Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A34373
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Contemplations on the love of God, &c. with a devout prayer sutable thereunto
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1699
(1699)
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Wing C5952; ESTC R40866
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7,661
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24
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Contemplations ON THE LOVE OF GOD c. WITH A DEVOVT PRAYER Sutable thereunto God is Love 1 Joh. 4. 8. LONDON Printed for Sam. Keble at the Turks-head in Fleet-street 1699. Contemplations ON THE LOVE of GOD c. REligion is all Love and Love is the whole of Religion whoever loves as he should lives as he should Love is the Perfection of Angels the Happiness of Heaven the Duty and the Reward of Religion LOVE is the highest Progress that can be made in Religion its utmost Advances are Love and the Difference betwixt Heaven and Earth is only more Love Love will do and suffer all Things 't will make our Duty our Joy 't will mingle Heaven with this Life and make our Obedience choice and ravish us with Beauty and inflame us with Desires after that which is best and fairest and draw our Souls up to Heaven while our Bodies are groveling here on Earth Love can it self engrave an Heaven in the Soul here on Earth and enrich it with unspeakable Joys without Love we are dead with it we are immortal and in Heaven even before Death Love will do and sufter all Things that are pleasing to the infinitely Beloved 't will be pleas'd more with Sufferings than with Happiness and Pleasure when it believes that to be more pleasing to the Beloved and 't is the infinitely Beloved from whence this Love comes and who bestows this best of Gifts this Joy of Angels this Beauty and Glory of Heaven it self From hence is the little Peace that is to be found on Earth and those many secret Paradises in the Soul of good Men hence the Beauty and Order of the Mind hence the Agonies of a flaming and impatient Hope hence the Ardors of Faith and the Evidence of Things not seen but believed by the Lover on the Word of the Beloved hence Victory and Triumph in Misery or in Torments hence Hope against Hope hence we trust in God though he should slay us and are assured that our Redeemer lives and ceases not to make intercession for us hence Temples Altars and Vows and all the burning Solitary Loves of the Ancient Hermits and hence the holy Cities in the Desarts and the Sacred Crowds in the Wilderness hence Anthony and Paul and the Macharii Wonders hence Simeon Moses and Hillaryon to be had in everlasting Memory and much the holy St. Jerom and the more excellent Cassianus have endeavoured it From Love is all the Happiness of both the Worlds by it Death is smiling and chearful as Life and more desirable as leading to the Sight of the so much Beloved from whom Life detained if we loved much we would do and suffer any Thing for the Beloved and to prove our Love we should delight in Difficulties and court Hardships and provoke the Enemies of God our Beloved 'T is Love that conquers Sin and pursues the Heights of Vertue and the Purity of Heaven even in this Life 't is Love assisted by the dear Beloved that resists unto Death and in Tortures refuses Deliverance that it may behold the Face of the Beloved and see the Face that burnt the Heart and turned Love into Martyrdom By Love we usually believe and receive whatsoever our Religion delivers to us as knowing it to be the Voice of the Beloved who will not who cannot deceive us but is our Light as well as our Life our Way as well as our Friend who will guide us with his Love and direct us by his Kindness how to Love and what to Believe By Love we cut off all Infidelity and Distrust Obstinacy and Pride the Vanity of our own Judgment and the opposing Humility of Faith with the Arrogance of Reason and the Insolence of Discourse Love makes us suffer Chearsully whatsoever is sent for the Tryal of our Love and Rejoices at the Occasion Love is restless while it breathes on Earth and is kept from its Beloved who is all its Joy and all its Life and all its Hope and the very Shots of the other Life its greatest Pleasure and its main Support Love instructs us in every Duty and takes off the Difficulty and inhances the Reward it gives Strength and Faith Courage and Perseverance and gives us a large and charming Prospect of Heaven though at so great a Distance it delights in Labours and increases by Opposition is never Tired never Faints is