Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	new_a	put_v	stony_a	4,570	5	11.9061	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03339	The doctrine of fasting and praier, and humiliation for sinne Delivered in sundry sermons at the fast appointed by publique authority, in the yeere 1625. By that late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ. Arth. Hildersam.	Hildersam, Arthur, 1563-1632.; Hildersam, Samuel, 1593 or 4-1674.	1633 (1633)	STC 13459; ESTC S104100	106,897	227

and humbledst thy selfe before me and didst rent thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee saith the Lord. Wherein also we may observe how well God is pleased to see his people fall into these passions of feare and sorrow when he by his word doth rebuke and threaten them Which the Lord also professeth Esa. 66. 2. But to this man will I looke even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word So when God hath shewed himselfe to bee angry and displeased with them by executing any of his judgements upon them they have then beene wont and it was their duty then to afflict their soules If her father saith the Lord of Miriam Num. 12. 14. had but spit in her face should shee not be ashamed seven dayes See a plaine proofe of this 2 Chron. 7. 13. If I send pestilence among my people if my people shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face Marke not their owne losse by the judgement should trouble them so much as Gods anger and therefore in their prayer they seeke Gods face and favour above all things And this is very pleasing unto God to see his people humble themselves so under the strokes of his hand See a notable example of this 2 Chron. 12. 3 4. Shishak King of Egypt came against Ierusalem with a mighty Army and tooke the fenced Cities that pertained to Iudah and came to Ierusalem See what followed 2 Chron. 12. 6. The Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves and they said the Lord is righteous And what followed upon that verse 7. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves the word of the Lord came to Shemajah saying they have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them Thirdly When they have seene God dishonored by the sins of others then have they also mourned and afflicted their soules Ieremy professeth 13 17. If you will not heare my soule shall weep in secret places for your pride So David professeth that the Zeale of Gods house the inward vexation of his soule through zealous sorrow and indignation for the neglect and profanation of Gods worship had even eaten him up and consumed him Psal. 69. 9. Specially the foule sinnes that they have knowne in the places Townes Congregations Families where themselves lived So it is said of Lot 2 Pet. 2. 8. That righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soule from day to day with their unlawfull deeds So Paul saith the Corinthians should have done 1 Cor. 5. 2. Ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned And see how highly God is pleased with this when his people can mourn for this cause Ezek. 9. 4. And the Lord said unto him that was clothed with linen and had the writers inkhorne by his side Goe through the midst of the City through the mids of Ierusalem and set a marke upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof Fourthly and lastly The chief cause why they have beene so given to mourning and weeping why they have afflicted themselves so much hath beene their owne sinnes whereby themselves have offended and dishonoured God This David professeth was the cause why his sorrow was continually before him he was sorry for his sinne Psal. 38. 16. 17. This was the cause why Mary Magdalen wept so abundantly that shee was able to wash Christs feet with her teares shee was a sinner Luk. 7. 37 38. This sorrow God wonderfully delights in more then in all outward worship whatsoever Psal. 51. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Now come we to the second inquiry to find out the true causes and reasons of this why God should so much desire and delight to see His people humbled with sorrow to see them afflict and chasten their soules in this manner It is said of Him that He hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servants Psal. 35 27. that He doth not afflict willingly Lam. 3. 33. that in all the afflictions of His people He is afflicted Esa. 63. 9. And indeed it is true that our sorrowes in themselves please not God but onely in respect First of the causes and fountaines from whence they proceed that is 1. They are the worke of His owne Spirit It is the Spirit of God onely that gives to any man such a fleshy and soft heart as we may see by that promise Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart and will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh And I will powre upon them my spirit and they shall mourne abundantly saith the Lord Zach. 12. 