Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	apostle_n	lord_n	spirit_n	2,573	5	4.8227	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09984	Mount Ebal, or A heavenly treatise of divine love Shewing the equity and necessity of his being accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ. Together with the motives meanes markes of our love towards him. By that late faithfull and worthy divine, John Preston, Doctor in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1638 (1638)	STC 20238; ESTC S115085	27,130	53

he hath condescended to their request that he hath granted their suite and heard their petition and that in such a matter as they are never able to make him any part of amends as the forgivenesse of their sinnes why then they thinke that to love him is one of the least things they can doe for him so Mary Magdalen loved much because much was forgiven her Secondly by familiarity with him we have a saying that nimium familiaritatis contemptum parit that too much familiarity breeds contempt and however amongst some men it may sometimes fall out so yet it s seldome seene amongst those that are intimate friends indeede or say it should yet I say it never so comes to passe betwixt God and the faithfull soule but by how much the more familiar and frequent they are together by so much the more fervent and indissoluble is their love and this is most certaine that a man that is a stranger may with thee well but cannot truely love thee till he be acquainted with thee so neither canst thou love the Lord as thou shouldst so long as you are strangers one to another and what brings us and the Lord better acquainted together then prayer wherein as it were thou talkest familiarly with God even as a man talketh with his friend face to face this is the first meanes Secondly desire the Lord to shew himselfe unto thee as Moses did for this is a strong motive and meanes to make thee love him therefore saith our Saviour to his Disciples that him* which is as if he had said if you would know how you shall come to love me or my father it shall be by this way or meanes I will manifest my selfe unto you I will shew you my glory and then you cannot choose but love mee though you loved me not before Now the ordinary way and meanes whereby he reveales himselfe unto any one is by the preaching of the word which though it be but a dead letter in it selfe yet when hee puts life and spirit into it and opens our hearts as he did open Liddeahs thereby then we see and conceive his mercy and our owne wretched vilenesse whereupon we cannot but love him knowing how hee hath loved us and gave himselfe for us and therefore the Apostle prayeth That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ would give the Ephesians the spirit of knowledge wisdome and revelation that the eyes of their understanding being enlightened they may know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in his Saints* as if he had said if you know but these things then there is no doubt to be made of it but that you will love him as well as one would desire for this is one sure ground why we love him not or love him no better then we doe because wee know him no better we are ignorant of him and ignoti nulla cupido as it is said there is no love no longing desire after that which we know not or know not the worth and necessity of it as a sicke man hath no thought after the soveraigne druggs in the Apothecaries shop because hee is ignorant of any such matter whereas the skilfull Physitian seekes out and sends for them and as an ordinary rusticke cares not for a precious pearle but casts it away when he findes it which if an expert Lapidary had it hee would set much by it because he knowes the price and worth of it well enough and thence it is that when the Prophet David had professed his love to God saying I will love thee ô Lord my strength hee afterwards addes as it were the reason or ground of that his love towards him because hee bowed the Heavens and came downe What 's that why that he had made himselfe knowne unto him he had declared his power and might in his deliverance and that was it that made him love him if therefore thou wilt but desire I say to love him he will inflame thy heart with the love of him yea he will open the Heavens and thou shalt see him sitting on the right hand of God as Saint Steven did But thou wilt say all these are the workes of God and they extraordinary ones too but what must I doe for my part to have the love of God in my heart to which I answer First no it is no such extraordinary thing for God to reveale himselfe to his Saints it is an usuall manner with him but yet Secondly thou must doe these things thy selfe First thou must looke how he hath revealed himselfe in the Scriptures to be a most glorious and gracious God a mercifull Father in Iesus Christ slow to anger and of much mercy and now when we perceive him to be such a one we cannot but love him and long after him with all our hearts Secondly we must consider our owne misery this made Mary to seeke after him and were it not but that we stand in neede of him but that wee know wee are undone and damned without Christ wee should never care so much for him for the whole have no neede of the Physitian that is they care not for his skill nor his helpe but they that are sicke they that know their owne wants and weakenesses they know how to value and esteeme of him and so we when we see we are wounded by sinne and sicke unto death then will we enquire and seeke out for the spirituall Physitian of our soules Christ Iesus Thirdly we must humble our selves before him confessing our sinnes and that in particular as many as we can by the omission of such and such good duties and the commission of these and these sinnes especially we must confesse our beloved bosome-raigning sinnes so the Prodigall Sonne confessed that he had sinned especially against Heaven and before his father by ryotous living whereby he was unworthy to be called his sonne and did desire onely to be as one of his hired servants and now when he saw his father notwithstanding make him so welcome who had so meane a conceit of himselfe that he put a ring upon his finger and shooes on his feete c. then he loved him much more and so it is with Christ and us when we are once out of love with our selves and yet perceive that he loves us who are not worthy to be beloved then that makes us love him againe and the more lowly we are in our owne eyes the more highly doe we esteeme Christ and Christ us Fourthly and lastly thou must first of all get faith for as thy faith is stronger or weaker so is thy love more or lesse if thou hast but a little faith thou hast but a little love for faith is the ground of love as the promises are the ground of faith Now so long as thou dost not beleeve that he hath satisfied the divine wrath and justice of God for thee

