1

that he gave way to it. For who, from the like words (which exprefs fo natural a refentment of an open defection) would infer in the cafe of any other monarch, that he thereupon ftepped down from his throne, and fuffered an ufurper to feize his place? This, we fee, was poor reafoning. But, luckily for his reputation, he had an Adversary who reafoned worfe. However Simon faw thus much into Le Clerc's cavil, as to reply, That all be had faid was quite befide the purpose, for that the thing to be proved was, that, after the establishment of the Kings, God was no longer the civil Chief". On which Le Clerc thus infults him: As much as to Say, that in order to prove God was no longer Chief of the Hebrews after the election of a King, it is befide the purpofe to fhew, he never afterwards dif charged the functions of a Chief of the republic. It is thus this great Genius happily unravels matters, and difcovers, in an inftant, what is, and what is not to the purpofe". Whether Simon indeed knew why Le Clerc's objection was nothing to the purpofe, is to be left to God and his own conscience, for he gives us no reafons for the cenfure he paffes on it but that it was indeed nothing to the purpofe, is most evident, if this propofition be true,

Je paffe fous filence le long difcours de Mr. le Clerc touchant le pouvoir de Dieu fur les Ifraëlites avant l'etablissement des rois, d'où il pretend prouver que Dieu pendant tout ce temps-la fit la fonction de roi. Tout cela eft hors de propos, puis qu'il s'agit de prouver qu'apres ces temps-la Dieu n'a plus été leur chef: & c'eft ce qu'on ne prouvera jamais. Reponse aux Sentimens de quelques Theol. de Hol. p. 55.

2

C'eft à dire que pour prouver que Dieu n'a pas été chef des Hebreux, aprés l'election des rois, il eft hors de propos de prover qu'il n'a plus fait les fonctions de chef de la republique. C'eft ainfi que ce grand genie debrouille heureusement les matieres, & découvre d'abord ce qui eft hors de propos, de ce qui ne l'ell pas. Defense des Sentimens, p. 120.

"That

"That a King does not cease to be King, when he puts in a Viceroy, who executes the regal office by deputation."

Le Clerc returns to the charge in his Defense of the Sentiments: "The Ifraelites did not reject "God as Protector, but as civil Chief, as I ob"ferved before. They would have a King who "fhould determine fovereignly, and command "their armies. Which, before this, God himself "did by the miniftry of the Judges, whom he' "raised up, from time to time, from the midst of "Ifrael. In this fenfe we muft understand abfo"lutely the words of God, in Samuel, that I fhould not reign over them." It is indeed strange, that, after writing two books, he should still infift on fo foolish a paralogifm, That God's giving up his office of civil Chief, was a neceffary confequence of the People's demanding it. For, that they did demand it, I acknowledge. Let us confider then this whole matter a little more attentively.

Samuel (and I defire the Deifts would take notice of it) had now, by a wife and painful direction of affairs, reftored the purity of Religion, and refcued his Nation from the power of the Philiftines, and their other hoftile neighbours; against whom

a Les Ifraëlites ne rejetterent pas Dieu comme protecteur, mais comme chef politique, ainfi que je l'ai marqué. Ils voulurent un roi qui les jugeât fouverainement, & qui commandât leurs armées, au lieu qu'auparavant Dieu lui-même le faifoit, par le miniftere des juges, qu'il fufcitoit de temps en temps au milieu d'Ifrael.-En ce fens il faut entendre abfolument les paroles de Dieu dans Samuël, afin que je ne regne point sur eux, p. 121.

