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	violence_n	violent_a	1,901	5	9.3401	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14583	An epistle sent by Monsievr de Vrillac, advocate in the Parliament of Paris; to Monsievr de Vrillac his father, vpon the occasion of his conuersion. Faithfully translated into English, accoriding to the French copie; By C.C.	Vrillac, Monsieur de.; C. C., fl. 1621.	1621 (1621)	STC 24893; ESTC S101817	11,766	24

AN EPISTLE SENT BY MONSIEVR de VRILLAC ADVOCATE IN THE PARLIAMENT of PARIS To MONSIEVR de VRILLAC his FATHER vpon the occasion of his Conuersion Faithfully Translated into English according to the French Copie By C. C. LONDON Printed by I. D. for WILLIAM SHEFFARD and are to be sold at the signe of the Starre vnder St Peters-Church in Corne-hill and in Popes-head Alley 1621. AN EPISTLE SENT BY MONSIEVR de VRILLAC ADVOCATE IN the Parliament of PARIS To Monsieur de Vrillac his Fa ther vpon the occasion of his Conuersion MOst deare and my most honoured Father and Mother I say the truth in Christ I lie not my Conscience bearing me witnesse that I haue continuall sorrow and griefe in my heart that I must forsake you as touching the world my griefe being the more for that I know how much my estranging my selfe from you will breed you sorrow and affliction But this hope haue I in God that your sorrow shall be turned into ioy and your affliction into consolation when your wisedomes void of passion and worldly respects shall consider that the voyage which separates me from you is to bring me neerer to God and to set my Conscience at rest and quiet For I may no longer conceale it from you that by the often reading and serious meditation of the holy Scriptures together with calling vpon the name of God the Lord hath shewed me that mercie to see on the one side the new corrupt errors superstitions and heresies of the Roman Church and on the other side the pure truth taught in those Churches that are purged from the nouelty of Popery and reformed according to the true Antiquitie of the Apostles and Prophets Which knowledge I confesse I haue for some time held as captiue vnder feare suffering my selfe vnwisely to be carried away with their opinion who thinke it safest to sway with the time to beleeue with the Doctors and to liue with the multitude to giue the heart to God and the body to the world I was dumbe and sayd nothing I kept silence Psal 39. 2. 3. euen from good but my anguish increased my heart waxed hot within me and the fire kindled in my meditation wherefore I speake with my tongue For if heretofore the sonne of King Croesus beganne to speake seeing his Father in danger Who will thinke it strange to see my tongue loosed in a subiect where it hastens to set forth the glory of God my eternall Father and the saluation of mine owne soule For With the heart we beleeue but with the mouth Rom. 10. ●● wee confesse to saluation for which cause Iesus Christ saith That whosoeuer shall confesse him before Mat. 10. 32. 33 men he will confesse him before his Father which is in heauen But whosoeuer shall deny him before men him will he deny before his Father which is in heauen And the Apostle also saith Come out from amongst them 2 Cor. 6. 17. meaning from Idolaters and separate your selues and touch no vncleane thing And the Spirit of God Apoc. 18. Goe out of Babylon my people left yee partake of her sins and that yee receiue not of her plagues God will haue no societie with Satan nor Communion with the world he will not with the harlot haue his childe diuided he will haue all or 1 King 3. 26. nothing For what hath righteousnesse to doe with iniquitie And what communion hath light with 2 Cor. 6. 14. darkenesse Or what agreement hath Christ with Belial Or what portion hath the beleeuer with the Infidel Or the Temple of God with Idols And here I called that to minde which God heretofore said vnto the Israelites by the mouth of the Prophet Eliah How long halt ye betweene two 1 King 18. opinions If God be God follow him but if Baal follow him I haue aduisedly considered of what great validitie that Maxime of our Sauiour is That it is Mat. 6. 24. impossible to serue two masters and haue often called that to minde which we reade Mat. 11. That the kingdome of heauen suffers violence and the violent take it by force I haue often considered that God will haue his children marked not onely with an inward seale Ephe. 1. 