Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	deed_n	light_n	reprove_v	2,736	5	10.3625	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29178	A minister's counsel to the youth of his parish when arriv'd to years of discretion : recommended to the societies in and about London / by Francis Bragge ...	Bragge, Francis, 1664-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4199; ESTC R32860	70,334	248

this but Guilt and the Impurities and Defilements of their Souls To make too nice Enquiries into their Religious Obligations would be troublesome they think to do and much more so when done and therefore better be quietly blind and ignorant in these matters than to have their Eyes opened to behold their misery and shame Light is the great Discoverer of Vncleanness and shews it to be what it is and who that so beholds it but will for shame if nothing else endeavour to remove it When the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shines in upon the Soul of a Sinner what shameful Discoveries will then be made How foul will it appear even to the wretch Himself How exceeding vile and sinful that which before was cherish'd as his Darling But such Discoveries as these the Sinner does by no means Desire should be made and therefore indeed it is that He excludes this Light This is the Condemnation saith our Lord that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are Evil for every one that doth evil hateth the Light 3 Joh. 19.20 neither cometh to it lest his Deeds should be Discover'd and Reprov'd There is such Deformity and Ghastliness in the face of Sin when seen without its Mask in a True Light as must needs Create infinite Horror and Aversion in the Soul Witness the Opinion a Dying Sinner has of it for then it appears to him Naked and without Disguise And therefore the God of this World that great Deceiver first blinds the Minds of those that are Lost darkens their foolish Hearts 2 Cor. 4.4 Rom. 1. ●1 as the Apostle expresses it and then drills 'em on from one Vice to another with false Appearances of Good that so Wickedness and Ignorance may quietly go hand in hand together And the poor bewitched Creatures are so Pleas'd with this infernal State and so us'd to it that they Conspire with their Deceiver to lengthen out this fatal Darkness till it becomes Eternal This is a very dismal Condition and into which People are very apt 〈◊〉 slide before they are aware and which we are now endeavouring to secure Young Persons from or Recover 'em out of if betray'd into it and they may know when they are so by asking themselves seriously these few Questions When I feel some good Motions springing up in my Mind in order to my leaving some ill Courses that I am engag'd in don't I presently check 'em and Divert my Thoughts to something else When I have had a Glimps of the foulness of Sin and the Misery that will at last attend it by a gleam of Light from above shot unexpectedly into my Soul how have I behaved my self under such beginnings of Conviction Have I been glad of that Discovery and endeavour'd to let still more Light in by opening the Eye of my Understanding weighing and Considering things more thoroughly than formerly searching the Scriptures Advising with good Books and good Men and Praying God to make my Darkness to be Light or have I not rather been in pain till I had chas'd the Light away and skreen'd my Soul from its unwelcome Rays by clapping the World between thrusting my self into business or Company or any thing that might keep out such uneasy Thoughts as the Discovery of my inward Pollutions would raise within me And speak sincerely is not a fondness for Sin a secret Resolution to continue in it and a fear of being too Powerfully inclin'd to mortifie and destroy it is not this at the bottom of all The Answer that every Man 's own Conscience will make to these few Questions will inform him whether he is of the Number of the spiritually Blind or not and who besides are always Deaf as was said to what Advices may be given for their Recovery And their Condition is really so Deplorable as we shall see presently that nothing more nearly concerns every Man than to use his utmost endeavours to secure himself from it By what has been hitherto said concerning a stubborn Obstinacy in wicked Courses we see the Scripture represents such Persons as spiritually both Deaf and Blind as is the Condition then of those that are Naturally so such tho' infinitely worse is theirs that are so to Religion And 't will not be amiss to consider this Representation a little To be Blind is certainly a very great Misfortune and to be Deaf perhaps a greater and how helpless and disconsolate the Condition of either is we may a little imagine from what we have observ'd of the Circumstances of each and from these Mens own moanings and Complaints Senses that are so Recreating and so Instructive that convey so much Pleasure and so much Knowledge to the Soul Pleasure of a Refin'd and Spiritual Nature and Knowledge the most necessary and Beneficial the loss of either must needs make a strange alteration in a Man and be an unspeakable Affliction How Deplorable then is the Condition of those that have lost 'em both Our imagination is quiet Confounded when we would frame an Idea of it Neither to hear nor to see is in effect to be out of the World 't is as if a Man should be shut up in a dark Cave in the midst of an unfrequented Desart without other Company than his own sad Thoughts and dismal Reflections For continual Darkness and Silence and Solitude is the sad Portion of the both Deaf and Blind tho' in the midst of their nearest Relations and best Friends The loss of but one of these noble Senses may be very much made up by the free use and Enjoyment of the other together with the charitable assistance of good Persons who enjoy them both The Eye by the help of Books and Writing may let in those Discourses to the Mind which us'd to be transmitted thro' the Ear and signs may keep up that Friendly intercourse and Society and communicate those Thoughts to one another which us'd to be convey'd in Sounds And the Ear so far as concerns the Improvement of the Mind may by others Reading and Discourse mightily supply our want of Ability to Consult Books our selves Such shifts as these may in some measure alleviate the Misfortune of being either Blind or Deaf and make it tollerable But what unless a miracle can help him that is Both He is quite excluded not only fro● the Advantages but the Comforts o● Society uncapable of any thing tha● might Divert the sadness of hi● Thoughts or mitigate his Trouble He lives at most but the lowest sort of Animal Life but one degree above the Vegetative save that He can think and reflect upon his Misery and that with great Confusion too and which will Aggravate it much and Pray to God by Death to take Him from it the Hopes of which Deliverance in Time is all the Comfort that he hath He is indeed Seal'd up to the most dismal Condition that can be imagin'd in this World expos'd