Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	live_v	teach_v	ungodliness_n	2,054	5	11.4833	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41124	The riches of grace a treatise shewing the value and excellency of a gracious spirit by comparing it with the nature and spirits of wicked and ungodly men, which desire not the wayes of the Lord Jesus / by that reverend and faithfull minister of Gods word, William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1641 (1641)	Wing F697; ESTC R6526	27,782	148

desire is not true grace Object You will say men come to Church they pray they come to the Sacraments for grace they professe they would have grace and will you say that they doe not desire it Answ I answer with Solomon The soule of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soule of the diligent shall be made fat As it is with a sluggish man that desires his ground should be tilled but yet will take no paines to plough it who desires that his busines should goe forward that hee might have the harvest yet will not be at the cost and charges needfull for it he may wish and desire a harvest but shall have nothing So the soule of a sluggish Christian of a lukewarme professor desires faith and repentance but gets neither but the soule of a diligent Christian shall have enough to justifie him grace enough eternally to save him But the soule of a carnall Christian desires faith but gets but a lazie faith a faith that will not justifie him a leane or perhaps a lazie repentance that will not save him a dead performance and profession together Rom. 11. 7. Israel saith the Apostle hath not obtained that which he sought for but the Election hath obtained it first carnall Israel sought for the promises of Christ but they got it not but the Election hath obtained it Object 2 O but our Saviour saith Seeke and yee shall finde Answ 2 I answere true if you seeke well this word is of few letters but of great force it is the very forme of all Arts for Rhetoricke is the Art of pleading well and Logicke of disputing well so is Divinity the Art of seeking well of living well it is nothing to desire grace unlesse you seeke it well the truth is a wicked man desires not true grace but something that seemes to him to bee true grace Now suppose a man were sicke and five pills would cure him he thinketh foure will doe it and therefore neglects the fifth and dyes for want of it So a man having his conscience convinced from the Word of God that unlesse hee have such and such faith such and such graces of the spirit of God such knowledge such holinesse he shall be damned Hee thinkes if I can bee but thus and thus if I can doe but thus much I shall bee saved whereupon hee will heare the Word of God he will pray he will keepe the Sabbath give over this and that sinne leave his drunkennesse his swearing and yet when all comes to all he goes to hell Why because true grace which was commanded and which he should have had hee accounted and called Puritanisme and precisnesse and rejected as a superfluous thing hee thinkes if he can attaine to such a pitch as to live justly and quietly and to be well governed and to follow his particular calling and keepe the Church and performe some good duties though he bee not zealous for God nor in the worship of God will not endure reproach for Christ and for his strict profession Such a one shall be damned though he have all the grace he lookes for A crimson shooe cannot cure the Goute so fine comelinesse of carriage in a naturall man cannot heale the infection and poyson of corrupt nature An Asse is an Asse still though he be never so well trapped so a naturall man is a naturall man still though never so well qualified Hath he love hath hee knowledge meekenesse gentlenesse and a kind of humility and liberality comes hee to the Church heares the Word receives the Sacraments yet unlesse he be mortified and converted changed and renewed by the Spirit of God it is impossible he should bee saved Tit. 2. 11. 12. The grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men and teacheth us that we should deny ungodlines c. as if the Apostle would give us to understand that there is a grace that bringeth not Salvation but that which bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world if then that grace thou desirest and hast attained to teach not thee to cast away all sinfull corruptions and doe not make thee live holily it cannot bring thee to heaven This grace which saith the Apostle teacheth us to deny ungodly lusts as if he had sayd I know it hath appeared to all all the world hath it offered to them it hath appeared to them but they will not learne of it to deny ungodlinesse worldly lusts and therefore in stead of Salvation it bringeth damnation to them but it teacheth us and brings Salvation to us But now because men are apt to say every one boasting that they desire grace therefore for the third Use Vse 3 Come examine thy selfe or thy soule and we will lay it bare before the Lord that if thou hast grace thou mayst know of it if not thou mayest bee convinced of it and so perswaded in time to seeke truely for it Now if thou hast a true desire of grace than it purifieth the conscience from all dead workes If thy Conscience now tell thee that thou hast any sinne and corruption that thou art not willing to lay off it is an evident demonstration that thou hast no true desire of grace A man that hath his hands full of base luggage if a pearle should bee at his feete unlesse he empty his hands hee cannot take it up and therefore if he will not cast away that base stuffe we would say hee hath no minde to the Pearle Now thy hands and thy heart are full of corruptiō so that though grace lye even at thy feete yet thou canst not receive it up unlesse thou empty thy hands and thy heart Mark 1 1. Wherefore if there be any lust though never so deare any bosome sinne which thou wilt not part with it is an evident signe that thou hast not a true desire of grace Heb. 3. 18. Willingnesse and desire to live honestly and a good conscience are joyned together noting that so a man cannot have a desire to live piously according to Gods will but hee must have a good conscience in all things If then thy conscience tell thee that thou wilt sweare now and then thou wilt tell a lye upon occasion and bee scandalous to others now and then and wilt reserve some passage for thy lusts know that thou canst not thou dost not desire grace For true grace animates the soule to lay off all hinderances of the grace desired Mark 2 2. It is a vehement desire if true a lukewarme desire is not true desire As a man hath a desire to a peece of cloth and goes to the Drapers shop to buy it he judgeth it to bee worth twenty or forty shillings now if the Draper should hold it at three or foure pound he scornes the motion and slings away with detestation of it he desired it but his desire was stinted upon such

