Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	glory_n	great_a	lord_n	8,725	5	3.7167	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86449	A sermon preached in St. Maries in Cambridge, upon Sunday the 27 of March, being the day of His Majesties happy inauguration: By Ri. Holdsvvorth D.D. Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, Vicechancellour of the Universitie, and one of His Majesties chaplains. Published by His Majesties command.	Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649.	1642 (1642)	Wing H2401; Thomason E155_6; ESTC R23312	23,401	48

speak of popular happinesse then such a King nor of celestiall then such a Prophet Yet I mean not to discourse of it in the full latitude but onely as it hath a peculiar positure in this Psalme very various and different from the order of other Psalmes In this Psalme it is reserved to the end as the close of the foregoing meditations In other Psalmes it is set in the front or first place of all as in the 32 in the 112 in the 119 and in the 128. Again in this the Psalmist ends with our blessednesse and begins with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD MY STRENGTH In the 41 Psalme contrary he makes his exordium from mans BLESSED IS HE THAT CONSIDERETH THE POORE his conclusion with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL I therefore observe these variations because they are helpfull to the understanding both of the essence and splendour of true happinesse To the knowledge of the essence they help because they demonstrate how our own happinesse is enfolded in the glory of God and subordinate unto it As we cannot begin with Beatus unlesse we end with Benedictus so we must begin with Benedictus that we may end with Beatus The reason is this Because the glory of God it is as well the consummation as the introduction to a Christians happinesse Therefore as in the other Psalme he begins below and ends upwards so in this having begun from above with that which is principall Blessed be the Lord he fixeth his second thoughts upon the subordinate Blessed or happy are the people He could not proceed in a better order he first looks up to Gods kingdome then reflects upon his own as not meaning to take blessednesse before he had given it There is no man can think but this is the best method It is the method of Saints as we see 1. Sam. 25.32 33. and 2. Chron. 31.8 First Blessed be the God of Israel then Blessed be the people of Israel Nay it is the method of Angels Luke 2.14 they first sing Glorie to God then Good will towards men It must also be the method of every Christian whensoever we are about the wishing of blessednesse either to our-selves or others to begin from heaven and ascribe it first to the LORD That we may receive we must give give what we have and give what we mean to have To give is the way to get both to get the thing and to get the greater degree It is an undeniable consequence If beatitude be the ultimate end of man and the glorie of God the ultimate end of our very beatification then it followes necessarily That by giving more glorie to God we gain more of beatitude to our selves because more of the supreme and beatificall end So that he who will attain to the Psalmist's comfort must observe also the Psalmist's order that he may end assuredly with BEATUS he must learn to begin with BENEDICTUS That 's the first considerable thing in the order as touching the essence of true happinesse The other is concerning the splendour which flowes from the other part of the variation in that the Psalmist doth end this psalme as he begins divers of the rest with Happy or Blessed to represent as it were unto us utramque splendor is paginam the two great excellencies of blessednesse by the double situation of it Happinesse is both the bonum Primum and the bonum Vltimum of a Christian the spring of all good things and the crown the spire and the basis the first and the last of things to be desired the first for eminence the last for fruition In the descents of Christianitie the first because we move from it to inferiour ends happinesse giveth law to all our actions we move from it that we may in time come to the possession of it In the order of ascent it is the last for having climbed once thither we go no further but set up our rest It hath this resemblance with God himself who is the Doner of it That it is both the beginning and the end before which nothing should be loved and after which nothing can be desired Answerable to these two respects are the positures of happinesse in the Psalmes As in military affairs it is the custome of Emperours to promise the Donative to their souldiers when they go forth to warre that they may encourage them but not to give it till the warre be ended that they may reward them for their service In like manner saith S. Ambrose doth the Psalmist velut praeco magni Imperatoris he disposeth of beatitude both wayes he prefixeth it to the beginning of some Psalmes that thereby we might be invited to pietie he annexeth it to the end of others to teach us not to look for it before our work be done So even by this we may learn how to order and dispose of our selves to happinesse Since it hath the double reference it must have also the double honour and the double esteem yea and our double endeavours for the attaining of it Then we give it the double when we set it in both places make it both our first and our last the prime of our life and the perseverance We must look through all things upon happinesse and through happinesse upon all through all upon it as not resting in any thing else and through it upon all as seasoning every act of our life with the thought of happinesse Otherwise if we think to give it our last respects without our first pretend what we will there is no hope to overtake it Thus farre even worldly men will go they are willing enough to heare that they must make it their last work and they fulfill it in a sort to the letter but not to the meaning The love the hope the care of their own happinesse they put them off all to the last A very preposterous course for a man to begin where and when he should have ended and to defer his first of motion to his last of rest It is too late for the foolish Virgins to cry Matth. 25.10 11. Lord open when the doore is shut and a vain thing to expect happinesse as our end unlesse we make it our beginning and give it the same place in our hearts and actions which holy David affords it in his meditations the first place in other Psalmes as the best introduction to all other discourses the last in this as a delightfull farwell to be alwayes fresh in remembrance That shall serve for the first step of the Gradation the generall part of the argument handled It is De FELICITATE The second is more speciall it is de felicitate Populi HAPPY or BLESSED ARE THE PEOPLE In the former part of the Psalme he speaks of such things as concern his own happinesse Blessed be the Lord MY strength vers 1. Send down from above and save ME out of the great waters vers 7. Rid ME and deliver ME from the hand

