that "the kings of all nations have laws prescribed to them." But then you say again," They are not so under the power of them, as to be liable to censure or punishment of death, if they break them." Which yet you have proved neither from scripture, nor from any good author. Observe then in short; to prescribe municipal laws to such as are not bound by them, is silly and ridiculous and to punish all others, but leave some one man at liberty to commit all sort of impieties without fear of punishment, is most unjust; the law being general, and not making any exception; neither of which can be supposed to hold place in the constitutions of any wise lawmaker, much less in those of God's own making. But that all may perceive how unable you are to prove out of the writings of the Jews, what you undertook in this chapter to make appear by them, you confess of your own accord, That "there are some rabbins, who affirm that their forefathers ought not to have had any other king than God himself; and that he set other kings over them for their punishment." And of those men's opinion I declare myself to be. It is not fitting or decent, that any man should be a king, that does not far excel all his subjects. But where men are equals, as in all governments very many are, they ought to have an equal interest in the government, and hold it by turns. But that all men should be slaves to one that is their equal, or (as it happens most commonly) far inferior to them, and very often a fool, who can so much as entertain such a thought without indignation? Nor does "it make for the honour of a kingly government, that our Saviour was of the posterity of some kings,” more than it does for the commendation of the worst of kings, that he was the offspring of some of them too. "The Messias is a king." We acknowledge him so to be, and

rejoice that he is so; and pray that his kingdom may come, for he is worthy: nor is there any other equal, or next to him. And yet a kingly government being put into the hands of unworthy and undeserving persons, as most commonly it is, may well be thought to have done more harm than good to mankind. Nor does it follow for all this that all kings, as such, are tyrants. But suppose it did, as for argument-sake I will allow it does, lest you should think I am too hard with ye; make you the best use of it you can. “Then, (say you,) Go himself may properly be said to be the king of tyrants, nay, himself, the worst of all tyrants." If the first of these conclusions does not follow, another does, which may be drawn from most parts of your book, viz. That you perpetually contradict, not only the scriptures, but your own self. For in the very last foregoing period you had affirmed, that "God was the king of all things, having himself created them." Now he created tyrants and devils, and consequently, by your own reason, is the king of such, The second of these conclusions we detest, and wish that blasphemous mouth of yours were stopped up, with which you affirm God to be the worst of tyrants, if he be, as you often say he is, the king and lord of such. Nor do you much advantage your cause by telling us, that "Moses was a king, and had the absolute and supreme power of a king." For we could be content that any other were so, that could "refer our

matters to God, as Moses did, and consult with him about our affairs," Exod. xviii. 19. But neither did Moses, notwithstanding his great familiarity with God, ever assume a liberty of doing what he would himself. What says he of himself; "the people come unto me to inquire of God." They came not then to receive Moses's own dictates and commands. Then says Jethro,

ver. 19. "Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayst bring their causes unto God." And Moses himself says, Deut. iv. 5, "I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me." Hence it is that he is said to have been "faithful in all the house of God." Numb. xii. 7. So that the Lord Jehovah himself was the people's king, and Moses no other than as it were an interpreter or a messenger betwixt him and them. Nor can you, without impiety and sacrilege, transfer this absolute supreme power and authority, from God to a man; (not having any warrant from the word of God so to do) which Moses used only as a deputy or substitute to God; under whose eye, and in whose presence himself and the people always were. But now, for an aggravation of your wickedness, though here you make Moses to have exercised an absolute and unlimited power in your "Apparat. ad Primat." page 230, you say, that "he, together with the seventy elders, ruled the people, and that himself was the chief of the people, but not their master." If Moses therefore were a king, as certainly he was, and the best of kings, and had a supreme and legal power, as you say he had, and yet neither was the people's master nor governed them alone; then, according to you, kings, though indued with the supreme power, are not by virtue of that sovereign and kingly right of theirs lords over the people, nor ought to govern them alone; much less, according to their own will and pleasure. After all this, you have the impudence to feign a command from God to that people, “to set up a king over them, as soon as they should be possessed of the Holy land.” Deut. xvii. For you craftily leave out the former words, "and shalt say, I will set a king over me," &c. And now call to mind what you said before, page 42, and

what I said I should have occasion to make use of, viz. "That the power was then in the people, and that they were entirely free." What follows, argues you either mad or irreligious; take whether you list: "God," say you," having so long before appointed a kingly government, as best and most proper for that people; What shall we say to Samuel's opposing it, and God's own acting, as if himself were against it? How do these things agree?" He finds himself caught; and observe now with how great malice against the prophet, and impiety against God, he endeavours to disentangle himself. "We must consider," says he, " that Samuel's own sons then judged the people, and the people rejected them because of their corruption; now Samuel was loth his sons should be laid aside, and God, to gratify the prophet, intimated to him, as if himself were not very well pleased with it." Speak out, ye wretch, and never mince the matter: you mean, God dealt deceitfully with Samuel, and he with the people. It is not your advocate, but yourself that are "frantic and distracted;" who cast off all reverence to God Almighty, so you may but seem to honour the king. Would Samuel prefer the interest of his sons, and their ambition, and their covetousness, before the general good of all the people, when they asked a thing that would be good and profitable for them? Can we think, that he would impose upon them by cunning and subtilty, and make them believe things that were not? Or if we should suppose all this true of Samuel, would God himself countenance and gratify him in it; would he dissemble with the people? So that either that was not the right of kings, which Samuel taught the people; or else that right, by the testimony both of God and the prophet, was an evil thing, was burthensome, injurious, unprofitable, and

chargeable to the commonwealth or lastly, (which must not be admitted) God and the prophet deceived the people. God frequently protests, that he was extremely displeased with them for asking a king. V. 7th. "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." As if it were a kind of idolatry to ask a king that would even suffer himself to be adored, and assume almost divine honour to himself. And certainly, they that subject themselves to a worldly master, and set him above all laws, come but a little short of choosing a strange God: and a strange one it commonly is; brutish, and void of all sense and reason. So 1st of Sam. chap. 10th, v. 19th, "And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulation, and ye have said unto him, nay, but set a king over us;" &c. and chap. 12th, v. 12th, "Ye said unto me, nay, but a king shall reign over us; when the Lord your God was your king" and v. the 17th, "See that your wickedness is great, that ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.” And Hosea speaks contemptibly of the king, chap. xiii. v. 10, 11. "I will be thy king; where is any other that may save in all thy cities, and thy judges of whom thou saidst, give me a king, and princes? I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." And Gideon, that warlike judge, that was greater than a king; "I will not rule over you," says he, "neither shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you," Judges, chap. viii. Intimating thereby, that it is not fit for a man, but for God only, to exercise dominion over men. And hence Josephus in his book against Appion, an Egyptian grammarian, and a foulmouthed fellow, like you, calls the commonwealth of the Hebrews a Theocracy, because the principality was in