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	lord_n	soul_n	2,183	5	4.8425	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81220	A sermon pressing to, and directing in, that great duty of praising God. Preached to the Parliament at Westminster, Octob: 8. 1656. Being the day of their solemn thanksgiving to God for that late successe given to some part of the fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish fleet in its return from the West Indies. / By Joseph Caryl, minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1657 (1657)	Wing C788; Thomason E899_7; ESTC R206750	25,634	47

Fourthly Yet with this holy heat and freedome of spirit let your Praises this day have a temperament of holy fear and your rejoycings an allay of spirituall trembling We finde this directing corrective in the Psalm too For a little beyond the text at the 10 verse thus David concludes The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome a good understanding have all that doe his commandements his praise endureth for ever We must not be afraid to praise God but we must praise him with fear and they who have most true courage and holy boldnesse in praising God praise him with the greatest mixture of this gracious fear Moses put this ingredient into his Song of triumph for the overthrow of Pharoah and his Hoast in the red Sea Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holin●ss fearfull in praises Exod. 15. 11. Therefore Praise him with fear what fear with fear First Lest we should not have praised him as we ought or with this fear that we have not come up to that holinesse and spiritualnesse of the duty in which it ought to be performed We have no reason to think we have done this work so well as that all 's well but rather to fear that we have failed much in it When we are at highest in any duty we are below our duty how much more in this duty of praise which is our highest duty Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord who can shew forth all his praise Psal 106. 2. Had we as the Apostle speaks in another case ● Cor. 13. 1. the tongues of men and Angells yea the best hearts of both we could not shew forth all his Praise what then have we done with our stammering tongues and straitned hearts to the Praise of God Secondly Praise the Lord with this fear lest you should forget the benifits which you have praised him for Holy David Psal 103. 2. bespeaks his soule thus Blesse the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benifits that is forget none at all of them They that are afraid of forgetting the benifits of God are most likely to remember them Such fear will write the Praise of God upon your hearts and provoke you to Praise him with your lives Thirdly Praise the Lord with this fear that you neither are nor shall be able to answer his loving kindnesse nor returne to him according to the mercy now received The great things which God hath heretofore and now done for us will undoe us in the end unlesse we doe somewhat I say not equall but sutable to them Successe of affaires whether at home or abroad is a Talent yea there may be many talents in one successe And who knows not that hath read the Gospel how dangerous it is to wrap up our talent in a napkin If once God seeth that we are not bettered and strive not to doe better when he doth us good he will not onely not doe us good any more but doe us hurt yea destroy us as he told his ancient people by the mouth of Joshuah their leader and chiefe Magistrate Josh 24. 20. Therefore let this holy fear be strong and stirring upon your hearts lest you come short of the Praise of God both in the frame of your hearts and in your performance to him Be afraid that you shall neither have such strength of faith in God in future streights nor such faithfulnes to God in any of your enlargements as the experience of this day calls for Be afraid that ye shall never shew forth such a zeale for God as God hath shewed for you for as the Prophet tells us the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall so we may say the zeale of the Lord of hosts hath done this great thing for us and that zeale of God will yet doe greater if the work of God cool not upon our hands Fear lest ye should not know what this mercy calls you to doe and be more afraid lest you should not doe what you know As the correcting rod so the supporting staffe of God hath a voyce in it They are wise indeed who hearing understand that voyce and understanding it do thereafter Whatever your hand finds to doe for the name of God and for the prosperity of these Nations doe it with all your might There 's much to be done for the promoting of justice and righteousnesse in the Nation That our Judges may every where be as at the first and our Counsellours as at the beginning And that there may be no more pricking bryar nor grieving thorn among our selves as Israel was promised in reference to those about them Ezek. 28. 