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
A65690	Comfort for parents, mourning over their hopeful children, that dye young In a funeral discourse upon Jer. 31. xvii. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord. By Thomas Whitaker, minister of the Gospel at Leeds, in York-shire.	Whitaker, Thomas, 1650 or 51-1710.	1693 (1693)	Wing W1713; ESTC R221995	29,944	125

would have them by an Holy Education Can you expect to attain the End without a careful use of the means in order thereunto Has not the Holy God the Father of all our Comfort connected the Means with the End in this as well as other Cases And who dare separate what God has conjoyn'd What God may do in a way of Prerogative is one thing and what you may expect in a way of Ordinary Dispensation is another God may be Better and Kinder to your Children than your Selves are and may do that for them which you take no Care about But what Warrant have you to expect this while you are negligent in your Duty Though God promised to do great Things for Abraham his Friend and for his Posterity yet he tells you That in order thereunto he knew Gen. 18.19 that Abraham would command his Children and his Houshold to keep the way of the Lord. Intimating thereby that he was not to expect the Comfort without the Discharge of the Duty no more can you It 's in a way of diligent Performance of your Part and in an humble Dependance upon God for doing his Part that you have any Foundation for Hope that they shall be Comforts not Crosses to you It 's true it 's the Royal Prerogative of a Gracious God to give them that Grace whereby they must be rendred comfortable whether in Life or Death But tho' the Grace is his the Duty is yours and it 's by the Instrumentality of a Gracious Education that he oftentimes conveys that Immortal Seed to the Soul which though it may lie hid under the Clods for a time yet in due Season appears above Ground Though God sows the Seed you may Act in a Holy Subserviency in Cultivating the Ground in order to a Blessed Crop 2. Without this holy Care of Education you do not answer the Charge of Heaven that 's incumbent on you If you are Relious Parents your Consciences cannot but be affected with the Command of God as well as your Hearts influenced with the Consideration of Comfort Add this therefore to the former and labour to impress your Spirits with the Ponderous Thoughts thereof your Children are not so much yours as God's they are not so much born unto You as to the Blessed God Ezek. 16.20 And as they are born unto him so they are given in charge to you to train and bring up for him Prov. 22.2 Train up a Child in the way that he should go c. Eph. 6.4 Ye Fathers bring up your Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. What can be more express Your Children are not meer Gifts but a signal Trust You may not do with them nor carry towards them as you please but the Charge of Heaven is upon You to Educate and breed them up for the God that gave them And how will you answer your Neglect to the Great and Sovereign Law-giver if you live either in the Wilful or Careless Violation of so Solemn a Charge Or with what Reason can You expect Comfort either in their Enjoyment or in their Removal if You be guilty of a provoking Disobedience to so plain a Command Can God be pleased with such Parents or can You expect that He should make Your Children pleasing unto you 3. Without this Pious Care of Education you do not answer your Care for them in other Particulars You are careful to Feed and Cloath them without needing any Arguments to press you thereunto You can take Advantage of their First capacity to learn them some External Civilities and to form their flexible Years into some Decenoy of Carriage which you call good Manners You are careful to provide not only for their present but for their future Livelihood and to breed them up to some way of Comfortable Subsistence in the World as your Abilities and their Capacity will admit And while all this Care is bestowed upon the Outward Man should there not be a proportionable Concern for the better part Should the One ingross all and the Other be neglected as a Matter of no great Moment Our Saviours Rule is Matth. 6.36 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you Seek first for the Kingdom of God and if for your selves then for you Children Which should challenge the highest Care but the best Part whether of our selves or Children And whether is the better the External Mortal part or the Internal Immortal Spirit Whether is the more Valuable their Present Temporary Being If Eternity be of more Importance than Time then surely their Eternal State should be the largest Sharer in your Thoughts and Cares or how will you answer the Inequality You would have them do well in this World that is the Motive of all the Thought and Pains and Expence which you bestow upon their Outward Being And would you not have them to do well in the Eternal World Why then does not your Care for that bear some Proportion to your Concern for the other You esteem it a Natural