Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	choose_v	hate_v	persecute_v	1,861	5	9.5088	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28594	A sermon against persecution preached March 26, 1682, being the 4th Sunday in Lent (on Gal. 4:29, part of the Epistle for that day) and the time when the brief for the persecuted Protestants in France was read in the parish church of Shapwicke ... / by Sa. Bolde ...	Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.	1682 (1682)	Wing B3488; ESTC R19364	31,668	42

Party with undue Warmth they forget to observe that Decorum they have formerly commended to the World and are too easily induced to use the meanest Arts in depressing the Cause they oppose It is certainly very unbecoming and unworthy of Men of great Learning Holyness and Gravity to indeavour to defame all that are of the contrary Perswasion by suggesting to the World evil Surmises and Opinions concerning all in general by reporting infamous Stories which concern only some few in particular for besides the Injury they themselves do by this Means to those that are Innocent they both Countenance the unjust Methods the worst of Men do use in decrying those they are against and they furnish them with Materials to carry on their Design This hath bin an ancient Method People have used to revenge themselves on the Innocent Report say they and we will Report Do but either start any one Story that is real with relation to some Particulars or fraim and coin a Story that will appear Plausible and let it once take Air and we will soon help to transmit it further and by this means we shall take our Revenge on them But what a dreadful Blow would be given to Chrisianity in the Opinion of its professed Enemies should all Parties labor to rake together the foul and enormous Offences of particular Persons amongst those they do Oppose and then publish them to the World as what the whole Party doth either approve or may justly be charged with There is no doubt but this Church tho it's Government and Constitution be so pure justifiable and Consonant to Apostolical Practice would suffer very much should but the almost Ordinary mis-carriages of a great number who pretend to the Clergy be exposed to publick view with an account of the Incouragement they meet with or at least how free they are from Threats and Molestations whilst others who lead better Lives and are more constant and diligent Preachers and do express on all Occasions more of that Charity and Forbearance towards all men which Christianity doth so much commend and inforce are frowned upon and left open to the Rage and Fury of besotted Frantick and Debauch'd Bigots There is no defence against unjust Prejudice 3. They apprehend that the strict and Holy Lives of Religious men do very much reproach their lewd and vicious Courses At least they find that their pure and Holy Doctrines do occasion them anguish and unquietness disturbance and trouble in the perpetrating of their beloved Wickednesses Why could not Herodias suffer John Baptist to keep his Head any longer It was because she could not live quietly in her uncleanness with her Husbands brother whilst he was still Preaching to Herod that it was not lawful for him to have her Indeed there is not any thing doth more effectually discover the horrid Loathsomness of wicked mens Lusts and Practices than the Chast Holy and strict Conversations of Pious men And therefore they are so much against them even because their Doctrines and Lives do so much reprove their wicked Works of darkness 4. Holy men are carrying on a different work from that which ungodly lew'd men are Designing and Acting They are servants to different Masters and therefore it is not to be expected they should accord very well The good Man's work doth defeat and Ruin the Sinners and therefore he is against him and doth persecute him all he can because he belongs not to his Company but is labouring to destroy his masters Kingdom and overthrow what he esteems his own greatest Interest If ye were of the World the World would love his own but because ye are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hateth you 5. This proceeds many times from a very strong and Powerful impulse of Satan As wicked men are his Slaves and doing his Work so he doth irritate and excite in a special manner to this very instance of Persecuting the Godly The Devil thinks he has most work done when the greatest number of Righteous men fall And he concludes that if he could by his Instruments absolutely suppress the Righteous he should Reign and Triumph in the World without any Opposition The Devil Rules in the hearts of the Children of Disobedience And it is worth our Observation that immediately before Judas went to the High-Priest c. to inform against and betray his Master it is said the devil entred into him So that one main instance whence it is that wicked People do persecute the Righteous is because the Devil is in them The Devil doth as truly possess Act and govern them that persecute the Righteous as he did those that were called Demoniacks when our Saviour was upon Earth And tho he do not cause them now to Tear and Rent and Torture themselves as they did then yet he has a more dreadful Influence on their Souls and indangers them much more as to their spiritual and final Estate I am now in the last place to apply what has been discoursed concerning Persecution and will do it in a few Words 1. For the support and Incouragement of the Righteous when Persecuted and in distress Take care that the reproaches and Violences of the ungodly do not afright you from your uprightness nor shake your stedfastness Those storms and rufling Winds their Threats and Menaces should not break or overthrow you but should rather have the same Influence on you that blasts and Tempests have on firm and thriving Trees whilst they break and overturn those that are Rotten and weak they do only cause the other to take deeper and faster Root This is no more than what you must expect and what every good man ought daily to prepare for He that is resolved for Heaven must go through many Tribulations you are warned of such Treatment before-hand Our Saviour has dealt so plainly with all his followers in this particular that it is one great part of a Christians work to live alway in Expectation of those things that so he may not be surprized when they come We have our every days Cross to wait for and must be willing to take it up and bear it away with Cheerfulness when ever it comes We have not the clearest and most unquestionable Evidences of the Truth at least the Power of Christianity in and over us till we can Cheerfully part with and resign up all yea with Triumph bear away Reproaches and Fears and false Accusations till we can lay down our very Lives rejoycingly for Christ his Gospel and Religion if occasion be And if God sees fit to bring you to the Tryal it is that you may have the stronger assurance of your unfeigned Love to him and unconquerable interest in him And that you may display the Efficacy and Beauty of Religion unto the World in the most undeniable and Constraining instances The Persecutions of the first Christians gained Christianity a great Repute and

