Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
evil_n	evil_a	heart_n	thought_n	2,080	5	8.0009	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74655	Three treatises, being the substance of sundry discourses: viz. I. The fixed eye, or the mindful heart, on Psal. 25.15. II. The principal interest, or the propriety of the saints in God, on Micah 7.7. III. Gods interest in man natural and acquired, on Psal. 119.4. By that judicious and pious preacher of the gospel, Mr Joseph Symonds, M.A. late vice-provost of Eaton Colledg.	Symonds, Joseph.	1653 (1653)	Wing S6360; Thomason E1440_1; ESTC R209605	170,353	369

to God but as it 's not their dayly course so they do it not with strength but weakly and faintly Slight visions leave but very shallow impressions These men live according to the sight they have of God Slight men are of poor spirits because they do not enoble themselves in a vigorous beholding God A third fault which is worst of all when men send out their thoughts and lay out their understandings in an ill way when the matter of their thoughts and imaginations is evil There are thoughts of good that are evil thoughts and thoughts of evil that are good When a mans mind looks on God but the heart withdraws when it looks upon God with contradictions and quarrellings at him these are evil thoughts of God There are thoughts of evil that are good as when a man looks on evil but his end is the separation of his heart from it and that he may destroy it But when a man looks upon evil with affections and desires after it when his mind is employed 〈◊〉 the bellows to the fire when he is con●●●ing and devising how he may compass 〈◊〉 ●vil this is most notorious wickedness 〈◊〉 doth mightily habituate and root the Soul in a deplorable elongation from God He that thinks and deviseth evil makes haste to it with all the strength he hath Prov. 24.8 He that deviseth evil shall be called a mischievous person a Master of evil * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some read it this is the fruit a man by employing his understanding in a sinful way he becomes to be a sinner in grain a Master sinner a Leader of others a man transcendent going beyond others as Saul was higher then the people by the head and shoulders David describeth such an one Psal 36.3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit he hath left off to be wise and to do good He deviseth mischief upon his bed he sets himself in a way that is not good he abhors not evil that is he loves it as those phrases import verbs negative are put for their contrary affirmative Prov. 30.32 If thou hast thought evil lay thy hand upon thy mouth for as the churning of milk brings forth butter and the wringing of the nose brings forth blood so the forcing of wrath brings forth strife It 's but to shew what degrees sin hath When a man hath thought an injurious thought against another it 's time for him to lay his hand upon his mouth and stifle it there for if the thought be entertained it inflameth the tongue and then much evil comes into act As the churning of milk brings forth butter and the wringing of the nose blood so saith Solomon the Forcing of wrath brings forth strife As Vipers dye by the young ones bred in them so do men dye by the evil thoughts bred in their minds The Apostle Peter speaks of some men 2 Pet. 2.14 so sunk in sin by the exercise of their understanding and senses about it that they could not cease from sin * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I am sure of the more you wander from God the more you run into sin and every thought you have of evil this way is a step from God Stop betimes before you go so far that there can be no return that you be not held in the cords of your own iniquity pray that the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee which was the Apostle's counsel to Simon Magus Acts 8.22 Men come to be in a remediless state by giving way to evil thoughts Isa 44.20 it is said of Ephraim A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand Now a man is in a woful state when he is so turned aside by his deceitful heart that he cannot extricate himself You have a power and may do something and by how much more you are enabled to it by so much the greater your sin is if you neglect it When God calls on you for this work if you can be profuse on other things in a great expence of your minds and thoughts towards them and you will not mind him in all your ways your sin is the greater 2 Argu. 2. This work is a work of the noblest power and faculty you have and as any thing is more excellent so it stands in the greater obligation towards God for as a man receives so he owes we owe much that receive much Seeing then you have received so noble a faculty from God you are more engaged to lay it out when called for according to the Will of him that gave it You have other faculties that are not under such a tye you have a power of breathing a power of motion in all your members you have many powers but these lie not under that obligation as this because this excels all the more careless and unfaithful you are in improving it for God the greater your