Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	administer_v	jerusalem_n	zion_n	31	3	9.7034	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36771	The true nature of the divine law, and of disobediance thereunto in nine discourses, tending to shew in the one, a loveliness, in the other, a deformity : by way of a dialogue between Theophilus and Eubulus / by Samuel Du-gard ...	Dugard, Samuel, 1645?-1697.	1687 (1687)	Wing D2461; ESTC R14254	205,684	344

Christ it is not because these Laws do not extend unto Them but because They refuse them The Goodness of God is not the less for not being entertain'd by the Generality of Men. Were it with an Impartial Eye look'd upon it might excite the Praises of all Men. That now every Nation is in the sight of God of equal account with the Land of Judea Every City that will truly own and obey his Laws is esteem'd no less than Jerusalem and every Temple where true Devotion is offered up where the Laws of Christ are un-corruptly declared and his Sacraments duly Administred as highly valued by him as the Gates of Sion and the Temple there And as he respects not One Nation before another so neither is He a respecter of Persons The Poor Man shall not be despised because he is Poor but shall have his Obedience kindly accepted and fully Rewarded Neither shall the Rich be Envy'd or Rejected because he is Rich but shall find our Lord Faithful and Just in the Valuing and Recompensing the Observance of his Laws So that we may say with David possibly in a larger Sense than he meant of Lands Nations and People which in Holy Writ are often limited to the Tribes and Families of the Jews the Regions and Cities of Palestine O be joyful in the Lord all ye Lands serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his presence with a Song Let the People Praise thee O God yea let all the People Praise thee For having given such Excellent Laws to all People thou wilt judge the folk righteously and with thy especial favour govern all the Nations upon Earth Hear ye all ye People give Ear all ye Inhabitants of the World both Low and High Rich and Poor one with another the Goodness of God is the same to you all in these his Holy Laws Praise him therefore and Magnifie him for ever Eubul And have we not also from hence Theophilus an instance of Gods Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them What are for all the World and do belong to all Nations how distant soever could not so conveniently have been dispersed for the good of all had they been confined to some Mens Breasts only Whereas now in their being written they can the more easily and punctually be known And from their being translated into all Languages and speaking in those Languages the same thing God is pleased happily to reverse the Confusion of Tongues at Babel Had they been left merely to an Oral Tradition we by reason of the Passions Prejudices Interests and to say the best the weakness of the Memories of Men should have had little security for their being preserved uncorrupt if yet they would have been preserved at all The Instance is sad but not impertinent to be mention'd how by this Traditional way the Knowledge of God and his Laws were in not many Hundred Years after the Flood in effect wholly lost not retrieveable but by new Revelations and the Constituting as it were a new Ecclesiastick State in Abraham and his Posterity to which for a not unlike Reason he afterwards saw it requisite to write his Laws in the Mount. Besides how would they have escaped amidst the Enthusiasms of many who pretend unto fairer Revelations than any of these Written Laws Which shews the great Wisdom of God in committing these his Laws unto Writing and may also shew Us that no Laws which are not Written are to be accounted His how Divine soever they may be pretended For why these should be put in Writing for the securing them from the corrupt Passions and personal Weaknesses of Men and others of no less Authority and Concern as is pretended than These should be left merely to the Breasts and Tongues of some Men who are of like Passions and Deficiencies with others I must confess Theophilus I understand not Nor is Gods Mercy less shewn than his Wisdom in that now we are not to go we know not whither to seek the Will of God that we may obey it but have his Laws near us and at hand in every place As God said to the Israelites Deut. 30.13 so may it now be said to all Men These Laws are not hidden from thee neither are they far off They are not in Heaven that thou shouldst say Who shall go up for us into Heaven and bring them unto us that we may hear them and do them Neither are they beyond the Sea that thou shouldst say Who shall go over the Sea for us and bring them unto us that we may hear them and do them But they are nigh unto thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that thou mayst do them Nigh they are and not a Family but may have them always lie open to their view not a particular Person but may have them as a Treasure in his Chamber or Closet Neither doth God only take care that these his Laws should be made known by being Written but he hath also commanded that they being Written should be Preached For those Precepts Preach the Word be Instant in season and out of season Reprove Rebuke Exhort with all long-Suffering and Doctrine are not Temporary ones given to Timothy and in Him to cease but such as are to be practised by Ministers to the end of the World. They must not be negligent to put Men always in Remembrance of these Laws though they be already known but still Line must be upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little A very great Mercy of God it is Theophilus that he will have his Laws though they be written to be yet thus frequently Preach'd that none may perish for want of Knowledge And a Mercy it is no less that though his Laws be Preached he yet hath caused them to be written putting them into the Hands of every Christian That in case False Teachers should arise as 't is foretold there will we may have wherewithal to discover and disprove them And truly the having the Holy Scriptures in their Hand and Eye is a Priviledge that one would wonder any should endeavour to take away from the People since it always by the Bounty of God belong'd unto them Under the Old Testament the Divine Laws were to be bound upon the Hands of the People and to be as it were Frontlets between their Eyes to be written also on the Posts of their Houses and on their Gates so far were they from being withheld Under the New Testament we find that the Writings of the Evangelists were not composed for the use of the Apostles only but for every Christian also in particular As may in good sort be seen by our Saviour's Sermon in the Mount which was not spoken to the Disciples as Ministers but as private Christians For at his Preaching it there were no Apostles they not being made nor sent till afterwards We find also that all the