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
A55818	A discourse for the vindicating of Christianity from the charge of imposture Offer'd, by way of letter, to the consideration of the deists of the present age. By Humphrey Prideaux, D.D. and arch-deacon of Suffolk.	Prideaux, Humphrey, 1648-1724.	1697 (1697)	Wing P3412A; ESTC R219515	81,417	183

it cannot be conceived how otherwise they could help forward to the obtaining of them it is impossible they could thus have passed thorough so many ages and all the strict examinations of Heathens Jews Atheists and all other Adversaries who have so strenuously endeavoured to overthrow their authority and no discovery be made hereof For supposing at first under the mask of renouncing the world they might a while conceal their designs for the interest of it which is the utmost you can say in this case yet this could not last long For if this were all they designed by teaching that holy Religion and writing those Books in which it is contained sometime or other they must have put those designs in execution otherwise they would have been in vain laid sometime or other they must have endeavoured by them to obtain what they aimed at otherwise the whole projection of them would have been to no purpose and if they ever did so as to be sure they would had this been their end then as it happens in all other stratagems of the like nature with how much artifice soever they might conceal what they intended in the contrivance all at last must have come out in the execution and when they began to put them selves in possession of the end they aimed at or at least made any offer towards it the whole cheat must then have been unmask'd and every one would have been able to see into the depth thereof But when did our Saviour or any of his holy Apostles by vertue of any of those doctrines delivered down unto us in the Books of the New Testament ever put themselves in possession of any such worldly interest or when did they ever make the least offer in order thereto Have any of the ancient enemies of our holy Religion and it had bitter ones enough from the very beginning ever recorded any such against them or have any other ever since from any good authority or any authority at all ever been able to tax them herewith or is it possible their names could have remained untainted of this charge amidst so many Adversaries who have now for near Seventeen hundred years stood up in every age to oppose that holy Religion which they have delivered unto us had they in the least been guilty hereof Nay hath it been as much as ever said of them that they practised as to this world any otherwise than they taught or ever dealt with the interests of it in any other manner than totally to renounce them or had they at all any other portion in this life than that of persecution affliction and tribulation as it is foretold in those holy Books that they should And what then can be a greater madness than to suppose that men should lay such a deep design as that of inventing a new Religion and undergo all that vast trouble and danger which they did to impose it on the world for the sake of a worldly interest and yet never put themselves in possession of that interest or ever make the least offer towards it If you say that the whole end of the Religion was only to gain the party and ●hat the steps to the interest were to be made afterwards I still go on to ask who can tell us after the party was gain'd of any such steps that were ever made or of any the least offer tending thereto Were not the first Christians for many ages ●fter the first founding of our faith what ●hey ought still to be men that used this world as if they used it not who lived in 〈◊〉 without being of it and did truly what ●hey vowed in their Baptism renounce all ●he Pomps and Vanities and Lusts thereof ●aithfully to observe that holy Law which ●hey had receiv'd And in this they per●ever'd so steadily that even ●heir very enemies admired ●he righteousness of their ●●ves and bore witness ●hereto and the cruellest ●ersecutors could never ●eat them therefrom but ●hey still went on in the ●bservance of their holy ●eligion without having ●ny other design therein ●han to practise that righ●eousness which it taught ●nd for three hundred years ●ogether stood firm thereto ●gainst also those terrible storms of persecution which were rise● against them till at length by the hol●ness of their lives and the constancy 〈◊〉 their sufferings they made a conquest ove● their very persecutors and brought ove● the World unto them And are not ou● Principles still the same and also thank be to God notwithstanding the Corrupt●ons of the present age the practice to● of many thousands still among us wh● I doubt not will be as ready to underg● the same sufferings those primitive Christ●ans did when ever God shall try them fo● that holy Religion which they profess 〈◊〉 they now are to observe the righteousn●● thereof But supposing this had been 〈◊〉 otherwise and the Mammon of this Wor● and not the Righteousness of God we●● really the end for which our Religion w●● designed yet to renounce the World 〈◊〉 gain a Party and afterwards make u●● of this Party to gain the World is a pr●ject so unfeasible that the former part 〈◊〉 it must necessarily have overthrown t●● latter whenever it had been attempt●● For when men had been drawn over to 〈◊〉 party under the specious pretence of ●●nouncing the World and been instruct●● and firmly fixed in this principle to ma●● those very same men afterwards to ser●● their turn for the gaining of a worldly interest would be to make their doctrine and their practice so monstrously interfere as must necessarily have broken all into pieces and destroyed the whole design Certainly had they any such design they would never have thus possessed their Disciples with such principles against it by the Religion which they taught them and in that they did so I think nothing can be a more evident Demonstration that they could never intend any such end thereby Mahomet knew well enough this was not a way to carry what he designed and therefore openly owned in his Religion what he aimed at thereby and made his Law to speak for that Empire and Lust which he desired to enjoy and so when he had made his Religion to obtain he gained by vertue thereof the whole which he projected by it and became possessed of the Empire of all Arabia for the gratifying of his Ambition and as many Women as he pleased for the satisfying of his Lust which were the two Ends he drove at in the whole Imposture And had Jesus Christ and his Apostles had any such design in the Religion which they taught they must in the same manner they made their Religion speak for it or else it could never have served their purpose for the obtaining of it And if their Religion had ever offer'd at any such thing it must necessarily have appeared in the Books in which it is written And 2dly if they had been so wicked as thus to impose upon the World

