Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	call_v	earth_n	name_n	5,815	5	5.0732	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15575	Abels offering. Or The earely, and most accepted sacrifice of a Christian Shewing how soone every soule is bounde to begin, & betake himself, not only to the true, but also to the timely service of God. A sermon preached at Hamburg in November 1617. and now published at the instant entreaty of a godly Christian. By Iohn Wing (then) pastor to the English church, there.	Wing, John, of Flushing, Zealand.	1621 (1621)	STC 25842; ESTC S120118	48,552	80

a man to live by stealing all he eate's and to dye in eating all he steale's Let vs thinke on these motives which are the substance of those jnducements which the ceremoniall law did but shaddow We now proceede to presse a few other which may yet more move vs if we ponder them as we ought either in the benefit that come's by the obedience of this truth or the evill that issue 's from the neglect thereof I pray you note bath 1. First if we did give the Lord our first doe but thinke what a world of sin we might save which is committed and continued in by millions till we doe give our selves to God Did we throughly know the danger of one sin even the least we can be guilty of we would doe much to prevent it seing that everlasting pordition is due to it but here is a course that would spare a multitude nay all our trangressions for from the time we are the Lords he reckon's no sin to vs but account's vs righteous and accept's vs blamelesse in his beloved Now to avoyd sin with the dishonor it brings to God with the damnation it brings to vs yea to others too by our example who would not rēder the Lord his right most freely let him have his owne frō vs that Satā might never have us as his owne frō God Assuredly he that coulde ever conceive the Lords damage his owne disadvantage by sin what glory God wants what greife it is to his spirit what provocation it is to his patience how jniurious to his goodnes and favour how abusiue to his long suffering loving kindenes would never deny himself to the Lord from the first day he did vnderstand how he might acceptablely yeeld himself vnto him what a siranger should Satan be in vs what a familiar would God be to vs if we begin betimes with him 2. Consider that as we might save much sin soe this were also the only way to have much grace The more early any thing begins to be good the more goodnes is hoped from it the sooner any man sett's himself towards beaven the more heavenly must he needes be Oh what a most happy thing is it when grace begins to grow betimes in vs then is the Lord much honoured by vs then are men much bettered by vs then are we fitter for all duty then are we more safe from sin the cōtagion of sinners then are we more able to worke out our salvation and more sure to posesse the same A mans life is a heaven vpon earth when his graces are well growne in him his affection his conversation cannot but be in heaven such a man may be bolde with his God at all times and Satan can have no hope to prevaile against him whē it cometh soe to passe with a man in good as it did with him in evill in whome the divell had beene from a childe he was the more hardly cast out soe the more easily is he kept out and hardly nay never shall he possibly enter to posesse that person who of a childe and from the first hath beene gracious What have we in this worlde to doe or to busy our selves most about but to get that grace that may further vs to glory and what better way to get much then to fall to worke assoone as is possible 3. Consider that the Lord never gave any man a time of grace that would dare to set God a time to come for it The man that shal be soe jmpious and jmpudent as to prescribe and lymit the Lord at what time he will come never hath hart to come at all Is it not good reason that when we neglect yea and despise too so great salvation as is tendered nay commanded to vs in our tender yeares that he whome we have denyed in his time of grace should deny vs in our time of sin especially considering that he hath power to confine vs to the instant of his call but it is intollerable jmpiety in vs to bounde him to ours Shall God waite vpon the diuell and accept vs at that houre when our sin will let vs come we having cast of his day houre of mercy before How reade we in the scriptures for this what finde we nothing but thunder and lightening from heaven to peale these wicked wretches to perdition They that were bidaē were not worthy saith Christ And againe The dore was shut against them that were not prepared for the bridegrome at the instant of his comming and though at their owne time they came afterwarde with much jntreaty yet it could not be opened but they were banished thence and abandoned to hell Pre. 1.24.25.26 Zach. 7.13 And yet againe by the prophets Because I have called and you have refused therefore shall yee cry and not be heard So that you see God sett's noe time to him that setts God any nothing remayne's to such but disdayne from heaven damnation in hell 4. Consider that what extraordinary honour God ever intended to himself by any man or men whome he would make instruments of the same he meant to make all such persons gracious betime Doe but ponder it well in the first Adam in the second In the first all mankinde might have beene happy and God mightily honoured through all generations now to bring this about Adam shal be righteous from his first being and honour the Lord from the time of his creation In the second Adam all the elect shal be happy through him the glory of Gods infinite favour shall shyne vpon them to furnish him for this wonderfull worke he sanctifyed himself before he was borne and after in our infancy and soe throughout all ages of our life during the dayes he lived Indeede he attayned not our olde age I will not take vpon me peremptorily to determine why but it may be it was to shew that olde age doth not easily attayne him that soe these presumptuous olde fooles might be the more terrefyed and daunted from dareing to be so audacious as they have beene Did the Lord ever glorify himself in that man or glorify that man with himself that refusing to come when God called came when himself would name one instance if it be possible Noe he will sanctify all such as shal be glorious to him in earth or glorious with him in heaven I say he will sanctify all such in his purpose before time and in his practise in such time as wherin they shall come when he shall call be it more early as Ieremiah Iosiah John Baptist or more late as Abraham and such other as we have named before He gave them harts to attend his time not one of them ever dared to reject that and to cause the Lord to attend theirs These few inducements I hope shall draw and enforce vs to the Lord whose we are and whose all our dayes are and all our abilityes both of body and soule from him we have them in mercy if he have them not from vs againe in duty it had beene better for vs we had never beene borne Lay these holy considerations to hart offer not to presume vpon grace in thine owne time it is presumptuous sin to doe soe that man is extraordinarily gracelesse that dare's presume of grace in extraordinary time They that come to crave more then common kindnes of vs must be more then common freinds vnto vs litle reason hath God to be more then vsually good to them who have beene grossly evill to him as all they are who render him not his right in their first dayes If we would be the Lords for ever let vs ever resolve to be soe at the first Dearely beloved take these things into deliberatiō let them lodge in our harts rest and rooste in our myndes that soe the Lord our God may take vs into his favour and compassion Olde yonge middle-age all ages have this in good remembrance for it is a truth that make's vs happy if we hearken to it miserable if we doe not To the aged I say yet not I but the Lord looke backward see how much of your glasse is out and forward how litle remayneth to run and run apace to the living God to be received before all be gone and no hope be left thinke that voyce of God spoken to you 1. Pet. 4.2.3 It is sufficient that we have spent the time past after the lusts of the flesh c therevpon hasten towards heaven with all expedition it may be the Lord may take that litle time that is left and receiue you into everlasting habitations To the younge I say also Remember thy Creator thy redeemer too in the dayes of thy youth and jmagine that other voyce of heaven spokē to you for it is now time to a wake Ro. 13.11 c it is great reason that the flowre of your abilityes should be the Lords from whome you had them and to whome your account must be made for them In a word I say to you all and to every one of you Doe but thinke 1. how farre it is to heaven seing we must goe from sin to grace that we may goe thence to glory 2. how hard it is to finde the way because flesh blood cānot shew it then 3 how hard to enter goe on because the gate is so straight the enemy soe strong we soe weake wearied out with sin cōtinually clogging vs. And soe I end with that speech in Iob If thou wilt seeke vnto God early Job 8.3.6.7 and make thy supplication to the almighty if thou be pure and vpright surely he would now awake vnto thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnes prosperous and though thy begining be but small yet thy latter end should greatly encrease And that thus we may be and thus doe Let all sorts vncessantly seeke his face for ever Glory be to God on high

ABELS OFFERING OR THE EARELY and most ACCEPTED Sacrifice of a Christian Shewing how soone every soule is bounde to begin betake himself not only to the true but also to the timely service of God A SERMON Preached at Hamburg in November 1617 and now published at the instant entreaty of A Godly Christian. BY IOHN WING then Pastor to the English church there Hosea 10.20 It is now time to seeke the Lord till he rayne righteousnes vpon you AT FLVSHING Printed by Martin Abraham vander Nolck dwelling at the signe of the Printing 〈…〉 TO THE Right Honorable THE OPHILVS Lord Clinton EARLE of Lincolne And to the vertuous and Right Honorable the Lady BRIDGET his wife AND TO The Right Honorable WILLIAM Lord Say and Seale with the Vertuous and Right Honorable the Lady ELISABETH his wife IOHN WING A poore vnworthy Minister of Iesus Christ wisheth all increase of all true honour and happines with God and men RIght honorable Lords and Ladyes I hope it shall not be any way distastefull or vnpleasing to your honours that a stranger is bolde to salute you from beyonde the seas and to publish your names there where your persons may be as vnknowne to others as myne is to your selves I have not presumed on this double dedication without all reason for why it is famously knowne that you are the worthy examples of this subject wherof I here treat And I cannot but thinke that they are the fittest Patrones of divine bookes whome God hath made the faithfull Patternes of the doctrine contayned in them It is long since I have heard of your early and happy proceedings in piety Having now this opportunity I could not longer contayne in silence but resolved to place you in the beginning of this litle booke that they which reade seeing