Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	affliction_n	eternal_a	weight_n	10,184	5	9.3838	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59549	Fifteen sermons preach'd on several occasions the last of which was never before printed / by ... John, Lord Arch-Bishop of York ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing S2977; ESTC R4705	231,778	520

yet even in this case still there will To the Vpright arise Light in the Darkness that is Light in the third sense we have given of the word viz. taking Light for Peace and Joy and Comfort And this is that which the Psalmist tells us in another place Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in heart Psal 97.11 Whatever Afflictions come upon the Upright Man yet he hath this advantage of other Men that he bears them infinitely more lightly than they do They are really no great disturbance to him for he enjoys the same calmness and serenity of Mind the same peace and quiet and contentment that ever he did His present sufferings are rather matter of rejoycing and triumph to him than of discontent and repining for he knows that they come upon him by the Counsel and Disposal of the great Governour of the World And he knows that he hath so sincerely approved himself to God and is so well beloved by him that he should not have been ordered into these Circumstances had it not been really for his good And this Consideration doth so effectually support him under all the Difficulties that he hath to conflict with that he not only sits down casily and quietly but is very well pleased with the dispensations of the Divine Providence towards him how ingrateful soever they may be to Flesh and Blood Let what will happen to him he is full of Peace and Joy For he hath met with no disappointment of his designs His great aim was to please God and his Conscience from God's word assures him that he has done it and he hath nothing to do farther but to wait for the happy time when the secrets of all Hearts shall be revealed and every Man's Counsels and Actions shall be made manifest and then he doubts not to receive approbation and praise and a great Reward in that Day of the Lord Jesus And so much the rather 2 Cor. 4.17 because this light affliction wherewith he is now exercised he is assured will work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory To conclude Whatever his sufferings be he will live and die in a profound Peace perfectly satisfied with all God's dealings towards him And his Life and Death will verify to all that know him that advice and observation of the Psalmist Psal 37.37 Mark the Perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the end of that Man is Peace SERMON VI. PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL On the 20th of March 1684 5. Luke xvi 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead THE Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the Gospel is so well known that it is needless to relate the Particulars of it These Words are the Conclusion of that Parable and they are made the Words of Abraham who being in Paradise is brought in as speaking them to the Rich Man in Hell The Occasion was this This now Poor Man not being able to obtain the least Comfort or Refreshment for himself under that unsupportable anguish he endured bethinks himself of his Friends and Relations in the World and casts about how to prevent their coming to that sad condition And for this purpose he begs of Abraham that he would be pleased to send the happy Lazarus into the World again to testifie to his Brethren what he knew and had seen concerning the State of the other Life and to exhort them to a timely Repentance lest they should come into that place of Torment in which he was To this Request Abraham thus answers They had Moses and the Prophets which did plainly enough testifie against their Sins and offered sufficient Motives to them to repent and therefore there was no need of such extraordinary Means as he desired But this Answer did not satisfie the miserable Man Still he pursues his former Request Nay Father Abraham saith he but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent There was no resisting such an Argument as that If Lazarus whom they all had known living and now knew to be dead should rise again and personally come to them and tell them in what a sad condition he had seen their Friend and that they must all expect to run the same Fortune if they did not change their Course of Living This would come close to them and be more convincing than a hundred Arguments drawn from the Books of Moses and the Prophets which were written many Ages before their time and so consequently could not be presumed to have so great a force as an Argument drawn from their own Sense and Experience To this Reply of the Rich Man Abraham peremptorily rejoyns in the Words of the Text. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead To omit lesser Matters that may be observed from these Words the Point which primarily and most naturally seems to be offered to our Consideration from them is this That those who give no credit to a setted standing Revelation of God once well attested or are not thereby prevailed upon to reform their Evil manners neither in all probability would they be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought by God in order to their Conversion as for instance though one should rise from the dead and appear to them Now to satisfie every one of the Truth of this Proposition it will be abundantly sufficient to make out these two things First That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God such as that was by Moses and the Prophets here mentioned to convince Men or to reclaim them than there can be in a Private Miracle though I see it with my Eyes And Secondly Though God should be pleased to work a Miracle or to send an Apparition for the Conviction of an obstinate Unbeliever or vicious Person yet such a one would as easily find out shifts and ways to evade the force of such an Argument and to hinder the Effect it ought have upon him as he formerly did to put off the ordinary standing Motives and Arguments of Religion And consequently there is little probability that he who is not gained by the former will be wrought upon by the latter I begin with the first of these things That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God to convince Men or to reclaim them than there can be supposed to be in a Private single Miracle though a Man sees it with his Eyes Or than there can be in an Apparition from the dead if God should think fit to vouchsafe such a thing In speaking to this I mean not to concern my self or you with the Revelation of Moses and the Prophets though that be the Revelation which the Text here speaks of I think it will be more suitable and useful to us to consider

