Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	lord_n	send_v	time_n	2,896	5	3.2333	3	false

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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

Text doth as good as say he delighteth to make bonfires about their eares And must this be the way to glorifie God But some may say surely Kings and Monarchs are exempted they need not fear that such torments shall come upon them To this I answer that God will say unto them raign there if thou wilt and then they shall know that there is a King that laughs at their destruction Take notice of this I beseech you and reason thus with your own soules Is he a good sonne that cannot abide the presence of his own father is she a good wife that cannot abide the company of her husband and is he a good Christian that cannot endure the company of Christ in his ordinances Vse This may serve to rebuke Gods people for their neglect You see the Gospel is going Christ is departing he is going to seek better entertainment But I marvaile you give no better attendance I pray hearken what I say and have to say stand up and heare and the Lord give you grace to believe I will deale plainly with you as sure as God is God God is going from England Shall I tell you what God told me nay I must tell you on pain of my life Will you give eare and believe me I am a poor Ambassador sent from God to do his message unto you and although I be low yet my message is from above and He that sent me is great and from above and oh that He would grant that this my message might be believed What if I should tell you that God told me yesternight that he would destory England and lay it waste What say you to this my beloved it is my message by meditation is Gods word that he bid me do to you and he expects and answer from you I do my message as God commanded me what sayest thou unto it England I must return an answer to my Master that sent me yea this present right I must return an answer for the Lord hath appointed a set time saying To morrow the Lord will do this thing in the Land Exod. 9. 5. Why speak you not an answer you must give Do you think well of it will you have England destoyed will you put the aged to trouble and your young men to the sword will you have your your young women widows and your virgins defiled will you have your deare and tender little ones tossed upon the pikes and dashed against the stones or will you have them brought up in Poperie in idolatrie under a necessity of perishing their souls for ever which is worst of all Will you have these Temples wherein we seeme to worship God will you have them and your houses burnt with fire and will you see England laid waste without inhabitants are you well contented it shall be so I am an importunate suitor for Christ oh send me not sad away but speak comfortably and cheerfully what are you resolved of Are you willing to enjoy God still and to hve him dwell with you it is well I am glad of it if it be so but you must not only say so but you must use the means and you must plead importunately with your God for although his sword be drawn and in his hand lifted up and readie to strike yet suffer him not to destroy but rather to sheath his sword in the blood of his enemies I would be glad to have England flourish still but if desolation do come thank your selves for it it is your own fault if you bee destroyed and not Gods for he delights not in the death of any We may justly take up the complaint of the Prophet Esay who saith No man stirreth up himselfe to lay hold on God Isa 64. 7. But this is our comfort or rather our misery that we have quiet prosperitie with ease and commoditie our bellies full our coffers full and our backs curiouslie clothed c. not remembring the afflictions of our neighbour Nations but all is well with us and it will serve our turnes and if we do humble our selves a little we think it is well And thus we play mock-holiday with God and with his gospel in making it out pack-horse Well look to it for God is going and if he do go then our glorie goes also and then we may say with Phineahs wife I Sam. 4. 22. Glory is departed from Israel so glory is departed from England for England hath seen her best daies and the reward of sin is comming on apace for God is packing up of his gospel because none will buy his wares God begins to ship away his Noahs which prophesied and foretold that destruction was neer and God makes account that New-England shall be a refuge for his Noahs and his Lots a rock and a shelter for his righteous ones to run unto and those that were vexed to see the ungodly lives of the people in this wicked Land shall there be safe Oh therefore my brethren lay hold on God and let him not go out of your coasts look about you I say and stop him at the towns-end and let not thy God depart O England lay siege about him by humble and heartie closing with him and although he be going he is not yet gone suffer him not to goe farr suffer him not to say farewell or rather fare ill England therefore because I will doe thus unto thee prepare to meet the God of Israel O England Amos 4. 12. Now God calls upon thee as he did sometime upon Jerusalem Jer 6. 8. Bee thou instructed therefore O England least my soule depart from thee and least I make thee desolate like a Land that none inhabiteth and thus we see what the godly have done before us and now let it bee our Coppie and let us with Mary claspe close about Christ they have broke the Ice let us follow them this is our day of atonement this present day is ours wee have nothing to doe with tomorrow wee are at odds with God and this is the day of our reconciliation this is the day wherein we are to make our peace with our God and to end all controversies let us labour therfore to prevail with God and that we may not lose his presence doe as the spouse Cant. 3. 1. she sought him but she could not find him yet she gave not over but shee followed him till she found him So our God is going and shall we sit still would you have the Gospel kept with lazie wishes Oh no no arise arise from your downy beds and fall down upon your knees and intreat God to leave his Gospel to you and to your posteritie shall wee by our sins disinherit our Infants and posteritie of such a blessing which is or should bee the life of there lives and so have them brought up in superstition no no Lord we cannot abide this Oh give us neither wealth nor any other blessing but thy Gospell this is our Plea Lord and when have

