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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88594	A treatise of effectual calling and election. In XVI. sermons, on 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Calamy, Edward, 1600-1666.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682,	1653 (1653)	Wing L3178; Thomason E696_1; ESTC R202781	182,095	256

it If you grieve the Spirit of God God will grieve you and your spirits shall be grieved that you shall not keep the joyes of the Lord in your brest in the assurance of his love and favour to you You read Esa 63.10 They grieved his Spirit so he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Beloved though God may be your friend yet he will frown upon you as an enemy and seem to fight against you too in case you grieve his Spirit if thou grieve Gods Spirit God will grieve thine and when thy spirit is grieved thou must needs lose thy comforts Sixthly Take heed of the sinne of hypocrisie false grace will breed a false joy A false heart must needs have false comforts You will never keep true comforts if you have an unsound heart The upright in heart they shall shout upon their beds for joy they shall do it but hypocrites shall not Take heed therefore of this evill and you are in a way to preserve your assurance 2 PET. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their soules that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the managing of which I came to an use of direction to those who are assured of their effectual calling and to them I gave three directions First That you would rightly manage your assurance Secondly Carefully preserve your assurance Thirdly Daily improve your assurance the last of which I have yet to handle And touching this third direction daily to improve your assurance I shall give you but three heads which if you make use of you may every day improve your assurance and bring it from a little to a great measure As First In case you would do this improve your graces The more you increase in grace the more you will grow in comfort Grace and comfort they are two Twinnes that the more one growes the better the other thrives Hence you read that in the saluation of every Epistle the Apostle puts both together Grace mercy and peace be multiplied to you in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1.3 There the Apostle makes the multiplying of grace to be the multiplying of peace The more you multiply and grow in grace the more you will increase peace inward peace of conscience they are both joyned together You have a passage 2 Peter 1.5 11. compared together Adde to your Faith vertue c. The Apostle there urgeth our diligence to adde grace to grace that is to live in the improvement of grace And what will follow verse 11. If you doe these things you shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ You shall not onely go to heaven but you shall have an abundant entrance ministred before you come there you shall have abundance of assurance and inward peace before you come there And here to give you a more particular direction there are these foure graces chiefly you are to improve First Improve the grace of humility Esa 57.15 the Lord doth promise there to revive the spirit of the humble It is a particular promise to that grace that God will revive you and give you a new life if you have it And reviving there is not meant of the first life of grace but of a life of comfort They had grace before but God would give them a life of comfort he will restore your consolation to you in case you are a humble people Hence it is James 4.6 The Lord gives grace to the humble Yea he gives more grace The Lord gives more grace to the humble person then to any man in the world Now the more grace you have the more comfort you must needs have Humility is a foundation of more grace therefore needs must be a foundation of more comfort That building whose foundation is laid lowest is of all the most beautiful and comely Fabrick above ground So those Christians that lay a foundation low in humility they are likely to rear up a most beautiful Building in way of comfort Secondly Improve the grace of faith in believing and that is the way to increase comfort 1 Peter 1.8 Whom though you have not seen yet believing you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though they did never see Christ yet believing in Christ and improving their faith they had not only an ordinary measure of comfort but they had more comfort in their hearts then they could utter with their Tongue They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory So Rom. 15.13 The God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in Believing that you may abound in hope through the holy Ghost Believing makes you full of all joy and makes you abound in it The more you are in Believing the more you will be in assurance Thirdly Improve the grace of love to Jesus Christ John 14.23 If any man love me my Father shall love him and we will come in unto him and make our abode with him That is If you improve in your love to Jesus Christ God the Father and God the Son will make their dwelling in your hearts Now he must needs be a comfortable Christian that hath so good a guest as God the Father and Jesus Christ to come in and make their abode with him As you know to your bosome-friend whom you love and you know loves you you will communicate all your secrets Thus will God the Father if hee knowes you are his bosome-friends and seeth you love him he will communicate all his comforts to you you shall never want comforts if you increase in love to Jesus Christ Fourthly Improve the grace of godly sorrow you will never finde sweeter musick in comfort then when you are laid down in teares As the sound of the Trumpet is never more pleasant then when they are upon the water so when God seeth you flow with the water of repentance and godly sorrow then you are likely to hear the most melodious harmony in the apprehension of Gods love Psal 126. They that sowe in tears shall reap in joy You shall not onely have a dram but a handfull of joy as Reapers they cut down handfuls of corne at once And as you know in seed though you sowe but one grain of corne there may a dozen eares come from that one seed so if you sowe but a little godly sorrow a grain of godly sorrow may be a root to a great deal of spiritual joy Secondly If you would improve your assurance preserve a clear conscience both towards God and man A good conscience is a continual feast Prov. 15.15 Assurance I may say of it as a Father speaks of the Holy Ghost Res delicata est Spiritus Dei and the comforts thereof The Spirit of God is a

