or Covenant imported but some promises of grace or the like from the King to the people and did not imply equal stipulation we may observe that he is alwayes set down as the free author and agent hereof and that both to Abner and the people it is thrice called his League In answer to which promise of indemnity or the like we find that when the League is set down to be made from the people to David it is added to denote their promise of fealty on the other side that thou mayest raign over all that thy soul desireth Upon which ground also when Ioash is to be acknowledged King being so young that he could not promise to the people so as to be binding the Covenant goes in the peoples name as their Covenant And this covenanting with David could not truely be supposed to import any greater freedom to Israel then formerly they had under the government of Saul and his son for this had been to have given David less Soveraignity then Saul and to have made Israel more free then Iudah Which if so makes against the whole drift of the argument namely that Princes have their power by Paction from their subjects when the example proves rather he thereby loseth it and so comes at last to confess that Kings have all Civil power by God given as of right to their office and that as Gods Vicegerent he may grant by Oath and promise to his subjects such exemptions and immunities as he shall think good not derogating from his honor or disabling him in his publike trust Which promises when they come to be publikely and solemnly made as at Coronations or the like are usually taken for Pactions and the subjects thought givers even in what they are but receivers But this matter of Covenanting between King and people will be best conceived as to the intention thereof which as before noted was chiefly to acknowledge and confirme subjection and obedience to a new questionable Prince by that Covenant which Iehoida the high Priest caused to be made with young Ioash where at the time of his making it is said And all the Congregation made a Covenant with the King in the house of God and to shew what the Covenant was it follows He said unto them behold the Kings son shall raign as the Lord hath said of the sons of David Then Iehoida appoints them particular services to do for the King but for making any promise on the Kings part to the people not a word there nor no where else Again this covenanting in the house of God must imply their solemn Oaths of fealty and obedience the which are expresly set down as implicitly and unconditionately given him And the seaventh yeer Iehoida sent and fet the rulers over hundreds with the Captaines and the guards and brought them unto him into the house of the Lord and made a Covenant with them and took an Oath of them in the house of the Lord and shewed them the Kings son The people here swearing and that to a King of seven yeers old that therefore could not be supposed to capitulate with them and their doing it in the house of the Lord clearly interprets what was meant by renewing Sauls kingdom before the Lord in Gilgall and of Davids covenantings formerly mentioned namely by Oaths solemnly taken to establish obedience to a new race more strongly in the people and not to crave their authority for impowring his Office In like manner are we to understand 2 Chron. 23.16 where it is said And Iehoida made a Covenant between him and between all the people and between the King that is he promised obedience to the King both in his own and the peoples behalf that they should be the Lords people and walk as obedient children to his Minister Which last words do denote to us that it was the custome of those people at these conventions to make promise of obedience to God also the state of Theocrity still continuing whilst God had a Prophet amongst them Which will yet be more likely to be the sense thereof if we compare it with a paralel text and expression used at the making of Solomon King Where David as Gods chief Minister commands the people to make their acknowledgement to God as here the chief Priest doth in the Kings minority saying Now bless the Lord your God after which it follows And all the Congregation blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed down their heads and worshipped the Lord and the King In which words we must not think the King is idolatrously joyned with God in matter of Divine worship but as having obedience promised to him also after they had promised it to God From which we may also infer that this covenanting was no more needful to Kingly power then it was to make gods But since upon these solemn occasions they were to be assembled to make acknowledgement of these his deputies it was fit the Author and Fountain of all should be acknowledged in the first place Nay this young Joash though as other Kings said to be made by the people yet was it not to be understood as if his right had depended on their consent For he was to raign as in right of inheritance from his father David who had also all his right and authority from God and the people had no more rightful power to reject those individual persons then they had power to refuse the keeping of Gods other commands for all power as heretofore noted must come from above that is from God to Kings and from God or Kings to people and not from inferiors to superiors For none can as from themselves alone make others more powerful then themselves more then they can make themselves other or more then themselves And when God himself is often mentioned in holy writ as covenanting with people he is never to be understood as if done for increasing his authority by this means but whether he express the return of general obedience to his laws which thereupon come to be called Covenant also or not he is in both respects so far from acknowledging any derivative power from them to accrew by their consents that on the other side what they receive is of free-grace and goodness from him For though this obedience as due for the receit of more extraordinary and remarkable favors come to claim a greater willingness as carrying a token of more high obligation through such expressions of goodness to certain people and persons yet as God he had right to the same obedience and measure of gratitude from those and all other his creatures and must be presumed as herein only applying himself to help our backwardness in this due return by this repetition of extraordinary mercies For however it be in peoples power to be more or less willing in obedience and gratitude yet the duty thereof can never cease nor the duty of willingness herein neither
for the governed as heretofore noted even for the necessary preservation of those relations according to that saying If I be a father where is mine honor if I be a Master where is my fear For although a willing and hearty service be most acceptable and onely rewardable as to the doer yet the benefit of others will many times be gained by the deed itself Whereas a known impunity will by example and as it finds hope to attain the like procure common detriment both by neglect of the deed it self and by common invitation to disobedience But if the subject from his own or others experience once find that his obedience in respect of other damages and inforcements in the Princes power is unavoidable he must be supposed even through discreet willingness to submit and then through custom of so doing to arrive at last at a state of natural willingness in obedience it self experience telling us that steadiest loyalty is in such subjects as have been used to greatest subjection and most discontents and rebellions in such Families and Kingdoms where children and subjects have been most free And it will ever be a most certain truth that that obedience which must unavoidably be given will ever in equal things be more ready free and unreluctant then that which may have hopes of avoidance CONCLUSION BUt it is now time to have done having perhaps as much tyred others as my self in these tedious discourses driven so vehemently on to the cure of that evil which while men are men can never enter into a steady thought should be wholly done For when all is said