Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A31405
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A sermon preached in a country-audience on the late day of fasting and prayer, January 30 by a priest of the Church of England.
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Cave, John, d. 1690.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing C1585; ESTC R36288
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19,279
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33
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in his sight It is good counsel for us to be sure which Zophar gave Job If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles Job 11.14 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear There will be no fear no danger where there is no guilt Nothing but our sins can alienate us from the favour and the protection of the Almighty nothing else can defeat our Prayers infatuate our counsels weaken our endeavours give courage and success to our adversaries If our Religion have better effects upon us than theirs hath upon them if it make us more righteous more sober more godly more charitable more peaceable more loyal than theirs doth them if it exceed theirs as much in its efficacy as it doth in its principles God will then easily be intreated for us he will be sure then to be on our side and we need not fear what man can do unto us We need not fear the subtilty or the strength of our Enemies but we may hope upon good grounds that the same Almighty Saviour who delivered this Kingdom and Church from that formidable and as it seemed invincible Armado in 88. That he that blew up the deep design of the Powder Plotters and by a miraculous discovery did then preserve our King our Princes Nobles and the whole Parliament and with them our Liberties and Religion from a dreadful destruction That he that hath so often disappointed the confidence defeated the counsels laid open the most secret Plots of our Romish adversaries against the lives of our Protestant Rulers and the Being of our Protestant Religion That he that brought order out of the greatest confusion of a Civil War and a lawless Government he that so powerfully and graciously restored our present Sovereign recovered our State and Church from their desolate ruines and hath by a no less wonderful providence lately preserved our King from so many devilish conspiracies against his Crown and Life I say we have good reason to hope that the God who hath hitherto delivered us will still do so in our greatest fears and perplexities if we turn from our evil ways by repentance and turn unto him by earnest and fervent Prayer He will not cast off his people Psal 94.14 nor forsake his inheritance Thus have I shewed you that in our general Prayers for all Men we are under an especial obligation to pray for the Church and Country whereof we are a part and I have directed you how to pray how to ask so that you may obtain I must proceed to shew you in the next place that as you are to pray for the whole body of the Kingdom so more especially for the Head and Governour of it for the King as supream and all Magistrates under him and this my Text exacts of me I exhort first of all that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority whether they be good or bad for the good that God would be pleased to confirm and prosper them in their vertuous proceedings and keep their hearts sound in his Statutes for the bad That he in whose hands are the hearts of Kings to turn them whithersoever he will would convert and reform them by a mighty grace that he would pardon their sins that he would subdue them to his obedience over-rule them by his power and restrain them from acting any thing either to their own or the publick detriment The Kings whom the first Christians were to pray thus for were not only Heathens without the Church but bitter Enemies to it and bloody persecutors of it for Idolatry Cruelty and Tyranny humani generis portenta the Monsters the Prodigies of their time and kind yet these wicked Kings and Emperours must be prayed for much more Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of the Church much more our own King in whose life and welfare we are so nearly concerned Let us pray heartily for him what we pray every day for him that he may alway incline to Gods will and walk in his way beseeching Him also by whom Kings reign to establish his Throne defend his person direct his Counsels and shew him the things that belong to his own peace and the peace and security of his people I shall give you some reasons and motives to enforce this duty 1. Such as are more general to move us to pray for all Kings at all times 2. Such as more particularly should stir us up to pray for our own King at this time I begin with the first 1. One great motive to pray for Kings and all in Authority is the motive in my Text viz. That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty The whole Kingdom share in the well-doing and prosperity and also in the miscarriages and misfortunes of a Prince He is the light of his Israel if he be quenched nay if he be but clouded or eclipsed what darkness and confusion what discomfort and horrour presently overwhelms the whole State As the Sun and Stars are ordained in nature to give vigour and life to Trees Plants and other sublunary creatures so is the face and countenance of Authority sanctified by God for the cherishing and quickning for the strengthing and refreshing all the seeds of piety and religion that are by our ministry sown in the hearts of men Their laws their protection and their example have an influence upon godliness as well as honesty The power and Jurisdiction of Christian Princes reaching the Church as well as the State And however Mariana and other Jesuites have determined ut nihil Princeps de religione statuat Mariana cap. 10. excluding Kings from all Ecclesiastical government and making St. Peters pretended successour the Pope sole Monarch here yet if the high Priest had arrogated so much in Davids time He himself had not ordered the courses and attendance of the Levites as we read he did 1 Chron. 9.22 23. nor in Hezekiahs time 2 Chron. 30. who himself appointed the services of the Priests and Levites and gave special order by Royal Edict for the celebration of the great Passover and that too at an unusual time Yea it might easily be shewed that the Sovereigns among all people not only Christians but Heathens have both claimed and exercised power over religious persons and in religious causes as well as others Arist Polit. l. 7. c. 8. The great Philosopher tells us that the first and principal thing in a Commonwealth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a care of religion and in the Scriptures we find not only the Kings of Israel such as Moses Josuah David Solomon Asa Jehosapaht Hezekiah Josiah c. but the King of Babylon and Darius the Persian publishing their Edicts to and fro about the worship of their false Gods and of the true God also Neither did