Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	angel_n	earth_n	power_n	8,282	5	4.7469	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29649	The way to the Sabbath of rest, or, The souls progress in the work of regeneration being a brief experimental discourse of the new-birth in which many of the serpents wiles are detected, the mysteries of the Cross unvailed, the death of the old man, the life of the new man, the angelical dispensation, with the entrance to the divine / clearly laid open and discovered by Mr. Thomas Bromley.	Bromley, Thomas, 1629-1691.	1692 (1692)	Wing B4888B; ESTC R35790	39,085	70

Reign No bitterness did ever in it rise From the worst Actings of its Enemies But still it thinks the Best is not severe Sin to impute but rather all would clear 6. All Falshood and Injustice distant are As from it's Joys so from it 's spotless Sphere But Truth in Heart Word Works are it's delight A pleasing Object to a Virgin sight 7. It covers all that Malice would reveal It pardons and would fain all Breaches heal It doth believe all that may Crimes excuse Except meer Evidence makes it refuse And tho' things at the present appear bad It hopes at length they will be better made Thus it endureth all things waits to see Through the long Patience a full Victory 8. Which Love will gain for it can never die But must out-last the Gift of Prophecy Yea and of Languages for they must cease And give way to United Blessedness When all our Twilight Knowledge will expire In the Bright Beams of it's Eternal Fire 9. Knowledge and Prophecy are but in Part But Love's that Essence which must fill the Heart By that imperfect Gifts absorpt must be But that ends well that dies in Charity 10. Children like Children reason think and speak Their Intellectual Actings are but Weak But when to Manly Age we do arrive No longer then in Childish things we live So when our Hopes in Love consummate are Imperfect Lights and Gifts will disappear 11. For little here but Images we see And Pictures of Essential Verity Eternal Truths in Riddles do appear Much is obscure but very little clear Yet when the perfect Love we shall possess With Intuition Heaven will us Bless Then Face to Face we shall that Beauty see By which Angelick Hosts astonish'd be Then shall we know as we of him are known By Rays of Intellect and pure Sensation 12. Therefore when Faith Hope Love we do compare Love hath the Palm this Love the Crown doth wear The Evidence of things not seen Faith is And Hope our Anchor till we come to Bliss But then they both expire and both resign To Love the First-born of the Sacred Trine Without which Heaven could not Heaven be Neither a Place of Rest nor Unity 'T is this that links Eternity to Time And makes the Heavens with our Earth to chime 'T is this that knits Eternal Souls in one And bind's the Angels in Conjunction 'T is this that draws down the Almighty Powers To over-shadow us in Golden Showr's That so our Hearts might more enriched be With the abundant Fruits of Charity FINIS Regeneration described Foreseeing Matthias to be Surrogated into the place of Judas (a) Acts 2.37 (b) Eccles 7.29 (c) Ephes 2.3 (d) Luke 8.27 (e) Heb. 12.14 (f) Rom. 3.19 (g) Ioh. 1.26 (h) Rev. 3.20 (i) 1 Ioh. 1.7 (k) Rom. 5.10 (m) 1. Cor. 6.20 (n) Cant. 2.5 (o) Cant. 1.2 (p) Colos 2.27 (q) Cant. 2.4 11 13. (r) Cant. 1.2 (s) Rev. 3.1 (t) Rev. 3.2 (u) 1 Ioh. 4.19 (x) 2 Ioh. ver 8. (w) Isaiah 1.19 (x) Gal. 5.7 (y) 2 Tim. 2.11 (z) Rom. 8.13 (a) Mat. 7.13 (b) Luke 14. ●● (c) 1 Pet. 2.21 (d) 1 Cor. 15.49 (e) Mat. 18.3 (f) I exclude not the Soul nor the Resurrection-Body for they both vested with this image shall arrive at Immortality and possess Heaven 1 Thes 4.17 (g) Isaiah 66 1. Phil. 3.8 (k) 1 Cor. 5.7 (l) Rev. 12 7. (m) 1 Ioh. 1.7 (n) Rom. 6.5 (p) 1 Cor. 9.27 (r) Heb. 5 14. (s) 1 Cor. 12.5 (t) Heb. 12.22 (u) 2 Kings 6.17 (w) Heb. 12.1 (x) Gen. 32.1 2. (x) Rev. 1.6 (y) Heb. 10.20 (a) Heb. 12.4 (b) Gen. 2.25 (c) Luk. 14 33. (d) Gal. 5.24 (e) Col. 3.5 (f) Mat. 19.27 (g) Rev. 21.7 Luk. 14.27 (h) 1 Cor. 15.50 (i) Rev. 13.16 17. Though I hint at the mystical Sense of the Beast in Rev. 13. yet I deny not the Historical as it hath been truly applyed to a Succession of Persons in the signally lapsed or Antichristian Church (k) 2 Cor. 10.5 (l) Phil. 3.20 (m) Mat. 28.20 (n) Eph. 4.10 (o) Heb. 11.27 (p) Ephes 1.18 (q) Act. 17.29 (r) Gen. 1.27 (s) Gen 2.19.20 (t) Eccles 7.29 (u) 1. Cor. 2.14 (w) Joh. 14.26 (x) Isaiah 2.16 (y) 2 Cor. 10.5 (z) Psal 40.10 (a) Rev. 1.10 (b) Rev. 4.2 (c) Rev. 16 13 19 20. Though I here allude to the false Prophet mention'd in the Apocalypse yet I exclude not the External Prophetick sense of this or any other part of the Revelation which is a Prophetick History of the Church to the end of the World (d) 1 Cor. 2.12 (e) Gal. 4.26 (f) Eph. 4.4 (g) Iam. 5.20 (h) Ezek. 37.7 (i) Ioh. 1.13 (k) 1 Joh. 3.16 (l) Gal. 4.15 (m) Col. 2.5 (n) 2 Cor. 3.2 (n) Ezek. 16.15 (p) Gal. 6.14 (r) Gen. 22.2 (s) 1 Cor. 12.25 26. (t) Phil. 3.8 (a) 2 Cor. 6.10 a I deny not but some great Sea-Monster is in the Letter here described but that the Devils is here also alluded to and intended is not only my judgment but of many of the Ancients as appears clear by ver 34. which is a Key to the Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 7.14 (a) Job 38.7 (b) Ezek. 37.12 13. (d) Rev. 1.7 (e) 1 Pet. 2.2 (f) Joh. 3.5 (g) Rev. 22 1. (h) Hos 14.5 (i) 1 Cor. 12.13 (l) Heb. 12 15. (m) Cant. 2.6 (n) Heb. 12 2. (o) Gen. 3.7 23. (p) Psal 46 4. (q) Heb. 4.3 (r) Gal. 6.14 (s) 1 Pet. 4.2 (t) 1 Joh. 8 3.14 (u) Heb. 5. (w) 1 Joh. 1.1 (x) 2 Kin. 6.17 (y) Rev. 14.2 (z) 1 Joh. 1.1 (a) Psal 45.8 (b) Cant. 2.5 (c) Psal 16.3 (d) Ioh. 17.21 (e) 2 Cor. 12.15 (f) 1 Tim. 2.1 (g) Col. 3.1 (h) John 15.5 (i) 2 Cor. 12. (k) Rev. 5.11 and 7. (m) Act. 22 1. 23. Joh. 14. (n) Luk. 14. 33. (a) The Greek words imports rather a loud sounding than a tinkling Cymbal (b) The Greek imports 't is never provoked into high Passion or Imbittered (c) In the English it beareth all things but according to the Greek it may be better rendred It covers or hides all Things Else the last words of the Verse these import the very same (d) The Division of Tongues divided and scattered Mankind

Condition before they make a new advance towards Perfection usually much reflecting upon their former work of Conversion as the chief Basis of their Comforts And though sometimes they look forward and desire growth yet that desire of growth is so weak that it terminates in its self short of effectual accomplishment and though they sometimes begin yet their Endeavours are nipt in their first Blossoming and they themselves cast back into wonted Deadness and so they come to run in a Circle without getting ground of their Corruptions And I confess I was long detained in this State without any clear evident progress towards Eternity And though I grew much in Knowledge and mystical Notions of the Life Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ and of our Conformity to his Example yet not in the Power of his Cross and Death working the same in my Nature But afterward I came to a clearer sight of the Narrow Way which leads to Life Eternal and of the necessity of our exact Conformity to Christs Sufferings and Death to bring us unto his Life and Resurrection And that every degree of Life must come through a degree of Death and the New-man spring up by the continual decay of the Old And though I saw This before yet not so distinctly and effectually as now Here likewise I was more powerfully convinced of the Straitness of the Pilgrims Path which leads through the Visible and Invisible Worlds into the third Heaven Every step being to be made through Death and Resignation and that the Soul could not attain perfect Bliss but through a Death to all things which it came to love through the Fall For as the Soul entred into Selfishness so it must come out of it casting away all that cloathing it is covered with through Lust And as it descended from Paradise into the Spirit of the World and the Kingdom of the Devil so it must re-ascend out of the Spirit of the World and the Kingdom of the Dragon through the Root of fallen Nature into the Bosom of Abraham Here I saw what a real Progress the Soul must make from the External into the Internal from thence into the Eternal And as it descended so it must ascend and as it fell by a gradual Change of the Will into Lust and Earthliness so it must Rise by a gradual renewing of the Soul from Lust into Divine Love Here I saw nothing without us could advantage but as it was apply'd to make a real change within For except we turn and become as Children we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God It must be by a Transmutation and Metamorphosis of the Soul from the Image of the Earthly into that of the Heavenly Nothing can ascend into Heaven but that which came from Heaven even the true Image of God the Earthly being predestinated to destruction For Earth it is and unto Earth it must return Now the motion of the Soul through the gate of Death towards Life Eternal is the motion of a Spirit which is to be looked upon as ascending or descending as it comes nearer or removes further from God the Center as Bodies ascend or descend in relation to their Center by their tending toward or from ward the Visible Heavens Vpward therefore to a Soul is Inward Outward is Downward The Center is the Highest the Circumference the lowest God is in the Center being most Inward Matter in the Circumference being most Outward yet God is in the Outward as his footstool but in the most Inward as his Throne filling both though in both not manifest alike In the Inmost he shews himself wholly in the Love in the Outmost in Love and Wrath Life and Death Generation and Corruption But in the Inward dark World altogether in Death Darkness and Wrath as in the Inmost all in Light and Life Therefore our Progress is from the Outward through the Inward to the Inmost The Outward is the place of Good and Evil and as to its corrupt State the Kingdom of the Beast The Inward is two-fold either the Dark or Light world The Dark is the Kingdom of the Dragron the Center of Evil and Wrath The Light World is the Paradisical Sphere or that Garden of Eden which is situate also in its Mesopotamia or betwixt the two great Rivers of Wrath and Love The first of which is called in Revelation 19.20 The Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone the last in Rev. 22. A pure River of Water of Life clear as Chrystal which proceeds out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. The Inmost is the eternal Sanctuary or the true eternal Tabernacle of God and that spiritual Land of Peace where Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the glorified departed Saints live and inhabit But none can ever reach This but through the perfect Death and as we die daily so we rise nearer and nearer it Death giving us a gradual passage towards this Eternal Kingdom of Life And is it so that Death must waft us ore The Sea of Nature to the Heavenly Shore Then bring thy Boat blest Death that thou and I May saile together towards Eternity A sweet Companion thou wilt be to me Till I imbosom'd am in Vnity CHAP. V. THe Soul having arrived so far as to see the necessity of a complete Death and of a perfect Conformity to the Cross of Christ and discovering much Selfishness which before it saw not as matter of this Death and Cross begins afresh the serious Practice of the Cross with great earnestness and resolution of Spirit to indulge i nothing that stands betwixt it and God Now it enters upon a strict Enquiry into its own Heart searching its own Jerusalem with the Candle of the Lord that so all Selfishness may be discovered and extirpated and now it finds that although before this Dispensation the chief Bent of the Will inclined habitually toward the Good yet it was not strong enough to bear down that Opposition of Flesh that hindred its constant Ascent toward Heaven and had therefore need of a new Alarm from thence to awaken it and raise it from that Bed of Drowsiness and arm it with Power and Resolution to cast out the Relicks of the Flesh and Corruption and defend its self against the Assaults of the Devil who having long possessed the unregenerate part of the Heart is loath to quit his hold least the Soul should get wholly out of his Kingdom and reach At this remove therefore the Spirits of Darkness exceedingly oppose and use all their art and strength to betray and weaken the Souls Endeavours Here then begins a new and great War in the Soul between the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent Michael and his Angels fight against the Dragon and his Angels Christ and Anti-Christ strongly oppose each other The Wrath and Love bring forth their mighty wonders being both stirred and awakened afresh in the Soul But the

