Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	act_n	faith_n	grace_n	2,836	5	5.7519	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23710	A discourse concerning the beauty of holiness by the author of The duty of man, laid down in express words of Scripture.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1679 (1679)	Wing A1109; ESTC R22680	56,782	148

let us not even under these sad circumstances charge God foolishly or be impatient under the severity of his correction for this is no argument of the hatred of a Father Let us rather in this case view the unspeakable reward and the divine promises which are sufficient arguments to revive our fainting and most languishing hopes and able to form our souls to true patience Philosophers if ever they attained to a perfection in any vertue it was in their patience under the instability of worldly things and yet their grounds and motives to patience were sandy and ineffectual and no ways comparable to the arguments habit and custome while this is the very thing that enhances their guilt neither will it I think a whit lessen the crime that Great persons have given it such a vogue in the world The Name of God is a sacred thing which must not be appealed to but in the most weighty and serious cases Thou shalt swear says the Prophet that the Lord liveth in truth justice and judgement If we either affirm or promise any thing by oath it must be after mature deliberation after we have ascertained our selves of the truth and lawfulness of it this the very Poet could dictate Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit It were to be wished that the Hectors of this age would learn of the very Heathens more reverence and that those men that pretend to good breeding would be so civil even sometimes for the companies sake as to forbear those Oaths that tender ears cannot hear without offence In the last place the divine Love if scattered in our Hearts will excite us to worship God after the method himself hath prescribed It will direct us to the rule of Piety where we shall finde every thing that relates to our immediate intercourse with God in divine Ordinances and Worship exactly ordered I confess the Heathen-world as they were confused in their notions of a Deity and almost quite ignorant of the eternal reward so were they superstitious in their Worship and sometimes ignorantly erected Altars to an unknown God Their Worship was attended with a great deal of external pomp was very grateful to their external senses but it reached not the Heart But the Christian rule instructs us to worship God in Spirit and prescribes the best method of devotion It requires that We worship and bow before the Lord our maker with all possible humility and reverence that we possess our Hearts with the greatness and glory of that Majesty we adore that we be intent in our devotion and not suffer secular concerns to intrude and interrupt us that we act faith upon him and believe that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him and that we approach the throne of grace in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If Devotion were not a duty yet methinks the advantages thereof should invite and that which finally excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing that pollutes can enter 2 Cor. 6.9 Rev. 21.27 'T is indeed not wonder though the Religion of the Gentiles which contained a prodigious mixture of vanity and impiety gratified the inclinations of uncleanness for if we consult their writings we shall observe that the most abominable vice wanted not a Deity to patronize it amongst them which upon the matter was an establishing iniquity by Law and an argument more sufficient to encourage than to correct vice And although the Writings of some Philosophers have been more refined yet the Lives even of such were full of the foulest actions Nay the rules which the best Masters of Morality amongst them prescribed never reached to the purifying of the Heart I confess that man that shall take notice and who having eyes in his head can evite this when men proclaim their sin like Sodom of the prodigious uncleanness this prophane age has arrived at shall be strongly tempted to suspect the purity of the Christian Rule if he make no farther enquiry than to the practices of most that are called Christians We may indeed very aptly write to the professors of this age as the great Apostle did to the Church of Corinth It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.1 And I am a little afraid if the Church should strictly observe that charge that the Apostle gives there and excommunicate all such wicked persons that our Church should not need to brag much of the number of Christians 'T is indeed matter of great sadness to consider how much the Christian Religion has suffered upon the account of the scandalous practices of Titular Christians and I make no doubt but this age has been at more pains than any that precedes it to increase the scandal but sure 't is but a silly artifice to challenge the exactness of the Rule and with Celsus impudently alleage that the Christian Religion encourageth men to the practice of immorality and vice since of all Religions the Christian onely can produce the strictest Laws against all filthiness of flesh and spirit 'T is a Doctrine as blessed Apostle tells us according to godliness and lays undispensible obligations upon its followers both to think upon and to do dearing a quality and so noble an embelishment of our nature that where this is wanting all other advantages are little regarded and not onely men but the great God also resists the proud it being a vice which besides Christianity Morality also-condemns as universally unbecoming to Humane nature and that which not onely disturbs ones self but also disquiets whole societies But God gives grace to the humble he takes such persons into favour as being more pliable to receive the impress of his love And as a humble so also a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price And can there be a more convincing motive than this to recommend meekness to Christians And indeed we cannot pretend to be the Disciples of holy Jesus if we refuse to learn that lesson he hath copied out to us Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Although a calm and quiet spirit is a reward to it self as every vertue is yet it wants not a claim to a temporal felicity also Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth These be the persons to whom by right of promise this stately Fabrick of earth belongs And if we now view that unpleasant vice of Anger opposite to it this will yet adde more to its lustre and help to recommend it the more effectually Anger being such an unpleasant humour that it makes those men it possesses unfit for humane society it being not unfitly defined by the Poet to be a short madness which indeed agrees very well with the Wise mans verdict of it Eccl. Anger rests in the bosom of fools If then men would but compare the calm

