Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	heart_n	light_n	shine_v	7,260	5	9.5022	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41173	The interest of reason in religion with the import & use of scripture-metaphors, and the nature of the union betwixt Christ & believers : (with reflections on several late writings, especially Mr. Sherlocks Discourse concerning the knowledg of Jesus Christ, &c.) modestly enquired into and stated / by Robert Ferguson.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1675 (1675)	Wing F740; ESTC R20488	279,521	698

passage in the Bible in it self unintelligible I cannot imagine any use that it should be off or that it should answer any end which we must needs suppose so wise an Agent as God had in the giving of it forth Besides when we discourse of the Serviceableness of Reason towards the attainment of the Sense and meaning of the Scripture we put a vast difference betwixt discerning the Literal Grammatical and Historical sense of it and the discerning it in a saving Spiritual manner I know our Divines sometimes express this as if they distinguished betwixt the Grammatical or Literal and the Spiritual sense But their intendment is not to diversifie the things themselves and what is understood in such places but the manner and way in which they are understood Though the Natural man may discover the true and genuine intendment of a text no less may be than he that is born of God yet their perception is not of one and the same kind nor do they understand it after one the same manner Though the Sense therefore be Physically the same yet in the way of discovering it there is a Moral difference The meer Rational mind may discern the literal Sense of Scripture propositions but without a supernatural Irradiation from the Spirit of life there can be no saving knowledge of them The Spirit which breathed out the Scripture at first is in this Sense the only Interpreter of it And as the Text is his so also is the Gloss. He that unveiled the Object must enlighten the eye for we need as much the spirit of Wisdom for the one as the Spirit of Revelation for the other See among many other places Eph. 1.17 1 Cor. 2.11 12. 1 John 2.20 and 5.20 John 6.48 Psal 119.18 27. But seeing the Socinians and Remonstrants preclude the necessity of the influence of the spirit of God upon the mind in order to the understanding the meaning of the Scripture either one way or an other and forasmuch as diverse who are not willing to be catalogued amongst them do yet in this fight under their banners I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 produce something in proof of it 1 We have the Testimony of the Scripture that Reason without auxiliary beams can never discern Spiritual things Spiritually The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Natural man we are neither to understand the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the babe the Infirm the Weak For though such be often unskilfull in the Word of Righteousness neither able to frame due conceptions of the mysteries of the Gospel nor throughly disposed to a due savouring of them nor fully capable of improving them to all the holy ends and in all the usefull deductions and inferences to which they are designed and to which they are admirably accommodated Yet the things of the Spirit of God are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolishness to them Nor are we by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to understand only the Sensual man or one that is wholly sunk into the Animal Life and enslaved to the satisfaction of his corrupt appetites and inordinate fleshly desires seeing the natural man in this place is directly opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spiritual or regenerate man and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wise and the Scribe to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Disputer and the Princes of this World qui dominabantur in scholis Who bare sway rule in the Schools But by the Natural man we are to understand the meer Rational man even him that doth most excolere animam Cultivate his Intellectuals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the person endowed with meer humane Wisedom as the Greek Scholiast says Now what is affirmed concerning this Souly man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can he know them There is not only an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dimsightedness but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an impotency through a disproportion in his faculty with respect to them They are seen in another light than he is endowed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are spiritually discerned They are known only by a divine irradiation and conquering sun-beam of the Spirit of life upon the mind And therefore God is said to shine into our hearts to give the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light i. e. the clear and evident manifestation of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 2. We have the attestation of Reason which tells us that nothing is well known but by that which hath a just analogy to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing is best understood by that which bears a resemblance of it Things of sense and life are only known by vital Sentient Faculties Vegetables do not admit every particle that comes to nourish them but only such as bear a proportion to their own pores Where there is not a congruity betwixt the Subject and the Object the Object can never be discerned in its true light As the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some resemblance of the Sun in it self no more can any Man understand the things of God in a due manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless he be made to partake of of the Divine Image Every thing acts in a way consimilar to its own Nature and therefore let the Objects be never so spiritual the natural man can never know them in a way analogous to them i. e. spiritually but only in a natural way that alone being homogeneous to himself We are told in philosophy that quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis every thing is received in a way agreeable to that which receiveth it And therefore where there is nothing but a natural Mind it can act no otherwise than in a Natural way In a word without a vital alliance cognation to Spiritual things we can never understand them in a Spiritual saving Manner I take these two here in an aequipollent sense without medling with the question whether there be no difference betwixt knowing Gospel truths in a Spiritual manner and the knowing them in a Saving 3 If we be in the alone Virtue of our Rational Faculties adapted to a due discerning the things of the Spirit of God and that i● their proper light I see no reason why an unregenerate man should be more stiled blind in reference to the Word of God than in reference to Euclids Elements or Aristotles Organon Nor indeed why he should be esteemed so inept for that as for these I might add in the fourth place that according to the

that we need not the Authority of any Man or Church to convince us whose they are but they carry a demonstrative assurance of their Author in themselves The like evidence may be justly expected to attend the Word of God as we find to accompany his Works And indeed Gods End in Revelation being more Noble than his End in Creation and the World being more liable to be imposed on in that matter than in this 'T is but Rational to believe that He should leave at least as conspicuous and glorious impressions and characters of himself upon his Word as upon the Works of his Hands And if men in the writing of Books do not onely leave on them such an impression of Reason that we may know them to be the product of rational Creatures but withal according to their several degrees of accomplishments either as to eminency of knowledg heavenliness of mind elegancy of stile c. do imprint on them those footsteps of their several qualifications that we can for the most part by the very frame of the writing discover its individual Authour It may be justly expected that what proceeds immediately by inspiration from God should carry something in it correspondent to the Wisdom Holiness Power Omniscience and Goodness of Him from whom it Flows And yet let me premise That as we do not build our assurance of the Worlds being the Manufacture of God upon every petty Phaenomenon which like the image of Foam that Apelles struck upon his Table by a hasty cast of his pencil some may be look upon onely as a disport of matter in the fortuitous encounters of one particle with an other but we raise our persuasion on the curious Fabrick of the nobler pieces and the Harmonious Structure of the Universal Machine In like manner we are not so much to seek for the evidences of the Divinity of the Bible in every Verse and Chapter as in the complex of the whole and in the principal Parts Branches and Sections of it The intrinsick Evidences of the Divine Revelation of the Scripture may be reduced to several Heads The First Topick regards the matter of it And here the plain and convincing enlightning of us about natural Truths of which we are at best doubtful is one internal Evidence of the Divinity of the Bible The bringing into Light such things as we could never have thought of which yet being discovered have that admirable Connexion with all true Reason that we are Ravished with the Glory of Truth that shineth in them is a Second The purity and fulness of Scripture-Precepts commanding every Virtue forbiding every Vice and enjoyning nothing either superfluous or burdensome is a Third The greatness and spirituality of the Scripture-promises where we have the nature of Happiness so describ'd and stated the directions for the attainment of it so full and clear the grounds of its certainty so many and incontestable and the whole so fram'd as to be both a powerful inducement to an alacrous and uniform Obedience and a powerful Antidote against all Temptations to sin and sensuality make a Fourth The quality of Scripture Prophesies and the Events still answering the prediction is another undeniable Evidence of the Divinity of the Bible The Nature and exactness of Scripture History relating things of the greatest Weight with the greatest Truth is another Evidence arising from the subject matter of the Scripture It alone informs us of many matters of Fact which no other Writings either have or could and as the knowledg of such things was indispensably necessary so being examined as they are recorded in the Bible we find the account of them rational and satisfactory What other Nations have onely faint glimpses of in fabulous Stories of those the Scripture gives us exact and authentick Records Not to speak of the Date of the Bible it self what Book can vie with it as to antiquity of contents As all Ethnick Histories are latter than some parts of the Scripture so most of them are traductions from thence and are but parts of the Mosaick Story corrupted and debased with Egyptian being Grecian Fables Where have we such an exact and full display of the Origine and several periods of the World and the Original of Nations as the two first and tenth Chapt. of Genesis do afford us Yea in the Narration of such things whereof we have also some register in Humane Records it were not difficult to demonstrate that there are peculiar Characters in the History of the Scripture differencing it from all writings of meer Humane Original and manifesting it to be of Divine extract The Second Head of Arguments by which evidence is given to the Divine Original of the Scripture from the Characters impressed on it respect the Form of it or the manner in which things are delivered and treated And here the Majestick Authority that it dictates to mankind in is hugely remarkable In no other writing whatsoever is there that Soveraignty of Commanding usurped that the Scripture assumes It alone treats with us in a way of Supremacy Majesty and Authority becoming Him in whose Name it pretends to speak Whatever else hath laid claym to the being a Revelation from God to Mankind doth by its sneaking creeping flattering way of address evidently betray the meanness of its Original 2 dly The Stile of the Scripture doth plainly breath of God With what Brevity without Darkness with what Simplicity without Corruption with what Gravity without Affectation with what Eloquence without Meretricious Ornaments with what Plainness without Flatness or Sordidness with what Condescensions to our Capacities without Unsuitableness to the Subject Matter is the Scripture written When the Holy Inspirer of the Sacred Pen-men stoops most to our Capacities he even then retains a Prerogative in his Stile above what is to be met with in meerly Humane Writings There is that Succinctness Prespicuity Plenitude and Majesty in the Stile of Scripture-Laws that Sweetness and Spirituality in Promises that Austerity in Comminations that wonderful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 force and Emotion in Expostulations that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meet Accommodation of Words unto things through the whole Bible that no Humane Writing can equal If there be at any time Obscurity in the Scripture-Stile it is either from the Sublimity of the Matter declared which no Words though never so easie in themselves can help us to adequate Notions of Or it is from some Reference to ancient Customs and Stories which made the Expressions easie to the Age and Persons first concerned in them though they may be Dark to us through our Unacquaintedness with those things that were both the occasion of them and the Key to them Or else it is because they regard Futurities which it was neither for the Safety of the Church in General nor the Interest of Primitive Believers to have had plainly foretold and as the fulfilling of them will give Convincing Light about them so