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	lord_n	people_n	5,383	4	4.3982	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28910	A sermon preached in the parish-church of St. Swithin, London, March 10th, 1694/5, upon the much lamented death of our most gracious Queen by Tho. Bowber ...	Bowber, Thomas, b. 1662 or 3.	1695 (1695)	Wing B3866; ESTC R17575	11,149	34

Josiah in the Text was a very great Mourning 't is said to be as the Mourning of Hadradrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. v. 11. Eus Ecc. Hist de vita Constantini lib. 4. cap. 65.67 And when Constantine the Great Dyed how greatly did the Tribunes Centurions the whole Order of Judges and Magistrates Lament his Death all places were filled with doleful Shrieks and Lamentations that the common Good of them all was taken from them These Instances plainly prove That to make doleful Resentments upon occasion of the Death of good Princes was the practice of the Church of God and a Practice 't is as Old and Ancient as the Church it self for 't is founded upon the Law of Nature How pleasing and agreeable to Nature is it to Weep and Grieve for the Death of our Natural Parents especially if they be Good Much more then surely if we have any true Zeal for Religion any regard for the Publick Good ought we to express our Grief when the Fathers of our Country are by Death taken from us For 1st A Religious Prince is a great Blessing to a Nation a promised Mercy Isaiah 49. v. 23. 'T is said Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and their Queens thy nursing Mothers A Godly Prince is an unspeakable Blessing such a ray of Divine Love and Favour to a Nation as bespeaks a very peculiar and distinguishing Providence presiding over it Because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made he thee King speaking to Solomon to do judgment and justice 1 King 10. v. 9. or to establish them for ever as 't is rendred 2 Chron. 9. v. 8. When Princes are endued with Wisdom Piety and the Fear of God 't is at once the greatest Lustre and Glory to themselves and the greatest Mercy and Blessing which a People can enjoy Blessed be thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness On the other hand An Irreligious Prince is a sure Token of Gods heavy Displeasure against a People and of sore Judgments and Desolations to be poured out upon them Wo unto thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning Eccl. 10. v. 16. when thy King is a Child that is in Understanding such was Rehoboam in the midst and strength of his Age a Child of one and forty Years old 2dly Princes have a very great Influence upon their People either to diffuse and spread the true Religion or Idolatry and Prophaneness throughout their Territories Thousands nay almost whole Nations and Kingdoms imitating and following their Examples for what Entertainment Religion meets with at Court the like for the most part it finds throughout the Kingdom A Religious King therefore is a mighty Instrument both to establish the true Religion and to engage his Subjects in the ways thereof by setting over them faithful Pastors Men of Learning Integrity and Piety such as shall feed them with the spiritual Food of sound Knowledge and win them by the Prevalency of their own good Examples Jehosophat a Religious Prince sent Princes and with them Levites and Priests to Teach in all the Cities of Judah and Asa his Father a good King commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and to do the Law and the Commandments and what great Influence it had on the People you may find in the 2 Chron. 15.12 13. verses Thus Josiah made all that were present in Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers but in his Sons days who did Evil in the sight of the Lord they returned to Idolatry for all the chief of the Priests and the People transgressed very much after all the abomination of the Heathen and Polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem In * Vide Euseb Zozom Theodor. Ecc. Hist et Magdeburg Ecc. Hist the Reign of Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour what Numbers what Multitudes of Proselytes were daily added to the Church And what effectual Care was there taken to suppress Heresies and to reconcile differences in Opinion but yet in the time of the Arian Emperours the wonderful growth of Arianism gave occasion to that Complaint of St. Hierom that almost the whole World Mourned to see itself become Arian Thus in Julian the Apostates Reign they returned to Idolatry and did with the utmost Zeal espouse it Contending as eargerly for Error as Truth itself 3ly Religious Princes are the Defence of a People they are as the Walls of a Nation as the Chariots and Horse-men thereof The Psalmist Ps 47. v. 9 calls them the Shields of the Earth for by their Prayers they engage the Irresistible Strength of Heaven to be on their Side Whilst the Governours and Princes of Israel and Judah were Religious and kept close to the Service of God they were Victorious and Triumphant as in the Days of Joshua and the Elders who out-liv'd him and as in David's Asa's Jehosaphat's and Hezekiah's Reigns But when they forsook the Lord their God his Word and Ordinances they soon fell as a Prey into the greedy Jaws of the Assyrian Monarchs by whom they were carried away Captive At least good Princes stave and keep off the Execution of Judgments upon a Nation when they cannot by all their Prayers and Tears turn them away Hezekiah when such black Clouds of Wrath did hang over Judah and Jerusalem that Micah Prophesied chap. 3. v. 12. That Zion should be Plowed as a Field and Jerusalem should become heaps and the Mountain of the house as the high places of the Forest did yet so far prevail that Peace and Truth Flourished in his Days And in Josiah's Reign when that Nation was in such deep Arrears to the Almighty that the Execution of all the Threats and Judgments Denounced against them was ready to take place yet by Prayer and Humiliation did this good King so far mitigate the Divine Wrath that it did not lay hold on them during his Life When good Princes are taken away from a People 't is like the breaking down the Bounds of the Sea a passage is thereby laid open for the Divine Wrath to break in upon and overwhelm them Well therefore may the Death of good Princes be thought matter of great Mourning and Lamentation to a Kingdom or People I proceed 2dly To enquire more particularly into the great cause of the Jews Universal Mourning for the Death of Josiah to which Enquiry we shall receive abundant satisfaction if we do but Contemplate the greatness of the Loss they sustained by his Death which I shall endeavour to set forth by describing First His Great and Extraordinary Piety Secondly His Zeal against Idolatry Thirdly His Publick Spirit Fourthly The time of his Death First He was a Prince of most Illustrious Piety one of the brightest