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
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

wilt afflict me how thou pleasest strip me of all my pleasant Things if that may serve the Ends of thy Glory only let not thy holy Spirit forsake me only deliver me out of ●he hands of my Lusts break these my Chains knock off these Fetters save me from my sins and from th● Wrath accept me for thy Covenan● servant write thy Law upon my Heart that I may walk in thy Ways And whatever thou give me or whatever thou deny me Lord for Jesu● Christ's sake never give me up to my ow● Hearts Lusts that I should be left to wa●● in my own Counsels Amen The Second Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels WE can never look back to our primitive state considering how richly and plentifully the Bounty of our Maker ●ad provided for us without admi●ing Thoughts of his Beneficence and Kindness And yet if we view the Divine Compassion unto guilty and ●ebellious Man since the Fall and ●ow many obstacles his Grace over●ame This latter will be Judged to surpass his former Bounty to Innocent Man For before the Entrance of sin the Current of Divine Love met with nothing to obstruct its passage the● was nothing to discourage its Exe●cise towards an Innocent and Obedient Creature But now sin hath made a great gulf betwixt God and us We are in a state of Enmity and Hostility against Him which sets a value upon the Power and Freenes● of the Grace imployed to Recove● and save us And yet after all this display of th● unsearchable Riches of Grace and Love in the Work of our Redemption it is a question whether our willful provoking Obstinacy against God be not more astonishing than his undeserved Compassion and Love to us that in contradiction to all the Princ●ples of Reason and Interest we should slight his Kindness and despise his glorious Love and refuse his Grace the only Remedy that can save us That when he offers to be Reconciled to us and Intreats us to be Reconcile● to him we will not hearken to his Voice That we should persist in our chosen Distance and Estrangment and say We will have none of him Let him depart from us we desire not the Knowledge of his ways We care for ●o Reconciliation to him or Communion with him or any share in the Happiness he offers to confer upon ●s Were not this very highly pro●oking the Blessed God would not Complain of it as he doth and Repreach ●s with it as he also doth in many ●laces and particularly in this My People would not hearken to my Voice and ●srael would none of me so I gave them ●p c. Both Expressions are in the ●uture though we translate them as al●eady inflicted The Original signi●●es that God would deal so severely ●ith them The Aggravations of his Complaint of God concerning Israel have been already mentioned What I propose now to discourse of ●s this First That it is matter of most Just Complaint and most heavy Re●roach when any People or Person will not hearken to the Voice of God Secondly That for any wilful sin●ers to be given up by God to their own Hearts Lusts and left to walk in their own Counsels is one of the most fearful Judgments that can be threatned or inflicted In speaking to the Second General I proposed to shew First What it is fo● God to give Men up to their ow● Hearts Lusts And that such a thing there may be and is as Gods giving men over to their false Imaginations and Conceptions of things their inordinate Desires and irregular Passions their wicked Projects and Contrivances for the fulfilling of their variou● Lusts c. When he gives them up to these Lusts he casts them out of hi● special Care and Protection so as they become an easy prey to the Devi● And the Hebrew word which we translate give up is often used for th● casting out a People out of their Country as in 44. Psal 2. Such Persons a● also left of God under the Tyranny and Dominion of their Lusts withou● those Restraints of Providence an● Grace which before they had Wha● more may be intended in such an Expression will appear in speaking to the Second Head viz. To shew by what steps and Degrees God doth execute and inflict such a Judgment upon them And then Thirdly I shall speak something further of the Dreadfulness of this Judgment and so Apply the whole II. By What steps or Degrees the Blessed God doth usually proceed in inflicting such a Judgment as this For the better understanding of this I must premise by way of Caution 1. That Whatever Method is taken in the Execution of so severe a Doom we must remember there is a great depth of Obscurity in these Judgments of God There is so in all his works of Judgment but especially in such as do more immediately relate to the Souls of Men. We know very little of the manner of Gods Influence upon mens Spirits and therefore should be very humble and wary modest and cautions in our Expressions about it And yet from what we observe of such spiritual Judgments we may cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out We know very little of the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Influence in forming the Image of God upon the Soul and much less concerning the manner of this Punishment in the Text whereby men are hardened in sin through the righteous Judgment of God to their Eternal Ruine However 2. Remember This is a Judicial Act in God not an arbitrary thing that depends upon meer Will and Pleasure without any respect to the Aggravations of Mens wilful Rebellion and sinning against Light It is such a Judgment as supposes very hainous Provocations to precede it The Instance of the Jews doth abundantly prove this with whom the Patience of God did long bear and his Spirit strive But they alwaies resisted the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 From generation to generation maintaining the war against the Divine Spirit till he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them Isa 63.9 10. And then their Doom is pronounc'd in a most solemn manner with terrible and astonishing Preparations for it Isa 6. By a glorious Apparition of the great God in the Temple which made the Prophet cry out I am undone c. The fearful message he was to deliver to that People was that 9 10. v. Hear ye indeed but understand not see ye indeed but perceive not make the Heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed This Doom we find with great Awfulness repeated in the new Testament by our Saviour Mat. 13.14 Luk. 8.10.12 John 40. And

