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	power_n	see_v	8,567	5	3.5162	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33220	Seventeen sermons preach'd upon several occasions never before printed / by William Clagett ... with The summ of a conference on February 21, 1686, between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden, about the point of transubstantiation.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1689 (1689)	Wing C4396; ESTC R7092	211,165	600

Divine Worship whatsoever any Honour due to God only giving that I say to any other Being how excellent soever although they that do so do believe and worship the Supreme God the Maker of Heaven and Earth all the while For by Idolatry they could understand nothing but what went for Idolatry under the Law seeing the Notion of it was not in the least altered but it continued just the same that it was before as these very words do witness Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve But as I entered upon this Argument by distinguishing between Atheism and Idolatry so I shall now close it by comparing them together Idolatry is indeed a very heinous sin because it gives away the Glory of God to another but Atheism is a worse because that is a renouncing of the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Creator of the World they who do not serve the Lord only are guilty of great impiety but they who do not serve and worship him at all are guilty of a greater impiety To worship God and to worship Angels to pray to God and to pray to Saints to adore Jesus Christ and to adore the Virgin is in part to forsake God and our Saviour but neither to worship or pray to Saints and Angels no nor to God himself this is utterly to forsake him and to live without God in the World Which I do not say to extenuate the Crime of Idolatry but to give every thing its due and to leave this impression upon our mind that by how much more we inveigh against the Idolatry of others because it is no less than giving some of God's Glory to his Creature by so much the more we oblige our selves to be constant and devout and in very good earnest in the Worship of the only true God least by degrees we fall into a Spirit of Irreligion and Atheism and be wholly estranged from God which is a worse case than Solomon's was who falling into the Idolatry of his Neighbours fell under this Character That his heart was not perfect with the Lord and he went not fully after him To conclude since through the Grace of God it is our Happiness to worship the Lord our God and to serve him only let us have a care that we go on to worship God only and to be sure let us remember that we worship him that we be not slothful in Religion but earnest and fervent least we forsake God by a Spirit of Irreligion which is every whit as damnable as Idolatry Let it appear by our whole Conversation that we do indeed worship the God that made Heaven and Earth who only hath power to bless us to protect and keep us in this Life and to reward us with the enjoyment of himself forever The Sixth Sermon GEN. XXII 12. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me IN these words we may observe two things I. God's Testimony concerning Abraham Now I know that thou fearest God. II. The Fact upon which this Testimony of God concerning him was grounded which was his offering his Son Isaac to God Because thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me 1. The Testimony of God concerning him I know that thou fearest God this I say was God's Testimony concerning him For whereas it is said That the Angel of the Lord called to him out of Heaven it seems plain that the Angel of the Lord was no other than the Angel of the Covenant the Son of God himself who did sometimes appear to the Patriarchs for the words are Seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me i. e. from God it was God that spake to him and who said Now I know that thou fearest God. The matter God testified of him was That he feared God that is that he believed in God that he was fully perswaded of his Infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness and all his Infinite Perfections and that he was affected sutably thereunto This is the meaning of the Fear of God in the Scripture which is a phrase used to comprehend all pious Affections towards him and is therefore of the same latitude with Faith the Praise whereof is ascribed to Abraham by the Author to the Hehrews The only thing to be added is this That we must remember that to fear God is to fear him as God that is before and above all other things and consequently to love him and to trust in him and to rely upon him incomparably and infinitely more than upon all the World besides inasmuch as the perfections of all others are finite God only is infinite in all perfections Now this was that which God testified of Abraham in saying of him that he feared God and in the understanding of this there is no difficulty at all But it may seem strange that God should give this testimony of him in that manner wherein we find he did Now know I that thou fearest God Now i. e. now thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me For did not God know the integrity of Abraham's heart before Is not God the searcher of hearts and doth he need our outward actions that he may judge of our tempers and intentions by them It is true we have no other way to come to the understanding of one anothers thoughts but by our words and deeds But hath God no other way Yes without all doubt he that knoweth our thoughts afar off even before they are born within us cannot be ignorant of them when they are But why then doth he say Now I know that thou fearest God I answer that this is one of those sayings of God by which he is pleas'd to condescend to the manner of our speaking and conversing with one another For we with great propriety use such expressions as these upon such extraordinary occasions If from my Friend that hath always professed great kindness to me I receive some notable benefit in my distress not without hazard to himself it is very proper for me to say Now I know that he loves me Now I know he is indeed a faithful and sincere Friend though I had great reason to make no doubt of it before yet this is so great a confirmation and strengthening of my belief that in comparison thereto I might be said to know little or nothing of it before In allusion to such expressions it is that God useth these words Now I know that thou fearest God Not in intimation of his having now gained greater assurance of Abraham's integrity than he had before Abraham had been for a long time the Servant of God and had made an open profession of worshipping and obeying him and God saw all along that he was an upright man and this no less before he was bidden to offer his Son Isaac than after he had stretched forth his hand to slay him upon the

