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
A75616	Armilla catechetica. A chain of principles; or, An orderly concatenation of theological aphorismes and exercitations; wherein, the chief heads of Christian religion are asserted and improved: by John Arrowsmith, D.D. late master both of St Johns and Trinity-Colledge successively, and Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published since his death according to his own manuscript allowed by himself in his life time under his own hand.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3772; Thomason E1007_1; ESTC R207935	193,137	525

4. Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat That is Some bitter thing from midst of sweetness breeds And that which vexeth from the flowers proceeds § 4. This God doth for divers good ends and purposes As first to manifest his wisdome in compounding passages of Providence so as one shall qualifie another prosperity allay the sowreness of adversitie this asswage the swellings of that As the painters skill appears in tempering bright colours and dark shadows the cooks in mingling sweet tart ingredients the musicians in raising harmony out of discords Oratours in making up curious Librat in Antithetis sentences by a fit opposition of contrarieties II. To magnifie his goodness The frame of our spirits is such that if prosperitie were continued without interruption we should be apt to swell and presume if adversitie without intermission to sinck and despair Our weakness such that we should never give a due estimate to blessings were we not sometimes taught by experience what it is to be under pressures We learn by sickness to prize health by restraint to value libertie A calm is much more pleasing to us after a tempest and the shining forth of the Sun after an elipse It is therefore an act of much mercy in God thus to intermingle favours crosses lest by a constant course of the former we should grow wanton and effeminate or by continuance of the latter sottish and stupid III. To keep up and maintain his respect in the world God will be known to be the Sovereign Lord of all persons and things the great disposer of all affairs in such a way as seemeth best to himfelf therefore gives out blessings and crosses interchangeably so as man shall be at no certainty what to expect but live in a constant dependance on him who keeps the disposal of prosperity and adversity in his own hands to the end that man should finde nothing certain but this that there is a great uncertainty of future events Wherefore § 5. First take notice from hence what we are to look for in our pilgrimage here viz. vicissitudes and changes from one condition into another If Solomon had no where said There is a time to weep and a time to laugh experience Eccles 3. 4. would soon have forced us to acknowledge that our whole course is chequered with prosperity and adversitie that most of a Christians drink in this life is Oxymel most of his food Bitter-sweets Whilest Israel marched throughout the wilderness the blackest night had a pillar of fire and brightest day a pillar of cloud so in this world things never go so well with the Israel of God but that they groan under some affliction never so ill but that they have some comfort afforded them Secondly Learn to maintain in our selves a mixture of affections suitable to this mixture of Divine dispensations Rejoyce with trembling Leaven and Honey were both excluded under the Psal 2. 11. Levit. 2. 11. Law from offering by fire Leaven for its excessive soureness Honey for its excessive sweetness To shew saith Ainsworth that in Saints there should neither be extremity of grief nor of pleasure but a mediocrity We should be carefull in time of prosperity to fear affliction with a fear of expectation though not of amazement with such a fear as may cause preparation but no discouragement Look at a very fair day as that which may prove a weather-breeder and usher in storms On the other side in time of adversity hope for refreshment The Psalmist did so Psal 42. 7. 8. Nemo considat nimiùm secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Sen. Trag. All thy waves are gone over me yet the Lord will command his loving-kindeness Thirdly Observe the difference that is between this present and that other world Dying Aristotle is reported to have said I rejoyce that I am now going out of a world of contraries This indeed is so But that which dying men go into is without such mixture All tears shall be wiped from the Saints eyes impenitent sinners shall have judgement without mercy Briefly in this militant Church as in the Ark of old There is a rod and a pot of manna Here upon earth we have little Manna without some rods little welfare without some sharp affliction few Rods without some Manna not many afflictions without some measure of consolation whereas in Heaven there is nothing but Manna in Hell nothing but Rods or Scorpions rather § 6. IV. Keep we our selves in a frame of cheerfulness that we may be alwaies prepared in the day of prosperity to rejoyce This will appear a duty which we are bound to I. Because God doth not onely approve and like it He loveth a cheerfull giver so a cheerfull thanks-giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. and worshipper Nehemiah was afraid Nehem. 