Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A44673
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A discourse concerning the Redeemer's dominion over the invisible world, and the entrance thereinto by death some part whereof was preached on occasion of the death of John Hoghton Esq, eldest son of Sir Charles Hoghton of Hoghton-Tower in the county of Lancaster, Baronet / by John Howe ...
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing H3021; ESTC R19328
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73,289
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250
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The same things are accepted with God and approved of Men Rom. 14.18 Thus being Dead they as Abel yet speak 7. And it is a brighter and more unsullied testimony which is left in the minds of Men concerning such very hopeful persons as Die in their Youth They never were otherwise known or can be remembred than as excellent Young Persons This is the only Idea which remains of them Had they lived longer to the usual Age of Man the remembrance of what they were in youth would have been in a great degree effac'd and worn out by latter things perhaps blackened not by what were less commendable but more ungrateful to the greater part especially if they liv'd to come into publick Stations Their just zeal and contestations against the wickedness of the Age might disoblige many and create them Enemies who would make it their business to blast them and cast upon their name and memory all the reproach they could invent Whereas the lustre of that Vertue and Piety which had provok't no body appears only with an amiable look and leaves behind nothing of such a person but a fair unblemisht alluring and instructive Example which they that observed them might with less prejudic'd minds compare with the useless vicious Lives of many that they see to have filled up a room in the World unto extream old age either to no purpose or to very bad And how vast is the difference in respect of usefulness to the world between a pious young Gentleman dying in his youth that lived long in a little time untainted by youthful Lusts and Vanities and Victorious over them and an accurst Sinner of an hundred years old Isa. 65.20 One that was an Infant of days and though an hundred years old yet still a Child that had not filled up his days with any thing of real value or profit to himself or others as some very judicious Expositors understand that Text that as he aptly speaks had nothing besides Grey Hairs and Wrinkles to make him be thought a long liver but who might truly be said not to have liv'd long but only to have been long in the World How sweet and fragrant a Memory doth the one how rotten and stinking a name doth the other leave behind him to survivors Therefore such very valuable young Persons as are taken hence in the flower of their Age are not to be thought upon that account of usefulness to this World to have lived in it that shorter time in vain They leave behind them that testimony which will turn to account both for the Glory of Gods grace which he hath exemplified in them and which may be improved to the good of many who shall have seen that an Holy Life amidst the temptations that the youthful Age is exposed to is no impracticable thing and that an Early Death is as possible also to themselves But besides their no little usefulness in this World which they leave we must know 8. That the Affairs and Concernments of the other World whither they go are incomparably greater every way and much more considerable And to this most unquestionable maxim must be our last and final resort in the present Case All the perturbation and discomposure of mind which we suffer upon any such accasion arises chiefly from our having too high and great thoughts of this World and too low and diminishing thoughts of the other and the evil must be remedy'd by rectifying our apprehensions in this matter Because that other World is Hades unseen and not within the verge of our sense our sensual minds are prone to make of it a very little thing and even next to nothing as too many will have it to be quite nothing at all We are concerned in duty to our blessed Redeemer and Lord and for his just honour to magnifie this his Presecture and render it as great to our selves as the matter requires and as our very narrow minds can admit And should labour to correct it as a great and too common fault a very gross vulgar Error to conceive of persons leaving this world of ours as if they hereby became useless and upon the matter lost out of the Creation of God So is our fancy prepossest and filled with delusive Images that throng in upon it thorough our unwary senses that we imagine this little spot of our Earth to be the only place of business and all the rest of the Creation to be meer vacuitâ— vast empty space where there is nothing to do and nothing to be enjoyed Not that these are formed positive thoughts or a settled judgment with good Men but they are floating imaginations so continually obtruded upon them from what lies next the objects of sense that they have more influence to affect the Heart and infer suitable sudden and indeliberate emotions of Spirit than the most formed judgment grounded on things that lie without the sphere of sense can outweigh And hence when a good man Dies elder or younger the common cry is among the better sort for the other do less concern themselves O what a loss is this Not to be repaired not to be born Indeed this is better than the common stupidity not to consider not to take it to Heart when the Righteous Man perisheth or is taken away And the Law of our own Nature obliges and prompts us to feel and regret the losses which afflict us But such resentments ought to be followed and qualified by greater thoughts arising from a superiour Nature that ought presently to take place with us of the nobler employments which God calls such unto of whom this World was not worthy Heb. 11.38 And how highly his great and all comprehending interest is to be preferr'd before our own or the interest of this or that Family Country or Nation on Earth And at once both to enlarge and quiet our minds on such occasions we should particularly consider 1. The vast amplitude of the Heavenly Hades in comparison of our minute spot of Earth or of that dark Region wheresoever it is reserved for the just punishment of dilinquents according to such intimations as the Holy Scriptures give us hereof which being writ only for the use of us on Earth cannot be supposed to intend the giving us more distinct accounts of the state of things in the upper World than were necessary for us in this our present state But it is no obscure hint that is given of the spaciousness of the Heavenly Regions when purposely to represent the Divine immensity 't is said of the unconsined presence of the great God that even Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him 1 King 8.27 2 Chron. 6.18 How vast scope is given to our thinking minds to conceive Heavens above Heavens incircling one another till we have quite tired our faculty and yet we know not how far short we are of the utmost verge And when our Lord is said to have ascended far above all Heavens