b However, foolish as it is, the Reader hath feen, how a late Sermonizer has borrowed it, and how little force he has added

they were utterly unable to make head when he entered upon the public Administration. At this very time, the People, debauched, as ufual, by. power and profperity, took the pretence of the corrupt conduct of the Prophet's two fons, to go in a tumultuary manner, and demand a King. But the fecret fpring of their rebellion was the ambition of their leaders; who could live no longer without the fplendour of a regal Court and Houfhold; GIVE ME (fay they, as the Prophet Hofea interprets their infolent demand) A KING AND PRINCES; where every one of them might shine a distinguished Officer of State. They could get nothing when their affairs led them to their Judges' poor refidence, in the Schools of the Prophets, but the GIFT of the Holy Spirit; which a Courtier, I prefume, would not prize even at the rate Simon Magus held it, of a paultry piece of money.This it was, and this only, that made their demand criminal. For, the chufing Regal rather than Ariftocratic Viceroys was a thing plainly indulged to them by the Law of Mofes, in the following admonition: When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and fhalt poffefs it, and fhalt dwell iherein, and fhalt fay, I will fet a KING over me, like as the rations that are about me: Thou shalt in any wife set bim King over thee, whom the LORD THY GOD SHALL CHUSE one from amongst thy Brethren fhalt thou fet King over thee: Thou mayeft not fet a Stranger over thee which is not thy brother. The plain meaning of which caution is, that they fhould take care, when they demanded a King, that they thought of none other than fuch a King who was to be GOD'S DEPUTY. As therefore Court-ambition

233 only was in the wicked view of the Ringleaders of these malecontents, and no foolish fears for the State, or hopes of bettering the public Adminiftration, it is evident to all acquainted with the genius of this Time and People, that compliance with their demand, must have ended in the utter deftruction of the Mofaic RELIGION as well as LAW." But it was God's purpose to keep them SEPARATE, in order to preserve the memory of himself amidst an idolatrous World. And this not being to be done but by the preservation of their Religion and Law, we must needs conclude that he would not give way to their rebellious demand.

And what we are brought to conclude from the reafon of the thing, the history of this tranfaction clearly enough confirms. For it having now informed us how GOD consented to give this People a King; To fhew us, that he had not caft off the Government, but only transferred the immediate Administration to a Deputy, and confequently, that their King was his Viceroy, it tells us next, how He was pleased to bring them to repentance in an extraordinary way; the gracious method he commonly employed when he intended to pardon. Samuel affembled the People; and to convince them of their crime in demanding a King, called down the prefent vengeance of their offended GoD in a ftorm of thunder and rain at the time of wheat-harvest ". This fudden defolation brings them to a fenfe of their guilt, and they implore mercy and forgivenefs: "And all the People faid unto Samuel, "Pray for thy fervants unto the Lord thy God, "that we die not; for we have added unto all our fins this evil, to ask us a King. And Samuel

I SAM. xii.

I SAM. xii. 17, 18.

"faid unto the People, fear not: (ye have done all "this wickedness: yet turn not aside from follow

c

ing the Lord, but ferve the Lord with all your "heart; and turn ye not afide: for then should you go after vain things, which cannot profit "nor deliver, for they are vain) For the Lord " will not forfake his People, for his great Name's "fake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People." Here, we fee, they repent, are pardoned, and received again into Grace, as appears by the concluding promife, that the Theocratic form fhould be continued. They are ready to give up their King, and yet a regal character is inftituted. The plain conclufion from all this is, that their King was given, and, now at least, received, as GOD'S DEPUTY.

But Father Simon is at length provoked into a Reason, and that, to say the truth, no weak one. God, he obferves, kept the election of their King in his own hands. But this, Le Clerc fays, proves nothing. How fo? Because, according to this reafoning, we should be obliged to fay that God oftener difcharged the functions of civil Chief in the idolatrous realm of the ten Tribes than in that of Judah: for that was elective, this, hereditary. And what if we 'do?

i Ver. 19. & feq.

* Et une preuve même qu'il ne ceffoit pas d'être leur chef par cette election, c'est qu'il s'en rend le maître. Reponse aux Sentimens, P. 55• ·

1 Pour ce que dit M. Simon que Dieu fe rend maitre de l'election des Rois, il ne s'enfuit nulment qu'il continuât d'être pour cela chef politique de la republique d'Ifrael; puifque fi cela étoit, il faudroit dire que Dieu faifoit beaucoup plus souvent les fonctions de chef de l'etat dans le royaume Idolatre des dix tribus, que dans celuy de Juda. Car ce derniere royaume étoit

hereditaire,