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	week_n	1,874	5	9.9800	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60508	A Sabbath of rest to be kept by the saints here, or, A treatise of the Sabbath, and such holy and religious duties as are required for the sanctification of it, the great Sabbath of rest that remaineth to be kept by God's saints hereafter delivered in divers sermons upon Heb. 4. 9. / by Nicholas Smith ...	Smith, Nicholas, d. 1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing S4139; ESTC R12921	26,607	40

Religion if it be not necessary on every Sabbath-day yet it is on some Sabbath-days very seasonable and People should at seasonable times on some Sabbath-days send their Servants and their Children to be Instructed in the Principles of Religion and to be Catechised The Receiving of the Sacraments are Holy and Religious Exercises to be performed if possibly it may be on the Lords day It was usual with the Primitive Christians on every Lords day to eat of that Heavenly and Soul-refreshing Manna the Body and Blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And hereupon was that usual and Ordinary speech amongst them Celebrasti Dominicum sumpsisti Dominum thou didst keep the Lords day thou didst feed on thy Lord and Saviour eat his Body and drink his Blood It is not in use with us on every Lords day to Celebrate the Lords Supper yet this is a Duty often to be performed as St. Paul setteth it forth to the Corinthians first Epistle 11th Chapter and we should as often as conveniently we can Sanctifie the Lords Day by Receiving in it the Lords Supper The other Sacrament of Baptism it should likewise if with conveniency it may be Administred on the Lords day for the Sanctifying the Sabbath by performing in it this Holy and Religious Exercise for it is a means to put People in mind of the Vows and Promises that they themselves did make to God in Baptism I have been something longer than I made Account in Treating of those Publique Religious performances that should be performed in Gods House I shall but touch upon those that should be performed in every Man 's own House Private Meditation upon the Word of God whether Read or Preached this is a Duty that careful Christians ought Conscionably to perform in their own Houses When they are Retired to their Houses and are private by themselves they should digest by Meditation the good Word of God Treasure it up in their Hearts to bring forth the Fruit of it in their Lives and Conversations If they come into Company and have Occasion to Discourse with any whether in their own Houses or with others in theirs They should endeavour to break off all Discourse of Earthly Affairs and Worldly businesse and should Reason of the Scriptures of things concerning their Salvation On the Lords day especially they should think of St. Paul's Exhortation to the Eph●sians Chap. 4. ver 29. And let no Corrupt Communication proceed out of their Mouths but such as is good to the use of Edifying that it may minister Grace to the Hearers At leisure times they should Catechise and Instruct their Children on the Lords day Read in their Families the Word of God talk of it when they sit in their Houses and walk before their Families in the ways of God's Commandments When they have performed all these Duties they should shut up the Sabbath with Prayers and Supplications and as near as they can spend the whole day in Holy and Religious Exercises If we did our Duties as we ought we should indeed so Sanctifie God's Sabbath that in it we should neither think our own thoughts nor speak our own words nor do our own works But the best fall short of their Duties and do not Sanctifie God's Sabbath according as he requireth they may hope to be so happy in Heaven but they can never be so Holy on Earth yea the good God will pardon those that set their hearts to seek and to serve him though their failings and fallings are great and many not onely on week days but on the Lords day yea he is an indulgent Father And such things as are reputed by some to be great sins as the Carriage of Beds and the bearing of Burdens and the selling Wares in those of the meaner sort he will look upon them as no sins or as very small Infirmities If men fall out of Infirmity and are grieved for these things and are wary and watchful over themselves how they fall into those sins for time to come Or else do these things at the Command of their Governours and Superiours who they know would not Command them such things if they did not know that they were such works of Necessity as may be done on any Sabbath-day or such works of Necessity as must be done on that Sabbath-day as they Command them And he will not see concerning some that are Persons of Quality and Fashion Ministers and Magistrates that they are not frequent in performance of Holy and Religious Exercises And if they be drawn in to Feast and Banquet on the Lords day and do Prophane the Sabbath by foolish talking and vain jesting yet if they Repent of their failings of their fallings and do not wilfully prophane the Sabbath themselves nor nourish others in the contempt of Holy and