Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	faith_n	good_a	unfeigned_a	2,823	5	11.0408	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80577	An antidote against lust: or, A discourse of uncleanness, shewing its various kinds, great evil, the temptations to it, and most effectual cure. By Robert Carr, minister of the Church of England	Carr, Robert, fl. 1686-1696.	1690 (1690)	Wing C629A; ESTC R231166	82,048	192

my knowledge he hath carried himself soberly modestly piously and indeed every way commendably In my Testimonials for Holy Orders a little while after Utpote qui ex ante-actâ vitâ magnam nobis spem praebuerit Ecclesiae Reipublicae utilem fore imo pene necessarium The two last Ministers of Sussex whom I served when a Curate Mr. J Dn. of Ch. and Mr. Bor. of Tw gave me this Testimony under their hands May 10. 1689. That Mr. R. C. whom we have been acquainted with these three Years is a Person exemplary and unblamable in his Life and Conv●rsation Orthodox in his Faith c. My Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Rom. 9. 1. which is as Mille Testes a thousand Witnesses that as God's Grace hath ever preserved me from Whoredom and Adultery Nor do I know that my Will was ever corrupted to have once designed or intended any such thing and if I were to dye the next hour I could not accuse my self of any thing worse which I speak without any Equivocation so have I served God in my Ministry with a pure Heart a good Conscience and a Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. Do but judge according to Charity which thinketh no evil and is not forward to suspect the worst Speak with Charity which casteth a Mantle over others Infirmities even as Christ terms the Church his Spouse the fairest among Women Cant. ch 1. v. 8. although she hath many imperfections in her as Mr. Ager's Paraphrase on it This says he is contrary to the practice of the World who if they see a Man that professeth Religion to be filled with many excellent Virtues that be worthy of praise yet if they can with thejr curious eyes but see any imperfection in him they quickly set him upon the Stage c. They are willing to behold his stains and blemishes and to cover him with infamy and reproach but they bury all things that are comely in him in the grave of Oblivion I begg of the Reader so much candour and ingenuity as to receive this Discourse chiefly rational and argumentative with the same honest mind with which it was intended that God would bless it to the great end of doing good and make it effectual for turning many souls unto righteousness that now lye wallowing in the mire of all Filth and Uncleanness and that those who have been more lately washed clean in Baptism and through their tender years yet are undefiled may flee youthful Lusts and escape the pollutions which are in the World and be preserved pure and blameless for that inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled reserved in Heaven for them is the hearty Prayer of Theirs Thine and the Churches Servant R. C. A Discourse of Uncleanness COL III. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members which are upon the earth Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry THIS Chapter begins with an Exhortation to heavenly-mindedness that the generous spirit of a Christian may be elevated beyond those terrene and sublunary enjoyments and objects of sense to the invisible things of Faith v. 1. Seek those things which are above prosecute them with might and main use all diligence by the most earnest and serious endeavours for the attainment of those things as St. Paul hath it Phil. 3. 12. following after if that I may apprehend c. or lay hold on eternal Life and pressing forward for the prize of our Calling in Christ Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our calling from above or our heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus v. 13. In the 2d v. positively Set your Affections on the things above the things of the other World those better things that you look for hereafter according to the exceeding great and precious Promises that God hath made you in his Son Negatively and not on the things on Earth the base and mean Objects the poor pittiful things here below as not worthy of your affections of your cares and your thoughts according to the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies primarily the application of our minds our reason and understanding sursum sapere as in the Latine to be wise for the things above and not the things on earth The Reasons enforcing this Exhortation are drawn First From their spiritual Resurrection in conformity with Christ If ye be risen with Christ v. 1. or have felt the power of his Resurrection as Phil. 3. 10. or as Eph. 1. 19 20. the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead if this power hath quickned you raised you from sin if this heavenly life and disposition be in you then let the same appear by your heavenly-mindedness 2d Argument From Christ's residence in Heaven in his state of Exaltation where Christ also sitteth on the right hand of God v. 1. in the lat part Is Christ our Head in Heaven and shall we the Members be groveling here on earth should we not rather by our heavenly minds and affections ascend up thither whither Christ is gone before to prepare a place and sitteth to keep possession for us 3d. Arg. Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye are dead from these things below in the 3d. v. by a death unto sin as in our Baptism renouncing and disowning the World the Flesh ●nd the Devil to live no longer according to the course of this World the Lusts of ●he Flesh or the Works of the Devil in●onfistent with the Christian Profession and Practice 4th Arg. From their expectation of a glorious life hereafter at Christ's second ●oming v. 4. For when Christ who is our ●ife shall appear then shall ye also appear ●ith him in glory that therefore we should ●ave our Conversation in Heaven from whence we look for that blessed Hope and he glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 13. The Apostle having enforced the positiv● part or his Exhortation to heavenly-mindedness with these Arguments falls upo● a farther prosecution of the Negative S● not your Affections on things on earth gi●ing the Colossians and us with them a d●rection how to carry our selves toward● them even in a Mortification of our Members which are upon earth Fornication ● that is of our earthly and sensual Affection Mortificare or to Mortifie in English as much as mortuum facere to make dea● cause to dye or put to death when applied to sin it is a figurative Speech take● from things which have life and probabl● enough from the Sacrifices under the Law which were kill'd and slain by the Priest b●fore they were offered upon the Altar a●swerably to which we must kill the old ma● of sin before we can become a Sacrifice a●ceptable to God by Jesus Christ Killing the Old man or the first Ada● as 1 Cor. 15. 45. Not in respect of t● Substance but the Quality the evil Disp●sitions the corrupt Nature descended a● conveighed to

us from Adams sin and ● from God and the Holiness of his fir● estate Crucifying the flesh we read of and Cr●cified to the World an Allusion to Christs death upon the Cross a painfull and tormenting death and so is Death commonly attended with pain the pains of Death at the last hour and the preceding hours and sometimes days which makes Nature look upon Death with a great deal of horrour and reluctancy And thus corrupt Nature looks upon mortifying the fleshly lusts as a sore evil it puts the flesh to a great deal of pain and misery it afflicts the Body in denying it satisfaction crossing it in its sinful desires its evil lustings and therefore it is compared in Scripture to the plucking out a right Eye to the cutting off a right Hand or a right Foot and casting it from one so difficult is it for a man to deny himself herein in the Mortification of his darling Lust This to mortifie your members c. saith one of the Fathers is the hardest Text in the whole Bible and the hardest Duty in Christianity that we can go about Mortification of sin is the giving a deadly wound to sin to the reigning and commanding power of sin which is the Life of sin subduing the Corruption and wickedness of our Natures the evil Inclinations and dispositions of man in his saln sinful state so that the heart is cleansed and purged from the love of sin sin disabled from lording it and having the dominion over us every unruly Lust overmastered and brought under This is Mortification or the giving a deadly wound to sin even as a man is said to be a dead man when he is mortally wounded or when he is inwardly decayed as to his vital parts or the breaking some principal Vein in the Body albeit in some such cases they have some remainder of life and that may continue sometimes years after or as when the main Body of an Army is routed and beaten out of field or dead upon the place though there may be some striving and strugling or faint resistance from the remainder yet it doth not hinder them from the Victory Even so it is here when the main Body of sin is subdued and beaten out of the Heart of a Christian though there be some Reliquiae or remainders of corruption yet sin is mortified for this mortifying work i● not perfect here it doth not root out sin and dispossess it wholly that we should have no sin at all left in us or sin no more and be pure from sin after Mortification For the most righteous man upon the ●ac● of the Earth hath the seed of sin the roo● of evil in him Flesh as well as Spirit a● Heart deceitfull and desperately wicked considered naturally in and of it self as well as a new heart and a new spirit formed in Christ Jesus And therefore the unregenerate part hath need to be still mortified lest otherwise it break out into those evils and abominations which we read of in Lot's Drunkenness and Incest Jacob's deceitful dealing with Laban Davia's Murther and Adultery Solomon's Idolatry and Carnality Jonah's great Impatience and Murmuring against God and self-justifying in his so doing Peter's denyal of his Master with Cursing and Swearing too St. Mark 14. 