Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A42720
|
The wicked petition, or, Israel's sinfulness in asking a king explain'd in a sermon at the assizes held at Northampton, March the 1st, 1680/1 / by Fr. Giffard.
|
Giffard, Francis.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing G690; ESTC R195
|
24,129
|
36
|
and she was made to be a Meet Help to him so that he must have it in his Power to make her so Besides he is of a more Elevated and Substantial Worth and she is the weaker Vessel This Reason Tully tells us was observ'd of Old Cic. in Orat. Pro L. Muraena Mulieres omnes propter infirmitatem Concilii majores in tutorem potestate esse voluerunt The Son owes Obedience to the Father because he owes his Being to him and commonly many of the Advantages of it by his Education and because he is as much a part of him as is his best Blood as is any Member of his Body the Son being the Father's Transcript and having his Blood and Nature in him particularly the Eldest Son having his Blood and Nature first in him being the Beginning and Chief of his Strength being next to him and entring first into the Possession of his Power all the other Children are by Primitive Institution after the Father's Death subject to the Eldest Brother and consequently all of the same Blood to the Eldest of the Eldest Line of it This Title of Primogeniture to rule was anciently acknowledged by the Followers of Nature Dicaearchus particularly and Aristotle speak of the Dominion of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and say it was of Old in use in the Cities of Greece But it is declared by God himself in several places of Scripture I shall instance only in one touching the first First-born When God saw him I mean Cain discontented because he approved of Abel's Sacrifice and not of his Vnto thee shall be his Desire and thou shalt rule over him said God to him in the same Language that he used to Eve concerning Adam's Dominion over her as if he should have told him that notwithstanding the Goodness of his Brother's and the Faultiness of his own Religion he would not take from him the Right of Dominion which he had over him by Primogeniture By the Rule of what I have said Adam was Universal Monarch of the Earth and Cain should have been so after him if he survived but that he forfeited his Right of being so together with his Life by the Murder of his Brother so it fell to Seth and his Family upon which Account I put it that Cainan as the Arabian Writers say was King of all the Earth and that Abydenus and Berosus reckon Ten Kings before the Flood as there were Ten Generations from Adam to Noah However Noah was by the Flood put almost into the same Condition with Adam therefore he is by an East-Indian Sect of Philosophers called The Second Adam But it was not long before if several of the Fathers were not misinform'd he parted the Earth by Lot between his three Sons by which means the Inequality which was among all Mankind by Nature as to Government was in part broken However it is certain that a Parity of Rule among many more Persons was brought in by the Dispersion of Noah's Children at Babel of which God was the Author of that extraordinary Oeconomy But it was a Parity not of all People of the same Society but of several distinct Monarchs only When God scattered the Race of Men by the Confusion of Tongues it was not done with so much Confusion but that he took Order there should be in every seperate Parcel of them one who had a Right of Sovereignty over the rest We find in the Tenth Chapter of Genesis that God scattered them all by Families and that of every Family there was a Father or Head and consequently one that was King of it and a Founder of a Kingdom therein and that Hereditary This I could confirm of most of the Families and their Heads there mentioned by Humane Records and that as well of those that planted themselves in Northern Climates as of those that sate down in the Eastern and Southern but it is not here convenient God having thus took order that Monarchy should be according to the Law of Nature the Government of every several distinct Society of Men which he constituted at Babel and that Successively it continued in Vogue among all Nations for at least a Thousand Years after that Aristotle says That Anciently Arist l. 1. Polit. Salust in Bello Catilin Cicero de Leg. lib. 3. Just l. 1. the Cities and Nations were under the Authority of Kings The same is testified by Salust Cicero Justin out of Trogus Pompeius and others particularly of Greece where there at length sprang up so many Free Commonwealths or Aristocratical and Democratical States Dyonissius Halicarnasseus assures us Dionys Hal. l. 5. that it was Originally Governed all by Kings To come Home Tacitus hath these Words of the Britains Olim regibus parebant nunc per Principes factionibus studiis trahuntur Indeed in all Records whether of good or doubtful Credit we find no People in our Island before we find a King So little does it appear that the British Kings derived their Scepters from the Hands of the People Secondly Monarchy only was the Government that God appointed to his People Israel He from their first coming out of Egypt took the Government of them upon himself and they came under a Theocracy God therefore complains upon the Occasion in our Text That they had rejected him that he should not Reign over them and Samuel that they said they would have a King when the Lord their God was their King This his Regency over them he exercised by extraordinary Methods and immediate Dispensations and he made Moses Joshuah and the Judges his Vice-Roys who though none of them had the Name of King except Moses of whom it 's said he was King in Jesurun Deut. 33.5 when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gather'd together they all exercised a Regal Authority But God did not intend that they should have no other Mode of Government he designed them in due Season such Kings as other Nations had Besides that by the Spirit of God Jacob said The Scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come And Balaam his King speaking of Israel shall be higher than Agag and his Kingdom shall be exalted and the Mother of Samuel Deut. 17. He shall give Strength unto his King and exalt the Horn of his Annointed Moses said from God When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations that are about me thou shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee c. The latter part of which words may more Grammatically and properly be render'd thus Setting thou shalt set over thee a King whom the Lord thy God shall chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee Or thus Thou shalt
