Commandments, Thou Shalt Not Kill: And of the Magistrate. The Sixth Sermon
Justice and innocency are very well joined to the higher power and magistrate’s authority; and in this sixth precept both public and private peace and tranquillity are hedged in and inclosed against open tumults and secret discords. And since the life of man is the most excellent thing in the world, whereupon all other things, of how great price soever they be, do wait and attend; and finally, since the body of man is more worth than all other gifts whatsoever; the very natural order doth seem to require, that the sixth commandment should be placed next, which God himself hath plainly expressed in these few words, Thou shalt not ~~ kill2” For in this precept justice and innocency are comhanded and commended unto us, wherein also it is provided, that no man hurt another’s life or body; and so in this pre-
[1 subjungitur, Lat.] [2 Exod. xx. 13.—duabas duntaxat vocibus proditum, Non occides,]
[Lat.]]
cept charge is given to every one to maintain peace and quietness.
Now here are to be observed the steps that lead to murder; wherein we must consider the kinds and causes of hurting and annoying. For the Lord doth not simply forbid murder, but all things else whereon murder doth consist. ΑἹ] egging on, therefore, and provoking to anger is utterly forbidden; slanderous taunts and brawling speeches are flatly prohibited; strife, wrath, and envy, are plainly commanded to be suppressed. And in this sense we have Christ our Lord himself interpreting this law, where in the Gospel after Matthew he saith: “Ye have heard it said of old, Thou shalt not kill; whosoever killeth shall be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly shall be in danger of judgment. And whosoever shall say unto his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of a council. But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Thou seest here, therefore, that anger, slander, brawling, and all other tokens of a mind moved to utter ill words, are flatly forbidden. What then must thou do? Thou must, forsooth, come into charity again with him whom thou hast offended; thou must lay aside all wrath and envy, unless thou hadst rather have all the honour that thou dost to God be imputed for sin unto thee, and that, peradventure, thou wouldest choose rather utterly to be condemned. For our Lord goeth on in the gospel, and saith: “If therefore thou bring thy gift unto the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother have any thing against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar,” (he speaketh to them, who as then had their temple standing, their altar remaining, and burnt-offerings in use; we, at this day, have another manner of worshipping God,) “and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” And again: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the minister, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt not depart from thence until thou hast paid the utmost farthing?” But for because
cultum, quem Deo exhibes.] [4 Matt. 23—26.]
so few of us obey this sound and wholesome doctrine of the Lord’s, thereby it cometh to pass, that so many great and troublesome tumults happen among men. For small is the substance of them that obey the word of God, but great is the rest and quietness of their consciences. And what pleasure, I pray you, do infinite riches bring to man, since with them a man cannot likely be without troublesome cares of mind, great turmoils and lack of a quiet life? This law therefore, which tends to no other end, but to teach man the way to lead a sweet and pleasant life, doth wholly take from the mind of man such immoderate affections as anger and envy are, two the most pestilent evils that reign among men.
As concerning anger, I mean not at this present to speak over busily, even as also I have determined to be brief touch- Ofanger. ing envy. Of anger many men have uttered many profitable sentences: and yet there is an holy kind of anger, which the scripture disalloweth not; so that, unless a man be angry in that sort, he shall never be a good and godly man. For a good man hath a zeal of God, and in that godly zeal he is angry at the iniquity and naughtiness of mankind; whereof there are many examples to be seen in the scriptures: and this anger doth stomach the sin committed, rather than the person who doth commit the sin. For the good servant of God hateth nothing in the wicked man’s person, but his very sin; so that, if the wicked cease once to sin, he will leave to hate or be angry therewithal any longer. This anger is utterly condemned then, when it springs of evil and corrupt affections; when no just cause is given, but that he, which is offended, doth in his anger either fulfil his affection, or else hurt or determine to hurt him with whom he is angry. A great evil it is, and a fruit, which when it is sown doth yield and bring forth one mischief upon another’s neck. And therefore doth the apostle of Christ counsel all men not to give any place to anger; and if so be it happen that it enter into our minds, and stick there awhile, yet that we suffer it not to catch fast hold, or take deep root therein. Be angry,” saith he, “and sin not. Let not the sun set upon your anger, and give no place to the devil.” Far this is the apostles meaning: if so it happen, that ye be angry, yet sin not; that is, yet bridle your anger. Neither doth the apostle bid
[1 Eph. 26, 27.]
us to be angry, but willeth us not to let our anger to continue long, nor to break out to the working of injury. And παρορ- topos (which word Paul useth) signifieth anger indeed, but yet, more rightly, the stirring or provoking to anger; so that thereby we have to understand, that to him, which is by injury provoked to anger, although he be somewhat grieved and touched at the quick, that grief ought to be but of short continuance: neither must we in any case suffer our adversary?, the devil, to fasten his foot in our hearts, who doth through anger by little and little creep into our minds, and by continual wrath doth work out envy, by which he doth captivate and pervert the whole man, with all his senses, words, and works.
For envy is anger grown into custom by long continu- ofenvy. ance, which doth for the most part vex, burn, and (mangle him that doth) envy, more than the party which is envied; although the envious doth never cease to devise mischief against the man whom he doth envy. It is an endless evil, which doth not admit any remedy to take it away. And therefore did the Gentiles bait and canvass it to and fro with wonderful pretty quips and pithy sentences; some of which I will not be ashamed here to rehearse, to the intent that counterfeit Christians, addicted to envy, may be ashamed of it, if peradventure they will learn to blush, when they find themselves touched by heathens and paynims.
Virgil saith:
In heart, where envy’s seed takes root, There grows a poisoned grain, Which dries and drinks from every limb the blood of every vein; and sucks and soaks the marrow bones, Until they feeble wax; (Such is envenom’d poison’s force,) and yet no bone it cracks
[2 calumniator, Lat. This exposition of St Paul’s words is taken]
[almost verbatim from Erasmus’ Annot. in loc.] [3 invidentem fere torquet, urit, et excarnificat, Lat. The words]
[between brackets are accidentally omitted in the translation. ] [4 Gentes id exagitarunt miris modis, Lat.) [5 Livor tabificum malis venenum Intactis vorat ossibus medullas, Et totum bibit artubus eruorem. Epigr. de Livore. Virgil. Opp. Basil. 1613, p. 1981 ]]
therefore saith Horace: The Sicil tyrants never found A more tormenting hell, Than envy was, &c.l Italicus crieth out: 1ll-favour’d envy, ugly hag, And dogged end Of mortal men, that never could st Abide to lend One word to praise praise-worthy But swell st to see Small things increase, and low To high degree2. speaking of envy, describeth Within did devilish envy sit, And eat the flesh of snakes, To feed the humour of her vice With such kind loathly cates: With face of tallow-caked hue, And body lean like death, With squint eyes turn’d nine sundry With rusty stinking teeth. Her bitter breast was overspread With gaid3 as green as grass; Her tongue, that ceas’d not to With venom poison’d was. She never laugh’d, unless it were When grief made others weep; Aud fretting care within her heart Did keep her eyes from sleep. She sees, and pines away to see, The good success and state Of men that prosper on the earth: And so her deadly hate Is to herself a deadly plague.
[1 Invidia Siculi non invenere tyranni]
[Majus tormentum. Hor. Ep. 1. 2, 58.]]
[2 O dium exitium mortalibus! O nihil unquam]
[Crescere, nec magnas patiens exsurgere laudes,]
[Invidia! Sil. Ttal. Punic. Lib. xvir. 188.]]
[3 Gaid, withes. Shaw’s Gaelic and English Dict. in voc.]
Where as she goes, she mars the corn That grows upon the ground; She makes on trees that blossoms bear There can fruit be found; and with her breath she doth infect Whole houses, realms, and towns
Since, therefore, that envy is so great an evil, and that the Lord commandeth to keep ourselves from it, therein doth appear the Lord’s goodness to us-ward; and thereby we may gather how good and profitable his law is, which tendeth, and is given, to none other end, but to set us at liberty from so great a mischief. And here, by the way, we do perceive, that our fault, and not the waywardness of God, is the cause, why many in this world are never at peace and quietness, but are exceedingly vexed with continual torments. For as they cease not to envy the estate of other, so with their anger they disquiet more than themselves, and do at last duly aby and worthily suffer the deserved punishment of their wicked deeds. And this law doth not only forbid and restrain the motions and evil affections of the mind by wrath, anger, and envy; but doth also give commandment against all manner hurt that riseth by them. Harm and hurt is done by sundry means; by beating, by violent thrusting, by overthrowing, by pulling, and troubling, although in doing so thou dost not wound thy neighbour. But thy sin is the greater, if thou
[4 videt intus edentem Vipereas carnes, vitiorum alimenta suorum, Invidiam.—Pallor in ore sedet, macies in corpore toto: Nusquam recta acies: livent rubigine dentes; Pectora felle virent: lingua est suffusa veneno; Risus abest, nisi quem visi movere dolores. Nec fruitur somno, vigilacibus excita curis: Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo, Successus hominum: carpitque et carpitur una; Suppliciumque suum estQuacumque ingreditur, florentia proterit arva, Exuritque herbas, et summa cacumina carpit; Afflatuque suo populos, urbesque, domosque Polluit. Ovid. Met. Lib. τι. 768, &c.] [5 luunt peenas, Lat. ]]
givest him a wound after what sort soever, either with weapon, or by any means else. And again, thou sinnest yet more grievously, if thou dost quite cut off, or otherwise break, any limb of his body; if thou puttest out his eyes, or dashest a tooth out of his head. So then the better that the limb is that thou cuttest off, or puttest out of joint, the greater is the of sin, and more grievous thine offence. From whence, without doubt, the law called lex talionis! took the beginning, which commandeth to cut off the hand of him, which did cut off another’s hand; and to pluck out the eye of him, which did put out another man’s eye.
Now also, the manner of killing must not be overpassed. The Lord saith, Thou shalt not kill.” We kill divers ways: either we ourselves do the deed, or else we use the help of other to strike the stroke; it is done either privily or openly. And in this sort again there are very many fashions: for we commit murder sometime by holding our peace, sometime by dissembling, by giving ill counsel, by consenting, by aiding, or egging forward to evil. Another peradventure would not do the thing that he doeth, but because he seeth that thou hastenest him on; but because he knoweth he shall please thee thereby; and because he perceiveth that thy help upholdeth him. Although, therefore, that thou with thine own hand strike not the stroke, yet the murder, that another committeth by thy setting on, shall be imputed to thee as well as if thou thyself hadst killed the man. And no marvel, since John, the apostle and evangelist, calleth hatred manslaughter?
Moreover, here are to be touched the causes of murder, or doing of mischief. For hereupon standeth, and from hence cometh, the mischievous deed and foul offence. Murder is committed, and the neighbour endamaged, either unwittingly, or else upon pretended malice. It is done unwittingly, where as, when a man purposeth another thing, by ill hap, or, as I should rather say, by the providence of God, murder doth ensue. As for example; when my mind is to discharge a gun against a buck, meaning to kill the beast, by
[1 See Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Rom. Antiq. sub voe. ἑαϊίο.]
[Arnold’s Hist. of Rome. Chap. xiv. 2. Vol. 1. p. 286. Lond. 1840.] [2 1 John iii. 15.] [3 i. e. designed, premeditated. ]]
hap I strike a man, who unawares to me was in the same wood, cutting timber: or else where as upon simplicity I give my friend a draught of poison, where mine intent was to have given him a medicine to recover his health. For such chances as these hath the Lord in the law‘, and among all nations, prepared sanctuaries for men to flee to, as places of refuge. Murders proceed of pretended malice, when I, being blinded with private greediness, do go about to take from another man that which 15 his, and for resistance do kill him, if he yield it not to me. Of that sort are many wars and foughten battles now-a-days; and of that sort are robberies and murders committed by the highways’ side. That also is pretended murder, when I, for injury that another man doth me, do revenge myself by killing him; or else, when I, being mad with anger, or overcome with wine, do murder the man, whom otherwise, if I were not in that ill-favoured taking, I would make much of and love very heartily.
But now, how foul and detestable an offence murder is, that proceedeth of malice, I think it expedient for me to declare to you, and you to mark in this that followeth. For the consideration thereof, being throughly scanned, must needs undoubtedly work so in the hearts of men, that fewer murders shall be committed, and that every one shall endeavour himself the more, by suppressing anger, to preserve mankind, who is the holy similitude of God himself. The very deed of murder itself fighteth directly and disobediently against the eternal God, who is the life and salvation of the world. For murder destroyeth the very image of God; because man is created to the similitude and likeness of God. If a man should of purpose deface the image of the king or prince, set up at their commandment, he should be accused of treason committed: in how great danger is he then, that doth destroy a man, which is the reasonable, lively, and very picture of God himself! We read that Theodosius the emperor did determine to destroy a great number of the citizens of Antioch, for none other cause but for overthrowing of the image that was set up for the honour of Placilla Augusta. But thereunto is added, that one Macedonius, an hermit, came to the emperor’s messengers, and said: “Ὁ my friends, go say to ~ the emperor, Thou art not an emperor only, but also a man. [1 Numb. xxxv. 11, &e.] [5 everteret in foro, Lat.]
20
[Bullinger. ]
Do not thou cruelly destroy the image of God. Thou angerest thy Maker, when thou killest his image. Consider with thyself, that thou art sorry for an image of brass. Now it is evident to all men what difference there is betwixt a thing that is dead, and that which hath life and a reasonable soul. Moreover, it is an easy matter instead of one brasen image to set up more: but it is unpossible to restore one hair to them that once are slain.” Finally, murder is clean contrary to the nature of man. For man cherisheth himself, and flesh destroyeth not itself, but preserveth and nourisheth itself so much as it may. But all we men, as many as live, are of one lump, and of the same substantial flesh: and to kill a man therefore is against man’s nature. Furthermore, all men are the children of one father, of one stock, and of the same progeny: murder therefore is directly against civil humanity, and is a plague that reigns among men. And doth not the Lord our Redeemer also require charity of all men, which must so abound, that we may not stick to die for our neighbour? To kill our neighbour, therefore, is flatly repugnant to christian religion. And take this by the way too; that the blood of man, shed by murder, crieth out of the earth to heaven for revengement: for to Cain, when he had slain his brother, it was said, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth out of the
[[} Ὃ δῆμος (τῆς ᾿Αντιόχου πόλεως) τὴν χαλκῆν εἰκόνα τῆς πανευφήμου]
[Πλακίλλης. κατήνεγκέ τε καὶ ἐπὶ πολὺ τῆς πόλεως κατέσυρε μέρος. Ταῦτα]
[πυθόμενος ὁ βασιλεὺς, καὶ χαλεπήνας. ἐμπρήσειν ἠπείλει καὶ καταλύσειν]
[καὶ εἰς κώμην τὸ ἄστυ μετασκευάσειν. Μακεδόνιος δὲ ὁ θειότατος. ἐν]
[ταῖς τῶν ὁρῶν κορυφαῖς διαιτώμενος. τῆς χλανίδος θατέρου (τῶν ἀποστα-]
[λέντων ἀπὸ τοῦ βασίλεως) λαβόμενος, ἀμφοτέρους ἐκ τῶν ἵππων καταβῆναι]
[κελεύει. Ὃ δὲ, της θείας σοφίας ἐμφορηθεὶς, τοιοῖσδε πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐχρήσατο]
[λόγοις” Εἴπατε, ὦ φίλοι ἄνδρες, τῷ βασιλεῖ οὐ βασιλεὺς εἰ μόνον, ἀλλὰ]
[καὶ ἄνθρωπος μὴ τοίνυν μόνην ὅρα τὴν βασιλείαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν φύσιν]
[λογίζου ἄνθρωπος γὰρ ὦν, ὁμοφυῶν βασιλεύεις. Kar εἰκόνα δὲ θείαν καὶ]
[ὁμοίωσιν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων δεδημιούργηται φύσις μὴ τοίνυν ὠμῶς οὕτως καὶ]
[ἀπηνῶς τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν εἰκόνα κατασφαγῆναι κελεύσῃς” παροξυνεῖς γὰρ τὸν]
[δημιουργὸν, τὴν ἐκείνου κολάζων εἰκόνα. Σκόπησον γὰρ, ὡς καὶ σὺ χαλκῆς]
[ἕνεκα δυσχεραίνων εἰκόνος ταῦτα ποιεῖς. Ὅσον δὲ τῆς ἀψύχου διαφέρει ἡ]
[ἔμψυχός τε καὶ ζῶσα καὶ λογικὴ, δῆλον ἅπασι τοῖς γε νοῦν ἔχουσι. Πρὸς]
[δὲ τούτοις λογισάσθω κἀκεῖνα, ὡς ἡμῖν μὲν ῥᾷάδιον ἀντὶ τῆς μιᾶς εἰκόνος]
[πολλὰς δημιουργῆσαι χαλκᾶς” αὐτῷ δὲ πάμπαν ἀδύνατον μίαν γοῦν τῶν]
[ἀναιρεθέντων δημιουργῆσαι tpiya.—Theodorit. Eccles. Hist. Lib. v. cap.]
[20 Ed. Reading. Cantab. 1720, pp. 219, 220. See also Calfhill’s]
[Answ. to Martiall. Parker Soc. ed. p. 22.]]
earth, and is come up to me.” For bloodshed verily polluteth and maketh the ground accursed whereon it is shed, and is not cleansed again, nor easily appeased, until it do also drink the guilty blood of them which spilt before the guiltless blood of innocents. Lastly, murders procure and mark the committers thereof with endless spots of reproachful infamy; and, that which is worst of all, it bringeth unto them everlasting damnation. Wherefore Salomon in his proverbs saith: “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not unto them. If they say, Come with us, we will lay wait for blood, and will lurk privily for the innocent without a cause; We will swallow them up like the grave quick, and whole as those that go down into the pit; We shall find all manner of costly riches, and fill our houses with the prey; Cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse: My son, walk not thou with them, but rather pull back thy foot from their ways. For their feet run to evil, and are hasty to shed blood?” Now David saith, that the blood-thirsty man, and the hypocrite, are abominable to the Lord3.”
From this law is exempted the magistrate ordained by God, whom God commandeth to use authority and to kill, threatening to punish him most sharply, if he neglect to kill the men whom God commandeth to be killed. This sixth commandment of the law, therefore, doth flatly forbid upon private authority to kill any man: but the magistrate killeth at God’s commandment, when he putteth to death those which are by law condemned for their offences, or when in defence of his people he doth justly and necessarily arm himself to the battle. And yet the magistrates may offend in those two points two sundry ways. For either they do by law, that is, under the coloured pretence of law, slay the guiltless, to satisfy their own lust, hatred, or covetousness; as we read, that Jezebel slew the just man Naboth, with the Lord’s prophets: or else by peevish pity and foolish clemency do let them escape scot-free, whom the Lord commanded them to kill; as Saul and Achab are reported to have sinned in letting go the bloody kings whom God commanded to be slain. And Salomon, in the seventeenth of his
[2 Prov. i. 10—16.] [3 Psal. v. 6.] (4 1 Sam. xv; 1 Kings xx. 42.) [6 1 Kings xxi. & xviii. 13. Hooper’s Barly Writ. ed. Park. Soe. Ὁ. 475.] 20—2]
Proverbs, doth testify, that the Lord doth as greatly hate the magistrate that acquitteth a wicked person, as him that condemneth an innocent man!. The magistrates also in making or else repelling war do offend two ways in this sort: for either they do unjustly themselves make war upon other men, and entangle their people therein; or else they suffer foreign enemies to rob and spoil the people committed to their charge, and do not with such force as they may keep off and defend? that open wrong and manifest injury. Both these offences are of sundry sorts, and therewithal so great that they can hardly be purged. Thou readest therefore, that the holy kings of Israel did never make war upon anybody, unless the Lord commanded them. And they again fought for their people, and suffered them not to be led away captive, as miserable bond-slaves. For so did the blessed patriarch Abraham follow upon and pursue those four kings, nay, rather cutthroat robbers of the east, and recovered by force of arms Lot, Lot’s substance, and the people of Sodom that were carried away? And such wars as these are taken in hand, either for the recovery, or else for the confirmation, of peace: so that the magistrates that make war in such a cause are richtly and indeed the children of God, because they are peace-makers; for all peace-makers are the children of God. 6 And now this place and argument do require, that I speak somewhat touching the office or authority of the magistrate: which (by God’s help) I will assay to do, not that I mean or can allege all that may be said thereof, but that which shall seem most properly to declare the meaning of it, and is most necessary for this present treatise.
