Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	abundance_n	mouth_n	speak_v	5,245	5	4.7625	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70718	A faithful narrative of the life and death of that holy and laborious preacher Mr. John Machin late of Astbury in the county of Chester. With a præfatory epistle thereunto; written by that excellent person Sir Charles Wolseley Baronet. Published for the furtherance of real piety in ministers and others.	Newcome, Henry, 1627-1695.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714.	1671 (1671)	Wing N896; ESTC R30742	27,053	108

every point that became a Learned Preacher 3. He had an extraordinary measure of Holiness and Heavenliness according to the Observation that a Judicious Divine long since made of him That he had more than ordinary degrees of Sanctification He was of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord and had the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to the state of all Souls This was his Master-piece and was naturalized to him He had a singular ingenuity in improving Scripture Similitudes and every Occurrence with unimaginable dexterity each Tree and Bird and Stone would be a Text whereon he would aptly inlarge having a mighty wit for the Spiritualizing of every thing and gathering occasion of good Converse in every Company and almost upon every matter and it was apparent That out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spake His holy jealousie and fear of himself was very great A dear friend that well knew him writes thus of him Never man more watchful against Relapses nor more jealous to maintain his first love to the height I have sometimes told him that it was not usual for Converts to retain that Land flood of comfort that intention of zeal and extension of affection which flourished in him and was preserved to the height he must expect an abatement in time and the Current thereof to be contracted and setled in a narrower Channel He often reflected on these words Ore tenus and in his Letters intimating he was what he was heretofore not without an admiration of supporting Grace Thereunto he ascribed all he was And indeed he was so habituated unto Spiritual Communion with his God that he could not patiently bear his withdrawings and was far more sensibly and sooner aware of it than many others are that can to their great loss admit of other delights instead of his face and favour but this Holy Man did most eagerly seek for him upon all occasions till he found Him whom his Soul loved He was a great Observer of the frame and bent of his heart at all times a worthy Minister writes thus of him I have admired at the constant frame of his Spirit he was not subject to that deadness and indisposedness as other good men seem to be his heart was continually burning with an holy zeal Take a tast of his excellent sweet frame of heart in this short Letter-passage to a Friend My dear dear dear Brother I pray thee I pray thee report the loving kindness of the Lord unexpressible unto a poor vile empty altogether undeserving worm for I have found an answer this day this day more than ever to our Prayers and can say the Lords work will on though hell say no and still Believe Preach Pray and Believe Lam. 3.25 I am constrained to say Isa 63.7 Neither thou nor any of my friends can conceive how good the Lord is to me even to me I pray thee and others think and study how good he is to me to me to me And a constant watch he kept over his thoughts especially of his last thoughts that he slept with and his first thoughts that he waked with and usually they were some precious Scripture or other which he would discourse of to his friends with great alacrity He kept a Diary of his Life wherein every day he wrote in Characters where he was what Scriptures he found any sweetness from what was the state of his Soul towards God and such other remarkable passages that did occurr each day from the year 1650. to the year he dyed His love to the Word of God was superlative it was his Meditation day and night He did constantly in a morning pitch upon some Verse which he would endeavour to infuse into his heart ever unwilling to leave it till he had suck'd some virtue from it He was chewing by Meditation the 119th Psalme at the time of his sickness daily squeezing the virtue of one verse thereof into his Soul as appears by his Diary and this he did not formally as a task but with that effectual seriousness and relish that his family at home and friends at a distance in his Letters might perceive exactly what dainties he had tasted And at every vacant time he would be looking for a word and would find out by the casual turning down a leaf in his Bible which was his usual way such passages as were very remarkable and not observed before A Scripture thus met with was as food to him exceeding sweet to his tast he would make much of it and usually would not leave it till he had improved it to the good of others by speaking or writing that others might see what he saw and feel what he felt in the word of God Another usage he