Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	word_n	world_n	year_n	160	3	4.7772	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85953	Gospel-revelation in three treatises, viz, 1 The nature of God. 2 The excellencies of Christ. And, 3 The Excellency of mans immortal soul. By Jeremiah Burroughs, late preacher of the gospel at Stepney, and Giles-Cripple-gate, London. Published by William Greenhill. William Bridge. Philip Nye. John Yates. Matthew Mead. William Adderly.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.	1660 (1660)	Wing G6083; Thomason E1029_1; ESTC R208881	280,310	387

thus long therefore hee will bee so still Wee may indeed venture upon the Grace of God in his Son as well for sanctification as for pardon but not to venture either upon patience or any thing else so as to continue in our sins though God hath been patient thus long thou dost not know but that upon thy next venture the cord of mercy may crack and thou mayest sink and perish eternally that may befall thee in one day that hath not befallen thee all thy life before take heed my brethren of venturing upon patience for that hath not a word of promise to strengthen it unto thee Indeed Faith is a kind of venture but that ventures upon the Word of God and the Promise of God and it is good venturing upon that but when thou venturest upon patience thou hast no word to assure thee that patience will hold Thou hast no word to make this good unto thee that though God hath been patient so many years therefore hee will bee so still Fourthly And then a fourth venture that men make it is to venture upon their own lives they are young and they hope they may live many years yet I know others they live to bee old men and why may not I live and have my pleasure as well as they and thus they venture Oh but what if the threed of thy life should bee snapt asunder what will become of thee then wilt thou venture thy eternal miscarrying upon such a brittle and frail thing as thy life is Oh it is a desperate venture when men and women will venture thus that if God take away my life now certainly I must perish for ever Now I put it unto every soul in this place let this bee the case now do you examine what you think in your consciences your conditions would bee if you should hear a voice from Heaven saying unto you presently this soul shall have no more time to make provision for eternity I am perswaded that in such a place as this is there cannot but bee many that would in their own consciences say If God should take away my life now I fear I should bee lost for ever I doubt if wee could go from one to another and lay our ears to the bosoms of men and could but hear what the consciences of men say upon this that is now put to them that thou shouldest dye in the condition in which now thou art and what repentance thou hast had bee it good or bad that thy soul must depend upon if it bee not right thy soul must perish I say I fear that upon such a message from Heaven many a mans and womans heart would ask within them and their consciences would tell them I am afraid I should bee lost for ever Oh for thee to bee content to bee in such a condition any one moment that if thou shouldest dye that moment thy soul should bee damned I say thou art a bold and presumptuous sinner a most desperate wretch The Sixth SERMON ON The Excellency of the Soul Matthew 16.26 For what is a man profited if hee shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul 8. MAny do lose their souls by starving of them that is such as neglect the Word that is the food of the soul the Word of God upon which the soul should feed as the body doth upon any food that neglect Gods Ordinances that care not to come to the Word either to feed upon it privately or publickly that think that there is no need of the Word but if they can procure food for their bodies and make shift to get up a living and that that may satisfie the flesh there is all that they look after but for the feeding of their souls by the Word it is that that is little minded or regarded by thousands Oh how many that belong to this Congregation perish eternally even that way by starving Wee pitty people that wee see ready to die that are starved if wee hear but of a prisoner starved even the poorest body wee account it an in humane thing in those that knew it and did not relieve them to see a beast to die by starving wee account it a cruel thing and it can scarse consist with the heart of a man to see I say so much as a dogg to perish by way of starving Now to see immortal souls thousands of them to die and perish and drop down to Hell as thick as may bee and that for want of the food of their souls meerly for starving it should bee an object of pitty and commiseration Now because wee are sensual wee are onely affected with such things as concern the body immediately but for the soul how many care not what kind of Ministry they live under Oh the curse of God is upon them as wee read of in Psal 106.15 Hee gave them their requests and sent leanness into their souls hee gave them their requests that is hee gave them Quails They lusted in the wilde●ness and tempted God in the desert and hee gave them Quails to feed upon but sent leanness into their souls wee may apply it thus unto those that seek after nothing else but Quails but that that may feed the flesh Oh the curse of God is upon their souls there is leanness there and they are starved there even unto death whereas those that do but know what the sweetness of the Word is to their souls and have fed upon the Word they had rather feed upon brown bread and water all their daies so bee it they may have the Word than have the greatest delicacies in the world without the Word I put this to your consciences answer it as in the presence of God if this should bee put to you can you say as in Gods presence that sees and searches the hearts of men that upon the real sweetness and good your souls have found in the Word that if God should put it to your choice either to live with bread and water and have the Word or to live with all the delicacies in the world without the Word you would a thousand thousand times sooner chuse to live with the Word with bread and water rather than without the Word with all delicacies Luther I remember hee hath an expression That hee had rather bee in Hell with the Word than in Paradise without the Word Ninthly In the ninth place there is another sort that lose their souls by surfeiting of them their souls do surfeit with the cares and pleasures of this life they glut their hearts with the delights and pleasures and cares of this world until their souls get a surfeit and die of them giving liberty unto their hearts to delight themselves in all outward contentments especially if they bee lawful Now a man or woman may surfeit their souls Licitis perimus omnes and undo themselves by lawful things as a man may not onely destroy his life by eating poison but by

