Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A06685
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The soules pilgrimage to a celestial glorie: or, the perfect vvay to heaven and to God. Written by J.M. Master of Arts
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Monlas, John.; Maxwell, James, b. 1581, attributed name.
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1634
(1634)
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STC 17141; ESTC S102722
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91,677
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186
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Church is naturally denoted and figured unto us By the holy place whereunto came onely the Levites and those which ministred at the Sacrifices are signified unto us the Ministers of the word of God who are chosen and put a part in his Church to be Heraulds and Embassadours of his holy will offering the ordinary Sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving which are his delectable and well accepted service By the Sanctum Sanctorum or the most holy place is truly figured unto us Heaven for as the high Priest entred not into that place before he had first purified washed himselfe according to the Divine ordinance so the faithfull cannot enter into heaven untill hee hath first divested sinne and be covered with the cloake of Iustice holinesse and innocencie therfore Iesus Christ himselfe declareth the same thing unto us with his owne sacred mouth saying Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. The Prophet David expresseth exceeding well the same words in the 15. Psalme saying Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart And in the 24. Psalme Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place hee that hath cleane hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soule unto vanity nor sworne deceitfully Hee shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation And in the 33. Chap. of Isaiah ver 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gaine of oppressions that shaketh his hands from receiving of bribes that stoppeth his eares from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evill He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rockes bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure His eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the land that is very farre off O what admirable places how many faire and rare promises doe all these Prophets make to the faithfull who shall keepe his heart from sinne and his hands from iniquity and Iesus Christ himselfe commeth after to confirme their testimonie and to ratifie their words saying in this place Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Words very energetically and significant as if hee had said Dearely beloved the onely and perfect way to possesse all happinesse all pleasures and all the advantages that you can wish and in a word to enjoy eternall felicity to contemplate face to face Gods divine Majestie wherein consisteth the fulnesse of happinesse and all contentment following the serpents example to cast off the olde skinne that is to pull off the olde coate of sinne infected with the leprosie of iniquity to fly and eschew evill to embrace good to hate vice and perfectly to love vertue which is the true way to heaven to the possession of heavenly graces and in a word to the fulnesse and perfection of all true happinesse Blessed are then the pure in heart for they shall see God Now to enter into a more particular explication of these words we will divide them into two principall parts and will consider 1. who are the pure in heart And secondly the cause why they are blessed The royall Prophet David in the 15. Psalme describeth perfectly unto us those that are pure in heart They are those saith hee that lye not and who live uprightly they who backbite not with their tongues nor doe evill to their neighbours and in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but they honour them that feare the Lord they that sweare to their owne hurt and change not they that put not out their money to usurie nor take bribes or reward against the innocent This is a very faire true and ample description of the Righteous man who hath a pure heart that is who hath his conscience pure and just and who lives in integrity justice and innocencie For this word heart is not here to be understood or taken for the materiall carnall heart placed in our breasts which is the fountaine and beginning of life the first living the last dying in man but for the soule that keepeth there her ordinary Sessions as we commonly say that is corne by showing onely the sacks that hold it there is the Kings Treasure by shewing onely the Exchequer Chamber where it is kept the place containing being called and taken by the name of the thing contained so must we understand a pure heart to bee taken for the conscience which therein makes her residence Where at the first sight we finde a thing very remarkable and worthy our consideration that to wit that sinne being as it were a black and venomous Inke or an infect d and corrupted poyson as soone as it comes neare our hearts the seate of our soules it defileth infecteth and makes them so stinking that God cannot endure them before his face so much abhorreth he the very sent and smell of sin and so much the very object of iniquity is noysome and troublesome to him Now Iesus Christ knowing that man brought into the world from his mothers wombe with life the cause of death that is originall sinne cursed sinne a disastrous blade or stalke which like the wilde and evill plants casteth continually forth so many young sprigges which doth so people and store the field of our soules that in the end in stead of a Garden of Eden where God tooke pleasure to walke in stead of a delightfull River where the Angels bathed it be comes a hideous and dreadfull wildernesse where the devils and wicked spirits keepe their Sabaths and criminall Assises and Sessions a filthy sinke where wicked and impious men like Hogges continually wallowe And therefore Iesus Christ I say to bring his Apostles to perfection and to put them and all the faithfull in the way to heaven he exhorts them to keepe their hearts pure cleane and naked from all sinne filthinesse and iniquity to extirpate the thistles bryers from the fields of their soules to plow and till it carefully with the share and harrow of contrition and repentance for their sinnes In a word to make it aground fit and fruitfull to receive the holy seed of the word of life and to make it beare fruites to immortality and eternall life As men would bee curious to sweepe and cleanse a house wherein a King resolues for a while to be resident and may justly accuse him of imprudence and impudence who having advice and notice of his comming would not make hast to perfume it to adorne and enrich it with the fairest furniture to embellish it with all the rarities and most pretious jewels they could recover So alas the hearts of the faithfull are nothing else but the house of God
