A86531:391
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. / Delivered in several sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. / Delivered in severall sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.
London: printed by G.D. for Francis Eglesfield, 1651
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.
In the last place there come in also another sort to be reproved, and these are such as can be content to give the Lord the hearing, but will doc nothing when it should come ⟨p. 141⟩to performance. Howsoever happily they will approve and applaud that which the Minister delivers to them from God, yet in the conclusion, if their ease, and honours, and liberties lie at hazard, they fail in matter of practise; they will doc nothing, they dare doc nothing further then they are advised unto by those Counsellors that keep a kind of audit in their hearts; and what sentence they deliver shall be yielded unto and no more.
In the last place there come in also another sort to be reproved, and these are such as can be content to give the Lord the hearing, but will doc nothing when it should come ⟨p. 141⟩to performance. Howsoever happily they will approve and applaud that which the Minister delivers to them from God, yet in the conclusion, if their ease, and honours, and liberties lie at hazard, they fail in matter of practise; they will doc nothing, they dare doc nothing further then they are advised unto by those Counsellors that keep a kinde of audit in their hearts; and what sentence they deliver shall be yeelded unto and no more.
To instance a little: The world knoweth that it is the will of God that every man should deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Christ, that a man should hate father and mother, and wife, and children, and friends, and all, for his sake, and the Gospels, that a man should renounce all those courses of sin that carry with them the most appearance of profit and pleasure, that he should pluck out his right eye, and cut off his right hand: These are truths that are clearly discovered in the Word of God, and every soul that is rightly informed yields unto them; and men in the world are acquainted with them, hearing them pressed from day to day in the preaching of the Word: And so also that it is the will of God that men should be pure as God is pure, and be holy as he is holy in all manner of conversation; that they should abstain from all appearance of evil: this the Lord requireth, and this men commend and approve of. But now come to matter of practise: If a duty be required that will cross their ease, or their honours, or in the least measure diminish their outward comforts: Mark what followeth, then they are at a demur; they will stay there, and think twice of it before they will do any thing; they must first take counsel, and be well advised of it. And what counsel doc they take? Not from the Lord and his word, but from their pleasures and profits, and carnal delights and contentments. The ambitious man asketh his honour, Shall I be sincere and zealous in the cause of God? The covetous man asketh his wealth, Shall I be exact in a Christian course? Shall I lose this gain or that advantage, for the keeping of a good conscience? The voluptuous man asketh his pleasure, Shall I abstain from the appearance