Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A03609
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The soules implantation into the naturall olive. By T.H.; Soules implantation
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Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647.
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1640
(1640)
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STC 13732; ESTC S104198
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169,253
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375
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them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled
the soule more ready and fit to receive the evidence of Gods love to be exprest to the soule which thou canst not have so exprest to thee except thou have this godly sorrow 1 Joh. 1.9 If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse he speaks there of them that now had faith yet shewes that before the Lord would seale to the man that hath faith the assurance of the pardon of his sinnes hee will make him humble and cry and sorrow for them and as to live comfortably so sorrowfully too as 1 King 8.38 2 Chron. 6.36 If the people returne to thee in the land of their captivitie and pray unto thee saying We have sinned we have done amisse and have dealt wickedly then heare thou in heaven c. When the Lord seeth their hearts humbled for their sinnes and sorrowfull for them then hee seales up the pardon of them So then the way to have this assurance is to have this frame of spirit here spoken of Thirdly this godly sorrow ought to bee continually in such as have this love of Christ that so our hearts may be carried with a more deadly hatred of sinne These are the benefits of godly sorrow and if a man sorrow not for sinne he will not sorrow for the wrong and dishonour done to God by other sinfull men as David Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters runne downe mine eyes because they keepe not thy law EZech. 9.4 The Lord sayd to the Angel Goe and set a marke upon the foreheads of all the men that sigh and that cry for all the abhominations that be done in the midst thereof Now how can a man mourn for the abhominations of others when he hath not the heart to mourne for it in his owne soule Ob. But some will say Must we never rejoyce in the Lord Ans I answer Yes I say sorrow daily for thy sinnes and yet daily rejoyce in thy Saviour and the more thy heart is broken for the one the more thou wilt be comforted by the other Thou that makest no matter of being sensible of the body of death that hangs upon thee and hast no care to bee sensible of thy owne failings take heed that the Lord give thee not up for ever to thy owne basenesse to be rushed headlong into some vile scandalous courses and so thou perish for ever as wee finde by experience many by this meanes have growne the most profane creatures that ever lived And this is the damnable heresie of the Familists The fourth sort is the vain-glorious hypocrite and hee is marvellous zealous for God and his truth in outward appearance That God may bee honoured and his Gospel advanced it is admirable what he will do he will hazzard himselfe his life his estate and all nay be content not to live if he may but leave a little vaine breath after him Wee know what vaine-glory doth amongst the Papists who that they may be canonized for Saints will endure any thing and suffer death it selfe this vain-glory is above life and all Simile As some great Courtiers will doe by a man that they meane to make a booty of they make him their onely favorite and expresse a great deale of kindnesse to him that hee may helpe them to more honour and glory So this wretch doth lift up the Gospel that the Gospel may advance him and fill his sailes full of winde therefore he will doe great matters for this end that hee may receive glory from it Even as the Stage-player that sets up a great stage that he may be above the people Another so it is with a vain-glorious wretch prayer is a good stage and fasting and hearing and preaching are very fine stages for him upon which he acts his part that others may see him that glory may come to him and not that the glory and grace of Christ may bee extolled hee would lift up himselfe to heaven and cast downe Christ to hell Such an one was Saul when Samuel gave him the left hand and would not go with him into the Citie 1 Sam. 15.30 He said I have sinned yet honour me I pray thee before the people and turne again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Walke with me and then the people will say Oh what good friends they bee surely hee is a good man the Prophet goes with him It is a great honour to those that are wise because they are willing to joyne side with those that are holy and gracious so Saul will honour Samuel that Samuel may honour him and that he may stand upon his shoulders as it were that the people may say See how inward they are and what a good man hee is the Prophet goes on with him but the turne and the issue of the hypocrite is this it is meerly for himselfe which will appeare thus If once the winde begin to turne and the gale of honour grow somewhat cold and other men are a little lifted up so that he may not bee in the fore-front or if his profession will not carry him out with honour but his credit is laid in the dust and hee sees hee cannot get honour his heart dies in him and he saith It is as good to leave off all and if he cannot get glory from the Gospel either hee will grow desperately wicked and oppose the Gospell and joyne side with the wicked and helpe them or else he will flagge and die in a base carnall course and come to nothing and that 's the best of him This hath been the bane of many men who when they have missed of the glory that they lookt for from the Gospel they have become persecuters These men deal with Christ as the Inne-keeper doth with his guests If a man will pay the Ordinarie Simile he is welcome but if once his money faile hee turnes him out of doores so if Christ will pay his Ordinary and if hee may have credit and honour so as men may say he hath good parts and that he fasts more than the world knowes I say if the Gospel will give him this Ordinary it is welcome and he is carried on cheerfully but if Christ and the Gospel will not give him that which hee would have hee turnes his backe upon it The Lord Jesus convince your hearts of it I take this to be the state of a great many but a gracious heart is of another straine or temper Happely God hath given a man parts and gifts and credit and yet if the Lord withdraw himselfe a good soule saith as John did Joh. 3.40 Hee must encrease I must decrease so a good heart saith If another man deserve and have more than I yet let this proud heart licke the dust and never lift up it selfe if the Lord Jesus may encrease and have his honour and glory let me be trodden in the dust this is a heart worth gold