Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	angel_n	heaven_n	world_n	3,434	5	4.3076	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B12526	A preparation vnto fasting and repentance. By Peter Moulin, and translated by I.B.; Preparation à jeune et repentance. English	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; J. B. (John Bulteel), d. 1669.	1620 (1620)	STC 7336.5; ESTC S113623	21,955	107

excellent creature that is how much lesse betweene God and between a man a sinner as Abraham was who acknowledgeth himselfe to be nought but dust and ashes whose light is nought but darkenesse whose righteouinesse is as filthy ragges whose strength is as smoake that vanisheth away If God findes no stedfastnesse in his Angels how much lesse in them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the Moth Such as was the splendor of Herods robes when hee was eaten of wormes and gaue vp the ghost in comparison of the brightnesse of the Sun such is the glory of man in the presence of God and that small lustre which he hath in this world is accompanied with thousands of briers and incommodities like a gloe-worme in the midst of a bush What thinke ye is the highest heauen before God It is as a point in his presence and what is the earth in regard of heauen but as a point in comparison And what is a man in comparison of the whole earth but as a Pismire wandring in a large countrey as the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 40. speaketh Behold the nations are as a drop of a Bueket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance and are as nothing before him And therefore Abraham saith Behold I haue taken vpon me to speake vnto the Lord which am but dust and ashes It is also the end for the which God hath created man of the dust to the end that if he should happen to glory of the light of his vnderstanding hee should be presently abased and abated by the remembrance of the birth and beginning of his body and by the feeling of his infirmity and to the end hee should vse and imploy this reason to pray vnto God who lifteth the poore from the dust and powreth his treasures into earthen vessels that he would not contest against dust nor enter into an accompt with ashes that he would let it dissolue by nature without dissoluing it before his time by the violence of his wrath This is the consideration which Dauid brings in the 103. Psalme to moue God to clemency and compassion Like as a father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him for he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust before whom wee cannot present our selues but our haires must stare our blood must freeze within vs and all the pride wee haue in vs must needes be abated by feare All these considerations might make this priuate familiaritie of Abraham with God seeme to be excessiue as intending to controule the actions of God and his cunning with small respect to insinuate himselfe little by little and obtaine by peeces that which hee durst not demand all at once Notwithstanding in that God heareth him willingly and accepts his demaund hinders vs to presume of any euill in such an holy and excellent seruant of God To resolue you of this point ye must know that in a great similitude of words there is often a great dissimilitude of sence and intention Two persons sometimes will vse the same words and make the same signes but to diuers ends and with different intentions As in the 17. Chapter of Genesis Abraham laughes at the promise which God made him touching a Sonne this laughter in him is not reproued because it proceeded of ioy not of distrust but in the 18. Chapter Sarah laughes at the selfe same thing and is checked for it because God did perceiue therein her distrust as if the thing was impossible Zacharie the father of Iohn Baptist and the Virgin Mary doe answere the Angel in words alike saying How shall this be In Zacharie it was a How of doubt in the holy virgin Mary it was a How of inquiry to demand instruction Who could approue in any other then in Moses these bolde words Yet now if thou wilt forgiue their sinne if not blot mee I pray thee out of thy booke which thou hast written You know that Iob and Ieremie prest with anguish haue cursed the day of their birth I thinke that those that are tormented in hell say the very same thing for as Christ saith of Iudas it had beene good for those men that they had neuer beene borne But other was the motion that droue these holy men to this other the murmuring of the damned for these are moued and set on with hatred against God but Iob and Ieremie haue suffered themselues to slippe by infirmitie to these words of excesse wherein I doubt not but they haue greatly offended God and haue asked him pardon thereof The bubling of their anguish haue casted forth for once this scumme of their impatience So in a man weaker in faith then Abraham and lesse accustomed to conferre with God familiarly this priuate familiarity might seeme excessiue but the humility whereby he acknowledgeth himselfe dust and ashes and the fauourable answeres of God to his demands doe exempt him from the crime of temerity Let vs not impute to subtilty this kinde of insinuating himselfe so by degrees nor looke for any craft therin let vs rather attribute it to the nature of faith which imboldeneth her selfe by degrees and maketh her selfe familiar little by little by how much shee acknowledgeth the effects of Gods fauour for the first fauourable answers doe giue liberty to make others the first graces of God doe containe couert promises of increasing of graces for God giueth because he hath giuen his first liberalities doe inuite the following ones hee crownes not our merits but his gifts his gifts and his calling are without repentance This priuate familiarity of Abraham therefore was without contempt his boldnesse was modest his confidence humble which hee testifies in acknowledging himselfe dust and ashes for without this humility his prayer had beene vnpleasing to God who reiects the prayer of the proud and inclines his care vnto those that haue a contrite and broken spirit as it is said in Isaiah Chapter 66. I will looke to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word God sendeth raine in greater abundance on low places yea when it doth fall on high places it stayes not there And if any great tempest or furious storme happeneth the Oake and Ashe trees are ouerthrowne and cast downe to the earth but the Time and Marioram remaine whole Gods graces falling vpon the proud doe not stop nor settle there God resisteth the proud but giueth grace vnto the humble To aske of God graces with a haughty spirit and opinion of his owne righteousnesse is to be like him that should begge with a suit of cloath of gold and all perfumed he that askes after such an vndecent manner must looke to be refused Notwithstanding in this gradation of Abrahams de●…ands considering that he being come to the number of ten he stayes there and saith not but Lord if there be fiue found within the Citie wilt thou not spare the place for

