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	power_n	principality_n	1,975	5	10.5828	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44395	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr Iohn Hales of Eton College &c.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677, engraver.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Balcanquhall, Walter, 1586?-1645.	1659 (1659)	Wing H269; ESTC R202306	285,104	329

unto our Saviour himself when he was in one of the Villages of Samaria Luke the ninth where the text notes that though he were in Samaria yet his face was set towards Hierusalem so beloved though these words be spoken to a Samaritane to an infidel to Pilate yet their face is toward Hierusalem they are a lesson directed to the subjects of his Spiritual Kingdom of that Hierusalem which is from above and is the Mother of us all In them we may consider two General parts First a Denuntiation and message unto us and Secondly a signe to confirme the truth of it For it is the manner and method as it were which God doth use when he dispatches a message to annex a signe unto it by which it may be known When he sent Moses to the Israelites in Egypt and Moses required a signe he gave him a signe in his hand in his Rod when he sent Gideon against Madian he gave him a signe in the Fleece of Wool which was upon the Floor when he sent the Prophet to Hieroboam to prophesie against the Altar in Bethel he gave him a signe that the Altar should rend and the ashes fall out when he sent Esay with a message to King Ahaz he gave him a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive So Beloved in these words There is a Message There is a Signe The first words are the Message My Kingdom is not of this world c. The next words For if it were then would my servants fight c. These are Moses rod and Gideons Fleece they are the signe which confirm the Message The first part is a general proposition or Maxime the second is an example and particular instance of it For in the first our Saviour distinguishes his Kingdome from the kingdomes of the world and from all the fashions of them In the second amongst many other he chuses one instance Wherein particularly he notes that his Kingdome is unlike to earthly kingdomes For the kingdoms of the world are purchased and maintain'd by violence and blood but so is not his The reason why our Saviour fastens upon this reason of dissimilitude and unlikeness is because in gaining and upholding temporal Kingdomes nothing so usual as the sword and war No Kingdome of the world but by the sword is either gotten or held or both The sword in a secular common wealth is like the rod in a School remove that away and men will take their liberty It is the plea which the Tarquins used to King Porsenna in Livie Satis libertatem ipsam habere dulcedinis nisi quantâ vi civitates eam expetant tantâ regna reges defendant aequare summa infimis adesse finem regnis rei inter Deos hominesque pulcherrimae The taste of liberty is so sweet that except Kings maintain their authority with as great violence as the people affect their liberty all things will run to confusion and Kingdomes which are the goodliest things in the world will quickly go to wrack when God gave a temporal Kingdome unto his own people he sent Moses and Joshua before them to purchase it with the sword when they were possest of this Kingdome he sends then Gideon and Sampson and David and many worthies more to maintain it by the sword But now being to open unto the world another kinde of Kingdome of rule and government then hitherto it had been acquainted with he tells us that he is a King of a Kingdome which is erected and maintained not by Joshua and David but by Peter and Paul not by the sword but by the spirit not by violence but by love not by striving but by yielding not by fighting but by dying Pilate had heard that he was a King It was the accusation which was fram'd against him that he bare himself as King of the Jews But because he saw no pomp no train no guard about him he took it but as an idle report To put him therefore out of doubt our Saviour assures him that he is a King but of such a Kingdome as he could not skill of My Kingdome is not of this world c. For the better unfolding of which words first we will consider what the meaning of this word Kingdome is for there lies an ambiguity in it Secondly we will consider what lessons for our instruction the next words will yield Not of this world first of this word Kingdome Our Saviour is a King three manner of wayes and so correlatively hath three distinct several Kingdomes He is first a King in the largest extent and meaning which can possibly be imagined and that is as he is Creator and absolute Lord of all creatures Of this Kingdome Heaven Earth and Hell are three large provinces Angels Men and Devils his very enemies every creature visible and invisible are subjects of this Kingdome The glory and strength of this Kingdome consists least of all in men and man is the weakest part of it For there is scarcely a creature in the world by whom he hath not been conquer'd When Alexander the great had travelled through India and over-run many large provinces and conquer'd many popular Cities when tidings came that his Soldiers in Greece had taken some small towns there he scorn'd