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	hear_v	word_n	2,461	5	4.5030	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51261	An addition to the Clavis aurea with an enquiry upon what terms the salvation of man doth depend; whether entirely on faith or entirely on works, or whether entirely on grace or free-gift. By Thomas Moor, author of the Clavis aurea, living in St. Thomas's in Southwark.; Clavis aurea. Addition.	Moor, Thomas, fl. 1695-1697.	1696 (1696)	Wing M2608AA; ESTC R216354	26,490	32

Glory I shall not enquire but I am satisfied there will be no Envy nor Out-vying shall our Eye be Evil because he is good Mat. 20. 15. Tho the last Labourer in the Vineyard came at the last Hour received also a Penny equal with the others that had endured the Labour of the Day Cannot God do what he will with his own We have enough and he that endured the Labour of the Day hath this Advantage that he cannot but prize his Penny the more which is the greater Happiness since also his Experience will give him this Estimation of his Penny to all Eternity above the other who will want that Estimation of his Penny as having not so much laboured for it But some are for some Punishment after this Life which I know not but since there is no Free-will it caunot be more than we are able to bear and that for the better Estimation of future Joys In Page 26. of the Clavis Aurea I discourse of a perfect Free-will to which I refer you and this I must add to it that as by a Penny we know how a Shilling is coined so by a Shilling we know how a Penny is coined from the greater Then if the first Cause were ceas'd to be we can't imagine we could live move or have any being whereby we may as easily believe that we may have a Power given us to create our selves as govern our selves since in both there must be a Seperation between the Cause and the Effect which is the utmost Satisfaction in this Free-will Neither is a Talent given or rather mov'd in all alike for one is subject to Love another to Hatred one to Fornication another to Chastity another is an Unbeliever to another Faith is given and the like throughout all Vertue and Vice And let two contrary Livers exchange Lives if they can and let him that hath some prevalent Sin conquer it and then Experience will soon open your Eyes in Free-will And when all is done you cannot pretend to a perfect Free-will or to be saved by your Free-will since by the Works of the Law no Flesh shall be justified because he cannot keep it in every point We must then search out upon what Terms our Salvation doth depend and that 's the Free-will we must enquire into no other Free-will we can pretend to will do us any kindness I am now come to see whether we have a particular Free-will in those Terms our Satisfaction of Salvation doth depend and since it doth not depend on the Works of the Law because we cannot pretend to keep them perfectly we must be saved by Faith alone which saving Faith I have before laid down in plain Proofs from Scripture The Jews had so little Free-will in this Faith that some had no desire to look after it and some that did look after it could not obtain it and others as the Gentiles that sought not after it obtained it And what Prerogative we can pretend to above these I leave to your own Experience And so I shall draw to a Conclusion thus When we depend on Works by the way of freewill we then depend on our own Righteousness and so like Peter we may fall into a Ditch or deny Christ or some other Danger But when we look upon Works or Goodness as freely given us we not in the least deserving or having a Power but what is given to endeavour for them whereby we look upon our selves as nothing and that these Works are not meritorious but only the Blood of Christ then we depend clearly and only on the Rightousness of Christ or his Blood This is safe and throughout the Scriptures those that had the Power given them to trust in God he led them in his ways tho not to be so perfect here on Earth as not to commit Sin yet they were perfect in a Gospel Perfection or in Love which casteth out Fear 1 Joh. 4. 17 18. and so would not commit Sin if they could help it in which Love was the fullfilling of the Law in Christ And it was said to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian Jer. 39. 18. Thy Life shall be for a Prey unto thee because thou hast put thy trust in me Love to God and Love to our Neighbour is the fullfilling of the whole Law in Christ and so is a Foundation of Good Works and the End of Religion Love thinketh no evil to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13 8 9 10. Love is the Price of Love and he must needs love us first if we have this Love and this Love being obtained which cannot be but by this Doctrine or an Infusion of the Holy Gost rapturing the Spirit with such Sweetness beyond the Conception of Man before a tryal of it transporting the Soul beyond all Fear tho the Scriptures lie hid from him we can have no better Satisfaction of our Salvation which Salvation unknown to us hath been lock'd up in the secret Decrees of a tender and loving Father who for pleasant things hath given us profitable things that we may prize by a Contrariety or Sufferings of this World his Love in the World to come whose inconceivable Raptures But what am I going to say I can only take my Leave of you and wish you all both my Friends and Enemies an eternal Experience of them or his Love which passeth all understanding in the highest Heavens even in Mount Sion amongst the innumerable and glorious Company of Saints and Angels Amen FINIS POSTSCRIPT I Think to take my final leave of the Clergy which is what they expect that my writings might dye but first I hold it convenient to examine their works and find out the Reasons they do not answer me Mr. Pelling Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty in his practical discourse upon God's Love Pag. 19 20. Indeed saith he 't is said that God giveth some a Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they should not Hear but these and the like Expressions though at the first hearing they Sound harsh yet they do not relate to any antecedent decree or desire or work of God but are only accidentally by the just Judgment of God upon obstinate People who harden themselves so that in the end God gives them up to themselves so that they become stupid blind and deaf but the Original of this is their own wilful remper and sinful Courses whereby their Hearts wax gross and their Ears become dull of hearing and their Eyes they close themselves by repe●ted acts of their own as if they were affraid left at any time they should see with their Eyes and understand with their Hearts and should be converted and heal'd Mr. Pelling is now living and these are his words Verbatim Pray what repeated acts of Sin did Israel commit before they were born For this Israel that were then blinded in Paul's days were ordain'd so to be before the Seventy Years Captivity Isa 6.

