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	lust_n	ungodliness_n	2,308	5	11.2023	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26871	Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unananswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1689 (1689)	Wing B1195; ESTC R2643	73,886	164

hate you as it hated me because you are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World Marvel not if the World hate you As many as will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer Persecution c. Who do you think all this is spoken of It is not of you that are fleshly worldly ungodly men Who Persecuteth you for righteousness sake Who hateth revileth or imprisoneth or fineth you for living godly in Christ Jesus Do you suffer as much for reviling Preachers as we have done for Preaching What suffer you for all the Oaths that be sworn daily in Streets and Taverns and the horrid prophaneness Atheism Sadduceism Infidelity that men are guilty or If you did suffer for Whoredom Drunkenness Blasphemy is that for Christ or righteousness When the Holy Ghost saith As he that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now is it such as you that he meaneth When Peter saith They speak evil of you and falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3. 16. whom meaneth he When he saith 1 Pet. 4. They think it strange that you run not with them to all excess of ryot lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatry who do you think he meaneth And when he saith 1. Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priest-hood a holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light who is it that he meaneth You 'll say It is Christians True But is it Hypocrites Is it those that will say at last Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name and Eat and Drunk in thy presence to whom Christ will say Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not Sure false Christians are worse than Heathens 39. The way which you take against Religious persons doth shew who it is that sets you on work and what it is that is the root of your enmity As Gods Image is in the understanding will and executive power of man so is Satans and he is accordingly described by Christ to be 1. A Liar and Deceiver 2. A Malignant Hater of Goodness or Holiness and a cause of sin 3. A hurtful murderer or destroyer And these are the three ways by which Godly people are prosecuted in the world 1. Belying them is grown so common with their enemies that there is nothing scarcely so notoriously false which they will not affirm of them and it 's well if some will not preach it print it or swear it And they make one another easily believe it Till experience proved it I did not think that humane nature had been liable to such impudent monstrous lying 2. The daily business of many is by wit and diligence to draw men to hate Religious men on false pretences As plainly as Christ preacheth and urgeth Love as his great Commandment so plainly do these press and urge men to Hatred But of this before 3. And Hatred tends to Hurtfulness What plotting and labouring is there in the world to ruine and destroy each other The malignant spirit is blood-thirsty It 's strange how the unclean Devils thirst to draw or suck some blood from Witches Nothing more alienates me from the Papal Kingdom than that it lives like Leeches upon blood To read over the History of the Inquisition and of their Massacres would make Men take Toads and Adders and mad Dogs and Wolves for harmless things in comparison of some Men. If any would requite them or others with the like I hate it in Protestant or Papist The Turks conquered the Greek Empire partly by the mutinous divisions of the Christians and partly by promising them Liberty of Religion And when the Christians thought they should have that they yielded up the Empire with the less resistance And that which was so advantageous to the Infidels might well used and limited be more advantageous to the Christian Truth and Church But though good things may be used in an ill cause it is a sign of a bad cause which needeth bad means That cause which is carried on by Lying Perjury and Deceit by malignant Love-killing endeavours and by cruelty and hurtfulness and blood is thereby made suspicious to all wise men It is a wonder of impudency in Baronius Binnius and other Papists to justifie Martin a Canonized Saint for renouncing Communion to the death with the Synods and Bishops who perswaded the Emperor to draw the Sword against the Gnostick Priscillianists and themselves to defend a thousand-fold greater cruelties and murders in their own Church on the account of Religion But sin is mad self-contradiction 4. I conclude with this great truth They that hate and oppose Godly mens obedience to God do seek to silence the chief Witness of Christ and to cast out Christianity from the Earth Christianity cannot be proved to be true but by the Spirit which is its Seal and Witness This Witness of the Spirit was not only extraordinary in Languages and numerous Miracles but also ordinary in the work of Sanctification This Seal is set on all that shall be saved in all times and places The Lord knoweth who are his And let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity He redeemed us to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ Tit. 2. 12 13 14. By this healing work Christ is known to be indeed our Physician the real Saviour that saveth his people from their sins As man generateth man and the Father is known by the similitude of the Child and as he is known to be a good Artist that can make others such This is Christs standing Witness in all times and places And when you would turn this into scorn and cloud it with slanders or the charge of Hypocrisie and would have such judged an odious people and have them driven out of the world what do you in effect but spit in the face of Christ and crown him with Thorns and call him a Deceiver and crucifie him afresh and seek to expel Christianity from the Earth What reasonable man could believe Christ to be Christ the Saviour of the world if he did not sanctifie men and make them much better and fitter for Heaven than other men So that in this you directly militate for the Devil the World and the Flesh against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost against the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints and the Hope of Resurrection and life everlasting which if you did openly under the name of Infidels or Heathens or rather as the profest Souldiers of the Devil it were less disingenuous and hypocritical than to do it in

