Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A52859
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Goodness proved to be the best protection from the arrests of all harmes in a sermon preached before the University, upon Innocents Day, in great St. Maries Church in Cambridge / by Robert Neville ...
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Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing N520; ESTC R12406
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12,552
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33
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to the Souldiers who were to be their Keepers and Executioners The sinner is almost always haunted with inward gripes and twinges of guilt though sometimes he is not punisht here visibly nor scourged with a market Lash And who would not rather dye a thousand times than live under such a Conscience whose every Accusation is no less than a summons to Death (ſ) Neque frustra sapientes affirmare soliti sunt si recludantur Tyrannorum mentes ictus posse aspici laniatus It is not for nothing saith the Historian Tacitus that the wisest men have told us that were the hearts of wicked men laid open we should see their Swellings and Ulcers Stripes and Torments Here a bruise by Impatience here a swelling of Pride here a deep wound which malice hath made It is the good man only that leads a Comfortable and Happy Life whereas wicked mens Lives are Toilsome and Miserable Jeremiah chapter 9. verse 5. They weary themselves to commit Iniquity They take as much or more pains to go to Hell than good Men do to go to Heaven (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even the things of the Devil are not attained without Labour and Pains saith St. Chrysostom How Laborious is our Revenge How busie our Cruelty How Watchful and Studious our Lust What Penance does our Covetousness put us to How strangely does our Envy possesse us like an Evil and Malignant Spirit Which one in Stobaeus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Basest Spirit and yet most Just because it punishes the Delinquent in the very Act doing as Aelian speaks of the Polypus (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who when he wants his prey devours his own Arms the secret pangs of his Envy gnaw and feed upon himself Thus Men become as I may so speak Martyrs of the Devil and damnation and the subjects of all those Harms and Mischiefs that are of sins retinue from which they might be freed if they would once become Proselytes to Virtue and Goodness Their very Enemies could say of the Athenians That there was nothing that they could count a Feast but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the having done what they ought and if a Christian cannot outvye those Heathens if he doth not highly esteem of the Feast of a good Conscience within him and the Satisfactions that are to be reaped from a good Life which are present Happiness in themselves and pledges of future Glory his palate is vitiated he is no competent judge of Dainties And as goodness will shield its followers from all those harms and Mischiefs that arise from Sin so Thirdly and Lastly Will it free them from the Eternal Harms and Torments which those who are strangers to Goodness shall suffer in Hell. Lactantius was so hard in believing the roundness of the Earth that he thought that those Homines Pensiles as they call them those men that hang on the other Cheek of the Face of the Earth those Antipodes whose feet are directly against Ours must needs fall from the Earth but whither then should they fall If they fall they must fall upwards towards Heaven So good Men the Spiritual Antipodes to Sin may in some sense be said to fall when they fall to Repentance to Mortification and other good Duties and when they fall off from their Sins but their fall is upwards they fall towards Heaven Hell hath no Power over them for God hath set his mark stampt the Impress of his Goodness upon them and that is their Protection from all the Arrests of Satan That will keep them out of his dark infernal Prison Hell is only a place for Wicked men 't is their proper Center and the Gravity and Heaviness of their sins make them tend thither Psalm 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell and as the strong Magic of Nature pulls and draws every thing continually to that place which is suitable to it and to which it belongs so Hell wheresoever it is will by a strong sympathy pull in all sin and Magnetically draw it to it self as on the contrary true Goodness is always breathing upwards and fluttering towards Heaven striving to Imbosom it self with God. We may flatter our selves with what conceits we please but so long as we are void of Goodness we do but Dream of Heaven and I know not what fond Paradise we do but Court a painted Heaven and woe happiness in a Picture the glory of Heaven being nothing else but innocence enthron'd and attir'd her in white Robes and Goodness Triumphant Goodness with a Palm of Victory in her hand and a Crown upon her Head And how happy will the Good the Innocent Man be when he shall receive that Crown with this deserved Encomium and Commendation Euge bone Serve Well done Good and Faithful Servant What a Ravishment and Transport will it be to him What an Oleo of High Tasts compounded together O then let us all be Followers of Goodness This This is our best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best Charm against all Evils The best Amulet and Preservative against all harms Our safest Port our best Haven here we can never suffer Shipwrack hereno storms can come at us to hurt us here we are above the Sphere of mens Power to harm us in this blessed Station the Torments of Hell cannot reach or fasten upon us Goodness then is our best Asylum our best Sanctuary our safest Refuge from the harms both of Men and Devils for saith St. Peter Who is that will Harm ye if ye be followers of that which is Good Which God grant we may all be for his Dear Son Jesus Christ his sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour Glory and Adoration both now and Ever AMEN FINIS Five Sermons lately Published by the same Author and sold by Benj. Billingsley 1 A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of the City of London at Guild-hall 2. The necessity of Receiving the Holy Sacrament declared in a Sermon at a Conference of the several Ministers of the Deanry of Braughin in the County of Hertford appointed by the Right Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London to be held at Ware. 3. The great Excellency and Usefulness and Necessity of Humane Learning 4. The Nature and Causes of hardness of Heart Together with the Remedies against it 5. The Things above proved to be the most Proper Objects of the Mind and Affections All Three Preached before the University at Great St. Maries Church in Cambridge
