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
A85853	Funerals made cordials: in a sermon prepared and (in part) preached at the solemn interment of the corps of the Right Honorable Robert Rich, heire apparent to the Earldom of Warwick. (Who aged 23. died Febr. 16. at Whitehall, and was honorably buried March 5. 1657. at Felsted in Essex.) By John Gauden, D.D. of Bocking in Essex.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1658 (1658)	Wing G356; Thomason E946_1; ESTC R202275	99,437	136

established and used for above an hundred yeares by the most noble wise and religious persons in this Nation of all degrees with no small benefit of piety to the living especially the common people but they crosse also the permissions yea the Institutions even of God himself in his holy word as by Solomons pen here so by the Apostles afterward injoyning us to Preach and so to pray in season and out of season to doe all things to edification and with decency becomming Christians as well as men especially in such eases as most affect the living in reference both to their own others mortal state which dasheth all faith hope and holy industry of a godly life the best men being of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 if there be not a frequent and full Antidote against our dying and sorrowing condition duely applyed from the holy word of God as to the happy and hopeful state of such as live and die in the Lord 1 Cor. 14 26 40 2 Tim. 4.2 both as to their spirits which return to God and their bodies which rest in hopes of an happy resurrection to glory For which purpose we see the Scripture hath furnished the Church with as many clear 1 Thess 4.13 See the long discourse of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. large and pregnant places to establish the faithful in that Article of their faith the bodies resurrection as any other point whatsoever There needs no other Form of Liturgy of exhortation or consolation or prayer or gratulation or benediction or comprecation then what is guided by and grounded upon the Scripture Nor was there other prescribed or used in the Church of England by any discreet Minister If such sad occasions may nay must in many respects be duely and devoutly laid to heart by the living as I have shewed you what hinders I beseech you but that Sermons instructions exhortations consolations and prayers too may be used at them in order to apply them most neerly to and work most effectually upon the hearts of the living And then especially when the hearts of men and women of parents and children of neighbours and friends yea of enemies and strangers too are most prone to be moved and affected to good purpose some being softened by common sympathies of humanity others steeped in teares by their more indeared relations and tender affections the whole assembly being as it were in the bath and furnace more pliable humble and melting then at any other time If we Christians only brought the eyes the hearts and senses of beasts to these Funeral-occasions it were venial to give our children parents friends husbands wives kindred and our selves no other honour or comfort then the burial of an asse or of a dead dog would afford and require or if we came together only as so many Gymnosophists Brachmans and Philosophers or so many Heathens Indians and meer men without hope and not as Christians who have much to learn to hear to say to pray and to practice upon these texts of mortality not only as to natural death but as to the spiritual and eternal death as to judgment to come as to a resurrection and after recompenses their scrupulous restraint were excusable but blessed be God what a field of excellent matter as to saith and manners as to hope and comfort in reference to both dead and living Christians is there to be gone through to be beaten oft over from the Scriptures suggestion and direction that the living the living might duely effectually and frequently lay those things to heart which are presented to them by every Funeral-occasion but not easily improved by the generality of people if they have nothing else but a dumb shew and silent procession at their Funerals Object But some are afraid of superstition lest we pray for the dead or praise God on their behalf beyond that ancient gratulation for their departure in the faith and that comprecation for a blessed consummation of the Kingdome of Christ and all his Church at and after the Resurrection which is under a divine promise upon all good Christians hopes hearts and future expectations blessings certainly no less lawful to be prayed for as the ancient Churches did then desired and expected by all the faithful living as I believe they are by all the Saints departed Answ To these Objecters I answer Let them forbear Funeral Sermons exhortations and prayers till they get more wit to understand their own good and more charity then to grudge others their Christian liberty either to do or get good in such wayes as Gods word and the customes of this Christian well reformed Church allow us This Indulgence I easily grant to such as are simply and honestly scrupulous but to others that are rudely captious and contemptuous yea ridiculously clamorous and contumacious against any thing which they doe not form and fancy though they give no reason why they scruple or condemn it my answer is as that of our Saviour to the Pharisees You hypocrites Matth. 16.3 can you discern the face of the sky and can you not discern the signs of the times Are you so fearful of praying for the dead that you will not pray for and with the living Can you endure the pomp of a Funeral and not the piety of it Can you bear with Trumpets Banners Escucheons and not with the word of God with Sermons and Prayers which sanctifie all things in themselves lawful and expedient Is not sanctity the best part of Christians Solemnities who in all temporal things must look to things eternal Are you so afraid of superstition that you grudge us our devotions and holy exercises as God gives us more signal calls and occasions Can you endure Heraldry and not the Liturgy in this part of it which sets forth very handsomely and fully to the living out of the lively oracles of God those most pertinent places and excellent truths which make most for the good hope comfort and instruction of the living both in respect of their dead relations and themselves Take heed you swallow not camels while you strain at gnats If you think a dead Christian that dies in the faith of Christ and in the compass of our charity differs not from a dead Heathen or a dead beast if their spirits goe all one way with their bodies to the dust if neither they dying nor you living have any lively hope of a resurrection without which all your faith living is but dead and in vain if you know not how to make a holy rational and religious use of their death much good may you have with those dumb shewes which you have lately taken up with your silent solemnities and processions at the Funerals of your Christian friends much comfort may you have in your burnt wine and biscuits in your black cloaks and ribbands in your mourning gloves and boxes of sweet-meats which good you somtimes get gape for at Funerals These are toyes

