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
A75965	The male of the flock, or A sermon preached at St. Pauls, before the right honourable, the Lord Mayor, and the right vvorshipfull, the aldermen of the city of London, Septemb: the 9th: 1655. By Benjamin Agas, minister of Cheneyes in Bucks.	Agas, Benjamin.	1655 (1655)	Wing A758A; Thomason E861_3; ESTC R206648	27,438	38

way unmanly are they managed and transacted Let no man say what need so many words for I need them and ten times more and all too little to set forth the wretchednes and unwor thines of our daily Sacrifice of our common and customary devotions Oh how little good is to be found in the best of our services Bonum est quod sui plenum est Good is that which is ful of it self as gold that nobler mettle is ful of it self and therfore the heaviest of all mettles But alas how unempty are our devotions of themselves viz pious and holy affections and desires even like a puff in ones hand you may squeeze them to nothing or like the Lamb in the verse preeding my Text so light and macilent that the blast of ones mouth would have blown it off the Altar God saith My Son give me thine heart and we give him the lip and the knee the eye and the ear but our hearts are far from him Matth 15.8 That which should be the work of the spirit is commonly no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer bodily labour Let us look upon two o● three particulars wherein the great stream of our Religion flows viz reading praying and hearing How often is reading the labour of the eyes Yee have set your selves a task to read good Books and so many Chapters in the Bible every day by the way no good Books should take us off from reading the Scripture in the pure and simple Text yea I would hate the loveliness of that Book though lovely only for the piety of the matter and sublimity of the stile which should in my affections stand corrival with the Word and bewitch my mind more with love and admiration than those sacred Oracles in their own phrase and expression But for our reading the visive Organ is only altered and affected and this is the greatest part of that service The words in the Book say Jesus Faith Repentance and the like just while we look upon them imprint their image upon our eyes but make little or no impression upon the understanding and the lest alteration upon the wil or affections so that after we have read over the Bible again and again our understanding is as unfruitful our affections as carnal as if we had never read a word in our lives So for our prayers we say our prayers but not pray our prayers Our tongues are vocal but our hearts are silent They fulfil their task and run their round as an horse in a Mill by a continual custom they will go from petition to petition until the words be said and the prayers be done But in the interim the soul lay dorment and fast asleep and in all these words uttered not a voice nor put up any request at the throne of Grace If God know what we have prayed for t is many times more then we know our selves so little of our mind and spirit went along with the duty Then for hearing the sound of the Ministers voice strikes upon the ear and finds a passage into the head but as we say proverbeally in at one ear and out at another because our spirits do not way-lay these heavenly truths and surprize them in their passage The rich Traveller would passe on nay stand saith the Theef I must have your Treasure so those rich Treasures of all Heavenly wisdome wil suddenly glide away unlesse greedy desires like a Theef presently lay hold and carry them into the secrets of the heart there to rifle and rausake them but here we are men too too honest for our own good Truth often passeth by and yet we never come to finger the lest of her Treasure Generally this is the best account of a Sermon there was a great Audience he was a rare man he had a strong and a clear voice was very zealous and pressed things home But what here they are utterly to seek Even as Ahimaaz 2 Sam 18.29 that came from the Battle of Absalon parting and puffing what is the News saith David I saw a great tumult but I know not what it was so as you would think they are much taken and heard great matters but what They know not what only they have heard they have read and they have prayed they satisfie themselves that the work is done though never so unworthily But my Brethren these things ought not so to be Therefore For the future let us be more careful in this matter Exhort let us make Conscience not only to sacrifice but also to offer the Male of the Flock not only to serve God but in the best way and manner I have prepared for the house of my God with all my might saith David 1 Cron 29.2 It was for God and his House therefore he did with all his might so what-ever we intend for God should be to the utmost of our powers A true Isralite in antieut times was able to witnesse at the Altar I have brought the best Lamb in my flock and a better I could not find So good Christians should do service to God in that manner as that they may justifie themselves and say I could not have done it better Grace should imitate nature which stil puts forth her strongest abilities A stone fals downward as fast as it can and faster it cannot fal fire flies up as fast as it can and faster it cannot flye So we in all our services to God should be pious and devout as we can This rule with some proportion is heedfully to be observed not only in our services immediatly holy such as were even now mentioned reading praying c. but also in those which are holy by a mediem remotely holy and one removal from God such are the services of our secular imployments in our ordinary vocations and Callings Here commonly the next thing is man but it is ultimately resolved into God As for examples sake an Apprentice or servant serveth in the next place his Master but in serving his Master he doth finally service unto God who gave the Command Again a Magistrate who is the greatest Minister of the people his service in the next place is unto them in protecting them from evil and consulting for their good and welfare but yet in the last and chief place it is unto God who requires as much at his hands In such services as these which are remotely holy we must yet be careful to offer the Male of our Flock See for servants Col. 3.23 Servants obey your Masters not with eye service but in singleness of heart and whatsoeuer yee do do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men for yee serve the Lord Christ How so I serve Peter and Paul I but in serving them you obey a command and so serve a greater Master See for Magistrates Rom 12.8 Let him that ruleth do it with diligence not only rule but do it faithfully and with the greatest care In the one concerning servants

