Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A61265
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A sermon preached before the King at White-Hal, Septem. the 26th, 1675 by John Standish ...
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Standish, John, d. 1686.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing S5215; ESTC R13595
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12,157
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34
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suffer shame and be Nick-named Fops Formalists and Thinking-Fools by men of the same spirit with them that said the Son of GOD himself had a Devil But yet these Hero's might remember in their cold blood and sober intervals if they have any that as it is against the Law of Nations to cast dirt upon and offer indignities to an Ambassador so the affront aims chiefly at his Prince and such as despise them despise him that sent them who will in due time redeem his own Honour and pay them that they have deserved Mean while we 'll be reveng'd of them too but only in our Churches Prayer and God speed it well that it may please him to forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their hearts But 2. You need not fear the Sons of Levi should take too much upon them in this high Title if you consider their more special Character as they are Ambassadors for CHRIST A King indeed but one whose Kingdom was not of this World Who never used more secular Pomp in all his life but once riding into Jerusalem upon an Asses Colt A King indeed but his Courtiers poor Fishermen and Publicans his Scepter a Reed his Crown made of Thorns and his Throne an ignominious Cross And his Disciples are not greater than their Lord they pretend not to dispose of Crowns and Kingdoms let Him at Rome answer for that who says we know by what Right and Precedent All these will I give thee They claim no Secular Honours or Priviledges but what they owe to the pious Bounty of Christian Princes who are graciously pleas'd to treat them as Prophets and shall therefore receive a Prophets reward Their power says a Learned man is armed only with a spiritual Sword the wounds whereof are little felt or dreaded in this World supported mostly with a mean temporal Fortune yet it has stood hitherto against all Opposition and shall stand for ever But whether they meet with Friends or Foes Love or Hatred Frowns or Favours here they are sure of a Reward most glorious hereafter if they can but give their Master who is since declared King of kings a good account of their great Errand and Business here on Earth Which leads me to the second thing considerable The subject matter sum and purport of their Ambassy in those words Be ye reconciled unto God Reconciliation imports a returning into Favour and Friendship after a former Enmity or Falling-out between Parties Now though man be the sole Party offending that made the breach by sin his own voluntary act yet God hath been graciously reconciled to Him ever since the hour of CHRISTS death which he accepted as a full and perfect satisfaction for the sins of the whole World All the difficulty is which so many Ambassadors are daily sent about to prevail with man to be reconciled to God Reconciled Surely that must be an hard saying clogg'd with some impossible Condition that makes men start so at fly from and not endure to hear on 't Yes it is so for it requires them to do What shall I say to do just nothing in comparison rather to be passive as the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is and not hinder God from making them happy Yes it requires them to renounce their own Merits and that 's a mighty piece of Self-denial for wretched sinners that never had any and then cry Peccavi before they can obtain Mercy It lays that grievous burthen upon them to be Friends with God or rather to suffer God to be so far Lord of their Wills as to advance them like the great Abraham to be his bosom Friends and Favourites In a word and not to mince the matter there being no name under Heaven whereby we can be saved but the name of JESUS it requires us all to believe stedfastly in and depend wholly upon Him both for pardon of our sins and power against them 1. For Pardon we must sue that out in and through his Death for without his precious Bloodshed there is no Remission of sins and without our acceptance none for us however Though there be Balm in Gilead and a Physician there yet if men will not use them no wonder if they perish and their blood be upon their own heads They may think never so well of their own Works and Ways but when all is done they must take Sanctuary in that new and living Way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his Flesh Hebr. 10. or they 're undone for ever For as we are not of kin to CHRIST but only by the Mother's side as he is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and God the Father doth forgive no mans sins but for Christ's Merits offer'd in our Nature upon the Cross And so doth he convey this and all other Blessings to us only through his Son as our Mediator that is through his Humanity as the only Band by which we are united and reconciled to the Divine Nature Wherefore 2. We must depend upon him also for Grace and Power against sin by virtue of his Resurrection and Life to purifie our Hearts and Consciences and keep that Tyrant Sin from reigning at least in our mortal Bodies Never did the most Gracious Prince pardon Rebels but upon that one Condition That they would turn Loyal Subjects Therefore says St. Paul if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature he has a new heart new desires new principles new life all things new He 's not the same man he 's quite chang'd like the Prodigal Son come to himself to a sense of his former follies and present wants or like the man among the Tombs who when the Devils were gone out of him sate dutifully at Jesus feet clothed and in his right mind This is indeed the hardest Chapter in all our Word of Reconciliation but yet he that runs may read it if with holy David he takes the right course Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him and he shall bring it to pass For is there any thing impossible with God The heart of all men even of Kings says Solomon is in the hand of the Lord as Rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth What though Nature of it self be weak and impotent so long as it is now endued with power from on high Indeed our Saviour tells us plainly to shew us our own insufficiency without Me ye can do nothing But St. Paul as truly answers for himself and us also I can do all things through CHRIST that strengthens me And when we read that such Vertue went out of Christ whilst in the form of a Servant that it cur'd the Woman of her Bloody Issue upon but touching the Hem of his Garment why should it seem incredible that his glorified Humane Nature now he is Lord of all should distil his vertual Presence and Life upon our Souls to heal our infirmities that he should impart