Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	everlasting_a	reap_v	sow_v	4,291	5	10.3472	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

thou look to thy duties and supposed honesty whose sincerity now thou art so confident of 〈◊〉 this is the vain Religion that this deceive thee but cannot sin● thee Thou art like a man Re● falling house that hath nothing to lay hold on but that ●●ch is falling and is it that will 〈◊〉 him unto death Or like a 〈◊〉 ●owning man that hath nothing ●ut a handful of water to lay hold upon which is it that will choak him but is vain to save him It is thy superficial hypocritical complemental services that will fall with thee and fall upon thee that will thus both deceive thee and choak thee in the time of thy distress To be told now that thy Religion is vain is a thing that thy dead unbelieving heart can too easily bear But to find then when thou lookest for the benefit of it that its Vain is that which is not born so easily but will overwhelm the stoutest heart with terrours If thou were a man of no Religion and so hadst none to deceive and quiet thee 〈…〉 couldst scarcely keep off thy 〈…〉 now If thou hadst not 〈◊〉 hollow-hearted prayers thy 〈◊〉 zeal or forms and shews 〈◊〉 tasks of duty thy profession 〈◊〉 its secret exceptions and reserv● 〈◊〉 thy smoothed out-side with the good conceit thou hast of thy self and the good esteem that other men have of thee if thou hadst not these to flatter thy conscience and cloak thee from the storms of threatened wrath thou wouldst perhaps walk about like another Cain and be afraid of every man thou seest and tremble at the shaking of a leaf and still look behind thee as afraid of a pursuit But alas it will be ten thousand times more terrible to find thy confidence prove deceit and thy Religion vain when God is judging thee when hell is before thee and thou art come to the last of all thine expectations Nay then to find not only that thy superficial Religion was vanity and lighter then vanity nothing and less then nothing but that it was thy sin and that which will now torment thee and the remembrance of it be to thee as the remembrance of drunkenness to the drunkard and of fornication to the unclean and of covetousness to the worldling the rust of whose money will eat his flesh and burn like fire O what a doleful plight is this when the sentence is ready to pass upon thee and hell is gaping to devour thee and thou lookest for help to thy vain Religion and cryest out O now or never help help me or I am a fire-brand of unquenchable wrath help me or I must be tormented in those flames help me now or it will be too late and I shall never never more have help Then to have thy self-deceit discovered and thy seeming Religion condemn thee and torment thee instead of helping thee what anguish and confusion will this cast thy hopeless soul into such as no heart can here conceive Thy guilty soul will be like a hare among a company of dogs which so ever of thy duties thou flyest for help to that will make first to tear thee and devour thee Like a naked man in the midst of an army of his deadly enemies which so ever he flyeth to for pitty and relief is like to be one of the first to wound him Poor self-deceiver what wilt thou then do or whither wilt thou betake thy soul for help The reason why thou canst now make shift with a lifeless shadow of Religion is because thou hast thy sports or pleasures thy friends and ●latterers thy worldly business to divert thy thoughts and take thee up and rock the cradle of thy security and thy piety is not yet brought unto the fire nor thy heart and duties searched by the all discovering light But when the light comes in and when all thy fleshly contents are gone and when thou comest to have use for thy Religion and seest that if it prove unsound thou art lost for ever O then it is not shadows and shews and complements that will quiet th●e That will not serve turn then that serves turn now Thou wilt find then that it was easier deceiving thy self then God Gal. 6. 3 4 5 7. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself But let every man prove his own work For every man shall bear his own burden Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life But perhaps thou wilt say It is not any duties but Christ that I must trust to he will be my help and he is sufficient and will not deceive the soul that trusteth him Answ Undoubtedly he is sufficient and will not deceive thee But doth he deceive thee if he give thee not the salvation which he never promised thee He never promised salvation to an Hypocrite without conversion It is the upright soul devoted to him that takes him for the absolute Master of his life and for his only portion and felicity to whom Christ hath promised salvation And his promise shall be made good and the sincere shall find that Christ deceives them no● But where did he ever promise salvation to a superficial Pharisee to such a seeming Christian as thou shew such a promise from him if thou canst and then trust it and spare not But thou dost not trust him but thy own deceit if he have given thee no such promise to trust on Nay rather should he not deceive all the