Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bless_v	lord_n	sun_n	2,399	5	9.5160	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63192	The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt. at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2d. and 6th, 1662 together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment (had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the court) and his bill of exceptions : with other occasional speeches, &c. : also his speech and prayer, &c. on the scaffold.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662, defendant.; England and Wales. Court of King's Bench.	1662 (1662)	Wing T2216; ESTC R21850	115,834	133

of being prejudiced thereby against him unless they were as willing to abuse him as the Counsel But here were many things said at random against all Sense Law and Reason as if Tully had been charactering a treacherous Catil●ne and the innocent Prisoner must be mute and suffer the Jury to be dismissed and sent to pass their Verdict on his Life without the least possibility of Remedy Put this and all the rest together to wit that the Jury themselves were of the opposit party to him in the late Wars and whole Cause in question depending before them and it had been far better for the Prisoner to have cast lots on a Drum-head for his Life as a Prisoner of War than to be so tryed in a time of Peace unless it can be reasonably presumed that they that would have killed him any time this twenty year in the field should now be like to spare his Life at the Bar. Occasional Speeches before his Tryal HE said there was something in this Cause that could never be conquered and that he blessed the Lord it had never been betrayed by him or conquered in him And before this in a Letter from Silly to a Friend he said God's Arm is not shortned doubtless great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ admired in them And if we cannot live in the power and actual fruition of them yet if we die in the certain foresight and imbracing of them by Faith it will be our great blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful Piece that he is now exposing to the light When he came from his Tryal he told a Friend he was as much overjoyed as a chast Virgin that had escaped a Rape for said he neither flatteries before nor threatnings now could prevail upon me and I bless God that enabled me to make a stand for this Cause for I saw the Court resolved to run it down and through the assistance of God I resolved they should run over my Life and blood first June 13. being Friday the day before his Execution On this day liberty being given to Friends to visit him in the Tower he received them with very great chearfulness and with a composed frame of spirit having wholly given up himself to the will of God He did occasionally let fall many gracious expressions to the very great refreshing and strengthning of the hearts of the hearers To wit That he had for any time these two years made Death familiar to him and being shut up from the World he said he had been shut up with God and that he did know what was the mind of God to him in this great matter but that he had not the least recoyl in his heart as to matter or manner of what was done by him And though he might have had an opportunity of escaping or by policy might have avoided his Charge yet he did not make use of it nor could decline that which was come upon him It being told him by a Friend that his Death would be a loss to the People of God He answered that God would raise up other Instruments to serve him and his People And being desired to say something to take off that charge of Jesuitism that was cast upon him He said That he thought it not worth the taking notice of for if it were so he should never have been brought to this A Friend said Sir the Lord hath said Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life The Lord enable you to be faithful He replied I bless the Lord I have not had any discomposure of spirit these two years but I do wait upon the Lord till he be pleased to put an end to these dayes of mine knowing that I shall change for the better For in Heaven there is an innumerable company of Angels the Spirits of Just men made perfect and JESUS the blessed Mediator of the New Covenant There are holy and just Laws a pure Government blessed and good Company every one doing their duty herr we want all these This is that City spoken of Psal 48. 1 2. That strong City that cannot be moved Isa 26. Why therefore should we be unwilling to leave this estate to go that And although I be taken from hence yet know assuredly God will raise up unto you Instruments out of the dust Another said to him Sir There is nothing will stand you in stead but justifying Faith in the Blood of Jesus To which he said There are some that through Faith in the Blood of Christ do escape the pollutions of the world yet afterwards are entangled therein again others there be that are carried through the greatest sufferings by a more excellent spiritual sort of Faith in the Blood of Jesus and endure them with the greatest joy He further said We were lately preaching a Funeral Sermon to our selves out of Heb. 11. 13 16. where those blessed Witnesses do declare themselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the Earth and do desire a better Country that is a heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City And if God said he be not ashamed to be called my God I hope I shall not be ashamed to endure his Cross and to bear his Reproach even whatsoever it be that man can impose upon me for his sake Yea he will enable me not to be ashamed I have not the least reluctancy or strugling in my spirit against Death I desire not to live but my will is resigned up to God in all Why are you troubled I am not You have need of Faith and Patience to follow the Lord's Call This ought chiefly to be in our eye the bringing Glory to our heavenly Father Surely God hath a glorious Design to carry on in the world even the building up of David's Throne to all Generations For he is compleating all his precious Stones making them Heaven-proof and then laying them together in the Heavenly Mansions with the Spirits of the Just till it be a compleat City When the Top-stone thereof is laid then will he come in all his Glory This day is a day wherein Christ appears in the Clouds Oh that every one of our eyes may see him and consider how we-have pierced him in his Members that we may mourn Our Lord Jesus said Father I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do and now Father glorifie me with the same Glory I had with thee before the world was Our Lord was capable of his Glory beforehand and although we be not so capable as he yet this we know he wills the same to us that where he is we may be also that we may behold his Glory And he is our Head in

