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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	holy_a	scripture_n	5,852	5	5.6876	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16333	Mr. Boltons last and learned worke of the foure last things death, iudgement, hell, and heauen. With an assises-sermon, and notes on Iustice Nicolls his funerall. Together with the life and death of the authour. Published by E.B.	Bolton, Robert, 1572-1631.; Bagshaw, Edward, d. 1662.	1632 (1632)	STC 3242; ESTC S106786	206,639	329

wherein such as these are ordinarily entangled and holden fast from which inferiours are for the most part free Let us come into a towne or countrey village and we shall find all the rest not so exorbitant but enter into the Noblemans Gentlemans or Knights house if there be any there there shall we find a nest of new-fangl'd fashionists naked breasts and naked armes like bedlams saith that excellent and learned Gentleman in his Oyle of Scorpions Bushes of vanity in the one sexe which they will not part with said Marbury untill the Devill put a candle into the bush and cut haire in the other stirs against the Ordinance of GOD and nature in both and many other such deformed lothsome and prodigious fashions censured by that stinging and flaming place against fashion-mongers Zeph. 1. 8. And these are the more pernicious because it were many times more easie for us of the Ministerie I speake out of some experience to undertake by GODS blessing caeteris paribus as they say the driving of an impure wretched drunkard from his beastly and swinish sin which would be a very hard taske than to draw such as delight in and dote upon these miserable fooleries from the abhorred vanity of strange fashions nay and though somtimes they would be thought to looke towards religion And thus I have done with the reasons peculiar to every severall sort of greatnesse I now come to those which are common to them all 1. All the great ones according to the flesh in any of these kinds I say ye are all as yet deadly enemies from the very heart-root to the profession and practice of the holy men without which holinesse we cannot see GOD you cannot endure to be called puritans much lesse to become such and yet without purity none shall ever see the face of GOD with comfort Mistake me not I meane CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHRISTS puritans and no other Matth. 5. 8. Ioh. 13. 11. 15. 3. Secondly I meane onely such as Bellarmine intimates when he cals King IAMES puritan for he so cals him saith D. Harkwit against Carrier because in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron he affirmes that the religion professed in Scotland was grounded upon the plaine words of the Scripture And againe in his second Booke that the reformation of religion in Scotland was extraordinarily wrought by GOD. Gracious and holy speeches as you see with men of the world are puritanicall And if a man speake but holily and name but reformation Scripture conscience and such other words which sting their carnall hearts it is enough to make a man a puritan Thirdly I meane the very same of whom Bishop Downam one of the greatest schollers of either Kingdome speakes thus in his Sermon at Spittle called Abrahams Triall And even in these times saith he the godly live amongst such a generation of men as that if a man do but labour to keepe a good conscience in any measure although he meddle not with matters of State or Discipline or Ceremonies as for example if a Minister diligently preach or in his preaching seeke to profit rather than to please remembring the saying of the Apostle If I seeke to please men I am not the servant of CHRIST Gal. 1. 10. Or if a private Christian make conscience of swearing sanctifying the Sabbath frequenting Sermons or absteining from the common corruptions of the time he shall straightway be condemned for a Puritan and consequently be lesse favoured than either a carnall Gospeller or a close Papist c. Fourthly I meane none but those whom the Communion-Booke intends in that passage of the prayer after confession That the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy Now these come by their purity by preaching the Word Now saith CHRIST ye are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleane by the Word which I have spoken unto you Ioh. 15. 3. The Word must first illighten convince and cast them downe so that out of sight of sinne and sense of divine wrath being weary sicke lost wounded bruised broken-hearted these are Scripture-phrases and thereupon casting their eyes upon the amiablenesse excellency and sweetnesse of the LORD IESVS and the All-sufficiency of His bloud to cure them resolve to sell all to confesse and forsake all their sinnes not to leave an hoofe behind and then taking him offered by the hand of GODS free grace as well for an Husband Lord and King to love serve and obey Him as for a Saviour to free them from hell They put on with the hand of faith the perfect purity of His imputed righteousnesse attended ever with some measure of inherent purity infused by the sanctifying Spirit and after entring the good way their lives are