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	lord_n	will_n	1,972	5	5.7051	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91558	A present for youth, and example for the aged, or, The remains of Damaris Pearse containing her speech after she kept her bed, and a copy of a written paper, of her own composing, which she left as her last legacy to her brothers and sisters, and was the last thing that ever she wrote : and also several pious expressions, occasionally uttered in her last sickness, worth minding : together with her funeral-sermon, preached by a reverend minister of the Gospel.	Pearse, Damaris, 1659-1679.	1683 (1683)	Wing P969C; ESTC R43889	49,302	145

the small company in comparison of them that shall be saved Mat. 7.13 14. I am a poor weak Creature and it hath pleased the great God to cause distempers and weakness and sickness to light on my body These two years and † This was written at least a year and half before she died and she sickly two years and a quarter before she wrote it quarter I never having a days health in this time but very much distemper and infirmity on my body Many times I have thought that the Lord had sent the Messenger of Death to take me at that time out of this present life but by his good hand my life is lengthened unto this present hour Beside all this I have had great trouble and perplexity in Spirit and mind which none but God doth know of which I could never have stood under had not the Lord wonderfully supported me and born me up under it by his mighty hand Now I desire not so much the restoring of my body for I do think I shall never have the enjoyment of health more in this world tho it is not impossible with God But if it were the Lords Will that I should have health again I do hope by his help and assistance to improve it to his praise and glory Tho I have a sinful and corrupt heart within me yet the Lord is mighty to save and help and succor those that trust that put their trust in him Now the Will of the Lord must be done and I desire that the Lord would lay no more on me than he would enable me to bear with patience and that he would comfort me under his afflicting hand and that all sin and guilt cleaving to me may be fully expiated and discharged through the blood of Christ and that the Lord would give me assurance of his love through Jesus Christ tho I am a sinful creature That I may have true and saving faith to lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation that I may never fall away from him If the Lord should leave me to my self then I shall perish eternally but I trust in the Lord and hope that he will pour down his rich and precious mercies on me for Jesus Christs sake that my soul may be truly and perfectly sanctified by his holy Spirit and that I may never be lead aside by the devices of Satan and the corruption of my heart and the deceitfulness of this world but that my soul may be stablished in righteousness and confirmed in the end that I may be blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ that I may have a sure interest in the Lord Jesus then I shall be happy to all eternity O my desire is that however the Lord be pleased to deal with my body that it may go well with my Soul to eternity and that I may have the enjoyment of God through Christ for there is nothing else can give real comfort to any Soul I hope that the Lord hath begun a good work in me and that he will make it perfect in the end and that he will sanctifie his dealings towards me that it may be for his glory and my eternal comfort and I desire that my will may be throughly resigned up into the will of God either for life or death and that I may have much of Gods presence with me and may always have good thoughts of him and of his dealings towards me in all that he doth or shall lay upon me and that I may improve all his mercies for his glory and my eternal comfort and that when he is pleased to put an end to this temporal life that my Soul may be fitted for Spiritual and eternal life in Jesus Christ O now that people would seriously think what shall become of their Souls considering how great the multitude is that go in the broad way that leadeth to destruction and how few there be that enter in at the strait gate that leadeth unto life as Mat. 7.13 14. We have but a little time to live here in this world and that is of very great concernment that we should make a good improvement of it eternity doth depend upon it as we live here so it will be with us to eternity we are now brought upon the Stage of this world here to act our parts for a whole eternity if we make not a wise choice now we are undone for ever What our present choice is such must our everlasting condition be Luk. 10.42 Luk. 16.25 Now is your time to repent of your sins and to make peace with God it cannot be done after death now is the time that Christ is offered unto you and if you will not receive him now you shall never have any part in him hereafter now is the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the time you may be accepted of by God and therefore do not stop the mouth of Conscience for if you do it will be the greatest Witness against you hereafter then it will tare and lash you and be a continual torment For their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched Isa 66.24 If you now refuse the calls of God your conscience will continually accuse you hereafter therefore have a care do not refuse to hearken to Gods call for it you refuse now you shall never have any calls nor invitations from God hereafter Have you any business any concern of greater importance to you than the concern of your souls and eternity If you are to appear before some earthly Judg especially if it be about a matter that concerns your life O how thoughtful are you to have all things ready and in order in reference thereunto and should not you be as thoughtful and as careful to make all ready and to set all right in order to your appearing before the Judg of all the earth and that about a matter which concerns the life of your souls about a matter of eternal life or death Well what shall I say Will you set about this great business this great concern Or is it all one with you whether you live or die are saved or damned to all eternity Oh that people would consider how near they are to eternity How near we are to our everlasting habitation You are all going down amain the stream of time into the great ocean and you will shortly come thither There is not a step you step nor a breath you draw nor a word you speak nor a moment of time you live but hath an influence upon eternity Oh now that unconverted sinners would set about this great work to prepare for their souls and eternity before they go hence and be no more in this world Sinners will you set about this great business Your work is wholly yet to do tho it may be your day far spent your glass is almost run your sun near setting and all your work to do Oh 't is high time for

