THE Wicked Petition, OR Israel's Sinfulness IN Ask a KING. Explained in A SERMON At the ASSIZES held at Northampton, March the 1st. 1680/1. By Fr. Giffard, M. A. LONDON, Printed for Tho. Dring, at the Harrow in Fleetstreet, near Chancery-Lane-End, 1681. TO Thomas Ward Esq; High Sheriff of the County of NORTHAMPTON. SIR, DRawn by your Commands from my poor but quiet shade into the open Sun, I should be afraid it would be too bright and too hot for me, if I was not assured of the advantages of a shade from your lustres. You shine with the Rays of a generous integrity in all your references which way soever they point, particularly that Public Office which you now bear you have managed with so Noble and Powerful à light of Loyalty to your great Master, and of Equity, Discretion, Goodness, and Honour towards all, that the evil eyes which some disaffected to His majesty's Government have cast upon you, have thereby been dazzled, and had their Malignant beams, when they could meet with nothing unbecoming in you to fix upon, with no little vexation reflected upon themselves, upon their own unworthiness and untowardness. The only Cloud by which you could be thought to suffer was made for an hour by my Blacks in the Pulpit. And I acknowledge that your Glories when looked upon through me, must have a faint aspect. You might have had enough who would have served you in my place with better and more agreeable Skill, none with honester Design. My Design was to promote that fear of God which lies in the fearing and honouring of the King, that which I knew would be Satisfactory to you and to all other good Men. To which purpose I undertook for my Subject a Text of Scripture which the Unlearned have wrested to a far different Sense, and I wish they may so repent, that they may not do it also to their own Destruction. Whether I left (as I have been accused) either my Text, or (considering the juncture of Affairs) my Auditory, I leave the unprejudiced to judge. Indeed as the Israelites were wicked in their manner of ask a King, not in the matter that they asked, I might also be faulty in my manner of handling their wickedness; but I dare affirm I was not in the matter which I thereupon asserted. Not Art, but Truth was my Business. And what if some were stung, swelled and opened their Mouths? It was because Truth met closely with very much vitiated intelligence and humour. That this may appear, what I Preached I have Printed, without either Substraction or Addition; without Substraction, because what I said I am ready to defend; without Addition, because I would have some Reserves for Defence in case of Assault. But here give me leave to add that Prayer for the King, which I then forgot in winding up my Discourse, which Tertullian says, The Primitive Christians always used for the Emperors, and in which I assure myself you and all other his truly Christian Subjects will join, that he may have Vitam prolixam, imperium securum, domum tutam, exercitus fortes, Senatum fidelem, populum probum, orbem quietum, quaecunque hominis & Caesaris vota sunt: urging it so much farther, That if he should not have Senatum: fidelem and populum probum, yet he may not miss of having exercitus fortes, that so no disloyalty, no malice, no seditious or rebellious practisings may be able to hinder him from having Vitam prolixam, imperium securum, domum tutam, etc. And this also, that whereas St. Augustine says Regum est, non esse sine comitum obsequio, he may have neither Comitem nor Vicecomitem nor Comitatum, which does not esteem this obsequiousness to him their Duty, and study to perform it. As for yourself, who will never fail of doing so, my Prayer is that you may live long to be, as you are, a very excellent and influential Exemplar of Allegiance to your Prince, and of such other Virtues as are suitable to your Character, and the Complexion of your Concerns. I am, SIR, Your most Obliged, and most humble Servant Fr. Giffard. 1 Samuel 12.17. part of the Verse. — That you may perceive and see, that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in ask you a King. WAs there in reality no such thing as right or wrong, but they were merely the Comments of Politic, Romantic, suspicious or feverish heads (of which yet the Imagination is abominable to a Sober Mind) Government would be most acceptable to Mankind in regard of that calm, easy, beauteous, pleasant, safe, harmonious, useful state of things, which it is its Nature to beget, nourish and maintain; and because Anarchy would hastily turn all the habitable Parts of the Earth into most inhospitable Scenes of confusion, horror, misery: So that the more a man should have of Sense and Reason, that is, the more he should be a man, the more obnoxious would he be to the feeling of what is most grievous. But they who without having their Spirits pre-engaged by Principles of Licentiousness, will make a careful search, will quickly find that there is Equity why there should be rule among Men, in regard both of Man and God. It is altogether contrary to Essence, especially if intelligent and free, to make or suffer any deficiency from itself, and the glories of Humane Essence demand it as an Universal Debt to their Merit to be held as dear as they are fair, and to be made as much of as they are great. Whereupon it is manifest that every man hath both a right and an obligation to live according to Nature, (in which Tully therefore with great reason places the happiness of Man) and this in a way of amicable and beneficial Society: especially considering that man is variously enriched with Powers and Dispositions of delightful, profitable, kind, fruitful, just, generous, holy, Converses; of which it cannot easily be imagined that they should be a part of his Nature, and the use of them not be natural, that he should have them to no other purpose than that they might be defeated, and so only fit him for dissatisfaction and calamity. The Capacities indeed and Necessities which Man hath of leading a Political life are so many, great, important, evident, that he who hath common Intelligence and disowns them, deserves for his Punishment to lose all the advantageous uses of the one, and feel all the funest consequences of the other. And there needs no other proof, that man is (what all sober Philosophy has named him) a creature of Society, but those his manifold imbecilities, which according to the ordinary method of the World, inevitably betray him, when desolate of Humane assistance, to the invasion of innumerable and insupportable Evils. But now though the particular rights of Nature, by which Society is to be modelled, so as to be rendered serviceable to Man's felicity, are fundamentally prescribed to men in the complexion of their own Essence, and though they are not altogether either unlegible or unpracticable, yet withal they are not to be understood without far more study than the most of People are either able or willing to bestow upon them, nor to be observed without a much greater subjection of Affection, Humour and Fancy to true Reason and Equity than is generally in Vogue through the World. If therefore it be of Humane concern, that those rights should be followed, and that Ignorance, Violence and Wickedness should not prevail against them, it is of the same concern that the generality of people should not be lest to their own guidance, but be under Discipline for the regulation of their Minds and manners in the prosecution of them. More yet than so, the rights of Humane Nature have by their proper worth and excellency, a very fair and well assured Title to be publicly declared, enjoined, maintained and vindicated. I say vindicated, and I mean among other things by chastising of Offenders against them, and that not only for prevention of what may follow, but also in recompense of what is past; because, if the Fault which may be committed, calls for Punishment, much more does that which hath been, and because it is indeed equitably due to those amiable rights, that so far as any Man acts contrary to them so far he should have no benefit by them, but be treated as one who hath cast them off, that