the Hand of Aaron And after the Death of Moses the Supreme Authority of the Jewish Nation was still in a single Person being committed by God either to the High Priest or to some Eminent Man whom he was pleased to raise up such as Joshuah and the several Judges For that the High Priest or the Judge when there was one in those days had the Soveraign Power invested in him is evident from that Command of God Deut. 17. 12. And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord viz. to the High Priest as the scope of the place plainly shews or unto the Judge even that man shal die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and all the People shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously Is not this as great an Authority as any Monarch in the World can desire thus to have all Persons obliged to acquiesce in his determinative Sentence and final Decree and to have a Power to punish all wilful and presumptuous disobedience with Death Josephus expresly calls their Judges Monarchs and Grotius supposeth them to have all things belonging to Kings except their pompous Train and external Grandeur Isti verò Judices planè similes erant Romanis Interregibus nisi quòd Satellitium Pompam Regiam non habebant ac propterea nec Vectigalia exigebant If it be objected That in those days as some Texts speak there was no King in Israel The meaning of those places is not that the Judges were not real Monarchs but that at some certain times there was no particular Judge who sat as their Supreme Dictator and exercised regal Authority among them as also that the High Priest whose Office it was to govern when there was no Judge was negligent and careless of the publick Affairs And the great Blessings of Kings and Monarchs may be understood even by the horrid Impieties and Disorders that happened in those Days when there was no King in Israel such as was the detestable Idolatry of Micha in making himself Gods and consecrating one of his Sons to be his Priest the Sacrilegious Theft of the Danites who stole Micha's Gods and his Priest too the monstrous wickedness of the Benjamites of Gibeah towards the travelling Levite and his Concubine the dire effusions of Blood in the Civil War that ensued the extinction of the whole Tribe of Benjamin except six hundred Men the Destruction of forty thousand Men of Israel and the allowed Rape of six hundred young Women against their wills without the consent of their Parents and contrary to a publick and solemn Oath These and no better than these were the unhappy concomitants and consequents of having no King in Israel that is to say of having no Supreme Ruler who exercised a Soveraign Power among them as the Judge and when there was no Judge the High Priest ordinarily did The last of their Judges was Samuel and when he had governed many years the Infirmities of his Age and the Iniquities of his Sons whom he placed over them gave them occasion to desire a King that they also might be like all the other Nations and that their King might go our before them and fight their Battels Hereupon the Soveraign Power was translated from Judges to Kings and so it still was lodged in the Hands of a single Person Neither had their Kings any more Power than their High Priests and Judges had For Samuel and his Predecessors had as ample Authority as any Soveraign Princes although they were not called Kings But now like all other Nations their Governour was not only a King by the Supremacy of his Power but had the very Name and Title with all the pompous Magnificence and Ensigns of Royalty But here in the History of the Jewish State we meet with a remarkable Passage which deserves to be the more considered because divers have thought it a great Objection against Kingly Government The sum of it is this That God was extreamly angry with the Israelites for desiring a King and proclaimed his Indignation by loud Thunder-claps and a violent tempestuous Rain in Wheat-Harvest which made them confess that they had added to all their Sins this evil in asking a King From whence some of our Republicans conclude That Regal Power and Authority is so far from being of Divine Appointment that it is such a humane Invention as is displeasing unto God To this I answer That although God was angry with them for asking a King it was not for this Reason because he hath any dislike of Kingly Government He was not offended at the Act it self of desiring a King which is in it self very innocent and may often be most just and necessary but he was displeased at the manner and circumstances of it In desiring a King they asked a good yea an excellent Thing and a great Blessing from Heaven But God was angry because they asked this good Thing with an ill mind and at a time when they ought not to have desired it For First It may be conceived that they asked a King out of the Pride of their Hearts They thought it a disparagement to be subject to a Judge who â—ived among them without any great Pomp or State And although his divinely inspired Wisdom and immediate direction from Heaven abundantly comâ—â—ensated all the defects of External Magnificence they were unwilling to be under such a Governour but being ambitious of worldly Glory they would have such a Soveraign Prince as the other Nations had they would have a King to go out and in before them with all the visible Splendor of Royal Majesty Secondly Their desiring a King was accompanied with Infidelity and Distrust of Gods Providence and Protection For it was when they were in fear of an Invasion by Nahash King of Ammon And that it was this Diffidence of theirs rather than the Form of Kingly Government that God was displeased at is evident from Samuels Expostulation with them in which he briefly recounts Gods constant care for their Preservation in all their former Dangers and how by the Hands of Moses and Aaron and Jerubbaal and Jeptha and Samuel he had delivered them from all their Enemies on every side Thirdly They desired a King without any just Cause or legal Warrant or due Advice in a rash Tumultuous and Seditious manner at such a time when they had a Supreme Judge who was a Lawful Soveraign of Gods own Appointment Even in his Life and Reign they desired a King They had not the Patience to expect his natural Exit by Death but they would have this excellent Governour who deserved so well of their Nation Deposed and some other Advanced in his place God might therefore very justly be angry with them for rejecting so worthy and eminent a Person who was not only their rightful Prince but one who had Ruled with great Prudence
