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
A51879	The rich man's bounty, the true measure of his wisdom a sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, and Court of Aldermen, and citizens of London, at St. Brides Church, Easter-Wednesday, March 27, 1695 / by John Mapletoft ...	Mapletoft, John, 1631-1721.	1695 (1695)	Wing M563; ESTC R6441	19,146	36

ways of relieving the Poor mentioned in the Law of Moses to pay a Tenth part of all his Increase or Income every Third Year which is aequivalent to one Thirtieth part every Year to the use and maintenance of the Poor Deut. 14.28 29. And this was Styled their Righteousness their necessary Obedience to the Law and the lowest degree of Charity among them But the Good and Merciful Men even of the Jews were such as did much out do what this Law exacted Our Lord declares That except our Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees who practised such external duties doubtless at an higher rate than the common Jews we shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven From all these premises that Learned Man infers beyond all colour of contradiction that the proportion of the Christian Alms-giver to speak at the least must be more than the Thirtieth part of his Yearly Revenue or Increase Now altho' it be true that this Law given to the Jews doth not oblige us Christians in the Letter of it yet as he well remarks Gods Judgment to his People at that time and in that State is worth our observing But then we are here to remember that every Jew who had any Income or Increase was ty'd to pay this Thirtieth part towards the maintenance of the Poor even those who had least to spare so that if Christians in moderate circumstances who have any thing to spare are to exceed this Proportion as hath been shewed those who are Rich who have a great deal more than they need must be worse than Jews if they make so low and scanty a Rule for their practise for none who was accounted a Good or Merciful Man among them contented himself with doing so little Some considerate Persons being in that mediocrity or competency of these outward good things that neither Poverty nor Riches which was the Wise Man's choice and would be the choice of all Wise Men if our Lords Judgment were throughly weighed and believed by them since the Richer they are the more hard still it is for them to be saved some of these sober and serious Christians I say have thought one Tenth part of their Yearly Revenue or Annual Profits arising any other way a Proportion low enough for them to bestow in Works of Mercy But Rich Men and especially those who are very Rich if they were very Wise too will scarce stint themselves it is to be hoped in many circumstances at least to a rate so dis-proportionable to their abilitys Zaccheus's Example who besides restoring four sold if it should appear that he had wronged any Man gave half his goods to the Poor is a much fitter Precedent for some of those who have very great Estates i. e. who have much more than they can spend every Year in such ways as they will be able to answer for to God at the last day that great day of Accounts Certainly every Rich Man will do himself great right in often and seriously reflecting upon that Parable delivered by our Lord Luk. 16.19 c. for his particular Caution and instruction That Rich man there hath neither impiety nor rapine or injustice nor any other flagrant Crime laid to his Charge All we are told of him is that he was Clothed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day and that he did not feed the poor beggar with the crumbs which fell from his table i. e. He lived very great maintain'd his port and quality in the world indulg'd himself in the excesses of Luxury and Vanity whilst the poor starv'd for want of that which his haughty Pride and Ryot made him think he needed for his own self And the next thing we hear of him is that he is dead and buried and in Torments in Hell Fire The learned Grotius asks this question from the place which I fear it will be hard for many Rich and Great Men satisfactorily to answer Quomodo igitur poenam hanc diviti inflictam evadet pars magna Christianorum How will so many Christians as imitate this Rich man's Example be able to escape those Torments in Hell to which he is doom'd For tho' all the Alms in the world can never purchase Heaven for Eternal Life is the gift of God thro' Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 yet want of a competent proportionable Charity alone and without any other sin may prove as sure a way to lose Heaven as all the Atheism and Irreligion all the Lewdness and Wickedness any Man was ever guilty of And since Christ gives no other reason of mens Condemnation at the day of judgment but this only tho' others doubtless there will be we cannot but conclude that want of due Charity will be then tho' not the only yet to be sure a very principal and general Article against those forever unhappy men And seeing that a narrow slender contracted Charity altogether disproportionable to the Rich mans Abilities will in all reason be esteemed by God as no Charity at all All Rich men are as nearly concern'd to Study this point well and to practise this duty with care and diligence as they are not to perish with their mony and not to come into that place of Torments And they ought therefore frequently to have in their thoughts that saying of our Lord Luk. 12.48 which is equally applicable to all Talents as well of Riches as any other For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom men have Committed much of him they will ask the more 3. It would be a great and worthy effect of a noble and Universal Beneficence or Charity in those who have wealth and power and credit among us to use all the interest they can make in procuring a publick National Establishment of a truly Honourable Society of men who should make it their business out of love to God and Compassion towards their Brethren to know among them all the number and condition in all particulars of all the poor in this Kingdom and especially in and about this great City That so all those who are able might be forced to maintain themselves by their own labour and both those whose labour is not able to provide enough for their great charge and those who are unfit for any work at all which will be but few may be sufficiently and decently provided for and maintain'd as Sons of the same Father and Brethren of our common Lord and Saviour Christ If it were seriously considered and laid to heart how many are starv'd every year in their own houses and some too in the streets with hunger or cold or want of necessaries in one kind or other which amount to some hundreds in and about this City some years as I have heard from those who have reason to know we should look upon this as such a Disgrace and Contradiction to our Religion which is the Law of Love and the

