Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	sin_n	sin_v	3,111	5	9.7434	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87177	The everlasting joys of heaven: or, The blessed life of a Christian, in grace here; and in glory here-after. Set forth for the comfort and encouragement of all those that desire to fear the Lord; / by John Hart, a servant of Jesus Christ. Recommended to the reader, by Obadiah Sedgewick, and Iohn Downam, ministers of the Gospel.	Hart, John, D.D.; Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.; Downame, John, d. 1652.	1656 (1656)	Wing H948; Thomason E1680_2; ESTC R209155	49,553	177

with the glory of heaven far beyond all earthly cloathings and furnitures And such a cloathing as shall make an everlasting distinction betwixt us and wicked men for ever whatsoever imputations now lie upon us conversing amongst them Malach. 3.18 such a house like Christ himself the glory of that house from w●om and every thing in the house we may at all times fetch whatsoever we want to supply all So that Heaven is all things unto us as God is the universall good so hath he the fulnesse of all to supply us with which he can convey when and by what means it pleaseth him All things are ours because Christ is ours who is all things unto us and hath all things his whence at all times we may fetch every thing we want out of this heavenly glorious house for which the soul therefore in its most excellently composed temper sighs and groans as hath been said that our garment of salvation and robe of Righteousnesse we are now cloathed with in this our naturall condition may be heightned up to the full perfection of heavenly beauty with a superadded tincture of Glory in that highest place of eminencie and excellencie far above all Not that it would be uncloathed this is not the cause of the sighing and groaning but cloathed upon The soul in this case hath no peremptory desire to die not any pleasure of complacencie that way Oh Life is precious and long life is a blessing from God To live long in the Land and to have opportunity to do much good and to recover a great deal of the blessed Image of God It knowes Death to be of it self an enemy and the last enemy which shall be destroyed and no man will willingly cast himself in the jaws of his enemy which without a garment of Grace will but lead us unto the King of Terrours into that Eternity of that tormenting Tophet for ever No it is not willing to uncloath it self of this garment of Grace Christs Righteousnesse but to gird and keep it faster faster about us for in that great day Christ must see us thus cloathed or else wee can have no cloathing upon the same with a garment of Glory And therefore in this life it is willing to submit it self unto the Will of God here in all Active and Passive Obedience and though it be forced to live here a sinfull life where it cannot chuse but sin yea and sometimes an unprofitable life laid by as it were good for nothing yet it knowes the sins shall be forgiven and the good actions be all recorded in mind and it to be an high act of our holinesse even to submit to God and live in such an estate as doth sin wherein we must suffer For we can be in no such Estate here in this life but we may bring Glory to God and glorifie him whilest our patience is attaining unto its perfect work in us that we may be entire wanting nothing O but this is the matter and cause of this sighing and groaning That mortality may be swallowed up of Life That is that all this whole body of death with all the effects causes forerunners attendants and followers thereof that all possibility of dying all necessity of dying all fear of dying or sinning any more the whole body of sin and death with all the relations and apurtenances thereof may be swallowed up of life quite abolished and taken away for ever Even as it was in the case of Korah Dathan and Abiram with all the families and goods of all which nothing was to be seen when the earth had swallowed up all and closed up again or as Revel. 12.16 It is said that the earth helped the woman and swallowed up the flood which the Serpent cast out against the woman So it is here the soul in sighing and groaning after a heavenly estate sighs and groans to be freed of all the acts of sin and whatsoever it looketh on as fruits of sin which are pressing down burthens unto it in this body of mortality And then again as this mortality is a remembrance and witnesse of sins contagion and filthinesse it sighs and groans to be freed from it and would have all memorials and witnesses of sin done away And further mortality it self as is a remembrance and witness of sin c. It is sin and is attended with the fruits of sin This with all the relations thereunto it sighs to have done away that all manner of impurity may be so abolished as nothing thereof may remain either in thought or action And then again seeing all the parts of our mortality as hath been said are clogs and burthens and hinderances unto us in Gods service as weights to keep us down as fetters to chain us and keep us under for when our spirits are mounted up and would flie unto heaven and converse there this mortality pulleth us down again and hindereth us from spiritual actions and meditations not to perform them with any life or comfort In this case also the soul sighs and groans to be gone And as the soul desireth further union and communion with God without these interruptions clouds damps and eclipses of the sunshine of its comfortable