against them for that in so doing they had rebelled against the Lord and rebelled against them for having thereby violated the Covenant which they all made with God in building an Altar besides the Altar of the Lord their God verse 19. not for worshipping as they truly professed but for memorial so fearful they were of God's Wrath that they presently dispatched an Embassy by Phineahs and with him ten Princes of each chief House a Prince throughout all the Tribes of Israel to their Brethren to expostulate the matter and to prevent their sin And see how pithily they dealt with them Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us from which ye are not cleansed to this day but that yee also must depart from following the Lord verse 17. and it will be seeing yee rebel to day against the Lord that to morrow he will be wrath with the whole Congregation of Israel verse 18. Therefore rebel not against the Lord nor rebel against us in building you an Altar besides the Altar of the Lord your God verse 19. Did not Achan the Son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel And that Man perished not alone in his iniquity verse 20. But they returning Answer by the Ambassadors That they built it not to turn from following the Lord nor for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice but for memorial only and for a witness between us and you and our generation after us that we might do service to the Lord c. verse 26 27. Then Phineahs and the Princes of the Congregation and Heads of the Thousands of Israel which were with him said to the Children of Reuben c. This day we perceive that the Lord is among us because ye have not committed this trespass against the Lord but have delivered the Children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord verse 30 31. These practises are sufficient warrant and Authority to all Nations and degrees of Christian Men to maintain and defend the true Christian Religion in it's purity against all opposers for as the Covenant was made with all so all are obliged to stand to it qui non vetat peccare quum possit Jubet What sins of others we labour not within our Province to prevent are ours in the guilt as well as those of our own personal commission Besides this Fact of the Children of Reuben and the rest had it not had that just excuse it had been Rebellion as well against their Brethren as against God and is so declared verse 19. Rebel not against the Lord nor rebel against us and would have provoked God's Wrath and pulled his Judgments on the whole Land in which common Calamity the just and innocent must have suffered and been involved as well as the unjust Offenders and therefore by the natural Law of self preservation they justly might endeavour to prevent the Judgments and Curses threatned by their own strength and endeavours for which reason also all Nations are obliged and have just warrant by the Law of God and Nature to prevent both by Councel and Force as far as in them lies and they sin if they do not The Law warrants it Thou shalt rebuke thy neighbour plainly and not suffer him to sin Levit. 6. 17. The Gospel countenances the same Communicate not with other mens sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. This Covenant was first made between God and the People Afterwards when Kings were set over the People the very same Covenant was renewed and confirmed At the Installation or Inauguration of the King there was a twofold Covenant made first between God the King and the People or between the high Priest God's Substitute the People and the King the People being preferred to the first place 2 Chron. 11. The end and design of which was That the People should be the Lords People 2 Chron. 23. 16. 2 Kings 11. 17. And the King went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and the Priests and the Prophets and all the People both small and great and he read in their Ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the House of the Lord. And the King stood by the Pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments and his Testimonies and his Statutes with all their heart and with all their soul to perform the words of this Covenant that were written in this Book and all the People stood to the Covenant 2 Kings 23. 2 3. Most certainly God never ordained this Covenanting between King and People in vain If the People had no Power nor Authority in promising and performing Covenanting and Reciprocal swearing had been meer superfluous and vain appointments And for certain God never created nor ordained any thing in vain Most probably nay most certainly the Covenant was made inter King Priest and People for the more certain performance thereof that if either the one or the other did the Work of the Lord negligently or violate the Covenant the other might force obedience and performance and be a check to each other The Priest to teach them the Law. If the People transgressed the King to use his Authority if the King the People to use their utmost and all to prefer the good and benefit of the whole before any private Interest whatsoever Both King and Israel plighted their Troths together not separately If two are joyned in Covenant of such a nature as cannot be broken by the one but the other must necessarily and unavoidably be damnified and endangered by such breach the injured Party may in common Justice and by the Law of Nature defend and right himself If Israel forsake God and worship Idols the King may punish If Kings sin after the same manner Israel may reform by the same Law. Thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor with their Gods they shall not dwell in the Land lest they make thee sin against me Exod. 23. 32. But yee shall destroy their Altars break their Images cut down their Groves c. Exod. 34. 13. Of the self-same nature is the Covenant here treated of God in his infinite Wisdom thought it best not to commit the care and oversight of his Covenant and of his Church and People to the will and pleasure of one single Person but as both King and People are all the anointed of the Lord and equally concerned in the keeping or violation thereof and consequently in the Blessings and Cursings denounced on Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal so his Charge was equally incumbent both on King and People that it being equally every Man's concern so it is every Man's duty and care both joyntly and severally that it be kept inviolably and he will require performance accordingly at their Hands Saul being constituted King over Israel Samuel being Priest and Prophet
