Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	heaven_n	new_a	world_n	16,350	5	6.0258	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45958	An invitation to the aforementioned society, or little common-wealth shewing the excellency of the true Christian love and the folly of all those who consider not to what end the Lord of heaven and earth hath created them.	Plockhoy, Pieter Corneliszoon, fl. 1659.	1660 (1660)	Wing I291; ESTC R28720	11,486	18

a few bags to lay the foundation of our praise upon the prayers of the poor to make the cross of Christ our glory and not to efchew the dissavour of man as the reward of our well-doing In a word to put off all desire of fame and renown as also to refer all desire of revenge to the judgement of Christ we shall be able to do all this if we forget not that our God is the most faithful of all Debtors and the most sure of all Securities if also we never forget that his praise which shall be given to us in the presence of men and Angels is the most glorious praise and that his renumerations and recompences are the most noble and everlasting To how happy an hour are we born if we do enter upon this communion or fellowship And from how many vexations will it release us Whereof the Heathens having obtained but a shadow how magnanimously did they in their mindes soar aloft above all Kings and worldly glory how did they despise all terrene affairs as they that from above look down upon that which is below and had pitty on them and so did indeed avoid the greatest miseries of mans life But since Christian Religion is come into the world it is a wonderful thing to consider what a light brake in together with it viz. such a light that all they whose hearts were touched therewith throwing all from them betook themselves to it for refuge as to a true and stedfast liberty after a long and horrible captivity easily forgetting their riches state rule and possession forsaking Parents Wife Children Relations and whatsoever before was most neer and dear unto them not being by any temptations of Tyrants to be drawn from the sweetness of the Christian life The same have appeared in the memory of our Fore-fathers when the bonds of Antichrist it is strange to think how firm they were were broken when they vvho a little before were forced to creep upon the ground began to rise up with what readiness that syrannical Worship of Invocating so many deceased Saints was rejected and the unconfined Worship of God re-entertained And with what readiness that vain though gainfull fancy of Invocating Christ by so many Intercessions came to nought so that it appears in all respects how much God hath chalked out in nature it self the pure and true Worship as also the amicable and friendly conversation of man and likewise how easily those things which are contrary thereto perish and come to nothing and how far our Religion with-draweth us from all Theatrical or Stage-play gestures and countenances and all those troublesom Ceremonies wherewith we torture our selves in speaking eating saluting walking cloathing yea and in all the actions of our life But on the contrary how conformable it maketh us to the coelestial Hierarchie and natural Policie and yet in these petty and altogether childish things men are so hard to be convinced and drawn off from them as if all their well-being depended thereon and the beatitude or happiness of all mankind had all its foundation therein and never give so much scope to reason and well-guided understanding as either to acknowledge their vanity or if it be known to them rather to throw it off then to retain and daily augment it with new and exottick bawbles In truth as often as we do strictly ponder to what end God the Creator and Ruler of all things hath brought every one of us into this great Fabrick of the World and yet for us to observe that the life of almost all men is either unprofitable idle wicked or hurtful to mankind we have reason to be afraid and jealous of our selves least peradventure either by the corruption of the times or our education we have applyed our selves to some manner of life which is not sutable to the will of God and the end of our Creation being not able to give a just account wherein we have lived to the glory of God and the advantage of mankind Certainly to have eaten to have drunk to have slept yea to have read much writ much seen heard and travelled much and let this also be added to have managed an Estate to have kept Hounds Horses and Servants to have had Arts and Learning in great esteem to have trimmed up Houses to have often made Banquets to have born Titles of Honor to have collected many Books together in a word to have been imployed and very busie to the uttermost in things that do not relate or belong to Christ let them be what they will certainly all that will never satisfie God nor endure the touch or tryal of the fire but being consumed as stubble will leave man bare and naked a Malefactor and guilty in the presence of God for his lost time and his neglect of friendship and union with God together with the neglect of the Endowments as wel of body as of spirit so that there will be an horrible distance between them and those whose faith in God and love to man hath been steadfast and firm Let us take heed Brethren least those among us who either in understanding learning riches beauty or arts excel others do conceit that God is therefore more gracious and favourable to them then others and that they have attained to the best life for such men do grosly deceive themselves because the manner of Gods judging is quite different from that of the World his eyes are quite other kind of eyes and his pollicy differs from the Worlds pollicy as much as Heaven from Earth as one vvho chuseth the unvvorthy and despised rejecteth and abhorreth that vvhich the World do highly esteem If any think this our Society and Fellovvship to be a nevv thing so that he cannot as it vvas in old time so much as point out five pair of such friends he hath reason with me to lament that while men do curiously and with anxity of mind search into the course of the Stars Planets the vertues of Plants Vigitables yea into the very bowels of the earth yet they are so neglective of their salvation that they do not in the least so much as seek and look after that life for which they would not need so much Silver and Gold so many Titles of Honor so many Buildings such Clothes so much Furniture for their Houses so many Messes and Dishes at their Meals so many Arms and Ammunition or Warlike provisions so many Judgements or Decrees of Law so many Medicines nor so many Books all which are causes of vast trouble so that the men of the World themselves if they were but wise would avoid these occasions or as they themselves do confess necessities of sinning This Society or fellowship hath not always been so rare and so thin sown but was very rife in the primitive times till the enemies of the first innocency did insinuate themselves thereunto whereby the life which men were bound to live as in obedience to the

