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	lord_n	name_n	8,034	5	5.4077	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89544	The reformed gentleman, or, The old English morals rescued from the immoralities of the present age shewing how inconsistent those pretended genteel accomplishments of [brace] swearing, drinking, [brace] whoring and Sabbath-breaking are with the true generosity of an English man : being vices not only contrary to the law of God and the constitutions of our government both ecclesiastical and civil, but such as cry loud for vengeance without a speedy reformation : to which is added a modest advice to ministers and civil magistrates, with an abridgement of the laws relating thereto, the King's proclamation and Queens letter to the justices of Middlesex, with their several orders thereupon / by A.M. of the Church of England.	A. M., of the Church of England.; Bouche, Peter Paul, b. ca. 1646.	1693 (1693)	Wing M6; ESTC R20084	100,071	189

your Impieties Are you able with the Salamander to live in Fire Can you dwell in everlasting Burnings Do you know what the Worm that never dies is And can you tell what the Fire unquenchable means If these things be not fictitious and imaginary if you are sensible that there is really a Heaven for the Good and a Hell for the Bad and are desirous to escape the one and be blessed in the other Leave off then pleading for your Vices and argue not the prevalency of any Temptation or the strength of Custom for your persevering in your Impieties Be no longer fond of your Disease your Fetters your Calamities But shake off your shackles wherewith you have been so long confined and break off your Sins by Repentance Let that Mouth which has Blasphemed Blaspheme no more but praise and magnifie the Name of the Lord for ever for his Name only is excellent and his Glory above the Earth and the Heaven 25. And here I cannot but take notice of the madness of those who seem to be fearful of taking God's Blessed Name in vain themselves The guilt of such as Swear not themselves but delight to hear others Swear and yet delight to hear others Swear and Blaspheme I blush to say that now-a days 't is the Gusto of company to have one prophane Wretch or other by his horrid Imprecations and unaccountable Oaths to move the rest to a fit of Laughter And there 's scarce any pleasant Harmony in Society without fearful sounding Execrations to fill up the Chorus But know Oh wretched Man whosoever thou art that makest as it were a Conscience of not Swearing thy self and yet takest pleasure in hearing others Blaspheme that thou art under the same Condemnation For they all shall be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness A bare Connivance and Misprision as I may so say of this horrid High Treason against Heaven is enough to make thee a Traitor How much more then shall thy consenting to it in thy Will and countenancing it openly by thy complacency therein add to thy Guilt and Condemnation too Hate not then thy Brother in thy Heart by suffering and encouraging so great a Sin upon him but correct and hinder it if thou canst Or if 't is out of thy Power to do that yet be not of that Devillish Society which makes that a matter of Sport which should be the Cause of their greatest Humiliation and Rejoyce Triumph and Laugh at that which makes the Damned in Hell shed Rivers of Tears 26. I proceed to the last Species of Profaning God's Name 4ly Perjury considered whether by Circumvention or by Subornation viz. by that horrid Sin of Perjury And now I could wish with all my Soul there were no reason to cry aloud and exclaim mightily against this Wickedness I could wish none were guilty of it but Rash Swearers but we find that how much soever they may by a fatal Consequence slip into it yet there are too many who do it out of design and have their ends to serve therein 'T is too visible how common Circumventions and Over-reachings are and those Ushered in too frequently with the solemnity of an Oath 'T is a Mystery belonging to each Man's trade to be upon the sharp and tho' they Lie and Aequivocate Swear and Forswear themselves yet they are paid well enough they think can they get but the least gains imaginable thereby Nor is Profit the only Loadstone that draws men to the committing this great Impiety but the Gratifying the humours of Malice and Revenge works upon them altogether as much Hence do we often see Subornations and False-witnesses sinister Tricks and unlawful Quibbles so much in use in those times Can they but betray the Innocent to the severity of the Laws retaliate an Injury and expose the object of their hatred to the Censures of either church or State can they but procure either Sequestration or Excommunication against him how do they triumph and rejoyce in their inhuman Proceedings and proudly boast of their Malicious success But let such Impudent out-daring Knights of the Post know that this stretching of their Faith and Consciences tho' it has cast a Mist before the Inferiour Courts of Justice yet they cannot corrupt the Righteous Judge of all the World who will do right He will unmask their false Evidences Reverse the Decrees issued out against the Innocent and fix the Judgment where it should be upon the Perjurious Creatures head He will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear Cometh when their fear cometh as a desolation and their Destruction as a Whirlewind Prov. 1.26 27. 