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	spirit_n	word_n	2,858	5	3.8572	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42431	A sermon preached before the Right Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Bristol, at his primary visitation in Bristol, October 30 and now publish'd at His Lordships request, as also the desire of several others that heard it / by John Gaskarth ...	Gaskarth, John, d. 1732.	1685 (1685)	Wing G288; ESTC R18419	31,784	43

and graceful Ornament of a Creature or indeed a necessary thing to dependent Beings and therefore he will more insist upon those Excellencies that Mans Nature is invested with and upon these thoughts advance himself higher in his own folly alas not considering that none of these Prerogatives which Man enjoys were originally his own but only through Gods goodness are derived to him from that infinite Ocean of the Divine Nature and therefore there is no reason for our glorying or Self-esteem supposing we still maintained our first ground and possessed the perfections of our Creation but the greatest Argument of a profound Humility in all of us is the sense of our free descent from these that we have violated our indispensable obedience to our Maker in our repeated Sins and Rebellions against him and thereby have depraved our Natures and contracted so many Infirmities into them The envious Man in like manner will be apt to Apologise for his worst of Vices affirming that a like portion of things does belong to all men being equal by Nature who have the same attainments in them or who are of the same growth and standing in Vertue and he sees no reason to suspect his own proficiency although his Discontentment and his Envy from it be a sufficient proof against him But in this possession of his he cannot duly consider which would quite deliver him from his Envy that God discerns the most hidden Dispositions and Tempers of Men with their Differences to one another and thereforek nows best how to dispense these outward enjoyments to every ones particular benefit and he affords him this scant proportion to prevent Intemperance or Covetousness or some other Vices in him which although he perceives not who only understands himself from his opportunities either of Sin or Vertue yet perhaps he is naturally propense and inclined to And the Luxurious and Wanton Person cannot perceive the heavenly nature of Chastity and the strict Obligation he has to it he will rather defend his polluted Practices from the agreement of his Vice that his very Principles and Constitution prompts him to it and 't is certainly lawful to enjoy the proper satisfactions of our Nature or else the Wisdom of our Maker might be called in Question and his Goodness towards us And it is very true we may so but we must consider which Men in this hurry of Vice cannot do that God has made us better than Brute Creatures and given us Faculties above them which we ought to obtain our proper satisfactions from or at least when we taste of the Animal Nature in a due Measure and Regulation by them Thus it appears that Covetousness and Pride and Envy and Wantoness brings a certain Infirmity into our Reasons and depraves our Judgments in their respective Cases and I might Demonstrate that every particular Vice indulged and adhered to does produce some Error or other in Point of Doctrine and although every Vicious Person either has not sufficient Parts and Ingenuity to found a new Heresie or has not arrived at such a Degree of Impudence to go against the Sound Doctrines and Venerable Authority of the whole Church yet he is certainly Heterodox in some Opinion or other Immorality without question is the great Parent of false Divinity all these Pestulent Heresies that have rent the Seamless Coat and Church of Christ for above these sixteen hundred years have arisen from this Original What was the reason that the Arch-Heretick Simon should defend all Vices lawful but that he himself was Universally addicted to them I pass by that wild Assertion of his that he was the only Deity who under the several names of the Blessed Trinity at different times had appeared to Mankind which yet was the plain Product of his Pride as is evident from his Conference with the Apostles Acts 8.19 when he would have bought the Holy Ghost of them that is the glaring Gift of working Miracles I say I pass by this as being a meer Delusion of his upon the People which from the Sense of Humane Infirmities he could never perswade himself of Why did those filthy Dreamers the Gnosticks despise Dominion and speak Evil of Dignities so highly maintain the Christian Liberty as thereby to exempt all Christians from the just Authority of King or Master Why did they so contumeliously treat the Apostles and Governours of the Church denying all their Superiority over them but because of those two horrible Vices which they were infected with First according to St. Peter's description that they walked after the Flesh in the Lust of uncleanness allowing themselves in the full enjoyments of their Carnal Affections and therefore no wonder if they hated all those who offered any restraint to them if the very Apostles who exhorted all Men to the inward Purity of the Gospel not only to abstain from Sinful Actions but endeavour after an undefiled Spirit and Heart within them if they were despised and rejected by them Or Secondly because of their Pride and Insolency which they had learned from their Master the Magician not enduring to see others have a pre-eminency and be Lords over them And I am confident that this base Vice this Spirit of Pride is the true cause why our Brethren Gnosticks at home do recede from the Church that special Place of Grace and Blessing and despise their lawful Governours Pride I say is most likely the Principal cause of their Separation in that they so contemn the lawful Ministers although perhaps in an obstinate adherence to this Vice they may afterwards be blinded with it and fall into an Erroneous Conscience from it Why also did these same Gnosticks deny the reality of Christs comeing in the Flesh but because they would not live a Gospel Life or observe the Holiness of his Doctrine And why did they affirm it lawful to deny Christ in time of Persecution but because they had softned their Spirits and lost the invincible Christian Courage in a brute pursuance of their Lusts and Carnal living For we read of the Primitive Martyrs that they often abstained from their lawful enjoyments and used themselves to great severities as a due preparation for that Fiery Tryal What is the reason that even in our own Age in all the Light of the Gospel some have been so bold to deny the Existence of their Maker when the instances of himself or a wise Providence are so apparent in the World when we can give no account of any particular in Nature without recurring to a Deity or an Infinite Power and Wisdom that was the Cause of it and when this gracious Being is the greatest support and comfort of our Lives in all our Circumstances whatsoever One would not desire to live in a World void of Providence said the Heathen Emperour nay 't would be the most insupportable misery to do so And why also do men so industriously annihilate themselves and deny the immortality of their own Souls but because they