Godliness is great gain having the promises of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come And indeed any man who considers the nature and reason of the thing cannot but be inclined to think it must be so For how can that man be exposed to trouble and disquietment who hath gotten the mastery over his Passions And I dare appeal to the sinners own experience whether vices have not been prejudicial to his health macerated his Body and filled him with tortures and pains whether some sins have not brought him to poverty and disgrace ruined both his estate and fame Can any man produce any good effect that ever sin caused sure if men would speak impartially they should acknowledge all this to be true That there is a great deal of more pleasure in the ways of Holiness than in the commission of sin which is the fourth thing proposed to be considered needs not puzzle any man to prove it How delightful are all acts of Piety and Vertue how unexpressible is that comfort that the devout Soul findes in conversing with God Well might the Psalmist say Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal. 97.11 he often experienced that sweetness and satisfaction that is the result of obedience whileas Solomon who could pass the best verdict of sensual pleasures yet concludes them to be but vanity and vexation of spirit There be two things that allay the pleasures of sin First the unruliness of immoderate passions which fret and vex the mindes of men and hinder the sinner from tasting its pleasure Secondly the fear of an invisible being armed to punish them for their misdemeanors Conscience upon the apprehension of guilt recoils upon the sinner and mars all the pleasure he promised himself to enjoy This made Belshazzer a King and environed with his Nobles tremble and quake in the midst of his cups But supposing vices did bring as much pleasure along with them as they pretend yet upon two accounts they are not half so delicious as the pleasure that spring from a good life First the pleasures of sin are so interrupted of a short duration or as the Apostle expresseth them they are but for a season how quickly will a period be put to all these pleasures which now make so much noise They are very fitly compared by Solomon to the crackling of thorns under a pot which are scarce sooner in a blaze than they vanish but the joys that spring from a good conversation are at their lowest ebb here they do indeed continue for no man taketh away this joy but Heaven is the designed place for the good Soul to feed upon those Rivers of pleasures that are at God's right hand for evermore Secondly sensual pleasures do soon cloy mens appetites we cannot enjoy long any sensual delight but we are quickly weary of it but it is not so with spiritual delights 't is onely the absence of them when suspended for our sins that troubles and molests us 'T is impossible that sensual pleasures can satisfie the soul of man which was never framed for a Mahometan Paradise nor can it be rationally expected that he who is conscious to himself of guilt should be free from fear which being so tormenting can never permit men to enjoy pleasure freely But let us descend to sensual pleasures and we shall finde that he who is temperate and moderate is more likely to relish the pleasantness of Meat Drink and Pastime than the intemperate and immoderate He who relieves the Poor and refresheth the Needy cannot but finde more real sweetness and satisfaction in doing so than he who drinks away his Estate He who speaks the truth findes not those tormenting checks of Conscience which are the just reward of lying But all this will more plainly appear by the Solution of the next Objection The second Imputation is brought from Experience namely that wicked men are for ordinary very jovial and cheerful and enjoy a great deal of satisfaction in their ways whereas men who pretend to Piety and Holiness are very sad and disconsolate To this I answer That the Question is not whether wicked men have some pleasure in their sins or not but whether that pleasure that ariseth from a good life be not infinitely preferable to these Alas the most promising sensual pleasure supposing it to be lawful is much inferiour to the satisfaction and comfort that springs from a good Conscience How much more inconsiderable must sinful pleasures be which are attended with so black and dismal consequences Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil Sinful pleasures are at the best but short and sure this consideration contributes very much to lessen their value But that which makes them so mean and not worth the enjoying is the painful Eternity that succeeds to them However then the wicked may appear jovial and merry yet their inward thoughts if we could discover them cannot be at quiet and ease Whatever pleasure they may reap in the present act yet they cannot afterwards look unto themselves without horrour and amazement The after-stings of sin are so painful that he buys those present pleasures at a rate no reasonable man would purchase them But that wicked men cannot really enjoy that pleasure and contentment they pretend to seems very plain from Reason For first How can any man be satisfied with those actions which are so cross to his very nature and opposite to Reason as every sin is Can a man finde pleasure in doing that which he knows he ought not to do sure the reboundings of Conscience upon the apprehension of doing amiss will soon rase out any pleasure that sin affords and a sick man may more rationally expect rest than those men pleasure and contentment Secondly it can afford little pleasure to men to act quite contrary to their own interests it is rather like the laughter of fools and mad men than a real pleasure that such men can pretend to Now every sinner quite ruines his interest and happiness while he runneth headlong to destruction and for a present pleasure which is onely grateful to the sensual appetite loseth those lasting Rivers of pleasure which though future are yet certain and which are calculated for the Soul Thirdly What pleasure can any man enjoy who is sure to be eternally tormented As there is no peace so no pleasure to the wicked who are at oddes with God whose favour is better than life But what reason have good men to be sad and disconsolate since all the causes of grief are removed from them Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart so that the Apostle had good reason to double that Exhortation Rejoyce in the Lord again I say rejoyce O how satisfying and pleasant is it for men to act reasonably and to be assured that they have done their duty and have acted for their own