Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	2,243	5	10.5323	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70235	The vanity of self-boasters, or, The prodigious madnesse of tyrannizing Sauls, mis-leading doegs, or any others whatsoever, which peremptorily goe on, and atheistically glory in their shame and mischief in a sermon preached at the funerall of John Hamnet, gent. late of the parish of Maldon in Surrey / by E.H. Minister ...	Hinton, Edward, 1608 or 9-1678.	1643 (1643)	Wing H2066; ESTC R7444	51,429	56

in this wildernesse Mad and prodigious boasters have I cald them and truly both these they are First they are mad for who but a mad man would boast that he had given himself his deaths wound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sinne is the death of the soule t Ezek. 33.12.13 Who but a mad man would boast of that heavie burden he is forc't night and day to sink under a heavie burden are my iniquities faith David they are too heavie for me u Psal 38.4 This heavie burthen the Prophet cals a Talent of Lead w Zach. 5.7 yes heavier and more intolerable then Hell or the Devill himselfe for 't was sinne made Hell and 't was sin sunk the Devill into it without it he cannot adde a dram weight to depresse or keep us from making towards heaven nay though unwillingly hee furthers us in the way but 't is sinne alone and only which keeps us down Again who but a mad man would boast in what arrerages he runnes with his Creditours vauntingly publish how all hee hath is morgaged and that Vsury eates him up apace 't is truth indeed some may and many do base and unworthy as they are pretend poverty say that they are ready to starve that thereby they might starve Christs cause But I cannot deeme that man truly himselfe which really boasts how bravely he is undone Now to obey Gods law is a debt due from us to him Cursed is hee that continueth not in all the words of the Law to doe them x Deut. 27.26 and all the people shall Amen that obedience is our debt we cannot deny our consciences seale to this bond the counterpane of it is wrote even in every naturall mans heart y Rom. 2.15 every sinne then being a transgression of the Law is an arrerage and upon this arrerage the soule is morgaged and without repentance lost and forfeited the sinner is utterly undone he shall be delivered up unto the tormentor untill he hath paid all his debt z Mat. 18.34 Once more who but a mad man will boast that he is a loathsome creature a wicked man is a loathsome man saith Solomon a Pro. 13.5 loathsome in Gods eyes my soule loaths him saith the Lord b Zach. 11.8 loathsome in the eyes of good-men and not only loathsome but infectious too the Prophet therfore resolved not to be in a wicked mans company c Psal 26.5 Lastly it makes him loathsome and contemptible in the eyes of his nearest friends yea of those friends which ought according to the Laws of God nature not only to love but to reverence him Thus the Prophet of Icrusalem by reason of sinne Icrusalem hath grievously sinned d Lam. 1.18 therefore they that honoured her dispised her and though for want of faith and by reason of the weaknesse of spirituall judgement wee cannot discover the filth and uglinesse of sinne yet doubtlesse at Christs second comming when hee shall be revealed from Heaven this also shall bee revealed even what an ugly noisome creature an impenitent sinner is then saith the Prophet speaking of Doomes-day and sinners they shall be an abhorring to all flesh e Is 66. ult Againe as these boasters in mischiefe are mad so are they also prodigiously wicked for who but a man prodigiously wicked would boast that God is fallen out with him such a boaster is he which boasteth in sinne for 't is sinne that separates between us and our God f Isa 59.2 secondly every sinne is a contempt against God quo ejus pracepta contemnimus temnimus saith Bernard g Serm. 31. de mod bene viven di how prodigiously then doth he contemn God which boasts that he hath contemned him Thirdly sinne is that which excludes us heaven and flings us into hell that which deprives us of all that we call good and brings on us all that is miserable 't is the greatest of curses and the worst of judgements Hence Saint Paul labouring to expresse how much Christ had suffered for us sayes he was made sinne for us h 2 Cor. 5.21 How prodigiously wicked then is he which boasts of the greatest misery that man is capable of Lastly sin being that alone which crucified the Lord of life which tore our Saviours head with thorns pierc'd his side nail'd his feet which made him sweat blood water which put the gall and vinegar to his mouth and wrung from him that bitter complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Tell me then sadly tell me is not he prodigiously wicked which boasts in that which after so cruell and shamefull a manner crucified our Saviour Nor is this boaster in mischiefe mad onely and prodigiously wicked but which must necessarily follow and be supposed is in a desperate and forlorne case and for these two reasons First because such a one sinnes with the fullest