13. but also with the marke of an outward profession and that is the cause why in the 1. booke of Kings 1 King 19. 18. Chapter 19. God saith hee had reserued to himselfe seuen thousand men not onely who had not beleeued in the Idolatries of Baal but who had not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him And in the seuenth Chapter of th' Apocalyps v. 3. Iohn Reu. 7. 3. beheld in a Vision an Angel hauing the seale of the liuing God to marke the seruants of God in their foreheads teaching vs therein that if wee will be reputed the seruants of Iesus Christ wee must openly make profession of the Truth the which himselfe teacheth vs in S. Iohn If any one Iohn 12. 26. serueth me let him follow me For he that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me Mat. 12. 30. scattereth I haue also often thought with my selfe that the Deuill demanded nothing of Iesus Christ but what the worldly wise giue vnto him For the Deuill hauing shewed Iesus Christ all the kingdomes of the world and the glory thereof saith All these Mat. 4. 8. things will I giue thee not if thou beleeue in me but if thou shalt fall downe and worship me Nabuchadnezar required nothing of those three worthies which were cast into the fiery Furnace but Dan. 3. 15. outwardly to worship his Image and the greatest tyrants not being able to discerne the thoughts of the heart content themselues with the bodie and the tongue Yea I thought that if it sufficed to beleeue the truth without making profession of it in vaine should so many Martyrs haue maintained it before their Iudges and confessed it in the very flames signed with their bloud and sealed with their death And seeing the Church on earth is like vnto Israel in Egypt and Daniel in the Lyons den and that in the eyes of the world it is nothing but weaknesse and as it were a few Lambes in the midst of a multitude of Wolues if it should conforme it selfe to the times there would neuer bee any Church And in withdrawing our selues from the house of God we shall not onely run into the Temples of Papists but also into the Temples of Mahomet saying by way of excuse yet I beleeue it not Reason it selfe hath taught me that it sufficeth not a childe to haue a good conceit of his Father vnlesse he defend his quarrell and that it is not enough for a souldier to loue his Captaine if hee fight not vnder his ensigne and that shee is but a strumpet who vnder pretence of keeping her hart to her husband prostitutes her body to strangers as also that it is the propertie

things to be losse vnto me for the excellent knowledge of Iesus Christ my Lord. For whose sake I haue depriued my selfe of all things and doe iudge them to be dung that I may winne Christ The like is sayd of all the Apostles who vse this speech to Christ We haue lest all and followed thee Mat. 19. ●● And that which most comforted me was the answere of our Sauiour Verily I say vnto you that whosoeuer hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother for my sake and the Gospels shall receiue an hundred folde as much and shall inherite eternall life And therefore euen as the Apostles forsooke their Nets to follow Iesus Christ I also put from me these vaine cares and the deceitfull hopes which intangled my minde and with the royall Prophet I concluded O Lord thou art my portion Psal 119. 55. I haue determined to keepe thy law And that as Christ saith Those are blessed which heare the Luke 11. 28. word of God and keepe it As also with Mary I haue chosen the good part which shall not bee taken Luke 10. 42. from me I sayd in my selfe what though I possesse not great things here on earth yet shall I bee rich in thee and an inheritour of the kingdome which God hath promised to those that loue him I shall possesse that pearle of inualuable price to wit the knowledge of the Gospell and the graces of the Spirit I shall be adorned with Iesus Christ the riches of Israel and the glory of our hope And I shall obtaine a treasure in heauen where the moth corrupteth nor and where theeues neither breake Mat. 6. 20. through nor steale If I lacke honor among mortall men God will single me out as among his Mal. 3. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 9. most precious Iewels I shall enter into the royall Priesthood and I may boast that I am descended of the most auncient nobilitie that may be seeing the titles of Gods house and familie are more auncient then heauen and earth and if I forsake worldly pleasures I shall haue spirituall gladnes I shall reioyce in God my Sauiour with a Ioy vnspeakeable 1 Pet. 1. 