highest place and state of celestial honour next the Divine Essence far above all Angels is neer of kin even to the dead bodies and dust of his servants whom he will raise up again at the last day and take them to he ever with the Lord. But it will be a work more worthy of you and me to carry on this Corps and Funeral till we bring them to our own hearts where possibly we may find too much of the house and state of the dead You see the wisedome of Solomon or rather of God by his penitential pen teacheth us how to turn Funerals into Cordials Indeed nothing is more thrifty then true piety Religion is a good husband of all opportunities tempers providences John 6.12 Jam. 5.13 events and dispensations towards our selves or others it followes the frugal care and counsel of Christ Let nothing be lost Is any man merry saith St. James let him sing Psalms is any man afflicted let him pray Not only our own passions but others may be improved by holy Sympathies mourning with those that mourn Rom. 12.15 and weeping with those that weep as well as rejoycing with those that joy It is a Stoical and Cynical sowreness yea a putid and barbarous stupidity in any Christian to forget he is a man Mollissima corda Humano generi dare se ratura fatetur Quum lachrymas dedit Juv. having an heart fitted in the softness of nature beyond all other creatures with bowels of compassion with aptitude to be affected with others afflictions and to testifie this by our Tears which indicate an harmony of hearts moved by a secret symphony to an unison of affections Ezek. 11.19 Grace is so far from stupifying or petrifying mens hearts that it takes away the heart of sin and gives a heart of flesh it softens us not only to God and our selves but to others also nothing is further from a true and genuine Christian then either putid affectation or stupid in affectedness I mean that surly apathy and senseless indolency of soul which argues a spirit and conscience rather scorched and seared in the furnace of private lusts and particular factions than steeped in the blood of Jesus Christ or suppled with the gentle oyl of Catholick and Christian charity which is the greatest ornament and improvement of every true Christian We have this receipt how to make a right use of the Dead from Solomons great experience and exact observation of things whose accurate palate was not glutted or confounded nor the edge of his taste blunted or dulled by the luxurious gusto the delicacy plenty and variety of all things to which he applied his heart whose wisedom remained with him That wisedome which God gave him upon his wise choise of wisedom rather then of riches honour 2 Chron. 1.10 revenge long life or pleasure The desire of wisedome is the surest way to obtain it for the soule by unfeigned desires like a chrystal glass is polished and prepared for it that it easily receives the beams of wisedome into its self which like the Sun shine equally upon all men and are alike receptible by all where the gross and opacous temper the carnal and earthly lusts the dull and dirty disposition of mens soules being wiped off or purged and refined there is no inward impediment or cloud to hinder This is one great Instance that Solomons wives millions of concubines with his other proportionable equipage and provisions of sensual pleasures had not exhausted his wisedome in that he now as a Prince and Preacher makes this wise choise That it is better to goe to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting 1. Better in many and great respects chiefly for this that it sadly and solemnly sets forth to us the end of all men 2. A consideration worthy of the living who are infinitely concerned in the same fate and state attending them 3. And which they may then turn to a good account when they seriously lay the matter and manner the occasion and solemnity of Funerals to their hearts 4. Which they will doe if they are truly living in a rational prudent and religious way of life 5. For then they must needs be very sensible what need their hearts have of such applications even of death and the house of mourning to them And what advantages a wise man one that hath an humble holy and gracious heart may gain by such warnings and alarms which in many regards are proper to be laid to heart by all those that are truly living to God and his grace yea even such as are yet only living as beasts to their senses and as men to civil conversation being dead to the wisedom life of God these may hence learn to know God and themselves yea they may be excited and enabled to live to his glory and to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling 1. This choise and receipt of Solomon is considerable in general as to its chief ingredient the house of mourning or the condition of the dead which 2. will be best set forth if we consider the persons to whom he applies it the living whose duty and wisdome it is not to despise those spectacles and instances of mortality 3. Consider that part of the living to which he would have this medicine applied their heart whose pestilent distempers stand in need of such applications 4. The vertues ends and uses for which this receipt is sacred and soveraign to be laid to the hearts of the living which are all wrapped up in this one expression For it is the end of all men When I have given you this account of the Text in order to the religious benefit of the living I shall answer your wonted curiosity and expectation in giving you some account also of the Dead upon whose occasion we are now met that I may at once doe Him and you so much right as truth and justice first next my love and honour to him together with my charity to you command me to doe apart from all sinister fears or flatteries without any partiality or oblique passion toward the living or the dead which depraved distempers can at no time become me or any Minister of Christ and least of all now when I have set before me and am to set forth to you such a sad and serious prospect of the dead as ought to mortifie all our impotent passions and inordinate affections My first endeavour must be to set forth to you in general this part of Solomons wisedome which we may call a kind of sacred Necromancie or Necromathy by which he had learned himself and instructs others to make an holy use of the Dead rather to goe to the house of mourning in the blackest attire and representations of it which are at Funerals then to goe to the house of feasting or to frequent those Festivals either civil or sacred which invited poor mortals to more mirth and jollity of