Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	full_a	joy_n	unspeakable_a	3,596	5	10.3032	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50489	The good of early obedience, or, The advantage of bearing the yoke of Christ betimes discovered in part, in two anniversary sermons, one whereof was preached on May-day, 1681, and the other on the same day in the year 1682, and afterwards inlarged, and now published for common benefit / by Matthew Mead.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1555; ESTC R19143	252,739	482

to be converted shall in old age find it is too late to be saved Object 3. Another stumbling-block that lies in the way of young ones to hinder their taking up the Yoke of Christ is the austerities of Religion it is a work too severe for green years and better suits gray hairs Who doth not see what a melancholy thing Religion is * Spiritus Calvinianus spiritus Melancholicus it takes a man off from all his pleasures and delights and dulls and besots the Spirits and therefore when once a man takes up this course never let him expect to see good day more This is another stumbling stone which I shall endeavour to remove out of the way by these four Considerations Answ 1. Consider who they are that charge Religion with these severities Are they such as ever were under the power of it Have they ever lived over its precepts and embraced its promises and tasted its sweetnesses Are they such as can say they have ever made any serious tryal of godliness No I know they are not for if they had they would pass another judgment their own experiences would confute a thousand of these groundless pretences No man ever took up Religion in earnest and heartily submitted himself to the Yoke of Christ but hath found it quite another thing It is good for me to draw near to God Psal 73.28 And if this be the charge of such as never made a tryal what Religion and a holy life is why should any man regard it For they speak evil of those things they know not Jud. v. 10. Prov. 24.7 This wisdom is too high for a fool and they condemn it because they do not understand it And how unreasonable is this Solomon says He that answers a matter before he hears i. e. understands it it is folly and shame to him Prov. 18.13 and yet in Religion nothing more common who were they that in the Apostles days accounted the doctrine of a crucified Christ foolishness but such as understood least of it And who are they that mock at the doctrine of imputed righteousness of the testimony of the Spirit in Believers and of assurance of Salvation but the blind Papists who never felt the power and comfort of these things And Tertul. Quid inquius quàm ut oderint homines quod ignorant Nothing more hateful than for a man to hate and condemn what he doth not understand Therefore 2. Consider what is the judgment of good men in the case who have inured themselves to a life of godliness these are the fittest persons to determine the matter having had their senses exercised to discern between good and evil Heb. 5.14 In other cases you do so if you want advice about matters of Law you will go to an experienced Lawyer or if you advise about your health you will consult the most experienced Physician If you would be satisfied of such or such a Country whom would you inquire of such as write at random of it but never set foot in it Or would you not rather take the judgment of such as have seen it lived in it and known the Laws and Manners of it these can speak by experience and so can every sincere professor John 3.11 We speak that we know and testifie that we have seen and 1 John 1.3 That which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you And what is their judgment in the case why they have commended the life of Godliness as the most pleasant and delightful life in the world and the fullest of true joy and sweetness One day in thy Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere Psal 84.10 Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 And how is Paul ravished with the joys of a life of Godliness hence he speaks his abounding consolations by Christ and crys out 2 Cor. 1.4 God forbid I should glory save only in the Cross of Christ Galat. 6.14 Gal. 6.14 And this is not the sense of David and Solomon and the Apostle Paul only but of all the Saints of God that ever lived and they have not only said it but have practically attested it and that undeniably in this that never any one of them when they once took up the Yoke of Christ ever cast it off again but have lived and died witnesses to this truth 3. The sorrows and dejections that Christians are at any time filled with are not from Godliness but from want of more Godliness not from Grace but from the imperfection of Grace their sins and failings are the only causes of their sorrows and troubles Could they sin less they should have less sorrow and it is a most righteous thing that where sin is committed it should be bewailed If no man can live without sin then how can it be that a man can love God and not mourn and sorrow for sinning against him God will have every man living bewail and repent of sin at one time or other if not here yet in hell And then the question is which is best here repentance ends in remission but in hell it ends in desperation Sorrow for sin now hath a blessing in it it ends in comfort Matt. 5.4 Psal 126.5.6 But sorrow for sin hereafter greatens torment This sorrow will have an end but that is without end What are those merry Greeks that sported away their time and their Souls in this world doing now in hell they are repenting without hope and sorrowing without end weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth at their own folly and madness And which is best the sinner being Judge to go mourning to Heaven where all tears shall be wiped away or laughing to hell where suffering and sorrowing shall be without end 4. Why should a life of Religion be a dull and besotting life what is there in it that should make it so Doth it prohibit us any pleasures or delights no none but what are incompetent to us as men and which make us rather beasts than men And for these it gives better pleasures in their room Peace that passes understanding Philip. 4.7 inward satisfaction resulting from a witnessing conscience Prov. 14.14 2 Corinth 1.12 comforts that flow from an upper spring from divine love manifested and communion with God injoyed These are spiritual pleasures and delights of the same nature and kind with those which in a fuller measure and greater degree of injoyment do make up the state of blessedness And hence it is called joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 So that your joys and delights are not extinguished but raised Religion doth not extirpate them but transplant them out of Egypt that they may grow in Canaan Religion spiritualizeth and sanctifieth your joys but doth not extinguish them So far then Religion is not chargeable with our droops

