BEing unhappily prevented by Indisposi­tion, upon the Day appointed for this City and Suburbs, and the Parts ad­jacent, to express their Thankfulness to Al­mighty God, for the Hopes he hath given us [Page 2] of ascertaining the Succession of the Royal Line, and establishing the Throne for ever in a regu­lar and peaceable Descent, by a new Prospect of Majestic Issue, from the Loyns of our Sove­reign and his Royal Consort; I hope I shall be ea­sily excused, if rather than be wholly wanting in my Duty upon so great and solemn an Oc­casion, I have taken hold of this other Oppor­tunity to offer up my worthless, but sincere Ob­lation, at a time when the whole Nation is be­leaguering Heaven, and laying siege to the Di­vine Goodness, for an happy and succesful End of such fair, auspicious and promising Begin­nings, and the Shout of a King is among them. Besides, when I consider how unfit I am to bear any part in so glorious a Scene, I ought to chuse rather to appear in such a numerous Multitude of Votaries, as may at once conceal and drown my Imperfections in a Cloud of Incense, and supply my Poverty, Infirmity and Weakness, by its united and confederate Strength.

Let us therefore, if you please, that we may take the truer Estimate, and have the more just and worthy Apprehensions of that Extraordinary Blessing, which God in his Mercy seems to have designed us, if our Sins or our Ingratitude do not disappoint it; begin at [Page 3] the Tragedies of Anarchy and Confusion, or at that wretched and calamitous Condition of a miserable People, which resembles that of the Israelites after the Death of Sampson, When there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes. The Conse­quence of which, was First, the Destruction of the National Religion of the Jews, and the crumbling it into numberless Parties and Distinctions, as appears immediately by the the Story of Micah, who consecrated and set a part a proper and peculiar Levite for himself and Family; in the twelfth and thirteenth Verses of this Chapter. And Micah consecra­ted the Levite, and the young Man became his Priest, and was in the House of Micah; then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest. And as he had a Levite, so also a Religion peculiar to himself, and that Religion was no other than down­right Idolatry, under pretence of Purity and Reformation. For in the fourteenth Verse of the next Chapter, we find mention of his E­phod and his Teraphim, his graven and his molten Image; and this is very certain, by a long Course of Experience, that where there is not a common Band of Unity in the Civil Go­vernment, [Page 4] there can be much less any face of U­niformity in Religious Worship; but Religion will naturally degenerate for the most part, from the Particular Fancies and Inclinations of Men left at random to determine for them­selves, either into Idolatry or Superstition on the one hand, or into Prophaneness and A­theism on the other; but more especially into the latter of these, because where Property is destroy'd, as it is in such a State, where there is no King, no Form of Government, no Law-making Wisdom, no Executing Power, Necessity makes every thing become just and lawful, and the Judge of that Necessity is e­very Man's private Breast; so that Rapine puts on an Heroic Shape, and Violence, when successful, hath the outward Semblance of a noble Magnanimity and commendable Courage. It is the Law only that first deter­mines Property, and then secures it when it is determined; and where there is no Property, there must be endless Confusion, by every Man's raking and scrambling for himself; so that every Man, in such a State▪ as this, is in apparent danger of immediate Ruine, it be­ing impossible that either Strength or Counsel should be of much avail in such a Lawless and [Page 5] Arbitrary Posture of Affairs; but of all Men, they that are the most exposed, are First, the In­firm and Helpless, Secondly, the Rash and In­considerate, that apprehend the least of any Calamity likely to befall them; and Thirdly and lastly, the Virtuous and Innocent, such as are naturally inclined to Peace, and would fain be upon Terms of mutual Accommodati­on, and cannot think of continuing such Hosti­lities as these, without Regret from within, as well as Terror from without; till at length it comes to pass that Barbarity and Cruelty, and Treachery and Injustice growing epidemi­cal and familiar things, and it seeming by that universal Misery and Confusion, in which Mankind is so desperately involved, as if all things were govern'd by Mis-rule and by Chance, and as if the Divinity took no man­ner of Care of the Peace, Welfare and Hap­piness of Men, this naturally issues in at least an Indifference for neglected Virtue, when it appears to have so small a share in the Favor and Patronage of Heaven, that Wickedness it self is of the two more safe, and it proceeds by very easie and intelligible Steps to a Dis­belief of God's Providence, and a Contempt of his Attributes, till at last it ends, and sets [Page 6] up its impious and abominable rest, in a bold and barefac'd denial of his Existence.

