Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	day_n	keep_v	sabbath_n	2,391	5	9.7137	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66577	Cultus evangelicus, or, A brief discourse concerning the spirituality and simplicity of New-Testament worship	Wilson, John, M.A.	1667 (1667)	Wing W2926D; Wing W2901; ESTC R9767	88,978	144

thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts If the thoughts and wayes of a man are so far above the thoughts and wayes of a beast which yet is his fellow creature made of the same elements with him how far must the thoughts and wayes of God needs be above the thoughts and wayes of man We must not measure the nature and will of God by ours that 's an unsafe way but by what he hath revealed of himself in his word wherein he hath made known both his nature and will to us and set down what he will have us to do And therefore since he hath therein declared he will be worshipped in spirit we must without consulting with flesh and blood worship him that way 2. The secret and close enmity that is in them to all divine and spiritual matters Though they are indued with reasonable souls and are thereby capable of conversing with God and holding intercourse with Heaven yet through the miserable depravation that hath seifed upon their natures they are utterly averse to it and all spiritual services The carnal mind saith Paul is enmity against God Carnal men have carnal minds and are for carnal things and have in them an enmity to God Christ and all spiritual services By how much any service is more spiritual by so much they are the more at enmity with it They would rather be dealing with carnal matters though never so base than things spiritual though never so pretious and excellent They would rather with the filthy Swine embrace a dunghill than with the glorious angels hehold the face of God The reasonable soul instead of exercising its authority over the sensitive powers and holding them in subjection do's captivate and inslave it self to them Instead of sublimating and raising them up to high and eminent services it indulges them in their bruitish and boundless extravagancies to the utter indisposing both of it self and them to all spirituall and holy undertakings For the cure hereof we must pray hard to God that he would subdue this enmity of our souls stir up the several faculties thereof to the discharge of their proper functions and cause us to delight in his truth and wayes 3. Their immersing and drowning their souls in the though 〈◊〉 cares of worldly matters The world hath ever since the transgression in Eden and the depravation of our natures thereby been an enemy to God and his kingdom It doth not only intice the hearts of the sons of men from him but doth utterly indispose them for the right serving of him They let out their hearts so much upon it are so far in love with it and so eager in the pursuit of it that when they come to set upon the serving of him they cannot get them off it They can no more remove them than they can remove mountains Or if they can go so far as to hale them into the presence of God yet if Heaven it self lay upon it they cannot keep them one hour there when a man hath been all the week long busie about the world how unfit is he upon the Sabbath day to do any thing for God what a multitude of matters hath he then to review and exercise his thoughts upon He hath ground which he hath purchased to view and oxen which he hath bought to try and multitudes of other matters to look after He can perhaps make shift at the close of the week to loose his hands from the world but he cannot loose his heart from it They are easily taken off it but his heart is not so That goes and takes a view of all the ear hath heard the tongue hath spoken and the hand hath done and passes a judgement upon them all weighing how far they were managed to his credit and advantage and how far not And herein he is so intent that he cannot spare his heart one hour no nor one quarter of an hour for God 〈◊〉 is so common that there is not a man that deals much in the World but his heart will Eccho to what I say and readily assent to it If therefore we would serve God with our hearts we must first disintangle them from the world keep them at a further distance from it and free them from that miserable vassalage and bondage they daily to the unspeakable debasing of them lye in to it 4. Their forgetting that Gods eye is upon them viewing and taking notice of all they do They look after the eyes of men take care to keep their miscarriages from being discerned by them and so secure their reputation with them and in the mean time they forget that there is an all seeing eye upon them that observes all the treacheries backslidings wandrings of their inconstant hearts and weighs every of their actions with all the circumstances belonging to them in a most righteous and unerring ballance And what greater folly can there be than this shall we stand in awe of men and not of God shall we prefer their esteem and acceptance with them before the esteem of God and acceptance with him Is it God that we are to serve or men Is it he that must sit in judgement upon us or they Is it he that must reward us or they If it be he that must do it then le ts henceforth have respect to his eye and see that our services be pleasing to him choose whether they please men or no. With me saith Paul it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement Alas what will it avail us to have them think well of us when he thinks ill what will it profit us to be acquitted by them and condemned by him or to be owned by them and rejected by him 5. Their security and want of care and watchfulness over themselves Though they know their souls are treacherous and deceitful and that they are apt to backslide and give them the slip in the service of God yet they will not be got to watch over them but set them at liberty letting them rove and wander up and down whither they please Though they know they have deceived them a thousand times to the losing the benefit of many a pretious ordinance and duty whereby they might have been edified and furthered in the way of God yet they still trust to them letting them take their liberty and do what ever they please Now this is a very unwise course and can lead to nothing but destruction and ruine We must remember what kind of souls we have they are not innocent but sinfull not prone to holy undertakings but greatly averse to them not faithful but treacherous and therefore if we will have them to ingage in the service of God we must watch over them and look to them When ever we set upon duties we must

