Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	harden_v	judgement_n	pharaoh_n	2,936	5	10.9003	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

terme or object to another that is from sinne to righteousnesse from Sathan to God And because there are many false turnings and many men that wheele about and never turne truly who yet suppose that they are converted therefore we will endeavour to open to you this true turning Now it may be found out foure wayes First by the causes of it or motives upon which Secondly by the termes from which and to which we turne Thirdly by the manner Fourthly by the effects First for the causes of this solid true turning and the motives which worke upon a mans heart to turne him you must know that there are many things may cause a man to leave his evill ways for a while As it may be some present affliction for the avoyding of which a man may seeme to turne unto God Therefore God still complaines of the Iewes that they turned but fainedly unto him and not with the whole heart because when hee slew them then they sought to him and then they would turne from their evill wayes but when they were delivered they turned to their old Bias againe So Pharaoh when as he was plagued with any new Iudgement then hee would let the Israelites goe but as soone as that was off hee hardened his heart and would not let them goe As also a second cause to move men to turne may be some present commodity This doth appeare in many of those that applied themselves to Christ some did it for the loaves and some for their convenient living some for the hope of an earthly Kingdome which they thought hee would have brought but these all left him afterwards There bee many such false motives but the onely true motives are taken from the apprehension of eternall life and eternall death the conversion is not right till then and the reason is because all other motives may be over ballanced But the motives of life and death cannot be over topped by any thing If preferment be offered or what ever the world can offer but these exceed all that Sathan or the world or the flesh can suggest Therefore a man is then turned when the Lord shall enlarge his thoughts to see the greatnesse and the vastnesse of these two for then all those other things appeare but as Candles in the Sunshine So that if Sathan come with earthly honours and pleasures in his hand the answer will be easie but what are these to eternall death and everlasting life and these are not thought of nor considered by carnall men though they talke of heaven and hell yet they see not the immense vastnesse and latitude of them and therefore goe on so confidently hence Christ in Marke 16. when he sends forth his Disciples to convert men he bids them use these two arguments Tell every man if hee beleeve hee shall bee saved if not hee shall bee damned Where wee see the motives that Ministers are to use by Christs direction are eternall life and death And Saint Paul endeavouring to convert Felix told him of the Iudgement to come which made him to tremble And Christ told the woman of Samaria of that water and spring that flowes up to eternall life Consider therefore whether ever thou hadst a true apprehension of these without which a man cannot be throughly wrought upon which apprehension if true hath these conditions in it First it must be an apprehension of them as present for happily a man may have a slight thought of eternall life and death he may looke upon them as things absent and afarre off but when they are set on by God a man is pursued and brought into streights by the apprehensions of them so as he hath no rest till he be translated into another condition A carnall man on his death bed having an actuall apprehension of hell as present is strangely affected Now at conversion the apprehension of these seizeth upon a man by a work of the Spirit and compasses him about so as he cannot shake it off till he turnes to God The wise man sees the plague before hand even as present and therfore stayes not till it comes but turnes in the time of youth health and strength Secondly it must be a deepe fix'd and setled apprehension for sometimes a man that shall never be saved may be moved with the present apprehension of eternall death and life but it is as a storme soone blowne over but in him that shall be saved it is set on by the spirit of bondage and such an impression made as will never out but he still remembers it and this is that true apprehension which moves to repentance But some will say can a man be wrought upon by the meere apprehensions of eternall life and death to turne from his evill wayes without an apprehension of sin and grace When a man hath a true apprehension of eternall life and death he comes to know what sin and Grace is and never before till a man knowes eternall death he looks on sin as a trifle as a thing of nought therefore the wise man saith they despise their waies but this apprehension is it which helpes to present sin in its l●vely colours and so also the price of grace is then understood when it is apprehended as drawing with it everlasting happinesse as the needle drawes the threed The second thing is the consideration of the termes for there is no turning without going from one terme to another and there is no true turning except it be from Sathan and the creature and your owne selves to God Of this you reade in Acts 26. 18. that Saint Paul was sent to open their eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God c. You see these the termes of true turning and this is especially to be marked for if there be no more then a turning from misery to happinesse it is not sound for if you look upon sinne and misery grace and happinesse as in themselves without respect to God you doe but turne upon your owne hinges as axle-trees you goe but different wayes to the same center that o ther wicked men goe unto so long as you looke only at the misery and the happinesse of your selves alone which is the center of all mankinde Therefore in a true conversion these motives are lookt upon in relation to God as thus if I follow my selfe and the creature they are never able to save me but if I apply my selfe to him that hath the keyes of life and death I shall be happy in him for ever therefore henceforth I will forsake Satan and every creature and apply my selfe onely to the Lord. And upon this ground a man makes this resolution with himselfe I will forsake Sathan and subject my selfe to God for he only is the author of true happinesse so that now God is made a tearme to which thou turnest and appliest