Government will have its faults and when in the rule of nature we see it sometimes come to pass that the stobborness of the matter is such as will not admit of that form which to her policy in general or to the production of some more perfect creature were in particular species necessary but that pestilence murrains mildews c. to the destruction of men beasts and vegitables as also monstruous and imperfect shapes incident to the generation of each race and kind do sometimes happen why should we wonder at ineffectualness herein when besides matter there is a perpetual aversion of will in the governed and alas the while the workmans skill or care in this is too often so to seek that through his default also the malady is increased Since therefore nothing in this life can be to us perfect and without its inconveniences we can only call that Government good which is best and which upon tryal hath fewest and least settled mischiefs as not arising from its form but contingent accidents in its ministration and this is that which I have propounded as the drift of this whole Treatise Yet then again as the many unavoidable diseases of our natural bodies are not at all to discommend or excuse the Physicians care and pains for their mittigation or removal so I hope in this grand disease of the politique Body called Civil War although I cannot attain to a perfect or constant cure yet if the application of those remedies I have proposed shall sometimes cause diversion and sometimes mittigation I shall have comfort in my labours But in this as all things else we must leave the success to God whose work alone it is to still as the raging of the Sea so the madness of the people Even that mad and raging humor of liberty which being blown to a rebellious height by the breath of seditious Oratory as seas by the wind it is none other then if in our natural bodies the allurement of our pallats should tempt us to that food which should bring us to a feavor And as these surfeits seldom come but from such things as are best and then again loathing of that very thing doth follow so in the politique constitution though nothing more necessary and commodious then peace yet nothing more incident to mans fickle nature then in a giddy thirst for variety to grow weary thereof which as a thing bringing Kingdoms and States to their fatal periods no otherwise then bodily surfeits and sicknesses do single persons to their natural deaths shall we say that as they are permitted for the punishment of our sins which we can never want so to this end also And then shall we say that not so much in consideration of ours or our progenitors sins as that the will of God might be made manifest are these things befallen us Shall we say that since none of themselves can be called righteous or good that it may therefore be a reason that wickedness and vice are thus suffered as to the estating us good by comparison and that even again in Government as to the adorning loyalty and other civil vertues disobedience and rebellion is permitted also and to make us thereby more sensible and thankful when peace shall again be restored But be the reasons what they will our duties of obedience and submission being plain enough it is our parts to look to that and to leave these hidden things to God whose judgements are unsearchable and â—is ways past finding out For sure I am that however God for the punishing of a sinful people permit their Princes as he did David in the fact of numbring to fall upon such unwarrantable acts as may bring on their punishments yet can this punishment never warrant any active resistance of his Authority Or be the King not good as David was but such another as Saul was yet since he is our King and the Lords anointed who can without sin lift up their hand against him And why should we be more impatient of enduring those punishments from God that come from the hands of evil Kings then those of pestilence famine or the like that come more immediately from nature since all come from the same hand and to the same end the punishment of our sins And since God owns the giving of them in his anger and the having their hearts in his hand and turning them wheresoever he pleaseth why should we think of resisting one more then another Thus is wicked Pharoahs heart hardned and his subjects the â—gyptians thereby plagued And thus as aforesaid is good Davids heart stirred up to number the people and these people thereupon punished with pestilence And who would have thought a three years famine so long after Sauls death should be the punishment of surviving subjects for a past fact of zeal done by a King so long dead Or that the house of Jehu and his people by consequent should be threatned with Gods punishment for the execution of that his justice upon the house of Ahab three hundred years after the fact done when as yet the very fact it self was so plainly appointed and warranted by divine authority In which examples of Kings sins being made causes of punishing peoples sins with plagues pestilence famine civil war or the like I would know if resisting of Kings had not been resisting of God or
and three and so to discover the Major Vote in his subjects assemblies must be supposed to be still ready without any thwarting presumption of his own understanding to cry implicitly So be it to all that his subjects shall command But if people in that condition be under a woe it is because of their Prince his disability to judge and act in his own person for surely his resemblance of Children in innocence cannot be a woe it must follow that the more the Prince is made a childe by his Subjects and hath his power eclipsed the more woe will that kingdom proportionably have And they that yet think the whole or major part of the people above the King and not subject to his commands let them consider even the power given to Ieroboam himself from God to reign according to all his soul desired Let them also that think the generality or major part of the subjects cannot in case of resistance be called Rebels again consider the censure God gave to the Representative whole body of the people when they rejected Rehoboam and followed Ieroboam saying And Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day neither the major Vote of eleven Tribes to one nor their pretention of oppression under Solomon could excuse them of the guilt of this imputation nay although the action were but in pursuance of what was before appointed by God in punishment of Solomon his Fathers fault Which was the reason why Rehoboam was forbidden to take vengeance on these Rebels as his Grandfather David had before on these major numbers and representative bodies of the people gathered against him in Absolom and Adonijahs rebellions therefore is he and the people with him bidden to return to their houses Yet because the eleven Tribes had no direct warrant from him who alone is above Kings this crime of rebellion is not to be wiped off but on the contrary disavowed by God as concerning the fact it self for it is there said That the Priest and Levites and all whose hearts were right set to serve God returned from following Ieroboam And therefore that expression of all Israels coming to Sechem to make Rehoboam King must be understood not as having power to elect another but as summoned by Rehoboams command to pass their fealties and acknowledgements to him that was already in actual possession of his Father Solomons Throne for so we shall finde it noted in the verse foregoing the recital of this story And Solomon slept with his Fathers and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead And so also after this revolt did he continue reigning over Judah without any mention of popular confirmation For it seems those of Judah had acknowledged their Alleageances unto him already without any such dispute which being ordinarily done to him and others may seem the reason of the remarkable record of this denial And we may yet more plainly see what this phrase of the peoples making of Kings doth import by the like expression used at the time of their acknowledgements to Solomon his Father for although the people had no hand of Authority