71. Which are sad evidences of the frailty of our Nature and the abiding of sin alter sanctification as Rom. 7. largely proves our indwelling sin to be soliciting and tempting and stirring to evil and we have need of continued Influences of the Spirit to carry on this work of Mortification continually it is not to be only for a time by fits and starts but when we have master●d sin and conquered its temptation at present it will renew its strength and return upon you again like that Monster Hydra's ●ead it will repullulate and find you work or repeating your assaults and reiterating ●our mortifying blows like a conquered Nation which will be labouring still to recover its former power and soveraignty and must be continually kept under with standing Garrisons so sin will be restless and striving still for the mastery taking all occasions to soil us if we do not hold up a constant work killing sin when it is reviving nipping it when in the bud least it sprou● and grow up again and bring forth its corrupt fruit But more of this in the Use for Trial of our Mortification Having shown what Mortification is we come next to shew what is meant by Members Piscator says of the Apostle Cupidi tates vocat membra and Mr. Leigh in hi● Annotations much the same Lusts some o● which he nameth afterwards Dr. Hammond understands it of our inordinate Affections Dr. Preston says by Members i● meant Sin or any foul Affection or desir● of the Heart when our Affections fix o● settle upon an unlawful Object as anothe● Man's Possessions another Man's Wife o● any acts of Uncleanness as those out of married estate are all unclean any Heathenish or Popish Antichristian Honour and Preferments Or when the Heart is set upon lawf● things in an undue measure an immoderat● distrustful care of his worldly concern● which otherwise were lawful and must b● cared for with Faith and Sobriety A Man may take some kind of Pleasure and use some sports Hunting Fishing Hawking Bowling for his Recreation while he hath the command over his Affections but if he be captivated and his heart brought under the power of any as 1 Cor. 6. 12. to love the World to love his lawful Comforts or his Child excessively if his love to any Creature eclipse his Love to God and draw away his Heart from Religion and deaden his joys and delights in God and Duty or be so predominant that a man cannot resign up that Creature that Comfort to God to bear the loss of it it becomes sin and defiles the Man Our Lusts and corrupt Affections are called Members because 1. The whole Corruption of Man's Nature is compared to a Mans Body and called the body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. and the body of Death the latter not only because it was so grievous to the Apostle as that lamentable Exclamation noteth O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. that it was as death is to a natural Man or worse than death to him but a body of death in that sense as we are dead in trespasses and sins being the cursed fruit and effect of spiritual death the remainder of that death and called a body because of its quantity there being a mass an heap of Corruption even in the Saints though it be overpowred by God's Grace and hindered from breaking forth in their Lives in that measure as it doth in the Unregenerate Now every soul Affection is as a Member of this Body every unmortified Lust a limb in this old man of sin 2. Lusts are called Members because they do work in our Members Iam. 4. 1. Whence come wars

your selves from the sins of Sodom according to those words Ye Rulers of Sodom Ye people of Gomorrha and verse 21 How is the faithful City become an Harlot may be compared with that before be literally understood and argue their guilt even in this kind Further the 2 Tim. ● 22. Flee also youthful Lusts but follow Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart the words import as if none did follow after Righteousness but such as call on the Lord out of a pure heart others are not mentioned in the number nor their Services of any account not accepted as the works of Righteousness If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayers saith David David was an Holy man God himself gave him that Testimony yet while his Lusts remained unmortified after his Adultery with Bathsheba and like enough some time before it his Prayers were not heard it is plain enough by that instance of his Murther of Vriah adding Sin unto Sin If his Prayers had been heard as no doubt but he did pray in the Interim between the Adultery committed and the Prophet Nathans reproof of him by the Parable God would never have left him to fall further not into so crying a Sin as the Murther of the Husband This seems too to have been the case of Solomon while his lusts remained unmortified as during his many Wives all his religious performances availed little or nothing as 1 Kings 11. where you find him drawn away by his Women to Idolatry in the 4th verse it is said his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods building high places for their Idols Even thus it is with Good men while their lusts remain unmortified their Services remain unaccepted In Malachi 2. 