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book_n	call_v	lord_n	word_n	2,945	5	3.9667	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26967	Now or never the holy, serious, diligent believer justified, encouraged, excited and directed, and the opposers and neglecters convinced by the light of Scripture and reason / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1662 (1662)	Wing B1320; ESTC R11592	92,411	266

have found the way of applause and prosperity as well as they and that no man takes that for his misery which he chooseth If this kind of preaching or writing offend could not I have avoided it I am not in love with sufferings from men nor will I escape them at the rates of Gods displeasure I never think my self in the highest form of christians till I am more conform to the sufferings of Christ and have endured more then yet I have It is the Christians old Apology in Tertullian Quasi non totum quod in nos potestis nostrum si Arbitrium Certe si velim Christianus sum tunc ergo me damnabis si damnari velim Quum vero quod in me potes nisi velim non potes jam meae voluntatis est quod potes non tuae potestatis Proinde vulgus vane de nostra vexatione gaudet Proinde nostrum est gaudium quod sibi vendicant qui malumus damnari quam a Deo excidere Contra illi qui nos oderunt dolere non gaudere debebant consecutis nobis quod eligimus Tert. Apologet. cap. 39. That is As if all that you can do against us were not our own choice or will Certainly it is because I will that I am a Christian therefore if I will be condemned then thou wilt condemn me And when that which thou canst do against me thou canst not do unless I will it is not now from thy power that thou canst do it but from my will And therefore the vulgar do in vain rejoyce at our vexation And therefore it is our joy which they challenge to themselves while we had rather be condemned then fall from God On the contrary they that hate us should grieve and not rejoyce while we attain but what we choose For my part if the world will needs be mad I think both the laughing and the weeping Philosopher are more excusable then he that would be over-angry at them or over-busie in disputing with them saith Seneca Quare fers aegri rabiem phrenetici verba nempe quia videntur nescere quid faciunt Quid interest quo quisque vitio fiat imprudens Sen. de Ira. l. 3. c. 26. Anger and phrensie are but several wayes of a mans losing his wit and therefore he that can bear with one should somewhat bear with the other Though indeed voluntariness or involuntariness maketh a great difference It is not worth a man's time and labour and cost to be over solicitous in his own vindication let the world say of him what they please Multum temporis ultio absumit Multis se injuriis objicit dum unam dolet Diutius irascimur omnes quam laedimur Sen. de Ira. l. 3. c. 27. Revenge takes up a deal of time He that complaineth of one injury objects himself to many We are all angry longer th●n we a●e hurt I have truly given you now the Reasons why I rather choose to speak these common necessary things against the Devils party the ungodly the enemies or neglecters of serious Holiness agreeable to the subject of his Majesties Christian and excellent Declaration against Debauchery at his entrance upon his Royal Goverment then to meddle with any of the contending parties of these times who are so angry because in obedience to authority I once endeavoured to reconcile them or to be unseasonable in pleading any cause that is my own And now referring the Reader to this short Discourse I must first desire that he misunderstand me not in one or two passages 1. That my citation of the passage in the Homiles be not taken as if I spoke a word against it though I say I dare not my self subscribe it For though I think my self that seeing a persecutor like Saul may repent and be pardoned a mocker at Godliness may Repent and be forgiven also Yet I am resolved still to suspect my own understanding rather then to speak against the doctrine of the Church 2. Think it not strange that I reprehend even Ministers that are secret or open opposers of a holy diligence For our foresaid Homily telleth us as followeth Hom. for Inform c part 2. p. 150 251. Examples of such scorners we read in 2 Chron. When the good King Hezekiah in the beginning of his Reign had destroyed Idolatry purged the Temple and Reformed Religion in his Realm he sent Messengers into every City to gather the people to Jerusalem to solemnize the feast of Easter in such sort as God hath appointed The Posts went from City to City And what did the people think ye Did they laud and praise the name of the Lord that had given them so so good a King so zealous a Prince to abolish Idolatry and to restore again Gods true Religion No no the Scripture saith the people laughed them to scorn and mocked the Kings messengers And in the last Chap. of the same Book it is written that Almighty God having compassion on his people sent his Messengers the Prophets to them to call them from their abominable Idolatry and wicked kind of living But they mocked his Messengers they despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and till there was no remedy The wicked people that were in the dayes of Noah made but a mock at the Word of God when Noah told them that God would take vengeance on them for their sins Lot preached to the Sodomites that except they repented both they and their City should be destroyed They thought his sayings impossible to be true they scorned and mocked his admonitions and reputed him as an old doting fool But God burnt up those scorners and mockers of his holy Word And what estimation had Christs doctrine among the Scribes and Pharisees What reward had he among them The Pharisees which were covetous did scorn him in his Doctrine O then you see that worldly rich men do scorn the doctrine of their salvation the worldly wise men scorn the Doctrine of Christ as foolishness to their understandings These scorners have ever been and ever shall be to the worlds end For St Peter prophesied that such scorners should be in the end before the latter day Take heed therefore my brethren take heed be ye not scorners of Gods most Holy Word provoke him not to pour out his wrath upon you as he did upon those Gibers and Mockers Be not wilful murderers of your own souls Thus far the Homily And no marvel if Priests may be guilty as well as people if it be true that is said by the Church in Hom. 3. against peril of idolatry p. 56 57. But a true Preacher to stay this mischief is in very many places scarcely heard once in the whole year and somewhere not once in seven year as is evident to be proved Further it appeareth not by any story of credit that true and sincere preaching hath endured in any one place above an hundred years But it is

