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A33242
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The time of finding shewing when the Lord will be found and by whom, and when there will be no time of finding : also the persons are describ'd who shall not finde the Lord though they seek him with tears : likewise some reasons why the Lord hath suffered his work and good old cause to be stopt, and how it shall certainly be reviv'd again : also something is here shewed about the manner how it shall be reviv'd, and the time when / by John Canne.
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Canne, John, d. 1667?
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1658
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Wing C442C; ESTC R25965
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112,945
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284
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as if they saw Death Hell and Judgment and all ready to take hold of them VVhen news was brought unto Lewis of the death of his Mother perceiving by the countenance of the messengers that they were ready to tell him something that would afflict his heart Let me pray first saith he and then speak what ye have to say A man may be sure it is a time of finding when he can experience not onely present fears remov'd but his spirit brought up into such a gracious frame as he can quietly hear any thing without dishonouring God through murmuring and sinful passions either in his thoughts speech or action Secondly It is a time of finding 2. It is a time of finding when the Spirit faints not but is kept lively up in the duty of seeking when the Lords people faint not in their SEEKING but are kept up and have life and power given them to persist and persevere to the end As fresh Oyl poured often into the Lamp preserves the light from going out so their groanings and cries cease not day nor night through fresh supplies of the Spirit o Isa 40.29 30 31. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he encreaseth strength Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint The meaning is whereas proud Hypocries p Psa 20.8 33.16 52.7 trusting to their own strength power parts gifts lose what they have and make Ship-wrack of all On the other side such as are poor and q 1 Cor. 1.27 28. despised things of the world r 2 Cor. 12.9 God makes his power to appear in their weakness For though Å¿ Joh. 15.5 of themselves they can do nothing yet he enables them t Phil. 4.13 to do any thing And when they seem u 2 Cor. 8 9 utterly spent they have a new supply of strength to enable them to bear up and hold out and thus x Phil. 1.6 he perfecteth the good work begun in them And indeed this is a gracious return of prayer when the soul is not onely strengthened and enabled to hold out but is sweetly raised and enlarged in the work Though we have not the thing we ask yet if we can sigh more and weep more for it then we did Here is a time of finding yea such a FINDING as it is much better sometimes to be kept up by fresh supplies of the Spirit in sighs and tears then to have presently what is ask'd As the Husbandman the more seed he sows the larger is his Crop at harvest Doth the Lord keep thee sowing in tears doth he supply thee with precious seed Oh it is a blessing of blessings thy reaping y Gal. 6.9.10 in due season shall be accordingly I know Satan and Hypocrites are ready to reproach us with the little profit we have by our mournings You have been say they these three or four years in tears nothing but sighing crying out against Self-seekers Oppressors Covenant-breakers but what hearing-time have ye had a Mal. 3.14 What profit is it that ye have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts To this we answer Whereas we have not fainted but have been kept up in the work all this time yea have had such fresh springs of encouragement and enlargement that our tears and sighing the last to be more then the first Hence we are satisfied that the ears of the Lord of Sabboth have been open to our prayers Many and great were the discouragements which b Mat. 15.21 22. c. the woman of Canaan met with when she besought Christ for her daughter 1. Christ goes away from her as if he would not hear her when she had followed him and gotten a word from him what was it truly a hard saying He is not sent unto such as she Well she faints not neither is weary but continues her cry Lord Lord have mercy upon me VVhat follows next that her request was unseemly unreasonable viz. To cast Childrens bread to Dogs A man would think whilst Christ carried himself thus towards her it was no time of finding whereas in truth she found him all the while I say all this time that these discouragements and temptations lay upon her it was A TIME OF FINDING But you will say How I answer both in keeping up her soul that she fainted not and in making way for the discovery of that great faith which he gave her So that it was better for the woman that she was defer'd a while and strengthened in the work then to have had her request sooner granted To you therefore my Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ this I would humbly send to you whereas the Lord hath strengthned you in mourning and crying against the Abominations of the last Apostacie it is not onely matter of comfort to assure you that there hath been a time of finding but also and note it well there is a blessing in it and much divine love Oh it is love indeed unspeakable when the Lord draws from us abundance of tears and groans and enables us to wait long before he gives the blessing A word likewise to our DISSENTING-BRETHREN whose mourning of late is turned into laughter and their heaviness to joy Josephs afflictions are no more remembred neither the oppression and cry of the poor and needy c Eccl. 7.4 Their heart is not now in the house of mourning but in the house of mirth As if they were placed in the earth as Leviathan in the Sea only to take their sport and pastime therein Here lies the difference between you and your Brethren you laugh and are more merry then you used to be because of the advantages you have by these corrupt times whereas your poor Brethren are more in tears and in bitterness of Soul these 3. or 4. yeers then they us'd to be for the great dishonor scandal and reproach which you have brought to the name of God and profession of Religion by assisting and justifying of mens INTEREST against the interest of Christ and his people hear what the Lord saith to both d Luk. 6.21 Blessed are ye that weep NOW for ye shall laugh e Ver. 25. Woe unto you that laugh NOW for ye shall mourn and weep 3. A time of finding when Saints rest fully satisfied in the things they ask Thirdly When Mourners have such a return of prayer as they rest fully satisfied therein My meaning is the Lord perswades their hearts that he will so answer the travel of their Souls as all things shall work together to his Glory and their comfort and content and thus had Paul a time of finding when the Lord told
