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	power_n	8,826	5	5.9330	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57599	Loyalty and peace, or, Two seasonable discourses from I Sam. 24, 5 viz., David's heart smote him because he cut off Saul's skirt : the first of conscience and its smitings, the second of the prodigious impiety of murthering King Charles I, intended to promote sincere devotion and humiliation upon each anniversary fast for the Late King's death / by Samuel Rolls.	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing R1880; ESTC R25524	110,484	255

thousand Witnesses that which makes it more dreadful is In the Court of Conscience a man becomes a thousand Witnesses against himself yea a Man becomes that Judge that passes the Sentence of eternal Death on himself as the Apostle saith Acts 13.46 Yea viz. Jews have put away the Gospel from you and judged your selves unworthy of everlasting Life Were there ever a Francis Spiro in our days as it is like some such there are he would tell you that all that I have said of the terror of a smitting Conscience were but one half of what is true yea but a Flea-biting to what he himself had felt that eye had never seen ear heard or it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive how terrible the smitings of Conscience sometimes are and that whereas 't is said that Deus Eternitas non patiuntur Hyperbolen id est that God and Eternity can admit of no Hyperboles or cannot be out-languaged The same may be truly said of a Conscience set upon smiting I shall conclude this Head with those words of Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Ninthly Come we now to speak of the ninth and last Query propounded to be spoken to viz. Quare Why it is that Conscience doth smite men when they do or have sinned against God I answer of that there are principally two reasons to be given first of all because God hath given Conscience a Command and Commission so to do saying to Conscience as to his Prophet of old Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet tell the people their transgressions Conscience is God's Attorney-General if I may so call it God's Advocate to plead for God against man to exhibit God's Indictments against man as the matter doth or shall require Conscience is also Gods Executioner God's Lictor if I may so call it and therefore must smite when God bids it smite it hath God's fasces and secures that is God's Rods and Axes in his hands and must not bear those ensigns of Authority in vain but do execution with them as the great Consul or Dictator of the world shall appoint So much for the first reason Secondly The next is this God hath every way fitted and framed Conscience in its own fabrick nature and constitution for such a work as this viz. to smite men in reference to sin Unto so doing it is conducted as it were by instinct from God as is the Sun to know its due time of Rising and Setting and several Creatures void of understanding to know their proper seasons yea things without life act according to that frame and make which Art hath given them so Clocks do strike and Alarms go and sound at such seasons as they are made to do But for smitings of Conscience there is further reason for Conscience is at once both a Law a Witness and a Judg appointed of God so to be and qualified accordingly As it is a Law of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 15. These speaking to the Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which law is Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law written in their hearts Now Conscience as such is by Divines called Synteresis being a Store-house of Maxims and Principles informing us of the Eternae indispensabiles rationes boni mali which Divines do so much speak of engraven with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common notions of good and evil Secondly Conscience is a witness yea a thousand witnesses as we learn from Rom. 2.15 by these words which show the works of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now as Conscience is a witness Divines call it Syneidesis Lastly Conscience is a Judg and as such is by Divines called Crisis witness 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God which words do show Conscience to be a Judg for it is the office of a Judg to pass sentence either of Condemnation or Absolution Moreover in those words are intimated that God hath given to Conscience as it were the power of the Keys and had said unto it as unto Peter and his Successors Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But now methinks I have to encounter with a very grand Objection namely this How can Conscience be said to be qualified as a reprover or smiter for sin sith it sometimes smites men for that which is no sin at other times when men do really sin against God it smites not at all but rather applauds and commends them as did the Conscience of St. Paul which told him he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth and that it was true zeal in him to persecute the Churches of Christ Sith Conscience sometimes puts darkness for light and light for darkness evil for good and good for evil what matter is it for its smitings unless it were wiser and knew how at all turns never to justifie the wicked and condemn the righteous Can it be may some say that God should give a Commission to Conscience to smite those which ought not to be smitten or to chide those which ought rather to be comforted or to comfort and commend those who ought rather to be soundly chid and condemned If Conscience trifle at this rate may some say ought it not to be slighted like a perfidious Jury that brings in those guilty that are not guilty and those not guilty that are guilty This Objection seems to stand like a Mountain if not like Mount Sion it self which can never be removed yet wait but a while you may see it made a Plane if not turned into a Valley I premise a word or two by way of Concession namely that Conscience in this corrupt degenerate estate of all humane faculties doth sometimes mistake comforting those which it ought to chide and chiding those whom it ought to comfort but thanks be to God there is a way to prevent those mistakes Time was when Conscience might have serv'd as a Law to us and of it self a kind of regula pure regulans But now it is a regula regulata viz. a rule to be ruled by the word of God which is to Conscience as a light shining in a dark place to which the Consciences of men ought to take heed as to that which is a light to their feet and a lanthorn to their paths There is a crookedness which hath happened in part to the Consciences of men by Adam's fall and their fall in him but is such as may be rectified or made streight by attending to

