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	hell_n	verse_n	5,924	5	10.8274	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30676	The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing B6207; ESTC R23865	229,720	483

this if our own Nation yielded not sufficient examples we might pass over into Ireland for proof where a hundred thousand were suddenly stript of all and for beauty those that have most gloried in it in a short time by a disease they have been deformed so for friends those that love to day do hate to morrow the like we may say of all earthly enjoyments Oh my soul if earthly delights how pleasing soever be so fading and transitory here thou seest thy folly in spending so much of thy time in planting pruning fencing and watering so fading a gourd and so perishing a plant and contenting thy self with a painted nothing beauty is but skin-deep and when the frost of sickness or the winde of old age comes it will wither death will equal the fair with the foul the young with the aged riches are no surer they take themselves wings and fly away strength will decay and Sampson himself cannot grapple with death honour is the emptiest of bubbles and he that this day is ascending the highest round of the ladder of promotion may suddenly break his neck in the fall as Haman did but there is a beauty which will never fade grace and holiness will never change colour there are riches which will be certain laid up where neither rust corrupteth nor theives can steal or plunder there are honours which will last to eternity pleasures at Gods right hand that never shall have end there is meat that perisheth not but endureth to eternal life spend not thy time in seeking after these guilded nothings and painted vanities Oh my God bestow these things upon me that will do me good these garments will adorn me and make me beautiful in the eyes of God and good men this food will nourish my soul and these riches will make me rich indeed put me not off with such trifles as the world affords and with which the devil pleaseth fools and franticks the riches of Christ the jewells of grace the crown of glory are worth wishing for working for suffering for striving fighting running wrastling yea dying for when all other things are not worth the pains and sweat which usually are spent upon them Lord no portion but thy self will satisfie no husband but Christ will serve my turn no pleasure will please but those at thy right hand no jointure but a kingdom will content Lord give me these though thou take from me all the rest Upon Stones in the Garden 14. Med. OBserving in the garden many stones mixt with other soil and considering how useless fruitless and unprofitable they were yea though they had the same husbandry bestowed upon them the same sun to shine upon them and watered with the same showers though they had the same seed and labour the same mucking and manuring the same tilling and weeding as the other soil had yet were never the better never the softer or more pliable they remained stones still fruitless and unprofitable yea though I broke them in pieces I could neither mollify them nor make them fruitfull nor profitable but they were hurtfull and pernicious to the place they were in neither axe nor hammer fire nor water could change their nature neither fair means nor foul the summers sun nor winters frost could not change them they were still the same hereupon I caused them to be gathered together and cast out of the garden to mend a foul way and by this means that which before was a detriment now became a benefit This Observation helpt me to this Meditation it brought to my minde the nature of a stony heart oh how lively do these stones represent this to us the stony heart is of the nature of a stone mercyes cannot melt it judgements cannot break it see this in Pharaoh his heart after all the judgements continues stone still good seed sown in a stony heart brings nothing to perfection neither can it take any deep root as we see in the parable of the stony grounds they receive the word with joy but have not root and therefore soon wither they only taste of the good word of God Heb. 6.45 as cooks do of their sauces saith one they let nothing down they digest it not this ground though never so carefully husbanded even by Christ himself the wisest husbandman yet brings no fruit to maturity I have sometimes wondred how wicked men could sit under the powerful means of grace and Ministry of the Word and have hell-fire flasht in their faces and yet never startle at it though the same sins which their consciences know they are deeply guilty of are again and again condemned to hell and it be proved that those that live in such sins shall never go to heaven and the Chapters and verses alledged where God doth sentence such sinners to hell and exclude them out of heaven yet they remain as insensible as blocks or stocks or the stones they tread upon or the seats they sit upon or the pillars they lean against and what wonder is it that one stone should be as insensible as another And on the other side when the melting promises of the Gospel are prest and God and Christ and heaven and happiness everlasting pleasures and treasures glory and happiness is offered this makes not so deep an impression as the offer of one shilling nay of one penny will from a man Doth not this plainly prove that these mens hearts are senceless stones Now it is the nature of some stones fire will not melt them water will not soften them nothing will mollifie them so it is of wicked men neither mercies nor judgements will work upon them Pharaoh was such a stone nothing would work upon him though he was broken to shivers each piece retains its naturall hardness it is stone still but such stones that will not be fitted for Gods building he will employ them otherwise and make stepping-stones of them God will not lose by them if they will not serve for one use they shall for another 'T is true he hath a furnace that can melt them and happy is he that is cast into it if they miss of that they shall be reserved for the infernal furnace where they shall always burn but never be consumed neither shall any of their dross ever waste in the mean while as God made use of thorns as before was noted so can he of these stones for the good of his Church oh my soul this was thy case this was thy condition by nature out of the same rock wast thou hewn and out of the same hole of the pit wast thou digged thy heart was as hard as the nether millstone and resembled the flinty rock that would neither bend nor bow and was as insensible of spirituall things as the stones in the street much water was spilt upon this rock which could not be gotten up again much washing was bestowed to make this blackamore white but all in vain many a melting Sermon thou hast heard and