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
B10034	Of the day of grace, or, A discourse concerning the possibility and fear of its being past before death shewing the groundless doubts, and mistaken apprehensions of some as to their being finally forsaken and left of God, with the dangerous symptomsand approaches of others to such a sad state, in four sermons from Psalm LXXX1. 11, 12 / by John Shower.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing S3679A; ESTC R184224	54,234	156

Refusal of his Grace it is righteous severity For this is threatened as the Punishment of backsliding Christian Churches against such who would not receive the Truth in the Love of it The Deceived and the Deceiver are his Job 12.16 Now God may do this two ways First By permitting Deceivers and false Teachers to speak and act at that rate of Cunning and colour of Truth that it is very difficult to resist or withstand the snare And therefore we read of the coming of the Man of sin with all signs and lying Wonders or with Wonders to confirm those Lyes This God foretold and warned the Jews of before hand 2. God may give Men up to strong Delusions by taking away the Assistance of Reason and a clear Judgment to distinguish between things that differ Thus Men wrest the holy Scriptures to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Which they could not do without his Providence and Permission And when the Gentiles had sinned highly against the Light of Nature God gave them over to a Reprobate Mind Rom. 1.26 or to a mind uncapable of Judging as the word imports a blind unjudicious Mind that could not examine or distinguish between Truth and Falshood This is as consistent with the Justice of God considering it as the Punishment of former Guilt as the depriving us of any of our senses would be And without some such thing as this it will be impossible to give an Account of the Growth and Prevalency of the many ridiculous absurd Doctrines and Practices of Popery It cannot otherwise be accounted for that such Fooleries as are to be found in their Opinions and Worship should ever be received believed complied with and pleaded for by Men otherwise of Judgment and Learning But it is to be feared that they are given over to strong Delusions to believe Lyes There are many others that are no Papists whom this may concern who after a great Profession have fallen back into secret Wickedness and at last into more open Crimes against Convictions and Resolutions Promises and former Experience Many such in the last Age and some in this have been thus left of God to run into strange Enthusiasm and real Fanaticism to receive the most extravagant and sometimes blasphemous Opinions to espouse and plead for them against the plainest Reason and the most express Scripture that can be But usually it may be observed the Doctrines they receive and the new Lights they follow are such as tend to Licentiousness to encourage the Gratification of their Lusts that they can sin on by the help of these Opinions with greater Security and Peace This is another step whereby men are given up to their own Hearts Lusts LASTLY When God gives special Permission to the Devil the great Enemy of Souls to exert his Power and Malice in blinding and destroying Sinners We do not sufficiently consider what we owe to Gods Restraint of Satan that we are not more succesfully tempted to deny the Faith and cast off the yoke of Christ When the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul an Evil Spirit from the Lord is sent to trouble and punish him and Satan filled his heart with Rage and Cruelty 1 Sam. 16.14 Some evil Spirit had leave from God to seduce Ahab 1 Kings 22.21 22. Who acted his part succesfully to deceive and destroy If our Gospel be hid says our Apostle it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 3.4 Whose eyes are blinded by the God of this World HE is ready to do us all the mischief he can if God restrain him not What a Power had he over the Bodies of some Men in the days of our Saviour He would manifest as much over their Souls too if God did but give him leave The Red Dragon went out to deceive the Nations we read in the Apocalyps As to those who are judicially left of God and given up to their own Hearts Lusts it may come to this and sometimes doth so that God leaves them to the Power of Satan to deceive and ruine them and they are led captive by him at his will How dismal must the Case of such Persons be Which brings me to consider III. THE Severity of this Judgment Besides what has been said concerning it already let me add a few Particulars 1. The Severity of this Judgment will appear if we consider that it is never inflicted but after many preceeding Provocations upon habitual and obstinate sinners For sins against Light and Knowledge presumptuous and repeated Transgressions such for which there was no sacrifice appointed under the Law Numb 15.30 2. The Severity of this Judgment may be argued from the Subject of it