Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	evil_a	fruit_n	treasure_n	2,403	5	10.5309	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29134	The sleepy spouse of Christ alarm'd, or, A warning to beware of drowsiness vvhen Christ calls, lest he withdraw in a discontent being the sum of some sermons upon Cant. 5th, and the beginning / by J. B., minister of the Gospel ; recommended in a preface by Nath. Vincent.	J. B. (James Bradshaw), 1636?-1702.; Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.	1667 (1667)	Wing B4151; ESTC R27223	96,463	214

an Offering for Sin Psal 71.23 My lips shall greatly rejoyce and my Soul which thou hast redeemed The Soul is the Jewel which Christ hath purchased and therefore though he ought to have the Box or Cabinet with it yet the Cabinet without the Jewel will not give him content It is the Heart or Soul therefore that he calls for when he knocks 3. Because the Heart is the Royal Seat or Throne and Christ comes not to be a truckle-bed Guest but to rule and reign in us and and therefore if he have the Heart which is the commanding faculty the Will and Affections he may by that command the whole man but without this it will be in vain if not impossible to keep possession of the other parts of the man The Heart is the fountain from whence the streams that run in every part of the man proceed if this be not pure the streams must needs be filthy And therefore Prov. 4.23 we are commanded to Keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life The Heart is always full and is continually sending forth Legions of thoughts words and actions either good or bad How should Christ keep the outward man quietly if the heart be not for him Our Saviour speaks it as an impossibility Mat. 12.34 35. that they being evil should speak good things and gives the reason of it Because that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and therefore according as the heart is disposed and qualified such are the thoughts words and actions The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things the evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart evil things How should the fruit be good when the tree is bad The heart then if it be not for Christ will dayly be sending forth such troops of filthy molesting enemies that Christ shall have no quiet abode near it and therefore he will either have the Royal Fort delivered and opened to him or he will not come there If the heart be filthy the whole man is defiled with what issues from thence and see what flouds of stinking filthiness issue from the heart and defile the man Mat. 15.18 19 20. Evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts False witness Blasphemies And how then shall the sweet breath of Christ endure near such a sink of filthiness if he may not come to the spring or rise of it to purge it there will be no long stay for him 4. Christ will have the Heart or none because his chief suit and request is for our love and this he cannot have without the Heart because it is seated in the heart and though it send its servants abroad yet it self never stirs from thence and therefore Christ cannot have this unless he have the Heart Such is Christs love towards his Spouse that he earnestly desires to be married to her and the Terms he proposeth are Marriage-terms wherein Love is the chief and principal And great reason he should have this not only in regard of his great Love wherewith he hath loved us and the fruits and effects of it but also in regard we have nothing else to give him nor can he expect any other thing with us that may be desireable Portion we have none not so much as Clothes to our back o● to cover our nakedness nor Meat for our belly nor penny of Money in our purse Beauty and Comeliness we have none till he have beautified us with his Comeliness Wisdom and parts we have none for by nature we a●● Fools Providence or good Housewifery w● have none for we had a good portion left us and we have wasted and spent it all Great Friends and Allies we have none that can d● any thing for us for we were cast out to th● loathing of our persons in the day wherein w● were born and none eye pitied us and as fo● our descent our father was an Amorite and mother an Hittite a cursed generation as w● read Ezek. 16. beginning What have w● then that may commend us to Christ or th●● may in any sort please him if he have not o●● Love And surely it is but reasonable th●● he should have this nay since he hath nothing else he will have this or not mat●● with us 5. Christ will have the heart opened where he comes because the Feasts and Banquets which he hath prepared and brings with him chiefly respect the heart the outward man is little or nothing concerned in them or advantaged by them unless it be by consequence Christ his Feasts are Spiritual and therefore but little grateful to the flesh or outward man The word that Christ speaks is part of his Banquet or Feast and David saith they are sweeter than Honey or the Honey-comb But what Refreshment or Feast would these be to the body or outward man if the Heart take no notice of them and be not affected with them and therefore Hos 2.14 Christ would allure his Spouse and take her into the Wilderness and there would speak comfortably to her or speak to her Heart as the word signifies Words yield but little comfort or refreshment if they be not spoken to the Heart John 6. Christ tells us he will give his Flesh and Blood to feed us and this but after an imaginary way neither for we must not really have his Body and Blood after a corporeal manner but spiritually represented and adumbrated by a little broken Bread and poured-forth Wine If this Feast therefore extend to or concern nothing more than the Body it will prove but a poor hungry Feast he findes it so that goes away from the Ordinance without finding and feeding upon Christ by Faith And therefore were not the Banquet Spiritual and such as immediately concerns the Heart the Scripture would never call it a Feast of Marrow and Wine setled upon the lees nor would David say Psal 63.5 that his Soul was satisfied as with marrow and fatness when he fed upon this And therefore Christ his Feasts being chiefly spiritual and respecting the Heart they would be lost and signifie nothing if the Heart were not opened to him And therefore the place where Christ knocks is the door of the Heart which he requires should be opened to him 2. The next thing to be enquired into is At whose door doth Christ knock To this I answer That Christ knocks at every ones door that lives under Gospel-Ordinances and Dispensations There is no person living under Gospel-Ordinances but at one time or another Christ knocks at the door of his heart requiring entrance and admission Thou that readest or hearest this Word whoever thou be Male or Female Bond or Free Young or Old Rich or Poor High or Low whatever order rank or degree thou be of in whatever condition or state thou be at thy door it is that Christ by this word knocks saying Open to me c. See the universality of Christ's