and a most Becoming Office of Parental Affection to study and endeavour their Temporal Welfare And so it is But should not Your Love travel in more earnest Endeavours and Agonies for that which is infinitely better the Everlasting happiness of their Immortal Souls Whether should be Dearer to you the Cabinet or the Jowel The Perishing Earthly Tabernacle or the Inestimably precious Soul How then will you answer it either to your own Consciences or to the Supreme Judge if you are more Liberal in your Care about the Worse than the Better part 4. Without a Conscientious Care of Education your Affliction will be doubled in their Miscarriage As they are so Near and Dear unto you you cannot but be deeply afflicted if either they should prove Crosses in Life or should be snatch'd away in their Sins by a Premature Death But what a cutting Addition will it be to your Affliction if you have Reason to accuse your selves as being Accessory to their Ruin by your Sinful negligence It will be Grief enough to think that you have nourished and brought up Children for the Destroyer But it will be a far more sensible Grief when you are forced to take the Guilt of their undoing very much upon your selves for want or a due Performance of your Doby to them It cannot but go very near your Hear as that those who are as it were Limbs and Pieces of your selves should become a Prey to the oruel Murtherer but it must break your hearts to the very Dust when by your own Neglect you have as it were murdered them with your own Hands or at least have not done what in you lay to save them from the Murtherer's Hands That you have neither Comfort in their Life nor Hope in their Death will be Sorrow and Bitterness enough But when your own Consciences fall upon you with the outting Reflection that

Branches of ourSelves OurSelves are multiplied into so many lesser Sprigs yea our own very Bowels spun out into so many smaller Threads And consequently when these by an Irresistible Hand come to be rent and torn from us it cannot but be very Grievous to Innocent and much more to Corrupted Nature But when there is a well-grounded Hope in their latter End when there is a good Foundation to believe That they are made Brahches in Christ before they are pluckt away as Branches from our Selves That there are some Lineaments of the New Creature formed in them before they are call'd off the Stage of this Old Creation This cannot but open a Refreshing Spring of Consolation to Mournful Parents to asswage their swelling Sorrows and to stanch their bleeding Wounds In the management of this Point we shall endeavour to shew 1. What are those Symptoms which may administer good Ground of Hope with respect to our dying Children 2. In what Respects this is such a Soveraign Support to Surviving Parents and Relations 1. What are those Characters which may administer good Ground of Hope with respect to our dying Children I shall not here concern my Discourse with those Children that die in their Morning-Infancy and are snatch't from their Mothers or Nurses Breast by that time they are well come into the World and consequently are no more capable of exerting any Acts of Grace than they are of Reason The Occasion requires not and the Time will not allow me to engage in that Subject But I shall confine my self to such Children as have arrived to some Competent years of Understanding and so are in a Capacity of leaving some Intimations of the early Impressions of Divine Grace upon their Hearts altho' cut off in their Early Blooming days Yet in our Management hereof it becomes us to exercise all humble Sobriety it being attended with some difficulty to state aright the first Sproutings of Divine Grace in Adult Persons and much more in Young Children We shall therefore make an Adventure only so far as the Line of Scripture without offering any Violence to it will conduct us and leave the more Intricate Secrets of Divine Operation to him that best understands them even to God himself Who can discern Grace in those Minuter Workings which lie beyond the Reach of our Observation To come to Particulars There are these timely Intimations of Goodness in Children which may minister good Grounds of Hope with respect to their latter End 1. A Teachable Disposition in the Things of God As it is the unquestionable Duty of Parents to teach their Children betimes and prudently to instil Divine Truths into their Minds as soon as they are capable of learning so it is a very hopeful Indication in Children when they are Teachable in Divine things and chearfully receptive of Spiritual Instructions in their tender Years Whom shall I teach Knowledge says God Isa 28.9 whom shall I make to understand Doctrine Them that are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breasts I know the Words are designedly a very cutting Rebuke to the Unteachable Jews intimating that a weaned Child was as teachable as they But withal we may make this Observation from them That when Children are so early receptive of Gracious Instructions it is an Argument That God is at work with them as