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	great_a	let_v	6,859	5	4.2631	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43128	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the lord mayor of London, and the Honourable the Court of Aldermen, and governours of the several hospitals of the city at St. Bridget's Church, on Easter-Tuesday, being one of the anniversary spittal-sermons / by William Hayley./	Hayley, William, 1657-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1215; ESTC R25422	17,723	38

in Heaven and these are to be attained by different degrees of Goodness on Earth and this Goodness be nothing else but the Imitation of the Divine Perfections then it may reasonably follow that though the copying God's Iustice Truth c. may entitle us to a Reward yet the copying of his Mercy will entitle us to the noblest part of it because this mercy is what God is pleased himself to give the first place to and which he exalts above all the rest of his Attributes 2. Because the Charitable Man gives the truest signs both of the Love of God and of his Neighbour which are the two great springs of all our Duties He shews he loves God because he will part with what men generally love best for his sake and that is his worldly possessions And he shews he loves his Neighbour because he cannot bear that he should be afflicted but brings him relief even without constraint Now it seems but fit and agreeable that he that best approves his love to God should have distinguishing marks of God's love to him and that he that best loves Mankind should have the first place in the Happiness of Man 3. Because the Charitable Man is one who most truly imitates our Saviour Iesus Christ all whose Life among men was but one continued act of Charity to them He went about doing good healing the Sick restoring sight to the blind ears to the deaf feet to the lame c. nay 't is very observable that those very miracles which he did for the Confirmation of his Doctrine which was directed to the good of the Souls of men were generally such things as brought relief to their Bodies Now if God has highly exalted the Man Christ Jesus and given him a name above every name and if our following our Saviour to Heaven depends upon our treading in his steps here the Charitable Man is prepared to be the nearest him in his Kingdom who most resembles him in his Conduct 4. Lastly Because the Charitable Man is most like to be stored with all other Virtues and Graces that adorn a Christian a generous contempt of this World an unshaken Faith in the Promises of God a relyance on his Providence trust in his Protection and obedience to his Authority so that the command of being merciful as our heavenly father is merciful very well Answers to the other be perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect And then if Charity do thus draw after it all the rest of those Ornaments which distinguish good Christians in a mortal state 't is no wonder if it appears in the front of them in an immortal one and that the Charitable men do shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Thus have I endeavour'd to represent to you as fully as my short time would permit the three moving Arguments to Charity and Compassion contained in my Text. And what now remains but earnestly to exhort all that hear me that they would duly and frequently reflect on these things that they may be convinced affected and persuaded by them If God does give us such encouragements as these he does expect that they should not be given in vain but that we should carefully attend to them and be regulated by them otherwise they will be but an Article to encrease our condemnation and the three Sermons that this place yearly furnishes will be a triple Testimony that will rise up in Iudgment against us if they do not soften our hearts and melt us into Compassion But God be thanked it may be truly said to the Honour of his great Name and to the Reputation of this great City that there is a plentiful spring of Charity flowing among us and abundance of good men are ready to give if they did but know how to give wisely and discreetly but shoals of vicious and idle Beggars fill our Streets and call louder for the Correction of the Magistrate than the Compassion of the people and even the Charitable are afraid and they have reason for it that they shall Encourage Vice while they relieve the importunate Now this Assembly furnishes such good men with unsuspected Objects for the most abundant Charity and with the most rational methods of dispensing it The fidelity and prudence of the Managers of the several Corporations here before you of which so much experience has been had give a sufficient security that what is bestowed here will be certainly laid out with the greatest discretion and to the greatest Advantage and the variety of poor Creatures under their several care gives us opportunity of gratifying the most different humours and inclinations Have we a Compassion for poor innocent Children and helpless Orphans would we preserve their Lives and make those Lives comfortable would we bring them up in the Fear of God and render them useful to the World here is a Place and Methods and Objects and nothing wanting but our Encouragement Do we pity the wounded the sick and the maimed and would we administer Balm to their Comfort here we may at present enliven their Hearts by the