Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	king_n	time_n	14,389	5	3.4431	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42912	Godliness no friend to rebellion, or enemy to civil government Being the substance of a sermon occasionally preached at Great Yarmouth, Octob. 25. 1673. By a lover of peace and truth.	Lover of peace and truth.	1674 (1674)	Wing G933F; ESTC R215817	19,698	39

GODLINESS NO FRIEND TO Rebellion OR ENEMY TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT Being the Substance of A SERMON OCCASIONALLY Preached at Great Yarmouth Octob. 25. 1673. By a Lover of Peace and Truth LONDON Printed for George Palmer at the Royal Oak without Temple-bar 1674. THE PREFACE TO THE READER HOw these weak and indigested Notes came to be made publike is best known to some that heard them preacht wherein their importunities prevailed against the Author's inclination and judgment who thinks the world sufficiently stockt with Prints and should not be overburthened in that matter lest through the excess of insignificant Papers things more weighty and important come to be nauseated or disregarded Yet soeing though unworthy they must come to view that I may not wrong the Readers priviledge I shall give a short account of the Designe of this Discourse which as it promotes a great known Duty incumbent especially upon all the Professors of Religion so it fairly wipes off all those blots and stains which either the extravagancies of former times have occasioned or the bitterness malice of some in these days cast upon the Profession of Godliness who that they might discourage the minds of people from embracing those things and Principles which agree not with their own sentiments or humor before they well consider or understand the nature or tendencie of them with great clamour condemn them as intolerable in a Land and only taken up to promote Rebellion and Faction I confess I could heartily wish with submission to the will of God that there never had occasion been given to any to speak evil of that which is good But that hath come to pass by the Providence of God that there might be a more full conviction of unrighteousness and error and an ample justification of the Truth and ways of Godliness and if there be any so far led away by the insincerity of their own hearts as to abuse the Profession of Holy and Godly Principles and Perswasions by any inconsistent action or course that shall speak them trayterous heady high-minded or the like let such alone bear it but let all that understand Christian Religion aright under what form or name soever Fear God and honour the King and say with old Jacob concerning Simeon and Levi Oh! my Soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine Honour be not thou united Reader This was the true Reason and Design of the Authors choice of this Subject that if by any means he might stir up or reduce the minds of dissenting Professors in this day to be more sincere and more fervent in praying for the King and for all that are in Authority it being a Duty founded not only upon the light of Nature but also upon the positive will of the Lord Christ as also to bear his testimony though in weakness against the absurd and endless Cavils and accusations which disaffected persons heap upon the most holy ways of God that he might declare to the world that Godliness and Scriptural Holiness in the most refined and highest parts and practices of it is a harmless innocent thing no way inconsistent with Civil Government but highly advantageous to the good and comfort of mans life So that men need not look upon or be afraid of the most strict method of holiness as injurious or as a pest to the Nation because they give no disturbance to any thing but mens lusts and sins to the pride and excess of the world to which also Civil Government according to its native Institution is and by a regular management of it should be a terror And what is the fruit of our cavilling and bandying against each other about circumstantial things wherein we differ but difunion weakness and a laying our selves open to the impressions and designs of the Common Enemy who doubtless in all the furrows of our mutual animosities do by their secret Agents some the seeds of greater divisions and the Tares of their detestable Romish Doctrines and Superstition Certainly it is high time for every publike Talent to be employed for the more abundant preaching of the word of God that the minds and understandings of people may be well furnisht with knowledge and Scripture-light to enable them to judge betwixt Truth and Falshood which when all is done will be of great use to exclude Popery and secure England against it For what will it avail by Power to exclude and cast out the trumpery and exercise of that Worship from amongst us if the minds of people through their own ignorance or cunning guile of deceivers shall be tainted with and receive their Principles Reader I shall detain thee no longer do thy self and me that right to read what follows with that candor and charity which a hasty Discourse composed under many disturbances calls for it is not what the Subject deserves but what could be offered within the usual limits of a Sermon It little differs from what was delivered in publike save in what was wanting through defect of memory or want of time If what is offered shall conduce to the healing of thy spirit or the helping on of thy duty the Author hath his designed recompence and reward in thy good and shall bless God for it EZRA 6.10 That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto God and pray for the life of the King and for the life of his Sons IN all the Revolutions and Changes that have passed upon the Affairs of the World God's Providence hath in nothing more eminently appeared than in matters relating to his Church and People in their pilgrimage of this life An eminent instance whereof was this of the Jews going into Babylon preservation there and wonderful return from their Captive condition to their own Country of Judea and the peculiar Worship of their God in the Temple at Jerusalem which deliverance and liberty though it was much compleated the reign of Darius yet it was begun long before by the Persian Cyrus so that it will be needful to look back to his time that we may the more fully see the rise of this Decree for the repair of the Temple For with a narration of Cyrus his Decree Ezra begins his Book Joseph lib. 11. Of the Antiquities of the Jews Cyrus having obtained great Conquests he led his Army against Babylon and having overcome great difficulties he sat down before that great City which beside the many wonderful fortifications of it had the River Euphrates running through it Belshazzar then King thereof with his Babylonians scorning their Enemies supposing their City impregnable kept a great and solemn Feast in contempt of them as also of the Jews and their Prophets who had declared that the time was come for their returning to Jerusalem and thinking the time was past in contempt of the God of the Jews the King caroused and drunk wine in the golden Vessels of the Temple which Nebuchadnezzar carried away but out of reverence to God had not