10. And God must needs take pleasure in the worke of His owne grace and holy Spirit 2. These teares proceed from our love to God Kindnesse you know causeth teares more than any thing els so it is in this case Christ saith of the woman that wept so abundantly that she loved much Luke 7. 47. And that which makes men most of all to mourne for sinne is the Spirit of grace which perswades us of Gods free love to us and that Christ was pierced by and for us Zach. 12. 10. And this above many other workes of His Spirit God greatly delighteth in 1 Cor. 8. 3. If any man love God the same is knowne of Him Secondly In respect of the end that this sorrow tends unto the issue and effect of it the Lord greatly delighteth in it He seeth we have need of it 1 Pet. 1. 6. Now for a season if need be you are in heavinesse The Lord seeth it will do us much good and therefore He is so well pleased with it Eccles. 7. 3. By the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better 1. It makes us more capable of every grace of God and fitter to receive it As the vessell that is full can receive no good liquor but all is spilt that is powred upon it and the emptier it is the more it will receive So is it in this case Iam. 4. 6. God will give grace to the humble For knowledge Psal. 25. 9. The meeke will He teach His way and for comfort 2 Cor. 7. 6. God comforteth those that are cast downe 2. It worketh repentance unto salvation and the heart is never wont to be truly turned unto God and changed but the change begins here 2 Cor. 7. 10. Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of 3. It makes Christ and Gods Word and Promises sweet unto us and all Gods mercies to relish well as hunger makes us relish our meat and thirst our drinke Prov. 27. 7. The full soule loatheth an hony-combe but to the hungry soule every bitter thing is sweet The prodigall when he had beene pinched with hunger

upon his name This was the meane whereby Gods people were kept from the prophanenesse and security of those times and God was wonderfully pleased with it Yea many a heart hath been mollified this way which the publique Ministry could not soften Nathans private dealing with David prevailed more with him than all the publique meanes he had enjoyed in a whole yeare 2 Sam. 12. 7. 13. Fourthly Count it therefore a great blessing of God to thee to have such a friend or such a Minister as will watch over thee and deale thus privately and plainely with thee yea seeke for such friends It is said of Ion●than 1 Sam. 20. 8. that he had brought David into a covenant of the Lord with him We should labour to get such friends as we might make this covenant with Yea we should beg of God to give us such a friend Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me it shal be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shal be an excellent oyle that shall not breake my head And we have all great need of it for selfe● love so blinds us as we cannot see that that is amisse in our selves In these last times especially men shal be lovers of themselves as the Apostle teacheth us 2 Tim. 3. 2. And what marvell then if there be now adayes so much security and hardnesse of heart among Christians No man holds himselfe bound to watch over his brother to admonish or reprove him but every man saith in his heart as Cain Gen. 4. 9. Am I my brothers keeper The Papists shall rise up in judgement against us in this for they take all opportunities to gaine others to Antichrist They like the Scribes and Pharises of whom our Saviour speaketh Mat. 23. 15. do compasse sea and land to make one proselyte but we have no care at all to gaine any unto Christ. And on the other side all men are unwilling to be admonished and plainly dealt with in private even by the Minister of God but are apt to say to any that would admonish them as the Sodomites did to Lot Gen. 19. 9. Stand backe this fellow will needs be a Iudge But know for a certainty that thou that art so unwilling to heare of thy sinne and to be plainly dealt with about it art in love with thy sinne and hast no desire to bring thy heart to godly griefe and sorrow for it SERMON VII Decemb. 7. 1625. IT followeth now that we come to those meanes wherein we are to be principall agents our selves For though this to speake properly be the mighty work of God to humble and mollifie the heart of man and make it able to mourne for sinne according to that promise Ezek. 11. 19. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of flesh yet may we after we are once regenerated do much to further this great worke of God in our selves Therefore we see David professeth here that he afflicted his owne soule and Psal. 69. 10. that he chastned his soule And of Iosi●h it is said that he did humble himselfe before God 2 Chron. 34. 27. and of Manasses 2 Chron. 33. 12. that he humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his fathers Yea Gods people are commanded in the day of their fast Levit. 