day for there are a sort of Men of whom David speaks Who are wont to transgress without a cause Psal 25.3 David speaks of some who were his Enemies without a cause Psal 7. and without Cause had hid their net for him in a Pit which without cause they digged for him Psal 35.7 May it not be said of some that they are Enemies to God and to the Peace of their own Minds by making work for Conscience and for Repentance without any considerable cause Of this sort are those who abound in needless Oaths and Execrations crying at every turn I will be hang'd if this or that be not so Yea here and there you have a Monster of a Man that fears not upon every slight occasion to cry God damn me as if he defied his maker and scorned that Tophet which was prepared of old for such as he which God hath made deep and large the Pile whereof is much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Or as if they could cheerfully drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out with mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and endure to be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to have the smoak of their torment ascending for ever and ever and to have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Or as if when the question is put Who can dwell with the consuming Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings as it is Isa 33.14 they could roundly answer That can we do If so they have stouter hearts than sinners in old time were wont to have for the Text saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites saying Who shall dwell with devouring Fire c. Methinks I can resemble these Persons to nothing so much as to the Priests of Baal spoken of 1 Kings 18.28 of whom it is said They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Launces till the Blood guished out upon them Many who laugh at the Papist for whipping themselves on Good-Friday do worse for that Papists do in point of Devotion aiming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat down their Bodies as we translate it by beating them Black and Blew but Atheists slash and gash their Souls with severe stroaks for no good intent at all but out of meer Irreligion and wanton Prophaneness Lord I can but think how these men will look when Conscience shall come to reckon with them and they find themselves not able to answer it one of a thousand I can but think how pale they will look or rather how black in the Face with fear and astonishment what a dreadful eccho those Oaths and bloody Curses will have in Mens Ears when they come to be resounded upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed Or rather in what a pickle those men will be 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 and they see themselves punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. If it be so terrible as it is to hear but a zealous Minister warmly discoursing of the Torments of Hell especially if a Mans Conscience at the same time second what he saith and joyn issue with the Preacher as did the Conscience of Felix of whom it is said Acts 24.25 That when Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled I say if the bare hearing of Hell be so terrible as to make a Heathen Judge upon the Bench tremble at the words of his poor Prisoner at the Bar standing there to await his Sentence how intollerable will it be to feel such things And who can chuse when in the midst of those Flames but cry out as did the Sinners and Hypocrites in Zion Who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings You would be loath constantly to sit under the Ministry of a Boanerges that would be alwayes thundring and lightning preaching of Hell and Damnation flashing Hell-fire in your Faces with every Sermon as if Mount Sinah were his Pulpit but were your Minister such you could make a shift and an excuse to go out of the Church as oft as he came to his use of terrour and stay out of his way till the storm were over but if you provoke your Consciences and make them burning as well as shining Lights within you as that phrase may be taken whether will you fly from those flames and whereunto will you betake your selves Go whither you will Conscience will follow you and if you have Ears to hear will make you hear yea will find you Ears if you make as if you had none yea speak loud enough to be heard though you were almost dead or were disposed to turn a deaf Ear upon it Conscience will have access to you at all hours even in the dead and still of the night it will come stealing upon you like a Thief in the night nay that it need not do neither for it will make bold with greatest noise to burst your Iron Bars break open your Doors and make a loud and forcible entrance upon you when it pleases and look upon it self to be always at home when it is where you are yea to be Master of the House and to have full authority to speak and do within your Breasts what it listeth Conscience is as it were every Mans Chamberlain and carrieth the Key of every Mans Breast as it were at his Girdle and therefore can go or get into a Man when it pleaseth and if they do as it were bolt or bar the Door on the inside it is able to make even Brass or Iron Grates to fly open before it for nothing can keep Conscience out Now Conscience being such a thing as I have described what Solomon saith viz. He that passeth by and medleth with strife that belongeth not to him is like one that taketh a Dog by the Ears may be applied to Conscience And therefore it must needs be folly and madness in any Man needlesly to provoke his Conscience and without great cause and temptation to make work for it as he were mad that would rouze up a sleepy Lion or Mastiff when he had no occasion so to do So much shall serve for the 3. Vse Fourth Vse shall be this Sith it is the office of Conscience to smite Men as in reference to sin it must needs behove us to keep our Consciences alwayes in smiting case I do not mean to give them cause to smite us for that we should by no means do but to keep them in an aptitude and fitness to smite us when just cause is given What is a Dog good for if he