THE SOVLES PILGRIMAGE TO CELESTIAL GLORIE OR THE PERFECT VVAY TO HEAVEN AND TO God Written by J. M. Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by Aug. Mathewes and are to be sold by William Sheares at the Signe of the Harrow in Britaines Burse 1634. discoursed and published the excellencie of your goodnesse and merits Shee seemes to be sparing of your prayses which are so justly due to you For Experience hath now made me know a thousand times more therof then heretofore I heard or understood because I find so much benignity and goodnesse among you and especially your Honours house that I should esteem my selfe to be guilty of a base ingratitude if I consecrated not the remaynder of my dayes to the honour of your service and commands For I confesse that this small Present which I now present and proffer you cannot countervaile or equalize those sublime favors whereby you have eternally made me your debter Those Philosophers which entreat and discourse of naturall causes doe affirme That the Sunne which makes the Raynebowe in the firmament by the darting and defusion of his rayes in a watry clowd disposed to receive it doth there forme and ingender this diversity of colours so pleasing to our sight Your Honour my good Lord is the Sunne of my happinesse and I am this clowd covered with the rayes of your favors which makes all the world admire in me the greatnesse of your Generosity and the excellencie of your goodnes But herein notwithstanding consists not my satisfaction but rather your honor and glory and as I desire to publish that so I likewise desire to finde this For I cannot live contented if I made not a publique acknowledgement of those many favours whereby you have perfectly purchased and made me yours and this Confession consisteth in the oath of fidelity and obedience which I have sworne to the honour of your service and to testifie the immortality of my vowes wherein with all possible humility I present you my selfe and this small Booke to your Honours feete A worke proportionable to my weakenesse but meerely disproportionable to your Greatnesse If I am any way guilty herein your goodnesse is the true cause thereof in regard it makes me beleeve that you will rather excuse my Zeale then accuse or condemne my presumption and I doe promise my selfe this hope and flatter my selfe with this confidence that your Honour will partly excuse this worke of mine if it be not accuratly or delicately polished and that the will remayning where the power wants is free and current payment with great and generous spirits Some perchance may affirme and say that I have discoursed and treated those Matters with too much simplicity which indeed is my only intent and designe Because my text and matter doe necessarily oblige and tye me thereunto as also in regard I ever find the easiest way to be the best for that the thornes of Studie and Schollership doe but ingage and ingulph our Wits in the labyrinth of insupportable length and lauguishment and the which most commonly when we have all done and ranne thorow wee in the end finde but a Minotaur of doubts and a pensive melancholy anxietie which devours them My Lord I have no other designe or ambition in this my Dedication but to pay this tribute to your Honour hoping that your charitie will cover my defects and your goodnesse over-vayle and pardon my weakenesse and imperfections And my Lord it is with all manner of right and reason that I consecrate and inscribe this small Worke of mine to your Honour and place your Honourable name in the Frontispice thereof as a bright Phare and relucent torch which shall communicate and lend its lustre and light to make it see and salute the world And so my good Lord I will seeke my delights in the honour of your service my inclinations shall have no other centre but the execution of your commands My vowes and prayers shall be incessantly powred forth for your prosperities and my Ambition shall never flye or soare higher then to conserue the honour of your favours and to be both to your Honor and to the young Noblemen your Sonnes Your most humble and truely devoted Servant I. M. THE SOVLES PILGRIMAGE TO Celestiall Glory OR THE PERFECT WAY TO HEAVEN and to God MATH 5.7 Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine Mercy THat which in men changeth Reason courtesie and humanitie into a wilde fierce and brutish nature and which makes them lesse pittifull then Lyons and more to be feared then Tygers is crueltie that terrible vice the mother of cowardize the spring of disasters and the death of innocencie For after a Coward hath once tasted of blood he delights in no other spectacle It is the cause of mischiefes and of so manie fatall and mournefull accidents for there being a naturall Antipathy betweene that vice and reason shee expells reason and therfore will not hearken unto her in her furious violent and suddaine counsels In a word it is the death of innocencie for to satisfie her bloody appetite shee spareth neither age nor sexe but upon the altar of her furious and brutish passion sacrificeth as well the just as the guilty and would not spare her selfe if shee feared not the selfe same paines and torments which she inflicts on others Now this vice is detested by noble spirits and generous soules is abhorred by Angels and in great abomination to God himselfe so by the law of contraries mercie must be the subject and royall field where we must abundantly reape the honour of men the love of Angels the graces and blessings of our heavenly Father then must mercy be practised by men admired by Angels and bee delightfull to God and therefore we see in our Text that the beloved Sonne of eternity it selfe Iesus Chist our Saviour to perfect his Apostles in the way of salvation saith to them in generall Blessed are the mercifull c. As if hee had said I doe much hate and abhorre cruelty that I desire also that you that are my Disciples should expell and banish it quite from your hearts and thoughts and in her roome to admit and entertaine mercy that heavenly vertue which I both esteeme deerely and love and respect perfectly You must therefore practise this eternally praise-worthy vertue if you will be blessed for it is impossible to get into my Fathers favour if you be not furnished and armed with mercie You cannot ascend to the top of felicity before you have left sinne this heavie and intolerable burthen I say before you have received pardon and absolution for your faults which you can never obtaine before you have forgiven your brethren their offences before you have shewed your selves favourable and willing to assist them In a word before you have extended and practised on them all sorts of mildnesse clemencie and meekenesse which they shall stand in neede of for I say vnto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are the