ever after pure and holy These are CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Puritans I meane And these men of purity some never meane to be nay they heartily hate the very image of IESVS CHRIST in them they speake spitefully against them David was not onely the drunkards song but those also that sate in the gate spoke against him they are your musicke and matter of your mirth I am your musicke saith the Church in the person of Ieremie Lam. 3. They will many times call upon a roguish vagabond at your feasts to sing a song against them whom they should rather set in the stockes they are transported and inwardly boyle with farre more indignation and heart-rising against their holinesse purity precise walking and all meanes that lead thereunto though enjoyned upon paine of never seeing the face of GOD in glory than more simple poorer and meaner men and that 's a reason they sticke faster in the Devils clutches than they and that few of them are called converted and saved according to my Text. Secondly ye that are thus the worlds favourites are very loth to become fooles and therefore in the meane time he lockt full fast in the Devils bands and cannot escape except ye be such I speake a very displeasing thing to worldly-wise men but they are the very words and wisdome of the Spirit of GOD 1 Cor. 3. 18. Let no man deceive himselfe if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a foole that he may be wise Let no man deceive himselfe such caveats as this are wont to be premised when men out of their carnall conceipts are peremptory to the contrary and would venture their salvation as they say that it is not so See Ephes. 5. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Mat. 5. 2. And did not most of your hearts rise against these words of mine you must become fooles or never be saved untill I brought Scripture Give me here leave I pray you to intimate in a few instances the meaning of the place and the truth of your false and selfe-couzening hearts in obnoxiousnesse to the point Suppose a messenger of GOD should deale faithfully

of almighty GOD with all terrible and torturing ingredients to make it most fierce and raging and a sit instrument for so great and mighty a GOD to torment everlastingly such impenitent reprobate rebels It is said to be prepared Matth. 2●… 41. Isa. 30. 33. as if the all-powerfull wisdome did deliberate and as it were sit downe and devise most tormenting temper for that most formidable fire the one is blowne by an aiery breath the other by the angry breath of the great GOD which burnes farre hotter than ten thousand rivers of brimstone The pile thereof saith the Prophet is fire and much wood the breath of the LORD like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it What soule doth not quake and melt with thought of this fire at which the very Devils tremble There is no proportion betweene the heat of our breath and the fire that it blowes What a fearefull fire then is that which is blowne by a breath dissolved into brimstone which a great torrent of burning brimstone doth ever mightily blow If it be metaphoricall as Austin seemes some where to intimate and some moderne Divines are of mind and as the gold pearles and precious stones of the wall streets and gates of the heavenly Ierusalem Rev. 21. were metaphoricall so likewise it should seeme that the fire of hell should also be figurative And if it be so it is yet something els that is much more terrible and intolerable For as the Spirit of GOD to shadow unto us the glory of heaven doth name the most pretious excellent and glorious things in this life which notwithstanding come infinitely short so doth He intimate unto us the inexplicable pai●…es of hell by things most terrible and tormenting in this world fire brimstone c. which yet are nothing to h●…llish tortures Whether therefore it be materiall or metaphoricall I purpose not here to dispute or go about to determine neither is it much materiall for my purpose For be it whether it will it is infinitely horrible and ins●…fferable beyond all compasse of conceipt and above the reach either of humane or Angelicall thoughts It doth not onely exceed with an incomparable disproportion ●…ll possibility of patience and resistance but also even ability to beare it and yet notwithstanding it must upon necessity be borne so long as GOD is GOD. Take in a word all that I intend to tell you in the point at this time If the severall paines of all the diseases and maladies incident to our nature as of the stone gout colicke strangury or what other you can name most afflicting the body nay and add besides all the most exquisite and unheard of tortures and if you will even those of the Spanish Inquisition which ever were or shal be inflicted upon miserable men by the bloudiest executioners of the greatest tyrants as that of him in the brazen chaire mentioned before c. and collect them all into one extremest anguish and yet it were nothing to the torment which shall for ever possesse and plague the least part of a damned body And as for the soule let all the griefes horrours and despaires that ever rent in peeces any heavy heart and vexed