Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	account_v	babylon_n	zion_n	26	3	9.9161	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17692	Foure godlye sermons agaynst the pollution of idolatries comforting men in persecutions, and teachyng them what commodities thei shal find in Christes church, which were preached in French by the moste famous clarke Ihon Caluyne, and translated fyrst into Latine and afterward into Englishe by diuers godly learned men.; Sermons. Selected sermons. English	Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564.; Horne, Robert, 1519?-1580.	1561 (1561)	STC 4438; ESTC S118061	86,020	218

be borne that is to saye there shall be greate aboundaunce The Christians doe almost with one accorde refer it to Christ and thinke that the prophet doeth render the cause why they shoulde be counted amongest the cytesens of Ierusalem whych hitherto were straungers sore enemis because Christ shuld be borne there whose duetie it is to gather mē scatered as membres torne a sonder into the vnitie of fayth hope of euerlastyng life As for the first interpretation because it is altogether wasted it nedeth no refutation As for the seconde because it is more sutle then sounde I doe not receiue The 5. verse And of Zion it shall be said A man and a man is borne in it and the most hiest shall establishe it He continueth the same sentence that newe citizens shall be gathered into the church of god out of diuerse partes of the worlde Howbe it he vseth another figur that straūgers shal be counted amongest the holye people as though they had bene borne of the father Abraham He saide in the former verse The Chaldeans and Egiptians shal become of the housholde of the church The Ethiopans Philistines and the men of Tyre shall be counted amongest hys chyldren Nowe he doth adde in steade of a confirmation that there shal be an infinite multitude of new seed so that the citie shal be filled with a great people which was desolate for a time and afterwarde was but halfe full with a litle nomber of men And this which is here shortely promised is declared more at large of Isay Prayse O thou barren whych diddest beare children for the chyldren of the desolate forsaken are mo then of her whych is maryed Make large the place of thy tent stretche out the cordes and strengthen thy stakes c. Likewise Thy children shal come from farre lifte vp thine eies rounde about for all these shal be gathered to thee And in the xliiii Chapter almost the same maner of speache is fained or at leaste one which draweth neare to this which is here This man shall say I am of the lorde he shal be called by the name of Iacob This man shall write with his owne hand I am the lords and he shall call himselfe after the name of Israell Neyther dothe the prophet without cause signifie by the worde of bearing that the Egiptians Chaldeans and such like shoulde be of the flocke of Gods people For although by nature they were not borne of Zion but ought to be grafted in by adoptyon into the bodye of the holye people yet because our entrye into the church is the second birth this maner of speakyng doth agre very well For Christ doth take the faith full to him in marriage with thys condicion that they forget theyr owne people and their fathers house Psalme .xlv. and being fashioned and borne a new of incorruptible seede into newe creatures maye begin to be the sonnes both of God and of the church Gal. iiii And surely we are borne a new in to the heauenly life none other way then by the ministery of the church But in the meane season we must marke the difference that the apostle putteth betwixt the earthly Ierusalem which as it is a seruaunt so engendreth children to subiection and the heauenly which bryngeth forth fre children by the gospell In the second parte of the verse the long duryng of the same is declared for often times it cometh to passe that the soner that cities doe creepe vp into a wonderfull height the shorter whyle doeth their prosperous state endure And least that the felicitie of the church should seme after this sorte to be vnstable the prophet doeth pronounce that her stabilitie shall be of the lord as though he should saye that it were no merueil though other cities did shake were subiect to diuerse inclinations because they are tossed with the world haue not euerlasting kepers But new Ierusalem is of another sort whose eternitie being grounded in the powre of god shal stand though heauē earth fal The 6. verse God shall count his people by writing he was borne there Selah The prophet meaneth that the name of Zyon shall be so famous that all shall with most feruent desire go about to be counted in the numbre and degre of the citezens thereof For he speaketh of a moste honorable degree as though he should say when god shall make a count of the nations them whom he will chiefly honour he wyll accounte rather to