Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	great_a	place_n	sea_n	5,022	5	6.4533	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

is present not one imaginary point of time wherein he can be more or shall be less happy to all Eternity Fourthly It is a consistent and fixed state free from all changes and vicissitudes which in this life he is subject to here alas the Christian is sometimes well and sometimes sick now in Prosperity then in Adversity Rich and Poor in the same day In momento vertitur mare ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur In a moment a storm arising where the Ship even now danced it is wrackt He is like one that Travels in an April day whose Cloak is wet with the Rain and dryed again by the Sun and then wet again neither do these changes only befal the Saints outward state but his inward also both in point of Grace and Comfort Now his Heart is up and lively in the performance of a duty anon so dead and down as if he were not the same man Now the Christians Coat is on ready to attend and follow his Master anon it is off and he on his bed of sloth So in point of Comfort one while the Spouse hath her Beloved in her arms and is ravished with his company another while she is setting up her Si quis and enquiring if any can tell her tydings of him hora longa brevis mora The Christian waits long for the Comforter and when he comes he doth but look in and then withdraws again so that the joy which he hath at present is much interrupted from the fear of losing it for nemo fruitur solicito bono how much there is of fear so little is then of enjoyment in what we have Indeed what ever the Saints refreshings are here 't is but like a Travellers entertainment in an Inn the thoughts that he must to Horse again in the morning doth lessen the pleasure he takes in it But in Heaven the journey is at an end the Saint is at home his labour is gone and his rest is come he is in a Kingdom that cannot be moved Fifthly It is an Eternal state this is more than the former the property that crowns all the rest There are some in this life and those none of the best who meet with no changes and that for a long time who enjoy a continued Summers day their Sun of Prosperity goes not in and out but shines with a constant beam no black cloud of any great Affliction interposing to hide their joy from them but at last death chops in upon them and spoils all their mirth in a moment they go down to the pit and with them all their thoughts perish What joy remains to him that is in misery to remember the years of pleasure he hath had A past felicity is a present misery and to remember the pleasure we had doubles the sorrow we have This made Saint Bernard interpret that place of the Psalmist with long life will I satisfie him of Heaven because he thought nothing was long that had an end This indeed is the Emphasis of Heavens joy those Blessed Souls shall never sin never weep more they shall not only be with the Lord but ever with the Lord. This is the accent which is set on the Elogies given to Heaven in Scripture 'T is an Inheritance and that an incorruptible one that fadeth not away It is a Crown of Glory and that a weighty one yea an exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory When once it is on the Saints head it can never fall or be snatched off it is a Feast but such an one that hath a sitting down to it but no rising up from it The second way I propounded for seting forth the Saints reward was to compare the Saints work and labour with the reward For though the reward be great yet if the labour bear any considerable proportion to it so much of its greatness is taken away But the Christians labour here bears no proportion at all with his reward hereafter and therefore the Apostle saith It is not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed His labour is finite but his reward infinite and there is no proportion between finite and infinite There is but little proportion you will say betwixt a drop of water and the Sea yet there is some because though vastly greater yet not infinitely greater but betwixt these finite and infinite there is none at all The Christians reward is infinite First Intensive God himself is his reward as well as his rewarder who is infinite in all his Divine Perfections And what proportion between a poor nothing Creature and his nothing Service to the having this infinitely Glorious God his portion So far are these from bearing any proportion to God that compared with him they are denyed to be I am and there is none besides me saith God or to have any excellency he is the Holy one the only wise God Mans wisdom is no wisdom his holiness no holiness compared to God Secondly It is infinite extensivè or in duration Their reward is an everlasting life but their work and labour for the Lord how short how soon is it dispatched If there be no proportion between Time and Eternity then none between the Christians labour which is performed in so little a point of time and the reward which endures for ever and ever The Christian is a few hours in the Field at his work and then called into an everlasting rest in his Fathers house He carries a light cross a little way on his back which death at the furthest takes off and then an Eternal Crown of Glory is set on his Head It aggravated King Lysimachus his sorrow that he had lost so great a Kingdom for so little a matter as a draught of water How will it ravish the Saints Heart to receive so great a reward at the end of so short a labour Jonathan wondered that a little Honey should cost him so dear as death I did saith he but taste a little Honey with the end of the Rod that was in mine hand and lo I must dye How much more admiringly may the Saint say 't is but a little and that sorry service that I have done for my God on Earth and lo I must live yea live with God yea with God everlastingly in Glory Well may the Apostle say That Christ shall come to be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 2.10 How can it but make them admire to see so infinite a Glory the reward of so poor a labour Object But why should not the Christians Holy labour and Faithful service bear the same proportion to his reward in Heaven as the wicked mans sin doth to his punishment in Hell this deserves that why not that this though the wicked mans sin be as little a time in committing as the Saints Holy service is in performing yet there is an infinite evil in his sin that is objective because committed against an infinite God And why should there not

