Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A67685
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The end of Christ's advent a sermon preached in the cathedral-church of Norwich on the two and twentieth of June, 1684 / by Erasmus Warren, rector of Worlington in Suffolk.
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Warren, Erasmus.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing W965A; ESTC R33562
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20,221
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40
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frustrate the Contrivances of his Love and Kindness destin'd to our good we may hereby arrive at such a pitch of Malice as to be incapable of Salvation in some respect at such a pitch of Malice that the Ordinary influence and concurrence of Divine Grace which is sufficient to other Mens Salvation will not be effective of ours Nor is God obliged then to exert his Grace in mightier efforts and a Power irresistible No rather considering how we have despised his former Goodness it is but just with him to withdraw the Commune Effluxes of it leaving us as he did that stubborn Pharaoh to our selves And then our Hearts which would not be intenerated and mollifi'd by his Grace will grow more obstinate and inflexible When we are come into these Circumstances we may well suspect that our Day of Grace is past indeed For then we are unlike to get to Heaven unless by extraordinary Dispensations which GOD has promised to none and very seldom affords to any But then who is to blame for this Not CHRIST for he is willing to save us still but our selves alone who have sunk so deep into the Gulf of Sin as to render our Emergency into a State of Righteousness extremely difficult and in the Course of GODs usual dealings with Men utterly impossible And when by our vile licentious practices we thus straiten and block up our way to Heaven and shut and bolt the Gate of Paradise against our selves we cannot complain that we are kept out because CHRIST is unwilling to let us in No amongst all the outcries of Perishing Souls that pierce the horrible Regions of Darkness and eccho in the dismal Caverns of Hell I dare boldly say there is none like this That they Languish and die in endless misery for CHRIST's being loth to save them from it But then may some dissolute Miscreants say if the Case stands thus if none may despair if all may be saved then what good news is here for us we may then continue where we are and lay down and rest in our old delights and go on with confidence in our Sinful Pleasure and yet do well enough at last But to them that talk at this extravagant rate I reply in short My design was not to encourage the sinful but to support the sorrowful Not to harden the presumptuous but to relieve the penitent To build a Sanctuary for the contrite not a refuge for the careless And if they will snatch the Doctrine out of my mouth and make it minister to evil purposes be it known unto them they do great disservice to their own Interests If like Pharaohs Magicians they will turn a staff into a serpent or change an antidote to deadly poyson if they 'l burn by that fire which was kindled to warm them and surfeit of that food which was prepar'd to nourish them who can help it Themselves must answer for their wilfull ruine and by inverting the use of such wholsome remedies shall perish like fools and none shall pity them For albeit CHRIST is willing to save us yet save us he will on his own terms and in his own way And how is that The Scripture certifies GOD sent his SON to bless us in turning every one of us from our Iniquities And CHRIST gave himself for us that he might REDEEM us from all Iniquity So that first he saves us from sin and then from misery That 's the progressive method or order which he has fixt and prescribed to himself in carrying on and compleating the work of our Salvation First he rescues us from the reign and power and practice of Sin and then from the guilt and curse and punishment of it If therefore we mean to persist in Sin it behoves us to seek out for another SAVIOUR if in the end we would be happy And we cannot but remember that this Inference counsels none against despairing of Salvation but such as repent and repent truly of Sin 8. How little cause have we to distrust Providence as to our temporal maintenance GOD that honoured us with so great a blessing as JESUS's Advent will not deny us those that are less 'T is the Apostles Inference from the same Doctrine He that spared not his SON but delivered him up for us all How shall he not with him also freely give us all things He that paid such a vast price for our Souls will not neglect them while they dwell in these Bodies He will certainly vouchsafe us as much as we need though perhaps not so much as we wish What the Psalmist asserted we may boldly believe they that fear the LORD shall lack no manner of thing that is good They may lack many things