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
A44137	A discourse of the knowledge of God, and of our selves I. by the light of nature, II. by the sacred Scriptures / written by Sir Matthew Hale, Knight ... for his private meditation and exercise ; to which are added, A brief abstract of the Christian religion, and, Considerations seasonable at all times, for the cleansing of the heart and life, by the same author.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1688 (1688)	Wing H240; ESTC R4988	321,717	542

hast endeavoured to walk humbly and perfectly before God that thou canst not find any thing upon the most faithful search thou canst make that might be the Spring of this affliction yet is not thy Labour lost the Clearness of thy Conscience will be thy support in thy Affliction and make thy Burden the easier But yet for all this know thy Affliction hath a Voice still if it look not backward yet it looks forward if it be not a Medicine to cure thee yet it may be an Antidote to preserve thee a Cordial to strengthen thee it bids thee improve thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon God thy Experience of his Presence thy earnestness in Prayer thy neglect of the World thy Denyal of thy self Learn therefore before thou pourest out thy sorrow upon any Affliction to examine thy Heart to search out the meaning of God in it it will regulate thy Grief and instruct thy mind both how to bear it and how to use it 3. Beware thou put not on a Resolution not to be grieved or troubled at all upon any occasion of Grief The putting on of such a Stoical Resolution is to arm a Mans self against God to harden the Heart not to receive Correction and as much as in a Man is to disappoint the purpose of God He that put these Passions in the Heart of Man now sends this Messenger to stir up this Passion though thereby he intends a farther End And for a Man to fence his Soul against any object of Sorrow so as not to be moved thereby shall be sure to find either an absolute Ruine or that God will so plant his Batteries against that Resolution that at length he will master him and melt his Soul into a more pliable Disposition 4. When God sends an occasion of Sorrow entertain it with an Affection answerable to the Object both in kind and measure Let thy Grief be an humble Grief not mingled with murmuring or discontent If thou couldst imagine thou hadst not deserved it yet remember who it is that inflicts it even he that is absolute Lord of his Creature and owes him not his Being When thou goest and treadest upon a Worm or a Snail thou doest an injury to thy fellow Creature yet thou passest away and takest no notice of it But thy Creator can owe thee nothing Take up that incomparable Resolution and temper of Mind with old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And this same Consideration as it will teach thee to mingle Humility with thy Grief so it will teach thee Patience and Quietness in thy Sorrow because the occasion comes from the hand of a most Just and Wise and Merciful God. Impatience under any Affliction ariseth from the termination of the motion of our Souls upon the immediate Object he that knows and fears and loves his Creator and sees his hand dispensing the Afflictions will learn Patience and Moderation though he cannot forget Sorrow and Grief under it 4. Let thy Grief be moderate in Extent Measure and Duration Nothing but sin and the displeasure of God can deserve thy intensest Grief Learn to put a true value upon thy Loss and measure out Sorrow answerable to it Consider 1. Thy Loss is not of thy chiefest Good and therefore deserveth not thy intensest Sorrow Thy Peace with thy Creator thy Everlasting Hope as long as they are safe thou hast enough left to over-weigh the greatest Loss thou canst suffer What are light Afflictions and but for a Moment when put in the Balance with an Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Consider thy Loss is not of thy own Good. Cannot the Almighty lend thee a Blessing but thou must call it thine and deny the absolute Lord of it the Property of it It is his Corn and his Wine and his Oyl and all our Blessings are his and as they are his so they are taken away by him Learn to make the Will of thy Lord the measure of thine and then though Nature teach thee to grieve Grace will teach thee not to exceed in thy Grief CHAP. XXIII Of Watchfulness over our Will Conscience and Spirit AND as thus thou must carry a Watch over thy Affections so learn to carry a Watch over thy Will 1. Learn to Principle it aright the great Lord that hath put this power or faculty in the Soul hath therefore placed it there that it should have a Conformity to his Will and when thou crossest his Will it is thy sin and Deformity and it will be thy Misery Learn therefore to make his Will the Rule of thine 1. ●n what thou dost and herein God hath not left thee without a line to guide thee He hath shewed thee O man what to do and what doth the Lord require at thy hands c. he hath given thee a Rule or Law which is to be the guide of thy Obedience 1. The Rule of his written Word traduced unto thee by a wonder of Mercy and Providence a word that is nigh unto thee Deut. 30.14 a light that shineth in a dark place 2. The Rule secretly conveyed into thy Conscience by the Power and Wisdom of God Rom. 2.15 a Law written in thy Heart and Conscience 3. The Rule manifested in the Dispensation of Divine Providence asserting and confirming the two former if exactly observed in the measuring out of Rewards and Punishments 2. In what thou sufferest the great Lord is absolute Lord over all his Creatures and can owe them nothing but what he pleaseth only to confirm our Faith and encourage our Obedience he hath been pleased to give a Covenant that he will be our God if we remain his people yet in the Dispensation of outward things he hath not absolutely bound himself though such is his Goodness that even in those he observes a measure of Justice which he doth not owe us Learn therefore to make the Will of thy Maker in all things the measure of thine 2. Observe it in the first Motions of it while they are green and flexible and before they be hardened into Resolutions and so grow Masterless bring them to their Rule and examine them by it and accordingly entertain or reject them Clog them with Deliberation and by that means thou shalt be able to take off the Violence and Eagerness of them and likewise the Errours of them Dispense not with thy self in the first Motions of thy Will to any evil in Presumption that thou shalt be able to master them before they come to ripeness for thou sinnest even in those imperfect issues of thy Will and indulgence towards them will make them grow hardy and too strong for thy Mastery consider that in the first Motion of thy Heart thy Will which is the Mistress of thy Soul is the Party against whom thou must strive and thou hast nothing to reclaim the Current of those Motions but the Grace of God which may justly withdraw it self if it finds a Compliance with