you may suppose him to have aimed at And first the notions which the Jews had of the Messias offered him the highest secular interest that could be attained unto and therefore to be sure when he took upon him to be that Messias had he done it only as an Impostor for a secular interest he would have laid hold of that interest offered and under the character which he assum'd most certainly have claim'd all that which according to those notions the Messias was to have For this was nothing less than a most glorious secular Kingdom the expectations of the Jews being then concerning this matter the same as they have ever since continued amongst them that the Messias was to be a Secular Prince who was to deliver them from their enemies and restore the Kingdom of David at Jerusalem and there reign in great glory and splendour over the whole House of Israel And what greater or more desirable interest can this World afford than such a state of advancement And what is there that is more valued and esteemed in the opinion of all mankind than the attainment thereof And at that time when our Saviour first appeared on his Mission there was the most favourable juncture that could offer it self for his setting up for all this For then the People of the Jews being fallen under the Yoke of the Roman Government and also grown very impatient under it entertained a general expectation of the speedy Coming of the Messias under that character of a Temporal Prince which they had conceited of him to deliver them from this bondage and by conquering those who subjected them thereto again restore the Kingdom of Israel And these hopes had then taken that possession of their minds and they were all so full of them that every one stood in a manner ready and prepared to join with him whosoever should take upon him to be the person as sufficiently appeareth not only from the Scriptures but also from the History which Josephus wrote of those times And therefore had our Saviour by taking upon him to be the Messias aimed only as an Impostor at a Secular interest What reason can be given why he should not with the name of the Messias have also claimed this grand interest of a Kingdom which according to the opinion of all those who expected a Messias belonged thereto or why he should not in so favourable a juncture as was then offer'd for it have possessed himself thereof But he was so far from doing either of these that he waved both and not only omitted this opportunity of possessing himself of this Kingdom but also renounced and disclaim'd the whole thereof For instead of laying any pretence to it he set himself to confute those very notions which gave it unto him and to convince the People that they were mistaken in them and thereby overthrew all that which offered unto him the highest Secular interest which the Men of this world use to aim at And not only so but advanced in the stead of those Errours such Doctrines concerning the Messias as were not only without all manner of worldly interest in them but all levelled directly opposite thereto For he taught them that the Kingdom of the Messias was not a Temporal but a Spiritual Kingdom that he was not to be a Judge and a Ruler over them in the Secular affairs of this World and the pomp and glory thereof but to govern and direct their hearts within by the power of his holy Spirit in order to conform them to that Law of Righteousness which might fit them to reign with him in the Kingdom of everlasting Glory hereafter And therefore when the Jews being convinced by his wonderfull Works that he was the Messias would have taken him by force and made him their King he withdrew from among them to disappoint the design And when interrogated by Pilate he told him his Kingdom was not of this World And had he aimed at any such thing he would never have taught such Doctrines of himself which so directly overthrew all that which gave him the most favourable advantage of attaining thereto Had he offered at more of this World's interest than the Notions of the Jews invested him with if it were possible more could be had than those gave their Messias or if he had joined thereto the enjoyment of carnal pleasure as Mahomet did there might then have been some ground of charging him of differing from those Notions for the serving of his own interest but when the change was on the quite contrary hand and instead of being that reigning and glorious Messias amidst the highest pomp and splendour of this World as the Jews would have had him to be he declared himself only for such a Kingdom as had nothing of this World in it and whose greatest perfection lay in its greatest opposition thereto he that will say that there was any thing of this World in his thus stripping himself of all the pomp and glory of it or that there could be any design of interest for himself where all manner of self-interest is thus renounced must reconcile contradictions and make the nature of one extreme to consist in the other which is most directly opposite thereto Had he when he took upon him to be the Messias done it only for a worldly interest this great interest of reigning so obviously offered it self unto him under that character that it cannot be conceived how he should ever have avoided it The power and glory and riches of a Kingdom are too great baits of allurement to the worldly-minded Man ever to be refused by such an one after he had assumed that character which in the generally-received Notion of it invested him with them Or can it be imagined since these are the only things which could make that character at all desirable to an Impostor why any Man should run the great hazard and trouble of being such in the assuming of it but for the sake of them All those false Christs who have been real Impostors and have in several Ages started up to delude the World with this pretence have ever with the name of the Messias claimed also this Kingdom which the Jews ascribed thereto and that in every such scene of deceit which hath opened in the World hath always appeared to have been the bait which allured those wretches to act that part therein And had our Saviour been such an one as they he must certainly have taken the same course For to do otherwise would have been to do the wickedness without the temptation and to run the hazard without that which was to reward the success But he having been so far herefrom that he did not only renounce this Kingdom but all manner of other worldly interest whatever this plainly shews he could have no design upon this World by that Mission which he undertook or had any other reason for his entering on it as the Messias but

