Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	faith_n	heaven_n	2,000	5	5.5041	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87175	Christ's first sermon, or, The absolute necessity, gospel duty, and Christian practice of repentance, opened and applied, by a godly, able, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ. ; Wherein is discovered, what repentance is, as also the great necessity thereof to salvation: with the great folly and desperate madness of all those that delay and put off repentance unto a sick bed, or old age. ; Together with the great benefit, joy, and comfort that shall be to the souls of all those that timely and truly repent.	Hart, John, D.D.	1663 (1663)	Wing H937; ESTC R177838	21,802	46

secondly to his father Luke 15 17. When he came to himself he said I wil arise and go to my father and say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son Sinners are said to be mad but repentance brings men to their right wits again chery impenitent sinner is a mad men a meet Bedman who but a mad man will run himself wilfully into the fire as every wicked man doth he runs headlong to destruction but repentance turns men from this madness In Acts 16.18 it is called A turning of men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Sin is a darkness and when men sin they know not what they do but Repentance enlightens men and sets them at liberty In Acts 20.20 Repentances turning to God are put together they are one and the same the one cannot be without the other but it is not any turning that doth this but it is a turning of the judgemant and a turning of the will and affections so that men that are turned are carried wholly from sin and wickedness unto God Joel 3.12 Turn unto me saith God with all your heart If it be with a piece it is nothing worth it is altogether deceitful Thirdly Repentance is a returning to men we must not be ashamed to acknowledge our faults one to another Jam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another If we have dene any man wrong we ought to acknowledge it Is it so then that Repentance flowes from Faith in Jesus Christ and turns men from sin unto God then I observe that there are many in the world who as yet never knew what true repentance meaneth because they are yet in unbelief without faith without which there can be no repentance Men may cry bitterly and humble themselves in sackcloth and ashes as Ahab did men may have the hort ours of Hell in their consciences as Judas had Men may reform many things that are amiss as Herod did and yet being unbelicvers they are still in the estate of impenitency It is an infallible demonstration that they never yet truly tasted of the love of God in the pardon of their sins who dare presume to take a liberty to sin or delight themselves in any sin whatsoever they that truly believe cannot dare not allow themselves in any sin for as faith purifies the heart so faith repentance keeps the heart pure and makes the conscience tender and the more pure the heart is the more will it abstain from all things that are evil Then secondly is Repentance the gift and grace of God whereby a believing sinner being humbled under the sight and sense of his sins doth truly turn to God Then we may observe that where true repentance is there is also humiliation for sin It is not possible that ever any soul should truly repent that is not truly humbled and cast down in the sight sense of his sins Turn unto me saith the Lord with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 The Ninivites when they repented they humbled themselves from the highest to the lowest and this also shews us that the greatest part of men and women in the world never yet truly repented because they were never yet truly humbled IT is not every kinde of sorrow that works repentance but as it is in 2 Cor 7.10 Onely goldy sorrow worketh repentance never to be repented of And as there may be a counterfeit repentance so there may be a counterfiet humiliation The signes and marks of true humiliation are these First the soul that is truly humbled for sin is very free in confession of sin and the Scriptures tell us that those that have been most humbled for sin have bin freest in the confession of their sins as David Nehemiah Job and others Psal 51.3 saith David I acknowledg my transgression and my sin is ever before me And this confession of sin will be in some measure suitable to our humiliation if our sorrow for sin be sincere our confession will be so too Therefore all those who are less afraid to commit sin then they are ashamed to confess sin were never yet truly humbled for sin neither shall their souls reap any ben fit by it Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy They that will not finde out their sins to confess them to be sure one day or other their sins shall finde them out to forment them if sin finde us not out in youth it will finde us out in age if it finde us not out in health yet it will find us out in sickness if it finde us not out in life yet it will finde us out in death if it finde us not out in death yet it will finde us out after death in the day of judgement either one time or other out sins will finde us out Numb 25. 33. Your sins saith God shall finde you out Secondly godly sorrow and humiliation for sin causeth the soul that is humbled utterly to loath and abhor and hate sin Ezek. 20.43 Ye shall remember your ways and your doings wherein you have been defiled and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evil that you have committed Sin is odious and hateful to an humble soul I abhor every false way saith David Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Psal 119.164.136 Nature may teach a man to loath sin in others but its onely grace that teaches us to abhor sin in out selves When Judab Gen. 38.24 heard that his daughter Thanmar had played the harlot he presently cast sentence of death upon her Bring her forth saith he that she may be burned But when he saw by the pledges that sin was his own Judah was then silent no more talk of burning her then A soul truly humbled will hate sin wheresoever it is especially in his own bosom men will flie from venomous and hurtful creatures wheresoever they are especially if they be near them because they are then in most danger to be hurt by them all the sins of the world cannot do a soul so much hurt as his own sins then they that do not hate sin in themselves are not truly humbled for sin Thirdly he that is truly humbled is willing to take shame to himself the humble sinner is willing to be ashamed of his folly Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be ashamed and never open thy mouth more when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord. Fourthly a truly humble soul will be willing to receive the word of God with all readiness what 's the reason men are no more humbled for sin Surely this because they despise or neglect the good word of God which is the onely means to get humility the

