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	lord_n	6,257	5	3.6613	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80798	Captivity improved to spiritual purposes. Or spiritual directions, given to prisoners of all sorts whether debtors or malefactors Principally designed for the use of those who are prisoners in those prisons which are under the jurisdiction of the city of London, as Newgate, Ludgate, the Counters, &c. Though also applyable to others under the like circumstances else where. To which are annexed directions to those who have their maintenance and education at the publick charge, as in Christ-Church hospital, or cure, as in St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, or reducement to a more thrifty course of life, as in Bridewel, or have been happily restored to their former sense[ ] as in Bethleem, alias Bedlam.	Cressy, Edmund.	1675 (1675)	Wing C6889A; ESTC R230962	54,833	136

order to this their reclaim they would take occasion from that degree of Punishment which at present they endure to reflect seriously upon those several evils and inconveniencies which by the just Judgment of God attend upon sin even in this life And for this meditation they may find abundance of matter supplyed by observing the circumstances of their present condition They are in restraint and other men enjoy their liberty and so might they have done too if they had used their liberty more soberly they are exposed to scorn and contempt disgrace and obloquy while other men live in Credit and repute among their neighbours and thus they might have lived too if they had sought the praise of God and man by a Faithful continuance in well doing They are employed at hard drudgery and severe Labour under their fierce and Aegyptian Task-masters while others follow their callings with mirth and cheerfulness maintain their Families by a prudent and moderate industry take paines in an honest way but are forced to take no more then the conveniency of their concerns engages them to and what is the condition of other men might have been theirs if they had so pleased themselves but because they refused an honest labour they are brought now to this forced and constrained drudgery Surely no way is so foolish as the path of iniquity and no Fool so unwise as the sinner is He loses his ends by those very methods whereby he pursues them and runs upon mischief by those very ways by which he seeks to avoid it the pride of his heart made him ungovernable and in Bridewel he finds a severe check for his pride He hated labour and there he finds a drudgery more toilsome than any of those labours that industrious men are usually engaged in he was of a gadding and a vagrant humour but there he hath a close restraint he loved sloth and pleasure but there he wants both and instead of them meets with the Lash and the working-house to correct the riot and laziness of his former conversation It is possible that sinners when they are under the smart may murmur at God and his providence towards them in all this but if they will but seriously consider the tendency of things they will have reason to acknowledge that what they call severity is the greatest mercy imaginable for it is much for our interest that sin should be made uneasie to us that the Paths of it should be hedged with Thorns and that sinners should meet with rubbs and blocks in their way for fear the pleasure of sin should prove a bate to them to tempt them to swallow the hook more glibly and the more uninterruptedly to pursue those ways the end of which will be destruction and perdition at that dreadful day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. And this brings me to another direction suitable to the condition of those that are concerned in the Meditations of this Chapter and that is Thirdly When these offenders have in their most retired thoughts considered the several inconveniencies which attend sin and sinners in this life it would be a very useful instance of spiritual wisdom in them to carry their thoughts further to those punishments which are due to it in the world to come Suitable in this case is the counsel of our Saviour to the impotent man whom he found and healed at the Pool of Bethesdah sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee S. John 5. 14. For although heavy are those afflictions which they are under already more heavy are those which they may still expect unless the grace of God and a timely repentance prevent both in this world and in the next grievous it is for men to consider that they are slighted by their friends that their kindred and acquaintance forsake them that they are accounted and that justly the fi●th and off-scouring of the world but more grievous is it for them to think that they are rejected of God accounted by him as reprobate Silver Vessels in which there is no pleasure Vessels of dishonour here hereafter likely to be Vessels of wrath and indignation Now at present accursed children without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise Without hope without God in the world hereafter like to be of the number of those Goats which shall be cast to Christs left hand those tares whose end shall be to be burned those unprofitable Servants whose lot it shall be to be cast into utter darkness and whose dreadful sentence that shall be which our Saviour mentions St. Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devils and his Angels Shame is burdensome to an ingenious spirit and God hath planted a keen and quick sense of it in our natures for this very purpose that it may be a check to sin and a present punishment to those that do things deserving shame and however mildly men or women may be used when they come to Bridewel yet a punishment it is barely to be sent thither in that it brings a blot to their Name and a stain to their reputation and will be a note of infamy upon them even after they are delivered from that place Now if shame be grievous as indeed it is there is another shame and a more lasting one attends the wicked after they are delivered from this For as the righteous shall go into everlasting glory so also the wicked shall go into a place of shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. 2. Here only our grosser actions and such are scandalous are exposed there our very secret thoughts Here the greater miscarriages of our lives there the naughtiness of our hearts Here men only and usually but few are spectators of our infamy and disgrace but there we shall be made in a worse sense then that in which the Apostle spoke it Aspectacle to the world and to Angels and men Even God himself the God of mercy and all consolations shall laugh then at their destructions The Good Angels who rejoyce in Heaven at the Conversion of one sinner that repenteth shall shout at the ruine of those transgressours against their own souls and the Devils who were their tempters to sin here shall be their tormentours for it there and all mankind shall behold their shame and none shall endeavour to cover it none shall pity it But if the sense of shame be but a weak argument to those that have cast off all shame let them consider that that is a place of pain too If fire be tormenting there they shall converse with everlasting burnings if the gnawing of a Viper in

