Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A97266
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Self-examination with the likeliest means of conversion and salvation, or, haypy [sic] and welcome advice, if it meets with a soul ingenious : the which being thought (by many) worth the transcribing, at no small charge, is now published for the good of all / by R. Junius.
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Younge, Richard.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing Y181A; ESTC R43839
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23,147
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32
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through the deceiveable lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.22 23 24. and then Christ and all his benefits and promises will belong unto you but not before In the mean time you are in your blood Ezek. 16.6 and have to answer not onely for your Original guilt but for every thought word and action of yours from your infancy Matth. 9.12 13 Luk. 1.53 Gal. 5.1 to 7. enough to make you bethink your selves And so much of Civil and Moral men CHAP. IX SEcondly there are others and not a few that seem and profess themselves real Christians when if they were well examined and discovered as Jephta once discovered and distinguished who were Ephramites and who Gileadites by their pronouncing the word Shibboleth Judg. 12.6 It would be found that the most of these also are no more like Christians than Michaels Image of goats hair was like David Many have a form of godliness while they deny the power of it yea there are too many titular Christians who stand more upon the outward appearance of godliness than the inward essence Such as seem and are not say and do not profess and practise not Others there are who be not onely great talkers of Religion but great frequenters of holy exercises yet altogether neglect to practice the same Ezek. 33.31 That like sick stomacks much do swallow down but little do disgest that go to Church onely to be seen there and out of self-ends that it may the more inhaunse their gain increase their custom or to get credit and esteem thereby Nor do they always miss of their aim for for outward shew they come short of none Neither is there any duty done by a Christian but an Hypocrite may outstrip him in it Who may be resembled to that unwelcome guest the wind for as the wind will counterfeit any disease of the body whether it be the stone gowt and the like So these outside and formal Christians will counterfeit every grace of the soul as faith zeal and the like Yea to the eye of the world they resemble Moscovia-glass which though it be of little worth is as clear as Christal as transparant as air yea the Hypocrite may not onely pass for a true Christian as did Judas Annanias and Saphira Nicholas the Deacon c. but they will seem to outstrip them in goodness as snow does salt and sugar in whiteness And well they may when their principle care is onely to hide their defects as Julius Caesar wore a garland of Bays onely to hide his baldness Nor can you blame their discretion therein whatever you do their honesty For Each cunning sin being clad in virtues shape Flies much reproof and many storms doth scape These have form of godliness but are the worse for it For in that they draw neer to God with their mouths and honour him with their lips when their hearts are far from him they are stiled Hypocrites both by Isaiah chap. 29.13 and our Saviour Mat. 15.7 8. as well they deserve it But there are yet far worse than these yea too many who may be called white Devils even such as make Religion a stalking horse to villany or a cloak to cosen the world unseen Such as shrowd an Egyptian heart under the habit of an Israelite whose life and profession is a continual incongruity and whose works are antipodes to their words Their profession being honey while their practice is poyson Even such as speak like Angels live like Devils have Jacobs voyce Esaus hands That like Ethiopians are white in teeth onely every way else coal black being Christians in skin Atheists at core Judas you know was openly a Disciple but secretly a Devil The Scribes and Pharisees were fair Professors foul sinners for they devoured widows houses under a colour of long prayers Matth. 33.14 28. Which grosser sort of Hypocrites may be resembled to some wicked Ale-house that hath Fear God Be sober Watch and Pray painted upon the walls when there is nothing but swearing and drunkenness in the same To a filthy Strumpet with a painted face To the Serpent Requius that hath scales as glorious as the Sun but breath as infectious as the Aconite Or to the Devil in Samuels likeness But let these take heed for as dissembled piety is double iniquity so their plagues shall be double in that they most wofully shame Religion by professing it and make the way of truth evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2.2 Yea as of old the people abhorred the service of God and became despisers of his worship because those prophane sons of Eli were so wicked and scandalous 1 Sam. 2.17 so do these Yea thou Hypocrite thou white Devil thy ill life single puls down more than many good tongues can build up CHAP. X. I Grant there are of them so like Christians as to the external parts of Christianity that it is no easie matter to convince them that they are not really such for they have been baptized live unreprovably pay their dues pray in their families are charitable chaste temporate hear the best Ministers repeat Sermons instruct their children and servants with many the like therefore they must needs be good and real Christians To which I answer All this they may do and yet be but almost Christians For as a child of God by looking more upon his sins then his graces more upon his failings then his faith more upon in-dwelling lusts then renewing grace may think his condition very bad when it is very good So the sinner by looking more upon his duties then his sins may think his condition very good and yet be in a wicked estate And the reason is Many mistake common grace for saving grace through the resemblance that is between them As many take counterfeit mony for current coin And as Saul took the Devil for Samuel because he appeared in Samuels likeness So many take common gifts for saving graces because of the resemblance And this is the common Rock that so many souls split upon to their eternal hazard They take up a form of godliness but deny the power thereof And as many might have been wise had they not so thought themselves so many a formal Professor might have been a sincere Believer had he not mistook his Profession for Conversion his Duties for Graces and so rested in that for Sincerity which is indeed but Hypocrisie A man may be like or almost a Christian and yet not be a Christian A man may come neer to the Kingdom of Heaven and yet be ne're the neer Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven said our Saviour to the young man Mark 12.34 There is an external and an internal worship of God There may be the likeness of grace without the life of grace There is no grace but an Hypocrite may have somewhat like it and there is no duty done by a
Christian but an Hypocrite may do somewhat like it A man may attain to many gifts and seeming graces and make a great progress in Religion yea he may do all as to external duties and worship that a true Christian can do and yet be but almost a Christian As observe what God saith Isai 58. of that people They seek me daily They delight to know my way as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Justice They take delight in approaching to God vers 2. yea in the next verse They were a people much in fasting and afflicting their souls Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest it not And yet for all this they were no better then a generation of Hypocrites as you may finde if you read the Chapter Some neither hear nor do as prophane sinners some both hear and do as true Believers some hear but do not as hypocritical Professors A man may believe all the truths of the Gospel all the promises all the threatnings all the Articles of the Creed to be true and yet perish for want of saving faith A man may be converted from a course of prophaneness to a form of godliness from a filthy conversation to a fair profession and yet be but almost a Christian A man may be outwardly reformed and yet not savingly renewed c. CHAP. XI BUt would you know who are indeed Christians as Saint Paul was and who but almost Christians as Agrippa was Or rather wouldst thou rightly know the sincerity of thine own heart of thy profession of thy Religion which as one would think should be the earnest desire of every ingenious soul then ask thy conscience these questions Art thou sensible how evil and wicked thou art Dost thou seriously lay to heart first the corruption of thy nature by reason of Original sin secondly thy manifold breach of Gods righteous Law by actual sinne thirdly the guilt and punishment due to thee for them both And in case thou art truly sensible of thy wretchednesse it is a good sign that thou art in some forwardnesse to be recovered And indeed the very first step to grace is to feel the want of grace and the necessity of a Redeemer And the next way to receive mercy is to see your self miserable Dost thou find that the Word and Spirit hath wrought an apparent change in thy judgment affections and actions to what they were formerly is Christ thy greatest joy sin thy greatest sorrow and grace the prime object of thy desires Art thou as conscientious alone and in private where God onely sees thee as if thy greatest enemy or all the World did behold thee Dost thou make conscience of evil thoughts grieve for thy unprofitableness under the means of grace for the evil which cleaves to thy very best actions and for sins of Omission Whatever thou enjoyest on this side Hell dost thou think thy self unworthy of it Dost thou more fear the want of grace then confide in what thou hast Dost thou endeavour to leave every sin and make conscience of every duty Dost thou make Gods glory the chief end of all thy actions and aims Dost thou desire the conversion of others Then my soul for thine thou art more then almost a Christian Again the love of grace in another is a good proof of the life of grace in our selves a child of God cannot love a sinner as a sinner Psal 15.4 Prov. 29.27 So a sinner cannot love a child of God as a child of God Briefly when a mans heart is throwly renewed by grace his mind savingly enlightned his conscience throwly convinced the will truly humbled and subdued the affections spiritually raised and sanctified and when mind and will and conscience and affections all join issue to help on with performance of duties commanded then is a man altogether a Christian But contrarily he that takes up with a form of Godliness hating or denying the power thereof is an Hypocrite ipso facto And let men take heed of that sin with two faces and whose reward is the deepest place in Hell as appears by Matth. 23. And the rather for that wickedness does most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled Besides the scab of Hypocrisie does not seldom break out into the plague sore of Apostacy Julian the Apostate was first Julian the Professor To conclude if thou findest not these notes of sincerity in thy self let it be the earnest desire of thy soul and thy principal endeavour to obtain the same Otherwise woe unto thee For outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice does but help to draw on and aggravate judgment The Scribes and Pharisees had not heard of so many woes but for their glorious pretences and had the Figtree in the Gospel been utterly bare and leafless it had in all probability escaped the curse Thus mistake through ignorance is one great cause of many mens falling short of their hopes and of their being but almost Christians while they think themselves Christians indeed CHAP. XII BUt Secondly Pride is another cause We are so proud by nature that we have an eye to see our beauty but not our deformity our parts but not our spots our seeming righteousness but not our real-naughtiness our spiritual wretchedness We have all for the most part a self righteousness Every man says Luther is born with a Pope in his belly But it must be the work of grace onely that will make us see our extream vileness and that will make us acceptable to God and it must be the work of grace that must shew a man his want of grace It is the Believers Motto The least of Saints the greatest of Sinners But the Carnal mans Motto is I thank God I am not as other men Eph. 3.8 1 Tim. 1.15 Luke 18.11 But the onely way to become good is first to believe that we are evil Thirdly Another cause is Laziness and the love of the World Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian says Agrippa to Paul but he could not find in his heart to become one altogether for then he must live a more strict life and relinquish the worlds wicked customs So Balaam could be willing to die the death of the righteous but to part with his covetousness and live the life of the righteous he could not finde in his heart And therefore Christ profited him nothing Hell is to be had with ease but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Matth. 11.12 Many shall seek to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but shall not be able because they did not strive Luke 13.24 Yea many run well in the way of Christianity for a while but they do not hold out Gal. 5.7 But perseverance is the crown of all grace and Heaven the crown of perseverance It is said of the truly righteous he shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 And it