Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	put_v	spirit_n	stony_a	3,973	5	11.7036	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25247	Prima the first things, in reference to the middle and last things: or, the doctrine of regeneration, the new birth, the very beginning of a godly life. Delivered by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.; Prima, media, & ultima. Prima.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.	1650 (1650)	Wing A2964; ESTC R213988	65,629	80

nature in diverse respects to their several causalities Thus a man must have repentance before he have saving and justifying faith and yet a man must have faith before the work of repentance be perfect in the soul As we maintain repentance to be a precedent work so we deny it not to be a subsequent effect Sorrow is before the birth too as the Apostle intimates 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 7.10 7.10 Godly sorrow works repentance that is sorrow prepares a man for repentance it goes afore it and prepares for it And now it is that Gods spirit begins to renew his heart as God himself proclaimeth I will put a new spirit within them and I will take the stony heart out of their bodies and will give them an heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 Ezek. 11.19 his heart that before was hard as flint now begins to relent and soften and break in pieces Acts 2.37 How so it is Gods Spirit that pricks the heart and this pricking softens it Dum pungit ungit saith Jorom Hieronym Compunction softens and supples the heart so that be it never so stony presently it becomes an heart of flesh you know those that are apt to weep or yern or sorrow we call them tender-hearted you may be sure then he that is prickt till his heart bleed inwardly he that weeps blood which every heart doth that is prickt on this maner sure his heart is tender indeed I say tender for as the very word imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his heart weeps why his heart is broken David joyns these together A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 Psal 51.17 And no wonder if an heart that is broken and rent and wounded and prickt falls a weeping blood well might David say when he was broken Psal 38.8 I have wept Psal 38.8 nay more I have roared for the very grief or disquietness of my heart and again My soul or my heart melteth or droppeth for very heaviness Not that his heart dropt indeed Psal 119.28 but because the tears which he shed were not drops of water running onely from his eyes an onion may cause so much but issuing from his heart which heart being grieved and sore grieved it is said to be wounded and so his tears coming from it they may be called no less then very blood drops of blood issuing from a wounded heart Thus it is with the man now laboring in his new birth his heart grieves his eye weeps whence the Proverb The way to heaven is by weeping cross the way to Gods kingdom is to cry like children coming into the world the way to be new born is to feel throws as a woman laboring of childe and so is Christ formed in us Can a man be born again without bitterness of soul no if ever he come to a sight of sin and that Gods sanctifying Spirit work in him sorrow for sin his soul will mourn till he may say with Jeremy Mine eye droppeth without stay mine eye breaketh my heart because of all the daughters of my City because of all the sins of my soul Lament 3.51 True it is Lam. 3.49 51. as some infants are born with more pain to the mother and some with less so may the new man be regenerated in some with more in some with less anxiety of travel but more or less it cannot be so little but the man that labors in these pangs shall mourn and mourn There shall be a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zach. 12.11 What else Zach. 12.11 He cannot look on a Saint that sailed not first through the Ocean of tears and therefore he falls on his face with Abraham Gen. 17.17 Gen. 32.24 Iob 3. 1 Sam. 1.15 Psal 119.136 Isa 38.14 he wrestles with God like Jacob he roars out his grief with Job he pours out his soul with Hanna he weeps rivers of tears with David he mourns as a dove with Hezekiah yea like a crane or a swallow so doth he chatter Isa 38.14 O the bitter pangs and sore travel of a man when he must be born again The fourth step is Seeking rightly for comfort He runs not to the world or flesh or Divel miserable comforters all but to Scripture to Prayer or to the Ministery of Gods word if he finde comfort in Scriptures he meets with it in the * Lex ostendit peccatum at Solum Evangelium peccati remedium Aug. tract 17. in Joh. Gospel not the Law but the Gospel saith the Apostle is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 The Law is indeed the ministery of death and damnation 2 Cor. 3.7 but the Gospel is the glad tidings of salvation Luk. 2.10 The Law shews a man his wretched estate but shews him no remedy and yet we abolish not the Law in ascribing this comfort to the Gospel onely Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 3.7 Luk. 2.10 though it be no cause of it yet is it the occasion of it those doleful terrors and fears of conscience