God had promised to make of him a great Nation though he should destroy them yet he besought God so earnestly that if he would not forgive their sin that he would blot him out of the Beâ—k of Life If Magistrates now adays had the like zeal for the good of the Bodies and Souls of their People how happy would Kings how happy would the People be When the Israelites by reason of the ill Government of Samuels Sons desired a King like all the Nations God whom by such desires they had rejected yet told them the manner and custom of those Kings Heathens you may be sure who knew not God nor his righteous Judgments 2 Sam. 8. 11 12 13. was very Arbitrary governing by an Army that they may go in and out before them and fight their Battels and judge them Arbitrarily yet so peremptory were they that they rejected the just and a righteous and easy Government that God had appointed over them Nay but we will have a King over us as other Nations and they had one that used them accordingly Therefore Solomon might well say as in Ecclesiastes I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment for he doth whatever it pleaseth him Where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What dost thou It being then the manner of the Kings of Nations Heathens so to govern volenti non fit injuria which manner remains even to this day among the Eastern Princes and let them that delight to be so governed have their Belly full of it But God hath provided better Laws Judgments and Statutes for his People whom he hath chosen out of all Nations to be a Peculiar People Redeemed by the Blood of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ blessed for ever Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what doest thou This he wisely advised to those who would be so governed and to Single Persons but not to whole Kingdoms or their Representatives the practice was otherwise even by Gods own command Elisah told Ahab that he and his Fathers House had troubled Israel 1 Kings 17. 18. Samuel told Saul thou hast done foolishly 1 Sam. 13. 3. So Nathan told David thou art the Man. 2 Sam. 12. 7. Obj. But these Men were extraordinarily commissionated Sol. Be it so so are all they Commissionated that follow their Example though not immediately from God himself yet tacitely by his general Commands universally and eternally true Viz. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Levit. 19. 17. Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Saith Job 34. 13. Reprove not a Scorner lest he hate thee rebuke a Wise man and he will love thee Prov. 9. 8. These are prudential Documents how to manage rebukes but exempts not Kings and Princes from being rebuked He that rebuketh the wicked getteth himself a Blot ver 7. In such case the Apostles give good Advice Give not that which is holy unto Dogs neither cast Pearls before Swine lest they trample them under their Feet Indeed if Kings and Princes are such Bruits then Tophet is prepared for them and shall be their Doom Isa 30. 33. And Men will be wiser than to run their Heads against Brick Walls But Truths seasonably spoken can do no man no wrong and ought graciously to be received Solomons intimation is good Where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what doest thou Eccl. 8. 4. Indeed it is a folly in any Man to contend with any Man King or not King that is mightier than he Eccl. 6. 10. But all these Apothegms relate chiefly to Private Persons not to whole States and Kingdoms who have just Power to defend their just Rights against Princes that usurp more Power to themselves than ever God and the People gave them And to urge Samuel a Prophet in a wrong sense is with the Witch at Endor to raise a False and Counterfeit Prophet 1 Sam. 28. 11 12. Can it ever be imagined that God gave countenance or encouragement to Kings to work Wickedness to oppress or violate all Laws and Covenants and yet be blameless and unaccountable here on earth He hath commanded no man to do wickedly neither hath he given any man licence to sin Eccl. 15. 20. God never breaks his own Covenants but keeps them for ever and always punished them that did and shall they who call themselves his Vicegerents like Wild Boars of the Forrest or like Bears robb'd of their Whelps break through all Laws and Bounds and yet be blameless and unaccountable to them who made them Kings designedly to be subject to Laws and not to destroy them or like Foxes of the Wilderness by craft and subtilty by shamming Laws or perverting Righteous Judgment or by packing an Alteration in Government and slide thereinto insensibly by tricks and querks of Law or to draw Arguments from the manner and custom of Kings Heathen for Jus Regium to be the Right of Kings Christian to do as they list quod libet licet uncontrolably is as much as in them lies to do as the Rebellious and Ungrateful Israclites did vilify set at naught and reject the Government which God established by his infinite Wisdom Where such Doctrines are embraced as true what better conditions are Christians under than Heathens nay then Brutes Did God think you create the whole Race of Mankind without respect of Persons after his own Image a little lower then the Angels and crown them with Glory and Honour and give them dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under their Feet and yet at the same time to subject them to Axes and Harrows to Thorns and Briars to the lusts and pleasures of a few Kings chose by themselves from among themselves for the sake only of Order Peace and Well-fare of them all It 's true that seeing the Israelites notwithstanding God cautionating of them were so fool-hardy as to reject God in rejecting his Government yet he did gratify them but in his displeasure in what they desired and they felt the sad effects thereof But from Deut. 17. 