he who has endeavoured to make them void to others, should have them made so by others to him; but this by a Political procedure, in regard it is a Political offence. To this purpose, as every man hath rights, and much more Societies of Men, which have a good claim to be adjusted, preserved and revenged; so some men have a peculiar right, which requires that they should be obeyed in adjusting, preserving, and revenging of them. Such are all they who have a right of Sovereign Authority, and such a right Men may have by Nature, by Purchase, by Conquest, by Donation, by Lot, by Divine Appointment, and it may be, by Election, Obligation, Merit, and other ways; and that there should be some who have such a right, God has been engaged to provide by the perfect reasonableness of the thing, by his goodness to Man, and by his justice to himself. It was God who framed Man in such a Constitution, that he was nobly and beautifully qualified for Society, was by a powerful inclination carried to it, had a plentiful harvest of Emoluments offered him by it, and could not well be without it; so that in his Integrity, in Paradise, in his Lordship over all the Creatures of Earth, Air, and Sea, there was wanting a meet-help to him: and it was God who therefore also built Woman to keep Man Company herself, and to be also a means together with him to increase and propagate Humane Society. But Society cannot stand in any tolerable fashion without Government, and to oblige a Man to the one without the other, is no better than to Condemn him to the Company of Wolves, Bears, Lions, of incurable disorder and mischief. It was God therefore farther (God who is Love and Wisdom itself) who by the same primaeve Method that he took order for Society among Men, did likewise for Government among them, creating only one Man, and appointing all Mankind to come out of him. Government then of Man over Man, appears to be an Ordinance of God, as being involved in that measure of Humane Essence which he first set on foot by Creation, and set up again by Redemption, as a principal part of it, and as being morally and rationally necessary for the carrying on of the whole: but this as with great respect to Humane Interests, so with unspeakably greater to the Divine; for all that Men have of good, or worthy in their being more God's than their own, because they themselves are so, and being both the Product and delight of his Goodness and Wisdom, and all their rights being Derivatives and Institutions of that Eternal reason and equity which lives in his Essence, they ought as such to be most diligently cherished and asserted; which, it is apparent cannot be done without Government. Farther, Man is bound to God in incomputable and unestimable scores: but rarely would, or indeed could one farthing thereof be acknowledged, much less paid, except there were some whose business it is to conduct the Affair. Now the rights and interests of God are of inimaginably more value than the Liberties, Estates and Lives of Men, than all the Universe besides, and all others are to them no more than the dust of the balance to unexaminable weight. Upon such and many other Considerations, well might Aristotle say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Arist. l. 1. Polit. To govern and to be governed are of the number both of necessary things, and of those also that are profitable. Julius Caesar, as Dion Cassius giveth us his words, Dion Cass. l. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: " Nature hath instituted among men the necessary and beneficial things of governing and being governed, and it is impossible without these that any thing whatever should endure for any time whatever. And Tully, Tull. l. 3. De Legibus. Nihil porro tam aptum est ad jus conditionemque naturae (quod cùm dico legem à me dici, nihil aliud intelligi volo) quam imperium, sine quo nec domus ulla, nec civitas nec gens, nec hominum universum genus stare, nec rerum Natura omnis nec ipse mundus potest. With these three famed Secretaries of Humane Wisdom, have all, though of very common observation, found reason to agree. The Question is not whether there should be any Government but what Government there should be; a Question which hath been most fiercely debated with Tongue, Pen and Sword. To come to our Text, the People of Israel and all their Elders were for Monarchy, They asked a King Samuel on the other side at least seems to have been against it, Now therefore, says he, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat-harvest to day? I will call upon the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain, that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in ask you a King. And he made good his word, as we find in the Sequel of the Chapter. That we now may perceive and see wherein this great wickedness lay of which Samuel arraigned them in our Text, and they confessed themselves guilty in the 19 v. of the Chapter, Let us take a view first of the Circumstances which their Petition (if I may call it so) had retaining to it. Secondly, of the thing itself, which they Petitioned for. 1. First of the Circumstances for Petitions, though for things in their own Nature good, may be so circumstantiated as highly to deserve abhorrence. And, if I mistake not, there were several things which conspired to render this so. 1. First, They hereby arrogated to themselves a higher Conduct of the Public than belonged to them. It is true they were the Elders of Israel that presented it, and so they were Stars of a more than ordinary Magnitude, elevation and influence in the State; but to rule the day of Government was no part of their Commission. Notwithstanding the Authority of all the Elders of Israel, and particularly of that chief Council or Senate of them, which we call the Sanhedrim, instituted by God at the request of Moses for his assistance, when that celebrated Lawgiver was to lay down the chief management of the Public: not but at his All powerful Master's command, and together with his life, he was so far from leaving it to them as their right, or as proper to them, that he addressed himself to God with this Prayer, Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the Congregation, Num. 27.16, 17. which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in, that the Congregation of the Lord be not as sheep, that have no Shepherd. Which certainly would have been very injuriously said, had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the chief guidance of the flock lain either in the whole flock themselves, or in the Elders thereof, had he not believed that they would have been as Sheep that had no Shepherd, unless beside the common Shepherds of the Congregation, there was one who was Master of them all. In relation to the King of our Text, I reckon it chief, if not only, was that God said to the Prophet Hosea, Hos. 8.4. concerning the People of Israel, They have set up Kings, but not by me. The Arabic Version of which is to this sense, They have reigned from themselves, not from me. God's meaning here seems to be, They have assumed and exercised sovereign Empire as of right pertaining to them, and have set up Regal Government, and given Investiture of it upon pretensions of an Authority founded in themselves of choosing what Government and Governors they have a mind to, without having any respect to my appointment of Monarchy, or to my right of inaugurating into it whom I thought fit, But I know not how God could have spoken this by way of Accusation as he does, if there had been lodged in them a right of the Supreme management of the Nation. 