with it All which the two Great Orators Plato and Tully Gorgias p. 326. Ed. Bas knew very well the one laying down this Apophthegm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the other this Oratorem fieri vitae dignitate But it may be Objected And cannot a bad Man counterfeit all this Cannot he rouse up his Passions and appear as concerned for Vertue and as eager against Vice as he that has that true habit of Mind and Affections in him To which I answer No let him use all the Artifices immaginable and personate his part with never so much Caution yet a discerning Eye will quickly discover him to be no other than an Imposter His dissembled Discourses will certainly want some of those Characters which are always observable in true ones they will be either such extravagant things as to the matter of them as will plainly declare his small Skill and Acquaintance with Goodness or else be spoken so remissly without the relish of mind and those raised Affections which constantly possess Good Men when they are imployed upon the Theme of Vertue that the Fallacy will be evident and although perhaps he may be such a fanciful Mimick as to act some of these indisserently well yet he will certainly err in some particular or other as to the Measure Order or Decorum of it he will so falsly accent his Passions placing the grave and lene in undue circumstances that it must be manifest that he acts not his own part but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busies himself in other mens matters and may challenge a Title to that of the Psalmist Why dost thou preach my law whereas thou hatest to be reformed Hypocrisie is no such easie business and although it be much endeavoured and bunglingly done by many yet 't is seldom so happily performed but an indifferent discretion may perceive it Let a Man of this design use all the Art and Diligence possible yet an unnatural representation or some uncouth thing or other will declare him not the Person that he would appear to be Prodit enim se quamlibet custodiatur simulatio nec unquam tanta fuerit eloquendi facultas ut ne titubet ac haereat quoties ab animo verba dissentiunt Hypocrisie although it be never so cautiously acted will declare it self and there was never such a happy Eloquence that did not stumble in some circumstance when words did differ from the habit of the Mind Inst p. 862. as Quintilian observes and if perhaps some Good Man be deluded by Hypocrites it may be his goodness that has this one bad Consequence to it this makes him too credulous and apt to believe all Men to have the same honest Intentions with himself and therefore he does not treat them with a due care and circumspection however Dissimulation is no less a discernable thing to an attentive Observer for all this Hence therefore the Ministers of the Gospel are obliged to be very good Men if they would rightly perform their great Office and effectually move the People to the enterprise of Vertue and a good Life Fourthly He that Indulges himself in any sinful Courses cannot speak with sufficient boldness He that has this sacred imployment upon him must impartially and with a due severity reprehend Sin wherever he observes it in any Person and as diligently urge to the contrary Vertues and this is a task that requires strong Courage and Resolution for generally Men have too much love to their own Persons or to the Animal part of them which has this influence with it that it lays a prejudice upon them and makes them blind towards their own miscarriages Some think themselves unjustly censured and that their Life and Manners are no matter of reproof but rather Vertuous and Praise-worthy That which is urged upon them as Profuseness they esteem nothing more than an honest Liberality a generous and bountiful temper of Spirit that does much more good in the World than hoarding up Estates by them He that is taxed with that Idolatrous sin of Covetousness will not believe it so but rather accounts it a just Parsimony and necessary Thriftiness if he will provide for his own Family and that he must do unless he will be worse than an Infidel and moreover this frugal mode of Living does wholly prevent the sin of Intemperance and the manifold Mischiefs and Wickedness from it Thus they will argue and indeed upon another account it is not much to be wondered at that Men are thus mistaken concerning themselves and that they do not know their own Immoralities For Vice and Vertue touching and bending together in the extream points 't is a hard thing critically to define both their Provinces and shew the indivisible Line of their Separation as for instance to set forth the Confines of Liberality in such a Circumstance how far it goes before it degenerate into Profuseness and upon this account the Ministers of the Gospel ought to be Learned Men and able to determine our Christian Duty in every respect of it but then how angry will such Men be how full of Stomach and Indignation towards those Charitable Men that only fasten their deserved Guilt and Vices upon them How will they revile them for their just Reproof And whilst they are discharging the greatest Office of Kindness to them viz. Reclaiming them from the Error of their ways they will only represent them in the stile of Slanderers and false Accusers of the Brethren because they have no due sense or a selfish Opinion of their own Practices But there is a worse sort of men to deal with than these namely such as having contracted long Habits of their Vices have now no due resentment of them not so much from ignorance at the beginning as the insensibility of Custom in them How will these upon any Christian advice to them as we have ordinary experience in the Case asperse the Priesthood and make them the Subjects of their Drollery because they represent their Vices to them with their due Consequents and so hinder their greater satisfaction in them which through the hardness of their Hearts they could more obtain without this External Suggestion and reminding of them nay if they proceed not farther than bare words against them 't is not that they want any degree of Malice and Hatred to that purpose but because the Providence of God either immediately or in the provision of Human Laws does restrain them How many have suffered in this necessary part of Charity for reprehending their Brethren and endeavouring their amendment Almost all the Old Prophets are instances in this kind and to whom may be added a numerous Company of Christian Martyrs with him also who was in the Confines of these two States John the Baptist So that the Ministers of the Gospel may fitly be represented under that simile which the Prophet Jeremiah was Chap. 1.18 That God has made them a defensed City and an Iron Pillar and Brazen Walls