swing and willingnesse without any reluctancy and scruple nothing hath hee of the Spirit in him which might cause opposition or pawces The words of his mouth are intquity and deceit as my Psalmist of him he hath left off to be wise and to doe good hee deviseth mischiefe upon his bed hee setteth himselfe i. e. gladly goes on in a way that is not good i Ps 36.3 who being past feeling hath given himselfe over to worke all uncleannesse and greedinesse k Ephes 4.19 Secondly because these of all men are farthest from Christ and heaven being farthest from repentance whose sinnes are so farre from being a load and heavy burden unto them that they glory in their shame 'T is with these boasters as with men dived to the bottom of the water as long as they lye in the water they are nothing sensible of its weight but once recovering out would be overwhelmed with a small quantity of it So these boasters being sunke to the bottome almost as low as hell and lying there under never so many and hideous sinnes are never senfible of their load and burden whereas to a man by Gods grace recovering out of them one and the least sin will be a talent of Lead And so much of this second Question a short application and I have done Applic. And here let 's pawse a while with our best and serious thoughts admire and lament the miserable condition of our land wherein so many of these madmen of these prodigies of these desperately forlorn wretches swarme and spread amongst us Go abroad and listen and you shall hear the Drunkard boast how many swine he made the last night you shall hear the Ruffler boast what a new handsome full-mouthed oath he hath got the Goat how many women he hath abused and the Fox how many he hath over-reached and cousened Fiunt Fiunt ista palam cupiunt in asta referri But alas these though miscreants are but novices and bunglers in respect of some closer workers and deeper instruments of the devill who first guild

pedissequam faith refuseth reason as judge or guide but not as follower or servant Hence excellently Saint Austin Noli quarere intelligere ut credas sed crede ut intelligas labour not to understand that thou mightest beleeve but beleeve that thou mightest understand This naturall reason of ours if it hath any light 't is in it selfe no better in respect of the mysteries of godlinesse then that of an ignis fatuus which miserably misleads or at the best it is but as a starre to guide us like that of the shepheards to Christ now as a starre the Sunne and Moone withholding their shine yeelds no light or comfort So if the Word of God or the Spirit which enlightens the Word withhold their light we shall notwithstanding the strength of naturall reason be enwrapped in perpeturall night and truth is such 2 starre hath it proved to many in Polonia and Racovia even the starre mentioned by Saint Iohn and called Wormewood which made rivers so bitter that men tasting of them dyed dyed thereof Rev. 8.1 To goe forward then if naturall reason the richest jewell in natures Cabinet is so blinde in matters of Religion that it cannot make good a Socinian boast we may justly goe further and conclude that nature bestowing her gifts with never so broad a hand cannot afford her greatest darling matter sufficient for one selfe-boast Let me therefore in the next place aske thee Why doest thou boast thy selfe in any gifts excellency or strength of Nature whatsoever Is' t not a contest vanity of the poore to boast of their wealth the broken hearted of their jollity the Captives of their liberty the blinde of their quicke sight or a bruised Cripple of his legges If so what fond madnesse is it for us to boast of our naturall abilities For poore and blind Captives are we bruised and broken Cripples by nature and this we must know and acknowledge too ere we can reape any benefit by Christs comming Witnesse that of the Prophet Isai 61.1 Luke 4.18 which our Saviour affirmes to be spoken of himselfe The Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach the Gospel but to whom to the poore i.e. those which through the sight and acknowledgment of their own naturall poverty were poore and low in their own thoughts he sent him to heale but whom the broken-hearted i.e. those whose hearts are almost broken with the discovery of their wretched estate both by actuall transgression and naturall pollution to preach deliverance to the captives only those which seriously confesse what slavery is bequeathed them from Adam to sinne and the Devill recovery of sight to the blinde i.e. those which are truly sensible of their naturall ignorance and advernesse unto saving truths and to set at liberty those which are bruised which are sufficiently sensible of that all-over bruise they had by their first Parents fall he fell with us in his armes we were equally crippled with him but alas this was not all wee were not onely maimed in the fall but struck dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive * 1 Cor. 15 15. For ought I know to the contrary the Apostle here excludes all these from having life in Christ which will not acknowledge that by