2. But Secondly, in those words of Hosea there is somewhat more implied of Fault in the Petition of our Text, namely, that they asked a King without ask God's advice, whether or no it was agreeable to his Will. Wherefore also God adds there, they have made Princes, but I knew it not. Hos. 8.4. The Targum of Jonathan Ben Vziel upon Deut. 17.15. is to this effect, Ye shall seek instruction of the Lord, and after that shall set a King over you. The Supreme Arbitrement of all Affairs is so illustriously God's Prerogative, that he who denies it, must necessarily be concluded to have either a head of monstrous default, or a heart most malignantly affected. Considering which, and that there can nothing occur, especially in the business of Government, which is both the Ordinance and Ministry of God, they should in this matter chief have been of the Heathen's Mind, though not as a Heathen, Cicero in Orat. pro domo sua ad Pontifices. Caput esse interpretari quae deorum immortalium voluntas esse videatur. Nor had he left them without his Oracles, Prophets, and Priests to inform them. But did they not, as too many among us, reckon the Seers blind in comparison with themselves, or proper to be consulted only in such concerns, as Saul came to Samuel about when that of the Text was on foot, lost Asses? The Priests to have their hearts and heads too much heated with the fires of the Altar at which they served to be of their Counsel, sit only to receive rules from them, not give to them? did they not take measures from some of those Idols, which had been formerly worshipped among them: from Berith, the Leaguing and Covenanting Deity, as the word signifies? from Baal, under which name Nimrod was worshipped, that is the Rebel, as his name denotes? from Astaroth the Moon, that Queen of Changes both in her own and other Bodies? 3. It is certain Thirdly, That they hereby negotiated a great change in the Government; which, like the removing of a Noble Structure from one foundation to another, or rather like the altering of its whole frame and conveyance, not only creates abundance of trouble and disorder, but also commonly draws after it consequences far more to be abhorred than desired, and which therefore has no passable excuse, but plain and absolute Necessity. Besides they hereby testified themselves discontent with their present condition, though very satisfactory, and also of a light and unconstant humour; whereas to be given to change, especially in the affairs of Religion and Polity, speaks both a weakness in their minds who are so, and a disagreeableness to God's, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning and not only keeps them like the rolling Stone naked of all the moss of good acquists, but also exposes them at the best to be by degrees worn away, oftentimes to be suddenly broken in pieces. 4. They were herein most unthankfully; contumeliously and rebelliously traitorous both unto their chief Magistrate, and to God whose Minister he was. Samuel had recovered out of the hands of the Philistines, not only all the Cities and Coasts of Israel which they had taken, but also the glory of Israel, the Ark of God; he had relieved them from those their grievous Oppressors, so that they were kept under hatches all his days; he had brought to a Peace with them their powerful Enemies the Amorites; he had re-establisht the true Worship of God, and had reclaimed the People from their abominable Errors to a fair uniformity therein; he had every year ridden in Circuit among them to do them justice; in sum, having now sat at the Helm, as I reckon, somewhat above Twenty years, he had all the while steered the Nation with most industrious, laborious, equitable and pious endeavours for their happiness, and those successful also, though when he took the Rudders, the Ship was in very ill condition. Having now by taking pains for their welfare and God's honour exhausted and worn out himself, so that he was grown old before length of days had made him so (for, if I mistake not, he was not yet Threescore years of age) so that his Silver hairs were the Ensigns of rich and glorious toils, and his wrinkles the Scars of honourable fatigues, the thanks and recompense they gave him was to thrust him out of the Seat of Judicature, as one of no value, and unfit to hold it; and this, though they could not upon his challenge but clear him from every thing of Injustice and Arbitrary acting, and also very well know that God had placed him there. But they who cast off those whom God hath appointed to Rule over them, do in the same act cast off God himself. Num. 16.11. Num. 26.9. Corah and his Company that risen up against Moses and Aaron, are therefore said to have gathered themselves together and striven against God, and that, though there were of their Party Two hundred and Fifty Princes of the Assembly, famous in the Congregation, Men of renown. Simplicius, if I have not forgotten, tells us of the Achorites, who were swallowed up of the Earth for denying God: I cannot but think they were the Corites, (with the Article prefixed) and said to deny God because they rebelled against his Vicegerent and his High Priest, That our Petitioners in casting off Samuel, cast off God also, God himself declares, when he says to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, 1 Sam. 8 7. but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. But yet there is more than that contained in those words; namely, that they reprobated God in regard of his own Government over them as well as of Samuel's, and dealt no better with him than with his Lord Lieutenant. God had most benignly undertaken to be their King in a more than common way, in a more particular manner than he was of all the world besides, and it could not be thought that he had no other right of being so, but what was derived from the People, or was capable of losing it, because he had entered into Covenant with them; and in the exercise of this his Kingship he had done them so many and great acts of Grace, as it is impossible to begin an estimation of, and yet by this Petition they not only most impiously derogated from his Goodness, Care, Justice, and Wisdom in his oeconomy of them, as if he was unmindful and negligent of the Public weal, and understood not how to manage it without their advice, but went about most execrably to put him out of his Throne. So we may partly see by the forementioned place, 1 Sam. 8.7; but more by what is said 1 Sam. 12. where Samuel having reasoned to them of the Righteousnesses and benefits which God had performed to them, adjoins Verse the 12. And when he saw that Nahash the King of the Children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a King shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your King. 5. These words offer to us a fifth Particular of their wickedness; viz. That notwithstanding the many Deliverances which they had received from God, and several of them by the hand of Samuel, out of fears of a Neighbour Prince, they most vilifyingly discarded the Conduct of them both, for another refuge. 6. They herein went upon the tract of their former Rebellious Defections. Practices of Rebellion, as soon as of any other Sin, nurse themselves into dispositions, dispositions into habits, and the fire of these, though it ought to be with all possible care extinguished, seldom wholly is; but though it may be for a while covered, cooled or penned up, commonly glows under its own ashes, and erelong revives and breaks out again into a more furious and ravaging flame. To have and to do as they list, is so connatural to Mankind by degeneracy, that they hate nothing more than to be under restraint, though by God himself. A just Subjection therefore they name Slavery, and the drawing back from it they ascribe to generosity of Spirit. And if any other Nation (I was going to say except our own) was guilty of this refractory and perfidious humour of revolting this of the Jews was. So that rather than endure that yoke of Government which God put upon them, they would have one of their own putting on, though more strict and severe. According to the habitualness hereof to them, did they behave themselves in the present affair, not considering that such Precedents were so far from deserving to be made leading rules, much more from having any Plea to be looked upon as Laws, that they could no way be expiated but by declaring their hearty repentance and abhorrence of them. According to all the works, says God to Samuel, 1 Sam. 8.8. which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other Gods, so do they also to thee. Their revolting from their