begotten by the Law may be in their own nature the very gates and downfal to the pit of hell yet I cannot deny but they are certain occasions of receiving grace and if it please God that the man now laboring in his pangs of the new birth do but rightly settle his thoughts on the Gospel of Christ no doubt but thence he may suck the sweetest comforts and delights that ever were revealed to man Or if he finde comfort in prayer to which he ever and anon repairs in every of these steps then is it by Christ in whose name onely he approacheth to that heavenly throne of grace no sooner had the King of Niniveh humbled himself but his proclamation runs Ionah 3.8 9. Let man and beast be covered with sack cloth and cry mightily unto God Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and thus the man now wrestling with the grievous afflictions and terrors of his conscience Who can tell saith he if God will turn away his fierce anger let me then cry mightily unto the Lord of heaven let me cry and continue crying until the Lord of mercy do in mercy look upon me and if for all this God give him a repulse for reasons best known to himself if at the first second third fourth or at many more times he seem to have cryed in vain at last he flyes to the ministery of the Word and if he may have his will he would hit upon the most skilful experienced searching and sound-dealing man amongst all Gods Messengers thus was it with Peters hearers whose hearts being pricked and rent with legal terrors then could they begin to cry it out Men and brethren what shall we do Act. 2.37 Act. 2.37 Thus was it with the Jaylor who after his trembling and falling down to

these manifold sins O that by these sins I should break so holy a law provoke so good and great a Majesty What shall I do but remembring my evil ways Ezek. 36.31 even loath my self in my own sight yea abhor my self in dust and ashes for my iniquities and my abominations c. For conclusion thou mayst imitate the Publican who not daring to lift up his eyes smote his brest so do thou and sigh Luke 18.13 and say with him O God be merciful to me a sinner CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. The third means to get into the new birth AFter Confession which may well serve thee for another days work the next duty thou must labor for is to seek for true sorrow and mourning for thy sins Seek thou must and never leave seeking till thou feel thy heart melt within thee To this purpose reade some tracts of death of judgement of hell of Christs passion of the joys of heaven Last of all and I take it best of all resolve to set every day some time apart to beg it of the Lord When Daniel set himself to pray the Lord came in to him Dan. 9.3 When Peter had gone apart to pray and when Paul had prayed in the Temple then the Lord came in to them Act. 10.6 and 22.17 And why may not I bid thee pray as well as Peter bid Simon Magus yet being in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Act. 8.22 23. and at the time appointed fall down on thy knees spread thy Catalogue confess accuse judge condemn thy self again which done beg beg of the Lord to give thee that soft heart he promised Ezek. 36.26 Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Say then to thy self Is this the Lords promise O Lord perform it to my heart take away my stony heart give me an heart of flesh a new heart a new spirit c. here make thine own prayer be not careful of words onely let the words be the true voice of thy heart and the more to work softning thou mayest sob and sigh and beat thy brest above all thou must pray and call and cry with vehemency and fervency not to be uttered When thou hast done if the Lord do not yet hear thee pray again the next day and the next day yea put on this resolution that thou wilt never leave praying till the Lord hear thee in mercy till he make thee to feel thy heart melt within thee yea if it may be till thou seest thy * Ut hoc modo confring as capita draconum tuorum in aquis tears trickling down thy cheeks because of thy offences The Lord will perhaps hear thee at the first time or at the second time or if he do not persist thou thy suit is just and importunity will prevail yea I can say thy desire to sorrow being resolute it is a degree of godly sorrow it self and no doubt the Lord will increase it if thou begst hard a while Sect. 2. The first reason for this sorrow THis must be done first because without pangs no birth Quid sunt dolores parturientis nisi dolores poenitentis saith Saint Austin the pangs of a penitent man are as the pangs of a woman Aug. in Psal 48. Now as there can be no birth without pains of travel going before so neither true repentance without some terrors of the law and straits of conscience Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear saith the Apostle to the Romans and what is that but to shew us they once did receive it when but in the very first preparation to conversion then it was that the Spirit of God in the law did so bear witness unto them of their bondage that it made them to fear And certainly thus it is with every man in his first conversion his contrition must be compungent and vehement bruising