Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	knowledge_n	light_n	shine_v	6,882	5	9.8263	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50403	A memento to young and old: or, The young man's remembrancer, and the old man's monitor. By that eminent and judicious divine, Mr. John Maynard, late of Mayfield in Sussex. Published by William Gearing, minister of the Gospel	Maynard, John, 1600-1665.; Gearing, William.	1669 (1669)	Wing M1451; ESTC R216831	88,644	216

6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Sun-beams do as it were guild things whereon it shineth and make them look bright and pleasant whereas they looked dull before without any such lustre or comeliness This Heavenly Knowledge is a shining knowledge it bright● ens and beautifies the Mind and Soul and the more fresh and nimble the witt and understanding is the more it is adorned by it no skill no knowledge no learning is so comly for a young Man as this true saving knowledge of God in Christ. II. Hath the young man some strength of memory what can become this Treasury or Store-house so well as Gold Silver Pretious-Stones as the Apostle calleth holy Truths what should hay and stubble trash and dirt do in so pretious a Cabinet what is more unseemly than to have it filled with wanton idle Songs with scurrilous jests with airy vain conceits foolish balla●s legendary tales or the like that which is fit for the Dung-hil is not seemly for a Cabinet III. Is youth full of lively and stirring affections what is more seemly than for the quickest affections and for the most lively motions of the Heart and Spirit to be exercised about Heavenly and Spiritual things The World is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its comliness which God gave it in the Creation Now God hath thus ordered the World in its several parts that the quickest and nimblest should be highest in their rank and the slowest and dullest should be lowest So the Heavens which are of a most strange and wonderful swiftness are highest and of other things the quickest in motion are nearest Heaven so the Air and in the Air the Birds whereas the Earth being slow and without Motion lyeth below all the rest and is farthest from Heaven So what is more seemly than for those winged affections of young Men and Women to mount up to Heaven and the quicker and swifter they are in their Motions the higher it becometh them to fly what should they do creeping on the Earth like Snailes or earthing themselves in the Earth like Moles or mudding these lively affections in sinful fleshly pleasures Why rather should they not in their daies of youth cast their Souls upon the wing earnestly desiring God to draw them that they may run after him Is it a seemly thing to see a Lark or an Eagle to make her self a burrow or nest under ground or to plunge her self in the Mud No it becometh her to be aloft so it becometh not the winged affections of the younger sort to bemudd themselves with sinful pleasures but to be lifted up in the power of Gods Spirit and to converse with him who is invisible The dullness of age hath more affinity with Earth than the vigour of youth which yet must not perswade old Men to follow the inclination of age and because their backs are bowed with years to think themselves warranted to debase their Souls to earthly affections but rather to conceive themselves directed to look themselves out a burying place entring into a serious Meditation of the Grave whiles their bodies by the decaies of age are daily preparing for their last dissolution into those first earthly Principles of which they were compounded IV. And as the quickness of young Mens affections should thus set them in a course of holiness so the quickness of their Spirits which is one cause of the quickness of their affections doth exceeding well suit with true grace and holiness The Activity and as the Country-word is the Mettle that is in the younger sort is very suitable to an holy Conversation This is one thing which maketh many men falsely to think that Religion is not seemly for youth but these are such as know not the power of godliness and therefore think it to be a lumpish dulling thing But what blindness is this to imagine that the blessed Spirit of God is a duller to the Spirit of a Man when he worketh upon it by his sanctifying power and vertue No it is enough indeed to put life into a dead heart when the blessed Spirit affordeth his gracious Influence unto it If the Sun doth dull and dead the Earth the Trees the Herbs in the Spring-time then may ye imagine that the Spirit of God doth dull the Spirits of Men by Sanctifying and Quickening them It taketh away indeed their wildness and madness that is to say their untowardness unseemliness and uncomeliness but it rather encreaseth and purifieth their kindly vigour and giveth them yet a greater and an higher life and maketh them more lively than before but with a sweet spiritual and heavenly kind of Life It is true that in the beginnings of grace there is some drooping and dejectedness but that is but in the turn when they are coming out of their natural estate from under the Curse and Wrath of God But if once they be indeed set in a course of holiness and find the comfort of Gods love in Christ they shall find themselves more enlivened and quickened by the Spirit of God than they can be by nature only Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty saith the Apostle The Spirit of Christ enlargeth the heart striketh off the fetters of Corruptions and maketh it more free and full of Life Therefore David often calleth upon God to quicken him He was a man naturally of a quick temper of a fresh lively Spirit as appeareth by that Description given of him 1 Sam. 16. 12. He was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to But he knew that grace would quicken him more and give him a heavenly activity of Spirit and therefore desired to be more and more quickened by it And how can the vigour and quickness of youth be better imployed than in the work and service of God Is not the Service of God a race And who are so fit to run as those who are young and of nimble Spirits Let us run with patience the race that is set before us and else-where so run that ye may obtain Which as it implyeth a winged swiftness and quickness of stirring affections in the service of God so also a ready diligence and active chearfullness in any work of his to which the heaviness of old age is a clogging hinderance and which doth exceeding well become the liveliness of youthful Spirits V. Are young Men strong and of able Bodies What is more comely for them than to serve the Lord with all their Strength The weakness of the Body doth even make the Spirit fail and faint and hindereth it many times in the Service of God Strength is an help in the worship of God and the Spirit in a strong Body is like a work-man standing upon firm ground which is an help and furtherance in the work VI.

