Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A43044
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A free-will offering by James Harwood ...
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Harwood, James.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing H1097; ESTC R8676
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24,477
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96
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with my eye spiritual much more While I see without I may be blinde within and spy a world of wonders in this great World and yet not see that World of wickedness in this little World O Lord open the eye of my understanding lest while I look and see the way to thy Church I miss of thy Kingdom yet lest I miss I will look ad Sinistram at my Corrosives ad Dextram at my Cordials At my Corrosives my crosses in this life seeming hindrances in my spiritual Pilgrimage but sanctified pricking spurs pressing me unto the prize of my high calling O God my God twenty years current have those lasted and hadst not thou put strength into my anckle bones long since with Gad and Reuben I had sat me down on this side Jordan And now I turn ad Dextram to the right hand of thy gracious favours high cordials in the upshor of long distempers O heaviness hath endured a long Winter night but joy is come in the morning a Plerophoria a full sea of Peace and plenzy O my God as Adversity did nor quire deject me so let not Prosperity puff me up Now that I am in part restored to my Means let not my Means make me forget my Maker Beleive it he who sets his heart on Earth shall never inherit Heaven Now I am out of the bryars Lord let not the pleasant Pageants withdraw my eyes God sent afflictions to wean me from the World these contentments are proffered to try whether I love God more then the World I may look at them and not lose my way if I love them and inordinately I am at a loss and for ever And therefore once more I will look about me lest suppressed by Adversity or surprized by Prosperity Now this is done I will up and on and having little time and far to go and many by-paths in my passage I will look unto my ways There is but one way and yet it is here said I will look unto my ways Christ is the way via recta via tuta all other ways are viae deviae by-ways and yet this way Christ is cut into two pathes is viam Divinitatis Humanitat is The first step into the Heavenly way is per Christi Incarnationem the second is per Christi Divinitatem The hand that leads into these two which run into one is Amor Dei the love of God For God so loved the world that be sent his Son the second Person and therefore God born of a Virgin and therefore made man Now this is made my way to Heaven efficienter à Deo instrument aliter per sidem and this way is by Christs Godhead Manhood whilest the Godbead dwels in him bodily And now the two Natures being joyned together in one Person and that by an Hypostatical union this considered that one way may admit of a plural without prejudice to the single singular way I mean to him who is the Way the Truth and the Life But as all that go to Heaven must look unto this way Christ cut into two pathes so I must look unto my waies ways for Plurality mine for Propriety How different are these two waies the way Christ and my waies that is the way of Life this the way of Death Have I not need now to look about me Miss of that fist and I am out of the way to Heaven walk in this other and I march a full career to Hell and yet I am never in hopes to come into the way Christ till I take a survey of my own waies my thoughts words and works This is a large task and this a lazy generation Much is to be done and all to be left undone portends a fearful doom O Jacob why layest thou thy head upon a stone O Jonah why sleepest thou in the howl of the ship O ye Disciples can ye not watch one hour O! the sluggish blankets of carnal security have lull'd Gods dearest sons asleep when the Philistines have been ready to fall upon them The Disciples let Christ be taken from them O let not your selves be taken from Christ He that sleeps in sin is sensless and whilest he is a sinner he looks not to his waies he casts not an eye to Christ nor Christ to him but mark what 's said I will look to my waies Is it not high time when surround in the rotten bogs of Whoredom and Bloodshed It hath been the hard hap of the Elect to tread awry and ere aware to step into the Red-sea of blood by the misleading of the old Man in the Womans habit Here are ways to be lookt at not walkt in See them and shun them they are dangerous by-waies leading to Hell leading from Heaven Their names are these The Vnclean Spirits Round Relapse into sin That beaten Tract Covetousness which is Idolatry That way which went of late too night the Royal Palace Rebellion and Regicide Hold of Hell-gars Despair the shadowed Grove Hypocrisie The barren Mount Presumption The new Reformers Road Sacriledge These have been common high-waies leading to Hell Death and the Devil and now the late walkers in them though disguized with the vizard of seeming Saintship are discovered But there are other more covert waies I must look to if ever I look to go to Heaven And in special that way or walk in which my corrupt heart meets with first Motions to sin Assent to sin A will to sin A seduced judgement to approve of sin in the secret of my soul Look to these waies and root out all thou meetest and fear not thou the wide road of thy conversation Smother sin in that way the entrance into the womb of thy heart and the work is done neither needest thou fear but that is the way to life everlasting But the Prophets Possessive my my waies makes him owner of these high-waies saith the Lord My waies are not your waies This Mine and Thine makes or mars Mans waies have in them nought of God Gods waies have in them nought of man While I look unto my waies I see a super plus of sins While at Gods the way to be disburthened of my sin To conclude I will look unto my ways through that looking glass the Law so I shall see I am a sinner I will look O Lord unto thy waies which thy sacred Testament points me out to ensure me of a Saintship And now O Lord lead me in thy way that so I may possess my soul in peace Lord give me grace to look unto my ways that so I may escape that death death eternal MERCY beyond MEASURE Psal 58. part of vers 1. Lord thou art become gracious unto thy Land THe people of God are returned from bondage and they sing a Psalm of Thanksgiving all Israel have been Captives and this their deliverance is of the Lords doings What the arm of man conoot the finger of God can bring to pass In the low ebb of Misery he can buoy up to a full