14 16. it may be gathered and concluded that the People have a just Right and Title to choose whether the Commonwealth shall be governed by one or more and may change it from one kind of Government to another as shall best please themselves But in all Governments God is always to be President i. e. His Laws are always to be had in remembrance and observed and they who govern otherwise are not to be accounted as Kings but as Enemies not as Gods Vicegerents but as the Devils and may be proceeded against accordingly O but ye shall be his Servants 1 Sam. 8. 17. Very well and well they deserved to be so and Slaves to boot as they
set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother 2. By the constant practice of the jews under the Prophets and since And not without this moral reason That one from among themselves being by their consent and suffrages set King over them that what Authority soever they grant unto Kings they may acknowledge to have had it from the People and therefore obliged more readily to imploy all their times studies strengths and endeavours for the good of them who set them over themselves to take the burden of the Government upon their Shoulders and therefore they consent to pay them all Honour allow them great Priviledges and Prerogatives and give them Munificent Tributes and Maintainance for the Support of them and the Governm nt and swearing Allegiance unto their Kings and the Kings swearing unto the People to keep Faith with them in the due performance and execution of the Laws already made and to be made The reason formerly set down doth warrant this viz. No Man hath or can have any lawful Power to Govern Kingdoms and States but he must have it either immediately from God himself which no Man now can possibly pretend unto or by consent of the Paâ—tâ—â—s The Elders of Israel being the representative 1 Sam. 10. 19. of the whole Kingdom for by that name are generally meant Centurions Captains Judges Princes of all the Tribes â—f Israel c. came to Samuel in Ramah desiring a King to 〈◊〉 in and out before 〈◊〉 like the Nations at whose instance Samuel did anoint Saul to be their King neverless Samuel that Saul might know that he was chosen by the People called all the Peâ—â—â— together in Mizpeh by their Tribes and by their Thousands where as if the farmer Election and Anointing had been insignificant they cast lots which â—ell upon the Tribe of Benjamin and Saul the Son of Kish was taken and all the People shouted and said God save the King 1 Sam. 10. 17 c. All which was done at the Peoples instanceâ— And lest the Election of the King should be attributed wholly to the chance of Lots all the People by the advice of Samuel some few grumbling Dissenters excepted having said Shall Saul reign over us 1 Sam. 11. 13. went to Gilgal and renewed the Kingdom there and made Saul King before the Lord in Gilgal ver 14. 15. Which manifests that though Saul was chosen by God himself and also by Lot yet was constituted confirmed and approved by the suffrages of the People God indeed before ever there was a King in Israel knowing that they would reject him and foolishly desire a King like all the Nations round about them prescribed Rules and Laws whereby they ought to Govern Deut. 17. So David Samuel Saul being rejected by God from Reigning over Israel by God's command anointed David at â—ethlâ—m whom God had chosen King over Israel Did David therefore Reign though so chosen by God himself and anointed by his own command No sure he was so far from it that he avoided the presence of Saul hiding himself from him and arming himself with the Sword of Goliah and armed Men against the evil designs which Saul had against him and fled from him wandring up and down and became as it were an exiled and Out lawed Person and was not King till Saul was dead nor then neither until all the People of Judah first chose him King of Judah by their suffrages And seven years after all the Tribes of Israel and all the Elders of Israel came â—o Hebron and made a Covenant with him before the Lord and then they anointed David King over Israel 1 Sam. 16. 13. 1 Chron. 11. 3. 2 Sam. 5. 