Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	heart_n	incline_v	mercy_n	16,797	5	10.2482	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28292	Sermons preached on several occasions shewing 1. the saints relief in time of exigency, 2. The admirableness of divine providence, 3. A prisoner at liberty, and his judge in bonds, 4. The most remarkable man upon earth, or, the true portraicture of a saint / by Samuel Blackerby ....; Sermons. Selections	Blackerby, Samuel.	1674 (1674)	Wing B3070; ESTC R23157	148,255	274

it i. e. he convinceth a Christian of the greatness and heinousness of the sin It is possible for a Christian that is sound and upright in the main to have so great a failing in his Will that for a time he may but jog on in the way of God that other Christians outstrip him far that set out long after him and yet he may be very insensible thereof until God is pleased to strike a dart of spiritual conviction through his very heart and this wakens and rouzes him up and makes him bestir himself and consider where he is and what he hath been doing all this while A clear place for this you have Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to me my sister This is the ingenuous confession of the Church wherein she acknowledgeth that carnal deadness and security that had overtaken her I sleep or I have been asleep Now a Christian never sleeps spiritually or in a spiritual sense but when his Will flags and fails when that falls to a kind of indifferency or is not strongly bent and inclined but grows cold and dead which is the symptome of a sleepy man I but did Christ suffer his Spouse to lie in this sleepy state No! See how he awakens and rouzes her up he calls to her and bids her open to him whereby he let in a beam of divine light and convinc'd her of her sin and this was the first step to her cure this made her open her eyes as when a man awakes out of sleep he first opens his eyes and then he rises So 't is with a sleepy and dull Christian God's first work upon him is to open his eyes that he may see his sin and be affected with it and this will make him stir O beloved it may be you do not know the evil that is in a sleepy estate the sin that is inindifferency and halting in the waies of God and in the weakness of your Resolution to walk therein you take little notice it may be of the coldness and deadness of your hearts unto holy duties or of the fickleness and inconstancy of your Spirits in them but at one time or other you must expect a Soul-awakening voice that will make you open your eyes and then you will see how great a sin it is What though thou dost not cast off the waies of God yet this heartlessness in them is sin enough if God should charge thee with it to sink thy Soul as low as Hell Secondly God cures this sleeping evil by reviving and renewing the inscription and impression of Divine Law upon the heart A good man never grows dull and dead but when Divine Law is not in its full strength and power upon the heart As this is a means of divine life so it is a restorer and renewer of life When the heart is exceeding dead and indisposed to any thing that is good this can quicken it and hence is that of David Psal 119.93 It is a blessed thing for a dead and dull heart to be quickned unto and in the way of God But this will not be unless the word of God come with life and power upon the heart And this effect is worth remembring and a good man will say with David I will never forget thy Precepts for with them thou hast quickned me It may be thou goest to read or hear the word with a dead and dull Spirit and by that God quickens thee Oh remember it and never forget it It was a great and wonderful mercy to thee that God did write his Law upon thy heart when he first brought thee under the bond of his everlasting Covenant and then bowed and inclined thy heart to a ready and free obedience thereunto It was a day of power when he made thee willing to take his yoak upon thee And it is a great mercy that he is pleased to revive and renew the characters of this divine and heavenly Law upon thy Spirit when they seemed to be obliterated and blotted out when thou hadst almost lost the power and life thereof upon thy Spirit that there was little stirring or moving in thy Will towards Heaven God deals with a Christian as a man deals with his Watch when it goeth dull and begins to beat slowly he gets the Spring which is the principle of its motion mended and renewed So when the heart of man grows dull and heavie his motions very cold and dead unto any good God mends and renews the Will which is the spring and principle of motion in the heart and for that end he sets Divine Law and will to work upon it When God's Will moves upon our Will then 't is quick and liuely in its motions towards God not else if that be dead towards him the man is dead to any thing that is good I know the Law as it is a Covenant of Works is a killing Instrument it slew Saint Paul and laid him a bleeding before God but as it is a Covenant of Grace so it is a quickning Instrument and sets the Soul a going after God in the use of those means which he hath appointed 3. Sometimes God cures this sad distemper by shedding his love abroad upon the heart Divine Love is both a heart-quickner and a heart-in-flamer We saith the Apostle love him because he loved us first 1 Jo. 4.19 Our love is but the reflex of his Gods love to us is founded in it self He loves because he will love but our love to God is founded on his love Nothing in us moved him to love us but God's love to us moves us to love him and therefore it is that as God manifests his love to us so we are able to love him The love of Christ constraineth us 1 Cor. 5.17 As when the Sun shineth then Flowers open so when the love of God shines upon the Soul it opens to God then the Heart is enlarged for God the Will is carried out with high resolutions to follow him fully in all the waies of his commands As the hiding of Gods face is a great damp upon the Spirit that makes it drive on very heavily in the way of God so the shining of his face is a notable quickner of the Spirit it is like oil to the wheel that helps on the motion with greater ease When once a Soul hath tasted the love of God and got some sense thereof the pulse of holy desires will begin to beat strong after the enjoyment of him it is impossible for a Christian to remain dead under the warm beams of this most glorious Sun It is very observable that no sooner did God call to Israel to return with a gracious promise of healing their backslidings and of pardoning their iniquities But they answer Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Though their Hearts were turned even quite away from God and their Wills exceeding averse from