23. 27. to afflict their owne soules and Ioel 2. 13. to rent their hearts And I●● 4. 3 4. to breake up their fallow ground and to circumcise and take away the foreskin of their owne hearts By all which places it appeareth we may our selves do much in this worke yea that we must be doers in it our selves or els it will never be well done And certainly if we would do what we might our hearts would be much softer and better able to mourne for our sinnes than they are If any of you shall aske me Why what can we do or what should we do to worke our hearts to this godly sorrow I answer There are foure principall things that we may doe and that we must do if we would get broken and humbled hearts For 1. We must make choice of a fit time 2. Of a fit place 3. When we have so done we must examine our hearts seriously and impar●ially 4. We must pray to God for his assistance in this businesse First We must take a fit time to go about this worke For though this be but a matter of circumstance yet have Gods people found much helpe unto spirituall duties even in this Daniel for his private prayer made choice of the time that God had appointed for the evening sacrifice Dan. 9. 21. And so did Cornelius as will appeare if you compare Act. 10. 30. and 31. together Our blessed Saviour made choice of the evening for this purpose sometimes Mat. 14. 23. and sometimes of the morning early before day Mar. 1. 35. And as all our time is not to be spent in mourning so are there some times and seasons fitter for this purpose and such as will yeeld us more helpe in this worke than other-some will do Eccles. 3. 4. There is a time to weepe and a time to laugh a time to mourne and a time to dance And it is the wisdome of a Christian to discerne and take the fittest time for this purpose Eccles. 8. 5. A wise mans heart discerneth both time and judgement saith Salomon Eph. 5. 15 16. Walke not as fooles but as wise men redeeming the time The wisdome of a man you see consisteth much in the husbanding of his time well and making choice of the fittest time fore every purpose and action that he takes in hand And what times are the fittest may you say for this purpose I answer it is profitable for a man every day to be doing somewhat in this worke by observing his owne wayes and calling himselfe to an account for them For First The Apostle tels us we are in danger to be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne if we do not exhort or stirre up our selves daily Heb. 3. 13. Secondly The time of our death is very uncertaine and such servants we know as have great dealings for their master and looke to be called to a strict account they know not how soone will looke every day into their accounts and have them in areadinesse continually And surely this is our case we know not how soone our accounts will be called for Mar. 13. 35 36. Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the master of the house will come least comming suddenly he find you sleeping Thirdly This would helpe us greatly in our daily prayers unto God The more sense and sorrow for sinne we have when we pray the more acceptable certainly would our prayers be unto God Psal. 34. When David had said Vers. 17. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth them he tels us Verse 18. what cries and prayers of the righteous they be that the Lord hath such respect unto The

be very small yet many heaped together will make an intollerable burden Iob 6. 3. Iob saith his grief was heavier then the sand of the Sea If for one sinne Adam was so terrified that he fled from God Gen. 3. 8. what cause of terrour have I maist thou well say to thine owne soule Fiftly How oft thou hast relapsed and fallen backe againe into the same sin that thy heart hath smitten thee for and thou hast repented of and covenanted with God that thou wouldst forsake it returning with the dogge to that thou hast loathed and vomited up 2 Pet. 2. 22. An arme once broken cannot be cured without paine but if often the cure will be more dangerous and painefull If thou hadst broken thy promises and covenants with men thou wouldst count it a matter of infamy and shame unto thee what cause of shame is it then that thou hast broken thy promises unto God See also how this circumstances doth aggravate sinne Eccle. 5. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God deferre not to pay it for hee hath no pleasure in fouls Sixtly How thou hast by thy sinne corrupted others whereof it may bee some are in Hell already and some in the way to H●ll and thou canst not draw them unto repentance Indeed if thou canst truly repent this shall not hinder thy salvation that thou hast beene a meane of the damning of others for so was Paul Act. 26. 