Generations We see nothing in Scripture of Precept or Example that is not utterly abhorrent to this Chimera The only sort of Kings mentioned there with approbation is such a one as may not raise his Heart above his Brethren If God had constituted a Lord Paramount with an absolute Power and multitudes of Nations were to labour and fight for his Greatness and Pleasure this were to raise his Heart to a height that would make him forget he was a Man Such as are versed in Scripture not only know that it neither agrees with the Letter or Spirit of that Book but that it is unreasonable in it self unless he were of a Species different from the rest of Mankind His exaltation would not agree with God's Indulgence to his Creatures tho he were the better for it much less when probably he would be made more unhappy and worse by the Pride Luxury and other Vices that always attend the highest Fortunes 'T is no less incredible that God who disposes all things in Wisdom and Goodness and appoints a due Place for all should without distinction ordain such a Power to every one succeeding in such a Line as cannot be executed the Wise would refuse and Fools cannot take upon them the burden of it without ruin to themselves and such as are under them or expose Mankind to a multitude of other Absurdities and Mischiefs subjecting the Aged to be governed by Children the Wise to depend on the Will of Fools the Strong and Valiant to expect defence from the Weak or Cowardly and all in general to receive Justice from him who neither knows nor cares for it SECT VII Abraham and the Patriarchs were not Kings IF any Man say that we are not to seek into the depth of God's Counsels I answer That if he had for Reasons known only to himself affixed such a Right to any one Line he would have set a Mark upon those who come of it that Nations might know to whom they owe Subjection or given some testimony of his Presence with Filmer and Heylin if he had sent them to reveal so great a Mystery 'Till that be done we may safely look upon them as the worst of men and teachers only of Lies and Follies This perswades me little to examine what would have bin if God had at once created many Men or the Conclusions that can be drawn from Adam's having bin alone For nothing can be more evident than that if many had bin created they had bin all equal unless God had given a Preference to one All their Sons had inherited the same Right after their death and no Dream was ever more empty than his Whimsey of Adam's Kingdom or that of the ensuing Patriarchs To say the truth 't is hard to speak seriously of Abraham's Kingdom or to think any Man to be in earnest who mentions it He was a Stranger and a Pilgrim in the Land where he lived and pretended to no Authority beyond his own Family which consisted only of a Wife and Slaves He lived with Lot as with his Equal and would have no Contest with him because they were Brethren His Wife and Servants could neither make up nor be any part of a Kingdom in as much as the despotical Government both in Practice and Principle differs from the Regal If his Kingdom was to be grounded on the Paternal Right it vanished away of it self he had no Child Eliezer of Damascus for want of a better was to be his Heir Lot tho his Nephew was excluded He durst not own his own Wife He had not one foot of Land till he bought a Field for a burying place His three hundred and eighteen Men were Servants bought according to the custom of those days or their Children and the War he made with them was like to Gideon's Enterprize which shews only that God can save by a few as well as by many but makes nothing to our Author's purpose For if they had been as many in number as the Army of Semiramis they could have no relation to the Regal much less to the Paternal Power for a Father doth not buy but beget Children Notwithstanding this our Author bestows the proud Title of Lord Paramount upon him and transmits it to Isaac who was indeed a King like his Father great admirable and glorious in Wisdom and Holiness but utterly void of all worldly splendor or power This spiritual Kingdom was inherited by Jacob whose Title to it was not founded on Prerogative of Birth but Election and peculiar Grace but he never enjoyed any other worldly Inheritance than the Field and Cave which Abraham had bought for a burying place and the Goods he had gained in Laban's Service The Example of Judah his Sentence upon Thamar is yet farther from the purpose if it be possible for he was then a Member of a private Family the fourth Son of a Father then living neither in possession nor under the promise of the Privileges of Primogeniture tho Ruben Simeon and Levi fell from it by their Sins Whatsoever therefore the Right was which belonged to the Head of the Family it must have bin in Jacob but as he professed himself a keeper of Sheep as his Fathers had bin the exercise of that Emploiment was so far from Regal that it deserves no explication If that Act of Judah is to be imputed to a Royal Power I have as