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	spirit_n	6,743	5	5.1226	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40055	Foure pious, godly, and learned treatises the first, leads us to the gate of true happinesse : the second, is for instruction, letting us to know what Christ suffer'd for us, that we might enjoy him : the third, is helps and cautions, that we may the better avoid sin : the fourth, brings us to be seekers and suers to God for those things that be above, Collo. 3 / by a late faithfull and godly minister of Jesus Christ ; now since his death recommended to all the people of God, by Mr. John Goodwin.	Late faithfull and godly minister of Jesus Christ.; Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1652 (1652)	Wing F1665A; ESTC R40246	109,790	246

Wildernesse or Heath emptie of all good If our soules bee over runne with lusts like a neglected Field with brambles and bryers for want of husbanding Simile Our hearts are as the Cords of a Watch if they bee not wound up morning and evening all spirituall motion will quickly be at a stand Another meanes is one of Luthers Schoolemasters Meditation by which hee confessed he thrived more then by the rest to which hee attributed a great part of his being in grace Gen. 24. The practice of Religious Isaack Gen. 24. who went into the field at eventide to meditate And it is fitly joyned by the ancients to prayer as the two wings of the Christians soule by which it soares to contemplation and attaines those things above It is the policie of our common ene-enemy as Chrisologus stiles him Chrisologus the sworne enemy of mankinde who knowing how powerfull a meanes meditation is to 〈◊〉 our selves from worldly things and betake our selves to divine contemplation to get the things above hee labours to keepe us from it by all his strength and by div●●s meanes Sometimes by causing us to stoupe to his lure by committing any sinne Simile and who knowes not that every sinne as a ●●umme● of Lead clogges the soule and hinders the actions of it But especially hee keepes us from meditation by keeping us in the throng by perpetuall puzelling us in businesse hee steales us from our selves and gives us not time to retire Alas aske most men what houres they set apart for prayer and meditation They will answer I have so much businesse I cannot turne my selfe to it Oh the policie and stratagems of Sathan I say hee keepes us by this from the exercise of devotion by which wee should attaine the things above hee keepes us in the throng of businesse did I say businesse Nay how many are kept away from this divine exercise by spending their time foolishly in Courtship and I would not worse Whence it comes to passe that I looke I professe with pitty upon many great ones whose lives are a story of sinne whose sinnes it comes to passe are never cured because they are alway in motion You that are Gentlemen sequester some time if not every day yet at least every weeke bid all other businesse stand by and attend on your closet to thinke of the things above how to attaine what you want and how to increase what you have attained You that are tradesmen take off your selves from other affaires retire home and examine your spirituall estate with God And wee that are Schollers should vindicate some time from the study of Bookes to reade our selves All of us should set aside some time for the thinking of the things above to examine what spirituall graces wee neede that wee may use the meanes to attaine them and what sinnes wee have committed that wee may repent of them for feare the sad time of death come and cut our thread and then wee goe downe to the Chambers of death Let us examine to what sinnes wee lye open that wee may fortifie our selves against them that the evill one have no power over us All these things are conteyned in the things above and all these wee must seeke here if wee desire to attaine the blessing of them hereafter Let this suffice to bee spoken of the first inquirie concerning the meanes whereby to seeke these things above There remaines onely two more The characters by which wee may know if we seeke these things And the motives You see how wee ought to seeke the things bove But alas The signes of seeking the over eager pursuite of the things below wee see how coldly and faintly if at all wee seeke the things above which if wee did seeke as wee ought Neglect of earthly things it could not choose but abate the edge of our desires to these earthly things and cause us as strangers and pilgrims to use the world as not enjoying it as Saint Austin sayd long before to make it our servant to bee content like that noble Bird that desiring to flye aloft when shee is compelled by hunger to descend shee unwillingly obeyes and presently dispatcheth that shee may up againe which contempt and neglect of the things below it is a signe wee seeke the things of heaven and though our bodies be on earth that wee hold our conversation in heaven where wee looke and fix our eyes through all earthly contentments Wee should be on earth as a wheele is that though it moove upon the earth yet the least part toucheth it Simile That is the first if wee will seeke the things above wee must not too eagerly seeke the things below Sorrow in want of heavenly things Secondly if wee seeke the things above can wee choose but bee affected with sorrow and compunction when wee want them It is not possible hee that seekes these things above as hee ought when hee findes in himselfe the want and decay of them it is impossible but hee should betake himselfe to blacke to a mourning state You see the truth of this exemplified by David when hee upon the commition of those two sinnes murder and adultery hee found hee was bereft of the comfortable presence of Gods favour he furrowes his cheekes with weeping and spends himselfe his marrow was as the drought in Summer hee never gives himselfe rest till God revived and cheared his drouping soule and caused the beames of his countenance to smile upon him So it is with a man that seekes the things that are above in the want of them hee is as the Marriners needle Simile as that is in the want of the point so are all those that seeke the things above in the want of them they never rest but shake and tremble till at last they recover them and stand as they did formerly That is the second argument whereby wee may know if wee seeke these things if wee grieve and mourne when wee want them Thirdly if wee seeke these things above Ioy in injoying them how can wee chuse but rejoyce when wee find them for Love where it is it cannot choose but bee glad when it findes that it delights in Take an instance of both in David Psal 73. Lord saith hee Psal 73. whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth in comparison of thee Marke there David desired these things above and when his soule found them his soule loved them Who can reade it and not bee ravished to see to what an excessive extacie of joy hee was transported Psal 4. hee preferred the light of Gods countenance Psalme 4. before all the Corne and Wine and Oyle the poore things that worldlings place their chiefe content in But in the last place what neede other things to resolve whether wee seeke the things above or no but this By our thoughts and speeches our owne thoughts are the image of our soules and

