Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
heaven_n body_n glorious_a vile_a 2,633 5 9.7400 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A11247 Resurgendum. A notable sermon concerning the resurrection, preached not long since at the court, by L. S. L. S., fl. 1593. 1593 (1593) STC 21508; ESTC S120772 19,781 36

There are 4 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

RESVRGENDVM A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. We haue here no continuing Citie but we seeke one to come Hebr. chap. 13. verse 14. Resurget iustus vt iudicet peccator vt iudicetur impius vt sine iudicio puniatur IW LONDON Printed by Iohn VVolfe 1593. The Printer to the Reader I Send thee here gentle Reader a Sermon for stile eloquent for order methodicall and for substance of matter right heauenly heartily praying thee euen for thine ovvne soules health to vouchsafe the reading thereof Taken it vvas not from the Preachers mouth by any fond or nevv found Characterisme vvhich to the great preiudice of some vvorthie and learned men hath of late verie pitifully blemished some part of their labours this vvay vvith intollerable mutilations but set dovvne at their desire vvho might herein command by the Authors ovvne pen and indited as I verily persuade my self by special instinct of the holy Ghost And surely the doctrine of this Sermon is such as I make no doubt at all but it vvil be held to be most needfull and necessarie especially for these desperat times of ours vvherein amongst other most erronious sects vvhich rent in peeces the coate of Christ and the vnitie of his Church that one of the Saduces vvho say there is no resurrection is not perhaps of all other the least imbraced VVith this sort of hel-hounds this godly Sermon though not of purpose doth chiefly encounter and vvith inuincible argumēts beateth them dovvne flat to the ground assuring all flesh of that great and generall Resurrection vvhich euery true Christian is bound both in heart to beleeue and vvith his mouth to confesse hovvsoeuer the prophane Atheist in the greatnesse of his vaine and vvicked imaginations may othervvise fancie to himselfe not vvithout his ovvne remedilesse damnation vnlesse in time he do repent him of his sinne And vvould to God many such alarums as this might dayly be rong and sounded into our eares that if it vvere possible euery Christian might haue as deepe an impression and be no lesse affected vvith the continuall cogitation and remembrance of our resurrection at the last day then that godly father S. Ierome seemed to be vvho sayd Whether I eate or drinke whether I sleepe or wake or what thing else so euer I do me thinkes I heare a trumpet alwayes sounding thus in mine eares Arise you dead and come vnto iudgement And so gentle Reader I leaue thee to the grace of God A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. Philip. 3.20.21 20 But our conuersation is in heauen from vvhence also vve looke for the Sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ 21 VVho shall change our vile bodie that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious bodie according to the vvorking vvhereby he is able euen to subdue all things vnto him selfe THose teachers of Gods truth whose works be not answerable to the word are fitly compared to Mercuries the images in the streetes which point the right way to other men but stand still and walke not thē selues or to the stage player who speaking of the earth pointed to heauen and meaning the heauen pointed to the earth manu commisit soloecismum Such haue the voyce of Iacob but the hands of Esau of such the Apostle with teares exhorteth the Philippians to beware in the 18. verse of the third chapter And that they may the better be knowen he setteth downe their properties and painteth them out in their colours as that they be enemies to the crosse of Christ their bellie is their God they glorie in their shame they are earthly minded But such as build with both hands the church of God that is by sound doctrine and holy life such as haue Vrim and Thummim brightnesse of knowledge and integritie of conuersation such as go armed before their brethren as Ruben and Gad and halfe Manasses did not to be touched with errour in faith or deformitie in life these be good guides to folow and sure loade starres to direct our course Amongst which Paule with a good conscience placeth him selfe and such as be like him setting downe in this place their conuersation to be heauenly And good cause why for that there is their Sauiour and that thence they long for him whose comming shall not be frutelesse to them for he shall chaunge their bodies from such base infirmitie as now they are in to such glorie as his body is clothed withall Which may not be thought incredible because his will and power which subdueth all things shall bring this to passe In the farther vnfolding of which words the Apostle putteth in my hands these two principall things to deliuer vnto you First the change that is in the soules of the godly in this life Secondly the change that shal be in their bodies after this life In the former there be these points to be handled That their conuersation is not earthly but in heauen The cause that draweth them thither the Lord Iesus Christ A longing and expectation of his comming In the change that shal be of the bodie we are to consider