Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	love_n	love_v	neighbour_n	2,121	5	9.0617	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27575	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-hall, October 12. 1690 by William Beveridge ...	Beveridge, William, 1637-1708.	1690 (1690)	Wing B2114; ESTC R2113	15,061	37

cry Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory And hence also it is that when God designed to make Man after his own image as like him as a creature could be he made him perfectly holy And now that this image is defaced in us if it be restored again to any man so that he becomes a new man he is said to be created after God that is after the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness So that this is the great perfection wherein we were at first made and ought again to become like to God our Maker who therefore commands us to be holy as he is holy As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation From whence it appears that though we cannot be holy in the same measure as God is who is so without and beyond all measure yet we should be so after the same manner as he is or rather our holiness should be of the same kind or nature with his and as like it as it is possible for it to be Hence therefore as Holiness when attributed to God denotes the purity and excellency of his divine nature whereby he is exalted above all things else so when attributed to men it signifies the purity and excellency of their nature whereby they are refined and raised up above the rest of mankind This the Apostle teacheth us where he opposeth holiness to uncleanness saying God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness And David where he calls the Saints that are upon earth the excellent implying that Saints as such excell all other persons by reason of their holiness that is the highest excellency which their nature is capable of Which therefore doth not consist in any particular Acts or Habits either of the soul or body or both together but in the rectitude or due temperament of our nature in general And indeed Holiness properly so called is nothing else but that pure and excellent frame or disposition of the whole man whereby all the faculties of the soul and members of the body are reduced to their primitive constitution and become such as God at first made and would still have them to be exerting themselves in their respective places and offices according to those rules which he hath set them So that to our perfecting Holiness as the Apostle speaks in the fear of God there is required a right and clear understanding a sound judgment a pure heart an obedient will a good conscience and regular affections placed every one upon its proper objects in a due manner And wheresoever the Soul if I may so speak is thus all of a-piece all over such as God would have it to be and so agreeable to his divine will there is true holiness and such a one may be truly said to be holy yea to be holy as God is holy as being pure and excellent according to his finite capacity as God himself is in his infinite perfections Now the true notion of holiness or sanctity being thus briefly stated we may easily understand what kind of persons those be which are here called Saints For in order to a man's being a true Saint He must first have so much knowledge of God and Christ as is necessary to the possessing of his mind with a due sense of his divine Majesty and with right apprehensions of the great mystery of our Salvation by Jesus Christ He must have a sound judgment in all things especially in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and in all the necessary duties required in the Gospel He must have a pure and sincere heart in believing all those Articles as revealed and in performing all such duties as required by God He must have a good conscience a conscience void of all offence both towards God and towards men He must have a pliable and obedient will ready upon all occasions to chuse whatsoever his understanding rightly informed dictates to be good and to refuse whatsoever he apprehends to be evil He must keep his affections all in their proper order fixed constantly upon such objects which they were at first fitted and designed for He must hate abhor and shun all manner of sin upon that account only because it is sin or the transgression of God's law and be heartily troubled that he was ever guilty of it He must love God with all his heart and soul and so above all things in the world besides He must bear no grudg hatred malice or ill-will against any person upon earth but love his neighbour as himself He must hunger and thirst after righteousness and desire nothing so much as to serve and please God and so to have his love and favour whatsoever it costs him He must not fear them which can kill the body but him only who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell He must trust in the Lord with all his heart and support himself under all the circumstances and occurrences of this life with an humble confidence of his goodness and mercy in Jesus Christ He must rejoyce in the Lord always both when he hath and when he hath not any thing else to rejoyce in He must be sober and temperate meek and humble gentle and peaceable faithfull to his word true to his friend loving to his enemy charitable to the poor kind and mercifull and just to all In brief he must be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that his labour is not in vain in the Lord. And that he may be sure of For he who hath attained to such an excellent temper as this is is certainly a real and true Saint and therefore shall as certainly partake of that transcendent happiness which is here called the Inheritance of the Saints in light It is called an Inheritance or as the word signifies also a lot in allusion to that type of Heaven the land of Canaan which was divided among all the Children of Israel by lot and is all along in the Old Testament called their Inheritance And so certainly is Heaven in a proper and literal sense the Inheritance of the Saints For they being all regenerate and born again of God are properly his Children and as the Apostle rightly argues If children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ So that all the Saints or Sons of God in whatsoever age or place they were born again from the beginning to the end of the world they are all co-heirs and so have an equal right and title to this Inheritance not only to some part of it but to the whole and all and every one of them equally possess it all It is not like an earthly inheritance that is divided among the co-heirs some taking one part of it and some another But every one that hath any share in this heavenly inheritance enjoys it all himself

