Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	begin_v	day_n	sabbath_n	3,503	5	10.2207	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41110	A divine message to the elect soule delivered in eight sermons upon seven severall texts / by that laborious and faithfull messenger of Christ, Mr. William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1647 (1647)	Wing F685; ESTC R177004	156,509	316

He that turns away his eare from Gods Law God wi●l turn away his eare from his prayer He that turns it is spoken in the present tense that is he that now turns away his eare his prayer shall be abominable in the future tense that is the Lord marks what master or servant what father or mother what husband or wife what man or woman it is that turns away the eare of his head or the eare of his heart from hearing his will and obeying of his Commandments the Lord takes speciall notice of it and sets it down in his Calender and records it in his Memoriall keeping a strict account thereof as if God should say Well is it so I now call and will not this man or that woman answer Do I now stretch out my hands and will not they take care to obey me Well let them alone saith God there is a day coming that I shall be a hearing of them times of sorrow and misery will take hold of them and then they in their afflictions will cry unto me but I will not hear they will begge for mercy but I will not regard they will seek me early but they shall not find me It was one of the Articles of high Treason brought in against Cardinall Woolsey that he had the pox and a stinking breath and yet durst come into the Kings presence So it will be an Article against thee of high treason before the King of heaven if thou come into his presence with the stinking breath of thy sins living in thy lusts and wallowing in thy silthinesse all thy prayers are but as so many stinking breaths in the nostrils of the Lord and every duty that thou performest unto the Lord shall be as so many Articles of high treason against thee for to condemne thee because thou livest in rebellion and a Traitour against God His prayer shall be abominable he doth not say I will turn away mine eare from hearing his prayer which turns away his eare from hearing my Law that is the true exposition of the words no like for like is sometimes in justice for if a man should strike a Magistrate a box on the eare it were not justice for him to give him another for it is a greater sin to strike a Magistrate then any other common person and therfore a greater punishment the Law requireth So God doth not say he will turn away his eare from hearing his prayer but will serve him in a worse kind he will count it abominable yea abomination in the abstract it shall be loathsome yea loathsomnesse it self in the worst manner Galat. 6. As a man soweth so shall he reap if thou sowe sparingly thou shalt reap sparingly if thou sowe a dull eare to Gods Word thou shalt reap a dull eare from God to thy prayer for God will reward every man according to his works Reas 2 Secondly because of the time of Gods attributes both mercy and justice have their season in this life and when mercie hath acted her part then commeth justice upon the stage and acteth her part so that God will have his attributes manifested to all the sons of men yea to the face of the whole world There is no market nor Fayre day that lasteth alwayes if the countrey will not come in the Tradesmen will put up their wares and be gone but if they come in time they may have a peniworth otherwise if they come too late they will find none For the Merchant will not alwayes dwell in tents but away he goeth and will not stay for them Beloved Gods standing is now open and his shop set wide unto the sons of men if men will not come in cheapen and by without money whiles God offers his wares he will put them up and be gone For the Merchant will not lose his wares which he should do if he should alwayes remain in the open ayre with them if he alwayes continue in the fields expecting customers his wares would spoyl and rot So it is with God how many sweet counsels doth he lose how many sweet exhortations how many blessed Sermons and holy Sacraments and Sabbaths doth he lose how many checks of conscience how many dayes of grace and motions of his spirit have been squandred away in vain do you think that God wil lose all these and let them rot upon the stall with staying for you No no the day of grace and mercie will have an end and grace and mercie will have an end and then the day of wrath and vengeance will step up To day if you will hear his voice then barden not your hearts then they hardened their hearts and would not be led by Gods mercies to forsake their sins Therefore he swa●e in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest If it be so with you as it was with Israel in the wildernesse in the day of temptation you do not know but that your sinnes may now begin to pluck vengeance upon you I tell you if you harden your hearts this day you do not know but this very day the Lord may clap an oath upon your heads that you shall never enter into his rest For one and the selfe-same occasion lasts not alwayes as every day is not a Market day nor every week in the yeare a Faire week nor every season in the yeare a time of Spring or harvest so every day of a mans life may not claime to be the day of grace Therefore if a man fore-slow it now he fore-sloweth his own happinesse and putteth off his owne peace for ever Excellent is that annotation of Gregory on Job 27.9 Will God heare his cry when trouble commeth upon him Beloved now Gods patience is troubled wilt not thou repent Now Gods Spirit is troubled wilt not thou obey Now Gods Justice is troubled wilt thou not relent Now Gods Word is troubled wilt thou refuse to hearken Will God heare his cry He speaketh interrogatively as if he should say Art thou so mad so vaine so foolish to promise to thy selfe being an hypocrite that God will hear thy prayer Oh no then justice cometh to take place Reas 3 Thirdly it is Gods use to doe so in other things even upon the contempt of temporall blessings and therefore much more in matters of grace and salvation Thus God promised to give Israel the Land of Canaan Num. 12.22 but the text saith They tempted God ten times that is as some Expositors expound it many times or as others ten severall times But what ever the meaning of the text be certainly it was very many times so long til at last he sware in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest Beloved though there be many a hot swearer that regards not an oath yet certainly if the Lord sweare we may beleeve him the Word of God is as strong as oaths if he say it upon his word wee are bound to beleeve it how much more then when he

