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	glory_n	good_a	2,143	5	3.4765	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86449	A sermon preached in St. Maries in Cambridge, upon Sunday the 27 of March, being the day of His Majesties happy inauguration: By Ri. Holdsvvorth D.D. Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, Vicechancellour of the Universitie, and one of His Majesties chaplains. Published by His Majesties command.	Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649.	1642 (1642)	Wing H2401; Thomason E155_6; ESTC R23312	23,401	48

speak of popular happinesse then such a King nor of celestiall then such a Prophet Yet I mean not to discourse of it in the full latitude but onely as it hath a peculiar positure in this Psalme very various and different from the order of other Psalmes In this Psalme it is reserved to the end as the close of the foregoing meditations In other Psalmes it is set in the front or first place of all as in the 32 in the 112 in the 119 and in the 128. Again in this the Psalmist ends with our blessednesse and begins with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD MY STRENGTH In the 41 Psalme contrary he makes his exordium from mans BLESSED IS HE THAT CONSIDERETH THE POORE his conclusion with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL I therefore observe these variations because they are helpfull to the understanding both of the essence and splendour of true happinesse To the knowledge of the essence they help because they demonstrate how our own happinesse is enfolded in the glory of God and subordinate unto it As we cannot begin with Beatus unlesse we end with Benedictus so we must begin with Benedictus that we may end with Beatus The reason is this Because the glory of God it is as well the consummation as the introduction to a Christians happinesse Therefore as in the other Psalme he begins below and ends upwards so in this having begun from above with that which is principall Blessed be the Lord he fixeth his second thoughts upon the subordinate Blessed or happy are the people He could not proceed in a better order he first looks up to Gods kingdome then reflects upon his own as not meaning to take blessednesse before he had given it There is no man can think but this is the best method It is the method of Saints as we see 1. Sam. 25.32 33. and 2. Chron. 31.8 First Blessed be the God of Israel then Blessed be the people of Israel Nay it is the method of Angels Luke 2.14 they first sing Glorie to God then Good will towards men It must also be the method of every Christian whensoever we are about the wishing of blessednesse either to our-selves or others to begin from heaven and ascribe it first to the LORD That we may receive we must give give what we have and give what we mean to have To give is the way to get both to get the thing and to get the greater degree It is an undeniable consequence If beatitude be the ultimate end of man and the glorie of God the ultimate end of our very beatification then it followes necessarily That by giving more glorie to God we gain more of beatitude to our selves because more of the supreme and beatificall end So that he who will attain to the Psalmist's comfort must observe also the Psalmist's order that he may end assuredly with BEATUS he must learn to begin with BENEDICTUS That 's the first considerable thing in the order as touching the essence of true happinesse The other is concerning the splendour which flowes from the other part of the variation in that the Psalmist doth end this psalme as he begins divers of the rest with Happy or Blessed to represent as it were unto us utramque splendor is paginam the two great excellencies of blessednesse by the double situation of it Happinesse is both the bonum Primum and the bonum Vltimum of a Christian the spring of all good things and the crown the spire and the basis the first and the last of things to be desired the first for eminence the last for fruition In the descents of Christianitie the first because we move from it to inferiour ends happinesse giveth law to all our actions we move from it that we may in time come to the possession of it In the order of ascent it is the last for having climbed once thither we go no further but set up our rest It hath this resemblance with God himself who is the Doner of it That it is both the beginning and the end before which nothing should be loved and after which nothing can be desired Answerable to these two respects are the positures of happinesse in the Psalmes As in military affairs it is the custome of Emperours to promise the Donative to their souldiers when they go forth to warre that they may encourage them but not to give it till the warre be ended that they may reward them for their service In like manner saith S. Ambrose doth the Psalmist velut praeco magni Imperatoris he disposeth of beatitude both wayes he prefixeth it to the beginning of some Psalmes that thereby we might be invited to pietie he annexeth it to the end of others to teach us not to look for it before our work be done So even by this we may learn how to order and dispose of our selves to happinesse Since it hath the double reference it must have also the double honour and the double esteem yea and our double endeavours for the attaining of it Then we give it the double when we set it in both places make it both our first and our last the prime of our life and the perseverance We must look through all things upon happinesse and through happinesse upon all through all upon it as not resting in any thing else and through it upon all as seasoning every act of our life with the thought of happinesse Otherwise if we think to give it our last respects without our first pretend what we will there is no hope to overtake it Thus farre even worldly men will go they are willing enough to heare that they must make it their last work and they fulfill it in a sort to the letter but not to the meaning The love the hope the care of their own happinesse they put them off all to the last A very preposterous course for a man to begin where and when he should have ended and to defer his first of motion to his last of rest It is too late for the foolish Virgins to cry Matth. 25.10 11. Lord open when the doore is shut and a vain thing to expect happinesse as our end unlesse we make it our beginning and give it the same place in our hearts and actions which holy David affords it in his meditations the first place in other Psalmes as the best introduction to all other discourses the last in this as a delightfull farwell to be alwayes fresh in remembrance That shall serve for the first step of the Gradation the generall part of the argument handled It is De FELICITATE The second is more speciall it is de felicitate Populi HAPPY or BLESSED ARE THE PEOPLE In the former part of the Psalme he speaks of such things as concern his own happinesse Blessed be the Lord MY strength vers 1. Send down from above and save ME out of the great waters vers 7. Rid ME and deliver ME from the hand