such gracious and noble presidents of the practise herein pressed might have the more powerfull jnducements to draw them to doe the same The Lord of heaven keepe you all in your most holy course bring you to the end of this happy race that every of you may after all honorable falicityes enjoyed on earth posesse those infinite and endles glories prepared for all that love his name in whome I rest FLVSHING the 30. of October 1621. Yours Honours in all service for the honour of God IOHN WING Pastor to the English church at Flushing in ZEELANT Pag. 18. lin 23. put in and gaue Pag 43. lin 33. put out he Pag. 49. lin 24. for albe read able ABELS OFFERING OR THE Earely and most acceptable sacrifice of a Christian Shewing how soone every soule is bounde to begin to betake himself not only to the true but also to the timely service of God Gen. 4.4 And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fatt therof THE three former chapters of this holy History being spent in the discovery of the worldes creation and of the most wonderfull and glorious workemanship of God as in every other creature soe especially in Man whose happy estate while he stood and miserable condition when he fell and most gracious recovery from his fall with divers other divine occurrents next and jmmediately following being at large related vnto vs. It now pleaseth the holy Ghost to goe further in this sacred narration and in the beginning of this fourth chapter to acquaint vs with the multiplication of man-kinde And here we have the story of the first two that were ever borne into the world to wit the two first sons of their and our first parents I dispute not whether they were twinnes the text seemeth to contradict it though some doe weakely conceit it neither doth it carry or conclude any materiall consequence whether they were or noe concerning whome we have a threefolde description 1. of their birth and naturall being ver 1.2 2. of their busines and civill being ver 2. 3. of their religion and spirituall condition ver 3.4 They were both borne into the world of their parents by them also were they both employed in the world and these two are only named or mentioned without any further discourse But the third thing to wit that which concerneth the matter of religion is that which the Lord doth intend to treat off and insist vpon In the world and affaires of the earth men may lawfully be of divers professions trades occupations and it is needfull they should be soe But in religion it cannot be thus piety cannot admitt a diversity the blessed worship of God will beare no variety at all it must be vniforme as that one God is who is worshipped And soe was this of these two bretheren so farre as the same appeared visiblely to men in the externall act of sacrificing which practise they had doubtles learned of their parents who were without question taught of God how to excercise this duty though the letter of the scripture be silent in both as it is in divers other excellent truthes which yet we stand bound to acknowledg by vertue of such evident and vndeniable consequence as doth clearely conclude the same without litterall testimony in any expresse tearmes to avouch it Now concerning the sacrifice of the sons of Adam Cain and Abell there is a double difference noted 1. of the sacrifices they offred 2. of the effect they found with God to whome they were offred That which is observable in their sacrifices is this that wheras Cain carelesly and without choise offred of the fruit of the grounde not regarding what he offred soe he brought some what contrary to the law of those offrings which required the first of all fruits It is reported of Abell commended in him that he was very regard-full and respective to sacrifice to his God of the first of his flock and among the first the best he could pick and chuse And according to the difference of these acts the effect was also different with the Lord who seemeth to suite and fit his justice to Cain that as he had no respect what offering he brought soe had God no respect to him or that he offered and his favour to Abell vnto whose person and sacrifice the Lord had gracious regard as he was most heedefull to present the choyse and cheife of all he had to the Lord. And in this particuler doth Moses the man of God and pen-man of this part of Gods word insist speaketh much of the things that issued herevpon both on Ahells part and Cains But here it may be some will move a question how Moses who was borne many hundred and some thousands of yeares after the creation could come to know these things and to set them downe in such exact order vnto vs. To moue this question is to make question of Gods truth and to bring into doubt all that he hath recorded in this whole booke of Genesis and all such other things as fell out before his birth and ripe yeares in Exodus for in his infancy we cannot conceive