sin and fault is This faculty is as one calls it Divinae particulam aurae a divine breath a beam of the immortal Light the very Image of God Nothing comes nearer unto God then the mind of Man and Angels When you suffer therefore your understandings to run from God you debase your glory your excellency is now deflowred and dishonored It 's recorded as a reproach upon Domitian the Emperor that he would be spending his time to catch and kill flies too childish a work for a man in so high a place It is much worse for you to employ that excellent faculty your understanding about flies and trifles that was made to behold God and in beholding him to be filled with him It 's the most excellent and highest faculty and the workings of it are so much the more easie The works of the Soul are more easie then those of the body therefore you should be encouraged to put your selves on the exercise of it The eyes of the body can by one glance reach the stars and see further in a moment then the body can move in all its time The mind is quicker then the eye and in a moment can glance into Heaven to the beholding of God therefore this should be a motive to prevail with you to the practise of this Duty because it 's a thing whereunto you are so enabled O dulcis confabulatio Dei in anima cum anima quae sine linguae labiorum formatur strepit● sine aure percipitur subsilentio solus qui loquitur cui loquitur audit illum omnis alienus excluditur Ber. Opusc c. 5. Vita contemplativa incipit in hoc seculo perficitur in futuro Bern. It 's a most excellent power conducing most to your life the actions of the body do more weakly and remotely conduce to your life This faculty is spiritual and herein differs much from the actions of the body which have their seasons their proper time and

To be able no otherwise to say I am thine is but sad In a family the meanest things that are scarce fit to be retained in the house are his to whom the house belongs All things are Gods even the meanest creatures and to have no other relation to God then this is but to be in the condition of things most contemptible In Deut. 10.14 God speaks of a better relation to his people Behold the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lord thy Gods the Earth also with all that therein is Now the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them and chose his seed after them even you above all people as appeareth this day We must be his upon a better account then that of Creation There is a second Interest that God hath in man and that is acquired and that partly by Redemption God having redeemed both by price and power a certain number to himself out of the lump of mankind these in an especial manner are his So Isai 43.1 Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and formed thee O Israel Fear not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by name thou art mine I have redeemed thee that is I have delivered thee from the great power of the mighty Ones that bare Rule over thee and under whom thou sufferedst hard things Therefore thou art mine This we know is a Law that is amongst men That those that are conquered and saved from the sword become his by whom they are so subdued There is a second acquired Interest that God hath in man and that is by Contract wherein man engageth himself to a resignation of himself to God In which sence David spake also when he said I am thine The Contract between God and man which is the foundation of this Interest is a mutual engaging to be each others according to their capacities I 'le not insist upon opening this description but will a little hint at some of those strange things that are in this Contract between God and man And First A word as to Gods part It 's a Contract where there is the greatest disparity that is imaginable between the two parties For here is he that is the highest and the other party that is lower then the lowest and meanest creature more contemptible then the worm Princes do not make contracts with beggers and yet they may have need of such though not for their assistance yet as theaters to display their bounty and goodness on God needs not the whole Creation to set forth his glory who is absolute in himself God al sufficient To this add that disparity that is between the things which God requires of man and the things which God engageth himself to do for man Was there ever such a Contract made Saith God Do you but your part which is not a thousand part of what is due and I 'le do my part What is that More then he did at first indent for I 'le give you an eternal immutable life and that in my own Presence and Kingdom You may cast your eyes from that again and wonder more at the Mediator by whom and through whom this Covenant this Contract was made God sends his own Son into the world both to bespeak man to be willing to enter into this Contract and to seal up the Contract with his own blood That part which concerns man his resigning of himself unto God which is an absolute parting with himself and putting himself everlastingly under the power wisdom and soveraignty of God to be commanded ordered and disposed in all things