And this is the second Consequence which I intended to mention, as the necessary and un­avoidable Event of there being no King in Is­rael, no Supream Judge, no Legislative or Ex­ecutive Power, that by this means Property is destroyed, infinite Strife and Contention intro­duced, the Fences of Right and Justice broken down, and all Claims are decided by the strongest Arm, and by the longest Sword. From whence it follows likewise, by multipli­city and frequency of bad Examples that Men are hardened and inured to Mischief, sunk in­to Atheism and Infidelity, and carried head­long by a double Torrent of Precedent and Perswasion, uniting and mingling their confe­derate Streams into all manner of Injustice, Impiety and Lewdness.

From hence it was that the Danites, in the ve­ry next Chapter, seized upon the Ephod and Tera­phim the graven Image, and the molten Image of Micah, and carried his Priest along with them to be a Father and a Priest to themselves, after a most unwarrantable and arbitrary manner, there being no King in Israel, nor any that might controul or contradict their Proceed­ings, [Page 7] or say unto them with Authority, What do ye? as Micah said to them, but without it, in the eighteenth Verse of that Chapter, to which they returned no Answer but a Menace, and the Cause was not decided by Argument but by Power. For the Children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy Voice be heard among us, lest an­gry Fellows run upon thee, and thou loose thy Life, with the Lives of thy Houshold; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned back and went back unto his House. It is true, that all the Israelites had an express Commission to cut down the Groves of Heathens and Idolaters, to overthrow their Altars, and burn their graven Images with Fire, as often as they had Power and Opportunity to do it; but this was not the Case of the Danites at this time, who were as very Idolaters as the other, only they altered the Property from Micah to themselves, so that they were guilty of Robbery, Idolatry and Sacriledge together; the Robbery con­sisted in the violent Detention of what was not their own, the Idolatry, in worshiping the Images they had stollen, and the Sacriledge, in stealing what they account Sacred, and pro­faning what they worshipped, by Rapine and Injustice. And not unlike to this it is, [Page 8] what we find in the seventh Verse of that Chapter, concerning the Men of Laish, to whom the five Men of the Danites were sent as Spies: The five Men departed, saith the Text, and came to Laish, and saw the People that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the man­ner of the Zidonians, quiet, and secure, and there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing, and they were far from the Zido­nians, and had no business with any Man▪ Now this Laish was otherwise called Leshem, as it is in the 19th. of Joshua at the 7th. Verse, and was a Colony of the Zidonians, as appears very probable from this Place, and from the 28th. Verse of this Chapter, where, when the Da­nites made their Assault upon it; it is said, There was no Deliverer, because they were far from Zidon, their Confederate City, from whence they were at first descended, and had not only brought along with them the ill Manners of that Place, which was to a Proverb infamous for all sorts of Luxury and Vice, but there being no Law to regulate their Exorbitances, or to chastise and punish notorious Offenders, mutual Consent added to reciprocal Example, where there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to Shame, and bring [Page 9] them to condign Punishment for their Offen­ces, soon fill'd up the Measure of their crying Sins, and made them ripe for the Judgment that overtook them, Their City▪ being burnt, and themselves smitten by the Da­nites with the Edge of the Sword.

