Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

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kingdom_n	heaven_n	righteousness_n	scribe_n	3,417	5	11.3432	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61378	Sober singularity, or, An antidote against infection by the example of a multitude being practical meditations on Exod. 23, vers. 2 : wherein is opened the influence of the practise of a multitude, to draw men to sin, the special cases, wherein it concerns us to be most cautious, reasons why we must not follow them, together with the application of the whole : and therein, besides the general improvement of the point, an instance given of nineteen practises of the multitude to be avoided, seven of their grand principles to be rejc̈ted [sic] : sundry particulars concerning peace and unity, and the sanctification of the Lords Day, useful for these times / by R. Stedman ...	Stedman, Rowland, 1630?-1673.	1660 (1660)	Wing S5376; ESTC R38303	146,089	254

if not all my labour and industry will be unsuccesful No but he will buy and sell and trade and traffique he will look carefully to his shop and live frugally and look well to his business For saith he as the blessing of God maketh rich so it is the diligent hand which he hath appointed as the means conducing thereunto And pray mind it Sirs is it an equitable thing thus to plead in the case of eternal salvation when as you will not be so sottish in the case of worldly accommodations Methinks if sinners had a mind to make experiments they should begin with their bodies and temporal estate rather than with their Souls which are of value infinitely beyond them Let me speak unto you in allusion to the words of the Apostle James cap. 5.7 8. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it The like argument may I use in this particular of Gods decrees Do not reason your selves inso slothfulness and impieties from the fore-appointment of God Behold the Husbandman will not be so senseless as to reason in that sort He will not say if God hath decreed I shall have a good crop and a plentiful harvest it shall be so though I sleep and be careless though I neither plow nor sow And if he hath decreed otherwise all my travel is in vain No but he will plow all day to sow he will open and break the clods of the ground Doth not he manure the soile and make plain the face of the earth And ●ast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their season For his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him He knoweth that drowsiness will clothe a man with rags And that if he would attain the end he must give diligence in the use of the means Be ye diligent also in working out your salvation and that with fear and trembling 4. As we must endeavour to walk by the rule of the gospel so we must carry on the business of eternity in the order and method of the gospel And this is the order not firstly to enquire into the counsels of God whether you be elected or not but in the first place to be earnest with God for the grace of conversion and to press after purity of heart and holiness of conversation that from thence you may be able to prove your election 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Mark it first your calling or conversion unto God and your election thereby Else you begin at the wrong end Thus I have largely insisted on the fourth Direction If you would not be led aside by the multitude's practise Take heed that you entertain not their principles Dir. 5. If you will not conform to the practise of the multitude make them not the men of your society and fellowship Hold no familiar correspondency with them But make the people of God the men of your counsel If you familiarly converse with infected persons you will be sure to catch the plague of them If you have intimacy with them you will learn their wayes and bring a snare to your souls Prov. 22.24 25. You have many professours think they have writ of exemption from contracting defilement by the society of the ungodly And therefore they make no bones of familiar correspondency with sinners Only they are resolved not to comply with them in any thing sinful but will hold fast their integrity Alas Christians this is but to cheat and cozen your own souls Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burnt Can he intimately converse with the ungodly and not receive a tincture at least of their spirits Be assured of this if you do not some way or other defile your selves but deal truly and faithfully with the Lord they will either leave their ungodliness or quickly be weary of and loath your society The resolution of David is an excellent pattern Psal 119.115 Depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the commandments of my God As if he had said I shall be sure to deal falsly in the covenant of my God and not keep his commandments unless I break off society with evil doers And v. 