A29372:170
Seasonable truths in evil-times in several sermons / lately preached in and about London
Seasonable truths in evil-times in several sermons / lately preached in and about London by William Bridge, late preacher of the word of God at Yarmouth.Seasonable truths in evil-times in several sermons / lately preached in and about London by Willam Bridge, late preacher of the word of God at Yarmouth.
London: printed for Nath. Crouch, 1668
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
For answer unto this:
First, if you would order and manage all your sufferings so as they may turn to a good account, be sure of this, That all your sufferings be underlaid with Godliness; Personal Godliness, and actual Godliness.
With personal godliness: for if your person be not accepted, your suffering will not: if you be not in Christ, your suffering will come to little. ⟨p. 52⟩As the tree is, so is the fruit that grows upon the tree: if the tree be a Crab, all the fruit is but Crabs. And if you be a Crab, and not implanted into Jesus Christ, your suffering will not be accepted.
And not only personal godliness, but actual godliness; so as not to lie in any sin, either of omission or commission. For any sin is a hole in the bag of our sufferings: if there be a hole in the bag, all your money will run out. Surely if a man lies in any sin, that sin is a hole in the bottom of the bag, and all the profits of his sufferings will run out, though he suffers never so much for Christ, and for Religion. Therefore that's the first thing; be sure that all your sufferings be underlaid with godliness, personal and actual godliness.