Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	glory_n	heaven_n	let_v	6,250	5	4.7219	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87090	A divine prospective: representing the just mans peacefull end. In a funerall sermon preached at Katharine Creechurch, Aug. 14. 1649. at the enterrement of the remaines of the Right Worshipfull and truly religious, Sir John Gayr, Knight: deceased July 20. 1649. / By Nathaniel Hardy, M.A. and preacher to the parish of Dionis Back-Church.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1649 (1649)	Wing H715; Thomason E574_8; ESTC R206287	27,124	35

regard of God Ne iniqu●… p●…tetur Deus dum favet impiis justos affligit Lest otherwise we account God unequall in his dispensations as indeed who would not think it strange to see the Godly corrected whilst the Wicked are spared those cast down with Sorrow whilst these are lifted up with Prosperity But the Glorious end of the Saints calamitous life abundantly cleares Divine Justice and stops the mouth of Blasphemy though now God afflict the Righteous and the Wicked yea many times the Righteous and not the Wicked yet in the end he will put a difference between the Righteous and the Wicked whereby the Glory of his equity shall evidently appeear and therefore Behold the upright Secondly in regard of the Good lest we condemne him as miserable in those afflictions he undergoes What Saint Paul sayes in another case concerning the Saints If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable may with a little variation be used in this if we judge of good men according to their condition in this Life we shall account them of all men most wretched but let us stay our censure till the last trace the Saint to his journies end and then we shall freely confesse that none are more blessed then the Vpright or happier then the Perfect To shut up this in a word of usefull Application 'T is the generall assertion of Solomon The wise mans eyes are in his head but the fool walketh in darknesse Let us in this particular shew our selves wise Men by having our eyes in our head to marke and behold the upright mans end Let not the beames of the ungodlies prosperity dazle us but rather wait a while til their dismall end when we shall see their Sun set in a Cloud their Candle go out in a Snuffe and their hope sink into Despaire Let not the Clouds of Misery which for the present hang over the upright darken our eyes but stay till the comfortable end when he shall break forth a● the Sun in his splendour and shine as the Stars in Glory 'T was Moses his advice to the Israelites in their greatest strait that they should stand still and see the salvation of the Lord Indeed those two are well put together stand still and see whilst a man moves swiftly his eyes dazle but when he stands still he sees clearly Let us doe so patiently expect and diligently observe that Salvation which God in the end will work for his Servants That counsell which Christ gave to the Church of Laodicea let me give to you in reference to this duty Annoynt your eyes with the eye-salve of the Spirit that you may rightly discerne and wisely judge of Gods proceedings Look backward by the eye of experience and see how God hath dealt with upright persons in the end then look forward by the eye of Faith and conclude what God will vouchsafe to his people at the last This done I doubt not but you will both acknowledge Gods Justice and admire his wisdome you will follow the good Mans steps and desire his end In a word you will preferre afflicted Godlinesse before pleasurable Wickednesse persecuted Religion before prosperous Rebellion and despised Piety before advanced iniquity Finally with Moses you will esteeme the afflictions of Gods people sweeter comforts then all the pleasures of Sinne The reproaches of Christ greater riches then all the treasures of Aegypt having a respect to the recompence of the reward that blissefull peace which in the end shall be conferred on all them who walk before God in Truth and with a perfect heart according to this of the Psalmist in the Text Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace I have done with my Text but I must not end here Behold another Text lies before us fit to be read and perused by us Heredotus maketh mention of a custome among the Aethiopians to set the dead Bodies of their Friends in glazed Sepulchres that their proportions might be obvious to the passengers how needlesse soever that custome was 't is doubtlesse no more then just that the pious lineaments of their mindes who die in the Lord should be presented to the living in the mirrour of Art Indeed commendation after Death is the tribute of a Religious life Good works are Jewels not to be lockt up in a Cabinet but to be set forth to publique view If Christ would have Maries name remembred in the Gospell unto the Worlds end for one box of oyntment poured on his Head we cannot imagine that he would have the many pious and charitable deeds of his servants to be buried in Oblivion Consult the Scriptures and you shall scarce finde any godly Man laid in his Grave without an Epitaph of Honour View the Fathers you shall observe it their practice to honor the death of the Good by giving them their deserved praises So did Ambrose to Theodosius Nazianzen to Athanasius Hierome to Nepotian and Bernard to Malachias and Gerard The truth is in reciting the vertuous acts of Dead persons we doe not so much advantage them as benefit our selves What doe they need glory on Earth who are glorified in Heaven Nostrâ interest non ipsorum it s our interest not theirs since by their examples we are provoked to good workes Nay let me tell you in rehearsing their Graces we doe not so much honour Them as glorifie God 'T was the Greek Fathers Apology for himselfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in praising vertue I extoll the God who is the donor of it It cannot then at least justly offend any religious Ear if I shall endeavour to delineate the singular worth of this illustrious Knight whose Funeralls we now solemnize And here it fares with me as with a man in a Garden full of choice Flowers that knowes not where to pick abundance of matter making me almost barren of expression As for a compleat Enumeration of his Virtues 't is a work which neither my scant Abilities can performe nor will the scantling of time permit It cannot be expected that a good Life which hath been weaving a piece of Graces for threescore yeares and upward can be spread before you in a few minutes Besides the History of his Life and Narration of his Worth calls for a Livie rather then a Florus a Demosthenes rather then a Phocion to undertake it I want time to draw his Picture to the length and skill to doe it to the Life yet Ex pede Herculem spare me but your patience a while and I shall though rudely draw some few lineaments by which you may guesse at the rest Let it not then be accounted flattery if I take up the first part of the Text and apply it in particular to him Mark this Perfect and behold this upright Man Mark him in his Life how Exemplary Behold him in his Death how

