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tells them of the manner of the King defired by them, I Sam. viii. 11. in order to the dif fuading them from perfifting in that defire, he does not do it (as is commonly conceived) with a defign of expofing the Kingly Govern ment in regard of its arbitrariness. That was not peculiar to Kingship, but common to it with all the Eaftern Monarchies. Our Brethren would think as ftrangely of Mofes's ordering the Levites to execute their nearest Relations, who were concerned in the Piaculum of Baal Peor, without any Judicial Trial; the more abfolute any Government is, the more benefici al it would be if we could be fecure, that it fhould be always lodged in good Hands: And this God did fecure them of, whilst he referved the nomination of Succeffors to himself. But the fame Arbitrary Power, which had been fo beneficial in good Hands, would prove as eminently mischievous if it fhould devolve to Hands unfit to be intrufted with it, as it muft in courfe do oftentimes if it were left to the hazards of an Hereditary Succeffion. This God chufes to make them fenfible of in a cafe relating to their own Interests, on the manifest prospec of the confequences of ill Management. This he knew they would better understand, and be more affected with, than if he had infifted on the ill confequences that would follow to them from the violations of his own Law, and the Punishments to which they must in common be expofed, by fuch violations of it by ill Succeffors. So clear it is, that in this whole Affair, God did not content himself with the Security of the Separate Individuals, without that greater Security which might be given him by the Go vernours with whom he had to deal.

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But of all Governours, none were fo much §. VII. regarded in the Words of the Covenant, as they The old Pecuwith whom the Covenant was first and origi- Seed as denally made. These were they to whofe Under- fcended from derftandings the Covenant was particularly a- the Patriarchs Adapted, which how clear foever in its original with whom the Simplicity, yet, in procefs of Time, and change made. And of Circumftances, might grow inevitably ob- Holy, as devofcure to more diftant Ages. And these took in ted to the Suthe whole Body with which the Covenant was preme Being. made, which no Governours of later Ages could poffibly pretend to. Thofe later Governours could not undertake for the precedent, but only the following Generations. Now the first Covenant for a Peculium after the Flood, was made with Abraham, and therefore is to be judged of by the Circumftances of the Age of Abraham. Nations then were in their Infancy, as yet in private Families, which were afterwards to grow into Nations by the Blessing of the Deity with whom the Covenant was made, in cafe it were performed by the Patriarch admitted by the Deity to the Covenant, but not otherwife. It being therefore then a private Family, which was afterwards to encrease intó a Nation as a Bleffing on the firft Master of that Family, no Name could be fo proper to exprefs the whole Body by, as that of a Seed. Indeed, the Body was to defcend from that one common Ancestor, and therefore might be properly called his Seed. This was the original Title to the Body, to which others might, by legal Acts,be Incorporated, though not defcended from that fame Anceftor. Slaves, when emancipated, were reckoned to the Family of their Patron; and Strangers, when Incorporated, were in Law accounted as if they had been originally of the Body; and Adoption admitted not on

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ly to the Privileges, but the ftyle of Sons. All thefe Legal ways of admitting into the Body of a Nation, gave the Perfons fo admitted, the fame Rights by Law which the firft Members of the fame Body were poffeffed, of, on account of their natural Original. If therefore the prime Title to a Nation, was derived from their defcent from the fame Anceftor, why might not they who were by Law admitted to the Rights of the Seed, be admitted by the fame Law to the Title alfo, as well as they who are confeffedly admitted to the fame Title by a legal Adoption? These things were certainly acknowledged by Reafonings of that, and and the conceffions of later Ages, that Profely tifm of Fuftice (at least after a certain number of defcents) did as properly intitle to the Pri vileges and Style of the Seed of Abraham, as an original lineal Extraction from him. Thus therefore the whole Nation being accounted his Seed, and being by him devoted to the Worship of the Supreme Being, they were alfo, on ac count of their being fo devoted to him, to be accounted Holy in a fenfe far exceeding that which other Nations could pretend to, on account of their being alfo devoted unto Beings, though at firft not ill, yet, incomparably short of the Dignity of the Jewish Patron. Indeed, unfit to be reckoned in the fame rank with him, or capable of giving any Holiness to things devoted to them, if compared with the Holiness of fo infinitely more excellent a Being. For Holiness is one of his appropriated Attributes, wherein he admits of no competitor, though otherwife many other things be acknowledged to be holy, and ftyled fo in the Scriptures. As he alone, is faid to be good, and wife, and im mortal. Deligning thereby, that the fame Artributes

tributes when afcribed to other things, fall fo Short of the Signification wherein they are afcribed to him, as to be unworthy of the Name, being fo very different in the Signification. Accordingly no other God, of thofe worthipped by the other Nations, diftinct from the Peculium, were to be efteemed Holy when compared with the Holiness of their infinitely perfect Creator. The Heavens were not pure in his fight, and the very Angels were chargeable with Folly, Job iv. 18. xv. 15. Yet these were the Deities of the other Nations. If therefore themselves were not holy; they could confer no Holiness on Perfons or Things devoted to them. Thus the peculiar People are ftiled a Holy Seed and a Holy People, as fuppofing no other Seed or People holy, on account of their being devoted to the commonly-received National Deities. And thus the Ifraelites are called a Kingdom of Priefts, Exod.xix.6. and a Royal Priesthood, 1 Pet. ii. 9. from that fame expreffion concerning the old Peculium. Not to Authorise any to invade the Office of their own Priesthood, which was fo frequently forbidden, and fo feverely punished in all who at any time prefumed to do fo; but to imply that (in regard of the Dignity of their National Patron) the Holiness of the meaneft Ifraelite was equal to that of the higheft and facredeft of the Gentile Priests. For they were the bigheft of their Priests who had the Titles of Kings, as appears by the Singularity of the Cafe among the Romans, who fubjected their Sacred King to the Pontifex Maximus, only out of jealoufie left the Name of a King might give him any pretence for challenging the abrogated Lay Rights of his Predeceffors. The Singularity of this Excepti on feems plainly to imply, That the very Title

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of King would have given him a fuperiority over all others of his own Order, and therefore that it was actually fo in all other cafes, where the univerfality of the Claim was not reftrained by fuch a provifional Claufe. So the cafe was in the Arbenian Barind's. He was a Supreme Judge in facred Caufes. And fo it must have been in thofe moft antient Times, wherein the Kingship of both fort of Caufes was lodged in the fame Perfons; which feems to have been no late Invention, but to have defcended rather from these first Originals. So Virgil thought, when he makes Anius both King and Prieft in the time of Eneas. So was Melchizedek both King of Salem, and Priest of the most High God. And fo it was most likely to have been in the cafe of the Patriarchal Kingdoms, whilft Nations were confined to fingle Families, and the concernment of the publick Religion was of no larger Extent than thofe Families. Accordingly we find, that the Patriarchs were all allowed the right of offering Sacrifices, which was not allowed the Kings themfelves when God himself had feparated the two Offices. From that time for ward, it was a piacular Crime for any King to invade the Sacerdotal Office in that very particular of Sacrifice, as appeared in the inftances of Saul and Uzziah. Yet its having been otherwife formerly, feems to have been the moft likely occafion why thofe Princes might think themselves intitled to it, at least in a cafe of neceffity. The Priests of thofe Times wore Crowns like Kings, and thofe fo like the Regal Crowns, as to make them likely to be mistaken for Kings. So it was in the cafe of Callias, as Plutarch fhews in the Life of Ariftides. Thus it appears, that thefe Titles of being a

Kingdom

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