hrow mankind into confusion. Holland
without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any
of the monarchial governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same
remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs hath a
happy something in them, which vanishes away when we come to the
history of Jewish royalty.

Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the
Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was
the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the
promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honours to their
deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved on the plan, by
doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of
sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is
crumbling into dust!

As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified
on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the
authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared by
Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by
kings. All anti-monarchical parts of scripture have been very smoothly
glossed over in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the
attention of countries which have their governments yet to form.
RENDER UNTO CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH ARE CAESAR'S is the scripture
doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of monarchical government, for
the Jews at that time were without a king, and in a state of vassalage
to the Romans.

Now three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the
creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king.
Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases,
where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administered by a
judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was
held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the Lord of
Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage
which is paid to the persons of kings, he need not wonder that the
Almighty, ever jealous of his honour, should disapprove of a form of
government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.

Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for
which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of
that transaction is worth attending to.

The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianit