Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	earth_n	militant_a	5,036	5	12.4963	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02223	The great day, or, A sermon, setting forth the desperate estate and condition of the wicked at the day of iudgement Preached at Saint Andrews in Holborne at London By Nathaniel Grenfield, Master of Artes, and preacher of the Word of God at Whit-field in Oxfordshire.	Grenfield, Nathaniel, b. 1588 or 9.	1615 (1615)	STC 12358; ESTC S118555	51,838	174

chiefest nursing mother beene bereaued of her life and we her children should neuer haue inioyed these Halcyonian dayes wherein the Gospel flourisheth in despite eyther of Pope or Turke During the time of whose raigne which was but for the space of fiue yeeres there were aboue forty thousand liuing bodies of the most choisest Martyrs most cruelly burnt I say the liuing bodies to aggrauate the depth of their inraged enuy for they would not suffer the bones of the dead to rest in their graues but they must be burnt to ashes when they were almost rotten to the dust The tenth was vnder Philip in Spaine and Flaunders as in the Spanish Inquisition we may read more at large nay almost what part of the earth hath not that drunken VVhore of Rome moystned with the bloud of Saints And yet heere is not an end but still shee is plodding and plotting some secret mischiefe vpon the bed of her fornications and hatching still a malicious brood of Serpents and Cockatrices Men and Deuils hellish conspiratours still machinating the workes of darknesse their fellow-helper being the Deuill which is the Prince of darknes and therefore no maruell though the Church triumphant in heauen and the Church militant vpon earth doe daily cry for reuenge vpon that VVhere of Babylon and the Lord hearing the lowd cry of the Saints whose bloud cryes as lowd as euer Abels did against his brother Cain at the length awaketh as one out of sleepe commeth forth as a Giant refreshed with wine strikes their enemies vpon the thigh and puts them vnto a perpetuall shame as you may see at the opening of the sixt seale when God in the seuerity of his wrath summons all Kings and Princes of the earth which haue been bloudy agents in massacring of Saints vnto the trembling Tribunal of his generall Iudgement where the first thing that we may take notice of is the fearefull alteration of naturall things both in heauen and earth ver 12.13.14 In the Sunne blacknesse the Moone became as bloud and the Starres fell from heauen heauen departed as a scrowle the earth shooke mountaines and Ilands were moued out of their place All which are euident demonstrations of that great and fearefull Day Mark 13. v. 24.25 Matth. 24. v. 29. Luk. 21.25 The second is the feare and amazednesse of men Kings great men rich men chiefe Captaines bond and free their hearts did faile them for feare Luk. 21.26 desiring rather that the earth would swallow them vp aliue as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram then to behold the countenance of so angry a Iudge and breathing forth such bootlesse exclamations vnto the senselesse Rocks and helplesse Mountaines Fall vpon vs couer vs from the wrath of the Lambe v. 15.16 All which doe immediately goe before the day of Iudgement vers 17.11 I had rather wade with the Lambe in the shallow lest with the Elephant plunging my selfe into the depth I should be drowned in the depth which is a iust iudgement of God vpon all rash enterprizing spirits and curious inquisitors into the vnsearchable secrets and mysteries past finding out of almighty God to be giuen ouer vnto their owne priuate spirits and to lose themselues in the Labyrinth of their owne selfe motions and all because they will not confesse their ignorance and content themselues with a sober knowledge Rom. 12.3 but wil be wise aboue what is written Once sure I am of this that the Scriptures doe containe in them all things necessary to saluation and that they are riddles and mysteries darke and obscure vnto none but vnto those that perish Amidst variety of Interpretors some inclining vnto a Litterall some vnto an Allegorical some vnto a Tropological sense I doubt not but that I may safely lay downe this plaine and litterall exposition viz. That this Text setteth forth the desperate estate and condition of the wicked at the dreadfull day of Iudgement wherein I obserue these parts First an enumeration of particulars concluding an vniuersall Kings great men rich men chiefe Captaines mighty men bond men free men that is some of all sorts and sexes all the wicked Secondly their straight desperate estate in seeking such bootlesse refuges They hid themselues in dens and