Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	deny_v	grace_n	ungodliness_n	2,056	5	11.5473	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64835	Things worth thinking on, or, Helps to piety being remains of some meditations, experiences, and sentences &c. never published till now : and now are as an addition to them which were formerly made publick: together with a sermon entituled The beauty of holines / by Ralph Venning ...	Venning, Ralph, 1621?-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing V227; ESTC R38004	77,776	241

and find that the Grace of God which bringing Salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and withal to live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World and so to look or else we look in vain for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ for if we learn not Graces teaching we shall never enjoy Graces salvation So that it clearly appears that holiness is the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Work and Imployment He is out of his Calling and Element when he is not conversant in holiness 4. God hath provided an House for you hereafter as well as made you his House at present Our Saviour a little before his Ascension comforted his Disciples against all their troubles with this That in his Fathers House were many Mansions and he was going to prepare a place for them John 14.1 2. Yea God hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11.16 and St. Paul assures us upon his knowledge 2 Cor. 5.1 That if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens so that we shall be no losers but gainers by dying and seeing our future house is holy we who profess to be Gods House here should be holy now 5. You study what becomes your outward man and its concerns that not only your persons but your houses and cloths c. may all be neat and handsome and some had almost as lieve be out of their lives as out of the fashion And shall Gods House shall your heart and life be neglected and left to disorder and shameful indecency Are ye for all beauty but that of holiness Shall every thing be adorned but the Gospel and Doctrine of God our Saviour which is adorned by nothing but holiness which is not this or that particular grace but a complication of all graces every one link contributing to make it more glorious than a Chain of Gold about your Neck for ornament as the Proverbs some-where speak by allusion I may reason it and expostulate with you as the Prophet did to them who said the time was not come that the Lords House should be built Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie waste Oh repair the House of God 6. To pretend to holiness and not to practise it is to be but irreligiously religious to have the Name of a Saint and to be a sinner To say of such or such that they are Saints and not holy is as great a contradiction and absurdity as to say a man is and is not at the same time In Words to confess God and in Works to deny him is to disown their acknowledgement to deny their Confession and to confess their denial of God such an inconsistency is an unholy Saint And on this account it was that St. Paul was so justly severe to sinful professors of holiness that he wrote to the Church of Corinth not to company with Fornicators yet not altogether with the Fornicators of this World or with the Covetous or Extortioners or Idolaters for then must they go out of the World but not to keep company if any man that 's called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. Let not such things be once named among you as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 Let not any of these be your Name for if you be named or called Drunkards or Unclean though Christians c. When the Drunkard and the Vnclean goes to hell what will become of the Christian The sin will be of more force to damn than the Name will be to save For Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters c. so living and so dying without repentance shall inherit the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. And the same Apostle with the like zeal and fervency asserts it and vehemently urgeth it again Eph. 5.5 6. For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words as if you might be saved notwithstanding your being such for because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience though they may by men be called the children of God Be not ye therefore partakers with them 7. I pray consider this also That though you may own your selves yet if you be not holy God will not own you for his house He delights indeed in the habitable parts of the Earth but which are they not the Temples made with hands as St. Paul Acts 17.24 but the humble the broken the pure in heart as was hinted before and 't is expresly said in that Psalme which speaks of Christ Jesus viz. 16. That his goodness extendeth to the Saints which are upon the Earth and to the excellent in whom is all his delight These you see are the habitable parts of the Earth the houses in which he delights to dwell But if the house of God be defiled he will forsake it as the Temple of old 1 Cor 3.13 If any man defile or destroy the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy let no man deceive himself c. Communion with God is our Heaven upon Earth the only thing that makes it worth our while to live But what communion hath God with Belial If any man say that he hath fellowship with him and walks in darkness he lieth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another 1 John 1.6 As the Devil is dispossest when persons are converted to the faith the strong man is cast out and such persons are delivered from the power of Satan unto God so when professing persons do wickedly especially if they apostatize from Faith and Holiness God is turn'd out of the house which was called his and will not be an inmate nor lodge or sojourn in an house that is so polluted with leprosie and admits the Devil to re-possession 8. Holiness is an endued Beauty The lovers and admirers of this corporeal and superficial takingness do oftner woe than wed un-endued Beauty for their eye and tongue delight they will complement it and extract the essenses of wit to give it Elogies even to adoration but as Solomon saith of Wisdome so they of Beauty 't is good with an inheritance The poor wise man was so happy as by his wisdom to deliver the City but so unhappy as not be regarded by reason of his poverty Eccl. 9.15 But the Beauty of Holiness cannot want regard nor go un-espoused on this account for the best the greatest and

