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	good_a	great_a	7,371	5	2.6096	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50250	An heart-melting exhortation together with a cordiall consolation presented in a letter from New-England to their dear countrymen of Lancashire : which may as well concern all others in these suffering times / by Richard Mather ... and William Tompson ...	Mather, Richard, 1596-1669.; Tompson, William, d. 1666.	1650 (1650)	Wing M1273; ESTC R3673	23,412	92

AN HEART-MELTING EXHORTATION TOGETHER with a Cordiall CONSOLATION Presented in a Letter from New-England to their dear Countreymen of Lancashire Which may as well concern all others in these suffering times By RICHARD MATHE● Teacher of the Church at Dorchester and WILLIAM TOMPSON Pastor of the Church at Brain●●y in New England HEBREWS ● 13 Exhort one another daily whilest 〈◊〉 is called to day 1 THESSALONIANS 5 14. Comfort the feeble-minded support the weak LONDON Printed by A. M. for I Rothwell at the Sun and Fountain in Pauls-Church yard near the little North door 1650. To all those that professe the name and true Religion of JESUS CHRIST in Lancashire specially to the Inhabitants of Toxteth near Liverpool of Newton Winwick Eccleston n●●r Croston of Much-Woolton and the places thereabouts Richard Mather and William Tompson wish mercy and grace truth and peace from God the Father through our Lord IESUS CHRIST Christian Countreymen and dear friends THat which the Apostle Paul professeth of himself concerning the nation of the Jews that his hearts desire and praier unto God for them was that they might be saved the same may we professe of our selves concerning you And because at thus many hundred and some thousand miles distance we cannot make known our true and great desire after you● salvation by word of mouth therefore we are willing to testifie the same by a few lines in writing humbly desiring that for that purpose a word or two of Christian exhortation in this way of a Letter may not be unwelcome to any of you but graciously blessed by the God of heaven unto you all to those good ends which we intend therein Indeed we could have wished had it been the will of God that as we were born amongst you and for some years have been Preachers of the everlasting Gospel in your coasts though the weakest for such a work and the most unworthy of thousands we do acknowledge so we might also have continued to live and to die together For your Christian communion as long as we could enjoy the same whether in publike assemblies or private families was very dear unto us and to this day in our conferences one with the other we do often revive the remembrance thereof with much comfort of heart And when the iniquity of the times was grown to such an height that amongst others far more eminent lights our selves also must be put under a bushell and might not be permitted in any publike employment to seek the salvation of your souls yet God knows and many amongst you we doubt not do remember how we could not leave your Congregations nor depart out of your coasts without much inward affection of heart and many tears because you were dear unto us And when that saying of the Apostle Act. 20.25 did come into our mindes as it came into our mindes very often you will scarcely beleeve how our hearts were affected at the remembrance thereof considering with how little variation those words of his unto those Ephesians might be applied to our condition and yours at that time when we did plainly perceive that most of you amongst whom we had gone preaching the Kingdom of God in all likelihood should see our faces no more which was unto us no small grief Neverthelesse though we thus speak concerning our hearty affection towards you which was and is as much as we pretend and very cordial in Christ Jesus yet we would not be so understood as if we were weary of our present place and portion For we do not remember that since our coming into this countrey and the one of us hath been here above the space of ten years and the other not much less then nine that of all this time we have had one repenting thought of this transmigration of ours True it is we were most unwilling you may be sure to turn our backs upon our dear native countrey and upon your selves in many respects But those things which the wisdome and will of God had determined before concerning our transportation into these Western parts of the world he hath thus fulfilled and blessed be his Name for the same For whatever others say or think of New-England we for our parts must both think and say as long as we have a day to live that great was the goodnesse of our God that ever he was pleased to bring us hither For considering what light of truth doth here plenteously and clearly shine forth what Churches are here gathered and planted with what liberty and purity the Ordinances of Christ Jesus are here administred by what Magistrates civill justice is here dispensed and the Common-wealth governed how holinesse and righteousnesse is countenanced and encouraged and all known impiety and iniquity prosecuted to condign punishment both in Church and Common-wealth in a word considering what means of grace and glory are here plentifully afforded and peaceably enjoied we must therefore needs say that if it be not our own fault however it go with others and however it hath been with us in times past we may now be happy and blessed in Christ Jesus both in this and in another world And indeed we cannot but stand amazed at the free grace of God and wonder with great admiration at that wise and gracious and holy dispensation of divine providence whereby it comes to passe that such unworthy ones as we be must be here in a land of peace to enjoy the many good blessings of God both for earth and heaven in quiet habitations when in the mean time it fares full ill God knows with the land of our Nativity and with many thousands therein far better then our selves whom the Lord hath left after all their other pressures under which they have formerly groaned now at last to see the most dolefull daies that they have ever seen in England because that formerly-flourishing Kingdom is now wofully at warre within it self and that sore plague of the devouring sword as sore an one as any of the four which are thus called by the holy Ghost Ezek. 14.21 hath already devoured much English flesh and drunk much English bloud many hundreds and thousands of all ranks and degrees both great and small since these warres begun having already lost their lives and ended their daiet in these grievous Nationall calamities and God knows how many more may shortly do the like because for ought we can hear the wrath of the Lord is not yet turned away but his hand is stretched out still In regard whereof we may take up the complaint of the Prophet and say Oh that our heads were water and our eyes were fountains of tears that we might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of our people For indeed we desire to bewail the sorrows distractions and distresses of that dear countrey where we were born and wish we had hearts to do it more compassionately and effectually then these dull and dry spirits of ours