world if he should save such superficial hypocrites when he hath professed in his word that he will not save them and if he should not condemn such heartless Formalists when he hath so often told us that he will condemn them Surely he that breaks his word is liker to be a deceiver then he that keepeth it Be it known to thee therefore and O that thou wouldst know it while there is a remedy at hand that if thou trust that Christ should save an unsanctified fals-hearted person whose soul was never renewed and revived by the Holy Ghost and absolutely given up to God and that setteth not up God and his service above all the interest of the flesh and the commodities and contentments of the world thou dost not then trust Christ but thy own deceits and lyes and it is not Christ that is the deceiver but thou art a deceiver of thy self that makest thy self a false promise and trustest to it and when thou hast done sayst thou wilt trust to Christ yea trustest thy self against Christ and trustest that he will break his word and not that he will make it good See whether he resolve not to condemn all such Matth. 10. 37 38. Luke 14. 27 33. Matth. 7. 26 27. Jam. 2. 14. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 9. with the

by his own iniquities crying out Unclean and loathing himself for all his abominations weary of his sin and heavy-laden as all must be that are fit for Christ Read Isa 57. 15. 66. 2. Psal 51. 17. 34. 18. Lev. 13. 44 45. Ezek. 36. 31. 20. 43. 6. 9. Matth. 11. 28. Rom. 7. 24. 4. This mans Religion must needs be Vain for he wanteth the life of faith it self and heartily believeth not in Christ He hath but an opinion of the truth of Christianity through the advantage of his education and company and thereupon doth call himself a Christian and heartlesly talk of the mysterie of Redemption as a common thing But he doth not with an humbled broken heart betake himself to Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and everlasting misery as he would lay hold on the hand of his friend if he were drowning The sense of the odiousness of sin and of the damnation threatned by the righteous God hath not yet taught him to value Christ as he must be valued by such as will be saved by him These hypocrites do but talk of Christ and turn his name as they do their prayers into the matter of a dry and customary form They flie not to him as the only Physician of their souls in the feeling of their festring wounds they cry not to him as the Disciples in the tempest Save Master we perish They value him not practically though notionally they do as the pearl for which they must sell all Matth. 13. 44 45 46. Christ doth not dwell in his heart by faith nor doth he long with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 17 18 19. He counteth not all things loss for Christ and the excellency of his knowledge nor doth he count them as dung that he may win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness but that which is through the faith of Christ Phil. 3. 8 9 10. nor can he truly say that he desireth to know nothing but a crucified Christ 1 Cor. 2. 2. and that the life that he now liveth in the flesh he liveth by the faith of the Son of God that loved him and gave himself for him Gal. 2. 20. He is not taken up with that admiration of the love of God in Christ as beseems a soul that is saved by him from the flames of hell and that is reconciled to God and made an heir of life everlasting He hath not understandingly deliberately seriously and unreservedly given up himself and all that he hath to Christ and thankfully accepted Christ and life as given on the Gospel terms to him This living effectual faith is wanting to the Hypocrite whose Religion is Vain 5. This Vain Religion doth never practically shew the soul the amiableness and attractive goodness of God so far as to win the heart to a practical estimation of him and adhering to him above all nor so far as to advance him above all the creatures in the practical judgement will and conversation nor doth it cause the soul to take him for its portion and prefer his savour before all the world and devote it self and all unto his interest and will and give him the superlative and soveraign honour both in heart and life Psal 63. 3. and 30. 5. and 4. 6 7. and 16. 5. and 17. 14. Mat. 10. 37. 6. This Vain Religion is alwayes without that serious belief of the life to come which causeth the soul to take it for its happiness and treasure and there to set its desires and its hopes and to make it his principal care and business to attain it and to make all the pleasures and profits and honours of the world to stoop to it as preferring it before them all Matth. 6. 20 21. and ver 33. Luk. 18. 22 23. and 14 33. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Phil. 3. 