Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	king_n	prophet_n	samuel_n	2,676	5	9.8228	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51355	A sermon preach'd at the cathedral church of St.Paul's on May 29, 1699, before the right honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and citizens	Morer, Thomas, 1651-1715.	1699 (1699)	Wing M2723; ESTC R43468	20,595	31

Equal What the Issue of this Rebellion was that Chapter shews One Schism was punish'd with another and the Earth divided and swallowed them up So that how Arbitrary soever Moses was thought to be yet it pleas'd God to justifie him with Miracle and by a Plague immediately following let the People know whom they were to Obey as their Lord and Sovereign Josephus indeed informs us That under Moses and his Disciple Joshua who at that time had the Empire and Army the Nobility and other Worthy Men Ruled the State Antiq. l. 6. c. 6. He means the One Office was Military the Other Civil and so he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was their General Yet in this Case if the Nobility and Elders govern'd independant of the Prince how could this Author say that after Joshua's death the People were without Government eighteen Years till they found a Valiant Just Man to Rule who with his Successors were call'd Judges This proves their Power to decease with the Prince or otherwise the Nation could not be so many Years in an Anarchy or without any Government at all Nor had there been occasion to demand of Phineas Ibid. to whose Charge the Administration of Publick Affairs should be committed if that Senate had the Power pretended and could without any other Governour Protect and Rule the Nation We often read in the Book of Judges what a licentious and lawless Life the People lead during the several Interregnums or spaces of Time between the Death of one Judge and the Choice of another Not that they wanted Laws but there was not sufficient Power to force Obedience to them Thus it is said that it came to pass when the Judge was dead Ch. 2.9 that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their Fathers in following other Gods to serve them and bow down to them they ceased not from their own doings Ch. 17.6 nor from their stubborn way And again In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes This was too fully explain'd in the Sodomy of Gibeah and Micah's Idolatry in the very Verse before which being the proper Subject for the Sanhedrim to work upon as their Republicans give out and seems to be confirmed by that Saying of Christ Luk. 13.33 that it could not be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem the case of false Doctrine and false Worship being the Points that Court more especially took cognizance of If there had been I say all along from Moses downwards such a standing Authority among the Jews how comes it to pass we find the Accounts of so much Irreligion and bad Morals in their days so inconsistent with the Notion of that Consistory and the Influence it is supposed to have had over Prince and People The great Instances of Prerogative and Majesty in making War creating Judges and which we might think the proper work of the Sanhedrim the ordering of Church-Affairs deposing ill Ministers and the like That all this was done sometimes immediately by the Kings themselves must be evident to any body who will be at the pains to go thro' the History of those Princes in the Books of Samuel Kings and Chronicles Nay the very putting a Prophet to death or discharging him out of Prison This also was the King's Act as we see in the Example of Zedekiah and Jeremiah Jerem. 38. and this without the Rebuke or Murmur of that Assembly tho' then the King's Circumstances were very low and might have encouraged them to it And when we further add That the Holy Book charges the King with the execution of Justice and punishes him for the Peoples Sins which would be very hard if the Male-administration or Mismanagement were not his own or that he had not sufficient Power to order things better All this is evidence That the terrible Notion of the Sanhedrim is such a Dream as perhaps may frighten him that hath it but is of no great Effect to move other People or engage them to believe it any thing else but the disorder and weakness of the sleeper's Brain Yet we must allow that in the last Ages of the Jews after the Babylonish Capitivity this Court made some small Figure in that part of the World and we have a sad Testimony of it in their Behaviour towards the Lord Christ an unparalell'd piece of Barbarism and Cruelty serviceable indeed to the Decrees of God and the Redemption of Mankind but which shews them to be Men without the common Principles of Conscience and Honesty in murdering a Just Person whom the President himself declared Innocent But admit them such a Court in those days with that Plenary Power they boast of which is difficult to prove and 't is plain the Roman Deputies were at length above it yet 't is a good Answer for us to say that from the beginning it was not so and we are now speaking of such Judges as were at the first and such Counsellours as were at the beginning And though we should admit the Institution of the Seventy Two under the Character of the latter as probably some of them might be Counsellours and Ministers of State and therefore Hebrew Writers say That it was one necessary qualification to recommend them if they understood the Languages in order to be Interpreters to their Princes yet that they were not such Judges as the first word supposes and had no Power paramount to the Kings of Israel appears by what hath been offer'd against this Objection And therefore taking it for granted that the Jewish Government was as indeed it was Monarchial we pass to the Second Thing To shew and describe the Happiness this People were to have in the Restauration of that ancient Constitution 2. I will restore The Government referred to being that of Moses and Aaron Joshua and the Judges 't will be requisite to lay before you in little the Acts Conduct and Behaviour of those Princes and let you see how they did contribute to the Prosperity of their Subjects And to begin with Moses His first care was to make good Laws Civil and Religious and see them impartially executed And what pains he took this way we may partly read Exod. 18.13 c. And Moses sate to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening and he made them know the Statutes of God and his Laws And this he did with so much Application that his Health was in great danger by it and therefore Raguel his Wife's Father gave him the Advice above-mention'd to appoint Commissioners for the decision of lesser Matters When at any time the Necessities of the People made them murmur in the Wilderness and gave 'em reason as they thought to Libel his Government tho' there was not the least shadow of ill Conduct on his side yet his Meekness was such that he would not punish the Insolence but