in the rockes of Mountaines v. 15. Thirdly their lamentable yet fruitlesse exclamations They said vnto the Mountaines and Rockes Fal vpon vs hide vs from the presence of him c. v. 16. Lastly the reason of all For the Great day of his wrath is come and who can stand The Kings of the earth not Romani Principes the Princes of Rome that had bin too plaine and it had bin a meanes to haue exasperated the malice of those bloudy Emperours more cruelly to imbrue their hands in the bloud of Saints for Kings that are Tyrants and rich men that are wedded to the world can hardly indure to heare of their downefall and destruction but they will rage more furiously and redouble their cruelty so Herod slew all the children that were in Bethlem and in all the coasts therof from two yeeres old and vnder when the Wise-men told him that Iesus was borne and that He should be the King of the Iewes Matth. 2. v. 2.16 Therefore Saint Iohn noting their power and malice being that they are Kings and rich men doth for the Churches safety of set purpose conceale their names so the Apostle Saint Paul in the second to the Thessalonians c. 2. v. 3.4 describing the downefall of the Pope of Rome hee calls him not in plaine and direct tearmes Antichrist or the Pope but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That sonne of perdition which exalteth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aboue all that is called God describing the nature of him so that it can be competent vnto none but vnto the Pope of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vegetius l. 2. c. 2. dere militari Tribuni the chiefe Captaines such as were set ouer a thousand souldiers such amongst the Romans were called Tribunes and a Romane Legion consisted of six thousand souldiers by which finite agnomination the Deuils shewed that the number of their infernall Kingdome was infinite My name is Legion for we are many Euery bond and euery free-man that is all the wicked but especially those that haue beene actors of the Kings decrees and executioners of new deuised tortures in the persecution of the Saints Hid themselues in dennes Some there are and that not a few that would haue this to bee vnderstood figuratiuely of the corrupt estate of the Church and of the last persecution of Antichrist when the Popish Prelacy had gotten the supremacy The Sunne say they is Christ blacke and obscured not in himselfe but in the hearts of men The Moone is the Church which resembles the Moone waxing and waning and shee borrowes her light from Christ The Starres are the Doctors of the Church Teachers and Preachers of the Word Falling to the earth i. slaine

by the wicked which seeme to men to fall to the earth when as indeede if faithfull in their indeuours to worke a sinners conuersion they shine like starres for euer and euer Dan. 1 2. v. 3. The Heauen say they is the sacred Bible and Canonicall Scripture containing in it the reuealed will of the King of Heauen by meanes whereof we are led vnto Heauen as the Wise-men were to Christ by the conduct of a Star Ioh. 5.39 Matth. 2. v. 9. Within the Pages of this holy Writ Christ the Church the Ministers are placed like the Sunne Moone and Starres in the Firmament of Heauen This Heauen departed in the raigne of Antichrist and became as a clasped Booke in respect of the vse of it for almost as good as if it had not beene at all then the people neuer a iot the better by it when the Laiety might not read it but through the Priests spectacles when Images were Lay-mens Bookes and sacred Scripture departed like a scrole that is lockt vp in an vnknowne tongue Earthquakes doe signifie seditions alterations mutations of Kingdomes and Empires such as began in the Papacy and doe not end as yet but still doth that exceeding dreadfull beast Daniel 7. v. 19. stirre vp seditions disturbe cōmon peace shake Kingdomes blowe vp Parliaments cut off and anathemize Kings by the thunder-bolt of excommunication yea and afterwards Canonize Deuils for Saints if they would aduenture to kill Kings The Mountaynes are say they the Prophets whom the breath of Antichrist doth ouer-turne and by the same breath of that not erring Man of sinne doe the Schole-Doctors by their false glosses and peruerse interpretations corrupt depraue and ouer-throw the sense of the Prophets The Ilands say they are the workes and writings of Philosophers which the same Doctors doe peruert some other way beyond the minde and meaning of Philosophers so that there is nothing cōmon with the Prophets nor with true Philosophie Kings and rich men c. are the Monarchs of the world and other priuate men made subiect to the Popes Catholicall and Vniuersall