If by reason of their Impunity, and Want of Government, which is the Cause of all Mischief and Disorder in a Nation, they did not yet, notwithstanding, fall out among them­selves; this is to be imputed to the smallness of their Number, for they were conquered by no▪ more than six hundred Men, compared with the strange Plenty and Exuberance of their Soil, a Place where there was no Want of any thing that is on the Earth, and conse­quently with a very small degree of Husban­bandry and Tillage, it was capable of afford­ing them a plentiful Subsistance, without the Temptation of preying upon each other; To which we must refer likewise what the Text saith farther of them, That they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any Man: That is, they had no need of Traffic and Commerce, but gave themselves up whol­ly to Pleasure and Enjoyment, having so bountiful and rich a Soil to furnish them at [Page 10] Home with whatever they desired, and there­fore they were far from the Zidonians, not only in respect of Distance or of Place, but in this also, that they were not a Bartering and a Trading People, as the Zidonians were, who were the greatest Merchants of those Days, and as they encreased in Wealth, so also in Luxury and Intemperance likewise; they im­ported the Vices▪ of foreign Nations together with their Commodities, and united the Im­pieties of several Climates in one, and were known to be Merchants, not only by their Ships, and by their Wares, but by their Sins. Lastly, When it is said, as well of the Men of Laish, as of Zidon, That they were a are less, a Quiet, and a secure People; this is also to be a­scribed to the Plenty of both Places, to the Natural Plenty of the one, and besides the Natural, to the Artificial Plenty of the other. For Plenty and Ease, do naturally soften and debase Men's Minds into a wanton Spirit of Effeminacy and Lust, into a Listless Habit of Idleness and Sloth, into a Fools Paradise of Security and Rest; though in the midst of, Dangers round about them, and the Fumes of Wine that can raise Apparitions of Imaginary Dangers, have usually no Sense of those that [Page 11] are certain and real. But this was by no means equally the Case of the Zidonians, and the Men of Laish; for the first were not only secure by Luxury and Intemperance, a sort of Security to which it is very ill trusting, but they had a fortified City, a formidable fleet, a numerous People, and a spacious Territo­ry, and could upon any Occasion furnish out an Army, that should be much superior to a­ny of their Neighbours, and were, notwith­standing the Vices they were guilty of, ty'd together by an Establishment comparatively firm, under the Command of Magistrates, and the Obligation of Laws, so that they had rea­son to be secure and at rest, considering how easily they sate at Home, and how safe they were from any Apprehension Abroad.

But with the Men of Laish it was clean o­therwise, they had no Magistrate, no Judge of Controversies, no Reconciler of Differences, no Avenger of Injustice, no Punisher of Of­fences; and besides this, they were but few in Number, they were situate in a Mid▪land▪ Country, and had no Advantage of Traffic and Commerce abroad, which begets Leagues and Dependencies among Men, that may be rely'd upon in a dangerous Time, they [Page 12] were forsaken and forgotten by their very Country-men the Zidonians themselves, and encompassed all about by Enemies and Stran­gers, so that their Security was indeed but a lethargick Stupour, which was owing either to Intemperance and Fulness, or else to a vain Perswasion which they seem to have had, be­cause their Neighbours for a long time never had attempted them, that they never would; but the Text inclines rather to the Zidonian Evil, whose Ease and Security was in part ow­ing to the Steams of Gluttony, the Excess of Wine, and the Supinity of Dalliance and En­joyment; and though the Text mentions no other Effect of that Anarchy that was to be found at that time among the Lawless Inhabi­tants of Laish, but only that they were careless, and quiet, and secure, and having no Magistrate to put them to any Shame, were grown to a shame­less pass of Luxury and Lewdness, yet upon supposition that they did not fall out and quar­rel among themselves, which is no more than a natural Effect of Anarchy and Mis-rule, where all Men are Lords and Sovereigns by themselves, and every one disdains the Cha­racter of a Servant, and spurns at the very Thoughts of Obedience and Subjection; yet [Page 13] to be sunk into Concupiscence, and immerst in Lust, to have no sense of Conscience, of Ho­nour, or of Shame, and to be given up whol­ly to the miserable Conduct of brutal Appe­tites, and beastly Inclinations, are things, to wise and good Men, that shall seriously consi­der them, more loathsome than Stench and Putrefaction themselves, more intolerable than the most exquisite and ingenious Torments, more dreadful than the most lingring, or the most shameful Death; they dethrone our Reason, they debase our Understandings, and rob us of those true and limpid Pleasures which arise only from Wisdom and from Vir­tue, they imply an Anarchy in every private Breast, or which is still worse, if any thing can be worse, they constitute such a Govern­ment within our Souls, as when a Prince is governed by his Slaves, and they too Falling­out and Clashing with one another, by the Competition of Passions among themselves, and are a living and a standing Infamy and Reproach to the noblest Faculties belonging to Humane Nature.

