TWO SERMONS.  
The FIRST preached upon JANUARY the 29th. 1687/8. Upon Occasion of Her Majesty's HAPPY CONCEPTION. The SECOND, JUNE the 17th. 1688. UPON THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE.  
By John Turner, Hospitaller of St. Thomas Southwark. Licenced, June the 19th. 1688.  
London, Printed for Randal Taylor, near Stationers-Hall. MDCLXXXVIII.   

To the KING.  
SIR,  
THese Discourses which were uttered in Obedience to Your Majesty's Command, and out of a Principle of Zeal and Loyalty to Your Sacred Person and Heroic Line, are now humbly prostrate at Your Royal Feet, as a small, but hearty and sincere Testimony of the Duty and Gratitude of their Author.  
God grant we may have more occasion for Solemnities of this kind, and that Your Majesty may live to see a numerous Issue, that may establish and assure the Throne, and carry down the Image of Your Princely Virtues to the latest Posterity of Times to come,  
May it please Your most Sacred and Serene Majesty, Your Majesty's most Humble, Dutiful, and Obedient Subject, and Servant, JOHN TURNER.   

ADVERTISEMENT.  
THE Second Sermon, as may be seen by the Close of the First, and by its own Beginning, was designed only to be a Continuation of the First, in which the Miseries of Anarchy are displayed, as in the other, the Blessings of Government are represented; but being with very little Alteration and Addition, applicable to the Sacred and Auspicious Birth upon which it was delivered, instead of being preparatory, as it was first designed, it is now humbly dedicated to the Service and Solemnity of that happy Day that gave us so delightful, and so sweet a Prospect of the continuance of those Joys and Blessings that are the glorious Theme and Subject of it.   

ERRATA.  
IN the first Sermon, Pag. 30. l. 10. Read Expressly. Second Sermon, p. 2. l. 10. r. so particularly. p. 5. l. 7. for and, r. as. l. 8. for as, r. met.   

A SERMON, Preached upon JANUARY the 29th. 1688. Upon Occasion of Her Majesty's HAPPY CONCEPTION.  JUDG. 17. 6. In those Days there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes. 
BEing unhappily prevented by Indisposition, upon the Day appointed for this City and Suburbs, and the Parts adjacent, to express their Thankfulness to Almighty God, for the Hopes he hath given us of ascertaining the Succession of the Royal Line, and establishing the Throne for ever in a regular and peaceable Descent, by a new Prospect of Majestic Issue, from the Loins of our Sovereign and his Royal Consort; I hope I shall be easily excused, if rather than be wholly wanting in my Duty upon so great and solemn an Occasion, I have taken hold of this other Opportunity to offer up my worthless, but sincere Oblation, at a time when the whole Nation is beleaguering Heaven, and laying siege to the Divine Goodness, for an happy and successful End of such fair, auspicious and promising Beginnings, and the Shout of a King is among them. Besides, when I consider how unfit I am to bear any part in so glorious a Scene, I ought to choose rather to appear in such a numerous Multitude of Votaries, as may at once conceal and drown my Imperfections in a Cloud of Incense, and supply my Poverty, Infirmity and Weakness, by its united and confederate Strength.  
