Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B10050
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A description of the natural condition of being in the flesh. A sermon / preached by Nicholas Smyth ... And published at the request of some private friends for the publique good.
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Smith, Nicholas, d. 1680.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing S4138; ESTC R184316
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20,153
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60
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shall perish everlastingly and shall never see God nor possess the joyes of the celestial Paradise It were a thousand times better for men that they had never been born then that they should live and die in this defiled condition this polluted estate The brute beasts and juments are happier then they for when they die their miseries are ended but there are unspeakable miseries everlasting sorrows appointed to such after death What creatures are there so loathsome but men might wish to be them and be happy in the change unless they be changed inwardly and renewed in the spirit of their mindes All other creatures their miseries they end in death but theirs will but then begin Those that believe not as it is in S. Iohns gospel are condenned already and when death cometh how frightful will the presence of the angry judge be and when the great day of his wrath is come they will creep into the holes and cliffes of the rocks and say to the mountains fall on us and to the hils cover us God is pleased with mens good works and there is none of them forgotten before him When men repent of there sins he seeth their repentance and he can he will lighten his hand of them God is pleased with goodness in every body and there is no mans repentance that shall be in vain and to no purpose But unless mens repentance be true and unfeined unless their sorrow for sin increase every day more and more and there be a setled purpose to weed all sins out of their hearts they have no hopes to enjoy heaven to escape hell I beseech you therefore Christian men and women whosoever ye be that read this as you look to stand in the day of our Lord Jesus when he shall come in flames of fire to render vengeance to them that know him not and to them that obey not the Gospel of Christ seek unto God and desire of him that he would sanctifie you throughout and season your hearts with grace that so your souls and bodies may be safe in the day of our Lord Jesus Never rest till you finde in your hearts a general hatred of sin and a general love of goodness and a constant progress in this general hatred of sin and love of goodness which may intitle you to heaven and deliver you from hell If God should hear you at every call and when you are overborn with grief upon your repentance for two or three sins to which your hearts are exceedingly prone which you suspect to be the cause of your misery deliver you from evil that it should not vex you If upon your performance of two or three good works and your charity and humility in the performance of them he should load you with his earthly favours and his temporal blessings as he will be no mans debter for goodness so he will reward his own gifts in every body yet if he be not so pleased with your good works as to accept of them and reward them with heaven and happiness hereafter what have you gained how are you advantaged What will it 18 Matth. 26 ver profit a man to win the whole world and to lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul If God should give you all that the world can afford heap upon you his earthly favours and his temporal blessings if your conscience upon your death-bed should tell you that you are unreconciled unconverted that you have received the reward of your good deeds here and God should answer you when you cry for mercy as Abraham did Dives and say son 16 Luke 24 ver remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things and therefore seeing in your life time you received the reward of your good deeds therefore there are tâ—rments everlasting appointed for you and joyes unspeakable appointed for others Sure now when you lay in this case if God would hear you and grant that you might begin your life again you would choose with Moses to suffer affliction with the children of God rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season And the conceit that Gods over liberal rewarding you with his temporal mercies for your good deeds here had excluded you from all hopes that he would reward you with his everlasting mercies hereafter would peirce your hearts with a thousand sorrowes labour then so to please God that whatsoever reward you receive for your good deeds here you may have assurance that he will not forget your patience and your labour of love hereafter To die in Gods displeasure it is a misery above all the miseries than can be conceived and imagined and if you cannot so please God that he would intitle you to heaven and deliver you from hell when you die though you have all that the earth can afford you while you live you will be never the better And so ye see the greatness of their misery that are in the flesh they cannot so please God as to have hopes of heaven and happiness The conclusion Having run over this Text of Scripture and having at large described the Natural condition of being in the flesh I shall shut up all with a charitable conclusion to all you whosoever you are that shall read what is here written The natural condition of being in the flesh it hath been described unto you and it hath been likewise made plain unto you that some there be that are in the flesh yea a great many multitudes there are that live and lie in this sinful condition and few there be God knoweth who have their consciences purged from dead works to serve the living 9 Heb. 14 ver Lord who have felt the powerful and effectual operation of Gods Spirit in their hearts and excepting onely this little flock this few of Christs sheep the number the multitude 12 Luke 32 ver the whole world lieth in wickedness walloweth and tumbleth in this sinful condition in this polluted estate they are dead in sin dead 2 Ephes 2 ver 8 Matth. 22 ver 3 John 18 ver for sin condemned already as the Scripture speaketh and if they live and die in this sinful condition hell fire it shall be their portion and they cannot so please God here that they should have hopes of heaven and happiness hereafter But yet though there be milions and multitudes that are unreconciled unconverted who live and lie in sin without remorse yet we can know but few yea we cannot know any of whom we may say these are unconverted in the state of condemnation you may know concerning your selves whether you be in Christ or whether you be in the flesh Examine your selves prove 2 Cor. 13 c 5 ver your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you expcept ye bee reprobates ye may know concerning your selves whether ye be reconciled unto God