Religious Exercises he will pardon and forgive those sins for he considereth of the Temptations that some have to sin of the pull-backs and hinderances that they have to Piety And again he is very strict and precise a severe Judge and will see in some of the meaner sort such things as seem to the Worlds eye to be very small Infirmities the gathering of sticks and playing in the streets and note them as hainous sins yea he will not see that those that do those things keep the Church duly and are frequent in Religious Exercises if they do these things out of Hypocrisie to bear themselves out in their presumptuous wickedness And he will note some that are Persons of Quality and Fashion how they prophane the Sabbath by idle Discourse and vain talking and will not observe it in them that they are frequent and often in the performance of Religious Exercises If they make Religion a Cloak for their Malice and will not Repent of this sin but are obstinate to have all Men as frequent and often in performance of Holy and Religious Exercises as themselves for he considereth of the Opportunities that some have to do good of the helps and encouragements that they have to Piety Yea the Merciful God hath a care of the dumb Beasts and one of the Reasons why he hath Ordained a Sabbath is that they should rest every seventh day and not be over-harrowed with working And much more hath he a care of reasonable Creatures he hath Ordained a Sabbath of Rest not meerly out of respect to himself that he should be Served and his Sabbath Sanctified by performing in them Holy and Religious Exercises but he hath a respect to Servants and Day Labourers and hath Ordained a seventh day of Rest that Servants and Day-Labourers might have some time to rest from Labour as well as their Masters So it is set forth in the 5th of Deut. 14 ver the latter part of the verse one of the Reasons why God hath Commanded a Sabbath of Rest to be kept Holy is that the Man-Servant and the Maid-Servant may Rest as well as thou If thou beest a Master of a Family

Faction work upon them and make them believe that the publick Religious Duties required by the Laws because enjoyned have more of Man in them than of God and are therefore Superstitious and unlawful to be done To say the Truth though all of them do not often perform Holy and Religious Exercises and others of them are so Ignorant that they cannot at all perform them divers of them they were heretofore 〈◊〉 no doubt but they are still very frequent and often in the performance of Holy and Religious Exercises But Religion abused hath done a great deal of harm and it is greatly to be feared that some of them did heretofore and do still resist the Truth against their Conscience If Men Fast and Pray never so often if they do it for bad ends and wicked purposes These their Religious Actions are turned into sin unto them And if Man be never so frequent in performance of Holy and Religious Exercises in publick in private If they do these things that they may subvert the present Government and make Peoples hearts dis-affected to it All their Religious performances though never so specious in the Eyes of Men are yet abominable in the Eyes of God Yea such Persons who use Holy and Religious Exercises out of Policy not out of true Piety looking thereby to bring about their evil and wicked designs They have caused Religion and Religious Duties to be loathed and hated so that Mens hearts turn against the use of God's Ordinances Indeed it should not be so Man should not therefore abstain from but they should therefore often use God's Ordinances themselves in Truth because they are so often abused by others in Hypocrisie And for certain it must be such who honour God in his Ordinances and often use them that must keep Hypocrites from abusing them defeat and bring to light their Treacherous practices and their Treasonous designs whereby they seek to undo both Church and Common-wealth A great many of prophane and ungodly persons and people there are who are wicked without shew of the contrary who as they do often meet on week-days at Inns Taverns and Ale-Houses and spend their time in Rioting and Drunkenness Swearing and Cursing and prophaning God's Holy Name to the dishonour of Religion and discredit of the Gospel of Christ So many times they have their riotous meetings at the same places on the Lords day sometimes in the time of Divine Service to the grief of all good Men and to the scandal and Offence of all Godly Christians Indeed they seem opposite enough to Hypocrisie and very willing and desirous they are that they should be Reformed who cloak Treason under the shew of Religion But Magistrates and those that are in Authority hold it fitting that they should first Reform their own Lives and set a better example of Holiness before they seek the Reformation of others Yea it is plain that most of such dissolute and disordered persons they do for the most part rather rail and revile Hypocrites for being Religious than use any Legal or Lawful means whereby to reduce them from their Hypocrisie yea though fome stayd sober vertuous Persons whom Necessity forceth into their