Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	great_a	power_n	world_n	5,217	5	4.3277	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64375	A sermon concerning the wandring of the mind in God's service preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, February 15, 1690/1 / by Tho. Tenison ...	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1691 (1691)	Wing T717; ESTC R20689	8,761	36

prevented but the continuance of them is our own Act and Choice In Waters a small Circle made by any thing cast in is enlarg'd into a greater and so multiplied till at last the whole Surface becomes uneven but it needs not be so in the deep of the Heart which is a voluntary Agent That which cannot be help'd shall not be answer'd for but much may be help'd and if it be not such distraction is beyond Apology All vain all wicked Thoughts which we delight in are our own and proceed not so much from the Frailty of Nature as the Pollution of the Heart And happier much happier is the Condition of the Ideot who cannot think with any tolerable consistence or the sick Person whose Fever rageth and not himself than a Man who has a good Capacity and is a Master of Method yet when he is upon the great Business of saving his Soul takes up all his thoughts with his Farms and his Oxen his Trade and Merchandize his Politicks or secular Studies And for those pious Worshippers whose minds are weak and memories frail and by Age or other Causes past the recovery of the soundness of them let them not be so discouraged as to forbear God's Worship because they do it with such imperfection The Paralitic must move on tho' they shake every step they make way tho' slowly and they will at last finish their Course with joy That which the Apostle saith of Charity is true of Piety If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man has and not according to what he has not It is confess'd that one end of our coming together in Religious Assemblies is the giving a publick Sign of our Communion with God's Church which is done by our presence and our decent behaviour there But there is something more requir'd the paying of our actual Homage to God by the Dedication of Soul and Body to him and the attending to the holy Offices as means appointed by God for our instruction reproof encouragement and comfort and the conveying to us his especial Grace and Blessing It is true the Liturgy is a settled Form and gives not daily new entertainment to Mens Fancies but it is such as being often repeated may yet please and benefit the Devout The Scriptures are always the same but they are a great deep of Divine Wisdom and every time a Man attends to them he may possibly find something instructive and useful which before he observ'd not It is certain that we cannot hear Moses and the Prophets in Person But God's good Providence hath convey'd their writings down to us and we must read and hear them It is true that Solomon whose Wisdom drew Hearers from the Ends of the Earth do's not now speak himself but his Works do It is confess'd that Christ who spake as never man spake is in the Heavens but his written word is in his Church and a mighty Power goes along with it wheresoever there is a teachable and attentive Disposition It is also humbly acknowledg'd that there are great Imperfections in the Ministers of the Church yet Christ hath been pleas'd in earthen Vessels to convey to the World the rich Treasure of his Gospel Let us therefore receive the Gift without despising the meanness of the Messengers and mind not so much who the Person is that speaks as that which is said and the Divine Authority from whence he has Commission to preach the Doctrine of the Messiah Finally Let us make devout supplication to Almighty God who hath caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning praying him to grant That we may in such wise read hear mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of his Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed Hope of everlasting Life which he hath given us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS Eccl. 9.10 Acts 7.39 Luke 10.39 42. Prov. 23.26 Amos 8.5 Eccl. 2.14 Prov. 17.24

A SERMON Concerning the Wandring of the Mind IN God's Service Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL FEBRUARY 15. 1690 1. By THO. TENISON D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to THEIR MAJESTIES LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC XCI A SERMON CONCERNING THE Wandring of the MIND IN GOD's SERVICE 1 COR. vii 35. That you may attend upon the Lord without distraction THESE Words spake St. Paul in a time of Persecution and he spake them with special regard to it During that season he recommended to Christians a single Estate He recommended it but did not enjoyn it nor make a matter of discretion a necessary Duty He gave not therefore this Counsel to all but to those who could receive it And upon this account it was that he then advis'd to that state of life He consider'd that the Gospel was to be Preach'd in many Countries with great Pains and amidst equal Perils And he well understood that the less the Propagators of it were intangled in the Affairs of this Life the more they would be at liberty to promote their holy Faith The freer they would be from perplexity of Mind and upon that account the better dispos'd to Attend upon the Service of the Lord