in it but that as David made Solomon his son King over Israel yet David then summoning all the Princes of Israel the Priests and the Levites to take notice of this and other his directions about the Temple and so concluding with a Sacrifice as was usual at the peoples promise of Fealty and Alleageance it is said that they did eat and drink before the Lord with great gladness and they made Solomon the son of David King the second time and anointed him to be chief Governor to the Lord and Zadock to be Priest Which words second time must relate to their first making of him when being anointed King by Zadock at the command of David all that the people did to the making of him or conferring his power was but as in acknowledging him made already with saying God save King Solomon or the like which as it was fit for that ordinary rank of people assembled at his first making so in this solemn convention of the great ones Princes c. we may suppose some actual Fealty to pass unto this chief Governor unto the Lord both when that Congregation did bow their heads and worship the Lord and the King and also when it is said all the Princes and the mighty men and the sons likewise of King David submitted themselves unto Solomon the King that is acknowledged him their King by such personal outward acts of homage as were usual amongst that people for so the word submitted doth bear in the original Besides it is likely that at this time also they took their Oaths of Alleageance in other places implyed under the name of Covenants Which Oaths are alluded unto in that precept of Solomon My son I councel thee to keep the Kings command and that in respect of the Oath of God And as for the expression of the peoples annointing of Solomon used before and to other Kings it is not to be understood as if they had right to confer the power belonging to Kingly Office on any for they had it no more then they had right to confer the power of Priestly Office And therefore Zadock being joyned in this their anointing who it is well known was put in by Solomon before shews that the phrase was but equivalent with acknowedging And that because at Solomons first establishment the greater part of the people were absent as being sharers in Adonijahs Rebellion Who indeed if he had thriven might have been called a King of the peoples making as to his personal election whereas Solomon and other Kings are to own their Thrones and power from God And therefore it is said That Solomon sat on the Throne of the Lord as King c. and all Israel obeyed him that is obeyed him as in Gods Throne and not in theirs And that it is God onely that doth constitute the power of this Office appears by that which follows viz. The Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed upon him such royal Majesty as had not been on any King before him But let us examine more neerly those places that seem most to restrain Soveraignty as the last verse of Deut. 17. That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren which may seem to imply that he had no absolute power over them But it was not to forbid him any necessary power and authority over them for punishment of vice or maintenance of peace nor of any external honor or jurisdiction above them for then had the Office been useless but as a caveat to humility and that he should consider that however he were thus advanced it was more in relation to the good of the people then his own and that since his supreme authority over them was to make them happy by unity and not him proud by preferment
to all reciprocal duties belonging to their offices And if oaths should be taken to disable them in due performance of their offices or enjoyn them to unlawful or unfit actions beyond their respective relative duties they are invalid But although these Oaths cannot amount to a Paction yet is their use good For first the solemn manner and place of delivery being at the alter cannot but deeply imprint in Kings their duty to God to whom and his Laws they are to be obedient aswell as the meanest subject then by promising to govern according to Law Justice or the like they are put in minde that since their office is chiefly for their subjects good they are to apply these rules to that purpose at least so far as they see them thereto available And so again subjects by these oaths come to know that God aswell as the law enjoyns them obedience In Aristocraties and Democraties the capitulation is supposed between the whole state and each member but in a Monarch between the whole community and the Monarch Subjects in Polarchies have no Oaths from the collective body nor do the particular members of the state give any to the whole as the subjects in Monarchies do to the Prince And this because each member in the state as having a share in the state and the state being not the whole state or soveraignty without him he is neither in reason obliged to do it to them nor much less they to him For as in the first case his share being something it were absurd to demand of himself security for himself so in the second to give security where none is taken seems unreasonable So that the maine security which Polarchies have against the revolt of the people is in their own forces and numbers making so great a share of them that with themselves and dependants they are commonly the greater party of such as have arms And therefore subjects can never ease themselves of the oppression of Polarchies without foraign help or of some of the States against the rest or else when war hath so far wasted these heads themselves and their forces as the subjects may have strength enough to revolt But the single persons of Monarchs being disabled to prevail altogether by force must relye also upon Oaths and such obligations as may prevaile more by love then fear Now to come to the example of Kings Covenanting with their people it is oftenest urged in David Who as first of his family and one that God intended to have firmely settled in that office was thereupon to have the more solemn and notified entrance And for the peoples stronger obligation to acknowledge and serve him he was to receive his annointings again as by their appointment and consent and they also to that purpose to promise him obedience and service For surely none can think it was in Judahs or Israels power whether or no he should have been their King being before annointed by Gods direction without consent of either of them So that their former King being now dead we must suppose that in Justice they could do no otherwise secondly nor in prudence he being of such merit in himself and having besides A great host like the host of God Although these considerations as also his gifts made the Elders of Iudah first anoint him yet I finde no expression of the peoples doing it or that the people or Elders made any Covenant with him And as for Israel the Covenant spoken of must be understood in pursuance of that made with Abner who as in the chief command had made Ishbosheth Sauls son King before to whose face he threatens to give the kingdom to David And therefore when in pursuance thereof he makes a league with David to bring all Israel to him It is to be understood of a league with Abner first made for after the league between them Abner now calleth David Lord and King and saith He will gather all Israel to David to make a league with him that he might raign over all that his heart desired Here is indeed obedience and subjection promised on the peoples part when they should make this league with him but what was the engagement from this or any other King to subjects by way of Covenant I finde not But to proceed on this enquiry concerning Davids Covenanting that which was probably Abners aime besides his thirst of treacherous revenge was indemnity for his past act against David and therefore he durst not come till he had sent messengers on his own behalf Which David accepts upon condition that he should bring his wife Michal with him or else no forgiveness expressed in that phrase of anger Thou shalt not see my face except c. And likely it is Abner was taken into favor also which might appear by Davids feasting him and Ioabs envious