Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	grace_n	king_n	lord_n	2,963	5	3.6667	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59669	The sincere convert discovering the paucity of true beleevers and the great difficulty of saving conversion by Tho. Shepheard ....	Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Greenhill, William, 1591-1671.	1641 (1641)	Wing S3118; ESTC R9618	105,576	306

gaspe have but an idle thought commit the least sin that one rocke will sinke thee downe even in the haven though never so richly loaden one sin like a pen-knife at the heart will stab thee one sinne like a little fire-stick in the thatch will burne thee one act of treason will hang thee though thou hast lived never so devoutly before Ezek. 18. 24. For it 's a crooked life when all the parts of the line of thy life be not straight before almighty God Thirdly suppose thou shouldest persevere yet it 's cleare thou hast sinned grievously already and dost thou think thine obedience for the time to come can satisfie the Lord for all those Rents behind for all those sinnes past as can a man that payes his Rent honestly every yeare satisfie hereby for the old rent not payed in twenty yeares all thy obedience is a new debt which cannot satisfie for debts past Indeed men may forgive wrong and debts because they be but finite but the least sin is an infinite evill and therefore God must be satisfied for it Men may remit debts and yet remaine men but the Lord having said the soule that sinneth shall die and his truth being himselfe he cannot remaine God if he forgive it without satisfaction Therfore duties are but rotten crutches for a soule to rest upon But to what end should we use any duties cannot a man be saved by his good prayers nor sorrowes nor repentings what should wee pray any more then Let us cast off all duties if all are to no purpose to save us As good play for nothing as worke for nothing Though thy good duties cannot save thee yet thy bad workes will damne thee Thou art therefore not to cast off the duties but thy resting in these duties Thou art not to cast them away but to cast them downe at the feet of Jesus Christ as they did their crownes Rev. 4. 10 11. Saying if there be any good or graces in these duties it 's thine Lord for it is the Princes favour that exalts a man not his owne gifts they came from his good pleasure But thou wilt say to what end should I performe duties if I cannot be saved by them For these three ends 1. 1. To carry thee to the Lord Jesus the onely Saviour Heb. 7. 25. he onely is able to save not duties all that come unto God that is in the use of means by him heare a Sermon to carry thee to Jesus Christ Fast and pray and get a full tide of affections in them to carry thee to the Lord Jesus Christ that is to get a more love to him more acquaintance with him more union with him so sorrow for thy sins that thou mayest be more fitted for Christ that thou mayest prize Christ the more use thy duties as Noah's dove did her wings to carry thee to the Arke of the Lord Jesus Christ where onely there is rest If shee had never used her wings shee had fallen in the waters so if thou shalt use no duties but cast them all off thou art sure to perish Or as it is with a poore man that is to goe over a great water for a treasure on the other side though he cannot fetch the boate he calls for it and though there be no treasure in the boate yet he useth the boate to carry him over to the treasure so Christ is in heaven and thou on earth he doth not come to thee and thou canst not goe to him now call for a boate though there is no grace no good no salvation in a pithlesse dutie yet use it to carry thee over to the treasure the Lord Jesus Christ. When thou comest to heare say Have over Lord by this Sermon When thou comest to pray say Have over Lord by this prayer to a Saviour But this is the misery of people like foolish lovers when they are to woe for the Lady they fall in love with her handmaid that is onely to leade them to her so men fall in love with and doate upon their owne duties and rest contented with the naked performance of them which are onely handmaids to leade the soule unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly use duties as evidences of Gods everlasting love to you when you be in Christ for the graces and duties of Gods people although they be not causes yet they be tokens and pledges of salvation to one in Christ they doe not save a man but onely accompany follow such a man as shall be saved Heb. 6. 9. Let a man boast of his Ioyes feelings gifts spirit grace if he walks in the commission of any one sin or the om●ssion of any one knowne duty or in the slovenly ill favoured performance of duties this man I say can have no assurance without flattering of himselfe 2 Pet. 1. 8 9 10. Duties therefore being evidences and pledges of salvation use them to that end and make much of them therefore as a man that hath faire evidence for his Lordship because he did not purchase his Lordship will he therefore cast it away no no because it is an evidence to assure him that it is his owne and so to defend him against all such as seeke to take it from him he will carefully preserve the same so because duties do not save thee wilt thou cast away good duties No for they are evidences if thou art in Christ that the Lord and mercy is thine owne Women will not cast away their love-tokens although they are such things as did not purchase or merit the love of their husbāds but because they are tokens of his love therfore they will keep them safe That God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ may be honoured by the performance of these duties therefore use them Christ shed his bloud that he might purchase unto himselfe a people zealous of good workes Tit. 2. 14. not to save our soules by them but to honour him Oh! let not the bloud of Christ be shed in vaine Grace good duties are a Christians Crowne it is sin onely makes a man base now shall a King cast away his Crowne because he bought not his Kingdome by it No because it is his Ornament and glory to weare it when he is made a King so I say unto thee it 's better that Christ should be honoured than thy soule saved and therefore performe duties because they honour the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus use thy duties but rest not in duties nay goe out of duties match thy soule to the Lord Jesus take him for better for worse so live in him and upon him all thy dayes Fourthly By reason of mans head-strong Presumption or false faith whereby men seeke to save themselves by catching hold on Christ when they see an insufficiency in all duties to helpe them and themselves unworthy of mercy For this is the last most dangerous rock that these times are split upon

