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	let_v	pharaoh_n	4,715	5	11.0616	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87175	Christ's first sermon, or, The absolute necessity, gospel duty, and Christian practice of repentance, opened and applied, by a godly, able, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ. ; Wherein is discovered, what repentance is, as also the great necessity thereof to salvation: with the great folly and desperate madness of all those that delay and put off repentance unto a sick bed, or old age. ; Together with the great benefit, joy, and comfort that shall be to the souls of all those that timely and truly repent.	Hart, John, D.D.	1663 (1663)	Wing H937; ESTC R177838	21,802	46

dwell together and they that dwell in it shall never dwell with God Psal 15. saith David Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy ●●ill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness And the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And Psalm 97. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Also 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Secondly all those that sin or are under the power and command of sin are of the dev●● For he that commits sin saith St. John is of the devil John 3.9 And is it not a sad thing to be und●r the power of the Devil Every wicked man is the Devils stave and be doth the devils drudgery where ever sin is in the love of it there is also the devil the devil keeps court in wicked mens hearts Thirdly sin is the high way to destruction Is not destruction to the wicked saith Job Chap. 31.3 Yes that it is And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Fourthly and lastly sin brought wrath and condemnation upon the soul If ye live after the flesh ye shall die Rom. 8.13 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God Psal 9.17 These things being considered seriously taken to heart methinks should not onely awaken sinners out of their sléepy security but also provoke them to repentance And then there is another let which hinders men from repentance and that is in themselves which is of all other the greatest let for did not our own base hearts deceive us the devil the world and sin could never hinder us from coming to God by repentance these lets from ourselves are either from ignorance or hardnes of heart Eph 4.18 Men saith the Apostle through the ignorance that is in them through the hardness of their hearts being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleannes with greedines Ignorance must néeds be a great let to repentance no wonder when men know not the danger of sin nor the necessity of repentance that they live in sin and never come to repentance who is there that séeks for that he knoweth not of If impenitent sinners did but know what a dangerous condition they were in without repentance they would never suffer their eyes to sléep nor their eye-lids to slumber before they had made their peace with God by repentance O then for the Lords sake get acquaintance with God and learn to know what an odious thing sin is Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with God an● be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee thereby thou maist be brought to repentance Then secondly there 's in us hardness of heart which hinders the work of repentance It is said of Zedekiah 2 Chron. 36.13 That he hardned his heart that he might not return to the Lord his God And this hardness of heart is very lamentable because all the means which God uses to soften work not upon it at all And Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the children of Israel go Ex. 8.32 All the sore judgements of God upon him could not prevail with his hard heart he would not let them go so wicked men whose hearts are hardened they will not let their sins go neither the judgement nor the mercies of God will prevail with wicked men to turn them from their sins Amos 4 12. saith God Though I have sent among you judgment upon judgment plague famine and no●som beasts yet have you not returned unto me Therefore I beseech you in love to your poor souls that by prayer you would beg of God to give you softned hearts that may melt tremble at the word of God lest by going on in your sins ye bring upon your solves swist destrution And so I come to give you some means and motives to stir you up to repentance and I shall conclude The first and principal means of workin● repentance where it is not is the word of God Mat. 4.17 And Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Christs frist Sermon was a Sermon of repentance therefore if ever you would repent 〈◊〉 your sins attend upon the word of God 〈◊〉 ha● a woful sad condition are those in that want th● word of God What the Preacher said Eccle 11.6 In the morning saith he sowe thy seed an● in the evening withhold not thy hand so say I 〈◊〉 hearing the word of God Hear it in the morning and hear it in the afternoon hear it on th● Lords day and hear it in the week day take a● opprotunities of hearing the word of God And then a second help is to consider th● goodness and power of God his almighty an● his all séeing eye consider God sées and know and thy wayes and is able to punish thée for a● thy sins if men were but convinced of this truth they durst not sin so boldly as they do But I pass by this to give you some few Ch●dences of the truth of repentance and they ar● briesly these First the soul that hath truly repented is very careful to avoid even the occasion of sin an● keeps himself at a distance bath from sin sinners he will dispense with no sin at all but wil ●y as Ephraim did What have I to do any more ●ith sin And secondly he that is truly turned ●●ont sin unto God will endeavour to turn ther 's also he is not content that he himself is ●urned to God but he will draw others to God ●lso Thirdly he that hath truly repented is ve●y careful tofurnish himself against the assaults of the devil Thy word saith David Ps 119.11 have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee A true repentant treasures up the word of God in his heart and walks worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful unto every good work and encreasing in the knowledge of God Col. 1.10 They do it as it is in Ps 110.23 They keep the testimonies of God and seek him with their whole heart they also do no iniquity they walk in his ways Their delight is in the law of God and in his law they do meditate day and night Psal 1.2 Fourthly he that hath truly repented is full of holy indignation against sin and turns sin quite out of doors he cannot endure the sight of it Fifthly he that hath truly repented is full of fear he is filled with an awful reverencial and filial fear of the Majesty of God and he is afraid of displeasing God by sin Sirthly a true penitent is full of holy and heavenly desires he desires more

