3.40. CHAP. XL
Of the RIGHTS of the Kingdom of God, in Abraham, Moses, the High Priests, and the Kings of Judah
THE FATHER of the faithful, and first in the kingdom of God by
covenant, was Abraham. For with him was the covenant first made;
wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledge and
obey the commands of God; not only such as he could take notice of (as
moral laws) by the light of nature; but also such as God should in
special manner deliver to him by dreams and visions. For as to the
moral law, they were already obliged, and needed not have been
contracted withal, by promise of the land of Canaan. Nor was there any
contract that could add to or strengthen the obligation by which
both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God
Almighty: and therefore the covenant which Abraham made with God was
to take for the commandment of God that which in the name of God was
commanded him, in a dream or vision, and to deliver it to his family
and cause them to observe the same.
In this contract of God with Abraham, we may observe three points of
important consequence in the government of God's people. First, that
at the making of this covenant God spoke only to Abraham, and
therefore contracted not with any of his family or seed otherwise than
as their wills (which make the essence of all covenants) were before
the contract involved in the will of Abraham, who was therefore
supposed to have had a lawful power to make them perform all that he
covenanted for them. According whereunto God saith, "All the nations
of the earth shall be blessed in him, for I know him that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall
keep the way of the Lord."(1) From whence may be concluded this first
point, that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately are to
receive the positive commandments of God from their sovereign, as
the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham their father and
lord and civil sovereign. And consequently in every Commonwealth, they
who have no supernatural revelation to the contrary ought to obey
the laws of their own sovereign in the external acts and profession of
religion. As for the inward thought and belief of men, which human
governors can take no notice of (for God only knoweth the heart), they
are not voluntary, nor the effect of the laws, but of the unrevealed
will and of the power of God, and consequently fall not under
obligation.
From whence proceedeth another point; that it was not unlawful for
Abraham, when any of his subjects should pretend private vision or
spirit, or other revelation from God, for the countenancing of any
doctrine which Abraham should forbid, or when they followed or adhered
to any such pretender, to punish them; and consequently that it is
lawful now for the sovereign to punish any man that shall oppose his
private spirit against the laws: for he hath the same place in the
Commonwealth that Abraham had in his own family.
There ariseth also from the same a third point; that as none but
Abraham in his family, so none but the sovereign in a Christian
Commonwealth, can take notice what is or what is not the word of
God. For God spoke only to Abraham, and it was he only that was able
to know what God said, and to interpret the same to his family: and
therefore also, they that have the place of Abraham in a
Commonwealth are the only interpreters of what God hath spoken.
The same covenant was renewed with Isaac, and afterwards with Jacob,
but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the
Egyptians and arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai: and then it was
renewed by Moses (as I have said before, Chapter thirty-five), in such
manner as they became from that time forward the peculiar kingdom of
God, whose lieutenant was Moses for his own time: and the succession
to that office was settled upon Aaron and his heirs after him to be to
God a sacerdotal kingdom forever.
By this constitution, a kingdom is acquired to God. But seeing Moses
had no authority to govern the Israelites as a successor to the
right of Abraham, because he could not claim it by inheritance, it
appeareth not as yet that the people were obliged to take him for
God's lieutenant longer than they believed that God spoke unto him.
And therefore his authority, notwithstanding the covenant they made
with God, depended yet merely upon the opinion they had of his
sanctity, and of the reality of his conferences with God, and the
verity of his miracles; which opinion coming to change, they were no
more obliged to take anything for the law of God which he propounded
to them in God's name. We are therefore to consider what other
ground there was of their obligation to obey him. For it could not
be the commandment of God that could oblige them, because God spoke
not to them immediately, but by the mediation of Moses himself: and
our Saviour saith of himself, "If I bear witness of myself, my witness
is not true";(2) much less if Moses bear witness of himself,
especially in a claim of kingly power over God's people, ought his
testimony to be received. His authority therefore, as the authority of
all other princes, must be grounded on the consent of the people and
their promise to obey him. And so it was: for "the people when they
saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,
and the mountain smoking, removed and stood afar off. And they said
unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God
speak with us lest we die."(3) Here was their promise of obedience;
and by this it was they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he
should deliver unto them for the commandment of God.
And notwithstanding the covenant constituteth a sacerdotal
kingdom, that is to say, a kingdom hereditary to Aaron; yet that is to
be understood of the succession after Moses should be dead. For
whosoever ordereth and establisheth the policy as first founder of a
Commonwealth, be it monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, must needs
have sovereign power over the people all the while he is doing of
it. And that Moses had that power all his own time is evidently
affirmed in the Scripture. First, in the text last before cited,
because the people promised obedience, not to Aaron, but to him.
