Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	body_n	heaven_n	soul_n	16,244	5	5.2792	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57737	The saints temptations wherein the nature, kinds, occasion of temptation, and the duty of the saints under temptation are laid forth : as also the saints great fence against temptation, viz. divine grace : wherein the nature, excellency, and necessity of the grace of God is displayed in several sermons / by John Rowe ...	Rowe, John, 1626-1677.	1675 (1675)	Wing R2066; ESTC R14034	181,424	446

going backward he is declining Now a Christian ought to run that is he ought to make a farther progress Add to your Faith vertue and to your vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance Pet. 2.15 and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity So likewise Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before Phil. 3.13 Nothing hinders our spiritual growth more than a vain conceit in us that we know as much already as need to be known and that we have attained already as much as we need to attain unto Paul was of another temper when he saies Not as if I had already attained either were already perfect but I press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.12 14. To run therefore is to make a progress not to take up with any measures of grace already received but to press forwards to that which we have not attained unto 3. Running notes diligence and activity in the waies of God 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain that is run with care and diligence put forth your utmost vigour and activity in the waies of God Psal 119.32 I will run the waies of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart that is I shall be diligent and active in thy waies when I have derived grace from thee 4. Running notes strength and courage in him that runs Dan. 8.6 The He-goat is said to run to the Ram in the fury of his power Running therefore notes strength and courage so the Saints running in the waies of God notes their strength and courage in the waies of God Isa 40.31 They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint 5. And lastly Running notes perseverance in our Christian course to the end Heb. 12.1 Let us run with patience the race that is set before us The second thing to be spoken to is this How it is that the Saints have their hearts carryed out after God The end why they desire divine grace is That they may run in a spiritual manner and that their hearts may be carryed after God Now how is it that the Saints have their hearts carryed out after God 1. The Saints have their hearts carryed out after God by desires and longings after him Psal 63.1 My soul thirsteth after thee my flesh longeth for thee Isa 26.8 9. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee and in the next Verse With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Whilest other men do mainly and principally thirst and cover after the creature holy souls do mainly and principally thirst after God himself Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God The Hart is a thirsty creature by nature and when it is hunted its thirst is greater such is the thirst of holy souls after God But it may be said What is that thirst that holy souls have after God It lies eminently in two things and it will be good for us to observe them because we may know much what the measure of our grace is by these two things Holy souls thirst after Gods gracious presence here on earth and they thirst after Gods glorious presence in Heaven 1. Holy souls thirst after Gods gracious presence here on earth Psal 42.2 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God When shall I come and appear before God that is when shall I see the face of God in his Ordinances Psal 101.2 When wilt thou come unto me Nothing more proper to grace than this to carry out the soul in longings after communion with God If you feel nothing of this in your selves if you do not find ardent strong breathings and longings in your souls after God you have reason to suspect your selves that all is not well with you Unless the soul be under Temptation or under the prevalency of some corruption at the present or under the withdrawings of the influences of the Spirit of God in some time of Desertion I say unless it be in such cases as these the pulse of the soul will beat this way viz. in ardent breathings after God and communion with him and if we do not find it to be thus with us we have reason to fear the state of our own souls for thus it will be if grace act like it self in our hearts 2. The Saints have great longings after the sight of God and the glorious presence of God in Heaven Come come is the language of the Church in general The Spirit and the Bride say come Revel 22.17 Being confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Come Lord Jesus come quickly is the language of particular Saints Certainly the pulse of grace if I may so express it beats mainly these two waies In longing after a sense of Gods presence in our souls here on earth and in longing after the perfect injoyment of God in Heaven 2. The Saints have their hearts carryed out to God by Love Love is the motion of the soul to the thing beloved The soul naturally moves towards that it loves Love is the weight or ballance of the soul Amor meus est pondus meum eò feror quò amo the soul is carryed where it loves Now the souls of the Saints are carryed towards God by Love Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee And I will love thee O Lord my strength Psal 18.1 God himself is the great thing in the eye of holy souls though friends be dear relations dear yet God himself is most dear O Lord saith Austin thou art not only dearer to me than this earth and all things that are in it but thou art more acceptable to me than Heaven it self and all the things that are in it Hence is that of David in Psal 43.4 I will go to God my exceeding joy The joy of my joy Laetitia ●etitiarum that is the top of my joy Though other things may be amiable to a godly man in their place yet God himself is most amiable to an holy soul 3. The Saints have their hearts carryed out to God by Admiration that which we call admiration is the fixing or staying of the mind upon some excellent object the minds fixing or staying it self with delight upon some object which it is pleased with Admiration takes in a double act of the soul 1. It takes in an act of the mind or understanding what we admire the mind fixeth and dwells upon admiration detains and holds the mind fixt in the contemplation of a thing what we