Prince, was Sister to their defection from God. Theodorick had in his Court a Minister whom he very much loved. He thinking to please his Prince, left the Doctrine of Christ's eternal consubstantial Deity, and protested himself of the Arrian Opinion, wherewith he knew him infected: but his Master hearing of it caused his Head to be stricken off, saying, That he who had not kept his Faith with God, would never be loyal to a Mortal Man. 7. But seventhly, Our Petitioners were not herein like themselves only, but also were carried to it by a fond Zeal of being like the Neighbour States, without considering whether it was good or bad, which they had a passion to be like them in. They who devote themselves to write after the Copy of another man's manners at all adventure without an eye to its goodness, and far more likely to do what is evil than what is good; and if they happen to do what is good, they do it not well, because they do it not out of a study of goodness, have furtendred their reason and their duty to the Copy, and act not the Man, but the Ape Farther, He that will blindly follow the blind, may possibly make a few fair and advantageous steps, but shall nevertheless be reckoned a Fool or Madman, because it is merely by chance, not any good-cunning that he does so, and because he throws himself into a most certain danger of falling into the Ditch. The States whom our Elders studied to be like, were not only blind, but also of such wicked and pernicious manners, especially in things pertaining to God, as should have made them wary of being like them in any thing, much more should have kept them from making it their business to be like them. And they must necessarily be esteemed to do wickedly, who, though they do what is in its self good, do it not upon that account, but out of a precipitate imitation of wicked Men. 8. They took a Pretext for doing it from faults of Public importance committed by some great Officers of the Government. Samuel having made his two Sons the Assistants of his Age in the Judicature of the Nation, 1 Sam. 8.3. they turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted judgement; and for this reason their excellent Father must be deposed, God himself revolted from, and another mode of Government brought in: A piece of wickedness certainly, weighed against which that of Samuel's Sons will not stir the balance. Must the Sun be tumbled from his Saphire Throne, lose his golden Crown of Rays, and Empire of the Day, because his light is sometimes intercepted by Clouds which he himself draws up. But suppose Samuel accused of Maladministration in his own person, who made the People judge over him whom God had made judge over them? God having constituted him Supreme Governor in all Causes over the People next and immediately under himself, could there among the same People be a Superior to him between him and God? This colour of ill-government the ambitious Absolom made use of against his Royal Father, and having by that and other insinuating Pretences and Courtships stolen away from him the hearts of the People and their Elders, procured him to be reprobated by them from the Throne, and himself advanced into it; But it lies obvious to every eye, that he who was the Lord's Anointed, though guilty of Crimes punishable by Death in another Person, had right on his side against him who was the People's Anointed, though a Pretender to Justice and Piety, and that Divine Justice set a remark upon the Enterprise of the latter, as most wicked, bringing to a fatal end by the treachery of his own head, him who was a Traitor to his Political head, of whose Body also he was a beloved and famous part. 9 They were overhasty in their Petition. They left not their great Monarch to his own time, but insolently prescribed to him theirs. God intended them a King, but was not willing that his Favourite and Viceroy Samuel should lose his seat of Sovereign Judicature, but for the grave and a Throne in Heaven, or that the Sceptre should be put into any hand until David's was made fit to change the Sheephook for it. He who importunely urges the performance of what he desires without staying his leisure upon whom he depends for it, may possibly receive what he asks, and at his own hour, but not without deserving, if not incurring the displeasure of his Benefactor. 10. It was not so much a Petition, as an Impudent, Peremptory, and obstinate demand; they went to their Prince's face, and required him to come down from the Seat of Authority in which God had installed him, make an alteration of it, and put another into it; and though both he and God himself declared themselves displeased with their proceed, they contumaciously persisted in them, and told him they would have what they desired. The Son has a right of Petitioning his Father, but not of doing it usurpingly, unadvisedly, ungratefully, opprobriously, treasonably, rebelliously, in imitation of bad Neighbours, out of an unstable mind, a revolting inclination, and a ruling design, with the terms of Empire, a forehead of Brass, and a neck of an Iron Sinew. In these respects the wickedness in the Text was great, and it was farther greatned by the generality of it. In such a case many hands make not light but heavy work, and in this there were none who had either so much consideration of their Duty as to abhor what was done, or so much courage as to declare they did so. These are Circumstances which manifestly contributed to the wickedness in the Text. There are some also which probably did so. It is indeed likely that there lay at the bottom ambitious, covetous, malicious, licentious and other such sinister regards. Some might hope to obtain, rather than deserve, if not the Throne which they were erecting, yet some eminent station near it, or gainful Office under it. Others might aim at being revenged for acts of Justice or Injustice done them. A third sort might design Liberty of Religion with the overthrow of that which was established, which they knew Samuel was much more a Saint than to allow. A fourth might be imported, though very groundlessly and unjustly, with umbrages that their present Governor had intentions of Arbitrary and Tyrannic Rule by himself, or Sons, or both. But these particulars not being certain, I shall forbear to urge them; and having shown enough that are certain, and certainly wicked, I shall now come to consider whether the matter of the demaild of the Text made it not also wicked in its own Nature, 1. The Matter of it was a King. Let us then, First, see what a King was; and to that purpose let us view in the first place how he is represented by the ancient Mystae of Phisosophy, History and Policy among the Gentiles. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Suid. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Kingship is an Government, are the words of a Writer in Suidas, whom he names not, Dion Chrys. in Orat. 3. de regno. but whom I dare name a Heathen. Dion Chrysostomus hath the same words; and more: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Kingship is an Government, and the Law is the King's Decree. Plutarch in his short Treatise concerning Monarchy, Democracy and Oligarchy, calls the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Kingly Government, and says once that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of absolute Authority, twice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, . Dion Cassius says of the Roman Emperors, Dion Cass. l. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; They have the name of Emperor throughout, in signification of their full and perfect Authority, instead of the title of King, and Dictator. And again, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; They are set lose from the Laws, as the Latin words themselves speak; that is, they are free from all necessary subjection to Law or Coaction by it, and are bound by none of the written Institutes. Having also said, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were invested with all the power of the Polity, He adjoins, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so that they had all things of Kings, Arist. in libris Politic. except their unacceptable title. Aristotle having set down five forts of Regal Government, he says of the Fifth which is named by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perfect Regal Government, that it is chief or most properly called Regal, that Tyranny is the Corruption of it, that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when one man is Lord of all; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by which the King governs all according to his will: and that it is the same kind of Government with that of the Father or Master of a Family: Of the four others, which he says were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to Law, and especially the Lacedaemonian, (which, as is agreed by all, was almost wholly a mixture of Aristocracy and Democracy), he says that they are not properly any kind of Kingdom or Polity. Marcus Aurelius says in Dion Cassius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, In Excerptis Dionis Cassii. of Imperial Authority God only may be Judge. The Athenians accounted themselves, and are accounted by Writers to have dissolved Kingly Government in setting up the Archontick, which was of one man who was liable to be controlled and called to an account. Diologenes, a Pythagoran, says in Stobaeus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Diologenes apud Stobaeum in Serm. 46. A King, having an Authority, and being himself an animated Law, hath the form of God among Men. Ecphantas, one of the same Sect, hath in the same Author these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Stob. Ser. 46. It belongs also to a King, to rule himself, and to be ruled by none. Otanes a Persian Noble in Herodotus speaking of Monarchy or Kingly Government says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Herod. l. 3. Which hath a right of doing whatever it will without control. Caius Memmius, Sallust in bello Jugurthino. a Tribune of the People says in Sallust, Impunè quaelibet facere, id est regem esse; To do what a man will with Impunity, that is to be a King. Cleopatra urging her Marcus Antonius to call Herod to an account, Josep. Anriq. l. 15. he replied, That it was not fair, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, To demand of a King an account of what was done in his Government; for so he would not be a King. The Daughters of Danaus in Aeschylus upon the common notion of Regal Authority tell the Argive King, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— Aeschyl. in Suppl. Thou art the City, thou the People art, Being a Governor not to be judged. Kingly Authority is in the Antigona of Sophocles, called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perfect Monarchy. And in the same Tragedy Creon saying to Haemon, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Is not the City his esteemed that Reigns? He rejoins, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fairly. I shall add no more of this, though I could spend many hours upon it, save that of Horace. Regum timendorum in proprios greges, Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis. Hor. li. Carn. 3. Od. 1. But this is Heathen Doctrine: Let us try how agreeable it is to the Theology of Scripture. And here We need look no farther than to what Samuel says upon the Business of the Text; God having commanded Samuel to protest solemnly to the People of Israel, 1 Sam. 8.9. and declare to them the manner (as we translate it) of the King that should Reign over them: The Judge says to them, 1 Sam 8.11. This will be the manner of the King that shall Reign over you; He will take your Sons, and appoint them for himself, for his Chariots, and to be his Horsemen; and some shall run before his Chariots: And he will appoint him Captains over Thousands, and Captains over Fifties; and to ear his Ground, and to reap his Harvest, and to make his Instruments of War, and Instruments of Chariots: And he will take your Daughters to be Confectionaries, and to be Cooks, and to be Bakers: And he will take your Fields, and your Vineyards, and your Olive yards, the best of them, and give them to his Servants: And he will take the Tenth of your Seed, and of your Vineyards, and give to his Officers, and to his Servants: And he will take your Men-Servants, and your Maid-Servants, and your goodliest young Men, and your Asses, and put them to his Work: He will take the Tenth of your Sheep, and ye shall be his Servants. This I look upon as a Law: For, 1. The word Mishphat, which we translate Manner, as the Learned know, properly signifies Right, Judgement, Statute, and the like. 2. It is in this Sense rendered here, by all the Ancient Translations, Arabic, Syriack, Vulgar Latin, that of the Septuagint, and the Chaldee Paraphrase. 3. These Words of Samuel, were either a Prediction from God only, of what the King would do, or a Law of what he might do: If only a Prediction, and not a Law, than all the Kings were Tyrants and Oppressors, David, Solomon, Asa, Jehosaphat, Jehoash, Amaziah, Vzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah; but of the good and Pious Reign of all these, the Holy Ghost gives very fair Eulogies. 4. These things appear to be not spoken by way of Prediction only, to deter the Israelites from persisting in their Desire of a King, because such frightful and horrid things might have been said upon that Subject, in comparison with which these here spoken of, may well seem soft, pleasant and . 5. The Manner in which God commanded Samuel to declare these things to them, speak it a Law; protesting thou shalt protest to them, and show them the Mishphat of the King, says God, who calls his Law his Testimony. 6. The Close of it is drawn in the terms of a Command; And ye shall be his Servants. 7. Samuel, after he had declared this to them, added, And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your King, and the Lord will not hear you in that day. They would have had a Remedy in their Hands, when dis-eased by their King, and sick of him, if this had not been a Law. 8. 1 Sam. 10.25. Samuel wrote it in a Book, and laid it up before the Lord, that is, about the Ark, the place of which was in the Holy of Holyes, and in which were laid up the Pot of Manna, the Rod of Aaron, and the two Tables. So I conclude, because when the Pot of Manna was commanded to be laid up before the Lord, Aaron laid it up before the Testimony. Exod. 16 33. Now surely, had it been only a Prediction of the Manner of the Kingdom, and not a Divine Law, it would not have been laid up with so much Tenderness, Respect and Valuation, more by far, than all the rest of the Law of God, except the two Tables all that being only put into the Hands of the Priests and Elders. If any shall make any question, Whether this Mishphat in the Tenth Chapter, was the same with that in the Eighth, because there it is called Of the King, here Of the Kingdom. I say, First, the Ancient Jews, and other believed it to be the same: It is rendered in both places alike, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Right of the King, by the Seventy; by words which signify the Statute of the King, in the Chaldee Paraphrase; the Right of the King, in the Syriack; the Rights of the King, in the Arabic Version. Secondly had this been a new Law of God, different from what had been spoken of before, Samuel would have declared here, as he did there, that he had received new Instructions from God about it. Thirdly, had it been a new Law, it would have been recited by Samuel, and recorded by him as that was. With Relation to this Law (though not as prescribed to Israel only) I cannot but think it is that Solomon says, Ecles. 