Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	fruit_n	good_a	treasure_n	4,153	5	10.5915	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25421	The right government of thoughts, or, A discovery of all vain, unprofitable, idle, and wicked thoughts with directions for the getting, keeping, and governing of good thoughts, digested into chapters for the ease of the reader : whereunto are added four sermons / by ... John Angel ...	Angel, John, d. 1655.; T. B.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3162A; ESTC R13149	89,280	271

happy times of the Gospel wherein though every one hath not Eagles eyes yet he may see a glorious light risen and shining though through some clouds I suppose in former times such strict observance of our thoughts might have been slacked with lesse sin than now for God winked at those dayes of ignorance but now excuses for evil thoughts are as unpleadable as for evil deeds If now we walk in an evil way in a way that is not good after our evil thoughts God that spreads out his hands unto a rebellious people all the day long Isa 65. 2. will stretch out his arme against a wicked people to punish them because they will not be perswaded to amendment for they that will not be perswaded to rectisie their thoughts by the actions of Gods hand shall be confounded at the last by the force of his arm And now we are come to the Point where we shall first declare the means how we may attain good thoughts into our souls and after that the government of them All that hath been written hitherto may be referred hither And therefore where I shall have occasion to fall upon the same things again I shall either passe them over briefly or enlarge them with variety to avoid tediousnesse and nauseousnesse from the Reader 1. For the getting of good thoughts into thy mind it is needful that thou cleanse the mind of all vain and evil and drowsie thoughts so much as possibly thou canst he that would have good thoughts like the pillars of fire and smoke to lead his actions day and night in this dangerous wildernesse must in some measure cleanse the heart of its native corruption and of its contracted foulnesse for as we have no reason to expect sweet liquor out of a fusty vessel or good water out of a bitter fountain figs from thorns or grapes from thistles so we have as small ground to expect that an unmortified and unchanged heart should send forth a current of clean and purified thoughts The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and the wicked man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things so all fruits are of the nature of the tree whereon they grow Our Saviour who knew how to refer every effect to his proper cause doth affirm That out of the heart cometh thoughts of Murder Adultery Blasphemies and sins of all sorts For the heart is evil above measure and casts into the thoughts continually that poison which either makes them black as Hell or muddles them with mire and dirt of fearful perplexities and worldly cares Wherefore as many as intend to get good thoughts into their minds let them give all diligence that the heart be cleansed from all evil ones But here I admonish him that will set upon this work that it is a work of more difficulty than many account it not so soon done as thought on 'T is not a few sighs and superficial groans 't is not a few proverbial notions nor yet the subduing of some notorious sin which is punishable and shameful in the world but a total and universal change of all the faculties and powers of the soul It is in the words of the Apostle A putting off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiveable lusts and a renovation in the spirit of our minds by putting on that new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4. 22 23 24. And though we cannot attain the full measure and furthest degree of this cleansing at the first nor yet feel such a sensible apprehension of the same as we desire yet let us not give over endeavours nor be discomforted and disquieted in our souls if God give us a first-first-fruits he will in time give us a harvest Jam. 5. 7. The Husbandman waits with long patience for the pretious fruit of the earth until he receive the former and the latter rain and if we be patient and stablish our hearts God will give unto us hearts cleansed in some measure of all filthy thoughts In this case we are not without a promise After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. And if we be once made masters of some good thoughts God will make us masters over more for him whom God finds faithful over a few things he will make Lord over many things and to him that hath it shall be given and he shall have abundance If any would know how to cleanse and purifie the heart he may consult Authors purposely written upon that Subject There are Treatises written thereof for more ample satisfaction wherein he shal find that God ordinarily in his first appearance to the soul useth the outward ministery of the Word and by his Spirit inwardly gives and applies that which is spoken unto the heart of the hearer whereby the heart sees its own corruption and misery and thereupon loaths and abhors it self and as a stomack surfeited with evil humours would willingly disgorge it self so it desires to be delivered of its sin and eased of its misery Then hearing and attending to the Promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it conceives hope by Christ that new and living way not onely to be discharged of sin and misery but also to be received into favour with God and then lies groaning at the foot-stoole of grace till God come in by his Spirit and say unto the poor soul I am thy salvation and thereupon it believes and purifies the heart of all noxious thoughts words and actions and beholding Christ in the glasse of Gods Word it is transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. but this briefly because I would not make too large an excursion if yet it be one out of my way 2. He that would have good thoughts in his mind let him attend the means of grace in Gods several dispensations let him give up his heart unto that form of Doctrine which hath been delivered unto the Saints and subject his soul in all humility unto the whole will of God revealed and openly urged by such as are sent upon his understanding wil and affections in the Ordinance of Preaching which being rightly managed is the power of God unto salvation Here I must admonish them that hear the Word of God that they would be patients to take what God prescribes for the cure of their thoughts That man wil never make a good Disciple and follower of Christ that is not content to deny himself a novice that is proud is not far from the condemnation of the Devil Naaman had almost lost the cure of his Leprosie by despising the waters of Jordan and preferring his own Rivers of Abanah and Parphar We must not quarrel at Gods way or method of cureing our