Hades to reduc'd Apostates to Penitent Believing Self-devoting Sinners for this it was necessary he â—â—ould put on Man be found here in fashion as a Man take on him the foâ—m of a Seâ—vant become obedient to Death even that servile punishment the Death of the Croâ—s Phil. 2.7 8. For this he is highly exalted into this Power that every Knee might bow to him in hope of Saving Mercy ver 9 10. compared with Isa 45.22 23. He had the Keys without this of the Supernal Hades to shut out all offenders and of the infernal to shut them up for ever But that he might have them to absolve repenting believers and admit them into Heaven and only to shut up in Hell implacable Enemies For this he must Die and live again He was to be slain and hanged on a Tree that he might be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance and Remission of Sin Act. 5.30 31. That to this intent he might be Lord of the Dead and the Living he must both Die and Rise and Live so as to Die no more Rom. 14.9 These Keys for this purpose he was only to have upon these terms He had a right to punish as an offended God but to Pardon and Save as a Mediating Sin expiating God-Man But as he was to do the part of a Mediator he must act equally between the disagreeing Parties He was to deal impartially on both sides To render back entire to the injur'd Ruler of the World his violated Rights and to obtain for us his forfeited favour as entire And undertook therefore when as a Sacrifice he was to be slain to redeem us to God by his Blood Rev. 5.9 To give him back his revolted Creature Holy Pure Subject and Serviceable as by his methods he shall be at last and procure for him Pardon Acceptance and Eternal Blessedness When therefore he was to do for us the part of a Redeemer he was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law not from the Command of it to save us from the Wrath of God not from his Government Had it been otherwise so firm and indissoluble is the connection between our Duty and 〈◊〉 fâ—licity that the Sovereign Ruler had been eternally injured and We not advantaged Were we to have been set free from the preceptive obligation of God's Holy Law than most of all from that most fundamental precept Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart Soul Might and Mind Had this been Redemption Which supposes only what is Evil and Hurtful as that we are to be Redeemed from This were a Strange sort of Self-repugnant Redemption not from Sin and Misery but from our Duty and Felicity This were so to be Redeemed as to be still Lost and every way lost both to God and to our selves for ever Redeemed from loving God! What a monstrous Thought Redeemed from what is the great Active and Fruitive Principle The source of Obedience and Blessedness The Eternal Spring even in the Heavenly State of Adoration and Fruition This had been to legitimate everlasting Enmity and Rebellion against the Blessed God and to Redeem us into an eternal Hell of horrour and misery to our selves This had been to cut off from the Supream Ruler of the World for ever so considerable a â—imb of his most rightful Dominion and to leave us as miserable as everlasting separation from the fountain of life and blessedness could make us When therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law it was that the Promised Spirit might be given to us Gal. 3.13 14. who should write the Law in our Hearts Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 36.27 Fulfil the Righteousness of it in us by causing us to walk after his dictates according to that Law regenerating us begetting us after Gods Image and making us partakers of a Godlike nature So we through the Law becâ—me Dead to the malediction and curse of it that we may Live to God more devoted Lives than ever Gal. 2.19 Thus is Gods lost creature given back to him with the greatest advantage also to it self With this design it is apparent our Lord Redeemed us and by his Redemption acquired these Keys Nor are we to doubt but in the use of them he will dispense exactly according to this just and merciful design And what a perverse distorted Mind is that which can so much as wish it should be otherwise viz. That he should save us to the Eternal wrong of him that made us and so as that we should be nothing the better i. e. that he should save us without saving us And hath this no pleasant comfortable aspect upon a lost World that he who hath these Keys will use them for such purposes i. e. to admit to eternal bliss and save to the uttermost all that will come to God by him not willing to be everlastingly alienated from the life of God because he ever lives to make intercession or to transact and negotiate for them as that word signifies and that in a rightful way and even by the power of these Keys 8. That there must be some important Reason why the other World is to us unseen and so truly bears the Name of Hades This expresses the state of the case as in fact it is tha it is a World lying out of our sight and into which our dim and weak Eye cannot penetrate That other state of things is spoken of therefore as hidden from us by a vail When our Lord Jesus is said to have passed into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 he is also said to have entered into that within the vail Heb. 16.19 20. alluding to that in the Temple of Solomon and before that in Moses's Tabernacle but expresly signifying that the Holy places into which Christ entred not those made with hands which were the Figure of the true but Heaven it self filled with the glorious presence of God where he appears for us Heb. 9.24 is also vailed from us As also the Glory of the other State is said to be a Glory as yet to be revealed Rom. 8.18 And we are told Job 26.9 The great God holdeth back the face of his Throne and above ver 6. 't is represented as a Divine Prerogative that Sheol which is there groundlesly rendred Hell the vast Hades is only naked before him lies entirely open to his view and therein the dark and horrid part of it Destruction by which peculiarly must be meant Hell is to him without a covering not moâ—e hidden from his Eye Which shews this to be the Divine pleasure so God will have it be who could have expos'd all to common view if he had pleased But because he orders all things according to the Counsel of his will Ephes. 1.11 we must conceive some weighty reason did induce hereto that whatsoever lies beyond this present state of things should be concealed from our immediate view and so come uno nomine to be all called Hades And