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	see_v	world_n	7,593	5	4.4143	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29649	The way to the Sabbath of rest, or, The souls progress in the work of regeneration being a brief experimental discourse of the new-birth in which many of the serpents wiles are detected, the mysteries of the Cross unvailed, the death of the old man, the life of the new man, the angelical dispensation, with the entrance to the divine / clearly laid open and discovered by Mr. Thomas Bromley.	Bromley, Thomas, 1629-1691.	1692 (1692)	Wing B4888B; ESTC R35790	39,085	70

Root as enjoying the same kind of nourishment and receiving Life from the same quickening Spirit How is all Wrath and Contention here forgot How amiable do Spirits now begin to grow in the Eyes of Christ by their innocent Childishness And truly in this dispensation we come to be cloathed with humility wrap'd up in meekness expressing nothing but the blessed Effects of Heaven upon Earth here we are full of Love-meltings towards Christ who baptiseth us in the soft Water of Spiritual Meekness which overspreads the Soul not suffering any of the fire of Passion to spring up In this state the Soul is very watchful over every motion in the outward and inward Man fearing to step down again into Nature where before it had so much Trouble and Bitterness whereas now it is in a sweet pleasant Rest lying upon the Bed of Innocency solacing its self in the sweet Embraces of its Saviour who now begins to shew himself very clearly and to afford almost continual Refreshments In a word this is a life of Stilness silence and Spiritual Simplicity in which the Soul turning its Eyes from Nature looks directly forward to Eternity and strongly breaths after its arrival there And here we come to know the Work of the fifth day in our New Creation answering the fifth of those seven Spirits which are the Eyes of the Lamb of God Rev. 5.6 If Harmony doth in this Fifth arise What will it be when thou dost Sabbatize In that last day where all variety Concenters in a perfect Vnity Then stand thou fast poor Soul and keep thy ground Till with Eternal Love thou shalt be Crown'd Take heed of Lust which unlock'd Adams Eyes And Cast him to the Earth from Paradise CHAP. XIV WHen the Soul is arrived to this Baptisme of Meekness and innocent Love and hath experienced the comfortable distillations of the Heavenly dew to its very great profit and growth it comes to be much confirmed and established in this principle and finds the effects of its present station to be very blessed in comparison of what it was when it stood in the fire of awakened Nature And now seems as one that hath passed thorough a hot fiery Region into a moderate cool Air where gentle gales of Wind breath upon it and refreshing dues entertain it and cooling waters are afforded to take away the sense of Thirst And now it perceives the happiness of those who have made their way by death thorough irregular and discording Nature into that Spiritual state where there is Joy Peace Rest and Harmony This condition then brings with it a greater Death to the World and all Worldly things a total disrelishing of all things corrupt and impure though more refined and so as it is deadned to the World and Selfishness it lives the more to God and all Goodness and finds its Will more strongly drawn to Christ and Eternity And this dispensation into which the Soul now enters is a state of much life and Quickning and of much pleasing Enjoyment from the Objects of the internal Senses renewed and restored by the Spirit of God for here the internal Faculties of Spiritual Sensation are more opened and give a greater enjoyment of the first Angelical Life which was in Paradise And we attain the Use and Restauration of these Faculties through our growth in Regeneration and as a priviledge purchased for us by Christ So that all Saints shall partake of them either Here or in Heaven according as their Attainments are In this state our Internal Eye is more unlocked to behold the Paradisical World with those Luminous Objects and Inhabitants that are in it Here we see such bright Clouds as the Disciples Math. 17.5 saw on the Mount and at Christs Ascention when he was taken up into Heaven Acts 1.9 In which he will likewise descend again Math. 24.30 Here also we see the Angels of God ascending and descending as Jacob at Bethell Gen. 28.12 In this state also our inward Ear is sweetly entertained with Angelical Harmony hearing the sweet Harpers upon Mount Sion and the Voices of those that sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb and of those that cry Hallelujah Hallelujah Rev. 19.1 3 4 6. with many other voices out of the Eternal World Rev. 4.1 Moreover our internal Feeling is almost continually entertained with the strong Contactions of the Word of Life which sometimes discover themselves by thrilling Motions throughout the whole Man but most commonly by strong Infusions of the pure burning tincture of Jesus Luk. 24.32 into the Heart In this state likewise we oft Smell the hot perfumes of Paradise and are pierced through with most delightful Odours which infuse themselves into the Tincture of the heart and create Delight and give a plain feeling and sense of the presence of Paradise and that invisible light World where there is no Curse nor Corruption And in a word here we feed upon the Heavenly Manna Angels food which is living bread that quickens enlivens and corroborates the Soul and we oft taste very sweet Dews diffusing themselves with much pleasure into that internal Sense of taste which lies within the Organ of the Tongue Thus all the Spiritual Faculties of Sensation are in this dispensation more opened and more freely entertained with their peculiar Objects But yet we are not to rest in these Enjoyments nor to go to build Tabernacles with them but to look forward and to press after perfect Union with the Divine Nature in the Eternal World where is our true Sabbath of Rest in the Vision of God and perfect fruition of his Love for ever 1 Thes 4.17 Heb. 4.9 The Pleasures which in this state we enjoy Are only known to those that do Obey For Souls that do Imbibe sins poyson here Have neither Eyes to see nor Ears to hear Those sacred Objects of Divine Sensation Which are the Pleasures of the new Creation Man 's lapsed Sense and Reason know them not They are the Little Childrens Sacred Lot CHAP. XV. BY this time the Soul begins to draw near the Eternal World in its fixed station and habitual Enjoyment lying under the showers of Love which descend from the heart of God and the bosom of Sophia Here the blessed Tincture of Jesus coming so powerfully as though it streamed from his glorifyed Humanity flows into the Soul like a River of Oyl mixed with fire which affords that unutterable Delight which cannot be conceived by those that know it not experimentally Here Christ saith Drink yea drink abundantly O beloved and filts large Cups of Love Heavenly Love to power into the Soul so that it sometimes comes to be sick of Love not knowing how to carry its self through the abundant showers that fall upon it For Christ many times toucheth the Soul with a piercing Beam of Love which by this is suddenly drawn to a quick return and this gives freer passage for

Soul being now sensible of its present state and seeing that there 's no Safety where the Devils have such access and influence sinks down into the Mercy and Love of God and flies to the Cross imbracing and delighting in it that so the Blood of the Cross may be shed into it to cleanse it throughout and to take away those Stains which are the Devils Mansions And here it clearly finds there 's no way of triumphing over the Prince of Death but through Death so it dies daily to that the Evil One lives in and lives to that which is death to Sin In this way there may much Discouragement sometimes seize on the Soul through the strength of Satans working and the reluctancy of Flesh and the Outward Man which is loath to subject his Neck to the sharp Axe of Death But this Bitterness is recompenced with that Refreshment the Soul finds in its Constancy of Self-denial which is attended with many glances of Divine Comfort darting in upon the Soul to encourage it and though it should for a while remain in this Progress which is bitter to the Flesh without any sensible Comfort which may well be through that great opposition the Dragon will make at this remove of the Soul yet when Patience hath had its Work and the Soul is come to be wrapt up in Contentation and Passiveness as to any Change of its Condition and so fitted for Enlargement the showers of God's Love will seasonably and sweetly descend to the strength and blessed Support of the Heart so that it will be forced to cry out It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord And what the Spirit sometimes now enjoys so sweetens the Cross that it cannot but thus break forth Why should the Soul refuse that Cross That Gold returns instead of Dross Why should it fear that piercing Nail Which rends away the fleshly Vail And gives a Prospect of that Place Which Time and Age cannot deface CHAP. VI. BY this time the Soul begins to delight in the habit of strong Self-denyal and watches diligently over its self to discover whatever is to be slain upon the Cross of God's pure Will and now it begins to be ashamed of all Passions and Affections that flow from the Animal Man and therefore much restrains it and keeps it in subjection to the Angelical which is according to that Order God himself set at the beginning Now it likewise sees how the Animal Mortal part with its Motions and Passions is too much imbraced by most few understanding how it was in the Beginning or how it is to be changed and again subjected to the Angelical Part in the Children of the Resurrection But the Soul having now some Sight and Enjoyment of the inward Spiritual Body raised from the dead is much ashamed of the outward Body which stands in the Curse under awakened Wrath seeing what Temptation Spirits are exposed to by Union with this which should continually be under the Law of Mortification till its Change lest through its Earthly Inclination it should infect the Intellect and draw the Immortal Soul into Defilement which now dares not hearken to the Allurements of the sensitive Spirit which as tempting Eve oft presents the Apples of Mortality as those which are pleasing to the Eye and good for Food But through the renewal of the Spiritual Body with its five Faculties or Powers answering to the five Senses of the External Body the Objects and Pleasure of the Outward begin to be forgot and to displease instead of alluring and affecting the Heart For by the Exercise of the Internal Senses we see Spiritual Objects as the Internal Light-World Visions of Angels and Visions of Representation In this state we likewise hear the Songs Voices and Harmony of Angels