Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	holy_a	lord_n	spirit_n	6,929	5	4.9769	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94074	The vvay to the highest honour. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Peeres, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, at their late solemne monthly fast. Feb. 24. 1646. / By William Strong, one of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the House of Peeres.	Strong, William, d. 1654.	1647 (1647)	Wing S6013; Thomason E377_24; ESTC R201368	39,205	58

Die lovis 25. Febr. 1646. ORdered by the Lords assembled in Parliament That Mr. Strong one of the Assembly of Divines is heerby thanked for his great paines taken in his Sermon Preached yesterday before their Lordships in the Abbey Church Westminster it being the Monethly Fast Day And he is heereby desired to cause the same to be Printed and published And that no person whatsoever doe presume to Print or reprint the same but by warrant under his owne hand Jo. Browne Cler. Parliament I appoint John Saywell to Print my Sermon William Strong THE WAY TO THE HIGHEST HONOVR Presented in a Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable House of Peeres in the Abbey Church at Westminster at their late solemne Monthly Fast Feb. 24. 1646. By William Strong one of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of the House of Peeres Transit honor hujus seculi transit ambitio In futuro Christi judicio nec absidae gradatae nec cathedrae velatae nec sanctimonialium occursantium atque cantantium greges adhibebantur ad defensionem ubi caeperit accusare conscientia conscientiarum arbiter judicare Quae hic honorant ibi onerant quae hic relevant ibi gravant Aug. Maxim Episcop Epist 23. LONDON Printed by T.H. for Iohn Saywell and are to be sold at his Shop in Little Britaine at the signe of the Star 1647. To the Right Honourable the House of Peeres assembled in Parliament Right Honourable IT is an argument that God hath advanced a man in mercy when he gives him a spirit suitable to his honour when his disposition is noble according to his condition Otherwise Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto Bern l. de consid but as beauty in a faire woman without understanding A Princely spirit is mainely seene in two things In great services and great satisfactions 1. Inter initiae principatus quotidie secretum sibi horarium sumere selebat nec quicquam ampliù quam muscas captare ● 8. All delight arising from suitablenesse betweene the minde and the object a minde that is truely great cannot please it selfe in these low things that others doe To eat and drinke gather riches build houses and delight themselves in these contentments of the flesh As Sueton reports of Domitian Who had the great affaires of the Empire to busie himselfe in yet he did constantly spend some time every day in catching of flies But a truely noble spirit is with David considering how he may lay out himselfe in some great service for the glory of God the advancement of his Ordinances and the enlargement of the Kingdome of his deare Son As for other things he lookes upon Them as beneath him Hister Ammian Charceil●a l. ●0 As Themistocles after a great victory won against the Persians walked up and downe among the slaine and saw here ther some great rich spoyles which he disdained to stoope for but said to one that stood by him Recte recusat conditionem banerut omnibus liqu●dum sit quiequid postea Abrabae contigit contingere tantum 〈◊〉 ●enedictionem Domini ●en ex homin●●m savore Lu be● sin Gen. 14. Tolle haec tu qui Themistocles non es Let such take care of these things that have spirits fit for no higher things 2. Such as a mans spirit is such will his satisfactions be A noble spirit as he doth all unto God so he exspects to receive all from God and he admires nothing but God and the things of God He cannot be content only to be rich in this world but he must be rich towards God or to be honourable among men he must have the honour that comes from God only He saith with Abraham Valde prerestatus sum me nolle sic satia●i Melch. Adam 〈◊〉 vita Luth. it shall never be sayd that the King of Sodome made Abraham rich And with Luther when a great gift was sent him that God should not put him off with outward mercies he would not be satisfied with any thing here below God hath highly advanced your Lordships above your Brethren let it appeare by your Princely spirits in laying out your honour yea and laying it downe also for God He hath raised you to great honour and given you such opportunities as your ancestors never had See that you answere the price put into your hands Let his glory be precious to you if you doe expect that yours shall be precious unto him And know if it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian oret 20. all the outward embalmings of men will never be able to keepe your names from stinking and rotting For the