Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	put_v	spirit_n	stony_a	3,973	5	11.7036	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85957	The fort-royal of Christianity defended. Or, a demonstration of the divinity of scripture, by way of excellency called the Bible. With a discussion of some of the great controversies in religion, about universal redemption, free-will, original sin, &c. For the establishing of Christians in truth in these atheistical trying times. / By Thomas Gery, B.D. and Rector of Barwell in Leicestershire.	Gery, Thomas, d. 1670?	1657 (1657)	Wing G618; Thomason E1702_1; ESTC R209377	93,977	264

the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God In which words the Spirit of God expressing a perfect distribution of all the powers and forces that are or can be in man excludes them all from this work and ascribes it to the alone will of God for it neither proceedeth from the bloud of man that is from any prerogative of natural propagation or generation which was wont to be the Pharisees vain brag and oftentation We are Abraham's peed for a which they were sharply reproved by John Baptist Matth. 3.9 Nor doth it proceed from the will of the flesh that is from the natural strength of mans corrupt will nor yet from the will of man that is of such a man whose corrupt will is corrected bettered and amended either by the help of the common grace of God or by the acquisition of humane learning or by his own wise observation and experience for this force the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carrieth with it which is here used and so in like manner doth the Latine word uir by which it 's also translated in the Latine from none of these forces in man doth this worke proceed and these are all the forces in man's will but they are all excluded and God alone is made the Author and Procreant cause thereof A second testimony that I shall produce for proof of this Truth is in Ephes 2.8 9 10 verses where the Apostle speaks thus to the Ephesians By grace ye are sa●ed through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them In which words the Apostle strives to annihilate our selves about this work and to take away all pretences of our cooperation with God therein For first He saith It 's not of our selves and then he saith It 's not of works lest any man should boast but there were matter of boasting if our selves were co-workers with God herein And then he addeth to remove all scruple about it that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Where note that he doth not say his workmanship renewed or repaired though that be true too but his workmanship created The Apostle as it may seem did pick out this word on purpose which he again also useth speaking of this work in the 4 Chapter following and 24. v. his words are Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holiness that he might altogether exclude all cooperation herein with God on our part for to create is the proper act of God and no creature can have any hand therein There be many other pregnant and punctual proofs of Scripture for this point As Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh If God make all new and take away all the old then is there none of the old left to help to make it self new Philip. 2.13 It 's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Therefore the Will works not till God first work upon it 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God If we be not sufficient of our selves to think that which is good then not to will it for Voluntas sequitur intellectum the Will follows the Thought Jam. 1.18 Of his good will begat he us by the word of truth If of his own will then not by help of our will But to avoid prolixity and tediousnesse which I ever disliked I will rest satisfied with the quotation of those few proofs of Scripture which I have already cited pretermitting a number more of like sort as hoping they may satisfie the unprejudiced Reader because they are so clear and convincing I have not yet done with this Controversie but have something more to say about it And that is to invalidate the main Argument or objection which is brought by them of the Adversarie part against this truth for I read of no other of any force which is this It 's said by them That men are called upon in Scripture to turn to God very often which if they have not power of themselves to do the commandment is unjust and needless for Nemo tenetur ad impossibile To this I return a five-fold solution or answer First That though we have no power so to do now as we are fallen in Adam yet did God give us so much grace in our first creation as would have impowred us hereunto if we our selves had not lost it And therefore is it no severity or injustice for God to require that at our hands which he once gave us power to do though now we cannot do it because we our selves have made our selves unable to do it and not God And here I desire the Reader to take notice how unfit a comparison one of our Adversaries in this point hath used though cryed up for a man of learning who chargeth God with as great severity bidding us to turn unto him if we have not of our selves now freedome of will so to do as for a man to cut off another man's legs and then bid him run But by his leave for all his great learning the case is not alike but varies and fails in the main point of all which is this In that God gave man legs to run the ways of his commandments before he bad him run which he hath cut off himself God gave man power to do all that he requires at his hand and man hath bereaved himself thereof And therefore it 's neither injustice nor severity in God to require of man what he once gave him power to do though now he be unable because he hath disabled himself If God had made man unable the comparison might have held but seeing man made himself unable the comparison halteth Secondly I answer that God's commandments do not alway import what we can do but what we should they do not always argue our ability but our duty As for example to instance but in one particular of many We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all the heart and with all the soul and our neighbours as our selves This we cannot do in that fulsse that the Law requires yet it is not severity in God to require it of us because he once impowred us unto it namely in our first creation And the case is the same about our conversion Thirdly I answer that God requires it though we cannot of our selves do it that we may be put in mind to crave his aid who only is able to make us to do it This reason is given by S.