Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	fire_n	set_v	tongue_n	3,258	5	9.1898	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09965	Foure godly and learned treatises Intituled, I. A remedy against covetousnesse. II. An elegant and lively description of spirituall death and life. III. The doctrine of selfe-deniall. IV. Vpon the sacrament of the Lords Supper. Delivered in sundry sermons, by that late famous preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory, Iohn Preston, Doctor of Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinarie to his Majestie; master of Emanuel Colledge, and sometime preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Preston, John, 1587-1628. Three sermons upon the sacrament of the Lords Supper. aut	1633 (1633)	STC 20222; ESTC S115040	185,075	475

wiped away every lust is a spot on the soule If yee suffer a lust to continue that yee are indulgent to it defiles you it makes you indigent Lusts cause want Beeing brought under the power of a lust yee are under a Tyrant Againe what ever your hearts are set on and you will not deny your selves in it if yee belong to God yee shall bee crossed in it your strong affections will bee your strong afflictions David was crossed in his Absolon Absolon in his Kingdome Amnon in his Tamar Againe if you will satisfie your lusts there is no end of it yee must be alwaies adding fuell to them which increaseth the fire Consider that in this our heart is deceitfull wee being minded to continue in things though it bee but for a time wee will not easily be brought to judge aright of them afterwards wee judge not then without a bribe and our judgements being bribed they are then easily corrupted Take heed therefore of Custome this is hard to be resisted the flesh will expect the same entertainment from us at the last as it had the second or third time Custome doth prejudice us much it intends the originall Corruption it leads us captive with violence being accustomed to any lust know that it is hard to renounce it because custome addes unto its strength When we have judged already of a thing we are loath to iudge againe But now my Brethren consider if yee erred once that will not excuse the second errour Custome is but Vetustas erroris the antiquity of errour Gods Spirit must bee the rule of our lives Custome is an ingagement to us to continue in those things wherein wee should deny our selves So the opinion of men is a hinderance to Selfe-deniall having used such a course we will not alter it if we doe men wonder at it this keepes men off from selfe-deniall Wherefore that your hearts deceive you not remember this caution Take heed of Custome La●●ly if no man hath any interest in Christ unlesse hee deny himselfe then see the way of drawing neare to CHRIST The more wee deny our selves the lesse distance is betwixt him and us the nearer our wills are brought together the nearer we come to him the more fully we empty us of our selves the more perfectly wee deny our selves and the nearer wee come to him And thus much for the first Point that who ever lookes for any interest in Christ must deny himselfe The second followes which is this That the wayes of God are full of Crosses they have much difficulty in them Christ tels men They must deny themselves take up their daily Crosse they must goe through crosses and looke for them the wayes therefore of God are full of crosses And this must needs be so for three reasons First God will have it so that wee may beare witnesse of the truth Words are ●ut a slender testimony therefore God will have men suffer and be imprisoned too for the truth This is that good confession of Christ when as we confesse him not in word but in deed God therefore will have us beare Crosses for this end Secondly God will have men tried and that they cannot bee without Crosses Therefore 1 Corinth 11.19 Heresies must needs come that those who are faithfull may be tryed that the good may be distinguished from the counterf●●● Afflictions and crosses are the best touchstones therefore they are called tryals because they try and prove men Thirdly this must needs be so from the nature of thinges themselves Men cannot run on in obedience to Christ without opposition A faithfull Christian man must reprove others as Iohn Baptist did and then it may cost him his life It may cost us our lives and losse of favour as it did Moses Hebr. 11. Who endured Pharaohs wrath for standing out in good causes In many actions wee may and shall be censured for wee must be just to men and upright to GOD and not be byassed a wrong way and for this we may bee opposed The Sabboths must bee kept though some losses may come by it many other actions must be done wee must speake for Christ as Paul and Daniel did which cost them Imprisonment and so it may doe us Fourthly looke on the world and there is a necessity that wee should have crosses if wee will follow Christ. For Iohn 15.19 The world loves her owne and hates them who are Christs they are resisted and cannot resist againe The world puts crosses upon the Saints and as if they were not forward inough of themselves the Divell helpes them forwards Hee sets their tongues on worke Iames 3.6 Their tongues are set on fire of Hell hee sets their hands on worke Revel 2.10 The Divell shall cast some of you into Prison that is men by the Divels instigation shall doe it Fiftly it must needs be so in regard of mens conditions and themselves they must have crosses to prevent sinne Christ the good Shepheard sets Dogs on his sheepe sometimes to barke at them and if that will not serve the turne to bite them too Partly for sinnes present which they contract And partly to prevent future sinnes Prosperity makes them rust sometimes therefore God sets scullio●s to rub them over and makes them bright though they make themselves blacke God sends afflictions on the good to make them better Threshing makes the corne though it were good before to be much better the fire though the gold be good before yet it makes it much purer health though it be good yet exercise makes it better Now as the wayes of God are full of crosses so they have much difficulty in them and that for these reasons First because of Selfe-denyall This selfe-deniall must needs bee and it is hard and difficult for a man to deny himselfe it is a hard thing to deny a stranger being importunate it is harder to deny a friend a wife or a sonne but it is hardest to deny a mans selfe to deny a strong lust a naturall inclination which is ever begging and asking that is like a continuall dropping this is difficult Secondly looke on the Law and it is difficult the Law is spirituall wee are carnall sold under sinne and yet must bee squared by it Thirdly it is difficult in regard of our affections these make the wayes of God difficult wee are to goe on in the middle way but our affections bias us another way wee no sooner love things but wee over-love them so we are ready to over-joy and grieve for things these affections distemper the minde and the minde being distempered we are like a barrell stirred and turned up-side downe nothing but mud comes from it Fourthly looke on our natures and it is difficult What is in man in common or corrupt nature The wayes of God are above common nature above our reach and up the hill they are more difficult to corrupt natures all Gods wayes are contrary to it and it to them there