Tyranny which Conspiracy though acted so very privately and as it were by stealth yet blamed neither by God nor Man but justified by all Writers both Sacred and Prophane and the success answered the end designed As the King so all Israel as one Man the several Cities as parts of the Kingdom and their Magistrates did covenant with God to keep his Laws c. Joshua when old and near his end congregated all Israel in Sechem in the Presence of the Lord for the Ark of the Covenant was there and called for the Elders of Israel and for their Heads and for their Judges and for their Officers and they presented themselves before God Josh 24. 1. And he said unto them fear the Lord and serve him c. and the People answered and said God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods ver 14. 16. And Joshua said unto the People ye are witness your selves that you have chosen you the Lord to serve him And they said we are Witnesses ver 22. So Joshua made a Covenant with the Lord that day and set them a Statute and an Ordinance in Sechem And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God and took a great Stone and set it up there under an Oak that was by the Sanctuary of the Lord and Joshua said unto all the People Behold this Stone shall be a Witness unto us for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall be therefore a Witness unto you least you deny your God ver 24 25 26 27. Hence it is evident that as every individual Person so more especially all Officers in a Kingdom that have any publick Authority ought every one in their several stations to take care that God's Law be fulfilled and of the Peoples happiness which Officers are Officers of the Kingdom from whom they have their Authority according to Laws of their own making and to them they are accountable If the Ark of God be to be brought back then all of the Congregation of Israel are to be summoned and consulted and to give their help 1 Chron. 13. 2 Chron. 15. So if a Temple be to be built to the Lord the chief of the Fathers and Priests of the Tribes of Israel and the Captains of Thousands and of Hundreds with the Rulers are summoned and moved to offer willingly 1 Chron. 29. So that there is no power committed to Kings to alter or change the Laws Covenants or Worship of God. So in the Covenants under Joah and Josiah between God the King and the People all the Kingdom were present and all were particularly bound to keep and stand to the Covenant so that not the King only but the Kingdom nor the Kingdom in general only but all the Parts thereof promise Faith and Allegiance to God Almighty Not the King only but Israel not Israel only but the Cities and chief Governours of them did secretly bind themselves to God to do him homage and leige Services against all Infractors of his Laws 2 Kin. 11. 23. 2 Chron. 23. For Example Libnah revolted from Jehoram because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers 2 Chron. 21. 10. So Mattathias and all they that fled from the Persecution of Antiochus joyned themselves together and smote sinful men in their anger and wicked men in their wrath and they pursued after the proud men and the work prospered in their hands So they recovered the Law out of the hand of the Gentiles and out of the hand of Kings neither suffered they the sinner to triumph 1 Macc. 2. 42 47. saying We will not hearken to the Kings word to go from our Religion either to the right hand or to the left verse 22. So his Son Judas Maccabeus was valiant for the truth and fought for the People and the Sanctuary so prosperously Deo favente against Antiochus that he recovered Jerusalem and restored the pure worship of God from the Gentiles 1 Macc. 3. Though others took part and were obedient to Antiochus and they fell together with the Persecutor for their so doing by the edg of the Sword. When Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord he sold them into the hand of Jabin King of Canaan whom they served twenty years a fair prescription for a Kingdom worshipping strange Gods among whom especially were the Tribes of Reuben Ephraim Benjamin Dan Asser c. who adhered to Jabin Nevertheless Deborah who judged Israel at that time levied force with the assistance of the other Tribes of Zabulon Napthaly and Issachar over whom they made Barack Captain and went along with them being ten thousand men and discomfited the Hoast of Sisera Captain of Jabin and restored the true Worship of God to Israel and then sang Deborah c. Judg. 4. 5. Happily some may say that these Facts of Deborah Jael Mattathias and Libnah ought not to be drawn into imitation and practice as being stirred up by motions extraordinary like that of Phineahs and the Book it self but Apochypha and not so Authentick as Scripture What then It 's certain that not only the King but all Israel and the parts thereof viz. the several Cities and their Magistrates as in Josh 24. covenanted before God and did swear to worship the true God according to his Law which Covenant is expresly in force to this day in all Christian Kingdoms where King and People Covenant each with other and tacitely or interpretatively also where Kings Rule Vi Armis or by fraud or any other unjust way which is down-right Tyranny The People are the People of God and obliged in the first place to God and then to the Kingdom and to the King and though the King have the formality and executive part of Power all Writs Executions Proclamations c. issuing in his Name yet the People have the true Dominion originally Sunt enim universa in Regis Imperio non in Patrimonio Seneca lib. 7. de Benef. c. 6 7. Omnia Rex imperio possidet singuli dominio Consult all Histories search all Antiquity and you will find the true cause of all Rebellion in all Ages and in all Countries to have risen originally and most especially from the abuse of Power first and not from the disobedience of Subjects to the lawful commands of Kings If Kings command unlawful things as they have no Authority so to do so Subjects have no Obligation to obey When Covenants between Prince and People are of such a nature as cannot be broken or violated by either King or People without doing manifest Injury to the other The injured party may seek his Redress and Relief though it be vim vi repellendo which is always to be understood of unjust Force For if the Force be unjust the Defence must be lawful and contrariwise if the Force be just the Defence must be unlawful So that Kings and Princes if transgressors are as truly Transgressors and Invaders