Zion then to Babilon or any other cities For this shall be a greater dignitie to be in the lowest degre amongest the Citizens of Zyon then any other where to be of the chief yet in the meane season he admonisheth vs from whence men that are straungers get such honor so sodenly to wit of the free gyft of god And surely thei which are the seruants of the deuyll and of sinne can neuer get by their owne diligence the fredom of the heauenly citie It is the lord alone who placeth the people in their seueral degrees as it semed good to him and whereas the condicion of men is a like he putteth difference betwixt one another As for the writing whereof he maketh here mencion pertayneth to the callynge for although he hath written his children in the booke of life before the creation of the worlde yet he then counteth them at length in the numbre of his childrē when as he doth seale them being regenerate with the marke of the spirit of adoptiō Aswell the syngers as the players on instrumentes all my fountaynes are of thee The 7. verse Partly the great shortnes partly the doutfull signification of one worde doth make the sentence dark As for the word fountaines there is no dout but that it is translated from the right signification vsed here by a Metapher But for all the that expounders do differ in the declaration of the Metapher Some do expound it hope some affections some the inward thoughtes How be it I would gladly agre to their sentence which interpret it songs if the proprietie of the tonge wold suffer it But because it may seme to far fetched I do receiue that which is most agreable to reason to wit that the countenance is signified for the rote from the which it is deriued doth signifie an eye Nowe must we se what that other membre signifieth Aswell the syngers as the players on instruments It is an abrupt maner of speaking but al men do agree of the sence thereof to wit that there shal be such cause of ioye that the prayse of God shall be set forth with singyng both without instrumentes and also with instrumentes of musicke Therefore he doth establishe that which he saide afore of that great glorious restauration of Sion for by the greatnes of the ioy and manifolde singing of praise he declareth how great the felicitie thereof should be But in the meane season he describeth the end of al the giftes which god doth so liberally powre on his church to wit that the faithfull do witnesse their thankfull minde towardes him with himnes songes More ouer that the prophet declareth that he dothe embrase the church with a syngular loue care and studye to the intent he myght exhorte and kindle all faithfull by his example to the same affection According to thys saiyng let my ryght hande be forgottē if I do not remembre thee Ierusalem in the begynyng of my ioye For then finallye are all our affections in the churche when as we gather our selues frō the wanderyng and vaine distruction of the mynde and despyse the dignities delicate thynges ryches and pompe of this worlde and are content wyth that onelye spirituall glory of the kyngdome of Christ FINES Prynted at London by Roulande Hall dvvellyng in Golding Lane at the signe of the three arrovves 1561.

musicians appointed to sing the psalme Howbeit it might come to passe the some man of that stocke beyng a leuite did compose it The foundacions thereof Since therelatue is of the masculine gendre me think they are deceiued which doe vnderstand it of Ierusalem as though he shoulde say that it was founded in the holy hilles Neither am I ignoraunt howe eertaine learned men doe excuse thys thing To witte that the name of the people must be vnderstād though he speake of the chief citie But howe harde an exposition it were though I should houlde my peace yet euery one may see Some of the Iewes also thought nothing more likely then to refer it to the psalme And so by a metapher they expoūd it the foundacyons of the matter of the psalme bycause he intreateth of the holy citie of Ierusalem which was set in the mountaines But me thinke the true and right meaning is that God hath chosen the holy mountaines in the which he shoulde found his owne citie For it foloweth a litle after in the text The most hiest shal establishe it He is also the builder of other citys but we neuer reade that he said of any other citie This is mi resting place for euer I will dwell here bycause I haue chosen it in the Psalme cxxxii For we must alwayes put this difference that though other cities as touchynge the outwarde pollicie were made by the power and prouidence of god yet Ierusalem was his peculier holye place and kinglye seate After the same fashion doth Isayas speake Chapter .xiiii. Yea and though all Iewry was holy vnto God yet it is sayd that he hauyng cast all other aside hath chosen thys to him selfe in the which he might raigne Which is expressed in the seconde verse The Lord loueth