never Overcome still Hopes still Rejoices and still Perseveres to the End By Love we pray with Faith and receive the Things asked for because we believe we should and 't was Love that made us believe It makes us Sincere and Constant Humble and Generous Kind and Good and without it we are Obstinate and Sullen Untractable and Conceined Dull and Confident Presumptuous and Unprofitable Unhappy to our selves as well as others Ungenerous Unmanly without Religion without Angels without a God lost to all the Comforts of this Life and the immortal Joys of that to come Bastards instead of Heirs Oppressive and Uncharitable Mean and Ambitious Base yet Proud Arrogant yet Ignoble By Love we enter upon the Life of Angels and taste the Joys of Heaven and burn in Charity with Cherubims and grow above this mortal Life and all its little Concerns and become Denizens of the new Jerusalem the everlasting City and converse with the blessed and immortal Spirits Flaming in Love like them still Praising still Adoring Triumphing with the Martyrs Rejoicing with the Confessors Loving with the Angels Panting with the Cherubims Singing with the Seraphims Adoring with the Thrones Ray'd with Love Clad with Glory Exalted by Musick Raised by Hymns now greater than Crowns and all this World earnest for the glorious Inheritance and impatient for the fulness of the Joy we have already so largely talked of 'T is Love that fills the Mind with charming Notions and the brightest Images She is the Mistress of Concord and Societies of Peace and Harmony of real Joys and lasting Satisfactions from Love are all the purest Notions of Vertue and Worship of Adoration and Obedience She is the fairest Guide and most charming Friendship and the wisest Instructor By Love the World is ruled and Violence supprest and Government maintained and Order is preserved and Kingdoms stand and Commonwealths obey'd for without Love Laws would be of little Strength and Force and Malice would turn all into Confusion and Anarchy and fill the World with Murther and Rapine Violence and Oppression Fury and Slaughter Love is the Way of the Perfect and leads through the brightest Paths to dazling Glory and inexpressible Bliss which nothing in this World so nearly resembles as Love and perhaps it 's only more Love that makes Heaven a happier Abode than this dull Earth that 's over-run with Discourse and Malice with Rage and Revenge with Folly and Violence with Darkness and Disorder By Love we conquer all the Injuries and Calamities we meet with and walk prosperously on our Way dissolving the Oppressor with Coals of Love Returns
of Kindness and Surprizing Forgivenesses and Pardons while he was meditating a second Mischief and a repeated though unprovok'd Evil takes a better Heart and a nobler Mind and is melted into Love and forc'd into a Friend By Love we not only bear our Trials but rejoice in them as the Proofs of our Love and our further Endearment to the Beloved as Arguments of our Sincerity and Opportunity to shew how much we Love and how violently and how much we are in Earnest and how much we would Endure rather than be divorced from him who came down from Heaven and from all his Glory to love us to Death By Love we die daily to this World and seek after the more perfect Love of the other that our Breasts may burn like Angels and the Apostles while the Prince of Love expounded the Scriptures that we may arrive at his Sight who is the Fairest among ten thousand that we may dwell on perfect Beauty for ever and feignt with unmeasurable Love and endless flaming Vows to the Beloved of our Souls who draws us by all the strongest Charms of Beauty and of Love to live and die for him to act and suffer every Thing to seek nothing but the pleasing him in whom our Love lives moves and has its Being and is restless till the Bars of Nature are broke and the shining Way is laid open that leads to the Fountain of Love and Beauty to the Rapture of our Souls and to unspeakable Bliss and Charms that are violent as Storms and soft as Peace and Musick and Sleep and last as long as the new Heavens 'T is Love that makes all the Peace that is in the World and cements Friendship and makes them stronger than Blood and to act like Religion and has produced Men greater than Heroes and all the fleated Histories of Antients that delighted to abuse themselves and us with Fables unworthy to be told and heard by Men. Love does Things that desire no Histories and are greater than all History and are well known in Heaven and observed by Angels though unknown on Earth and concealed from Men It tries and discovers and