wise for the world after they have beene made new But lastly is it now from a slavish feare of hell which workes this alteration Nothing lesse they abhorre to live like slaves in Bridewell to do all for feare of the whip Fourthly From Gods Register or notary which is in every man I meane the Conscience of man which telleth them there is a GOD and although they silence it sometimes yet in thunder-time or great plague as Pharaoh or at the day of Death then they are neere Gods Tribunall when they acknowledge him clearely The fearefull terrors of Conscience prove this which like a Bayliffe arrests men for their debts Ergo there is some Creditor to set it on sometimes like a hangman it torments men ergo there is some strange Iudge that gave it that command whence arise these dreadfull terrors in men of themselves No surely all desire to be in peace and so to live and sleepe in a whole skin Comes it frō Melancholy no for melancholy comes on by degrees these terrors of conscience surprise the soule sodainely at a sermon sodainely after the commission of some secret foule sinne Againe Melancholy sadnesse may be cured by Physicke but many Physitians have given such men over to other Physitians Melancholy sadnesse may bee borne but a wounded Spirit who can beare Thus you see that there is a God But who ever saw God that every one is bold to affirme that there is a God Indeed his face never was seene by mortall man but his back-parts have beene seene are seene and may bee seene by all the world as hath beene proved Objection All things are brought to passe by second causes Answ. 1. What though Is there no Master in the House because the servants doe all the worke This great God maintaines state by doing all by the Creatures subjection yet sometimes we may cry out in beholding some speciall peeces of his administration here is the finger of God 2. What though there be such confusion in the world as that shillings stand for pence and counters stand for pounds the best men are bought and sould at a low rate and worst men prized and preferred yet if wee had eyes to see and conceive wee should see an harmony in this discord of things God is now like a wise Carpen●er but hewing out his worke There is a lumber and confusion seemingly among us let us stay till the day of judgement and then wee shall see infinite wisedome in sitting all this for his owne glory and for the good of his people Object But if there be a God why heares hee not his peoples prayers why doth hee forget them when they have most need of him I answer Noah's Dove returnes not presently with an olive-branch of peace in his mouth Prayers sometime that speed well returne not presently for want of company enough to fetch away that abundance of mercy which God hath to give The Lord ever gives them their asking in mony or mony-worth in the same thing or a better The Lord ever gives his importunate beggers their desires either in pence by little and little or by pounds long he is many times before hee gives but payeth them well for their waiting This is a use of reproo●e to all Atheists either in opinion or practice First In opinion such as either conclude or suspect there is no God Oh blasphemous thought Are there any such men men nay beasts nay Devils nay worse than Devils for they beleeve and tremble Yet the foole hath said in his heart there is no God Psal. 18. 1. Men that have little heads little knowledge without hearts as scholars sometimes of weak brains seeing how things come by second causes though they might beleeve their bookes yet cannot raise their dull thoughts to the beholding of a first cause Great Politicians are like children alwayes standing on their heads and shaking their heeles against Heaven these thinke Religion to bee but a peece of policie to keepe people in awe prophane persons desiring to goe on in sinne without any rubb or checke for sinne blow out all the light of nature wishing there were no God to punish and are willing to suspect that which is not Those also that have sinned secretly though not openly against nature or the light of Conscience GOD smites men for incest sodomy selfe-pollution with dismall blindnesse Those also that are notorious worldlings that looke no higher than their barnes no further than their shops the world is a pearle in their eyes they cannot see a God Lastly I suspect those men that never found out this thiefe this sinne that was bred and born with them nor saw it in their owne hearts but there it lies still in some darke corner of their soules to cut their throates these kind of men sometimes suspect there is no God O this is a grievous sinne for if no God no heaven no hell no martyrs no prophets no Scriptures Christ was then an horrible lyer and an Impostor Other sinnes wrong and grieve God and wound him but this sinne stabs the very heart of God it strikes at the life and is as much as lies in sinfull man the death of God for it saith there is no God Secondly This reproveth Atheists in practice which say there is a God and question it not but in works they deny him Hee that pluckes the King from his throne is as vile as hee that saith he is no King These men are almost as bad as Atheists in opinion And of such dust-heapes we may finde in every Corner that in their practice deny God men that set up other gods in Gods roome their wealth their honour their pleasure their merits their backs and bellies to be their gods men that make bold to do that against this true God which Idolaters dare not doe against their Idoll Gods and that is continually to wrong this●God Men that speake not for all they want by prayer nor returne all backe againe to God by praise A second use is for exhortation O labour to see and behold this God Is there a God and wilt thou not give him a good looke Oh passe by all the Rivers till thou come to the spring head wade through all creatures untill thou art drowned plunged and swallowed up with God When thou seest the Heavens say where is that great Builder that made this when thou hearest of mutations of Kingdomes say where is the Lord of Hosts the great Captaine of these armies when thou tastest sweetnes in the Creature or in Gods ordinances say where is sweetnesse it selfe beauty it selfe where is the Sea of these drops the Sun of these beames Oh that men saw this God its heaven to behold him thou art then in a corner of hell that canst not dost not see him and yet what is lesse knowne than God Methinks when men heare there is a God about them they should lye groveling in the dust because of