8.2. I counsel (or charge) thee to keep the King's Commandment, and that in regard of the Oath of God. And that, First, Because that Law was delivered with a most solemn Protestation from God, which hath much of the Nature of an Oath. Secondly, Because it was laid up with the Tables of the Covenant, and about the Ark of the Covenant, and the Law of God, hath the Name of the Covenant, and the Covenant which God in giving his Law, made with the People of Israel, is called the Oath that he made with them Thirdly, Because it is epitomised in the following Words of Solomon, He doth whatsoever pleaseth him; where the word of a King is, there is Power, and who may say unto him what dost thou? To this Question of Solomon, Milton replies, No private Person, but the Magistrate or Senate may. But I cannot but wonder, that he should be such a Novice in Learning, and Master in Impudence at the same time; so clear is the sense of the Words by their own Light, as also by what Job says, Who shall say unto him, what dost thou? And by Nebuchadnezzar's Acknowledgement, he doth according to his Will, Job 9.12. and none can stay his Hand, or say unto him what dost thou? Dan. 5.35. Which they both spoke to testify the Authority of God to be absolutely Supreme and . So much therefore of God was in the King, according to Solomon, that there was no Body, whoever of his People, no Magistrate, no Senate to whom he was bound to give an Account. This Sense of Solomon we are prepared to believe, by that Saying of his Father David, to God, upon the Head of his Adultery and Murder, Against thee only have I sinned. So he said in the High Tide of his Repentance; and his Meaning is, that though his Sins were such as were in others, to be punished by the Judge, the Judge on Earth; yet as his, they were to be punished only by the Judge of Heaven and Earth. This is the Exposition which all the Ancient Fathers, and Learned Men, and some Famed Papists also give of the Words; which are more than I could now half quote, was that my whole Business here. It is indeed sufficiently evident to them, who are not blind, or will not shut their Eyes, that the Kings of Israel were, of Right, free from all Coersion, both by Elders and People. The Question than will be, Whether other Kings had the same Prerogative? And it appears, they had, not only by Humane Records, which I must not now touch; but also by what is said of the Affair of the Text, and by several Instances in Scripture. In the Concern of the Text, we find, that the People said to Samuel, Make us a King to judge us like all the Nations; 1 Sam 8.5. and that God commanded Samuel to hearken to their Voice in all that they had said unto him. 1 Sam. 8.7. But now they were not like other Nations in their Kings, if the Kings of other Nations had not such a Supreme Authority as I have shown theirs had. Of the many Instances, I shall at present urge only one, and it shall be of the Egyptian King. Joseph was known in Egypt, to be of another Country and Religion, to have been bought by Potiphar, in the Quality of a Slave; and, after he had been raised, by his favour, to the management of all his business, to have been strongly accused by his Wife, of attempting the Violation of their Bed; and thereupon to have lain long, and with much hardship in Prison: Yet this Man, when not above thirty years of Age, upon the Interpretation of the King's Dream, concerning seven Years of Plenty, and as many of Scarcity successively; which, whether it was true or false, from a good Spirit or from a Bad, might then be doubted by some; and upon his Counsel to him, to set one over the Land, to make Provision against the Famine, in which he might be then suspected to have some ambitious Regards to himself, did Pharaoh, without advising but with some of the Servants of his Court, constitute a Ruler both over his House, and the whole Land; Gen. 41. and he set him in such an elevated degree of Power, that only in the Throne was he himself greater, that the People were all to be ruled according to his Word; that without him, no Body was to lift up his Hand or Foot in all the Land; that he had it in his Commission, to bind his Princes at his Pleasure, and to teach his Senator's Wisdom; and that he might take, and lay up, what, and where he thought fit, of the Fruits of the Land, for the use, and under the Hand of his Master. This Pharaoh did, by virtue of his Regal Crown, so he declared by those Words, Gen. 41.44. I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his Hand or Foot. Pharaoh being the Title of the Egyptian Kings, as Kings, derived to them, as I could show from the first King of Egypt, Misraim the Son of Ham. And that herein he extended not his Sceptre beyond its due Limits; I therefore reckon, First, Because Joseph advises him to it, with the next Breath, after he had, by the Spirit of God, explained his Dream. Secondly, Because Joseph, who feared God, not only accepted, but also exercised the Authority, and that in a great Latitude. Thirdly, Because Joseph says, That God had made him Lord and Ruler of all Egypt, which he could not well have said, if it had been unjust in Pharaoh to have made him so, it being by his Authority that he was so made. Fourthly, Because David sings of this Act of Pharaoh, as a just Ground and Matter of Glorifying God. I shall only add to this, that the Egyptians, being, as all Writers of them agree, a most unstable, envious, proud, Seditious, furious People, and novarum rerum usque ad publicas cantilenas cupientes, it is not likely they would have submitted herein to Pharaoh, if they had not accounted that he herein exercised a just Prerogative. They indeed seem to have looked upon their Natural Kings, as having a Paternal Right of Dominion: For that Apis, which I interpret Father, was the Name of one, at least of their Primitive Kings; and also Pamyles or Palmies which signifies The King the Father, and that Abimeleck, which signifies The Father the King, and from which, Pamyles and Palmies, differ but with a little Change of Letters, was the Common Name of the Kings of the Philistines, who were grandchildren of Misraim, the first Founder of the Egyptian Kingdom. Thus do we see, That a King of Old, was a Governor absolutely Supreme, not to be violently controlled, or called to an Account by any of his People, but to be either actively, or passively obeyed. 2. Let us in the next place see, whether the ask of a King was not a Wickedness, considering it as to the Matter of it abstractively in itself; that indeed it was far from it, there are these Arguments among others, offered us by Scripture. First, The Condition in which God put Mankind, by the Creation, Flood, and Dispersion at Babel, employed Monarchy their Rightful Government, both for present and future Generations. For Man is the Head of the Woman, and she ought to be in subjection to him, because she was made after him, of him, and for him; she came not into the World until Man was enthroned in the Dominion of all Inferior Creatures; she was made of his Rib, and so was Bone of his Bone, and Flesh of his Flesh; and she was made to be a Meet Help to him; so that he must have it in his Power to make her so. Besides, he is of a more Elevated and Substantial Worth, and she is the weaker Vessel. This Reason, Tully tells us, was observed of Old, Cic. in Orat. Pro L. Muraena. Mulieres omnes propter infirmitatem Concilii majores in tutorem potestate esse voluerunt, The Son owes Obedience to the Father, because he owes his Being to him, and commonly many of the Advantages of it by his Education; and because he is as much a part of him, as is his best Blood, as is any Member of his Body; the Son being the Father's Transcript, and having his Blood and Nature in him, particularly the Eldest Son, having his Blood and Nature first in him, being the Beginning and Chief of his Strength, being next to him, and entering first into the Possession of his Power; all the other Children, are, by Primitive Institution, after the Father's Death, subject to the Eldest Brother; and consequently, all of the same Blood to the Eldest of the Eldest Line of it. This Title of Primogeniture to rule, was anciently acknowledged by the Followers of Nature; Dicaearchus particularly, and Aristotle, speak of the Dominion of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and say it was of Old in use in the Cities of Greece. But it is declared by God himself, in several places of Scripture, I shall instance only in one, touching the first Firstborn: When God saw him (I