good in themselves but nothing that is good for them He that fed Elijah by the ministry of Ravens and the Sereptan Widdow by miraculous augmentation of her exhausted provisions will find out ways for our competent subsistence in our greatest destitution of necessary supplies and will take care that we shall never want what it were better for us to enjoy Lastly Since CHRIST JESUS came into the World to save sinners how should we laud him for that signal Mercy It is the highest and most glorious favour that ever we received at his hands And therefore for it we should exceed in gratitude And therefore our Church in a deep sense of this incumbent Duty has appointed the Benedictus that most admirable Hymn or Song of Blessing for our SAVIOUR's Incarnation to be offered up to GOD in her Morning Devotions and mentions it also in the General Thanksgiving and good reason For had he given us leave to ask what we would and a promise to obtain whatever we asked we could not have requested any thing so great yet this he imparted undesired Yea if GOD had studied and cast about with himself to all Eternity he could not have invented or projected for us a more noble kindness O that Men would therefore praise the LORD for this his GOODNESS But Men alone cannot do it enough let the whole Creation make one Quire and joyn in consort to celebrate his Name with solemn Praises Let the Saints and Angels praise him Let the Heavens and the Earth praise him Let the World let both the Worlds and all that is therein praise him But above all let every sincere Penitent rouze up himself as the good Man did Praise thou the LORD O my Soul Methinks we should wish we had a Thousand Tongues to sing forth thankful Anthems to his MAJESTY And that our selves were turned all into Harmony that so we might extol him with the sweetest Melody But being sure we are unable to praise him sufficiently here upon Earth let us resolve to do what we can and let the rest alone till we get to Heaven Where our faint and flat and low magnificats shall rise up to Divine and lofty Hallelujahs and run out in most high and Eternal Doxologies I now conclude with this one Corollary Such is the sweetness such the usefulness of the Text before us that it ought never to be forgotten by us Let us set it therefore continually in our sight Let us fix it in our minds and Print it in our memories and every day revolve it in our cogitations It is as choice as pathetick a place as any in the Bible CHRIST JESUS came into the World to save sinners what a strange gratification drops and distills from the affecting words They are more fragrant than Perfumes more savory than Banquets more precious than Jewels more powerful than Rhetorick more cordial than Wine more healing than Balm more taking than Beauty more ravishing than Love I know not what to say to express my own Sentiments of them much less to set forth their native Excellence They are more valuable than all the World to repenting Sinners And all the felicities in the World cannot lift them up to such a degree of rapturous Joy as that which spreads and flows through their Souls upon the serious contemplation of this most faithful acceptable saying CHRIST JESUS came into the World to save Sinners To whom be all Glory Love and Obedience for ever and ever Amen FINIS
tabernacled amongst us according to the expression of the HOLY GHOST He answered the Quality and character of the Messiah in all points save only that he was not a temporal Prince as they misconceiv'd he should be Which gross and unhappy notion of theirs was indeed the foundation of all theirs prejudice and malice against him He was born when the Regal and Legislative power was departed from the Jews His Mother was a Virgin of the City of Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah of the House of David All which was to be And which is more when he Preached to the Jews and converted with them he attested his Divinity with signs and wonders with Glorious prodigies and stupendious Miracles Which all together prevailed so far that they entred him in the public Register of their Priests by this Title IESVS the Son of the living GOD and of the Virgin Mary But when all was done they rejected him at last and count him no better to this very day than a Grand Impostor and base and cursed Seducer of their Nation O let us pity them and from our hearts bewail their deplorable condition We can hardly bestow our tears better than upon that blind and obstinate and forsaken People 3. ' How vast abounding and illimited is CHRIST'S affection towards us It is high as the Heavens unmeasurable as Eternity infinite as Himself ' It has far out-acted all Romance and scorns to be contain'd within the compass of Hyperboles In compare with this the wildest extravagancies and most impossible stories of licentious fiction may seem both probable and modest things That CHRIST JESUS should come and come into the World to save sinners Lord what a Love was this and who can