Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A61651
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A rebuke to the informers with a plea for the ministers of the Gospel, called nonconformists, and their meetings and advice to those to whom these informers address themselves for assistance in their undertakings.
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Stockton, Owen, 1630-1680.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing S5699; ESTC R34618
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98,356
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92
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openly whereby we are made odious in the eyes of the people We were sufficiently hated before but now we are like to be much more hated Ans You have sinned openly and therefore you are to be rebuked openly that others might hear and fear and not follow your evil example 1 Tim. 5.10 Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear 2. Open rebuke is better than secret love Prov. 27.5 And you are not offended with a man for loving of you though it be with a secret love Why then should you be offended for being openly rebuked 3. I have named no mans person I have only laid open the odious nature of your sin And your sin is more odious than can be expressed I would not have any man hate your persons but I would have all men hate your sins 4. If you had died in your sins you should have been put to everlasting shame for that will be the portion of impenitent sinners to be put to shame and contempt for ever Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt But if by this or any other means you are brought to repentance then shall you have everlasting glory CHAP. IV. Inferences from the foregoing Discourse I Shall now draw some Inferences from what hath been said concerning the greatness of the sin of these Informers that persecute righteous men for praying to God and preaching and hearing his holy Word and cause their Assemblies to be broken up and their goods to be taken from them Inf. 1. If this be such a great sin then let those that have been guilty of it repent and make restitution Without repentance there 's no possibility that you should avoid perishing for ever Luk. 13.3 I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Consider how sharply the Lord Jesus reproved the Pharisees hindring mens entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 23.13.33 Wo unto you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Ye serpents ye generation of vipers How can ye escape the damnation of hell The Pharisees were said to shut up the Kingdom of Heaven because they hindred the preaching of the Gospel which is called The Gospel of the Kingdom Matt. 24.14 And the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 13.47 Because it is the way and means of bringing men into the Kingdom That the Pharisees did shut up the Kingdom of Heaven by hindring the preaching the Gospel is evident from Luk. 11.52 where the shutting up the Kingdom is called the taking away the key of knowledg They acted the part of Serpents and Vipers they did bite and sting those that preached and those that heard the Gospel Job 9.22 and so hindred mens entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven And for this Serpentine carriage Jesus tells them they were in danger of eternal damnation How can ye escape the damnation of hell will ye do the same things the Pharisees did and yet think ye shall not fall into the same condemnation your only way to avoid it is by timely and sincere repentance Ezek. 18.30 Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions and so iniquity shall not be your ruine And as you must leave off your sins so if you expect mercy from God you must make restitution to those persons from whom you have taken or caused to be taken away any of their goods To convince you of the necessity of making restitution consider such Scriptures as these Ezek. 33.15 If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed walk in the statutes of life he shall surely live he shall not dye It 's not sufficient that the wicked leave off robbing but he must give again that which he hath robbed to those from whom it was robbed if he would enter into life and not dye in his sins It may be you will say We are not thieves and robbers and so are not obliged by this Scripture to make restitution Ans 1. The Hebrew word Gazal signifieth any violent wresting and forcing mens right out of their hands And it is so rendred of things taken away violently when a man seeth or knoweth it as Deut. 28.31 Job 20.19 2. Restitution is to be made for all acts of deceit as well as secret theft Lev. 6.2 4 If a soul sin and commit a trespass agaimst the Lord in a thing taken by violence and hath deceived his neighbour Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore what he hath violently taken away or the thing he hath deceitfully gotten 3. In some respects you are worse than thieves and robbers For 1. Thieves are ashamed when they are discovered Jer. 2.26 The thief is ashamed when he is found But 't is not so with you 2. The thief usually takes the dead time of the night but you commit your sin at mid-day The more impudency there is in any sin the greater it is 3. The thief doth not rob men for their Religion but you take away mens goods for serving God see the necessity of restitution from other Scriptures Zophar tells us that oppressors and such as take away others goods must make restitution or else they shall never enjoy peace in their Consciences Job 20.18 19 20. According to his substance shall the restitution be and he shall not rejoyce therein because he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house which he hath not builded surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly Zacheus when he was converted made restitution to all persons he had wronged by false accusation for all wrongs he had done them Luk. 19.8 If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold Hear what Grotius saith on this place Quatenus fieri potest resarcienda sunt damna aliis per vim aut dolum illata quod ipsa natura dictat neque enim peccare desistit qui alienum retinet As far as a man is able all the wrongs he hath done to other men either by fraud or violence must be restored and made up for the light of nature teacheth a man so to do neither doth he desist from his sin that doth not make restitution It concerns you to consider whether you have not wronged these men by false accusation when you accused them to the Magistrates for keeping seditious Meetings and thereby getting their goods distrained if you have this example of Zacheus should provoke you to restore and make up all the wrongs they have sustained by your false accusation Ins 2. Let all men take heed of being partakers with these Informers in their great sin For such as partake with them in their sin shall also be partakers of those Plagues which God will send upon
