Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A52426
|
Practical discourses upon several divine subjects written by John Norris.
|
Norris, John, 1657-1711.
|
1691
(1691)
|
Wing N1257; ESTC R26881
|
131,759
|
372
|
World to be Conformable to the Understanding of God those Immutable Ideal Representations which are in the Divine Mind so is it the Perfection of the Moral World to be Conformable to his Will and in both these the Second Person of the Sacred Trinity the Eternal Word seems equally and particularly concerned As to the Natural World St. John tells us that all things were made by him or according to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and without him was not any thing made that was made And St. Paul that by him were all things Created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth and that by him all things consist Again 't is said by whom also he made the Worlds And again Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands Then as to the perfecting the frame of the Moral World as t was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father himself so was it his principal business and the Main of his Undertaking to repair the Ruins of Morality to inlarge the bounds of his Fathers Kingdom to make others conformable to the Divine Will and Partakers of the Divine Nature which in part has already taken effect and of which as we are told we are yet to expect a further accomplishment under his glorious Millennial Reign when Righteousness shall flourish and be exalted and the Will of God be done on Earth to a very near degree as it is in Heaven To this end serves the great Mystery of Godliness that Grace of God which has appeared to the World teaching us that denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this present World the Covenant of Grace being so ordered and contrived that our Duty is secured as well as our Insirmity and Necessity relieved and our Repentance is only made effectual by the satisfaction of Christ not unnecessary To this End he gave us a new System of Christian Morals which though no addition to the Eternal Law of Nature and right Reason was yet a great Improvement of that of Moses And he took care also to second his excellent Precepts by as excellent an Example that they might appear to be Practicable as well as Reasonable And here because Example has the greater Influence of the Two he not only gave us an absolute one of his own and exhorted us to the imitation of it when he said Learn of me but also remits us to the excellent Example of the Angels those ready Performers of God's Will and winged Ministers of his Pleasure in that he bids us Pray Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That God's Will is done in Heaven is here supposed we are therefore further concerned only to inquire 1. Of what Will of God our Lord is to be here understood 2. By whom it is done in Heaven 3. After what manner it is there done 4. How far we are concerned to imitate this great Pattern of Obedience 5. How reasonable it is for us to do so And First by Will here our Lord cannot be supposed to mean that which is a Faculty in the Divine Essence or rather the very Essence it self for how may we Pray that that should be done which Eternally and Necessarily is Neither by Will here are we to understand the Act of Willing for this can no more properly be said to be done than the other but that Will for the doing of which we here Pray is the Res Volita or the Object of the Divine Will But then this is Two-fold either the Object of his Will Decreeing or the Object of his Will Commanding or to word it according to the ordinary distinction the Will of his Decrees or the Will of his Commands And 't is generally held that both these are to be here understood But I must confess it does not appear to me how the Will of God's Decrees can be at all here concerned any further than as our Submission to it is a part of the Will of his Commands for not to insist upon the necessary and uncontroulable accomplishinent of God's Decrees and that things necessary and certain are not so proper Objects of Prayer I only observe that this Will of God is here desired to be done in Earth as it is in Heaven which supposes it to be more perfectly performed in the one than in the other the latter being proposed as a Pattern and Precedent to the former But now as God is in all Places equally Almighty so are his Decrees in all Places alike performed in Earth as well as in Heaven according to that of the Psalmist Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and in all deep Places this therefore cannot be meant of the Will of God's Decrees any further than as 't is a part of the Will of his Commands that we should submit to them and acquiesce in them Neither indeed can this be directly and strictly intended but only by way of Proportion that as the whole Will of God which is capable of being done in Heaven is there done so all that is capable of being done on Earth should in like manner be there done But I say it cannot be directly intended there being no Afflictive Dispensations of Providence incident to those who do God's Will in Heaven and consequently no room for the Exercise of Patience and Submission as will further appear by considering the Second Inquiry namely by whom it is that this Will of God is done in Heaven And this indeed is of no great Difficulty to resolve since the nature of the Will does of it self point out to the Doers of it for it being the Will of God's Commands it can no more be done by God than 't is possible for God to obey himself Nor can it be done by the Celestial Bodies for however these in a large and improper sense are sometimes said to obey God as when the Psalmist says that the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work and that Wind and Storm fulfil his Word and the like Yet being necessary Agents they cannot yield any Moral and Acceptable Obedience much less in such an eminent and exemplary manner as to be a Pattern to us which yet is here supposed And yet they will be every whit as capable of this Obedience as we are if we be not free Agents which by the way leave to be considered by those who deny that Priviledge to Human Nature It remains therefore that the Holy Angels are they that do this Will of God in Heaven none else are capable of doing it and of these the Psalmist says expressly that they fulfil his Commandment and hearken to the Voice of his Word Proceed we therefore to the next Inquiry namely after what manner this Will of God is done by the Holy Angels in
