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
A79552	Saint Chrysostome his Parænesis, or Admonition wherein hee recalls Theodorus the fallen. Or generally an exhortation for desperate sinners. / Translated by the Lord Viscount Grandison prisoner in the Tower.; Parænesis. English	John Chrysostum, Saint, d. 407.; Grandison, William Villiers, Viscount, 1614-1643.	1654 (1654)	Wing C3980; Thomason E1531_2; ESTC R208923	51,851	141

the deepest abysse of Hell Nor does this discourse alone aver this For the records of holy writ most amply testifie the same The Evangelist Saint Matthew shewes it Matth. 16. 27. He shall render saith he every man according to his workes Nor in Hell onely but in Heaven also shall there be difference of reward John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions saies our blessed Saviour And again 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the the Moon another of the Starrs for one Star differeth from another Star in glory so likewise in the Resurrection of the dead Let him who considers this value the expence of his labour and be continually employ'd in good deeds If we attain not the glory of the Sun or the Moon wee get to be little starrs if we discharge the duty of good Christians so far as to get there at all If we shine not in glory like Diamonds or like Gold wee may like Silver But we must be carefull we are not found of materialls fitter for the fire then a place in his Heavenly mansions And if wee are not able to discharge the highest actions of perfection let us not neglect the due observance of lesser things which we may perform For it is most desperate madnesse to do no good at all because we are not in the state of the most excelling perfection For as worldlings grow rich by saving every little trifle encreasing their store so are spirituall riches attain'd by a circumspect laying hold on every occasion wherein we may serve our Lord It is wonderfull and something strange to humane sence that God has appointed so great a reward as the Kingdome of Heaven to him that shall but give a cup of cold water in his name yet are men so foolish that unlesse they can atchieve the greatest they neglect lesser matters which are likewise very profitable He that neglects not his duty in things but small in their appearance will learn to be able to performe greater But he that is negligent in a little will be a weak discharger of greater duties And to prevent this humane inclination Christ has left us great proposalls of certain reward for things to be compast with very little trouble What is more easie then to pay the labourer his hire which is but a part of thy own gain and yet large are the promises of our Lord for that See then the way to lay hold on Everlasting salvation enter into it delight in our Lord pray incessantly unto him again submit thy self to his easie yoak take on thy shoulders the light burthen thou bearst in a more happy condition and let the end of it prove worthy the beginning of thy life Do not O do not despise such infinite riches which freely flow unto thee And they are all for ever lost to thee if thou perseverest to exasperate our Lord with those ill courses thou art in For if thou yet stopst the channells and hinder'st this deluge in time before it has made too great a breach thou maist repaire thy losses to thy great advantage When thou hast considered and meditated seriously on this as thou oughtest fling away the filth and mud which hangs upon thy soule rise from out of the mire wherein thou hast wallowed And see how formidable thou wilt be to thy adversarie who believ'd he had cast thee down never to rise again it will amaze him to see thee again provoke him to the battaile surpriz'd with thy recovery and astonisht at such an undaunted resolution how fearfull will the coward the Devill be to attempt again the ensnaring thee If other mens calamities be proper lessons for us shall not all our owne instruct us I believe that I shall see this shortly in thee and that thou wilt appear in the sight of Heaven a person restor'd to grace a more excellent and clearer soul then ever thou were one that shall give testimonies of such perfection and integrity that thou maist be ranckt amongst the best men if not preferr'd before them Onely despair not fall not againe This is my counsell do thou as my custome is When ever I hear any thing from others may profit me I make no delay to embrace and follow it and if thou receivest with a good purpose these my admonitions thy sick and languishing soule will need no other Physick FINIS Erata Page 1. l. 5. for this r. the l 7. of dissolute r. of a dissolute p. 3. l. 4. of sin r. of any sin l. 13. for for prepared r. so prepared l. 20. for committing every thing that was dedicated r. committing every thing to the flames that was dedicated p. 6. l. 7. for intollerable r. in alterable p. 9. l. 5. r. linkd to p. 12. l. 16. for rebellious r. religious p. 14. l. 15. for wretched r. wretches p. 23. l. 1. leave out and promised p. 24. l. 6. r. like a loving father p. 26. l. last for peruses r. persues p. 31. l 11. for confidences r. consciences p. 44. l. 28. r. delights for lights p. 46. l. 17. for again r. gone again p. 60. l. 7. r. there appeared not p. 62. l. 22. for receive r. conceive p. 67. l. 11. for screen scaene p. 