Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A46878
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A sermon preached before Q. Elizabeth by that learned and reverend man Iohn Iewel ... ; with an answer of the same authour to some frivolous objections against the government of the church.
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Jewel, John, 1522-1571.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing J739; ESTC R16610
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20,215
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57
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revolutions of the Heavens And so they judged that man which either had most abundance of naturall reason or beheld and considered the heavens best to be most perfect of all others and that he came nearest to the end of his creation Thus said they as men without feeling of God onely endued with the light of nature But as God himselfe declareth who fashioned us and made us and knoweth us best the very true end why man was made was to know to honour God Therefore whoso knoweth him best and honoureth him with most reverence he is most perfect he commeth neerest the end of his creation When Solomon had described the deceaveable vanities of the world and said vanitie of vanities vanitie of vanities all is vanitie When he had concluded by long discourse that riches Empires honour pleasures knowledge and whatsoever else under the Sunne is but vanity he knitteth up the matter with these words Feare God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole dutie of man that is this is truth and no vanitie this is our perfection to this end are we made not to live in eating and drinking not to passe our time in pleasure and follies not to heap up those things which are daily taken from us or from which we are daily taken away but that in our words in our life in our bodie in our soule we doe service unto God that we look above the Sunne and Moone and all the heavens that wee become the Temples of the holy Ghost that the holy Spirit of God may dwell in us and make us fit instruments of the glory of God Therefore God gave his holy word and hath continued it from the beginning of the world untill this day notwithstanding the Philosophers and learned men in all ages who scorned it out as the word of folly for so it seemeth to them that perish notwithstanding the wicked Princes and Tyrants high powers of the world who consumed and burnt it as false and wicked and seditious doctrine notwithstanding the whole world and power of darknesse were ever bent against it yet hath He wonderfully continued and preserved it without losse of one letter untill this day that we have whereby truly to know him the true and onely God and his sonne Jesus Christ whom he sent Therefore have we Temples Churches places to resort unto all together to honour to worship and to acknowledge him to be our God to joyne our hearts and voices together and to call upon his holy name In such places God hath at all times used to open his Majestie and to shew his power In such places God hath made us a speciall promise to heare our praiers whensoever wee call upon him Therefore are they called the dwelling place and house of God In such places all godly men set their greatest pleasure thought themselves miserable when they were secluded or put off from the same as the Prophet and holy Prince David Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum Domini ibimus O saith that holy man my heart rejoyced within my body when my fellowes called upon me and said let us goe into the house of the Lord. Againe I am in love with the beauty of thy house And againe O how beautifull is thy Tabernacle O Lord O thou the God of hosts my heart longeth and fainteth to come within thy Courts His spirits were ravished with the sight majesty of the Tabernacle not for that the place it selfe at that time was so beautifull for in Davids time it was almost rotten ruinous a homely thing to behold nothing in comparison to that Temple that was afterwards built by Solomon But therein stood the shew worthinesse of that holy place that Gods truth and law was opened and proclaimed in it and the Sacraments ceremonies so used in such forme order as God had commanded them to be used and the people receaved them obediently lived thereafter Therefore when the Tabernacle was restored when the Arke was fet home from Obed-edom and set in the mount Sion when religion Revived which through the negligence and malice of Saul was forsaken when he saw his Nobilitie his Bishops his Priests all his people willing forward he could not refraine himselfe but brake out and sang Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus exultemus laetemur in ea This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it Let us be merry and joy that ever we lived to see it Even so Paul when in his time he saw the Gospell take root and prosper that the savour of life was powred abroad that the kingdome of God was enlarged the kingdome of Satan shaken downe