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	love_v	soul_n	3,593	5	4.9439	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74649	An entertainment of solitarinesse or, the melting of the soule, by meditations, and the pouring of it out by prayers. By Sir Richard Tempest, knight and baronet.	Tempest, Richard, Sir, 1619 or 20-1662.	1649 (1649)	Wing T625; Thomason E1410_1; ESTC R209519	28,217	157

griefes the constant attendants of my life and yet looke sadly and mournfully upon the Grave my corruption belonging to the maintaining of the order of the Universe where at my next rising much gayer clad then before I shall awake to immortalitie and endlesse joy with the eye of Reason I can looke through the glory of the world and behold Vanitie and Oblivion with the eye of Faith I can look through Oblivion and Corruption it selfe and behold Glory and Eternitie Now I finde how many things doe not that are esteemed in popular judgements to make one happy how little they contribute towards it to me alone till I be mixt with those people and take pleasure in those Opinions We entertaine with true and reall passions the Scenicall compositions of the Stage there being in mans life Playes not acted but lived solemne fictions not feigned but beleeved Men now acknowledge their own Natures whom Precept had taught to regulate themselves all day and familiarly owne the impressions Nature hath charactered on them Now doth the ever-running streames of Gods favours which run over our hard and stonie hearts speak louder to us not drowned with the noyse of worldly thoughts If the Sunne hath gone downe in the clouds of our envie and malice it presages future stormes of passions to our life And now Lord I will seeke him in my Bed whom my Soule loves Let me finde thee in the rest thou givest my Soule from Sinne and Vanity in the sleep thou givest my affections they being all quietly reposed in thee and thus I rest on thee more than on where I lye The Arraignment of the Heart I Thought I had so well surveyed this little piece of Earth that I had knowne every turning and winding in it but since I had a holy purpose betray'd to some easie temptation I suspected that there was something yet undiscovered Whereupon calling my Travell Studie and Observation thither I found a strange Labyrinth which the thred of my Reason was too short to unwinde me out of I found it so incircled with the Serpentine windings of Sinne so incompassed with those flexuous imbraces that I perceived Vanitie entring under the conduct of its adversarie apt to glory in the contempt of Glory and grow proud in the lowest debasing my selfe and upon demand of Reason for any good it would informe me That it owed its originall to some secret passion which would untitle it againe There is nothing but darkenesse and wandrings here so that I perceive O Lord I was more secure than safe since I lodged here such deceitfull guests that answered at the light knock of every idle passion I desired to have discovered my heart to thee but found it first necessarie that thou shouldst discover it to me where was such a wildernesse of Passions such rocks of Pride such Maeanders of Deceits and perplext paths of contradictorie motions that it mockt my past endevours and taught me to know that other things might be in the light to me yet I in darknesse to my selfe And since thy sacred Spirit hath dictated to me that it is desperately wicked and inscrutable I arraigne it before thy Throne as that corrupt Fountaine whence hath flowed those bitter streames of Vanitie which hath overflowed my life and here where my naturall life first begins my spirituall death first arises I begge of thee my God another Creation first of a cleane heart and that then thy sacred Spirit would move upon the face of these waters and forme this Chaos into that beautie and order where thou wouldst have thy own Power and Wisdome manifested breathe forth thy heavenly Light into my Soule and to the considerations of my heart cause a distinction betweene the Night of Sinne to be feared and the Light of Truth to be desired make a separation in me betwixt heavenly and earthly thoughts let the other be superior and predominant over these dispose all here into forme and fruitfulnesse plant the flowers of vertue which being fed with the Manna-drops of thy Grace they may communicate their gratefull properties of colour and odour to others Cause the Lights thou hast set in my little World to shine clearer that every of them may have their severall and proper influences upon the course of my life When the Sunne of thy Word shines out let all other Lights be obscured however let that thy other Light of Reason rule the darker part of my life let the lesser Lights of Opinion whose motions though they be erratique yet doe operate upon our actions keepe such place and distance that they hinder not the generall harmonie of the Fabrick That part which denominates my Species make new in me that part formed after thy owne Image and give it command over the beasts of the field that Reason may subdue the wildnesse of my affections And now Lord let all the motions of this Piece turne upon the poles of thy