called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Let your conversation be such Phil. 1. 27. as becometh the Gospel such as may bring holinesse into credit and fashion and herein labour to exercise your selves to keep a clear conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men Acts 24. 16. The Second SERMON PSAL. 50. ult And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God THe first Use was exhortatory and Second Use did serve to work mens hearts to a love and willingnesse to the duty The second is Directory and serves to make persons able and skilful in the right ordering of their conversation For this lieth upon us Ministers not onely to convince you of the necessity of your duties and to presse upon you the discharge thereof but also to shew you how and by what means you may be able to put them in practise and not to leave you to shift for your selves after we have acquainted you with the commands of God but to labour to guide your feet in the way of peace Now these Directions that I shal give you are either more general and introductive to the businesse or else more special And first of all It is to be supposed First Direction and premised that a man must first be a true Convert himself before it be possible for him to order his conversation aright the inward frame of his soul must first be rightly set within him which is the principle from whence issues the course of his thoughts words and actions He must first have a right spirit renewed in him before he can have a right conversation Psal 51. 10. this made David pray Renew O Lord in me a right spirit the instrument must first be stringed and set in tune before the musick it yieldeth will be sweet a wicked man and one that is unregenerate can never order his life aright a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure bringeth forth evill things Matth. 12. 33 34. First he must be a good man the tree must be good and then the fruit will be good Secondly he must have a good treasury and his heart must be the store-house of holy graces the mind must be renewed with saving knowledge which must guide him his heart must be seasoned with sanctified affections and so inabled to follow the minds directions and therefore the ground-work of all must first be laid right and we must labor for the grace of regeneration that so we our selves may be Gods workmanship created again in Christ Jesus to good works which he hath prepared for us to walk in Ephes 2. chap. 10. This being premised the next preparation The second direction to the work even in Converts themselves is in the right way to go to work and that is being sensible of their own inability to compasse so great a matter It being more difficult to govern the little world a mans self then to rule a City he must therefore begin the work at self-denial Jer. 10. ch 23. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself It is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps in whom then doth it lye In God therefore with David we must seek to him Psalm 119. 133. do thou order my steps in thy words this direction is fully given us both negatively and and affirmatively Prov. 3. 5 6. negatively Be not wise in thine own eyes lean not to thine own wisdom affirmatively but acknowledge God in all thy wayes and then thirdly we have his promise that he will direct our steps this shall be health to thy Navel and marrpw to thy bones the summe is that we must not enterprise this businesse out of a conceit of any self-wisdom or of our own sufficiency to effect it but being sensible of our own folly and impotencie we must acknowledge God in all and commend our selves and actions to his direction in the beginning to his inabling in the prosecution and to his benediction in the successe in faith and confidence relying upon him for all in humble prayer begging all from him according to that of the wise man Proverbs 16. 3. Rowle thy ways on the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established or ordered this is a silly direction as it seems to flesh and blood the wisest Moralists amongst the Heathen would but laugh at it humility is not within the lists of their moral vertues Seneca one of the wisest of them hath such strange expressions as these in one of his Epistles Beatae vitae causa fundamentum c. The cause and foundation of a blessed life is in our selves to trust in our selves to be confident in our selves Turpe saith he est Deos fatigare It is a shameful thing to weary the Gods with our prayers for that which lyeth in our own power He goeth on Quid votis opus est fac te faelicem what need supplications when thou canst make thy self happy I blush to speak this but this was the wisdom of these Moralists but we must learn a better lesson from the word of God even to become fooles to our selves that we may be wise in God and I am sure David maketh it his businesse to sollicite God in prayers all over that 119. Psalm Both for his direction and enabling Open mine eyes saith he that I may find or see the wondrous things of thy Law And again Make me to understand the way of thy precepts direct me the way that I shall go and I will keep thy word even to the end And again Order my steps in thy word c. 119. Psalm Yea and whosoever doth not this stumbleth at the very Threshhold and never let him look for good successe It is just with God to leave honest hearts to themselves as he left Peter to shew them their own weaknesse when once they relye on their own strength and abilities and Solomon is bold to say he that trusteth his own heart is a fool we must know that all our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. the beginning progresse and end of all dependeth upon him who worketh the will and the deed in us of his own good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. and he will have the glory of all to himself 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. that whosoever gloryeth should glory in the Lord. It shall therefore be our wisdom in the way of Gods Commandements our own spiritual duties to draw vertue and power from him by pleading his Covenant and resting on his Promise who hath engaged himself to put his Spirit in us and to give us a new heart and to cause us to walk in his wayes and to keep his statutes as is clear Ezekiel 36. 27. and by this that hath been spoken you may by the way see the necessity of a morning sacrifice of prayer to

