Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A87158
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The weary traveller his eternal rest being a discourse of that blessed rest here, which leads to endless rest hereafter. By H. H. D. D. Rector of Snaylwell, and Canon of Ely.
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Harrison, Henry, 1610 or 11-1690.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H893A; ESTC R215784
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80,142
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276
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the bane of private Families publick Societies Church and State and all that is profitable or comfortable to Man When the World is out of frame peace establisheth the pillars of it brings every part to its own place the sensual under the rational the flesh under the beck of the Spirit It draws the Servant under the Master the Subject under the Magistrate The peace of Families and Kingdoms makes every part to dwell together in unity it keeps every Man in his right place the Master on Horseback the Servant on the ground the King on the Throne the Subject in his private station the pastors in their place of teaching and the people in theirs of attention and devotion Like an intelligence it moves the lesser Sphere of a Family and the greater Orb of a Commonwealth or Kingdom composedly and orderly in its happiness Peace is so necessary in all conditions to rest and happiness that without it ones Family is a prison or sad confinement to trouble and molestation Neighbourhood gives but the opportunity of vexing and injuring one another Towns and Cities are but so many wildernesses of wild beasts The Church no Church more like Babel than Jerusalem A Kingdom or State a disorderly Chaos yea an Aceldama or field of blood By peace at home good Laws and Orders are made and kept Magistrates respected Subjects relieved according to their necessities By peace and agreement in the Church Gods ordinances are duly observed good discipline executed Pastors and Teachers maintained and encouraged the People edified Gods houses preserved and beautified Who is there then that would not seek his eternal Rest hereafter by seeking peace and ensuing it here Christian Religion that leads and conducts us to this eternal Rest is also the wisest and most powerful preserver of peace in order to it It commands us to study and pray for it to follow it with all diligence till we overtake it we are commanded to lose our right for the sake of peace to part with Coat or Cloak or any thing tolerable rather than it Peace levels the hills and raises the vallies and casts an healthful peaceable influence on all conditions and qualities of Men That as it was prophesied Isa 11.6 The Wolf may dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid. And if it be not so with Christians it is because they are so in word but not in heart have received the Gospel of peace in their Ears and heads perhaps but not in the love thereof For were they indeed the Sons of peace in whose hearts the peace of God takes place were they Members of that body of which Christ is the head then every Member of such a Kingdom or Church would keep its place with subordinate dependance the rich by supplying the poor the poor by blessing the rich the wise by teaching the ignorant the ignorant by hearkening to the wise every Man being as an Angel or ministring Spirit to another But the restless unpeaceable person counts it his honour to speak and do what he list To pursue his enemies till he take them and beat them as small as the dust before the wind to stand in the vally and touch the Mountains till they smoak reach at that which is above and pull it down divide that which is united shake that which is establisht violate that which should not be toucht and are ever moving and heaving upward to gain a name though it be by firing a Temple or setting a Kingdom or Church in combustion Thus are honours valued and sought among Men the Sons of Belial that would be yokeless Honourable Schismaticks descend from Jeroboam who made Israel to sin from Corah Dathan and Abiram who rose up against Moses and Aaron till they perished in their contradiction Honourable Hypocrites Pharisees and the Sons of Pharisees whose name and profession was to separate as more holy though the Baptist and Christ himself condemned them as more wicked Honourable Murtherers of their Father the Devil who was so from the beginning of sins entrance into the World ambitious covetous discontented revengful humorous unpeaceable persons and these would be accounted the Honourable grandees of the World but in the Court and Heraldry of Heaven we find no such Titles of Honour An Honour it is to be at peace and rest cease from strife Prov. 20.3 The peaceable Man he is the Honourable Man in Scripture and in Gods account By peaceableness and following peace Men procure to themselves a sure Title to everlasting peace and rest knowing that the merciful shall obtain mercy the peaceable peace and Rest at the last But there are amongst us unquiet restless persons who pretend to inspirations and boast themselves of the Spirit but we are exhorted by St. John 1 Ephes 4.1 Not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no because many false Prophets are gone out into the World And our Saviour's direction for the discovery of them we have Matt. 7.16 Ye shall know them by their fruits Our Saviours meaning could not be only nor chiefly the fruits of their lives in their outward conversation for falsehood is often set off by Hypocrisy and a shew of sanctity goes for great purity and pretences of Religion and Reformation serve to delude and mislead unstable Souls This is the Wool which the Wolf wraps about him when he means to do most mischief with least suspition The old Serpent is not so silly as to think that his Ministers whilst they are working the works of darkness should be able to draw a considerable party into their communion should they appear in their dismal colours therefore he puts them into a new dress before he send them abroad in the World transforming them as if they were the Ministers of light therefore our Saviour could not mean the fruits of their lives so much as the fruits of their Doctrine that is to say the necessary consequences of their Doctrines If what is spoken and Taught by them upon examination do plainly appear inconsistent with any one branch or duty of a Christian life the words we may be sure are not wholsom words It can be no Heavenly Doctrine that teacheth Men to be earthly sensual and devilish that tends to make Men unjust in their dealings uncharitable in their censures undutiful to their superiours It was not the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the rigor and curse of the Law so to turn us loose and lawless to do as when there was no King in Israel what seemed good in our own Eyes follow our own crooked will gratify any corrupt lust but to oblige us the faster by these new benefits and heavenly promises and to bind us to our good behaviour the more strictly allowing no liberty to the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but to exact of us sincere sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation otherwise