Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	jacob_n	ladder_n	1,902	5	11.5153	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76384	A bright starre, leading to, & centering in, Christ our perfection. Or a manuell, entituled by the authour thereof, the third part of the Rule of perfection Wherein such profound mysteries are revealed, such mysterious imperfections discovered, with their perfect cures prescribed, as have not been by any before published in the English tongue: faithfully translated for the common good.; Règle de perfection. English. Part 3	Benoît, de Canfield, 1562-1610.	1646 (1646)	Wing B1867AC; ESTC R223949	72,498	265

by the tempests violence Paul seems to write nothing but the Passion in Preaching to extol no other thing but the Passion in the Passion alone to seek matter of rejoycing to glory only in the Crosse and to be all-transformed into this Divine Passion yea acknowledgeth himself to know no more but Jesus Christ him crucified CHAP. XVII That God and Man is to be beheld in the Passion the God-head Manhood seen together with a single eye as one not as two ANd here the Manhood is not to be beheld alone but also the Godhead therewith wherin many faile looking either on the Manhood alone or sometimes on it and sometimes on the Godhead as on two divers objects And so it comes that some begin to falter thinking it to be in manner no other Mysterie but only in beholding the Manhood to phansie a Man tortured with cruel torments upon a Crosse and after to finde the Godhead forsaking the same object they presse up to some other whereby to behold the Godhead not beleeving they can bee rais'd to both at once the which indeed pertaines to the highest practise For to see God and Man in one simple sight is not unlike to that knowledge whereby God and Man is seene to make one and the same person This Contemplation of God Man seemes prefigured in that brazen Serpent whose alone sight cur'd the beholders of their bitings by other serpents A miracle indeed that God should give such power of healing to the looke of a Serpent Nor doubt I but he would insinuate to us thereby the admirable vertue inclosed in that coelestiall Serpent which is Jesus Christ crucified as he cals himselfe inasmuch as when wee rightly behold the Manhood crucified we instantly behold his Godhead which is God himselfe the small cure of all evill For how can we continue sensible of sorrow or crosse when we see God himselfe bearing the same Crosse Blessed are the pure in heart saith our Lord because they shall see God The which divers holy men affirm to be wholly in the next life and partly in this If therefore we see God on the Crosse we are entred on part of our Blisse in this Life and consequently cannot feel the pangs of the Crosse 'T was a thing unheard of and which with many transcended all beliefe that out of a hard rocke at the second smite of the Rod such plenty of water streamed out This Rocke is Christ Jesus But the Rocke was Christ whose Passion though it appeare so stonie that at the first sight it yeelds no more but all harsh hard and full of afflictions yet if you smite the same twice by Contemplation of the Godhead and Manhood you shall finde an overflowing Inundation of waters of Comfort a torrent of Joy a swift gushing river flowing from the face of God Ezekiel saw a Booke written without and within intimating to us thereby that Jesus Christ the Booke of Life is written within and without both sides containing the same perfections O ravishing Booke O Miracle O prodigy O new and unusuall thing transcending and passing all Reason and far surmounting the territories of Mans capacity that all the Attributes of God proper to his Divine Majesty should bee described in our mortall flesh That all the internall perfections of God should be depainted in Man and to know that person as perfect as God yea to be God himselfe O booke I say beyond admiration even to astonishment wherein the eternall omnipotency is described in externall impotency Immortality in Mortality Spirit in Body Glory in Ignominy Freedome in Bondage and God in Man A booke where without is written and displayed to the eyes of all men whatsoever the Eternall Father from everlasting either said or thought A booke shewing us the Crosse a Tribunall the Passion a Throne and Death the Triumph of Je Christ A book-wherof one saith O wondrous power of the Crosse O unspeakable glory of the Passion wherein is both the Throne of our Lord the judgment of the World and conquest of Christ crucified This is the booke wherein all contrary propositions are reconciled without distinction made all one where the outer thing is truly knowne the inner bodily spiritual weaknes strength Sorrow Joy Contempt Majesty Shame Glory Littlenesse Greatnesse Poverty Richnesse Bondage Freedome and Torments Delights But out alas for pity who beleeves all this Or who is it that with a simple heart gives credit to these things where is wisedom found or what place is left for understanding Here is Wisedome and Patience of the Saints even in seeing and practising those things which belong to the Passion And here God pr●●●d them at the waters of contrad●ction which waters of Life they ex●ract out of that Celestial flinty rocke whilst they smite it with the rod of Christian Discipline Who is wis● and he wil keepe these things It may truly bee said that 〈◊〉 booke and passion is no other but the gate of Heaven and the house of