subject King and Kingdom to the Sacred King of Rome yet the Laity would be less against the common Peace when they found that it was their own Peace § 12. I have told you what I mean not by Malignant Enmity to Godliness I tell you now what I mean by it viz. When the blindness and ungodliness of corrupted Nature increased by practice into Serpentine Enmity and turning mens hearts by unbelief and disaffection from God and Heaven doth possess them with a deep dislike of a holy heavenly and spiritual life first as to their own practices and then as it is in others and because it is against their worldly hopes and fleshly lusts they hate it and reject it themselves and then hate and maliciously oppose it in others yea though Law Custom and worldly Interest draw them formally to profess Christianity and Obedience to Gods Laws and to Vow that in Baptism they hate the serious performance of their own Profession and Vows and would be glad to drive it out of the world and to set up Hypocrisie and Ceremony or a Stage Religion and Mummery or the toothless Mass and Formalities in its stead And if custom or shame hinder them from persecuting or scorning Truth and Godliness in its proper name they will shew their mind by these things following 1. They will set up some worldly fleshly Interest like the Papal Kingdom which is contrary to the Christian and holy Interest and then they will persecute Christians not as Christians nor as Godly in name but as such indeed by pleading Conscience and Obedience to God against their inconsistent interest and ways 2. Among all that are against their carnal false interest they will cull out the more serious godly persons to afflict 3. Among all the faithful they will cull out those who do Christ most service in the world because Christs service is it that is their disservice and opposite to their sin 4. They will make a scorn of their very Religious duties and take up mimical derisions to make them seem ridiculous or contemptible 5. When they can charge them with no crimes they will purposely make Nets to catch them as the Enemies of Daniel did by him Dan. 6. And as the Spider makes her curious Webs to catch and kill the Flies 6. Yea they will make faults by slander and lies if not by perjuries if they can find none 7. Yea their virtue piety and innocency shall be all called Hypocrisie and when they cannot accuse their actions they will accuse their hearts and secret thoughts and judge them as if they had a Casement into their breasts 8. Yea if their innocency cannot be so stained they will hate them so much the more because they cannot tread down their reputation 9. They will search after and aggravate all the failings of Religious people and turn them into crimes 10. If any one of them or an Hypocrite that 's like them be guilty of any notable fall they will perswade men that all the rest of their lives is like that crime yea and that all that profess much seriousness in Godliness are as bad as they that all the rest of the life of Noah Lot David Solomon c. were as bad as the criminal part and that all the Servants of Christ are Peter's or Iudas's 11. That it is not their sins but their piety which they hate you will see in that they live in far greater sin themselves and take it to be no great harm but hate those that reprove them 12. And they make light of the common crimes of others They can bear with an Atheist an Infidel a Drunkard a prophane Swearer a derider of Godliness yea a Persecutor a Fornicator a man of no Religion if he will but be for them and serve their interest and will not scruple Communion with such But men never so sober just and godly that cross their wills and carnal ways they cannot endure And if they be such Clergy-men as the world hath too many such serious Godly men for disliking their ungodliness are made the common objects of their Pulpit and discoursing scorn or accusations and perhaps are excommunicate ipso facto for dissenting from their Opinions or Wills. 13. Such usually in former ages have been the chief Instigators of Princes and Rulers to hate men of serious Religion and to stir up Persecution against them and to render such odious to the world as Hereticks or intolerable Villains O what difference is there between the true narratives of the Lives of Luther Calvin Beza and abundance such and the odious lies and defamations written of them by some others Yea those who commend Melancthon Bucer and many such for Learning and Moderation hate their Doctrine of Reformation and serious Piety 14. And you may note that in any slander of a Godly man they will sooner believe one or two ignorant malicious Drunkards against them that never knew them than the testimonies of hundreds of most faithful persons who praise and vindicate them though they better knew them 15. They seldom give the accused leave to speak for themselves before they believe Accusations against them but conclude that they are as bad as back-biting malice reporteth them behind their backs 16. They are glad to hear of any infamy of Religious persons and loth to hear them praised without contradiction and are glad to hear of any suffering which befals them 17. If there be any publick differences in a Church City or Land they are usually against that side which most favoureth serious Godliness be they who they will. If the King Parliament and Bishops will be for the persons and ways of soberness justice and serious Godliness they would be on the other side And they will cry up any that will cry them down or would oppress them 18. Lastly The quality of the Enemies may help with the rest to tell what it is that they are against when it is the generality of worldlings proud ambitious men sensual drunkards gluttons fornicators prophane and irreligious who hate Godliness so far as to drive it from themselves and families and rather venture on Hell fire than be truly godly it 's easie to know what these hate in others I have told you who I mean by Malignant Enemies of Godliness that the mistakers and slanderers of my words may have no excuse Could we now but prevail against this Cainism or Devilism it would do much to recover the Peace of many Nations of the Earth But Christ hath told us that this Enmity between the seed of the Woman and the Serpent of which Cain and Abel were the first specimen since the Fall will never cease till Christ come as is terribly described 2 Thes. 1. 6 10 11 12. and Matth. 25. But yet some Sauls may become Pauls and for the hope of the recovery of such I will adjoyn such Reasons as should convince any that have the use of Reason left Chap. III. Undeniable Reasons against

