Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	enter_v	heaven_n	scribe_n	2,167	5	10.3287	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57960	Two discourses; viz. A discourse of truth. By the late Reverend Dr. Rust, Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland. The way of happiness and salvation. By Joseph Glanvil, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Way of happiness and salvation rescued from vulgar errours.	1677 (1677)	Wing R2368; Wing Q836; ESTC R218562	58,324	199

of the generality of Religious men that never do so mtch And if all this be short what will be available who then shall be saved To which I Answer That we are not to make the measures of Religion and Happiness our selves but to take those that Christ Jesus hath made for us And he hath told us That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 20. Now the Scribes and Pharisees did things in the way of Religion that that were equal to all the particulars I have mentioned yea they went beyond many of our glorious Professors who yet think themselves in an high form of Godliness They believed their Religion firmly and Prayed frequently and fervently and Fasted severely They were exact and exceeding strict in the observation of their Sabbaths and hated scandalous and gross sins and were very punctual in all the duties of outward Worship and in many things supererrogated and went beyond what was commanded Such zealous people were They and They separated from the conversations and customs of other Jews upon the account of their supposed greater Holiness and Purity These were heights to which the Pharisees arrived and a good Christian must exceed all this And he that lives in a sober course of Piety and Vertue of self Government and humble submission to God of obedience to his Superiours and charity to his Neighbours He doth really exceed it and shall enter when the other shall be shut out So that when our Saviour saith that the Pharisaick Righteousness must be exceeded the meaning is not That a greater degree of every thing the Pharisees did is necessary but we must do that which in the nature and kind of it is better and more acceptable to God viz. That whereas they placed their Religion in strict Fastings an nice observations of Festivals in lowd and earnest Prayers and zeal to get Proselytes we should place ours in sincere subjections of our wills to the will of God in imitation of the life of Christ and obedience of his Laws in amending the faults of our natures and lives in subduing our Passions and casting out the habits of evil These are much beyond the Religion of the Phanatick Pharisee not in shew and pomp but in real worth and divine esteem So that upon the whole we have no reason to be discouraged because They that do so much are cast out since though we find not those heats and specious things in our selves which we observe in them yet if we are more meek and modest and patient and charitable and humble and just our case is better and we have the Power of Godliness when theirs is but the Form And we whom They accounted Aliens and Enemies shall enter while they the presumed friends and domesticks shall be shut out But 2. I expect it should be again objected against this severity of Discourse That our Saviour saith Mat. 11. 20. That his yoke is easie and his burden is light which place seems to cross all that hath been said about the Difficulties of Religion And 't is true it hath such an appearance but 't is no more For the words look as cross to the expressions of the same Divine Author concerning the straightness of the Gate and narrowness of the Way as to any thing I have delivered from those infallible sayings Therefore to remove the semblance of contrariety which the objected Text seems to have to those others and to my Discourse we may observe That when our Saviour saith that his yoke is easie the word we read is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth very good excellent gracious and the meaning I suppose is That his Precepts had a native beauty and goodness in them That they are congruous and sutable to our reasonable Natures and apt instruments to make us happy In which sense this expression hath no antipathy to the Text or to any thing I have said And whereas 't is added My Burden is light I think by this we are to understand That his Commands are not of that burdensome nature that the Ceremonies of the Jewish Laws were Those were very cumbersome and had nothing in their nature to make them pleasant and agreeable whereas his Religion had no expensive troublesome Rites appendant to it nor did it require any thing but our observation of those Laws which eternal Reason obligeth us to and which of our selves we should choose to live under were we freed from the intanglements of the World and interests of Flesh. So that neither doth this Objection signifie any thing against the scope of my Discourse AND now I descend to the Improvement of what I have said and the things I have to add will be comprehended under these two Generals 1. Inferences and 2. plain Advice in order to practise I begin with the Inferences and Corollaries that arise from the whole Discourse And 1. We may collect What is the state of Nature and What the state of Grace We have seen that 't is the great business of Religion to overcome evil Inclinations and the prevailing influence of sense and passion and evil customs and example and worldly affections And therefore the state of Nature consists in the power and prevalency of These This is that the Scripture calls the Old man Eph. 4.22 The Image of the earthy 1 Cor. 15. Flesh Gal. 5. 17. Death Rom. 7.24 Darkness Joh. 3. 19. and old leven 1 Cor 5. 7. On the contrary The state of Grace is a state of sincere striving against them which if it keeps on ends in Victory And this is call'd Conversion Acts 3. 19. and Renovation while 't is in its first motions And the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. the Image of the Heavenly 1 Cor. 15. 20. The Spirit Gal. 5. 16. Light Ephes. 5. 8. and Life 1 Joh. 3. 14. when 't is arriv'd to more compleatness and perfection For our fuller understanding this we may consider That Grace is taken 1. for Divine favour 2. for Christian Vertue As it signifies Divine favour so it is used 1. For those helps and aids God affords us viz. the Gospel Joh. 1. 17. and the influences of his Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 9. In this sense we are deliver'd from the state of Nature by Baptism viz. We are intituled to divine helps which is a kind of regeneration for we are born in a condition of importence and weakness and destitution of spiritual assistances This is the world of meer nature But then in Baptism we are brought into the world of the Spirit that is are put under its influences and are assured of its aids and so are morally born again Not that this Regeneration alone will save us without our endeavours it imports only an external relation and right to priviledges and by these we may be powerfully assisted in our striving if we use them But then 2. Grace as it signifies divine favour

