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
A40685	A sermon of contentment by T.F.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1648 (1648)	Wing F2460; ESTC R28032	7,789	52

A SERMON OF Contentment By T. F. a Minister of Gods Word Phillip 4. 11. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content LONDON Printed by J.D. for John Williams at the Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1648. TO THE HONORABLE and truly noble Sr. JOHN D'ANVERS Knight Sir THis smal Sermon may well bee termed Zoar for is it not a little one Yet it bears good proportion to the short text on which it discourseth little auditory for which it was composed and your private Chappel wherin it was delivered As it is smal so it desired to be secret and intended no appearance in publike Good was the counsel which Iaash gave Amaziah 2 Cro. 25. 19. Abide now at home especially in our dangerous dayes when all going is censurable for gadding abroad without a necessary vocation But seeing such was your importunitie to have it Printed that all my excuses to the contrary which I could alledge with truth and the delays which I could make with manners might not prevaile I have chosen rather to be accounted undiscreet then uncivil and have yeelded to your desire Surely Sir Heaven can never return a denial to your requests whom I presume by proportion of your earnest desiring so smal a matter to be zealous in your desires of hier concernment that nothing but a grant can give you satisfaction But the mainest motive next your importunity which put me on this publike adventure was the consideration of my engagements to your noble bounty above my possibility of deserving it The Apostle with it is part of the duty of a good servant Tit. 2. v. 9. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not answering againe I must confesse my selfe your Servant and therefore it ill beseemed me to dislike or mutter against any thing you was pleased I should doe Thus desiring the continuance and increase of all spiritual and temporal happines on your honour I commend you to the Almighty T. F. 1 TIM. 6.6 But godlinesse with contentment is great gain IN the foregoing verse St. Paul sets down the worldlings prayer creed and commandements which is their daily desire beliefe and practise and all contained in three words Gain is Godlines Now in my text St. Paul counter-mines their opinion or raiseth our antiposition to batter down their false conceit most elegantly crossing and inverting their words But Godlines with contentment is great gain Take notice of the unaffected elegancy of the Apostle how clearly and naturally with a little adtion he turns the worldlings Paradox into a Christian truth Though Sermons may not laugh with light expressions yet it is not unlawfull for them to smile with delightfull language Alwayes provided that the sweetnesse of the sawce spoile not the savourinesse of the meat The Preacher sought to finde out acceptable or pleasant words that so his sound matter might be more welcome to his auditors Well here wee have two contrary opinions set on foot together 〈◊〉 is godlinesse faith the worldling whose Gold is his god looking and telling thereof his saying of his prayers Godlinesse is great gain saith God himselfe by the mouth of the Apostle Now as Peter in another case whether it be right to hearken unto man more then unto God judge yee The text presents us with a Bride 2 A Bride-maide 3 Her great portion 4 The present payment thereof 1 The Bride Godlinesse We need not enquire further into her Pedegree and extraction she carries her Father in her Name and relates to God the Author thereof 2. The Bride-maid The Virgin her companion that follows her or her inseparable attendant Contentment Godlinesse with contentment 3 Her great Portion Wherein observe the rich ware Gain The large measure Great gain 4 The present payment Not in expectances or reversions but down on the naile presently deposited is Godlines with contentment is great gain Wee begin with the Bride and in the first place let us put it to the question What godlines is To which quere severall answers will be made according to mens severall affections Aske some Fryer observant What godlines is and he will tel you the wearing of a shirt of hair girdle of hemp fasting so often in the week praying so often in the day with such like Canonical devotions Ask the tenacious maintainer of some new upstart opinion what godlines is And he will answer It is the zealous defending with limb and life of such and such strangetenets which our fathers perchance never hard of before yea which is worse such a person wil presume soto confine Godlines to his opinion as to ungodly all others who in the least particular dissent from him Oh if God should have no more mercy on us then wee have charity one to another what would become of us Indeed Christ tearmeth his own a little flock Fear not little flock But if some mens rash and cruel censures should be true the number of the godly would be so little it would not be a flock 5 It is a true but sad consideration how in all ages men with more vehemency of spirit have stickled about small and unimportant points then about such matters as most concern their salvation So that I may say these sorrowfull times having tuned all our tongues to military phrases some men have lavished more powder and shot in the defence of some sleight out-works which might well have been quitted without any losse to Religion then in maintaing the main platform of piety and making good that Castle of Gods service and their own salvation Pride wil be found upon serious enquiry the principall cause hereof For when men have studied many weeks moneths or years about some additionall point in Divinity they contend to have the same essentiall to salvation because it is essentiall to their reputation least otherwise their discretion be called into question for taking so much pains in vain and spending so much precious time about a needlesse matter Hereupon they labour to inhance the value of their own studies and will have all those mynes gold which they have discovered yea all their superstructures must be accounted fundamentall All their far fetcht deductions and consequential results must bereputed tobe immediate and essentiall to godlines yea the very life of godlines must be placed in the zealous asserting the same 6 But it will be the safest way for us to take adescription of godlinesse from a pen infallible impartiall and unconcerned in our modern distractions Even from Saint Iames himself Pure religion or godlinesse and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visite the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspoted from the world This setteth forth the practicall part of Religion and as I may term it the heat of godlinesse To which if the speculative part the light of Godlinesse bee added to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent then godlines is