John 1.13 born not of blood or as in the Original not of bloods nor of the will of man but of God Many men boast and brag much of their parentage and the family or house they came out of Such a Duke such a Lord such a great person was their Father or Grandfather and such a great person is their brother or their uncle or near allies But alas what is this to a mans being born from above to come out of the family of heaven to have God for thy Father and Christ for thy Brother and near ally the other is not to be named with this No were thy earthly parents beggars from door to door and thou born naturally upon a dunghil yet if thou hast God for thy Spiritual Father thou art more nobly descended then all the great ones in the world if they are not born from above as well as from beneath I tell thee thy relation speaks thee noble and honorable 2. Look upon him as to his education and breeding and see how he is disciplined and trained up and you must needs be taken therewith He is remarkable for that there are many that will boast of their breeding if not of their birth And indeed there is as much to be considered in that if not more then in the other And therefore Alexander the Great thought himself as much bound to his Tutor as to his Father because the one gave him his being but the other his well-being the one was the instrument of life and the other fitted him to live in the world Why Beloved a godly man hath not only the best birth but the best breeding for as he is born of God so he is taught of God Whoever is the usher or sub-tutor God is the Master-teacher So John 6.45 It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God And 1 Thes 4.9 Ye are taught of God to love one another Now if God undertakes the work it must needs be admirably well done those must needs be well taught that have God for their teacher for as he teacheth men the best things that can be taught and learnt so he teacheth them in the best way that can be used not only in the best method but also with the greatest efficacy and power he makes them such as he teacheth them to be and causeth them to do that which he teacheth them to do And in all enricheth and ennobleth the minds and spirits of his Disciples with such kind of learning and knowledge as is not to be found in the whole world he makes them all experimental Scholars in the great and profound mysteries of Heaven So that there is not one in all the world that can be a match for the meanest Scholar in his School No take a man that with Bereugarius is able almost to dispute de omni scibili or with Solomon to unravel Nature from the Cedar to the Hyssop yet a poor Soul in the lowest form in Gods School that is taught of him is able to baffle and to confound such an one if once they come to engage in the matters of Heaven 'T is very true Beloved Humane Learning ought not to be despised Humane Arts and Sciences are brave ornaments to the mind and are very useful in many respects I but not to be compared with divine and heavenly light and knowledge If Humane Learning be as the Ring Divine Learning is as the Pearl or Diamond in the Ring and far exceeds it in worth and excellency 3. Look upon him as to the complexion of his Soul and the air of his Countenance And indeed as a man may read much of the complexion of another mans Soul in the air of his Countenance so did Jacob in Laban's which put him to the flight So there is much glory and beauty in the Soul and Countenance of a godly man Solomon saith Wisdom makes the face to shine how much more doth it make the Soul to shine for that is the seat thereof Mark that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image Now if there be beauty and glory in the Original there must needs be beauty and glory in the Copy else the Copy will not be any wayes answerable to the Original And therefore saith Christ to his Church Cant. 2.14 Let me hear thy voice and see thy countenance for pleasant is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Yea he is so taken therewith that it puts him as it were into a rapture it ravisheth his Soul or takes away his Heart as the Hebrew signifies Cant. 4.9 And indeed a gracious Soul is a lovely and amiable Soul the greatest beauty in the world She stands not in need of a black patch to set her off or to commend her to others 4. Look upon a godly man as to his life and conversation and you must needs say that he is very remarkable for he is one that walks with God in the way of God even in that way that leads to the fullest fruition and enjoyment of God Nay he is one that lives the life that God lives in some measure for he lives a life of holiness and that is the life that God lives 'T is true he lives on the Earth but his conversation is in Heaven where his God and his Treasure is Yea 't is true he lives in Flesh but not after the Flesh for whilst he lives in Flesh he lives in the Spirit and walks in the Spirit and so turns the life of Nature into a life of Grace Now the more excellent the life of any being is the more remarkable and admirable is that being What is it that renders an Angel so admirable but because he lives an Angelical life And what is it that advanceth a man above a beast but because he lives a better life then a beast doth I speak now of men that live like men and not like bruits and so that advanceth a godly man above all other men because he lives a better life then others do The life of Reason is better then the life of Sense but the life of Grace and Religion is far better then the life of Reason Had I but time to set it forth in some particular instances this demonstration would carry a strong conviction with it into the hearts of any unbyassed hearers and cause them to confess that none upon the face of the earth live such honourable and noble lives as Saints do Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable Rule even the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Holiness of life is a conformity to the most noble and honourable pattern Holiness of life is the power and virtue of Christ expressed to the life 't is the Divine nature manifested in Humane flesh 't is the Spirit of God breathing through corporal acts Holiness of life is the