Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	act_n	grace_n	spirit_n	2,584	5	5.0422	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12187	A miracle of miracles or Christ in our nature Wherein is contained the vvonderfull conception, birth, and life of Christ, who in the fulnesse of time became man to satisfie divine iustice, and to make reconciliation betweene God and man. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, by that godly and faithfull minister of Iesus Christ, Richard Sibbes. D.D.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22499; ESTC S117264	26,445	58

many moneths borne as we are borne brought into the light as we are Away therefore with idle monkish devices and fond conceipts that affirme the contrary He was like to us in all things sinne excepted conceived brought forth hung upon the brest as we an infant as we hungry and thirsty and suffered as we And as he was in all things like to us so in every thing that was in him there was something extraordinary as hee was a man like to us so hee was an extraordinary man Hee was conceived but of a virgin which is extraordinary hee was borne as we are but there his starre appeared and the wise men came to adore and worship him He was poore as wee are but there were beames of his Godhead appeared when hee was poore he could command a fish to furnish him hee dyed as we dye but he made the earth to quake the vaile of the temple to rend when hee tryumphed on the crosse All which declared hee was more then an ordinary person And so wee must all conceive Christ and beare Christ in our words and actions it must appeare that Christ liveth in us It must appeare outwardly to man what we are inwardly to God Our whole outward life must bee nothing but a discovery of Christ living in us I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith Saint Paul which should appeare by word conversation and action Our lives should bee nothing but an acting of Christ living in our soules This is not a meere analogicall truth but it floweth naturally whosoever are to have the benefit of his birth and conception Christ sendeth into their heart the same spirit that sanctified the masse whereof hee was made and so frameth a disposition suitable to himselfe he sets his owne stampe upon the heart as the vnion of his humane nature to the divine was the cause of all other graces of his humane nature so the spirit of God uniting us to Christ is the cause of all grace in us If we have not the spirit of Christ wee are none of his And shalt call his name Emanuel Many things might bee observed concerning the ordinary reading of the words Some read shee shall call his name Emanuel because hee had no father Others his name shall be called Emanuel but they be doubtfull therefore I leave them But Iesus was his name Therefore how is it said he shall be called Emanuel The meaning is he shall be Emanuel and shall bee accounted and believed to bee so he shall be God with us indeed and shall shew himselfe to be so For in the Hebrew phrase the meaning of a thing imports the being of the thing The like phrase is in Isaiah 9.6 To us a childe is borne to us a sonne is given and his name shall be called wonderfull Counsellour the Everlasting father the Prince of peace That is hee shall bee believed to bee so and shall shew himselfe to bee so and shall bee so indeed The like you have because it is an answer to the cavill of the Iewes which object he was not called Emanuell Iudah shall bee saved Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousnesse For indeed he is Iehovah our righteousnesse and we have no righteousnesse to stand before God with but his divers other places of Scripture there be of the same nature but these two are pregnant and therefore I name them for all the rest Besides the conception and birth of Christ you have here likewise the divine nature of Christ and the offices of Christ for Emanuell is a name both of nature and office It is a name of his nature God and man and of his office which is to reconcile God and man we could not be with God but God must first be Man with us We were once with God in Adam before hee fell but there being a breach made we cannot be recovered againe till God be with us he must take our natures that he may reconcile our persons Now Christ is Emanuell first in regard of nature God with us or God in our nature The pure nature of God and the base nature of man that were strangers ever since the fall are knit together in Christ. What can be in a greater degree of strangenesse except the devils then mens unholinesse and Gods pure nature Yet the nature of man and of God being so severed before are met together in one Christ. So that in this one word Emanuell there is heaven and earth God and man infinite and finite therefore we may well prefix Behold A true Saviour of the world must bee God with man Whether wee consider the greatnesse of the good we are to have by a Saviour or the greatnesse of the evil we are to be freed from by a Saviour both which doe inforce that he must be Emanuell God with us First the greatnesse of the good which we are to have for he is to bee God and man together to satisfie the wrath of God to undergoe a punishment due to sinne as our surety hee must give us title to heaven and bring us