Company do Legally and Lawfully Oppose Hypocrisie and Labour to prevent the spreading Contagion of it and they by their Example learn to do the like and have been wrought and perswaded to be willing to jeopard their Lives against those who put the Face of Religion upon Rebellion Yet it is plain enough that the greatest part of them did heretofore and it is to be feared that under pretence of Opposing Hypocrisie they do still rail and revile vertuous Priests and Prelates whose Lives are continual Sermons for Piety and Godliness And were heretofore and it is to be feared are still Enemies to Godly Magistrates against whom they have nothing justly to Object but their laudable endeavours in seeking to reclaim them from their prophaneness and ungodliness It is a thing greatly to be desired that they who are guilty of dissoluteness and debauchedness and are openly Prophane Persons wicked without shew of the contrary It is I say a thing greatly to be desired that they would be perswaded to believe it It is not others often abusing of Holy and Religious Exercises that hath set off their hearts from a Love of Piety and Godliness but it is their own dis-using themselves from and not accustoming themselves to Holy and Religious Exercises that causeth them to loath them themselves and maketh them hate and detest them in others And their prophaning God's Sabbaths by swilling and bezeling by Cursing and Swearing those beastly Vices which cause them to be taken up in the Lips of talkers and branded with a Note of Infamy what is the Reason that they do not daily and continually Repent of those sins that so they should prevail against them and get ground of them every day But because they will not hearken to the good Instructions of God's Ministers perswading them to leave them Nor Obey the wholsome Laws of Godly Magistrates seeking to reclaim them from them But especially because they will not hearken to the good Motions of God's Spirit moving them to Repentance but put off God continually with delays and procrastinations Well if all these means do not work upon them to cause them to leave these sins constantly and continually to Repent of them and daily to practise Piety and Serve God in publick in private If God have not already it is much to be feared that he will e're long give up some of them unto a feared Conscience a heart that cannot Repent And this Spiritual Judgment they will find it to be worse than all Temporal Judgments and Afflictions whatsoever Briefly for a Conclusion among those that Covet an Opinion of Holiness and desire to be reputed Saints there be many Hypocrites And of those sinners of whom our Saviour speaketh in the Gospel That he came not to call the Righteous but them to Repentance there are but few true Penitents who constantly Repent of their sins and have any setled Acquaintance with God by Prayer So that what with openly prophane Persons on the one side and ungodly Hypocrites on the other side the Peace of the Church and Common-wealth is so much troubled and disquieted that if God help not it is not in the Power of Man to Remedy and redress those things If the Lord of the Sabbath do not cause his Sabbaths more carefully to be Sanctified and bring it to pass that Holy and Religious Exercises on the Lords day on Holy-days on Week days be more in use than now they are They that are true Christians in most places had need to pray unto God that they may keep a Sabbath unto him in Heaven for there will be no keeping of Sabbath to him on Earth And thus I should pass from this Allusion as the words put us in mind of a Sabbath that should be kept to God on Earth to speak

celebrated The People of God before the Law and after the Law given in Mount Sinai were to keep the seventh day from the Creation and no other It may be objected that the Sun which is the measure of time and of days it stood still in the dayes of Joshua it went backward in the dayes of Hezekiah so that that particular seventh day from the Creation which was first celebrated could not be punctually observed by the people of God under the law To this I answer That so long as the people of God under the Law did according to common computation keep the seventh day from the Creation without any willful varying from God his institution from the intent and meaning of the law-maker who neverrequireth of menimpossibilities they could not be said to be guilty of the breach of the fourth Commandment though they did not observe that numerical identical day from the Creation which was first celebrated He that made the law may change the Law and he that made time in his hand times and seasons are and he may change them according to his own pleasure The spirit of God by the Apostles did change the seventh day from the Creation into that seventh day which we now celebrate in memorial of our Saviour's Resurrection and the seventh day from the Creation hath forfeited its right and is become a common working day by his appointment in whose hands times and seasons are who changeth them according to his own pleasure and now the day sanctified and set apart for God is our Christian Sabbath the Lord's day the