Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	chapter_n	child_n	verse_n	1,906	5	9.5247	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

a tacit Dissuasive from carnal Confidence and Security Next an explicit Exhortation to Christian Prudence Lastly the Reason of Both at once from a great Danger on the one side and in consequence of That from as great a Necessity on the other The Danger is not so trivial as That of falling with holy Job from an high Pitch of Wealth to the Depth of Poverty or with the brave Aristomenes from a Pinnacle of Glory into the Gulph of Lacedaemon Nor is the Danger no more affrighting than That of falling with Jeremy into Jonathan's Dungeon or with Daniel into the Den of the hungry Lions But here the Danger is of falling from Light to Darkness from an high pitch of Grace the Favour of God into a Bottomless Asphaltites of Fire unquenchable Some there were who did not think there could be any such Danger to them that stood as They did or as they thought they did at least in a state of Grace Such were the Gnosticks alluded to in several verses before my Text. But 't is below S. Paul's Reason and inconsistent with his Sincerity to write of Danger where there is None or to forewarn us of a Mischief which cannot possibly come to pass In bidding us look unto our footing he takes it for granted that we are liable to a Fall And accordingly 't is the sense of our common Mother the Church of England in the 16 th of her 39 Articles That after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into Sin though by the Grace of God too we may rise again Now the greater our Danger is by carnal confidence and security the greater need we stand in of a Christian Prudence And This though but One is such a Cardinal vertue that 't is really a Guardian to all the rest Especially as consisting of those three parts Providence Caution and Circumspection without which it is impossible as nicely distinguish'd by the School-men for Christian Prudence to be complete For first of all we must have Providence to cast about for such means as are conducing unto our End Next we must have Circumspection whereby to attend to every Circumstance wherewith the Means are to be cloath'd Last of all we must have Caution for the avoiding of those Impediments which may otherwise hinder our Course of vertue and unhappily interrupt us in bringing the Means unto the End § 4. Now to These three parts of a Christian Prudence there are three sorts of men who are here exhorted either directly in the Text or in its relation to the Context First consider we the Text in its meer literal importance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him who seems to himself to stand and that as fixt as an Antinomian even by Grace irresistible by having been justified from Aeternity by having had all his Sins forgiven so long before they were committed or by being not able to Sin at all so as in His imagination he cannot possibly depart from the Living God which yet the Epistle to the Hebrews does bid him take heed of who seems to himself to stand so firmly as that he cannot fall a little much less totally much less finally from Grace Let Him I say as well as others take heed lest he fall Next consider we the Text as it looks back upon the Context from the first Verse unto the eleventh and thereby acquaints us with its more rational importance Let him who does not only seem to himself to stand but who stands in good earnest by ghostly strength by having had his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel by having been cleansed from his Sins in the Bloud of Christ and in the Baptism of Tears which arise from the Spring of sincere Repentance Let him not think it a thing below him to take great heed that he do not fall For the Israelites from the first to the tenth verse of this Chapter were all in Covenant with God did all partake of those priviledges which he vouchsafed them as his Children were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea did all injoy the same Miracles were fed with Manna sent down from Heaven refresh'd with Water out of Horeb gushing forth from a dry and a barren Rock They mystically tasted of Christ Himself v. 4. But yet as firmly as they stood we find their feet slipt For first they stagger'd in the Faith Then they stumbl'd into Idolatry Next they fell in the Wilderness all excepting two persons and were destroy'd of the Destroyer v. 5. and 10. All which things saith our Apostle happen'd to them for Ensamples and are written for our instruction on whom the ends of the world are come v. 11. From whence He rationally draws This signal Corollary and Caveat for we see 't is Both at once and is accordingly brought in with the Causal Wherefore Let him who thinketh that he stands take heed lest he fall Yet one step farther Let him who stands faster than other men who do truly stand almost as fast in reality as the Gnosticks in the Context did in their proud Imagination as fast as David and S. Peter in their high pitch of Grace as fast as Adam in That of Innocence or as the bright Morning Stars in That of Glory Let him I say as well as others yea let him above others take heed lest he fall The reason is because His Fall if he falls must needs be the greater and less excusable the higher and firmer his Station is and the greater his Ability to stand his Ground The Angels that fell from as high as Heaven and that without a Tempter too even for this very reason as I observed once before could not fall less than as low as Hell and so Their Fall was without Recovery For when God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself he did not take upon him the Nature of Angels whereby to give the faln Regiment a Capability of rising however Origen and his Disciples would have given it had they been able and that for the reason I just now hinted Whereas the lapsed Man Adam newly taken out of the Earth and whose Foundation was in the Dust had both the Subtilty of a Tempter and the Strength of a Temptation and together with his Innocence a Frailty of Nature all which did excuse him at least à Tanto whereby he became the properer object of God's Compassion as well as Justice and so the more fit for a Restauration From whence I humbly conceive I may infer with good Logick that by how much the firmer our footing is by so much the greater and not the lesser our heed ought to be that we do not fall I have hitherto shew'd the Meaning and the Cohaerence of the Text and how 't is necessary for all of all Conditions and Degrees by whichsoever of its handles men please to hold it And I have laid out the several matters to be meditated upon in

