Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	depart_v	evil_a	unbelief_n	2,143	5	10.6595	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55567	A sanctuary for the tempted: being a discourse on Christ's friendly admonition to Peter Wherein the fall and rising of Peter, is at large considered: the craft, potency, and malice of Satan (that arch-enemy of our salvation) discovered: his various wiles. stratagems and machinations invalidated: several choice and excellent Gospel-truths handled, and cleared (from the calumnies and objections of gainsayers.) ... Delivered in sundry sermons, at first; and now, published for the benefit of God's church in general. To which is added, four sermons, preach'd upon sacramental occasions. By Thomas Powel, preacher of the Gospel, and one, whom Satan hath winnowed.	Powell, Thomas.	1679 (1679)	Wing P3075; ESTC R30536	152,491	435

Wait at the Gates of Wisdom to Read the Bible to Pray to make Conscience of their Wayes by the constant Example of the Holy Humble Diligent Conscionable Growing Christian. These are the Words to them that have Faith in a Great Measure They must not be at a Stand but Grow SECT VI. I shall now direct my Speech to Such that have Faith but it is only in a Little Measure First Be Thankful for what thou hast and that is the way to get more He that is most Thankful shall be most Thriving What though thy Faith is Little yet art thou not in a better Condition than those who have None at all All Men have not Faith It is a Rare Iewel When Christ comes shall he find Faith on the Earth Secondly Be Fervent in your Prayers and Supplications unto God As the Apostles were Luk. 17. 5. Lord increase our Faith Thirdly Get your Weak Faith Strengthened by a Holy and Frequent Application of God's Promises Meditation on God's Fatherly Affection and Unspeakable Goodness Psal. 104. 34. Fourthly By maintaining and keeping-up a Holy Communion with the Saints of God Ioh. 20. 19. 25. Fifthly By leading a Sincere and Sanctified Conversation Psal. 112. 6 7 8. 1 Ioh. 3. 19. Sixthly By a Holy Care to shun all Sin with all Occasions leading there-unto Iam. 1. 27. 1 Thess. 5. 22. Seventhly and Lastly By a Patient Waiting on God Psal. 40. 1 2 3. Quest. But will a Weak Faith Save me Answ. Yes For it Ingrafteth us into Christ maketh us Just in God's Sight gathereth us into the Family of God's Children and giveth us Victory over Sin and Satan Ioh. 15. 1. Ioh. 1. 12. Gal. 3. 7. Isa. 42. 3. Isa. 40. 11. 1. Ioh. 5. 4. A Weak Faith may lay hold on a Strong Christ. If your Faith be not Grown to a Cedar yet if it be a Bruised Reed it is too Good to be Broken Only let not Christians rest in Low Measures of Grace but Aspire after Higher Degrees The Stronger our Faith the Firmer our Union with Christ and the more Sweet Influence we draw from Him A Weak Faith Christ Chides very much SECT VII I now come to speak unto such that have no Faith And there are Three Things that I shall do 1. Lay down some Motives whereby you may be perswaded to get Faith 2. Directions whereby to attain it 3. Signes whereby you may know whether your Faith be True or False CHAP. XV. I Am to Lay down some Considerations or Motives inducing to get Faith which shall be derived from the Misery of such that are Faithless and that in these following Sections SECT I. First You cannot please God Heb. 11. 6. And wherefore are you Made if not to Please God This is the End of your Creation and Beings The Creatour would fain take Complacency and Delight in you but while you are Faithless he cannot Unbelievers are not the Objects of God's Desire because such can give no Credit to the Report in the Gospel Faith Pleases God but Unbelief Displeases him First It puts the Lye upon God It calls in question his Power Mercy Truth 1 Joh. 5. 10. He that Believeth not hath made God a Lyar. Secondly Unbelief hardens the Heart Mark 16 14. He upbraided them with their Unbelief and Hardness of Heart Unbelief and Hardness of Heart are linked together Thirdly Unbelief is the Root of Apostacy Heb. 3. 