Secondly, "And God said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou and
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And Moses
alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh,
neither shall the people go up with him."(4) By which it is plain that
Moses, who was alone called up to God (and not Aaron, nor the other
priests, nor the seventy elders, nor the people who were forbidden
to come up), was alone he that represented to the Israelites the
person of God; that is to say, was their sole sovereign under God. And
though afterwards it be said, "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and
Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of
Israel, and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of
sapphire stone,"(5) etc.; yet this was not till after Moses had
been with God before, and had brought to the people the words which
God had said to him. He only went for the business of the people;
the others, as the nobles of his retinue, were admitted for honour
to that special grace which was not allowed to the people; which
was, as in the verse after appeareth, to see God and live. "God laid
not His hand upon them, they saw God, and did eat and drink" (that is,
did live), but did not carry any commandment from Him to the people.
Again, it is everywhere said, "The Lord spake unto Moses," as in all
other occasions of government, so also in also in the ordering of
the ceremonies of religion, contained in the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th,
29th, 30th, and 31st chapters of Exodus, and throughout Leviticus;
to Aaron, seldom. The calf that Aaron made, Moses threw into the fire.
Lastly, the question of the authority of Aaron, by occasion of his and
Miriam's mutiny against Moses, was judged by God Himself for
Moses.(6) So also in the question between Moses and the people, who
had the right of governing the people, when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,
and two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly "gathered themselves
together against Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take
too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one
of them, and the Lord is amongst them, why lift you up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord?"(7) God caused the earth to
swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives and children,
alive, and consumed those two hundred and fifty princes with fire.
Therefore neither Aaron, nor the people, nor any aristocracy of the
chief princes of the people, but Moses alone had next under God the
sovereignty over the Israelites: and that not only in causes of
civil policy, but also of religion: for Moses only spoke with God, and
therefore only could tell the people what it was that God required
at their hands. No man upon pain of death might be so presumptuous
as to approach the mountain where God talked with Moses. "Thou shalt
set bounds," saith the Lord, "to the people round about, and say, Take
heed to yourselves that you go not up into the Mount, or touch the
border of it; whosoever toucheth the Mount shall surely be put to
death."(8) And again, "Go down, charge the people, lest they break
through unto the Lord to gaze."(9) Out of which we may conclude
that whosoever in Christian Commonwealth holdeth the place of Moses is
the sole messenger of God and interpreter of His commandments. And
according hereunto, no man ought in the interpretation of the
Scripture to proceed further than the bounds which are set by their
several sovereigns. For the Scriptures, since God now speaketh in
them, are the Mount Sinai, the bounds whereof are the laws of them
that represent God's person on earth. To look upon them, and therein
to behold the wondrous works of God, and learn to fear Him, is
allowed; but to interpret them, that is, to pry into what God saith to
him whom He appointeth to govern under Him, and make themselves judges
whether he govern as God commandeth him, or not, is to transgress
the bounds God hath set us, and to gaze upon God irreverently.
There was no prophet in the time of Moses, nor pretender to the
spirit of God, but such as Moses had approved and authorized. For
there were in his time but seventy men that are said to prophesy by
the spirit of God, and these were all of Moses his election;
concerning whom God said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy of the elders
of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people."(10) To
these God imparted His spirit; but it was not a different spirit
from that of Moses; for it is said, "God came down in a cloud, and
took of the spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the seventy
elders."(11) But as I have shown before,
Chapter thirty-six, by spirit is understood the mind; so that the sense of
the place is no other than this, that God endued them with a mind conformable
and subordinate to that of Moses, that they might prophesy, that is to
say, speak to the people in God's name in such manner as to set
forward (as ministers of Moses, and by his authority) such doctrine as
was agreeable to Moses his doctrine. For they were but ministers;
and when two of them prophesied in the camp, it was thought a new
and unlawful thing; and as it is in the 27th and 28th verses of the
same chapter, they were accused of it, and Joshua advised Moses to
forbid them, as not knowing that it was by Moses his spirit that
they prophesied. By which it is manifest that no subject ought to
pretend to prophecy, or to the spirit, in opposition to the doctrine
established by him whom God hath set in the place of Moses.
