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	lord_n	speak_v	9,328	5	4.6405	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59551	The reasonableness of believing without seeing a sermon preach'd before the King in St. James's Chappel, on Palm-Sunday, March 24, 1699/700 / by the Most Reverend Father in God, John Lord Archbishop of York.	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing S2979; ESTC R10684	13,424	33

that heard him There was so much Evidence in the Truths themselves that he delivered that no honest virtuously-disposed Minds could stand out against them but must be convinced in their own Consciences that this of all that they had ever heard of was a Religion worthiest to come from God and most accommodated to the Spiritual Needs of men nay and their Temporal ones too supposing that all men would embrace it And then the whole Tenor of his Life was suitable hereunto For he appeared in all his Actions and Conversation to be a Man of so much Candor and Goodness and Clearness of Spirit so Humble so Just so Prudent so Charitable so Obliging to all Mankind so full of Piety and Devotion and Resignation to God and lastly so free from all suspicion that he carried on any selfish Designs that all these Heavenly Doctrines came better out of his Mouth than if any other had delivered them But that which crowned all was this that throughout the whole Stage of his Life there was a visible Evidence of a Divine Power and Presence going along with him which shewed it self in a thousand Instances of the most glorious Miracles that ever were seen or heard of in the world and that to the Amazement of the whole Country where he lived In this manner I say did our Saviour lay the Foundation for a Belief of his Doctrine to all succeeding Generations and a solid unshaken Foundation it was But yet for all that if the Power of God had stopped here I do not know what Superstructure would ever have been made upon this Foundation For so it was that those very men those honest plain-hearted men that he had taken into his Family to be Witnesses of what he did and taught with a design as I told you of sending them abroad to publish all those things throughout the World yet when he came to dye such poor-spirited Creatures they proved that every man of them forsook him O sad Example of human Frailty and Inconstancy those men that had the greatest opportunities of knowing him and his Doctrine and had professed the most firm Resolutions of adhering to him yet all forsook him in the hour of danger and shifted for themselves But God Almighty tho he suffered good men to act as men did not therefore lay aside that great Design he had set on foot by our Lord Jesus no nor of accomplishing it by the Ministry of these very men For he raised up his Son from the dead on the Third Day as our Saviour had before told them he would and this put new Life and Spirit into those Persons that had lately abandoned him But that was not all Our Saviour calls them all together after he was thus risen from the dead He acquaints them with the Work that he had committed to them He assures them that he will be with them and those that should succeed them in that Ministry for ever Not in Person for he was to continue in Heaven to intercede for all Believers at the Right Hand of God but by the Virtue and Presence of the Holy Spirit who was to be his Deputy and Vicegerent upon Earth This Holy Spirit he would in a few days send down upon them who should effectually furnish and endue them with all Powers and Qualities and Abilities needful for the discharge of so great a Work as the Conversion of the World to his Religion was And after he had told them these things he visibly in their Presence ascended up into Heaven Here now begins Christ's Kingdom He had conquered Death before and now he comes to conquer the Devil and the World From henceforward you hear of no Fear no Pusillanimity no mean Behaviour in any of the Apostles They then go and Preach to all the World that Gospel which their Master ordered them No Danger frights them No human Learning or Philosophy is able to stand before them The greatest Obstacles the greatest Terrors that come in their way are so far from making them quit the Work they had begun that they rather prove Incentives to them to go on in it They make it their business to gain Souls in every place to Jesus Christ They run about the whole Roman Empire and farther than ever that extended They pretend to no Eloquence no polite Learning no Arts of Insinuation But they preach a plain honest pious Doctrine but withal such a Doctrine that as the Times then went a man must expect to bid an everlasting Adieu to all the Wealth and Pleasures and Honours of this World if he once embraced it They declare to all people the Authority they had for the Preaching this Doctrine They vouch our Lord Jesus Christ as the Author of it who died for the bearing Testimony to it and rose again for its Confirmation and is now King of Heaven and Earth And they shewed that they had an Authentick Commission from Heaven for the doing all this by speaking the Language of every Country where they came without ever being taught it by curing all diseased people that were brought to them by dispossessing Devils by giving sight to the blind and making the lame to walk and restoring dead Bodies to life All these wonderful things they did all the World over And what the Effects hereof were was manifest every where and continues manifest to this day The Gospel spread like Lightning in all places And whereever it came Pagan Idolatry was confounded Till at last the whole Roman Empire was converted to the Religion of Jesus Christ. Converted it was by men naked and unassisted without the least Encouragement at the first from the Secular Powers nay in contradiction to the severest Penalties that the Secular Powers could contrive or decree to hinder it We grant indeed that many thousands of brave men did lose their Lives in this Religious War between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Devil who was then the Prince of this World and did patiently submit to Death that they might assert the truth of our Saviour's Cause But that was Christ's way of vanquishing the Devil He did thus break the Serpent's head while the Serpent bruised his heel And he did at last by this way effectually break his Kingdom as is visible and notorious even from that time to this day And now I Appeal to every one Whether this which is matter of Fact and known to all men that look into the Histories of Time and of which we at this day see and enjoy the happy Effects in having the Christian Religion not only received among us but made a part of our National Constitution I say whether this be not a convincing Proof both of the Truth of our Religion and likewise of those Scriptures from whence we fetch it Had not the Christian Religion been true how could these things have ever come to pass Seeing it is utterly unconceivable that without a Divine Power they could be effected And sure none can suppose that God would exert his Power for the confirming of a Falshood And again had not our Scriptures been true likewise or had they been the Fictions of any designing men how is it possible they should have given us an account of these things so long before they came to pass and when there was so little appearance of their ever coming to pass And yet all that I have now mentioned is plainly there set down as foretold by our Saviour and his Apostles And not only those things but a great many other remarkable Events are there also foretold which have since been exactly made good I hope by what hath been said it doth appear that we at this day have sufficient Arguments to oblige us to believe and adhere to the Religion of Jesus Christ tho we never saw the Original Proofs he gave of it which was the Point I was to make good For I think I have shewed That if those Proofs were good and conclusive at the first to them that saw them and were Witnesses of them they are so to us now who receive them upon their Testimony And as for the difference that may be alledged in point of Evidence between a man's seeing a thing and receiving it upon the Report of others all that I think by the account I have given is in a great measure out of doors as to this matter For the Report upon which we receive the Gospel being so Authentick so unexceptionable and likewise so confirmed by Matters of Fact still visible to us it amounts to as strong a Proof as if we had Evidence of Sense And I do in my Conscience believe that there is not a man in this Nation now stands out against the Religion of Jesus Christ but who would have done so if he had lived in the time of our Saviour and heard him preach the Gospel As for us who believe let us persevere in our Faith without wavering Our Faith is never the worse for not seeing Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed And as for those that do not believe their not seeing will be no excuse for them if our Saviour may be Credited For it was as well with respect to them that did not see as to them that did that he pronounced his Definitive Sentence when he sent out his Apostles to Preach his Religion Go saith he and preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned God give us all Grace to consider the things that belong to our Everlasting Peace That both all those who now oppose the Truth as it is in Christ Iesus may be converted from the Error of their ways and that all those who do own and profess it may adorn the Doctrine of God which he hath called them to by a pure holy and unblameable Life to the Glory of God and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls in the Day of our Lord Jesus To whom c. FINIS