with the Harpers upon Mount Sion who there continually praise the Lord We smell the Perfumes of Christ's Garments and are oft entertained with Paradisical Odours We touch and feel the powerful tincture of Christ's Body which many times strongly affects the Heart with powerful delight We also oft taste the Heavenly Manna and those Dews of Paradise which are sweeter than Honey to that Part which receives them I could here more largely particularize the several Objects Delights and Enjoyments of the inward Spiritual senses but because there may be great Variety according to the different Gifts and Capacities of several Persons and in regard some for ought I know may pass far in the Progress of the New Birth without a particular knowledge of those Enjoyments I shall not instance in many particulars I could nor set down my own with some others peculiar and various Experiences Yet in general I cannot but affirm that the unlocking the Sences of the inward Man is a great Priviledge and that the Soul by it attains many great Supports and Refreshments to uphold it and give it incouragement to hold out to the end For truly this Communion it lives in now with the Angels of God and other Divine Objects continually minds it of Heaven and Paradise and exceedingly draws the Heart from all that is in the World where Death and Corruption is wrote upon every thing And the Dragon and Beasts bring forth their various Wonders But in this state the Soul blesseth God for that Constancy he afforded under the Cross and for that Death it hath undergone in Resignation to his Will which hath proved a passage into this Life in which the Soul beholds the opening of a New World with its glorious Hoasts And begins to feel the Sweetness of the Angelical Life and to see what we fell from by descending into the Spirit of Mortality and the sensitive Nature Now this state cannot be attained but by a Death to that which was the chief Ingagement of the Soul to the World and the primary Chain that hindred its gradual Ascent towards God And we may find there is something in every one which is the Souls Dalilah that shaves its Locks and betrays its strength and whilst this remains it cannot effectually grow in the Love of God and Conformity to Christs Death But when this subtle Harlot comes to be discovered and killed the Soul flies apace and very swiftly to Eternity for when this Wheel is taken away the smaller that depended on it lose their strength and motion and so cease with it giving Freedom to the Soul of tending towards its true Center which having regained this Liberty and attained in some Measure the Restoration of the Holy Powers of Sensation sings a Song of praise to God in this manner Blest be that Power which hath that Idol broke Which did so long depress me with her Yoke Blest be that Hand which hath restor'd to me An Eye within this World a World to see Where Angels and blest Spirits freely move As they are acted by the Laws of Love Whence they a Visit sometime deign

of Love upon his Children who are nearer to or further from Perfection as they partake more or less of this Essential Love which is the Spirit and Life of Christianity without which all Duties and Observances are but as sounding Brass and perishing Shadows In which all have their worth and use From the Dictates and Impulses of this Law I have written this small Discourse as believing it may be instrumental to undeceive many who are wandering in the Labyrinths of Error yet seek the true way And to confirm strengthen and direct oothers who are making their way through the Cross to the Crown of Life And truly th●s Subject is of great Concernment to all because all are capable of the New-Birth and none without it can ever be happy To mistake this work is very dangerous because 't is the Passage to eternal Rest The highest Heaven is situate in the large Plains of Eternity yet the Way to it is very narrow At the Entrance the sharp Sword of Circumcision is placed On the left hand there 's a Gulf of Fire on the right hand a deep Water at the end there stands a Cherubin with a flaming Sword whose Office is to cut off the Reliques of all Corruption from the Soul so that the least Grain of Selfishness or Fl●sh cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Spirit of Man is totally to be inhabited by Christ There 's not one Weed to be left there We are to be stript of all the Riches of corrupt Nature before we can pass through the last Gate into the City A naked Spirit quickly enters Hence that of Christ Blessed be the poor in Spirit for their's is the Kingdom of God An empty Spirit God will fill For God is Love and delights through his Son to communicate of his own Fulness to all that can receive it The Soul cannot be emptyed but through Regeneration nor filled if not first emptyed We part with Darkness Vanity and Lust We receive Light Substance and Love A complete exchange brings complete Happiness How few are willing to sell all for Christ How many Distinctions are created by Reason to avoid the Cross and Death of Christ But it is very dangerous to take up such Principles that may indulge any part of that which must be destroyed It may make us fall short of Heaven when we expect to enter into it 'T is far more safe to be too strict than too remiss But the mean is best which I believe is here somewhat clearly discovered Farewell The Way to the SABBATH of REST OR THE Souls Progress in the NEW-BIRTH CHAP. I. REgeneration is