Equal What the Issue of this Rebellion was that Chapter shews One Schism was punish'd with another and the Earth divided and swallowed them up So that how Arbitrary soever Moses was thought to be yet it pleas'd God to justifie him with Miracle and by a Plague immediately following let the People know whom they were to Obey as their Lord and Sovereign Josephus indeed informs us That under Moses and his Disciple Joshua who at that time had the Empire and Army the Nobility and other Worthy Men Ruled the State Antiq. l. 6. c. 6. He means the One Office was Military the Other Civil and so he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was their General Yet in this Case if the Nobility and Elders govern'd independant of the Prince how could this Author say that after Joshua's death the People were without Government eighteen Years till they found a Valiant Just Man to Rule who with his Successors were call'd Judges This proves their Power to decease with the Prince or otherwise the Nation could not be so many Years in an Anarchy or without any Government at all Nor had there been occasion to demand of Phineas Ibid. to whose Charge the Administration of Publick Affairs should be committed if that Senate had the Power pretended and could without any other Governour Protect and Rule the Nation We often read in the Book of Judges what a licentious and lawless Life the People lead during the several Interregnums or spaces of Time between the Death of one Judge and the Choice of another Not that they wanted Laws but there was not sufficient Power to force Obedience to them Thus it is said that it came to pass when the Judge was dead Ch. 2.9 that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their Fathers in following other Gods to serve them and bow down to them they ceased not from their own doings Ch. 17.6 nor from their stubborn way And again In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes This was too fully explain'd in the Sodomy of Gibeah and Micah's Idolatry in the very Verse before which being the proper Subject for the Sanhedrim to work upon as their Republicans give out and seems to be confirmed by that Saying of Christ Luk. 13.33 that it could not be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem the case of false Doctrine and false Worship being the Points that Court more especially took cognizance of If there had been I say all along from Moses downwards such a standing Authority among the Jews how comes it to pass we find the Accounts of so much Irreligion and bad Morals in their days so inconsistent with the Notion of that Consistory and the Influence it is supposed to have had over Prince and People The great Instances of Prerogative and Majesty in making War creating Judges and which we might think the proper work of the Sanhedrim the ordering of Church-Affairs deposing ill Ministers and the like That all this was done sometimes immediately by the Kings themselves must be evident to any body who will be at the pains to go thro' the History of those Princes in the Books of Samuel Kings and Chronicles Nay the very putting a Prophet to death or discharging him out of Prison This also was the King's Act as we see in the Example of Zedekiah and Jeremiah Jerem. 38. and this without the Rebuke or Murmur of that Assembly tho' then the King's Circumstances were very low and might have encouraged them to it And when we further add That the Holy Book charges the King with the execution of Justice and punishes him for the Peoples Sins which would be very hard if the Male-administration or Mismanagement were not his own or that he had not sufficient Power to order things better All this is evidence That the terrible Notion of the Sanhedrim is such a Dream as perhaps may frighten him that hath it but is of no great Effect to move other People or engage them to believe it any thing else but the disorder and weakness of the sleeper's Brain Yet we must allow that in the last Ages of the Jews after the Babylonish Capitivity this Court made some small Figure in that part of the World and we have a sad Testimony of it in their Behaviour towards the Lord Christ an unparalell'd piece of Barbarism and Cruelty serviceable indeed to the Decrees of God and the Redemption of Mankind but which shews them to be Men without the common Principles of Conscience and Honesty in murdering a Just Person whom the President himself declared Innocent But admit them such a Court in those days with that Plenary Power they boast of which is difficult to prove and 't is plain the Roman Deputies were at length above it yet 't is a good Answer for us to say that from the beginning it was not so and we are now speaking of such Judges as were at the first and such Counsellours as were at the beginning And though we should admit the Institution of the Seventy Two under the Character of the latter as probably some of them might be Counsellours and Ministers of State and therefore Hebrew Writers say That it was one necessary qualification to recommend them if they understood the Languages in order to be Interpreters to their Princes yet that they were not such Judges as the first word supposes and had no Power paramount to the Kings of Israel appears by what hath been offer'd against this Objection And therefore taking it for granted