Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
church_n earth_n heaven_n militant_a 4,766 5 11.7120 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A65568 The state of blessedness by W.W. W. W., M.A. and chaplain to a person of honour. 1681 (1681) Wing W153; ESTC R26302 19,505 32

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

THE STATE OF BLESSEDNESS By W. W. M. A. and Chaplain to a Person of Honour Published at the request of a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and are to be sold at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Bible on London Bridge under the Gate 1681. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir John Roberts BARONETT SIR HEre is your Request and I wish that you do not Repent you of it That you do not discover greater failings by deliberate Reading then you did in the transient Hearing of this discourse It hath received some enlargement and alteration since I Preach'd it and not without need for the Truth is the Subject was too great for me and handled in too much hast The Sermon being the immature conception of those few hours which that weeks exercise afforded me Sir I am much afraid it will never answer that esteem you was pleased to express for it but if it may be in any degree serviceable toward your attainment of the Glory it treats of I shall be abundantly honoured and recompensed for thus exposing my self The hopes whereof is the greatest motive and encouragement to this bold attempt of Sir Your most humble and most obliged Servant W. W. COLOSSIANS 1.12 The Saints in Light NOT to trouble you with more then barely my Thoughts upon this expression we shall consider the Saints in a double capacity 1. As they are the sincere members of the Militant Church here on Earth And 2. As they are the glorified members of the Church Triumphant in Heaven The Light in which the Saints Militant dwell and by which they steer and direct their lives is the Gospel of our Saviour whereof Light is a proper Character for it's plainness and perspicuity in all things necessary to be known For the discoveries it hath made of Life and immortality which were either hidden from foregoing ages or but obscurely and mystically revealed for unvailing Moses's face both explaining the designed difficulties of the Law and unfolding it from those thicker shrouds of darkness wherein humane Tradition and the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees had enwrapt it For opening to us a prospect and insight into some parts and perfections of Religion and Vertue which Nature and the Law were ignorant of For delivering the History of the Son of God who is that true Essential Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World And lastly For the concurrence sake of the Holy Spirit which always attends the Gospel to enlighten and direct the understandings of those that by a modest and conscientious diligence and enquiry search and labour after saving knowledge But secondly The Saints considered in a higher capacity Triumphant with God in Heaven I purpose for my present Theme as I suppose them to have been design'd by the Apostle in the Words before us Whereupon I shall not attempt to Landskip Heaven or describe that inaccessible light which neither eye hath seen nor the thoughts of man conceiv'd but only sum up to you what God hath reveal'd what the understanding of man is able to think of it and what conclusions we may reasonably gather of our future happiness by reflecting upon our present wants Still keeping within the bounds of the Text and the metaphorical importance of the expression and as 't is counterposed to that figurative darkness which in Scripture we so often read of Light then as 't is used for that State of Blessedness which the Saints enjoy is a term of infinite comprehension and concludes in it all the good all the joy all the perfection that go to the making up of Heaven For 1. Sight is the most delicate and pleasurable of the sences as Solomon testifies Prov. 15.30 The Light of the Eyes rejoyceth the Heart And so the same Author Ecclesiast 11.7 Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the Eyes to behold the Sun That to describe Heaven by Vision intimates it to be a state of exquisite delights and pleasures and those pleasures like light are pure and refined and such undoubtedly they are being purged from the gross mixtures of lust and sensuality and adapted to the chast desires of sanctified Spirits and the Holy appetites of unvitiaed Reason They are quite of another nature then those fordid and unmanly pleasures wherewith the carnal world entertain their degenerous inclinations nay they are abstracted from those defects and imperfections drawn off from those dregs that in this life taint and imbitter the most ●ational delights of the wisest and best of men They are under no restraints of size and measure but infinitely abound they are not checkt by the fears of excess in the enjoyment for they are as innocent as delightful They are not such luscious sweets as satiate the appetites of those that tast them but at the fame time both fulfil their desires and enlarge them these are ingenuous and heroick pleasures consisting in the perfection of Wisedom and Love and Holiness those charms and graces of glorified souls in the vision and inseperable enjoyment of God their cheifest and most desirable object in the acquaintance and fellowship of the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly society of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs and of all the bravest Worthies of the World Oh! What an eternal rapture of Joy must it needs prove for these Blessed Souls These dearest Friends to meet in the same place to be concentred in the same happiness to be link'd together in mutual affections and embraces never to know sorrow nor discord nor parting again These are harmless but most charming pleasures pleasures fit to entertain great and generous minds that favour not of Earth and sensuality Pleasures that unconceivably delight and ravish but leave neither guilt nor sting behind them Pleasures so constant and successive that they shall leave no room for a moments unhappiness to interpose and so endless and immortal that they shall never expire nor give place to a worse succession Such vast advantages have they of those foulsome and nauseous Lusts which carnal Dotards rate above their souls and for which they barter them that it is their great perfection to be nothing like them For the joy of Heaven the felicity of Saints is without measure without allay without sin without intermission and without end Even the innocent Pleasures of good men are in this World subject to be baw'kt and daunted and the great care and pains whereby they are first obtained and then secur'd is a mighty abatement to them but it is not the least happiness of Saints that when they dye in the Lord they rest from their Labours Those sick and short lived joys that the world affords are so inconsiderable that the cost and travail of acquiring them generally exceed the purchase But those that the Saints enjoy are as cheap as day-light and come freely in without their seeking all pains and forecasts are there