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A26845 Non-conformity without controversie from Rom. chap. 12, ver. 2 : shewing that it is every Christian's duty to be a nonconformist to this world / by Benjamin Baxter, Preacher of the Gospel. Baxter, Benjamin, Preacher of the Gospel. 1670 (1670) Wing B1171; ESTC R469 49,814 146

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Ahaziah Is it because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to Baal-zebub the God of Ekron So you that call your selves Christians let me ask you Why do you conform to the World and its sinful courses Is it because you are so commanded to do You see the Scripture commands the contrary Is it because you have nothing higher and better than the World to conform to Sure you have The saying is The first and best in every thing is the Rule of the rest Are you not called to a conformity to the best That God that is Optimus Maximus the Best and Greatest calls you to be like him calls you to be like his Son who is the most perfect pattern for our imitation calls you to be like his Saints who in their several generations pleased God served his Will and are fallen asleep he calls you to be like those Servants of his that are yet in the World and to be followers of them as they are of Christ He calls you out of the World and to be unlike it and to have nothing to do with it by way of conforming in the least to its sinful courses He cautionates you against such a conformity and tells you the dreadful danger of it and he hath laid down Rules in his Word by which Christians are to walk that are made up altogether of that purity and holiness of which the World is altogether void it lying as the Apostle saith in wickedness And now tell me How can he be a Christian indeed that is a Conformist to the World and such as are Conformists to the World you see have nothing to plead in that particular as if they had not better Rules to walk by and higher Patterns to imitate than those of the World He that is a Christian indeed is one that hath given up his Name to Christ and entred it into his List and how can such a one serve and fight under the Colours and Banner of the World Such forget their Baptismal Covenant one clause of which is this Renouncing and forsaking of the world Christians let me tell you There is a day a coming when the great enquiry will be Whose Image and Superscription you bear Your Conformity or Nonconformity to the world will speak that and accordingly will be your doom 3. Inform. Here we may see what is the cause why Christians that will be Christians indeed meet with so much trouble and opposition in and from the World the cause is Nonconformity to the World the ground of the quarrel between the World and them is That they are unlike the World that they will not do as the most do that they will not do as their Neighbours do that they are unlike every body that they are a company of foolish precise persons that delight to be singular This is the reason why the World and the men of it hate those that are truly godly Every thing loves its like and the unlikeness of the Saints to the World is the cause both of the World's hatred and the World's wonder at them 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that ye ru● not with them into the same excess of riot The Saint's strictness is the VVorld's wonder As I said before it is in this case as with the Eggs of Patridges hatched under a Hen when they are hatched they run and as soon as they can make away The VVorld is as it were the Hen under whose wings Christians are for a while hatched but when they begin to take their flight upwards then the world wonders at them And as this is the cause of the VVorld's wonder so it is the cause of the VVorld's hatred of them and of all the afflictions and persecutions they meet with in and from the world Our Saviour told his Disciples In the world you shall have affliction and gives this as the reason of it I have chosen you out of the world The world as our Saviour saith will love its own those in whom it can see its own conditions dispositions it s own Image and Superscription Likeness causeth love and upon this account it is that the world cannot but love those in whom she espies her own likenesse and cannot but hate those that are unlike and in whom she cannot see a conformity to her Hence it is that the World hath always been a Stepmother to the Saints of God using them rigidly and coarsely as those whom she did not own as hers because they owned not her by a conformity to her Christians if you be not like the World you must not think it strange if you be hated in and by the World If you have not the world's likeness you are not to expect the world's love If you walk contrary to the world you must expect that the world will walk contrary to you Your non-conforming to it is a secret condemning of the world's ways and courles and then it is not to be wondred at if the world condemn you Thus much for the Use of Information 2. Exhortation So I am now to exhort you to the duty of Non-conformity to the World and in doing this I shall acquaint you with three things First With what are some of the causes of a Conformity to this World Secondly With some discoveries whereby we may know whether we are not conformed to this World Thirdly With some directions to prevent yonr being Conformists to this World First We shall shew you some of the causes why so many are Conformists to the World and they are chiefly two 1. A base and slavish fear of the World's Frowns 2. A base and sinful love of the World's Favours And from both these proceeds that base and sinful compliance with the World and conformity to it 1. A base and slavish fear of the World's Frowns They fear the trouble they may meet with in the World if they should swim against the stream of being unlike the World Most love a Religion without trouble and although opposition be made the Attendant of true Religion following it as the shadow doth the body yet most love as a cheap Religion which may cost them nothing so such a peaceable Religion as may not disturb their worldly rest but that will suffer them to sleep in a whole skin Indeed for a man to be no more religious than the World would have him be may seem to make for his outward peace As a wise man said For that man that would deny his body no sensual pleasure and yet save his soul at last there was no place like that of Italy and no Religion like that of Rome So I say For that man that only studies his outward peace viz. a freedom from the World's malice hatred and opposition there is no Religion like the World 's And hence it is that so many comply with it and conform to it Consider there is in every one naturally a strong propensity and inclination to these four things 1.