Aaron being dead, and after him also Moses, the kingdom, as being
a sacerdotal kingdom, descended by virtue of the covenant to Aaron's
son, Eleazar the high priest: and God declared him, next under
Himself, for sovereign, at the same time that He appointed Joshua
for the general of their army. For thus God saith expressly concerning
Joshua: "He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask
counsel for him before the Lord; at his word shall they go out, and at
his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel
with him."(12) Therefore the supreme power
of making war and peace was in the priest. The supreme power of judicature
belonged also to the high priest: for the Book of the Law was in their
keeping, and the priests and Levites only were the subordinate judges
in causes civil, as appears in Deuteronomy, 17.8, 9, 10. And for the manner
of God's worship, there was never doubt made but that the high priest,
till the time of Saul, had the supreme authority. Therefore the
civil and ecclesiastical power were both joined together in one and
the same person, the high priest; and ought to be so, in whosoever
governeth by divine right; that is, by authority immediate from God.
After the death of Joshua, till the time of Saul, the time between
is noted frequently in the Book of Judges, "that there was in those
days no king in Israel"; and sometimes with this addition, that "every
man did that which was right in his own eyes." By which is to be
understood that where it is said, "there was no king," is meant,
"there was no sovereign power," in Israel. And so it was, if we
consider the act and exercise of such power. For after the death of
Joshua and Eleazar, "there arose another generation that knew not
the Lord, nor the nor the works which He had done for Israel, but
did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim."(13)
And the Jews had that quality which St. Paul noteth, "to look for a sign," not only
before they would submit themselves to the government of Moses, but
also after they had obliged themselves by their submission. Whereas
signs and miracles had for end to procure faith, not to keep men
from violating it when they have once given it, for to that men are
obliged by the law of nature. But if we consider not the exercise, but
the right of governing, the sovereign power was still in the high
priest. Therefore whatsoever obedience was yielded to any of the
judges (who were men chosen by God extraordinarily to save His
rebellious subjects out of the hands of the enemy), it cannot be drawn
into argument against the right the high priest had to the sovereign
power in all matters both of policy and religion. And neither the
judges nor Samuel himself had an ordinary, but extraordinary,
calling to the government, and were obeyed by the Israelites, not
out of duty, but out of reverence to their favour with God,
appearing in their wisdom, courage, or felicity. Hitherto therefore
the right of regulating both the policy and the religion were
inseparable.
To the judges succeeded kings: and whereas before all authority,
both in religion and policy, was in the high priest; so now it was all
in the king. For the sovereignty over the people which was, before, not
only by virtue of the divine power, but also by a particular pact of the
Israelites in God, and next under Him, in the high priest, as His vicegerent
on earth, was cast off by the people, with the consent of God Himself. For
when they said to Samuel, "make us a king to judge us, like all the
nations,"(14) they signified that they would
no more be governed by the commands that should be laid upon them by the
priest, in the name of God; but by one that should command them in the same
manner that all other nations were commanded; and consequently in deposing
the high priest of royal authority, they deposed that peculiar government of
God. And yet God consented to it, saying to Samuel, "Hearken unto the voice
of the people, in all that they shall say unto thee; for they have not
rejected thee; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them."(15) Having therefore rejected God, in
whose right the priests governed, there was no authority left to the priests
but such as the king was pleased to allow them; which was more or less,
according as the kings were good or evil. And for the government of civil
affairs, it is manifest, it was all in the hands of the king. For in the
same chapter they say they will be like all the nations; that their king
shall be their judge, and go before them, and fight their battles;
(16)
that is, he shall have the whole authority, both in peace and war.
In which is continued also the ordering of religion: for there was
no other word of God in that time by which to regulate religion but
the Law of Moses, which was their civil law. Besides, we read that
Solomon "thrust out Abiathar from being priest before the Lord":(17)
he had therefore authority over the high priest, as over any other
subject, which is a great mark of supremacy in religion. And we read
also that he dedicated the Temple; that he blessed the people; and
that he himself in person made that excellent prayer, used in the
consecrations of all churches and houses of prayer;(18) which is
another great mark of supremacy in religion. Again, we read that
when there was question concerning the Book of the Law found in the
Temple, the same was not decided by the high priest, but Josiah sent
both and others to enquire concerning it, of Huldah, the
prophetess;(19) which is another mark of the supremacy in religion.
