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
A85088	Two treatises The first, concerning reproaching & censure: the second, an answer to Mr Serjeant's Sure-footing. To which are annexed three sermons preached upon several occasions, and very useful for these times. By the late learned and reverend William Falkner, D.D.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; Sturt, John, 1658-1730, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing F335B; ESTC R230997	434,176	626

of God in it that all his Revelations to the Patriarchs and Prophets and especially that by the Holy Jesus to the Christian Church do greatly insist upon it When the Gentile World went greatly astray by their abominable Idolatries and their gross Impurities even in their pretendedly Religious Rites the Doctrine of the Gospel appears to turn them from the Power of Satan unto God When the Jews had been under a lower Dispensation our Lord gives his Disciples more excellent Rules and enlargeth the Precepts of the Moral Law as was truly asserted by Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus St. Augustine and other ancient Writers And why should it be thought strange that Lawgiver should add to the Precepts already given and extend them further who established many new Duties such as to believe the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Faith to perform many religious Services in his Name and with an eye to him to attend on the Gospel-Sacraments to reverence the Christian Ministry and the Power of the Keys and to own and embrace Communion with the diffusive Catholick Church in all Nations He laid new Obligations upon his Disciples concerning Divorce and the changing the Zeal of Elias into Christian Meekness And it is but reasonable to expect that under the Instructions and Motives of Christianity there should be required greater Measures of the Love of God and Goodness But when the Jewish Church had in their Principles and Practices grosly degenerated from the great Design of the Law and many Corruptions were introduced our Lord protests against them and gives his Disciples this Admonition That their Righteousness must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees The Pharisees were the strictest Sect of the Jews at that time the Scribes were their chief Teachers and Guides their Righteousness here intended was what was according to the Rules and Doctrines they delivered and received Against that Leaven of Doctrine our Lord warned his Disciples Mat. 16.12 The out-doing and exceeding this Righteousness is so necessary that it is enjoined under this severe Sanction That otherwise we can in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is a Phrase peculiar to St. Matthew among all the Penmen of the Scripture but hath been observed not to be unusual in the Talmud Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 3.3 and other Jewish Writers It sometimes expresseth in this Evangelist the Kingdom of Christ in his Church on Earth but in this place and others the Kingdom of Glory and eternal Happiness But if any should think these Words directly to assert that none whose Righteousness exceeds not that of the Pharisees and their Teachers the Scribes can be true Members of the Christian Church and Christ's Kingdom upon Earth he must consequently acknowledg that they cannot be Heirs of Heaven Yet these Pharisees were not so wholly irreligious but that they attended the Temple and Synagogues made many Prayers seem'd to have a great Veneration for the Law and a Zeal for the Honour of the God of Israel They were not so grosly dissolute and debauched as to give themselves up to Uncleanness Intemperance and all Unmercifulness but they condemned Adultery fasted and gave Alms. Wherefore it may be needful to enquire I. What were the Miscarriages in their Righteousness and wherein must we exceed them if ever we attain to Happiness II. How stands the Case of those Societies who chiefly pretend to Christianity as to their exceeding or not exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees III. What is the Result of these Enquiries I. Touching their Miscarriages and Defects 1. They placed much Righteousness in their being a peculiar Party and maintaining a kind of Separation They were a particular Sect having and needlesly affecting singular Practices and Opinions different from the other Jews and such as were not enjoined in the Law of Moses The Name Pharisee is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate and divide and themselves were distinguished into seven sorts as the Jewish Writers tell us They did not indeed withdraw themselves from the Synagogue or Temple Publick-Worship since as Josephus saith Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever referred to God both Prayer and other parts of Worship were much ordered by their Model But concerning the Synagogue-Worship there is probable Evidence that the several chief Sects among the Jews and therefore the Pharisees as one of them had their distinct Assemblies And it is certain the Pharisees did reject the best of Men from their Synagogue-Communion meerly for doing their necessary Duty in professing upon the fullest Divine Testimony that Jesus was the Christ and becoming his Followers And in the Temple-Worship the Pharisees were guilty of a kind of Separation under an appearance of Communion For since the daily Sacrifice in the Temple was a Burnt-Offering and therefore appointed for Expiation and Atonement Num. 28.3 the Devotions of them who attended at the Temple at the Hours of Prayer and Sacrifice ought to be conformable thereunto but the Pharisees Prayer there as our Saviour describes it had nothing in it of humble Supplication for God's Mercy and Favour but he thanks God he was not as other Men. And this Spirit of Division was so much the worse in them because it was founded in an high Conceit and great Confidence of their own Righteousness though they had little reason for it and in a contempt of others But now such a proud Temper is inconsistent with Christianity which makes Humility a necessary Qualification for the obtaining everlasting Life And Divisions and Separations are so unaccountable for the Members of the same Body the Church to be engaged in that the Doctrine of Christ gives us frequent Precepts earnest Exhortations and pressing Arguments to Peace and Unity and plainly expresseth the great Danger of Misery in the neglect thereof When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Contests fierce Heats and Divisions are reckoned among those Works of the Flesh which exclude from the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. can any think the great Discords in the Church unconcerned herein when the Concord of Christians is here chiefly enjoined and the Neglect thereof is every way exceeding hurtful and when all these very Expressions are used by St. Paul to set forth the Divisions of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.3 And therefore where-ever Rents or Schisms in the Church are Works of the Flesh as they must be when they are the Product of Pride Self-will or voluntary Disobedience to or Neglect of the Precepts of Peace and Unity they are destructive The Ancient Church charged an high Guilt upon these Practices Cypr. ep 76. ● St. Cyprian accounts Schism greatly to deprive Men of the Hope of Christianity And St. Austin maintains against the Donatists that their Separation was as great a Sin as that of the Traditores who gave up the Scriptures into the hands of their Persecutors with which Crime the

