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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	bring_v	heart_n	seed_n	1,592	5	7.7636	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

to bring the soule backe againe you must therefore take a great deale of paines with your hearts That which is said of Ministers fullones animarum fullers of mens soules that is every man now to be himselfe to wash out the staines of his heart and to make his soule whiter as it is Dan. 11. and that will move GOD either not to bring afflictions or to remove them and therefore clense your hearts from all pollution of flesh and spirit and know that to get staines of a deepe dye out will cost a great deale of paines you must scoure till your soules ake againe and though it cause the skinne to come off and if you do the worke your selves thus and plow your owne hearts GOD shall not need to doe it by afflictions therefore doe it and give not over till you have done it and have brought your hearts to be throughly humbled for them for that is a great meanes to doe it What else is the meaning of that in Iames 4. Cleanse your hearts yee sinners c. but how should we doe it would some say afflict your selves and mourne and let your laughter be turned into mourning bee content to sit alone get out of company and not to take your former liberties and mourne and humble your selves and doe it constantly for it is not bowing downe the head for a day which God regards but let sorrow abide in your hearts It is continuance that God regards doe it and doe it to purpose for the want of this is the reason of the coldnesse and remisnesse in our profession namely that we are not throughly and constantly humbled it is the ground of every grace and the growth of it What seed is sowne in a heart broken in pieces thrives and prospers but all instructions falling upon an heart not broken will bring forth no fruit If you were humbled wee should find wonderfull fruit of our Ministery Doe this therefore but one day and you will be the fitter for it the next Sorrow should be as a spring that runs a long constantly from day to day The sorrowes of many are but as land-flouds and take heed that the continuance of this duty from weeke to weeke make you not slacken your course herein suffer not your hands to faint When these duties are new you are apt to do much but when a while continued to bee perfunctory in them And let not any man complaine that he loseth a daies work for is there any work so necessary as the salvation of the soule Neither complaine that a daies study is lost for is there any excellency to the saving Image of God stampt on the heart Wee are hence to be exhorted to chuse the Lord for our God when you heare hee is so mercifull a God for no man ever served the Lord but he first made choyce of him to be his Master Every man when he comes to yeares of discretion and to be master of himselfe adviseth with himselfe what course he should take whether he should serve God or the world Now all the Saints of God have made this distinct choyce we will serve the Lord and goe to no other Moses when both stood before him the pleasures of Aegypt on the one hand and God and his people with their afflictions on the other hee chose the latter before the former Heb. 11. 25. So David sayth he did I have chosen the way of truth thy Iudgements have I laid before mee Psal. 119. 30. for to chuse is when a thing lyes before a man and hee considers and takes it So Ioshua I and my house will serve the Lord. Now I exhort you that seeing you are to make some choyce that seeing God is such a God so exceeding mercifull that you would make this choyce let him be your God for what moves a man to make choyce of one course of life rather then another the ground of it is some happinesse that he seekes when men consider what makes most for their happinesse that they will chuse Now if men were perswaded that to chuse God were the best way for happinesse they could not but chuse him and surely if God be so exceeding kind and mercifull a God their chiefest happinesse cannot but be found in him alone and surely there is no husband no friend so loving as he no father so kind as he so tender hearted he goes beyond all the sonnes of men for love and tendernesse and kindnesse for if there be any kindnesse in any man or woman the Lord hath put it in him That naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and affection in Parents c. is not a drop to that Ocean not as a beame to the Sunne to what is in him And if the kindnesse in them be an excellency then surely it is in him And if the Lord hath commanded us to be amiable and full of bowells and goodnesse and easie to be entreated as being a part of that his image and that holy frame of heart which ought to be in us is it not then much more in himselfe but that I may not urge a bare exhortation without some reason Consider how mercifull the Lord hath beene to us and how gracious he is to them that make choyce of him for first hee giveth them the comfort of his presence and there is no comfort like that For joy and comfort is nothing else but the agreeablenesse of a thing to a mans minde applicatio