goodness as much power as hee pleases hee is able to let out Secondly the creature When it doth communicate any excellency the more it lets out the less it hath but God hath never a whit less by that that hee doth let out to his creatures as thus the Sea is full of water yet if you take out but a little water the Sea hath so much the less therefore some of the Fathers would set out Eternity by this that if a Sparrow should but once in a thousand years fetch one drop of water from the Sea in the bill of it yet the Sparrow would sooner empty all the Sea than the torments of the damned should bee at an end so that if a drop bee taken out of the Sea it is the less but God is such an infinite ocean of beeing of excellencies of happiness that let him let out and communicate never so much of himself yet hee hath as much still as ever hee had God hath let out excellency and good to all his creatures ever since the world began all the good the comfort the happiness the sweetness the beauty and excellency of all creatures have been from God that infinite fountain but now this fountain is as full as ever it was and will bee as full to all eternity as ever it was And here lyes the excellency of God beyond all creatures whatsoever 17 In the next place God alone is excellent there is no comparison to bee made between him and any thing else as thus Take the creature in what wee think it comes nearest to God and the truth is to speak properly it comes no nearer to God than those things that wee think come less as when wee say that God is a great God and fills all places if you should suppose a body that should fill all this world it is no nearer to Gods immensity than a moat that flyes in the Sun or thus Take never so many thousand years as wee spoke the last day if an Accountant that should write down figures all his life time they would come wee think to an infinite summe yet all those infinite millions of years come no nearer to Gods eternity than one minute doth and the reason that I give is unanswerable because that there must needs bee alwayes an infinite distance between what is finite and what is infinite and greater than an infinite distance there cannot bee now take such a body as should fill the space between heaven and earth there remains still an infinite distance between the Immensity of God and this body and take so many numbers of years as possibly can be imagined by Men or Angels yet there will remain an infinite distance between Gods eternity and those numbers of years now greater than an infinite distance there cannot bee therefore all those years do not come nearer to eternity than a minute and all the greatness doth not come nearer to Immensity than a moat in the Sun God is beyond all comparison whatsoever and the understanding that God is an infinite beeing will help us to understand all the rest that I have named 18 And there is one more and that is this Hee is the last end of all things Hee is the highest end for which all Creatures had their beeing and the more any Creature is subservient unto God the more excellency a Creature hath For of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 to whom be glory for ever All things must tend to God as the highest end cursed bee that Creature that shall challenge to bee the highest end of any good thing whatsoever this makes it to bee a cursed thing for any man to make himself to bee his last end to make his name honour or credit to bee the end that hee aims at and indeed this is the very thing that makes pride to bee so great a sin the Scripture never speaks so of other things as it doth of pride it is said of other sins that God hates the workers of iniquity but it is said of no sin that God doth resist it onely the sin of pride why James 4.6 1 Pet. 5.5 because a proud man doth cross God in that which is indeed his excellency and that is this That God is the highest end of all things for whom all things were made now a proud man crosses God in this nay saith hee I will aim at my self as the highest end wee may aim at our own good in a subordinate way but wee must bee sure to lift up God as the highest end of all because hee is excellent above all now put all these together First That God hee is and there is none else Hee is such a beeing as in comparison of him nothing else hath a beeing Hee is that beeing that hath no succession that is alwaies the same Hee is an excellency in all places that fills all places without any local motion at all Hee is a beeing that hath all sufficiency in himself hee hath all excellencies in him is an universality of all excellencies hee hath all excellencies united in one that are scattered up and down in Creatures yea all the attributes of God are in him but one hee hath in him all possible good whatsoever all things that are in God are equally in him they are all infinitely in him they are eternally immutably essentially purely without mixture originally hee is the fountain of all good to the Creature all excellencie in the Creature doth absolutely depend upon him hee is excellent in his operation hee can do whatsoever hee will hee can do the greatest thing as easily as the least and one act from eternity is enough to do all that ever hee hath done Hee can communicate as much of himself as hee will to his Creature and hee hath never a whit the less in himself there can bee no comparison between him and the Creature the highest Creature comes not nearer him than the least and hee is the highest end of all things whatsoever and this God is our God this is the God that wee profess to serve that wee profess to worship and these are to bee the thoughts that wee are to have of God when we come before him Now you cannot but imagine that there must needs bee abundance of streams of Use and Application that must follow from these things all that I have done it is but to present what God is Now meethinks I hear many that give their minds to understand what God is even saying within themselves Oh that wee did but acknowledge God to bee thus surely there is a farther excellency in God than wee have imagined and might wee have but further sight into these things that have been thus briefly presented to us Oh of what excellent use might all these be I shall endeavour therefore to present but to you and even as briefly as I have done the other the several uses that may flow from all these things