The sleepy Spouse of Christ alarm'd Or a WARNING To beware of DROWSINESS VVhen Christ Calls Lest he withdraw in a discontent BEING The Sum of some SERMONS upon Cant. 5th and the beginning By J. B. Minister of the Gospel Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Matth. 23.37 38 39. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Psal 95.7 8. To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Recommended in a Preface by M. Nath. Vincent LONDON Printed 〈◊〉 Samuel Crouch at the Princes Arms at 〈…〉 To Mrs. J. D. the Author wisheth all increase of Grace and Peace Honoured Friend IT was at your request and the earnest request of some of your Friends that I was induced to publish these following Sermons The reason whereof I suppose to be because your heart was in some measure opened to and affected with the voice of Christ in his Word when you heard it I must confess the matter or subject herein treated of is very sweet and precious and such as may well warm the frozen heart of any that hath the least drachm of sincere love either of complacency in or commiseration to Christ To see how ready Christ is to condescend to the requests of his Spouse how sweetly and with what melting 〈◊〉 irresistible Arguments he wooes her ho●●●●● and plentiful he is in the emanations of his Grace and Kindness towards her And then on the other hand to consider how sleightly she looks upon him how little account she makes of him and how she makes him dance attendance at her door with many other circumstances of her unkindness and withal to consider the danger and hazard which she runs by her unkind behaviour towards Christ These Considerations which are the subject of the ensuing Discourse being seriously weighed by a Soul that hath any love for or breathings after Christ among the number of which I hope I may truely reckon you cannot choose but in some measure awaken the sleepy Soul and warm the cold and frozen Affections This effect I perceive the Word had upon you for which you owe the thanks and praise to the Spirit of Grace which accompanied the Word to your heart and gave it entertainment there For man speaks only to the ear it is God that speaks to the heart You having therefore tasted the sweetness of this Word your self desired the communication of it to others who had not the opportunity with you to hear it and in order thereunto the publication of it Your designe I must own to be good for Grace where it is in truth is not only of a diffusive nature spreading it self through the whole man but also of a communicative nature wishing that all by-standers might likewise taste that sweetness which it self is much delighted with Grace desires not to eat its morsels alone but if any Banquet be given in by Christ or any refreshment by his company the Soul cries out to by-standers O taste and see how good the Lord is He is altogether lovely Come therefore and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul But though your designe be good yet the weakness and insufficiency of the Author might well have pleaded an excuse For it is pity that such a sweet and precious subject should be rendred despicable by being handed into the world by so weak rude and unpolished an instrument as I must of necessity confess my self to be For I am sensible that many times the Truths of Christ suffer in the world through the weakness of the Instruments that hand them to us However yet sometimes it pleaseth God By the mouths of babes and sucklings to perfect his own praise that the work may appear to be not of men but of God Leaving therefore the work in Gods hand who is able to do what he pleaseth with and by it and waving the consideration of mine own weakness I condescend to your request and make bold to cast this my poor mite into Gods Treasury Saying to you and to all courteous Readers as Peter to the Cripple Acts 3.6 Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you I hope the food is wholesome though it be but plainly and meanly dressed And though it may fall into the hands of some whose curious stomacks may loath such plain and homely diet yet possibly it may fall into the hand of some poor creature who is hungry humble and of a contrite Spirit and trembles at Gods Word Some poor hungry Soul may perhaps here meet with meat though there be little sawce to he had And if any poor Soul shall reap benefit by my poor labours and endeavours I hope I shall bless God for owning such a worthless creature in so glorious a work And if it do good the less of the instrument the more will there be of God seen in it I beg of you therefore and of all candid Readers into whose hands this small Treatise may come their and your serious perusal of it with their Prayers to God for a blessing upon it what you finde of humane weakness in it pardon and pass it by whatever you finde of God in it minde it and apply it And the very God of Heaven powerfully influence it with his blessed Spirit that it may do your Souls good and that you may readily open to Christ now that he may open to and own you at Death and Judgment Which is the humble and earnest Prayer of Yours In and for Christ my Lord and Master James Bradshaw TO THE READER Christian Reader THe Spirit of Slumber exceedingly prevails at this day as great security is to be found in this Nation as was in the old World and in Sodom before the one was Drowned and the other Burned God hath used several ways and means to awaken us but our Spiritual Lethargie proves a very stubborn Malady 'T were bad enough if onely profane persons were fast asleep in Sin 'T is worse that Professors are so too But 't is worst of all that the Wise Virgins slumber as well as the Foolish What may be the Issue of our carnal Security we may tremble to think of When men say they shall have peace though they walk on after the imagination of their evil Heart the Lord confutes their presumption by threatning all the Curses written in his Book and that he will blot out their names from under Heaven Promising safety to themselves is the forerunner of Sinners sudden