worst men especially and from which regenerate persons are in a great measure set free Let us come to speak of the first sort of these wicked thoughts I call them wicked for they have not onely vanity in them but also sin and this is when thoughts of evil draw in the will and affections to a complacency to a wishing and longing and sometimes a fainting desire to enjoy some unlawlfull thing suppose an unlawful pleasure or some unjust gain ungodly honour unwarrantable victory bloody spoyle or such like Gen. So Eve saw the forbidden fruit as a thing to be desired so Amnon lusted after his sister Thamar till he became as one of the fooles of Israel So Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard till he was sick with desiring and wicked in gaining the possession So Absolon thought of a kingdom and is and so ambitiously covetous of it that he attempts to usurp the Crown though by unnatural rebellion against his Father This is that which the Apostle calls the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1 John 2. 16. which are the three great idols of the world This wickednesse in thoughts so farre pleaseth some that when they cannot enjoy the thing desired yet they account it a speculative happiness to have the thing desired in their minds though it be but an image thereof it pleaseth the covetous man to dream of his Bonds Bills Morgages Assurances dayes of payment and this earthly mindednesse will let him mind nothing else so another tosseth fleshly pleasures from one thought to another and from one desire to another when the power of the flesh perisheth in them they grow to feed their phansies with contemplative fornications in the like case the contentious man dreams of wrangling suits the man of blood of fire and faggots swords and battels Thus the great mans thoughts are taken up with his honours revenues attendancies the Gallant with his gay clothes the old man pleaseth his phansy with remembrances and discourses of what he hath been and what he hath done the young man with what he may be his hopes and possibilities delight him as if they were present enjoyments thus the imagination of things that are not work upon us the same affections as if they were Jacob doth as feelingly grieve for the supposed death of Joseph as if he had been dead indeed and so men take the same delight in their supposed wickednesses as if they were really effected These and such like thoughts in the heart are the things which defile a man whether they be proud imaginations or covetous thoughts thoughts of revenge against others or thoughts of Blasphemy against God of what kind soever our thoughts are if they draw in the will to consent unto their evill they are wicked thoughts they are wicked suo genere in their own nature but when they work the will into co-partnership they are higher in the degree of wickednesse it is sin but to think that which is evil but to think of it with liking and consent is a greater degree of sin God reproves him and setteth his sins in order before his face who saw the thief and consented unto him and was partaker with the adulterer Psal 50. 18. 23. The second sort of wicked thoughts come to passe when the thoughts having gained upon the heart to delight in evil and with a kind of roveing desire to expect it the understanding also is drawn in by an opinion of an imaginary happinesse to plot and bestirre it self unto the furthest of its natural or acquired invention to produce by all means the evil thought upon into action This in every kind is the height and extremity of evill thoughts this person so devising to do mischief is probably the man whom Saint John puts into the Devils mouth saying He that com-commits sin is of the Devill 1 Joh. 3. 8. That is not only thinks of it and delights in it but also plots for it so the Devil sins from the beginning desiring plotting contriving acting it himself and tempting others to it of such a remarkable person the wise man saith he that deviseeth evill that is by resolved devising all means and leaving no stone unturned men shall call him the Authour of sin Prov. 24. 8. or a mischievous person against these thoughts and the thinkers of them the Prophet Micha exclaimes Woe unto them that devise iniquity and work evill upon their beds when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hands Micah 2. 1. Such are the thoughts of the men of this world their hearts are filled with an hidden treasure of evil inventions how to do mischief and when they have done it they lay plots how to dawb over their unanswerable actions and endeavours with witty and deceitful Apologies to prevent the evil opinions and speeches of men for though the thoughts of the just are Righteous yet the counsels of the wicked are deceipt These wicked thoughts have much of their Father the devil in them for he is full of devices or wiles whereof the righteous are not ignorant 2 Cor. 2. 11. and so are all wicked men and more when they are men of parts and place in the world Solomon notes that there is a a man of wicked devices that is one that desires and plots wickednesse Prov. 12. 2. so the Churle deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor Isa 37. 2. And David speaks of his enemy that he devised mischief upon his bed Psal 36. 4. if that enemy there meant was Saul 't is manifest that he oftentime thought in his heart to kill David and laid many snares for him to take away his life some ignorantly think that nothing is sinful that is not acted by the bodies instruments but alas 't is but their ignorance and therefore also the vanity of their thoughts for a Prophet records it for a truth the heart of a vile person will work iniquity Isa 〈…〉 in sin there is heart-work and head-work as well as hand-work CHAP. VI. ANd thus I have also discovered those evil thoughts which surpasse the dulnesse and vanities of them being in themselves evil and infecting the heart with wicked complacency and the understanding with wicked inventions Having thus far proceeded in searching out the errours and wickednesse of mens thoughts I shall now endeavour by the assistance of God to prescribe some remedies or means of redresse and the Remedies will be of two sorts the first equally oppose all errours of our throughts whether dull or vain or wicked the second are more particular fitted to cure some kind or other and not so much respecting all First the mind that travelleth and feeleth it self heavy laden with any of the former incumbrances and would be refreshed with the rest of God must make a conscience of his thoughts contrary to the common opinion of Carnalists and time-serving Formalists who think and often say it That Thought is free