comes to have some kind of communion with innumerable company of Angels and with the spirits of just men made perfect It hath the assurance of it here and shall have the enjoyment fully and perfectly hereafter And then the continual exercise that the soul shall bee busied in to bee for ever blessing and magnifying and praising and worshipping of God and receiving in from God and letting out its self to God The eternal Sabbath that it shall keep and then the eternal rest that the soul shall have when it comes to God it comes there to its Center there it hath perfect peace and rest and can never have trouble further Yea and it shall live in God not onely God live in it but it shall I say live in God as though the similitude comes short of it the fish swimming in the Sea so the soul shall bee swimming in the infinite Ocean of the excellency of the great God It is said of John Rev. 1.10 Col. 3.3 that hee was in the Spirit on the Lords day so the soul shall live in God Our life is hid with Christ in God But our life shall bee plain and apparent not hidden but apparent before Angels and all the rest of the blessed and so our lives shall bee after another manner than now they are Now to open every one of these things would bee very large so that it suffices now onely to present them to you to shew in a short view the good of the soul in the full enjoyment of God and what it shall have from him that so you may see what the loss of the soul means Now if these things bee true and real Oh what a dreadful thing is it for a man to lose his soul for a man to come to lose all this good that others that have souls like unto him shall come to enjoy and that hee might have enjoyed as well as others If there were no more in the loss of the soul but this to bee cast away from the good that it is capable of it might shew unto us this loss to bee very dreadful It was a speech of Austin long since speaking of that place where Dives did desire Lazarus to come with one drop of water to cool his tormented tongue saith hee If there should bee but one drop of heavenly felicity let into Hell it would quench all the fire of Hell presently And Chrysostome hath such an expression that hee would rather suffer thousands of years in pain and torment in Hell than hee would lose that good that hee might have in the enjoyment of God hee accounted paena damni the loss of God to bee the greater and it were a good sign of a soul that did understand its own excellency and what good it were capable of to fear as well the loss of God and what good it might have in God and to account that as great an evil to it as pain and horrour and torment Why when wee come to express the wrath of God to you and the evil that sin deserves we speak of Hell fire and so the Scripture doth If wee would set out the great evil of punishment when wee speak to men and women that are lead by sense wee would tell them of their bodies being thousands of years in scalding Lead and kept alive there and this would startle and amaze them but certainly the evil of the souls rejection from God and being cast off from the good that there is in God it is as great if not a greater evil and a good sign I say it were that God is going to shew what our souls are to us and the true excellency of them If wee begin to bee affected with the loss of God himself and the good wee might have in God not onely afraid of Hell because of fire and torment there but afraid of having our souls lost because of being deprived of such infinite good as otherwise wee might come to enjoy with God A gracious heart hath more thought about losing the good that there is in God than of the pain that hee should feel in Hell To set it out a little but in this resemblance of the eye being deprived of light An eye that hath beheld the glory of the Heavens and of the Creatures though it should never have any pain but onely there should bee such an ill humour so as to take away all light from it why what hurt is here to the eye it is but onely the absence of a good thing the eye feels no pain but what man in the world but would rather bee willing to have his eyes to see and not to bee blinde all his life time than to have the enjoyment of thousands of gold and silver Now if the bare absence of the sight of a mans eyes bee so great an evil and hee would rather almost endure any pain than to have his eyes deprived of the light then certainly the absence of God must needs bee a most dreadful evil to the soul when the Sun shines in its lustre how beautiful is it ☜ and how pleasant to that it is at midnight when it is dismal dark why what is done it is onely the absence of one Creature one Creature is here now and shines gloriously upon us and at midnight the Creature is gone so what a mighty change and alteration would there bee in the soul if it should bee deprived of the presence of the Lord if the Lord who is infinite in glory bee present with the soul and shine upon it to all eternity Oh how glorious will it bee but Gods withdrawing himself fully and everlastingly from the soul Oh what a dismal night of darkness will there bee and therefore it is a most dreadful thing for the soul of a man to bee lost in regard of this first particular in regard of the privation of that good that it is capable of The Fourth SERMON ON The Excellency of the Soul Matthew 16.26 For what is a man profited if hee shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul NOw for the second Particular Namely wherein consists the eternal loss of the soul it is this when the soul in Hell is so possessed with sin as to bee contrary unto God eternally I say the soul cast away from God is possessed of all the evil of sin so as for ever to hate God and to abhor him and to blaspheme him that is one particular of the condition of a lost soul As every soul here by nature is deprived of all that good in which it was created and secondly as it doth wander from and is at enmity against God so when the soul is lost eternally then it is perfectly against God and doth hate and blaspheme God for ever Thou that art a wicked man thou wilt sin but when God hath cast thee away from him eternally then as I may say thou shalt have thy belly full of sin thou then shalt bee fully