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
A62090	Holy confidence well improved, by Nehemiah and the Jews whose faith and spirit were considered and applied to the societies for reformation of manners : in a sermon at Salters-hall in London, on Monday August 16, 1697, and now at their request made publick / by Matthew Sylvester.	Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.	1697 (1697)	Wing S6331; ESTC R20130	23,194	72

shall see to our great Benefit and Pleasure in the great Glories of his rebuilt Temple and repaired Walls and City 6thly This look'd greatly at their present Work for it was their own concocting and digesting of all those Ministries to their Courage and Endeavours of which their Sense of God was as the Life and Strength Their Hearts would saint their Hands grow feeble their Thoughts would be confounded their Expectations would be baffled and their Spirits stript of Courage were not all these reviv'd upon them by this great Name which they so pertinently and prudently profess'd 7thly This look'd greatly at their own endanger'd Frame Their Enemies were many they themselves but few Their Enemies were crafty busy and malignant whereby they were but as Sheep amongst the Wolves But when they set this God against their Enemies they readily could conclude that all their Enemies would be found Liars as to God and them And 8thly It look'd as greatly at that Reformation which must be vigorously carried on in order to their getting keeping pleasing and honouring their God They knew that the refining of Mens Spirits and the reforming of their Lives were as removing Mountains and as raising Persons from the Dead It is no easy Enterprize to oppose Sinners against their Interests and against their strong Corruptions and to bring Men off from all their darling Lusts and Follies But when they knew that the God of Heaven could make them strong and prosperous whatever might appear exceeding difficult could not be thought impossible VI. The Doctrinal Import of this to us Doct. 1. That which the God of Heaven will prosper in their hands his Servants should resolve on and promote Be the thing enterprized never so difficult costly or unlikely to succeed in humane thought or view yet if God order it and expect it from us as we are his Servants and if he intimates his purpose to succeed us we must not be discouraged or remiss This great and glorious Undertaking to repair the Temple City Walls and to reform the People how intricate and perplexing was it found when once engag'd in by Zerubbabel Joshua Ezra Nehemiah and all the Remnant of the People Contemptuous Scorners despis'd them and reproach'd them Pretenders offer to work with them with the greater Subtlety and Secresy to confound and hinder them The People of the Land disturb them and hire Counsellors to frustrate this their purpose These in confederacy with others misrepresent them to the King and they provoke him to reverse his Order issued out to build and they accordingly prevail And thus the Work was made to cease by Force and Power Ezra 4. When they obtain'd a new Commission from the God of Heaven or rather the Revival of a former Order by Haggai and Zechariah God's Prophets this also was enquired into censur'd and inform'd against by Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai but yet the Elders kept up their Spirit Purpose and Profession and they went on boldly in their Work After this they had mercenary Persons who by Prophecies and crafty Insinuations of instant Enemies and Dangers endeavour'd to obstruct their Progress and all this under great pretence of Friendship tho they design'd hereby to influence these Builders and Reformers into a Distrust of God a contracting a Dishonour to themselves and turning scandalous to the People Yet notwithstanding this the Wall was finished And if some say true a Counter-Temple and Religion at Samaria was advised to to divide them which was accordingly accomplish'd as Josephus tells us Jud. Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8. And Manasseh who was Grandchild to Eliashib the High Priest and Son-in-law to Sanballat was made their Priest by the Solicitation of Sanballat that so Manasseh might not put away Sanballat's Daughter his Wife as the Elders of the Jews required See Bishop Vsher's Annal. ad Ann. 4381. ex Josepho Hence all revolted thither who would not quit their strange Wives From all this 't is most evident that these in conscience of their Duty to God and of their Encouragements from God went on to build and that they look'd upon all their Enemies and Affronts but as the Trial of their Faith and Courage And this in the Doctrine of it reaches us who have this day discern'd our Duty and espous'd it and who here present our selves before the Lord to bewail the Demolishments of our Walls and Temple and our Reproaches consequent thereupon to consider and confess our Sins whose Sinfulness is so visible in these our Desolations to profess our concurrent solemn Resolutions to set upon Reparation-work to intreat God's Blessing upon our purposed and commenced Reformations and to make known to all our Relation to God our Confidence in him our Zeal for him our Dependence on him and our great Expectations from him and to testify to all in whom in what and to what purposes we tho differing in Sentiments as to some smaller things of ritual Consideration and Concern do now unite as Brethren to love encourage and assist each other as one in God and Christ to run down Immoralities and to reduce Men to that visibly orderly Behaviour which may conciliate to our Religion our Christianity its just and genuine Reputation and to make us Protestants more exemplary and less scandalous even in the eyes of Rome it self And shall we be discouraged by any thing from attempting to rescue our profess'd Religion from the Reproaches of the Pagan Antichristian Papal World What can be more of God than what is for him And what can be more for God than what is of him And when can we expect his Presence Patronage Countenance and our Success from him if not when we become all Spirit and Vigour against what he hath so frequently and solemnly remonstrated unto and for what he hath told us that he has prepared a Hell and upon what he hath left upon Record the History of so many executed and those so very tremendous Judgments By which 't is evident what he hath most espoused and doth so evidently set his Heart upon No Man I hope of a greater Latitude and Candour for free Thoughts and Searches and Expressions than my self when I see them attended with fit Modesty and Self-suspicion and a true evident Concern for serious Dealings with God and for practical Christian Godliness in those who differ from me in doubtful and inferiour things God himself knows how far I am distrustful of my own Judgment the Weakness whereof doth cost me many a serious sad self-humbling Thought in both my Solitudes and in Conversation Yet other Mens Passions and discouraging Reflections upon me will never make my Judgment better tho they fill my Heart with Grief and force me to lament my self and to refer them to themselves and to their Judg and mine But yet I see no reason that bold-fac'd Atheism Infidelity Anti-scripturism and the daring ridiculing of the Eternal Word and Son of God should escape their deserved Censures so far as liable thereunto by the

