Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	father_n	heaven_n	holy_a	10,196	5	5.1385	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12205	Tvvo sermons vpon the first words of Christs last sermon Iohn XIIII. I. Being also the last sermons of Richard Sibbs D.D. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, Iune the 21. and 28. 1635. Who the next Lords day follwing, died, and rested from all his labours	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1636 (1636)	STC 22515; ESTC S102407	24,191	77

beene misdoubtings And yet if the holy Ghost sets not downe the heart and convinceth it throughly of the all-sufficiencie of that satisfaction it would never beleeve neither And therefore as ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me for I am God too We may know that Christ is God not onely by that which Christ hath done the Miracles which none could do but God but also by what is done to him And two things are done to him which shew that he is God that is Faith and Prayer we must beleeve onely in God and pray onely to God But Christ is the object of both these here he is set forth as the object of Faith and of Prayer in that of Saint Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit And therefore he is God for that is done unto him which is proper and peculiar onely to God That which I shall now touch upon is this we must remember what a strong foundation what bottome and basis our faith hath there is God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and Christ the Mediator that our faith may be supported we have him to beleeve on who supports heaven and earth As in 1. Hebr. and Colos. 1. he created all things as well as the Father he is honoured of all as well as the Father he that supports the pillars of heaven and earth is able to support the pillars of thy soule But how doth faith in Christ ease the soule of trouble In a word as it carrieth the soule out of it selfe unto God in Christ and unto Christ uniting and making us one with him and so sets the soule above all trouble whatsoever for being one with Christ we are already with him in heaven And againe faith is a grace that presents things to come as present and so establisheth the soule It is the hypostasis of things it gives subsistance to them in the promise and it doth never leave to do it till the things subsist indeed It is grace that accompanieth the soule to heaven looking upon things in the word of him that is truth it selfe and so giving a kinde of being to them throughout all the way to heaven till they have a being indeed And then faith is out of office yeelding it up to sight and the full enjoyment of all But did not the Disciples beleeve already Yes they did but they had need to renew their faith as occasions were renewed and as troubles were to increase Beleeve in me it is as he should have said Now there is occasion for you to use your faith I must be taken out of your sight you must see me suffer and you had need of an extraordinarie measure of faith to see me in such abasement and yet to beleeve that I am God We must grow from faith to faith we may live by it continually and we must increase with the encrease of God that as our difficulties do encrease our strength to go through them may encrease also as they prayed Lord encrease our faith I gave some directions how we might not be troubled And first we must labour to have our part and portion in Christ else there is nothing belongs to us but trouble There are two sorts of men in the Church some that usurpe a peace and exemption from trouble as if joy and comfort were their portion Sathan is wise enough not to trouble them and they take an order with their consciences that they shall not trouble them till needs must till the houre of death or some dismall accident the onely way for such is to be troubled that their trouble may be a foundation of their comfort For to such as live in their sinnes against conscience apparantly so that every man may see it and yet are not troubled they have no interest in comfort nothing but wo and misery belongs to them Indeed Christ came to save sinners but it is broken-hearted sinners penitent sinners that are wearie and heavy laden under the burthen of sin And therefore though these speake peace to themselves yet we dare not speake any comfort to them from Christ As Iehu said to Ioram What hast thou to do with peace as long as the whoredomes of thy mother lezebel are so many Dost thou talke of peace as long as thou art a sweater a prophane liver a malitious person against all that are truly good what hast thou to do with peace Now in the visible Church there is another sort that Sathan laboureth to trouble since he cannot keepe them in the state of nature but they breake from him Christ pulling them out of Sathans kingdome by the power of his ordinances and holy Spirit he labours to trouble them in their peace all he can because they be in the world above the world he enjoyes their condition that they should enjoy that paradise which he left the comforts that he once had and therefore he labours to disturbe them in their comforts The estate of such is mixt here in this world they have that in them and without them which will alwayes be a cause and occasion of trouble They have corruption in them not altogether subdued and they have without them Sathan taking advantage against them and the world opposing them These although they have something in them that must be subdued yet something also that must be cherished and strengthened And therefore these are the persons to whom comfort properly belongs In heaven we shall have no need of being comforted for there our peace shall be to have no enemies at all our peace here is to have comfort in the midst of discomfort and an heart inlarged in troubles He speaks this to them here who were beleevers already Ye beleeve in God who he knew should not be troubled Let not your hearts be troubled So that to the end we may be subjects capable of comfort we must be such as by faith are one with Christ and so reconciled to God All motion ends in rest and all the rest of the soul ends in God the center of the soule And therefore before the soule can settle it selfe it must be brought to God through Christ that must be laid as a ground Now there is a threefold malady that troubleth us and there must be a threefold peace and ground of comfort against them First it is a trouble to the soule when once it is awakened that God and it should be in ill termes when the soule looks upon God as angry and is displeased with it Againe the soule is troubled when it looks upon it selfe and sees nothing but turmoiles and seditions there Thirdly when it looks upon the affaires of the world and accidents here below it is full of confusion for the present and it is full of feares for time to come that things will be worse and worse Thus the soule whilest it is in the world is troubled about its peace with God and with its selfe and about this evill world Now before the soule can

