Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	endure_v	mercy_n	verse_n	2,749	5	10.2875	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86269	Nine select sermons preached upon special occasions in the Parish Church of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. By the late reverend John Hewytt D.D. Together with his publick prayers before and after sermon.	Hewit, John, 1614-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing H1634A; ESTC R230655	107,595	276

to passe on in a way of sin casting all fear of danger behind us as if we were able to encounter devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burning especially when we consider but our own frame we cannot but know we are but dust and that which is our mould will soon decay and withal remembring our time is but short and the word redde rationem backt with a Thou fool may this night be given suddenly and then assuredly as the tree falls so it lies and in the same condition must we appear at Gods Tribunal Oh then with what circumspection should our actions be performed lest any evil or vicious habits should square themselves to joyn with us in our holiest Oblations because we pretend service to him whose power in a few words can write great Monarchs into trembling and can make a hair Adrian 4. or the kernel of a raisin as mortal as a Goliahs spear and can with ease blow down our bubling lives into nothing for the time is coming when not astuta verba but pura corda as Saint Bernard saith not fair words but honest hearts will prevail and commend us to him who judgeth all things for he will infatuate all fallacious wisdom and self-destroying wit For thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickedness nor shall any evil dwell with thee saith holy David Psal 5.4 So that Holiness is now the onely path that leads weary and wandring souls to the Paradise of Celestial Blisse all other wayes being severely kept against us by the flaming sword of Gods irreconcileable anger and hatred against sin and sinners for no unholy thing shall enter much lesse remain in the Holy City all such shall be cast out Rev. 21.27 A good nature like a shallow brook may empty it self into the narrow river of Humane love but perfect Holiness and real Sanctity is only that noble stream which carries the soul to Heaven and loses it in the Ocean of infinite Blisse You may for a time sport your selves with the fire of lustful pleasures but ere you are aware the flame thereof will not onely sindge your gilded wings of ambitious desires which so long bore you up with the breath of popular applause but also consume your soul and body in endless woe and misery for when God shall come in flaming fire he will render vengeance to all that are ungodly not enduring longer to have the cry of our sins to come up before him and therefore holy David well considered this Meditation when he broke forth with the words of my Text If thou Lord will be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it In which words we have already considered two general parts 1 An Antecedent 2 A consequent Or if you will here is 1 The Thesis 2 The Hypothesis In the first you have Gods extremity in punishing In the second you have mans misery in suffering for he saith If thou Lord be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it From which sacred concession we have enedavoured to wind up the sum and substance of holy Davids intention into these four bottoms or doctrinal conclusions viz. 1 It is the corruption of mans nature to do amiss 2 God is not alwayes extreme to punish man when he hath done amiss 3 God can when he pleases be extreme in punishing man when he hath done amiss 4 If God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering Thus far our general division hath had its equal course and our progress in the dispatch of these truths hath but quitted the first and made entrance upon the second which together with the two latter acompanied with your patience shall at this time terminate my hours discourse And that I may with the more benefit to your understanding proceed therein I shall onely lead your memories back to the second conclusion namely Doct. 2 The mercy of God is such he will not alwaies be extreme to mark what 's done amiss Examples of Gods patience and long forbearance have no where such lively representations as in our selves whose unconsumed lives are nothing else but a series of continued mercy nor is there any rational account to be rendred for the same save onely that it is the good will of him that dwelleth in the bush whose glory is not to be given to another and that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy c. Which he doth 1 For his name sake Exodus 34.6 2 For his natures sake which is alwaies prone to shew mercy 3 For his glories sake and that 1 In general 2 In particular 1 In general it is the constant language of holy Scripture as you have already heard 2 In particular he is not extreme for his Glory sake which is great in many respects I In respect of his judgements for they are his strange work and never had he felicity in executing the same but with an unwilling willingness is alwayes constrained to visit for the sins whether of nations cities or particular persons witness his sending the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel his low condescention to Abraham when he became Advocate for Sodom and his own tears over Ierusalems approching ruine yea and witness the repentings that were kindled in his bowels for revolting Ephraim but mercy is his delight because he waits to be gracious 2 Great in respect of time for the mercy of God endures for ever in Ps 136. As his power is unlimited so neither can bounds be set to his mercy sun and moon heaven and earth these all have their periods but the rich treasure of Gods mercy shall have no end I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandement is exceeding broad saith holy David Ps 119.96 All the attributes of God like himself are from everlasting to everlasting 3 Great in extent of place for his mercy reaches unto the clouds Psal 36.6 7. Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great mountains thy judgements are as a great deep Lord c. Gods extended grace makes its full appearance not onely in delivering from danger but in supplying our wants not onely in saving our bodies from temporal evils but in redeeming our souls from eternal damnation for with him is great deliverance 4 Great in extent of plenty for God is rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 But God saith the Apostle who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us c. as if St. Paul had spoke his mind in larger phrases thus You are poor and needy you want blessings temporal and spiritual and know not whither to flee for succour and supply so that the narrowness of your hearts imagines Gods free hand is straitned but let no such scruple bear rule in your minds for with God is so great a treasure of grace as never can be exhausted

