Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A87547
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A contrite and humble heart with motives & considerations to prepare it.
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Jenks, Sylvester, 1656?-1714.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing J629B; ESTC R43660
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93,546
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415
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the numerous Inhabitants like swarms of Ants run up down follow eagerly their little Trade of hoarding up a petty Treasure which is nothing to his purpose All his Treasure his Heart are both in Heaven There his Loving Eye is generally fixt And if he now then look down upon the Riches Glory Power Honour of this miserable World they all seem trifling matters All such Things are little inconsiderable contemptible to Him And yet He cannot justly be accus'd of Pride S. Chrysostom Hom. 11. in ep 1. Cor. because he thinks the wisest Politicians are but Fools their Riches Shadows all their Pleasures Dreams all their Titles Dignities and Honours only Childrens Baubles No it cannot justly be accounted Pride T is certainly the greatest Wisdom to submitt our Judgments conform them to the Eternall Truth of God himself judge of things as they are truly in themselves Or otherwise we must allow that Salomon himself was guilty of Presumption Arrogance when after a full Tryal after long sad Expeperience He pronounc't that All the World is Vanity of Vanities nothing else but Vanity He labours all he can to make his Soul become a Heaven upon Earth S. Chrysostom Hom. 16. in Epist ad Heb. failes not to succeed in such a noble entreprise The Heaven which we see so admire is but an Embleme of his Happyness As Heaven is enlightned by the rising Sun his Soul is more enlightned by the Grace of God the Sun of Justice which arises without setting in his Heart As Heaven always is the same still beautifull bright within it self although the midnight Darkness seem to alter obscure it so his Soul is still the same 't is always easy content within it self although He live obscurely in disgrace or poverty seem a miserable man to those who little understand the Secret of his Happyness As Heaven is so high above the Winds and Storms that the most violent disturbance of the Air can never reach it so the Soul of a good Christian even when the World combines to make him suffer most receives no harm at all His Treasure is in Heaven his Heart is with it He 's above the reach of all that they can do His Heart is rais'd to such a height that when He takes a prospect of the Earth below He sees no difference twixt Men Pismires Neither are the Poor the only Objects that seem little in his Sight but Kings themselves Generalls of Armies Politicians Usurers what you please seem every jot as little contemptible as They. The Difference of Poor Rich makes no impression upon Him no more than when He sees amongst a Swarm of little Pismires some creep loaded others empty What can Men do to such a Man as This S. Chrysostom Hom. 5. ad Popul Antio suppose they have a mind to make him miserable Will they rob him of his mony All his Riches are in Heaven Will they Banish him from home He has no other Home but Heaven it is not in their Power to Banish him from thence Will they lay him fast in Chains His Conscience will still be free And for his part He fears no other Chains but those of Sin Or will they kill him When they have done this They have no more to Do And even then His Soul will Live for ever his body one day Rise again A Man S. Chrysostom lib. 2. ad Theod. lapsum c. 3. who lives not but for Jesus Christ is quite above the reach of all misfortunes that can threaten him Provided that He will not freely deliberately hurt himself No man alive can have the least advantage over Him He 's invincible at all Arms. The Loss of his Goods is no Affliction to him because he well considers that we All bring Nothing with us at our Birth that we All shall carry Nothing with us at our Death The vain desires of Reputation Honour cannot seize his Heart because he knows that all our Conversation ought to be in Heaven All the injuries outrages He meets with are not able to provoke him He 's a Christian And being truly such He fears but one great Danger of one only Loss the Danger of offending God Loosing of his Favour All things else as Banishment and Poverty with all the greatest most dangerous Extremities He values not at all even Death it self which others think so Terrible is always most agreable most comfortable most wellcome whensoêre it comes SECT III. His Desire of Heaven THe Scripture generally represents a Christian as a Person disengag'd separated from the World If you were of the world S. Jo. 15.19 says our Saviour the world would love his own but because you are not of the world I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you 1. Jo. 2.15 He loves not the world nor the things that are in the world Because if any man love the world the Love of God is not in him Rom. 12.2 He is not conform'd to the world but transform'd by the renewing of his Mind that He may prove what is the good the acceptable perfect will of God He uses the world 1. Cor. 7.31 Gal. 6.14 Coloss 3.3 Jam. 1.27 1. Pet. 2.11 as if he us'd it not The world is crucifyd to him He to the world He is Dead his Life is hid with Christ in God His Religion pure undefil'd is that by which He keeps himself unspotted from the world He abstains from all Desires which war against the Soul because He is a Stranger a Pilgrim in the World But that which most inclines him to Desire the Happyness of Heaven is his Knowing that as long as He is here 2. Cor. 5.6 He 's Absent from his God No wonder He so much Desires to be in Heaven D. Sp. Par. 2. Ch. 21. All his Comfort is his Hope of being there The Gate so strait The way so narrow The continuall Violence so necessary to be us'd The Cross he dayly bears The Self-Denyall which he always practises The Pennance without which we All shall perish Luke 13.3 if we do not mortify our Passions curb our Humours resist our Inclinations All this putt together is enough to make a Christians Life so painfull troublesome disagreable 1. Cor. 15.19 that if in this life only He had Hope He would of all Men be most miserable T is no wonder therefore He so much Desires the Sight of God Ibid. which only can deliver him from all the miseries He labours under Ch. 22. T is the great Affliction of the Just to see themselves so far from Sion separated from their God banisht from their Heavenly Jerusalem Although the Riches of the World were all their Own They still would think themselves Unfortunate because their Treasure is is