Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	lord_n	part_n	time_n	1,762	5	3.0923	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87498	The best fee-simple, set forth in a sermon at St Peters in Cornhil, before the gentlemen and citizens born in the county of Nottingham, the 18. day of February, 1657. Being the day of their publique feast. By Marmaduke James, minister of Watton at Stone, in the county of Hertford.	James, Marmaduke.	1658 (1658)	Wing J432; Thomason E955_2*; ESTC R207614	34,420	74

and the holiness of Gods will for ever so also the Word of God witnesseth the several Attributes of God unto the world the book of Genesis is a Testimony of Gods power in making the world of nothing his Justice in drowning the world with water his mercy in saving Noah and his family c. The book of Exodus is a Testimony of that curious and stupendious providence that God exercised over his Church in bringing her out of Egypt through the red sea and that vast howling wilderness into the land of Canaan and so of the rest It is called Testimony in regard of that comfortable or dismal report it shall make for us or against us at the last day Whosoever shall not receive you Mark 6.11 nor hear my words shake off the dust off your feet for a Testimony against them and thus have wee dispatched the first thing propounded What is meant by Testimonies and why so called Wee now come to the second which is the predicate or what is said of these Testimonies that is they are An heritage for ever yet before wee come to that wee may a little take notice of the copulation of these two together in that word taken which some read chosen both the lections being emphatical enough to Davids purpose If the first I have taken thy Testimonies then thus as if David should have said I perceive the Lord hath a minde to give these blessed Testimonies to his Church the greatest gift that ever hee shall bestow except it be the Messiah to come and seeing that the Lord hath a heart to give for my part I am resolved to have a hand to take I have taken thy Testimonies or thus I have chosen thy Testimonies As if hee should say The Lord hath laid before mee two excellent things Here are my Crowns and Kingdoms on the one hand and his Testimonies on the other and if hee would put mee to my choice which I should chuse and which refuse incomparably have I chosen his Testimonies as an heritage for ever An Inheritance This is the highest expression almost that David could use to testifie his respect to these Testimonies hee had been a long time lifting and heaving at an expression but did never hit it till now In his younger time I suppose it was that hee compares it to hony Psal 19. and the hony-comb Sweeter are they also than the honey and the hony-comb hony is a fine thing but money is better money buy will hony and sugar and a hundred things more money answers all things now David goes a little higher and compares it to silver but silver may be drossie Psal 12.6 seven times purified in the fire I but there is a finer thing than silver and that is gold Psal 19.10 why faith hee It is much more to be desired than gold yea than fine gold I but yet there is a finer thing than Gold that is Diamonds Pearls and Rubies They are more precious than Rubies Prov. 3.15 but yet suppose a man hath silver and gold and rubies yet hee may not have all riches there are Cattel Camels Horses Sheep and Oxen these were the ancient riches of the world Psal 119.14 I have rejoyced in the way of thy Commandements above all riches But yet there is one sort of riches that is the sweetest of all riches that is spoil when a souldier overcomes his enemy and hath the pillage of the field or falls into a Garrison and takes the plunder thereof this is of all riches the sweetest for here is a double lust satisfied at once not only Covetousness but Revenge Psal 119.162 Thy Word have I rejoyced in more than in all spoil But yet Sirs suppose a man hath silver and gold and pearls and diamonds and all riches and all spoil Suppose a private man should arrive to an estate of twenty thirty forty fifty thousand pound Pray Sir saith hee can you help mee to a purchase I would fain have an Inheritance Alas these things may be taken from mee in a night I would fain turn my personal into a real estate have an Inheritance settled upon mee to descend to my posterity after mee now David is come to the heighth of what a mortal man could express Thy Testimonies have I taken as mine Inheritance for ever An Inheritance then is that summum totale that dimensum that lot that portion or proportion of estate a man enjoyes in this world whether it be bequeathed by gift or descend by succession this wee call an Inheritance now God who hath given the world to the children of men as an Inheritance hath reserved a special spiritual portion for his people in allusion to which it is called An Inheritance which is no less than heaven and glory and that it might be sure to them hee hath conveyed it all manner of wayes Hee hath decreed it for them In whom wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated Ephes 1.11 Hee hath bequeathed it to them by will Fear not little Flock Luke 12.32 it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom It descends to them by succession and therefore they are said to be born and to be begotten to it That hath begotten us to an inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Hence it is that all the children of God are said to be the first-born there is no yonger brothers in heaven to every son hee alloweth the liberty and the priviledge of primogeniture to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born Heb. 12.22 I Object but some will say What is all this to our purpose wee know indeed that heaven is a glorious inheritance if David had said The kingdom of heaven O Lord the kingdom of thy Glory I have taken for an inheritance that might be easily understood but that hee should say Thy Testimonies are my inheritance that wee cannot understand It is true indeed Answ that heaven is the actual inheritance of Gods people but it is as true that the Word of God is their virtual inheritance these testimonies are the deeds that convey this inheritance and how ordinary is it amongst men to call such the inheritance If one of you come with a breviat to a Lawyer and hee be dissatisfied in any thing Pray Sir saith hee will you show mee the inheritance that is the main deeds that leads to the inheritance and we know that many times these old dusty moth-eaten papers are as much worth as a whole Country Now an inheritance doth but these two things It discovers the estate what quantity of acres the butting and bounding c. It doth convey make over and assure the said Land to such and such a person and to his Heirs after him Just thus doth the Word of God it discovers heaven and glory unto us it is the terrier of the celestial Canaan it holds out all that bliss happiness and glory that is treasured up there for

