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	soul_n	3,217	5	4.7786	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92775	A glasse for the times: wherein is represented the malady and remedy of divisions. / In a sermon preached at Mercers Chappel, April the 7th 1650. By La. Seaman D.D. pastor at Alhallowes-Breadstreet. London.	Seaman, Lazarus, d. 1675.	1650 (1650)	Wing S2175; Thomason E597_13; ESTC R206295	20,165	35

soveraignty in us at all times whatsoever providence it pleaseth God to exercise us withall anger zeale and hatred against the sins of men should not transport us from the love of their persons But I shall shew you in some particulars a little more distinctly when Division imports more then ordinary danger 1. When it estranges us from God himselfe to the dislike either of his Service or Providence 2. When we are estranged in opinions and affections and thereby taken off from communion and duties of love one towards another Division amongst men hath its original in Division from God for if we could keep our hearts close to God by vertue of our union with him we should be the more compacted amongst our selves but when we begin a little to fall off from him we are the more easily and endlesly divided among our selves Object But will some say I hope we fall not off from God in these times we run not into idolatry and superstition we make not voide the Commandments of God by receiving the traditions of men however we are divided amongst our selves in some matters of opinion and about civill things yet we keep our first faith against Popery Answ But alas then our hearts are divided from God when we are not united unto him according to the tenor of the first and great Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with all thy minde and with all thy might When a man hath a spirit in him that doth really obey God in the substance of this Commandment then his heart indeed is close to God but if we be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God as it 's prophecyed of many in the later times if we love our selves more then him if we love our estates lives and credit or our relations more then him we make them our gods Suppose there be no grosse idolatrous principle we have no minde to worship the host of heaven nor to fall downe before any Image this is a base kinde of idolatry that we scorne wondring at the folly of men that lived in former generations for things of this kinde but the question which we must put to our selves is whether we be not of a worldly minde of that young mans temper who being required to sell all upon a promise to receive treasure in heaven he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions And did you never heare that covetousnesse is Idolatry It 's much to be feared in these times that many feare men more then God this is a certaine signe that our hearts are divided from God As also when we are exceeding solicitous in those things that concern our outward being here but leave all things appertaining to the glory of God to take care for themselves Secondly hearts are divided when they are at a distance one from another Ye know the second Commandment which is like unto the first Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe And now there is nothing but self love in us when as one man takes no care for another puts not himselfe into another mans stead but looks what power and authority he hath in his hands this I can do and this I will do and this I may do and this no body can or will trouble me in this shewes our hearts are divided one from another when we consider not the case and state one of another so indeed and really to do as we would be dealt withall when we break thus with God and thus with men this is Division Would you know how great a sin this is I beseech you consider of these two things First of all That when God would inflict a great spiritual judgment upon a people then he useth to make use of Division Secondly when God doth intend to bring a people unto destruction he prepares them for it by Division So as Division is both the cause of judgment the means to bring the judgment and the signe and forerunner of some greater judgment and it selfe no small judgment as no small sin In Psal 55. v. 9. you shall finde David praying in this manner against his enemies Destroy them O Lord and divide their tongues for I have seene violence and strife in the City Violence and strife are the sins which stirred up the zeale of David He knew that such sins exposed people to destruction and that Division was the meanes which God used to effect it by When God hath a minde to destroy he needs not think of any other course then giving way to mens tongues This he may most justly do to punish oppression for when men get power into their hands they use it not for the interest of the persons with whose good they are intrusted but for themselves this is a crying sin Holy men that are endowed with an extraordinary spirit of discerning sometimes by way of imprecation call for such a judgment as they foresee God purposes to inflict and then their prayers are not only prayers but prophecies and so it seems to be in the place forenamed When God had a mind to destroy those builders of Babel he confounded their language they could not understand one another and so by that meanes their enterprize had no other then a ridiculous issue In like manner when God intends destruction to a people he useth to prepare them for it by Division It 's worth our observing concerning the Jewes they were many yeers contending about government from their coming out of Babylon till their subduing by the Romans whether the Priests should govern them or some other till such time as they were reconciled by a desolation God destroyed their Temple and their City and by that means put an end to all their intestine quarrels about government But till such time as God had brought upon them that judgment they could not be quiet Division so farre prevailed amongst them that when their City was besieged by the Romans without they had no sooner gotten any little respite by beating back their assaults but they fell presently to fight as eagerly amongst themselves as if they had had no enemy neere them If we would know how likely a people are to be destroyed or how near they are to a mercy let us consider with our selves how farre forth they are divided or how farre forth they are in a way of reconciliation The more Division increaseth so much the nearer they are to ruine the nearer reconciliation so much the more hope of a mercy In Hosea 10. 2. the Lord observeth this Their heart is divided now shall they saith he be found faulty He shall break downe their Altars and spoile their Images and they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us The Originall of all misery is this their heart is divided or as the words may be read He hath divided their hearts God hath brought this heavie