killing him and by Davids mourning for him afterwards And therefore his Covenanting with Israel afterwards can be interpreted as before noted but a promise of indempnity from him according to and in pursuance of the promise formerly made to Abner who had before undertook and prevailed To bring Israel and Benjamin to him So that after Abners death and their Kings it was much more reason they should come to David for this Covenant then he to them And it is to be noted that they send to him he comes not to them as he did formerly to Iudah with whom it was more likely he should have made a Covenant if it had been necessary that kingly right and power had depended on Paction and consent of people Therefore this Covenant could not imply equal stipulation or resignation of any royal power because then Iudah had more reason to have pressed it as having more power to stand on their tearms with David For they being not in like trouble and confusion might have also joyned with Israel against him nor was his strength then so great and formidable as afterwards But their not doing it as not having offended by resisting David as Israel had done seven yeers together makes it evident that this covenant imported nothing but an act of oblivion or the like and that it was not at Davids suite as summoning them to settle him in his throne but at theirs to be settled by him in their liberties which were probably to be the same that their brethren of Iudah already had And therefore they say unto him We are thy bone and thy flesh because those of Iudah might else presume to much as being his kin acknowledging also to him before they speak of Covenant that God had appointed and said unto him Thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And their annointing is not ascribed to freedom in them to have refused but it is said They annointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel that is acknowledged him King as God had appointed And to shew that this League
unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be Elders of the people c. and I will come down and talk with thee and will take of the spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them and they shall bear the burthen of the people with thee that thou bear it not thy self alone Which places plainly shew that although God at Moses suit did give others power to bear part of the burthen yet is their manner of constitution so ordered as to minde them of subordination to the Monarch and again there is nothing of popular consent herein All which would be well considered by such as are so credulous of the soveraign power of the Sanhedrim This delegation of power from God to Kings was usually conferred under the name of Unction for so saith Samuel in annointing Saul is it not because the Lord hath annointed thee to be Captain over his inheritance plainly implying the power and office to be conferred with the unction and that also as coming from God the Lord hath annointed thee And therefore under this incommunicable and sacred title of Gods anointed their protection is again by God more expresly owned then of other persons This unction or mark of power is in the first place due and proper to Christ thereupon called the Christ or the annointed of God Hereupon all the kingdoms of the earth are our Lords and he also is King of kings and Lord of lords and prince of the Kings of the earth Moreover he being the eternal wisdom of his father by and under him it is that kings raign and princes decree justice nay the very heathen are his inheritance and the utmost ends of the earth his possession And as in acknowledgement of derivation of office and power from Christ Kings as anointed under him do waer his cross on their Crowns so by vertue of this Unction as by a kinde of Sacrament it is that their persons have ever been held so sacred that none have ever yet found out a way or dared to practice the annihilation of the stile it self of King more then that of Father from the same persons that were really so as in other officers set up by humane authority is usually done by way of degradation The which amongst Christians hath been chiefly confirmed by the example of Davids usage towards Saul and Ishbosheth both of them his open and professed enemies Against the first of which although there might be high faults objected and that against God also who did thereupon by Samuel make so much known of his will of rejecting him that the people could not be ignorant thereof yet because they wanted express warrant from God to be actors therein as Jehu had they durst not presume to lift up their hands against the Lords annointed Nay David himself durst not do it although his advantage by his overthrow and his oportunity to do it were most apparant and who also had as high provocations from Saul as might have tempted any ordinary humor of revenge and had farther beyond the pretence of any ordinary subject or any order of them as great a presumption of insubjection as could be because of his own Unction by Gods appointment and from his knowdledge of Sauls rejection Yet he in proof of derivation of kingly Power from God only findes nothing but express authority from that God that hath set them up to be warrantable for the pulling them down they were the Lords anointed not the peoples It was therefore his part and much more is it the part of others now to permit that powerful hand that brought this rod upon them to have liberty to remove it in a way and time of his own For how can they do it as subjects and from whence should they derive insubjection If then they be Gods anointed the rightful power to govern accordingly must be therewith conferred or else the Unction were vaine and in a mockery of God If the politick corporation confer the power let the charter and seal of Office that speaks it be produced let us see the hands and seals of those that conferred this power as also their Commissions and authorities for so doing that we may be satisfied with the just derivation thereof But now as donations and assignations of humane interests use to pass and be conferred from one party to another by such like wayes of conveyance and none else so this passing by anointing it must shew it to be confessedly of a different nature But to give a cleerer light to the comprehension and distinction of Divine Right and Authority in these things we shall here take leave a little to digress As to deny God Almighty to be the prime and supreme cause of all things and of those vertues and abilities whereby each thing is effected is perfect Atheism so on the other hand to submit and fasten on him as immediate Agent those operations which by the ordinary course of his Providence he hath appointed to be the productions of natural causes doth as strongly argue ignorance but if in those effects and productions which may to our sense be observed to come to pass by the interposition of such second Agents as neither by any naturalness in themselves nor observation of ours could be reasonably concluded the causes of them in that case again to deny divine power and ascribe to Nature and second Agents what is above their reach is both Athiesm and folly too To ascribe the hardening of the Clay to God Almighty and not to the Sun or Fire is to be foolishly derogatory to him even as it is also to deny him to be the cause of that heat and vertue in the Sun or Fire whereby it came to pass And no less then so it is to ascribe to the vertue of the Clay that Cure which our Saviour wrought on the blinde man for neither any known naturalness in that Agent nor observation of the like elswhere could reasonably warrant such presumption therein As thus in Inanimates and the general course of Providence there ought to be a discreet distinction made by us in the setting down of what operations are immediately Divine and what Natural so much more in those things which are wrought by Creatures reasonable and where as well the Agent as Patient are voluntary as in Matters of Government and instruction it fareth In which respect since there cannot be any natural Reason or Cause assigned why the will of one should be efficatious to the Government of the will of another as in it self it must follow that that constant course and setled way of so doing must be attributed to Divine Authority only Constant and setled way I say for that there may many humane contrivances be made to introduce temporary subjection and agreement which cannot lay claim to be of divine institution and because again although this Monarchical Government be alone Jure Divino and so onely