5.5 27 29. Ezek. 22. Bold Sinners and an angry God great Crimes attended with notorious Impenitencies and growthful Judgments are dreadful things when found together Lev. 26.26 28. Isa 1.2 6. Let then your Fear of God and your Pity to the Land and to the Souls of Men excite and fix you 4. To your mutual strengthning of each others Hands in this great Work and Purpose Heb. 10.24 You have great Incouragements from God and Christ from Heaven and Earth from the Laws of God and Man and from the publick Professions of Transgressors who stand up at the Creed who cry Incline our Hearts to keep this Law and that in solemn Assemblies and who do not deny that God that Christ that Gospel which testify and protest against the very Crimes which they so shamelesly commit and perpetrate None so deserving of Rebukes and Punishments from God as they that sin against the very Letter of those Laws which they profess to be Divine and which are no way controverted amongst themselves Set but their professed Principles against those their Practices which contradict such Principles shew but the Inconsistencies of these Mens Principles and Practices with one another and then urge them closely to shew to all which of these two must be deserted and denied by them We may put Spirit thus into each other and God will own and patronize us all 5. To discourage all those Principles and Doctrines as far as regularly you can which minister to these Immoralities Rev. 2.14 Tit. 1.9 16. 1 Tim. 6.3 Jude 3 4. He that shall teach There is no God no Providence no future Judgment and consequently neither Heaven nor Hell He that shall propagate such Doctrines as these that Souls are mortal that Christ is not the Son of God that Man is but a siner sort of Brute c. he ought to be stopp'd in such Careers For if these be true and credited accordingly then all Religion and Morality comes down at once All then must be lawful that may be safely done as to humane Vices and Injuriousness 6. To walk prudently and blamelesly your selves in all things Phil. 2.14 15. Neh. 5.9 it is but reasonable for you to expect all sorts of Eyes upon you They whom you prosecute for their Immoralities will thereby be awakened and irritated to their severer Observations of you And should they which I hope they never will and beg of God and you they never may ever find you guilty of the same Sins or of equivalent Crimes to what you proceed against them for you may conclude that your Miscarriages will be told in Gath with all imaginable Aggravations to your Reproach and to their Joy and God himself will justly make you base before the People in that as God and others expected other things from you so may you look for such Returns upon you from his displeased and incensed because more reproached Majesty as shall abundantly demonstrate that with him there is no respect of Persons and that your Profession of God and Christ and your Endeavours to suppress Sin in others shall not commute for your dishonouring of God and for your being scandalous unto others by your own personal Transgressions Nor is your personal Blamelessness as to Immoralities sufficient for you in this matter but you must also see that all your Diligence Zeal and Courage have their due Conduct and be every way as far as in you lies accountable to God and Man Bear with me in this faithful Freedom with you This Caution is not given you from Accusation or Suspicion of any one amongst you All that is possible doth not come to pass but you are Men and in the World and Body IX A word to the Immoral and Profane Could I intreat you seriously to read Deut. 27.9 26. and there and then consider the Sins there doomed to a solemn publick Curse the God who hates those Sins and who will execute the Curse where-ever he sees those Sins committed the Motive offered and urged there and God's insisting upon universal Obedience to his Laws with the Encouragements which he affords thereto in Deut. 28.1 13. Could I obtain of you to lay to heart that peremptory Word with the historical occasion of it in Levit. 24. 10 16. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his Sin and he that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord shall die Could I prevail with you to pause upon God's published Resolution not to hold him guiltless not to free him from his Wrath who taketh his Name in vain Exod. 20.7 I might then hope that your Reverence towards God and your Self-love and Care might keep you orderly and safe Uncleanness Intemperance Rudeness and Profaneness are such debasing and unworthy things as that serious Thoughts could not but move you to abhor them Are not your Tongues your Souls and Bodies his who made and bought them Were they created and redeemed Are they protected maintained accommodated and encouraged to be alienated from their Proprietor and to be profaned and abused before him Can any thing be pleaded for your Sins which may be justified at your own Tribunal Or can the Gain and Pleasure of your Crimes compensate what you are sure to lose and to bring upon your selves thereby If there be no God no future State how came you by your Beings and by all your sutable Provisions for their universal Welfare But if there be a God and a future State hath he made that and you to be eternally his own Reproach Or do you think God made his Laws in vain Or that Heaven can bear or sute with your present Frame and Course Or that God needs or fears you so as to save you with a Lie in his own Mouth or to confront him in the Heavenly State or to let you provoke him whilst you live here and then to change you and to save you when you die Your Reformation will be your Credit and Safety and our great Ease and Joy It can be no way pleasing to the sober Mind or to Men of Peace intent upon their own Interest Quietness and Safety here to minister to Contentions or to irritate your Passions by thwarting and exposing you to publick Censures or by reproving you tho in secret were they not conscious to themselves of these things of God's strict Observations both of them and you of the accurate Laws by which he will judg us all of the Solemnity and Impartiality of that Judgment of the Importance of the future State to all of the terrible Reviews and Censures which your and their awakened Consciences by the so sensible Approaches and Instancy of Eternity on a Death-bed wherein we can look for nothing but the Severities of Divine Revenges will make upon all Follies and Neglects Of those most intimate and sharp Resentments which our Great Judg cannot but have of all your notorious and aggravated Crimes which have so boldly and provokingly confronted him in the whole Constitution and Procedures of his