Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A40520
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Sermons concerning grace and temptations by ... Thomas Froysel.
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Froysell, Thomas, d. ca. 1672.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing F2251; ESTC R1406
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217,249
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284
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out your temper I do not say he knows the heart as well as God but he knows our hearts better than our selves I say he feels the pulse and finds out the darling sin he studies more our hearts than we our selves and therefore we had need to be wary 2. When he hath found out mans temper his darling sin he can lay a bait of Temptation suitable to it He discerns a proud heart or a covetous heart and then he lays his Temptation to Harmonize with it Thus you may see in Job Jobs Oxen were plowing and the Asses feeding beside them and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away and why Job 1. 15 16. the Sabeans The Sabeans were a thievish people inhabiting Arabia Felix given to Robbery now Satan finding out their temper he presently sets before them rich spoils these are a taking Object See saith Satan to them yonder is a brave prize for you Jobs cattel Satan finding out their disposition he presents an Object to them which hits it fully Satan like a fisher baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish and as Christ took men in their own Element He appeared to man in the garden like a gardener so doth Satan Fit fera Fit volucris Fit toto corpore serpens becomes all things to seduce all men 3. Satan is wise and watchful to take the fittest time for temptations Thus he sets upon Christ when Christ had fasted Matth. 4. 1 2. forty days and forty nights and afterwards was an hungry then the tempter came he lays hold on this advantage Observe he would not come till Christ was hungry to perswade him to turn stones into bread Oh what a strength had this Temptation from the season Who would not make bread for himself if he could when he is hungry Hunger is keen had Christ been full there had not been such an edg upon such a weight in the Temptation It might seem absurd to some that Christ should answer the tempter who was not worthy an answer but a check and chiding because his malice was incorrigible he was uncapable of any profit or edification and holy things were not to be cast unto dogs But it is sufficient to us that our Lord would and did answer the tempter For He did not answer for the tempters sake but for our sake For as he would be tempted only for our good so he did entertain the tempter and overcome him in that way that is of answer for our good for although he answered none being present but the tempter yet he did answer and it is recorded by the Spirit for the use of the whole Church and the consolation of all Believers Thus how many doth Satan provoke to turn stones into bread when he comes to them in their hunger Thou art in a strait like to starve and perish turn stones into bread that is procure thy self meat and provision by unfaithful and sinful ways This is indeed to turn stones into bread so he came 2 Sam. 17. 23. to Ahitophel in the fittest time when he was in a passion and saw his Counsel cheap and at a low rate in the Court And when Ahitophel was not followed he hanged himself and dyed 4. Satan tempts by doing the like things which God doth Thus he hardned Pharoahs heart and for ought I know Exod. 7. 9 10 11. hindred his Conversion by doing works like the same miracles which Moses and Aaron did When Moses turned his Rod into a serpent the Magicians did so And mark what follows Pharaohs heart was hardned Moses turned the waters of the River into blood so did the Magicians And what followed Pharaohs heart was hardned Moses and Aaron Vers 22. Exod. 8. 6 7 brought frogs over all the land of Egypt so did the Magicians Thus to blind the ten Tribes and take them from the true worship in Jerusalem Satan sets up a worship in Dan and Bethel 1 Reg. 12. 32. and Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eight month on the fifteenth day of the month like unto the feast that is in Judah So you shall find Satan imitating Scriptural-truths but with Adams on 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. p. 362. the addition of his own lyes He had his Poets and Fabulists whose Mythologies went for true reports that the great Army of Senacherib was destroyed both Isaiah and Herodotus agree but Isaiah saith It was by the Angel of God Herodotus saith It was by an infinite number of Mice which in the night-time did eat up the Leathers of their Armours Targets and Bridles and hereupon they fled So the Gentiles had the same stories of Scripture but under borrowed names as Augustine observes In allusion to the true History of Jonah his fwallowing and egestion by the Whale Herodotus writes of one Arion who for his money being thrown over Ship-board a Dolphin took him on his back and being delighted with his musick carried him to Tenarus from whence he went to Periander at Corinth informing him of his received injury and strange deliverance Satan knowing that it was prophecied of Christ that he Isa 35. 6. should open the blind eyes and the deaf ears and make the lame leap like harts and the tongues of the dumb to sing he feigned an Aesculapius and gave out as strange wonders of him And for better facilitating his purpose called him the Son of God The Devil would make them believe that the fensts of the Jews were derived from the Gentiles when indced they came to the Gentiles from the Jews Plutarch saith that some of the Jews feasts yea their Sabbath day and the word Sabbas was derived from the feasts of Bacchus but indeed the solemnities of Bacchus came from them being not so ancient as Moses And thus the Devil damns many a soul by letting them do the like things which God doth in the Saints Doth a true Saint believe Satan can suggest a motion like believing into the soul Doth a true Saint repent Satan will do the like in some of his and suggest something like repentance into the hearts of his and therefore is he said to transform himself into an angel of light How is Satan said to 2 Cor. 11. 14. transform himself into an Angel of light When he suggests things that seem to savour of Piety Zeal See Annotat. upon the place and Holiness as if the motion proceeded from an Holy Angel Whereas those things which he suggesteth as he suggesteth them tend wholly to Gods dishonour and the souls ruine 5. Satan tempts by dropping good things into your thoughts when they should be employed upon other good things Thus when you are praying or hearing a Sermon there will come into your minds very gracious Meditations and desires good resolutions of doing this or that good work sometimes good affections as of grief for your sins and the like all which were good at another time but not at that time because the Devil throws them