A66096:44
[The character] of a good ruler as it was recommended in a sermon [preached…
[The character] of a good ruler as it was recommended in a sermon [preached before] His Excellency the Governor, and the honoura[ble] counsellors, and assembly of the representatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New-England : [on] May 30. 1694 : [which was the day] for election of [counsellors] for that province / by Samuel [Willard] ...[The character] of a good ruler as it was recommended in a sermon [preached before] His Excellency the Governour, and the honoura[ble] counsellors, and assembly of the representatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New-England : [on] May 30. 1694 : [which was the day] for election of [counsellors] for that province / by Samuel [Willard] ...
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris for Michael Perry, 1694
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
USE. All that I have to Offer by way of Improvement, shall be in a Threefold Commendation of this TRUTH to us.
USE. All that I have to Offer by way of Improvement, shall be in a Threefold Commendation of this TRƲTH to us.
1. Let me propose it to such in whose hands it is to Appoint the Persons that are to bear Rule over this People; whether for the making of Laws to Govern by, or the putting o• such as are made into Execution: Whether Counsellors, Assembly-Men, or Justices of the Peace. Let this be your directory in exerting of this right. Civil Government is sea•ed in no particular Persons or Families by a Natural right, neither hath the Light o• Nature, no• the Word of GOD determined in particular, what Form of Government shall be Established among men, whether Monarchical, Ari•t•c••tical, or Democratical: much less, who are individually▪ to be acknowledged in Authority, and accordingly submitted to. Nevertheless the H•ly Providence of GOD presides ⟨p. 21⟩in this matter; sometimes, by a more. Immediate, and Extraordinary pointing to the Persons and Families: when by Revelation he declares his pleasure in it. Thus was Saul set up over the Kingdom of Israel; and afterwards David was thus chosen of God, and an Entail made o• the Crown on his Posterity: but this way hath long since ceased. Sometimes it is more mediate and ordinary, and that is, either Forcible, when God Judicially delivers a People p to the will of their enemies, and the Conqueror gives Laws to, and appoints Rulers over such a People at his pleasure, and they are compelled to accept o them, little to their content: which, as is not Eligible, so neither is it wont to be of duration: things violent us not to be Permanent. Or voluntary, which is by the free consent of a People, orderly, and without Compulsion establishing the Fundamentals of Government among themselves, and the methods of introducing Persons into authority: which Methods are not prescribed in Scripture, but remain points of Prudence, and may Lawfully be divers here and there. There are yet general Rules which both reason and Religion do point men to attend in this Case; and the weal or woe o a People do