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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	great_a	time_n	2,069	5	3.0647	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30420	A sermon preached before the Aldermen of the city of London, at St. Lawrence-church, Jan 30. 1680/1 being the day of the martyrdome of K. Charles I. / by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5875; ESTC R14664	19,574	37

into joy and gladness We ought to love the Truth and Peace Thirdly That upon our doing this sincerely all the sad effects of that which we now mourn for shall be so entirely removed that our days of Fasting shall be turned into cheerful or solemn Feasts To the First There is a temper to be observed in publique as well as in private mournings that they be neither so short as that it may thence appear we have a slight sense of matters of such great consequence nor so long as that either our sorrows rise out of measure high or by the too frequent returns of those days the object of our griefs grows too flat There is a mean between these extremes There is a time to mourn as well as a time to rejoice and every thing is beautiful in its season I shall therefore offer two rules by which it may be reasonably determined how long such solemn mournings ought to be continued and apply them to the present occasion One is As long as the sad effects of that which originally caused them continue we ought to keep up our Fasts for so long God seems to continue his displeasure against us and therefore we should be still renewing our intercessions to turn it away As long as the Captivity lasted the people of the Iews did not doubt continuing the observation of their Fasts but when they were brought back again to their Land it seemed then more proper to put this Question A second is When the same or the like sins which procured those Judgments that are so much lamented do continue and when the circumstances of a Nation seem to be almost the same that they were on the occasion that at first called for their mourning then it is fit either to continue or to renew their observation of those set Fasts This was the case at this time of the Jews they were beginning to contract alliances with the Idolatrous Heathens round about them which had let in the former Idolatry that had been the cause of their former Captivity they became guilty of the same immoralities and therefore they are commanded to love the Truth and Peace that so they being delivered from the Wrath of God might serve him without fear And now to apply this to our present Occasion There were two very ill effects that followed upon the Crime acted this day which still continue The one was the advantage that many weak and prejudiced persons took against the appearances of Religion Prayer and the motions of Gods Spirit all these having been so much pretended to at that time Many that were assured the fact was Barbarous and against all Law Divine and Humane came upon that to infer that Religion the addressing to God in Prayer and the being guided by the inward motions of Grace and Gods holy Spirit were at best but the illusions of fancy if not the contrivances of designing Men. The Inference was as unjust as could be yet so it was that this falling upon young and raw persons who were by the heat of their tempers much inclined to entertain those prejudices and that being wrought on by so great an Agent of Hell as the Author of Leviathan was many were upon this corrupted in their Principles about Religion in general And for all the sleights of Wit the shews of Reason and softness of Stile that were in that Book it could never have been so mischievously successeful as it then was if it had not been for the scandals which were given by the impudent pretensions of many of that time Their unintelligible way of talking about Religion their crumbling into so many Sects the aspirings of many under all the shews of Humility and Mortification tended to make the Seeds of Atheism grow up plentifully And to this I speak it knowingly we owe the beginnings of all those impious and immoral Maxims which have since overrun the Land And do not these effects continue still Is not Devotion accounted by many to be either a matter of Form or a piece of Enthusiasm for earnestness in Prayer and depending on the inward assistances of Gods holy Spirit how have men who know or value these things little themselves taken occasion from thence to disparage them with much Impudence and Scorn Some have thought they could not be esteemed Loyal if they appeared devout and therefore to purchase the one Character were willing not only to throw off but openly to reproach the other all they could What ill effects this has had how the Nation has been much corrupted by these Maxims and God highly offended is so obvious to every Mans observation that I need dwell no longer on it The other ill effect that still continues is the prejudice that the Enemies of our Church have cast on the Reformed Religion as holding that very Doctrine of killing Kings for which they had been so justly charged And perhaps that which at present is the ground of all our fears had its rise in a great measure from the Jealousies which upon this occasion were infused against the Protestant Religion It will be therefore no improper thing to shew you how justly the Church of Rome is accused of this and how unjustly it is cast on those of the Reformed Religion That this charge is truly fastned on the Church of Rome will appear in these particulars The power of deposing Kings is certainly a Doctrine of their Church as appears in the universal agreement to it and the Tradition of it for above five Ages in a more uninterrupted and uncontroverted series in all that time than can be shewed even for Transubstantiation it self Now if a King is deposed by the Pope and after such deposition if he is not so tame as to lay aside his Regal Dignity which it is very likely few Princes will do then they being lawfully deposed are Kings no more and if they pretend to be Kings still they are Usurpers so he that kills them does not kill a King but an Usurper And if the Pope creates a new Prince which by the same Authority is vested in him and is indeed a branch of the deposing power then the new Prince being lawfully vested with the Regal Authority may as justly authorise any to kill the deposed King as a lawful King may set a price upon any Rebels head This was well observed by those who undertook to defend the deposing power Swarez writing against King Iames tells him in plain terms a In Reg. Majest Brit. Lib. 6. c. 4. Sect. 10 That a King who is canonically deposed may be killed by any private man whatsoever Valentia says b In Thom. Tom. 3. Disp. 151. g. 4. p. 2. That an heretical Prince may be by the Popes sentence deprived of life and Becanus though Confessor to an Emperor Ferdinand the II. says c Cont. Ang. p. 115. No man doubts but if Princes are contumacious the Pope may order their lives to be taken away I might name many more