Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	earth_n	lose_v	7,562	5	7.5060	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64642	Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification, by Christ. By the Right Reverend James Usher, late Arch-bishop of Armagh in Ireland. Published by Jos: Crabb. Will: Ball. Tho: Lye. ministers of the Gospel, who writ them from his mouth, and compared their copies together. With a preface concerning the life of the pious author, by the Reverend Stanly Gower, sometime chaplain to the said bishop.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Gower, Stanley.; Crabb, Joseph, b. 1618 or 19.	1660 (1660)	Wing U173; ESTC R217597	234,164	424

more he often provides and is the more covetous Consider that the wisest of men gave thee this counsel Remember thy Creator in the day of thy youth before the evil dayes come wherein thou shalt say thou hast no pleasure in them Here we find it 's a youthful thing and should be a young mans practice not according to that devilish saying A young Saint and an old Devil but Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth The more sin thou committest the more unapt thou art to repent Custome in sinning makes thee a Lot the elder thou growest the more loth to go out of Sodom Besides 2. Consider what sin is in its nature It is a weight Heb. 12.1 Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Sin is then a weight and so an heavy thing but add sin to sin a weight to a weight and it becomes heavier and heavier A man that is in the state of impenitencie hath this weight laid on him and is subject to the Devil in a state of rebellion against God A man now in this estate is weigh'd down what will he be six seven or ten years hence going on in his impenitency How will he then shake that off which now he cannot free himself of He must hereafter buckle against it with a great deal of disadvantage and wrestle with more difficulty One sayes well that if we consider of sin aright it 's like the rising of water over which a man being to passe and finding it higher then it was wont to be he stayes a while and then tryes again and finds it higher then before he stayes yet longer till it become unpassable so that he may not adventure without great disadvantage Thus it is with sin now peradventure the waters of iniquity are passable if thou wilt thou mayst go over but if thou delayest the adventure the streams of sin will run together into one channel and be more difficultly passed Take another Metaphor from the Scripture The Scripture compares sin to cords which are instruments of binding and therefore the mystery of the Gospel is expressed by binding and loosing Whose soever sins you shall bind on earth they are bound in heaven but whose sins ye remit they are remitted Every sin thou committest is a bond and binds thee hand and foot against the judgment of the great day Therefore it 's said His own iniquity shall take the wicked and he shall be bound and holden with the cords of his sins Now consider what folly it is when a man shall say though my sins are so many cords difficult to be broken yet I le not trouble my self about it in my younger days but I le stay till my old age and then I hope I shall be the better able to break these bonds and cast all these cords from me when as every iniquity I commit is as a new cord which binds me faster and faster Is not this madnesse it self to think so that in our younger yeares being scarce able to break one of them in our dotage we shall be able to break ten thousand together And certainly this is the disposition and nature of sin 3. But add hereto the Argument in the Text To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart but repent while it is called to day Shewing that if we passe this day we shall be harder and harder Wherefore saith the Apostle Exhort every one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3.13 As if he had said if thy heart be hard to day it will be harder to morrow Custome in sin hardens the heart and takes away the sense of it Wherefore saith the Apostle I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmitie of your flesh For as ye have yeilded your members servants to uncleannesse and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeild your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse Rom. 6.19 So that we see if a man once give himself up unto sin he will not be satisfied therewith but will give himself up to iniquitie unto iniquitie What 's the meaning of that It 's as if he had said if we give our selves up to iniquity we will not rest there but we 'l add iniquity unto iniquity sin unto sin we will be brought to such a custom in evil as that it will be easier for a black-moor to change his skin and a leopard his spots then for those that have been accustomed to do evil to learn to do well Jer. 13. It will be to as much purpose to wash an Aethiopian as to go to put off that ill custome and shake off that second nature Sin is a hammer and sin is a nail too Every sin strikes the former sin home to the head that whereas before it might easily have been drawn out it roots it in so fast as that it can very hardly be plucked out Mark how the Apostl● describes this cursed nature of sin Having eies full of Adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable soules a heart they have exercised with covetous practises 2 Pet. 2.14 What makes a man prompt in any thing but exercise When a man is exercised in sin see the event of it it brings him to that vicious habit as that at length he cannot cease from sin If a man deal with a young twigg it will bend and break at his pleasure but when it comes to full growth it 's past his strength So fares it with sin if thou dealest with it whilst thou art young and it in thee before it hath taken ●oot thou maist easily wield it at least with more facility then otherwise thou couldst but if thou let it run on to confirmed habits it becomes immoveable Wherefore saith the Apostle Heb. 12.1 Let us lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset us The reason is evident because else we shall be so hardned as that we shall not be able A man that hath a green wound if he 'l seek for his cure betimes it may be quickly and easily remedied but through delay it begins to fester and must be lanced to the quick not without great pain and anguish to the Patient Sin is such a wound if it be let ●lone it corrupts and proud flesh the more grows up the longer the cure is delayed This ●herefore should be a chief thing we should take heed of how we put from us Gods time and the proffers of mercy till another day 2. But there are another sort as greatly be●●ol'd as these yea more if more may be and ●●ose are they who put it off till the hour of 〈◊〉 death till the last gasp as if they desired t●●ive God as little of their service as possibly th●y might who think if they can but cry Peccavi and Lord have mercy on me when their breath departs their bodies they shew

