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	pharaoh_n	plague_n	2,988	5	10.1557	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66430	The unreasonableness of infidelity a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, April 6, 1696, being the fourth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2737; ESTC R38945	13,908	35

we may meet it withour surprize or terror and may live as we would wish we had done when that fatal hour doth approach And yet if we take a view of Mankind we find them generally as secure as if they alone were immortal or as improvident as if they had death under such an obligation that it must give them time and leisure sufficient to put all things in order before it shall proceed to executeits Sentence Now if in a matter so apparent sensible and certain there is so little where there ought to be the greatest concernment and Mankind is so difficultly moved that they either don't consider or the consideration of it makes them no wiser or better what reason is there to imagine that the testimony of another though it be one from the dead should make any lasting impression upon them and persuade them to repent 4. What a person feels himself should in reason more affect him than what he hears or sees of others And if what he himself feels makes little or no impression upon him 't is not to be conceived that what he only sees or hears should move him In confirmation of which we may reflect upon the common state and behaviour of Mankind in the Judgments and Afflictions that befal them the Dangers they are in the Terrors they are under In which and the like cases we shall find them too often insensible and incorrigible or inconstant and unresolved Sometimes they are insensible under the severest Judgments As it was with Ahaz who for his Idolatry was delivered up to his Enemies On the East the King of Assyria on the North the King of Israel on the South the Edomite on the West the Philistines invade and spoil his Territories as we have it 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 17 18. And yet when brought thus low for his Transgressions it 's said of him In the time of his distress he trespassed yet more against the Lord ver 22. At other times if sensible yet they are inconstant and in the event prove incorrigible As it was with the Israelites Psal. 78. 34 c. When he slew them then they sought him and enquired early after God c. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth c. For their heart was not right with God neither were they stedfast in his covenant Now can it be supposed that an Apparition of one from the dead should do more than these and that He should by that be disposed to repent whom the severest Judgments left impenitent Or suppose the Sinner terrified hereby and melted into an affectionate temper yet have we not examples of that kind every day of persons that after all the terrors they are under are set no nearer to a true repentance and though they seem for a while by some good resolutions to make towards the Kingdom of Heaven are never able to enter as our Saviour expresses it Luk. 13. 24. View we then a Sinner under the power of his convictions in the time of danger and distress when he has no way to escape How terrified has he been in his own mind at the approaches of death How Grave Solemn and Serious has it made him How importunate has he been for Mercy and for some longer time to finish his Repentance What Promises Resolutions and Vows has he made What Imprecations has he wished upon himself if ever he should prove false to them and desired no mercy if ever he should break them Lord will he say Spare me but this once try me but once more and then if I return to my former Sins or neglect to put my self into a capacity for thy favour and mercy let me never find it As it was with Pharaoh who said to Moses Forgive my Sin only this once and intreat the Lord that he may take away from me this death only Exod. 10. 16. Now could the Apparition of one from the dead do more than this Can we suppose the Sinner more terrified more seriously concerned and resolved than when he had his own Conscience thus impartially representing the case to him and Almighty God awakening his Conscience by an extraordinary Providence And now let us consider the event of this and whether after this tender disposition of mind and seeming resolution he is a true Penitent or that in the Phrase of the Text he will repent and that this will necessarily be the issue of it Suppose we then this Languishing person rescued out of the jaws of Death by a merciful Providence and put into the Condition of making a second tryal and of giving a proof of his thankfulness to God and of his fidelity to his Sick-bed Vows and Resolutions Let us suppose him again breathing in a free Air and having all the inticing Objects afresh presented to him that he was before conversant with Let us trace him along and we shall find him as the terror and sense of his danger wears off first covertly looking then remotely following at last overtaking and closing with the same temptations and perhaps plunging himself further into the same Licentious state than before Grant we now that there is a just reason for the Sinner's terror if the Ghost of his Deceased Friend and the once inseparable Partner in his Vices should appear and plainly represent to him the desert of Sin in the Miseries of another Life and the certainty of his having a Portion in them without repentance Grant we and he must be a stone rather than a man whom it has no influence upon that he is brought by it into the state of Belshazzar Dan. 5. that his Countenance is changed and his Thoughts so trouble him that the joints of his Loins are unloosed and his Knees smite one against another Yet still this may be and he be no true Penitent nor this prove a means effectual enough to reform him For a man repents no further than his Will and Temper is changed and if these remain the same he no more repents to whom the dead has appeared whatever terrors he may be under than he that was upon the borders of Death And he may and will as soon as he upon occasion repent of his repentance So certainly true is that which was before observed That the causes which hinder men from being persuaded to repentance by the Arguments of Scripture will also keep them from being persuaded by means extraordinary such as the coming of one from the dead And that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things will as well render the extraordinary means ineffectual as choke the Word of God and make it unfruitful Let God send all the Plagues of Egypt and yet Pharaoh will harden his heart Let the Sea be divided and Manna rained from Heaven and Water break out of the Rock and the Water of the Rock follow them for 40 years together Let them have a Cloud by Day and a Pillar of Fire by