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	thief_n	treasure_n	2,291	5	9.6844	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27062	Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day of judgment, from 2 Cor. 5. 10, 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel, from Matth. 22. 5 / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Terror of the day of judgment.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Danger of slighting Christ and his gospel.	1696 (1696)	Wing B1443; ESTC R16419	109,733	266

For Mat. 7. 22 23. Christ telleth us that Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name have ●lone many wonderful Works And then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And in Mat. 25. 11. the foolish Virgins cry Lord Lord open to us And ver 44. Then shall they also answer him saying Lord when ●aw we thee an hungred or thirst or a Stranger or Naked or Sick or in Prison and did not minister unto thee And vers 24 25. they fear not to cast some of the Causes of their neglect on God himself Then he which had received the one Talent came and said Lord I knew thou art an hard Man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid and went and hid thy Talent in the Earth lo there thou hast that is thine It is clear then that Excuses they will be ready to make and their full Conviction will be in order after these Excuses at least as in their Minds if not in Words but what the particular Excuses will be we may partly know by these Scriptures which recite them and partly by hearing what the Ungodly do now say for themselves And because it is for their present Benefit that I now make mention of them that they may see the Vanity of all such Excuses I will mention them as I now meet with them in the Mouths of Sinners in our ordinary Discourse and these Excuses are of several sorts some by which they would justify their Estate some Excuses of particular Actions and that either in whole or in part some by which they would put by the Penalty though they confess the Sin some by which they lay the blame on other Men and in ●ome they would cast it upon God himself I must touch but some of them very briefly The first Excuse I am not guilty of these things which I am accused of I did love God above all and my Neighbour as my self I did use the World but for Necessity but God had my Heart Answ The All-seeing Judg doth know the contrary and he will make thy Conscience know it Look back Man upon thy Heart and Life How seldom and how neglectfully didst thou think of God how coldly didst thou worship him or make any mention of him how carelesly didst thou serve him and think much of all that thou didst therein Thou rather thoughtest that his Service was making more ado than needs and didst grudg at those that were more diligent than thy self but for the World how heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it and yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judg that thou didst love God above all He will shew thee thy naked Heart and the Course of thy former Life which shall convince thee of the contrary The Second Excuse I lived not in any gross Sin but only in small Infirmities I was no Murderer or Adulterer or Fornicator or Thief nor did I deceive or wrong any or take any thing by violence Answ Was it not a gross Sin to love the World above God and to neglect Christ that died for thee and never to do him one Hour's hearty Service but meerly to seek thy carnal self and to live to thy Flesh God will open thine Eyes then and shew thee a thousand gross Sins which thou now forgettest or makest light of and it is not only gross Sin but all Sin great or small that deserveth the Wrath of God and will certainly bring thee under it for ever if thou have not part in Christ to relieve thee Wo to the Man that ever he was born that must answer in his own Name for his smallest Offences The third Excuse I did it ignorantly I knew not that there was so much required to my Salvation I thought less ado might have served the turn and that if I look'd to my Body God would take care of my Soul and that it was better to trust him what would become of me hereafter than to trouble my Mind so much about it Had I known better I would have done better Answ If you knew not better who was it long of but your self Did God hide these things from you Did he not tell them you in his Word as plainly as the Tongue of Man can speak That except you were regenerate and born again you should not enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. That without Holiness none should see God Heb. 12. 14. That you must strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. That if you lived after the Flesh you should die and if by the Spirit you mortified the Deeds of the Body you should live Rom. 8. 13. That if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. And to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 9. That you must not lay up for your selves a Treasure on Earth where Rust and Moths do corrupt and Thieves break through and steal but must lay up for your selves a Treasure in Heaven where Rust and Moths do not corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal Mat. 6. 19 20. That you must seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Mat. 6. 23. and not labour for the Food that perisheth but for the Food that endureth to everlasting Life which Christ would have given you John 6. 27. That if you be risen with Christ you must seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and not the things that are on Earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Yea your very Conversation should be in Heaven Phil. 3. 19 20 21. What say you Did not God tell you all this and much more and plainly tell it you Turn to your Bibles and see the Words and let them witness against you 2. And could you think with any Reason that your Souls being so much more precious than your Bodies you should yet do so much more for your Bodies than your Souls could you think all the Labour of your Lives little enough for a frail Body that must lie shortly in the Dirt and that your Immortal Souls should be no more regarded Could you think with any Reason that your Souls should do so much for a Life of a few Years continuance and do no more for a Life that shall have no end 3. And whereas you talk of trusting God with your Souls you did not trust him You did but on that Pretence carelesly disregard them If you trust God shew any Word of Promise that ever he gave you to trust upon that ever an impenitent carnal careless Person shall be saved No he hath told you enough to the contrary And could you think