much as I ask He tho living with his Father and elder Brothers when he came to be of Age to have Children had the same Power over such as were of or came into his Family as his Father had over him for none can go beyond the Power of Life and Death The same in the utmost extent cannot at the same time equally belong to many If it be divided equally it is no more than that Universal Liberty which God hath given to Mankind and every Man is a King till he devest himself of his Right in consideration of something that he thinks better for him SECT VIII Nimrod was the first King during the Life of Chush Cham Shem and Noah THE Creation is exactly described in the Scripture but we know so little of what passed between the finishing of it and the Flood that our Author may say what he pleases and I may leave him to seek his Proofs where he can find them In the mean time I utterly deny that any Power did remain in the Heads of Families after the Flood that dos in the least degree resemble the Regal in Principle or Practice If in this I am mistaken such Power must have been in Noah and transmitted to one of his Sons The Scripture says only that he built an Altar sacrificed to the Lord was a Husbandman planted a Vineyard and performed such Offices as bear nothing of the Image of a King for the space of three hundred and fifty Years We have reason to believe that his Sons after his Death continued in the same manner of
we examine things more distinctly we shall find that all things varied according to the humour of the Prince Whilst Pharaoh lived who had received such signal Services from Joseph the Israelites were well used but when another rose up who knew him not they were persecuted with all the extremities of injustice and cruelty till the furious King persisting in his design of exterminating them brought destruction upon himself and the Nation Where the like Power hath prevailed it has ever produced the like effects When some great men of Persia had perswaded Darius that it was a fine thing to command that no man for the space of thirty days should make any Petition to God or Man but to the King only Daniel the most wise and holy Man then in the world must be thrown to the Lions When God had miraculously saved him the same Sentence was passed against the Princes of the Nation When Haman had filled Ahasuerus his ears with Lies all the Jews were appointed to be slain and when the fraud of that Villain was detected leave was given them with the like precipitancy to kill whom they pleased When the Israelites came to have Kings they were made subject to the same Storms and always with their Blood suffer'd the Penalty of their Prince's madness When one kind of fury possessed Saul he slew the Priests persecuted David and would have killed his brave Son Jonathan When he sell under another he took upon him to do the Priest's Office pretended to understand the Word of God better than Samuel and spared those that God had commanded him to destroy Upon another whimsey he killed the Gibeonites and never rested from finding new Inventions to vex the People till he had brought many thousands of them to perish with himself and his Sons on Mount Gilboa We do not find any King in Wisdom Valour and Holiness equal to David and yet he falling under the temptations that attend the greatest Fortunes brought Civil Wars and a Plague upon the Nation When Solomon's heart was drawn away by strange Women he filled the Land with Idols and oppressed the People with intolerable Tributes Rehoboam's Folly made that Rent in the Kingdom which could never be made up Under his Successors the people served God Baal or Ashtaroth as best pleased him who had the Power and no other marks of Stability can be alledged to have bin in that Kingdom than the constancy of their Kings in the practice of Idolatry their cruelty to the Prophets hatred to the Jews and civil Wars producing such Slaughters as are reported in few other Stories The Kingdom was in the space of about two hundred years possessed by nine several Families not one of them getting possession otherwise than by the slaughter of his Predecessor and the extinction of his Race and ended in the Bondage of the ten Tribes which continues to this day He that desires farther proofs of this Point may seek them in the Histories of Alexander of Macedon and his Successors He seems to have bin endow'd with all the Vertues that Nature improved by Discipline did ever attain so that he is believed to be the Man meant by Aristotle who on account of the excellency of his Vertues was by Nature framed for a King and Plutarch ascribes his Conquests rather to those than to his Fortune But even that Vertue was overthrown by the Successes that accompanied it He burnt the most magnificent Palace of the world in a frolick to please a mad drunken Whore Upon the most frivolous suggestions of Eunuchs and Rascals he kill'd the best and bravest of his Friends and his Valour which had no equal not subsisting without his other Vertues perished when he