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
nature Ministerial and a Man ought to have a Call before he assumes the Stile Because tho' he may be capable to propose wholsom Advice he is no Counsellor until this capacity be brought in to act by his Warrant who gives him leave to offer it with freedom So that as good Counsel for we take the word in the best sense here is deliberation about a good End and the contrivance of good Means And as a Counsellor never answers this Character but while he pursues those two things without Self-regard in what he proposes so the Government cannot but be happy where the Relation is such as the Text gives between Judges and Counsellours the one not venturing to act without previous and solid Advice and the other not daring to offer any Advice but what Experience Conscience and Honour declare to be serviceable to those Ends for which it is demanded And such was the Government of Israel For as Moses and Joshua were the first Judges of this Kind so the Counsellors signifie Aaron and his Successors in the High-Priesthood by whose Pectoral Vrim and Thummim or some other way God was pleas'd to reveal his Will and give them his Advice in arduous and difficult Cases And strictly speaking the first Government among the Jews was purely a Theocracy God was their King and Moses and Aaron his Deputies the former in Civil the last in Religious Matters so early so sacred and relative was the Institution of the Crown and Mitre And if the Precedence is given the First it is because the Church is within the State and Men as they make a Civil Body are the Matter of all Government here and their Actions what the Laws are conversant about so that He that is the Head of such a Body ought to be preferr'd and bear the Rule for the present conveniency and welfare of the Community However the others as they also were the Ministers of God they were enabled to assist by their Counsel the Chief Magistrate who for want of their Advice sometimes miscarried in their Affairs as in the Instances of Joshua's hasty League with the Gibeonites Targum Jonath on Judges 11.39 and Jeptha's dealing with his Daughter To these frequently were added Prophets Extraordinary who reported the Divine Pleasure in the most weighty Matters and so this Prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in Ezra Nehemiah Haggai and Zachary But the Standing Commission was that of the High-Priest and it was his Office to be a Counsellor as the Office of a Prince to be a Judge Under the Kings afterwards there were several others honoured with the same Stile 1 Chr. 27. 2 Chr. 10. as Jonathan and Hushai were Counsellours to David the Old Men to King Solomon and others and the Ministry of these may be serviceable to the State where care is taken not to depend too much on the Advice of Achitophel and that Rehoboam's Novices prevail not too much on the Prince's Ambition or Easiness to Enslave and Oppress the People And thus for the First thing the Constitution referred to I will restore thy Judges as at the first c. Before I proceed to my Second Point it concerns me to see Whether the Notion of the Sanhedrim doth not contradict the Interpretation I have made on these words For if they are the Judges and Counsellours here intended as some are apt to think and of so great Figure as to Eclipse the Majesty of the Jewish Princes to that degree as to let them have no Influence or Authority but what they claim'd as their Members or within their number then I have mistaken the Meaning of Isaiah and the Nature of the ancient Constitution of Israel in the return of which the Prophet foretells their Happiness And which as I have dated under the the Reigns of Moses Joshua and the Judges so I understand it to be a Compleat Monarchy with as much Power or more than the Kings after them By the Sanhedrim I mean the Senate of Seventy Two So many stood up to have the K. Sentenced a fatal Number to our late Monarch being Six out of every Tribe indifferently chosen to whom some Rabbins and others on their Credit have given such an Exorbitant Power as not only to affirm That a King of Israel could do nothing without them but assert further that they might de jure Cite Judge and Whip him as they saw reason for it And probably it had been so in King David's time if Achitophel's Success had been equal to his Wishes whom they make the President of such a Sanhedrim The truth is several of the Jewish Writers out of prejudice to the Roman and other Monarchies under which they frequently groaned have spoke big Words about the Synedrial Authority in the Ages of their Fathers But as they are wanting in the solid Proofs and Examples of that Power they ever and anon attribute to it so their Discretion may be question'd to suggest such a method of Government to be of Divine Appointment as might be dangerous to those Sovereign Princes in whose Cities and by whose Indulgence many of 'em flourish and live But we depend not on this Argument for we say they are injurious to Truth as well as to their own and those Princes Interest And whatever countenance such a Form may have in other Countries they have little reason to charge their own with it much less make God the Contriver and Founder It must be confess'd Exod. 18.21 That Jethro perswaded his Son-in-Law Moses to substitute some other Judges to hear inferiour Causes Numb 11.16 which he accordingly did and God was pleas'd to approve and confirm the Design But the Reason of it is expresly set down in Scripture and Josephus Antiq. l. 3. c. 3. not in the least to lessen Moses's Authority but to give him some ease in the execution of Justice and lighten the Burden as both the Writers call it It was morally impossible for Moses in Person to go through so many Controversies and Disputes as daily came before him so that it was necessary to appoint these Deputies to assist him in the more trivial Suits though what they did may be reckon'd his Acts because done in a Subordinate way and by Commission from Him That this was so cannot be well doubted if we consider that Passage which afterwards fell out concerning Korah Numb 16. Dathan and Abiram It appears by this Conspiracy that after the Election of the Seventy Elders Moses had the Sovereignty in his own hands because their Charge against him was that He had made himself altogether a Prince over them and they tell him and Aaron V. 13. You take too much upon you and have lifted up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord An Article that affected them no more than the rest of the Sanhedrim had Korah and his Fellows then discover'd any such mighty Consistory to partake of the Government in which it seems Moses would not admit an
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