Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	eye_n	see_v	8,993	5	3.6630	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54719	The holy choice, or, Faith's triumph over all worldly pomp & glory a sermon preached in St. Maries in Scilly, Oct. 14, 1677 / by Nich. Phillips, twice chaplain to His Majesties garrison there ; and tendred at the council-table, Jan. 23, 1679.	Phillips, Nicholas.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2035A_VARIANT; ESTC R36675	17,484	30

and that there is Sca●… a man to be found in those bright Sun shine Days of the Gospel that is able to give such an evident Demonstration of his Faith as Moses did here under the Law In thusing tother c. Though we talk much in this Age of Faith of Faith and of our Dependance on Future good things yet t is on Sight on Sight and in the Enjoyment of the good things that are present that all 〈◊〉 Felicity is Plac'd and rather then we will suffer a light and Momentary Affliction here to be made partakets of an exceeding weight of Glory hereafter we will chuse rather on the Wing of a Short-liv'd Pleasure and Pro●● to be carried into the Infernal Pit of Everlasting Torments And though we boast much of the goodness of our fight and opened eyes yet that we are blind and cannot see a far of even beyond this present World we plainly manifest by our Loathness to part with our Earthly Goods and Possessions for the gaining of a Heavenly Crown and Kingdom So far are we from manifesting our Faith as did Moses by Choosing rather c. that we esteem no man to be a Child of God that is Afflicted and Persecuted We usually measure mens goodness now a days by their greatness their Saintship by their success and faithlesly think that God loves none but such as he suffers to flourish here in all Worldly wealth and felicity Surely did we believe the Holy Scriptures which for the main are nothing else but a History of the Churches Persecution but a Martyrology of the Saints Sufferings And had we hope as we profess to be Saved by a Poor Despised Mocked Scorned Scourged Crucified Saviour We would encertain a more Honourable Esteem of the Cross a Nobler Opinion of those whom he is pleased so far to Honour as to make them his fellow Sufferers and would not with those Barbarians Acts 27.4 Condemn all those for wicked Men on whose hands we see the Viper of danger to fasten Did we believe indeed that there is another World and were throughly perswaded that after the Dissolution of our Earthly Tabernacles there is a House not made with hands prepared for us in Heaven we would not by balking the Cross by complying with the Times humouring of Men and making our Religion a State one seek to prolong our Life and Liberty here on Earth but would be ready with St. Paul to run through Persecution of all sorts yea to die daily in expectation of that great Reward which is promised Matth. 5.10 to all that suffer for Righteousness save and would esteem the Reproaches and Scorns that are cast on us for Christs sake and his Gospel the greatest Honour that can be done us Did we make Gods Word our dayly study read and remember how it is written there That Gods People the Jews were after a long and hard Servitude in Egypt set at Liberty and brought into the Promised Land and how Pharaoh and his Jovial Courtiers that afflicted and kept them in Bondage were all either consumed by those heavy Plagues which God sout on their Nation or drown'd in the Red Sea we would wish rather with poor naked and pained Lazarus to be carried into Aaraham's Bosom than with rich dainty and delicate Dives to be cast into Hell-Fire yea would chuse with Moses rather c. Were we indeed true believing Christians we would not only rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God but would also with our brave Leaders the Blessed Apostles glory in our Tribulatious esteem our Sufferings for Christ's Cause to be the very Marks of the Lord Jesus as termed Gal. 6.17 our Persecutions for Righteousness sake the Earnest of the Heavenly Crown and Kingdom Matth. 5.10 our Chastisements for our Sins to be the very tokens of our Heavenly Fathers Love and Affection towards us Heb. 12.6 Though he be esteemed a happy man unto whom God gives Riches and Honour and gives him also power to eat thereof and Comfortably to Enjoy them yet he is indeed a happy man unto whom God gives Trouble and Afflictions and gives them withall Grace to make good use of them and to improve them to his Spiritual advantage And what ever men think of worldly felicity there is assuredly no Life so profitable as that which is a little sprinkled with the Salt of Crosses and though Egypt and the House of Bondage be no place for Gods Israel to dwell in and inhabit yet will the serving of an hard Apprenticeship here make them more highly to prize