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	triumphant_a	4,427	5	11.4398	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62089	Being for ever with the Lord, the great hope, end and comfort of believers what it is, and how to be obtained and forethought of / preached by Matthew Sylvester ; and published at the publick request of Mr. Ri. Baxter, at the hearing of it.	Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.	1688 (1688)	Wing S6329; ESTC R34636	31,001	96

of Christ Mat. 11.29 Heaven could not bear the Pride of Angels no more can Christ endure the Pride of Man. Please not your selves or others till you have answer'd all your Master's Claims Rom. 15.1 2 3. Gal. 1.10 Be knit to nothing but to your Lord in Heaven for why should he be made an Underling or Cipher here below Christ ours in Heaven a better Patrimony and Inheritance than States and Kingdoms here Be more sollicitous about the temper tendency and genuine Issues of your Hearts and Ways than about the Events of Providence 2 Cor. 5.9 10. Your best Concernments are with Christ if they succeed you cannot lose Treasures above and your exalted Head in Bonds in Power and in Possession to secure them speak you too safe and rich to be undone Be silent Prostrates at the foot of Christ if his presence be your Happiness he must needs be much above you every way therefore observe the Words the Looks the Steps of Christ and let them rule you And let his Dispensations here below be all admir'd by you and rested in Christ is in Heaven about your Work and that he be pleased by you doth most concern you and best become you And when you come to be with him for ever how deeply and quickly will he make you sensible of that great Wisdom wonderful Grace and mighty Power which brought you safely to himself in Glory 11. And O what a Figure will Christ then make in Heaven when that State is compleatly filled and when he hath gathered all his Family up to Glory 2 Pet. 1.11 If in those preparatory Scenes of Providence wherein the Redeemer addrest himself to Action and began his glorious Atchievements and was priviledged to open the Sealed Book there were such Acclamations and solemn Congratulations of this his peculiar Priviledg Prerogative by all in Heaven Earth and if there were such prostrate Venerations of him as we find in Rev. 4 8-11 5 9-14 and this conjunctly with his Father How will his Name and Glory be aggrandized when all his Favorites shall be with him All the Mysteries of Godliness relate to Christ and have their undoubted Aggravations from him 1 Tim. 3.16 and how wondrously glorious hath God represented him to us below Col. 1 15-19 2.2 3 9 10. Heb. 1 2-13 Rev. 1.5 6. John 14.6 And if these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these earthly things these shadowings forth of Christ and of his Kingdom to us even by Schemes accommodated to our Capacities in this our dark and distant State be looked upon as scarcely to be credited by Masters in Israel and yet so wonderful in the Eyes of the discerning Christian What would the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be then thought to be were they discovered to us in words more suited to their Excellency than to our Capacity John 3.12 with 1 Cor. 1.23 24. 2 9-14 2.12 2-4 We find great notices taken of him by the Heavenly State whilst in this outward Court ministring in the Port and posture of a Servant For as the Spirit of Prophecy foretold him Types represented him and the Word of Promise entitled us to the hopes and benefits of his Appearance and propitious Mediation So the Spirit forms his Body Angels declare his Birth Miracles attest his Dignity Doctrines and Authority and Ability to form us for and bring us to Himself Nature obeys him Devils fly before him Moses and Elias talk with him Souls come in by Multitudes and value nothing like his Person Conduct Government and Grace God owns him as his Son as his Royal Oracle and Agent by a Voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1 16-21 1 Joh. 5 6-12 and all the Institutions and Transactions of the Kingdom of God amongst Men must have the Name of Christ enstamp'd upon them And when Christ had finished his Course and Work below God raises him from the Dead and shews him openly commands the Angels to worship him and to report his Resurrection makes this the great Base and Pillar of his Gospel-Kingdom carries him up to Heaven many hundreds of credible Witnesses beholding his Ascension and sets him at his own right Hand putting the Reigns of all Government into his Hands And then the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the Son's Name to glorify him as Christ had said before John 16 13-15 to seal this Truth to enable Persons to declare and prove it and to make the Gospel prosperous in its great Design But as to Christ himself he in the heavenly Places and Affairs for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports both sits far above all Principality Power Might Dominion and every Name that is named in even the World to come having all things under his Feet because he is given as Head over all things to his Church which is