they shall give a very dreadful account for all those mercies that they have abused here and therefore very little reason have they that are righteous to murmur at those afflictions which shall so soon end or to envy to the wicked those mercies for which they must give so sad a reckoning Secondly When good men suffer under that Imprisonment which is the result rather of their misfortune then their 〈◊〉 they have little reason to complain as if they suffered more then they did deserve for how innocent soever we may be before men there is no man but is guilty before God He that punisheth a man of upright intentions and just purposes meerly because he cannot pay the Debt which he hath contracted and which he desires if he could to satisfie is cruel and unmerciful and as he hath shown Iudgment without mercy so there is a time coming wherein he shall want the mercy himself which he denied to others and as he hath shown no mercy to others so in his Case also mercy shall rejoyce against Iudgment St. Iam. 2. 13. But whatsoever may be said of the prosecutor God is not unjust to punish those that are sinners against him by the hands of those that are more sinful then themselves nay very frequent it is for God to correct the sins of those that belong to him by the hands of those that are more unrighteous than they Thus the sins of Israel are punished by the Caldeans of David by Saul of Ioseph by his wicked Brethren and in these cases they that afflict shall bear their sin because they have used severity to those that have not deserved it at their hands but those that are afflicted have no reason to repine at the Justice of God as if he were unrighteous to make use of wicked men as his Rod and his Scourge and the Instruments of his displeasure against them for their particular transgressions committed against him Thirdly Another consideration to allay the impatience of such mens spirits may be this that those very miseries which they groan under are sent by God with designs of love and mercy the afflictions of their Bodies are sent as Physick to their Souls and the sufferings of one as improvements of the other To this import are those many assertions in Scripture that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. That our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. and while our outward man perisheth our inward man is renewed day by day ver 16. of the same Chapter And therefore it would be spiritual prudence to convert our murmurings into spiritual cautions and holy diligence how we may improve all our sufferings to so great and to so spiritual purposes which if we should do we shall have no reason to grieve that we have suffered so much but much reason to rejoyce that these our sufferings have proved unto us so happy an opportunity of enhancing our Crown of glory Thirdly A third duty which I shall direct such Prisoners to is to pray to God for an happy deliverance out of their troubles but with the reserve of a quiet submission unto his Will if he shall see the continuance under their afflictions more fit for them Both parts of this duty are recommended in the example of our Saviour before cited When he was to dye he prayed for the averting of that bitter Cup but when he perceived that God had determined otherwise concerning it he declares his desire to submit rather to the Will of God than choose his own Prayer is a proper remedy against all sorts of afflictions If any man be afflicted let him pray James 5. 13. and as God hath made it our duty to pray so he hath made it his particular style that he is a God learning prayer And if he be attentive to any prayers more than others he is so to the prayers of the afflicted This is more than once asserted in the 102. Psalm He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer ver 17. He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth to hear the groanings of the Prisoners to loose those that are appointed to dye ver 19. 20. Our poverty is the time of our destitution from men and though the rich hath many friends the poor is forsaken of his Neighbours but that which discommends us to men most potently recommends us to God who in divers places of Scripture hath made it his most peculiar stile that he is a Father to the Fatherless a Husband to the Widow adjutor in opportunitatibus a ready help in time of trouble and therefore it is not only our duty that we should but our priviledge and advantage that we may cast our care upon him who careth for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. Among all these duties it is not only allowable but very commendable for those that are Prisoners to endeavour their liberty by all just and prudent methods such as are receiving such supplies as they can get from their more wealthy friends accepting of such contributions as they may have from the charity of merciful and well minded men the offering of such compositions as the meanness of their circumstances will enable them to make and such honest methods as these For our endeavours are very consistent with Gods Providence and our diligence with his blessing and so far is our dependence upon God from discouraging our industry that it is rather proper to promote it for God hears not the prayers of the Lazy but sends an answer to our Petitions in his blessing upon our Diligence But above all things we must be careful that our streights prove not our temptations that our trouble put us not upon any indirect courses to deliver us from it for he that thus endeavours to draw his foot out of the snare doth but by fluttering intangle himself the faster and change not his trouble but his Prosecutour and as man hath been his adversary hitherto so makes God to be so for the time to come and discharges himself from the first rank of men to whom I designed these directions and hath placed himself into the second that of ungodly Debtors And so men may be upon a double account either First with reference to the beginning of their troubles when they fall into these streights by their own profuseness or prodigality or Luxury or negligence or ill husbandry or secondly with reference to the means that they use to extricate themselves out of their troubles as fraudulent compositions or unrighteous arts or unjust concealment of that estate with which they might pay their Debts or any other such ungodly Methods as these The Directions suitable to such as these may be First That they would not appropriate to themselves any of those promises which the Scripture give

