of Saul and so immediately by proclaiming him with shouts and acclamations and then having had proof of his valour against the Amorites they meet at Gilgal and proclaim him King once again to shew that naturally the validity of the Kingship depended wholly upon the peoples consent and confirmation And so you see the first and most eminent evidence of the institution of Political Government in Scripture doth notoriously demonstrate that its original is in or from the people and therefore I shall wave any further instances in cases of the like nature out of Scripture which are not a few Onely let it be remembred that Peter in his first Epistle calls all Government the Ordinance of man in the Original the creation of man a Creature of a mans making to shew that in all its forms it depends onely upon the will pleasure of the people We might insist farther to evince the Truth of this by strength of Reason but let this serve to assert the right of the thing and as for the rest every man will easily believe it very consonant to reason if he reflect upon the matter of fact and consider that it hath been the unanimous practice of all the Nations of the World to assert their own Rights of Election and Consent as often as they had opportunity in the various turns of institution and alteration of Government In Italy of old they had most Free-States and few Princes now all Princes and no Free-States Naples after many Revolutions is under Spain Rome under a Pope and under him one Senator in stead of those many that were wont to be Venice and Genoa have Senators and Dukes but the Dukes are of small power Florence Ferrara Mantua Parma and Savoy have no Senators but Dukes only and they absolute Burgundy Lorain Gascoin and Britany had once Kings then Dukes but now are incorporated into France so all the Principalities of Germany that now are were once imbodied in one entire Regiment Castile Aragon Portugal Barcelona were once distinct Kingdoms but now united all to Spain save Portugal which fell off the other day France was first one Kingdom under Pharamond afterwards parted into four Kingdoms and at last become one again England consisted of Free-States till the Romans yoked it afterwards it was divided into seven Kingdoms and in the end it became one again Thus you see how the world is subject to shiftings of Government and though it be most true that the power of the Sword hath been most prevalent in many of these changes yet some of them have been chiefly managed as they ought by the peoples Consent and even in those where the Sword hath made way the peoples consent hath ever been drawn and taken in afterwards for corroboration of Title it having been the custom of all Usurpers to make their investitures appear as just as they could by getting the Communities Consent ex post sacto and entring into some compact with them for the better establishing themselves with a shew of legality which act of all Tyrants and Usurpers is a manifest though tacite confession of theirs That de jure the original of all Power and Government is and ought to be in the people Errours of Government And Rules of Policie HAving proved that the Originall of all just Power and Government is in the People and that the Government of the People in a due and orderly succession of their supream Assemblies is much more excellent than any other Form I suppose it falls in of course in the next place to note and observe those common Errors in Policie wherein most Countties of the World especially that part of it called Christendome have been long intangled that when the mystery of Tyrannie is undress't and stript of all its gaudy Robes and gay Appearances it may be hiss't out of the Civill part of Mankind into the company of the more barbarous and brutish Nations The first Errour that we shall observe in antient Christian Policie and which hath indeed been a main foundation of Tyranny is that corrupt Diâ—ision of a State into Ecclesiastical and Civil A fault whereof our latest Refiners of Political Discourse are as guilty in their Writings as any others But that there is the least footstep in the Scripture for Christians to follow such a Division of 〈◊〉 oâ— to allow of a National way â—â— Châ—â—â—â—ing which is the Root of â—â—at Dâ—â—â—sion could never yet be proved by any and the contrary is very clear from the drift and scope of the Gospel We read indeed of the Common-wealth of Israel being thus divided and that it was done according to Rules and Constitutions of Gods own appointment it being Gods way then when he was pleased to make choice of that peopâ—e onely out of all the World to be his own peculiar and so fixed his Church there in a Nationall Form Then it was consined and restrained to that particular Nation excluding all others But if any man will argue from hence that it is lawfull for any Nation now under the Gospel to follow this pattern then it behoves him 1. to prove that God intended the Jewish Government as a pattern for us to follow under the Gospel And if any man will pretend to this then in the second place it will concern him to prove that we are to follow it in every particular or onely in some particulars That we are to follow it in every one no sober man did ever yet affirm And if they will have us to follow it in some particulars relinquishing the â—est then it concerns him to produce some Rule or Command out of Scripture plainly pointing out what parts of it we are to imbrace and what not or else he will never be able to make it appear that the Form of the Commonwealth of Israel was ever intended either in the whole or in part as a Pattern for