Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abundance_n	heart_n	zion_n	23	3	8.5815	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87170	Topica sacra: spiritual logick: some brief hints and helps to faith, meditation, and prayer, comfort and holiness. / Communicated at Christ-Church, Dublin, in Ireland. By T.H. minister of the Gospel.	Harrison, Thomas, 1619-1682.	1658 (1658)	Wing H917; Thomason E1769_2; ESTC R202373	72,620	183

naughtiness and he can tell where there are super-aboundings over-flowings of Grace and Mercy and if he will draw up the sluces thou shalt not only honour him by believing but be encouraged to look for more then ordinary favours from him even because sin hath so abounded And is not this the faith that should come or must thou look for another or if this be it why then is not thy heart purified heart and life sactified by it Why is it not unto his servant according to his word Act. 15.9 26.18 Plead and press this hard upon him and my soul for thine he will not deny thee he will not say thee nay you may take not mine but the Apostle Peters word for it that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand 1 Pet. 5.12 But there is a damp upon thy Spirit a great discouragement which takes off thy boldness before him thou fearest that though thou dost as thou thinkest believe and rejoyce for a season in the Grace believed yet 't is not likely to last alwayes thou shalt not be able to hold the rejoycing of thy confidence firm unto the end thou shalt prove but a temporary a dung-hill covered with snow which will melt away thou findest so much hypocrisie in whatever thou goest about thou hast done much evil without the mixture of any good but never any good without the mixture of much evil and the hypocrite is justly hated of God and man the world hates him because he seems good and God abhors him because he only seems and is not truly such and this sometimes thou fearest will be thy portion and canst not discover the bottom of thy misery to any flesh living and this ere long will put an end to thy pleading thou fearest that both the Gift and Grace and spirit of Prayer if ever thou hadst it will leave thee according to that in Iob 27.8.9 10. For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him will he delight himself in the Almighty will he alwayes call upon God Well go to God in this case however Go order thy cause before him and fill thy mouth with Arguments I. Tell him He and He alone knows whether thou aymest not at entireness of heart before him both as to the subject the whole heart which thou wouldst have kept even from thine iniquity and as to the object all his Commandments thou knowest not one of them which thy spirit balks or boggles at but the more pure his word is the more thy soul loveth it And also as to the means of Grace they are all dear and pretious to thee and thou wouldst be found in the use of all his appointments bid him name that thing which he requires which thou knowingly and purposely declinest and is this the guise or way of an hypocrite only be sure thy heart reproach thee not Secondly He knows that is the secret end of thy living why thou art desirous or so much as content to continue in this world not to share in the pleasures or profits or honors thereof the worlds Trinity which it adores serves and sacrificeth it self unto but to be receiving or doing some good in thy station and generation and can it be thus with an hypocrite Thirdly He knows that thou chusest rather to be sickly or poor or disgraced and to walk close with him then in health wealth or honour to wander from him or to lie out at a great distance from communion with him yea rather to be following hard after Him though thou shouldst never enjoy his glorious ravishing transporting presence while thou livest then to swim in abundance of carnal enjoyments and to have a heart careless of him estranged from him and is it thus with any hypocrite in the world Fourthly Tell him thou hadst rather he should know all thy secret sinnings against him then that he should not know all thy secret sighings and lamentations after him the world hath seen and stumbled at many of thy miscarriages but hath not seen nor recovered by thy secret mournings but he seeth in secret and therefore tell him Fifthly It will not be for his honour to reject thee for all must out all thy secret sobbings and pantings and pursuings after him must be know one day and what would Angels and men think to see such a mourner in secret cast off to all eternity Lastly Appeal unto him He knows thou hast been usually as earnest with him for Holiness in time of prosperity as in time of straits and adversity and is this the manner of hypocrites Surely no Vzziah was marvellously helped till he was strong but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God 2 Chr. 4 5. 14.15 It was not so with Iehosaphat he sought the Lord God of his Fathers and walked in his Commandements and not after the doings of backsliding Israel Therefore the Lord stablishied the Kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought him Presents and he had riches and honour in abundance And his heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord Piety procures a settlement and that brings off the people to an acknowledgement of their Magistrate and to a love unto Him and that ushers in plenty and abundance and an honest heart in the midst of it all is carried higher and nearer to God as the waters bear up the Ark and lifted it nearer Heaven If it be thus with thee in thy measure there may be and will be some Leaven of hypocrisie which may somewhat four thy performances which yet upon thy humiliaton shall be pardoned and thy Judge himself and his Deputy in thine own bosom will pronounce that thou art no hypocrite Peradventure thou mayest reply though I may prove no hypocrite yet I shall prove little better then a slave I fear I am awed and acted only by a spirit of fear and this is far from a Gospel-spirit from a spirit of Adoption they are set as adversaries and Antipodies one against another and if there were not a dread of God upon my spirit if destruction from God were not a terrour unto me I know not what would become of me nor whether Satan and my corruptions would hurry me Well yet go and order thy cause before him and fill thy mouth with Arguments Ask him if He have not observed ordinarily thy spirit to be more melted and humbled when he hath filled thy heart with joy and thy mouth with Prayses then by any evil felt or feared then by the sense or approach of any evil whatsoever and is this the frame of a slave or of a child Secondly Tell him 't is true thou fearest him and so do all the Saints and Angels in Heaven but 't is with such a fear as enlargeth thy heart