12. An Evil Heart of Unbelief in departing from the Living God Unbelief Virtually includes all other Sins It is a Big-bellied Sin Finally As Faith is the Chiefest among Graces so Unbelief is the Chiefest among Sins SECT II. Secondly You cannot Resist one Temptation Let Satan shoot his Bullets as fast as he can one after another and for want of True Faith you shall remain still as so many Butts for the same All of the Devil's Temptations shall find Acceptation with thee be they what they will If Satan suggesteth to thee that there is no God thou wilt with the Fool say in thy Heart There is no God Yea where Faith is not the Devil's Temptations in all kind shall be clos'd with His Temptations to Diffidence and Distrust in the Promises will be clos'd with His Temptations to Lust will be clos'd with His Temptations to Avarice will be clos'd with His Temptations to Pride will be clos'd with What is there not but a Faithless Soul the Devil may Allure unto There is not Hereticks never so much yet our ●…ith shall remain Firm. Though he may Shake it yet he shall not Overthrow it Though he may Darken it yet he shall not wholly Eclipse it The Believer all this while shall be Safe and as Mount Sion which cannot be Removed Again Let the Devil raise up a Multitude of Persecutors and though they may Strom us to some purpose by their Threats and Blows yet our Faith being Sheltered under the Wing of Christ supported and held up by the Intercession of Christ it shall never Totally and Finally fail Lastly Let the Devil raise up Schismaticks and by them breed Schism Division Dissension and Discord among the Children of God as not long ago in this Nation he did and indeed I know not any thing that tends more to the Extirpation of True Zeal and Piety than the same But yet notwithstanding all these Things the Faith of God's Elect is whole and entire in its Seed still There are divers Arguments whereby the Saints Perseverance is clearly Evinc'd and Prov'd against the Opposers thereof but I am only confined to make use of one among them and therefore to use any of the rest would be justly deemed a Digression Arg. What-so-ever our Lord Iesus Christ hath Prayed for shall certainly come to pass But he hath Prayed for the Saints Perseverance or that they may not fall away Totally and Finally from Grace Ergo The Saints shall Persevere The Major is proved from Iohn 11. 42. And I know sayes Christ to the Father that thou hearest me alwayes That Christ now doth Pray for Saints Perseverance is evident from my Text. But I have Prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not Now the great Thing that remains in the Agitation of this Blessed Truth though much Controverted is to Illustrate the Potency of our Saviour's Intercession on which depends the Perseverance of our Faith Now the Potency of it appears if we consider these Three Things 1. The Person that Intercedes 2. The Intercession it self 3. The Persons for whom this Intercession is made SECT III. First If we consider the Person that Intercedes being the Lord Iesus Christ himself who is Admirable for his Excellent Qualifications and Great Interest that he hath in Him with whom he Intercedes As to his Qualifications He is an Advocate that is Wise Faithful Just and Tender-hearted and therefore doubtless will Plead for us after a Perfect Exquisite and Infallible Manner As to his Interest in Heaven it is Great For God with whom he Intercedes is his Father

know their own Hearts till Troubles come They never thought they had so much Pride so much Impatience so much Unbelief They thought they could have submitted to the Hand of God that they could have born more than is now upon them with Patience and Meekness But now they find their Wretched Hearts murmur repine fret and vex Now they find Corruptions stir exceedingly When the Fire comes to Green Wood there comes out abundance of Watery Stuff that was not discerned before So Temptations and Afflictions do make that appear which before could not be discerned 1 Pet. 4. 12. Deut. 8. 2 3. Thirdly That we may be Reformed Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the Iniquity of Jacob be Purged and this is all the Fruit to take away his Sin When Physicians Purge the Body they Purge out that which is Good as well as that which is Evil But God Purgeth out only the Evil. As Aloes kill the Worms so do fiery Tryals and sharp Temptations kill the Lusts that are in our Hearts What the Flayl is to the Corn it brings it from the Straw what the File is to the Iron it takes of the Rust and what the Fire is to Gold it purgeth it from Dross that is Temptation to the Graces of God's People Zach. 13. 9. I will Refine them as Silver and will Try them as Gold Fourthly That we might be instructed Instruction doth alwayes go along with God's Rod and his House of Correction is the School of Instruction Those that are Tempted do better understand Scripture sayes Luther but those who are secure in their Prosperity read them as a Verse in Ovid. Three Things we are instructed in by Temptations 1. The Malice of Satan 2. The Calamity of this Life 3. That Security must be avoyded First The Malice of Satan is discovered in our Temptations and by them we come to know it We clearly see Satan's Hand in every Bullet that he shoots Now it is of great Advantage to a Souldier that he knows what manner of Enemy it