2. 2. to be seen sad in the kings presence Mordechai durst not go into the court gates with his sack-cloth on dejected Esther 4. 2. looks and the sack-cloth of an uncheerfull carriage do ill become the servant of the king the followers of the court of heaven But also require and command it Serve the Lord with gladness Psal 10● 2. The Jews of old were commanded to rejoyce in their solemn feasts Deut. 16. 14. 15. which were accordingly to be kept in the most cheerfull seasons The Pass-over at the first ripening of corn Pentecost at the first reaping and the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of Harvest II. Because Jesus Christ was anoynted to give us the oyl of joy for mourning Isa 61. 3. and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness He himself indeed was anoynted with the oyl of gladness above his fellows but such as are received into fellowship with him should and shall if the fault be not in themselves partake with him in some degree of the same unction III. Because the Spirit of Christ is a spirit of cheerfulness His two first fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22. are Love and Joy Yea when it is said Grieve not Ephes 4. 30. Sanctam hilaritatem admitte Nè quis nimio moerore magnum illum hospitem ossendat Heins in locum the holy spirit of God Heinsius thinketh this to be part of the meaning Be cheerfull after an holy manner Let none offend that great guest the spirit of God by overmuch sadness And Drusius telleth us in the Preface to his Praeterita of an usual saying among the Hebrews Spiritum sanctum non residere super hominem moestum that the holy Ghost is not wont to reside upon a sad-spirited man IV. Because our adversary the Devil being a melancholy spirit himself delighteth in our sadness The prince of darkness loves to see the servants of God in a dark condition He is gratified and gets advantage by our uncheerfulness Therefore Paul writeth to his Corinthians concerning the incestuous person that upon his repentance they would comfort him and prevent

Christ his Divinity shining as fire his Humanity darkening as a cloud yet but one person As that pillar departed not from them by day or by night all the while they travelled in the wilderness So whilest the Churches pilgrimage lasts in this world the safe conduct of Christ by his Spirit and Ordinances shall be continued But as at their entrance into Canaan a type of heaven the pillar is thought to have been removed because not mentioned in the sequele of the story and because when Israel passed over Jordan we reade not of the pillar but the Ark going before them So when the Church shall arrive at heaven her resting place the mediatory conduct of Christ is to cease and the Ordinances which are here of use to disappear § 2. Mean while this infallible counsel of God hath been most effectually administred by the Prophets and Apostles especially by Christ himself whose words were such as led directly to everlasting bliss Insomuch as when Jesus said to the twelve will John 6. 67 68. ye also go away Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life As if he had said Go whither we will to other teachers we shall be sure not to meet with words of eternal life any where else Such are proper to Christs school taught onely by himself and his under-officers whereof one hath left this profession upon record That which we have 1 John 1. 3. seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ So the Disciple whom Jesus loved in his first epistle Another this I take you to record this day Act. 20. 26 27. that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God So Paul in his valedictory speech to the Elders of Ephesus Which he could not have said had not the doctrine he preached among them been sufficient to have led all his hearers to the fruition of God in Christ and therein to complete happiness That by the counsel of God he intended to decipher Christian Religion is manifest because that was the sum of all his ministery as we finde him declaring elsewhere Having obtained help of Act. 2● 22 27. God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead c. § 3. Counsel it is and therefore styled sometimes mystery and that a great one Without controversie great is 1 Tim. 3. 16. the mystery of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion as others render it meaning the Christian an epitome whereof followeth God manifest in the flesh and 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. sometimes wisdome and that not among punies and novices who see not into the depth of things but among them that are perfect Sometimes The wisdome of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Ma●t Expos fidei God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which made an ancient writer affirm that the mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our understanding above the discourse of humane reason above all that any creature can comprehend Yea it will be found the Counsel of God himself and not of man if we do but consider a few of its materials viz. principles above the reach of mans wit A resurrection of the dead