by him according to his Will I shall now set before you certain peculiar things that are proper to this engagement of man and resignation of himself unto God 1. In resigning of our selves to God there is an act springing from the greatest necessity and wherein there is the greatest liberty and freedom of spirit It was ill done to put these two into a contrariety and opposition Necessity and Freedom which do most perfectly agree By how much the more any creature is excellent by so much the more he is necessarily what he is and yet most freely such The Angels love God necessarily and yet most freely Nay God himself is good most necessarily and yet is so and doth good most freely This might be manifested in sundry Instances where there is some degree of necessity and also a very excellent freedom and willingness As for example Take two friends fully suited to each other their hearts are necessarily carried to mutual embraces and yet most freely It is in this case as in flying from evil a man flies from evil by a kind of enforcement and yet freely especially from some great evil when he sees there is a necessity to fly he cannot but fly and yet doth it freely In resigning of our selves to God that which is the fundamental reason of it lays upon the Spirit of a man a strong necessity and yet leaves that spirit in a very sweet and excellent freedome Psal 110.10 You have both these exprest Thy people shal be willing in the day of thy power in the day when thou putest forth thy power who wilt rule in the midst of thine enemies and raise up to thy self a Kingdome not onely among strangers but Rebels in this day of thy power thy people shal be willing yea willingnesses very willing they shall come to thee with all earnestness The will of a man may truly and in good fence be subject to compulsion and yet not limited in its freedom it may be compel'd how Not by meer physicall power acting upon the Spirit of a man but by a moral power by force of Arguments and Reasons proposed and set on the soul so Sauls servants compel'd him to eat bread 1 Sam. 28. And they were sent to command and to compell them to come to the Feast Indeed this inforcing and commanding reason is the great instrument of the power of God whereby he commands the spirits of those whom he loves into obedience to himself This is the key that opens the heart as it is said Acts 16.14 God opened the heart of Lydia Resignation of a mans self to God is from the efficacie of Gods mighty appearance and manifestation of himself to the soul of a man by which he is over powr'd and cannot deny God but notwithstanding this necessity he doth most freely fall under the power that acts upon him 2. A second thing concerning Resignation is that Self is saved by being destroyed it lives ●y death A man finds himself by losing himself and doth best enjoy himself by parting with himself There is a great mistake and it is the fascination and witchery of the powers of darkness upon the spirits of men that by Nature corrupt nature we are apt to think that the giving of our selves to God is the giving of our selves away to our loss whereas it is our making it 's not the straitning

was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant It was an usual thing with this people to come in their troubles and distresses and say Arise O Lord and save us and we will walk with thee but they did lye with their lips and flatter God with their false and dissembling words and minded not what they spake but were Deceivers Further When a man comes to God upon any occasion as a Suiter not giving himself to God he speaks no sence at all his prayer is a piece of non-sence there is no judgment nor reason in it but a heap of contradictions and folly If any should come to God persisting in the evil of his ways not having his heart set toward God to become subject to him in all things he contradicts himself praying against evil and yet loves evil We pray against a particular evil and we love the greatest evil that which is all evil and the cause of all evil What contradiction is here We pray for mercy O that God would shew me mercy in this thing and yet we shew no mercy to our selves but do that by which we weaken poyson and destroy our selves and with contentment and yet we come to God and say Lord have mercy on us This is folly extremity of folly When you come to God you come for this or that good Lord give me health or give me enlargement or supply me in my necessities deliver me from this danger c. Men come for some particular good and they hate that which is all good the chief and universal good Thou wouldst have life and health in this world but not Jesus Christ thou carest not for eternal life What contradiction and folly is this while you cry for good and hate good You walk in ways of contradiction against God and hate him in your hearts You say Lord save me when it may be you have some sense upon your spirits of the sad condition of men gone out of the world and of your own present state to be like theirs Thou wouldst have God save thee and yet thou destroyest thy self What sayst thou O man wilt thou depart from the evil of thy ways O