Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	disciple_n	know_v	mystery_n	1,896	5	9.7001	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60955	Twelve sermons preached upon several occasions. The second volume by Robert South.	South, Robert, 1634-1716.	1694 (1694)	Wing S4746; ESTC R39098	202,579	660

disown him before his Father and so repay one Denial with another Hereupon Christ particularly applies the Comforts of his Resurrection to him as if he had said Tell all my Disciples but be sure especially to tell poor Peter that I am risen from the Dead and that notwithstanding his Denial of me the Benefits of my Resurrection belong to him as much as to any of the rest This is the Privilege of the Saints to have a Companion and a Supporter in all their Miseries in all the doubtfull Turnings and dolefull Passages of their Lives In summ this Happiness does Christ vouchsafe to all his that as a Saviour he once suffered for them and that as a Friend he always suffers with them 4. The fourth Privilege of Friendship is that which is here specified in the Text a Communication of Secrets A Bosom secret and a Bosom friend are usually put together And this from Christ to the Soul is not only Kindness but also Honour and Advancement 't is for him to vouch it one of his Privy Council Nothing under a Jewel is taken into the Cabinet A secret is the Apple of our Eye it will bear no Touch nor Approach we use to cover nothing but what we account a Rarity And therefore to communicate a Secret to any one is to exalt him to one of the Royalties of Heaven For none knows the Secrets of a Man's Mind but his God his Conscience and his Friend Neither would any prudent Man let such a thing go out of his own Heart had he not another Heart besides his own to receive it Now it was of old a Privilege with which God was pleased to honour such as served him at the Rate of an Extraordinary Obedience thus to admit them to a Knowledge of many of his great Counsels lock'd up from the rest of the World When God had designed the Destruction of Sodom the Scripture represents him as unable to conceal that great Purpose from Abraham whom he always treated as his Friend and Acquaintance that is not only with Love but also with Intimacy and Familiarity in Genes 18. v. 17. And the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I go about to do He thought it a Violation of the Rights of Friendship to reserve his Design wholly to himself And St. Iames tells us in Iam. 2. 23. That Abraham was called the Friend of God and therefore had a Kind of Claim to the Knowledge of his Secrets and the Participation of his Counsels Also in Exodus 33. v. 11. It is said of God that he spoke to Moses as a Man speaketh to his Friend And that not only for the Familiarity and Facility of Address but also for the peculiar Communications of his Mind Moses was with him in the Retirements of the Mount received there his Dictates and his private Instructions as his Deputy and Viceroy and when the Multitude and Congregation of Israel were thundred away and kept off from any approach to it he was honour'd with an intimate and immediate admission The Priests indeed were taken into a near attendance upon God but still there was a degree of a nearer Converse and the Interest of a Friend was above the Privileges of the highest Servant In Exod. 19. 24. Thou shalt come up says God thou and Aaron with thee but let not the Priests and the People break through to come up unto the Lord lest the Lord break forth upon them And if we proceed further we shall still find a continuation of the same Privilege Psalm 25. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Nothing is to be conceal'd from the other self To be a Friend and to be Conscious are terms equivalent Now if God maintained such Intimacies with those whom he loved under the Law which was a Dispensation of greater Distance we may be sure that under the Gospel the very Nature of which imports Condescension and Compliance there must needs be the same with much greater Advantage And therefore when God had manifested himself in the Flesh how sacredly did he preserve this Privilege how freely did Christ unbosom himself to his Disciples in Luke 8. 10. Unto you says he it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but unto others in Parables that seeing they might not see Such shall be permitted to cast an Eye into the Ark and to look into the very Holy of holies And again in Matth. 13. 17. Many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Neither did he treat them with these peculiarities of favour in the extraordinary discoveries of the Gospel only but also of those incommunicable Revelations of the Divine Love in reference to their own personal interest in it In Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Assurance is a Rarity covered from the Inspection of the world A secret that none can know but God and the person that is blessed with it It is writ in a private Character not to be read nor understood but by the Conscience to which the Spirit of God has vouchsafed to decypher it Every Believer lives upon an inward provision of Comfort that the world is a stranger to 5. The fifth advantage of Friendship is Counsel and Advice A man will sometimes need not only another Heart but also another head besides his own In solitude there is not only discomfort but weakness also And that saying of the wise man Eccles. 4. 10. Woe to him that is alone is verified upon none so much as upon the Friendless person When a man shall be perplex'd with Knots and Problems of business and contrary affairs where the determination is dubious and both parts of the Contrariety seem equally weighty so that which way soever the Choice determines a man is sure to venture a great Concern How happy then is it to fetch in aid from another person whose judgment may be greater than my own and whose Concernment is sure not to be less There are some passages of a man's affairs that would quite break a single understanding So many intricacies so many Labyrinths are there in them that the Succours of reason fail the very force and spirit of it being lost in an actual Intention scattered upon several clashing objects at once in which case the Interposal of a Friend is like the supply of a fresh party to a besieged yielding City Now Christ is not failing in this office of a friend also For in that illustrious prediction of Esay 9. 6. amongst the rest of his great Titles he is called mightty Counsellor And his Counsel is not only sure but also free It is not under the Gospel of Christ as