Let us therefore, if you please, that we may take the truer Estimate, and have the more just and worthy Apprehensions of that Extraordinary Blessing, which God in his Mercy seems to have designed us, if our Sins or our Ingratitude do not disappoint it; begin at the Tragedies of Anarchy and Confusion, or at that wretched and calamitous Condition of a miserable People, which resembles that of the Israelites after the Death of Samson, When there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes. The Consequence of which, was First, the Destruction of the National Religion of the Jews, and the crumbling it into numberless Parties and Distinctions, as appears immediately by the the Story of Micah, who consecrated and set a part a proper and peculiar Levite for himself and Family; in the twelfth and thirteenth Verses of this Chapter. And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young Man became his Priest, and was in the House of Micah; then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest. And as he had a Levite, so also a Religion peculiar to himself, and that Religion was no other than downright Idolatry, under pretence of Purity and Reformation. For in the fourteenth Verse of the next Chapter, we find mention of his Ephod and his Teraphim, his graven and his molten Image; and this is very certain, by a long Course of Experience, that where there is not a common Band of Unity in the Civil Government, there can be much less any face of Uniformity in Religious Worship; but Religion will naturally degenerate for the most part, from the Particular Fancies and Inclinations of Men left at random to determine for themselves, either into Idolatry or Superstition on the one hand, or into Profaneness and Atheism on the other; but more especially into the latter of these, because where Property is destroyed, as it is in such a State, where there is no King, no Form of Government, no Law-making Wisdom, no Executing Power, Necessity makes every thing become just and lawful, and the Judge of that Necessity is every Man's private Breast; so that Rapine puts on an Heroic Shape, and Violence, when successful, hath the outward Semblance of a noble Magnanimity and commendable Courage. It is the Law only that first determines Property, and then secures it when it is determined; and where there is no Property, there must be endless Confusion, by every Man's raking and scrambling for himself; so that every Man, in such a State▪ as this, is in apparent danger of immediate Ruin, it being impossible that either Strength or Counsel should be of much avail in such a Lawless and Arbitrary Posture of Affairs; but of all Men, they that are the most exposed, are First, the Infirm and Helpless, Secondly, the Rash and Inconsiderate, that apprehend the least of any Calamity likely to befall them; and Thirdly and lastly, the Virtuous and Innocent, such as are naturally inclined to Peace, and would fain be upon Terms of mutual Accommodation, and cannot think of continuing such Hostilities as these, without Regret from within, as well as Terror from without; till at length it comes to pass that Barbarity and Cruelty, and Treachery and Injustice growing epidemical and familiar things, and it seeming by that universal Misery and Confusion, in which Mankind is so desperately involved, as if all things were governed by Misrule and by Chance, and as if the Divinity took no manner of Care of the Peace, Welfare and Happiness of Men, this naturally issues in at least an Indifference for neglected Virtue, when it appears to have so small a share in the Favour and Patronage of Heaven, that Wickedness itself is of the two more safe, and it proceeds by very easy and intelligible Steps to a Disbelief of God's Providence, and a Contempt of his Attributes, till at last it ends, and sets up its impious and abominable rest, in a bold and barefaced denial of his Existence.  
And this is the second Consequence which I intended to mention, as the necessary and unavoidable Event of there being no King in Israel, no Supreme Judge, no Legislative or Executive Power, that by this means Property is destroyed, infinite Strife and Contention introduced, the Fences of Right and Justice broken down, and all Claims are decided by the strongest Arm, and by the longest Sword. From whence it follows likewise, by multiplicity and frequency of bad Examples that Men are hardened and enured to Mischief, sunk into Atheism and Infidelity, and carried headlong by a double Torrent of Precedent and Persuasion, uniting and mingling their confederate Streams into all manner of Injustice, Impiety and Lewdness.  
From hence it was that the Danites, in the very next Chapter, seized upon the Ephod and Teraphim the graven Image, and the molten Image of Micah, and carried his Priest along with them to be a Father and a Priest to themselves, after a most unwarrantable and arbitrary manner, there being no King in Israel, nor any that might control or contradict their Proceed, or say unto them with Authority, What do ye? as Micah said to them, but without it, in the eighteenth Verse of that Chapter, to which they returned no Answer but a Menace, and the Cause was not decided by Argument but by Power. For the Children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy Voice be heard among us, lest angry Fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy Life, with the Lives of thy Household; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned back and went back unto his House. It is true, that all the Israelites had an express Commission to cut down the Groves of Heathens and Idolaters, to overthrow their Altars, and burn their graven Images with Fire, as often as they had Power and Opportunity to do it; but this was not the Case of the Danites at this time, who were as very Idolaters as the other, only they altered the Property from Micah to themselves, so that they were guilty of Robbery, Idolatry and Sacrilege together; the Robbery consisted in the violent Detention of what was not their own, the Idolatry, in worshipping the Images they had stolen, and the Sacrilege, in stealing what they account Sacred, and profaning what they worshipped, by Rapine and Injustice. And not unlike to this it is, what we find in the seventh Verse of that Chapter, concerning the Men of Laish, to whom the five Men of the Danites were sent as Spies: The five Men departed, saith the Text, and came to Laish, and saw the People that were therein, how they dwelled careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet, and secure, and there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing, and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any Man▪ Now this Laish was otherwise called Leshem, as it is in the 19th. of Joshua at the 7th. Verse, and was a Colony of the Zidonians, as appears very probable from this Place, and from the 28th. Verse of this Chapter, where, when the Danites made their Assault upon it; it is said, There was no Deliverer, because they were far from Zidon, their Confederate City, from whence they were at first descended, and had not only brought along with them the ill Manners of that Place, which was to a Proverb infamous for all sorts of Luxury and Vice, but there being no Law to regulate their Exorbitances, or to chastise and punish notorious Offenders, mutual Consent added to reciprocal Example, where there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to Shame, and bring them to condign Punishment for their Offences, soon filled up the Measure of their crying Sins, and made them ripe for the Judgement that overtook them, Their City▪ being burnt, and themselves smitten by the Danites with the Edge of the Sword.  