earnestly and useth such variety of Arguments to secure them from giving place any further to those false and pernicious Teachers and to convince them of their errour and fault in giving way unto them at all Amongst other Arguments he urgeth the different state men are in when under the Gospel from that they were in when under the Law And that the Law was primarily designed only to prepare and fit men for the Gospel but not to continue in the same Place and Power after as before no more than he that being arrived to ripe and full years is bound to continue under their Tutorage who had the care of him in his Minority Gal. 4. 1. He afterwards proceeds to argue with them from the Nature of that Law they are so desirous to be under v. 21. And then explains himself by a Similitude of Abraham's two Sons shewing there is as great a difference between those who are under a Gospel State and them that are under the Law as between that Son which was his natural Child and that which was conferred on him by the special Promise and powerful Interposition of God's particular Blessing And thus he takes occasion to reflect on the great Alteration that was wrought amongst them since they did histen to and entertain these false and deceiving Apostles And does as it were tell them it was no wonder they should thus vary and that they should now approve ways of Severity towards Christ's apostles and Followers seeing they did receive and adhere to them that were directly contrary to Christ's Ministers and Servants Compare Gal. 4. 14 15. whith this 29. v. It is no more than what hath fallen out in all Ages of the World The Servants of Sathan and Enemies of true Godlyness have always bin for persecuting the faithful and obedient Children of God And it seems by this Epistle to be the especial and peculiar Character of them that are irreligiously and immoderately hot and zealous about Ceremonies to be the greatest Persecutors of those who are most Pious and Conscientious Look through all the Scriptures nay look through all the Ages of the Church you shall generally find that those who were most for the Persecution of others on the account of some indifferences relating to Religion were very wicked superstitious men Men that were inordinately Zealous for and fond of some outward Ceremonies Now if a fondness for any Ceremonies would maintain and justify Mens Persecution of others who cannot approve their Fopperies one would think these Teachers who were crept in amonst the Galathians should be excused because they prest only those things that had formerly bin of Divine appointment For He that came to take away the insupportable Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies certainly did never intend to gall the Necks of his Disciples with another instead of it But here we see how dangerous it is to give our selves too great a Liberty in admiring any bare external and accidental Appendage to Religion Sathan doth suddenly strike in on such Occasions and doth so powerfully affect mens Minds with some strange Apprehensions of the Beauty Excellency Usefulness and Necessity of these things they are quite taken off from minding the inward Part and Soul of Religion And by this means they come to lay out all their Zeal about these trifling and worthless Parts they even starve their own Souls by a constant feasting on these meer Husks and do what they can to destroy others Souls at least their Bodies by persecuting them if they will not conceive and believe as well of these things as they do It is a very shrewd Sign and token that a Man is a wicked unregenerate Man if he be of a fierce and persecuting Temper if he be prone to endeavour to Ruine and Trouble or further the Vexation and Disturbance of serious pious People only because they cannot be as Ceremonious as he is He that was born after the Flesh c. The Words do immediately relate to the Sons of Abraham Ismael is He that was born after the Flesh viz. in a meer natural ordinary way Now as he did Persecute and Mock and Deride and Insult over Isaack who was born after the Spirit viz. who was the Son of the Promise and in order to whose Birth there was the Exerting a Divine Power in the accomplishing of that Promise which was made to Abraham when both he and Sarah were past Hopes and naturally uncapable of having Children so it is now viz. Even so those in these Days who are of the Seed of Abraham that pretend they have him for their Father and are outwardly Jews or that pretend themselves so out of servile Compliance do persecute them that are born after the Spirit that is those who are the Children of the Promise the Seed of Abraham truly so called in a religious Sence who succeed him in his Faith The Jews did very much boast of and lay an extraordinary stress on their being the Seed of Abraham they placed most of their Religion on this and thought it a sufficient Plea for themselves on all Occasions and an effectual Security from those Judgments that were sometimes threatned against them and therefore we find the Holy Men in Scripture often labouring to Convince them what a sandy Foundation they did build upon Mat. 3. 9. John 8. 39. Rom. 4. 12 13 14. It is indeed a great Mercy to be Born of Pious and Religious Parents Those Parents that have a great Familiarity and Interest with God have usually a great Treasury and Portion of Blessings laid up with God for their Posterity Exod. 20. 6. But People may lay too great a stress on this outward Priviledge And if Children do not labour to walk in the Steps of Religious and Gracious Parents but depend wholly on their Predecessors Holyness they will be fearfully mistaken at last He that was Born after the Flesh c. He that is a loose wicked Unregenerate Carnal Person is for Persecuting and Undoing him that is Born after the Spirit him that is Serious Holy Strict and Conscientious thus it has bin and thus it is I will sum up all into this Proposition Wicked Unregenerate Men always have bin and still are for Persecuting Holy Religious Spiritual Men. Look through all the Books both of Old and New Testament nay look through all History and you will still find where ever you meet with Persecution that it was carried on by the Devil's Agents by Wicked Lewd Men against Holy and Righteous Men. Observe the Characters every where of Informers and Persecutors and see if they have not bin branded with some notorious and hateful Wickedness Indeed Men can scarce arrive to such a height of Wickedness as this is till they have by the habitual Exercise of other Crimes feared their Consciences and are become so insensible that all the commendable Notions and Sentiments that do usually accompany Mankind are lost and eradicated out of their Brests Consider these few Instances of