Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57934	A sermon preach'd at St. Mary-Le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, June 28, 1697 / by John Russell.	Russell, John, fl. 1660.	1697 (1697)	Wing R2346; ESTC R26224	19,860	54

endeavouring the repressing of Sin and propagation of Piety so to look back signifies a withdrawing our Affections and Endeavours from it and a relinquishing this so glorious and commendable an Enterprize And in speaking of this I shall briefly take notice 1st of the Persons and 2dly Of the Temptations inducing to this sinful Retrospection And in the first place as to the Persons I cannot but briefly remark with a melancholy Reflection that not only vast Numbers who are engag'd by the awful Obligations of Baptism have no more sense of their Duty and Interest than if they had been brought up in a Land of Darkness Not only great Multitudes hear the Gospel every day and themselves also read the Holy Scriptures and yet they are to 'em as a Book seal'd they neither feel nor understand their Power and Life But also there are others who have had a sight and sense of their Duty have been under Convictions and taken up Resolutions for Heaven and Eternity and yet all their Purposes like Ephraim's Righteousness have been but as a morning Dew which is presently consum'd with the heat of the next approaching Temptation And this is very sadly to look back after we have set our Hands to the Plough when we have felt the warmings of the Divine Spirit in our Hearts the incubations of the Holy Ghost brooding on our Souls in order to bring forth the Image of God in a state of renewed Holiness when we have made some advances in Piety and have begun in the Spirit yet after all to end in the Flesh this is miserably to look back from our Employment and solemn Engagement But 2dly to carry on my Application You Gentlemen who have promis'd to become the Servants of Jesus Christ not only by the Vow of your Baptism but also by the Rules of those Religious Associations into which you are engag'd to encourage one another to walk as becomes the Gospel and to declare your selves the Opponents to Vice and Ungodliness and to repress Profanation Debauchery and Excess within your sphere and knowledg by endeavouring to give Life and Vigour to those good Laws which our Pious Legislators have establish'd for this End Consider you have put your Hand to the Plough of God for 't is his Cause that you are engag'd in and if upon the account of some little opposition you withdraw your Assistance or stop in your Duty this is the looking back here intimated in the Text. I beg Gentlemen I may not be mistaken as if I was afraid you were weary of that good Work which you have set your Hands unto and were about to relinquish it my Discourse proceeds from another Design namely That by shewing the great Mischief which must attend your forsaking this Cause I might the more effectually recommend it to your Selves and perswade Others to engage in it and encourage your Zeal to all the prudential and vigorous Methods which are needful for its Prosecution But yet since 't is not impossible but some who have set their Hands to this good Work may look back may flag in their Diligence and cool in their Affections I shall briefly take notice of some of the Temptations tending to it and these fall under one or the other of these 3 Heads 1st Fear 2dly Shame 3dly Sloth 1st Fear When a Person that has not first sat down and counted the Cost what it will stand him in to be the Soldier of Jesus Christ and what degree of Valour and holy Resolution it requires to fight in this glorious Cause and to labour in this Work that he must be sincere and impartial not afraid of the Reproaches of the Small or the Frowns of the Great or any diminution of his temporal Interest when such a Person finds that the Cause he has undertook may eclipse his Profit and that there is indeed greater Opposition than he expected then he begins to faint and to chill in his Warmth and to find excuses for his Recession But let such consider that St. John tells us That the Fearful as well as the Vnbelieving shall have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21.8 i. e. Such who faint in the spiritual Warfare and have not courage enough to stand up for the Cause of Jesus Christ in opposition to the Conveniencies and Friendships of the World such are unfit for the Kingdom of God And as Solomon observes That the fear of Man bringeth a Snare Prov. 29.25 a Snare on the Conscience and an intangling hindrance to religious Duties so He that ventures upon the displeasure of God rather than Man or whom sordid apprehensions of worldly loss or the breach of carnal Friendship or the browbeatings of the Powerful can beat off from his Work such a Person does hereby render himself unfit for that blessed Sentence of Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. For he that cannot venture himself on the Cause of Christ Jesus and whose Faith is too feeble to shore him up from sinking under the fear of Men such a Person is a miserable Bondman to the World how fair soever his pretensions may be to Regeneration and Holiness of Life But Beloved I believe and hope better things of you and things that accompany a zeal of Sincerity and a vigorous prosecution of your glorious Undertaking 2dly Shame is another Temptation to induce Men to look back It has been the chiefest Policy of Satan ever since God has in wonderful Mercy unto his Church been pleas'd to stop the violence of his Rage and Persecution to oppose Religion by Scoffs and Mockings at those that will not still remain his Vassals And our Age and Nation has been so unhappily exercised by this stratagem of Hell that one would be tempted to think that the Prophecy of St. Peter look'd at these Days 2 Pet. 3.3 Knowing this that there shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts For how has Holiness of Life been ridicul'd and the Power of Godliness and the Life of the the Spirit and a state of Conversion and Regeneration been made the subject of impious Derision and scornful Reproach insomuch that Some have been even asham'd to own themselves so good as they really were for fear that some name of Ignominy and Contempt would be cast upon them And indeed I do not find any Opposition greater than this to balk you in the way of your vertuous procedure But to counterpoise this remember that you are engag'd to own the Cause of a Crucified Jesus of him that was number'd among the Transgressors and who endured the Cross and despised the Shame and if you have not constancy enough to bear a little Reproach for the sake of our great Master and to be contented to undergo the name of Informers and busy Fellows or such who make a noise to get your selves a Name if you cannot patiently endure the Reproaches of the Agents of Hell