and resolve to amend I shall not now stand to speak of that common aspersion cast upon Religion and the wayes of God that men must sail to Heaven by the gates of Hell of which many are so much afraid But yet we must not think that our Saviour came to heal those which are whole already he 's a God of wisedom and the Physician of the soul he comes to find that which is lost So that we must be lost in our own apprehensions if we will be found as David was Ps. 119. ult He first saith I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost then seek thy servant If now we are once lost we are lost for ever if he seek us not therefore we should first consider with our selves what estate we are in now how the case stands with us at present that if God should come and strike thee with death if thou wert now to come to Judgment what would trouble thee most what couldst thou then answer him Therefore since it is uncertain how soon God may deal thus with thee it is wisedom to be always ready Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes and turn again unto the Lord. Let us first try how the matter stands with us at the present let us examine our selves and our ways and see if all be well and then may we go on with comfort in the way wherein we are But when we have searched and find things not to goe as well as they ought or that we are not in a right way then after our searching we must Turn unto the Lord Thus the Prophet did Psal. 119.57 I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies First he thought on his wayes he considered whither he was going whether to Heaven or Hell then when he had thus thought he made haste and turned his feet unto Gods testimonies Here are both put together first he made haste and thought on his ways and then he turned I took this Text to shew that one of these is as dangerous as the other and how men are apt to deceive themselves in their search and examination 'T is as dangerous not to prove our wayes as to put off and defer our turning to God This is a dangerous disease that when men come to examine and try their spiritual estates they have false weights and unequal ballances to prove themselves by they are very willing to save themselves the labour though they be deceived A man is loth to be cozened by another but here is his folly that he is willing enough to deceive and betray himself Such fools the Devil makes many men because they take not right glasses to look on themselves in and so they deceive themselves For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself but let every man prove c. In the words here are 1. The Disease 2. A Remedy 1. The Disease is in the 3d. v. If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing c. this is a common and dangerous disease and a disease which is both common and dangerous is the more to be feared the more care●ul must the Physician be This is the most common disease for there is not a man but finds a snatch of it in his own heart And it is the more dangerous for who is in more danger then he that is blind and will be blind that is willing to be cheated by Satan and himself This is the patient Now what his disease is and the dangerousnesse of it the Apostle tells us He thinks himself to be something and is nothing This is the patient to be cured and that is his disease then which none more common for there is not the worst of men but will say I thank God I am something and I am not half so bad as the Preacher would make me I have some good thing in me Now this his disease stands in two things 1. That he is nothing 2. That he thinks himself to be something 1. He is nothing And for a man to be brought before Gods Judgment-seat and have nothing to answer how will it fare with him then but yet this man cannot but think he is something well then something he is but nothing to the purpose As we say of an Idol An Idol is nothing in the world that is Nothing that can help or succour those that bow to them and adore them nothing that they should have in them An Idol is something indeed for it is silver or gold or brass or stone c. but it 's nothing that is is nothing to the purpose nothing that can plead for a man when he holds up his hand at Gods bar 2. He thinks himself to be something though he be nothing He thinks he shall come to Heaven though he be not in the way as the foolish Virgins that thought they should be let in feared not the contrary till they came there So these men walk in their way all their life and yet fear not entrance into Heaven till they receive sentence to the contrary If these men knew themselves to be nothing they would seek something for themselves but now they are nothing though they think themselves something This is the Disease 2. The Remedy is in the next verse Let him pro●e his own work Let him look himself in a true glasse and that is the point we shall insist on If then Satan shall not delude us in deferring and putting off our repentance so let him not deceive us with a false conceit of our wayes and estate that we may not make our selves something when we are nothing Therefore let us see what false glasses they are that men get to themselves If Satan bring us to have a good opinion of our selves and our condition and perswade us that it is not with us as precise Preachers tell us that it 's no such matter to go to Heaven but that it may be done with lesse paines and more ease when I say Satan lulls a man asleep with such plausible things as these he hath him where he would have him Why then no marvel if this man like his ways when he looks upon them with false glasses 1. The first false glass is self-love and the property of love is to make the good things in the party it loves very great and the vices very little Self-love represents nothing in it's true shape The Apostle speaking of the later dayes 2 Tim. 3. saith There shall be perillous times And wherein lieth the peril Men shall be lovers of their own selves As if he had said that is one of the worst perils for a man to have a great conceit of himself If one be sick of this disease it will so blind him that he shall never see a thing in its right place we may see it by the contrary in the want of love Suppose to a neighbour for example he