thither and who can doe this but God Besides Secondly hee must know our hearts our wants our griefes our infirmities hee must bee every where to relieve us And who can doe this but God So Thirdly in regard of evil which we are to be freed from He is to defend us in the middest of the enemies and who is above the devill and sinne and the wrath of God and all the oppositions that stand betweene us and heaven but God So in regard of the good in regard of the evill and in regard of the preservation to an Eternall good estate and freedome from eternall evill he must be Emanuell God with us These grand principles are enough to satisfie in this point And Secondly as he must be God so there was a necessity of his being Man Man had sinned and man must suffer for sin and without bloud there was no remission and then that he might be a mercifull and pittifull Saviour he must take that nature on him that he meaneth to save there must be a sutablenesse and sympathy Sutablenesse that the head and the members The sanctified and the Sanctifier may bee both of one nature And a Sumpathy that he might be touched with humane infirmities Thirdly this God and man must bee one person For if there were two persons God one distinct person and man another then there were two Christs and so the actions of the one could not bee attributed to the other As man dyed and shed his bloud it could not have beene said that God dyed But because there was but one person God is truely said to dye though hee dyed in mans nature for hee tooke mans nature into unity with his person and whatsoever either nature did the whole person is said to doe and therefore Christ is

A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES OR Christ in our nature Wherein is contained The Wonderfull Conception Birth and Life of Christ who in the fulnesse of time became man to satisfie divine Iustice and to make reconciliation betweene God and man Preached To the honourable Society of Grayes Inne by that godly and faithfull minister of Iesus Christ Richard Sibbes D.D. Phil. 2.5 Hee made himselfe of no reputation and tooke upon him the forme of a servant and was made in the likenesse of men LONDON Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church yard 1638. THE FIRST SERMON Isaiah 7.14 The Lord himselfe shall give a signe Behold a virgin shall conceive and bare a Sonne and shall call his name Imanuell THe Jewes at this time were in a distressed condition by reason of the siege of two kings Resin and Pekah the one the king of Syria the other the king of Israel Whereupon the Prophet labours to comfort them and tels them that these two kings were but as two fire-brands that should waste and consume themselves and then goe out For confirmation thereof because he saw the heart both of King and people astonished He biddeth them aske a signe of things in heaven or earth No saith king Ahaz I will not tempt God and making Religion his pretence against Religion being a most willfull and wicked man would not For He had framed an altar according to the altar which he had seen at Damascus neglecting Gods Altar at Jerusalem as too plaine and homely Man unsubdued by the spirit of God admires the devices of men and the fabricke of his owne braine And though this king was so fearefull that his heart and the rest of their hearts were as the leaves in the forrest shaking and trembling and quaking at the presence of their enemies and though hee was surprized with feare and horrour seeing God his enemy and himselfe Gods enemy and that God intended him no good yet hee would goe on in his owne superstitious course having some secret confidence in league and affinity with other Kings that were superstitious like himselfe This by the way We may learne by this wretched King That those that are least fearefull before danger are most basely fearefull in danger Hee that was so confident and willfull out of danger in danger his heart was as the leaves of the forrest For a wicked man in danger hath no hope from God and therefore is uncapeable of any entercourse with him Hee will trust the devill and his instruments led with a superstitious spirit rather then God As this King had more confidence in the King of Syria that was his enemy and so shewed himselfe after then in God It is the nature of flesh and bloud being not sanctified by God to trust in this meanes and that meanes this carnall help and that carnall helpe a reed of Egypt yea the devill and lies rather then to God himselfe The Prophet in an holy indignation for the refusing of a signe to confirme his faith that these Kings should not doe the Church harme breaketh forth thus Know O house of David is it a smal thing for you to weary men but will you weary my God also God offers you a signe out of his love and you dislike and contemne his blessed bounty Therefore the Lord himselfe shall give you a signe What is that A virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne and shall call his name Emanuell From the inference wee may see the conflict betweene the Infinite goodnesse of God and the inflexible stubbornnesse of Man Gods goodnesse striving with mans badnesse when they would have no signe yet God will give them a signe his goodnesse overcommeth and outwrastleth in the contention mans sinfull strivings his