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	live_v	ungodliness_n	2,303	5	11.2667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61624	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, March the 13th, 1691/2 by the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1692 (1692)	Wing S5664; ESTC R8160	16,936	42

of Severity II. I am now to consider the different Consequences of these two To be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace which in short is that the Advantage is far greater which comes to Mankind by one than by the other And that will appear by comparing them together 1. As under Equal Circumstances 2. As under unequal Circumstances 1. As under Equal Circumstances And here we have two sorts of Persons to consider 1. Those who have Convictions of Conscience going along with a Carnal Mind Such who look on the Conditions of Men in this World at a Distance and judge only by Appearance would be apt to think that those who do allow themselves all the Liberties which a Carnal Mind doth incline them to have very much the Advantage of those who are under the Restraints of a Spiritual Mind for they are bound to severe Rules of Vertue and Mortification to deny all Vngodliness and Worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World and these are thought to be very hard things whereas such who are not under these Difficulties seem to lead the most pleasant and easie Lives enjoying themselves and being full of Noise and Confidence and appear to be all Mirth and Good Humour But there is another Account to be taken of these things If Men could look within and see all the secret Misgivings the inward Horrours of Conscience the Impatience and Dissatisfaction they have when they seriously Reflect on their evil Courses it would quite alter their Apprehensions of these things and make them conclude with the Roman Orator That one Day spent according to the Rules of Vertue were to be preferr'd before everlasting Debaucheries And he was no Fool no Pedant no mean and contemptible Person who said this but a Man of Wit and Sense of Quality and Experience who had Opportunities and Means enough to have pursued the most Sensual and Voluptuous Course of Life which yet we see out of Judgment and Choice he despised and preferr'd a far shorter life according to the Rules of Vertue before a Vicious Immortality And yet how short were the Incouragements to a Good Life and the Dissuasives from Sin among the best of them in Comparison of what we all know now by the Gospel of Christ They went no farther than meer Natural Reason and the Common Sense of Mankind carried them but we profess to believe the Wrath of God revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of Men and that there will be a great and terrible day wherein men must receive according to their Works whether they be Good or Evil. And will not this dreadfull Consideration awaken the Drowsie and Secure Sinner and make him look about him betimes while there is yet any hopes of Mercy Will he not become so wise at least as to enter into the Consideration of his Ways and to look back on the former Course of his Life to examin and compare that with the Law of God by which he must be judged And if we have but Patience to do this he will have no farther Patience with himself for being guilty of such unspeakable Folly He will abhorr himself for all his sensual and sinfull Delights which will turn into the greatest Bitterness and Anguish to his Soul He will lament his Folly and Wickedness with the deepest sorrow and take up sincere and firm Resolutions to return no more to the Practise of them And if this be the Result as it ought to be of all the distinguishing sinfull Pleasures of a carnal Mind I leave it to the most impartial Mind to Resolve whether there will be the least Advantage by pursuing them 2. But we have too great Reason to suppose that Men may harden themselves to such a degree of Wickedness as to be Insensible of the Folly of it and to mock at those who go about to reprove them for it Such as these are at Ease because they have no Sense of their Condition but so are those in a Lethargy Is their Case therefore to be envied or compared with those in Health although more sensible of Pain and Danger Who seem to be better pleased at sometimes and transported with their own Imaginations than Men in a Frenzy and yet no Man thinks their Condition happier for it There is a sort of Moral Frenzy which possesses some part of Mankind who are not only Extravagant in their Actions but Assume such a Degree of Confidence in Committing them as though the Wise Men of all Ages had been the only remarkable Fools in it But it is no such easie matter to Run down the Principles of Vertue and Religion they have stood the Shock of all the Sarcasms and Reproaches of former Times and there is still nothing at the Bottom of all the Scorn and Contempt that is cast upon them but a Carnal and Profane Temper of Mind which may bear them up for a while but it will be sure to End in Everlasting Confusion and then they will find what they were so unwilling to believe That to be Carnally minded is Death Not a meer State of Insensibility but the worst kind of Death A Death of perpetual Horrour and Torment A Death without the Power of Dying and yet with a perpetual Desire of it A Death whose Sting can never be taken out and whose Terror is said to be as everlasting as the Joys of Heaven And shall not the Apprehension of such a Death as this so dreadfull so unavoidable so insupportable make the greatest Sinners to Tremble and be Confounded at the Apprehension of it And if once such Thoughts break into their Minds farewell then to all the Imaginary Pleasure and Satisfaction of a Carnal Mind for it must sink it into the Confusion if not the Despair of Hell 2. But I have hitherto represented the Disadvantages of one side but are there not such on the other too Some are too apt to think a Spiritual Mind to be nothing but a disorder'd Fancy and Melancholy Imaginations of invisible things If this were all it were so far from being Life and Peace that there could be no real Satisfaction about it But a Spiritual Mind is truly the most desirable thing we are capable of in this World For it is the best Improvement of our Minds which are Spiritual It is the purging and refining them from the Dross and Corruption which debased them It is the Advancing them towards the Divine Nature by a gradual Participation of it It is the Raising them above the Carnal Delights and the sollicitous Cares and Perplexing Fears of this World and fitting them for a perpetual Conversation with Divine and Spiritual Objects And what then can be more agreeable to the best Part of our Selves here than to have a Mind so disengaged from this World and so fit for a better So that we may be content to take a View

