Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	lord_n	mercy_n	word_n	3,722	5	4.2322	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41108	The danger of deferring repentance discovered by that reverend and faithfull minister of the word, William Fenner.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1654 (1654)	Wing F684; ESTC R24033	19,518	47

sinues upon thée unto the third and fourth generation because thou hast withstood the day of grace Beloved men run on in their sins as if so be an Augel from heaven should cry unto them and tell them yet God will be good unto them yet God will shew them mercy and forbeare them Beloved let your consciences answer if you ever heard the Lord God say to any of you thus long I will forbeare you No Gods patience is in his own breast and therefore no man knows how long it will last Reas. 2. A second reason is because Gods patience giveth no marks or inkling of it before it ends commonly when God strikes a man with death he giveth some signes or warnings of it before as sicknesse and paines and gray hairs and many sorrows c. Now because thy life is in Gods hands thou carest not for it but venturest to goe on in thy sins hoping to have some warning though thousands be cut off without it but the day of grace may come to an end and yet thou never have any inkling or warning of it beforehand commonly when God strikes a man with death he tells him of it before-hand by aches and pains as if the Lord should say Now thou shalt die now will I take thée out of the world But when the Lord taketh away the day of grace from a man though the spirituall man may take some notice of it yet there is no sensible apparition of it but after the day of grace is set upon a man he may be as strong and lustrie as before he may come to Church as well after as before performe religious duties and do many good things as well after as before as Saul went on in duties of Religion as well after Samuel had pronounced the Lords doome upon him how many times was he offering sacrifice unto the Lord after the Prophet told him that he was a man rejected how many good spéeches came from him as when Samuel met him he salutes him with these words Blessed be thou of the Lord I pray thee turne againe with me that I may worship the Lord A man would have thought that Saul had beene a good convert No no before al this his judgment and doome was set upon him God steales upon him and saies nothing he claps his plague upon their souls and holds his peace Isaiah 42. 14. I have a long time held my peace I have beene still and refrained my selfe now will I cry like a travelling woman I will destroy and devoure at once The Lord shewes here how he deales with men they goe on in their sinnes but the Lord holds his peace they provoke him every day but the Lord refraines his anger but now all at once his wrath breateth foorth upon them Psal. 64. 7. God will shoot an arrow at them suddenly their stroke shal be at once The Lord suddenly shoots a swift arrow at thée no sooner it is shot but it enters into thy bowels When the Lord comes upon a man he comes suddenly when he ends the day of grace upon him he doth it suddenly He ended the day of grace on the Scribes and Pharisées even in the very Sermon time While Christ was preaching unto them they were delivered up to hardnesse of heart so many were delivered up to hardnesse of heart in the time of Hosea's prophecie Hosea 4. 17. Epharim is joyned to jdols let him alone saith God as if he should say Sermou let him alone Preacher let him alone Spirit let him alone Christ let him alone let him alone Beloved if we stand out against God and reject the day of grace the Lord may say Word let such aman alone and never convert him Christ let such a man alone and never redéeme him Spirit let such a man alone and never sanctifie him Sacraments let such a man alone and never seale up any comforts unto him a fearefull signe that men are come to this hours do we not sée that men come to the Word and the Word lets them alone in their sins do not men come to the Sacrament and the Sacrament leaves them still in their filthinesse men come unto good dtuies but good duties let them alone and do them no good and this is the condition of many thousands in the world Therefore oh thinke upon this you that have made a league with your sinns and an agréement with hell hear this delivered to you this day that the day of grace may be ended and God may come and clap his curse upon men and never give them any inkling of it at all A third Reason is because God reckons upon every houre if God kept not a strict account of time how many Sermons you have had how many mercies you have enjoyed how many crosses he hath warned you by if God kept not a true talle and account of every houres time you might rub on many dayes and moneths and yéeres and spend much time in fulfilling of your lusts but God kéepeth a reckoning of these things yea of every houre and of every minute Act. 17. 30. The times of ignorance God regarded not but now he admonisheth all men to repent Alas when men live in their sins through blindnesse and ignorance and know not God the Lord takes no such strict notice of them but lets them goe on longer and longer but when the Lord send them his Word and Gospel and affords them the meanes of grace he doth the more strictly looke unto them and takes the more exact account of them before they had the meanes of grace the Lord winked at them and did not so narrowly watch them but looked over mens ignorance as the originall hath it but now God sends his Word and Gospel he admonisheth all men to repent he winks at never an houre but sets downe how oft thou hast had exhortation from thy Minister how often thou hast had warning by sicknesse and afflictions how often thou hast had chéeks from thine owne conscience how many admonitions thou hast had from thy friends how many times thou hast had the sound of the Gospel to sound in thy eares to bring thée home unto God John 2. 7. 11. This is the first beginning of miracles that Jesus did John 4. 58. This is the second miracle that Iesus did saith the Text God sets downe this is the first this is the second time This is the second Epistle I wrote to you saith Paul Oh this is the third time I wrote unto you 2 Cor. 13. that when I come I will not spare so God sets it downe in his catalogue this is the first time that I have warned this man this is the second time this is the third time that when I come I will not spare the Lord counts how long he hath sought unto thée and intreated thée by his mercies how long he hath allured thée by his Word how long he hath warned thée by his judgements how oft he hath smote