or pride or profit or what else thou wilt or canst name besides yea thou must love him above thy selfe and thine owne salvation so that if his glory and any or all of these come in competition together thou canst be content to be accursed for his sake to have thy name razed out of the booke of life and to be Anathema for Christ then is thy love such as God will accept of for this is that selfe-deniall which Christ himselfe speakes of and calls for of us But thou wilt say durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying how shall I be able to doe this to which I answer Thou shalt doe it the better by considering that he is better then all things and that the whole world is not to be compared with him I count that all the afflictions of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed saith the Apostle and that made him endure such persecutions for the Gospell as he did with joy and patience and so if thou be once come to that passe as to know and be perswaded in thy conscience of the incomparable worth and excellency of Christ thou wilt make more reckoning of him then of all the world besides for as he himselfe said of himselfe He that will not deny himselfe and take up his crosse and follow mee is not worthy of mee so he that loves any thing else above or equall with Christ is not worthy of him no thou must be wholly his as he is as he is wholly thine and hath betroathed thee unto himselfe so that as a Virgin that hath betaken her selfe to an husband must forsake all other and cleave or keepe her constantly unto him so long as they both shall live so wee being married unto Christ must not play the Harlot and goe a whooring after other Gods but must be wholly his as he is wholly thine But thou wilt say he is not wholly mine for he is the Saints too To which I answer he is indivisible hee is not divided but is wholly thine as wel as theirs so then if thou wilt love the Lord Christ truely and purely as he would thou shouldst thou must love him so as that all that is within thee be set upon him But thou wilt say againe yet further what must wee love nothing else but him then to which I answer Yes that thou mayst so as it be with a subordinate and not with an adulterous love as a woman may love another man besides her husband but it must not be with such a love as she loves her husband withall she may not love his bed it must be onely with a neighbourly and civill but not with a conjugall or matrimoniall love and so thou mayst love thy lands thy life thy friends c. but so as thou art ready to part with all for love of Christ so that hereby shalt thou know whether thy love be an adulterous love or not if when he bids us follow the duties of our callings and we suffer our selves to be drawne away by vaine delights and doe not therein abide with God as the Apostle speakes that is use it not to the glory of God and the good of the Church and Common-wealth wherein we live and so for any other matter if we cannot be content it should give place to Christ then is our love unlawfull and adulterous yea if our lives lay upon it if we doe not yet preferre him before them wee are not worthy of him we love our selves more then him it is no true love of Christ. But thou wilt say this is impossible that a man should thus love God more then himselfe more then his soule I answer I deny not but that it may seeme so to flesh and blood but yet thou must know that to a man truely regenerate it is not so for as Saint Paul saith I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengthens me those things that to the eyes of carnall reason seeme hard and difficult to them that are spiritually enlightened are facile and easie to be done and so is this Thirdly If thou wouldst have thy love pleasing to God thou must have it grounded on him and that requires two things First It must be grounded on faith in his promises revealed unto thee in his word for without faith it is impossible to please God neither is it so much love as presumption that hath not this foundation Secondly it must be grounded on his person not on his prerogatives or priviledges which thou shalt get thereby for if we love him onely for his Kingdome and not for his person as we doe when we cannot be content to suffer temptation and persecution for his sake then he cares not for thy love because it is selfe love and not love of the Lord Iesus Christ for then if it were thou wouldst respect nothing else but him Fourthly thy love must be a diligent love ready to reforme any thing that is amisse in thee or which may dislike him which whether it be so or no thou mayst try it by these three markes or tokens following First it will cause thee to put on new apparrell a woman that loves her husband will attire her selfe according as she thinkes it will please him best and give him most content especially when shee is to be married unto him then she will have a wedding garment that may set her forth so as he may take the better liking in her so thou if thou hast put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiveable lusts of the flesh and hast put on the new man which after God is created in knowledge righteousnesse and true holinesse if thou be cloathed with the wedding garment of Christs righteousnesse and givest diligence thereunto to make thy calling and election sure then mayst thou be sure thou lovest him and that he accepts of that thy love from thee Secondly It will open and enlarge thy heart towards him so as thou wilt dayly love him more and more so saith the Apostle Saint Paul my heart is enlarged towards you ô yee Corintheans it is not any scanty or niggardly kinde of love that hee will like of but a full free and liberall one so that if thou canst not be content to be at some cost and charges for the maintenance of the Gospell and the enjoyment of his love thou lovest him not or at least he regards not thy love whosoever thou art Thirdly it cleanseth thy heart what is said of hope is as true of love he that hath this love in him purifies himselfe as he is pure and of faith it purifies the heart and so doth love therefore saith the Apostle againe Ye were thus and thus but yee are washed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified c. so that if you would not lose your labour if you would have Christ