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	word_n	2,409	5	4.5217	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30273	Christian commemoration, and imitation of saints departed explicated, and pressed from Heb.13.7. Occasioned by the decease of the Reverend Mr. Henry Hurst, lately minister of the gospel in London. By Daniel Burgess.	Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.	1691 (1691)	Wing B5698; ESTC R224015	41,115	135

Faith and Holiness is the highest that can be in this low world The best Heaven to be had on earth And yet do we want a much better to allure us unto it So dark is the Light that is in us So so have we lost the first Light Purity Vigilance of our Minds and the Rectitude of our Wills Things despicable insinuate themselves into us very easily Their faint color of profit or pleasure invades us with marvellous power Power that ravishes presently the esteem of our Minds and Choice of our Wills The lying vanities that do still deceive us can even compel us and carry us whither we think at least we would not go But objects most amiable in themselves most excellent and unto us most important such as deserve the throne of our hearts alas how darkly do our Minds represent these how coldly do our Wills receive them Till Omnipotence draws us we never run or go or so much as look after them A most humbling consideration We do need bit and bridle to keep us out of Satans crooked way and spurs and goads to make us go in God's strait paths I. 5. The kindness of God to untoward men This if any thing shines in my text and doctrine For in what appeareth God's kindness if not in his methods of calling us to Faith and Holiness Which are so admirably suited unto our weakness So apt to reduce and engage the most extravagant Souls So fitly qualified as hath been before shewed to make pliant the most obstinate in evil and to nail fast the most irresolute in good Motives even such the divine grace presents So it self doth the dread Soveraign of the whole Creation court every worm Vouchsafing not only to Will and Command but to encourage and entice us unto Faith and Obedience So making that if we will swim on in sin unto Damnation it shall be against the stream of grace in its utmost Condescention I. 6. The Benefit of godly Ministers and Friends This doth hence appear great Because not only Living but Dead they are unto us great means of grace As we may profit much by hearing Est aliquid quod à magno viro vel tacente proficias Sen. Ep. 94. and seeing them while they be here we may do the same by Remembring them when they be gone It is our own fault if it does not do us good to think of them It is true we may reap advantage from the thoughts of them who to us were unknown And of whom and of whose Faith and Holiness we have only read or heard They have well deserved from the Church whose Pens have preserved the History of pious Persons for us Abroad Melchior Adam Theod. Beza and others At home our immortal Martyrologist Jo. Fox Mr. S. Clark Dr. Bates Dr. Fuller Dr. Lloyd c. That dunghil Spirits should contemn their sacred Pearl is of no wonder at all But that reputed Merchants for Heaven should grudg them their Money and their Time is sadly strange A Collection of the Characters of many most exemplarily religious is now preparing in this City Surely men of real Religion will pray for its good speed as conceiving it a very apt medium for commending unto us the City that hath better foundations and for animating us to Live to Suffer and to Die for it But it may not be denied and it ought to be considered Great is the power of Acquaintance and Converse Our thoughts have by far the easiest and sweetest access unto them in Heaven that we had most friendship with upon Earth In a word Pearls are but the shining Froth of the Sea as Silver and Gold be but the White and Yellow Dust of the Earth An Holy Friend is an incomparably richer thing and more serviceable I. 7. The Praise of Consideration Which thus here meets us It is by the sacred Writer made the capital means of our excitation unto the things which are our Life Yea of our excitation unto them by the most powerful motive It is by him made as necessary to our being benefited by God's Word as Eating is necessary to our being nourished by Bread For his phrase is to be understood as if the Text had plainly said The blessed End of your holy Predecessors take you into just deep consideration without which it can no more affect you than a Beauty and Treasure can affect one that neither sees nor hears of them Nor any more draw forth your hearts to imitate their Faith than Chains or Cords can draw forth of their places things that they take no hold of Indeed the usefulness of Consideration is self-evident nor need words for information's sake be multiplied All men grant that every good Act is a product of stated Judgment not of a sudden rash Thought and stated Judgment it self is the issue of serious Perpension the ultimate and most perfect Act of our Reason or Thinking faculty But interpretative Contradiction is the rife Plague among us Most men sleep in their gross Inconsideracy and are strangers unto true Contemplation And it is to be feared some are vain and wild enough to expect benign infusions of the Holy Spirit without the required considerations of their own Miserable delusion For He is a spirit of Wisdom that is of wise Thoughts Not a spirit sent to make Fools that is creatures spending no Thoughts or but few and slight ones on the things of their Peace His work is to make wise and to set at rights our Thoughts To wit as to the Objects Qualities Numbers Orders and Ends of them In a word He that eats not necessary Bread is dead naturally and he that considers not necessary Truth is dead spiritually Spare Meals make slender Bodies and slight Meditations make lean Graces Wouldest thou be much edified by thy glorified Friends Examples then contemplate them much Expecting not holy Impulses from a few roving Thoughts Without much musing no holy fire burns Precious Metals and Jewels are produced where the Beams of the Sun are most strongly reflected and there it is that heavenly Affections are kindled where apt Thoughts are most vigorously exercised Now in his Name whose we Are whom we Serve and to whose Tribunal we Hasten I exhort as follows Let not worthy Mr. HURST or any other Servant of Jesus Christ be without a Religious Monument in your Hearts Former Ages have exceeded bounds in commemoration of deceased Friends Papists abide still in their Excesses But abhorring them run you not into a contrary peccant Extream Idolize your Friends in glory you may not honourably and affectionately remember them you must Your duty is to follow their Faith not their Fancies And their holy Walks not their wry Steps They were but Men our fellow-servants and not our Masters Nor are they to be followed by us farther than they followed their and our one Master It shall be Praise now and Glory in the day of your accounts if you consider their Chief End and aim at the

