Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	bear_v	child_n	spirit_n	2,031	5	5.1129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40683	A sermon of assurance Foureteene yeares agoe preached in Cambridge, since in other places. Now by the importunity of friends exposed to publike view. By Thomas Fuller B.D. late lecturer in Lombard Street.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1647 (1647)	Wing F2458; ESTC R215136	16,800	39

than holy fraud which heaven hath a Pillorie to punish to put men upon a labour in vaine to seeke that which is not to be found Thinke not therefore that the assurance of Calling and Election is like the Philosophers stone which so many have searched for yet all have lost their estates before they could find it out but no doubt by God's blessing it is in this world attainable And yet the Papists maintaine that whilest wee live in this world and saile in our desires and affections to the rich Indies of Heaven and happinesse no further Land is discoverable beyond the Cape of good hope and that it is arrogancy and presumption without an immediate expresse by revelation from Heaven for any to conceive himself assured of his salvation For the second this assurance of ones Calling and Election is a sepa●…able fruit or effect not of every true but only of some strong Paiths whereby the party is perswaded of the certainty of his Calling and Election I say separable to manifest my dissenting from such worthy Divines who make this Assurance to bee the very Being Essence Life Soule and Formality of Faith itself Whence these two Opinions as false as dangerous must of necessity bee inferred First that every one who hath true faith and are eternally to bee saved have alwaies some measure of this Assurance Secondly that such who are devoid of this Assurance are likewise deprived of all sincere faith for the present But God forbid any Preacher should deliver Doctrines so destructive to Christian comfort on the one side and advantagious to spirituall Pride on the other Such will prove Carnificinae the ra●…ks and tortures of tender Consciences And as the * carelesse Mother kill'd her little childe for she overlaid it so the weight of this heavie Doct●…in would presse many poore but pious soul●…s many faint but feeble infant-faiths to the pit of Despaire exacting and extorting from them more than God requires that every Faith should have assurance with it or else be uneffectuall to salvation No the formality of Faith consists in mans renouncing and disclaiming all sufficiencie in himselfe casting rolling and relying his soule totally and entirely on the mercies of God and merits of Christ though not assured sometimes of the certainty of his salvation Like a man in a tempest cast out of the ship and lying on a planke or board placeth-all his humane hopes on that planke or board thereby to escape drowning though he have no certainty that the same shall bring him safe to the shore As for those reverend Divines who have written and maintained the contrary that Assurance is the very soule of faith and faith dead and uselesse without it far be it from me because dissenting from thei●… opinions to raile on their Persons and wound the memories of those which are dead with opprobrious termes rather let us thank God for their learned and religious writings left behinde them knowing that the head of the knowledge of this Age stands on the shoulders of the former and their very errors have advantaged us into a clearer discovery of the truth in this particular In the next place a Christian thus collecteth this Assurance of his Calling and Election by composing this practicall ●…yllogisme in his soule The Major He that truely repenteth himselfe of his sinnes and relyeth with a true faith on God in Christ is surely Called and by consequence Elected before all Eternity to be a vessell of honour The Minor But I truely repent my selfe of my sinnes and rely with a true faith on God in Christ The Conclusion Therefore I am truly Called and Elected c. The Major is the sense of the Scripture in severall places the very effect of Gods promises and the generall scope of the Gospell so that if Satan should be so impudent as to deny the truth of this Proposition he may be beaten with that weapon whereat once he challenged our Saviour it is written All the difficulty is in the Minor Happy that man blessed that woman who without self-delusion without flattering their owne soules can seriously make this Assumption But I c. For such I dare be bold to make the Conclusion yea it makes it selfe for them without my Assistance But alasse many out of fearefulnesse dare not make this Minor concerning this Assumption to bee presumption in them And although they might truely doe it being in a better condition then they conceive themselves yet overwhelmed with the sense of their sinnes and Gods severity they assume the contrary and poore soules often apprehend and conclude their owne damnation in their wounded consciences whereas others with a more dangerous mistake of common illuminations for discrim●…nating grace falsely make the Minor and causelesly inferre their blessed condition without just ground for the same Such few as goe rightly to worke doe produce these three witnesses to assert the truth of this Minor proposition First the testimony of their Conscience that Atturney Generall to the King of heaven whose Yea or Nay ought to bee more with us then all the Oa●…hes in the world beside One knoweth whom it is that he loveth and whom he loveth not whom it is he trusteth and whom he trusteth not and in like manner his Conscience tells him whether he doth or doth not truely repent whether seemingly or sincerely he casteth himselfe on God in Christ Secondly the witnesse of the holy Spirit in their hearts * which beareth witnesse with their Spirit that they are the children of God Now wee must with sorrow confesse that this doctrine of the Spirit dwelling in the heart of Gods servants is much discountenanced of late and the Devill thereupon hath improved his owne interest To speake plainely it is not the fiercenesse of the Lion nor the fraud of the Fox but the mimicalnesse of the Ape which in our Age hath discredited the undoubted Truth But what if the Apes in India finding a glow-worme mistooke it to be true fire and heaping much combustible matter about it hoped by their blowing of it thence to kindle a flame I say what if that Animal {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that Mirth making creature deceived it ●…elfe doth it thence follow ●…hat there is no true fire at all And what if some Phanaticall Anabaptists by u●…urpation have intitled their braine-sicke fanc●…es to be so many illuminations of the spiri●… must we presently turne * Sadduces in this point and deny that there is any spirit at all God forbid We confesse the Apostles in the Primitive Church were our elder bretheren and wi●…h Isaac carri●…d away the inheritance of the spirit in so great a proportion as to be enabled thereby to miraculous operations Yet so that wee though the yonger bretheren the sonnes of Keturah have rich and precious gifts of the spirit bestowed upon us which at sometime or other in a higher or lower degree sweetly move the soule of all Gods servants and in