SERMON XIV.

PSAL. lxxviii. 70-72.

He chofe David his fervant, and took him from the fheep-folds:

From following the ews great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Ifrael his inheritance.

So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands,

HE Ifraelites, under the vigorous ad

Tminiftration of Samuel, were brought

at length, as we have already feen, to a tolerable notion of the pre-eminence and fo

vereignty

vereignty of the true God; to a tolerable fense of their obligations to him; and in confequence thereof, to a tolerable regularity of life and manners, This conduct on their part, maintained by the prophet's close application, difpofed the Almighty to be favourable unto them; and to bless and profper them for a long feafon.

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When Samuel was afterwards advanced years, and grown unequal to the burden of his office; he committed the government of the Ifraelites to his fons. But thefe fons of his, elated with power, and the Ifraelites in general, debauched by prosperity, unhappily forgot themfelves; and fell into base and wicked practices. His fons became vain, unjuft, and luxurious; and the people, ungodly, refractory, and ambitious. In the ardour of their ambition, eager of fhining in princely grandeur, and of sharing the diftinguifhed offices of ftate; the heads of the tribes, taking umbrage at the unwarrantable conduct of his fons, tumultuously accosted the venerable prophet, and arrogantly de

1 Sam, viii 3. Joses. Ant. Jud. 1. visc. iii. § 2.

manded

manded a king. The theocracy no longer fuited their humour. They wanted a government of another form. And nothing would now content them, but a regal one. « A King must be set over them, to rule and judge them, like all other nations {"

This infolent demand, founded in reality on pride and ambition, and not on any con cern for the state, was no less displeasing and offenfive to God, than it was to his upright and zealous prophet . And to both on the fame account: because the establishment of a king after the manner of the nations, was the readieft way to lead them again into the customs of the nations; which would have deeply affected the growth and welfare of the true religion.

But infolent as it was, God, however, complied with their demand; and, referving ftill the chief direction in his own hands, appointed them a king; who fhould rule and govern them as his deputy. And here

f 1 Sam. viii. 5, 20.

g Ib. ver. 6, 7.

Ib. ver. 9, 22.

again,

again, as the preservation of the oœconomy, the great point in view, manifeftly required, that both king and people should closely adhere to their religion and law; and faithfully obey the commandments of God; fo he strictly enjoined them, in a fpecial charge, to" attend diligently to these things:" and then shewed them by a miraculous storm of "thunder and rain at the time of wheat harvest," that, whenever they offended, God had ftill a right to chastise them; and would accordingly do it, as often as their tranfgreffions called for it. "If ye do wickedly, ye fhall certainly be confumed, both ye and your king!" A plain intimation that they were to look upon their king in the light only of God's deputy—and as one who was therefore bound, if he meant to preferve his dominion and power, to conduct himself with caution and prudence, and act conformably to the divine laws.

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1 Sam. xii. 6---15.

k Ib. ver. 17.

1 Ib. ver. 25.

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