the news and in contempt me thinks said he I hear of the battel of Frogs and mice Beloved if we look upon these huge armies of creatures and consider of what wonderful strength they are when the Lord summons them to battel all the armies of men and famous battels of which we have so large histories in the comparison of these what are they but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Homers tale a battel of Frogs and Mice Infinite legions of Angels attend him in Heaven and every Angel is an Armie one Angel in the Book of Kings is sent out against the army of the Assyrians and in one night foure-score thousand persons die for it Base and contemptible creatures when God calls for them are of strength to conquer whole Countreys He over-runs AEgypt with his armies of Frogs and Flies and Lice and before his own people with an armie of Hornets chases the Canaanites out of the Land Nay the dull and senseless elements are up in arms when God summons them He shoots his Hail-shot with his Hail-stones from Heaven he destroyes more of the Canaanites then the Israelites can with their swords As for his armies of fire and water what power is able to withstand them every creature when God calls is a soldier How great then is the glory of this Kingdome of which the meanest parts are invincible Secondly again our Saviour is a King in a more restrain'd and confin'd sense as he is in Heaven attended on by Angels and Arch-angels powers principalities and all the heavenly hosts For though he be omnipresent and fills every place both in Heaven and Earth yet Heaven is the Palace and Throne of this Kingdome there is he better seen and known there with

solemnity of words and ceremony Quaint witty and set forms of prayer proceed many times from ostentation more then devotion for any thing I know it requires not so much as the moving of the lips or tongue Nay one thing I know more that the most forcible prayer transcends and far exceeds all power of words For St. Paul speaking unto us concerning the most effectual kinde of prayer calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sighs and groans that cannot be expressed Nothing does crie so loud in the ears of God as the sighing of a contrite and earnest heart we read in the 14. of Exodus that God speaks unto Moses why cryest thou unto me command the children of Israel that they go forward yet there appears not in the text any prayer that Moses made or word that he spake It was the earnestness of Moses heart that was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that did so sound in the ears of the Lord. Wherefore true prayer hath no commerce with the outward members of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it requires not the voice but the minde not the stretching of the hands but the intension of the soul not any outward shape or carriage of body but the inward behaviour of the understanding●● how then can it slacken your worldly business and occasions to mix with them sighs and groans which are the most effectual kindes of prayer And let this suffice concerning the first meaning of the words I will briefly speak concerning the second meaning which I told you was the sense intended by the Holy Ghost when he wrote and it is an exhortation to a religious importunity in our prayers not to let our suits fall because they are not presently granted but never to leave solliciting till we have prevailed and so take the blessings of God by violence Gratissima vis This force this violence is a thing most welcome unto God for if the importunity of Esau's false feigned and malicious tears drew a blessing from his Father Isaac who yet had no greater store of blessings as it seems how much more shall the true religious importunity of zealous prayer pull a blessing out of the hands of God who is rich in blessings above the sands of the Sea in multitude It is the Courtiers rule that over modest suitors seldome speed Beloved we must follow the same rule in the Court of Heaven intempestive bashfulness gets nothing there Qui timide rogat docet negare Faint asking does invite a denial will you know the true name of the behaviour which prevails with God St. Luke in his 11. Chapter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Chrysostome speaking of the behaviour of the Canaanitish woman in the 25. of St. Matthew tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 improbity importunity impudency these be the names of that person behaviour which you must put on if you mean to prevail in your suits with God And indeed if we consider that habit and manner that God is wont to put on when his children do become suitors unto him how he puts on a rigid rough and untractable carriage even towards his dearest children even then when he means them most good we shall plainly see we must use such kinde of behaviour if we will prevail with him for the more effectually to express this demeanor of God toward his children and to assure us it is so and to teach us importunity our Saviour Christ that great Master of requests may seem to have done himself some wrong first by drawing in a manner odious comparisons and likening the behaviour of God in these cases to a slothful friend that is loath to leave his warm bed to do his friend a pleasure and here in my text to an unjust Judge