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A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection
A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection Author:William Law Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: "has filled us with new ends of life, if it has taken possession of our hearts, and altered the whole turn of our minds, if it has changed all our ideas of thing... more »s, given us a new set of hopes and fears, and taught us to live by the realities of an invisible world, then may we humbly hope, that we are true "followers of the holy Jesus, and such as may rcjoite in-tfif day 'of Christ, that we have neither run in rain nor laboured in vain. CHAP. III. Christianity requireth a Renunciation of iha World: and all worldly Tempers. THE Christian religion being to raise a new. spiritual, and as yet invisible world, and to place man in a certain order amongst thrones, principalities, and spiritual beings, is at entire enmity with this present corrupt state of flesh and blood. It ranks the present world along with the flesh and the devil, as an equal enemy to those glorious ends, and that perfection of human nature, which our redemption proposes. It pleased the wisdom of God to indulge the Jews in worldly hopes and fears. It was then said, Therefore snail ye, hep all the commandments, which I command you this day, thai ye may be strong and go in and possess the land, whi- ther you go to possess it. The Gospel is quite of another nature, and is a call to a very different state, it lays its first foundation in the renunciation of the world, as a state of false goods and enjoyments, which feed the vanity and corruption of our nature, fill our hearts with foolish and wicked passions, and keep us separate from God the only happiness of all spirits. My kingdom, saith our blessed Saviour, is not of this world; by which we may be assured that no worldlings are of his kingdom. We have a farther representation of the contrariety that there is betwixt this kingdom and the co...« less