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	soul_n	spirit_n	2,370	5	4.9507	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76380	Christ above all exalted, as in justification so in sanctification. Wherein severall passages in Dr. Crisps sermons are answered. / Delivered in a sermon at Rye, in the county of Sussex: by John Benbrigge minister of Gods Word at Ashburnham, in the same county:.	Benbrigge, John.	1645 (1645)	Wing B1865; Thomason E300_7; ESTC R200254	39,729	48

by the meanes of some common hear-say N●tions of Christ in thesa knowing times yea a soule may so strongly desire Christ as to be willing to part with very much for him and yet not truly desire Christ because he may all this while seek Christ not out of a love to Christ so much as to himselfe A Merchant that heares there is such a rich Commodity such a precious Jewell to be had whereby he may greatly get will part with much of his gold and silver for it yet cannot he be said to love that Commodity and Jewell so much as himselfe because he seeks it onely for his owne gaine and profit by it Mat. 13.45 46. So a man that heares of that precious Pearle of great price Christ Jesus and that there is much to be gotten by him no lesse then salvation which is a sure enjoyment of all good and a freedome from all evill may be willing to bid pretty faire for Christ and lay downe much for him and yet not truly love Christ for Christ's owne sake he desires but to serve himselfe of Christ and not that Christ should be served by him Self-love will perswade men to prize Christ highly for Justification to get happinesse by Christ but onely saving grace teaches a soule to stt up Christ also above all for Saictification to get holinesse whereby he may serve Christ that hath saved him The more cleerly to prove this truth and to help your memories to carry the proofe thereof away with you we will take it asund●r into two parts and shew you 1. Why saving grace teacheth a poor soule to prize the Lord Jesus above all things 2. Why saving grace makes the heart to esteem Christ above not onely in Justification but also in Sanctification For the first there are three Reasons Reas 1 The first ariseth from the Operations of the holy Spirit which worketh saving grace in the heart of any man the Operations of the Spirit in this way is two-fold whence the Spirit hath in Scripture a double Epithite and is called a Spirit of Bondage and a Spirit of Adoption these names of Bondage and Adoption imply not a double Spirit but a double and severall Act of the same holy Spirit which is wrought in every soule when it is savingly wrought upon Rom. 8.15 for then 1. The holy Spirit doth discover to the soule its forlorne condition in regard of sinne and the punishment therefore it makes him sensible of the spirituall bondage under sinue and satan it makes him see and feele how he lyes bound and fettered hand and foot with the Cart-ropes of his iniquities and withall the Spirit set before them the terrible countenance of an angry God and so fils the soule with stinging and deep piercing feares that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will plague it according to its deserts both in the world and that to come thus were Peters Auditors pricked to the heart and as men afrighted with the strange and fearfull sight of their sinne and God's wrath they cried out Men and brethren what shall we doe Acts 2.37 which outcry of such soules is the greater because this Spirit shews them withall the helplesnesse that is in themselves and the creature to remedy their present misery it makes them know the vanity and insufficiency of all that is in them or can come from them to work their deliverance It blasteth all their hopes from their owne righteousnesse which before smelt as sweet as a Rose in their Nostrils but now savours worse to them then the noysome dunghill In briefe the Spirit certifies them that all they have done or whatever they can doe with the help of all the Creatures cannot give them one lift out of their sad condition but here the good Spirit of God leaves not his children for then they would fall into that Gulfe of despaire whereinto Came Judas and such like have fallen to their utter ruine 2. The holy Spirit therefore having wounded the soule so deep as he pleaseth for all are not broken in a like measure he begins the cure thereof by setting Christ before the soule and laying open to it that fulnesse of supplies which is in him that he can yea onely can help that there is no Saviour but he and withall lets him see that there is some hope of his having Christ yea that God hath given him the rich and full Christ that by beleeving in him he might have everlasting life and hereupon the soule begins to long after Christ all the affections of it runne after Christ prizing and seeking Christ above all now doth the soule cry Oh give me Christ and take all like as a man ready to be drowned would give all the world if he had it to save his life and to find some safe footing so a soule that is enlightned with the eye-salve of the holy Spirit to see its sinking condition with a glimpse of hope of getting Christ will gladly part with all it hath for this Pearl of great price any vertue Reas 2 A second Reason why that soule that hath saving grace doth prize Christ above all is drawne from the contrarieties that is between grace and sin these two are no better friends then fire and water light and darknesse hell and heaven yea then God and the Devill and their manner of working is as contrary and crosse to each other they walke opposite to one another undoing if they can the worke the other hath done Sinne works the heart when it beares the sway there to preferre all things yea every thing before Christ but grace when it takes place in the heart brings the heart to prize Christ above all things in generall much more above every thing in particular If we well weigh the matter the first step of our aversion from God is an undervaluing of him when Adam first fell off from God did not he preferre himselfe and his Wife before God doth not the Lord plainly point out the cause of his peoples forsaking him to be an overweening conceit they had in the creature above him though that were indeed but a broken Cistern and he a living Fountaine Jer. 2.11 13. Now the way of our arising must be contrary to that of our falling and therefore the first step of our conversion to our God is an overvaluing of him that is such a high esteem of him as all things with their fulnesse of beauty are not thought comparable with him in a degree that is even lesse then the least This is the work of that saving grace Faith 1 Pet. 2.7 As the former was of that vice infidelity as this carries the heart off from God so this new byasses it and turnes it round about to him againe like as a skilfull School-master when a child is brought to him that hath been ill taught is faine first to unteach him what he hath ill learned and afterwards to set him forth So saving grace when it comes to