at last all Christian Vertues will become as natural to us as si● was before And to one that is so prepared the Gate of Happiness will be open and of easie entrance the difficulties are overcome and from henceforth the way is pleasant and plain before him Prov. 3. 17. Thus I have shewn that the formidable difficulties may be overcome and How 't is a plain course I have directed that will not puzzle mens understandings with needless niceties nor distract their memories with multitndes Let us walk in this way and do it constantly with vigour and alacrity and there is no fear but in the Strength of God through the merits and mediation of his Son we shall overcome and at last enter I had now done with this general Head but that 't is necessary to note three things more 1. Those Instruments of our Happiness which we must use in striving viz. Faith Prayer and active Endeavour must all of them be imployed Not any one singly will do the great work nor can the others if any one be wanting If we believe and do not pray or pray and do not endeavour or endeavour without those the Difficulties will remain and 't will be impossible for us to enter 2. We must be diligent in our course If we do not exercise Faith vigorously and pray heartily and endeavour with our whole might the means will not succeed and 't is as good not at all as not to purpose The Difficulties will not be overcome by cold Faith or sleepy Prayers or remiss Endeavours A very intense degree of these is necessary 3. Our striving must be constant we must not begin and look back Heb. 10. 38. or run a while and stop in midd course 1 Cor. 9. 24. and content our selves with some attainments and think we have arrived Phil. 3. 14. If we do so we shall find our selves dangerously mistaken The Crown is at the end of the Warfare the Prise at the end of the Race If we will succeed we must hold on The life of one that strives as he ought must be a continual motion forwards always proceeding always growing If we strive thus we cannot fail if any of these qualifications be wanting we cannot but miscarry And hence no doubt it is that many that seek to enter shall not be able and the presumed sons of the Kingdom are shut out Mat. 8.12 They seek and are very desirous to be admitted They do some thing and strive but their striving is partial or careless or short by reason of which defects they do not overcome and shall not enter This is a dangerous Rock and perhaps there are as many undone by cold and half striving as by not striving at all He that hath done some thing presumes he is secure He goes the round of ordinary Duties but advanceth nothing in his way He overcometh none of the great Difficulties none of the Habits or depraved Inclinations He is contented with other things that make a more glorious shew though they signifie less and perhaps despiseth these under the notion of Morality and so presuming that he is a Saint too soon he never comes to be one at all such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter Their seeking imports some striving but 't is such as though it be specious yet it is imperfect and will not succeed And hence the Third Proposition ariseth that I proposed to discourse III. THat there is a sort of Striving that will not procure an entrance implyed in these words For many will seek to enter in and shall not be able 'T is a dangerous thing to be flattered into a false peace and to take up with imperfect Godliness to reconcile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins and to judge our condition safe upon insufficient grounds This multitudes do and 't is the great danger of our days Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion but they are contented with a little And then they reckon themselves godly before they are vertuous and take themselves to be Saints upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad We seek after Marks of Godliness and would be glad to know how we might try our state The thing is of great importance and if the Signs we judge by are either false or imperfect we are deceived to our undoing Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions do no great hurt but errour in the Marks and Measures of Religion is deadly Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness which though they are something yet they are not enough They are hopeful for beginnings but nothing worth when they are our end and rest They are a kind of seeking aud imperfect striving but not such as overcometh the difficulties of the way or will procure us an entrance at the Gàte Therefore to disable the flattering insufficient Marks of Godliness I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religion and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter And though I have intimated something of this in the general before yet I shall now more particularly shew it in the instances that follow And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal to which the natural man may attain I. A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed and if he proceeds not he is no further by this than the faith of Devils Jam. 2. 19. 2. He may go on and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth He may seek it diligently in Scripture and Sermons and good Books and knowing Company And yet do this by the motion of no higher Principle than an inbred Curiosity and desire of Knowledg and many times this earnestness after Truth proceeds from a proud effection to wiser than our Neighbours that we may pity their darkness or the itch of a disputing humour that we may out talk them or a design to carry on or make a party that we may be called Rabbi or serve an Interest and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives is a spark of that fire that is from beneath 'T is dangerous to a mans self and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind but the man proceeds and is 3. Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith and the Pharisees were so in relation to theirs Matt. 23. 15. and so have been many Professors of all the Religions that are or ever were Men naturally love their own Tenents and are ambitious to mould others judgments according to theirs There is glory in being an Instructer of other men and turning them to our ways and opinions So that here is nothing yet above Nature nothing but what may be found in many that seek and are shut out But 4. Faith works greater effects