owne experience of the Wicked and from thence incourageth us to observe our own experiences of the Good Thereby intimating unto us that as the way of the Just and the Unjust is directly opposite so their end shall be manifestly contrary And withall that what he saw in his time might be observed and should be made good in the experience of all times God is the same yesterday to day and for ever The same not onely in his Essence but in his Operation in his Being but in his Working what he hath done that he still does and will doe Divine providence ever acts like it selfe and though it vary in particular circumstances yet ever keepeth the generall course of rewarding every one at the last according to their workes and therefore former experiences are just grounds of future confidence those dispensations of God towards the Righteous the Wicked which Holy Men of Old have registred may encourage us to expect the same to which end it is David here called upon us in the words of the Text Marke and behold The duty here required we see is ingeminated not onely Marke but Mark and Behold The reason whereof we may very well conceive to be both fervency in the Pen-man and necessity in the Matter Indeed these two do well together where the duty is needfull Zeal becometh the Preacher that cannot be too often prest which must be perform'd 't is like the frequent knocking at the Doore that it may be sooner opened the renewed strokes upon the Naile which drive it in the faster Thus the Prophet Zephany perswading to that needfull part of Repentance which consists in self-examination not onely propounds but repeats it Gather your selves together yea gather your selves together And the Psalmist here seeing a necessity of this duty to prevent those dangerous mis-constructions which otherwise carnall Reason might be apt to make of Gods proceedings not only sets it before us but presseth it upon us in this double expression Marke and Behold But this is not all the reason that may be given of this Gemination we may very well apply a double Object to this double expression of the Act and both out of the Text to wit the upright Man and his end what he does and how he fares mark his way behold his end mark his action behold his retribution both call for our consideration First marke the upright man himselfe in the course of his life indeed his intentions are onely known to God but his actions are visible unto men true Grace where ever it is may be seen felt heard and understood 't was our Saviours precept to his Disciples that their light should so shine before men as they might see their good workes And surely if good Men must doe their workes so as to be seen we must see their good workes when they are done And in this respect we must take notice of the upright man for a double end First Vt honoremus let us mark him that we may honour him and those Graces of God which are manifest in him indeed the world lookes on the Saint with a scornfull eye because with a Carnall they say of him what those Jewes did of Christ He hath no forme or comlienesse and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him Let us view him with a Spirituall aspect and we shall finde that worth which deservedly calls for our esteem indeed the upright as David well calls them are the excellent ones of the Earth though men cast them out as Drosse yet they are the finest Gold though men trample them under foot as Pebles yet are they pretious Pearles They are so in Gods account let them be so in our esteeme Secondly Vt imitemur let 's mark the upright man so as to imitate him eye his steps so as to tread in them 'T is Gods goodnesse to afford and should be our wisdome to make use of the Godly Tanquam statuas Mercuriales as Travellours doe of those Statues which are set to point forth the way unto them Saint Paul calls the Saints of the Old Testament a cloud of witnesses alluding no doubt to that pillar of a cloud which went before the Israelites in the Wildernesse to lead them the way So should our eye be fixt on those Saints that are gone before us or that live amongst us as a cloud for our direction in the way to heaven 'T was S. Pauls request to the Corinthians Be ye followers of me we must be so of every upright man and to that end marke him Secondly Behold the upright man in the close of his death and this is that I conceive the Psalmist chiefly aimes at So Tremellius his reading plainly manifests Observa integrum aspire rectum finem illius esse pacem Observe the perfest and behold the upright that the end of this man is peace He calls for not a transient view but a permanent aspect as an Archer having shot an Arrow takes not off his Eye untill he sees it fall so must we with a fixed eye behold the upright til we see what becomes of him This was that the Apostle James wills those to whom he wrote to doe in reference to Job both to look upon him in that way of patience wherein he trod You have heard of the patience of Job and withall in that end which happened to him And have seen the end of the Lord Indeed this is that duty which concernes us in reference both to the good and bad to look upon them not in their present but future state This world is as a stage whereon both the Vpright and the Hypocrite the Perfect and the Wicked are Actors and that which in both of these we ought chiefly to be Spectatours of is their Exit not so much how they come on as how they go off in regard of the Wicked this was it which Moses wish'd the Israelites to fasten their eyes upon and therefore when Corah Dathan and Abiram had rebelliously conspired against him and Aaron he calls the people to a consideration of their end If these men die the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me And in regard of the Good 't is that which here David would have us chiefly to take notice of his end is peace not is it without good reason since by this meanes we shall best rectifie our judgements and avoid false censures So that these two words Marke and Behold are as it were a bridle to keep us in from running head-long into rash judgings when we see the upright encompassed with afflictions and thus we must behold the upright mans end to restraine us from passing wrong Sentence both upon God and the Good upon God as if he were unjust upon the Good as if they were the most miserable First we must behold his end in