Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	eye_n	know_v	see_v	5,071	5	3.4807	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10018	Sermons preached before his Maiestie; and vpon other speciall occasions viz. 1 The pillar and ground of truth. 2 The new life. 3 A sensible demonstration of the Deity. 4 Exact walking. 5 Samuels support of sorrowfull sinners. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston Dr. in Diuinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1630 (1630)	STC 20270; ESTC S120145	80,456	162

not commit adultery so I say to euery man that failes in any particular and allowes himselfe to lie in any particular sinne that he will haue his liberty in I say hath not God said thou shalt not doe this as well as that and if thou doest one duty to God out of loue and respect to him or if thou didst abstaine from any sinne because he forbids thee doth not he forbid thee that as well as this and he hath commanded thee this duty as well as the other why doest thou not performe all then A little leake will sinke and drowne a Ship as well as a great breach one disease will take away the life as well as many so one sinne one failing in this exactnesse of conuersation is enough to destroy vs it is enough to put vs out of a right condition in Gods sight therefore learne to walke exactly beware of by-waies which though it may be hidden from the eyes of men yet God knowes it that sees in secret for that is a common course Men doe as wandring stars which are carried about with the rest of the Heauens and yet they creepe backe by a contrary way which is their owne proper motion so it is the custome of men to doe as others doe for the outside to come to Church to abstaine from grosse sins to liue ciuilly to deale iustly with men in their common course but they haue a proper course of their owne Labour to be exact take heed know that God obserues you and know this that that hath beene the practice of the Saints it is not a thing impossible to be done we must not set vpon it as vpon a thing that none can reach to looke on Moses see his manner of walking when God commanded him to goe with all that he had out of Egypt he would not leaue so much as a hoofe behind him he would doe it exactly looke on Paul he knew nothing by himselfe that is he kept a cleere conscience in all things though hee were not thereby iustified looke on Samuel and his walking hee calls the people to him and saith to them what haue I done amisse whom haue I wronged Whose oxe or whose asse haue I taken Againe see those that faile in this and wee shall see that it is not a slight matter Saul walked with God but because hee did not walke exactly because he offered sacrifice before hee should you would thinke it a small matter but because he did not destroy but spared Agag God reiected him So Nadab and Abihu when they offered sacrifice you would thinke it to bee no great matter a circumstance and will not common fire serue the turne but they were consumed for not walking exactly looke vpon the Prophet that did not keepe him close to the word of God as hee returned backe hee was slaine of a Lion looke vpon Balaam he walked with a faire outside yet because he was not exact for God saw the falsenesse of his heart God saw the secret by-ends that he had in it for this cause God reiected him therfore take heed that you walke exactly Not as fooles but as wise It is our wisdome to doe so to speake a word or two of that to doe that which God hath appointed a man to doe to doe that which the rule of wisdome hath appointed that must needs be the wisest way now it is the rule of wisdome that commands vs to walke exactly and as he is the best writer that comes neerest his copy and he the best Carpenter that comes neerest his rule appointed him so hee is the wisest man that comes neerest the rule of wisdome which is the booke of God which exhorts vs to walke exactly Againe to be guided by God who is the wisest is it not the wisest way it is Gods appointment that we should walke exactly examine the properties of wisdome and we shall fee what cause there is to reckon it to be wisdome to walke exactly First the maine property of wisdome is when a man lookes to the generall vniuersall end of his life and frames all things according to that for therein properly wisdome or prudence consists when a man lookes aright to the vtmost and generall end of his life for a man either to looke to no end or to bee as those that roll vp and downe at randome men that haue no particular scope to which they direct all their actions this is grosse folly But besides this if a man haue no end or if it be but a particular end he is not said to be a wise man he may be said to be a wise Pilot or a wise States-man or a wise Merchant or a wise Warriour that sets such particular ends and so we may goe thorow all but he can neuer be said to be a wise man except he looke aright to the generall scope and the generall end of his life now he that walkes with God perfectly he only is a wise man because hee onely lookes at the generall frame and course of his life aright The cause of all our errors as one saith is because we looke onely vpon part of our life wee looke not to