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
A30273	Christian commemoration, and imitation of saints departed explicated, and pressed from Heb.13.7. Occasioned by the decease of the Reverend Mr. Henry Hurst, lately minister of the gospel in London. By Daniel Burgess.	Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.	1691 (1691)	Wing B5698; ESTC R224015	41,115	135

death at th● Gallows and to make a King 〈◊〉 him is much But to proceed an● to make him the means of rais●● many others unto Thrones is ve●● much more In a word then Who can wonder that the Grace of God hath chose this method And engaged us to consider and imitate the grace of our Friends departed His goodness is above the Heavens And the effects of it must be like unto it Therefore he bestows not Salvation passive without Active that is whom he saves he also makes instrumentally Saviours And why but because he will praise his grace and make it like itself And so be Glorifyed in his Saints and admired in all them that do Believe He will leave nothing to be said that it might have been done for them that was not done R. 6. This Practice is unto all the living a charm of great sweetness to most exemplary Faith and Holiness For what heart will not strain for the purest faith and most unspotted Life upon the consideration that God intends it for a Pattern And commands all its good to be eyed and imitated who will or can argue otherwise I am to be a Copy I will therefore write fair as for my Life and beware of blots and blurs I am to be a Guide and be followed I will therefore make straight paths to my feet and dread a false step in Doctrine or Manners I am to speak even when I am dead I will therefore season with salt every word And see with great carefulness that none be found hurtful or useless If Posterity follow me they shall follow Christ If they walk as I I will see they shall walk as He walked A sweet and salutary Reasoning is it not And who would have been without such a Charm If any pretend to be so spiritual that they can perfect holiness without it and therefore give God no thanks for it to speak the mildest thing that can be said I think that a great Jealousie of their state is Godly and Necessary Brevity commands me to offer no more than these few Inferences for application of this Truth Disposed minds may easily farther apply it in their own thoughts unto its obvious purposes I. 1. What garments of praise are Faith and Holiness Surely incomparable Otherwise our Predecessors attire with them needed not to be so observed so followed The Church i. e. holy believers are called a Bride beautifully decked Their Faith and Holy Life bear the names of Embroidery Silk Fine linnen Silver Gold and Jewels Yea and are declared to be the End of our Saviours all-transcending Righteousness imputed unto us They are therefore miserably Blind who are contentedly Naked And as shamefully Naked who are not thus cloathed I. 2. How many are our Ministers more than the Earth bears For all our fore-runners unto Heaven abide Ministers still unto us Their faith and Holiness if we are not wanting to our selves will be our daily Lectures We have every day the refusal of them The King of the Church for many reasons aforesaid requires our use thereof Who then dares say that Ministers be scarce O that deaf Adders and dull and slow Hearers of them were so I. 3. What need of Gods mercy have all his family on earth All are bound to Remember and Imitate their Brethren in Heaven Now it is Mercy very great to be bound to a practice so beneficial delightful and honourable as this hath been shewn to be And of this mercy who saith that he hath no need again 't is mercy unspeakable to be forgiven the neglect of so gracious a Precept Of so kind a Prescription against sin and sorrow And of this mercy what an abundance do we all want I say this upon good warrant I am jealous that the generality of true Israelites do need a special abundance Being as to this precept guilty of above ordinary negligence The Lord grant unto us that we may find mercy of the Lord in that day so the Apostle names the Judgment-day tho' some critical Heads have construed it of another I. 4. How unexpectable is sinless perfection in this World Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from the forementioned witnesses and patterns to a more perfect exemplar Heb. 12.2 Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as enduring despising and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as now set down and so having perfected his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hence proposed to the exercised as their example and encouragement hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proportionate or analogize your selves to him as in ver 3. Christ was indeed the Author in an higher sense but here I think he is proposed as the most perfect and encouraging exemplar of thorough costly and successful faithfulness The very Apostles had it not And this restriction of our imitation unto their Faith argues that they had not And implicitely tells us that they had Errors of Judgment and Practice that we are to Decline not to follow In Writing the Holy Scriptures they had and professed to have the Holy Ghost's infallible guidance But at other times and to other purposes they never had it nor pretended to it No their own Writings record their Mistakes and Miscarriages Of the Saints of the Old Testament there can be little matter of doubt concerning them the same thing may be said and this only shall be added The Holy Ghost commends them unto us indeed for very useful witnesses and patterns as hath been before shewn Heb. 12.1 But then as in way of caution against our Dreams of their Perfection in the very next verse what doth he He bids us look off from them all unto an incomparably more noble and truely perfect one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Looking off from them unto Jesus the Author and Finisher or Leader and Perfector of our Faith Jesus that had despised the shame endured the Cross and received his blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or escape out of all his sufferings having sit down at Gods right hand Unto this blessed Jesus in the next verse we are instructed to proportionate our selves as some think the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify Our Nature was sinless under the Sun in Jesus Christ but as to us meer men it is truly said Adam lost more Innocence and Purity in an hour than his Posterity will recover to the Worlds end I. 5. What a reproachful thing is Universal imitation of the best men Their holy Faith and Life is all you are bid to follow To Swallow their Errors and practise their Sins is what God and they themselves forbid you And is imitating or them in the things wherein they were not themselves But were more Satan's than their own men Wherefore so to do is to comply with Satan not to conform unto them Let it also be considered that to affect and strain to take up their unaffected Tones Gestures Garbs c. is to but ape their Humanity it self And nothing of an imitation of their

