Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A67559
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Against resistance of lawful powers a sermon preached at White-Hall, Novemb. Vth, 1661 / by Seth Ward ...
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Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing W812; ESTC R10700
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22,608
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47
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let us have recourse to the main Foundations the Body and Substance of Christianity the MISHPAT HAMELEK the Ius Regium the Fundamental Law of the Kings of Israel 1. Christianity obligeth us to believe not onely that Christ is God and that the Gospel is from God but that all the Circumstances of the Ministery of Christ and his Apostles were ordered by his Providence Why then were the Times of Tiberius and Caligula and Claudius and Nero out of the Series of the Time spun out from the Creation chosen and selected for the promulgation of the Doctrine of Obedience If harsh Administration of Power will exempt men from Obedience at that Time when Claudius or Nero was Romane Emperour why should the Holy Ghost move Saint Paul to write to the Romans They that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation So much briefly for the Gospel 2 As for the Ius Regium in the eighth of the the first Book of Samuel we finde the Israelites desiring a King and God though rejected by this motion commands Samuel to hearken to their voice Yet that they might know what they did and not be surprised believing they might cast off again their King at pleasure he charges him to protest solemnly and shew them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Translation renders it The manner of the King The Septuagint and all antient Eastern and Western Translations render it by words signifying the Law or the Right of the King JUS REGIUM This saith Samuel shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall take your Sons and Daughters your Vine-yards your Fields and your Flocks c. He tells them of harsh Administrations Was it the meaning of the Holy Ghost that de Iure Princes ought to do or that it was lawfull for them to do after the manner there described In the seventeenth Chapter of Deuteronomy we finde the Duty of the Kings of Israel described in a way directly contrary to this they were to fear the Lord and not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left from his Commandments Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Was it a Prediction of what would be their condition what would be the manner of their Kings Not that neither We do not read of any of the Kings of Iudah or Israel that proceeded to the height there expressed Even Ahab who sold himself to work wickedness did not take Naboth's Vine-yard by force he would not seise on it till Iezebel had brought about the pretense of a Legal Forfeiture What then is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surely it imports thus much that if all this hard usage should come upon them they might cry unto the Lord Verse 18 but that it would not dissolve Ius Regium the right of Sovereignty or enable them to resist their Kings or rebel against them II. There remains yet one Pretense to speak to it concerns Competition of Power either on 1. Pretenses of Succession into the Magistrate's place in case of failour of Duty or upon supposals of forfeiture of Power 2. Pretenses of the last resolution of Power into the people the diffused multitude or the people's Representative and the like Concerning which kinde of Pretenses I must repeat what hath been said of the other If they be admitted they are destructive to Magistracie If they be encouraged by Religion there will be reason that Magistrates be jealous over it But now is the Spirit of the Scriptures and the tendency of it entirely bent another way The New Testament affords no Instance in this kinde As to the Old I shall desire that two Instances may be considered 1. The Case of David and Saul 2. The Case of Corah and Moses which two Instances if the time would bear it would take in the Substance of all that may be alledged in this kinde 1. It is I conceive impossible to carry the first sort of Pretenses higher then they were stated in the Case of David and Saul Saul was at first declared and constituted King by Samuel acting in the Name of the Lord and when he had reigned two years the same Samuel in the Name of the same God before the same people denounces publickly that his Kingdom should not continue and that God had sought a man after his own heart because he invaded the Priest's Office After this he limits a certain day he tells him This day the Lord hath rent the Kingdom of Israel from thee and given it to thy neighbour because of his rebellion against God in the Case of Amalek The pretense of Failour and Forfeiture can go no higher Now for the pretenses of David to step into his Government and wrest it from him He was anointed by Samuel for ought appears without reservation for the life of Saul He was qualified for Government a valiant man a man of War prudent in matters a comely Person and the Lord was with him He had received Testimony from God of his Election the Spirit of God departed from Saul and rested upon him He had power in his hand he was set over the men of War accepted by all the people all Israel and Iudab loved him After all this you know his Provocations his Advantages and his Behaviour he durst not touch the Lord 's anointed and when another pretended to have done it at Saul's entreaty in extremis he revenged his death and lamented over him Ye mountains of Gilboa c. But that other Pretense that after a lawfull Sovereign is established according to the Supposition of my Text and my Discourse the power still remains in the people in the diffused body of them or their Representatives to alter the Government as they please it is in respect of Policy and Government what the Sin against the Holy Ghost is to Religion it destroys the foundations of the peace and safety of men and makes that to be the Artifice of man which is the Ordinance of God How much God abhorred this Pretense will appear in the Case of Corah and his company When God sent Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt he sanctified him and put his Name upon him Thou shalt be to him instead of God and when he had brought them forth he made him a Prince and a Law-giver over them The supreme Power was in Moses who called to his assistance a Senate or Parliament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting of the Heads of the Tribes of Israel In this Council Nature soon began to work some envied Moses whom God bad chosen and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Dathan and Abiram the Sons of Eliab Heads of Families in the Tribe of Reuben thought both the Civil Power and if that must be transferred from the first-born to one Tribe the Priesthood also was due to them being Eldest Brethren of the Eldest