sight of our Bounty and in God's due time restore their Limbs or their Health by the application of it Have we an hospitable Care of the Stranger and of those whom Necessity or Misfortune hath remov'd from their Friends and Relations here we may act the part of Neighbours and Relations our selves relieve their Wants and conduct them home and may at the same time exercise though a harsher yet as necessary and wholesome a piece of Charity in contributing to the Correction and Confinement of the loose and vagrant whose Example would be contagious and their Impunity a snare to other Men. Are we truly sensible of the pityable Condition of those poor distracted Persons who have not sense enough to pity themselves our Charity may here give them I do not say Meat and Drink but by the Blessing of Heaven even Sense and sound Iudgment too and we may raise up from a kind of Death our lost Brethren to a rational Life who will be sure to sing the Praises of God and of their Benefactors too with their reviv'd Understandings Or have we in the last place a just Indignation at that Sloth and Beggary into which Naughtiness and want of Discipline leads our poor Families would we bring them to a sense of their Duty and a love of honest Industry would we prevent their being Vagabonds or Thieves or any thing that is worse and make them useful Members of the Publick here are the Instruments ready and they want but our Assistance to perfect so glorious an Undertaking And we have great reason not only to be exemplary in this sort of Charity but to be diligent in persuading others to it and earnest in our Prayers to God that he would propagate the Example of this City through the Nation and that he would open the Eyes of the whole Kingdom and move their Hearts to joyn both Hands and Purses to this Reformation of the Poor since it is the truest Compassion to their Souls and Bodies and I may say to the Publick it self which groans under the Evil of their disorderly Lives and will be never well reform'd without such a Remedy The very Circumstances of all these plead for them more than any Arguments of human Eloquence but not so much as the divine Rhetorick of the Text we owe them Love as they are Men and Pity as they are miserable but we owe them the most grateful and tender Returns as they are Members of our Saviour 'T is him we comfort 't is the blessed Iesus himself we relieve in these distressed Objects For so we must believe since he tells us himself Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren you have done it unto me And yet when all is done the greatest Comfort is to our own Souls and our Alms return into our own Bosom What we sow in corruption is raised in incorruption and while we give to the poor and miserable on Earth we do but purchase a glorious Inheritance in Heaven Let us therefore go on vigorously in this Duty and abound plenteously in this work of the Lord and persevere in it as knowing that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and if ever Coldness or Selfishness should obstruct our Progress let us but bring before our Eyes the Sentence in the Text he will hardly be backward who reads this Invitation Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World To which may God of his infinite Mercy bring us all Amen FINIS

underwent a painful and ignominious death for us upon the accursed Tree and should we not account then that he has bought us with a price and that our Life our Bodies and Souls are his And if he may justly call us to lay down even our lives for his sake shall we be backward when he calls but for a small portion of what we can well spare to his poor Family that wants it Should any Man have so wonderful a love for another as to lay down his own Head to save him from Execution and should the Relations or Children of that very person fall to poverty and want would not he that was sav'd by him from Death reckon all that he had due to their relief Now our Charity is dispensed not to the Relations or Family but the very Members of our Saviour nay to himself for he alone still lives after Death and is sensible of this return And let this be considered and I think the obligation cannot be further improv'd Let a Man but reflect that the merciful Iesus was Scourged and Pierc'd and Crucifi'd for him and let him but fancy that the hungry the blind and the Lame in one word all the miserable are the Members the body of this bleeding and expiring Saviour and then let him be hard-hearted and cruel if he can I have been the longer upon this Topick for our Charity the gratitude we owe to our Saviour because I think it is the most moving one to a generous disposition and Charity should always flow from a disposition that is generous and above the narrow designs of interest and self-love but because we cannot have too many tyes to so excellent a Virtue and so great an ornament of our Nature I must pass on to those which may work even upon them who have some tincture of the Mercenary and Ambitious For II. The second motive to Charity contained in the Text is an Argument of interest viz. The Reward it shall meet with in the Resurrection expressed in these words inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Now this is an expression that hints to us both the greatness and the continuance of that Happiness which the Charitable Man is encouraged to expect The World has nothing greater than a Kingdom