Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	grace_n	live_v	ungodliness_n	2,081	5	11.6651	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32783	Via lactea, or, The saints onely way to true blessedness opened in a sermon from Matth. 5, 8 : also the danger of neglecting gospel-salvation, from Heb. 2, 3 / by Thomas Cheesman ... ; with his epistle to vindicate himself from those absurdities of method and language and little less then blasphemies, with which he was abused by a mercenary pen, in the former impression.	Cheesman, Thomas.	1663 (1663)	Wing C3776; ESTC R43092	18,787	38

and pay the utmost farthing Never yet did any sinner come to Christ and Christ refused to save him meerly upon this account because his sins were too great to be pardoned there never was any had occasion for such a complaint No the greatest sinner in this congregation may be encouraged Those which for many years together have continued slaves to the Prince of darkness those which have spent the flower of their age in the service of sin and making provision for their lusts those that have trifled away their time that have abused the patience of God that have trampled under foot the riches of his goodness that have resisted the work of grace and grieved the Spirit why yet if they will accept Christ and come up to the terms of the Gospel they shall not miss of a full salvation Thirdly This is called a very great salvation in regard of the great price which was laid down to procure it God scornes to sell salvation to any creature it is therefore freely offered unto us we may have it without money and without price Oh! but it cost Christ full dear it cost him no less than the shedding of his own precious Blood the least drop of which was more worth than the whole frame of this material world if all the mountains had been turned into gold and every blade of grass on the face of the earth had been changed into a precious Jewel and all this laid together had been offered up to procure the salvation of but one single person yet it would not have been accepted Fourthly This is a very great salvation if we consider those great benefits that are comprehended in it why this salvation it doth comprehend Adoption Justification and Eternall life The benefits are exceeding great though men are naturally born vessels of wrath and fire-bands of hell why yet the Gospel shews them how they may get into a state of peace and reconciliation with God The Gospel shews them how they may have their sins forgotten and forgiven how they may have their persons justified and their natures sanctified that they may be made meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the saints in light Fifthly This is called a great salvation because it brings a great revenue of Glory to the excellent Name of God God is more glorified in that salvation which is extended to sinners in the Gospel than by any thing else why here in this Salvation the riches of his wisdome are discovered his justice is satisfied his grace and love are exalted his mercy sparkles forth to the greatest advantage And then in the sixth place It is a great salvation if we consider its everlasting nature Those that are once effectually called and justified though they may fall under the merit of condemnation yet they shall never be brought into a state of condemnation they that are once the children of God shall so remain for ever for the gifts of God are unchangable they shall sure enough be kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation They that are once made partakers of this Salvation though they may be encompassed with trouble why yet their graces are safe their comforts are safe Christ their head their hope and all is safe This is the salvation concerning our soules being bestowed upon the greatest sinners having a great price laid down to purchase it comprehending great benefits bringing great glory to the name of God and being of an everlasting nature justly called a very great Salvation I haue finished the second thing proposed and come to the third inquiring how many ways persons may be guilty of neglecting this great Salvation And first men are guily of neglecting this great Salvation when they will not obey the Gospel whosoever lives in the practice of any known sin in a state of open rebellion against God presuming to out-face the Sun of Gospel light Oh that God would powerfully speak to his heart and effectually convince him of it this person is guilty of neglecting this great Salvation Why sirs why doth the great God of Heaven speak to poor wormes here upon the earth unless it be that they should obey him and how can persons more evidently discover that they despise the Gospel of Christ then when they will not give up themselves to be ruled and governed by it when they will not suffer it to have any transforming or reforming efficacy upon their hearts when they peremptorily refuse to live up to the purity of a Gospel conversation but though the word be never so much Preached yet they still wallow in their filthines the Swearer the Sabbath-breaker the Perfidious person the Scorner at an holy life will still be the same say the Preacher what he will If Gospel Ministers call upon the Drunkard to be sober and watch least he be drowned in the next intemperate cup of Wine and he be snatcht away by death in the midst of his sin as many others have been in the like condition before him why yet he will not be prevailed upon to break off his revelling courses Though Ministers would fain perswade the covetous wretch to seek after the Kingdome of God and to lay up treasure in Heaven and to look after an inheritance of a better nature then the World can give why yet he still remaines a slave to unrighteous Mammon he still continues rooting like a Swine in the earth Though they call upon the lascivious person to put on the Ornaments of chastity and to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour why yet when they have spoken all that can be spoken the Whore must still be followed and Christ be rejected Alas Friends meer nominal Christians by their wicked conversation they are a perpetual reproach to the name of Christ Cyprian brings the Heathens in his days thus upbraiding the Christians Quare in ore semper evangelium evangelium cum tua vita ab evangelii praeceptis discrepat Why is the Gospel so much in their lips when there is nothing of Gospel purity that appears in their lives Why you may be sure that Ministers were not sent that they should be as musical Instruments to gratifie the ears of the people with pleasant sounds nor to feed the wanton curiosity of nice critical hearers with choyce refined notions Christ did not send his Gospel that it should onely furnish men with matter of discourse and empty speculations No but the holy Apostle tells you why the Gospel was sent Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men to what end why Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of goodworks Secondly men are