their Soveraign Teacher To hear Children studiously Inquisitive into Spiritual things and asking good Questions about Serious and Heavenly Matters To see them leaning their Heads and lending their Ears earnestly to listen to Discourses about Soul-affairs and things of everlasting Moment what a Comfortable Prospect must it afford And as it cannot but be very Affecting to the Hearts of concerned Parents so it can be esteem'd no less than an hopeful Intimation in those tender Plants That God is dealing with their Hearts in their Morning-years tho' in a way and manner undiscernable to us Who is it that forms the Heart which by Nature is Crooked and Perverse into this Spiritual Docibleness Prov. 21.1 but he who has all Hearts in his Hand and can mould them when and how his Soveraign Goodness pleases Children's Hearts in their Natural State are lockt up against Divine things as well as other Men's And who is it that opens the Lock so early Rev. 3.7 but be that has the Key of David and opens where none can shut and shuts where none can open In a word A Teachable Mind in an Age of Life that 's oftentimes the most untoward and Indocible implies an Heart touch'd with the Finger of Heaven And where God has his Hand upon the Spring so soon it cannot but suggest a good Hope through Grace unto Thoughtful Parents 2. An Affectionate Respect to the Holy Scriptures is another early Intimation of an hopeful Import It 's recorded as one of the Morning-Bloomings of Divine Grace in a young Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 That from a Child he was acquainted with the Scriptures His early Acquaintance with them implies his early Affection to them He was such an early Proficient in them because he had an early Desire unto them and delight in them which can be attributed to no other than a Divine Original When Children therefore express an early Respect to the Holy Bible and love frequently to converse with those Blessed Oracles when they take pleasure in Reading them themselves and in hearing others Read them when they make a particular Remark upon signal Passages and inquire into the Meaning of them and lay them up as a choice Treasure in their Hearts when they love to Read such Passages over and over again and to be telling of them as if their Hearts were greatly affected with them and suck't some Vertue and Sweetness from them what Construction can all this admit of but as an hopeful hint from Heaven of some Gracious Beginnings in those tender Years Is it not an Intimation That the same Spirit of Grace and Truth that indited the Scriptures has begun to draw some Lineaments of those Blessed Truths upon such Childrens Hearts When the Heart is much in the Bible it 's an Argument there 's something of the Bible in the Heart There 's something within answering to the Truths without which gives them such a pleasant Taste and Relish to the Soul There 's some Minims of the Law writ in the Heart though the Characters as yet be but very small and scarce discernable Heb. 8.10,11 This also may afford a very Supporting Foundation of Hope to Pious Parents 3. A Towardly Inclination to Religious Duties is another Token of an encouraging Nature What a doleful Sight is it and worthy of the most compassionate Resentments to observe the wretched Auk wardness of some Children to Religious Exercises Do but compare them then with what they are at other times and they are never more froward or more prone to Sleepiness than at such Seasons How apparently do their Spirits enther sink or fall or grow

Cloud that God has drawn over you be Dark yet it s not all Darkness it has its Bright as well as its Dark Side And while the One ministers matter of Sorrow to you the reviving Beams of the Other may give you Light and Comfort in the midst of your Sorrows 2. Bless God that hath given you such Hope instead of Grieving and Repining for what you have lost Adore Divine Goodness for what you have left you You have lost a Child but you have a Legacy of Hope left you to help you to bear your Loss Be more in Blessing God for the one than in mourning for the other It might have been otherwise with you that you neither might have had Child nor Hope But since God has been more gracious to you take heed of carrying it as if either you had no sense of Divine Goodness or your Relation Dyed without Hope As there is a Debt of Tears owing to your Hopeful departed Children so there is a Debt of Thankfulness owing to the God that made them such Be not over-liberal in paying the One while in the mean time you forget the Other Tho' God have taken away the tender Olive-Plants that should have adorned your Tables yet as good old Jacob said in another case it 's enough that you have a Comfortable Hope that they are transplanted to a richer Table in their Father's Kingdom They have taken their flight never to make their Return to Earth any more But it 's enough that you have Hope in their Latter End Bless God for and comfort one another with that Hope 2. Give me leave now to improve this Point more generally to all to whom it may be useful