used or polluted them At which Feast the terrible hand-writing upon the wall appeared as in the 5th of Daniel Belshazzar notwithstanding the faithful remonstrance and interpretation of Daniel goeth on with his luxurious Feast filling themselves with wine when lo the wrath of God according to his word was ready to fall upon them For that very night Cyrus having by his Engineers and the help of his numerous Army turned the River Euphrates which as I said ran through the City from its usual course in the Chanel thereof with his Army entred the City the people being buried in their wine and drunkenness fully executed what was long before prophefied by Jeremiah Chapt. 51. About this time the Prophets Zechariah and Haggai earnestly stirred up the Princes that were of the Captivity to think of returning and repairing Jerusalem and the Temple But if the work was hard to be attempted under the impious Belshazzar it seems now impossible under the terrible conquering Cyrus for what lenity could they expect to find in him that had made such dreadful havock in the City of Babylon The Prophets to this discouragement opposed two Arguments One of God's Sovereignty as in Zechariah Chapt. 4. ver 7. Who art thou O great Mountain that is Cyrus before Zorobabel thou shalt become a plain he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace Grace unto it The power and spirit of Cyrus seemed like a great Mountain in the way of their return hard if not impossible to be overcome which yet through the Omnipotencie of God should vanish as to any resistance and impediment to their Journey and work The other Argument was from the Prophesie of Isaiah Chapt. 44. three last Verses That confirmeth the word of his servant and performeth the counsel of his Messengers that saith to Jerusalem Thou shalt be inhabited and to the Cities of Judah Ye shall be built and I will raise up the decayed places thereof That saith to the deep Be dry and I will dry up thy rivers That saith of Cyrus He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy foundation shall be laid What great encouragement could the people have than so plain a Prophesie apparently to be fulfilled about this time but their minds viz. of the Jews were either enured to their bondage or disheartned by the inaccessible Majesty of Cyrus so as they were much discouraged and could not tell what to do in that cause when loe the Almighty wrought for them and him whom they could not force God made willing and free to their so much desired liberty For God brought it to pass that the King had a sight of the Jews Law and particularly of the Prophesie of Isaiah Chapt. 44 and 45. written two hundred and ten years before his time concerning himself When he heard it says Josephus he was so astonished at the Greatness and Majesty of God and filled with admiration and zeal to fulfil what was foretold he should perform concerning Jerusalem and the Temple that he wrote Letters to his Princes in all Asia Thus saith Cyrus Seeing God hath made me King of all the world I do believe it is he whom the Jews worship for he hath declared my name by his Prophets before I was born and hath said that I shall build his Temple in Jerusalem which is in the Country of Judea Then he made a Decree as in the first of Ezra we have it for the return of the people of the Jews to their Country Upon which Zorobabel with many whose spirits God stirred up to the work returned to Jerusalem yet many others of the people for their possessions or imployments sake staid behind and did not go up with the rest of their Brethren But this excellent Cyrus lived not long but soon after died in the prosecution of his Wars so as little was done in his time in the work of the Temple After Cyrus came Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes who little favoured the work so as their Enemies took encouragement to hinder it what they could which kept it back all his time which was about nine years To him the Officers of the King and the Jews enemies accused them for building a rebellious City and factious Temple The King believing the report decreed against the work as in the 4th Chapter of Ezra we have at large So as little was done whilst he lived He being cut off in the midst of his impiety by an eminent hand of God Darius succeeded who from a private condition by the consent of the Princes is saluted King of Persia Upon this change the High Priest adviseth Zorobabel to congratulate the Kings promotion and sollicite for liberty and favour to carry on the Temple-work Zorobabel upon his appearance at Court is admitted to favour and made one of the Kings Guard there he was informed of a Vow the King made before he came to the Crown viz. that if ever he obtained the Majesty and Sovereignty of the Empire he would cause the Temple at Jerusalem to be built and the remaining Vessels restored and what should be wanting given to the work This gave him some incouragement but how to improve it he knew not when behold the wonderful Providence of God who boweth the Heavens and is present to order the affairs and spirits of men for the fulfilling of his counsel and will in all things made a plain way for him for Darius having royally treated his Princes that night he could not sleep and as he lay on his bed discoursing with his Guard he gave to three of them whereof Zorobabel was one three Questistions to declaim on the next day making great promises to him that should be adjudged the best learned The next day the King calling his Princes together heard their Orations and all concluded for Zorobabel Then the King required him to ask what he would have He presently answered Oh King all that I ask is that you would remember your promise and make good your Vow made before you came to the Crown viz. that if ever you attained your Dignity you would rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem and restore the golden Vessels taken away The King hearing this embraced him and kissed him and besides many Honours conferred on him gave him ample Letters to his Governours for the carrying on the work as in the 6th of Ezra and to furnish them with all things needful for the worship of God That as verse the 10th they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto God and to pray for the life of the King and for the life of his Sons Thus I have given you a glimpse of God's care and Providence over his Church in her wilderness and captive condition We come now to the words in which the Phrase must be a little opened Sacrifices were of divers kinds and for its nature it was munus foederale as one calls it a federal gift by