and yet it was by Gods secret appointment ordered to be done to make good the threat against Elies house namely to fulfil the word of the Lord concerning the house of Elie even so we may interpret the punishment of Sauls first fault that is the cutting off his blood from the Crown to be accomplished in Michal and his other fault in sparing Agag threatned to be punished in the rejection of his person to be made good by his untimely slaughter And the due observation of these Stories will also instruct us how that the building of the Temple signifying the glory of the Church and the settlement of Kingship and Priesthood were all accomplished together and how Kingship was the leader in this Chorus of happiness as Gods chief Instrument for compleating of them For so are we instructed by the direction which Moses gave concerning matters of Appeals wherein the expression of the Judge that shall be in those dayes not only denotes another manner of Judge then formerly but the Priests and he and the place which the Lord should choose being conjoyned must signifie their contemporary establishment for perpetuity for to none of the other Judges God had said Why have yee not built me an house nor was Kingship nor Preisthood setled but in Solomon and Zadock the sons of David and Samuel and immediate instruments in building this Temple the figure of the Christian Church to succeed Nay this Office and power of kingship is so cleer in Scripture that it is usual with the abetters of Polarchies now adays to balk it in the plain sense thereof and to hearken to Philo Josephus and I know not what Antichristian Authors to learn from them the Authority of the people of the Sanhedrim and such like Magistrates not considering the interest and prejudice wherewith these men writ For they designing to bring their Writings and Nation into the more esteem amongst the learned persons of those times and having so long lived and been so well entertained the first among the Grecians and the other amongst the Romans as to be affected with their humors and way of learning they had the same reason to commend those other Forms and to depress this Kingly Office and Power as they had to commend thereby their own writings and Country And as in Kings all power is thus united so he alone it is that is the true Representative whole and whose actions may binde the people without their consent but not theirs without his And so much is often by God acknowledged making the good or ill of the King and Kingdom all one Thus Abimilechs particular detaining of Sarai is by him apprehended as an evil threatning his whole kingdom and we finde Sauls particular act against the Gibeonites punished with the peoples famine as Davids numbring the people afterward was punished with their Pestilence And in that whole story we may observe the punishment or reward the good or ill of the people still to answer and be proportioned with the Vertues or Vices of their Princes and that though the people did offer in the high places or had not prepared their hearts to seek the God of their Fathers or the like yet if this general Representative person was upright before God even for his sake a blessing did ensue which is nowhere observed to be done in respect of any subjects piety And this may seem less strange since we finde that Adam being made Monarch of all Creatures should have the violence of his race imputed and charged on them so as to involve them in the same guilt and destruction by flood Nor is this degree of power before spoken of much more then what before was practised by Moses himself according to the advice of his Father-in-Law as we read Exod. 18.20 namely to make Laws and Ordinances for them to live by and where Law was already made by God to reserve to himself the interpretation thereof as also all appeals and all difficult and important causes and for the better dispatch sake to refer common causes to subordinate Judges All which is again farther expressed Deut. 19 to the 18. where he owns the making Judges and last appeal Our of all which it may be found that the most material marks of Soveraignty were in many of these temporary Judges as the power of making some Laws and interpreting them the last appeal and supreme decision of controversies especially in Moses because he was a King too as formerly noted and so made by God and not by the people And unto Ioshua next as made by Moses for on him by Gods appointment was he by imposition of hands to put some of his honor that all the Congregation of Israel might be obedient that is that he by receit of this justly derived power from God his Vicegerent might have full power to command them And therefore are they also called Kings as in the inte-rregnum when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in Israel and yet was these Judges power inferior to that of Kings coming after This soveraign power of Kings we may finde implyed in that answer of Samuel to the people of the manner or power of a King which had it but been equal to that of their former Judges what needed it have been told the people And they that will not have the things there set down to be in his power but that he was to give account thereof or that his actions were controleable by any order or body of the people do yet commit a greater absurdity for then to what purpose should Samuel go about to fright the people with a thing of no danger and which was in their power to remedy For so it follows that they should cry out in that day because of their King and the Lord should not hear them meaning that they had none but God in that case to appeal to by whose forbearance to hear them therein they had no lawful remedy left them For had his words imported no more terror to their understanding but what they had right and power to remedy they might have answered Nay but we will have a King under us and not over us No he shall be onely King of the less number of the people and their Representatives but unto the major part or Vote he shall be subject upon all occasions they shall think good and so making our selves Soveraigns over our Soveraign we shall prevent those threats for thereby having upon the matter no King we shall do but what unto every one seems good in his own eys And by the expression over thee so often there used must be meant over the whole people being the same thee that should choose him so that if his election were by the major part or such as stood for them as so it must be or elese it could be no Election his power must be above the major part or their
