Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	call_v	heaven_n	word_n	5,297	5	3.9799	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47324	The Christian sufferer supported, or, A discourse concerning the grounds of Christian fortitude shewing at once that the sufferings of good men are not inconsistent with God's special providence : as also the several supports which our religion affords them under their sufferings, and particularly against the fear of a violent death / by Richard Kidder ...	Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.	1680 (1680)	Wing K398; ESTC R656	85,271	258

the Apostle in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings 1 Pet. 4.13 that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy I shall take the liberty to enlarge somewhat upon this Theme and consider 1. The greatness of the reward 2. The clearness of its revelation 3. And the fitness of it to work upon us 1. The greatness of the reward Here is enough to make us happy amidst all the evils of this world Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake Mat. 5.10 11. for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Here is that which will enable us not to endure only with patience but to rejoice also if it be duly considered But it is certain that Eternal life is a vast and wide Ocean a boundless Theme that it will not be easie to speak of as we should who know but in part and see through a glass darkly Howbeit I shall say something and leave very much more to be understood It is called in the Scriptures a Rest Heb. 4.9 or Sabbatism and that expression does both tell us what Heaven and what this life is That this life is a life of toil and labour the burden and back part of the Week Just as of old the first days of the week were days of labour and work The other life is the everlasting Sabbath which does relieve and deliver us from our toil and refresh us after our pain and toil We are here sollicited by our fears bowed down with sorrow worn with labour pained with sickness affrighted with evil tidings and with the apprehensions of death We are much afflicted with the malice and power of evil men and not suffered to be at rest There the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest There the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor This is a state of Change and great Vicissitude and when things go well with us we are not secure they will continue in that posture The Clouds of a sudden gather together after the clearest Shine And the most setled course of things in this world is yet full of change and variety When things are as we would have them they do not long continue so something or other arises that disturbs the order of things or at least ruffles the calme of our minds The dark night sends away the brightness of the day and casts a black Mantle over the gaiety that entertained us The delights of the Spring are removed by the heat of Summer and a keen and sharp Winter robs us again of the pleasure of a more open season Thus it is here below We are entertained with various things and we are soon stripped of that pleasure which we embraced with the greatest welcom In the first days of the Week in the Book of Genesis It is constantly said for six days together that the Evening and the Morning was such and such a day But when we come to the seventh day we read no such thing It is said Gen. 2.3 that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This gives us a fair representation of this and the other life This life is the burden of the Week it hath its Evening as well as its Morning The life to come is all alike There is no Evening there that shall remove the light from the place where God dwels Rev. 22.5 There shall be no night there and they need no Candle neither light of the Sun For the Lord giveth them light This one consideration does greatly recommend to us the happiness of a future state viz. that it is a state of rest To think that we shall be out of the reach of power and malice that all our labour our toil and care is at an end That we shall no more be harrassed and disturbed by the evils of life But this is not all that recommends to us a future state It is represented to us in the Holy Scriptures as a state of great joy and pleasure And it is consequently expressed by such terms as do import no less and such as do imply more than can be expressed or understood Thus it is sometimes expressed by a Kingdom or a Crown by a Feast and by Pleasures but then we are assured that it amounts to more than all these things speak and that it is beyond what eye hath seen or ear heard or what hath entered into the heart of man to conceive It is indeed a Crown a Kingdom a Feast and it is much more than all this It is the best of all this and more than this It is a Kingdom without Cares a Crown without a Cross a Feast without Satiety It is called by these little names because these are the greatest things which this lower world hath These words among us sound high they speak power and honour plenty and pleasure and what the world calls good and therefore Heaven is represented by such things which we understand and regard But then these are but low and short representations of the things themselves Such Images of heaven as the Tabernacle and Temple among the Jews were of this and the other World or of Earth and Heaven They were Images in little but came greatly short of what they represented For as Hell is represented in the Scripture-style by Fire and by Darkness and by the Valley of Hinnom which were things in themselves very sad and things that were easily understood but yet far short of what they represent So is Heaven represented to us by the best things below but these things come infinitely short of that which they represent At other times we find our future happiness otherwise expressed by being with the Lord by seeing of God by knowing as we are known and being like our Lord. These are expressions that are very big indeed but still they import more than we are able in this state fully to comprehend They imply the greatest perfection that our natures are capable of and that our imperfections shall be quite taken away We are mightily struck and affected with seeing what we had but heard of we are strangely pleased with apprehending a thing clearly which we knew not or knew but imperfectly before We are greatly taken with the company of our dearest friends and by our approving our selves to the vertuous and the good And therefore Heaven is represented to us in terms that speak the greatest and most rational satisfaction But then still we live in houses of clay we are dull of conceiving and clogg'd with our flesh And these things are spiritually discerned and to apprehend them to good purpose we bust be greatly abstracted from the body subdued to the world and weaned from our sensualities And when we are so in great measure we shall be mightily affected with these