70. l. 4. for undertake labour r. undertake the labour p. 72. l. 5. for choosed r. crost p. 79. l. 12. for Hermions r. Hermiones p. 79. l. 17. for starrs r. statues p. 80. l. 7. for Hermion's r. Hermione's p. 84. l. 6. for hope r. home ibid. l. 23. for greater r. great p. 87. l. 3. for were r. wore p. 103. l. 13. Chap. is intitled the 5. ibid l. 3. I knew a young Phoenix r. I knew a young man Phoenix p. 104. l. 3. for religions r. religious Reader this multitude of faults in so small a treatise I can attribute to nothing but my own ill hand which deceived the printer which I entreat thee to correct The Contents of every Chapter CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteem and value we ought to have of our own soules and on that basis he raises the fabrick of this treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch't with the vanity of a dissolute life to return to vertue and piety in which he had once been an eminant example CHAP. II. The Devil endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the foundation of our eternall happiness The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill CHAP. III. Gods mercie to the greatest sinners an argument against despair CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a cohaerence to the preceding Chapter CHAP. V. That sincere repentance is alwaies acceptable to God declar'd out of Holy writ by example precept and parable CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our soules from the filth of sin which must by no meanes be slighted or neglected since in this word we cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and so quickly vanishing we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagued in torments CHAP. VII Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and the certainty thereof CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorified in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd the glory of the one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies wherewith they are enricht and vile contempt we have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues here the glorious nature of the Soule and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasions to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortations and pressing arguments CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repenpentance the proeme to St. Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that the greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasives alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people CHAP. XIII Sant Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young Gentleman of his time another of an Hermit another of a Disciple of Johns the Son Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus CHAP. XIV The sum and conclusion of this treatise FINIS No comparison betwixt the death of the body and the soul St. Chrysostom's application to Theodorus The Hermet The schooler of John In Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. c. 2.

consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him He shall call the Heavens from above and the Earth that he may judge his people The Prophet Isaiah dilates thus on this dreadfull appearance Isaiah 13. 9. Behold the day of the Lord commeth cruel both with anger and fierceness to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it for the starrs of Heaven Orion and the constellations there shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the whole Earth for their evils and the wicked for their iniquitie and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible And those that are left shall be more precious then fine Gold such a man shall be more esteem'd then a precious stone of Ophir for the Heavens shall be shaken and the Earth shall be removed out of her place for the anger of the Lord of Sabbath in the day when his wrath shall come And in another place the same Prophet The windowes of Heaven shall be opened and the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken the Earth shall be utterly broken down the Earth shall be cleane dissolved the Earth shall be moved excedingly it shal reel to and fro like a drunkard it shal be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and and it shall fall and not rise again Isa. 24. 18. For their iniquities have prevail'd against them To these adde the Prophet Malachi Behold saies he the Lord Almighty cometh but who shall abide the day of his comming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner of silver and gold Mal. 3. 2. And again saith he the day of the Lord commeth consuming like a furnace and it shall burn them up Mal. 4. 1. And they who are proud and all that do wickedly shal be as stubble the day commeth saith the Lord Almighty it shall leave them neither root nor branch And to the same purpose does the vision of the Prophet Daniel alarum us with the terrors of that day I beheld saith he till the Thrones were placed and the antient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wooll his Throne was a flame of fire and his wheeles burning fire A fiery streame issued out before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgement was set and the Bookes were opened Dan. 7. 