Christians to follow under the Gospel But never was any such Rule alleadged yet out of Scripture by those that pretend to a Nationall Church And therefore if we seriously reflect upon the Design of God in sending Christ into the World we shall find it was to set an end to that Pompous Administration of the Jewish Form that as his Church and People were formerly confined within the Narrow Pale of a particular Nation so now the Pale should be broken down and all Nations taken into the Church Not all Nations in a lump nor any whole Nations or National Bodies to be formed into Churches for his Church or People now under the Gospel are not to be a Body Political but Spiritual and Mystical Not a promiscuous confusion of persons taken in at adventure but an orderly collection a picking and chusing of such as are called and sanctified and not a company of men forced in by Commands and Constitutions of Worldly Powers and Prudence but of such as are brought in by the Power and Efficacy of Christs Word and Spirit for he himself
Rome though they were declared and called a Free-state et it was a long time ere they could be free indeed in regard Brutus cheated them with a meer shadow and pretence of liberty he had indeed an Ambition high enough and opportunity fairenough to have seized the Crown into his own hands but there were many considerations that deterr'd him from it for he well perceived how odious the name of King was grown Besides had he sought to Inthrone himself men would have judged it was not love to his Country made him take up Arms but desire of Dominion nor could he forget that serene privacy is to be preferr'd before Hazardous Royalty For what hope could he have to keep the Seat long who by his own example had taught the people both the Theory and practice of opposing Tyranny It was necessary therefore that he should think of some other course more plausible whereby to worke his own ends and yet preserve the love of the people who not having been used to liberty did very little understand it and therefore were the more easily gul'd out of the substance and made content with the shadow For the carrying on this Design all the projecting Grandees joyned pates together wherein as one observes Regnum quidem nomen sed non Regia potestas Româ fuit expulsa Though the Name of King were exploded with alacrity yet the Kingly power was retained with all Art and subtilty and shared under another notion among themselves who were the great ones of the City For all Authority was confin'd within the walls of a standing Senate out of which two Consuls were chosen yeerly so by turns they dub'd one another with a new kinde of Regality the people being no gainers at all by this alteration of Government save onely that like Asses they were sadled with new Paniers of Slavery But what followed The Senate having got all power into their own hands in a short time degenerated from their first Virtue and Institution to the practice of Avarice Riot and Luxury whereby the love of their Country was changed into a Study of Ambition and Faction so that they fell into divisions among themselves as well as oppressions over the people by which divisions some leading Grandees more potent than their Fellows took occasion to wipe their Noses and to assume the Power into their own hands to the number of ten persons This Form of Government was known by the Name of the Decemvirate wherein these new Usurpers joyning Forces together made themselves rich with the spoiles of the people not caring by what unlawful means they purchased either Profit or Pleasure till that growing every day more insupportable they were in the end by force cashiered of their Tyranny But what then The people being flesh'd with this Victory and calling to minde how gallantly their Ancestors had in like manner banished Kings began at last to know their own strength and stomack'd it exceedingly that themselves on whose shoulders the frame of State was supported and for whose sakes all States are founded should be so much vassalized at the will of others that they who were Lords abroad should be Slaves at home so that they resolved to be ridden no longer under fair shews of Liberty They raised a Tumult under the conduct of their Tribune Canuâ—eius nor could they by any perswasion be induced to lay down Arms till they were put in possession of their Rights and Priviledges They were made capable of Offices of the Government even to the Dictatorship had Officers of their own called Tribunes who were held sacred and inviolable as Protectors of the Commons and retained a power of meeting and acting with all Freedom in their great Assemblies Now and never till now could they be called a Free State and Commonwealth though long before declared so for the way being open to all without exception vertue learning and good Parts made as speedy a Ladder to climbe unto Honours as Nobility of Birth and a Good Man as much respected as a Great which was a rare felicity of the Times not to be expected again but upon the dawning of another golden Age. The main Observation then arising out of this Discourse is this That not onely the Name of King but the Thing King whether in the hands of one or of many was pluck'd up root and branch before ever the Romans could attain to a full Establishment in their Rights and Freedoms Now when Rome was thus declared A Free State the next work was to establish their Freedom in some sure certain way in order to this the first business they pitch'd upon was not onely to ingage the people by an Oath against the return of Tarquin's Family to the Kingdom but also against the