Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	great_a	time_n	year_n	7,732	5	4.6212	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48856	A sermon preach'd before the House of Lords at the Abbey-Church of St. Peter's-Westminster, on Saturday the 30th of January, 1696/7 being the anniversary of the death of King Charles I of Glorious Memory / by ... William, Lord Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield ...	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1697 (1697)	Wing L2717; ESTC R20280	14,839	34

so oft they repeated those Fasts And thus they did every Year for Seventy Years together in Memory of those great Calamities Thus in former Times before the Babylonian Captivity when God's People had lost the best King that ever they had King Josias the only Man that stood between them and the heavy judgments of God for his Death they had a Fast which they continued till the Captivity and afterwards for no less than a Hundred and Fifty Years We know not how much longer but we know it was above an Hundred and Fifty Years after that Ezra writ the Second Book of Chronieles where Chap XXXV 25. that Writer saith they continue it to this Day that is till the Time of his Writing that History But what is an Hundred and Fifty Years to the continuance of these Fasts in my Text The Fast of the Fifth Month and the Seventh and also those of the Fourth and of the Tenth Month all which you read of together here Chap. VIII 19. All these Fasts continued in the Jewish Church till the Last Destruction of Jerusalem which was near Six Hundred Years after So long God accepted what they did in observing them as we may reasonably judge Because as we are sure they observed those Fasts in Christ's Time for they do so still to this Day so we see Christ did not reprove them for these Fasts as he did for all the Jewish Corruptions and Superstitions nor did they ever Tax him for breaking those Fasts and therefore we have no reason to doubt but that he kept those Fasts with them But after his Death they kept them still till the Destruction of Jerusalem as we gather from Josephus and all this Time the Apostles of Christ still kept these Fasts with them After the Destruction of Jerusalem they were no more the People of God And therefore it matters not much what they did as to any Authority we can draw from it but as to matter of History we know that for these Sixteen Hundred Years since they are continued still in that Nation And no doubt they will continue still in the Observation of these Fasts till their gathering again after their Conversion to Christ. Then it will be fulfilled which we read in the Eighth Chap. of this Prophecy Where speaking of the Conversion of the Jews in the time of the Messias the Prophet tells them Ver. 19. beforementioned Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and chearful feasts He shews plainly that this shall be after the Conversion of the Jews by what follows in the Two Last Verses of that Chapter What I have said may give some satisfaction to them that have a Curiosity to know how long these Fasts here mentioned were to continue But I confess that was beside my present intention I intended only this to shew that in all Ages it hath been the Practice of God's Church to keep Yearly Days of fasting upon such sad occasions and to continue those Fasts from Age to Age if occasion required Which being considered there needs no other Answer be given to them that ask a reason of our keeping this Yearly Solemnity I do not speak now of them that are so wicked to justify the King's Murther but of them that have the same sense of it that we have and yet because they do not love Fasting or whatever the reason may be they would not have the Memory of it kept up in this manner They say What need is there of this for a thing that was done so long ago It is now Forty Eight Years since that Blessed King was put to Death And since that time have we not seen the Restauration of the Royal Family Was not our Fast Then turned literally into Festival And do we not keep that Festival ever since They think much to be obliged to this Festival so long after but much more to Keep a Fast for that which as to them seems to be quite worn out of Memory Now for Men that Talk at this rate if they are Men of no Conscience such are not to be satisfied But for them that pretend to tender Consciences they if they are truly such may and will be satisfied out of Scripture In my Text they see the People of God in Scripture-times when they had kept Four such Fasts every Year for Seventy Years together that is a great deal more than Forty Eight yet they were not weary of keeping them They had no Objection against Two of them but for other Two of those Fasts they had an Objection against them much like one of those that I have now mentioned Their Fast for the Destruction of the Temple and that for the Unpeopling of the Land Now both these occasions were ceas'd The Temple was now Rebuilding and the People was returned from Captivity Now they had reason to think both these Fasts might be turned into Festivals at least those Two Fasts they might think were to be no longer continued And that was the reason of their sending to know the Will of God by his Prophets But what was the Will of God concerning this matter Was it that they should keep these Fasts no longer No. But that they should keep them better better then they had done all this while Had they kept them fifty Years as they ought to have done there was just fifty Years from the Destruction of the Temple till Cyrus his Reign then in the Second Year of Cyrus there had been an end of their fasting For there was an end of the Seventy Years from the 4th of Jehoiakim the time that God had prefixed for the Babylonian Captivity In the First Year of Cyrus they returned from the Captivity and in the Second the foundation of the Temple was laid But then they were so little reformed by all their fasting that for their Sins the Building was stopt the next Year as you may see in the 4th of Ezra and the 10th Chapter of Daniel The stop was near Twenty Years in all which time they fasted on and were never the better They were content as Haggai complains of them that God's House should lie waste while their own Houses were in Building Hag. 1. 2 4 9. They had not a Zeal for Religion No nor had they any Justice nor Charity for one another They were every one scraping for himself what he could get This was it that Haggai and Zecharith the Prophets then living both Preached and Writ to reprove And while it was thus with God's People though they kept their Fasts all this while God asks them For whose pleasure and to whose service they did it have you fasted and mourned these seventy years to me even unto me By his Question Was it to me that you fasted His meaning is it was not to me Your Fast was not