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	number_n	time_n	4,547	4	3.2983	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61175	A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting the Sons of Clergy-men in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Nov. vii, 1678 / by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy (London, England)	1678 (1678)	Wing S5055; ESTC R16678	19,762	52

spreading Favor Authority Credit Custome and at last Number too will be on the side of Grace and Goodness And if you remember how your City first rose out of its Ashes after the dreadful fire which no doubt you can never forget as that was rebuilt not presently by raising continued Streets in any one part but at first here a House and there a House to which others by degrees were joyn'd till at last single Houses were united into whole Streets whole Streets into one beautiful City So every one of your Houses being first rais'd and appearing eminent above others in Piety others will soon take Patern and Incouragement from your building and so House by House Street by Street there will at last be finish'd not only as before a great and a magnificent City but what is far better a City that is at unity in it self a Modest a Grave a Religious City And London will in short time as much excel it self in all manner of Virtue as even now I dare affirm it excels any other City in the whole World that comes any thing near it either in largeness or number of inhabitants But lastly since we are all of one Spiritual Houshold and that not only in a Spiritual but a Temporal Sense what remains to be said but that there ought to be maintain'd between all the members of this our Houshold a free and uninterrupted Communication of our Spiritual and our Temporal good things to each other From the wealthy and able part their Temporal good things of Bounty and Munificence to the Poor and unable amongst us from the poor and unable the return of their Spiritual good things their Blessings and Thanks and Prayers which cannot be a less good than they receive nay they will be a far greater benefit to the wealthy and able than these can bestow on them I bless God many of you here present are of the wealthy part I see most of you are of the able none I hope of the unable part And it was my intention to have tryed by an ample exhortation to excite your greatest ardour and most fervent Zeal in this work But I find I have employed so much time by the way in other matters that I cannot presume on your Patience much longer Yet my comfort is that such an Exhortation which the hour already spent would now make tedious the free and tender Nature of my Hearers has made unnecessary A much longer Discourse my Argument requires your merciful dispositions a much shorter Wherefore seeing it will be far better for you your selves to reason with your selves on this subject than for me or any man else to load you with persuasions I shall forbear enlarging and only offer to your thoughts some few heads of consideration You are now Fathers and Brethren Sons of the Prophets and of the Covenant God made with your Fathers you are now with happy and auspicious beginnings forming a Model of Charity of a most Christian truly-Protestant Charity than which nothing can more fix the Root nothing more spread the Branches more cherish the tenderest and weakest branches of the Reformation nothing more stop the mouths of those who by forbidding Marriage to the Clergy would introduce into the Catholic Church what St. Paul calls the Doctrine of Devils To confute these men there were Arguments enough before drawn from Religion Scripture and Antiquity One Political Argument they seem'd to have and boasted of it as unconfutable That from such Marriages would inevitably ensue Poverty in many of the Children and thence a Disgrace and Burden to the whole Church But by this design you have opposed their false Policy with true and great Wisdom what they boaded would be a mischief to us you are providing shall be one of our principal strengths you have consulted not only the strength but the fame of the best Reformed Church and are freeing it not only from the scandal of its Enemies but even from its own greatest defect and inconvenience The opportunity that is now put into your hands for this purpose is peculiar and extraordinary not only of this one day or of other such days which I trust will always succeed this once a year but the sure and solid Foundation of a perpetual Corporation by which under a Reign of the greatest Mercy and Clemency that ever the Sun beheld you are Authorized to make this good work of Mercy a great one call'd upon many of you by name to do it by Royal Authority to which a constant obedience and most dutiful observance has been ever the proper unsullied Honour of your Church and of your Extraction The Persons to be reliev'd by you so nearly approach you all in the strictest degrees though not often perhaps of Kindred nor always of private Friendship yet always of Birth and interest that their support may not only be call'd bounty in you but the most Fatherly or Brotherly tenderness and even some kind of self-love From you their sad estate may well expect effectual comfort since there are none though never so much strangers to them from whom it may not deserve commiseration They were left destitute some of Education all of a subsistance suitable to their former life without any the least fault of their own without any possibility of their preventing it either by the narrow Provision their Husbands or Parents enjoy'd in their best condition or by the unavoidable fate of their untimely deaths or no doubt some of them by their frank hearts and their open hands and their Charity towards others whilst they lived or which ought to be mention'd for their greater honour by their Fidelity to the Crown and sufferings for the Church On these accounts all innocent some praise-worthy some honourable they were expos'd to hardship and penury to which they had never been used and which without you they could never have escaped Nor was their Poverty all That their Religion would have taught them to endure But what was far more grievous and deplorable their Poverty had expos'd them to be a cause of scorn and derision an objection against Religion it self An objection which now we shall happily see removed For you who have undertaken their relief some of you by Gods blessing on your labours some on your Studies some by Gods and the Churches blessing on your Estates all of you by some blessing or other are abundantly furnish'd with power and I know with affections to contribute your share to this work So that though it should be true as I fear it is that never any time since the Reformation can shew so many poor amongst the Widows and Orphans of Church-men as this particular time yet I believe it to be as true and we all ought to rejoice at it that God in his Mercy has now more than ever provided and pointed out a proportionable supply for them within our selves As more Clergy-men were impoverish'd by the calamities of the late War and