God And though in this Pas●ion he made darkenesse his Pavili●n neverthelesse as is his darke●esse so also his light Jacobs Ladder though the one ●nd toucht heaven and the other ●rth yet both made but one Lad●er even so the person of Jesus Christ which liv'd on earth by his Manhood and endured those tor●ents in his Passion was no other ●hen that selfe-same second person ●n the Trinity living ever glorious in the Heavens Moses saw God in the middest of the thorny bush signifying to us that God himselfe is found in his painefull and thorn-crowned Passion and not to be sought without the same No marvell then if Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles and trumpet of truth al over the world exhausted all his wisedome from no other fount but out of the Abysse of this wisedome and knowledge as himselfe acknowledgeth saying I desire to know nothing among you but Iesus Christ crucified Which yet was so farre from vailing him from high Revelations that as himselfe witnesseth he was rapt to the third Heaven Whence it is cleerer then the Noone-day Light that in the crucified Manhood he also saw the boundlesse depth of the Godhead But the Centre of all this Difficulty consists in the right sending forth of this Simple sight whereby God and Man is seene neither omitted For in failing of either we incurre a like losse The depth of the Mysterie being founded in both one and not in each apart For first to behold God Omnipotent and then a miserable and forlorn Man which he became by his Incarnation This worketh somewhat in the soule by way of Consideration But to see both one as wee have said and to behold it with a single eye and naked aspect that strikes the soule with amazement and bereaves her of all her forces And this is that simple and perfect Contemplation which our Lord extolls with so many prayses in his Spouse in the Cantic Thy eyes ●re Doves eyes i. simple ones And againe

should be Divine Secondly because it moves us to produce Acts and consequently to be but causes not Annihilations Thirdly because it Clouds and fumes up Exhalations betweene GOD and the soule Thirdly I call it habituall under which word is much comprized and very remarkable which is that it ought to bee continuall without ceasing or interruption that so wee may ever behold this Infinite of Nothing and All which though it seem hard to doe yet that it may be done two Reasons shall confirme One is that as an Angel though hee be upon earth yet for the home●inesse he hath to his place is said to bee in heaven So this Light and Faith though sometimes they doe not actually see this Nothing and this All yet through the disposednesse wherein they accustome to behold them they alwayes persevere in the sight of them And as an Angel in the twinkle of an eye mounts from earth to heaven So this Light and Faith in an Atom's time reach the actuall contemplation of God and this nothing And as an Angel so return'd is counted to have been in heaven as it were from the beginning and so is verified that Say of our Saviour Their Angels doe alway behold the face of my heavenly Father So also this Light when it actually sees that Mystery even when they forget and seem to be distracted Fourthly I add which Reaso● helps i. the first point befor● mentioned which is Knowledg● grounded on Reason Philosophy the Fathers and holy Scripture● Examples All which arguments are drawne to this word Reason whereby this Faith is assisted And this contradicts not what wee said before that this Faith excludes all Reasoning for I spake this concerning the second point touching the practise of Annihilation the which must be free from all multiplicity of Discourses But here I speake of the first point Knowledg which is strengthned by reason and discourse I add which experience ratifies and confirmes i. when the soule div'd and drown'd in this Infinite sees her selfe brought to nothing For thus her Light and Faith are much encreased so that it shall afterwards bee very easie for her to believe this Annihilation and by this light to dive her selfe deeper and deeper therein Sixtly I say it comes not under sense The reason is because as the understanding is not subjacent nor tyed to any Organ so neither is this Light which pertaines to the understanding whence it followes that it falls not under sense because no Might of the soule can feele without its owne Organ Seventhly I affirme that this Faith and Light resist sense For they directly fight against it What Sense affirmes they deny Sense saith such or such a thing is which Faith and Light in respect of Gods presence say is not Eighthly I place this Faith in the Crowne of the Soule because that place is furthest from the Senses and nearest to God and it is the very top of the Soule Ninthly I say It beholds God without Meane because 't is not hindered by sense or Sensible things but stands free and cleere from them all Touching the second point this Remembrance is a certaine Inspiration Illumination Touching or Out-breake of Divine Light which strikes the Soule and quicker then Lightning smites rowses shews her where shee is even lost in this All and in the Armes of her Dear And thus by the furtherance of this Remembrance the soule mounts her selfe when she seemes distracted from the Actual sight and Remembrance of God But note well that I call it a Remembrance and not Inturning for two Reasons First because turning in stirres Action such as this Remembrance hath scarce