Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	father_n	holy_a	redeemer_n	2,205	5	10.6683	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

cherish this presumption in himself and say to others Stand by I am holier than thou Or as the Pharisee I thank thee Lord that I am not as this Publican Though yet all that will be saved must greatly differ from the ungodly and must with thankfulness own Gods grace § 5. Nor 5. Do I mean any unlawful practice which on the pretence of Godliness may be done whether unjust censures backbiting unwarrantable separations from others divisions disobedience to Authority Sedition Rebellion c. These are all contrary to Godliness and true Religion Christ is the strictest condemner of them and Godliness the best cure If any Godly or Religious person be guilty of any one of these 1. It cannot be as known and in a predominant degree 2. And it is his Disease as a Leprosie to a man and not his Godliness § 6. But by GODLINESS I mean only the serious Consent to and Performance of the Covenant which we made with God in our Baptism That we seriously believe that there is One only God of most perfect Power Knowledge and Goodness our Creator Maintainer Governour and End whom we must Obey and Serve and Love above all Creatures whatsoever and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and will give everlasting blessedness to the faithful and everlastingly punish the ungodly That we seriously believe that Iesus Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour who Teacheth Ruleth Pardoneth Sanctifieth and Saveth all true penitent Believers who is our Intercessor Head and Iudge That we seriously believe that the Holy Ghost indited and sealed by his Gifts and Miracles the Doctrine and Writings of the Prophets and Apostles now recorded in the Scriptures and that he is sent from the Father and the Son to Regenerate Sanctifie Comfort and Strengthen those that shall be saved And that we seriously consent to Love and Obey God our Father Saviour and Sanctifier as his Creatures Subjects and Children in these Relations that we may be pardoned and saved by him And that we be willing to forsake the Devil and his Works and the World and Flesh so far as they would tempt us to break this Covenant against God and our Obedience and Salvation And lastly That we seriously or sincerely though not perfectly endeavour in our lives to keep this Covenant preferring God in our Love and Obedience and our Hopes of Life everlasting before all the pleasures and treasures of this World and resisting the temptations of the Devil World and Flesh which would turn us from him and from our Obedience and Hope And that we truly though not perfectly trust God and our Redeemer for the Heavenly Glory which he hath promised This is plainly distinctly and fully what I mean by Godliness or Holiness And such are the persons though all imperfect and of divers degrees which I call Saints or Godly He that feigneth me to mean any thing else doth but abuse himself and me If there be none such there are no Christians and all the Word of God is vain But every Duty commanded by God is a part of the matter of our Obedience and Religion viz. As according to the first Commandment to take God for our God to be absolutely Obeyed Loved and Trusted and to renounce all Idols and neither to Obey Love or Trust our selves or any creature before him So also according to the second Commandment to renounce all scandalous symbolizing with Idolaters in the outward worship of God in their sinful way especially by Images and other apearances of Idolatry And that we worship God according to his Word And according to the third Commandment that we avoid all Prophanation of holy things All Perjury false Vows and fathering falshoods upon God or his Words and rash Swearing and Unreverent using of Gods Name and turning his worship into a lifeless form And according to the fourth Commandment that we worship God publickly in solemn assemblies and devote the Lords day to holy exercises that we search the Scriptures pray for what God hath promised or commanded Meditate and Confer of holy things and celebrate the Sacraments in the Communion of Saints And so according to the second Table that we honour and obey our Parents and as far as their right of Government reacheth all other that God sets over us And dishonour them not nor obey Civil Ecclesiastical or Domestical Usurpers against them That we do our best to save our neighbours Life and Bodily welfare against Murderers or Usurpers and hurt no mans life or health either violently or by Iezabels pretence of Justice That we keep our Senses Thoughs Affections Passions and Actions from all unchastity and immodest lasciviousness That we wrong no man in his estate but to our power help them That we avoid all Injustice Lying false Witness false Judgment and Oppressive Unrighteous Government And promote Truth and Justice to our power And lastly that we love our Neighbour as our selves and take his welfare and his sufferings as our own and do as we would have others do by us and covet not to draw from him to our selves So that he that pretendeth to love God and Godliness and obedience to Christ and yet loveth not such a life as this he lieth or says he knows not what And he that hateth men or opposeth them for any one of all these duties for reading or hearing Gods Word for praying for things promised for holy Conference and Meditation for sanctifying the Lords day for desiring a Shepherd and not a Wolf for abhorring prophaneness and other great sins doth thereby declare that it is so much of Godliness or Obedience which he abhorreth and it is through Ignorance doubtless if he seriously love and practise the rest of Gods Commands § 7. II. By Malignant Enemies of Godliness 1. I do not mean every one that hath any backwardness to any duty which he overcometh in the practice Nor every one that is guilty of some omissions The spirit is willing and the flesh is weak § 8. 2. I mean not those that are Godly in the main so far as they can know but through education or otherwise are ignorant of some Integral Truths or Duties and have an opposing contentious Zeal against them by mistake and by factious company are taught therefore to speak evil falsly of those from whom they differ I hear some revile all even with terms of enmity and unchristian threatnings yea seeking their ruine who do not swear say and practise all that is required to English Conformity I do not conclude them therefore Malignant Enemies of Godliness if they live soberly righteously and godlily in their way and prefer God before Men Heaven before Earth the Soul before the Body and a Holy life before the pleasures and profits of the flesh If they are uncharitable against all that are not for Diocesans Lay-Chancellours Excommunications Symbolical Crossing of Children as a Covenanting sign of Christianity and all the rest I wish them more Charity but

