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	lord_n	8,826	5	4.1689	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

Ministers of Christ to help you where you found your self insufficient Have you daily beg'd the help of the Spirit of God as knowing that heavenly things must be discerned by a heavenly light Have you honestly obeyed so much as you did know If you have done this which reason requireth I do not think that thus waiting on God he will leave you to any damnable unbelief or to an unholy sensual life But because the strengthening of our belief herein is the most needful thing even to the best both for their hope and joy and duty and all that understand themselves must earnestly desire that their belief of the Gospel and the Life to come did reach to a satisfying certainty I will shortly repeat the proofs that must ascertain us Though I have largely done it in my Books called The Life of Faith and The Reasons of the Christian Religion and The Unreasonableness of Infidelity I care not how oft when necessary I repeat them and wish that they were more of the daily study of those that now study Controversies or only Superstructures I. And first Nature giveth us these Arguments to prove Mans future State 1. God hath made Man with an essential capacity to think and care as his greatest concern what shall become of his Soul when he dieth And God maketh none of his Works in vain much less so noble a one as Man 2. A bare probability of the life to come as now revealed with our certainty of the brevity and vanity of this Life maketh it the interest and certain duty of all Men in the World to be far more careful for their future state than for the Body and this present Life He liveth against Reason that doth not this 3. And can a wise Man believe that God bindeth all Men by their essential Reason to make the care of a thing that is not or ever shall be to be the chief business of their lives and that deceit and falshood should be the guide of all our greatest actions and Man should be made to follow a lie to his everlasting disappointment Judge reasonably whether this be like to be the work of the most Great and Wise and Holy God 4. History and experience assureth us that it is the expectation of a Life to come the hope of Reward there and the fear of punishment which are Gods means for the actual government of mankind And though many Atheists are in the World and more Saduces and Unbelievers yet few if any are wholly such but have Consciences that keep them in some awe And Laws and professed Religion tell you that it is hopes and fears of another life which are the ruling principles which as they reign in the best so few of the worst will directly contradict And were it not for such fears of punishment hereafter the Lives of no Princes or Enemies would be safe from destroying Malice Policy or Power And is it likely that this World is governed by a Lie by that God who wants no Power Wisdom or Love to govern it by Truth and who maketh the best Men the greatest haters of Lying that they may be like Him 5. And how comes the belief of the Souls immortality to be so common a principle in the nature of Man if it be not true II. But seeing it is the Gospel that must give us the full and satisfying certainty keep these few evidences of its Truth continually Printed on your Minds 1. Remember that Promises Types and Prophesies foretold Christs coming long before even Prophesies sealed with Miracles and fulfilled 2. Remember that Christs own Person and Doctrine did bear that Image of God which is unimitable and had that Power Wisdom and Love which prove them to be of God Gods Image and Superscription discernable by holy minds doth difference the Gospel from all the words of fallible Men. 3. Remember that it was proved to be of God by multitudes of open and uncontrolled Miracles And God will not work Miracles remedilesly to deceive mankind especially the great Miracle of Christs Resurrection long by him foretold and his visible ascending up to Heaven 4. The sending down the promised Spirit on the Apostles and on other believers then for Languages Miracles Prophesyings c. And the long exercise of these Tongues and Miracles by many and in many parts of the World and the gathering of the Churches by them 5. The full and certain Historical conveyance of these matters of fact to us in and by the sacred Scriptures Church Ordinances and Tradition as the Statutes of the Land are delivered us without any weakning contradiction of the said History or fact 6. Above all the continued Testimony of Gods Spirit in all true believers that is the same Spirit which indited the Scripture writeth it out on all holy Souls or formeth reneweth and disposeth them to answerable holyness even to the Image of God in holy Light and Love and Life and to a heavenly Mind and Conversation and to be sober ●●st and loving to all And God would never bless a Lye to do the greatest work in this World to make Men good and like himself And remember that the whole frame and tendency of the Spirits sanctifying work on Souls is to prepair them for a Life to come by causing them to believe it desire it hope for it and seek it and hate sin and part with any thing to obtain it All sound believers have this work upon them and are of such a Mind and Spirit And this Spirit or holy nature in them is Christs witness and theirs They have the witness in themselves 1 Ioh. 5. 10. 7. And remember that even the Malice of Satan affordeth us much help to confirm our Faith It is notorious that he keepeth up through all the World a war against Christ and against our hopes of future glory How he followeth Men with inward importunate temptations against their own interest and reason and what proof of his malice we have in Humane wickedness and in Witches Witchrafts or operations on Bodies Apparitions c. I have so often proved to you that I will now forbear the repetition And doth not all this contain assuring evidence of the Truth of Christ his Gospel and our future hopes Use Come then fellow Christians Let us pray Lord increase our Faith Let us detest all suggestions which tend to Unbelief and so would bring us to the rank of Bruits and to despair Let us live according to our most holy Faith and shew our selves and others that we heartily believe that the Servants of Christ that follow him shall be with him where he is O pray for Faith Meditate for Faith Lament your Unbelief O fools that we are and slow of Heart to believe a Gospel so revealed and confirmed Why are we so fearful of dying O we of little Faith Were but this one Text written on our Hearts and turned into Faith and Hope yea did we believe Christ speaking it but as