and that 1. To Parents 2. To Children 1. Here 's Matter of Exhortation to you Parents That you would use the utmost care in the Holy Education of your Children that whether they live or die you may have Comfort if they live you may have Comfort in their Lives if they die you may have Hope in their Death Or however you may have this Support in your own Spirits that you have discharged your Duty As soon therefore as they arrive to a Competent measure of Capacity take all Opportunities prudently to instil Divine Truths into their Minds such as their tender Years are most capable of receiving that their Minds being so early tinctured with things of Eternal Moment may derive a suitable Impression to their Hearts Take all convenient Seasons to acquaint them that there is a Great and Glorious though invisible God who made all things and curiously formed them in Secret and formed an Immortal Spirit within them to know and love to live unto and live with Him in an Everlasting State Be telling them as they are able to bear how their Natures are depraved and fallen off from their God and Happiness and that thereby they are become Children of Wrath by Nature and obnoxious to the Judgment and Curse of an offended Majesty Acquaint them with what Condescension to their Capacities you can what guilty perishing Creatures they came into the World by reason of Sin and if it were not for Infinite Goodness that they might have been tumbled into Hell as soon as ever they drew their First Breath Tell them that in this miserable State they might have lived and died without Remedy had not Infinite Compassion provided a Saviour to deliver poor Guilty Souls from going down to the horrible Pit Inform them with what plainness and distinctness you can possibly use who this Saviour is and what he has done and suffered and what he is still a doing in order to the Recovery of lost undone Souls Tell them that they even they must have an Interest in this Saviour or they are undone for ever and that the way of coming to an Interest in Him is by an Humble casting themselves upon his Blood and Grace for the Pardon of their Sins and the Healing of their Corrupted Natures Such Truths as these labour to possess and season their early Thoughts withal Only in the doing thereof use all the Prudence and Gentleness and Condescension you can that you neither overcharge them with too much at once nor confound them with Things that their Capacities cannot reach unto And who knows how this Divine Leaven may under the Influence of the Heavenly Blessing diffuse its powerful Vertue thro' their Tender Souls As soon as they begin to talk learn them to talk in the Language of Canaan and not of Ashdod in the Dialect of Heaven and not of a Prophane World that their early Breath be not corrupted with the rotten Communication of the Children of Belial 2 Kin. 2.23 Let it be your Pious and Early Care to teach them their Catechism as being the most familiar and methodical way of Instruction and content not your selves that they learn it by rote but labour to conveigh the Truths therein to their Understandings and Affections As soon as possible also learn them to Pray and in order thereunto Pray with them your Selves and acquaint them both what need they have to Pray and how they must address themselves to God in this Solemn Duty Carry them as soon as you can judge it convenient to the Publick Worship and Ordinances of the Gospel and esteem it a Mercy that you may carry your Young and your Old with you Observe them with what Reverence and Attention they carry themselves while they are there and call them to an Account what they have brought with them when they come home and take Advantage of what they remember though it be the less to improve it to further Instruction Above all inure them to their Bibles betimes and direct them to such Places as may be most fitted to their weak Capacities and if in their Reading any thing offer it self which may afford special Instruction to them improve it to that end And thro' Divine Goodness some Grains of the Immortal Seed may take Root e're you are aware In a word Train them up to all Religious and Divine Exercises that their tender Years are capable of And cease not to water all with your Prayers and Tears for an happy Success Would you have your Children Comfortable in Life and Hopeful in Death let these be the Particulars of your Serious and Early Care And the more effectually to excite you thereunto let me offer to you the following Cosiderations 1. Without this Religious Care of Education you cannot expect the Comfort you desire neither in their Life nor Death I know there is nothing more Natural than for Parents to place a great deal of Hope and to prosmise to Themselves large share of Comfort from their Rising Off-spring When you are pressed down with the Pains and almost wearied with the Care that 's laid out upon them this sweetens and alleviates all But seriously consider with your selves what just Ground have you for such Expectations without a Conscientious Endeavour to render them such as you