Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	aaron_n	jerusalem_n	lord_n	21	3	2.7641	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78766	The city remembrancer. Or, A sermon preached to the native-citizens, of London, at their solemn assembly in Pauls on Tuesday, the 23 of June, A.D. MDCLVII. / By Edm. Calamy B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1657 (1657)	Wing C228A; Thomason E1676_2; ESTC R208432	25,502	90

conjunction of holiness and righteousness blessed is that Land and blessed is that City which is in such a condition happy London if a Minister could rationally pray Jeremies prayer over it The Lord blesse thee O habitation of justice and mountain of holiness 1. You must be just in your words and actions towards men There is a great complaint throughout the whole Nation against divers men professing godlinesse in this City that they are false to their trust unfaithful in their promises unjust in their buying and selling That they are very religious in the publique Congregation but very unconscienceable in their private Shops That the faithful City is become an Harlot It was full of judgement and righteousness lodged in it but now her silver is become drosse and her wine mixt with water Now it is full of unrighteousness and un●ustice This is a bloudy charge and if true renders y●u Traytors and Rebels to the City of your Nativity Remember this day that God hates holinesse if it be not joyned with righteousnesse That an unjust holy man is an abomination to the Lord That holinesse without righteousnesse is not holiness but hypocrisie 2. You must be holy in your carriage towards God you must not onely give man his due but God his due you must not only have the Gospel but obey the Gospel you must not onely be good Citizens but good Christians Justice without holiness may make you good Heathens but will never make you good Christians An unholy justice is as odious to God as an unjust holiness Remember the words of the Apostle Without holiness no man shall see God Though you be never so just towards your Neighbours if you be not also holy towards God you shall never go to heaven Let us sincerely desire and earnestly endeavour and seek the good of the City wherein we were born This was the great commendation of Mordecah Fster 10. 3. He sought the wealth of his people Not his own wealth but the wealth of his people Such another was Nehemiah he sought the welfare of the children of Israel he was a man of a publique spirit he did not Monopolize and ingrosse all to himself he was a true Common-wealth's man not a Private-wealth's man he sought the good of the people of God more than his own Such another was Augustus Caesar It is said of him That he found the City of Rome weak and in rubbish and left it adamantine and invincible such must you be you must seek the good of the place of your nativity you must not onely labour to enrich enoble and greaten your selves to make your selves happy But you must labour to enrich enoble greaten and make London happy and blessed this you must do six manner of waies 1. By your prayers you must pray for the peace of this our Jerusalem that peace may be within her Walls and prosperity within her Palaces For your Brethren and Companions sake you must say and pray peace be within thee For in the peace of London is your peace wrapt up in the happiness of London your happiness is involved Pray that the name of London from this day may be Jehovah Shammai the Lord is there that the Lord would make it an habitation of Justice and a Mountain of Holiness Pray that the Sun of the Gospel may not set in our daies but that it may be continued to us and our posterities for evermore 2. By living together in love and union behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his garments as the dew of Herm●n and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Sion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for ever As long as Ierusalem was a City compact together and at unity within it self so long it prospered But when it came to be divided into two sticks into Iudah and Ephraim the two Tribes and the Ten Tribes these two sticks never left beating one another till they were at last both of them destroyed It is observed by Learned men That all Englands enemies from without were brought into the Land by divisions from within Intestine divisions brought in the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans Tacitus saith that the Britains when Caesar came in factionibus trahebantur dunt singuli pugnabant universi vincuntur c. The divisions of London at this day are very many and very great O that this dayes meeting might be some wayes instrumentall for the healing of them That our feasting together may not onely in name but in reality prove to be a Love-Feast That he●●eforth we would cease striving one against another and strive together for the Faith of the Gospel That wee would abstain from all dividing names principles and practices That Magistrates and Ministers would joyn together for the publick good That Aaron and Huz would hold up not weaken the hands of Moses Alwayes remembring that sad speech of Jesus Christ Mat. 12. 25. Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Thirdly By your holy lives and conversations For Holiness will not only preserve your own persons from Hell but the City wherein you live from ruine and destruction Here are assembled this day at least a thousand persons born in London Now if all you were really holy what a wall of Brass would it be for the defence of the City For if God would have spared five Cities if there had been but ten righteous persons in them How much more will he spare one City wherein there are a thousand righteous men Sin and iniquity brings down the judgements of God upon Cities and Kingdoms There is a story of two men riding through a Town in Germany burnt down by Souldiers The one said to the other Hic fuit hostilitas Here the enemy hath been but the other wisely and Christianly answered Hic fuit iniquitas Here sin hath been It was the sin of this place which made way for the Souldiers to come to destroy it When Phocas the Murderer of the Emperor Mauritius had built a high and strong Wall for his safety and defence he heard a voyce from heaven saying to him Though thou buildest thy Wall as high as Heaven sin is within and this will easily expose it to destruction It is sin which causeth God to burn up Cities and therefore you must by a holy life seek the good of this City Fourthly By your love to the godly learned and painfull Ministry of the City Contempt of the Ministry is a City-ruinating-sin It is a sin which brings destruction without remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. They mocked the Messengers of God and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of God arose against

distresse and to poor Scholars in the Vniversities And my hope is That the next year you will double the summe above what you have given this year I am verily perswaded that what God said of Corinth is very true of London He hath much people in this City Though there are many wicked amongst us yet there are many yea very many both born andbrought up in London who truly fear God and for their sakes God hath hitherto spared us My prayers is that God would increasetheir number That this City may be a City of Refuge for distressed Christians not an oppressing or a bloudy City but a faithful and holy Citywherein God may delight to dwell and that Salvation may be appointed to her for Walls and Bulwarks So prayeth Your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fellow servant in promoting the common good Edm. Calamy A SERMON PREACHED Before the Native CITIZENS OF LONDON The City Remembrancer Act. 21. 39. But Paul said I am a Man which am a Jew of Tarsus a City in Cilicia a Citizen of no mean City WE are here met this day not only as Christians but as fellow Citizens to bless the name of the Lord that we were born not only in England but in London That we are Native-Citizens of no mean City For the better Celebrating of this mercy I have chosen this suitable Text which contains Saint Pauls just and necessary defence of himself against the unjust accusation of the Chief Captain of the Roman Band The chief Captain accuseth him for being an Egyptian a Seducer and a Murderer Art not thou that Egyptian which before these dayes madest an uprore and leddest out to the wilderness four thousand men that were Murderers In this verse Saint Paul makes his Apology which consisteth of three parts 1. He describes his Original He was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I am saith he a man which am a Jew I am not that wicked and cursed Egyptian you speak on but I am a Jew of a religious and noble extraction For though the Jewes are at this day the scorn and contempt of the world justly odious to all good Christians because of their murdering of Christ yet the time was when they were the only people God had upon earth when they were a Holy Nation when they were naturally holy as it is Gal. 2. 15. We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles They were not sinners by nature as the Gentiles but holy by nature I do not mean with the holyness of regeneration but with a federall holyness They were all in Covenant with God and their very Land was holy It was Immanuels Land The time was when they were not onely a holy but a noble people The honourablest Nation under the whole heavens For to them as the Apostles saith pertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the promises Whose are the Fathers those noble and honourable Patriarcks and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Jesus Christ was not only the Son of man but the Seed of Abraham This is the first part of Pauls Apology He was a Jew of a godly and noble original Secondly He describes the Country where he was born He was not only a Jew as to his original but as to his Country he was a Cilician which is a Province in Anatolia or Asia minor a Country saith Ammianus Marcellinus dives omnibus bonis wealthy and fruitfull of all necessaries He was born in a rich and fruitfull Countrey Thirdly He describes his Native City the dignity and excellency of it He was a Jew of Tarsus that is born in Tarsus of Cilicia so called in opposition saith Cajetan to another Tarsus in Bythinia He was a Citizen of no mean City {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In