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	holy_a	new_a	6,739	5	6.3993	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26800	A sermon preached upon the much lamented death of our late gracious sovereign Queen Mary to which is added The address of condolence to His Majesty by the dissenting ministers / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1695 (1695)	Wing B1118; ESTC R2534	14,062	32

change for a moment Absolute necessity of Existence invincibly infers the infinity of Existence For the limits of any Being are determined by the productive cause of it Of Created Beings some excel in one thing some in another according to the Will of the Maker Every change in the substance of things is either perfective or corruptive and both are equally impossible in God For nothing can accrue to Infinite Perfection and nothing can be wanting to it Any accession to his Excellency implyes there was a defect before if any impairing there would be a defect afterward From hence it follows either that he was not God before or that he shall cease to be God afterward it being absolutely impossible that any Perfection be wanting in the true God The absolute simplicity of the Divine Nature does infer the immutability of it 'T is true the Perfections of God are exprest by different titles and are apprehended by us under different conceptions yet they are all the same Infinite Nature There is no composition and mixture of Wisdom and Power and Goodness in God but he is all Perfection in the Unity of his Essence Eternity is a resultance from his independent Nature For we cannot conceive of a Being necessary in it self but it must be Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God Whatever is made is perishable either from the principles of its composition as the Bodies of Animals which being made of jarring Elements dye by Natural Expiration or may be destroyed The Angels tho' Spiritual Substances are mortal to God he can by a word annihilate them Nay their Immortality depends upon his Power the productive and conservative cause of their Beings He only has Immortality the inseparable Perfection of his Nature and bestows it upon others The Eternity of God is inseparably connexed with his Immutability For that Being that cannot change cannot cease to be These Attributes infer and illustrate one another Those things which Time bestows it takes away Flowers that are of a springing accomplishment gradually wither But the Sun shone with as much lustre and force the first day as ever since and continues in its perfection God was from Eternity and therefore is alwayes the same in himself He is not more Powerful when he Works nor Wise when he Governs nor more Just when he Punishes nor more Good when he bestows his Benefits The Immutability of the Divine Nature is proper to every Perfection I will mention some of them The Divine Wisdom is so perfect there can be no addition to it From Eternity it fixed the best end of all things the Glory of the Creator and appointed the fittest means to obtain it His all-discerning Eye with one imperious view comprehends all events necessary and contingent He sees all real effects and all possible in himself For he perfectly understands his own Power and his own Will To his Coeternal Knowledge nothing is past or to come Nothing occurs new or appears old The Divine Power is not capable of accession or diminution In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength 'T is a Perfection inseparably inherent in his Nature O Lord be exalted in thine own power The Lords arm is not shortened With the least strain of his Power he can do all things We have a constant visible demonstration of the unchangableness of these Attributes For the same Infinite Wisdom and Power are requisite to manage the World as to make it Without his directing Light and supportting Power that Frame of the World would disband and the full Harmony of it be turned into confusion He upholds all things by the word of his Power The manner of sustaining and governing this great World is as Divine as the thing it self For no less than Infinite Power can do things by a commanding Word The Mercy of God endures for ever This is renewed every Morning and Moment 'T is from his never-failing Compassions that we do not fail This is our continual Advocate to deprecate the Evils we deserve and obtains all good things for us 'T is Mercy supports and sweetens our Lives that are so frail and so often forfeited The unwasted Treasure of Mercy supplyes our Wants satisfies our Desires allayes our Sorrows The Divine Mercy vanquishes our Fears comforts us in the Hour of Death and crowns us after it with Everlasting Life The Holiness of God the brightest Ornament of his Essence is unchangable 'T is without spot or wrinkle that may stain its Absolute Purity This is the Radical Fundamental Rule of Order in the Divine Government 'T is as impossible the Will of God should decline from Moral Good as that his Understanding should not discern it From hence our Saviour declares That Heaven and Earth shall pass away before the Law shall be abolished If the Pillars of Heaven should fall and the Foundations of the Earth be overturned there would be no loss to God For by one Act of his Will he can Create a New World but if the Law the Copy of his Holiness were altered or abrogated it would be an Imputation upon his Holy Nature as if it were Arbitrary and Mutable and consequently he should cease to be God Briefly Divine Immutability is the full and constant State of Perfections in the Deity And the Blessedness of God that consists in the fruition of himself has a necessary connexion with this Attribute Immutability is the ground that supports it and the perfection that crowns it Secondly The Churches hope in its extremity is supported by the unchangable Perfections of his Nature that establish his Covenant with his People 'T is stiled An Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure This will be evident by considering the Immutability of his Counsels and Decrees and of his Words and Promises 1. His Counsels and Decrees that concern the recovery of the Church from its despised and desolate State The unchangable Perfections of his Nature are the Foundation of his unchangable Decrees For there can be no change of them from within and no controlling of them from without The Perfection of his Knowledge is such that he can never be surprized with a sudden new event that should induce him to alter them And his Power that is truly Infinite will effect them His Decrees are exprest to be the Council of his Will those Determinations being most compleat that are the product of Council There are no Temporary Decrees that begin upon an unforeseen emergency for it would then follow there were a Change in God But they were before the Foundation of the World and shall be accomplished in real Effects either immediately by his own Power or by secondary means The Counsel of the Lord shall stand The Decree of Election the Original Spring of all the good his People enjoy or expect is of infallible accomplishment 'T is the Observation of St. Austin that although the number of the Elect shall not be actually compleat till the end of