it falls upon the Soul it doth especially respect that as its immediate Subject The dismal Effects of it reach to the Soul The Beauty and Comeliness of the Soul is hereby spoiled For what more dismal Spectacle can there be than such a man thus left of God The Honour and Dignity of the Soul is hereby debased for men given up to their own Hearts Lusts are almost transformed into Beasts 3. Because the most dishonourable Slavery follows upon it They are left under the Power and Rage of their own Lusts and did you know what a Slavery that is you would rather beg of God that you might fall into the Hands of the most barbarous and cruel Tyrant in the World than to be left under the Dominion of your own Lusts 4. Because they are left to walk in their own Counsels as the fruit of their being given up to their own Lusts And these are First The most foolish blind Guides that can be that fill men with vain Projects and Designs As the rich Fool in the Gospel Luke 16. He would pull down his Barns and build greater and say Soul take thine ease c. Secondly They are false and treacherous Guides They promise Peace and Happiness but procure nothing like it Promise Ease and Rest but can by no means perform what they promise but leave a man to wander and go astray unto his own Destruction Prov. 5.31 Thirdly They are cruel and pernicious Guides as well as deceitful ones Such Persons will walk in the way that leads to Destruction He that walketh after his own Counsel will find the End of that way to be Death Lastly The Severity of this Judgment will appear in that it can never be inflicted but in Anger This is the Fruit of divine Wrath. All other Calamities and Afflictions may be the Fruit of Love may be sanctified for our good may turn to our Advantage But this Calamity has no such Original and no such Effect A man may be given up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Soul may be saved But to be given up to sin is a thousand times worse because that is the Fruit of Divine Anger in order to the Damnation of the Soul Here God wounds like an Enemy and like a cruel one And we may boldly say

not be thought a Rule Therefore in ordinary charitable Reason we ought to Judge more hopefully of those Men who have not run into the grossest sensualities and Corruptions of the World of such especially who by any common Influence of the Spirit with the Word have been kept back from great Transgressions so that by the Knowledge of Christ they have escaped the Pollutions of the World and by the Advantage of their Education and common Grace and Providence have been restrained from foul Miscarriages If such as these do afterwards become profane and loose and sensual and grosly carnal it is said of them their latter End is like to be worse than their Begining And it had been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness than after having known it to turn from the holy Commandments That some Men may sin themselves into a state of Incurable Impenitence is very plain from Scripture Your neglect and Provocations may put Christ to his Irreversible Oath and make him swear as he once did that you shall not enter into his Rest Heb. 3.11 And that this is of force in the times of the Gospel is more than intimated v. 12. Exhorting professing Christians at that time to beware of an Evil heart of Vnbelief from the Example of the Israelites That Terrible place Isa 6.9 Is quoted no less than six times in the New Tastament as if it belonged to them who sit under Gospel Light As to that difficult passage Heb. 6.4 5. Concerning those who had been made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come and yet did fall away it is said it is impossible to renew them again In the ordinary way it is not to be expected Though that Passage do especially respect such Apostates as openly renounced Christianity crucifying the Son of God afresh Yet such as after a plausible Profession turn to a loose and notoriously wicked Life whether they keep that Profession still or abandon it they are greatly in danger of the like Judgment For the Earth that drinks in the Rain that often comes upon it and yet brings forth nothing but Briars is rejected and is nigh unto Cursing whose end is to be burned as it there follows 7 8. V. Their Case is next to hopeless and desperate And what reason have all Backsliders to fear lest they sin themselves into such a dismal state Vse 1. And let that be the first Improvement I would make of this Discourse To awaken Apostates and Backsliders to Consider their Danger It may be you have gratified your Lusts notwithstanding the Light of Conscience and the Motions of the Spirit Now it may be you can sin with less Regret and don 't feel the Wounds you give your selves by your Transgressions Can you say but that the Blessed Spirit is retired in great measure already And is it any Wonder after so many struggles and Conflicts if he should for ever Retire and leave you to the full uncontroulable Dominion of your own Lusts If