the whole we haue not our eye vpon the generall scope and aime of our life and therefore we walke vnprudently he onely is a wise man I say that frames the whole course of his life aright and therefore wisdome hath that excellency aboue all other things because it lookes to the end as the end is best so any error about the end is worst saith a Diuine as the end is best so folly and imprudence and error concerning the end is the greatest error therefore the Scripture calls this wisdome godlinesse and this folly wickednesse the best and worst names that can be therefore if this be wisdome for a man to frame the whole course of his life aright to looke to the generall end to be sure that his scope be good then he is the wisest man that walkes exactly with God whatsoeuer he be in other things this makes him a wise man Secondly this is a property of wisdome for a man not only to know but to put in execution that is the difference betweene prudence and other arts in other arts he that knowes what is best is the best Artist but in matter of prudence he that knowes what to doe and practiseth not is of all other the most foolish and therefore action is a chiefe property of wisdome there is this requisite to prudence to inuent the worke aright and to put it in execution therefore hee that walkes exactly he that not only knowes what to doe but in good earnest doth it hee is the wisest man Men are not to be iudged according to their knowledge or according to their habits but according to the act according to their execution and practice as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. God shall iudge men according

must beleeve it And this is the first vse that wee are to make of this to beleeve that there is such a life Secondly if hee that hath not this life is not in Christ why then my beloved it concernes us to see that wee have the fruits and effects of this spirituall life in us that that change bee wrought in us that wee spake of that we have those motions and those actions that proceede from an inward principle of life that wee have that attractive disposition and that expulsive disposition which may empty our hearts of all known sinne which is also an effect of this life And this further we must chiefly look to that we love the brethren which for ought I see the holy Ghost points at above all other signs of this spiritual life you have it 1 Ioh. 3. 14. We know by this that we are passed frō death to life because we love the brethren You know a dead member hath no sympathie with the rest but a living member hath a fellow feeling yea a quicke and exquisite sense within when anie of the members are pained or hazzarded Therefore let us labour to find this character of life in our selves by being affected to our neighbours and brethren the Churches abroad by having bowels of cōpassion in us to melt over their condition to desire their safty as our own For why should we not are they not the same Church of God as we are are they not bought with the same price are they not as dear to God and certainly if we shew love to any Church because it is a Church we would do it to one as well as to another Again we have reason to commiserate them for our owne sakes For we cannot stand alone and God hath so ordered it in his providence Luke 6. 38. that looke what measure we mete to others in their distresse men shal measure the same to us in our necessitie and how soone the fire may take here also we know not But this you shall finde in the prophefie of Ieremiah when the nations dranke of the cup of Gods wrath we see there the cup went round everie nation dranke of it some more some lesse But if men doe not doe it yet certainely God will recompence us with good if we doe it with ill if wee omit it For though he seeme angrie with his Churches for a time as David was with Absalom yet as Ioab never did David so acceptable a turne in all his life as when he sought to bring home Absalom his banished sonne though hee were angrie with him because his inward affection was toward him all the while so wee cannot doe God a more acceptable turne than to helpe his Churches though for the present they seeme to bee under the cloud of his anger And doubtlesse the Lord would take it exceeding ill if we should neglect our duety to them as I hope we doe not and shall not as you see Iud. 5. 23. We see there how the Lord is affected in such a case as this Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord yea curse the inhabitants of Meroz bitterly because they came not to helpe the Lord to helpe the Lord against the mighty Marke hee doth not say because they did them any wrong but because they came not out but sate still and you know the rule that hee that keepes not off an iniurie when he may he doth it Againe marke the ground why they came not out because it was to helpe the Lord against the mightie When the enemies were mightie they had respect to their owne safetie and sate still and that phrase is to bee observed chiefly they came not to helpe the Lord it was not to helpe the Lord but to helpe the Churches at that time and yet the Lord takes it as done to himselfe But now on the other side as the Lord would take it ill if wee doe it not so certainely if we doe it he will take it exceeding well at our hands This worke hath meate in the mouth of it it brings a sure reward Even as the Arke when it was harboured by Obed-Edom and others it brought a blessing to them so certainly the Church brings a blessing to those that defend it whereas on the other side when the Arke was violate and ill used by the Philistines the men of Bethshemesh you know how many thousands were slaine for it Whence I gather If God would doe so much for that which had but a typical holinesse that was but a dead Temple where he dwelt but for a time what will he doe if his living Temple be destroied For the people of God are his living Temple Ier. 2. 