Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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B02147
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Christendom; or, The nature of Christ's kingdom opened, and the chiefest difficulties in divinity cleared in order to ending the controversies among Christian philosophers, scool-men [sic], and divines of all parties.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing C3933; ESTC R171319
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44,677
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48
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is faithful and to be so is to be full of Faith Truth Veracity and Fidelity in opposition to Perfidiousness Unfaithfulness Deceit and Lies Now all the blessed Saints and Angels are perfectly like to God as he is faithful and true and so must needs have in them perfect Faith Fidelity and Truth Deut. 32.20 2 Thes 3.2 Heb. 11.1 2 Cor. 5.7 Prov. 20.6 1 Cor. 13.12 2. As Faith is opposed to Sight so through it we understand discern apprehend perceive embrace and receive spiritual good things spiritually through it we repent of Sin love obey and please God we receive come to trust in and rely on Christ we obtain Pardon Justification and right to Life eternal we overcome Satan and the World and walk with God in Holiness and Comfort on Earth till we come to Heaven where Faith is turned into Vision and Hope into Fruition Faith as thus opposed to Sight is most truly properly and scripturally reckoned counted and imputed to us for Gospel-righteousness before God all the while we are militant in this World. 3. Faith in God may be evidenced shewed declared proved and spiritually demonstrated by heavenly Regeneration and good Works 1 Cor. 2.4 but it cannot be defined For what is defined is finite but God is infinite and infinite as such cannot be finite Believe God we may define him we may not To define is to limit and to limit God is great Sin Psal 78.41 He that hath holy Faith in God knoweth better by inward feeling and Self-perception the true nature of it than any human Definition can inform him There cannot be a Definition of Definition Either then Faith in God is the Standard of Definition or Definition is the Standard of Faith in God. If the former then Faith in God is above Definition more plain than it and is not reducible to it If the latter then there can be no Faith in God because he is Infinite and as such cannot be defined Exact Definition consisteth of somewhat general and somewhat special but all in saving Faith as such is special and peculiar to the Elect and nothing in it common to them with the Reprobate Temperance Justice Chastity Faith in the unregenerate Man as in themselves are proper Graces and Vertues but as relied on for Life eternal without heavenly Regeneration they are no otherwise Graces and Vertues than as a dead Man is a Man or an adulterous Wife is a Wife they are but the Corpse of Graces and Vertues and therefore they differ in kind from Temperance Justice Chastity Faith as in the regenerate Man and are no degree thereof 4. Faith is in no Faculty but it is seated and rooted in the Heart and through it we understand and will spiritual things spiritually Understanding and Will in Man are truly distinct but not distinct Faculties they are the Image of God in whom is unsearchable Unity and Diversity but no Faculties God doth willingly understand and understandingly will and so doth Man. Every intellectual Act of Man is the Act of the Soul or Man and not of this or that Faculty Faith as opposed to Sight is not an Act but through it we act holily It is not a Work but through it we work Righteousness It is not Obedience but through it we obey and please God Heb. 11. Rom. 1.5 16.26 5. Look what Reason is to the human Soul the general Organ and Instrument by which it doth put forth rational and intellectual Acts differing in kind from the manner of Brutes that is Faith to the regenerate Soul the general Organ and Instrument by which it doth put forth holy and supernatural Acts differing in kind from all the Acts of Men unregenerate and ungodly as such Certainty of Faith is proper Certainty of Sense yet not of bodily Sense common to us and Heathens but of heavenly and spiritual Sense through Christian Belief which Heathens have not Unto true believing Souls God's Word is sweeter than Honey and sharper than a two-edged Sword in their Hearts Psal 119.103 Heb. 4.12 Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14.23 That is he whose Heart is not purified by Faith in Christ in him Sin reigns and carnal Dubitation is Lord in his Soul and though the thing done by him as in it self be lawful yet if he doubt whether it he lawful or not to him it becomes unlawful through the Error of his Conscience not purified by Faith. An erroneous Conscience considered as erroneous connot bind for as erroneous it is not Conscience but the Error and Abuse of it But considered as Conscience under God and over Man so it doth truly bind to all Duty and against all Sin and Error Whatsoever is not of Faith is of Infidelity and consequently of Sin. CHAP. IX Of Love to God and Self-love 1. SIncere Love is to love God because of his first Love to us 1 Joh. 4.19 For this is to love him as indeed he is our Maker our Redeeemer our Sanctifier our Reward and Rewarder our God and Portion for ever our All in All dearer to us than we are or can be to our selves and to love him under any other notion is to love an Idol and not God. Self-love considered as repugnant to Life eternal is self-destroying Vice and the common Character of all the ungodly 2 Tim. 3.1 2. Self-love considered as subservient to Life eternal is in a large and true Sense heavenly Self-denial and the true Love of God as good to our Souls in Christ Jesus eternally Prov. 9.12 Luke 9.23 2. Vertue is truly lovely for it self but then the highest Vertue is to love and be like unto God and God is not at all lovely unless he be essentially and yet freely the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and no Reward short of God himself as enjoyed in eternal Blessedness can content the holy seeking Soul. If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable To say I would love God though there were no Heaven and I would hate Sin though there were no Hell is in effect to say I would love God though he were not at all lovely and I would hate Sin though it were not at all hateful and abominable Heb. 11.6 1 Cor. 15.19 3. The chief End of Man is but one as God is one Subordinate Ends indeed are many but as subordinate they are not Ends but regular means conducing to the End. The Supream End of Man is eternal Salvation or God himself as enjoyed in eternal Felicity Eternal Salvation is not an End subordinate to the Glory of God but God's Glory is his Will as fulfilled in the eternal Salvation of all the Elect by Faith in Christ God is our Salvation and our Saviour our Blessedness and the Author of our Blessedness No Man can will his own Annihilation as a means to God's Glory for a Man as such is the Image and Glory of God and the eternal extinction of God's Glory cannot be a