in the clause of revocation whereby he shews that these outward things though named first yet they are not to be reputed first The particle Yea removes them to the second place it tacitly transposeth the order and the path of piety which was locally after it placeth virtually before 'T is as if he had said Did I call them happy who are in such a case Nay miserable are they if they be onely in such a case The temporall part cannot make them so without the spirituall Admit the windows of the visible heaven were opened and all outward blessings poured down upon us admit we did perfectly enjoy whatsoever the vastnesse of the earth contains in it tell me What will it profit to gain all and to lose God If the earth be bestowed upon us and not heaven or the materiall heaven be opened and not the beatificall or the whole world made ours and God not ours we do not arive at happinesse All that is in the first proposition is nothing unlesse this be added Yea happy are the people which have the LORD for their God You see in this part there is aliquid quod eminet something which is transcendent Therefore I will enquire into two particulars see both what it is that transcends and what is the manner of propounding of it The manner of propounding it is as I said corrective or by way of revocation the summe whereof is thus much That temporalls without spiritualls in what abundance soever we possesse them cannot make us truly happy They cannot make happy because they cannot make good They may denominate a man to be rich or great or honourable but not to be vertuous Nay Seneca carrieth it a little further Non modò non faciunt bonum sed nec divitem They are so farre from making a man good that they make him not truly rich because they encrease desire and riches consist in contentation Not he that hath little but he that desires more is poore nor he that hath much but he that wants nothing is rich Yea and we may go further then Seneca They are so farre from making good that they often make evil if they be not sanctified they possesse the heart with vile affections fill it full of carnall and sinfull desires Whereas there are foure good mothers which bring forth ill daughters prosperitie is one Truth begets hatred securitie danger familiaritie contempt prosperitie pride and forgetfulnesse of God In this I might well make a stop but there is one degree more They are so farre from making good that they do not bring good but many evils and inconveniences They bring not the good of contentment but infinite distractions they are aureae compedes as S. Bernard speaks fetters or manicles which intangle the soul that it cannot attend upon better things Nor the good of freedome they do enthrall the soul to that which is worse then it self and it cannot be apprehended how a thing worse then our selves can make us happy Lastly not the good of safetie for they oftentimes expose us to dangers Multos sua felicitas stravit as Gregorie speaks Many men their lives had been longer if their riches had been lesse their happinesse made them miserable consolationes factae sunt desolationes as S. Bernard again Upon these grounds the Psalmist had very good reason to sequester them from true happinesse and by this corrective particle to reduce them to the second place though he set them in the first He knew very well that they are burdens snares impediments to pietie as often as furtherances He knew them to be vain and transitory things Prov. 23.5 that we cannot hold They make themselves wings as Solomon speaks They are onely the moveables of happinesse Bractealis felicitas as Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene What 's that S. Austin seems to translate it felicitas fallax a fabulous and personate felicitie Nay not onely fallax but falsa fictitious spurious deceitfull which leaves the soul empty when it most fills it that being most true which the same Father addes felicitas fallax major infelicitas falsa felicitas vera miseria Therefore that I may shut up this point let this be the use of it We must learn from hence to regulate our judgements according to the wisdome of the Spirit revealed in the word And that we may do if we keep to Gods method and set every thing in the due place where God hath seated it Now the Scripture constantly doth give the inferiour place to these temporall things If to come after be inferiour it sets them there Seek first the kingdome of God c. Matth. 6.33 If to be below be inferiour it placeth them there Set your affection on things above c. Coloss 3.2 Even gold and silver the best of these things they are seated under the feet of men and the whole world under the feet of a Christian Rev. 12.1 to teach us to despise it Lastly if to be on the left hand be inferiour the Scripture reckons them there too they are called the blessings of the left hand to teach us to give them the same place in our affections In one sense we may put them on the right by using them to God's glorie but in love and esteem they must be on the left S. Hierome illustrates it by this similitude As flax when it is on the distaffe it is on the left hand but when it is spunne into yarn and put on the spindle it is on the right so temporall things in themselves when first we receive them they are as flax on the distaffe all this while on the left hand but spinne them forth and use them to God's glorie they are as yarn on the spindle transposed to the right Thus we must learn to order them to the right hand onely for use to the left for valuation Otherwise if we pervert God's order and put them on the right it is to be feared they will set us on the left at the day of judgement if we elevate them above they will keep us below and make us come after if we set them before The highest place they can have is to be seconds to pietie here holy David placeth them though he mentions pietie last yet he giveth it the precedence in this word of revocation Yea happie that is Yea first yea more yea more truly happie That shall serve for the first particular the manner of propounding this truth unto us The second is the thing it self which transcends in these words whose God is the LORD or who have the LORD for their God In the generall it is an ordinary as well as transcendent An ordinary because all partake of this priviledge Whereupon S. Austin asks the question Cujus non est Deus But S. Hierome resolves it Naturaâ Deus omnium voluntate paucorum In a communitie the God of all even to the sparrow on the house top and grasse of the field