had also which shewed him to be both a good Textuary and a good Christian and that was usually to take leave with his Friends and Relations by leaving some Scripture with them and those most suitable to their condition nay he hardly sent commendations to a friend but it was accompanied with some pertinent Scripture that he seemed to breath no other aire but Scripture His Bible was his constant Companion in the day and usually his Pillow at night and many scores of emphatical lively expressions he had found therein which the constant reading and diligence of others could never light on And wherever he came he was engraving some Scripture or other on the Mantle-posts and Walls and Trees which was so constant and peculiar a course with him that his acquaintance oft knew he had been in such a place by the marks he usually left His design therein being the advantage of all mens Souls that the very novelty of seeing such things might set people upon enquiring and looking those those Scriptures in their Bibles not knowing what good one Verse of the Scripture thus met with might do upon a Soul if God set it on At least he found this advantage to himself that when he came to a review of them he was put in mind of that frame of heart he had when he was there before and might tast over again what he had before felt in that passage of the Word of God He seldome wrote a Note or Letter but he made it up with some suitable Scripture the word of God dwelling plentifully in him and in the Memorials forementioned he inserts Scriptures upon every occasion saying in the conclusion The Texts of Scripture herein mention'd are best worth thy finding and noting in thy life as they were in mine His moderation was remarkable to all sorts of godly people though of differing judgements his heart and heat being wholly taken up with the great and necessary parts of Religion that all true Christians agreed in and making the substance of Religion his work and business he never had leisure to trouble himself with controverted circumstances nor would put his Soul out of tune with such things as had caused so much jarring

of the Ministry which was after some improbabilities and besides the thoughts of all Friends God had another plough for thee to follow and another match to make than that which I and my Friends had thoughts of His Father was induced by the advice of a Friend to let him goe to Cambridge for a quarter of an year scarce intending him to be admitted but to abide there for some short time for further breeding And he gladly accepted the Motion and went thither in December 1645. and finding some kinred and acquaintance there he was admitted in Jesus Colledge The first year it pleased God to make a gracious change in him of which he saith himselfe The time of my conversion was in the twenty first year of my age as I remember the place was Jesus Colledge in Cambridge The Texts that most overturned me were Ephes 6.12 13 14. and 1 Cor. 16.22 the one by Dr. Hill the other by a Stranger He often shew'd some of his acquaintance the seat in which he was first wrought upon and told them how dearly he loved the sight of it and that ever after he chose to sit in that seat rather than in any other if it were possible to crowd into it One evidence among many others of the eminent success which God gave to the faithful plain preaching of that Holy man D. Hill who went over that whole Epistle to the Ephesians in a Lecture every Lords-day in the morning at six of the clock which he continued for several years Learned D. Arrowsmith also about the same time preached over a succinct body of Divinity in Aphorismes in St. Iohns Colledge in the evening of the Lords-day part whereof is since published of which he hath often said that he found his heart so moulded to the truths deliver'd upon the hearing thereof that it was greatly to his spiritual joy and satisfaction No sooner did he find this change in his own heart but his Friends at Seabridge found it in his letters which spake the new frame of his soul and were most instant pathetical perswasions to his Father and Mother and Sisters to look after their soules and to minde the things of Eternity which he seconded afterward with his holy and exemplary society with them so that he was an instrument to convert all his three Sisters early unto God and to prevaile very hopefully with his Parents in like manner as appeared afterwards He so followed his studies in the Vniversity that being of ripe years very good natural parts and religiously making conscience of his time he made good progress therein and was not inferiour to any in the Colledge of his year in University-learning when he left it And though he made no Shew of learning as some did in his preaching yet he made good Vse of it and well understood the necessity of it for his work About the time of his great Grandfathers death which was in March 1647. he was sick of a dangerous spotted-feaver at Cambridge and that unto death as himself and most about him concluded which he thus mentions That it was in Jesus-Colledge in a middle chamber