Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	exceed_v	righteousness_n	scribe_n	2,764	5	11.0489	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29687	The crovvn & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered in LVIII sermons from Heb. 12. 14, where you have the necessity, excellency, rarity, beauty and glory of holiness set forth, with the resolution of many weighty questions and cases, also motives and means to perfect holiness : with many other things of very high and great importance to all the sons and daughters of men, that had rather be blessed then cursed, saved then damned / by Thomas Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1662 (1662)	Wing B4939; ESTC R36378	584,294	672

full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisie and iniquity They were outwardly religious but inwardly vitious they had the semblance of sanctity but inwardly very full of impurity They were fair Professors but foul Sinners they were gracious without but impious within Look as they are the worst of vices that are covered over with the shew of vertue so they are the worst of sinners that cover over their inward filthiness under the vizards of outward holiness The Egyptian Temples were fair without but foul and filthy within such were the Scribes and Pharisees in Christs days and such are many professors in our dayes It is said of Dionysius the Tyrant that though he loved not the Philophers yet he would wrap himself up in their cloaks that men might have the better opinion of him So there be many that put on an outward dress of holiness that wrap themselves up in the cloak of holiness that so others may take them for holy persons and yet they love not holiness they have nothing of real honliess in them but as he is not a Jew which is one outwardly Romans 2.28 29. Cha. 4.12 but not inwardly so he is not a holy person who is only so outwardly but not inwardly that hath the name of holiness upon him but hath no principles of holiness in him though without outward visible holiness no man shall see the Lord yet a man may have an outward visible holiness that shall never see the Lord in happiness I hate him even to hell saith the Heathen in Homer that saith one thing with his mouth and thinketh another thing in his heart So God will at last hate that man to hell Mat 23.14 2 Tim. 3.5 1 Cor. 7.19 Philip. 3.3 Gal. 5.6 Chap. 6.15 yea cast him into the hottest place in hell that hath a form of godliness upon him but nothing of the reality and power of holiness in him Outward holiness is good but it must be throughout-holiness that will do a man good to all eternity It is not the shews but the substance of holiness that will bring a man to everlasting happiness Meer outward holiness will certainly leave a man short of heaven and happiness but throughout-holiness will certainly lodge the soul in the bosome of God for ever It is true all men reach not to an outward holiness which made Athanasius wish Vtinam omnes essent Hypocritae Would to God that all were hypocrites Without all peradventure it is a very desireable thing that all were outwardly holy yet all that reach to this must go farther or else they will sit down on this side happiness Mat. 5.20 For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven Now they were much in works of Piety in works of Charity in works of Equity and in works of Curtesie by which means they gained so much upon the hearts of the people that it was commonly conceited and voted among them that if there were but two of all the world that should go to heaven the one should be a Scribe and the other a Pharisee Yet your righteousness must exceed theirs or the gates of glory will be shut upon you Their righteousness and holiness was only external not internal it was partial not universal it was rather circumstantial then substantial and therefore Heavens doors were double-bolted against them Heaven is for that man and that man is for heaven that is not only outwardly holy but throughout holy Fourthly There is a Relative holiness now Relative holiness is a special relation which persons or things have unto God Relative holiness includes two things First A separation of persons or things from common use and thus in the Law Deut. 19.2 1 Kings 8.35 Ezra 8.28 Chap. 10 11. Isa 63.18 those things were called holy which were separated from common use and set apart for the Worship and Service of God As the Oyl Shewbread First-fruits Incense Altars Vestments and in this sense the Priests and Levites were called holy because they were separated from others to serve in the Tabernacle And in this sense the people of Israel are frequently called a sanctified people a holy people c. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which commonly signifies that which is appropriated to a holy use and this is the proper notion of holiness in the Old and New Testament as I might shew you out of some hundred places of Scripture Now certainly without this holiness of special separation from the common conversation of the world there is no seeing of God nor no fruition of God hereafter 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty God will have no communion with any in this world that are not separated from the sinfull practises of the world God will look upon none he will own none he will delight in none he will acknowledge none he will receive none for his sons and daughters but such as are separated from all evil vices and unholy courses Suitable to this is Isa 52.11 Depart ye depart ye go ye out from thence touch no unclean things go ye out of the midst of her Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Estrange your selves from them that are estranged from God Cicero though Heathen had rather to have no companion then a bad one have nothing to do with them that have nothing to do with God separate your selves from them who have separated themselves from God have no delightfull converse with them who have no delightfull converse with God have no bosome communion with them that have no bosome communion with God Oh Sirs you are to keep your selves as pure and clean from others defilements as you would keep your selves free from others punishments He that will imitate others in their sins shall certainly participate with others in their sorrows It is true we may live with wicked men in their Cities but it is as true we must not lie with wicked men in their enormities There are many professors that are like the Planet Mercury good in conjunction with those that are good and bad with those that are bad but these wound many at once God Christ the Gospel and their own credits and consciences These do virtutis stragulam pudefacere put virtue to an open shame And these are deservedly to be shamed by your separating from them and by your renouncing all intimate communion or fellowship with them But Secondly As Relative holiness takes in a separation of persons or things from common

state of darkness or in a state of light you are in a state of life or in a state of death you are in a state of love or in a state of wrath you are either Goats or Sheep Sons or Slaves you are either in the broad way to destruction or in the narrow way of salvation and therefore what can be of greater concernment in this world to you then to know in which of these two spiritual estates you are in How can you order aright your prayers or your praises or any religious services till you come to know in which of these two spiritual estates you stand whether you be in a state of nature or in a state of grace in a state of sin or in a state of holiness for all religions duties must be ordered according to mens spiritual estates If a man be in a state of nature his work lies one way if he be in a state of holiness his work lies another way By all which it is most evident that it very nearly concerns you to search and try whether you have this bird of Paradise Holiness in your bosoms or no And for a close let me say that a mistake about your spiritual estate will at last be found not only insufferable and inexcusable but very terrible and damnable Thirdly Consider That a cordial willingness to enter upon this work of tryal is a hopefull evidence of your real integrity and sanctity Unsanctified souls hate the light they had rather go to hell in the dark then come to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary As pure gold fears neither fire nor furnace neither test nor touchstone John 3.20 neither one ballance nor another so a pure heart a sanctified soul dares venture it self upon tryal yea Job 31.5 6. Psalm 26 2. Psalm 139 23 24. Matth. 12.20 upon the very tryal of God For he knows that God never brings a pair of scales to weigh his graces but only a touchstone to try the truth of his graces he knows if his gold be true though it be never so little it will pass for current with God As Bankrupts care not for casting up their accounts because they know all is naught very naught stark naught with them so unsanctified souls they care not to come to the tryal to the test because they know that all is naught yea worse then naught with them They have no mind to cast up their spiritual estates because at the foot of the account they must be p●t to read their neck-verse Undone undone for ever undone And therefore as old deformed women cannot indure to look into the looking-glass least their wrinckles and deformity should be discovered so unsanctified souls cannot endure to look into the glass of the Gospel least their deformities impieties and wickednesses should be discovered and detected I have read of the Elephant how unwilling he is to go into the water but when he is forced into it he puddles it lest by the clearness of the stream he should discern his own deformity So unholy persons are very unwilling to look into their own hearts or into the clear streams of Scripture lest their souls deformity and ugliness should appear to their own terror and amazement And therefore as you would have a hopefull evidence of your integrity and sanctity fall upon this work of tryal For as it is a hopeful evidence that the Clyents cause is good when he is ready and willing to enter upon a tryal and as it is a hopefull sign that a mans gold is true gold when he is willing to bring it to the touchstone and that a man thrives when he is willing to cast up his books so it is a hopeful evidence that a Christian hath real holiness Gal. 6.4 5. when he is ready and willing to bring his holiness to the test to try whether it be true or no when he is willing to cast up his books that he may see what he is worth for another world Fourthly Consider that there are very many that deceive themselves about their spiritual estates Job 15.34 Prov. 30.12 It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself there are those that do but think that they stand 1 Cor. 10.12 and these at last come to fall from their seeming standing into a real hell Matthew 23. Yea from their highest standing into the lowest hell There are many that think themselves to be something when they are nothing Gal. 6.3 There are many that have a form of godliness Isaiah 9.17 Chap. 29.13 Jer. 7.4 8 9 10 11. Rev. 3.16 17 18. Isa 65.2.3 4 5 Matthew 25. but none of the power 2 Tim. 3.6 There are many that have a name to live but are dead Rev. 3.1 There are many that are very confident of their integrity and yet are full of horrible hypocrisie There are many that carry the Lamps of profession that have no oyle of grace in their hearts There are many that take a good nature for grace civility for sanctity and a garb of godliness for real holiness yea there are those who dare say that they excell others in holiness when in truth they exceed most men in wickedness Yea there are many now in hell who have had a great confidence of going to heaven There are many that cry out with Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past wrath is past and hell is past and damnation is past when as vengeance is ready to fall on them and hell stands gaping to devour them The heart of man is full of self-love full of self-flattery and full of hypocrisie and therefore many a man who is only a Jew outwardly Rom. 2.28 29. thinks himself to be a Jew inwardly many a man thinks himself to be as good a Christian as the best and to be as happy as the best and to be as fair for heaven as the best till he comes to hear that tormenting word Depart I know ye not As many are kept off from Christ by a conceit that they have him already so many are kept off from holiness by a conceit that they have it already And therefore it doth very much concern you to make a diligent enquiry whether you have that holiness without which there is no happiness or no. I have read of Plato that when he did walk in the streets if he saw any disordered in speech disguised in drink or otherwise our of frame he would say to himself Num ego talis Am I such a one as this is Am I such a swearer as this is Am I such a drunkard as this is Am I such a wanton as this is Am I such a royotous person as this c. So should every Christian say when he hears of any that doth but think that they stand Num ego talis Am I such a one as this is When he sees one that thinks himself something when he is nothing he should say Am

blessed book and that think to correct the divine wisdom and eloquence with their own infancy and sophistry Non quanta eloquentia sed quanta evidentia saith Aug. Melius est ut nos reprehendant Grammatici quam ut non intelligúnt populi the same Author in Psalm 138. Such as mind more saith another the humouring of their hearers fancies then the saving of their souls do little consider that of Seneca Aeger non quaerit medicum eloquentem sed sanantem Sick men are not bettered by Physitians sugared words but by their skilful hands Doctor Sibbs was wont to say That great affectation and good affection seldom go together Truth is like Solomons Spouse all glorious within she is most beautiful when most naked as Adam was in innocency The King of Persia having sent to Antalcidas the Lacedemonian Captain a Garland of Roses wonderfully perfumed with Spices and other sophistications he accepted of his love but misliked the present and sent him word Rosarum odorem artis adulteratione perdidisti Thou hast marred the sweetness of the Roses with the sweetness of thy perfumes So many marr the sweetness of the Word by perfuming it with their humane eloquence and oratory For a close remember that God himself the great Master of speech when he spake from heaven he made use of three several Texts in a breath Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved son Psalm 2.7 In whom I am well pleased Isaiah 42.1 Hear ye him Deut. 18.15 which you may note against the curious queasiness of such nice ones as disdain at the stately plainness of the Scriptures But Christus opera nostra non tam actibus quam finibus pensat Zanchius Thirdly If thou dost really and actually aim at the glory of God in what thou dost then the glory of God will swallow up all by-aimes and ends that may thrust themselves in upon the soul whilest it is at its work Look as Aarons rod Exod. 7.10 11 12. swallowed up the Magicians rods so the glory of God will swallow up all carnal aims and ends Look as the Sun puts out the light of the fire so the glory of God will put out and consume all other ends This is most certain That which is a mans great end that will work out all other ends If thou settest up the glory of God as thy chief end that will by degrees eat out all low and base ends Look as Pharaohs lean kine Gen. 41.4 eat up the fat so the glory of God will eat up all those fat and worldly ends that croud in upon the soul in religious work The keeping up of the glory of God as thy great end will be the keeping down and the casting out of all other ends Fourthly He that really and actually aims at the glory of God in what he doth he will be doing what God commands Rom. 16.19 Obedientia non discutit Dei mandata sed facit Prosper though nothing for the present comes of it If his eye be truly fixed upon divine glory a command of God shall be enough to carry him on in his work Psalm 27.8 When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek When the glory of God is a mans mark his heart will sweetly eccho and graciously comply with divine commands Jer. 3.22 Return ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Gods commands fall with great power and force upon that mans heart that hath divine glory in his eye One word from God will command such a soul to a gracious compliance with what God requires Psalm 119.4 5. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes As soon as God laies a command upon a Christian he look Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est Austin The whole life of a good Christian is a holy wish up to heaven for power to turn that precept into practice O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes O that I were as holy as God would have me to be O that I were as humble and lowly as God would have me to be O that I were as heavenly and spiritual as God would have me to be O that I were as pure and perfect as God would have me to be So ver 48. My hands will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved Many there be which thrust away with all their might thy Commandments but I lift up my hands to thy Commandments Many there be that will strain themselves to take a comfort Prior est Autoritas imperantis quam utilitas servientis Tertul. The chief reason of obedience is the Authority of the Lord not the utility of the servant but I strain my self to lift up thy Commandments Many there are who will stretch out their hands to take a reward but I stretch out my hands to take hold on thy Commandments To give a little more light into these words Sometime the lifting up of hands betokens admiration when men are astonished and ravished they lift up their hands I will lift up my hands to thy Commandments that is I will admire the goodness the holiness the righteousness the purity and excellency of thy Commandments Again we lift up our hands when we betake our selves to refuge why Gods commands are the Saints refuge when they house and shelter themselves under the wings of Gods commands they are safe Again men lift up their hands when they take hold on a thing now gracious souls do take hold on Gods Commandments to do them to practise them and to express the life and power of them Again men lift up their hands to those things that are high and above them now the commands of God are high they are sublime they are above us they are sublime and high in regard of their original they come down from God they are sublime and high in regard of the matter of them they are heavenly Oracles they are dictates of divine wisdom they are sublime and high in regard of the difficulty of keeping of them they exceeding all humane strength and they are sublime and high in regard of their scituation they are scituated in heaven Thy word saies David endures for ever in heaven but yet as sublime and as high as they are a man that hath his eye upon divine glory will lift up his hands unto them he will do all he can to express the pleasure that he takes in them and the readiness of his soul to a holy compliance with them Compare these Scriptures together Psalm 44.12 20. Can. 3.1 2 3. Isa 26.8 9. chap. 59.8 9 10 11. Hab. 2.1 2 3. Micha 7.7 8 9. Lam. 3.8 44. compared with ver 24 25 26 31 32 40 41 55. A man that hath his eye upon divine glory he will keep close to his work to his hearing

and large Tophet is the name of a place in the valley lying on the South side of Jerusalem Josh 18.16 Now in this vale stood Tophet wherein the Idolatrous Jews used to burne their children in sacrifice to the Idol Moloc and it had that name from the Drums or Tabrets that their Idolatrous Priests used to beat upon at the time of their detestable services to drowne the hideous shrieks and lamentable cryes of the poore sacrificed children the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a streame of Brimstone doth kindle it Alas the Brick-kilns of Egypt and the Furnace of Babel were but as a blaze of straw to this Tormenting Tophet that has been prepared of old for the great and mighty ones of the earth Oh how dreadfull must that fire be that is prepared by God himselfe and that is kindled by the breath of the Lord and that shall never be quenched and yet such is the fire that is prepared for the great and mighty ones of the world O! the easeless the endless the remediless the unsufferable and yet the inevitable Torments that are prepared for those that are great and graceless in hell their wanton eyes shall be tormented with ugly and fearefull sights of ghastly Spirits and their ears that us'd to be delighted with all delightfull musick shall now be filled with the hideous cryes howlings and yellings of Devills and damned Spirits and their tongues of blasphemy shall now be tormented with drought and thirst and though with the Glutton they cry out for a drop to coole their tongues yet Justice will deny them drops who have denyed others crums and their hands of bribery cruelty and tyranny shall now be bound with everlasting chaines and so shall their feete which were once swift to shed innocent blood In a word their torments shall be universall they shall extend to every member of the body and to every faculty of the soul Ah Sirs fire sword famine prisons Racks and all other torments that men can invent are but as flea-bitings to those Scorpions but as drops to