Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	12,106	5	9.9774	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93723	The magistrates dignity and duty. Being a sermon preached on Octob. 30. 1653. at Pauls Church before the Right Honourable, Thomas Viner, Lord Major, and the aldermen of the city of London. Being the first sermon after his entrance into his majoralty. By William Spurstowe, D.D. minister of Gods Word at Hackney neere London.	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1654 (1654)	Wing S5095; Thomason E727_3; ESTC R203652	18,023	51

to be honoured A cruell messenger shall be sent against them Prov. 17. 11. Thirdly they are gods in respect of their Call and mission He called them gods unto whom the word came John 10. 35. They are not onely suffered by him but sent of him 1 Pet. 2. 18. When men become Rulers onely by Gods permission then the worst of men doe get into the Throne of Soveraignty and power being suffered by God to break Nations in pieces with a Rod of Iron and not to govern them with a golden Scepter Cedrenus tels a story that when Phocas the Paracide had made his way to the Empire by the blood of Mauritius his predecessour there was a religious man that did in an expostulatory manner complaine to God saying Lord wherefore hast thou made this man Emperour And an answer was returned by God unto him quoniam non inveni pejorem Because I have not found a worse It seemes the sinnes of the Roman State were grown to such an height that if God could have found out a worse instrument then Phocas to afflict them they should have had him to sit at the helme of government But when God doth by his Warrant and Commission call men unto the office of Magistracy he chuseth men that are fit and meet to sit in that Assembly of gods over which he is President It was Hirams expression to Solomon Because the Lord loved his people therefore hath he made thee to be King over them 2 Chron. 2. 11. Now this Call of God whereby any have Authority and power given unto them is either extraordinary or ordinary the one is immediate from God and thus Saul David Solomon were all set upon the Throne of Israel but this Call is not now to be expected The other is mediate which is by the designation and appointment of man Thus Moses did by the advise of Jethro select and chuse out of the people such persons as were endued with qualifications fit for Magistracy to be Rulers over the people Exod. 18. 15. And this is the Call which is usuall and constant which being after a regular and due manner performed becomes the Call of God But a Call there must be to give a title to Magistracy or else it is not an Authority but an usurpation not a mission by Gods ordinance but a permission by his providence As to the weighty Office of the Ministery no man may presume to entitle himselfe or to runne unlesse he be sent without being an intruder No more may any man take the liberty to cloath himselfe with the robes of Magistracy and to sit in the assembly of the gods without a just and lawful Call thereunto I have now finished the severall particulars that were propounded for the explication of the first branch of the Text by shewing who they are that are stiled an Assembly of Gods And in what respect Negatively they are not Gods Positively how they are and justly may be honoured with the name and title of Gods The few sands of time that are not yet runne I shall allot for the application And are Magistrates Gods Oh! then how many are there that in the Assembly of gods are not Starres but Spots who are as unworthy to be reputed gods as the dust and dark earth to be a shining Planet They are honoured with the name but they doe nothing that may honour the Office to which they are called Some there be that are Idol-gods which have eyes and see not eares and heare not hands and handle not that are as uselesse in their places as Images are in Churches Others there be to whom this name can no otherwise agree then by an Antiphrasis or contrariety like Diogenes his servant Manes à manendo because he was every other while running away so they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods because without God Atheists both in opinion and practice of the same stamp with the unjust Judge who neither feared God nor regarded man Luke 18. 2. Some there be that are Gluttons and Belly-gods who eate of the fat and drink of the sweet which great and high places afford but altogether neglect the weighty things of judgement mercy and truth that waste not onely the morning but the day in the sensuall pleasures of the pallate and thereby bring a woe upon the Land where they are Rulers Eccles 10. 16. And are there not others that are haughty and proud gods that delight to imitate God in his lightning and thunder in making men to tremble at their threanings and to dread every frown that sits upon their brow but love not to be like him in the darting out the amiable beams of goodnesse and gentlenesse Are not others Avaritious gods who set their hearts upon nothing but the encrease of riches making themselves great not onely by the sweat but by the blood of many whom they by oppression have squeezed and drained as grapes that are trodden in the Wine-presse O what irreconcileable contradictions are these to be a God and yet an Idol a God and yet an Atheist a Glutton a God but yet proud covetous Who ever heard of such gods unlesse it were among the Heathen where the matchlesse impiety of many persons was the chiefe ground of their being made and reputed gods as may appeare by the impure stories which themselves doe report of them But O let it never be told in Gath or published in Askelon that amongst Christians that professe not onely Religion but a Reformation those are honoured with the sacred title of gods who have by their impure lives made a forfeiture of the name of men The loose walking of many Christians was as Salvian complaines made by the Pagans the reproach of Christ himselfe saying Si Christus sancta docuisset Christiani sanctè vixissent If Christ had taught holy doctrine surely his followers had lead better lives But O let there not be an occasion and advantage given for any to take up unworthy thoughts of God who wils no wickednesse so as to judge him to allow and favour prophanenesse injustice oppression because that they who are called gods doe abound in the practice of those and such like sinnes And to this end it concerns those who have a power either to elect or to confirme any person in the office of Magistracy to be circumspect whom they take into the Assembly of the Gods that so no dishonour reflect upon God whose name they beare or contempt be poured forth upon the office by making it vile by the foule enormities of those that are betrusted with it The irreligious behaviour of Eli his sonnes made the offering of the Lord to be abhorred 1 Sam. 2. 17. And so doth the impiety of Magistrates make Magistracy it selfe to become despicable in the eyes of the people A second Application directs it selfe to you Right Honourable and to those that are Assessors with you on the bench of Judicature that you would doe worthily in