misery as not to make it his chiefest care For I see that if a man have but a Law-Suit on which all his estate depends or a tryal on which his life depends he cannot forget it or make light of it He will not drink 〈…〉 or play away the little time in which his bu●●●● must be done And can any one soundly believe that his Soul at death shall go to Christ in glory and not set more by such a hope than by all the riches and sport and pleasure and vain-glory of so short a life as this or can any man soundly believe that the wicked and unholy shall go to everlasting punishment and yet not make it his chief care to escape it sure as mad and bad as mans corrupted mind is this will scarce stand with Humane nature I judge of others by my self If I had never had at the worst a secret uncertainty whether the Gospel be true and Souls immortal I might have been surprized indeed to a sudden temptation to some sin but I could never have thought that a man in his wits should choose any life but resolved holiness Nor could I have chosen any other If I see a man a careless neglecter of his soul that maketh no great matter of sin or duty or maketh not God Christ and Heaven the subject of his most serious ruling thoughts his greatest business in the World but sheweth us that his health and wealth and honour and pleasure are better loved and more earnestly sought and faster held I will not believe that this man taketh the Gospel and the Souls future state therein described to be a cettain truth let him say what he will he doubteth of it at his heart And such men use to say when they speak out I know what I have here but I know not what I shall have hereafter Could I keep what I have I would let others take what is promised in Heaven But O man thou knowest thou canst not keep what thou hast shortly thy Soul must be required and called away and then whose are the things which thou hast loved Luke 12. 19 20. I will therefore say more Though men had no certainty of dwelling with Christ and doubted whether his word be true yet it were worse than madness not to prefer the bare probability that I say not possibility of a future endless glory when endless misery is probable to the refusers before all here that can be set against it O what is this transitory dream of worldly fleshly pleasure to everlasting joy or misery Verily every man at his best estate in worldy respects is altogether Vanity Psalm 39. 5. O mark how Emphatical every word is Verily it is no doubt every man high and low good and bad in bodily and worldly respects only at his best or setled estate not only in pain and poverty and age but in his strength and wit and wealth and honour on the throne as well as on the dunghill is vanity that is an untrusty lie and shadow that seemeth something and is next to nothing and this altogether in meer worldly corporal respects in all that he hath to glory or take pleasure in What need we more to prove all this than to foresee how the Dream and Tragedy endeth A little while we run up and down and eat and drink and talke and sport and sometime laugh and sometime weep and then change our pomp and pride for a Shroud and Coffin and are laid to rot in a grave of earth where these idol pampered bodies be turned themselves into the quality of their darksome habitation And if these were our best were not every man at his best estate altogether vanity And if a meer probability of the life to come in reason should resolve all men for serious holiness how can we think that a certain or firm belief would not do it By this then it is past doubt that Hypocrisie reigneth in all meer nominal Christians and in all that live not a holy life and indeed in most men in the world They are false in professing to believe that Christ is true and his Gospel certain truth and that at death they must go to Heaven or Hell if their lives shew not that Heaven and Hell are greater and more prevailing matters with them than all the fleshly provisions pleasures and glory of this world Hypocrites are distinguished from professed Infidels but if they were not unbelievers at the heart they were not Hypocrites in professing Faith The Scripture giveth these titles or attributes therefore to saving Faith 1 Tim. 1. 5. It is called Faith unfeigned or not hypocritical or dissembled and Philem. 6. it is called Effectual and Gal. 5. 6. Faith that works by Love and Iam. 2. Faith that is not dead but working to perfection it is not unseigned if it be not effectual You cannot make a Man believe that a Bear pursueth him or his House is on Fire or his Life in danger but he will accordingly bestir him You cannot draw a Man to other business from the care of his Life if he believe that it lieth on his present care O Sirs the Hypocrites belief of another World and his lifeless opinion conquered by secret unbelief will shortly fall as an house built on the sand Matth. 7. 23. and no Heart can now fully conceive how terrible to him the fall will be When you see that there is no more tarrying here and that death and an endless life are come a dead profession and secret unbelief will leave you then to dispair and horror It is not the name of a Christian that will then serve to comfort or to save your Souls I do do not say that no Man shall be saved that hath any doubting even of the Gospel and the life to come But I say you cannot be saved if your belief of it prevail not to engage you in a holy Life and conquer not the Flesh the World and the Devil It must be a prevailing Faith But I suppose you are convinced that a sound and firm belief of the passage of departing Souls to Christ or unto misery would certainly resolve Men for a holy Life But some say If we be uncertain how can we help it we are out of sight and we have not the command of our own understandings we would be sure what becomes of Souls with all our Hearts but we cannot attain it Ans. Christ came into the World to teach it us such knowledge is too high and precious to be attained with a slothful wish or to be had without the use of the means which Christ hath appointed us Have you learned of Christ with a humble and teachable willing mind Have you not been diverted and blinded by the things which you knew were but deceitful vanity Have you set your understandings awork with such serious consideration and so long as the trial of so great a matter doth require Have you sought to able and faithful