can not long enjoy what is the only Good they care to have But now he who understands the true nature of these things and is too discerning to be brought by such thin appearances of Happiness into the common Paradise of Fools looks upon a mighty Revenue rather as a great Burthen and Incumbrance a thoughtful careful Province and a Busy Steward-ship And all that can make it I say not desirable or valuable but tolerable to such a man is the hopes he hath by his wise management of his ten Tallents to bring Honour to his Great Master and obtain the Reward promised to the good and faithful Servant His being a Large Dispencer and Instrument of the Divine Bounty to the Family of God is both the joy and support of his Spirit and the only true advantage of his having more then he needs or would otherwise have the trouble of if it were to be mispent in the too generally received methods of the World Second The Folly of those who are more intent upon laying up Treasures on Earth than in Heaven or upon having a great Estate than making a due and good use of what they have is seen in this that they do not consider enough nor understand what the best and true use of Wealth is and how it may be most improved It were easie for God so to order things here below that no Man should need to be Poor but the Poor and Rich have from this variety and difference of their outward circumstances opportunity of exercising several Graces and Virtues which could not otherwise subsist and have place amongst Men. The Pious and Industrious Poor have hereby occasion to exercise their Patience and Submission to the Will of God and their dependence on and trust in him for a supply to their wants And the Rich have manifold invitations and opportunities to shew the sincerity of their love to God and to their Brethren by their Liberality as also to express their thankfulness to God for these outward Blessings and that he has put them into that more happy station of being Givers rather than Receivers and hereby to own that as all they have is from God so it ought to be managed with regard to his will and pleasure and for his greater Glory Beneficence also gives us a peculiar Title to the Favour and Blessing and Protection of God here in this Life nay even to more Wealth if God sees it to be best for us St. Hierom affirms that he did not remember to have read that any Person ever had died an ill Death who had been a great Alms-giver in his Life time And we read Prov. 11.24 25. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to Poverty The Liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself But as a large diffusive Charity and imparting to others in a good proportion to what Abundance God hath blessed us with is the proper use of a great Income so is it the best improvement we can possibly make of it this is here styled Being Rich towards God and by our Lord Laying up for our selves Treasure in Heaven Mat. 6.20 or having Treasure in Heaven 'T is putting so much stock into the Hands of God to be there Secured and Improv'd for us and ours upon the best assurance even his own Word of having so much of it repaid to us again or to ours in this World as God knows to be best for us or them Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity upon the Poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he repay him again But above all this is the certain and perhaps the only way for Rich Men both to secure to themselves a Crown of Righteousness thro' the Mercy of God in Christ and to increase the Weight and Glory of that Crown in Gods Kingdom Our Blessed Lord promises a Reward to him who shall give a Cup of cold Water only to any of his in the Name of a Disciple i. e. because they belong to him Mat. 10.24 And in that description of the Day of Judgment Mat. 25. he is pleased to assign no other cause of his putting the Blessed of his Father into possession of that Kingdom prepared for them from the Foundation of the World but only their having Fed and Cloathed him when he Hungry and Naked and taken him in when he was a Stranger and visited him when he was Sick and in Prison i. e. their having relieved and taken care of his Brethren in their Needs and Distresses which he therefore interprets as if done to himself and accordingly rewards with everlasting Happiness Thirdly Very Rich men if they are not given to Charity and that in a good proportion to their Superfluous Riches are very foolish because by their failing in this duty they neglect and deprive themselves of the most efficacious if not the only sure remedy against the danger and mischief of worldly prosperity And that great difficulty our Saviour has told us there is for them to enter into the Kingdom of God 'T is either the too great love and over value men have for Riches their setting their heart upon them placing their confidence in them or their abuse of them to the support and gratification of their Ambition and Pride or their Sensuality and their forgetfulness of God which make it harder for a Rich Man as Christ positively affirms Mat. 19.24 To enter into the Kingdom of God than it is for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle And the only way that God takes as far as we can know to work this Miracle for those Rich Men who do enter into his Kingdom or become true sincere Christians is by infusing this Grace of Charity into their Souls whereby he makes them Willing and Desirous to part with so much of their Wealth to the Poor that they may have good Store of Treasure laid up for them in Heaven and by this means their hearts are loosed and dis-entangled from these perishing things and centred upon God as their last end and Supream Felicity It was the want of this Spiritual Wisdom and disposition to beneficence which made that young man who gave occasion to that hard and amazing saying forsake Christ He went away with a sorrow proportionable to the greatness of his wealth He was very sorrowful Luk. 18.23 For he was very Rich. And he fondly chose rather to part with all hopes of that Eternal Life he had been so earnestly enquiring after than with the great possessions he was master of Certainly did Rich Men consider well the horrible danger they are in of being lost forever upon account of their Riches if they will believe our LORD and MASTER they would never have St. Paul's charge out of their mind which he enjoyns Timothy to give them 1 Tim. 6.17 18. They would neither be high-minded insolent or despisers