that fears neither God nor man and secondly by his own behaviour toward the Canaanitish woman It is strange to observe how though he were the meekest person that ever was upon earth yet here he strives as it were to unnaturalize himself and lay by his natural sweetness of disposition almost to forget common humanity and puts on a kinde of sullen and surly person of purpose to deter her you shall not finde our Saviour in all the New Testament in such a mood so bent to contemn and vilifie a poor suitor St. Austine comparing together St. Matthew and Mark who both of them record the same story and gathering together the circumstances out of them both tells us that first she follows our Saviour in the street and that our Saviour takes house as it were to shelter himself from her but she comes after and throws her self at his feet and he as offended with her importunity again quits the house to be rid of her and all this while deigns her not a word If any behaviour could have dasht a suit and broken the heart of a poor suiter this had been enough but here 's not all we have a civil precept that if we be not disposed to pleasure a suiter yet to give him good words and shape him a gentle answer it is hard if we cannot afford a suiter a gentle wo●● We read of Tiberius the Emperour as I remember that he would never suffer any man to go sad and discontented from him yet our Saviour seems to have forgot this part of civility being importun'd to answer her gives her an answer worse then silence and speaks words like the piercing of a sword as Solomon speaks I may not take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs And yet after all this strange copie of countenance he fully subscribes to her request Beloved God hath not only exprest thus much in parables and practised these strange delays upon Canaanitish women but he hath acted it indeed and that upon his dearest Saints David one of the worthiest of his Saints yet how passionately doth he cry out How long Lord wilt thou forget me How long shall I seek counsel in my soul and be so vexed in my heart Not only the Saints on earth but even those in heaven do seem to partake in this demeanor of God we read in the book of the Revelation that when the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar cried out how long Lord just and holy dost thou not avenge our blood from off the earth they received this answer have patience yet a little while It is storyed of Diogenes that he was wont to supplicate to the statues and to hold out his hands and beg of them that so he might learn to brook and devour denial and tediousness of suit Beloved let us but meditate upon these examples which I have related and we shall not need to practice any of the Cynics art For if the Saints and blessed Martyrs have their suites so long depending in the Courts of Heaven then good reason that we should learn to brook delays and arm our selves with patience

more state and honour served and therefore more properly is his Kingdome said to be there And this is called his Kingdome of glory The rules and laws and admirable orders of which Kingdome could we come to see and discover it would be with us as it was with the Queen of Saba when she came to visit Solomon of whom the Scripture notes that when she heard his wisdome and had seen the order of his servants the attendance that was given him and the manner of his table There was no more Spirit left in her Beloved Dum Spiritus hos regit artus Whilest this Spirit is in us we cannot possibly come to discern the laws and orders of this Kingdome and therefore I am constrained to be silent Thirdly our Saviour is a King in a sense yet more impropriated For as he took our nature upon him as he came into the world to redeem mankinde and to conquer Hell and death so is there a Kingdome annext unto him A Kingdome the purchase whereof cost him much sweat and blood of which neither Angels nor any other creature are a part only that remnant of mankinde that Ereptus titio That number of blessed Souls which like a brand out of the fire by his death and passion he hath recovered out of the power of sin and all these alone are the subjects of that Kingdome And this is that which is called his Kingdome of Grace and which himself in Scripture every where calls his Church his Spouse his Body his Flock and this is that Kingdome which in this place is spoken of and of which our Saviour tells Pilate That it is not of this world My Kingdome is not of this world Which words at the first reading may seem to savour of a little imperfection for they are nothing else but a Negation or denial Now our Books teach us that a Negative makes nothing known for we know things by discovering not what they are not but what they are yet when we have well examin'd them we shall finde that there could not have been a speech delivered more effectual for the opening the nature of the Church and the discovery of mens errors in that respect For I know no error so common so frequent so hardly to be rooted out so much hindering the knowledg of the true nature of the Church as this that men do take the Church to be like unto the world Tully tells us of a Musician that being asked what the Soul was answered that it was Harmonie et is saith he à principiis artis suae non recescit He knew not how to