Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	worship_n	worship_v	zealous_a	17	3	8.4748	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

and therefore he will take as much of them as he can and dare But Religion is but his Physick and therefore he will take it as little and seldom as he dare Had he but seen the face of God by faith and had he but the heart of a true believer that is suited by holyness to the holy works that God commandeth as the heart of a true friend is suited to the will of him whom he loveth he would then be no longer Religious against his will and consequently in Vain but he would think the most pure and heavenly mind and life and the highest degree of love and holiness to be the best and most desirable state for his soul as every true believer doth Had this Hypocrite any true love to God as he deceitfully pretends to have he would love his Image and Word and wayes and then he would love best that kernel and marrow of Religion that life and soul of worship and obedience which now he savoureth not but shifteth●off as a needless or tedious or unattainable thing The nature and use of these Hypocrites Religion is to save them from Religion They carry an empty guilded scabberd accusing the sword of a dangerous keenness as a thing more perillous then necessary to their use When they seem most zealous they are but serving God that they may be excused from serving him and they worship him of purpose to shift off his worship They offer him the lips that the heart may be excused and complement him with cap and knee that they may excuse themselves from real holiness They offer him the empty purse for payment and tender him a sacrifice of husks and shells and lifeless carkasses They will abound in the shadow and ceremony that they may be excused from the spiritual life and substance Alas that dead hearted hypocrite that sits there and heareth all this is so great a stranger to the opening of the heart and the deep entertainment of saving truth and to the savoury relish of the searching healing quickening passages of holy doctrine and to the thankfull wellcoming of an offered Christ and to the lookings and longings of the soul after God and to the serious desires and hopes and labours of a gracious soul for life eternal that he is idle asleep and dead as to all this spiritual work and if he had not some customary service to perform and some ceremonies or external task to do and some bodily worship to be employed in he would find little or nothing to do in the Assemblies but might sit here as a bruit or as one of a strange language that comes but to see and to be seen And therefore if there be not somewhat more suitable to him then power and spirituality it seemeth as no worship to the formal hypocrite It is the pretty jingles and knacks of wit and the merry jears at the preciser sort or some scraps of Greek and Latin Authors or shreds of Fathers or Philosophy or at best an accurate well set speech that makes the Sermon good and acceptable to this hypocrites ears It is not spirit and life within him that brought him hither nor is it spirit and life that he savoureth and that he came for And therefore it is that this sort of hypocrites are usually most impatient of a misplaced word or of a worship performed in the primitive simplicity If a man deliver the Lords Supper but as Christ did and receive it but as the Apostles did or serve God but as the Churches in their dayes he will seem unreverent and slovenly and sordid to these self-deceiving Formalists They are set upon excess of ceremonies because they are defective in the vital parts and should have no Religion if they had not this All sober Christians are friends to outward decency and order But it s the empty self-deceiver that is most for the unwarrantable inventions of men and sticketh in the bark of Gods own Ordinances that taketh the garments for the man and useth the worship of God but as a Masque or Poppet play where there 's great doings with little life and to little purpose The chastest woman will wash her face but it s the harlot or wanton or deformed that will paint it The soberest and the comelyest will avoid a nasty or ridiculous habit which may make them seem uncomely when they are not But a curious dress and excessive care doth signifie a crooked or deformed body or a filthy skin or which is worse an empty soul that hath need of such a covering Consciousness of such greater want doth cause them to seek these poor supplies The gawdiness of mens Religion is not the best sign that it is sincere Simplicity is the ordinary attendant of sincerity It hath long been a proverb The more ceremony the less substance and the more complement the more craft And yet if it were only for want of inward true Religion that the hypocrite setteth up his shews it were bad enough but not so bad as with most of them or all it is For it is an enmity to Religion that accompanyeth their Religion As in lapsed man the body that was before the souls obedient attendant is become its Master and the enemy of its perfection and felicity so in the carnal Religion of the Hypocrite the outside which should be the ornament and attendant of the inward spiritual part hath got the Mastery and is used in an enmity against the more noble part which it should serve and much more are his humane inventions and mixtures thus destructively imployed His bellows do but blow out the candle under pretence of kindling the fire He sets the body against the soul and sometime the cloathing against both He useth forms to the destruction of knowledge and quenching of all seriousness and fervour of affection By Preaching he destroyeth Preaching and prayeth till prayer is become no prayer but the image or carkass of prayer at the best And useth his words to the destruction of the due Principle sense and ends Having still his carnal self for his end he preacheth and prayeth and serveth God in a manner that seems most suitable to his end so that it is not Gods means that he useth when he useth them but his own Nor doth he indeed worship God while he seems to worship him nor is indeed Religious but seems Religious It is materially perhaps Gods work that he doth and his means that he useth but Formally they are his own and not Gods at all when we meet with abundance of our people that are most nimble in their accustomed forms that know not what Religion or Christianity is nor who Christ is nor almost any of the substance of the Gospel it assures us that its easie to be Infidels with Christian expressions in their mouths and that its easier to teach a Parret to speak then to be a man As their bodies are but the prisons or dungeons of their souls so their formal words and

