Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	forgive_v	pray_v	trespass_n	2,324	5	11.8389	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27017	The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.	1650 (1650)	Wing B1383; ESTC R17757	797,603	962

work too He hath paid all the price and left us none to pay yet he never intended his purchase should put us into absolute immediate personal title to glory in point of Law much less into immediate possession What title we may have from his own and his Fathers secret counsel is nothing to the Question He hath purchased the Crown to bestow only on Condition of beleeving denying all for him suffering with him persevering and overcoming He hath purchased Justification to bestow only on condition of our beleeving yea repenting and beleeving That the first Grace hath any such Condition I will not Affirm but all following mercies have Though 't is Christ that enableth also to perform the Condition It is not a Saviour offered but received also that must save It is not the blood of Christ shed only but applyed also that must fully deliver Nor is it applyed to the Justification or Salvation of a sleepy Soul Nor doth Christ carry us to heaven in a chair of security Where he will pardon he will make you pray Forgive us our trespasses and where he will give Righteousness he will give hungering and thirsting It is not through any imperfection in Christ that the Righteous are scarcely saved no nor that the wicked perish as they shall be convinced one day In the same sence as the prayer of the faithful if fervent availeth for outward mercies in the same sence it prevaileth for Salvation also For Christ hath purchased both And as Baptism is said to save us so other duties too Therefore say not It is not duty but Christ For it is Christ in a way of duty As duty cannot do it without Christ so Christ will not without duty But of this enough before And as this motion must be strong so constant or it will fall short of Rest. To begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh will not bring to the end of the Saints The certainty of the Saints perseverance doth not make admonition to constancy unuseful Men as seemingly holy as the best of us have fallen off He that knew it unpossible in the foundation to deceive the Elect yet saw it necessary to warn us that he only that endureth to the end shall be saved Read but the promises Rev. 2. 3. to him that overcometh SECT XI 11. THere is presupposed also to the obtaining of this Rest a strong desire after it The Souls motion is not that which we call violent or constrained none can force it but natural viz. according to our new nature As every thing inclines to its proper Center so the Rational Creature is carryed on in all its motion with desires after its end This end is the first thing intended and chiefest desired though last obtained Observe it and beleeve it who ever thou art there was never Soul that made Christ and glory the principal end nor that obtained Rest with God whose desire was not set upon him and that above all things else in the world whatsoever Christ brings the heart to heaven first and then the person His own mouth spoke it Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Mat. 6.21 A sad conclusion to thousands of professed Christians He that had truly rather have the enjoyment of God in Christ then any thing in the world shall have it and he that had rather have any thing else shall not have this except God change him It 's true the Remainder of our old nature will much weaken and interrupt these desires but never overcome them SECT XII 12. LAstly here is presupposed painfulness and weariness in our motion This ariseth not from any evil in the work or way for Christs yoke is easie his burden light and his commands not grievous But 1. From the opposition we meet with 2. The contrary principles still remaining in our nature which will make us cry out O wretched men Rom. 7.24 3. The weakness of our graces and so of our motion Great labour where there is a suitable strength is a pleasure but to the weak how painful With what panting and weariness doth a feeble man ascend that hill which the sound man runs up with ease We are all even the best but feeble An easie dull profession of Religion that never encountereth with these difficulties and pains is a sad sign of an unsound heart Christ indeed hath freed us from the Impossibilities of the Covenant of Works and from the burden and yoke of Legal Ceremonies but not from the difficulties and pains of Gospel duties 4. Our continued distance from the End will raise some grief also for desire and hope implying the absence of the thing desired and hoped for do ever imply also some grief for that absence which all vanish when we come to possession All these twelve things are implyed in a Christians Motion and so presupposed to his Rest. CHAP. IV. What this Rest containeth SECT I. BUt all this is onely the outward Court or at least not the holiest of all Now we have ascended these steps may we look within the vail May we shew what this Rest containeth as well as what it presupposeth But alass how little know I of that whereof I am about to speak Shall I speak before I know But if I stay till I clearly know I shall not come again to speak That glimpse which Paul saw contained that which could not or must not be uttered or both And if Paul had had a tongue to have uttered it it would have done no good except his hearers had ears to hear it If Paul had spoke the things of Heaven in the language of Heaven and none understood that language what the better Therefore I 'l speak while I may that little very little which I do know of it rather then be wholy silent The Lord reveal it to me that I may reveal it to you and the Lord open some light and shew both you and me his Inheritance Not as to Balaam onely whose eyes the vision of God opened to see the goodliness of Jacobs tents and Israels tabernacles where he had no portion but from whence must come his own destruction Nor as to Moses who had onely a discovery in stead of possession and saw the Land which he never entered But as the pearl was revealed to the Merchant in the Gospel who rested not till he had sold all he had and bought it and as Heaven was opened to blessed Stephen which he was shortly to enter and the glory shewed him which should be his own possession SECT I. THere is Contained in this Rest. 1. A Cessation from Motion or Action not of all action but of that which hath the nature of a Means and implies the absence of the End When we have obtained the Haven we have done sailing When the workman hath his wages it is implyed he hath done his work When we are at our journeys end we have done

