Selected quad for the lemma: country_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	call_v	town_n	village_n	1,428	5	9.2518	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65808	A sermon preach'd to the natives of the county of Warwick and city of Coventry in the church of St. Mary le Bow, London, November 14th, 1695 by Tho. White, preacher at Stratford Le Bow in Middlesex and Prebendary of Litchfield.	White, Thomas, 1593-1676.	1695 (1695)	Wing W1851; ESTC R30194	9,129	31

their Nativity The antient Jews ever preserv'd a great Esteem of the Towns and Countries Houses and Dwelling● of their Patriarchs and Prophets Chaldea was celebrated for the Country of Abraham and Zoar tho' a little one for the City of Lot's deliverance Whenever they recited the Deeds of their Ancestors 't was commonly after this Manner Let his Name be blessed and his Memory abide to the Life of the World to come From the Jews it's probable was this deriv'd to the Gentiles who instituted Feasts to the Honour of their Gods and held the Places in Reverence that gave them Life Whenever they talk of their Founders of Cities their Restorers of Liberties their Generals and Leaders of Armies their inspir'd Poets and Oratours they are sure to mention the Nation and Country whence they came as if they lov'd the very Ground they trod and fansied a peculiar Generousness in that Air where those Heroes breath'd Secondly If we consider the Natural Tendency of Vertue it is to eternize the Names and Countries of Men. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance and the glory of his house shall not be forgot Indeed Men may set up their Names by Villanous Actions they may be talk'd of when they are dead for Fools and Knaves Tyrants Oppressors Murderers and Destroyers of Mankind and of such it 's said oftimes in Contempt Loe there was his Dwelling the Possession of Fraud and Violence Loe there his Folly and the Place of his Birth but to be buried in everlasting Obscurity is better by far yea what our Saviour said to Judas may be applied to such it had been better for them if they had never been born Whereas in the Works of Righteousness and Goodness there are the Seeds of Immortality which though depress'd will spring again with a fresh Verdure and out live all the Pleasures of Sin which last but a Moment in a Word as Vertue and Righteousness will embalm the Names of the Just and make them fragrant to Posterity so will they preserve the obscurest Parts of the Earth from Oblivion and Contempt True Worth and Religion will hallow a Cell and ennoble a Cottage when Wickedness and Wrong will make the Rafters of the most stately Structure crack force the very stone out of the wall to speak and the beam out of the timber to answer it Woe to him that builds a town with blood and stablisheth a City by iniquity Yea it will it cause to be written upon its very Portico's and Gates The Glory of this House is departed and like Filth and Ordure will stick upon the Walls though cieled with Cedar and painted with Vermillion So then as long as there 's any Sence of true Honour and Greatness any Difference preserv'd betwixt Good and Evil good Men and the Place of their Birth will live in Credit and Reputation For of Zion it will be said as long as the World stands This and that man was born in her and the most high shall establish her The Consideration of what hath been said shou'd provoke us to a grateful Sense of the Mercies of God who hath cast our Lot in a good Land in a civiliz'd Nation by the planting of the Christian Faith We were not born of Cannibals and Savages as many in the barbarous parts of the Earth but of Christian Parents who dedicated us to God betimes and we have been ever since instructed in the Ways of the Lord and taught the Judgments of our God Take away Religion Laws Institution of Behaviour what a dismal Prospect wou'd be the Land of our Nativity In a very little time it is to be fear'd we shou'd return to our primitive Barbarity be as Rude in our Manners as Idolatrous and Apish in our Worship as our Saxon Progenitors were before us But bless'd be God we have had both Place and Conversation to form our Manners aright and conduct our Lives Now if the Jews gloried in their great Towns and Cities because they had Synagogues and Places of Sacrifice there we have this ground of boasting all the Nation over Every Parish amongst us in this Sense may be call'd a Bethshemesh the City of a Priest and every Country Village hath its Synagogue the House of Prayer and Sacrifice so that if we wou'd attend the Offices of Devotion with a Zeal answerable to the wise Provision the Church hath made for us our Prayers might come before God early in the Morning when we look up and the lifting up of our Hands wou'd be as surely accepted as the Evening Sacrifice if we are not wanting to our selves we may know something of Religion and be every one taught of God from the least to the greatest But if we will not take the Advantages God affords us for the improving and bettering our selves we can reasonably judge no otherwise but that as our Sins are aggravated so our Stripes will be increas'd and multiply'd For he that knew his master's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes and to him that knows to do Good or may know if he pleases and doth it not to him it is Sin it is Sin with a Witness However as a Testimony of our Gratitude to God for the Honour of our Birth and the Advantage of Education let me recommend but these two things First To keep a warm lively Sence of God and Religion upon your Minds acknowledging him in all your Ways so shall he direct your Paths To live without God in the World is our degeneracy in the highest Measure and Proportion To alienate our selves from him by wicked Works is the worst sort of Sacrilege we can commit for our reasonable Souls are Gods Peculiar made for him and fitted to attend upon him fix therefore