Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	king_n	lord_n	subvert_v	2,748	5	13.0585	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29626	The famine of the word threat[e]ned to Israel, and Gods call to weeping and to mourning being two sermons preached on the fast day, Novemb. 13, 1678, and on the fast day, April 11, 1679 / by James Brome ...	Brome, James, d. 1719.; Brome, James, d. 1719. Gods call to weeping and to mourning.	1679 (1679)	Wing B4856; ESTC R18967	48,082	74

to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts IT is not long since we kept a Day of Humiliation to implore Gods Mercy and deprecate his Judgment which seemed to hang over our heads by a bloody Plot contrived by Papists to murder our King to subvert our Religion and enslave our Kingdom by reducing it again under the Romish Yoke a Yoke which neither we nor our Forefathers were able to bear And he that considers with himself how ready and active the Devil is who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a murderer from the beginning John viii 44. still to instigate and spur forward his Agents to set Kingdoms in flames and make the Streets swim with the Blood of good and holy Christians how willingly the Jesuits who be his chiefest Factors do obey such diabolical motions under what unhappy circumstances we of this Nation are for the present by reason of our manifold and potent enemies abroad our private feuds and divisions at home and above all our open daring and notorious sins and abominations which justly call aloud to heaven for vengeance upon us will certainly be perswaded that a second day of Humiliation is no less necessary than the former which it is much to be feared was not observed with those hearty resentments of indignation against our sins with those sincere testimonies of outward and inward contrition and with those cordial resolutions of future reformation and amendment which the grievousness of the Judgment and the greatness of the danger impendent over us did justly require at all our hands And now that the drowsy may be awakened the ignorant instructed the negligent excited the improvident forewarned and all of us deeply affected with a true sense of our condition and by a timely repentance prevent those calamities which threaten the extirpation of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity amongst us I have made choice of these words of the Prophet wherein God seems now to give us as seasonable a call as he did then to the Jews And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning c. From which words there are three things will fall under our consideration 1. The unspeakable Mercy and Kindness of God to the Jews in calling them to a solemn and serious humiliation Ver. 12. In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth 2. The horrible Ingratitude of the Jews who instead of humbling themselves before God went on in their former habituated courses of voluptuousness and sensuality For behold ver 13. joy and gladness c. 3. The astonishing Resolution of God upon their not hearkning to and obeying that gracious call viz. to root them out and destroy them Ver. 14. Surely your iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die saith the Lord of Hosts I. I begin with the first of these the unspeakable mercy and kindness of God to the Jews in calling them to a solemn and serious Humiliation In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning c. Whether this call was by his Prophet threatning them with some severe Judgment for their perseverance in iniquity or whether by some smart Judgment which God thought fit to lay upon them he endeavoured to reclaim them from the evil of their ways and bring them to a sight and sense of their follies before their final extirpation 't is certain that either or both of these calls were very expressive of his loving kindness towards them 1. For first it argues the great Care and concernment God had still for their Nation how sollicitous he was to preserve and to continue it to protect and to defend it to make them still a glorious and a flourishing people happy in themselves and a terror to their enemies 2. And secondly it was an argument of his Patience and forbearance in sparing and reprieving them from punishment when they most deserved it 3. And thirdly it was an incentive to their Duty a memorandum to put them in mind what course they should take under such gracious methods namely to fall to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth that is by such outward lugubrious gestures of body as well as an inward anguish and vexation of spirit to declare their sincere hatred of all sin and resolution of amendment So that from hence here will be three things to be insisted upon 1. The Providence of God in taking care of Kingdoms and Communities of Mankind he suffers not things to go at random in them but he disposeth of them as he thinks fit and when there is a necessity he calls to them 2. His Patience and forbearance he doth not punish without giving them notice he calls them first and then he strikes 3. The End of all his gracious calls 't is to work in them a thorough humiliation for their transgressions 1. First I shall consider the Providence of God in taking care of Kingdoms and Communities of Mankind where all things do not happen by chance but the divine disposal of God Almighty who calls to them and exerts his power amongst them when there is occasion for it It was a fond and strange opinion of the Epicureans of old that God was so taken up with the contemplation of his own excellencies and perfections that he would not so much as vouchsafe to cast one glance down upon these Sublunary Regions that it was below the Majesty of Heaven to be concerned in the pitiful affairs of poor earthly miscreants and to be angry at their follies or seem to applaud their actions was irreconcileable with the Divine Happiness which was unmixed and pure free from any thing that might disturb or disquiet it a fancy no doubt which Lucian gathered from their Schools in which he was no small proficient as a learned and worthy person tells us for he brings in old Japetus and Saturn tipling Nectar together Archdeacon of Canterbury in his Book De Deo Providentia and spending their time in telling old stories Saturn confessing that he was gouty which gave occasion to the Poets to write that he was fettered by Jupiter to whom as being the younger and more active he resigned the thunder and the Kingdom not troubling himself with hearing mens prayers and punishing their offences that being a troublesome and irksome piece of service But if God Almighty be thus confined to Heaven and his Providence doth not expand it self over all the Universe what account can be given of the establishment of one Kingdom upon the ruines of another that one Nation whose Senators are wise and politick