and to will it heartily with all the bent of the soule and the sway of it he is not able to say he doth so 1 Tim. 1. 9. The Law is not given to a righteous man that is hee hath a Law of grace in him that puts him on to good without this law as if he had said this law without might as it were be spared to this man hee being a law to himselfe but it is given to the unrighteous that is he would doe nothing without this he hath not in himself a strong inclination to what is good and aversenesse to evill as the other hath Rom. 7. 15. I hate the evill that I doe hee hates the evill which the Law forbids and longs after what the Law commands The Law is put upon the wicked as a restrainer to keepe him in he lookes upon the Commandements as chaines and shackles but a regenerate man lookes on them as upon girdles and garters which gird up his loines and expedite his course the better The Law confines a regenerate man to live in that element where he would live as if one should be confined to Paradise where he would be though there were no such law But another man is confined by it to the place where he would not be and to actions which hee would not doe and therefore as S●ime● when hee was confined he leapt over the hedg comes over the pale after profit and pleasure and dies for it the Law given to him hee reckoneth as a Prison therefore examine whether there bee in thee such a constant inclination to walke in the wayes of godlinesse so as you could even be a law to your selves if you are left to what the Lord hath wrought in you 4 They differ in the power that accompanies this law of the minde in a regenerate man where this Law of grace is there is not only a knowledge of what should be done but also there is a power goes with it This Law is a Kingdome A gouernment consists not in word but in power 1 Cor. 4. 20. 1 Iohn 3. 9. he that is borne of God sinnes not neither can he sinne c. compared with that 1 Iohn 12. who is borne not of the will of the flesh c. but of the will of God The meaning of both compared is this a regenerate man that is borne of God hath first such a habit as is agreeable to the will of God in all things and this habite is as a thing innate like naturall qualities bred and borne with us so that he cannot sinne that is he cannot but resist and strive against it and have in the end the victory over it for it is a law within him which puts him on to what God wills and secondly not onely so but he is borne thus said the Apostle that is though this disposition bee infused yet it is so rivetted into him that he can no more shake it off then a naturall disposition hee is borne with therefore he cannot sin that is it cannot be he should become a sinner given up to sinne On the contrary naturall men wanting this law are not nor cannot bee subject to the Law of God because this disposition to sin is naturall to him he is borne of the flesh of the will of man so as this Law of grace workes out all evill in the end and if good bee to bee done breaks through all difficulties but corruption in the other workes out all good and returnes to sinne so as he sayes I am not able to keepe the Sabbath thus and abstaine from such and such a sin I am so strongly inclined to it 5 Difference is out of the seventh verse not I but sinne and in the last verse with my minde I serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sinne This law of the mind makes a change in the person Can any unregenerate man in the world say it is not I but sin if he doth any thing that is good it is not he if he doth any thing that is evill it is he and onely he that doth it A regenerate man himselfe never sins that is whilst he is himselfe he never yields to sin but it is his flesh when he is not himselfe and an unregenerate man when hee is himselfe never yields fully to the motions of grace but a regenerate man when ever he is himselfe acts according to this part hee is never otherwise overcome but with a strong temptation drunke and transported with passion and when a myst is before his eyes I alwayes serve in my mind the Law of God And therefore though hee bee overcome yet with this difference that he lookes upon it as a captivity and a bondage worse then that of Aegypt He doth not as that servant in the Law hee is not willing to have his eare boared through and to serve that master for ever whereas another lookes at sinne as a liberty and the Law of God as a restraint and wish eth it were not though he may accommodate himselfe by it and though he may delight in sin for a while yet withall hee delights in the Law in the inward man and that is the more constant prevailing overcomming delight so as consider if there bee not another delight contrary to the delighting in sinne though at that time when the flesh delights in sinne it appeares not which yet overcomes and out weares the other 3 Rule is consider the manner of thy resisting and fighting against sinne and here there are foure notable differences comes to be laid open The upright in heart fights against sinne with the whole frame of his heart All the faculties fight in their courses as it is said the Starres did against Sisera as first the mind there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 change of mind in him he hath another opinion of his sin There is a change in judgement he is renewed in his mind Let a mans opinion be kept right and how ever his passion may stirre they will in the end vanish Whilst a man is unregenerate he is as Colos. 1. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy in his thoughts or reasonings as the word translated in their mindes properly signifies but you hath hee reconciled and so after conversion a man is a friend in his understanding to the wayes of God he is in his judgement reconciled to them and become therein an enemy to the wayes of sin The question here is not whether thou thinkest sin evill or no or this and that unlawfull but whether evill to thee pro hic nunc at this and that time in these and these circumstances and then comes in conscience also and that fights against sin which is tender and feareth alwayes Prov. 28. 14. Whereas hee that hardneth his heart falls into mischiefe and it is that place of conscience is it which is onely culpable of