It is good to be sure and may not I much more say to you It is good to be sure of heaven it is good to be sure you are effectually called by Jesus Christ it is good to be sure that you are Christians in truth not in name only that you are Christians in Deed not in Profession only O it is good to make your Calling and Election sure Reas 3 Thirdly Christians should labour to assure this because the more assured you are of your Effectual Calling the more it wil heighten and increase your inward peace and comfort 1 Pet. 1.8 In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and full of glory It is verie observable that in all the Epistles of the New Testament where the Apostle speaks of their effectual calling to be Saints in the very next verse he salutes them with these words Grace and Peace be towards you 1 Cor. 1.2 You are called to be Saints Grace and peace be towards you Rom. 1 6 7. Called to be Saints grace and peace be multiplied towards you and so in everie Epistle besides to note that when a man is effectually called the more assurance he hath of his calling the more peace he hath in his own conscience It wil greaten your peace and greaten your inward comforts therefore you should labour after this assurance of your effectual Calling And thus having shewn you what Effectual Calling is and why you must give diligence to make this sure I now pass to a third Querie What are the Characters or discoveries whereby my soul may be assured that I am effectually called by Jesus Christ And in the dispatch of this I shal resolve it only by these two general heads First You may be assured of your effectual Calling if God hath taken that method with your souls which he doth ordinarily take with those whom he doth effectually call Secondly If the Lord hath wrought in you those saving effects or concomitants which do ordinarily accompanie those that are thus effectually called if these two things be done you may have a seal and assurance in your own hearts that you also are effectually called Beloved it is not for Ministers to flatter you there are among many in the world but few that are called among many that are called but few elected and therefore do not flatter your selves If upon trial you find you are not in the number of Gods Called ones go home and bewail your unregerierate and unconverted estate But before I can speak of this method I must first lay down some mistakes that are held by erroneous minds about the method God takes in calling a sinner home to himself A first mistake is of the Pelagians who hold this that a man is able to call and convert himself Now this opinion doth quite exclude and justle out God from having any hand therein they say A Christian is able to call and convert himself having only a general concurrence and assistance from God 2. Of the Arminians and they hold this That Effectual Calling consists only in moral perswasions and may be resisted by the person that is thus called and that a man being called into a state of grace may fall from his Calling and fall from his grace and so have no profit by his Calling at all which is a most uncomfortable opinion and surely God would never take this method in calling of his people 3. That of the Papists they say That God cals ordains a sinner to glorie but it is upon the foresight of his good works God foresaw how good and holie the man would be and therefore God would chuse and call him to glorie But this hath no ground from Scripture neither 4. That of the Familists and they hold this That Gods method in calling a sinner is not by the outward Ministrie of the word but it is by raptures and revelations and by divine inspirations and extraordinarie waies of working but this is not Gods usual method though God sometimes take this way as he did by Paul who was called this way after an extraordinarie manner Yet this is not Gods odinarie rule 5. There is another Mistake and that is of those who press a necessitie of such measures of legal horrour and terror upon the consciences of men else they can never be saved Sometimes Ministers have been so harsh now and then though indeed no such cause to blame them as is pretended yet sometimes lashes break out that men must be so and so humbled in such a measure and so long for duration Now this is not Gods method to press for measure but a great mistake about Gods manner of calling a sinner though I must confess this is the nearest of all the five to that rule God takes in calling a sinner to glorie Having thus laid down the mistakes 't is the easier now to find out the truth I come now to speak of that method God takes in calling a sinner And here I shall lay down a sixfold method in which God proceeds with those whom he doth effectually call which if he doth so with you you may go home with a seal upon your hearts that you are effectually called to grace and you shall one day come to glorie First When God goes about effectually to call a poor sinner into a state of grace he puts a clear light into his soul whereby he may see the hainous and aggravated nature of all his sins more then ever he did before Rom. 7.8 8 13. Paul tels you Before the commandment came he was alive and sin was dead that is before the power of the word came upon his conscience to convert him he was alive i e. he thought he was a good man and a just man and he thought sin was dead sin was destroied he never knew sin so sinful but when the commandment came sin revived and I died but when the word of God came with power upon my conscience and light upon my judgment then I saw I was a dead man sin had kild me and I saw sin was raigning and sin was raging in me and what then ver 13. I saw sin exceeding sinful he never saw sin so before conversion before his Call when he was a Pharisee but when the word of God came with power upon his conscience to call him then saith he I saw sin to be exceeding sinful Now O Beloved hath ever God done thus with your souls may be you look upon sin with a transient and general view but do you look upon sin so as to see more evil in sin then ever you saw before This is the course God usually takes Me thinks God deals with a converted sinner as it is spoken in Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it doth not profit me he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light that is God looks