a mysticall union of all beleevers among themselves and to their head A Trinity of persons in one Essence two Natures in one person God reconciled to men by the bloud men to God by the spirit of Christ with others of the like elevation Doctrines contrary to the bent of mans will As that of original sin which represents him to himself as a childe of wrath worthy before he see the light of being cast into outer darkness And that of self-deniall which taketh him off from confidence in his own abilities whereas proud Nature challengeth a self-sufficiency and will hardly be content with less Lastly Promises and threatnings beyond the line of humane motives and dissuasives exhibiting to the sons of men not temporal rewards and punishments onely but the gift of eternal life and the vengeance of eternal fire Things which not any of the most knowing Law-givers and Princes of this world did or could hold forth till the onely wise God was pleased to reveal and urge them in the sacred authentick records of Christianity § 4. Now Christian Religion promotes our guidance to the fruition we treat of these two ways viz. by discovering God in Christ and by uniting to him the former it performeth as Christian the latter as Religion First as Christian it discovers God in Christ which other Religions do not No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the John 1. 18. Father he hath declared him So the Evangelist or as others think the Baptist All things are of God who hath reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ c. So the Apostle The poor Pagan knoweth neither God nor Christ but ignorantly turneth the truth of God into a lie worshipping creatures and in stead of Christ is directed by his Theology to the service of a middle sort of divine powers called Daemons and See M. Mede his Apostasie of the latter times pag. 9 10 sequent looked at as Mediatours between the celestial Sovereign Gods whom the Gentiles worship and mortal men The modern Jew acknowledgeth the true God of his fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob but owneth not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ yea disowneth him so far as not onely to expect another Messias but if writers deceive us not to blaspheme and curse him and his followers The deluded Mahometan confesseth one God the Creatour of heaven and earth yea conceiveth so well of the Lord Jesus as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ yet will neither acknowledge his satisfaction upon which our salvation is founded nor his Divinity by vertue whereof that satisfaction is meritorious Whereas the true and pious Christian is by his Religion taught to say with Paul in direct opposition to all the three forementioned sects We 1 Cor. 8. v. 4 5 6. know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one For though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father of whom

common souldier The vast Ocean overfloweth both the lowest sands and the highest rocks that of Gods pardoning grace removeth both the smaller prevarications and the grosser abominations of all such as are truly penitent beleevers VI. Blotting them out as in Davids petition Have mercy upon me O God according Psal 5. 1. to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Wherein he alludeth to the custome of Creditours who use to set down what every one oweth and when debts are either forgiven or paid to blot them out Our sins are called debts in the Lords Prayer Christ as our surety hath given satisfaction to divine Justice for them When this is once apprehended and applied by a lively faith God issueth out a pardon drawing as it were the lines of Christs Cross over the lines of his debt-book so as he may still see the sum we were indebted in but sees it cancelled never to be exacted more § 5. Be we then advertised from hence in the first place to acknowledge the singular goodness of God to us in this particular of forgiving our iniquity transgression and sin David in the place last cited speaketh of it as a special evidence of loving kindness and tender mercies The Apostles Creed having premised the articles concerning Christ by whom all blessings were procured for the Catholick Church when it comes to recite them nameth forgiveness of sins in the first place as the choisest priviledge on this side heaven And in that compendious prayer which our Saviour taught us there is a remarkable connexion of two petitions by a conjunctive particle not to be found in any of the former Give us this day our dayly bread And forgive us our trespasses To shew that as our dayly sins make us unworthy of dayly bread so there is no sweetness in them till the other be pardoned Bread and all other outward mercies a man may receive from an angry God pardon of sin never cometh but from favour and special love yea riches of grace as Paul expresseth it speaking of Christ In whom we have redemption Ephes 1. 7. through his bloud the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace § 6. In the second to beleeve and repent that we may be found in the number of those to whom this choice blessing is imparted Scripture telleth us men must be turned from darkness to Acts 26. 