sin O but the latter end of these men is worse then their beginning How many wicked wretches are there that live as if they had made a covenant with death and hell and were at an agréement with the grave who had rather hazard their souls then leave their sins who as if there were neither heaven nor hell run on from one sin to another Come say they we will fetch wine fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant But Isa 56.12 Wo unto them saith the Prophet they have rewarded evil to themselves How little do these men think that God will one day wound the hairy scalp of such as go on in sin and that tribulation and wrath indignation anguish shall be upon every soul that doth evi Rom. 2.9 Let men slight repentance never so much a time will come when they shal repent but that too late even in hell fire for ever For sin must be repented of if not on earth yet in hell and if you will not loath your companions in sin here you shal loath them in hell hereafter you pot-companions and your harlot companions shall loath one another in Hell then these bloody wounds shall bleed which you have given your souls in the days of your sollity and pride and in the times of your desperate impieties when nothing but wrath and horrour of conscience shall appear before you then these swéet morsels of sin which have been sweet as honey to your lustful appetites shall be vomited up as the bitterest and loathsomest things in the world Consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psal 50 22. Be willing to forsake your sins for sin and the soul must part or else hel and the soul shal meet together The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God Psalm 9.17 O that you would seriously lay these things to heart and now even now in this your day that ye would know the things that belong unto your everlasting peace To day if you will hear my voice saith God in the 95. Psalm harden not your heart Slight not scorn not resist not the good word of God that invites you to repentance but break off your sins by repentance and turn to God in righteousness And now for the second sort and they are such as think they need no repentance And they are either such as are morally civil and honest before men or else formal and hypocritical professors who seem to be and are not who profess God with their lips but deny him in their lives O they have no need of repentance they are no drunkards nor swearers nor such like God I thank thee said the proud Pharisee I am not as other men are extortioners unjust Luke 18.11 These are such as profess God and know much of the mind of God and therefore have no need of repentance they are guilty of no sins to repent of But of these it may be said as Peter said of Elimas the sorcerer Act. 13.10 That they are full of all subtlety and enemies to all righteousness who never yet know what sin meant For they that think they have no sins left to repent of it s a cleer argument that they never yet truly repented themselves of any one sin at all but that they are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity For repentance is a continued art and a grace that must have its daily operation as faith and love must continue so must repentance when once the rocky heart of a sinner is smitten by God the water of repentance will continually flow sincere repentants cannot content themselves with one art or two of repentance but they must daily renew their repentance for sin will renew so must repentance renewed sins must have renewed Repentance till we have done sinning and that will not be till we have done living we must not have done repenting if there be a leak in the ship the water must be pumpt out else the ship is in danger of sinking we are leaking vessels all of us yea the best of us sin leaks in daily and is renewed daily and there must be the pump of repentance to carry it out daily else our souls will be in danger of sinking And for the other sort who think they need no repentance they are pure moral honest men who live in a course of civility and take their penny to be as white as any others these are as good as the best and therefore have no need to be any better they are not desperately wicked as many are they are no blasphemers nor drunkards they go to Church and give every man his due and are loving to their neighbors and what needs any more It s true these things are necessary are required in a Christian but yet civility without sanctify at the best is but gilded Atheism morality and seeming vertues are but gilded sins and glistering abominations the Lord seeth many a rotten base stinking heart under a civil coat It civility and morality would have served the turn then the Pharisees would have gone to heaven before any other they were civilly honest they were no swearers nor drunkards they paid tythes and gave alms and prayed often and carried themselves so exact in the world that it was thought that if but two men in the world should go to heaven a Scribe should be one and a Pharisee the other But what saith Christ Mat. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the kingdom if heaven And yet their righteousness far exceeded the righteousness of all our moral honest men Let a man be never so honest in outward appearance let his carriage and behavior be never so specious and plausible in the eyes of the world let him be never so exact ano just in his dealings with men yet if he be not renewed in the spirit of his mind he is never the better for this If he be not a sanctified Christian the word of truth never as yet came home to his soul in the power of it he is still in the state of nature and without God and as yet far from repentance and salvation And then there is a third sort of impenitents and they are such as are convinced of the necessity of repentance but they do not think it a time now to repent they believe they must repent but all in good time there 's no haste of it yet it will be time enough hereafter at the hour of death when age and sickness is upon them and they think it a thing of nothing to repent they can do it when they list it s done with a wet finger there needs no more but to say Lord have mercy upon me when they are going out of the world this is the general

