Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	day_n	earth_n	father_n	6,059	5	4.4985	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23768	A sermon preached at Hampton-court on the 29th of May, 1662 being the anniversary of His Sacred Majesty's most happy return / by Richard Allestry ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1662 (1662)	Wing A1164; ESTC R22785	20,182	53

to fear that goodness But give me leave to say those that despise his goodness do not fear it and they whom it does not lead to repentance do despise it S. Paul saies Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance not knowing that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance And now ô Lord what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon and made repent Those whom it was directed to convince and came on purpose to to prove by their own onely argument they had of providential Miracles they were not in the right but that destruction and misery were in their waies yet these chuse rather to deny their own conclusions and resist God's goodness then to be convinc'd and repent for we have seen them as bold Martyrs to their Sin as ever any to Religion signalize their resolv'd impenitence with chearful suffering as if the fire they were condemn'd to were that triumphal Chariot in which the Prophet mounted up to heaven Others that did not go so farre in condemnation nor guilt as they and therefore think they have no reason to repent of that do they repent of what they did contribute to it Of those that lifted up their hands to swear and fight how many are there that have made them fall and smite their own thigh saying What have I done Do not all rather justifie as farre as they themselves proceeded and if all that were well why do not we repent of our Allegiance and Loyalty if all that were well what hath thy goodness done ô Lord that hath reverst it all And for the rest those that do not partake the plenties of thy goodness murmure and repine at it are discontent at having what they pray'd for what they would have dy'd for those that have been partakers of it have turn'd it into wantonness have made it furnish them for base unworthy practices Such as have not the generosity of vice have not a noble manly wickedness are poltron sins have made it raise a cry on the faithfullest party the best Cause and the purest Church in the World While we have debauch'd God's own best Attribute made his Goodness procure for our most wicked or self-ends and the face of things is so vicious in every order and degree and sexe that But the Confession is onely fit for Litanies and we have need to make the burthen of ours be Lord give us some afflictions again send out thy Indignation for we do fear thy goodness it hath almost undone us and truly where it does not better 't is the most fearful of God's Attributes or plagues for it does harden there S. Paul saies so in the fore-cited place and Origen does prove this very thing did Pharaoh's heart indulgence was his induration Now induration is the being put in Hell upon the Earth there is the same impenitence in both and Iudgement is pronounc'd already on the hardned and the life they lead is but the interval betwixt the Sentence and the Execution and all their Sun-shine of Prosperity is but kindled brimstone onely without the stench And then to make the treasures of God's bounty be treasures of wrath to us to make his kindness his long-suffering that is S. Peter sayes salvation condemne us his very goodness be hell to us But sure so great a goodness as this we have tasted cannot have such deadly issues and it was great indeed so perfectly miraculous in such strange and continued successes resisting our contrivances and our sins too overcoming all opposition of our vices and our own policies that do not comport with it and in despight of all still doing us good it was fatality of goodness Now sure that which is so victorious will not be worsted by us But oh have we not reason so much more to fear the goodness The greater and more undeserv'd it is the more suspicious it is as if it were the last blaze of the candle of the Lord when its light gasps its flash of shine before it do goe out the dying struggles and extreme efforts of goodness to see if at the last any thing can be wrought by it And if we did consider how some men menage the present goodness make use of this time of it and rake and catch we would believe they did fear the departure of it but yet 't is in our power to fixe it here If we repent God's gifts then are without repentance but one of us must change bring Piety and Vertue into countenance and fashion and God will dwell among us Nay S. Paul saies Goodness to thee if thou continue in his goodness If we our selves do not forsake it and renounce it not fear it so as to fly from it but with the fears of sinking men that catch and grasp lay fast dead hold upon it if as God promises he so put his fear in our hearts that we never depart from it fear that hath love in it and is as unitive as that then it shall ne're depart from us but we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and shall be taken thence to the eternal fulness of it This day shall be the birth-day of immortal life the entring on a Kingdome that cannot be moved A Crown thus beautify'd is a Crown of glory here and shall adde weight and splendour to the Crown hereafter A Church thus furnish'd is a Church triumphant in this World and such a Government is the Kingdome of heaven upon Earth and then we shall all reign with him who is the King of Kings and who wash'd us in his blood to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father to whom be glory and dominion for ever Amen FINIS Errata Pag. 9. line 8. after build place the semicolon after departure in the line following blot it out Pag. 16. line 18. for farre Uniformity reade for Uniformity Pag. 23. line 9. for David the King read David their King Psal. 44. 