3. Besides if Samuel's first anointing of David King had formerly made him King then either Saul was thereby deposed or else there were two Kings of Israel at one time which is monâ—â—ous to conceive for according to their Doctrine Kings have no Royal Power from the People but it is manifest David was not King for that after his being so anointed he oâ—ten called Saul the Lord 's anointed and that by the Inspiration of God's Spirit Moreover he neither challenged nor executed any Royal Authority till he was crowned King by all Israel at Hebron but was persecuted and hunted as a Partridge on the Mountains and that as a Rebel to Saul of which he acquitted himself when he had the Life of Saul in his power and yet would not take it which he justly might have done had he been really King and it had been a crime in him being King not to have executed his Royal Authority in doing Justice and Judgment by cutting off Saul a murtherâ—r who killed the Priests of the Lord especially seeing Saul according to such doctrine must be but a private murtherâ—r and David the only lawful King. Whereby it is apparent that not Samuâ—â— s Oil but the consent and suffrages of the People that made both Saul and David Kings Whereby it is apparent that though God appointed David to be their King yet not so Absolute but that he should be under and subject to agreements with his People and make a Covenant with them on tearms to which he should be obliged to perform with them as they with him and this before the Lord by which Covenant he was obliged to keep within the Boundaries which God and the People had set So David was twice anointed 1. By the Prophets by God's command in token of his Election 2. By the instance and suffrages of the People in Confirmation of his being constituted King by them 2 Sam. 4. 11. 5. 13. So it is true that by God Kings Reign yet so as not without the Peoples Consent Approbation and Covenants first had that he may Reign over them for their good Besides Kings receive not their Kingship immediately from God nor the Sword because the People were first girt with the Sword. Moreover will any Christian say that the Kings of Nations who lived without God in the World did Rule and Reign by Gods immediate appointment I trow not The like is observable in Constituting Solomon King who though David 's Son and God chose him to sit upon his Fathers Throne and to be a Father unto him as he had promised David 2. Sam. 7. 13 14 15. And though David had promised his People that Solomon should succeed him and sit upon his Throne yet this was not sufficient and therefore David assembled all the Princes of Israel and the princes of the Tribes and the captains of the companies and captains over the thousands and the stewards over all the substance of the possession of the King and of his Sons with the officers and with the mighty men and with all the valiant men which bear any publick office and as it were the representative of all Israel and consequently had a share in the Government and in the Election unto Jerusalem This great congregation made Solomon the Son of David King
obliged to the People for the just performance of the same Omnis promittens facit alteri cui promissio facta est jus in promittentem Whoever maketh a Promise to another giveth to that other a right or jurisdiction to challenge the performance of the same Promise But if Rehoboam will make his little finger thicker than his Fathers loins and chastise Israel not with whips only but with Scorpions And will send Adoram to gather tribute without the common and free consent of Israel Israel will stone such Ministers to death and will rebel as in the Text or fall away as in the Margin recesset saith St. Jerom defecerunt say Junius and Tremelius from the house of David and will make Jeroboam King over all Israel as they justly might and without the just imputation of Rebellion And though Rehoboam did raise 180000 Men intending by Force of Arms to bring the Kingdom again to Rehoboam the Son of Solomon yet God would countenance no such act and therefore forbade them by Shemaiah the man of God 1 Kings 12. 19. 2 Chron. 11. 12. Which demonstrates that if Kings keep not Covenants with their People they may withdraw their Tribute and Obedience and chuse another King or another Government and be no Rebels This is not to assert or justifie that for every act of Male government or a few acts of Tyranny or Oppression Kings may be dethroned and devested of their Royal Power but upon supposition that the Violencies Oppressions and Tyrannies are of such a Nature as that thereby the whole intention and ends of the Covenants and Agreements made with the People for the Government of themselves viz. the safety of the People the Laws of God and of the Commonwealth are thereby endangered to be frustrated and that on presumption of such usages and outrages the People would never have conferred their Crowns upon them David held Saul for his Prince and acknowledges him to be the Lord 's anointed so long as the People had not recalled their grant of Royal Dignity so that no single Person though Six hundred Men with him may lawfully Assassinate any King. All Governments are likened to the History of the Gordian Knot which if not so hard tied but that the People may have some ease some relaxation they ordinarily are willing to endure some reasonable bonds but if excessive they ever have and I doubt ever will endeavour to free themselves though by means indirect If the People as God's Instruments Crown Kings on Conditions that he will rule them according to God's Word then are Kings made Kings by the People conditionally and are but adopted Fathers Tutors Politick Servants or Royal Watch men of the Commonwealth and the Royal Honour and Royal Tributes given to them are Rewards of their Labours and Kingly Hire and so expressed by Paul Rom. 13. 