And if the Fear of God be considered as it is a filial Reverence compounded with Love it will be much more powerful to move and excite Obedience to him Reverence willingly offers readily pays and chearfully performs what was forced and constrained by meer Fear If Awe and Affection be united in a devout Veneration of the God whom we serve his Service which before was a Yoak and a Burden then becomes perfect Freedom so pleasant and so natural to us that to refuse it will be an Extinguishing of our own Joys a Resisting oâ— our own Desires and a Violence to ourselves A man that highly reveres another is as much inclined to please him as he is to please himself and as unwilling to offend him as he is to wound his own Breast Obedience therefore is an Inseparable Effect of filial Fear or Reverence And that which is so is the most certainâ— Mark of the Truth and Reality oâ— our Religion We all profess Religion and the Fear of God we all pretend the highest Awe and Reverence to his divine Majesty But do we sincerely endeavour to serve and please him Are we guilty of no wilful disobedience no chosen and deliberate violations of his holy Laws If we indulge any of these the true Fear of God is not in us For it is fourthly to be noted That these are the Contraries and Opposites unto this Fear All wilful and presumptuous Sins are perfectly repugnant to it These are Affronts and Contempts bold and Impudent Practices which carry the Marks of great Irreverence clearly written upon their Brow When men deliberately chuse to do those things which they plainly see and know to be contrary to the Divine Laws this is a manifest Discovery that there is no Fear of God before their eyes Let us therefore prove the truth of our Religion by the sincerity of our Obedience particularly by our Obedience to those Commands of God which require us to be Loyal to our Prince That we may fully shew what an Awful Sense we have of the Majesty and Soveraignty of the most high God both in our Words and in our Actions let both our Words and Actions declare how much we revere his Power and Authority not onely in himself but in those also whom he hath set over us And so I come to the second part of Solomon's Advice wherein we are admonished unto the Fear of God to subjoyn the Fear of the King who is Gods Vicegerent Of which I shall discourse in the same Method as I have done of the former by considering its Nature Degrees Effects and Contraries First As for the Nature of the Fear which we owe unto the King 't is very much of the same nature with that Fear which is due to God himself onely 't is inferior and subordinate to it For Kings are honoured in holy Scripture with the adorable Name of God And the Laws of England looking upon the King as a God upon Earth do attribute unto him in some Analogy diverse Excellencies that belong properly to God alone such as are a kind of Omnipotency in raising men from Death to life by pardoning whom the Law hath condemned a certain Omnipresency by his numerous Officers who every where represent him and little less than an Infallibility and an absolute Perfection of Wisdom and Righteousness For our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King The Fear therefore which we owe to our dread Soveraign even like that which we render to the divine Majesty is a most profound Reverence for an high Esteem of and a most humble and dutiful Affection unto his Sacred Person and Authority It is a filial Fear compounded of Dread and Love For the King is the Father of our Country by whose Providence and Protection we are supported and defended by whose vigilant Care and Conduct we quietly enjoy all that we possess Of this as St. Jerom hath observed even the Philistines were so sensible that it was a constant Custom among them to call all their Princes by the name of Abimelech which signifies both Father and King And it was the Promise of God to his Church that in the Times of the Gospel Kings should be her nursing Fathers and Queens her nursing Mothers Which great Blessing hath been and is most visibly enjoyed by us in this Nation as much as by any People under Heaven Since then by being born the Kings Subjects we have the Happiness to be his Children the very law of Nature doth oblige us to pay him all the Awfulness and Affection and Duty of Children If I be a Father saith God where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my Fear Now the King next and immediately under God is the great and common Father the supreme Lord and Master of us all And therefore secondly The Degrees and Measures of Honour and Fear which are due to the King are the very highest and the greatest next unto those that are due to God himself The supreme Power and Authority under God being lodged in the sacred Person of the Soveraign Prince he may justly demand the supreme Honour Within his own Dominions he is only less and lower than God he is greater and higher than all Ranks and Orders of Men. Yea all the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his All his Subjects whether Publick Magistrates or private men not only severally and apart but joyntly and together are under his Command For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom or a Political Society united under one Form of Government but only a King of single men separately taken and so he would be a strange kind of Chimerical and imaginary Prince a King of nothing but a Rope of sands In the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. ver 13 and 14. that great Apostle makes this plain Distinction between our Subjection to the King and to all other Magistrates whether taken collectively or distributively We are to submit to the King as Supreme to all others as his Officers and Delegates Sent and Commissioned by him all of them together as well as each of them apart having received all their Power and Authority from him and he having received his from God alone For the King is no Substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God This is the Voice of Scripture and of Reason and this I may with the greatest Confidence because I can with the strongest Evidence affirm it being not only the unanimous Opinion of all the Wisest Politicians and Statesmen in the World but also the Catholick Doctrine of the Christian Church for many hundreds of years together that a Monarch or Soveraign in his own Dominions hath no Superior but God Almighty And indeed it would be
very strange if any considering men should think otherwise For it is a manifest Contradiction to be a Soveraign or Supreme Prince and to have a Superior Those Kings who have any Power above them are only titular not real Kings The Soveraignty is always lodged where there is the highest Authority And according to the Constitution of our Nation it is most certainly in the King for the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal together with all the Commons assembled in Parliament do by a Solemn Oath acknowledge the King to be Supreme and themselves to be his Subjects and they have in publick Statutes particularly declared the sole Supreme Command and Government of the Militia ever to be and to have been by the Law of England the undoubted Right of his Majesty and his Predecessors and that both or either Houses of Parliament cannot nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Neither can any Laws or Statutes be made by them but onely such as the King approves Neither is the King accountable to them or to any other or liable to be punished by them or by any other besides God These are the Essentials of Soveraignty or supreme Power to have the sole Power of the Sword to have the Legislative Power to have a Power which is irresistible and unaccountable and no way subject to the coercive Authority of any other Every compleat and Imperial Soveraign hath all these And that we are under such a Soveraign the whole Parliament did acknowledge in the 24. H. 8. c. 12. in which it was Resolved That by sundry Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one Supreme Head and King having Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same The Kings Majesty being therefore the only Supreme Governour in his Dominions next under God and having full perfect and entire Jurisdiction and Authority from God alone which no other Magistrates have but by Emanation from him ought to be revered by us with the highest Degrees of Awfulness and Veneration that can justly be paid to any