Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	supremacy_n	3,288	5	10.6148	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48734	A sermon preached in Lent-assizes, holden for the county of Bucks, at Alesbury, March 8th 1671/2 being Ash-Wednesday by Ad. Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1671 (1671)	Wing L2570; ESTC R21353	20,489	39

the Patriarch or chief Father of all the several Families And this power by lineal descent fell to the Eldest Sons so that the first-born were by prerogative of their birth Kings and Priests unless there happen'd a forfeiture as it was with Esau and Reuben who were therefore justly put by Afterward when kindreds themselves what with the propagation of their own Families what with the commixtion of strangers were so inlarged that they became Nations then the government was intrusted with Kings as Gods Vicegerents For though there be other Forms which I shall not now dispute against yet the Monarchical has this advantage at least over them all that it was the first and far the most antient of them all as the Historian Justin has observed that principio rerum at the beginning of the world that is when the world was first divided into Nations it was governed by Kings This among all other people but then God having a special care of his own people did not at first set up Kingly Government amongst them though afterwards upon their desire he did but to maintain the Theocracy his own Government among them did upon occasion of great troubles or imminent dangers raise them up Judges who were tantamount to Kings Nay Moses himself gives himself the very Title too Deut. 33.5 where he says that Moses was King in Jeshurum when the heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together And thus Sufetes which is the word for Judge with the Phaenicians and Carthaginians their descendents as well as with the Hebrews is used by Seneca and others that speak of those people for the Supreme Magistrate 2. And such was Samuels power here as that of all the other Judges before him differing from the Kingly rather in name then substance as to the exercise of it Some tell us it was much-what like that of the ●ictators at Rome in that they were raised only upon extraordinary occasions and intrusted with an arbitrary power 'T is true as the occasion was extraordinary so 't was fit their power too in some measure should be But then these Judges of ours differed from them in this that these had extraordinary assistances from God not to say that these having taken upon them once the Government some of them as Eli Samuel c. never laid it down again nor returned back to their private condition as they all did but JulJus Caesar. By this power then they were instated in a supremaecy and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlimited unaccountable and unappealable They had the universal dispensation of Justice an absolute right to make War and Peace command of mens persons and fortunes and power of Life and Death And all other Magistrates and Officers derived their authority from them It is the opinion of some and those learned that the great Council of Seventy which Moses for his assistance set up by the advice of his Father-in-law Jethro to help him in the tryal of lesser causes usually called the Sanhedrim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewish Parliament continued down from Moses without any interruption till Herods time if so then the Judge was chief over them Besides there were lesser Courts too in each City much like our Hundred-Court's and Courts-Leet to judge of smaller matters who as they received their authority from the Supreme Court so might be appealed from to it And all these inferiour Courts subordinate to the great Consistory and that it self to the Judge But I rather incline to GrotJus who thinks that in these times all the bands of Government were losened amidst the popular licentiousness when every one did what they list and that there were no Courts at all kept to call them to account but that God raised these Judges on purpose as well to recal the people to good order as to deliver them from the oppression of their enemies since the History makes it clearly out that at every vacancy or interval of Government the people fell off a fresh into their former disorders and those disorders brought new troubles upon them which both occasioned the raising of a new Judge to rescue them from one and t'other from their sins and from their foes For so we find Judge Samuel in this very Chapter first call them together to Mizpeh for a Fast and Humiliation before he venture them to Battel against the Philistines However it were these Judges had not their power from the people though sometimes the peoples consent and desire too was not wanting but immediately from God himself And so is it proportionably with all supreme Magistrates For that Ascham's position is not true that they receive their power by compact and agreement of the people this one argument amongst many is enough to evince that no man in the world has power over his own Life and consequently cannot transfer that power to another which he has not himself Nor has the whole Community together that power since the particular persons which make up the Community have no such power and the whole cannot have more in it then the parts had to contribute to it The Judicatory power then is not derived from the people but from God himself transmitted to the King as supreme and from him to the Judges as Ministers of Justice sent by him the King being the fountain of Justice and the Soul and Life of the Law 3. And this to the whole body and every part of it in all its concerns which is the extent of this power First over all persons for so 't is said of Samuel that he gathered all Israel to Mizpeh and there judged them The Church of Rome indeed priviledgeth her Priests from the civil judicature and there are Others though seemingly of far different perswasion that would fain have it believed they are not concerned in Law or consequently in government upon that assertion of the Apostles that the Law is not made for the righteous and in another place where he speaks of meekness temperance c. that against such there is no Law and I agree to them that if they do well as the same Apostle says Rom. 13. they need not fear but that upon this condition then eâ Lege if they observe the Law For what says the Apostle elsewhere Do we then by faith and I may say do we then by our good works make void the Law yea rather we establish it by performing what it commands Further Innocence it self may be impleaded and so fall under the inquisition of the Law and 't is the evidence must fetch her off The Law then is for clearing and acquitting the guiltless no less then for condemning criminals As at a Goal-delivery the Billa vera casts the Prisoner the no-evidence of the fact sets him free Again as this judicial power is over all Persons so 't is in all Causes Temporal by the Judge Spiritual by the Bishop by each as the Kings Delegate And Samuel acted

