Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	key_n	open_v	shut_v	4,249	5	9.3501	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92857	The riches of grace displayed in the offer and tender of salvation to poor sinners. Wherein is set out, the gracious behaviour of Christ, standing at the door and knocking for entrance. The dutiful behaviour of sinners in hearing Christs voice and opening to him. And the comfortable event upon them both. / By Obadiah Sedgwick. B.D. and late minister of the Gospel in Covent-Garden.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1657 (1657)	Wing S2379; Thomason E1683_2; ESTC R209163	87,999	316

so full a survey as if you stood a while with it and seriously beheld the objects A double work of judgement is necessary to affect the will to Christ One is considerative which is a s●rious and full weighing of the soules condition as wanting Christ or as enjoying of him I am but a dead man if I refuse Christ If I embrace him I am blessed in the one scale is eternal misery in the other scale is eternal felicity upon the turning of either is the turning of my soul my precious soul If I will not open to Christ upon his own conditions my soul is lost O my soul what losse is the losse of a soul If my heart be willing to open my soul is saved O the mercy the grace the peace the life the heaven in that one word Suppose I keep my sins and hold fast the world and let go the offer of Christ where is the gain what is the safety whence is the comfort by this what will be the issue Suppose I open to Christ and let go my sinnes and part with the world what is my losse where is my diminution can happinesse impoverish me can alsufficiency be losse to me can salvation distresse me If I be not a sinner why do I talk of a Saviour if I be why do I not receive an offered Saviour If I be a sinner do not I need a Saviour If it be a tender mercy to offer is it more then a wise duty to embrace him if my body were drowning I would catch hold of a rock If my soule be sinking why should I not lay hold of a Christ I may perish if I will O but who would perish wilfully who would perish at all c. Another is Argumentative which consists in a divine reasoning either disproving the objections of the soul against a closing with Christ or enforcing and edging those arguments drawn from free grace from Christ from the New Covenant which tends to encline the will unto him There ●e many feares and doubts and jealousies rowling especially in a convinced and humbled spirit questioning sometimes Christs sufficiency or else his intention and willingnesse sometimes our own capacity by reason of greatnesse of sinning or pecularity of former refusals all which you should do well to get resolved and cleared that so you may see the way standing open and free for such a sinner as you judge your self to be to come in and be embraced by Christ 3. Faith must be obtained if ever you would get your hearts opened for when all Arguments are answered yet the will will not come off without a supernatural quality to enable and draw it There must be a new quality in the will as well as a new light in the minde for the will cannot execute a supernatural act without a supernatural qualification When you put another bias on the Bowle this will draw it another way what is the reason one needle starts up to the pole-star and another doth not One is toucht with the Load-stone and the other is not Surgunt indocti saith Saint Austine capiunt coelum c. the unlearned rise up and take heaven and many that are learned do not poor people in respect of parts as well as in respect of estate receive the Gospel and the wise men of the world slight it Surely the reason is this because God gives knowledge onely to the one but he gives faith to the other nothing can see the worth of Christ nor bow the will unto him but faith 4. The Gospel must be heard for this can work that faith which opens the will Fidas ex auditu Rom. 10. 17. Lydia heard Paul preaching and the Lord opened her heart Acts 16. 14. so did the Jaylor in the same chapter and his heart was opened 5. Lastly importunate prayer must be used the Gospel we say is the key of the Spirit and prayer we say is the key of heaven and truly if it can open the eares of a God it may quickly serve to open the heart of a sinner The heart of a man is the best present to offer to God and it is the fittest object for him to work upon O pray to the heart-maker to be the heart-opener He works in us saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 13. to will and to do O pray to him who hath the key of David and opens and no man shuts that your hearts may be opened to Christ and never shut against him more Rev. 3. 20. Serm. 5. Behold I stand at the doore and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me THere are three things in this text observable about Christ 1. His gracious assaying of a sinners heart Behold I stand at the door and knock 2. His gracious conveying of himself in to the opening soul if any man open the door I will come in to him 3. His gracious displaying of his goodnesse upon that entrance to the opening person and will sup with him and he with me I have finished the first of these and am now to proceed to the disquition of the two latter wherof the one seems to set forth a possestion and union and the other seems to set forth an expression or communion which an opening soul hath with Christ The words have little or no difficulty in them yet if you please take a short par●phrase upon them I That is Jesus Christ not as man onely nor as God onely but as Mediator Will come in to him a p●remp●ory expression He doth not say I will shun him or I will expostulate with him for his neglects nor yet will I onely come to him whiles he treats with a sinner ●e comes unto him but I will come in to him The door can no sooner be open but Christ comes in immediately and indeed mercy is quicker in entring then misery is in opening And will sup with him and he with me Christ is pleased often to set forth his communion with the soul under the notion of a feast and of a Supper The confirmation of exceeding mercies hath been with a Supper That of the Passover in the old Testament and that of our Sacrament in the New Testament but certainly the meaning is that Christ hath some choice sweet admirable mercies and delights to impart or communicate to the soul which opens and receives him From all this I shall insist only on two propositions 1. That Jesus Christ comes in and takes possession of the soul which opens to him I will come in to him 2. That there is an admirable and sweet communion 'twixt Christ and the soul possessed of Christ I will sup with him and he with me Doct. 1. That Jesus Christ comes into the soul which opens unto him or takes possession of an opening soul There is a fourfold coming of Christ 1. Personal this was for redemption A coming for sinners 2. Judicial this shall