these words there is a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} where more is to be understood than is expressed He was a Citizen of no mean City that is He was a Citizen of a Famous City Josephus calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Stephanus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It was urbs celebratissima a most renowned and celebrious City It was the Metropolis of all Cilicia Solinus saith it was mater urbium The Mother of Cities Diodorus Siculus saith That for the kindness it shew-to Julius Caesar and after him to Augustus Caesar it was called Juliopolis In this famous City was Paul born The words thus expounded may be handled two manner of wayes 1. Relatively as they are purely Apologetical and satissactory answers to the unjust accusations laid to Pauls charge by the chief Captain I shall not meddle with them in this sense because it would lead me to a discourse Heterogeneal to the occasion of this dayes meeting 2. Absolutely as they are an Historical Narraration of Pauls extraction Countrey and native City In this sense I shall speak to them I shall sum up all that I have to say into this Doctrinal conclusion Doct. That to be descended from religious and noble ancestors and to be born in a famous Country and City are considerable privileges and passages of Divine Providence not to be slighted or disregarded This proposition consisteth offour branches of which I shall speak in order 1. To be descended from godly and religious Ancestors is a desirable privilege and no small honour This was Pauls prerogative He was a Jew descended from the holy Patriarcks It is a great happiness when a man can truly say O God thou art my God and my Fathers God as it is Exod. 15. 2. And with Jacob O God of my Father Abraham and my Father Isaac For God hath promised not onely to be the God of the righteous but of their Seed and David saith That the generation of the righteous shall be blessed There is a saying amongst some men Happy is the Child whose Father goeth to the Devil But this is a wicked and cursed Speech For God punisheth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him But I rather say Happy is the child whose Father goeth to Heaven For God sheweth mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandements God promiseth to bless Isaac and to multiply his seed as the Stars of heaven because that Abraham his Father obeyed his voyce and kept his Statutes and Laws Gen. 26. 3 4 5. And the Apostle commends Marcus to the Colosstans to be regarded and respected by them because he was Barnabas Sisters Son he was the Sisters Son of a godly man 2. To be descended from noble and illustrious Progenitors is a considerable privilege This was also Pauls Prerogative He was of the stock of Israel of the Tribe

us here assembled not onely that we are Englishmen but Englishmen born in the Noble and famous City of London That we are Citizens of no mean City If any here desire to be farther informed of the excellency of this City let me intreat him to peruse a Booke printed this year composed by Mr. James Howel called Londinopolis Thus you have the Propositiō explained in all the four Branches of it But now I must adde That though the things forementioned be considerable Privileges yet they are but outward and temporal privileges common to the worst as well as the best of men Cateline was born in Rome as well as Caesar Caligula and Nero as well as Augustus and Trajan They are but fleshly and carnal prerogatives which a man may enjoy and yet be under the wrath of God and guilt of eternal damnation They are the Privileges of Paul a Pharisee and of Paul a Persecutor they are such Privileges which after he was converted he accounted but as dung and dross in comparison of and competition with the Lord Jesus Christ But yet howsoever they are privileges passages of Divine Providence not to be sleighted And therefore in the Application I shall first improve this Propositiō as it is a desirable privilege secondly as it is but an outward common and temporal privilege First As it is a considerable and desirable privilege and upon this account alone it will afford us three profitable and seasonable Exhortations Let us this day bless the Lord for this mercy that we are Englishmen and Londoners born and especially that we were born in England since it became Christian and since it was reformed from Popish Superstition There was a time when Britain was tristissimum superstitionum chaos when London was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Paul saith of Athens a City wholly given to idolatry when we offered our sons and daughters alive in Sacrifice to those that were no Gods non ad honorem sed ad injuria●s religionis not as an honour but as a shame to Religion The time was when we were drowned in popish superstition when England was the Popes Vassail and the Popes Asse as it was called to bear all his burdens but God out of his infinite mercy hath freed us of those burdens and we have enjoyed the Protestant reformed Religion for an hundred years together O let us bless God that we were born in England since it was reformed from Heathenism and Popery that we were born not