9. And a little after thus speakes the Prophet ver. 13. I saw a vision in the night and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and glory and a Kingdome that all People Nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which cannot passe away and his Kingdome a Kingdome which cannot be destroyed ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit and the visions of my head troubled me Let us consider these menaces of holy writ and instruct our soules how in that day the glory of Heaven shall be revealed the clouds shal separate the whole firmament open parting like a curtaine before a screen and discovering to us the Majestick prospect within which will fill all things created with fear amazement and horror Then shall the Angells themselves be full of fear with the Archangells Thrones and ●owers of Heaven not for themselves but because their fellowservants are brought to judgement and to give their strict accompt of their past life in this world For if they under whose tutelage we are grieve at the judgement pronounced against one sole City under their charge what will be the generall affrights and horrors when the Son comes against the whole world for though themselves they know exempt from the danger they will have a sence of them brought before a Judge whose alseeing eye needs no proof of witnesse or accusation Who will force the guilty to accuse themselves and lay their own offences open when every delinquent to Heavens justice shall produce his owne deeds his words and thoughts to condemn himself Will not this mighty and just severity of our Lord astonish the very powers of Heaven themselves If it had not in it the horror of an inundation of a river of fire and those terrible affrighting Angells ministers of his justice which assist the fury and rage of his revenge How would it move men to see the workmanship of the same creation call'd some to be highly preferr'd and honour'd Nay had in great admiration while others are blinded with disgrace lest they should see the glory of God Can you imagine a more tormenting Hel then this When the thought of that Heaven we have l●st will more sensibly cruciate our soules from the torments of that Hell wee suffer in The infinite losse our wilfully erring and self-abusing soules bring to themselves in the forfeiting those excellent great blessings ordain'd them are impossible to be apprehended by thought or in words comprehended Sad will be the experience of it to the impenitent Wherefore I beseech thee set before thy eyes the different ends of piety and impiety Behold the impious overwhelm'd with horrors and unspeakable punishments and even then when the truly pious children of God shall be cloath'd with immortality and eternall glories When the damn'd shall be deliver'd to cruell tormenting furies the blessed shall be adorn'd with crownes accompanied with Angells singing and rejoycing before the Kings Throne thus shal it be with them who on Earth have done good and justice and are found worthy of eternall life CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies Wherewith they are enricht with and the vile contempt wee have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them THE joyes of Heaven are beyond our dull perceptions while wee are loaden with earth in vain it were to undertake labour of their description Ineffable are those pleasures and delights the great profits unvaluable which will then bee ours in eternall possession when we are received into the number of the Saints glorified for ever When the immortall soule shall be invested with her own glory and eas'd of all her yoakes in happy freedome enjoy the pleasure to behold her Lord It cannot it cannot I say be exprest how great the extasies of her joyes must bee when she shall not onely be ravish't with contentments of her glorious condition for the present but rest likewise secur'd of their eternity that without lessning or decay but rather with encrease they shall endure for ever Nor is this

rejecting his commands and art become a slave under the outragious Empire of that Tyrannous enemy to mankind who never rests day nor night from ensnaring us our selves to fight against our own hopes and expectations of Heaven Thus hast thou flung off a light and easie burthen freed thy self from a mercifull yoke to fasten thy neck in linkes of Iron And what is both base and ridiculous hast laid a Mill-stone the Asses burthen on thy owne shoulders What wilt thou think to do in the future that at present suffers thy most miserable soul to be swallow'd in this impetuous Gulfe of lusts Nay that wilfully has brough a kind of necessity on thy self which continually compels thee to fall into deeper extreams The woman in the Gospels when she had found her lost groat call'd all her neighbours together to partake of her joy with her saying Rejoyce with me because I have found the lost groat Lu. 15. 