1.14 Sacrificing was a duty commanded by God but he that corrupted his sacrifices came under a curse as they did that offered the blind and the lame and the sick to God ver 8. When men have not a rule from the word of God for a warrant of their worship that is a blind sacrifice When there is action without affection the lips without the heart that is a lame sacrifice When dutyes are done coldly without life and vigour that is a sick sacrifice and such a sacrificer is a deceiver because he doth not observe the right manner and cursed be the deceiver So Jeremy 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully 1 Corinth 11.29 He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself And what the judgment is he tells you in the next verse For this cause many are sick and weak among you and many sleep Many were under soar diseases and many swept away by death for coming to the Lords table in an unworthy manner It is of great concernment therefore to see that your obedience be right for the manner Otherwise we may think we serve God when our very service becomes sin It is excellent counsel of the Apostle Heb. 12.28 Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably That which gives the acceptance is the manner of obedience Now there must be four things to make obedience right for the manner I. It must be a willing obedience duties are to flow from the heart freely like the drops that come from the hony comb without pressing it is a character peculiar to the subjects of Jesus Christ they are a willing people And herein the efficacy of grace is seen in taking away natural reluctancy and opposition and bringing the will into subjection to Christ And therefore it is said to be an effect of the day of his power in the soul Psal 101.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power God is more honoured by the obedience of the will than by all the service of the outward man Humane force may compell this but nothing but grace can rule the other Many obey but it is by constraint not by choice The influence of by ends or forreign motives or the compulsion of a natural conscience or fears of hell and wrath may compell them to do many things as Herod did but they are burthensome and grievous Ever as the will is such is the service and therefore God who in some cases accepts the will for the deed never accepts the deed in any case without the will 2 Cor. 8.12 In the duties of Gods service the will is all in all Thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind 1 Chron. 28.9 II. It must be an universal obedience And that both in respect to the subject and to the object 1. With respect to the subject it must be the obedience of the whole man Jesus Christ hath redeemed both body and soul and regeneration is a work upon the whole man All things are become new 2 Cor. 15.17 and therefore the service of the whole man is required 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Many give God an outward obedience but their hearts are set upon their lusts and many pretend their hearts are good and right with God but their lives are vitious and among the unclean but where the Yoke of Christ is truly taken up the whole man is the Lords 2 With respect to the object The whole will of God as revealed in his word Walk in all the wayes that I have commanded you that it may be well with you Jer. 7.23 There are affirmative precepts and negative commands for suffering as well as doing positive commands and relative greater commands and less None may be neglected It is said of David he fulfilled all Gnds wills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.22 i. e. his will in all his commands He had respect to all his commands Psal 119.6 Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1.6 and it will be so wherever the heart is right with God For in regeneration the whole law of God is impressed upon the heart so that the soul is equally inclined to all the commands as to one and makes conscience of one as well as another I know in a legal sence no believer on earth can obey universally and fully for in many things we offend all But Evangelically and in the sense of the new covenant every believer keeps all the commands of God that is 1. In love and esteem I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right Psal 119.128 Now love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13.10 2. In unfeigned desire That which his soul longs after is Col. 4.12 to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes Psal 119.5 3. In purpose and resolution I will keep thy statutes Psal 119.8 All people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Micah 4.5 Thus they cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart Acts 11.23 4. In sincerity of indeavour and undertaking He sets no bounds to his obedience that is hypocrisie but forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before He presses toward the mark Phil. 3.13 14. and this according to the tenour of the new covenant is full and perfect obedience III. It must be an upright and sincere obedience Walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 in the margent it is be thou sincere or upright So that sincerity and uprightness is new covenant perfection The perfection of grace in heaven is glory but the perfection of grace on earth is sincerity One dram of this in the heart is worth a world It is that which God delights in Thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness 1 Chron. 29.17 Nay he doth not only delight in uprightness but in the persons and performances of the upright The upright in their way are his delight Prov. 11.20 there you see his respect to their persons and from the person this delight of God passeth to their performances The prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15.8 God can take no pleasure in any duty without sincerity because all duties that are not done in sincerity are a lye It is said of those Israelites in Psal 78.34 36 37. When they sought God and returned and inquired early after him that they did but lye to him with their tongues and why Because their hearts were not right with him It is sincerity that commends every duty to God It supplies all other defects denominates a man a Saint under all his failings

