Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	contrite_a	humble_a	revive_v	2,916	5	11.4354	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26915	Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation of souls, and of those scandals, heresies, and desperate apostasies that are the consequents of a counterfeit, or superficial change / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1243; ESTC R15278	227,645	552

have the Love the Honour or the thanks that he intended by his gift It is necessary therefore that the Soul be throughly humbled that pardon may be received as pardon and Grace as Grace and not set light by And 2. as this is necessary for the honour both of Christ and Grace so also it is necessary for our own benefit and consolation The Mercy cannot indeed be ours if Humiliation do no make us capable of it These Cordials must be taken into an empty Stomack and not be drownd in ●legm and filth A man on the Gallows will be glad of a pardon but a stander by that thinks he is innocent would not regard it but take it for an accusation There is no great sweetness in the name of a Redeemer to an unhumbled Soul It sets not by the Spirit the Gospel is no Gospel to it the tidings of Salvation are not so glad to such a one as the tidings of riches or worldly delights would be As it is the preparation of the Stomack that maketh our meat sweet to us and the coursest fare is pleasanter to the sound then sweet-meats to the sick so if we were not emptied of our selves and vile and lost in our own apprehensions and if Contrition did not quicken our appetites the Lord himself and all the miracles of his Saving Grace would be but as a thing of nought in our eyes and we should be but weary to heare or think of them But O what an inestimable Treasure is Christ to the Humbled Soul What life is in his promises What sweetness in every passage of his grace and what a feast in his unmeasurable Love 4. Another Use of Humiliation implyed in the former is that it is necessary to bring men to yield to the terms of the Covenant of Grace Nature holds fast it 's fleshly pleasures and lives by feeling upon present things and knows not how to live upon invisibles by a life of Faith And this is the life that all must live that will live in Christ And therefore he calleth them to the forsaking of all the crucifying the world and flesh the denying of themselves if they will be his Disciples But O how loath is nature to part with all and make a full resignation unto Christ but fain it would make sure of present things for fear le●t the promises of Heaven should but deceive them and then they would have Heaven at last as a reserve And on these terms it is that Hypocrites are Religions and thus it is that they deceive their Souls But when the heart is truly broken it will then stand no longer on such terms with Christ but yield up all It will then no longer Condition with him but stand to his Conditions and thankfully accept them Any thing will then serve with Christ and Grace and the hopes of Glory 5. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit us for the Retaining and Improving of Grace when we have received it The Proverb is Lightly come lightly go If God should give the pardon of sinne to the unhumbled how soon would it be cast away And how easily would such be hearkning to temptation and returning to their vomit The burn't Child we say dreads the fire When sinne hath kill'd you once and broken your hearts you will think the worse of it while you live And when a temptation comes you will think of your former smart Is not this it that cost me so many groans and laid me in the dust and had almost damned me and shall I go to it again Was I so hardly recovered by a Miracle of Mercy And shall I runne again into the misery that I was saved from Had I not sorrow and fear and care enough but I must go back again for more and renew my trouble Thus the remembrance of your sorrows will be a continuall preservative to you And a contrite spirit that is emptied of it self and is taught the worth of Christ and mercy will not only hold them fast but will know how to use them in thankfullness to God and benefit to himself 6. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for it's approach to God himself from whom it had revolted As it beseems not any creature to approach the God of Heaven but in Reverentiall humility so it beseems not any sinner to approach him but in Contrite Humility Who can come out of such wickedness and misery and not bring along the sense of it on his heart It beseemeth not a Prodigal to meet his Father as confidently and boldly as if he had never departed from him but to say Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Luke 15. 18. It is not ingenious for a guilty Soul or one that is snatcht as a brand out of the fire to look towards God with a brazen face but with shame and sorrow to hang down the head and smite upon the brest and say O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner For God resisteth the proud but giveth Grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. Jam. 4. 6. Though the Lord be high yet he hath regard unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off Psal. 138. 6. For thus saith the High and Holy one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy and I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa. 57. 15. To this man will I look even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my Word Isa 66. 2. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken h●art and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Psal. 34. 18. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not dispise Psal. 51. 17. There is no turning to God unless we loath our selves for all our abominations Ezek. 16. 63. The nearer we approach him the more we must abhor our selves in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. He will not embrace a sinner in his dung but will first wash and clense him Isa. 1. 16. Conversion must make us humble and as little Children that are teachable and look not after great matters in the world or else there is no entering the Kingdom of God Matth. 18. 3 4. And thus you see the Uses and Necessity of Humiliation III. By what hath been already said you may perceive what Mistakes are carefully to be avoided about your Humiliation and with what caution it must be sought 1. One Error that you must take heed of is That you take not Humiliation for an indifferent thing or for such an appurtenance of Faith as may be spared Think not an unhumbled Soul while such can be Sanctified Some carnal hearts conceive that it is only more haynous sinners that must be contrite and broken hearted and