feelings it now hath It groans and sighs earnestly that its mortality may be swallowed up of life And yet more It sighs to be at home in Heaven because there shal be an explanation and full discovery of the extent of all the word of God and of the utmost fulfilling of all the promises with a sight and apprehension of Gods goodnesse what God Christ have done for us and that we thereafter might never have any thought motion or desire contrary unto the will of God All which in all these cases are warrantable and spiritual grounds for the soul betrothed unto Christ here to desire sigh groan and long for the consumation of the marriage with him in heaven For the more holy spirituall any one is and gratious the more they desire this union and communion with Christ in Heaven As Rev. 22.20 Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Untill the day break and the shadows flie away return my wel-beloved and be like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of Bethel Cant. 2.17 And thus the souls of the faithfull here though they would not be uncloathed yet sigh groan earnestly to be cloathed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life Which ardent desires in them are both wrought continued nourimed in them and perefcted by the spirit 2. Cor 5.5 Which maketh request for them according to the will of God Rom. 8.27 And thus by Gods mercy and assistance of his blessed spirit we have been led along to have a glimpse of this heavenly building not made with hands but eternal in the heavens and of the glory excellency and eternity thereof with both the causes and lets of sighing and groaning after it And now that we are come unto a

more then all the rest we not onely burthened pressed down and wearied with the many actings of sin and surrounded about also and invironed with the dwellings thereof in us in this body of death which though sometimes it lie still ready as an Armie round about us in readinesse to ambush and come upon us we know not how where nor when like a lurking serpent still waiting to sting and suddenly surprize us which body of death made St. Paul though otherwise a man of an invincible courage to master vanquish and overcome all afflictions and make a tush and light matter of them as sorrowing saith he yet alwaies rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 being a strong man to master these and all other crosses yet cry out on this as too hard for him Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But in heaven there shall be no more sorrows crying tears or cause of complaints Our death will be the death of this body of death no sorrow or shame or complaints in heaven no ambushes of sin can lie there nor Serpent shall creep in into that Paradice to seduce us anymore we shall for ever be freed from this body of death and have a body like unto Christs glorious body In all which respects and many more these meditations and impressions of eternity of glory in the life to come maketh such reflexions upon us to make us to sigh and groan earnestly to be cloathed with our house which is from heaven unlesse in Some Cases when Beleevers otherwise very good men cannot thus sigh and groan to be cloathed with this their house which is from heaven Which may appear both in regard of others and our selves First for others Many beleevers are contented to spare this Sighing and Groaning at least suspend the same Because they would live to do more good unto others to see some fruit of their labours and seed sown how it growes to see the prosperity of the Church as David did Psal. 106.4 Remember me O Lord with the favour of thy people visite mee with thy Salvation that I may see the felicity of thy chosen and rejoyce with thy people and glory with thine inheritance And some also as St. Paul are very able to comfort and help others and therefore are sparing to Sigh and Groan for this heavenly house because they may be profitable unto others as Paul though in regard of himselfe he could have been contented to have flowne into heaven yet in regard of Others he armed himself with that wonderfull self denial to be contented to live for their sakes And so also may many other good Christians linger and draw back from earnest groaning after this heavenly house in regard of Others Parents sometimes would live to see their children bred and brought up in the fear of God and see the prosperity of other friends and are not so earnest in Sighing and Groaning after their Dissolution Secondly For our selves Wee may draw back from Death and Sighing and Groaning after this heavenly house to be cloathed therewith in divers cases First When we want the comfortable Assurance of our Salvation and when our Evidences of heaven are so slurred and blotted that we cannot read the same or have forgotten them Then we cannot sigh and groan after this heavenly house until we are able more clearly to read our evidences And Secondly We are sometimes ignorant of the Glory Excllency and Eternity thereof and so we cannot sigh and groane earnestly for the same which we are ignorant of and know not and yet for all this may be good Christians and Beleever though they fail and come short in these meditations And Thirdly When for our humbling the Lord is pleased sometimes to set our sins before us and therewith the wrath due unto them then not daring to looke God in the face they dare not look on death to encounter that and so are far from sighing and groaning after this heavenly house as wee see in