What our bodies are nowe They are vile What they shall be then Like the glorious bodie of Christ The causes which bring this to passe The will of God and his mightie power These be the ioynts and parts of this present Scripture whereof I will speake as the time shall permit me your Honorable patience heare me the Apostle direct me and God shall assist me with his grace Saint Augustine parteth all the people in the world into two companies the synagogue of Sathan and the Church of God into Babylon and Ierusalem into the sonnes of the earth and the Citizens of heauen In which now are all the godly hauing their conuersation in heauen that is behauing them selues as free Burgesses of Ierusalem which is aboue Manie Cities in the world haue lawes and customes differing one from another yet not so contrarie but one may enioy freedome of diuerse at once But heauen and earth haue so continuall and so vnreconcileable variance as no peace can be compounded betweene them For he that is free to the one must be disfranchized in the other he that is friend to the one must be foe to the other he that hath giuen his faith to the one must sweare against the other It is as possible for light to agree with darknes for life to be friends with death for the Arke of God and the idol Dagon to lodge quietly in one place as for a man to serue God and Mammon to be true to the Lord and the world to be free Denison beneath and aboue to haue an earthly and a heauenly conuersation Therefore Elias doth sharply reproue the people of Israell for halting betweene two opinions in following the Lord and going after Baall 3. Reg. 18.21 The Samaritans for feare of Lyons which deuoured them
as Iob. 17.13 The graue shall be my house I shall make my bed in the darke I shall say to corruption thou art my father and to the wormes you are my sister and mother There is an old riddle what should be both the mother and the daughter the answer is of the I se but it may as well be said of the bodies of men which are made of the dust and shall thither returne againe The consideration that our bodies are vile should take away that too much curiositie to attire and pamper the bodie which commonly is in them that thinke too wel of them selues deeming their bodies to be too good to be fed but with dainties or cloathed but with costly apparell The winde may not blowe vpon them nor the sunne shine vpon them Our beginning is base of the earth our abode here is full of vncertaine prosperitie or sundrie miseries our end is most vile We must die like the beastes as Dauid saith Psal 49.12 This is the state of our bodies before they be chaunged and made like to the glorious bodie of Christ Some sight of this glorie Peter saw when Christ was transfigured Mat. 17.2 His face did shine as the sunne and his clothes were white as the light Of this Daniell speaketh in the twelfe chapter third verse They that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnesse shall shine as the starres for euer and euer 1. Cor. 15.43 the Apostle saith they rise in incorruption in glorie in power a spirituall bodie He that looked vpon Ierusalem as it is described in the Scriptures shall see the houses gates walles strong and faire yet made of timber stone and ordinarie matter But the new Ierusalem in the Reuelation is most glorious the walles of Iaspir the foundations of precious stones the gates of pearles the pauement of pure gold For our capacitie the spirit of God doth thus set foorth the difference betwixt things in this life and things in that better life And the like difference there is in our bodies Now they are but shadowes but then they shall be as the sunne now they are simplemen then they shall be as the Angels of God now they are as cloudes some higher some lower some brighter some darker as mens places differ in the world but all hanging vncertainly in the aire then shall they be as the starres in the heauens now they are as gold in the mine mingled with the earth then they shall be purified seuen times in the fire now our bodies are vile then made like the glorious bodie of Christ Then all teares shall be wiped away all infirmitie shall cease all deformitie shal haue an end There shal be health without sicknesse strength without weaknesse pleasure without paine youth without olde age Rest shall not be needfull for there shall be no labour there shall be felicitie with certaintie and life without the reach and gunshot of death now our bodies are vile then like the glorious bodie of Christ Let vs not therefore be dismayed in the sundrie daungers nor let not our hearts faile and fall in the most grieuous sicknesse of the bodie which can but last for a time neither can it bring destruction It may ouerthrowe the bodie into the graue and there death shal haue dominion for a season but at the last our bodies shall be taken out of the power of death and made like to Christs glorious bodie This account the Martyrs of God haue made Quid si tyrannus sit interfector corporis mei cum Deus sit susceptor animae erit restitutor corporis mei Quid si membra laceret inimicus cum capillos annumeret Deus What if the tyrant kill my bodie seeing that God will receiue my soule and will also restore my bodie What if the enemie teare in peeces my members seeing God hath numbred the haires of my head The bloodie hand of cruell tyrants may wast and rend a sunder the bodies of Gods people but they shall be gathered together againe by the will and power of God which two causes working together will performe a harder matter then this For if God were willing and not able or of power but not willing then some doubt might be made of this change But he is both willing and able to make this chaunge of our vile bodies to make them like to the glorious bodie of Christ That God is willing both authority of Scriptures and reason agreeing thereunto doth warrant vnto vs. Esa 26.19 Thy dead men shall liue euen with my bodie shall they arise awake and sing ye that sleepe in the dust for thy deaw is as the deaw of herbes and the earth shall cast out her dead Ezech. 