in that rebellious Nation Cap. 4. v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. He tells us that God did not only cleanness of teeth in all their Cities and want of Bread in all places and with-held the rain from them so that three Cities wandred to one City to drink water but likewise that he smote them with blasting and with mildew with the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt with the Sword and with Fire as dismal as that which reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to a heap of rubbish and ashes and yet for all this they would not return unto God by reformation and amendment And do we think it possible for Gods Spirit always to strive with such a froward Generation was it not high time for God to use the last and most rigorous means when all other proved useless and ineffectual Was in not high time for God quite to cashier them and cast them out of his sight when all other methods though the Quintessence of the greatest fury and severity could no way reclaim them No doubt it was and therefore to this last of Judgments he threatens to have recourse V. 12. Therefore this will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel resolving hereby that because nothing else would avail to destroy their Nation to root up that Vine and Vineyard which his own right hand had planted to send a Famine in the Land not a Famixe of bread nor thirst for Water but of hearing the words of the Lord by which they should be reduced to so wretched and deplorable a condition as to turn common Vagrants or Vagabonds and to wander from Sea to Sea and from North to East and to run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and yet should not be able after all their wearisom journies after all their narrow searches and disquisitions to find that Word that Law those Ordinances which they sought and hunted after And thus I have acquainted you with the Nature of that Famine and the dreadfulness of it which is threatned to Israel from whose example it will become a duty incumbent upon us to look back upon our selves whose state and condition at this day seems not at all unlike to theirs then for our sins are of as deep a die and our abominations as loathsome and our transgressions as manifold and our provocations as daring and our impieties as provoking as theirs was before us and God seems therefore now to threaten us after the same manner as he did the Jews with as bad or worse a Famine by reason of such hainous and abominable provocations And that this is too great a truth will plainly appear to any one that considers the present posture and state of affairs in this Kingdom for are there not at this day a brood of sanguinary blood-thirsty and wicked Sons of Belial who have endeavoured to subvert both Church and State and reduce us all to a Famine indeed to a real destitution of all true spiritual comforts and refreshments Had they not almost brought their wicked designs to effect and doth not our Religion seem still to lie at the stake Doth not Destruction still hover over our heads And have we any certain security that we may not yet become a prey to these merclless Wolves and Tygers There is more than a probability that God Almighty may suffer these very persons to become snares and traps to us scourges in our sides and thorns in our eyes Josh 23.13 'T is more than probable that those who so industriously consult our ruine may yet attain to their end and so we may all perish through their malicious machinations that our Religion may be undermined our Churches violated our Temples made the Nests and Cages of Popish Superstition and Idolatry and we our selves fall a Sacrifice to the Pope and his devillish Emissaries And if this should come to pass which our sins and manifold transgressions do justly deserve and call for Alas into what unspeakable calamities should we be involved This would be a Famine of the highest degree a Judgment the most grievous of all Judgments as will appear again by these three following circumstances 1. For first this would be a most certain indication that as the measure of our iniquity was full so the cup of Gods anger was full likewise and that he was pouring out his utmost indignation against us If once God should suffer our Church to fall and our Religion to be taken from us if he should once remove our Candlestick and not permit us any longer enjoyment of his sacred Ordinances amongst us we may be assured that his fury was kindled to the utmost height that he suffered all this because he could no longer endure us in his sight because our present service was an abomination to him and our worship being so extreamly tinctured and mixed with hypocrisie did enforce him to draw away his face from us For as true zeal and piety endear men to God and render them his Favourites so hypocrisie and irreligion estrangeth Gods affection utterly from them nay causeth a separation and sets God at open enmity with them and when once God hath declared himself an Enemy then follow his Judgments then are all the Vials of his Anger opened and Sluces of his displeasure plucked up to overwhelm them and these fruitless Fig-trees these unprofitable Servants these wicked transgressors are cursed and made an example of vengeance to terrifie others from the like evil courses So that if God should deal thus with us and punish us after so rigorous and so severe a manner I know not for my part what would become of us there is no further hopes of favour of kindness of friendship from him we might have improved these better to our advantages whilest we enjoyed them Mat. 21.43 and if the Kingdom of God i.e. the Gospel of Christ be taken from us it will be given to some other Nation to bring forth better fruits under its enjoyment than we have done So that this is the first thing that speaks the dreadfulness of this Judgment because it will be a testimony that God is irreconcilably angry with us that he is resolved to destroy us and root out our memorial from off the face of the Earth 2. But secondly there is another thing which will speak the dreadfulness of this Judgment and that is that it will not onely be a means to cut us off from all hopes of Gods love and favour for the present but for the future too by depriving us of all those means which might be most instrumental to procure and regain it for should such a Famine come amongst us then farewell to Gods Word and Ministers and by consequence if these which are the means and conduit-pipes of Grace were stopped up the way to Heaven would be precluded and stopped up likewise Now that this would certainly be our case should Popery