the Christian the Drunkard the Whoremaster and the jovial Lads do swagger it out with gallantry and mirth when a poor Saint is mourning in a corner yea the very beasts of the field do eat and drink and skip play and care for nothing when many a Christian dwels with sorrows So that if you would not dye and go to heaven what would you have more then an Epicure or a beast What doth it availe us to fight with beasts as men if it were not for our hopes of a life to come Why do we pray and fast and mourn why do we suffer the contempt of the world why are we the scorn and hatred of all if it were not for our hopes after we are dead why are we Christians and not Pagans and Infidels if we do not desire a life to come why Christian wouldst thou lose thy faith and lose thy labor in all thy duties and all thy sufferings wouldst thou lose thy hope and lose all the end of thy life and lose all the blood of Christ and be contented with the portion of a worldling or a brute If thou say No to this how canst thou then be loth to dye As good old Milius said when he lay a dying and was asked whether he were willing to dye or no Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum A saying of Austins which he oft repeated Let him be loth to dye who is loth to be with Christ. SECT XI 2. COnsider Is God willing by death to Glorifie us and are we unwilling to dye that we may be glorified would God freely give us heaven and are we unwilling to receive it As the Prince who would have taken the lame begger into his Coach and he refused said to him Opitimè mereris qui in luto haereas Thou well deservest to stick in the dirt So may God to the refusers of Rest You well deserve to live in trouble Me thinks if a Prince were willing to make you his heir you should scarce be unwilling to accept it Sure the refusing of such a kindness must needs discover ingratitude and unworthiness As God hath resolved against them who make excuses when they should come to Christ Verily none of these that were bidden shall tast of my supper So is it just with him to resolve against us who frame excuses when we should come to Glory SECT XII 3. THe Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us and shall be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for our selves and him Sure if we had been once possessed of Heaven and God should have sent ●s to earth again as he did his Son for our sakes we should then have been loth to remove indeed It was another kinde of change then ours is which Christ did freely submit unto to cloath himself with the garments of flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant to come from the bosome of the Fathers Love to bear his wrath which we should have borne Shall he come down to our hell from the height of glory to the depth of misery to bring us up to his Eternal Rest and shall we be after this unwilling Sure Christ had more cause to be unwilling he might have said What is it to me if these sinners suffer If they value their flesh above their spirits and their lusts above my Fathers Love if they needs will sell their souls for nought who is it fit should be the loser and who should bear the blame and curse Should I whom they have wronged must they wilfully transgress my Law and I undergo their deserved pain Is it not enough that I bear the trespasse from them but I must also bear my Fathers wrath and satisfie the Justice which they have wronged Must I come down from Heaven to Earth and cloth my self with humane flesh be spit upon and scorned by man and fast and weep and sweat and suffer and bleed and dye a cursed death and all this for wretched wormes who would rather hazard all they had and venture their souls and Gods favor then they would forbear but one forbiden morsel Do they cast away themselves so slightly and must I redeem them again so dearly Thus we see that Christ had much to have pleaded against his coming down for man and yet he pleaded none of this He had reason enough to have made him unwilling and yet did he voluntarily condescend But we have no reason against our coming to him except we will reason against our hopes and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities Christ came down to fetch us up and would we have him loose his blood and labor and go away again without us Hath he bought our Rest at so dear a rate Is our inheritance purchased with the blood of God And are we after all this loth to enter Ah Sirs it was Christ and not we that had cause to be loth The Lord forgive and heal this foolish ingratitude SECT XIII 4. COnsider do we not combine with our most cruel mortal foes and jump with them in their most malitious designe while we are loth to dye and go to heaven where is the height of all their malice and what 's the scope of all temptations and what 's the divels daily business Is it not to keep our souls from God And shall we be well content with this and joyn with Satan in our desires what though it be not those eternal torments yet it s the one half of Hell which we wish to our selves while we desire to be absent from Heaven and God If thou shouldest take counsel of all thine enemies If thou shouldest beat thy brains both night and day in studying to do thy self a mischief What greater then 〈◊〉 could it possibly be To continue here on earth from God Excepting only hell it self O what sport is this to Sathan that his desires and thine should so concur That when he sees he cannot get thee to Hell he can so long keep thee out of Heaven and make thee the earnest petitioner for it thy self O gratifie not the Divel so much to thy own displeasure SECT XIV 5. DO not our daily fears of death make our lives a continual torment The fears of death as Erasmus saith being a sorer evil then death it self And thus as Paul did dye daily in regard of preparation and in regard of the necessary sufferings of his life so do we in regard of the torments and the useless sufferings which we make our selves Those lives which might be full of Joyes in the daily contemplation of the life to come and the sweet delightful thoughts of bliss how do we fill them up with terrors through all these causeless thoughts and fears Thus do we consume our own comforts and prey upon our tru●st pleasures When we might lye down and rise up and walk abroad with our hearts full of