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	holy_a	spirit_n	2,702	5	5.2045	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29073	A discourse about Christ and antichrist, or, A demonstration that Jesus is the Christ from the truth of his predictions, especially, the coming and the seduction of antichrist : to which is added a treatise about the resurrection / by Edward Bagshaw ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1661 (1661)	Wing B408; ESTC R37055	55,746	68

Rev. 19.20 So that our Saviour and his Apostles do both grant that Miracles may be done by a false Power and likewise affirm that whoever hath nothing else to alledge for his Religion but meerly Miracles that same is Antichrist For Truth stands not in need of such outward Circumstances to underprop it and according to the Scripture Miracles are not to prove the Doctrine but the Doctrine is to prove the Miracles whether they are from God or not But yet saith our Saviour with those Arts and waies he shall so far prevail as even almost to stagger the belief of the very Elect Many shall follow their destructive Doctrines 2 Pet. 2.2 Rev. 13. saith Peter the World shall wonder after the Beast saith John and he shall deceive the Inhabitants of the earth c. all which places do note an almost Universal seduction And if any ask how it comes to pass that Corruption so contrary to the received Tenets and Maximes of Christianity should be so generally embraced 2 Thes 2 10 11 the Apostle Paul hath given it Because men have not received the love of the Truth that they might be saved therefore shall God send upon them the strong working of deceit 2 Thes 2.9 that they should believe a Lye i.e. Men being unwilling to give themselves up to the guidance of Truth which shines clearly by its own Light both in Scriptures and in their own Understandings therefore shall God suffer them to be so brutish and Sottish as to quit their Reason and to be led up and down by any fond and ridiculous Errour as those Impostors shall guide them I have done with the Prediction of our Saviour concerning Antichrist V. Canenes Concil Trident. and if upon your enquiry you find that there is that Religion in the world which hath espoused and embodied into their Confession of Faith all the Opinions of Antichrist If there be that Church in the world which still pretends to do and for ought I know doth reall Miracles upon which they bottome their Plea to be the true Church if they maintain Persecution Violence and Fraud if they have dispirited and disenvigoured Religion by their worldly Pompe and Gallantry and make thriving in this world a sign that God doth love and favour them all which are Antichristian Tenets and Practices If there be that Person in the world who hath assumed the very stile of Antichrist who hath trampled upon Kings and trode upon the Necks of Emperours who in his Canon Law is called God and like God doth dispense with all both Divine and Humane Laws then first certainly Antichrist is already come and to deny it is to deny as great evidence and notoriety of fact as to deny it is day when the Sun shineth And secondly He which foretold that Antichrist should thus come with all these Circumstances that I have summed up he was undoubtedly a true Prophet the true Messiah for to repeat the Argument in my Text He told us these things before they came to pass and we find that they are come to pass and therefore he is The Use that I shall make of this whole Discourse is 1. To convince the Unresolved 2. To confirm those who are already setled Use 1 The first use shall be to convince the Unresolved I have already spoken something to awaken those that are resolute and peremptory Unbelievers but there are many who may be yet in their enquiring doubting and disputing state who are not unwilling to embrace the Faith of Christ but they find it to be so repugnant to every thing of natural Reason within them and likely to be attended with so much hazard and danger that they are either ashamed or afraid to own it but yet are not fixed in positive denial of it but through uncertainty they are alwaies Anxious and wavering Such as these ought to be tenderly and gently dealt with and two things I shall propose to them which may help to alleviate and to abate their Prejudices 1. That Christian Religion is in no part of it unreasonable for since the Proof of it in general depends upon the clearest Demonstration viz. The fulfilling of Prophesies then the belief of it must needs be rational I know very well that the things contained in the Scriptures viz. The Incarnation of the Son of God three Persons of the Godhead the Immediate Acting of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of Believers and the like are all Mysterious and no waies reconcileable to Humane Apprehension but then we must consider that these things are not proposed to our Understandings to comprehend them but meerly to our Faith to believe them which where there is a firm and demonstrable ground of Beliefe may be done even to many things that we understand not And the great hindrance that hath kept Christian Faith from entring into the minds of men is want of attendance to that distinction for many have both confounded themselves and subverted the Faith of others by pressing upon them a comprehension of what is no waies by us Intelligible And therefore all those Disputes about Predestination Trinity Resurrection Incarnation and the like are for the greatest part of them unprofitable and dangerous because they are not content barely to assert the Truth which is then best done when it is put into the plainest and most unscholastick Language of Scripture but our Arguers do over and above enquire de modo and labour to give reasons for those stupendious and amazing Mysteries which the Apostle Paul cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon and for the most part ends the Dispute with a Reproof of the Disputer And therefore such of you as are not yet fixed in your belief set your selves purely upon this Article viz. to enquire whether Jesus be the Christ and never give it over till it hath pleased God fully to confirm you in it And my Reasons for this Advice are these three 1. Because this is the most effectual and ready way to prove unto you the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Those who set upon this work by endeavouring to prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God as they lye in gross and in their diffused Bulk proceeding by Chapter and Verse do undertake a Tedious and Impossible Task for there those ordinary and trivial Objections of mistakes and variations in Copies mistranslations and the like are never to be assoiled but if you draw the several lines in Scripture into their Center and contract them into Christ as you use to do the Sun-beams into a burning-glass then do they cast a quick and vigorous lustre sufficient to enlighten and warm even the most stiffe and rigid Opposer He that would demonstrate the Providence of God would not I suppose begin with the Minutiae mundi the lesser things of the World as Flies and Insects but he would fix as David doth upon the Sun or some noble and conspicuous part whose Use is undeniable and