fruit and consequent of it It exposeth a people unto a curse yea unto the greatest curse of all curses Two Observations here fall in by the way Observ 1 First of all that God principally eyes the hearts of men both concerning the good that is in them and concerning the evill that is in them If there be any good thing in the secrets of the soul the Lord takes notice of it On the other side if there be any wickednesse any abomination in the heart the Lord in a speciall manner fastens the eye of his observation upon that also Jeroboam was father of a wicked family a son of Belial himselfe and a man that hath this brand laid upon him to all posterity he was he that made Israel to sin he could not be content to take his owne liberty but he laboured to bring the people under his power to Idolatry He made Israel to sin partly by his example partly by his command and partly by his persecution by changing of their Religion he involves all into sin Well but now in the loynes of this wicked man there is one that God espies takes notice of that had some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel 1 King 14. 13. the Lord takes notice of this and it is not without record in Scripture The words of Peter to Ananias and Saphira his wife you know Whyhath Satan filled thy heart to lie to Act. 5. 3. the holy Ghost As if he should have said I do not so much take notice nor God takes not so much notice of your words or of your faire pretences here that you have as you say sold all and will lay all at the Apostles feet as beleevers do to be disposed of by them there is something else in your hearts God that was able to give a power to one man to discerne what was in another mans heart is much more able himselfe to espie it out Thou understandest my thought afarre off saith David Psal 139. 2. Look which way soever the inclinations of our spirits are working the Lord fully apprehends them all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do as it is in Hebr. 4. 13. I will not be long upon this for the proving of it It is a principle ingraffed in our minds even by nature that God is the knower or the searcher of our hearts and we take it for granted if we have any inward bent and working towards him he observes it and therefore we suppose that a mental prayer sufficeth to God and that we need not use a voyce for information if there were no other grounds for it in prayer but that it should be a means to bring somewhat to Gods knowledge that otherwise could not be it needed not God is the maker of the heart and God is the searcher of the heart But for the application of this Vse Howsoever Hypocrisie may be of some use and stead amongst men yet neverthelesse it can be of no use nor stead before God save onely to make us the more inexcusable and abominable in his sight It is prophecyed of Christ in Isa 11. 3. He shall not judge according to the seeing of his eyes nor reprove according to the hearing of his eares But with righteousnes he shall judge the poore and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth v. 4. And righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes and faithfulnesse the girdle of his reines v. 5. Such a person God hath delegated to be the judge in all causes and overall persons at the last day and such a Judge is he himselfe and therefore it is in vaine to pretend this or that either in matters wherein we have to do one with another or in things that do more immediately belong to the the Lord for God searcheth the hearts and he tryeth the reines and therefore farre be it from any of us to please our selves in being Hypocrites our first parents did vainly think to hide their nakednesse by a few fig-leaves all our pretences are no better in his sight before whom all things are naked and open Secondly God doth principally observe the heart let it be our maine care therefore to approve our hearts unto him It is the great comfort of those afflicted people of God we read of in Psal 44. 18. that were under very sore tryals That their heart was not turned back from him nor had their steps declined from his way What ever we may suffer from God notwithstanding all afflictions or temptations which we may be exercised with we must keep our hearts close to him in faith love feare and patience Thirdly God is a principal observer of the heart it will be our wisdome therefore to give our selves and our hearts up into his hands and not to trust them in our owne keeping let him have the ordering of them and let us not leane to our own understanding The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it But I the Lord search the heart I try the reines Jer. 7. v. 9 10. Therefore there is no trusting of our own hearts as they are in our custody though the duty of keeping the heart with all diligence be commended to us Proverbs 4. 23. The Devill labours to get possession of it and to fill it and we our selves are not able to withstand him especially in his wiles and methods And therefore as we commend our selves to Gods protection so let it be our care to give up our hearts unto his holy Spirit But I hasten to the second observation Observ 2 Division of heart is a sinne that doth exceedingly endanger a people Look how much Division there is in the hearts of men so much sin and by that sin they lye open to a curse This is an item most necessary for us to consider of in these distracting times we have long beene at enmity among our selves and yet there is no reconciliation amongst us not so much as external from the teeth outwards for in our words we know not how to expresse our selves as those that are indeed agreed but the Division of our hearts is much more However some men have so much wisdome or pollicy as to conceale their thoughts yet notwithstanding God takes notice of them and when mens hearts are sinfully divided he takes it for such a disposition as is not to be endured but avenged Objection But may some say happily there may be cause yea too much reason that some men should be of one minde and some of another and consequently when mens judgments differ that their affections do differ also is no wonder and why should it be counted matter of provocation to God or why shall we feare in this respect more now then formerly Answ To this brethren I answer Whatsoever the occasion be we should compose our selves and our spirits to principles of love they should have the