Secondly why we should labour to get purity of heart Thirdly what means we should use to have our hearts purified Fourthly in what particulars this purity of heart will especially discover it self I. There are many things implyed or comprehended in this purity of heart First the justification of our persons civilizing morality doth onely furnish men with some sweet sented flowers which may perfume their outward conversation rendring it more acceptable to humane society though still their hearts may continue as filthy and impure as ever they were before Moral men commonly have a high conceit of themselves and yet they may be abominable in the sight of God as Solomon speaks Prov. 30.12 There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness but no true purity can be effectually produced in our inward parts until we come to be sprinckled in the blood of Christ Rev. 1.5 Who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood We can never be clensed from our sinful abominations until we be washed in the blood of that immaculate Lamb which takes away the sins of the World when the soul is brought into a state of justification it is cloathed in the wedding Garment of Christs imputed righteousness which is large enough to cover all its natural deformities and then though it were never so black and filthy before it presently appears full of amiable lustre and shining excellency bright and clear beautiful as an Angel without spot or blemish in the sight of God Secondly Purity of heart doth imply a renovation of our nature We are all defiled in our very birth and conception the poysonous Leprosie of Original sin hath spread it self over every faculty of the soul and member of the body therefore if ever we obtain any acceptable purity this corrupt depraved nature must be changed hence is that Petition of the Prophet David which you may read in Psal 51.10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Tit. 3.5 we are said to be saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And the Apostle Paul likewise prays in the behalf of his Thessalonians that they may be sanctified throughout both in body soul and spirit 1 Thes 5.23 The soul and the spirit are here to be distinguished The Spirit here signifies the most Noble sublime and Angelical part of man comprehending his will conscience and understanding the soul that signifies the inferiour faculties of sensitive desires and affections and the body that is the outward man the instrument of the soul In Ezek. 36.25 26. you have an excellent Gospel promise I wil sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be washed from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Oh that men were generally more convinced about the excellency and necessity of this sanctifying work Thirdly purity of heart requires the casting out of defiling sins all sin is of a very defiling nature therefore it s shadowed forth in the book of Leviticus under the notion of a spreading Leprosie t is compared likewise to the vomit of a Dog and to that filthy mire which Swine delight to wallow in But more particularly sinful pleasures must be cast out of the heart In the 47. of Ezek. there you read concerning the River of the Sanctuary that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which is dispersed amidst the wilderness of the Gentiles and most places where it came received a healing vertue from it but in the 11 vers the Miry places and the Marishes thereof shall not be healed By the Marishes and Miry places some fitly understand those men women that have given themselves over to sinful pleasures these kind of persons are very unlikely to be healed by the waters of the Sanctuary what gross defilement do many contract while they let loose the raines to vile affections and drown the masculine activity of their spirit in a loathsome pudle of sensuality Also earthly-mindedness is another sin which must be cast out if we desire to have a pure heart When a thing is mingled with that which is of a superior nature it s thereby made more rich and precious as when silver is mingled with gold but if it be mingled with that which is of an inferiour nature as silver mingled with lead such a heterogeneus mixture doth debase and impoverish it thus when the soul of man is as I may so speak mingled with the graces of the spirit this makes it more Noble exalting it to a higher degree of perfection But if it be mingled with the drossy vanities of the world this makes it base and vile The Scripture tells us concerning the pollutions of the World 2 Epist of Peter Cap. 2. vers 20. and in James 1.27 saith he This is pure Religion and undefiled before God and the father to visit the fatherless and the widows in their afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the world the things of the world they are a dirty defiling nature they are like Pitch t is hard to touch them and not contract some defilement or other How is it possible that that man should have a pure heart that can be contented from morning to night to entertain nothing but the world in his soul John 17.15 saith Christ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil Fourthly Purity of heart requireth that we should adorn our selves with purifying Graces First Hope 1 Joh. 3.3 He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure Raised expectations of future happiness should stir up in the soul strong and vigorous endeavours after present holiness because a defiled heart and a undefiled inheritance cannot stand together Secondly Faith that 's another purifying grace as you have it Acts 15.9 Purifying their hearts by faith Those which perswade themselves that they doe believe in Christ and yet their hearts are as carnal and corrupt as filthy and impure as ever they were before They may know that their faith is but a fantastick dream or deluding shadow there is nothing of truth nothing of reality in it Faith having tied a marriage knot between Christ and the soul layes a strong engagement upon her to keep her self chast and pure till the approach of her glorious Bridegroom when she shall be taken into the everlasting embraces of his love Thirdly Repentance that is another purifying grace Repentance pulls off the mask from the face of sin causing it to appear in its proper colours so that it hath no alluring paint nor counterfeit dress by which it should ensnare or delude the soul any longer Repentance fills the soul of a sinner with hatred and detestation against sin making him restless in his desire till he can procure an