Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	angel_n	heaven_n	lord_n	10,698	5	3.8517	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

say of this Gracious Lady what Nehemiah said of another Noble Person in his time She was a Faithful Woman and feared God above many Some are so prodigiously wicked that they seem to have wedded the Vices of many others But this good Lady may be said to have collected the Excellencies of many other Christians In her you might have seen these various Graces which grow to an eminency but severally in others met altogether in one knot I shall speak of a few First The fear of the Great God was very great in her wonderful tender she was of offending him She hath been often heard to say and that solemnly Oh I would not sin against my God She professed that she dreaded Hell most as a place where God was Blasphemed Oh pretious Saint to dread Hells sin more than Hells fire Secondly Her Zeal to the Worship of God was eminent First To the Publick this was evidenced many ways First By her Zeal to get able and faithful Ministers for those Livings she had in her dispose and by improving her utmost interest to procure the like for this Parish where she resided in its several vacancies And herein the Noble Patron did most kindly gratifie her with the choice deeply obliging not only her Honour but the whole Town thereby so that you in this place have lived in a Goshen of Gospel light for a long season and are able also to tell how comfortably she spake to those that taught the good Word of the Lord amongst you What countenance and real encouragement she gave them in the Lords Work without sparing her purse to do it Secondly By her constant attendance on the Publick Worship so long as the Lord vouchsafed her any health yea she did not only attend on it her self but was careful that her Family should do the same with her They that would not serve God with her were no Servants for her Thirdly She was no less devout in than constant at the Publick Worship She durst not trifle with Holy things which made one in this respect say of her That this Lady by her Solemn and Reverent Deportment in Divine Worship would make one believe that there is a God indeed As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is so dismally neglected by many her desires were most Ardent to partake of it frequently saying as the Minister of the place informed me that she durst not neglect no not any one opportunity that was offered for the enjoying this Sacred Ordinance And oh how intent was she in Preparation for it the whole preceding week was taken up by her for that work in which she would always have a private Fast with her Family or a secret one in her Closet Was not this one that meant to go to Heaven in good earnest Secondly The Private Worship of God Let us follow her from the Church to her own House and we shall find that she brought her Religion and Devotion home with her and did not leave them in her Pue behind her till she returned to it again the next Sabbath Some can complement God Almighty before their Neighbours on the Sabbath but care not to acquaint with God at home all the week after But if ever any privite dwelling might be called a Chappel or little Sanctuary her house was such There you might find her and her Family twice every day upon their knees solemnly Worshipping the Great God there you might see them humbly sitting at his feet to hear his most Holy Word read unto them concluding constantly their Evening Service with Singing one of Davids Psalms What Strangers soever were present there was no putting by or adjoyning the Worship of God to a more convenient season On the Lords day you might hear the Sermons Preached in Publick repeated to the Family the Servants called to give an account before her or what they remembred the high Praises of God sounded forth by the whole Family together After Supper again you might hear the Servants in their room exercising themselves in the same Heavenly Duty of Singing Psalms And no sooner did the good Lady hear them strike up but away she would go to joyn with them in that duty Follow her up the stairs there you should be sure to find her twice every day shut up some hours in her Closet which was excellently furnished with Pious Books of Practical Divinity Here she redeemed much pretious time in reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books that might give her further light into them and help to put more heat into that light she had obtained Here she poured out her devout Soul with such fervours of Spirit in Prayer as could not be hid sometimes from those her Maidens whose occasions drew them at any time near her Closet dore and yet are we not at an end of this good Ladies Devotions for every night she would her self pray with her Maidens before she went to bed And now is it any wonder she grew so rich in Grace who drove so great and constant a Trade in the means of Grace and had so many ways to bring her in Spiritual gains Thirdly Her Love to God besides what already hath been said did many ways make it self evident to be of an high degree First The mournful complaints she would make that she could love God no more the reason of which indeed was because she loved him so much Therefore she thought she loved him so little because she knew she could never love him enough The truth is she had such raised apprehensions of Gods Glorious Excellency as caused her to think her highest affections unworthy of him None indeed that have such high apprehensions of the Divine greatness and goodness can love him little or think their love when most to be great Secondly The vehement desires and longings she had to be gone hence that she might be with Christ She was one of those very few Christians which stood in need of old Mr. Dods use of Exhortation which I have heard he would make to the Saints in his Preaching That they would he content and patient though they were not taken up to Heaven so soon as they desired This good man who was one of the most Heavenly Souls that this Age knew finding to do this was something difficult in his own Soul thought it was ordinary for others to do the like whereas God knows most Christians are of a lower form in Christs School prone rather to linger too much here than to be too hasty of going hence so that they need rather Spur than Bridle and Ministers have more reason to take hold of them with the strongest Arguments they can find to draw them out of the love of this world as the Angels did Lot out of Sodom than to make them willing to continue here But this Gracious Lady knew so much of Heaven as made her stay here tedious to her the earnest option of her Soul was Come Lord Jesus come

