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	time_n	word_n	2,444	5	3.7698	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59269	A sermon preach'd at the chappel royal in the Tower upon the death of Her Sacred Majesty, our Late Gracious Queen Mary / by a true lover of the church, the King, and his country.	True lover of the church, the King, and His country.	1695 (1695)	Wing S2632; ESTC R19634	24,464	39

as to his Flesh there is nothing extraordinary in it It 's of the same Substance and Form says one with the Creatures we feed upon altogether inclined to corruption and nothing but Frailty and Vanity it self And we need go no further than the Expression in the Text to evince it All Flesh is Grass All that we see all that we admire all the most tempting Objects we gaze and dote upon yea the whole World and all that is therein is all but Flesh and all Flesh is Grass But is this a Truth so Universal that it admits of no Exception tho it may hold good as to the generality of Men yet are not the Princes and Monarchs and Heroes of the World exempted Have not they something in them that may privilege them against the Insults at least of the King of Terrors something that they may upon occasion plead against the common Fate The Prophet seems to agree to all this and in the very Text makes some difference between a mean and a great Person between a Subject and a Prince but what is it No other than is between green Grass and a Flower which tho more beautiful to the Eye more sweet and pleasing to the Sense is yet every whit as fading as perishing and as subject to be trod under Foot or to be scorch'd and wither'd by the Sun as the Grass is As they grow together in the same Field so they are equally liable to be cut down by the edg of the same Sythe and therefore it is that the Prophet after the Voice had cried All Flesh is Grass adds and all the Goodliness of it is as the Flower of the Field By the Goodliness of the Flesh he means its Youth its Health its Strength its Beauty its Vigour or whatever in it is most Valuable and Pleasing By it we may understand the state and condition of a Man that wants nothing nay that abounds in all things the World can afford As Riches Honour and Pleasure Flesh saith the Prophet in all the Glory of it in the free and full injoyment of all things on the highest Pinnacle of Honour seated on a Throne crowned with Diadems and incircled with all the Badges of Royalty and Grandeur yet in the midst of all this Pomp and Splendor it 's still but Flesh and liable to such damping thoughts as these May not God this very Night take me away like the Fool in the Gospel from all these things or these from me May I not nay must I not within these few Years it may be within these few Weeks or Days instead of my Honour be laid in the Dust instead of my Purple and Scarlet be clothed with Rottenness instead of my Luxuries and Delicacies become my self the Food of Worms Is not the poor Soul in my Bosom an Immortal Soul Must it not have a Being so long as there 's a God who is able to support it And will not all I toil and moil for here all I covet and doat upon all my beloved Bags and superfluous Titles my sweetest Pleasures and my highest Preferments my very Learning and my natural Endowments and every thing save my Sins which I must then reckon for forsake me when I enter into that Immortality I say when a Man shall take himself thus to task and his Conscience summons him to such serious thoughts as these How will he be startl'd and amaz'd under the Sense of his own Frailty and his little hopes of a better State And how dreadful will it be for his Immortal Soul to have nothing between it and Eternal Misery but that which will crumble and moulder into Dust and leave the poor Soul that trusted to it to sink into bottomless Calamities Nor do our earthly Injoyments always continue with us even to the last but often leave us before we our selves go off Riches make themselves Wings Honour is fading Prov. 23.5 Wit Beauty and Strength fail all created Delights will quickly have an End and the Casualties that attend their very Enjoyment doth sufficiently discover their Vanity and the little Stress that 's to be laid upon them One Rich to day and Poor to morrow in Health Sound and Strong to day to morrow Languishing and Expiring on a sick Bed now advanc'd to the highest Pinnacle of Honour anon deprest and expos'd to Infamy and Disgrace attended by trains of Parasites and Flatterers to day to morrow deserted slighted and forsaken by all And as it is with Men so it is with Things Cities Towns and Villages Flourishing and Beautiful Rich and Opulent to day to morrow laid in Ashes and levell'd with the Ground So that there 's no Flower more fading no Bubble more vanishing no Dream more deluding nothing more Vain nothing more uncertain than the World is It 's all but Grass or at best but as the Flower of the Field the Grass withereth the Flower fadeth But in the midst of all this Misery Vanity and Uncertainty the Prophet adds what may stay and support us But the Word of our God shall stand for ever All that 's in the World all the Happiness that that Flesh which is but Grass can pretend to in its Passage here is full of Vanity Uncertainty and Disappointments and then usually fail a Man most when he most of all relies on them which must needs be one of the greatest Defeats that can be For those things wherein Men fear Miscarriage or expect Disappointment they prepare such a disposition of Mind as may be fit to bear it but when a Man is surpriz'd with Evil when that happens which he least expected the Novelty increaseth the Trouble And the Scripture expresseth the greatness of a Judgment by the unexpectedness of it Isa 6.3 4. When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for Their not looking for it rendred the Judgment so much the more Terrible A Breach in an instant a momentary a sudden Destruction a swift Damnation a flying Roll a winged Woman are all Expressions to denote a severe Judgment Now Men are too too apt to promise themselves much Contentment and Satisfaction in the Fruition of worldly Things and to be herein disappointed as they usually are must needs be a great Surprize and occasion no small Vexation But the Word of God is an abiding Word as founded on the Immutability of God's own Truth he that makes it his Refuge relies on the Omnipotency of God himself and has all the Strength of the Almighty ingag'd to help him Asa was safe while he depended upon God in his Promises 2 Chron. 16.7 8 9. against the huge Hosts of the Ethiopians and Lubims but when he turned aside to other Aids and trusted too much in the Arm of Flesh he purchased to himself nothing but perpetual Wars And this was that which established the Throne of Jehoshaphat and caused the Fear of the Lord to fall on all the Kingdoms of the Land that were round about him 2 Chron. 17.9 11.

