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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	deny_v	present_a	ungodliness_n	1,811	5	10.9823	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75003	The beauty of holiness Written by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. To which is added holy devotions upon several occasions, fitted to the main uses of a Christian life.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing A1096A; ESTC R223525	94,600	252

men seriously believe the threatnings of the Gospel I am sure they would not for the fullest enjoyment of carnal felicity run the hazard of dwelling with everlasting burnings That man that soberly considers that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men will I think easily be scared into reformation and be thereby excited to be diligent in the pursuit of substantial Holiness which is the safe course to escape that wrath Alas that men who are so wise and diligent in their secular concerns should prove so foolish so remiss and careless in matters of the greatest weight and which require the utmost diligence That rational creatures should so willingly purchase their own misery and be at so much pains to damn themselves 'T will surely be an aggravating circumstance of their misery to think that they might have been happy if they had but taken as much pains to live holily as they took in the pursuit of sinful pleasures How astonishing a consideration will it be to the damned to think of their treading under foot the Son of God and their counting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctifi●d an unholy thing Heb. 10.29 to think that the time was when they enjoyed not onely a possibility but a fair probability also of escaping the fury and indignation of God! But men will not believe that a merciful God will thus torment his creatures that he who delights not in the death of sinners will execute his vengeance upon them Alas what delusory imaginations arethese for although fury is not in God yet his honour calls for the execution of Justice upon ungodly sinners who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus He has waited long upon sinners and has fully testified that he is a God long suffering and slow to wrath He has not instantly resented every injury offered to him but day from day has been intreating sinners to turn from the evil of their ways and now seeing they set at nought all his counsel and will not hearken to his reproof what wonder is it though he laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh Prov. 1.25.26 How heavy is that threatning Deut. 28.63 As the Lord rejoyced over you to do you Good so the Lord will rejoyce over you to destroy you To compleat the misery of the damned besides the intolerable and eternal pains they endure we may also adde that celestial felicity they are for ever excluded from How tormenting will it be to think of an everlasting separation from the divine Presence and instead of a holy Society to keep a continual correspondency with impure Spirits Would God that this brief discovery of the powers of the world to come might prevail with men to be holy in all manner of conversation But methinks I hear the over zealous Professor too ignorantly objecting that it is servile mercenary and legal to be holy for love of Heaven or fear of Hell Truly if it were so as these men teach I know not what can be the intent and designe of all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel And although I question not but it is a generous and Christian principle to serve God out of pure love yet I can never be induced to think that to be holy for love of Heaven and fear of Hell can be separate from that principle of love to God God knows how much in need men stand both of arguments to work upon their hope and fear to excite them to duty And since he who knows our natures has used promises to allure us and threatnings to awaken us we must not pretend to be wiser than God and reject those motives he has thought fit to prescribe and indeed if it were not for the fear of evil and the hope of good 't is to be feared the pressing of other motives should be but a mere beating of the Air. But that this is not servile and mercenary needs no other argument to prove it but our Saviour's enduring the Gross and despising the Shame for the joy that was set before him a Scripture sufficient enough to stop the mouths of all opponents SECT 4. Holiness the main design of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings Subjects who know the intent and design of those Laws issued forth by their Prince will be loath to contemn his Authority especially when the whole intent of these is to make them by their obedience the more happy and sure 't is the most unaccountable thing that can be if they notwithstanding despise his Laws and quite counter-act his design Now the main designe of the Christian precepts is the promoting of Holiness and planting a good life in men This also was the onely intent of our Soveraign and Law-giver and it is certain the whole advantage redounds to us How impious then is it to despise the Authority of Heaven If God had made Holiness a matter of indifferency the want of such a qualification had not been criminal but since sacred Writ has declared That this is the will of God even our sanctification and that we must be holy as he is holy if we rebel the indignity and contempt we cast upon him is insufferable I have already shewed that it is the great design of the Gospel-Precepts Promises Threatings to exalt Holiness Hence the Apostle very aptly calls it A doctrine according to godliness and he tells us that the design of it is to teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and the Character of its nature is to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ I wish the effect were answerable to the designe I doubt not but the Gospel has had a kindly influence upon some to form them to Holiness I would fain wish upon all But alas the perverse and corrupt conversations of men plainly tell us that there are but a few who have answered its design In the next place it were easie to demonstrate that to plant Holiness amongst men was the end of Christs descending from Heaven to Earth and of all that he suffered This the Apostle plainly enough holds forth Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Now what argument should be so powerful and prevalent to engage Christians to be universally holy as the due consideration of Christ's redeeming them for that end Men who are endu'd with any sparks of ingenuity cannot but be inspirited to be separate from the pollutions of this world when they reflect what their Redeemer hath suffered in order to the purchasing of their pardon and reconciliation For when poor Man had cast himself headlong from Heaven to Earth had