his heart leaped and sprang within him Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile behold now is the acceptable time behold God hath looked downe mercifully upon the world behold the day of salvation is come upon us But the godly man as he rejoyceth at the beauty of Gods house so when contrariwise he seeth the same disordered filthily when he seeth the Sacraments of God abused truth troden under foot the people mocked the name of God dishonoured he cannot but lament and mourne and finde himselfe wounded at heart When the good King Iosias saw the book of God which was so long hid in the wall and out of remembrance when he considered the blindnesse in which they had lived and the unkindnesse of their fore-fathers he could not forbeare but fell a weeping he feared least God should take vengeance upon them for so great contempt of his word When Ieremy saw the wilfulnesse and frowardnesse of the people which would not submit themselves and be obedient unto God he cried Oh that my head were full of water and mine eies a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night c. Such care had they for Gods people Thus the zeale of Gods house had eaten them up Zeale if any man know not the nature of the word is an earnest affection and vehement love as is the love of a mother towards her children or of the naturall childe towards his mother This zeale cannot abide to see that thing which it loveth despised or hurt Such zeale care carrieth God over his people he loveth them as a mother loveth her children he will not suffer them to be hurt By the Prophet Esay he saith can a woman forget her childe and not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe Though they should forget yet will not I forget thee Zachary also saith he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye For God hath said they shall be my people and I will be their God Such care likewise beare all the godly towards their God they love him with all their soule with all their heart with all their strength they reverence him as their father they are grieved with any
the Scriptures of the Doctors of the Councels of Decrees or Decretals of Gods law of mans law nothing will move them nothing will please them because the Ministery of God and thereby God himselfe is despised These words haply seem sharp over vehement but the darknes of our hearts against God and the lack of zeale to his house inforce me to them We are almost fallen into the lowest pit we are left without zeale as senslesse men and as if we had clean forgotten our selves as the heathen which know not God Therefore unlesse we repent the kingdome of God shall be taken away from us he will send upon this land a famine of the word Hierusalem shal be overthrowne and made an heap of stones the man of sin they which have not the love of the truth shall prevaile with many and withdraw them from obedience to the Prince this noble Realm shall be subject to forraigne nations All this will the zeale of the Lord of hosts bring to passe I could have spent this time in opening some other matter but nothing in my judgement is more worthy your good consideratiō speedy redresse I would be loath rashly or rudely to abuse the reverence of this place but unlesse these things be cared for unlesse we shew forth greater zeal then hitherto if the yeares to come eat up and take away from the Ministery as the late yeares have done there will not be left within a while any to speak the word of God out of this place the Pulpits shall have none to use them the people shall grow wilde and void of understanding When Xerxes beheld the great company of Souldiers suddēly he brake into teares wept bitterly one said to him ô Sir you have cause to rejoice you have a goodly company they are able to fight for you against any nation But what shall become of them saith Xerxes after a 100 yeares not one of all these shall be left alive If the view of the small number of Preachers might be taken how few they are and how thin they come up we have greater cause then Xerxes to lament if we have any zeale to the house of God for of the Preachers which now are within few yeares none will remaine alive And Xerxes his souldiers left issue behind them which might afterwards serve their country But there is like to be small increase for the supply of learned men The Lord shall lack men to bring in his harvest the litle ones shall call for bread and there shall be none to give it them They that shall come after us shal see this to be true there is no house so spoiled as the house of the Lord there is no servant so litle rewarded as the servant of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God Oh that your Grace did behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church or that you might foresee the calamities which will follow It is a part of your Kingdome and such a part as is the principall prop and stay of the rest I will say to your Majestie as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian Ab ea quae erga Deum est pietate Reipub vestrae status