mercie prevailes against mans malice To come to the text it selfe Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne and they shall call his name Emanuell It was not so much a signe for the present as a promise of a miraculous benefit which was to bee presented almost eight hundred yeares after the prophet spake these words Even the incarnation of Christ a miracle of miracles a benefit of benefits and the cause of all benefits He fetcheth comfort against the present distresse from a benefit to come And to shew how this can be a ground of comfort at this time of distresse That a virgin shall conceive We must know That Christ was the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world All the godly of the Iewes knew it well enough the Messias being all their comfort they knew that he was yesterday and to day and shall be the same for ever The church had in all times comfort from Christ. Profuit antequam fuit Hee did good before he was exhibited in the world And thus the Prophet applyes the comfort to the house of David a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne And they shall call his name Emanuell Who shall be of the family of David And therefore the house of David shall not be extinct and dissolved The reason is strong you of the house of David are in feare that your Kingdome and nation shall be destroyed but know that the Messias must come of a virgin and of the house of David And considering this must certainely come to passe Why doe ye feare ye house of David Againe it hath force of a reason thus The promise of our Messias is the grand promise of all and the cause of all promises for all promises made to the church are either promises of Christ himselfe or promises in him and for his sake because hee takes all promises from God and conveyeth them and maketh them good to us God maketh them and performeth them in Christ and for Christ. Now the reason stands thus if God will give a Messias that shall bee the sonne of a virgin and Emanuell certainely hee will give you deliverance Hee that will doe the greater will doe the lesse what is the deliverance you desire to the promised deliverance from hell and damnation and to the benefit by the Messias which you professe to hope for and believe The Apostle himselfe Rom. 2.8 reasons thus God that spared not his owne Sonne but gave him to death for us all how shall not hee with him give us all things If God will give Christ to bee Emanuell and incarnate he will not stand upon any other inferiour promises or mercies whatsoever But you will say this promise was to come and how could this confirme their faith for the present that they should not bee destroyed I answer in regard of his taking our nature hee was to come yet Christ was alwayes with his Church before They understood him in the Manna he was the Angel of the covenant They that were spiritually wise amongst the Iewes understood that he was the Rocke that went before them And againe it is usuall in Scripture to give

signes from things to come as 37. Isaiah The next yeare thou shalt eate that which groweth of it selfe c. because where faith is it maketh things to come all one as if they were present And so wee should make this use of the Grand promises of Christ to comfort us against all petty matters and wants whatsoever And to reason with the holy Apostle God spared not his only begotten sonne but gave him to death He hath given Christ and will he not give all things needfull Hath he given the greater and will he stand with thee for the lesse This is a blessed kinde of reasoning And so to reason from other Grand things promised God shall raise my body out of the dust and the grave and cannot he raise my body out of sicknesse and my state out of trouble cannot hee raise the Church out of misery So saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 1. God that raised Christ restored me againe that had received the sentence of death when we receive sentence of death in our persons looke to him that raised Christ from the dead and to the grand promises to come They before Christ comforted themselves in times of all distresse by the grand promise of Christ to come But now the Messias is come And which may much more strengthen our faith he hath suffered and given his body to death for us and therefore why doubt we of Gods good will in any petty matters whatsoever To come to the words more particularly Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne c. You have divers articles of our faith in these few words As Christs conception by the holy Ghost his being borne of the virgin Mary c. you have here the humane nature of Christ. A virgin shall conceive and bare a sonne And the divine nature of Christ his name shall bee called Emanuell which signifieth also his office God with us by nature and God with us by office to set God and us at one So you have diverse points of divinity couched in the words which I will onely open sutable to the occasion Behold This is the usuall Becon set up the usuall Harbinger to require our attendance in all matters concerning Christ. And it hath a threefold force here Behold as being a thing presented to the eye of faith He mounteth over all the interim betweene the promise and the accomplishment for faith knoweth no difference of times And then