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	sin_n	soul_n	2,417	5	4.9548	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77434	Errours and induration, are the great sins and the great judgements of the time. Preached in a sermon before the Right Honourable House of Peers, in the Abbey-Church at Westminster, July 30. 1645. the day of the monethly fast: / by Robert Baylie, minister at Glasgow.	Baillie, Robert, 1599-1662.	1645 (1645)	Wing B459; Thomason E294_12; ESTC R200181	39,959	57

mens own lusts to break out on the objects set before them For these acts of Judgment both in our Text and oft elsewhere in Scripture the cause of mens sins not as they are sins but as punishments of sin is ascribed to him 2 Thess 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth God shall send them strong delusions to believe a lye He was to send on them The Man of sin whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and with all deceiveablenesse The committing of the sin is ascribed to the sinner who believes the lye the tempting to it is ascribed to Satan and his Antichristian Instruments the sending out both of Satan and Antichrist the giving over to delusion is ascribed to God the righteous Judge by these means punishing former sins Rom. 1.18 21 24 26 28. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousnesse of men because when they knew God they glorified him not as God wherefore God gave them up also to uncleannesse For this cause God gave them up to vile affections God gave them over to a reprobate minde The sinfull acts flow from the reprobate mindes and vile affections of the sinners yet God the Judge is thrice said to give them up to these their own sins Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this day Let their Table be a snare a stumbling-block and a recompence to them Let their eyes be darkned that they may not see 2 Chron. 18.22 The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy Prophets Many such places there are where God as a righteous Judge is made to give over sinners to the devil to other wicked men to themselves to be led in more and greater sins as punishments of the former Thus far Protestant Divines do go Protestants are unjustly accused for making God the author of sin and all the acts which any of them ascribe to God about the causation of sin may be referred to one of the three named All which stands well with the holinesse of his Nature and extreme contrariety to sin The Papists and Arminians do slander us most unjustly as if we did blaspheme the holy Lord in making him the author of sin All of us ever have abhorred such Doctrine We never ascribed to God more acts of providence about sin then the most clamorous of our enemies themselves expresly have done The three forenamed acts by Bellarmine and Arminius are attributed to God in as ample and unadvised expressions as ever fell from the Pen of any of our approved Divines I grant the Libertines of old This is the blasphemy of the Libertines and of M. Archers book justly burnt therefore and their children the Antinomians this day do cast out on this subject many abominable Blasphemies but these were ever detested by all Orthodox Protestants as the vomit of the father of all lyes and blasphemies which makes us the more to marvel what these men can mean who lately here under the name of M. Archer a famous Independent in his time have printed the worst and grossest of these Blasphemies Surely if such kinde of Doctrine be entertained by any of that Party our Disputations will not stand long at Church-Government but the world will be confirmed in that opinion which some wise men long ago have given out That Independency was not so much loved for it self as for somwhat else A liberty without censure to vent such Doctrines as the conscience of Orthedox Divines will never be able to hear with patience But in this I will not enter The zeal of the whole Assembly and both the Honourable Houses against the blasphemous Heresies of that infamous Book doth quiet and secure our mindes herein The fourth word to be exponed Why doth the Church complain of these acts of God about her sins is the Interrogation and Complaint Why hast thou made us to erre The Church being now before God and laying hold on his fatherly compassions pours out before him the troubles of her heart That which troubled them most was their sins and obstinacie in Rebellion which they complain to the Lord had befallen them in his great wrath through his deserting of them and giving them over to be led away by their own lusts and Satans tentations This part of Gods wrath upon them in punishing their sins with more blindnesse and making them erre farther from his ways was their greatest misery the true cause of all their outward plagues and a greater plague then all the rest as we may see in the sixth of this Prophecie where the Lord for contempt of the Prophets Ministery doth punish the body of that people with Spirituall Judgements and makes their heart fatter their minde blinder then before And from this Spirituall evil he makes all their Temporall desolation to flow as out of its proper Fountain Of this misery the people here complain to God not to lay their sins off themselves on the Lord but to witnesse their deep sense of them as coming on them through Gods just desertion and deserved judgement Not to upbraid the Lord with their miseries but to spread them out before his feet as their onely hope from whose hand alone they expected a remedy The first Doctrine The godly pour out all their complaints in Gods bosom From the words thus exponed observe first The children of God in their worst estate are so familiar with their heavenly Father as to pour out in his bosom the complaints of whatever misery lies upon them At this time as appears by the words both before and after the peoples condition was exceeding hard We are all as an unclean thing our iniquities as the winde have taken us away Thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our iniquities His zeal strength and mercifull bowels seemed to be restrained towards them yet they come before him and that which troubled them most their wandring from his ways they spread it out before his feet as the matter of their chiefest complaint The truth of the Doctrine may be seen Lam. 4.1 The Proof hereof Remember O Lord what is come upon us consider and behold our reproach In all the Chapter and the whole Book there is a familiar complaining to the Lord of all their miseries Moses and Aaron in all their tribulation run to the door of the Tabernacle Jacob at the side of the foord Jabbuk in his great fray for Esau betook himself to weep and pray David in his present danger of stoning by his own men comforted himself in God Hezekiah spread out before the Lord the railing of Rabshakeh and after his desperate sicknesse turned himself to the wall to pour out his heart to God The examples of this practice are innumerable The Reason of it is The Saints interest in God The Reason He is their Father

