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
A71286	A sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne monethly fast Januarie 29th, 1644 wherein these foure necessary considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures, viz ... / by George Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1645 (1645)	Wing W364; ESTC R6426	39,735	52

testimonies we have also most pregnant examples In the Book of Judges chap. 9. we read that Abimelech the son of Gideon by a Concubine being assisted by a band of wicked Counsellors who were prevalent and leading men in Shechem and by the helpe of vaine and light persons which he hired to be his followers with money which they gave him did usurpe the Kingdome after the death of his father and slue his seventy brethren who had more right to reigne than hee and what a curse and plague by so doing they proved to him themselves and to their City and Countrey the event shewed for he was the Bramble in his Brother Iothams Parable and they the trees which anoynted him to be King over them and by an evill spirit which God sent between him and them they became Traytors to him and he destroyed their chiefe City slue the inhabitants beat down the walls and sowed salt in it to make it a cursed place and pursuing the rest of the people who betooke themselves for refuge to a strong Tower he had his skull broken by a stone which a woman cast upon his head and lest it should be said that a woman slue him he caused his Armour-bearer to thrust him through with his sword and so he dyed desperately and Iothams parable was verified in him and his Band of wicked Counsellors and abettors they proved to be a most pernicious and destroying plague to him and a curse to their City State and Countrey and a fire came out from him to devoure them as in that Chapter is shewed at large In the same book Chapter 20. we read that the banding together of wicked Counsellours and men of Belial in Gibeah the chief City of Benjamin proved destructive to the whole Tribe and no small plague to all Israel who lost above forty thousand men in a bloudy Civill war which by Gods Law they were bound to make and pursue against them for putting away abhominations and destroying cursed Malefactors out of Israel Those unjust Iudges and wicked Counsellors patrons of filthy abomination refused to deliver up to justice the sonnes of Belial who had most villanously abus●d the Levites wife unto death and by their authority stirred up all the Children of Benjamin to take up armes against all their brethren of the other Tribes who were commanded to execute justice in such cases under paine of a curse and to cut off such abhominable sinners though with great dammage and bloud-shed on their own side But in the end this proved an heavy curse to the whole Tribe which in that unjust cause which they maintained by the sword was cut off and utterly destroyed except onely five hundred men who escaped by flight unto the Rock of Rimmon and the wildernesse Saul also the first anoynted King over all Israel when God had rejected him for his disobedience gathered to himselfe a Band of wicked Counsellors corrupt Officers and Iudges and other instruments of his violence and of his cruelty to persecute David and such as favoured his righteous Cause as Doeg and others of whom the beginning of this Psalme speaks And mention is also made of them 1 Sam. 22. By them he was stirred up to pursue David his chiefe Champion against the uncircumcised Philistims the common enemies of Israel to drive him out of his Land So that for want of his helpe he was in his great straits and feares drawne to consult with the devill by the witch of Endor to the destruction of himselfe and of those his wicked followers by whose Counsells he was led For with them all his valiant Sonnes were slaine in Battaile the army of Israel routed and smitten and he himselfe so hotly pursued that he had no hope to escape and in bitternesse of anguish hee fell desperately upon his owne Sword and dyed a selfe-murtherer 1 Sam. 31. and so this wicked Band proved a curse to him and themselves and a plague to all Israel It was a Band of wicked Counsellors among whom Achitophel was president which animated Absalom to become a Traytor to King David his owne Father and to raise up in Rebellion all Israel against him which as it was an heavy plague to David and a curse to his family and Kingdome so especially to themselves for Achitophel the president hanged himselfe and the rest with Absalom were destroyed in Battaile and miserably perished The like misery did Rehoboams Band of heady Counsellours and ill-affected followers proud young men bring upon him and his Kingdome for being led and ruled by their Counsell his Kingdome was wofully rent ten Tribes forsooke him and great calamity fell upon him and upon Ierusalem the royall City which was by this rent left naked of defence and Sheshak King of Egypt robbed it and tooke away all the Treasures which Solomon left in the house of the Lord and in the Kings house all the Shield of Gold which he had made 1 Kings 12. and 2 Chron. 12. Likewise the Princes and flattering Counsellours of Ioash King of Iudah who conspired together and were authors to draw the King to Idolatry and to persecute to death the Prophet who was the sonne of that renouned Priest Jehoiadah by whom he himselfe had been saved alive nourished and set up in the Throne of the Kingdome they were most pernicious they brought a curse on the King his family and Kingdome and on themselves for they were destroyed by the small Bands of the Syrians which God for their sinnes raised up to cut them off and their great Host and the spoyle of them was sent to Damascus and the King himselfe being left by the enemies in sore diseases was slain by his owne servants and this was the plague and curse which his wicked Counsellors by whom hee was led brought on him and themselves 2 Chron. 24. we read also in the Prophesie of Ieremiah that King Zedekiah was altogether led and rul●d by a Band of wicked Counsellors Princes Priests and false Prophets which at length over-awed him when they had brought him into great straits Jer. 38.24 25. These were the men who persecuted Ieremiah for prophecying to them from God laid wait to catch him in his words smote him put him in the stocks and caused the King to cast him into the Dungeon What cursed men these were and what dreadfull vengeance and wrath of God followed them and their families the Prophet sheweth Ierem. 18.21 and 20.11 12. viz. That their children shall be delivered up to the sword their wives shall be widdows and a cry shall be heard from their houses Gods vengeance shall be seene on them and their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten What a plague and curse they were to the King to his sons and to his City and Kingdome the same Prophet testifieth They made him and his people reassume their dismissed Bond-servants and break the Covenant of God Ier. 34 11. Yea and the Oath of God which he made to the

