Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	lay_v	rust_n	treasure_n	1,907	5	9.8005	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33349	Three practical essays ... containing instructions for a holy life, with earnest exhortations, especially to young persons, drawn from the consideration of the severity of the discipline of the primitive church / by Samuel Clark ...; Whole duty of a Christian	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4561; ESTC R11363	120,109	256

other much less that he spent his Substance in Revelling and Drunkenness But here was his Fault his Heart was set upon his great Possessions and he could not persuade himself to part with them though upon the prospect of an extraordinary Reward So unfit is a Mind deeply immersed in the Love of this present World for the reception of the Truth and Severity of the Gospel and so difficult for those who have a large share of the good things of this World not to be thus immersed in the Love of it 15. For this reason it is that great Riches and continual Prosperity in the World are all along through the New Testament described as a very dangerous and unsafe State Persecution has not a greater power to force Men violently from their Duty than Riches and great Prosperity have to supplant them insensibly and to intice them from it Riches and Prosperity do by degrees soften and debase Mens Minds they do as it were tie Men down and fasten their Affections to the things of this present World they sensualize Mens Thoughts and divert them from taking any pleasure in the Contemplation of Spiritual and Divine things in a word they ply Men so constantly with fresh Baits and Temptations and are so continually pressing them to satisfie their sensual Appetites that without a very great Measure of the Grace of God and an extraordinary degree of Temperance and Contempt of the World Man's Mind is not able to keep it self free from the Service of so enticing a Master 16. And this I take to be the meaning of those severe Sayings of our Saviour Matth. 19. 23. Verily I say unto you that a rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again I say unto you It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God At which when his Disciples taking his Words in too strict a Sense were astonished above measure he answered again and said unto them Mark 10 24. Children how hard is for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! He does not say that 't is absolutely impossible for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But because 't is certain that they who put their trust in Riches never shall and because 't is exceeding hard for them that have Riches not to put their trust in them therefore he says How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God! Riches and constant Prosperity are so great a temptation that with Men i. e. humanly speaking it is not possible for one who enjoys these things to be a good Christian though with God i. e. with the Grace of God to which all things are possible this Temptation may not only be overcome but those Riches which are to most Men an occasion of falling may become the matter of a more extraordinary Virtue and the occasion of a Man's doing much more good in this World and obtaining a much greater degree of happiness in the next Our Saviour therefore does not say That a rich Man cannot possibly be saved or that any Man shall be miserable in the other World for no other reason than because he has been happy in this but only that Riches are exceeding apt to lull Men into that trust in and love of the World which is inconsistent with that disposition of Mind and Soul which the Christian Religion requires of those who expect their Portion in another Life 17. And hence are those so frequent and repeated Exhortations in the New Testament to mortifie our earthly Desires and to deny our selves not to love the World neither the things that are in the World 1 Joh. 2. 15. Not to lay up for our selves treasure upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break through and steal but to lay up for our selves treasure in Heaven Matth. 6. 19. To set our affections on things above not on things on the Earth Coloss. 3. 2. And to take heed and beware of Covetousness for that a Man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Luke 12. 15. To beware of Covetousness that is not of hoarding up Riches to no use as we generally understand the word but of setting our Hearts upon Riches and employing them to no other End than living merrily and splendidly in the World as is most evident from the Parable of the rich Man whose Ground brought forth plentifully following immediately in the next words 18. 'T is therefore a necessary Duty in those who believe the Gospel of Christ and profess themselves his Disciples if God calls them not to suffer and to part with all for his sake yet at least to wean themselves from the love of this present World and to get above the Desires of it They must be careful to use the good things of this Life so as not to corrupt and soften to sensualize and debase their Minds and to clog and unfit them for the Contemplation of Spiritual and Divine Things They must remember that they receive this Worlds Goods not that they may live in Ease and Softness in Delicacy and Voluptuousness with them but that they may thankfully employ them to the Glory of God and to the Good of Men In a word they must always be careful so to behave themselves with respect to all earthly Enjoyments as may become those who look upon the present Life as a state of Labour and Trial but expect their Happiness and their Reward in the future This is as I have said the true Measure of Christian Temperance and this Temper of Mind every one who will be the Disciple of Christ must resolve to attain 19. If this seem hard to any one let him consider that as a Mind sensualized and wedded to earthly things is here utterly unfit for a spiritual and heavenly Life so it must also hereafter be as utterly incapable of the heavenly Glory If a Man places his Happiness in the Contemplation of God and the Exercise of Virtue here he shall continue to enjoy it also hereafter because God and Virtue continue for ever But if he places his Happiness in the Pleasures of this World and in the Enjoyments of Sense when these things are at an end his Happiness must be at an end also Mens Minds are by degrees tinctured and transformed into the Nature of the things they are fixed upon and in such things as they delight to dwell upon in such things must be their Portion Hence Tully and after him some Christian Writers have thought that the Souls of worldly-minded Men shall carry with them into the other State such strong Affections and Desires after the things they delighted in here that were a sensual Person to be admitted even into the Seat of the Blessed yet should he find nothing there that could make him happy 20. But hower this be which