can any way stead us to communion with God unless our end be good One end in all duties is to obtain communion with God There is Commerce and Communion Commerce is when one man Trades with another for private advantage and so a man will maintain commerce with a stranger or an enemy But communion supposes love and delight in the object A carnal man may have commerce with God in duties for selfish ends as they that followed Christ for the loaves Joh. 6.26 but a man can have no communion with God in duty unless his ends be right He puts himself seven times farther from God by an unholy end than by a holy action he seemed to draw nigh to him Our ends therefore are to be narrowly looked unto The best action is corrupted by a bad end and our civil and natural actions have a holiness upon them and are tinctured with religion when they are done to a right end Therefore the Apostle counselling servants in their duty to man bids them make the glory of Christ their end Ephes 6.5 Servants be obedient to your masters in singleness of heart as unto Christ And ver 6. Not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ And again ver 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men The great design of the Apostle's counsel is to sublimate and enoble their ends that the meanest act of their servile state may reach to Christ Be obedient as unto Christ And as the servants of Christ and as to the Lord. What ever a man doth whether in civil or spiritual performances if his ends be not right his heart cannot be right There is a twofold end in obedience which commends it to God the one is subordinate to the other as the ultimate The subordinate end is the honour and credit of the gospel the good of our neighbour the edification of the Church and our own salvation That when we have done all we be not cast awayes 1 Cor. 9.27 2 Ep. Joh. 8. losing all that we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Then there is the ultimate end of our obedience and that is the honour and glory of God which is the chief end of all Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 If the stream of every action empty not it self into the sea of Gods glory it runs wast This is the mark of a hypocrite self love is his highest principle and self-seeking is his utmost end But the Christians true character is in this Love to God is the great principle he acts by and the glory of God is the great end he aims at I might here answer a case of conscience Case of Conscience whether a man ought alwayes actually to intend his ultimate end that is whether he ought to have his eye continually upon the glorifying of God in every particular duty which he performs Answ 1 A. 1. Affirmative precepts though they alwayes bind yet they bind not to all times now this being a duty by virtue of an affirmative precept it is alwayes a duty yet not absolutely necessary in every particular act Indeed as the affirmative doth include a negative so it binds ad semper to all times so that we must at no time do any thing against Gods glory that may reflect any dishonour upon him 2. There is need of a distinction for the fuller resolution of this case Aims and intentions with respect to their end are either habitual or actual or virtual 1. Habitual The work of grace in the heart is to change and sublimate our end so that wherever grace is there is an habitual scope and aim at Gods glory as the end of all obedience But this is not sufficient 2. There is an actual aim at the glory of God in each particular performance Now this cannot be the duty of a believer in his present imperfect state for three reasons 1. Because it would leave no place for other duties 2. It is not absolutely necessary in every particular act though it ought to be frequently done yet it is not so necessary in every duty as that it ceases to be an act of obedience if it be not actually done If a man make a voyage to the Indies his aim and design is to be there in such a time and accordingly he sets sail in pursuance of his end Yet his end is not in his eye in every action he doth in steering and guiding the vessel So it is in this case The design of a Christian is the glory of God in all his actions though he may not actually aim at it in every particular performance 3. It is impossible to perform it where there is a constant lusting of the flesh against the spirit as is in every believer Gal. 5.17 and therefore a further work of grace must pass upon the regenerate soul then can be attained in this state to enable it hereto and that is in glorification whereby grace is compleated and freed from all mixtures of flesh and interruption in its acts by temptation Saints in heaven do actually intend the glory of God in every thing they do and no wonder for they see face to face They are held close to God by an immediate and uninterrupted vision Therefore the holy Ghost puts these two sight and service together Revel 22.3 4. His servants shall serve him and they shall see his face They shall serve him so they do here I but there they shall serve him perfectly with purity of intention and compleatness of performance and how so they shall see him immediately and injoy him fully God is never perfectly served till he is fully injoyed 3. There is a virtual aim and intention which is more then habitual And though it is not actual yet the action hath thereby such a tendency as naturally referrs to the glory of God He that in alms-giving actually intends the good and comfort of his poor neighbour doth therein virtually aim at the glory of God When a man by his repentance and mourning for sin actually aims at the obtaining of pardon and forgiveness the tendency of his action is to an end subordinate to the glory of God For it is the glory of God to forgive sin So then I would resolve the case thus To intend the glory of God habitually is not enough for a believer to do To intend it in every particular duty actually is more then a believer can do But to intend it in each duty virtually and as oft as we can actually this is a believers present duty and obedience thus performed shall certainly find acceptation with God And so much for the second direction to such as are under Christs Yoke that they would labour to bear it becomingly which is done when obedience is from right principles and consists in proper performances and all is done in a due manner