Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A37437
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Reflections upon the late great revolution written by a lay-hand in the country for the satisfaction of some neighbours.
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D844; ESTC R9630
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42,486
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74
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approve their Choice he being the best King and the best Man that we read of in the whole Catalogue of the Kings of Judah he performing his Duty both to God and his People so very well it would have been a shame to his Subjects if they had not requited him by paying him all that Observance and Duty to which he could have any Pretence But altho he may be an Example to the best of Kings the Scripture giving him this Eulogie And like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to the Law of Moses Neither after him arose there any like him Yet from him we may best learn what an intolerable Mischief a Wicked King is for tho Josiah was so very good yet there was an old Arrere of his Grandfather Manasseh that all his Vertue and Goodness could not clear For Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal And the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel and will cast off this City Jerusalem which I have chosen and the House of which I said My Name shall be there 2 Kings 23.26 27. Therefore what Reasons have both Church and State to deprecate such a King as will infallibly intail Ruine on both For you see that God's House even that House that he had chose to set his Name there shall be involved in the common Destruction Therefore were I to add a new Clause to the Litany it should be From such a King as Manasseh Good Lord deliver us But above all we ought to be fearful of and pray against an Idolatrous and Bloody King for those are the two Crimes with which Manasseh is particularly charged and which hastned the Captivity of Judah and consequently shortned the Life and Reign of the good and beloved Josiah to whom it was particularly promised as a Blessing that he should not live to see the Ruine and Desolation that was to be brought on the Nation after his Death After which the people of the land took Jehoabas the son of Josiah and made him King in his fathers stead in Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36.1 and 2 Kings 23.30 But altho he inherited his Father's Kingdom it seems he did not his Vertues for it follows in ver 32. That he did evil in the sight of the Lord and so his Reign was very short for Pharaoh Necho makes him a Prisoner and carries him into Egypt and makes his elder Brother Jehoiakim King in his stead in whose days the King of Babylon first came up against Judah and after his death Jehoiachin succeeds whom Nebuchadnezzar carries to Babylon and makes Zedekiah King in whom the Succession was quite inverted for he was Uncle and not in the Direct Line and the Monarchy also ending with him I should here have concuded this Part of my Discourse but that I cannot omit one Observation and that is That there were several Kings of Judah alive at the same time It is certain Two Jeconiah and Zedekiah but for any thing I know there might be Three for we do not read of the Death of Jehoahas who was carried Prisoner into Egypt and by his Age I 'm sure he might survive Zedekiah's carrying to Babylon for he was but Twenty three Years old when he began to reign and his own Reign with all the Three Kings that succeeded him do not make Twenty three Years more before the Captivity But now I would fain know what the Royalists of our Age would do in such a Case and which of the Three they would own For there was great Variety One set up by the People the second as Heir to him whom the King of Egypt had set up and the third set up by the King of Babylon But I do not find that the Jews had any such Scruples at that time but always obey'd them which were in possession as long as they were so let them be set up by whom they would and the Scripture gives them the same Epithete they are all called Kings without ever disputing their Titles Nor are the People reproved for obeying Zedekiah altho they knew that Jehoiachin who had certainly the better Title and had also reign'd as King was alive But altho the People are not rebuked for submitting to Zedekiah whom Nebuchanezzar had set over them yet Zedekiah is for not obeying the King of Babylon to whom he had past his Word that he would So that we may see that Kings are obliged by their Oaths and Promises as well as other Men. Which brings me to my third Particular I was to prove which is That at the first setting up of Kings among the Jews their Power was not Absolute but that they were obliged to certain Covenants and Conditions And altho I will not pretend to prove it of every individual King yet if I can do it of the first and second and also the solemn repeating of it after an Interregnum I shall hope I have done all that can be expected from me For whoever succeeds to a Crown is supposed to take it on the same Conditions his Predecessors had it which it would be superfluous for the Story to repeat every time And therefore I shall not make a long Preface to a Point that I hope so easily to dispatch for I suppose that a few plain Scripture-proofs will for I 'm sure they ought to go farther than a long Rhetorical Discourse And how few Instances soever I can bring yet I shall begin at the Spring-head and make the first Kings Saul and David Witnesses to the Truth of what I now assert and prove that such a Compact and Agreement between the Prince and People is the very Corner-stone of Monarchy it self And that I may do this the more fully and clearly I must beg my Reader 's Pardon tho I carry him so far back as the Inauguration of Saul the first King of Israel But I shall not tire his Patience so much as to repeat all that I have already said of Samuel's displeasure at the People for rejecting God and defiring a Man to be set over them for their King 1 Sam. 10.19 And tho Samuel to terrifie them had represented the King they desired rather in the shape of a Tyrant that would destroy and ruine than of a Prince that was to defend and save them 1 Sam. 8. from the 11 th to the 19 th yet seeing they would not be discouraged but still persisted in their Resolution Nay but we will have a King over us God was so merciful to them as to give Rules to this unruly King that Samuel had described As I think we may safely collect from 1 Sam. 10.25 Then Samuel told the People the manner of the Kingdom and wrote it in a Book