Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	pomp_n	renounce_v	vanity_n	3,174	5	10.1762	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23770	A sermon preach'd before the King, Decemb. 31, 1665, at Christ-Church in Oxford by R. Allestree ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1666 (1666)	Wing A1166; ESTC R17323	16,852	42

coming The Jew indeed will find no excuse for his infidelity from this condition for what ever that were yet those Miracles that made the Devils to confess him brought conviction enough to make Jews inexcusable And it was obvious to observe that He who fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes till they left more then was set before them needed not to be in a condition of want or meanness if it were not otherwise more needful he should not abound God that when He brought this first begotten Son into the world said Let all the Angels of God worship him might have put him into an estate which all mankind most readily would have done Homage too as easily have drest his Person with a blaze of Pompe and Splendor as his Birth-day with a Starre If there had not been necessity it should be otherwise And such there was For when the fulness both of time and iniquity was come when Vice could grow no further but did even cry for Reformation and when the Doctrine that must come to give the rules of this Reformation was not only to wage War with flesh and blood with those desires which constitution gives but which perpetual universal custome had confirm'd and which their Gods also as well as inclinations did contribute to which their Original sin and their Religion equally fomented for Vice was then the Worship of the world Sins had their Temples Theft its Deity and Drunkenness its God Adultery had many and to prostitute their bodies was most sacred and their very Altar-fires did kindle these foul heats whence Uncleanness is so often call'd Idolatry in Scripture And besides all this all the Philosophy and all the power of the world ingag'd in the belief and practise of this and resolv'd with all their wit and force to keep it so When it was thus the Doctrine that must come to oppose controul reform all this must come either arm'd with fire and sword design to settle it selfe by conquest or come in a way of meekness and of suffering The first of these Religion cannot possibly design because it cannot aime to settle that by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is force is not Religion One may as well invade and hope to get a conquest over thoughts and put a mind in chains and force a man to will against his will All such motives are incompetent to demonstrate Doctrines for how ever successful their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true for by that Argument it proves that Religion that it settles true it proves that it destroyes was true before while it prevail'd and had the power Had this Child come so he had only given such a testimony to to the truth of Christianity as Heathenisme had before and Turcisme hath since He might indeed have drown'd the wicked world again in another deluge of their own blood but sure never had reform'd it thus Therefore That Religion that must oppose the Customs and the Powers of the world upon Principles of Reason and Religion must do it by Innocence and Patience by doing good and which was necessary then by consequence as the world stood by suffering evil parting with all not only the advantages but necessaries of this life and life its self too where they stood in competition and were inconsistent with mens duties and their expectations and by this means they must shew the world that their Religion did bring in a better hope then that which all the profits pleasures glories of this world can entertain and flatter Thus they did and thus they did prevaile for the first ages of the Church were but so many centuries of men that entertain'd Christianity with the contempt of the world and life it self They knew to put themselves into Christs Service and Religion was the same thing as to set themselves aside for spoyle and rapine dedicate themselves to poverty and scorn to racks and tortures and to Butchery it self Yet they enter'd into it did not onely renounce the pomps and vanities of the world in their Baptism when they were new born to God quench their affections to them in those waters but renounc'd them even to the death drown'd their affections to them in their own heart blood ran from the world into flames and fled faster from the satisfactions and delights of earth then those flames mounted to their Element and Sphere In fine they became Christians so as if they had been Candidates of Death and only made themselves Apprentises of Martyrdome Now if it were not possible it should be otherwise then thus as the world stood then it was necessary that the Captaine of Salvation should lead on goe before this noble Army of Martyrs if it were necessary that they must leave all who followed Him then it was not possible that He should be here in a state of Plenty Splendor and Magnificence but of Poverty and Meanness giving an example to his followers whose condition could not but be such To give which example was it seems of more necessity then by being born in Royal Purple to prevent the fall of many in Israel who for his condition despis'd him I am not so vain as to hope to perswade any from this great Example here to be in love with Poverty and with a low condition by telling them this Birth hath consecrated meanness that we must not scorn those things in which our God did choose to be install'd that humility is it seems the proper dress for Divinity to shew it self in But when we consider if this Child had been born in a condition of Wealth and Greatness the whole Nation of the Jews would have receiv'd him whereas that he chose prov'd an occasion of falling to them Yet that God should think it much more necessary to give us an example of Humility and Poverty below expression then it was necessary that that whole Nation should believe on him When of all the Virgins of that People which God had to choose one out to overshadow and impregnate with the Son of God He chose one of the meanest for he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden said she and one of the poorest too for she had not a Lamb to offer but was purifyed in formâ pauperis When he would reveal this Birth also that was to be the joy of the whole Earth he did it to none of that Nation but a few poor shepheards who were labouring with midnight-watches over their Flocks none of all the great ones that were then at ease and lay in softs was thought worthy to have notice of it Lastly when the Angels make that poverty a signe to know the Saviour by This shall be a signe unto you You shall find the Babe wrapt in swadling cloaths and lay'd in a Manger as if the Manger were sufficient testimony to the Christ and this great meanness were an evidence 't was the Messiah From all