Express it Express it Alas in words there 's too great penury to do it Yea thoughts themselves are much too narrow to conceive it When they unite with strongest force and even dilate their whole capacity and strive to grasp it in their apprehension they strain themselves quite beyond their power and so dissolve into confus'd distraction leaving the mind in sweet amazement Miraculous love such as none but a GOD could ever have manifested And so manifested as no men upon Earth durst ever have desired For us once to have whispered such a thing in the ALMIGHTIES Ear as his Sons Incarnation for our Redemption tho with lips laid in the dust and spirits cloath'd with lowest humility would have been the highest pitch of Unpardonable Presumption and a blasphemy as loud as Thunder But that monstruous savour wich the boldest durst not ask GOD freely granted without request and so much the greater was his love for that ' The HOLY GHOST'S description of this matchless love is strange and unusual to make it the more emphatical Eph. 1.18 That ye may be able to comprehend the bredth and length and depth and heighth of CHRIST'S love We no where read of Love described thus Yet this I say is so far from being improper and absurd that it is most apt and congruous ' For while he imputes Physical dimensions to it he does but illustrate and commend its excellence making it even a firm and solid Body of Love such as for the unparallel'd perfection and peculiarity of it is not to be found but in the Blessed DEITY which is love essential O consider this love and wonder consider it I say and wonder at it That GOD the FATHER should send his SON and GOD the SON should come himself and come to such a place and come in such a way and come to such an end what manner of love was here What mighty love What marvellous Love What boundless peerless passionate Love Speak O Heavens and declare O Earth if ever ye beheld the like What shall I say to it O what shall I say concerning it My best way is to hold my peace I will do therefore as I now directed think and wonder but speak no more Astonisht silence is the fittest Eloquence And truly we may well give over speaking and say no more of this wondrous Love For I remember that famous Doctor S. Paul who as all must grant wanted no Elocution was remarkably plung'd in discoursing about it He was egregiously learned and inspired too yet treating of this incomprehensible love he was presently non-plust and fain to deliver himself at a strange rate Eph. 3.19 writing no less than contradiction That ye may be able to know the Love of CHRIST that passeth knowledge What a significant inconsistency What a sweet and pregnant incongruity is here Can we measure that which is boundless Can we fathom that which is bottomless Can we know that love which passeth knowledge But thus we must talk of this surpassing love nor can we do it in better terms To such absurdities it drives our shallowness to discourse of its immensity But then while they live let none of CHRIST's sincere and hearty Proselytes go about to question the divine love to them To do that now will be too disingenious and unreasonable For he that contemplates this illustrious act of his coming into this World to save it and fluctuates and staggers in the belief of JESUS his indulgence to his People May next dispute whether the Sun shines at noon-day or no and doubt if the plainest and most demonstrable truths be not fallacious and incertain things Herein he has given us a stronger argument a surer token a clearer evidence a larger instance of his love since mans defection and apostacy than ever he did afore To go a little farther Since the love and kindness of the SON of God has been and is so ardent to us let this holy flame warm our Souls with reciprocal affections to him again And let the egressions of our love to him correspond to his way of expressing love to us That is as he has manifested his love in actual coming to us so let us shew ours in passionate desires of going to him Were we exalted to the highest Glories were we surrounded with bliss and incircled with Joy and crowned with Honour and Immortality In a word were we above in the heavenly state yet were we there without CHRIST who brought us thither methinks we should be impatient even of that sweet condition and find a weariness and restlesness in our selves till we might pass into his wished presence where-ever it should be But how much greater cause have we now of longing to be where our REDEEMER is when we are not in Heaven but on Earth in a sinning suffering dying state which were it not that it leads to a better would not indeed be worth the having Methinks O Christians As oft as our dear and loving SAVIOUR comes into our minds and sure he can never be long out our glowing hearts should presently take fire and burn with pathetic longings after him and we should not care either what we did or what we suffered so we might but ascend unto his MAJESTY Thus it was with that