Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	body_n	earth_n	soul_n	16,341	5	5.1635	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97181	The gayne of losse or temporall losses spiritually improved in a centurye & one decad of meditations & resolves. By John Warner M.A. sometimes of Magd: Hall in Oxo: & one of the ministers of the London Brigade in the late western expedition 1644.	Warner, John, b. 1612 or 13.	1645 (1645)	Wing W904; Thomason E1194_1	48,265	180

to take us to be his inheritance and can we think our selves poore that have God to our inheritance 'T was the honour of the tribe of Levi that they had no portion among their brethren but that the Lord was their portion Every beleeving person is of Gods * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 Clergie and portion and therefore if God be his God his lot is fallen in a faire ground he hath a goodly heritage O the humilitie of our blessed God that can denominate us to be his inheritance that have nothing in us good but what is from him O the happinesse of that soule that can truly say The Lord is my portion for that thou art Gods doth nothing benefit God but that God is thine is all in all to thee This is the onely abiding this the abounding portion If any one think not this enough Let his portion be in this life Psal 17.14 And then when times of losing come it shall be said of him This is the man that took not God to his portion X. GOD being Lord over all even of the earth and its fulnesse hath an universall soveraigntie over all an independent royaltie in all things so that whatsoever man doth injoy is by his dispensation Now if among men estates are incident to such forfeits as their Land-lords may by Law deprive them and reenter why may not the supreame Lord of heaven and earth deprive us of that which is his when we break our Covenants with him and run into so many forseits and arrearages And if in such a case none dare aske a Prince or Landlord why he doth it so here neither dare any one open his mouth against his Maker seeing he may doe what he please with his own To him that hath that is useth well what he hath shall more be given and from him that hath not i. e. useth not or abuseth what he hath shall it be taken away O Lord what I have is thine by right and dominion thine by my forfeit and self-deprivation mine onely by usurpation at most by dispensation I blesse thy mercy for the forbearance of thy right so long I blesse thy justice for depriving me of that right at last The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. XI GOD as he is the author of all the good wee partake so he hath a hand in all the evill we suffer His holinesse denies him to be a cause of the evill of sinne his justice forceth him to inflict the evill of punishment Is there any evill in the Citie and the Lord hath not done it This Job knew when he saith The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away not onely the Chaldeans and Sabeans though they were the theeves what they did was by Gods permission Who gave Jacob for a spoyle and Israel to the robbers did not the Lord God concurreth in every evill action though not in the evill of the action The substance of it may be of God when the obliquitie is of man God hath an over-ruling hand over all mens wills yet those wills may have contrary motions of their owne Foolish men are they then who being afflicted either look upon the evill and not the cause or if the cause either the wrong or more immediate causes as misfortune malice of man want of discretion I will therefore look not so much on my affliction as on my afflicter and that not subordinate but supreame so shall I finde my suffering to be the more sweet as proceeding from a gracious father whose hand as it casts down will raise up as it woundeth will heale Thus in looking up to him the agent he will look down on me the patient and either remove the evill from me or make mee able to beare it XII GOd as he made man good so hee made every thing good for man Man was made uncapable of corruption and they of alteration If man had not fallen from God his Maker they had not fallen from man their owner Thus by one man sinne death corruption alteration came into the world It is sinne which separateth God from man man from man soule from body man from his goods his goods from himselfe Sinne corrupteth not onely the soule but the body not onely the body but the earth whence he came and the heavens whither he should goe It breedeth a moth in our garments a worme in our provision rust in our silver it exposeth all to the theese It setteth not only God at enmity against man but man with man yea beast with beast yea and makes one man be a beast a Wolfe a Lyon to another So that if wee lose the creature it is because wee have made it lose its primitive nature Now there 's no other way to gain this permanency either to our selves or others but by righteousnesse as this corruptibilitie came by unrighteousnesse But on the earth dwelleth not this righteousnesse nor durablenesse but we look for a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth not onely righteousnesse but perpetuitie and never fading happinesse XIII THe Lesson of the creatures corruptibilitie is that which the word of God doth still dictate and which this world doth daily demonstrate Wee have the volume of holy Writ and the large volume of the creatures to teach us this The Word says All is vanitie The world sheweth wherein this vanitie lyes Wee see men daily taken from their goods and their goods from them Wee see corruptions and alteration of things and yet wee dreame of such an unalterable condition in all things which may reach to eternitie Imaginary continuance of things is in our heads when reall changes are before our eyes Every creature groanes out this and yet wee heare not its voyce Wee build Castles in the ayre and upon the sandy foundation of our owne speculations promise to our selves an estate above the reach of enemies whereas the next storme that riseth doth not onely discover the weaknesse but overthrow the foundation of this imaginary fabrique The foole in the Gospel well so called hugg'd himselfe with this conceit that he had enough laid up for many dayes and therefore bid his soule take its repose whereas the next night his soule was taken from him Had his soule not been taken his goods might God though he had not destroyed his corn in the field yet he could have sent devourers into his barns yea if he had still brought his corne into his mouth he could have sent leanenesse into his soule Teach me O Lord to know not onely my selfe but all flesh to bee as grasse and all things to be vanity so shall I use the world as if Iused it not so shall I enjoy my goods and not bee enjoyed by them Thus the longer I possesse my riches the more I shall know them and the lesse shall be not onely my affection to them but my affiance in them XIV WEre Riches ever tokens of Gods love