Cherubims seated upon the Ark of Gods glory cast continually their unspotted eyes upon the rotten raggs of Humane frailty aiming still at mans felicity How else could dust and ashes expect continued life from such dry bones as was and is still the foundation of mans body for should Heavens propitious eye glance forth nothing but renewed smiles upon our actions and mercy alwayes sit hovering over our Tabernacles we should quickly ingulf our spirits in the bottome of miserable security or on the contrary should but the direful hand of Omnipotency it self draw forth his glittering sword against our weak resistance unto what a paralytick posture would such an appearance strike us as coming from him whose very breath can speak us into nothing Oh then with what bowed knees and humble hearts should every soul of us kiss the very remembrance of a Iesus coming not onely to save them that believe but to work a present reconcilememt betwixt the Justice and Mercy of God the Father that now the one as well as the other or rather with united consent both together may conspire and joyn issue in the great work of mans redemption for could your drowsie spirits but lend an ear to the pleasant dialogue that continually passes betwixt these glorious Attributes now you should hear Justice calls for the Sanctuaries ballance to weigh all the actions of the sons of men and with a Mene Mene Tekel c. finde such dusty performances of no validity in Heavens account and so poor we being in Adam wilfully lost are now necessarily fallen short of immortal bliss Thus is our sentence irrecoverable and no door of hope left for our escape till Mercy that eternal beam of love stand forth and present the all-sufficient merit of a dying Saviour as full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world pleading that faithful covenant made by Justice it self that whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life Which faith is the golden pillar that bears up the stately structure of mans everlasting glory the only hand by which the promises of a better life are made ours the sure entail by which the inheritance purchased in common is become mine in particular it is the onely voice by which holy David could make an echo that would reach from the lowest deeps to the highest Heavens Out of the deeps have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice as you may see verse the first of this Psalme nay it is the very nerve and sinewe of all pious Devotion for if you peruse the whole Psalme you will find it is nothing else but a rehearsal of religious petitions and serious exhortations In his petitions you 'l find his soul big with holy affiance spiritual confidence grounded on Gods word promising and his own Experience tasting In his Exhortations like a faithful Physician he prescribes nothing but what is attested to with his own and others Probatum est making mercy both the beginning and the end the principal and the final cause of Happiness but in both he keeps the eye of humility placed upon the raggs of mans unworthiness as justly demeriting eternal wrath were God exact in remunerating our actions for so he closes up the summe of his requests in the words of my Text If thou Lord wilt be extreme to marke what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it In which words please to consider two general parts 1 An antecedent in these words If thou Lord be extreme to marke what is done amiss 2. A Consequent in the other words who can abide it Or if you will look on them 1 In the Thesis 2 In the Hypothesis 1 In the Thesis wherein you have Gods extremity in punishing 2 In the Hypothesis There you have mans misery in suffering And now my Text in its situation is not unlike a pleasant Grove presenting to your view variety of pleasant Trees each bough thereof being richly laden with delicious goodly fruit not onely delightful to the eye but beneficial to the Taste or if you will your Conceptions may behold most costly Arras enriched with the lively story of Gods bounty and mans felicity mutually interwoven in the same peece but if you list to change the scene and have the true parts more neerly acted you may gain a precious enterview of Gods omnipotency displayed in its several Dispensations and management of Humane affairs where Justice and Mercy the twins of royalty discovering on the one Hand Gods free benevolence in bestowing and mans utter unworthiness for so large a guerdon on the reverse parts your sight is presented with the Almighties just severity in punishing together with mans reaping misery the true fruit of his sin In fine that I may unbowel this sacred writ take the substance thereof distilled into these four observations 1 It s the Corruption of mans nature to do amiss 2 God is not alwaies extreme to marke and punish what 's done amiss 3 God can when he pleases be extreme in marking and punishing what is done amiss 4 If God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering These are the four streams that naturally run their division from this pleasant spring that voluntarily tenders its silver drops to refresh the heart of every pious Christian which makes me beg your patience and zealous attention whilst in order I make these glorious truths to pass before the spiritual eye of your intelligent souls And first of the First namely It s the corrupt nature of man to do amiss As its the nature of man to be doing so it s the corruption of that nature to be doing amiss and though God see and observe all the actions of discomposed and distempered man yet it s onely the obliquity of those actions his severity intends to reward with punishment for every action simply considered in it self is good and no way meriting unspeakable torment but every such action contracts eternal guilt as performed by and prersisted in of sinful man whose customary nature and naturall custome is to do evil for as things are in being so they are in operation Can a man gather grapes of thornes or figgs of thissles saith our Blessed Saviour Or can any man bring a clean thing out of an unclean was the question put by holy Iob. Ever since man eat the forbidden fruit man himself hath become a barren tree and cumbred the ground for ever since man voluntarily fell man hath been under a necessity of sin a necessity I say proceeding not from Gods peremptory decree but his feeble and corrupted will for its a voluntary necessity should I set open the door of this defiled cage and present to your view the misery lapsed mans unhappiness hath reduced him to or give you but a glimpse of those polluted birds whose habitation is in the house of every soul by nature or but read a Lecture of mans depraved condition I could do it in no other language then that of