Person or Power upon Earth The Fear and Hoour we owe to him is greater than we owe to any other and is the very greatest that can possibly be expressed except only that Divine Honour and Adoration which is peculiar to the Deity Thirdly This Awful Fear of our Soveraign Prince if it be really within us will have the very same Effect that the Fear of God hath It will produce a most humble and loyal Submission a most faithful and dutiful Obedience to him We shall execute his Commands with Chearfulness and bear with Patience what he inflicts upon us We shall carefully endeavour to observe and keep all his just Laws that is to say all those which are not contrary to the Laws of God And if it so happen that we cannot comply with his Injunctions by Reason of their Repugnancy to the Divine Commands then we shall meekly and quietly submit to the Penalties that ensue such non-complyance There is but one only case wherein a good and loyal Subject who duly fears and honours his Prince will refuse to obey him and that is when such Obedience will by no means consist with his Obedience to God then indeed he will obey God rather than Man because he fears God more than any mortal Man more than the greatest Monarch in the World But there is no Case whatsoever wherein he dareth either to resist or reproach the Person or the Authority of the King or to offer any Indignity to him For in the fourth and last Place it is to be remembred that all Acts of wickedly presumptuous Disobedience all Oppositions by Force of Arms all reviling Expressions and all manner of Affronts are the most manifest Contradictions to the awful Fear of Soveraign Majesty Where the Word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 4. But if his Word be slighted and his Power despised he is not honoured as a King Who may say unto him what doest thou None surely can without great irreverence Is it fit to say to a King thou art Wicked or to Princes ye are Vngodly Job 34. 18. No it is very unfit it is one of the highest Instances of Impudence Rudeness and Unmannerliness It is such Behaviour as doth no way consist with the Deference Obsequiousness and profound Lowliness which ought to be in Subjects But what is it then to take Arms against him Is it not plainly a fighting against God whom the King represents and with whose Authority he is invested Prov. 30. 31. A King like God is one against whom there is no rising up No not upon any pretence whatsoever without open Perfidiousness and Rebellion of which when any are guilty they not only affront their Prince and contemn his Laws and Government they not only act contrary to their Duty and Allegiance but they totally cast off the very State and Quality and Relation of Subjects yea they are such Monsters of Men as do in a great Degree renounce humane Nature and common Civility They are as natural Brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed So St. Peter describes them 2 Pet. 2. 10 12. If we have therefore any Fear of God or the King if we have any Regard to Religion or Loyalty Humanity or Civility we will abhor the thoughts of ever joyning with such salvage untamed ungovernable Creatures such Wolves and Tygers in humane Shape as Rebels and Traitors are Yea if we desire to keep our selves out of danger we will have nothing to do with any of the Friends or Correspondents of such ill men with any factious Designers who do more remotely attempt to destroy the Government by introducing the Changes and alterations of it Which brings me to The third Observable in the Text The useful Caution against Joyning or Associating with seditious Innovators Meddle not with them that are given to change That is joyn not thy self to any turbulent Sect or Party whose Discontent with the present State of Things or desire of Novelty makes them affect a change especially in those two great Interests of a Nation Religion and Government both which the due Fear of God and the King would preserve inviolate Now by how much the better the established Religion and Government is by so much the worse and the more detestable are all such Combinations and Confederacies for the Change of either of them Upon which Account I verily believe no People in the World have greater Reason to hearken to this Counsel of Solomons than we have For wherefore should we desire or endeavour an Alteration either of our Religion or our Government Our Religion is the true Christian Religion restored to its primitive Purity and reformed from the Corruptions and Abuses both of Hereticks and Schismaticks And shall we joyn
is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted above all Both Riches and Honour come of thee and thou reignest over all Theocracy or the Government of God himself is most perfectly and necessarily Monarchical which is a clear Indication of the supereminent Excellency of this Form of Government and that the happy Settlement and durable Establishment of a Nation may be most effectually promoted by it Secondly Monarchy is the Government which God hath chosen and appointed among the Children of Men for the good of humane Societies in Nations and Kingdoms As himself by Right of Creation and Conservation hath an immense Monarchy over all the World so he hath ordained finite and limited Monarchies in the several Regions of the Earth in each of which it pleased his Divine Providence always to set up one Deputy or Vicegerent who next and immediately under himself was Supreme Lord and Governor of all until at length Rebellions and Usurpations in some few of them violated the Order of God converted Monarchies into Popular States and advanced the Subjects above the Soveraign As it is in Gods Power alone to appoint Rulers and Magistrates and to confer an Authority to govern the World so his Wisdom is best able to judge what Form of Polity is most conducive to the Welfare of Mankind And therefore such sort of Governours and Governments as by his Providence have been most anciently and universally established ought by infinite Degrees to be preferred before any of the new Models which have been contrived and introduced by those Troublers of the World that are given to Change We justly value things according to their Original and their Antiquity Now if we would know the Original and the Antiquity of Monarchical Government we must look back as far as Adam and look up as high as God Monarchy began in Heaven and to make this lower World happy it was soon after established upon Earth Although the Empire of Nimrod be the first that is expresly mentioned in the Sacred Writings yet the first of Men was undoubtedly a Monarch who during the many hundred years he lived in the World was the only Soveraign under God and all his numerous Posterity were as much his Subjects as they were his Children being obliged by the Law of God and Nature to revere his irresistible Authority and to pay a dutiful Obedience to him After his Death his second Son Abel being slain and Cain the Eldest cursed by God for the Murder of him the Empire descended to Seth his third Son who as it is conceived established Religion and made Laws and Constitutions concerning Divine Worship For in his Days we read that Men began to call on the Name of the Lord After Seth Enosh his Son succeeded in the Government After Enosh the following Patriarchs And so long as the World was but one Nation and of one Language we may rationally suppose that they had but one King But at the Confusion of Languages each Division of People had their Head who undertook to conduct