is so bad with them Therefore take this home to your selves think no better of your selves then you are for thus you are naturally Therefore consider if thou wert now going out of the world what state thou art in a child of wrath a child of Belial or the like Set about the work speedily goe to God pray and cry earnestly give thy self no rest till thou know this to be thy condition Let not thy corrupt nature deceive thee to make thee think better of thy self then God saith thou art Now that we may the better know to whom these things belong know it is thou and I we all have been or are in this estate till we have supernatural grace and therefore we are declared to be children of wrath and children of disobedience till regenerated Why It 's because it 's thy nature it belongs to all Now we know the common nature alwayes appertaines to the same kind There 's nothing natural but is common with the kind If then by nature we are children then certainly it belongs to every Mothers son of us for we are all sons of Adam In Adam we all die Rom. 5. That 's the fountain whence all misery flowes to us As thou receivedst thy nature so the corruption of thy nature from him for he begat a son in his own likenesse This therefore is the condition of every one The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. speaks of two men the first was from the earth earthy the second was the Lord from heaven What were there not many millions and generations more True but there were not more men like these men of men two head men two fathers of all other men There were but two by whom all must stand or fall but two such men By the fall of the first man we all fell and if we rise not by the second man we are yet in our sins If he rise not we cannot be risen We must rise or fall by him He is the Mediator of the second Covenant If he rise and we are in him we shall rise with him but if not we are dead still So it is in the first Adam we all depend on him he is the root of all mankind It 's said in Esay 53. Our Saviour should rejoyce to see his seed His seed that is to say he is the common father of all mankind I mean of all those that shall proceed from him by spiritual generation He shall present them to his father as when one is presented to the University Behold here am I and the children that thou hast given me So in Adam he being the head of the covenant of nature that is the Law if he had stood none of us had fallen if he fall none of us all can stand He is the peg on which all the keyes hang if that stand they hang fast but if that fall they fall with it As we see in matter of bondage if the father forfeit his liberty and become a bondman all his children are bondmen to a hundred generations here is our case We were all once free but our father hath forfeited his liberty and if he become a slave he cannot beget a free-man When our Saviour tells the Jewes of being free-men We were never bond-men say they though it be false for even Cicero himself could tell a Jew that he was a slave genus hominum ad servitium natum although they had a good opinion of themselves But our Saviour saith you are bond-m●n unto sin and Satan For till the Son make you free you are all bond-men but when he makes you free then are you free indeed So that we see our condition here set down 1. We are dead in trespasses and sins that is there is an indisposition in us to all good works A dead man cannot walk or speak or do any act of a living man so these cannot do the actions of men that are quickned and enlivened they cannot pray with the spirit they cannot love God c. they cannot doe those things that shall be done hereafter in heaven There 's not one good duty which this natural man can do If it should be said unto him Think but one good thought and for it thou shalt go to heaven he could not think it Till God raise him from the sink of sin as he did Lazarus from the grave he cannot doe any thing that is well-pleasing unto God He may do the works of a moral man but to do the works of a man quickned and enlightned it 's beyond his power For if he could do so he must then have some reward from God for however we deny the merit of good works yet we deny not the reward of good works to a man that is in Christ. There 's no proportionable merit in a cup of cold water and the Kingdom of heaven yet he that gives a cup of cold water to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall not lose his reward Here then is the point The best thing that a natural man doth cannot so relish with God as that he should take delight in it or reward it whereas the least good thing that comes from another root from a quickned spirit is acceptable and well-pleasing to him Consider for this end that which is set down Prov. 15.8 Take the best works of a natural man his prayers or sacrifice and see there what is said The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. It is said again Prov. 21.27 where there are additions The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the ●ord how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind Suppose there should come upon this man a fit of devotion where he hath or should have some good motions is it then accepted no it is so far from being accepted that it is an Abomination to God how much more then if he brings it with a wicked mind That is if he bring it not with a wicked mind it is an abomination how much more with it See the case set down in Haggai 2.12 13 14. If one bear holy flesh c. shall he be unclean And the Priest answered no. Then said Haggai if an unclean person touch any of these shall it be unclean And he said it shall be unclean Then answered Haggai so is this people so is this nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands it is unclean A man may not say prayer is a sin because it is so in them no it 's a good duty but spoil'd in the carriage He marrs it in the carriage and therefore in stead of doing a good work he spoils it and so in stead of a reward must look for punishment 1 Tim. 1 5. The end of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfeigned Let the things thou doest be according to the Commandement look what thou doest be according to the middle end and