But if we reflect attentively upon the cer­tain Consequence of Gluttonny and Intempe­rance, which in the Experience of all Times [Page 14] and Places, is big with Animosity in a thou­sand Shapes, and with a numberless Variety of Mischief and Disorder, and if to this we add the fewness of their Number, being con­quered, and all of them smitten with the Edge of the Sword, by a small Party of six hun­dred Men; it will be highly probable, not­witstanding that Quiet and Security they en­joyed; by which the Text means no more, than that they had no Apprehension of any Disturbance or Danger from abroad; that yet at Home, in the midst of so many, and so great Enormities, without any Magistrate to punish, or any Law to restrain them, they were seldom or never free from some Dome­stic and Intestine Broil, in which, though the whole Nation were not at a time engaged, yet it is enough if private Persons, by the Ri­valship of Love, or by the Surprise of unex­pected Feuds, occasioned by Wine or Lust, or by the Ambition of Men, that in a lawless E­state, would every one endeavor to be great­er than his Neighbour, did perpetually▪ from such Causes and Accidents as these, destroy and ruine one another, and by new Grudges, everlastingly springing and spawning from the old, hinder the Encrease and Propagation of their People.

For it is highly reasonable to believe, that this Nation or Colony of Zidonian Planters, were actually seated where the Danites found them, even before the coming of Moses out of Aegypt; and it is certain that Joshua found them there when he made the Partition of Inneri­tances to the Tribes, at which time, this very Place was conquer'd by the Tribe of Dan; but it seems, though the Inhabitants were bea­ten by the Israelites, and as many as could not secure themselves by Flight, or by Conceal­ment, were smitten with the Sword, yet they were so far from being utterly destroyed, that afterwards they made Head again against their Enemies, and made them quit their new Conquest to the old Possessors, who enjoy'd it for some Ages afterwards, without Trouble or Molestation, and had now less reason to be afraid than ever, considering what it was not easie for them to be wholly ignorant of, that there was now no King in Israel, and that they had been formerly too hard for those who were how a dis-united and dis joynted People, at a Time when their Strength was unanimous and compact, which was without question one reason of the Quiet and Security which they now enjoy'd, notwith­standing [Page 16] they were so small and inconsidera­ble a People.

For to say that they were a numerous and a Powerful Nation, and yet that they were destroyed and utterly cut off by a poor Hand­ful of six hundred Men, is to affirm they were destroy'd by Miracle, as the Amorites, and the Perizzites and other Nations were at the first entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Cana­an; but this being only a supernatural Effect of the Divine Vengeance and Displeasure, for the Incest, Idolatry, Beastiality and other horrid Crimes of those accursed Wretches, whom God had utterly devoted to Destruction, and resolved to give their Land for an Inheritance to his chosen People; this reason will not hold with the Danites at this time, who were as ve­ry Idolaters as those whom they destroyed, and therefore it is very unjust and unreasonable to expect in such a Case and Circumstance as this, that any miraculous Aids should be afforded them. Neither is it any more to the purpose, that they asked Counsel of the Priest of Mi­cah, to know whether God would pros­per their Undertaking, and the Priest said unto them, go in peace before, the Lord is the Way wherein ye go. So that they seem to [Page 17] have acted by a Divine Commission; for it is to be considered that this Priest of his was but a Puisne Priest, or rather indeed he was no Priest at all, so far as that Office is of a Sacrifi­cial Nature, for he was not of the Sons of Aaron, but only a Common Levite, and he was consecrated to the Priesthood by Micah, a­gainst the Express Institution of the Law of Moses, as he likewise consecrated one of his own Sons in the fifth Verse of that Chapter, but had no Right or Authority to do either. Se­condly, It is plain by the Text, that he was an Idolater, and therefore had no reason to ex­pect any such extraordinary▪ Assistances from Above, as should acquaint him with the secret Designs of God's Providence, in the Admini­stration and Government of the World. Third­ly, The only way of oracular Responses to be met with among the Jews, was by the Urim and Thummim, which was peculiar to the High Priest alone, and never in any one Instance communicated or vouchsafed to any other but him. Fourthly, He might consider the seeming Fairness and Justice of their Cause, they going only to retreive their own, and to recover again into their own Possession, what their Ancestors had formerly enjoyed. Fifth­ly [Page 18] and lastly, It may very well be supposed that he was afraid to give a dissatisfactory An­swer to so many armed Men, lest they should say to him as Agamemnon did to Chalcas in Ho­mer,