27. So common is this Wickedness The Difficulty of persuading men to leave this Sin of Perjury and so advantageous is it grown to carry on Mens Trades and Designs that 't is almost morally impossible to dissuade them from it You will seem to do them the greatest Injury imaginable should you be so impertinent to advise them to be men of their Words to speak the truth in sincerity and to be conscientious in their Calling You would destroy the greatest Pillar of their Trade take away the very support of their Merchandizing should you go about to straitlace their Conscience as they call it and keep them off from an Advantageous straining their Faiths when occasion requires The whole World are turned Sharpers and shall we say they be so scrupulous as to be afraid of u●●ng the same Methods of advancing our Interest as is genenerally used Fallere Fallentem non est Frans To Deceive the Deceiver is too well known a Maxim and too often practised by our Wicked Generation But to reclaim if possible those vile Exorbitancies I shall offer two Motives drawn 1. from the Consideration of the very Nature of the Crime and 2ly also from the greatness of the Punishment subsequent on the Guilt 28. Of what a Crimson Dye and Scarlet Grain this Sin is in its own Nature will appear First Motive to leave off this Sin is drawn from the greatness of it in its own Nature if we consider that the Offender incurs the guilt of breaking the whole Law and transgressing that general Duty he owes to God his Neighbour and Himself 1. He offers the greatest affront possible to God either in his ordinary Calling or in a more solemn manner when called to a Court of Judicature when he invokes the Father of Spirits and a Being that cannot Lie to be a Witness to his untruth and Malicious Falshoods 2. He commits a piece of Injustice against the whole Community of Mankind as well as deceives circumvents or fasly accuses any Particular person He not only injures the Object of his Revenge but perverts the Current and turns the stream of the Laws of Nations Blinds the Jury Corrupts the Judge puts the trick upon the whole Bench and makes Justice stand as a Blank or rather as a Mask to cover his Knaves Face withall 3. He is not

since his Actions are Diametrically contrary to the Royal Will and Pleasure specified at first by his Majesties Letter to the Bishop of London which was ordered to be Communicated to the rest of the Clergy and afterwards signified to the Civil Magistrate By the Queens most Gracious Message to the Justices of Middlesex and Lastly by a more forcing Proclamation in which they Recommended the suppressing Profane Swearing and Cursing as the first and chiefest of those Offences which were accounted more especially to hasten and bring down God's Judgments upon this Unfortunate Kingdom 21 But Thirdly there are many of those Profligate Wretches who dare own themselves Church-men and if they pretend to any Religion it is the Reformed Orthodox and Protestant Faith they are of The third Motive drawn from the Obedience due to the Church They appear openly in our Congregations and shew a bold Face in the most solemn of our Assemblies and intrude into the most Sacred of our Ordinances the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper But let those Profaners of all that is good and sacred be assured that the Church is not their Mother that within her Bosom there are cherished no such Vipers that her Sanctuary is no Asylum for such Vermine to have recourse to For her Doctrine's drawn out of the Pure fountain of God's Word (a) Article 39. her Articles (b) Homily 7. her Homilies and her whole Constitutions are directly Opposite to the Profane and gives no manner of Encouragement for him to persevere in his Extravagancies However the lewd World may esteem of things now yet when the Last Day comes no Question but the Church will say to those her Hangers on I know you not You would have none of my Counsel but despised all my reproof therefore Eat ye of the Fruit of your own way and be filled with your own devices If therefore any Man has any Zeal to stand up for her and to promote her Cause and to enlarge her Borders He cannot do it better than by a Sober and Conscientious Conversation to let his Communication be Yea Yea and Nay Nay 22. Come we now to consider the last Motive The fourth Motive drawn from the Judgments of God which if all the rest fail may prove strong enough to work upon the most obdurate and hardned Conscience unless it be Judgment Hell and Damnation-proof Men may be so brazen faced as not to blush at their being worse than Heathens they may be so resractory as not to be reduced by the strictest Humane Laws They may be so unchristian and so unnatural as to chuse to be disowned by their Mother the Church rather than part with their customary Vices But I hope they are not so much in the power of Devil as that the terrors of the Lord against such Offenders both in this Life and in another can make no impression upon them 23. Let