Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	lord_n	word_n	16,070	5	4.2011	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97070	Cordifragium, or, The sacrifice of a broken heart, open'd, offer'd, own'd, and honour'd. Presented in a sermon at St Pauls London, November 25. 1660. By Francis Walsall D.D. chaplain to his Majesty, and prebendary of St. Peters Westminster.	Walsall, Francis, d. 1661.	1661 (1661)	Wing W625; Thomason E1081_4; ESTC R203982	34,513	56

heart who healeth the broken in heart and giveth Ps 1●● 30. them medicine to heale their sicknes But I will not anticipat an application with a preface only give me leave to breath out a short ejaculation and so to our work the Lord give us broken hearts break us that we may be broken and breake us that we may not be broken and give us contrite spirits that we be not reserved to fall under the weight of that sad and antient Porphesie Conterendj * Polychr●●icon that we may be contriti that we be not Conterendi But to the words Beza and our learned Fuller approves his judgment sayes that the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fulleri miscell p. 224. lib. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 15. rightly dividing the word of truth is a metaphore that alludes to the Priests dividing the Sacrifices under the Law and probably enough because in preaching the word the Minister chooseth and singles out a particular Text out of all the ●●ock of Scripture to be consecrated for that use as a Sacrifice by dividing it part for God and part for his people and to the people their due share in their due season therefore the businesse of my Text being Sacrifices I shall open it as they used to open the Sacrifices under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the meaning of St Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are naked and open so we read it but it is rather opened as they used to open the Sacrifices of the Law throwgh the middle from the neck downward as we see it cleared in the practise of Abraham Gen. 15. 10. And he took the Sacrifices and divide them in the mid'st and layd each piece one against another and this beareth a huge proportion with our Text for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an iron sinew in theneck and a stone in the heart speak the same thing in Scripture and must be both alike Sacrificed and broken so shall I Sacrifice my Text by so breaking of it that is just in the midst into two parts and lay the the parts one against another thus The two parts are 1. Sacrifices offered 2. Sacrifices owned and honoured 1. Sacrifices offered the Sacrifices of God that is offered to God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart 2. Sacrifices owned and honoured a broken heart and contrite spirit for I must put both into both God will not despise 1. Sacrifices offered the Sacrifices offered to God a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart here are two participles in the Hebrew which make two weighty Epithets upon which lies the whole stresse and burden of the Text and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one signifies to break whole things all of a piece and the other signifies to breake hard things all to pieces that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of a higher streine to break a thing to powder So Psal 94. 5. They break in pieces thy people O Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Job 19. 2. How long will ye vex my soul and break me in pieces with words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atteretis me will ye grinde me to powder So that put both together and you have here Heart a whole Heart broken in pieces and a Heart a hard Heart beaten to powder things must be whole or they cannot be broken to pieces and they must be hard or they cannot be beaten to powder so that this breaking this beating speakes violence the macerations and martyrizations of repentance that holy violence and force that Heaven is taken with Therefore a Heart so used is called a broken and a contrite heart Thus it signifies a soul truly humbled beaten and broken and ground to powder in this sense it is applyed to Christ Es 53. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to break him in pieces thus in the same sense you finde contrite and humble put together twice in one Text Es 57. 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones A broken heart then is a spirit duly and deeply humbled under the sense of sin for the School gives a distinction between Attrition and Contrition the object of Attrition is the evil of punishment but the object Contrition is the evil of sin So that a broken heart is a heart bleeding under the sight and sense of and sorrow for sin 2. Part is the Sacrifices owned and honoured and to this you rise in state by three stepps 1. Sacrifices 2. Sacrifices of God 3. Such Sacrifices as God will not despise 1. Sacrifices in the Plural Number all Sacrifices as if all other sacrifices were either nothing at all to this or without this or all in all in this of a broken heart when we beate or breake hard things into minute parts or powder we call it the flower of it a broken heart is slos cordis the flower of the heart and that is the Flower of all Sacrifices and the finer the flower that is the more beaten or broken the fitter offering for God Thus truly pulvis sanctus is pulvis cardia●us the Heart powder is the holy powder Besides the ordinary Frankincense for common uses the finest and fittest for Gods Rev. 2 17. 1 Pet. 3. 41. service and sacrifices the Physicians call Manna thuris the Broken and Contrite heart is Manna cordis the Hidden Manna of the Hidden man of the heart the Broken heart is not only for all services but for all Sacrifices nay is all Sacrifices Every ragg every shiver every graine every atome of the Broken Heart is a whole burnt offering nay a hecatomb of Sacrifices 2. The satcrifices of God it is a frequent Scripture-phrase to raise the price of things of excellence and eminence above others by adding the name of God to them as the waters of God the mountain of God the Cedars of God and so here the Sacrifices of God that is the most excellent sacrifices We have it in the new Testament The Peace of God that is such a Peace as do's not only passe other Peaces but all understanding Phil. 4. 7. But I conceive there is more in it than so the sacrifices of God that is the sacrifices that God do's most owne and honour and is most interested in as if he had said all other sacrifices are but the sacrifices of men Bullocks and Rammes Sheepe and Goats Turtles and Pigeons Beasts and Birds Fruits and Flowers these were but the sacrifices of men but my son give me thy heart sais God that is the Prov. 23. 26.

