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	lord_n	sabbath_n	9,284	5	10.5348	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91900	The saints longings after their heavenly country. A sermon preached at St. Pauls church on Tuesday the sixth of June; 1654. At a solemn anniversary meeting of the Cheshire Gentlemen, and freemen of the City of London, born in the same county. / By that faithful and painfull servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Ralph Robinson late minister of Mary Wolnoth London.	Robinson, Ralph, 1614-1655.	1655 (1655)	Wing R1712; Thomason E848_3; ESTC R207320	21,164	43

to their Parentage and Country Irregularities in the life of a beleever willcast some reproach upon his heavenly Country and make others of his brethren of less esteem For a Citizen of heaven to swear lye deceive backbite over-reach this is very unseemly Oh I beseech you for your Countries sake scorn such baseness Your heavenly Father that begat you your heavenly Country where you received your first breath all your heavenly kindred will suffer much prejudice much reproach by such unworthiness A good man is an honor to his Country The Learning the Wisdome the Valor and Prowess of some men have ennobled the very places of their birth The lewdness of some men hath brought their very Countries under Proverbs of disgrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are alwaies liars evil beasts slow bellies Tit. 1. 12. If men be swearers drunkards deceivers dissemblers c. they will be accounted the very stains and plague-sores of their Country 3 Let it serve to perswade beleevers to magnifie their Country make it your design to serve your Country and to serve it cheerfully The world hath had some Heroes men of renown who have not grudged to spend their estates their very blood for their Countries good pro aris foc is for Religion and Liberty they have willingly adventured all How careful should an heaven-born Christian be to seek the advancement of his celestial Country If you have any spark of true worth in you be intreated to act vigorously for your Countries glory Promote the priviledges of this Country bring in as many as you can to be in love with it acquaint the world that lyes in ignorance with all the advantages immunities excellencies of this glorious place How careful was Joseph to let his father know what preferments were to be had in Pharaohs Court saith he to his brethren You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen Gen. 45. 13. All this was done that the old Patriarch might be invited to make haste thither Men generally take great delight to be speaking of every little excellency their native Country affords Beleevers can never say so much of their heavenly Country as it deserves The soyl is so fruitful the ayr so sweet the waters so pleasant the inhabitants so wise beautiful every thing in it so transcendently glorious that no tongue can sufficiently utter no pen fully describe the goodness of it Hereby it will appear that you are indeed free-born men of this Country if you make it your design to imprint upon your own hearts and the hearts of those with whom you converse high and glorious thoughts of it Fourthly It shews us the reason why beleevers find such bad usage on earth The whole world is exceedingly ingaged to the people of God for their sakes the world stands they bear up the pillars of it Ps 75. 3. For their sakes the Sun shineth the Rain falls when they are gathered into Heaven fire will soon break forth upon the world yet do the wicked of the earth industriously study their ruin they are alwaies plotting and contriving against them the Psalmist observes it in his time Psa 83. 3 4 5. They have taken craftie counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said come and let us cut them off from being a people that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance Those that are at deadly enmity among themselves can unite heads hearts and hands together against the Saints The Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaellites of Moab and the Hagarens c. This amongst others is one reason of these furious attempts the children of God are of one Country and wicked men of another they are contrary seeds they are of contrary dispositions Wicked men must either lay aside their wickedness or godly men their holiness else these contentions will not cease Our Saviour foretels all his Disciples of the worlds hatred and the cause of it Because I have chosen you out of the world therefore doth the world hate you Joh. 15. 9. Could the servants of God relinquish those holy courses they have taken up the world and they would soon be reconciled The righteous is an abomination to the wicked Prov. 29. 27. Could a righteous man forsake his righteousness he might have as good quarter in the World as other men Fifthly It should perswade all Beleevers to observe the customs of their Countrie The Apostles counsel to the people of God is that they be not conformed to this world Rom. 12. 2. But that they be transformed by the renewing of their mind It is the practise of men that love their Country to observe the usages of it especially such as are warrantable and prais-worthy they delight to speak their own Language to wear their own Apparel a dish of meatdressed after the mode of their own Country hath a sweeter relish than better meats It becomes the children of God to maintain the customs and to be zealous for the holy usages of their heavenly Country and not to follow the vain and sinful customs of the world In all lawful things the Servants of the Lord may sute themselves to the practise of other men Religion is not opposite to civility and morality But as to the vain and sinful Garbes of the world the godly must be strangers It is a great strengthening of the hands of evil men in their evill customs when they see such as profess Religion tread in the same steps The world hath a course of its own which Beleevers though they followed it before conversion must follow no longer Ephes 2. 2 3. they must renounce these usages But as for the holy customs of their own Nation they must be exact in the observing of them in what days or place soever God casts their lot And oh that this counsel might prevail with all that pretend to Heaven It hath been the holy custom of the Free-men of this Country to pray in their Families to read the holy Scriptures to instruct and catechize such as were under their charge to observe the sanctification of holy Sabbaths to see that themselves and their houses did serve the Lord to wait constantly in the Courts of the Lords House on holy Ordinances c. God commands all that profess to be his people not onely to have the words of his law in their own hearts but to teach them diligently to their children to talk of them when they lie down and when they rise up Deut. 6. 7. God commends Abraham for this I know Abraham that he will command his children and Houshold after him to keep the waie of Jehovah Gen. 18. 19. It was Joshua's Religion that all that were in his house should serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. It was Daniels custom to observe his daily times of prayer Dan. 6. 10. It was the custom of that devout Captain Cornelius to pray in his house Act. 10.

