Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	cloud_n	earth_n	rain_n	2,189	5	9.5355	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52808	The crown and glory of a Christian consisting in a sound conversion and well ordered conversation.	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1676 (1676)	Wing N450; ESTC R26867	31,261	167

distill and drop down into Gods bottle as their Receiver Psal 56. 8. 3. The great book of nature with its three leaves of Heaven Earth and Sea as well as the blessed Book of Scripture may hereby afford you a rich spirit and quintessence The first leaf of that book to wit Heaven may afford you many divine lectures as first the purity of Heaven may teach you the purity of its Maker who made it of such pure matter as you behold and the purity also that ought to be in your heart that this pure God may dwell in it as in his palace temple and lower heaven yea and the purity of your life likewise as becometh one that expects to live for ever in that pure heaven into which no impure thing can ever enter 4. When you behold 2ly the glory and splendor of Heaven both by night and by day 1. By night how it is bespangled with glittering and glorious Stars then think with your self that this splendid firmament which I behold is but the outside of the palace of God and the under-seiling only thereof and if that have so much lustre and beauty how much more hath the inside where the divine transcendent Majesty of the Trinity with innumerable both of glorious Angels and of glorified Saints shineth forth 5. And 2ly by day when you behold how one Sun makes a most glorious Morning when it ariseth and when you arise out of your bed then meditate Oh what shall the morning of the Resurrection be 't will be ten thousand times more glorious when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise and with him Myriads of Saints and Angels which shall be all seven times brighter than the Sun of the firmament If it be a pleasant thing as Solomon telleth you to behold the Sun then think how 't is more pleasant yea and profitable too for you to behold the Sun of Righteousness that in his light you may see light Psal 36. 9. 6. When you view the changeableness of the face of Heaven and its outward appearance unto you this may teach you in the third place that as the Heaven is somtimes bright and sometimes clouded not all night nor all day the Sun sometimes over-cast with a black cloud and sometimes breaking out in its splendor and glory and as the Moon hath her changes her borrowed light ruling the night as the Sun the day so you may not expect any fixed constancy in any condition upon earth while there is such changeableness in the face of heaven 7. When you consider 4ly the firmness of the body of heaven how it hath continued firm and unworn notwithstanding its motion which wears all other things is with incredible swiftness from the Creation of the World then did the Lord spread out that heaven like a curtain and it hath continued spread for almost six thousand years yet not one hole can be discerned in that curtain to this day Oh how may this teach you the unchangeableness of God who was the Creator and is the upholder of Heaven and what a safe place heaven is to lay up your treasure in so far out of the reach of all rust and robbery The second leaf in the book of Nature is 1. the Earth which the Heaven oft hears and waters with showers of blessing sometimes God stops up those of heaven and sometimes he opens them Speak to the earth and it shall teach you Job 12.8 How the clouds are Gods watering pot and his spunges which he squeezes with a gentle hand that the rain may softly descend and drop fatness upon the furrows of the earth Consider Oh what dependency hath man upon God! the rain hath no father but God the vanities of the Gentiles cannot give rain Jer. 14. 22. 2. Meditate how the air blows upon the earth yet is invisible and although it be so yet is it the preserver of your life which is nothing but a vapour and a little warm breath turned up and down the nostrils how may this put you in mind of the invisible God who filleth all things and in whom you live move and have your being 3. When you consider how the Earth hangeth in the midst of the air poized equally every way and yet not reeled out of its place this five thousand years and upward notwithstanding the hideous tempests that hath been upon it and the dreadful Earthquakes that hath been within it Psal 104. 5 6 God laid the foundations of the earth that it cannot be removed for ever And he hangeth the earth upon nothing Job 26. 7. Now if the whole massy body of the Earth hang so steadily and stedfastly upon the powerful precept of God O then bethink your self how firmly you ought to hang upon the precious promise of God both for your safety in this world and for your salvation in the world to come 4. Behold the fruits of the Earth and consider that a woman when about fifty years of age is past child-bearing yet this great mother the Earth though she be above five thousand years old is not past fruit-bearing still and whence comes it but from the word of the great Jehovah Seed-time and harvest shall not cease Gen. 8. 22. You see the Earth is yearly loaden with fruit Oh then consider what are the riches of the Throne of God if there be so much upon his footstool say also within your self doth your ground and your garden answer your expectation and shall not you the expectation of your God he will have his visiting time Cant. 6. 11. and will come with his basket upon his arm to gather the fruit of his Vine-yard if he find none to fill his basket he will lay down his basket and take up his axe and cut you down that you may not cumber the ground any more 5. Your beholding of the grass of the field while you are walking ro meditate there as Isaac did Gen. 24. 63. may mind you of your mortality and of your withering condition All flesh is grass Isa 40. 6 7. that grass which the sythe cuts not down in Summer while 't is young and juicy the sharp frosts of an hard Winter will wither away so though you escape the sythe of death in the summer of your youth while your bones are full of marrow and your veins of blood yet the winter of old age will wither you 6. When you behold that variety of trees it may teach you the difference among men some are wild trees trees of the wood that is out of the Church whose fruit be crabs and acorns mask for hogs not meat and medicine for men as Ezek. 47. 12. Others are trees of Righteousness planted and watered by the Lord Isa 61. 3. as the other by the Devil and thus ordinary objects as birds and beasts c. may be hallowed to an heavenly end The ox knows his owner the swallow her season 1. The third leaf in the book of Nature is the Sea the great and