wayes please not the Lord thou livest in a damnable condition Is it so that the duty of pleasing God is so possible fit large and necessary here then three sorts of men are condemned First those that please not God Do you thinke then that this is pleasing to God that there should be so many Ale-houses

over he will have thee run through every Commandement all that come to heaven must travell thither therefore never beare thy self on this or that example for 't is a wonder of wonders one of the miracles of Christs passion I remember the story of an ancient Confessor which proved a worthy Christian 300 years after the Apostles time this man was an old man and had been a Pagan all his dayes and in his old age he hearkened after Christ and said he would be a Christian Simplinus hearing him say so would not believe him but when the Church saw him to be a Christian indeed there was shouting and dancing for gladnesse and Psalmes were sung in every Church Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian this was written for a wonder that he in his old age and in his gray haires should become a good Christian so this is a great wonder and an extraordinary example that this Thiefe was converted Do you not think that there were a thousand thieves that at that time lived and dyed in their sins and so were damned Were there not many widows in the dayes of Eliah and yet to none of them was he sent but to the widow of Sarepha Were there not many Lepers in the dayes of Elisha yet none of them were cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian So there were many thousands at that time and yet for all that we know they were all damned only this one is excepted Now shall a man rush into a den of Lyons because Daniel did escape or will a man cast himself into a fiery furnace because the three Children were cast in and had no hurt Shall a man venture to cast avvay his juels or his purse because one among a thousand did so and found it again No no these are wonders and therefore beare not thy self on this or the like example The common rule is this Live in sinne and die in sinne you that live in sinne now shall then be damned in sinne for ever if you repent not St. Paul knew well that this thief was converted and yet he saith Be not deceived neither Drunkards nor Fornicators nor Theeves c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. St. Peter also knew that this thief was converted yet saith he If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinners and ungodly appeare 2 Pet. 2. 9. St. Iames also knew this story Jam. 5. 12. yet if we sweare we may fall into condemnation This is a most sweet example if by it we return unto God but thou makest a damned use of it if by it thou makest thy self secure in thy sinfull courses hoping to be saved at the last as this thief was Consider with your selves wherefore are the commandments of God are they think you to be disobeyed while men live and then when men are dying to cry God mercy Again why hath God given you Ministers to preach the Word of eternal life Never to preach it to men till they are a dying No no deceive not thy self thou must hear Gods Ministers preach whilst thou art well What hath God given you dayes that you should spend your lives in sin No no saith God I gave her time to repent but she repented not Rev. 2. 21. And this is the leason that God gives thee time That thou mightest repent The Lord could have sent thee to hell as soon as thou wast borne but that in mercy he gives thee life and time to repent that so thou mayest find forgivenesse with God and chat thou mayest become a new creature before thou go hence and be no more seen You that think to repent resting on the example of this thief take heed lest the Lord put you off therefore labour to obey whilst it is called to day and make use of the Word whilst it is sounded in your eares before these things be hid from your eyes THE SOVERAIGNE VERTUE OF THE GOSPEL In a SERMON BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex THE Soveraigne Vertue OF THE GOSPEL PSAL. 147. 3. He healeth them that are broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds HEre are two things contained in this Text the Patients and the Physitian First the Patients the broken in heart Secondly the Physitian Christ it is he that healeth and bindeth up their wounds The Patients here are felt and discerned to have two wounds or maladies First brokennesse in heart Secondly woundednesse He binds up such Brokennesse of heart presupposeth wholenesse of heart Wholenesse of heart is twofold either wholenesse of heart in sinne or wholenesse of heart from sinne First wholenesse of heart from sinne is when the heart is without sinne and so the blessed Angels have whole hearts and so Adam and Eve and we in them before the fall had whole hearts Secondly wholenesse of heart in sinne so the Devils have whole hearts and all men since the fall from their conception till their conversion have whole hearts and these are they that our Saviour intends The whole need not the physitian but they that are sick The hearts that are whole need not the physitian but they that are broken and sick Sinne is in the godly and they are sick of it even as when poyson is in a man it makes him sick why because the poyson is contrary unto him But sinne is in the wicked and they are not sick of it as poyson is in a toad and the toad is not sick because a toad is of that nature which the poyson is and therefore he needs not a physitian Will a Physitian go to cure a Toad surely no he will rather kill it he wilt not cure it So as long as a man is not sick at the heart of his sin Christ will rather kill him than cure him When a man sayes he is sick and yet can sleep eat drink and work and look as well as ever he did feels no pain nor any thing to trouble him what need hath this man of a physitian So when a man lives in sinne yet never breaks his sleep for it but mindes his pleasures his profits hath never the more pain nor anguish in his soule he is soule-whole and heart-whole what need hath he of a Physitian This is a man whole in his sins The wholenesse of the heart is called fallow-ground Jer. 4. 4. for it is like an unbroken field not tilled nor manured there can be no harvest because the ground doth lie fallow so there can be no harvest of grace in that man whose heart is fallow and unbroken and therefore to repent and to break the heart in Scripture is called the putting of ones hand to the plough Luke 9. 62. to plough up the fallow ground of the heart Brokennesse of heart may be considered two wayes First in relation to wholenesse of heart in sinne so brokennesse of heart is not a maladie but