are the good Fruits and Effects of it And Thirdly From what Harms and Evils all Retainers to it are Protected First I shall Examine What Goodness is Goodness is a glorious Constellation made up of these bright Stars these Heavenly Virtues and Graces Love Compassion Courtesie Abstaining from Sin doing works of Mercy Unity Peaceableness as you may see in the eighth ninth tenth and eleventh verses of the Chapter of my Text where the Apostle exhorts the Jewish Converts to be of One Mind having Compassion one of another to Love as Brethren to be Pitiful to be Courteous not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrarywise Blessing For he that will love Life and see good Dayes let him refrain his Tongue from evil and his Lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek Peace and ensue it After an enumeration of all which Christian Graces having in the twelfth verse of this Chapter declared red Gods favour and kindness to good Men that are possest of them he gives them this Protection from all Harms in these words of my Text And who is he that will harm ye if ye be followers of that which is good Of all the Attributes by which a man may be styled Goodness hath the chief place and soveraignty and therefore God was called by the Heathens first Optimus then Maximus first Good and then Great there being no true Greatness without Goodness and therefore that execrable and bloody Tyrant who caused his Executioners to turn the Cradles of the Innocent Babes of Bethlehem into Graves and rock them into a Dead sleep was improperly styled Herod the Great because he was far from being Herod the Good. A mere great Man without Goodness is only so much Nobility by Patent not by Merit or so much Heraldry without Honour he stayes perhaps a while in the World but 't is only to fill up a number and when he 's gone there wants One and there 's an End But when greatness and Goodness meet in One Person he is highly to be valued and esteemed like an Emrald or a Ruby set in Gold aut ubi flavo Argentum Pariusve Lapis cum cingitur auro Every man is to be esteemed and honoured as he is set down in Gods Herauldry and there Goodness hath the pre-eminence Proverbs chapter 12. verse 26. The Righteous is better then his Neighbour all good Men are of a Divine Extraction they may derive their Pedigree from God himself and say with St. Paul and the Heathen Poet whom he quotes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are his Off-spring Acts 17.28 and may therefore boast of his Celestial Pedigree with better reason than Glaucus did in Homer in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I glory and boast of this Celestial descent and extraction and St. Hierom would say of Paula a Noble Virgin descended from Aeneas on the Fathers side and from Agamemnon on the Mothers that she was Genere Nobilis Sanctitate Nobilior Noble in Stock but more Noble in Goodness and Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pious and good man is the best Man in all regards saith Clemens of Alexandria External Power and grandeur may render us dreadful and formidable depth of Learning may raise us in the esteem of the World and make us the objects of all mens admiration our large Revenues and vast Estates may purchase us external Respect and Honour make all men strike Sail to us and pay us the constant tribute of outward Obeisance but that which commands mens Hearts charms their Affections and chains their Souls to us is Goodness which is a great Friend to humane Conversation the Foundress of all Societies all other excellencies how great soever appear Melancholy and solitary they only put on a glorious Aspect when in the possession of one or few persons and once made common grow cheap and contemptible but Goodness is better natured and of so publick a Spirit that without being communicable it may no more be called Goodness than the Sun without its diffusive and expansive light may be called the Sun as the good mans Religion so also is his goodness and compassion Catholick He thinks it a kind of moral Judaism to tye it either to persons or places as knowing that he is commanded by St. Paul Galatians 6.10 To do good to all men and his language is what Tullie's was in one of his Epistles to Lentulus I (b) Tâ—ntùm enitor ut neque amicis neque etiam alienioribus operâ consilio labore desim endeavour only that I may not be wanting either to Friends or Strangers by my Pains Counsels or Labours and he really is what St. Hierom advised Pammachius to be caecorum oculi manus debilium claudorum pes eyes to the blind a hand to the weak and a foot to the lame and consequently must needs be very acceptable and dear to them and this brings me to the second particular namely The Good Fruits and Effects of Goodness which are these that follow 1. 'T is a Lure to bring us the Love of Men. 2. It draws and attracts the Love of God. 3. It assimilates and makes us like God. 1. 'T is a Lure to bring us the Love of men The good man may have that Character which was given of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Deliciae humani generis the Delight of Mankind the darling of the World for by his Courtesie Charity Civility and Peaceableness he obliges all men makes all his Friends and thereby becomes also a Friend to himself for as Seneca says Qui sibi amicus omnibus amicus he that is a Friend to himself is a Friend to all the World the good man will if it be possible quarrel with no man he is no mans Enemy and therefore no man is an Enemy to him and we may say the same of him that Cornelius Nepos did of Pomponius Atticus (c) Nullas inimicitias gâ—ssit quòà nec laedebat quenquam neque si quam injuriam acceperat maleóat ulcisci quà m Oblivisci He was infested with no Enmity because he hurt no man and if he had received an injury he was more willing to forget then to revenge it so that goodness is the best Policy even in a worldly account 't is the best Decoy to allure men to our Friendship There is no such bait whereby to catch men as goodness is and it may therefore borrow our Saviours words which he spake to Peter and Andrew his Brother Matthew 4.19 Follow me and I will make you Fishers of men And then 2. Goodness draws and attracts the Love of of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God delights as much in good men as in Heaven it self and Hierocles who recites that golden verse of Pythagoras does himself affirm That God hates no man but as for the good man (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he embraces him with an extraordinary Affection and it was a saying much used by