the gates of Sion aboue all the dwellynges of Iacob To the which that answereth which is written in the Psalme lxxviii That God hath forsaken Sylo the Tribe of Ephraim the tabernacle of Ioseph that he might dwel in Sion which he had loued Furthermore the Prophete doth declare the cause wherefore God doth preferre one place to another and he setteth the cause not in the worthinesse of the place but in the onely loue of God without merites Therefore yf any aske why Ierusalem doth excell the rest let a briefe answere be inough because it so pleased God And thys was the begynnyng of the loue of GOD but the ende was that there might be a certaine place in the which trewe religion might remayne vnto the commynge of Christ to the intent that the vnitie of faith might be norished and from whence afterwarde trew religion should flow to all the coastes of the worlde Wherefore the Prophete doth prayse Ierusalem with this title that it hath God for a chiefe builder and chiefe gouernour Secondly he ascribeth al the dignitie which it hath before other places to the grace and adoption of god As for that that he hath put Sion for Ierusalem and the gates for the whole compasse of the citie it is a double * Synecdoche is a figure wher in the part is takē for the whole Synecdoche Commonlye they take the hylles for Sion and Moriah which I do not reiect though it may be drawen further because the countrey was full of mountaines rounde about and the Citie was set in an hie place The 3. verse Wonderful things are spoken of thee thou citie of the lorde Worde for word it is that that is said in the are wonderful thinges But we must consider the councel of the prophet or rather the purpose of the holy goost speaking by the mouth of his prophet When as the stat of the people was lowe and contemptible and many grieuouse aduersaries did rise against them on euery syde and but fewe had the courage to ouercome the lettes and daye by daye some new alteration did arise vnloked for it was daungerous lest theynges waxyng worse and worse by lytle and litle at the length should vtterly perish and when there was almost no hope that the citie coulde be restored least the heartes of the faithful being ouercome with desperation should faint Here is a mete prop set vnder it that is to saye that God hath spoken otherwise of the state thereof which is to come For it is not to be douted but that they are called from the sight of thinges present vnto the promises which did minister hope of an vncredible glory Therefore though nothyng apear wherof one may much reioyce yet the prophet biddeth the children of God to stande vp as it were in a watchtowre and patientlye waite for the thinges that are promised On this maner were the faithfull admonished fyrst that they might geue eare to the olde oracles and call them to minde specially those which are written in Isay from the xl chap. vnto the end of the boke secondlye that they might barken to the seruauntes of God which then did preach of the kingdō of Christ whereby it foloweth that we can not iudge a right of the felicitie of the church vnles we iudge of it after the word of god I wil rehearse Rahab Babel amongest thē that know me behold the Philistines Titus and Ethiopia he was borne there The 4. verse The name of Rahab is taken for Egipt ī mani places of the scripture the which signification doth wel agre to this place for the prophets minde is to describe that wonderfull greatnes of the church which was as yet hid in it self Therfore he sayeth that they which afore were greuous enemies or altogether strangers should not onely be familier frendes but also shoulde be grafted in one body so that thei shoulde be counted citisins of Ierusalem And in the first clause he saieth I will rehearse Egipt and Babylon amongest them of my houshold In the seconde he addeth the Philistines the Tirians and the Ethiopians who were hither to at such variaunce with the people of god shall now agre aswell as if thei were inhabitants It is a wonderfull dignitie of the church that they shall gather them selues to it rounde about which did contemne it and that thei which did wishe it vtterly rased out destroyed shuld count it a chief honor to be the citesins thereof so to be counted al shal willyngly refuse the name of their countrie of the which before thei wer so proud Therfore wher soeuer they were borne either in Palestina either in Ethiopia or in Tirus thei shal profes thēselues to be citesins of the holi citie The Iewes do expoūde this place thus that few should come out of other nacions which excelled the others in wit vertues but that ther should be great abundance in Israel Scantly say thei shal there amongest the Tirians Ethipioans Egiptians or any other particular men worthye of prayse so that yf there be any such he may be pointed out with the finger for the scarcitie but in Sion man and man shall