bears witness that the divine Commands are extreamly reasonable and natural and is it not against the common vote of Mankinde to say What is natural is uneasie and difficult Men who impose hard and grievous tasks upon others are by all men condemned as unreasonable which certainly implies that whatever is reasonable is not grievous and difficult 'T is true sinners who by their many-repeated acts of disobedience have contracted a habit of sin do indeed commit it with less trouble than those who first engage to this Tyranny as Slaves who by custom look upon that as easie which at their first entrance upon such a slavery was very difficult and grievous And yet whatever ease the most daring sinner may pretend is to be found in the acts of sin I durst appeal to his own breast whether he might not with a great deal of more ease and less fatigue have kept the divine Laws than he met with in breaking of them I confess the Laws of Christianity are not natural in a strict and confined sence but onely in so far as they correspond with and are suitable to the nature of Mankinde hence some sins are said to be unnatural not because all sins may not adopt to themselves that title but because upon a more peculiar and special account all men are sensible that they are bruitish and unbecoming any who carry in their bosom a rational Soul There is not any vice but it infests and prejudges Nature Anger is a degree of Madness that violently transports men and quite mars their inward ease and repose Revenge a more lasting and deliberate fury preys upon the Soul where it resides and so distracts and hurries it with inquietude and restlesness that nothing imaginable can be supposed a greater Enemy to Nature how sweet soever and luscious it may seem to depraved nature Intemperance and Vncleanness are sins which debase Humane nature below that of beasts and are the cause of many intolerable pains and Diseases which make Humane life but an uneasie burden But besides all these troubles we may adde that horrour of Conscience that haunts the sinner with fear and astonishment All which contribute to clear the truth of what I assert Again Reason tells a man that it cannot be grievous to him to perform that which is so much his interest and advantage Men in their secular concerns finde no difficulties in any undertaking wherein their interest is concerned and sure it is mans greatest interest to keep the divine Precepts as I have already at some length discovered 'T is an excellent saying of as excellent an Author Reason says he must first cease to be Reason and commence Phrenzie before 't is possible it can set it self in defiance of those Laws of Christ which are accommodated to its greatest interest Causes of the decay of Christian Piety Chap. 5. But besides Reason Experience bears also witness to this truth that the divine Laws are not grievous But before I proceed to prove this I shall premise two Cautions First when I say that Experience makes it plain that the Laws of Christianity are not grievous I do not mean that a sinner when he first forsaketh his sins and betakes himself to a holy and vertuous life shall encounter with no difficulties no sure this cannot reasonably be expected for his former habit in sin will at the first give him work enough he has an old custom to oppose and struggle with which will cost him no small pains to overcome Secondly far less must we fondly imagine that the Law of Christianity is so easie as supersedes and gives a discharge to humane industry vigilancy and care they are but strangers to a holy life and never knew what it is to obey Gods Commands who never were at any pains nay who are not very industrious and careful to observe them When our Saviour says his yoak is easie he does not hereby intend to perswade men to be like Solomons sluggard sure Heaven was neverdesigned for loiterres in Gods Vineyard but his intent there is to remove a common prejudice men were like to entertain against Christianity as if it were an intolerable yoak and insupportable task now this Christ forewarns his Disciples is not true These two things being premised I now appeal to Experience which often corrects errour in speculation whether the Laws of Heaven or Hell are most grievous And to condescend as far as possible I shall not here call in the Experiences of good men who all unanimously assent that there is more ease and less fatigue in obeying than in breaking the divine Laws but I shall submit to the sinners own testimony when he is in his most sober state I mean when he is under the extremity of some pain inflicted by his sins or when he lies upon his death-bed at other times when he is in the pursute of some Lust no wonder though he pass as unjust a sentence as sick men do of tastes who having their palates infected with some venomous and filthy humor judge every thing be it really never so pleasant to be bitter and harsh Go then to sinners when they come to themselves as it is said of the Prodigal He came to himself as if he had been before mad or distracted and ask them whether they sinde more trouble in their doing or omitting of sin Ask the Drunkard who by his intemperance lies smarting under the tormenting pains of the Gout whether he had been wiser and suffered less trouble if he had been temperate and abstained from excess Nay besides the diseases that many if not most of vices bring upon men there are some sins that make men sensibly in the time finde pain and trouble Go to the Lascivious and Wanton person who is tormented with the Pox and ask whether his sin be grievous to him or not There are few sins which are not attended with grievous concomitants But I shall not insist I confess no mens Experiences are so likely to demonstrate this truth nor are more pertinently appealed to as theirs who have once experimented the pleasures and pains of both states Ask therefore those who were once Drunkards and Adulterers but are now sanctified and settled in a course of Holiness and I am sure they shall verily testifie that it is only Satan's Yoak that is uneasie and burthensome But granting that there is some difficulty in the exact observation of the Laws of Christianity as sure any man who consults the corruption of his own nature and the depraved inclinations thereof against which they are levelled will never deny yet if this shall be judged a good Argument to cancel the Laws of Christianity all Laws whatsoever shall be quite dashed out and banished the world for who shall be guilty if he may have the liberty to use this for a relevant excuse This being then so unreasonable to imagine and if it should be admitted should yet never a whit excuse the sinner who to his experience findes