Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	john_n	sir_n	thomas_n	57,736	5	10.2379	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61177	A sermon preached before the Lord mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, on the 29th of January 1681/2 by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy (London, England)	1682 (1682)	Wing S5057; ESTC R17957	18,038	47

Moore Mayor Martis xxxi o. die Ianuarii 1681. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angliae c. xxxiv THis Court doth desire Dr. Sprat to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday Morning last in the Guild-Hall-Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor AND THE Court of ALDERMEN AT GUILD-HALL Chappel ON The 29th of Ianuary 1681 2 By THOMAS SPRAT D.D. One of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed by M. C. for Ioanna Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard 1682. To the Right Honorable Sir IOHN MOORE K t. Lord Mayor of the City of London And to the Right Worshipful the ALDERMEN His Brethren My Lord THough the favour of your Commands is an abundant Excuse for my Printing this very plain Sermon yet I doubt I need some Apology for Preaching it in such an Auditory as I had the honor that day to serve I fear it might seem a presumption for me to discourse on this Subject in the presence of the Reverend Iudges of the Land the Learned Serjeants of the Law and the wise Governors of your Great and Honorable City An Assembly of men from whose Wisdom and Experience such as I might better learn the Doctrine and Practice of Righteousness and Mercy I can only say that as it was my Duty so it was my Endeavour to treat of this Argument meerly as a Divine I design'd not to persuade you to these Virtues by the Principles of Humane Prudence which such a Congregation could not be suppos'd to want but rather to confirm you in them by the Obligations and Promises of our Holy Religion which is the proper business of my Profession It was therefore enough for me in that place on that Text to perform the part not so much of a Teacher as of a Remembrancer And I have attain'd my end if I have laid before you some of the chief Praises and Rewards that the Scriptures bestow on these two excellent Graces whereof you that heard me are so much more able to give Rule and what is much better Example to the World My Lord I am Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Tho. Sprat A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor c. PROVERBS xxi 21. He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life righteousness and honor IN these words there are two most eminent Vertues recommended to us one the most useful the other the most amiable of all that we can acquire towards our being or well being in this life or the next Righteousness the best of all Natural Virtues nay it is a Christian Grace Mercy the most excellent of all Christian Graces These two are here represented to our earnest pursuit not in the severe stile of a strict command nor in the rigid terms of a legal precept Though if God had only thus required them of us they had deserved our most dutiful Obedience considering the high prerogative the Almighty Law-giver has over us But here they are set off to us in the stile of the Gospel in the gentle alluring and delightful form of a Promise That which is our necessary duty is attended with a free ample immense reward The Duty is double The following after Righteousness The following after Mercy The Reward is treble Life Righteousness and Honor according to the usual method of Gods gracious dealings with men His Promises always go beyond our performances his Rewards both in weight and number by far exceed our duties Of these studies of Righteousness and Mercy we should all be followers as we are men we all profess our selves to be followers as we are Christians What then can be a more proper work for us all in this our solemn meeting either as men or as Christians than to reason with our selves concerning this whole matter to convince our judgments of the necessity of these duties to excite our affections towards them by the greatness of their reward To this purpose be pleased that I examine First What are the two things which are here proposed to our zelous prosecution Secondly What is the way the best way of following after them Thirdly Let us encourage one another in their attainment by the largeness of the recompence which is here assured to us from the mouth of Divine Wisdom it self My Text you see consisting of a two-fold Duty and a three-fold Reward the Duty comes first to be considered in both its parts Righteousness and Mercy Both which Solomon the wise King has here most wisely put together and in their right order For wherever they both are Righteousness is the foundation of Mercy Mercy is the ornament of Righteousness And neither of them can be complete without the other Whatever is not just can never be merciful Whatever is meerly strictly just without any compassion it is to a Proverb highly injurious it is that which the Scripture calls a being righteous overmuch The word Righteousness has several different significations in the Old and the New Testament In the Old it sometimes passes for all manner of Goodness frequently for the particular virtue of Justice In the New it commonly signifies the same and besides it is often raised to a higher meaning to express the glorious mystery of our Justification by Christ and the spiritual Grace which attends it I believe my Text is most to be understood of that kind of Righteousness by which is meant integrity of Actions and honesty of Conversation in all our public and private relations in this world And so I shall chiefly handle it Though indeed the other more Divine Interpretation of the Word ought not wholly to be excluded in our present meditations For to all I shall say on this argument it must be premised that without the Righteousness of Christ to consecrate all our own righteousness and mercy and to make them acceptable to God it were a vain presumption for any man to think he can deserve by them upon their own account either honor or righteousness or life it self But first I begin with Righteousness as it is taken in the usual sense of the Old Testament for common Justice and moral Honesty and obedience to good Laws In explaining the nature of this Virtue it would be no very modest undertaking for me to make a large discourse before this venerable Assembly where I speak to those whose business it is not only to instruct but to regulate and steer the whole Nation in the practice of it Only for our clearer proceeding something must be said concerning it I humbly conceive a thing or person may be call'd right or righteous or just either by reason it is so originally and independently in its own being or because it is conformable to some certain Rule of a Superior Being by comparison to whose perfection the moral straitness or crookedness of all inferior things ought to be judg'd Now nothing can be absolutely righteous and primitively just but only God