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
know that God had placed him there But they who cast off those whom God hath appointed to Rule over them do in the same act cast off God himself Num. 16.11 Num. 26.9 Corah and his Company that rose up against Moses and Aaron are therefore said to have gather'd themselves together and striven against God and that though there were of their Party Two hundred and Fifty Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation Men of renown Simplicius if I have not forgotten tells us of the Achorites who were swallow'd up of the Earth for denying God I cannot but think they were the Corites with the Article prefixt and said to deny God because they rebell'd against his Vicegerent and his High Priest That our Petitioners in casting off Samuel cast off God also God himself declares when he says to Samuel They have not rejected thee 1 Sam. 8 7. but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them But yet there is more than that contained in those words namely that they reprobated God in regard of his own Government over them as well as of Samuel's and dealt no better with him than with his Lord Lieutenant God had most benignly undertaken to be their King in a more than common way in a more particular manner than he was of all the world besides and it could not be thought that he had no other right of being so but what was derived from the People or was capable of losing it because he had entred into Covenant with them and in the exercise of this his Kingship he had done them so many and great acts of Grace as it is impossible to begin an estimation of and yet by this Petition they not only most impiously derogated from his Goodness Care Justice and Wisdom in his oeconomy of them as if he was unmindful and negligent of the Publick weal and understood not how to manage it without their advice but went about most execrably to put him out of his Throne So we may partly see by the foremention'd place 1 Sam. 8.7 but more by what is said 1 Sam. 12. where Samuel having reasoned to them of the Righteousnesses and benefits which God had performed to them adjoyns Verse the 12. And when he saw that Nahash the King of the Children of Ammon came against you ye said unto me Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King 5. These words offer to us a fifth Particular of their wickedness viz. That notwithstanding the many Deliverances which they had received from God and several of them by the hand of Samuel out of fears of a Neighbour Prince they most vilifyingly discarded the Conduct of them both for another refuge 6. They herein went upon the track of their former Rebellious Defections Practises of Rebellion as soon as of any other Sin nurse themselves into dispositions dispositions into habits and the fire of these though it ought to be with all possible care extinguisht seldom wholly is but though it may be for a while cover'd cooled or pent up commonly glows under its own ashes and erelong revives and breaks out again into a more furious and ravaging flame To have and to do as they list is so connatural to Mankind by degeneracy that they hate nothing more than to be under restraint though by God himself A just Subjection therefore they name Slavery and the drawing back from it they ascribe to generosity of Spirit And if any other Nation I was going to say except our own was guilty of this refractory and perfidious humour of revolting this of the Jews was So that rather than endure that yoke of Government which God put upon them they would have one of their own putting on though more strict and severe According to the habitualness hereof to them did they behave themselves in the present affair not considering that such Precedents were so far from deserving to be made leading rules much more from having any Plea to be lookt upon as Laws that they could no way be expiated but by declaring their hearty repentance and abhorrence of them According to all the works says God to Samuel 1 Sam. 8.8 which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other Gods so do they also to thee Their revolting from their Prince was Sister to their defection from God Theodorick had in his Court a Minister whom he very much loved He thinking to please his Prince left the Doctrine of Christ's eternal consubstantial Deity and protested himself of the Arrian Opinion wherewith he knew him infected but his Master hearing of it caused his Head to be stricken off saying That he who had not kept his Faith with God would never be loyal to a Mortal Man 7. But seventhly Our Petitioners were not herein like themselves only but also were carried to it by a fond Zeal of being like the Neighbour States without considering whether it was good or bad which they had a passion to be like them in They who devote themselves to write after the Copy of another man's manners at all adventure without an eye to its goodness and far more likely to do what is evil than what is good and if they happen to do what is good they do it not well because they do it not out of a study of goodness have furtendred their reason and their duty to the Copy and act not the Man but the Ape Farther He that will blindly follow the blind may possibly make a few fair and advantageous steps but shall nevertheless be reckoned a Fool or Madman because it is meerly by chance not any good-cunning that he does so and because he throws himself into a most certain danger of falling into the Ditch The States whom our Elders studied to be like were not only blind but also of such wicked and pernicious manners especially in things pertaining to God as should have made them wary of being like them in any thing much more should have kept them from making it their business to be like them And they must necessarily be esteemed to do wickedly who though they do what is in its self good do it not upon that account but out of a precipitate imitation of wicked Men. 8. They took a Pretext for doing it from faults of Publick importance committed by some great Officers of the Government Samuel having made his two Sons the Assistants of his Age in the Judicature of the Nation 1 Sam. 8.3 they turned aside after lucre took bribes and perverted judgment and for this reason their excellent Father must be deposed God himself revolted from and another mode of Government brought in A piece of wickedness certainly weighed against which that of Samuel's Sons will not stir the ballance Must the Sun be tumbled from his Saphire Throne lose his golden Crown of Rays and Empire