not here set down in that order as to time in which they were by her spoken She spoke them as occasion was offered and she able to speak but here many of them are placed under several Heads to bring them into some order Now concerning the whole it may be said These are the fragments that remain had there been that provident care as injoyned in another case to gather up all that nothing thereof had been lost the Collection would have been much greater and better such as it is the Lord bless to the Spiritual advantage of all those that shall peruse it PSAL. 42.1 2. 1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God 2. My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God THE Words that I have now read unto you were often in the mouth and repeated by our deceased Friend and now Blessed Saint in Heaven in the time of her sickness And I was desired by her dear Relation to treat on them at this time which is the occasion of my turning aside from my former Subject This Psalm as is conceived by Commentators was penned by David tho it hath not his inscription upon it as many others have not when he was driven from the Sanctuary and publick Worship of God by Absaloms Rebellion or which is more probable by Sauls Persecution who hunted him from place to place and pursued him as a Partridg upon the Mountains as he himself doth complain 1 Sam. 26.20 The Title of the Psalm is Maschil commending the Doctrine of the Psalm as useful and necessary to instruct the Godly how to carry themselves under his grievous cross of banishment from the ordinances In the first Verse we have Davids earnest longing and ardent desires after God set forth by the similitude of an Hart or Stag As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks so panieth my soul after thee O God In the second Verse here is a repetition of the same desires under other expressions which amount to the same 'T is usual with those that have their affections set upon any thing in an importunate way as the thing is in their hearts and thoughts so in their mouths Thus it was with David here My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Tho these verses may assord us many useful instructions if we should take abroad the Words in the Particulars but because I shall not have time to insist on them I shall comprehend all in this point which is the main of the Verses Doct. That the affections and longings and desires of the people of God after God are very vehement ardent and importunate As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks so panteth my soul after God and so in other places as Psal 84.2 My soul longeth yea fainteth for the Courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh crieth out for the Living God Psal 86.4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Psal 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times Psal 143.6 I stretch forth my hand unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land so the Church Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name This is the temper and disposition of Gods people to long after God In the prosecution of this point I shall observe this method 1. To shew the Qualities or Conditions of these longings and desires that the people of God have after God 2. The Reasons why their affections and desires are so carried out after God 3. Wherein they chiefly long after God and pant to appear before him 1. The Qualities of these longings in the people of God after God are vehement and earnest We say that hunger and thirst are the strongest of natural appetites for by them our nature puts out all her strength for preservation when it is extremely straitned Thus the people of God desire God vehemently their desires are not flat languid cold wishes but high strong and fervent As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks Nothing can satisfie him but water So Gods people are vehemently carried out after God With my whole Heart have I sought thee Psal 119.10 2. The desires of the people of God after God are constant which are not taken away till satisfied as you know thirst is and it must needs be so that Gods people do continually thirst after God because they never fully enjoy God in this life They tast of God here and are made partakers of some sweetness in him and this doth the more inlarge their spirits after him The desires of Gods people after God are fixed setled constant they will and do continue until they come fully to enjoy God 3. There is an holy impatiency in these longings and desires We read Exod. 17.2 3. that the people of Israel thirsted for water and they murmured and said to Moses Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattel with thirst Gods people cannot well bear the absence of God They say as Rachel Gen. 30.1 Give me children or else I die Oh give us thy favour or else we cannot live thy favour is life yea better than life Psal 63.3 4. The desires of Gods people after God are accompanied with diligent endeavours You know that in thirst there are diligent endeavours The man that is athirst cries out for drink and runs for water Jer. 14.3 The Nobles sent their little ones to the waters they came to the pits and found no water He that is a thirst runs up and down digs in one place and tries in another that he may find water to refresh him so it is with the people of God in their desires after God They are complaining and acting and labouring and trying at every pit at every well at every ordinance They will pray and hear and read they are at every pool they are in every way of God if so be at length they may meet with and enjoy God Cant. 3.1 2. Saith the spouse I sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the city in the streets and in the broad wayes I will seek him whom my soul loveth The second thing to be spoken to is the reason why the affections and desires of Gods people are thus carried out after God and the reason is this because God hath given them wisdom to understand and believe that their happiness consists in the injoyment of God Every one hath a strong propensity towards that in which he places his felicity whether supposed or real Gods people know that it can never be well with them till they have a right and interest in God and enjoy communion with him They know that God is first an all-sufficient