by all means set over thee a King him whom God shall chuse from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee In this Sence the Syriack Version renders it To the same purpose the Targum of Ben. Vzziel Ye shall seek Learning or Instructions of the Lord and after that shall set over you a King It is not lawful to set a Stranger over you who is not of your Brethren Let us here by the way observe It is not said Thou shalt set under but over and the People are here spoken of in the Singular Number as one Congregate Body So that the King that should be Constituted was to be to the whole imbodied Society not an Inferior Minister but a Superior Magistrate To this General Body of the People God's Words are so far from allowing them a Liberty of setting up what Government they would that they altogether deny it to them Had God left them to chuse whether they would set up Monarchy or Aristocracy or Democracy or some Mixture of them he would certainly have spoken of the rest as well as he does of the First but whereas he propounds to them only a King and gives them Rules only about him especially since no where in Scripture God gives them any Measures for any other Supreme Governors or Government it is plain he intended they should have no other Supreme Government but that of a King A true Paraphrase of the Words take thus in short When you shall be well setled in your Habitations and shall in a fitting manner declare your selves to have a mind to set over you Regal Government but not any other I am pleased that you should and by all means you shall set over you that Government but not any other but then you shall set over you a King whom I shall chuse c. Then he goes on to give Rules for the King to observe and concludes them thus To the end that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel by which Words God plainly exprest what Good Will he had for a Kingdom and that an Hereditary one and for the Right Possessor of it and his Heirs and how Advantageous the Continuance thereof would be to the People According to this Sence of this place the Masters of Hebrew Learning say that of three Commands which God gave the People of Israel to execute as soon as they were well settled in the Land of Canaan this was the First That they should set a King over them I shall only add on this Head that the Throne of the Kings of Israel 1 Chr. 29.33 2. Chr. 13.8 is called The Throne of the Lord and their Kingdom The Kingdom of the Lord. Thirdly God in Scripture declares himself in Favor of a Monarchy set up by Force against a Government mix'd of Aristocracy and Democracy and against the Wills of those that were invested herewith Such every one that is acquainted with History must necessarily believe the Government of the Roman Emperors to be And yet the Holy Ghost gives the Emperor the Name of Augustus which was a Name of Holiness as appears by Macrobius calling the Dedicated Table in the Heathen Temples where were their epulae libationes et stipes Mensam Augustatam And he gives that Name Luke 2.1 Acts 27.1 1 Tim. 2.2 1 Pet. 2.13.17 not only to Caius Octavius but also if I take aim aright to Nero he gives either Claudius or Nero or both the Name of King which the Emperors for a long time shun'd because the Romans disliked it as signifying the Loss of their Liberty 1 Tim. 2.2 He commands Prayers and Thanksgiving to be offer'd up for the Roman Emperor Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13.17 and as Tribute and Honor so also Submission to be paid to him and this as Supreme and for the Lord's Sake He says also in relation to him when either Claudius or Nero wore the Diadem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. the Powers the Authorities that are at present existing are ordained of God and that whoever resisted him resisted the Ordinance of God and that he was the Minister of God Fourthly Kings are represented standing in a much nearer Relation to God than any other Secular Governours But this is too full a Subject to be now discoursed Fifthly It is God's Charge to all to have a most awful Respect for the King and not to be of their Party who vary from it or who enterprise any Alteration from Kingly Government And this by the Rule of having a most Awful Respect for the true God and of not joyning with such as vary from it or as enterprise any Alteration from his Monarchy they being Duties that are closely linked together and because hasty Destruction and such ill Fortune as no Body knows before-hand what it shall be or perhaps will apprehend when it comes certainly attend and will unawares befall as well the Sinners of the former sort as those of the latter So must those Words of Solomon be understood My Son Prov. 24.21 fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with those that are given to Change For their Calamity shall rise suddainly and who knoweth the Ruine of them both Both Changers from the Fear of the Lord and Changers from the Fear of the King Sixthly God speaks of Regal Government as alone justly agreable to the business of Government which in regard to those that are to be Governed is that they may live a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty Godliness first in paying God his Rights then Honesty So far is salus Populi from being Suprema Lex What less can we think when we find it said twice in the Book of Judges Judge 17.6 21.25 In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was Right in his own Eyes especially considering what grievous Confusions then prevailed and what impious and flagitious Enormities were then committed in the Relations of some of which it is said Judg. 18.1 19.1 In those days there was no King in Israel a Signification that they were to be ascribed to the want of a King though at the same time Judg. 21.16 Judg. 20.28 there were both Elders of the Congregation and a Renowned High-Priest What less can we think when we read in the same Book They came to Laish and saw the People that were therein how they dwelt careless after the manner by the Law of the Zidonians quiet and secure Judg. 18.7 and there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to Shame considering unto what Mischiefs we find them betrayed by that State of Affairs and that the two words which we translate Magistrate properly denote an hereditary Possessor of Supreme Government For to signifie such a Government is the word Esar used in Scripture particularly in the Business of the Text whence I cannot but think