that the Jewish Government was as indeed it was Monarchial we pass to the Second Thing To shew and describe the Happiness this People were to have in the Restauration of that ancient Constitution 2. I will restore The Government referred to being that of Moses and Aaron Joshua and the Judges 't will be requisite to lay before you in little the Acts Conduct and Behaviour of those Princes and let you see how they did contribute to the Prosperity of their Subjects And to begin with Moses His first care was to make good Laws Civil and Religious and see them impartially executed And what pains he took this way we may partly read Exod. 18.13 c. And Moses sate to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening and he made them know the Statutes of God and his Laws And this he did with so much Application that his Health was in great danger by it and therefore Raguel his Wife's Father gave him the Advice above-mention'd to appoint Commissioners for the decision of lesser Matters When at any time the Necessities of the People made them murmur in the Wilderness and gave 'em reason as they thought to Libel his Government tho' there was not the least shadow of ill Conduct on his side yet his Meekness was such that he would not punish the Insolence but
his Name might remember him of the Caution and Discretion he is to use in all these Cases But here 't is construed not so much a Word of Capacity as of Pre-eminence and Power And tho' the Power supposes this Capacity and where it is otherwise they are in a very miserable Circumstance who are subject to that Power yet we are now to lay aside the Etymology and Grammar of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and take it as an Order and not a Faculty Being then restrained to the Government of Israel to whom the Prophet speaks it appears from Josephus that all the Princes and Rulers of that People from the Death of Joshua to the Election of K. Antio l. 6. c. 6. Saul had this Name All this time saith he hath been called the time of the Judges So the Book which contains the History of their Actions is Entitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Hebrew Shophetim And in the Account of the several Reigns therein recorded it is said that such a one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judged Israel at that time But we must go a little higher than this for we find that even Moses himself had the same Stile in that Oration St. Stephen made the Jews just before his Death where reciting the Passage in which Moses endeavoured to reconcile two of his Brethren one of whom ill requited him for his Pains demanding peevishly Who made him a Judge and a Ruler over them This very Moses saith the Martyr whom they refused saying Who made thee a Ruler and a Judge the same did God send to be a Ruler c. Acts 7.35 'T is true the Holy Man or at least St. Luke for him uses another Greek word and calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in sound varies but hath the same signification and both are translated Judge And all the difference is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems of larger extent and intends him a Person with ability to discern without determining the Subject whereas the latter word as a Species is consined to Legal Causes about Property or Criminal Actions Tho' after all there may be no more than a gradation in the Terms the one to hear and examine the Suit and the other to end it by Sentence The first bespeaks his Skill the last his Integrity And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes him a Judge so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposes him Righteous and that he will take special care to execute Justice without Prejudice Partiality or Favour as Law and Conscience shall direct him However both the words center in the Supreme Magistrate And altho' by Delegation or Commission the Trust is reposed in some of the Subjects whose capacities will bear it yet originally the Power is lodged in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Stephen explains it and the word denotes the Sovereign Prince or Ruler by whatever name we distinguish him such as Moses Joshua and their followers the Judges were who had Kingly Authority Judges 17.6 and sometimes the name and as other Monarchs under God governed the Children of Israel And to these the Text refers as being the first to whom the Title of Judges was given Long before this indeed the Patriarchs were as Absolute as any Emperour after them They were Kings Priests and Judges They had Life and Death in their hands They made War and Peace as they saw good and acted Independently or without being awed by any humane Power above their own And of this we have a pregnant Instance in Abraham who was going to Sacrifice his Son without any open Reason but that of his Will He also armed his Servants and fought and beat the four Kings who had taken his Kinsman Prisoner yet his Army consisted of no more than Three hundred and eighteen Men which as it shews himself to be no Mighty Potentate yet beating his Enemies with these it proves the other four Princes weaker than He who notwithstanding are called Kings and they had routed five other Kings before Plainly in those days their Dominions were small The Patriarchs had no more Subjects than Servants and