Actions now thou thinkest thy self Religious enough with thy infrequent Devotions if thou canst get to the Church once in a week and into thy Closet for a few moments once in a day it is well But when thou comest to dye thou wilt then complain how thou hast starved thy Soul and robbed thy God of much time which might and ought to have been imployed in Communion with him and working out thy own Salvation Now a few Pence out of thy great Estate passeth for Charity but when death comes to sweep all away at once then thou wilt complain thou hast been a niggard of thy Purse and didst not honour God with thy Substance Now though thou speakest but once or twice in a Moon of God and Heaven in thy Family and very seldom dost Catechise thy Children and that but formally without any affection or with little desire to affect them with the concernment of those Truths thou instructest them in yet thou pleasest thy self in having done thy duty to them so well But when death's cold sweat shall warn you of your approaching Dissolution then thou wilt bewail that Religion was so seldom the subject of thy discourse in your Family that you did not more constantly instruct your Children and Servants and when you did that you did not more passionately endeavour to move their affections and draw their hearts to the love and liking of Religion in its Truths and the practice of them Thirdly Improve the hope thou hast for this reward to make thee live above this present world Truly thou mayst well be content with a little here who lookest for so much hereafter If the Labourer hath but meat and drink at his work he asketh no more but stays willingly for the rest till night when he is to receive his wages If thou hast Food and Rayment here and Heaven at the end doth not God deal well with thee Oh 't is for want of Faith in the Promise and activity in our Hope to exercise it self on this Blessed Object that we are so having and craving after the things of this world and so dissatisfied with our portion here We read of Solomon that he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as stones Cedars as the Sycomore trees 1 Kings 10.27 The Christian might do more had he a lively Faith and Hope he might make all this worlds Glory Pleasures and Treasures to be but as dirt and dung in his valuation from what he expects to be preferred to within a while in Heaven And he is the happier man that can live above the world than he that swims in all its abundance It is for want of better Metal that Leather and Copper are stamped for Coin and for want of Faith or exercising it on the Promise that we set too high a price of the things of this world This would and nothing else can take off our Hearts from present things Our Affections are too great a stream to be dryed up but turned they may be into another Chanel and truly the world is too narrow a Chanel to contain them But here is roomth enough and more than enough for them all here is a place of broad-broad-water no fear of wanting Sea-room If we would launch out into the Meditation of this blessed place oh how should we find our Hearts inflamed with longing desires to be there and no more envy the Carnal world for what we leave them here to enjoy than you would the Swine his swill if you were going to Feast at a Princes Table which minds me of the next particular Fourthly Improve this Glorious Reward to reconcile death to thy thoughts and make thee rather desire than fear to be dissolved Many were the Arguments which the Philosophers among the Heathens mustered up to expel the fear of this King of Terrors but the wisest of them were baffled in all their attempts therein As it is said of Cicero a little before his death that he confessed the remedies which he had prepared against this Enemy proved he knew not how but too weak and feeble for that purpose And one was bold to tell Plato when he spake much of the contempt of death Fortius loqueris quàm vivis that he spoke higher than he lived and no wonder if we consider in how dark a light they saw the existence of a future state and much more at what a loss they were for finding the right way which leads to the happiness of it Neither do I wonder that any wicked man under the Gospel should be terrified at an approaching death and go down to the grave as they say Bears go down an Hill backward afraid to see or think of that state they are going into For the more any knows of Heaven without a well grounded hope of arriving there the greater must his dread needs be He that increaseth knowledge here will be sure to increase his sorrow but why any of the People of God that have a hope of Heaven should not in some measure overcome the prevalency at least of this fear of death is strange and indeed casts a reproach upon Christianity The Turks I have heard some of them should say they did not think Christians believed there was an Heaven because they saw them so loth to go to it Labour Christian to wipe of this reproach which these Infidels cast upon our Religion First Look thou buildest thy hope of Heaven deep and strong upon a good ground which is Regenerating Grace for a dead Soul cannot have a lively Hope Then labour to hold fast the rejoycing of thy Hope unto the end to which it would much conduce to preserve a right notion of death in thy thoughts What else Christian is death to thee but what Jordan was to the Israelites a passage from an howling Wilderness of a sinful miserable World where thou hast been pinched with Wants and stung with fiery Temptations to a Land of Promise where is safety to security and fullness to Felicity where thou wilt find the absence of nothing but sin and sorrow Look upon it as the uncovering of the Ark of thy body wherein thou hast been tossed and tumbled sorely upon the waves of a restless life to set thee on shore on Heavens firm and peaceable Land Is the betrothed Spouse afraid of her Marriage day or a Prince loth to cross a narrow Sea to take possession of a wide Kingdom and a rich Crown that wait only for his coming No Christian fear not thou death but rather let thy heart revive with old Jacobs at the sight of this Wagon or Chariot which is sent to bring thee over to thy Heavenly Fathers house Fifthly Let it moderate your sorrow for the death of your Pious Friends and useful Instruments in their Generations Indeed the loss of such is great to those that are left behind and therefore God allows us to mourn when such breaches are made upon us but withal he sets bounds to our sorrow that we sorrow