Greatness which without it would in a little time swell into a stark Ambition or Covetousness The Evangelist tells us thar All that is in the world is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life that is those Lusts that are in us fasten upon their suitable objects in the World and upon them they live and grow strong and are thereby the better enabled to fight against our Souls and God shews as much Mercy when he takes away their food and starves them by an affliction as when he pardons them Therefore learn by thy affliction the Mind of God in this also and bless him as well for an affliction that prevents thee from sin as for one that leads thee to repentance 6. It may be God hath some extraordinary work to do for thee or by thee prepares thee by those afflictions with humility that thou mayst be a fit Instrument for his Glory or a fit Vessel for his Bounty A sudden access of Greatness or Wealth or Power or Eminence is apt to make thy Nature swell and look big and deny God Prov. 30.9 therefore he prepares thee with the sense of his hand to shew how he can when he pleaseth handle thee with the experience of the benefit of Dependance upon him with a condition that may teach thee to wa●k humbly with him otherwise thou wilt not be able to bear and to manage that condition he intends to put thee in with moderation with his fear with an eye unto him and to his Glory Thus he prepared David for the Crown Job for Wealth the People of Israel for Canaan that they might receive and use it with Thankfulness as from his hand with Sobriety and Faithfulness as in his presence 7. Howsoever it is of most certain and universal use to take off thy Love from this World to present it to thee as it is to take thee off from setting up Tabernacles and thy Rest here and to carry thy thoughts and thy desires to thy home and to thy Country and to make the remembrance of it frequent and sweet and that upon which thou reckonest to make thy passage through death easie and comfortable when thou shalt consider such thoughts as these I am in a body full of pains and weaknesses and diseases so that I have much ado to keep up my Cottage to be comfortable or useful to me but am busied every day to underprop it and repair it that it fall not and when I have done my best yet Old Age will come and that will be an irreparable decay and my anxious life will most surely be attended with a certain death I live in a World full of labour at the best to provide necessaries for my support in a World full of troubles dangers and calumnies If my outward contentments increase yet my cares and my fears increase with them But my condition is not such but with the Psalmist I have cause to say Psal 73.14 All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning and like Noah's Dove I can find here no rest for the soal of my foot My walk here is like a pilgrimage and my path is not plain and easie but narrow and deep and troublesom on either hand of me I pass through the scorns and injuries and vexations of the men of this World who if I want will not relieve me and if I have any thing they are ready to tear it from me and my way which of it self is thus troublesom is accompanied with Storms and Stumbling-blocks and fiery Assaults raised by the Prince of this World and if I take up a lodging by the way it is neither a pleasing nor a safe lodging my dangers and difficulties are greater in my Inn than they are in my Journey To what purpose go I about to set up my rest or to build Tabernacles here The time I can stay will be but short and my short stay in such a World as this cannot be pleasing nor comfortable and this is not my home but I see it at a distance I find it as it were in Landskips Revel 21. the Tabernacle of God where he shall wipe away all tears from mine eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain and then these my light afflictions which are here but for a moment shall be rewarded with an eternal weight of Glory In the confidence and strength of this expectation I will hold on my troublesom Journey with chearfulness and look upon this World as the place of my pilgrimage not of my rest and the unpleasingness of my pilgrimage shall heighten if it be possible the expectation as well as the fruition of my home and the more unwelcome the World is to me and I to it the more shall my heart undervalue and disesteem it and send forth my desires the more earnestly for my Journey 's end teach me to welcome death and to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all 3. Sometimes external troubles are in themselves an express token of the Love of God and they carry with them comfort and delight namely when it is a Persecution for Righteousness sake and in those both the Precepts of Christ and the Pattern of his Disciples command us up to rejoycing Mat. 5.10 11 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad Jam. 1.1 2. Count it all joy Acts 5.41 Rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name Coloss 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh 4. The fourth Consideration is of the Mercy of God and therein 1. his Patience and forbearing Mercy whiles we are in our sins 2. his Clemency and forgiving Mercy upon our Repentance 3. his Bounty and rewarding Mercy in the whole course of our lives and hopes 1. The Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God from our infancy God leads us as once he did Ephraim Hos 11.3 teaching us to go and taking us by the arm but we know it not and bears with the frowardness and peevishness and stubborness and wantonness of our youth and when we come to our riper age he plants us with the choicest Vine with the instruction of his Word and Providence and now he doth as justly he may expect Grapes and we bring forth no Grapes or wild ones Isa 5.2 4. and now how just were it for him to pull up the hedge of it and command the Clouds that they rain no rain upon it or to lay upon it that sad Curse Matt. 2● 19 Never fruit grow on thee more But he doth not thus but expects a second and a third and a fourth year Luke 13.8 and uses all means to mend this unfruitful and unprofitable Plant useth line upon line and precept upon precept and if his Word nor the secret whispers of his Grace will not do