word is gone forth of his mouth they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed I shall only commend to your Honours that two fold study of Basil and Nazian As worthy of your Noble spirits 1. Esteeme this to be a great thing to be as well as to be called Christians to have it in truth as well as in name 2. So to live here with hopes of Heaven having your hearts affections and conversations there that you may as it were prevent your departure and seeme to be stollen thither before hand That the Lord would thus enoble and raise your spirits set you upon the highest services with the greatest successes and give unto you the fullest satisfactions himselfe and the honour that comes from him alone That your glory here may be but the pledge and the first fruits of that crowne of glory which he hath prepared for them that love him This is and shall be the humble and constant prayer of Your Lordships servant in the Gospel WILLIAM STRONG A SERMON PREACHED in the Abbey Church of Westminster before the House of Peers on the 24. day of February 1646. 1. SAM 2.30 For them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed GOD hath made of one bloud all Nations that dwell upon the face of the whole earth All men are equall in their originall in their creation Adam and in their fall Enosh there was in neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great eminent and honourable man Only God makes the difference and appoints one vessest to honour and another to dishonour heere as well as heereafter Ps 75.6.7 Promotion commeth neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South Psal 82 6. Jo. 10 35. Omnis potestas est à sumena potestate Aug. Principis solius jus est minuere vel augere valorem monetae Gr. Tholossan Syntag Iur is l. 36. c. 2. S. 26. de repub l. 9. S. 31. he pulleth downe one and setteth up another It is because he hath sayd Yee are Gods and his word of Command and Commission comes to you To set the value upon Coine is reckoned inter Regalia to cause money to rise or fall at pleasure it is Gods prerogative royall to exalt the value of one man above another to honour some

without a new Creation a mighty worke of regeneration passing upon a man a people created for his praise God receives no honour by any of the most curious workes of unregenerate men They are all turned into sin Psa 109.7 Esa 65.5 they are to him as smoake in his nose and he abhors them because though they seem to honour God in his Law yet they honour him not in his Sonne and he will be honoured no other way and these workes he sets a very high price upon Luther propounds this query why the Lord in Scripture hath recorded so many ordinary and common things of the Saints and yet the Vertues of Socrates and the famous acts of Hannibal Caesar Alexander and Scipio which to humane view were greater then any in the Church ever performed Comment in Gen. 29 1.2.3 Si dareru● m●hi optio eligero● unius Christiani rustici aut ancillae sordidissi num maxime agreste opus prae omnibus vic●otiis triu●● phis Alexandri magni Iulii Caesaris c. Quere quia hic est Deus illi●●st Diabolus quae est differentia essentialis Hoc non omnes possunt cerwere ne Erasmus qui dem vidit soli credentes cernunt precium pondus operum Christianorum pondus autē pretium maximum operum est sides verium ●bi enim Deus ipse est spiri●us in operante Non sorde●● insima carnaliaopera sanctorum nec vilia abjecta fiunt quia fiunt a parsona credente accepta san●●a divina quae quicquid fecerit scit Deo placere of whom it is hard to find a parallell even in David himselfe or any of the Christian Worthies He answers the first thing to be looked unto is whether the person be accepted or else the workes cannot please God si vel Cicero vel Socrates sanguinem sudasset tamen propterea non placeret Deo And therefore he professeth that if God would graunt him his desire he should chuse rather to be the Author of the meanest worke of the lowest of the Saints then of all the Victories of Alexander or the Triumphs of Caesar because God is honoured in his Sonne in the one and not in the other God may use Cyrus to deliver his people to say to Ierusalem thou shalt be built and to the Temple thy Foundations shall be layd God may make the King of Tyre as a covering Cherub unto the Arke he may cause the earth to succour the woman and appoint Badgers skins and Rams skins for to cover the Tabernacle And he may get himselfe honour by them but they doe not honour him because all they doe is not in his Sonne which is the high and only way in which he will be glorified There is a double Principle from whence all the actions of unregenerate men towards God do flow either a principle of open enmity or of secret flattery all their grosse sins proceed from the first and all their religious duties from the latter Psal 78.36 they did but flatter him with their lips and lyed to him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him