next to the Chappel on the right hand but saith he God having some work for me to do had mercy on me Phil. 2.27 saved me and brought me back again to say Psal 56.13 for thou hast delivered my soul from death wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the land of the living And Psal 118.17 18. I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastned me sore but he hath not given me over unto death In this sickness the Lord dealt most powerfully with his soul planting therein great and firme resolutions of serving his God eminently upon Recovery which by his grace he afterward faithfully performed And hereupon he began a Meeting of Scholars for religious ends which continued in the Colledge for several years after his departure to the restrayning at least of some and the great spiritual advantage of many young Scholars there which he managed with such caution as they might not easily become nurseries of faction or false doctrine whatever the ignorance or malice of senseless frothy persons did slanderously vent to the contrary Take a further account of him and of his usefulness in the Colledge in these few clauses of several letters to him from some Worthy Members of that Society Dear Friend I received your loving Letter which breathed nothing but piety and good affection The next Companion to him who is both Fundator Socius Praeses of the Colledge of Graces and comforts of Believers is he whom God hath warmed with the same principles to be instrumental for the inlivening them in others I bless God the society you were the founder of in the Colledge do grow numero et mensura And you have here my real thanks in that you have been instrumental in setting religious meetings on foot wherein you reap much of the answer of your prayers in that they carry it so prudently yet as I hear of nothing but what malice and guilt tax them withal In all my serious thoughts I see you represented to me either as a pattern of strict walking or an upbraiding of my little serviceableness but alwayes a blessing and a comfort in this that I have known you and the manner of your life and that I reap the benefit of your prayers and best affections which is a treasure I alwayes desire to prize above all the Jewels in the world c. And from another eminent Person My Dear and Precious Friend I received yours your lines sweetly refresh me O that I could hear oftner from you It glads my soul to see your constancy O that your example might be a motive and incentive to me to be more steady settled and fixt upon God in the way of God c. These are but a tast of many letters from Cambridge wherein several do bless the Lord that ever they saw his face But his Activity in Gods service was not a little disturbed by the malice of Satan who frequently after his recovery from sickness annoyed and tormented him dreadfully in his Dreames which greatly confirmed him in his christian zeale so that he hath often immediately upon waking run in his wastcoat into his Study and betaken himself to his earnest prayers against that mischeivous Fiend He Commenced Batchelor in Arts Anno 1649. and after his Commencement came into the Countrey and spent part of the year among his Friends and in visiting some neighbouring Congregations that were destitute with his pains He was Ordeined Minister at Whitchurch Feb. 20. 1649. In which service he ingaged before hand all the prayers he was able to muster up not only of friends near at hand but some scores of miles distant for a blessing upon that Ordinance and when we consider how pathetically he ingaged them thus in one Epistle Vpon the 20th of

were unconcern'd in the solemn things he hath treated on Some that have travelled with him a journey which usually were upon some religious account have been even ravished in their souls with his heavenly expressions to prayer he would immediately go either publickly in the Family or privately in his Chamber in every house where he came He had an undaunted boldness in the reproving of a sinner How have some of us seen him in an Inne upon his journey Thunder-striking a Swearer in this manner Who was it there that durst abuse the Name of the God of Heaven And he would ever on purpose when talking with his friends on the way choose some weighty word to speak as he met with people that passed by that so it might stick and this bread of his that was cast on the waters would some times return to him after many dayes He had a singular presence of heart and matter to speak to whomsoever he met and great condescention to explain himself wherein any did not understand him as once in a Snowy day meeting suddenly with a man driving his horses that saluted him and said well met Sir I but sayes he we shall be better met if we meet in Heaven and such like Few poor ever went from his door without a most powerful spiritual almes and he would order them a larger allow a●●e that would admit of his caelestial reliefe But especially his faculty excelled in Discoursing with people on the way with whom he would very handsomly insinuate into very material and yet familiar discourse