susceptible of contrary qualities without corruption of their substance Euen as the right of gouerning and of iudging the world is deuolued and fallen to him by inheritance not happened by election so neither is he iust and righteous to be conformable to lawes that any hath imposed to him but as his Empire so his Iustice is naturall This righteousnesse being necessarily ioyned with goodnesse Abraham had reason to presuppose that it was more conuenient and befitting this vpright goodnesse to support the wicked for the good mens sake then to destroy the good for the wickeds sake Notwithstanding it seemes this beares many exceptions and hath many difficulties For not to speake of afflictions for Gods cause which befall the faithfull alone while that the vngodly prosper as Christ saith Yee shall weepe but the world shall reioyce because these afflictions are honourable a glorious reproach honest brands blemishes scarfe and liueries of our warfare and conformities to Iesus Christ I will speake onely of euils and afflictions wherewith God punisheth the good with the wicked and that because of the wicked God had foretolde by his Prophets that by reason of the sins of the people the land should vomit out her Inhabitants which was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar did lead the people captiue into Babylon with the multitude of this rebellious people Daniel and Ezekiel were led also away as also those three men who by the heate of their faith ouercame the heate of the burning furnace There were the good afflicted for the wicked mens sake There were seauen thousand in Samaria and among the ten tribes that had not bowed their knees vnto Baal were those exempted from the publicke calamitie when as Salmanazar Tiglatpilezer kings of Syria did leade the ten tribes into captiuitie Doth not God say by his Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 21. that his sword shall cut off from the land of Israel the righteous and the wicked And when God saith in the 18. Chapter of the Reuelation Come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagnes doth hee not warne them that if any of his people remaine there he shall be partaker of the plagues of Babylon And if God would now at this time afflict a kingdome giuen ouer to idolatry and should finde there a generall plague who doubts but that the faithfull mixt with the Idolaters should incurre the same danger To explaine vnto you this point Obserue that when God visits a kingdome or a Citie with a generall affliction by reason of the wickednesse of the people then those of the faithfull mixt with the wicked shall escape whom God intends to make as yet vse of and to imploy them for his glory and for the good of his Church So hee saued Noah from the vniuersall Floud because hee would reserue him and make vse of him for the preseruation of mankinde So also in the dayes of the Emperour Vespasian the Church of the Apostles that was in Ierusalem was warned to goe out of the Citie and withdraw her selfe to Pella on the other side of Iordan least shee should be inclosed by the enemies in the besieging of the Citie whereby it was razed down and the people destroyed And in the 14. Chapter of Ezekiel God speakes after this manner Sonne of man when the land sinneth against my by trespassing grieuously then will I stretch out mine hand vpon it and will breake the staffe of the bread thereof and will send famine vpon it and will cut off man and beast from it though those three men Noah Daniel and Iob were in it they should deliuer but their owne soules by their righteousnesse saith the Lord God they shall not deliuer neither sonnes nor daughters they onely shall be deliuered Because that the conseruation of these men was profitable to the Church of God But if God who prouides for his worke as it pleaseth him will imploy no more such a one and will quickly giue him the possession of eternall life then maruell not if he die as the rest doe and if the like and semblable accidents do befall him notwithstanding in his common afflictions with the wicked he hath particular consolation God giues him grace to profit by his chastisements and to take these banishments for flights from the world and walking towards God Pouerty is vnto him a wholesome and profitable dyer and an exercise of abstinence In his death-bringing sickenesse Gods Angel assists him who wipes off from him his sweaty drops of bloud and Christ Iesus neere him shewing him the crowne of Glory His death is as farre different from the death of others as there is difference betweene the gates of hell and the Kingdome of God So Threshers with the same flaile doe alike thresh both the corne and the straw but to diuers endes which are as Christ Iesus saith To gather the Wheate into the Barne but to binde the straw in bundles to burne it in the vnquenchable fire So the passage through the red Sea was the ruine of the Egyptians but was to the Church of God a passage to arriue vnto the promised inheritance In a word the chastisements wherewith God doth visite the faithfull shall neuer be fully distinct and separated from those of the wicked before the day of iudgement for then the sheepe shall be called out from among the goates diuided and set a part and the tares growen pell-mell and confusedly mingled with Wheate and that hath together endured both storme and weather winde and havle shall be picked vp by the Angels euen vnto the very last slip and sprig and be bound in bottles to be cast into the euerlasting fire Notwithstanding Abraham might seeme to passe the limits of modesty in this demaund as ready to controule the actions of God Wilt thou saith hee destroy the righteous with the wicked that be farre from thee as shewing vnto God his duty Then afterwards hee seemes to vse policy and Art towards God endeuouring to obtaine of God by retaile and parcels that which hee thinkes hee shall not get by the whole and all at one time saying If there be fifty righteous in the Citie wilt thou notspare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein And this being granted vnto him from fifty he comes to forty fiue and from that to forty and from that to thirty and so at last vnto ten Hardly I suppose is there to be found any Prince be hee neuer so meane and pettie that would endure that any of his seruants should leade him so by degrees and abuse thus his gentlenesse and yet notwithstanding there is some comparison betweene the greatest Prince of the world and the meanest begger yea betweene the excellentest Angell and betweene the Pismire and worme the distance and inequalitie is not infinite for they are creatures and there can be no infinite distance betwixt two finite things but there is no comparison betweene God and the most