same time See this in David who when Ziglag was burned 1 Sam. 30.6 himselfe plundered of his goods and wives did at first weep till he could weep no longer and he was greatly distressed thus farre he let loose the reignes to nature and passion yet see how his spirit upheld it selfe hwen he presently encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God Davids case is now common to the seed of David where fire and sword prevaile the present apprehension thereof may empty our heads of teares but not our hearts of courage When our adversaries are increased our strength failes us our burdens increase our estates decrease so that wee can take pleasure in no earthly thing yet then may wee encourage our selves in the Lord nad joy in the God of our salvation The seed of David as they are heirs of Davids sufferings so also of his consolations XCVIII VVEE are apt to observe and take notice of what the Lord takes away from us but not of what he gives us thus minding one crosse more then many favours Did wee thus diligently look to our Book of accounts with God we should finde that wee are indebted to him and not he to us For when the Lord takes away a blessing from his hee gives them as good or better here onely is the mistake that when the Lord doth not pay us in our own coyn and in the same kind of blessing we think he is behind hand with us as if he that borrowed so much in silver but returnes the summe in a few pieces of gold were still indebted God took away Elijah from Elisha but hee doubled his spirit upon Elisha Christ did withdraw his bodily presence from his Disciples but hee sent them the Comforter The Lord takes from us temporall goods but then hee gives us content in a lower estate and faith for a better I will not be troubled if God deprive me of outward gifts so hee restore them unto me in inward graces None that ever had trading in heaven can say he is a loser unlesse hee mistake his accounts XCIX IMpatient people think God hath forgotten to be gracious if hee deliver not in their time and by their meanes The Lord doth therefore hide the meanes and time from us that his wayes of deliverance may be the more mysterious God doth not alwayes deliver from the trouble but from the evill of it nay sometimes hee delivers by the trouble making that to bee the meanes which is our present misery Thus is there a deliverance when suffering the lesse wee are freed from the greater as many are delivered by death temporall from death eternall by losses of the death from the losse of heaven If therefore our condition in suffering be so strange that we know not what to doe yet the Lord knowes how to deliver The Lords thoughts are not as our thoughts but as farre surpassing as the heavens doe the earth That sea which Israel thought would have been their grave was their high way And if the suffering be long and tedious yet when the time of deliverance is come the Lord will not only answer us for our praiers but for our patience and time in waiting C. SKin for skin and all that a man hath wil he give for his life life being better then goods Now what bargain I should have made for my life the same hath God yeelded me my life upon as he hath given my goods as a prey to the enemies so he hath given my life a prey to my selfe Livelihood is good but life is better Laban did Jacob much hurt in his estate but God suffered him not to hurt his person And now O Lord as thou hast given me this life by thy own inspiration by thy Sonnes redemption by this last preservation so being not mine own but thine I desire to live not to my selfe but to thee Henceforth to mee to live is Christ he that hath his life preserved from an imminent danger should not live onely to live but to God and his glory CI. VVHen I heare the enemy with Saul breathe out threatnings and slaughter saying Kill slay hew them pistoll them quarter them I know not whether doth exceed their fury or their folly seeing that which is an act of enmity in the persecuter is an act of amity to the persecuted for hereby they are the sooner dispatched to heaven and wait the lesse time for their inheritance Could they destroy the soule with the body or separate the soule from God as easily as they can divide it from the body it were a high degree of revenge But this belongs to the Lord onely to whom vengeance belongs I will not therefore fear him that can kill the body onely but him that can destroy body and soule Thus though they destroy this earthly tabernacle my spirit shall return to God that gave it and thus to die would bee to mee gaine yea such gain that if the enemy knew it his envie would bee as great to my soule separated as his enmity was to it united CII ALL the comfort of a child of God is in this that God is his God for all good is in God in a more eminent manner and fuller measure then in any creature Now as God is his God so all in God is for his good If God be ours all things are ours but if he be not ours though we had all yet when losses come nothing would be ours Nothing is so much ours as God is ours for by his being ours all things else are ours Here also is the glory and crown of rejoycing in a Christian that when all things else leave him hee neither loseth his interest in God nor God his interest in him CIII VVE read of Jobs losses that they fell out not at the same time though one came in the neck of another Parallell in manner to Jobs were mine For when the Sabeans came they dealt fairly to see to taking the one halfe that lay open leaving me the other that lay hidden thankes rather to their blindnesse then their goodnesse Yet at last that which lay hid did appeare to them perhaps by Chaldean wisdome Thus that which the Locusts left the Caterpillers have eaten My comfort is that my best estate is so hidden and laid up where such Theeves cannot break through and steale such is that hidden meat and Manna they know not of or if they did know would not trouble themselves with it but let who will take it for them CIV VVHen the remembrance of my losses over-clouds my heart with a multitude of thoughts yet even then have I a multitude of comforts from God to refresh it Every depth of my misery is accompanied with a depth of mercy Amongst all my losses though not exceeding yet the most affecting was that of my Library which as for variety was good so for value was not small herein my comfort is that now the Lord may give me a double portion of his Spirit whereby