admission of any such Officer as a King for ever because those brave men who glorified themselves in laying the foundation of a Commonwealth well knew that in a short Revolution others of a less publick Spirit would arise in their places and gape again after a Kingdom And therefore it was the special care of those worthy Patriots to imprint such Principles in mens mindes as might actuate them with an irreconcilable enmity to the former Power insomuch that the very Name of King became odious to the Roman People yea and they were so zealous herein that in process of time when Caesar took occasion by Civil Discords to assume the Soveraignty into his single Hands he durst not entertain it under the fatal Name of King but clothed himself with the more plausible stile of Emperor which nevertheless could not secure him from the fatal stab that was given him by Brutus in revenge on the behalf of the people Our Neighbours of Holland traced this example at the heels when upon recovery of their Freedom from Spain they binde themselves by * Oaths in those dayes were not like an old Almanack an Oath to abjure the Government not onely of King Philip but of all Kings for ever Kings being cashiered out of Rome then the Right of Liberty together with the Government was retained within the hands and bounds of the Patrician or Senatorian Order of Nobility the people not being admitted into any share till partly by Mutinies and partly by Importunities they compell'd the Senate to grant them an Interest in Offices of State and in the Legislative Power which were circumscribed before within the bounds of the Senate Hence arose those Officers called Tribunes and those Conventions called Assemblies of the People which were as Bridles to restrain the Power and Ambition of the Senate or Nobility Before the erection of those whilst all was in the hands of the Senate the Nation was accounted Free because not subjected to the will of any single person But afterwards they were Free indeed when no Laws could be imposed upon them without a consent first had in the Peoples Assemblies so that the Government in the end came to be setled in an equal
Benefit can be obtained by the ordinary Laws which if they should be dispensed by uncontrolable unaccountable Persons in Power shall never be interpreted but in their own sense nor executed but after their own Wills and Pleasure Now this is most certain That as in the Government of the People the successive Revolution of Authority by their consent hath ever been the onely Bank against Inundations of Arbitrary Power and Tyranny so on the other side it is as sure That all standing Powers have and ever do assume unto themselves an Arbitrary Exercise of their own dictates at pleasure and make it their onely Interest to settle themselves in an unaccountable state of Dominion so that though they commit all the injustice in the World their custome hath been still to perswade men partly by strong pretence of Argument and partly by force that they may do what they list and that they are not bound to give an account of their Actions to any but to God himself This Doctrine of Tyranny hath taken the deeper Root in mens mindes because the greatest part was ever inclined to adore the Golden Idol of Tyranny in every Form by which means the rabble of mankinde being prejudicated in this particular and having plac'd their corrupt humour or interest in base fawning and the favour of present Great Ones Therefore if any resolute Spirit happen to broach and maintain true Principles of Freedom or do at any time arise to so much courage as to perform a noble Act of Justice in calling Tyrants to an account presently he draws all the enmity and fury of the World about him But in Common-wealths it is and ought to be otherwise for in the Monuments of the Grecian and Romane Freedom we finde those Nations were wont to heap all the Honours they could invent by publick Rewards Consecration of Statues and Crowns of Laurel upon such worthy Patriots and as if on earth all were too little they inroll'd them in heaven among the Deities And all this they did out of a Noble sense of Commonweal-interest knowing that the life of Liberty consists in a strict hand and zeal against Tyrants and Tyranny and by keeping persons in power from all the occasions of it which cannot be better done than according to the custom of all States that are really free by leaving them liable to account which happiness was never seen yet under the sun by any Law or Custom established save onely in those States where all men are brought to taste of Subjection as well as Rule and the Government setled by a due succession of Authority by consent of the People In Switzerland the people are free indeed because all Officers and Governours in the Cantons are questionable by the People in their successive Assemblies The Inference from the fore-going particulars is easie That since Freedom is to be preserved no other way in a Commonwealth but by keeping Officers and Governours in an accountable state and since it appears no standing Powers can never be called to an account without much difficulty or involving a Nation in Blood or Misery And since a revolution of Government in the Peoples hands hath ever been the onely means to make Governours accountable and prevent the inconveniences of Tyranny Distraction and Misery therefore for this and those other reasons fore-going we may conclude That a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is far more excellent every way than any other Form whatsoever ALL OBJECTIONS Against the Government of the People ANSWERED COnsidering That in