Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A58795
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The Christian life. Part II wherein the fundamental principles of Christian duty are assigned, explained, and proved : volume I / by John Scott ...; Christian life. Part 2
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing S2050; ESTC R20527
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226,080
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542
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People Gods Authority is quite excluded from having any hand in the Government of the World In short If the Choice of the People makes their Governor without Gods authorising him he is the Peoples Vice-roy and not Gods but if it be God that authorises him he is Gods Vice-roy and not the Peoples So that their choice even in Elective Governments can signifie no more than the bare presenting of a Person to God to be authorised his Vicegerent by him who if their Choice be just and lawful is supposed to consent to and approve it and thereby to authorise the Person so presented For sovereign Authority in the Abstract is ordained and instituted by God but abstract Authority cannot govern unless some Person be vested with it and to vest him with it he must not only be applied to the Authority but the Authority must also be applied to him but where the People have the Right of Election they only apply the Person to the Authority but 't is Gods Consent and Approbation that applies the Authority to the Person who thereupon commences Supreme under God and hath no superior Tribunal but Gods to account to AND thus according to the Prophet Daniel the most High rules in the Kingdoms of Men Because as Lord of all the Lords and King of all the Kings of the Earth he rules and governs by their Ministry and they rule and govern by his Authority So that to secure and maintain the Obligations which Gods Government of the World devolves upon us it is necessary we should believe that all rightful Sovereigns are his Vicegerents and do rule by his Commission and Authority and that the Sword which they bear is Gods who hath delivered it into their Hands to protect his faithful Subjects and to execute his Wrath and avenge his Authority upon Evil-doers So that we cannot rebel against them nor wilfully disobey their just Commands without giving a Defiance to God himself and rejecting the Yoke of his Government Whilst therefore we behave our selves Factiously and Seditiously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World and whilst we do so all our Pretences to Religion are impudent lies and Impostures IV. IN order to our being truly Religious it is also necessary we should believe that God is ready to contribute to us all that Assistance which is necessary to enable us to observe his Laws That whereas in this corrupt State of our Nature we are so indisposed to all good by our carnal Affections and vicious Habits as that without some foreign Aid it is morally certain we shall never be reduced to a through Compliance with our Duty God is always ready not only to second but to prevent our Endeavours to inspire good Thoughts into our Minds and by them to kindle devout Affections in our Wills and by them to excite us to a constant Course of pious and virtuous Endeavours and that when he hath proceeded thus far with us he doth not presently abandon us to our selves and leave us to contend and struggle in vain with insuperable Difficulties but all along cooperates with us aids and assists our Faculties and with his holy Inspirations cherishes our languishing Endeavours till they have wrought their way through all the Difficulties of Religion into a permanent State of Piety and Virtue So that unless we either turn a deaf Ear to those good Thoughts he suggests to us and refuse to listen to their Perswasions or quench those holy Affections which they kindle in us with earthly Cares and Pleasures or by wilful sinning harden our Hearts against all the Impressions of his Grace we shall not fail of being frequently and powerfully excired by him to Piety and Virtue and when he thus excites us if we do not wilfully slacken our Endeavours and basely surrender back our selves to our Lusts in despight of all our Resolutions and his Perswasions to the contrary we shall be so effectually and constantly assisted by him as that it will be impossible for us to fail of Success For thus the Scripture assures us that he gives Grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5.5 and thereby works in them to will and to do Phil. 2.13 and that to this End he gives his holy Spirit to every one that asks Luke 11.13 The Belief of which is absolutely necessary to oblige us to submit to Religion For tho we are naturally free to Good as well as Evil yet through the vicious Habits we have generally contracted either through youthful Levity and Inconsideration or ill Education and Example our Liberty to good is so streightned and confined that whenever we attempt to exercise it we find a prevailing Byass on our Natures that carries us the contrary way bearing before it all our good Resolutions and tiring out our short-breath'd Endeavours so that the good we would we do not and the evil we would not we do And therefore unless we can depend upon God for Assistance against the Violence and Outrage of our bad Inclinations after we have once strugled with them in vain and thereby made a woful Experiment of our own Impotence we shall out of mere Despair of prevailing against them give over attempting it and utterly abandon our selves to their Tyranny BUT if we firmly believe that God who knows our Weakness and our Enemies strength will in Proportion to both readily assist us whensoever we heartily invoke his Aid and in Concurrence therewith exert our own Endeavour we have all the Encouragement in the World to undertake our Duty maugre all the Difficulties that attend it For being assured that God will concur with our Endeavours we may depend upon it that not only our own Endeavours are in our Power but Gods Assistance too and that the Corruptions of our Nature do not so much over-match our Endeavours as Gods Assistance over-matches those Corruptions So that if we heartily exert our Endeavour we are sure we cannot fail of Success because we know that God will assist our Endeavour and that with his Assistance we cannot but be victorious Since therefore the Grace of God is as much under the Command of our Will as our own Principles of Action it is as much in our Power to do that which we cannot do without Gods Grace as to do that which we can And therefore if Gods Grace be sufficient to supply the Defect of our natural Power and enable us to conquer the Difficulties of our Duty we are sure there is nothing in it can be too hard for us because now we can do not only all that we can do by our selves but also all that we can do by the Grace of God V. To oblige us to be truly Religious it is also necessary we should believe that the Assistance which God affords us is such as supposes us free Agents and concurs with and maintains our natural Freedom That it