That he had hardened her heart from his fear Hardnesse was naturall to her heart yet they found Gods judgement causing in justice that naturall evill to increase upon them From this part of the Complaint observe The Doctrine Judicial hardnesse is the godlies greatest grief Judiciall hardnesse of heart from the fear of God in the times of trouble is the godlies chiefest grief and complaint to God The troubles and calamities of the Jews were great at this time their sins also were great But behold here they complain to God more then for either their calamities or other sins that God had hardened their heart from his fear in the midst of all their sins and judgements This was it that made the Prophet Jeremy amazed The Proof Jere. 5.3 O Lord thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a rock The Reason why this condition of a people is most lamentable is first It is a presage of destruction The first Reason When strokes humble not a people and soften not their heart to the fear and obedience of God then it cometh to this Why should ye be stricken any more After correction is obstinately refused then cometh rejection 2 Kings 17.18 God is very angry with the ten Tribes and removes them out of his sight the great cause we have Verse 14. They hardned their necks like the necks of their fathers that did not beleeve in the Lord their God This same was the cause of the ruine of Jerusalem Jere. 19.15 I will bring upon this City all the evill that I have pronounced against it because they have hardned their necks that they might not hear my words Jere. 26.29 The Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath because they had hardned their necks and did worse then their fathers Another Reason The second Reason This is such an evill as draweth on eternall perdition after temporall ruine Rom. 2.5 After thy hardnesse and impenitent heart thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath There is a treasure and heap of everlasting wrath from this hardnesse Heb. 3.7 To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Wherefore I was grieved with that Generation and sware in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest Meaning such grief and anger in God against this evil as holds out of heaven Thirdly The third Reason This sin hath extraordinary malignancy in it though neither eternall nor temporall wrath followed on it The hand of an angry God of a working devil and high degree of corruption are into it in its production all these three have place Before any be hardned in sin and become obstinate the corruption of the heart must be great and highly advanced Also Satans hand is in the blinding of the eyes and searing with the hot-iron in stupifying and making senslesse the conscience of the hardned person and God as a just Judge putting on the executioner must be also about this action So that this hardning is very oft the signe of a Reprobate to whom God shews no mercy Whom he will he hardens and sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy albeit it s not ever so as in our Text and elsewhere God hardens the hearts of some for a time whom thereafter he softens and to them sheweth mercy Yet oft being the case of Reprobates and ever very like to it and in it self a degree to that wofull condition it affrighteth the godly when they see it in themselves or others and becometh a great part of their complaint to God The Use is for Exhortation The Vse That we be carefull to grieve and complain to the Lord for this great evil wherever we see it in our selves or others Not onely the most faithfull of Gods Watch-men in all the three Kingdoms but also those of the people who by the anointing of God have the eyes of their minde opened to see the Spirituall estate of their own or their neighbours souls bear witnesse with an unanimous testimony that notwithstanding all the Judgements which lie on the Land yet this hardnesse of heart is greater and more universall then ever they have seen it This cannot be but the hand of God adding this Spirituall Plague as the worst and greatest of all our evils For this we have great reason to mourn and intreat the removall of it above all our Woes Motives to the Duty we need no other then the Reasons of the Doctrine If thou finde this evil crept in thy heart as I doubt not but it lodgeth sensibly in some hearts that hear me or though the Lord had blessed thee with the tender heart of Josiah to mourn for the sins and calamities that are already and to tremble for what further is coming yet if thou see this Mischief proclaiming it self in the countenances and lives of the most of thy neighbours as truely an observing and conscientious eye will remark too much of it where-ever he will look even in the days and places of most solemn Humiliation when hardnesse of heart should be banished farthest away this evil I say wherever found in thy self or others should be complained of to God For having in it so much of an angry God a busie devil and of a high degree of humane corruption it being also a presage and certain forerunner if not remedied of greater Temporal Judgements then yet we have seen albeit we have seen and heard of as much wo as our fathers in these Kingdoms have felt for some hundred yeers though all their sufferings were put together Yet the hardnesse of our hearts if it continue will make all we have suffered but the beginning of evils yea this hardnesse of heart poisons and envenoms all our sufferings with a cursed quality Pestilence wounds spoiling of goods death are all sanctified and sweetned to a softned heart but to a hardned heart they are the first acts of a wofull Tragedie there is a treasure of wrath and lake of fire and brimstone at their end attending them If we were able on these days set apart for this end above all other to attain the blessing of a soft heart and the Judgement of a heart hardned by God removed we would quickly be secure of damnation we would becom certain of the removall of all these Judgements which have very long so heavily lien both on the Church and State and on the backs if not of our persons yet of many in whom our interest is great we should be assured of heavenly consolations against all evils that for the time were on or hereafter might befall us Let it therefore be our earnest endeavour to finde this blessing by the Word by the Sacraments by publike by private Prayer by Reading by Conference by Meditation At this time I will point at some Scripturall helps towards

