Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	call_v	holy_a	2,256	5	4.3530	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44637	The true interest of a nation, or, The duty of magistrates, ministers, and people, in order to the further settlement and prosperity of these kingdoms a sermon preached at the assizes held at Bvckingham, Jvly the 5th, 1692 / by John Howard ...	Howard, John, 1647-1729?	1693 (1693)	Wing H2984; ESTC R8164	20,700	33

Sacrifice to his private Interest He therefore that loves himself at that rate as to be an Enemy to Mankind is very unfit to be a Magistrate for every little prospect of Gain will pervert his Judgment and make him overthrow the Cause he should maintain To conclude the Character Magistrates should be known among the People Not such ordinarily as have liv'd in Obscurity tho' some of them may be excellent Persons too but Men that have more appear'd in the World because such as they have liv'd in the Observation of publick Business and are therefore fitter for it This is requisite also for the greater Assurance of their Vertues and the fuller Satisfaction of those that come to them for Justice who will the more readily acquiesce in their Determinations Every Magistrate therefore is to be a Person of Wisdom and Prudence of Vertue and Courage one that fears God a Man of Truth hating Covetousness and that is known among the People Hoping therefore that I speak to Men of these Qualifications with such other particular Vertues as are consequent to the Fear of God I do with the greater Encouragement beseech you to execute Righteousness with all that Wisdom Courage and Zeal which is necessary especially at such a time as this according to the Will of God and the wholsom a Laws of the Nation You are both the Eyes and Hands of our dread Sovereigns to find out and punish Transgressors and which is more ye are the Deputies of God himself and therefore call'd Gods in the Holy Scriptures Psal 82.1 6. and in his place and stead are to execute Judgement upon Earth Which is necessary not only for the Discharge of a good Conscience in yourselves and the suppressing of such Sins as are naturally injurious to the Nation but also to prevent God's Judgments upon it for he is not wont to punish a People himself till Sins that are committed by some are conniv'd at by others and the hand of the Magistrate is slack in doing Justice upon the Guilty For what is said of Murder Numb 35.33 The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it is a Rule to us also in respect of other Sins according to their several Aggravations and the Punishments due to them The Land contracts Guilt and Defilement from all heinous and open Sins of particular Persons if they are not duly punish'd by those that are authorized to do it And because a Nation as such cannot receive Punishment in another World God will sooner or later visit them with his Judgments in this and nothing can prevent him but a seasonable Distribution of Justice by his Vice-gerents and a Reformation among the People When Judah were guilty of many Sins that were too generally allow'd amongst them such as Idolatry Fornication Adultery Deceit c. with a Remission of Justice also as might well be suppos'd in so general a Corruption among the People and God threatned them no less then three times by the Prophet Jeremiah in these emphatical words Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord And shall not my soul be aveng'd on such a nation as this As if he challeng'd the whole World to object against the necessity of it Yet he promises at the same time it there could be found a Man in Jerusalem that executed Judgment he would pardon it Jer. 5.1 Yea when the Wrath of God has already exerted itself upon a People this will put a stop to the Effects of it Thus when Israel for their Idolatry and Whoredom● with the Daughters of Moab had a Plague sent among them which together with some that were slain with the Sword destroyed twenty four thousands of the People and the brays and heroick Phineas seeing a great Man of the Israelites bring the Daughter of a Midianitish Prince to his Tear in the face of the Congregation that were now weeping for their Sins and the Anger of God that was broken out upon them took a Javelin in his hand and slew them both together in the Act of Sin Immediately upon this Execution the Plague was staid and God so pleas'd with Phineas for it that he gave unto him the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood and caused this to be register'd to his Honour in all after Ages Num. 25. He was indeed possess'd of a great Zeal for God that made him despise the Dangers he incur'd by this worthy Act which would certainly procure him very powerful Enemies But God does usually protect his Servants in doing his own Work and preserve them afterwards notwithstanding all the efforts of Malice and Revenge against them Now tho' Phineas was no Magistrate yet at this time he did the part of one and by an extraordinary Commission he is therefore a great Example to such so far as they can imitate him in a regular way But when they forbear to do it God will take the matter into his own hand and vindicate his Justice by some terrible Effects of it upon a Nation Therefore when the Psalmist complains that the Gods upon Earth would not do Justice he calls upon the God of Heaven to judge the Earth Psal 82.2 8. But that the Prophets and righteous Men in this Nation may not have cause to do so too by your Default I do again renew my humble Request to you that you would endeavour to exalt the Nation by such an Execution of Righteousness as is requir'd of you And for your farther Encouragement in this matter be pleased to consider that God has done his part for us in a most gracious manner in delivering us from the hand of our Enemies when we saw ourselves very near Destruction and ever since has gone on to perfect our Deliverance The Princes whom God in much Mercy has set over us have done their parts too not only in setting us such Examples of Righteousness as are very rare in the World especially in so eminent a Station but in publishing strict Proclamations for the Punishment of Vice in requiring Ministers to preach earnestly against it and read those Statutes to their People that were made for the suppressing of it and in giving a particular Charge to Magistrates under them to execute the Laws upon Offenders The faithful Servants of God in the Nation of all Ranks have in a great measure done their parts also in sincere Humiliations for the Sins of the Nation and praying to Almighty God to reform us and avert his Judgments from us and in order to it to inspire Magistrates with those generous and holy Resolutions which are necessary to accomplish so great a Work And I cannot but say you have such an Opportunity before you of carrying on a great Reformation in the Kingdom as both the present and future Ages will for ever praise God for so long as there shall be any Piety in the World and will raise to yourselves a lasting Monument of Honour if you