convenientis convenienti Now there is nothing that better agreeth with mans minde then the presence and face of God for lusts and pleasures are the diseases of the soule and the pleasures that agree to them are the destruction of it Besides when thou art reconciled to him thou art out of all debt and danger he will set thy soule at rest that was rest lesse before And besides when thou hast the Lord to be thy God thou hast one to whom thou maiest goe and unbosome thy selfe to advise withall when thou canst not g●● to any in the world one thou maist fetch comfort from when thou seest no comfort any where else thou maist runne to him as to a refuge when thou art overwhelmed with oppositions slanders and ill reports and besides all this and the glory which we shall have in heaven consider what there is that thy heart can desire that hee will not doe for thee If thou hast any businesse to doe God will doe it better for thee then thou canst for thy selfe the Lord workes all our workes in us and for us Esay 26. 12. Art thou a Scholler and hast studies to bring to perfection a Tradesman and hast enterprises to bring to passe art in straights he will be entreated of thee to doe all for thee if thou go to him and hee will bring it better to passe then thou canst with all thy policie Againe Art thou fallen into poverty into sicknes into disgrace thou shalt finde

mee doe said hee then and hee was as good as his word Therefore take knowledge you that doe fall away what the defect hath beene and wherein for that will bee a meanes to set you right and recover you againe 3 Property of Humiliation is to have all the affections moderate all delights in worldly things faint and remisse and all his affections taken chiefly up about grace and sinne True affection in him wil eate up the false He esteemeth spirituall things at a high rate and all other things as little Aske such an one what of all things else he would desire and he will tell you Christ and the favour of God and the graces of the Spirit and to have his lusts mortified and his sinnes pardoned and that hee passeth not for the things of this life hee cares not in comparison whether he bee poore or rich bond or free notwithstanding if hee may have a better con dition hee will use it rather as a man that is condemned to die little regards hee his estate or the things of this life his apprehensions are taken up with greater things give him his pardon and take al else So here one truly humbled counts the favour of God so great as he esteemes all things else light in comparison When therefore men are violent in their affections towards worldly things and in their desires and delights in them and endeavours after them it is a signe they are not humbled 4 Property is to love God and Christ much Mary loved much because much was forgiven her that is not simply that much was forgiven her but because withal she had a sence of it apprehended it as much and her sin great by a worke of humiliation and so apprehended it a great matter to be pardoned And so a man having once apprehended death and hell and the wrath of GOD as belonging to him and God comes on a suddaine and tells him thou shalt live when his necke was on the blocke and hee expected nothing but death this causeth a man to love GOD much and to prize CHRIST and this made Saint Paul also to love CHRIST so much that the love of Christ constrained him because I was a persecuter and a blasphemer and he died for me forgave me a great debt Hee that is truly humbled will bee content with any condition as the Prodigall sonne I am content to be as an hired servant sayes hee and am unworthy to bee called a sonne any more hee was content to doe the worke of a servant to live in the condition of a servant to have the lowest place in all the familie And so Saint Paul look'd on himselfe as the least of all the Saints thought hee could never lay himselfe low enough Now this contentednesse is exercised about two things In a contentednesse in the want of these outward good things when a man is content with the meanest services and the least wages to want wealth and credit and gifts as Iacob being truly humbled I am lesse than the least of thy mercies whereas an other man that is not humbled when hee lookes upon himselfe and GODS mercies hee enjoyes he thinking highly of himself thinkes himselfe too big for them and that the disproportion is rather on his side whereas Iacob though he then had many mercies yet said take the least mercie and lay it in one scale and my selfe in an other and I am too light for it lesse than it and it too much for me It is exercised in bearing crosses One that is truly humbled still blesseth GOD as Iob and beares and accepts the punishment of his iniquity willingly and cherefully as we see it made a condition Lev. 26. 41. If their uncircumcised heart be humbled and they beare or accept the punishment of their iniquity if the Lord lay upon him a sharpe disease say the plague disreputation poverty yet hee beareth it willingly and chearefully for when a man thinkes in earnest that which is said Ezech. 