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
A96833	The examination of Tilenus before the triers; in order to his intended settlement in the office of a publick preacher in the Common-wealth of Utopia. Whereunto are annexed the tenents of the remonstrants touching those five articles voted, stated and imposed, but not disputed, at the synod of Dort. Together with a short essay (by way of annotations) upon the fundamental theses of Mr. Thomas Parker.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1657 (1657)	Wing W3343; Thomason E1625_1; ESTC R204120	128,806	312

favour that God would vouch safe to doe them presently upon their return from the Babylonish Captivitie as appears cleerly in the fore-going and following verses and yet through their fault and want of complyance this did not take effect their renewed defection crost God's promise and the event happened far otherwise for if you consider that people soon after their return from that Captivitie they grew worse and worse as appears Nehemiah the last and if you will refer the fulfilling of the promise till after the exhibition of the Messias though that is against the scope of the words yet then they grew worst of all They resisted the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 5. and rejected the Counsell of God against themselves Luk. 7. 30. and judged themselves unworthy of eternal life blaspheming and persecuting the Author means and ministery of it Act. 13. 45 46 50 and so were cut off for their wilfull unbelief Rom. 9. 32. In the Covenant therefore we are to consider two things 1. A Promise on Gods part and 2. A stipulation of duty on their part who are concerned in the promise The Promise on Gods part is I will be their God and I will not that is of my self or without provocation turn away from them to doe them good but I will put my fear in their hearts But to what end is all this why that they may be my people and fear me as my people and not depart from me as is exprest in the 39. and 40. verses of that Chapter This then being a voluntary duty which God requires we must not imagine it to be intimated as the infallible effect or event of his promise but as the end why he makes that promise to them and the Ingagement which it puts upon them But if they will not choose to have the fear of God before their eyes and to excite that grace which he puts into their hearts but out of an evill heart of unbelief depart from the living God they by this their prevarication and apostacy becomming Non populus ceasing to be his people he ceaseth likewise to be their God Thus the Spirit of God by Azariah hath resolved it to Asa and all Iudah and Benjamin 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if yee seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you Yea and cast you off for ever as David addeth to his Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28. 9. So that there is a kind of reciprocal ingagement betwixt God and man and something is to be performed by either party in order to salvation Now it so happens many times that all which is promised to be done on God's part is effectually done in regard of the sufficiency of it and yet nothing done that is required to be done on mans part in respect of the event See 2 Tim. 2. 13. Hence it is that sometimes God is said to have done all viz. all his part Ezek 24 13. I have purged thee but thou wast not purged and for my part what could have been done more Isai 5. 4. Sometimes again he is said to have done nothing Isa 53. 1. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed that is in respect of the effect or the event for God was not wanting in sending his Prophets to make the Revelation So Deut. 29 4. The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to hear unto this day Not that God was wanting in affording necessary means and assistance hereunto for then Moses should rather have upbraided God's illiberalitie than the Prophets Obstinacie which he had no reason to do God having wrought so many signes and miracles of mercy for them and of justice upon their enemies as many times gained credit and acknowledgement amongst the Egyptians and other nations as they past along and captivated the understanding and subdued the will and affections of Ioshuah and Caleb but God is said not to have given them hearts c. in regard of the event because though he had administred abundant means to that purpose yet through their wilful obduration he could not prevail so far with them they had frustrated the effect as 't is said of our Saviours Country-men in respect of his ministery Mat. 13. 58. and therefore Moses must not be thought to excuse them by laying their blindness and stubbornness at Gods door but to upbraid them that they had made their hearts so impenetrable hitherto to all those gratious and powerful dispensations that by them though sufficient God had not effected such an advertencie as might have begotten a willingness throughly to confide in him and obey in him verse 6. this was the end which God seriously intended and aimed at Mr. Indefectible This is inconsistent with that of the Apostle Rom. 11. 29. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance Dr. Dubius Sir It will be a very hard matter to draw an argument from that Scripture to infer your conclusion The gifts and calling of God are without repentance Ergo what The regenerate cannot fall from grace and their interest in Gods favour Which is a plain non sequitur It does not follow For of whom speaketh the Apostle that Doth he not speak it of the Israelites And yet he tells you but ten verses before that they were broken off for their unbelief All that can be concluded from those words will amount but to this that God is so faithful and tenacious of his promise wherewith he had gratified their fathers that as 't is verse 23. If they abide not still in unbelief he is no less willing and ready than able to graft them into the Covenant again And upon this occasion my brethren give me leave to acquaint you with a few more of my doubts and scruples in order to my better satisfaction and settlement in these points for I hope you will not mistake me as if I were peremptory in my assertions for I speak only tentative to trie whether I can draw out of you any better arguments or answers to objections then I have hitherto met with in those that have handled these controversies I tell you then that the Text last quoted with some other passages in the 9 10 11. Chapters of that Epistle to the Romans have begotten a great doubt in me whether the Apostle in his discourse Chapt. 9. treateth at all of that absolute and peremptory decree of Reprobation whereby men are irrevocably excluded from salvation and all the necessary means that lead to it Let me give you the reasons of my doubting Mr. Preterition I am afraid we shall not have time now to examine them yet seeing you are so desirous let us have them briefly that we may be the better prepared to deliver our opinion about them at our next meeting Dr. Dubius Then take them thus I suppose it will be granted that the Apostle in those Chapters applies his discourse

