Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	according_a	lord_n	mercy_n	2,514	5	6.2304	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90290	A sermon preached to the Parliament, Octob. 13. 1652. A day of solemne humiliation. Concerning the kingdome of Christ, and the power of the civile magistrate about the things of the worship of God. / By John Owen.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1652 (1652)	Wing O806; Thomason E678_28; ESTC R203106	28,726	56

him but rather going full fixed resolved setled on thoughts perhaps prejudices of our own almost taking upon us to prescribe unto the Almighty and to impose our poor low carnall thoughts upon his wisdome and care of his Church Oh where is that holy and that humble frame wherewith at first we followed our God into the Wildernesse where we have been fed and cloathed preserved and protected for so many years Hence is it that the works of God are become strange and terrible darke unto us and of necessity some of us many of us must shut up all with disappoyntment and sorrow We fill our soules boldly confidently with crosse and contrary apprehensions of the Intendments of God and of the mediums whereby he will accomplish his ends and doe not consider that this is not a frame of men who had given up themselves to the Alsufficiency of God Some perhaps will say this belongs not unto them they have waited upon God and they doe know his mind and what are the things he will doe and are not blind also nor in the dark as other men But if it be so what means this bleating of Sheep and Oxen in mine eares yea what means that roaring and foaming of unquiet Waves which we heare and see hard speeches passionate reproaches sharp revilings of their brethren in boundlesse confidence endlesse enmity causing evill surmises biteing taring devouring termes and expressions casting out the names of men upright in their Generations saying the Lord be praised When the Lord discovers his mind and will it setleth the heart composeth the mind fills the soule with reverence and Godly feare conformes the heart unto it selfe fills it with Peace Love Meeknesse Gentlenesse c. and shall we be thought to have received the mind the will of God when our hearts words wayes are full of contrary qualities Let it be called what it will I shall not desire to share in that which would bring my heart into such a frame well then beloved take this for your first direction Be more abundant with God in Faith and Prayer deale with him in publick and private take counsell of him bend your hearts through his grace to your old frame when it was your joy to meet in this place which now I feare to many is their burthen seek the Lord and his Face seek him while he may be found and hereby 1. You will empty your hearts of many perplexing contrivances of your own and you will find faith in this communion with God by little and little working out killing slaying these prejudices presumptions which you may be strong in that are not according to the will of God so you be sure to come not to have your own Lusts and carnall conceptions answered but to have the will of God fulfilled When men come unto the Lord to have their owne visions fulfilled it is Righteous with God to answer them according to those visions and confirme them in them to their own disturbance and the disturbance of others 2. You shall certainly have peace in your owne hearts in the Alsufficiency of God this he will give in upon your spirits that what ere he doth all his wayes shall be to you mercy truth faithfulnesse and peace yea the discoveries which you shall have of his own fulnesse sweetnesse suitablenesse and the excelleny of things which are not seen will worke your hearts to such a frame that you shall attend to the things here below meerly upon the account of duty with the greatest calmnesse and quietnesse of mind imaginable 3. You shall surely know your own particular pathes wherein you ought to walke in serving God in your Generation those that waite upon him he will guide in judgment he will not leave them in the darke nor to distracted divided piercing thoughts but what ere others doe you shall be guided into wayes of peace this you shall have when the lusts of men will let neither thēselves nor others be at quiet Oh then returne to your rest looke to him from whom you have gone astray take no more disturbing Counsell with your selves or others renew your old frame of humble dependance on God and earnest seeking his face you have certainly backsliden in this thing Is not the Lord the God of Counsell and Wisdome as well as the God of force and power that you run to him when in a streight in your Actions but when your counsells seem sometimes to be mixt with a spirit of difficulty and trouble he is neglected only come with humble depending hearts not every one to bring the Devises Imaginations Opinions Prejudices and Lust of their own hearts before him 2. For the troubles that arise from the Lusts of other men and that first about the Gospell and the propagation thereof the tumultuating of the Lusts of men in reference hereunto I gave you an account of formerly there are many peircing thoughts of heart What Extreames I had almost said extravigancies men have in this matter run out into I shall now not insist upon only I shall give you a few directions for your own practise 1. If it once it comes to that that you shall say you have nothing to doe with Religion as Rulers of the Nation God will quickly manifest that he hath nothing to doe with you as Rulers of the Nation the great promise of Christ is that in these latter dayes of the world he will lay the nations in a subserviency to him the kingdoms of the world shall become his that is act as kingdomes and Governments no longer against him but for him Surely those promises will scarsly be accomplished in bringing Common-wealths of men professing his name to be of Gallio's frame to care for none of those things Or as the Turke in an absolute indifferency what any professe I mean that are not his own for in respect of them he changes not his God not that I would you should goe and set up formes of Government to compell men to come under the line of them or to thrust in your sword to cutt the lesser differences of brethren not that I think Truth ever the more the Truth or to have any thing the more of Authority upon the conscience for having the stamp of your Authority annexed to it for its allowance to passe in these Nations Nor doe I speak a word of what is may or may not be incumbent on you in respect of the most profligate opposers of the Truths of the Gospell but only this that not being such as are alwayes learning never comming to the knowledge of the truth but being fully perswaded in your own minds certainly it is incumbent on you to take care that the faith which you have received which was once delivered to the Saints in all the necessary concernments of it may be protected preserved propagated to and among the people which God hath set you over If a father as a father is bound to doe what answers this in