are inferior to none and as to their degree when Enoch lived they were at the height and as I have shown already he had bad Examples enough and probably but very few that were good So that Piety lay under great disadvantage in the common Opinion and likely enough it was a matter of some reproach to observe Rules for that Generation of Men was now began of whom we find in the next Chapter that God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually They set themselves at no time to do any good all their Business was to follow their brutish Appetites from one day to another without restraint the World was hastning apace to that Condition when Enoch lived and yet he lived so piously set so good an Example as if he had never seen any but good ones himself and whilst almost all Men were busy to fill themselves with the excess of sensual Pleasures his only business in comparison was to please God he looked up every day to his Maker out of whose hands so lately came that beautiful Fabrick which was made for Man and instead of surfeiting himself with those delightful entertainments of Sense that were round about him he raised his mind above them to the Contemplation of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God he offered to the Creator of all things the Sacrifices of Praise and Thankfulness he resigned himself wholly to his Will and Pleasure he believed his Promise of a better World and in that Faith he wrought righteousness And what can be said why we who cannot reasonably count our Temptations greater than those he was under why we I say should not also live as he did Why should the Government of our Passions and the ordering of our Conversation by the Rules of Religion be harder to us than it was to him What should hinder us from adoring and praising our Maker every day and from offering our Prayers and Supplications to him Why should not we consider that God is present with us every where and sees us in all that we do that we may always behave our selves as in his Presence May we not with as much advantage as he possibly could have look beyond this World and compare it with immortality in a far better state of things than this and set our affections upon things above and not upon things on the earth Especially since we have not here a continuing place I mean since we do not expect to live hardly the tenth part of that time upon Earth which the Patriarchs did before the Flood but all our days are few and evil and our Life short and troublesome and therefore doth of it self admonish us to look after another and to provide better for our selves hereafter than we can possibly do here Let no man say That the baits of Pleasure and the cares of Life and the multiplicity of his worldly Affairs that the evil manners of others and the snares of Conversation and his unavoidable Engagements in the World will not permit that Justice and Purity that Devotion and Sobriety which Religion requires nor that consideration of God and another Life which is necessary to keep us unspotted from this present world That for this purpose we must retire out of the World and live in Cells or in Houses where there is nothing else to do but to Watch and Pray where the cares of Life cannot follow them where evil Examples and where Temptations cannot find them out All this is but unreasonable and vain pretence For I beseech you what was Enoch and his Profession and Order of Life in the World Was he shut up from any part of common Conversation or eased from any part of the common Cares of this Life No by no means he in all respects of Secular Conversation and civil Relation was in the very same condition that other Men were as you will confess if you look back to verse 21. and so on till you come to the Text And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methusaleh And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh three hundred years and begat Sons and Daughters and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years And Enoch walked with God c. By which you may see that Enoch who had this Testimony was a married Man and for that Reason engaged as much in the necessary Affairs of Civil Conversation as any other and we do not find that after he begat Methusaleh his eldest Son he left his Wife and his Family and betook himself to any retirement and was from that time forward under Vows of single Life it is expresly said that Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh three hundred years and begat Sons and Daughters So that all this time viz. for three hundred years of which it is said that he walked with God Enoch was the Husband of a Wife the Father of Children the Master of a numerous Family nay he was a Prince in his Generation the Seventh from Adam in the Line of Seth the eldest Son by descent from the eldest house of Seth one therefore who in his time made no little Figure in the World and was deeply engaged in the Affairs of Government beyond all others excepting his Father and Grandfather and the Patriarchs that were yet alive Enoch then differed not from other Men in any respect of Civil Affairs he had such Relations and common Engagements as other Men had and in some respect more being descended from Seth in the Patriarchal Line which some believe was the Regal Line too in one Division of Mankind But tho in these Circumstances he differed not from other Men otherwise than that his Affairs might be more Cumbersom than those of ordinary Persons yet with respect to Religion and Virtue to Faith in God and an holy Life he differed very much from the generality of Mankind for in the midst of all that Business and Conversation which his place in the World engaged him in he walked with God he was a perfect man and grew to that height of Piety and Righteousness that God thought fit to reward so eminent a Person with translating him alive from Earth to Heaven a plain demonstration against the Pretences of the Roman Church That retirement in Monasteries and a single life are not necessary to the highest degree of Piety that the best part of Religion is not to be coop'd up in a Cloyster but to be seen in the World and in the ordinary conversation of Men That the most Excellent part of Devotion that the best and noblest degrees of Faith and Virtue may be attained and exercised and improved in a state of Worldly Relations and Engagements and that these things therefore ought not to be pretended in our excuse for not walking with God as Enoch did Let me therefore add in the 2. Place That we have the