these things was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him and we esteemed him not performing onely in himself as after followeth the work of Jesuship and so healing his Church by his wounds and stripes And therefore as we are to interpret those many promises of prosperity made to the Church in general under a Jewish figure to be accomplished in the prosperity of the Christian Church so must also many of those other Promises made of the Churches Kings in the name of David and Solomon be interpreted of Christian Kings Else we shall not know how to make good those sure mercies of David those many Prophesies that his kingdom should be established for ever in his seed and that his mercy should not depart from him as it did from Saul who was taken away from before him The same again repeated 1 Chron. 17.13 promising that as his Temple should be built by Solomon who was a Type of Christian Kings as David was of Christ so God says I will not take my mercy from him as I took it from him that was before thee but I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever and his Throne shall be estaalished for ever And David himself did so understand it also and therefore said Now O Lord let the thing that thou hast spoken concernig thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever and do as thou hast said And so he proceeds with a reason for establishment of that Government Let it even be established that thy name may be magnified for ever saying the Lord of hosts is the God of Israel even a God to Israel and let the house of thy servant be established before thee And in the next verse he intimates the manner how it should be For thou O Lord God hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him a house that is supply it by adopted Children for so the word wilt build must import beyond Solomon already born Therefore understanding and interpreting the conditonal promises made to Solomon and David to extend and have been fulfilled in their own personal loyns according to Nature and these by default on their part to be cut off and understanding again that succession of perpetuity and the glorious Promises of the Church to be made good in Solomons typified sons the Christian Monarchs these seeming contradictions may be easily reconciled as having been both made good And it is observable by the way that the expressions used verse the 14. shew that the kingdom of God here is the Kings as before shewed in the Petition Thy Kingdom come and that again the Kingship of Kings is Gods for so the words run I will settle him in mine house and my Kingdom for ever and his Throne shall be established for evermore to the end that Gods will may be done in earth as it is in Heaven But since for the far greater part of the time past we cannot find as aforesaid these Promises fulfilled to the natural or direct seed of Solomon or David in the kingdoms of Israel or Judah we cannot without great partiality and prejudice but conceive that they must typically be accomplished in Christian Kings in like manner as we are to understand that the many Promises of Judah and Israel and the Jewish Church and Temples happiness and perpetuity are to be made good in the Christian Church answerable to that prophetical description of the Christian Church under the Jewish figure made by David himself viz. For there are set Thrones of Iudgement the Thrones of the house of David Where the names of Thrones being twice set in the plural number must signifie succession of Kingship which coming to Christ as naturally Davids son and to Kings as Christs adopted sons it follows that the opposers of them do oppose Christ and so are Antichrists And without the like interpretation and taking in the adopted Christian Kings as with Christ typified in Solomon Psal. 72 it will be hard to be understood how many of those Prophesies of prosperity and outward greatness here and in other Prophesies given to Christ can personally be made good in him considering that mean condition Christ himself lived in amongst us where he was so far from expressing or exercising any thing like the Throne or judgement of a King or Kings son that he had not whereon to lay his head But there can be no more better Commentator of the meaning of these Promises then David himself who in his last words cleerly explains to us that they were prophetick to those Thrones which should be established under the Types of him and Solomon by Christ and Christian Kings in the Christian Church and not by him and his direct natural seed in the Jewish Church For there we shall finde him confessing that he was but the Prophet of these things that should after come to pass and not the present object otherwise then in type the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue Afterwards we shall finde that that perfection of the Ruler he speaks of belongs to his typified son Christ and not to himself because it speaks of a perfection and an extent of Dominion which he in his own person was not capable of He that ruleth over men or is appointed Ruler over mankinde which David nor his natural race as Kings of the Jews could not claim to be must be just ruling in the fear of God And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun ariseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by cleer shining after rain All which are expressions of excellence which David could not personally essume and therefore he adds although my house be not so with God yet he hath made me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvatin and all my desire although he make it not to grow That is although neither I nor my present more natural house do thus grow yet it is my comfort that it shall be accompplished in my typifyed son Christ and the Christian Kings after him In him from whom all Crowns are derived and in whom all Justice is originally inherent is this Prophesie in the first place to be fulfilled And then by vertue of that Unction which those other Christi shall have from him all the world over they also shall be enabled in their several jurisdictions to rule over men in the fear of God and by vertue of their derived power be as the light of the morning even as a morning without clouds when the Sun ariseth or after this Son of Righteousness is arisen and be as the tender grass springing out of the earth by cleer shineing after rain that is that cleer shining light of Justice from
him imparted shall in them spring up like tender grass in their earthly administrations And then he foretels the state of Antichristianism to follow and that under the Jewish notion of insubjection and Rebellion viz. Sons of Belial or men without yoak but the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands That is because they cannot be kept under by Laws but as Thornes have been troublesom to others and been ready to raise civil flames of dissention therefore as Thornes they shall be burnt or thrust away But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with Iron and the staffe of a spear That is as he that will meddle with cutting down of Thorns must have his person defended against their pricking as it were with Iron and also must have a staffe or fork to manage them with and not his bare hands so prudence must direct Christian Princes to have in readiness Davids Chelethites and Pelethites and the assistance of their Militia typified under Iron and a spear and then they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place that is these Thornes of rebellion shall be consumed That Christ and the Christian Kings were in these Promises meant appears yet more fully by that Promise which God makes of the prosperity of his people at the same time which could not have likelihood of accomplishment in the Jews Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will place them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more neither shall the Children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time Which Promise was not made good to the Israelites whom the Assyrian and other Nations did so many times afflict and whom the Romans did utterly subdue and remove but was made good after the time of Christian Kingship in that this Christian Church was ever more glorious and strong then to be oppressed by her enemies And so David himself farther instructs us acknowledging these things spoken of his house for a great while to come In this fore-recited Prophesie and those whereto it alludes it is farther observable that as it is the first that speaks particularly and largely of the perpetuity and glory of the Church so doth it also of the kingship that should be therein coupling them so together as to make it apparent that as the glory of a Church and Nation doth arise by Gods vouchsafeing to own them and by having a place amongst them so this owning them and this place is still accompanyed with the Promise of kingship nay made subsequent thereunto For so we finde that while Moses is directing the people to go with their hard controversies or appeals from the ordinary Judges unto the Iudge that shall be in those days meaning that future Government of kings which immediately follows in the same chapter he appoints them to go up unto the place which the Lord their God should choose Shewing to us that when God would have his Church most eminent by having a chief and eminent place amongst them he will