breaking renting the heart and feeling the throws as a woman laboring of childe before there can be a new birth or the new creature be brought forth Sect. 3. The second reason for this sorrow AGain without contrition no Christ therefore it was that God first opened the eyes of our first parents to make them see and be sensible of their sin and misery Gen. 3.7 15. Chrysost in c. 3 Matth. hom 11. Gen. 3.7 before he promised Christ vers 15. therefore it was that John Baptist saith Chrysostome first throughly frighted the mindes of his hearers with the terror of judgement and expectation of torment and with the name of an axe and their rejection and entertainment of other children and by doubling the punishment to wit of being hewn down and cast into the fire and when he had thus every way tamed and taken down their stubbornness then at length he makes mention of Christ Why then is Christ seasonably revealed saith Musculus when the hearts of men being soundly pierced by preaching repentance Musc in Mat. c. 3. Sect. Tunc accedit Iesus Calvin in Esay 61. are possessed with a desire of his gracious righteousness Or if you will hear Calvin To whom is Christ promised but to them alone who are humbled and confounded with the sense of their own sins Certainly the first thing that draws to Christ is to consider our miserable estate without him No man will come to Christ except he be hungry no man will take Christs yoke upon him till he come to know and feel the weight of Satans yoke to this end therefore must every man be broken with threats and scourges and lashes of conscience that so despairing of himself he may flye unto Christ Sect. 4. The third reason for this sorrow AGain Iam. 4.10 without hearty sorrow no spiritual comfort We must first be humbled before the Lord and then he will lift us up Christ indeed was anointed to preach good tidings but to whom to the poor to the broken-hearted to the captives to them that are bound Esay 61.11 to the bruised Esay 61.11 God pours not the oyl of his mercy save into a broken vessel God never comforts throughly save where he findes humiliation and repentance for sin Forbes on Revel c. 14. The word of God saith one hath three degrees of operation in the hearts of his chosen First it falleth to mens ears as the sound of many waters a mighty great and confused sound and which commonly bringeth neither terror nor joy but yet a wondring and acknowledgement of a strange force and more then humane power this is that effect which many felt hearing Christ when they were astonished at his doctrine as teaching with authority Mar. 1.22 27. Luke 4.32 Iohn 7.46 what maner doctrine is this never man spake like this man The next effect is the voice of thunder which bringeth

God puts into the hearts of those who seek him in sincerity and truth never was Ahab more sick for a vineyard nor Sisera for milk nor Sampson for water when God was fain to open him a fountain in the jaw of an ass Iudg. 15 19. then is a truly humbled soul after Christ ever thirsting and longing that he may hide himself in his righteousness and bathe himself in that blood which his Savior shed for him I have read of a gracious woman who laboring in these pangs and longing after Christ Jesus cryed out I have born nine children with as great pain as other women and yet I would with all my heart bear them all over again yea bear them and bear them all the days of my life to be assured of my part in Christ Jesus One replying Doth not your heart desire and long after him Oh! said she I have an husband and children and many other comforts I would give them all and all the good I shall ever see in this world or in in the world to come to have my poor thirsty soul refresht with that precious blood of my Savior So eager and earnest is the heart of each man parched with the angry countenance of God after this blood of his I thirst I faint I languish I long saith he for one drop of mercy my spirit is melted in me into tears of blood my heart because of sin is so shaken and shivered my soul because of sorrow is so wasted and parched that my thirst is insatiable my bowels are hot within me my desire after Christ is extremely great and greedy Stay all these expressions are far short of those longings Rev. 2 17. no man knoweth them save he that receives them save he that is born again The seventh step is A relying on Christ no sooner he considers and remembers those many melting invitations of our Lord and Savior Iohn 7.31 Isaiah 55.1 Matth. 11.28 If any man thirst let him come unto me Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden with sin but resting himself on the impregnable truth of these blessed promises he throws himself into the merciful and meritorious arms of his crucified Lord. Come life come death come heaven come hell come what come will Rom. 8.35 38 39. here will he stick for ever Who saith Paul shall seperate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No I am perswaded not these nor more then these neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 38 39. Thus it is with the man laboring in this birth what saith he doth Christ call the heavy laden why Lord I am heavy laden with a weight a mass of sin and if he may come that is called Lord I come I come and now I am come with thee will I build my tabernacle with thee will I rest for ever Nor is this any wonder experience tells us the hunted beast flyes unto his den the wounded man hyes unto the Surgeon and so the poor man broken and bruised with the weight of sin how should he otherwise but cast himself willingly into the sweet compassionate inviting armes and embracements of Christ whose promises run I will ease him I will refresh him You may see sometimes a little infant Matth. 