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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51355	A sermon preach'd at the cathedral church of St.Paul's on May 29, 1699, before the right honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and citizens	Morer, Thomas, 1651-1715.	1699 (1699)	Wing M2723; ESTC R43468	20,595	31

Equal What the Issue of this Rebellion was that Chapter shews One Schism was punish'd with another and the Earth divided and swallowed them up So that how Arbitrary soever Moses was thought to be yet it pleas'd God to justifie him with Miracle and by a Plague immediately following let the People know whom they were to Obey as their Lord and Sovereign Josephus indeed informs us That under Moses and his Disciple Joshua who at that time had the Empire and Army the Nobility and other Worthy Men Ruled the State Antiq. l. 6. c. 6. He means the One Office was Military the Other Civil and so he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was their General Yet in this Case if the Nobility and Elders govern'd independant of the Prince how could this Author say that after Joshua's death the People were without Government eighteen Years till they found a Valiant Just Man to Rule who with his Successors were call'd Judges This proves their Power to decease with the Prince or otherwise the Nation could not be so many Years in an Anarchy or without any Government at all Nor had there been occasion to demand of Phineas Ibid. to whose Charge the Administration of Publick Affairs should be committed if that Senate had the Power pretended and could without any other Governour Protect and Rule the Nation We often read in the Book of Judges what a licentious and lawless Life the People lead during the several Interregnums or spaces of Time between the Death of one Judge and the Choice of another Not that they wanted Laws but there was not sufficient Power to force Obedience to them Thus it is said that it came to pass when the Judge was dead Ch. 2.9 that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their Fathers in following other Gods to serve them and bow down to them they ceased not from their own doings Ch. 17.6 nor from their stubborn way And again In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes This was too fully explain'd in the Sodomy of Gibeah and Micah's Idolatry in the very Verse before which being the proper Subject for the Sanhedrim to work upon as their Republicans give out and seems to be confirmed by that Saying of Christ Luk. 13.33 that it could not be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem the case of false Doctrine and false Worship being the Points that Court more especially took cognizance of If there had been I say all along from Moses downwards such a standing Authority among the Jews how comes it to pass we find the Accounts of so much Irreligion and bad Morals in their days so inconsistent with the Notion of that Consistory and the Influence it is supposed to have had over Prince and People The great Instances of Prerogative and Majesty in making War creating Judges and which we might think the proper work of the Sanhedrim the ordering of Church-Affairs deposing ill Ministers and the like That all this was done sometimes immediately by the Kings themselves must be evident to any body who will be at the pains to go thro' the History of those Princes in the Books of Samuel Kings and Chronicles Nay the very putting a Prophet to death or discharging him out of Prison This also was the King's Act as we see in the Example of Zedekiah and Jeremiah Jerem. 38. and this without the Rebuke or Murmur of that Assembly tho' then the King's Circumstances were very low and might have encouraged them to it And when we further add That the Holy Book charges the King with the execution of Justice and punishes him for the Peoples Sins which would be very hard if the Male-administration or Mismanagement were not his own or that he had not sufficient Power to order things better All this is evidence That the terrible Notion of the Sanhedrim is such a Dream as perhaps may frighten him that hath it but is of no great Effect to move other People or engage them to believe it any thing else but the disorder and weakness of the sleeper's Brain Yet we must allow that in the last Ages of the Jews after the Babylonish Capitivity this Court made some small Figure in that part of the World and we have a sad Testimony of it in their Behaviour towards the Lord Christ an unparalell'd piece of Barbarism and Cruelty serviceable indeed to the Decrees of God and the Redemption of Mankind but which shews them to be Men without the common Principles of Conscience and Honesty in murdering a Just Person whom the President himself declared Innocent But admit them such a Court in those days with that Plenary Power they boast of which is difficult to prove and 't is plain the Roman Deputies were at length above it yet 't is a good Answer for us to say that from the beginning it was not so and we are now speaking of such Judges as were at the first and such Counsellours as were at the beginning And though we should admit the Institution of the Seventy Two under the Character of the latter as probably some of them might be Counsellours and Ministers of State and therefore Hebrew Writers say That it was one necessary qualification to recommend them if they understood the Languages in order to be Interpreters to their Princes yet that they were not such Judges as the first word supposes and had no Power paramount to the Kings of Israel appears by what hath been offer'd against this Objection And therefore taking it for granted that the Jewish Government was as indeed it was Monarchial we pass to the Second Thing To shew and describe the Happiness this People were to have in the Restauration of that ancient Constitution 2. I will restore The Government referred to being that of Moses and Aaron Joshua and the Judges 't will be requisite to lay before you in little the Acts Conduct and Behaviour of those Princes and let you see how they did contribute to the Prosperity of their Subjects And to begin with Moses His first care was to make good Laws Civil and Religious and see them impartially executed And what pains he took this way we may partly read Exod. 18.13 c. And Moses sate to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening and he made them know the Statutes of God and his Laws And this he did with so much Application that his Health was in great danger by it and therefore Raguel his Wife's Father gave him the Advice above-mention'd to appoint Commissioners for the decision of lesser Matters When at any time the Necessities of the People made them murmur in the Wilderness and gave 'em reason as they thought to Libel his Government tho' there was not the least shadow of ill Conduct on his side yet his Meekness was such that he would not punish the Insolence but