at least nothing that men generally think greater or covet more and therefore since our conceptions of a future state must be framed by notions taken up in this there is no other way to describe it but by an allusion to those things which are here the object of our desires or enjoyments And for this Reason eternal Happiness is call'd a Kingdom a Crown a Throne and the like because men who are in possession of these are supposed how truly they best know who have them to be in possession of all that is desirable in this Life but since these are expressions suited to our conceptions the meaning of them must be that the Joys of Heaven shall equal not what these things are in reality for perhaps that would not be worth our wishes but what our imaginations fancy they are or that the ambitious cannot promise himself such charms in a Crown as the charitable Man shall find in Heaven But then that Heaven may not lose its value with those men who judge best that is those who see the vanity of all even the greatest things on Earth the Scripture often supplies the defect of such similitudes as these by plainer Language and assures us that eye has not seen nor ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the things that God has laid up for them that love him And we may add for them who love their Brethren too Such is the weight of the glory that shall one day be revealed in the Charitable Man and 't is not the least Article in it that it is a Glory which shall not be done away for 't is a Kingdom prepared from the Foundation of the World 'T is true these Words seem at first sight only to denote the Certainty of this Reward as that which the eternal purpose of God which cannot fail has prepared for good men but they very well imply the Eternity of that state and intimate that it is a part of that blessedness which God himself enjoys which was before the World and for that reason must be after it They are created things only that are mortal and what was from Eternity before this World was made must be to Eternity when it is dissolved So that these two Considerations seem to involve all that can possibly be desired in any state that it is perfect Happiness and that it will always be so and if this be the Reward of the Charitable Man then I think these three things are very plain 1. That what we give away in Charity is not lost it is not a waste made of the good things we enjoy as the selfish Man is apt to imagine who thinks that perished which is remov'd from himself 't is but lent and will be repaid in due time for he that pityeth the poor lendeth unto the Lord and look what he layeth out it shall be paid him again A little expectation will re-imburse us and we may throw our bread upon the waters and it will return to us after many days It will probably enough find us on this side the Grave but if not it will make a sure return beyond it The poor whom we relieve may never be in a capacity to recompense us but their surety always is and he will recompense us at the Resurrection of the just 2. What we bestow in Charity is better preserved for us than it can possibly be by any other method All the Matter of our Charity is subject to decay and is corruptible in it self 't is Charity only that can preserve it for ever The Bread we deal to the hungry and the Drink we reach to the thirsty would but mould and sour if we kept them by us The Garments wherewith we Cloath the naked would be eaten up by Moths and Rottenness if they were not employ'd And even our Silver and Gold is exposed to Rust and Rapine and at best can serve us no further than this present Life Now this is but an insignificant moment of the great duration of man which is to all Eternity And for this reason that Virtue must be of wonderful Advantage to us that can render these immortal and make them useful in another Life And yet this is certainly done by Charity and pity He therefore is the wise Man who does not lay up for himself treasure upon earth where rust and moth doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lays up for himself treasure in heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal And he is the best friend to himself who is a kind friend and Benefactor to others who makes

to himself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness who when it fails will receive him into everlasting habitations 3. What we bestow in Charity is more improv'd and brings us in greater advantage than all our policy and success can produce by any other means And this is the Argument that generally works upon an avaricious temper the Covetous Man does not love barely to have his Gold kept but to have it increase and multiply and will be willing to place it where he may be sure to receive his own again with usury Now the encrease here is too visible to want illustration We give a small Alms and receive a Kingdom a short repast and have a continual feast for it We Administer some of the comforts of this Life and are paid with the Ioys of a future or we keep our Brother a little longer alive on Earth and for it we live for ever with our Father which is in Heaven Charity then does but sow for a wonderful Crop and in due time it must reap above a thousand-fold if it faint not And what other way have we to bestow our wealth with such wisdom in such security and to such Advantage Would we lock it up and do no body good or spend it in Luxury and do