of the Day because his light is sometimes intercepted by Clouds which he himself draws up But suppose Samuel accused of Male-administration in his own person who made the People judge over him whom God had made judge over them God having constituted him Supreme Governour in all Causes over the People next and immediately under himself could there among the same People be a Superior to him between him and God This colour of ill-government the ambitious Absolom made use of against his Royal Father and having by that and other insinuating Pretences and Courtships stolen away from him the hearts of the People and their Elders procured him to be reprobated by them from the Throne and himself advanced into it But it lyes obvious to every eye that he who was the Lord's Anointed though guilty of Crimes punishable by Death in another Person had right on his side against him who was the People's Anointed though a Pretender to Justice and Piety and that Divine Justice set a remark upon the Enterprize of the latter as most wicked bringing to a fatal end by the treachery of his own head him who was a Traitor to his Political head of whose Body also he was a beloved and famous part 9. They were over-hasty in their Petition They left not their great Monarch to his own time but insolently prescribed to him theirs God intended them a King but was not willing that his Favourit and Vice-Roy Samuel should lose his seat of Soveraign Judicature but for the grave and a Throne in Heaven or that the Scepter should be put into any hand until David's was made fit to change the Sheephook for it He who importunely urges the performance of what he desires without staying his leisure upon whom he depends for it may possibly receive what he asks and at his own hour but not without deserving if not incurring the displeasure of his Benefactour 10. It was not so much a Petition as an Impudent Peremptory and obstinate demand they went to their Prince's face and required him to come down from the Seat of Authority in which God had installed him make an alteration of it and put another into it and though both he and God himself declared themselves displeased with their proceedings they contumaciously persisted in them and told him they would have what they desired The Son has a right of Petitioning his Father but not of doing it usurpingly unadvisedly ungratefully opprobriously treasonably rebelliously in imitation of bad Neighbours out of an unstable mind a revolting inclination and a ruling design with the terms of Empire a forehead of Brass and a neck of an Iron Sinew In these respects the wickedness in the Text was great and it was farther greatned by the generality of it In such a case many hands make not light but heavy work and in this there were none who had either so much consideration of their Duty as to abhor what was done or so much courage as to declare they did so These are Circumstances which manifestly contributed to the wickedness in the Text. There are some also which probably did so It is indeed likely that there lay at the bottom ambitious covetous malicious licentious and other such sinister regards Some might hope to obtain rather than deserve if not the Throne which they were erecting yet some eminent station near it or gainful Office under it Others might aim at being revenged for acts of Justice or Injustice done them A third sort might design Liberty of Religion with the overthrow of that which was establisht which they knew Samuel was much more a Saint than to allow A fourth might be emported though very groundlesly and unjustly with umbrages that their present Governour had intentions of Arbitrary and Tyrannick Rule by himself or Sons or both But these particulars not being certain I shall forbear to urge them and having shewn enow that are certain and certainly wicked I shall now come to consider whether the matter of the demaild of the Text made it not also wicked in its own Nature 1. The Matter of it was a King Let us then First see what a King was and to that purpose let us view in the first place how he is represented by the ancient Mystae of Phisosophy History and Policy among the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingship is an uncontroulable Government are the words of a Writer in Suidas whom he names not Dion Chrys in Orat. 3. de regno but whom I dare name a Heathen Dion Chrysostomus hath the same words and more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingship is an uncontroulable Government and the Law is the King's Decree Plutarch in his short Treatise concerning Monarchy Democracy and Oligarchy calls the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingly Government and says once that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of absolute Authority twice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncontroulable Dion Cassius says of the Roman Emperors Dion Cass l. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have the name of Emperour throughout in signification of their full and perfect Authority instead of the title of King and Dictator And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are set loose from the Laws as the Latine words themselves speak that is they are free from all necessary subjection to Law or Coaction by it and are bound by none of the written Institutes Having also said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were invested with all the power of the Polity He adjoins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they had all things of Kings Arist in libris Politic except their unacceptable title Aristotle having set down five forts of Regal Government he says of the Fifth which is named by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect Regal Government that it is chiefly or most properly called Regal that Tyrannie is the Corruption of it that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when one man is Lord of all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the King governs all according to his will and that it is the same kind of Government with that of the Father or Master of a Family Of the four others which he says were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Law and especially the Lacedaemonian which as is agreed by all was almost wholly a mixture of Aristocracy and Democracy he says that they are not properly any kind of Kingdom or Polity Marcus Aurelius says in Dion Cassius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Excerptis Dionis Cassii of Imperial Authority God only may be Judge The Athenians accounted themselves and are accounted by Writers to have dissolved Kingly Government in setting up the Archontick which was of one man who was liable to be controuled and called to an account Diologenes a Pythagoran says in Stobaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diologenes apud Stobaeum in Serm. 46. A King having an uncontroulable Authority and being himself