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	pray_v	prayer_n	3,335	5	6.6693	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49258	A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithfull servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1655 (1655)	Wing L3179; ESTC R217684	182,116	237

be a castaway Intimating that a man may preach to others and may be a means to save others and yet not be saved himself So 1 Cor. 13.1 Ministers in this case may be as Cooks are A Cook may dresse many a dish and let them go through his hands to furnish a large and stately Table yet of all these dishes himself hardly taste one So Ministers they may dresse many a dish for their hearers yet they not lick their fingers or taste of this spiritual food themselves As in the building of the Ark there were many men built Noahs Ark to save others that were drowned themselves so many men may build an Ark by preaching the Word and the waies of God to save other mens souls when they may be drowned themselves Hence it is the Scripture tells us of Stars that fell from heaven many Ministers that seemed godly Ministers like Stars in their Generation yet they fell and became wicked and loose And I remember Doctor Pembleton a famous Minister in the daies of Queen Mary and a man whose Ministry had converted many Christians yet at length he himself turned to be a Papist Now these Christians did never misdoubt or suspect their conversion because the man that converted them was a bad man They might be good people though he was a bad Minister so that this is no ground in the world though I confesse it is not ordinary that God makes wicked men means of conversion but God ordinarily crowns the Word most in the mouth of a godly Minister yet sometimes I say God may use a means to convert souls And I would give you these reasons to prove that a wicked man may convert souls and that God ties not conversion to a godly Minister Because first the efficacy of the word doth not depend upon men but upon Jesus Christ and Christ may make use of whom he pleaseth Secondly If only a good man could convert then this would follow that we could be as well sure of another mans conversion as we are of our own which is a thing most untrue For if only a godly man could convert then if I were sure of my own conversion I were as well sure of his conversion that wrought upon me also which cannot be so that clearly this should lay no block in your way because you discern the Minister that wrought upon you to be no good man seeing conversion is not tied onely to a godly Minister Thirdly a third ground from whence doubts arise in called ones is from some seeming defects they apprehend to be in the concomitants that acompany or in the effects that should follow effectual calling and this makes them fear that sure they are not effectually called I will name to you three or four First saith a doubting Christian I do hear in Scripture what effects will follow and what will accompany a man effectually called and I finde them not wrought in my soul As now first I apprehend that when a man is effectually called he shall be inabled by God to call upon him in prayer I finde in Scripture 1 Cor. 1.2 That all that are called to be Saints they shall call upon the Lord in every place but alas woe is me I do not finde this in my soul I finde I have a dull dead listlesse unpraying heart all the daies of my life and therefore I doubt whether I am effectually called or no. Now to this I shall lay down three things for answer First peradventure you judge that you are not enabled to pray because you want expressions in prayer though you have affections Now if you judge your inability to pray because you want expressions only you judge amisse because prayer is to be judged by the affections not by the expressions Expressions they are but the breath of nature a natural voluble tongue may tumble out expressions whereas affections in prayer they are the breath and fruit of the holy Spirit Therefore do not judge you cannot pray because you have not such fluent expressions as others use for the very essence of a prayer lies in the heart and therefore it is said when the Spirit of God teacheth men to pray it teacheth them not onely in expressions but with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 When the Spirit moves the heart and makes you sigh out your requests and sorrow out your supplications you pray best of all Secondly you that judge your inablity to pray and therefore think you are not called because you cannot call upon God I would say this unto you That the best of Gods children have found a great difference in their spirits in reference to paying duties the best of Gods children do not alwaies pray alike Sometimes the affections of godly men are as swift in prayer as the Chariots of Aminadab otherwhiles they drive as heavily as Pharaohs Chariots when the wheels were off Sometime the people of God are burning in their affections hot as fire otherwhiles they are frozen in their affections cold as ice None of Gods people are in their carriage alwaies alike towards God in prayer Psal 77.4 It is the speech of Asaph O Lord my spirit is overwhelmed within me I am sore troubled I cannot speak The man was so troubled he could not speak yet Asaph spake these words with his mouth but the meaning is though Asaph was a godly man yet he was so overwhelmed with trouble he could not speak to God he could not call upon God with that inward vigor of spirit Though thou mayest sometime call upon God with affection yet when trouble rests upon thee thy heart may be out of frame Thirdly many times Gods people are subject to a state of desertion and abatements in their s●iritual affections and then they are out of a praying vein when you loose affections the wheels of prayer are knocked off Many times it falls out with Gods people that they are even brought into a languishing and low condition they are in such a swoune as if they had neither a principle nor the actings of spiritual life Rev. 3.2 Strengthen that which remaines saith the holy Ghost that is ready to die Godly people may be a dying people and then the tongue failes when it is a dying the people of God may be in a dying condition though they never die wholly in grace yet they may be so weakned in their spirits that they cannot pour out their requests to God as in wonted time 2 Chron. 17.3 Jehosophat he walked in the first waies of David his father implying that Davids first waies were better then his last So many men may have their first waies good yet sometime in the end before they die they may have much failing and deadness of spirit upon them Fourthly If a man doth but mourn that he cannot call upon God God looks upon that as calling upon him If you can but sigh out your requests and mourn that you cannot mourn and pray that you

nothing should be irksom to you that God would have you perform in case he would give you your wonted comforts If you finde this temper of spirit in you this is a very ready way to bring on your comforts and restore the joyes of your salvation to you Secondly Set upon humbling work the onely way to gain what you have lost is to mourn over your losses Jer. 31.18 19 20. See how Ephraim comes to have his comforts restored when he wept over his own discomforts I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe saith God and I said Is Ephraim my dear sonne I saw him smitting upon his thigh humbling his soul for his sins and since I saw him I do earnestly remember him and I will shew mercy to him Here you see lamenting Ephraim God in the very time of his bemoaning himselfe restored his comforts to him we hear many lament for their outward losses but who laments for the losse of inward comforts And David after he had lost his comforts by that great sin of adultery makes seven penitential Psalmes Psalmes of lamentation or repentance and he calls one of them A Psalm to call to remembrance And as an Author well notes when David came to renew his comforts he makes a Psalm to call to remembrance those sins that might provoke God to take away his comforts from him So Beloved let it be your work to make such Psalmes in your Closets and make it your practice to call to remembrance those evils that provoke God to eclipse your comforts to you and let that humble you If you cannot finde out the Particular sin labour to humble your soules for every sin and then to be sure you cannot misse that Thirdly Would you restore your wonted comforts then set upon praying work This course you sinde David took Psal 51.8 Make me O Lord to hear the voice of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken might rejoyce Create in me a new heart and establish me with thy free Spirit verse 12. Here you read of Davids praying work how he poured forth his soul in prayer that God would restore to him the joyes of his salvation And here in your praying work I would onely cast in three directions First pray for a distinct sight of those evils that provoked God to take your comforts from you Secondly After you have got a sight bend the strength of your prayers most against those evils that did so provoke God to cloud your comforts Pray against them as against the deadliest enemy you have in the world Thirdly Pray for attaining those graces that may be inlets to spiritual comfort as the graces before named the grace of godly sorrow the grace of humiliation the grace of faith and of love to Jesus Christ Thus if you set upon searching upon humbling and upon praying work you are in a likely way to have your comforts restored Fourthly Set upon the work of Meditation and in this work I shall commend four meditations you are to take into your thoughts which may be very helpful and useful to you in restoring your comforts As First Let your meditations run upon this that sometimes you are not so competent Judges of your own spiritual estate as others may be As First In a time of desertion when God hath left you and frownes upon you Secondly In times of temptation when the devils temptations are violent against you Thirdly In times of Relapse when you are fallen into some great sin at this time you are not so competent Judges of your own estate but standers by may see more of your own good and your own sincerity then your selves may do as the Proverb is Many tim●s Lookers on see more then he that playes the game it is true in this A Looker on may see sincerity sparkle in thy practice and thy graces shine in thy conversatio● when thou canst not do it thy selfe A childe when it blubbers and cries