any by reason of the exceeding purity nakednes and simplicity Secondly because such In-turning presupposes Out-turning and Distraction which befalls not in this Remembrance because it nothings all Distraction whatsoever Againe I call it Remembrance because it consists in an act of the soule so much as in the divine working upon her not proceeding from her but from God Thirdly because it changes not the state of the soule making her nearer to the Divine Being nor the Divine Being nearer to her but onely lets her see where in what degree and state she is even in this All Alway presupposed that shee neglect not her duty in this practice Fourthly because 't is swift and passes quicker then Act. Fiftly because the soule hath it before she can think Nor can she looke so suddenly as she hath it againe And that because of the habit of Light and Faith wherewith she is endowed CHAP. XIII Of the Imperfections or Impediments of Active Annihilation THE practise of this Annihilation will appeare more clearely by opposing thereto the failings and impediments thereof And therefore we will here discusse the same And first 't is an imperfection to doubt of the Reall presence of God or to believe the same doubtingly or with a languishing and sleepy faith Secondly not to live by this faith i. to sticke at things as if they were something not waking to behold this lustre and glory of the Bridegroom and everlastingly to embrace him who is not onely knowne to be present but of all things only present before whom they all vanish and cease to be esteemed for any thing Thirdly to believe the Senses and let them rule over the Light Reason and Faith To listen to them since they be lying and bring in death whose windowes they be Nor by them can there be any way to Life inasmuch as this Life far transcends them Lastly since 't is they wee here fight with to bring them to nothing therefore in their owne cause they can be no Judges but must dye and be nothing'd Fourthly to shun any necessary Worke outward or inward for feare of Distraction For therein appeares the error Darknesse and failing of such Annihilation in accounting that worke to be somewhat where indeed 't is nothing And surely to him that takes it for somewhat 't is somewhat indeed and therefore not a little to be feared But if his Anihilation were perfect the worke were nothing nor worth his feare Yea he that so abandons a necessary worke sustaines double disadvantage and incurres a double blindnesse First on the things which to him is turned into Darknesse And secondly on the Feares part which with the stroke raises obscurity Wherein they faile exceedingly who desired to doe any thing repine and excuse themselves deluded under a painted cloak of giving themselve● to the Spirit And so they run away from that which they say they seeke i. from God who is in that worke and draw on themselves a triple darknesse and stumbling blocke 1. Worke. 2. Act. 3. Their owne will and Disobedience Fifthly to adjourne a simple Conversion to God which often befalls those who having any outward worke or any Meditation in hand thinke they cannot come to God till the worke be done which manner of doing contains two failings One that in this work they were not first united

when he saith If thy eye bee ●●ngle thy whole body shall be Light And all the Impediment of this Contemplation arises from no other but a Contradiction seeming to darken the reason of Man that so it is disabled to behold in one simple sight God and Man Body and Spirit For to behold the Manhood which is corporeall an Image must bee let in To behold the Godhead no Forme but pure Denudation So then to see both one seemes as if you would say Receive a forme and no forme And this to many is a stumbling stone But now to unty this Knot we are to transcend all Reason flye to Faith which seeing him Man stands invincible that hee is God without all forme and Image whatsoever And though Imagination inject the forme Man yet Faith disdaining all sense considers no forme fastning her eye on God So that though an Idea of Jesus Christ crucified present it self to us yet the Ocean of Faith drownes and annihilates the same CHAP. XVIII That this Passion is to be practised and beheld as it is in our selves rather then that which is considered at Jerusalem or in some Place remote from us IT being now concluded that the soule in beholding the Passion knowes God and Man in one and the same Person another doubt assailes her and that no small one whether t is more excellent to behold him as crucified under that forme which useth to be given him as suffering at Jerusalem or under that Actuall sorrow bitternesse and affliction which every one tasts in himselfe Wherein I had rather play the part of a Scholler then a Master Yet under correction for so much as I could ever gather by proof out of the little practise which yet I have had herein though both the wayes be excellent yet the latter appears to mee much worthier then the former yet not for all men but onely those that are found capable thereof And that for the reasons I shall produce where first I wil shew that this practise is orthodox with Holy Writ and Theology Know then that our sufferings are espoused to those of our Saviour Christ and made one and the same with his Passion And that for many causes and respects First by Union of will and spirit He that cleaves to God is one spirit whence it comes that our sufferings are common For in ●hat degree our spirit hath Com●union with the Spirit of God God againe by fervour of Love ●y Compassion answerably beares ●ur sorrowes Wherefore he saith ●o Saul Why persecutest thou me ●e said not my friends or servants ●ut mee i. whose members they ●e For I am the Vine and yee the ●ranches And as the same radicall ●oysture is common to Boale and ●ranches so is the feeling of sor●owes and sufferings to Christ and Christians Which though indeede ●hey are to be understood and that Christ in his own person doth not ●uffer them yet t is he that suffers For though t is to bee conceiv'd ●hat he suffers in his members yet ●e suffers as himselfe testifies be●ause his members make a part of himselfe Our sufferings therefore not as ours but as Jesus Christs may be honoured with profound Reverence a strange saying yea so they ought to be by those that discerne him in them as in his own Passion For if he be so worthily honoured with so much devotion in his Image upon the Crosse why may he not be adored in the lively Crosse of sorrowes in our selves And if in those the honour be not given to the Crosse but to himself Much more is it there where not by Representation alone but also by grace and the same sufferings he is present Paul accounted his owne sufferings the sufferings of Christ when he said I fill up what is wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for his Body which is the Church And Chrysostome upon this place saith He was not ashamed to call them his sufferings 'T is the use of those that be perfect to see God in all things How much more then in sorrows which set before us his Passion where he is particularly present saying I ●m with him in Tribulation For though the crucified Manhood bee not really there as is the Godhead it selfe yet is it to be beheld as in ● Looking-glasse and united to ●he soule by union of grace and ●ove after her example that said A ●undle of Myrrhe my beloved shall ●dge between my breasts This belo●ed is Christ a bundle of bitter ●yrrhe his passion compact of ma●y afflictions as a bundle is of ma●y stalkes And because Christ is ●n some sort always in his Passion ●he soul lul'd him as a Bridegroom ●etween her Breasts when she em●rac't him in the same Passion ●ow 't is plaine that she had not in ●er selfe that passion and sorrowes ●hich he suffered in himselfe long ●ter Ergo they were hers which shee reputed her Beloveds being conjoyned and promiscuous with his through Love as the paines of any Member with those of the head it selfe Besides God is neerer to us then our selves Nor can we see or discern him so neer but he is still infinitely neerer nor so intimate to us and our substance but he is still more intimate For t is he say the Fathers that gives himselfe to thy mind more intimate then thy own most intimate And so may he bee beheld and adored and that with most profound devotion if he be there discerned And whosoever refuses is worse then an Ethnick 'T is said before that wee are commanded to make all after the patterne shewed in the Mount which is Jesus Christ crucified on Mount Calvary And of what wood is this Image or forme to be ●ade but of our selves And where ●re we to beare it ingraven but in ●ur selves after the example of him ●hat said I am crucified with Christ ●nd who exhorted Be ye followers ● me as I am of Christ When ther●re we be made his lively Image ●ho can say that the same as 't is ●ch is not to be beheld and re●erenced Moreover the same Trueth is ●nfirmed by all places of Scrip●re where God is said to be in us ●ow ye not that your members are ● Temple of the holy Ghost which is ● you and ye are not your owne ●● ye are the Temple of the living God ● God saith For I will dwell and ●lk in them We will come make ● abode with him He that dwel●h in Love dwelleth in God and ●od in him For in him we live ●ve and have our Being Nor can it be objected that this is only meant of the God-head since this Godhead belongs to Christ and is one and the same person with his Manhood So that when I see Christ alonely in the one I both may and ought to behold him in both together because they can never be severd What he once put on he never laid off For as while hee conversed on earth his Manhood alone was seene

and yet his Godhead was therein considered So now discerning his Godhead we cannot in Mind separate nor ought we to forget his Manhood which even now lives in the Heavens but to bring it into the Object of Contemplation together with his Godhead tha● we may sound this unspeakabl● Mysterie of his Incarnation Whic● object of his Manhood though i● be neither essentially nor Sacramentally present nathlesse by Union of grace Bond of Love Diapason of Will Conjunction of the Members with the Head and relation of the Image of our sufferings to the patterne hee is some way present by an admirable presence This Paul desires we should understand and is fervently zealous to confirme the same Trueth saying I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Seeke yee a proofe of Christ speaking in mee Bearing about in our body the Dying of the Lord Jesus Till Christ hee formed in you Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus I am crucified with Christ Because wee are his members of his Flesh and of his Bones Yee are the body of Christ and members in particular Know ye not that your Members are the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you So many of you as are baptized have put on