Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	power_n	sovereign_a	5,270	5	9.8498	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47257	The righteous taken away from the evil to come applied to the death of the late excellent Queen, in a sermon preach'd at St. Martin's Church, on Sunday, January the twentieth, 1694/5, before the mayor, baliffs, and commonalty of the city of Oxford / by White Kennett ...	Kennett, White, 1660-1728.	1695 (1695)	Wing K303; ESTC R17585	13,215	33

e. is dead and gone and so is taken away or remov'd from one World to another As the Messiah by his Passion is said to have been taken away and cut off out of the land of the Living So as the Prophet might design these words should signify to this effect Some one righteous and merciful Soul whose Authority and Example countenanc'd Vertue and kept up Religion That Great Soul of whom the World was not worthy has left this ungrateful World and is gone to seek a better Country and to sit upon a higher Throne where it has receiv'd a Crown of Righteousness laid up for it where it reigns in greater Glory and enjoys a Kingdom which shall have no end But tho' the Righteous thus perisheth and the Merciful be thus taken away yet No man layeth it to Heart none considereth To lay to Heart is a Hebrew Phrase to be deeply affected with Concern and Sorrow to mourn and express the Affliction and Bitterness of our Soul and to be humbled under the severe Blow that is struck by the mighty Hand of GOD. Then to consider of it that is to remember what Provocations we have given to the ALMIGHTY that he should thus Chastise us in his Anger to reflect that we have indeed deserved these and worse things to come upon us but then to weigh and advise what Course will be most proper to appease an Offended GOD and to avert those farther Judgments which this one Calamity seems to threaten and presage And One would think all this Scene of Sorrow musts needs open when the Righteous perisheth and when the Merciful are taken away It is the Instruction of Solomon that after the day of Death there will be a house of Mourning and at the End of any Man the Living will lay it to his Heart To Die is the debt of Nature paid by Departing Souls and to mourn for the Dead is as much the debt of Nature in those Friends that survive Especially if the Soul taken away were Righteous and Merciful the Loss is greater and the greater Sorrow due More precious is their Death in the sight of the LORD and more dear should be their Memory among the Sons of Men. But especially when 't is probable the Prophet meant not a righteous Soul that inspired a common and ordinary Mortal but One advanc'd to Grandeur One in Royal Dignity and Power whose Greatness did dilate and recommend his Goodness who shin'd in an higher Orb even as a Sun of Righteousness and shed a gracious Influence on all Below For such a One to perish and be took away must needs spread a Darkness and a Horrour over the Faces and over the Hearts of all that were so lately blest with that Auspicious heat and light The Prophet might well expect that on this sad Occasion every Breast should have swell'd and broke in Sighs and from every Eye should arise a Fountain of Tears when the Breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken from them But he found himself disappointed the People had no sense of Loss no impression of Grief as careless and unconcern'd as if common Humanity had been buried with the Dead This provokes the Prophet to upbraid their hardness of Heart their stupidity of Soul that they should have no common Justice to lament the perishing of the Righteous no Bowels left to condole the Merciful being taken away Alas That the Righteous One should perish and no Man should lay it to Heart and that Merciful men should be taken away none considering that The Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come This Phrase does admit of a double sence Either first For the Righteous to be taken away from all personal Evil that by a longer Life should come upon themselves Or secondly The Righteous being taken away from some publick Evil that after their Departure shall fall upon the People and Nation which they leave behind It is undoubtedly true in the First and I am afraid more true in the Second sense First The Righteous and Merciful are taken away from all personal and private Evils c. For as the Psalmist declares Many are the Afflictions of the Righteous and it is only Death can deliver them out of all And sure one great Evil from which they are taken is to see the Wickedness of the Age they live in For Righteous persons to observe so much of Fraud and Oppression of Injury and Violence for merciful Souls to live on and behold so much spiteful Revenge and so many cruel Mercies of the Wicked This must needs move their Patience and tempt their Indignation as was the sore Experience of Lot in the midst of Sodom when to be an Eye-witness of their scandalous and abominable way of living He dwelling among them in seeing and hearing did vex his righteous Soul from day to day Especially good and pious Princes they are more nearly concern'd for the Glory of GOD and the Good of Mankind and therefore are more deeply affected with the heinous and crying Sins of their People To see that neither their Authority can restrain nor their Example reform the Age they live in In spite of their Laws and their own Obedience to them to see Vice and Villany insult and reign above their Sovereign power This must needs be a Grief and Vexation to their Royal Spirit For so holy David was often mourning for the Sins of his dissolute Subjects Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word From this ungrateful Evil wise and vertuous Princes are taken away by Death entring then into a Kingdome where without Punishment or Reproof all Obey Where tho' there be different Orders and Degrees there is no different Interest or Inclination nor other Passions but those of Love and Joy To be thus taken away from personal and private Evils may be one Sence implied But I doubt the Sence chiefly intended is their being taken away from some publick Evil or some common Calamity that after their Departure shall fall upon the People and Nation which they leave behind As the just GOD does provide that Righteousness should exalt a Nation So does he resolve that Sin shall prove to the Destruction of every People Therefore when a whole Country declines into Profaneness and Atheisme into delighting in their Vanity and glorying in their Shame then does that God to whom Vengeance belongs begin to shew himself to vindicate his Justice and exert his Power Then does his Resentment break forth in those words of the Prophet Shall I not Visit for these things saith the LORD and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this But when the day of Visitation is appointed GOD often calls away the innocent and righteous Souls and hides them from the Judgment dropping down As of Old he prepared a Zoar for righteous Lot