Soul being now sensible of its present state and seeing that there 's no Safety where the Devils have such access and influence sinks down into the Mercy and Love of God and flies to the Cross imbracing and delighting in it that so the Blood of the Cross may be shed into it to cleanse it throughout and to take away those Stains which are the Devils Mansions And here it clearly finds there 's no way of triumphing over the Prince of Death but through Death so it dies daily to that the Evil One lives in and lives to that which is death to Sin In this way there may much Discouragement sometimes seize on the Soul through the strength of Satans working and the reluctancy of Flesh and the Outward Man which is loath to subject his Neck to the sharp Axe of Death But this Bitterness is recompenced with that Refreshment the Soul finds in its Constancy of Self-denial which is attended with many glances of Divine Comfort darting in upon the Soul to encourage it and though it should for a while remain in this Progress which is bitter to the Flesh without any sensible Comfort which may well be through that great opposition the Dragon will make at this remove of the Soul yet when Patience hath had its Work and the Soul is come to be wrapt up in Contentation and Passiveness as to any Change of its Condition and so fitted for Enlargement the showers of God's Love will seasonably and sweetly descend to the strength and blessed Support of the Heart so that it will be forced to cry out It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord And what the Spirit sometimes now enjoys so sweetens the Cross that it cannot but thus break forth Why should the Soul refuse that Cross That Gold returns instead of Dross Why should it fear that piercing Nail Which rends away the fleshly Vail And gives a Prospect of that Place Which Time and Age cannot deface CHAP. VI. BY this time the Soul begins to delight in the habit of strong Self-denyal and watches diligently over its self to discover whatever is to be slain upon the Cross of God's pure Will and now it begins to be ashamed of all Passions and Affections that flow from the Animal Man and therefore much restrains it and keeps it in subjection to the Angelical which is according to that Order God himself set at the beginning Now it likewise sees how the Animal Mortal part with its Motions and Passions is too much imbraced by most few understanding how it was in the Beginning or how it is to be changed and again subjected to the Angelical Part in the Children of the Resurrection But the Soul having now some Sight and Enjoyment of the inward Spiritual Body raised from the dead is much ashamed of the outward Body which stands in the Curse under awakened Wrath seeing what Temptation Spirits are exposed to by Union with this which should continually be under the Law of Mortification till its Change lest through its Earthly Inclination it should infect the Intellect and draw the Immortal Soul into Defilement which now dares not hearken to the Allurements of the sensitive Spirit which as tempting Eve oft presents the Apples of Mortality as those which are pleasing to the Eye and good for Food But through the renewal of the Spiritual Body with its five Faculties or Powers answering to the five Senses of the External Body the Objects and Pleasure of the Outward begin to be forgot and to displease instead of alluring and affecting the Heart For by the Exercise of the Internal Senses we see Spiritual Objects as the Internal Light-World Visions of Angels and Visions of Representation In this state we likewise hear the Songs Voices and Harmony of Angels with the Harpers upon Mount Sion who there continually praise the Lord We smell the Perfumes of Christ's Garments and are oft entertained with Paradisical Odours We touch and feel the powerful tincture of Christ's Body which many times strongly affects the Heart with powerful delight We also oft taste the Heavenly Manna and those Dews of Paradise which are sweeter than Honey to that Part which receives them I could here more largely particularize the several Objects Delights and Enjoyments of the inward Spiritual senses but because there may be great Variety according to the different Gifts and Capacities of several Persons and in regard some for ought I know may pass far in the Progress of the New Birth without a particular knowledge of those Enjoyments I shall not instance in many particulars I could nor set down my own with some others peculiar and various Experiences Yet in general I cannot but affirm that the unlocking the Sences of the inward Man is a great Priviledge and that the Soul by it attains many great Supports and Refreshments