can see nothing of his book So when Christians are sad and sullen and lumpish they can hardly read any thing of their evidence Mr. Throgmorten got his assurance this way by the Testimony of a company of godly M●nisters that they could lay their soules in his souls stead Let this therefore run in your Meditations that many times standers by and Christians that behold your walkings and see your Actions they may see more ground of comfort in you then your selves can do Secondly Meditate and think upon the comforts God gave you in wonted time and call them to minde Do as David did Psal 77. I called to minde the dayes of old and the years of many generations Call to minde ancient dayes did not God shew thee his face did not God bear thee in the palmes of his hands did not God give thee many a smile of his countenance and many a pledge of his love even by affliction it selfe did not God set many a seal upon thy heart that thy comforts were true thy evidence clear and thy ends sincere towards God Beloved call to minde the former frame of thy spirit how thou waft in wonted times and this Meditation being backed by Gods Spirit may be a great meanes to restore thy comforts to thee past goodnesse should be present encouragement Thirdly Meditate what way it was that you got your former comforts and assurance and the same way God will sanctifie to restore you your comforts again What Physicians say of the body We are nourished of those things of which we are begotten and generated So I say of comforts The very same thing that begot comforts the same will restore your comforts again Now think upon this in your practice and consider What way did I gain my comforts in yeares past did I gain my comforts by godly sorrow and by lamenting after God and by mourning over those abominable failings in my practice now take the same course to restore thy evidences Goe and mourn in thy closet over thy uneven walking before God Goe lament for thy sins mourn after thy Father and tell him thou art grieved at the heart that he is so great a stranger to thy soul Didst thou gain thy assurance in dayes past by humbling thy soul often before God Set upon humbling work again Didst thou gain thy comforts in dayes past by walking closely with thy God Amend thy paths and direct thy waies unto thy Maker for daies to come there is the very same way to restore your comforts that was at first to gain your comforts Fourthly Let your Meditations work upon those comforting Promises in the Gospel that hold forth most comfort to a dejected soule And truly I am perswaded Christians Meditations running more upon their own failings and their own jealousies and upon their own mistakes then upon Gospel-promises hath been the great occasion they have layn so long under a spirit of bondage and under a dark eclipse in the want of the comforts of Gods Spirit Therefore now let

it be true or no there may be an external Call when there is no inward calling by the operation of the Spirit upon your hearts In the managing of this Point I shal shew you these three things First What effectual Calling is Secondly Why you are required to put forth a great deal of diligence to make your Calling sure to your souls Thirdly By what Characters or Discoveries you ●ay be assured in your own hearts that you are effectually call●● First What Effectual Calling is You say we must make it sure therefore what is the nature of it For answer you may take this description of it Effectual Calling is the fruit of Gods Election whereby God of his free grace works a wonderful change in the heart of an Elect person by the inward operation of the Spirit accompanying the outward Ministry of the word by vertue of which the soul is brought from under the dominion of sin and Satan into a state of grace and so made meet for the enjoyment of God in glory Now I shal not take this apart but commit it to your memory and judgment to apprehend Onely in this description there are laid down foure differences to distinguish effectual Calling from that ordinary or outward Calling that wicked men have by the Ministry of the word As 1. Effectual Calling in the description is said to be a fruit of Gods Election but outward or general Calling is a fruit only of common providence God by an over-ruling providence sends the Gospel among a people and thereby calls them to an outward compliance and conformity but effectual Calling is a fruit of Gods Election 2. It is said in the description that Effectual Calling it changes the heart whereby God works a wonderfull change in the heart but an external Calling no way reacheth the heart onely worketh some kind of civil or common alteration in the life 3. It 's said Eff●ctual Calling is wrought by the inward operation of the Spirit accompanying the outward Ministry of the word whereas an External Call is onely by the word but no inward saving worke of the Spirit at all 4. It 's said of Eff●ctual Calling that it is from the Dominion of sin but External Calling is onely from the external acts of sin Indeed by an external calling the word may have that power over a man as to restrain and keep in the vis●ble and external actings of sin but it no way works upon the inclination to take off the affection from sin whereas the effectual Calling works upon the heart