Children And had all the Heads of Families been as they were so Righteous so void of Ambition so little Covetous so free from Revenge and the like those supposed Combinations or closing of lesser Familes to oppose the greater and the final Election of one among them to keep Peace among the whole and give a timely Check to any aspiring Spirit who had otherwise grown too big for the Interest and Safety of his Neighbours this Politic Union I say had been kept out of doors and we had wanted no Authority but that of Fatherhood to govern us But Pride and Avarice Violence and Licentiousness in some attempting more Elbow-room than others were willing to give 'em this fright'ned former Ages into the refuge of Associations Covenants Laws and Rulers by the help of which the feeblest Arm might be able to wrestle with the strongest the meanest sort to cope with the greater and every Man and Woman either protected or relieved upon the Encroachments of these Intruders who else were ready to molest them Where the True Religion had no Influence the Necessity was too visible to engage Men to these Combinational Projects And the Reason at last reached not only Private Families but the Governments also themselves into which they were united one State being forward enough to devour another as the particular Houses Clans and Tribes had attempted before Which constrained even them to part with their own Power and by consent to intrust it with one common Sovereign to be secured against this Danger Yet it went so slowly on and with so much Caution that at the Trojan Wars Seven hundred Years at least after Abraham we have the Catalogue of a great number of Kings in that little spot of Ground which made up Greece all which were consulted and engaged in that War which lasted so long because the Kings were many In Egypt the Monarchy was grown to a more Man-like Stature as appears from the Holy Records And to that Crown the People of Israel were at length Subjected even in its more Arbitrary and Unreasonable Commands without any Regiment or Laws of their own till the times of Moses who was first their Deliverer Deut. 33.5 and then their King So that here as I said me must needs date the Original or Rise of their Government when all the Families of the Patriarchs were reduced under one Head and submitted to Moses as their universal Father Ruler and Judge The other word to be explained is Counsellors thy Counsellors as at the beginning Counsel is Consultation or Conference about some End which being agreed on it proceeds to examine and debate the most likely means to it A Counsellor is he who being endow'd with a Talent or Ability for this Work is called upon and required to serve in it For I take it as a word of Office in its
restore it at the Incarnation when there was nothing besides Monarchy over the whole Universe And it suffices that They admit the Constitution good if the Men set to Govern were suitable to it But alas Princes are subject to Appetites Insirmities and Passions And it is not to be denied for all this is humane Nature There is no Theocracy now Princes are Men and not Gods and where are Men without Passions By the Influence of these therefore they may be tempted to Tyranny Nor is it unlikely for we sometimes read of such a Tyrant over many Cities and it was sad for the Subject But we read also of 30 Tyrants in one City which was worse and it was a glorious Act in Thrasybulus to expel ' em Princes are Ambitious and the greediness of their Favourites intolerable But is it not the same Case under other Governments call them what you will Every Senatour hath his Ambition and his Favourites too And surely the Charge must be so much the more to feed and inrich so many And where the Governours swell to a great number in proportion the Expence and Burden must be greater Kings are Touchy and their Wrath like the roaring of a Lion And as they have Power so they cannot long want opportunities to exert that Power and their Revenge is sure and heavy But then these dreadful Resentments reach very few in comparison of those Places where the Rulers abound and where it is almost impossible for a Subject to escape when there are so many Eyes to see Faults and so many Hands to punish them And of this the State of Venice is a sad Example where even the better sort of Citizens must resolve either to flee abroad or be ruined at home upon the least offence given a Nobleman or any in his Train and sometimes perhaps when there is no other proof but bare suggestion to make the Sufferer guilty And in general it is the common Observation of Travellers abroad that they seldom read Liberty writ over the Gate but entring the City they find Slavery within Yet the unthinking People swallow the Bait and are greedy of the Purchase tho' they pay never so dear for it Such is the itch of Ambition and Gain which tho' Objects at a vast distance yet they all hope in time to reach them and then the use they put 'em to is the very same with what Men design by the other Commissions they take which is not for the sake of the common Good but in order to make up a broken Fortune And in the mean while they bear the Burdens laid upon them in expectation of their own turns to oppress their Fellow-Citizens or Country-men the prospect of which is the sole comfort these miserable wretches