Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A57736
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Heavenly-mindedness, and earthly-mindedness in two parts : with an appendix concerning laying hold on eternal life / by John Rowe.
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Rowe, John, 1626-1677.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing R2064; ESTC R17610
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104,542
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266
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abundantly all the creatures are too narrow and too short to exhibit and represent to us the immensity and infiniteness of the Divine perfection God is not onely all that perfection that is in the creature but he is infinitely more and the reason is because if all the perfections of thâ creature were summed up into onâ it is but finite perfection it is ãâã contradiction to suppose an infiniâ creature but God's perfection is iâfinite perfection what happineââ then must it be to be admitted tâ see him who hath all this perfectioâ in him This should make us 1. To think much of the beatifical vision ouâ thoughts should be much upon it 2. We should have great and admiring thoughts of it O let us not thinâ it is a light thing to be admitted into the Divine presence the more you think of it the more will you finde your hearts swallowed up in the thoughts of it I say let us not think that it is a light thing to be admitted into the Divine presence and to stand before him who made heaven and earth We ought to think this is the highest dignity and honour that can be cast upon us if the Queen of Sheba was so much taken with the admiration of Solomon's wisdom as that she said Happy are thy men happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom well may we say to our Maker Happy Lord are they that may be admitted into thy presence and may stand continually before thee to behold the glory and beauty of thy Majesty let us have great and admiring thoughts of the beatifical vision Do not think it a light thing to be admitted to the fight of God 3. We should pray much that we may be accounted worthy to be admitted to this sight It is that which deserves to be made the great request of our souls all our days that we may be accounted worthy to be admitted into the Divine presence and live in the sight and presence of God to eternity And as ever we hope to come to the sight of God to the beatifical vision be sure to remember this that Christ must be our way I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 It is Christ that must bring us to the Father whilst we are here on earth and it is he that must make way for our admission to the sight of God in heaven It is Christ as Mediator must bring us to this sight and let us into thâ sight his humanity opens the ãâã to the Divinity Christ as man by ââtue of the Hypostatical or personal âânion hath a right to the sight of God and Divines commonly say Thâ Christ as man from the moment ãâã his conception had the sight of Goâ Our nature was alienated from Goâ and deprived of communion wiâ God by our sin in Adam But thâ Son of God the second person iâ the Trinity by assuming our nature and taking of it into Unity of persoâ with himself hath brought our nature near to God and our nature ãâã it stands in Union with Christ the Head of the Church hath recovered ãâã right to communion with God and Christ by the merit of his obedience hath purchased a right for us to the sight of God so that when we have thoughts of the beatifical vision and have breathings in our souls after it we must keep our eye upon Christ and remember it is by him we must be admitted into the presence of God âever think of seeing God without Christ never think of being admitted into the Divine presence without Christ's being your way and door 4. If we would get up into the spirit and life of heaven We must labour to adhere to God and to cleave to him as the chief good In heaven as there will be the clear sight of God so there will be the most perfect adherence of the soul to him The glorified soul must needs see God to be its life its strength its happiness and all good to it and therefore it must needs cleave perfectly to him Now if we would come up into the spirit of heaven we should labour to have our souls cleaving to God here on earth we should rest in God as in our Centre we should labour to cleave to God more then to any created thing in a strict and proper sence our selves should cleave to nothing but God though we may and ought to love the creature in its place yet we may not love it as we love God Our souls must cleave and adhere to nothing as our chief good as the matter and object of our happiness but God of God onely it is that we must say He is my life my strength my salvation my happiness this was the Church's Song The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my salvation Isaâ 12. We ought to cleave intimately and inseparably unto God God ought to be the stay and rest of our souls so much as our souls come to stay and rest themselves upon God as our chief good and onely happiness so near do we come to the life of Heaven It is a proper and an apposite expression to help us to understand this that which we have in Isa 26.3 Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose minde is stayed on thee This expression shews us what the carriage of the soul ought to be towards God the chief good the soul ought to cleave to God most intimately and to stay it self upon him The Saints in heaven do thus stay themselves upon God God is the great basis they lean upon they have no sensible comforts to live upon as we have but they see all in God and therefore he is their stay it is upon him they lean for happiness the more we can adhere to God and eleave to him and stay our souls upon him as our chief good the more do we come up to the life spirit of heaven 5. If we would get up into the life and spirit of heaven Let us labour to take complacencie in the glory and blessedness of God Here lyâs the quintessence and perfection of the heavenly life so far as we are able to conceive of it here on earth The glorified Saints look off themselves and out of themselves and take complacencie in the glory and happiness of God who is the first and most perfect Being It is matter of delight and joy to them to see God so holy and so happy as he is The Schoolmen rightly observe that to love God for himself Vâlle Deum esse Deum it is to will that God should be God Then do we love God for himself when we take complacencie in the glory and blessedness of God when we are well pleased to see God to be what he is that is to see him to be the most excellent and most perfect being Our happiness as it is in us it is but a