them to some convenient Region where they might dwell together and so he who was their Leader became their Prince as Heber was the King of the Hebrews From hence-forward there were various Kingdoms dispersed over the Face of the Earth which were both distinguished and protected from each other by the separate Rule and Government of their several Princes And such was the firm and stable Foundation which Monarchy had in all the former Ages of the World that the Earth knew no other Power for above three thousand years For the first Republick that History takes notice of was at Athens and it began as some say after the Expiration of the Reign of Eryxias which happened in the thirteenth Olympiad and neer the Year of the World 3275 or at the farthest after the Death of King Codrus who lived somewhat above an hundred years before and is said to be the last King of Athens by Justin and some others Afterwards Sparta Corinth Thebes and other Cities of Greece followed the Example of Athens But those little Common-Wealths were continually plagued either with intestine Broils or Foreign Wars and the Athenians in particular which were the first that changed their Government paid dearly for it when instead of one King they had thirty Tyrants reigning over them And at last when these quarrelsome States had almost ruined one another they were all made to submit to the Macedonian Empire and never suffered to erect that Form of Government again After these I have not read of any Republick of Note in the World besides the Roman until our few Modern Common-wealths were set up whose later Date is easily known Since then it was Monarchy under which the Nations of the world lived and flourished in a settled and uninterrupted course for so many thousand years it is not probable that the happy State of a Land should be so well prolonged under any sort of Popular Government which turbulent Innovations have introduced Thirdly As it is not to be doubted but Monarchy was anciently the Universal Government of the World set up by Divine Order and Approbation so it is particularly most clear and certain from Holy Scripture that it was of Gods own especial Designation and Appointment among his peculiar People the Children of Israel whom he had chosen above all other Nations to be the Objects of his singular Favour Their Government was Monarchical as soon as they became a Nation even from the time of their Deliverance out of the Egyptian Slavery and so it all along continued until after that the Son of God came down from Heaven to be their King their Nation was most justly destroyed for their horrid Impiety in rejecting and crucifying that Prince of Peace The first Governour God placed over them was Moses who was their Lawgiver and Judge and as real a Soveraign as ever raigned He was King in Jeshurun Deut. 33. 5. or according to some Versions King in Israel He was a King as the Learned Grotius saith upon the Place Non quidem Nomine Pompâ sed Jure regio His Power was Supreme Sacred and Inviolable his Will and Command uncontrolable and those that denied or disputed his Authority received the most exemplary Vengeance from Heaven that was ever inflicted upon the worst of Mankind He appointed indeed divers inferior Magistrates and Judges as Jethro advised him he chose able men out of all Israel and made them Heads over the People Rulers of Thousands Hundreds Fifties and Tens but the Supreme Power he wisely reserved in his own Hands and all the most difficult and weighty Causes were brought to him that they might be decided by his final and determinative Sentence from whence there was no Appeal Neither were any Sacred or Ecclesiastical matters exempted from his Regulation and Government The whole Aaronical Ministry which consisted in Typical Rites Ceremonies and Sacrifices was ordered and appointed by him although executed by
Sins to bestow the Crown upon David and his Line who were of that Tribe making the Succession to it Hereditary in the Days of Solomon when it was in its most flourishing and glorious State And when he had thus fixed the Scepter of that Kingdom according to Jacob's Prophecy he never suffered it to depart from Judah until Shiloh came Thus we see the Government of the Jewish Nation was all along Monarchical even from the Days of Moses unto the coming of the Messias and it is not to be imagined but that God who chose them to be his peculiar People would also chuse for them the best Form of Government extant in the World If it be said that the Jewish Kings were not real Soveraigns but were as is affirmed by some of the Rabbins accountable to the Sanhedrim or Senate of Seventy one Persons and which is more might be scourged by the Sanhedrim only by the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem say some yea say others by the less Sanhedrim of twenty three which was the Government of every particular City This as the Learned Dr. Falkner hath evidently proved is a meer Fiction of the Modern Rabbins and deserves as much to be believed as their prodigious Story in the Talmud of the number of Horses for Solomon's own Stables which are there summed up to an hundred and sixty Millions accounting a thousand thousand to a Million And although both Romish Writers and others of an Antimonarchical strain in managing their respective Designs have frequent recourse to this Plea of the Jewish Synedrial Power yet it is not therefore in any degree the more credible For those men as the Dr. observes who can believe that the Apostolical Form of Church-Government was by Lay Elders because divers late Authors but neither Scripture nor Ancient Fathers do assert it and those who can persuade themselves that our Saviour made the Bishop of Rome the Universal Monarch of the whole World and gave him a Plenitude of all Temporal and Spiritual Power because many Writers of that Communion do now assert this while what is inconsistent therewith was declared by Christ and his Apostles and the Ancient Christian Church such men have understandings of a fit size and suitable disposition to receive these Rabbinical Traditions concerning the Synedrial Authority and Supremacy Fourthly After our Saviours coming Monarchy being the Universal Government settled and established in all considerable Nations and Countries he was so far from changing and altering this most ancient and universal Polity that he required and commanded all his Disciples to live in Obedience and Subjection to it That the Jewish Monarchy was of the same Nature with the Jewish Priesthood tht Kingly Government was a Figure and a Shadow in that Oeconomy a part of the Legal Paedagogie inconsistent with Christian Liberty and consequently abolished by the coming of the Messiah is such a wild and absurd imagination as our Enthusiastick Republicans could never have entertained if they had once seriously perused either the Gospel of our Blessed Saviour or the Writings of his Apostles He who declared that his Kingdom was not of this World came not to supplant or unhinge the Kingdoms he found here He came not to extinguish the Title break the Scepters and trample upon the Crowns of Earthly Monarchs but gave a greater security and establishment to their just Dominion than ever it had before He never claimed a Power of judging censuring and deposing Soveraign Princes although some of his professed Servants in Rome in Geneva in Scotland and I wish I could not say in England have The Son of God was no Enemy to Caesar but acknowledged his Imperial Authority and commanded