of Eternal things find out their ignorance mightily amaze and convince them and lay thereby the happy foundation of future acquaintance upon this best count which practises of his may shame and teach us for alas what through the earthlyness and vanity and what through the bashfulness of our hearts Christ and Heaven are generally excepted out of our discourse We can speak of any thing but the soule of any person but of Jesus and of any place but of Heaven and it is almost a crime for a Christian to talk of Christiani●● What an unreasonable thing is it that we who pretend for Heaven should not as readily ordinarily and cheerfully fall into discourse concernig Gods word and our Salvation as the worldlings and wicked ones can of their Lands and Lusts No other talk but what leads towards God shall be worth talking over again in the Kingdom of Heaven Divers Dialogues that were on such occasions framed by him are dispersed in the hands of friends that would if published shew his excellent Genius this way and perhaps stir us all up to be more fruitful in such discourse One Instance hereof is remarkable Riding one morning to a Lecture he met with some young men carrying their Cocks to a Cock-fight he overtaking them dropt this word to one of them Friend our Lord and Master Jesus Christ never came into the world to set up such sports as these These words some further discourses though the young man went on to his sport that day stuck like an arrow in his liver and he could not be at quiet till he had learned who this Minister was and after gain'd acquaintance with him and thereupon laid these and his other sins to heart and made an happy change of his courses He was a zealous improver of good society His ordinary visits were seldome finish'd without prayer with his friends before they parted And when divers good people were all night together he would be tying them as it were end to end and engaging them to pray one after another often to midnight or else to produce their several evidences for Heaven and would sometimes raise the company an hour before day in the morning to wrestle and weepe together that the fire might not go out upon the hearth of their soules being so constantly blown up yea the very crumbs of piety that fell from him at his table were most refreshing and heavenly and a plain argument that it was his meat and drink to do his Fathers will and finish his work He had most ingenious devices and witty artifices flowing from his rooted affection to God whereby after some Solemn dayes he would ingage his Christian friends to a closer conversation Take an Instance or two hereof as we finde them left on record Articles betwixt Christ and two soules 1. That we be his willing loving and obedient Spouses 2. That we labour by all means to know more of his mind and then to tell it one to another and draw to the practise of it 3. That we be alwayes jealous left each other take his room and to be indifferent and moderate in everything and every one but to Him and His. 4. That whatever creatures are betwixt us they be improved to highest advantage betwixt Christ and our soules 5. That we connive not at sin in each other but be tender of one anothers soules and bodies 6. That we love and live each day as the last 7. That we faithfully indeavour performance of each others will while living and when dead so far as Reason and Religion may bind 8. That we be in every condition more willing to go live with Christ our Husband than stay here one with another for pleasure sake 9. That we endeavour seasonableness and suitablenes● in every duty c. And another to this effect Seabridge Oct. 8. where His name was that day recorded Before the Lord in his strength I promise to draw neer to God believing he will draw neer to me I pass away and part with my own power to Him that I may be His not anothers Subscribing with heart and hand praying and believing the Lord will undertake for me that I never go back in a thought Or else this will stand in full force against me at that great day to come Phil. 4.13 H. N. Cant. 8.5 J. M. Psal 119.106 J. M. Zach. 8.21 M. M. Psal 119.80 N.B. Isa 38.10 E. H. 2 Cor. 3.5 c. He was one that set great store by the prayers of his Friends and was a very faithful remembrancer of them that desired his prayers which he used to do with that heartiness and sympathy and inlargedness of heart that it would much work upon their hearts and ingage them to more seriousness in their own business and in affection to him that so kindly concerned himself in their affairs And with great fervour would he plead with God in their absence not only to satisfie his conscience promise of remembring them but with strong cryes to prevail for them Besides that frequent course he held of putting on persons to tell him before prayer began what they would have chiefly begg'd for them at the Throne of Grace by which they were sent into their own soules to study their inward and present condition A dear friend upon this account saith thus He gave this Rule touching praying for friends which I have endeavoured since to