thou dost pronounce them but not speak them But when thou speakest of earthly things then thou speakest to the purpose because thy heart is set upon them and thy minde and the tongue goe together there is no jarre or discord betwixt them but if thy heart be not pure though thou speakest good things or holy things yet in Christ sense thou speakest them not For say I how can a vain evill corrupt heart think good thoughts An evill tree cannot bring ●orth good fruit saith our Saviour he doth not say that an evill tree cannot be made good for it may be graffed into anothe● stock divers wayes there are to make it good but so long as it is a corrupt tree it cannot bring forth good fruit Doe men gather grapes of thorns or st●ges of thistles Dost thou goe to a drunkard and thinkest there to finde any religion in him or to a whoremaster to finde grace in him Dost thou goe to a swearer or a prophane person and thinkest thou to find any feare of God in them Indeed sometimes there may be some morall good found in them but they are as a pearle in a dung-hill out of its place Fourthly all mens thoughts come to be vain when the drift and end of the heart and soule in thinking of them is vain But thou wilt say unto mee the end of my good thoughts is Gods glory What is it not to Gods glory that we goe to the Word and Sacraments that we pray and give almes I answer the end of every good work in it self is Gods glory but is it the end of the worker speaker or thinker I make no question but the end of a good action in it self is the glory of God so the end of prayer is the glory of God the end of all preaching and Sermons is the glory of God the end of giving of almes and of all good thoughts is the glory of God but the end of the man that prayes and preaches what is that the end of the hearer and giver of almes what is that the end of him that speaks well what is that Beloved must men have false and corrupt ends which we will branch out into these three heads For the first men will be thinking and plodding from morning till night of their worldly businesse Now because they know they must think on God to make God amends perhaps they will think on him at night when they have dishonoured him all the day So men will swear and swagger drink and be drunk and when they have done say Lord have mercy upon me and so they think to make God amends What beloved will yee sweare swagger drink be drunk and lie be secure and worldly and then ask God forgivenesse to make him amends This is to break Priscians head that you may give him a plaister Will you trespasse your neighbour that you may ask him forgivenesse This is a damned and devilish religion yet this is the religion of many men in the world you shall have them keep daies and weeks and yeares in the observation of the times of Gods worship they will keep the Sabbath in comming to Church they will hear Sermons pray and think of God but all this is to make God amends for the wrong that they have done him they know they have offended God and therefore they will do something to make him amends like those wicked men in Jeremies time who did steale murder commit adultery swear falsly and burn incense unto Baal and walk after the gods whom they knew not and then come and stand before God in his house which was called by his name and said We are delivered though we have done all these abominations As if God should say unto wicked men What will yee swear steal lie and be earthly giving up your selves unto all manner of lewdnesse in the breach and contempt of my commandements and then think by making a prayer unto me and by lifting up your eyes unto me and by giving your eares to hear my word thereby to make me recompence No no I have showed thee O man what is good Micah 8. Secondly the end of mens thoughts is commonly to collogue with God Let a man be under the crosse in calamity pain and misery then God shall heare of him often then he will think of God and of his sinnes nay the beastliest wretch in a whole Parish upon his sick-bed then Oh how will he call upon God then send for the Minister let him pray for me read a chapter or some good book then God shall have service upon service then he shall have the first second and third course But all this is but to be raised up again and then when he hath received a little strength he fall off again like the Jewes who when God slew them they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God neverthelesse they did but d●ssemble with him with their mouthes and flatter him with their double hearts Ps 78.34 There is many a man that seeks to God yea that seeks to him with tears and performes many a good duty and yet he doth but flatter with God he doth it but to curry favour with him hee is afraid of sicknesse crosses plagues and death and curses upon him if hee should not doe so and therefore to prevent this he will dissemble some service to God Thirdly to smother and choake their owne consciences their hearts think and tell them they must think of God their consciences tell them that they must have some holinesse some religion that they must keep the Sabbath in some sort that they must pray and goe to Church and hence it is that the drunkard swearer whoremaster will sometimes have thoughts of God and will be performing some outward acts of Religion Why his conscience otherwise would not let him be at rest but it is as the Devils bandog to drive him to it Thus when the Prophet commanded the people to worship the Lord to reverence his name to hallow his Sabbaths their consciences told them that they must doe so or else all the threatnings of wrath and vengeance denounced by the Prophets would come upon them Hence it is that the Lord by his Prophet exhorts saying Arise yee and depart for this is not your rest your mind hath another haunt you have this and that black lust this is not your rest Doth thy heart rest on God and good things If thy heart be good and holy so that it takes up its rest in God and in Christ then it is well but if thou only turnest aside to good duties and fallest as it were by chance upon holy things away away saith God this is not your rest Aristotle saith that the being of a thing cons●steth in the end of a thing Therefore if the end of thy thoughts and courses be earthly and vain then certainly thy religion is earthly and vain Thou goest up and down what is it that thou lookest after