though they wanted these poor outward comforts they did not want Christs comfort and Christs graces and therefore when they had neither purse scrip nor shoos they wanted nothing Why O Beloved if you were of the temper of these gracious Disciples you would say so too that if you can find a grounded and real interest in Christ though you want many of the Comforts of this world you will say you want nothing Wanted yee any thing and they said Nothing 5. You that make povertie and persecution a plea Consider this that the poor are ordinarily the most people that Jesus Christ doth cal to imbrace his Gospel The poor receive the Gospel saith Christ and blessed are you that are not offended at it Not many wise not many noble are called but the poor things of the world hath God chosen 1 Cor. 1.26 And in James God hath chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith Do not therefore Beloved make this a plea to keep off from Christ because ordinarily they are the people Christ pitcheth most love upon and doth delight to make them rich in grace who are poor in goods 6. Consider That if upon this ground you refuse the call of Iesus Christ you are exposed to more Povertie and to worse persecution then ever you could be exposed to in the entertaining of Christ In the following of Christ you are only exposed to an outward povertie but in neglecting the cal of Christ you are exposed to be poor in faith and to be such a beggar as not to be endowed with one dram of grace and then you are beggars indeed As we say he is a poor man that God hates he that hath not Christ and hath not the treasures of heaven in him he is exposed to worse povertie a thousand times then he can be for embraceing the cal of Iesus Christ Rev. 3.17 Yea and he is exposed to worse persecution also that for fear of persecution neglects Iesus Christ Psal 83.5 The Lord will persecute them saith David with furie and wrath speaking of wicked men All persecution from man reaches but to the body but this from God reacheth to the soul 7. And then lastly This should not hinder you from following Iesus Christ considering that though you should be poor and should be persecuted yet heaven wil make you amends for al Heb. 11.35 Heavē wil make amends for poverty when you are indowed with all the riches of Christ and Heaven wil make amends for persecution when there the weary shal be at rest and there the troubled shal be at ease And thus much be spoken of the third suggestion of the Devil that if you entertain the cal of Jesus Christ you shal be exposed to much poverty and persecution here in the world SERMON VI. 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THe Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the prosecution of which I have resolved one case of conscience and am yet upon the second case namely what suggestions the Devil doth use to keep men off from imbracing the call of Jesus Christ I have laid down and answered three already 4. Now there is one suggestion more when the Devil sees neither of these wil take place then he comes in with a fourth to disswade men from imbracing the call of Christ and that is this Why saith the Devil if you will entertain the call of Christ you will abridge your selves of all the joy and comfort of your lives you will never have merry daies while you live upon earth You see men that pretend to be converted and do hear Sermons what lumpish and melancholy men they are not so jocund and jolly as others are that walk not so precisely if you follow Christ and his Gospel this wil casheer all your merry daies and this wil put you into a sad temper all your jovial daies are gone Therefore to take off this aspersion that the wais of Christ are sad and melancholy waies which hath been an aspersion that from age to age generation to generation hath been as a Gin the Devil hath used to keep men from Christianity And I remember it is one of the great Engines Antichrist useth to support and uphold his Kingdome The Papists to deter men from Christianity and the Protestant Religion they would hold their Disciples in hand with this that the spirit of a Calvinist is a sad and lumpish spirit and therefore they would disswade all Nations from turning to their Religion and this the Priests were to tel in all the Churches of Rome how sad and melancholy they were that turned to the Calvinists Religion and this did mightily stay the people from imbracing the truth And this aspersion hath passed from hand to hand and is many times prevalent upon the spirits of men that are of the true Religion that they must not be too forward in the practice of Religion fearing lest this should work melancholy and sad thoughts in them Now to take off this I shal onely urge four or five heads briefly First Whereas you say they are melancholy and sad that are called by Christ to a profession of his waies I would answer thus That they of all people in the world have most cause of mirth and gladnes and they are the most truly joyful people in the world That they have most cause of rejoycing is apparent When the Disciples came triumphing that they could cast out Devils heal the diseased and work Miracles O but saith Christ Rejoyce not in this but rejoyce that your names are written in the book of Life Luke 10.20 As much as if Christ should say All the indowments and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit they are no such grounds of joy if you had them all but here is your joy and cause of rejoycing that your names are written in the book of Life that you are in Christ and your souls shal be saved And so Paul tels us Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies again I say rejoyce The Apostle would not speak it to them with a single command but doubles his expression to shew that they that are people that have their sins pardoned that have their souls reconciled that have a Title to glory whose names are written in the book of Life these of all men in the world have most cause of joy and gladness And they have not onely most cause but they do most truly rejoyce and have more real joy in their hearts in one day then the wicked can have all their lives 1 Pet. 1.8 They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory What joy you have in the world the tongue is able to speak of it but the tongue is not able to speak of that inward joy that godly men have in their hearts