no saith the Soul Will any man hold forth his hand to a Chyrurgeon and pray him to cure him and at the same time gash and wound himself Would any man pray to the Judg O Sir pray save my life and at the same time drink down poyson And yet this is the dayly dealing of men with God they pray to him but they are fools they offer up most intolerable contradictions to him 3. Except a man come to God with an heart submitting to him he imposeth most strange and horrid things upon God For either he saith in his heart that God knows not what his intentions are he never means nor hath an heart to forsake this or that sin which is to make him no God or else if he thinks that God knows his heart and yet he will take the boldness to come to God and cry for mercy and to be helped and relieved Mark what he imposeth upon God hereby he would have God act strangely against his own Wisdom the language of that mans prayer is Do but save my life at this time and I will sin more and more against thee Do but let me enjoy mine estate and it shall be the fomentor of my lusts and the weapons of mine unrighteousness against thee do but take off my burden and I will be like an untamed Ass in the desart God hath declared and revealed his wrath from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that hold the truth in unrighteousness men that know what they should do and do it not yet they are so unrighteous to God and to themselves that they will not suffer this truth to work upon their spirits these men call to God for mercy when as God hath declared that he will shew no mercy to men that walk thus in the stubbornness of their hearts but that his wrath shall burn against them that he will be their Enemy and oppose himself to all their wickedness When thou knowest thy heart is stark naught and art privy to thy secret mischievous intentions unto God and to his Truth thou comest to beg of God to shew thee mercy which so much goes against his Will see what thou imposest upon the Nature of God who is most good and holy thou in the baseness and rottenness of thy heart which holdest a confederacy with sin comest to God in this infinite contradiction wherein thou standest to him and beggest of him that he will take thee into his bosom and be kind unto thee Was there ever such a request made to a man that he would take this Serpent and that Toad into his bosom I know God doth so in effect but then they cease to be such Never doth a man put up a prayer to God with a purpose of continuing in his sin but he imposeth a strange thing on the Will of God Micah 3.11 It is said They build Zion with blood and yet will they loan upon the Lord. And you have a pregnant example Jer. 3.5 6. Wilt thou turn when we cry to thee my Father will he reserve his anger for ever Here is a great sense of evil but saith he Thou hast spoken and done evil things and at that very time was the hearts of this people set against God when they came beging praying and crying that God would help them and shew them mercy That shall suffice for the second thing Why when we come to God we must come with resigning of our selves with a hearty giving up of our selves to his Commands and in all things to be disposed of by him A third thing propounded was What Argument this is or wherein the force of it lies that we should plead this with God Save me for I am thine There is a three-fold strength in this Argument 1. The Law of Nature which obligeth a father to be good to his child the husband to his wife c. And God hath subjected himself more unto the Law of Nature he lies more under it then any of these and doth more perfectly fully and gloriously fulfil this Law of Nature then any ther is no father like him no friend no husband like him Can a mother forget her child can she Yet I will not forget thee Isai 49.4 A mother can hardly do it Nature teacheth her to have bowels and a merciful remembrance toward her child much more will I saith God 2. When we can say to God I am thine we plead the Covenant that God hath made with us wherein he is become our Father and Friend And this is that which was pleaded in Isai 63.16 Doubtless or surely thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledg us not because they are gone and so have no cognisance of us now yet Thou O Lord art our Father

they are separated from the love of God So I have done with the third Argument CHAP. XIV The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day A Fourth is this Doubts in this case are very sinful and grievous especially to a Soul in light and to a Soul in trouble To clear this I will shew first That they contain in them exceeding great evil against God in these things 1. They are contrary to the Truth and Faithfulness of God They are a denyal of the Truth of God manifested in the Promises and by the testimony and witness of his Spirit God hath made our way open to himself and we are apt to say most wretchedly as the Church in Lament 3.44 He covereth himself with a Cloud that our prayers should not pass through He hath left upon you perhaps some marks of his love he hath put into you some earnest of his favor what are these but the voyce of God