Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	find_v	great_a	king_n	3,579	5	3.5272	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61609	A sermon preached on the fast-day, November 13, 1678, at St. Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5649; ESTC R8213	27,301	58

poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there We have sinned against the Lord. Mizpeh a City in the confines of Judah and Benjamin as Masius and others observe was the place where the States of Israel were wont to be assembled together upon any great and important occasion where there was a place on purpose for them to meet in and an Altar and House of Prayer for the publick Worship of God and therefore it is said Judg. 20. 1. The Children of Israel gathered together from one end of the Land to the other unto the Lord in Mizpeh and there the chief of all the Tribes of Israel presented themselves in the Assembly of the People of God And therefore Samuel chooseth this as the fittest place for them to fast and pray and confess their sins in and to implore the Mercy of God to the Nation We do not read in Scripture of any more publick and solemn Fast of the People of Israel kept with greater signs of true humiliation than this at Mizpeh was for the pouring out of water was used among them either to represent their own desperate condition without Gods help that they were as water spilt upon the ground or the greatness of their sorrow for their sins and the floods of tears which they shed for them And to let mankind see what influence a General and serious Fasting and Humiliation hath upon the welfare of a Nation we find from the day of this Fast at Mizpeh the affairs of Israel began to turn for the better For the Philistines thought they had an advantage against the Israelites by this general meeting and hoped to surprize them while they kept their Fast in Mizpeh and made such an incursion upon them as put them into a great consternation and they came trembling to Samuel praying him that he would not cease to cry unto the Lord their God for them that he would save them out of the hand of the Philistins Samuel prays the Lord hears Israel marches out of Mizpeh pursues the Philistins and smites them and Samuel sets up a stone of remembrance and calls it Eben-Ezer saying Hitherto hath the Lord helped us Yea from hence forward did God help them for it follows so the Philistines were subdued and they came no more into the Coast of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistins all the dayes of Samuel Never any People had greater reason to be pleased with a Governour than they had with Samuel who managed their affairs with so much wisdom and piety with so much faithfulness and integrity with so much courage and constancy with so much care and industry with so much success and prosperity But people are apt to surfeit upon too much ease and plenty and to grow wanton with abundance of peace they began to be weary of Samuels Government and secretly to wish for a change And when mens discontents grow ripe there seldom wants a plausible occasion to vent them Samuel was grown old and could not go about from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh as he was wont to do but he fixed at his house in Ramah and placed his Sons in Beersheba these not following their Fathers steps were soon accused of male-administration and nothing would now satisfie the discontented Elders of Israel but Samuel himself must be discharged of his Government For they gathered themselves together and came to Samuel in Ramah and said to him Behold thou art old and thy Sons walk not in thy wayes this was their pretence but their design was to alter the Government Their plenty and prosperity had made them fond of the Pomp and Grandeur of their neighbour Nations and whatever it cost them they were resolved to have a King to judge them like all the Nations Samuel tells them what inconveniencies that more absolute form of Government of the neighbour Nations would bring among them as Josephus shews all which signified nothing to them for it is said nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and said Nay but we will have a King over us that we also may be like all the Nations It was not the Monarchical way of Government that was so displeasing to God or Samuel for their Government was of that Form already God himself being their King and appointing such Vicegerents as he thought fit to manage their affairs under him So God answered Samuel They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them Not as though Kingly Government were inconsistent with Gods Sovereignty over his people for by him Kings Reign and they are his Ministers to us for good and that Government is the most agreeable to his own and to the primitive institution of Government among men But wherein then lay this great sin of the Israelites in asking a King when God himself had provided by his Law that they should have a King when they were setled in their own Land And yet we find the Israelites at last confess We have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a King Their great fault was that they were so impetuous and violent in their desires that they would not wait for Samuels decease whom God had raised up among them and whose Government had been so great a blessing to them and therefore God looked on it as a rejecting him more than Samuel since he had appointed him and they had no reason to lay him aside for his Sons faults but they made use of that only as a colour for their own self-willed humour and affectation of being like to other Nations However God commands Samuel to yield to them and he appoints another meeting at Mizpeh for this purpose where the Person was chosen by lot and at his solemn inauguration at Gilgal Samuel makes that speech unto all Israel contained in this 12th Chapter where of the words of the Text are the conclusion which make these words the more considerable 2. In regard of the Occasion of them being delivered by Samuel at so great a solemnity in which he delivers up the Government into the hands of their King 1. With a great protestation of his own integrity with an appeal to their own Consciences concerning it and they freely give a large testimony of it 2 He upbraids them with their ingratitude towards God time after time that they were never contented or pleased with his Laws or the Governours he raised up amongst them and now at last upon a sudden fright concerning Nahash the King of Ammon they were resolved they would have a King and behold saith he the Lord hath set a King over you 3. Notwithstanding their sin in so unseasonable a demand yet he tells them they might be happy under his Government if they did sincerely keep to their established