and esteem the promised Canaan I know not what cause others may have to hate and hurt their Task-masters and Oppressors but I find that I have great cause to love and pray for them yea in in some sort to prefer them before my Friends My Friends oft entice me out of the Heavenly Rode into the slippery path of Pleasure but mine Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers make me careful to keep the right way to Heaven and to take heed that I suffer not my feet to turn either to the right hand or the left from the Path of Gods Holy Commands for if I do I shall be sure to hear of it from them Though to flow in wordly wealth to be pointed at with the finger and to be croucht to by every one be an estate which flesh rebellious flesh would sometimes make me ambitious of yet when in my Mid-Night thoughts and secret retirements I seriously consider the deadly poison that lies in the honied Cup of Prosperitie and the wholsom healthful Potion that is contained in the aloed one of Adversity it makes me earnestly beseech God rather to give me a bitter Pill and to purge me with Hysop that I may clean than to give me a sugred Potion and to suffer me to roull in all wordly Felicity till with Jesurun I grow wanton and kick against him humbly to beg of him rather to restrain and keep me from future presumptions and sins by his gentle Chastisements and Corrections than to let me run headlong into all licentiousness by his seeming sweet but cruel Indulgence yea it makes me wish rather with poor naked and pained Lazarus to be carried into Abraham's Bosom than the rich dainty and delicate Dives to be cast into Hell-Torments and makes me to chuse rather with the faithful Moses to suffer affliction c. Credit me my Beloved Brethren the Love and Favour of God is infinitely better than the love and favour of the world and the Joys of Heaven are as far above those of Earth in worth as they are in height And all truly faithful Men such as have their eyes enlightned to see things afar off have esteemed it much better to be chastned of the Lord here and spared hereafter than spared here and reserved unto the day of Judgment to be punished hereafter halt and maimed to enter into Life than whole and sound to be cast into Hell To swim through a boiling River of Brimstone to be eternally happy than to dwell in a Paradise now and after death to be damned It was the Prayer of St. August Lord here cut massacre and burn me so thou wilt hereafter spare and save me And it was the Opinion of our late Glorious Kingly Martyr Ch. I. That our afflictions were infinitely better with Gods Grace to sanctifie and improve them than our prosperity with an unlimited appetite and the Reins let loose to all Licentiousness And it was the choice of the faithful Moses here rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season amongst the vicious Egyptians And thus to do like true Sons of Faith whenever occasion shall be offered us God give us his Grace and to him be all Glory now and for ever Amen HALLELVJAH FINIS

beyond the visible things which are Temporal a Heart in his Breast which had respect unto the future Recompence and great Reward that is laid up for all Faithful and Pious Souls in Heaven he abandons all his Earthly Titles and Honours and prefers the stile and Title of God Son before that of Pharaohs Daughter forsakes all the glittering Pomp and Vanity of the World the sinful Lusts and Pleasures of the Flesh And chuseth rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God c. I know if you look upon this act of Moses with a natural Eye you will be apt to censure him for a man besides himself and little better than Mad but though Moses seemed to be Mad in so doing yet he seems Mad as David did at Gate Regi Achis to none but Fools and Mad-men Surely they who have the Eyes of their understanding enlightned to see but a glimpse of that exceeding weight of Glory which God hath prepared in Heaven for those that suffer patiently and with an humble submission to his good pleasure and providence a light and momentary affliction here on Earth and to behold that Kingly estate and dignity unto which Christ will exalt all these in Heaven that suffer with him and for his sake here on Earth will not for so doing condemn him for a Madman and a Fool but highly applaud him for a Wiseman and a Faithful For by so doing he plainly manifested that he looked not on the the Temporal things which are visible but on the Eternal ones which are invisible And it was saith our Apostle through Faith that Moses when he came to age c. Choosing rather c. But did not Moses in this his voluntary choosing of affliction and running himself Headlong into danger tempt God and Sin Is not Man a weak frail Creature unable of himself to withstand the least temptation or to stand under the lightest Load of Affliction And hath not our great General 〈◊〉 Jesus not only taught us by his own Example John 8. ult to Shun and Avoid danger But also enjoyned us by his Precept to Pray that we be kept from Temptation and to be delivered from Evil Though to run Headlong into danger and wilfully to draw trouble upon himself be not the part of a Wise and Prudent Man yet bravely to own and bear Affliction when it is laid upon him is the part of a True Christian man and good Souldier of Jesus Christ Basely to deny his Master when the owning of him was the way to bring him into trouble was not the Wisdom and Piety but the Folly and Sin of St. Peter and that which cost him a Flood of Tears to Lament and it was by their hold owning of Christ when Persecutors Thirsted as greedily after the Blood of Saints as ever did hungry Evening Wolves after Lambs Blood that won the Noble Army such Honour and Renown When Gods People are in Bondage his Church under Persecution it is not then put to our Choice whether we will suffer with them but whether we will be of them For if we be of them we cannot chuse but suffer with them It being with the Member of Christs Mystical Body the Church as with the Mmbers of a Natural Body If one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it That Member of the Natural Body is Dead and Putrified which is not sensible of the Blows and Thrusts which are given to the rest of the Members and that Member of Christs Mystical Body is like the Church of Sardis hath a name that it liveth but is indeed Dead which is not moved to Compassion and Passion at the Sorrows and Sufferings of his Brethren It is for a Profane and Unnatural Edomite to stand Laughing at the Calamity and to help to set forward the Sufferings of his Brethren A true Israelite always Sympathizeth in Suffering with his Brethren is forry for the Affliction of Joseph and Weeps with them that Weep Moses therefore in chusing Affliction with the People and Church of God when Afflicted and under Perfecution did not Tempt God but plainly manifested himself to be a True Son of God and a Faithful Member of his Church In time of Peace when the Sunshine of Prosperity Graceth the Church when Piety grows into Fashion and is in great Esteem in the World every one will be a Professer of it but when it grows out of Fashion is esteemed the great Crime of the World the Sect that is every where spoken against then then to be a Professer and Practiser of it is to manifest a man to be Pious indeed and the True and Faithful Servant of God But why is Moses here said by the Apostle to have chosen Affliction Since it is plain in the History Exod. 2. That he did not Voluntary quit but was forced through fear to forsake Pharoahs Court Though his leaving of Pharoahs Court seem indeed to have something of Compulsion in it yet his going to Visit his Brethren and his looking with a Pitiful and Compassionate Eye on their Afflictions and Sufferings was a free and Voluntary act and no other thing Constrained him unto it but the Motion and Inspiration of Gods Holy Spirit for it came into his heart said St. Stephen Acts 7.23 to go and Visit his Brethren Had Moses been Egyptianized he would when he came and found the Hebrew and the Egyptian a Fighting have sided with the Egyptian and not with the Hebrew It being as it were Natural to all Renegadoes and Apostates to be most cruel towards those of their former Sect and Profession Mos●● therefore in Smiting the Egyptian and Rescuing the Hebrew gave a most Evident Testimony of his Affection towards his Natural Brethren And in that particular deliverance he gave them a sign that he was come to give them a general Gaol deliverance from Egypt's Bondage and supposed saith St. Stephen Acts 7.25 That his Brethren would have understood by that particular Deliverance That God by his hand would give them a general Goal Deliverance And surely had the Israelites been as willing at that time to receive him for their Prince and Saviour as he was forward to offer himself and had they not scornfully thrust him off with a Who made the a Judge and Ruler over us He would have made it most Evident That he was not Constrayned and Enforced but Voluntarily and of his own free Will did chuse rather to suffer Affliction c. You have seen Brethren how Moses manifested his Faith even by preferring the future and Eternal Joys of Heaven before the present Transient Honours Pleasures Contentments of an Earthly Crown I dare not now oppose him unto you as a Pattern to follow and Imitate I know your high flown and Gospel Faith will scorn to stoop to this Low and Legal President But sure notwithstanding the great boasting that is now adays made of Faith my Faith tells me that the most Faithful man amongst us comes far short of Moses