18 19 20. The Hypocrite taketh heaven but for a reserve and as a lesser evil then hell and seeks it but in the second place while his fleshly pleasures and interest have the preheminence and God hath no more but the leavings of the world and he serveth him but with so much as his flesh can spare 7. This Vain Religion consisteth principally in external observances If he be a Formalist that hath it his Religion lyeth in his beads and prayer books in going so oft to Church and keeping holy dayes and fasting dayes and saying over such and such words and using such and such gestures and ceremonies and submitting to Church orders and crying down Sectaries and preciseness and jearing at the simplicity of plain hearted Christians that never learnt the art of dissimulation Their Religion is but a pack of Complements a flattering of God as if they would mock him with cap an knee who will not be mocked Gal. 6. 7. while they draw near him with their lips their hearts are far from him Mat. 15. 7 8 9. They wash the outside and pay tithe of all and give some almes and forbear disgraceful sins which would make them be esteemed ungodly among men Mat. 15. 2 3. Mar. 7. 4 8. Matth. 23. 25 26 c. Mat. 6. 1 4 6. c Isa 1. 11 12 13 14. Isa 58. 1 2. But these self-deceivers are strangers to the inward spiritual work of holiness Their hearts are not busie in the worship of God by fervent desire and exercise of other graces while their tongues are put into an artificial pace and they are acting the part of men that seem to be Religious If they be cast into the Sectarian mold they place their Religion in the strictness of their Principles and Parties and in contending for them and in their affected fervour and ability to speak and pray ex tempore But the humble holy inward workings of the soul toward God and its breathings after him and the watch that it sets over the heart this hypocrite is much a stranger to If he be brought up among the Orthodox in well ordered Churches he placeth his Religion in the holding of the truth and taking the right side and submitting to right order and using Gods ordinances but the most of an upright mans employment is at home within him to order his soul and exercise grace and keep down sin and keep out the world and keep under the flesh and carnal self and do the inward part of duty And he is as truly solicitous about this as about the outward works and contenteth not himself to have said his prayers unless indeed his heart have prayed nor to have heard unless he have profited or heard with obediential attention And he makes conscience of secret duties as well as of those that are done in the sight of men But this the hypocrite comes not up to to trade in the internal spiritual part 8. The Religion that is Vain is without

by experienced judicious Christians by his sapless unexperienced common and carnal kind of discourse and duty sticking most in opinions parties or some outside things and by his temporizing and reserved and uneven kind of conversation yet it is not alwaies so but sometime he is as far unsuspected as the best perhaps he may be esteemed a Reverend Preacher or a discreet Religious well accomplisht Gentleman and may be set in the head of Church or Commonwealth as a leader of the Saints on earth that shall be thrust into the place of Hypocrites and not come neer the meanest of the Saints in heaven 4. Lastly but better then all this his Religion is not Vain as to the good of others He may by the perfume and odour of his gifts be kept from stinking to the annoyance of others while he is dead in sin He may be very serviceable in the Church of God a judicious earnest expounder of the Scripture and Preacher and defender of the truth In his place as a Magistrate or Master of a family he may be a severe corrector of prophaness and promoter of godliness it being much easier to drive others from their sin then to forsake their own and to drive on others to a godly life then to practise it themselves And by their owning godliness and disowning sin they perswade themselves the more effectually that they are truely godly The Church cannot well spare the gifts and services of Hypocrites and many ungodly men As bad or sick Physicians may be Gods instruments to cure our bodies and a wicked Carpenter may make a good house so a wicked Minister may well expound and apply the Scriptures and he that refuseth the grace of Christ may prevail with others to accept it The sign post that stands out of dore it self may invite others into the house and the hand upon a post that goes not one step of the way may point it out to others There 's more self-denyal required to the forsaking of their own sins then to perswade others to forsake theirs A covetous man cares not how liberal others be nor a glutton drunkard or fornicator how temperate and chaste his neighbours be And hence it is that many of these that refuse a holy life themselves are willing their children or servants should embrace it The end of the ballance that goeth down it self doth cause the other to go up Other mens souls are more beholden to Hypocrites then their own They are like the common Mariners that enrich the Merchant by fetching home his treasure when they have nothing but a poor maintenance themselves Or like Taylors that make garments for others which they never wear themselves Or like Carpenters that build fair houses which they never dwell in Or like the Cook that dresseth meat which he eateth not God giveth Hypocrites their useful gifts for the service of the Church more then for themselves He sometimes maketh those to be nursing Fathers to his Church that are butchers of their own souls and makes those his instruments to undeceive others that deceive themselves And thus far their Religion is not Vain But 1. It is Vain as to Gods special acceptation True Religion pleaseth God but the self-deceivers Religion he abhorreth He hath no pleasure in fools Eccles 5. 