19. Luk. 22. 44. Ver. 42. Mat. 27. 46. Mat. 27. 45. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Exod. 29. 42 43. c Psal. 42. 4. d Psal. 74. 7. e Psal. 31. 20. f Jer. 17. 12. 14. 21. Psal. 74. Ver. 3. Ver. 7. Ver. 1. Psal. 42. 4. Arist. Pol. l. 7. Joseph l. con Appio 1 Kings 12. 16. Luk. 16. 26. Prov. 28. 2. a R. Simeon the son of Jochai said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and R. Simeon the son of Menasiah said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 33. 5. Exo. 32. 1 5. Judg. 3. 7. ver 12. Ch. 4. 1. Ch. 6. 1. Ch. 10. 6. Ch. 13. 1. a 1 Kings 16. 26. Ch. 21. 22. 22. 52 c. 1 Tim. 2. 2. Ver. 35. 1 Sam. 12. 25. Psal. 89. 49. Isa. 5. 16. 2 Chro. 34. 2. 2 King 14. 3. 2 Chro. 17. 3. Psal. 122. 3 5. Psal. 130. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 5. 9. 2 Sam. 5. 4. Inter 7 9 Sauli qui regnavit an 20. Vid. Sim Chron. Psal. 120. 5. Psal. 14. Rom. 3. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Kings 19. 11 12. Mat. 23. 27. Mat. 4. Prov. 7. 27. Prov. 5. 5. Phil. 2. 21. Isay 65. 1. Luk. 15 4 5. 2 King 2. 11. Jer. 31. 19. Rom. 2. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Rom. 11. 22. Jer. 32. 40. Apoc. 1. 5 6.

us and we hope hath prepared for him too the first daies of David having no Sheba in the Field nor Achitophel in the Councel nor an Abiathar in the Temple not in that Temple which himself hath rais'd God having made him instrument of that which he would not let David doe building his house and furnishing it with all its Offices and making it fit for God to meet us in when we do seek him also which was the other perquisite of our Condition There never was so much pretence of seeking God as in those late daies of his absence from us and it should seem indeed we knew not where to find him we took such several waies to seek him But if God did look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their waies and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and which is worse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him or that do cleave to him now The Schismatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God who tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not with them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminate divinest Worship in a creature or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several forein Princes and to others which they hoped would set up their Golden calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farre from God for the Lord was not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that saies in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David his King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all dislik'd the former it was upon reasons of burthen or of pride or Libertinisme so much Religion though counterfeit was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasy to him These are so farre from seeking God that God saies these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that 't is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being hypocrites by license and to give it an easie word by drollery in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such they are enough to exorcise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulchre our Saviour saies Now who would seek the living God among the dead the Lord of life sure is not to be found in graves Golgotha was a place to crucifie him in not worship him he takes not in the air of funeral Vaults for incense 't was a Demoniack that us'd to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in mazes never shall meet God these are the windings and the tracts of the old Serpent and they lead onely to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to find God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can overlook the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not goe to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up thither upon his own designs Nor is it possible to seek the Lord in the waies that lead to the strange Womans house for her house is the way to hell Solomon saies and he did know nay more her steps take hold on hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all merely to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that sought him that did retrive him to us or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with the glory of a day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to checquer or to fleck the countenance of day when strait a small handful of vapour rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strength bedasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaures and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then Warres and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that oyle that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God who is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return has also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd for this is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes these waies of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the mere footsteps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now