yet I shall shew the reasonableness of it And to that purpose shall commend to your serious consideration the following particulars First Let us consider whose Law this is and we shall find that the Author of the Law does greatly recommend it to us How hard soever it may otherwise seem yet that it is the command of our Lord Jesus Christ that consideration is of great moment to reconcile us to it We ought not to think any thing unreasonable or hard which our Blessed Lord and dear Redeemer lays upon us For we are well assured of his great love and affection towards us He hath given us great proof that he loved us when he was content for our sakes not only to become a man but to die a shameful and painful death to bring us unto God Let us stay a while upon this consideration and meditate upon the unheard-of love of our Lord Jesus and we shall soon see great cause to think him a good Master even then when he does oblige us to die for his sake If our hearts be cold and chill if we find them dampt and sinking let us then meditate of our Lords love and that will be of great use to inflame them and give them spirit Does Jesus say that we must not fear them that kill the body that we must hate our own lives if we will be his Disciples Good is that word of our Dearest Lord will the pious Soul say Death shall be welcome when ever it comes and it will be not only our duty to die when our Lord would have us but our honour and great Priviledge to be thought worthy to die for him who was contented to die for us Alas this is but very little to what our Lord and Master hath done for us He was from everlasting the eternal Son of the Father He was happy and glorious and yet for our sakes he was content to stoop from Heaven to Earth from the happiness and glories above to the pain and contempt of this lower world He that was the brightness of his Fathers glory was willing to be eclipsed and obscured with our flesh and with our infirmities He that upheld all things by the word of his power was yet contented to be inclosed in the Womb of a Virgin to be wrapt up in swadling cloaths to lie in a Stable to be subject to his Creatures to be tempted by the Devil to be hungred and thirsty to be buffeted and hanged on a Tree that he might save lost Mankind He was at these pains for the helpless and for sinners for Caitiffs and Rebels for them who had dishonoured his Father and ruined themselves Here is a love without a Parallel a love that passeth knowledge a love that is stronger than death and that surpasseth the love of women Here are all the dimensions of love here is height and depth a length and breadth Jesus did that for his Enemies which rarely hath been done for the greatest Friends and Benefactors Greater love than this hath no man that he should lay down his life for his Friend This is the highest flight of friendship and we have but few examples of it Our Lords kindness rose higher by far He died for the ungodly for the weak and them that were without all hope Who can seriously think of this and not find himself constrained by the ove of Jesus to be willing to die for him It is an easie task that lies upon us to love him that hath first loved us and to die for him that died for us This is very reasonable and a most gentle command to lay down our life for him who first laid down his for us We see some Servants will hazard their lives for the sake of their Masters Loyal Subjects will not stick to shed their bloud in defence of their King and Country There are those would dare to die for a good man or for a faithful friend My Lord must needs be dearer to me than any of my Relatives or my fellow Creatures I must be very ungrateful if I forget his love But that which still does farther recommend this Law to us is this That our Saviour commands no more than what he himself did He would we should die in bearing witness to the truth It is fit we should do it and he led us the way He hath recommended this Precept to us not only by his Doctrine but by his Example also Indeed our Lord was silent when he was reproached and inconsistently accused but he was not so when he was adjured by the High Priest to tell him whether he were the Christ Mat. 26.63 64. the Son of God or not He witnessed a good Confession before Pontius Pilate and tells him To this end was I born Joh. 18.17 and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth Our Lord sealed the truth with his own bloud and does not put his Followers upon that which he declined himself This Example of our Lord does give great force to his Law And it is very reasonable we should do what the great Captain of our Salvation hath done Every where we judge this very reasonable The Souldier thinks himself obliged to shew courage when he sees his General expose himself to the thickest of the danger And the Servant thinks himself well dealt with when his Master commands no more of him than what he is willing to do himself The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. That is not thought an hard Law which the Law-giver suffers himself to be concluded by 2. Let us consider the command it self and that is that we should rather part with this life than to deny our Lord and forfeit our hopes of a better life This may at first sight seem a very hard saying but when we draw near and consider it well we shall find it a very reasonable Law and that it is no objection against what our Lord hath said when he tells us that his yoke is easie and his burden light The truth is we disquiet our selves in vain and as our happiness is but phantastick and imaginary so is a great part of our misery also We make a false judgment of things and set a very unequal rate and price upon them And this we commonly do in the account we make of life and death For as we esteem of this life at a greater rate than we ought so we judge death to be a greater evil than indeed it is I desire that you would under this general head consider well the following particulars And 1. That barely to live is not in it self a thing of any vast moment It is no high Prerogative and unvaluable peculiar For the smallest Mite or Ante the vilest Worm or Serpent live as well as we When Marcellinus was sick all that were about him flattered him and said that which they thought would please him most Every man