Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	country_n	king_n	5,468	4	3.4835	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61609	A sermon preached on the fast-day, November 13, 1678, at St. Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5649; ESTC R8213	27,301	58

and surprizing events but of a lasting and continued state For when God hath been highly provoked to punish several Nations for their sins he may give unexpected success to that Nation by whom he designs to punish the rest and when they have done that work they may then suffer more smartly for their own iniquities Of this we have a remarkable instance in Scripture God designed to punish the Kingdoms of the earth for their sins to this purpose he raiseth up Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon whom he therefore calls his Servant and the first example of his severity was his own People when this was done then follow the desolations of Egypt of Phoenicia Arabia and other Countries in so strange a manner that some have called it the Age of the destruction of Cities But doth the King of Babylon think to escape himself No saith the Prophet the King of Shesbach shall drink after them his turn would come at last when he had accomplished the design God sent him upon in the punishment of others Thus for a time a Nation may seem to flourish exceedingly and be victorious over others while they are as Scourges in Gods hand for the punishment of others and when that work is over may suffer most severely for their own sins 4. It is to be understood of Persons under equal circumstances when we compare the condition of People with each other not the Nobles of one Nation with the Peasants of another nor the Princes with the People but every rank and order of men with those of the same rank and condition And upon these terms we need no other proof of the truth of this assertion than the instance in the Text of the People of Israel which will best appear by comparing the state of both Kingdoms after the Body of the People was broken into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah The Kingdom of Israel by Jeroboams Policy and for Reason of State fell off from the Worship of the true God and worshipped the Calves of Dan and Bethel But did they prosper or succeed more than the Kingdom of Judah The ten Tribes had a much larger territory yet the Kingdom of Judah was stronger and flourished more and continued longer by 135 years than the Kingdom of Israel did and when they were carried into Captivity the ten Tribes were lost as to their name and interest among the People of Assyria but the two Tribes were restored after 70 years Captivity under the Princes of the Line of David If we compare the Kings of Israel and Judah together The Posterity of David was kept up among the Kings of Judah but there were nine Families in the Kingdom of Israel and but one of them lasted to the fourth Generation and that was of Jehu who did something towards the Reformation of Religion Of the eighteen Kings of Israel but eight escaped dying by the Sword and it is easie to judge how miserable the state of that People must be under so many violent changes of Government Among the Kings of Judah those who were firmest to the true Religion prospered most and the Nation under them enjoyed the greatest peace or received the greatest deliverances as in the dayes of Asa Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah If we compare the times of the same Kings together we shall find that while they adhered firmly to God and Religion the Nation prospered exceedingly as for a long time under the Reigns of Solomon and Asa but when in their old Age they began to warp in their Religion and to decline in their Piety nothing but trouble and confusion followed So true did they find the saying of Hanani to Asa The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him But because he said he had done foolishly in not relying on the Lord but on the King of Syria therefore saith he from henceforth thou shalt have wars And from that time his Government was uneasie both to himself and his People when he had imprisoned the Prophet for reproving him III. That there are some circumstances in the sins of a Nation which do very much portend and hasten its Ruine As 1. When they are committed after more than ordinary mercies received such as in reason ought to keep men most from the commission of them as greater knowledge of the Will of God than other People enjoy more frequent warnings of their danger than others have had many and great deliverances which God hath vouchfafed when none of these things nor all of them together do move a People to repent they shew an obstinate and incorrigible temper and therefore God may sooner proceed to punish them God did not forbear to punish other Nations for their transgressions but he began with his own People For lo I begin to bring evil on the City which is called by my name and should ye be utterly unpunished The destroying Angels in Ezekiel were to begin at the Sanctuary Judgement saith St. Peter must begin at the House of God He draws the line of his Justice parallel to that of his Mercy and when every Mercy is put to the account and heightens the guilt the fumm will soon rise so high to call for execution The Prophet Amos tells Damascus and Gaza and Tyre and Edom and Ammon and Moab that none of them shall escape being punished for their transgressions they need not doubt the Rod would come time enough upon them but yet God would begin with his own Children You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Where God hath given wonderful marks of his kindness and many deliverances time after time and yet they continue to do wickedly there is the greater reason to expect sharper and severer punishments 2. When they are committed with more than ordinary contempt of God and Religion All Ages are bad enough and every Age is apt to complain of it self as the worst of any because it knows more ill of it self than of the foregoing But yet there is a difference in the manner of sinning sometimes the stream of wickedness hides its head and runs under ground and makes little noise although it holds on the same course at other times it seems to break forth like a mighty torrent as though it would bear down all before it as though the fountains of the great Deep were broken up and Hell were let loose and the Prisoners there had shaken off their chains and come up upon the earth When Atheism Prophaneness and all manner of Wickedness grow impudent and bare-faced when men do not only neglect Religion but reproach and contemn it Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this God did forbear his People of Judah beyond what they could have expected waiting