4. He asketh such To what purpose is the multitude of their sacrifices Isa 11. 11. and saith he is full of their burnt-offerings and delights not in them when they come to appear before him he asketh them Who required this at their hands to tread in his Courts and bids them bring no more vain oblations incense is an abhomination to him the calling of their assemblies he cannot away with and their solemn meetings are iniquity ver 12 13. Their appointed feasts his soul hateth they are a trouble to him he is weary to bear them When they spread forth their hands he will hide his eyes when they make many prayers he will not hear because they do not forsake their sins ver 14. Because they turn away their ear from he●ring his law their prayer is abhomination to him Prov. 28. 9. and 15. 8. and 21 27. When they have sinned instead of repenting and forsaking it they think to please God by their Religion and stop the mouth of Justice with their services when as they do but provoke him more by adding Hypocrisie to iniquity Were they truly willing to let go their sins and to please God by universal obedience he would willingly accept them and be pleased with their services But when mens Religion their prayers and other duties are not used against their sins but for them nor to kill them but to cover them nor to overcome them but as it were to bribe God to give them leave to sin because they are not willing to forsake it this is the self-deceiving Religion of Hypocrites that is in Vain 2. And this Religion is in Vain as to any promoting of a work of Sanctification upon his soul It weaneth him not from the world It crucifieth not the flesh with its affections and lusts It doth not further his self-denyal nor driveth him to Christ by a faith unfaigned It never raiseth him to a heavenly life nor kindleth the love of God within him It is dead and uneffectual and cannot produce these high effects Yea on the contrary it hardeneth him in sin and self-deceit it hindereth his repentance it emboldeneth him in his fleshly worldly life and quieteth him in the neglect of Christ and heaven 3. Moreover this kind of Religion is in Vain as to any solid peace of conscience It affordeth him none of the well-grounded dureable comforts of the Saints But on the contrary keeps out solid comfort by feeding him with aery delusory conceits and maketh him to be but his own comforter upon fancies and confidence of his own when the Spirit of Christ is not his comforter nor doth the Word of God speak any peace at all unto him 4. Lastly his Religion is in Vain as to his Salvation As he had but an image of true Religion so he shall have but an image of Heaven Some dreams and self-created hopes of happiness may accompany him to the door of eternity but there they will leave him to everlasting horrour V. Vse 1. FRom what hath been said you may see the reason why an outside formal seeming Religiousness is a thing so common in the world in comparison of the life and power of godliness It is an easier thing to bring men to the strictest opinion then to bring them to the affectionate and deep reception and practice of the truth A strict opinion may be held without any great cost and trouble to the flesh It is the practice that bereaveth a sinner of the pleasure of his sin It is the common trick by which most Hypocrites cheat their souls to turn to the side and opinion and assemblies and company which they think to be the best that so they may perswade

the Chappel of a Saint in Pilgrimage in carrying about them a bone or some other supposed relict of a supposed Saint In confessing their sins so often to a Priest and doing penance if he impose it on them And so while they live in whoredom or drunkenness or swearing or lying or all these and many other such it is but confessing and doing penance and to it again on which account whatever some of them say for the necessity of contrition it is usual with them to venture upon the sins of whoredom drunkenness and the rest because they have so easie and cheap a remedy at hand And therefore I wonder not that among Infidels who after Baptism Apostatize to deny the holy Scriptures and the immortality of the soul and the life to come and among common swearers and cursers and whoremongers and drunkards the Papists find their labours most successeful and that no fish will so easily take their bait Nor do I wonder that it is a point of the Popish faith that none but the Children of the Devil that are void of the love of God and are unjustified can possibly turn Papists For they tell us that all are such till they are Papists saving that they are many of them for the salvation of heathens A poor wretch that is captivated to his odious lusts and goes under a galled accusing conscience will be content to take a Popish cure and quiet his soul with a