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
A58802	The Christian life part III. Wherein the great duties of justice, mercy, and mortification are fully explained and inforced. Vol. IV. By John Scott D.D. late rector of St. Giles's in the Fields.; Christian life. Vol. 4.	Scott, John, 1639-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2056; ESTC R218661	194,267	475

impose upon the Almighty and make Him believe that we are good when we are not and so steal to Heaven in a Vizard Fourthly and Lastly FROM hence 't is visible what great reason we have to be chearful under the Afflictions and Miseries of this World considering what Glories and Felicities there are prepared for us in the World to come Indeed all the Miseries of this World are more or less as we have more or less reason to be supported under them but when we consider that our Time here is but a Moment compared with our everlasting Abode in the World to come our present Happiness and Misery will appear to be very inconsiderable We are now upon our Iourney towards our heavenly Countrey and it is no great matter how rough the Way is provided that Heaven be our Journey 's End for though here we want many of those Accommodations which we may expect and desire yet this is but the common Fate of Travellers and we must be contented to take things as we find them and not look to have every thing just to our Mind But all these Difficulties and Inconveniencies will shortly be over and after a few days will be quite forgotten and be to us as if they never had been and when we are safely landed in our own Countrey we shall look back from the Shore with Pleasure and Delight upon those boisterous Seas which we have escaped and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us thither Wherefore hold O my Faith and Patience a little longer and your work will soon be at an end and all my Sighs and Groans within a few moments will expire into everlasting Songs and Hallelujahs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now our days are dark and gloomy but the bright glorious day is dawning which Night shall never interrupt for God himself is the eternal Sun that enlightens us with the bright Rays of his own Glory And what is a little cloudy Weather compared with an everlasting Sun-shine Doubtless these light Afflictions which are but for a moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things and while we are groaning under the Miseries of this Life let us encourage our selves with this Consideration that within a little little while all our Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes and there shall be an everlasting Period put to all our Sorrows and Miseries when we shall be removed from all the Troubles and Temptations of a wicked and ill-natur'd World be past all Storms and secured from all further danger of Shipwrack and be safely landed in the Regions of Bliss and Immortality And can we complain of the Foulness of a way that leads into a Paradise of endless Delights and not chearfully undergo these short though bitter Throws which like the Virgin-Mother's will quickly end in Songs and everlasting Magnificats Chear up therefore O my crest-fallen Soul for thy bitter Passion will soon be at an end and though now thou art sailing in a tempestuous Sea yet a few Leagues off lyes that blessed Port where thou shalt be crowned as soon as thou art landed and then the Remembrance of the Storms thou hast passed will contribute to the Triumphs of thy Coronation and all the bad Entertainments thou meetest with in this life will but make Earth more loathsome to thee while thou art here and Heaven more welcome when thou comest there and these thy light Afflictions which are but for a moment will work for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. iv 17. CHAP. VI. Of the Necessity of Mortification to the obtaining of Eternal Life I COME now to the Second thing proposed namely that the eternal Life and Happiness of good Men depends upon their mortifying the Deeds of the Body and that it doth so I shall endeavour to prove First FROM God's Ordination and Appointment Secondly FROM the Nature of the Thing I. FROM God's Ordination and Appointment God who is the supreme Governour of the World hath proposed Eternal Life as an Encouragement to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality And supposing that wicked Men could enjoy the Happiness of the other World yet it would be inconsistent with the Wisdom of his Government to admit them to it For should he reward Offenders with eternal Happiness who would be afraid of offending him And if once he rules with such a slack and indulgent Rein as to take away all reason of Fear from his Subjects his Government must immediately dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion And therefore to prevent this he hath fairly warned us by his reiterated Threats that if we live in Disobedience to his Laws we shall be for ever banished from that Kingdom of Happiness which he hath prepared for those that love and fear him So in Rom. viii 13. we are assured that if we live after the flesh we shall die And in Gal. v. 19 20 21. we are told that the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God And so 1 Cor. vi 9 10. Know ye not saith the Apostle that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God And to the same purpose the same Apostle tells us that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God Ephes. v. 5. All which dreadful Denunciations must be supposed to be conditional for else they are not consistent with the Promise of Pardon to those that truly repent So that the meaning of them is plainly this that if we persevere in these Lusts of the Flesh and do not mortify them we shall have no Part nor Portion in the Kingdom of God Hence the Apostle exhorts us Col. iii. 5 6. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience which plainly implies that if they did mortify these Lusts the Wrath of God should not come upon them but if they did not they should be liable to the divine Indignation among the Children of Disobedience By all which it is apparent that according to God's free Ordination and Appointment our eternal Happiness and Welfare depends upon our mortifying the deeds of the Body since God hath so ordained that if we do

