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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66118	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of ... Lady Mary, daughter to Ferdinando, late Earl of Huntingdon, and wife to William Jolife of Caverswell-castle in the county of Stafford, Esq. ... Decemb. xii, 1678 by Samuel Willes ...	Willes, Samuel, 1611-1684.	1679 (1679)	Wing W2305; ESTC R20634	16,458	38

and limitation in the full splendor of Heavenly Attendance then certainly 't is beyond expression Such shall be the Glory of the Children of the Resurrection It is sown in Dishonour Cor. 15. 42. it is raised in Glory says St. Paul Andthus Mat. 13. 43. Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father And St. Paul again Phil. 3. 21. The Lord Jesus shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body All manner of imperfection shall be excluded and such a Glory shall succeed it as may render us fitInhabitants for Heaven and partakers of the Bliss of it But 't is not for us as yet to comprehend it For it is does not yet appear what we shall be 1 Joh. 3. 2. 2. The Children of the Resurrection shall be like unto the Angels in fitnese to serve God Whilst we are here in the Flesh the Soul is disadvantagiously lodg'd Corruption within and Temptation without are great Impediments so that we cannot attend to Service of God without troublesome distractions When our Devotion is at the highest it suffers exceedingly from our Ignorance and Frailty The Spirit is held down by the Flesh and we are so loaded with the impediments of Nature that we difficultly attain any tollerable elevation of Soul and more difficultly preserve it But in Heaven we shall be deliver'd from all Infirmities of the Flesh and serve and glorifie our God as Angels do with understanding readinese vigour speed unity and all other perfections of Obedience The Woman ofTekoah when she would celebrate the Wisdom of David went as high as she could in her Comparison My Lord is Wise faith she according to the Wisdom of 2 Sam. 14. 20. an Angel of God The Psalmist says of Angels that They excel in strength and do his Commandments hearkning unto the voice of his Word Psal 103. 20. Divers other Excellencies does the holy Scripture ascribe unto these Heavenly Ministers which nevertheless do not give them greater Abilities to do service to God than we shall enjoy in a glorifi'd Estate And O how happy will that Condition be when separated from all Lusts and Passions all Sin and Imperfection we shall be exalted to Powers and Abilities of serving the Divine Majesty as his mighty Angels do Here our Praises and Adorations are faint and cold There they shall be offer'd in all the Raptures of a glorified Soul Here with infinite Toil we gain a defective Knowledge There we shall have it in full measure All the secrets of Providence and of Nature so far at least as that Knowledge is worthy of that place shall be manifested to our understanding Here we perform our Duties in a poor scanty fashion striving perpetually with the indispositions and reluctancies of Nature There we shall readily and perfectly obey the Will of God Those little sparks of Divine Fire which sometimes have toucht our Souls in the exercises of Devotion shall then rise to a mighty flame The enlarged Soul will then pay a Service suitable to the God it adores and to the Presence and Society in which it abides Angels and Saints joyning in full Chore to sing Praises to the Enternal God for evermore United Love perfect Service and unspeakable Joy shall be for ever in that New Jerusalem And none of those unhappy Distinctions Separations and uncharitable Divisions that wound and deform our Communion here shall have any room in that blessed Assembly But an universal consent shall be for ever amongst the Members of that glorious Society all uniting in the most joyful Adorations of the Deity And as as we shall then be like unto the Angels in our fitness to serve God so 3. In our Capacities to enjoy him Now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face 1 Cor. 13. 12. 'T is but a Glimps here a full Manifestation in Heaven In this World the Imbecillity of Nature cannot sustain any great discovery of God Hereafter we shall be made capable of the beatific Vision We shall see God and see him as he is Not as now under the vail of a Similitude for all that we know of him here is taught us by resemblances but we shall receive clear apprehensions of him We shall then have a distinct knowledg of that Wisdom Power and Goodness which God has made appear so eminently in all his Works In short all that the Angles do enjoy of God shall be vouchsafed to us also a full participation of supreme Felicity If at our return from the public Service of God at Church if after the Sacrament devoutly received if after the fervent performance of the duties of our Closet we have found a warmth in our Hearts our Souls strangely delighted and raised to an unusual degree of Satisfaction if the Crums that fall from the Table do afford us so great a delight what shall we feel when we come to sit down in the Kingdom of God Luke 13. 19. at the Heavenly Feast of everlasting Joys and Pleasures It was one of St. Augustine's three Wishes to have seen Jesus Christ in the Flesh This would have been in the humility and abasement of His Incarnation What must it be to behold him in all the Glories of his Kingdom And to enjoy him there to adore him as God to love him as a Redeemer to be united to him the Head of all the Members in the Church Triumphant Certainly in that state where the Soul shall be exalted to her utmost possibilities one of its greatest entertainments will be the clear discerning and full comprehension of the Love of the Blessed Jesus in doing and suffering so much for us Men and for our Salvation And this will fill us with such ardency of Love to him as shall transport us with unexpressible Joy and And what can we imagin more conducing to full and perfect Blessedness than to understand the wonderful Mysteries of Divine Love and to be able to make our returns of Love in so high and noble proportion If the Transfiguration did so ravish Saint Peter as to make him cry out Master it is good being here what must it be when our Capacities shall be enlarg'd so as to recive and enjoy the full Tide the mighty Torrent of Divine Majesty and Glory It is no wonder since ' every common thing baffles the largest Understanding that here we have such poor and narrow conceptions of God Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection says Zophar Job 11. 7. Should God discover himself to us in any measure suitable to his infinite Perfection the Manifestation would oppress and confound us Our greatest natural Powers could not bear such a Revelation But at the Resurrection we shall be like unto the Angles endow'd with such vast extent of Capacity as may fit us to entertain those discoveries of the eternal Trinity which shall be the inconceivable fruition of the state of