or as Ahab did concerning the Prophet Micajah, I hate him, for he doth not prophesie Good concerning me, but Evil.

So that I think upon the whole Mat­ter, it is abundantly manifest, that the Strength of the Men of Laish being very much weakned and impaired by Civil Broils, for want of good Laws to settle the Bounds and Measures of Obligation, and Magistrates to punish the Refractory and Disobedient, what­ever present Accommodation there might be patched up among them, by mutual dread of one another, and mutual Experience of so many Ills, as Lawless and Arbitrary Courses had occasioned, and whatever Ease and Secu­rity they might promise themselves from a­broad, not having heard of any Enemy for so long a time, yet they became an easie Prey from both of these Causes together, to this unexpected and surprising Party of the Chil­dren of Dan. To all which, it is still farther [Page 19] to be added, that a dissolute and licentious People, season'd and habituated in exorbitant Courses, though they may in time be sensible of the great and public Detriment that accrues from them, and be perswaded, by that means, to think of a Regulation for the Redress of such grievous Mischiefs and Abuses; yet they scarce know how to give Obedience to those Laws, which they are convinced to be so necessary for them, but find a certain awkwardness and un­aptness in themselves to be confin'd within any compass of Duty, like untaught Heifers, that never felt the Yoak, or Colts that never yet were back'd, or Horses not sufficiently inured to their Paces or their Harness. And as it would be very difficult in this Case, and for a while impracticable to reduce the People into such a State of Obedience as is necessary to the Peace and Security of every Common-wealth, so it would be much more so, to find a fit Go­vernor to preside over them, because Govern­ment requires a steady Resolution, and a con­summate Wisdom, neither of which are requi­site to Obedience, only the Subject is in gene­ral to understand: First, the Wholsomeness of Obedience, for the Conservation of Peace, and for the uniting a Nation in one common [Page 20] Band against all foreign Opposers. And Se­condly, The Duty that is incumbent upon him, upon account of both of these Considerations, to resign up himself chearfully to the Supream Power, for the Common Good of himself and of his Country. Government requires a Cou­rage that is not to be daunted by every sturdy Pretender to Liberty of Action, nor every bold Censurer of the Conduct of Affairs, and the Administration of his Betters at the Helm, let his Pretences be as specious as they will, it re­quires a Wisdom that looks far backwards in­to the good and bad Successes of past Times, and into the Reasons upon which they seve­rally depended, a Wisdom that looks forward, and pries with Wariness and deep Deliberation, into the natural Issues and Results of Things; and a Wisdom that is consummate by Experi­ence, in the Management of Affairs, by which a Facility and Dexterity of Action and of Counsel is acquired, as well as by reflection upon the Occurrences of former Times, and Speculation into Humane Nature; without which, no Governour can sufficiently discharge himself of the great Trust that is reposed in him.

