Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	let_v	lord_n	pharaoh_n	2,368	5	10.5791	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44456	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen and citizens of the city of London, in the parish church of S. Mary le Bow, September 3, 1683 being the day of humiliation for the late dreadfull fire / by William Hopkins ...	Hopkins, William, 1647-1700.	1683 (1683)	Wing H2754; ESTC R17537	23,331	39

So that when it pleases God to deliver us out of those miseries which our Sins have brought upon us we are to consider that we are in a state of Probation we are upon Tryal And we are farther under a double obligation to forsake those Sins for which we lately smarted We have the voluntary obligation of our own Vows upon us and we are bound in point of Gratitude to God to Sin no more He will esteem the faithfull performance of our Holy Resolutions the most Authentick Evidence of our Thankfulness and our future Obedience our best Peace-offering When God hath put an end to his controversie with a land Psal Lxxxv. 8. and vouchsafes yet once more to speak peace to his people he expects that they should not turn again unto folly But in case they do not answer so reasonable an expectation if they offer him fresh affronts or repeat their old ones they will find the Truce broken by their own Treachery and Vengeance returning armed with double fury Men have no reason to promise themselves Peace so long as they boldly put Heaven to defiance and fight against God He may perhaps give them a little respite he may change their punishment and not continually lash them with the same Rod but till they cease provoking him there will be no end of their calamities III. That if upon the removal of such Calamities we do not forsake those Sins for which they were inflicted we may justly dread forer Judgments Lest a worse thing come unto thee Almighty God in dealing with his sinfull creatures is pleased to observe the method of skilfull Physicians who begin with the most gentle and easie remedies searching and cleansing the wound with as little pain as may be to the Patient but if the wound putrifie and gangrene they are forced to proceed to more painfull operations such as launcing incision and searing and when after all they find the malignity and venome of the gangrene is such as no remedies can conquer they are forced to cut off the incurable member Thus doth God at first exercise the Sinner with gentle corrections seeming to be not without hope that they may prove strong enough to work his Reformation but if they fail of success he proceeds to greater severities in proportion to the guilt and obstinacy of the Offender Thus he dealt with his ancient people the Jews Isai IX 1. At first he lightly afflicted the land of Zabulon and the land of Napthali and afterwards did more grievously afflict her by the way of the Sea As men do not mount per saltum at one leap to the height of all Impiety and Profaneness but wax worse and worse by degrees till at last they become desperately wicked So neither doth God use extremity at first he doth not pour out the full vials of his Indignation at once but his Judgments grow gradually heavier till at length vengeance accomplisheth the ruine of the incorrigible and desperate Rebel A remarkable instance of what hath been said we have in Pharaoh and the Egyptians who oppressed Israel and refused to obey the voice of the Lord who by his Prophets commanded them to let his people go He began with light afflictions and as oft as Pharaoh seemed to repent he removed them When Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardned his heart whereupon God sent other Plagues upon Egypt and followed them with one Judgment after another punishing them first in their Waters then in their Corn and Cattle next in their Bodies with sore Blains and Boils after that in the Death of their First-born and lastly Pharaoh having many times wilfully hardened his own heart God hardened it penally to his ruine so that pursuing the Children of Israel through the Red-sea he was drowned with his whole Host Nor was this a singular case a particular method wherein God dealt onely with Pharaoh and the Egyptians For thus he treated his own peculiar people Israel for whose sake he had sent all those prodigious Plagues on Egypt When they murmured in the Wilderness he chastised them several ways When they waxed wanton in the Land of Canaan and revolted to Idolatry he suffered the neighbour Nations to infest their Land to take their Cities to defeat their Armies to oppress them and bring them under Tribute after a while he would deliver them when they revolted again he punish'd them some other way As their obstinacy encreased so did his severity He suffered the X Tribes first to go into Captivity and after a while he caused the King of Babylon to carry away Juda Captive and lay waste both the City and Temple of Jerusalem For 70 years they sate in Babylon and then God brought back their Captivity and so favoured them that they rebuilt the City and Temple but as they returned to their ancient dwellings so did they to their Sins and continued a stifnecked and rebellious generation despising the goodness of God contemning his threatnings killing his Prophets crucifying his own Son and having now filled up the measure of their iniquities God delivered them into the hands of the Romans who destroyed their Nation burnt the City and Temple of Jerusalem rased their foundations and litterally fulfilled our Saviour's Prediction Matt. XXIV 2. that there should not be one stone left upon another Now there are several ways in which God is wont to bring worse things upon obstinate and unreformed Sinners I shall instance in Three 1. When he brings the same Calamities thicker and oftner upon them and though he scourge them with the same Rod yet he increases the number of their stripes Their enemies make frequent incursions upon them they suffer by frequent Plagues and Fires Psal XXXII 10. Thus as the Psalmist threatens many sorrows shall be to the wicked God will raise them up enemies on every side and as he threatens the Jews he will send many fishers and they shall fish them and after he will send many hunters and they shall hunt them and make a prey of them and he will recompense their iniquity and their sin double Jer. XVI 16 18. God will double his blow upon every fresh provocation and as the Sinner multiplies his Transgressions so will the Divine vengeance multiply his Plagues If ye will walk contrary to me saith the Lord and will not hearken unto me I will bring seven times more Plagues upon you according to your sins Lev. XXVI 21. 2. A worse thing happens to a relapsed Sinner when God inflicts sorer and heavier Judgments than before 1 Kings XII 14. And this is not unusual Those whom whips will not reform he chastises with Scorpions If the ordinary instrument of Discipline the Rod hath been long used in vain he whets his glittering Sword and bends his Bow Jer. L. 25. He opens his Armory and ransacks all the Treasures of his Wrath for Instruments of Cruelty and Death and brings forth the weapons of his Indignation Or which is worse than