times past the People of this Nation were bred up and instructed in the brutish Principles of Monarchy by which means they have been the more averse from entertaining Notions of a more noble Form and remembring that not long since we were put into a better course upon the declared Interest of a Free-State or Commonwealth I conceived nothing could more highly tend to the propagation of that good Interest and the Honour of its Founders than to manifest the Inconveniences and ill Consequences of the other Forms and so to root up their Principles that the good People who but the other day were invested in the possession of a more excellent way may in order to their re-establishment understand what Commonwealth-Principles are and thereby become the more resolute to defend them against the common Enemy learn to be true Commonwealths men and zealous against Monarchick-Interest in all its appearances and incroachments whatsoever To this end we have set down our Position That a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is the most excellent Form of Government which I humbly conceive hath been sufficiently proved both by Reason and Example but because many pretences of Objection are in being and such as by many are taken for granted therefore it falls in of course that we may refute them which being done with the same evidence of Reason and Example I doubt not but it will stop all the Mouths not onely of Ignorance but even of Malice and Flattery which have presumed to prophane that pure way of a Free-State or Government by the People That Objection of Royalists and others which we shall first take notice of is this That the erecting of such a Government would be to set on Levelling anâ— Confusion For answer If we take Levelling in the common usage and application of the term in these days it is of an odions signification as if it levell'd all men in point of Estates made all things common to all destroyed propriety introduced a community of enjoyments among men which is a Scandal fastned by the cunning of the common Enemy upon this kinde of Government which they hate above all others because were the People once put in possession of their Liberty and made sensible of the great Benefits they may reap by its injoyment the hopes of all the Royal Stickler would be utterly extinct in regard it would be the likeliest means to prevent a return of the Interest of Monarchy for no Person or Parties seeking or setting up a private Interest of their own distinct from the Publick it will stop the Mouths of all Gain-sayers But the Truth is This way of Free-State or Government by the People in their successive Assemblies is so far from introducing a community that it is the onely preservative of Propriety in every particular the Reasons whereof are plain for as on the one side it is not in Reason to be imagined that so choice a Body as the Representative of a Nation should agree to destroy one another in their several Rights and Interests on the other side all Determinations being carried in this Form by common Consent every Man 's particular Interest must needs be fairly provided for against the Arbitrary disposition of others therefore whatever is contrary to this is levelling indeed because it placeth every Man's
Right under the Will of another and is no less than Tyranny which seating it self in an unlimited uncontrollable Prerogative over others without their Consent becomes the very bane of propriety and however disquieted or in what Form soever it appears is indeed the very Interest of Monarchy Now that a Free-State or successive Government of the People c. is the onely preservative of Propriety appears by Instances all the World over yet we shall cite but a few Under Monarchs we shall finde ever That the Subjects had nothing that they could call their own neither Lives nor Fortunes nor Wives nor any thing else that the Monarch pleased to command because the poor people knew no remedy against the levelling Will of an unbounded Soveraignity as may be seen in the Records of all Nations that have stoop'd under that wretched Form whereof we have also very sad Examples in France and other Kingdoms at this very day where the People have nothing of Propriety but all depends upon the Royal Pleasure as it did of late â—ere in England Moreover it is very observable That in Kingdoms where the People have enjoyed any thing of Liberty and Propriety they have been such Kingdoms onely where the frame of Government hath been so well tempered as that the best share of it hath been retained in the Peoples Hands and by how much the greater influence the People have had therein so much the more sure and certain they have been in the enjoyment of their Propriety To pass by many other Instances consider how firm the Aragonians were in their Liberties and Properties so long as they held their hold over their Kings in their supreme Assemblies and no sooner had Philip the second deprived them of their share in the Government but themselves and their properties became a prey and have been ever since to the Will and Pleasure of their Kings The like also may be said of Erance where as long as the Peoples Interest bore sway in their supreme Assemblies they could call their Lives and Fortunes their own and no longer for all that have succeeded since Lewis the eleventh followed his levelling pattern so far that in short time they destroyed the Peoples Property and became the greatest Levellers in Christendom We were almost at the same pass here in England for as long as the Peoples Interest was preserved by frequent and successive Parliaments so long we were