Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	ear_n	eye_n	fat_a	2,377	5	10.2276	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48891	A second letter concerning toleration	Locke, John, 1632-1704.; Proast, Jonas. Argument of the letter concerning toleration.	1690 (1690)	Wing L2755; ESTC R5484	59,686	70

Men compell'd to hear but thought the good Tidings of Salvation and the Proposals of Life and Death Means and Inducements enough to make them hear and consider now as well as heretofore Then your Means your Punishments are not necessary What if God would have Men left to their freedom in this Point if they will hear or if they will forbear will you constrain them Thus we are sure he did with his own People And this when they were in Captivity And 't is very like were ill treated for being of a different Religion from the National and so were punished as Dissenters Yet then God expected not that those Punishments should force them to hearken more than at other times As appears by Ezek. 3.11 And this also is the Method of the Gospel We are Ambassadors for Christ as if God did beseech by us we pray in Christ's stead says St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 20. If God had thought it necessary to have Men punish'd to make them give Ear he could have call'd Magistrates to be Spreaders and Ministers of the Gospel as well as poor Fisher-men or Paul a Persecutor who yet wanted not Power to punish where Punishment was necessary as is evident in Ananias and Sapphira and the incestuous Corinthian 2ly What if God foreseeing this Force would be in the hands of Men as passionate as humoursome as liable to Prejudice and Error as the rest of their Brethren did not think it a proper Means to bring Men into the Right Way 3ly What if there be other Means Then yours ceases to be necessary upon the account that there is no means left For you your self allow That the Grace of God is another means And I suppose you will not deny it to be both a proper and sufficient Means and which is more the only Means such Means as can work by it self and without which all the Force in the World can do nothing God alone can open the Ear that it may hear and open the Heart that it may understand and this he does in his own good Time and to whom he is graciously pleas'd but not according to the Will and Phancy of Man when he thinks sit by Punishments to compel his Brethren If God has pronounced against any Person or People what he did against the Jews Isa. 6.10 Make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Hearts and convert and be healed Will all the Force you can use be a Means to make them hear and understand and be converted But Sir to return your Argument You see no other Means left taking the World as we now find it to make Men throughly and impartially examine a Religion which they imbraced upon such Inducements as ought to have no sway at all in the Matter and with little or no examination of the proper Grounds of it And thence you conclude the use of Force by the Magistrate upon Dissenters necessary And I say I see no other Means left taking the World as we now find it wherein the Magistrates never lay Penalties for Matters of Religion upon those of his own Church nor is it to be expected they ever should to make Men of the National Church any where throughly and impartially examine a Religion which they imbraced upon such Inducements as ought to have no sway at all in the Matter and therefore with little or no examination of the proper Grounds of it And therefore I conclude the use of Force by Dissent●…rs upon Conformists necessary I appeal to the World whether this be not as just and natural a Conclusion as yours Though if you will have my Opinion I think the more genuine Consequence is that Force to make Men examine Matters of Religion is not necessary at all But you may take which of these Consequences you please Both of them I am sure you cannot avoid It is not for you and me out of an imagination that they may be useful or are necessary to prescribe means in the great and mysterious Work of Salvation other than what God himself has directed God has appointed Force as useful and necessary and therefore it is to be used is a way of Arguing becoming the Ignorance and Humility of poor Creatures But I think Force useful or necessary and therefore it is to be used has methinks a little too much presumption in it You ask What Means else is there left None say I to be used by Man but what God himself has directed in the Scriptures wherein are contained all the Means and Methods of Salvation Faith is the Gift of God And we are not to use any other Means to procure this Gift to any one but what God himself has prescribed If he has there appointed that any should be forced to hear those who tell them they have mistaken their way and offer to shew them the right and that they should be punished by the Magistrate if they did not 't will be past doubt it is to be made use of But till that can be done 't will be in vain to say what other Means is there left If all the Means God has appointed to make Men hear and consider be Exhortation in Season and out of Season c. together with Prayer for them and the Example of Meekness and a good Life this is all ought to be done Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear By these means the Gospel at first made it self to be heard through a great part of the World and in a crooked and perverse Generation led away by Lusts Humours and Prejudice as well as this you complain of prevail'd with Men to hear and imbrace the Truth and take care of their own Souls without the assistance of any such Force of the Magistrate which you now think needful But whatever Neglect or Aversion there is in some Men impartially and throughly to be instructed there will upon a due Examination I fear be found no less a Neglect and Aversion in others impartially and throughly to instruct them 'T is not the talking even general Truths in plain and clear Language much less a Man 's own Fancies in Scholastick or uncommon ways of speaking an hour or two once a week in publick that is enough to instruct even willing Hearers in the way of Salvation and the Grounds of their Religion They are not Politick Discourses which are the means of right Information in the Foundations of Religion For with such sometimes venting Antimonarchical Principles sometimes again preaching up nothing but absolute Monarchy and Passive Obedience as the one or other have been in vogue and the way to Preferment have our Churches rung in their turns so loudly that Reasons and Arguments proper and sufficient to convince Men of the Truth in the controverted Points of Religion and to direct them in the right way to Salvation were scarce