Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	eternal_a	glory_n	immortality_n	1,513	5	10.0609	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B01570	The great soul of man, or, The soul in its likeness to God, its nature, operations and everlasting state discoursed. / By Tho. Beverley.	Beverley, Thomas.	1675 (1675)	Wing B2188EA; ESTC R172737	123,818	332

to us as to some of old that we read of in the Scripture and in a retirement what affrightment would it be to us how unable were any sort of men to bear such an approach and yet the force of their Beings is not in their appearance but in the Essence it self for the appearance they take upon them and throw off again at pleasure and they only condescend to Sense by these appearances that are therefore no part of their strength that lies treasured up wholly in their Essences so that their being seen adds nothing to them but as we dwell in Body they are represented more plainly to us and so seem more potent and dreadful also to us Now when we are to dye we are to enter into the whole world of these invisible Beings and how shall we be able to bear so great a presence if we do not prepare our selves for the encounter It is true we shall be fitted the more to endure such a state thus far that we shall be uncloathed of flesh and blood in which we are so amazed with any thing of the other world but then it is further to be considered if we are not reconciled to that Supreme Being whom though as the Apostle hath assured us No man hath seen or can see yet because of that his displeasure is so much the swifter and the more penetrating and we but the more fitted to suffer under it by our being dis-incumbred from present gross matter and the horrible dread of that whole world will rise up against us with more immediate impression But to him that is reconciled to God by Jesus Christ all things in Heaven are reconciled also and he passes through those Hosts as a man that passes through the most terrible Armies under the protection of the General or as a stranger through foreign Countries with the especial gracious Convoy of the Prince nay higher than thus as a particular Favourite and Friend of the Prince Now there is an Order of these Invisible Beings most blessed God the happy and only Potentate Jesus Christ God over all blessed for ever the Angels of Glory the blessed Saints There is highest and truest blessedness most certainly to be found among them nor are they the less but the more happy for being invisible nor is their happiness therefore fantastick aiery or not solid because not seen For so fine and pure as not to be seen and yet to be gives the greatest presumption of the vividness and power of any thing that can be given of it the quickest motions are too quick for sight and the life of discourse is not that which the ear hears differing nothing from common sound but that which the mind perceives Beings invisible do not know one another less than men in Bodies but the most quick communications pass between them Invisibility is but a just distance from Sense as greatness retires and reserves it self from vulgar eyes and every days sight that it may be more adored at solemn times of appearance Christ ascending up into his glory a Cloud received him out of their sight but as the Apostle speaks of him so we may say of the whole state of Invisible Things That 1 Tim. 6. 16. in his time he will shew him and them who is the only blessed Potentate he will shew them in such representations as are proper to them some fully possessing the mind some filling the very Sense as it shall be heightened and exalted by the Resurrection of which the glorious Body of Christ shall be the supreme Object How earnest then should we be in seeking a communion in this blessedness in laying hold upon this eternal life in seeking honour glory immortality while we are in the world not in the least disswaded that they are not seen but looking the more earnestly upon them by faith because they are not like the things that prophane Sense every day blows upon and are therefore continually perishing for being so dull and gross as to be seen they are also of a composition dissolvable and apt to flye in pieces whereas eternal things whose nature is purer are not exposed to common eyes This is indeed Christianity while we look not upon the 2 Cor. 4. 18. things that are seen but upon the things that are not seen for the things which are seen are but for a moment but the things which are not seen are eternal But as there is a blessed and happy order of invisible Beings so there is an Order of Beings invisible most wretched and miserable the Devil and his Angels and wicked men damned to their fellowship How black is this state How dreadful is the wrath and misery of their punishment It is like the stroke of lightning sooner felt than seen and the destruction that is the effect of it greater deeper more sudden and universal and leaving more dread behind it than those things that work by the light and leisure of senses cognisance and observation If any should think there wants evidence of these things let him think also it may not be the want of evidence but the want of our suitedness to them It is because the Soul is swallowed up of Sense that any man wants evidence and we are angry that we cannot by Sense comprehend things that are not related to it but are nearly allyed to understanding to Faith Many things give full satisfaction of themselves to learned men yet can offer none to men unlearned so do these objects display themselves with great clearness to men of purified minds that cannot make themselves known to Souls plunged down into Sense and the thick matter The best expedient for the cure of such men is first to believe the assertions of men of refined minds inviting others to what themselves have found and then to receive the assurance that will arise from their own compliance with and experience of divine things But further we want most the prevalency of what we believe rather than meerly belief we may be more strongly perswaded of this invisible world than we know our selves to be yet by reason of the great unaptness of the fleshly state in regard of mind adhering so to it the consideration hath not the force answerable to the belief because it is suppressed and the want of force in the belief lessens our feeling of the belief which we indeed have and must have the principle of it being united with our very Souls Having now asserted that there is an order of invisible Beings and that the Soul is such a one I come in the next place to call them Spirits and so to treat of the Soul as a Spirit There need be no contention about the word Spirit it being but a word or name chosen to express the notion men have in all times had of these insensible and immaterial Beings which they have made easie to themselves and others by whatever among sensible natures is most subtile and fine and had least