worthy of him If you should be stripped of your estates and friends and afterwards of your lives also you know our dear Saviour laid down his life for you and therefore it is but equall if you give all that is dear unto you and even your very lives for him If you lose any thing for him and his cause you shall be no losers in the end but by that time all accounts are cast up you shall finde you have an hundred-fold for all your losses whatever they be or can be we mean as our Saviour doth even an hundred fold in this life and in the world to come life everlasting Should you forsake the truth for fear of affliction which God forbid you might then peradventure for a time preserve your estates and liberties and lives and yet that may be a question too but suppose the best you should neverthelesse have a very losing bargain of it in the end and should shew your selves to be penny-wise therein and pound-foolish For our Saviours words must stand and all flesh shall finde them most infallibly true that he that shall save his life shall lose it and he that shall lose his life for his sake and the Gospels shall save it Many of you have been professors of the truth for these many years it is fit therefore that by this time you should be grown up to some good measure of heavenly-mindednesse and living by faith even then when sense and reason and all creature-comforts shall fail Look not therefore on things that are seen but on things that are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal Learn now by faith to see him that is invisible and thereby to endure all that may befall you as Moses sometimes did by that means Buy the truth but sell it not Rather sell all that you have for the buying thereof for the merchandise thereof is better then silver and the gain thereof then fine gold The Doctrine of the Gospel and the grace of Christ therein is such a treasure and such a pearl that he deals like a wise man that shall purchase the same though with the losse or sale of all that he hath For Popery we trust you so far do see the vanity and loathsomenesse thereof that you will never decline nor turn aside thereto but take heed of Arminianism Familism and all other erroneous doctrines of which these daies are so fruitfull especially take heed of the leaven of the Anabaptists which if we be not mistaken is so dangerous and pernicious and yet withall so contagious and apt to spread in these daies that we scarce know any other of which Christians had so much need to take heed and to be advertised and exhorted so to do It is but too manifest that many of all sorts are now a daies hankering and leaning that way and it is therefore a testimony of our love and so we hope you will take it that we advise you to beware lest you also or any of you be plucked away with that or any other error and fall from your own stedfastness Love one another and cleave together in firmness of Christian and cordial affection The enemies of the truth are not so weak nor you so strong that there can be any need of your dissentions and divisions for the weakning of your selves or the strengthning of them Divide impera Divide them and make your selves Masters of them all is one of Machiavels principles and a most perillous one it is It will be your wisedom to take heed lest the Jesuites should practise the same design amongst you whether among your military Commanders or otherwise your safety and strength under God doth in great part consist in your unity and agreement among your selves Beleeve the truth when it is held forth unto you either in books and private discourse or specially in the publike Ministry receive it in the love of it that you may not be deluded with lies Content not yourselvs with literal knowledg in the brain head but chiefly look after spirituality and sincerity of heart and manifest and shew forth the same by the power of godlinesse in all your conversation What upon sober and serious consideration you shall finde your selves shall have most need of another day whether the day of death or the day of judgement or any other day of deep distresse of that if you be wise doe you chiefly make your choice now and what will be most uncomfortable then do you now abandon And to apply this generall the day is coming and not far off neither when the favour of God through Christ Jesus true interest to his speciall love as reconciled through the bloud of his son with the amiable and sweet light of his countenance will be of more worth to the soul and yield more satisfaction to the heart then all that this world can afford from the rising of the Sunne to the going down thereof Yea the day is coming when these things will all be miserable comforters and physitians of no value but those other will then be found to be of such absolute alsufficiency to the soul as that he shall be most happy for ever that hath them and of such necessity that he shall be most wretched and accursed that shall live and die without them Wherefore we beseech you consider wisely what now you have to doe and now with Mary make choice of the better part which will never be taken from you Choose the Lord God in Christ for your portion and the lot of your inheritance choose not any way of sin or errors or creatures for your God for they are no Gods but now make a choice and the Lord direct you so to doe that you may have the comfort of the same hereafter and for evermore We doe not think our selves to be the only Prophets nor that we only are able to give a word of counsel or comfort to our countreymen we trust we are so far conscious to our own weaknesse that such arrogant apprehensions are far from us Nor doe we doubt but Lancashire is blessed of God with many faithful and able Watchmen who are continually blowing the trumpet in your streets and imparting the message of the Lord amongst you much more suteably to your condition then we at so many miles distance can possibly do of whom we have no other thoughts but that the meanest of them might adde much unto either of us But because we dearly love our Countrey though we live not in it therefore we think it meet to seek the weal thereof in the best manner we are able and we hope we may be allowed so to doe We also consider that sometimes the God of heaven may give as great a blessing to weaker means as to those that are more excellent and eminent that so himself and not the means may have all the