sin O but the latter end of these men is worse then their beginning How many wicked wretches are there that live as if they had made a covenant with death and hell and were at an agréement with the grave who had rather hazard their souls then leave their sins who as if there were neither heaven nor hell run on from one sin to another Come say they we will fetch wine fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant But Isa 56.12 Wo unto them saith the Prophet they have rewarded evil to themselves How little do these men think that God will one day wound the hairy scalp of such as go on in sin and that tribulation and wrath indignation anguish shall be upon every soul that doth evi Rom. 2.9 Let men slight repentance never so much a time will come when they shal repent but that too late even in hell fire for ever For sin must be repented of if not on earth yet in hell and if you will not loath your companions in sin here you shal loath them in hell hereafter you pot-companions and your harlot companions shall loath one another in Hell then these bloody wounds shall bleed which you have given your souls in the days of your sollity and pride and in the times of your desperate impieties when nothing but wrath and horrour of conscience shall appear before you then these swéet morsels of sin which have been sweet as honey to your lustful appetites shall be vomited up as the bitterest and loathsomest things in the world Consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psal 50 22. Be willing to forsake your sins for sin and the soul must part or else hel and the soul shal meet together The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God Psalm 9.17 O that you would seriously lay these things to heart and now even now in this your day that ye would know the things that belong unto your everlasting peace To day if you will hear my voice saith God in the 95. Psalm harden not your heart Slight not scorn not resist not the good word of God that invites you to repentance but break off your sins by repentance and turn to God in righteousness And now for the second sort and they are such as think they need no repentance And they are either such as are morally civil and honest before men or else formal and hypocritical professors who seem to be and are not who profess God with their lips but deny him in their lives O they have no need of repentance they are no drunkards nor swearers nor such like God I thank thee said the proud Pharisee I am not as other men are extortioners unjust Luke 18.11 These are such as profess God and know much of the mind of God and therefore have no need of repentance they are guilty of no sins to repent of But of these it may be said as Peter said of Elimas the sorcerer Act. 13.10 That they are full of all subtlety and enemies to all righteousness who never yet know what sin meant For they that think they have no sins left to repent of it s a cleer argument that they never yet truly repented themselves of any one sin at all but that they are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity For repentance is a continued art and a grace that must have its daily operation as faith and love must continue so must repentance when once the rocky heart of a sinner is smitten by God the water of repentance will continually flow sincere repentants cannot content themselves with one art or two of repentance but they must daily renew their repentance for sin will renew so must repentance renewed sins must have renewed Repentance till we have done sinning and that will not be till we have done living we must not have done repenting if there be a leak in the ship the water must be pumpt out else the ship is in danger of sinking we are leaking vessels all of us yea the best of us sin leaks in daily and is renewed daily and there must be the pump of repentance to carry it out daily else our souls will be in danger of sinking And for the other sort who think they need no repentance they are pure moral honest men who live in a course of civility and take their penny to be as white as any others these are as good as the best and therefore have no need to be any better they are not desperately wicked as many are they are no blasphemers nor drunkards they go to Church and give every man his due and are loving to their neighbors and what needs any more It s true these things are necessary are required in a Christian but yet civility without sanctify at the best is but gilded Atheism morality and seeming vertues are but gilded sins and glistering abominations the Lord seeth many a rotten base stinking heart under a civil coat It civility and morality would have served the turn then the Pharisees would have gone to heaven before any other they were civilly honest they were no swearers nor drunkards they paid tythes and gave alms and prayed often and carried themselves so exact in the world that it was thought that if but two men in the world should go to heaven a Scribe should be one and a Pharisee the other But what saith Christ Mat. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the kingdom if heaven And yet their righteousness far exceeded the righteousness of all our moral honest men Let a man be never so honest in outward appearance let his carriage and behavior be never so specious and plausible in the eyes of the world let him be never so exact ano just in his dealings with men yet if he be not renewed in the spirit of his mind he is never the better for this If he be not a sanctified Christian the word of truth never as yet came home to his soul in the power of it he is still in the state of nature and without God and as yet far from repentance and salvation And then there is a third sort of impenitents and they are such as are convinced of the necessity of repentance but they do not think it a time now to repent they believe they must repent but all in good time there 's no haste of it yet it will be time enough hereafter at the hour of death when age and sickness is upon them and they think it a thing of nothing to repent they can do it when they list it s done with a wet finger there needs no more but to say Lord have mercy upon me when they are going out of the world this is the general