8. Thus will I call your friends and mine together but to a different end and purpose I will not bid them rejoyce with me but grieve and weep lament be truly sorrowfull and mourn with me For our losse is grievous and insupportable greater then if we had lost never so great a treasure or Magazine of Gold or Diamonds For we have lost a friend not to be valewed who sailing with us through this vast Ocean I know not by what means is fallen overboard and sunk into the bottomlesse Gulfe of perdition If any man should offer to disswade mee from my lamentations I would answer him with this passionate expression of the Prophet Isaiah Let me alone I will weep bitterly you cannot comfort me Is 22. Such is the sorrow which draws this flood of tears from my eyes Such a sorrow as doubtlessely would not shame Saint Peter or Saint Paul to own it though in such excesse as they denyed themselves all consolation or perswasion to the contrary They who deplore the naturall decreed death of the body may perhaps find cōforters who by the strength of reason and argument may without much labour restore their d●ooping spirits to settledness tranqulity by religious precepts gently quiet and palliate their griefes But who can plead gainst his just deploring who laments the death of a soul fallen into perdition dead in sin and pierc'd with ten thousand arrows venom'd with Hells malitious poyson the beauty form and grace of most eminent Vertues and devotions lost and extinct in him These administer matter justly to provoke lawfull and lasting tears What flinty heart What rockie soul could in an agony so moving forbear lamentings or entertain an apparition of any delusion should forbid him his just sorrow At the fall of the body it is humane though not altogether rebellious to weep At the falling of a soul the extreamest lamentation is the greatest evidence of the truest piety He who had on Earth possession of Heaven in so much as hee contemn'd abhor'd and laught at the vanity of the World hee who beheld the greatest beauty but as a statue of stone or a fair picture That he who despis'd Gold as dirt pleasures and vanity as mire He it is who most unexpectedly falling into a raging feaver of burning lusts has lost his comliness and his courage is now turn'd a slave to his own bestiall appetites Shall not we then grieve for him shall we cease our lamentations till he return to himselfe again it is no more then our duty and tye of Christian charity if we have any sense of pitty or humanity in us What alas is the destruction of the body but an accomplish'd course in the order of nature yet such a losse finds dayly mourners and lamenters What ought we then to doe for his perishing soul which manifestly appears resolv'd on eternall damnation if our prayers bring him not to repentance but that he finish his course in obstinate sinning and obduratenesse of heart For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. How great a sin then is it against the rules and Laws of charity not to resent with the greatest pitty a soul thus everlastingly perishing Violent cries and abundance of tears cannot possibly recall the dead But frequent experience teaches us that a soule dying here in sin is not wept for in vaine For the humble requests of brotherly charity plead so effectually before the Throne of mercy that many hardned in obstinate impenitency have melted into floods of tears and have ow'd thee thanks for their contrition to the importunity of other mens prayers And by such meanes many both in our daies and the daies of our forefathers who have deserted the paths of righteousnesse and run headlong astray out of the waies of piety which is a spirituall dying at length have risen again with such heavenly alacrity their fall so hid and obscur'd by the glory of their rise that they have purchas'd the palme of recompence and crowned with the wreath of victory have triumph'd Conquerors on earth till they were summon'd to be numbred with the blessed for all eternity Yet infinite such examples prevail not with a man who wilfully continues in the flames and fires of his lusts Such a wretched perversenesse withstands his recovery and pleads an impossibility of mercy against him But if he chance to get a little way out of the fire and by degrees leave it still farther behind him the dimnesse which the flames caused will be taken from his eyes then how plainly wil he discern the way of salvation to be accessible and very plain smooth and easie having obtain'd grace for his guide And conquer'd those Troops the Devill laid in ambush for him But hee who wants the courage to undertake the combat in vain desires the conquest He may that 's willfull stay and burn in the fire nay shut the doors against himself that are open for him And whatman who is thus sotishly his own enemy can design any thing nobly and virtuously Wherfore this our common enemy makes it his onely businesse leaves nothing unattempted which may render us diffident of grace and mercy Nor needs he much labour to compasse that his end if we lie prostrate at his feet and take no counsell or resolution or order the battail against him it is an easie conquest to overcome us But he who violently breaks his fetters and betakes himself to the use of his strength with courage He I say who in so desperate a condition allows himselfe no cessation but with a continuall violence maintains the battell against him though hee have before lost the day a thousand times shall then recover his losses and gloriously triumph in his enemies overthrow When he who is dejected with despair and permits his spirits to fail and languish can never hope for conquest how can he overcome who makes no resistance at all but fearing the encounter lays down his armes and submits to his enemy CHAP.