24 There 's much also to be done for the promoting of truth and holinesse which in consort with justice and righteousnesse are at once the beauty and stability the honour and the safety of Nations Let both evill deeds and damnable doctrines be witnessed against let no errour find encouragement let no faith-devouring and conscience-wasting errour appear with open face in our borders without a rebuke from Magistraticall power God hath been tender of the honour of the Nation abroad let not the honour of God suffer or be ecclipsed at home through any defect in the exercise of that great power wherewith you are entrusted That fear of the Lord with which I have been pressing you to Praise the Lord will surely guide you in all your counsels to the doing and accomplishing of all these things For so saith this Psalmist v. 10 The sear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome The word which we render beginning signifies also the head or top the perfection and highest pinnacle of wisdome Indeed the holy fear of the Lord is the beginning and ending the first and last the Alpha and Omega of all true wisdome and therefore the Psalmist adds in the close of the same verse A good understanding have all they that doe his commandement● Understanding and doing are two things yet they onely understand the commandements of God who doe his commandements and they onely doe his commandements who fear him Solomon puts both these together and makes them the sum of all the duty of man and therefore surely the sum of all the wisdome of man Eccles 12. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his commandements for this is the whole duty of man or this is the whole of man As if that Preacher-royall had said You have heard me long and I have spoken many words I will now ease your labour in hearing and mine in speaking when you have heard and I have spoken but two words more Fear God and keep his commandements To fear God is to honour him in our hearts To keep the commandements of God is to honour him in our lives And is not this whole man A man without this though in honour understandeth not but is like the beast that perisheth A man in highest honour and of greatest understanding can not goe beyond this Therefore This is all man in the best of men To this end as every man was made so every man lives who knows why he was made and why he lives And hence to return to my text David had no sooner said The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they they that doe his commandements but presently he concludes His praise endureth for ever There is a twofold reference of these words First to God whose Praises David had been inditing and singing all the Psalm over His praise eminently endureth for ever Secondly to that man who praiseth God kowingly and with his whole heart who praiseth God boldly and with holy fear this man hath a good understanding and his praise endureth for ever Right Honourable You have now kept a day of Praise to God If you shall approve your selves to God and to his people to have kept it according to the counsell and example of his Kingly Prophet there will be more then a day of praise for you your Praise will endure for ever the children who are yet unborn will praise you and praise God for you And consider how sad your account will be if you who have now kept a day of Praise should give the Nation any just and r●all occasion to dispraise and speak evill of you hereafter if your name and honour should receive a blot or blemish by any thing that you do or advise to be done after you have thus beautified the name of God with these solemn Praises While your hand is upon the helm of government let your eye be to heaven for guidance both as to the way and issue of your counsells that you may have praise in the gate praise in the City and praise in the country that you may have nothing but praise in the hearts and by the tongues of all those whose praises are worth the having or that if you miss praise at present from men you may have that praise of God at last which will indeed endure for ever Well done good and faithfull servants FINIS

A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that Great Duty of Praising God Preached to the PARLIAMENT At Westminster Octob 8. 1656. BEING The day of their Solemn Thanksgiving to God for that late Successe given to some part of the Fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish Fleet in its return from the West Indies By JOSEPH CARYL Minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge LONDON Printed by M. Simmons and are to be sould by John Hancock at the first Shop in Popes-head-Alley next to Cornhill 1657. Thursday Octob 9. 1656. ORdered That the thanks of this House be given to Mr. Caryll for his great pains taken yesterday in his Sermon preached before this House in Margarets Westminster being a day set apart for publick Thanksgiving and that he be desired to Print his Sermon and that he have the like priviledge of Printing as hath been allowed to others in like Cases And that the Lord Broghill be desired to give him the thanks of this house accordingly Hen Scobell Clerk of the Parliament TO THE PARLIAMENT OF England Scotland Ireland AND The Dominions thereunto belonging THese are times of Action as well as of Consulation and this hath been your happinesse that while you have been consulting how to settle and assure as an earthly felicity may be called sure peace and Government at home God hath prospered those with a very signall successe who are acting in a war abroad And though successe be no infallible argument of a good cause yet a good cause receives a very comfortable encouragement by successe And as a neglect to goe on in doing good is not excusable even while we find that the good we are doing doth not goe on So when it doth our neglect is altogether inexcusable When God seems to stand still or as the Scripture sometimes saith to be a sleep 't is our duty to awake and work how much more when he appears eminently awake and at work for us 'T is not good to out-run providence and 't is as bad to loyter and lagge behind it The Arme of the Lord as the Prophet long since prayd hard it might Isa 51. 