leave the principles of his own art Again Plato's Schollers had been altogether bred up in Arithmetick and the knowledge of numbers and hence it came that when afterward they diverted their studies to the knowledge of Nature or Moral Philosophy wheresoever they walked they still feined to themselves some what like unto Numbers the world they supposed was fram'd out of numbers Cities and Kingdomes and Common-wealths they thought stood by numbers Number with them was sole principle and creator of every thing Beloved when we come to learn the quality and state of Christs Kingdome it fares much with us as it does with Tullies Musician or Plato's Schollers difficulter à principiis artis nostrae recedimus Hardly can we forsake those principles in which we have been brought up In the world we are born in it we are bred the world is the greatest part of our studie to the true knowledge of God and of Christ still we fancy unto us something of the world It may seem but a light thing that I shall say yet because it seems fitly to open my meaning I will not refrain to speak it Lucian when Priams young son was taken up into heaven brings him in calling for milk and cheese and such countrey cates as he was wont to eat on earth Beloved when we first come to the Table of God to heavenly Manna and Angels food it is much with us as it was with Priams young son when he came first into Heaven we cannot forget the milk and cheese and the gross diet of the world Our Saviour and his blessed Apostles had great and often experience of this error in men when our Saviour preach't to Nicodemus the doctrine of regeneration and new birth how doth he still harp upon a gross conceit of a re-entry to be made into his mothers womb When he preacht unto the Samaritane women concerning the water of life how hardly is she driven from thinking of a material Elementary water such as was in Jacobs well When Simon Magus in the Acts saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the Holy Ghost he offers them money to purchase himself the like power He had been trafficking and merchandizing in the world and saw what authority what a Kingdome money had amongst men he therefore presently conceited coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven and all would be had for money To teach therefore the young Courtier in the Court of Heaven that he commit no such Solecisms that hereafter he speak the true Language and dialect of God our Saviour sets down this as a principal rule in our Spiritual Grammar That his Court is not of this world Nay beloved not only the young Courtier but many of the old servants in the Court of Christ are stain'd with this error It is storied of Leonides which was School-master to Alexander the great that he infected his non-age with some vices quae robustum quoque jam maximum regem ab illa institutione puerili sunt prosecuta which followed him then when he was at mans estate Beloved the world hath been a long time a School-master unto us and hath stain'd our nonage with some of these spots which appear in us even then when we are strong men in Christ. When our Saviour in the Acts after his Resurrection was discoursing to his Disciples concerning the kingdom of God they presently brake forth into this question Wilt thou now restore the kingdom unto Israel Certainly this question betrays their ignorance their thoughts still ran upon a kingdom like unto the kingdoms of the world notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up Non est vestrum your question is nothing to the purpose the kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of kingdom then you conceive Sixteen hundred years Et quod Excurrit hath the Gospel been preached unto the world is this stain spunged out yet I doubt it whence arise those novel late disputes de notis Ecclesiae of the notes visibility of the Church Is it not from hence that they of Rome take the world the Church to be like Mercury and Sosia in Plautus his comaedies so like one another that one of them must wear a toy in his cap that so the spectators may distinguish them

whence comes it that they stand so much upon State and Ceremony in the Church Is it not from hence that they think the Church must come in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Luke speaks with a great deal of pompe and train and shew and vanity and that the service of God doth necessarily require this noise and tumult of outward State and Ceremony Whence comes it that We are at our wits ends when we see persecution and sword and fire to rage against the true professors of the Gospel Is it not because as these bring ruine and desolation upon the kingdoms of the world so we suppose they work no other effect in the kingdom of Christ all these conceits and many more of the like nature spring out of no other fountain then that old inveterate error which is so hardly wiped out of our hearts that the State of the Church and Kingdom of Christ doth hold some proportion Some likeness with the state and managing of temporal kingdoms wherefore to pluck out of our hearts Opinionem tam insitam tam vetustam a conceit so ancient so deeply rooted in us our Saviour spake most excellently most pertinently and most fully when he tells us that his Church that his Kingdom is not of this world In which words of his there