First, Consider the necessity of Magistracy; without Magistracy one man would be but bread for another; and the world which is like the Sea for storms and tempests, would also resemble it in this, that the Inhabitants of it would be as the fishes of the Sea, the great would devour the small. Men are like the fishes of the Sea (saith the Prophet) that have no ruler over them, Hab. 1.14. No man could call any thing his own, were it not for these Gods. Did not they defend us by their power, every one would rob and wrong us at his pleasure. Our liberties, estates and lives would quickly be a prey to the covetousness and cruelty of vicious persons. Liberty and property are quite banished where authority is not established. Who can express the malice, and murders, the rapine and robberies, the mischiefs and miseries that reign where the Magistrate doth not reign. In those days there was no King in Israel, every man did that which was right (not in Gods, but) in his own eyes, Judg. 17.6. Judg. 19.1. And what evil is not good in his eye who hath the Devil for his guide and leader, and corrupt nature for his law and rules? When the gate of Magistracy is shut, the floodgates for all manner of enormities are open. When these that bear up the pillars of the house are removed, how soon will the building be ruined? When God intended the destruction of the Jewish Common-wealth, he took away their Sanhedrin. And in the glass of our times it is too too visible what a sad deformed face things have, when Magistrates are overturned. Constantinople will witness to this truth, where upon the grand Signiors death, till his Successor be on his Throne, all things are in a confusion, and the Janissaries have the rule and Dominion. Some write that the Persian law commandeth, that upon ⟨p. 229⟩the decease of their Kings, there should be a suspension of the Laws for certain (five) days that Subjects might know the necessity of Government, and learn to value it more by being bereaved of the benefit of it for a time. Nay when God is exceedingly provoked by sin, how sharply doth he make men suffer by taking away their stay and their staff! The mighty man, the Judge, the Prophet and the Prudent, Isa. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. The taking away the civil stay and staff, the Prince; and the spiritual stay and staff, the Prophet, will quickly cause the fall, yea the utter downfall of the people.
First, Consider the necessity of Magistracy; without Magistracy one man would be but bread for another; and the world which is like the Sea for storms and tempests, would also resemble it in this, that the Inhabitants of it would be as the fishes of the Sea, the great would devour the small. Men are like the fishes of the Sea (saith the Prophet) that have no ruler over them, Hab. 1.14. No man could call any thing his own, were it not for these Gods. Did not they defend us by their power, every one would rob and wrong us at his pleasure. Our liberties, estates and lives would quickly be a prey to the covetousness and cruelty of vicious persons. Liberty and property are quite banish't where authority is not established. Who can express the malice, and murders, the rapine and robberies, the mischiefs and miseries that raign where the Magistrate doth not raign. In those days there was no King in Israel, every man did that which was right (not in Gods, but) in his own eyes, Judg. 17.6. Judg. 19.1. And what evill is not good in his eye who hath the Devil for his guide and leader, and corrupt nature for his law and rules? When the gate of Magistracy is shut, the floodgates for all manner of enormities are open. When these that bear up the pillars of the house are removed, how soon will the building be ruined? When God intended the destruction of the Jewish Common-wealth, he took away their Sanedrim. And in the glass of our times it is too too visible what a sad deformed face things have, when Magistrates are overturned. Constantinople will witness to this truth, where upon the grand Signiors death, till his Successor be on his Throne, all things are in a confusion, and the Janizaries have the rule and Dominion. Some write that the Persian law commandeth, that upon ⟨p. 229⟩the decease of their Kings, there should be a susspension of the Laws for certain (five) dayes that Subjects might know the necessity of Government, and learn to value it more by being berest of the benefit of it for a time. Nay when God is exceedingly provoked by sin, how sharply doth he make men suffer by taking away their stay and their staff! The mighty man, the Judge, the Prophet and the Prudent, Isa. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. The taking away the civil stay and staff, the Prince; and the spiritual stay and staff, the Prophet, will quickly cause the fall, yea the utter downfall of the people.