hard to find a Nation that has not been an Instance of the truth of it God has at all times blessed a People and made them prosperous so long as they continued faithful to him in those main Duties of Piety Justice and Temperance as they are taught by the Law of Nature where they had no better a Light to guide them and on the contrary when they degenerated from these Vertues and sunk into a State of Impiety Idleness and Luxury they have been conquer'd and ruin'd by a more sober and vertuous Nation whom God had rais'd up to execute his Vengeance upon them This has been so common a case in the World that whosoever looks into History will easily see that from these Causes have been all the great Revolutions of Empires and Kingdoms even to this day But I shall content myself with instancing particularly in the Case of the Jews whose History deserves the greatest Regard from us not only as it is very remarkable in itself but in that it is convey'd to us in Records of unquestionable Authority we see therefore in the sacred History of that Nation while they serv'd God in the days of Joshua and of the Elders that out-liv'd him they were blessed with constant Victories over their Enemies and enjoy'd the Fruits and Delights of a most fertile Country But when after this they tell from the Service of God he gave them up to serve their Enemies that cruelly oppressed them And tho' he still deliver'd them upon their Repentance yet as often as they revolted from him again he reduc'd them to the same Misery so that they endur'd many a long and severe Bondage under several neighbouring Princes and People as we read in the Book of Judges And afterwards so long as they were any thing mindful of their Duty to God and obey'd his Laws he blessed them more then any People their Tribes were multiplied to a Miracle and tho' the Land of their Residence was very small and unfit one would think to sustain so great a Multitude yet they abounded continually with all manner of Provisions notwithstanding every seventh Year they received not any Fruits from the Earth And God inspired them with such Courage and gave them such Successes in their Wars that they became a Terrour to all Nations about them But when they forget God their Saviour who had done such great things for them and fell into the practice of many foul Sins they receiv'd from his hand one heavy Judgment after another and several times became a Prey to their Enemies who led them into Captivity first one part and then another and at length when to all their former Sins they had added the Crucifying of the Lord of Life and Persecuting his Disciples they were soon destroyed from being a Nation and those small Remains that survived so great a Slaughter as was every-where made of them by the Romans were scatter'd into many remote Parts of the World and are every-where a By-word and a Reproach unto this day All which fell out exactly according to what God had in many Ages foretold them by his Prophets and at last by our Blessed Saviour and is also related by Josephus in his excellent History who to the Story of that People in the Scriptures has added a full and exact Account of their final Destruction which in those sacred Writings was only foretold I proceed now to draw such Inferences from these Words as are most necessary which in the general are but two the former relating to the latter part of my Text and the other to both under which I shall speak to several particulars 1. If Sin be a Reproach to any People then especially to such as have been best inform'd of their Duty and receiv'd the greatest Motives to be Righteous Now of all Nations in the World God has most abounded to us in both these Advantages The Gospel is most plainly and fully preached among us and besides the Holy Scriptures which are every-where to be read in our own Language there so many excellent Practical Discourses for the explaining and applying those Sacred Oracles that none who can either read or hear can pretend Ignorance of their Duty And as to our Motives to be Righteous to say nothing of the natural Advantages of our Country which are very great I must put you in mind of the great Deliverance of this Nation from the Darkness and Oppressions of Popery and from all the Attempts made to bring it back upon us for above Eighty Years together with a constant Peace within our Borders and a Prosperity that was envied by our Neighbours during all that time But when this would not make us fear God and love one another as became good Christians our private Animosities were punished with a most Unnatural Intestine War and many Miseries that attended and follow'd it And when after many Years God had restored us to a flourishing State and obliged us by new Favours to be faithful to him seeing these had not those good Effects upon us as might be expected he visited us with a dreadful Plague that very much depopulated the chief City of our Nation and destroyed many thousands in other places and soon after it with a devouring Fire that laid the Glory of that City in Ashes together with so many other Fires in the Kingdom within a few Years as perhaps had not been seen any where before in a time of Peace And about the same time God suffer'd us to be drawn into a War once and again that was never like to be much for our Credit or Advantage And during that Reign especially Men were given up to so strange an Infatuation as to suffer themselves to be exasperated one against another upon very small Grounds by the treacherous Insinuations of such Men as knew well enough what Advantages to expect from our Divisions But yet the Lord did not bring upon us the Desert of those Sins nor deliver us into the Hands of those cruel Men that were for dividing us only that they might destroy us but their Plots and Designs against us were discover'd and prevented from time to time and tho' they gather'd Strength and Interest nothwithstanding thro' the Easiness of some amongst us and the Impotency of others till at last they seem'd to have Power enough in their Hands to do their Business by open Force and we saw ourselves with all our dearest Interests at the Brink of Ruine and which might strike coldest to us of any thing we could see nothing in all this but the Natural or at least the Moral Effects of our own Doings yet even at this time when our Enemies were so confident of finishing their Work and we had even given up ourselves for lost as Men without Hope our gracious God would not give us up too tho' we had so much provoked him As if he had the same Relentings for us as for Israel of old when he thus speaks by his Prophet