because he honour'd the Word of God and caused it to be taught to his People When Israel and Judah did at any time forget to lean upon God's Word and betook themselves to correspondence with Idolatrous People or other the like Helps they found themselves always bereft of Succour and all their Hopes deceived and blasted Which should teach us not to rest upon our own Wisdom nor lean upon our own Strength nor build our Hopes and Assurances upon Human Foundations but in all conditions lay hold upon God's Word which shall stand for ever and support us in any Extremity Psal 23.4 and carry us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death it self And thus I have done with what I design'd to offer from the Text but to apply it to the Occasion I know neither how to begin nor where to end The Voice cries so loud and the Blow tho for our Sins justly inflicted is every way so amazing that the very Thoughts of it were enough to make a Man lose all Method though he had studied it never so carefully And therefore that I may neither confound you nor lose my self I shall only glance at some few things that may satisfy us what great Advantages we might have reapt from her Life had it pleased the wise Disposer of all things to have continued it And this will naturally tend First To give us a due Sense of our Loss Secondly To quicken us to such Duties whereby since 't is impossible to improve it to our Temporal Advantage we may yet make the best of it that our Misfortune as well as our other Circumstances will admit The Loss of a good tho private Person is at all Times especially in bad Times a just ground of deep Sorrow What then must be the loss of a good Queen who is a common Stock in which Millions have a Share A burning Lamp which shin'd and imparted its Light to three great Kingdoms No wonder if the exhausting of such a Store the quenching of such a Lamp should be Matter of doleful Complaint And here I could willingly indulge both yours and my own Passion that we might sit down a while in Silence and only by the Language of our Tears speak our Sense of this heavy this irreparable Loss But all Passions especially that of Grief need rather a Bridle than a Spur and we have something else to do upon such an extraordinary Occasion than to bewail our Loss after the common rate tho that 's allowed us too A bright Star is removed nay our Sun is set Well may Darkness over-spread our Horizon Zech. 11.2 A Cedar is fallen well may the Fir-trees howl A Cedar which had God so pleased might have stood and flourished much longer But we often see the loftiest Cedar cut down before the useless Shrub And they frequently fall says one who while they stood not only graced the Forest but gave Shade and Shelter to others too And oh that we had not now the Occasion to bewail the Fall of the most flourishing Plant that grac'd our own or any other Soil verifying that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.31 The Fashion of this World passeth away and we together with it The Throne leaves some and others leave it Heb. 12.28 and as there is but one Kingdom which cannot be shaken Eternal in the Heavens so there is but one King who is the Immortal King of Ages God over all blessed for ever All the rest are but Flesh and all Flesh is Grass After such a Voice what can warrant any of you that you shall be alive while to Morrow Who can be Security for his own Life one Moment beyond the present You 'll say my Youth my Strength my Temperance and my Vigour these will secure me But was there ever any more healthy more lively more temperate or more vigorous than the Queen How sprightly how fair how hail how charming was she but this Day three Weeks and almost a Week after And yet the King of Terrors stole upon her before her Self or at least her Friends suspected being even after some Days illness look'd upon as Safe and past all Danger on Tuesday and yet beyond all Expectation given over and the Sentence of Death pronounc'd by her Physicians before Noon on Wednesday So vain a Thing is Man But this can be no surprize to those whole usual Exercise it is to die daily and as St. Ambrose conceived of Valentinian the Emperor so may we of her Majesty The Evidences past in her Health are fair Proofs of that Disposition her Soul was in in her Sickness But more of this anon for tho all her earthly Advantages are now become the Spoils of Mortality yet She 's not to be laid in the Dust like common Mold nor deposited in the Shades with silence It 's true in the blessed State to which she is now arriv'd crowned with an incorruptible Diadem in the Company of Angels and Saints and all her Triumphant Ancestors She needs no Praises of ours but yet that which every good Man may claim is much more justly her Due Commendation after Death being a just Tribute to a Religious Life Consult the Scriptures and you shall scarce find one Godly Man laid in his Grave without an Epitaph of Honour view the Fathers and you shall observe it their Practice to honour the Death of the Good especially if Princes and if this had never been done before it might be now allowed to Her who was as well the Best as the greatest among Women As to the latter 't were easy to shew it in the Instances of her Illustrious Birth being descended from a Royal Race of Kings as well the greatest as of the longest and most uninterrupted Succession now in the Christian World in her sutable Education in her natural and acquired Accomplishments which rendred Her the Darling of the Age as well as the Glory of her Sex But we must leave these and many other Advantages with all Her great Actions to fill up Chronicles and they will better become the History and Annals of the Time than the Nook of a Sermon The sweetness of her Temper her Beauty Wit and Charms of Conversation which made Her like Vespasian Deliciae humani generis and rendred her Amiable and Dear to all that had the Honour to know Her tho they were Gifts from Above yet must they now be past over in silence as being Praeda Mortis a Spoil unto Death and the Grave Which Consideration should cure the undue Esteem which too many Christians seem to put upon them being more ambitious to outvy others in every thing rather than real Holiness which after all 's done is the only Ornament that Death cannot spoil us of Nor were the Endowments of her Mind any whit inferiour to those of her great Birth and other Personal Advantages her Apprehension more quick and lively her Judgment more penetrating and solid her Elocution more fluent graceful and every