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

his Conscience But you may as wisely think to conquer pain and death But whatever you do with your own if we should leave our obedience to God to obey you or any men we know not what we should do with our own Consciences nor how to quiet them God hath brought us out of that Darkness and Lethargy which quieted them in sin heretofore And we cannot now be ignorant of that duty to God that self-interest that danger to wilful sinners and that evil of sin which would begin Hell in us here And are not your scorns and threatnings easier than this 22. Do not most men at death see the madness not only of enmity but of neglect of a holy life and wish that they might die the death of the righteous and that their last end might be like his Had you rather die a Dives or a Herod or a Lazarus or a Paul Is it not a shame to your devilish cause and you to see men live in one mind and die in another And scorn hate and persecute serious Godliness till the Sentence of death is past upon them and then to wish they were such themselves Or if you be more hardened to the last you are the more hopeless But how quickly did such another change his note and cry Father Abraham send one to my five brethren to warn them that they come not to this place of torment If you mock at these words you mock at Christ that spake them and sure you look not to be saved by a derided Christ. And it 's base Hypocrisy to deride him and yet call your selves Christians and go to Church as if you served him Live as you would die and be judged for you shall be judged as you live and die Either hold to the mind that you will never change or change it quickly before it be too late 23. If you know what a man is you know that his Soul is better than his corruptible flesh And if you think your Throats and Guts and Fancies worth all the Cost and Care and Labour which you bestow on them in the world shall not we think our Souls worth more What Godly man that you think makes too much a do for Heaven doth bestow more time and words and labour for it than you do for the Flesh and World Do we not see how men will labour at land and venture through dangerous Seas and Fight in Wars and Plot against all that stand in their way and this all day from year to year and all for Provision for Flesh and Fancy And do those that you accuse do more for their Salvation If you know not now you will shortly know which makes the better choice and bargain 24 What harm doth Godliness and Conscience do you in other men Had you not rather have a son that takes Disobedience Whoredom Gaming and Drunkenness for sin than one that makes no Conscience of them Had you not rather have a Wife whose Conscience restrains her from Scolding and Adultery and a Servant that makes Conscience of robbing or deceiving you than one that doth not Sure unconscionable Servants and Debtors are more troublesom than they that fear God and believe that injustice is a damning sin But the truth is most wicked men are for so much Conscience and Religion in others as restrains them from wronging or hurting them but no more nor for that much in themselves which may restrain them from hurting others But if you resolve rather to be damned than to be Sober Just and Godly and obey God against the flesh Why cannot you bear with other men that make a wiser choice What hurt doth their praying do you or their preaching while they are responsible for any ill Doctrine What if they be reading the Scripture or hearing Directions for a holy life while you are Drinking or Gaming or reading a Romance or Railing Libel doth their Piety hurt you What if they dare not Swear and Drink as you do doth this do you any harm What is it but the Serpentine enmity that maketh you hate those that never hurt you 25. If you will believe God it is for the sake of Godly men that God preserves the World from ruine He would have saved Sodom had there been but ten such persons in it He will not destroy the world till he hath gathered all his chosen out of it And do they deserve to be most hated 26. How exceeding dear a love hath God and our Redeemer exprest to all holy obedient believers God calls them his Jewels his Treasure in whom he delighteth He gave Christ specially for them He sealeth them to Salvation by his Spirit he justifieth them and will glorify them in Heaven Christ calls them Flesh of his Flesh his Friends his Spouse they are united to him he washeth them in his blood and feedeth them with his Flesh and will make them equal to the Angels and will condemn their Enemies And are not you devilish enemies to God and Christ who cull out those for your malice and Enmity whom God chooseth out to magnify the wonders of his Love on them for ever 27. The Angels of Heaven rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner Luke 15. 10. And rejoyce to be Christ Servants for their defence continually And is it not Devils then and their Servants and Souldiers that are against them Take heed Gods Angels that smote a Herod may do execution on you ere long 28. The Holy Ghost saith 1 Cor. 6. That the Saints shall judge the world and even the Angels that is the evil ones Did you believe this you would be afraid to hate and persecute them now 29. Even Heathens are for much honouring and worshiping their Gods yea many offer them too costly Sacrifice What praises doth Iulian give to the Sun and what strictness of life doth he Command his Priests What great contempt of the Body and the World did the Platonists the Stoicks and the Cynicks profess And shall profest Christians hate those that are obedient to the true God yea to shew that the War between Good and Evil goeth on in all the World even among Heathens those that were for true virtue were despised and hated by the sensual 30. And is it not a self-condemning thing in those that accuse Gods Servants as making too much adoe in obeying the Law of God and yet make as the Church of Rome doth abundance more Laws or Canons of their own and require precise obedience to them all Yea will burn men at a Stake for breaking their Laws Doth God make too much work in the Judgment of them that think it not enough without much more as if Gods Law were too narrow and insufficient Yea learn by the Church of England whose Canons 5 6 7 8. ipso facto excommunicate them that do but affirm any thing to be repugnant to Gods word in their Liturgy Ceremonies or Church Governing Offices And can you think that obeying God deserveth hatred when