care that you may have ignorance and darknesse things being carried on as if it were the care of men that there might be no trouble in the World but what the name of Religion might lye in the bottome of Now those that ponder these things their spirits are grieved in the midst of their bodies the visions of their heads trouble them they looked for other things from them that professed Christ but the summer is ended and the harvest is past and we are not refreshed Again God had so stated your affaires that you were the mark of the Antichristian World to shoot at in the beginning and their terror in the close and when you thought only to have pursued Sheba the sonne of Bichri the man of your first warfare behold one Abel after another undertakes the quarrell against you yea such Abels as Scotland and Holland of whom we said in old times we will enquire of them and so ended the matter and there is not a wise man or woman among them that can disswade them Strange that Ephraim should joyne with Syria to vexe Iudah their brother that the Netherlands whose being is founded meerely upon the Interest you have undertaken should joyne with the great Anti-Christian interest which cannot possible be set up again without their inevitable ruine Hence also are deep thoughts of heart men are perplexed disquieted and know not what to doe I could mention other lusts and tumultuatings of the spirits of men that have an influence into the disturbance of the hearts of the most pretious in this Nation but I forbeare 4. Mens own Lusts disquiet their spirits in such a season as this I could instance in many I shall name only foure 1. Vnstablenesse of mind 2. Carnall feares 3. Love of the World 4. Desire of preheminence 1. Unstablenesse of mind which makes men like the Waves of the Sea that cannot rest the scripture calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} tumultuatingnesse of spirit there is something of that which Iude speaks of in better persons then those he describes raging like waves of the Sea and foaming out their own shame v. 13. If God give men up to a restlesse spirit no condition imaginable can quiet them still they think they see something beyond it that is desireable Annibal said of Marcellus that he could never be quiet Conqueror nor Conquered Some mens desires are so enlarged that nothing can satiate them Wise men that look upon sundry Godly persons in this Nation and beholding how every yoake of the oppressor is broken from off their necks that no man makes them afraid that they are looked on as the head not as the taile enjoying the Ordinances of God according to the light of their minds and desires of their hearts no man forbidding them are ready to wonder I speak of private persons what they can find to doe in their severall places and callings but to serve the Lord in righteousnesse and holinesse being without feare all the daies of their lives But alasse when poore creatures are given up to the power of an unquiet and unstable mind they think scarce any thing vile but being wise unto sobriety nothing desirable but what is without their proper bounds and what leads to that confusion which themselves in the issue are least able of many to undergoe It is impossible but that mens hearts should be pierced with disquietnesse and trouble that are given up to this frame 2. Carnall feares these even devour and eat up the hearts of men what shall we doe what shall become of us Ephraim is confederate with Syria and the hearts of men are shaken as the trees of the wood that are moved with the wind what new troubles still new unsetlements This storme will not be avoided this will be worse then all that hath befallen us from the youth of our undertakings God hath not yet wonne upon mens spirits to trust him in shakings perplexities alterations they remember not the manifestations of his wisdome power and goodnesse in former daies and how tender hitherto he hath been of the interest of Christ that their hearts might be established Could we but doe our duty and trust the Lord with the performance of his promises what quietnesse what sweetnesse might we have I shall not instance in the other particulars it is too manifest that many of our piercing and perplexing thoughts are from the tumultuating and disorder of our own lusts So that what remains of the time allotted to me I shall spend only in the use of this poynt and proceed no farther Vse 1. Of Instruction to direct you into waies and means of quietnesse in reference unto all these causes and occasions of piercing dividing thoughts in such a season as this The good Lord seale up instruction to your souls that you may know the things that belong to your Peace and what Israel ought to doe at this even at this time for my brethrens and companions sake I wish you prosperity though my own portion should be in the dust for the true spirituall not imaginary carnall Interest of the Church of God in this Nation and the Nations about I wish you prosperity 1. First then in reference to the Things that God is doing both as to their Greatnesse and their Manner of doing whose consideration fills men with thoughts that grieve their spirits in the middest of their bodies Would you have your hearts quieted in this respect Take my second observation for your direction The only way to exstricate and deliver our spirits from under such perplexities and intanglements is to draw nigh to God in Christ for the discovery of his will So did Daniel here in my Text I feare this is too much neglected You take counsell with your own hearts you advise with one another hearken unto men under a repute of wisdome and all this doth but increase your trouble you doe but more and more intangle and disquiet your own spirits God stands by and saies I am wise also and little notice is taken of him we think we are grown wise our selves and doe not remember that we never prospered but only when we went unto God and told him plainly we knew not what to doe Publique fastings are neglected despised spoken against and when appoynted practised according as mens hearts are principled to such a duty coldly deadly unacceptably Life heat warmth is gone and shall not blood and all goe after the Lord prevent it private meetings are used to shew our selves wise in the debate of things with a forme of Godly words sometimes for strife tumult division disorder and shall we think there is much closet inquiring after God when all other actings of that principle which should carry us out thereunto are opposed and slighted when we doe sometimes wait upon God Doe not many seeme to aske amisse to spend it on their lusts not waiting on him poor hungry empty to know his will to receive direction from