Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	hand_n	house_n	tabernacle_n	2,823	5	9.9204	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64371	A sermon concerning the cœlestial body of a Christian, after the resurrection preached before the King and Queen at White-Hall April 8, 1694, being Easter-day / by ... Thomas Lord Bishop of Lincoln.	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing T713; ESTC R20713	11,700	32

Cloud into the Heavens has told us in his holy Word which shall not pass away though this World shall that at the end of it the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father That they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead shall be equal with the Angels That if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God a Divine Frame an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens That there is a natural and a spiritual Body and that as we have born the image of the earthy we Christians shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam All this is further confirmed to us by the Oeconomy of the Gospel That sets forth Christ as the Person who on Earth was transfigured in so admirable a manner that his Face did shine as the Sun and his very Rayment was white as the Light who bought both Body and Soul with an incorruptible price who died and rose again That he might be Lord both of the dead and living who rose as a publick person as the Head of his Church in order to the Resurrection of the members of it who rising from the Dead became the first Fruits of them that slept who both to accommodate himself to these Regions and to prove beyond contradiction that it was he himself and not a Spectre Took again his body with flesh bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's nature and ascended through the starry Heavens into a Region still more pure and had that body made Coelestial and still lives in that most heavenly form and will come again and receive his true Disciples into that thrice happy Ierusalem where he now is and will change their vile bodies and fashion them like to his own glorious body not abolishing the substance of them but exalting the meanness and earthliness of their present frame into Coelestial agility and lustre And indeed Philosophy such as is not vain though much is especially when it refines upon sacred Mysteries does plainly shew us that a heavenly body is only fit for a heavenly Region That a pure body is not in its element unless it lives and moves in pure aether Upon which account I suppose Saint Paul himself observes that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God above neither doth corruption inherit incorruption It must be changed into a body that cannot corrupt or die if it is to subsist most happily for ever in an heavenly place and such is the place prepared for the Children of the Resurrection All this being considered it becomes us not to be faithless but believe that this mortal shall put on immortality For it is full out as absurd to refuse to believe when there is a reason for our Faith as to believe with a forward credulity when there is none The consequence of this Belief is very comfortable for great and many are the advantages derived to Christians by being cloth'd with a Coelestial Body and that is the 2 d. Head which I proposed to discourse of The very nature of the thing speaks aloud the benefit which will accrue to them by the renovation of this Body There is scarce a comparison to be admitted betwixt this earthly body and that which shall be at the Ascension of Christians They differ more than the least and dimmest Star and the brightest and greatest Luminary in the Firmament of Heaven Of this St. Paul takes notice in the fortieth verse of this Chapter and those which follow it saying There are Coelestal bodies and bodies Terrestrial but the glory of the Coelestal is one and the glory of the Terrestrial is another There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in glory So also is the Resurrection of the Dead It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory It is sown in weakness it is raised in power It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body Happy are the people who are in such a Case But to descend to a more special consideration of this matter The happiness derived from the change of a natural to a spiritual body consisteth in a deliverance 1. From the grossness of the former as it is a body of this flesh and blood 2 dly From the disorderly motions of it as it is a corruptible body 3 dly From the perishing nature decay and fall of it as it is both a corruptible and mortal body The first advantage which Christians obtain by changing an earthly for an heavenly body is deliverance from the grosness of the former as it is a body of this flesh and blood And this is a very valuable priviledge upon three Accounts 1st Vpon the account of natural case 2dly Of Divine Contemplation 3dly Of Piety and Devotion 1 st Christians have a priviledge by being freed from the grosness of this body upon the account of ease which is so naturally desired For as the Book of Solomon speaks agreeable to its title the corruptible body presseth down the Soul And in that load and heaviness there is little comfort Seneca says of the body that it is the weight and pain of the mind and a kind of Bond round about its Liberty Our Office for the Burial of the Dead calls it the burthen of the Flesh. St. Paul also makes this acknowledgement in 2 Cor. 5. 4. we who are in this Tabernacle do groan groan earnestly v. 2. being burdened By this great change that which was formerly a heavy and uneasie weight becomes as wings and as the Antients speak a Coelestial Chariot to the Soul 2 ly Another priviledge enjoy'd by Christians upon deliverance from the grosness of this body is freedom from a mighty impediment of Divine Contemplation The ScripScripture teacheth us That this visible World shall be renew'd The Heavens and the Earth which now are shall Perish not in their Being but with reference to their present Frame which as it is is a glorious Structure but He who made all things can and will Build it better This Earth and these Heavens shall be folded up as is a Vesture and be marvellously changed Upon which there shall be new Heavens and a new Earth That Phrase is in some Places metaphorically used in setting forth a New and Excellent State of the Church But in St. Peter it is to be literally understood of a New Frame of Nature after the Old reserved unto Fire against the Day of Iudgment shall be by such means dissolved as the Earth was once overflow'd by Water But the Change in Noah's time was from better to worse this will be from worse to much much better Doubtless it will be a glorious World

shall rise first then those which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the Clouds together with those that have been raised to meet the same Lord in the Air and so shall they be ever with the Lord. The Sting of Misery is the Continuance of it and Hell is the more Hell for that Continuance also is the Heaven of Joy It is made Perfect by our possessing it without any Shadow of Suspicion of being ever bereaved of it And thus it will be after the Resurrection of the Just. Then shall be entirely fulfilled the Words of the Prophet Hosea He will ransom thee from the Power of the Grave He will redeem thee from Death O Death he will be thy Plague O Grave he will be thy Destruction Then shall be made good those Words of St. Paul Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Or as he expresseth it in the Words after the Text When this Corruptible shall have put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall have put on Immortality Then shall be brought to pass the Saying that is written written of old by the Prophet Isaiah Death is swallowed up in Victory These which I have recounted are you will say very great Advantages which a Christian shall gain by changing this Earthly for a Heavenly Body But it may be you will add Why cannot the Soul be fully happy in it self without any Body at all and happier than in a Body though Incorruptible and Immortal To this I think it is proper to answer no more than thus much in this short Discourse which is design'd not for nice Dispute but solid Edification That is to say That God who framed his Creatures in divers Orders made Man a Creature consisting of Soul and Body and that it belongs to his Rank in the Creation to have them at last united again Also that by the perfectest Union of them a Creature of that Order is as such compleated both in his proper Being and in the happiness of it To this purpose are as I conceive the words of St. Paul In this Tabernacle we grow earnestly desiring to be Clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so be that being Clothed we shall not be found Naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do Groan being burthened Not that we would be Uncloathed but Cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life He would not be without a Body at That day for of that time he speaks but he is desirous that a Celestial Form should be put upon Terrestrial Matter These is a Question less curious than that which has been put but exceedingly more useful and it is this What shall we do that we may come at these several great Advantages of living at last in an Heavenly body And this is the Third Consideration and very fit for the Exercise of our Thoughts For in vain do we Philosophize about a Celestial Paradise and a Spiritual Body and an Heavenly Word without knowing and using the means of being happy in them all Those means are the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace to which Christians on their Parts have solemnly consented and which by the assistance of God's Grace they may and must perform by their sincere Obedience to Him The way to have better Bodies is to have more Virtuous Souls God hath put us into this Body as into the Habit of a Pilgrim on Earth as Probationers for a more excellent Cloathing And according to our Patience our Self-denial our keeping the Body in Subjection to the Mind our governing the Appetites and Passions of it so shall the Resurrection and Ascension of it be Righteousness saith the Book of Wisdom is Immortal and the giving heed to her Laws is the assurance of Incorruption and Incorruption maketh us near unto God And he that will not awake to Righteousness shall not ascend to a state of Incorruption God will not receive such a Violater of his Laws into his especial Presence He will not admit so brutal a Creature into his Kingdom where there is nothing to gratifie the Inclinations of Flesh and Blood Such a Creature would still be desirous to Eat and Drink and to enjoy the Pleasures of a corruptible Body We rise to Glory as Members of Christ who saith the Apostle died for all that they which live should not live to themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again His true Members we cannot call our selves with any Propriety if we fulfil not the holy Vow we made to him when we were initiated into his Church by renouncing and forsaking all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh. St. Paul hath told the World in express Terms That he who Soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh Reap Corruption He shall die after all the pampering of the Body with Epicurean Art and for that it may be much the sooner He shall fat himself for Slaughter but He who Soweth to the Spirit who Feeds and Cultivates the Soul with Wisdom and Holiness shall of the Spirit Reap Life everlasting the Life of an Immortal Soul in an Immortal Body Can it ever be imagined or if it be is it any other than mere imagination and a very false and gross one too that Christ shall raise the Temple of this Body to a Celestial House making that second Temple much more glorious than this first after it has been wilfully Desecrated by Man and put to the vilest uses of Insobriety and Lust. Such Sensualities render this Body more Earthly still and bury the Soul in it so far are they from promoting it to an Heavenly Estate The impenitent Sinner hopes against all grounds of hope if he has expectation of seeing God face to face with Eyes which have been full of Adnltery and of praising God in Heaven with a Tongue that has been set on Fire from Hell that has Insolently blasphem'd him on Earth and bitterly revil'd his Servants perhaps because they were his Servants or for reviling sake The like may be said of every Wickedness done by the Soul in this Earthly Tabernacle For we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ that every Man may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be Good or Evil. This is part of the Confession of our Faith which we have this day made in these words At Christ's coming all Men shall rise again with their Bodies and give account of their own Works and they that have done good shall go into Life everlasting and they that have done Evil into everlasting Fire Wherefore Fourthly Knowing the Terrors of the Lord which will seize upon the Ungodly and bring them to Destruction both of Body and Soul and the joyful Estate of a happy Soul in a Celestial Body which shall be the Portion of all those who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit We beseech you both by the Severities and Mercies