these Qualities of a cultivated and enlarg'd Mind excellent Understanding and a commanding Reason she supperadded a Holy Pure and even Angelical Life To know God and to be like him was her first and great Endeavour She lived always in prospect of Heaven and thither did her Devout Spirit evermore aspire This made those Temptations which prevail so fatally upon others prove only Molestations to her This World as it was to Monica discoursing of Heaven with her holy Son S. August Conf. s 9. c. 10. was vile and dispicable in her Eye whose Contemplations and Longings were directed to things Eternal She wisely concluded that a meek and quiet Spirit a true Devotion and severe Vertue were more excellent Acquisitions and more lovely Ornaments than any of the gaudy Vanities wherewith vulgar and narrow Souls are so unreasonably transported Nor did she only approve the things that are Excellent but she practised them also to such a Degree that in her Primitive Christianity was revived and she lived as those first Christians did and as we should And this by the Grace of God preserved her from those low conceptions of Religion which many have taken up Who would make it to consist in the little badges and cognizances of a Party in angry Disputings and foolish Wranglings in bringing all things into Question and projecting eternal amendments in Spiritual Affairs in zealous contending about Words and Names c. Talk and Pretence she never esteem'd worthy her Consideration and was not to be impos'd upon by the sleights and ostentation of the Factors for other Churches But having upon Principles of Judgment and Conviction fully satisfy'd her self she conscienciously and devoutly adhered to the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of England And though like Mary in in the Gospel she had thus chosen the better part making Religion her great Business and Employment yet she was sensibly offended when she found it taken notice of unless it were by Imitation Her design being to provoke others to good Works not to flattering Attributions Not that she was asham'd of being thought Religious but she dreaded the Hypocrisy of a designed Publication that she was so And as a further Evidence that she studied the Power of Godliness not the Form of it she labour'd most in the retired intimacies of true Religion This appear'd in the constant frequency of her private Devotions which she perform'd three times a Day at the least Using to that purpose the most private Concealments not only to avoid Disturbance but what she more shun'd Discovery And to assist enlarge and enforce her Devotions she added to them frequent Fasts Wherein she held her self to our Saviour's Rule Mat. 6. 16. When ye Fast be not as the Hypocrites of a sad Countenance For they disfigure their Faces that they may appear unto Men to Fast But when thou fastest anoint thy Head and wash thy Face that thou appear not unto Men to Fast but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Thus upon such occasions she would seem to eat and to take her usual Repast that she might escape Observation Nor would any thing more discompose her than an inquisition into her Abstinence To her Prayers and Fasting she added as a necessary Concomitant Alms to the Poor in dispensing whereof she was extermely Kind and Bountiful and was somewhat severe to her self oftentimes that she might be the more Charitable to them that were in Need. And her Liberality in this kind was always accompanied with such a condescending and obliging Compassion as render'd her Reliefs of the Distressed doubly comforting to them But in these Pious Distributions she used such means of secrecy that no more particular accounts can be given than such as can be gathered from those Persons who to manifest their Gratitude have made trespass upon their promises of Concealment To sustain and nourish this constant course of Piety and Devotion she drew daily Succours from the Holy Scriptures beginning and concluding every Day with some Portion of them And this not as a Task and to maintain a Custom but as a peculiar Delight and the most agreable entertainment of her Mind Which appeared in her Youthful time when about Twenty Years since she resided here in this Town the Bell at Four in the Morning even in the Winter Season was her certain Summons to her Devotions which were seconded by diligent Reading and Meditating upon the holy Word of God Wherein she assisted her self not only by Public Sermons but by the best and soundest Expositors which our Church affords And all this not to give her self a mere intellectual Improvement and Satisfaction But she suffer'd the Divine Law to pass into Government It ruled and commanded her in all her Actions and she adorned the Doctrine of God our Saviour by a suitable Conversation But it is not to be omitted that the principal of all her Joys was the blessed Sacrament Her devout Soul finding the most satisfying refreshments in the Spiritual Feast of the most precious Body and Blood of her Saviour which made her most earnestly embrace every Opportunity she could lay hold on to partake of that holy Mystery Accordingly she Communicated once every Month since her Residence in London fitting her self before-hand with all possible preparations due to the Dignity of that Divine Celebration And herein she exercised such Acts of Devotion and Religious Austerity to her self as if it had been the last Act of her Life And that she were to pass from the Altar to the Tribunal from the Table of our Lord to his Judgment-Seat Neither was this with the neglect of other Duties For she loved to draw nigh to God in all the Ways of approaching him She attended the Church upon all Occasions with a zeal like that of holy Anna who departed not from the Temple but Luk. 3. 27. served God with Eastings and Prayers Night and Day And so much was her Mind fixed upon the Offices of Religion that as soon as ever she could obtain Release from Business or from Company she took up some work of Devotion and return'd to those Spiritual Fruitions with new Appetites and impatient Desires Yet did not all this Retirement and the Devotional Employments of it contract any moroseness of Humour in her Herein she also imitated her Saviour Who though He spent whole Nights in Prayer and lived as became the Son of God and the Redeemer of the World yet was pleased to Converse with infinite Benignity and Condescention even to the meanest People For her Religion was of such a Complexion that she never lookt upon rigid Sowrness and censorious Austerity to be any Ornament to it The Holy Spirit she well knew produces Fruits of another kind Namely Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. 22. Which Fruits all that had the happiness to know her will acknowledg were eminently visible in her Life