Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	child_n	kingdom_n	little_a	10,781	5	6.9696	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79521	A sermon preached at the publike fast before his Maiesty at Christ-Church in Oxford. By William Chillingworth. Published by command since his death.	Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.	1644 (1644)	Wing C3894; Thomason E52_16; ESTC R9370	22,195	32

Generall of an Army or an Embassadour to some Prince or State were assured by the King his Master that the transgressing any poynt of his Commission should cost him his life and the exact performance of it be recompenced with as high a reward as were in the Kings power to bestow upon him can it be imagined that any man who believes this and is in his right mind can be so supinely and stupidly negligent of this charge which so much imports him as to oversee through want of care any one necessarie article or part of his commission especially if it be delivered to him in writing and at his pleasure to peruse it every day Certainly this absurd negligence is a thing without example and such as peradventure will never happen to any sober man to the worlds end and by the same reason if we were firmely perswaded that this book doth indeed contain that charge and commission which infinitely more concerns us it were not in reason possible but that to such a perswasion our care diligence about it should be in some measure answerable seeing therefore most of us are so strangely carelesse so grossely negligent of it is there not great reason to feare that though we have professors and protestors in abundance yet the faithfull the truely and sincerely faithfull are in a manner failed from the children of men What but this can be the cause that men are so commonly ignorant of so many articles and particular mandates of it which yet are as manifest in it as if they were written with the beams of the Sun For example how few of our Ladies and Gentlewomen do or will understand that a voluptuous life is damnable and prohibited to them ● Tim. 5.6 Yet Saint Paul saith so very plainely She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth I beleeve this case divinely regards not the Sex he would say He well as She if there had bin occasion How few of the gallants of our time doe or will understand that it is not lawfull for them to be as expensive and costly in apparell as their meanes or perhaps their credit will extend unto which is to sacrifice unto vanitie that which by the Law of Christ is due unto Charity and yet the same Saint Paul forbids plainely this excesse even to women also let women he would have said it much rather to the men array themselves in comely apparell 1 Tim. 2. ● with shamefastnesse and modestie not with embroidered haire or gold or pearles or costly apparell and to make our ignorance the more inexcuable the very same rule is delivered by Saint Peter also 1 Epist 3 3. How few rich men are or will be perswaded that the Law of Christ permits them not to heape up riches for ever nor perpetually to adde house to house and land to land though by lawfull meanes but requires of them thus much charitie at least that ever while they are providing for their Wives and Children they should out of the increase wherewith God blesseth their industrie allot the poore a just and free proportion and when they have provided for them in a convenient manner such as they themselves shall judge sufficient and convenient in others that then they should give over making purchase after purchase but with the surplussage of their revenue beyond their expence procure as much as lyes in them that no Christian remaine miserably poore few rich men I feare are or will be thus perswaded and their daily actions shew as much yet undoubtedly Mat. 19.19 either our Saviours generall command of loving our neighbours as our selves which can hardly consist with our keeping vainely or spending vainly what he wants for his ordinary subsistence layes upon us a necessity of this high liberality or his speciall command concerning this matter Mat. 19 2● Quod superest date pauperibus that which remaines give to the poore or that which S. Iohn saith 1 Epist 3 17. reacheth home unto it Whosoever hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up the bowells of his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him Which is in effect as if he had said He that keepeth from any brother in Christ that which his brother wants and he wants not doth but vainely thinke that he loves God and therefore vainely hope that God loves him Where almost are the men that are or will be perswaded the Gospell of Christ requires of men Humilitie like to that of little Children and that under the highest paine of damnation That is that we should no more over-value our selves or desire to be highly esteemed by others no more undervalue scorn or despise others no more affect pre-eminence over others then little children doe before we have put that pride into them which afterwards we charge wholy upon their naturall corruption and yet our blessed Saviour requires nothing more Rigidly nor more plainly then this high degree of humility Mat. 18 ● verily saith he I say unto you he speakes to his disciples affecting high places and demanding which of them should be greatest except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Would it not be strange newes to a great many that not onely adultery and fornication but even uncleanenesse and lasciviousnesse not onely idolatry and witchcraft but hatred variance emulations wrath and contentions not onely murthers but envying not drunkennesse only but revelling are things prohibited to Christians and such as if we forsake them not we cannot inherit the Kingdome of Heaven and yet these things as strange as they may seeme are plainely written some of them by S. Peter 1 Epist 4. chap. But all of them by S. Paul Gal. 5 15. Now the workes of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanenesse lasciviousnesse c. of the which I tell you before as I have told you in times past that they who doe such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God If I should tell you that al bitternesse and evill speaking nay such is the modesty and gravity which Christianity requires of us foolish talke and jesting are things not allowed to Christians would not many cry out these are hard and strange sayings who can heare them and yet as strange as they may seeme they have beene written well nigh 1600 yeares and are yet extant in very legible Characters in the Epistle to the Eph. the end of the 4. and the beginning of the 5 chap. To come a little nearer to the businesse of our times the chiefe Actors in this bloudy Tragedy which is now upon the Stage who have robb'd our Soveraign Lord the King of his Forts Townes Treasure Ammunition Houses of the Persons of many of his Subjects and as much as lyes in them of the hearts of all of them Is it credible that they know and remember and consider the example of David recorded

