A30241:2058
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 84: Of Conformity to Christ in not being of the world, And in his Sufferings.
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.
To open this Let us Consider What it is not to be of the world.1
- 1What it is not to be of the world.
And first, It consists in Doctrine to be believed, Such are not of the world who receive those heavenly Truths that the world cannot reach unto, yea, that it scorneth and derideth: When Peter made that Solemn Confession; That Christ was the Son of the Living God, It was told him. Flesh and blood had not revealed this to him, Mat. 16.16. There is a worldly Religion, worldly Doctrines, such as are suitable to the principles and Interests of the world, and these are readily embraced; The world loveth such Preachers, and such Doctrines, 1 Joh. 4. 4. The Apostle John speaking of the Antichristian Spirit that was coming into the world, saith of such Teachers, They are of the world, therefore the world heareth them, but we are of God, and he that is not of God heareth us not; Therefore there is a remarkable opposition, 1 Cor. 2 12. between the Spirit of the world and the Spirit of God, For by this only we come to know the things that God hath given us. Then therefore are we not of the world when God shall so enlighten our minds by Faith, That we do assuredly believe those Truths God hath revealed in his Word, that neither our corrupt Reasons, nor our Education to the contrary, nor the Opinions of the most men and great men in the world shall make us go contrary, and certainly the Lives of men are so worldly, because their Understanding is so, We receive our Religion ⟨p. 436⟩not as it's revealed of God, but as we can any ways turn it to our corrupt ends.