Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abound_v	people_n	zion_n	40	3	8.7868	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87874	A sermon preached at the publique fast the ninth of Feb. in St Maries Oxford, before the great assembly of the members of the Honourable House of Commons there assembled: and published by their speciall command.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1643 (1643)	Wing L1167; Thomason E36_4; ESTC R12873	25,682	45

reached unto Heaven then will the Lord remember her iniquities she shall be burnt with fire yea her destruction is so irrecoverable that it is compared to a mill-stone cast into the midst of the Sea which is not to be taken up againe But to leave judgements to come consider what is become of the famous Kingdome in the East where the Apostles themselves planted Churches and you will find that God hath removed their Candlestick or covered it under a bushell for they now groane under the slavery of the Turke So true is that which Saint Iames saith Sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Here it will be expedient that I shew you briefly what sinnes these are that bring judgements upon the Nation and what is the vengeance which God executeth upon a Nation As to the first it is not every sinne that draweth judgements upon the Nation but sinne when it is finished or come to a full height for there is a growth and perfection in sinnes both Personall and Nationall Personall sinnes are finished when men adde sinne to sin acquire a habite of sinne draw upon themselves a necessity of sining harden their hearts continue in impenitency There is a perfection also in Nationall sins and foure things concurre to the finishing of sinne in a Nation 1. Their number and quality if they be many and grievous 2. Their extent if they be generall 3. Their freedome if they goe unpunished 4. Their continuance if they be persevered in without repentance If the sins of a Nation come once to this full height then are they ripe for Gods sickle there will follow the death and destruction of that Nation The vengeance which God executeth upon a Nation hath three degrees the first I may call affliction the 2d captivitiy the 3d utter destruction For affliction when 0198 God visits a Kingdome with divers plagues such as are mentioned in the fourth of Amos where he reckoneth up the severall plagues which he had inflicted upon his people as famine or cleannes of teeth ver 6. drought or want of raine ver 7. blasting and mildew ver 9. Pestilence and the Sword ver 10. And when for all these they did not returne unto the Lord hee threatneth yet a greater judgement ver 12. Therefore thus will I doe unto thee O Israel For this is Gods method in punishing he beginneth with milder corrections and when these cannot prevaile he proceeds to sharper judgements In the fift of Hos first he threatneth a gentle correction ver 12. J will be unto Ephraim as a Moth and to the house of Iudah as rottennesse But when they were not affected with the slow gnawing of a small Moth he threatneth a heavier judgement ver 14. I will be unto Ephraim as a Lyon and as a young Lion to the house of Judah I even I will teare and goe away I will take away and none shall rescue him And Levitic 26. he threatneth severall plagues against the transgressors of his Law first sicknesse ver 16. then famine ver 9. after this destruction of their cattell ver 22. after that the sword and Pestilence ver 25. And after all these he addeth And if you will not for all this hearken unto me then will I bring seven times more plagues upon you as if hee should say since ordinary afflictions cannot worke upon you yee shall even goe into captivity This is the second degree of vengeance which God brought upon his people their abused soyle upon a surfeit of wickednesse did spue out her perfidious owners they were carried captive unto Babel and there were servants to a people whose gods they knew not whose language they did not understand and as it was foretold Their countrey was desolate their Cities burnt with fire strangers did devoure their Land in their presence the Daughter of Sion was left as a Cottage in a Vineyard as a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers as a besieged City Isa 1.7.8 The third degree of vengeance which God bringeth upon a Nation is utter destruction such as God brought upon the old World upon Sodome and Gomorrah upon the Kingdome of Israel It pleased God to bring back againe the captivity of Iudah and they were as a fire-brand plucked out of the fire but the flourishing Kingdome of the ten Tribes came to a finall end and so vanished in that her dissipation that no man since could ever say this was Israel Here was vengeance upon the whole Nation Such vengeance will God execute upon any Nation if their sinnes be come to a full height and therefore howsoever thou be desperately carelesse of thy selfe yet pitty the Nation that bred thee and wherein thou breathest If Paris be famous to this day for occasioning the destruction of Troy how shall your names be branded with ignominy if you bring destruction upon your Nation but if you regard not the shame yet feare the torment will follow your own Soules God will require the bloud of them that perish by your meanes at your hands If they that turne many to righteousnesse shall shine as the starres brighter then the firmament then they who turne many unto wickenesse shall burne in Hell as brimstone it selfe hotter then other wicked men which yet shall be Faggots in Hell fire The rich glutton in Hell had a great care for his brethren that they should not come into those torments and the reason is he knew that then his owne torments should be increased because by his example he had been the author of their destruction Have I beseech you at least as much charity as damned Dives had pitty your Nation and be carefull that others fare not the worse for your sakes The last poynt is That no priviledges and prerogatives can secure a Nation from judgement but if iniquity doe abound God will be avenged on any Nation even upon this Nation of the Iewes which was his own people Indeed never a Nation under the Cope of Heaven could compare with the Iewes for prerogatives they were Gods people by peculiar adoption the Lord did chuse them above all the people of the earth to set his love upon them he gave his lawes unto Iacob and his testimonies to Israel he dealt not so with every Nation as he dealt with them To them partaineth saith the Apostle the adoption and the glory and the covenant and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Rom. 9.4 They had the Temple of God amongst them of which the Lord himselfe speaketh thus This is my rest for ever here will I dwell Ps 132.14 They had amongst them the Arke of the Covenant the Mercy-seat the true worship of God and what not and yet they falling from God by a perpetuall Rebellion must be destroyed defaced extinguished and made a fearfull spectacle of Gods wrath to all posterities Those prerogatives which they had and the worship

