Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	worldly_a	worth_a	worth_n	18	3	8.7624	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27062	Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day of judgment, from 2 Cor. 5. 10, 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel, from Matth. 22. 5 / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Terror of the day of judgment.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Danger of slighting Christ and his gospel.	1696 (1696)	Wing B1443; ESTC R16419	109,733	266

for the first consider 1. It is the Case of most Sinners to think themselves freest from those Sins that they are most enslaved to and one reason why we cannot reform them is because we cannot convince them of their Guilt It is the Nature of Sin so far to blind and besool the Sinner that he knoweth not what he doth but thinketh he is free from it when it reigneth in him or when he is committing it it bringeth Men to be so much unacquainted with themselves that they know not what they think or what they mean and intend nor what they love or hate much less what they are habituated and disposed to They are alive to Sin and dead to all the Reason Consideration and Resolution that should recover them as if it were only by their sinning that we must know they are alive May I hope that you that hear me to Day are but willing to know the Truth of your Case and then I shall be encouraged to proceed to an enquiry God will judg impartially why should not we do so Let me therefore by these following Questions try whether none of you are Slighters of Christ and your own Salvation And follow me I beseech you by putting them close to your own Hearts and faithfully answering them 1. Things that Men highly value will be remembred they will be matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts this a known Case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that think of them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things Follow thy own Heart Man and observe what it daily runneth out after and then judg whether it make not light of Christ We cannot perswade Men to one Hour's sober Consideration what they should do for an Interest in Christ or in Thankfulness for his Love and yet they will not believe that they make light of him 2. Things that we highly value will be Matter of our Discourse The Judgment and Heart will command the Tongue Freely and delightfully will our Speech run after them this also is a known Case Do not those then make light of Christ and Salvation that shun the mention of his Name unless it be in a vain or sinful Use Those that love not the Company where Christ and Salvation is much talk'd of but think it troublesom precise Discourse that had rather hear some merry Jests or idle Tales or talk of their Riches or Business in the World When you may follow them from Morning to Night and scarce have a savoury Word of Christ but perhaps some slight and weary mention of him sometimes judg whether these make not light of Christ and Salvation How seriously do they talk of the World Psal 144. 8 11. and speak Vanity but how heartlesly do they make mention of Christ and Salvation 3. The things that we highly value we would secure the Possession of and therefore would take any convenient Course to have all Doubts and Fears about them well resolved Do not those Men then make light of Christ and Salvation that have lived 20 or 30 Years in Uncertainty whether they have any part in these or not and yet never seek out for the right Resolution of their Doubts Are all that hear me this Day certain they shall be saved O that they were O had you not made light of Salvation you could not so easily bear such Doubtings of it you could not rest till you had made it sure or done your best to make it sure Have you no Body to enquire of that might help you in such a Work Why you have Ministers that are purposely appointed to that Office Have you gone to them and told them the Doubtfulness of your Case and asked their Help in the judging of your Condition Alas Ministers may sit in their Studies from one Year to another before ten Persons among 1000 will come to them on such an Errand Do not these make light of Christ and Salvation When the Gospel pierceth the Heart indeed they cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved Acts 16. 30. and ● 6. trembling and astonished Paul cries out Lord what wilt thou have me to do And so did the convinced Jews to Peter Acts 2. 37. But when hear we such Questions 4. The things that we value do deeply affect us and some Motions will be in the Heart according to our Estimation of them O Sirs if Men made not light of these things what working would there be in the Hearts of all our Hearers what strange Affections would it raise in them to hear of the Matters of the World to come How would their Hearts melt before the Power of the Gospel what Sorrow would be wrought in the Discovery of their Sin what Astonishment at the Consideration of their Misery what unspeakable Joy at the glad Tidings of Salvation by the Blood of Christ what Resolution would be raised in them upon the Discovery of their Duty O what Hearers should we have if it were not for this Sin Whereas now we are liker to weary them or preach them asleep with Matters of this unspeakable Moment We talk to them of Christ and Salvation till we make their Heads ake Little would one think by their careless Carriage that they heard and regarded what we said or thought we spoke at all to them 5. Our Estimation of things will be seen in the diligence of our Endeavours That which we highliest value we shall think no pains too great to obtain Do not those Men then make light of Christ and Salvation that think all too much that they do for them that murmur at his Service and think it too grievous for them to endure that ask of his Service as Judas of the Ointment What need this waste cannot Men be saved without so much ado this is more ado than needs For the World they will labour all the Day and all their Lives but for Christ and Salvation they are afraid of doing too much Let us preach to them as long as we will we cannot bring them to relish or resolve upon a Life of Holiness Follow them to their Houses and you shall not hear them read a Chapter nor call upon God with their Families once a Day nor will they allow him that one Day in seven which he hath separated to his Service But Pleasure or worldly Business or Idleness must have a part And many of them are so far hardened as to reproach them that will not be as mad as themselves And is not Christ worth the seeking Is not everlasting Salvation worth more than all this Doth not that Soul make light of all these that thinks his Ease more worth than they Let but common Sense judg 6. That which we most highly value we think we cannot buy too dear Christ and Salvation are freely given and yet the most of Men go without them because they cannot enjoy the World and them together They are called but to part

World yet shall they have a Being in the Memory of the Sinner an esse Cognitum the very Wine or Ale or other Liquor which was abused to Drunkenness may witness against the Drunkard The sweet Morsels by which the Glutton did please his Appetite and all the good Creatures of God which he luxuriously devoured may witness against him Luke 16. 19 25. He that fared deliciously every Day in this Life was told by Abraham when he was dead and his Soul in Hell Remember that thou in thy Life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Though their sweet Morsels and Cups are past and gone yet must they be remembred at Judgment and in Hell Remember Son saith Abraham Yea and remember he must whether he will or no long was the Glutton in sinning and many a pleasant bit did he taste and so many Evidences of his Sin will lie against him and the Sweetness will then be turned into Gall. The very Clothing and Ornaments by which proud Persons did manifest their Pride will be sufficient Evidence against them as his being clothed with Purple and fine Linen is mentioned Luke 16. 19. The very Lands and Goods and Houses of Worldlings will be an Evidence against them Their Gold and Silver which the Covetous do now prefer before the everlasting Riches with Christ will be an Evidence against them James 5. 1 2 3 4. Go to now ye rich Men weep and howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments Mothtaten your Gold and your Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a Witness against you and shall eat your Flesh as it were Fire ye have heaped Treasure together for the last Days Behold the Hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your Fields which is of you kept back by Fraud crieth and the Cries of them which have reaped are entred into the Ears of the Lord of Sabbath Ye have lived in Pleasure on the Earth and been wanton ye have nourished your Hearts as in a Day of Slaughter O that Worldlings would well consider this one Text and therein observe whether a Life of Earthly Pleasure and fulness of worldly Glory and Gallantry be as desirable as they imagine and to what Time and Purpose they now lay up their Treasures and how they must hear of these things hereafter and what effect the review of their jovial Days will have upon their miserable condemned Souls 2. The very Circumstances of Time Place and the like may evidence against his Condemnation The Drunkard shall remember in such an Ale-house I was so oft drunk and in such a Tavern I wasted my time The Adulterer and Fornicator shall remember the very Time the Place the Room the Bed where they committed Wickedness The Thief and Deceiver will remember the Time Place and the Persons they wronged and the things which they robbed or deceived them of The Worldling will remember the Business which he preferred before the Service of God the worldly Matters which had more of his Heart than his Maker and Redeemer had the Work which he was doing when he should have been praying or reading or Catechising his Family or thinking soberly of his latter End A thousand of these will then come into his Mind and be as so many Evidences against him to his Condemnation 3. The very Effects also of Mens Sins will be an Evidence against them The Wife and Children of a Drunkard are impoverished by his Sin his Family and the Neighbourhood is disquieted by him These will be so many Evidences against him So will the Abuse of his own Reason the enticing of others to the same Sin and hardning them by his Example One covetous unmerciful Landlord doth keep an hundred or many hundred Persons or Families in so great Necessities and Care and Labour that they are tempted by it to overpass the Service of God as having scarce time for it or any Room for it in their troubled Thoughts all these miserable Families and Persons and all the Souls that are undone by this Temptation will be so many Evidences against such Oppressors Yea the Poor whom they have neglected to relieve when they might the Sick whom they have neglected to visit when they might will all witness then against the Unmerciful Mat. 25. The many ignorant worldly careless Sinners that have perished under an idle and unfaithful Minister will be so many Witnesses against him to his Condemnation They may then cry out against him to his Face I was ignorant Lord and he never did so much as teach me catechise me nor tell me of these things I was careless and minded the World and he let me go on quietly and was as careless as I had never plainly and faithfully warned me to waken me from my Security And so their Blood will be required at his hands though themselves also shall perish in their Sins Ezek. 33. 7 8. 