the one or the other and the State of Heaven and Hell consists in perfect Holiness and Wickedness and proportionably as we do improve in either of these so we do approach towards Heaven or Hell For as Heaven is the Center of all that is vertuous pure and holy and every thing that is good tends thither by a natural Sympathy so Hell is the Center of all Impiety and Wickedness and whatsoever is bad doth naturally press and sink down thither as towards its proper Place and Element And should not the divine Vengeance concern it self in excluding wicked Souls out of Heaven yet their own Wickedness would do it for that is a Place of such inaccessible Light and Purity that nothing that is impure or wicked can approach it but must of Necessity be beaten off by the perpetual Lightnings of its Glory and tumbled headlong down as oft as ever it essays to climb up into it As on the other hand should not God by an immediate Vengeance precipitate wicked Souls into Hell yet their own Sin and Wickedness hastened by the mighty Weight of its own Nature would necessarily hurry them down thither with a most swift and headlong Motion And if this be so then questionless it is as necessary for us not to continue in our Sin as it is not to be excluded out of Heaven nor thrust down into the flames of Hell and did we but know what this meant doubtless we should run away from our Sins in a greater Fright and Maze than ever we did from the most astonishing Danger For consider O Man by those short Pleasures with which thou treatest thy lusts thou excommunicatest thy self from eternal Ioy and wouldst thou be but so wise as to deny thy self the Pleasure of a Moment thou mightst be pleased for ever and millions of Ages hence be rejoycing among Angels and blessed Spirits because thou wouldst not gratify thy self with those fulsom Delights which would have died away in the Enjoyment And is it possible thou shouldst be so besotted as to exchange the Pleasures of an immortal Heaven for those of an intemperate Draught to sell the Joys of Angels for the Embraces of an Harlot and pawn thy Part in Paradise for a little Money of which e'er long thou wilt have no other Use but only to purchase six foot of Earth and a Winding-sheet O most prodigious Folly What account canst thou give for such an extravagant Bargain at the Tribunal of thy own Reason But it may be you will say What doth the loss of Heaven signify since as you have told us already if we could be admitted to it it could be no Heaven to us And why should we think much of losing that which we cannot enjoy To which I answer 'T is true you cannot enjoy it unless you part with your Lusts because Heaven and they are inconsistent but you may part with your Lusts if you will and being quit of these you may and shall enjoy it for ever Your Sin is the only Wall of Separation between you and Heaven which being once demolished you may enter into it without any Interruption and take Possession of all its Glories So that if you think the Loss of Heaven will be no Trouble to you in the other World because it is such a Heaven as your depraved Souls will be averse to you are infinitely mistaken for though you will be averse to it yet your own Consciences will tell you that if you would you might have conquer'd that Aversation as well as those blessed Spirits that do enjoy it and that if you had done so you might have been infinitely happy as well as they Whereas now you are condemned to wander for ever in a woful Eternity tormented with a restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desire after these sensual Goods you have left behind you and to which you shall never return more the Consideration of which will render the Loss of Heaven as grievous to you as if it were a Heaven over-flowing with sensual Delights and abounding with such Ioys as you will then hunger after but can never enjoy For how will it sting you to the heart when you shall thus ruminate with your selves as you are wandring through the Infernal Shades Ah besotted Fool that I am now I see too late that Heaven is a state wherein a Soul may be infinitely happy look how yonder blessed Spirits are imparadised how they exult and triumph how they sing and give praise and are rapt into extasies of love and joy whilst I through my own Sensuality and Devilishness am utterly incapable of those sublime Delights whereof their Heaven is composed and like a forlorn Wretch am left for ever destitute of those sensual pleasures which are the only Heaven I can now enjoy And therefore as you would not spend an Eternity in such direful Reflections and have those dismal Thoughts like so many Vulturs preying upon you for ever be persuaded to set persently upon this great and necessary Work of Mortification For assure your selves God will as soon let Hell loose into Heaven and people the Regions of immortal Bliss with the Inhabitants of the Land of Darkness as crown a wicked Soul with the glorious Reward of eternal Life For God hath reduced us to this issue either our Sins or our Souls must die and we must shake hands with Heaven or our Lusts so that unless we value eternal Happiness so little as to exchange it for the sordid and trifling Pleasures of Sin and unless we love our Sins so well as to ransom them with the blood of our immortal Souls it concerns us speedily to shake off our sins by Repentance for this is an eternal and immutable Law that if we will be wicked we must be miserable III. FROM hence we may perceive what is the only true and solid Foundation of our Assurance of Heaven namely our mortifying the Deeds of the Body for if they that mortify the deeds of the body shall live then if we do or have mortified them we are sure that we are entitled to eternal Life So that to be assured of Heaven we need not go about to spell out our Names in the Stars or to read them in the secret Volumes of eternal Predestination for if our Wills be but so subdued to the Will of God that we do not live in any wilful Violation of his Laws we may be as certainly persuaded of our Interest in eternal Life as if one of the winged Messengers from above should come down and tell us that he saw our Names enrolled in the Volumes of Eternity For besides that God hath promised Heaven to us upon condition of our Mortification we shall when our Lusts are throughly subdued feel Heaven opening it self within us and rising up from the center of our Souls in a Divine Life and God-like Nature so that we shall not need to seek for Heaven without us because we shall find it already come down into us