which is more accommodated to Cities and publick Societies than to Cloysters and Deserts And lastly Mat. 5.16 this is to walk in a conformity to his command who hath bid us make our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But Fourthly and lastly If it be a thing so necessary that every man should do Good in his life as hath been represented then how much to be reproved are they that do no Good till their death That live scrapingly and uncharitably and uselesly to the world all their lives long and then when they come to die think to Atone for their sins and neglects of this kind by shewing some extraordinary Bounty to the poor or devoting some part of their Estates to publick or pious uses I must confess this kind of proceeding doth to me seem just like the business of putting off a man's repentance to his death-bed It is absolutely necessary that a Man should repent though it be never so late and so it is that he should do good if he have done little Good in his life he is bound as he loves his soul to shew some extraordinary uncommon instances of Charity and a Publick Spirit when he comes to die But then it is here as it is with the long delaying of Repentance the deferring it so long has robbed the man of the greatest part of the praise and the comfort he might have expected from it His Rewards in Heaven will be much less though his good deeds should be accepted but he is infinitely uncertain whether they will or no. It must be a very great act of Generosity and Charity that can obtain a pardon for a whole life of uncharitableness Let us all therefore labour and study to do Good in our lives let us be daily giving evidences to the World of our kind and charitable disposition and let not that be the first which is discovered in our last Will and Testament If God hath blessed us with worldly goods let us distribute them as we see occasion in our life time when every one may see we do it voluntarily and not stay till we must be forced to part with them whether we will or no for that will blast the credit of our good deeds both with God and man I have said enough concerning the first point recommended in the Text viz. doing Good I now come briefly to Treat of the other that is Rejoycing which is equally a part of the business of this day There is no Good saith Solomon in any earthly thing or there is nothing better for any Man than to rejoyce and to do Good The Rejoycing her recommended is capable of two senses the first more general and more concerning us as Christians the other more particular and which more immediately concerns us as we are here met upon this occasion In the first place by Rejoycing we may take to be meant a constant habit of joy and chearfulness so that we are always contented and well pleased always free from those anxieties and disquiets and uncomfortable reflexions that make the lives of mankind miserable This now is the Perfection of Rejoycing and it is the utmost degree of Happiness that we are here capable of It must be granted indeed that not many do arrive to this state but yet I doubt not but that it is a state that may be attained at least in a great measure in this world Otherwise the Holy Men in Scripture and particularly the Apostles of our Lord would never have recommended it to us so often as they have done Rejoyce evermore 1 Thess 9 16. Phil. 4.4 saith S. Paul to the Thessalonians And to the Philipians Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce The way to attain to this happy condition doth consist chiefly in these three things First a great innocence and vertue a behaving our selves so in the world that our Consciences shall not reproach us This St. Paul lays as the Foundation of Rejoycing This saith he is our rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in this world It is in vain to think of any true solid Joy or Peace or Contentment without a hearty Practice of all the duties of our Religion so that we can satisfie our selves of our own sincerity before God And then secondly To make us capable of this constant Rejoycing besides the innocence of our lives there must go a firm and hearty persuasion of God's particular Providence a belief that he not only dispenseth all events that come to pass in the World even the most inconsiderable but that the measure of the Dispensations of his Providence is infinite Wisdom and Goodness and nothing else so that nothing doth or ever can happen to us in particular or to the world in general but what is for the best Now when we firmly believe this and frequently attend to it how can we be either solicitous for the future or discontented at the present events of things let them fall out never so cross to our desires and expectations This is the best Antidote in the world and an effectual one it is against all trouble and vexation and uneasiness that can happen to us upon any occasion whatsoever to wit the consideration that all things are managed by an infinitely wise and good God and will at last prove for the best how unaccountable soever they appear to us at present And this is that which the wise man insinuates in the verse before the Text when he saith that God hath made every thing beautiful in his season Thirdly Another requisite both for the procuring and preserving this continual chearfulness and rejoycing is a frequent and fixed attention to the great rewards of the other world which God hath promised to all that truly love him and endeavour to please him This consideration will extreamly add to our comfort and contribute to our Rejoycing under all the miseries and afflictions that we can possibly fall into namely that whatsoever condition we are in here we shall certainly in a little time be in a most happy and glorious one and the worse our circumstances are in this life the greater if we be good shall be our happiness in the next 2. Cor. 4.17 for these light afflictions as S. Pual tells us which indure but for a moment do work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory This then is the joy that we are to endeavour after in the first place to be constantly well pleas'd and contented with our present condition whatever it be and these are the ways to attain to it But Secondly There is another more particular Notion of Rejoycing and which I conceive Solomon doth chiefly intend in the words of the Text and that is the free and comfortable enjoyment of the good things of this life that God hath