altogether either unlegible or unpracticable yet withal they are not to be understood without far more study than the most of People are either able or willing to bestow upon them nor to be observ'd without a much greater subjection of Affection Humour and Fancy to true Reason and Equity than is generally in Vogue through the World If therefore it be of Humane concern that those rights should be followed and that Ignorance Violence and Wickedness should not prevail against them it is of the same concern that the generality of people should not be lest to their own guidance but be under Discipline for the regulation of their Minds and manners in the prosecution of them More yet than so the rights of Humane Nature have by their proper worth and excellency a very fair and well assured Title to be publickly declared injoyned maintained and vindicated I say vindicated and I mean among other things by chastising of Offenders against them and that not only for prevention of what may follow but also in recompence of what is past because if the Fault which may be committed calls for Punishment much more does that which hath been and because it is indeed equitably due to those amiable rights that so far as any Man acts contrary to them so far he should have no benefit by them but be treated as one who hath cast them off that he who has endeavour'd to make them void to others should have them made so by others to him but this by a Political procedure in regard it is a Political offence To this purpose as every man hath rights and much more Societies of Men which have a good claim to be adjusted preserv'd and reveng'd so some men have a peculiar right which requires that they should be obey'd in adjusting preserving and revenging of them Such are all they who have a right of Soveraign Authority and such a right Men may have by Nature by Purchase by Conquest by Donation by Lot by Divine Appointment and it may be by Election Obligation Merit and other ways and that there should be some who have such a right God has been engaged to provide by the perfect reasonableness of the thing by his goodness to Man and by his justice to himself It was God who framed Man in such a Constitution that he was nobly and beautifully qualified for Society was by a powerful inclination carried to it had a plentiful harvest of Emoluments offer'd him by it and could not well be without it so that in his Integrity in Paradice in his Lordship over all the Creatures of Earth Air and Sea there was wanting a meet-help to him and it was God who therefore also built Woman to keep Man Company her self and to be also a means together with him to encrease and propagate Humane Society But Society cannot stand in any tolerable fashion without Government and to oblige a Man to the one without the other is no better than to Condemn him to the Company of Wolves Bears Lions of incurable disorder and mischief It was God therefore farther God who is Love and Wisdom it self who by the same primaeve Method that he took order for Society among Men did likewise for Government among them creating only one Man and appointing all Mankind to come out of him Government then of Man over Man appears to be an Ordinance of God as being involv'd in that measure of Humane Essence which he first set on foot by Creation and set up again by Redemption as a principal part of it and as being morally and rationally necessary for the carrying on of the whole but this as with great respect to Humane Interests so with unspeakably greater to the Divine for all that Men have of good or worthy in their being more God's than their own because they themselves are so and being both the Product and delight of his Goodness and Wisdom and all their rights being Derivatives and Institutions of that Eternal reason and equity which lives in his Essence they ought as such to be most diligently cherish't and asserted which it is apparent cannot be done without Government Farther Man is bound to God in incomputable and unestimable scores but rarely would or indeed could one farthing thereof be acknowledged much less paid except there were some whose business it is to conduct the Affair Now the rights and interests of God are of inimaginably more value than the Liberties Estates and Lifes of Men than all the Universe besides and all others are to them no more than the dust of the ballance to unexaminable weight Upon such and many other Considerations well might Aristotle say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 1. Polit. To govern and to be governed are of the number both of necessary things and of those also that are profitable Julius Caesar as Dion Cassius gives us his words Dion Cass l. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature hath instituted among men the necessary and beneficial things of governing and being governed and it is impossible without these that any thing whatever should endure for any time whatever And Tully Tull. l. 3. De Legibus Nihil porro tam aptum est ad jus conditionemque naturae quod cùm dico legem à me dici nihil aliud intelligi volo quam imperium sine quo nec domus ulla nec civitas nec gens nec hominum universum genus stare nec rerum Natura omnis nec ipse mundus potest With these three fam'd Secretaries of Humane Wisdom have all though of very common observation found reason to agree The Question is not whether there should be any Government but what Government there should be a Question which hath been most fiercely debated with Tongue Pen and Sword To come to our Text the People of Israel and all their Elders were for Monarchy They askt a King Samuel on the other side at least seems to have been against it Now therefore says he stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes Is it not wheat-harvest to day I will call upon the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a King And he made good his word as we find in the Sequel of the Chapter That we now may perceive and see wherein this great wickedness lay of which Samuel arraigned them in our Text and they confest themselves guilty in the 19 v. of the Chapter Let us take a view first of the Circumstances which their Petition if I may call it so had retaining to it Secondly of the thing it self which they Petition'd for 1. First of the Circumstances for Petitions though for things in their own Nature good may be so circumstantiated as highly to deserve abhorrence And if I mistake not there were several things which conspired to render this so 1.