his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Ephes 1 20-23 Hence the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named of him Eph. 3.15 The Church in the compleatness of its Triumphant State is called his Everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 And when he shall have put down all Rule Authority and Power he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father as a fit Present to the Majesty of Heaven as a clear Proof and Monument of his own Mediatorial Faithfulness and as fit Subjects of his own Paternal Government and Delight or as his acquired Inheritance to possess for ever 1 Cor. 15 24-28 For who can any way imagine that the delivery of these Subjects to the Father shall be the deposing of the Son from his triumphant Government that well considers Christ as placed by God upon the same Throne with himself Rev. 3.21 Is not Christ said to reign for ever and ever Rev. 11.15 O what a Pleonasm or fulness of expression is there in that passage Ephes 3.21 It is a Doxology richly phrased and that as in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereto I never yet read or heard of any Parallel in any Greek Author See also 2 Pet. 3.18 so vast is the reach of the inspiring Spirit so deep the Thoughts so full the Heart of the inspired Pen-man because so great the Dignity and Prerogatives of our enthroned and glorified Redeemer in this his Day and Kingdom What Eye so sharp and strong on Earth as to comprehend or tolerably to reach the sense of that great Passage in 1 Tim. 6.14.16 〈◊〉 Timothy is charged to keep the ●●●mandment till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ mind now what follows which in his Times he shall shew who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality dwelling in Light which no Man can approach unto whom no Man hath seen nor can see to whom is as well as be Honour and Power everlasting Amen And here O that my heart was equal to wha● poor purblind I discern in this great Passage as shewing what notice must and will be taken of Jesus Christ hereafter For tho

severe and awful Reprimand Who is this that darkens Counsel by Words without Knowledg Job 38.2 But this may shew how little our Words or Thoughts can reach God's own essential Perfection Yet is this Godhead united to the Man Christ Jesus But how I solemnly profess I know not though I believe it to be true and think it easily demonstrable from Sacred Writ And I think it as copiously asserted and plainly proved as almost any Article of the Christian Faith and I take the Gospel to have very little Mystery comparatively if so far diluted as to lose this central Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 And hence it plainly follows that to be with the Lord is a great aggravation of the Glory and Delightfulness of the Heavenly State it being not improbable to me that Christ himself will be the Mediator of Fruition as he hath been of Acquisition And therefore to proceed we cannot think that to be with Christ infers a Peerage with him or Partnership in his Divine Excellencies and Prerogatives Rev. 3.21 We are to worship him and not to be worshipped with him Rev. 5.13 Phil. 2.10 11. John 5.12 13. What is Worship but Obsequium alicui praestitum propter excellentiam A reverent acknowledgment of Excellence and fit Respects and Homage paid thereto And if then Christ the Mediator be God-Man hath he not therein the preeminence above all other Creatures in the Universe and the Respects which must be paid thereto what Worship will you call it Names are to be suited unto things they cannot otherwise duly represent them Christ then as Mediator is more excellent than any meer Creature therefore as a middle Person to be more regarded And what then will you call this over-plus of Respects if I may call it so I know we may distinguish where we cannot divide and whether Divine Worship may fitly be distinguished upon or not I leave to the more accurate to determine But I conceive that God expects that the Humane Nature as individuated in that exalted Person Jesus Christ shall have such Honour paid thereto as none besides in Heaven or Earth shall be allowed to have In a word Christ as Mediator is not so great as God therefore the Worship must not rise so high Yet as Mediator he is above all Creatures and more than they to be respected Consider well Heb. 1 3-6 As Man there is Humane Excellence in its Height as God there is increated Excellence As Mediator there is a sitting at God's right Hand and he that sits there must and will be accordingly acknowledged and had in reverence by all in Heaven And now let us see a little what that State imports that we may form right Notions of it And here we will 1. Premise the Excellence of the Place as suited to all the Grandieurs of the State Ephes 4.10 the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 the Building made by God 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 11.10 16. 