and works to the subduing and destroying of the power of sin as well as the actings of it Secondly Why doth God require that we should put forth such great diligence in making sure that we are effectually called by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Gospel There are three Reasons why this should be First Because there are many professing the Gospel that do harbour ungrounded perswasions that they are effectually called when they are not Now if any men be deceived why may not you And if any are apt to be deceived about this matter have not you great cause to be diligent lest you are deceived also The Jewes of old they boasted of their Calling and said We have Abraham to our father but Christ confuts that If you were Abrahams children saith he you would do the works of Abraham but you seek to kill me which Abraham did not But then they go higher John 8.46 they were effectually called For God is our Father No saith Christ You are of your father the Devil Thus many men run into these grosse mistakes to beleive they are effectually called when they are not Many are called outwardly that are not called effectually Matth. 22.14 And therefore it concerns you not to be deceived in this great businesse Secondly Because there is this natural aptnesse in all of us in things that are of any value concerning the body you will be sure to make sure of them It may be if you have Brasse and Pewter or baser Mettals your Kitchin shall serve for that but things of greater value as Pearls and Diamonds they must be in the Closet and in a Cabinet in that Closet you will be sure to ensure them Why how much more should you ensure this great and precious Jewel of Effectual Calling that so much concerns your immortal souls When you buy Land you will be sure your Title is good to draw up your evidences so as to be firm in Law You know Merchants if they venture a great or most part of their estate at sea where happily there may be hazard in the Voyage they will run speedily to ensure a great part of their Commodities Beloved this should you do this body of yours is the Ship and the Merchandize and Freight in this Ship is your souls and this Ship is going a great Voyage to Glory Glory is the Port whither this Ship is to come you shall meet with many dangers in your way haply with storms and tempests of temptation yea haply you may run upon the rocks of presumption or quick-sands of despair O now run to the ensuring Office what 's that why run to seek the Testimony of Christs Spirit in your own spirit by the word to evidence unto you upon good ground that the Ship shall be safe and the Commodities brought secure to the Haven that Ship Body Soul and all shall come safe to Heaven Beloved if men will thus ensure their Estates you have much more reason to ensure your souls For believe it if you make not sure your souls if you suffer shipwrack ye are ●urned Bankrupts presently Bankrupt to God you lose him for ever It is said of an old Usurer That when any man came to borrow money of him he would hardly trust one in twenty and being ask'd the reason Why he would do so O saith he it is good to be sure Why Beloved shall a Usurer in all his wayes be so secure and so heedful in all his disbursments that he could say It is good to be sure and may not I much more say to you It is good to be sure of Heaven it is good to be sure you are effectually called by Jesus Christ it is good to be sure that you are Christians in truth not in name onely that you are Christians in Deed not in Profession onely O it is good to make your Calling and Election sure Thirdly Christians should labour to assure this because the more assured you are of your Effectual Calling the more it will heighten and increase your inward peace and Comfort 1 Pet. 1.8 In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory It is very observable that in all the Epistles of the new Testament where the Apostle speaks of their effectual calling to be Saints in the very next verse he salutes them with these words Grace and Peace be towards you 1 Cor. 1.2 You are called to be Saints

hath fil'd you with this comfort the more you should shine forth in humility As Paul when he saith Christ loved him and gave himselfe for him when he was most full of comforts he was most fill'd with humility and said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Secondly You must manage your assurance with a high valuation of the comforts of God in you A man that hath received a benefit if he do not value it it is a provocation to the man that gave it either to repent of his gift or take it away David when he had assurance mark how he values it Psal 63.3 Thy loving kindness is better then life He valued the comforts of his God and the shinings of Gods countenance better then life And Psal 4.6 Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me and that shall more glad me then when my corn and wine and oile increaseth David would more value the comforts of Gods Spirit then any other comfort in the world Assured Christians that use assurance rightly they must put a high valuation and worth upon it And the reason is Because you will not then easily part with your assurance for a base and beggerly lust and for a fruitlesse sin if once you know the value and worth of it Thirdly Your assurance must make you to live with a weaned heart from the comforts of this world 2 Cor. 4. the last verse compared with Chapt. 