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
A61608	A sermon preach'd before the King, Feb. 24, 1674/5 by Ed. Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1675 (1675)	Wing S5647; ESTC R5021	22,002	48

A SERMON Preach'd before the KING Feb. 24. 1674 5. BY ED. STILLINGFLEET D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Printed by His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed by Rob. White for Hen. Mortlock at the Phoenix in S t. Paul's Church-yard and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1675. HEB. iii. 13. Lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin WHen the Iewish Christians had formed themselves into an established Church and were become considerable for their number as well as for their zeal and devotion their obstinate Brethren thought it high time for their own security at least to weaken and divide them if they could not wholly suppress and destroy them For this end they made use of different instruments and means according to the different seasons and dispositions of men Sometimes when they had any encouragement or connivence from the Roman Power they set upon them with rage and fury spoiling their goods and threatning their lives But this hard usage did only heighten the courage and unite the affections of the more zealous Christians Sometimes they suggested to them the mighty veneration which their whole Nation alwayes had for Moses and the Law and what an infinite scandal and dishonour it would be to them all to have that Law which was delivered by Angels confirmed by Miracles established by Prophets admired by the Gentiles and had continued among them for so many Ages now of a sudden to be laid aside for the sake of a new institution that expressed no more regard to them than to any other Nation in the World And so great was the love which the Iews had to their own Countrey and Religion such an opinion was generally received among them of the peculiar favour of God towards them that they who could not be shocked by persecution were in danger of being overcome by flattery From hence the Author of this Epistle make it his business to shew the excellency of Christ above Moses and of his institution above that of the Law in respect of the Priesthood and Sacrifices and the benefits which come by them and that although this new and living way were but lately discovered yet it was that which was alwayes designed by God foreseen by the Patriarchs foretold by the Prophets and longed for by good men as the Consolution of Israel and it could be no more disparagement to Moses and the Prophets to yield to the Glories of the Kingdom of the Messias than it is to the Stars not to be seen when the light of the Sun appears But besides these there were some among them capable of being wrought upon by other kind of arguments such I mean who out of a sudden transport of zeal and being convinced by the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost had declared themselves Christians but yet retained a secret love to their sins and the pleasures of this World these were the Persons whom the Apostle not without reason expresses the greatest jealousie of as in danger of Apostasie and therefore in many places of this Epistle he represents to them the dreadful consequences of such an Apostasie for it was no less than crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame it was counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight unto the spirit of Grace nay it was not only crucifying but treading under foot the Son of God and therefore he bids them consider what punishment such persons would deserve at the hands of God into which they must fall and what hopes there could be of pardon for those who so openly rejected the only means of obtaining it For if they did herein sin wilfully after they had received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries But he not only sets before them the sad effects of Apostasie but as one that loved their souls and designed to prevent their ruine he gives them the best advice and counsel against it He knew well enough it was not the dissatisfaction of mens reason which was the ground of their infidelity but as mens more open designs are governed by such springs which are least discovered so whatever these warping Christians might pretend as to zeal for the Law and their ancient Religion the bottom of all was a principle of infidelity not arising from want of sufficient reason to convince them but from a close and secret love of sin which made them willing to quarrel with what ever was so repugnant to it as the doctrine of Christ. To this end he puts them in mind of the case of their Fore-fathers in the Wilderness who wanted no arguments to convince them of Gods Goodness and Providence yet nothing would satisfie them but they were still murmuring and complaining till at last God sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest And since you all acknowledge they had reason enough to be satisfied but out of an obstinate and stubborn humour hardned their hearts in the day of temptation in the Wilderness take heed Brethren saith the Apostle lest there be in any of you such an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God and do not look upon this advice as vain and needless to you that are called the believing Iews but you have cause to be very watchful over one another especially in this Tempting Age exhorting one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin As though he had said to them You who now glory in the name of Believers and are hitherto as forward as any in the profession of Christianity do not think your selves to be above the need of any helps to confirm your faith and to arm you against the assaults of temptations for your very security may betray you but consider the sin that doth so easily beset you on every side the various artifices it makes use of to deceive men and when it hath once gotten admission how strangely it bewitches and infatuates the minds of men how unwilling they are to be convinced of their sins how much more unwilling to part with them and how naturally the love of sin brings men to infidelity and then you will see how great reason there is why you should be exhorting one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin In which words are these three things considerable 1. The danger they are in of being hardned through the deceitfulness of sin who have the most powerful motives and engagements against it 2. The manner whereby sin doth prevail upon men to harden them through the Deceitfulness of sin 3. The care that all Christians ought to have to prevent being hardned through the Deceitfulness of