and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof as a reeling man staggereth in his vomit i. e. they know not what to fix upon all their Counsels being so uncertain and the best taking no effect But after all their consultations they advance not one step forward but fall back just to the same case they were in before every one blaming another for want of success in their designs This is the deplorable state of a People when ruine and desolation is near them But on the other side when God raises up a Nation to be a Scourge to other Nations he inspires them with a new spirit and courage unites their counsels removes their difficulties or carries them easily through them and by a concurrence of some happy circumstances gives them strange success beyond all their hopes and expectations Look over all the mighty Revolutions which have hapned in the Kingdoms and Empires of the World and the more ye search and consider and compare things together the greater truth you will find in this observation When God designed to punish the Eastern Nations for their transgressions then the Babylonian Monarchy rose so fast and spread so far that nothing was able to stand before it The combinations of the Kings of Judah and Edom and Moab and syre and Sidon and Egypt were but like the Withes which the Philistins bound Sampson with which he brake in sunder as a thred of Tow is broken when it toucheth the fire Judah drinks first of the Cup and she trembles and falls and is carried into captivity then follow as God had foretold by his Prophets the desolations of Tyre of Egypt of Put and Lud i. e. of Libya and AEthiopia and at last the Cup passes round and Ninivehs turn comes to drink deep of this Cup of Fury and she was laid waste for returning to her sins after Repentance And when the sins of Babylon called for vengeance God raised up Cyrus and called him by his Name long before he was born and brought the fierce Nations of the East to submit themselves to him and when Babylon was most secure full of Wine and Jollity at an anniversary feast he led Cyrus into the City by a way they dreamed not of and all the plagues which the Prophets had foretold came upon that people when they least expected them It was not the Courage and Spirit of Alexander with his Macedonian Army could have made such sudden and easie conquests of the East if God by his Providence had not strangely made way for his success by infatuating the Counsels of Darius so as to give him those advantages against himself he could never have hoped for There is no such mighty difference in the wits and contrivances of men no such great advantages in military power and conduct no such wonderful disproportion in the courage or wisdom or educations of men but when God hath pleased to let loose the most rude and barbarous and unexperienced Nations in matters of War upon the most flourishing Kingdoms the most disciplin'd Armies the most fortified Cities they have in spite of all opposition over-run overcome and overthrown them Who could have thought that the cowardly Goths as they were then esteemed the barbarous Vandals and the despicable Hunns could have made such havock and devastations in the Roman Empire that in fifty years time more of it was lost and destroyed by their means than had been gained in a thousand It would make ones heart bleed to read the miseries which all the parts of the Roman Empire suffered where these Barbarians prevailed and yet they were despised and reproached by the Grave and Wise Romans at the same time when they were Conquered and destroyed by them as Salvian who lived then at large relates But the best and wisest men could not but see an extraordinary hand of God going along with them and one of their greatest Generals found himself carryed on by such a mighty impulse and met with such an unaccountable success in all his undertakings that he called himself Flagellum Dei The Scourge in Gods hand to chastise the wickedness and follies of men that called themselves Christians and did not live like such Machiavel himself takes notice of so strange a difference in the Conduct and success of the Romans at different times that he saith they could hardly be imagined to be the same People and after all his attempts to find out other causes he at last is forced to conclude that there is a superiour cause to the Counsels of men which governs the affairs of mankind which he calls Fate and we much better the Providence of God Some learned Physicians are of opinion that when diseases are not curable by common remedies there is in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something divine and therefore in such cases Divine Remedies are the most proper and effectual thus in the alterations of States and Kingdoms there is often a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more than ordinary hand of God in which cases the best means we can use to prevent danger is by Fasting and Prayer by true repentance and speedy Reformation of our evil wayes 4. Because the Scripture still leaves hopes of Mercy to a People where they have a heart to repent I do not find by any declaration of Gods Will in Scripture that he hath made any such peremptory decree concerning the ruine of a Nation but upon their repentance there is a way left to escape it but rather the contrary in those words of Jeremiah At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And therefore all threatnings of that kind are conditional as this in the Text is But if ye shall still do wickedly which implyes that if they did cease to do so they might be preserved both they and their King And where repentance hath intervened between the threatning and execution of judgement God hath shewed wonderful kindness either in stopping removing or deferring the severity of judgements 1. In stopping his hand when it hath been lifted up and just ready to strike We can desire no clearer instance in that case than that of Niniveh a vast City or rather a Countrey inclosed in Walls full of all the delights of Asia and of the sins which usually attend them to this City God sends a Prophet to let them know how near they were to destruction that they had but forty dayes time to turn themselves in This was a strange and unexpected alarm to them given by a strange Prophet after a peremptory manner to a people unacquainted with such messages How many objections would the Infidels and Scepticks of our Age have made against such a Message as this They would rather