a good Christian He is an unsufferable subject that pretends the fear of God and fears not the King He is a Demi-Chtistian who vaunts how he honors the King while the fear of God is not before his eyes But let us look into this Ark and we shall find Manna laid up in it good advice for after ages That enjoyned is Fear God Who should I fear if not God But what is he and what must I go do God is a Spirit uncreate eternal a parte post so are we a parte ante so none but he for God is never to have an ending nor ever had a beginning And this Eternity à parte ante is it that no humane reason can fathom Lord where Reason fails give me faith to believe and that it is an eternal God Creator of Heaven and Earth that I must fear And have I not just cause to fear him whom so oft I have offended But this Scripture hints not at fear of punishment but such a fear as love leads on to the keeping Gods Commandments He hath the true fear of God in him that fears to break the Commandments He that says he fears God and casts his word behinde him doth not so much deceive the World as the Devil deceives him When I square my life by Gods Law then I keep this command a prophane person then hath no fear of God in him and if to be guided by Gods Word picture out this party such then who pervert the Word of God to their own damnation how dwelleth the fear of God in them I have cast my eye up let me now look down and look at a debt I owe as to God so to the King Religion obliges me to fear God the Law the King The Law Moral as my common Parent the Law Municipal as my Lord and Soveraign truth is he is a loose fellow will not be bound up to the Law The King is set over by God for is it not said By me Kings do reign Prov. 8. and since of his setting up none but a Devil will pull them down Obedience and reverence is due to the Prince and the want of each assert the breach of this charge Let no man separate assunder those whom God hath joyned together Yet let me set a vast distance betwixt fear and fear my Spiritual fear I reserve for God a Civil for my Soveraign There is an awful reverence due to the one as my Creator I owe reverence to the other for that set far above every sublunary Creature Love is the fulfilling of Gods Law and a filial fear leads on to the completion of the Kings commands As he that fears not the King the fear of God is not in him so he fears not the King who fears not to break his Laws Know it and for an assured truth That when the King in his vertual Capacity is contemned his personal Capacity stands in need of a guard And therefore either fear to break the Kings Law or else it is to be feared thou wilt attempt to wrong the Kings Person Experience is a witness to this Thesis and proclaims How haters of the Law have turned murtherers of their Soveraign Lord the King These deserve pity for they hate reproof while had rather dye in their sin then be told of their sin Let us resolve To fear God and the King let us shew our fear to him by our fear to stray from his wholesome Laws Laws able to keep you in possession of your own in peace one with another Thus you shall preserve the bond of peace in the unity of the Spirit live as Christian Brethren and dye true loyal Subjects To conclude where there is no fear of God there is a want of the grace of God But that you all may possess Grace and Peace Grace which assures you have Peace with God Peace which witnesses you are in high grace with the King Fear God for love and love the King for the fear of God And that thy fear may not interfear thy charge is Fear God and the King SIONS SAD COMPLAINT Isa 36. part of verse 13. O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have ruled us THis is a mixt Song sung in the tune Lachrymae sung in the Cliff Gaudete The people of God call d to minde their Babylonian Bondage and tears stand in their eyes They are brought back from Babylon and now with their sad thoughts are intermixed mirth and merriness The parallel of these Jews is the River Alphaltes in whose channel run salt and fresh waters How can it but grieve to think of their long and late Captivity How does it solace to enjoy their lost liberty that so long sufferers exhausts tears that sufferers are become conquerers For this cause rejoyce and again I say Rejoyce That other Lords have bore rule this flats our joy That they have but do not revives our drooping spirits Let us look behinde before at what past at what present at our late banishment miraculous restorement These duplicated thoughts extract mixt passions joy and sorrow hope and fear We grieve when we remember what past joy for that our griefs are past Those other Lords put us in fear O Lord our God thou puts us in good hopes And thus fear and hope sorrow and joy are here housed Of this I rest assured while this I hear read O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have ruled us These Israelites are not grieved that God hath punished but complains of that body of sin which provoked the Lord to punish They quarrel not at the stone they look at the thrower and takes all well as it comes from God yet think meaner of themselves for that O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have ruled them Them and us they led the round we hold out the dance Their Thraldom was long since ours scarce got from our doors The Jews were Captives in a forreign Land we made slaves at home a mighty King conquered them the off-scum of our Kingdom tyrannized over us Worshippers of Idols inslaved the Israelites Pretenders to God and Godliness plauged our Church and Nation When Religion must cloak faction that is the height of Rebellion and the Church then sadly suffers when her new Gospellers abhor Idols yet commit Sacriledge What can adde more to misery then to have the Law of God and the King trod undersfoot When the Kings Laws suffer an Eclipse the Kings Crown is under a cloud when the Preachers of the Gospel are turned out of their pulpits they are not far off who mean to rob them of their benifices We have experienced the merciless mercy of these Egyptian Taskmasters who caused us to make our stint of brick and seek our stubble live like men and miraculously get our maintenance O if we could have over-ruled our selves others should not have ruled us our sins led us into bondage it is of the Lords doings to redeem us Hadst thou not been the Lord thou couldst