sinned and he repented of it in some degree and as an instance of it made restitution of the price of blood but had not recourse by faith and Gospel repentance to that blood of atonement and therefore died as a sad instance and dreadful example of horrid dispair and indeed no sin except that one unpardonable one against the Holy Ghost is exempted from forgiveness upon a true repentance And to take away doubt in this the Scripture hath particularly mentioned the greatest sorts as actually forgiven to sincere Penitents As particularly The Blasphemies of Saul the Fornications of Magdalen the extortions of Zaccheus the Murder and uncleanness of David the drunkenness and incest of Noah and the Robberies of the Thief upon the Cross But as there may be an error on this hand so there may be and possibly is more frequently on the other hand toc in relying too confidently upon the pardoning mercy of God in Christ without those Gospel preparations of heart which will sit us to receive it And this seems to be the sin of those very confident but very much mistaken fiduciaries mentioned and reproved by our Saviour Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say unto me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And if they would guide themselves between presumption and despair it will behave them to take the Advice of St. Peter to Simon Magus so Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee He saith not and so certainly it shall be this possibly might be too confident a presumption to depend upon but if perhaps that an humble hope may be allowed to seek after The carriage of Benhahad to King Ahab may well become them The Kings of Israel are merciful Kings says he and so they The God of Israel is a merciful God this they may with fulness of Faith believe and peradventure he will save us this they may with an humble hope desire And to accommodate a little to this purpose that expression of Queen Esther They may go into the presence of God by humble supplication and prayer and say if we perish we will perish praying unto God we will perish imploring his Grace we will Perish rolling our selves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus and it is possible God may be more merciful to us then we are apt to think he will when we reflect upon the great defect of our death bed repentance The rest I shall refer to the Conduct of their spiritual guides of which number I am bound in duty to be one and shall request them often to read these seven Psalms 6 32 38 51 102 130 143. Paraphrased into Prayers by Bishop Taylour which I have provided for them at my own charge A small Treatise called The Penitent sinner provided for them by the care of the Court of Aldermen and these two Prayers the one taken out of Doctor Patricks Devout Christian the other from Bishop Taylour and with a small alteration accommodated to their condition A Prayer for condemned Malefactors written by Dr. Patrick in his Devout Christian O MOST holy and righteous judge of the whole world give us sinful and miserable wretches leave to prostrate our selves before the throne of thy Grace and to implore that mercy which we have formerly despised or abused We are not worthy we confess to lift up our eyes towards heaven and it becomes us in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the Load of our sins which have been so great and many so bold so presumptuous and shameles that when with an awakened mind we reflect upon them we are ready to sink into Hell and utterly despair of any mercy O God how have we hated instruction and our heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of our teachers nor inclined our ear to them that admonished us How swift have our feet been to run into evil and how backward and averse have we been to any thing that is good O the injuries that we have done our neighbours the abuse of our selves and thy good creatures the prophane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service * Here let them reckon up the blasphemies debaucheries and violences that they have been guilty of The remembrance of all this is dreadful the burden is intolerable How shall we appear before thee at whose rebuke the mountains quake since we cannot think of our appearance before an earthly judge without shame and affrightment of spirit O Lord work in us a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face now that we are in thy presence For which end represent unto us essectually the wickedness the baseness and vileness of our evil doings as well as the guilt and just desert of thee O that we could hate and abhor them more than death which we expect shortly to suffer for them Bestow on us that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life If thou through thy great mercy and unexpected providence shouldest grant enlargement of it These purposes come too late indeed we may justly think to find acceptance with thee and therefore not without great fear and trembling and a great sense of our undeserving we look up unto thee acknowledging thy infinite goodness if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy Mercy mercy Good Lord cast us not quite out of thy sight for Jesus sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity It is the beginning of some mercy and an earnest we hope of more that thou hast made us sensible of our offences Help us to manifest our sincerity by making free and open confession of our crimes and taking the shame of them before others and by acknowledgment that we are unworthy to live and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by our example and to cease betimes to do evil and learn to do well O that we could glorifie thee O God a little in our latter end after this manner And till we come to receive our deserved punishment help us to spend our time in bewailing our sins in humbling our selves before thee for them in setting our hearts against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of our Lord Jesus in calling other offenders to repentance and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory Deny us not we beseech thee the grace thus to employ our selves that we may have some tast of thy mercy and the fear of death may