13. ye read of those that covered the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out but the Lord regarded not their offering nor received it with good will at their hands yet they said Wherefore Answered because they dealt treacherously with the Wife of your youth vers 1● explaineth it the Lord saith that he hateth putting away This I urge in no wise as an● argument against prayer and other duties as if people should cease to pray and leave serving God because of the naughtiness of their hearts for that were running farther and farther from God and that grace which should reform and better them But only for this end that people should pray more and even turn the chief force of their prayers against their Lusts and labour more to bring their Lusts in subjection that so nothing remain to hinder their prayers from being heard or to defile and pollute their Services Third Argument for Mortification Unmortified lusts argue a man to be dead in Grace such as remain unsubdued when constant and permanent and not only temporary as in good men Titus 3. 3. For we our selves also were sometime foolish disobedient serving divers Lusts and pleasures sometime that is in their unregenerate Estate 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth even as those 2 Tim. 3. 4. Who were lovers of pleasures more than lovers of ●od And those Eph. 2. 1 2 3. before they were quickned or received the spirit of Life from God were ●ead in trespasses and sins dead as to the ●piritual Life the life of Gaace which ●● the most sad and deplorable kind of death they are said to have had the● Conversation in the lusts of their Flesh fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the mind and were by nature or their corruption of nature since sin and the fall children of wrath even as others all others are while they walk in the lusts of the flesh Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye stand Condemned by the word of God and adjudged to eternal death But if ye through the spirit do mortisie the deeds of the body ye shall live When any of Pythagoras his Scholars had degenerated in their Morals from the sober modest and vertuous precepts of their Master and let themselves loose to all kind of Vice and brutish sensuality there was set a Bier as for dead mens Corps in his Room to signifie that the man was dead though the Beast was alive Among those that were invited to the Gospel Feast Luke 14. 20. you find one made his excuse he had Married a Wife and could not come not come and serve God in his Ordinances or at least not heartily his heart was after his Lusts Not to be so taken as if a Married State were inconsistent with Religion or that they did ill in Marrying which is an Ordinance of God but the laying Religion aside then as if it were not a time for Religion and indulging their Lusts and giving themselves up to their Marriage pleasure without any regard to God for to serve him which must be our main business in every estate of Life Fourth Argument for Mortification of our Lusts Because we vowed to God and Covenanted in our Baptism to renounce the sinful lusts of the Flesh The Devil the World and the Flesh are the enemies of our Salvation mentioned in our Church Catechism and in holy Scripture as Eph. 2. 2 3. St. James ch 1. 4. Lusts are said to War in our Members and in 1 Epist of Peter c. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly Lusts which War against the Soul and the Soul must War against them for ever renouncing all the sinful lusts of the Flesh that is disowning rejecting them their motions and temptations with an hatred and abhorrence of them in our hearts or at least such a dislike of them as may prevail against them Now if Covenants made in worldly matters as Bonds and Leases bind their Heirs and Successours even the Children yet unborn so in Spirituals when Parents Covenant for their Children in Baptism desiring it for their Children and procuring others as Sureties to be bound with them for the greater assurance of the Childrens Religious Education and performance of the Covenant Duties and Conditions no doubt but it binds them as much in Spirituals to stand to and perform the Religious as well as the Civil Contracts and Covenants And he is Perjur'd who breaks this solemn Vow and Covenant that lives at peace and at friendship with the World or the Flesh loving his Lusts without that hatred and enmity which he is bound to by Baptism to strive and struggle with them for the Mastery to Watch and Pray and use all good and holy means for their Mortification and so long as ye hold out this good fight of Faith resisting this Spiritual Enemy and praying against your Lusts so long you keep your ground and quit your selves like men and are Conquerours if you are not Conquered though you may not have that full Victory that triumphant satisfaction in your Spirit and that inward peace which some others have But if once they