Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
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A43583
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Meetness for heaven promoted in some brief meditations upon Colos. 1. 12. discovering the nature and necessity of habitual and actual meetness for heaven here, in all that hope for heaven hereafter. Designed for a funeral legacy. By O.H. an unworthy minister of the Gospel of Christ.
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Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.
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1679
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Wing H1771; ESTC R216793
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64,886
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228
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from Hell to Heaven The Sunshine of Love comes to melt and thaw our frozen hearts that God may set a stamp upon us The loving kindness of God leads to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Oh what an influence will Gods native goodness have upon an ingenuous Spirit As the Sun attracts vapours from the Earth so this Son of Righteousness should and will if our sturdy hearts hinder not raise our hearts Heaven-wards It s pity we should stop here in the streams but that thereby we should be led to the fountain and follow the beams up to the Sun May this long-suffering of the Lord be your salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 May love constrain you to love God May these load-stones so attract you and these grapes of Canaan enamour you that you may never rest till you appear before God in Zion And what are all Gods rods and redoubled strokes for but to awaken you out of security Peat your fingers off from the world Weaken your corruptions and purge and furbish your Souls as vessels for the high shelf of glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 How is that Surely by working the Soul into a fitness for that glory This furnace melts away the dross of our Spirit Sea-tossings clear the liquor of grace this dark night fits for the pleasant morning these pangs prepare us for deliverance these blustering storms fit souls for the peaceable fruits of righteousness being sanctified by the Spirit and improved by Faith Affliction is Gods Physick which makes sick but prepares for sweet health and shall we frustrate Gods ends in this also What are you content with a Heaven here and an Hell hereafter Nay can you be content with an Hell in both worlds Must these be par-boilings for everlasting burnings God forbid Look at the Lords end in these sufferings and let it be yours 5. The time of this life is the only time men have given them to be made meet for Heaven This life is a praeludium to an eternal state It s a Seminary for another world Gal. 6.7 8. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Seeding is a preparatory to reaping yet men must expect only to reap that kind of grain that 's sown none can think to reap Wheat that sowed Oats and you know there 's more abundunce in the reaping then in the sowing So in this case Hell torments will be more exquisite and eternal then the profit and pleasure of the sinner in sinning Heavens joys will infinitely furmount the Christians labours and sorrows in this world and there is great equity in both for the object sinned against is infinite and satisfaction can never be made by a finite Creature and the grace from whence flows Eternal Life is infinite and will have an endless duration But the point I am upon is to demonstrate the necessity of making meet for Heaven in this world or it will never be done Now or never When the door is shut the gulf fixt and the Soul loosed from the Body and launcht out into that vast ocean of Eternity there 's no returning back to get the oyl of grace or be fiting the Soul for another world Eccl. 9.10 What soever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Time lasts not but floats away apace but what is everlasting depends upon it Hic aut accepimus aut amittimus vitam aeternam In this world we either win or lose eternal Life The great weight of Eternity hangs on the small and twittered thread of time Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 This is our working day our market time surely it becomes us to lay that Foundation well that bears such a Superstructure To cast that Anchor safely that is entrusted with a Vessel so richly laden Oh Sirs sleep now and awake in Eell from whence is no redemption Suppose by misdemeanour you had forfeited your Estate and Life and upon much intercession the King causeth an Hour-glass to be turned and set you a work to do or lesson to learn if you performed it you are pardoned and promoted if not tortured and executed Oh how diligent would you be What pains would you take The case is your own Sirs Heaven and Hell are before you according to your improvement or non-improvement of this hour of life so must you fare dream not of a Purgatory as the Tree falls so it lyes You enter by death into an unchangeable state only the Body at the Resurrection will be joyned to the Soul to be partner with it in weal or woe bliss or bane for ever The state here is tempus operis the time of working hereafter mercedis of reward Oh look before you leap into another world That 's the fifth Reason 6. The Christian must be made meet here for the Inheritance above because he hath abundance of work to do and priviledges to injoy in order to the full possession of this blessed Inheritance above We have many graces to exercise duties to perform corruptions to subdue temptations to resist burdens to bear mercies to improve that will never be managed to purpose without a qualification for managing them And observe it the same disposition is requisite for making a Christian meet for any duty that 's requisite to make him meet for glory the same habitual principle and drawing it forth into lively exercise Not only must the man of God be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 but every Christian that is a vessel unto honour must be sanctified and so meet for his Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 Alas an unsanctified heart is unfit for spiritual service Solomon saith The legs of the lame are not equal he halts and goes limping so is a parable in the mouth of fools Prov. 26.7 How aukwardly and bunglingly doth he go to work in sacred things just as an unskilful person handles a Lute a Viol or Instrument of Musick or as the men of Ephraim could not frame to pronounce Shibboleth aright Judg. 12.6 There must be a suitableness betwixt the Agent and Acts No carnal heart can do any one good work well materially he may do what is good but not formally as good in a good manner for a good end acceptably to God or profitably to himself For they that are in the flesh cannot please God and without faith its impossible to please God Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 And can we think God will carry them to Heaven that never struck a right stroke or never did one hours work for God that he would accept A graceless sinner is like the fruitless