Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	heat_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	32	3	9.9723	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61173	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, January 30th 1677/8 by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5053; ESTC R16476	17,653	54

that therefore the Christian Faith the Faith of the Church of England may have the credit of that greatness of Mind it Taught the King in His Extremity That To be Persecuted is a Blessing was a Doctrine never heard of till our Saviour here first introduc'd it No other Teacher or Law-giver ever went or durst go so contrary to the interests and pleasures of Flesh and Blood None else would have laid so much weight on Humane Nature or could have made it so easie none but He that was God as well as Man He that as Man knew what it was to suffer and as God knew how to support those that Suffer'd 'T is true the power of bearing Persecution well has been alwayes pretended to by all Sects and Nations and Religions of Men. All History is full of such great Examples amongst those to whom the Gospel was never reveal'd But have not the rest too generally gone on the wrong or tottering Principles of empty Fame of doubtful Philosophy of False of Imperfect Religions certainly seldome any truely Great seldome any steddy and unchangeable Comfort little lasting relief most certainly scarce any everlasting was to be found till the appearance of our Saviour to make Men on just grounds to Rejoyce and Triumph in Pains and Losses and Miseries Mankind before that was left detective in this most necessary Virtue of which we have all a perpetual use For my Brethren there is no Retirement so Secure no Provision so Large no Search so happy as to find out that place whither nor Cares nor Misfortunes make their way The Sweetest the Fairest the most plentiful Alas you see the most commanding condition is often times a greater burthen at best is only a less and a gentler misery not any real hapiness Of all those that built Houses in the Parable the most rais'd them on the Sand the best and the wisest could only found them on the Rock on which notwithstanding all their prudence the Winds did blow and the Sea did rage about them all their advantage was not a full quiet but only that the Storms did beat on them in vain And this is that for which we are only beholden to our Saviour Christ of whom we may justly say in respect of Mankind as Augustus said of himself and Rome Lateritiam invenit marmoream reliquit he found our Nature weak and frail compos'd of Adams mouldring Earth but he made it and left it of the finest and most durable Marble He himself came persecuted but one of the chief ends of his coming was to free all that believe on him and obey his commands though not from all persecution yet from all the Curse of it nay to do better than if he had taken all persecution quite away to make it a cause of Joy and Felicity a Blessing to those that are Persecuted And How feeble How deceitful How much like a broken Reed which only pierces where it should uphold are all the other Motives and Principles of Suffering well in comparison to those that He has Taught First Some Men indeed may strive to endure Afflictions courageously in a sence of Natural Decence by the force of some Natural Passion or by the single Precepts of Natural Wisdom But What is the chief end that such Men can propose to themselves Can it be much more than the bare expectation of transitory Fame and Honor in this World or some Temporary Interest and Contentment here below And What mighty Reliefs or Rewards are these such Consolations at best can only stupify the Mind under pain they are far from turning the Pain into a Blessing Such Recompences are imaginary contemptible perishing whilst the Labors Men take for them are great and real Whereas to a Christian Sufferer the Labors are contemptible compar'd to the inestimable greatness of the Recompence Undoubtedly nothing in this Life can make Afflictions tolerable much less a Blessing but a Belief that there is another Life in comparison to the Joyes of which the Miseries of this Life are of no consideration nay a belief that we shall partake of the Joys of another Life if we bear patiently the ordinary and extraordinary Miseries of this and that nothing can teach us to do the right way but Religion nothing but the Right Religion For Secondly There is also a strange Force and Resolution of Mind that may proceed from False Religions and from the Principles of Enthusiasm This kind must be confest far to exceed all Natural Courage in its effects it may sometimes be hardly distinguishable from the True Patience that is Taught by the True Religion it self Yet there are very Material Distinctions between them The chief this in my Text. The one is only for the True Righteousness sake the other for a Counterfeit Hypocritical Righteousness And besides they differ in that the True Religion rightly us'd Teaches Men really to Believe that to be Persecuted is a Blessing but never to Persecute False Religion and Enthusiasm may make Men Pretend to Believe that to be Persecuted is a Blessing but Really to Believe that the Power of Persecuting is a Greater Blessing and to Use that Power with the Greatest Cruelty when they have got it as we have felt by Many Dismal Instances especially that of This Black and Guilty Day However it is too true that Mistaken Zeal and Deluding Inspirations have oftentimes a Prodigious Influence on those Minds that are Possest with them Possest in the Worst Sense of the Word they can easily make Men despise all Dangers and Terrors they can fill their Proselytes with Heat and Raptures enough to rush violently on Torments to Glory in the false Presumption of Martyrdom to do as Empedocles of old who cast himself willingly into the fiercest Flames that he might be thought to go to Heaven We have seen a Blind Fanatical Zeal enrage Forty Men to make War against a Mighty Nation in full peace in the midst of its Principal City And since the Implacable Enemies of our Church and State have had and still have such a dreadful offensive Weapon in their keeping as all Zealous though Erroneous Religion is Should not this my Brethren be a serious Admonition to us who profess our selves Friends to the Church and State to make provision against them by the better more powerful indeed invincible defensive Weapons of our Spiritual Warfare that may be learnt from the True and Unfeigned Religion Since they pretend to fetch their Armor from Heaven against our Cause ought not we really to fetch ours from Heaven against theirs we cannot want all other means of defence we have Reason and Justice and Law and Loyalty on our side All those the Enemies of our Church and State must want But let us beware least if they have any Zeal we none they have something more forcible than any of the other Most certainly nothing but Conscience well-inform'd can be an equal Match for Conscience misguided nothing but the power of Godliness nothing