this time It is a sword like that which is described Ezek. 21. A sword a sword sharpned and also fou●bished ver 9. It is the sword of the great men that were slain entring into the privy Chambers ver 14. It contemneth the rod of my sonne ver 10 that is it regardeth not the Kings Scepter where even the Geneva note in the Margine tells us that the King is called the Sonne of God because that all men should reverence Him as being in Gods place But this is a desperate sword as is expressed verse 13. And what shall this be if the sword contemne even the rod Such is the sword which God hath sent against our Land It contemneth the rod despiseth the Scepter spareth not the person of the King himselfe so that the breath of our nostrills the anoynted of the Lord was almost taken in their pits Lam. 4.20 This sword is so desperate that it devoureth without respect of sex age or conditions of men and there is no end of destroying We may now with sad hearts and wet eyes behold the whole Kingdome like a sorrowfull Widow not onely as Rebecca pained with the strugling of her children in her wombe but as Rachel weeping for her children who will not be comforted because they are not It is repotted of Judas Macchabaeus 2. Mac. 12. that after a shaughter of the People he caused to offer up Sacrifice for the dead Now howsoever that author hath related this story yet I cannot believe that Judas offered any Sacrifice for the benefit of the dead for certainly that error is not so ancient but it may wel be that he caused to offer up Sacrifice because of the dead that is to say by the slaughter of those men that fell he perceived that Gods wrath was kindled against all the People and so he offered Sacrifice to make an atonement for themselves So we shall doe well now to offer up sacrifice because of the Slain to turn away Gods wrath from us lest we all likewise perish I know there is a sacrifice intended but it is such as will make no atonement Many divelish polititians would now make a sacrifice of the Church they call it a Reformation of Religion but it would prove the destruction of it This hath bin often attempted before and it was observed by M. Cartwright the author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline that it was covetousnesses which set on worktheir Lay-followers to bring in their discipline Whilest they heare us speake against Bishops and Cathedrall Churches saith the author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline it tickleth their eares looking for the like prey they had before of Monasteries Yea they have in their hearts devoured already the Churches inheritance They care not for Religion so they may get the spoyle They could be content to crucifie Christ so they might have his garments Our age is full of spoyling souldiers and of wicked Dionysians who will robbe Christ of his golden Coate as neither fit for him in Winter nor in Summer And saith M. Cartwright They are Cormorants and seeke to fil the bottomlesse sacks of their greedy appetites They doe yawne after a prey and would thereby to their perpetuall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood So that even in the judgement of these men who were the founders of this Rebellious Sect it is no acceptablesacrifice to God for men to appropriate to themselves the maintenance of the Church and such things as have been dedicated to Gods service This is not to offer up a Sacrifice to God but to sacrifice the things that are Gods unto wicked and Sacrilegious men Such a Sacrifice will be so farre from pacifying Gods wrath that it will incense it the more against us and against the whole Land such a Sacrifice will be as abominable unto God as was under the Law the cutting off a Dogs neck and the offering of Swines blood Isa 68.3 It is another Sacrifice wherewith we must make an atonement even that Sacrifice which David repenting of his sin vowed unto God Ps 51.17 The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart which God will not despise Wee must humble our selves in the sense of our sins and cry mightily unto God that the fiercenesse of his wrath may be turned away By this humiliation Gods wrath hath beene often pacifyed Ahab by an outward humiliation procured the adjourning of a temporall judgement So did the Ninevites when their destruction was within fortie dayes they humbled themselves and fasted whereupon the Lord repealed his sentence and they were not destroyed In the second of Ioel I find that even when the day of the Lord was nigh at hand ver 1. that is destruction readie to fall upon them presently yet God was willing to stay his hand and that his people should make his threatnings voyd for in the 12. verse he exhorts them unto repentance saying Therefore also now saith the Lord turne you unto me also now that is even now when the sentence is gone forth when the judgement is at hand now when I have whet my Sword bent my Bow and prepared the instruments of death yet Turne ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and turne unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull who knoweth if he will returne and repent and leave a blessing behind him Therefore blow the Trumpet in Sion sanctifie a Fast c●ll a solemne Assembly Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weepe betweene the Porch and the Altar and say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach When Shishak King of Egypt came up against Ierusalem in the dayes of Rehoboam and tooke in the fenced Cities of Iudah the Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves And when the Lord saw they humbled themselves the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying They have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them but I will grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Ierusalem by the hand of Sh●shak 2 Chron. 12.7 So powerfull is true humiliation to asswage the flames of Gods wrath But for want of this humiliation many times Gods people maintaining a good Cause by lawfull authoritie yet are foyled as were the Israelites before Ai who could not prevaile untill such time as Ioshua fell on his face and mourned and cried unto the Lord. Jos 7.6 The Israelites going against the Tribe of Benjamin were Gods people they had a good Cause and a speciall Commission from God yet were they twice foyled because they did neglect to seek God by repentance and humiliation as doth appeare by the event for being beaten unto it they went up to the Lord and wept and fasted and offered burnt offerings and Peace-offerings before the Lord. Iudg. 20.26 Whereupon they overcame the Benjamites In the first of Sam. 7.6 it is said that the people drew water and powred it