The New Testament gives a definitive statement of civil government in Romans ch. 13 v. 1-9 and 1 Timothy ch. 2 v. 1-2; which is a summary of the pattern also found in the Old Testament. We shall first take in review these Old Testament passages where we have the epitome of kingship delineated. Thus the qualifications of those who exercise civil rule are that, They must be men of truth, fearing God and hating covetousness (Ex. 18.21); they must be just, and not deceitful, false or oppressive: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God (2 Sam. 23.2-3); they must be men of understanding, they must be of the same nation, and not strangers (Deut. 13 v. 1 & 17; Jer. 30 v. 21). They are to be elected by all the people, that is, by the adult men among whom they are to rule: The men of Judah made David king (2 Sam. 2 v. 4) or again: The people made Saul King (1 Sam. 11.15) and as also in the words of Hushai: Whom the Lord and this people, and all the men of Israel choose, his will I be (2 Sam. 16.18). Any perversion of this order by those who thrust in upon the people however they accomplish it, is usurpation; as in Hos. 8.4: 'They made kings but not by me; that is, strictly and only in the way appointed by God, and which is said to be "by" him as if God himself had actually done it.
Showing posts with label Alexander Shields. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexander Shields. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
He That Ruleth Over Men Must Be Just
The Delight of Kings: A Compendium by A. Hayter From A Hind Let Loose -- Gen. 49.21, pp. 6-7:
Monday, January 18, 2010
Duties of Christians Under National Judgments
Anthony Hayter, The Delight of Kings: A Compendium From A Hind Let Loose - Gen. 49.21 [ie., a compendium of A Hind Let Loose by Alexander Shields], pp. 26-27:
A people is bound to preserve the privileges and rights of their parliaments, which are but representatives of themselves, when they act according to the trust committed to them by the people. But when they betray that trust, and engage in conspiracy with the sovereign, the people cannot own such as their representatives, but must regard them as perjured traitors, and therefore as divested of that power and authority which is now returned to the hands of the people. In such case it is incumbent upon the people to secure themselves, their religion and their liberty, in the most efficient way Providence will permit. Their aim should be to extract themselves from the tyranny, and maintain their rights and adhere closely to the fundamental constitutions, laws and practices of their native realm. Evil laws bring in desolating judgments upon a nation; evil laws corrupt the whole body politic, demoralise the people and lay waste their heritage. Their duty, especially that of Christians, under such dispensations is --
- To acknowledge that God's hand is lifted in judgment against them: Who gave Jacob to the spoil and Israel to the robbers? did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? (Is. 42.24)
- To humble themselves under the hand of God (2 Chron. 12.7-8)
- To accept the punishment (Lev. 26.40)
- To repent and forsake their sin and their rebellion against God, as held forth in Solomon's prayer (1 King 8.46-48)
- To cry to the Lord for help and deliverance
- To strive earnestly for the righteous rule and dominion of Christ over that nation, and the extirpation of antichrist
- To bewail the abominations of their wicked rulers and to keep themselves separate from all their defilements, having no fellowship with works of unbelief and darkness, but rather reproving them
- To pray for such rulers as enemies and persecutors, to pray for their restraint and conversion, as did Stephen (Act. 7.60)
- To own subjection to them only as to a judgment (Neh. 9.36-38) and not confederate with them in any of their perversity: Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord (2 Chron. 19.2)
- To use all lawful means to be delivered from their violence and rapacity. Thus were the prophets hid in a cave from the malice of Jezebel; thus was Moses hid from Pharaoh (Heb. 11.23); thus did Christ withdraw himself out of the way of his enemies (John 8.59 etc); thus did Paul flee from Damascus; thus Joseph and Mary fled from Herod; and the wise men disobeyed his request and avoided him.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
The Wickedest City on Earth
As a boy I lived in Kingston, Jamaica for a season, and nearby is the famous city of Port Royal. Or, I should say, was. In 1692, the city that was known as "the richest and wickedest city on earth," "the Sodom of the New World," and "the Sodom of the Caribbean," was destroyed by an earthquake, and mostly submerged under the sea.
In the 17th century, Port Royal became a pirate haven. It was a melting pot, as well -- a mix of religious refugees, entrepreneurs, sailors, merchants, prostitutes, slaves and many others who made this capital city of Jamaica their home. The pirates were expelled some years before the great earthquake, but it was still very much a boom town consisting of a population of around 6,500 permanent residents (and -- along with churches for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Huguenots, Baptists, Quakers, Jews and the like -- a ratio of one tavern for every 10 inhabitants) when the ground began to rumble on the morning of June 7, 1692.
Contemporary accounts indicate that the earthquake occurred shortly before noon; in the 1960's, underwater archaeologists uncovered a pocket watch that had stopped at precisely 11:43 am. Following an initial light tremor, a more powerful shockwave caused houses to begin sliding into Kingston Harbor. The city had been unwisely built upon a small bedrock foundation along with built-up sand. Houses built on the bedrock withstood the impact, but those on the unconsolidated sediment collapsed as it began to liquefy, sliding into the water. Two-thirds of the city was destroyed, and around 2,000 inhabitants were killed by the quake, with another 2,000 killed soon after by disease.
It was a disaster of Biblical proportions, and it reverberated spiritually on both sides of the Atlantic. Cotton Mather mentioned the event in his diary and in Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol. 1, p. 99. Sermons were preached about the judgment of God upon this debauched city which had provoked the Lord with its audacious display of evil. When a major earthquake hit Belgium and was felt across the Channel in England later that year on September 18, many understood this to be another in a series of God's providential judgments punishing men and calling them to repentance. Example: Thomas Doolittle, Earthquakes Explained and Practically Improved: Occasioned by the Late Earthquake on Sept. 8 1692. in London, Many Other Parts in England, and Beyond Sea (1693).