an animated Law hath the form of God among Men. Ecphantas one of the same Sect hath in the same Author these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. Ser. 46. It belongs also to a King to rule himself and to be ruled by none Otanes a Persian Noble in Herodotus speaking of Monarchy or Kingly Government says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 3. Which hath a right of doing whatever it will without controul Caius Memmius Salust in bello Jugurthino a Tribune of the People says in Salust Impunè quaelibet facere id est regem esse To do what a man will with Impunity that is to be a King Cleopatra urging her Marcus Antonius to call Herod to an account Josep Anriq l. 15. he replyed That it was not fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To demand of a King an account of what was done in his Government for so he would not be a King The Daughters of Danaus in Aeschylus upon the common notion of Regal Authority tell the Argive King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschyl in Suppl Thou art the City thou the People art Being a Governour not to be judg'd Kingly Authority is in the Antigona of Sophocles called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect Monarchy And in the same Tragedy Creon saying to Aemon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is not the City his esteem'd that Reigns He rejoins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fairly I shall add no more of this though I could spend many hours upon it save that of Horace Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis Hor. li. Carn 3. Od. 1. But this is Heathen Doctrine Let us try how agreeable it is to the Theology of Scripture And here Wee need look no farther than to what Samuel says upon the Business of the Text God having commanded Samuel to protest solemnly to the People of Israel 1 Sam. 8.9 and declare to them the manner as we translate it of the King that should Reign over them The Judge says to them 1 Sam 8.11 This will be the manner of the King that shall Reign over you He will take your Sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and some shall run before his Chariots And he will appoint him Captains over Thousands and Captains over Fifties and to ear his Ground and to reap his Harvest and to make his Instruments of War and Instruments of Chariots And he will take your Daughters to be Confectionaries and to be Cookes and to be Bakers And he will take your Fields and your Vineyards and your Olive yards the best of them and give them to his Servants And he will take the Tenth of your Seed and of your Vineyards and give to his Officers and to his Servants And he will take your Men-Servants and your Maid-Servants and your goodliest young Men and your Asses and put them to his Work He will take the Tenth of your Sheep and ye shall be his Servants This I look upon as a Law For 1. The word Mishphat which we translate Manner as the Learned know properly signifies Right Judgment Statute and the like 2. It is in this Sense rendred here by all the Ancient Translations Arabick Syriack Vulgar Latine that of the Septuagint and the Chaldee Paraphrase 3. These Words of Samuel were either a Prediction from God only of what the King would do or a Law of what he might do If only a Prediction and not a Law then all the Kings were Tyrants and Oppressors David Solomon Asa Jehosaphat Jehoash Amaziah Vzziah Hezekiah Josiah but of the good and Pious Reign of all these the Holy Ghost gives very fair Elogies 4. These things appear to be not spoken by way of Prediction only to deter the Israelites from persisting in their Desire of a King because such frightful and horrid things might have been said upon that Subject in comparison with which these here spoken of may well seem soft pleasant and desireable 5. The Manner in which God commanded Samuel to declare these things to them speak it a Law protesting thou shalt protest to them and shew them the Mishphat of the King says God who calls his Law his Testimony 6. The Close of it is drawn in the terms of a Command And ye shall be his Servants 7. Samuel after he had declared this to them added And ye shall cry out in that day because of your King and the Lord will not hear you in that day They would have had a Remedy in their Hands when dis-eased by their King and sick of him if this had not been a Law 8. 1 Sam. 10.25 Samuel wrote it in a Book and laid it up before the Lord that is about the Arke the place of which was in the Holy of Holyes and in which were laid up the Pot of Manna the Rod of Aaron and the two Tables So I conclude because when the Pot of Manna was commanded to be laid up before the Lord Aaron laid it up before the Testimony Exod. 16 33. Now surely had it been only a Prediction of the Manner of the Kingdom and not a Divine Law it would not have been laid up with so much Tenderness Respect and Valuation more by far than all the rest of the Law of God except the two Tables all that being only put into the Hands of the Priests and Elders If any shall make any question Whether this Mishphat in the Tenth Chapter was the same with that in the Eighth because there it is called Of the King here Of the Kingdom I say First the Ancient Jews and other believed it to be the same It is render'd in both places alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Right of the King by the Seventy by words which signifie the Statute of the King in the Chaldee Paraphrase the Right of the King in the Syriack the Rights of the King in the Arabick Version Secondly had this been a new Law of God different from what had been spoken of before Samuel would have declared here as he did there that he had received new Instructions from God about it Thirdly had it been a new Law it would have been recited by Samuel and recorded by him as that was With Relation to this Law though not as prescribed to Israel only I cannot but think it is that Solomon says Ecles 8.2 I counsel or charge thee to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God And that First Because that Law was delivered with a most solemn Protestation from God which hath much of the Nature of an Oath Secondly Because it was laid up with the Tables of the Covenant and about the Ark of the Covenant and the Law of God hath the Name of the Covenant and the Covenant which God in giving his Law made with the People of Israel is called the Oath that he made with them Thirdly