37.14 I wil open your graues and bring you foorth of your sepulchers Ioh. 5.28 The houre shall come when all they that are in the graues shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and shall come foorth 1. Thess 4.14 If we beleeue that Iesus is dead and risen euen so they that beleeue in Iesus will God bring with him 1. Corinth 15. There is a iust treatise of this matter and manie reasons alledged why the dead should rise againe Many mischieuous inconueniences and inconuenient mischiefes doe followe the denying or doubting hereof as that Christ is not risen that Paule had preached an vntruth that the people had beleeued an vntruth that the Apostles had bene false witnesses Againe that their sinnes were not taken away that the dead are vtterly perished that to hope in Christ is most miserable For fiducia Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum the trust of Christians is the resurrection of the dead as Tertullian saith Besides Christ is primitiae resurgentium the first frutes of them that rise againe and by his resurrection hath sanctified all the elect thereunto Whatsoeuer Adam hath lost Christ hath restored but Adam lost life and by his sinne brought in death which Christ hath vanquished in his death Farther the beginners in religion when their death approched made hast to be baptized not that their bodies might be washed cleane for the graue but rather cleansed against the happie day of the resurrection as Epiphanius in Corinthianos expoundeth that point Lastly the godly endure persecution to no purpose if there be no rising againe The name and nature of death doth proue the resurrection For it is a sleepe and so named many times in the Scriptures as 1. Thessal 4.13 Brethren I would not haue you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that you sorrow not as they which haue no hope August epist 120. cap. 32. Quinque virgines fatuae quinque sapientes dormierunt id est moriebantur mors enim in Scripturis dicitur somnus propter resurrectionem velut euigilationem The fiue foolish virgins and the fiue wise slept that is died for death in the Scriptures is called sleepe and in respect of the resurrection as it were an awaking againe Death
had a Priest sent vnto them to teach them the true seruice of God yet withall they retained their old superstition and affection to their natiue Idolles and so became Mungrelles in religion neither faithfull worshippers of the true God nor kinde followers of their false gods 4. Reg. 17.33 Naman the Syrian after he was cleansed of his leprosie made a vowe to offer incense or sacrifice to none but vnto the Lord yet he will needes go with his Maister into the house of Rimmon whereby he may keepe the kings fauour keepe his authoritie continue his honour enioy his wealth and this is to seeke to reconcile heauen and earth together 4. Reg. 5.18 Nicodemus his case was much like who would gladly be a Disciple of Christ yet commeth to him by night that he might not loose his credit of the world Ioh. 3.2 Matth. 19.10 There came a young man to Christ verie desirous to knowe what conuersation to vse in earth that he might obtaine eternall life in heauen Our Sauiour letteth him see the way to obedience of the commandements Thou shalt not steale thou shalt not kill c. Saith the young man If this be all I am in good case all these haue I obserued from my youth Christ meaning to sift him and to shake him out of the ragges of hypocrisie willeth him to sell all and to giue to the poore c. When he heard this the case was altered and he went away sorie that he could not hold his possessions and Christ together This young man is nowe become old and a grandfather of many children in these dayes who will be thought to be Egles in affection to soare aloft and yet are snailes with their houses vpon their backes and creepe vpon the earth These haue squinting eyes with the one looking at the heauens with the other beholding the earth these be outlawes who are faithfull to no common wealth indifferent men in factions who fauour no side these be such cakes as the Prophet Oseas speaketh of baked vp vpon the one side and raw vpon the other neither hote nor cold and therefore to be spued out of the mouth of God In deede they are earthly minded but in shewe heauenly affected their tongues and countenaunce their wordes and lookes are holy but their hearts and hands their affections and actions are worldly The marke and brand of the flesh can not more fitly be set vpon any then vpon many who carrie a zeale of holy profession Let many aske their owne hearts whether I say truth and they shall receiue answer I lye not They must confesse that they are