But while the earthquake was a disaster for many, one tale of delivery at least is worth noting. The story of a French Huguenot refugee who survived has been told and retold in the annals of remarkable providences, and his tombstone (once located at Green Bay, opposite Port Royal, but since transported to the cemetery at St. Peter's Church in Port Royal) summarizes it succinctly:
Port Royal never recovered from this disaster, although the surviving residents tried to persevere. However, a fire in 1703, a flood in 1722, another fire in 1750, a major hurricane in 1774, another fire in 1815, a cholera epidemic in 1850, and another major earthquake in 1907, all ultimately led to the decline of what remained of Port Royal, along with the rise of Kingston in importance. When I visited the site, I saw many artifacts retrieved from the ruins underwater, and I sailed over the submerged city, but what remained on that spit of land by Kingston Harbor was negligible. I also sailed by Rackhams Cay (also known as Hangman's Cay), a tiny uninhabited island, which got its name from being the execution site for pirate Calico Jack (John Rackham) in 1720. I had my own adventure being stranded on nearby Gun Cay for a day, but that is another story.
Port Royal is also the place where Scottish Covenanter Alexander Shields died on June 14, 1700, and was buried, following the failure of the New Caledonia colony in Panama, where the Scottish General Assembly had sent him as a missionary.
Port Royal, once known as "the wickedest city on earth," now known as "the city that sank," is today an historical footnote to some -- an underwater ruined city to archaeologists and a monument to providential judgments to church historians. Increase Mather spoke for the Puritan viewpoint that "[t]here never happens an earthquake, but God speaks to men on the Earth by it: And they are very stupid, if they do not hear his Voice therein" (A Discourse Concerning Earthquakes, Occasioned by the Earthquakes Which Were in New England...June 22, 1705 (1706), p. 8).
In the 17th century, Port Royal became a pirate haven. It was a melting pot, as well -- a mix of religious refugees, entrepreneurs, sailors, merchants, prostitutes, slaves and many others who made this capital city of Jamaica their home. The pirates were expelled some years before the great earthquake, but it was still very much a boom town consisting of a population of around 6,500 permanent residents (and -- along with churches for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Huguenots, Baptists, Quakers, Jews and the like -- a ratio of one tavern for every 10 inhabitants) when the ground began to rumble on the morning of June 7, 1692.
Contemporary accounts indicate that the earthquake occurred shortly before noon; in the 1960's, underwater archaeologists uncovered a pocket watch that had stopped at precisely 11:43 am. Following an initial light tremor, a more powerful shockwave caused houses to begin sliding into Kingston Harbor. The city had been unwisely built upon a small bedrock foundation along with built-up sand. Houses built on the bedrock withstood the impact, but those on the unconsolidated sediment collapsed as it began to liquefy, sliding into the water. Two-thirds of the city was destroyed, and around 2,000 inhabitants were killed by the quake, with another 2,000 killed soon after by disease.
It was a disaster of Biblical proportions, and it reverberated spiritually on both sides of the Atlantic. Cotton Mather mentioned the event in his diary and in Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol. 1, p. 99. Sermons were preached about the judgment of God upon this debauched city which had provoked the Lord with its audacious display of evil. When a major earthquake hit Belgium and was felt across the Channel in England later that year on September 18, many understood this to be another in a series of God's providential judgments punishing men and calling them to repentance. Example: Thomas Doolittle, Earthquakes Explained and Practically Improved: Occasioned by the Late Earthquake on Sept. 8 1692. in London, Many Other Parts in England, and Beyond Sea (1693).
But while the earthquake was a disaster for many, one tale of delivery at least is worth noting. The story of a French Huguenot refugee who survived has been told and retold in the annals of remarkable providences, and his tombstone (once located at Green Bay, opposite Port Royal, but since transported to the cemetery at St. Peter's Church in Port Royal) summarizes it succinctly:
Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, Esquire, who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22d of December, 1736, aged eighty years. He was born at Montpellier, France, but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island; where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 1692; and, by the Providence of God, was, by another shock, thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming, until a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation, beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death.
Port Royal never recovered from this disaster, although the surviving residents tried to persevere. However, a fire in 1703, a flood in 1722, another fire in 1750, a major hurricane in 1774, another fire in 1815, a cholera epidemic in 1850, and another major earthquake in 1907, all ultimately led to the decline of what remained of Port Royal, along with the rise of Kingston in importance. When I visited the site, I saw many artifacts retrieved from the ruins underwater, and I sailed over the submerged city, but what remained on that spit of land by Kingston Harbor was negligible. I also sailed by Rackhams Cay (also known as Hangman's Cay), a tiny uninhabited island, which got its name from being the execution site for pirate Calico Jack (John Rackham) in 1720. I had my own adventure being stranded on nearby Gun Cay for a day, but that is another story.
Port Royal is also the place where Scottish Covenanter Alexander Shields died on June 14, 1700, and was buried, following the failure of the New Caledonia colony in Panama, where the Scottish General Assembly had sent him as a missionary.
Port Royal, once known as "the wickedest city on earth," now known as "the city that sank," is today an historical footnote to some -- an underwater ruined city to archaeologists and a monument to providential judgments to church historians. Increase Mather spoke for the Puritan viewpoint that "[t]here never happens an earthquake, but God speaks to men on the Earth by it: And they are very stupid, if they do not hear his Voice therein" (A Discourse Concerning Earthquakes, Occasioned by the Earthquakes Which Were in New England...June 22, 1705 (1706), p. 8).
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