say God forbid that any should deny it But when it comes to the particulars and you find that he commandeth you that which flesh and blood is against and would cost you the loss of worldly prosperity then you will be excused and yet that you may cheat your souls you will not professedly disobey but you will perswade your selves that it is no duty and that God would not have you do that which you will not do Like a Countrymans servant that promiseth to do all that his Master bids him but when he cometh to particulars threshing is too hard a work and mowing and reaping are beyond his strength and plowing is too toylsome and in the conclusion it is only an idle life with some easie charres that he will be brought to This is the Hypocrites obedience He will obey God in all things as far as he is able in the general But when it comes to particulars To deny himself and forsake his worldly prosperity for Christ and to contemn the world and live by faith and converse in heaven and walk with God and worship him in Spirit and truth to love an enemy to forgive all wrongs to humble our selves to the meanest persons and to the lowest works to confess our faults with shame and sorrow and ask forgiveness of those they have injured these and other such works as these they will not believe to be parts of obedience or at least will not be brought to do them Poor souls I have stood here a great while to hold you the glass in which 〈◊〉 you were willing you might see your selves 〈…〉 you will yet wink and hate the light if you perish in your self-deceiving who can help it Briefly and plainly be it known to thee again whoever thou art that hearest this that if thou have not these five characters following thy Religion is all but vain and self-deceiving 1. If Gods authority as he speaketh by his Spirit Word and Ministers be not highest with thy soul and cannot do more with thee then Kings and Parliaments and then the world and flesh Mat. 23. 8 9 10. 2. If the 〈…〉 ●●●ing glory be not practically more esteemed by thee and chosen and sought then any thing or all things in the world Mat 6. 21. Col. 3. 4. Joh. 6. 27. 2 Tim. 4. 8 9. Matth. 22. 5. Luke 18. 22 23. Phil. 3. 20. 3. If thou see not such a loveliness in holiness as being the image of God as that thou unfeignedly desirest the highest degree of it Matth. 5. 20. Psal 119. 1 2 3 c. Phil. 3. 12 13 14. 4. If any sin be so sweet and dear to you or seem so necessary that you consent not and desire not to let it go Mat. 19. 22. Phil. 3. 8. Psal 66. 18. 5. If any known duty seem so costly dangerous troublesome and unpleasant that ordinarily you will not do it Mat. 16. 24 25 26. Psal 119. 6. In a word God must be loved and obeyed as God Christ must be entertained as Christ Heaven must be valued and sought as Heaven and Holiness loved and practised as Holiness Though not to the height of their proper Worth which none on earth is able to reach yet so as that nothing be preferred before them BUt yet there is one more discovery which if I pass by you will think I bawk a chief part of my text An unbridled tongue in a Professour of Religion is enough to prove his Religion vain By an unbridled tongue is not meant all the sins of our speech If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body But in many things we offend all Iam. 3. 2. Every unwarrantable jeast or angry word or hasty rash expression is not enough to prove a mans Religion to be in vain Though Christ say that we shall answer for every idle word he doth not say we shall be condemned for every idle word But when the tongue is unbridled and is not kept under a holy Law but suffered to be the ordinary instrument of wilfull known sin or of gross sin which men might know and will not this proves the person void of holiness and consequently his Religion vain It s true every Hypocrite hath not an unbridled tongue some of them have the bridle of moral precepts and some of Religious education and some of the presence and awe of persons whom they esteem common knowledge with natural mansuetude and moderation doth bridle the tongues of many an Hypocrite But as every wicked man is not a drunkard or fornicator and yet every drunkard or fornicator that liveth in it is a wicked man so every Hypocrite hath not an unbridled tongue his vice may lie some other way but every man that hath an unbridled tongue is an Hypocrite if withall he profess himself a Christian The sins of the tongue are of three sorts 1. Such as are against piety 2. Such as are against Justice 3. Such as are against Charity 1. Against Piety that is directly against God are Blasphemy Perjury rash swearing swearing by creatures light and unreverent using of Gods Name and attributes and Word and works pleading for false doctrine or false worship disputing a●ainst truth and duty scorning at godlines●● or reasoning against it These and such impieties of the tongue 〈◊〉 the evidences of prophaneness in the speakers heart though some of them much more then others and if the tongue be not then bridled all is in vain 2. Sinfull speeches against Justice and charity are these reproaching Parents or Governours or neighbours railing and reviling cursing provoking others to do mischief or commit any sin disputing against and disswading men from truth and duty and hindering them by your speeches from a holy life and the means of their salvation calling good evil and evil good lying slandering false witness-bearing back-biting extenuating mens vertues and aggravating their faults beyond the certain apparent truth receiving and reciting and carrying on evil reports which you know not to be true endeavouring to cool mens love to others by making them seem bad when we cannot prove it mentioning mens faults and failings without a call and just occasion unchast immodest ribald speeches cheating and deceitful words to wrong others in their estates with other such like But undoubtedly that sin of the tongue which the Apostle here had particular respect to was the reproaching of fellow-Christians especially upon the occasion of some differences of judgement and practice in the smaller matters of Religion The Judaizing Christians gave liberty to their tongues to reproach those that refused the use of those ceremonies which they used themselves and placed much of their Religion in The quarrel was the same that was decided by the Apostles Act. 15. and by Paul Rom. 14. and 15. and throughout the Epistle to the Galathians And this is the Religion that James calls vain here which was much placed in ceremonies with a pretense of