If by reason of their Impunity, and Want of Government, which is the Cause of all Mischief and Disorder in a Nation, they did not yet, notwithstanding, fall out among themselves; this is to be imputed to the smallness of their Number, for they were conquered by no▪ more than six hundred Men, compared with the strange Plenty and Exuberance of their Soil, a Place where there was no Want of any thing that is on the Earth, and consequently with a very small degree of Husbanbandry and Tillage, it was capable of affording them a plentiful Subsistance, without the Temptation of preying upon each other; To which we must refer likewise what the Text saith farther of them, That they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any Man: That is, they had no need of Traffic and Commerce, but gave themselves up wholly to Pleasure and Enjoyment, having so bountiful and rich a Soil to furnish them at Home with whatever they desired, and therefore they were far from the Zidonians, not only in respect of Distance or of Place, but in this also, that they were not a Bartering and a Trading People, as the Zidonians were, who were the greatest Merchants of those Days, and as they increased in Wealth, so also in Luxury and Intemperance likewise; they imported the Vices▪ of foreign Nations together with their Commodities, and united the Impieties of several Climates in one, and were known to be Merchants, not only by their Ships, and by their Wares, but by their Sins. Lastly, When it is said, as well of the Men of Laish, as of Zidon, That they were a are less, a Quiet, and a secure People; this is also to be ascribed to the Plenty of both Places, to the Natural Plenty of the one, and besides the Natural, to the Artificial Plenty of the other. For Plenty and Ease, do naturally soften and debase Men's Minds into a wanton Spirit of Effeminacy and Lust, into a Listless Habit of Idleness and Sloth, into a Fool's Paradise of Security and Rest; though in the midst of, Dangers round about them, and the Fumes of Wine that can raise Apparitions of Imaginary Dangers, have usually no Sense of those that are certain and real. But this was by no means equally the Case of the Zidonians, and the Men of Laish; for the first were not only secure by Luxury and Intemperance, a sort of Security to which it is very ill trusting, but they had a fortified City, a formidable fleet, a numerous People, and a spacious Territory, and could upon any Occasion furnish out an Army, that should be much superior to any of their Neighbours, and were, notwithstanding the Vices they were guilty of, tied together by an Establishment comparatively firm, under the Command of Magistrates, and the Obligation of Laws, so that they had reason to be secure and at rest, considering how easily they sat at Home, and how safe they were from any Apprehension Abroad.  