conversion of a sinner than to bring back the straying Oxe or Asse of an enemy on several accounts For 1. The Soul of a man is of more worth than all the Oxen and Asses upon the face of the earth yea the Soul of the meanest man is of greater value than the whole world Mark 8.36 What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul 2. It is far more dangerous for a sinner to go astray from God than an Oxe or an Asse to go astray from his owner For the Oxe that goeth from one Master may find another that may take care of it or the Oxe may get a subsistence by ranging abroad as well as abiding at home or if the straying Oxe should be slain its misery endeth with its life But the sinner that goeth astray from God unless he be brought to repentance will fall into the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone and will perish eternally 3. God hath a greater right to the Souls of men than any man hath to his Oxen or Asses Ezek. 18.4 All souls are mine They are the work of his hands and therefore he may claim a greater propriety in them than any man can in those things which he hath bought with his money or calls his own on the account of any other title 4. We are more obliged to bring unto God who is our Soveraign Lord our heavenly Father our dearest Friend that which is his own when gone astray from him than we are to bring back to our enemy his Oxe or his Asse when we meet it going astray If then he that meeteth his enemies Oxe or Asse going astray be under a strict charge to bring it back Thou shait surely bring it back to him again how much more are we obliged to endeavour the conversion of a sinner when we meet him going astray from God though he be one of the greatest enemies we have in the-world When I had considered not only the swift destruction these Informers bring upon their own Souls but also what mischief they have already done and may further do unto men fearing God if not reclaimed how many they draw to be partakers with them in their sin what temptations needy and malicious men may be under to follow their pernicious ways what great guilt is brought upon the Nation by their means I thought with my self that the leading these men to repentance would conduce to a publick good as well as be an act of kindness to their own Souls and so was the more confirmed in my resolution to endeavour the converting them from the error of their ways The most effectual way to reclaim these men from their evil ways seems to me to be this To demonstrate out of the word of God the greatness and the dangerous nature of this sin which I conceive they either know not or at least do not consider it For that is the most powerful means that can be used for converting a sinner Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul If the word of God will not prevail with them to turn from their evil ways though one should arise from the dead either one of the Saints that hath been in heaven and should tell them what a glorious Kingdom they shall lose if they persist in their sins or one of their fellow sinners should come out of hell and tell them what torments they have felt in that Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone and they will certainly come into that place of torment if they go on in their evil ways yet this would not perswade them to repent Luk. 16.29 30 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead For my more orderly proceeding with these men I shall use this method 1. I shall shew what Informers I mean and aim at in this Discourse 2. I shall premise something concerning the persons whom they molest and the work for which they molest them 3. I shall by several arguments endeavour to convince them of the greatness of their sin 4. I shall answer their Plea's whereby they excuse their sin 5. I shall draw some Inferences for their and others instruction The Informers I design in this Discourse to convince of the evil of their ways are such as either for the love of money or out of malice or a blind zeal or any other evil principle under a pretence of suppressing seditious Conventicles go to the Assemblies where those Ministers commonly called Nonconformists do pray to God in the Name of Jesus Christ and do read the holy Scriptures and preach the Gospel and if they find them either Praying or Preaching they procure Officers to break up their Assemblies or else they go to the Magistrates and by the Information they give against those present at the foresaid Assemblies they stir them up either to imprison the Minister or to fine him or such of the people as they think good in great sums of money The reason why I deal with these Informers only that come to and raise up trouble against these Assemblies where those Ministers called Nonconformists pray to God and instruct the people are these 1. I have observed that their chief design and endeavour hath been to molest those Meetings 2. I have no knowledg what is said or done at other Meetings as never to my remembrance having been present at any of them and therefore will not justifie nor condemn them but shall leave that to those that are concerned therein In order to the conviction of these Informers of the evil of their ways I shall premise three Propositions 1. Those Ministers whom they persecute are righteous men and there are many righteous persons that frequent their Assemblies 2. Praying and preaching which are the works for which they are persecuted are good works 3. These Ministers that are persecuted by these Informers for praying and preaching are true Ministers of Jesus Christ and are called of God to preach the Gospel I shall briefly prove these three Propositions 1. These Ministers whom these Informers persecute are righteous men to evidence this consider 1. They are sound in the Faith they believe all things that are written by the Prophets and Apostles They imbrace that Faith which is professed in the Protestant Churches and particularly they own the established Doctrine of the Church of England although they have different apprehensions about the Discipline Soundness in the Faith is requisite to make a man a righteous man although that alone be not sufficient for Heresie is a work of the flesh which will shut a man out of the Kingdom of heaven as well as Idolatry Adultery Drunkenness or such like sins Gal. 5.19 20 21. 2. They are righteous