and she was made to be a Meet Help to him so that he must have it in his Power to make her so Besides he is of a more Elevated and Substantial Worth and she is the weaker Vessel This Reason Tully tells us was observ'd of Old Cic. in Orat. Pro L. Muraena Mulieres omnes propter infirmitatem Concilii majores in tutorem potestate esse voluerunt The Son owes Obedience to the Father because he owes his Being to him and commonly many of the Advantages of it by his Education and because he is as much a part of him as is his best Blood as is any Member of his Body the Son being the Father's Transcript and having his Blood and Nature in him particularly the Eldest Son having his Blood and Nature first in him being the Beginning and Chief of his Strength being next to him and entring first into the Possession of his Power all the other Children are by Primitive Institution after the Father's Death subject to the Eldest Brother and consequently all of the same Blood to the Eldest of the Eldest Line of it This Title of Primogeniture to rule was anciently acknowledged by the Followers of Nature Dicaearchus particularly and Aristotle speak of the Dominion of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and say it was of Old in use in the Cities of Greece But it is declared by God himself in several places of Scripture I shall instance only in one touching the first First-born When God saw him I mean Cain discontented because he approved of Abel's Sacrifice and not of his Vnto thee shall be his Desire and thou shalt rule over him said God to him in the same Language that he used to Eve concerning Adam's Dominion over her as if he should have told him that notwithstanding the Goodness of his Brother's and the Faultiness of his own Religion he would not take from him the Right of Dominion which he had over him by Primogeniture By the Rule of what I have said Adam was Universal Monarch of the Earth and Cain should have been so after him if he survived but that he forfeited his Right of being so together with his Life by the Murder of his Brother so it fell to Seth and his Family upon which Account I put it that Cainan as the Arabian Writers say was King of all the Earth and that Abydenus and Berosus reckon Ten Kings before the Flood as there were Ten Generations from Adam to Noah However Noah was by the Flood put almost into the same Condition with Adam therefore he is by an East-Indian Sect of Philosophers called The Second Adam But it was not long before if several of the Fathers were not misinform'd he parted the Earth by Lot between his three Sons by which means the Inequality which was among all Mankind by Nature as to Government was in part broken However it is certain that a Parity of Rule among many more Persons was brought in by the Dispersion of Noah's Children at Babel of which God was the Author of that extraordinary Oeconomy But it was a Parity not of all People of the same Society but of several distinct Monarchs only When God scattered the Race of Men by the Confusion of Tongues it was not done with so much Confusion but that he took Order there should be in every seperate Parcel of them one who had a Right of Sovereignty over the rest We find in the Tenth Chapter of Genesis that God scattered them all by Families and that of every Family there was a Father or Head and consequently one that was King of it and a Founder of a Kingdom therein and that Hereditary This I could confirm of most of the Families and their Heads there mentioned by Humane Records and that as well of those that planted themselves in Northern Climates as of those that sate down in the Eastern and Southern but it is not here convenient God having thus took order that Monarchy should be according to the Law of Nature the Government of every several distinct Society of Men which he constituted at Babel and that Successively it continued in Vogue among all Nations for at least a Thousand Years after that Aristotle says That Anciently Arist l. 1. Polit. Salust in Bello Catilin Cicero de Leg. lib. 3. Just l. 1. the Cities and Nations were under the Authority of Kings The same is testified by Salust Cicero Justin out of Trogus Pompeius and others particularly of Greece where there at length sprang up so many Free Commonwealths or Aristocratical and Democratical States Dyonissius Halicarnasseus assures us Dionys Hal. l. 5. that it was Originally Governed all by Kings To come Home Tacitus hath these Words of the Britains Olim regibus parebant nunc per Principes factionibus studiis trahuntur Indeed in all Records whether of good or doubtful Credit we find no People in our Island before we find a King So little does it appear that the British Kings derived their Scepters from the Hands of the People Secondly Monarchy only was the Government that God appointed to his People Israel He from their first coming out of Egypt took the Government of