But with the Men of Laish it was clean otherwise, they had no Magistrate, no Judge of Controversies, no Reconciler of Differences, no Avenger of Injustice, no Punisher of Offences; and besides this, they were but few in Number, they were situate in a Mid▪ land▪ Country, and had no Advantage of Traffic and Commerce abroad, which begets Leagues and Dependencies among Men, that may be relied upon in a dangerous Time, they were forsaken and forgotten by their very Countrymen the Zidonians themselves, and encompassed all about by Enemies and Strangers, so that their Security was indeed but a lethargic Stupour, which was owing either to Intemperance and Fullness, or else to a vain Persuasion which they seem to have had, because their Neighbours for a long time never had attempted them, that they never would; but the Text inclines rather to the Zidonian Evil, whose Ease and Security was in part owing to the Steams of Gluttony, the Excess of Wine, and the Supinity of Dalliance and Enjoyment; and though the Text mentions no other Effect of that Anarchy that was to be found at that time among the Lawless Inhabitants of Laish, but only that they were careless, and quiet, and secure, and having no Magistrate to put them to any Shame, were grown to a shameless pass of Luxury and Lewdness, yet upon supposition that they did not fall out and quarrel among themselves, which is no more than a natural Effect of Anarchy and Misrule, where all Men are Lords and Sovereigns by themselves, and every one disdains the Character of a Servant, and spurns at the very Thoughts of Obedience and Subjection; yet to be sunk into Concupiscence, and immersed in Lust, to have no sense of Conscience, of Honour, or of Shame, and to be given up wholly to the miserable Conduct of brutal Appetites, and beastly Inclinations, are things, to wise and good Men, that shall seriously consider them, more loathsome than Stench and Putrefaction themselves, more intolerable than the most exquisite and ingenious Torments, more dreadful than the most lingering, or the most shameful Death; they dethrone our Reason, they debase our Understandings, and rob us of those true and limpid Pleasures which arise only from Wisdom and from Virtue, they imply an Anarchy in every private Breast, or which is still worse, if any thing can be worse, they constitute such a Government within our Souls, as when a Prince is governed by his Slaves, and they too Falling-out and Clashing with one another, by the Competition of Passions among themselves, and are a living and a standing Infamy and Reproach to the noblest Faculties belonging to Humane Nature.  
But if we reflect attentively upon the certain Consequence of Gluttonny and Intemperance, which in the Experience of all Times and Places, is big with Animosity in a thousand Shapes, and with a numberless Variety of Mischief and Disorder, and if to this we add the fewness of their Number, being conquered, and all of them smitten with the Edge of the Sword, by a small Party of six hundred Men; it will be highly probable, notwitstanding that Quiet and Security they enjoyed; by which the Text means no more, than that they had no Apprehension of any Disturbance or Danger from abroad; that yet at Home, in the midst of so many, and so great Enormities, without any Magistrate to punish, or any Law to restrain them, they were seldom or never free from some Domestic and Intestine Broil, in which, though the whole Nation were not at a time engaged, yet it is enough if private Persons, by the Rivalship of Love, or by the Surprise of unexpected Feuds, occasioned by Wine or Lust, or by the Ambition of Men, that in a lawless Estate, would every one endeavour to be greater than his Neighbour, did perpetually▪ from such Causes and Accidents as these, destroy and ruin one another, and by new Grudges, everlastingly springing and spawning from the old, hinder the Increase and Propagation of their People.  
For it is highly reasonable to believe, that this Nation or Colony of Zidonian Planters, were actually seated where the Danites found them, even before the coming of Moses out of Egypt; and it is certain that Joshua found them there when he made the Partition of Inneritances to the Tribes, at which time, this very Place was conquered by the Tribe of Dan; but it seems, though the Inhabitants were beaten by the Israelites, and as many as could not secure themselves by Flight, or by Concealment, were smitten with the Sword, yet they were so far from being utterly destroyed, that afterwards they made Head again against their Enemies, and made them quit their new Conquest to the old Possessors, who enjoyed it for some Ages afterwards, without Trouble or Molestation, and had now less reason to be afraid than ever, considering what it was not easy for them to be wholly ignorant of, that there was now no King in Israel, and that they had been formerly too hard for those who were how a disunited and dis jointed People, at a Time when their Strength was unanimous and compact, which was without question one reason of the Quiet and Security which they now enjoyed, notwithstanding they were so small and inconsiderable a People.  