rather that godly Christians might the better understand how to deal with these vain Excuses when they meet with them which will be daily if they deal with Men in this sad Condition X. We have done with that part of the Judgment which consisteth in the Exploration or Trial of the Cause we now come to that which is the Conclusion and Consummation of all and that is to shew you what the Sentence will be and on whom And for this we must go strait to the Word of God for our Light it being impossible for any Man to have any particular Knowledg of it if Christ had not there revealed it unto us Indeed almost all the World do acknowledg a Life after this where it shall go well with the Good and ill with the bad But who shall be then accounted righteous and who unrighteous and on what Terms and Grounds by whom they shall be judged and to what Condition they know not The Sentence in Judgment will be 1. Either on those that never had Means to know Christ 2. Or on those that had 1. For the former as it less concerneth us to enquire of their Case so it is more obscurely revealed to us in the Scripture It is certain that they shall be judged according to their Use of the Means which they had Rom. 2. 11 12 13 14 15 16. and the Talents which they received Mat. 25. But that it ever falleth out that he that hath but the one Talent of natural Helps doth improve it to Salvation or that ever they who knew not Christ are justified and saved without that Knowledg being at Age and Use of Reason I find not in the Scriptures I find indeed that as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2. 12. but not that any are justified by the Works of Nature such as are here said to be without Law I find also that They have the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall jude the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. And I believe it is a just Excuse and not an unjust which is here meant But it will be but an Excuse so far as they were guiltless and that will be but in tanto and not in toto in part only and so not a full Justification A Heathen's Conscience may excuse him from those Sins which he was never guilty of but not from all But no more of them 2. The Case of those that have had the Gospel is more plainly opened to us in God's Word Their Sentence is opened in many Places of Scripture but most fully in Matth. 25. whence we will now collect it There we find that Jesus Christ the Redeemer as King of the World shall sit in Judgment on all Men at the last and shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats and so shall pass the final Sentence This Sentence is twofold according to the different Condition of them that are judged To them on the right Hand there is a Sentence of Justification and Adjudication to everlasting Glory To them on the left Hand there is a Sentence of Condemnation to everlasting Punishment The Sentence on each of these containeth both the State which they are judged to and the Reason or Cause of the Judgment to that State For as God will not judg any to Life or Death without just Cause so he will publish this Cause in his Sentence as it is the manner of Judges to do If you say Christ will not use a Voice let it satisfy that though we know not the manner yet if he do it but by mental Discovery as he shews Men what shall everlastingly befal them so he will shew them why it shall so befal them 1. The Sentence on them on the right Hand will contain 1. Their Justification and Adjudication to Blessedness and that both as generally denominated and as particularly determined and described 2. And the Cause of this Judgment 1. In general they shall be pronounced Blessed Satan would have had them cursed and miserable the Law did curse them to Misery many a fearful Though hath possessed their own Breasts lest they should prove at last accursed and miserable but now they hear the contrary from their Judg. All the Promises in the Gospel could not perfectly overcome those their Fears all the comfortable Words of the Ministers of the Gospel could not perfectly subdue them all the tender Mercies of God in Christ did not perfectly subdue them but now they are vanquished all for ever He that once had heard his Redeemer in Judgment call him blessed will never fear being cursed more For he that Christ blesseth shall be blessed indeed The Description of their Blessedness followeth Come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World And also they are called Blessed of the Father Here is the Fountain of their Blessedness the Father and the State of their Blessedness in being the Father's for I suppose they are called the Blessed of are Father both because the Father blesseth them that is makes them Happy and because these blessed Ones are the Father 's own And so Christ will publish it to the World in Judgment that he came to glorify the Father and will proclaim him the principal Efficient and ultimate End of his Work of Redemption and the Blessedness of his Saints and that himself is as Mediator but the Way to the Father It is the Father that prepared the Kingdom for them and from the Foundation of the World prepared it both for them as chosen ones and for them as future Believers and righteous Ones It is called a Kingdom partly in respect to God the King in whose Glory we shall partake in our Places and partly metapherically from the Dignity of our Condition For so it is that our selves are said to be made Kings Rev. 1. 6. and 5. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. and not that we are properly Kings for then we must have Subjects who must be governed by us Thus we see their Blessedness in the Fountain End and State of Dignity As to the receptive Act on their Part it is expressed by two Words one signifying their first Entrance on it Come the other their Possession Inherit That is possess it as given by the Father and Redeemed by the Son and hold it in this Tenure for ever The true Believer was convinced in this Life that indeed there was no true Blessedness but this Enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of Heaven The Lord revealed this to his Heart by his Word and Spirit And therefore he contemned the seeming Happiness on Earth and laid up for himself a Treasure in Heaven and made him Friends