few complements and formalities But to bring one of these men to a through conversion to a true humiliation to a deep hatred of all sin and a love of holiness to close with Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and to give up himself without any reservation and all that he hath to the will and service of the Lord to love God as his portion and the infinite transcendent good to take all the honour and riches of the world as loss and dung and use all in due subserviency to everlasting happiness to crucifie the flesh and mortifie all his earthly inclinations and live a life of self-denyal and to walk with God and serve him as a Spirit in spirit and in truth and to keep a watch over thoughts affections words and deeds to live by faith upon a world and happiness that is to us unseen and to live in preparation for their death and wait in hope to live with Christ this is Christianity and true Religion and this is it that they will not so easily be brought to It s easier to make an hundred Papists then one true regenerate Christian Children can make them a baby of clouts And the statuary can make a man of Alabaster or stone But none can give life which is essential to a man indeed but God There needeth the Spirit of the living God by a supernatural operation and a kind of new creation to make a man a real holy Christian But to bring a man to make such a congee or wear such a vesture or say such and such words and make to himself a mimical Religion this may be done without any such supernatural work O therefore take heed of cheating your souls by hypocritical formalities instead of the life and power of Religion Vse 2. ANd now O that the Lord of life would help me so to apply this truth and help you so to apply it to your selves that it might be as a light set up in the Assembly and in all your consciences to undeceive the miserable self-deceivers and to bring poor Hypocrites into some better acquaintance with themselves and to turn their seeming Vain Religion into that which is real and serious and saving And now I am to search and convince the Hypocrite I could almost wish that all the upright tender souls that are causelesly in doubt of their own sincerity were out of the congregation lest they should misapply the Hypocrites portion to themselves and think it is their case that I am describing as it is usual with ignorant patients especially if they be a little melancholy when they hear or read the description of many dangerous diseases to think that all or some of them are theirs because they have some symptomes very like to some of those which they hear or read of Or lest their fearful souls should be too much terrified by hearing of the misery of the Hypocrite as a fearful child that 's innocent will cry when he sees another whipt that 's faulty But if thou wilt stay and hear the Hypocrites examination I charge thee poor humbled drooping soul that thou do not misunderstand me nor think that I am speaking those things to thee that are meant to the falshearted enemies of the Lord and do not imagine that thou art condemned in his condemnation nor put not thy self under the stroaks that are given him but rejoyce that thou art saved from this state of self-deceit and misery And that thou mayst have some shelter for thy conscience against the storm that must fall on others look back on the foregoing description of the Hypocrite and thou mayst find that thou hast the saving graces which I there discovered him to want Let these at present be before thine eyes and tell thee Thou art not the person that I mean 1. Thou art humbled to a loathing of thy self for thy transgressions 2. Thou art willing to give up thy self to Christ without reserve that as thy Saviour he may cure thy miserable soul upon his own terms 3. The favour of God is dearer to thee then the favour of the world or the pleasures and prosperity of sinners and thou longest more to love him better and to feel his love then for any of the honours or advancements that flesh and blood desire 4. It is the life to come that thou takest for thy portion and preferest before the matters of this transitory life 5. Thy Religion employeth thee about thy heart as much as about the out side and appearing part It is heart-sins that thou observest and lamentest and a better heart that thou daily longest and prayest and labourest for 6. Thou livest not in any gross and deadly sin and thou hast no infirmity but what thou longest and labourest to be rid of and goest on in the use of Christs holy means and remedies for a cure 7. Thou dislikest not the highest degree of holiness but lovest it and longest after it and hadst rather be more holy then be more honourable or more rich 8. Thou unfeignedly lovest the image of Christ on the souls of all his servants where thou canst discern it and seest a special excellency in a poor humble heavenly Christian though never so low or despicable in the world above all the pompe and splendor of the earth and thou lovest them with a special love and the holier they are the better dost thou love them 9. Thou lovest the most convincing searching Sermons and wouldest fain have help to know the worst that is in thy