Christ Christ Jesus is in you unlesse ye bee reprobates And many other places whereby he shews his earnest Desire to teach Christians this Wisdome and particularly in this last sentence where he seemes to inforce that he will have us beleeve it proposing this necessity of having Christ in us or else of being reprobated from him I could here bring authorities of many Fathers if the Brevity of this Manuall would permit Since then Christ Jesus is in us and where he is he is to be adored it followes that he is to be adored in our selvs and thereupon a holy Father saith 'T is more excellent to behold him crucified in our selves then at Jerusalem And one holy Saint considered the Passion of Christ our Lord in his members so much that he was no lesse pained when he saw any other afflicted then if he had seene Christ himselfe in the same plight Yea our sufferings not onely may be beheld as the sorrowes of Jesus Christ but sometimes they cannot be beheld otherwise I mean when through fervour of Love our sorrowes be so commixt and united to the sorrows of sweete Jesus that we may see him alike in both neither can ours be separated from his there can be but one onely Christ in both made one ours expiring in his Nor otherwise in the one then in the other can honour be given to him since wheresoever he is seene and discerned all adoration and glory is due to him in the sorrows themselves Having concluded then that 't is true that we may behold Christ Jesus in our selves it rests that wee shew why the same is more worthy then to imagine and behold him suffering at Jerusalem That reall suffering which wee tast in our selves presents a farre more spritely Image of the Passion of Jesus Christ then that which hovers in Imagination alone And that which we feele inwardly then that which is speculated outwardly As our owne headach or paine of any other member gives us a far more lively feeling of the like affliction in any of our friends then if we fancied the same from here-say alone Just so my owne experience of the torments of Christ in my selfe makes mee abundantly more sensible of them then if I saw them onely by apparition in my phantasie Whereof one saith By suffering a man learns to co-suffer with him that suffers If in our sorrows we behold the Passion without us that seemes to beget Multiplicity the Soule straining from her owne paines to the pains of Christ but beholding the Passion of Christ in ourselves wee see but one onely simple object of the paines of both And thus this whole practise is drawn into our interiour And we have the work within us the Wch is an high step To see the Passion in our sorrows the Conflict is excellent But to behold the same in ourselves presupposes absolute victory Againe the end for which we behold the Passion is to be conformed thereto But thus by seeing the Passion in our sorrows we are conformed thereto by a joyfull and free willing acceptation of the same in the Union and Contemplation of the sufferings of Christ Ergo by beholding the Passion in our sorrowes wee reach the end of the Contemplation of the Passion Besides many cannot but very hardly and without continuance behold the Passion of Christ in Imagination But none need misse the same by feeling in his own sorrows For many are destitute of apprehensive Imagining but none wants the lively sense of his owne afflictions Againe if being round set with straits wee flye to the Passion of Christ without us we shal seem to turn our back plainly on sorrows and to shrink from paines so far as we can pressing to him more to seeke our own Comfort then for any true Love to him But when we see him in our paines within our selves we easily embrace the bitternesse as his and cheerefully pursue the Cuttingnesse of affliction as that which nailes us with him on the Crosse The Union made by those suffering which are in us is so much the closer the more wee taste the Gall And the truer and perfecter the more truly those paines bee in that Union and not in memory alone If in our Paines wee consider the Passion the more we suffer the closer wee shall be united to God But if we behold it without us the Tempest of affliction may breake that Union with him And therefore 't is most excellent saith the same Saint to behold him in his Passion within our selves Confirm'd therefore on holy Scriptures produc't let us bide solidly fixt in our own paines as in the Torments of Jesus Christ rejecting all loosenesse wavering all questions arising to inquire whether the Passion of Christ bee truly in them or no. Such as for the most part a Soul shallow illuminate useth to frame The which practise he may easily stand unshaken in that is truly faithful to the Crosse who with all his heart embraces Tribulation never languishing for comfort For in so doing the presence of Jesus Christ by grace shall never be doubted of because he will there nakedly unvail himselfe Nor ought any man to give himselfe to this practise till first hee be wain'd from the Dug of consolation and tempered to endure the edge of bitternesse Nor want there some that would wish to suffer with Christ on the Crosse but led with Intention that those stones should be made bread and the Gall suddenly chang'd into Honey dreaming all the while that they follow the Crosse which with all their might they avoid Which makes them as far from discerning Jesus Christ as there is difference betwixt to quake at the Crosse and to honour it or to loath