Jehovah and say l Ezra 9.14 he hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve In short our sins are as m John 11.39 41. the Stone upon the grave which must be rolled away by confession and heart sorrow in order to the reviving of the work 2. Though the Lord will revive his work n Ezek. 36.37 yet for this he will be sought unto by his people to do it for them A man may be willing to do his Friend a good Turn yet he expects he should ask it of him o Mat. 7.7 Ask and have p Zac. 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is RAISED up out of his holy habitation Observe it is not said he is risen but he is raised Well q Gen. 49.9 Who shall Rouze him up Who hath raised the Lord out of his holy habitation The Prophet will tell you r Psal 90.13 14 15 16 17. For the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord. Thus the Church in the Wildernesse to have the work up again and to go forward is earnest in prayer Return O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy Servants O satisfie us early with thy mercy that we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes Make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evill Let thy work appear unto thy Servants and thy glory unto their Children And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands Yea the work of our hands establish thou it 3. That Councel of our Saviour is to be heeded Å¿ Luke 12.35 36. Let your loynes be girded about and your light shining That when the Lord cometh and knocks you may open unto him immediatly If a man have a promise of some great office and preferment should he not endeavour to fit himself for it How to be prepared for the Lords work when it shall come forth again is shewed us in the t Rev. 14.1 4 5. Characters of the Lambs followers they have his Fathers name not the Mark of the Beast written in their foreheads These are they which are not defiled with women for they are Virgins These are they which follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth these were redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God What is the reason so many have fallen under the Lords work made shipwrack of it and themselves too They took it up before they were meet for it If a Fool or Mad man be at the Helme neeeds must that Vessel miscarry If the Guide be blind the Followers of him will miss their way u Ec. 10.16 Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning that is one who out of inferiour Condition is leapt into a Throne and gives himselfe with his New Lords to lust and pleasures and make their own Interests and Profits the chief thing that they look after and prefer that before the Publick good As we expect therefore not to be laid aside and stand ashamed when the work shall be revived Let us not sleep as do others but be sober and watch keep oyle in our vessel x Heb. 10.23 Hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and y verse 35. not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward When a man is to begin a thing and makes onely a rough draught any instrument will serve the turn but afterward when he comes to fine work then he useth and must have better tooles Though I do attribute to the work done as much as any man rightly can yet this I humbly conceive it hath hitherto been but a rough draught very low and mean comparatively to what the work will be when the Lord shall give it a Resurrection And therefore as the work will be much finer so he will use better instruments or if he use any of the former instruments he will make them purer and better than ever He will have a Psal 102 18. a Created people b Isa 13.3 Sanctified ones c Rev. 17.14 Called and chosen and faithfull d Rev. 15.6 Cloathed in pure and white linnen and having their breasts girded with golden girdles Quest But how and in what manner will the Lord revive his work And when will that blessed Time of finding come Ans There are many signes which go before a storme and â—any symptomes which discover dâ—seases before men fall into them So I think before the Lord will appear again for the old Interest of Christ and his people against the enemies thereof there will be some signes and Symptomes going immediately before The husbandman that hath the eye of experience will give a fair guess of the whole day by the morning I shall leave other men to their own conjectures For my part I do apprehend so farre already a dawning of the work as I dare adventure in the strength and power of my God to give a sober guess of it Gods work in the womb of Providence is according to what the Prophet speaks of Gods forming him in the womb of his mother He begins with e Psal 139. his unformed substance or Embrio that is the body in the womb before it hath perfect shape then he speaks of being covered with skin and flesh Lastly how curiously he was made namely with sinewes veines arteries and variety of limbs As an Embroiderer joyneth many parcels and wier-work of various colours very artificially and curiously together untill there comes forth some goodly portraiture or other dainty workmanship and all this is done in the lowest part of the earth so he calleth the womb because of Gods secret and unknown making of men there In such a way is the work of God in the womb of providence Oh it is fearfully and marvelously made It is at first as it were unwrought afterwards it hath flesh and bone but curiously embroidered like a piece of needle work before it comes visible forth In this womb of Providence are the seaven last vials formed and the Angels which shall pour them out So the little Stone which shall smite the Image and the weapons of war which shall thrash Babylon and all the mountains of the world That this work should be in the womb of Providence yea and so curiously wrought as ready to come forth yet not perceived it is no wonder f Ecc. 11.5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the works of God who makes all g Job 28.23 God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof Quest But can you demonstrate by any fair