Ark in the middest of the Campe 1 Sam. 4. 6. As if they should say he lives in the midst ofus and will hee not save us Fourthly we are called by thy name and therefore wee have interest in thee to whom should wives go but to their husbands to whom should children go but to their fathers to whom should servants go but to their Masters to whom then should we go but to thee our God and Saviour leave us not therefore and wee will meddle with none but thee Secondly though God might leave them yet they beg that he would not that is the A men to their prayers though thou stand and wilt not help us yet let us die in thy presence and this is the great request of the Saints they desire not to be left of God although God might leave them whence learne that God might cast off a people Israel did feare it and it is that which they prayed against God might leav them I doe not say that God will cast off his elect ones eternally but those in outward covenant see Esay 1. verse 2. c. Heare O Heavens Hearken O Earth I have nourished and brought up children but they have rebelled against mee The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel hath not knowen my People have not understood c. and verse the seventh see the judgement your cities are burnt with fire strangers devoure your land in your presence and it is desolate like the overthrow of strangers There is an outward Calling as well as an effectuall Calling God may reject for many are called but few chosen saith our Saviour My brethren cast your thoughts afarre off and see what is become of those famous Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira and the rest mentioned Rev. 1. verse 11. And who would have thought that Jerusalem should have been made an heap of stones and a vagabond people and yet we see God hath forsaken them shewing us thereby that although God will never forsake his own elect ones yet hee may forsake such as are in outward covenant with him The Lord is said to dis-church or discharge a people Hosea 1. 9. there God saith call his name Loammi for yee are not my people and therefore I will not bee your God And as I may so say he sues out a bill of divorcement as it was in the old Law they that had any thing against their wives they sued out a bill of divorcement against them and so doth God see Hosea 2. 2. Plead with thy Mother tell her shee is not my Spouse nor my beloved but let her cast away her fornications out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts lest I make her as at the first that is as shee was in Egypt poore and miserable As if God should now say to England plead plead with England all yee that are my Ministers in the way of my truth and say unto her let her cast away her rebellions least I leave her as I found her in the day of Captivity and bondage under the blindnesse of popery and superstition Ob. But how doth God cast off a people Sol. I answer first when he takes away his love and respect from a people and as his love so the token of his love which is his Word and Sacraments the meanes of salvation Secondly when he takes away his providence I meane when he takes downe his walls that is his Magistracy and Ministry Thirdly when in stead of Councelling there comes in Bribing and in stead of true teaching there comes in daubing with untempered morter when God takes away the hedge thereof Esay 5. 5. or the stakes growe rotten and are not renewed then is God going away Fourthly when God takes away the benefit of both these helps they are signes of Gods departure Vse May God un-church or discharge a People and cast a Nation off Oh then let this teach us to cast off all security for miseries are nigh at hand in all probability when wee observe what God hath done for us all things are ripe to destruction and yet we feare it not but wee promise to our selves safety and consider not that England is ready to be harrowed and yet wee cannot entertaine a thought of Englands desolation when there are so many htophesies in it of its destruction yet wee cannot be perswaded of it but in our Iudgements it must not be it must not be as yet as if it were unpossible that God should leave England as if God were a cockering Father over lewd children God may leave a Nation and his elect may suffer and why may not England Englands sins are very great and the greater because the meanes are great and our warnings are and have been great but yet our mercies are farre greater England hath been a mirrour of mercies yet now God may leave it and make it the mirrour of his justice Look how God spake to the people that did brag of their temple Jer. 7. 4. saith God Trust not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord but what saith the Lord by the Prophet in the twelfth and fourteenth verses Goe now to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the beginning and behold what I did unto it for the wickednesse of my people Israel c. Even so England thou hast the Temple and the Priests and yet may not God that destroyed Shiloh destroy thee Goe to Bohemia and from thence to the Palatinate and from thence to other parts of Germany Doe but imagine that you were there or doe but mark what travellers say Gods Churches are made heapes of stones and those Bethels wherein Gods name was called upon are now defiled Temples For Satan and superstition to raigne in you cannot goe three steps but you shall see the head of a dead man And goe a little further and you shall see the heart pickt out by the fowles of the ayre or some other sad spectacle and then surely you will say Tylly hath been here or there now are these Churches become desolate and may not England Doe but goe into their Cities and Townes and there you may see many compassed about with chaines of Captivity and every man bemoaning himself Doe but look under a tree and there you may see a poor fatherlesse child sending out his breath and crying unto his helplesse Mother step but a little further and you shall see the helplesse Wife the sad Wife bemoaning her Husband and this is her misery she cannot die time enough but shee shall see greater misery for either she shall as she thinks see her little ones dasht against the stones or tossed upon the Pikes or if they live that then they shall be brought up in Popery and then shee weeps again and thinks that if her Husband be dead it is well But it may be he is upon the rack or put to some other torment