conscience as of Iudas Spira c. And let them all be heaped together into one extremest horrour and yet it would come infinitely short of that desperate rage and restlesse anguish which shall eternally torture the least and lowest faculty of the soule What then do you think wil be the torment of the whole body What wil be the terrour of the whole soule Here both invention of words would faile the ablest Oratour upon earth or the highest Angell in heaven Ah then is it not a madnesse above admiration and which may justly amaze both heaven and earth and be a prodigious astonishment to all creatures that being reasonable creatures having understanding like the Angels of GOD eyes in your heads to fore-see the approaching wrath hearts in your bodies that can tremble for trouble of mind as the leaves of the forrest that are shaken with the wind consciences capable of unspeakable horrour bodies and soules that can burne for ever in hell and may by taking lesse paines in the right way than a drunkard worldling or other wicked men in the wayes of death and going to hell escape everlasting paines yet will sit here still in the face of the Ministry with dead countenances dull eares and hard hearts as senslesse and unmooved as the seates you sit on the pillars you leane to and the dead bodies you tread on and never be said as they say never warn'd untill the fire of that infernall lake flame about your eares O monstrous madnesse and mercilesse cruelty to your owne soules Let the Angels blush heaven and earth be amaz'd and all the creatures stand astonished at it 3. When sentence is once irrevocably past by that high and everlasting Iudge and the mouth of the bottomlesse pit hath shut it selfe upon thee with that infinite anguish and enraged indignation thou wilt take on teare thy haire bite thy nailes gnash the teeth dig furiously into the very fountaine of life and if it were possible spit out thy bowels because having by a miracle of mercy beene blessed all thy life long in this gloriously illightened Goshen with the fairest noone-tide of the Gospell that ever the Sun saw and either diddest or mightest have heard many and many a powerfull and searching Sermon any one passage wherof if thou haddest not wickedly and wilfully forsaken thine own mercy and suffered Satan in a base and beastly maner to blindfold and ba●…le thee might have beene unto thee the beginning of the new-birth and everlasting blisse yet thou in that respect a most accursed wretch diddest passe over all that long day of thy gracious visitation like a sonne or daughter of confusion without any piercing or profit at all and passed by all those goodly offers and opportunities with an inexpiable neglect and horrible ingratitude and so now liest drown'd and damn'd in that dreadfull lake of brimstone and fire which thou mightest have so easily and often escaped This irksome and furious reflexion of thy soule upon its owne wilfull folly whereby it hath so unnecessarily and sottishly lost everlasting joy and must now live in endlesse woe will vexe and torture more than thou canst possibly imagine continually gnaw upon thy heart with remedilesse and unconceivable griefe and in a word even make an hell it selfe O then having yet a price in thine hand to get wisdome to go to heaven lay it out with all holy greedinesse while it is called To day for the spirituall and eternall good of thy soule Improve to the utmost for that purpose the most powerfull Ministry holiest company best bookes all motions of GODS Spirit all saving meanes c. Spend every day passe every Sabbath make every prayer heare every S●…imon thinke every thought speake every word do

patience c. As a father shewes sometimes and represents to the eye of his child a glimpse and sparkle as it were of some rich orient jewell to make him love long pray and cry for a full sight of it and grasping of it in his owne hand So our heavenly Father in this case If celestiall excellencies and those surpassing joyes arising principally from the visible apprehension of the purity glory and beauty of GOD were clearely seene and fully knowne even by speculation it would be no strange thing or thanksworthy for the most horrible Beliall to become presently the holiest Saint the worlds greatest minion the most mortified man But in this vale of teares we must live by Faith 3. It is a fruit of our fall with Adam and the condition of this unglorified mortall state here upon earth to know but in part From which our knowledge above shall differ as the knowledge of a child from that of a perfect man as knowledge by a glasse from apprehension of the reall object as knowledge of a plaine speech from that which is a riddle It is not for us saith one in these earthly bodies to mount into the clouds to pierce this fulnesse of light to breake into this bottomlesse depth of glory or to dwell in that unapproachable brightnesse This is reserved to the last Day when CHRIST IESVS shall present us glorious and pure to His Father without spot or wrinkle 4. Our understandings upon necessity must be supernaturally irradiated and illightened with extraordinary enlargement and divinenesse before we can