us we should certainly do as they have done Our Saviour bids us pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and what is the meaning of those two Petitions but that we might have grace to keep us from temptation and grace to deliver us from evil Now if we ought to pray to be delivered from evil certainly we cannot keep our selves from the evil of sin without the power of Divine grace therefore if we are kept from the like falls wherewith others are overtaken let us not be high-minded but fear let us remember that it is by grace that we stand 2. As Divine grace keeps us from falling so far as we are kept so it is Divine grace that recovers us out of our falls We should remain long enough under our falls did not Divine grace raise us up and recover us out of them It is conceived by Divines that David did continue some time under his fall before he was recovered out of it Look as when God leaves us to our selves first of all our own hearts will hurry us to the greatest exorbitancies so if God continue to leave us to our selves we shall pine and languish under our distempers our own corruptions will tumultuate more and more For though corruption cannot not reign in a godly man as it doth in a wicked man it is inconsistent with grace for sin to reign in any that have grace yet it may rage in him for a time and Luther hath a saying to this purpose That sin may rage in a godly man for a time more than in a wicked man Oh but how very sad and bitter is it where God permits and suffers corruption thus to tumultuate and rage in us Truly till Divine grace do recover us corruption will have its raging fits It is Divine grace that doth recover us He restoreth my soul saith David Oh until Divine grace do restore us it will be long enough till we restore our selves nay we shall never be restored Not that we are to sit still but the more we find corruption to rage the more ought we to groan to Heaven and cry out so much the louder for Divine grace but this is certain till Divine grace recover us we shall never be recovered When Peter was left to himself left by Divine grace he denied his Master the first second and third time and there was no sign of his recovery till Christ gave him a look with his eye It must be some powerful touch of Divine grace that must recover us when we are fallen by corruption and temptation 7. It is Divine grace that quickens Consid 7. enlivens and raises the affections after they have been flat and dead Holy men persons that have walked with God do often complain of damps and deadnesses that they feel coming upon themselves It is not so with them as sometimes it hath been with them They do not feel that fervency in prayer that liveliness in holy duties that activity for God those meltíngs in their affections as sometimes they have found Oftentimes there is great listlesness to holy duties much coldness and deadness in their hearts much streightness in their affections in their performance of holy duties David prays in Psal 119. Uphold me that I may live that was an argument that he was sensible that his spiritual life was greatly decayed that he was grown dead and heavy and lumpish in the ways of God that he had lost that quickness and liveliness of his affections that once he had Thus is it with others of the people of God they find deadness coldness lumpishness too often coming upon them and the cause of this spiritual deadness is commonly one of these things either 1. Unthankfulness for former quicknings or else 2. Presumption of our selves and our own strength and thinking that we had quickning and inlargement at command Or else 3. Neglect of some of the means of grace publick or private Or else 4. Some inordinate affection springing up in the soul Or else 5. Some secret indulgence to some sin that grieves the Spirit and causeth the Spirit to withdraw from us These are ordinarily the causes of those deadnesses that fall upon the Saints Now when the Saints fall under these deadnesses it is Divine grace must quicken them they cannot raise themselves from under these deadnesses they cannot get from under them We may think to rise and shake our selves and do as at other times but believe it if the Spirit of God be departed from us as from Sampson we shall fall flat to the ground as a man that is wounded may essay to rise up and to walk but presently falls down to the earth again But now Divine grace that puts new life and strength into the soul a fresh gale of the Spirit elevates and raises a dead soul Look as a ship when it is becalmed and there is no wind stirring can make no way but then a fresh gale comes and then it sails amain So when a soul hath received a fresh gale of Divine grace then it begins to move afresh then it can act afresh whereas before it was becalmed and found littie stirring little motion Godward Draw me saith the Church and then we will run after thee Cant. 1.4 8. The excellency of divine grace appears in this Consid 8. that it elevates a man above the world What is it that makes some of the Saints to contemn the world when others do so much admire it it is the the power of Divine grace that elevates and raiseth their hearts above the world It is grace that makes the world seem a little thing Grace shews a man something higher than the world and causeth a man to look down upon the world with a holy disdain and contempt as a thing that is much beneath him Gal. 6.14 I am crucified to the world saith the Apostle and we look not to the things that are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Grace carries up the soul above temporal things Grace causeth a man to look upon the things of this world as mean and of short continuance Other men admire the world and pursue it as their chief good but now a man that is acted by Divine grace doth not so he hath no such admiring thoughts of it he doth not apprehend so much good so much excellency in it but his heart is carried out to something higher 9. Grace Consid 9. it enables a man to bear afflictions grace quiets the soul under affliction and strengthens it to bear up with patience under it 1 Col. 7. Strengthned unto all patience It is Divine grace that strengthens us to bear afflictions with patience we should sink and succumb and despond did not Divine grace strengthen us to bear up under affliction Isa 40. last He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength Truly a little affliction will sink us if Divine grace do not help us whereas on the