bodily or spiritually Their errour was in tying all comfort to a bodily a corporall presence As if it were necessary for the Sun to come downe and abide upon the earth to bestow its heat and influence and therefore he tels them that though he was to goe away yet he would send another comforter the holy Ghost And then they were overcome by an opinion that it would go worse with them when Christ was gone therefore Christ telleth them that it should bee better for them and indeed it was better Christ did not take away his blessed presence for their disadvantage but for their good God never takes any thing from his children but he maketh it up in a better kinde If Christ takes away his bodily presence he leaveth his spirituall presence and more abundantly So that though they were led with sensible things and what they saw not they could hardly beleeve yet Christ lookes to what is good in them and accepts it hee saw what was naught in them with a purpose to purge it what was naturally weak in them to strengthen it and therefore hee counsels them Let not your hearts bee troubled The thing that I will first observe out of the words is That the best Christians are subject to be troubled to be pensive and dejected more then should be Indeed our Saviour Christ himself was troubled but his trouble was like the shaking of cleare water in a christall glasse There was no mudde in the bottome but our trouble is of another kinde and apt to be inordinate We may carry this truth through the whole Scripture and shew how Hannah was in bitternesse of spirit which exceeded so that Eli a good man mistakes her supposing that she was overcome with drinke Hezekiah a good King was in such bitternesse that like a crane or swallow he did chatter And David complained that his spirit was over-whelmed within him And Ionah cries out that he was in the bellie of hell And God will have it so partly for conformity to our head and partly that we may be known to our selves that we may discerne where our weaknesse lyeth and so be better instructed to seeke to him in whom our strength lyeth He suffers us likewise to be troubled for the preventing of spirituall sinnes pride and security and the like And partly in regard of others that we may be pittifull Christ was man for this end that he might be a merciful high Priest and we have much more need to know and feele the infirmities that are in our selves that we may be mercifull to others that we may not be harsh and censorious upon the troubles of others from want of which consideration proceeded Elies rashnesse in passing that censure upon Hannah But how shall we know we know that our hearts are more troubled then they should be For I lay this for a ground That we may sinne in being over-much troubled at things for which it is a sinne not to be troubled If they had not beene at all affected with the absence of Christ it had beene a sinne and no lesse then stupidity yet it was their sinne to be over much troubled In a word therefore for answer a trouble is sinfull when it hinders us in dutie or from duty when it hinders us in duties to God or to others Or from duty that is when the soule is disturbed by it and like an Instrument out of tune made fit for nothing or like a limbe out of joynt that moves not onely uncomelily but painfully becomes unfit for action when we finde this in our trouble we may know it is not as it should be There be some affections especially that are causes of over much trouble feare of evils to come sorrow for evils that are present seize on us Now when these do hinder us from duty or trouble us in dutie they be exorbitant and irregular Naturally affections should be helps to duty they being the winde that carry the soule on and the spirituall wings of the soule so that a man without affections is like the dead sea that moves not at all But then they must be regulated and ordered they must be raised up and laid downe at the command of a spirituall understanding when they be raised up of themselves by shallow and false conceits and opinions they be irregular when they be raised up by a right judgement of things and laid downe againe when they ought to be then they are right and orderly Now besides the hurt that is in such affections themselves Sathan loves to fish in these troubled waters The affections are never stirred and raised up irregularly and exorbitantly but Sathan joynes with them And therefore we have need keep our affections of griefe and feare within their due bounds Sathan is a curious observer of any excesse in our passions and in just correction to speake the mildest of it God lets loose Sathan to ioyne with that excesse And therefore the Apostle saith wisely Let not the Sunne go downe upon your wrath neither give place to the Devill because as soone as ever we give way to any excesse of affection Sathan fishes in these waters and ioynes with that excesse He being a spirit of darknesse loves to dwell in the soule when it is in darknesse And therefore when it is clouded by passion as all passions beyond their due measure are as clouds that darken the soule Sathan that works in darknesse then seizes on the soule presently That was Sauls case he was envious at David being of a proud and haughty spirit that could not endure competition and Sathan took his time to work on him And therefore it is said he was troubled with an evill spirit But trouble of Spirit is too large an Argument I will not now stand upon it onely I will shew that we should not yeeld to excesse of trouble any way And the reasons are First we wrong our owne selves when we give way to griefe and sorrow that is immoderate and inordinate The soule is as it were put out of joynt by it we make actions difficult unto us the wheeles of the soule are thereby taken off joy and comfort are as it were oyle to the soule And therefore Nehemiah saith The joy of the Lord is your strength when therefore we give way to feare and griefe and such passions it weakeneth the soule in action And then againe they are as it were a cloud betwixt Gods love and us and so the soule is hindered of much comfort and enlargement ioy enlargeth the soule but griefe strengtheneth it comfort raiseth up the soule griefe and sorrow weigh downe the soule A Christian should be of a straight upright and enlarged spirit When therefore the spirit is streightened when it is prest downe and deiected a Christian is not in his right minde in his due and proper frame Besides if we regard God himselfe we should take heed that the soule be not thus distempered for by over