Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A30698
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The celestial race a discourse perswading to the practice of celerity, constancy, & sincerity in the ways of God : preached at the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Knack, daughter of Mr. Thomas Knack of Edgerton in Kent, who died January 2, Anno Dom. 1692 in the eleventh year of her age / by William Bush ...
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Bush, William.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B6232; ESTC R1534
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21,943
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74
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you not ashamed to see so many overtake you Are you not asham'd to make no further progress that have so many helps provided for you and tender'd to you Are you not asham'd that God should see you loytering by the way Are you not asham'd that every trivial matter should stop you O for shame cast away all your hindrances get rid of your Obstructions and run you 'll be be-lated O Souls Don't you see what haste Sinners make to Hell Shall they strive and run for Damnation more than you for Salvation O take this timely Reproof you lazy slothful ones What will become of you if you shall idle till Christ calls you to an account How will that word sound in your ears Matth. 25.26 Thou wicked and slothful servant The true cause of thy neglect is thy slothfulness and not thy Inability and when that follows Verse 30. Cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darkness throw him into Hell let him see my Face no more Then will you wish tho too late that you had been speedy in your Course that you had improv'd your Time and Talents but then no more Time nor Talents will be granted then you are undone to Eternity Are you Young Therefore do you loyter Do you not see Young die as well as Old Have you not a proof of this now before your Eyes Are you in Health and Strength Therefore do you loyter Don't you see as strong as the strongest of you and as healthy as the most healthful suddenly snatched away O therefore loyter no longer begin now to be speedy lest an hereafter be never granted Behold 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation This Life is the time wherin your Calling and Election must be made sure This Life is the time wherein you must work out your Salvation with fear and trembling This Life is the time wherein you must be admitted into the Kingdom of Grace if ever you expect to be admitted into the Kingdom of Glory This Life is the time wherein you must run with speed and patience the Race that is set before you if ever you expect to receive that great and glorious Reward that is prepared for such as are speedy constant and sincere in their Course O therefore mend your pace lest you should be be-lated to Heaven Let a second Use be a Use of Advice and that to two sorts of Persons First To those that having begun and continued for a time are now drawing back I advise you that have begun to run in this Heavenly Race to hold on and that to the end 't will be your own another day will not these Promises allure you Matth. 10.22 He that endureth to the end shall be saved Can you desire a better Reward for your Pains than Salvation 'T is no wonder if at any time we see a poor Sinner draw back from serving the Devil for he may well grow weary of his work because of his wages Rom. 6.23 he 'll be dreadfully Rewarded But indeed it may be admired at to see any turn their backs upon God and grow weary of his Service who will be so well rewarded greatly above what they do deserve To see Persons turn their backs upon Salvation we may admire at their Folly and Madness what think you of that other Promise Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and I will give you a crown of life or an unfaidable Crown of Glory as the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sirs you that are weary of Gods ways that grow tired of that which will if you continue therein end in your eternal Happiness produce such a Promise as this from the World Sin or Satan if you can no they have no such Reward pray then be perswaded to hold on to persevere Sirs you can't imagine the misery you 'll bring upon your selves by drawing back you 'll incur God's hatred and you had better have the hatred of the whole World Hebr. 10.38 Read and consider resolve therefore whatever comes on 't to hold out to the end that so you may be happy But Secondly Let it be a Use of Advice to the Hypocrites you have heard how far a Hypocrite may go and yet be rotten at heart and you have heard something of the heinousness of Sin and the punishment that will follow I do now advise you if you tender your Souls good to go no further in such a state and condition for you 'll be damn'd for your pains O whatever you do be upright let God have your hearts in all your Actions make us no longer believe that you are what you are not for 't is you that will be the losers at last Read that Scripture often and I leave you at this time Matth. 5.20 Christ tells you plainly That except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Now what was their Righteousness Why truly 't was an outside Righteousness they were very Hypocrites as Christ often calls them Matth. 23.13 14 15. and in many more places And surely if any thing moves to Sincerity it will be the thoughts of the Punishment of Hypocrisy But then Thirdly Let us take up an Use of Lamentation and that upon the account of those poor Souls that instead of running in the ways of God that lead to Heaven they are running headlong to Hell Poor Souls don 't you tremble to think of your end methinks my heart bleeds for you O join with me Christians in my sorrow for these poor Souls Lord what a Grief must it needs be to any compassionate heart to think of their sad Condition O that poor creatures should with such delight work out their own ruin O that they will be their own butchers not of their bodies but which is worse of their precious Souls Who can forbear to weep to see sinners go cheerfully to Hell O that Christ and his Grace should be slighted by them that have so much need of both O that overtures of Reconciliation should be refused by such as are just dropping into Hell into the midst of Everlasting Burnings Lord pity them Lord open their eyes O that they might see their danger before they feel it that so they might timely turn back and escape it that we may have cause to rejoice in thy Mercy towards them One Use more and that shall be of Comfort to the godly to those that run speedily constantly and sincerely in the ways of God Lift up your heads with comfort for you are happy souls you are in the way of your duty and you shall be rewarded tho your Race be toilsome to the flesh let the Reward that will follow upon your continuing stedfast to the end be your Cordial and Comfort Consider 'T is but a little while and all your labour will be over Rev. 14.13 and you