first P. 1. Godly Ministers when Dead must not be Buried in Oblivion My Text expresly commands the contrary Remembrance of them Natural and Moral is here required Naturally we remember those whom we often call to mind think of and speak with our selves concerning them For thinking is nothing but speaking with our selves Thoughts be the words of our hearts Morally we remember such as we do congruously speak of with our selves I mean agreeably to their worth and suitably to the proper End of our commemorating them This Moral remembrance without the Natural is impossible and the Natural without this Moral is at least vain and idle Remember your Guides is in effect thus much Multiply honourable and affectionate thoughts concerning them Thoughts proper and apt to praise the Gifts and Graces of God in them and to promote the same in your selves Our English Translation renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Participle of the present tense The Syriac Arabic Vulg. Lat. Rhemists Calvin and Grotius and of our own Writers Doctor Owen and Bishop Lloyd so take it But I rather conceive it a Noun Substantive in this place because the Apostle speaks of such as had been Rulers not such as continued to be so He seems to intend the Apostles Evangelists and all ordinary Pastors who had led and ruled them by God's holy word and were now ●t rest from their Labours and en●oying their Reward These he commandeth to be remembred but not with any Heathenish or Popish Celebrations These without the ●east particular deference unto St. Peter or any ambitious pretending Successors of his These with a ve●●y apparent exclusion of all the Tribes that take on them to Rule without speaking the Word of the Lord. All that Preach not o● Preach another Gospel But be it here observed it is not only or principally as Ministers but as Members of Jesus Christ tha● we are charged to remember these departed ones aforesaid Their Ministry of the Word is indeed considered as an Engagement unto the required Remembrance But it i● their Faith their holy Conversation and the glorious End of both tha● are proposed as specially obligativ● thereunto Insomuch as my Tex● may well admit a comprehension of all Christians that have fought th● good fight kept the Faith finished their Course and received their Crow● I mean of such as tho' they wer● never called to the distinct Office o● the Ministry yet in all manner of ho●● Conversation have ministred unt● our Faith and Joy as all seriou● practical Christians do And 〈◊〉 whom after their Dissolution we may assert the things foresaid in Hope and Charity It being not for mortal Worms to conclude peremptorily who do enter the heavenly Mansions I shall therefore confirm the Doctrine proposed as so far extended And advance Considerations which do very convincingly prove thus much scil That godly Ministers and Christians when they are Dead ought so to be remembred as we have foresaid C. 1. Your reasonable Nature binds you to remember your godly Ministers and Friends deceased It binds you to converse most in your thoughts with the most noble Objects But of ●ll Creatures excepting the blessed Angels these are the most excellent They are so in themselves and so in our Opinion or rather your Faith When they were in the Body you ●●ought them pieces of Heaven of whom the World was not worthy You ●alled them the excellent of the Earth and all your delight was in them How readily did you break from other Company put off any dispensable Business and undertake Journeys otherwise tedious to solace your hearts with their Converse 〈◊〉 And are they now grown worse for their very Perfection Are they les● Lovely for their being in Glory B● they therefore faln in your esteem because they are advanced unto Heaven The nearer they be unto their Lord and yours the farther must they be from all kind thoughts of yours What hinders that you cannot more delightfully visit them now when all that is delightful fill them That you cannot follow them to no worse a Countrey than you profess your selves seeking and n● more remote than that you hav● your Conversation in if you an● true Israelites It is full as easie to think of 〈◊〉 friend at the Indies as at next doo● And of your friends that be in th● house made without hands as those ●hat be in any house of your own here ●elow Wherefore your own Minds if you inhumanely resist not ●heir Light and Law will be a●cending unto these Stars in Glory And that as naturally as the sparks ●y upward Or as Men impatient ●f herding with Creatures that live ●ut an Animal Sensitive life do ●esort for their pleasure unto the ●ossessors of their own more noble Nature And most Industriously ●nto such of them as are of most ●nspicuous Goodness C. 2. Your gracious Love of God ●nds you to Remember your godly Mi●sters and Friends deceased Love ●hich is all Religion is of all things ●e most Imperious And of all ●ings to be named doth most com●and those Legions of ours which are ●●dest to be Governed our thoughts ●endures not wilful Ignorance or ●●●getfulness of it's Object It hath ●en named very justly the matchless Art of Memory Ubi Amor ibi● Oculus If the Love of God prevail in your Hearts it will carry your Minds and keep them where he is It will turn the stream of your cogitations and hold them toward Heaven The Heaven in which He is not without his Children with Him Without the Souls of the ju●● made perfect who behold his face i● Righteousness and are satisfied with his Likeness Every one exulting in that triumph about Him My God i● mine and I am His. And is it possible think you to Love this Father and not Love these Children of His to Converse with Him and to forget them with a neglectful Obliv●on of them to hold an acceptabl● Communion with him The beloved Disciple tells us un●●mitedly concerning all his Family on Earth as well as Heaven Eve● one that loveth him that begat love● him also that is begotten of Hi● 1 John 5.1 But what Children of h● can we Love if we Slight the very best He hath And do then regard them ●east when we conclude them to have most of his Image Likeness and Complacence C. 3. Your continued Relation unto godly Ministers and Friends deceased ●inds you to the Remembrance of them Sirs you have been often charg'd ●ot to look upon your selves too ●bstractedly but to consider your ●elves as Members of a Community All the World is naturally but ●ne Man and Woman's Children The Church above and below is but one Family Besides as you cannot be ●gnorant the great Lord of this ●amily hath pleased yet nearer to ●yn you and those ● speak of To ●ut you in particular endearing Re●●tions unto them Your Ministers ●ow in glory were some of them our Fathers and begat you in Christ Others were your Nurses ●nd