Now in this Case of a dissolute and bro­ken People, whose Necks of a long time had [Page 21] no felt the Yoak, as it would require much greater Wisdom and Experience to pilot and conduct a shattered Vessel through Passions and Prejudices not easily to be conquered or charm­ed into Obedience, and which like Rocks and Shelves, not taken notice of by any Sea-chart, like moving Sands, without any Buoys to discover them, would every moment endan­ger the Ship-wrack of the State, than to go­vern an establish'd and orderly Society, that hath been inured to Laws, and sensible of the great Advantages accruing by them; so it would be much harder to find a Person fit for such a weighty Charge in a Government that needs it most, then in a setled and well regula­ted State, where half those Abilities would serve the turn. Besides that, the Competiti­on of Pretenders to the Supream Power, and the several Factions aiding and abetting ei­ther the one or the other, would create new Strife, instead of composing the old, and af­ter all, a wise Man, though unanimously cho­sen, would scarce accept so dangerous a Charge, wherein he would be more likely to make himself a Victim to the variable Humors of a giddy Multitude, impatient of Subjecti­on, and unaccustomed to Restraint, and dis­daining [Page 22] to be controuled and check'd by him that was so lately their Equal, than to preserve his Country, by his Wisdom and Courage, from its impending Ruine and De­solation. No wonder therefore, if the Men of Laish, being without any Government or Laws, and being probably at variance among themselves, and being surprised of a suddain by an unexpected Assault, and their Security adding new Horror to the Surprise, and con­tributing in so great a Proportion to their Ru­ine, they were for all and every of these Rea­sons, an easie Prey to the Fury of their Ene­mies, and fell a tame Sacrifice to the Revenge of the Danites.

But without reasoning so nicely upon an imperfect account, wherein so much is of ne­cessity to be supplied by conjecture, the next Chapter will afford us a more express Descrip­tion of the horrid Calamities to which Anar­chy is Exposed, for there we have first the Sto­ry of the Levite and his Concubine, or rather Wife, for she is accused of being false to his Bed. And his Concubine, saith the Text, play'd the Whore against him, and went away from him unto her Fathers House to Bethlehem Judah, and was there four whole Months. Now Adultery was [Page 23] Death in both Parties, by the Law of Moses; nay, the Guilt of this horrid Crime was under­stood to lye at the Door of the Congregati­on, and was threatned to be avenged upon the People themselves, if they did not expiate it by the Death of the Offenders. Deut. 2 [...]. 22. If a Man be found lying with a Woman, married to an Hus­band, then they shall both of them die, both the Man that lay with the Woman, and the Woman, so shalt thou put away Evil from Israel. And this was still a more criminal sort of Adultery, because it was a Levites Wife, a Person dedicated and set apart to the Service of God, and to the Mi­nistry of that Temple in which he had placed his Name, and whether all the Tribes of Israel were to repair for Sacrifice and Worship. It was much the more hainous Offence in both of the Delinquent Parties upon this account, and therefore the Obligation to punish it was so much the stronger, but this not being to be done without a formal Process, in which the Criminals were to be first convict, and then adjudged to undergo the legal Sentence in ca­ses of that nature, at a time when there was no Judge in Israel, no Supreme, nor by con­sequence any subordinate Magistrate to hear and determine Causes, there could be no Pro­cess, [Page 24] no Sentence, no Execution. And so it came to pass, not long after, either, by a Re­turn of Affection on the Husbands Part, or by some advantagious Overtures of Reconciliati­on on that of the Wife and her Relations, that the Business, as foul as it was, was made up, and they associated together again; but this con­tinued but for a very little while, when leav­ing Bethlehem Judah, where the Father of the Woman dwelt, and going homewards through Gibeah of Benjamin, and lodging there in the House of an hospitable Ephraimite, the Man was first demanded by the lewd and lawless In­habitants of the Place, to be used as the Sodo­mites would have served the Guests of Lot, and at last, the least thing that would appease their Belluine and Brutal Lust, was the abus­ing his Wife to such a degree, that she died up­on the Place, and being divided by her Hus­band into twelve Pieces, which were sent se­verally to so many several Tribes, to be an horrid Spectacle and Monument of what had happened, and to incite them the more effectu­ally to a just Revenge of so flagitious and vil­lanous an Action upon the execrable Authors of it, this occasioned that dreadful Civil War which followed betwixt the Tribe of Benjamin [Page 25] and the rest of the Tribes, who being under no legal Tye of Obligation to one another, and being now destitute of a common Head that might command and influence them all, yet met together by common Consent at Mizpeh, and from thence demanded satisfaction of the Benjamites, for the horrid Wickedness commit­ted by the Gibeathites their Brethren, and for the Scandal that was brought by it, upon the Name and Nation of Israel, which nothing could wipe off, but the Death of those Mis­creants that were guilty of it; but the Benja­mites were so far from delivering up their Bre­thren to be punish'd as they deserv'd, that they appeared in their Defence, and were resolved, as bad as they were, to stand up in the Pro­tection of their Lives, with the Hazard of their own, upon which, immediately ensued that bloody War, in which forty thousand of the Israelites, and of the Benjamites, the whole Tribe, without sparing either Age or Sex, bate­ing only six hundred, were destroyed; nay, their very Cattle and their Cities were not ex­empted, but a deadly Infection ran through all they possest, and overwhelm'd every thing in the common Ruine. So that in this one Story, though we go no farther, we have a promis­cuous [Page 26] Lust, a brutal Concupiscence, and a de­structive War, Crimes not to be named with­out confusion and blushing, and Judgments not to be mentioned without trembling, and all for want of a Judge and a King in Israel, whose Authority might prevent the Perpetra­tion of such Villany, or at leastwise punish the beginnings of it, before it proceeded to such a bloody Consequence, and tragical Conclusion.

