He that turns away his eare from Gods Law God wiâ—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 swaâ—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
other abominable sins which mens conseiences startle at bul evill thoughts defile a man Assure thy self that so long as the league of these evill thoughts is not broken thou hast no Christ as yet within thee Hence is that exhortation of the Apostle Colos 3.12 If you be risen with Christ then seek those things which are above Brethren you must remember that there be two kinds of exhortations in Scripture the one if a man do them blessed and happie is he the other if he doe them not yet he may find mercie it will be a greif and a sorrow to him but it follows not that he shall miscarrie But there are exhortations that tye to obedience that must be obeyed or else there is no salvation as this exhortatâ—on of the Apostle it is not left to our choice to do or not to do but if a man be risen with Christ he must doe it he must seek the things that are above that man then that hath his thoughts run habitually on the world that man hath no Christ in him and therefore his end must needs be destruction Reas 3 Thirdly that mans end must needs be destruction that loves not God now so long as thy thoughts run habitually on the things of the world thou hast no true love of God in thee For thus runs the Commandment of love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might Matth. 22.37 It is as if Christ should have said thou shalt love God with all thy heart and with all thy heart and with all thy heart for the soul mind and heart are all one that no man might dare to keep any part of their heart from God Every one will say I love God with all my heart I go to Church and serve God with all my heart I hear the Word and pray with all my heart I receive the Sacraments with all my heart Dost thou so and yet let thy thoughts run upon the world dost thou pray and yet let vain thoughts lodge within thee dost thou hear the Word receive the Sacraments and yet letst vain thoughts distract thee Dost thou walk in thy calling and yet lettest vain thoughts steal away thy heart and yet sayest thou I love God with all my heart when thou takest away thy heart from God How dost thou think thy thoughts with thy heels or with thy heart Surely thou sayest with my heart Why then if thou lovest God with all thy heart thou must give thy thoughts unto God God that cals for thy heart cals for all the heart now the heart is nothing but all a mans heart all the affections and desires all turnings and windings all things that are in the heart do but make up the heart and therefore when God calls for thy heart he calls for all the powers and faculties of the soule And therefore the Prophet David would blesse God with his soule and all that was within him Psal 103. So thou must give thy thoughts and all that is within thee to God or els thou givest God nothing therefore that mans end must needs be destruction that loves not God Reas 4 Fourthly that mans end must needs be destruction that never gives over his sinnes and so long as thy thoughts run after the world thou canst never forsake sin thou maiest resolve and think on the contrary yet so long as thy thoughts run habitually on the things of the world thou dost not forsake sin Wicked and carnall men may have the eyes of their consciences opened and their hearts awakened whereby they may see their sinnes and the hellish evill and danger of them whereupon they may resolve and purpose to forsake them and then they will make a covenant with God that they will not do thus and thus I have been touchie and cholerick but I will be so no more I have beene a prophane swearer and blasphemer of the name of God but I will be so no more I have been a drunkard and an unclean person but Lord thou shalt see a reformation in me Nay it may be he will tell his Minister of it and his father and his mother his wife his children and all his friends too of it but when he comes to his cold bloud again and these cold graces which sluttered so come to be cold in him so that his heart comes to it self again then vain thoughts rest in his heart and he returns to his old sins again as the dog to his vomit and the sow being washed to the wallowing in the mire The Apostle excellently describes a man that can never depart from his sins They have eyes full of adultery which cannot cease to sin 2. Pet 2.14 where the Apostle speaks not onely of that adulterie which is a breach of the seventh Commandment but of such an adulterie which is a perfect breach of every Commandment when the heart runneth awhoring after every sin and vanitie when the eye of the soul is full of adulterie the heart cannot cease to sin when the eye cannot see an object of gain or profit but the mind is presently engaged and runs after it when it cannot see an object of delight and pleasure but it is straightway caught by it when he cannot see any wrong or injurie done unto him but presently he is inflamed with revenge and his heart runs after it I say that if thy eye be thus full of adultery that thou canst not see the occasions and hints of sin but presently thou art insnared and thy soul is taken by it thou art the man that canst not cease to sin therefore untill thou turne the eye of thy soule which is the thoughts and affections of thy heart another way thou wilt never cease to sin For wheresoever thou lookest thou wilt be insnared so long as thy thoughts are evill and vicious either upon pride or covetousnesse or ambition or envie or delights thy soul will look asquint on God and untill these vaine thoughts of thine be crucified thou wilt only look upon the satisfying of these vain lusts of thine Prov. 3.6 In all thy wayes acknowledge God and he shall direct thy paths In all thy wayes think on God or else thou mayest go to many duties in Religion but never be direct in thy going thou maiest pray a thousand times but never be established in thy prayer thou maiest go from Lecture to Lecture and yet never be established in thy service thou maiest go about many things and never be established in any thing unlesse God be in all thy thoughts a man may go on in a course of Religion but it is at haphazard he is inconstant and unsteady in his course unlesse in his heart he think upon God and therefore his end must needs be destruction This then may serve first for humiliation to the godly secondly for matter of condemnation to the wicked Vse 1 First for humiliation are vain thoughts thus damnable that when