it is to raise attention behold it is a matter of great concernement And not onely attention but likewise admiration behold a strange and admirable thing For what stranger thing is there then that a virgin should conceive that a virgin should be a mother and that God should become man We had need of strong grace to apprehend these strange things And therefore God hath provided a grace suitable above reason and above nature and that is faith Reason mocketh at this The devill knoweth it and envyeth it The Angels know and wonder at it The soule it selfe without a grace sutable to the admirablenesse of the thing can never apprehend it And therefore well may it be said Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare and why a virgin When God is to be borne it is fit for a virgin to bee the mother Christ was not to come by the ordinary way of propagation he was to come from Adam but not by Adam for he was to be sanctified by the holy Ghost Because he was indeed to be a Saviour and a Sacrifice and hee must be without spot or sinne himselfe that was to offer himselfe for the sinnes of others Therefore the foundation and ground of his nature must bee pure and cleane and that is the foundation of all the purity of his life and conversation and therefore a virgin This was typified in Aarous rod which budded though it had no root No Iuice could come from a dry sticke yet by an Almighty power the rod did bud And so Moses bush It burnt and did not consume And that God that caused those things caused a virgin to be a mother He enters into the wombe of a virgin without any defilement at all considering the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son did purge and purifie and sanctifie that masse whereof the blessed body of our Saviour was made The virgin afforded the matter but the wise Framer was the holy Ghost She was passive the holy Ghost was the Agent Now when did the virgin conceive when upon the Angels comming to her and telling her That she was greatly beloved and that shee should conceive she assented be it so as the Lord hath spoken When shee assented to the word presently Christ was conceived her faith and her wombe conceived together When her heart did conceive the truth of the promise and yeelded assent thereunto her womb conceived at the same time also From hence learne something for our selves It had beene to little purpose though a virgin conceived Christ unlesse Christ had beene conceived likewise in her heart And there is no benefit by virtue of this conception to others but to such as conceive Christ in their hearts also To which end our hearts must bee in some measure made virgin hearts pure hearts hearts fit to receive Christ. We must assent to promises of pardon and of life everlasting bee it as the Lord saith A Christian is a Christian and Christ liveth in his heart at the time of the assenting to the promise So that if you aske when doth Christ first live in a Christians heart I answer then when the heart yeeldeth a firme assent to the gracious promises made in Christ for the pardoning of sinnes and acceptation to the favour of God and title and interest to life everlasting For faith is the birth of the heart Christ was conceived in the wombe of an humble and believing virgin So that heart that will conceive Christ aright must bee a humble and believing heart humble to deny himselfe in all things And believing to goe out of it selfe to the promises of God in Christ. When God by his spirit hath brought our hearts to be humble and believing to goe out of themselves and believe in him rest upon him and his promises then Christ is conceived in our hearts Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Here is the birth of Christ as well as the conception Christ must not onely be conceived in the wombe but also brought forth because God must be manifested in the flesh As Saint Paul saith Great is the mystery of Godlinesse God manifested in the flesh If hee had onely beene conceived and not brought forth he had not beene manifested hee was to doe all things that befitted a Mediatour And therefore hee went along with us in all the passages of our lives Hee was conceived as we are remayned in the wombe so

a Saviour according to both natures as God and as Man for he was to suffer and hee was to overcome and satisfie in suffering he was not onely to heare our prayers but to answer them Both natures had an ingredience into all the worke of mediation God dyed and God suffered and supported the manhood that it might uphold the burden of the wrath of God that it might not sinke under it And so in all his actions there was concurrence of divinity and humanity The meaner workes being done by the Manhood the greater workes by the Godhead so making one Emanuel God with us For God must bring us to heaven by a way sutable to his holinesse and therefore by way of satisfaction and that cannot be but by God equall with himselfe And that is the reason why the Apostle joynes together without Christ without God That is they that know not Christ God-man to reconcile God and man have nothing to doe with God For the pure nature of God what hath it to doe with the unpure nature of man without Emanuel without him that is God man to make satisfaction But now that Christ hath taken our nature it