his Love and Power shine with greatest Lustre Remember ●our Sanctifier but forget not his most Sanctified ones I conclude with a saying of one ●cquainted with God above thou●ands He never knew a heavenly ●onversation that pretending to know God alone hath no converse with his ●oly ones that attend Him and doth ●ot live as a Member of their Society ●n the City of God that doth not with ●ome delight behold their Holiness ●nity and Order But as it is time 〈◊〉 proceed to my next Observa●●ion D. 2. The holy Faith and Conversation of godly Ministers and Friends deceased must be considered and followed So the Text in terms most plai● Follow their Faith to wit considere● by you And that Comma cons●dering the end of their Conversation imports evidently a command to follow it For the sake of these wa● the remembrance of their Persons fore required Which without th●● use of their Faith and Conversatio● would be to little purpose B● it considered therefore strictly 1. What this Faith is 2. What this Conversation And 3. What the Reasons for our co●sidering and following both 1. Faith is considered as Objectively taken or Subjectively A the first it is the truth of the Go●pel by them held Viz. 1. Th● Gospel-History of the Primiti●● Friendship between God and Man of the Enmity raised by the first si● between them and of the Reconc●liation made by the Son of God 2. The Gospel Offer and Invitation of Sinners unto Grace and Salvation ●y a New Covenant one of admira●le Promises and most equitable and ●racious Demands 3. The Gospel-Rule and Directory for the Worship ●nd the whole Walk of all embracing ●nd entring that Covenant This History they Credited this Offer ●hey Accepted this Covenant they Entred this Rule they Followed ●ubjectively taken their Faith is that ●race of God in them whereby ●hey so received the Gospel Now ●his grace of Faith is either general ●nd so 't is their Assent and Consent ●nto all God's Revelation as perfect●y true Or special as it relates un●o Christ Jesus the sum of all God's Revelation and so it is their accep●ance of Him in all his Offices as Teacher Saviour Ruler The de●arted Saints we speak of had a Faith which was unto them instead of Possession and Sight One that made things said by God as credible as if they had seen them with their Eyes And things promised by God as comfortable as if they had had them in their hands I would be understood of the Truth only not of the degree of Credibility and Comfort They had also a Faith i● their Hearts which was unto them a Marriage Knot whereby they joyned themselves unto Christ Jesus in everlasting Covenant Resigning themselves to him to be Taught Saved and Ruled Committing themselves to God's saving Mercy lodged in Christ's Hand And submitting themselves to God's governing Authority lodged in the same This Faith of theirs in both acceptations is that which we are to consider and follow Conversation is the way and course of humane life Respectively of all Duties towards our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier towards the Church the World and our Selves And this as under all Circumstances of our various Conditions in our Pilgrimage The way and course of the Saints we speak of was Holy and Exemplary Through their Faith in Christ working by Love purifying their Hearts conquering the World and chasing the Devil they sincerely and perseveringly glorified God They held Communion with the Father Son and Spirit in Faith Hope and Love in Worship and Obedience They loved the Church as Christ's Body served it and sympathized with it as members of it The Unregenerate World they pitied and spent their days in pains and prayers for it's conversion Their Hearts that is Themselves they kept with all diligence preferring always the man above the Brute the Soul above the Body In a word their life was an Exercise of Grace a Warfare against Corruptions and Temptations a putting of their Talents to Usury and merchandizing to and for Heaven All their days were Humiliation-days for their Sins their Own and their Relations and Thanksgiving days for their Mercies and Hopes They walked after the Spirit and not after the Flesh And this their walk is that their Conversation that we are called to eye and to imitate We shall briefly enquire the Reasons for this practice To wit of our considering the Faith and Conversation of our glorified Brethren And of our setting our selves to transcribe both Our own vanity is apt to charge the Divine Wisdom foolishly for commanding it And to ask Unto what purpose is this our cost and pains Being we have the perfect rule of the Gospel and of our Saviour's own transcendent Example St. Austin's word is of great weight WHY God commands any thing I need not trouble my self He will look to that Let me ever look well to WHAT he commands Whether we see them or no there are infinite reasons for every thing God requires But yet when those reasons are obvious their use is rich and various Of the Practice foresaid I shall therefore point out a few such as are most clear and apparent R. 1. This practice unites the upper and lower House of God The Church above and that below It holds together the Members of the Family in Heaven and upon Earth It engageth us to keep eyeing of them As Scholars of the lower Form eye those of the higher whom they must imitate It even necessitateth the Houshold of Faith to hold great conversation with them that live by Sight This is no light reason with such as consider how God stands for his Children's Union and Association Such as hath been forespoken of and therefore shall have no more here said of it R. 2. This Practice doubles our help to the Life of Faith and Holiness The Instructions and Precepts of the Gospel are a blessed Help But not all that we need Who feels it not After that we have heard our Master's best and brightest Doctrines we need our Fellow Servants instructive and motive Examples Which are indeed the most instructive Comments to the understanding of them and most motive Encouragements unto the obeying of them as Experience certifieth By what is here said no disgrace is cast upon the Gospel 'T is meerly from our own dulness that we need superadded Examples And the shame of that want rests singly upon our own Head While in the mean time unto God belongs the glory of the additional Mercy Admirable Mercy For the Gospel shews us but the Duty But the Example of deceased Saints shews also the possibility of living by Faith and in Holiness Because what has been done may certainly be done again We are emboldned to believe we may so live when we consider others to have lived so And let it not startle you if I say this Jesus Christ's own Example is in this one respect a much less encouragement than one of his least and poorest Servants For it doth