remembring that their wants extorted it from them he not only forgave but pitied and imploy'd the Interest he had with God both to pardon and supply them And his concern for them and their Welfare was so remarkable that when God was provok'd to that degree as to resolve to destroy them for their Idolatry in his absence hear what the good Prince saith Oh this people have sinned a great sin Exod. 32.32 and have made them Gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the Book which thou hast written such a sense he had of their danger so much a Father he was rather than a King Antiq. l. 4. ad sin A Person wise in his Counsels and in the Execution of them never had his equal His Affections so much submitted to his Wisdom that he seem'd not to have any and that he knew only the names of those Passions which he perceived to be active in other men So Josephus of him And as for his Disciple and Successour Joshua what a Prince he was appears in that short Character given of him by the same Author A Man exact in all sorts of Vertue incomparably Skilful in matters of Government Valiant in War and Wise in Peace And let this be the summ of those two Reigns That they brought the Jews from the utmost degree of Streights and Slavery to an admirable height of Riches and Glory And all this without any benefit to themselves besides the Conscience and Honour of having Governed well This was all the Harvest they reaped from so many Victories This was the Reward of so much Sweat and Blood This the End of their Watchings and Cares This the Portion of all the Territories Substance and Treasures taken from the Enemies All which they divided among the Tribes and did it by Lot to avoid the suspicion of gratifying Favourites or setting any mark of distinction on their natural or immediate Families No all the People of Israel were equally their Subjects and Children all to be well provided for all to be made Happy all to have a like share in the Success that as far as in them lay there might be no reason for them to envy and curse one another After these followed Othinel Ehud Shamgar Debora and Gideon who as in desperate Cases they were invited to take the Government on them so they discharged the Trust as Men commission'd from Heaven The Spirit of God came upon them and they judged Israel and the Children of Israel prospered under them Men so void of Ambition that as they never attempted the Rule before the Dangers of the Common-wealth the Fears and Addresses of the People urged them to it and God commanded it So when the Service was over without any Self-denying Ordinance of their Sanhedrim like the worthy Roman who made good Isaiah's Prophecy by turning his Sword to the Plow-share they could have been willing had it been permitted to retire to their private life and Ruled as Kings no longer And of this Gideon is a Proof who having so much obliged the Nation by the Deliverance he had given them from the Hand of Midian that thereupon they proposed an Act of Settlement to six the Monarchy in him and his Line he refused and hindred it So little mixture of Selfishness there was in all he did and so little would he better himself by the help he gave the distressed People or let his Generosity ask a Crown of ' em I will not rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you Judges 8.23 the Lord shall rule over you And tho' Josephus tells us that he did Rule the Israelites for the space of forty Years Antiq. l. 5. c. 8. yet he saith withal that he laboured to be dismiss'd the Government but was constrained to continue in it I will name but one more and he was the last of them I mean Samuel whose Government was so easie all his time that he makes this Challenge Behold saith he here I am 1 Sam. 12.3 witness against me before the Lord whose Oxe have I taken or whom have I defrauded Whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I receive any bribe And they said 4. Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us neither hast thou taken ought of any mans hand So little had he vexed or burden'd them during his Government but followed those excellent Patterns set before him And if the Judges were such we need not fear but the Counsellours were like them Either such Men whose Principles lead them to advance the Publick Good or whose discretion would not offer at any other Advice than what was agreeable to the Sovereign's Mind who always studied and desired nothing more than the Honour and Safety of the Nation So that the result is this If it be a good Constitution where a Nation flourishes where its Territories are inlarged where the Subjects are made rich and formidable where the People are secured from Oppression at home and from being a prey to Enemies abroad put out all fear of being enslaved by their own Prince or any Foreigner then the Government of Israel we have been hitherto describing deserves that Character and we have reason enough to believe the Prophet promised the Jews a Blessing in the Text where he speaks of a Restauration and that God would give them such Judges as they had at first and such Counsellours as they had in the beginning Thus I have done with the Two things I proposed for the Heads of my Discourse The Original Constitution of the Jews and the Happiness of being restored to it But what is this to us The Civil Politie of that People concern us no more than their Ecclesiastical Both were Shadows and we have seen their period And unless we had security that all Sovereign Princes would be as Faithful as Moses as Pious as David or were as Wise or Peaceable as Solomon unbiass'd by any Motives but what administred to the Prosperity of a Nation committed to their charge we have no cogent Reason to take this Precedent and to make our selves Slaves to one Man's Pride and Ambition The description of such a Ruler Samuel gives 1 Sam. 11 to 19 and 't will be some labour to sanctifie it into a Blessing Thus or to this purpose they argue against the best of Governments But to say somewhat to the Objections 'T is true the Government of Judea obliges not to an Imitation yet I think it may be safely said to redound much to the Credit of Monarchy that the wise God himself was pleas'd to begin it among his Favourite-people and that Nature taught and Histories shew it to be every where the only Government for above half the Age of the World after the Creation And tho' indeed in progress of time some Republicks intruded into Greece and other Places yet it is observable that our great Redeemer the Lord Christ seems to