Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	face_n	moses_n	shine_v	2,681	5	9.0852	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85783	The Christian in compleat armour. Or, A treatise of the saints war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickednesse, and chiefe designe he hath against the saints. A magazin open'd: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual armes for the battel, help't on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole warre. The first part. / By William Gurnall, Minister of the Gospel in Lavenham. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1655 (1655)	Wing G2251; Thomason E824_1; ESTC R207679	343,381	430

should use him more then themselves And 't is observable that the lusting for flesh broke out among the mixt multitude and baser sort of people Numb 11.4 5. but this of pride and envie took fire in the bosomes of the most eminent for place and Piety O what need then have we poor creatures to watch our hearts when we see such precious servants of God led into temptation The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy James 4.5 Our corrupt nature is ever putting on to this sin 'T is as hard to keep our hearts and this sin asunder as it is to hinder two lovers from meeting together Thatch is not more ready to be fired with every flash of lightening then the heart to be kindled at the shining forth of any excelling gift or grace in another It was one of the first windows that corrupt nature look't out at a sin that shed the first blood Cains envy hatcht Abels murder Now if ever thou meanest to get the mastery of this sin First call in help from heaven No sooner hath the Apostle set forth how big and teeming full the heart of man is with envy but he shews where a fountain of grace is infinitely exceeding that of lust The Spirit within us lusteth to envie but he giveth more grace v. 5. And therefore sit not down tamely under this sin it is not unconquerable God can give thee more grace then thou hast sin more humility then thou hast pride Be but so humble as cordially to beg his grace and thou shalt not be so proud as wickedly to envy his gifts or grace in others Secondly make this sin as black and ugly as thou canst possibly to thy thought that when it is presented to thee thou mayest abhor it the more Indeed there needs no more then its own face wouldest thou look wishly on it to make thee out of love with it For first this envying of others gifts casts great contempt upon God and that more wayes then one First when thou enviest the gifts of thy brethren thou takest upon thee to teach God what he shall give and to whom as if the great God should take counsel or ask leave of thee before he dispenseth his gifts and darest thou stand to thy own envious thoughts with this interpretation such a one thou findest Christ himself give Matth. 20.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own as if Christ had said what hath any to do to cavil at my disposure of what is not theirs but mine to give Secondly thou malignest the goodnesse of God It troubles thee it seems that God hath a heart to do good to any besides thy selfe thy eye is evil because his is good Wouldest not thou have God be good you had as good speak out and say you would not have him God he can assoon cease to be God as to be good Thirdly thou art an enemy to the glory of God as thou defacest that which should set it forth Every gift is a ray of divine excellency and as all the beams declare the glory of the Sunne so all the gifts God imparts declare the glory of God Now envy labours to deface and fully the representations of God it hath ever something to disparage the excellency of another withal God shewed Miriam her sin by her punishment she went to bespatter Moses that shone so eminently with the gifts and graces of God and God spits in her sace Numb 12. yea fills her all over with a noisome scab Doest thou cordially wish well to the honour of God why then hangest thou thy head and doest not rather rejoyce to see him glorified by the gifts of others Could a Heathen take it so well when himself was passed by and others chosen to places of honour and government that he said he was glad his City could finde so many more worthy then himself and shall a Christian repine that any are found fit to honour God besides himself Secondly thou wrongest thy brother as thou sinnest against the law of love which obligeth thee to rejoyce in his good as thy owne yea to prefer him in honour before thy self Thou canst not love and envy the same person envy is as contrary to love as the hectical feavourish fire in the body is to the kindly heat of nature Charity envieth not 1 Cor. 13. How can it when it lives where it loves and when thou ceasest to love thou beginnest to hate and kill him and doest not thou tremble to be found a murderer at last Thirdly thou consultest worst of all for thy self God is out of thy reach what thou spittest against heaven thou art sure to have fall on thy own face at last and thy brother whom thou enviest God stands bound to defend him against thy envy because he is maligned for what he hath of God in him Thus did God plead Josephs cause against his envious brethren and Davids against wicked Saul Thy selfe only hast real hurt First thou deprivest thy self of what thou mightest