those vials of wrath and but as sparks to those eternal flames that all unsanctified persons shall lye under Look as the least joy in heaven infinitely surpasseth the greatest comforts on earth so the least torments in hell doe infinitely exceed the greatest that can be devised here on earth for a close remember this as there are degrees of glory in heaven so there are degrees of torment in hell and as those that are most eminent in grace and holiness Math. 10.15 Chap. 11.22 Luke 12.47 48. shall have the greatest degrees of glory in heaven so those that are most vile and wicked on earth shall have the greatest degrees of torments and punishments in hell Now common experience tells us that the rich the great the high the honorable and the mighty ones of the world are usually the most excelling in all wickedness and ungodliness and therefore their condemnation will be the greater they shall have a hotter and a darker hell then others except they labour after this holiness which will be their only fence against hell and their sure path to heaven But Sixthly and lastly of all men on earth the rich the great and the honorable will be found most inexcusable The poore and the mean ones of the earth will plead their want of time and want of means and want of opportunities they will be ready to say Psal 127.1 2. Lord we have rise earely and gon to bed late we have labour'd and sweate and droyl'd and all little enough to get bread to eate and cloaths to weare As the poore people on the Northerne borders when to suppress their Theeveries some prest upon them the eighth Commandement they to excuse themselves replied that that Commandement was none of Gods making but thrust into the Decalogue by King Henry the eighth and to keep the Sargeant from the doore and to pay every man his own had we had but the time the meanes the advantages that such and such Gentlemen have had and that such and such Nobles have had and that such and such Princes have had c. O how would we have minded holiness and studied holiness and prest after holiness but seeing it has been otherwise with us we hope Lord we may be excused but what excuse will you be able to make O ye great ones of the earth who have had time and opportunities and all advantages imaginable to make your selves holy and happy for ever and yet you have trifled away your golden seasons and forgotten the one thing necessary and given your selves up to the lusts and vanities of this world as if you were resolv'd to be damn'd Let me a little allude to that John 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak or excuse for their sin So will God one day say to the great ones of the wo●ld Had I not given you riches and greatness and honor c. to have encouraged you to look after holiness and that you might have time and leasure and opportunity to seek holiness and pursue it you might have had some ●loak some excuse for your neglecting so great so glorious so noble and so necessary a work O but now you have no cloak no excuse at all for your sin now you can shew no reason under heaven why an eternal doom should not be past upon you and ah how silent how mute how speechless Titus 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-condemned or self damned and how self-condemned will all the great ones of the world be when God shall thus expostulate with them O! that such would seriously lay to heart that Math. 22.11 12. And when the King came in to see the Guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding Garment And he saith unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding Garment and he was speechless By the wedding Garment the Learned understand holiness of heart and life now when the King questions him about the want of this wedding Garment he is speechless or as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports He was muzzled or haltered up that is he held his peace as though he had a bridle or a halter in his mouth he was not able to speak a word for himselfe his own conscience had past a secret sentence of condemnation upon him and he sat silent under that sentence as having nothing under heaven to say why he should not be cast into utter darkness And this will be the very case of all the rich the great and the mighty ones of the world who shall be found without the garment of holiness when the Lord shall enter into Judgement with them And thus you see by these six Arguments that there are no persons under heaven that are so eminently engaged to look after

Secondly There are degrees of Torments in Hell and therefore by the Rule of Contraries there shall bee degrees of Glory in Heaven Now that there are degrees of torments in Hell is most evident from several plain Scriptures as from that 10th of Matth. v. 14 15. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when yee depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you Contempt of Christ and his Gospel is worse than Sodomy it shall be more tollerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City Sodom and Gomorrah shall have an easier and cooler Hell than such Cities shall have that have contemned the tenders of Grace and the offers of Mercy 'T is very observable that the punishments that God in this life hath inflicted upon the Jews for their contempt of Christ and his everlasting Gospel have been more terrible than his raining Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah for on a sudden and in a moment God consumed them and burnt them up but God hath for above this sixteen hundred years been a raining Hell out of Heaven upon the Jews hee hath for a long time vext them with all manner of adversity and to this very day hee hath made them all the world over a spectacle of his dreadful severity but all those plagues and punishments that the Jews have been and still are under are but flea-bitings and scratches on the hand to those dreadful and amazing judgements that God in the great day of account will inflict upon all Christs refusers and Gospel-despisers And so chap. 11.20 21 22 23. Then began hee to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin wee unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall bee more tollerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgement than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted up to Heaven shalt bee brought down to Hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day The more mercy hath been upon the bare knee intreating sinners to repent the more earnest the Lord Jesus hath been in wooing sinners to beleeve on him and to resign up themselves wholly and only to him the more clearly and sweetly the everlasting Gospel hath sounded in sinners ears and the more neer and the more often Heaven hath been brought to sinners doors and yet they have bid defiance to all and hardened themselves in their sins with the greater violence and with the more dreadful vengeance shall such be plunged into the lowest Hell And so in that Mat. 23.14 Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites for yee devour Widdows houses and for a pretence make long prayer therefore yee shall receive the greater damnation Hypocrites shall bee double-damned the hottest and the darkest place in Hell is reserved for them Give him his portion with hypocrites for number and weight there are no torments in Hell to the torments of hypocrites Counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and therefore 't is but justice that the hypocrite should have double torment And so in that Luke 12.47 48. That servant that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes and hee that knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall bee beaten with few stripes Sins against light and knowledge are sins against the noblest remedy they waste and wound the conscience most they most open sinners mouths to blaspheme God and they most harden sinners hearts in sinning against God and every way they dare God most and provoke God most to strike with an Iron-Rod and to whip the knowing transgressor not with Rods but with Scorpions 'T is very observable that the more light and knowledge men sin against in this world Rom. 1.21 22 23. the greater judgements God gives them up to even in this life take a remarkable instance in the most refined and civil Heathens who are presumed to have most light and knowledge who were given up to the most beastly errours about the nature of God as the Romans and Grecians who worshipped Feavers and humane passions yea every paltry thing c. whereas the Scythians and more barbarous Nations worshipped the Sun and the Thunder c. things terrible in themselves Oh how much more then will God in the great day give them up to the greatest judgements who have given themselves up to the greatest sins Certainly the Professors of this age yea of this City whether they go to Heaven or Hell will be the greatest debtors that shall be in either place the one to the Free-grace of God and the other to his Justice that they that have most of Hell in their mouths and most of Hell in their hearts and most of Hell in their lives should have most of Hell in their souls at last is but justice I shall conclude this second Argument with a saying of one of the Antients Augustin Look saith hee as in Heaven one is more glorious than another so in Hell one shall be more miserable than another Now if there be degrees of torments in Hell which I suppose the Scriptures but now cited doth undeniably prove then doubtless there will be degrees of glory in Heaven Thirdly God in this life dispenses the gifts and graces of his Spirit unequally among his Saints to some hee gives two Talents to others five and to others ten Hence 't is you read both of a weak Faith and of a strong Faith Matth. 25. and ch 8.10 26. ch 15.28 Why are yee afraid O yee of little Faith And O woman great is thy Faith And Verily I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel And hence it is that you read both of weak Christians and of strong Christians Hee that is weak in the Faith receive Rom. 14.1 2. 1 Cor. 9.22 2 Cor. 12.10 Heb. 5.13 14 1 Pet. 2.2 v. 1. Another who is weak eateth herbs And to the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak Wee then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves When I am weak then am I strong And hence 't is that you read of Babes and of Children and of young Men and of old Men in the Scripture Saints are of different growths Some are but babes in gifts and grace others are children others young men and others old men That God that distributes the good things of this world unequally among the Sons of men as to some more to others less to some great things to others little things to some high things to others low things that God unequally distributes