a witness and were partakers with their Fathers in the blood of the Prophets and so were far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness unless as Worldlings follow their Traffick for filthy Lucre dealing as Hucksters in Religion and Trading in Godliness as 't is an Instrument onely of Gain For they were call'd by our Saviour even then when at the Top of their painted holiness not onely Serpents and Vipers but Brands of Hell too such as could not escape Damnation Matth. 23. 33. Nor are there wanting amongst us Christians who are religiously carefull to sprinkle themselves with holy-water to say a chapletfull of Ave Maries to visit the Sepulchers of the Saints to cross their Foreheads and their Breasts and to salute ye every Morning in nomine Domini Nay some there are amongst us Protestants for 't is fit we should be just in our Observations who place a great deal of vertue in an exact coming to Church in daily reading so many Chapters in lifting up to heaven both hands and eyes in walking softly and looking sadly and hanging down the head now and then like a Bull-rush and so we may say they have attain'd to an handsom Outside of Religion that they are well-fashion'd Christians as addressing themselves to God with a Civil Carriage such as well behav'd Enemies do seldom fail of But so far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness that they want the very Body much more the Soul of Christianity whilst they will rather sow the Seeds of the most execrable Rebellion than comply vvith Superiours in things Indifferent vvhich cannot but be lawfull because Indifferent and not onely lawfull but binding too as soon as the signature of Authority is stamp'd upon Them Do These men think there is a God or a Devil a Corruption of the Body or Immortality of the Soul an Hour of Death or a Day of Judgment vvho vvill rather break Peace vvith all their Governours than submit to the use of a Publick Liturgy vvhich is not onely lawfull but transcendently good so long as establish'd by Law and Canon I vvish that all sorts of men vvho are immediately concerned in vvhat I say vvould but take this obvious Truth into their serious Consideration That as there vvere Things under the Law such as the Rite of Circumcision and Forbearing Swines Flesh vvhich however commanded by God himself vvere not commanded for being Good but vvere Therefore onely good because commanded so things Indifferent under the Gospel though they are not commanded for being Necessary do yet become Necessary by being commanded and are mediately commanded by God himself as far as commanded by That Authority which God hath commanded us to obey From whence it follows unavoidably That what may lawfully be done before commanded as soon as commanded cannot lawfully be omitted For Rebellion against the Second Table is as bad as Rebellion against the First And so they cannot be followers of Peace or Holiness who in a meer pretense of Holiness do hinder Peace An hearty Follower of Peace will follow the Things that make for Peace He will not be so much as a Non-conformist but press with earnestness after Vnity by Vniformity in the Church And if his Conscience hath any Scruples arising meerly from the weakness not from the wilfulness of the man he will infinitely rather forsake his City or his Country than stay in either to its Disturbance § 23. Such was the pious Exhortation of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians which he also made good by his own Example Who says he is there among you of tender Bowels and Generosity let him sacrifice if he is such his private Interest to the publick And say If I am either the Author or the Fautor of any Difference I divest my self of All the Wealth and Honour which I injoy and inflict upon my self a most gratefull Exile Now that S. Clemens made good his Exhortation by his Example I am induced to affirm from this particular Consideration That I can find no better way to reconcile the several Authors who will have Clemens to be the Second and the Fourth Bishop of Rome than by saying with Epiphanius till we can find a better reason That Clemens laid down his Bishoprick during the Empire of Tiberius and took it up again in the Time of Nero. The first of which he did freely and the second by compulsion but Both in order to the Vnity and Peace of Christians Such was also the publick Spirit of the renowned Gregory Nazianzen who gladly threw the Archbishoprick of Canstantinople behind his Back for the composing of the strife that arose about it God forbid said he at parting to all the Prelates there met in the General Council that we vvhose Office 't is to teach and to bring Peace to others should scandalously break it amongst our selves Rather let Me forsake my Throne and be cast out of the City than not contribute all I can to the publick Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like to this spake S. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies to the People That if He were thought the Cause or the Occasion of their Divisions he would recede from his Arch-Bishoprick and be gon whither they pleas'd vvould suffer any thing rather than Schism which he protested he thought a Sin as great and damning even as Heresie and which rather than administer occasion to he would strip himself of the Rich and Splendid Preferment which he possess'd A Charity like That of the Prophet Jonas who for the quieting of the Tempest chose to be cast into the Sea And to preserve a whole Ship was easily content with a private Ruin Which Example of S. Chrysostom and other Fathers more Primitive every honest man will follow in these our Days if he is earnestly a follower of Peace and Holiness And this is one of the chiefest Touchstones whereby to difference a weak from a wilfull Brother They who do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pursue with eagerness the Things which do make for Peace do not serve God solidly in the Duties of the First and the Second Table in Piety and Probity in Godliness and Honesty in loving God with all their Hearts which is to serve him in Holiness and their Neighbour as themselves which is to follow Peace with all men and so they want the two Hinges on which the Door of Salvation does chiefly turn and whereupon does clearly hang All the Law and the Prophets § 24. I cannot follow Peace enough in the Discourse I am upon for the following of it till I observe how the Prosperity does most especially depend on the Peace of Christians and also say by what means as well as by whose Instrumentality we may attain to so much Peace and good Agreement amongst our selves as may redeem some of the Credit which we cannot but have lost by our foul Divisions There being no greater Stumbling-block either to Those that are without or within the Church than