in it could possibly escape us But it is certain and apparent to all the world that the greatest part of Christians through grosse and wilfull negligence remaine utterly ignorant of many necessary points of their duty to God and man and therefore it is much to be feared that this booke and the Religion of Christ contained in it among an infinite of professours labours with great penury of true beleivers It were an easie matter if the time would permit to present unto you many other demonstrations of the same conclusion but to this drawn from our willing ignorance of that which is easie and necessary for us to know I will content my self to adde only one more taken from our voluntary and presumptuous neglect to doe those things which we know and acknowledge to be necessary If a man should say unto me that it concerns him as much as his life is worth to goe presently to such a place and that he knowes but one way to it and I should see him stand still or goe some other way had I any reason to believe that this man believes himselfe Quid verba audiam cum facta videam saith he in the Comedy Potestatio contra factum non valet saith the Law and why should I believe that that man believes obedience to Christ the onely way to present and eternall happinesse when I see wittingly and willingly and constantly and customarily to disobey him The time was that we all knew that the King could reward those that did him service and punish those that did dis-service and then all men were ready to obey his commands and he was a rare man that durst doe any thing to his face that offended him Beloved if we did but believe in God so much as most subjects doe in their King did we as verily believe that God could and would make us perfectly happy if wee serve him though all the world conspire to make us miserable and that he could and would make us miserable if wee serve him not though al the world should conspire to make us happy how were it possible that to such a faith our lives should not be comformable Who was there ever so madly in love with a present penny as to run the least hazard of the losse of 10000 li. a yeare to gaine it or not readily to part with it upon any probable hope or light perswasion much more a firme beliefe that by doing so he should gaine 100000 li. Now beloved the happinesse which the servants of Christ are promised in the Scripture wee all pretend to believe that it exceedes the conjunction of all the good things of the world and much more such a portion as wee may possibly enjoy infinitely more then 10000 li. a yeare or 100000 li. doth a penny for 100000 li. is but a penny so many times over and 10000 li. a yeare is worth but a certaine number of pence but betweene Heaven and Earth betweene finite and infinite betweene Eternity and a moment there is utterly no proportion and therefore seeing we are so apt upon trifling occasions to hazard this Heaven for this Earth this infinite for this finite this all for this nothing is it not much to be feared that though many of us pretend too much faith we have indeed very little or none at al The sum of all which hath bin spoken concerning this point is this Were we firmely perswaded that obedience to the Gospell of Christ is the true and onely way to present and eternall happinesse without which faith no man living can be Justified then the innate desire of our owne happinesse could not but make us studious inquirers of the will of Christ and conscionable performers of it but there are as experience shewes very few who make it their care and businesse to know the will of Christ and of those few againe very many who make no conscience at all of doing what they know therfore though they professe protest they have faith yea their protestations are not to be regarded against their actions but we may safely and reasonably conclude what was to be concluded That the Doctrine of Christ amongst an infinite of professors labours with great scarcitie of true and serious and hearty believers and that herein also we accomplish St. Pauls prediction having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power c. But perhaps the truth and reality of our repentance may make some kind of satisfaction to God Almighty for our hypocriticall dallying with him in all the rest truly I should be heartily glad it were so but I am so farre from being of this faith that herein I feare we are most of all hypocriticall and that the generality of professors is so farre from a reall practice of true repentance that scarce one it an hundred understands truely what it is Some satisfie themselves with a bare confession and acknowledgement either that that they are sinners in general or that they have committed such and such sinnes in particular which acknowledgement comes not yet from the heart of a great many but only from their lips and tongues For how many are there that doe rather complaine and murmure that they are sinners then acknowledge and confesse it and make it upon the matter rather their unhappinesse and misfortune then their true fault that they are so such are all they who impute all their commissions of evill to the unavoydable want of restraining grace and all their omi on of good to the like want of effectuall exciting grace All such as pretend that the Commandements of God are impossible to be kept any better then they are kept and thus the world the flesh and the divell are even omnipotent enemies and that God neither doth nor will give sufficient strength to resist and overcome them All such as lay al their faults upon Adam say with those rebellious Israelities whom God assures that they neither had nor should have just reason to say so That their Fathers had eaten sowre grapes and their teeth were set on edge Ezek. 18.2 Lastly all such as lay all their sinnes upon divine prescience and predestination saying with their tongues O what wretched sinners have we beene but in their hearts how could we helpe it we were predestinate to it we could not doe otherwise All such as seriously so perswade themselves and thinke to hide nakednesse with such fig-leaves as these can no more be said to acknowledge themselves guilty of a fault then a man that is borne blind or lame with the stone or gout can accuse himselfe of any fault for being borne so well may such a one complaine and bemoan himselfe and say O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this unhappinesse But such a complaint is as farre from being a true acknowledgement of any fault as a bare acknowledgement of a fault is farre from true repentance for to confesse a fault is to acknowledge that freely and