quickly She found to her great grief that her imperfect state on Earth made it impossible to serve God here as she would and therefore did wonderfully complain she was unprofitable and unserviceable and this deep sence of her unserviceableness while others admired her fruitfulness and usefulness did still increase her desires to be where all these infirmities would be cured and where she knew her ability should fully correspond to the height of her desires she had to serve and glorifie her God Thirdly Her love to the Saints who are born of God and have his lively Image stamped upon them This in Scripture is made one of the fairest evidences for our love to God Every one that loveth the Father that begat loveth him that is begotten 1 John 5.1 A man may love the Child and not love his Father but he cannot love him because he is his Child and because he is like his Father but he must needs love his Father Yea love him first and most because his love to the Child springs from his love to the Father This Good Lady then was a great Lover doubtless of God himself because she had so dear an affection to his Children She did not praise the dead Saints and persecute the Living she did not pretend love to those that lived far from her but shewed kindness to them that lived near her She did not factiously love some of one Party and reproach those of another In a word she did not love the Saints in an equality with others from a Natural tenderness which disposeth some to be kind to all good and bad but her love was a Spiritual Cordial Special and Uniform Love to them Where-ever she saw any thing of God her Love was drawn out towards them and had the most love for those that discovered most of God she loved them so as to delight in converse and communion with them yea and the chief of her Charity was extended to them As for the Faithful Ministers of Christ whose Function lifts them above private Christians few ever exceeded her in loving and honouring of them yea she loved first the Ministry and then the Ministers professing seriously the great love and high esteem she had for them was for their dear Masters sake whose Embassadours they were So that what I have heard concerning her worthy Son-in-Law in Norfolk Sir Roger Townsend that for his Love to the Ministry he got the title of being called Deliciae Cleri The Ministers Delight may be truly given to her Fourthly Her works of Charity were remarkable upon manifold accounts First The largeness of her Charity so great indeed it was that it may well be admired how this Tree should not long ago have killed it self with over-bearing The Trees in our Orchards yield their Fruit but once a year taking so long a time to be put in heart for bearing again But her Charity was dropping Fruit all the year long Many ways it diffused it self she had Silver for the Moniless aliment for the Hungry Medicaments for the Sick Salves for the Wounded Abundance of good she did this way in Town and Country she did not only give but devised liberal things If her Servants knew of any that were in great need and did not tell her of it she would when by otherways she heard thereof be very angry with them It hapned that an honest poor Neighbour dyed before she knew he was sick for which being troubled she asked her Servant whether he had wanted in his Sickness saying with some earnestness I tell you I had rather part with my Gown from my back than the Poor should want Secondly In the prime objects of her Charity she cast her seed upon all sorts of ground but especially on Gods enclosure The Houshold of Faith had her fullest handfulls to such she never thought she gave enough Thirdly Her Secresie in giving When it might be she did not give her Charity as some throw their Money into a Basin at a Collection so that it rings again but it fell like Oyl into a vessel without noise Fourthly Her Self-denying Spirit in all this she was no Merit-monger good Lady she never thought to purchase Land in Heaven with the money she gave on Earth She was no Merchant to sell her Charity but a Faithful Steward acknowledging what she gave was not her own but her Lords money she was notwithstanding all her Charity carried out to a naked Christ desiring to be found alone in him and his Righteousness as earnestly as if she had not done one good work in all her life Hear this Oh ye Papists and be ashamed for your notorious slander who would make the world believe that Protestant Religion is too cold a Soil for Charity to thrive in Behold here a Protestant Dorcas full of good Works and Alms-deeds Though she had no opinion of Merit to cherish the root of her Charity from which much of yours comes had not hope of expiating some foul Crimes or conceit of meriting Heaven been at the bottom of the Charity of many in your Church it may be believed the first stone had this day been to be laid in some of your Goodly Hospitals and Churches also Fifthly Her Sincerity This was as her under Garment which she wore nearest to her and gave excellency to all her other Graces Many notable testimonies there were for this in her First The uniformity of her Holy Walking her Religion was not like a drift Snow which lyeth thick in one place and leaves the ground bare in another the Hypocrite hath some naked plot in his Conversation that renders him suspicious you may perswade him with Herod to do many things but never make him with Saint Paul willing in all things to live honestly But in this good Ladies Conversation one part corresponded admirably with another an happy Symmetry appeared in her whole course towards God and Man abroad and also at home among her Domestick Relations those that lived constantly with her who saw her as we are wont to say hot and cold in her night-cloaths as well as when dressed to go abroad Few I believe have had an higher testimony for Piety from those that have lived near and long with them than she hath from all that dwelt under her roof Secondly The great freedom she gave her Friends in speaking to her of what they saw amiss in her she was wont much to applaud the priviledge of having a Faithful Friend saying others might see more by us than we by our selves she would also say 'T is a great mercy to be convinced of any sin Thirdly Her Faith which was wont to be then strongest when death appeared nearest Like that great Souldier I have read of who would tremble every joynt whilst his Armour was putting on in his Tent but without all fear when he engaged in the Battel A little more than a Twelve-month since she fell into a long swound which lasted about half an hour without