Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	earth_n	hand_n	lord_n	2,385	5	3.7503	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93757	Six several sermons preached on Isaiah, 38. I. Wherein that great duty of setting our body and soul in order, for we shall die, is at large opened and explained Wherein also many divine truths are made known relating to the same matter; and now published, because of the exceeding importance and concernment of this subject unto all people whatsoever.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1696 (1696)	Wing S5135; ESTC R230779	115,810	178

Names shall be written in the Earth they will not be found written in the Book of Life nor in Heaven but their Names shall be blotted out from under Heaven and noted down with a black Coal here on this Earth So that of Necessity they shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and be burnt up they being the Chaff of the Creation of God with unquenchable Fire As saith the Wise man Envy thou not the Glory of a Sinner for thou knowest not what shall be hi● end So I now preach unto ye do not envy the Riches fine Estate or Plenty of a Man of this World or a Man of this Earth who makes the World and the good things of the Earth his main End and principal Business for it appears from the Scriptures of Truth what will be their End namely when the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up themselves whose Names shall be written in the Earth Many of whom now call their Lands after their own Names Psalm 89. 11. shall be burnt up also together with it with unquenchable Fire For my ●art I had rather have my Name written in the Book of ●he Living and be written with the Righteous though by Persecution and Oppression I should be stripped of all than to have my Name written in the Earth although I might be Lord Proprietor and Owner of several thousand Acres of good Land And so would ye also if ye have a true Faith and Knowledge in the revealed Decrees and Dispensations of God and in the Things pertaining to his Kingdom Though withal it is to be understood as the same may be truly gathered from out of the same Scriptures of Truth none will be condemned at the last day meerly or only because He was Rich in this World and so it is contrariwise none will be saved meerly or only because He was Poor in this World But People will be saved or condemned according as they have done Good or Evil and according as their Deeds done in the Body were Righteous or Unrighteous Just or Unjust Equal or Unequal True or False Acts of Duty and Obedience or Acts of Sin or according as they do most set their Heart and Affections upon God or the Things of this World I have heard a Man speaking on this Wise As long as my Possessions Goods and Estate will serve my Time it is well enough Which seems to be a fit Expression for one who hath his Portion in this Life And truly this is the mistake the Men of the World go upon for this makes them so eager and desirous in compassing and obtaining them whether by lawful or unlawful means whether by right or wrong Omission of Duty or Commission of Sin For they imagine and say that the good things of this Life will serve for their Time But in this they do greatly err for as aforesaid themselves have immortal Souls and immortal Spirits which exist and live the very first hour after they are dislodged from the Body And seeing that the World passeth away and the Lust and Fashion thereof It is hence manifest and clear that they do not neither will they serve their Time For our Time or the Time of our selves which is our Souls is to last as long as God himself and to run parallel with the longest Line of Eternity even until Time shall be no more but we are thence launched forth into the vast and infinite Ocean of forever and ever Tell them therefore thus saith the Lord God I will make this Proverb to cease and they shall no more use it as a Proverb in Israel but say unto them the days are at hand and the Effect of every Vision Ezek. 12. 23. So when the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord which also includes the Knowledge of the Things pertaining to his Kingdom as the Waters cover the Sea there shall be no more used this kind of saying in the Mouths of People that the things of the Earth or the things of this World will serve their Time so as to last as long as themselves shall last and endure for the one are perishing and corruptible but themselves that is their Souls are Immortal and Incorruptible Indeed in this Sence they might and should serve their Time by using and receiving them to the Glory of God and according to the Bounds Rules and Directions of his Law that they might be for the Benefit and not hurt of the owners as the Wise Man intimates and according to this Counsel and Command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations Rich People should most of all much consider of this so that themselves may be hereby influenced and perswaded for to do accordingly For these sensibly know what a Comfort and Conveniency it is to have an Affluence and Plenty of the good things of the Earth ready to their hand without their being forced to drudge and labour for them They should herein Eye the Providence and Dispensation of God as also apprehand how that they are herein liable to higher and stricter accounts to make unto him for more Talents and Priviledges received from him But then chiefly they should lay deeply to Heart that though they now have such an advantage of Worldly Prosperity As they find the Comfort and acceptable Relish thereof is it not then desirable to continue so And therefore they should take Care and give Diligence that against this fails for Rich People must dye and when they die they can carry nothing away with them the forty-ninth Psalm is apposite and pertinent to them to be provided of an Happiness in the highest Heavens for evermore Aristotle an Heathen could say whose saying herein will rise up in Judgment against them Rich People have the most Reason to serve God of any because God hath been so good and bountiful unto them This is an Argument which the Holy Ghost makes use of in Scripture from God's Kindness and Love that they should keep in the way of his Commandments and not turn aside from them But contrariwise is it not seen that Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked that the Rich and Substantial and Chief of the People are the greatest despisers of God because they are full and lack nothing Do they not blaspheme that worthy Name by the which ye are called Do they not make a Mock and Jest and Light of the Power of Godliness and Serious Religion Though themselves partly for Fashion sake and partly for Conscience-sake may just observe the form and out-side thereof Do we not perceive them to be ashamed of the Words of Christ and of the Gospel in this adulterous and sinful Generation Yea they are ashamed and do disdain to come into th● Place where God's Word is preached in the plainness simplicity and meanness thereof My Brethren these things ought not so

