Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A35343
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A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, March 31, 1647 by R. Cudworth ...
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Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing C7469; ESTC R22606
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36,595
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94
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fast in fetters and Irons To please our selves with a Notion of Gospel-liberty whilest we have not a Gospel-principle of Holinesse within us to free us from the power of sinne it is nothing else but to gild over our Bonds and Fetters and to phancy our selves to be in a Golden Cage There is a Straitnesse Slavery and Narrownesse in all Sinne Sinne crowds and crumples up our souls which if they were freely spread abroad would be as wide and as large as the whole Universe No man is truly free but he that hath his will enlarged to the extent of Gods own will by loving whatsoever God loves and nothing else Such a one doth not fondly hug this and that particular created good thing and envassal himself unto it but he loveth every thing that is lovely beginning at God and descending down to all his Creatures according to the severall degrees of perfection in them He injoyes a boundlesse Liberty and a boundlesse Sweetnesse according to his boundlesse Love He inclaspeth the whole World within his out-stretched arms his Soul is as wide as the whole Universe as big as yesterday to day and forever Whosoever is once acquainted with this Disposition of Spirit he never desires any thing else and he loves the Life of God in himself dearer then his own Life To conclude this therefore If we love Christ and keep his commandments his commandments will not be grievous to us His yoke will be easie and his burden light it will not put us into a State of Bondage but of perfect Liberty For it is most true of Evangelicall Obedience what the wise man speaketh of Wisdome Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace She is a tree of Life to those that lay hold upon her and happy are all they that retain her I will now shut up all with one or two Considerations to perswade you further to the keeping of Christs Commandments First from the desire which we all have of Knowledge If we would indeed know Divine Truths the onely way to come to this is by keeping of Christs Commandments The Grossenesse of our apprehensions in Spirituall things and our many mistakes that we have about them proceed from nothing but those dull and foggy Stemes which rise up from our foul hearts and becloud our Understandings If we did but heartily comply with Christs commandments and purge our hearts from all grosse and sensuall affections we should not then look about for Truth wholly without our selves and enslave our selves to the Dictates of this and that Teacher and hang upon the Lips of men but we should find the Great Eternall God inwardly teaching our souls and continually instructing us more and more in the mysteries of his will and out of our bellies should flow rivers of living waters Nothing puts a stop and hinderance to the passage of Truth in the World but the Carnality of our hearts the Corruption of our lives 'T is not wrangling Disputes and Syllogisticall Reasonings that are the mighty Pillars that underprop Truth in the World if we would but underset it with the Holinesse of our Hearts and Lives it should never fail Truth is a prevailing and conquering thing and would quickly overcome the World did not the Earthinesse of our Dispositions and the Darknesse of our false heares hinder it Our Saviour Christ bids the Blind man wash off the Clay that was upon his eyes in the Pool of Siloam and then he should see clearly intimating this to us that it is the Earthinesse of mens Affections that darkens the Eye of their understandings in Spirituall things Truth is alwayes ready and near at hand if our eyes were not closed up with Mud that we could but open them to look upon it Truth alwayes waits upon our souls and offers it self freely to us as the Sun offers its beams to every Eye that will but open and let them shine in upon it If we could but purge our Hearts from that filth and defilement which hangeth about them there would be no doubt at all of Truths prevailing in the World For Truth is great and stronger then all things all the Earth calleth upon Truth and the heaven blesseth it all works shake and tremble at it The Truth endureth and is alwayes strong it liveth and conquereth for evermore She is the Strength Kingdome Power and Majestie of all ages Blessed be the God of Truth Last of all if we desire a true Reformation as we seem to do Let us begin here in reforming our hearts and lives in keeping of Christs Commandments All outward Formes and Models of Reformation though they be never so good in their kind yet they are of little worth to us without this inward Reformation of the heart Tinne or Lead or any other baser Metal if it be cast into never so good a Mold and made up into never so elegant a Figure yet it is but Tin or Lead still it is the same Metal that it was before And if we be Molded into never so good a Form of outward Government unlesse we new mold our Hearts within too we are but a little better then we were before If adulterate Silver that hath much Allay or Drosse in it have never so current a Stamp put upon it yet it will not passe notwithstanding when the Touch-stone trieth it We must be reformed within with a Spirit of Fire and a Spirit of Burning to purge us from the Drosse and Corruption of our hearts and refine us as Gold and Silver and then we shall be reformed truly and not before When this once comes to passe then shall Christ be set upon his Throne indeed then the Glory of the Lord shall overflow the Land then we shall be a People acceptable unto him and as Mount Sion which he dearly loved Finis Die Mercurii ultimo Martii 1647. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sr Henry Mildmay do from this House give thanks unto Mr Cudworth for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached on this day at Margarets Westminster before the House of Commons it being a day of Publick Humiliation and that he do desire him to print his Sermon Wherein be is to have the like Priviledge in printing thereof as others in like kind usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com.