there he findes nothing but happinesse and holinesse as in hell there is nothing but sin and misery As no good can goe to hell so he sees no bad no sinfull and uncleane thing can get entrance into heaven Revel 21.27 saving grace tels him and he beleeves it that without holinesse he shall not see Gods face in heaven Heb. 12.14 and therfore he followes it with such earnestnesse of desire and endeavour and prizeth Christ in whom all holinesse is stored up for us above all things whatsoever Fourthly saving grace taketh a mans heart off from his own ends in all things and teacheth him to seek Christ not so much for selfe-ends as Christs ends When the Lord doth convert a soule to him and workes saving grace in his heart as he gives him a new principle to worke by so he gives him new ends to worke for Before conversion Selfe is all in all to a man Selfe sets him at worke and he workes altogether by selfe principles and to selfe ends God is not in all his thoughts Psa 10.4 for indeed selfe is his God But when God comes to take his place againe in the heart and to be God to a soule then he becomes the utmost end of that soule also so that as he will do nothing but by him commanding and strengthning so he does all to him and for him the soule is now lifted up above it selfe it soares aloft at greater matters then belong to selfe Selfematters are but as flies in his Eagle eye he stoops not to them but as the ponderous flesh makes him his alme is altogether at the glory of God magnifying Christ forwarding the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus building up his Church and repairing the breaches thereof c. Like as good and true Statesmen looke not so much at their owne profits as the common good so the true Christian aimes at the publike good of Christ the advancing of his Kingdome here more then at their owne advancement by him He doth not desire Christ so much to be saved by him as that Christ may be served by him The soul that prizeth Christ above al only for justification seeks him for selfe ends that is for happinesse and salvation by him and thus a soule doth before he hath saving grace But to desire him above all for sanctification is to prize and desire Christ for Christ's owne ends that we may be made holy by him and so become zealous of good workes Titus 2.14 and that we may serve him all the dayes of our life in holinesse and righteousnesse Luke 1.7 4 75. And thus to desire Christ for Christ saving grace teacheth the soule and to doe all for him because such a soule makes Christ its Master and self must be his servant so that selfe must now wait till his Master is served Selfe may attend at the doore of the heart but Christ as Master beares all the sway there and as he will so the heart saith he shall be served whosoever goes unserved and as for selfe such a soule as is principled with saving grace looks at selfe as best served when his Master is most served There is a sweet and holy emulation betweet such a soule and Christ that as Christ takes all that is done to that soule as done to himselfe so that soule takes all done to Christ as done to himselfe and therfore is of opinion that he serves himself best when he serves Christ most Yea he leaves selfe to Christ's disposall and good will knowing that he is a good loving and free master indeed that will suffer his servant to want no good thing Psal 84.11 Fifthly saving grace frames the heart to a conjugall affection of Christ to such a love of him as is between husband and wife so that the soule loves the person of Christ as well as his portion yea and desires him more for his persons sake then for his portions sake all the note of such a soule is that with the Spouse in Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his this heart is enamoured with Christ because of that exceeding beauty of holinesse in him he is to her the fairest of ten thousand This soule loves not Christ so much for that which comes by him as for that shee sees in him when God married us as he saith he hath married us Jer. 3.14 his free grace had respect only to our persons and not for any portion of ours whereby he might be enriched and benefited Hence we find a love of mankind for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies ascribed to him Titus 3.4 Job 14.15 which Job's words doe well interpret to us saying Thou O Lord hast a desire to the worke of thine hands Wherein is hinted the reason of Gods affection to us not any worth in us but his right to us it is his free grace which makes him owne that his right and the same free grace in the heart of a man reflects on God the same work that soule affects more Christ's person then any or all the things that come by him It is but a kind of whorish spirit to love him onely for what he hath and to get by him that Spouse that loves her Husband's person as shee ought will love him when he is poore as well as rich when sick as well will cleave to him in his necessity content to live in prison with him to goe a begging and be banished with him so where saving grace is the heart loves Christs person so impotently as shee will cleave to him in all his necessities when naked and poore shee will love him as well as when rich and bravely attired with outward pompe if he goe to prison shee will goe too rather then part with her best beloved shee will go a begging with him into banishment with him into the midst of fire any faggot yea into hell too rather then leave him for shee knowes hell would be no hell to her if he be with her and that a heaven would be a hell if he be not in it or shee find him not therein A sixth Reason why such a heart as hath saving grace doth prize Christ above all in matter of Sanctification is because it knowes and feeles as great a want of Gods free grace therein as in matter of Justification For we are as unable to sanctifie our selves as to justifie our selves yea we can doe more to procure sanctification to our selves then to obtaine justification wherefore as we find the good work of sanctification in us ascribed to the Lord both for the beginning and perfecting of it in Phil. 1.6 so we find it attributed to his good pleasure that is his free grace Phil. 2.13 and indeed if we doe seriously weigh things Gods free grace seems to abound more in the sanctification of a soule then in his justification of it for by justification he doth onely acquit it of the guilt of sinne committed but by sanctification he doth not onely