But this is not all neither, for if I am not ve­ry much mistaken, there was a Famine likewise happened upon this occasion, for in the Book of Ruth we read that in the Days when the Judges rul'd, there was a Famine in the Land, upon which Elimelech and his Wife Naomi, and his two Sons Mahlon and Chilion went and sojourned in the Country of Moab, where Elimelech and his two Sons died, and Naomi, after having dwelt there ten years, arose with her Daughters in Law, that she might return from the Country of Moab, for she had heard in the Country of Moab, how that the Lord had visited his People in giving them Bread. Now though it be said that this happened in the Days when the Judges rul'd, all that is meant by it is no more than this, that the in­spired Writer who wrote this Book, wrote it a conside­rable [Page 27] time afterwards, in the time of the Kings, and by the Days of the Judges, or when the Judges rull'd, all that Period or Interval of time is understood, which passed between Joshua, or rather between Moses the first Judge, and Saul the first King of Israel; and the Age of Ruth falls just upon the Close of this Account, for her Son was Obed, who was the Father of Jesse, the Father of David; so that the Times of Obed and Jesse must be coincident with those of Eli and Samuel, the last Judges of Israel, and the beginning of the Reign of Saul, the first King; and since we have no mention of any Judge of Israel after Sampson, before Eli, it must needs appear very likely, that this Famine hapned after the Death of Sampson, when there was no King or Judge in Israel, when the want of Laws made Industry to cease, and Husbandry to fall to Ruine and Decay, and when the Animosities and Contentions that hapned in those days, were a Discouragement to the Husband-man from setting his Hand to the Plow, or scattering the Seeds upon the Earth in their Season, when he had so little se­curity that he should reap the Encrease. And otherwise than this it will seem utterly impos­sible, without a perpetual Miracle all that [Page 28] while, that in Moab, a neighbouring Country, there should be so great Plenty for ten years together, and yet so great Scarcity in the Land of Israel, the Land of Canaan that flowed with Milk and Honey, and was naturally so rich and plentiful a Spot of Ground, for it is not without a miraculous Interposition of Divine Providence, that Countries naturally fruitful, and being of the same Soil and Climate, and very nearly bordering upon each other, should the one be afflicted with a ten years Famine, while the other, all that while, was not only able to sustain it self, but to supply the Neces­sities of its Neighbours, and we are certainly informed, that when the seaven years Famine was in Aegypt, there was the same Scarcity in the Land of Canaan, and other neighbouring Countries in that Part of the World, only the Wisdom and prophetic Fore-sight of Joseph, who was then the chief Minister in Pharaoh's Court, had made a better Provision by Good-hus­bandry, in the Time of Plenty, for the Neces­sities of Aegypt, than any of the neighbour Na­tions had made for themselves; so that it ap­pears very reasonable to think, that a Famine was one of those dismal Consequences that at­tended the Anarchy or want of Government a­mong [Page 29] the Jews, after the Death of Sampson, and the Expression of Naomi is remarkable, That the Lord had visited his People in giving them Bread; he visited them by giving them Bread, and he gave them Bread by visiting them, that is, by setting a Visitor or Inspector over them, a Judge that might retrench the Exorbitances, and redress the Abuses under which they groan­ed, for as Phacad in Hebrew signifies to visit, so does Phakid, derived from it, signifie a Visi­tor or Inspector, a Governour, a Judge, a King, or any one that is invested with a Legis­lative and Coercive Power, and as Mercy and Justice do equally belong to the Notion and Character of such a Person, so God himself, who is the great Sovereign and Potentate of the World, as well when he inflicts his Judg­ments, as bestows his Mercy, is said to visit Mankind.