whom we are made capable being chosen in him before the foundation of the world and he hath set us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The hope of this Glory sweetens all our Sufferings I know a day of deliverance for Sion will come Some may think the manner of it may be as before with confused noise of the Warriour and garments rolled in Blood but I rathe think it will be with burning and fewel of fire The Lord will send a fire that shall burn in the Consciences of his Enemies a worm that shall not die and a fire that shall not go out Men they may fight against but this they cannot fight against It being told him by a Friend that he had delivered him up unto God as a Sacrifice though said he I have day and night prayed that this cup might pass from you He replied That he blessed God he had offered himself up first to God and it was a rejoycing to him that others had given him up also And why said he speaking before all the company should we be frighted with Death I bless the Lord I am so far from being affrighted with Death that I find it rather shrink from me than I from it His Children being then present to take their leave of him he said I bless God by the eye of Faith I can see through all my Relations to Mount Sion and there I shall need none of them I have better Acquaintance in Heaven These Relations are nothing to those I shall meet with there Then kissing his Children he said The Lord bless you he will be a better Father to you I must now forget that ever I knew you I can willingly leave this place and outward enjoyments for those I shall meet with hereafter in a better Country I have made it my business to acquaint my self with the society of Heaven Be not you troubled for I am going home to my Father I die in the certain faith and forefight That this Cause shall have its Resurrection in my Death My Blood will be the Seed sown by which this glorious Cause will spring up which God will speedily raise The laying down this earthly tabernacle is no more but throwing down the mantle by which a double portion of the Spirit will fall on the rest of Gods People And if by my being offered up the Faith of many be confirmed and others convinced and brought to the knowledge of the Truth how can I desire greater honour and matter of rejoycing As for that glorious Cause which God hath owned in these Nations and will own in which so many Righteous souls have lost their lives and so many have been engaged by my countenance and encouragement shall I now give it up and so declare them all Rebels and Murderers No I will never do it That precious Blood shall never lie at my door As a Testimony and Seal to the Justness of that Quarrel I leave now my Life upon it as a Legacy to all the honest Interest in these three Nations Ten thousand Deaths rather than defile my Conscience the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all this world and God is not a little concern'd on my behalf He will certainly judge my Case wherein is the bowels of this good Cause and in the bowels of that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which will speedily be set on foot in these Nations I would not for ten thousand Lives part-with this Peace and Satisfaction I have in my own heart both in holding to the Purity of my Principle and to the Righteousness of this good Cause and the assurance I have that God is now fulfilling all these great and precious Promises in order to what he is bringing forth Although I see it not yet I die in the faith and assured expectation of it Hebr. 11. 13. And the eternal blessedness God hath prepared for me and is ready now to receive me into will abundantly make up all other things Through the power and goodness of God I have had in this Tryal of mine such a proof of the integrity of my own heart as hath been no small joy to me The expressions of grief from his Friends he said were but so many lets and hindrances to him in the view he had of that Glory he was going to possess that heavenly City and Commonwealth where he should behold the face of God and of his Son in a society of Angels and the Spirits of Just men made perfect Some few dayes before his Suffering his thoughts were much fixed upon Psal 118. 27. where are these words God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the Altar From this he said that God gives light and is light to his People under their darkest circumstances and sufferings and when he calls them forth to suffer he binds them as Sacrifices with cords in three respects First by the Cord of his Love to us for he loved us first Secondly by the Cruelty of our Enemies Thirdly by our Resignation-duty and love to him These three Cords have bound me so fast I cannot stir Upon Friends perswading him to make some submission to the King and to endeavour the obtaining of his Life he said If the King did not think himself more concern'd for his Honour and word than he did for his Life he was very willing they should take it Nay I declare said he that I value my Life less in a good Cause than the King can do his Promise And when some others were speaking to him of giving some thousands of pounds for his Life he said If a thousand farthings would gain it he would not give it And if any should attempt to make such a bargain he would spoil their market For I think the King himself is so sufficiently obliged to spare my Life that it is fitter for him to do it than my self to seek it He rejoyced exceedingly that God assisted him so eminently in bearing his Testimony with faithfulness even unto Death and that he as willingly laid down his Life and with as much satisfaction as ever he went to bed For in a natural sickness Death seized on the body without any consent of the mind but this was a free action of his mind without any constraint upon his body Mention being made to him of the cruel proceedings against him Alas said he what ado they keep to make a poor creature like his Saviour In discourse he said If the shedding of my Blood may prove an occasion of gathering together in one the dispersed Interests and Remnant of the Adherers to this Cause of whatever differing perswasions I should think ten thousand Lives if I had them well spent in such a service He was much pleased in this consideration That he was hastening to a place where God nor none of his would be ashamed to own and receive him Here is nothing in this world saith he but reproaching and