such imploys as for the attendance they required could not well be managed by one Person as for the consequence and high concernment of them ought not in prudence one would think be intrusted with any one Yet this consideration was so far from either disadvantaging the publick or disparaging any of those places or discouraging the person that undertook them that his Government brought great blessings to the People and honour to himself and glory to God For such was his Sanctity and Wisdom such his Ability of Judgment and Integrity of Life such his Prudence and Conduct such his constant Piety to God and affectionate Zeal for publick good such his Favour with God and his Reputation with the People that in all Israel no three men could have been met with singly qualified for any one of those three Trusts as he alone was for all three Nor did it make a little for the Peace and Unity and good order of the Common-wealth that the same Person was Supreme Governour both in Church and State which else in some cases might clash and give advantage to a factious people one against the other Nor it seems was this the first time that both Powers thus met in one Person For Eli who was his immediate Predecessor in the Priesthood had been Judge forty years before nor is it unlikely that this civil Office might together with the sacred function be devolved upon him by succession as he was Priest the Jewish Writers telling us it was not unusual that in later times the High Priest if he were reputed a Wise and a Good man was chosen into the Sanhedrim and made the Nasi which is as much as with us the Lord President of the Supreme Court and in former times we find in Scriptural Language that Cohen signified both Priest and Prince Nor was it for nothing that at first before Aarons Family was settled the Priesthood went constantly along with the Primogeniture whereupon Esau is branded for profane because he so slightly parted with his Birthright Afterwards indeed Moses and Aaron being Brothers did by Divine appointment divide the Powers the one managing the Sword the other the Keys Nor do we meet with any Instance where they were joined again till Eli and Samuel who were Priests and Judges too But as these being Priests had the Supremacy in State also so from David downwards the Kings were Supreme-Moderators in the Church as appears by Davids and Solomons Institutions and by the Reformations of Josiah Hezekiah and the like And this though it may not look altogether so pertinent to this time and place has howsoever this useful remark that the Civil Magistrate ought not to think himself unconcerned in the Interests of the Church and that since Priests have formerly done the office of Judges Judges on the other hand may think it to be some obligation upon them to take care as opportunity shall offer of the Priest that so Church and State whose Interests have sometimes so fairly met and kindly imbraced one the other being lodged in one and the same bosome may ever though asunder and intrusted into different hands yet lovingly agree and be friendly and helpful one to the other II. From the Person we come to treat of the Office that he was the Judge of Israel and of that 1. In its Nature 2. In its Power 3. In its Extent 4. And lastly in its Rule I. First for the nature of it as there can be no Judge without a Law to authorize and direct him for without that it might be said to him as it was to Moses before he had his Commission Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us and our Saviour himself when addressed to for dividing the Inheritance asks the same question though otherwise in all points qualified for the office Who made me a Judge so on the other hand without a Judge Law it self would be of no use For how would Laws be executed or publick order be preserved Wherefore as the God of nature has provided Laws whereby men are to be governed so he has not been wanting to invest some men in all places and at all times with authority to secure those Laws and to punish the violations of them He himself is the supreme Judge Next under him in every mans own breast his own Conscience as Gods deputy exercises soveraign Rule calling him to the Bar and arraigning him and either acquitting or condemning him to which end that Faculty is furnished with a kind of Omniscience which no Judge from without has that can but Judge Secundum allegata probata she I say is conscious to all a mans thoughts as well as actions alledges and proves all he has done or said or so much as design'd and as God himself will not only sits upon a man as his Judge but Stands out against him too as a witness But this inward Reflexive Judgment of the Soul of Man upon it self this Home-Circuit is not enough to do the business of Society In this our corrupt State wicked men have partly found out ways to bribe to corrupt and debauch this Judge within them partly have arrived to that impudence and insensibility in sinning that they have hardned themselves against the sentence as well as against the dictates of conscience and in the pursuit of what pleaseth a vitious appetite and a depraved will neither regard the one nor the other having by bold and frequent attempts upon conscience worn out all that Awe which naturaly every man ows to himself The case of the generality of men standing thus it was necessary that for external polity whereby men are joyned together in society God should depute other Judges besides conscience since it would have been so dangerous to have left men barely to that who might take care nè quid Resp. detrimenti capiat to prevent mischiefs that might befal community from disorderly persons by restraining at least the outward actions of men and bringing them to account for them And this he has ever done Let us a little trace it to the Original This Judiciary power then was at the first founded by God in paternal authority the Father of the family having then jus vitae necis power of life and death and of dispensing other punishments upon those of his own family according to their demerits as the examples of Abraham turning out his son Ishmael of Noah cursing Cham and of Judah sentencing his Daughter-in-law to be burnt c. do shew One evident footstep of this parental power appears even in the Judicial Law in the Case of the Rebellious Son who was to dye with his Father's hand upon him first so that even upon this account every man that comes into the world is born under a natural subjection Now when mankind was multiplyed and men were to be united into larger societies and greater bodies then all the Families of the kindred were to be gathered and consolidated under some onè head