time yet the Apostle speaks of Eternal Predestination as if it were finally accomplish'd already Whom he predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified For his Eternal Will the product of his Eternal Love can never be frustrated 2. His Word endures for ever 'T is more stable than the Centre The strength of Israel cannot lye for he is not a man that he should repent The Immutability of his Nature gives Firmness to his Counsels they are unretractible and Fidelity to his Promises they are inviolable The Apostle confirms Believers in the hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lye promised His Truth is an Attribute so Glorious to him that in the solemn proclaiming of him to the Israelites 't is peculiarly mentioned and placed next to the Deity The Lord thy God is God the faithful God that keeps Covenant and Mercy 'T is so sacred and dear to him that he magnifies his Word above all his Name Therefore he revealed himself by the Name Jehovah to Moses which implyed he would be the same in performing as he was in promising and accordingly by the Miraculous Strokes of his Power delivered his People from the Bondage of Egypt This is the ground of the Psalmists Confidence Thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her the set time is come From the Immutability of the Essence of God he infers the constancy of his Promises which declared by his Prophets the fixed time of their restoration In short by the Covenant of God his Church is received into Communion with him and because he lives 't is impossible they should perish In this the force of our Saviours Argument consists against the Sadducees who denyed the Resurrection That Jehovah was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob therefore they should be raised to a Glorious Immortality The Application of the Point From hence we may understand the Reason of the supreme and solemn Adoration that all intelligent Creatures are obliged to pay to God 't is for the absolute and unchangeable Perfection of his Nature whereby he is infinitely superiour and separate from all created Beings There are different Degrees of Excellency in the Creatures but in comparison with God they all vanish and are equally nothing As if one should be raised to the Region of the Stars and cast a look down on the Earth the highest Mountains with the Vallies would appear an equal Plain God's incommunicable Name is I am he is alone from himself infinite and immortal and in propriety of Speech he only is all other Beings are derived and dependant on him and have but a Countenance and Shadow of Being Let us consider Men and Angels that in Nature are more excellent than other Creatures The first Man in the Perfection of Paradise was mutable his natural Life was in a continual Flux and to be preserv'd by the Fruits of the Garden If he had persevered in his Obedience after a short Immortality on Earth he had ascended to Heaven alive in his intire Person but he must have been changed in his Ascension for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven He had Strength to stand but was free to fall and that Freedom to Evil was a Branch of Imperfection There is a woful Proof of this in his rebellious Disobedience for which he lost more in a Day than his Progeny can recover to all Ages The Angels are superiour Spirits yet they were charged with Folly that is a Slipperiness and Mutability from which God alone is entirely exempt The Elect Angels who continued faithful when such mighty Numbers were false and deserted their Duty and fell from their original Purity and Glory are not absolutely unchangeable their Confirmation and Stability is from the continual Irradiations and Influences of Divine Grace that preserve their Minds from Error and their Wills from irregular Desires and consequently they cannot sin nor forfeit their Felicity for all Sin proceeds from Error in the Mind and Disorder in the Will In the Perfection of Glory the Angels are not without Change their Understandings and Wills are variously tinctur'd and colour'd by Diversity of Objects their Minds are illustrated with new Discoveries of the Divine Counsels in their gradual Accomplishment The Apostle tells us Unto Principalities and Powers is made known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God With the intellectual Change their Wills receive new Impressions of Joy At the Incarnation of our Saviour a Chorus of Angels sang with celestial Harmony Glory to God on high on Earth Peace good Will towards Men. At the Conversion of a Sinner there is new Joy among those blessed Spirits but the blessed God is always the same 'T is from the Consideration of God's Peerless Excellencies that the glorious Seraphims are for ever in a Posture of lowest Reverence before the Throne and magnify him by the transcendent Title that separates him from all Creatures of the highest Order Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Host the Earth is full of thy Glory The most proper Affection due to that infinitely excelling Object is Admiration mix'd with humble Fear 2. This should confirm our Trust in God at all times The Psalmist's Induction is from hence Thou art the same and thy Years have no End The Children of thy Servants shall continue and their Seed shall be establish'd before thee We will consider this Security of the Church in the present and the future State 1st While the Church is in this lower World the Sphere of Mutability The first Sin of Adam open'd a Passage to innumerable Evils that either oppress us or are impendent over us Man at his best Estate is altogether Vanity not only when languishing and wasting by Diseases when afflicted by Disasters but in his fairest Flower and best Vigour Nay the higher his Exaltation is in this World the more he is exposed to the Storms of Mutability How shall Man a Creature so impotent and apprehensive of Dangers compose the Disorder of his Passions How shall he support his Spirit in an unsafe and unquiet Condition The present World as 't is insufficient for our Satisfaction so it cannot afford us Protection it cannot fill the Immensity of our Desires nor extend to the Eternity of our Duration nor preserve us from Afflictions here The seeming Felicity hence is like a Feast in an empty Dream mere imaginary Food and vanishes in a little while What then can quiet our Fears under imminent Evils what can revive and support our Hopes in our Distress and Exigencies but the unchangeable God whose Love and Power and Truth are everlasting Therefore we are encouraged to trust in the Lord for ever because in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength He sits in Heaven his Throne is unshaken when things below are whirl'd about in