men to render to him all the Rights which belong to Soveraign Majesty When that ensnaring Interrogation was proposed by the Pharises Is it lawful to give Tribute unto Caesar He not only gave a distinct Answer to their particular Enquiry convincing them of their Obligation to pay Tribute but also laid down this general Rule That they ought to render to Caesar all the things that are Caesars He plainly proved to them the just Soveraignty of Caesar by his Prerogative of Coining Money and gave them an ocular Demonstration of it by shewing them the Majesty of their Governour in the Image upon their Coin and the Characters of his Authority in the Superscription And yet Caesar was at this time their Soveraign not by an ancient and hereditary Right but by the more dubious Title of a new and late Conquest Our Saviour owned the Power of Governing the World delegated by God to Emperors and Monarchs and confirmed that Delegation by his own Obedience to it As he told the Roman President that he could have no Power at all against him except it were given him from above so considering the Divine Original of that Power he meekly submitted even to the most cruel and unjust Exercise of it not denying the Authority of his Judge although his Sentence was the most wicked that was ever pronounced He who knew that Kings and Emperours should hereafter be Nursing Fathers to his Church would not now take away their Power or in the least diminish their Soveraignty or oppose them with any forcible Resistance tho' no man ever suffered under them such unjust and inhuman Usage as he met with Neither did any of his Apostles take upon them to New-model the Governments of the World but were exact Followers of their Lord and Master in a quiet and peaceable submission unto and in a just revering of all Earthly Kings and Monarchs as no other than Gods Ministers and Vicegerents The higher Powers which St. Paul in the 13th to the Romans calls the Ordinance of God and to which he exhorts every Soul to be subject upon pain of Damnation were at that time Monarchical and although the Person possessed of those Powers is generally thought to be Nero who was one of the worst Monarchs that ever Reigned yet he earnestly presseth the necessity of Subjection to him not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Because as bad as he was he was advanced to the Empire by God he was Gods Minister and invested with his Authority It seems St. Paul was so great a Friend to Monarchical Government that he required a dutiful Subjection to it as to the Constitution and Appointment of God and would not give the least encouragement to attempt its alteration by setting up a Popular Soveraignty although the Emperor who then governed was not only a Heathen but such a prodigious Tyrant as no Prince in the Christian World ever was or is ever like to be The same Apostle also manifestly prefers Monarchs before all other Governours when he exhorts that Prayers and Supplications be made first for Kings and then for all others in Authority 1 Tim. 2. 1. And St. Peter gives an undeniable Approbation of Monarchy when he so evidently placeth the Soveraign Power in a single Person and so
expresly fixeth it there as any man may see he doth in the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. Verses 13 14. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him St. Peter here requires subjection to all humane Power and Authority which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humane Creature or Constitution not as if it were so the Ordinance of Man as not to be the Ordinance of God for then St. Peter would contradict St. Paul but because the Power and Authority which is appointed by God is managed exercised and executed by and among and over men and for the good of men Although he calls it the Ordinance of man he exhorts to submit to it for the Lords sake which plainly signifies that whatever hand men have in the establishment and the exercise of Civil Government yet it is appointed by God and derived from him But that which I chiefly observe in this Apostolical command is that St. Peter manifestly asserts the Soveraign Power of Kings and Monarchs but not of the Senate or the People According to his Politicks the King is the sole Supreme Governour and all others are commissioned by him and ought to live in subjection to him They were to obey Claudius the then Roman Emperor as their highest Lord and Governour next and immediately under God they were also to submit to Furius Camillus Scribonianus and to the other Roman Procurators in their several Provinces but these they were to obey under the Emperor only as his Officers and Ministers only so far and so long as they derived Authority from him Thus we see Christ and his Apostles acknowledged approved and confirmed that Monarchical Power by which they found the World governed and gave no encouragement to the novel Opinions of those State-menders who are for setting up a popular Soveraignty Fifthly Monarchy hath in it self a real and intrinsick Dignity and Excellency beyond all other Models of Government It is most agreeable to Nature and to the common Genius of Mankind 'T is most easie and safe most worthy and honourable and most apt to procure and promote the chief ends of Government having far more advantages and fewer inconveniences than any Aristocratical or Democratical State We see there is but one Head over the several Members of the Natural Body and 't is almost as monstrous to have it otherwise in the Body Politick There is but one Mind or Understanding to govern all the humane Passions and executive Powers and if any of them command and control in the place of Reason it is a Rebellion and Usurpation By the Ordinance of Heaven one Sun rules the Day and one Moon the Night but if divers Suns appear at the same time or if Comets give light instead of the Moon these are look'd upon with horror as the Prodigies of Nature and the terrifying Omens of Wars and Plagues and dire Calamities coming upon the world Among the Bees as Naturalists observe a little Monarch governs the whole Swarm Of the Cranes one flies before and leads the company Among Sheep and other Cattle one guides the Flock and is as it were Herdsman to the rest Thus there appears some resemblance of Monarchy thorow the whole course of Nature And if it had not been hugely agreeable to Mankind it could never have so universally prevailed as it hath it could never have so long continued the standing Government of all Ages and of all Nations except a very few For the number of Common-wealths that have been erected in the world compared with the Monarchies and Regal Governments is as small and inconsiderable as the number of strange and monstrous Births compared with those usual and natural Productions which daily appear according to the regular course of Things And of those few Common-wealths some have been forced to return to Monarchy that they might not be ruined under their new Models No other Government hath such a stable Foundation for its own continuance or for the firm and durable support of the Peace and Happiness of the People governed as Monarchy hath When the different Interests and distracted minds the various Inclinations and the contrary Humours of the many chief Magistrates of a Republick are ready to tear the State in pieces the Monarch rules and governs all things with an easie peaceful and undisturbed Determination having none to contend with him or to controle him Where Many govern there will be inevitable