Sinners his great Enemies As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die Ezek. 33. 11. Would ye would but consider the price and value of this his fondness you wovld never harrass his People as you do God himself thought it worth the Incarnation of his own Son by sending him out of his own bosom and so the Word was made Flesh Joh. 1. 1. of which God gave abundant and signal Testimony when he smote Egypt in their First born and brought oppressed Israel from among them with a strong Hand and stretched out Arm and divided the Red Sea into parts and made Israel to pass through the midst of it but overthrew Pharoah and his Host in the Red Sea who led his people through the Wilderness and smote great Kings and slew famous Kings Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan and gave their Land for an Inheritance even an Heritage to Israel his Servant and redeemed them from their Enemies Psal 136. Thus hath God done and thus will God do when he shall stand up in the quarrel of his Covenant and arise to shake terribly the Earth The whole History of the Bible is full of such exemplary punishments and of frequent delivery of his oppressed People And as God so ought all his Vicegerents to be tender and watchful over all their Governed So Moses whom Philo reckons among Kings as doth the Scripture Deut. 33. 5. And he was King in Jesurun for tho he had not the name yet he had the Power and Authority yet even in that Power he was no more Regal then in his Tenderness over the People which was so great towards them that at Tabera because he could not do them so much good us he desired he besought the Lord to kill him out of hand Num. 11. 15. At another time he was so concerned with the fear of their destruction that he requested of God either to forgive them their sin or to blot him out of the book of Life Ex. 32. 32. hereby shewing himself not only the Miracle of Nature as Philo calls him but of Grace too in plighting for them that which was more worth than his life his very Salvation So transcendent is the Example of David who besides that he urgeth it in most Psalms the peace of Jerusalem the salvation of Israel the Felicity of Gods chosen the blessing of the people wrestled with God near the threshing floor of Araunah 2 Sam. 24 16 17 for his mercy and favour towards his People that he cries out It is I even I that have sinned and done this evil c. let thine hand I pray thee O Lord my God be on me and my Fathers House but not on thy people that they should be plagued 1 Chro. 21. 16 17. Consider yet farther how passionately fond God who is jealous even to fury for the good of his people hath demonstrated himself for his People over whom he hath made you his Vicegerents Did he not send his own Son out of his own bosom to take on him the form of a servant and to become obedient unto the shameful death of the Cross both for them and you Can Kings then imagine that if they oppress them by violent perverting of Justice and Judgment or multiply unjust Exactions or chastise them with Whips or Scorpions that they shall escape unpunished I tell them nay that except such Kings that so tyrannize do repent the time will come that they shall bemoan themselves in vain when their groans shall be as the groans of a deadly wounded man and their hopes as the giving up of the Ghost Was not Christ our Common Purchaser Did he not take our Rags our Sores our Diseases our pains upon him Was he not wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities that with his Stripes we might be healed Why do you not then imitate him in being Nursing Fathers not in name only but in deed and in truth to the people and do not oppress and tyrannize over them in denying them just Rights and Liberties by condemning many more Righteous than your selves to Inquisitions Goals Gallies to beg their Bread in strange Countries Chastising them with Whips and Scorpions and with divers sorts of Tortures as grievous as tearing their flesh with the Thorns and Briars of the Wilderness Consider I say well with your selves and that in very good earnest it being your truest Interest and of everlasting Consequence whilst you are on this side Hell and the Grave in which there is no wisdom How contrary do Kings Tyrants act and govern to God Almighty whose Precept and Practice it always hath been and still is to do good for evil and not evil for good as all Tyrants do Hath he not mitigated the rigour of the Law which was once published with thunder fire tempest and darkness by removing the curse from it as it was a killing Letter and Ministry of death And hath he not published it in the hand of a Mediator Doth he not woo us by his Spirit tho we resist it Court us by his Mercies tho we abuse them threaten us in much Mercy by his Judgments to forewarn us to fly from the Wrath to come Doth he not daily cry unto us by his Prophets tho we despise them proffers to teach us tho we stop our Ears to lead us tho we pull away our Shoulders to convert us tho we harden our Hearts and millions more inexpressible Mercies showr'd down daily upon his people committed to your care and charge manifesting his fondness and tenderness over them which considered I cannot but wonder then how his Vicegerents have dared to act quite contrary by returning evil for good by violent perverting of Justice and Judgment and by multiplying unjust exactions on them Have they made their peace with death or their Agreement with Hell can they bribe their Tormentors or can they dwell with devouring fire or everlasting burnings or can they quench the flames of Tophet which is ordained of old yea for Kings it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30. 33. Are Kings the Anointed of the Lord and boast thereof so are the People He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105. 14 15. Whoso toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his eye Zech. 2. 8. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people so should all Kings and he will put a Sword into their Hands to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the people to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with fetters of Iron to execute upon them the Judgment written this honour have