Judgements saith David speaking of the wicked are far out of his sight even as the Stars though they be bigger then the Earth seem but by reason of their distance like the snuffe of a Candle But when a man begins to turn unto God then those sins that formerly he hath accompted little begin to appear in their dimensions and affrightingly to stare him in the face Well Christian hath God turned the right end of the Prospective to thee hath he awakened thy Conscience hath he written such bitter things against thy soul that thou now beginnest to read the sins of thy youth upon the Curtains of thy bed and upon the windows of thy house I mean that every Circumstance puts thee in mind of thy sinnings against the Lord. What dost thou see above an angry God below a gaping Hell on the one hand Conscience on the other Satan to accuse thee O direct thine eyes to this offering to this lambe of God that is a beloved and an onely begotten Son slain for sin in the indefinite for all sin that thou maist receive comfort from him Ah Sir saith the soul I am a great sinner you know not what a sinner I have been and of how scarlet a dye my sinnes are Why Christian if thy sinnes be great this offering is so Sure I am they can be but Infinite this offering is so Ah but saith the soul if I had but a promise that God did in particular belong to me I could believe this offering able to take away my sinne Why Christian thou hast all the promises that Abraham David and Daniel and Paul and Peter and all those blessed Creatures are now set down in heaven by thou hast the same promises that Idolatrous Manasseh persecuting Saul and diabolical Mary Magdalen are carried to Heaven by How particular wouldst thou have the promises This is my body which is broken for thee what wouldst thou have more If thou dost think Christ an hard-hearted Saviour yet thou dost not think him a fool Is it imaginable thinkest thou that he should be at all this cost and smart to redeem a soul and then refuse it when it comes unto him To conclude meditate upon these two Scriptures John 6.37 He that comes unto me I will in no wise cast out John 17.37 In the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cryed if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Mark how emphatical these words are in the last day As if they were the last words that Christ should speak the last words of a dying man are hearty words The great day of the feast That is of the Tabernacles when the Tribes were met in Jerusalem when there was a whole Kingdom in one City Jesus stood and cryed at other times he used to sit and preach But now he stood and cryed If any man thirst Luk. 5.3 let him come unto me and drink c. If any man though a great sinner be he Jew or Gentile Turk or Christian If he thirst without all restriction without all limitation Let him come unto me and drink Use 3 If Christs soul was poured out for sinne it teacheth us then with what eye to look upon sinne Many poor ignorant people when they read the story of Christs passion how angry are they at that Traytor Judas that cruel Pilate those hard-hearted miscreants the Jews for putting so innocent a person to death Alas Christian it was not Judas it was not Pontius Pilate but it was thy sin and my sin that procured it Sin was that which put upon his head a Crown of Thornes that spat upon his blessed face the Spear that pierced his side Sin was the nailes that fastned him to the Cross what remaines then but that he that loves the Lord Jesus should hate Iniquity Nevertheless saith the Apostle the foundation of God abideth sure 2 Tim. 2.13 let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The like Scripture we have in the fifth of the Ephesians the 3 verse Let not fornication uncleanness c. be once named amongst you as becometh Saints Let it not be done amongst you is good counsel may some men say nay let not it be once named amongst you as becometh Saints It is said of Alexander That he had a Coward in his Army whose name was Alexander sending for him said What art thou Alexander and a Coward either change thy name or thy nature either be not a Coward or be not Alexander What a Christian and a Whoremaster a Drunkard a profane Swearer c Non bene conveniunt nec in unâ sede morantur these things seem to be incompetible in the same subject and inconsistent with that love which a Christian professeth to bear unto this Saviour that dyed for sinne If a woman having her husband murthered by an Assassinate should take that knife imbrued with the gore blood of her husbands heart and kiss it and put it in her bosome and say this knife will I keep in my bosome all the dayes of my life surely you would say this woman never loved her husband was guilty of the blood of her husband Thus the Apostle sets forth the monstrous nature of a wilful sinner Of how much sorer punishment saith he Heb. 10.29 shall he be worthy of who hath troden underfoot the Son of God hath counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing c. The Heathens such as Socrates and Cato might by moral reasons cause a stupefaction of their sinnes but the true mortification of sinne ariseth from the death of Christ and certainly no consideration under heaven doth more prevail with a gracious heart then this I have some where met with a story of five Christians who used to confer Notes about this point sayes the first When I am tempted to sin I think of the shortness of life and uncertainty of the time of death and this makes me to live every day as if it were my last day This keeps me from sinne saith the second I think of the Anomy Ataxy that confusion darknesse that is in sinne when I think of the great and glorious God prescribing a rule unto his Creatures whose wil is nothing but reason for their good giving them being and well-being that they might observe it Now to see a man thus carried in Gods arms to spit in his face methinks it is such an unthankful and unworthy thing that I cannot but hate it But saith the third when I am tempted to sinne I think of the day of Judgement and methinks I hear that voice of the Archangel with that Father alwaies sounding in mine ears surgite venite ad judicium Arise ye dead and come to Judgment and methinks I open the Casements of Hell in my meditations where I see Cain and Judas and Jeroboam the Son of Nebat c. and all those children of perdition in those bloody flames out of extremity of torments cursing