in them a gracious soul carries alway a Temple with him but this did not satisfie and content this holy man no he must enjoy the ordinances of God in the meetings of his people The Reason why it was thus with David and so with all the people of God is because ordinance are the institutions of God and in and through these doth God impart himself to his people and therefore they desire here to meet God God hath appointed them as necessary helps in the way to Heaven and they are not able to want them till they come to Heaven As God fed the Israelites with Manna all the time they were in the Wilderness till he brought them to Canaan but when they came thither it ceased so it is with Gods people in regard of ordinances they are such helps as God affords to them so long as they are in the world and they may not expect to subsist without them till they come to Heaven The exigences of Gods people are such as do indeed call for them they have many temptations to resist many corruptions to subdue and many graces to strengthen and much work to perform and can they do any of these without helps Without doubt they cannot They that think to live without ordinances the life of grace they may as well think to live without meat and drink the life of nature and they shall do the one as well as the other True it is that God in the necessary want or restraint of publick ordinances is able to make it up another way if he pleases God promised his people Ezek. 11.16 That tho they were cast far off among the heathen and scattered among the countries yet he would be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come God can make a Wilderness a Prison a sick chamber or bed to be a sanctuary if he please by bringing to our remembrance those truths which formerly we have heard and by his own more immediate application of himself to us As God can sustain our natural life if he please in the want of food as he did Moses so he can if he please sustain our spiritual in the want of ordinances God can suggest good thoughts stir up gracious and holy desires shed abroad his love in our hearts and become all in all unto us as in Heaven but ordinances are the ordinary helps and the powerful helps according to that in Psal 63.2 That I may see thy power and thy glory as I have seen in the Sanctuary There is a power in ordinances as to instance 1. In the preaching of the Word 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ The preaching of the word is powerful to convince 1 Cor. 14.24 To convert Rom. 10.14 To comfort Isa 66.11 Here God stays his people with flagons and comforts them with apples Cant. 2.5 It is powerful also for the flourishing and the growth of Gods people in grace Psal 92.13 2. In the Ordinance of the Lords Supper there is strength and efficacy to comfort to revive to seal up assurance as this servant of God now departed had experience of to the wonderful comfort of her spirit 3. In the ordinance of prayer there is power from God and a power with God a power from him whereby he does enable us to perform it and a power with him whereby we do prevail with him as it is said of Jacob Gen. 32.28 compared with Hos 12.3 4. That he had power with God and prevailed the same hath every true Israelite he hath a special power whereby he gains upon God in his approaches to him Oh but what power is prayer when there are bands of prayer vollies of prayer single prayers are as a single hair of Sampsons head there is a power in it but conjunct prayers are as his whole bush of hair When Gods people meet together when they twist their prayers and with one consent stir up themselves to take hold of God and hang upon him wonderful then are Gods condescentions to his people All this may shew why Gods people do so desire after God in ordinances To make a little improvement of this before I pass to the next particular Vse 1. Do Gods people desire after Ordinances and God in ordinances this then meets with the practise of many people who are far from such desires as these As instance 1. Such as do not lay it to heart nor are grieved when God threatens the removal of ordinances such hath been our barrenness under ordinances our lukewarmness that God may justly remove our candlestick but how few are affected with this There have been some that could for the want of their Idolatries grieve as Micah taking on for the loss of his God and Priest Judg. 18.23 24. Women weeping for Tammuz Ezek. 8.14 There are that that have grieved for the want of their merry-meeting it is said in Isa 24.11 There is crying for wine in the streets all joy is darkned the mirth of the land is darkned mirth is gone with the liquor There are that mourn for the want of trading 'T is said of Babylon Rev. 18.11 The Merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man hayeth her Merchandize any more I might instance in other things and what no mourning for the loss of the Ordinances of God Can people be grieved for the want of those things that gratifie only their corrupt flesh and not be troubled at the removal of Ordinances which are of so great importance and of so high concernment as to the everlasting welfare of their precious Souls 2. There are others that though God be so indulgent as to afford Ordinances and Liberty for the enjoyment of them yet do not value it they have no affections for these things There have been some that have said that they are above Ordinances and so what need they care whether they have them or no But there are too too many that are below them and have no heart fitted to them and therefore are not sensible at all of the advantage of them they would not be at a Sermon or a Sacrament from one end of the year to the other were it not example custom and the common practice put them upon it for their parts they could be contented to be without these Ordinances all their lives these are far from the temper of David and all the people of God There are others that withdraw from the Ordinances of God forsake the Assemblies of Gods people they think they can get as much good at home as they can to hear a faithful Minister or when they joyn in the meetings of Gods people such as these never found the sweetness and benefit of Ordinances they are such as would be