3. it is said Israel is a hallowed thing to the Lord my first fruits and therefore hee that devours it shall offend and evill shall come to him saith the Lord. And therefore in helping the Church of God from being devoured by strangers wee helpea hallowed people for wee see the Lord reckoned Israel so though they were subject to manie failings Let this therefore stirre us up to doe it with all diligence We may fall out and in at home and the vicessitude of fair weather and foule within our owne hemisphere may passe away and blow over as I hope it will and I pray God it may yet in the meane time if any of the Churches shall be swallowed up you know that is a thing that cannot be recalled Therefore let us resolve to doe our best and to doe it in time And this I will be bold to say for our encouragement they are the Churches of God and there is a God in heaven that tendreth them and hee is a God that delights to bee seene in the mounts even when things are past hope and though their enemies bee exceeding great and mightie yet when they goe about to oppose the Church they are as a heape of straw that goes about to oppresse a cole of fire that will consume them or as one that devoures a cup of poison that will proove his death or as one that goes about to overthrow a great stone that fals backe againe and bruiseth him to powder they are all the Scriptures expressions as you shall finde Zach. 12. So I say the Lord will deale with the enemies of his Churehes and will preserve them therefore let this hope encourage us to doe it the rather For your Maiestie wee are perswaded as your profession is so your desires and intentions are most reall and firme and when wee say wee are so perswaded as Paul speakes in another case we speake the truth and lie not for pulpets are not for flatterie but we speake as from God in the sight of God and a message from God may comfort and encourage and confirme you in it For us that are subjects let us be exhorted to doe our parts to contend and wrastle with God by praier and not to let him rest till hee

who wait for him These are the three points which arise from these words and of these in order And first for the first That It is manifest from the things that the eye seeeth and the eare heareth from day to day that God is and that it is by his providence that all things are done in the world Now wee must know that this point That God is and that by his providence all things come to passe I say this is made plain to us two wayes First by Faith out of the bookes of the Scripture Secondly by Reason out of the books of the creatures Out of the bookes of the Scriptures that you shall see Heb. 11. 3. By Faith we beleeve that the worlds were made by God and in the sixth verse He who commeth to God must beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of those that seeke him Here is mention made of the first way of knowing that God is The second way you shall have set downe in Rom. 1. 20. The invisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made that is though the eternall power and Godhead be in themselves invisible yet by the things that are seene and heard they may be made known and manifested to us so likewise Act. 17. 27 28. If so be we might grope after him and finde him for in him we live and move and have our beeing as if he should say The verie things wee heare and see and taste and handle with our hands doe all demonstrate that God is which is the verie same the Prophet saith here Since the beginning of the world they have not heard nor understood with their eare nor seene with their eye another God besides thee which doth so for him that waiteth for him For we must know that the things revealed unto us are of two sorts Such as have no impression upon the creature such are the mysteries of the Trinitie and of the Gospell these are only revealed Others there are which have certaine characters of them set upon the creatures so that you may discerne them and amongst the rest this is one of the maine that God is and that by his providence all things are disposed in heaven and earth And although it may bee though that there are none that doubt of this yet these proofes are usefull partly because they serve to answer those secret objections of Atheisme which we are all subject to and partly because they strengthen that Principle in us that God is which is very necessarie to bee confirmed seeing it is the maine and principall foundation of all Christian religion and can never sufficiently enough bee