became lewd proud cruel and superstitious so as it may be truly said he died a Coward His Successors did not differ from him When they had killed his Mother Wise and Children they exercised their fury against one another and tearing the Kingdom to pieces the Survivors left the Sword as an Inheritance to their Families who perished by it or under the weight of the Roman Chains When the Romans had lost that Liberty which had bin the Nurse of their Vertue and gained the Empire in lieu of it they attained to our Author 's applauded Stability Julius being slain in the Senate the first Question was whether it could be restored or not And that being decided by the Battel of Philippi the Conquerors set themselves to destroy all the eminent men in the City as the best means to establish the Monarchy Augustus gained it by the death of Antonius and the corruption of the Souldiers and he dying naturally or by the fraud of his Wife the Empire was transferred to her Son Tiberius under whom the miserable People suffer'd the worst effects of the most impure Lust and inhuman Cruelty He being stifled the Government went on with much uniformity and stability Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius regularly and constantly did all the mischief they could and were not more like to each other in the Villanies they committed than in the Deaths they suffered Vespasian's more gentle Reign did no way compensate the Blood he spilt to attain the Empire And the Benefits received from Titus his short-liv'd Vertue were infinitely overbalanced by the detestable Vices of his Brother Domitian who turned all things into the old Channel of Cruelty Lust Rapine and Perfidiousness His slaughter gave a little breath to the gasping perishing World and men might be vertuous under the Government of Nerva Trajan Antoninus Aurelius and a few more tho even in their time Religion was always dangerous But when the Power sell into the hands of Commodus Heliogabalus Caracalla and others of that sort nothing was sase but obscurity or the utmost excesses of lewdness and baseness However whilst the Will of the Governor passed for a Law and the Power did usually sall into the hands of such as were most bold and violent the utmost security that any man could have for his Person or Estate depended upon his temper and Princes themselves whether good or bad had no longer Leases of their lives than the furious and corrupted Soldiers would give them and the Empire of the World was changeable according to the Success of a Battel Matters were not much mended when the Emperors became Christians Some favour'd those who were called Orthodox and gave great Revenues to corrupt the Clergy Others supported Arianism and persecuted the Orthodox with as much asperity as the Pagans had done Some revolted and shewed themselves more fierce against the professors of Christianity than they that had never had any knowledg of it The World was torn in pieces amongst them and osten suffered as great miseries by their sloth ignorance and cowardice as by their fury and madness till the Empire was totally dissolved and lost That which under the weakness and irregularity of a popular Government had conquer'd all from the Euphrates to Britain and
like delivered their Countries from Tyrants Their Actions carried in themselves their own justification and their Virtues will never be forgotten whilst the names of Greece and Rome are remembred in the World If this be not enough to declare the Justice inherent in and the Glory that ought to accompany these Works the examples of Moses Aaron Othniel Ehud Barac Gideon Samuel Jephtha David Jehu Jehoiada the Maccabees and other holy men raised up by God for the deliverance of his People from their Oppressors decide the Question They are perpetually renowned for having led the People by extraordinary ways which such as our Author express under the names of Sedition Tumult and War to recover their Liberties and avenge the injuries received from foreign or domestick Tyrants The work of the Apostles was not in their time to set up or pull down any Civil State but they so behaved themselves in relation to all the Powers of the Earth that they gained the name of pestilent seditious Fellows Disturbers of the People and left it as an inheritance to those who in succeeding Ages by following their steps should deserve to be called their Successors whereby they were exposed to the hatred of corrupt Magistrates and brought under the necessity of perishing by them or defending themselves against them and he that denies them that right dos at once condemn the most glorious Actions of the wisest best and holiest men that have bin in the world together with the Laws of God and Man upon which they were founded Nevertheless there is a sort of Sedition Tumult and War proceeding from Malice which is always detestable aiming only at the satisfaction of private Lust without regard to the publick Good This cannot happen in a Popular Government unless it be amongst the Rabble or when