Commands let it be centred in the obedience to thy will that there it may finde a constant Sabbath and Rest This is the regeneration of this lesser World element it Lord with the fire of thy heavenly love surround it with the holy breathings of thy blessed Spirit Let constancie and solid fixnesse be in my wayes let the current of all my thoughts emptie themselves into the Ocean of the infinitie of thy goodnesse and glory And yet Lord this World could not stand a moment if thou didst not behold it through thy Son It s the desire of my heart to entertaine thee as thou art the author of that desire be thou also the granter of it I know a heart being fill'd with any thing denyes accesse to another I am full of my selfe grant me to denie my selfe to be emptied of my selfe for here it is that the pleasures and trifles of the World hold intelligence and correspondence in themselves not so forcible but as they flatter my understanding or affection with apt pretences When Perseus in his Expedition was to kill the Serpent he had a Looking-Glasse given him wherein he was to behold the Serpent as he should strike at him and not to looke upon it selfe and we shall kill the Serpents of outward temptations if we looke at their figures presented in the Glasse of our thoughts and there destroy them in their images received in our hearts Lord doe thou possesse my heart that it may possesse thee that it may receive thee receive it thou art within all things not included let me finde thy infinite Power in the extension of thy Mercie and not in thy Justice let me put off my selfe my selfe is my wayes my customes affections thy promise is for protecting us in thy wayes When I seeke to have my own image represented back again to me more beautifull from the Glasse of popular Opinions courting Fame or Applause when I for feare or flatterie neglect to doe my dutie to thee my God or man then am I in my owne wayes seeking Death in the

and pleasing rinde wherewith they are covered and tastes of them as they be in their owne natures where hee findes anxietie unsatisfied melancholy diseases decay of fortune But to let alone those ingenious invectives and stoicall raylings against Pleasure commending them to a common place one may observe of it that most men love to be wise by their owne experience Mans nature is so poore and indigent a thing of it selfe that it turnes it selfe every where to seeke satisfaction and it s the wisdome of Nature delightfully to draw us to perform its actions she hath annext a Pleasure to the use of our senses that otherwise it would be a troublesome thing to maintain our lives that great Blessing of Goe and multiplie so much depending of it Pleasure may make its soft impressions upon our yeelding sense and it s to put off our species to be insensible of them Some would make man another thing than he is by robbing him of his affections Pleasures say they would convert him into strange and foraine shapes and some of the Philosophers for a remedie would convert him into a stone as if he must endure the transmutations of the Poet and act his Metamorphosis The sharpe and finest edges of Pleasure side with Vertue and Temperance while they perish upon the ruines of their satiated and plenarie fruitions and as long as they make no greater sound in the curious instrument of man than suits with the harmonie of his sublimer motions they helpe the Musick but if their greater noyse drowne the voyce of Reason or the higher faculties of the Soule they become lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God Let all thy blessings Lord thy Methods and Workes make stayres for my Soule to ascend to thy right hand where are Pleasures for evermore A Contemplation on our Saviours hanging on the Crosse NOw am I freed from the noyse of Passions whilst with one looke they are struck dumbe Now am I delivered from the Tyrannie of insulting affections whilst in him crucified they behold their owne death The glories and pompe of the world have lost their pretences whilst the Sonne of Glory and Power suffered cloathed with the fraile garment of humane nature In this blessed shade no poysonous Vice will live the Serpent of Pride will not endure the looke of the true Brazen Serpent to see him humbled to the death of the Crosse Envie flyes hence to see him suffer for his enemies And now not left to but freed from my selfe my frozen and congealed heart begins to melt and thaw dissolving into teares weeping for its sinnes for which I see my Saviours heart to bleed Here I sit and bathe the wings of my Soule my affections in the flames of Gods holy love and whilst the fire burnes below in my heart my eyes boyle over above with fervent streames here in devout extasies my Soule loses it selfe in those ravishments of divine love I goe out of my selfe in wonderment not able to comprehend it but joyfully throw my selfe into those depths desiring to be comprehended by it The joyes of a Soule divinely in love border upon those inexpressible ones above for they swallow one up in their profound immensities and leave no capacitie for Reason to marshall them up in words and expressions the Wards as it were of that Key being