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
A86437	Contemplations moral and divine The second part.; Contemplations moral and divine. Part 2	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1676 (1676)	Wing H232; ESTC R229708	200,739	481

the taking away of good Men good Governours good Laws So much Goodness as is in these is his own and he may justly call home what is his As the restraining Grace that he lends to a particular Man is not due to him so these External Restraints they are not due to us but they are the free Mercy and Favour of God and yet as in the former so in this the removal of them is seldom but upon some eminent sin When Jerusalem had offended against God he takes from them the Prudent and the Antient and the Honourable Man and the Counsellor and gives them Children to be their Princes Isa 3.2 when his Vineyard brings forth wild grapes he takes away the hedge thereof Isa 5.5 the good Order and Rule and Laws among them When God is angry with a Man or a People Governours of exemplary goodness are taken away not only from the Evil to come but by their being taken away Evil succeeds evil Manners and then evil Events 2. By proposing of Objects which though they have no evil in them nor are they propounded to the end to draw Men to Evil yet the Evil heart of Man takes opportunity by them to act unto Evil. The Egyptian Inchanters could have no more made Blood by their Inchantments without a Permission than they could make Lice Exo. 8.18 yet by that act of theirs Pharaoh his heart was hardned Exod. 7.22 Again when upon the importunity of Pharaoh and the Prayer of Moses the Plague of Frogs was removed it was an act of Mercy in God yet when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardned his heart Exod. 8.15 And here appears that Sea of Poyson that is in our heart by Nature that will corrupt an innocent object as was the wedg of gold a Mercy as was this to Pharaoh nay the very Grace and Goodness and Patience and Bounty of God into a Temptation to Covetousness Presumption Wantonness Now from this Petition we learn our Duty in reference unto these Temptations 1. In reference to such Temptations which God is pleased oftentimes to send for Tryal such as are Afflictions and Persecutions 1. That we are not to seek them Our Savious teacheth us to pray against all Temptationr they are not in themselves good but are turned to good by the Wise and Merciful hand of God 2. That if we fall into them to be quiet and contented and to discern the hand that hath led us into them and the end why he did and to co-operate to that end to learn by them Patience under the hand of God Confidence in his Grace and Power to support us still to hold our Integrity not to be amazed and disordered as if some strange thing had befallen us but rest upon that Promise of his who is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but with the Temptation will make a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 Know that it is he whose Will thou hast before prayed may be done that hath led thee into this Temptation And by this means thy Temptarion shall be only a Temptation of Tryal and for thy Advantage not a Temptation of Seduction 3. To pray unto God 1. To prevent us from them for as they are not to be sought so all due means is to be used to avoid them 2. To be delivered out of them 3. To be supported in them 1. with Patience to bear them 2. with Grace to improve them to Gods End and if God say unto thee as once he did to Paul My Grace is sufficient for thee it will become an act of Heavenly Chymistry to turn thy Iron into Gold thy Temptation into Advantage 2. In reference to Temptations unto sin we learn two special Duties Watchfulness and Prayer both joyned together by our Saviour for this purpose Matt. 26.41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation 1. Watch 1 That thou be not a Tempter and therein 1. Beware of Tempting God for such Tempters there have been 1 By Presumption and presumptuous casting our selves upon unnecessary dangers Matt. 4.6.7 2 by Murmuring and discontent Exod. 17.2 Why tempt ye the Lord Deut. 6.16 Psal 78.18 They tempted God in their Heart by asking meat for their Lusts 2. Beware of Tempting the Devil for such is the Villany of our Nature that we are ready even to solicite the Devil himself unto Temptation by adventuring upon secret and unwarrantable Arts unreasonable practices going to Witches using Charms Invocations or willingly being in such places where they are used adventuring into unwarrantable places or companies without any just or reasonable calling thereunto 3. Beware of tempting Others unto any sin either by thy Perswasion or by thy Practice The former is more gross the latter well near as dangerous 1. to the person offending Matt. 18.7 Wo be unto the World because of offences 2. unto others especially when the occasion is given by a person in eminence of Place or Reputation Peters dissimulation proves a compulsion Gal. 2.14 and this extends not only to things simply evil but also to the practice of things in themselves indifferent 1 Cor. 8.11 Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed The thing that to thee is indifferent and so esteemed by thee when it shall draw another into the like practice upon thy Example but against his Conscience becomes an occasion to lose his Soul 4. Beware of tempting Thy self and this may be done divers ways 1. By giving way to wandering and vain Thoughts They mislead the heart indispose for Good corrupt the mind possess it with vanity as for Example when a Man will raise an imagination to himself that if he had such a degree of Wealth and then what Houses he would build what Retinue he would have what Table he would keep what Equipage he would have or fancy to himself that if he had such a degree of Power then how he would revenge such an Enemy how he would honour such a Friend and the like Such is the vanity of our minds that it can and often doth frame such similitudes to it self and upon them beget such follies and vain resolutions as these The temptation and sin that ariseth out of Wealth and Power really injoyed are those very workings of the mind upon them viz. Confidence Ostentation Pride Revenge and the like Now in these Imaginations and vain Thoughts the Soul tempts it self in a double way First he tempts his understanding into a Lye and a falsehood by putting himself into that imaginary condition in which he is not 2. He tempts himself in his Will and Affections drawing from those very imaginations that he hath thus framed those very same mischiefs and that very same poison if not worse which his corrupted Heart would have drawn from the real injoyment of that very Power or Wealth which he hath imagined himself to have and thereby improveth this very Imagination into a real Temptation staining corrupting