Malignant Enmity to serious Godliness 1. TO deny that there is a God who is the Supreme Governour of Man is to be mad in despight of the whole world which proveth it And it deposeth all Kings who claim their Authority as given them by God and as his Officers for if there be no God there 's none to give them Authority And to grant that there is a God and yet deny him our love honour and obedience is to speak gross contradiction or else profess open malice against God himself If he be God he is perfectly Wise and should not perfect Wisdom govern us If he be God he is perfectly Good and mans chief Benefactor and should he not then have our chiefest Love If he be God he is of absolute Power and should he not then be obeyed If he be God he made us and still maintaineth us and we live continually by his will and have all that we have of his bounty and we and all we have are wholly his own and is not then all our thanks and service due to him If he be God he is our Judge and will be just in punishing and rewarding and should we not then serve him with the greatest fear and with the highest hopes These things are undeniable Dare any man that believeth there is a God say that man can Love him too much or too much honour him or obey him Can we return him more than his due It is therefore no less than practical Atheism or else a rebellious defiance of God to blame or hate men for loving honouring and serving him to the very utmost of their power And to deny God or defie him is a thousand fold more damnable sin and treason than to deny and defie the King or your own Parents 2. God hath himself commanded man to Love him with all his heart and soul and might and to obey him with his greatest fidelity and diligence and to fear him more than any creature and to place our chiefest hopes on his promised rewards and to seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness and not to sin wilfully to save our lives or gain all the world Deut. 6. 5 6 7. 10. 12. 11 12 13 14. Mat. 22. 37. Heb. 11. 6. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Luke 12. 4. Heb. 12. 28 29. Mat. 10. 39 42. 16. 25 26. 6. 33. Luke 14. 26 33. Mat. 5. 19 20. And the Law of Nature speaks no less And if God command it and you condemn it do you not condemn God If you command your Son or Servant or Subject any thing he that blames him for obeying you blames you more than him If it be a fault of folly to love and serve God with all our heart and mind and might the fault or folly would be Gods that requireth it and not ours And is such a blasphemer meet for humane Society who will accuse his Maker If God be blame-worthy he is not perfect And if he be not perfect he is not God And so to be against our utmost obedience doth amount to no less than Blasphemy or Atheism 3. Do you think that Man is a creature that needs to be blamed for loving or obeying God too much Do you not know that Nature is vitiated by sin and Man is now backward to God and all that 's good and holy You may as well blame a lame man for running too fast as a sinful man for obeying God too much It 's more foolish than to blame a sick man for working or eating too much that can do neither Or to hold a man in a Consumption from going up the Hill too fast Do you find your own hearts so forward to a holy life as that you need pulling back or hinderance when no exhortation or necessity will perswade you to it And if you need no such reproof or stop why should you think others need it Do you not use to say that all men are sinners And do sinners need to be blamed for obedience Do you not daily confess that you have done the things which you ought not to have done and left undone the things that you ought to have done and there is no health in you And yet will you blame men for too much Obedience It seems then that your Confessions of sin are Professions of it and while you tell what you have done you do but tell what you mean to do and what you would have all others do or else you blame your selves for sinning and hate your Neighbours for not sinning 4. If you hate men for holiness and avoiding sin you hate Jesus Christ most for he was most holy and free from all sin And you hate the Angels and all in Heaven for they are holy and void of all transgression 5. Have you any better Master to serve than God or any better work to do than he commandeth or any better thing to seek and hope for than he hath promised If not should not the best be preferred What do you love and seek your selves Is money or fleshly pleasure better than God and Heaven Is Sin and Sensuality a better employment than his Service Is your flesh and lust a better master Compare them and we are content that the best be preferred 6. Why do you take on you to believe in Christ if you be against holiness and for sin Christ came into the world to die for sin to shew Gods hatred of it And would you have us wilfully to commit it and to despise his Blood He came to destroy the works of the Devil and will you plead for them He came by his Doctrine example and grace to bring man to holy obedience And do you hate men for the same and yet call your selves Christians 7. How dangerously do you draw towards the sin against the Holy-Ghost if you hate or blame men for being holy or seeking to be such when it is all the work of the Holy-Ghost on mens Souls to make them holy It 's a dangerous thing to hate the work of the Holy-Ghost and as it were defy him and do despite to him 8. Are you not your selves in your baptism Vowed and Devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the world the Flesh and the Devil And do you hate men for being such as you have vowed to be your selves And do you think that God will not severely reckon with you for such Perjury and base Perfidiousness 9. Do you not in your daily hypocritical devotions condemn your selves by your own tongues Do you not pray that the rest of your lives may be Pure and Holy And at the same time hate Purity and Holiness Do you not pray that Gods will may be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven And can we have a higher purer pattern Do you know any that doth Gods will better than it 's done in Heaven Or is it not damnable hypocrisy to pray for that which you hate and hate all men that desire and