2. And as these Evidences will convince Men of Sin so there are many more which will convince them of the greatness of their Sin And these are so many that it would too much lengthen my Discourse to stand on them A few I shall briefly touch 1. They very Mercy of God in creating Men in giving and continuing their Being to them will be an Evidence for the Aggravation of their Sin against him What will you abuse him by whom it is that you are Men will you speak to his Dishonour that giveth you your Speech will you live to his Dishonour who giveth you your Lives will you wrong him by his own Creatures and neglect him without whom you cannot subsist 2. The Redemption of Men by the Lord Jesus Christ will be an Evidence to the exceeding Aggravation of their Sins You sinned against the Lord that bought you 2 Pet. 2. 1. When the Feast was prepared and all things were ready you made light of it and found Excuses and would not come Mat. 22. 4 5 6. Luke 14. 17 18. Must Christ redeem you by so dear a Price from Sin and Misery and yet will you continue the Servants of Sin and prefer your Slavery before your Freedom and choose to be Satan's Drudges rather than to be the Servants of God The Sorrows and Sufferings that Christ underwent for you will then prove the Increase of your own Sorrows As a neglected Redeemer it is that he will condemn you And then you would be glad that it were but true Doctrine that Christ never died for you that you might not be condemned for refusing a Redeemer and sinning against him that shed his Blood for you How deeply will his Wounds then wound your Consciences You will then remember that to this end he both died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and the Living And that he therefore died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but

that it was the Will of God that you should mind your Bodies more than your Souls and this Life more than that to come Why he hath bid you strive and run and fight and labour and care and seek and use Violence and all Diligence for the safety of your Souls and for the Life to come But where hath he bid you do so for your Bodies No he knew that you were prone to do too much for them and therefore he hath bid you Care not and labour not that is Do it as if you did it not and let your Care and Labour for earthly Things be none in comparison of that for heavenly Things You know God can as well maintain your Lives without your Care and Labour as save your Souls without it And yet you see he will not he doth not You must plough and sow and reap and thresh for all God's Love and Care of you and not say I will let all alone and trust God And must you not much more use diligence in much greater Things If you will trust God you must trust him in his own Way and in the use of his own Means The fourth Excuse I was never brought up to Learning I cannot so much as read nor did my Parents ever teach me any of these things but only set me about my worldly Business and provide Food and Raiment for me but never once told me that I had a Soul to save or lose and an everlasting Life to provide and prepare for and therefore I could not come to the Knowledg of them Answ The greater is their Sin who thus neglected you But this is no sufficient Excuse for you Heaven is not prepared for the Learned only nor will Christ ask you at Judgment whether you are good Scholars or not no nor so much as whether you could write or read But consider well Was not God's Word so plainly written that the Unlearned might understand it Did he not put it into the most familiar Stile though he knew it would be offensive to the proud Scholars of the World of purpose that he might fit it to the Capacities of the Ignorant And if you could not read yet tell me could not you have learned to read at 20 or 30 Years of Age if you had been but willing to bestow now and then an Hour to that end Or at least did you not live near some that could read and could you not have procured them to read to you or to help you and did you not hear these things read to you in the Congregation by the Minister or might have done if you would and if your Parents did neglect you in your Youth yet when you came to a fuller use of Reason and heard of the Matters of Salvation from God's Word did it not concern you to have looked to your selves and to have redeemed that time which you lost in your Youth by doubling your Diligence when you came to riper Years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand Souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the Way to Salvation till they had past a great part of their Lives If you loitered till the latter part of the Day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the Fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my Life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then and therefore I will not learn now Have you not seen some of your Neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much Knowledg afterwards by their Industry and why might not you have done so if you had been as industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for Knowledg and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth Man in the Presence of thy Judg was thy Heart and Mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldst to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the Word in publick and think of what thou heardst when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the Way to Salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these Matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the Minister was speaking of Heaven or of Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy Negligence Yea further answer as in the Presence of God Didst tou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that Knowledg which thou hadst Thou knewest that the