For to say that they were a numerous and a Powerful Nation, and yet that they were destroyed and utterly cut off by a poor Handful of six hundred Men, is to affirm they were destroyed by Miracle, as the Amorites, and the Perizzites and other Nations were at the first entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Canaan; but this being only a supernatural Effect of the Divine Vengeance and Displeasure, for the Incest, Idolatry, Beastiality and other horrid Crimes of those accursed Wretches, whom God had utterly devoted to Destruction, and resolved to give their Land for an Inheritance to his chosen People; this reason will not hold with the Danites at this time, who were as very Idolaters as those whom they destroyed, and therefore it is very unjust and unreasonable to expect in such a Case and Circumstance as this, that any miraculous Aids should be afforded them. Neither is it any more to the purpose, that they asked Counsel of the Priest of Micah, to know whether God would prosper their Undertaking, and the Priest said unto them, go in peace before, the Lord is the Way wherein ye go. So that they seem to have acted by a Divine Commission; for it is to be considered that this Priest of his was but a Puisne Priest, or rather indeed he was no Priest at all, so far as that Office is of a Sacrificial Nature, for he was not of the Sons of Aaron, but only a Common Levite, and he was consecrated to the Priesthood by Micah, against the Express Institution of the Law of Moses, as he likewise consecrated one of his own Sons in the fifth Verse of that Chapter, but had no Right or Authority to do either. Secondly, It is plain by the Text, that he was an Idolater, and therefore had no reason to expect any such extraordinary▪ Assistances from Above, as should acquaint him with the secret Designs of God's Providence, in the Administration and Government of the World. Thirdly, The only way of oracular Responses to be met with among the Jews, was by the Urim and Thummim, which was peculiar to the High Priest alone, and never in any one Instance communicated or vouchsafed to any other but him. Fourthly, He might consider the seeming Fairness and Justice of their Cause, they going only to retreive their own, and to recover again into their own Possession, what their Ancestors had formerly enjoyed. Fifthly and lastly, It may very well be supposed that he was afraid to give a dissatisfactory Answer to so many armed Men, lest they should say to him as Agamemnon did to Chalcas in Homer,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
or as Ahab did concerning the Prophet Micajah, I hate him, for he doth not prophesy Good concerning me, but Evil.  
So that I think upon the whole Matter, it is abundantly manifest, that the Strength of the Men of Laish being very much weakened and impaired by Civil Broils, for want of good Laws to settle the Bounds and Measures of Obligation, and Magistrates to punish the Refractory and Disobedient, whatever present Accommodation there might be patched up among them, by mutual dread of one another, and mutual Experience of so many Ills, as Lawless and Arbitrary Courses had occasioned, and whatever Ease and Security they might promise themselves from abroad, not having heard of any Enemy for so long a time, yet they became an easy Prey from both of these Causes together, to this unexpected and surprising Party of the Children of Dan. To all which, it is still farther to be added, that a dissolute and licentious People, seasoned and habituated in exorbitant Courses, though they may in time be sensible of the great and public Detriment that accrues from them, and be persuaded, by that means, to think of a Regulation for the Redress of such grievous Mischiefs and Abuses; yet they scarce know how to give Obedience to those Laws, which they are convinced to be so necessary for them, but find a certain awkwardness and unaptness in themselves to be confined within any compass of Duty, like untaught Heifers, that never felt the Yoke, or Colts that never yet were backed, or Horses not sufficiently enured to their Paces or their Harness. And as it would be very difficult in this Case, and for a while impracticable to reduce the People into such a State of Obedience as is necessary to the Peace and Security of every Commonwealth, so it would be much more so, to find a fit Governor to preside over them, because Government requires a steady Resolution, and a consummate Wisdom, neither of which are requisite to Obedience, only the Subject is in general to understand: First, the Wholsomeness of Obedience, for the Conservation of Peace, and for the uniting a Nation in one common Band against all foreign Opposers. And Secondly, The Duty that is incumbent upon him, upon account of both of these Considerations, to resign up himself cheerfully to the Supreme Power, for the Common Good of himself and of his Country. Government requires a Courage that is not to be daunted by every sturdy Pretender to Liberty of Action, nor every bold Censurer of the Conduct of Affairs, and the Administration of his Betters at the Helm, let his Pretences be as specious as they will, it requires a Wisdom that looks far backwards into the good and bad Successes of past Times, and into the Reasons upon which they severally depended, a Wisdom that looks forward, and pries with Wariness and deep Deliberation, into the natural Issues and Results of Things; and a Wisdom that is consummate by Experience, in the Management of Affairs, by which a Facility and Dexterity of Action and of Counsel is acquired, as well as by reflection upon the Occurrences of former Times, and Speculation into Humane Nature; without which, no Governor can sufficiently discharge himself of the great Trust that is reposed in him.  
