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A26714 Instructions about heart-work what is to be done on Gods part, and ours, for the cure and keeping of the heart, that we may live in the exercise and growth of grace here, and have a comfortable assurance of glory to eternity / by that eminent Gospel-Minister Mr. Richard Allein, author of VindiciƦ pietatis. R. A. (Richard Alleine), 1611-1681. 1681 (1681) Wing A994; ESTC R19556 262,157 306

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the inward graces thou seemest to ha●● but art thou not wanting in others Thou seeme●● 〈◊〉 ●ve faith but is not love lacking Art thou not 〈◊〉 ●●us revengeful quarrelsome Professor thou seemest to have love but is not humility lacking Art thou not proud and haughty and high minded Thou seemest to be humble but is not meekness lacking Art thou not fierce and froward and peevish in thy way Thou seemest to be meek but is not patience lacking How canst thou bear affliction dost thou not murmure and repine and vex thy self in the day of adversity Thou seemest all this but art thou true in thy sayings righteous and exact in thy dealings merciful and compassionate and bountiful to those that are in necessity Thou seemest to have all these inward graces but is not a bold profession of Christ lacking Thou art bold to own Christ and hear his Word even to come in hazard but whatever thou canst say of thy hearing is not Prayer lacking if thou pray in secret is not prayer in thy Family lacking If thou pray in thy family is not secret prayer lacking If Prayer be both in secret and in thy Family is not Family-instruction the teaching thy family the care of their souls lacking If there be some care of others in thee is not the communing with thine own heart lacking Is not self examination lacking Dost thou search thy heart and try thy ways as thou oughtest dost thou make a diligent search a narrow search in fear lest thou shouldest be mistaken If there be self converse and self acquaintance dost thou maintain a converse with God is not holy Meditation lacking How often dost thou look heaven-wards what time dost thou spend dayly in serious meditation of God and the things above If there be such acts exercised the actings of Faith the actings of Love the actings of holy Prayer the actings of holy Meditation What life is there in these actings Are they not all as dead things Sacrifices without an heart Images without life If thou thinkest there be the presence of every Grace a will to every Duty an enmity against every Sin what power is there accompanying them what power in duty what power against every sin Doth not the corruption of thy heart bear down that grace thou thinkest thou hast and ●●rry thee down the stream of an evil and vain life 〈◊〉 there be some good will to a godly life is not pov●●●●●●ing It is t●●e the best of Christians have much lacking in degree their faith is weak their love is imperfect but is there nothing lacking of the essential parts of a christian Thou not only lackest strength of Faith but it may be thou lackest Faith thou not only lackest strong love but thou lackest love A child though he hath not the understanding of a man or strength of a man yet may be a true child but if he want the soul of a man or the head or the heart of a man he is a monster and no humane child Is not the soul or the life of Christianity the head and the heart of a Christian the life of a Christian lacking in thee If so thou art but a Monster and no Christian Is there not the conscience of a Christian lacking in thee Is not thy Christian covenant lame and imperfect Hast thou covenanted universally for all the parts of christianity for every duty against every sin without any reserve of the least liberty from our duty to any sin And is thy conversation intire according to thy covenant Is there nothing allowedly lacking in thy conversation of all that thou hast covenanted with the Lord Or what ever thou dost Is there not life and soul and heart lacking in all that thou dost Thou prayest but dost thou not pray without an heart Thou hearest but dost thou not hear without a soul Thou seemest a follower of Christ and livest in the practice of his precepts but is there not life lacking in all thy duties O consider over all these particulars and consider how many things are lacking in you 1. Consider and fear lest when you come to be weighed in the ballance you should then any of you be found wanting lest when you come to die and expect entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom Christ should then say to you no you cannot come in one thing is lacking in thee one thing that is necessary to thy entrance one thing lacking in thee of the essence of a Christian all would be lost thy soul lost the everlasting kingdom lost Consider therefore and fear 2. Consider and be humbled and be ashamed that after all the time you have had and all the helps and means you have had and all the tenders and offers the Lord hath made to supply all your lacks be humbled and be ashamed that yet there is so much la●king and all this for want of an heart to accept and improve what hath been offered let us be humbled and ashamed friends that if we have any thing of the faith of Gods elect in us yet We are so weak in the Faith that if we have any thing of the love of Christ in us yet that our love is so cold and imperfect that if we are found walking in the way of the Lord it is so slowly and so haltingly This is our shame and matter of great humiliation that we have gotten no more grace that we live no better lives But what shall I say to you that want not onely the strength of Faith zeal of Love a more even and steddy and fruitful life but want Faith and want Love and are not yet come into the ways of the Lord. I say to you as I said before fear and tremble think what it will be to be found thus in the day of the Lord. But to you that have Faith and have no more that do in some degree live by Faith and yet live no better consider and be ashamed consider and be confounded in your selves consider and be humbled under all your wants and haltings 3. Consider and make up what is lacking Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened pray the Apostles Prayer Eph. 3.16 That the Lord would grant unto you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might in the inner man and your hearts may be filled with all the fulness of God Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened and get those halting and barren lives to be established and filled with the fruits of righteousness Take the counsel of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.6 Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity that these things may be in you and abound that ye be no longer barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Brethren whilest heedless and inconsiderate ones are upon the losing oh consider how