Soul was better than the Body and everlasting Life more to be regarded than this transitory Life but didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better than the World and Heaven than Earth at least thou wast told of it but didst thou accordingly value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no Salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of Life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand Sins which were committed and Duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledg and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerful Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a pow●●ful Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain Word that you heard read tell you of these things and might you not have had a Bible your selves and found them there The sixth Excuse I was a Servant and had no time from my Labour to mind these matters I lived with an hard Master that required all his own Work of me but would allow me no time for the Service of God Or else I was a poor Man and had a great Charge to look after and with my hard Labour had much ado to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ 1. Who should be first served God or Man What should be first sought after Heaven or Earth Did not Christ tell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42. Was it not as needful to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this Life is ended as to see that you had Food and Raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other Intermissions Man's Body will not endure so great Labours as have no Intermission And why then might not Godliness have been your Ease and Recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things ever when you were about your Labour if you had but a Heart to them 5. At least you might have

see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that Men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the Hearts of Men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual Matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the Hearts of Men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their Hearts as to prefer every fleshly Pleasure or Commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with all Vse 3. But for closer Application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the Hearts of our Hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all Men. Brethren I love not Censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great Necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their Work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent Studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drowsy Preaching declare it Do not they make light of the Doctrine they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the Carelesness of some Mens private Endeavours discover it What do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of Mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued Neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly Lives of too many discover it losing Advantages for Mens Souls for a little Gain to themselves and most of this is because Men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell Men of that which they never felt themselves Of all Men on Earth there are few that are in so sad a Condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Vse 4. Beloved Hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the Glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of Mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to Day on any other Errand The Lord knows I had not set a Foot out of Doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the Cause It is one of the Wonders of the World that when God hathso loved the World as to send his Son aud Christ hath made a Satisfaction by his Death sufficient for them all and offereth the Benefits of it so freely to them even without Money or Price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the Reason when Christ hath done all this Men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that Men should be restored to God's Favour and be saved but Men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the Death of Sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But Men take such pleasure in Sin that they will die before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician and hath provided them a sufficient Plaister of his own Blood but if Men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the Reason of their Perdition This sad Experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most Men do spend their Care their Time their Pains for known Vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set Mankind in such a Race where Heaven or Hell is their certain End and that they should sit down and loiter or run after the childish Toys of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this Business as the All-seeing God doth to see at one View both Heaven and Hell which Men are so near and see what most Men in the World are minding and what they are doing every Day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined O how should we marvel at their Madness and lament their Self-delusion O poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the Word to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed Word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this Crime but seeing it is the commonest Cause of Mens Destruction I suppose you will judg it the fittest Matter for our Enquiry and deserving our greatest Care for the Cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the Guilty 2. Shall give them such Considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such Direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of this Sin And