when upon us Of old he gave a miraculous Virtue to the Pool of Belhesdah for the healing of all that were halt or withered or troubled with any other infirmity and in these two Societies he hath by his good providence raised up those charitable Samaritans who have made St. Bartholomews and St. Thomas's a couple of English Bethesdahs where that is done by the blessing of God upon humane means which there was done by the miraculous moving of the waters by an Angel sent from Heaven In all these cures men are the Instruments in the hand of God God the chief and Principal Physician and therefore as they ought to be thankful to men as employed by God for their good so ought they to give the chiefest praise to God the giver of all health and cure And as it is their duty to be thankful to God for his good providence towards them in that he hath put them under not only the possibility but also probability of cure so ought they to depend upon him for the success and that brings me to the next duty which I think proper to recommend to the Patients of these Houses and that is Thirdly That they would cast themselves upon God by the Prayer of Faith and hope for his blessing upon the means used for their recovery For the endeavours of men though never so regular and Lawful are not succesful unless the blessing of God go along with them Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that buil it except the Lord kept the City the Watchman waketh but in vain Psalm 127. 1. and unless the Lord promote the cure in vain doth the Nurse cherish the Patient or the Chyrurgeon apply his Plaisters or the Physician prescribe Medicines for the success of all this proceeds from God in whose hand are the issues of life and death of health and sickness Our Saviour when he was here on earth put Diseases to flight by the command of his mouth and gave sight to the blind hearing to the deaf Legs to the lame strength to the weak and health to those that are diseased and all this at the bare expence of a word attended with that power which was never wanting to the execution of his holy will and pleasure And now that he is in Heaven his hand is not shortned that he cannot save his power is not less that he cannot heal his compassions are not less propense that he should not pity but he is as ready now as he was then to hear the Prayer of the weak and infirm and to send them health if not in the very same way to as good purposes if not by a visible miracle yet by his effectual and efficacious blessing upon natural means And therefore the Scripture directs Patients to both sorts of cure the spiritual as well as the humane and more ordinary in a place so apposite to the condition of the Patients of these Hospitals as if it were penned on purpose for them St. James 5. 14 15. Is any sick among you Let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord and the Prayer of Faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him It was a fault in Asa though in the main a very good Prince that in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians and the same fault is too common among Christians but would any walk according to the right Gospel Method in these cases Let them make use of humane means because God hath no where promised to heal us by miracle and in the use of the means send up an eye of Faith to God because without his blessing the means will prove ineffectual Fourthly When the poor Patients are cured of their infirmities let them obey that exhortation which our Saviour gave heretofore to the Cripple and the Worshipful Governours of St. Bartholomews have inserted into their Orders Pag. 24. Let them sin no more lest a worse thing come unto them For better is it to be a sickly Saint then a stout sinner an afflicted Christian then a healthy reprobate better to be weak in body then weak in grace more eligible far to be strengthened in the inner man with the aids of Gods Spirit then to be strong to commit wickedness Our days here are few and evil Our bodies brittle and frail subject to many Diseases liable to many frailties but after this life there is a happy state will take place where the righteous will be blessed with endless rest not disturbed by any pains a perpetual health not interrupted by any sickness and perfect strength not abated by any weakness this bliss let them seek in weldoing and for their blessed arrival at such a condition Let them not be wanting in their constant supplication to God the only giver of temporal and eternal life of health here and of everlasting Salvation hereafter And I have endeavoured to assist their Devotions by two Prayers the one to be used by them during the time that they are actually under their infirmities the other after that they are cured of them and the latter of these is transcribed word for word out of the Orders and Ordinances of the Worshipful Hospital of St. Bartholomews A Prayer O Holy Father we desire in all humility to acknowledge the Justice of thy correcting hand upon us in those pains and infirmities which we endure we are not worthy of life much less of health and strength and therefore teach us to submit to thy corrections with all Christian patience and resignation Let the weakness of our bodies prove the health of our Souls and while our outward man perisheth Let our inward man be renewed day by day and grant we beseech thee that these light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Have mercy upon us thou Son of David and as here on earth thou didst give eyes to the blind and eares to the deaf and Legs to the lame strength to the weak and health to the sick so now that thou art in Heaven let us find thy power great to heal our Diseases and to relieve our infirmities and give thy blessing to the means used for our recovery However we beseech thee ô Gracious God prepare us for thy self by all thy mercies and by all our afflictions and at last bring us to that happy state where there is health and no sickness rest and no pain everlasting life with no death to follow it let this be our blessed Lot and let this be our happy Portion in eternal enjoyment of God and in our everlasting Communion with the Father and with the Spirit and with the Son who when he was on earth taught us to Pray saying Our Father c. A Thanksgiving unto Almighty God to be said by