reap from the gifts of others That old saying is true Tolle invidiam mea tua sunt tua mea What thou hast is mine and what I have thine when envy is gone Whereas now like the leach which they say draws out the worst blood thou suckest nothing but what swells thy minde with discontent and is after vomited out in strife and contention O what a sad thing is it that one should go from a precious Sermon a sweet prayer and bring nothing away but a grudge against the instrument God used as we see in the Pharisees and others at Christs preaching Secondly thou robbest thy self of the joy of thy life He that is cruel troubles his own flesh Prov. 11.17 The envious man doth it to purpose he sticks the honour and esteem of others as thornes in his own heart he cannot think of them without paine and anguish and he must needs pine that is ever in paine Thirdly thou throwest thy self into the mouth of temptation thou needest give the devil no greater advantage it is a stock any sin almost will grow upon What will not the Patriarchs do to rid their hands of Joseph whom they envied that very pride which made them disdain the thought of bowing to his sheaf made them stoop far lower even to debase themselves as low as hell and be the devils instruments to sell their dear brother into slavery which might have been worse to him if God had not provided otherwise then if they had sla●n him on the place What an impotent minde and cruel did Saul shew against David when once envy had envenomed his heart from that day which he heard David preferr'd in the womens Songs above himself he could never get that sound out of his head but did ever after devote this innocent man to death in his thoughts who had done him no other wrong but in being an instrument to keep the crown on his head by the

of destroying his faith which he aimes at he is the occasion of the refining of it and thereby adding to its strength Secondly the love of tempted Saints is enkindled to Christ by their temptations and foiles in their temptations Possibly in the fit there may seem a damp upon their love as when water is first sprinkled upon the fire but when the Conflict is a little over and the Christian comes to himself his love to Christ will break out like a vehement flame First the shame and sorrow which a gracious soule must needs feele in his bosome for his sinful miscarriage while under the temptation will provoke him to expresse his love to Christ above others as is sweetly set forth in the Spouse who when the cold fit of her distemper was off and the temptation over bestirs her to purpose her lazy sicknesse is turned to love-sicknesse she findes it as hard now to sit as she did before to rise she can rest in no place out of her Beloveds sight but runs and asks every one she meets for him and whence came all this vehemency of her zeale all occasioned by her undutiful carriage to her husband she parted so unkindly with him that bethinking what she had done away she goes to make her peace If sins committed in unregeneracy have such a force upon a gracious soule that the thought of them though pardoned will still break and melt the heart into sorrow as we see in Magdalen and prick on to shew zeal for God above others as in Paul how much more will the sins of a Saint who after sweet acquaintance with Jesus Christ lifts up the heel against that bosome where he hath layen affect yea dissolve the heart as into so many drops of water and that sorrow provoke him to serve God at a higher rate then others No childe so dutiful in all the family as he who is return'd from his rebellion Again secondly as his own shame so the experience which such a one hath of Christs love above others will encrease his love Christs love is fuel to ours Ex iisdem nutrimur quibus constamus as it gives its being so it affords growth It is both Mother and Nurse to our love The more Christ puts forth his love the more heat our love gets and next to Christs dying love none greater then his succouring love in temptation The Mother never hath such advantage to shew her affection to her childe as when in distresse sick poor or imprisoned so neither hath Christ to his children as when tempted yea worsted by temptation When his children lie in Satans prison bleeding under the wounds of their consciences this is the season he takes to give an experiment of his tender heart in pitying his faithfulnesse in praying for them his mindfulnesse in sending succour to them yea his dear love in visiting them by his comforting Spirit Now when the soul hath got off some great temptation and reades the whole history thereof together wherein he findes what his own weaknesse was to resist Satan nay his unfaithfulnesse in complying with Satan which might have provok't Christ to leave him to the fury of Satan now to see both his folly pardoned and ruine graciously prevented and that by no other hand but Christs coming in to his rescue as Abishai to David when that gyant thought to have flaine him This must needs exceedingly endear Christ to the soul At the reading of such records the Christian cannot but enquire as Ahashuerus concerning Mordecai who by discovering a treason had saved the Kings life what honour hath been done to his sweet Saviour for all this And thus Jesus Christ whom Satan thought to bring out of the soules favour and liking comes