Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	action_n	course_n	great_a	107	3	2.0955	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62591	A sermon preached before the King, April 18th, 1675 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1675 (1675)	Wing T1228; ESTC R6940	11,844	38

change that it will cost us some pangs and throws before we be born again For when nature hath been long bent another way it is not to be expected that it should be reduced and brought back to its first streightness without pain and violence But then it is to be considered that how difficult and painful soever this work be it is necessary and that should over-rule all other considerations whatsoever that if we will not be at this pains and trouble we must one time or other endure far greater than those which we now seek to avoid that it is not so difficult as we imagine but our fears of it are greater than the trouble will prove if we were but once resolved upon the work and seriously engaged in it the greatest part of the trouble were over it is like the fear of children to go into the cold water a faint trial increaseth their fear and apprehension of it but so soon as they have plunged into it the trouble is over and then they wonder why they were so much afraid The main difficulty and unpleasantness is in our first entrance into Religion it presently grows tolerable and soon after easie and after that by degrees so pleasant and delightful that the man would not for all the world return to his former evil state and condition of life We should consider likewise what is the true cause of all this trouble and difficulty 'T is our long continuance in a sinful course that hath made us so loth to leave it 'T is the custom of sinning that renders it so troublesome and uneasie to men to do otherwise 'T is the greatness of our guilt heightned and inflamed by many and repeated provocations that doth so gall our consciences and fill our souls with so much terror 'T is because we have gone so far in an evil way that our retreat is become so difficult and because we have delayed this work so long that we are now so unwilling to go about it and consequently the longer we delay it the trouble and difficulty of a change will encrease daily upon us And all these considerations are so far from being a good reason for more delays that they are a strong argument to the contrary Because the work is difficult now therefore do not make it more so and because your delays have encreased the difficulty of it and will do more and more therefore delay no longer 3. Another pretended encouragement to these delays is the great mercy and patience of God He commonly bears long with sinners and therefore there is no such absolute and urgent necessity of a speedy repentance and reformation of our lives Men have not the face to give this for a reason but yet for all that it lies at the bottom of many mens hearts So Solomon tells us Eccles 8. 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But it is not always thus There are few of us but have seen several instances of Gods severity to sinners and have known several persons surprized by a sudden hand of God and cut off in the very act of sin without having the least respite given them without time or liberty so much as to ask God forgiveness and to consider either what they had done or whither they were a-going And this may be the case of any sinner and is so much the more likely to be thy case because thou dost so boldly presume upon the mercy and patience of God But if it were always thus and thou wert sure to be spared yet awhile longer what can be more unreasonable and disingenuous than to resolve to be evil because God is good and because he suffers so long to sin so much the longer and because he affords thee a space of repentance therefore to delay it and put it off to the last The proper design of Gods goodness is to lead men to repentance and he never intended his patience for an encouragement to men to continue in their sins but for an opportunity and an argument to break them off by repentance These are the pretended reasons and encouragements to men to delay their repentance and the reformation of their lives and you see how groundless and unreasonable they are which was the first thing I propounded to speak to II. I shall add some farther considerations to engage men effectually to set about this work speedily and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undetermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be