6. For this cause pay you Tribute also there is their Wages for they are God's Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Qui non implet conditionem a se promissam cadit beneficio The People setting of Kings over themselves is an act warranted by God himself Deut. 17. 15. Rom. 13. 1 2. Which act though done without written Conditions or Oaths and only by a Vive le Roy or God save the King yet even such choice can never be understood or interpreted an Investiture of them with an Absolute but with a Conditional Power for that such a Power is against the Law of God and Nature a preposterous and absurd Power to do good and yet to work wickedness impune Besides the Common Law of Mankind allows all Donors to Interpret and Expound their own meaning why they Crowned Kings over them and why they give such large Tributes so great Priviledges and Prerogatives and certainly they will never Interpret that they conferred Royal Power on them to Oppress Persecute and Destroy themselves without controul and leave themselves without a remedy The Covenant made by Asa and all Judah and Benjamin 2 Chron. 15. 13. that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of their Fathers should be put to death whether small or great man or woman Which did equally oblige the King as also the Princes and People to performance And therefore Asa as in duty bound removed Maacha his Mother from being Queen because she had made an Idol in a grove which Asa also cut down stampt it and burnt it at the brook Kidron verse 14. Diodorus Siculus lib. 17. saith that the Kings of Persia were under an Oath and that they might not change the Laws and so were the Kings of Egypt and Aethiopia The Kings of Sparta which Aristotle calleth just Kings renew their Oaths every Month. Romulus so covenanted with the Senate and People Carolus V. Austriachus sweareth he shall not change the Laws without the consent of the Electors nor make new Laws nor dispose of any thing of great concern belonging to the Empire without the publick consent 1 Sam. 8. 11. This will be the manner of the King who shall reign over you which place is brought to prove the absolute Power of Kings and the unlawfulness of Resistance Which words being rightly interpreted can have no such meaning It only declares what the Manner and Custom was what they would do not what of right they might do For God had long before in Deuteronomy prescribed them what Laws they should Govern by and in this place is only described the Tyranny of Kings what they would do not what they might justly do And to aver that God hath given Power to Kings to Tyrannize Worry Oppress and Destroy Subjects is Blasphemy for God hath not given nor can give any Moral Power to do wickedly which is License to sin against his own Law which is inconsistent with his Holiness and therefore no such Power can be from God. And all best Expositors declare the Law of Kings to be described in Deut. 17. And in 1 Sam. 8. is described the usurpation and tyranny of Kings So it only demonstrates their wicked Usages or Customs not a Law prescribed by God. And it is obvious to common sense that God by his Prophet in this place was not instructing Kings in their Duty but by fore-telling the Israelites the evil of Punishment that they should suffer under tyrannous Kings thereby terrifying them if possible from their wicked purpose of seeking a King and thereby reject not Samuel only but God himself and farther menacing and declaring That in the day when they should cry out because of their King that the Lord would not hear them verse 18. And therefore God did protest against their unlawful course yet nothing at all would prevail nay but we will have a King over us verse 19. If Samuel in this place did not dehort them from Kingly Government how could they be said to refuse to hear the Voice of Samuel In summ All God's Covenants are Yea and Amen and so ought his Vice-gerents to be And for Priests to
the manner of the Kingdom he wrote it in a Book which Book say the Hebrew Doctors the Kings either tore or burnt that they might more freely tyrannize Though the Pulpits do not march quatuor pedibus along with Leviathan in his Dogma's of Arbitrary Power in Kings and Princes of quod libet licet in the Twentieth Chapter of his Second Part and elsewhere sparsim yet they go hand in hand with him thus far That if Kings do act contrary to the Laws of God and Nature and of Man yet they are responsible and accountable to none but to God himself Whereas there is not one plain Text or Syllable in the whole Bible maugre all false glosses that concludes any thing for Kings being unaccountable unto human Judgments or that they have an absolute Power or Divine Prerogative So that in summ The Pulpits and Leviathan are so far agreed as to dogmatize Lyes and false Doctrines for to justifie that Kings maugre all mutual and reciprocal Laws Pacts and Covenants may act and govern how they please And to justifie and assert that they ought not so to Govern but to observe the Laws of God of Nature and of Men but yet if they do not they are notwithstanding responsible and accountable to none on Earth but to God only for their so doing which in truth differ in their consequences no more than Herring-men do from Fisher-men and both