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
A29703	The privie key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse on that subject with the resolution of several considerable questions : the main objections also against closet-prayer are here answered ... with twenty special lessons ... that we are to learn by that severe rod, the pestilence that now rageth in the midst of us / by Thomas Brooks.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1665 (1665)	Wing B4961; ESTC R24146	207,234	605

can easily find out private places for their dogs to lye in and their swine to sleep in and their horses to stand in and their oxen to feed in c. who can't find out a private place to seek the face of God in But did these men but love their God or their souls or private prayer or eternity as well or better than their beasts they would not be such brui●es but that they would quickly find out a hole a corner to wait upon the Lord in But Secondly I Answer If a Christian be on the top of the house with Peter he may pray there or if he be walking in the field with Isaac he may pray there or if he be on the mountain with Christ he may pray there or if he be behind the door with Paul he may pray there or if he be waiting at table with Nehemiah he may secretly pray there or if he be in a wood he may pray there as the primitive Christians in times of persecution did or if he be behind a tree he may pray there or if he be by the Sea side he may pray there as the Apostles did 'T was a choice saying of Austin Every Saint is Gods Temple saith he and he that carryes his temple about him may go to prayer when he pleaseth Some Saints have never had so much of heaven brought down into their hearts as when they have been with God in a corner O the secret manifestations of divine love the secret kisses the secret embraces the secret influences the secret communion with God that many a precious Christian hath had in the most solitary places it may be behind the door or behind the wall or behind the hedge or behind the arbour or behind the tree or behind the rock or behind the bush c. But Thirdly and lastly didst thou never in thy unregenerate estate make use of all thy wits and parts and utmost endeavours to find out convenient seasons and secret corners and solitary places to sin in and to dishonour thy God in and to undoe thine owne and others souls in yes I remember with shame and blushing that 't was so with me when I was dead in Eph. 2. 1 2 3. trespasses and sins and walked according to the course of this world O how much then doth it concern thee in thy renewed sanctified and raised estate to make use of all thy wits and parts and utmost endeavours to find out the fittest seasons and the most secret corners and solitary places thou canst to honour thy God in and to seek the welfare of thine owne and others souls in O that men were but as serious studious and industrious to find out convenient seasons secret places to please and serve and glorifie the Lord in as they have been serious studious and industrious to find out convenient seasons and secret places to displease and grieve the Spirit of the Lord in But Sixthly and lastly others may further object and say we would be often in private with God we would give our selves up to closet prayer but that we can no sooner shut our closet doors but a multitude of infirmities weaknesses and vanities doe face us and rise up against us our hearts being full of distempers and follies and our bodies say some are under great indispositions and our souls say others are under present indispositions and how then can we seek the face of God in a corner how can we wrestle with God in our closets c. Now to this Obj●ction I shall give these six Answers 1. I● these kinds of reasonings or arguings were sufficient to shut private prayer out of doores where lives that man or woman that husband or wife that father or child that master or servant that Psa 40. 12. Psal 51. 5. Rom. 7. 15 24. Psal 130. 3. 1 Cor. 4. 4. 2 Chr. 6. 36. Phil. 3. 12. would ever bè found in the practise of that duty Where is there a person under heaven whose heart is not full of infirmities weaknesses follies and vanities and whose body and soul is not too often indisposed to closet duties 1 Kings 8. 46. If they sin against thee for there is no man that sinneth not c. Eccl. Grace in this life is like Gold in the ore full of mixture 7. 20. For there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Job 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an uncleane not one Job 9. 30 31. If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine owne cloaths shall abhor me Job 9. 20. If I justifie my self my owne mouth shall condemne me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Psal 143. 2. And enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified James 3. 2. For in many things we offend all 1 John 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Such that affirme that men may be fully perfect in this life or without sin in this life they do affirme that which is expresly contrary to the Scriptures last cited and to the universal experience of all Saints who daily feel and lament over that body of sin and death that they bare about with them yea they do affirme that which is quite contrary to the very state or constitution of all the Saints in this life In every Saint the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that they cannot do the things Gal. 5. 17. that they would In every good Eph. 4. 22 23 24. man there are two men the old man and the new the one must be daily put on and the other daily put off All Saints have a law in their members rebelling against the law of their minds so that the Rom. 7. 23. 15. comp good that they would doe they do not and the evil that they would not do that they do They have two contrary principles in them from whence proceeds two manner of actions motions and inclinations continually opposite one to another hence it is that there is a continual combat in them like the strugling of the Twins in Rebecah's womb An absolute perfection is peculiar to the triumphant state of Gods Elect in Heaven Heaven is the onely priviledged place where no unclean thing can Rev. 23. 21 enter in that 's the only place where neither sin nor Satan shall ever get footing Such as dream of an absolute perfection in this life do confound and jumble heaven Heb. 12. 22 23. and earth together the state of the Church militant with the state of the Church Triumphant which are certainly distinct both in