earthly Country before it Abundance are of that prophane Cardinals mind who would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Most prefer Egypt before Canaan These are none of Abrahams stock he thought Heaven better than Canaan they judge every dirty Country better than Heaven It is a sign these men have never travelled in this Celestial Country it is a sign they beleeve not what they hear reported of it that prefer House and Shop or such Mannors in their own Country before those rich possessions that are in Heaven Secondly Be contented if God have given you an Inheritance in this Country though you have not so great Estates on Earth as others have One foot breadth in Heaven is worth a hundred Millions of Acres on Earth if you have an interest in the body glory honor riches of this celestial Country you have more than if you had ten thousand Worlds I have all my Brother faith Jacob Gen. 33. 11. He had the dew of Heaven as well as the fatness of the Earth A man may be a Lord of many Earthly Countries and yet live and die under the wrath of God Ahasuerus had the command of all those Countries from Judea to Ethiopia even One hundred twenty seven Provinces and yet because he was not an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven he died miserable and poor Thirdly You that have an interest in this Country boast of it It is a great mercy to have our being in a wholesom Country such is Heaven Revel 21. 4. What a mercy is it to have a spiritual being from Heaven and an eternal being in Heaven Glory in your Country that others may be provoked to travel to it to trade in it This is the second Point The third and last Doctrine is A true Beleever hath strong desires after his heavenly Country 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Text they seek it they seek it with their strongest desires as sick man seeks health as a covetous man seeks money They groan after it so the Apostle expresseth it 2 Cor. 5. 2. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven Our conversation saith the Apostle is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. Their hearts were carried out aftes it they longed to be in it A beleever when he is under some sad darknesse of spirit when he hath some great work to do for the good of the Church may be unwilling to leave the world as Hezekiah was Isa. 38. 2 3. But when their work is done when all is clear between God and their souls then they would be in their heavenly Country Quest What is implyed by this phrase desiring a heavenly Country Answ 1. To desire Heaven is to labor to have an interest in it To labor to make it sure to our selves that it doth belong to us to make good our propriety in it according to that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2. To desire every day more and more to fit our selves for it He that saith he desires an heavenly Country and doth not use all diligence to be made meet for it as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. 12. doth but mock himself 3. To seek a heavenly Country is to long continually to be in it This is that which was the Patriarchs seeking they longed to be in that heavenly Canaan of which the earthly was a pledge and seal Qu. 2. Why do Beleevers so desire their heavenly Country Ans. These desires of their heavenly Country spring from a double root 1. The unsatisfactoriness they finde in their earthly Countries They find nothing here but labor sorrow sin toyl emptiness disappointment vexation c. They have had enough of their earthly Countrie alreadie therefore they desire a better Country It is enough Lord saith Elijah take away my life for I am no better than my Fathers I King 19. 4. He had had as much of the world as he did desire he had found it to be a lying vanity therefore he desires to be in another place And then secondly The felicity they beleeve and hope for in their Heavenly Country They know that they shall have in that Country all that their souls can wish They shall have Grace in perfection Joy in perfection I desire saith the Apostle to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1. 23. They see that in their heavenly Country which will make them compleatly happy So faith Paul We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle was dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. The Uses are these First It condemns them that never have any desire of this Heavenly Country They have no serious thoughts of it they study not how to get thither they pray not for it they speak not of it they love not discourses about it They drudge and toyl for the world rise early go to bed late c. but they minde not Heaven This is very sad How will such men do when they come to die what comfort will they have if Heaven be not their Country Hell must This Country you must leave and you know not how soon and what will your hundreds and thousands your Houses your Lands then stand you in stead you must pack away and leave all you have scraped together behind you When you see death at your bed side you will wish you had minded a better Country more and the world less It is the complaint of the Church Cant. 1. 6. against her mothers Children They made me saith she the keeper of the vineyards but my own vineyard have I not kept You will another day curse all your care and diligence about the world which hath hindred you from seeking Heaven and this Heavenly Country Secondly Let me intreat all of you to imitate this example of the Patriarchs Seek your better Country It is good when men seek the good of their Earthly Countrie You are met this day to testifie your respects towards your Native Country It is a lawful and warrantable thing to do so Nature commands men to desire their native Countrie It is unthankfulnefs to forget the place which gave us breath and provided for us our first food The Greek Proverb is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The smoak of a mans own Country is brighter than flame in a strange Land Ulysses longed to see the smoak of his Country It is an honorible thing for men that have Estates to consult how they may advantage their native Country These Meetings heretofore have been very instrnmental for much good in the erecting of Schools the maintaining of Lectures you may help to save many a soul as you have ability and opportunity it would do well to think on these