our selves mischief by it Would we throw it away vainly and prodigally and be laught at or make it an Instrument of Oppression and be hated Would we render our Riches Baits to raise the Desires of the strong and provoke them to rob us or to move the Envy of the malicious and tempt them to destroy us Or which is yet worse would we lay up our Rest in them make them our dependance and place our Confidence in our Wealth and so affront Almighty God and call down his Vengeance to dissipate our Fortunes to plague our Bodies and to damn our Souls All other ways do but make what God design'd for our Comfort to be to us an occasion of falling And who would not then take Charity for his Director in distributing his Worldly Goods to please his God to oblige his Saviour to give his Brethren Support and himself Immortality III. We come now to consider our third and last Motive to Charity The Distinction and peculiar degrees of Glory which shall attend the Charitable Man in another Life This is indeed an Argument proper to work upon our Ambition and therefore may be thought to have no place here since we can hardly imagine that there is room for Ambition in Heaven The least Mansion in that blessed State will sufficiently fill all our Desires and even surpass our Hopes and to be a Door-keeper in the House of our God will be a more honourable and happy Employment than to govern in the Palaces of Princes But yet God represents to us in Scripture that there are degrees of Happiness in another Life and God never represents any thing in vain but expects it should have its influence upon us If he reveals to us that there are some Places in Heaven it self more desirable than others it is for this end that we may more desire them and be more enflamed in our Affections and more earnest in our Pursuit of them For there is the very same reason for our more zealous prosecution of a greater Good as there is for our prosecuting of Good at all So that when greater degrees of Glory are proposed to invite us to Charity 't is that we may particularly engage in this Work and promote it with more than ordinary Zeal 't is that we may endeavour to excel and be eminent in this Christian Duty here as we would excel and be eminent in the Triumphant Church of Christ hereafter We do not know wherein will consist the distinction between Saints in Heaven but whatever it is it will be something that is excellent and desirable and an Accession to our Happiness and we ought to believe it is worth striving for and 't is commendable and what God expects from us to aspire after it If it consist in greater Perfection in our selves a nobler exaltation of our Nature and improvement of our Faculties the common Principle of Self-love will carry us to desire it and besides all Perfection bringing us the nearer to God's Image the Love of God too which we shall have in Heaven in the greatest degree and should have here in some proportion should urge us to covet it as far as possible and to endeavour to be as like him as we can If it consist in being more esteemed by the Angels and blessed Spirits and more belov'd by the Saints many of whom the Charitable Man may have reliev'd in their militant State there is no good Man but would earnestly wish to approve himself to the Iudgment and unite himself to the Affections of such glorious Beings as far as possibly he could especially since they are to be his Company to all Eternity and the enjoyment of their Society is one great part of his Happiness Or if it consist in a greater share of the Love of God and our Saviour a nearer approach to them or a closer Insight into the glorious Excellencies of the Divine Nature we cannot desire too ardently to have all possible Advantages for so delightful and ravishing a Contemplation to come as near as we can to our God the Fountain of all Perfection to be as much as possible with him and as dear as possible to him Sure there is nothing more desireable than to follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth and to be the first Fruits unto God and to the Lamb. There can be no question of this that the greatest degrees of Glory in Heaven are to be endeavour'd after with the greatest degrees of Affection and Earnestness nor can it be doubted but that our temporal Goods are most wisely dispensed in such acts of Pity and Charity as may give us an expectation of this exceeding and eternal weight of Glory all the difficulty is to find out the reason of this Distinction and to know upon what grounds it is that the Charitable Man is entitled to this wonderful Advantage and that an Alms on Earth should find such acceptance in Heaven Now though we ought always to be entirely satisfy'd with the Justice and Reasonableness of God's Conduct and to conclude that it must be necessarily wise and good though we cannot see distinctly the reasons of it yet because Man does not love an arbitrary Dealing but is desirous to have his Understanding go along with his Will and because it may perhaps be some further Motive to quicken our Charity I shall point out two or three of those grounds which we may probably guess do give Occasion to this Procedure and those I shall but hint very briefly and so conclude 1. Because the Charitable Man most resembles God in that Attribute which he professes himself most to delight in viz. his Mercy and Compassion So that if there be different degrees of Happiness