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	light_a	weight_n	7,836	5	9.3268	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31429	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, on Sunday, January 18th, 1684/5 by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.	1685 (1685)	Wing C1607; ESTC R36289	9,318	37

the Figtree shall not blossom neither Fruit be in the Vines Habac. 3. xvii xviii though the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields yield no Meat the Flocks be cut off from the Fold and there be no Herd in the Stalls that is though there should be an universal failing of all the ordinary supports of humane life Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation It is well for the World in general that God Rules it and takes care of it The Lord reigns let the Earth rejoyce Psalm 97.1 Let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Islands that are cut off from the help and security of the Continent and naturally seem most exposed to danger yet even these are safe under the Divine care and Government But above all good Men have reason to rejoyce because God being their Father whatever he does for others he will be sure to order the administrations of his providence for their comfort and happiness 4. Religion refreshes the mind of a good Man with a joyful assurance of the glory and blessedness of the other World He that goes on by a patient continuance in well doing assures himself from the Justice and unchangeableness of the Divine Promise that however he fares at present it shall be well with him at last and he shall be happy for ever That there is a rest that remains a state of incomparable Glory prepared for them that love and obey God And the expectations of This daily spring in upon his mind with fresh pleasures and satisfactions and he cannot but rejoyce to think that he shall shortly arrive at that place where he shall be as happy as all the glory and blessedness of that state can make him And indeed were it not for the pre-apprehensions of these future rewards Vertue however lovely and amiable in it self would be thought but cold comfort and be able to bring over but few Proselites and Followers 1 Cor. xv xix If in this life only we had hope in Christ we were of all Men most miserable But there are Joys unspeakable and full of glory ready to Crown the Piety of a good Man in the other World and which will infinitely compensate all the difficulties of his present services and sufferings which must needs make him lift up his Head with Joy and Triumph and take pleasure even under infirmities and distresses For this cause 2 Cor. iv 16 17 18. says St. Paul We faint not but though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And so I proceed to the last things I propounded to consider viz. The Excellency of the pleasures of Religion above all the delights and pleasures of this World they Put more gladness into the Heart than when the Corn and the Wine increases And the great advantages of the one above the other will appear from these following particulars 1. The delights of this World are gross and corporeal and affect only the external senses and are the pleasures of the Brute rather than of the Man For any one to drown himself in sensual enjoyments is in effect to degrade himself from the honour of humane nature and to place his happiness in those things wherein the Beasts have a better share than we The Joys and sweetnesses of Religion reside in the most noble and excellent part of Man and that which alone is capable of true real pleasure they come nearest to the happiness of Heaven and the Joys of God himself To be in Heaven is not to be rich or honourable or to swim in plenty or to feast our senses with gross delights no the Joys of that state are chast and rational such as arise from the conscience of our innocency and the sense of our happiness our being for ever in the presence of God and the company of pure and holy Souls What is it that makes Heaven a happy place to good Men but that they are unweariedly and uninterruptedly imployed in the Ministeries of praise and admiration always acting in subserviency to the Will and Pleasure of their Maker wherein consists the blessedness of God himself but only in a happy contemplation of his own infinite Being and a reflexion upon the exercise of his incomparable attributes and perfections Religion as it is the imitation of the Divine perfections so the comforts of it are a kind of participation of God's own delights they put us as it were into Heaven before hand and shew us what our entertainment must be when we come there 2. The Pleasures of Religion are more solid and satisfying than any thing this World can afford They fill our appetites and fix our desires and settle the Soul upon the right basis and temper as in nature every thing is at ease and rest when lodged in its proper center All earthly delights are strangely unsuitable to the nature of our Spirits our desires fly beyond the regions of sence and grasp at something more than this lower World can present them with No vicious Man could ever say he had enough Habac. 2.5 He enlarges his desires as Hell as the Prophets Phrase is and his cravings are as insatiable as death it self He is rack'd between his own inclinations and rowls from one enjoyment to another till the very object of his pleasure becomes the instrument of his torment For not finding satisfaction in this thing he turns to that and so runs the round and after all is never the nearer than he was before he has either too little or too much and like Amnon is either sick for what he has not or surfeited of what he has If residing on any one particular scene of pleasure though it be that which he has most a mind to he quickly grows weary and it becomes to him a bondage and a burden It is Religion only that can bound and terminate our desires and fix the Soul in a hearty Union to the will of God and in the enjoyment of him who is the chiefest good Nor do the repeated acts of it ever cloy or weary us they quiet our appetites but do not nauseate them because fresh delights are continually springing up as they needs must do where the Objects we feed upon are infinite and inexhausted For 3. Religious Pleasures are more large and comprehensive they take in a vaster compass the delights both of this and of the other World How exquisitely pleasant must it needs be to a wise Man to let loose his meditations through the several circles of Divine contemplation to entertain himself with the thoughts of God the best and most