have to buoy 'em up under the weight of their own Oppressions and Bondage This is indeed more properly in Popular Governments yet in Oligarchy the Motive hath its place from the like Rotation or Circle of Succession in all the beneficial Imployments of the State which is confessedly the rise of particular Families but how the Commonwealth suffers by it is easily seen when we may discover in the Accounts that besides the necessary Expences of the Publick in Peace and War vast Treasures are consumed to satisfie private appetites and make 'em amends for their patience so long But over and above that Inconvenience what dangerous Consequences this Course hath we may be able to guess by remembring the Case of Alcibiades at Athens and some other Captains at Rome who by the Custom of their Rotation being laid aside and their Commissions given to unexperienc'd Men the Fleet of the first and the Army of the last were brought to great extremities and at length utterly lost by an unseasonable Compliance with the Suffrages of the People 'T is true sometimes their Fears taught 'em more Wisdom and they thought fit to overlook this Custom in the frequent Consulships of Marius John 18.40 c. But for the most part their Temper was that of the Multitude who were obstinate in their choice of Barrabbas before Jesus Acts 19.32 Or else all in hurly-burly like them at Ephesus Some cried one thing and some another for the Assembly was confused and the most part knew not wherefore they were come together Some cry one thing and some another That 's another Misfortune all these sorts of Governments are liable to For Emulations Jealousies and Envyings are natural to Men of equal Power And from hence arise Factions and Parties who in all their Debates do not so much weigh what is said as who it was that said it and the Counsel is good or bad not as it concerns the Publick but as it suits their Affections and Interest whose Industry can produce majority of Votes and whose great Reason is Number This very thing was fatal to Carthage one of the mighty'st Commonwealths the Sun ever shin'd on when the Malice of Hanno's Faction so prevail'd against Hannibal as to force him back from Italy for want of Supplies chusing rather to sink their own City than let that brave Captain Subdue Rome to it As it accordingly fell out the Enemy following their Conqueror home and in the issue destroying Carthage and him These are Mischiefs a Monarch is not so much expos'd to And tho' he hath many and probably different Counsels offer'd him yet still they are no more than Counsels which the Prince may take or let alone Advisers may clash and hate one another but the Governour being one if he cannot reconcile them he can reconcile what they propose to the Publick good at least so much of it as will serve his present turn without scaring their resentments who are of the adverse Opinion and who are Counsellors and not Dictators as the Royal Martyr makes the Expression I speak all this in pursuance of my Subject and to shew in some low degree That the Exceptions against Monarchy are in reality but so many Props to support it The great Proof of Divine Right I have not touch'd upon nor will any further mention it then in the Monarchy of Israel which being of God's appointment it may speak for it self tho' not in the language of an Vniversal Law to oblige every where to an Imitation I acknowledge Magistracy with St. Paul to be an Ordinance of Heaven Rom. 13.1 and the Institution of it Sacred But for the Model I mean what Form to express it in I leave that to humane Prudence and consider it with St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.13 the Creature of Man And as it is made for the good of Men who are the Matter of Government so 't is left to Men to digest it to their conveniency and make it answer the end of its Institution And therefore a Subject at Venice Genoa or Holland is under the same obligation of Obedience with him in France and Spain and he is to submit not only for Wrath but Conscience-sake If he
resists in any of those places he resists the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But as to what concerns our selves we have that Form and that Happiness the Text speaks of and the Argument for it is the Prophet's Original Constitution having our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning So that Prescription gives it the right and 't is the Blessing of the Day to have it restored and be put in the possession of it again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the wholesom Advice of the Council of Nice to compose the Church of God Conc. Ni-Cen Can. 6. Custom is a solid Plea a thing for the most part very Venerable and Sacred or at least esteemed so We see the force of it in very trivial Instances I will not say seemingly Ridiculous tho' possibly were our Fathers alive to give the reason of 'em we might discover 'em to be the Fruits of good Contrivance and Wisdom and as foolish as they appear it might be in many cases more folly to reject ' em We hold our Monarchy by this Tenure and whether we take our selves for Aborigines or Cadmean born whether descended from Phaenicia or Troy Rome or Germany or whatever other birth the Histories or Fancies of Men give us whether Saxons Danes Normans or Scots whether before under or after