also have one most eminent Officer to be his servant in establishment thereof who may also more gloriously represent him therein All which as it appears in the examples of David and Solomon so doth the words of Solomon cleerly manifest it shewing That God chose no City out of all Israel to build an house for his name before he chose David to be over his people And therefore because the good intention of Davids heart to build Gods house could not be performed by him God promiseth to raise up to him a son that should come forth of his loyns and that he should build this house to his Name Which son of his we cannot think otherwise of then as having his kingdom purposely made glorious and established for the encrease of Gods glory by this work And therefore it was not a work which God required to be done by any of the former Iudges but the height and glory belonging to each Church and Nation is to be accomplished under the most glorious instrument And by having this future regard to things we may finde those Gospel promises of restitution or reward which could not in kinde be made good to the Primitive persecuted Church and the oppressed Christians therein to be made good to the Catholike Church and the generality of Christians under the protection of Christian Kings since Namely that in comparison of those former losses the Church hath since been rewarded both in respect of increase of possession and degree of continuance with an hundred fold now in this time of houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands c. Whereupon we may make the whole issue and interpretation of this forementioned Promise to be that Christ typified in David is represented as desirous out of his zeal to Gods house to be as active and forward as he can for advancing of Gods own glory and also for the promotion of his Churches happiness represented under the figure of the Jewish Temple But because he in regard of those Victories he was to make over sin and death was in his own person disabled to perform it even as David was for the wars which were about him on every side until the Lord had put them under the soles of his feet therefore is he by God the Father Promised in the person of David When thy days shall be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers that is when thou shalt have accomplished the days of thy flesh and by being seated at the right hand of thy Father shalt have thy foes made thy footstool then shall God make good the word he had spoken concerning him and his house to establish it for ever That is in accomplishing the glory of the Church under his adopted sons the Christian Emperors and Monarchs as the glory of the Jewish Church and Temple was setled under Solomon and not under David By which words for ever we are also to understand Christian kingship to be promised to last till the worlds end notwithstanding all opposition as we may finde them typified under Solomon the Kings son in the seventy second Psalm where the flourishing estate and increase of the Church is foretold to continue to the glory of Christs name by reason of these that held their Crowns of him His Name shall endure for ever his Name shall be continued as long as the Sun and men shall be blessed in him all Nations shall call him blessed That is each Christian Monarch from him anointed shall be as a Son to continue his Fathers Name for ever meaning so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure For if this Psalm had intended the setting forth of the continuance of Christs own Name as the second person in the Trinity and not in relation to his
For although the Law had been given to the whole people yet are they not to interpret it but to do according to the sentence of law which they shall teach And under the notion of the Judge that shall be in those dayes he is to be obeyed either actively or passively however tyrannical or unjust his sentence may appear because between plea and plea or where law is on both sides pleaded there the definitive sentence is to be enquired and obeyed from this supreme Judge onely that is as before said either actively by prosecuting according to their utmost devoire all his lawful commands or passively by enduring the penalty or punishment in cases plainly against the Law of God For as Gods Law in regard he is the fountaine of power and supreme Judge of all ought in the first place to be obeyed so even in that very case disobey the Magistrate they did not inasmuch as where obedience or penalty were both set before them as eligible they might chuse either of them But however active resistance or rebellion there called doing presumptuously and not hearkening is neither in lawfull or unlawfull commands that is neither on the right hand nor on the left to be tolerated but to be punished as so presumptuous an offence doth deserve with no less then death to the end that all Israel or the whole People may fear and do no more presumptuously or attempt again to rebell And least it might yet be doubted what manner of person this should be that must have such great obedience the next Verse by way of Prophesie shews the other Officer that should follow Judges that when they should come unto the Land which the Lord God gave them and should possess it and dwell therein they should both desire and have a King set over them And this being a state of Government best befitting that Peace and Plenty they were then to enjoy must needs be acknowledged given as an accomplishment and increase of their other blessings For under that notion God promiseth it to Abraham as aforesaid That Kings should come out of him and the like again he promiseth to Sarah That Kings of People should be of her the like was promised to Jacob Kings shall come out of thy Loins who again as the next Father to the Tribes gives it particularly to Judah as an high blessing to be setled on him in right of that primogeniture which his elder Brother had forfeited namely that this promised Scepter should not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till the Shiloh come In which last Promise under the notion of Lawgiver and of Scepter in the singular number we may well understand the Judge and King before mentioned All which would be well considered by those that fancy other Governments to that of Kings or think that the Israelites might at the time when they had full Possession of the Land have chosen any other Government aswell Not marking that it was as expresly foretold they should have a King as that they should possess the Land for the words run in the future When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations that are about me It is not said If thou shalt say no such conditionall but an express duty or Prophecy For the conjunction and here used And shalt possess it and dwell therein and shalt say c. makes all of them equally certain And the Peoples fault in choosing a King afterwards Gods punishment of giving him in his anger we must impute to other circumstances as being done in a hasty humor of diffidence of Gods protection who was then their King that is till then had governed in chief himself and was to have his advice and consent asked in all great and extraordinary occasions During which time of more personal and immediate undertaking their protection their suddain desire of alteration was the same reproach to him in his providence and care for their personal securities as their murmuring for choice of food was formerly in the wilderness for as then Quailes Manna c. things in themselves good and to be acknowledged great blessings were given in anger because unseasonably and distrustfully demanded so now also this promised blessing of kingship because asked upon the fear of Nahash and the power of the Ammonites was the occasion of Gods punishing them in the first person that should have it in regard they had demanded it in a way derogatory to him as if distrusting his care or power in their preservation It was unseasonable also because they had not as yet the full possession of the land and so no time as yet according to Moses appointment for asking of kingship from God And that they were not as yet in full possession of the land