found God then let us bring him home to our houses and there retaine him that so he may be our God and the God of our posterity in all our and their afflictions and this will make you to rejoyce exceedingly Oh my beloved carry God whom with you and let him be a Father to you and to your posterity Quest But now may wee keep the Lord it would he worth our labour for at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Ans First wee must be sure to prepare a room for him for he is a King and a King you know sends his harbinger before him to prepare a roome for him saying come out of her my people and touch no unclean thing and then I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people 2. Cor. 6. 17. so my beloved brethren come out of all sinfull courses pleasures and practises and you may expect Gods comming unto your houses And when you sit downe by your fires or lie downe in your beds think thus with your selves what an equall condition doth God propound it is but only to part with a sin a lust a Dalilah which I may very well spare as well as I may spare water out of my shooes or a coale out of my bosome I say thinke thus with thy selfe and say in thy heart will God keep Company with mee if I will not keep Company with sin are the termes no harder this is a good offer I will at once then bid sin adue for now I am upon another bargaine here is an offer that I was nor aware of I will quickly dispatch this bargaine and make my peace with my God and thus if you would have God to bee yours then let your soules and bodies be his by forsaking all sins and when you shall call God will come and say here am I Esay 58. 9. Secondly as you must prepare a room for God so you must give him content too let God have his will crosse him not Where the King is he will have all things to his minde even so it is with God If he may have his own worship you please him wonderous well you must dresse his dishes according to his tooth but if you put poyson into his meat if you mingle the traditions of men with Gods worship then you discontent him Lay aside therefore all your superstitions and erronious opinions of God and his worship and do it according to his will in his word reuealed and then yon please him indeed when a Nation or a soule submits to God and to his truth in all things To bow at the name Jesus is not meant at the word Jesus for so to give him the bow is to commit syllabicall Idolatrie but the meaning is wee should worship him in spirit and in truth humbly subjecting our selves unto Christ Thirdly as we must give him his mind so wee must give him welcome if you displease God and look loweringly or sowerly upon him and grudge at God or at his truth no wonder then if God goe away land surely this is the sinne of England we bear an ill will unto God and his word and God hath done well for this Land and what could hee have done more then hee hath done for this Land as hee saith of his vineyard Esay 5. 4 5. but it brought forth contrary fruit even so wee doe all contrary to Gods expectation mark therefore what God saith hee will take away the hedge and it shall be trodden down and for ought that may be collected so it is like to bee with us if his mercy prevent it not for are wee better than the old world the same sins that were found in the old world are found in us Sodom's and Gomorahs sinnes were but strawes in respect of ours and yet God rained down fire and brimstone upon them tell me are there not as great sinnes amongst us as were in Jerusolem who were carried captives their city destroyed and they a vagabond people untill this day Are we better then other Brethren and neighbour Nations that have drunk so deeply of Gods wrath I tell you truly we area burden to God he cannot long beare us and he will think his burthen well over when he hath destroyed us You know all men are glad when their pain is over even so it is with God we are a pain and a trouble unto him and why should God go continually pained with us which are worthy to be destroyed Then shall England seek peace but shall not find it God shall not pity us Oh my beloved brethren what a pitifull thing it is when a mercifull God shall shew himself unmercifull when his patience shall be turned into impatience There is a hard time ere long befalling England if God in mercy prevent it not but we do not consider it lamentable is our time Christ wept over Jerusalem Oh saith he that thou hadst known in this thy day of visitation the things that do concern thy peace but now thy are hid from thine eyes Beloved what do you think we shall do when Gods mercies are turned into justice Look to it England the Lord hath wept over thee in mercy many years What shall we do when we have leisure to consider what once we did enjoy for Gods patience is never truly prized till we want it and then the poor soul will thus say There was a time when we might have been at peace with this patient God but now he is hid from our eyes now the gate is shut barred and locked up thus when a people doth abuse Gods mercy hee sends the contrary judgements and then it will grieve and wound our soules to think what once wee did enjoy but that soule that will bid God welcome to his heart may goe singing to his grave Fourthly You must be importunate with God to tarry and account it a great favour if he will stay For God hath roome enough in heaven and therefore you need not lodge him for want of lodging but you must be beholding to him to tarry with you yet in these dayes men doe not love to be beholding Jacob wrestled with God and by that meanes he held him till he blessed him you live under the meanes and know the way and will you not doe it what greater condemnation can there be and how great will your judgement be unto you more then unto them that have no meanes and as it was said of Capernaum so say I to England Thou England that was lifted up to heaven with meanes shalt be brought down to hel thou shalt be abused for it for if the mighty works which hath been done in thee had been done in India or Turkie they would have repented ere this time And therefore Capernums place is Englands place which is the most scaldings tormenting place of all if it repent not And marke what I say the poore native Turks and Infidels shall have a more coole summer Parlour in hell then England shall have for we stand upon high rates therefore thy torment shall be the more intollerable to bear Now the Lord write these things in our hearts by the finger of his holy spirit for his Christs sake under whom I would we were all covered Amen FINIS a John 5. 35