themselves God will not be mocked however men may be for because of these things the wrath of God will come upon the Children of disobedience No Sacrifices no prayers no penances no vows and promises will keep off this wrath of God without a hearty repentance and timely reformation Never any Religion or institution in the World made it so much its business to keep men from doing evil and to perswade them to do good as the Christian doth The Apostles thought it the greatest contradiction to their profession for any men to be called Christians and to live in the practice of their former sins Let the time past of your life suffice you saith S. Peter to have wrought the will of the Gentiles i. e. that time past when you were no Christians To be a Christian then was all one as of a loose profane dissolute person to become sober religious exact in his conversation To put on Christ was but another phrase for making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof To learn Christ was all one as to put off as concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Those were the blessed dayes of Christianity when it was no hard matter to understand what it was to be a Christian when the niceties of disputes and the subtle artifices of men of corrupt minds had not yet debauched the notion of Christianity to reconcile it with the lusts of men To be a Christian then was not to be versed in the subtilties of the Schools or to be able to swallow contradictions without chewing them or to be as fierce and earnest for every doubtful opinion and uncertain custome as if the substance of Christianity were like Epicurus his World made up of a great number of very small and restless Atomes To be a Christian was not to fight for the Faith but to live by it not to quarrel for good Works but to practise them In short to be a Christian was to depart from iniquity and to do good to be meek and humble and patient and peaceable towards all men to be charitable and kind to be sober and temperate in all things to be holy sincere and innocent in his actions towards God and men This is the true Idea of a Christian and not a meer Idea but such as every one that owns himself to be a Christian is bound by the most Sacred vow of Christianity in Baptism to be like so that if either the consideration of their own eternal welfare or the nature design or honour of Christianity or their own most solemn engagements can restrain men from the practice of sin we see that those who are Christians are under the most powerful motives and engagements against it But yet such there have been I wish I could not say such there are who have broken through all these things and have been hardned through the deceitfulness of sin One might have thought if any persons had been out of this danger they had been such as the Apostle makes this exhortation to who had seen the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost for confirming the doctrine and Motives of Christianity nay who had themselves been made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted of this Heavenly gift and of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come Who had testified their repentance for their former sins in the most publick and solemn manner and had entred into the most Sacred Vow of Baptism never to return more to the practice of it who had done this in the heat of persecution which they endured with courage and rejoycing yet after all these things the Apostle expresses a more than ordinary jealousie lest any of them should fall away and their hearts be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin When Critias and Alcibiades had forsaken the paths of vertue which they seemed very forward in while they continued under the instructions of Socrates Xenophon saith there were some that contended that they never had any vertue at all because those who once had it could never lose it but for his part he saith he was by no means satisfied with their opinion for as men by discontinuing bodily exercises make themselves uncapable of doing those things which they were most expert in before so men by the neglect of improving their minds in vertue and giving way to the temptations of honour and pleasure which was the case of Critias and Alcibiades may by degrees lose the force of all the Motives to vertue and consequently the vertue it self It is agreed by all men who understand any thing in these matters that even Grace although it be the effect of a divine power on the minds of men is of it self capable of being lost the great dispute is whether it may be lost past all recovery But as we have no more reason to set any bounds to the Grace of God in mens Recovery than as to their first Repentance so we ought to consider that there is such a falling away mentioned by the Apostle of those who have been once enlightned of which he saith it is impossible to renew them again to repentance and that Scripture deals with all persons in its exhortations and adomonitions and threatnings as if they were capable of falling to the utmost degree and to suppose that thing impossible to be done which the gravest counsels and the most vehement perswasions are used to keep men from the doing of is to make a severe reflection on the wisdom of them that give them And the Apostle here leaves none of them out but bids the most forward believers beware of an evil heart of unbelief and those who had been most softned by repentance take heed of being hardned through the deceitfulness of sin So that we see how powerful soever the motives to Vertue are how great soever the engagements against Sin yet the Apostle thought it needful to give them warning against the deceitfulness of sin 2. But what kind of deceitfulness is this in sin that the best and wisest men are so much caution'd against it What irresistible charms doth it use to draw men into its snares with what infusion doth it so far intoxicate mankind to make them dote upon it against the convictions of Reason and dictates of Conscience and the power of perswasion and the most solemn and repeated Vows and Promises against it nay to make men pursue it to such a degree as rather to be damned for it than forsake it If we were to consider this only by Reason we could imagine nothing less than that sin at one time or other hath laid such a mighty obligation on mankind that rather than part with it the greater part of men out of meer gratitude would be content to suffer for