and then she dies an hundred times before she can die Thus if you can set your soules in their soules stead and imagine you were in their condition and say may not this bee the condition of England and who knowes but it may O my beloved bee not high minded but feare for as we have Gods bountie on the one side so for ought I know we may have his severity on the other side Pranck not then your selves with foolish imaginations saying who dare come to hurt England the Spaniard hath his hands full and the French are too weak But beloved be not deluded who would have thought that Jerusalem the Lady city of all Nations whither the tribes went up to worship should become a heap of stones and a vagabond people but yet you see it was and is to this day And I pray why may it not be Englands case Learne therfore heare and feare God for assuredly God can be God without Englands prosperity Doe not say here are many good Christians doe you think that God is beholding to you for your religion surely not For rather then he will preserve such as professe his name and yet hate to be reformed he will raise up of these stones children unto Abraham he will rather go into Turky and say unto them Thou art my people and I will be your God But wilt thou let God goe England are you so content and will youlet Christ goe and God goe O no no lay heart and hands upon him as they did upon Paul every one of you lay hold on him and say thou shalt not goe from us for we are called by thy name therefore leave us not And for my part I will pray that he doth not take his leave of us Doe you thihke that Rome will forsake or part with her Gods no they will rather loose their lives and wilt thou let thy God goe O England plead with thy God and let him not depart but part rather with thy rebellions Wee are called by thy name leave us not You see the Church is very importunate to keep God with them they lay hold on God with Coards of arguments O thou hope of Israel doe not leave us they beset God with their prayers and as it were they watch him at the townes end that he should not goe away and they say thou shalt still abide with us they are importunate that he doe not leave them whence observe Doct. That it is the importunate desire of the Saints of God still to keepe God present with them They cared not so much for sword or famine as they did for the losse of Gods presence O Lord leave us not say they this was their prayer and blame them not for consider what a grief it is that God should stand by and not help them Good Lord say they leave us not wee cannot abide to thinke that God should leave us much lesse can we endure to feele it or taste it thus they did and thus the Saints of God should doe Exod. 33. 14 15. Moses saith if thy presence goe not with us carry us not hence alas Moses might have gone upon faire termes yee shall saith God possesse the land in peace with prosperity But what saith Moses though wee might have Canaan and all the delights there yet carry us not hence unlesse thy presence goe with us this is the stay and the strength that he stickes too So Psal 80. 18 19. Turne us again O Lord of hosts make thy face to shine upon us here is a man a David a heart worth gold hee makes not many suits but hee comes home he sues to the purpose make thy face saith hee to shine upon us as if he should have said that is prosperity enough for it endureth for ever But what is the presence of God In a word it is the particular favour of God which hee expresseth in his Ordinances it is all the good and sweetnesse that flowes from the purity of Gods worship whereby God reveales himselfe unto us It is not gold wealth nor prosperity that makes God to be our God for there is more gold in the West Indies then in all Christendome but it is Gods ordinances purely administred that brings Gods presence to a people God forsooke Shiloh because his ordinances were not purely kept there when the people left the Arke viz hs pure worship then God left the people when the Arke of Godspresence was among them the word in the purity of it then his face was there and there God was principally present hence it was that Cain is said to be cast out of Gods presence because he was cast out from the Church hee was cast out from Gods ordinances if a people doe outwardly reforme and sincerely worship God they may remaine if Sodom and Gomorrah had but legally repented they had remained they had not been destroyed And hence it is that the Saints are so urgent for Gods Ordinances in the purity of them But the wicked say once a Sabbath is enough and once a week is too much by this we may see that England is ripe and is shee nor weary of God nay shee is fat fed to the slaughter But it was not so with the Saints and people of God in former times it was Davids grand request that hee might dwell in the house of the Lord Psal 27. 4. And Psalme the 42. and the first verse hee said his soule did pant for Gods ordinances Thus you see that the Saints of God are marvellous importunate to keepe God in his ordinances Quest But may not a man bee saved without preaching Answ I answer the argument is clear the Saints maintain God in his ordinances the want of which is under the penalty of death and damnation because wee have more need of God in his ordinances than of all the gold in the world for all the gold in the world will not satisfy a hungry man It is bread that hee must have because hee hath need of it so the Saints have most need of God and of Christ for though they have but ragged coats and their bodies pincht with hunger yet God is hee that they stand most in need of In Psalme the 37. and the 25. verse David fretted at the prosperity of the wicked but at the last he breaks of kindly saying whom have I in heaven but thee As if hee should have said let them have what they will I will have nothing but thee And why so why thou art my strength and my portion for ever marke hee saith that God is his strength yea the strength of his heart hereby shewing that all the helps in the world cannot help the heart of man if God and Christ bee wanting you were as good offer a journey to refresh a weary man or the ayre to feed a hungry man as to offer riches honours and ease to help a distressed soule These will never help a man hee may well dote upon them but his

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