Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	enter_v	righteousness_n	scribe_n	2,630	5	11.0710	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61882	Fourteen sermons heretofore preached IIII. Ad clervm, III. Ad magistratvm, VII. Ad popvlvm / by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1657 (1657)	Wing S605; ESTC R13890	499,470	466

estates We are apt to offend both ways If we see a man overtaken with some gross scandalous sin as Drunkennesse Adultery Oppression or Perjury but especially if he live long therein by and by he is a Reprobate with us or at least he is not yet in the state of Grace Thus we speak thus we judge but we consider not the whilst how far and how long God in his holy wisdom may suffer foul temptations to prevail against his chosen ones On the other side if we see a man forward in the duties of Religion charitably affected to the poor just and upright in his dealings with men stoutly opposing against common corruptions suffering for the profession of the truth by and by he is a Saint with us and we stick not sometimes in our folly to wish that our souls might speed as that mans soul at a venture But we consider not the whilst how far the force of Natural Conscience and common Moral Grace if you will allow me to speak so improperly may lead a man onward unto all outward performances who was yet never effectually called nor truly sanctified And yet busie fools that we are we cannot keep our selves in our own bounds but we must be medling with Gods prerogative and thrusting our selves in his chair and be judging of our brethren whose hearts we are so far from knowing as that we are scarce well acquainted with our own But what have we to doe either with one or other what lawfull commission have we at all to judge or what certain evidence have we whereby to judge Infallible signes we cannot have from any outward things either of the want or of the having of grace in other men yet of the two farre more pregnant probabilities of the want than of the having of grace Because there may be such an open course held in evill things as we may justly doubt whether such a course can stand with grace or no whereas there cannot be any course held in good things outwardly but such as may stand with Hypocrisie What are we then to do Even this to use the judgement of Probability hoping with cheerfulnesse that there is grace where we see comfortable signes of it and to use the judgement of Charity still hoping the best though not without some fear that there may be Grace where we see fearefull signes of the want of it But for the judgement of Infallibility either pro or con what sinfull man dareth challenge that unto himself unlesse it be that man of sin who hath nestled himself higher than into Peters Chair into the Throne of God sitting in the Temple of God and there determining as God and with his breath damning and sainting whom he listeth But let him go and let this be our direction in this point Think we comfortably where we see no reason to the contrary hope we charitably even where we do see some reason to the contrary But judge we neither way peremptorily and definitively whatsoever probabilities we see either way sith we know not how farr a sanctified believer may fall into the snares of sin nor how farr a gracelesse Hypocrite may go in the shew of Godlinesse That is the third Use. The last and main Inference is for self-tryall For if a man may go thus farr and yet be an Hypocrite be a Cast-away it will concern every one of us as we desire to have comfortable both assurance of present Grace that we are not hypocrites and hope of future Glory that we are not Cast-awayes so to be district in making Tryall whether those Graces that seem to be in us be true or but counterfeit and whether the acts thereof be fruits of sincerity or but of hypocrisie Let us not therefore flatter our selves or be too jolly upon it if we find in our selves some shewes of Godlinesse but let us rather labour to find out whether there be in us the power and life of Godlinesse or no. For there is a kind of righteousnesse such as it is an outward formall righteousnesse in Scribes and Pharisees and Hypocrites but that will not serve the turn Unlesse our righteousnesse exceed theirs we shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Beloved Hypocrisie is spun of a fine threed and is not easily discernable without very diligent Examination And things are not to be measured by the outward shew or by the lump and bulk but by an exacter rule whether they be true or no. Doest thou hear the word of God with Ioy doest thou bewail thy sins with teares doest thou avoid grosse sinnes with care doest thou oppose against common corruptions with zeal These are indeed comfortable signes but no infallible evidences of Grace for what is there in all this which Ahab and Saul and Herod and Iudas and other Hypocrites either have not or might not have done But if not by these fruits by what other means then may a man come to know the sanctification of his heart and the sincerity of these affections Divines in their Treatises and Writings have set down sundry notes and marks whereby to make this tryall but I would especially commend to your observation two only out of all that variety which two are indeed as good as a thousand namely Integrity and Constancy for these two are never in the Hypocrite First for Integrity The Hypocrite we heard might go far in hearing in believing in sorrowing in reforming in suffering but his affections herein for so much as they spring not from true Faith the conscience of that Obedience he oweth to God but from other respects are partial in all those Duties and carry him so farr only as those false grounds which first gave motion to those affections lead him and no farther He receiveth the word with joy so farr as it tickleth the ear with choicenesse of phrase and