36. that hee is worthy to be destroyed whatsoever befalls him from God which is lesse than destruction hee blesseth God for it and rejoyceth that he escapeth so The humble man therefore is in all conditions contented alwayes chearefull and blessing God if he hath good things they are more then he is worthy of if evill though never so sharpe yet they are lesse than destruction and then he deserves when as an unbroken heart is alwayes turbulent and thinkes in the secret murmurings of his heart that he is not well dealt with I should come now to the application of this Doctrine but before I must resolve a case and scruple which doth use to trouble the hearts of many The Case in question is whether to right and true humiliation it be necessary that such a solemne humiliation and such a measure of sorrow and violent Legall contrition goe before it There is a double kind of sorrow wrought in the hearts of men the one is a violent tumultuous sorrow which ariseth from the apprehension of hell and punishment the ground whereof is self-love and is commonly in those who are suddainely enlightened and so amazed therewith being taken on the suddaine as wee see in Saint Paul who was taken suddainely as hee was going to Damascus and it was discovered to him that hee was guilty of so great a sinne as he could never have imagined a voyce from heaven to strike his eares on the suddaine why persecutest thou me And this wee find by experience to have beene in many who never have true humiliation as wee see in Iudas God indeed sometimes useth it to bring men to humiliation as he did in Saint Paul But again we find in experience in some a cleaving to God and holinesse of life and a constant care to please him in all things without this violent vexing sorrow and many that have had their hearts deeply wounded amazed affrighted and have therupon taken up great purposes which have come to nothing the ground whereof having beene a violent passion as that the roote withered so the fruit withered also but a true apprehension and conviction of sin as in it selfe the greatest misery is more reall and drawes the heart nearer to Christ so that in this case we may say of these two sorts as Christ said of those who were bidden to goe into the vineyard They that said they would goe did not and others that said they would not goe yet went and therefore wee answer that it is not alwayes necessary to have such a violent sorrow or that a man should lie any long time in such an evident sence of wrath though alwayes there is a right apprehension of sin which doth humble a man which will appeare by these considerations 1 That is not alwayes the greatest sorrow that is thus violent though it seeme to bee so it is not alwayes the greatest sorrow which melteth into teares as that is

payment God requires all this humiliation and these purposes and an act of turning beside All is lost labour unlesse there bee a divorce made from your sinnes Well therefore might Daniel say to Nebuchadnezzar Breake off thy sinnes by righteousnes and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poore Daniel 4. 27. Daniel doth not exhort Nebuchadnezzar to prayer onely c. though this is likewise to be done but to breake off his sinnes by righteousnesse that is whereas he was an oppressor now he must give almes and take off their burthens that is take the contrary course This is the counsell GOD gives to Ioshua Ioshua 7. 8. when he was humbling himselfe and praying Get thee up take away the accursed thing from among you c. that is this is not the way to fast though this is to be done too that which I most looke after is taking away the evill that hath provoked mee Though this bee a truth acknowledged yet looke into mens hearts there is a false conceit lurking there that hearing the word receiving the Sacrament c. is enough to save them Men would thinke their estates absolutely bad if they should performe none of these duties and wholly neglect them but if they come to Church give some almes c. then they think that all is well But know that except you actually turne from all evill wayes all these performances are in vaine And to convince you of this consider that the end of the word conference and Sacraments is to turne you from your evill wayes therefore God accepts them no further then they have this effect Thou shalt keepe my ordinances and statutes that thou mayest walke in my wayes to feare me saith the LORD that is the end of al ordinances and statutes so that though there bee never so much done yet except your lusts be mortified and victory got over those sins which are most connaturall to you al is lost Againe consider that those duties in which you trust as we are al apt so to do as reading good Bookes confessing thy sinnes if they be rightly performed they will worke a true change and if they doe not it is asigne they are but carcases not accepted without this fruit what are they but bodily exercises though happily performed with some intention of minde because they profit nothing 1 Tim. 4 8. for the Apostle calls that Bodily exercise which profiteth little therefore Rom. 2 ult there is a distinction put betwixt a Iew in spirit and in the letter and so betweene a right and a false performance of the duties of the Law the one in the letter the other in the spirit the one respects the outward part of the duty only the other the inward and if they be not inward in the spirit and so thereby effectuall to work a general change both in their hearts and lives their praise may be of men that is you your selves and others may thinke you good Christians but their praise is not of GOD saith the Apostle wee are all Gods husbandry the Ministers d●essers of it the ordinances are the manuring of it Now what is the end of all husbandry is it not fruit is it enough for the trees to say wee have submitted our selves to all manuring watering c. but wee are still as barren or our fruit as bad as before Mal. 3. 