in some measure secure of our Properties but as Kings began to worm the People out of their share in Government by discontinuing of Parliaments So they carried on their levelling design to the destroying of our Properties and had by this means brought it so high that the Oracles of the Law and Gospel spake it out with a good levelling Grace That all was the King's and that we had nothing we might call our own Thus you see how much Levelling and little of Propriety the people hâ—â—e had certain under Monarchs and if any at all by what means and upon what terms they have had it Nor hath it been thus onely under Kings but we finde the People have ever had as little of Property secure under all other Forms of standing Powers which have produced as errant Levellers in this particular as any of the Monarchies In the Free-State of Athens as long as the People kept free indeed in an enjoyment of their successive Assemblies so long they were secure in their Properties and no longer For to say nothing of their Kings whose History is very obscure we finde after they were laid side they erected another Form of standing Power in a single Person called a Governour for Life who was also accountable for misdemeanours but yet a Tryal being made of nine of them the People saw so little security by them that they pitch'd upon another standing Form of Decimal Government and being oppress'd by them too they were cashier'd The like miseries they tasted under the standing power of Thirty which were a sort of Levellers more rank than all the rest who put to death banishâ—d pill'd and poll'd whom they pleased without Cause or Exception so that the poor people having been tormented under all the Forms of standing Power were in the end forced as their last remedy to take Sanctuary under the Form of a Free State in their successive Assemblies And though it may be objected That afterwards they fell into many divisions and miseries even in that Form yet whoever observes the Story shall finde it was not the fault of the Government but of themselves in swerving from the Rules of a Free-State by permitting the continuance of Power in particular hands who having an opportunity thereby to create Parties of their own among the People did for their own ends inveigle ingage and intangle them in popular Tumults and Divisions This was the true Reason of their Miscarriages And if ever any Government of the People did miscarry it was upon that account Thus also the Lacedemonians after they had for some yeers tryed the Government of one King then of two Kings at once of two distinct Families afterwards came in the Ephori as Supervisers of their Kings after I say they had tryed themselves through all the Forms of a standing Power and found them all to be Levellers of the Peoples Interest and Property then necessity taught them to seek shelter in a Free-State under which they lived happily till by a forementioned Error of the Athenians they were drawn into Parties by powerful Persons and so made the Instruments of Division among themselves for the bringing of new Levellers into play such as were Manchanidas and Nabis who succeeded each other in a Tyranny In old Rome after the standing Form of Kings was extinct and a new one established the people found as little of safety and property as ever for the standing Senate and the Decemviri proved as great Levellers as Kings so that they were forced to settle the Government of the People by a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies Then they began again to recover their propertie in having somewhat they might call their own and they happily enjoyed it till as by the same Error of the Lacedemonians and Athenians swerving from the Rules of a Free-State lengthning of power in particular hands they were drawn and divided into Parties to serve the lusts of such powerful men as by craft became their Leaders so that by this means through their own default they were deprived of their Liberty long before the dayes of Imperial Tytanny Thus Cinna Sylla Marins and the rest of that succeeding Gang down to Caesar used the Peoples favour to obtain a continuation of power in their own hands and then having sadled the people with a new standing Form of their own they immediately rooted up the Peoples Liberty and Property by Arbitrary Sentences of death Proscriptions Fines and Confiscations which strain of levelling more intolerable than the former was maintained by the same
that they have alwayes been excessive in their Rewards and Honours to such men as deserved any way of the Publike whilst they conformed themselves to Rules and kept in a posture suiting to Liberty Witness their Consecration of Statues Incense Sacrifices and Crowns of Laurel inrolling such men in the number of their Deities Therefore the crime of Ingratitude cannot in any peculiar manner be fastned upon the People but if we consult the Stories of all standing Powers we may produce innumerable testimonies of their Ingratitude toward such as have done them the greatest service ill recompence being a Mystery of State practised by all Kings and Grandees who as Tacitus tells us ever count themselves disobliged by the bravest actions of their subjects Upon this account Alexander hated Antipater and Parmenio and put the later to death Thus the Emperour Vespasian cashiered and ruined the meritorious Antonies Thus also was Alphonsus Atbuquerque served by his Master the King of Portugal and Consalvus the Great by Ferdinand of Aragon as was also that Stanley of the House of Derby who set the Crown upon King Hâ—nry the seventh's head Thus Sylla the Romane Grandee