CHAP. XVI.

OF SAUL.

SECT. I.

Of the deliberation to change the government into a

BUT

kingdom.

UT when age now began to overtake Samuel, and that he was not able to undergo the burthen of so careful a government, he put off from himself the weight of the affairs on his sons, Joel and Abijah, who judged the people at Beersheba, a city, the very utmost towards the south, of Judea. And as the place was inconvenient and far away, so were themselves no less removed from the justice and virtue of their father. For the thirst of covetousness, the more it swalloweth, the more it drieth, and desireth, finding taste in nothing but gain; to recover which they set the law at a price, and sold justice and judgment to the best chapmen. Which when the elders of Israel observed, and saw that Samuel, as a natural man, (though a prophet,) could not so well discern the errors of his own, they prayed him to consent to their change of government, and to make them a king, by whom they might be judged as other nations were; who might also lead them to the war, and defend them against their enemies. For after the ill and lamentable success which followed the rule of Eli's sons, when those of Samuel, by their first blossoms, promised to yield fruit

no less bitter, they saw no way to put the government from out his race, whom they so much reverenced, but by the choice of a king.

In a cause of so great consequence, and alteration, Samuel sought counsel from God; which surely he did not for the establishing of his own sons; who being as they were, God would not have approved his election. Now as it appears by the text, this speech or motion displeasing him, he used his best arguments to dehort them; which when he perceived to be over-feeble, he delivered unto them, from God's revelation, the inconveniences and miseries which should befal them. And yet all which he foreshewed was not intolerable, but such as hath been borne, and is so still by free consent of the subjects towards their princes. For, first, he makes them know that the king will use their sons in his own service to make them his horsemen, charioteers, and footmen; which is not only not grievous, but by the vassals of all kings according to their birth and condition desired; it being very agreeable to subjects of the best quality to command for the king in his wars; and to till the ground no less proper and appertaining to those that are thereto bred and brought up; so are likewise the offices of the women-servants to dress meat, to bake bread, and the like. But whereas immediately it is threatened, He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and best olive trees, and your give them to his servants,' with other oppressions; this hath given, and gives daily occasion to such as would be ruled by their own discretion, to affirm that Samuel describeth here unto them the power of a king, governed by his own affections, and not a king that feareth God. But others, upon further examination, construe this text far otherwise, as teaching us, what subjects ought with patience to bear at their sovereign's hand. The former opinion is grounded, first, upon that place of Deuteronomy xvii., where God foresheweth this change of government from

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judges to kings; and, after he had forbidden many things unto the kings, as many wives, covetousness, and the like, he commandeth, that the kings which were to reign over Israel should write the law of Deuteronomy, or cause it to be written; and to shew how greatly the king should honour the law, he addeth: It shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep all the words of this law, and these ordinances, for to do them: that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his sons. But to take away any other man's field, say they, is contrary to the laws of God, in the same book written. For it is said, Deut. vi., That which is just ⚫ and right shalt thou follow, that thou mayst live.' Now, if it be not permitted to carry away grapes' more than thou canst eat, out of another man's vineyard, but forbidden by God; it is much less lawful to take the vineyard itself from the owner, and give it to another. Neither are the words of the text, (say they,) such as do warrant the kings of Israel, ar make it proper unto them, to take at will any thing from their vassals. For it is not said, that it shall be lawful for the king, or the king may do this or that; but it is written, that the king will take your sons; and again, this shall be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. God thereby foreshewing what power, severed from piety, (because it is accountable to God only,) will do in the future. And hereof we find the first example in Achab, who took from Naboth both his vineyard and his life, contrary to the trust which God had put in him, of governing well his people. For God commanded, Deut. xvi., That his people shall be judged with righteous judgment.' Wherefore, though the king had offered unto Naboth composition, as a vineyard of better value, or the worth in money, which he refused; yet, because he was falsely accused, and unjustly condemn

ed, (though by colour of law,) how grievously Achab was punished by God the scriptures tell us. Neither was it a plea sufficient for Achab, against the allrighteous God, to say that it was done without his consent, and by the elders of Israel. For God had not then left his people to the elders, but to the king, who is called a living law, even as David testifieth of himself: Posuisti me in caput gentium.' For this of St. Augustine is very true: Simulata innocentia 'non est innocentia; simulata æquitas, non est æ'quitas: sed duplicatur peccatum in quo est ini quitas et simulatio: feigned innocence, and feigned equity, are neither the one nor the other; but the fault or offence is there doubled, in which there is both iniquity and dissimulation. Such, in effect, is their disputation, who think this place to contain the description of a tyrant. But the arguments on the contrary side, as they are many and forcible, so are they well known to all; being excellently handled in that princely discourse of The true law of free monarchies, which treatise I may not presume to abridge, much less here to insert. Only this much I will say, that if practice do shew the greatness of authority, even the best kings of Judah and Israel were not so tied by any laws, but that they did whatsoever they pleased in the greatest things; and commanded some of their own princes, and of their own brethren, to be slain, without any trial of law, being sometimes by prophets reprehended, sometimes not. For though David confessed his offence for the death of Uriah, yet Solomon killing his elder brother, and others, the same was not imputed unto him as any offence.

That the state of Israel should receive this change of government, it was not only foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy, but prophesied of by Jacob in this scripture: The sceptre shall not depart from Ju'dah',' &c. It was also promised by God to Abraham for a blessing. For it was not only assured, that

3 Gen. xlix. Gen. xv.

his issues should in number equal the stars in heaven, but that kings should proceed of him. Which state, seeing it is framed from the pattern of his sole rule, who is Lord of the universal, and the excellency thereof, in respect of all other governments, hath been by many judicious men handled and proved, I shall not need to over-paint that which is garnished with better colours already than I can lay on.

In the time of the judges, every man hath observed what civil war Israel had; what outrageous slaughters they committed upon each other; in what miserable servitude they lived for many years; and when it fared best with them, they did but defend their own territories, or recover some parts thereof formerly lost. The Canaanites dwelt in the best vallies of the country. The Ammonites held much of Gilead over Jordan; the Philistines the sea-coasts; and the Jebusites, Jerusalem itself, till David's time; all which that king did not only conquer and establish, but he mastered and subjected all the neighbour na tions and kings, and made them his tributaries and vassals. But whether it were for that the Israelites were moved by those reasons, which allure the most of all nations to live under a monarch; or whether, by this means, they sought to be cleared from the sons of Samuel, they became deaf to all the persuasions and threats which Samuel used, insisting upon this point, that they would have a king, both to judge them and defend them; whereunto, when Samuel had warrant from God to consent, he sent every man to his own city and abiding.

SECT. II.

Of the election of Saul.

AFTER that Samuel had dismissed the assembly at Mizpeh, he forbare the election of a king, till such time as he was therein directed by God; who fore