be so 4. Again That the exercise of those great Moral Virtues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance is a thing indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion is evident from the Consideration of the Nature of that Happiness The Happiness which Religion promises to holy and good Men is this That they shall be received into the blessed Society of Angels and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and that with them they shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God to enjoy that Satisfaction which must necessarily arise from the Contemplation of his Perfections and from the 〈…〉 of his Favour And if this be the Case then nothing is more evident than that the exercise of Virtue is indispensably necessary to prepare Men for the enjoyment of this Happiness For what agreement can there be between a sensual spightful or malicious Soul and the pure Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect We see even in this Life how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked and as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World Those Souls which have been wholly immersed in Sense and given up to the Pleasures of this present World can never be fit Company for those spiritual and refined Minds whose Desires and Enjoyments are as far exalted above every thing that is gross and sensual as Heaven is above Earth And those malicious Spirits whose delight upon Earth was in nothing but Hatred Envy and Revenge can never converse in Heaven with those Divine Souls who feed and live upon no other Pleasures but those of Goodness Holiness and Love In like manner what can be more impossible than for an earthly and wicked Soul to be made happy by the Vision and Fruition of God To see God is to behold and contemplate those glorious Perfections of infinite Goodness Purity and Truth and to enjoy God is so to love and adore those amiable Perfections as to be transformed into the likeness and resemblance of them And is it possible for a wicked Soul to be made partaker of this Happiness Tell a covetous Worldling of a Treasure laid up in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal Tell him of a never-fading Inheritance in the World to come or of a City not made with Hands whose Builder and Maker is God Tell an ambitious aspiring Mind of the Glory that shall be revealed hereafter or a voluptuous Person of spiritual and refined Pleasures which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive them and will they have any relish of these things Will they not be much more inquisitive after the Glories of Earth and the Gratifications of Sense So that unless we suppose God should work a Miracle for these Men and when he removes them into another World should transform them also into new Creatures 't is no more possible for them to enjoy the Happiness of Heaven than for Body to enjoy the Pleasures of Spirit or for Darkness to have communion and agreement with Light I do not say That if God should transplant these Men into Heaven he could not make them happy there but while they are so exceedingly indisposed for it nothing is more certain than that he never will The exercise therefore of Virtue is the indispensable Condition of Happiness And in proportion as we draw nearer to the Perfection of Virtue so do we to the Fountain and Perfection of Happiness The greater degrees of Virtue any Being is indued with so much the higher Rank does it obtain in the Order of Creatures The highest Angels so much as they obey the Will of God more intirely and imitate the Divine Life more perfectly than Men do so much are they exalted above Men and have a nearer approach to the immediate presence and enjoyment of God And by how much one Man in this Life obtains a greater degree of Holiness than another so much a more excellent degree of Happi-ness is he prepared to receive in the World to come 5. And That God agreeably to this natural Order of things does truly and sincerely desire to make Men happy by the exercise of Virtue is evident both from our natural Notions of God and from the Revealed Declaration of his Will God who is a Being infinitely happy in the injoyment of himself and who created all things for no other reason but to communicate to them his Perfections and his Happiness cannot possibly but make every Man as happy as the condition of his Nature and the improvements of his Virtue make him capable to be And that he will do so he hath moreover assured us by most express and repeated declarations He declares that his Delight is in them that fear him and that he Rejoyces over them for good He invites men with all the tender promises of a compassionate Father to Repentance and Reformation and swears by himself that he hath no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked but earnestly desires that they should return and live And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that God has secretly made any determination which may be contrary to what he has so openly and expresly revealed What sort of Men he has decreed to be happy or miserable he has clearly and fully declared to us in his Word And other Decrees than this if he has at all made any t is neither necessary nor possible for us to know Sufficient it is for us that as sure as God and his Scriptures are true so sure are we that he that believes and obeys the Gospel shall be happy and that God neither has nor can Decree any thing whereby a truly Religious Man may be excluded from Happiness or a Sincere Man from the possibility of becoming truly religious 6. Since therefore God truly and sincerely desires to make men Happy by the exercise of Virtue and since that Virtue which is the Condition of this Happiness is no other than the Practice of those great Moral Duties of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the Eternal and Unchangeable Law of God as has already been shewn it follows necessarily that the great and ultimate design of all true Religion can be no other than to recommend these Virtues and to enforce their practice Other things may be Helps and Assistances of Religion many External Observances may for wise Reasons be positively commanded and may be of exceeding great use as means to promote Devotion and Piety but the Life and Substance of all true Religion the End and Scope in which all things else must terminate cannot possibly be any other than the Practice of these great and Eternal Duties 7. In Natural Religion this is very evident For the Foundation of its Obligations being nothing else but a due consideration of the Nature of