trees full of leaues but voyd of frute dunghilles couered with snowe white without and foule within The case of the foxe is more worth then his carkasse and the profession of these men somthing to be esteemed but the body of their behauiour is vile nothing worth They are painted graues in truth they be citizens of the world though in shew they pretend this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this heauenly conuersation But the true seruants of God although in infirmitie without perfection yet in sinceritie without dissimulation in minde and affection are heauenly and haue their conuersation as citizens of Ierusalem which is aboue they acknowledge them selues to be pilgrims and strangers hauing here no abiding citie but looke for one whose maker and builder is God They are in the world but not of the world they vse the world as though they vsed it not they do esteeme their houses as Innes to rest in not as mansions to dwell in for euer they know that all the manifold graces of God in the mind in the bodie without the bodie are taken of their Maister and they but stewards thereof They vse all worldly commodities as staues in their hands which they will set downe at the last step of their iourney or as oares to rowe with which readily they will leaue when they come to the hauen where they would be Their vnderstanding is lightened with Gods truth their affections are strengthened by his will their actions are reformed by his word They looke not backe with delight to their old sinnes as Lots wife to Sodome nor returne with their hearts to Egypt againe with the murmuring Israelites neither wish they to tarrie on this side Iordane without the land of promise as Ruben and Gad and halfe Manasses did but as Daniel opened his windowes toward Ierusalem so they lift vp their eyes to heauen and send thither their sighes and grones in aduersitie testifying that all their refuge is there and lift vp their voyces with praise whē matters go well with them confessing that all good gifts come from aboue As the Egle casteth her bil and renueth her youth and as the snake strippeth of her skin and becometh smooth so they leaue the rotten ragges of Adams corruption and put on the innocencie of Christ which is the wedding garment wherewith vnlesse we be clothed we shall be shut out from the marriage feast If God threaten they tremble if he shew foorth his louing countenance they are cheered at the heart if he teach they giue diligent attendance if he correct they humble them selues They labor in worldly causes but not with worldly affections they giue obedience to lawfull rulers not as to men but as to the lieutenants of God they walke vpon the earth with the feete of their bodies but in their desires which are the feet or rather the wings of the mind they are conuersant in heauen The workes of darknesse are wearisome vnto them because they are children of the light the frutes of the flesh are lothsome to them because God hath renued thē by his spirit the freedom of Gods adoption is most sweet vnto them hauing escaped the slauerie of Satan Whatsoeuer is purely good they desire it with their whole hart what is meerely euill they hate it with perfect hatred things indifferent which are good or euill as they are vsed or abused in them they are carefull to make profit and heedfull not to offend in all things they first seeke the glorie of God and next their owne saluation This is the narrow way that leadeth to life this is the delight of Gods Saints in earth this is to haue a heauenly conuersation which may not be thought a matter of deuice or imagination as if no such were to be found like Platoes common wealth or Zenophons king some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a heauenly conuersation I sayd at the first that none haue it in perfection but euerie one lesse or more must haue it without dissimulation For none are perfect in this life the brightest fire hath some smoke the cleerest water some mudde The face of Venus had a mole the most heauenly affection hath some infection of the earth Noah the seede of the second world and the relique of the first was yet ouertaken with wine Lot was a righteous man yet foully defiled with incest Dauid a
which was amōgst the falling Angels in heauen is now found among the sonnes of men in the earth The voluptuous man is like him who hath the dropsie the more he drinketh the more he desireth he would lye deeper and longer with the swine in the mire The couetous man as the graue neuer saith there is inough Gods good giftes are without vse buried in him His arke and his chest may be filled but his heart in the chest of his body can neuer be satisfied Honour profite pleasure no earthly thing can content the heart of man It is onely this Lord this Sauiour this Christ which draweth mens hearts to heauen and there fully satisfieth them The Israelites in the wildernesse did eate Manna and dranke of the water out of the rocke but hungred and thirsted and died in the end But they which are fed with the true bread that came downe from heauen and drinke of the water of life they shall neuer be more a thirst but shall haue eternall life Christ Iesus is the euerflowing ouerflowing well Blessed are they that hunger thirst for him for they shall be satisfied in him he is the pearle for which we must sell all and buy him He is our head and