men to accept of divine honour when it is cast upon them how much more when they shall themselves compel men by threatning Laws and Edicts to ascribe it unto them as all they do who by severe mulets and penalties constrain men to worship God not as he pleaseth or commandeth but as they please themselves It was not simply Jeroboams Idolatry nor yet his Edict or Command unto the People to worship his Idol-Calves but it was the compliance of his People with this Command that occasioned his ruine and the rooting out of his House and Posterity as it did likewise occasion the like misery to all his Successors yea and the utter ruine of his whole State and Kingdom in a short time This is clear from the express tenor of the context 1 King 12.30 compared with vers 34. of the following Chapter In the former place we read thus And this thing namely Jeroboam's setting up his two Calves vers 28 29. became a sin or turned to sin as our former translation had it meaning that in time and this not very long neither it became sin to the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth It was a sin simply yea a very great sin as soon as it was acted that is the setting up of the Calves and the pressing of the People to worship them was a great sin in Jeroboam whatsoever the consequence of it had been or whether the People had worshipped them or no or though himself repenting of it it had not been his ruine But it did not BECOME a sin of that sad consequence as to be destructive to Jerohoam and his house but by means of the Peoples compliance with him in it as is manifest from the former place where this in the latter part of the verse is rendred as a reason or an account why and how Jeroboams act in setting up the Calves and causing the People to worship them became a sin of that heavy consequence unto him viz. that the People generally approved and practised that worship And this became a sin for the People went to worship before the one even unto Dan or as far as Dan implying it seems that the King himself and his Nobles and Attendants worshipped before the other which was set up in Bethel the Kings Court or Chappel being here Amos 7.13 Or else it may import the great zeal and forwardness of the People in comporting with their King in his Idolatrous Worship and that even those of them that dwelt in Bethel and in places near to it would needs travel as far as Dan which was at the furthest distance from Bethel the Land would afford to worship before the Calf set up there that in Bethel not being prepared and fitted for such Devotion till some while after as may be gathered from vers 32 33. From which passages compared it plainly appears that had not the People obeyed him in his idolatrous device it might have been a lengthning out of his Tranquillity and his Posterity after him might have sat upon his Throne Yea and probably it might through the Blessing of God have proved a means or occasion of his Repentance It is not unlike but that Jeroboam's Priests made of the basest of the People having once tasted of the Kings Favour and bountiful Allowance settled upon their Priesthood strengthned his hand all they could in his Idolatrous Worship bewitching him with this or some such lying and dangerous notion as this No Calves no King even as those who are known by the Name of Bishops but not by the properties or works of Bishops indeed being advanced unto large Revenues and much worldly Pomp and Power by Christian Kings are very solicitous and careful to nourish this preposterous and importune conceit in them upon all occasions No Bishop no King But as unto Jeroboam Calves and no King had been the more prudential and safe Maxime of State not the want or pulling down of his Calves but the setting of them up being the true and real cause as we lately heard from the Records of the holy Ghost himself why after a short time he was no King nor any of his house long after him So is it more then conjecture that BISHOPS AND NO KING would make the far better Article in the Politick Creed of Christian Kings and more worthy to be believed than the contrary No Bishop no King But this by the way It hath been shewed from the Scriptures that to idolize a Person or to ascribe Divine Honour unto any man either directly as the People did unto Herod or indirectly as the Ten Tribes did unto Jeroboam their King in accepting that way of worshipping God which he prescribed unto them is to awaken the eye of Divine Jealousie upon him unless he refuseth or disclaimeth it when it is tender'd unto him which though Angels and holy Men have always done yet it hath not been the wisdom or manner of Kings and Great Men in the World so to do Jacob we know loved his Wise Rachel very tenderly and affectionately yet when she required of him that which was proper onely unto God to give and so reflected Divine Honour upon him Give me Children or else I die he being as it seems suddenly struck with the apprehension of the danger which such a saying might expose him unto reproveth her sharply for her inconsiderateness therein but withal amandeth and dispatcheth away that Divine Honour which was put upon him unto him who was the right owner of it Am I saith he in Gods stead c. Gen. 30.1 2. And as they who comply with Kings and Rulers in their Commands concerning Forms of Worship of humane device are in such their complyance great Enemies unto them so on the other hand they who chuse rather to abide the bitterest blast of their displeasure then to please them with conforming themselves to their wills and pleasures in such cases are in this detrectation of their Obedience unto them their real Friends Thus Daniel notwithstanding his refusal to obey the Decree of King Darius being unlawful said unto him Also unto thee or against thee O King have I done no hurt Dan. 6.22 In which words he seems as well to imply that they who had obeyed him in that his Decree had been unfaithful unto him had cast a snare upon him and done him harm as to assert his own integrity and goodness of heart towards him And that the holy man was so far from doing any hurt to the King by changing his Command that he did him much good by it appears by the sequel of the Chapter where we und hiâ— by means hereof enlightned with the knowledge of the true God and giving a full testimony to his excellent Greatness and Power and recommending his Worship and Service unto all his Dominions vers 26 27. Of like happy consequence unto King Nebuchadnezzar was the like disobedience of those three faithful
