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	triumphant_a	4,101	5	10.5762	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63270	The saints declining state under gospel administrations, or, The case of desertion briefly stated in a few considerations by William Troughton ...	Troughton, William, 1614?-1677?	1652 (1652)	Wing T2318; ESTC R6248	32,617	114

shall shine no longer but the Lord will be an everlasting light to his church now if these scriptures bee appliable to the Church earth which I rather thinke ought to be referred to the saitns when glorified and triumphant in heaven it must be when he church is made perfect not onely by imputation but inherently when she sees God face to face and there is no flesh nor corruption in her till then they ought not to plead for an exemption from Ordinances and if Ordinances cease in this life much more eating and drinking and the duties of matrimonial relation if there shall be so much glory revealed as to swallow up the former which are of a higher nature that fulnes of glory will much more0 put an end to the latter which are lower more perishing and therefore those that say they need use Ordinances no longer let them also refraine from eating and drinking and conversing in the world * Praesens haec vita vita est fidei quae non est praesentum ac fruentium sed absentium sperantium expect Sixthly if yee constantly attend the purest Ordinances and the most spiritual and evangelicall Ministery and heare truths that are most sutable to your condition and corespond most with your experiences and yet bring forth little or no spiritual fruit but are still dead-hearted indisposed and unprofitable under these thriving dispensations it s a Symptome that you are under a spirituall distemper * Non progredi estregredi Christians oft times blame the men and the meanes and quarrell with the truths of God either as too high or too low for them when they oght rather to blame the carnality sleightnes and unbeliefe of their owne hearts for herefore the word profits not becanse it is not mixed with faith in them that heare it u Heb. 4.2 yet I deny not but there may be and often is * Sermo auditus fine fide vel fide non mixtus tâ abest ut prositaudienti ut magis eum damnet Muscul a great failing in him that dispenses the word for he may deliver it so generally and confusedly having little or no experience of the worke of Gods Spirit that an experienced Saint cannot profit by it If there be not bodily motion and stirring you may conclude the party is in a swound or trance and againe if he eat good victualls and thrive not by them but rather grow lank and leane you may well say he hath an ill concoction by reason of some bodily distemper or other So if the word be purely preached and the truths of the Gospel distinctly handled and you attend the meanes from day to day and ug continually with your hearts in Ordinances and yet notwithstanding you finde little or no spirituall sap and moisture but are leane and drie in this case it is evident enough that your spirituall digestion is in a great measure gone from you and that your inward man is under a distemper Now this may be when yet there is as frequent an use of Ordinances as much praying hearing conferring in the letter and forme as ever but there wants that spirituall life and vigour that holy familiarity and boldnesse with God in your performances which was wont to be nay your performances by the breathings of the Spirit may be lively and spirituall to others and yet your selves in the meane while dead-hearted and labouring under the burthen of your Iusts the great crop of gifts and fluent expressions which you have usually had in Prayer c. may still remaine and yet that which is the life of Prayer Gospel faith and assurance may decay and this many Christians can tell you by experience 7 Symtome when saints shark much after creature comforts Seventhly this may be another Syptome if yee dote so far on creature enjoyments that in dallying with these you spend and squander away many precious houres and dayes without serious thoughts of God and heavnly intercourses betweene him and you and so commit Idolarries with the creature and run a whoreing after the world and earthly things Forsaking him who is the fountaine of living water and digging to our selves broken cisternes that will hold no water xJer 2.13 If you set your hearts on creature beauty and sacrifice your affections to wanton dalliances igh apparel diet buil dings and other creature excellencies spending the very streame and creame and quintessence of your affections on these perishing objects so that when you come to rejoyce in God and love God and spirituall things yee have no heart to it but are altogether dead and indisposed as to this having spent your affections upon other objects and tired out your selves in the things of the world and further if you can rejoyce exceedingly in the possession of these outward things and forrow as much in the want of them be it a husband a wife a child or any other creature that is deare to your as if your life and happinesse were bound up in these temporall enjoyments It s aparent to me that you converse not much with God but rahter that his countenance is hid from you and surely the Prophet David was much under a cloude and not sensible of the consolations of his God when his affections were so captivated and insnared with the beauty of Bersheba and good Ezekiah was in the like condition when he made shew of his gold and silve in a vaine glorious manner to the King of Babylon And for those Christians that are easily transported and surprized with every temptation drink much of the perishing waters it appeares their spirits hang loose from God they have but little spirituall joy and therefore they run out to creature comforts and so spena their money for tht which is not bread and their labour for that which satisfieth not y If. 55.2.8 Symptome If there be an abatement in poynt of assurance Eighty if your assurance of salvation be weakned your evidences blurred and your soules brought into bondage so that you fall as it were under a covenant of works by poreing too much on your selves and creatures and not eyeing Christs blood and righteousnesse in the Spirit Now the soules that hath been acquainted with Christ the true spirituall seed may yet goe back to a Covenant of works as Abraham hankered after Ismael who was a type of the Covenant of works even when Isaac that typified the Covenant of grace was borne and that two wayes First 1. In depending on eternall acts in depending on the externall acts of Prayer c. and deriving your peace and comfort from the work done * Ex opere operato which is meere Popery and hence it is that you are lifted up and cast downe according to the outward performance thus the Pharisees builded their hopes and comforts upon their doings and performances and so doe many Professors in these dayes 2. Of the internall motion in stead of Christ