Now they that have refused to come at his call in their younge yeares may feare whether they shal be called in their olde dayes and neglecting grace so long how can they hope to have it at such short warning as a litle before death or as the most of them say at the last gaspe and without these they cannot come If the word whensoever or at what time soever c. Were in the text I hope it must be vnderstood of Gods time not of ours it must be one of his whens not of ours we must not be chusers to tye him to our time noe he is our commander and may binde vs to his Note now all whensoevers or what times soever are not the times that he calleth to repentance for besides what we sayd before that they cannot hope of any time to be called who have refused the time wherin they were called we finde in the parable that after the eleaventh houre God sent not out to call any it being a time too late to begin too short to ende any busines of his shewing that our last houre is noe time for vs to goe to God or for God to regard vs. The same is the sence of the latter which Christ saith soe that God is bound to vs in kindnes when we have performed our part of obedience Doe your duty you shall finde mercy Note Doe not make such wylde and vnlimmited propositions vnderstand what God saith with all reverence wisdome and sobriety know that every word of his flowe's from infinite and vnsearcheable wisdome and therefore must be conceived warily as doctrine of piety not of liberty Beware of bynding God and looseing thy felf least for soe doing he bynde thee hand and feete and cast thee into vtter darknes doe not once dare to thinke that he that is only wise could ever be soe vnwise as to reveale or write any one word that might j mbase himself and give vs any occasion to abuse him as in thus disputing from these propositions we doe Nay we are bound and he is free it was his free grace to make any such promises of grace or glory to vs vpon any tearmes seing we brake with him and rebelled against him at the first he might have chosen whether ever he would have given vs one good word or noe now seing he hath let that be acknowledged as his love and let vs confesse our selves bound to every tittle of his truth that doth or may concerne vs and give our best obedience we can to the same with joy greiving allwayes that we can give no better Be it farre from vs thus to captivate the Lord soe much as in one thought it is abhominable it is for malefactors such as we are to be bounde not for him who is God almighty and to be blessed for ever And be it as farre from vs to free our selves but allwayes to confesse our subjection to the Lord with all humility yea to accomt it our best liberty to be bounde to him whose law is absolute liberty The service of Satan is the basest bondage that can be and to be by him witholden from God as we are till the last of our lives is absolute slavery and that whereby he meane's indeede what soever he pretend's to delude vs to pull vs into his owne chaynes to be bound vp with himself for ever for refusing to come vnder Gods yoake when he did call vs. Thus we see in these few steps how farre from heaven how neere to hell these men goe that make account to make but one leape from earth to heaven and that at last cast too if we should follow them further in such other most blasphemous and cursed consequences as would as well flow from this example as they aledge it as any of those we have noted refuted we might goe with them to hell gates and see them shut in to the rest of their fellowes who have lived and dyed in the abuse of this word and worke of God because their harts lives were shut against God they would not open to him when he knockt seasonably to their salvation but depended vpon the mercy shewed to this theife without any consideration of these other things that are thervnto appertayning noe the divell will not have them once dreame Either of the extraordinary occasiō of his conversion which was to expresse the power honor of Christs diety even now in the time of his greatest abasemēt Or of the extraordinary meanes of his conversion which was Christ himself Or of the extraordinary manner of his conversion which was in a small time on the gallowes or gibbett or crosse call it as you will Or of the extraordinary manifestation of his cōversion by the honour he gave to Christ the shame he tooke to himself before all Christes enemyes and his owne that effectuall prayer of faith whereto he had soe sweete an answer These things and the like shall not once enter into the jmaginations of these men they only remember he found mercy without any further thought of any of the aforesayd particulers that respected either what Christ did or why or what he did no Satan hyde's these matters from them least they should seing soe many words and deedes too went to this bargaine bethinke themselves better of it and not rest in such a slight conceit of the matter as they have done This president the divell make's his pretended pick-locke to open heaven to all these that he can thus delude but it proves intruth his pitfall by which millious of men tumble into hell in that last moment of time wherein all their life before they made full account to goe to heaven soe before they are a ware the bottomelesse pit hath swallowed them vp there they lye howling in endles easelesse misery who thought verily to have bene with this theife in glory Noe noe his conveyance was every way and in all respects extraordinary his passage is jmpossible for ought we know to any other especially for those who would goe the same way and yet regard not at all the way he went Thus we have waded through some few of those many things which are ordinarily alledged to hinder the happy successe of this sacred truth of God in mens harts and their happines by the obedience and practise of it We will now goe no further in this way the further we passe the fowler it will appeare and our hope is that such as are not gone too farre but are yet within call may be recalled by this voyce of God which hath tolde them the danger of every step they have gone as yet the damnation that they will run into if they still goe on returne not in due time to save themselves from the wrath to come which is reserved for all such as resist Gods revealed will and labour to defend their protraction of duty and their practise of jmpiety by such plea's and pretences