nor such a state of secure dwelling therein as could be called rest appears amongst other things in that they had not as yet attempted the rooting out of Amaleck which should have been done upon their first setling according to Moses words It shall be when the Lord thy God giveth thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven thou shalt not forget it And because they neither had yet so possessed the land as to do this thing therefore did God appoint that person to do it which he had given them as King by way of anticipation in answer to their hasty unseasonable petition And that this prediction of kingship was aswell mandatory as prophetick to this their time of future rest and enjoyment of the promised land and so unseasonable as yet to be put in execution will most plainly appear by the comparison of it with that prediction and appointment of setting up a Temple when they should be in the like condition for the establishment of Gods house and of his deputy in that house as the tokens of Glory and rest of the Nation being to be accomplished together as shall be more fully declared hereafter for it was plainly then foretold them Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes Which being the very same expression as was used of them when there was no King in Israel it must import that then they should be under a higher restraint then before and that they should be confined both to one place of publike worship and to one person of publike Judicature then and not till then For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you but when ye go over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you
to inherit and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about so that ye dwell in safety which they had not nor did not at their election of Saul then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall coohse to cause his name to dwell there That is more eminently to dwell there in respect of the greater glory of this one place and this one deputy so much more lively representing the unity and glory of him that thus miraculously procured their rest and safety therein It savoured of ingratitude to Samuel also who now grown old in their service they might have patiently attended to have let him honorably end his dayes in the government And besides that Gods granting it makes the having of a King lawful they that then refused or slighted the Office saying How shall this man save us are called sons of Belial that is men without yoak or rebels And we may farther conclude Gods decree for establishment of this Office in that is was before promised as a dignity and reward to Samuel himself that he should walk before Gods anointed for ever which must express the Office of a King shortly to ensue for Judges were not anointed even as it must also import that it should be an honor for him to attend him They that would urge this expression of they have not rejected thee but me they have rejected to import their direct abandoning Gods regency as God and not their desire onely of the change of the Function and Officer he had before deputed over them and so think that now Princes had not their power from God as his Ministers but were to derive it from the peoples pactions should rather methinks have grounded their opinion on the Israelites former expression at their election and submission to their first earthly governor in chief Moses For thereby a refusal of God and Paction with Moses may be rather inferred Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us least we dye Here the people are set down as expresly declining Gods immediate government and as choosing and treating with another for the exercise thereof Whereas in this place they object nothing against Gods more immediate medling with them at all And therefore this phrase of rejected me is to be construed as in relation to their disobedience and rejecting of Gods commands onely and not of his person but as by consequence In which way of interpretation there are many places of Scripture that may warrant us but none that can instance where the Jews or any of the Gentile Churches or people did either wholly or at all so abandon Gods or Christs regency as to choose or submit to any absolute or Independent Prince or governor and not rather as to Gods Deputy and Minister think themselves obliged to obedience unto him aswel in conscience as for fear of wrath and bare political respect And if any think these expressions I will set a King over me like c. and again him thou shalt set over thee c. do import that therefore their power is from the people they may observe the people to come to Samuel to make a King over them and although he delayed it yet they knowing of no such power of themselves come to him again inasmuch as Samuel said unall Israel Behold I have hearkened unto your voice in all that you said unto me and have made a King over you and verse the 13 it is said Behold the Lord hath set a King over you as truely shewing whence his power came for however as aforesaid circumstances made it evil as good things may be evilly done yet their having and desiring a King were both from God And that the Office was given to them as a blessing may be farther noted from Gods speech to Samuel To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land Benjamin and thou shalt anoint him to be Captain over my people Israel that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines for I have looked upon my people because their cry is come unto me Which last words do plainly declare the intended end and benefit of this Kingly Function and they may well prove Gods designation thereof as the means even as he had designed the end the safety and good of his people And as these words prove the constitution of the Office and that in kindeness although their hasty demand might make the person given as a punishment even so the former part of the verse Thou shalt anoint him to be Captain over my people must shew both his supreme power and from whence the Authority of this Officer was derived that is from God not from the People A farther proof that the desire of Kingship was not a fault in the Jews is that neither David nor Stephen nor any else reckoning up the faults of that Nation committed from time to time against God did account this for one Nay this particular person and his power were from God in such sort that it was no more in their power to refuse then to steal or murther and yet be innocent and therefore we must interpret that which is called the renewing of the kingdom at Gilgal with him and the Covenanting of the Israelites with David to be nothing else but to shew to the people the person whom God had chosen that they might continue in obedience to him and his stock Whereupon as this was necessary in Saul and David because the first of their Families so was it after left off in their Children who still raigned in their stead that is in their right onely according to Gods promise to David to establish the Throne upon his seed for ever And therefore I hope it was not in the peoples power as in right of their paramount Soveraignty to refuse this Family or take another if it had sure God did them great wrong to settle it thus without their just consents So that Gods not shewing them these Kings till himself had determinately anointed and appointed them that Power and Office shews he acknowledged no Negative voice of Government to reside in them but onely the duty of subjection to which end their Oaths and Promises of Alleageance were to be made before him as is signified by the offering Sacrifice at Gilgal of which more hereafter And as the fore-cited Prophecy and Direction of Moses did plainly shew Kingship to follow this first setling the Jewish Nation in safety and honor so almost all the Prophesies of their restauration do again run in the same manner But because we shall speak of some of the rest elsewhere we will here onely speak of that set forth in these eight last Chapters of Ezechiel which is undeniably pregnant and express herein There this Office of kingship is so particularly described that the usual gloss of Antimonarchical men in attributing to