the Body of the People is so corrupted that it cannot stand but is most frequent in and natural to absolute Monarchies When Abimelech desir'd to make himself King he raised a Tumult among the basest of the People He hired light and vain persons some Translations call them lewd Vagabonds kill'd his Brethren but perished in his design the corrupt party that favour'd him not having strength enough to subdue the other who were more sincere Sp. Melius Sp. Cassius and Manlius attempted the like in Rome they acted malitiously their pretences to procure the publick Good were false 'T is probable that some in the City were as bad as they and knew that mischief was intended but the body of the People not being corrupted they were suppressed It appear'd says Livy Nihil esse minus populare quam regnum they who had favour'd Manlius condemned him to death when it was proved that egregias alioqui virtutes fa'da regni cupidine maculasset But when the People is generally corrupted such designs seldom miscarry and the success is always the erection of a Tyranny Nothing else can please vain and profligate persons and no Tyranny was ever set up by such as were better qualified The ways of attaining it have always bin by corrupting the manners of the People bribing Soldiers entertaining mercenary Strangers opening Prisons giving Liberty to Slaves alluring indigent persons with hopes of abolishing Debts coming to a new division of Lands and the like Seditions raised by such men always tend to the ruin of popular Governments but when they happen under absolute Monarchies the hurt intended is only to the Person who being removed the Promoters of them set up another and he that is set up subsisting only by the strength of those who made him is obliged to foment the Vices that drew them to serve him tho another may perhaps make use of the same against him The consequence of this is that those who uphold Popular Governments look upon Vice and Indigence as mischiefs that naturally increase each other and equally tend to the ruin of the State When men are by Vice brought into want they are ready for mischief there is no Villany that men of profligate Lives lost Reputation and desperate Fortunes will not undertake Popular equality is an enemy to these and they who would preserve it must preserve integrity of manners Sobriety and an honest contentedness with what the Law allows On the other side the absolute Monarch who will have no other Law than his own Will desires to increase the number of those who through lewdness and beggery may incline to depend upon him tho the same temper of Mind and condition of Fortune prepare them also for such Seditions as may bring him into danger and the same corruption which led them to set him up may invite them to sell him to another that will give them better wages I do not by this conclude that all Monarchs are vitious men but that whoever will set up an absolute Power must do it by these means and that if such a Power be already established and should fall into the hands of a person who by his virtue and the gentleness of his nature should endeavour to render the Yoak so easy that a better disciplin'd People might be contented to bear it yet this method could last no longer than his life and probably would be a means to shorten it that which was at first established by evil arts always returning to the same That which was vicious in the principle can never be long upheld by Virtue and we see that the worst of the Roman Emperors were not in greater danger from such good men as remained undestroy'd than the best from the corrupt Party that would not be corrected and sought such a Master as would lay no restriction upon their Vices Those few who escaped the rage of these Villains only gave a little breathing time to the afflicted World which by their Children or Successors was again plunged into that extremity of misery from which they intended to deliver it An extraordinary Virtue was required to keep a Prince in a way contrary to the principles of his own Government which being rarely found and never continuing long in a Family or Succession of men the endeavours of the best became ineffectual and either they themselves perished in them or after their death all things returned into the old polluted Channel Tho the Power of the Hebrew Kings was not unlimited yet it exceeded the rules set by God and was sufficient to increase the number of the worst of men and to give them opportunities of raising perpetual disturbances On the King's side there were Flatterers and instruments of mischief On the other side there were indebted and discontented Persons Notwithstanding the justice of David's cause the Wisdom Valour and Piety of his person none would follow him except a few of his own Kindred who knew what God had promised to him and such as were uneasy in their worldly circumstances After the death of Saul there was a long and bloody War between Ishbosheth and David The former being killed the slightest matters were sufficient to