Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
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A44414
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A sermon preach'd before my lord major at Guild-Hall Chappel on the 30th of Octob., 1681 by George Hooper ...
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Hooper, George, 1640-1727.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing H2705; ESTC R4457
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20,330
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39
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are become like Gods and we shall live for ever We have a Heaven in our Breasts we make the Sphere of our Conversation so to all about us We are only less happy now then we shall be hereafter but in a Felicity begun already of the same kind For let us suppose that God would appear bountiful to some Fortunate man here below What Present should we expect from Heaven Power or Honour or Riches they are not necessary Causes of a happy Life are not inconsistent with Trouble and Vexation They are what the World Chance or the Devil may bestow But a gift fit for a God to give what can it be but himself what can it be But to bless our sight with Moses his view Exod. 33.19 a Display of all his Excellencies to Proclaim himself and cause his Glory to pass before us To proclaim our style too to call us his Friends and adopt us for his Sons to publish our Pardon aloud from Heaven and declare his Love before all the Creation to discover too to us as to St. Paul his future Glories and to open his third Heaven to our view and our Expectations and Lastly till he shall take us up thither to come down himself to come unto us and make his abode with us to bring his Heaven here In what trouble now shall that Breast be that is secur'd of the affection of a God and what other thing will he desire that Loves him His present Fruition is greater then any thing but his Hopes And of those too he is as well assured as of what he now enjoys His Peace no man can take from him his Joy must be perfectly Compleat and his Satisfaction infinite This inward Joy when it fills and overflows the Heart how will it Cheer and enliven the Countenance What an agreeable Lustre and divine Brightness will it cast Then will the Face of man look indeed like the Image of God and discover by the Glory who it is that dwells within This Love burning inward when it sends forth its Light and its Heat and shines out on others in Kindness Long-suffering Gentleness and Goodness must too engage and warm their mutual Affections Nothing can appear so Attractive nothing so Lovely The Temple of Salomon in all its Beauty overlay'd with Gold within and without and fill'd with the Glory of the Lord was not so glorious as one of these Houses under the second Dispensation as one of these Temples of the Holy Ghost You have the Pourtraiture of this in the Description of St. Stephen He was full of the Holy Ghost and all that sat in the Council looking stedfastly upon him Act. 6.15 saw his Face as it had been the Face of an Angel These Graces if Vouch-safe'd to any Family would recommend it in the Eyes of a discerning Heathen to be more happy then Plenty Authority or Greatness of Blood could make them The Gentleness Goodness and Meekness of the Master the Fidelity and Affectionate concern of the Inferior relations Temperance in all their Lives and Joy in all their Faces the Peace of man and of God the Correspondence betwixt themselves and the Intercourse of Love betwixt them and Heaven all this must make the admiring Spectator take up Jacob's saying Gen. 28.17 Surely the Lord is in this Place this is no other but the House of God and this the Gate of Heaven And were there but a City compos'd of such Families this yet would be but one Family and like that now described the Spirit of God dwelling in it and his holy Protection watching over it Peace within its Walls and Plenteousness within its Palaces All the Inhabitants nearer in their Persons then their Dwellings the City esteem'd not from the beauty proportion or order of the Buildings but from the symmetry the Harmony of the Inhabitants Such an Union as this is to make the true Neighbourhood and the Happiest Commerce So compacted it would have a surer strength then from Walls and Bulwarks This would make it the Fairest the strongest the best order'd the Richest City of the World It would be like the Great City the Holy Jerusalem descending from God out of Heaven at each Gate an Angel its building of precious stones For all Policies and Ordinances of the best constituted Cities are but faint imitations of the Graces of the Spirit are set up to procure the Shadow of Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness c. Joyning of Houses designs uniting of Minds a Corporation speaks it self to be one body Companies and fraternities are appointed for nearer associations to make yet a firmer tye then what results only from common interest There are seasons of Cheerfulness and days of Joy Civility thence call'd and there learnt affected Gentleness and customary complaisance artificial Goodness and Pretended Love There is the profession of faithful dealing Order and Obedience are own'd and Intemperance as well as other Filth remov'd out of sight and from the observation of these rules and the benefit of Peace and security arises Wealth and Plenty As on the contrary when the manners of men are distant from any likeness of these Graces when Hatred Discontent Variance Spite Insolence even in subjects Faithlessness Fraud and Luxury come together and take place a City then is only an Association of Evils and the Nuisance as great as the advantage that was intended As Neighbouring houses at other times a common strength are found too nigh in a Fire and Company the Comfort and convenience of mankind is dangerous in time of Infection and it is their Wisdom then to live at distance If intemperance prevails in the Town It is no better then a common receptacle of Impurity if Fraud and Perjury it is but as a Den of Thieves If Malice Revenge and Mutiny it is as a place of Battle If ye bite and devour one another take heed says the Apostle in this Chapter to the Galatians that ye be not Consumed one of another Neither is it needful to shew how Dammageable these Vices are to Commerce and how impossible it is to manage it in that Company We may only observe that Tumultuousness and Sedition are as great Enemies to Trade as they are to Government while they are growing they disturb and hinder it as hereafter when they are form'd into a War they will plunder its Effects Parties and Animosities take off mens Minds from the Business of their Imployment and Faction grows up to be a Trade Men are Apprentices to other Mysteries and set up for Politicians and then no wonder if our Commerce flourishes not if Honesty and Lawful Industry Riches and Plenty go seek out other Dwellings After a great and general Judgement of God the Children of men went to make Bricks to build a City Gen. 11. and a Tower that should reach to Heaven But when by another just Judgement from the same righteous Hand they begun to vary and spake not the same Language they were