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy statutes Dir. 6. Lastly if you would not be infected by the multitude learn the great gospel lesson of self-denial Self-seeking will expose you to be caught in every snare Luk. 9.23 Thus I have done with the second head by way of direction SECT IX 3. TO provoke and stir you up to be watchful over your selves that you do not follow the multitudes example I shall only put you in mind of three moving considerations Mot. 1. If you be led by the example of the generality and walk in their steps It will be a sure evidence that you are still the children of the Devil and under his government For this is one of the properties of such as are dead in sins and trespasses and are acted by the prince of the power of the aire being children of disobedience That they walk according to the course of the world Eph. 2.1 2. Mot. 2. If you live no otherwise than the multitude live you will fall short of many that fall short of heaven Sundry hypocrites have out-gone you This the unjustified Pharisee could boast of that he was not as other men Luke 18.11 And if your righteousness be less than that of the Scribes and Pharisees who are excluded from the kingdom of Heaven how will you be able to escape the damnation of Hell Mot. 3. This argument from the multitude is commonly of no validity in respect of outward evils and why should it prevail as to spiritual evils which are the sorest and whereby all outward judgments are pulled down upon our heads The covetous worldling will not cast away his riches though all his neighbours are poor and indigent But he labours to outstrip them in worldly goods Take a man that hath his health when all about him are sick impotent or diseased and he will not destroy his health because he would be like unto others Why then should you murder your souls because others walk in the path of destruction should we not be more stiffe and resolute in laying up treasures in heaven than earth-wormes are to get honour and profits in the earth They seek after but a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible 1 Cor. 9.25 4. Let me subjoyn a few things by way of Retortion and so shut up this discourse Q1 What use ought we to make of the practise of the multitude in doing evil seeing we must not follow them nor conform to their example Answ There is a fourfold special use to be made of their example when a multitude combine in a course of sin

the present many parts of my solemn worship are limited and confined unto certain places but the time is at hand when my glory shall be revealed unto all people and then the distinction of places shall be done away 3. The worship of God in the pure primitive times was performed by the people of God according to their conveniency without being tied or restrained to certain determinate places See the example of Christ in the first place sometimes he preacheth in the house where the people were congregated Again at another time by the sea-side and out of a ship And sometimes in the Synagogues And when his audience was so great that a particular building could not probably contain them you shall find him preaching upon a mountain Mat. 5.1 2. Mar. 2.13 Mar. 4.1 2. See the practise of believers in scripture times after the ascension of Christ Then mostly they met in private houses * In hac consuescitis parte crimen nobis maximum impietatis affigere quod neque aedes sacras venerationes ad officia construamus Templa extruimus nulla Arnob. contra Gentes Because that was most convenient to avoid the fury of the adversaries who persecuted them for their meetings This is so plain and obvious that he seems little to consult his readers patience that shall spend much time or paper in the proof of it Acts 2.46 Acts 12.12 Acts 20.7 8. From hence as I conceive you have that common expression in some of Pauls Epistles the Church that is in such a ones house i. e. The Church that was wont there to assemble and meet together to partake of the ordinances of the gospel 1 Cor. 16.19 Col. 4.15 Why else should the Apostle speaking of Priscilla and Aquila greet the Church in their house and presently after changing his expression salute Aristobulus houshold and the houshold of Narcissus which were in the Lord Rom. 16.5 10 11. Well then the Church of Christ met in any place according to their convenience And in this respect those publike buildings which are commonly called Churches are ordinarily to be preferred before other places where there is freedom for the purity of the worship of God as being best fitted and ordered for convenience But if the room of a private dwelling be large enough for the company that attend upon the service of God and fitly disposed for orderliness and decency in their attendance thereupon there is as great an excellency therein and the duties there performed are as acceptable as in any other place whatsoever For it passeth the reach of my understanding to conceive how that crossings and holy water and such superstitious devices with the rest of the pageantry * See Rhem. Annot. in 2 Tim. 4. sect 12 13. Bellarm. lib. 3. cap. 7. de Sanctis used amongst the Papists in the consecration of Churches where there are no footsteps in scripture for direction in such a practise should any thing avail to the putting a standing excellency in those places 4. Lastly let it be observed that whereas ignorant people are wont to have an high reverence and esteem for such a place and to think the worship of God is more acceptable therein because as they speak it is the Church and the house of God this very thing is one sign and taken of their ignorance For the building or structure is called the Church only figuratively and metonymically because the Church is accustomed there to assemble together As we call one place in Westminster-hall the Court of Chancery and another partition the Court of common pleas because there those courts are wont to sit for deciding of controversies Else it is the congregation of the faithful that is the Church of Christ The living members of Christ the servants of God are his house and temple And wherever they are wont to meet together though in an upper chamber that 's the Church metonymically as well as any other building which we usualy so call Act. 12.5 Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him and v. 1. Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church 1 Cor. 14.12 Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church Eph. 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it So that look what is the object of the persecution of the wicked by whom are prayers and supplications sent up unto the throne of grace Who are edified unto salvation by the ordinances of the gospel for whom Christ died and shed his precious bloud they are the Church of Jesus Christ and the place no otherwise than as there they congregate Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 For the temple of God is holy which temple ye are v. 17. Christ was faithful as a son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Heb. 3.6 The persecutors and the profane who vilifie the Saints and set against them are the persons that are guilty of despising the Church and of bearing no respect or reverence unto the Church So much for the second point wherein it concerns us to be cautious that we be not led by the multitude namely as to the matter of Religion wherein it is placed 3. See to it that you be not carried down the stream with the multitude in respect of the method and order wherein religion is prosecuted The most people pursue the interest of religion and the fear of the Lord in a secondary way in a subserviency to the promoting of some carnal and worldly interest Men profess godliness that they may be well esteemed amongst the godly that they may gain the favour or friendship of this or the other holy man from whom they expect to reap advantage that they may get the better credit among such with whom they have to deal and so drive on their worldly designs with greater likelihood of success or the like At least they have some earthly and carnal interest which they pursue in coordination and conjunction with the service of God They think they may serve God and the world together that they may be true Christians and yet mammonists also But my beloved be not ye conformed to the multitude Serve the Lord in singleness and godly simplicity of Spirit Let all other concernments stoop to the matters of the kingdom of heaven Serve the Lord only and undividedly and dedicate your selves and all that you have wholly and entirely to the masters use Let godliness have the preheminence and superiority in all your affairs and undertakings Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these earthly things shall be added unto you How should the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof be sought after in the first place Why

end were they left Why to this very end that he might try his people whether they would cleave unto him with full purpose of heart or not So God could gather his Saints together and destroy the wicked from amongst them But he leaves them scattered up and down in the midst of the ungodly and surrounded with them on every side to this very purpose That he may try them whether they will fear and serve him or be conformed to the wicked amongst whom they dwell And therefore it is worth your observing by the way That there are three sorts of providential dispensations whereby God doth especially set his people upon the trial 1. By permitting errors and heresies to be vented amongst them By suffering men to vent their own corrupt notions instead of divine truths and to set up their own superstitious inventions in the place of Christs Ordinances These are a great trouble and perplexity upon the spirits of the godly and perhaps sometimes they are apt to wonder that the Lord doth not take more care of his own worship and institutions but suffereth them to be defiled with humane devices and sinful mixtures Why Sirs God is jealous of his truth and worship but he suffers these errors and corruptions for a time that Professors may be tried concerning the soundness of their profession whether they will be blown aside by every wind of doctrine and be carried by every specious pretence to follow the fancies of men or will hold fast the truth and simplicity of the Gospel 1 Cor. 11.19 For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you 2. God doth put his people upon the trial by letting forth the rage of unreasonable men against them and by exercising them under hardships and difficulties upon the score of Religion For times of suffering for righteousness sake are discriminating seasons The boystrous wind of persecution will drive away the chaff and the wheat only will abide And therefore such dispensations are called trials because Gods end therein is that his people may be proved He doth not give them into the hands of his adversaries as if he did not regard their welfare or sought their ruin or delighted in their afflictions and sorrow but his intent is to try them 1 Pet. 4.12 Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as if some strange thing happened unto you Jam. 1.2 3. My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience 3. The Lord doth put his servants upon the trial by dispersing them amongst the ungodly and fixing their habitations in the midst of sinners For God hath appointed before the bounds of mens dwellings here as well as their eternal condition hereafter Act. 17.26 And he could gather his people into a body together But he hath scattered them up and down here a person and there a family and the wicked are one very side and it is done to this end that they may be proved whether they will go down the stream with the multitude or walk in the narrow way of holiness and the fear of God And would not you be found faithful upon trial Take the resolution of David as a pattern Psal 17.3 4. Thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tryed me and shalt find nothing I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress Concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer This is all that I shall speak under the third general Head Touching the special cases that require most diligent circumspection lest we be drawn aside into sin by following the multitude SECT V. THe next Point to be handled is the demonstration or proof of the Doctrine The question is this Quest 4. What reasons may be produced against compliance with the multitude in sin which we may press upon our hearts in order to abate the edge of that inclination that is apt to be within us to follow their example Ans I shall reduce all that shall be delivered in answer to this Question unto four Heads The arguments may be drawn from four Topicks From 1. The spiritual estate wherein the multitude are 2. The concernment that lieth upon us to prove our own spiritual estate and condition 3. The duties that are incumbent on us in relation to the multitude which are altogether inconsistent with our compliance with them 4. The danger that will arise by following them 1. The first Argument is taken from the spiritual estate wherein most persons are and the way wherein they travel or the place whither they are going Why Sirs the greatest number of people are the children of the devil and lye in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity they go in the broad way that leads to hell and destruction So that if you will follow their example it must of necessity end in the ruine of your precious and immortal souls If you will travel towards heaven you must expect but few to bear you company and to be of your society and fellowship The multitude take another course and their journeying tends to another place even to the chambers of eternal death 1 Joh. 5.19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness The whole world that is the greatest part of the world the generality of people the denomination is given to the major part And will you follow them that lye in wickedness that are wholly drencht in sensuality and ungodliness Is their carriage a good pattern for imitation that are altogether dead in sin and even buried in it that lye in sin as in a dead sleep and are under the power and command of the prince of darkness This is the reason which our Saviour presseth Mat. 7.13 14. Enter ye in at the strait g●te for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there le which go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it It amounts to thus much as if Christ had said The whole world is divided into two companies or secieties and they take different courses some are travelling towards heaven but alas they are but an handful in comparison of the multitudes that flock together in the way to hell and damnation Do not you therefore consort with them but associate your selves with the little flock to whom the Father hath designed to give the Kingdom If your hearts hanker after consociation and fellowship with the multitude you will be sure to find them in the way to eternal perdition 2. Therefore you should take heed that you be not led by the multitude that you may evidence your selves to be the peculiar people of God such as are taken

in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkeness to thirst As if the sinner should have said as carnal people in our dayes are wont to doe Do you think Heaven was appointed only for a company of Puritans that make more Scruples than they need Why may not a man take his fill of pleasures upon earth and yet come to the kingdom of heaven as well as others surely God never intended to tye us up in such narrow bounds as these Strait-lac't Preachers would perswade us Come let us fill our selves with strong drink and take our freedom whilst we may and yet our souls shall do as well as theirs If you would see the farther workings of this cursed and Hellish principle consult Psal 10.3 Isa 28.14 15. And Jer. 5.12.13 My beloved if you will keep your selves unspotted from the world great care must be taken that you give not the least reception or entertainment unto these devilish dictates For if once such libertine thoughts do but enter into your heads they will quickly fall down as a mighty Torrent upon your hearts and carry you headlong to all excess of riot As the first point of wisdom is to pitch upon the right end So the next is to take care of electing and closing