call upon you and encourage you in the Name and the Words of the Lord Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. Let your hearts be thus kept and then come come with your prayers come with your praises and I will hear and accept you 8. It is the Temple of the Lord. 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the temple of the living God 't is the heart especially that is this Temple There are four things in the Temple of God which are so many reasons why our hearts should be carefully kept and guarded 1. The law of God is in his Temple The law was read in the Temple and kept in the Temple and as in that Temple made with hands so in that living Temple made without hands the Law of God is placed and preserved Christians have the Law of God within them their Bibles in their hearts in the heart of a Christian is the Copy of the Bible God hath not only preach'd it to their hearts but they have laid it up in their hearts Psal 119.11 I have hid thy word within mine heart that I might not sin against thee Mary kept the sayings of Christ and laid them up in her heart Luk. 2.51 God promised Jer. 31.33 I will write my Law in their hearts and he hath done what he promised he that once wrote his Law in Tables of Stone hath also written it in fleshly Tables of Hearts Therefore Psal 40.8 Thy Law is within mine heart The Law written in the heart Notes 1. All those holy Notions of God of Christ of Glory Honour Immortality of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God and of the Mistery of Christ which are written in the Scriptures are revealed in the heart 2. All those holy Principles or divine Axioms concerning Truth Righteousness Holiness Mercy Temperance Sobriety c. the nature and necessity of them to true Godliness and Blessedness 3. That Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus the new Law or Covenant of Grace by which we are freed from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 the Tenour and the Terms of the Covenant the Promises and the Conditions of the Covenant the great Charter of the Saints which gives them Title to and will give them an entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom The writing that Law is the writing the new Covenant in the heart 4. That inward living Law the holy bent inclinations dispositions begotten in the heart by the Word and Spirit of the Lord that renewed Conscience inwardly obliging and holding the heart to the Obedience of the Word A Christian hath not only something without him but something within him binding him to obedience whereby it may be said much more of him then of those Gentiles Rom. 2.14 He is a law to himself His own heart holds him in to Christ his own heart holds him on in Obedience to the Gospel If all our Bibles should be lost or burnt if all our Preachers that urge and press our Obedience were laid aside and trodden under foot a Christian hath that within him that would hold him on in his Christianity That knowledge of God and those Principles of Christianity that love of Christ and that renewed Conscience within him will keep him a Christian still Now all this treasure those holy Notions holy Principles this Law of Grace and this living law of the new Covenant being all kept in the heart the heart being the Temple of God wherein all this is preserved had need be carefully kept Would you not have all the Notions of God and the knowledge of Christ dimm'd and darkned and razed out would you not loose all your holy Principles of Righteousness and Honesty of Temperance and Sobriety would you not have the book of the Covenant stolen away on which all your Hopes and Expectations all your title to Everlasting blessedness depends would you not loose that holy bent and those holy inclinations and that renewed Consciences by all which you are disposed and inwardly bound bound in Spirit to the life of Christianity would you not that all these should be lost would you not return to be dim sighted and dark Souls would you not exchange your holy Principles for carnal Principles your renewed purged Consciences for corrupt Consciences would you not that the Temple of the Lord be robb'd would you not that your heart be robb'd of all these Treasures then set a Guard upon your hearts 2. The name of God is in his Temple Jer. 7.10 12. 't is said often he places his name there And of these living Temples the hearts of Saints 't is said Rev. 3.12 I will write the name of my God and the name of the City of my God upon them And Chap. 2.17 in this heart there is a precious stone put and upon this stone a new name written which no man knows but he that hath it A Christian hath not only the names of Christ call'd upon him he is call'd a Christian after the name of his Lord but he hath this name written upon him written upon his heart Sure that Table should be kept clean in which is written such a precious name What shall the name of God be written on a dunghil wilt thou suffer Sin and the Devil to make a very dunghil of thy heart and in that dunghil write the name of thy God If the heart be not well guarded the Devil will be not only carrying out but carrying in all the precious Treasures that are in your hearts let Satan alone a while and hee 'l carry them all away Whatever thou hast now thou shalt have nothing of God left in thee nothing of Christ lest in thee none of all thy Graces none of all thy comforts Hast thou love for Christ hast thou hope in Christ hast thou peace or joy in God hast thou either the image or the comforts of God in thee Satan stands ready if thou look not to him to carry all away thou wilt quickly be left a very miserable Soul poor and blind and naked if thou take not heed And as the Devil will be carrying out so he will be also carrying in to that heart of thine Thy Gold and thy Jewels he will carry away and he will bring in dirt and filth and trash As he unloads thee he will load thee unload thee of the treasures of light and load thee with the treasures of darkness He will fill those hearts with every unclean thing he will make those Temples to be very Stables or Sties he will make that heart a very Dunghil and Christ must either have no name within thee or that precious name written on a dunghil and will you suffer such an affront and abuse to be put upon your Lord If you do not keep your hearts so it will be 3. The Worship of God is in his Temple Mine house shall be called an house of Prayer Mat. 21.13 In this inward Temple the heart is the inward and spiritual Worship of