Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	comprehend_v	light_n	shine_v	2,130	5	9.2464	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43686	A discourse of the excellency of the heavenly substance which is useful for the present, and so may be for future times.	Hickes, John, 1633-1685.	1673 (1673)	Wing H1879; ESTC R40162	98,991	257

place like ponderous bodies that stand fast with their own weight like as the great hills or mountains It s therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal this is the accomplished perfection of their Glory of this their substance How admirably wise then are those believing souls that will adventure and chearfully part with that substance which is measured with a few moments of time for that which is coextended with Eternity And oh what folly possesseth them and what 's their debility of reason who will not do it Having now dispatcht this third and most considerable particular in the proposition I shall proceed to the next in order as they were at first laid down to be spoken to Therefore 4. How comes this substance to be known to the Saints or how come they to know they have such a substance in Heaven Answ 1. By Divine Revelation Had not God first made it known to them it could never have been known by them but it s clearly discovered in the sacred Scriptures in the writings both of the Prophets and Apostles though more plainly and fully in the latter It s true the dim twi-light of Nature helps most men to some very low imperfect and confused Notions and obscure glimmerings of a future happiness in another world when they depart this but it can make no such discovery of an Heavenly Glory and Blessedness what it is and wherein it consists as the word of God doth The Heathens had their Elysium a place as they conceiv'd of all pleasures whither they thought the souls of all the virtuous went after death The Mahometans have their pleasant Paradise whither they believe their great Prophet Mahomet will convey the souls of all those that live agreable to his Laws but still are grosly ignorant of the true happiness in Heaven All the most profound Philosophers in the world by their most diligent and laborious investigation and seach cannot discover and find out this Mystery though they can so many rare secrets of Nature It s the Gospel that brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Res ipsas occultas in lucem proferre seu reddere visibiles illuminare ipsos homines ut qui in tenebris non poterant ad presentiam Lucis ipsi etiam illustrati possint videre Zanch. That is to bring occult and hidden things into light or render them visible and to illuminate men themselves so that they who could not be seen at the presence of the light they themselves also being illustrated might see So that until the Gospel like the Sun shine unto men this immortal blessedness and eternal life is hid and kept secret and all men are in darkness and cannot possibly search and seek it out no more than a man in the darkest night can distinctly see those objects that the light of the Sun only can clearly manifest Hence till the Gospel be sent among a people they are said to fit in darkness and in the Region of the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Matth. 4.15 even deathful ignorance This is the light that springs up among those involv'd and envelop'd in dreadful darkness which they see the beatitude of Heaven by 2. By divine illumination of the Soul For any man to know this Heavenly substance it is not sufficient that there be a light without to manifest it but there must be a light within like an eye to the soul to behold it Let the Sun shine never so brightly let all Clouds be chas'd and driven away and the Heavens most serene and clear yet a man that hath no eyes can neither behold the Sun nor any objects it doth discover So let the light of the Gospel shine round about us yet unless its bright and blessed beams break into our souls for their illustration and illumination we see nothing by it And therefore as the Gospel doth enlighten the object so God must enlighten the Intellect which is the faculty the soul sees by He must give the seeing eye and actually enable to discern the illustrated object Let the Gospel be preached unto an Heathen or an Heathenish Congregation yet they will not understand what the blessedness of another world is till God in some measure shine into their souls which is the opening of the blind eyes and turning from darkness to light that the Apostle speaks of in Acts 26.18 which fully proves this truth This is the reason why so many in the Christian world who have lived many years under the preaching of the Gospel yet know so little of the life and immortality it brings to light Alas their souls are not from Heaven enlightned and though the light doth shine yet their souls are wrapt up in Clouds and darkness and that darkness cannot comprehend that light 1 Joh. 5. Every man according to the measure and degree of divine light that shines into his soul forms his Notions and conceives Idea's of the future blessedness If his light be but common or of a low degree then his Notions are less clear more languid and feeble less powerful and impressive upon the soul for its change and renovation and rise no higher or proceed no farther than some jejune and unaffectionate speculations and indeed this is the reason why we have so many speculative but so few practical Christians But when this light is more special and saving when it so irradiates the understanding that it efficatiously works on the will to cause a choice of this object and becomes transformative of the soul into the nature thereof then are its Notions profund and vigorous and produce a firm belief thereof with a frame of spirit and conversation sutable thereunto and no more than you can make a man that hath his eyes in his head and his sight clear believe that the Sun shines not at Noon-day or that he sees not Trees and Men distinct from Mountains can you make a soul thus specially enlightned believe he is under a mistake as to his future happiness or that he sees and knows not such a substantial Glory in the other world 3. By Divine Promission or the Promise of God Had not the faithful and true God promised it to them had they not the word of a God for it they could not know it should be theirs yea it were sinful presumption for such finite crawling worms and mortal defiled dust without this so much as to hope for it but they have the Promises of God those sure Rocks of Eternity to be the basis and foundation of such high expectations Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began Rev. 2.10 Rev. 3.21 If we firmly believe a man to be just and honest when he promiseth to lend or give us so much money or leave us such an estate and treasure when he dies then we have a strong confidence that it shall be ours and say we know it shall be so So