blush and be ashamed that ever they should so much wrong Religion by giving such occasion to reflect such undeserved reproaches on her Alas how will they answer it to Gods-Deputy their Conscience and if not to that how to God for if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth more by us than we do by our selves and therefore may much more condemn us With what faces can such persons appear before the Throne of God either here when they pray or hereafter when they must be judged I will say to them as Alexander is said to say to a souldier of his and of his Name Either lay aside thy Name or fight better Either be not Christians in Name or be Christians indeed for if they have a Name to live and yet be dead in sins and trespasses by living in them they may die in their sins and be damned for all their Name He that made them will not save them if they be not new-made and become new-men for t is not being a creature but a new creature that entitles to and assures of Salvation Again 2. Let me say to every House of God by way of dehortation in St. Pauls words which are of God 2 Cor. 6.14 c. Be ye not unequally yoaked with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an Insidel and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwel in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come cut from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having therefore these Promises Dearly Beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Who hath given us these exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 And you may hear another Voice from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Revel 18.4 Therefore once more in St. Pauls expressions 1 Cor. 10.14 15 c. My dearly beloved flee from Idolatry I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say for why should we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he v. 22. Of old God would not permit his people linsie-woolsie garments nor to plow with an Oxe and an Ass nor to halt between God and Baal Methinks Protestants if they remember the Name should not incline to communion with Papists in their Idolatry which was the ground of our separation from them 3. I would say this by way of caution Let no man counterfeit and dissemble a being holy Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas to be an hypocrite is to be but a rotten post though double gilt 'T is to be not only a sinner but one died in grain Hypocrisie is a word taken from the Stage as is well known and 't is rather a playing than an acting of Religion 'T is personating without being a religious person 'T is an Art not an Act. And in Religion 't is true what they say of faces that painting doth not so much advance beauty to the eye as debase it to the judgement and that handsomness which is only artificial is real deformity 'T is not what is service in the eyes of men or what is celebrated by them for beautiful but what is so in the sight of God as the Apostle Col. 1.22 4. This by way of Exhortation to the House of God be then really zealously and eternally holy not for a day as if ye put on no more but an holy-dayes face and sine cloths but at all times and in all things Whatsoever ye do from the highest duty of Grace to the lowest of Nature whether you eat or drink buy or sell as well as whether you hear or pray do all to the glory of God Jesus Christ hath given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of and in readiness to every good word and work to walk worthy of him to all well-pleasing and to serve him in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of our life to length of dayes or for ever as 't is in the Text and that though the floods lift up their voice and waves as 't is a little before the Text and to which it hath relation We should be ambitious to be as holy as Absalom was fair and to have as glorious a Name as the Old Temple had which was the beauty of the whole Earth and of which it is said That in it every one spake of his glory or as 't is in the Margine every whit of it uttereth glory viz. to God whose due it is I do the rather urge this because the life of Religion lies in living in it and I scarce know any thing more wanting than an holy life professing hearing and praying there is great store but where is holiness alas can we find it in our hearts to live by God and not live to God! Do we love to hear of Christians Dignities and shall we not love to hear of Christian Duties of Priviledges and not of Performances of Consolation and not of Conversation Doctrine Can we lend our ear to hear what God hath done for us and shall we not give that the hearing which is to be done by us Surely our design in being Christians should be like Gods not only to save our selves but to glorifie him If you will please to lend me a little more of your patience I will endeavour to set this Exhortation home by some obliging arguments 1. The Lord of this House the Pater-familias the Father of this Family is holy and as I have already made appear 't is his Name his Work his Will his Image his Nature and Glory therefore be ye also holy 2. Your Profession is holy and we should not only make a good profession but make it good The House of God is as I may call it an Holy Academy where all are to be holy professors as well as professors of holiness Profession is an engaging thing as St. Paul tells us 1 Tim. 6.12 Fight the good fight of Faith c. seeing thou hast made a good Profession before many Witnesses 3. Your Calling is holy 2 Tim. 1.9 He hath called us with an holy calling and 1 Thess 4.7 He hath called us not to uncleanness but to holiness We are indeed saved by Grace but we are to know