may lose their taste and relish as to sensible refreshment but not their real presence as influencing to Salvation Tilenus Tentatus Some comfortable apprehensions might be awakened and kindled in those bosomes that have been warmed with such sweet and heavenly experiences if they were not all overcast and darkned again by other black and dismal clouds which the observation of some of your greatest Divines have spread over them For Mr. Calvin himself Instit 1. 3. c. 2. § 10 11. saith The heart of man hath so many starting holes and secret corners of vanitie and lying and is cloathed with so many colours of guileful bypocrisie that it oftentimes deceiveth it self and besides experience sheweth that the Reprobates are sometimes moved with the same feelings that the Elect are so that in their own judgement they nothing differ from the Elect. See Heb. 6. 4 5. But the truth is though I have lived a good moral life hitherto and in a way of duty have had a comfortable dependence upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus yet I am now affraid I have had none of those extraordinary snavities and refreshments of Gods spirit and consequently have no assurance of the presence of that comforter who is promised shall abide with us for ever Mr. Knowlittle You are to consider that all the Elect are not called at the same hour Tilenus Tentatus I should not stand upon the hour I could be content that God may take his own time to call me if you could in order to my present comfort insure me that I shall be called though it be but at the hour of death but this is that I am afraid you have no grounds for Mr. Take o'trust You may be confident that Christ is dead for you and that you have an interest in him so you can believe it Tilenus Tentatus I would desire to ask but these two questions 1. Whether this comfort be applicable to all and every sick and afflicted persons and 2. whether it be grounded upon the truth For if it be not to be applied unto all I may be amongst the excepted persons and so am not concerned in it or if it be not grounded upon the truth you offer me a delusion instead of comfort Mr. Take o'trust It is applicable unto all and every one and grounded upon the unquestionable truth of the Holy Gospel Tilenus Tentatus If it be applicable to all and every one as you affirm and grounded upon the truth that is as I conceive a rruth an●ecedent to their believing then it follows undeniably that Christ died for all in general and for every one in speciall else how can the comfort of this doctrin be so applied to them as you would have it But if your meaning be that it will become true to me or any other person that Christ died for us by that Act of faith which you would have me or any such other person give unto your speeches then you run into a manifest absurditie maintaining that the object of faith or the thing proposed to be believed doth receive its truth from the act of the believer and depend upon his consent whose faith and approbation can no more make true that which in it self is false then make false by his unbelief that which in it self is true Well may the Infidel deprive himself of the fruit of Christ's death but he cannot bring to pass by his unbelief that he hath not suffered it as a proofe of his love to mankinde On the other side the believer may receive benefit from the death of Christ but his act of faith doth not effect but necessarily suppose that death as suffered for him before it can be exercised about it or lay hold upon it Nay my believing is so far from procuring Christs death for me that on the contrary our great Divines do maintain quod nemo unquam fidem habeat nisi morte meritis Christi procuratam that I cannot have faith unless it be procured for me by the merits and death of Christ And because I cannot finde this faith in me I may conclude he hath not procured it for me and consequently that he hath not died for me neither and this you know is the ground of all my trouble Dr. Dubius Sir I wish you to take heed of that evil heart of unbelief as the Apostle calls it Heb. 3. and to that end remember the words of our Saviour John 3. ult He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Tilenus Tentatus Sir instead of lending me a clew to guide me out of that Maze of difficulties into which the prodigious Divinity of the Synod hath led me you intangle me much more in it For whereas the Apostle saith that God sends strong delusions to such as will not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved 2 Thes 2. You governing your discourse by those principles would first perswade men to believe a false proposition when you exhort every man to believe that Christ died for him which is false according to that Doctrin and then having believed this falshood they are punished by the spirit of errour to believe a lie I beseech you which way would you have me turn my self to get out of these perplexities Having instructed me to believe a doctrin that turns my obedience into punishment and makes my following the truth according to that Calculation the sure way to aggravate my damnation For if the Synod saith true and Christ be not dead for them that believe not in him how do they deserve to be punished for not believing that which is false And those that do obey the Commandement and believe in his death though but for a time why suffer they the punishment due only to the refractory and incredulous which is to believe a lie Mr. Knowlittle Sir you must not think to beguile us with your vain Philosophie we are too well established in these saving truths to be perverted by such Sophistrie Tilenus If you have no better Cordials for afflicted Consciences nor firmer props to support the necessitie of your ministerie than what the doctrins of the Synod will afford you I am afraid the most vulgar capacities will finde Logick enough to conclude from the premises that your office is altogether useless and impertinent Laying aside therefore the person of the Infidel Carnal Tepid and Afflicted whose parts I have hitherto acted to make a practical trial of the efficacie of your ministery upon them according to the tenour and consequences of those doctrins I beseech you sadly to reflect upon what hath already pass'd betwixt and consider further what a vertiginous spirit presided in that Synod that led those Divines Maugre all the reason to the contrary to denie some things which the Scripture expresly doth affirm and to affirm other things which the Scripture doth as