Kings and Princes immediately by himself it is very reasonable to conceive that he giveth it by a larger measure then when he imparts and communicats it by the People For as observing the course of Nature he cannot cause a Sheep to bring forth a Lion although by his unlimitted Power he is able to create a Lion of what stature and strength and fierceness he pleaseth So when he joyneth himself with the People in deriving Authority and Power unto Kings which he always doth when he useth their mediation in the election of Kings he can derive no more of these unto them then what is competent for the People to derive with him yea no more then what he maketh the People willing as well as able to derive with him However as hath been said if he pleaseth to make Kings immediately of and by himself without the People he may invest them with what proportion of both he pleaseth So then the measure or proportion of Authority and Power which was vested by God in and accordingly exercised by the Kings of Judah is no steady ground whereon to warrant the same proportion or measure unto Christian Kings The reason hereof hath been expressed already namely because no King of this denomination received his call unto his Royal Dignity immediately from God as those Kings received theirs but all of them mediante Populo mediately by and from the People and consequently can have no other no more or greater Power then what is or was inherently in the People and lawful for them to part with unto them And certain it is that no person can lawfully or reasonably give a power unto any man to regulate his Conscience about the Worship of God as he pleaseth himself having no power in this kind but onely to regulate it according to the Will and Commandment of God Neither had the Kings of Judah themselves any such power as this given unto them by God as hath been formerly shewed 9. And lastly Notwithstanding all the great power they had from God yet when any of these Kings did cause their People to enter into a Religious Covenant or Oath they did it not against the wills no nor without the consent of their People yea these were as forward and active in the business as the Kings themselves And they King Asa with the generality or Body of his People as appears from the Context both subsequent and preceding entered into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice and with shouting and with Trumpets and with Cornets And ALL Judah rejoyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their heart c. 2 Chron. 15.12 13 14 15. So that the King imposed nothing upon the People but what they most freely yea most joyfully imposed upon themselves And that is observable by the way that there is no other penalty or punishment any where threatned against any transgressor of any Order Edict or Imposition concerning Religion or the Worship and Service of God published by any of the said good Kings either with or without their People but onely that of death which is the punishment expresly commanded by God himself to be inflicted in such cases I mean upon Idolaters lawfully convicted Deut. 17.2 3 4 5 6. Yea Jehosaphat would not so much as appoint Singers unto the Lord to go before the Army without consultation first had with the People about it 2 Chron. 20.21 See also concerning Hezekiah 2 Chro. 30.2 4 5. They who would compell the good Kings of Judah to invest Christian Magistrates with their power in matters of Religion do very unworthily in restraining them from instructing these Magistrates by their worthy Examples in and about the exercise of this power But I trust that from henceforth these good Kings will be innocent from the great offence of strengthning the hand of Christian Magistrates in oppressing the Consciences of their good Subjects with penal Impositions in matters of Religion Secondly Some plead That God hath admitted Caesar the Christian Caesar into part and fellowship with himself in matters of his Worship so far as with the advice of his Spiritual Senators his Lord-Bishops to make what by-Laws in matters of this nature he pleaseth and to impose any Form one or more of Divine Worship upon his Subjects under what Penalties he thinks fit so that the Worship imposed in these Forms be consonant to the Word of God These men would fain incorporate this notion into the Body of our Faith That the things of Caesar would otherwise be too narrow and inconsiderable for a Person of so august and sacred an investiture unless it be supposed that the Almighty giveth unto him the right hand of Fellowship in ordering the Affairs of his Worship in forming and reforming in changing and altering it at his pleasure yea and in punishing with great severity those that shall not bow down to his present establishment whatever it be Although the spirit of this plea hath been quenched already yet let us take the pains to draw a little more water to cast upon it There sore 1. The Masters of this Plea in pleading the Cause of their Tythes often make use of an Emblem which though colourable onely for that service will be of a real accommodation here The Eagle setting her Nest on fire and so destroying her young ones with a burning Coal which stuck though she minded it not to the piece of Flesh that she had sacrilegiously snatch'd from off the Altar and carried to her Nest upon which the disaster happened is an apt Resemblance of those Calamities Judgements which sooner or later fall upon the Houses and Families of such Kings and Princes and Grandees of the World who intrench upon the Quarters of Him whose Name is Jealous and cannot be content without being adored as Domini utriusque Seculi as having Dominion over the things of both Worlds If men will presume to set their posts too near unto the posts of God he will up with them again and burn them with fire Instances hereof may be found in the premises But 2. It never yet was nor most certainly ever will be proved either from the Scriptures or from any Principle of sound Reason that Kings or Magistrates are by God joyned in Commission with himself to impose Models or Forms of Worship such as they please onely with this Condition That they think or suppose them to be agreeable to the Scriptures upon their fellow-Creatures the Sons and Daughters of Men yea upon such Persons who in all likelihood and according to all experience in like cases know and understand the mind and will of God concerning his Worship much more perfectly then themselves yea and whom God hath commissioned to teach and