thence conclude that if Providence hath a respect to any one part of the world it cannot be imagined but it should have an Influence over all for else it must either be Finite or Partial which is absurd So in the asserting of Scriptures begin with that which they all point at and which if one place be questioned thousands of the same kind will evince viz. That the Messiah was to come which is the great design of the Old Testament That the Messiah is come which is the sum of the New and then all the other parts of Scripture will be owned as suited to the Divine and Heavenly Nature of our Messiah who took a body not only that he might dye our Price but that he might live our Pattern And almost each Line of Scripture especially in the New Testament describes either his Life or his Language 2. Here the Doubter must begin because this is the readiest way to ascertain himself whether he be guided by the Spirit of God or not So the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12.3 None can call Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Spirit and John 1 Joh. 4.2 Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus the Messiah to be come in the flesh is of God They do not mean that saying this in words is a sign of the Spirit for what is more easie but the owning it in heart this whoever doth may be sure he hath the Spirit And the reason is plain because where the Object proposed doth exceed any natural power there must be a new power given by which that Object is to be received Thus the Apostle John argues concerning future glory Hereafter 1 Joh. 3.3 saith he we shall be like him i. e. Christ because we shall see him as he is There will be a proportion and similitude between Christs body and ours because our visive Faculty shall be so exceedingly advanced as that we shall be able to perceive him in his utmost radiance of Glory So in belief since the soul when it doth it is heightned beyond any native Virtue of its own it is a sign that Gods Spirit hath illuminated and enlarged its Capacity Thus the Apostle We are saved by Grace through Faith Eph. 2.8 and that not of our selves it is the gift of God i. e. that very Faith by which we apprehend Christ is as much the gift of God as Christ himself that is apprehended by it I know very well this seems harsh to many who are willing to boast in themselves but if ever you come to believe indeed you will find the Difficulties your Natural Reason doth urge and vex you with to be insuperable untill the Spirit of God by infusing new light doth explain and solve them Lastly Begin with enquiring whether Jesus be the Christ because upon this depends the whole course of your future Obedience Our Saviour required no more of any that came unto him but to believe that he was the Son of God not that he did exclude good works but he knew that this was the only way to facilitate and expedite them All the while we are either uncertain that our past sins are pardoned or our present services accepted how lamely how untowardly do we set about our duty But when once we believe on Christ all that care is over and the firmer our Faith is the higher and more ardent will our Love be which like a flame shoots through the soul and carries it out with an heavenly quickness and ardency Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 10.9 10. If thou confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord i.e. If thou obeyest him and believest in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead i.e. that he is the true Messiah of which his Resurrection is an infallible proof thou shalt be saved For with the heart men believe unto righteousness i.e. unto the justification of their Persons and with the mouth is confession made unto Salvation But to think of making confession or doing any act of Religion without Faith desire at least and the desire of Faith is Faith this is only to mock God and to undo our selves by our foolish and hypocritical presumptions in presenting unto him a Sacrifice which he abhors For without Faith i. e. reliance upon him for mercy and out of Christ God is nothing else but Justice it is impossible to please him When the Doubter hath gone thus far as to find that if he will be satisfied here he must begin his next course will be to run over in his mind those Arguments which our Saviour useth to evince his being the Messiah such are the heavenliness of his Language Joh. 8.43 Why do you not saith our Saviour know my speech i.e. Why do you not perceive even by my manner of discourse that I am come from heaven full of that God in whose Name I speak Joh. 10.21 For as some of the Jews said these are not the words of him that hath a devil These are not the words of one that came to deceive the world and to boast of himself to be that which he was not Another Argument our Saviour urges is the holiness of his Life Joh 8.46 Joh. 10.32 Which of you saith he doth convince me of sin and many good works have I done amongst you for which of them do you stone me An holy humble self-denying man who forbad even his Miracles to be published cannot without intolerable malice be supposed to assume a title which did not belong to him Add to this the God-like Patience and Resolution of his Death dying in defence of this very Tenet unprovoked with injuries breathing out his soul in charity to men Father forgive them Luk. 23.34 for they know not what they do at the same time both praying and pleading for his bitterest Enemies and then giving up himself unto his Father with perfect Affiance Father Ibid. v. 46. into thy hands do I commend my Spirit Add yet farther the Testimony of his Followers who saw him after he was risen the success of his Doctrine in spite of Persecution and above all the fulfilling of Prophesies as I have already mentioned Truly then if he that doubted be not satisfied if he that was almost doth not become altogether a Christian he is strangely wanting to himself for God is not wanting to assist those who do but begin to enquire after him every doubt that ariseth being nothing else but a Motion of Gods Spirit whereby he would draw us unto himself Having thus cleared that to believe is not unreasonable as the Unbeliever supposeth the next thing I shall propose is this That 2. To obey is not dangerous for though we may lose our Lives yet sure we shall be sufficient gainers if we save our souls And therefore let the Doubter strengthen himself with representing Heaven in its fulness of Joy alwaies before his eyes That Doctrine which teacheth that we are not to have an eye to the