Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	dominion_n	great_a	king_n	4,637	5	3.7407	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70932	True gain, opened in a sermon preached at Pauls, Nov. 9. 1656 by Edward Reynolds, D.D.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1659 (1659)	Wing R1300; Wing R1245A; ESTC R18711	21,848	41

True Gain OPENED IN A SERMON PREACHED At Pauls Nov. 9. 1656. By EDWARD REYNOLDS D. D. LONDON Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe for George Thomason at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. To the Right Honourable ROBERT TICHBORN Lord Major of the City of London and the honourable Court of Aldermen Right Honourable BEing invited to preach before you and the Chi●f Assembly of this great City I thought it would not be an unseasonable Argument to encourage Citizens whose labours and employments have a special aspect unto Gain to look after the Works of God and the interests of their precious Souls upon the account of that a full and b great and c sure reward which ever attendeth heavenly negotiations We read in the Scriptures of an d unabiding City and a e City which hath foundations of f winged riches which flie away and g of durable riches which stay by us Of the Scheme the Pageant the h fashion of this world which passeth over and of a i massie and eternal glory which never fadeth away Of comforts which we k leave behinde us and put off when we lie down to sleep and of a l Comforter which abideth with us and m works which follow us and are transportable into another Countrey Inasmuch therefore as the Apostle telleth us that we are n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} fellow Citizens with the Saints and that we have o {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a traffique and negotiation in Heaven and in as much as when we go from hence the earth and all the contents thereof will p stay behinde us and nothing will go along with the soul into another VVorld but those graces which did here enrich it I have in this plaine Sermon endeavoured to perswade my selfe and mine hearers to be wise Merchants for an abiding City and above all the interests in the world to look after those two most precious jewels without which the possession of the whole VVorld would be but specious beggery our souls and our Saviour And because this is a Doctrine most generally confessed and yet too too generally neglected even good men oftentimes suffering Martha's many things to divert their thoughts from Maries one necessary thing I have the more readily obeyed the Order of your honourable Court in publishing this Sermon Though there be nothing but the wholsomnesse of the Doctrine it self to commend it to the view of this curious Age Wherein if mens fancies be not gratified with the dresse and garnish as well as their consciences nourished with the substance of sound Doctrine If there be not either Elegancy of Stile or New and Polite Notions to commend old Truths to our more quaint and delicate palates we are apter many times to censure the manner then to value the matter which is set before us As it is I offer it to your favourable acceptance and humbly commend you and all your weighty affaires to the special blessing of the Lord Your Honours most humble servant in the work of the Lord EDWARD REYNOLDS TRUE GAIN MATTH. 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul OUr Savior acquainting his Disciples with what things he was to suffer at Jerusalem and being thereupon rebuked by Peter doth not only reprove Peter doth not only reprove Peter for the carnal apprehensions which he had of his Kingdome assuring him that he was therein an adversary and an offence unto him as going about to hinder the great work of mans Redemption by disswading him from those sufferings whereby it was to be accomplished but doth further assure both him and all his Disciples That they are to be so far from expecting earthly honours and preferments from him as that they must learne to deny themselves and in stead of Crowns and Dignities must be ready to take up a Crosse as he should do and to follow him without the camp bearing his reproach He assures them that as all the good which he was to work for them was to be Purchased by his sufferings and denying of himself so the way whereby they were to be brought unto the fruition of it was by denying themselves and being conformable unto him in sufferings That which was necessary for Christ to do by way of merit to purchase it was necessary by way of preparation of heart for them to do to attaine unto it As He so we likewise are first to suffer and then to be glorified so Christ saith of himself Luke 24.26 and so the Apostle saith of his people Rom. 8.17 And because they might be offended at this doctrine as contrary to those opionions which they had entertain'd of their Messiah whom they beleeved him to be who was in their aprehensions to restore the Kingdome unto Israel