that will but come in and enter into Covenant with God in Christ Jer. 31.34 I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sin no more And although this one Sacrifice of Christ offered up once for all is a full satisfaction for all the sins of his Elect to the end of the World yet the same eternal Contract that made it so did likewise appoint certain Means actually to apply it And make it effectual to us of Faith to lay hold upon it And in as much as notwithstanding our giving up our Names to Christ many renewed daily sins are committed by us our Lord teacheth us to resort daily to this Sacrifice this Magazine of Mercy this Fountain opened to wash for sin and for uncleanness thence to fetch new applications of this one Sacrifice for our renewed offence and to beg our Pardon as often as we beg our Bread So then 1. We have the true Original of Forgiveness the Free Love of God which gave Christ as the Sacrifice for Sin and accepted that Sacrifice as the price of our Pardon So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life John 3.16 2. We have the Meritorious Cause of it that Sacrifice of Christ whereby Pardon is impetrated for as many as lay hold upon it 3. The Act which that Eternal Counsel appointed to be the Means of the actual Application of it to the Soul receiving of the Pardon thus offered To as many as received him to them c. Joh. 1.12 For as we live and move and have our Being by God and his Will and Providence yet the same Will of his hath appointed the means whereby that Will of his is accomplished our daily Bread and the use of it So although from God we have our Pardon yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ to be the instrument of an Actual or Effectual Application of it and the Efficacy of Faith as an instrument for that purpose depends likewise upon the same Will of God which hath so appointed When the Israelites were bitten with fiery Serpents in the Wilderness God commanded Moses to erect a brazen Serpent for their cure Numb 21.8 But although the Divine Will had annexed a power of healing unto that Serpent instrumentally yet the same Will appointed the actual application of that power to the looking upon that Serpent Every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live So though by the Eternal Will of God a Pardon is obtained by the Death of Christ yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ the means of the receiving of that Pardon and yet this very means is not in our own power but it is the Gift of God John 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father draw him 4. The renewed Exercise of that Act upon occasions of sin committed or renewed Prayer for Pardon which as it doth most naturally flow from the sense of sin and of a Pardon impetrated by Christ so by the Divine Institution it is required to apply that Pardon actually to the Soul and it is a high Mercy of God to grant it for the asking and an argument of a proud unbelieving heart to think to have it without it and whensoever the Spirit and the Word of God hath wrought in a man a belief of and in the Sacrifice of Christ the same Spirit doth work in the heart a desire of it which is nothing else but the Prayer of the Mind for it maketh intercession according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 And herein we therefore see two things 1. Our Duty Our sins are many and daily even after we have given up our Names to Christ If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 Joh. 1.8 And though meritoriously Christ hath satisfied for those very sins yet we are to have often recourse to this Sacrifice to fetch our cure and our cleansing in the actual application of this Sacrifice unto us Had a man been bitten by a fiery Serpent he might look upon the brazen Serpent and live and had he been bitten again he must have looked again or else he had died it is so with us only here is the odds the man that had been once cured if bitten again might perchance not have looked again upon the Serpent and so have died but it is otherwise here the same principle of Life that abiding seed 1 John 3.8 that did at first make him to seek and sue to Christ for his first actual Pardon will after a fall a renewed sin send the Soul to this Fountain for a new act of application of that cleansing and pardoning he cannot commit sin that is lye in it without recourse to God for Pardon because his Seed abideth in him 1 Joh. 2.8 2. Our Priviledge If any man sin we have an Advocate 1 John 2.1 an Advocate that knows the mind of our Judge and out of that knowledge hath taught us as often as we beg our Bread to beg our Pardon and that with assurance that we shall be heard if we do it in Faith and Sincerity 1 John 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive It is the Proclamation of his Name Exod. 34.7 Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin It is his promise Jer. 31.34 Jer. 33.8 I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Even to a revolting and backsliding creature upon true repentance Isa 56.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Jer. 3.12 Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Christ came into the World to restore in Man the lost Image of God And when Peter asked him Matt. 18.21 How oft shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus said unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but till seventy times seven times And surely that Mercy that Christ required in a poor mortal Man is infinitely fuller in the merciful God who delights in Mercy and Forgiveness Only remember 1. To take heed of Presumptuous Sins Premeditated Sins Sins against knowledge and against convictions Sins with a presupposition of Pardon Deut. 29.19 That shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart The Lord will not spare him These though they cannot exceed the Mercy of God to pardon them they many times shut and seal up the Soul against Pardon hardning the heart to a great difficulty if not a final impossibility of Repentance and by that means the Soul is disabled with any comfortable ground or assurance to beg Pardon without the great Mercy