Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A43044
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A free-will offering by James Harwood ...
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Harwood, James.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing H1097; ESTC R8676
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24,477
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96
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that he calls to minde how in despite of Pharaoh and his Host from the House of Bondage it was thou O Lord who didst lead thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron Gods Deliverance when past all hopes in Humane reason is a strong Rampire to keep off Despair Let us bear then with patience all our crosses since the Arm of the Lord is not shortned He saves by unities as well as universalities and one Moses and one Aaron is enough for him to lead his people out of Egypt But Magistracy and Ministery are under a cloud and yet the people like sheep are led by those the Lord hath set over them You see adversity of old could not make disloyal Subjects but prosperity of late hath buoyed up too many into Rebellion This is too apparent parent while all the people like sheep were led by the hand of Moses and Aaron But in our times Moses and Aaron have been led like sheep to the slaughter by the hand of the common people I shall not so much inveigh against our bloody Regicides as commend these loyal subjects though in a forreign Land and they all captivated yet the words import their obedience to their Superiors they are at the command of Moses their head Magistrate and Aaron their prime Diocesan Where Loyalty and Conformity is the Coat Deliverance by the Prince and Priest is the Cresh we shall stick in the mine till these bring us out of the dirt Know it That obedience to the Law of the Land and the Discipline of the Church assure deliverance We may suffer long and see small help yet let us live in Loyalty to the King and obedience to our Aaron and God will bless us There hath been no want on Gods part we want hearts seriously to consider what great things our great God hath brought to pass for the good of us by the hand of our Moses and our Aaron by the meekness of the one and wisdom of them both they have settled the Laity in their Lands and the Clergy in their Livings So that now to the praise of God and comfort of us and all ours we can say Though not out of the Land of Egypt yet out of the house of Bondage thou O Lord hast led thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron It is thou O Lord nil desper andum Caesare duce Thou didst lead that 's our joy the work is done and we delivered But who are these the Lord delivered A people for plurality thine for propriety It is Gods good will to be guid to the people whilest led they are sure not to be misled For thy people thine by Creation thine by Redemption Redemption spiritual from the Power of the old man Redemption Corporal from the sons of Belial But thou O Lord hast led the people like sheep Israel of old Ireland of late like sheep Thou hast led us not to the slaughter but from the slaughter-house the High-Court of high-in-justice and many slain and yet we thy people were like sheep scarce opening our mouthes before the Shearers content to part with our fleece to save our flesh What is more innocent the sheep And what had we done against them that did rise up against us Thus O Lord thou hast called back the Captivity of a people as harmless as sheep for neither against our King nor Kingdom were we Offenders But it is here said O Lord how thou ledst thy people by the hand to point out the way not by the sword to cut out a way But this is done by hand of Moses and Aaron and blessed be those Counsellours to our King who when it was War have made Peace The worst of Enemies if they have the least of Grace will shake hands with this Moses and this Aaron The twain are said to have one hand to note an unanimity O happy is the Land when these go hand in hand the Prince and the Prelate Then is the best of times when Aaron bows to Moses his Scepter and Moses by Law upholds Aarons Mitre Though these be the Instruments God's the Author of our Deliverance Our help then stood in the Lord our God for thou didst lead us out and brought us in for our sin thou didst punish us and of thy mercy thou forgavest us we may blame our selves for our captivity It is to thee O Lord we give thanks for our liberty But thou who dwellest in Heaven made use of some choice servants upon earth to redeem us as the Israelites yet give thanks but to thy name be the praise Here must we after a thankful acknowledgement made to thee our God not neglect to honor those whom under thee O God thou hast honored to be our Church and State Restorers Blessed shall they be in the Kingdom of Heaven who under God and the King have been instrumental to set at freedom this Kingdom It is fawning flattery but Christian civility to bless them both who have the chief Government in this our Church and Kingdom whose hands and hearts these many years have been lifted up to God by prayer for us when others had made a prey of us whose grave counsels added to the wisdom of our young Solomon have brought to nought the Worldly wisdom of all Trayterous Achitophels Let us acquiesce under the pious Goverment of their Graces since no new custom but the old fashion thus to be governed and thus to govern for of old O Lord thou didst lead thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron A home CHARGE for all Subjects Prov. 24.21 Fear God and the King THe Object of fear is God in Heaven The King on Earth God in the first place the King in the second I must so reverence God that I slight not his Vice-gerent and so observe my King that I forget not to be the servant of the living God Love advises To fear God Allegiance bindes to stand in aw of the King The one for that The Father of Spirits the other for that Pater Patriae the Father of the Countrey But let us look at these two conjunct severed Conjunct as if no fear of God in them that injure the King as if the Civil Governor be contemned our Celestial Commander is lightly set by Fear God And shew thy self religious Thy fear to offend the King witnesses thou art righteous The first Commandment involves our fearing God the fifth our fearing the King In the first Table it s the first thing which God takes care of To fear him In the second Table the first precept implicite To honor the King While you do no homage to the person of your Prince fear to offend him is far to seek But since God commands all and the King immediate Vice-gerent unto God This considered all are engaged to Fear God and the King This Precept is like the waters of Trial Numb 5. The water tryed whether that a pure Spouse this who is