Matth. 13. 34. God will put his Name upon them and they shall be Pillars in his Temple and go out no more Rev. 2. 3. Yea they shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20. 36. Thus shall it be done to them whom God delighteth to honour even to all in their several degrees who faithfully serve and follow Christ. And yet Christians are we afraid of dying I even hate my own Heart for the remnant of its unbelief which no more rejoiceth and no more longeth to be with Christ while I read and speak of all this to you I know that clear and full apprehensions are proper to possessors and therefore not to be here expected But Lord give us such a Light of Faith as may let in some such tastes of Glory as are needful to us in our hoping State How can we chearfully labour and suffer and overcome without them How shall we go through a tempting and troubling World And entertain with joy the sentence of Death and lay down the Body in the dust without the Joy of the Lord which is our strength Had our Hearts this one promise deeply written in them we should live in Holiness and die in Joy I Have spoken of my Text to my self and you I have now a Copy of it to describe Let none think that the praise of the Dead is a needless or inconvenient work Christ himself praiseth them and will praise them whom he justifieth them before all the World Well done good and faithful Servant c. Matth. 25. He will be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes. 1. 2. The 11th of the Hebrews is the praise of many of them of whom the World was not worthy this wicked world which know neither how to value them or to use them Christ will have the tears and costly love of a poor penitent Woman who anointed him to be spoken of wherever the Gospel is read The Orations of excellent Gregory Nazianzen Greater than Gregory the Great with many such shew us that the Ancients thought this a needful work Many live in times and places where few such men are known And they have need to know from others that there are and have been such Had not I known such I had wanted one of the greatest arguments for my Faith I should the hardlier have believed that Christ is a Saviour if I had not known such as he hath begun to save nor that there is a Heaven for Souls if I had not known some disposed and prepared for it by a holy mind and life I thank God I have known Many Many Many such of several ranks some High more Low O how many such though not all of the same degree of holiness have I lived with who are gone before me Holy Gentlemen Holy Ministers of Christ and holy poor men I love Heaven much the better when I think that they are there And while I am so near them and daily wait for my remove though I here yet breath and speak in flesh why may I not think that I am nearlier related to that Congregation than to this The saying is A friend is half our Soul If so sure the greater half of mine is gone thither long ago It is but a little of me that is yet in painful weary flesh And now one part of me more is gone the Holy and Excellent Henry Ashhurst And God will have me to live so long after him as to tell you what he was to his Fathers and Redeemers praise and to provoke you to imitation God saith The memory of the Iust shall be blessed while the Wickeds name shall rot Methinks even the natural pride of Princes who would not be the scorn of future ages but the praise should accidentally incline them to do good and seem good at the least while the Common experience of all the world tells us that God doth wonderfully shew himself the Governour of the world by ruling fame to the perpetual honour of good and the shame and scorn of evil Even among Heathens what a name is left of Titus Trajan Adrian and above all the Roman Emperours of Antonine the Philosopher and Alexander Severus And who nameth a Nero Domitian Commodus Heliogabalus c. without reproach Yea I have observed that though Malefactors hate the Prince that punisheth them and ungodly men hate piety and the persons that condemn and trouble them in their sins yet such a testimony for goodness is left in common nature that even the generality of the prophane and vicious world speak well of a Wise Just Godly Prince even living and much more when he is dead And so they do of other publick persons Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel and they will praise goodness in others that will not practise it especially that which brings sensible good to mens bodies or to the Comon wealth And therefore Great men should hate that Counsel which cryeth down Popularity as a trick to make them contemn the sense of those below them For usually it is the best Rulers that are most praised by the Vulgar by reason of the self glorifying Light by which true goodness shineth in the world and by reason of the experience of mankind that good men will do good to others How commonly will even drunkards whoremongers and unjust men reproach a Magistrate or Teacher that is a Drunkard Whoremonger or Unjust and praise the contrary Much more will the Wise and Good do it who indeed are as the Soul of Kingdoms and other Societies and the chief in propagating fame It s true that the bellua multorum capitum is liable to disorders and unfit for secrets or uniting Government and its hypocrisie to affect Popular applause as our folicity or reward or to be moved by it against God and duty But many men see more and hear more than one and single men are apter to be perverted and Judge falsly by personal interests and prejudice than the multitude are Vox populi is oft times Vox Dei I have Read Dr. Heylin villifying A Bishop Abbot and saying the Church hath no greater a plague than a Popular Prelate or to that sense And I have heard some reproach the late Judge Hale as a Popular man But as my intimacy with the last assured me that he set very little by the opinion of high or low in comparison of Justice and Conscience so while God keeps up a testimony for goodness in Humane nature men will not think ill of a man because his goodness hath constrained even the most to praise him Nor will it prove the way to please God or profit themselves or others to make themselves odious by cruelty or wickedness and then to despise their judgments that dispraise them and to cry down Popularity Wo to you when all men speak well of you meaneth when either you do the evil that the wicked praise or forsake truth and duty lest they dispraise you or as hypocrites make mens praise your end