be either ●●●vided for at all or better than when they had their publick Maintenance If it be said that they hoped to find many Friends it must be said of them as of Abraham in another case Rom. 4.18 that against hope they believed in hope That God hath raised them on many Friends is certainly true what doth this prove but that though they be ejected and cast out by imcompassionate men yet they are not rejected cast out by God and if it be not an infallible Demonstration yet it 's a good Argument to prove that their cause is well-pleasing unto and approved of by God that it hath the strength of Divinity in it What shall we think of that Religion that flourishes in the midst of flames and the highest oppositions that the more fe●ere Laws be multiplyed against it the more it lifts up its head with Triumph the more it dilates and spreads it self Long and great Persecutions have at last discomfeited and supprest Errours and Heresies but Truth after all hath prevailed and appeared to the opposing world and like the Sun after a short Eclipse or some black Vizard and dark vailing cloud cast over his Face hath effulg'd and shin'd forth with greater Beauty and Glory and pou●ed forth more plentifully his brightest Beams We know that in the late times Prelatism and a Ceremonial Religion could not stand before Humane Power and Penal Laws though nothing so severe nor so many as are now made against that Thing and that Religion which hath been branded and stigmatized with the most odious Nick-Names how did they fall before them like Dagon before the Ark how quickly did they shrink into nothing and disappear seem'd to be annihilated or at least exanimated and like some smaller Animals that lye as dead in the Winter till they feel the power of the Vernal Sun and its vivifying and enlivening heat did those things lye dead in the cold winter of Adversity and so continued till the benign Raies and Influences of Regal Authority at his Majesties happy Restauration did reanimate and inspire them with a new life which if they were but once suspended we should quickly see them dye again They can only live in the warm Sun-shine of his Majesties Royal Favour Let that be withdrawn and the Civil Power set against them and they will soon be liveless and so deeply buried in the Grave of Oblivion and Contempt as never to have a Resurrection to any Grandeur or Glory more Though it 's Confess'd that many Nonconformists are bountifully provided for especially such as live in Wealthy and Populous Cities Corporations and Towns where they have larg Congregations to Preach to or if they be debarr'd from this yet lose not their hearts and respects and I wish such may not too little Sympathize with others and have too few slender compassionate resentments of their low conditions look too loftily and superciliously and disdainfully upon them be of too Magisterial a de-deportment towards them or grudg too much their Neighborhood and coming to live when necessitated thereunto where they do If God see such Ambition Pride and Selfishness among and so much of Prelatical Spirit pearking up in Nonconformists he may make them yet pass through a hotter fire to refine them and prepare a narrower and finer sieve to fist them with I say though this be so yet there are many and Men of great Worth both for Learning and Piety that have been and yet are much pincht with poverty are reduced to great Straits and dolorous wants exposed unto which yet blessed be God they stoutly and resolutely endure great hardships and yet the sewie● complain not so much as many Conformists who have some of them ●00 〈◊〉 300 l. per Annum c. who as they say run into Debt cannot make both ends meet and some of them are now and then jogging along unto and taking up their residence in some Goal for not paying to a very man what they ow him Somet●●● they are haunted as with evil Spirits and Frends of Hell with the ●●de and boisterous Bayliffs which affright them more than Hobgoblings in the night who make them sober and good Husbands and perhaps keep them in their studies against their wills and for a long time by reason of those Diligent and Hawk-ey'd Attendants they are made so happy as not to go to Gods House and not so miserable as not to go to an Ale-house that Joan may fill them the other Jugg But these afflictions and troubles I do not here the poorest Nonconformists meet with Sometimes not only the inferiour but the dignified Clergy complain they want money notwithstanding their great Revenues and large In-comes while the poorest Nonconformists are not querulous but still and silent being contented with thankful unto God for that modicum that little which they have what 's the Reason of this but besides that which is natural their toping their exhausting and emptying of Bottles of Sack Claret till 10 or 12 a Clock at Night and sometimes longer their ingurgitating and swallowing down so much Wine and strong Liquors too frequently to Ebriation their Luxury and Profuseness their Courting now and then a Madam who must be generously and nobly treated and who because she is Morally light must be made Physically heavy their Complementing in a private recess some pretty Miss who though a beautiful yet a chargeable Creature for these are the Insatiably voracious Barathrams the deep Ditches and Pits that absorp and swallow up all the Idols that devour whatever is sacrificed to them whose flaming lust consumes more treasure and wealth than all especially the late most violent eruptions of Aetna's fiery subterranean Furnace or all the fires that have wasted and destroyed Houses Ships and Cities since the Creation of the World or fire was first kindled upon Earth Their only close and comfortable importance I say besides that which is natural the want of the secret blessing of the Almighty that sacred Text in Job 20.22 being verified and fulfill'd signally in them In the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straits while the others by the Danation of his blessing in the midst of straits have what is sufficient for them As the Apostle saith in 2 Cor. 6.10 As having nothing yet possessing all things No doubt those that talk so much of the Non-Conformists living so well grudg them the bread they eat and some of them are fill'd with malice and madness that they are not starv'd An eminent instance hereof we have in a Bishop who when he went his Visitation in his Diocess was very inquisitive to know how the Non-Conformists were maintain'd and who supply'd them In pursuance of his end he employed several to search it out One of them when he was upon the scent not being able to understand where the Game did lie comes to a Minister whose learning and parts are sufficiently known in the Country where he lives to be informed of