11. Yet must it needs be a heart-breaking to thee whensoever thou dost seriously thinke of it all the dayes of thy life and so was it unto Paul If thou hadst beene the meane to undoe another in his outward estate much more if thou hadst taken away his life it would be a just cause of heavinesse to thee how much more cause of humbling is it that thou hast beene a meane of destroying the soule of any Matth. 18. 7. Woe to the man by whom the offence cometh Ier. 6. 28. they are brasse and iron they are corrupters Seventhly consider the person against whom thou hast sinned Psal. 51. 4. Against thee thee onely have I sinned And consider the Lord 1. in his greatnesse and excellency of power and justice If one man sinne against another saith Ely to his sonnes 1 S●m 2. 25. the judge shall judge him but if a man sinne against the Lord who shall intreat for him 2. But specially in his goodnesse towards thy selfe Consider that that God whom thou hast offend●d thou dost not onely live by Act. 17. 28. but also hee is of that gracious difposition that notwithstanding all thy rebellions he would not have thee perish For 1. he is apt to forgive thee upon thy repen●ance Esa. 55. 7. 2. He hath proclaimed a generall p●rdon and not excluded thee Ioh. 3. 16. but will have it offred unto thee Mar. 16. 15. 3. Hee se●kes to thee to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. 4 He hath done more for thee hee loves thee with the love of a father for to such specially I speake and thou hast received the spirit of adoption whereby thou art able to cry Abba father Rom. 8. 15. Consider well of this and it will have more force to mollifie thy heart then any thing else in the world The sense of our desperate estate without this may make us roare and rave and rage against the Lord like a wild Bull in a net as the Prophet speaketh Esay ●1 20. but nothing will humble the heart so kindly nor make it melt in godly sorrow as the true consideration of this love of God Psal. 130. 4. there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest bee feared It was not the crowing of the Cock twice that made Peters heart melt but the gracious looke that Christ cast upon him Luke 22. 61 62. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter then Peter remembred the Word of the Lord and Peter went out and wept bitterly This was that that wrought upon the heart of the prodigall Luk. 15. 18. I will arise and goe to my father and I will say father I have sinned And so must thou say to thine owne heart if ever thou wouldst have it to melt and thine eyes shed teares for thy si●nes It is my father my father that I have so offended Say to it as Moses doth to the Iewes Deut. 32. 6. Have I 〈◊〉 requited the Lord O foolish and ungratious wretch that I am Is hee not my father hath he not made mee and established mee The fourth and last thing we must doe to bring our hearts unto this godly sorrow is fervent prayer For thou must 1. complaine to God of the hardnes of thy heart as Esa 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou hardned my heart from thy feare 2. Begge this grace of him and cry to him for it That which the Apostle saith of wisdome may bee said of this grace also Iam. 1. 5. If any of you lacke a soft heart let him aske of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him 3. Challeng him with his promise and in a holy reverence charge him with that covenant mentioned Ezek. 36. 26. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And Zach. 12. 10. I will poure upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall looke upon mee whom they have pierced and they shall mourne for him as one that mourneth for his onely sonne and be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne 4. Bee importunate in this suite as one that will take no nay nor give it over till thou hast obtained it as David Psal. 27. 4. and the woman of Canaan Mat. 15. 27. 5. Waite for an answer and pray still limit not the Lord his time L●ke 18. 1 Wee ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Consider how oft the Lord called upon thee before thou didst answer him and how long hee waited for thee Romans 10. 21. All the day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gaine-saying people Remember that promise Esay 49. 23. They shall not bee ashamed or disappointed that wait for mee SERMON VIII August 2. 1626. IT followeth now that we proceed to ●hew you the signes and notes whereby wee may bee able to discerne whether wee have beene yet rightly humbled for our sinnes whether that sorrow for sinne that we have felt in our selves be unfeigned yea or no whether it be that saving sorrow of Gods elect unto which all these promises of comfort and mercy that we have heard of doe belong And surely it is a matter of great use and necessity to have notes given us out of Gods Word to try our humiliation and sorrow for sinne by First Because as it is certaine our sinnes are not pardoned unlesse we have truly repented of them Act. 5. 31. Christ giveth repentance to