in Egypt but in Goshen not in a valley of darkness but in a valley of vision not in Babylon but in Sion as you heard excellently the last year Le● us bless God that we were born in London not onely because of the excellency of the situation of it and the many outward accommodations to be found in it above other Cities but because of the abundance of the Gospel of salvation herein dispensed It is said of the Isle of Rhodes that it is fo happy an Island that there is not one day in the year in which the Sun doth not shine upon it this is true of London in a spiritual sense there is not one day in the year in which you do not enjoy the sun●shine of the Gospel This is the glory of London without this London is no more than Ligorn or Constantinople or Paris or any other City And this is one main end of our meeting this day to praise the Lord for this happy providence that we were born in London where we enjoy more of the purity plenty power and liberty of the Gospel than any other City in the world Besides this Let us this day bless God that London is yet a City and that it hath not long ago been made like unto Sodom and Gomorrha It is most certain that we are a sinfull City a City laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters that are miserably apostatised both in doctrine worship and conversation as the sinnes of Niniveh cried aloud to God for vengeance so do the sins of London the pride the hypocrisie the covetousness the injustice the contempt of the Gospel the profanation of the Sabbath the drunkenness perjury whoredoms of London these and such like sins cry to God for vengeance Now that God should not onely not destroy us but multiply his blessings upon us as appears by our meeting this day That God should preserve us so many years from the man devouring plague that in all the time of the late unhappy wars God should preserve us from being plundered from popular tumults and insurrections from being burnt with fire and turned into an heap of ashes this heightens the mercy of God and makes it a blessing in folio Let us praise God exceedingly for it This is a Duty belonging to all that live in the City but more especially to us who are Native Citizens 2. Let us labour to be a credit and an ornament to the place where we were born as we are Citizens of no mean City so let not our conversation be low and mean but holy and honorable this was Paul's commendation he was a greater credit to Tarsus than Tarsus was to him Therefore Ignatius writing in one of his Epistles to the Tarsenses calls them Pauli cines discipulos Pauls fellow-Citizens and Disciples as accounting it a great honor to them that so famous a man as Paul was born in their City Thus Austin was a greater credit to Hippo than Hippo was to him and Hippocrates was a greater blessing to the Island Co● where he was born than the Island was to him I here are some men who are curses and Plague soars to the places where they receive their first breath who Viper like tear in pieces the bowels of the Mother that bare them such a one was Nero who set his own City on fire and rejoyced to behold the flames of it such another was Caligula who wished that all Rome had but one neck that he might cut it off at once Many such Monsters there are in most Cities who are vomicae carcinomata civitatis diseases impostumations stains and blemishes to the places where they are born who are Citizens but drunken Citizens Citizens but adulterous Citizens Citizens but covetous and oppressing Citizens but I hope better things of you here present this day What must we do that we may be ornaments to the place where we were born You must do two things You must be just in your words and actions towards men and holy in your carriage towards God these are the two Poles upon which the happiness of London turns then is a City happy when Justice and holiness meet together when the men thereof make Conscience of their duty to God as well as to their Neighbour and of their duty to their Neighbour as well as of their duty towards God when there is a

therefore you that are nobly born must labour to be nobly and vertuously minded Nobility without vertue is but as a scarlet-roabe upon a leprous body and like a jewel in a swines snout There are very many who are ignobly born and yet prove noble such was the Coblers son who grew to be a famous Captain and when he was upbraided by a noble man with his mean original wittily answered My nobility begins with me and thine ends in thee And there are many who are nobly born and yet prove ignoble to the dishonour of their progenitors Such were the children of Alcibiades Such was Hezekiah's son Such must not you be you must labour to be a credit to your Ancestors And you must not account it sufficient to be born of earthly Parents though never so noble but you must labour to be born of God and to be born from above for as Christ saith Except a man be born from above for so it is in the original He shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is not your being born from below though your Parents be never so high which will intitle you to heaven unlesse you be born from above unless you be heaven-born Christians A true Christian is of a noble extraction