destroyed his choicest Instruments that help'd him into the Saddle as Augustus served his friend Cicero and exposed him to the malice and murther of Anthonie Innumerable are the Examples of this kinde which evidence that such unworthy dealings are the effect of all standing Powers and therefore more properly to be objected against them than against the Government of the People Thus having answered all or the main Objections brought by the adversaries of a Free-State before we proceed to the Errours of Government and Rules of Policie it will not be amiss but very convenient to say something of that which indeed is the very Foundation of all the rest to wit That the Original of all Just Power and Government is in the PEOPLE The Original of all Just Power is in the People THose Men that deny this Position are fain to run up as high as Noah and Adam to gain a pretence for their Opinion alledging That the primitive or first Governments of the World were not instituted by the consent and election of those that were governed but by an absolute Authority invested in the persons governing Thus thâ—â— say our first Parent ruled by a 〈◊〉 Power and Authority in himself onely as did also the Patriarchs before and after the Flood too for some time becoming Princes by vertue of a paternal right over all the Families of their own Generation and Extraction so that the Fathers by reason of their extraordinary long Lives and the multiplicity of Wives happened to be Lords of Kingdoms or Principalities of their own begetting And so some deriving the Pedigree or Government of this Paternal Right of Soveraignty would by all means conclude That the Original of Government neither was nor ought to be in the People For answer to this consider That Magistracy or Government is to be considered as Natural or as Political Naturally he was a true publick Magistrate or Father of his Country who in those Patriarchal times ruled over his own Children and their Descendants This Form of Government was only temporary and took an end not long after the Flood when Nimrod changed it and by force combining 〈◊〉 of distinct Families into one Bod◠〈◊〉 subjecting them to his own Regiment did by an Arbitrary Power seated in his own Will and Sword constrain them to submit unto what Laws and Conditions himself pleased to impose on them Thus the Paternal Form became changed into a Tyrannical Neither of these had I confess their Original in or from the People nor hath either of them any relation to that Government which we intend in our Position But secondly There is a Government Political not grounded in Nature nor upon Paternal Right by Natural Generation but founded upon the free Election Consent or mutual Compact of men entring into a form of civil society This is the Government we now speak of it having been in request in most ages and still is whereas the other was long since out of date being used onely in the first age of the World as proper onely for that time So that to prevent all Objections of this nature when we speak here of Government we mean onely the Political which is by Consent or Compact whose original we shall prove to be in the people As for the Government of the Israelites first under Moses then Joshua and the Judges The Scripture plainly shews that they were extraordiâ—nary Governours being of God's immediate institution who raised them up by his Spirit and imposed them upon that people whose peculiar happiness it was in cases of this nature to have so infallible and sure a direction so that their Government was a Theocracie as some have called it having God himself for its onely Original and therefore no wonder we have in that time Nation so few visible foot-steps of the peoples Election or of an institution by Compact But yet we finde after the Judges when this people rejected this more immediate way of Government by God as the Lord told Samuel They have not rejected thee but me and de-desired a Government after the manner of other Nations then God seems to forbear the use of his Prerogative and leave them to an exercise of their own natural Rights and Liberties to make choice of a new Government and Governour by suffrage and compact The Government they aimed at was Kingly God himself was displeased at it and so was Samuel too who in hope to continue the old Form and to fright them from the new tells them what Monsters in Government Kings would prove by assuming unto themselves an Arbitrary Power not that a King might lawfully and by right do what Samuel describes but onely to shew how far Kings would presume to abuse their power which no doubt Samuel foresaw not onely by Reason but by the Spirit of Prophecie Nevertheless the people would have a King say they Nay but there shall be a King over us whereupon saith God to Samuel Hearken to their voice Where we plainly see first God gives them leave to use their own natural Rights in making choice of their own Form of Government but then indeed for the choice of their Governor there was one thing extraordinary in that God appointed them one he vouchsafing still in an extraordinary and immediate manner to be their Director and Protector but yet though God was pleased to nominate the person he left the confirmation and ratification of the Kingship unto the people to shew that naturally the right of all was in them however the exercise of it were superseded at that time by his Divine pleasure as to the point of nomination for that the people might understand it was their Right Samuel calls them all to Mizpeh as if the matter were all to be done anew on their part and there by lot they at length made choice