he should say he that is filthy let him be ●●thy still because you would not bepurged you shall not be purged till I make my Fury to rest upon you Awake therefore and consider your Danger You that find any of these things agree to your own Case beware lest you be in the Number of those that draw back unto Perdition in whom God says his Soul can take no Pleasure Heb. 10.38 Take no Pleasure that is whom he loaths and detests Were we not under some great Declension some sad degree of Hardness of Heart our selves how should we pity the Case of all such Persons who are near this Judgment With what hearty Concern for them should we endeavour their Recovery did we know better and believingly consider more what it is to be left of God and given over With what hearty Grief should I mourn over such Persons With what Groans and Tears of Compassion should I warn them and try to awaken them if my own Heart were not under somwhat of this Hardness which they are like to be totally given up unto I confess at first I was loth to preach or publish these things lest I should drive some to Despair But upon more serious Consideration I do not think that the Generality of People are so very apt to Despair They have ten thousand ways to flatter themselves and they will hope for the most part in despight of all Arguments to the Contrary In all the Scripture there is but one Example of a despairing Man and that was Judas Who did not despair by reason of any terrible Doctrine which was preached to him but because of the Load of his own foul sin and the Weakness and Pusillanimity of his own Spirit But for one who despairs O what Multitudes are there who live in sin and yet Sibi suaviter benedicunt think themselves in a good Condition and that all is well Though the Scriptures say that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved and that the Gate is straight that leads to Life yet every Body almost hopes to be saved in the Course they are in though it be the broad way YOU that are under any of these dangerous Symptoms that approach to such a Judgment take heed of Encouraging your selves in a false Hope of ●vation Bethink your selves ap●nd your Da●ger and awake to prevent the dismal Issue Make haste and escape for your Life if yet there be Hope of your Recovery It must be speedy Repentance now while it is called to day before the Master of the House be gone and the Door shut For then many shall seek to enter and shall not be able For so we read Luk. 13.24 25 Verses connected without a full stop between them as in our Translation If you are not yet sealed up and given over as the Motions of the Spirit yet striving with you and some Concernedness about your own Case is a good Argument that you are not O awake and call upon God! Remembering whence you are fallen and repent presently For if you resist and refuse this Call of God you may never have Another or never have Grace to hearken to another and then the Issue will be the same I would hope that none of those to whom I now speak are so Lost but they may be Recovered And I cannot think that any who reads this is in so hopeless a Case but he may find Me●cy if yet he will seek it He has 〈◊〉 sinned the sin unto Death who is afraid left he be guilty of it You are not absolutely given over and forsaken of God or sure that you shall finally be so that this Spirit will no more return though in some Degree you are forsaken If you are brought to consider your Danger and to resolve to use Means to prevent the fatal Issue You are not finally left of God whatever dangerous Approaches you have made to such a

Judgment In the Consideration therefore of your Danger awake to use Gods appointed Means And here 1. I might advise that you Watch carefully lest you enter into Temptation 2. That you take heed of slight Thoughts of sin 3. That you labour to have right Apprehensions concerning the Attributes of God and the tenor of the New Covenant by Christ Jesus 4. That you attend the Ministry of the Word with a Desire and Design of some spiritual Advantage suitable to your own Case Take heed of being slight and careless in the use of those Means that must cure a hard Heart if ever it be cured 5. In the 〈◊〉 of all Means look up to God for 〈◊〉 Influence of the divine Spirit Apprehend the Necessity of it for the Cure of a hard or backsliding Heart 6. Call your selves often to an Account how matters stand between God and you 7. Ingage more heartily seriously and constantly in the use of secret Prayer 8. Improve the sickness and Death of others as Warnings to awaken the Thoughts of your own 9. In any Doubt and Difficulty of Conscience especially under Temptations to Despair do not scruple to open your Case to some faithful Minister of Christ that may enlighten and and guide you 10. Labour to understand distinctly what that Repentance towards God is and that Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ which are the stated Terms of Life and the Condition of the new Covenant And never