nature they are dead and what reason think you hath a dead man to boast of his naturall abilities Be we advised rather by Prosper * Lib. de libera arbitrio ad Ruffin agnoscat se humana debilitas cum mortui vivificantur cum caeci illuminantur impii justificantur confiteantur vitam lumen justitiam Iesum Christum let humane weaknesse acknowledge it selfe and since the dead are restored to life the blind recover their sight and sinners are justified let them acknowledge that Christ above is their life their light and their righteousnesse and as the Father goes on qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur qui cum esset impius caecus mortuus à liberatore suo gratis accepit justitiam lumen vitam he that doth glory let him glory in the Lord * 2 Cor. 10 17. not in himselfe who a sinner blind and dead received gratis i.e. without desert present or fore-seen of his Saviour light life and righteousnesse I must wonder therefore that some like Philotas in Curtius * Curt. l. 5. meruisse mortem consiteri pudet scorne to acknowledge that even by nature they deserve to die and as there the Historian of him mallent injuriam accepisse quàm vitam had rather die and that for ever so thereby God may be accused of injustice then accept of salvation meerely through Christ These with Bonaventure a Lib. quarto distinct 14. qu. 2. ar boast that qui facit quod inse est cogitans bonitatem Dei justitiam qui malum edit revertentibus misericors est he that does what he can as his disciples have Englished him bethinking himselfe of the goodnesse and justice of God which hates iniquity and is mercifull to penitents and hereby begets feare in himselfe from the thoughts of the justice of God and hope of pardon from the thought of his mercy who thus begins to think sayes he and then faciendo quod in se est doing what he can is of himselfe disposed for justification Thus our late pretending Defender of the Protestant Religion who desended our Religion as the Colonell did Ports-mouth that it might be more assuredly yeelded up undertook its defence himselfe to hinder others from more safely keeping of it thus may I say this pretending Defender sayes men are to use their best endeavours to believe the Scriptures in their true sense and to live according to it this if they doe as I hope many doe on all sides truly and sincerely it is impossible but they should believe aright b Chilling Relig. Protest ansiv to the Prefat p. 18. it had been modestly spoken had he said 't was probable they should believe aright so might he have meant that this their honest care and endeavour is an argument that God intends good unto their soules but to say it is impossible but they should believe aright makes this use of their best endeavours either of it selfe to cause beliefe or else to deserve it at Gods hands this doubtlesse his proud meaning otherwise he had not affirmed in the following page that God hath no reason to bee offended with those which using their best endeavours are mistaken and more hideously to this purpose in the following lines c I say plainly clearely for he that speaketh obscurely and ambiguously and now declares himselfe plainly surely hee hath no reason to be much offended if he bee mistaken which I wonder not so much at when I consider from whom they come from a Sceptick in Divinity and a changeling in Religion a just judgement on him which so much relies on the strength of reason and the use of his own

quisquis putat id quoque nescit An sciripossit quod semel scire fatetur c Lib. 4. But grant our knowledge may be sure and certaine yet what just matter of boasting can that be which is purchased with so much ado and may be lost so easily How much money travell sicknesse patience and study though vulgar ignorance thinke otherwise goe to the making of a wise knowing learned man whom an Apoplexy Lethargy Palsie or discontent in a moment besots or strikes lunatick Thus Eccius Luthers great adversary as great for his learning as his malice as Osiander d In Epit Cen. 16. e. Com. lib. 23. Cardinall Cressentius the Popes Nuntio at the Councell of Trent as Sleiden relates were strucke with a sudden frenzie and Calius Rhodiginus will tell you that Aristotle the Fountaine and Conduit of almost all learning and wisedome was by a violent surprisall of griefe suddenly cut off f Antiq. lect l. 29. c. 8. The Stoi●es the the greatest Idolaters that ever wisedome and learning had have set too low a rate upon them that they sticke not to affirme that Heraclitus and Pherecides men oraculously wise amongst them would have changed their wisedome for health if thereby they might have beene ridde of their paines and Sicknesse for health a good so common to us and beasts that some have therefore preferr'd riches before it Et divitem optare podagram Non dubitant g Iuven Satyr Thus many have there beene and thrse none of the weakest neither that have preferr'd a childes simplicity and a fooles ignorance before it lest by a fore-thought and miserably wise anticipation they might suffer afflictions before they fall and being fallen adde to the load