with the serpent we must be wise to suffer losse in our bodies in our goods in our fame in our liberties in our liues so that we keepe our head safe Aeneas when Troy was won hauing a grant as all the citizens had to carie away some one chiefe thing which he made best account of chose and tooke away Patrios Poenates the gods of his countrey preferring them before his father his goods or any other thing which might be of price with him Which action of his may teach vs in our desires and affections to make choise of Christ and lift vp our hearts to him He requireth in the Gospell to be preferred before those things which otherwise be of most value with vs. He that doth not forsake father and mother is not worthie of me He would not suffer one whom he called to take his leaue of his friends at home nor permit another to bury his father a worke of humanitie and pietie Hieronimus ad Heliodorum hath a worthie iudgement agreeable to this licet à collo paruulus pendeat infans licet vbera quibus te nutrierat ostendat mater licet in limine iaceat pater vt te à Christo retardent abijciatur infans contemne matrem calcandus est pater solum est pietatis genus in his fuisse crudelem If thy young child hang about thy necke if thy mother shew her breasts wherewith she nursed thee if thy father lye in the doore to stay thee frō following of Christ cast from thee thy child contemne thy mother tread vpon thy father ad Christi vexillum vola flie to the banner of Christ to be his souldier and seruant it is pietie to be cruell in this case Glaucus carieth the bell among all fooles for changing his golden armour for brasen harnesse The Israelites lothed Manna and wished the onions and garlicke the grosse diet of Egypt The Gergesens were more grieued for the losse of their swine then glad of the presence of Christ nay they desire him to depart out of their coasts And all the sonnes of the earth these Terrigenae fratres may with the Athenians giue for their badge the grashopper which is bred liueth dieth in the same groūd so their whole desire both in life and death is in earth and as the grashopper hath wings but flyeth not sometimes she hoppeth vpward a litle but presently falleth to the earth againe so they haue some light and short motions to goodnesse but they returne to their old affections of the world their portion is only in this life for they loue vanitie more then truth drosse then gold earth then heauen the world then him that made and redeemed the world riches that rusteth before treasure that lasteth trash and pelfe not true wealth which maketh happie anie earthly vncertaintie before this Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ the onely author of all felicitie Those foules that feede grossely neuer flie high and they which feed their hearts with things below can not haue their affections in heauen The Sunne draweth out of the sea the clearest water leauing the grosse and dregs behind which some thinke is the cause of the saltnesse of the sea so the sonne of God draweth vp the harts of them that are pure but leaueth below the earthly minded If Christ be deare vnto vs if the day starre be risen in our hearts if we find in our soules that Christ is a Lord a Iesus a Sauiour if the power of these offices take place in our consciences it cannot be but our harts shal be with him Gods spirit worketh this confession in vs that with feeling we may say the Lord is Iesus as Paule writeth 1. Cor. 12.3 To speake the wordes without sence thereof is to no vse The parrot vttereth wordes but knoweth no meaning but the godly do find with ioy that Christ is the way by truth to life the ladder by which they ascend to heauen the good shepheard by whom they are safe the henne vnder whose wings they rest quietly In him is their health wealth ioy rest felicitie he is their treasure and therefore their hearts are with him whereby it commeth to passe that they long for and desire his comming The first comming of Christ was long wished and most desired The holy fathers who with the eye of faith a farre off saw that day reioyced as Christ speaketh of Abraham and when he was come there was great gladnesse thereof The Angell telleth the shepheards that he brought tidings of great ioy to all people The same night that he was borne there was great light in token of comfort but at his death there was darknesse vpon the day in signe of sorow The Sunne put on his mourning garment and was ashamed to looke vpon that cruelty which the sonnes of men were not afrayd to commit If that first comming of Christ was so ioyful which was but meane and simple alone and solitarie when he came to stand at the barre to be iudged when he gaue vs but the earnest of our saluation thrise more comfortable shall his second comming be which shal be in glorie attended vpon with ten thousand of Saints and Angels when he shall sit him downe to iudge the wicked giue full possession of his kingdome to the elect Then shall the sheepe be gathered into the fold neuer to be in daunger of wandering or of the wolfe then shall the corne be inned into the barne neuer to be shaken with the winde or weather againe then shall there be a Saboth after which no work-day shal follow then shall be an euerlasting Iubilie when all bondage shall cease and the chosen shall enter to their inheritance which neuer shall be taken from them The hope of this