absolutely necessary to Salvation John 3.3 Hence it greatly concerns us to know its Nature and Operation how it is to be considered either in it's Initiation Progress or Consummation As it is taken for the Beginning of the Work it implies that first Change of the Soul when in general the Frame of the Will is swayed God and Heaven-ward In it's Progress 't is the growth and motion of the Soul from the Image of the Earthly toward the Image of the Heavenly In it's End it is the bringing forth of the perfect and complete Image of God in our Humanity 1 Cor. 15.49 When we attain this we are completely in Christ wholly New-born 2 Cor. 5.17 and made fit to see and enjoy that eternal Kingdom which hath been prepared for us from the beginning of the World Regeneration then in it's full Latitude comprehends all three States and may be thus defined It is that transforming quickning Work of Gods Spirit which begins carries on and compleats Gods Image in us And so it is taken by Christ Matth. 19.28 where he promiseth twelve Thrones to his twelve Disciples as Rewards for their Faithfulness in following him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Regeneration where it is expressed by an emphatical Note insinuating the Fulness and Completeness of it as there meant But in the ordinary acceptation amongst Professing Christians 't is used in the most restrained sense for the first Change of the Soul when the bent of the Heart begins to be habitually carried toward God in Christ And by what I have heard and seen from most I have conversed with I find too much weight laid upon this first Work as though it were the complete New-Birth and that which might give sufficient ground of Comfort even to those who feel not the comfortable growth of the inward Man in it's Motion towards Perfection Hence many rest upon their first supposed Conversion and have a continual Eye to it as a great prop to their Souls though they feel their Chariot-Wheels stand still yea go backward and are in much more Deadness and Drowsiness of Spirit habitually than when they first entred into the work of the New-Birth But certainly this is dangerous Ezek. 18.24 and may much deceive the Spirits of many by making them more eye what they were than what they are or may be by pressing toward the Mark of perfect Union for it stops their Motion and hinders their Ascont toward Heaven and their constant practising Conformity to the Death of Christ by which Death only we pass out of the Fall are fitted for Glory and at length attain the Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 Oh! then take heed of resting there Where living Flesh brings deadly fear And casts the Soul on that sharp Reed Which for a Cure will make it Bleed Then stand not still nor turn thine Eye Backward unto Mortality But wing'd with Faith move apace Forward in thy Heavenly Race CHAP. II. HAving briefly shewed what I mean by Regeneration I shall now proceed to it's actual Work as it gradually discovers it's self in the Soul The first Appearance of it in the Heart is by Conviction through which the Soul comes to see its Corruption in the darkness of the Understanding the vanity of Imagination the delusion of the Will in imbracing defiled Carnal Objects and the irregular motions of the Affections running earthward like swift Torrents down a Precipice In a word the Light of God shining into the Soul gives it a view of it's sad Apostacy from it's Primitive State when it was created in the Image of God whereas now it sees it self in the Image of the Serpent bespattered with the dust of the Earth cloathed with polluted Rags wrapt up in darkness and hellish Confusion stained with the poyson of Sin centred in the fire of Gods Wrath dwelling in the Valley of the shaddow of Death where Devils are it's Associates and Companions pleasing themselves in the pollutions and stains of the Soul as delighting to dwell in such Graves of Corruption Now when the Soul once beholds this Oh how it begins to be amazed How it wonders at it's self What Tumults begin to be raised in it What Earthquakes discover themselves What a Monster it appears to it's self when compared to the Righteousness Holiness and Purity of God expressed

a new Impression which more exciting the Powers of the Soul to a new Imbrace opens the way more for the King of Glory to enter with that power and unutterable force of Divine Love that the Soul becomes filled swallowed up and transported into a kind of Rapture not being able to express those Pleasures Gusts Imbraces Love-Extasies which then are piercing thorough it nor sufficient Praises and Hallelujahs to the great King of Saints who bestows such Royal tokens of Love upon it And as in this state there is such holy Commerce in pure Love betwixt God and the Soul so there is betwixt the Soul and other Saints who cannot but wonderfully own and love one another and delight in that likeness of God which they see in each other and bless him for those living Powers of Grace and Love that are communicated in the Worship of God by which they exceedingly refresh each others Spirits Now this mutual love chiefly flows from a sight and sense of Oneness which exceedingly enforceth this great closing and out-slowing of Spirit to delight comfort and refresh one another And here is that strength of Love that we could give our lives for the Brethren and endure much Affliction to flee them from sufferings Here we bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Royal