kindled it Man has as it were a New Soul and becomes a New Creature discerns his Heavenly Parent and begins to Cry Abba Father His greatest Speculative pleasure is in the Contemplation of this infinite excellent Wisdom Holiness and Goodness and his greatest Practical delight in the mean humble Performances of that little Service he can be thought to do of all that Honour he shall be allowed to Pay Our Love then to God is answerable to that of God for man we Worshipping and â—erving by the same Principle that he created and redeemed out of free Choice and pure Inclination indeavouring now to please him by the same Motive he has Prepar'd for us those Eternal Pleasures by the Motive of a real Affection We should be so much New-men that we should not love our selves but as we are the Workmanship and the Care of a God no other reason should dispose us to affect our selves then what carries us to affect the rest of mankind all made all in some measure beloved by our Great Creator And this is the Love here first plac'd so much mention'd by our Saviour and his Apostles so eminently visible in their Heavenly lives and willing Deaths It is this Love towards God for his own sake and for him towards our Brethren that performs all the commands makes the full character of a Christian and is preferred justly before all other Graces the Perfection of such as go before and the Parent of those that follow A love for Mankind unconceivable brought our Saviour down from Heaven subjected a God to the meanness and infirmity of our mortal Nature to the Agonies of the Garden and the Death of the Cross induc'd him to lay aside his Glorious Happiness above that he might bear our Griefs and carry our Sorrows might be wounded for our Transgressions and bruis'd for our Iniquities And a Love resembling that infinitely deserv'd by it and Kindled at it a Love of Gratitude and Duty burning in his Disciples in a just return and humble Emulation devoted back their Bodies and their Souls to the Honour of him that had redeem'd them Consecrated and Sacrificed their Lives to the Service of that blessed Name Out of affection to their Saviour and to those whom their Saviour Lov'd they publish'd the Propitiation of his Death with the Peril of their own They too in their Office of Reconciliation Despis'd the Shame and endured the Torment rejoycing in their Sufferings and filling up that which was behind of the Afflictions of Christ On such Love of our Saviours is our Salvation founded by such Love of the Apostles is the good Tidings declar'd and with the same in us is the Gospel to be entertain'd and obey'd Now tho in an Age so luke-warm as Ours these Holy Fervours of the Heavenly Love may not be commonly understood tho to some this Gift of the Spirit may be as strange as that of Miracles and may seem to have ceas'd as well yet what Christian is there that will not Profess he knows God And who can know him that does not Love him This is certainly the Fruit of the Spirit in those in whom he dwells and from this Fruit the other that follow do as naturally arise As 2. Joy and this is the inseparable Companion of Love It 's nearest Attendant Delight Complacency and Satisfaction surrounding it on every side we being pleased with the Object before we Love Pleased with it while we Love and pleas'd with the Love it self for so must our Joy have begun early grown up and heightned from the same Discoveries of Faith and by the same Proportions by which our Love advanced Believing we shall not only Love with a Love not to be expressed but Rejoyce too with Joy unspeakable For as the Creation is cheer'd at the Rising of the Sun as Rational thinking Minds are ravish'd at the Discovery of some noble Truth such must the Joy be but of an infinitely higher degree when the Day dawns and the Day-star arises in our Hearts and God himself shall appear whâ—n he shall shine in upon us with the brightness of his Glory and reveal the Excellencies of his Nature when Greatness shall be discover'd in all it's Majesty Honour in all it's Lustre when Holiness Justice Truth and Goodness shall be seen in their purest Idea and utmost Perfection This sight as it will be hereafter Clear and at Hand is justly stil'd the Beatifical Vision and may of it self make Happiness enough for a Heaven And here on Earth as much of it as the Eye of Faith may let in would create on the Soul of man a Pleasure it had never before known not to be experimented by Sence or fanci'd by Imagination a joy that we could not well bear and which is to come mix'd and allay'd in Mercy to our mortal Constitution Many there are that say Ps 4.6 who will shew us any Good But the Lord lifts up the light of his Countenance on those he Loves And puts Gladness in their Heart more then what Corn and Wine and Oyl would give So much Pleasure have we from Faith Psal 17.15 in the bare Speculation of God we behold his Face only and are Satisfi'd God saw the Creation delighted in it and pronounc'd it good what judgment then must they make And what Joy will they find That look on him But then too if we proceed to the other Manifestations of our Faith as it relates to our selves Whatever delight God might take in creating of Man man cannot have more then to find himself the Work of God that we have the Honour to come out of his Hands and the Happiness to be Consider'd by him On what other occasion should we express a greater Joy Then when we know our selves to be under the Care of his Providence and guard of his Protection not be his Creatures only but Friends in his House and Sons of his Family And if this Joy be interrupted by the Sense of our Guilt and dread of his Displeasure yet it is only stopt a while to break out in greater abundance when that fear shall be remov'd and the glad Tidings of a Pardon come When after a Cloud and Showers the light shall return Clearer and his Love shall shine again upon us with a more servent heat At the Conversion of a Sinner Angels rejoyce above and shall not the Sinner rejoyce below at his own Salvation So we see as Faith goes on it multiplies our Joy which Hope raises yet higher when it shows us Heaven before us cheers us with that happy Prospect and blesses us with our Immortal Expectations And this way does Joy rise equally with Love and proceed distinctly from the same causes It will too that our Joy may abound take yet a new Root and spring out of Love it self For perfect Love and assur'd of a reciprocal affection as that is which the Spirit inspires casteth out Fear and has no Torment Is full of Cheerfulness and Gladness