them upon himself and they came under a Theocracy God therefore complains upon the Occasion in our Text That they had rejected him that he should not Reign over them and Samuel that they said they would have a King when the Lord their God was their King This his Regency over them he exercised by extraordinary Methods and immediate Dispensations and he made Moses Joshuah and the Judges his Vice-Roys who though none of them had the Name of King except Moses of whom it 's said he was King in Jesurun Deut. 33.5 when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gather'd together they all exercised a Regal Authority But God did not intend that they should have no other Mode of Government he designed them in due Season such Kings as other Nations had Besides that by the Spirit of God Jacob said The Scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come And Balaam his King speaking of Israel shall be higher than Agag and his Kingdom shall be exalted and the Mother of Samuel Deut. 17. He shall give Strength unto his King and exalt the Horn of his Annointed Moses said from God 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 thou shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee c. The latter part of which words may more Grammatically and properly be render'd thus Setting thou shalt set over thee a King whom the Lord thy God shall chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee Or thus Thou shalt
came the Hetruscan Word Aesar which signifies the Supreme Governor of the World Suet. in Julii Caesar vit God Hesych and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods and possibly the Greek Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a King What less can we think when we find the want of a King spoken of by God as a grievous Calamity and inflicted for the punishment of a People's Wickedness When we read the Prophet Jeremiah complaining Lam. 4.20 The Breath of our Nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their Nets of whom we said under his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen The Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 19.10 11 12 13 14. Thy Mother is like a Vine she had Rods for the Scepters of them that bear Rule but she was plucked up in fury she was cast down to the ground and the East Wind dried up her Fruit her strong Rods were broken and withered the fire consumed them and now she is planted in the Wilderness in a dry and thirsty Ground and fire is gone out of a Rod of her Branches which hath devoured her Fruit so that she hath no strong Rod to be made a Scepter to Rule And the Prophet Hosea Hos 10.3 Now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then shall a King do unto us That is far from being inconsiderable which Dion Cassius says Dion Cassius Hist Rom. l. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Democracy hath indeed a specious Name and seems by equal Laws to give an equal portion to all but it is argued by its Effects not at all to agree with its Appellation on the other side Monarchy is harsh to the Ear but most beneficial to the State for it is easier to find one man good than many and if some think it hard to find that one good man they must of necessity think it impossible to find those many If then the one that governs is bad he is yet rather to be chosen than a great many like him Of this the Atcheivements of Greeks and Barbarians and of the Romans also are Testimonies they being always by far better and greater and more under Kings than under Populacy and Grievances falling out less in Monarchies than in Popular Governments And if any Commonwealth hath flourish'd under a Popular Administration it hath lasted but for a short time while they had not arrived at Greatness and Strength so that there sprang no Injuriousness from Success nor Envy from Ambition Abimelech though I do not think he spake by immediate Inspiration from Heaven yet he did from the Oracle of Reason and knew the Answer was obvious to a knowing Man when he put that Question to the Shechamites Whether is it better for you Judges 9.2 either that threescore and ten Persons Reign over you or that one Reign over you Be the State of a Nation never so like Heaven several Suns at the same time therein will quickly turn it into a kind of Hell by setting all on Fire I should say something by way of Application and I have too large a Field for it but neither the Time nor the Times allow me Liberty to employ my self therein I must refer that as Foelix did the hearing S. Paul to a more convenient Season I shall at present only Conclude from what hath been said That Monarchy among men is one of the fairest Daughters of that of Heaven and that they who have endeavor'd to deflower her have thereby confess'd her Beauty and heartily pray that we may never think them good Christians whether Protestants or Papists who being Subjects insolently lay Hands on the Scepter and attempt to Sway it by which means both that and the State must needs suffer most untoward Convulsions whose Tongues are Blasphemously and their Fingers Sacrilegiously busie with both Monarchy and Monarchs who would establish Iniquity against Kings by a Law And that whereas the People of Israel were guilty of a great Wickedness in asking a King in that manner that they did we may never be of a greater in asking no King or such an one as imports little more but that God would always preserve his Government both in State and Church so that no Man may be so horribly wicked as to arrogate to himself the Prerogative of doing what God is said to have done Lam. 2.6 despising in the Indignaation of his Anger the King and the Priest FINIS