variety of elocution so far as it sitteth with his humour and keepeth fair and farr off from medling with his bosome sinne but he is not equally delighted with every part and with every point of Gods word and truth If the right string be touched if his sweet darling-sinne be stirred that is harsh to him he findeth no musick in that rubb him where he is galled and he kicketh at it Herod heard Iohn Baptist gladly and did many things willingly but when his incestuous marriage was medled withall then the Fox was uncased and the Hypocrite appeared in his own colours and the Baptist lost first his liberty and then after his head for his labour And the young man when Christ told him what he must do to inherit eternal life in the general Keep the Commandements c. was no doubt a jolly jocund man All these have I kept from my youth up but when Christ hitteth him home and presseth upon his particular corruption One thing is wanting c. this nipped him in the head and strook

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the whole counsel of God In my Application of this Instance and Case blame me not if I do it with some reference to my self Being heretofore by appointment as now again I was to provide my self for this place against such a meeting as this is as in my conscience I then thought it needful for me I delivered my mind and I dare say the Truth too for substance something freely touching the Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church And I have now also with like freedome shewed the unlawfulnesse of the late disorderly attempts in this Town and that from the ground of my present Text. I was then blamed for that I think unjustly for I do not yet see what I should rerract of that I then delivered and it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this unless I prevent it You have heard now already both heretofore that to judge any mans heart and at this time that to slander any truth are without repentance sins justly damnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that offend either in the one or the other their damnation is just To preserve therefore both you from the sin and my self from the blame consider I pray you with reason and charity what I shall say You that are our hearers know not with what hearts we speak unto you that is onely known to our own hearts and to God who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which you are to look at and to regard is with what truth we speak unto you So long as what we preach is true agreeable to Gods Word right reason you are not upon I know not what light surmizes or suspicions to judge with what spirits or with what dispositions of heart we preach Whether we preach Christ of envy and strife or of good will whether sincerely or of contention whether in pretence or in truth it is our own good or hurt we must answer for that and at our perill be it if we do not look to that But what is that to you Notwithstanding every way so long as it is Christ and his truth which are preached it is your part therein to rejoice If an Angel from Heaven should preach any untruth unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him be accursed but if the very Devil of hell should preach the truth he must be heard and believed and obeyed So long as Scribes and Pharisees hold them to Moses's Text and Doctrine let them be as damned Hypocrites as Scribes and Pharisees can be yet all whatsoever they bid you observe that you are to observe and do Let me then demand Did I deliver any untruth It had been well done then to have shewn it that I might have acknowledged and retracted it Did I speak nothing but the truth with what conscience then could any that heard me say as yet I heard some did that I preached factiously That I came to cast bones among them That I might have chosen a fitter Text That I might have had as much thanks to have kept away For Faction I hate it my desire and aim next after the good of your souls was above all the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Brethren For casting bones if that must needs be the phrase they were cast in these parts long before my coming by that great enemy to peace and unity and busie sower of discord the Devil otherwise I should not have found at my first coming such snarling about them and such biting and devouring one another as I did My endeavour was rather to have gathered up the bones and to have taken away the matter of difference I mean the errour in judgement about and inconformity in practice unto the lawfull Ceremonies of the Church that so if it had been possible all might h●ve been quiet without despising or judging one another for these things For thanks I hold not that worth the answering alas it is a poor aim for Gods Minister to preach for thanks For the choyce of my Text and Argument both then and now how is it not unequall that men who plead so as none more for liberty and plainness in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeale to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as neer as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common errour of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some mis-guided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandall taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill fruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in minde and to admonish you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpits should a little eccho of these things when all the Countrey far and neer ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my Conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hîc nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other if for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the generall and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandall or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should