at But this is Man's misery that his Eye is now not single nor can he rightly discern what becometh him so that many times he shunneth those things as unseemly which would be his greatest ornaments and goeth about to deck himself with such things as do but lay open his nakedness and discover his shame The Apostle saith that long hair which is a Womans ornament is a Man's shame If a man wear long hair it is folly and shame to him 1 Cor. 11. And yet many men account this a special ornament whereas indeed it doth as ill become them as a Distaff doth almost as ill as a womans Garment Thus it is in many other things disguised fashions c. But besides these there seemeth to be a conceipt among Men that a licentious liberty an unlimited looseness of Conversation becometh the younger sort in the daies of their youth and that nothing is more unseemly for that age than an humble holy subjection and obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But here ye see the wise Man who was a Man that did much affect decorum whilst he continued in his integrity as appeareth by that which the Queen of Sheba observed even to an extasy I Kings 10. 4 5. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon 's Wisdom and the House that he had built and the Meat of his Table and the sitting of his Servants and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparrel and his Cup-bearers and his Assent by which he went up to the House of the Lord there was no more Spirit in her And so ye may gather by many passages of his story how exact he was in observing decorum and shewing forth his Royal Magnificence according to his place He I say that best knew what was comely and seemly for young Men Sheweth here that it is not only good but seemly for them even in the daies of youth to be seriously mindful of their Creatour and so in all things to shew themselves as Men that have him and his fear before their Eyes For to omit this that whatsoever is good is also comely being suitable to the holiness and purity of God who is most glorious and beautiful it is plain here by the opposition that is made between the daies of youth and old age that he commendeth it to them in special as a thing exceeding fit and seemly for the younger sort Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth whilst the evil daies come not As if he had said It is a most absurd and unseemly thing not to be truly mindful of him that made us in our best daies but then to begin when the evil daies come And if you mark it is plain by those passages that follow That he still fastens a notorious absurdity and unseemliness upon this carriage of Men who defer till the last The years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them How absurd and unseemly then to give up thy self to God when thou art weary of thy self and not before while the Sun or the Moon or the Starrs be not Darkned and the Clouds return after the Rain A most absurd thing to give all the cleer Sun-shiny daies of youth to sin to lose all thy good daies wasting and wearing them out in vanity and then in the dull cloudy rainy times of old age which are most unfit for employment to begin to serve the Lord and so in the verses following So that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd thing or a thing out of place an unseemly and uncomely thing for young men to live unmindful of their Creatour and of the end of their Creation whilst they are young and to leave him nothing but the Lame and Blind Sacrifices of their decrepit age which the Psalmist sheweth plainly Psal. 119. 9. Wherewithal shall a young Man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word That which is cleanly ye know is comely Now the Psalmist sheweth that if they that be young will walk in clean waves they must take heed to the Word of God and follow the light of it Ye know that a fair clean way is more pleasant and comely by farr than a foul deep miry way and it is more comely for a man to walk in such a way if he can than to be mired with dirt in a foul way So the Psalmist sheweth That then a young Man walketh in a clean way and so in a comely manner when he followeth and obeyeth the Word of God i● an holy and gracious Conversation On th● other side when he casteth the Word behind his back and walketh in the Lusts of his own heart followeth his own will and seeketh to please himself in all things he walketh in a foul dirty way and is bemired 〈◊〉 it were with Drunkenness or Whore do●● or Idleness or Prophaneness c. And h● carriage hath no more true comeliness in i● than his clothes have when he falleth in the mire CHAP. II. THis we might see plainly if we did b● consider the nature and temper●● youth and then think what corresponde●cy and suitableness there is between it 〈◊〉 true grace and holiness He that will ma●● a comely garment for another must not only make one part of it proportionable to an●ther but must take measure of him that 〈◊〉 to wear it that it may be comely and fit i● him A Man's garment though never 〈◊〉 comely and proportionable in it self will n●ver be comely and fit for a Child Here then let us take measure of youth and see how well it will become him to put on the new Man to put on the Lord Jesus 1. Hath the young man a special quickness of witt and apprehension what can become him better than to search into the glorious Mysteries of Christ's holy Gospel and not content himself with a few answers committed to Memory which he is able to fit to some questions of Chatechism but seriously and with most earnest endeavours to study the Doctrine of Godliness and carefully to learn that wisdom which is from above There is no knowledge can so well become the best witt and understanding as the best and most excellent knowledge and that is the true saving knowledge of God of Christ Crucified which St. Paul esteemed incomparably better than all his other learning This will beautify the freshest and most sparkling witt it will make the very Spirit of a Man shine within him This was young Timothy's ornament 2 Tim. 3. 15. From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus That wisdom must needs beautify a young Mans mind which maketh him wise unto Salvation wise for Heaven which putteth such a light into him as is suitable to Heaven and Everlasting light which is like the wisdom of the Saints and Angels above of which knowledge St. Paul saith 2 Cor. 4.