Law of Love for we can keep nothing as our own but what we heartily communicate and make our Brethren partakers of because they are part of our selves Here we come to practice that heavenly Law of loving our Neighbours as our Selves and of doing Gods Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven for which end Man and the visible World were brought forth For the breaking forth of sin and wrath was not according to Gods most pure and holy Will which is good and tends to Salvation and Blessing and the keeping of his Creatures in that primitive Harmony in which they came out of Gods hands as fitted to glorifie him through mutual Love and regular Obedience And this is the end of Christs Coming into the World of Mans Nature even to restore it from the Discord of Sin and Wrath to the Harmony of pure Love and Righteousness therefore 't is a happy state to have attained this Habit of Love before described which will not terminate within the Sphere of our Neighbours and Brethren but in some measure flow out to all causing us to breath after endeavour and pray for their Change for it is the Nature of true Love to communicate it self and to delight in propagating its own heavenly Image that so many may come to partake of Bliss and Happiness through it And in this Enjoyment if we find any that know and posses but little yet thirst much after God O how will our hearts burn within us How ready shall we be to employ our Talents for their good and to discover that Way which leads through Nature into the Kingdom of the Love What labour and pains could we take to be instrumental in changing and quickning them and in bringing them through the Cross to our ovvn state of Happiness so that this Dispensation abounds much in Love both to God and our Neighbour fitting the Soul for Ascention into Eternity there to see and know with Satisfaction and Delight those Wonders which the holy Angels and glorifyed Saints are continually viewing with Joy and Admiration Blest is that Soul which is arrived here Where quickning Love casts out dejecting Fear And gives that sweet Composure to the Mind That it lyes passive to that Holy Wind Which blowing from the highest Paradise Invites the Soul to come and Sabbatise In that bright day where the Arch-Angels sing Sweet Hallelujahs to our Christ their King CHAP. XVI Being the Conclusion to the Rest THE Soul being brought thus far in the Heart-Work by the Power of Jesus through the practice of the Cross in Self-denial and Resignation lives in habitual springings up of the Love in the Centre of it's Spirit where the work is near finished the Will being constantly drawn toward the Heart of God in the Chariot of Love And in this State the Soul is completely fitted for Ascension and the opening of the Eternal World which is part of the Head-work for in that the spiritual Eye is seated which is capable to see and know the wonders of Eternity And though some in a rapture may be taken up into that World long before the work in their Hearts Wills and Affections is finished yet such must afterward go through the work in Nature of rectifying all their Properties and of bringing their Wills into Death and pure Resignation that so they may be fitted for the Birth of the Love whence its clear that this State of Regeneration attained in the Will through the Death is far more considerable and nearer Perfection than the highest Rapture without such a foregoing work and the Ascension after this work of Regeneration in the Heart is more weighty and more tending to Perfection than any Rapture of Transportation before can be because by such a Work the Will is wrought up into a constant Union with Christ which by Ascension is more confirmed and established the Heart through that being more raised above all mortal corruptible Objects and more reduced into a passive silent waiting for the Opening of the Eternal Temple whence the infallible Voice proceeds and where the great High-Priest sparkles with the most bright Beams of divine Glory But the manner of the Souls Ascending from the Internal to the Eternal World is very remarkable and wonderful It cannot of its self move one degree upward That same hand of power which carried it downward to see the Wonders of God in the Depths must carry it upward to see his Wonders in the high places above So that in this the Soul is meerly passive The Spirit of Christ being the Agent which descending with an over-shadowing Vertue upon it wraps it up swiftly and in a strong force by which the Souls Acts are for a while suspended translates it as it were in a strait Line from the Inward toward the Inmost In this Translation or Ascension what Wonders are seen and felt I shall not particularly express But in general this I must declare That there is an unutterable Power transfusing the Soul in this Ascent which first comes into the Womb of the Invisible Worlds out of which they issue in which it finds an Universal Silence or Stilness and above which it discovers a great Glory inhabited by glorified Spirits who there live in perpetual Harmony and Joy singing Halelujahs to the Lamb of God and continually waiting upon the Infallible Voice proceeding from the Throne of God To be taken into this is a further degree of Ascension being the second Mansion in the Eternal World where Myriads of Angels attend those Commands which come out of the Most holy place which is the last and highest Mansion in that World answering to