Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	house_n	king_n	lord_n	6,100	4	3.9503	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28224	Two sermons the first shewing the mischiefs of anarchy, the second the mischiefs of sedition, and both of them the mischiefs and treasons of conventicles : preached at the assizes held for the county of Suffolk, ann. 1682/3 : and published at the request of Tho. Waldegrave, Esq. ... / by Nath. Bisbie ...; Mischiefs of anarchy	Bisbie, Nathaniel, 1635-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing B2984; ESTC R3888	38,700	75

the Tabernacle and to have a Priest and an House of his own which was no sooner effected but as if they were as naturally given to Faction as to Lust all the lascivious Saints and the wanton Satyrs both He 's and She 's of the City and the Country round went a Whoreing to it But this as it there follows became a snare an evil to Gideon and to his house and was as some conceive the provoking cause why God suffered the Sons of the said Gideon to be slain in the self same City where this Ephod had its entertainment The like we read of Judah that they did evil in the sight of the Lord nay they provoked him above all that their Fathers had done for they built them High-places and Groves 1 Kings 14.22 not contented with the places erected for them such at that time were the Temple the Synagogues the Sanctuaries of the Land they would have Places of their own High-places and Groves where the fault as I conceive was not because a Place of Worship was erected for that Land was accounted unclean which had no Sacred place in it Josh 22.19 nor because they were built on High for the Temple was so if not the Synagogues too Prov. 8.2 nor because near unto or within a Grove for the Sanctuaries were so Josh 24.26 nor altogether because polluted with Idolatry for as Menochius observes many of them those especially in the Land of Judah had little else in them but the Service of the Temple So that the Evil so much cryed out upon must be centred in this and in this mainly that they not God or their Governors for them but they for themselves built to themselves places of Worship wherein contrary to the Sanctions and decrees of their guides and Governours they would serve the Lord. The next thing to be proved upon them is 2. That this Micah's House and Worship is an Evil to be enquired into by the King and the Judges of the Land such an Evil as is fit only for those days when there was no King and therefore if there be a King in the Land there ought to be no such Evil there Thus it is added amongst many other the good deeds of Jehosophat and as no small commendation to his Reign that he took away the High-places and Groves out of Judah 2 Chron. 17.6 but charged to the account of Asa his Predecessor 1 Kings 15.14 that though his heart was perfect with the Lord and though otherwise he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord yet he suffered the High-places those Assemblies and Meeting-places of Faction Sedition Contradiction to remain in the Land He otherwise did that which was right intimating that he had done much better and more like a King if he had put down those supernumerary and by-places of worship and reduced the Service of God unto the Temple which was the place of Gods own chusing And doubtless if it be an unexceptionable prerogative of the Kings of England to have the same power from God as the godly Princes in Scripture had and as our Church asserts it will inevitably follow that they must have the same power to restrain and suppress the irregular conventions of the Land as the Kings of Judah had these being some of them the very best of Kings that the Scripture makes mention of and upon that account so far to be esteemed from doing evil thereby or being themselves irreligious for doing it or indeed from having it done by others their Judges and Officers as that God doth highly own and applaud the action and will one day Crown them both principal and instrument with a reward for it The last thing proveable upon them is 3. That when no care is taken of this House of Micah or of the Ephod and the Teraphim therein it is usually the mother Evil of the Land the Shore the Chanel into all which the nasty loathsome draughts of the Land empty themselves Is there any in distress in debt discontented hither as they did to David hoping to be armed against their Soveraign they all fly Men ever ready at their Quiver and their Bow resolv'd to be gratified with the prey they aim at or otherwise to prey upon their Prince at least to make Scepters and Crowns stoop unto their ambition and humour What is the transgression of Israel saith the Prophet Mic. 1.5 Is it not Samaria the Schismatical Temple there And what are the high places of Judah are they not Jerusalem the Schismatical houses there Certainly these were the forges wherein all the Weapons of our late War were form'd these the Cabals wherein the Leagues the Covenants the Associations were fram'd these the Chappels that Consecrate all Misprisions Treasons Conspiracies into holiness to the Lord the erecting and keeping up of which was thought a fitting project for rebellious Jeroboam that disgrac'd disgusted Officer to keep up the Faction he had raised Jeroboam that son of Nebat who taught Israel to sin For says he 1 Kings 12.27 if this people go up to do Sacrifice in the house of the Lord then shall the heart of this people turn again to Rehoboam their Lawful King whereupon he made him two Calves two Teraphims and Consecrated Priests thereunto and said it is too much for you to go up unto Jerusalem behold your gods or your house of gods O Israel Places eminent at home as well as abroad for Faction and Sedition and upon known record for being enemies to Kings and Princes You may talk of foreign Seminaries and Jesuitical Societies and deservedly esteem them the Pests and the bane of the Nation Sodalities erected on purpose to confront Kings disturb peace and confound Government but believe me a Conventicle at home or in the City of Ophra is as bad nay considering the Principles they manage every way as pernicious to Government and to the welfare of the land as any Jesuits College in the world Doway or St. Omers have not been more fatal to us than Micah's house or Gideon's City I speak not this to excuse the Jesuite or his Faction but to alarm and caution all good Christians and Subjects against such places and persons and their as they would have us formidably believe invincible Armado for be assured that as long as these are kept up and suffered to be frequented it will be a thing impossible for us who live on the top of the Mountain where Micah hath his house or within five miles of the City or Corporation where Gideon hath his Ephod though we study the peace of the Tabernacle and of the Temple never so much to keep up either Loyalty in our neighbourhood or Conformity in our-Churches I am not ignorant that there are other enormities whereunto my Text as afterwards reiterated bears a relation and whereupon I might seasonably animadvert for ch 18. there is Burglary Felony Sacriledge ch 19. there are Riots Rapes Adultery Murder ch 20. there is Civil

