KING, Peter, lord high chancellor of Great Britain, the son of an eminent grocer and salter, was born at Exeter in 1669, and bred up for some years to his father's business; but his inclination to learning proved so strong that he laid out all the money he could spare in books, and devoted every moment of his leisure hours to study. He thus became an excellent scholar before the world suspected any such thing; and gave the public a proof of his skill in church history, by his Inquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, that flourished within the first three hundred years after Christ (London, 1691, in 8vo). This was written with a view to promote the scheme of a comprehension of the Dissenters. He afterwards published the second part of the Inquiry; and having desired, in his preface, to be shown, either publicly or privately, any mistakes he might have committed, that request was first complied with by Mr Edmund Ely, between whom and our author there passed several letters upon the subject, in
1692, which were published by Mr Ely in 1694, under the title of Letters on several Subjects. But the most formal and elaborate answer to the Inquiry appeared afterwards, in a work entitled Original Draught of the Primitive Church.
His acquaintance with Mr Locke, to whom he was related, and who left him half his library at his death, was of great advantage to him. By the advice of that great philosopher, after he had been some time in Holland, he applied himself to the study of the law, in which profession his learning and diligence soon made him noticed. In the two last parliaments of the reign of King William, and in five parliaments during the reign of Queen Anne, he served as burgess for Beer-Alston in Devonshire. In 1702, he published at London, without his name, his History of the Apostles' Creed, with critical observations on its several articles; a work which is highly esteemed. In 1708 he was chosen recorder of the city of London; and, in 1710, he was one of the members of the House of Commons at the trial of Dr Sacheverel. In 1714 he was appointed lord chief justice of the common pleas; and the April following he was made one of the privy council. In 1715 he was created a peer, by the title of Lord King, Baron of Ockham in Surrey, and appointed lord high chancellor of Great Britain, in which situation he continued till 1733, when he resigned. He died at Ockham, in Surrey, in the year 1734.
Books of KINGS, two canonical books of the Old Testament, so called because they contain the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, from the beginning of the reign of Solomon till the Babylonian captivity, that is, for the space of nearly six hundred years. The first book of Kings contains the latter part of the life of David, and his death; the flourishing state of the Israelites under Solomon, his building and dedicating the temple of Jerusalem, his shameful defection from the true religion, and the sudden decay of the Jewish nation after his death, when it was divided into two kingdoms. The rest of the book is occupied in relating the acts of four kings of Judah and eight of Israel. The second book, which is a continuation of the same history, is a relation of the memorable acts of sixteen kings of Judah, and twelve of Israel, and the end of both kingdoms, by the carrying off the ten tribes captive into Assyria by Shalmanasar, and the other two into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. It is probable that these books were composed by Ezra, who extracted them out of the public records which had been kept of what passed in that nation.