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	great_a	11,067	5	3.2684	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45553	A looking-glasse of hvmane frailty set before us in a sermon preached at the funerals of Mris. Anne Calquit, late wife of Mr. Nicholas Calquit, draper, who died on the 7. day of April 1659 and was interr'd the 19. of the said month, at the parish church of Alhallows the Less in Thames Street / by Nath. Hardy ...	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1654 (1654)	Wing H729; ESTC R333	18,668	40

so much the more bitter and not at all longer 2. Besides though God be the efficient yet we are the meritorious cause of the abbreviation of our dayes God at first made our dayes of such a bredth as could not be measured nor should our life have knowne death if we had not known sin It is very observable what Hezekiah saith to this purpose I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse acknowledging it to be his own act as well as Gods yea as the order imports therefore Gods because his Had not we our selves cut short our lives God would never have cut them short and therefore let us so acknowledge our deservings as to clear divine justice and submit to his dispose 2. Since God hath made our dayes as an hands bredth let us so account them No arithmetick in numbring nor Geometry in measuring our dayes better than that which God himself teacheth But alas it is an usuall practice to make our dayes far longer in our imaginations than they are in reality It was the injustice of that Steward to his Lord who when the debt was an hundred measures of wheat bid the debtor write fourscore and when an handred measures of Oyle to write down fifty but such is our injustice to our selves that when our dayes are not fifty we write down fourscore and whereas they are but an hands bredth we fancy them to be of a far larger size Indeed as the deceitfull hour-glasse having the sand up on both sides maketh a man thinke there is a good deal of the hour to run out whereas by reason of an hollownesse in the middle it sinketh presently so do our dayes by reason of strength and health promise us to be many and on a suddain by reason of some ill humour seizing on the vitals in the middle of the body they prove to be few It is a saying in the Civil Law Praesumitur quilibet vivere centum annos Every one is presumed to live an hundred years the rise whereof is that fond opinion in the mindes of most men whereby they flatter themselves with apprehensions of long life Oh let us remember it is the property of a good man according to the Greeke Fathers phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to esteem his life as a Pilgrimage of a short continuance And this especially for four ends 1. To hasten our repentance for our sins The measure of our dayes is the space of our repentance since it is narrow let this be speedy that cannot be long extended let not this be long deferred One of the dayes of thy life must be the day of repentance and if one whynot this day especially considering the measure for ought thou knowest may be at the utmost extent and this day may prove thy last It is true At what time soever a finner repents from the bottome of his heart God will do away his offence but then he must repent whilest he hath time At what time the winde serveth the Mariner he may saile to the Haven but then he must saile while the winde serveth which will not be alwayes nor long and therefore let us be so wise as to take time whilest it is afforded 2 To lessen our affections towards this world Whenas the measure of our dayes is contracted to an hands bredth why should the earthy desires of our hearts be so much enlarged Could we at our pleasure add day to day and year to year it were good policy to joyne house to house and field to field but to what purpose are many goods when with the rich fool in the Gospel we have perhaps but a few hours whilest thou livest thy dayes are but as the bredth of thy hand when thou diest thou shalt have no more ground than the length of thy body why so greedy in grasping large revenews and vast possessions 3. To lengthen our patience under the afflictions of this present life our dayes are of a narrow bredth a short length and afflictions can last no longer nor be extended broader than our dayes Why should not our patience be as large and long as our afflictions One Greek reading of this clause is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} dayes of strife and misery such were Davids at this time and many times are ours but the comfort is they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} only an hands bredth Man that is born of a woman sath Job is of few dayes and full of trouble True our dayes are full of trouble I but withall they are few the fewnesse of our days would be a trouble were it not that they are full of trouble and the fulnesse of their trouble might be a griefe were it not for their fewnesse Neither on the one hand should the pleasure of our dayes much elevate us nor on the other the sorrows of them perplex us when we consider that those though sweet are but short and these though sharp are but few very few no more than will make up as it were an hands bredth 4. To quicken us in the practice of good works They say of the Birds of Norway that they fly faster than others not because Nature hath given them more or swifter wings but because the dayes are shorter there than elsewhere they make the greater haste Oh that the consideration of the short measure of our days might accelerate us in our race to heaven so as with great speed and diligence we may learn to worke out our salvation It is said of the Devil he is come down to the Inhabitants of the earth having great wrath because he knoweth his time is but short how should we bestir our selves with great zeale in Gods service since we know our time is short Take in the whole life of man it is but as the bredth of four singers sure we had not need to lose any of them He that having but four acres to sow with corn all which is little enough to supply his family and should only sow one and let the rest overrun with weeds will he not deservedly be branded for a fool Oh why then are we so foolish to mis-spend the greatest part of our dayes in doing nothing or worse than nothing when as all our dayes are but four fingers bredth Nature or rather the God of nature hath not given us to use Seneca's expression so large a time of life as to trifle away any part of it yea he that spends it best will still have cause to say with David in the close of this Psalm O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen 2. You have heard the brevity of mans life exemplified in David by an absolute assertion under the metaphor of an hand bredth go we on to the comparative proposition mine age is nothing before thee The subject of this proposition is variously rendred By

and a serene Skie hung with black But yet let not Oh let not her near and dear friends shed too many tears over her Grave remembring the Tu posuisti in the Text who it is that hath made her dayes as an hands bredth even He in whose hands all our times are to prolong and cut short as he pleaseth Besides why should they weep above measure since they do not grieve as without hope of that which is most truly called her best estate her aeternall welfare Her Education was Religious and her Conversation vertuous she was well instructed in and affected to the best things The silver Picture of her comely body had in it the golden Apple of a well disposed soule the golden ring of her Soul had set into it the pretious Diamond of Vertue A spotlesse innocency humble modesty and calm meekness were her choice Ornaments She was an obedient Daughter a loving Sister an affectionate Spouse a true friend and I trust a good Christian In the time of her sicknesse she gave evidence of many graces a confident reliance upon her gracious God for deliverance from all her pains a penitent bewailing her careless expence of time with serious resolves if God should prolong her dayes of more exactness in her Christian course together with her patient submission to the good will of her heavenly Father When she beheld upon her hands the marks of her disease she said These are Gods Tokens and I willingly embrace them That saying of Solomon Favour is deceitfull and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised which was the subject of my discourse occasioned by her Nuptials was often in her thoughts so that she was not at all troubled with any anxious fears lest the disease should spoile her beauty and though the rod were smart upon her back nay I may say her face her whole body she resolved to kisse it Some few dayes before her death a drowsiness seized upon her which continued for the most part to her last houre when one Brother tooke as it were the other by the heele death following her sleep yea her death being but a sleep and the grave to which she is now going a bed wherein she shall repose her selfe till the morne of the Resurrection when she will I hope be married to the Lamb nor shall any Funerals succeed those joyfull Nuptials Weep not then for her who is not dead but sleepeth dry your eyes and with this holy man open not your mouths or if you do let it be in Ely's language It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight And now since the Text and occasion preach to us how vaine we are how short our lives are and to what changes we are subject what remaineth but that every one of us be exhorted to prepare for changes especially our last and so to order our steps that when these dayes on earth which are as an hands bredth are ended we may passe to an aeternity of dayes without either number or measure in the highest Heavens Amen FINIS Psal. 119. 78. 〈…〉 Vers. 9. Psal. 30. 7. Psal. 62. 11. Job 9. 25. 26. 1 Pet. 1. 17. Isay 38. 19. Job 7. 9. Isay 40. 6. Psal. 90. 4. Hieron. Psal. 91. 7. Acts 5. 9. 1 Cor. 10. 13. Josh. 23. 14. 1 Kings 2. 2. Marke 13. 14. Psal. 23. 4. 86. 2. Gen. 1. Partic. 1. Vulg. Lat. Job 7. 1. Hieron. Psal. 31. 15. Gen. 16. 6. Luke 12. 25. Isa. 38. 12. 〈◊〉 Naz. Job 14. 1. Rev. 12. 12. Prov. 23. 5. Isa. 40. 15. Vers. 17 Psal. 90. 4 5. Gen. 7. 5. a Sam. 5. 4. 2 Cor. 7. 31. Gen. 2. Psal. 144. 4. Job 11. 12. Psal. 62. 9. Vers. 6. Vers. 6. Sen. Trag. Job 6. 15. Psal. 62. 9. Gen. 1. 32. Prov. 22. 8 Prov. 31. 30 1 Sam. 3. 18