appear not only Grave and Sacred in his Habit but as Jure divino like as the very best of those who were of Gods nomination and appointment Most evident it is that when the Danites went up to surprise Laish Chap. 18.5 14. they consulted this Ephod and that too with as much Veneration and Devotion as if it had been the very Ephod of the Sanctuary which had the Vrim and the Thummim and from whence as from between the Cherubims God was pleased to give forth his Answers He had also 3. His Teraphim What this Teraphim was whether loquens imago a blearing bleating Image craftily set at work by the Incantations and Charms of the Knavish Priest its Familiar to give out its Mysterious Oracles and Unintelligible Answers to the over-credulous unwary Multitude or whether an Astrological Engine shaped and figured like unto the Cherubims of the Tabernacle to discover the Planetary Motions and Aspects of the Heavens whereby a Guess and Prediction was to be made of things that were to come is not much to our present concern Certain it is they were used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the foretelling of future Events and in all probability designed to Cap and Supply not only the want of the Vrim and the Thummim but the very Cherubinical voice it self which was confined to and went along with the established Priesthood The word it self is used in a good as well as in a bad sence particularly Hos 3.4 it being there threatned as a judgment upon Israel that they should abide many days without a King and without a Sacrifice and without an Ephod and without a Teraphim But this also became an evil to him for so it is recorded among other his evil deeds that he made him a Teraphim The last thing mentioned of him is 4. That he consecrated for himself a Priest his own Son first one neither of Aarons Lineage nor of his Tribe willing that any one should be his Priest rather than not have one of his own afterwards for the more Solemnity of the thing and to seem more Conformable to the Divine institution a Levite one in Holy Orders but of the meanest rank and no less irregular and unlawful than the former it being permitted to none to take the Priests Office upon them but who were Descendents of Aaron though indeed not much matter who it be nor how dressed nor if at all consecrated provided he will but usurp the Priesthood and give out his Edicts to the Brotherhood of the Gild as his inspired brain and the home-made Teraphim shall dictate to him I know there are some that make this Micah's Religion to be perfect Idolatry and downright Apostasie from the Religion that Almighty God by his Servant Moses had established among the Israelites but if so what made him so fond of the Ephod the Altar the Cherub the Levite and every thing else that did but so much as Ape the religion of the Tabernacle Nay what made him so joyful that he had got one of Gods Levites to be his Priests or to make so many applications to the true God as he did for my part I do and thereunto I am obliged by Vatablus Grotius and many others to think that he was veri Dei cultor a worshipper of the True God though Puritan like in a separate way insomuch that howbeit he might have a tincture of Idolatry in his worship yet it was a fault in him and a very great one too that he had set up an house of his own and therein an Ephod an Altar a Teraphim a Priest in contradiction to the Tabernacle the Ephod the Altar the Cherubims and the established Priests of God In short a Will-worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-pleasing devotion a separate house a separate Priest a separate Religion howbeit of the same God from the regular national establishment A thing very pleasing to man and so pleasing that if left unto himself because there is no King to restrain him every man will think himself as good as Micah and set up an house and a Priest of his own and there do whatsoever shall seem right in his own eyes Thus it fared of old with Israel and thus of late with England for no sooner began we to grow mad and to bethink our selves of no King but immediately as if Hell it self had broke loose all the worm-eaten exploded heresies from the very days of Christ began to make head again and there came upon the stage a revived rabble of Gnosticks Arrians Macedonians Novatians Enthusiasts and whatever else seemed right to any every one calling as it seemed good to them for their own Priest and their own house till not a Mountain not a Grove not a City scarce a street but had an house a God a Priest of their own And if we do but consider how some men of late good friends no doubt to Micah to give ease to tender Consciences would have eased us of our religion and out of kindness to a little uncouth Protestantism to come into the Church would have thrust out the Reformation nay Christianity it self out of the Church we may say it was well for us then that we also had a King Doubtless a most sad complaint and account of things But it leads me from the mischiefs and disorders that happened in those days 2. To the Cause thereof there was no King no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. None of Regal Soveraign authority to superintend and command the rest 2. None of inferiour Jurisdiction and government that had resolution and courage suitable to the power they were invested with either to see the Laws executed or the Offenders thereof punished the want of which as well as of the other will soon fill a land with all manner of disorders and run it into Ataxy and confusion Their misery was 1. That they had no King no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none of Superiour Soveraign authority to superintend over-aw and set the rest at work Now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes a government 1. In its nature Monarchical 2. In its authority Soveraign 3. In its continuance Hereditary All which conveniencies and advantages were wanting at that time in the government of Israel as shall more at large be made to appear out of the history of those days from the want of which those evils so much complained on came upon them And if I make these three particulars out I shall settle the thing what their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to be and what indeed they wanted when they were so unhappy as to have no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no King 1. It supposeth a government truly Monarchical It hath been concluded by many That these words of having no King bear a particular regard to the first forty years that the Children of Israel had been in possession of the Promised land from the death of Joshua the one part whereof was under the government as some say of the