Now in this Case of a dissolute and broken People, whose Necks of a long time had not felt the Yoke, as it would require much greater Wisdom and Experience to pilot and conduct a shattered Vessel through Passions and Prejudices not easily to be conquered or charmed into Obedience, and which like Rocks and Shelves, not taken notice of by any Sea-chart, like moving Sands, without any Buoys to discover them, would every moment endanger the Shipwreck of the State, than to govern an established and orderly Society, that hath been enured to Laws, and sensible of the great Advantages accrueing by them; so it would be much harder to find a Person fit for such a weighty Charge in a Government that needs it most, then in a settled and well regulated State, where half those Abilities would serve the turn. Besides that, the Competition of Pretenders to the Supreme Power, and the several Factions aiding and abetting either the one or the other, would create new Strife, instead of composing the old, and after all, a wise Man, though unanimously chosen, would scarce accept so dangerous a Charge, wherein he would be more likely to make himself a Victim to the variable Humours of a giddy Multitude, impatient of Subjection, and unaccustomed to Restraint, and disdaining to be controlled and checked by him that was so lately their Equal, than to preserve his Country, by his Wisdom and Courage, from its impending Ruin and Desolation. No wonder therefore, if the Men of Laish, being without any Government or Laws, and being probably at variance among themselves, and being surprised of a sudden by an unexpected Assault, and their Security adding new Horror to the Surprise, and contributing in so great a Proportion to their Ruin, they were for all and every of these Reasons, an easy Prey to the Fury of their Enemies, and fell a tame Sacrifice to the Revenge of the Danites.  
But without reasoning so nicely upon an imperfect account, wherein so much is of necessity to be supplied by conjecture, the next Chapter will afford us a more express Description of the horrid Calamities to which Anarchy is Exposed, for there we have first the Story of the Levite and his Concubine, or rather Wife, for she is accused of being false to his Bed. And his Concubine, saith the Text, played the Whore against him, and went away from him unto her Father's House to Bethlehem Judah, and was there four whole Months. Now Adultery was Death in both Parties, by the Law of Moses; nay, the Gild of this horrid Crime was understood to lie at the Door of the Congregation, and was threatened to be avenged upon the People themselves, if they did not expiate it by the Death of the Offenders. Deut. 2●. 22. If a Man be found lying with a Woman, married to an Husband, than they shall both of them die, both the Man that lay with the Woman, and the Woman, so shalt thou put away Evil from Israel. And this was still a more criminal sort of Adultery, because it was a Levites Wife, a Person dedicated and set apart to the Service of God, and to the Ministry of that Temple in which he had placed his Name, and whether all the Tribes of Israel were to repair for Sacrifice and Worship. It was much the more heinous Offence in both of the Delinquent Parties upon this account, and therefore the Obligation to punish it was so much the stronger, but this not being to be done without a formal Process, in which the Criminals were to be first convict, and then adjudged to undergo the legal Sentence in cases of that nature, at a time when there was no Judge in Israel, no Supreme, nor by consequence any subordinate Magistrate to hear and determine Causes, there could be no Process, no Sentence, no Execution. And so it came to pass, not long after, either, by a Return of Affection on the Husband's Part, or by some advantageous Overtures of Reconciliation on that of the Wife and her Relations, that the Business, as foul as it was, was made up, and they associated together again; but this continued but for a very little while, when leaving Bethlehem Judah, where the Father of the Woman dwelled, and going homewards through Gibeah of Benjamin, and lodging there in the House of an hospitable Ephraimite, the Man was first demanded by the lewd and lawless Inhabitants of the Place, to be used as the Sodomites would have served the Guests of Lot, and at last, the least thing that would appease their Belluine and Brutal Lust, was the abusing his Wife to such a degree, that she died upon the Place, and being divided by her Husband into twelve Pieces, which were sent severally to so many several Tribes, to be an horrid Spectacle and Monument of what had happened, and to incite them the more effectually to a just Revenge of so flagitious and villainous an Action upon the execrable Authors of it, this occasioned that dreadful Civil War which followed betwixt the Tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Tribes, who being under no legal Tie of Obligation to one another, and being now destitute of a common Head that might command and influence them all, yet met together by common Consent at Mizpeh, and from thence demanded satisfaction of the Benjamites, for the horrid Wickedness committed by the Gibeathites their Brethren, and for the Scandal that was brought by it, upon