charges guilt upon Nations as well as upon particular Persons As in the case of uncertain murder If one be found slain in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it lying in the field and it be not known who hath slain him the Elders of the next City were not only to protest their own innocency but to use this prayer Be merciful O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israels charge And the blood shall be forgiven them so shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you Here we see the guilt of innocent blood goes farther than the bare shedders of it it lyes upon the Nation till it be expiated and the Jews say the soul of a person innocently murdered hovers up and down the Earth crying for vengeance till the guilty persons be found out and punished and then it ascends above to its place of rest The guilt of innocent blood is indeed a crying sin it cryes loud unto Heaven for vengeance and nothing stops its voice but the execution of it And where that is not done it leaves a guilt upon the Land for God himself hath said it Blood defileth the Land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it This sin we see is of such a malignant nature that it infects the Land where it is committed and lyes upon it till it be expiated But there are other sins which contract a National guilt when the Authority of a Nation either gives too much countenance and encouragement to the practice of them or does not take that care it ought to do to suppress and punish them When men daily and insolently break the Laws of God and bid as it were defiance both to them and to the Laws of men when wickedness spreads like a leprosie and infects the whole body when vices become so notorious that they are a reproach and a by-word to Neighbour Nations these are the signs and tokens of National guilt 2. Because the Scripture tells us of a certain Measure to which the sins of a Nation do rise before they are ripe for punishment This was the reason given why Abrahams Children must stay to the fourth Generation before they come to the possession of the promised Land for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Where it is plain that God doth consider Nations as distinct bodies the measure of whose sins is taken after another manner than that of particular persons but when once that measure is compleated ruine and destruction is unavoidable or at least some signal and extraordinary judgements falling upon them as the punishment of their iniquities Men may ask why the Canaanites in Joshua's time were dealt with so severely that nothing but utter extirpation would satisfie the Justice of God against them But God prevents that objection by letting Abraham know how much patience and long-suffering he used towards them waiting till the fourth Generation and when their iniquities still increased and every Age added to the Guilt of the foregoing the burden grew too heavy for them to bear it any longer and therefore they must sink under the weight of it So our Saviour saith to the Jews in his time Fill ye up then the measure of your Fathers Not as though God did punish any Age beyond the desert of its own sins but when the measure of their sins is filled up God doth no longer forbear to punish them and that seldom happens but when the sins of that time do exceed those of the foregoing Generations as it was in the case of the Jews when their City and Temple were destroyed 3. Because it attributes the great Revolutions of Government to a particular Providence of God God is the Judge or the supreme Arbitratour of the affairs of the world he pulleth down one and setteth up another Which holds with respect to Nations as well as particular persons Which doth not found any right of Dominion as some fancied till the argument from Providence was returned with greater force upon themselves but it shews that when God pleases to makes use of Persons or Nations as the Scourges in his hand to punish a People with he gives them success above their hopes or expectations but that success gives them no right And of this the Psalmist speaks when he adds For in the hand of the Lord there is a Cup and the Wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them It is called by Isaiah the Cup of Fury and the Cup of Trembling which God gives to Nations destined to ruine which makes them like people intoxicated and deprived of that apprehension of danger of that judgement and consideration to prevent it which at other times they have When a Nation is near some dreadful calamity as a just punishment of its sins God takes away the wisdom of the Wise and the understanding of the Prudent and the resolution of the men of courage that they all stand amazed and confounded not knowing how to give or take advice but they are full of fears and rather apt to quarrel with one another than to consult the general good This was just the state of Egypt when God did purpose to execute his Justice upon it 1. First their courage failed them And the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it and the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof In that day shall Egypt be like unto women and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which he shaketh over it It is a very ill sign when men want the spirit and vigour they were wont to have when they are daunted at the apprehension of every danger and rather meanly seek to save themselves by base arts and sordid compliances than to promote the common welfare It is folly and stupidity not to apprehend danger when there is cause for it and to take the best care to prevent it but it is a fatal symptom upon a Nation when their hearts fail them for fear that they dare not do the duty which they owe to God to their King and to their Countrey God forbid that any should exceed the bounds of their duty to prevent their fears but when men want resolution to do that they are in a lost condition 2 Their Counsels were divided and infatuated And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians The Princes of Zoan are Fools the Counsel of the Wise Counsellors of Pharaoh is become bruitish they have also seduced Egypt even they that are the stay of the Tribes thereof The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof