Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	affection_n	love_n	word_n	2,935	5	3.9685	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53083	Peccata in deliciis a discourse of bosom sins : a sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, October the 10th, 1686 / by Peter Newcome ...	Newcome, Peter, 1656-1738.	1686 (1686)	Wing N902; ESTC R3277	17,860	35

were the Seat of God and exalts it self in the Soul above all that is called God It reigns over us instead of God and is most notoriously therefore our Predominant and reigning in Thus by these plain Rules may one easily be directed to discover and distinguish our Darling our Bosom our reigning Sin Which having once found out our next concern must be to quit it abstinence from such Sins being the first step to real Goodness I haste therefore to my last general Head Which was IV. Lastly To shew you the necessity of keeping our selves from such Sins as these especially in order to our becoming upright before God For tho the Sin you love possibly may be but one yea and that in your own esteem at least but a very little one yet is there an Absolute Necessity of your Resolving to part with it especially and above all others And bending all your Forces against it alone to try this Method of the Psalmist's for your becoming Vpright before God For consider 1. Tho your Peculiar Lust may possibly be but One yet it is Sin however It is a Transgression of the most reasonable just and holy Law of God and Religion And consequently a stain and blemish of our Natures the reproach of our Reason and Understanding the disease and deformity of our Souls the great Enemy of our Peace the cause of all our Uneasiness and Fears and Troubles yea and that too for which even the Son of God was forced to die a most shameful and painful Death that it might not be our Unavoidable Ruine This is the least we can say of any Sin And tho then your Sin be but one yet hath it you see a monstrous Aspect and God cannot approve of it tho but single and we must therefore keep our selves from it before ever he will accept of us as upright before him But 2. If the Sin be but one then you may consider that 't is by so much the easier to part with and the more reasonable to relinquish it He that is bound with a strong Cable or multitude of smaller Cords may pretend some Necessity for his Thraldom from the strength of his Bonds But he that is tied with one single Thread such as one Resolute Struggle would be lure to break he is Prisoner only to his own either Sloth or Humour And who will pity his Captivity where 't is so apparently his own Choice Do not therefore say My Sin is but one and therefore I need not leave it But My Sin is but one therefore I need not keep it So single a Pleasure one may dispense with and find no great miss This single Profit one may resign and 't will be no breach in one's Estate And if my Saviour hath required a Renunciation of all my multitude of Sins tho never so dear shall I scruple to renounce one and that in my own esteem but a very small one Nay 3. We may yet argue higher and from the singleness and smallness of the Sin deduce the inhancement of the Guilt Great Acquisitions carry some Temptation in their face but despicable Prizes do rather avert than tempt 'T was therefore the sign of a Common Harlot to be hired with a Kid Gen. 38.17 And sure he must be of a strange prostitute Soul that can adulterate for such low trivial Wages To dishonour God tho the whole World were to be gained by it were great Impiety but to do it for handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread upon such trivial inconsiderable terms himself brands as a yet higher pitch of Prophaneness Ezek. 13.19 And sure it argues a very light esteem of God indeed when one poor contemptible Lust shall be able to over-poize him in our Hearts Like wretched Judas this is to betray our Lord for a contemptible Piece A Smile a Word prevails more than the Love and Bounty of our Creator And do we not then deserve to perish Nor 4. Is the Folly less than the Prophaneness For the most Doting Affection when 't is summ'd up can amount to no more than this viz. That it makes a Man expose himself to the greatest Pain and the greatest Loss for the thing Beloved And this is most visible here Hell being certainly acquir'd and Heaven as certainly forfeited by one Sin as by many And then tho there may be odds in other respects yet what is there in this between us more modest and the most Licentious Sinners but that We put the very same value upon one which the other do put upon many Sins Which renders our Folly but so much more apparently the greater because we sell our Souls so much the cheaper Let Men pretend then what they will in extenuation of their Bosom Sin that they are not so prophane as many others that they neither have so many nor so great Sins to answer for as their Neighbours that setting aside possibly some one foolish Custom they have took up and are addicted to they can challenge all the World to accuse them of any they denying themselves in most of the Sins they can see others commit with greediness yet notwithstanding all this so long as they harbour but one Beloved Sin they are certainly as miserably cheated in their bargain as others and are no less guilty of the most egregious Madness For 't is apparent all the Love which other Men scatter and distribute upon several they have united and concenter'd in this One Lust And when then the parting with one Sin might save their Souls surely 't is a doting Passion indeed that will make Men hazard their Salvation for it Alas if our Sin be but One let us never be so foolish so stark mad as to be damn'd for it To make it the price of all those Pleasures which are at God's Right-hand for ever-more Of that Fulness of Joy which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor ever yet enter'd into the Heart of Man fully to conceive But since it is but One let us never be so rediculously fond as to be undone for a Trifle but with the upright Psalmist resolve rather to endeavour henceforward to keep our selves carefully from it And that more especially because 5. Tho it be but One yet it is the most malignant and mischievous one that can be harbour'd There 's no Sin among the whole mass of Vice which we have more reason to relinquish than our peculiar Sin because none is capable to do us more Mischief And that 1. Because this we have made our intimate and have not that Jealousy over it which we can have over other Sins This is our Bosom Intimate is got into our own Quarters shuffled with our own Forces entred our Holds and Defences and mixes in all our Counsels having full power of our Affections and therefore may easily do us the most injury it being observed that the Risque is ever the greatest when the Foe is thus Rebel and Traitor too A false Friend is certainly the worst

and knows not when he swears And the reason is apparently this This is his reigning Sin and the shame and difficulty which was in it at first is now by familiarity and custom quite worn off but the other Sins which he boggles at are not his familiars and therefore remain yet strange and uggly to him Hence the Apostle calls this our familiar Sin in opposition to all our other Sins Heb. 12.1 The Sin that does so easily beset us i.e. The Sin we are the most prone to and can commit with the least sense of guilt and shame Such Sins we may certainly apprehend and mark them for our Own Iniquities our easiness to admit them arguing our Acquaintance our Love and near Relation But 3. Such Sins may again be discern'd by our Impatience of any Reproof for them There being no surer nor shorter way of discovering the most secret Affection to any thing than by speaking ill of the thing beloved For Love like the Fire will be apt to sparkle upon every disturbance No Man will indure to be reprov'd for what he loves What we hate or are indifferent toward we esteem as alien and think our selves not concern'd for what befalls it but what we affect and make our Darling we look upon as part of our very selves and espouse its Concern and Fortune so nearly that a Reproof here reflects upon our selves and does engage us to resentment Thus Herod could hear St. John the Baptist gladly as the Text informs us till he preach'd against his Herodias and then he could not bear it We may think therefore what Sin it is which we can least of all indure to hear of which makes us most apt to be angry at the Man that reproves it and that we may conclude is our Beloved our Darling and Peculiar Sin The which we may discover moreover 4. By our Desire and Endeavour to conceal it Because what we love and are loth to part with we are apt to be unwilling to be known we have it Love hath ever so much of Jealousy as to affect Privacy So that if we but then consider with our selves what Sin it is we are the most afraid should be publickly known which we would not for the World be deem'd guilty of which few or none suspect and which we endeavour to hide from all by such our care to keep secret we may easily come by the sure discovery of our Darling Lust And so again we may discover it 5. By our readiness to plead for and excuse it by the most fair Pretences and plausible Arguments upon almost any Occasion No Man will be wanting to play the Advocate for what he loves Every cunning Shift and Design are Attendants to Our Iniquity Thus the Covetous may we hear extolling wise Frugality and good Husbandry and the Luxurious Magnificenee Pomp and Gentility only for the sake of those Darling Vices of theirs which they shape by these Vertues They will still be endeavouring to cover Vice's Deformity with Vertue 's Mantle shuffling that under the name of this calling Vice Vertue or anything rather than part with what they affect So that but observing the tendency and drift of such Mens Discourses one may easily trace out the Beloved Sin for whole sake they design the Panigyrick 6. This Sin likewise we may discover by considering what Sin it is which above all other we could wish or be content at least that it were no Sin For all Sin being naturally so deform'd and opposite to the Beauty of Holiness it is not possible that any thing but an ardent and peculiar Love can make any Man boggle to part with it And therefore when the Young Man in the Gospel being inform'd of the necessity of parting with his Affection to the World in order to his obtaining Heaven went away sorrowful it was doubtless Mat. 19.22 because he was hugely enamor'd with his wide Possessions and could heartily have wish'd his Love thereto and hopes of Heaven consistent with each other and troubled he was because they were not Covetousness upon this appearing to be the Sin he lov'd his darling Lust For had he not been strangely in love with that Vice he could ne're have desired it to have been otherwise than what it was And when he saw and understood so positively that he must resolve to part either with it or his hopes of Salvation nothing but a blind and doting Affection could have disturb'd or delay'd his Resolution To wish therefore that such a particular Sin we might however still love and live in without Sin argues our more than ordinary love for it and it's predominancy over us Nay yet farther 7. The Sin that is in an especial manner our Own may yet be discover'd by its readiness to distract us most in holy Duties For our Mind being continually bent towards it is apt to stand so even when we most strive to bend it the quite contrary way A Sin by being accustomarily lov'd becomes in fine even as natural to us as the quality of Cold to Water And therefore as this when heated tho never so hot still is working it self towards its own natural Temper so we tho never so much warm'd by our Devotion are apt quickly to grow cool again and when we do so we ever work towards the Sin that is most familiar to us We cannot long continue from our accustomed Temper It will still be working against and chilling all opposite Heat and Fervour That is the Sin which is Ours therefore which our Hearts work most towards and which disturbs and distracts us most in Holy Duties Once move and to conclude 8. Lastly That Sin which we are apt to think on first in the Morning and last in the Evening is moreover deem'd likely enough to be ours For our first and last Thoughts are observ'd to discover very much of the temper and affection of the Mind What we love most we usually make our first and last give it entertainment first in the Morning and take our leave of it last in the Evening Thus where the Love of God prevails good Men have experienc'd it working in their Hearts especially at these seasons With my Soul Isa 26.9 saith the Prophet Isaiah have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early Our Evening and our Morning Thoughts are a Tribute indeed due only unto God Every one ought to begin and end the day with him and offer most devoutly both the Morning and the Evening Sacrifices of a Thought at least unto him Thus When I wake saith the Psalmist I am still with thee Psal 139.18 And by Night on my Bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth Cant. 3.1 sings the Spouse in the Canticles God as he is the Alpha and Omega in himself so ought he to be unto all his People also and whatever therefore does possess it self of our first and last Thoughts that usurps as it