King of Babylon when he set him up to be King and they hardned him by their evill Counsell to stand out against the word of the Lord untill God gave him and his sons City and Kingdome into the hands of the King of Babylon who slue his sonnes before his face then put out his eyes bound him in Chaines till he dyed tooke the City laid it waste burnt the Temple led the people captive and left the Land desolate as we read Ier. 39. But yet there was another Band and conspiracy of wicked Counsellors unjust Iudges persecutiong Rulers and ungodly Officers and other instruments of violence more pestilent and pernicious then all these who were such a plague and curse to their whole Nation that they brought the wrath of God on it to the utmost and on all their posterity untill this day that was the great Counsell of the Iewes in our Saviours dayes by which the publishing of the Gospell was desperately opposed the blessed Messiah persecuted and murthered his Apostles and Martyrs scourged imprisoned slaine and scattered as the History of the Gospell and of the Acts of the Apostles testifie For they by their pernicious Counsells and practises brought a totall destruction upon their whole nation people City and Temple so that a generall curse cleaves to their children and they have for 1600 yeares been a by-word a reproach and a hissing in all Nations where they are scattered These dreadful examples are so many lowd voyces proclaiming from God to our eares and witnessing to our hearts the truth propounded in this Doctrine viz. That every Band Company and Faction of wicked men consulting to doe mischiefe and practising against Gods Church and people are most pernicious and dangerous Brambles the plague and curse of Lands and Kingdomes I have been large in producing a multitude of examples because I would have you take notice that wicked Rulers and Kings mentioned in Scripture never wanted pernicious Counsellors nor Bands of cursed instruments to spur and drive them on to destruction and to bring a curse on their Kingdomes This is no new nor strange thing to be wondred at and to dismay and astonish us But that in times when Kings and Princes were Tyrants oppressors and back sliders from true Religion to Idolatry and had bands of wicked instruments and of men of violence at command God was so mercifull to his Nation and people of old as to reserve to himselfe a prevayling party and to put wisedome and courage into the great Counsell of the Kingdome to resist their violence to preserve Religion from ruine the people from oppression the Land from spoyling to oppose the bands of the wicked to scatter them and execute justice on them this we finde not in the Book of God in all the Histories from the first to the second Adam this is a mercy proper to the times of the Gospell and to those Nations and Kingdomes in which Christ ruleth by his holy Spirit and his Church is surely established by the word of God faithfully preached true religion is planted in the hearts of the people But now for the cursed Band of pernicious Counsellors and other agents of violence and iniquity which here I am to deale with That we may see most clearely what just cause all Nations and people have to hate abhorre and spue them out as enemies of all righteousnesse and peace and the plague and curse of the Lands states and kingdome in which they rise up and beare sway I will launch forth a little further to discover the depth of their malice how pestilent and mischievous they must needs be wheresoever they prevail and are countenanced and this I will doe by three reasons drawe First from their originall and chiefe author Secondly from their actions and practises Thirdly the unhappy events of their doing reason 1 First it is most certaine that all sons of Belial children of the Devill and seed of the old Serpent especially when a faction of them is banded together are most hurtful and dangerous to the Church and people of God and a plague and curse to the State in which they rule and have power For God hath put enmity between them and the elect seed of the woman Christ and his true members there can be no peace but perpetuall warre with them till their head be bruised and their power scattered which victory for the most part doth c●st Christians as it did their head Christ the bruising of their heele Gen. 3.15 What a curse the sons of Eli who are called sons of Belial 1 Sam. 2.12 did bring upon the Land of Israel and on their fathers house we may read at large chap. 2.11 and chap. 4. The Arke of God could not secure them from Gods wrathfull stroak and visiting hand And I doubt not but the covetousnesse theft and treachery of Iudas who was a Devill incarnate doe discover sufficiently what mischiefe abounds in the children of the devill Now wicked Counsellors unjust Iudges and all other ungodly men banded together to lye to seduce and to worke mischiefe in their hearts are in the Scriptures proclaimed sons of Belial children of the Devill and the seed of the old Serpent So God by Moses calls them Deut. 13.13 So David in his last words and saith That they are all of them as Thornes thrust away because they cannot bee taken with hands 2 Sam. 23.6 And our Saviour tells the Iewes banded together to oppresse hurt lye slander and persecute that they are of their Father the Devill they have their originall from Hell the devill is the chiefe author of their malice and president of their conspiracy and counsell Iohn 8.44 And St. Paul calls Elimas the Sorcerer who laboured to turne Sergius Paulus from the faith the enemy of all righteousnesse the child of the Devill full of all malice and subtilty Acts 13.10 For indeed the old Serpent the Devill inspires subtelty into men suggests wicked counsells and draws them into conspiracy in evill and the more they are banded together the more hee prevailes in them and workes more mischiefe by them and therefore their originall and the author of their Counsells demonstrates them to be such as this Doctrine teacheth The second reason is drawne from their actions and practises First of all their thoughts are against the righteous for evill reason 2 Psalme 56.5 They work mischief in their hearts verse 2. of this Psalme devise it on their beds Psal. 30.4 they glory and boast in it Psalme 52.1 they consult together to cast down the righteous from his excellency they delight in lyes blesse with their mouth but curse with their heart Psal. 62.3 4. In the balance of Iustice which they hold as Iudges in their hands and under colour and pretence of judgement they weigh out the violence of their hands that is wrongs and injuries in the earth Psalme 58.2 They plot against the righteous Psalme 37.12 They lye in wait for bloud Mich 7.2 they