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A55491 The character of a formall professor in religion preached in two sermons at St. Chads Church in Salop, Jan. 11, 1661, on 2 Tim. 3, 5 / by Tho. Porter ... Porter, Thomas, d. 1667. 1661 (1661) Wing P2989; ESTC R12187 26,346 43

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THE CHARACTER OF A Formall Professor IN RELIGION Preached in two SERMONS at St. Chads Church in Salop Jan. 11. 1661. On 2 Tim. 3. 5. By Tho. Porter M. A. Minister of the Gospel Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh verse 29 But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Quid prodest veritatem verbis astruere vita destruere Cypr. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the three Daggers in Fleet street 1661. To the Worshipfull and much valued Brother Robert Clive of Stych Esq and to his religious Consort M rs Mary Clive Grace Mercy and Peace in our Lord Iesus premised Custom which in some cases is above Law may perhaps excuse me in this way of Dedication attempting the Patronage of persons of worth and quality and Reason tells me It is pitty to part you being as Zachary and Elizabeth You may say of me as Naomi said to her daughter in Law The man is of near kin to us And I may truly say It is no small piece of my Honour and Happiness to be near of kin to you if not by Consanguinity yet by Affinity and no little part of my comfort to be received into your house as before into your hearts when I was little less then an outcast I know you take no pleasure in your praises published yet Divines for the most part excuse the dumb man cured by Christ for divulging the same seemingly contrary to Christs command On this account I safely may and justly must publish my thankfull acknowledgement for your kind reception of me and mine with many more favours indulged to me I know not how soon I may be called though I lay no stress on my climacterical year drawing nigh to appear before Christs Tribunal I thought good to leave this pledge of my love behind me as Eliah did his mantle that it may lye by you and talk with you when I am dead and gone that you may be able to discern things that differ not taking a pebble for a pearl And the rather because the Heads of these poor Meditations being repeated in your hearing were beyond their desert so well resented by you not without an eager desire of a Transcript of them In hope therefore that your souls and the souls of others also may receive some spiritual benefit and advantage I have exposed these my mean labours to the publick view As you have therefore received Christ Jesus so walk ye in him Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving But to be short I shall turn my Prayses of you into Prayers for you as being more agreeable to my sacred Profession and more acceptable I doubt not to your modest disposition praying God to bless you as he did the house of Obed-Edom for entertaining the Ark of God and praysing God if by this or any other of Gods means I have added or shall be instrumental to add one cubit to your stature which certainly will be the Crown and rejoycing of Your humble Orator and loving Brother Tho. Porter Raptim ex Musaeo Feb. 5. 1661. 2 TIM 3. 5. Having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof THE Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter dischargeth a warning piece to Timothy and to us in him to take notice that corrupt men should arise and were then arising in the bosom of the Church ver 1. which corrupted men are described 1. By the effects that they should work perillous times or troublesome for the hearts of the godly should be troubled either with fear not knowing what counsel to take or course to follow or else with grief for the imminent destruction of pretious and immortal souls 2. By their Characters ver 2 3 4 5. which are nineteen in number this last is not the least a sin more grievous then all the rest in Chrysostoms judgement bringing up the Rere Having a Form A Form Some read Information but this is somewhat harsh and uncooth in our English ears Some deformation not in the sense of a Jesuite Cornel. à-Lapide faith as if they seem to bring in a Reformation and so call themselves of the Reformed Religion when indeed they are of a deformed Religion But this is a meer quibble of a wanton wit with Cyprian Deformation is nothing else but a Delineation Effigiation and Expression Others generally read it a shew and shadow an Image and conterferfeit Godliness Some read it Reverence of God and indeed many things are cryed up under the notion of Reverence which are neither so nor so Some of Religion and Piety and Devotion as Acts 10. 2 17. 22. 12. a devout man But denying Or having denyed as it is in the Greek and so translated in the Geneva Bible i. e. they are resolved to deny the power of Religion and yet take on them the form Power Or vertue and truth For the truth of a thing is discerned by its powerfull operation Thereof Which may relate in the original either to the Form or to Godliness as if they had denyed either Godliness or the Form of godliness It may be indeed referred to both but I conceive it to Godliness rather DOCTRINE There are some that have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof This will be cleared and confirmed by answering these ensuing Questions 1. What Godliness is 1. Negatively 1. Not a natural inclination to that which is naturally good by constitution as a man of a sanguine constitution is not so subject to sadness but cheerfulness For though in one sense we are very prone to all evil and backward to all good Gen. 6. 5. with Rom. 11. 29. yet in another sense we may be truly said to be naturally prone to some good Mat. 19. 12. There are some Eunuchs so which are born from their mothers womb i e. of a frigid constitution of body and so unapt for generation and therefore enabled to live unmarried 2. Nor a meer moral qualification acquired by acts and industry as temperance patience meekness justice c. It was said of Cato if I mistake not that it was as possible to pull the Sun out of its Orb as Cato from the course of Justice Thus Mat. 19. 12. Some made themselves Eunuchs not in Origens sense who understanding other Scriptures Allegorically yet to his smart and shame understood this literally but in Pauls sence 1 Cor 9. 27. who by moderate dyet prayer and fasting did attain the gift of continency As there is a moral integrity asserted by Abimelech an Heathen Prince Gen. 20. 5. and approved by God v. 6. so there is a spiritual integrity which Job was resolved to