accursed thing unbelief a Jonah in the ship which will be raising new tempests and that is a fear lest God at last should turn his back upon thee and thou be found amongst those that are deceivers of their own souls being turned into hell when it seems their looks though nothing else were towards Heaven if ever this be thy case hye thee to God presently go fill thy mouth with Arguments 1. Complain against thine own heart so farre as there is any mixture of unbelief in this fear confess that as to God it is an unworthy jealousie and thou hast need with Gideon to cry him mercy to pray that his anger may not wax hot against thee for asking him so many signs considering how often the fleece hath been wet and the floor dry already to give thee satisfaction Yet when thou lookest downward there is misery enough and matter enough to justifie all thy fears and to move him to pardon yea to sanctifie them unto thee especially considering that thy All is at the stake and that it is Eternity Eternity Eternity that is before thee that vast gulf of eternity and if thou art mistaken in thy confidence thou art lost irrecoverably to all eternity this may move him to pity rather then to anger and to say to them that are of a fearfull heart be strong fear not behold your God will come and save you Isa. 35.4 2. For thy further establishment ask him if he have not made all as sure as grace can make it yea it is therefore all of grace that the promise might be sure to all the seed Rom. 4.16 as sure as infinite love infinite wisdome infinite power can make it and thou dreadest it as thou dost Hell it self to make the God of all Grace and Truth a Liar 1 Io. 5.10 to add to all thy other evils that grand abomination of unbelief which puts more affronts and scorn upon him then all other sins whatsoever 3. Ask if all the spirits of just men now made perfect will not confess the mercies of Christ to be sure mercies and that he as Boaz saith of Ruth shewed them more kindness in the latter end then at the beginning and that having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end and reserved the best wine for the last the last grapes especially in Chrifts vineyard yeild the sweetest wine David makes it obvious to any mans observation Psal. 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright he goes current for a perfect man for the end of that man is peace And even a Balaam is forced to acknowledg it and there is a desirableness in the death in the later end of the righous Numb. 23.10 Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my later end be like his 4. If yet thou fearest as to thine own particular ask if the holy Ghost who makes it his trade to help infirmities and hath helped thee in thine all thy life long ask if he will not then help thee when thou art most infirm nothing but a lump of infirmity and weakness surely then in thy greatest need he will not fail thee Lastly Tell him he knows why thou wouldst so fain be with him in his Heaven not because thou fanciest it a Turkish Paradise or a Paganish Elisium abounding with carnal or corporal pleasures not only because thou wouldst escape everlasting burnings though he himself cannot blame thee for ayming at this seeing he commands thee by all means possible to endeavour it But thy soul longs incessantly to go to Heaven because Heaven is the Land of Hallelujahs and thou wouldst fain be thankfull really thankfull Heaven is the Land of Love and thou wouldst fain take thy fill of love in loving and being beloved in loving as thou art loved without intermission without interruption enternally and so be ever with Christ which is by much farre better Phil. 1.23 All these meet daily with a thousand hindrances and incumbrances which make thee sick of earth and sigh for Heaven groaning within thy self with that blessed Apostle who had once been there 2 Cor. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven Hinderances and Imcombrances which make a Hell above ground not to be endured by any honest heart and how much more intollerable then is the nethermost Hell for there is never a nooke never a corner in it where a poore sinner might weep eternally without blaspheming without hearing blasphemies without hating of God without sinning against him He knows how often thou hast told him if there were how much more quietly thou couldst accept of the punishment of thine iniquity there and there justifie him and there bewaile thy folly and madness and lament the loss of him for evermore But to lose him and all love to him and to be sinning agaist him eternally this cannot be consented to but by a Creature damned already though above ground nothing therefore short of Heaven can satisfie thee or ought so to do and if upon these terms thou canst not be admitted into his rest sure he will have but little who went thither to prepare a place for thee This hope then we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vaile whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedee Heb. 6.19 20. thus building up your selves on your most holy faith and praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternall life , Jude 20 21. ver. But hast thou not a good mind before parting to speak a good word for others also this hath been constantly the way of the spirit of adoption when David came before the Lord upon the saddest occasion that ever his soul was acquainted with when he was most full of his own concernments and had most cause of fear that his appearing for others might do harm rather then good yet then he ventures to frop a word for Sion and remembers Jerusalem amidst his greatest grief as well as he prefers her before his chiefest joy do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Jeresalem What his sinnes had weakened and attempted to ruine he endeavours to strengthen and repair by his prayers and seldome do ye see him rise from of his knees before he had pleaded the Churches cause and oftentimes he makes that his only errand as you may find by severall Psalms pend for no other purpose Nay many times the best pleaders feel not their hearts warm in the work till they come out of the narrow circle of their own personall concernments and launch into the business of the body of Christ and then are their hearts fixed 06 by the spirit of grace and