those Wretches be never so free from the Laws of the Kingdom and the Censures of the Church 1. Judgments upon Swearers in this life yet the Hand of the Lord will find them out and even on this side the Grave pay them home for their rash Oaths and blasphemous Execrations We have some tho' not many fresh Instances of God's signalizing his Vengeance on such horrid Criminals For what was the reason of the small company of the Israelites killing 100000 Aramites in one day 1 Kings 20.20 If you consult Holy Writ you will find it was for Blaspheming God And what was the cause of Sennacherib's meeting with such an Unnatural and barbarous Death Was it not the Blaspheming the Lord Jehovah both by his General Rabshekab and by his own Hand-writing in a Letter he sent to Hezekiah And doth not God in our times take the Sinner at his word and cut him off in an Instant with the damnable Execration in his Mouth True it is such Instances of God's immediate Vengeance in this World are very rare and few examples of this nature are upon Record But let us take a view of the impenitent Blasphemer lying upon his Death-bed in his last Agonies and ready to give up his polluted Breath at his last gasp Let us there examine him what Fruitor Profit he has in those things whereof he is now ashamed Can you think his gentile Oaths and accomplished Execrations will now do him any advantage in that Eternity into which he is just ready to Launch No I am perswaded you will hear him tell you another story and if the Devil has not quite gagged his Conscience you will hear him in the bitterness of his Soul utter out this or some such complaint Damned Caitif that I am In what an unavoidably miserable condition am I involved What a lamentable prospect of endless Wo have I now in my sight What a horrible Scene is just ready to open and deliver me up to the devouring Flames Ob cursed Tongue How hast thou been employed for thine own Ruine Heaven thou canst not appeal to for the power thereof thou hast often defied God thou can'st not call upon whose Name thou hast often and shamefully prophaned by thine unclean Lips Oh Heavens Drop down upon me and crush me into nothing Oh Mountains fall upon me and cover me from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb Oh Earth Let thy Bowels gape and hide me in thy dark Caverns But alas in vain do I vent my wishes to those who cannot will not help me Come then ye Infernal Furies and hurry my accursed Soul to its deserved Mansions Come ye bewitching and infatuating Spirits and take your cheap Bargain home to your fiery Habitations Thus raving and despairing railing and cursing himself he ends his abominable odious and sinful Life 24. But if this is not melancholy enough to strike Horror into the Adamantine Heart 2. Eternal Judgments upon Swearers yet let him his prospect beyond this and the Grave For admit he may escape the thunderbolts of Divine Wrath tho' the Lightning may not devour him nor the Arrows of the Lord take hold of him in this life yet can he expect to escape the Judgment of God for ever Shall not Hell be his Portion and Eternall Misery his stipend for all his Blasphemies Shall he not with Dives lift up his Eyes in Hell being in Torments and roar out in vain for one drop of water to cool his inflamed Tongue That Fire that world of iniquity which delighted in venting out its Curses and Oaths here on Earth Will not the punishment be adaequate and suitable to the Crime And is it not fit that That Member suffer most which was chiefly instrumental in plucking down the misery upon the whole Consider this then ye that forget God that forget your selves and forgoe your own Interest both Temporal and Eternal for what vanishes like Smoke into empty Air consider ye that Glory in your Shame that Triumph in your wickedness that Out-dare Heaven with

our Toyl and bear a part with us in our Burthens and bring all our Endeavours to Good Effect He will be with us in our going out and our coming in and will take care of our down-sitting and up-rising and will surround us in all our ways And then who can forbear crying out Happy is the man who is in such a Case Yea blessed is he who has the Lord for his God 27. But as for the Vngodly and Prophane it is not so with them They may be more eager in the pursuit of the profit of this Life A Third Mischief is that it causes a C●rse on our Private C●●cerns but then if they attain it it is a Curse to them and in the midst of their Plenty they find no Satisfaction with the Horse-leech they crave more more more and so on ad infinitum They cannot Enjoy tho they may possess large Inheritances They may plant Vineyards but others shall eat of the Fruit thereof they may rise up early and sit up late and eat the Bread of Carefulness but it is but lost labour it is but vain since God does not Pronouce a Blessing upon their Works And can they expect he will prosper their Labour who will not so as much throw up with the Congregation a Sundays Prayer for his Blessing upon them Are his Benefits so cheap and inconsiderable that they must be bestowed without a seeking for and that upon the Sinner No certainly the Almighty is truly Propitious only to those who Reverence and Honour him in his Name Word