18. light from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Also that God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Acts 5. 31. Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Observe the method Repentance first and then forgiveness God doth not bestow his distinguishing favours upon all men promiscuously Pardoning mercy doth indeed come from him with ease he is called a God ready to pardon but Nehem. 9. 17. droppeth not from him at unawares that I may allude to what Seneca said Sinum habet facilem sed non perforatum de benefic of his liberal man He will know whom he bestoweth his forgiveness upon Unbeleeving unrepenting sinners never obtained it faithfull penitents never yet went without it They may perhaps not be so sensible of it in times of temptation and of desertion but to make use of a known distinction whereas there is a double forgiveness one in the high Court of heaven of which the Lord speaketh in his answer to Solomons prayer Then will 1 Chron. 7. 14. I hear from heaven and forgive their sins all authentical pardons are coined there the stamping of them is a part of prerogative royal and it is no less then high treason in the Pope to have his mint of Indulgences going at Rome Another in the Court of conscience spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews The worshippers once purged should have had no Hebr. 10. 2. more conscience of sins it may safely be asserted that forgiveness is certainly passed in the Court of heaven whensoever Christ is received by faith according to that Be it known unto you that through this man meaning Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Yet may there for some space of time after this not determinable by any man be wanting a seal upon earth to this pardon and the beleever continue not so fully acquitted in the court of his own conscience as to be assured of forgiveness till the Lord hath taught him by experience to see and acknowledge that assurance of pardon is a free gift of his as well as faith or pardon it self § 7. In the third place To be followers Ephes 5. 1. and 4. 32. of God as dear children tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us We should First Forgive one another The equity and necessity whereof are both exceedingly pressed by our Saviour to the end we might not look at it either as unreasonable or as arbitrary The former by his parable in the eighteenth of Matthew The wrongs we suffer compared to the sins we commit are Matth. 18. from verse 23. to the end but as an hundred pence to ten thousand talents great odds both in number and weight for number ten thousand to one hundred and for weight the one sort are talents the other pence What more equal then that we who have so many talents forgiven us should be ready to forgive so few pence The latter in an express declaration annexed to the Lords prayer If ye forgive men their trespasses your Matth. 6. 14 15. heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Whence it followeth that persons addicted to revenge so oft as they repeat that petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us do in effect make a dreadfull imprecation against themselves and fetch down a curse from heaven in stead of a blessing For he that saith with his tongue Lord I pray thee forgive me as I forgive others but meanwhile saith in his heart I cannot I will not forgive such an one doth he not by consequence say to God Forgive not me doth he not pronounce himself unworthy of pardon and in effect subscribe to the sentence of his own condemnation Yet alas how common a sin is revenge As the heart in the natural body is the first member that liveth and the last that dies so revenge in the heart is a lust that soonest appeareth in children and is often longest ere it be healed in the regenerate Molanus telleth us that the Christians Augusti●i seculo ad vocem Nobis quilibet Christianus pectus suum tundebat Jo.

understanding God is greater then our heart and knoweth 1 Joh. 3. 20. all things Everlasting duration Behold Job 36. 26. God is great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Omnipresent immensity Great is our 2 Chr. 2. 5 6. God above all gods Who is able to build him an house seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him Secondly each particular dimension is elsewhere applied to these very attributes though some with more clearness then others Height to Gods Sovereignty He that is higher then the Eccles. 6. 8. highest regardeth and there be higher then they Depth to his Omniscience O the Rom. 11. 33. depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! Length to his Eternity He asked life and thou gavest it to him even length of days for ever and ever Psal 21. 4. Which Calvin and the Chaldee paraphrase apply to Christ understanding thereby the eternal duration of his kingdome Lastly breadth to his Omnipresence but covertly in that of Isaiah The glorious Lord will be unto us a Isa 33. 