c. And the latter in some respect is most abhominable as Judas his betraying Christ with a kisse is more hatefull then that of the Souldiers who came with swords and staves to take him Mark 1.24.34 Christ suffered not the Devills to speake because they knew him Luc. 4.41 Non decet immundum do mundo pronunciare à De● refugum de sancto Dei Brug He will not suffer Satan to give a testimony of him to be the Sonne of God though it were truth and the same testimony that hee commends in Peter Math. 16.16 from an inward detestation that any truth of him should be witnessed by the Father of lyes If our persons doe not please God our workes cannot honour God This being layd for a ground wee now come to shew how God is said to be honoured by us and that is principally in these six particulars 1. When the thoughts of God are sweet to a man and he hath high and ravishing apprehensions of him from day to day Math. 15.8 there is a distinction made by Christ himselfe this people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me there is therefore an honouring God with the heart as well as with the mouth and if ever our Odors be sweet to God they must proceed out of Golden Vials Rev. 5.8 Pineda Sanctim In opposition hereunto wee have cursing God in the heart Job 1.5 which is not to be understood of violent and malicious blaspheming of God but a forgetfulnesse of God or any irreverent and unholy thought of God unbecomming his Matie and glory And this is I conceive Medes Diatr upon the sanctification of Gods name p. 28. to sanctifie the Lord in our hearts Esay 8.13 noting that immediate duty which wee owe to him in acknowledging and meditating of that peerelesse excellency that is in him as the highest the most delightsome and satisfactory object of the soule Thus do the Angels honour him when they alwaies say in their hearts Esa 6.3 holy holy holy is the Lord God of Hostes the whole earth is full of thy glory So doth Solomon teach us Eccles 5.2 by considering the Lord is in heaven and wee are upon earth So doth Moses when he is rapt into admiration of him Exod. 15.11 who is like unto thee Oh Lord who is like unto thee Glorious in holinesse fearefull in praises 1. Sam. 2 2. doing wonders So Hannah there is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee neither is there any rock like unto our God Ps 139.17.18 And David how precious are thy thoughts unto me Oh God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand when I awake I am still with thee c. And thus Micayah honoured God 1. Kin. 22.19 when he saw two Kings sit upon Thrones and yet the apprehension of the Glory and Majesty of God did swallow up all the thoughts of the glory of the creature and it becomes as nothing before him Jer. 2.32 Psa 10.4 But when wee forget Gods dayes without number he is not in all our thoughts and when the glory of other things darkens the glory of God in our hearts and thoughts of other things doth drowne the thoughts of God in us as those things that are to us more excellent and more delightsome this is to dishonour God in a mans heart and to live without God in the world 2. Wee then honour God when the honour of God is precious in our eyes when whether wee eate or drinke or whatsoever wee do else 1. Cor. 10.31 wee doe all to the glory of God When a man 's owne honour is not deere to him in comparison of Gods but he casts downe his crowne and falls upon his

be renowned Esay 14.20 Having thus finished the explication of the Text only the Application remaines which I shall cast into one use of exhortation to you Right Honourable whom God hath exalted in this Nation If yee desire to be truly honourable let Gods honour be precious in your eyes If you feare a blot in your name a staine in your coate doe not set light by the things of God Esay 5.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria●● Mont. Qui vult ess● sibi non ti●● nihil esse intipit inter omnia Ber. for they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed The Nobility is the glory of a Nation wee desire that no shame may be be cast upon our glory that our silver become not drosse nor our wine be mixed with water Herein true honour and greatnes lyes when the things of God are great in our esteeme and Gods honour is exalted by us and when a man fals from this he begins to be nothing though he be the greatest Monarch of the earth To enforce this exhortation I shall only adde these considerations and conclude 1. A man may have the highest honour upon earth yet he may be before God and all the Saints a vile person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despectu● So is Antiochus though a Prince called Dan. 11.21 It s an especiall manifestation of the soveraignty of God that he rules in the Kingdomes of mortall men gives them to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.17 sets over them the basest of men If a man exalt not God he hath nothing in him that is honourable and all the honour that he hath is but vaine glory Act. 25.