Divisions and Dissentions among them and we know that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand But such Discords and Dangers cannot arise where the Soveraignty is in a single Person The Monarch also may readily and speedily at any Time or in any Place Judge and Decree concerning the publick Affairs But the several Governours in a Republick must appoint a Time and Place when and where to meet together and after they are assembled there are frequently many long and tedious debates before any thing can be effected if they do at last agree what to determine In short all those inconveniences of a Popular Government mentioned in a former Discourse are avoided in Monarchy If it be said that the Wisdom Judgment Counsel and Conduct of many may be much better than of one alone This is true But then we should consider that there is a great difference between Ruling and Ministring Ordering and Assisting Commanding and Counselling The Aid and Advice of many Wise men may be greater and better than of one Without Counsel saith Solomon purposes are disappointed but in the multitude of Counsellors they are established And again In multitude of Counsellors there is safety But what his Opinion was of a Multitude of Princes my Text hath sufficiently discovered In weighty Affairs 't is good to hear the several Judgments and Opinions of many but the resolving and determining what Counsel is to be followed the Decreeing and Commanding what shall be done is best and soonest performed by one He who hath compared the various Opinions of divers wise Counsellors in any Case shall be able to give a Judgment thereupon like an Oracle He who hath considered and digested all their Arguments both on the one side and on the other may easily and speedily determine the matter which many cannot do without great difficulty and long contention As for the common Objection that Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny and that the Liberties and Properties of the Subject are more secured and better preserved in a Republick this hath been confuted by our own sad experience under the late Usurping Common-wealth of England when we saw more Tribunals of Iniquity more Invasions of Property more unjust Arbitrary and Tyrannical Proceedings against our Lives and Liberties and all our dearest Enjoyments in the space of four or five years than our Ancestors ever suffered under any of the preceding Monarchs perhaps under all of them in all
the Ages that are past There is no sort of humane Government which is not liable to some miscarriages and where the Soveraignty is invested in many there it is liable unto most Neither is it possible that there should be so much Tyranny in a Monarchy as there may be in a Republick unless we can imagine that one Tyrant may be guilty of more Outrages and Cruelties than thirty or forty who may have all the same Will and the same Power to do mischief that the one hath In a word all those good Offices and beneficial Acts of Government which the many Chief Magistrates in a Common-wealth can perform by the advantage of their number may be done much better and easier by one Soveraign Prince with the Assistance of his Counsellors and Ministers But the abuses of Supreme Power can never be so great or so many when it is committed unto one as they may be when it is committed unto many There is now only the last Observable in the Text to be considered by us namely the principal means of the happy and durable State of a Nation under Monarchy and that is the Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged Niloxenus being asked what was the best and most useful thing in the world Answered A King who being the Image of God is above all and commands all But when the King resembles God not only in his Supreme Power and Authority but also in his Divine Wisdom and Goodness When Light and Knoweldge and Vnderstanding and an excellent Spirit is found in him He is then certainly the greatest Blessing that Earth can enjoy or Heaven bestow A King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgment scattereth away all evil with his Eyes Prov. 20. 8. His Wisdom and Circumspection protects his numerous Subjects against those injuries which they may receive either from within by Disorders among themselves or from without by the Assaults and Invasions of a Foreign Power And this he doth by opposing and subduing the Authors of such Mischiefs For a wise King scattereth the Wicked and draweth the Wheel over them Prov. 20. 26. That is He discovers and dissolves the Associations of ill Men disperses their Assemblies breaks their Combinations and gives them the due Rewards of their unjust Enterprises The only Troublers of a State are wicked and unreasonable Men these therefore his Prudence suppresseth that he may procure and preserve a settled Peace and Tranquillity Thus the King by Judgment stablisheth the Land Prov. 29. 4. Although the common sort of People be of a perverse Nature Vain and Ignorant Proud and Contentious impatient of Restraint desirous of unbounded Liberty unwilling to be tied to Laws hard to be tamed and apt to run into Confusions yet the Prince who is well skilled in the Mystery of Empire bridles this Behemoth puts his hook into the Nose of this Leviathan reduceth the wild and boisterous Multitude to some Order and Quietness and by inflicting exemplary Punishments on some of the worst of them keeps the rest in due Bounds The Wise Monarch being well acquainted with the various Humours and Passions of Mankind and especially with that diversity of Temper and Manners which may be observed in his own Subjects applies himself properly to them and so manages them as to make their contrary Studies Inclinations and Affectitions joyntly conspire to advance the common Good He understands the Nature and Circumstances of his Affairs views things not only in their present Posture and superficial Appearance but searches them to the bottom enquires into the probable Issues and Events of them considers their Causes Concomitants Effects and Consequents with all their accidents and relations and useth not only his own Judgment but the best advice of the wisest men within his Dominions by which means he finds out the fittest Expedients for providing for the Safety and Prosperity of his Kingdom and the improvement of its Honour and Reputation His Laws are excellently contrived for the publick benefit not too gentle because such are seldom obeyed nor too severe because such are seldom executed He will reign in mens Hearts and Affections as well as over their Bodies and that he may be no less loved than feared he allays the Terror of Irresistible Majesty and the Dread of Supreme Power by gracious Assurances of his Royal Goodness He looks upon Justice and Mercy as the great Pillars that support his Government and hath an equal regard to them both His Throne shall be established in righteousness Prov. 25. 5. and upholden by mercy Prov. 20. 28. He is not so rigorous as to be wholly intent upon Justice nor so remiss as by his mildness to bring his Authority into Contempt He distinguishes Times and Seasons knows when to Pardon and when to Punish when to loosen and when to straiten the Reins of his Government He discerns Persons too not only who are good Subjects and who are Enemies or disaffected but also who are able and faithful Friends whose Reports he may credit whose Judgment and Integrity he may trust and who are dissembling Flatterers and Sycophants those Wolves in Sheeps clothing those sly Traytors under the Mantle of Loyalty He knows whom to employ and whom to reject whom to reward and whom to chastise Prov. 14. 