without the least remorse for what they had done But far be it from us to think the better or more favourably of that sin the committers whereof did or seem'd to dye without repentance Now what I have written touching this matter I call Heaven to witness did not spring from any hatred that I do or ever did bear to the persons of them or theirs who had the infamous honour or seeming honour but eternal infamy of being the King's Judges but from detestation of the fact and a true desire that the like may be prevented for time to come and wheras it is commonly said that some do love Treason but always hate the Traytors I by a reverse do profess my self to have heartily pitied the persons of those Traytors to have true compassion and good will to their innocent Relations that yet survive them but mean time from my heart to abhor and detest that and all other Treason Did I say that as much as I hate Treason I have heartily pitied and do pity the Regicides I do not mean that I think it any pity that being what they were they should be brought to an untimely end to an ignominious death that I thought them too good to be hanged drawn and quartered who had been so vile as to behead their King all that they suffered in that nature was far less than they deserved But I do really pity them in relation to their poor Souls For I wish from my heart that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and am not willing if I could help it that any should perish everlastingly I wish no man so ill as to wish him in hell or that he might die in his sins that the bottomless pit might open its mouth and swallow him up Sure I am the Regicides did run as great a risk and bid as fair for Hell and Damnation as men could do by any one action their fact being so transcendently and complicatedly wicked and abominable as it was Had they courted Hell and been fond of Damnation what could they have done more to have enjoyed it than to bain their own Souls as much as in them lay by an eternal Poyson compounded of all sorts of deadly Ingredients one of which might seem sufficient to effect the work in spight of an Antidote The great compounded Antidotes Treacle c. do hardly consist of more Alexipharmacal Ingredients than this fact of theirs did of deleterious and deadly things or shall I call them damnable Ingredients For first Is Perjury a damning sin or is it not If not what mean these words of St. James Jac. 5.12 Above all things swear not neither by the Heaven nor by the Earth nor by any other Oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation Now in these words swearing but vainly and frivolously and that but by Heaven or Earth or other Creatures seems to be threatned with damnation and is it not far worse and more damnable to swear falsely and that by the Name of God than to swear frivolously by the Name of any Creature yet even the later of those doth St. James deprecate with the most earnest obtestation Above all things my brethren swear not neither by Heaven c. 2. Is there no damnableness in Rebellion think you No danger that Rebellion should damn any man Is that a venial and no mortal sin Surely no Witness the words of the Apostle Rom. 13.2 Whosoever resisteth the powers resisteth the Ordinances of God and they that resist them receive to themselves damnation Now in this case there was resisting unto blood 3. Was no man ever damn'd for Treason What think you of Judas who was a Traytor to his Master and Saviour of whom the Scripture saith It had been good for him that he had never been born If he went to Heaven if he were not damn'd it was well for him that ever he was born therefore those words do intimate that he was damned 4. Can Sacriledge damn no man Is not that of its self a damnable sin Surely it is For 1. Sacriledge is Theft and the highest sort of Theft For will a man rob God saith Malachy Now Thieves are brought into the Muster-rolls of persons that must be damned 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves c. It is well if Ananias and Saphira feel it not to their sorrow that Sacriledge can damn Souls In Zech. 5.3 we read of stealing and swearing as things each or either of which will bring men under the flying-role or curse of God This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord and it shall enter into the house of the thief and of him that sweareth falsely by by my Name and shall remain in the midst of his house and it shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof ver 4. Against whom but Thieves and Robbers is that threatning denounced Hab. 2.11 The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it applied to the unsatiable Chaldeans Now in Sacriledge there seems to be a complication of Theft and Perjury because it is a Robbing of God of that which was due to him by a Vow or that men have sworn for a Vow and an Oath come much what to one that they will give to God So was the case of Ananias and Saphira Indeed the Sacriledge of some men is their robbing of God not of what they themselves but of that which others have made God's by a Vow Now even they do fall under a horrible curse or execration Things given or devoted unto God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are devoted to God with the accursing of them which should convert them to their own use and so by a translated sense the word signifies a perpetual separation from Christ The Rabbins say of Votum cherem now the Hebrew word cherem answereth to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as face to face in a glass est maximum votum But to hasten 5ly Is Murther wilful murther a damnable sin If not why saith St. John Ye know that no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him i. e. hath any actual aptitude or capacity to enter into Heaven Now if the murthering of any man be he good or bad high or low superiour or inferiour be a damnable sin sure I am the murthering of an innocent good man yea of a King a good King which are great aggravations must be so too Yea if the wilful murthering of any one man expose to damnation much more needs must the murthering of many men at once Now the Regicides may be said to have been all of