2. The end of CHRISTS comming is made to be as a refiner to scoure out staines which place being compared with that of the first of Esay where GOD sayes He abhorred their new moones and sacrifices because their silver was become drosse both afford this that the end of Christs comming being to purge out this drosse therefore if this be not done all performances new Moones Sacrifices c. are in vaine Conclude therefore that except there be an universall change both of the object from evill to all good and of the subject in all the faculties except this be wrought in you you shal surely die for it the LORD will not forgive you or heare in heaven when you cry though you shed never so many false teares If this bee the condition upon which mercy is suspended this also followes that good purposes and intentions will not serve the turne not but that these must bee precedent to every mans turning and when they are true they doe bring forth this effect of turning from all evill wayes whatsoever But as there is a purpose which is true and the ground of sincerity so there are false ones also the true alwayes continues and brings forth constant endeavours and fruits but the other leaves us where it findes us and quickly dies and withers There is so much in a carnall man as may breed good purposes and desires and resolutions viz. naturall conscience and desires of preservation and salvation which two put together worke serious purposes but this being all but flesh still is not able to worke so through a change as we see in moorish ground and in a rotten fenny soyle that it brings forth broad long grasse which soone withers and decayes neither is it sweet nor usefull So is it with conscience enlightned to see a mans duty and selfe-love they produce good purposes and in shew great and serious but yet such as the people there expressed Deut. 5. 29. who purposed to keepe the Law but Oh saith God that there were an heart to feare mee as if he had said the soyle the ground is not good for these purposes to grow in therefore they will surely wither there wants a heart changed to afford roote to them and to nourish them The next point is gathered from the order of the words turning from our evill wayes being put last of all these foure conditions because all the other doe but make way for this All the other prayer and humiliation are but preparatives to this As the end of all dressing and pruning of trees is the fruit and the end of plowing and sowing is the bringing forth of corne so the end of all other duties is turning from our evill wayes and the end is alwayes hardest omnis difficultas in ipsa summitate in the utmost pitch and top of the hill this being the utmost of all the other is therefore the hardest Therefore the Prophets urge this upon all occasions if you turne cease to do evill rend your hearts then will I leave a blessing behind me In that this is the pin upon which all hangs and is suspended observe thence That it is a very difficult thing to turne from a mans evill wayes That this is the difficultest duty of all else wee see plaine in the Israelites The Iewes religion was very costly they being to kill so many Sacrifices to keepe so many Feasts yet they were content to doe all this but not to turne they would not bee brought to it when yet to any thing else Whence appeares this

those hearers signified by the second and third ground did who received the seed with joy and as those of whom it is sayd Christ would not commit himself to them but stay with him men will not unlesse they be humbled For unlesse a man be brought to part with al for Christ and to sell all he will in the end repent of his bargaine if there bee a reservation of any thing the time will come he will goe backe and start aside like a broken Bowe and untill a man be throughly humbled he will not be brought to part with all for CHRIST he that is humbled he onely is the Merchant-like minded man who sells all hee hath and goes away rejoycing is glad at the heart that hee hath Christ though with the losse of the whole world he is willing to take Christ upon all conditions with losses and crosses and to deny himselfe in every thing for he knowes the bitternesse of sin and so sets such a price upon Christ as if the bargaine were to make againe he would doe as hee had done but the other what he hath done in a fit he repents him of afterwards and therefore true repentance which godly sorrow and true humiliation worketh is called repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7. 