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	preach_v	2,636	5	7.0466	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36019	Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, I Thess. 5.21 handled in two sermons at S. Maries in Cambridge, the first on the Commencement-Sabbath, July 1, 1655, the other since / by William Dillingham.	Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.	1656 (1656)	Wing D1486; ESTC R19188	41,854	64

wind of doctrine but that we may grow up unto him who is the head and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ephes. 4. 15. Follow the truth in love not out of fansie as children do That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith we must be rooted and grounded in love Ephes. 3. 17. and therefore where the love of truth once decayes there truth it self staies not long after it We reade of some Rom. 1. 28. who not liking to retain God in their knowledge he gave them over to a reprobate mind And it a remarkable place that of 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. where it is said that the man of sinne should come after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish See what becomes of those who are deceived by the man of sinne they perish and if ye ask why so the words following will give you an answer Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved See there how necessary the love of truth is to salvation For indeed where there is no sineere love of the truth there can be no true belief of it For as the Apostle there goes on For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse Observe the opposition A sad place it is and I wish it were well considered by all that are so coldly affected to the truth especially by such as hate it and are so much inclined in their minds and affections to the errours of that man of sinne whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and will destroy with the brightnesse of his coming as he there threatens In the 10 verse 't is they received not the love of the truth and by the 12 verse 't is come to they believed not the truth they had lost the truth for want of love to it Would we hold truth fast we must hold it in corde as well as in capite hold it fast by loving it unfainedly Thirdly hold fast that which is good by remembring it faithfully and doubtlesse where truth is believed and beloved the mind will often be upon it quae curant meminerunt 1 Cor. 15. 1 2. Moreover brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if ye hold fast keep in memory what I preached unto you unlesse ye have believed in vain Those that do truly believe the truth will be carefull to keep it in memory which is a speciall means to preserve the faith and love of it in their hearts Memory holds fast the truth while faith and love renew their acts upon it for this cause ought we to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} lest we leak and let them slip and so we that I say not they be spilt and perish irrecoverably Heb. 2.1 The Spirit of God confirms us in the truths taught by bringing them to our remembrance The Scriptures were written that we might believe that by hearing them preached by frequent reading them and meditating upon them as David did we might have faith begotten increased in us Therefore we ought {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be taken up with these duties As Paul to Timothy The minister is appointed for a remembrancer to us 1 Tim. 4.6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things then shalt thou be a good minister of Jesus Christ and when S. Paul himself went over again the cities where he had formerly preached the word the text tells us what the succese was And so were the Churches est ablished in the faith Acts 16. 5. And S. Peter thought it meet as long as he continued in his earthy tabernacle to put Christians in remembrance of the truths delivered that so they might have them alwayes in remembrance after his decease and that although they knew them already 2 Pet. 1. 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth Though they were already established and therefore might seem not to need putting in remembrance which is the means of establishment yet the Apostle thought it meet to do it alwayes even as long as he lived for it would further confirm them and be a means to keep them from falling from their stedfastnesse and to persevere in holding fast that which is good Fourthly another way of holding fast that which is good is by practising it conscientiously To keep the commandments is to obey them Jesus Christ tells his disciples John 15.10 if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love as many branches as bring forth fruit abide in the vine and are fastened in it by the sap they draw S. John 1. cpist 3.c last verse He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us S. Peter 2. cpist 1. chap. exhorts to give all diligence to adde unto faith vertue temperance godlinesse charity and the rest of the graces there reckoned up for if these things be in you and abound they will make you fruit full in the knowledge of Jesus Christ they will put forth themselves into acts and what then vers. 10. if ye do these things ye shall never fall Oft times custome engages men to continue in evil practises while they are ashamed of their principles but when good practises are backt with good principles the engagement is the stronger to continue in them and defend them An honest and good heart having heard the word keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience A good heart is the fittest cabbinet to keep the good word of God in And indeed when once the word is ingraffed upon the soul by faith it over-rules the sap of the stock and sanctifies the fruit Truth being espoused to the soul by faith and bedded by love brings forth fruit unto holinesse faith working by love and proles firmat conjugium If we would be stedfast and immoveable let us be alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. If we would but follow that which is good as we are exhorted in the 15 verse before my text we should find that one means and a good one too of holding fast that which is good Fifthly a fifth way that we must hold fast that which is good is by professing of it constantly S. Paul was not ashamed to preach the Gospel no more must we be