Is it that thou maiest have grace or that thou maist follow thy calling and get thy living is it this that thou wouldst have for which thou keepest such a digging and scraping and such a laying up Then thy end is carnall and vain and thy drift and end declareth the truth of thy soul that it is carnall and vain THE JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD By SAINTS at the last Day DELIVERED And learnedly discovered in a Sermon preached By that vigilant and painfull Minister of the Word WILLIAM FENNER B.D. Sometime Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Parson of Rochford in Essex London Printed by T.R. and E.M. for J.S. A SERMON OF Mr. WILLIAM FENNERS Upon this ensuing Text. 1 Cor. 6. part of the 2d verse Know yee not that the Saints shall judge the World THE Corinthians thought Paul had converted many poore mean men amongst them Chapter 1.26 27. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty yet the Nobles the Lawyers the Counsellers the chiefe men in the Citie the Apostle had not converted one of them or at the least very few Brethren you see your calling who they are that be converted to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ from the evill of their wayes not many wise men after the flesh not many rich not many noble some few there be here and there one but for the most part they are a company of poor beggerly Christians Now it seems these poor Christians having controversies one with another went to Law among themselves and that before unbeleevers The Apostle condemnes this their going to Law and would have them cease their suits and quarrels one against another before the unjust and unbeleevers and that by four Arguments First by the shamefulnesse of it verse 5. I speak it to your shame as if he should say Are you such fooles that you cannot take up these matters among your selves that you cannot make references of your wrongs to mediate one to another but that you must go to Law before unbeleevers Secondly from the scandalousnesse of it It is a thing so scandalous and offensive to those that are without that I wonder any of you dare be so bold as to go to Law one with another What will the world think What are these the men that professe the Gospel Are these they that have the Wisdome of God in them and that are led by the Spirit of God And have they no more understanding in them then when they have any matter of controversie they cannot end it among themselves but must go to Law before the unjust and unbeleevers as they terme them Thirdly from the unsâ—emingnesse of it in the second verse Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the earth What hath God made you Judges of the world and doe you goe to be judged by the world Or as Ambrose speakes hath God appointed you to be Judges of the men in the world and are you not fit to be Judges of the things of the world Fourthly from the strangenesse of it Dare any of yuu He speakes interrogatively vers 1. It is a strange thing that you should come to that impudencie against the Gospel of Christ one would think that you should tremble and quake at such a thing as this is What is there never a wise Christian amongst you never an understanding professor that is able to take up a controversie or decide and judge between his brethren what a strange thing is this Then hee backs it with foure Arguments 1. Because they wre Brethren vers 6. Brother goes to Law with brother 2. Because it was about the things of this life What hath God made you Judge of heavenly things of Angels and are you unfit to Judge of the things of this life 3. It was abâ—ut small matters ver 2. whereas you shall sit upon men and Angels and the weightiest matters in the world the greatest things of Gods law judging them to the greatest penaltie and punishment even to eternall damnation and are yee unworthy then to judge even of the smallest matters 4. And lastly Because it was about such things as the meanest Christian in the towne might have taken up and have ended Set up them that are least esteemed Doe you not know that the Saints shall judge the world Doct. I need not goe far for a point the word affords it The Doctrine is That the Saints shall judge the world It is an old truth yea as old as the world it selfe you may read it in the fourth verse of Judes Epistle That Enoâ—h the seventh from Adam prophecied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints God will not onely come to judgement himselfe but he will come attended with all his Saints even with all the godâ—y to execute vengeance upon all the world So our Saviour told Saint Peter and not onely him but all that follow him in the regeneration They shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Mat. 9.18 They shall judge the Nations and have dominion over the people Wisd 3.8 Object And now because doubt is the best way to attaine unto knowledge let me answer a doubt that may creepe in by the way How shall the Saints judge the world Answ Ans Not by pronouncing of judgement upon the world for that Christ alone shall do Then shall the King say to them on his left hand Depart yee cursed Mat. 25. But the Saints shall judge the world these foure wayes 1. They shall judge the world by their consent unto Christs judgement God traines up his children in this world educates them and teaâ—heth them how they may judge the world hereafter he teacheth them in this life how to assent with his proceedings in the world so that they are able to say Righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy judgements Psal 119.137 Now if the Saints be trained in this life to assent unto Gods proceedings with the world much more then will they be able to know and consent unto Christs judgement when he shall come with his Saints to judge the world Now the Law saith that consenters are agents and therefore because the Saints shall consent to the judgement of Christ therefore they are said to judge the world 2. The Saints shall judge the world by their applause of Christs judgement they shall not only give consent unto the judgment of Christ but they shall also applaud it and commend it when God shall say to all drunkards swearers lyers Sabbath-breakers and to all unbeleeving impenitent and graceles sinners Depart yee cursed into hell fire then though it were his owne father that begat him or his mother that bare him though it were his owne brother or sister wife or child that hath been as dear as his own life and soule to him yet they shall clap their hands for joy and applaud