Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	heaven_n	righteousness_n	scribe_n	3,417	5	11.3432	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63878	Ebdomas embolimaios a supplement to the eniautos, or course of sermons for the whole year : being seven sermons explaining the nature of faith and obedience in relation to God and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively / all that have been preached and published (since the restauration) by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; to which is adjoyned, his Advice to the clergy of his diocese.; Eniautos. Supplement	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1663 (1663)	Wing T328; ESTC R14098	185,928	452

him and by the strengths and confidence of these thrusts us forward in a holy and wise Oeconomy and plainly declares that we must serve him by the measures of a new Love do him Honour by wise and material Glorifications be united to God by a new Nature and made alive by a new Birth and fulfil all Righteousness to be humble and meek as Christ to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is to be pure as God is pure to be partakers of the Divine Nature to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind to become people of a new heart a direct new Creation new Principles and a new Being to do better than all the world before us ever did to love God more perfectly to despise the world more generously to contend for the Faith more earnestly for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great Promises which our Blessed Law-giver came to publish and effect for all the world of Believers and Disciples The matter which is here required is certainly very great for it is to be more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees more holy than the Doctors of the Law than the Leaders of the Synagogue than the wise Princes of the Sanhedrim more righteous than some that were Prophets and High Priests than some that kept the Ordinances of the Law without blame men that lay in Sackcloth and fasted much and prayed more and made Religion and the Study of the Law the work of their lives This was very much but Christians must do more Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus at tu Si foetura gregem suppleverit aureus esto They did well and we must do better their houses were Marble but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of Glory * But as the matter is very great so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world It must be so or it will be much worse unless it be thus we shall never see the glorious Face of God Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful for the matter is not a question of an Oaken Garland or a Circle of Bayes and a Yellow Ribband it is not a question of Money or Land nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises and the undiscerning Suffrages of the people who are contingent Judges of good and evil but it is the great stake of Life Eternal We cannot be Christians unless we be righteous by the new measures the Righteousness of the Kingdom is now the only way to enter into it for the Sentence is fixt and the Judgement is decretory and the Judge infallible and the Decree irreversible For I say unto you said Christ unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Here then we have two things to consider 1. What was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the Righteousness of Christians 1. Concerning the First I will not be so nice in the Observation of these words as to take notice that Christ does not name the Sadduces but the Scribes and Pharisees though there may be something in it the Sadduces were called Caraim from Cara to read for they thought it Religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures whose fulness they so admired they would admit of no suppletory Traditions But the Pharisees were called Thannaim that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they added to the Word of God words of their own as the Church of Rome does at this day they and these fell into an equal fate while they taught far Doctrines the Commandments of men they prevaricated the righteousness of God What the Church of Rome to evil purposes hath done in this particular may be demonstrated in due time and place but what false and corrupt glosses under the specious title of the Tradition of their Fathers the Pharisees had introducedour Blessed Saviour reproves and are now to be represented as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may see that Righteousness beyond which all they must go that intend that Heaven should be their Journeys end 1. The Pharisees obeyed the Commandments in the Letter not in the Spirit They minded what God spake but not what he intended they were busie in the outward work of the hand but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew Ye understand all things carnally that is they rested 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calls it in the outward work of Piety which not only Justin Martyr but St. Paul calls Carnality not meaning a carnal Appetite but a carnal Service Their error was plainly this they never distinguished Duties natural from Duties relative that is whether it were commanded for it self or in order to something that was better whether it were a principal Grace or an instrumental Action So God was served in the Letter they did not much inquire into his Purpose And therefore they were curious to wash their hands but cared not so much to purifie the hearts They would give Alms but hate him that received it they would go to the Temple but did not revere the Glory of God that dwelt there between the Cherubins they would fast but not mortify their Lusts they would say good Prayers but not labour for the Grace they prayed for This was just as if a man should run on his Masters errand and do no business when he came there They might easily have thought that by the Soul only a man approaches to God and draws the Body after it but that no washings or corporal Services could unite them and the Shechinah together no such thing could make them like to God who is the Prince of Spirits * They did as the Dunces in Pythagoras School who when their Master had said Fabis abstineto by which he intended they should not ambitiously seek for Magistracy they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they did not eat Beans and they would be sure to put their Right foot first into the shooe and their Left foot into the water and supposed they had done enough though if they had not been Fools they would have understood their Masters meaning to have been that they should put more affections to labour and travel and less to their pleasure and recreation and so it was with the Pharisee For as the Chaldees taught their Morality by mystick words and the Aegyptians by Hieroglyphicks and the Greeks by Fables so did God by Rites and Ceremonies external leading them by the Hand to the Purities of the Heart and by the Services of the Body to the Obedience of the Spirit which because they would not understand they thought they had done enough in the observation of the Letter 2. In moral Duties where God express'd Himselfe more plainly they made no Commentary of kindness but