by a punctuall comparison of past happinesse and present misery Truely in this respect spake the Greeke Poet Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sweetest life is in knowing nothing h Sophoc Ajax of which Solomon gives the reason because in much wisdome is much sorrow i Ecclesu And if thou hast so little cause to boast of knowledge and wisedome then much lesse cause hast thou to boast of a towardly disposition naturall ingenuity pleasantnesse of wit yes or of the full chaine of morall vertues which all put together are but semina radices prudentiae but the rootes and ground-worke of wisedome Know therefore that in the second place sweetnesse and ingenuity of Nature nor the greatest stocke of morality can justifie thy boast i meane still though we abstract from boasting its sinfulnesse Though these happily are in themselves good Gods gifts and challenge thy thankfulnesse yet not so absolutely good or thine owne as to justifie a boast For these are at the best but home-made garments which may perchance serve to keepe out wet in the world get name and repucation amongst men yet is it not a fit dresse for the Spouse to meet her Bride-groome in and if thou art not better clad at the great marriage-feast thou wilt be found without thy wedding garment Agains doe not these endowments if not seasoned by the Holy Ghost make us more yeelding and liable to temptation witnesse these common phrases which oft out of a fond irreligious charity we bestow on swine Alas he is a man of a very good nature An enemy onely to himselfe You see the worst of him the worst quoth you God forbid I should ever see any of you so bad for happily sober and himselfe he never swore cheated lyed quarrell'd c. and may on the Lords day passe with most for a very good Christian but on Munday there comes a Messenger from the Devill one of the drinking crew has him abroad where after a Catowse or two hee loseth both his sense and goodnesse and then his lascivious gesture and prophane language confesse that his former acted civility was not grace but some towardly seedes of morality which vainglory and imitation had fostered into a custome Yet this is not all these naturally sweet dispositions and vertues make a man not onely more pliable to temptation but though I dare not say as some that they are at the best a hinderance to Religion yet certainly may I say with a Divine of ours if they are not rectified by the good Spirit they cannot but blocke up the way to the power of godlinesse and upon this his reason too because many when they have perceived that naturall sweetnesse and civill uprightnesse have got them name and credit in the world and that it will consist with the profit and pleasure which some bosome sinne affords them then presently stop they here contenting themselves with a probable being in the right way when to speake truth 't is but a plausible way to eternall death And if the best of naturall dispositions nay if the best of our morall habits which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly call'd vertues are no just matter for boasting then certainly neither is our reason or sharpnesse of judgement which is onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a naturall vertue and improperly so call'd Know Socinus in the third place that thy reason though naturally never so deepe or sharpe cannot make good thy pride and strange boasting of it which by nature and of it selfe is darkened a Ephe. 4.18 Nay darknesse it selfe b Eph. 5.8 and this is that darknesse which could not comprehend the light c Iohn 1.5 that vessell which is not able to comprehend the way of the Highest d 2 Fsdr 4.11 Though I cannot well side with them who make reason an absolute enemy to Religion e Hook Eccles pol. l. 3. Sect. 8. and that the way to be ripe in faith is to be raw in wit and judgement Though there is on the other side Sapientia Dei in aperto as Saint Austin expresses it the wisedome of God legible in the creature though the veriest Heathen hath a Law written in his heart sufficient for conviction yet there is sapientia Dei in mysterio the mystery of godlinesse as Saint Paul speakes f 1 Tim. 3.6 which is farre beyond the reach and ken of naturall reason which when I fasten my thoughts on I cannot but thinke and say nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the ancient Father Shall I cry out g Iustin Mart de trinit p. 388. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that these points of Christianity are above our understanding above our reason and above the capacity of created nature and therefore a little before he affirmeth that the interpretation of them ought not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to humane reason P. 375. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but according to the sense and will of the doctrine of the Spirit especially saith hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sonnes of the Church Once therefore well spake Tilenus Syntag. l. 1. cap. 3. thes 30. though since miserably he fell rationem extinguit fides ut ducem dominam adhibet ut