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	people_n	pharaoh_n	1,979	5	10.4708	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80721	Prayers prevalencie for Israels safety. Declared in a sermon preached in Saint Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at the late solemne fast, June 28. 1643. / By Thomas Carter, minister of Dynton in Buckingham-shire. ; Published by order of that House.	Carter, Thomas, d. 1646.	1643 (1643)	Wing C668; Thomason E60_2; ESTC R22771	35,268	44

it did de jure unchurch them and de facto had unchurched any other Nation whatsoever And during their continuance in that sinne they had forfeited their right lost the comfort and sense of that relation betweene God and them neither could others that were unacquainted with that absolute covenant looke upon them as Gods Church any longer Now as our Saviour yeelds that the Jewes though they had nothing of God in them and were none of his spiritually but Joh. 8. 37. 39. 41. the children of the Devill yet living under right ordinances they were members of the true visible Church the sonnes of Abraham and of God by externall sonship so also the Jewes confesse that if they were children of fornications i. e. members of an idolatrous Church they were broken off from God and none of his sons no not by externall adoption Indeed superstitious additions to the ordinances or an erroneous way and manner of using them are sins of an high nature and in a sense the taking of Gods name in vaine in hindering the ordinances from attaining their true and proper end namely the honouring of Christ and edification of his people at least in that degree as otherwise they might Yet as I conceive such superstitious additions and errours in the manner of using the ordinances cannot amount to a setting up of an Idol and so dissolve a Church Though the wife be a blasphemer and guilty of the grossest sinnes yet a wife still adultery onely breakes the marriage bond so only Idolatry breakes that bond of relation betweene God and a people When rebellious Israell had played the harlot and would not repent but continued obstinate in her Idolatry the Lord gave her a bill of divorcement Jer. 3. 8. and cast her away Use Now therefore it nearely concernes a people of all other sinnes to beware of Idolatry and idols b 1 Joh. 5. 21 As we have cause to be humbled for the Idolatry that hath beene committed in the Land lest it becomes ours by consent so for time to come with detestation to cast it utterly out of the Land c Isa 30. 22. Yea to remove all appearances of it a true Church like a modest woman should not endure a whorish dresse Yea and to remove all occasions of Idolatry though not formally so not gradus in re yet if it be gradus ad rem any occasion helpe or step to it put it farre away d Job 11. 14. and so keepe the Kingdome farre from an evill matter In the fourth place be pleased to take notice of the nature of Israels sinne and the judgement denounced against it First their sinne is obstinacy metaphorically set downe they are a stiffenecked people First By necke is meant the heart or will as Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart e 2 Chro. 36. 1● which is all one as the neck of the Oxe beareth the yoke and so drawes in the Teame so should the heart beare the yoke of Christ and goe on in his wayes Secondly By stiffenesse or hardnesse of the heart is meant the settled strength of the will to goe on in sinne And when once it is so set First the heart becomes impenetrable like Pharaohs nothing can pierce it f Exod. 7. 23. either with feare of sinne before it is committed or with remorse for sinne when it is committed but is fearless and senslesse Isa 28. 15. Zep. 1. 12. Secondly the heart becomes also inflexible and unalterable like the Adamant stone g Zach. 7. 12. nothing can worke upon it or bring it into a better forme No washing can make this Blackmore white h Jer. 13. 23 Indeed first there is a naturall hardnesse which we bring with us into the world i Isa 48. 8. a child though it hath a tender body yet it hath a hard heart Secondly there are some remainders of this hardnesse in the hearts of the best even of Christs owne disciples k Mar. 6. 52. but this is partiall and but for a time But when this sinne comes to the height and is totall and finall the heart fully and unalterably set to doe evill a Eccles 8. 1. then it properly denominates a person or people obstinate and stiffenecked This hardnesse is partly habituall voluntarily procured and that First by long and frequent committing of sin b Neh. 9. 29. acts encrease habits and indispose the subject to receive contrary habits thus the heart becomes like the high way so hardned by the often passage of sinne that no seed will enter c Mat. 13. 4. Secondly by long standing out under the meanes of grace like the Tortoise which floats so long upon the water untill the Plin. beames of the Sunne have hardened its shell that it cannot sinke so living long in sinne under the Sun-shine of the Gospell the heart becomes so hardened that it cannot repent d Rom. ●5 This hardnesse is partly also penall and judiciall The Lord for their sinnes so many and so long continued in and for refusing of grace offered in the meanes in his just judgment gives men up to Satan and to their owne hearts lusts letting them loose upon them and so their hearts become fully obdurate This is the nature of their sinne but in what degree and how generally spread we cannot exactly determine Secondly the judgement denounced is set downe in a metaphoricall expression and implies that the Lord was ready by some severe judgement to consume that people his anger growne hot even to fury like an enraged Lyon ready to teare to peeces and consume From the sinne and punishment the doctrine which ariseth is this Doctr. 4 That obstinacy in great and grievous sinnes under effectuall meanes is usually the immediate forerunner of ruine it is a token that the Lords anger is hot against a Nation and ready to breake in upon it by some consuming judgement I desire to instance in an example or two In the 13. of Jeremiah Jer. 13. by a linnen girdle hid at the river Euphrates untill it was rotten Ver. 10. the Prophet shewes that the Lord would cast the State out of his sight untill it was consumed verse 10. Now because they presumed of safety that either through the wisedome of their State or at least that by their cunning each private person would make some shift for himselfe therefore he tels them that they should be like drunken men a Ver. 12 13. sottish and staggering to and fro in their resolutions not knowing what to pitch upon for their safety And because they presumed of their power b Vers 14. he tels them that they were to God but as a pot in the hand of the potter soone broken to pieces by him yea the Lord will cause them one to dash against another one to plunder and kill another And because they expected forraine helpe from Aegypt he tels them c Vers 16. that it should