pendet the good estate and welfare of your Commonwealth hangeth upon true godlinesse You are our governour you are the Nurce of Gods Church we must open this griefe before you God knoweth if it may be redressed it hath grown so long and is run so farre but if it may be redressed there is no other beside your Highnesse that can redresse it I hope I speake truly that which I speake without flattery that God hath endued your grace with such measure of learning knowledge as no other Christian Prince he hath given you peace happinesse the love and true hearts of your subjects Oh turne and employ these to the glory of God that God may confirme in your Grace the thing which he hath begun To this end hath God placed Kings and Princes in their State as David saith that they may serve the Lord that they may see cause others to see to the furniture of the Church The good Emperour Justinian cared for this as much as for his life Constantine Theodosius Valentinian and other godly Princes called themselves Vasallos the subjects and bond-servants of God they remembred that God furnished them in their houses and were not unmindfull to furnish his house When Augustus had beautified Rome with setting up many faire buildings he said 〈◊〉 later it iam marmore am reddidi I found it made of brick but I leave it made of marble Your Grace when God sent you to your inheritance the right of this Realme found the Church in horrible confusion in respect of the true worship of God a Church of brick or rather as Ezechiel saith daubed up with unseasoned morter Your Grace hath already redressed the doctrine now cast your eies towards the Ministery give courage and countenance unto Learning that Gods house may be served so shall you leave to the Church of God a testimony that the zeal of the Lords house had eaten you up And you ô dearely beloved if there be any such which are neither hot nor cold which doe the work of the Lord negligently which esteem the word of God but as a matter of policy which are ashamed to be called Professours of the Gospell of Christ pray unto God that he will increase your zeal Let us continue rooted and built in Christ and stablished in the faith let us have care for the house of God Whosoever is not after this sort zealous is a man of a double heart We may not halt between two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Ball be he then goe after him he that is not with Christ is against him Many talke of the Gospell and glory in their knowledge but it is neither talke nor knowledge which shall save them in that day He that feareth the Lord and serveth him with a pure heart and may truly say the zeal of thine house hath consumed me he shall be saved If they shall not escape which have zeale without knowledge what shall become of us which have knowledge without zeale And you whosoever you are that by such meanes have decayed the Lords house and abridged the provision and maintenance thereof and see the miserable wrack of Gods Church if there be any zeale of God in you if you have any fellowship of the spirit if any compassion and mercy if you love God if you desire the continuance of the Gospell Oh remember you have the Patrimonie due unto them that should attend in the Lords house You take unto your selves wrongfully that which was not lotted for you Give unto Caesar those things which belong to Caesar and unto God the things which appertaine to him and make for the beautie furniture of his house Enrich your selves by lawfull meanes without the spoile and wast of Gods Church Let not the Ministery by your meanes be despised you enriched them which mocked blinded and devoured you spoile not them now that feed and instruct and comfort you Let us seek the glory of God let us at length serve the Lord and not our belly and greedie wantonnesse So shall God blesse you and prosper you in all your affaires so shall he strike a terrour of you into all forraigne Princes that dwell about you so shall your heart be kept stedfast in the hand of God so shall your heart be perfect before the Lord so shall you leave such as shall alwaies praise the Lord in Sion so shall you see your childrens children and peace upon Israel And thou ô most mercifull Father grant that thy words be not spoken in vain it is thy cause Thou art our Father we are as clay in thine hands Thou hast the key of our hearts give zeale to them that have knowledge give knowledge to them that have zeale that they may be enflamed and ravished with the love of thy house to sorrow for the decay thereof and to doe all their endeavour to build up and establish the same for ever AMEN FINIS Novitiorum prima Ratio Secunda ratio Tertia ratio * Erasm in arguments epist ad Titum * Chrysost in 1. cap. Tit. Quarta Ratio Prov. 22. Eccl. 1. Eccles 12. Psal 122. Ierem. 9. Esay 49. Zach 2. Act 7. Mark 14. Rom 10. 1. Tim. I. Origen in 10 Rom. lib. 8. Wisd 14 Esai 55. Prov 3. Deut 5. 1. King 19 Exod. 32. Ierem. 20. Exod. 32. Mat. 23. Rom. 9. Psal 118. Psal 79. Ioh. 2. Numb 12. Luk. 9. Luk. 10. 1. Thess 4. Cyrill Epist ad Theodos valent