is contained the true art of discovering and knowing the true nature and essence of the Church For as they which make Statues cut and pare away all superfluities of the matter upon which they work so our Saviour to shew us the true proportion and feature of the Church prunes away the world and all superfluous excrescencies and sends her to be seen as he did our first Parents in Paradice stark naked As those Elders in the Apocryphal story of Susanna when they would see her beauty commanded to take of her mask so he that longs to see the beauty of the Church must pull of that mask of the world outward shew For as Juda in the book of Genesis when Thamar sate vail'd by the way side knew not his daughter from an whore so whilst the Church the daughter and spouse of Christ sits vail'd with the world and pompe and shew it will be an hard matter to discern her from an harlot But yet further to make the difference betwixt these kingdoms the more plainly to appear and the better to fix it in your memories I will briefly touch some of these heads in which they are most notoriously differenced The first head wherein the difference is seen are the persons and subjects of this kingdom For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world so the subjects of this Kingdom are men of another world and not of this Every one of us bears a double person and accordingly is the subject of a double Kingdom The holy Ghost by the Psalmist divides heaven and earth betwixt God and man and tells us as for God he is in heaven but the earth hath he given to the children of men So hath the same spirit by the Apostle Saint Paul divided every one of our persons into heaven and earth into an outward and earthly man and into an inward and heavenly man This earth that is this body of clay hath he given to the sons of men to the Princes under whose government we live but heaven that is the inward and spiritual man hath he reserved unto himself They can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by edicts and laws they can tie our hands and our tongues Illa se jac●●et in aula AEolus Thus far they can go and when they are gone thus far they can go no farther But to rule the inward man in our hearts souls to set up an Imperial throne in our understandings wills this part of our government belongs to God to Christ These are the subjects this the government of his Kingdom men may be Kings of Earth bodies But Christ alone is the King of Spirits and Souls Yet this inward government hath influence upon our outward actions For the Authority of Kings over our outward man is not so absolute but that it suffers a great restraint It must stretch no further then the Prince of our inward man pleases for if secular Princes stretch out the skirts of their Authority to command ought by which our souls are prejudiced the King of Souls hath in this case given us a greater command That we rather obey God then men The second head wherein the difference betwixt these Kingdoms is seen is in their laws For as the kingdoms the lawgivers so are their laws very different First in their Authors the laws by which the Common-wealth of Rome was anciently govern'd were the works of many hands some of them were Plebiscita the the acts of the people others were Senatus-consulta the decrees of the Senate others Edicta Praetorum the verdict of their Judges others Responsa Prudentum the opinions of Wisemen in cases of doubt Others Rescripta Imperatorum the Rescripts and answers of their Emperors when they were consulted with But in the kingdom of Christ there are no Plebiscita or Senatus-consulta no people no Senate nor wisemen nor Judges had any hand in the laws by which it is governed Only Rescripta Imperatoris the Rescripts and Writs of our King run here these alone are the Laws to which the Subjects of this Kingdom owe obedience Again the Laws of both these kingdoms differ in regard of their quality and nature For the laws of the Kingdom of Christ are Eternal Substantial Indispensable but Laws made by humane authority are but light superficial and temporary For all the humane authority in the world can never enact one eternal and fundamental Law Let all the Laws which men have made be laid together and you shall see that they were made but upon occasion and circumstance either of time or place or persons in matters of themselves indifferent and therefore either by discontinuance they either fell or ceased of themselves or by reason of alteration of occasion and circumstance were necessarily revoked Those main fundamental Laws upon which all the Kingdoms of the world do stand against theft against murther against adultery dishonouring of Parents or the like they were never brought forth by man neither were they the effects of any Parliamentary Sessions they were written in our souls from the beginning long before there was any authority Regal extant among men The intent of him who first enacted them was not to found a temporal but to bring men to an eternal Kingdom and so far forth as they are used for the maintaining of outward state they are usurp'd or at the best but borrowed So that in this work of setling even the Kingdoms of this world if we compare the Laws of God with the Laws of men we shall finde that God hath as it were founded the palaces and castles and strength