21. place of broad rivers and streams to signifie that protection and safety which his presence with his Church in every place affords to all the members thereof like a broad river encompassing a fenced town on every side Thirdly Me thinks there is somewhat exprest in Zophars speech which as to the two former particulars tends to this interpretation For having said It is as high as heaven he presently adds What canst thou do meaning perhaps what are thy weak abilities to his omnipotence He in regard of his Sovereign power can do all things but thou alas what canst thou do And after affirming It is deeper then hell he subjoyneth what canst thou know as if he had said what are thy shallow apprehensions to the depth of his thoughts He in regard of his omniscient understanding knoweth all things but thou poor man What canst thou know § 2. If it be asked why I expound all these clauses of God seeing the particles It and Thereof It is high as heaven The measure thereof seem to relate unto somewhat else My answer is that Expositours differ much about this very thing and according to their several apprehensions translate the words after a different manner The vulgar Latine and our old English translations carry all to Almighty God who was mentioned in the verse before Canst thou finde out the Almighty reading it thus He is higher then heaven what art thou able to do His length exceeds the length of the earth c. Others considering that divers words in the original text being feminine will not agree in construction with Eloah and Saddai whereby God is there exprest have therefore looked back to the sixt verse for an antecedent where they meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdome and expound all of it inserting the word Sapientia into their Latine translations as Oecolampadius and Junius do But for my part there is I conceive a word nearer hand which will serve the turn better and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfection Canst thou finde out the Almighty unto perfection It that is the Perfection of God is as high as heaven c. And herein I joyn with Castellio whose translation is fully squared to this sense for so he readeth the place Tune Dei intima pervestiges aut ipsam adeò perfectionem Omnipotentis invenias Quae cùm coelum altitudine adaequet quid ages c. Now I interpret the words as before because however they be read whether God or wisdome or Perfection be taken for the antecedent it cometh to one and the same issue for the Wisdome of God is himself and his Perfection comprehends not Wisdome onely but all his other excellencies whatsoever insomuch as Lessius intitleth his book concerning the Attributes De perfectionibus divinis The way thus cleared I now proceed without further interruption to single out the particular dimensions and discourse of them in their order § 3. Seeing all divine perfections far transcend humane capacities the safest way as I humbly conceive for us to make a due estimate concerning the height of Gods sovereignty is to compare it with that of earthly potentates which is within the compass and reach of our understandings Verily it is not without cause that S. Paul styles him the 1 Tim. 6. 15. blessed and onely potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords that Moses Melchisedech and Abram entitle him the most high God Gen. 14. v. 18 19 20 22. four times in one chapter For upon search it will appear that his Sovereignty excels that of the high and mighty ones upon earth in point of Extensiveness of Unaccountableness and of Almightiness I. In point of extensiveness His kingdome Psalm 103. 19. ruleth over all The whole earth and sea which make but one globe is to the Universe but as a little central point the mightiest potentate hath no more but his share in that little Whereupon Seneca bringeth in his wise vertuous man with this censure and sarcasme in his mouth Is this that Point Hoc est illud punctum quod inter tot gentes ferro i●ni dividitur O quàm cidiculi sunt mortalium termini Punctum est istud in quo navigatis in quo bellatis in quo Regna disponitis minima c. Senec. Natural quaest lib. 1. in Praefatione which so many Nations of the world do so strive to divide among themselves by fire and sword O how ridiculous are the bounds of mortal men All that in which they sail to and fro manage their wars and set up their petty kingdomes is but a Point Whereas the Sovereignty of God extendeth it self to the whole earth and sea yea to heaven and the heaven of heavens giving laws not onely to the visible host of sun moon and stars but also to the invisible host of Angels who are said to Psalm 103. 20. excell in strength and to do his commandments hearkning unto the voice of his word Yea there is not a Devil in hell that can go beyond the length of his chain for even those legions of darkness are though much against their wils subjected to the empire of the father of lights Yea whereas the dominion of worldly Potentates reacheth but to the outward man and their laws cannot directly oblige the conscience so as to bring upon it a guilt binding over the soul to death his do And in this respect St James telleth us that there is one James 4. 12. law-giver one and but one who is able to save and to destroy The style which Paul giveth earthly governours is masters Ephes 6. 5. according to the flesh but Moses calleth Numb 17. 16. God the God of the spirits of all flesh to imply that however there be many who lord it sufficiently over the flesh and outward man there