he is the adopted son of God Brother to Jesus Christ heir of God and co-heir with Christ He is the noblest man in the world Such must you labour to be and in comparison of this all outward nobility is but as dung and drosse 3. Let us not rest satisfied in being Citizens of this famous City of London but let us labour to be Citizens of the new Jerusalem to be Citizens of that City which is made without hands eternal in the heavens Heaven in Scripture is often called a City and it is no mean City glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of the living God all earthly Cities aremean and poor in comparison of it and not worthy to be named that day in which we speak of this City the Scripture calls it A better Countrey that is an heavenly As far as heaven exceeds the earth so far doth thisCity exceed all earthly Cities It exceeds them 1. In its greatness and bigness and therefore it is called agreat City Revel 21. 10. And that great City by way of emphasis The holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven Our Saviour Christ saith That in his fathers house there are many Mansions Who can tell how many For there are in heaven a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues If the Sun be 166times bigger than the Earth how big is this blessed City 2. In its sublimity and altitude It is a City seated above all visible heavens as the Apostle saith Ephes● 4. 10. Therefore it is called The highest Heaven and the third Heaven farre above the aëriall and aetheriall heavens And this sheweth the excellency of this City For in the Composition of the World the purest and the most excellent things are situated in the highest places The earth as the grossest is put in the lowest room the air above that and therefore purer than that the fire purer than the air the starry heaven above them and therefore of a more pure composition which Aristotle calls Quinta essentia But the heaven of the blessed is above the starry heaven and therefore of a far purer composition and as Zanchy saith It is inter omnia corpora simplicia simplicissimum 3. In its beauty and glory For this City hath no need of the Sun or Moon to shine in it But the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And herein also consisteth the excellency of this City because it is a place where we shall be filled with the glory of God The Lord God Almighty shall be the everlasting light of it and our God the glory of it 4. It exceeds all other Cities in the wealth and riches of it For it is a City of pure gold and the streets of it are of pure gold the walls of it and the foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones and the twelve gates of it are made of twelve pearles c. These expressions are all of them Metaphorical borrowed from things that are most precious and of highest account with men upon earth to set out the incomparable wealth and riches of heaven And surely if the streets be of pure gold O how beautiful are the inner rooms How rich is the Chamber of Presence of the great King of Kings 5. In the pleasures of it There are many Cities which are pleasantly situated and wherein all earthly pleasures are to be enjoyed This famous City of London is deservedly stiled not onely The Store-House of profit but the Garden of pleasure But Heaven is a Paradise of all pleasure and therefore it is called Paradise Earthly Paradise was omnium voluptatum promptuarium A promptuary and store-house of all pleasures and delights much more is heavenly Paradise It is the Garden of the Lord wherein the Saints of God are satisfied with joyes and unspeakable delights 6. In the privileges and immunities of it Every City hath its privileges and immunities to invite men to dwell in it to be free of it But now the privileges and immunities of heaven are unexpressible There we shall all be Kings crowned with a crown of righteousness a crown of life and a crown of glory There we shall be free from all misery from the wicked and their persecutions from the Devil and his temptations and above all we shall be free from the body of sin and iniquity 7. In the necessary accommodations of it A City is a place where all things necessary for the comfort of mans life are to be found The whole Countrey round about bring in their Commodities to it We use to say of Cheap side in London That it is the best garden in England But now Heaven is a City wherein we shall have a perfect possession of all good things It is an happiness made up by the aggregation of all things desirable 8. In the excellency of the inhabitants It is one of the greatest commendations of a City when the Inhabitants of it are godly and religious But now in Heaven there are none but the Souls of just men made perfect in grace The People which dwell there are all righteous Therefore it is called A holy City because it consisteth onely of holy persons 9. In the safety and security of it It is a great commendation of a City when it is safe and secure from enemies There is hardly any City in the whole World which enjoyeth this happinesse But now in heaven there is perfect safety and security Therefore it is said That the gates of it shall never be shut They that dwell there are above the Fear and hurt