to uphold it and give it incouragement to hold out to the end For truly this Communion it lives in now with the Angels of God and other Divine Objects continually minds it of Heaven and Paradise and exceedingly draws the Heart from all that is in the World where Death and Corruption is wrote upon every thing And the Dragon and Beasts bring forth their various Wonders But in this state the Soul blesseth God for that Constancy he afforded under the Cross and for that Death it hath undergone in Resignation to his Will which hath proved a passage into this Life in which the Soul beholds the opening of a New World with its glorious Hoasts And begins to feel the Sweetness of the Angelical Life and to see what we fell from by descending into the Spirit of Mortality and the sensitive Nature Now this state cannot be attained but by a Death to that which was the chief Ingagement of the Soul to the World and the primary Chain that hindred its gradual Ascent towards God And we may find there is something in every one which is the Souls Dalilah that shaves its Locks and betrays its strength and whilst this remains it cannot effectually grow in the Love of God and Conformity to Christs Death But when this subtle Harlot comes to be discovered and killed the Soul flies apace and very swiftly to Eternity for when this Wheel is taken away the smaller that depended on it lose their strength and motion and so cease with it giving Freedom to the Soul of tending towards its true Center which having regained this Liberty and attained in some Measure the Restoration of the Holy Powers of Sensation sings a Song of praise to God in this manner Blest be that Power which hath that Idol broke Which did so long depress me with her Yoke Blest be that Hand which hath restor'd to me An Eye within this World a World to see Where Angels and blest Spirits freely move As they are acted by the Laws of Love Whence they a Visit sometime deign

much upon Imagination sometimes taking advantage of the strong Influences of the external Heavens and if we are so strong as to reject Thoughts which tempt to speculative Delight in Objects which our corrupt Nature formerly imbraced but now being changed abhorreth we shall find the Evil One drawing us to close with and entertain thoughts not evil in themselves yet very evil to us because they present and feed the Soul with unprofitable Pictures which should be alone entertained with the sweet Meditation of Christs Love and the way to be compleated in it And I know many are exceedingly troubled with the working of their Imaginations on inconsiderable trifling Objects when as they dare not entertain any Thoughts grosly evil and where this State is grown into a long habit it will be difficult to come out of it though a Soul be very sensible of the Vanity of it and long to be freed from it as finding the Imagination in these workings to be like the Witch of Endor raising up the Old Prophet Samuel or the Inward Man from the sleep of Silence and innocent Stilness to be disquieted with vain Earthly things 1 Sam. 28.15 In this case therefore it concerns the Soul to stand continually upon its Watch lest it be sometimes snatcht away unawares and ingaged in Vanity before it sees where it is Here the continual Exercise of the Cross is very necessary that by it we may cast down imaginations and lead Captive every thought into the Obedience of Christ so that the chief work now is the reducing this moveable Sea into Subjection to the illuminated Understanding therefore the Soul prays and strives continually against the Power of Imagination and Activity of Thoughts which hinder the silent actings of the Intellect upon Eternity and supernatural Truths And here Faith and Perseverance are very needful We need Faith to believe that by the Power and strength of Christ we may overcome these Imaginations and Perseverance that we may not faint in the Way and give off the constant Exercise of the Cross in rejecting beating down and ceasing from these Motions of the imaginary faculty till we come to be conquerors and to Command them which is possible through Christ who is come into our World to destroy the Works of the Devil and to rule till he hath put all his Enemies under his Feet of which these idle Thoughts are a part And as the Soul here uses the Power it hath received from Christ in checking rejecting and beating down