shall seeke for me and that grace which was offered you but you shall not finde me Ezek. 24. 13. Because I would have purged you and thou wast not purged thou shalt not bee purged from thy filthinesse any more till I haue caused my fury to rest upon thee even so the Lord saith to every soule to whom hee offers the meanes of grace Because I would have converted thee and plucked thee from thy sinnes but thou wouldst not I would have purged thee from thy drunkennesse and whoredomes and from the foule filthinesse of your corrupt heart but yee have neglected and contemned al those meanes of purging whereby I would have purged you Therefore now marke Gods finall sentence upon thy destruction thou shalt never be purged thou shalt cry and call for mercy yet thou shalt never have it marke it now yee that have grace preached unto you and will not take it now accept it God will not let you have it hereafter if you would never so faine but they that neglect grace now grace will neglect them hereafter Object But how shall we get our hearts truely to desire grace Answ I answere first learne to know it grace is such an admirable thing that if men knew it they could not but desire it All men desire good though it be but a seeming good this is that reason that drunkards desire drunkennesse and the angry men revenge because they conceive a good in it But if the drunkard did but know and consider that his drunkennes would lead him to hell if the angry man knew that the end of his lust was damnation they could have but a small if any desire to them or comfort in them but if you 'ld desire grace then labour to know it Teach me the way of thy Statutes and I shall keepe them saith the Prophet Psal. 119. 33. Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee That man that knowes and is acquainted with God that knowes what it is to bee patient humble holy lowly meeke and despised for Christs sake that man will put his trust in God and seeketh after such excellent ornaments let come what will come of it that which all men know to be good all men desire and therefore few men desire the true good because few men know it knowledge of Salvation in the Scripture is put for salvation a man cannot have his sinnes pardoned his heart subdued and all his corruptions mortified but he must know what it is God never knowes any but they know it themselves those that bragge of their knowledge and yet live in their sinne know not God they have perhaps an intellectuall and carnall knowledge of him but no saving knowledge of him 1 Pet. 2. 9. Therefore one sayd if all the learning in the world were put together in one man yet it is not so much as in the most ignorant child of God though never so dull and weak in apprehension of other things yet if hee be truely acquainted with Christ he hath more knowledge than all the Doctors in the world have by their humane learning Answ 2 The taste of grace is sweete and dainty that if we could but once taste it our hearts would ever water after it and we should have little lust to the contrary evill Luke 5. 39. Thou that tastest of pride of covetousnesse of worldly-mindednesse thou tastest of very ranke poyson but if once thou tastest of the pure liquor and of the good things of faith repentance holinesse purity and the like things of God thou wouldst never desire the other againe The Prophet David knew not how to bring men to trust in God but by wishing them to taste how good the Lord is Psal. 34. 8. Hath there any man had the least relish of grace though now they mocke at it and reproach it and their consciences tell them as much Before the Israelites tasted of the Manna they cryed out What manner of meate is this here is stuffe indeede but when once they had tasted of it they adventured the breach of the Sabbath to get it So men cry out at the Preaching of the Word what Preaching is this here is thundring indeede of wrath and revenge hell and damnation and the like what can wee not goe to heaven without all this pudder and stirre Alas men know not the power of the Word men superficially know God and his wayes like a foole hearing of a Lemmon tasteth the pill and because the pill is bitter hee casteth away the Lemmon So thou hearest of this and that Commandement to mortifie thy lusts to kill thy corruption or else of opening hell for thee thy lippes sticke in these bitter pills and therefore thou rejectest the saving sweetenesse of the Word of God But I have given over my drunkennesse my swearing and the like will some say yet I feele no such sweetenesse by it they say it is a glorious thing to be a professor to doe thus and thus but I see no such matter Thou foole thou tastest but the paring and the rinde only of Religion and dost thou therefore conclude that there is no more sweetenesse in the heart of it know thou whatsoever thou conceivest yet Gods people that have tasted the sweetenesse of it account it otherwise so did David Psa. 119. 103. How sweete are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than honey to my mouth Answ 2 If you would desire grace then purge out the ill humors of sinne out of thy soule Suppose a man hath attained to some knowledge of grace and taste of it yet if sinne be not purged out it will dead his desires Barzillay refused to sit at the Kings table and eate of the Kings meate because of the evill humors of his body So so long as the old man is not cast off though the soule stand in never so much neede of grace though it seeth and judgeth of it selfe damned without it yet sinne puts the soule out of taste it cannot desire it Sinne is like grease to the horses teeth it takes away his stomach though there be never so much meate in the racke hee hath no minde to eate Wherefore when the Apostle exhorts men to desire the sincere milke of the word 1 Pet. 2. 2. he first exhorts them to lay aside all malice guile hypocrisie envy and evill speaking for except a man first lay aside these corruptiōs he cannot desire grace for thereby the devill greaseth thy teeth and taketh away the edge of thy soule from the desire of grace When a man desires to sleepe he desires to heare no noyse so when a man doth desire to sleepe in sinne he desires not to heare the voyce of grace disturbing him and the Devill like a diligent Chamberlaine draweth the curtaines of darknesse and security about him David professeth to God Psal. 119. 18. that his eyes fayled for his promise When wilt thou comfort me he had no comfort in his crowne or Kingdome