11.28 upon apprehension and approach of some sudden danger how hastily he runs into his mothers arms even so a truly wounded soul pursued by the terrors of the Law and frighted with the angry countenance of Almighty God it flyes with speed into the bosom of its blessed Redeemer there it clings unto his blessed wounds there it rests upon his meritorious death there it grasps about his crucified body there it hides it self in the clefts of this Rock yea there it sticks with this full resolution that should all terrors all temptations all men all devils combine together to cast him into hell they should tear him rent him pull him hale him from the bleeding wounds and tender bowels of his heavenly Savior This was Jobs case who in the bitterest of his pangs could cry it out saying Though the Lord slay me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 And I must tell you this * Vrisin parte secunda catech q. 6. Fides justificans non est tantum notitia sed etiam fiducia quatanquam medium applicamus nobis meritum Christi ac in eo acquiescimus Trelcat l. 2. institut Loquens de natura fidei justificantis apprehensio ejus 2 ex una cognitionis in intellectu altera fiduciae in voluntate utramque includit fides At noluit Bellar. fidem esse in voluntate affiance dependance adherence reliance or whatsoever else we call it upon the merits of Christ is the right justifying faith whither if a man once come there is but one degree more and he is then born again The last and highest step is Vniversal obedience to Christ No sooner hath he cast himself upon him but he takes him not onely as a Savior to redeem him from the miseries of sin but as an husband a Lord a King to serve him love him honor him and obey him Now will he take his yoke upon him now will he bear his cross and follow after him now will he enter into the narrow way now will he walk in the holy path now will he associate himself to that sect and brotherhood that is every where spoken against Act. 28.22 now will he oppose himself against all sin whatsoever now will he shake off his old companions brethren in iniquity now will he keep peace and a good conscience towards God and man now will he watch over his secret sins lustful thoughts occasions of evil now will he direct his words to the glorifying of God and to give grace to the hearers now will he conform all his actions to the soveraignty of grace now will he delight in the word the ways the Saints the services of God now will he never more turn again unto folly or to his trade of sin yea though Satan set upon him with baits and allurements to detain him in his bondage but by one darling-delight one minion-sin yet he resolves to answer him as Moses did Pharaoh There shall not so much as an hoof be left behinde for well he knows one breach in the City exposeth it to the enemy one leak in a ship will sink it in the sea one stab in the heart will speed a man to death one knot in a threed will stay the needles passage as well as five hundred and therefore he will sell all all that he hath even all his sins to the last filthy rag

To get into it 2. To be delivered of it 1. The means to get into it is 1. Examination of themselves 2. Confession of their sins 3. Hearty prayer for the softning of their hearts By which three are procured the three first steps Sight of sin Sense of divine wrath Sorrow for sin 2. The means to be delivered of it is by application of the promises and these according to their several objects produce their several effects some A sight of Christ A desire after Christ A relying on Christ An obedience to Christ A comfort in Christ not onely sought for but obtained if the promises be rightly applyed CHAP. II. Sect. 1. The first means to get into the new birth THe means to get into the new birth is first Examination and the way to examine is to set before men that Chrystal glass of the Law for their light and rule To this purpose I have here annexed a Catalogue or Table to shew them their offences not that I can possibly ennumerate all sins but onely the kindes and if herein I come short yet consciences awaked may be occasioned hereby to bring into their thoughts those others not mentioned Now then whosoever thou art that beginn'st this blessed work examine thy self by this Catalogue but do it warily and truly and where thou find'st thy self guilty either note it in this book or transcribe it into some paper that so they may be ready for thine eye when thou comest to Confession Sect. 2. Sins against the first Commandment IN every Commandment we must observe both the duties required and sins forbidden for both these