Proportions of Good and Evil in Particular Persons so as to be able to judge whether we are Carnally or Spiritually minded For as those who are Carnal while they follow their Carnal Inclinations may have many inward Strugglings by Spiritual Convictions so those who are Spiritually minded may meet with many Combats from the Flesh which may be Troublesome where it cannot prevail But there is a great difference between the Spirit struggling against the Flesh in the Carnally minded and the Flesh struggling against the Spirit in those who are Spiritually minded For where there is no perfect Victory there will be some Opposition and the best have so many Failings to complain of in this World so many Infirmities and Defects in their good Actions so many Passions not brought into their due Order so many Omissions of Personal and Relative Duties such variety of Tempers and Weakness of Resolution such Coldness in Devotion and Unreasonable Dejections of Mind so many unaccountable Fears and such dreadfull Apprehensions of Death and the Consequences of it that these things must make great Abatements as to such as are truly Spiritually minded But by all these things the Difficulty still increaseth and therefore it is time to come to the Resolution of it and that will be by shewing that the Difference between the Carnal and Spiritual Mind lies in these three Things 1. In the Deliberate Judgment and Choice 2. In the Prevailing Interest 3. In the Constant Rule and Measure of Actions 1. In the deliberate Judgment and Choice For the main difference as to the Carnal and Spiritual Mind lies in the different End which is aimed at by them Where the Chief End is the Pleasing our Selves and the enjoying of any thing as our Happiness under the Supream Good whatever Thoughts and Intentions we may at some times have to Repent of our Sins and turn our Souls from the Love of Sin to the Love of God as long as we continue pursuing a wrong End we have too great Reason to conclude our Minds to be yet carnal and sold under sin For while the Apostle represents himself so he tells us he had his Conscience throughly awakened with the Sense of his sins even of those which the World is least apt to be sensible of inward and secret Sins he was not only convinced of the Excellency and Purity of the Law but had some Pleasure and Satisfaction in it he had some hearty desires to be rid of his beloved Sins but yet they were too hard for him he sighed and lamented under his deplorable Condition but 'till the Grace of God came to set him free he was in a miserable and hopeless State But how is it that the Grace of God thus refines and purifies the minds of Men so as of Carnal to make them Spiritual when the same Passions and Inclinations remain A Change there must be and that real and spiritual and therefore in our best Faculties viz. our Understandings and our Wills not by a Revelation of New Objects to the Mind nor by offering any Force upon the Will but by fixing the Judgment of the Mind and the Choice of the Will upon the best and most desirable Object which is God himself as the Supreme Good The Turn of the Soul which makes one Spiritually minded must not be only from gross and sensual Inclinations but from every other kind of Good which stands in Competition with the Supreme A truly Spiritual Mind is one that is possessed with the Love of God above all and that values other things as they tend to the Enjoyment of Him God must be the only Center of his Hopes and Designs for in him alone his true Happiness consists As the Psalmist expresses it Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Whatever falls short of this may agree to a carnal Mind but a Carnal Mind can never love God as he ought to be loved not with a Supreme transcendent Degree of Love which is alone proper and suitable to him All other kind of Love is beneath his Infinite Goodness and Perfections and to love him as we do his Creatures is to do him the greatest Dishonour for it levels their Perfections and supposes them to deserve the same Degree of Affection from us But there may be many Spiritual Notions in Mens minds about God and Religion about Mystical Unions and the Participations of Divine Love man seeming Spiritual Raptures and Ecstasies and yet there may not be this Spiritual Mind For the Heats of Enthusiasm may seem to be very Spiritual but are of another kind they are Spiritual as they are the Effects of a great heating of the Spirits by the Force of a vehement Imagination which hath been often accompanied with as vehement an Inclination to Sensual Pleasures which shews the plain Difference between an Exalted Fancy and a Spiritual Mind A Spiritual Mind is such a one as is not only throughly convinced of the Reality of Spiritual things but of their Excellency and Desirableness above any others that can be offer'd to our Choice It sees through all the Glittering Vanities of this World and soars above the most tempting and bewitching Follies of Mankind here It frequently retires from the Noise and Confusion the Hurry and Vexation of Worldly Affairs that it may converse more freely with Invisible Objects not meerly by way of Contemplation but by raising the Affections of the Soul towards them as the things which it hath chosen for its Happiness And this makes a ●onderfull Alteration in the thoughts that these Different Tempers have concerning the same things I do not deny but those who have carnal Minds may have some raised and spiritual Thoughts but they are too cold and speculative they may have noble and refined Speculations about the Invisible World may be fully convinced that the things which are seen could not be what they are were it not for the things which are not seen and that the things which are not seen are of incomparably greater value than those which are so much more admired because they are seen But we must not conclude that because men do really believe Spiritual things therefore they are spiritually minded for that were to suppose all to be Saints who are not Atheists but there must be such a due Preference in our Minds of that Invisible and Eternal State above all that is accounted Great and Desirable here as gives a just Denomination to one that he is Spiritually minded i. e. that his Mind and Soul is fixed upon another World as his proper Happiness and other things are regarded and valued in Subserviency to it 2. A Spiritual Mind is discerned by the Prevailing Interest For as long as we are made up of Flesh and Spirit there will and must be a Combat between them For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the