tallel. Therefore has their government, as a nation, been justly called a theocracy, because God was their Supreme Ruler. The judges, to whom during feveral centuries the power was immediately committed, were merely his deputies. He

gave unto them judges," not fimply in the ordinary course of his providence, which he extends to all nations; but by raising up, in an extraordinary way, particular perfons for the work of judgment. His people had no choice left them. They were bound to obey whomfoever he appointed. Thefe judges knew that they were mere representatives. When the Ifraelites feemed to forget this, when they proposed to Gideon, as an evidence of their gratitude to him, for his inftrumentality in their deliverance from the Midianites, to establish an hereditary authority in his family, he at once rejected the idea with pious abhorrence. "Rule thou," faid they, " over us, "both thou, and thy fon, and thy fon's fon alfo." But Gideon replied, "I will not rule over you, "neither fhall my fon rule over you: the LORD "fhall rule over you." Not merely by their wish to transmit the power to his pofterity, but even by propofing to fecure it to himself during life; he saw that they had forgotten God's fovereign right of nominating, and alfo of fetting afide, one whom he had been pleafed to employ for a time. Therefore he faid, "The LORD fhall "rule over you. I will not even take the name "of a ruler. If he, who has called me to his

w Acts xiii. 20.

U. 4

Judg. viii. 22, 23,

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service,

"fervice, please to continue me as his deputy, I

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am fatisfied. If not, let him fet me afide, and appoint whomfoever he will in my ftead." When, during the adminiftration of Samuel, the Ifraelites demanded a king, the LORD confidered it as rebellion against himself in this character. "The thing difpleafed Samuel, when "they faid, Give us a king to judge us and "Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the "LORD faid unto Samuel, Hearken unto the "voice of the people in all that they fay un"to thee for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign 66 over them y." But they could not by this requifition have rejected the LORD, if he had not flood in the relation of a fupreme political head to Ifrael. For they made no propofal of renouncing fubjection to him in any other refpect. They defire not a change in their worship. They afk not a new fyftem of civil laws. All that they demand, is an alteration as to the executive form. The reafon given by the Ifraelites for perfifting in their demand, after Samuel fhewed them the confequences of its being granted, clearly demonftrates that they were fenfible of the peculiarity of their civil government, as in this respect differing from that of every other people." They "faid, Nay, but we will have a king over us : "that we alfo may be like all the nations, and "that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." Had not JEHOVAH done all this for them? Yes; but they wished a vi

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fible

y 1 Sam. viii. 6, 7.

z Ver. 19, 20.

fible head. Afterwards, we find Samuel charging them with great wickednefs in asking a king. He proves this charge from the relation in which God ftood to them: "Ye faid unto me, Nay, but "a king fhall reign over us; when the LORD your "God was your king a."

The people finned in making this request. But even their guilt was permitted and overruled for the accomplishment of God's immutable purpose. It was his will to give them a king. He might justly have rejected them as a people from this time forward, as they had rejected him. And indeed, fome fuppofe that the theocracy was at this time abolished. But the idea is evidently unfounded. The people were brought to confefs their guilt; and the Lord continued their relation to himself. They said to Samuel; "Pray for thy

fervants, that we die not: for we have added "unto all our fins this evil, to ask us a king. And "Samuel faid unto the people, Fear not: (ye "have done all this wickedness: yet turn not "afide from following the LORD, but ferve the

LORD with all your heart; and turn ye not a"fide for then fhould ye go after vain things, "which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are

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vain): For the LORD will not forfake his people, for his great name's fake: because it hath pleafed the LORD to make you his people b." It is evident that the theocracy was continued, although the character of the vifible ruler was changed. The kings were ftill, in a peculiar man

ner,

á 1 Sam. xii, 12, 17.

b Ver. 19274

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ner, God's deputies. They were not chofen by the people, but appointed by him in an extraordinary way; and they were deposed at his pleafure. He gave Saul" in his anger;" yet, when the lot fell on him, Samuel faid to the people, "See ye him, whom the LORD hath chofen c." It was not by the Ifraelites, but by God himself, that this disobedient prince was afterwards rejected. David, his fucceffor, was immediately appointed by God, and employed merely as his deputy." The LORD faid to him, Thou fhalt feed my people Ifrael, and thou shalt be a captain 66 over Ifrael " His commiffion runs in the style of that of an inferior officer. The people were not David's; they were ftill God's. Even when he made the throne hereditary in the house of David, he exercised his right of election, in preferring Solomon to all his brethren. It is faid of Solomon, that he "fat on the throne of JEHO"VAH." How could this language have been ufed with propriety, had the theocracy been abolifhed? In this refpect, undoubtedly, Solomon prefigured Him, who hath "fat down with the " "Father upon his throne." The kingdom" in "the hands of the fons of David," is in like manner called by Abijah" the kingdom of the "LORD 8."

Although the theocracy ftill continued, God did not always exercife his power in the fame manner, or manifeft his fuperintendence in the fame

1

degree. He did not renounce his kingly relation to his people, when they forfook him. He only deprived them of the more clear and ftriking evidences of it. But when they returned to their duty, he favoured them with the fame proofs of his royal care and clemency, that they had formerly enjoyed. While all the princes of the race of David were God's deputies with respect to their office, thofe who acknowledged his fupreme authority received fpecial tokens of the continuance of his prefidency. The throne of David itself was ftill typical of the throne of the Meffiah : but a peculiar honour was referved for those princes who followed the LORD. They were generally, if not all, perfonal types of the Son and Lord of David. Ifrael, in this refpect, eminently prefigured the New-Teftament Church. "The "LORD is our judge,-the LORD is our king." It was never meant that the type fhould be fulfilled in any earthly kingdom. This honour exclufively belongs to the Church, which is "the "kingdom of heaven." Chrift is her only Head and Sovereign. He is "the Judge of Ifrael." Under the law, he prefided over" an holy na"tion." He ftill retains the character of " King "of faints." As, according to the human nature, he was lineally defcended from David; "the "government is upon his fhoulder." He fhall fit

upon the throne of David, and upon his king

dom, to order it and establish it with judgment' "and with juftice, from henceforth even for "ever,"

h Mic. v. I.