A51846:181
A second volume of sermons preached by the late reverend and learned Thomas Manton…
A second volume of sermons preached by the late reverend and learned Thomas Manton in two parts : the first containing XXVII sermons on the twenty fifth chapter of St. Matthew, XLV on the seventeenth chapter of St. John, and XXIV on the sixth chapter of the Epistle of the Romans : Part II, containing XLV sermons on the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and XL on the fifth chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians : with alphabetical tables to each chapter, of the principal matters therein contained.
London: printed by J. Astwood for Jonathan Robinson, 1684
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.
3. Conversing with Spiritual Sluggards, that count it an high piece of wisdom not to be too forward. Irreligious Company and Example is a great matter; and hath a mighty force upon us: And though it doth not begin sin in the Soul, it doth increase it, Isa. 6.6. Sin is by propagation, not by Imitation; but yet the contagion of Example is a great advantage to Corruption. To be among warm, heavenly, mortified, self-denying Christians, is a great advantage in the spiritual life: There is a notable provocation and excitement in their example. Saul among the Prophets had his Raptures, 1 Sam. 10.10. Heb. 10.24. Let us provoke one another to Love and good Works. This begets a holy Emulation who shall excel; but carnal Company is a deadening thing. We are more susceptible of evil than good; we catch a disease from one another, but we do not get health one from another. By touching the unclean, they became unclean; but he that was unclean, was not purified by touching the clean. The Conversations of the wicked have more power to corrupt, than the good to provoke and excite to virtue. A man that would keep himself awake unto God, and mind the saving of his Soul, must shake off evil Company, Psal. 119.115. Depart from me ye evil doers, for I will keep the Commandments of my God. And by evil Company I mean not only the Profane, who bespeak their own hatred and detestation by their apparent odiousness; but the loose and careless. As we are to take heed that we be not allured to that which is evil, so that we be not deadened to that which is good. Neglect of God will keep us out of Heaven as well as Profaneness. We easily leaven one another with deadness and formality; frequent Society with dead hearted persons breedeth it; such whose conference is empty and unsavoury, and altogether of worldly things. Certainly our dullness and backwardness is such, that we need the most powerful helps.
3. Conversing with Spiritual Sluggards, that count it an high piece of wisdom not to be too forward. Irreligious Company and Example is a great matter; and hath a mighty force upon us: And though it doth not begin sin in the Soul, it doth increase it,