the Name and Nation of Israel, which nothing could wipe off, but the Death of those Miscreants that were guilty of it; but the Benjamites were so far from delivering up their Brethren to be punished as they deserved, that they appeared in their Defence, and were resolved, as bad as they were, to stand up in the Protection of their Lives, with the Hazard of their own, upon which, immediately ensued that bloody War, in which forty thousand of the Israelites, and of the Benjamites, the whole Tribe, without sparing either Age or Sex, bating only six hundred, were destroyed; nay, their very Cattle and their Cities were not exempted, but a deadly Infection ran through all they possessed, and overwhelmed every thing in the common Ruin. So that in this one Story, though we go no farther, we have a promiscuous Lust, a brutal Concupiscence, and a destructive War, Crimes not to be named without confusion and blushing, and Judgements not to be mentioned without trembling, and all for want of a Judge and a King in Israel, whose Authority might prevent the Perpetration of such Villainy, or at leastwise punish the beginnings of it, before it proceeded to such a bloody Consequence, and tragical Conclusion.  
But this is not all neither, for if I am not very much mistaken, there was a Famine likewise happened upon this occasion, for in the Book of Ruth we read that in the Days when the Judges ruled, there was a Famine in the Land, upon which Elimelech and his Wife Naomi, and his two Sons Mahlon and Chilion went and sojourned in the Country of Moab, where Elimelech and his two Sons died, and Naomi, after having dwelled there ten years, arose with her Daughters in Law, that she might return from the Country of Moab, for she had heard in the Country of Moab, how that the Lord had visited his People in giving them Bread. Now though it be said that this happened in the Days when the Judges ruled, all that is meant by it is no more than this, that the inspired Writer who wrote this Book, wrote it a considerable time afterwards, in the time of the Kings, and by the Days of the Judges, or when the Judges ruled, all that Period or Interval of time is understood, which passed between Joshua, or rather between Moses the first Judge, and Saul the first King of Israel; and the Age of Ruth falls just upon the Close of this Account, for her Son was Obed, who was the Father of Jesse, the Father of David; so that the Times of Obed and Jesse must be coincident with those of Eli and Samuel, the last Judges of Israel, and the beginning of the Reign of Saul, the first King; and since we have no mention of any Judge of Israel after Samson, before Eli, it must needs appear very likely, that this Famine happened after the Death of Samson, when there was no King or Judge in Israel, when the want of Laws made Industry to cease, and Husbandry to fall to Ruin and Decay, and when the Animosities and Contentions that happened in those days, were a Discouragement to the Husbandman from setting his Hand to the Blow, or scattering the Seeds upon the Earth in their Season, when he had so little security that he should reap the Increase. And otherwise than this it will seem utterly impossible, without a perpetual Miracle all that while, that in Moab, a neighbouring Country, there should be so great Plenty for ten years together, and yet so great Scarcity in the Land of Israel, the Land of Canaan that flowed with Milk and Honey, and was naturally so rich and plentiful a Spot of Ground, for it is not without a miraculous Interposition of Divine Providence, that Countries naturally fruitful, and being of the same Soil and Climate, and very nearly bordering upon each other, should the one be afflicted with a ten years' Famine, while the other, all that while, was not only able to sustain itself, but to supply the Necessities of its Neighbours, and we are certainly informed, that when the seven years' Famine was in Egypt, there was the same Scarcity in the Land of Canaan, and other neighbouring Countries in that Part of the World, only the Wisdom and prophetic Foresight of Joseph, who was then the chief Minister in Pharaoh's Court, had made a better Provision by Good-husbandry, in the Time of Plenty, for the Necessities of Egypt, than any of the neighbour Nations had made for themselves; so that it appears very reasonable to think, that a Famine was one of those dismal Consequences that attended the Anarchy or want of Government among the Jews, after the Death of Samson, and the Expression of Naomi is remarkable, That the Lord had visited his People in giving them Bread; he visited them by giving them Bread, and he gave them Bread by visiting them, that is, by setting a Visitor or Inspector over them, a Judge that might retrench the Exorbitances, and redress the Abuses under which they groaned, for as Phacad in Hebrew signifies to visit, so does Phakid, derived from it, signify a Visitor or Inspector, a Governor, a Judge, a King, or any one that is invested with a Legislative and Coercive Power, and as Mercy and Justice do equally belong to the Notion and Character of such a Person, so God himself, who is the great Sovereign and Potentate of the World, as well when he inflicts his Judgements, as bestows his Mercy, is said to visit Mankind.  