even unto obstinacy though brayed in a mortar they will not part with them It is said of the Pharisees and their traditions Mark 7.4 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they received them to hold them fast they took them with a resolution not to let them go for better for worse Zeal is good in a good matter but this their holding fast is to their own mischief as a sinking man holds fast the weeds that help to drown him 3. This reproves those that hold and it is good which they hold but they do not hold it fast all wavering and inconstant persons But these also I have already spoken something to in the aforegoing part of my discourse Use 2. I will therefore conclude all with a word of exhortation which yet I perceive is nothing else than what I have been doing all this while I will adde onely to what hath been said a motive or two and a few means or directions 1. Motive 1 The first motive let be the consideration of our own concernment how much it is our interest to hold fast that which is good Truth is our treasure and a wise man doth not use to be over easily perswaded to part with that 'T is our possession a man will sue hard before he will suffer himself to be ejected out of his inheritance 'T is our evidence our evidence for a Kingdome and shall we not look carefully to it It is our fortresse while we keep that that will preserve us like Ulysses his mast tie our selves fast to it and we shall be safe yea 't is our life as Solomon of wisdome keep her for she is thy life our eternal salvation depends upon our holding of it If we give over believing he that believes not shall be damned If we grow weary of well-doing without holinesse no man shall see God If any love not Christ and his truth let him be anathema If any man deny them before men him will Christ deny before his Father which is in heaven It is abundantly then our manifold interest to hold fast that which is good 2. Hold truth fast considering the danger we are in of loosing it in respect of deceivers who would cheat us of it and juggle it from us in respect of open enemies that would by force wrest it from us The Devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devoure And as at all times we had need to hold fast the truth so especially in times of seduction and apostasie in times of temptation and in time of persecution we had need to double our guards when the Enemy is at hand But of this before 3. Let us consider how the Lord Jesus Christ stands affected towards his truth and such as adhere unto it We may see both in his speech to the Church in Pergamos Rev. 2.13 Thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith Even in those dayes when Antipas was my faithfull martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth Observe how he doth aggrandise and amplisie their faithfulnesse to him and his truth from the consideration of time and place they adhered to him in times of persecution and in a most dangerous place where Satan dwelleth He that was wont to go about like a roaring lion and to go to and fro up and down the earth had now it seems taken up in Pergamos resolving to make that the seat of his tyranny where he would display the bloudy ensignes of his rage and cruelty and yet in this very place there were not wanting those who under his nose and to his very teeth did professe themselves the sworn servants of Christ and truth and his utter enemies What an honour was this to christ who maintained himself a Church in Satans own Imperial city and how kindly doth he take it from those who at such a time and in such a place did stick so close unto him and to his truth Which he calls my faith and my name he can as soon forget his own name and neglect his own glory as his truth But then how feelingly how pathetically doth he remember and even by name make mention of Antipas In those dayes when Antipas was my faithfull martyr c. In those dayes he keeps an exact account of the time and makes Antipas his death the Epocha to compute other things by when Antipas he had kept Christ's name and you see Christ keeps his he had born witnesse and set his seal unto Christ's truth and Christ wears him as a signet upon his right hand and engraves him upon the palms of his hands he is neare and deare unto him Christ knows him and calls him by name Antipas my faithfull martyr O what a pang of affection was there Sirs I am not able to conceive it much lesse expresse it I beseech you assist me with your thoughts and supply by your meditations what my expression cannot reach Antipas my faithfull martyr Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints and blessed are they that die in the Lord but much much more pretious is their death and thrice happy are all they whom the Lord calls forth and inables to die for his sake and to lay down their lives in witnesse-bearing to his truth I wonder no longer that the Primitive Christians were so ambitious of martyrdome who would not be martyr many times over to have such a testimoniall such an affectionate commemoration from his blessed Saviour which will afterwards be seconded with an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} well fought My sonne and with that Euge bone serve fidelis well done good and faithfull servant enter thou into thy masters joy So much for motive now a few directions which I will but name leaving them to be enlarged by your own private meditations 1. That thou maist be sure to hold fast take thy hold on that rock of diamonds the holy Scriptures for sand will crumble and wash away 2. Make sure of heaven and then sufferings will be light Facile est quidvis suadere persuasis mori Let me say paratis mori They will not fear shipwrack who have sent their souls before and ensured them in heaven that man need not fear death whose life is hid with Christ in God 3. Turn all traitours out of thy heart which else will betray both truth and thee Such are lusts hypocrisie by-respects curiositie carelesnesse Get thy self cured of thy natural levity and slipperinesse it is good that the heart be established with grace 4. Hold not too fast your own prejudicate opinions if you mean to hold truth fast or indeed to entertain it For then non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris They do but pretend to be suitours unto truth who are before wedded to their own opinions 5. Fifthly and lastly grasp not the world too hard for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and is seldome a friend to sometimes incompetible with that which is good Catch not at honour applause profit or interest in your holding of truth these will winnow from truth sometime or other and then the dog will hunt no longer in the roade when the hare hath left it but Demas will take his leave of truth and embrace the present world I will end all in those words of the Apostle 2 Thess. 2. and the later end Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the faith which ye have been taught which ye have believed Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work CUI LAUS IN SECULA FINIS Doctr. Reas. 1. Object Answ. Reas. 2. Consid. 1. Consid 2. 1. Requisite A faculty 1. Reasonable 2. Enlightened 2● 2● q. 8 art 4. 3. sanctified 2. Requisite A Rule 1 Not Reason 2. Antiquity 3. Councels and Fathers Praefat. in Pentat 4. Church 5. Teachers But Scriptures Mark 1. Mark 2. Mark 3. Object 1 Answ. Object 2 Answ. Object 3 Answ. 1. Part of the text considered 1 Relatively As a caution A means An end 2. Absolutely 2. Dectr Six wayes to hold fast truth 1. Believing 2. Loving 1. Remembring 4. Practising 5. Professing 6. Contending Asa 1 Kings 15. 14. So Jehoash Amasia Azari● Jotham Jehoshaphal Use 1. Use 2. Direction