enable a man to beleeve it I answere that certainely there is a mighty power that goes out from God and Christ that enables thee to beleeve with efficacy so that when the object is set before thee there goes out a power from Christ to worke faith in thy heart whereby thou truly beleevest it and so it appeares in thy life We think we beleeve those things but our lives do manifest the contrary namely That there is not a powerfull faith wrought in us for all the errours of our lives though we observe them not arise from hence that these Principles are not throughly beleeved if they were it could not bee that there should be such inconsequences in the lives of men Therefore consider if this faith bee wrought in thee whether such a power hath gone out to worke such a faith that hath changed thy whole course as it will doe if it bee once wrought in thee by the power of Christ So also consider whether there hath a vertue gone out from him to worke love in thy heart to the Lord for otherwise it is certaine that there is no man in the world that is able to love God or to come neere him for all love riseth from Similitude there must bee an agreement and similitude betweene those two that love Now every man by nature is as contrary to Gods pure nature as fire is to water without an almighty power to change his nature and to worke a particular affection of love in him he can never be able to love God therefore it s the baptisme of the holy Ghost which workes this He will baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the holy Ghost which is fire I will multiply thy sorrowes and thy conceptions That is the sorrowes of thy conceptions Now love is as fire in the heart and one fire must beget another And therefore you have it in the common proverbe Love is a thing that cannot be bought with mountaines of gold and silver yet if thou bee in Christ there goes out a vertue from him that stampes upon thy heart this holy affection that breedes in thee this holy fire of love so that thy heart cleaves to him thou lovest him with as true with as genuine as naturall and as sensible love as thou lovest any friend as thou lovest any creature in the world Consider if this be wrought in thee or no. And so for thy knowledge there is also a power in it consider whether any such vertue hath gone out from Christ to make the knowledge which thou hast powerfull You will say what is that That is to bring on these truthes which thy heart assents unto to bring them with that evidence and fulnesse of demonstration that thou shalt yeeld unto them and practise them according to thy knowledge Beloued there is much knowledge among us but who practiseth according to his knowledge We know God but wee glorifie him not as God and the reason is because there hath not gone a power with that knowledge to make it lively and effectuall to passe through all the faculties of the soule and to overrule them for if there were such knowledge it would alwayes draw affection and practise with it So likewise consider whether there hath gone a power from him to mortifie thy lusts Whosoever is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts not to lay them asleepe onely but to mortifie and subdue them See likewise whether there hath a power gone out from Christ to helpe thee to overcome the world The lusts of thine eyes the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life for whosoever is in Christ overcomes the world and all that is in the world The world hath many things to worke upon us and to resist and oppose us It hath persecutions it hath disgraces it hath slanders and reproches which it casts upon holy men upon the holy wayes of God And the men that are actours in this are the divels factours though they thinke not so as the Apostle Iames expresses it Their tongues are set on fire of hell to devise slanders and false reports and to fasten them upon holy men especially upon the Ministers of the Gospell and so upon all the wayes of God I say they are the divels factours though they thinke not so and those that beleeve them are the divels receivers the one hath the divell in his tongue the other in his eare But the Lord hath appointed this This is one thing whereby the world fights against the wayes of God to discourage men and to hinder them that they might be stumbling blockes to them So it was with Christ hee was the falling of many in Israel by reason of this so was Paul as a deceiver and yet true c. Consider if thou hast this efficacy put into thy heart that thou art able to overcome this that thou art able to overcome all the offences and persecutions all the slaunders and reproaches that are cast upon the wayes of God and notwithstanding that to thinke well of them and to walke in them and practise thē Likewise as it hath these things on the one hand so it hath pleasures preferments glory riche● credit and all things of that nature on the other art thou able to overcome all these So to shut up this point prosecute it no further thus you shall know whether you be in Christ for that is the point Wee have assurance in him that if we aske any thing we shall be heard but first we must be in him now 〈◊〉 know whether we be in him as you have heard there must be an act of ours and secondly an act of his which is this power that goes out from him to change to take and comprehend us So much for the first thing Now for the second if a man will apply or take to himselfe the priviledges wee have by Christ as this particular priviledge of being heard in our prayers of comming to the Sacrament or any other know this that it is not enough to be in Christ only but there must be a certaine qualification a certaine immediate fashioning and preparation of the heart or else though thou have a right to the priviledges though they belong to thee yet thou art suspended from the use benefit and comfort of them And this is considered in these Five things I will but name them very briefely First when a man comes to receive the Sacrament it 's not enough for him to be in Christ no nor when he is come to do some other duties but moreover there must be this also those grace thou hast this change this new creature that is wrought in thee which is but a heape of particular graces these must be acted and stirred up upon such an occasion It is true no man ought to come except he have the graces of Gods Spirit wrought in