are opened and he is turned from darkness to light as well as from the power of Satan unto God And therefore all such are called the Children of light and the Children of the day because they have a marvellous light as St. Peter calls it constantly shining in them whereby they discover many glorious things which lye perfectly hid to all other mortals By this Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw the Mountain full of Horses and Chariots of fire even a whole Legion of the heavenly Host round about his Master By this St. Stephen saw the Heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God yea by this Moses saw him that is invisible God himself And thus all that are real Saints being the Children of light see more or less of God at least so much as to make them love and desire and fear and trust on him above all things in the world Indeed they cannot see his face and live as he himself told Moses But they see him as Moses did in his back-parts in his works the effects and products of his divine Perfections And the reason why they cannot see his face and live in this world is because they are still in their imperfect state and therefore cannot possibly have a perfect sight of so glorious a being or if they had it would strike them dead for they could not possibly bear it or as Job expresseth it by reason of his highness they could not endure so as to live under it But seeing God himself saith that no man shall see his face and live he thereby gives us to understand that some shall see his face when they are dead and departed out of this life And so questionless do all the Saints that are in Heaven For they live in a City which hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the glory of God doth lighten it and the lamb is the light thereof Or as the Prophet Isaiah words it The Lord is to them an everlasting light So that as the Sun is to us upon Earth the fountain of all that light whereby we see any object here below so to the Saints that are above in Heaven God himself is pleased to issue forth light immediately from himself which exceeds the light of the Sun infinitely more than that exceeds the glimmering of a Glo-worm Neither doth it only shine as the Sun doth upon them but into them and so enlightens themselves too as well as all things that are about them And what is there in the world which they cannot see by such a glorious such an infinite light as this is By this light they see not only the superficies but the very substance and contexture of every creature they have a mind to look upon as exactly as if it was perfectly anatomized and laid open before them By this they see the several vertues qualities and operations of things here below and the great ends and purposes for which they are designed By this they see the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and other great Phoenomena of nature which so much puzzle Philosophy and make it but a meer conjecture By this they see the secret and wonderfull Powers that God hath put into all Animals and Vegetables of propagating their respective Species so that none of them ever did or can ever fail to be in the world By this they see both the composition and the several motions of the Sun and all the other Planets as well as fixed Stars and what influences they have upon terrestrial bodies By this they see the wise establishment of second Causes how they depend upon one another and all upon the first The sight of which and such-like things must needs be an extraordinary pleasure to them by reason of the most admirable Art and Contrivance they observe in them and also because their faculties are by this means employed to the proper uses for which they were made and to which they therefore tend For as God made all things for the manifestation of his own glory he endued men with reason on purpose that they might behold and admire the glory of those Perfections which he manifested in them And hence it is that all things naturally tending to their end all men naturally desire to know and many apply their minds wholly to find out such things as those are And if they can but guess at any of them with the least shew of reason or so much as probability they are mightily pleased with it But what a pleasure then must it be to have a full view and prospect of them and of that infinite Wisedom Power and Goodness which appeareth in them as the Saints in Heaven have by that light which shines upon their inheritance Moreover by this light they look back upon their former lives and see the steady hand of providence ordering and over-ruling not only the greater occurrences but even the least circumstances in them and the holy Spirit of God making some use or other of every one of them to work them over to himself By this they see God's infinite love and goodness to his Church militant here on earth in all the straits and difficulties he brings it into and how good and necessary it is for it that every thing should be just as it is By this they see the holy Angels and all their fellow Citizens in the new Hierusalem and converse familiarly with them as we do with one another By this they see their ever blessed Saviour the eternal Son of God in their nature exalted at the right hand of the Father far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named in Heaven or Earth By this they see all the glory which the Father hath given him as he himself once prayed they might Yea by this they see the most high God face to face even as we see the Sun by his own light and that too as clearly as fully as perfectly as it is possible for creatures to doe it Which so refreshes enlivens elevates and cheers their Spirits that they are always rejoycing and singing and praising God admiring adoring magnifying and giving thanks to his almighty all-glorious and all-gracious Majesty Father Son and Holy Ghost for his creating redeeming and sanctifying them so as to bring them through the various changes and chances of this mortal life to such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away eternal in the heavens in glory in bliss in light it self And now we are got upon the Mount how well may we say with the Apostles It is good for us to be here Let us set up our Tents and dwell continually upon the Contemplation of this glorious inheritance of the Saints in light But alas how far as yet are we distant from it how unworthy of it how unmeet for it