Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	enter_v	kingdom_n	lord_n	7,476	5	4.1420	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49459	The chief interest of man, or, A discourse of religion, clearly demonstrating the equity of the precepts of the Gospel, and how much the due observance thereof doth conduce to the happiness and well-being as well of humane societies as of particular persons by H. Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1665 (1665)	Wing L3473; ESTC R125	65,780	204

leads to life and few there be that find it Verse 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven cap. 12.36 Every idle word that a man shall speak he shall give an account thereof in the Day of Judgment Cap. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the Glory of the Father with his holy Angels Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able John 3.5 Except a Man be born of water and of the spirit be cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Rom. 8.9 If any Man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Verse 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye 2 Cor. 5.17 If any M●n 〈◊〉 Christ he is a new Creature Gal. 5.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith that worketh by love Cap. 6.7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to the flesh shall of his flesh also reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Jam. 2.19 20. Thou believest there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble But wil● thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead 1 Pet. 4.18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear 1 John 1.6 If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesse we lye and do not the truth Cap. 2.4 He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him I might add many like words out of the Scripture of truth but it may be these are enough to make many say Who then can be saved But let God be true whatever becomes of Man and it is that which hath been told us that few find the narrow way that leads to life If any object the failings of such as David and Peter the same Scriptures that tell of them tell us of their repentance and bitter tears If any wonder how this should be consistent with the mercy of God I answer there are other objects whereon he sheweth the Riches of his mercy even the small remnant that shall be saved And when we come to see at the last day the evil of sin the holinesse of God the preparations which God hath made for sinners we shall rather admire that he should save any than that he should save no more And if the pardon of sin were such a light matter that God should be charged with severity if he hearken not to the cries of sinners which necessity doth at last force them to he might have spared the trouble as I may take liberty to speak of ●ending his son yea as I may further say spared his glorying of his unconceivable love in giving Christ to dye for sinners and it is an ignorant conceit to think that such a strict exaction of holynesse straitens the grace of the Gospel when it is much of the Grace we receive by Christ to be turned from our iniquities Acts 3.26 Rom. 7.1 c. The end of our redemption is to be a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 The chief article of the Covenant of Grace is to have the Law of God written in our hearts Heb. 8.9 our chief glory to be like our heavenly Father in holynesse 1 Pet. 1.15 The great advantage we have by the promises to be made Partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Per. 1.4 So that let men flatter themselves with vain presumptions and delude their own souls by drawing their desires into opinion and from wishing they might have peace though they go on in the wayes of their own hearts proceed to believe that it will be so These words will certainly take hold of them Zach. 1.6 and judge them at the last day I may further add that it is the greatest imprudence for men to be but half Christians or to make some profession of Religion and not to strive to attain to some perfection in it both as the reflection on such an indifferency or lukewarmness will be an aggravation of Mens misery while they shall think with themselves they were near to the Kingdom of Heaven and were shut out because they went not a little further they were fair for striking a bargain for the Rich Pearl and yet parted for a small matter As if a Merchant should go near to Peru or some other place where there is Gold in abundance and through a sluggish lazy stupidity come back empty or as if Columbus when he was near to the Coasts of America should have been forced through the mutiny of his Soldiers to return and lose the honour and advantage of his enterprize It is pity to run a race and lose the prize through negligence when we come within a few steps of the Goal If we will do any thing in Religion let us go through with it and not lose the future reward of it which is most considerable through sloathfulness And it is further to be considered that those who are but half Christians and smatterers in Religion know nothing of those spiritual comforts that delight in communion with God in his ordinances joy in the Holy Ghost which those who are truly Godly have experience of those who are but smatterers or bunglers in any Art Science Trade find them difficult when they are easie and delightful to those who are Masters of them and throughly understand them as the wise Man saith knowledge is easie to him that understands As there is great difference in the reading of a Classick Author by the Master and the Schollar the Schollar looks upon it as a great task to construe it and is glad when it is over not minding the things themselves expressed by the words while the Master who minds the matter and understands it well is transported with pleasure to observe the elegancy of stile height of fancy depth of judgment strength of reason subtilty of Wit candor of mind which is in the Author So while a Man is but a Christian in name and hath but a form of Godlinesse the exercises of Religion are a burthen to him and he doth them only as a task to escape Hell fire as a School-boy gets his Lesson to escape the Rod but he that is a Christian indeed finds that sweetnesse in the word of God that it is to him as honey and