13.14 Joh. 14.2 But where and how 't is situated divided and accommodated no Pisgah high enough on Earth for us to see it from Rev. 21 9-23 22 1-5 And 2. the Perfections of the Subjects to make them receptive of that State. Defecated Souls and Spiritual Bodies Heb. 12.14 Mat. 5.3 1 John 3.3 with 1 Cor. 15 50-54 2 Cor. 4.14 1 Thess 14 14-17 For none must go with Christ to Glory nor live with him for ever whose Hearts and Lives are not for him whilst here and whose Spirits are not transform'd and so adapted or suited to the Privileges and Ministrations of the Heavenly Kingdom Rev. 21.27 And therefore 't is supposed and concluded that the Constitution of the Soul be sound and sweet and fit for its immediate entrance into Heaven and its abode with Christ for ever Rom. 8 9-11 The Spirit of Christ imprinciples Providence exercises all these heavenly Principles our Covenant-state obliges us to the most lively exercise thereof Habits are fix'd and strengthned by Acts and the Soul's first immediate look at Christ compleats its Transformation and then is it admitted into the presence of its Lord. So that in strictness of Thoughts and Speech the Temper of the Person must be distinguish'd from his State as that which qualifies him for his admission thereinto And then as to the Body it must not be Flesh and Blood for that will be too weak and gross for Christ his so glorious and majestick Presence and for the Visions and Employments of the State above Saul could not bear the Glory of Christ's personal Appearance to him without astonishment and blindness Acts 9 3-12 And in his Extasy he knew not where and what he was embodied or not 2 Cor. 12.2 3. And the appearance of an Angel made others as dead Men Mat. 28 2-4 And the Royal and Great Prophet when he saw his Glory cried out Wo is me I am undone Isa 6.5 with John 12.41 How strangely did Christ's Transfiguration confound Peter James and John Mark 9 2-6 So that the Body must it self be changed in order to its meeting and being with the Lord 1 Cor. 15.52 53. These things are then to be distinguished from the State it self as needful Preparations for it Now therefore to the State it self and here I shall avoid all fond Imaginations and Conjectures and speak hereof as God shall enable me and doth instruct me This State must then include these things and how much more I know not 1. The Visions of the Glory of our Lord or beholding Christ in all his Glory And so our being where he is Joh. 17.24 and that not to astonishment and consternation but to delightful admiration John 16.22 Jude 24. And here both Mind and Body have their looks at Christ to feast them both for ever The symmetry and delicate Proportions of his Humane Body the Beauty of his Face the Majesty of his Countenance the Pleasingness of his Speech the placid Aspects of his smiling Looks at us the Glory of his Throne the orderly Disposals Attendances and Ministrations of all his Favorites and Attendants with all the awful and yet delightful decencies of his Gestures and Deportments towards all with him and the Expressions of Divinity in all this O what an ocular Entertainment will this amount unto What shall our Souls say then to all his evident Prerogatives his wise Conduct his excellent Government his bounteous Dispensations his intimate Converses with us and the delight he evidently takes in the Harmony and welfare of that State And who knows what besides But this I now remember was touch'd upon before 2. The glorious Benefits and Pleasures that will result herefrom There is Glory given as well as Glory seen John 17.22 called an Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 the Crown of Life Jam. 1.12 A Kingdom prepared to be inherited Mat. 25.34 The Joy of our Lord ver 21. Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 We shall be honourable triumphing Members of the glorified Church

in Heaven and there and such for ever signalized with the Name of God and of that perfected Corporation and of our glorified Redeemer Whether the Deity will or can be the Object of our immediate Vision I much doubt and am prompted so to do from 1 Tim. 1.17 6.16 I only say I doubt it much but I cannot judg my self infallible but when with Christ in Glory our Knowledg of God will be more clear than now and have more deep Impressions and livelier Influences upon the whole Man than now it hath We shall be like to Angels being the Children of God and of the Resurrection Luk. 20.36 for then the Privileges and Prerogatives of our adopted raised State will be in our actual and full Possession We shall be ever under the smiles of infinite Love and under the most invigorating Influences of the God of Life whose constant overshadowings of us shall draw forth all the vital Energies of our Faculties and perhaps of some Faculties which yet are latent in us as being fitter for the Felicities and Employments of the End than of the Way which yet I rather offer than assert and when exalted Faculties and Powers are placed amongst such glorious Objects in such vast multitudes and with such great variety when we converse and dwell with Angels so numerous excellent and endearing when we have such glorious Entertainments and Employments with and for the Lord Redeemer when we shall from himself receive immediately what he here promised and hath there prepared for us the Fruits and Harvest of all our Sufferings Labours