Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A26845
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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.
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Baxter, Benjamin, Preacher of the Gospel.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B1171; ESTC R469
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49,814
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146
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I shall only here put you upon the consideration of two things 1. Which promiseth most 2. Which threatneth most 1. Which promiseth most the Word or the World Look over the promises of the Word and tell me whether the World can promise what God in his Word doth Can it promise you That by conforming to its Statutes and Laws it shall be well with you and your children for ever The world cannot promise you a long and happy life here much less can it promise you eternal life and happiness hereafter 2. Consider which threatneth most whose threatnings are most dreadful and terrible those of the Word or of the World It 's true the world can thunder out threatnings against those that conform not to her But tell me Is that Thunder like in terror to that thunder we hear in the word and the threatnings of it against those that conform to a wicked world The world can threaten with Bonds and Imprisonments with Fire and Faggot But God threatens with Hell and everlasting burnings As the Martyr told the Persecutor that threatned him with imprisonment Tu Carcerem ille Gehennam Thou threatnest me with a Prison but God threatens me with Hell Remember the counsel of our Saviour Matt. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell And now you have heard all this consider seriously of it and tell me whether the world is worthy your conformity or whether you are at all engaged to conform to the world or whether it will be any advantage to you to conform to the world and not rather an infinite disadvantage And thus much for the Directions in general and in these Directions are wrap'd up the Motives to move us to be Nonconformists to this world I shall now close all with giving you some particular Directions as further Means and Helps against Conformity to this world and that briefly 1. Consider your natural inclinations and remember there is by nature in us a strong propensity to a conformity to the world The world is a tempting alluring bewitching thing apt to steal away our hearts as Absalom did the hearts of the men of Israel It will court invite and tempt it will flatter and fawn to gain a conformity it hath tempting rules tempting examples tempting proffers and much more to draw men into a conformity to her Now Christians you had need be watchful in this case upon considering in what danger you are to be deluded by the world and that upon two accounts 1. You live among those that are of the world and therefore apt to be infected by them as Joseph was by living in Pharoah's Court and Peter by being in the High-Priest's Hall Rivers partake of the nature of the soil through which they run and it is a difficult thing to live in the world and not to have a taste of the sins and corruptions of it 2. Remember you have even the best the remainders of corruption in you There are the remainders of self and so a love of worldly Credity of outward Ease of worldly Enjoyments and these will be as a Byas to the Bowl which will encline you toward the world and a conformity to it 2. That you may be Nonconformists to this world Grow and encrease in love to Jesus Christ The more we love Jesus Christ the less we shall love the world Any sinful compliance with the world argues either no love or litle love to Jesus Christ Love is the great worker of imitation as Hatred is of aversation Those that love Jesus Christ will live to Jesus Christ and will be such to whom the world is crucifi'd and they unto the world Such will say as St. Paul did To us to live is Christ Jesus Christ will be the All of their lives all the Rule and all the End of their living 3. That you may be Nonconformists to the world Meditate much of Christ's love to you by that you will come to know you owe all your conformity to Him Right thoughts of this will cause the world to be crucified to you and you to the world that neither the world shall care for you not you for it 4. Remember where Christ is He is no more in this world in respect of his corporal Presence he is ascended into Heaven he is there preparing Mansions for his he hath left you steps on earth in which you are to tread and in which you are to follow him if you desire to be where he is So that this considered a conformity to the world can never consist with a Christian's aims of being with Christ hereafter and to behold his glory He now being in Heaven is drawing the hearts and affections of those up to him who are to be for ever with him 5. Be much in searching the Scriptures where you may view as the Rules you are to walk by so the examples you are to imitate you will there have Glasses by which you are to dress your selves you will there find the pure example of him who was holy undefiled without spot and blemish viz. Jesus Christ You will there find the Examples of holy men who were Nonconformists to the men of their generation 6. Be much in prayer That God would deliver you from this present evil world That you may not be led into temptation but may be delivered from the evil of it Pray that God would carry you above the world and over all the good and evil of it without being infected or hurt by it 7. Remember what your condition in this world is If you profess your selves Christians then you profess your selves to be strangers and pilgrims in the world and a conformity to this world cannot consist with such a profession What have strangers to do with a conformity to that place through which they pass only as travellers and where they lodg only as pilgrims 8. Remember you are for Eternity and that you live upon the borders of it Think not so much where at present you are as where you shortly must be In every Conformist to this world there is a forgetfulness of Eternity How can those that think of an Eternal world that is drawing near to them and they to it give up themselves to a conformity to a world that is passing away Remember Eternity now calls on you and will shortly call for you 9. Encrease in Self-denyal It is the self-denying Christian that is the Nonconforming Christian to the world Such a Christian will regard neither the world's favours nor the world's frowns Such a Christian will say as Luther did I despise both the world's favour and the world's fury The self-denying Christian is one whom the world may both flatter and frown on but he stands like an immovable Rock not shaken by either 10. Encrease in the mortification of your worldly lusts Not mortifying these hath reduced some to a conformity to the world who seemed to have escaped the pollutions of it This was the undoing of Demas who forsook both his Ministry and the fellowship of St. Paul to embrace this present world and as some are of opinion became an Idol-Priest at Thessalonica upon the account of filthy lucre and worldly gain 11. Strengthen Faith whereby you will be strengthened to overcome this present evil world The Apostle tells us 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory whereby we overcome this world even our faith It will make us couragious to out-face a sinful world It is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. and will work in us a contempt of the things that are seen It will be the eye by which with Moses we shall see him that is Invisible and therby keep us from a conforming to a visible world upon greatest temptations though they be the pleasures and promotions of a Pharoah's Court. The more faith the less fear and it is base fear and cowardise that often betrays to a sinful compliance with and conformity to the world The more believing Christians are the less conforming they are to this world To close all let me mind you of what the Lord speaks to Jeremiah and that I say to all Christians concerning complying with and conforming to the world Jer. 15. 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord If thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me And if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them FINIS