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles 10.6.7 a fancy and no more It was one of the vanities that Solomon saw under the Sun Folly is set in great dignity and servants are on horse-backe when Princes walke as servants on the earth Men of servile spirits and servile lusts are advanced and men of Princely spirits remaine in low place This outward honour will never set a man up with God and his Saints they only that are precious in his sight may be called honourable And this is a sure rule Tantus quisque est quantus est apud Deum all true honour is that which comes from God only 2. A man may be honourable in this life and miserable in the life to come Prov. 21.16 A man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medes Diatrib In Pro. 21.16 of the ancient name of Hell p. 136. The word is rendered by a learned Criticke of our owne in Catu Gigantum referring us unto Gen. 6.4 where those ancient Rebells against God are mentioned whose wickednesse was so great upon the earth that the Lord repented that he had made man and to take vengeance upon them he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly they perishing in their wickednesse and going downe to the place of the damned Hell received it ancient denomination from these ancient Inhabitants and it is called the place of the Giants and all that ever perish since are to goe downe to them to the same place Now these were in the earth men of renowne men of honour and of name and yet they are gone unto that place of torment And of all men in the world none will perish with so much scorne and derision as they As meane men may creepe out of the world to their graves with lesse noise so they goe to hell with lesse observation Esay 14 9. When the King of Babylon dyes Hell from beneath is mooved for thee to met thee at thy comming it stirreth up the dead or the Gyants for thee even all the chiefe ones of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they all say unto him with scorne and derision How art thou fallen from Heaven Oh great Lucifer Son of the morning c. 3. Lay these conclusions firmely in your spirits 1. By strength shall no man prevaile 1 Sam. 2.9 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which wee translate strength Prov. 5.10 Hose 7.9 Adsumenta omnia adminicula quibus pollere fibi videtur Cal. signifies not only strength and vigour of body but also of minde in wisdome learning policy or outwardly in honour or estate and the Lord hath layd downe this for a Decree let a man be never so great in all these yet he shall not be strong or prevaile in any of his enterprizes by them For God hath no pleasure in the legs of a man Psal 147.10 where by legs is meant any thing in which a man is strong Qu● suis viribus nittunur Mins and that wherein he may put his trust whether strength of body or abilities of mind riches or honours or any outward excellency whatsoever God hath no pleasure in them nor in the man because of them 2 By iniquity shall no man be established Prov. 12.3 A man may exalt himselfe and mount up unto the highest step of all worldly honour and greatnesse by wayes of bribery and blood he may build his house by unrighteousnesse Jer. 22.13.14 Metaphora ducta est ab arb●ribus quae altè profunde in terram demersae non facitè moventur Car t● and his chambers by wrongs enclose himselfe in Cedar painted with vermilion and thinke his posterity shall endure for ever and call the Land after his owne name but they shall not be established that is as the opposition shewes not take roote as the righteous doe their roote shall be rottennesse a worme and a curse is at the roote God bringeth Princes to nothing Esay 40.24 he maketh the Iudges of the earth as vanity they shall not be planted yea they shall not be sowne yea their stocke shall not take roote in the earth As the pleasure of sin is but for a season so the profit of it is not lasting A lying tongue is but for a moment Prov. 12.19 3. Those that walke in pride he is able to abase Dan. 4.37 he delights to doe it And wee have cause to feare that the Lord of Hosts hath purposed to staine the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honour able of the earth Esay 23.8 4. No man knowes how soone yee may lay downe your honour All things here below are compared unto wheeles Ezech. 1.16 in perpetuo motu full of turnings and changes The story of Sesostris the King of Aegypt related by Polanus upon this place is famous who rode in a triumphant chariot drawne by foure captive Kings of whom one was observed alwaies to looke backe upon the wheele that followed him and being asked the reason why he looked behind him He answered to observe quam citò summa fiunt ima how soone that which is highest becomes the lowest A meditation which would be as fit a corrective to men in great places Wee have lived to