earth He is within sight Nam Deus videt God sees within cry for saith he Call on me in trouble and I will hear thee He houses in thy house Know ye not your bodies are the houses of the Holy Ghost A Cordial and may comfort Gods childe a Corrosive and cuts to the quick the sons of Belial God sees thy afflictions and can ease thee He knoweth the impetuous wantonness of the wicked and will punish him But why should I lay on load when God bids Hold off Hands This Scripture is not alledged to terrifie evil livers but to support such as are surround with sorrow Thou livest well and farest ill servest God and art misused by men It is pity that for well-doing thou shouldst be ill intreated This is the course of the World to set light by them who set an high estimate on Gods service The Devil and the sons of Belial both joyn to disjoynt a Saint the wicked with revilings the Devil with temptations The nigher I come to God the closer siege the Devil lays to my soul A daily sinner he seldom assaults No he that is running fast on to Hell needs not be called on to mend his pace but he that is going out of Sodom shall finde many a stop ere he get to Zoar. The approach of Gods Spirit close up to my heart mudles the unclean spirit who vows a return not onely to the house which is empty swept and garnished empty of all Piety swept with the stump worn broom Formality and garnished with the gilt of Hypocrisie but he rages to turn into the Temple of God The heart of the Elect There he hopes for rich plunder Abrahams Jewels Jonathans Purple and Judiths Bravery to surprize a Saints spiritual graces This is that King of Assyria that gives charge to his two and thirty Captains to sight with none but the King of Israel the soul of a Saint O! the fall of such a star he knows would darken Heaven The Apostacy of one Disciple pleases him more then the debauchedness of many Miscreants And now it is that the siege is laid against the precious sould of a sanctified Saint his out-work is battered with persecution his in-work with temptation The Alarm is taken and it holds on all the Summer of our youth and Winter of our old age it lasts from the cradle to the crutch from our birth till our Death To have such an enemy as the Devil and so long a siege as all our lives and such fierce Assailants as seek the ruine of body and soul and for ever Were not this able to crush in pieces Patience But O Jobs Wife be thou gone I never knew her prove a good wise who gave her husband evil counsel I hate here advice to Curse God I like Jobs resolve Yea though the Lord kill me yet will I trust in him Job knew that the Devil was busie about him yet that God was not far from him This is it will make us take our dough upon our shoulders and march though a Wilderness of stinging Serpents We have a cloud behinde to shade us from our enemies a pillar of fire before to guide on to the promised land of our possession The Lord is he who never leaves us nor forsakes us The presence of God is the prime preserver of Patience in afflictions Let me stand it out my Soveraign Lord is within sight Let me not faint since such a second is present The Lord is present What could I do if he were not here What can I not now he is at hand Not onely sight but overcome Become more then Conquerer yea conquer the Devil that meant to make of me a conquest yea Conquer my self whom the DEVIL could not Conquer I am never a freeman untill a Bondman the more I inslave my flesh in which dwells no good thing ne parum ne minimum quidem no not the least good the more my minde my spirit and heart are at liberty now to bring this to pass hic labor hoc opus Our hands are weak and cannot do this work weakned by Adams sin by our own actual sins How can a weak man stand out against a subtile Serpent How can we hold out the fight sixty years that cannot work sixty hours Can frail man undergo a life-lasting Temptation Is not the thought of this able to turn his Patience into Passion to be ever set on day and night waking sleeping without ceasing or intermitting It is now that the power of God begins to manifest it self I am here and here is God I can do nothing without him he will do nothing without me He works in me I work by the help of him I faint he refreshes The light of his countenance puts life into me But O! the mists of homebred Ignorance and hellish Temptations interpose betwixt me and my God! and now with Mary I am ready to cry out They have taken away my Lord and in depriving me of the presence of God they rob me of my perseverance and patience in afflictions This is my fear yet while I fear the worst I may chance fare the best I will sooner approve of a filial fear then a foward presumption Faith may be overcast never finally eclipsed or if eclipsed it is but for a time A short time and the Sun appears even he who made the Sun and the Moon and the Stars God blessed for ever amen Let us by looking up to God as Israel to the Brazen Serpent cure our Soul-sick patience God he is the Register and Records all our sufferings He carries the scales and weighs out our just allowance no more can be laid upon us then he likes no more will he let be laid upon us then we can bear He is night us and none can wrong us He is with us the General with his Souldiers the Soveraign with his Subjects the Phisitian of Souls with his Soul-sick Patients Let us then have patience yea Let your patient minde be known for God is at hand WHERE UNITY Amity I Pet. 3. part of verse 3. Finally be ye all of one minde love as brethren ST Peter shews a scattered Church the best way how to avoid trouble These new Converts in Pontus Galatia Capadocia Asia and Bythenia have been of several judgements but diversity of Opinions breeds discord in Professors And therefore to avoid Insurrection against the State and Schism in the Church the advice is Be ye all of one minde The Gospel makes ex sua Natura union never division neither is it probable that he will make a good Christian that dissevers from the Congregation This Divine Exhortation gives no license for Liberty of Conscience lest Liberty of Conscience become Licentious Libertinism What the Church decrees that Edict must be obeyed for be sure A Schismatick in Discipline when opportunity serves will be a Rebel against his Soveraign A contemner of Church Government hath always been found a close spurner against Kingly Power And therefore