9. as 't is there writ Go and tell this People hear ye indeed but understand not c. Shut their eyes lest they see c. And be converted and heal'd And this very Text by Paul in Acts 28. 25 26. is apply'd to the Jews that discours'd him at Rome and could not believe him Besides Paul testified that those which had not Knowledg had a Zeal to God Rom. 10. 2. What greater repeated Acts of Sin would such People commit that would endeavour from that Zeal to do any thing for the best Which blindness is to continue till the Fulness of the Gentiles be come in whereby Millions are born to dye in Unbelief So that this Unbelief was not upon Israel for any Sins they had committed but that the Gentiles might be grafted in In that it s said their Eyes have they closed it 's also said Pharoah hardned his Heart Exd. 9. 34. But can it be proved that Pharaoh could avoid at that time hardning his Heart and let Israel go see 30. 1. or that the Jews could open their Eyes and believe But this being a Knot that was not yet untied I will say thus far to it When God moves in Man to do Evil he moves it in him by a second cause as by the Devil and Lust and so he saith he doth not tempt any Man to Evil as the second Cause but every Man is drawn away by his own Lust But who created Lust in Man But throughout the Scripture as Mr. Everard notes in his Divine Exorcisms what the Devil doth God owns to do himself Did the Devil saith he harden Pharaoh's Heart God saith I have hardned Pharaoh's Heart and so he proceeds So that God as the first Cause hardned Pharaoh's Heart and he owns it and the Devil as the second Cause yet Pharaoh hardned his own Heart as 't is said because his reason was excercised with unavoidable false Reasonings mov'd in him by other Causes which was an Act of the Mind as the unavoidable Crucifixion of Christ was an Act of the Hand as thus Why should I let Israel go Who is the Lord Do not the Magicians do Miracles as well as Moses even so did Israel unavoidably close their Eyes and unavoidably crucify Christ which was an act of the Hand and yet for it are term'd Murderers Acts 7. 52. yet 't was determined they could not help it for doth not Christ say I lay down my own Life no Man taketh it from me I lay it down my self John 10. 17 18. By this its clear that the first Cause moves the second Cause and the second the third c. as mechanically the Spring moves the Wheels the Wheels the Pin And so Scripture Reason and Experience concur But how then Man can be said to be either Good or Evil and be the Subject of Punishment and Reward see my Addition Page 21. Bishop Stillingfleet hath writ no Treatise concerning Predestination which if he had I would have examin'd his Works but he is but a moral Writer as the rest are Morality is not Divinity or Predestination Mr. Vincent in his Conversion of the Soul P. 111. saith One Sin loved and liv'd in is enough to prove one unconverted and will be sufficient to destroy And Mr. Mead in his Early Obedience P. 282. saith from the 1 Cor. 6. and Rev. 21. that no Adulterers Thieves Coveteous Drunkards Fearful Vnbelievers Murderers Lyars And he beseeches us to consider if any of these Sins be chargeable upon us we are actually shut out from any Claim in Christ had either of these Moralists as for predostination they understand not in either of these Books said that God accepts the will for the deed I should not have taken their Words in such a despairing and strickt Sense they would do well to examin their own Charity by my definition of a Saving Faith whether they are not Unbelievers and Coveteous Proud and Passionate or at least guilty of some one Sin or another which if they be they condemn themselves as far as I perceive by their own Arguments or or at least there 's little Satisfaction in such obscure writing nor incouragment to do Good For where is difficulty in Work and hard to please whereby we are uncertain of any desert or wages I say there 's little incouragment to serve In all Divinity Books but what I have writ I find no Standard to try their Arguments by nor any true if any definition of Faith whereby there 's no Satisfaction in them But to those that esteem their Moralists which they call Divines Infallible let them consider that they disown Infallibility themselves and they were Princes great and learned Men that made great Figures in the World crucified Christ and persecuted the Apostles And to those that say the Scriptures are easy to be understood in matters of Salvation I deny it because there 's scarce a Command but is ordained to be broken See my Addition And pag. 20. as there are contrary Religions one to another yet every Religion brings Scripture to prove his own And to those who say I wrest the Scriptures I cannot do it but the Moralists wrests them taking only what is Commanded whereby they get Riches but do not meddle with much less unite the moral and predestinated part together But I refuse none but unite both parts But what Satisfaction is there in the Moral part of Scripture if according to some we say we must be as good as we can then we are apt to condemn our selves and say we might have done better or if according to Mr. Vincent and Mr. Mead who are now both Living we take the Scriptures in its strickt Literal Sense who can be Sav'd But they mistake for our Salvation depends on Works as they make up one part of Faith which Faith is a Freegift but this they could never reach See my definition of a Saving Faith in my Addition before And let Men take notice there hath been a famine of the word prophefied of before by Amos 8. 11. for want of a Spiritual Man to expound the Scriptures And I think Men have the greater Reason to esteem my Books in that they prove Unanswerable I have done with these Authors and from what hath been said you may if you are not blinded see the insufficiency of all Men upon Earth to dispute me Which I boast not of as attain'd from any endeavour of mine but as a gift of God And I am not insensible of the Conceitedness of many in Oral Disputes but dare they write I may say to such as Paul said to the Jews ye despisers wonder I work a work in your Days which you shall in no wise believe Acts 13. 41. And are you so conceited that the Jews did not think themselves at that time as wise as now you think your selves I am Satisfyed the Scripture is a Book Sea●'d up from all but those divinely inspired or Spiritual Men and at this time many of you as