mean Cain) discontented, because he approved of Abel's Sacrifice, and not of his, Unto thee shall be his Desire, and thou shalt rule over him, said God to him in the same Language that he used to Eve concerning Adam's Dominion over her: as if he should have told him, that notwithstanding the Goodness of his Brother's, and the Faultiness of his own Religion, he would not take from him the Right of Dominion, which he had over him by Primogeniture. By the Rule of what I have said, Adam was Universal Monarch of the Earth, and Cain should have been so after him, if he survived; but that he forfeited his Right of being so, together with his Life, by the Murder of his Brother; so it fell to Seth and his Family; upon which Account I put it, that Cainan, as the Arabian Writers say, was King of all the Earth; and that Abydenus and Berosus reckon Ten Kings before the Flood, as there were Ten Generations from Adam to Noah. However, Noah was by the Flood, put almost into the same Condition with Adam; therefore he is by an East-Indian Sect of Philosophers, called The Second Adam. But it was not long before, if several of the Fathers were not misinformed, he parted the Earth by Lot, between his three Sons; by which means, the Inequality which was among all Mankind by Nature, as to Government, was in part broken. However, it is certain, that a Parity of Rule among many more Persons, was brought in by the Dispersion of Noah's Children at Babel, of which God was the Author of that extraordinary Oeconomy. But it was a Parity, not of all People of the same Society, but of several distinct Monarches only: When God scattered the Race of Men, by the Confusion of Tongues, it was not done with so much Confusion, but that he took Order there should be in every separate Parcel of them, one who had a Right of Sovereignty over the rest. We find in the Tenth Chapter of Genesis, that God scattered them all by Families, and that of every Family there was a Father or Head; and consequently, one that was King of it, and a Founder of a Kingdom therein, and that Hereditary. This I could confirm of most of the Families and their Heads, there mentioned, by Humane Records; and that as well of those that planted themselves in Northern Climates, as of those that sat down in the Eastern and Southern; but it is not here convenient; God having thus took order, that Monarchy should be according to the Law of Nature, the Government of every several distinct Society of Men, which he constituted at Babel, and that Successively, it continued in Vogue among all Nations for at least a Thousand Years after that. Aristotle says, That Anciently, Arist. l. 1. Polit. Sallust. in Bello Catiline. Cicero de Leg. lib. 3. Just. l. 1. the Cities and Nations were under the Authority of Kings. The same is testified by Sallust, Cicero, Justin, out of Trogus Pompeius, and others; particularly of Greece, where there at length sprang up so many Free Commonwealths, or Aristocratical and Democratical States, Dyonissius Halicarnasseus assures us, Dionys. Hal. l. 5. that it was Originally Governed all by Kings. To come Home, Tacitus hath these Words of the Britain's, Olim regibus parebant, nunc per Principes factionibus & studiis trahuntur. Indeed in all Records, whether of good or doubtful Credit, we find no People in our Island, before we find a King. So little does it appear, that the British Kings derived their Sceptres from the Hands of the People. Secondly, Monarchy only was the Government that God appointed to his People Israel. He, from their first coming out of Egypt, took the Government of them upon himself, and they came under a Theocracy. God therefore complains upon the Occasion, in our Text, That they had rejected him, that he should not Reign over them; and Samuel, that they said, they would have a King, when the Lord their God was their King. This his Regency over them, he exercised by extraordinary Methods, and immediate Dispensations; and he made Moses, Joshuah, and the Judges his Vice-Roys, who, though none of them had the Name of King, except Moses, of whom it's said, he was King in Jesurun, Deut. 33.5. when the Heads of the People, and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together, they all exercised a Regal Authority: But God did not intent that they should have no other Mode of Government; he designed them, in due Season, such Kings as other Nations had. Besides that, by the Spirit of God, Jacob said, The Sceptre shall not departed from Judah until Shiloh come: And Balaam, his King (speaking of Israel) shall be higher than Agag, and his Kingdom shall be exalted; and the Mother of Samuel, Deut. 17. He shall give Strength unto his King, and exalt the Horn of his Anointed: Moses said from God, When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a King over me, like as all the Nations that are about me, thou shalt in any wise set him over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee, etc. The latter part of which words, may more Grammatically and properly, be rendered thus: Setting thou shalt set over thee a King, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee; Or thus: Thou shalt, by all means, set over thee a King; him whom God shall choose from among thy Brethren, shalt thou set King over thee. In this Sense the Syriack Version renders it. To the same purpose, the Targum of Ben. Vzziel, Ye shall seek Learning (or Instructions) of the Lord, and after that shall set over you a King: It is not lawful to set a Stranger over you, who is not of your Brethren. Let us here, by the way, observe, It is not said, Thou shalt set under, but over, and the People are here spoken of in the Singular Number, as one Congregate Body: So that the King that should be Constituted, was to be, to the whole embodied Society, not an Inferior Minister, but a Superior Magistrate. To this General Body of the People, God's Words are so far from allowing them a Liberty of setting up what Government they would, that they altogether deny it to them. Had God left them to choose whether they would set up Monarchy, or Aristocracy, or Democracy, or some Mixture of them, he would certainly have spoken of the rest, as well as he does of the First; but whereas he propounds to them only a King, and gives them Rules only about him; especially, since no where in Scripture, God gives them any Measures for any other Supreme Governors or Government, it is plain, he intended they should have no other Supreme Government, but that of a King. A true Paraphrase of the Words take thus in short; When you shall be well settled in your Habitations, and shall in a fitting manner declare yourselves to have a mind to set over you Regal Government, but not any other, I am pleased that you should, and by all means, you shall set over you that Government, but not any other; but than you shall set over you a King, whom I shall choose, etc. Then he goes on, to give Rules for the King to observe, and concludes them thus: To the end that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom, he and his Children in the midst of Israel; by which Words, God plainly expressed what Good Will he had for a Kingdom, and that an Hereditary one, and for the Right Possessor of it and his Heirs; and how Advantageous the Continuance thereof would be to the People. According to this Sense of this place, the Masters of Hebrew Learning say, that of three Commands which God gave the People of Israel to execute as soon as they were well settled in the Land of Canaan; this was the First, That they should set a King over them. I shall only add on this Head, that the Throne of the Kings of Israel, 1 Chr. 29.33. 2. Chr. 13.8. is called, The Throne of the Lord; and their Kingdom, The Kingdom of the Lord. Thirdly, God in Scripture, declares himself in Favour of a Monarchy, set up by Force against a Government, mixed of Aristocracy and Democracy, and against the Wills of those that were invested herewith. Such every one that is acquainted with History, must necessarily believe the Government of the Roman Emperors to be: And yet the Holy Ghost gives the Emperor the Name of Augustus, which was a Name of Holiness, as appears by Macrobius calling the Dedicated Table in the Heathen Temples, where were their epulae libationes et stipes, Mensam Augustatam: And he gives that Name, Luke 2.1. Acts 27.1. 