AN INVITATION TO THE Aforementioned SOCIETY OR LITTLE COMMON-WEALTH SHEWING The excellency of the true Christian love and the folly of all those who consider not to what end the Lord of heaven and earth hath created them MAT. 12. 50. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Black-spread Eagle neer the West-end of Pauls 1660. An invitation to the aforementioned Society or little Common-wealth c. THough men are bound one to another upon several accounts knit together with very streight bonds and that the likeness either of manners or of life conversation or of parentage and education begets a mutual friendship between them yet this is the most perfect and of all others the most blessed when God by the dispensation of his secret counsel joyned some such together as do agree with his divine will with the rules of nature they will not exchange their union or fellowship for all the riches in the World But the more divine this state of friendship is the seldomer is it seen amongst us and the more is Satan that enemy of mankind against it who knows full well that he hath not so much right or power to meddle with this holy fire and the matter which maintaineth it as he hath where either recreation or advantage is onely looked after which kind of friendships he useth with very little trouble to dissolve but in this way of amity God onely is the bond wherewith they are tyed together without being liable to be unloosed and upon which foundation being fix'd they resolve to withstand all assaults whatsoever If then there be any felicity in the life of man or any efficacious remedy to prevent his future misery I conceive nothing was ever more solacing or reviving and come nearer to the divine nature then love viz. true love which doth so communicate it self in and to that wherewith it reciprocates that it seems to have exchanged therewith and made over thereto whatsoever it did possess before so that amongst true friends there is such an agreement that no secret no joy no profit nor any cross or affliction is undivided but whatsoever betides either of them is no otherwise then if it were the change of one alone so that death it self can scarce seperate souls so totally united certainly the Heathens who in all things pursued that which they esteemed best found nothing more delightsom then perfect friendship But how far doth Christ excel all others in love who by his Doctrine and Example hath instituted a partnership or society of mutual love by the denomination of Brethren abolishing amongst his Disciples all preheminency or domineering of one over another requiring that the gifts and means of subsistence in the World for necessity and delight should be common having called his people to a moderation and to a life sutable to pure nature so that all Christendom ought to be meerly a certain great fraternity consisting of such as having denied the World and their own lusts conspire together in Christ the sole head and spring of love doing well to one another and for his sake distribute their goods to those that stand in need Oh that we had this perfection and were answerable to the end of our creation certainly there would not be such going to law such intrenching and incroaching upon the bounds of lands such hiding and close locking up of money nor would there be such scraping together of superfluous Estates Oh total sum and highest pitch of all good if any may be admitted and that in due time to this divine favour for even many decrippid aged persons do seldom attain to this Emperors Kings Princes c. having spent all their years all their strength of body and soul have little or no time left them to serve a better Master then the World and therefore if God do join some such together as endeavour after a life more regular then their former each of them being at a loss for a companion to better and promote his resolution one to whom he may communicate his secrets a friendly reprover of his errors a reclaimer of him from the Worlds allurements a comforter in adversity a moderator of joy in prosperity and in all respects a sharer in that which God hath liberally given and last of all one ready for all cases and conditions that may happen I say and judge that these are the happiest of all persons that ever were upon the earth For as no painfuller or miserabler thing can be thought on then that life which a man lives according to the course of the world so nothing is more acceptable and lovely in the Universe then that harmony and concord which hath its Original from God and influence upon the man that is joyned with his fellow-man so agreeable to his mind which certainly can be found no where but there onely where a firm love agreement and concurring will in well doing as also a liberal distribution and imparting of all created things is entertained It is evident that the most wise God would honor the sacred society of Matrimony with the utmost perfection of this so great love since they that are so joyned together and built upon the right foundation have not onely their goods but also their joys and griefs common and cannot be severed by any kind of reproaches or malicious endeavours of the envious The World hath her delight in different degrees of dignities states titles and offices exalting themselves one above another but Christ on the contrary will that every one shall perform his office as a member of one and the same body in which no one exalteth it self nor accounteth it self worthier then other the eye is not puffed up because it sees the foot is not grieved that it sees not if any member in the body is blemished it is carefully covered by the other if any be weak it is diligently provided for by the rest whereas on the contrary every one in the World which by his Office or Title is differenced from others conceives he is quite another thing and in himself better then others and must be reputed for one that is set together and composed of some finer substance and designed to a sweeter life yea to an higher place in heaven then others Now if you do but divest and strip the World of her Riches Honors and State how naked and rufully forlorn will she remain and how far different wil she be found from that she seems to be and then it will be easie to believe that she is shored up by nothing else but wormeaten props which if they were once pulled away they would be fitted and made free for the imitation of Christ Do but see oh man what kind of things they are which do shut the door against true love and hinder communion or fellowship with Christ