Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	bear_v	child_n	spirit_n	2,031	5	5.1129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23770	A sermon preach'd before the King, Decemb. 31, 1665, at Christ-Church in Oxford by R. Allestree ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1666 (1666)	Wing A1166; ESTC R17323	16,852	42

these together we may easily discover what the temper is of Christianity You see here the institution of your Order the First-born of the Sons of God born but to such an Estate And what is so Original to the Religion what was born and bred with it cannot easily be divided from it Generatio Christi generatio populi Christiani natalis Capitis natalis Corporis The body and the head have the same kind of birth and to that which Christ is born to Christianity it self is born Neither can it ever otherwise be entertain'd in the heart of any man but with poverty of spirit with neglect of all the scorns and the calamities yea and all the gaudy glories of this world with that unconcernedness for it that indifference and simple innocence that is in children He that receiveth not the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child cannot enter thereinto saith Christ True indeed when the Son of God must become a little child that he may open the Kingdom of Heaven to Believers Would you see what humility and lowliness becomes a Christian see the God of Christians on his Royal Birth-day A person of the Trinity that he may take upon him our Religion takes upon him the form of a Servant and He that was equal with God must make himself of no Reputation if he mean to settle and be the Example of our profession And then when will our high spirits those that value an huffe of Reputation more then their own souls and set it above God himself when will these become Christians Is there any more uncouth or detestable thing in the whole world then to see the great Lord of Heaven become a little one and man that 's less then nothing magnifie himself to see Divinity empty it self and him that is a worm swell and be puffed up to see the Son of God descend from Heaven and the sons of Earth climbing on heaps of wealth which they pile up as the old Gyants did hills upon hills as if they would invade that Throne which He came down from and as if they also were set for the fall of many throwing every body down that but stands near them either in their way or prospect Would you see how little value all those interests that recommend this world are of to Christians see the Founder of them choose the opposite extream not onely to discover to us these are no accessions to felicity This Child was the Son of God without them but to let us see that we must make the same choice too when ever any of those interests affront a duty or solicite a good Conscience whensoever indeed they are not reconcileable with innocence sincerity and ingenuity It was the want of this disposition and temper that did make the Jews reject our Saviour They could not endure to think of a Religion that would not promise them to fill their basket and to set them high above all Nations of the Earth and whose appearance was not great and splendid but lookt thin and maigre and whose Principles and Promises shew'd like the Curses of their Law call'd for sufferings and did promise persecution therefore they rejected him that brought it and so this Child was for the fall of many in Israel 2. This Child is for the fall of many by the holiness of his Religion while the strictness of the Doctrine which he brings by reason of mens great propensions to wickedness and their inability to resolve against their Vices will make them set themselves against it both by word and deed for they will contradict and speak ill of yea they will openly renounce and fall away from it and him 1. For that reason they will contradict speak ill of Him and of his Doctrines This is said expresly in the last words of my Text He is for a sign that shall be spoken against that is that very holiness both of his Life and Doctrine that shall make him signal it shall make him be derided and blasphem'd As if his being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an Ensigne lifted up a Standard for all Nations were not for them to betake themselves to but to level all their batteries against Accordingly we find they call'd him Beelzebub because he cast out Devils And all this was foretold for although he were fairer then the children of men Psal. 45. yet Isa. 53. It is said He hath no form nor comeliness when we shall see him there is no beauty in him that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men Surely because his holiness did cloud and darken all his graces Devotion in a countenance does writh and discompose it prints deformity upon it and eyes lifted up with ardency look as bad as eyes distorted set awry Nay Majesty when it was most severe and pious never yet could guard Religion from these scorns David that great and holy King sayes of himself I wept and chasten'd my self with fasting and that was turned to my reproof as if Repentance were among his crimes and he must be corrected for his discipline I put on Sack-cloth also and they jested upon me they that sat in the gate spake aegainst me and the Drunkards made Songs upon me Sure these jolly men are not companions to those Angels in whose presence there is joy over one sinner that repenteth that his vertue should be a rejoycing and a song to them too Certainly the penitent mans tears do not fill their chearful bowls nor his groans make those airs which they set their drunken catches to But that we may be sure it never will be otherwise St. Peter tells us That in the last days there shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts Now the men of our dayes have the luck to obey Scripture thus far as to make that Prophecy to come to pass for those scoffers are come in power and great glory The Psalmist tells us of a chair of scorners as if these were the only men that speak ex cathedra and sure scoffs and taunts at Religion are the onely things that may be talk'd with confidence a loud They imprint an Authority on what is said and conversations that are most insipied on all other scores get accompt as they come up towards this practise hence they gain degrees commence ingenious as they border on these Atheistical and irreligious blasphemies and when it is pure scorne then it is in the Chaire But it stays not there For 2. Upon the same account of strictness of Religion men will fall off from and openly renounce both Christ and his Religion This is that our Saviour himself found Light saith he is come into the world and men lov'd darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil And he said of the Pharisees They repented not that they might believe as knowing it impossible that they could venture to believe that Doctrine which condemn'd those courses