to do is only a prevaricating Argument to prove that Christian Magistrates may do that either commendably or lawfully in matters of the same concernment which God hath not commanded them 5. When these Kings did command the observation of those very things by the People which God himself had commanded them in his Law the People at least such as feared God and best understood themselves among them did not so much mind the Kings Authority in commanding them as the Command of God himself concerning them When that good King Josiah made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and keep his Commandments c. and caused all that were present of Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it it is expresly said That the inhabitonts of Jerusalem did according to the Covenant of God the God of their Fathers implying that it was the Covenant or Commandment of God for the doing of those things which the King caused them to promise they would do which principally moved them to that obedience which they yeelded unto them and not the motion or if we will not be content without more than is due the command of the King 2 Chron. 34.31 32. 6. The Kings we spake of were Types of Christ who was as well a Prophet as a King and in this respect it was proper for them to take care of and to interpose in matters relating to the Worship of God aswell as to the Civil Government But since Christ's coming in the flesh types either in persons or in things have no place in the Church So that to vest a power of regulating and ordering the Worship of God in Christian Kings is to make them Types of Christ and consequently to deny that Christ is come in the flesh Upon the like account the High Priests among the Jews being also Types of Christ who was as well a King as a Priest the better to answer and fill their relation to their Great Anti-type were admitted by God into part and fellowship of the Civil Government But for Ministers of the Gospel to admit of politick investitures or to accept or exercise any Civil Power is to Judaïze and to deny him that bought them to be as yet come into the World But that the Kings of Judah were Types of Christ is evident and withal generally acknowledged in the persons of the two first of that race which was in special manner appointed by God to sit upon that Throne David and Solomon and there is little reason to question the same relation in the rest considering that they also were Heads over the same typical Nation and exercised the same Bipartite power in governing it which the other did not to add that they were also in their Loyâ—s when they acted in the typical relation mentioned and so in a sence frequently owned in the Scripture were that and did that which they their fore-fathers were and did 7. The Nation and People over which these Kings reigned were designed and accordingly prepared and fitted by God to be made a Nation and People typically holy that is presignificant or pre-figurative by and in their external and ceremonial Holiness and Conformity to the Worship of God then prescribed unto them of the real sanctity and holiness as well inward as outward which was to be found in Christian Churches and in the People of God under the Gospel This typical consideration of the Nation of the Jews is more then overtur'd or sparingly intimated in the Scriptures The Apostle Paul plainly asserteth it where he saith For we Christians and true Believers are the Circumcision that is the People prefigured by those that were circumcised meaning the Jews the Anti-type being often expressed by the name of the Type as Rom. 1.28 29. Jer. 30.9 Ezek. 34.23 24. 37.24 25. Mat. 11.14 17.2 Heb. 13.10 Rev. 2.9 3.9 with others which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus c. Philip. 3.3 See further to this purpose 1 Pet. 2.9 and what Expositors generally and more especially the Dutch Annotators write hereon Now to order this Nation so that it might serve the Counsel of God in its typical Relation specified upon the better and more significant terms it was necessary that by a strong hand and by the Authority and Power of their chief Rulers they should be kept in a Conformity to the Law of God concerning his Worship especially and not suffered as far as might be to corrupt themselves with any false Worship or by going a whoring after any strange God And it was the rather necessary that they should be thus restrained from polluting themselves with Idolatry in any kind because they were more generally excessively prone to break out in this way of sinning and had many temptations from the Nations round about them to entice and provoke them accordingly the means of Grace in the mean time by which men are contrary to their sinful propensions drawn to love fear and cleave fast and close unto God being but very sparingly and by scant measures in respect of Gospel-allowance vouchsafed unto them Now then there being nothing of all this long story belonging unto or found in Christian Churches who live under Christian Kings but all things contrary or otherwise it is very importune and against the grain of all reason to subject these Churches unto these Kings upon the same terms on which the Church or Nation of the Jews was by God himself subjected under theirs The Rule in reason is Contrariorum contraria non eadem sunt consequentia Contraries have Consequences not the same but as contrary as themselves 8. The Kings of Judah were nominated and appointed by God himself immediately unto this Kingdom the Throne whereof was setled by him upon David and his Posterity as an heritage for ever 1 Sam. 16.12 2 Sam. 7.12 16. 1 King 2.4 8.25 and elsewhere So that though the People accepted them respectively and successively for their Kings and invested them with their Ensigns of Royalty and so are said to have made them Kings yet their Right and Title to the Kingdom was given unto them by God without the People and before they had declared their acceptance or owning of them Now then as they were Kings extraordinarily called by God without any dependance upon or mediation of the People by their election unto the Throne so their Authority and Power were in an extraordinary way also and by an unusual line measured and set out unto them For as God when he unbareth his Arm and worketh Miracles is observed in such works as these to exceed that rate of Perfection at which he worketh in the ordinary and standing course of his Providence and in conjunction with inferiour and second Causes many fair overtures if not full proofs whereof the Scripture affordeth us and the reason likewise of the thing is not far of although we shall not now touch it So likewise when he giveth Authority and Power unto