1 Tim. 2.2. 1 Pet. 2.13.17. not only to Caius Octavius, but also, if I take aim aright, to Nero; he gives either Claudius, or Nero, or both, the Name of King, which the Emperors for a long time shunned, because the Romans disliked it, as signifying the Loss of their Liberty. 1 Tim. 2.2. He commands Prayers and Thanksgiving to be offered up for the Roman Emperor; Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13.17. and as Tribute and Honour, so also Submission to be paid to him; and this as Supreme, and for the Lord's Sake. He says also, in relation to him, when either Claudius or Nero wore the Diadem, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. 13. the Powers, (the Authorities) that are at present existing, are ordained of God; and that whoever resisted him, resisted the Ordinance of God, and that he was the Minister of God. Fourthly, Kings are represented standing in a much nearer Relation to God, than any other Secular Governors: But this is too full a Subject to be now discoursed. Fifthly, It is God's Charge to all, to have a most awful Respect for the King, and not to be of their Party who vary from it, or who enterprise any Alteration from Kingly Government: And this, by the Rule of having a most Awful Respect for the true God, and of not joining with such as vary from it; or as enterprise any Alteration from his Monarchy, they being Duties that are closely linked together; and because hasty Destruction, and such ill Fortune, as no Body knows beforehand what it shall be, or perhaps will apprehend when it comes, certainly attend, and will unawares befall, as well the Sinners of the former sort, as those of the latter. So must those Words of Solomon be understood, My Son, Prov. 24.21. fear thou the Lord, and the King, and meddle not with those that are given to Change: For their Calamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the Ruin of them both? Both Changers from the Fear of the Lord, and Changers from the Fear of the King. Sixthly, God speaks of Regal Government, as alone justly agreeable to the business of Government; which, in regard to those that are to be Governed, is, that they may live a quiet and peaceable Life, in all Godliness and Honesty; Godliness first, in paying God his Rights; then Honesty: So far is salus Populi from being Suprema Lex. What less can we think, when we find it said twice in the Book of Judges, Judge 17.6. & 21.25. In those days there was no King in Israel; but every man did that which was Right in his own Eyes; especially considering what grievous Confusions then prevailed, and what impious and flagitious Enormities were then committed; in the Relations of some of which it is said, Judg. 18.1. & 19.1. In those days there was no King in Israel; a Signification, that they were to be ascribed to the want of a King, though at the same time, Judg. 21.16. Judg. 20.28. there were both Elders of the Congregation, and a Renowned Highpriest. What less can we think, when we read in the same Book, They came to Laish, and saw the People that were therein, how they dwelled careless, after the manner, (by the Law) of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; Judg. 18.7. and there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to Shame; considering unto what Mischiefs we find them betrayed by that State of Affairs; and that the two words which we translate Magistrate, properly denote an hereditary Possessor of Supreme Government: For to signify such a Government, is the word Esar, used in Scripture, particularly in the Business of the Text; whence I cannot but think, came the Hetruscan Word Aesar, which signifies, the Supreme Governor of the World, Suet. in Julii Caesar. vit. God, Hesych. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods; and possibly the Greek Words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a King. What less can we think when we find the want of a King, spoken of by God, as a grievous Calamity, and inflicted for the punishment of a People's Wickedness; When we read the Prophet Jeremiah, complaining, Lam. 4.20. The Breath of our Nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their Nets, of whom we said, under his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen. The Prophet Ezekiel, Ezek. 19.10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Thy Mother is like a Vine,— she had Rods for the Sceptres of them that bear Rule;— but she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the East Wind dried up her Fruit; her strong Rods were broken and withered, the fire consumed them; and now she is planted in the Wilderness, in a dry and thirsty Ground; and fire is gone out of a Rod of her Branches, which hath devoured her Fruit; so that she hath no strong Rod to be made a Sceptre to Rule. And the Prophet Hosea, Hos. 10.3. Now they shall say, we have no King, because we feared not the Lord; what then shall a King do unto us? That is far from being inconsiderable, which Dion. Cassius says, Dion Cassius Hist. Rom. l. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Democracy hath indeed a specious Name, and seems by equal Laws, to give an equal portion to all; but it is argued by its Effects, not at all to agree with its Appellation: on the other side, Monarchy is harsh to the Ear, but most beneficial to the State: for it is easier to find one man good than many; and if some think it hard to find that one good man, they must of necessity think it impossible to find those many: If then the one that governs is bad, he is yet rather to be chosen, than a great many like him. Of this, the Achievements of Greeks and Barbarians, and of the Romans also, are Testimonies, they being always by far, better, and greater, and more, under Kings than under Populacy; and Grievances falling out less in Monarchies, than in Popular Governments. And if any Commonwealth hath flourished under a Popular Administration, it hath lasted but for a short time, while they had not arrived at Greatness and Strength; so that there sprang no Injuriousness from Success, nor Envy from Ambition. Abimelech, though I do not think he spoke by immediate Inspiration from Heaven, yet he did from the Oracle of Reason, and knew the Answer was obvious to a knowing Man, when he put that Question to the Shechamites, Whether is it better for you, Judges 9.2. either that threescore and ten Persons Reign over you, or that one Reign over you? Be the State of a Nation never so like Heaven, several Suns, at the same time therein, will quickly turn it into a kind of Hell, by setting all on Fire. I should say something, by way of Application, and I have too large a Field for it; but neither the Time, nor the Times allow me Liberty to employ myself therein: I must refer that, as Foelix did the hearing S. Paul, to a more convenient Season. I shall at present only Conclude from what hath been said, That Monarchy among men, is one of the fairest Daughters of that of Heaven; and that they who have endeavoured to deflower her, have thereby confessed her Beauty; and hearty pray, that we may never think them good Christians, whether Protestants, or Papists, who being Subjects, insolently lay Hands on the Sceptre, and attempt to Sway it; by which means, both that and the State, must needs suffer most untoward Convulsions; whose Tongues are Blasphemously, and their Fingers Sacrilegiously busy, with both Monarchy and Monarches; who would establish Iniquity against Kings by a Law: And that whereas the People of Israel were guilty of a great Wickedness in ask a King in that manner that they did, we may never be of a greater, in ask no King, or such an one as imports little more; but that God would always preserve his Government, both in State and Church; so that no Man may be so horribly wicked, as to arrogate to himself the Prerogative of doing what God is said to have done, Lam. 2.6. despising in the Indignaation of his Anger, the King and the Priest. FINIS.