us are like those Children whose Stomacks are so vitiated by some disease that they think Ashes Coal Mudwall or any such trash to be more pleasant then the most wholesome food such sickly and distempered Appetites have we about these spirituall things that hanker after I know not what vain shews of happinesse whilst in the mean time we neglect that which is the onely true food of our souls that is able solidly to nourish them up to everlasting life Grace is Holinesse Militant Holinesse encumbred with many enemies and difficulties which it still fights against and manfully quits it self of and Glory is nothing else but Holinesse Triumphant Holinesse with a Palme of Victorie in her hand and a Crown upon her head Deus ipse cum omni suâa bonitate quatenus extra me est non facit me beatum sed quatenus in me est God himself cannot make me happy if he be onely without me and unlesse he give in a participation of himself and his own likenesse into my soul Happinesse is nothing but the releasing and unfettering of our souls from all these narrow sâ—ant and particular good things and the espousing of them to the Highest and most Universall Good which is not this or that particular good but goodnesse it self and this is the same thing that we call Holinesse Which because we our selves are so little acquainted with being for the most part ever courting a mere Shadow of it therefore we have such low abject and beggerly conceits thereof whereas it is in it self the most noble heroicall and generous thing in the World For I mean by Holinesse nothing else but God stamped printed upon the Soul And we may please our selves with what conceits we will but so long as we are void of this we do but dream of heaven and I know not what fond Paradise we do but blow up and down an airy Bubble of our own Phancies which riseth out of the froth of our vain hearts we do but court a painted Heaven and woo happinesse in a Picture whilst in the mean time a true and reall Hell will suck in our souls into it and soon make us sensible of a solid woe and substantiall misery Divine wisdome hath so ordered the frame of the whole Universe as that every thing should have a certain proper Place that should be a Receptacle for it Hell is the Sinke of all sinne and wickednesse The strong Magick of Nature pulls and draws every thing continually to that place which is suitable to it and to which it doth belong so all these heavy bodies presse downwards towards the Centre of our earth being drawn in by it In like manner Hell wheresoever it is will by strong Sympathy pull in all sinne and Magnetically draw it to it self as true Holinesse is alwayes breathing upwards and fluttering towards Heaven striving to embosome it self with God and it will at last undoubtedly be conjoyned with him no dismall shades of darknesse can possibly stop it in its course or beat it back {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nay we do but deceive our selves with names Hell is nothing but the Orbe of Sinne and Wickednesse or else that Hemisphear of Darknesse in which all Evil moves and Heaven is the opposite Hemisphear of Light or else if you please the Bright Orbe of Truth Holinesse and Goodnesse and we do actually in this life instate our selves in the possession of one or other of them Take Sinne and Disobedience out of Hell and it will presently clear up into Light Tranquillity Serenity and shine out into a Heaven Every true Saint carrieth his Heaven about with him in his own heart and Hell that is without him can have no power over him He might safely wade through Hell it self and like the Three children passe through the midst of that fiery Furnace and yet not at all be scorched with the flames of it he might walk through the Valley of the shadow of death and yet fear no evil Sinne is the onely thing in the World that is contrary to God God is Light and that is Darknesse God is Beauty and that is Uglinesse and Deformity All sinne is direct Rebellion against God and with what Notions soever we may sugar it and sweeten it yet God can never smile upon it he will never make a truce with it God declares open warre against sinne and bids defiance to it for it is a professed enemy to Gods own Life and Being God which is infinite Goodnesse cannot but hate sinne which is purely Evil And though sinne be in it self but a poore impotent and crazy thing nothing but Straitnesse Poverty and Non-entity so that of it self it is the most wretched and miserable thing in the world and needeth no further punishment besides it self yet Divine Vengeance beats it off still further and further from God and wheresoever it is will be sure to scourge it and lash it continually God and Sinne can never agree together That I may therefore come yet nearer to our selves This is the Message that I have now to declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no darknesse at all if we say that we have Fellowship with him and walke in Darknesse we lie and do not the truth Christ and the Gospel are light and there is no darknesse at all in them if you say that you know Christ and his Gospel yet keep not Christs Commandments but dearly hug your private darling corruptions you are liars and the truth is not in you you have no acquaintance with the God of Light nor the Gospel of Light If any of you say that you know Christ and have an interest in him and yet as I fear too many do still nourish Ambition Pride Vainglory within your brests harbour Malice Revengfulnesse cruell Hatred to your neighbours in your hearts eagerly scramble after this worldly Pelfe and make the strength of your parts and endeavours serve that blind Mammon the God of this World If you wallow and tumble in the filthy puddle of flleshly Pleasures or if you aime onely at your selves in your lives and make your Self the Compasse by which you sail and the Starre by which you steer your Course looking at nothing higher and more noble then your selves deceive not your selves you have neither seen Christ nor known him you are deeply incorporated if I may so speak with the Spirit of this World and have no true Sympathy with God and Christ no fellowship at all with them And I beseech you let us consider Be there not many of us that pretend much to Christ that are plainly in our lives as Proud Ambitious Vainglorious as any others Be there not many of us that are as much under the power of unruly Passions as Cruell Revengefull Malicious Censorious as others that have our minds as deeply engaged in the World as much envassalled to Riches Gain Profit those great admired Deities of the