Acts 1.6 and to be King of all the world whence there arose a general belief not only amongst Jews but others as Tacitus observeth that out of those Countries should arise a Prince who should rule over all the world which the Romanes thought to have been verified in Vespasian who was sometimes Praefectus Iudeae and afterwards Emperor of Rome therefore our Saviour further sheweth them that in these reasonings they had indeed too low apprehensions of him and his Kingdome for they ought to look upon their Messiah as a Prince who would deliver them from the great●st of all evils and advance them to a condition beyond which a more blessed could not to be found But now admit that he were to be King of all the world and would advance them proportionably to as great dignity as such a Kingdom could dispense yet if after all this they die and their souls perish and go to hell what good would such a Kingdom such a Messiah do them Is there any thing worth the soul of a man which he would not expend and part with to save that Therefore he would not have them to think that a worldly domination was such as he came to purchase for them but a glorious and eternal kingdome which at last he would come with his Angels to take them into the first fruits and glimmerings whereof are more worth then all the crowns and diadems of the world wherof he promiseth quickly after to give them a tast which accordingly he did the eighth day following in his Transfiguration on the mount The Context from vers 24. to the end of the Chapter containeth 1. An Assertion 2. A Vindication thereof The Assertion That whosoever will come after Christ must take up his crosse and deny himself v. 24. The Vindication from three great scandals which this severe doctrine of the Crosse was attended withall 1. Death and this taken away v. 25. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever wil loose his life for my sake

can prefer you unto greater happines if he have an immarcescible crown an eternall kingdome to bestow vpon you if he have shed any blood laid down any life to purchase blessedness for you I am willing where your gain is greatest there your trade and service be directed But if my wages be much better then his and my love much greater then his and my right in you and authority over you much more then his not onely for love and duty to me but for your own sakes limit and confine your negotiations there where your own advantages will be more abundant and your own comforts more durable and glorious We see Christ allows us to eye our own profit in his service In what sense we may or may not this do may be briefly thus resolved 1. We may not respect profit or advantage as the ultimate end of our obedience Gods glory being simply the supream of Ends in it self should accordingly be so unto us Our greatest aim in bringing forth fruit should be that God may be honoured Joh 15.8 that whether we live we may live to him or whether we die we may die to him Rom. 14.7 8.9 All things are of him and for him therefore all things must be to him likewise Rom. 11.36 2. We must not respect profit and reward as the onely reason of our obedience without which we would not do God any service at all for this would be a meer mercenary and servile consideration The chief reasons of obedience are our subjection to Gods authority over us because he is the Lord our faith love and thankfulness for his Covenant of grace because he is our God These two are joyned in the Preface to the Decalogue I am the Lord thy God 3. We may not respect profit and reward as the fruit of any merit in our services when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants unto God and therefore he might justly make our services unprofitable to our selves It is matter of comfort it is not matter of boasting we may rejoyce that there is profit in serving of God but we may not glory of it as any naturall or necessary consequent of our services for Grace doth exclude boasting Eph. 2.8 and the reward is of grace and mercy not of debt Rom 4.4 5. and 11.6 Psal. 26. 12. Exod. 20.6 But then we may look on the reward and profit of obedience 1. As a secondary end under the glory of God so the Apostle calleth salvation the end of our faith 1 Pet. 1.9 Our love to God though it be above our love to our selves yet doth not exclude it so our seeking of Gods glory though it be above all other ends yet it doth not exclude the seeking of our own happiness yet God hath been pleased so graciously to twist and as it were interweave and concorporate these together that no man can truly aim at the glory of God but he doth eo ips● promote his own salvation neither doth any man sincerely seek his own salvation but the Lord esteemeth himself therein glorified by him 2. As a manifestation of Gods bounty who when he might require homage of us as our Lord by the tie of our natural subjecton unto him is pleased out of free grace to propose further rewards making our services as well matter