so great a wickedness both against God and Man as to have imposed a cheat upon us in that Religion which they delivered unto us SECT III. III. And if they had been such wicked persons as thus to have imposed upon us a false Religion for their own interest both their wickedness and the interest which they drove at must necessarily have appeared in the very contexture of the Religion it self and the Books of the New Testament in which it is contained would have as evidently proved both these against them as the Alcoran doth against Mahomet every Chapter of which yieldeth us manifest proofs both of the wicked affections of the Man and the self-ends which he drove at for the gratifying of them For first when a Man proposeth an end of self-interest and invents a new Religion and writes a new Law on purpose for the obtaining of it it 's impossible but that this End must appear in the Means and the Imposture which was invented of purpose to promote it must discover what it is For in this case the new Religion and the new Law must be calculated for this End and be all formed and contrived in order thereto otherwise it can have no efficiency for the obtaining of it nor at all answer the purpose of the inventor for the compassing of what he proposed and if it be thus calculated ordered and contrived for such an End that End cannot but be seen and discovered in those Means For the End and Means prove each other that is as the nature of the End proposed shows us what Means must be made use of for the obtaining of it so do the nature of the Means which we use discover what is the End which they drive at And as far as the Means have a tendency to the End so much must they have of that End in them and it is not possible for him that useth the one long to conceal the other And therefore nothing is more obvious and common among us than by the courses which a man takes to discern the end which he would have As Mahomet invented his new Religion to promote his own ends so the Alcoran in which it is contained sufficiently proves it there being scarce a leaf in that Book which doth not lay down some particulars which tend to the gratifying either of the ambition or the lust of that Monster who contrived it And had the first Founder of our holy Christian Religion or they who were the first propagators of it any such end therein the Books of the New Testament in which it is written would have as palpably shown it But here we challenge all the enemies of our Faith to use their utmost skill to make any such discovery in them They have already gone through the strict scrutiny of many ages as well as of all manner of adversaries and none have ever yet been able to tax them herewith For instead of being calculated for the interest of this World their whole design is to withdraw our hearts from it and fix them upon the interest of that which is to come And therefore the doctrines which they inculcate are those of mortification repentance and self-denial which speak not unto us of fighting bloodshed and conquest as the Alcoran doth for the advancing of a temporal Kingdom but that recouncing all the pomps and vanities and lusts of this present World we live soberly righteously and godly in the presence of him that made us and instead of pursuing after the perishable things of this life we set our hearts only on those Heavenly riches which will make us great and glorious and blessed for ever hereafter For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World so neither do those Books in which are written the Laws of this Kingdom savour any thing thereof The Mammon of this World and the Righteousness which they prescribe us are declared in them to be totally inconsistent The Old Testament indeed as being under the Dispensation of carnal Ordinances which were the shadows only of those things after to come under the Gospel treated with Men suitably thereto And therefore we find much of this World both by way of promise as well as threat to be proposed therein But it is quite otherwise with the New For in that Revelation being given to the perfecting of righteousness all things were advanced thereby from Earth to Heaven and from flesh to spirit And therefore as the whole end of it is to make men spiritual so are we directed thereby to look only to spiritual and heavenly Blessings for the reward hereof Had our Saviour proposed victory or riches or carnal pleasures to his followers as Mahomet did then indeed his Law would have sufficiently savour'd of this World to make Men suspect that he aimed at nothing else thereby But he was so far herefrom that instead of this the whole tenour of his doctrine runs the quite contrary way we Being told of nothing else through the whole New Testament but of tribulations afflictions and persecutions which shall attend all such as to this World who faithfully set their hearts to become his Disciples and the experience of all ages since hath sufficiently verified the prediction And indeed the very Religion which he hath taught us is of that holiness that according to the course of this wicked World it naturally leads us thereinto And how then can it be said that any thing of worldly interest can be contained either in this Religion or those holy Books in which it is written I cannot deny that there are some Men so crafty and cunning in pursuing their interest that it shall not easily be discerned in the Means what it is which they drive at for their End But how great a compass soever such may fetch about to the point which they aim at or in what by and secret paths soever they make forward towards it yet if the Means which they make use of have any tendency thither they can never be so totally blended but there will always appear in them enough of the End to make the discovery to any accurate observer and at length when the plot grows ripe for Execution and the designer begins to offer at the putting himself in possession of what he proposed as all such designers must at last the whole scene must then be laid open and every one will be able to see thereinto And therefore if you will have it that the Holy Apostles and Evangelists who were the first penners of the New Testament were such cunning and crafty men as to be able thus artfully to conceal their designs in those Books which you suppose they wrote of purpose to promote them which cannot reasonably be imagin'd of men of their education and condition in the World they being all except St. Paul and St. Luke of the meanest occupations among the people and totally unlearned yet if they contrived those Books with any tendency towards those designs and