the nature of the object and the capacity of the sense for receiving it or acting upon it such is the pleasure that it finds therein and the more noble the faculty and the object are the more noble is the delight which ariseth from the Union betwixt them so that all Philosophers are agreed that intellectual delights exceed sensual pleasures Now in Heaven our Souls shall be perfected according to the capacity of a finite being otherwise they would be no more capable of enjoying God than a deaf man of being delighted with musick or a blind man in the most perfect beauty therefore we are said to be made meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the Saints in light sanctification qualifying us naturally for Heaven as justification doth morally and God himself shall be the object of our happinesse whom we shall see as he is and love him and delight in him according to his goodnesse and glory I know it is hard for us to conceive what it is to enjoy God but to help us in the conception of it let us consider a little what it is to enjoy a friend to have an absent friend is a comfort but to be with him is a great addition to our contentment to receive the expressions of their love and to testifie ours to them Those who are of a more noble and generous complexion find more true satisfaction herein than in whatever else this World can afford them and what is it that endears another to us but Love and Lovelinesse where there are amiable endowments in persons of worth they command an esteem from us though they know us not and though we are never the better for them but where they have a particular affection to us take us into their bosom make us of their entire friends this doth much more endear them to us Now as I have already said we find in God in a far more eminent degree that which renders the Creatures amiable and lovely Besides his goodnesse towards the whole Creation which the Earth is full of his special favour to Mankind and it may be to us above many thousands of others the exceeding Riches of Grace towards the Elect which Men and Angels shall admire to the days of Eternity there is that Beauty that is intellectual beauty or such Beauty as is objected to the understanding which will ravish the whole intellectual Creation His Wisdom is unsearchable his Power irresistable and his Grace and Clemency as far exceeding what is to be found in the Creature as his Majesty and Glory Job had heard of God but when he came to see him abhorred himself to see the infinite distance betwixt the Soveraign Creator and a poor Mortal that durst dispute the case with him Oh! what thoughts shall we have of God when we come to see him as he is What astonishment will seize upon us what confusion will cover us when we see what a God it is whose grace we have so oft despised whose patience we have so long abused whose authority we have so boldly contemned and yet see that he who had us alwayes at his mercy and could at his pleasure avenge himself on us should pardon us for his own sake and make such glorious preparations for us We shall then perfectly understand all the dimensions of his love and continually as it were read the stories of it We may the better conceive of it by fancying to our selves what a singular favour it would be to have some great Prince take a singular affection to us though we did the least of any in the World deserve it and had dis-obliged him by a thousand provocations if he should take us home to his house and maintain us alwayes at his table keep us alwayes in his presence this would fall infinitely short of that love which God will manifest to us and what an addition will it be to our happinesse to see him in his Glory who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood the story of whose love we have so oft read over a sight of whose Face though but through the Glass of Faith we have so oft so long desired and lamented a feer to have the society of the innumerable company of Angels and the general assembly of just men made perfect a meeting of the Saints of all Ages and places and these perfected both in Grace and Glory so that they shall have no infirmities no Pride Ignorance self-seeking to exercise our charity or patience no sufferings to move our pity or compassion and we shall never need to disquiet our selves with the thoughts of such a sad parting as Paul had Acts 20.39 We shall keep an everlasting Holy-Day the marriage of the Lamb shall be for ever celebrated by all his Friends and as Eternity will perpetuate our happinesse and make it the greater extensivè so the assurance and consideration hereof will heighten it and make it greater intensivè and every moment of our felicity will be more sweet to us in that we shall never be disquieted with the thoughts that our condition as happy as it is will one day have an end SECT X. The necessity of holiness to salvation proved by many plain Scriptures Objections answered The imprudence of being but formal half Christians and the advantages that stict serious Christians have above such THere is yet another consideration which will much enhance the glory of Heaven but before I come to speak of that I must shew how necessary an holy conversation is to the enjoyment of it Many have entertained a suspition that some morose Men peevishly envious against the happinesse and contentment of Mankind and too superstitiously precise would lay upon them a yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear confining their liberty to too narrow bounds and frighting them from Religion by exacting so much strictnesse and severity Now that I may not seem to any to make the way to Heaven more narrow than God hath made it I will but set down the plain words of God himself not to speak of what those have attained to who yet are plainly declared to be under the sentence of condemnation and in a state of wrath I shall only instance in some places where the Scripture sets down what is indispensibly necessary to salvation or what doth plainly argue a Man to be in the state of damnation Math. 5.20 I say unto you that except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went a great way in the Profession of Religion and in both Moral and Ceremonial righteousnesse you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Cap. 6.20 Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Cap. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there be many which go in thereat but strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that