rammed downe as being that that must beare all the waight of the building therefore let no man thinke that those proofes that we shall use for the manifestation of this truth are a thing altogether needlesse for certainely wheresoever the Scripture hath a mouth to speake there it is usefull for us to have an eare to heare First therefore if we doe but in generall behold the universe and looke upon the building of heaven and earth wee may easily discerne therein the eternall power and godhead of the maker of it Suppose a man bred and brought up in some hollow cave of the earth hauing a house there built and things necessarie provided for him and let him afterwards when hee comes to a full use of understanding and not before bee brought and set upon the face of the earth and there let him see the glorious beauty of the Sun and feele the heat of it the force of the windes and see the swiftnesse of the clouds the ebbing and flowing of the seas the apparelling of the earth let him see the course of the heavens and the fearefull darkenesse that followeth upon the setting of the Sunne and after that the Moone and stars lighted up for the use of men and beasts would hee not wonder at all that which we by reason of long assiduitie make nothing of It 's a true rule Sapientis est rerum manifestarum causas quaerere a wise man enquireth after causes of manifest things which another man passeth over and asketh not the ground and reason of And in this inquisition when he findeth that man is best of the creatures and yet was not able to raise such a roofe as the heavens nor such a floore as the earth hee must needes conclude that some one better and more able than man was the maker of all these things which man could not make of himselfe And if it bee objected But this workeman is no where to bee seene though these things are to be seene I answer that as it is when you see a magnificent palace the builder of that many times is not to be seene yet we will say it could not bee done but by some wise Architect whose wisedome and abilitie was answerable to the work or when wee see a faire river runne though we see not the spring from whence it issues yet we conclude that there is a well-head somewhere that produceth these streames so when we shall see the succession of creatures passing along by their generations a wise man will say Surely there is a principle a first cause a well-head whence they doe flow though hee see it not But this is but in generall if we should bring you to the particular observation of the creatures it wil be more evident even by the things that the eye seeth and the eare heareth that there is a God by whose providence all things are disposed and we will instance in these particulars First we may observe by that consent which ariseth from so many differences and contrarieties amongst the creatures if you looke into the fabricke of the world you shall behold one thing contrary to another one thing fighting against another fire destroying water drinesse destroying moisture and moisture drinesse c. yet withall you shall see these brought to a comely agreement comming together to build up and maintaine the whole Vniverse how could this be done but by somewise Commander If you should see upon an Instrument twenty dissonant strings and they all brought into one harmony we would say that some skilfull Musitian had the tuning of it and when we looke into the world and see so many contrary things and all those brought to so sweete a harmony as they are must wee not needes acknowledge that there is some wise Agent that intendeth one remitteth another and so maketh an usefull mixture of all And this is the first thing we are to observe for how could so many contrarieties meete in one except they were guid ed by one which is above them all The next thing amongst the things which the eye hath seene and the eare hath heard by which this is manifested is the fitting and composing of one thing to another If we should come into

they beginne to doe it But as God hath commanded the earth to bring forth grasse so hee hath commanded the skinnes of beasts to bring forth haires and feathers and wooll to bee fit cloathing for them And as it 's in cloathing so his providence is also in defending and in fortifying them against the injuries of one another Some have hoofes and hornes and tuskes to defend them those that have not these have legs to runne away those that want that have holes and dennes to hide themselves in and which is to be observed the weaker creatures goe in heards together the stronger goe alone for if they should goe in multitudes no man nor beast could stand before them this you shall finde set downe Iob 37. Psal. 104. Now if the Queene of Sheba when shee came to Salomons Court and saw the meate of his table the sitting of his servants and their apparell 1. King 10. was astonished I say if she were so then when she saw the wisedome and provision in the house of Salomon how much more when we looke into this great house of the world where there are so many uprising down-lying that must have bread and meate from day to day how much more I say should wee admire and acknowledge this great providence of God which openeth his hand and giveth them their meate in due season This is the fourth observation The fifth is taken from the combination and connexion which is among the creatures that dependence they have one upon another men cannot live without beasts to feede them the beasts cannot live without grasse to nourish them that cannot bee maintained without the influence of the heavens to nourish it which subordination you shall see set down Hos. 2. 