Prayers and Hopes when all our Dangers Snares Fears Griefs and Maladies are gone when all Christ's Enemies and ours are underfoot when the Divine Life in its meridian Strength and Luster shews it self when all the Subjects of that State appear in their most accurate conformities unto their great Exemplar each one as Christ resembling the Children of a King as those in a far lower sense Judg. 8.18 Princes to look to as those Ezek. 23.15 Not after the manner of the Babylonians but after the manner of the Sons of God O what a State will this State be To close this Head He that hath a genuine Idea and right Notion of this State must represent it to himself as that wherein Nature is perfected as to Things and Persons and fix'd in that Perfection and Divine Government is compleated in all its Constitutions and Administrations and all the Priviledges thereof dispensed its Services perform'd exactly by all the Subjects thereof and the great Ends and Purposes thereof attained and answered to universal satisfaction and all this in the presence of the Lord upon his Throne encompassed with his Redeemed Ones who see his Glory bear his Image acknowledg his rich Grace and Love towards them and serve and glorify his Name for ever to his full satisfaction God taking great delight in them and they in him and owning his Son before them all as one that pleased his heart in bringing all these Sons to Glory whilst all these Morning Stars together sing their Hallelujahs with great harmony and chearfulness and shout for joy that God is all in all by Jesus Christ with them and that they can with so much order chearfulness and vigour serve and please him most entirely and delightfully with his own in that August Assembly for the presence of the Lord Redeemer there resembled loved and served by all the Inheritors Citizens and Subjects of that State with so much Wisdom Holiness and Vigour speaks Heaven indeed But let me not run too far 2. Comfort your selves and one another with these words 1 Thess 4.18 Think seriously upon 1 Pet. 1 3-9 Put on the Brest-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation For God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Wherefore comfort your selves together and edify one another even as also ye do 1 Thess 5. 8-11 The word here rendred Comfort is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is indeed to play the Advocate as the Matter shall require To plead the Cause the Ground and Usefulness of this our glorious Expectation against discouraging and afflictive Providences as they are otherwise apt to dispirit or disturb us When we are prone to swoon or tire through the difficult Duties heavy Burthens smart Temptations strong Corruptions and intricating postures of Affairs below when we have little else in humane view but great Work and little Stength huge Perplexities and strange Intricacies in every Article of Concern manifold Enemies and Hindrances assaulting us continually and pressing most severely on us and very little help or hope in view O let us then our selves and quicken one another to repair unto this Hope as our best Refuge and our most sure and stedfast Anchor within the Vail whither our Prodromus or Forerunner is for us entred Heb. 6.18 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4. 16-18 using it as our richest Cordial and urging it rationally and closely upon the Heart until we are brought to our delightful and absolute repose therein 1. Comfort your selves with those words and so begin at Home Rom. 5. 2. Phil. 3.3 For unless such grateful words come from the Speaker's Heart unto the Hearers from Principle to Principle they are not likely to have such invigorating Influences upon Souls nor to have such kindly Operations and Effects in Christian Conversation as the Case requires Vain talk about so great an Article of Hope is dreadful and it is no better as to him that speaks about it until his own Heart duly be affected with it Great Notions and high flights of Speech are but as swelling Words of Vanity to him whose Tongue is not attended and actuated with a transformed and thereupon concerned Soul. Nor can indeed the Speaker's End be right whilst his Heart is naught 2 Pet. 2.18 What God may do for the sake of Truth and with regard to his own Interest and Institution is one thing and what such an heartless Talker may expect is another thing And he that makes no reckoning of this blessed State and Hope himself will not be very much concerned how such things take with others unless as it may serve those lower Interests or popular Applauses which are so much eyed and idolized by himself But it is prophaness to the height to prostitute such a Sacred Ordinance as Christian Communion and such a glorious State and Hope as being ever with the Lord unto so mean and vile an End as ultimate selfishness O then make thorow work within and be what all must be that are to be for ever with the Lord. Your Directory in this Case you have in Tit. 2 11-14 2 Pet. 1 5-11 3 11-14 and when that is done then make this State your stated and occasional Consolation and Refreshment that so you may comfort one another with the Comforts