are implyed in every one of the Commandments if in the first thou art guilty thou must answer negatively if in the second thou must answer affirmatively now then to proceed It is the first Commandment Thou shalt have no other gods but me For the duties here required Say first Hast thou ever in minde will and affections took the true God in Christ to be thy God Secondly hast thou abounded in those graces by which thou shouldst cleave unto God as in the warmth of knowledge and love and fear and joy and trusting in God Thirdly hast thou observed Gods mercies and promises and works and judgements upon thee and by a particular application took special notice thereof Fourthly hast thou communicated with the godly and joyned thy self to Gods people and delighted chiefly in them Or for the sins here forbidden Say first hast thou not sometimes been guilty of blasphemy or idolatry or witchcraft or atheism or epicurism or heresie Secondly hast thou not been guilty of pride a sin flatly opposing God and first committed by devils Thirdly hast thou not had inward reasonings that there is no God or that he seeth not Psal 14.1 Esay 29.15 Iob 21.14 Ier. 17.5 or knoweth not or that there is no profit in his service Fourthly hast thou not failed to love God and fear God and to put thy whole trust in God Fifthly hast thou not trusted in man or feared man or loved the world and thereby alienated thy heart from God Sixthly hast thou not resorted to witches or in the first place to Physitians and not to the living God Seventhly hast thou not tempted God and in the matters of God been either cold or lukewarm or preposterously zealous Eighthly hast thou not a proneness to sin yea to rebel against God in thy whole man Ninthly hast thou not been careless to perform the inward duties of Gods worship in sincerity and truth if in these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broken this Commandment Thou shalt have no gods but me Sect. 3. Sins against the second Commandment IT is the second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image For the duties here required Say first hast thou ever worshipped the true God purely according to his will Secondly hast thou observed all those outward duties of his worship as prayer and vows and fasting and meditating and the rest Thirdly hast thou repaired to Gods house observed family duties received the Preachers of the Gospel Or for the sins here forbidden Say first Ier 9.14 hast thou not sometimes walked after the imaginations of thy own heart serving God out of custom or after the maner of thy fore-fathers by will-worship and superstitions Secondly hast thou not committed idol worship conceiving of God in thy minde or respecting him in thy sense in the likeness of a creature Exod 23.13 Thirdly hast thou not mentioned the names of other gods either by way of swearing or apology Fourthly hast thou not made an image to liken God to it Esay 40.18 or used any gesture of love and reverence to any such images Fifthly in a word hast thou not been careless to worship God Zach. 14.17 Psal 14.4 Math. 10.14 to call upon the Lord to receive Gods Ministers or to perform any other of the outward duties of Gods worship If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broken this Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image Sect. 4. Sins against the third Commandment IT is the third Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain For the duties required Say first hast thou been ever a constant learner hearer and doer of Gods Word and Will Secondly hast thou prayed with perseverance understanding and power of the Spirit without doubting or wavering Thirdly hast thou come preparedly to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and being come hast thou discerned the Lords body Fourthly hast thou used all the titles and properties and works and ordinances of the Lord with knowledge faith reverence joy and sincerity Or for the sins here forbidden Say first hast thou not sometimes in thy talk dishonored the titles attributes religion word people of God or any thing that hath in it the print of his holiness Secondly hast thou not sworn or forsworn or loved false oathes Thirdly Zach 8.17 hast thou not caused the name of religion or people of God to be evil thought of by thy ill course of life or by committing some gross sin Fourthly hast thou not rashly or unpreparedly or heedlesly read the Word heard Sermons received the Sacraments or performed any other part of the worship of God Fifthly hast thou not thought or spoken blasphemously or contemptuously of God or of any thing whatsoever pertaining to God If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broken this Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Sect. 5. Sins against the fourth Commandment IT is the fourth Commandement Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day For the duties here required Say first hast thou according to the equity of this Commandment ever observed the Lords day and other days and times set apart for Gods service Secondly hast thou on those days rested from the servile works of sin and rested and relyed upon Christ for the remission