their iniquities which were so grievous and provoked him so much that they hasted him to come before he would have done In all this space if they had Repented they should have found Mercy from the Lord but when his time was gone and the day of grace was out the deluge came in upon them and God by his judgements overthrew the whole World Object You may aske me when this day or season of grace doth end or cease Answ. I answer that neither men nor Angels can tell but this I say it may be yet this day of grace lasteth unto thee now it may be God speaketh whom to thy soul now it may be God warnms thy heart and gives thee good purposes and resolutions now it may be the Lord Iesus passeth by thée in a good thought and desire lay hold on it for thy day may cease this very night for ought thou knoweth Luke 17. 22. The time shal come saith Christ when you shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Sonne of man and shall not see it Now is the day of Christ upon you now is Christ offering and preaching himselfe to you but if you let this day passe thou maist desire to have one of the drops of that Blood that hath béen offered to thée and yet never have it thou maist desire to féele one rap of that Spiret that hath knockt at thy heart and yet goe without it thou maist intreat for one dram of that mercy that hath béen offered and thou hast rejected but it shall never be granted to thée God may clap that fearefull sentence upon thée Now henceforth never grow fruit more on thee never Repentance come into thy heart more If now thou wilt not repent and be converted the Lord may set it down in his decrée from this day forward that thou maist fumble about thy sinnes but shalt never get victory over them thou maist ever be mourning for thy corruptions but never mourne aright for them thou maist blunder about Repentance but never doe the worke Ezekiel 24. 23. You shall not mourne nor weepe but you shall pine away for your iniquities and mourne one towards another There is many a soule for contemning of God and not taking up Repentance while they may have it this plague of God is come upon them that they are ever repenting and are never able to Repent ever poring upon their sinnes but never able to come out of them they pray and pray against them but their prayers moulder away under them for they shall pine away for their iniquities What is the reason He sheweth in the 13. verse Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged any more Because I gave thée line upon line precept upon precept motion upon motion Sacrament upon Sacrament Sabbath vpon Sabbath and Ordinance upon Ordinance because I used all faire means and foule means I awaked thy conscience and stirred up the motions of Grace in thée but bec●use I would have cleansed thée and thou wast not cleansed thou shalt never be cleansed A fearfull sentence it is if mens hearts were soundly oppened to consider rightly of it And as there is a Personall day so there is a Nationall day if the Nation turne unto God during that time then that Nation shall find mercy but if they neglect that day then God will hide those things from their eyes that belong to their peace as Christ saith of Ierusalem Luke 19. 42. O Ierusalem if that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that did belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eies in this thy day if thou hadst known it during that day it had béen happy for thée but now the day of grace is gone the Lord hath concealed it from thée and thou shalt never perceive it more Some mens day of grace God endeth even in their very child-hood therefore if there be any little ones any Children here in this congregation that are of age to know what belongs to an exortation to them I spake that they take héed how they rebell against the commandement of a Father or a Mother or Master against the teaching of Gods word for though you be children yet God may inflict judgments upon your heads for not only the day of grace but also the day of lfe may be cut off from children as 2 Kings 2. 24. Four and twenty children were torne in pieces for mocking the Lords Prophet Some mens day of grace is not shut up untill their youth some not untill their old age some not untill they are a dying and if they refuse then they are like yea sure to perish for ever I know the day of grace may have severall returns but at last Gods Exchequer will be finally shut up Object May not a man be called at the eleventh or twelfth houre of the day The day of grace lasteth alwayes and doth not the Apostle call the day of life the day of grace 2 Cor. 6. 2. Answ. It is true the Lord calleth men at the eleventh twelfth houre but yet looke and you shall sée in the twentieth of Matthew that they were not called at the first houre nor at the second nor third houre nor at the sixt and ninth houre he doth not say he found the same men that he found at the first and third sixth and ninth houres but he saw others standing jdle No those that were called at the first houre came in at the first houre and they that were called at the third houre came in at the third houre and they that were called at the sixth and ninth houre came in at ye sixth and ninth houre Well doth God call thée in thy childhood in thy youth or in thy middle age now at the first or sixth or ninth houre now come in and labour in Gods vineyard and work out your salvation with feare and trembling and make use of the season of grace now whilst it is upon you for if thou be called at the first houre the sixt is for another and not for thée if thou be called the sixt hour the ninth hour is for others and not for thée if thou be called the ninth hour the eleventh hour is for others not for thée The text saith He came found others standing jdle in the market place and said unto them Why stand ye here jdle and they say unto him no man hath hired us as if they should say We never had any means of salvation we have had no Ministers to preach unto us but now God calls upon thée to come in this is thy houre look unto it If God call thée sée thou come in whether it be at the first or third houre at the sixth or ninth houre lest the Lord in his wrath clap hardnesse of heart upon thy soule Object But you will say that the day of life and the day of grace are paralleld and likened one to another and