Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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B21649
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Two sermons preached before Her Majesty the Queen-Dowager in Her Majesty's chapel at Somerset-House / by Phil. Ellis.
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Ellis, Philip, 1652-1726.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing E604
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22,596
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44
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the glory of God as the Apostle advises if our Discourses and Familiar Entertainments savour of those things which are above and at least indirectly appertain to the kingdom of God these are Arguments we are truly risen with Christ being of their own nature such Proofs of a Spiritual Life of a Spiritual Resurrection from the Death of Sin as the Exercise of the Animal Functions and Rational Powers are a Demonstration of the Continuance or Reviviscence of the Natural 2 Cor. 11.23 We read That the Spirit of Darkness sometimes transfigures himself into an Angel of Light sometimes takes a Body of Air which the deluded Sense cannot distinguish from a Solid and Real one and sometimes as Artfully moves a Solid but Dead Body as if it were Alive Both Sacred and Profane History offer innumerable Proofs of these Slights of Satan I shall instance only in the Second which is most for my purpose 1 Sam. 28.15 Thus the Witch of Endor is said in the First of Kings to have rais'd Samuel whose own Words seem to prove it a real Resurrection Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer Why hast thou disquieted me to raise me up Yet St. Augustin assures us Samuel did not rise again in his own but only in a fictitious and imaginary or at most in an aereal Body And thro' these Slights and Delusions of Satan it happens that many seem to rise again with Christ who in effect rise only with Samuel If we regard their Promises and Protestations Sin shall never reign any more in their mortal Body their Eyes are open'd to see and bewail their past Transgressions they have recover'd their Speech to declare at the Feet of their Confessor those vicious Habits and secret Crimes which so long had been lock'd up in Silence and lay putrifying in their Breasts at the Voice of Christ they issue like so many Lazarus's from their Monuments and run to embrace their Life in the Holy Communion And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection is real and they are truly risen again with Christ But if you keep your Eye a little upon them you shall see them still playing about the Flames which had scorch'd them before you shall see them frequenting the same licentious Company which gave them their Death wantoning upon the same Brink of the Precipice whence they so lately fell like Ghosts still hovering about their Graves and Places of Burial in fine not advanc'd one step farther off the imminent Dangers and immediate Occasions of Sin And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection was only in the Air imaginary or Fictitious a Stratagem of the Devil to delude them and to amuse their Confessors while St. Paul's Declaration touching the State of the Widow is verify'd in every Soul She that liveth in pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 is dead while she liveth Haec praecipe says the Great Apostle teach command urge and inculeate this Doctrin For the Resurrection of a Soul cries St. Bernard is not so easie a thing as you imagine it is a great and wonderful Sacrament magnum prorsus mirabile Sacramentum animae suscitatio Great in reference to the Power of God and Wonderful as to the Disposition requisite in the Sinner To break the Treble Cord of a threefold Concupiscence to destroy all vicious Habits Root and Branch to lay violent Hands upon our own Hearts and tear from our Breasts what is as dear to us as Life and almost as deeply ingrafted as Nature to turn the Stream of our Affections to hate our own Souls which we so tenderly cherish and indulge to love and embrace a Penitential Life of which we have so great an abhorrence to which we carry such a strange aversion and antipathy Ah! Christian this is not the work of a few Hours Recollection this is not the Fruit of a few superficial Tears which dry and vanish as they fall this is not the Effect of a Sigh which passes with the Wind or of a hasty Resolution which is forgot almost as soon as made this is not the Violence that takes Heaven which do's not yield upon every faint or false Attack These indeed are Circumstances which ever attend a true Resurrection but they are not infallible Proofs They are common to a Real and a Fictitious one They may be indeed the first Dawnings of a New Life but are too often only a gaudy Spectre a meer outside and an amusing Apparition So true is that terrible Assertion of the Holy Bishop of Barcellona S. Pacian Ep. 3. ad Synphr Paucorum est labor qui vere resurgunt Few there are who truly rise again because few will take the pains to extricate themselves from the Snares of Sin and remove every Occasion as far as in them lies of relapsing into it after the Example of the Holy King Josias 2 Kings 23. who not only broke down the Idols banish'd the Artificers demolish'd the Altars but also cut down the Groves to efface even the Memory of Idolatry lest the Convenience of committing the same Crime might be an Invitation to commit it Yet this work of estranging our selves from the Dangers of Sin tho' attended with so many Difficulties is but a remote disposition to a Spiritual Resurrection a removens prohibens there are others and nearer requir'd not only to the Introducing but also to the Nourishment and Preservation of the New Life This is the Third Analogy the Holy Fathers observe between the Resurrection of Christ and that of a Christian viz. the Duration and Perpetuity of it intimated by the Apostle when he tells us Christ being rais'd from the dead dies no more Rom. 6.9 By which words not only a feigned but also a failing Repentance is struck out of the Book of Life And this Admonition is particularly address'd to you of the Houshold of Faith who after a sincere and unfeigned sorrow of Heart after a clear and undisguis'd Enumeration of all your Sins by Confession of Mouth after a serious Endeavour to apply to your selves the Satisfactions of Christ by the exercise of Good Works use violence upon your Hearts in exterminating ill Habits and avoiding those Occasions which formerly prevail'd upon you and in fine are truly risen again but alas are not risen again with Christ For after you have set your hand to the Plow you look back upon the Ease and Pleasure of the World after you have been feasted with the Bread of Angels your Hearts return into Egypt you remit of your primitive Fervour you slacken in your Devotions you inquire into a corrupted Moral and hunt after Cases to dispense with your Resolutions you hearken to the Language of the World till you are insensibly seis'd with the Infection it gains every day upon you preys upon the Life of the Spirit and at last wholly consumes it Thus the very Means of your Salvation corrupt into the Occasions of your farther Misery and your rising again serves