in the end to sit higher and surer in the Saints affections then ever CHAP. X. A brief Application of the Point in two Branches Vse 1 THis affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation because he is able to out-shoot Satan in his own bowe and in the thing wherein he thinks to out-wit the Christian to be above him God will not only be admired by his Saints in glory for his love in their salvation but for his wisdom in the way to it The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage-feast and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this as the curious workmanship with which the cup shall be enamel'd Now wisdom appears most in untying knots and wading through difficulties The more crosse wards there are in a businesse the more wisdome to fit a key to the lock to make choice of such means as shall meet with the several turnings in the same On purpose therefore doth God suffer such temptations to intervene that his wisdom may be the more admired in opening all these and leading his Saints that way to glory by which Satan thought to have brought them to hell The Israelites are bid remember all the way that God led them in the wildernesse for fourty yeares Deut. 8.2 The History of these warres Christian will be pleasant to reade in heaven though bloody to fight on earth Moses and Elias talk't with Christ on Tabor an Embleme of the sweet communion which shall passe between Christ and his Saints in glory and what was their talk Luke 9.30 but of his death and sufferings It seems a discourse of our sufferings and temptations are not too low a subject for that blisseful state Indeed this left out would make a blemish in the faire face of Heavens glory Could the damned forget the way they went into hell how oft the Spirit of God was wooing and how far they were overcome by the conviction of it in a word how many turnes and returnes there were in their journey forward and backward what possibilities yea probabilities they had for heaven when on earth were but some hand so kinde as to blot these tormenting passages out of their memories it would ease them wonderfully So were it possible glorified Saints could forget the way wherein they went to glory and the several dangers that interven'd from Satan and their own back-sliding hearts they and their God too would be losers by it I mean in regard of his manifestative glory What is the glory wherein God appears at Zions deliverance those royal garments of salvation that make him so admired of men and Angels but the celebration of all his Attributes according to what every one hath done towards their salvation Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in and chosen by Satan for his first bait who made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdome therefore God to give Satan the more shameful fall gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children in which lies his great advantage over the Saints that so the way to his own Throne where his Wisdome shall at last as well as his mercy sit in

them to win them home to God Vse 2 To the Ministers of the Gospel Let this stir up your bowels of compassion towards those many ignorant soules in your respective Congregations who know not the right hand from the left This this is the great destroyer of the countrey which Ministers should come forth against with all their care and strength More are swept to hell with this plague of spiritual darknesse then any other Where the light of knowledge and conviction is there commonly is a sense and pain that accompanies the sinner when he doth evil which forceth some now and then to enquire for a Physician and come in the distresse of their spirits to their Minister or others for counsel but the ignorant soul feels no such smart if the Minister stay till he sends for him to instruct him he may sooner hear the bell go for him then any messenger come for him you must seek them out and not expect that they will come to you These are a sort of people that are afraid more of their remedy then their disease and study more to hide their ignorance then how they may have it cured which should make us pity them the more because they can pity themselves so little I confesse it is no small unhappinesse to some of us who have to do with a multitude that we have neither time nor strength to make our addresses to every particular person in our Congregations and attend on them as their needs require and yet cannot well satisfie our consciences otherwise But let us look to it that though we cannot do to the height of what we would we be not found wanting in what we may Let not the difficulty of our Province make us like some who when they see they have more work upon their hands then they can well dispatch grow sick of it and sit down out of a lazy despondency and do just nothing He that hath a great house running to ruine and but a small purse 't is better for him to repair now a little and then a little then let all fall down because he cannot do it all at once Many Ministers may complain of their Predecessours that they left them their people more out of repair then their houses and this makes the work great indeed As the Jewes who were to revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish before they could build the wall yet it went up because the people had a minde to work Nehem. 