Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A57160
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A sermon preached in St. Paul's before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor by Dr. Edward Reynolds, late Lord Bishop of Norwich.
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Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing R1285; ESTC R28475
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20,299
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33
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If one man sin against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sin against God who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. He is not a man as thou art that thou shouldst answer him or come together in judgment Iob 9. 32. Are calves or rams or children fit to be Umpires betwixt a sinner and his God All thy former resolutions though apparently full of zeal and devotion and voluntary humility neglecting thy estate thy body thy bowels adventuring all for mercy were but the poor dictates of flesh and blood all of them but the nudum hominem as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 3. 3. as if a beggar should offer a bag full of farthings or his Child at his back to a Prince for his Crown Not thy Sacrifices nor thy offerings nor thy rams nor thy rivers or thy Children or thy bowels will serve the turn But Ille indicavit He hath shewed thee O man what is good to thy self and to God in his eyes and account Not Sacrifice and offerings he desireth them not he delighteth not in them Psa. 51. 16. but to do judgment and love mercy And yet we may not think that God is careless of his outward worship or of any of that external order and decency which belongs unto it If they bring the lame the sick or any corrupt thing for a Sacrifice they shall hear of it with a curse Mal. 1. 8. 14. All things are to be done decently and in order Thus when Ezra read in the Book of the law the people stood up and when he prayed they bowed down their heads and lifted up their hands Nehe. 8. 5 6. When our Saviour prayed he lifted up his eyes to Heaven Ioh. 17. 1. When the solemn services were ended the people bowed the head and worshipped 2 Chron. 29. 29. As men use a dead hedge to preserve a quick even so the due observance of that outward order in the people of God which he hath appointed doth serve both to express and to bear up that awful and reverend affectation which the soul should have of him But there is the misery and the mistake that evil men being wholly carnal do rest and stop at that part of Gods service which stands in carnal ordinances not being either able or willing to perform spiritual services for want of spiritual and holy affections and then in this case the Holy Spirit is express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 5 6. Thou didst not require them to be performed and when they were obtruded upon thee thou didst take no delight in them And he told his people he would not reprove them for their Sacrifices they were continually before him but for their sins he would reprove them Psa. 50. 8. If Cain sacrifice to God and hate his Brother if Doeg be detained before the Lord and have a violent spirit against David if the Pharisees make long prayers and then devour Widows Houses If Israel hear the Prophet and admire the Sermon and run still after their covetousness if the people inquire of God and set up idols in their hearts if they cry The Temple the Temple and in the mean time swear and murther and commit adultery if Iudas kiss and then betray him if the Souldiers bow the knee and then crucify him if the eye look to Heaven and the Soul cleave to the Earth if the knee bow to the earth and the heart lift it self against Heaven if there be a tender body and a stubborn spirit if the tongue flatter God and the Conscience despise him if a man cherish a Schism within himself have the outside for God and the inside for lust I will not say as Achilles in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I will say as Christ in the Gospel Go learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Go learn and take heed of whom you learn If you have not an ille indicavit a direction from him you will still be to seek of your duty As we cannot see the Sun but by its own light so we cannot know God or his worship but by divine revelation Look how far he is pleased to stoop unto us so far we are also to mount unto him Moses was to do all things according to the pattern in the Mount Act. 7. 44. Heb. 8. 5. And the Apostles Commission in the Gospel is the same teaching them to observe all things what soever I commanded you Mat. 28. 20. It must first seem good to the Holy Ghost and then to them Act. 15. 29. They must declare nothing to the Church but what they have received They from us and we from them 1 Cor. 11. 20. 2 Tim. 2. 2. We must not serve ex arbitrio but ex imperio as Tertull. speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil The Scripture doth not comply with us but we must submit to that The ruler is not to be leaded to the stone but the stone to be squared by the ruler our straining and wrying of Gods word to our own humours is a sin which hath damnation attending it 2 Pet. 3. 16. and we find God finding great fault with such service obtruded upon him as hath not entred into his heart Ier. 7. 32. For as at the omission of what he commands we despise his will so in obtruding what he commands not we controll his Wisdome in the one we shew our selves careless to obey him in the other we shew ourselves presumptuous to counsel him We are the servants of it and the servant as the Philosopher saith hath no motion but from the guidance of the principal cause Namque coquus domini debet habere gulam The cook must dress his meat to his Masters palate not to his own That Spartan which added one string more to his instrument in the war than was publickly allowed him though he mended his musick yet he marred his obedience and he was punished for it And therefore in all our conversation especially religious and toward God it is most wisdome and safest to keep toward our standard and publick rule I have now done with the implicit reprehension of defective and invented service and proceed now to the great things of the Law in the text required judgment and mercy that to be done this to be loved The same water with is sour in the juice of a fig-tree is sweet in the fruit And as we have found that devotion in the outside and bark of religion is but sour and unpleasing so if you taste it now in the power and fruit of it you will find it exceeding sweet for the best sacrifice which any man can offer is a purelife as the Father speaks Many duties in scripture are of a narrow and contracted nature some only spiritual belonging to the soul others only corporal belonging to the body as the Apostle distinguisheth of some filthiness of the flesh and spirit but these which are very often twins in scripture have a