for them a better City or a more glorious Temple then the old Haggai 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then the former saith the Lord of hosts in this wil I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts See thus often defil'd with her abhominations the Lord will not exclude this City from repentance nor shut the doors of his ●lemency against her No he will not nor will he forsake thee for ever though thy desperate condition by the suggestions of the Divell would perswade thee to it but with infinite desire and affection receive thee into mercy if thou returnest to him and he will lovingly embrace thy soule again though thus sunk in the deeps of wickednesse For no man no man I say though passionate even to madness can so truly affect the greatest beauty of the world as our Lord does the soul of man And if we look narrowly into the daily expressions of his love to every particular soul this truth will shew it self as clear to us as the light of the day And the Scriptures abound in testimonialls of this his infinite love to us Observe in Jeremiah and throughout the Prophets how the Lord has been wearied nay contemn'd and despised by his yet has restor'd the desertors and plac'd them again in his high favours this witnesse he bears of himself in the Gospell when he saies Mat. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not And Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God saith he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now when we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us wee pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God O let us lay these invitations to our hearts and the minute wee read them believe the holy Ghost calling us Nor let us think it enough that wee believe aright for alas infidelity is not the onely bane of the soul to believe well availes us nothing if we live ill if wee purifie not our soules from uncleannesse and bid a farwell to that lewdnesse of life which so incenses the mighty anger of the Lord against us Because that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not obedient to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. The concupiscence of the flesh stands like a separating wall betwixt our soules and mercy which wee must utterly raze and destroy or never hope to have a free passage to that happy reconciliation which will crown our soules with triumph and honor and make them lovely and acceptable to God himself Thou art now bewitcht with thy Hermion's face and thinkst nothing in the world comparable to such an excesse of beauty believ'st the Earth bears nothing like it thy selfe if thou pleasest maist be far more lovely then she nay excell her more then starres of Gold and inestimable workmanship doe images of clay and dirt If men are naturally amaz'd and ravisht with the sight of some extraordinary beauties how will they be extrasied with the splendour of a soule in glory For indeed the substance of the greatest beauties though in a greater excellence of composure is the same with the meanest and most contemptible things of nature And are nourisht by the same meanes and subject to the same decay if not preserv'd by most common contemptible and inferiour supplies What is the inside of her killing glittering eyes What lies under that sweet and lovely outside of thy Hermion's surpassing graces or her purpled cheeks If thou art once redeemed from thy dotage thou wilt confesse the greatest beauty but a Sepulcher fairly whited and painted over every thing within it being decreed to the certainty of ruine and dissolution for there is nothing soe lovely that turnes not into loathsome putrifaction But what was that former grace and beauty whilst thou wert in thy integrity in which thou didst so infinitely excell that was of another composition above al the glorious things of this world as much as the Heavens exceed the Earth in splendour nay far more glorious then the Heavens themselves for though the soul be undiscernable and wee are altogether strangers to her excellencies wee may behold her in the elevated expressions of those whose pious zeales have left their attempted descriptions to inflame us with the favour they had to possesse their thoughts with so amiable desires as the contemplation of future glory which they have severall waies aim'd to know especially by soaring high as they were able into the natures of Angelical and heavenly substances CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues 〈◊〉 the glorious nature of the soul and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasives to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortation and pressing arguments HEar him whose desires would have showne the excellent substance of an happy soul but finding it unequall to all comparison he betakes himselfe first to illustrate it by an assimulation to the nature of metals whose gross being was too heavy in the purest of their extractions to give him a sufficient hint and light of it thence he rayses his contemplations and attempts his comparison with the brightness of lightning and next of Angelicall bodies whose glorified essence he finds of a nature so abstracted from our knowledge that he cannot expresse the curiosity and subtilety of their essences so transplendent are they And such shall the blessed be in their glory Mat. 22. They shall be as the Angells in Heaven saies our Saviour to the Sadduces In fine all examples deriv'd from materiall things can never expresse the beauty of a soule Heaven excells all the glories of the Earth fire surpasses water the starres in lustre excell the most pretious stones wee may admire the rainbow in Heaven the violets and lillies withall the pride and variety of the fields which are all nothing in a manner if compar'd with the glories of the soule and those ineffable honors she shall be clothed withall in the day of her blisse Let us not forfeit so much happinesse which a lively faith and constant hope can secure us Nay for this wee must wade through all the inconveniencies of this miserable world 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as blessed Saint Paul teacheth us It is really easie to beare the greatest afflictions looking to the reward of our sufferings So is it equally easie to overcome the petulant passions of our lusts and the same reward is appointed for both the conquests For when I would draw thee from thy dissolute courses I invite thee not to dangers nor the horrors of eminent death nor to perpetuall plagues