9. hath lately awakened for us The occasion of this Sermon is his witnesse it hath awakened and put on strength as in the ancient dayes in the generations of old it hath cut Rahab and wonded the Dragon in the Sea It hath broken some of the heads of Leviathan in peices and given him to be meat to his people inhabiting the wildernesse Psal 74. 14. And is not all this bottome enough for me to cry Awake Awake O arme of man O arme of the Parliament put on strength and be cloathed with a holy care courage for God and for his people though as yet but in a wildernes condition wherein we are much entangled with bryars and thornes and sometimes engaged in unbeaten paths many thousands will bear this witnesse with me that it is And my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is That your Counsels both in reference to this particular mercy for which you have so solemnly given thanks to God as also in reference to all those important affairs of these Nations that are in your hands may bear this witnesse also Else I must take the boldnes with much submission to say That your own Thanksgivings will give witnesse against you 'T is an act of high favour from God to bestow a mercy and 't is an act of much grace and faithfulnesse in man to improve it 'T is easier perishing for want of help from God then for want of a heart for God 'T is better to be in such streights that we know not what to doe then to make such little use of our enlargements as not to doe what we know And what an Obligation is there upon these three Nations and upon your Selves especially who are the representative of them to be more then active even very zealous for the publick good seing we daily find Sons of Beliall rising up who are active to the utmost against it T is honorable to imitate their industry whose undertakings we abhor and that their zeal in a bad matter should provoke ours in a good As therefore the Nations have reason to pay you many thanks for your unwearied labours and the issues of them to this day So the Lord give you to encrease more and more A good man may be weary in well doing but he shall never be weary of it And it should mightyly uphold our spirits not to be as the Apostle admonisheth the Galatians Chap 6. 9. weary in well doing because as it follows there we shall reap if we faint not That you may sow without fainting and reap with rejoycing is the vote of SIRS Your most humble Servant in this work of the Lord JOSEPH CARYL A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that great Duty OF Praising GOD. PSALM 111. 1 2 3 4 5. Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious and his righteousnesse endureth for ever He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindfull of his Covenant THIS Psalm is King Davids order for a day of Thanksgiving In which we may consider four things First the matter of the duty Secondly the encouragement to the duty Thirdly the manner and qualifications of the duty Fourthly the grounds of the duty The matter of the duty is laid down in the first words of the first verse Hallelujah praise ye the Lord. And lest any should think that their chiefe Magistrate invited them to a duty which he had no mind to himselfe he adds Secondly his own leading example in the next words for their encouragement I will praise the Lord. As if he had said I will not call you to this duty and withdraw from it my selfe my purpose is to bear a part and joyn with you in it 'T is a beautifull and blessed thing to see those who give the rule to be the example of it Praise ye the Lord saith David to the people I will praise the Lord. As he gives both the rule and the example of the duty so Thirdly the manner of it in a twofold qualification and that also from his own example in the same verse First He would praise the Lord not formally not because it was a custome to doe so when fresh mercies came in But because he loved to doe so for saith he I will praise the Lord with my whole heart that is I will praise him heartily and most affectionately There 's the first poynt in the manner Secondly he tells us that he would doe it very openly he would not be ashamed to praise God he would not doe it

God Now when such a mercy comes in as hath been thus specially prayed for and of which we may say when we receive it as Hanna said to Eli about her son Samuel for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him 1 Sam. 1. 27. So for this successe I praid for this mercy I fasted and mourned I wept and made supplication before the Lord and he hath given me my petition which I asked of him when a mercy hath been thus gained by prayer it ought and will be worne and enjoyed with praise and thankfulnesse Every answer or returne of prayer calls for a return of praises much more when it is an answer to many prayers to much prayer Then if ever praise waits for God in Zion Psal 76. 