things that are wanting even so the everlasting God the Creator of the ends of the Earth for this Cause leaves us a little longer here on the Earth that we should set in Order the things that are wanting Consider then throughly and bethink your selves well what things are now wanting to your Salvation there be sure to supply and fill them up before you die and what things are left undone there be sure to do and perform the same And still if ye can apprehend any thing more there also go and do likewise I am greatly afraid that Mene Tekel is not the Writing which was against Belshazzar of old time but also it lies against every one of us at this day I am sure and sensible that it lies against my self and so it will appear that it lies against all the Sons and Daughters of Men When God shall enter into Judgment with them for in his sight shall no Man living be justified This is the Interpretation of these two words Mene Tekel See Dan. 5. 26. 27 when it is applicable to common Persons Mene God ha●h numbered the days of thy life and finished them This is certainly true and will be found true Tekel Thou art weighed in the Ballance and art found wanting This last comes directly to our Subject matter and will be found true also when the Actions of the best Saints and Servants that were ever on this Earth I will not except the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who yet are all in the Kingdom of God but only excepted Jesus Christ the Righteous are weighed in the Ballance of his strict and just Judgments Their Actions are not so good as they might have been For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. For the Lord is a God of Knowledge and by him Actions are weighed 1 Sam. 2. 3. And so he knows where and in what point such and such Actions are wanting Though we his Ministers and Creatures by reason of our half imperfect and outward Knowledge cannot presently assign it The Actions of all the Children of Men will be found wanting in the Knowledge Sight and Judgment of the Lord yet they should not be found wanting in our own Knowledge Sight and Endeavour But we should still press and labour to come up to that State whereof Paul speaketh as to himself I know nothing by my self yet I am not hereby justified That is he knew no sin or fault which he allowed himself in and no Duty which he left undone And such a State may any Christian now-a days by that common Grace which God usually gives arrive unto if he will Though Paul was thus Innocent Upright and Obedient yet he going on to add that hereby he was not justified that is before God This confirms the truth of what was aforesaid that though we do to the very best that ever we can endeavouring and labouring to the very utmost that our Actions be not found wanting until they seem to us as if they were not wanting yet still in the future Judgment of God they will be found wanting The reason whereof is For the Lord seeth not as Man seeth for Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart So the Lord knoweth not as Man knoweth for Man knoweth the outward appearance only by halves and imperfectly But the Lord knoweth the inside and throughout even all that is to be known in any thing For the Lord is a God of Knowledge and by him Actions are weighed Nevertheless the Lord doth require of and command us to do our very best though when we have done all that is commanded us we are but unprofitable Servants and we are to use our utmost and continued diligence that we be not found wanting though after all and at the last we shall be found wanting This seems to be the turning and deciding point why some will be saved and others will be condemned at the last day The Souls of those that shall be saved did whilst they were here in the Body and in the days of the Flesh labour and endeavour with all their strength and with all their might as Jacob served Laban with all his might that they should not be found wanting That nothing should be wanting in them towards obtaining their own Salvation They did run strive and fight as the Scripture Phrases are in doing whatever they could if by any means they might obtain unto the Resurrection of the dead And so God who doth not lay upon Man more than is right doth accept of this their good mind and good will towards him He will not expect from a Creature more than he is able so such are received by him they are admitted and do enter into their Master's Joy But contrariwise the Souls of them that shall be condemned possibly they might seek to enter in at the strait Gate that is use a little careless idle and customary endeavour but they did not strive Luke 13. 24. for then they would have entred in Neither did they use their continued labour and utmost diligence that they should not be found wanting It was a thing which they did a little but not much mind for now it is evidently seen and known in the World that though all do pretend to serve God and they say that they hope to go to Heaven yet some do more towards it than others Whereas the Kingdom of Heaven will never be obtained by a parcel of lazy and outward customary Worshippers For from the days of John until this time the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Heaven and Immortality are for those who strive who are stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord the labour of such is not vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. who seek diligently Heb. 11. 6. who make it their constant business throughout their life As in Acts 28. 24. Some believed the things that were spoken and some believed not Some obey the Word and some do not So it is here some will use their utmost diligence and labour that they be not found wanting and these will be accepted by God and saved Others again will not use their utmost diligence and labour that they be not found wanting and these will not be accepted by God for they will be Condemned by him and perish They are weighed in the Ballance and are found wan●ing And that Lott and Portion they might have had in the Heavenly Inheritance is divided and given unto others SERMON III. Isaiah 38. 1. Set thine House in Order for thou shalt die and not live IT hath been already said That to set our Souls in Order before we die or before our Souls go out of our Bodies is to take care and provide that nothing be wanting in them But I find and gather from out of the Scriptures of Truth That another main Principal and Essential thing wanting in the Souls of Men