sacrifice he only delights in all the rest without this are an abomination to him these alone are the Sacrifices of God for here as he did to Abraham God Ezek. 36. 26. himself provides the Sacrifice for himself for he alone that is the heart-maker is the heart-breaker it is Gods prerogative royall to take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh it is no wonder if he liks his own choice and accepts what himself provides He is the feast the guest the wellcome and therefore sure he will not despise his own cheere and tha is thet 3d Step by which we rise to Gods owning and honouring these sacrifices that God will not despise them You will say this is but a very thin and low and slight way of honouring a thing not to despise it Sol. I answer that under this lower phrase of owning them that God will not despise them is to be understood Gods choisest way of accepting and honouring them in the highest degree as if he had said as the Apostle sai's of that other sacrifice of doing good and distributing Heb 13. 16. With such sacrifices God is well pleased so v. 17. The same chapt Obey them that have the Rule over you c. For it is profitable for you this is but a short expression and reaches not home to the Apostles meaning for according to his own Doctrine it is not only profitable to do it but it is damnable not to doe it because it is to be done for Christs sake and consience sake so 1 Thes 5. 20. Despise not prophecying here is our word again the Apostles meaning here is that we should honour prophecying though he sai's only despise it not and though this Text in the lowest sense has been so long too much despised even under high pretenses of doing it honour yet certainly he that would have honour and double Honour given to the Ministers for their workes sake would not have lesse given to the work it self Thus these sacrifices God will not despise that is God will accept them own them honour them above all other sacrifices in the world The result of all these clearings of the sense is this that a Broken heart is the most acceptable sacrifice to God which he most own 's most honours A principle that needs improving more than proving and therefore the wheels and hinges my discourse shall move upon shall be these four only 1. What a broken and a contrite heart is 2. Some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Characters or rules by which a man may be able to pass a judgment upon his heart whether it be truly broken 3. Some whets to sharpen your desires and indeavors after a broken heart 4. Some arguments to quicken your Care and Caution that you give not over your paines till you be sure the work is done that when all is done you be not deceived in this important duty 1. What is a broken and a contrite heart and here because Contraria inter se posita magis elucescunt Contraries are the best fyles to set off and to set out one another I will pave my way to a Broken heart out of the qua●ry of a hard Heart you may please to know then that there is a threefold hardness of heart 1. A naturall 2. An acquired 3. A Judicial hardness of heart 1. A naturall hardness of heart which every man brings into the world with him we are all born Prodigies and Monsters with stones in our bosomes neather mill-stones in our hearts thus the Apostle characters the Gentiles Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts so we reade it but it should be because of the hardnesse of their hearts so saies the margin and so should have said the Text for besides that blindnesse is understood in the words before having the understanding darkned and the words following through the ignorance that is in them is in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which very expression you have translated hardness of heart elswhere viz Mark 3. 5. Being grieved for the hardness of their hearts And yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And that it must be hardness and not blindness the derivation of the word speakes For the Greeks derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of which is to harden by the sticking to of viscous and glutinous waters as the stone hardens in the Reines and Bladder And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies hardness and is by a kind of Catachresticall metaphore used for those tophi or hard swellings of purulent matter grown into a callous or brawny substance in the joynts or Lunges as Arist tells us in his historia animalium and that with all reverence to the memory of the learned Translators this is not my Conjecture only but the sense of the Spirit I shall give you a Text where both these words are used in their proper sense distinctly Joh. 12. 40. He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath blinded and he hath hardened This is that naturall hardness of heart which I am speaking off not so much blindness as a Consequent and effect of it a hardness that grow's from blindness it is hard as well as blind nay hard because blind to lappe up both in one English word it may be stone-blind for it speakes an affected ignorance blindness in spite of light and sight 2. There is an acquired hardness Heb. 3. 13. least any of you be hardned through the deceitfullness of sin Sin cheates us into custome and custome out of conscience Sin is like some waters that have a naturall petrifying quality and will harden any thing into stone that lays any time in them Let a godly manly in any sin any time neglect duty and give himself a loose to the world and he shall see in how short a time a crust will grow over his heart a scirrus upon his conscience that will make him both unwilling to duty and unweildy in duty his faith will take winde and be apt to taint when he keeps not close to God in duty Delicata res est spiritus sanstus the spirit of God is a dainty tender thing and soone snibd no marvell therefore if that heart be hard that has driven away the softning spirit 3. There is a judiciall hardness of heart a hardness that comes or rather is sent upon the heart by the just judgment of God to punish those other hardenesses the Lord does many times turne as it was reported whether true or false I know not our hearts as he did the people in Tripoly into stone in judgment as we see Es 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy

sin it was a sin of the first magnitude a sin of malice the worst of sins a devil-sin 2. From the end as well as the kind of his sin for his end in blaspheming the gospell was only to establish the righteousness of the Law which being a sin so diametrically opposite to Christ made him a greater sinner then all the harlots and Publicans in the world 3. The Apostle compares himself only with the worst of sinners that were saved in his time because those meanes prevailed for their conversion that did not for his Publicans and harlots were converted by the preaching of the Gospel nay even those that crucified Christ but if the Lord himself from heaven had not appeared to him and in a most miraculous manner spoken to him himself dazeled him into light and blinded him into sight and frighted him into obedience it is but too probable he had died in his sin 4. Duo cum faciunt idem non est idem One may commit the very same sin another does and yet there may be more malice and pollution in the one than in the other as being heightened by many aggravating circumstances as committing the sin against more light and stronger covictions with a stronger bent of the will and earnestness and eagernesse of affections and St. Paul here judges how much of his spirit went out in his sin Surely no mans soul was ever drawn out with a more mad zeal to persecute Christ than his was So that lay all together and it will lessen the wonder that he should judge himself the chiefest of sinners that Christ came to save and he meanes no other though I am not convinced but that a great Saint may say he is as great a sinner as any of the damned in hell and I could make it good had I time or were there need But I will say it is very proper and proportionable to a broken heart to think so for he cannot be thought to think too low of himself that thinks himself nothing And that is the 7. Broken sigh that in any thing in every thing the broken heart thinks himself lost and nothing without Christ And he may be said to own himself nothing in four respects 1. In respect of his own righteousness 2. In respect of his own pains and parts 3. In respect of his own aims and ends 4. In respect of his own comforts and contentments 1. The broken heart is nothing in respect of his own righteousness He dares not stand up in his own justification and plead his innocence before Isa 64. 6. the Tribunall of God but rather falls down upon his face acknowledging with the Prophet that he is an unclean thing and all his righteousnesses filthy raggs all his righteousnesses his pretty formalities of and pretences to holiness his pluralityes of righteousness are but raggs tattered and torn things that will not cover his nakedness and filthy raggs such as defile rather than adorn him with the Leper he lays his hand upon his mouth and his Lev. 13. 45. mouth in the dust cries Unclean unclean This low posture you find the great Apostle in Phil. 3. 9. That I may be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness The whole ninth Chapter of Job is full of this holy emptiness and humble disowning his own righteousness How shall I be just with God I cannot answer one of a thousand If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse And I know thou wilt not hold me innocent All which being summed up amounts but to Davids totall in that confession he makes Psal 143. 2. Enter not into Judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Nay there is a thread of this renouncing and disclaiming our own righteousness runs quite through the whole web of Scripture which shall supersede any farther proofs only take notice that here is the great stick of an unbroken heart you shall discover his ignorance and infidelity in this point mainly that he is alwayes hammering at and fixi●g upon his own righteousness something in himself This is the language of ordinary people their good prayers and their good works what they have done and what they will do Or if they be not altogether so gross they will yet mingle the righteousness of Jesus Christ with their own They will not take all to themselves nor yet give all to Christ but part stakes with him Nec meum nec tuum sed dividatur nor mine nor 1 King 3. 25. thine but let it be divided like Salomons harlot and it was a whores trick and it is the trick of the great whore at this day But take notice it was the mother of the dead childe that would have the living childe divided at least if they may not share and club with Christ they will have Christ in a way of their own not to make an Idol of Christ O have a care of that Whereas he that truly findes he is any thing in Christ will as truly finde he is nothing in himself without Christ It is the character of a Christian which I am sure a man can never be till his heart be broken that he is nothing a very nothing a thing that is not His very being is not to be at all this same miracle of men and mystery to men a Saint is not a man nay is not at all See how the Apostle cleares this truth 1 Cor. 1. 27 28. God hath chosen the foolish things and the weak things and the base things c. and the things that are not to bring to nought the Homines nibili Erasm in loc things that are Certainly these things that are not are the Saints that is that are not in themselves but that being they have is in another not only naturally as St. Paul quotes the Poet Act. 17. 28. In whom we live move and have our being but that supernaturall being of a Christian is wholly from and in Christ From him they have their nature as well as name and therefore called Partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat causam primariam ut Rom. 11. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. Eras Gro● 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus that ye are at all it is not at all of your selves but of him that is Christ By the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15. 10. Otherwise I am not Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me You have this spirituall man that is a heart broken from the world and dead to it painted to the life by the Pencill of the Spirit in that Phaenix of the old world E●och Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him I am not ignorant that St. Paul takes this in the literall sense Heb. 11.