their reason in sensuality and are fed as for the slaughter and think not seriously whether they are going till prosperity hath ceased to deceive them and Satan is content to let them see ●hat they have lost and he hath w●n the game They are of the Religion described by the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 5. that taketh gain for godliness But if godliness must go for gain they will have none To oppress their tenants and devour widdows houses and cloak it with a long pharisaical lip-service or wipe their mouths with some customary complemental prayers and offer God to be a sharer in the prey this is the commonest Religion of the rich But they cannot endure to be so pure as to devote themselves to God in that pure and undefiled Religion which visiteth the fatherless and widdows in their affliction and keepeth men unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. What houses or company can you go into where Religion is more bitterly derided more proudly vilified more slanderously reproached or more ingeniously abused and opposed then among the rich and full-fed worldlings And if there be here and there a person fearing God among them he passeth for a rarity or wonder And a little Religion goes a great way and is applauded and admired as eminent sanctity in persons of the higher rank If a poor man or woman dwell as it were in heaven and walk with God and think and speak and live by rule it s scarce regarded poverty or want of a voluble tongue or the mixtures of unavoidable frailties or some imprudent passages that come from the want of a more polishing culture and education doth make their piety but matter of jeasting and reproach to the Dives'es of the world But if a Lord or Knight or Lady have but half their piety humility and obedience to God how excellent are they in their Orbs Nay if they do but countenance Religion and befriend the servants of the Lord and observe a course of cold performances with the mixture of such sins for which a poor man should be almost excommunicate what excellent religious persons are they esteemed 2. What families are worse ordered and have less of serious piety then the rich If our splendid gallants should be desired to call their families constantly to prayer to instruct them all in the matters of salvation to teach them the Word of God with that diligence as is commanded Deut. 6. and 11. and to help them all in their preparations for death and judgement to catechise them and take an account of their proficiency to curb profaneness and excess and to say with Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord how strange and precise a course would it seem to them should they purge their families of ungodly servants and imitate David Psal 101. that would not let the wicked dwell in his sight should they spend the Lords dayes in as serious endeavours for the spiritual benefit of their families and themselves as poor men do that fear the Lord what wonders of piety would they seem 3. In their entertainments visitations and converse how rare is serious holy confere●ce among them How seldome do you hear them remembering their guests and companions of the presence of the holy God of the necessity of renewing confirming and assisting grace of the riches of Christ revealed in the Gospel of the endless life of joy or misery which is at hand How seldome do you hear them seriously assisting each other in the examining of their hearts and making their calling and election sure and preparing for the day of death and judgement A word or two in private with some zealous Minister or friend is almost all the pious conference that shall be heard from some of the better sort of them Should they d●scourse as seriously of the life to come and the preparation necessary thereto as they do about the matters of this life they would mar● the mirth and damp the pleasure of the company and be taken for self-conceited hypocrites or men of an unnecessary strictness and austerity inconsistent with the jocund lepidity and sensual kind of delight wherewith they expect to be entertained The honest heart-warming heavenly discourse that is usual among poor serious Christians would seem at the tables of most of our great ones but an unseasonable interruption of their more natural and acceptable kind of converse 4. What men do more carelesly cast away their precious time then these Dives'es do They think they have a license to be idle and unprofitable because they are rich that is to abuse or hide their talents because they have more then other men Forgetting that to whom much is given of them shall much be required Because they have no poverty or family-necessities to constrain them to a laborious life they think they may lawfully take their ease and live as droans on other mens labours as if they owed nothing to God or the Common wealth but all to their own flesh Their morning hours which are most seasonable for meditation and holy addresses unto God and the works of their calling are perhaps consumed in excess of sleep The next are wasted in long attiring and curious adorning of their flesh from thence they pass to vain discourse to needless-recreations to eating and drinking and so to their vain talk and recreations again and thence to the replenishing of their bellies and so to sleep And thus the words of the fool that Christ describeth in Luke 12. 19. are turned by them into deeds and it is the language of their sensual lives Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Sleeping and sporting and jeasting and idle talking and eating and drinking and dressing and undressing with worldly cares and passions intermixt are the very business and employment of their lives Thus contemptuously do they waste their precious hours while God stands by and time makes haste and death draws near and their miserable souls are unprepared and heaven or hell are hard at hand and this is all the time of preparation that ever shall be allowed them O do but look on these distracted piteous souls that have but a short uncertain life to provide for a life that hath no end and see how they forget or senslesly remember the matters of infinite concernment see how they trifle away that time that never will return how they sport and prate away those hours which shortly they would recall were it possible with the lowdest cryes or recover with the dearest price When they know not but in a laughter-or a merry jeast their breath may be stopped by an arrest from heaven or justice may surprize their miserable unready souls with the cards in their hands or the cup at their mouths when they have not the least assurance of being out of hell an hour and yet can sell this time for nothing and basely cast it away on toyes which