been for a long time a happy people Our deliverances from strange children have been great and miraculous and our land it hath been a Goshen a light-some land whereas the darknesse of discomfort hath rested upon other Nations The blessings of the citie and field of the basket and of the store have grown upon us in such abundance that many men have surfetted of plentie Our land hath been as an Eden and garden of the Lord for fruitfulnesse as a Salem for peace whereas other kingdomes do yet grone under the pressures of sword and famine Besides these if there be any blessing which the Scripture mentions in other places Peace in the walls Plentie in the palaces Traffick in the ports or Salvation in the gates if any part of happinesse which it speaks of in this Psalme for plantings or buildings or reapings or storings or peoplings we have had them all in as much fulnesse as any part of the world and in more then most onely there is one particular may be questioned or rather cannot be denied That amidst the very throng of all these blessings there are some murmurings and complainings in our streets But it need not seem strange to us because it is not new in the world In the stories of all ages we meet with it That men used to complain of their times to be evil when indeed themselves made them so I may be bold to say There was cause in respect of sinne then as well as now especially with godly men who are so good themselves that it is no marvell if they thought times a little evil to be extremely bad as alwayes sinne swells to the eye of grace But if we speak of outward pressures and calamities I am certain there is not cause now as then for the riches of the Kingdome were never so great the peace of the Kingdome never so constant the state of it for all things never so prosperous Onely we must give leave to the world to be like it self As long as ambition or covetousnesse are in the world men of such spirits will cry out The times are bad even when they are best because they in their own bad sense still desire to be better As nothing is enough so nothing is pleasing to a restlesse mind An insatiable appetite is alwayes impatient and because impatient querulous Yet this is not the sole reason for besides this humour of appetite the very corruption of our nature leads us hereunto To be weary of the present It is the joynt observation both of Divines and Moralists as of Salvian Quintilian Tacitus and others who agree as near almost in words as in opinion Quòdusitatum est ment is humanae vitium illa magìs semper velle quae desunt veter a quidem in laude praesentia in fastidio ponere Our own experience will tell us as much if we will take pains to observe it How through the pravity of our own dispositions whatsoever is present proves burdensome whether it be good or bad Salvian in his third De Gubernatione sets forth this humour to the life That men of all times were displeased with all times Si astus est saith he de ariditate causamur si fluvia de inundatione conquerimur si infoecundior annus est accusamus sterilitatem si foecundior vilitatem So winter and summer are both alike distastfull to impatient men In scarcity things are too dear in plentie too cheap povertie pincheth and abundance nauseats If there be a little too much drought they cry out of a famine if a showre or two extraordinary they are afraid of a deluge You shall heare in good times Quid nobis cum Davide and in bad Antigonum effodie as we reade of the Israelites That even when God himself was pleased to order their civill affairs they were not contented but still repined as well when they had manna as when they wanted it The reason is as the Greek Historian notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I hope we Christians are of a better temper It beseems not us of all others to be so injurious to God who hath singled us out to be a happy people It beseems us not to be so unthankfull to our Sovereigne under whom we enjoy these blessings Howsoever it ought to be in the first place acknowledged that the originall of all our happinesse is from heaven yet it must be confest withall that the crystall pipe through which blessings are conveyed unto us is his government Our peace is from his wisdome our plentie from our peace our prosperitie from our plenty our safetie our very life our whatsoever good of this nature it is by Gods providence wrapt up in his welfare whose precious life as the Oratour speaks is Vita quaedam publica the very breath of our nostrils perfumed with multitude of comforts Lam. 4.20 What then remains but that our thankfulnesse should result from all to make our happinesse complete that so both receiving what we desire and retributing what we ow we may give cause unto all Kingdomes to lengthen this acclamation and to say Happy both Prince and people which are in such a case So I have done with the first generall part of the text the path of prosperity answerable to the civill respect of the day I now proceed to the second the path of Pietie answerable to the Religious respect Yea happy It 's the best wine to the last though all men be not of this opinion You shall hardly bring a worldly man to think so The world is willing enough to misconster the order of the words and to give the prioritie to Civill happinesse as if it were first in dignitie because 't is first named they like it better to heare of the Cui sic then the Cui Dominus To prevent this follie the Psalmist interposeth a caution in this corrective particle Yea Happy It hath the force of a revocation whereby he seems to retract what went before not simply and absolutely but in a certain degree lest worldly men should wrest it to a misinterpretation It is not an absolute revocation but a comparative it doth not simply deny that there is some part of popular happinesse in these outward things but it preferres the spiritualls before them Yea that is Yea more or Yea rather like that of Christ in the Gospel When one in the companie blessed the wombe that bare him he presently replies Yea Luk. 11.28 rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keep it In like manner the Prophet David having first premised the inferiour part and outside of an happy condition fearing lest any should of purpose mistake his meaning and hearing the first proposition should either there set up their rest and not at all take in the second or if take it in yet do it preposterously and give it the precedence before the second according to the worlds order Virtus post nummos In this respect he puts