wiser than God who hath appointed such helps as these and so by taking a preposterous course do bring mischief upon their own Souls God blasts and curses those single performances which take from his more publick Ordinances This is like the Manna which the Israelits gathered unseasonably it putrified and stank and worms bred in it so are those duties which are performed singly and solitarily and unseasonably when the Meetings and Assemblies of Gods people are neglected There are others who are soon wearied and cloyed with Ordinances they have soon enough of such things as these instead of saying here with David When shall we come and appear before God they say When shall we be gone and depart from him like those in Mal. 1.13 Ye have said what a weariness is it and Amos 8.5 When will the new moon and the sabbath be gone There are some who are never more uneasie than when they are at Ordinances Oh how many carnal persons and formalists are there who have only an outside of Religion and scarce so much who look upon the Worship of God as a matter of course and fashion and so accordingly come to it Vse 2. Let it be a word of Exhortation long after delight in and bless God for Ordinances It is the greatest happiness that we are capable of here in this life that whiles we cannot see God face to face as we shall one day in Heaven yet we may now see him in the glass of his Ordinances in his Word in his Sacraments and by prayer converse with him That which carnal men and worldly spirits count a burden and tediousness to them let us look upon as a very high priviledg and reckon it as our greatest advantage and rejoyce in it and to quicken and inlarge our desires Muse upon the excellency of Ordinances for excellency apprehended is that which will move desires discern that these things are good and good and necessary for us by partaking of these we shall get our corruptions mortified our graces strengthned our spiritual decays supplied more ability gained to serve God in our whole conversation and more evidence and assurance of Gods love in Jesus Christ obtained And remember when you come to Ordinances resolve to put hard for it to enjoy such sensible Communion with God in them that you may come off in a better and more spiritual frame of heart than you came on resolve with the Father Nunquam a te absque recidam When I come before the Lord I will never go away without him The reason why there is no more good got by ordinances is because we do not meet God in them and the reason why we do not meet God is because we do not so earnestly desire and look for him whenever therefore you appear before God in ordinances make it your business to see God to taste of Gods to get down something of God upon your hearts some impressions of God upon your spirits 2 Secondly Gods people do long and pant after the immediate fruition and presence of God in Heaven Here they enjoy God by faith not by sight here in a mediate dark and imperfect manner through providences and ordinances as through a glass darkly but there face to face we shall know as we are known as the Apost 1 Cor. 13.12 Now Gods people long after God in this way The spirit and the bride saith come Rev. 22.17 They daily pray that Gods Kingdom may come that the number of the Elect may be accomplished and Christ may come to judgment They wait for the adoption the redemption of the body Rom. 8.23 They love the appearing of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 Heb. 9.28 They look for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 The Reason why Gods people do long after the immediate fruition and presence of God in heaven is because they believe they shall be perfectly delivered from all those evils that they are liable to while they are here in this world and that they shall be made perfectly blessed 1. They count upon this they shall be freed from all evils they are subject to in this life As 1. From the evil of sin Oh this is the great evil that Gods people complain of with so much sadness here the flesh turneth against the spirit there shall be no such thing hereafter there shall be no blindness in the mind nor perverseness in the will nor disorder in the affections no pride nor slothfulness no carnal-mindedness no fleshliness no coldness and deadness of heart and affection no uneven walking no grieving the spirit of God or the spirits of their Brethren no unholy thought word or action 2. They shall be freed from the evil of temptation this world is a place of snares and valley of temptations what abundance of temptations are we assaulted with here continually from the Devil the world and our corrupt natures but there shall be none of these in heaven In paradise there was a tempter but none in heaven Satans walk and rendezvous is on the earth Job 1.7 but he never came into Heaven since he was cast out 3. From the injuries and molestation of evil men no place on earth is exempted from molestation by the Devil and his instruments but heaven is a place where such shall never enter there the children of wickedness and sons of violence shall not afflict any more there is no Mesech nor tents of Kedar to be complained of nor false brethren unfaithful unsound hypocritical persons that are secret enemies to truth and piety now discouraging no destroying company in heaven 4. They shall be freed from all divisions The divisions and differences and dissentions even among the godly which this state of imperfection on earth is liable to and lamentably cumbred with do create much trouble and many disquietments are multiplied thereby but in heaven there is but one mind one mouth as there is but one truth not so much as a different apprehension among all the thousands and millions of Saints there 5. They shall be freed from all bodily ailes pains weakness infirmities all afflictions whatsoever no sin therefore no sorrow in heaven all tears shall be wiped away no more of these tears that arise from the various Tryals of this weary life such as are Wants Straits Losses Crosses in Name or Estates Relations Injoyments nothing but Love in Heaven God will never knit his Brow nor chide nor strike never hide his face there but they shall live under the smiles of his Face and light of his Countenance without interruption 2. The people of God do believe and hope for a perfect injoyment of all good It is not a meer negative happiness that the Saints in Heaven partake of a not being miserable an absence from evil but also the positive presence and injoyment of all good according to that of the Psal 16.11 In the presence of God is fulness of joy and at his