Hell which will be most intollerable you will share in the greatest of them The loose and prophane Wretches that lived like Devils Incarnate in the World that spent very little or no time in Prayer or Hearing or any other Duties and that took you always for Saints because of your seeming strictness in the ways of God when they shall see you in the same dreadful Condition with themselves 't will make them if 't were possible laugh in Hell to see that this is the end of your Profession of your strictness in the ways of God of your praying and hearing and the like this will greatly aggravate your Torment O therefore for Christs sake and the sake of your own precious Souls beware of Hypocrisy I would had I time have given you some particular Marks of Hypocrisy at present then make but this out clearly That Hypocrisy is not predominant in you but that in simplicity and sincerity of heart and not with fleshly Wisdom you have your Conversations in the World you may then be sure you are not in the number of those Hypocrites that shall be banished for ever from the Presence of the Lord and turned into Hell I now return to my third and last Doctrinal head namely to speak of the Reward implied in my Text which shall be certainly given to those that run lawfully that run thus speedily and swiftly constantly and sincerely in this Heavenly Race and this Reward is no other nor can be no better than Heaven it self Luke 12.32 'T is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom Now to speak fully of this glorious place and the Felicities that God hath prepared there for his People is impossible we are not able fully to conceive of them therefore whatever I may now speak concerning the Glories the Felicities of Heaven if you ever come there you will say behold the thousand part was not told me but according to what discoveries the Holy Ghost hath made of it in Scripture we may speak of it and we may see the Glories of it set forth to us by the diversity and greatness of the Names thereof and the Society we shall there enjoy I shall speak to two or three of the Names thereof briefly 1. 'T is called the Kingdom of God and Christ Revel 12.10 Luke 23.42 because Christ having overcome Death Hell and Damnation together with all the Enemies that did oppose and hinder us in our way to Heaven doth rule there and govern his Church Triumphant with Heavenly Peace and Everlasting Tranquility Beverly's Great Soul of Man p. 278. If we could imagine as indeed we cannot because experience so mightily contradicts it that any Prince should live in all those delights and pleasures the most spendid Court affords without any tediousness or satiety ten thousand years what a dark Representation were this of this Kingdom tho he could do and enjoy all he would 2. 'T is call'd by the Name of Paradice Luke 23.43 in respect of the abundant plenty of the greatest of Pleasures which the Saints can either wish for or desire 3. 'T is call'd Eternal Life Joh. 3.15 Matth. 25.46 because there shall be no more Death nor Lamentation nor Sorrow We shall quit a vale of Tears for Rivers of Eternal Pleasures Mr. Silvester's Sermon in the Supplement to the Morning Exercise an Element of Joys succeeds our bitter Cup our Rights can never be invaded there nothing can stain the Comforts of that World no Blots nor Wounds are there contracted or endured no Troubles in that Israel there are no pauses of Astonishment through surprisals of Afflictions Death smites no Corners there Providence makes no Storms there lies that Ark wherein no vile or wicked Cham shall dwell the Glory of that place it knows no Eclipse nor Cloud no dim Discoveries or flat Notes shall be the Exercise or Entertainment of that State I might give you more Illustrations upon the great and glorious Names of this Kingdom but this may serve as a tast of the Glories the Joys of that blessed place by which you may discern the excellency théreof But now as to the Society that there we shall enjoy There we shall have the Company of God and Christ Saints and Angels and all our Godly Friends and Relations and joyn with them in singing Hallelujahs to the Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb his Son that sits upon the Throne for evermore Vid. Mr. Rogers's Practical Discourse of Sickness and Recovery page 97. O how vastly different is that Assembly from such a one as this Here we are with our unbelief with our Fears with our strong Corruptions and with our many Sins whereas they are all perfect and compleat in Holiness We shall then be no more disturbed with the Abuses of the Wicked we shall be no more griev'd with their Oaths and Curses nor troubled with their Company but be in the happy Society of those that will delight us and such as to Eternity we shall enjoy and not only shall our Souls enjoy these Felicities Phil. 3.21 but at the Resurrection our Bodies shall be joyn'd to them and both shall be happy Our Bodies shall not be what now they are foul unactive Lumps of Clay Mr. Silvester's Sermon in the Supplement to the Morning Exercise they are now pierced with Cold and worn with Labours appaled with Griefs and Dangers and grip'd with Pains and macerated with keen and envious Passions and after all mouldred to Dust by Death and Rottenness but there neither Deformity Pains nor Death shall be their fear nor exercise Thus have I briefly shew'd you what this Reward is that that those shall obtain that run as I have shown you in this Heavenly Race and the Happinesses the Felicities the Glories that there they shall injoy And after all I must conclude somewhat like the Apostle That eye hath not seen nor ear heard 1 Cor. 2. ◠neither hath it entred into the heart of man fully to conceive of the things that God hath prepared in heaven for them that love him Having now done what I promised as to the Doctrinal part I proceed to the Application Is it so then that the greatest Speediness and Celerity in the Ways of God must be constantly practised by those that would obtain everlasting Life Then First From hence we may draw a Use of Reproof for those Persons that are creeping as it were to Heaven instead of running swiftly that go as if they did not care whether they came there or no or as if they had an Eternity of Time allow'd them for their Journey What do you mean Sirs Your Sun is setting the Night draws on the Shadows of the Evening have overtaken you stir up your selves O slothful Souls you are upon the very Borders of Eternity your Lives are but as a Vapour James 4.14 and what will become of your Souls if your day is gone before your work be done Are