carry a Frigat into the Indies in which a 100. men were imbarqued I were a mad man to undertake the charge without proportionable skill and therefore when there is more ●●nger and more Souls and rougher Seas and more secret Rocks and horrible storms and the Shipwrack is an eternal loss the matter will then require great consideration in the undertaking and greatest care in the conduct Upon this account we find many brave persons in the first and in the middle ages of the Church with great resolution refusing Episcopacy I will not speak of those who for fear of Martyrdom declined it but those who for fear of damnation did refuse S. Bernard was by three rich Cities severally called to be their Bishop and by two to be their Archbishop and he refused them S. Dominicus refused four successively S. Thomas Aquinas refused the Archbishoprick of Naples and Vincentius Ferrerius would not accept of Valentia or Ilerda and Bernardinus Senensis refused the Bishopricks of Sens Vrbin and Ferrara They had reason and yet if they had done amiss in that Office which they declined it had been something more excusable but if they that s●ek it be as careless in the office as they are greedy of the honour that will be found intolerable Electus Episcopus ambulat in disco recusans volvitur in arcâ said the Hermit in S. Hierom. The Bishop walks upon round and trundling stones but he that refuses it stands upon a floor But I shall say no more of it because I suppose you have read it and considered it in S. Chrysostoms six books de sacerdotio in the Apologetie of S. Greg Naz. in the p●storal of S. Greg. of Rome in S. Dionysius's 6th Epistle to Demophilus in the letters of Epiphanius to S. Hierom in S. Austins Epistle to Bishop Valerius in S. Bernards life of S. Malachy in S. Hieroms 138. Epi●●le to Fabiola These things I am sure you could not read without trembling a●d certainly if it can belong to any Christian then work out your salvation with fear and trembling that 's the Bishops burden For the Bishop is like a man that is surety for his friend he is bound for many and for great sums what is to be done in this case Solomons answer is the way Do this now my Son deliver thy self make sure thy friend give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eye lids that is be sedulous to discharge thy trust to perform thy charge be zealous for Souls and careless of money and remember this that even in Christs Family there was one sad example of an Apostate Apostle and he fell into that fearful estate merely by the desire and greediness of money Be warm in zeal and indifferent in thy temporalities For he that is zealous in temporals and cold in the spiritual he that doth the accessories of his calling by himself and the principal by his Deputies he that is present at the feast of Sheep-shearing and puts others to feed the flock hath no sign at all upon him of a good Shepherd It is not fit for us to leave the word of God and to serve tables said the Apostles And if it be a less worthy office to serve the tables even of the poor to the diminution of our care in the dispensation of Gods word it must needs be an unworthy imployment to leave the word of God and to attend the rich and superfluous furniture of our own Tables Remember the quality of your charges Civitas est Vigilate ad custodiam concordiam sponsa est studete amari oves sunt intendite pastui The Church is a spouse the Universal Church is Christs spouse but your own Diocese is yours behave your selves so that ye be beloved Your people are as sheep and they must be fed and guided and preserved and healed and brought home The Church is a City and you are the watch men take care that the City be kept at Unity in it self be sure to make peace amongst your people suffer no hatred no quarrels no suits at law amongst the Citiz●ns which you can avoid make peace in your Dioceses by all the wayes of prudence piety and authority that you can and let not your own corrections of criminals be to any purpose but for their amendment for the cure of offenders as long as there is hope and for the security of those who are found and whole Preach often and pray continually let your discipline be with charity and your censures flow let not excommunications pass for trifles and drive not away the fly from your brothers forehead with a hatchet give counsel frequently and dispensations seldom but never without necessity or great charity Let every place in your Diocese say Invenerunt me vigiles the watch men have found me out hassovevim They that walk the City round have sought me out and found me Let every one of us as S. Paul's expression is shew himself a workman that shall not be ashamed operarium inconfusibilem mark that such a labourer as shall not be put to shame for his illness or his unskilfulness his falseness and unfaithfulness in that day when the great Bishop of souls shall make his last and dreadful visitation For be sure there is not a carkase nor a skin not a lock of wool nor a drop of milk of the whole flock but God shall for it call the Idol Shepherd to a severe account And how think you will his anger burn when he shall see so many goats standing at his left hand and so few Sheep at his right and upon inquiry shall find that his ministring Shepherds were Wolves in Sheeps clothing and that by their ill example or pernitious doctrines their care of money and carelesness of their flocks so many Souls perish who if they had been carefully and tenderly wisely and conscientiously handled might have shin'd as bright as Angels And it is a sad conside●ation to remember how many souls are pitifully handled in this world and carelesly dismissed out of this world they are left to live at their own rate and w●en they are sick they are bidden to be of good comfort and then all is well who when they are dead find themselves cheated of their pretious and invaluable eternity Oh how will those Souls in their eternal prisons for ever curse those evil and false guides and how will those evil guides themselves abide in jud●ment when the Angels of wrath snatch their abused people into everlasting tor●ents For will God bless them or pardon them by whom so many souls perish Shall they reign with Christ who evacuate the death of Christ and make it useless to dear Souls Shall they partake of Christs glories by whom it comes to pass that there is less joy in Heaven it self even because sinners are not converted and God is not glorified and the people is not instructed and the Kingdom of God is not filled Oh no the curses of a