Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A56123
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Truth unvail'd by scripture-light In three parts. Written for the sake of those that desire to behold it in its native beauty. To which is added, an appendix, which the author desires to leave as a legacy to his children. By a despised follower of the blessed Jesus, Robert Prudom.
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Prudom, Robert.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing P3883; ESTC R218355
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94,157
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208
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Work nor Device in the Grave If out of Christ when Death comes to you then miserable for ever if in Christ when Death comes happy for ever 6. Take care to get your Judgments throughly informd and settled in the Foundation-Principle of Christianity Other Foundation can no Man lay than that which is already laid which is Jesus Christ an all-sufficient Saviour Remember you must always go empty to him but have a care of returning empty from him Have the Saints in all Ages beheld such an Excellency in him and can you see none It 's a sign your Hearts are not right with him you talk of what you do not enjoy To you that believe saith the Apostle he is precious it 's such a Faith as gives a view of his Person in the Gospel-Glass 7. Endeavour to be much in the inward experimental part of Religion Have a care of sticking in the true Form without the Power and have a care of a pretended Power without the true Form If you stick in the purest Form without the Power you get no further than Formalists and are no better than a lifeless Image without Motion in God's account For Revealed Religion was appointed to bring the Heart to Communion with God and where this is not attained the great Design of God in giving forth Revealed Religion is lost Have a care of a pretended Power without the true Form for by this you will be laid open to the Transformings of Satan and to his Deceivings as an Angel of Light Lend not an Ear to that Spirit that gets above the holy Scriptures as a Rule and Guide How many Persons who have seemd to be in a hopeful way in the Truths of Christianity have been led into By-paths through Satan's Wiles and many sincere Christians have so far fallen as to lose much of their former Experiences 8. If the Lord in Mercy to you make you fit Matter of a Gospel-Church and afford you the Means of giving up your selves to other Christians that are gathered together according to the order of the Gospel upon a Profession of Faith and sincere Obedience neglect not so great a Mercy you may then be serviceable unto others by the exercising of the Gifts given you which may be for others Edification and Improvement to your selves and your Hearts may be warmed by the Gifts and Graces of other Christians Besides your Mercy will be very great in having the watchful Eye of sincere Christians over you to incourage you in your Christian Course and to be faithful Reprovers of you if they see that you do not walk orderly according to the Rule of the Gospel This is one of the great Privileges that attend those that are in Church-fellowship Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Two saith Solomon are better than one because they have a good Reward for their Labour for if they fall the one will lift up his Fellow but wo to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him If two Christians may be serviceable one to another how much more to have a considerable number of sincere Christians watching over you 9. Endeavour to get imprinted upon your Hearts that the Life of a Christian while he is passing through this World is a Life of Prayer When God takes Persons into Covenant with him he pours out upon their Souls the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication Prayer is the Intelligencer betwixt the Saints here on Earth and their Father now in Heaven it is that which keeps God's Ear open to us and our Hearts open for him The blessed Jesus speaking of John's Ministry the effect it had upon sinners to bring them to a sincere Repentance and by strong Cries to lay open their state before God he tells us Mat. 11.12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by force He compareth these poor returning Penitents to a Company of Souldiers drawn up in Battel-array to force their Entrance into a Fort or Castle their Cries here on Earth piercing into Heaven Prayer made God use that familiar and condescending Expression to Moses concerning the People of Israel Exod. 32.9 10 11. And the Lord said unto Moses I have seen this People and behold it is a stiff-necked People Now therefore let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great Nation And Moses besought the Lord his God and said Why doth thy Wrath wax hot against thy People which thou hast brought forth out of the Land of Egypt You may see in these and the following words to the 15th Verse what prevalency Prayer hath upon God when it is put up on the behalf of others much more when it is on our own behalf In treating of this Subject I shall First Shew what Prayer is and the nature of it Secondly I shall shew the necessity of the continuance of it while we are on this side Eternity First I shall shew what Prayer is and the nature of it We may take Prayer according to Scripture under a twofold Consideration First As proceeding from the Spirit of Bondage And here the Heart doth not cry unto God from an inward sight and feeling that it is interested in God but by the light of the first Govenant It looks upon God as Creator and as having an Ability in him to supply Nature's Wants and to deliver from approaching Misery This Prayer is Nature's Cry and is oftentimes put forth with a great deal of Earnestness where there is no Evidence of an Interest in God or Communion with God But that Prayer which I design to lay open is the Work of the Spirit of Adoption upon the Hearts of the Saints and this consists in these three parts 1st In giving inward Light to see the things necessary to be prayed for 2dly In giving Life and Motion to the Faculties of the Soul that so the Soul may be engag'd in the Duty 3dly In leading the Soul in the way by which an Entrance is obtained into Heaven First I shall shew the nature of the Inlightnings of the Spirit in the Duty of Prayer how they are discovered in the Soul of Man 1. The Inlightnings of the Spirit are discovered in the Soul of Man by discovering the inward Frame that the Soul is in The Hearts of the unconverted World are always in an ill Frame and that which is their great Misery they want Light to see it but if the Saints be in an ill frame they are in Mercy brought to see it remaining Corruption is discovered deadness and dulness and wandering of the Heart from God is discovered the holy Spirit gives Light that the Heart may be rectified and made fit for Communion with God because therein