yet not contrary thereto Things related are simul naturâ intrinsecally together not in Place outwardly but in Truth and Reality inwardly above both Time and Place Only this is to be noted that though the Manhood of Christ be sole Supream under God over all both Angels and Men as he is exalted at God's right Hand yet only elect Angels and Men be his Loyal and Obedient Subjects There are who hold some things necessary to the Integrity of the Sacrament but not to its Essence as breaking the Bread. But the Scripture hath no such distinction and indeed it is repugnant to the Nature of God who is an infinite Essence and in him is infinite Integrity Therefore there cannot possibly be Essence and not Integrity Therefore breaking the Bread is to be reckoned among those things which are not intrinsecally necessary to the Being and Integrity of the Lord's Supper As to which the general rule is to observe the way and custom of the Church where a Man shall come and abide But as to the Cup no power on Earth may deprive the People of it CHAP. XIV Of Divine Worship and Idolatry 1. THat there is a God and that he is to be worshipped as God is indelebly written in the Heart of every Man for every Man is either Godly or Ungodly To be Godly is to be a worshipper of God in Spirit and Truth To be Ungodly is to have an inward Sense and Conviction that there is a God and not to worship and glorify him as God. 2. The true God is God the Father not incarnate God the Son incarnate God the Holy Ghost not incarnate the Saviour of all Men specially of them that believe Any other God is an Idol and not the true God. To worship this true God is penitently to confess our Sins to call upon His Name and pray unto him for spiritual and corporal Blessings to give him Thanks for his Mercies to swear by his Name to vow and covenant our Souls to him to believe his Holy Word to trust in him for Life Eternal to walk as in his Sight and Presence to esteem him incomparably Excellent to prefer his Favour Honour and Glory and the doing of his Will before our Life and Friends and Estate and all worldly and temporal Things to have clean Hearts and pure Consciences and in all things to make it our chief care and business to please him and to obtain eternal Reward and Blessedness by righteous sober and godly Conversation In the Worship of God the Soul is Principal and the Body is Instrumental and the same thing is essentially both Act and Object For there cannot be the right Worship of God without Self-denial according to that of the Psalmist Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the Glory For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things Psal 115. 1. Rom. 11.36 Now Self-denial is both Act and Object Accordingly in all Idolatry the Soul is Principal and the Body is Instrumental and the same thing is both Act and Object For in every Idolater there is regnant Self-esteem Self-will Self-love and Self-confidence repugnant to heavenly Self-denial and Holy Trust in God. The Idolater putteth trust in his own Heart that tho he give the Glory due to God in Christ only to another tho he worship God in and by meer Creatures and not in and by Christ only yet he shall be saved and God will accept him This is Self-delusion and false Trust and Self-delusion and Self-confidence is both Act and Object 3. An Idol is nothing in the World 1 Cor. 8.4 That is as I conceive set aside the inward ungodly Lust and false Belief which is in Man's Heart and there is no such thing as an Idol nor can be Every Creature of God is Good Man is a special Creature of God and therefore must needs be specially Good. The Goodness of Man consists in the inward Rectitude of his Mind and hevenly dependence upon god and Resignation to his Will and trust in him for Life eternal When contrary-wise Man refuseth to be guided by God as to Life eternal and putteth trust in his own Heart and not in God for Life eternal and loveth himself rather than God now Man comes to have Idols in his Heart and committeth spiritual Whoredom and Adultery Some make the Belly their God some Idolize Money some worldly Glory some Beauty some Learning some their Errours some Angels and departed Saints some Images These are various ways of Idolatry but still it is the mind within as ungodly which makes the Idol and all Idolatry whatsoever is a transcendent Vice the worship of a false God and is repugnant to Holy Belief in God. As God is not two a material God and a formal God So Idolatry is not two material and formal but all Idolatry is a breach of the first Commandment and repugnant to godly Sincerity No Man doth or can in the commission of Idolatry intend to commit it but really he doth commit it he doth that which by the Divine Law is Idolatry The commission of Idolatry and intention to commit it differ specifically and cannot possibly concur in one and the fame indivisible Act as one and the same indivisible Act cannot possibly be two Acts. 4. The substance of Divine Worship is unalterably fixed by God and all addition to it and all diminution from it is Idolatry a Deifying of Man's Understanding and Will and setting it above the Understanding and Will of God. But there are many things respecting the outward Mode and Order of God's Worship about which the Scripture gives only general Rules the fitting whereof to particular Cases is left to Man's Wisdom and Discretion dependently upon God as Judg of all the World. Touching the substance of God's Worship nothing is a Duty but what hath a Divine Command and plain Warrant in God's Word Touching Things in themselves indifferent and variable nothing is sinful but what is plainly forbidden by God what is not forbidden is of it self Lawful 5. Religiously to invocate Angels and departed Saints is very Idolatry but bare desiring their Prayers I conceive is not Idolatry Superstition it is vain and erroneous Desire it is but tho all Idolatry be Superstition yet all Superstition and vain Desire is not Idolatry But if Superstition reign then it is Idolatry before God tho not before Men. And then doth Superstition and Errour reign when Persons lay their Salvation on it and trust in their Errour for Life Eternal Bare desiring the Prayer of Angels and departed Saints is not Prayer and Invocation in the strict sense and therefore I conceive it is not Idolatry Tho all Prayer be Desire yet all Desire is not Prayer in the strict sense Bare desiring the Prayer of Angels and departed Saints doth suppose them to know what indeed they do not know and so it is erroneous and vain Desire but it doth not necessarily suppose them to be simply