Supremacy when Kings must hold the stirrup and kisse the greasy feet of that triple-crownd Monster Hid themselues in dennes that is say they the Cels Cloysters Solitary places Nests of Nunnes and vnsociable Monkes I will not disallow of this allegorizing interpretation for it may very well stand for current but according to the simple sense and meaning of the words as they lye nakedly to be considered and if Scripture may interpret Scripture the Prophet Isaiah maketh them playne expounding this place in the selfe same termes or this place expounding that both setting forth the narrow strait and desperate perplexity which the wicked are brought vnto They shall goe into the holes of the Rocks and into the Caues of the earth for feare of the Lord and for the glory of his Maiesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth Isaiah 2.19 yea and to strike a deeper dread and horror into the hearts of the wicked he doth ingeminate it like that triple woe in the eight of the Reuelation vers 21. And said to the Mountaynes Rocks Fall on vs c. Here the holy Ghost doth allude vnto two places of Scripture the first is the tenth of Hosea v. 8. the second is the 23. of Luke vers 30. both describing the desperate estate of the wicked where our Sauiour speaketh of a certayne time when these things should be after hee had spoken of the destruction of Ierusalem which was a type of the consummation of the world and dissolution of al things but in Hosea the Prophet speaketh of the captiuity of Israel which was a figure of Ierusalems vtter diuastation and the worlds finall destruction as Hierome obserueth vpon that place It was an old dotage of Aquinas vpon this place who as his custome is to turne all things into Allegories doth wrest this place of Kings and chiefe Captaines and would haue it to be vnderstood of the Romish Clergy the Bishops the Archbishops and the rest of that rabble cloistred Monks and Masse-muttering Priests crying vnto the Mountaines that is inuocating the Saints imploring their patrocinie and their safeguarding protection from the wrath that is to come But these cursed Crue that rob Christ of his honor who is that one only Mediator 1. Tim. 2.5 pro quo nullus interpellat sed ipse per omnibus as Augustine defines a Mediator by making as many Mediators as there are Saints departed shal at that day find the Saints no better then Iobs friends miserable comforters and that the inuocating of them shall be no more regarded then the shouting and crying of the Priests of Baal 1 King 18. v. 27. Hide vs from the face of him that sitteth vpon the Throne and from the voice of the Lambe Obiect But how shall the wicked and vnfaithfull bee able to speake these words when as they neuer knew Christ sitting in his Throne nor vnderstood him to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World as Peter told the Iewes that through ignorance they did crucifie Christ as did also their Gouernours Acts 3. v. 17. for had they knowne they would neuer haue crucified the Lord of glory Sol. I will not insist vpon any curious distinction either of Logicians or Schole diuines concerning ignorance In briefe I answere thus that the wicked out of the horror and hellish despaire of a distracted conscience partly by reason of that imminent danger without them the guilt of cōscience within them they shall be compeld to acknowledge Christ to bee that Incarnated Word of truth sent out of the bosome of the Father and to be that Lambe of God slaine for as many as beleeue then they shall see know be made to acknowledge him though in their life time they called his sacred Deitie into question yet then shal they acknowledge him without all question As Pharaoh at the first answered Moses and Aaron intreating him from the Lord to let the children of Israel goe that they may celebrate a feast to the Lord in the wildernesse Quis est Deus Who is the Lord as though he had thought belike that there had bin no God as Atheists say in their heart There is no God Psal 14.1 or that he himselfe had beene God onely Exod. 5.2 yet afterward hee learned a new lesson being instructed by diuers sorts of afflictions which were as so many Sermons to conuict and conuince him of Atheisme and was compelled to acknowledge God to be the Authour of them Exod. 8. and he only to be prayed vnto Exod. 14. So shall the wicked at that day howsoeuer at this day they doe scorne deride and not beleeue in Christ to be Iesus a Messias a Sauiour but persecute him in his members Act. 9.4 when they see the truth of prophesies fulfilled the destruction at hand their owne dismall desolation drawing neer then shall they acknowledge Christ to be the