Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A44674
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A discourse of an unconverted man's enmity, against God Preached to a country congregation, by J.H. And publish'd by one who wrote it from his mouth.
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing H3022; ESTC R215391
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18,256
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57
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A DISCOURSE OF AN Unconverted Man's Enmity AGAINST GOD. Preached to a Country Congregation by J. H. And publish'd by one who wrote it from his Mouth LONDON Printed by J. Heptinstall in the Year 1700. COLOS. I. 21. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled IT is a great and wonderful Context whereof these words are a part which the time will not allow me to look into but presently to fall on the consideration of the words in themselves which briefly represent to us The wretched and horrid state of men yet unconverted and not brought home to God The happy state of those that are reduced and brought home to him The former in these words And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works The latter in those words Yet now hath he reconciled I shall apply my Discourse to the former part of the words and thence observe That men in their unconverted state are alienated from God and enemies to him by their wicked works This I shall endeavour 1. To explain and shew you the meaning of it 2. Evince and let you see the truth of it 3. Apply it 1. For the meaning of it 'T is evident that it is the unconverted state of man that is here reflected upon and referred unto You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works They were so before they were turned to God He writes to those Colossians as to Converts to them that were Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ Vers. 2. to them that were now Believers in Christ and Lovers of the Saints V. 4. telling them they sometimes had been enemies by wicked works Before conversion they had as is elsewhere said their understandings darkened being alienated from the life of God walking as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind Ephes. 4. 18. compared with the preceding Verse This is the deplorable condition of the unconverted World They are alienated from and enemies to God by wicked works We are to consider what this alienation from God doth import It signifies estrangement unacquaintance with God and that without any inclination towards him or dispostion to seek his acquaintance The word is emphatical it signifies people of another Country You were like people of another Country Of such a different Language Manners and Behaviour they that are converted are to you and you to them You are estranged to their Speech Customs and Ways All that is of God was strange to you Men in their unconverted state are strangers to God Wicked men do not understand the words of the Gospel Joh. 8. 43. What relates to the Kingdom of God the unconverted man dislikes Job 21. 14. They say to God depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Man who was originally made for the service of God and communion with him is now so degenerated that he is become a meer stranger to him The next word to be taken notice of is Enemies which may seem to add somewhat to the former word alienated There is not only no inclination towards God but there is a disinclination Not only no affection but a disaffection The carnal mind is enmity to God And the effects of this enmity are obvious This alienation from God is voluntary affected and chosen Men in their unconverted state are not only strangers to God but enemies against God and that in their minds A most fearful case full of astonishment that the very mind of man the off-spring of God the paternal mind as an Heathen call'd him that this most excellent part or power belonging to the nature of man should be poison'd with malignity and envenom'd with enmity against the glorious ever-blessed God! The mind of man his thinking power the fountain of thoughts should be set against God who gave him this power to think Yet into this Reason must every mans unacquaintance with God be resolv'd They know not God and converse not with him only because they have no mind to it That noble faculty in man that resembles the nature of God is turn'd off from him and set on vain things that cannot profit as also upon wicked and impure things that render them more unlike to God and disaffected to him By wicked works which must have a double reference 1. Former wicked works as done by them 2. Future wicked works as resolved on by them 1. The former wicked works which they have done have more and more habituated their Souls unto a state of distance from God The longer they live the longer they sin And the longer they sin the more they are confirm'd in their enmity against God 2. Future wicked works as resolv'd on to be done They purpose to live as they have done and give themselves the same liberty in sin as before and will not know God or be acquainted with him lest they should be drawn off from their resolv'd sinful course For the knowledge of God and a course of sin are inconsistent things 1 Cor. 15. 34. Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God This is the condemnation Joh. 3. 19. that light is come into the world but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil They hate the light because they will not have their course altered They resolve to do as they have done And that light which brings with it a tendency to the obeying of God they cannot endure But then as this alienation of mind and enmity are against the light that reveals God they finally terminate on the blessed God himself As God is the term of Reconciliation so he is the term of this enmity and alienation Wicked men look on God with enmity of mind under several notion 1. As he claims to be their Owner When he claims a principal propriety in them when he insists on his right in them as their Creator as having made them out of nothing When God owns or claims them as their Lord that first signifies he is their Proprietor or one to whom they belong But they say they are their own If we have to do with God we must quit claim to our selves and look on God as our Owner But this is fix'd in the hearts of men we will be our own we will not consent to the claim which God makes to us Our tongues are our own Psal. 12. 4. Wicked men might as well say the same thing of their whole selves our bodies strength time parts c. are our own and who is Lord over us If you consider God under the notion of a Ruler as well as an Owner Why should not God rule over and govern his own But this the spirit of man can by no means comport withall tho' 't is but reasonable that he who gave men their Beings should give them Laws and that he who gave life should also give the rule of life