stink in the Nostrils both of God and of all good Men as destructive to the well being and good Government of all human Societies and have no sound Foundation in the Law of God of Nature or of Reason but are contrary to them all for sans doubt they that have Authority to give and apply Power to this or that Person have Authority also to consure his Actions against the Law of Nature 1. Self-preservation than which nothing is more dear and which Nature seeks by all means and endeavours to preserve as inviolable is common to a Man with all other Animals if you tread but upon a Worm it will turn and if it have a Sting or a Fangue or a Poison have at you 2. Then whatsoever may conduce to its other Happiness of its well-being it labours to obtain them and to avoid the contrary and to hate and revenge the Opposers so that vim vi repellere is as natural to Man as to all other Animals Other Laws of Natural consequence implanted and grafted in him in his first Creation for the better Reglement of Communities throughout the whole World as to do good to all to hurt no Innocents to keep Covenants Promises and Contracts faithfully to contribute their utmost to procure the Happiness of the whole of that Kingdom that Commonwealth or that Society or Community whereof they are Members All which are utterly confounded and destroyed by such Leviathan Pulpit Doctrines 3. It 's against the Law of Men and Nations for where ever there are Laws between Kings and People wherein Salus Populi is ever to be presumed to be the Supreme Law for that God made the whole Creation not only for the Necessities but for the Delights also of the whole Race of Mankind in general and equally without respect of Persons solemnly made and sworn unto by mutual consent there they do mutually reciprocally and solemnly bind each other And the Sword placed in the Magistrates hand is not as the material Sword in the hand of Alexander not to untie but to cut the Traces of that fatal Gordian Chariot but the establisht Laws are the true Sword to which both King and People must submit and be responsible if otherwise making of Laws were but Leonis Catulum alere vid. Eras Adag p. 1. 709. For as the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God so the Sword of Magistrates are the Laws of God and of Man All which Rights and Priviledges of Mankind are utterly destroyed if this Doctrine be good Doctrine Oaths between King and People being of the same nature with that between Rahab and the Spies which if not performed by her they were to be quit of the Oath which She had made them to swear For Kings though in Title in the execution of Laws and in many Prerogatives they are singulis majores yet in the main they are universis minores the reason is irrefrigable for that the People make Kings and not Kings the People And the like reason Christ is the everlasting Head of the Church because Christ made and ordained the Church to be his peculiar People and not the Church Him the Head of them In Paternal Government which is indisputable there the Fathers beget the Children and not the Children the Father and they owe him Obedience though morose and bitter to them yet if he prove a Tyrant over them their Obligation to him is cancelled and if he Murder any of them he himself shall suffer Death Nature gives Fathers to the People but the People make Kings to themselves and therefore Kings are constituted for the People and not the People for Kings Some places of Scripture are urged though of very little force when brought to the Test and well examined As first let my Sentence come forth from thy presence let thine Eyes behold the things that are equal Psalm 17. 2. What hath this Text to do more particularly with the Government between Kings and their People than with all other troubles and afflictions that Mankind in general is subject unto c. being as applicable to every particular Person persecuted and in troubles as to King David here in confidence of his Integrity craveth defence of God against his Enemies and so may any Body else but it proves nothing that Kings if they oppress their Subjects shall be accountable to none but to God Almighty It doth prove that any oppressed King or not King may appeal unto God to plead their Cause and Protect and Defend them And if it be lawful so to Pray it is lawful to put to their own helping Hands to relieve themselves by any lawful means and endeavours and pray to God to bless their endeavours and so by their prayers and endeavours to co-operate together 't is an Appeal to God to judg between him and his Enemies And is it not lawful nay the duty of all States and Kingdoms to make the like Appeals and Supplications to God Almighty It 's probable that David wrote this Psalm when he was troubled and persecuted by Saul even after he was anointed of God and because he did then make Supplications and Appeal to Jonathan for his life if there be iniquity in me slay me thy self for why shouldst thou bring me to thy Father Will it follow therefore that court was to be made to Jonathan only I doubt not This is a great Example and Encouragement to those that are falsly accused to appeal to God by Prayers and Supplications for help and the reasons that follow are great viz. thine Eyes behold the things that are