first day of the week this and no other is to be sanctified and whosoever they be that are Christians acquainted with the Scriptures and the word of God or the practice of the Church in the Apostles times if they set apart any other 7th day to be sanctified as the day of God's institution beside that which we now celebrate they make themselves liable to God's displeasure in this world and to his eternal indignation in the world to come It may be objected against our Christian sabbath that that particular seventh which the Apostles instituted by the spirit or rather the spirit by the Apostles it hath not continued without change to some and it is a question whether it can be continued without change to any it is observed that men in travelling to some places of the World and some Christians have occasion to Travel for necessary traffick lose one day in a year yea Astronomers that observe the motion of the Heavens and the measure of time do observe that there is continually some losse or at least some change of time so that that particular seventh day that was first instituted we supposing a seventh day to be set apart could not successively long continue without some change or alteration To this I answer Whether they be travellers or who else they be if they do not willfully transgresse nor purposely vary from God's institution but according to common computation reckoning time according to the custome of the place where they live and the persons with whom they converse do celebrate the first day of the week the Lord's day the seventh day which the spirit of God by the Apostles did Command without choosing any other seventh day of their own heads if I say as near as they can they keep themselves to God's institution they cannot be said to offend against the morality of the fourth Commandement whereby God hath set apart a seventh day of rest in memorial of his resting from the works of his Creation neither can they be said to transgresse God's Command by the Apostles whereby he hath instituted this seventh day which we now sanctifie as a day of rest in memorial of our Saviour's rest from the great work of our Redemption I shall illustrate this by a plain similitude taken out of Scripture God Commanded the Children of Israel to keep Numb 9. 10. the passeover unto him at a set time of the year upon a set day of the month they were to keep it in the first month upon the fourteenth day of the month it so fell out that certain men were defiled by the dead they inquired of God by Moses whether they were so necessarily tyed to the day that they might not keep the passover at all if they did not keep it on the day wherein it was enjoyned to be kept answer was returned that if any were unclean or were in a journey a far off then he might alter the time and whereas the prescript time for keeping the passeover was the 14th day of the first month the time might be altered and the passeover kept on the fourteenth day of the second month but if a man were clean and not in a journey and should forbear to keep the passeover at the set time appointed he should be cut off from the people of God because he brought not the offering of God in his appointed season If necessity constrain and men be in a journey travelling or the change of times be such that that particular seventh day instituted cannot successively be continued or punctually observed God doth not tie men to impossibilities nor yet to great inconveniences and if men do not willfully transgress nor vary from God's institution but according to common computation as neer as they can keep the seventh day instituted for certain they keep God his Sabbaths and observe his Ordinances But if men be not in a journey travelling and be not hindred from keeping according to common Computation the 7th day instituted and will upon their own heads keep the Jewish Sabbath the seventh day from the Creation the sabbath that is now cancelled or think it sufficient to keep any day of their own devising without observing of the Lord's day according to the Lord's Ordinance they exclude themselves from the Communion of Saints and without serious and unseigned Repentance make themselves liable to God's wrath here to his eternal displeasure hereafter for not keeping the Lord his Rest nor Sanctifying the Sabbath in its appointed season It may be Objected that the Church of God is still guided by the Spirit and if the Spirit of God by the Apostles did change the Day that was first Instituted by God which was the Seventh Day from the Creation into that Seventh Day which we now Celebrate May not the Church of God change it again from this Seventh Day to some other To this I Answer that it cannot be supposed that there should be such ground and reason for the change of the day as there was in the Apostles Time The cause of the change of the Day it was in memory of our Saviour's Resurrection because that on that Day he rested from the great work of our Redemption I suppose therefore in regard the like Reason of a Change cannot be given the Spirit of God will not again guide the Church to alter the Day I shall propound a Question more profitable