Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A56669
|
The glorious Epiphany, with the devout Christians love to it by Symon Patrick, ...
|
Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
|
1678
(1678)
|
Wing P807; ESTC R1304
|
121,093
|
316
|
his death before he was crowned with glory and honour was a place of very much happiness it will not be compleated till he come again to bring us that Great Salvation which the Scripture speaks of at the Resurrection of the dead When we are at rest from our labours in the other world I cannot but think we shall long for that happy day and that it will be part of our joy to expect it with perfect assurance of its coming And therefore it cannot but be a very delightful entertainment to think of it to hope and wish for it now as the greatest refreshment we have of our labours here in this life For while our thoughts and desires are thus imployed we tread if I may so speak upon the threshold of Paradise and begin to enter into the joy of our Lord. But there is one expression of St. Paul which I mentioned in the conclusion of the second Advice to a Friend p. 64. which excels all the rest for he makes it the proper mark of a Christian to LOVE his appearing Which I have undertaken therefore to explain in this Discourse that devout Christians may know what the Blessedness of that time will be and what the Affection is we should have for it and what Reason there is we should be so affected towards it The subject is so unusual that I have not seen it any where handled which made me the more willing to set about it that I might in part both satisfie the desire I have to do all the honour and service I am able to our Blessed Lord and Master Christ Jesus and the delight I take in explaining his holy Scriptures Of which to be ignorant is to be ignorant of Christ himself as St. Hierom's words are in the beginning of his first Book of Commentaries upon Isaiah I do not expect indeed nor is it possible that you should have your minds alwayes possessed with such thoughts and that your hearts should perpetually burst out into such passions as I have here expressed I my self cannot think them over again nor any like them whensoever I please It is enough good Readers and as much as we can reach if you be thus affected at certain times when your spirit is most serious and retired into it self and if you indeavour to habituate your selves to such thoughts and desires that they may be so familiar and natural as to become easie and delightful when you will stand most in need of them More particularly when the days wherein you live are evil or when you are under any private trouble or when you would at any time retreat from the world and solace your self in angello cum libello in a nook with a Book to speak with Tho. à Kempis who thought this the highest pleasure upon earth or when the Church calls upon you to sequester your self for devotion and especially when old age you feel creeping upon you and you think of drawing your selves by degrees out of this life At all such seasons as these and chiefly when you come near to your journeys end this Prospect cannot but be most pleasant and such aspirations and sighs after the day of Christs appearing be the most ravishing musick and to be transported with such ardent longings as are here represented make Afflictions light and easie solitary retirements exceeding sweet and delightful old age cheerful and death it self very comfortable But you must not imagine that Love can arrive at its highest pitch presently nor must you be troubled or discouraged because you cannot instantly or when you would raise in your selves such passionate longings after Christs appearing Love is a thing that grows and as I may say steals upon us by degrees and the passion we feel at certain seasons disposes us by little and little to be perfectly in love with that Good which is set before us A Good so great and so desireable that we do not follow our own best inclinations if we use not our utmost indeavours to be so happy as to behold that admirable Countenance to speak in the language of St. Chrysostom of our blessed Saviour the King of Glory For if saith he * Homil. penult in S. Johan p. 925. when we read the story of his life death and resurrection we are so inflamed that our hearts burn within us and we wish we had lived in those days when he was conversant on earth that we might have heard his voice and seen his face and kept his company and touched him and ministred unto him think with your selves what it will be to see him not any longer in a mortal body nor doing humane things but attended with the hosts of Angels when we also our selves shall be freed from this mortality and beholding him shall enjoy such felicity as exceeds all expression Let us do all we can I beseech you that we may not miss of so great a glory There is nothing too hard for us if we have a will to it nothing too burdensom if our mind be not averse from it For if we suffer or endure we shall also reign with him And what is it to suffer If we bear afflictions if we endure persecutions if we walk in the narrow way which to nature indeed is laborious but to them who chuse it and have a good will to it is light and easie by the hope of things to come For our light affliction which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at those which are not seen Let us lift up our eyes then from these things here and direct them towards Heaven let us imagine always these unseen joyes and look upon them For if we be conversant with these things we shall neither be inticed with the sweet things of this world nor sink under the load of those that are grievous to be born But we shall laugh these and all such like to scorn and never suffer any thing either to depress us or to puff us up provided we still stretch forth that desire and look towards that love What did I say that we shall not feel the evil things of this world to be grievous to us More than that we shall scarce mind them or think that we see them For such is the nature of love that it makes us imagine we see even those who are absent from us but much desired by us every day with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for great is the soveraign power and as we speak the tyranny of love It neglects all things and tyes the soul fast to those it loves And therefore if we thus love Christ Jesus all things here will seem but a shadow but an image but a dream and we also shall say Who shall separate us from the love of Christ I pray God increase it and make it abound more and more in all our hearts that it may draw