to the Lord with all their hearts and thereupon the Lord was found of them and turned away their captivity Secondly when the Lord intends to destroy a people he so carrieth Corol. 2. things about in his providence that his peoples prayers shall be wanting We finde Jer. 7. that when the Lord by an irrevocable Ier. 7. 14 15 16. decree had determined the destruction of the Jewish State he prohibits his Prophets praying for them Where there is upon good ground a totall despaire of a thing there will yea and ought to be a totall recesse and falling off from use of meanes to effect a thing in it selfe and in our apprehension not feceable And therefore the Creators decree being either by the event or by his revelation made certainly knowne the creature must submit the Prophet though his heart was much set upon that State Ier. 13. 17. yet must not struggle against the knowne will of God Now howsoever we have no such prohibition the Lords decree being hidden from us so long as a Nation hath being we ought not to cease praying yet when the Lord intendeth the ruine of a Nation either the Lord takes away his Lots into his mountaine and leaves not any considerable number of holy men morally none not a man to stand in the gap or he takes off the hearts of his people Ezek. 22. 30. Ion. 1. 6. Luke 18. 1. and suffers them as he did Jonah to be asleepe when the Ship is in greatest danger or he lets the spirits of his people fall as being discouraged or weary or withdrawes the breathings of his Spirit in their hearts and so prayer being gone the gap is open the judgement breakes in upon a Nation And now for Use and Application Use 1 1. This Doctrine teacheth us that in a warre that side which hath the prayers of Gods people hath a great advantage their prayers set up or pull downe a side it is not the falling in of the great multitude with swords and speares though yet this God useth as a meanes but the unfained falling in of Gods people with their prayers and teares that turnes the scale a few Jacobs wrastling with God can doe more then a thousand of others and spirituall weapons can doe more then naturall Luther was wont to call the prayers of Gods people his great Ordnance and a praying people are the horsemen and the Chariots of Israel In that famous battell against the Amalekites the prayers Exod. 17. 11. of Moses gave a sensible advantage to Israels side and indeed the victory The bringing of the Arke into the host put courage into 1 Sam. 4. 5. 7 8 the Israelites in so much that they shouted for joy but it struck a terrour into the Philistims they cryed O woe unto us God is come into the host effectuall prayers bring God into an army and carries him along with them fighting for them against their enemies When Jonathan and his Armor-bearer were to set upon the Garrison 1 Sam. 14. 6. of the Philistims Jonathan went upon this ground that the successe of a warre or a battell depended not principally upon multitude of men but upon Gods cooperating with them we are indeed the weaker side saith he but it is no matter for that if God worketh with us now we finde vers 45. he wrought with Verse 45. God doing his worke in a dependance upon him and you see Vers 14 15 16 what a great victory the Lord gave him Use 2 Secondly this Doctrine discovers unto us that such as doe oppose and seeke to hinder the prayers of Gods people for a Nation are enemies unto it for though perhaps ex intentione agentis they seeke not intentionally therein the Kingdomes ruine yet exnatura rei they doe that which in its nature tends that way they do with Sampson endeavour to pull away the Pillars that doe uphold the State they open the breaches and seeke the removall of them that stand in the gap and so let in the wrath of God into our Land Psal 106. 23. Ezek. 22. 30. As the Pelican in seeking to blow out the fire kindled about her young ones with her wings the flame thereby was increased her wings burnt and so became a prey so these that by their persecution of Gods people and by their evill speeches doe seeke to blow out this flame of zealous prayer in the Land by their opposition that fire will increase and they procure their owne ruine For fire shall goe out of the witnesses mouths and consume Revel 11. 5. their adversaries Vse 3 In the third place it affords us a caveat to beware that we doe not marre this engine in the using Prayer is indeed of great use and of singular efficacie to save a Nation in a time of danger provided we use it not amisse as Saint James speaketh When Iam. 4. 3. men make many prayers and yet their hands full of bloud when they Isa 1. 15. Hos 7. 14. Ier. 3 4 5. houle and cry and yet rebell against God they pray and yet grow worse and worse thus an effectuall meanes of saving a Nation is marred in the using and prayer to such a people like the Arke among the Philistims provokes the Lords anger and doth a people more 1 Sam. 6. hurt then good We finde in Isa 58. that the people sought the Lord by a daily use of his ordinances they drew neare to God by Isa 58. an outward performance of them in hearing in fasting and praying as if they had beene the most righteous Nation in the world vers 2. And they complaine and expostulate with God as if he Vers 2. had not dealt well with them in not regarding their Fasts vers 3. Vers 3. Now therefore the Lord answers it 's true fasting is a service that I require as a most effectuall meanes of safety in a time of danger But saith he Is this the Fast that I have chosen to hang Vers 4. 5. the head like a bulrush with an outward shew of humiliation whiles the guste of Gods wrath is over to hang the head and the heart not dejected to pinch your bodies and feede your lusts to fast to strife and debate and smite with the fist of wickednesse to fast and pray and yet live in strife and oppression surely such Vers 4. Vers 6. 7. prayers will never be heard above But saith the Lord verse 6 7. Fast and pray as yee ought to doe as the Lord hath prescribed not so much with rent garments with outward shewes though even Jo. 2. 13 this ought to be likewise but come before the Lord with rent and wounded hearts and broken bleeding spirits for your owne sinnes and the sinnes of the Land and with an unfained purpose of breaking off of your owne and others sinnes by a through reformation both personall and nationall And then vers 8 9 10 Vers 8 9