and the other the Shadow and the Substance the Law and the Consummation of the Law to insinuate the same Spirit of God who dictated the First to be also the Author of the Second both are deliver'd upon the Mount both in Fire both with Sound and Majesty But as perfect Charity casts out Fear so the Law of Perfection is distinguish'd from the Imperfect by introducing Charity in the place of Fear a gentle lambent Fire in lieu of Thunder and Lightning by changing Mount Sina the Region of Terror for Jerusalem the Vision of Peace a frightful Desert for the Place of Prayer the Ministry of an Angel for the immediate Presence of the Holy Ghost The first was written in Tables of Stone the latter 2 Cor. 3.3 says the Apostle in the fleshly Tables of our Hearts the one was attended with all the Circumstances of Terror and repeated Menaces of Death and all little enough to make a stiff-neck'd People bend their Shoulders to a Heavy and Galling Yoke but the other as gentle in the Declaration as easie in the Execution is publish'd with the appearance of fiery Tongues Emblems of Softness and Eloquence Hieroglyphicks of Light and Charity to express its Efficacy not by Constraint but Insinuation not by Compulsion but Persuasion as Fire is the most bright most piercing and most active of the Elements and the Tongue the most tender in Substance the most easie in Operation yet the most powerful of all our Faculties In a word the first was deliver'd in Smoke and Clouds to signifie its Property Imperfection Obscurity Darkness or at the best a Cloud which was to break up and disperse umbra futurorum Colos 2.17 a Shadow which was to pass away the second under the Symbol of Wind pure open cleansing to shew the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as requisite to clear the Soul from the Corruption or Contagion of Sin as the Wind is to purifie the Air and the Air is to refresh the Body and therefore his Divine Presence is sometimes call'd a Blast of Wind as the Spouse in the Canticles Cant. 4.16 Veni Auster perfla hortum fluent aromata sometimes a Breath of Air tanquam Spiritus aurae lenis sometimes Spiraculum vitae the breathing of Life and generally a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only in reference to his Eternal Procession from the Father and the Son by way of Spiration or reciprocal breathing of Love but also in order to his Operations ad extra working himself into the Soul by insensible ways giving her Action and Motion as the material Air do's the Lungs and the animal Spirits every part of the Body Spiritus Sanctus vita spirituum sensificans vivificans says Richard of St. Victor Richard de S. Vict. l. 6. de Trin. Wherefore our Blessed Master who on this Day fulfill'd his Promise of sending the Holy Spirit compares it John 3.8 to the Elementary which bloweth where it lists whose sound we hear but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit By which last Words he applies the Comparison as if he had said You are to believe the Influence of this Spirit as necessary to beget and perpetuate the Life of the Soul as you experience the other is to the Life and Welfare of Nature and as he that hinders the Air from passing into his Lungs must immediately be stifled or soon burnt up with interior Heat so he that checks the entrance of the Holy Ghost whose Property is to allay the Heat of Concupiscence with the nobler and gentler warmth of a Spiritual Love to asswage the Passions to cool and moderate the Affections or he that ejects him out of his Heart after he is enter'd is said to contristate to grieve the Holy Ghost and frustrate the end of his Coming Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum This Consideration carry'd me upon these Words of the Apostle and pointed them out as a proper Theme equally fitted to the Sanctity and Solemnity of the Time to the Necessities and Capacity of every Hearer and as the most important Advice can be given Christians who have already receiv'd and are suppos'd to possess the delightful Presence of the Holy Ghost to cherish that gentle Flame to treat the Divine Guest as becomes the Children of Light not only not to expel him out of their Hearts by any criminal Action or Consent but not so much as to give him the least Offence by remitting of the Devotion they feel or pious Resolutions they make at this Holy Time Nolite contristare c. But to maintain the Interests of this Holy Spirit we must have his Assistance the Power of Persuasion being one of those Gifts of Tongues which descend from above and which is obtain'd by the same Disposition the Apostles were in perseverantes in oratione by continuing in Prayer and if you would learn the Method the Evangelist delivers it in two words Cum Maria the Blessed Virgin is the Pattern the Holy Ghost found her in the same posture at his second Coming as he did in the first when the Angel saluted her AVE MARIA Grieve not the Holy Ghost THE Essential Joy which God possesses within himself and which is Himself places him above the reach of Grief but not above our Attempts to afflict him His Immortal Godhead and Power may secure his Being but not our Obedience we are as ready to take up Arms against him as if we could dethrone him at our Pleasure His Majesty and Justice may strike a Sinner with Amazement and Terror but not always with that Fear which works a stable Repentance Thus his Love and Mercy and Glory which establish his Beatitude his Glory that no Evil can approach him his Love and Mercy that he would pass by the Injury if any such could be done him exempt him from a possibility of grieving and yet we grieve him that is we are as criminal and injurious to him as if he were susceptible of our ill usage For tho' every Sin be levell'd at the Whole Trinity the Undivided Godhead against which it is committed yet the Holy Ghost to whom the Work of our Conversion is appropriated is said to be the Principal Object of the Injury as implying a horrible Contempt of his Favors Spritui gratiae contumeliam facientes Heb. 10.23 Our Faith teaches us to consider the Holy Ghost in two different States in reference to Human Nature the one as hovering over us and desiring to enter into the Heart of Man which belongs to him upon so many Titles the other as striving to keep possession of it which to maintain he has been so liberal of his Graces and Inspirations of his Gifts and Promises and even of himself Spiritus qui datus est nobis In each of these Circumstances we may displease and contristate him First If we refuse him admittance when he demands it And secondly If we oblige him