I might fal as low as a Skul in a Kitchen and tel him that even among his dust and durt there is a Male to be offered unto God yea and such as God wil accept with a good wil in Christ Jesus On the other concerning Magistrates I might fly as high as the Head of the Nation but I aspire no higher than to the Head of this Auditory and Honorable Society and I shal only make bold to say over again the words of Paul Let him that ruleth do it with diligence for the Sacrifice in my Text cals me chiefly to speak of services immediatly and properly holy viz of Worship and adoration And to stir up your pure minds to perform these after the best manner give me leave to inforce the Exhortation by a few considerations As 1. Motives If they be not so done it frustrates one great end of all our services viz to ingratiate our selves with God now such an one becomes not the more gratious but the more odious by all his services my Text saith he is cursed and the more he doth in such a way the more accursed It is a most sad thing to loose our aim and expectation in a matter of such great concernment thou hast taken to thy self a form of godliness thou walkest the rounds of Religion and art pretty severe in thy way hereupon thou blessest thine own soul and thy heart is ful of hope and yet miserable wtetch when all is done God wil nor more accept thy person or look favourably towards thee than if thou hadst never performed any good duty in thy life Yee have brought me the sick and the lame should I accept it at your hands saith the Lord of Hosts in the Verse fore-going my Text. The question is a most vehement tie as if he had said I detest and abominate your Offering accept it I wil no more accept it than a doggs-head the price of an Whore or if you offered unto me swines-flesh yee may go on in this way and heap up services unto Heaven and yet at the last He throw you down to Hel. Oh this is a sad thing and seriously to be considered Thou hast been filling and filling all thy dayes but now what wil be thy reward in the end God kicks down the Vessel in a scorn oh how wil this sink thy soul in horror how wilt thou cry out in bitternes and anguish of heart Operam ●leam predidi I have lost all my work and I am lost God is infinitely above and knows it I am a great King and know my self to be worthy of the Male of the Flock and lesse I wil not accept Even our Grandees on earth look for great respect and indure not in the lest to be slighted or under-valued Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory being presented with a curious peece of Needle-work stood beholding and praising the Woman and her skil but quoth this vain-gorious fool and I can make a better if it please your Majesty and canst thou make a better said the Queen and do not I deserve that best and with that threw it down in a scorn and with-drew Even as Augustus Caesar if my memory fail me not being invited by a Pratrician of Rome but finding his provision not very extraordinary after supper whispered the Noble mans ear and instead of Thanks gave him a more regal check for his less civil entertainment Non putassem me tibi tam familiarem I thought you had not looked upon me as such an ordinary Fellow This is the great spirit of our mortal and dying Gods much more of him that ever liveth He knoweth his own peerless excellency and goodnes and accordingly beareth the grea test reverance and respect to his own sacred person and expects that others should do it too but takes it very il if man his Creature dos derogate from his greatnes by the littlenes of his reverence and respect in what he presents unto him God is infinitely above and knows it so man is infinitely beneath and should know it also wherefore let us consider 2 Our own vilenes and basenes how unworthy we are at the best to do service unto God yee know what the great Patriarch Abraham said while he stood near unto God I am but dust and ashes fitter to be trodden on then treated with 'T is our great priviledg that we may come near and be Officious unto so glorious and blessed a God if wise therefore we would set off our selves in the best dresse that we may find grace in his sight Joseph though called in hast out of the Dungeon to appear before Pharaoh first shaved and washed and changed his garments this he did more prudentially the more to commend his person to the King even so let us prize our priviledg of standing before the God of the whole earth and with the greatest care and complement commend our service unto God 3. How can we say we love God unless we offer the Male of our flock True Love is most noble generous neer of kin unto Heaven for God is love This high born off-spring scorns to be base even there where it might be bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor 13.5 Love doth no unworthly or unseemly thing but if the blind and the lame be not unseemly for the highest Majesty judg yee wherefore Love wil not indure it but bringeth forth her fatted Calfe and furnisheth her Table with her choisest store Elkanah gave unto Peninnah and her Children portions but unto Hannah a worthy portion for he Loved her 1 Sam 1.5 her vertue fild his heart with Love and his Love fild her hands with bounty Love if any such thing wil force us to bring unto God a worthy Offering Love loves to abound and wil make us bountiful his Altars shal overflow with the fat of Rams and of Lambs and with Alexander the Great wee 'l scorn a few drams but throw on handfuls of incense upon those holy fires 4. If we serve not God after the best manner in time we shal be weary of God and of his service Yee bring the sick and the lame and yee say what a weariness is it the lesse they did for God and the more unworthily and the more tedious and cumbersome it was unto themselves Nothing more emasculates the spirit nothing more deadens the heart unto duty than a dul and lazie performance of duty whether publick or privat or secret As one speaks of secret prayer if it be done only in a formal way without life and spirit it wil strangely take a man off from praying so that in time he wil flie his closet and even loath his own Oratory The Ravens seeing their yong Ones now newly excluded callow and naked forsake and leave them to the dew of Heaven so we beholding the fruit of our souls naked and unlovely wil be as little pleased with our own devotions But duty done with life and love wil make a man in love