upon that as the greatest Credit to any Nation or Country that leads us to God and makes us most acceptable to him In the last Place as a farther Testimony of our Gratitude let 's be ready and prepar'd to every good Thing provoking one another to Love and good Works For in Truth if it were not upon the Account of Friendship and Charity this Day 's Meeting were an unlawful Assembly little better than a Rout or a Riot in the common Sense and Construction of the Law but Piety and Charity will sanctifie an Assembly and make your Meeting together for the better and not for the worse That therefore I wou'd leave with you my Friends and Country-Men is as to promote Friendship and Kindness among your selves so to let your poor Country-Men taste the Effects of your Liberality and Bounty towards them Ye of this Society and County without Ostentation be it said have made the best improvement of these Feasts of Charity of any other in the Nation besides How many poor Children have been fetch'd from the Towns and Villages where ye were born and put to honest Callings in this City so that from being reliev'd themselves in a little time have been made

capable of relieving and comforting others This is an excellent sort of Charity and the good Effects of it are conspicuous in every Age. How many began in this great City in as mean Circumstances as those who wear the Liveries and Badges of your Charity this Day And who knows but those poor Children may have such Seeds of Vertue in their Natures that in a little time they may exchange their Places for yours and be as useful in the times to come as you have been in the Generations before them For this is no Reflexion upon any Man nay it 's so far from it that it is much to a Man's Credit when his Parts and Prudence with the blessing of God and not his Paternal Inheritance hath made Rich. Abundant Examples there are of such who from a small Figure once have arriv'd to the chief Magistracy of this City and of others who from Schools and Hospitals of Religion and Learning have in time arriv'd to be useful and considerable Men in Church and State It is inglorious only to grow Great by Frauds and Perjuries Extortion or Oppression or to thrive by any Sin But it is no way infamous from Low Beginnings to take one's Rise while Sobriety and Honesty Diligence and Industry are the Means to Advancement The Heathens who made Honour a Goddess however they did in that yet did wisely in this that they made Vertue the Step to her Altars and wou'd allow none for Men of Honour who had not first been the Sons of Wisdom We may indeed be thought to move counter to the Custom of the World if we take these Steps But assure your selves that they who take others will find in the End that they made more haste than good speed Let the World judge Things as they please yet upon this you may depend that nothing but Religion and Piety Justice and Charity will reflect a Reputation upon you and your Country For never any I believe whether Philosophers or Heralds who have treated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Dignity of Birth or Titles of Honour but made Virtue a constitutive Part of true Greatness and Gentility The Children of God were Zion's Crown and Glory This was her boasting that the Servants of God were born in her In the Gospel Bethsaida of Galilee is fam'd for little else but the Birth-Place of Peter Andrew and Philip the Disciples of the Lord. How many Towns and Villages in Africk and other Parts of the Earth of whom there 's nothing remains but that they were the Seats and Habitations of some Ancient Bishops Martyrs and Confessors of the Christian Faith Nor have the Pagans been backward to pay all Respect to the Birth-Place of their Worthies Seven Towns we are told contested the Honour of Homer's Birth And when Alexander came against Thebes sack'd the City and sold the Citizens to the Number of Thirty Thousand yet he remember'd poor Pindar's House and Off-Spring and excepted them the Common Calamity out of Respect to his Name and Memory Tully in his Book against Verres tells us that when he with his wicked Complices lay'd their Sacrilegious Hands upon the Gods and the Sacred Things of the Temple at Delphos the Inhabitants were much inraged for the Sake of the Religion and Antiquity of the Place and adds besides that the Persians when they over-ran Greece and threatned Destruction to the Gods and their Worshippers yet in the midst of their Millitary Rage and Sanguine Zeal spar'd Delos because 't was the Birth-Place of Apollo the God of Wisdom and Eloquence Nay on the contrary we read how Infamous some Places have been for the Sins of the Natives there Tire and Sidon Sodom and Gomorra are stigmatiz'd in Sacred History for Gluttony and fulness of Bread for their great Contempt of God and Religion Crete is branded for Lying and Deceit for Inhumanity and Cruelty Titus 1.12 St. Paul quotes it out of one of their own Prophets so they are call'd who had the Poetic Fury The Cretians are always lyars evil beasts slow-bellies To conclude therefore if we have any Love of God any Respect to our Native Country any Value for the Memory of our Friends Let 's resolve to devote our selves to the Service of God and to serve one another by Love And now since we are returning to the Amicable Enjoyment one of another in the House of Feasting let there be no Spots in your Feasts of Love let Charity be the chief Steward and Sobriety the Ornament of your Guests Then that Saying of the Preacher may take Place Ecclesiastes 9.7 8. Let thy garments be always white and let thy head lack no ointment Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God accepts thy work FINIS Verse 1. Verse 2. Verse 3. Psal. 122.1.132.5 14. Psal. 48.2 Luke 19.1 Verse 4. Acts 11.26 Rom. 1. John 7.41.52 John 1.47 John 1.45.46 Mat. 23.2 Psal. 71.11 Isa. 53.2 3. Psal. 112.6 Hab. 2.11 12. * Jos. 21.16 Plut. in vit Alexandri