all idle thoughts as a means to overcome them so likewise it is oft Exercising of its Understanding upon the Eternal Love and free Grace of God and in considering the mystery of that Paradisical World in which the Angels and Spirits of the just are It much also reflects upon the Presence of its Saviour who hath promised to be with us to the end of the World filling all things in his Divine Nature for he continually stands at the Door and knocks so that the Soul waits every moment for the fulfilling of that Promise of his coming into it and supping with it Rev. 3.20 And this constant attending upon God with the Eye of the Understanding proves a very effectual mean to the destroying of those Imaginations which come to Entangle the Soul in unprofitable diversions In this practice the Understanding gets such power over the Imaginations that it enjoys almost a continual sight or apprehension of God's Presence and sees beyond the working of Imagination by the Eye of the Understanding enlightned and by little and little attains that strength that although we should have necessary occasion to take up our thoughts in some external Employment yet the Understanding pierceth thorough it and in the very time of exercising its reason on that particular it hath strong and clear Apprehensions of the Presence of God and the Spiritual World which clearly shews that Intellection or the true acting of the Understanding is somewhat beyond Reason which is not able to do two things at once and Act upon several Objects at the same instant And this constant Apprehension or Sense of the divine Presence is without any Fantasm it being in that Moment when the Phantasms are employed upon another Object and they having somewhat of materiality cannot afford that spiritual Sight and Apprehension such a Soul hath constantly of God which is without figure colour or similitude yet I must confess the usual Contemplations of the Soul in this state upon spiritual Objects whether of Paradise Angels supernatural Truths and Scripture Verities are not without the use of Phantasms which being ordered by Divine Light and Wisdom do in some measure according to their nature express spiritual Truth Though I confess this is far below the true Intellection of the Understanding informed with the presence of Divine Light in regard these Phantasms being generally drawn from Corporeal Objects cannot reach the essence of a Spirit And truly here the Soul plainly discovers its fall from the Divine Mind Image and Light in which it saw intuitively and could give Names according to the natures of things into the imaginary Spirit which belongs to this World and is too gross a Glass to express truly and essentially Spiritual Eternal Objects And here it appears how easily Man's Reason being the apt and methodical ordering of his Phantasms may misguide the Understanding in Spiritual things as in Comments upon Scriptures which were inspired by the Holy Ghost and wrote by Revelation and so require the help of that same Spirit to elevate the Understanding above Imagination in the true Interpretation of them especially in things which are out of the Road of those Moral V●●ities which the light of Nature impresseth upon Mens Consciences to steer them in their Lives and Conversations Then let us pray for that true Light Which gives a true and constant Sight Of God Christ Angels who do lie Much deeper than laps'd Reasons Eye Which in the Glass of Phantasie A lively Picture may espy But not the Essence of true Verity CHAP. IX THe Soul having arrived so far as to enjoy almost a continual apprehension of the Presence of God and Angels finds its self much freed from those vain thoughts which in former Dispensations were very troublesom But being Conquerour over these it must take heed lest the new Objects of Heaven Angels and spiritual Gifts set the Imagination too much a work in representing their Excellencies and picturing forth such a State of the Soul enriched with them which may yield too much imaginary Delight and draw the Spirit into the admiration of fine pleasant Pictures instead of the true Substance Therefore we are strictly to watch over the Phantasie which may easily err in this particular and not without great prejudices following upon it for first by such working of Imagination we come to slacken the Exercise of the Cross both upon Imagination its self which