The Character of a Good Ruler

THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD RULER.

II. SAMUEL XXIII. III.

He that Ruleth over men, must be just, Ruling in the Fear of God.

WHether the Ordination of Civil Government be an Article of the Law of Nature, and it should accordingly have been established upon the Multiplication of Mankind, although they had retained their Primitive integrity: Or whether it have only a Positive right, and was introduced upon mans Apostasy; is a question about which all are not agreed. The equity of it, to be sure, is founded in the Law natural, and is to p. 2be discovered by the light of Nature, being accordingly acknowledged by such as are strangers to Scripture Revelation; and by Christians it is reducible to the first Command in the Second Table of the Decalogue; which is supposed to be a transcript of the Law given to Adam at the first, and written upon the Tables of his Heart. For tho', had man kept his first state, the Moral Image Concreated in him, consisting in, Knowledg, Righteousness, and True Holiness, would have maintained him in a perfect understanding of, and Spontaneous Obedience to the whole duty incumbent on him, without the need of civil Laws to direct him, or a civil Sword to lay compulsion on him; and it would have been the true Golden Age, which the Heathen Mythologists are so Fabulous about▪ yet even then did the All-Wise God Ordain Orders of Superiority and Inferiority among men, and required an Honour to be paid accordingly. But since the unhappy Fall hath Robbed man or that perfection, and filled his heart with perverse and rebellious principles, tending to the Su◊◊◊◊sion of all Order and the reducing of the World to a Chaos: necessity requires, and the Political happiness of a People is concerned in the establishment of Civil Government. The want of it hath p. 3ever been pernicious, and attended on with miserable Circumstances. When there was no Governour in Israel, but every man did what he would, what horrible outrages, were then perpetrated, though Holy and Zealous Phinehas was at that time the HighPriest? and we ourselves have had a Specimen of this in the short Anarchy accompanying our late Revolution. Gods Wisdom therefore, and his goodness is to be adored in that he hath laid in such a relief for the Children of men, against the mischief which would otherwise devour them; and engraven an inclination on their hearts, generally to comply with it. But this notwithstanding, mens sins may put a curse into their blessings, & render their remedy to be not, better, possibly worse than the Malady, Government is to prevent and cure the disorders that are apt to break forth among the Societies of men; and to promote the civil peace and prosperity of such a people, as well as to suppress impiety, and nourish Religion. For this end there are to be both Rulers, and such as are to be Ruled by them: and the Weal or Wo of a People mainly depends on the qualifications of those Rulers, by whom we are to be Governed. Hence that Observation, Eccles. 10. 16, 17. Wo to thee, O Land? when thy King is a Child, p. 4and thy Princes eat in the morning. B'essed art thou, O Land! when thy King is the Son of Nobles, and thy Princes eat in due season for strength, and not for Drunkenness. There is then much of Gods Kindness or Displeasure to be Read in his Providential disposing of this Affair. God saith of them, Hos 1 13. 11. I gave them a King in mine Anger.

p. 4We have therefore the Character of a Good RULER Recommended to us in the Word of GOD, and Exemplified in some who deserved that Epithete, not only to let men know when GOD favours them with such a Blessing, that they may return Him His deserved Praise for it; but also, both to Instruct such into whose hands it falls, how to Demean themselves in their Authority, so as to be a Common Good; and to direct those unto whose trust it is Committed, what manner of Persons they ought to introduce, if they would either Please GOD, or Consult their own and their Peoples Welfare.

Such a Character we find is given in our Text; and we may suppose David intended for an Instance of it.

p. 5The words are introduced with greatest solemnity, to give them the deeper impression on the hearts of those that read them, and are concerned in them. They are the words of David, whom God had exalted to the Government over His People Israel, and instructed in his Duty: who was Gods own Anointed by an Extraordinary calling And they are his Last words, Probably not that he ever spake, but some of his dying words, and the last that he uttered by a Peculiar Prophetical Inspiration, & they were not his own words, but such as the Spirit of God dictated to him, and spake by him, whereof he was only the Instrument of their being committed to record. They therfore came out of the Mouth of the God and Rock of Israel: and surely there must be unspeakable Importance in words Ushered in with so Majestical a Preface. I might here tell you the divers readings, occasioned by the curt expression of the Hebrew Text, but I shall not spend time in it, since the general current of Interpreters runs the same way with our Translation. And I need but briefly acquaint you that the import or sense of the words is variously understood: some apply them to God himself and accordingly read the words as a continued description of him: he that Ruleth 〈…〉 men; p. 6that ruleth men to fear God. Others apply them to Christ, as typified by David; and take them to be a Prophesy of his Mediatorial Kingdom: and then they read it, shall be just, ruling the fear of God: i. e. Divine Instituted worship: pointing to the abrogating of the legal, and bringing in of the Gospel administrations: but then the Type also must be respected, at least under a shadow: and so they suppose that Davids Typical Government is represented. Others take them according to the sense of our Translation, not to be a prediction but a precept, giving us to understand what manner of persons such are required to be, by the Divine Mandate, and that it was left as a Rule to them who should succeed.