4. O if once our hearts were but fill'd with zeal for God and compassion to our peoples souls we would up and be doing though we could but lay a brick a day and God would be with us May be you who finde a people rude and sottishly ignorant like stones in the quarry and trees unfell'd shall not bring the work to such perfection in your dayes as you desire yet as David did for Solomon thou mayest by thy paines in teaching and instructing them prepare materials for another who shall rear the Temple It s very ordinary for one Minister to enter into the labours of another to reap those by a work of Conversion in whom a former Minister hath cast the seed of knowledge and conviction And when God comes to reckon with his Workmen the Plough-man and Sower shall have his penny as well as the Harvest-man and Reaper O it s a blessed thing to be as Job saith he was eyes to the blinde much more to blinde soules such are the Ministers God himself calls Pastours after his own heart that feed his people with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.15 But wo to those that are accessary to their peoples ignorance Now a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people First by his own ignorance Knowledge is so fundamental to the work and calling of a Minister that he cannot be one without it Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children Hos 4.6 The want of knowledge in a Minister is such a defect as cannot be supplied by any thing else be he never so meek patient bountiful unblameable if he hath not skill to divide the Word aright he is not cut out for a Minister Every thing is good as its good for the end it is appointed to a knife though it had a haft of diamonds yet if it will not cut 't is no knife A bell if not sound is no bell The great work of a Minister is to teach others his lips are to preserve knowledge he should be as conversant in the things of God as others in their particular trades Ministers are called Lights if the light then be darknesse how great is the darknesse of that people like to be I know these stars in Christs hands are not all of the same magnitude there is a greater glory of gifts and graces shines in some then others yet so much light is necessary to every Minister as was in the star the wise men saw at Christs birth to be able out of the Word to direct sinners the safe and true way to Christ and salvation O Sirs it is a sad way of getting a living by killing of men as some unskilful Physicians do but much more to get a temporal livelihood by ruining souls through our ignorance He is a cruel man to the poor Passengers who will undertake to be Pilot when he never so much as learn't his Compasse Secondly by his negligence It s all one if the Nurse hath no milk in her breasts or having drawes it not forth to her childe There is a wo to the Idol-shepherd Zech. 11. such as have mouthes but speak not lips but not to feed the people with knowledge It shall be the peoples sin if they feed not when bread is before them but wo to us if we give them not meat in due season O Sirs what shall we say to our Lord that trusts us if those abilities which he hath given us as market-money to buy bread for our people be found wrapt up in a napkin of sloth if that time wherein we should have been teaching and instructing them shall appear to be wasted in our pleasures or employed about our carnal profits That servant shall have but a sad welcome of his Master when he comes home that shall be found out of the way with the Key and the family starving in the mean time for want of provision Thirdly by his unedifying preaching when he preacheth unsound doctrine which doth not perfect the understanding but corrupt it Better he did leave them in simple ignorance then colour their mindes with a false die or when that he preacheth is frothy and flashy no more fit to feed their soules then husks the Prodigals belly which when they know they are little the wiser for their soules good Or when his discourses are so high flown that the poor

up 't is a sad signe he means not to sowe the seed of grace there O sinners pray as he did request Peter for him that none of these things may come upon you which that they may not take heed thou rejectest not the offers he makes to soften thee Gods hardening is a consequent of and a punishment for our hardening our own hearts 'T is most true what Prosper saith Potest homo invitus amittere temporalia non nisi volens amittere spiritualia A man may lose temporals against hia will but not spirituals God will harden none damn none against their will CHAP. XII Sheweth what the Prize is which believers wrestle against these Principalities Powers and Spiritual wickednesses for In High Places SECT I. THese words contain the last Branch in the description of our grand enemy which have in them some ambiguity the Adjective being only exprest in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in heavenlies the phrase being defective our Translatours read it in high or heavenly places as if the Apostle intended to set out the advantage of place which this our enemy by being above us hath of us Indeed this way most Interpreters go yet some both ancient and modern reade the words not in heavenly places but in heavenly things interpreting the Apostles mind to set out the matter about