for Heaven all tenderness of Conscience and fear of sinning all heavenly discourse and serious preaching reading or praying are also made odious for their sakes For hearing so ill of the persons and seeing that these are the things wherein they differ from others they reduce their judgement of their practices to their foresetled judgement of the persons When their diligence in their Families in prayer and instructions in reading and fruitful improvement of the Lords day or any other actions of strictness and holy industry are mentioned these ungodly Ministers are ready to blot them with some open calumnies or secret reproaches or words of suspicion to vindicate their own unholy lives make people believe that serious piety is faction hypocrise The black tincture of their minds and the design and drift of their preaching may be perceived in the jeers and girds and slanderous intimations against the most diligent servants of the Lord. The controverted truths that such maintain they represent as errours Their unavoidable errours they represent as heresie Their duties they represent as faults and their humane frailties as enormous crimes They feign them to be guilty of the things that never entred into their thoughts And if some that have professed godliness be guilty of greater crimes they would make men believe that the rest are such and that the family of Christ is to be judged of by a Judas and the scope is to intimate that either their Profession is culpable or needless and less commendable Regeneration they would make to be but the entrance into the Church by Baptism and any further conversion then the leaving off some gross sins and taking up some heartless forms of duty to be but a fancy or unnecessary thing And they would draw poor people to believe that if they be born again Sacramentally of water they may be saved though they be not born again by the renewing of the Holy Spirit Being strangers themselves to the mystery of Regeneration and to the life of Faith and a heavenly Conversation and to the loving and serving God with all their Soul and Might They first endeavour to quiet themselves with a belief that these are but fancies or unnecessary and then to deceive the people with that by which they have first deceived them elves And it is worthy your observation what it is in Religion that these formal Hypocrites are against There are scarce any words so sound or holy but they can bear them if they be but deprived of their Life Nor scarce any duty if it be but mortified but they can endure But it is the Spirit and Life of all Religion which they cannot bear As a Body differeth from a Carkass not by the parts but by the life so there is a certain life in preaching and prayer and all other acts of worship which is perceived by several sorts of hearers The Godly perceive it to their edification and delight For here it is that they are quickned and encouraged Life begetteth life as fire kindleth fire The ungodly often perceive it to their vexation if not to their conviction and conversion This life in preaching praying discipline reproof and conference is it which biteth and galleth and disquieteth their consciences And this they kick and rail against This is the thing that will not let them sleep quietly in their sin and misery but is calling and jogging them to awake and will not let them sin in peace but will either convert them or torment them before the time It is the Life of Religion that the hypocrite wants and the life that he is most against A painted fire burneth not A dead Lion biteth not The Carkass of an Enemy is not formidable Let the words of that Sermon that most offendeth them be separated from the life and put into a Homily and said or read in a formal drowsie or a School-boys tone and they can bear it and commend it Let the same words of prayer which now they like not be said over as a lifeless customary form and they can like it well I speak not against the use of forms but the abuse of them Not against the Body but the Carkass Let forms themselves be used by a spiritual serious man in a spiritual serious manner with the inter position of any quickening exhortations or occasional passages that tend to keep them waken and attentive and make them feel what you mean and are about and you shall see they love not such animated forms It is the living Christian and lively worship and serious spiritual Religion which they hate kill it and they can bear it Let the picture of my enemy be nearer and comelier then his person was and I can endure it in my bed-chamber better then himself in the meanest dress It is the living Christians that in all parts of the world are chiefly persecuted Let them be once dead and dead-hearted hypocrites themselves will honour them especially at a sufficient distance They will destroy the living Saints and keep Holy dayes for the dead ones Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because ye build the Tombs of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchers of the Righteous and say if we had been in the days of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets Wherefore be ye witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers ye serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell Matth. 23. 29 30 31 32 33. The dog that will not meddle with the dead creature will pursue the living and when he sees it stir no more will leave it Christianity without seriousness is not Christianity and therefore not lyable to the hatred of its enemies as such Say any thing and do any thing how strict so ever if you will but act it as a player on the stage or do it coldly slightly as if you were but in jeast you may have their approbation But it is this life and seriousness and worshipping God in Spirit and Truth that convinceth them that they themselves are lifeless and therefore troubleth their deceitful peace and therefore must not have their friendship If it were the meer bulk of duty that they are weary of how comes it to pass that a Papist at his Psalter Beads and mass-Mass-books can spend more hours without much weariness or opposition then we can do in serious worship Turn all but into words and beads and canonical hours and dayes and shews and ceremony and you may be as religious as you will and be Righteous overmuch and few will hate or reproach or persecute you among them as too precise or strict But living Christians and worship come among them like fire that burneth them and makes them smart with a word that is quick powerful sharper then any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit