The character of a good ruler. As it was recommended in a sermon preached…

Such a Character we find is given in our Text; and we may suppose David intended for an Instance of it.

The words are introduced with greatest solemnity, to give them the deeper impression on the hearts of those that read them, and are concerned in them. They are the words of David, whom God had exalted to the Government over His People Israel, and instructed in his Duty: who was Gods own Anointed by an Extraordinary calling And they are his Last words, Probably not that he ever spake, but some of his dying words, and the last that he uttered by a Peculiar Prophetical Inspiration, & they were not his own words, but such as the Spirit of God dictated to him, and spake by him, whereof he was only the Instrument of their being committed to record. They therefore came out of the Mouth of the God and Rock of Israel: and surely there must be unspeakable Importance in words Ushered in with so Majestical a Preface. I might here tell you the divers readings, occasioned by the curt expression of the Hebrew Text, but I shall not spend time in it, since the general current of Interpreters runs the same way with our Translation. And I need but briefly acquaint you that the import or sense of the words is variously understood: some apply them to God himself and accordingly read the words as a continued description of him: he that Ruleth […] men; ⟨p. 6⟩that ruleth men to fear God. Others apply them to Christ, as typified by David; and take them to be a Prophesy of his Mediatorial Kingdom: and then they read it, shall be just, ruling the fear of God: i. e. Divine Instituted worship: pointing to the abrogating of the legal, and bringing in of the Gospel administrations: but then the Type also must be respected, at least under a shadow: and so they suppose that Davids Typical Government is represented. Others take them according to the sense of our Translation, not to be a prediction but a precept, giving us to understand what manner of persons such are required to be, by the Divine Mandate, and that it was left as a Rule to them who should succeed.

The words are introduced with greatest solemnity, to give them the deeper impression on the hearts of those that read them, and are concerned in them. They are the words of David, whom God had exalted to the Government over His People Israel, and instructed in his Duty: who was Gods own Anointed by an Extraordinary calling And they are his Last words, Probably not that he ever spake, but some of his dying words, and the last that he uttered by a Peculiar Prophetical Inspiration, & they were not his own words, but such as the Spirit of God dictated to him, and spake by him, whereof he was only the Instrument of their being committed to record. They therfore came out of the Mouth of the God and Rock of Israel: and surely there must be unspeakable Importance in words Ushered in with so Majestical a Preface. I might here tell you the divers readings, occasioned by the curt expression of the Hebrew Text, but I shall not spend time in it, since the general current of Interpreters runs the same way with our Translation. And I need but briefly acquaint you that the import or sense of the words is variously understood: some apply them to God himself and accordingly read the words as a continued description of him: he that Ruleth men;