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
A84091	An essay on hypocrasie and Pharisaism. As it was set forth in a Sermon / by A curate of souls.	Curate of Souls.; J. W.	1683 (1683)	Wing E3288; ESTC R176777	25,935	40

For Pharisaical Hypocrisie doth subsist altogether by them and the world is full enough of dear-bought experience from all sorts of Religions how that the chief pretenders to serve God in this kind and degree have bin found to serv themselvs most and to the extreme disadvantage of those that confided in them Witness the Munster-Anabaptists amongst the Christians Barchochebas and others amongst the Jews and even among the Mahometans Burgluzes and Bedredin in the reign of Mahomet the first and the rife of the present house of Morocco to the Empire But then it may be question'd Are all they Hypocrites who in their religious demeanour before men shall thus exceed the common rules and practice of the Church God forbid any man should say or think so Doubtless a multitude of such persons mean as well as 't is possible and think they do their best in so doing There must be a great many weak and credulous people or there could not be so many deceivers Wherefore I cannot persuade myself that all the Pharisees of old were Hypocrites tho the chief among them were egregious ones nor that all those that profess Christianity now adays in such excesses are so All that I say is this Where-ever we meet with men that profess more Religion than is suitable with humane frailty with our State and constitution in the world though it be not good to despise such a profession because it may be true yet it cannot be safe to trust it for fear it prove false Such extravagant pretences alway proceed either from weakness or design they are the product of fondness and Superstition or else they are managed by craft and worldly wisdom If no guile appear it will be proper for Christians to interpret them in the most favorable sense to impute them to weakness of mind and undue fear of God But the safest way to avoid the danger of them if they should derive from the other fountain is to neglect them and take no notice of them If I see a man praying in the street or market-place as the Pharisees did or be any way eminently singular in his Religion and behave himself with more seeming Devotion than is usual Why I cannot read the mans heart he may be as honest a soul as any breathing But I must in charity impute the irregularity of his zeal to his weakness and if any thing be fit to be said to him in such a taking I hold nothing better than the Advice of our Saviour Mat. 6.5 6. When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and shut thy door and pray to thy Father which is in secret Alas poor man thou meanest very well belike but such a way is improper for the business of Devotion thou dost exert thyself amiss Just so man the Hypocrites the Pharisees do Therefore prithee good man away into thy chamber retire out of the sight and hearing of men and Cloyster thyself up that thou mayst not disturb the world by seducing people from their own business to attend and gaze after thee In plain Sirs we must have some rule for every public action and what we ought to do before men especially for our Devotion else we shall be at a great loss and there can be no other certain and adequate rule for it but the Laws of spiritual communion If men will not be concluded by such Rules they go the way to set up an arbitrary and uncertain Religion You have heard of an Arbitrary Government what a grievance it would be for a people to be govern'd altogether by the fickle humours of men without setled and known Laws so that that which to day is right to morrrow may be wrong and they cannot know when they are safe in any action Such a doubtful thing were Religion if managed only according to the variable genius of frail men without fixed and known Rules It cannot be very comfortable to any wise and considering men to be of such a Religion to the Community whereof they cannot tell how to approve themselvs and escape the dangerous censures of it Wherefore there is mighty reason we should beware of this Hypocrisie and the surest way to avoid the snares of it is firmly to adhere unto and judge these matters of outward and visible religion by the common rule of the Law 3. And lastly here is matter of Exhortation The foregoing discourse does mind all of us to be real and sincere in all our Religious exercises and pretences This Hypocrisie is the worst habit a Christian can appear in at his final doom before the Tribunal of the great and terrible God There is no excuse no mercy for it You may have read how the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth a sort of violence and the violent take it by force but you never heard that ever it is to be taken by craft Deceit and guile may do a great deal here in this world but in the world to come and at the great and universal Bar of all mankind every thing will then be unveiled and laid open Whatsoever we think or speak or do especially in matters of Religion we should alway remember that God hath a particular eye upon us and that the day of Revelation is coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed when all disguises shall be laid aside and every ones mask shall be taken off and all our actions shall be brought upon the publick stage and exposed to the view of men Angels And how will the Pharisee and all his kinred then look when the vizor of their counterfeit sanctity shall be taken off What confusion of face will then rife up in their countenance yea what an horrible dread must there needs then overwhelm their spirits when they shall find themselvs so discovered and exposed when they shall be surrounded with an infinite company of such glorious spectators and no way lest to shift or hide themselvs any longer If judgment begin at the house of God where then shall these ungodly-Godly-sinners appear They are left to the detestation of God and Angels and Saints to be a terrour to themselvs and to be insulted on by the Devils to all eternity Oh it will be a sad time indeed for them when they shall come in their last extremity and supplicate from the very bottom of their souls and cry Lord Lord and then the Lord will not know them but dismiss them with that deadful and cutting sentence Go ye cursed into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the Devil and his Angels Wherefore above all things my brethren let us hold the faith of Christ and let us have our Conversation here in this world in simplicity and godly sincerity And that we may avoid all suspicion of Pharisaism and the danger of excess in