in whom is the fulnesse of truth and grace Look as it is in the naturall body so it is in the misticall body as in the naturall body all the naturall motion proceeds from the head and from the vertue that is derived from the head to the members so in the mysticall body all the spirituall motion it proceeds from the influence of the head Christ is the head and from him as from the head is derived all the vertue to the members of Christ by which the death to sinne and the life of grace is wrought in us likewise Looke as it was in the oyle of Aaron the oyle that was powred on the head of Aaron it stayd not on his head but descended to the skirts of his cloathing So the Spirit of Christ it rests not on Christ onely but from Christ as the head it descends upon all the members of Christ The reason thereof why as our death to sinne so the life of grace proceeds from Christ is because both are the workes of grace according to that of the Evangelist in him dwells all the fulnesse of grace and in Collos 2. the Apostle saith In him dwells the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily For the better and fuller opening of the point give me leave to propose and resolve one question and that is this Quest If our death to sinne and our life of grace both proceede from Christ that Christ is the author of them actions then how is Christ the author of them what kinde of cause is Christ sayd to be both of our death to sinne and of the life of grace I answer briefly Answ Christ may be sayd to be the cause both of our death to sin and of the life of grace in a fourefold respect or hee is a fourefold kind of cause Christ is the 1 meritorious 2 exemplary 3 morall 4 efficient Cause as of our death to sin so likewise of our life to grace First Christ is the meritorious cause for Christ did by his death and obedience not onely purchase for us a release and freedome from hell and consequently title to heaven but Christ merited for us the donation of the Spirit of God whereby we are made fit for and capable of that inheritance Christ not onely purchased a right to heaven but grace holines whereby we might come at last to jus in re For as I sayd before by the righteousnes of Christ onely we come to have right to heaven but it is our owne righteousnesse whereby we come to be made capable of that right to heaven for saith the Apostle flesh and blood shal not enter into the kingdome of heaven Flesh and blood that is nature uncorrected unsanctified and uncontrolled it shall not inherit the kingdome of God therefore Christ hath purchased not onely redemption from hell and title to heaven but the donation of the Spirit of God whereby we are made fit and capable of heaven whereby wee are made meete as the Apostle saith to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light Ioh. 17.19 So saith the Evangelist Ioh. 17.19 For their sakes saith our Saviour I sanctifie my selfe that they also may be sanctified through the truth Christ sanctified himselfe not onely to redeeme us from hell and to procure title to heaven but he sanctified himselfe that his members might bee sanctified that by the merit and vertue of Christs sanctification we might be sanctified So saith the Apostle to Titus he hath bestowed on us the spirit through Christ Tit. 3.5 Tit. 3.5 not by the workes of righteousnesse that wee had done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour It is through Christ onely as through the meritorious cause by whom wee obtaine the Spirit of God by which Spirit our sinfull lusts are mortified in us and by which we are quickned and revived to the life of grace so Christ is the meritorious cause hee deserved the donation of the Spirit from his Father Secondly Christ as hee is the meritorious so he is the exemplary cause as of death to sinne so of our life to grace Christ in dying to sinne he set himselfe as a patterne to us to teach us also that wee should dye to sinne Christ in rising from the grave hee set himselfe a patterne to us to teach us to rise from sinne so he is the exemplary cause For Christ is a patterne for our immitation in his morall actions and wee must resemble after a sort some of his Mediatorious actions also not onely in the good duties that are commanded in the Law but in those that he performed for our redemption It is true in a different manner Christ is a patterne to us in actions morall that is in the good things that he performed that are commanded in the Law he is our patterne to be imitated in the same kinde As Christ was gracious to the poore so should wee to them that are poore and in distresse in the same kind as he was temperate so may wee imitate him in the same kinde though not in the same degree But for his actions Mediatorious we are to resemble some of them too though not in the same kinde yet in some way of use As hee died for sinne so wee should dye to sinne as he rose from the grave so wee should rise from sinne to newnesse of life so still Christ is our patterne As Saint Austin saith Christ came not onely to helpe us and to performe the things that wee ought to have done but he came to teach us by his example what we ought to do And he teacheth us he is our Schoolemaster not only in his actions morall but in his actions mediatorious in the former we may imitate him in the same kind though we cannot in the same degree in the latter wee cannot imitate him in the same kinde yet in some sort wee may We should be as the Heletropium that opens and shuts with the Sunne so wee may follow the lambe wheresoever he goeth as hee dyed for sinne so we must dye to sinne as hee rose from the grave so we must rise from the death of sinne to newnesse of life so Christ is the exemplary cause of our death to sinne and the life of grace Thirdly Christ is the morall moving perswading cause of both That the Apostle wills Timothy to remember 2 Tim. 2.8 Remember saith hee that Iesus Christ of the seede of David was raised from the dead according to my Gospel he bids him remember it why remember it because the very thought and remembrance that Christ dyed and rose againe it cannot chuse but be a powerful motive to holinesse for it makes men conclude argue with themselves what did Christ lay downe his life for us and shall not wee lay downe our lusts for him Did Christ arise againe the third day