Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	affection_n	good_a	spirit_n	2,849	5	4.8243	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97283	The penitent murderer. Being an exact narrative of the life and death of Nathaniel Butler; who (through grace) became a convert, after he had most cruelly murdered John Knight. With the several conferences held with the said Butler in Newgate, by the Right Honorable the Lord Maior, and several eminent ministers, and others. As also his confession, speech, prayer, and the sermon preached after his execution; with several useful admonitions, and excellent discourses. / Collected by Randolph Yearwood, chaplain to the Right Honorable, the Lord Major of the city of London.	Yearwood, Randolph, d. 1689.	1657 (1657)	Wing Y23; Thomason E1660_2; ESTC R209007	51,603	133

recommending of this providence to you and the duty which it calls for Psal 9 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth And surely this latter Age though an Age full of sin hath not set before you a more dreadful instance of mans sinfulness and Gods justice though in the end sweetned much with mercy then that which in and upon this notorious Malefactor hath been laid before your observation And therefore we cannot here be silent but must take this advantage with all humility and affection to your souls good plainly to open our hearts to you By some we know before hand we shall be slighted and censured as men too busy and may be as men too credulous but in the presence of God we can say our aim is publick good and the discharge of our consciences and therefore we are not discouraged And we are not wholly without hope but that some benefit may be reaped from these few lines which here with all sincerity we do present upon that late providence which hath been before you Exod. 14.20 That providence we say which like the Cloud is on one side very dark on the other side very bright very dark as to mans sin very bright as to Gods mercy T is the daily and inward grief of our spirits God knows it that our Ministry is so successeless that we see so little fruit of the word preached by us that in a City where there is such plain and powerful preaching such horrid sins should be committed Ezek. 19.14 This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But possibly some secure sinners may be a little startled and awakened by this terrible judicial hand of God and so a word setting in with this providence may be more effectual then many in an ordinance We cannot but comply with the will of God in the use of all means for the furtherance of your salvation And oh that God would so bless this dispensation that you all may hear and fear and sin no more Touching the sad occasion we will not inlarge upon that the hainous murder the abominable uncleanness the wicked theft of which Nat Butler was guilty of the former but once which we speak not by way of extenuation for that 's too much of the two latter very often as also the shamefulness and dreadfulness of his death these we pass over as being very well known to all of you Neither shall we interest our selves in any narrative of the workings of God upon his heart during his imprisonment and at his execution though herein we could speak much as being for the most of us very often with him in this time and narrow observers of him Nor shall we expatiate upon some of those great truths of the Gospel which this famous instance doth lead us to Namely that sometimes it pleases God in the sovereignty and prerogative of his grace to ceaze upon the greatest sinners and out of the coursest rubbish to erect the monuments of his unlimited mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 The Lord doth sometimes take the vilest wretches and hangs them out as patterns of his infinite love that the freeness of his grace may be admired and the greatest of sinners may be incouraged but still in the way of Faith and Repentance we do not we dare not limit the Grace of God as to exclude this Notorious and Bloody sinner from it nay we have good hope that through the infinite Mercy of the Father and the All-sufficient Merits of the Son he is accepted to eternal Life Indeed when we consider the horribleness of his sin the greatness of his joy after a short humiliation yet deep and through we hope we easily conjecture that some will question both the prudence of any publication and the truth of his Conversion But we will meddle with neither of these leaving men to jude of the former and God alone who searches and knows the heart to judge of the latter Waving therefore all these things our only design and businesse in this application is to press upon you the inhabitants of this City to some of whom we are more neerly related in our respective Charges the several duties which do naturally result from this Providence We would exhort you in the first place To be thankful to God for his Restraining Grace which though it be short of his Renewing Grace yet t is with all thankfulness to be valued Oh! bless the Lord who keeps you from those sins which this poor Wretch was guilty of that you are not Adulterers Theeves nay Murderers and Malefactors to be punished by the Judge this is the Lords mercy 1 Cor. 4.7 Who makes you to differ from others Have not you the same Names Have not you the Seed and Spawn of all wickedness in you And should God leave you to the baseness of your own hellish hearts would you not also run to all Excess of sin and that with Greediness too When you read over this sad Story we beseech you lay your hands upon your hearts and say What a mercy is it I was neither the Murderer nor the Murdred We desire you to mourne over the crying sins that are to be found amongst us Oh! the Scarlet sins that swarm in London even in London Swearing Drunkenness Uncleanness Profanation of the Lords Day Contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministry thereof nay even Blood-guiltiness is to be found amongst us Should not your Souls like the Soul of Righteous Lot be vexed within you for these things 2 Pet. 2.7 Should you not all come up to be Ezekiel's mourners in the remembrance of them Ezek. 9.4 Especially considering that these things are done in times of Reformation and in a place of Vision even in London where the Light of the Gospel shines so gloriously where the Words is Preached so plentifully and powerfully even there these abominations are to be found Will you not lay them to heart And what reason have you to admire the patience of God to this City T is a wonder London is not made a Sodom that desolation doth not seize upon your houses that you are not all swept away with the Beesome of suddain destruction that you are not hung upon the Gibbet as Spectacles of Gods vengeance to all the Nations round about What so much provocation and yet the City to stand Oh the Patience and Long-suffering of God! Doubtless if God had not a Remnant amongst you who seek him daily and fear his Name you had been laid desolate long before now Isa 1 9. We need not from hence to stir you up to submit to Government and to bless God that you live in a place where Laws are Executed What a Chaos what a Wilderness of wild Beasts should we be if Malefactors were not punished What Confusion Cruelty Barbarousness would overspread all if by wholsome Laws and the care of good Magistrates in the Execution of them we had not some Boundaries set to the Lusts of

seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will ABVNDANTLY pardon The word abundantly he used to pronounce with an emphasis for he saw his eyes being now annointed with spiritual eye-salve that he had multiplied sins exceedingly and that he stood in absolute need of the Lords abundant multiplied pardons whereof he had good hope through this good word of Isaiah Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his wases and live 30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions SO iniquity shall not be your ruine 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them As I live saith the Lord here the poor Prisoner would note to his comfort that a repenting sinner hadnot onely the Word and Promise of God for forgiveness but the Oath of God to give such a finner the greater assurance of pardon I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his ways and live Turn ye turn ye see the importunity of God with poor sinners for the good of their souls from your evil ways For why will ye die O house of Israel Micah 7.18 was a place pleasant to his soul Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the reranant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Vers 19. He will turn again as one doth when his anger is gone he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast ALL their sins into the depth of the Sea Now I shall give you a short List of some New Testament Texts whereby the Lord conveyed Counsel and Consolation to this doubting staggering poor Wretch Matth. 18.11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost Joh. 3.14 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternal life For God SO loved the WORLD that whosoever this word whosoever he he spake with joy beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now saith Nathaniel Butler I am one to whom this word speaketh and therefore God gave the Lord Jesus Christ for my soul I beleeve in him and therefore I trust to live eternally through him according to the gracious terms of the Gospel John 6.37 and him that cometh to me I will in no wise here he would repeat and reiterate these words in NO WISE CAST OVT in NO WISE in NO WISE cast out 1 Tim. 1.15 This a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 2.5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time In hearing reading and conferring upon these and many more Scriptures he would often say to me and others these are good Scriptures brave Scriptures are they not brave Scriptures He would make very diligent and frequent search into his soul concerning the sincerity of his sorrow and would not easily beleeve that his repentance was true or that he had right to the precious promises of the Gospel But by much speaking to him by many good people that he would applie Christ and also by seeking unto God for a spirit of Faith for him he did begin to act a faith of recumbency and adherence being as he often said perswaded that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to save to the uttermost and willing to save such as come unto God by him yet he could not come up to that full assurance of hope and confidence as he desired and we also desired heartily on his behalf So that sometimes he would break forth and say How can I that have been gurlty of all sins whatsoever almost as Murder Fornication Theft c. challenge or apply a pardon He was much afraid of running upon either of these two Rooks that is presumption or despair I told him that diffidence and despair was the strongest presumption against God saying to him Is it not presumption for a man to dis obey God and not to beleeve him Now the command of God in his glorious Gospel is that men weary of and heavy laden with sins should come to Christ that they might find rest to their souls The design of God said I in the Scriptures is not to give some feeble weak hope of pardon but a lively hope and a firm expectation of salvation to all that mourn and really repent Which so wrought upon him that for the space of some daies before his suffering death it pleased the God of all comfort to give him joy and consolation and sometimes strong consolation insomuch that he would at times express very great inward gladness which all that knew his former mournings were glad to see and glorified God for giving him the joy of his salvation for he was so satisfied concerning the favour and mercy of God towads him in Jesus Christ that he rather now desired death then feared it as seeing death through Jesus Christ without a sting On the Lords Day towards evening the Lord Mayor to whose Conference I refer you went the third and last time to visit him for the next day he was to die and my Lords advice very much refreshed his spirit it being his Lordships design to speak of Heaven with the glory and joy of that Kingdom and to establish the Prisoners thoughts thereon After his Lordship had left him he seemed to be very chearful in his spirit blessing God that he should put it into his Lordships heart to condescend so far as to pray and confer with such a despicable poor wretch as he was heartily thanking his Lordship for his abundant love That night being his last night I kept him company in Newgate so did divers others continuing with him in the Dungeon or Hole for so the Keepers call it till towards midnight conferring with him and endeavouring to comfort him to the end he delighted all the time of his Imprisonment in Christian Company and spiritual Discourses but in his last night he was very much carried forth to spend himself about spiritual things So that we judged it meet to leave him alone a while lest being altogether without rest and refreshment in his body he might thereby be made unfit for the service of the next day intending then to