Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	hate_v	know_v	persecute_v	2,062	5	9.5855	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33349	Three practical essays ... containing instructions for a holy life, with earnest exhortations, especially to young persons, drawn from the consideration of the severity of the discipline of the primitive church / by Samuel Clark ...; Whole duty of a Christian	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4561; ESTC R11363	120,109	256

fiery flame and his Wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issuing and coming forth from before him Thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him the Judgment set and the Books opened Lastly be not content to believe slightly and in general a state of Reward or Punishment for Virtue or Vice but meditate frequently on the Happiness of those who shall be admitted to the heavenly Jerusalem to the general Assembly of the first-born to an innumerable company of Angels and to God the Judge of all and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Consider the Happiness of those who shall be made Kings and Priests unto God and shall reign with him for ever who shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever And on the other hand meditate seriously on the Misery of those who shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched and where they shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever 22. I have been the longer upon this Head because it is the first and most necessary Foundation of all Religion and because that slight careless and only customary Assent to the great Truths of Religion which is the Summ of most Mens Faith seems to be the chief reason why things of the utmost importance have so so small an effect upon the Lives and Actions of Men. There is no need that every Man should proceed just by those steps which I have set down but whoever will indeed make Religion the Business of his Life must by some like Method work in his Mind a firm and well-grounded Belief of all its great Doctrines and a deep and vigorous Sense of them CHAP. III. Of right Notions concerning Religion in general 1. SEcondly Endeavour to attain right Nations concerning Religion in general Next to the Belief of the Truth and of the Necessity of Religion there is nothing of greater Importance than the framing right Notions concerning the Nature of it For when Religion is represented as requiring any thing that is either not possible or not necessary to be practised when 't is represented as consisting in such things as are either not worthy of God or not profitable to Men in a word when Religion is so represented that Men may hope to be religious without being vertuous and to be accepted of God for some outward performances without a holy temper and disposition of Mind this cuts the very Sinews and undermines the Foundation of all Religion 2. Now therefore to attain right Notions concerning the Nature of Religion a Man ought firmly to persuade himself of these following Considerations That the exercise of those great Moral Vertues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the eternal and unchangeable Law of God is a thing in its own Nature both truly excellent and indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion That God truly and sincerely desires to make Men happy by the exercise of these Vertues And that therefore the great and ultimate Design of all true Religion is to recommend these Vertues and to inforce their practice 3. That the exercise of these great Moral Vertues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the eternal and unchangeable Law of God is a thing in its own Nature truly Noble and Excellent is evidently acknowledged by the common Consent and Verdict of all Mens Consciences These Virtues are the imitation of the Perfections of God and as no Man is so brutish as not to admire the Perfections of Justice and Goodness when he considers them abstractedly in God so he cannot but pay a proportionable respect to whatever he sees carry their resemblance in Men. Hence Vertue is the most lovely and venerable of all things and approves it self to the Reason and Consciences of Men Hence Vice becomes truly odious and however it may insinuate it self into the Practice can never recommend it self to the Judgment of Mankind Hence even those very Persons who by the prevailing Power of some Interest or Lust are themselves drawn aside out of the Paths of Virtue cannot yet forbear to give it its true Character and Commendation in others Thus the Officers who were sent by the Pharisees to apprehend Jesus could not forbear declaring that he spake as never Man spake And the Roman Governour when he gave Sentence that he should be Crucified could not at the same instant forbear openly professing that he found no fault in him Men cannot chuse but think well of that Virtue which the Dominion of their Lusts forces them to desert or the necessity of their Affairs compels them to discourage They cannot but wish they were the Men they are not and pray with Balaam that though they imitate not the Life yet at least they might die the death of the Righteous and that their last end may be like his Though therefore virtuous Men are frequently persecuted in the World and sometimes meerly for their Virtue yet t is not because Virtue can ever be hated but because those from whom they suffer mistake it to be what it is not or else because knowing it to be what it is they are notwithstanding prevailed upon by some private Interest to persecute it contrary to the Judgment of their Conscience which would force them to honour and respect it An Instance of the former Case are all the Persecutions of the Christians in the Primitive Times 'T is certain these Men were Virtuous and Religious and 't is certain they suffered meerly upon that account But then 't is also as certain that those from whom they suffered did not persecute them because they thought them Religious but because they mistook them not to be so they did not persecute them because they thought them to be worshippers of the true God but because they looked on them as despisers of their false ones They were so unhappily blinded by Prejudice and Idolatry that they mistook Religion for Superstition and Superstition for Religion Hence they implacably persecuted that Doctrine whose Evidence and Conviction if they would have opened their Eyes they could not have resisted and endeavoured to root out the true Religion out of Zeal to the honour of a false one An eminent Instance of the latter Case is the Condemnation of our Saviour He was manifestly innocent of the Crimes laid to his Charge and Pilate knew him to be so but then 't is also manifest that he did not condemn him because he was Innocent but because he was willing to do the Jews a pleasure Our Saviour's Innocence was sufficient to convince the Mind of his Judge and 't was only Interest that over-powered the force of that Conviction Virtue therefore is truly Noble and Excellent in it self and wicked Men even while they are persecuting it cannot deny it to