the one as well as to mean us from the other Nay to speak the truth it will not so much support us under these Evils as take them away and render them slight and inconsiderable For suppose the worst that can be Death and a Painful Death he that has his Conversation in Heaven views the Glory that shall be revealed there and at once sees that the sharpest Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with them no more than the Point of a Circle is with its Circumference He contemplates the Joy that is set before him and so indures the Cross and despises the Shame and the Pain too For a view of Heaven will mitigate any Cross upon Earth and help us to incounter any Affliction as St. Stephen did his Martyrdom He is one of those steddy Men the Psalmist speaks of who are not afraid at any evil Tidings but his Heart stands fixed in the Lord. Much less will he for the dread of any Persecutions or Worldly Losses deny his Religion or by a Trimming and Hypocritical Mode of Behaviour court the Favour of those in Power or by any sinful compliance part with a good Conscience He sees nothing so great or so terrible in this World as to fright him into any such unworthinesses no they that do so have not their Conversation in Heaven but are Earthly Sensual and Devilish and for all their Pretences to Self-denial deny nothing of themselves that I know of but their Understandings He that truly converses in Heaven sees infinitely more there than he can either get or lose here and can therefore never be guilty of such a Foolish Exchange as to gain not the whole but a little of the World and lose his own Soul Thirdly This Dispensation of Life is the best Preparatory for Heaven that can possibly be for besides that the greatness of that Happiness makes him that Contemplates it despise any good or evil that may here stand in competition with it he further considers the Nature and Quality of that Happiness that it is an union of the Soul with her best and last end that it is a clear Vision and an ardent Love of God who cannot be seen by him that Lives much less by him that Lives ill and this must needs put him upon thinking that a Holy and Divine frame of Spirit is absolutely requisite not only as a Condition to our Admission into Heaven but also as a Condition of Enjoyment without which there is no being Happy even when we are there And from this Consideration he naturally passes to fit himself for the enjoyment of his Maker to Purify himself as he is Pure to Purge Refine and Spiritualize his Nature that so he may be qualified for the refined Joys of Heaven The short is there are Two things that must and will be considered by him that has his Conversation in Heaven the Greatness of the Happiness there and the Nature of it and each of these has a particular influence for the preparing him for it The former will make him Temptation-Proof against any present good or evil that shall stand in his way to his great Prize and the latter will contribute to form and fashion the frame of his Mind into a likeness and affinity with the end which he proposes But both together will so strongly influence the Man that he will become perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead to himself and to all the Luscious Relishes of the Corporeal Life and the Life of God will be triumphantly seated in him so that now he has but one only Will in the World which is to have none at all of his own but to annihilate himself that God may be all in all in him And thus while like Moses he converses with God on this holy Mount his Face shine with a Divine Glory and he is transfigured into the likeness of him whom his Soul loves Fourthly and Lastly This is a dispensation of Life that affords the greatest Pleasure and Satisfaction of any in the World to ascend the top of the Mystical Pisgah and thence to take a survey of the Happy Land to contemplate the infinite Perfection of God and the Happiness of those Blessed Spirits that enjoy him the Order of Angels and that noble and blessed Communion of Saints to contemplate the last and richest Scene of Providence and the Discovery of all the rest that went before when the reason of all difficult and perplexing Appearances shall be made plain and the manifold Wisdom of God set in a clear Light to have our Minds imployed about the greatest and best things to walk with God and keep a constant Communication with Heaven must needs be the sweetest as well as the noblest and most worthy Entertainment on this side of it Intellectual Pleasures are certainly greater than Sensual even by the Confession of the greatest Sensualists as may appear from this single instance in that Men will abstain from the greatest Pleasures of Sense that they may not lose a good Reputation which is an Intellectual good and as Intellectual Pleasures are greater than Sensual so this is the greatest of those that are Intellectual Concerning this the same may be said that is of Wisdom that her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness and that all her Paths are Peace that she is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her That they who eat of her shall yet be Hungry and they that drink of her shall yet be Thirsty For there is a certain inexhaustible Well of Pleasure a fathomless Abyss of Delight in this Heavenly Conversation which they only who have experimented it can conceive and which even they want Power to describe This I know will be far from satisfying some Voluptuaries who are sunk so low into the contrary Life that of Sense and Carnality that they will think a Man Mad that shall either Talk or Live at this Abstracted rate but to these I have Two things to say First That their having no notion of the Pleasure of this Dispensation is no Objection against it the thing may be true for any thing they know or can say to the contrary for they are not during the quick sensibility and invigoration of the lower Life proper Judges in the case any more than the Sense it self is of an Intellectual Object for these things are spiritually discerned by a certain Divine Tast and Sensation which is a Faculty which these Men want The other thing I shall commend to the Sensualist is this that since he is too scrupulous and sceptical to take our word for it he would endeavour after such a degree at least of Spiritual Purification as to try the Experiment that as the Psalmist speaks he would Tast and See how good and pleasant this Heavenly Conversation is and then I 'm much mistaken if he does not find that all the Madness lay on his side if