light breaks in upon the minde yet the judgement of the sinner likes not Christs conditions what saith he and must I Hazard all my estate now be willing on a sudden to let all that I and mine have taken pains for go Nay must I hazard mine own life too the deerest of all outward comforts yea and in the mean time submit to such truths as will crush down all my profits and to such wayes as will cashire all my sinnes must I become a foole to be wise deny my self and trust in another Nay verily if Christ thinks that I want Reason and know not what is good for one or sees not when I am well if he will not come in and take part with the world and with an infirmity too and with a little liberty I must be pardoned if I keep house alone O Christians there are three chaines which hold the sinner that he will not open the doore to Christ 1. The chain of sinful pleasures this held the young man Eccles 11. 9. 2. The chaine of sinful profits this held the young man in the Gospel 3. The chain of self ease These will hold thee till thou art bound up in chains of everlasting darknesse unless God be the more merciful to thee These are the things which make men either totally to stand out or onely Hypocritically in a fit to pretend that they will open unto Christ the love of a sinne makes them shut the door again and so doth the love of the world and the love of their ease and liberty and respects c. 3. The proud and irrational perversnesse of the will this is many times a special cause why Christ is made to stand long and knock Either men will not after all be perswaded Though their judgements be disarmed of all carnal cavils and objections though they be convinced of that infinite happinesse in Jesus Christ yet they cannot abide the holinesse of Christ they will not hearken As they answered in the Parable we will not come Mat. 22. ye will not come to me ye would not c. Or they will capitulate with Christ to enter in their way and manner unto which Christ will never yeild For instance they will open and receive Christ If they may finde some holy change in their hearts first or If they might finde some worthinesse in themselves or If they they might have some Assurance that their sinnes were pardoned and they stood in favour with God and were in Covenant or If they might have him come in just at that time as they please in the desires of mercy or If they might have such measures of his grace and love O Christian what doest thou meane to make and impose articles on thy Christ who alone is to propose articles unto thee why doest thou require that of and in thy self which Christ when he comes at first to enter the soule never required of it These are after works and not previous conditions thy work is only to open the doore and it is then Christs work to furnish the house let him but in and let him alone to bring with him mercy to thee grace to sanctifie assurance to comfort and ease thee 3. The humbling aggravations from all this 1. The incomparable absurdity and indignity why doest thou make Christ thus to stand and wait at thy door wouldst thou deal so With thy friend what man amongst Luk. 11. 5 6 7 8. you if his friend came to the door and was importunate would he not arise and open the door as Christ spake Or with a beggar who knocks and is importunate would ye not rise and open and give him an almes will you open the doors to a beggar and not to a Saviour to one who may receive an almes of bounty from you and not to a Christ from whom your selves may receive the almes of everlasting mercy Or with thy dog that stands without and cries to come in Ah Lord will you open your doors to a dogge and not to Christ Or with the devil who no sooner calls but you heare he is opened unto before he knocks will you open the doore to let in hell and will you not open the doore to let in heaven will you open the door to sinne and death and not to Christ and life Can you shew a more base disesteeme of Jesus Christ Why what is Christ and what is the Sonne of God and what would you have that you deal thus unworthily with him and shut him out of your doors Whether you hold out Christ by 1. Ignorance 2. Or by incompliance 3. Or by diffidence 4. Or by impenitence yet you and Christ are still asunder you are Christlesse and evangelical offers though excellent yet are transient Rara hora Brevis mora 2. The desparate hazard you run in the midst of all evangelical knocking 's what if death should knock at your doors before you have opened to Christ where are you then your doores have been shut against Christ and heaven doors will be shut against your souls Or what if Christ will go away from thy door and never stand there or knock there any longer It was one of the greatest mercies that ever God shewd to thee that Jesus Christ would condescend to come and stand and knock at thy doores and it will prove the heaviest judgement that ever befel sinners if he utterly departs from thee because thou wilt not open thy doors unto him 3. Your holding out Christ thus long will cost you dear though at length you do open to him as it will cost you hell if you never open to him You that keep Christ thus long out of his own purchase and out of his own possession for thy soul by right is Christs perhaps thou shalt have Christ but thou shalt set at a great fine for it it will cost thee dear for thy sins and this sin of all the rest will set hard and close on thy conscience that thou hast stood out so long with thy Christ Vse 3. Doth Christ wait long and knock often at our doors before we give him entrance then let not us think it strange if we wait long and knock often at the doors of heaven either for our selves or for the land before God opens to us Beloved the Lord is righteous in all his wayes and wise too in the proportionate retributions of sinners we may see our sinnes in the very judgements and dealings of God The time was that we would not hear the voice of Christ and now he will not hear the voice of our prayers We have shut out his Son and he shuts out our suits we have made Christ to wait long and we now are made to expect long We did not arise to the knocking 's of Christ and he will not now arise to the knocking 's and calls of our distresses We think it much that God comes not down all this while to deliver us from the blood of warre