them but because they were The Tribes of his Inheritance Among all the inhabitants of the earth he had chosen for his portion the Tribes of Jacob as the word signifies the Rods or Branches that sprang out of the Root of Jacob for his peculiar possession Deut. 32.8 When the Most high divided to the Nations their Inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam the Lords portion was his people and Jacob the lot of his inheritance Out of the whole world he chose Israel for his peculiar portion as it is in Amos 4. Thee on●ly have I known of all the families of the earth Not for any good in them but alone for his own love and good will as it is Deut. 7.8 Were not the time past we would have enlarged these Observations First Observ 1 The proper the sovereign the onely Cure of an erring spirit and hardned heart is the presence the return the gracious entrance of God in the heart Secondly When the Lord upon entreaty hath come into the heart and begins to enlighten and soften it he would be entertained with much love humility fear care All in the heart that may grieve his holy eye would be swept out lest if again he depart in anger the last estate be worse then the first Thirdly A Land wherein the spirit of Errour and Induration doth predomine cannot enjoy the gracious presence of the Spirit of Truth 2 Cor. 6.15 What communion hath light with darknesse What concord hath Christ with Belial Fourthly All who plead for a Liberty of habitation to errenious spirits in this Land require in plain English a Liberty so far as is in them to banish God out of England Fifthly When by the Judgement of God the spirit of Errour hath entred a Land there is no putting of him out but by Gods own Arm for he is a great deal stronger then men Zech. 13.2 It is the Lord who takes it on him to cause the false Prophets and the unclean spirit that leads them to passe out of the Land Sixthly Though the Judgement of Erring and Induration cannot be cured but by the return of the Lord though the subduing of the spirit of Errour and Obstinacie be the work of Gods hand yet every good man according to his place and calling above all the Nobles of a Land and the Houses of Parliament would employ their whole strength to help the Lord against that strong one We tempt God when we neglect to use the means for doing of that work wherein he hath the principall hand Because we live in God Shall we not eat and drink and keep our selves from seen dangers It is the Lord that subdues our enemies under us therefore shall not our Souldiers fight The Lords Spirit is the subduer of the spirit of Errour therefore Assemblies and Parliaments need to have no care of this matter When Satan reasoned thus with Christ He hath given his Angels charge over thee therefore cast thy self down headlong he replieth wisely Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Seventhly God will return for his servants sake in the most desperate times When Calamities have wracked the State when Errour and Obstinacy and these Judiciall lie on the spirits of a people the faithfull expect believe pray for favour upon the ground of their relation to God still remaining in the mids both of sins and miseries they are his servants and he their Lord. The conscience of a desire to serve the Lord is a Ground of hope in our hardest conditions Eighthly No hope of a deliverance by God in mercy from any Judgement unlesse we be willing to serve him as an absolute Master The greatest enemies of a State are those who would evert or enervate the Relation of master and servant between God and a people for this Relation is the ground-stone of all the Protection of all the Deliverance we may expect or pray for from God Popes Kings Bishops have been striving to be lords over Gods Flock that ambition hath cost all the three dear Let Christ alone by his own Laws his own Officers and his own Courts have the full Spirituall and Ecclesiastick Government of his Churches The taking of this from him may spoil us of his protection Those men that are most carefull to vindicate the right of Christ are best servants to the State for they lay a sure foundation of Christs favour and protection to that State wherein they settle Christ as the onely King Lord and Master of the Church Ninthly Consider the unexpressible benignity of God chusing out among the children of sinfull and miserable men some to be his own inheritance That the Infinite and All-sufficient God who hath need of nothing and to whom all creatures can adde no perfection in all Agesshould delight to have a possession and inheritance among men as his peculiar treasure they to be his and he to be theirs it s a wonderfull love to men Tenthly Gods Inheritance his peculiar People his dearest Children if they will venture on sin they shall be sure of Plagues both Spirituall and Temporall rather then any other people of the world For their sins are greatest being against a most loving Father It concerns him in honour and glory not to let them go with their scandalous trespasses He would be blasphemed if they went unpunished Thee onely have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish thee for all thy transgressions Eleventhly The Spirit of Adoption under great sins and grievous punishments therefore moves the children of God to lay hold on their priviledges for the melting of their heart and bringing them to Repentance Finally The sweetest exercise of a Christian is the improving of the priviledge in band The making use daily of this mutuall Relation We are Gods Inheritance and God is our Portion A soul truely religious must give it self up fully to be possest and filled by God to be replenished in minde will affections memory conscience and every faculty with the whole fulnesse of God as an inhabitant as a due proper and onely heritor On the other part it will claim and lay hold by faith on the power the glory the truth the mercy and all that is in God as its own peculiar portion as the onely heritage which either in earth or heaven it desireth to enjoy But being cut off by time from enlarging these things I commend them and the rest to your meditation and the blessing of God FINIS