Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	bring_v	good_a	treasure_n	13,062	5	10.6433	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94058	A sermon preached at a visitation held at Lin in Norfolk, June the 24th anno 1633. Being an admonition to the clergy to remember and keep those severall oaths, promises, and subscriptions, which they solemnly have made at the taking of their degrees, their ordinations, and institutions to their benefices. By William Strode D.D.	Strode, William, 1600 or 1601-1645.	1660 (1660)	Wing S5986; Thomason E1035_8; ESTC R203693	17,644	32

will is also punish'd with shrinking of Power May we not do liberally will some reply without promise Not so well A good Act ingrafted into one or more vertues of higher strayn is much ennobled Morall Excellence by respect to God is turned to Religion by Promise to Devotion 't is now become both Obedience and Sacrifice Fair Buildings after Dedication are much more reverend so much more holy are our Souls and Bodies when they are vow'd the Temples of the Holy Ghost There is no such Discipline to train up a Christian in the way of Perfection as that of Confession which is now also disus'd and this other of Vowing whereof the one makes us asham'd of doing amisse the other prevents it and further emboldens us to do good That serves to mortifie sin and This not onely so but to quicken Vertue for the tying up the Soul from wonted loosnesse to some retir'd purpose or holy work both cuts off many occasions many objects of sin and sets the Votary to his course and task without interruption 'T is a great conquest which it brings unto us of mastering our selves for hereby our hearts are fixed our wi●ls confirmed which adds as much perfection to vertue as Obstinacy adds evill to Vice 'T is a gladsome hearing when Righteousnesse in her turn is drawn with cart-ropes when the Treasure of Heaven is kept safe under many locks good Intentions seconded with Vowing But that which most commend it is the near and absolute subjection of the Soul to God wholly surrendred up unto his service for he that subjects himself by promise unto him yields up both his actions and also the power of working and as Anselm compares it he bequeathes the Fruit together with the Tree also Fruit leaves branches body root and All a Condition This most like to that in Heaven the very next step to true Blessednesse which chiefly consists in a perfect union with God most blessed So that the difference is but this A Vow betrothes and Heaven wedds Pardon me this commendation of Vows because they are usually wrong'd by discommendatiòn and the cold frost of mens hearts is over-bound with chiller wind of Disswasion But do I now entice you to Will-worship to a human fancy such as the Adoration of Angels God forbid if it be such 't is repugnant to God's will But that which I preach though not by him commanded is by him commended no Precept to all his Servants and yet a Counsell to certain friends Counsell that will make us men not onely according to his Word but according to his Heart Men like the Apostles who left all to be followers of Christ Again do I toll you on into needlesse danger the danger of breaking an unmasterable Vow That which thou canst not master do not promise for as St. Austin instructs thee Si non vovisses minor esses non pejor Lesse thou maist be without Vowing not worse but lesse howsoever Wouldst thou be great and never expose thy self to hazardous difficulty Danger is ever the Porter to Greatnesse He that considers the wind shall not sow and he that fears rain shall not reap Ecclus. 11. No proceeding in the way of Man or of Christian without perill And for what should we ever venture if not for a masse of Glory Know also that the danger lies not in the nature of a Vow but in the weaknesse of the Vower So excuse thine own Weaknesse that thou do not slander the strength of others Excellence though thou want Power thy self be not guilty of wanting Will by condemning others if Power be present be also an Actor lest by resolving to stand unbound where thou mayst thou stand more rigorously bound where thou must and in no lesse danger of non-performance For he that factiously denies to go farther than he needs must shews that he would not go so far whereby he remains a debtor even of that which he pays because he pays unwillingly Whether thou vow or vow not God exacts nothing but true endeavour which is more wanting to the wilfull Refuser than to the unwilling Breaker Do I seek to abridge your liberty No rather to enlarge it Are the Angels in Prison because they are confin'd to goodnesse then is God the closest prisoner No no the nearer our service to God the more perfect our freedom To range after the creature is to be turned loose to Slavery to be tied up unto God is to be bound to Liberty In the one is all sadnesse as in losing our way through a wildernesse in the other all content as in passing a pleasant walk Non te vovisse poeniteat imo jam gaude jam tibi non licere quod cum tuo detrimento licuisset saith St. Austin He that hath bound himself to God by a Vow hath no more cause to be sad than she that hath wedded her self to a man whom deservedly she best loves Why then how differ I from the Romanists Take heed of that there is more care of differing from Them than to stand right in Our-selves Thus I do not think that Vows for their own part are Meritorious but in Us Serviceable to God Acceptable such as may rather find than earn a Reward for though they surpasse the generall Precept they do not exceed our personall Talents and those we ought to imploy with all our might If any Might do lie in promising we ought to engage our Hands with our Tongues our Actions with Words Besides no extraordinary service in this or that point can quit our scores with God or suffice to crosse out those other Items of our manifold offences Though some of God's servants be more willing all come short and should any come home they would yet be unprofitable to Him unprofitable though not to Themselves Now since there is no Preaching without Opposing let me Oppose for the other part too and so brandish on both sides The Superstition of Papists is cried down with a worse crime of others the Subterstition of Anti-papists Vows are Meritorious say they Damnable cry these and thou shalt neither add nor detract saith God Add they so much as these detract an unpleasing Circumstance add they but these destroy the whole Substance Nay the Accuser is many times the worser Thief more guilty of the self-same crime so is the unsatiable Reformer The humble Votaries he accuses of superstition even his own superstition is also greater greater is this of not-vowing than that of vowing and produer thereof is he They stood on points of deep-dejected Service he on points of arrogant Adoption they on much painfull Praying he on much easie Hearing The retir'd Moncks he accuses of Idlenesse his Idlenesse is far more scandalous For they though many perform'd their frequent Orisons together and fed their Neighbours he on the same revenue contracted to one grasp curses God and grindes the face of the poor The blindly devoted Pilgrims he accuses of Idolatry his own Idolatry is far grosser for they