no way fitted to open the Lock of the mysteries of this Love but leaves mens Soules holily inebriated and over-flowed with the deluge of Pleasures and Joyes I becomming rather theirs than they mine being turned all to Joy and Love And now my Soule being melted with the meditation of thy Passion let it be poured out to thee in Confessions let the beames of thy owne transcendent Love be reflected back againe from my heart upon the face of others that thus shining one to another and all receiving our Lights from thee may at last be fixt in thy owne Court for ever sill'd with the beames of the joy of thy presence Let others sit in the Chaire of subtill Controversie while I sit at the feet of my Saviour in meditation of his Passion Let others boast of their false Retreats their Groves and Eliziums while under the shades of thy sharpe and thornie Crowne my Soule rejoyces nay while in those shades which Crosses and Afflictions shall cast upon my life in conformitie to my Saviours suffering my Soule rejoyces A Contemplation upon a retyred life THe Poets sometimes gratifie the largenesse of mans Soule with their loftie flights writing to immortalitie and in the excesse of their fancie converse with Deities tumbling among the Starres with Iove and anon let the motions of their Spirits downe againe to view the contents of moderate and private fortunes Thus wee see sometime the Sceane of the greatest mens lives altered now representing you the prospect of Armies Triumphs of Victories Grandeur of State the glory of Courts Camps and Cities anon in their roomes succeeding Groves and pleasant Rivers private Walks Discourses of the Worlds Vanities Experiments of Nature and such Companions of solitarinesse When all the swellings of Pride and vain Opinions are falne and Nature freed from those affectations it hath got abroad it acknowledgeth it selfe it s owne Bents and inclinations A life led according to Nature is the reall enjoying of things themselves but if according to Art and Opinion its like as in Pictures they view things drawne well to the Life representations of Love Honour and Vertue yet nothing but Colours that lose their glories by mens neerer approaches The joyes of an active life are more agreeable to Nature moving in the Sphere of Vertue than any recessions from societie can afford whose privilege can onely be to thinke Vertue The masculine power of the minde is not beholding to places for their satisfactions but what is the true and reall dignitie of one place before another by an intellectuall Chymistrie he can extract and translate to his owne minde their preheminencies There can in no place be wanting Groves Rivers singing of Birds our bodies are a shadie Grove where our Soules sit contemplating the Musick of the Birds without are all Gods creatures which as it were in so many diversified Notes doe sweetly sing their Makers prayse the Rivers are that flux wherein all humane things are Times Persons Things which by a succession of their corruptible and alterable parts doe still keepe up that current These thoughts are as it were the better Genius which attends the Lakes without which their retirements are but the refuges of mens sickly humours where they begin to live of their maladie rather than to cure it and doe onely sacrifice the fumes of melancholy for that incense of service which they owe as a tribute for their being Those that would make loanenesse acceptable by advising men as through a Prospective to behold the greatnesse of Structures and braverie of Courts through the humilitie of a Cottage doe make ones deluded fancie the ground of their

the similitude of favour but hath altered its inward nature Some late Philosophers have proved that Syllogismes are not sufficient to evince Physicall Verities but that the subtilties even of Natures workings evade it subtill formes how much more Sacred Divinitie which lyes not levell with Reason It being no more able to fathome or reach its transcendencies and sublimities then a little thred can by the arme of man be throwne about the heavenly Pole seeing it can be proved by Reason that Religion is above it and to be left to mens beleefes Boetius saith excellently well That Reason to see the truth of those things must goe out of it selfe and that the minde should be lifted up to the height of that supreme intelligence which should there behold what in it selfe it cannot that is how certain and determinate prevision may go before the uncertaine events of things He who is the Truth and the Light though not comprehended by the darknesse of the World converst with men on Earth in the depth of humilitie in the exactnesse of obedience in the constant practice of each holy Vertue There is a pure and heavenly Light annext to the devout aspirations of the Soule for the blind eye of the minde doth not know how to looke up to the God of glory if hee from above shine not upon it with the inward beames of his Grace and though Light descends from above from the Father of Lights yet a holy innocence and true humilitie sends clearer Lights of Knowledge up to the braine than any speculations can send downe the warmth of Charitie to the heart for the