with the sure and proper means for compassing that end If you fancy to your selves an easy way to salvation you do thereby tempt the tempter to lead you in the broad way to destruction Your spirits are thereby as a City without gates or walls open to all the inroades of that wicked one and of wicked men that are his instruments And therefore to Antidote your souls against this Poysonous principle let these three contrary principles sink deep within you 1. That the Holy Ghost is expresse concerning it that the way of salvation is a narrow and difficult way and that there are but few of those that sit under the teachings of the word of God that will arrive with safety at the kingdom of heaven Mark it I say these are truths which are frequently inculcated and very clearly asserted They are not dark notions and conclusions that are pretended to be drawn by far-fetcht consequences from the scripture but they are delivered so plainly that there is no way left for evading the force of them Mat. 7.13 14. Enter ye in at the straitgate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate or how strait is the gate amd narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Not only the way of holiness in the utmost extent of it is a difficult way but the way that leadeth unto life such holiness as is of absolute necessity to conduct a sinner to salvation And they are but an handful in comparison that walk in it But this may be meant will the carnal professour say in relation to Heathens and Infidels and gross Idolaters that worship a false God and never had the knowledg of a Mediatour We are Christians and members of the Church and hear the word of the Lord. Se therefore what our Saviour saith in another place Mat. 22.14 For many are called but few are chosen When are sinners externally called by a common vocation but when the word of God sounds in their eares inviting them to repentance and the Spirit of God deals by his motions with their hearts admonishing and perswading them to come unto Christ that they may be saved And few of this sort attain to eternal life Look into the old world and there were but eight persons saved from the deluge whereof there was one at least an hypocrite and the rest of the world were swept away not only with the besom of temporal destruction but into the pit of eternal perdition Consider the state of Sodom and there could not be found ten righteous persons in that populous City But least you should say that these were professed Atheists and Infidels and so the case not parallel with such as are called the people of God Let us therefore make inspection into the body of Israel when Elias made intercession to the Lord against them who thought that only himself had been left alone faithful unto Jehovah And pray what was the answer of God unto him See Rom. 11.4 I have reserved to my self seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal Mark it but seven thousand in the whole kingdom of Israel that consisted of ten of the Tribes We read of eleven hundred and threescore thousand mighty men of valour at one time in the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin besides the souldiers that kept the garisons Now if you should reckon proportionably concerning the ten tribes and make but a reasonable computation of the rest of the people men and women What were seven thousand in respect of the whole What an inconsiderable pittance scarcely one of a thousand However the case is plain there are but few in comparison that hear the word of the Lord that will come to the state of blessedness in the enjoyment of the Lord. And to bring this matter to an head if the way to Heaven were easy how comes it to pass that such multitudes perish If men might be saved at a cheap rate without strictness and diligence whence is it that the greatest number fall short of salvation If the careless and sensual are in the way to heaven who are the multitude in the visible Church that Christ tells us shall be sent into the chains of darkness Do not you tremble when you meet with such passages in the Bible I am afraid Sirs you dare not seriously study and meditate upon such scripture-truths least they should make your hearts to ake and awaken you out of your golden dreams 2. Though there are degrees of grace and different measures of holiness in the Saints and servants of God and many persons that are saved never attained to that stature and pitch of godliness in this life at which some have arrived Yet there are such things of absolute and indispensable necessity to salvation and to evidence that you are partakers of saving grace in the smallest degree that will sufficiently manifest that Heaven is not to be got without much pains and diligence in the pursuance of it Mat. 11.12 The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force There is no geting into that City except you storm it unless you vehemently strive to lay hold upon it Lazy wishings and wouldings will never bring you thither Lukewarmness and slothfulness will certainly fall short of it The bare external and superficial performance of some duties whilst in other things you take liberty to indulg the flesh will undoubtedly leave you still in the state of Damnation what ever fond conceits you may have of the contrary Let us lightly pass over the mention of some particulars