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	moses_n	pharaoh_n	4,537	5	10.9869	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49255	The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin and the priviledge of the pardon of sin : together with a discourse of Christs ascension into heaven and of his coming again from heaven : wherein the opinion of the Chiliasts is considered and solidly confuted / being the sum and substance of several sermons preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love ...	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.	1657 (1657)	Wing L3171; ESTC R3803	178,515	248

have done evil in thy sight but cannot call to minde any particular sin they have done Was it never thus with you that ye did not know what to bewaile to God and what to lament of in his presence this is a Defect that godly men are often guilty of Defect 2 A second Defect in the confession of sin to God is this when men in prayer do confesse many sins to God yet do leave out their master and predominant sins many men are large in confession yet do leave out their master sins Moses though a good man yet was faulty in this regard God commanded him to go to Egypt to deliver his people but saith Moses I am not eloquent I am of a slow speech he did complain of a natural defect but he did not complain of a spiritual defect but God did answer all his pleas in Exod. 4. 19. And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian Go return into Egypt for all the men are dead that sought thy life Vers 20. And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an asse and he returned to the land of Egypt So that God here put his finger upon the sore Moses complained of the peoples incredulity of his own natural infirmity but Moses did not complain of his slavish fear that if he should go to Egypt there were men that would kill him till God did assure Moses that those men that sought to kill him were dead Moses would not go here a good man would not confesse his slavish fear that he did fear death therefore he would not go on Gods command Beloved this is a Defect that doth many times cleave to godly men to leave out their predominant sins and to confesse only those sins which are sins of infirmity and herein men do but dissemble with God and like the lapwing crie lowdest when farthest from the nest Defect 3 A third Defect in confession of sin to God is this to have the heart to hanker after the committing of those sins you do confesse Austin doth ingenuously acknowledg this of himself saith he I did often beg strength of God against the sin of incontinency yet had often an unwillingnesse in my heart that God should hear my prayers lest I should leave my sins Indeed conviction of conscience doth force to a confession of sin yet the strength of thy depraved affection doth make thee hanker after the sin and cause a lothnesse to leave it Defect 4 A fourth Defect in confession of sin to God is this to confesse to God the sins of your life but not the sins of your nature many men will be large in confessing the sins of their life but seldom or never bewail the sins of nature that vicious inclination in the heart to sin very few but David in the Old Testament and Paul in the New who did sufficiently confesse original sin David in the Old Testament Psal 51. there he begins to bewail the root of those sins which he was guilty of So Paul in Rom. 7. bewails the body of sin many men bewail actual sin but not habitual sin but not original sin many men bewail bad actions but never confesse unto God their vicious inclination This Defect good men many times are guilty of Defect 5 A fifth defect is this to confesse grosse and open sins but not to confesse small and secret evils we are commanded to keep the Law as the apple of our eye Prov. 7. 2. Keep my commandements and live and my Law as the apple of thine eye Now you know a man that keeps his eye will not only keep his eye from great blowes but from small motes which may put out the eye as well as a great blow men should not only take heed of great blowes great transgressions but they should take heed of lesser motes small sins Now beloved good men many times commit those sins that are infamous that the natural light of conscience can control them for why those evils are complained of and confest but secret evils wandring thoughts in duties vanity of minde the deadnesse of the heart emptinesse of spiritual meditations inward distrust these evils are seldome bewailed and confest this is many times a Defect found in good men good men are not so apt to confesse omission of good as commission of evil Defect 6 A sixt Defect in confession of sin to God is this to confesse sin more because of its guilt then of its spot my meaning is more because sin hath a damning power then a defiling nature more because sin damns thy soul then defiles thy conscience A child would touch a coal though it be smutty and soily but he forbears to touch it meerly because it is a burning coal we forbeare sin because sin is a burning coale but we doe not forbear to touch it because it is a defiling coal that is a defect in many godly men to be found But we should confesse sin and bewaile it not because it wil damn us but because it doth dishonour God Defect 7 A seventh defect in confession of sins to God is this to confesse those sins to God which if men should charge us with we should deny and be angry This holy Greenham doth take notice of in mens confession of sin thou wilt confesse thy pride to God but if a man should say that thou art proud thou wouldst be angry with him thou wilt confesse thy waies to God but if men should tell thee of thy sins thou wouldst be angry with them this shews there is much defect in your confession Defect 8 The eighth defect in confession of sin unto God is this not to have the heart sensibly affected with those sins that are confessed to God many confesse as if they were telling stories rather what other men did then what themselves did there are few that confesse sin as the Prodigall did that he was ashamed to be called the son of his father We should confesse sin as Daniel did Dan. 9. and as David did Psa 51. But many confesse sin like Pharaoh Exod. 9. 27. And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked Vers 34. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder were ceased he s●nned yet more and hardned his heart 〈…〉 Defect 9 The ninth defect in confes●ion of sin to God is this to content your selves with slight ordinary and generall confessions of sins to come into Gods presence and say you are sinners just as 〈◊〉 the eleventh king of France who when he had blasphemed would take his Crucifix and kisse and cry God forgive me and then sweare again this is the fault which Christians many times are guilty of many men rest contented with a confused and a generall confession of sin when they doe not come to any distinct view of their particular sins there is a tumult in the