David a holy reconciled man after Gods own heart yet Ps. 38.4 when God suffered his sins to stare him in the face he then complains Mine Inquities are gone over my head as a heavy burthen they are too heavy for me and so prays Ps. 39.19 Stay thine hand from me that I may recover my strength before I go hence be not Now a sense of sin and wrath now and then being given unto the Saints they cannot then groane earnestly to be cloathed with this heavenly house Fourthly And again We are sometimes to bustle with the delights and pleasures of this world which steals away our hearts from sighing and groaning after this heavenly house which makes that with so much adoe we are drawn away from wallowing in them as we see in Lot a good holy man yet what adoe was there to draw him away from Sodome that whilest he prolonged the time he was in a manner pulled out of it and when he was pulled away from it yet he makes intercession for Zoar which was one of those Cities that his soul might live Gen. 19.20 And sometimes again Fifthly The soul is as it were in prison and off hooks as a door off the hinges with strong and many amazing distractions so as the soule is not it self nor able to look after heavenly things having much adoe to wrastle after these encumbrances when it is unfit to sigh and groane earnestly after heavenly things yea not to mannage earthly comforts as it fell out with the children of Israel Exod. 6.9 that though Moses told them excellent things of the Egyptian bondage and captivity yet it is said there That they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of Spirit and for cruel Bondage So that vexations of earthly encumbrances and wants are great impediments unto this sighing and groaning earnestly after heavenly things in this our house which is from heaven And sometimes also in regard that our Accounts are not ready we shrink and draw back again being loath to encounter death Lastly in this case we make no hast but shun death and sighing and groaning after this heavenly house because we look on death under wrong notions and apprehensions and therefore run from it as Moses fled from his staff when it was turned into a Serpent untill God quiet our spirits and bid us to take it up again shewing us that there is no danger in it and making us in love with it For indeed Death is a part of the Saints portion 1 Cor. 3 22 all things are yours saith he whether it be Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or life or death whether they be things present or things to come all are yours c. what great matter is this for death to be ours O yes a great matter as it is ordered as the Grave is sanctified and perfumed by Christ and as it were an inlet unto Glory being the

maketh us to tread upon the Moon viz. All earthly things being strong in the Lord and having his joy for our strength Nehem. 9. Be armed against all sufferings by this piece of spiritual armour ready The Helmet of our Salvation Ephes. 6. The hope of Glory Being enflamed with that constraining love of God to long to be at home with him and work upon us suitable impressions according unto that subject we rest upon accounting all here below nothing in regard of heaven causing us having this bright Sun light not so to rejoyce any more as we have done in the moon and stars light of this world when there appeareth unto us as far greater glory Yea as it is Iob 5.21.22 making us to laugh at famine and destruction and not to be afraind thereof when it commeth or any other terrour at hand And hereby also we shall learn with Christ to despise and pass by the shame of the Crosse by these overmastring meditations in all things looking unto him who endured such contradiction of paners for the joy and glory that was set belore him Heb. 12.3 And now to conclude all in the last place let this be the upshot of all with holy Abraham and Job to stand in our Tent doors waiting for the comming of Christ for the consumation of the marriage with him for ever this whole lifetime being but our betrothing and perfuming time to fit us for him so with Iob all the daies of our appointed time waiting untill our change shall come which will nothing hinder our sighing and groaning after heaven for the same and that may stand together but every day increase the same the longer waiting for his comming is delaied quickning our appetite for it and giving us so much the more time to treasure up grace that we may be vessels sitted and prepared to engrosse a great deal the more of his excellent glory for ever And let us hereafter look upon heaven as the finisher of all our sorrows crosses cares turmoiling thoughts vexations wants and the like whatsoever where shal be fulnesse of joy and society of all which desires thoughts hopes and expectations beyond all expression learning to spiritualize all things and occurrences unto heavenly ends admiring as is said at the love of Christ who hath freely given and purchased unto us this inheritance knowing this that all the sweetnesse of this life is nothing but bitternesse unlesse he season the same and that the meditation of him in his excellencies and high perfections what he hath done for us here and shall do for us in endlesse Glory is that which onely is able to sweeten all the sowre things of this life unto us And now that we know and are convinced of these things let us do as God commanded Abraham when he gave him the promised Land Gen. 13.17 Arise and walk through the length and breadth of this heavenly Canaan given unto us from the one end of Heaven to the other To rouze up our spiritual meditations by Faith often walking from room to room joy to joy astonishment to astonishment Glory to Glory raising our meditations dayly aloft to think of it often and to joy in the same with mounted affections thither But what do I say of raising our affections and meditations thither O rather in good earnest let us resolve Saintlike to dwell in heaven where our conversation should chiefly be For so it is said of those holy ones oppressed by Antichrist whom he made war against Revel 13.6 That they dwelt in heaven having much and constant entercourse of heavenly conversation and affections bent mounting thither which is to dwel in heaven even whilest we are conversant upon earth By which meditations though thereby we cannot yet take full possession of our heavenly inheritance yet they will make us the better to taste of the milk and honey of that promised land as Moses by faith did of the land of Canaan which God shewed him yet he tasted of the sweetnesse and fulnesse thereof and fed himself with the milk and honey of it suitable whereunto is that which the Prophet David speaks so confidently of Psal. 63.4 Thus will I magnifie thee all my life and lift up my hands unto thy name my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips But when shall this be effected when I remember thee upon my bed and when I think upon thee in the night watches So that often meditations of the promises of heavenly things turneth them as it were unto marrow and fatnesse to be substantial and conatural with us when unto others they are like unto dry bones So may we in our journies through the wildernesse of this world feed our selves fat and fill our bones as it were with this strengthening marrow attained by these heavenly meditations marching from strength to strength faith to faith and glory to glory untill at length we come to be transformed into the blessed image of Christ in holiness and righteousness this mortall having put on immortality and this corruption incorruption to be swallowed up of life there to injoy for ever with a strong inlightned intellectual understanding the mystery of the glorious Beatificall vision in a ravishing and overcoming joy unspeakable and glorious And which is the sum of all which hath been or can be said as it is Ephes. 3.19 To be filled with all the fulnesse of God which is more for ought we know then Saints and Angels are fully capable of FINIS L'ENVOY To Eternities Eternity RApt up in wonders wonders Glories Maze Where endless end the period is of time My ravish'd soul do rise thou mount clime Where million millions joys themselves bewrays With Saints Angels in their glancing rays Near beauties Throne and that eternal light where ne'r shal come appear darkness or night View if thou canst eternities last days Let numbers rise and mount to highest pitch And stretch beyond and numbers O yet then This date outdates the strength of any pen Nor can it multiply its utmost reach Since then no pen can cipher out this story What can suffice for to attain this glory The Table HOw to look on death pag. 10. The Certainty of Heaven pag. 15. Nature leading us to God pag. 17. Our certain knowledge of this Building pag. 19. The Vshers unto our knowledge p. 22. Trials of our assurance and knowledge p. 23. How to know that we know that our knowledge be not counterfeit pag. 32. The distinction betwixt the witnesse of our spirit and the immediate witnesse of Gods spirit by it self pa. 32. 〈◊〉 The witnesse of our spirit in a Calm 2. The witnesse thereof in a Tempest p. 33. Gods spirit witnessing with our spirit p. 36. The sealing of the spirit pa. 37. Impressiions of the spirit at his first possessing of the soul pag. 40. The immediate witnesse of the spirit as it were from heaven above p. 43. How to know that our knowledge is no false illumination pag. 48. The excellency of heaven in general p. 62. In the titles given unto it p. 68. The scituation of heaven pag. 70. The matterials form and matter of heaven pag. 73. The capacity and extent of heaven p. 75. The furniture of heaven p. 76. The company we shal enjoy there pa. 80. The possession and enjoying of heaven p. 82. Five considerable perticulers therein p. 87 The eternity of heaven p 94. Reasons why no other estate can fit the Sainss but an eternal estate pa. 97. What great matters the meditation of eternity setles in the soul p. 104. What use this our life time is for p. 109. Pressures and weights hindering our sighing and groaning for heaven p. 110. Cases wherein very good men cannot sigh and groan for heaven p. 119. Cases wherein the soul cannot chuse but sigh and groan for heaven p. 127. What reason the soul hath to sigh for a house of glory pa. 129. Our heavenly cloathing what it shall be pa 131. Why the soul would not be uncloathed p. 135. The true causes of the souls sighing and groaning p. 137. Uses 4.1 To admire heavens inhabitants among us and love them p. 142. 2. That onely Beleevers are happy people pa. 143. 3. To tread upon ear●hly things p. 145. 4. To wait and expect for the comming of Christ p. 150. FINIS Argument from the course of nature proving the Diety 1 Conviction of the spirit 2 Conviction of the spirit Third Conviction of the Spirit Lib. 13. The Bea●●● cal vi●●e● Death what Times when the soul can sigh and groan for Heaven Our heavenly clothing Why the soul would not be uncloathed Causes of this sighing and groaning ●se 1. Vse 2. Vse 3.