from Heaven that God is your God and yet you say as the Church in her frowardness The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Again It is not only opposite to his Truth but to his Love When a friend comes to one passionately affected in suspicion of his friendship and saith to him Sir I love you you are very dear to my heart and he will not beleeve him he takes it ill God may say to us in the matter of his Love as he said to them in the matter of obedience What could I have done more God may say I have given them the knowledg of my self I have given them a heart to love me I have given them all the pledges of my dear Love and yet they will sit down in corners and spend and waste themselves in mourning because I love them not What can I do more In Deut. 1.32 God took it ill when his Word could not be taken and when the manifestation of his Love was of no force Yet in this thing ye believed not the Lord your God who went in the way before you to search out you a place to pitch his tent in c. Surely saith God there shall not one man of this evil generation go to see that good Land that would not believe me It may be our hearts may be somewhat like Jobs in Job 9. saith he If I have called and he hath answered me yet I will not believe that he will harken to my voyce What a strange thing is this Though he hath heard me when I came to him and hath given me entertainment of a Father and I did receive pledges of his Love yet I will not believe that He loves me and that he will hear me Again They are diminutions of divine Favors He that doubts his Interest cannot so bless God in the enjoyment of wife children and estate and whatsoever carries sweetness in it but bitterness of Soul overflows and makes all things bitter and he is apt to overlook all who is not perswaded of his Interest in God In Esth 5.13 you read of the froward spirit of Haman and such a spirit is usually in him that feareth What is all this to me seeing Mordecai sits still at the gate Another evil against God is That these doubts cause mis-interpretation of all divine Actions They make a man mis-construe God in all things whatsoever he saith or doth God shall not be taken aright by that man that doubts his Interest in him O Job how wert thou mistaken and what meanest thou to speak those words Job 13.20 Wherefore hidest thou thou thy face from me and holdest me for thy enemy Why did God ever take thee for his enemy So many because God crosseth them in their desires and frustrates them in their hopes O say they God is angry with me he doth not love me I might tell you the same in other dispensations of God indeed that man cannot be pleased Now we may consider how painful and vexing doubting is in that man that is alive that is in a living state and especially in an evil day There are these three things that clear it 1. This is a matter of greatest consequence it 's a business of the greatest weight See you not a man sometimes how heavily he walks when his estate is in question but much more when his life is in question But what if his life and estate too be in question That man that knows God truly would rather endure the loss of ten thousand lives and estates then the loss of Gods favor 2. Another thing that makes it exceeding heavy is the loss of the sweetness of former experience David in Psal 42. complains of this When I remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with the multitude that kept holy-day And Job in Chap. 29.2 O that it were with me as in the days of old and in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shined upon mine head and when by his light I walk'd in darkness As I was in my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle and when the Almighty was yet with me Thus that man that loseth the sweetness of his former experience remembers the days of old and that afflicts him Again God will have it so that where this thing is not yet driven home and the Soul hath not duly sought and so not found satisfaction concerning his Love it shall be bitterness to him I say God will have it so the Soul shall not enjoy it self He doth this partly to give a demonstration of his own Excellency and to vindicate it in the Soul that a man may surely know and find that there is none like him therefore saith he I will take away the light of my face from that man he shall have his house and land and estate and see what he will do with them what he can make of them And by this the love and favor of God appears to be excellent Besides this God loves his people he will have their love and will have his love sweetened to them therefore it shall be bitterness to them when it is lost Be perswaded then to make this your work and rest not till you know that you have Interest in God plead with David in Psal 35. Lord say unto my Soul thou art my Salvation not only be my Salvation but say thou art my Salvation And then though you may have many sad thoughts accompanying you yet this will refresh you in the midst of all as it did David in Psal 94.14 In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my Soul CHAP. XV. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The