time with his Son so that here you see a good man would not second time joyn with an Ahaziah So likewise you have the instance in Judah that was in father in law to Thamar Gen. 28. 26. And Judah acknowlegded them and said she hath been more righteous then I because that I gave her not to Shelah may son and he knew her again no more It was not again done he knew her again no more so as Divines do usually urge it Noah was drunke but never but once and that before he knew the strength of the grape David was adulterous but never but once This therefore shall be one caution Secondly Take this caution that you might not bee emboldned to run often into the same sin if a man doth often commit the same grosse sin it argues a greater strength and prevalency that sin hath over him then all other sins Physitians say that a disease that a man doth often relaspe into argues the strength of these peccant humours that feed the disease if thou often fallest into lusts it argues the prevalency of a lustfull temper In the third place Relapses into the same grosse sin are very dangerous and deadly symptomes of a man in a lost condition I do not say they are such symptoms that infalibly conclude a man to be an unpardonable man I may say as Physitians say of a relapse into the same disease the second time is more dangerous then the first the reason is because the first sicknesse feeds on the ill humours but relapse into the same sickness feeds on the vitall spirits Beloved the falling and relapsing into the same sin is a dangerous symptome it is a clear symptome of the prevalency of that sin It is worth your notice what symptomes the Lord doth give of the plague of leprosie for the Priest to judge that disease by Levit. 13. the first symptome was when the hair was turned white in the fore Divines accommodate that to a continuance in sin to old age that argues you are unclean Lepers Another symptome was when there was raw flesh in the scab Divines accommodate that unto a man being adventurous to sin against a raw a troubled and a wounded Conscience A third sign of the plague of leprosie was when after the sore was healed there should a new scab arise in the place thereof thus when after thou hast healeda sin by vows by fasting and prayer by holy purposes in Christs strength and after the healing the same sore breaks out and the same lust breaks in upon thee this is a dangerous symptome Fourthly that you might not be adventurous on sin and so acuse this comfort consider that falling often into the same sin doth more harden the heart then any thing in the world habituating and indulging a mans selfe into the same road of wickednesse there is nothing in the world doth more harden the heart then when the same sin hath an usual inroad into thy conscience life then all tendernesse and remorse of conscience wil be taken away I speak meerly on this ground that seeing you have instances that men may often fall into the same grosse evils yet let these four considerations keep you from abusing this comfortable point I but you will say if I do fall often into the same sin what may be to stay my heart up that I may be in a pardoned state for all this I say this to you though thou dost fall often into the same sin yet if thy conscience bears thee witnesse thou dost exercise the same grace often in opposition to the same sin thou mayest have a great deal of comfort that thou art in a state of pardon Case 5 The fifth case follows But whether may a godly man that is pardoned pray for pardon of sin Antinomians account this to be needless they account all prayer for pardon to be onely in this sense to wit of pardon and a manifestation of pardon Answ First though it be true that God doth not call a man to pray for those things that are perfectly done so as never to be done again as election and creation yet God doth command us to pray for those things that are still a doing I am not to pray to God to create the world it is perfectly done I am not to pray for Election it is so done as never to be done more I am not to pray for the incarnation of Christ Christ is come into the flesh but though I am not to pray for these things that are so fully and perfectly done yet I am to pray for those things that are still adoing pardon of sin is an act of God that is still in doing therefore the Apostle referrs pardon Rom 3. 24 25. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God And as sin is remitted and repented of it is pardoned therefore that reason is not valid to take off men from praying for pardon of sin the Scripture doth express it I acknowledged my transgression and thou forgavest Math. 6. 12. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters That Plat-form according to which we are to model our prayers the Antinomians would evade the Text and pretend that in that Text and such Scriptures we onely pray for a sense and manifestation of pardon in the conscience and not for actuall exhibition of pardon in regard of God To take off this first the next words in the Petition are to be taken for a reall forgivenesse not a forgivenesse in sense and feeling for consider the whole Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us there can be no reason shewen why the first part of the Petition should be taken for sense and feeling of forgivenesse and the other should not be taken so Secondly consider this that in the same sense you must understand a sin to be forgiven as in Scripture language it is spoken not to be forgiven a sin is said not to be forgiven when there is an actuall guilt lies upon a man a guilt abiding upon the person of a wicked man that is not taken away Mat. 12. 32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not bee forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come They that understand forgiving only in sense and feeling must understand this clause not forgiving onely in sense and feeling and so no reall guilt to lye upon the man so that It is against the nature of forgivenesse to be only forgiving sin in a mans own conscience Case 6 A sixt case is this Whether when a man in suing for pardon ought to make any difference between great sins and small