Jesus without distraction Upon occasion of these Words I shall by God's help 1 st Enquire into the Nature of the Distraction or wandring of the Mind Next to that 2 dly May be consider'd the great Evil of it especially where it is indulg'd and more especially when it is affected in the Worship of God That Consideration will fitly introduce in the 3 d Place A Persuasive to Attention and fixedness of Thought in God's Service that the Grace of God which is in it self of so inestimable a Value may not by us be receiv'd in vain I. The General nature of the Wandring of the Mind consisteth neither in its musing upon many things which increaseth knowledg nor in ballancing one thing against another which helpeth us to make a right judgment of them nor yet in its passing from one matter to another tho the objects are at a great distance for they may have a Connexion in reason tho they have it not in time or place so it is for example with those great Objects Moses and Christ Canaan and Heaven But then the Mind may be said to wander when the Attention is removed from the matter which was properly before it to something foreign even then when the Meditation on that matter was fitly and usefully to be continued So Pilate asked what was Truth But he pursued not the Enquiry neither staid he for the Answer of our Saviour who was the only Oracle that could have given him a Resolution which would have left no doubt behind it This distraction of the Thought is sometimes a Natural Infirmity and sometimes a wilful and affected Practice Sometimes the temper of the Brain is either over-hot and volatile or cloudy and heavy and slow in the Original frame of it sometimes Afflictions and Diseases and throngs of Worldly Affairs shatter that Temper which was at first an apt instrument of Sobriety and composure of Mind And generally the Mind is apt instead of maintaining an orderly connexion of the Images of it which requireth Pains and Judgment to rove from one to another by a kind of casual coherence As for Example when there is mention made in Scripture of Christ and his Doctrine as the true Bread which came down from Heaven the Imagination of the Reader or Hearer who has not had his Senses orderly exercis'd and fix'd is very apt to wander from that Evangelical Food to the thought of the Manna of the Israelites and from the Manna to the Wilderness in which it fell and from thence to the Rock in the Desart which God turned into a springing Well and then peradventure he thinks of the Impatience of Thirst and the refreshing of Water and after that the Fancy is led into as many windings and turnings of musing as the Jews say there were in that River which followed them Thus the Mind is carried to such a distance from the first thought as not to be able to tell of a sudden where the Imagination began and in what manner it was continued We see and hear a great deal of this in the Digressions which are continually made both in Books and in Conversation and may to our great grief feel the Byas of it in our selves when we appear before God in his holy House where there is little need of our interrupting of one another by late coming by Talk or by irreverent Gesture seeing our own Minds give themselves too much diversion The natural Infirmity which I have been speaking of is in some Persons carried on with such Indulgence that it becomes a Presumption Such way is given to it such content is taken in it that it is properly a Man's own Act. I shall not here discourse of all the kinds of this wilful Wandring but only of the removing of the Attention in part or in whole from the Worship of God and the carrying of it to something that is vain or wicked or indifferent or if good as improper at that time as would have been the practice of the Impotent man at Bethesday if he had desired to have been carried afar off to a Physician in that juncture when the Angel had been just moving the Waters or when Christ himself was by the Porch This is the manner of those who in God's House are present in body and absent in spirit who with cold Formality repeat religious Words not minding the important sense of them who hear as if they heard not who read with such Negligence as not to understand even where the matter is not beyond a Capacity which has not much depth who see the Holy Elements and think of common Tables and wander with their Appetite as well as their Thought Who draw nigh to God with their lips whilst their hearts are far from him or possibly their Hearts are elsewhere so perfectly engaged that they neither cause the lip to move nor the knee to bow But 2 dly The distemper of wandring whether it be natural or acquir'd is no small Evil especially when we should draw nigh to God in Religious Assemblies 1. Even there where it is a natural infirmity it is attended with great inconvenience It hinders us in the search of such Truths as depend upon any number of Consequences Where there is not Attention such Truths will not be found It is from the same Root that both Credulity and Scepticism spring It is from want of closeness of Thought that some believe any thing and others nothing Hence also is prevented Resolution of Will so necessary in a good matter and attain'd only by such a judgment as being fixed it self fixeth the Purpose And for the utmost degree of Inconsistency of Thought 't is no other than Madness From lower degrees of