is that he is to Encounter with Finally None but the Tempted knows what the Tempter is such understand all his Wiles Stratagems and Devices They know that the Devil is a Malicious Spirit the Master of Envy and God's Childrens Capital Enemy They know that the Devil aimes their Ruin and designes their utter Subversion They know that he is a Tempter for his Suggestions a Lyon for his Devouring a Dragon for his Cruelty and a Serpent for his Subtilty As his Names are so is He. Secondly Temptations shew what a Miserable World this is Were we Above Temptations could not reach us but here Below Temptations attend us The Devil can shoot his Darts any where here even in those Places where we Worship God What then shall we say This World is but a Fluctuating Sea of Troubles and the Sweetest Comforts contain'd therein are but as Gall and Worm-wood Thirdly Temptations do inform us of the Evil of Security and that it must be avoided if we would be truly Secure Security is oft-times the Cause of Temptation and Temptation is oft-times the Remedy of Security Temptations are like the Prick at the Nightingale's Breast that awakens her and puts her upon her sweet and delightful Notes Yea the Rust of Security is Fil'd off by Temptations The Afflictions of the Godly sayes one are Bitter Arrows sent from the Sweet Hand of God to slay our Security Fifthly Another End that God hath in suffering us to be Tempted is That we might be quickened to Duty especially that of Prayer The more furiously Satan Tempts the more frequently and fervently the Soul doth Pray When the Messenger of Satan did buffet Paul his very next Work was to go to Prayer 2 Cor. 12. 8. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice When we are at Peace God seldom hears from us but when we are at Wars How fervently and frequently do we seek the Lord our God What Praying then without Intermission is there A Christian's Life then is all Prayer only Prayer and nothing but Prayer The Deer being shot with the Dart runs faster to the Water So the Soul whom Satan shoots with his Fiery Darts runs faster to the Throne of Grace Our Devotions are quickened and excited by the sensible Feeling of God's Fatherly Correction which all his Children are Partakers of Therefore quarrel not with God's Divine Providences in permitting your Souls sometimes to be Hurried with Satan Sixthly We are Tempted that it might appear that we are Sons and not Bastards Heb. 12. 8. And is it not a Blessed thing to know our selves to be the Children of God Why this is oft-times attained to by Chastisements For those whom God Loveth he Rebuketh Afflictions are Love-Tokens from God and they do demonstrate his Favour unto us God Afflicts with the same Love that he Adopts God is most Angry when he shews no Anger saith Bernhard God has as one excellently observes one Son without Sin but no Son without Stripes God has Thoughts of Love in all that he doth to his People The Grounds of his Dealing is Love the Manner of his Dealing is Love and the Ends of his Dealing is Love The Saints Troubles are not Penal but Medicinal They arise not from Vindictive Iustice but from a Fatherly Love Seventhly God permits us to be Tempted to shew his Detestation of Sin and to let the World know that he will not allow of Sin in the Best of his Children God's Dealing with his Children are sometimes Penal as well as Probational Herein God's Iustice appears For should he punish Others for Sin and spare his Own Wicked Men would say He were Partial But God by Afflicting his Own doth declare his unspotted Iustice and also terrify the VVicked who may Read their future Miseries in the Saints present Troubles For if Iudgement begins at the House of God VVhere then shall the VVicked and Ungodly appear If it go thus with the Green Trees How shall it go with the Dry If Troubles happen upon the Sheep of Christ What shall then happen on the VVolves If God deals thus with his Friends VVhat then shall become of his Enemies Eighthly God permits us to be Tempted that we might be Cautioned and VVarned Temptation the Lesser Hell makes God's Children to beware of the Greater Hell A Christian's Woes are his VVarnings Warnings to himself and Warnings to others And hence they are strict and precise Have they Committed such a Sin through Temptation They will for the Time to come beware So that if a Temptation of that kind like Ioseph's Mistress sollicites unto Evil they will flee from it Ninethly God permits us to be Tempted for the Exercise of our Graces It is one thing to have Grace and another thing to exercise Grace And Grace in its Exercise it is that Pleaseth and Delighteth God Now Afflictions and Temptations do stir up the Grace of God within