possibly comprehend the glorious brightnesse of heavenly joyes and full sweetnesse of eternall blisse It is as impossible in this life for any mortall braine to conceive them to the life as to compasse the heaven with a span or containe the mighty Ocean in a nut-shell The Philosopher could say that as the eyes of an Owle are to the light of the Sun so is the sharpest eye of the most pregnant wit to the mysteries of nature How strangely then would it be dazeled and struck starke blind with the excessive incomprehensible glory and greatnesse of celestiall secrets and immortall light But although we cannot comprehend the whole yet we may consider part Though we cannot take a full draught of that over-flowing fountaine of endlesse blisse above yet we may taste though we cannot yet enjoy the whole harvest yet we take a survey of the first fruits For the Scriptures to this end shadow unto us a glimpse by the most excellent precious and desireable things of this life Thus much premis'd let us for my present purpose about the joyes of Heaven consider 1. The Place where GOD and all His blessed ones inhabite eternally But how can an infinite GOD be said to dwell in a created heaven GOD from all eternity when there was nothing to which He might manifest and make knowne Himselfe is not said to dwell any where either to have been out of Himselfe or in any thing but onely in Himselfe He was therefore an heaven to Himselfe But when He pleased He created the world that in so large and goodly a Theater He might declare and conveigh His power goodnesse and bounty some way or other to all creatures Especially He prepared this glorious heaven we speake of not that it might enclose or enlarge His happinesse But that He might unspeakably beautifie and irradiate it with unconceiveable splendour of His Majesty and Glory and so communicate Himselfe beatifically to all the Elect Saints and Angels even for ever and ever I said not that it might enclose conclude and confine Him For He is as truly without the heavens as He is in them And He is where nothing is with Him He was when nothing was and then He was where nothing was beside Himselfe Before the Creation there was properly neither when nor where but onely an incomprehensible perfection of indivisible immensity and eternity which would still be the same though neither heaven nor earth nor any thing in them should any more be But we may not so place Him without the Heavens as to cloath Him with any imaginary space or give the checke to His immensity by any parallell distance locall He is said to be without the heavens in as much as His infinite Essence cannot be contained in them but necessarily containes them He is so without them or if you will beyond them that albeit a thousand moe worlds were heaped up by His all-powerfull hand each above other and all above this He should by vertue of His infinite Essence not by free choyce of will or mutation of place be as intimately coexistent to every part of them as He now is to any part of this heaven and earth we enjoy In a sober sense Bernard saith true Nusquam est ubique est He is no where because no place whether reall or imaginary can comprehend or containe Him He is every where because no body no space or spirituall substance can exclude His presence or avoid the penetration if I may so speake of His Essence This glorious Empyrean Heaven where nothing but light and blessed immortality no shadow of matter for teares discontentments griefes and uncomfortable passions to worke upon but all joy tranquillity and peace even for ever and ever doth dwell is seated above all the visible Orbs and Starry Firmament See Deut. 4. 39. 10. 14. Iosh. 2. 11. Pro. 25. 3. 1 King 8. 27. 30. 39. 43. 49. Luke 24. 51. Acts 1. 9. 7. 69. Eph. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 2. where it is called the third heaven 1. The first is that whole space from the Earth to the Sphere of the Moone where the birds fly whence raine snow haile and other Meteors descend See Gen. 7. 11. Psal. 8. 8. Mat. 8. 20. Deut. 28. 12. Mat. 6. 26. where they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The second consists of all the visible Orbs. See Gen. 1. 14 15. where he cals the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expansion Firmament Heaven And in this He placeth the Sun Moone and other Starres Deut. 17. 3. Within this second Extension we comprehend three other Orbs represented to our knowledge by their motion Of which see Eustachius Table at pag. 94. 3. The third is that where GOD is said specially to dwell whither CHRIST ascended and where all the blessed Ones shall be for ever No naturall knowledge can possibly be had of this heaven neither any helpe by humane arts Geometry Arithmetike Opticks Hypotheses Philosophy c. To illighten us thereunto For it is neither aspectable nor moveable Hence it is that Aristotle the most eagle-eyed into the mysteries of nature of all Philosophers and whom they call Natures Secretary yet said that beyond the moveable Heavens there was neither body nor time nor place nor vacuum But GODS Booke assures us of this Heaven of happinesse and House of GOD above all the aspectable