give over the use of Means till you are brought to Repent of all your sins against God and truly to believe in Jesus Christ with all your Heart evidencing your unfeigned Faith by new Obedience Therefore take heed by what Marks and Signs you Judge your selves lest all your Soul Trouble should end in a false Peace I connot conclude without repeating the Admonition against that false Peace which one great Work of our Ministry is to destroy For there are Multitdes of People who pretend to love God and to love good Men and to trust in Christ that he dyed for them and to rely on Christ and to cast themselves on Christ and think they believe on him and that they shall be saved Who will tell you that as for Obedience they mind it as they can though they be not as good as others their Hearts are good and they mean well and they know their own Hearts better than Ministers do they are sure they believe in Christ and they will conclude that all is well c. Tho 't is notorious of Many such that they are Ignorant of God and strangers to Christ and live in the common allowed practice of great sins Yet they will thus Hope well of themselves and speak Peace to themselves NO Wonder if they do so now when even at the Day of Judgment some are brought in disputing with Christ till the Heart of their Hopes 〈◊〉 broken by his condemning Sen●ce Not as if those that now dye 〈…〉 ●●enitence and Unbelief should not know or believe that they shall perish for ever till after the general Judgment But matters seem there to be represented as applied to the Persons of those who shall be found alive at the End of this World or whose Eternal State in the next World is concluded by what their Case is when they leave this state of salvation SEE Therefore that your Hopes be of a right Kind grounded on Scripture Evidence pur●fying the Heart conquering the World exciting thy Desires after Christ and Heaven making thee to sin less and to please and glorifie God more Such an Hope you may hold fast it will not make you ashamed But of all things fear a false Hope Dread it as you would the sin of Despair yea as the most dangerous of the two because more common I mean not a Despair of the sufficiency and Willingness of Christ to pardon and save thee if thou repent and believe and obey him Nor a Despair of finding Mercy if thou heartily seek it But despair thou must of ever seeing God without Holiness Despair that Christ will ever be the Author of eternal Salvation to any but such as believe and obey him Despair of escaping Eternal Death if thou live after the Flesh Despair of entering into Heaven if thou wilt not seek it in the first place Despair of escaping the Doom of perishing with the Ungodly except you soundly Repent except you turn to God and Holiness from sin and the World except you penitently and thankfully accept of Christ obey and follow him as your Lord and Saviour Despair therefore of ever being saved in the state thou art in with whom it is not thus GOD will ere long deal plainly with thee and let thee know the Truth And what will it avail thy perishing Soul for Ministers to deceive and flatter thee with vain Hopes when without Repentance and turning to God in Christ there is none Nay if any thing keep thee out of Heaven I speak of the Case of most ordinary Hearers and Professors If any ●hing keep thee out of Heaven it is a ●se and groundless Hope of coming thi●●er CHRISTIANS We must 〈…〉 speak plain Would you have us be unfaithful to God and you We must be accountable to God ere long as well as you We must stand before his Judgment seat as well as you Why should we give you Hopes if God do give you none I therefore say it again that without speedy and sincere Repentance towards God and Faith in Jesus Christ evidenced by cordial faithful Obedience to him there is no Hope for any one of you And they that hear often of these things and will yet go on in sin it is Just with God to leave them and give them up to their own Hearts Lust Therefore 〈…〉 away your Transgressions return to the Lord with all your Hearts and yield your selves to the Claim and Call of Christ without Delay while Mercy invites you and Grace may be had for why will you Dye O House of Israel FINIS Books Printed for Abraham Chandler THe Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses from several Texts 8● price bound 1 s. 6 d. Death a Deliverance in a Funeral Discourse from 2 Cor. 5.4 fit to bind with the Mourners Companion Sacramental Discourses on several Texts before and after the Lords Supper together with a Para●●●n the Lords Prayer 12º 1 s. Practical Relfection 〈…〉 are Earthquakes in Jamaica 〈…〉 Malta c. With a Particular 〈◊〉 Account of those and Divers other Earthquakes 8º price bound 1 s. 6 d. Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity with some other Subjects Moral and Divine to which is Annexed an Appendix concerning the first Day of the year how observed by the Jews and may best be employed by a serious Christian All five by Mr. John Shower