10. Other sorrow than Godly may worke a repentance but it is such as men afterwards repent of Men are soone weary of the yoke of CHRIST because they have not felt how grievous the yoke of sin and Sathan is but to one who hath felt the burthen of sin the yoke of CHRIST is easie and sweete The last Reason hath relation to the last thing here promised of taking away the Iudgements and healing the Land God should not have the praise of his Iudgements and of his Mercy in taking them away unlesse men were humbled for if when God did afflict men he should restore them againe without this humiliation men would thinke that God wronged them before and now did but right them but when God hath humbled them so farre that they acknowledge his Iustice in afflicting them and their owne desert to be utterly destroyed and confesse that it is his mere Mercy they were not consumed and humble themselves under his mighty hand and now if the Iudgement be taken off and his wrath blowne over then they give him the praise of his Mercy and Iudgements Thus you see why of necessity it is required Now let us see the reason of the order of it why it is required thus in the first place It is the first condition here there is something in the order and to be said by way of reason for it and the reason in generall is because nothing is acceptable to God till the heart be humbled You may pray which is another condition and you may heare c. but all you doe is but lost labour unlesse it come from a broken heart For first that is alone a fit sacrifice for God without which act no sacrifice is accepted This you may see Psalme 51. 16 17. Thou desirest not sacrifice else I would give it thee thou delightest not in burnt offerings The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite hart oh God thou wilt not despise David knew that till his heart was broken all his good deeds and all holy duties would have beene in vaine and it is as if David should have said Lord before I was thus humbled and my heart thus broken as in the beginning of the Psalme hee had expressed that it was Thou didst desire no sacrifice of me nor wouldst have delighted in no burnt offering from mee but the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and other duties but as they come from it This is the maine sacrifice and with out it nothing acceptable unlesse it be laid upon this low Altar which sanctifies the Sacrifice As it is only a fit Sacrifice for God so this only makes us fit Priests to God and before we are fit to offer a sacrifice acceptable we must be Priests and we become not Priests to God till we have offered our selves first to God as a sacrifice 2 Cor. 8. 5. and that we are not till we our selves be slaine and broken and so made a sacrifice Nothing is accepted till the Holy Ghost dwell in the heart and untill a man bee Humbled the Spirit of God dwells not in his heart And therefore what he doth till then savours not of the Spirit but a carnall heart and so is not acceptable Til a man is humbled he keepes the doore shut upon the Lord and His Spirit There is one within his heart is full already hee dwells in his owne heart himselfe therefore it is said Esa. 57. 15. That he dwells in a contrite heart that is in it alone for there is only roome for him to do what he will in all the chambers of it Vntill a man will be obedient in all things no thing he doth is acceptable Hee that turnes his eare from the Law his prayer shall bee abominable Now one that is not humbled throughly hee may bee obedient in many things hee may pray c. but yet he will have by wayes of his owne he hath not fully renounced himselfe that is not Humbled Now unlesse a mans obedience be generall nothing is acceptable And so wee come to the second thing propounded what this humiliation is and herein our maine enquiry is after that which is mainely intended in the text What it is to humble a mans selfe But because the finding of it out depends upon the other also wee will with it shew also what it is to be humbled that so wee may the better know the true humiliation required of us and for the finding out of this wee will first set before you the examples of them who have humbled themselves and have been humbled in Scripture and from thence gather what it is For this you shall finde Manasses in the 2 Chro● 33. in his affliction humbling himselfe greatly and the Lord was intreated of him vers 12. Likewise wee have that of S. Paul humbled Acts 9. 6 where we find him trembling and astonished and saying Lord what wil● thou have me doe See another example in Acts 2. 37. of those who were prickt in their hearts crying out what shall we do to bee saved And so of the Goaler Acts 16. who came trembling and astonied and would have killed himself and likewise of the Prodigall Luk. 15. which though a parable yet sets forth this condition of a soule humbled to us of whom it is said that none gave unto him and that hee came unto himselfe c. Out of all these we gather those two maine parts of Humiliation mentioned humiliation passive and active The first whereof makes way for the second unto which no promise is made and which may be found in an unregenerate man the second which is