I shall conclude these Observations upon the Text and Context, with observing how careful the inspired Pen man of this Book of Judges is, to let us know that all these Enormities and Calamities which he recounts, were the Effects and Issues of there being no King in Israel, though indeed he does not say so in so many Words, but he does as plainly imply it as any thing can be. For when he tells us the Story of Micah, and his Ephod and Priest, he tells us also at the same time, In those days there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes. And the same Words are again repeated in the next Chapter, where the Danites of their own Heads, without any Order or Commission, to that purpose, make War upon the Men of Laish, and of the easy Conquest they obtained the reason is express assigned, because the Men of Laish dwelled careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, and because there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing; so that they were a lose and a divided People; and immediately before the Story of the Levite and his Concubine, which drew such dismal Consequences after it, it is again inculcated and repeated, And it came to pass in those days, when there was no King Israel, that there was a certain Levite, etc. And Lastly, In the Conclusion of the whole Book, where the Children of Israel, after the War with Benjamin, disband and fall in pieces again, going every Man to his own Tent, and after his own Imagination, he ends as he began, with the same remarkable Words, In those days there was no King in Israel, every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes; and then in probability that Famine followed which I have now newly described.  
But it is in vain to pursue this Argument any farther, the Miseries of Anarchy are so many and so great, that there is no Tongue sufficient to express them, nor any Conception large enough to comprehend them; they are as variable as the Passions and Designs of Men, or the Occasions upon which they happen, and as Bloody, as Cruelty, Ambition, Injustice and Revenge can make them; and if the Reins of Discipline were let lose upon our Necks, or the Bridle of Obedience perfectly taken off, and every Man let alone to abound in his own Sense, and pursue his own Imaginations as far as he thought fit, it would soon come to pass that the World, by the interfering Passions, and incompossible Desires and Appetites of unreasonable Men, would be turned into a Wilderness of Thorns and Briars, a Den of Thiefs, a Forest of wild Beasts, a Chaos of Confusion, a miserable Spectacle of Destruction and of Death displaying and brandishing its frightful Terrors in a thousand several ghastly and lamentable Forms, a Theatre filled with desperate Gladiators, perpetually goring and stabbing one another, a Slaughter-house for Innocence, an inextricable Snare for Weakness, a Temple, but not a Sanctuary for Oppression, a Region of Devils in the Shape of Men; so that the old War betwixt the Giants and the Gods, which the Poets have represented, as much the most terrible and outrageous thing that even Fancy and Fable would stretch themselves to conceive, would of a sudden cease to be Romantic any longer, and instead of being Fabulous, as it now appears, it would pass for a cold and an imperfect Truth, not worthy the Name of a Poetical Contrivance, nor fit to be compared with the real Animosities that would intoxicate and embroil Mankind. It is but fit therefore in the midst of such horrid and dismal Apparitions, as the Consideration of Anarchy presents us with, before we enter upon the blessed and the glorious Scene of Establishment and Order, to let down softly the Curtain of Confusion, that our Thoughts may be composed and quiet, as the serene, beautiful and peaceful Subject about which they are to be employed, and that we may relish the better the Happiness of Government, and pray the more hearty for the Continuance of it, and for the Birth of a Prince, that may render Empire in an everlasting Succession, Hereditary to himself and his Descendants, and entail Peace, Righteousness, Charity and Plenty upon all the Subjects of this Imperial Crown, as long as the Sun continues to be constant, or the Moon to change.  
FINIS.