which or prize for which we wrestle with Principalities and Powers to be heavenly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Oecumenius is as much as if the Apostle had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We wrestle not for small and trivial things but for yea for heaven it self and our Adoption as he goes on The same way Chrysostome carries it in coelestibus id est pro coelestibus Dei And after him Musculus and other modern Writers The Reasons which are given for this Interpretation are weighty First the word elsewhere indefinitely set down is taken for things not places Heb. 8.5 nay one observes this word to be used almost twenty times in the New Testament and never for any aërial place but alwayes for things truly heavenly and spiritual the word indeed properly signifies supercelestial and if applied to places would signifie that where the devil never came since his fall Lastly there seems no great argument to render Satan formidable by his being above us in place 't is some advantage indeed to men togain the hill or be above their enemies in some place of strength but none at all to spirits but now take it of things and then it addes weight to all the other branches of the description We wrestle with Principalities and Powers and Spiritual wickednesse and against all these not for such toyes and trifles as the earth affords which are inconsiderable whether to keep or lose but for such as heaven holds forth such an enemy and such a prize makes it a matter of our greatest care how to manage the combate The word thus opened the note will be this SECT II. The chief prize for which we wrestle against Satan is heavenly Or thus Satans main designe is to spoil and plunder the Christian of all that is heavenly Indeed all the Christian hath or desires as a Christian is heavenly the world is extrinsecal both to his being and happinesse it is a stranger to the Christian and intermeddles not with his joy nor grief Heap all the riches and honours of the world upon a man they will not make him a Christian heap them on a Christian they will not make him a better Christian Again take them all away let every bird have his feather when stript and naked he will still be a Christian and may be a better Christian It was a notable speech of Erasmus if spoken in earnest and his wit were not too quick for his conscience Nihilo magìs ambio opes dignitates quàm elumbis equus graves sarcinas He said he desired wealth and honour no more then a feeble horse doth a heavy cloak-bag And I think every Christian in his right temper would be of his minde Satan should do the Saint little hurt if he did bend his forces only or chiefly against his outward enjoyments alas the Christian doth not value them or himself by them this were as if one should think to hurt a man by beating of his clothes when he hath put them off So far as the Spirit of grace prevails in the heart of a Saint he hath put off the world in the desire of it and joy in it so that these blowes are not much felt and therefore they are his heavenly treasures which are the booty Satan waits for SECT III. First the Christians nature is heavenly borne from above As Christ is the Lord from heaven so all his off-spring are heavenly and holy now Satans design is to debase and deflower this 't is the precious life of this new creature that he hunts for he hath lost that beauty of holinesse which once shone so gloriously on his Angelical nature and now like a true Apostate he endeavours to ruine that in the Christian which he hath lost himself The seeds of this warre are sowen in the Christians nature you are holy that he cannot endure Milet feri faciem was Caesars speech when to fight with the Romane Citizens he bade his souldiers strike at their face these Citizens said he love their beauty marre that and marre all The soul is the face whereon Gods image is stamp't holinesse is the beauty of this face which makes us indeed like God this Satan knowes God loves and the Saint is chary of and therefore he labours to wound and disfigure this that he may at once glory in the Christians shame and poure contempt upon God in breaking his image and is it not worth engaging limbe and life in battel against this enemy who would rob us of that which makes us like God himself Have you forgot the bloody Articles of peace that Nahash offered to the men of Jabesh-Gilead no peace to be had except they would let him thrust out their right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel which how it was entertained reade 1 Sam 11.6 The face is not so deformed that hath lost its eye as the soule is that loseth its holinesse and no peace to be expected at Satans hands except he may deprive us of this Me thinks at the thought of this the Spirit of the Lord should come upon the Christian and his anger should be kindled much more against this cursed spirit then Sauls and the men of Israels was against Nahash Secondly the Christians trade is heavenly the merchandize he deals for is of the growth of that heavenly Countrey Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven Every mans conversation is suitable to his calling he whose trade lies in the earth minds earthly things and he whose trade is heavenly followes that close Every man mindes his own businesse the Apostle tells us You may possibly finde