of Religion that was ever famous for Closet-prayer But Thirdly Take heed of curiosity and of spending too much of your precious time in searching into those dark abstruce misterious and hidden truths things of God and Religion that lye most remote from the understanding of the best and wisest of men Curiosity is the spiritual adultery of the Soul Curiosity is a spiritual drunkenness for look as the drunkard is never satisfied unless he see the bottome of the cup be it never so deep so those that are troubled with the itch of curiosity will say they can never be satisfied till they come to the bottome of the most deep and profound things of God they love to pry into Gods secrets and to scan the mysteries of Religion by their weak shallow reason and to be wise above what is written Curious searchers into the deep mysterious things of God will make all Gods depths to be shallows rather than they will be thought not able to fathom them by the short line of their own reason O that men would once learn to be contentedly ignorant where God would not have them knowing O that men were once so humble as to account it no disparagement to them to acknowledge some depths in God and in the blessed Scripture which their shallow reason cannot fathom They are only a company of fools in Folio that affect to know more than God would have them Did not Adams Tree of knowledge make him and his posterity meer fools He that goes to school to his own reason hath a fool for his school-master The ready way to grow stark blind is to be still prying gazing upon the body of the Sun So the ready way to spiritual Deut. 29. ult blindness is to be still prying into the most secret and hidden things of God Are there not many who by prying long into the secrets Rom. 9. 20. of nature are become arch-enemies to the grace of God O that we were wise to admire those deep mysteries which we cannot understand and to adore those depths and counsels which we cannot reach O let us check our curiosity in the things of God and sit Rom. 11. 33 down satisfied and contented to resolve many of Gods actions into some hidden causes which lye secret in the Abyss of his eternal knowledge and infallible will Christ when he was on earth very frequently severely sharply condemned John 21. 22 Acts 1. 6 7. Luke 1● 23 24. curious enquirers as is evident by the Scriptures in the margent and the great reason why our Saviour did so frequently check this humor of curiosity was because the great indulgers of it were too frequent neglecters of the more great necessary and important points of Religion Curiosity is one of Satans most dangerous engines by which he keeps many souls out of their Closets yea out of Heaven when many a poor soul begins in good earnest to look towards heaven and to apply himself to Closet-duties then Satan begins to bestir himself and to labour with all his might so to busie the poor soul with vain enquiries and curious speculations and unprofitable curiosities that the soul hath no time for Closet-prayer Ah how well might it have been with many a man had he but spent one quarter of that time in closet-prayer that he hath spent in curious enquiries after things that have not been fundamental to his happiness The Heathenish Priests affected curiosity they had their Mythologies and strange canting expressions of their imaginary unaccessible Deities to amaze and amuse their blind superstitious followers and thereby to hold up their Popish and apish Idolatries in greater veneration O that there were none of this heathenish spirit among many in these dayes who have their faces toward heaven Ah how many are there that busie themselves more in searching after the reasons of the irrecoverableness of mans fall than they do to recover themselves out of their fallen estate Ah how many are there that busie themselves more about the apostasie of the Angels than they do about securing their interest in Christ And what a deal of precious time have some spent in discovering the natures distinctions properties and orders of Angels That high-foaring counterfeit Peter Martyr saith that to enquire of the Angels accurately and subtilly is Magis ad curiositatem nostram quam ad salutem And he wisheth that the school-men in their knotty thorny and unprofitable discourses had observed this Dyonisius describes the Hierarchy of Angels as exactly as if he had dwelt amongst them he saith there are nine orders of them which he grounds upon nine words which are found partly in the Old Testament and partly in the New as Seraphims Cherubims Thrones Powers Hoasts Dominions Principalities Arch-Angels and Angels and at large he describes their several natures distinctions and properties as that the first three orders are for immediate attendance on the Almighty and the next three orders for the general government of the creatures and the last three orders for the particular good of Gods Elect That the Arch-Angels surpass the beauty of Angels ten times Principalities surpass the Arch-Angels twenty times and that Powers surpass the Principalities fourty times c. How he came by this learning is not known and yet this Hierarchy in these nine several orders hath passed for currant through many Ages of the Church The Platonicks were the first that divided the Angels into three Orders as some above Heaven called Supercaelestes others in Heaven called Caelestes and others under Heaven called Subcaelest●● and accordingly they assign them several Offices As First They above Heaven I mean this visible heaven continually stand before God as they say praising and lauding and magnifying of his name Secondly They in Heaven are there seated to move and rule and govern the Stars Thirdly They under Heaven are some to rule Kingdomes others Provinces others Cities others particular Men. Several Christian writers that have written of the Hierarchy of Angels follow these opinions Now if we should take these surmises for real truths then it will follow that the highest Angels do not minister to the Saints but only and immediately to God himself which is Jude 9. v. Luke 1. 19 26. Zech. 4. 10. Rev. 5. 6. Heb. 1. 14. expresly contrary to several Scriptures as you may see by them in the Margent among others When I was upon the Ministration of the blessed Angels I did then prove in several exercises as some of you may remember That all the Angels in Heaven were commanded and commissionated by God to be serviceable and useful to the heirs of Salvation Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation The Devil knows he is no loser and the curious soul but a very little gainer if he can but perswade him to spend most of his precious time in studying and poring upon the most dark mysterious and hidden