No cross, no crown : $b a discourse shewing the nature and discipline of the holy cross of Christ — John Shaqi
No cross, no crown : $b a discourse shewing the nature and discipline of the holy cross of ChristPenn, William
Religion
No cross, no crown : $b a discourse shewing the nature and discipline of the holy cross of Christ
Penn, William
Christian life; Christian life -- Quaker authors; Self-denial -- Early works to 1800
If, Reader, thou art such an one, my counsel to thee is, to retire
into thyself, and take a view of the condition of thy soul; for
Christ hath given thee light with which to do it; search carefully
and thoroughly; thy life is in it; thy soul is at stake. It is
but once to be done; if thou abuse thyself in it, the loss is
irreparable; the world is not price enough to ransom thee: wilt thou
then, for such a world, belate thyself, overstay the time of thy
salvation, and lose thy soul? Thou hast to do, I grant thee, with
great patience; but that also must have an end: therefore provoke
not that God that made thee, to reject thee. Dost thou know what
it is? It is Tophet; it is hell, the eternal anguish of the damned.
Oh! Reader, as one knowing the terrors of the Lord, I persuade thee
to be serious, diligent, and fervent about thy own salvation. Aye,
and as one knowing the comfort, peace, joy, and pleasure of the
ways of righteousness too, I exhort and invite thee to embrace the
reproofs and convictions of Christ's light and spirit in thine own
conscience, and bear the judgment, who hast wrought the sin. The
fire burns but the stubble: the wind blows but the chaff: yield up
the body, soul, and spirit to Him that maketh all things new: new
heavens, and new earth, new love, new joy, new peace, new works,
a new life and conversation. Men are grown corrupt and drossy by
sin, and they must be saved through fire, which purgeth it away:
therefore the word of God is compared to a fire, and the day of
salvation to an oven; and Christ himself to a refiner and purifier
of silver.
Come, Reader, hearken to me awhile; I seek thy salvation; that is
my plot; thou wilt forgive me. A refiner is come near thee, his
grace hath appeared unto thee: it shows thee the world's lusts, and
teaches thee to deny them. Receive his leaven, and it will change
thee: his medicine, and it will cure thee: he is as infallible as
free; without money, and with certainty. A touch of his garment did
it of old: it will do it still: his virtue is the same, it cannot
be exhausted: for in him the fulness dwells; blessed be God for
his sufficiency. He laid help upon him, that he might be mighty
to save all that come to God through him: do thou so, and he will
change thee: aye, thy vile body like unto his glorious body. He is
the great philosopher indeed; the wisdom of God, that turns lead
into gold, vile things into things precious: for he maketh saints
out of sinners, and almost gods of men. What rests to us, then,
that we must do, to be thus witnesses of his power and love? This
is the Crown: but where is the Cross? Where is the bitter cup and
bloody baptism? Come, Reader, be like him; for this transcendant joy
lift up thy head above the world; then thy salvation will draw nigh
indeed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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