of profit to our selves as of praise and glory unto him faith looketh upon God as a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 as a God that not onely is good but doth good Psal. 1●9 68 as a God whose power and mercy is herein declared in that he rendreth unto every man according to his work Psa. 62.11 12 3. As matter of encouragement to run with patience the race that is set before us to animate us against all the difficulties dangers temptations and variety of disheartnings which through the subtlety and malice of Satan we are sure to meet with in Gods service The Hope of ensuing glory doth work resolutions in God servants to purifie themselves that so being like unto Christ in holiness they may thereby be Prepared to be like unto him in glory 1 Ioh. 3.3 The crowne of righteousenss kept up the resolution of the Apostle himself to fight the good fight of faith to run his race to finish his course to keep the faith 2 Tim 4.7 8. Thus a Christian is allowed by his Lord to do his masters work with some eye and intuition of his own gain But then as the Apostle saith If a man strive for masteries he is not crowned except he strive lawfully So If a man contend for gain he shall never overtake it except he contend lawfully Our Saviour here hath excluded one way and that a broad one where in multitudes weary themselves for this Prize What shall it profit a man if he win the whole world And secondly intimateth the true though a more narrow and private way viz. to prosecu●e the interest of our precious souls Let us consider them both First worldly love is inconsistent with true ●hristian gain upon many accounts 1. It is vast and insatiable like the horseleech which cries G●ve give like fire and the grave which never sayes it is enough Prov 30.15.16 Lust is infinite there is no end of its labour Eccles. 4.8 It reacheth at all therefore the Apostle calleth it not onely love of the things of the world but love of the world Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 John 2 15. A covetous heart grasps at the whole world would fain be master of all and dwell alone like a Wen in the body which draws all to it self let it have never so much it will still reach after more adds house to house and field to field Isai. 5.8 keeps not at home cannot be satisfied inlargeth gathereth heapeth increaseth loadeth it self with thick clay Habac. 2.5 6. The very Heathen have complained of this endless and unbounded reach of corupt desires {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ex libidine orta sine termino sunt Lust hath no bound no measure like a bladder it swells wider and wider the more of this empty world is put into it Like a breach of the sea which hath no internal bounds to contain it self in sternit agros sternit sata laeta boumque labores The Countryman in the Fable would needs stay till the River was run all away and then go over dry but the River did run on still Such are inordinate worldly desires the deceitful heart promiseth to see them run over and gone when they are attained unto such a measure and then they are stronger and wider more impotent and unruly then before modus modus non habet modum for as natural so sinful motions the further they proceed are usually the stronger Now God having so odered the world as that no man can have it all to him self it is divided and bounded to several

gratis but do promise themselves Some benefit by their wickedness If Esau sell his birthright if Balaam curse Gods people if Ieroboam set up Calves if Ahab sell himself to work wickedness If Iudas betray his Master it is all upon a contract and bargain under the intuition of the wages of unrighteousness Si violandum jus regnandi causâ violandum Therefore God is pleased 1 To Dehort men from the wayes of sin by undeceiving them and discovering the unprofitableness and perniciousness of those wayes My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit Jer. 2.11 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Isai. 55 2. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are now ashamed Rom. 6.21 The voluptuous sinner promiseth himselfe abundance of delight in his stollen waters let us take our fill of loves let us solace our selves with loves Prov. 7.18 but at last when he hath destroyed his name and gotten a wound and dishonour when he hath destroyed his estate and strangers are filled with his wealth when he hath destroyed his body and given his years to the cruel when he hath destroyed his soul and is gone down to the chambers of death then tell me whether his perfumes of Mirrh Aloes and Cinnamon be not all turned into gall and wormwood The worldling promiseth himself much content in his dishonest gain in fraud oppression circumvention and violence Populus me sibilat at mihi plaudo ipse domi I shall have a brave vineyard saies Ahab I shall have sheep and oxen saies Gehazi I shall never want friends nor contents money answers to All O nummi vos estis fratres But what