Sonne of God the Light it selfe descended covered as it were with humilitie and the heart is the seat of it and so that inaccessible Light is conveyed to us in the darke coverings and habits of Humiliations One may imploy the braine with loftie and ayrie Contemplations and yet let his Soule slip away for want of Charitie which is the Soule of Religion by the infusion of which we are animated and spiritually live Religion is a practicall Syllogisme whose premisses goe for nothing if there be not the active conclusion of well-doing Therefore Lord while others cannot agree in what order to range and ranke good workes and Faith let it be my Faith that the doing of thy will is necessarie and thy will is our holinesse and the practice of good workes and make it part of my workes to pray for Faith and the encrease of it Grant Lord that while others cannot agree about the manner of thy Comming that my heart may be so taken up with the Faith and joy of thy beloved presence that it give not my head leysure curiously to question the manner of it These are the sweet Composures the blessed Reconciliations when the disputes of good things are swallowed up in the heavenly fruition executions of them in this calme Harbour doth the Vessell of a Soule tost with the windes of Controversie safely reside And now Lord the Ship of thy Church tost amidst the furious waves of Controversies seemes to stand in danger of Ruine but we know the Gates of Hell have all their powers here defeated though we crie in the tendernesse of our passions Master carest thou not that we perish It is not so easie to give a Reason of some Opinions in the Church sitting in ones Studie as to goe abroad and see that great fabrick of Power and the vast Treasures which are built upon the foundation of this nice Schoole-Divinitie if the Church seeme to seeke in some Doctrines it s but occasioned as the Fever of that sick man in Martial was who was onely sick to take occasion to shew the braverie of his house-hold-stuffe Faciunt hanc stragula febrim Error is many times more magnificent in its structures than Truth yet as its Gates perhaps may be more gilded and shine more gawdily yet they are like that Doore of Sleepe in Virgil the fine one being that which let out all the false Dreames while Truth had its passage out of those that were plainer Reformation in Religion is like distill'd waters which being too much endevoured to be heightned being once at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they relapse and lose of their spirit and force and mens spirits not knowing where they have deserted that Centre and point of Truth which should have fixt them stagger and reele in the circumference and round of their owne fancies Religion fires mens hearts with holy zeale making them mourne as it were in the dissolutions and ashes of their past sinnes but it s no incendiarie to delight in those of Townes and Cities Religion proclaimes a holy Warre against Sinne and Vice but never blowes the Trumpet of Sedition Religion exacts from its subjected hearts homage to the King of Power but disclaimes all earthly Crowns My Kingdome saith he is not of this world Religion hath its power and force to the destruction of its enemies but he hath said it should be with the word of his mouth and that the wrath of man fulfils not the justice of God Religion is like the Sunne it gives light and life to all while it keeps its owne heavenly course but being made to incline to earthly ends it causes a conflagration What ever good effects are produced from any false or erronious Religions it s by vertue of those Opinions and Tenets mixt with it that beare a conformitie to Truth and what ill actions seeme to flow or be occasioned from the true Religion they are the effects of those erroneous Opinions that they have mingled with their Divinitie and beare a proportion with the malignitie of mans nature rather than the others paritie Let me not seeke Lord thy living Word among the dead acts of naturall Reason neither in the Calentures of unruly Zeales nor from among the Glories Wealth and Ends men have on Religion but let my Soule suck from the brests of my Mother Truth and Salvation thy Church converting thy Word to my foode and nourishment Of enjoyment of Pleasure MUsick sounds best to one in the darke because no other outward object distracts his attention and to heare the Musick of those Precepts delivered against Pleasure one must shut up from his eye the delightfull objects of the sense which other wayes would perhaps steale away his thought Yet this is onely a remedie fitted for the weaknesse of the eye which so readily recommends to the minde the flattering Courtships of these Curtizans of the Sense But to fortifie and strengthen the minde against them it s better to view them all in the light looking upon them with the eye of Reason and there all their false splendours would not shew so brave Hee who hath converst with them most freely hath soonest found that their inward dispositions and qualities give not him leave to live so happily in their enjoyment as their outward beautie flattered him with the hopes of he hath soonest pierc'd through that thin