5.1 The Apostle tells you We do not look after the things that are seen that are temporal What made the Apostle not to look after worldly things he gives the reason For when this house of ours is dissolved we have a dwelling with God eternall in the heavens As if he should say That 's the reason we do not look after the world as worldly men do for we know that when we leave this world we have a heaven to go to The assurance of the blessednesse of their future being did make them undervalue the world as a thing not worthy the glance of the eye Persons that have assurance can say as Philip said to Christ John 14.8 Shew us saith Philip the Father and it sufficeth us Thus saith a gracious heart O sweet Jesus shew us but thy favour assure but my soul that thy Father is a reconciled Father to me in thy selfe that he is my Father as well as thy Father Shew me but the Father and it sufficeth me though I have little or nothing in the world this shall suffice me Gracious hearts that live in the enjoyment of assurance they ought to live with a weaned heart from the comforts of this world Men that have tasted hony or some other sweet morsel they do distaste all other things though of themselves very pleasant So men that have tasted of this hony of Gods love and the sweetnesse of this grace of assurance it will make them distaste and disrelish all the things of this world though of themselves pleasant and good If a man look on the Sun it dazles hi● eyes that he cannot discern colours about him so he that beholds the light of Gods countenance will not look upon the things here below I may allude to that place Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straight way desireth new for he saith The old is better His meaning is this No man that hath had a taste of Jesus Christ and hath had communion and fellowship with Jesus Christ and lain under the Ministery of Jesus Christ no man that hath drunk of this old wine will say new is better to have other comforts and other pleasures is better no man will say this saith Christ And so he compares his Ministery and his Doctrine and the comfort Gods people have thereby to old wine Beloved so I say men that have drunk draughts of this wine of consolation and men that are setledly assured and have had a taste that the Lord is gracious no man will now say that the world is better and the comforts below better No the assuance of Gods love should wean a mans heart from all the comforts of the world As old Jacob said when he saw his sonne Joseph in his old age after he had made many a prayer and shed many a tear O Joseph my sonne is yet alive I have enough As was the carriage of Jacob to Joseph the same should be the carriage of a Christian towards Christ If he can say My Joseph my Jesus is alive in my heart I having him have enough this comfort should ravish his spirit Paul when he was rapt up into the third heaven was so transported that he knew not whether he was in the body or no so are the people of God ravished with heavenly consolations that they minde not these earthly things It is a speech that Bernard hath That to whosoever Jesus Christ once becomes sweet that he can taste the sweetnesse of his love and the sweetnesse of his mercy the very sweetnesse in Christs love will imbitter the world unto him Fourthly you are to manage and use your assurance with tenderness of conscience against sin Assured Christians should be tender-conscienced Christians Psal 85.8 God will speak peace to his people but mark the duty they must not turn again unto folly They must not ●un again into sin they must be tender of sin and then God will speak peace to his people Sin as I once told you will be like winde in the bowels of the earth Philosophers say E●rthquakes and ruptures are occasioned by winde got into the bowels and cavernes of the earth which having no place for vent it overturnes Mountains and Buildings Beloved sin in the heart will do the like it will make the heart quake and tremble if it be there it will prove the grave of thy comforts and the resurrection of thy fears Therefore Christians that are assured they must take he●d of sin if they would keep their comforts they must keep their hearts that sin get not into their consciences Beloved they that are assured Christians they know how difficultly they did attain this assurance and they know how sweetly they enjoy this assurance and that will make them very tender that they do not lose a thing so hardly gotten and sweetly enjoyed for a trivial lust that thy lose not their former evidences and revive former ter●ors Fiftly Assurance mus● be managed with patience in bearing any outward affliction that you may meet with in the world Assured Christians must be patient Christians Heb. 10.34 They suffered joyfully the spoyling of their goods knowing that they had in heaven a b●tter and more enduring substance and that made the Saints of God tush and scorn at all the losses they met with in the world Suppose a man be at Sea and have precious Jewels and Pearles aboard with him if the man can be but sure he shall save his own life and save his Jewels though he lose the Casket though