saies God Thou fool this night shall they take thy soul from thee Thy vineyard O Ahab shall bring forth grapes of gall Thy talents O Gehazi shall purchase thee and thine heirs a leprosie Thy wedge of gold O Achan shall cleave thy soul from thy body Thy thirty pieces of silver O Judas shall be the price of thine own bowels as well as of thy masters blood Treasures of wickedness shall not profit in the day of wrath Prov. 10.2 They that will be rich drown themselves in destruction and perdition and peirce themselves through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.9 10. The ambitious man promiseth him self much honour and power when he hath arrived at that greatness whereunto he aspireth I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God Isai. 14.15 When I have by plausible compliances gotten the glories of the world I will then please my self as Nebuchadezner did with the view and fruition of so gallant a purchase But what saith the Lord Though thou set thy nest amongst the star● thence will I Bring thee down Obad. v. 4. Isai. 26.5 Thou art a man and no God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God Ezek. 28.2 O Nebuch●dnezzar in stead of the majesty of a Prince thou shalt have the misery of a beast Thy feasting O Belshazzar shall be turned into mourning thy pride into terrors thou shalt be drunk not with wine but with astonishment and thy joynts shall stagger one against another Thus do men sell themselves to sin for hopes of gain and thus miserably are they cheated in the bargain the Devil dealing with them as some say he doth with Witches giving them leaves of trees in the shape of gold and silver so that in the conclusion it appears that they did indeed sell themselves for just nothing Isai. 52.3 2. By the same argument God is pleased to vindicate the ways of godliness from the prejudice which wicked men have against them as if they were unprofitable What is the Almighty that we should serve him what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21.15 Ye have said It is vaine to serve God what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances Mal. 3.14.5 To take off this Objection God assures his people That his wayes do good to those that walk uprightly Mic. 2.7 That his people do not seek his face in vain Isai. 45.19 That he is not a wilderness unto them Jer. 2.31 That godliness is great gain and Profitable unto all things 1 Tim. 4.8 and 6.6 That he who soweth righteousness shall have a sure reward Prov. 11.18 That in keeping of his commandments there is great reward Psal. 19.11 And he is pleased to animate his servants against the hardship of their Christian warfare against externall difficulties and internal faintings by setting before them exceeding great and precious promises Having these promises let us cleanse our selves and perfect holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Ye have need of patience that when ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Heb. 10.36 Be not weary of wel-doing in due time ye shall reape if ye faint not Gal. 6.9 When ye are reviled and persecuted rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward Mat. 5.11 By this consideration not only Moses and Paul Heb. 11.25.26 Phil. 3.4 but the Lord Jesus himself for the joy which was set before him endured the Cross and dispised the shame Heb. 12.2 Now here in is the mercy of God greatly commended unto us that when he might use no other argument to enforce obedience then his own soveraign authority over us is pleased to incourage us by our own benefit The chief reason of obedience saith Tertullian is the authority of the Lord not the utility of the servant He made all things for himself and might have looked no farther then his own glory we do so with the creatures which serve us we labour our Oxen and then we destroy them first we make them drudge and then we make them die But God is pleased to encourage us unto duties by our self-love commands us to fear him for our own good Deut 6.24 sets the blessing of obedience and the curse of disobedience before our eyes Deut. 11.26 28. The work of Christianity is a difficult work there are many enemies many temptations Satan and and the world resist us without corruption wrestles and rebels within But here is the comfort Gods servants work for a Master that remembers all who looks to their profit as well as to his own honour who keeps a book for our prayers a bottle for our tears a register for them that fear him Mal. 3.16 a memorial of but a cup of cold water given to a Prophet as a Prophet This is encouragement indeed unto Gods service Christ is willing to put it to this issue Though I have a right and power over you which Satan hath not I made you I bought you he never had title unto you either by dominion or purchase as I have But I shall wish you to look to your own interest see which service is most advantagious to your selves mine or his If he can make you more precious promises if he