35. The Kings Favour is towards a wise Servant but his Wrath is against him that causeth Shame The Constancy also of the Prince is a considerable part of his Prudence and he preserves the Nation he governs in a long and happy stability by being stable in his own Resolutions agreeable to himself suiting his Actions to his Words and those to his Principles and all to the Rule of right Reason For tho' he accommodates himself to the various circumstances of Things Persons Times and Events like the skilful Pilot who according to the different State of the Sea and the several changes of the Wind doth diversly turn and guide his Sails yet in all the Mutations Revolutions and Vicissitudes of his Affairs he persists unmoveably the same obviating every Emergency and managing every Case with a stedfast Presence of Mind and even Temper of Soul and a uniform Method of Procedure either regulated by his own former Experience or by the Observations of History In short the Glory and Majesty of a Wise Monarch shines always with the same bright Rays casting a fair Lustre and diffusing a benign Influence all about so that if any sort of People under his Dominions be not quickened and warmed by his kind Beams it is because their free passage is hindered by the gross Mists of Error Prejudice and Disaffection or by the interposition of some such Obstacles His prudent Administration makes his good Subjects happy But 't is no wonder if those men live somewhat uneasily under the most excellent Government who instead of Loyal Obedience to it are continually misrepresenting libelling and opposing
at length into such a Deluge of boundless Wickedness as quite extinguished the Light of our Israel and pulled down upon as so singular an Instance of the Divine Vengeance as no Nation had felt before the most barbarous and unparallel'd Murder of one of the best Kings â—hat ever sat upon a Throne our late most Gracious Soveraign From hence 〈◊〉 say it will appear that this Days humble and mournful Reflection on â—hat blackest of Britain's Tragedies is 〈◊〉 great and common Duty to which â—…ll even the most innocent Natives of his piacular Island are indispensibly obliged These Conclusions I take to be clearly inferred from those Premises and I believe no sober and knowing Man can think otherwise if he seriously and thorowly consider this Royal and Divine Aphorism which came from the Pen of Solomon and the Mouth of God For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged In which words there lie before us these Four Observables First a publick National Judgment and that is the ill State of a Nation under Polyarchy or Plurality of Supreme Governours when many are the Princes thereof Secondly the notorious Cause of such a Judgment it is expresly ascribed to the Wickedness of a People the transgression of a Land Thirdly the opposite National Mercy or the Happiness of a Nation under a well settled Monarchy when 〈◊〉 a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof is prolonged A man that is to say one Man one Soveraign Prince in opposition to the many Princes before mentioned Fourthly The principal means whereby so great a Mercy is procured and that is the Wisdom of the Monarch his understanding and knowledge I begin with the first of these the National Judgment many Princes by which it is plain we are to understand Supreme or Soveraign Princes For many inferior Magistrates or subordinate Governours are at all times necessary to every State and Kingdom even in their most peaceful and flourishing Condition It is therefore the multiplication of Soveraigns that Solomon here speakes of by many of whom may be meant either many lawful Soveraigns or many Usurpers both which are publick Evils although the latter be the more signal Judgment First then by Princes in the Text we may understand lawful Soveraigns and of them there may be either many successively or many at once There may be many successively in a Monarchical State sometimes by the very Nature of the Constitution as in an Elective Monarchy where the Crown is not inviolably fixed in one Royal Family and in the one â—ight Line according to Priviledge of â—irth and Proximity of Blood but is conferred on various Persons of divers Families or different Lines according to the Will and Pleasure of the Electors This is an ill State in comparison of Hereditary Monarchy At the Death of every Prince 't is subject to an Interregnum in which the whole Frame of things may be unsettled and every new Election not only commits the Administration of Affairs to untried hands but may also expose the Kingdom to great Chages and dangerous Revolutions arising from the opposite Interests Affections and Inclinations of various Families and consequently of such Persons as are chosen out of them Indeed if it happen that the Elected King be the Son of Nobles as Solomon speaks if he descended from the Sacred Race of Kings and hath been educated among Princes from his Youth iâ— he hath not only the Title Place and Office but the real Majesty and Authority the God-like Spirit the Wisdom Justice and Clemency of a King matters may go well while he Reigneth Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles Eccles 10. 17. But if it so fall out as it often may iâ— an Arbitrary Election that the Prince be chosen out of the meanest of the People if he be a Person of low Birth and servile Condition the Kingdom can never be happy under such a Governour For a Servant when he reigneth is one of those three things for which the Earth is disquieted and one of the four which it cannot bear Prov. 30. 21. 22. Sometimes also by the Will and Pleasure of Heaven and by the Visitation of God there may be many Princes successively even in an Hereditary Monarchy when by reason of the frequent Deaths and short Reigns of Kings there is a Succession of divers of them within a few years This is generally disadvantageous to the Happiness of 〈◊〉 Nation if it doth not prove fatal to When there is such a Mortality of Monarchs that the Earthly Gods die â—â—ster than common Men when the children of the most High are brought â—â—w and not one alone but many of â—â—e Princes fall by an untimely Dissolution before they can bring their deâ—…ns and endeavours for the safety and â—elfare of their People to any good â—aturity and when the Crown thus swiftly passing from one to another is devolved upon Infants who are unskilful in the Arts of Empire obnoxious to the unfaithfulness of Tutors and easie to be misled by the treacherous Conduct of ill Ministers this ruffles the publick Affairs and usually causeth great discomposures Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child Eccles 10 16. Although this Wo may be in good measure prevented where the Change and the loss of Princes is recompensed by the continuance of the same wise Counsellors and the defect of Age made up by the uncorrupted Innocence and the early Piety of the Crowned Child But as the having many Princes successively is sometimes the misfortune oâ— the best of Monarchies so the having many together and at once is the constant mischief of a Republick when the Soveraignty is actually invested more than one either in a certain number of Select Persons which is incoâ—modious enouh or which is muâ—â— worse in the very Multitude and general Crowd in the whole Body of 〈◊〉 People the Head and the Feet 〈◊〉 Brains and the Heels the Honouraâ—â—â— the Wise the Sober and all the base and blind and boisterous Rabble having their share in the Government I deny not that these Republicks are lawful Powers in those places where by Divine permission they have had a durable continuance and establishment Long Possession may give them a Title and as bad as they are Use and Custom and the Situation of some Countries may make them tolerable in some few particular places Neither will I say that Solomon did expresly and designedly pronounce this Sentence concerning them The truth is they cannot boast of so great Antiquity It doth not appear that any such Forms of Government had ever been heard of in his Days But because many in this Age and in this Nation have been such fond Admirers of Common-Wealths I shall for their sakes enquire whether these rare Models of Government although they do not fall directly under Solomon's Censure be really any better