wicked men and they neither got their comfors by the Word nor do they ground them upon the Word but first they have had strong hopes in God ever since they could remember and secondly they keep and ground them either upon their good meaning that they mean well towards God or else thirdly they ground them upon this that they are not so bad as other men are A poor weak ground The Pharisee could say so I am no extortioner no drunkard no adulterer and the like yet never came to heaven for all this Or ●●se fourthly they ground their comforts on this because they receive from God abundance of outward 〈◊〉 And this you finde was their ground of presumption Hos 12.8 Ephraim said I am become rich and I have found me out substance in all my labour they shall finde no iniquity in me that is sinne Ephraim would say I am become rich and have got me an estate and now I am an honest man and they shall finde no sinne in me yet this was a meer presumption because God tells us Eccles 9.1 No man knowes either love or hatred by the things that are before him And sometimes saith Solomon God gives men riches to their hurt And therefore this can be no evidence of a grounded assurance Ninethly That man that hath a good assurance he is willing to be tried either by God or man touching the truth of his assurance This you finde Psal 26.2 3. Try me O Lord examine me prove me and try my reines and my heart for thy loving kindenesse is before me As if he should say Lord I make a profession that I have thy loving kindnesse in mine eye that I am assured thou lovest me Lord I put my soul upon the Trial Do thou try me if my heart be not right in my assurance And not by God onely but they are willing to be tried by man also And therefore you have that phrase of the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.15 that when men ask you an account of the hope that is in you you should be ready to give answer that is when men ask you what hopes you have of heaven and upon what ground do you hope to be saved the Apostle saith you should be ready to give answer of that hope that is in you And who were they that should do so they were those that had a good conscience those men that had consciences free from sin and had evidence in their own consciences that they belonged to God they were ready whoever asked them to give a reason why they hoped for heaven Whereas a man that hath false perswasions of heaven and of his effectual calling that man cannot endure to be tried either by God or man He is like the man that hath stolne goods in his house A man that is an honest man let the Constable come let search be made it never troubles him because they are his own goods that be hath bought by his own mony but the Thief when the Constable comes and search is made every Trunk that is opened his heart trembles It is so with an unsound-hearted man a man that hath false assurance he is afraid to be searched in point of his assurance lest there should be a flaw found in it Come to a man that hath false perswasions as to your Formalists and those that are presumptuous to wretches come to these men and put this question unto them Upon what ground do you hope for salvation What evidence can you give of your effectual calling How can you make out upon Scripture-grounds that you shall go to heaven Such questions as these will puzzle an unsound heart that he cannot give you any reasonable answer at all And herein the difference is palpable between a grounded assurance and these false perswasions that wicked men have Tenthly True assurance whereever it is it makes a man so to value the comforts of the Spirit of God that he doth undervalue all other comforts in the world in comparison of them Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me what then and this shall more glad my heart then when my corn and wine and oile increaseth Beloved assurance it doth so transport and raise up the heart that it makes all things in the world all comforts here below to be nothing in comparison of that The favour of Princes is nothing to that man that hath the favour of God Life and all the comforts of life are nothing to that man that hath comfort in reference to his eternal life Psal 63.3 Thy loving kindnesse O Lord is better then life David did not value his life nor all the comforts of it so as he valued the loving kindnesse of his God But now a man that hath false perswasions these do not so transport his spirit and take up the whole man and fill the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory these do no whit abate his comforts in the world A man you know that hath tasted hony other things are of an unpleasant taste to him that are eaten after Beloved assurance it is like hony nothing so sweet to godly palate as that is Now when a godly person tastes of the hony of assurance all other outward comforts they are but as gall and wormwood things unpleasant to his taste and palate And thus you see I have laid down ten particulars to you I would intreat you to distinguish in your own hearts whether you are the people that have a true assurance or onely false perswasions of your effectual calling And let me tell you the reason why I speak of this is because the most of men in the world do misse of heaven by false perswasions Where desperation damnes one soul presumption damns a thousand I might say of this as it was sung in the Triumphant song of David and Saul Saul hath slain his thousands but David his ten thousands So I might say desperation hath slain a thousand but presumption ten thousand Thousands and ten thousands are slain and undone for ever by harbouring presumptuous and groundlesse perswasions of their effectual calling when they are not 2 PET. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE Doctrine I am yet upon drawn from these words is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their soules that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the prosecution of which I have handled many particulars I now come in the close of this point to make a particular use of all that hath been said and so passe on to that other branch to make our election sure And the Use I shall speak of shall onely be an Use of Exhortation and Direction My Exhortation shall be directed to two sorts of men First to them that do enjoy and are assured of their effectual calling who are called and are assured they are so Secondly to them