melt and break your hearts you have no part in him It becomes you to mourn over him whom you have pierced Zech. 12. 10. And this fruit of his Blood is a preparative to more You may as well think of being saved without Faith as without Repentance and Humiliation 4. Consider so much as is bitter in it is of your own preparation You may thank your selves for it Who was it that brought you to this Necessity of sorrow Have you been all your life time surfeiting of the creature and causing your own disease and now will you grudg at the trouble of a cure Whom have you to blame and find fault with but your selves was it not you that sinned was it not you that laid in the fuel of sorrows and sowed the feeds of this bitter fruit and cherished the Cause of trouble in your selves God did not do this It was you your selves He doth but undo that which you have been doing Grudg not therefore at your Physician if you must be purged and let blood and dieted strictly but thank your selves for it that have made it so necessary 5. Consider also that you have a wise and tender Physician that hath known what sorrow and grief is himself for he was made for you a man of sorrows Isa. 53. 3. And therefore can pitty those that be in sorrow He delighteth not in your trouble and grief but in your Cure and after-consolations And therefore you may be sure that he will deal gently and moderately with you and lay no more on you then is necessary for your good Nor give you any bitterer a cup then your disease doth require When he sheweth his greatest liking of the contrite it is that he may Revive their hearts and he professeth withall that he will not contend for ever nor be alwaies wrath lest the Spirit should fail before him and the Souls which he hath made Isa. 57. 15. 16. He calls to him the weary and heavy laden that he may give them ease Matth. 11. 28. He was sent to heale the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the Captives and recoveing of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised Luke 4. 18. When he hath broken your hearts he will as tenderly bind them up and as safely heal them as you can reasonably desire Even his Ministers that labour to break your hearts and bring you low even to the dust have no worse meaning in it then to bring you to Christ and life and comfort And though they are glad to see the weeping eyes of their hearers and to heare their free Confessions and Lamentations yet this is not because they take pleasure in your trouble but because they foresee the saving fruits of it and know it to be necessary to your Everlasting Peace You may read what their thoughts are in the words of Paul 2 Cor. 7. 9 10 11. Now I rejoyce not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to Repentance for ye were made sorry after a godly manner that ye might receive dammage by us in nothing For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death For behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefullness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fears yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge c. Indeed neither Christ nor his Ministers have that fond and foolish love to you and pitty of you as you have to your selves They be not so tender of you as to save you from the sorrow which is needfull to the saving of you from Hell But they would not put you to any more then needs nor have you tast a drop of the vinegar and gall or shed one teare but what shall tend to your comfort and Salvation 6. Consider what sorrows they be that these sorrows do prevent and what those suffer in Hell that avoid this godly sorrow on earth O Sirs your Repentance-sorrows are joyes to those Yours have Hope but theirs are quickned with desperation Yours are small and but a drop to their Ocean Yours are Curing but theirs are Tormenting Yours are a Fathers Rod but theirs are the Rack and Gallows Yours are mixt with love but theirs are unmixed over-whelming them with confusion Yours are short but theirs are endless And had you rather sorrow as they do then as the godly do Had you rather howl with Devils and rebels then weep with Saints and Children Had you rather be broken in Hell by Torments then on earth by Grace Is it not an unreasonable thing of you to make such a stir at the sorrow that must save you when you remember what it would save you from and what all must suffer that are not Humbled here by Grace O it is another kind of sorrow that others are now enduring Grudg not at the pricking of a vein when so many thousands are everlastingly bleeding at the heart 7. Consider The more you are rightly Humbled the sweeter will Christ and all his Mercies be to you ever after while you live One tast of the healing Love of Christ will make you bless those sorrows that prepared for it The same Christ is not equally esteemed even by all that he will save And had you not rather be emptied yet more of your selves that you may be fuller of Christ hereafter When you do but feel his arms embracing you and perceive him in that posture as the prodigal's Father was Luke 15. 20. You will thank that sorrow that fitted you for his armes 8. If you be throughly humbled you will walk the more safely all your daies if other things correspond It will make you hate the sinne you smarted by and fly the occasions of that which cost you once so dear 9. The sinne of Pride is one of the most mortal damning sins in the world and that which thousands of professors do miscarry by And Humiliation is most directly contrary to this and therefore must needs be an amiable and necessary thing It 's worth all the sorrow that a hundred men endure here to be saved from this dangerous sinne of Pride 10. A through Humiliation is usually a signe of the greater Exaltation to come after For those that humble themselves shall be exalted and those that exalt themselves shall be brought low Luke 14. 11. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God and he shall lift you up 1 Pet. 5. 5. The higher you mean to build the deeper you will dig to lay the foundation Your Consolations are like to be greater as your sorrows have been greater You may be free from those doubts that follow others all their daies lest they were never truly humbled You need not be still questioning or pulling up your foundations as if you were to begin again It is a sign that you are intended to greater employments if other things concurre