which he plants is his affording the People of the Jews the Privilege of having his Worship set up amongst them and hedged it round about for distinction to shew that it was a Favour granted only to that People for the rest of the Nations had not that Privilege granted to them and digged a Wine-press in it that is appointed such Ordinances as were the instrumental Means in the hand of the holy Spirit to bring the Elect that were amongst them into Communion with God built a Tower that is the glorious Temple and let it out to Husbandmen and went into a far Country that is gave forth a Grant with an Entail that they should enjoy it for many Generations until the ruining of their Church and State for their grievous Sin in crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ Ver. 38 39 40 and 43. Therefore say I unto you The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof By the Kingdom of God he means his Worship which is the instrumental Means to fit for the Kingdom of Heaven The Old Testament Church-state being ended that which secures the continuance of the New Testament Worship amongst any People is the improving of it to God's Glory and the good of their immortal Souls God's removing of his Worship from Asia into Europe from one Nation of Europe to another from one City to another is a sufficient Evidence to us upon what terms his Worship is continued amongst us When the Churches in Asia were threatned with a Dissolution no mention of a Covenant made with their believing Fathers or their being saved by their Parents Faith Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first Works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of its place except thou repent So that it is plain that it is not by any Right descending from believing Parents to Children that they are admitted Members of the New Testament Church or have the Worship of it continued amongst them I do foresee that this will go to the quick with a great many Persons whose Cries are if the Children of believing Parents be not admitted to be Members of the New Testament Church you make their State and Condition to be worse under the New Testament than under the Old To which I answer that I do not straiten the Privileges of Believers Children for I shew'd before that Salvation doth not wholly depend upon Church-Membership or upon the admittance to outward Ordinances for many of God's Children were saved who were not admitted to be Members of a visible Church yet I do still own it is a great Privilege where it hath its Warrant from the Word of God for then they may expect his Blessing upon it to answer the end for which he appoints it Some Persons do say that believing Parents Children are not admitted to Membership into a visible Church but God with the believing Parent doth take their Infant-seed into the Covenant of Grace But they do not consider that Infants admittance to the Ordinance was by virtue of a right of Membership as Members of the visible Church under the Old Testament That Believers Childrens Privilege is better than theirs that are Unbelievers doth appear in this that those of them that die in Infancy have the Prayers of their believing Parents put up for them in the Name of him through whom rich Grace hath been extended unto them and I think a Heart drawn out to wrestle with God by the believing Parent on behalf of a dying Infant and a Heart enabled to leave the dying Infant to the rich Grace of God which flows through the undertaking of the blessed Jesus will yield a more abiding Comfort to the Parent than a pretended federal Holiness will afford them the Parent many times at the same time being under the sense of inward Corruption And as to these Children of believing Parents that are grown to years of Understanding and are not as yet admitted to be Members of the visible Church if the Parent be found in the discharge of his or their Duty to them they will in Truth and Faithfulness lay before them what is required to their orderly admittance and will seek to the Lord for them that they may enter in at the right Door for the Heart comes not to the Enjoyment of God neither to receive Comfort from Ordinances but as it first is brought into a right frame and hath its Warrant from the Word of God that it is in the way of his Appointments the Worship must be in Spirit and in Truth Secondly A second Reason why the New Testament doth require a Work of true Conversion upon the Heart as that which qualifies or fits a Person to be a Member of the visible Church is because without it the Duties required from one Member to another cannot be discharged as they are concerned in one and the same Interest on the behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ so there is a holy Watchfulness required over one another in order to the faithful discharge of these Duties which their Lord requires of them And saith the Apostle if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoice with it Where a Church is imbodied together according to the order of the New Testament our Lord hath left us an excellent Rule to walk by that so these things that may tend to bring Dishonour upon the Church may be stopt when they first begin to break forth or otherwise that things may be managed in such a way as that the Church may free themselves of the Offender Mat. 18.15 16 17. Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his fault betwixt thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established But if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican If thy Brother do thee any wrong or else sin against God and thou be privy to it for that Sin may be said to be against us which is against God in respect of that common Interest that such Persons are engaged mutually in If a sinning Member have his Sin laid before him by that fellow Member that is privy to it and he bear to be told of his fault so as to be brought to an acknowledgment of it before the Lord and to repent of it and return from it then that Member is gained but if he be stubborn let him be again admonished before Witnesses not one only but two or three Witnesses that so it may appear that means are made use of for the reclaiming of the Offender But if