of our bodies pulls body and soul in sunder A thing which hath little hurt in it self were it not for the sting of it which makes it fearful To die is esteemed far worse then to be dead in regard of the pangs that are in dying to which death puts an end This temporal death is in an instant but this other eternal whereby we are ever dying and never dead for by it we are punished with an everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 1.9 and that from the presence of the Lord by the glory of his power Then which place I have no need to adde more for as much as can be s●id of men and Angels is fully comprehended in it The Apostle terms this a fearful thing indeed Heb. 2.15 whereon if a man but think if he hath his wits about him he would for fear of it be all his life long subject to bondage He would scarce draw any free breath but would still be studying how to avoid it and would still be in bondage and drudgery till he were delivered Thus I have declared the nature of the place and of this second death That I may now goe farther know that this Lake and this place is the place that the Lord hath provided for his enemies It is the Lords slaughter-house it s called a place of torments Luke 16. a place wherein God will shew the accomplishment of his wrath and revenge upon his enemies Those mine enemies that would not have me to reign over them bring them forth and slay them before my face Those vessels of wrath those rebels the King is in raged and his wrath is as the roaring of a Lyon which makes all the beasts of the forrest to tremble Prov. 19.12 And where there is the wrath of such a King the issue thereof must needs be death Prov. 16.14 The wrath of a King is as a messenger of death How much more fearful is the wrath of the King of Kings God hath sharp arrows and he sets a wicked man as his Butt to shoot at to shew his strength and the fierceness of his wrath See the expression of Job in this case The arrows of the Almighty stick fast in me and the venome thereof hath drunk up my spirits In so few words there could not be an higher expression of the wrath of God First that God should make thee a Butt and then that thou shouldst be shot at and that by Gods arrows And then they are not shot by a child but as the man is so is his strength by the Almighty by his bow wherein he draws the arrow to the head And then again these arrows are poyson'd arrows and such poyson as shall drink up all thy soul and spirit Oh what a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of such a God! It 's a saying of Moses Psal. 90.11 for 't is Moses Psal. Who knoweth the power of thine anger the power of Gods anger is unknown And so in his Song Deut. 32.22 he sets it out in some measure A fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn unto the lowest hell c. So that the King being thus provoked is provoked to curse thee Mat. 25. It 's put into the form of thy sentence this cursing shall be thy lot in hell it shall be thy very sentence Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire There is nothing but cursing As Job cursed himself and the day of his birth so then shall cursing be all thy song thou wilt curse thy self that thou didst not hearken to the Preacher that thou wouldst not accept of Christ and the meanes of mercy and grace when it was offered thee and thou wilt curse the time thou wert acquainted with this man and that man and others will curse thee for drawing them to sin God curses thee and man curses thee and God curses not in vain when he curses others will curse thee and thou thy self and others and think then how cursed will be thy condition All the curses that can be thought on and all the curses that cannot be thought on shall rest on the head of an impenitent sinner to shew Gods terrible and just indignation against him Oh beloved to deliver us from this curse Christ the Son of God was made a curse for us the curse is so great nought else can free us from it But now that I may rank these punishments of the damned and bring them for memories sake into some order although there be no order there for it 's a place of confusion you may consider that the penalties of Gods enemies are penalties partly of losse and partly of sense 1. Of loss And that consists in the deprivation of every thing that might administer the least comfort to him and for this cause hell is termed utter darknesse Now darknesse is a privation of all light so is Hell of all comfort to shew that there is not the least thing that may give thee content nor is the poorest thing thou canst desire to be had there Darknesse was one of the plagues of Egypt though there were no kind of sense in it yet we may think what a plague and vexation it was to them to sit so long in darkness The darknesse of Hell is darker then darknesse it self They shall not see light saith the Scripture they shall not have so much as a glimpse of it To be cast into this utter darkness where shall be nothing to administer the least comfort what an infinite misery will that be Were it only the losse of the things we now possesse and enjoy of all which death robs us as pomp honour riches and preferment this were grievous to a wicked man These are things death dispossesses a man of these cannot follow him nought but thy works accompany thee thy friends may follow thee to the grave but there they shall leave thee To have been happy and to be miserable is the greatest woe to have lived in good fashion and to be wretched is the greatest grief How will this adde to the sinners misery when he shall say to himself I had once all good things about me but have now for my portion nothing but woe I had a bed of down but it is now exchanged for a bed of fire I was once honourable but now I am full of shame and contempt this will greatly adde to his misery But all this is nothing these are but the beginnings of his sorrow in regard of losse for a man to be rich and wealthy to day and to morrow to be stript of all and left not worth a groat to have all swept away this is a woful case 2. But if this be so grievous what is it to lose Heaven Certainly to lose the highest and greatest good is the greatest evil and punishment that can be inflicted upon a creature Which makes many Divines think that the penalties of losse are far greater then those of sense though they seem not to