And in the verse following the Text Luk. 19.41 O that my People had hearkened to my Voice and walked in my Ways This is the Subject Matter of the complaint of these Words which is attended with a Threatning of one of the heaviest Judgments that can be inflicted My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up c. Here is First A most Reproaching Complaint Secondly A most Terrible Threatning The Complaint is in the 11th verse My People would not hearken to my Voice c. The most significant Words are used to awaken Shame and Indignation in the guilty Persons against themselves for refusing to hearken to the Voice of God First Their Fault is aggravated from their near Relation to God My People Israel the beloved Nation my peculiar People favoured above the Rest of the World with many special advantages They did not hearken to me Secondly From their Wilfulness They would not hearken to me They would none of me For though the first Expression in the Hebrew be only thus My People did not hearken to me yet the latter Words They would none of me doth lay the Blame upon their own Wilfulness and does sufficiently Justify our Translation of it It is aggravated Thirdly From what their not hearkening to Gods Voice did imply and carry in it That they would none of God they refused to have God for their God They cared not for any Relation to him or Acquaintance with him or Instruction from him or Happiness by him They would none of me Secondly unto this Complaint in the 11th verse is Subjoyned a terrible Threatning ver 12th So I gave them up to their Hearts Lusts to walk in their own Councels In the Hebrew both Expressions are in the Future that for their former Provocations God would do so and the latter is the Consequence of the former The walking in their own Councels is the Fruit of their being given up to their own Hearts Lusts There are two Things may be collected as the Sum of both Verses to be discoursed of from them First That it is Matter of Just Complaint and Reproach when a People or Person will not hearken to the Voice of God Secondly That for such wilful Persons to be given up to their own Hearts Lusts so as to be left of God to walk in their own Councels is one of the most fearful Judgments that can be threatned or inflicted in this World Something I would speak to the former though in order to the latter which is principally designed And what Subject more seasonable or more likely to be useful unto those who have the Voice of God repeated to them Week after Week with such Frequency and Variety as you have it in this City First That it is Matter of Just Complaint and Reproach for any People or Person not to hearken to the Voice of God And here it will be proper to shew 1. What it is not to hearken to the Voice of God 2. How this appears to be such Just Matter of Complaint from God and Reproach unto us who are guilty of it First What it is not to hearken to the Voice of God By the Voice of God here we are to Understand that of his Word as is manifest from Jer. 7.23 28. Verses This thing commanded I them saying Obey my Voice and I will be your God But they hearkned not ●or inclined their Ear but walked in the Councels and Imaginations of their own evil Hearts therefore shalt thou say unto them this is a Nation that Obeyeth not the Voice of the Lord their God His instructing and informing Voice is here meant That which discovers the Nature of God and our Duty the wretched state of our Case by the first Apostacy and the Method of our Recovery to the Image and Life of God and Communion with him It is also his commanding Voice unto the Authority whereof we all owe utmost Obedience and subjection It is that Voice of God which warns us of our Danger invites us to Terms of Peace and Reconciliation directs us what we ought to do that we may be saved c. And have we not all the Obligation in the World to hearken to this Voice carefully to attend to it to consider its Authority to make a Judgment about its Necessity and Importance about the Reasonableness and advantages of our Obedience c. Now there be many that Openly and Expresly refuse to hearken to thi● Voice But the Number is greater of such who do it Vertually and in Effect either by their groundless Cavils and Objections against the Word of God or by their frivolous Excuses and toolish Delays of complying with it or by Obeying the contrary Dictates of the Flesh and the World and hearkening to the Voice of Satan by all which they manifest their Unwillingness to hearken to the Voice of God But Secondly How does this appear to be such a Matter of Just Complaint and Reproach To this Purpose we may consider 1. Whose Voice it is you● refuse to hearken to Heb. 1.2 the Voice of God by his Son Whom he hath appointed Heir of all Things and by whom he made the World the Brightness of his Fathers Glory the Express Image of nis Person Heb. 2.2 If Disobedience to the Word spoken by Angels received a Just Recompence of Reward How shall we escape if we neglect and slight and will not hearken to that Word of Salvation which began to be spoken by our Lord himself See therefore sayes the Apostle that you refuse not him that speaketh Heb 12.25 ver for if they Escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth Much more shall not we Escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven I might amplify this by Considering the Authority the Veracity the Wisdom the Kindness and Condescention of him that speaketh and to whom we are called and Obliged to hearken I might aggravate it by Considering how all our Senses and our Reason our Power of Hearing and Understanding are all from Him And how often he hath heard our Voice when we have cryed to him in our Distress And how ready he is to hear us in every time of need when none else can help or save us And how severely he can punish our Refusal For in his hand is our Life and Breath and all our Ways It is he who hath Power to save or to Destroy and shall we refuse to hearken to his Voice Yea further he designes our Good and intends our Happiness by what he speaks He can have no Accession to his own by our Felicity but might glorify himself in our Ruine if we decline the Invitations of his Mercy and refuse to hearken to his Voice Secondly Consider not only who it is that speaks but what kind of Voice it is How gentle how obliging how beneficent and condescending He doth not now speak to us with Majestick Terrour