and spake evil of their Governours And they were frequently turbulent and tumultuous But by the Evangelical Doctrine only the Humble and Lowly can enter into Heaven The Son of God himself so far promoted Submission to all in Authority that he was obedient to his Parents was himself baptized of John And the New Testament earnestly enjoins upon us Obedience to them who have the Rule over us and denounceth Damnation to those who resist the higher Powers 6. And lastly They left themselves and their Followers at a licentious Liberty in many weighty Matters of Doctrine and Practice They could suffer their Hands to be Polluted by devouring Widows Houses and their Tables by Extortion and Excess They made void the Commands of God by their Traditions and were such Casuists as to allow Swearing by Heaven and Earth and to account such Oaths as those by the Temple and the Altar to leave no Obligation when Swearing by the Gold of the Temple or the Gift upon the Altar did oblige And it is manifest from this fifth chapter of St. Matthew that according to their strictest Rules they gave allowance to inward Wrath and Hatred and Lust if it did not break forth in open Murther or Adultery as was noted by Tertullian Tert. de Idolat c. 2. who also observeth how strictly extensive our Saviour's Doctrine is even against the unchast Eye and inward Wrath or in the phrase of St. John That he that hateth his Brother is a Murtherer But the excellent Christian Rules of Life which command the inward Man and far out-do the loose Principles of the Pharisees are many of them proposed by the Blessed Jesus in this and the following Chapters and are included under that Sanction at the close of this Sermon on the Mount that he that hears these words of his and doth them not is likened to him who builds his House on the Sand which ends in a dreadful fall And Vertuous Practices are so far from pleading any allowance from Christianity that Whosoever breaks the least Commandment and teacheth Men so shall be called least or not be accounted of in the Kingdom of Heaven These things I have discoursed of are sufficient to shew the gross miscarriages of the Pharisaical Righteousness in opposing the necessary Duties of Unity Meekness Sincerity true Religious Piety Obedience and Universal Holiness and therefore this could be no safe way to the Kingdom of Heaven I now come to the second Enquiry How stands the case of those Societies who lay the chief claims to Christianity as to their exceeding or not exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees in these particulars And here I shall not ransack the remote and distant parts of the World but take notice only of those with which we are concerned as the Church of England the present Roman Church and the Dissenting Parties among us Nor shall I strain resemblances to make the Cases appear Parallel but shall take notice of things as they really are to observe how far there is a likeness to or compliance with the Spirit of Pharisaism And here I profess that I seriously wish well to all Men of what Party soever and therefore whatever I shall say that speaks the error or danger of any of them is not out of design to cast reproach upon them but out of this true Charitable End to warn others to take heed thereof and I should be glad if it might make any of them consider of the error of their way 1. Concerning Separation and Division This was esteemed by the ancient Church as an heinous Crime St. Chrysostom equals it with Heresy Chr. in Eph. Cyp. de Unit. Eccl. and St. Cyprian makes it a greater offence than that of the Lapsi The Church of England is clear herein it owns and professeth the Catholick and Apostolick Faith and Doctrine and none other and appoints a way of Worship agreeable thereto and so gives no cause to warrant any Separation from her Our Case with respect to the Romish Church is in part like that of the Apostles with regard to the Scribes and Pharisees whilest they professed the true Christian Doctrine and worshipped God after the way which was unjustly called Heresy Joh. 12.42 the Pharisees sentenced such to be put out of the Synagogue And the Talmud of the Venice Edition hath been observed to affirm That Jesus himself was Excommunicated with the Shammatha or great Excommunication And because we as we ought reject the evil and corrupt Romish Doctrines and Practices they censure us as Hereticks and let fly their Anathema's in various Canons of Trent and yearly denounce their Excommunications in the Bull in Coena Domini And besides this we cannot join in the main part of the Romish Worship without embracing their Superstitious and Idolatrous Practices Nor have they any Right of Jurisdiction over us And all this acquits us from the Crime of Schism in our Reformation But they at Rome though they keep to their publick Worship as the Pharisees did are yet grossly guilty of Schism by unjustly rejecting all other Christian Churches who make use of their own just Rights and are not more ready to submit to St. Peters pretended Successor and his Impostures than to the Precepts and Doctrines of his and our Lord and Master And herein they pass Sentence as the Pharisee did against the Publican upon them who are better than themselves Other Parties at home practise Divisions in an higher degree than the Pharisees did openly separating themselves from the publick Assemblies of our Christian Worship 2. Concerning fierceness and furiousness of Zeal Our Church entertains no Bloody nor Uncharitable Doctrines or Tenents its Rules concerning Government contain as much mildness as can consist with Peace and Order and its Practice rather more by reason of the distemper and disorder of the minds of Men. But such is the Romish fierceness that in the highest violation of Charity they exclude other Churches from Salvation And their furious Zeal appears by Fire and Faggot by bloody Inquisitions Massacres and Rebellions by Horrid Treasons and cruel Conspiracies of which the World hath had and we have abundant Evidence These things are so unlike Christianity and Jesus the Saviour that they betray themselves to be from the Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When Espencoeus a learned Doctor of Paris Esp in 1. T● Digr l. 2. had observed how the ancient Canons obliged all the Clergy against engaging in War and Blood he acknowledgeth and smartly taxeth the contrary practice of the late Romish Church and her Bishops as herein degenerating from the Spirit of Christianity veteris Gentilismi ritu with a greater suitableness to the temper of Pagans And in other Dissenting Parties it is too manifest how prone their forward and leading Men are to censorious Uncharitableness and rash Judging and how ready they have been unjustly to take up the Sword and pursue the Interest of their Party with War and Blood with