is become pure in him and beloved of God in him And God in him is become lovely because hee is in our nature yea in Christ God is become a father I goe to my father and your father his nature is sweet to us in Christ our nature is sweet to him in Christ God loveth not our nature but first in him in whom it is pure And then he loveth our nature in us because by the spirit of Christ hee will make our natures like to Christs and therefore wee may conceive of God as Emanuell God well pleased with us and we well pleased with him Out of Christ wee are angry with God and hee angry with us Wee could wish there were no God and choose rather to submit to the devill to bee led by his spirit to all prophanenesse and licentiousnesse Wee have a rising against God and his Image and what ever comes from God the proud unmortified heart of man swelleth against it But when the heart once believeth that Christ Emanuell God with us hath satisfied Gods justice now God is taken by the believing heart to bee a father reconciled in Iesus Christ. And we are taught to bee his sonnes And our nature is more and more purified and cleansed and made like the pure nature of Christ and so by little and little the termes betweene God and us are more sweet till we get to heaven where our nature shal be absolutely perfect and purged by the holy spirit So that he is Emanuell God with us to make God and us friends which is two waies First by satisfaction taking away the wrath of God And then secondly by the spirit for God sendeth his Spirit into our harts to fit us for frindship cōmunion with him when we have something of God in us From hence many things may bee spoken partly for instruction and comfort I will name a few First of all it is to be wondred at and wee cannot wonder enough though we were Angels and had natures larger then they are at the marvellous mercies and love of God that would stoope so low as that God in the second person should take our nature and become one with us It is marvellous love that he would be one with us by such a meanes as his owne sonne to make peace betweene him and us It is a marvellous condescending and stooping in the sonne to take our nature when there bee better creatures above us that hee would let passe all above us and take our nature that is dust into unity of his person that earth flesh and bloud should bee taken into one person with the Godhead it is wonderfull and marvellous He tooke not the nature of Angels so that wee bee above Angels by the incarnation of Christ. Because hee tooke not the Angels nature they are not the spouse of Christ but every believing Christian is the spouse of Christ he is marryed to Christ he is the head wee the members he is the husband wee the spouse and therefore wee may stand in admiration of the Love of God in taking our natures on him It requires hearts wounded by the spirit of God to thinke of and admire these things answerable to their natures The Angels when Christ was borne could not containe but breake out Glory to God on high on earth peace good will towards men because there was then peace peace betweene God and us and by consequence with all the creatures which doe but take part with God and revenge his quarrell These things be matters of admiration and we shall spend eternity in admiration thereof in another world though here our narrow hearts can hardly conceive it But what wee cannot believe by understanding as things above nature let us labour to understand them by believing desire God wee may believe them and then we shall understand them to our comfort Emanuel God with us If God bee with us in our nature then hee is with us in his love And if God be with us who shall be against us For this Emanuel hath taken our nature for ever hee hath taken it into heaven with him God and wee shall bee for ever in good termes because God in our nature is for ever in heaven as an Intercessour appearing for us There is no feare of a breach now for our brother is in heaven our Husband is in heaven to preserve an everlasting union and amitie betweene God and us Now wee may insult in an holy maner over all oppositions whatsoever For if God be with us in our nature and by consequence in favour who shall bee against us and therefore with the Apostle let us triumph Rom. 8. Let us make use of this Emanuel in all troubles whatsoever whether of the Church or of our owne persons In troubles of the Church the Church hath enemies hell and the world and Satans factors but wee have one Emanuel God with us and therefore wee need not feare you know whose ensigne it is whose Motto Deus nobiscum is better than Sancta Maria Sancta Maria will downe when Deus nobiscum shall stand I beseech you therefore let us comfort our selves in regard of the Church as the Prophet in the next chapt vers 7. comforts the Church in distresse He shall passe through Iudah he shall over-flow and go over he shall reach even to the necke and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the bredth of thy land O Emanuel It may seeme a kinde of complaint The enemy stretcheth out their wings over thy land O Emanuel which may teach us in the person of the Church to goe to Emanuel Remember the enemies of thy Church spread their wings over thy land and people O Emanuel thou seest the malice of the enemy