8. and glorious and as Dauid taking his flight into the Deserts comforted himselfe in the expectation of the kingdome which God had promised him so will I comfort my selfe in looking for those eternall felicities which God hath reserued for me among the Angels To be short if with Iesus Christ I haue not whereon to rest my head I will reioyce that in Iesus Christ I haue peace of Conscience that God is the portion of Psal 16. 5. mine heritage and of my Cup alwayes O Lord Psal 84. 1. of hosts how amiable are thy dwelling places my foule ceaseth not greatly to long yea euen fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh reioyce in the liuing God For a day in thy Verse 10. Courts is better then a thousand else-where I had rather be a doore-keeper in the house of my God then to dwell in the tents of wickednesse Now if my flesh were loth to forsake her commodities shee thought it yet more strange to betake her selfe vnto such an vnpleasing condition shee thought it folly and madnesse to enter into a path all paued with thornes and filled with afflictions she set before me the reproch of the Gospell but especially in these woefull times in which pietie is heresie and wherein it is counted a dishonour to serue Christ But according to the Apostles example I shooke off this Viper without Act. 28. taking any hurt I beleeued that I ought to contemne this contempt according to the saying of the Apostle I am not ashamed of the Gospell of Rom. 1. 1● Christ seeing it is the power of God to saluation to all that beleeue I thought it better to share with Gods children in the words reproach then to be had in execration before God and his Angels and willingly to be made the ofscouring of the earth seeing so I might be made heauens delight I thought it folly to imagine I should reape before I had sowed to ouercome without conflict and to be crowned before I had run my race to the end and that it is impossible to partake of the excellencie of Christs crosse without feeling the weight of it seeing the paschall Lambe was to be Exod. 12. 8. eaten with soure herbs and the bread of the Lord like that of Boaz must be eaten with dipping it in Ruth 2. vineger I consider that seeing the kingdome of Iesus Christ is not of this world it were extreame folishnes in me to seeke the world in his kingdome or to thinke of rest in his kingdome who is the enemie of our Father or not to make profession of the Gospell til persecutions be ended or to set before vs Iesus Christ without his Crosse or a Gospell without reproach To tarry till God had traced out a new way to heauen and till the worlde and Satan should cease to bee for the enmitie of the old Serpent which began in the earthly Paradice Gen. 3. will neuer haue an ende till wee become to the heauenly I also thought that ther is no afflictiō for the Gospell which Iesus Christ hath not fore-told that such as are enrolled for seruants in his armie must accept it vpon condition that whosoeuer will come Luke 9. 23. after me must deny himselfe and take vp his Crosse and follow me Iesus Christ tels vs that if we will enter Mat. 7. 23. into life eternall wee must passe through the straight gate and this is that aduantage which in this life he tels his Apostle he must take for his patrimonie I will shew him how many things hee must suffer for my sake A lesson which the Apostle sets vs Act. 9. 16. al to take out saying By many afflictions we must enter Act. 14. 22. into the kingdome of heauen and 2. Tim. 3. All that 2 Tim. 3. 12. will liue godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution I shake of delicacie when I cast mine eyes vpon Daniel who chose rather to be cast into the Lyons den then to giue ouer lifting vp his hands to heauen vpon those three worthies who chose rather to bee exposed to the mercy of the fiery furnace then to bow before an Idol and vppon so many cloudes of witnesses who were willing rather to shed their blood then defile themselues with Idolatrie And aboue all I was astonied in beholding Iesus Heb. 12. 2. Christ the author and finisher of our faith who for the ioy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame For the seruant is not greater then his Iohn 13. 16. master nor the Ambassader greater then hee that sent him Seeing our head was crowned with thornes and was offered vinegar to drinke all streaming ouer with blood what a vile shame is