sufficient in all matters of this nature but from the confessions of those very sects that are likeliest to think otherwise that God is to be worshipped with the inner man as well as with the outward and that the services of the latter without the former are vain and ineffectual and therefore it concerns us if we should worship him in an acceptable successfull way to ingage the one in it as well as the other And thus I have given you the reasons of the former branch of the Doctrine shewing you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in spirit not that I think it is so their duty to do it now as that it was not their duty to do it in the dayes of the Law or that he did not require it or expect it then or that many did not then do it but that he requires it and looks for it now in a peculiar way affording greater means to enable them to it now than he did then Paul in that famous Sermon of his to the Athenians saith Now God commandeth all men every where to repent not that he did not command them to do it before for he did it all along both by his Prophets and his Providences but that now he commanded them to do it in a more especial manner presenting to them greater incentives and laying before them stronger motives to do it And the like may be said in the present case I shall now proceed to the latter branch of the Doctrine and shew you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in truth The reasons thereof are these 1. Because God himself hath ordained and appointed them to worship him in that way And were there nothing else this fingle reason were sufficient not only to warrant their doing of it but incite them to it For as he may justly challenge worship from us so he may justly prescribe what way he will be worshipped by us His Church is his Kingdom and it belongs to him to make laws for his own Kingdom and set dówn what way his subjects therein shall express their respect to him and serve him It is not for us to set down wayes of worship our selves but to observe the way that he in his word hath set down for us And the way that he therein hath set down for us is this that we do it in truth that is without the use of Ceremonies If you inquire after the part wherewith you are mainly to serve him he tells you You must do it in spirit and if you inquire after the external mode or dress he tells you You must do it in truth not in a gawdy pompous manner but in a way of holy simplicity and plainness This is the way that he hath appointed and he would have us in all cases how difficult and strange soever they be to look upon his appointment as a sufficient ground for us to proceed upon It was a difficult task that Joshuah was to undertake when he was to succeed Moses in the government and conduct of Israel and to lead them over Jordan among the Canaanites whom he was to dispossess and drive out before them yet God would have him to look upon his command as a sufficient ground for him to undertake the business Arise saith he go over Jordan thou and all thy people into the Land which I give unto them have not I commanded thee q. d. Though the difficulties thou art to encounter with be great and the dangers that lye before thee be many yet surely at my command thou maist venture upon the work why know for thy incouragement that I have commanded thee Nay the very Heathens had such apprehensions of God that they thought there was no neglecting of his commands but that they ought by all means to be observed and obeyed Whatsoever saith Artaxerxes is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done We may dispure of cases before God determine them but when he hath once passed sentence all disputings must cease Till his command come forth we are at liberty and may take which way we please but when that is once out then our liberty ceases and we must take that way only that he therein chalks out for us Then we must turn all our disputings and contests into silent submission and all our inquiries and opinions into cheerfull obedience If then God hath appointed us to worship him in truth as it plainly appears by the Text he hath then we ought without any disputing or drawing back to do it 2. That the Scriptures may be fulfilled The Scriptures are not only doctrinal but prophetical they do not only contain precepts of holy living but predictions of things to come to pass in after-times As God hath therein set down whatever he would have us to do so he hath there set down much of what he himself will do And amongst other things he hath declared he would do this is one that he would put his Church in the dayes of the New-Testament under a spiritual administration wherein he will not have her worship him as in times past in the use of shadows and ceremonies but in a more plain and simple manner even in truth Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Upon our violation of the covenant of works God was pleased to grant forth a Covenant of grace promising therein pardon and salvation to the penitent and believing And this covenant he thought fit to have dispensed under a double administration that of Moses and that of Christ. The former he appointed to be carryed on in a way of types and figures agreeable to the state of the church in the Old Testament the latter in a way of spirituality and simplicity agreeable to the state of the Church in the New And this it is that the Prophet relates to in this place when he speaks of a new Covenant For we must not think that the Covenant Israel was under in the time of the Old Testament and the Covenant we are under now in the time of the New are two seral Covenants essentially and substantially different but one and the same Covenant passing under two distinct administrations the former of which was typical and ceremonious the latter plain and simple The covenant that they were under then and we are under now differ no more than one and the same person differs from himself in several habits or dresses Briefly the words of the Prophet imply as much as if he had said in the dayes of the New Testament when Jesus Christ the bridegroom of the Church shall come down from Heaven to her she shall put on new vestments go in a new garb and serve him in a new manner not in that ceremonious puerile dress she was in before but in a