Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	pure_a	religion_n	undefiled_a	1,985	5	11.7434	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

their reason in sensuality and are fed as for the slaughter and think not seriously whether they are going till prosperity hath ceased to deceive them and Satan is content to let them see ●hat they have lost and he hath w●n the game They are of the Religion described by the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 5. that taketh gain for godliness But if godliness must go for gain they will have none To oppress their tenants and devour widdows houses and cloak it with a long pharisaical lip-service or wipe their mouths with some customary complemental prayers and offer God to be a sharer in the prey this is the commonest Religion of the rich But they cannot endure to be so pure as to devote themselves to God in that pure and undefiled Religion which visiteth the fatherless and widdows in their affliction and keepeth men unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. What houses or company can you go into where Religion is more bitterly derided more proudly vilified more slanderously reproached or more ingeniously abused and opposed then among the rich and full-fed worldlings And if there be here and there a person fearing God among them he passeth for a rarity or wonder And a little Religion goes a great way and is applauded and admired as eminent sanctity in persons of the higher rank If a poor man or woman dwell as it were in heaven and walk with God and think and speak and live by rule it s scarce regarded poverty or want of a voluble tongue or the mixtures of unavoidable frailties or some imprudent passages that come from the want of a more polishing culture and education doth make their piety but matter of jeasting and reproach to the Dives'es of the world But if a Lord or Knight or Lady have but half their piety humility and obedience to God how excellent are they in their Orbs Nay if they do but countenance Religion and befriend the servants of the Lord and observe a course of cold performances with the mixture of such sins for which a poor man should be almost excommunicate what excellent religious persons are they esteemed 2. What families are worse ordered and have less of serious piety then the rich If our splendid gallants should be desired to call their families constantly to prayer to instruct them all in the matters of salvation to teach them the Word of God with that diligence as is commanded Deut. 6. and 11. and to help them all in their preparations for death and judgement to catechise them and take an account of their proficiency to curb profaneness and excess and to say with Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord how strange and precise a course would it seem to them should they purge their families of ungodly servants and imitate David Psal 101. that would not let the wicked dwell in his sight should they spend the Lords dayes in as serious endeavours for the spiritual benefit of their families and themselves as poor men do that fear the Lord what wonders of piety would they seem 3. In their entertainments visitations and converse how rare is serious holy confere●ce among them How seldome do you hear them remembering their guests and companions of the presence of the holy God of the necessity of renewing confirming and assisting grace of the riches of Christ revealed in the Gospel of the endless life of joy or misery which is at hand How seldome do you hear them seriously assisting each other in the examining of their hearts and making their calling and election sure and preparing for the day of death and judgement A word or two in private with some zealous Minister or friend is almost all the pious conference that shall be heard from some of the better sort of them Should they d●scourse as seriously of the life to come and the preparation necessary thereto as they do about the matters of this life they would mar● the mirth and damp the pleasure of the company and be taken for self-conceited hypocrites or men of an unnecessary strictness and austerity inconsistent with the jocund lepidity and sensual kind of delight wherewith they expect to be entertained The honest heart-warming heavenly discourse that is usual among poor serious Christians would seem at the tables of most of our great ones but an unseasonable interruption of their more natural and acceptable kind of converse 4. What men do more carelesly cast away their precious time then these Dives'es do They think they have a license to be idle and unprofitable because they are rich that is to abuse or hide their talents because they have more then other men Forgetting that to whom much is given of them shall much be required Because they have no poverty or family-necessities to constrain them to a laborious life they think they may lawfully take their ease and live as droans on other mens labours as if they owed nothing to God or the Common wealth but all to their own flesh Their morning hours which are most seasonable for meditation and holy addresses unto God and the works of their calling are perhaps consumed in excess of sleep The next are wasted in long attiring and curious adorning of their flesh from thence they pass to vain discourse to needless-recreations to eating and drinking and so to their vain talk and recreations again and thence to the replenishing of their bellies and so to sleep And thus the words of the fool that Christ describeth in Luke 12. 19. are turned by them into deeds and it is the language of their sensual lives Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Sleeping and sporting and jeasting and idle talking and eating and drinking and dressing and undressing with worldly cares and passions intermixt are the very business and employment of their lives Thus contemptuously do they waste their precious hours while God stands by and time makes haste and death draws near and their miserable souls are unprepared and heaven or hell are hard at hand and this is all the time of preparation that ever shall be allowed them O do but look on these distracted piteous souls that have but a short uncertain life to provide for a life that hath no end and see how they forget or senslesly remember the matters of infinite concernment see how they trifle away that time that never will return how they sport and prate away those hours which shortly they would recall were it possible with the lowdest cryes or recover with the dearest price When they know not but in a laughter-or a merry jeast their breath may be stopped by an arrest from heaven or justice may surprize their miserable unready souls with the cards in their hands or the cup at their mouths when they have not the least assurance of being out of hell an hour and yet can sell this time for nothing and basely cast it away on toyes which