the Heptarchy whether of the Line of Lancaster or York whether before or after the Vnion of this Island into the one Name of Great Britain Fix us where you will we can find nothing but Monarchy among us with those Helps and Assistants of it the Text mentions and we now enjoy and tho' we lose our selves in point of Pedegree yet the Evidence of this Government is so clear and strong that I may honestly apply what Isaiah saith That our Governours are as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning I confess our late unhappy Times have left a Proof of the Uncertainty of Humane Affairs and told us That there is nothing so Ancient or so well Setled but what is expos'd to Change and Violence But to be silent in the Novelty of such a bold Attempt to disturb the Throne and Out Him who had it in possession what were the Effects of this Reformation What were the fruits of those things whereof we are now ashamed The Monarchy expiring in how many Shapes by a kind of a Pythagorean Conveyance was the Government seen and after that Doctrine suited to the Nature of the Animal it appear'd in Sometimes a Body with many Heads and sometimes with none and which was Unnatural too one while the Eye would say to the Hand I have no need of thee and the Head to the Feet I have no need of you 1 Cor. 12.21 23. And herein alone they closed with St. Paul's Allusion That those Members of the Body which were less honourable upon these they bestow'd more abundant Honour and the uncomely parts had more abundant comeliness The first Innovation was to Vote the Bishops an Vseless nay Dangerous part of the Vpper House And not long after all the Lords became as Vseless and Dangerous as they Nor did the Lower House stop here for they were not pleas'd with their own Members but Secluded many of them and after a while were all of 'em requited in Specie and sent home as a pack of Men so it was told 'em who had arrogated to themselves their Friends and Dependants all the Honours Commands and gainful Imployments of the Kingdom This was done by the Army and 't was fair enough the Wheel should move on and since what the Parliament did was by their Swords it was highly reasonable that in their turns they should have some share in the common Prey And as their Mace outweigh'd the Scepter so the Sword had the advantage of being sharper and their Darling at length could not endure that the Fools Bauble as he call'd the Speaker's Mace should pretend to stand in Competition with it This was a sure Testimony of the Divine Vengeance to pay 'em in their own Coin and let their Slaves serve them as they had served their Sovereign Master And now at last we are come to the sad Objection against Monarchy I mean Despotick or Absolute Power when the Will is Law and the Sword Executioner An Event not depending on Imagination and Fancy but what was our real Condition and how many were forced to weep it in Tears and Blood The common Complaints were Sequestrations Free-quarter Sacrilege Consiscations Imprisonments Executions and other Instances of Oppression as numberless as their ways of Government their Council of State Council of War High Courts of Justice Protectorship Committee of Safety Rump or Junto with other Forms under other Names What could be expected from this variety of Interests but that the Nation must suffer to gratifie their several Affections and Desires And how could it be thought that an Vsurper should thrust himself into Power and not be a Tyrant to be able to maintain it And where can Tyranny be but Misery will follow And What was both the reproach and aggravation of this Misery those Flies that sucked us were but the offspring of Dirt and Dunghils Our Plague was like that of Egypt the very Dust of the Earth crawled upon us The meanest of the People were our Rulers and out of those Brambles proceeded a Fire that consumed the Cedars of Lebanon Thus as to the State and for the Church it was rent in pieces by manifold Errors Schisms and Heresies not only tolerated but embraced defended and imposed to sink our Consciences as low as our Fortunes and make our Condition every way deplorable Catalogus Errorum Haresium Blasphemiarum in Anglia ab Ann 1640. Arndii Lex I blush to think of the Number But a Foreigner has publish'd it A Catalogue of Errors Heresies and Blasphemies in England 1640 He reckons up no less then one hundred and fourscore Heterodoxies in those days when Holiness walk'd the Streets with so much noise and the Reformers made a shew of making a glorious Religion as indeed they did the same way as they made the Defender of it a Glorious King by sending both to Heaven I am sorry a Protestant should have any just Reason to write this Account and that a Papist should be able to argue from it to disgrace the best constituted Church on the face of the Earth which was then under a severe Persecution and gave no colour for any uncharitable Reflection But I take no delight in rubbing these Sores which the Clemency of the Government would heal for the future And I am so far from Malice or revenging these Wrongs that I read of Thrasybulus's Amnesty at Athens with high degrees of Satisfaction and think David never did a more generous Act then when he pardon'd Shimei at his Restauration after the Rebellion of Absalom An Act of Indemnity and Oblivion is somewhat