exposes the Hypocrite but renowns the Sincere and gives them Strength and Perseverance and inflames them with the brightest Passions and Charms to the noblest Actions and strengthens them to the greatest Sufferings fixing their Hope and confirming their Fâ—ith and making it bright and flaming as the Mansions which no Eye has seen but that of Faith and pushes them on to the noblest Undertaking to attempt Things above Poetry and beyond the Force of human Power And such the Martyrs often did and such the glorious Confessors who raging with Love and transported with the most violent and dearest Affections to the Father Son and Spirit sought their beatifick Vision through Racks and Fire and mounted on Flames to Heaven 'T is Love that furnishes Arguments to support our Spirits when broken and disperst by a hard and unkind World that has always treated Vertue hard and the Righteous with the Portion of Sinners their Love guilds the Storm and pierces the Cloud with light and speaking like our Saviour rebukes the Wind and bids the Sea be still and suffers not the Righteous to be as the Wicked but distinguishes 'em in the Calamity and snatches 'em out of the Fire in which the Wicked are consumed to Ashes But Love preserves its Martyrs and its Confessors and if they die they live for ever and are crown'd for all their Sufferings and the exceeding great Reward drowns the Labour and covers the Martyrs with Psalms and he is lost in Glory and in Crowns and shines forth for ever like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father and dies no more but is equal to the Angels being born of the Resurrection By Love we become easy to our selves and others too and the harshness of our Natures is worn off and our very Blood is sweetned as well as our Spirits by it we dismiss our Humours and our Pride and all the Contentions that ensue from thence the Arrogance and Contempt the great Opinion of our selves and the little Value for others the haughty Melancholy and unsociable Meen and Carriage that expects to be pleased in every Thing and complies in nothing But Love is humble and quiet as the Grave and undisturbed as the upper Region of the Air that 's never torn nor driven by Storms and Tempests but is Smooth and Even as the Face of Heaven it receives the Injury in Peace and revenges it with Kindness its Contentions are those of rival Friendship and an ambitious Generosity and as it receives every Injury with Patience so is careful to offer none it has no Designs but to promote the Good of its Neighbour which it always studies as its own 't is gentle 't is useful 't is pitiful 't is helpful rejoices not in Iniquity but rejoices in the Truth bears with all Men loves all Men forgives all Men obliges All. By Love we bind the Furies of our Neighbour and chain his Violence and he is spent in Vain like an angry Wave against a Rock and his Passion becomes as insignificant as the airy Flame that floats upon the Face of the Waters and he only rages against his own Wisdom and Glory and for a Time prefers that Rage of a Beast to the Order and Beauty of a Man to the Glory and Empire of Reason and to the Peace of God that dwells with the peaceful Soul By Love we delight in our Duty towards God and towards Man By Love every Thing is made easy but nothing more so than our Duty because nothing is more capable for in it is all our Interest and our Happiness and all our Hopes in it embark all our Labours and our Sweat and Treasure and therefore nothing can be dearer to us than our Duty and our Sufferings and our Confessions for his Name in whom we trust who in all our Sorrows will feed us with his Love and inrich us with his Favour and inable us with Crowns He who bids us fight will teach us to fight and shew us how to conquer and if we die in his Favour there is Life and at his Right-hand there are unutterable Pleasures for evermore Joys as violent as our Sufferings and rending Transports and over-powring Consolations that require an Enlargement of our Souls to endure them which else would burst with Torments of Delight and Agonies of Pleasure and surious Bliss By Love we understand what in every Circumstance and at all Times is most pleasing to the Beloved of our Souls for nothing is more knowing than Love that knows all Things by communication with the Beloved and informs the humble Lover who rejoices in every intimation of the Divine Will and desires to perform it with Ardor Love will direct beyond all the Learning in the World which is never to be compared to Love the brightest and highest Ornament of the Soul 't is Paradise on Earth 't