a final Decision of the Controversie between his People and the Inhabitants of the earth by his own Judgement This is there called The Valley of Jehoshaphat in which the Lord will sit to Judge all his enemies round about In this Battel and great Decision of his Peoples Controversie he will cause his Mighty Ones to come down from Heaven to put in their sickle as reapers in this Vintage and Harvest when the wickedness is great Unto this Revel 14. 14 20. refers which doth plainly evidence that this grand Decision is to fall out in the very last of times and probably is that which will make way to the Rising of the Witnesses and will be accompanied with that Earthquake in which shall be slain of men seven thousand and the tenth part of the City will thereupon fall Rev. 11. It is expressed Joel 3. That in this day of the Lord wherein he will be near in the Valley of Decision the Heavens and the Earth shall shake by the Lords own roaring out of Sion and he himself will be the Harbour Hope and Strength of his People The Sun and Moon of earthly Churches and Thrones of Judicature that contest with them shall be darkened and the Stars even the choicest and most illuminated gifted Pastors Leaders in the earthly Jerusalem Churches with their most refined Forms of Worship resisting the power of true spiritual Godliness shall withdraw their shining Even their holy flesh will pass off from them and consume away upon their spiritual lewdness and confident opposing the Faith of Gods Elect Jer. 11. 17. Their very Eyes will consume away in their holes with which they say we see and for which Christ tells the Pharisees in like case that therefore ther sin remaineth John 9. 41. Or there remaineth no more benefit from Christ's Sacrifice for their sin and therefore onely a fearful looking for of the fiery and devouring indignation Heb. 10. 26 27. Here 's that the great confidence and boast of many professing Churches and eminent Pastors in the earthly Jerusalem Fabrick or House on the sand will come to Ezek. 13. and Mat. 7. Their very Eyes their high enlightenings and excellent spiritual Gifts their supernatural or infused humane Learning that 's admitted only as an adorning and accomplishment of the natural man unaccompanied with that Fire-Baptisme that 's performed by the unspeakable gift of the Spirit it self for the transforming of the natural man into spiritual even these Eyes becoming evil Mat. 6. 23. and this light opposing and preferring it self to the more excellent discerning and marvellous light in spiritual Believers are turned by the just Judgement of God into the greatest and most fatal blindness and darkness of all Their tongues also though the tongues of men and angels for excellency and dexterity of expressing what they see with the forementioned eyes will consume away in their mouth Zech. 14. 12. and leave them exposed to become and accordingly be dealt with as meer sounding brass and tinckling Cymbals 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 1. giving no certain sound and right warning to the Battels of the Lord the good sight of Faith This comes to pass through their confidence in those attainments which may be and oft are turned into an Idol of jealousie and spiritual whoredom Ezek. 16. 1 15. All these considerations of Church and State put together afford great ground of enquiry as to the Condition of the times in which we live how far the face which they bear and which God hath put upon them in the course of his Providences for some years now past doth speak or signifie the near approach of any such extraordinary and signal appearance or day of Gods Judgement for the Decision of his own or his Peoples quarrel and controversie with the prophane Heathen that are round about them waiting for an advantage utterly and universally to remove and root them out from off the face of the whole earth That which hath been acted upon the Theater of these Nations amongst us in the true state of our Controversie seems to be reducible to this following Querie Whether the Representative Body of the Kingdom of England in Parliament assembled and in their Supream Power and Trust made indissolvable unless by their own Consent and free Vote and this by particular and express Statute have not had a just and righteous Cause A Quarrel more God's than their own 1. It may appear they had First from the Ground of their undertaking the War Was it not in their own and the Kingdoms just and necessary defence and for the maintaining of the publick Rights and Liberties of both 2. Secondly Was it not undertaken upon mutual Appeals of both Parties to God desiring him to judge between them to give the Decision and Issue by the Law of War when no other Law could be heard as the definitive Sentence in this Controversie from the Court of Heaven 3. Thirdly Pursuant to such Decision did they not recover and repossess the Kingdoms original and primitive freedom Did they not endeavour to conserve and secure it as due to them by the Law of God and of Nature For man was made in God's Image and all Adams Posterity are properly one Universal Kingdom on earth under the Rule and Government of the Son of God both as Creator and Redeemer By virtue of this original and primitive Freedom so recovered they were at their own choice whether to remain in and retain this their true freedom unresigned and unsubjected to the Will of any Man under the Rule of the Son of God and his Lawes or else to set up a King or any other Form of Government over them after the manner of other Nations In this latter case it is acknowledged that when a Common-wealth or People do choose their first King upon condition to obey him and his Successors Ruling justly they ought to remain subject to him according to the Law and tenor of the Fundamental Compact with him on whom they have transferred their Authority No Jurisdiction remaineth in them after that free and voluntary Act of theirs either to Judge the Realm or determine who is the true Successor otherwise than is by them reserved and stipulated by their Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Government And though the righteousness of this Cause contained in the forementioned particulars be such as carries in it its own evidence yet as as things have fallen out it is come to be oppressed and buried in the grave of Malefactors in the room of which a contrary Judgement and Way is visibly owned upheld and intended to be prosecuted to the utmost for its own fast-rooting and establishment and this by the common Consent and Association of Multitudes What then remaines for the recovery and restitution of that good old Cause and Way but such a seasonable and signal appearance of God as aforesaid in the Valley of Jehoshaphat What but the taking things immediately into his own hands for administration