with supplication will I lead them This is a fine phrase God leads a soul up and down with supplication before he grants his request just as a begger on the high-way a gentleman comming by he begs of him the gentleman goes on his way as if he took no notice but the begger goes on crying For Gods sake sir bestow something on me yet he goes on still till at last the gentleman comes to his house and then he gives him his desire Even so God leads a soul up and down from one good duty to another till he have brought the soul to that passe that he would have it to be and then he hears it and sayes What is thy suit I will pardon thee What then is the reason may some man say why so few are importunate in prayer I answer first because men count Prayer a penance there is a naturall kind of Popery in mens breasts the Papists when men sin their Priests enjoyn them penance as pilgrimages and scourgings so many Pater-noster's and so many Ave-Marie's where they reckon Prayer to be a penance This naturall Popery is in mens breasts they count Prayer laborious unto them and they are weary of it they are not eager upon prayer they look not on Prayer as a blessing but as a yoak behold what a wearisome thing it is Mal. 1. 13. They were weary of the service of God Oh say they that the Minister would once have done they had rather be in an Ale-house or about their busines all good duties are as penance unto carnal men If a man be to do penance he cares not how litle he does of it a Rogue cares not for too much whipping Secondly Men content themselves with formality Many men pray as Haman spake the Kings words before Mordecai for he had rather have led him to the gallows than to have said Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the King will honour but he thought it would be the worse for him if he spake them not and therefore he only spake them for forme And so men for the most part go to church to hear the Word to Pray to receive the Sacraments c. even for forme or because it is the fashion and they think if they do not thus and thus they shall not be saved You shall have the Drunkard say I am sorry for my drunkennesse but he lies for the next day he will be at the Alehouse again so the Whoremaster sayes Lord I am sorry that I have sinned against thee but he lies for the next Quean that he meets with having opportunity he falls to whoreing again So the Covetous man will say I am sorry I am so full of earthly thoughts yet he lies he is not sorry for you shall have him carking and caring all the day long and he hath a thousand proclamations in his head He only prayes for form with the rest they only say prayer they pray not I deny not saying of prayer if they pray Our Saviour Christ saith When you pray say Our father The proud man dishonours Gods name saying Thy will be done whereas he should be humble for that is Gods will it is Gods will he should be zealous yet he prayes not He sayes Forgive us our trespasses c. but he prayes not so for he wrongs his neighbour and his neighbour wrongs him and he does not forgive those that trespasse against him He sayes Lead us not into temptation but he prayes it not for he runs presently into temptations and hath no care to avoyd them And this is the reason why men are not importunate viz. because they do make formality of it Thirdly because they are Gentlemen-beggers Of all the beggers in the world I would be loth to meet with a gentleman-begger for he is the proudest of them all if a man tell him that he hath been an ill husband and hath abused himself presently he sets his hands to his side saying I am not as every begger I am thus and thus descended I am as good a man by birth as your self a gentleman-beggers heart will not stoop So men are gentlemen-beggers to God they were say they borne of Christian parents and they have been baptized the children of God already What are none the children of God but a company of Puritans We are descended as well as the best of you all These are proud and not as yet brought to a sense of their own misery When John did preach to and baptize the Scribes and Pharisees he calls them all to nought O ye vipers and full of poison who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come Viper say they Viper in thy teeth we are the children of Abraham we are better descended then so we are Believers and do you call us Vipers then indeed we might crie out Oh we are damned then we had need to crie for mercie And in this sense men are Gentlemen-beggers Another reason why men are not importunate is because they have wrong conceits of Prayer I will tell you the sundry conceits of men First they have high conceits of their own prayers they cannot pray in a morning between the pillow and the blankets half asleep and half awake but they think that they have done God good service so that he cannot afford to damne them At night he saies Lord have mercie on me and so goes to sleep and then he thinks God must keep him untill the morning So when he goes to dinner he saies Lord blesse these creatures unto us and so falls aboard and he thinks that God must needs sanctifie them unto him and after supper he goes to prayer and so to bed and thinks that he shall be heard for his much babling sake Mat. 6. they think God will have mercy on them But poor soules if they knew how unseemingly they prayed how unfitly and what want there is in seeing their own estate they would say is this to pray for my soul for such infinite mercie Lord how do I abuse the throne of grace how do I abuse thy sabbaths thy house thy name and all the holy ordinances which I go about A man that is importunate in prayer is ashamed but when they think highly of their prayers they are insolent their prayers are damned and they too Secondly as men have high conceits of their prayers so they have mean conceits of their sinnes they think not their sinnes so bad as they are These men are like Abner who said Let the young men arise and play before us 2 Sam. 2. 14. They account murder a sport and dancing and musicking little worse then Davids playing on the harp Amos 6. 5. And if they commit adulterie they say that 's but a trick of youth if they tell a lie it is only at a dead lift when they have no other shift That man that doth not think of every sinne he commits as David did of his even to make his heart to ake for