Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	worldly_a	417	3	7.6494	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67825	A sermon exhorting to union in religion preach'd at Bow-Church, May 20th, and published at the desire of the auditory / by E. Young.	Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.	1688 (1688)	Wing Y64; ESTC R39192	14,385	34

will not Strain my Conscience in hopes of Advantage nor be wanting to Truth for fear of Disobliging These are the only Arts of Living that I desire to be acquainted with and if it shall please God to bless these to me with worldly prosperity I know my self obliged to greater Thankfulness for my present Comforts but yet if these fail I will not be less Thankful for my future assurances This is a Faith founded upon a Rock But he whose Piety varies and fluctuates according to the different faces of the World that swells at Gain and ebbs at Loss and sometimes sinks either in the calm of Pleasures or under the pressure of Affliction such a one is as the Apostle expresses him like a wave of the sea driven about and tossed let him not expect to receive any thing from the Lord. In a word It is worldly adherences that make men late Believers nay occasions that multitudes who in view of a subsequent Faith have renounced the world from their Cradle have not yet arrived at that Faith then presumed on to their Graves II. The Second thing to be reflected on is the Cheapness of the Disciples Faith and that must be estimated from the encouragements that they had just then received They had just received full assurances of their Master's endearment of the Love of the Father of the Cohabitation of the Spirit of the Income of their Prayers of a Future eternal Reward And no wonder if the warmth of such encouragements as these made their Faith spring up to a promising blade but yet we see that for want of a deeper root the next Trial made it wither Let us observe from hence Never to trust that Religion that grows from an occasional Complacency or Elevation of Spirits A good Humour makes a good Christian very cheaply but very deceitfully While we contemplate the indulgent Love of Christ and the precious Promises of the Gospel the present however and the future Advantages of being Religious how easie is it to pass into a Resolution of being so While the Providence of God seems to smile upon us in the Success of Affairs how forward are our purposes to be Thankful While men give us respect and flatter our Inclinations how prone a thing is it to be Courteous While no body does us any Injury or Affront how gloriously can we pronounce our selves in Charity with all the world But in the mean time there may be nothing of a grounded Religion in all this It may be no more than the Natural result of the present state of our mind which being at ease with the posture of things without is not willing to rifle its own enjoyment by any disturbing Passions within This therefore is not to be trusted to But he that will entertain any reasonable hopes of his own Christianity must find it in the experiences of Temptation what he can Forgive when Injury provokes him what he can Suffer when Danger presents it self what he can forego of his own to promote the Interests of Piety And without these Experiences all our Professions tho' never so couragious are but like Ephraim's carrying about his Arms and his Bow as the badges of his Valour and yet running away in the day of Battle III. The last Circumstance we are to reflect upon is the Disciples Mistake of their Faith It was their own hearts they pronounc'd upon and yet they were deceived and they cryed very unseasonably now we believe just at the moment when they were ready to confute their Pretence Let us observe hence That men are naturally apt to harbour too indulgent an opinion of themselves It must be acknowledged that we are all too apt to do so notwithstanding that as we may learn from the present Instance such an Opinion be extremely treacherous and the readiest way to prevent that good in our selves which we too fondly presume A good Conceit of our selves is a very comfortable Passion it sets us mightily at ease and so it has always a sure friend of our Nature on the other side it breeds Carelesness and prevents Diligence and hinders Proficiency and so it has always a sure friend of the Devil and no wonder then that it so universally steals upon us But besides these Two Causes many men have a Third why a Redundance of their good Opinion should light upon themselves and that is Because they spend so little of it upon others Their ill thoughts and their Censures spend themselves all outwards and so their good ones fall of course to their own share But alas how unreasonable as well as unjust a thing it is for any to censure the Inwards of another when we see that even good Men are not able to dive thro' the mystery of their own Be assured therefore there can be but little honesty without thinking as well as possible of others and there can be no safety without thinking humbly and distrustfully of our selves Had the Disciples but distrusted that Faith which they so confidently pronounc'd they had infallibly secur'd it had they but cry'd as once before Lord increase our Faith instead of Now we believe they had infallibly prevented the shame of their approaching fall But as it is the first Method of God's good pleasure to give Grace unto the Humble so the next act of his Compassion is to bring the Confident to shame That they may be made acquainted with Humbleness as a Necessity who were not wise enough to prefer it as a Virtue Which brings me upon the Consideration of the Remainder of my Text Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone In which words we may observe that as the Disciples Crime was the leaving of their Master so the Occasion of that Crime was their Scattering and the Reason of their Scattering was their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concern that each of them had for their Own Ye shall be scattered every man to his Own and shall leave me alone To form you a proper Instruction from this Passage I shall infer these Two Propositions from it 1. That when Christians divide they leave their Master And 2. That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Own things and not the things of Christ that makes us divide 1. When Christians divide they leave their Master Where you may perceive I use the expression of the Text in a sense that is onely Analogical For by leaving Christ in the Text is meant the leaving his Person but by leaving Christ in my Proposition is meant the leaving of his Interest And so the plainest sense of it will be this That when Christians divide and enter into separate Communions they do a thing that is injurious to Christ and prejudicial to his Religion This is a matter wherein the present Posture of our affairs is highly concern'd and therefore give me leave tho' you know it already to put you in remembrance of the