Justice and Clemency But Fourthly He was more especially angry with them for rejecting himself For God himselfe was in a peculiar manner King of Israel and by asking a King to go out and in before them they threw off the Government of God himself They have not rejected thee says God to Samuel when he appeared discontented at their Propositions but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them This then was their great Sin and Fault that they asked a King when they had already the best of Kings when the Lord their God was their King They were not culpable because they chose to be under Monarchical Government for they were under that before but because they preferred the Government of a King before the immediate Government of God For during the Times of Moses and Joshuah and the Judges they being inspired Persons who acted by a Divine Impulse the exercise of their Authority was under Gods own immediate direction But when God gave them a King though he himself was in some sense still their King and though the King which he gave them was his Minister and Vicegerent who ruled by and under him and received the Laws of Government from him yet he then in great measure left the Administration of it to the Will and Pleasure of Princes and to the Methods of humane Policy Now I confess indeed the Government of an Earthly King is not so eligible as the Government of God himselfe but it may notwithstanding be much better than any other Form of humane Government and it is manifest God thought it better because when he foresaw that the Israelites would in time be weary of his immediate Government he gave direction in their Law for setting up a King not for erecting a Republick or Popular State As we find in Deut. 17. 14. When thou art come to the Land which the Lord thy God shall give thee and shalt possess it and dwell therein and shalt say I will set a King over me like all the Nations that are about me thou shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse And the Hebrews observe that there were three special Precepts given their Fathers which they were obliged to obey after their settled Possession of the Land of Canaan First that they should have a King over them Secondly that they should destroy Amalek Thirdly that they should build a Temple Of which three the first was concerning the setting up a King because the other two were to be performed by him It seems God was so far from being an Enemy to Kings that he designed a perfect Regal Government for his own People as soon as they should be well settled in the promised Land They were then to have a King a King not in any wise to be set up by the Election of the People who have no Power to govern themselves and can transfer none to another but a King of Gods own chusing and a King like those of other Nations with all the external Magnificence of Royal Majesty For so Samuel represents the manner of their King which though look'd upon by some Learned Men as a Description of Arbitrary Tyranny is supposed by others to be only an account of what is necessary to the due support of Regal Power according to the just Grandeur and Dignity thereof He tells them that their King should take their Sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsmen c. and to be Captains over Thousands and captains over Fifties c. and take their Daughters to be his Confectionaries and Cooks and take their Fields and Vineyards and Oliveyards that is to say the Tenth of them for so it is expressed in the following words the Tenth of their Seed and of their Vineyards and the Tenth of their Sheep c. All which seems to be absolutely requisite to the Royal State of a Soveraign Prince who cannot subsist without Servants and Officers of all sorts both for his Domestick Affairs and for the Execution of his Government nor maintain his Servants without a sufficient Revenue by Publick Taxes such as the Tenth of their Fields Vineyards and Flocks which was the usual Tribute paid to the Eastern Kings And now it must be acknowledged that Samuel does upon this account dissuade the Israelites from desiring a King because the necessary supports and expences of Royal Power would seem oppressive and burdensome to them who had been hitherto free from such Charges and Exactions For while they were governed by their former Monarchs by the High Priest or the Judge the Government was no charge at all to them The High Priest had no other Maintenance when he was Supreme Governour than when he was only High Priest And the Judge whom God extraordinarily raised up was secured and supported in his Government by the extraordinary Presence of the Divine Power without the Aids of Men or Money without any Mass of Treasure or numerous Guards and Trains of Servants But this is no disparagement at all to the ordinary Kingly Power as if that were more expensive and burdensome than other Forms of humane Government because it was like to be a new Charge to a People whose peculiar Priviledge it was to be free before from all such Services and Tributes The Israelites then were at length by Gods own Wise Institution placed under the Conduct and Dominion of compleat and perfect Kings who had not only the Power and Office but also the very Name and Title with all the Magnificent Appendages of Regal Majesty The first of these Kings was Saul of the Tribe of Benjamin who after God had chosen and exalted him to that high Dignity was received as a great Blessing from Heaven with the most joyful Acclamations of the People And the Holy Ghost hath thought fit to leave it upon Record that they were only the Children of Belial that said how shall this Man save us and that such Miscreants were the only men who despised him and brought him no Presents 1 Sam. 10. 24. 27. The People had desired a King that might go out before them and fight their Battles which desires and expectations Saul at first very well answered For when he took the Kingdom over Israel he fought against all their Enemies on every side against Moab Ammon Edom Zobah and the Philistins and whithersoever he turned himself he vexed them And he gathered an Host and smote the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that hated them 1 Sam. 14. 47 48. And although God was pleased to rend the Kingdom from Saul for sparing some of Amalek contrary to the Divine Command and for invading the Priests Office yet he was so far from abolishing Kingly Power that he carefully appointed a Successor in it and sent Samuel to Anoint him Indeed it was ever his purpose to settle the Kingdom in Judah and therefore he took occasion from Saul's