I shall conclude these Observations upon the Text and Context, with observing how care­ful the inspired Pen man of this Book of Judges is, to let us know that all these Enormities and Calamities which he recounts, were the Effects and Issues of there being no King in Israel, though indeed he does not say so in so many Words, but he does as plainly imply it as any [Page 30] thing can be. For when he tells us the Story of Micah, and his Ephod and Priest, he tells us also at the same time, In those days there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes. And the same Words are again repeated in the next Chapter, where the Danites of their own Heads, without any Or­der or Commission, to that purpose, make War upon the Men of Laish, and of the easie Conquest they obtained the reason is express assigned, because the Men of Laish dwelt care­less, after the manner of the Zidonians, and be­cause there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing; so that they were a loose and a divided People; and immedi­ately before the Story of the Levite and his Concubine, which drew such dismal Con­sequences after it, it is again inculcated and re­peated, And it came to pass in those days, when there was no King Israel, that there was a certain Levite, &c. And Lastly, In the Conclusion of the whole Book, where the Children of Israel, after the War with Benjamin, disband and fall in pieces again, going every Man to his own Tent, and after his own Imagination, he ends as he began, with the same remarkable Words, In those days there was no King in Israel, [Page 31] every Man did that which was right in his own Eyes; and then in probability that Famine followed which I have now newly described.

But it is in vain to pursue this Argument any farther, the Miseries of Anarchy are so many and so great, that there is no Tongue sufficient to ex­press them, nor any Conception large enough to comprehend them; they are as variable as the Passions and Designs of Men, or the Occasions upon which they happen, and as Bloody, as Cru­elty, Ambition, Injustice and Revenge can make them; and if the Reins of Discipline were let loose upon our Necks, or the Bridle of Obedience perfectly taken off, and every Man let alone to a­bound in his own Sense, and pursue his own Ima­ginations as far as he thought fit, it would soon come to pass that the World, by the interfering Passions, and incompossible Desires and Appe­tites of unreasonable Men, would be turned into a Wilderness of Thorns and Briars, a Den of Thieves, a Forest of wild Beasts, a Chaos of Con­fusion, a miserable Spectacle of Destruction and of Death displaying and brandishing its frightful Terrors in a thousand several ghastly and lamen­table Forms, a Theatre fill'd with desperate Gladia­tors, perpetually goring and stabbing one another, a Slaughter-house for Innocence, an inextricable Snare for Weakness, a Temple, but not a Sanctu­ary [Page 32] for Oppression, a Region of Devils in the Shape of Men; so that the old War betwixt the Giants and the Gods, which the Poets have repre­sented, as much the most terrible and outragious thing that even Fancy and Fable would stretch themselves to conceive, would of a suddain cease to be Romantic any longer, and instead of being Fabulous, as it now appears, it would pass for a cold and an imperfect Truth, not worthy the Name of a Poetical Contrivance, nor fit to be compared with the real Animosities that would intoxicate and embroil Mankind. It is but fit therefore in the midst of such horrid and dismal Apparitions, as the Consideration of Anarchy pre­sents us with, before we enter upon the blessed and the glorious Scene of Establishment and Order, to let down softly the Curtain of Confusion, that our Thoughts may be composed and quiet, as the se­rene, beautiful and peaceful Subject about which they are to be employ'd, and that we may relish the better the Happiness of Government, and pray the more heartily for the Continuance of it, and for the Birth of a Prince, that may render Empire in an everlasting Succession, Hereditary to himself and his Descendents, and entail Peace, Righteous­ness, Charity and Plenty upon all the Subjects of this Imperial Crown, as long as the Sun continues to be constant, or the Moon to change.