and Day and tho the Wicked should increase his Estate yet his Prophaness is that Canker in the Heart that Worm in the Root which will quickly destroy and undermine all 28. Lastly The Devout Soul who truly celebrates this festival entitles her self to that which surpasseth all that this World can afford A fourth benefit is that it fits us for and Entitles us to Eternal Happiness She enjoys a Heaven upon Earth and is every day made better and better and makes nearer advances to the State and Perfection of Angels till at last being arrived to that mature degree of Holiness and Purity she may be let loose from this Prison of Earth and suffered to satiate her self with Coelestial Joys for evermore There her holy breathings and prayers shall be swallowed up with Praises and Eternal Hallelujahs There shall she enjoy an Everlasting Sabbath of Rest and Drink of the Living Waters not as she doth here below at the too often disturbed streams but at the Crystal Fountain-Head There shall we see the perfect beauty of holiness and behold God no longer darkly in a Glass but as he is face to face There Contemplation Admiration and Desire will be lost in the fruition of that Good the Vision of that Blessedness and the Adoration of that Perfection which she before contemplated admired and desired 29. But can the Profane Libertine expect he should be invested with that Glory for which he prepares not himself The fourth mischief of the neglect is that it consigns the prophane over to eternal miseries nor so much as thinks of Can he imagine Heaven will be the rewards of his Impiety And that an Incorruptible Crown will be put upon his dishonourable Head Whatever his thoughts are I know not but this am I assured of that the Heart of such a one is a very unfit receptacle for the Holy Ghost here and how much more unfit must he needs be to be partaker of the Fruition of the Blessed Trinity hereafter He grovels here below and suffers the things of this World to engross all his thoughts and thinks of nothing beyond this and the Grave He is fixed to this Earth till at last he convert to Earth and Worm●-meat himself and drop into the Infernal Lake before he be well aware whereabout he is And how severely he there pays for his Irreligion his Scoffings and his Profaness I cannot without horror and trembling conceive 30. Thus far of Individuals and the Body Natural I come now to consider the Advantages as well as Inconveniences that attend the Body Politick The benefits and mischiefs which flow to the Publick fr●m the Observation or Propha●●tion of the Lords-Day are two First Benefit It conduces to the maintaining the Publick Peace viz. these Communities wherein the Lords-Day is either duly celebrated or shamefully abused and prophaned It is to be lamented there is no Nation so strict therein as they ought yet the Blessings even the Sinner enjoys in a Kingdom where the Worshippers of God are but the lesser party plainly indicate that greater would be our happiness if our strictness in this respect were but greater too For First The Solemn sanctifying of this Blessed Day conduces much to the preserving the general peace of Societies This may very properly be called the Ligament by which the whole frame of a civilized Constitution is bound up and kept from falling to Pieces It is on this Day that the Madding-world if ever has its fits of Sobriety It is then we may be taught to be just and honest obliging and affable bountiful and charitable to all as occasion shall require knowing that we all serve one common Master who is more than all these to us Then we come to understand how to behave our selves in all our Relations to be respectful submissive and obedient to our Superiors to be loving kind and courteous to our Equals to be condescending tender-hearted and compassionate to our Inferiours Then the Magistrate is put in mind to be just and merciful impartial and unprejudiced to all to condemn and punish the bad and guilty and to discharge the good and innocent man and then the Subject is instructed to be observant of dutyful and obedient to those in Authority Thus is the Community maintained in an uninterrupted peace and quiet and the whole knit together by indissoluble bonds of concord 31. But on the other side How many are the disorders that follow the prophanation of this Day The first Mischief of this Neglect is disturbing the Publick Peace How easie do the Irreligious Croud fall together by the Ears and set the whole Country in Flames by their Animosities If we can make a slight of God and can venture to break his Statutes no wonder if they have little esteem for the Laws of Men but run out with a Non Obstante to all the irregularities and disorders imaginable Insurrections and Rebellions are naturally the product of a loose licentious Kingdom They have lost all their modesty and fear they had for God and it is not strange they should cast off the Reins of an Earthly Government when it lies uneasie upon them The giddy and prophane Multitude turn every thing topsie turvy and what Outrages will they not commit what Routs and Riots will they not be guilty of when once they lose their sense of Religion which will soon happen when they once slight that which is