21. I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne Whence wee may reason thus Either this was done by accident or by providence not by accident for so you may as well say that a multitude of letters cast together by chance can make a History or Poem as that this order this connexion and dependence of the creatures should come to passe by accident and if it be not by accident then it is by providence for this can no more bee done without providence than in a Historie or Poem there can be a dependence of one word or sentence upon another without the art of wit and reason in him that composed it The last observation is from the wisedome of the Creator which is set and stamped upon all his workes even as the skill of an Artist is upon all the worke he makes When we see the statue of a man made wee acknowledge that it was done by the skill of him that made it and shall not wee acknowledge it in the maker of man himselfe When we see a glasse eye an ivory tooth and a wooden legge wee say it is done by a skilfull Artist and shall wee nor observe a speciall providence and wisedome in the making of the members themselves for the things are better that are done by nature than those that are done by art for art doth but imitate nature and that which is imitated is better than that which doth imitate and shall wee attribute skill and wisedome to the workes of Art and not to the works of Nature which do far excell them When we see a Diall describing the hours of the day we acknowledge it to bee done by the skill of man when wee see the same done in the heavens ordering the times seasons shall we not acknowledge a wisedome in him that makes and guides the heavens It is reported that Archimedes made a Spheare wherin the revolution of the heavens the course of the Sunne the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is described and kept in the order that themselves doe move in which when a man sees he is ready to say this was not done by accident but by the skill of some excellent Artist and if so then certainely the thing it self which that Spheare doth but imitate could not bee done but by the wondrous power and wisedome of him that doth it I will proceed no further in this but come to make some application First therefore seeing beside the Testimony of the Scripture there are so many proofes even from the things that the eye sees and that the eare heare that God is by whose Providence all things come to passe it should strengthen our Faith in that first and main Principle that God is For though an object may bee seene by a small light yet when more candles are brought in and when there is a greater light wee see the same object more cleare and distinctly so though we beleeve by Faith that God is yet the addition of more Arguments should strengthen us in this beleefe and confirme this conclusion and adde more to our assent to it For my Beloved though it bee not observed yet it is certaine that all that unevennesse all those exorbitances which are found in the lives of men doe proceede from the weaknesse of this spring that these first Principles are not firmely and thoroughly beleeved Men will not neglect Religion altogether neither will they make their hearts perfect with God in all things and whence comes it but from this that this first Principle is in part beleeved in part not beleeved that is they say in their hearts it may bee thereis such an Almighty God that made heaven and earth and it may be not and therefore they will have some care in the duties of Religion but a full care they have not whereas if they did beleeve it fully they would serve him with a full and perfect heart But is this all the use that is to be made of it is this all the Prophet driveth to in this place No his verie scope is to shew us that if there be such a God then it is he that doth the terrible things that are done to us they come not to passe by accident therefore wee so propound the point that by the things that the eye seeth and the eare heareth it appeareth that there is such a God that doth terrible things which wee looke not for If it be not by chance and by accident nor the wisedome and endevours of men but the Lord which doth both terrible and mercifull things both the good and the evill which befall us then let us live by faith and not by sense that is feare him and meet him in the way while it s yet time lest we fall into the errour of the Israelites here to have terrible things done to us before we looked for them For though we beleeve there is such a God yet if we doe otherwise we forget the Lord and wee live without God in the world Everie man when the evill is upon him startles at it as a beast when he falls and sinkes into a ditch or quagmire he struggles and doth his best to get out