live in these remote places and ages of the world and have heard indeed with the hearing of the ear of Christ Jesus our Dearest Saviour and of his incomparable love and of the honour he hath done us and still intends to do us But have not yet been so happy as to have our eyes intertained much less satisfied with the blissful sight of him as theirs were who lived near him and conversed with him at his first appearing If we had any hope therefore of his appearing again though in less splendor than I have told you we could not but look up unto Heaven where he lives with earnest expectations and say When will he come when will he come and manifest himself visibly unto us Because as yet we know nothing of him but by the report of those who had the honour to be EYE-WITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY We have been told by them that they saw this amiable and gracious person and clearly discerned that he was God manifested in the flesh They have assured us that he was born of a spotless Virgin that his name was Jesus that he was acknowledged the Son of God by voices from Heaven and by the descent of the Holy-Ghost in a visible manner upon his head and yet that he was contented to become poor and mean that he might inrich us to suffer his hands and his feet and his heart to be pierced that he might heal our wounds yea we have heard that he descended into the lowermost parts of the Earth for our Salvation and that he rose from the dead again after three dayes and that he ascended up on high and now sits at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the world and to take up his faithful Servants unto himself And most comfortable news all this is which hath arrived at our ears and we must needs with all thankfulness dutifully acknowledge that we are marvellously beholden to the Almighty Goodness which hath taken such care to perswade and fully assure us of its truth But still every pious heart that sincerely and ardently loves Him is apt to say When will he come again that then we may see as now we believe the certain truth of all this which we have heard of him with our ears When shall we be satisfied by such evidence as the Apostles and other of his Attendants had who beheld his person and saw his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth May not we also hope to be as they were eye-witnesses of his Majesty O when will his holy Angels descend unto us and say as they did to them Come and see that he is risen When shall we hear a voice from Heaven saying come up hither and behold my beloved Son in whom I am ever well pleased When will the trump of the Archangel sound and proclaim in all our ears that he is Judge of quick and dead O how many days must we stay and wait before we rise again to ascend up to him where he is How long will it be before we leave this earth to behold him exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high O most gracious Saviour who hast done such great things for us Come and let us see that thou art alive and still lovest us Come and put us out of all doubt that thou livest for evermore Let us behold those bright those loving eyes which wept so oft and with so much kindness over us Let us see that sweet and now most glorious face which sweat as it had been drops of blood for our sake Stretch forth those hands that were wounded in our service O stretch them out to lay hold on us and lift us up to the vision of thee Do not long defer before thou lettest us enjoy what we now believe Make no long tarrying O blessed Lord but turn the faith of thy servants into sight And by thy second appearing be pleased to make us as sure as thou didst those who then lived by thy first We are perswaded that the fame of those things which we wait for is nothing comparable to the sight of them We cannot but think that all present reports fall far short infinitely short of future enjoyment Thy type the great Solomon O Lord puts us in mind of thee and makes us more desirous to see thee We would fain go like the Queen of Sheba from these furthermost parts of the earth that we may stand before thee in thy heavenly Jerusalem Not the half we believe of thy Magnificence hath been related to us No not the shadow of thy glory and Majesty hath been brought to these far distant climates where we hear little or nothing of thee Nay we believe we cannot now understand thy greatness if it should be all related to us If we should see thee as thou art in thy royal apparel on the Throne of thy Glory with all thy Heavenly Attendants and noble Ministers round about thee there would be no more spirit left within us We should faint away under the weight of that sight unless thou O Lord wouldst disburden us of this flesh and make us become all Spirit And that 's the happiness indeed which we desire and groan in Spirit till we injoy There is no greater good we can wish than to be caught up from this earth and have eyes bestowed upon us bright and strong enough to behold thy Majesty We cannot but long for this that we may stand in thy presence and be satisfied with thee that we may see thee who hast loved us and given thy self for us thee whose love hath won our hearts and conducted us thus far in our way towards thee thee who art our hope and with whom our life is hid That we may see thee O Lord in the height of thy glory and thy face may shine upon us and our eyes sparkle for joy with the light of thy Countenance Of which we are the more desirous because we never yet had the favour to see thee who art so dear unto us O favour us therefore so much most gracious Lord as to come and gratifie our desires with that unknown that long lookt for sight of thee III. And there is still a greater reason to desire it and to be in love with his appearing because then we hope to be perfected and consummated in Love This is an affection you have heard so pleasurable that we are inticed thereby or rather sweetly forced to strain our souls to the utmost expression of it When we have found an object worthy of this passion the delight it gives us invites nay compels our hearts to the most abundant effusion of it that so we may not want the highest degree of delight and joy But alas Love in this world though exceeding sweet is not as we usually speak all Hony but there is some bitterness mingled together with it The heart that is struck with it receives a wound which