Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	earth_n	people_n	praise_v	6,597	5	10.8382	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92076	A sermon preached before His Grace the Kings Commissioner, at the three estates of Parliament, May the 25th, 1690 By Gilbert Rule minister of the Gospel at Edinburgh.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1690 (1690)	Wing R2227; ESTC R232140	12,050	23

of men If it be managed according to his Laws it doth not tend to depress but to exalt mens greatness neither can it otherwayes curb their Excesses then by holding forth his Law which setteth bounds to all the Actions of Men with respect to the moral good or evil that may be in them Now this glorious King must have a people for here it must not be questioned That the people are for the King and not he for them Isa 43. 1. 7 21 There must be a Seed to serve him Psal 22. 30. Psal 2. 8. That the Doctrine that he hath taught be owned and believed That he be Worshiped in the right Management of his Ordinances That his Laws be declared submitted to and obeyed That the government and order of his House be observed as he hath held it forth and injoyned it And all this for the promoting of Holiness restraining of Sin and the Salvation of Men. This I say is that Mountain that great Concernment that the Lord doth and Men should prefer before all things else There are indeed other Mountains things that are great and Momentous in the Eyes of Men which may and ought in their own place to have a due regard But must no wayes vie with the Mountain of the Lords House with the great things that concern the Church and Religion The greatness and Prerogatives of Kings the Establishment of Earthly Throns and the Liberties and Priviledges of People the security and safety of the present Government and Constitution of a Nation the advancement of Trade and enriching of a Nation These are great things and by all good means must be secured so far as Men can do it Yet none of these separately nor all of them in Conjunction are of so much value as that they should be preferred to this Mountain that the text speaketh of But it must be set above them all It is true there is such a Connection betwixt this Mountain and some of these Mountains that the one cannot be safe if the other be Ruined And therefore even for its safety they are to be Regarded of which more after But when this Spirit that is here promised is poured out on Men these will be minded but in the second place 2ly I am to shew how the Lord doth and will preferre the Mountaine of his House the interest of Religion to all other Mountains or interests that are great in the Esteem of Men. This will appeare if we consider First what is positively declared in the Scripture of his special respest to his Church and her Religious concernments above all the other interests not only of the rest of the world but even of his own People A notable place to this purpose is Psal 87. Where Gods esteem of his Church is purposely insisted on It is His Foundation It is indeed the ground of all his Dispensations to men with respect to it is all the conduct of providence And then He loveth it better then all the dwellings of Jacob neither the Kings palace nor the Stately buildings of the Nobles none of the Civil Publick or Private concernments of his ●eople did beare so much bulk in his Eye yea such Glorious things are spoken by the Lord in his Word of the Church as of no other thing on Earth And the Lord reckoneth the honour of men not by their noble Blood but by their relation to his Church and concern in Religion verse 4th Egypt under the name of Rahab and Babylon were then the most flourishing Kingdoms in the World But it was a greater honour to be of poor Israel then of any of these A well reformed Church is a greater Glory with God then a flourishing Kingdom Yea the warlike Philistines the Rich trading Tyre the ancient Aethiopia were nothing to him in comparison of poor Judea Because Gods ordinances were there ye shall please God better and do him better service if ye make poor Scotland a well reformed Church than if ye could make her richer more potent and splendid than any of her Neighbour Nations It is Religion that maketh People truely Honourable for it is that which maketh them precious in Gods sight Isaiah 43 4. Nothing doth so truely and in the esteem of God and good Men so exalt a People as the Truth the Purity and the Power of Religion flourishing among them 2ly The Lords special respect to mens Religious above their other Interests will appeare if we consider what he hath done for his Cuhrch The greatest Manifestations of God and of his Attributes that ever the World was witness to The most Glorious things of his word and the most eminent of his Works have all had a special respect to the Church and the true Religion His chusing and purchasing a Church to himselfe was a Glorious passage And that both his setting up the Jewish Church Deut. 4. 34. Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by Temptations by Signs and by Wonders and by War and by a mighty Hand and by a stretched out Arm and by great Terrours according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your Eyes And yet more in erecting the Gospel Church The eternal Son of God became a man and laid down his Life for this end Tit. 2 14. His preserving and mantaining his Church is a Tract of Wonders interlaced with Miracles For the Churches Emblem is a Bush burning and yet not consumed Exod. 3. 2. We may with good warrand say that the whole conduct of Providence is managed with an Eye to the Church and Religion which cannot be said of any other interest in the World Hence Christ is not only head of his Church to rule her but head over all things for her behove Eph. 1 22 He made the World that he might have a People to serve him on Earth and to praise him for ever in Heaven Isaiah 45. 18 19. He made all the interests of the Nations of the World in his settling of them subordinate to his designs for his Church Deut. 32. 8 9. When the most high divided to the Nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the People according to the number of the Children of Israel For the Lords Portion is his People Jacob is the lot of his inheritance So the best Interpreters apply that text The greatest revolutions that the World hath seen have had respect to this interest in the design of God An instance is in destroying the Chaldean and setting up the Persian Monarchy Isaiah 43 14 Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel for your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought down all their Nobles and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships The one persecuted the people of God It is pulled down and the other is set up to relieve them So Cyrus got the Crown on their Account Isaiah 45. the 1