be saved without repentance or can you repent when you will but you will say you are young and therefore may be born with a while which is the Devils divinity for young men have no more liberty allowed them to sin or to put off repentance then old men have it s the Devils policy to infuse this into thy brains that he may ensnare thee It was the commendation of Timothy that from a Childe he had known the holy Scriptures 1 Tim. 1. Young Saints say some but not the word of God prove old Devils But I am sure it is a rare thing to sée and old sinner to become a young Saint When the devil and sin hath lorded it in your soul yea tyrannized both over soul body for thirty or forty years together do you think then that a little groaning or crying Lord have mercy upon me wil be able to dispossess him at the last he having gotten too strong a footing in your soul to be beaten out of his quarters so easily he that will not remember God when he is young and living it s greatly to be feared God will be unmindeful of him when he is old and dying Therefore once more I beseech you in the bowels of Christ speedily to set about the work of repentance lest when it is too late you repent weep and mourn that you repented not before Do not say of repentance as Felix spake to Paul Thou wilt repent when thou art better at leasure another time shall serve the turn it may be thou mayest not live to another time or if thou doest thy heart may then be as hard if not harder then now it is Would you not in the day of the Lord be in a worse condition then heathens or infidels are Then repent Would you not when you are dead be in a worse condition then toads or serpents then repent It may be said of every impenitent sinner as Christ said of Judas in the 26. of Matthew and the 24. ver It had been good for that man if he had never been born Heathens in the day of Judgement shall be in a better condition then impenitent Christians for they shall have the lesser condemnation because of their ignorance who it may be would have done better if they had known more It shall be more tollerable saith our Saviour for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for thou Capernaum Thou England that art exalted up to heaven in Gospel-mercies take heed and beware lest thou be not thrown down to hell in Gospel-vengeance I should now shew you the lets that hinder men from Repentance and so endeavour to remove them but I shall onely name them and so conclude with some few motivhs to stir you up to Repentance Now the lets that keep men off from Repentance are either from Sin and Satan or else from our selves and the World the Devil perswades men that repentance is a needless work and men need not trouble themselves with it for those that God hath ordained to live shall be saved let them live never so loosely and those that he hath appointed to wrath shall be damned let them repent never so much But to remove this let out of the way know this that all those that God hath ordained to salvation shall first or last more or less be brought to embrace the means In the 13. of the Acts and the 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed God hath joyned the end and the means together and cursed is he that dares to separate them Salvation without repentance is impossible without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 5.19 A second way by which the Devil keeps men off from Repentance is Gods mercy God is merciful saith the devil his mercy is over all his works he that made you will not damn you you need not to fear it True it is even to wicked men God is merciful but these are but mercies on the left hand common mercies it s a mercy to men that they live it s a mercy that we were not born monsters and its a mercy to have outward enjoyments but what are these to the peculiar mercies of God It was a good speech of a godly man saith he He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee if thou art in a ditch and wilt do no more to come out but cry God help me thou mayest lie and perish O do not dare to go on in sin becaus God is merciful Shall we sin saith St. Paul that grace may abound no God forbid I dare not saith a gracious heart If ever you would partake of mercy you must depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity I dare holdly say that if all the clouds of heaven should continually showre down mercy there would not so much as one drop fall upon any impenitent person Thirdly the devil labours to keep men off from repentance by bringing them to despair of mercy if he cannot work men into presumption by the consideration of Gods mercies he will do what he can to bring thent into desperation by telling them that mercy is out of date But let not this hinder thy repentance for as it cannot be too soon to repent so its never too late to repent better once then never I do not speak this that any should neglect to repent betimes but that none should ever despair of mercy and thereby be hindred from this duty of repentance A second let that hinders repentance is the world the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life the pleasures and preferments of the world these fight against the spirit and resist the work of repentance Voluptousness and Drunkenness unfits men for repentance therefore these must be abstained front 1 Pet. 2. 11. as things that war against the soul Mortifie therefore saith the Apostle your members which are upon earth fornication uncleanness c. Col. 3.5 These must be mortified And then a third let that keeps men from repentance is sin sin hath such a commanding power over the souls of unregenerated persons So that as it is Rom. 6.10 they give themselves over as servants to sin and to uncleanness O then for the Lords sake avoid all occasions of sin Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as instruments of righteousness Rom. 6.12 13. verses O that I could prevail with you and that the Lord would perswade your hearts of the dreadful doleful condition of all umpenitent Sinners Consider then I beseech you in the fear of the Lord these following considerations and first of all know this you that live in the love of sin you live in the hatred of God for the love of God and the love of sin cannot possibly