coming The Jew indeed will find no excuse for his infidelity from this condition for what ever that were yet those Miracles that made the Devils to confess him brought conviction enough to make Jews inexcusable And it was obvious to observe that He who fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes till they left more then was set before them needed not to be in a condition of want or meanness if it were not otherwise more needful he should not abound God that when He brought this first begotten Son into the world said Let all the Angels of God worship him might have put him into an estate which all mankind most readily would have done Homage too as easily have drest his Person with a blaze of Pompe and Splendor as his Birth-day with a Starre If there had not been necessity it should be otherwise And such there was For when the fulness both of time and iniquity was come when Vice could grow no further but did even cry for Reformation and when the Doctrine that must come to give the rules of this Reformation was not only to wage War with flesh and blood with those desires which constitution gives but which perpetual universal custome had confirm'd and which their Gods also as well as inclinations did contribute to which their Original sin and their Religion equally fomented for Vice was then the Worship of the world Sins had their Temples Theft its Deity and Drunkenness its God Adultery had many and to prostitute their bodies was most sacred and their very Altar-fires did kindle these foul heats whence Uncleanness is so often call'd Idolatry in Scripture And besides all this all the Philosophy and all the power of the world ingag'd in the belief and practise of this and resolv'd with all their wit and force to keep it so When it was thus the Doctrine that must come to oppose controul reform all this must come either arm'd with fire and sword design to settle it selfe by conquest or come in a way of meekness and of suffering The first of these Religion cannot possibly design because it cannot aime to settle that by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is force is not Religion One may as well invade and hope to get a conquest over thoughts and put a mind in chains and force a man to will against his will All such motives are incompetent to demonstrate Doctrines for how ever successful their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true for by that Argument it proves that Religion that it settles true it proves that it destroyes was true before while it prevail'd and had the power Had this Child come so he had only given such a testimony to to the truth of Christianity as Heathenisme had before and Turcisme hath since He might indeed have drown'd the wicked world again in another deluge of their own blood but sure never had reform'd it thus Therefore That Religion that must oppose the Customs and the Powers of the world upon Principles of Reason and Religion must do it by Innocence and Patience by doing good and which was necessary then by consequence as the world stood by suffering evil parting with all not only the advantages but necessaries of this life and life its self too where they stood in competition and were inconsistent with mens duties and their expectations and by this means they must shew the world that their Religion did bring in a better hope then that which all the profits pleasures glories of this world can entertain and flatter Thus they did and thus they did prevaile for the first ages of the Church were but so many centuries of men that entertain'd Christianity with the contempt of the world and life it self They knew to put themselves into Christs Service and Religion was the same thing as to set themselves aside for spoyle and rapine dedicate themselves to poverty and scorn to racks and tortures and to Butchery it self Yet they enter'd into it did not onely renounce the pomps and vanities of the world in their Baptism when they were new born to God quench their affections to them in those waters but renounc'd them even to the death drown'd their affections to them in their own heart blood ran from the world into flames and fled faster from the satisfactions and delights of earth then those flames mounted to their Element and Sphere In fine they became Christians so as if they had been Candidates of Death and only made themselves Apprentises of Martyrdome Now if it were not possible it should be otherwise then thus as the world stood then it was necessary that the Captaine of Salvation should lead on goe before this noble Army of Martyrs if it were necessary that they must leave all who followed Him then it was not possible that He should be here in a state of Plenty Splendor and Magnificence but of Poverty and Meanness giving an example to his followers whose condition could not but be such To give which example was it seems of more necessity then by being born in Royal Purple to prevent the fall of many in Israel who for his condition despis'd him I am not so vain as to hope to perswade any from this great Example here to be in love with Poverty and with a low condition by telling them this Birth hath consecrated meanness that we must not scorn those things in which our God did choose to be install'd that humility is it seems the proper dress for Divinity to shew it self in But when we consider if this Child had been born in a condition of Wealth and Greatness the whole Nation of the Jews would have receiv'd him whereas that he chose prov'd an occasion of falling to them Yet that God should think it much more necessary to give us an example of Humility and Poverty below expression then it was necessary that that whole Nation should believe on him When of all the Virgins of that People which God had to choose one out to overshadow and impregnate with the Son of God He chose one of the meanest for he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden said she and one of the poorest too for she had not a Lamb to offer but was purifyed in formâ pauperis When he would reveal this Birth also that was to be the joy of the whole Earth he did it to none of that Nation but a few poor shepheards who were labouring with midnight-watches over their Flocks none of all the great ones that were then at ease and lay in softs was thought worthy to have notice of it Lastly when the Angels make that poverty a signe to know the Saviour by This shall be a signe unto you You shall find the Babe wrapt in swadling cloaths and lay'd in a Manger as if the Manger were sufficient testimony to the Christ and this great meanness were an evidence 't was the Messiah From all