Lastly, we read that David made Hashabiah and his brethren,
Hebronites, officers of Israel among them westward, "in all business
of the Lord, and in the service of the king."(20) Likewise, that he
made other Hebronites "rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and
the half tribe of Manasseh" (these were the rest of Israel that
dwelt beyond Jordan) "for every matter pertaining to God, and
affairs of the king."(21) Is not this full power, both temporal and
spiritual, as they call it that would divide it? To conclude: from the
first institution of God's kingdom, to the Captivity, the supremacy of
religion was in the same hand with that of the civil sovereignty;
and the priest's office, after the election of Saul, was not
magisterial, but ministerial.
Notwithstanding the government both in policy and religion were
joined, first in the high priests, and afterwards in the kings, so far
forth as concerned the right; yet it appeareth by the same holy
history that the people understood it not; but there being amongst
them a great part, and probably the greatest part, that no longer than
they saw great miracles, or, which is equivalent to a miracle, great
abilities, or great felicity in the enterprises of their governors,
gave sufficient credit either to the fame of Moses or to the
colloquies between God and the priests, they took occasion, as oft
as their governors displeased them, by blaming sometimes the policy,
sometimes the religion, to change the government or revolt from
their obedience at their pleasure; and from thence proceeded from time
to time the civil troubles, divisions, and calamities of the nation.
As for example, after the death of Eleazar and Joshua, the next
generation, which had not seen the wonders of God, but were left to
their own weak reason, not knowing themselves obliged by the
covenant of a sacerdotal kingdom, regarded no more the commandment
of the priest, nor any law of Moses, but did every man that which
was right in his own eyes; and obeyed in civil affairs such men as
from time to time they thought able to deliver them from the neighbour
nations that oppressed them; and consulted not with God, as they ought
to do, but with such men, or women, as they guessed to be prophets
by their predictions of things to come; and though they had an idol in
their chapel, yet if they had a Levite for their chaplain, they made
account they worshipped the God of Israel.
And afterwards when they demanded a king, after the manner of the
nations, yet it was not with a design to depart from the worship of
God their King; but despairing of the justice of the sons of Samuel,
they would have a king to judge them in civil actions; but not that
they would allow their king to change the religion which they
thought was recommended to them by Moses. So that they always kept
in store a pretext, either of justice or religion, to discharge
themselves of their obedience whensoever they had hope to prevail.
Samuel was displeased with the people, for that they desired a king
(for God was their King already, and Samuel had but an authority under
Him); yet did Samuel, when Saul observed not his counsel in destroying
Agag as God had commanded, anoint another king, namely, David, to take
the succession from his heirs. Rehoboam was no idolater; but when
the people thought him an oppressor, that civil pretence carried
from him ten tribes to Jeroboam an idolater. And generally through the
whole history of the kings, as well of Judah as of Israel, there
were prophets that always controlled the kings for transgressing the
religion, and sometimes also for errors of state; as Jehoshaphat was
reproved by the prophet Jehu for aiding the King of Israel against the
Syrians;(22) and Hezekiah, by Isaiah, for
showing his treasures to the ambassadors of Babylon. By all which it
appeareth that though the power both of state and religion were in the
kings, yet none of them were uncontrolled in the use of it but such as
were gracious for their own natural abilities or felicities. So that
from the practice of those times, there can no argument be drawn that
the right of supremacy in religion was not in the kings, unless we place
it in the prophets, and conclude that because Hezekiah, praying to the
Lord before the cherubim, was not answered from thence, nor then,
but afterwards by the prophet Isaiah, therefore Isaiah was supreme
head of the Church; or because Josiah consulted Huldah the prophetess,
concerning the Book of the Law, that therefore neither he, nor the
high priest, but Huldah the prophetess had the supreme authority in
matter of religion, which I think is not the opinion of any doctor.
During the Captivity the Jews had no Commonwealth at all; and
after their return, though they renewed their covenant with God, yet
there was no promise made of obedience, neither to Esdras nor to any
other: and presently after they became subjects to the to the
Greeks, from whose customs and demonology, and from the doctrine of
the Cabalists, their religion became much corrupted: in such sort as
nothing can be gathered from their confusion, both in state and
religion, concerning the supremacy in either. And therefore so far
forth as concerneth the Old Testament, we may conclude that
whosoever had the sovereignty of the Commonwealth amongst the Jews,
the same had also the supreme authority in matter of God's external
worship, and represented God's person; that is, the person of God
the Father; though He were not called by the name of Father till
such time as He sent into the world His Son Jesus Christ to redeem
mankind from their sins, and bring them into his everlasting kingdom
to be saved for evermore. Of which we are to speak in the chapter
following.
[(20)]
I Chronicles, 26.30
[(22)]
II Chronicles, 19.2