3. when in Zion that is in answer to the supplications made in Zion the Lord break●th the arrows of the bow the sheild the sword and the battel I grant those mercies which have stood us in little pains in few prayers which have come in for little asking yea without asking oblidge us to praise God most because of his readinesse to hear and speedinesse in granting when God answers before we call how great a call have we to praise him after such an answer yet those mercies which have been most costly to us as to the duty of prayer are most sensibly constrayning upon us as to the duty of praise And although when through the free grace of God we find our prayers even prevented by our mercies the heart cannot but be stirred up mightily to the duty of praise yet when through our own sloath we have neglected to fetch in our mercies by prayer we usually find our hearts little pressed unto praise Fourthly Because when we pray much and wait long for eminent mercies we always implicitely and sometimes explicitely vow praises to the Lord and so bind our selves by vow to praise him And hence we find often in Scripture that praising God is expressed by paying vows to God Psal 50. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vowes unto the most high that is offer that thanksgiving unto God which thou hastvowed to pay unto him And as we have it in that Psalm laid down in a proposition so in another Psalm we have it laid down in practice I will offer to th●e the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will 〈◊〉 upon the name of the Lord I will pay my vowes unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Psal 116. 17 18. Our praises are debts and Solomon tells us it is very dangerous being in this debt When thou v●west a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Eccl. 5. 4. Owe no man any thing but to love one another saith the Apostle Rom. 13. 8. that is Owe no man any thing to his prejudice or in his wrong And though we can never come out of Gods debt and therefore must be alwayes paying yet when he finds us to our utmost paying he looks upon us as if w● owed him nothing Mercy received brings us in debt and praise returned brings us in Gods account out of debt The Lord through mercy takes praise as payment for his mercies We have reason to be very carefull in making this payment not onely because we owe so much but because we can pay no more So then if speciall mercies have the clearest manifestations of God in them if we have an urgent necessity to receive them if God hath been more sought that we might obtaine them if the vowes of God are upon us to praise him when ever they should be obtained who can be unconvinced That speciall praises are due and to be paid for speciall received mercies And if so Then consider First How sinfull it is to with hold and imprison the praises of God in a day of eminent and speciall mercy There are two things which we should take heed we doe not imprison First the Truths of God Secondly the Praises of God And I may freely say It is as dangerous to imprison the Praises of God as it is to imprison the Truths of God To imprison or hold the Praises of God in unthankfulnesse as it is to imprison or hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse There are many that hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse O take heed take heed that no such prisoners be found among you For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those that doe so Rom. 1. 18. Now as it is dangerous to imprison the truths of God so it is as dangerous to imprison the mercies and the praises of God To hold them in unthankfulnesse hath not onely this danger in it that God will give us no more mercies seing we use those he hath given us so hardly and unworthily but it hath this danger in it also that it may provoke the Lord to poure out wrath upon us Eliphaz chargeth Job with imprisoning prayer Thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer before God Chap. 15. 4. That 's a sad frame of heart if when the spirit moves and urgeth to pray and there are workings of conscience which provoke to prayer even a naturall conscience may doe it then to restrain prayer notes a very ill habit of the soul for such give witnesse against themselves that they have cast off the fear of the Lord. Now as to restrain prayer so to restrain praise is an argument that men have cast off the fear of the Lord. And when once t is so with man his heart is at worst and his sin at full Therefore the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3. 2 gives this as one of the blackest caracters of those perilous times of which he there prophecyeth Men shall be lovers of their own selves c. unthankefull unholy without naturall affection They who have no spirituall affections to performe duty to God are often punished with a want of naturall affection towards one another We have cause to fear that this Prophecy is fulfilled upon this Generation that for unthankfulnesse many are given up not onely to unholinesse towards God but unnaturalnesse towards men O how are the mercies of God swallowed up in unthankfulnesse yea not onely swallowed up in unthankfulnesse but murthered in our murmurings and discontents to what a height then is the sinfulnesse of this age like to encrease seing they who with hold from God the glory of his mercies are in a readinesse to with hold obedience to his commands yea in that they with hold obedience to his greatest and most comprehensive commands How can it be but the unthankfull must needs be unholy seing unthankfulness is the sum of all unholiness A heathen could say Call a man unthankfull and you have called him all that 's bad or nought or as we speak you have Call'd him all to nought Let the unthankfull remember That the inanimate creatures will rise up