[1 Prov. xvii. 15.] (2 i. e. repel, keep off.—Johnson. So in Early Writings of Hooper,]
[Parker Soc. ed. p. 107.] [3 Gen. xiv. 14—16.] [ The mischievous tenets of the Anabaptists rendered so necessary]
[in the age of Bullinger the setting forth of the true doctrine concern-]
[ing civil magistracy. A summary proof of this necessity is thus given]
[by Melancthon: Spe et olim et recens fuerunt hypocrite supersti-]
[tiosi et fanatici, qui. magistratuum functiones, judicia, leges forenses,]
[legitimas peenas, imperia, bella legitima, militiam damnaverunt. Tales]
[furores olim sparserunt Marcion et Manicheei;—circumtulerunt et simi-]
[les errores ante trecentos annos Flagelliferi, ut vocabantur; et hoc]
Magistratus (which word we use for the room wherein the magistrate is) doth take the name a magistris populi designandis, of assigning the masters, guiders, and captains of the people.” That room and place is called by the name of “power” or “authority,” by reason of the power that is given to it of God. It is called by the name of “domination,” for the dominion that the Lord doth grant it upon the earth. They are called princes that have that dominion: for they have a pre-eminence above the people. They are called consuls, of counselling; and kings, of commanding, ruling, and governing the people. So, then, the magistracy (that I may henceforward use this word of the magistrate’s power and place) is an office, and an action in executing of the same. Aristotle defineth a magistrate to be a keeper of laws. Plutarch, in that book wherein he sheweth that learning is required to be in a king, among other things saith: ‘ Princes are the ministers of God for the oversight and safeguard of mortal men, to the end that they may partly distribute, and partly keep, the good things that he doth liberally give, and frankly bestow upon them” The magistracy, by the seriptures, may be defined to be a divine ordinance or action, whereby the good being defended by the prince’s aid, and the evil suppressed by the same authority, godliness, justice, honesty, peace, and tranquillity, both public and private, are safely preserved. Whereby we gather, that to govern a commonweal, and to execute the office of a magistrate, is a worship and service to God himself. God verily is delighted therein. For the office of a magistrate is a thing most excellent, and abounding with all good works, as in my former sermon I have declared.
“Now there are three kinds of magistracies or governments of commonweals; the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the
[nostro tempore Anabaptistee passim vagantes adhue circumferunt hos]
[errores.—Melanc. Loc. Com. Erlang. 1838. Vol. 1. pars 2. p. 138.] [5 Ἔστι δὲ ὁ ἄρχων φύλαξ τοῦ dikalov.—Aristot. Eth. Lib. v. cap. 6.]
[In Polit. 11. 6. 16, Aristotle calls magistrates, νομοφύλακας kai ὑπηρέτας]
[τοῖς νόμοις. [6 ᾿Αληθέστερον δ᾽ ἄν τις εἴποι τοὺς ἄρχοντας ὑπηρετεῖν Θεῷ πρὸς ἀν-]
[θρώπων ἐπιμέλειαν καὶ σωτηρίαν, ὅπως, ὧν Θεὸς δίδωσιν ἀνθρώποις καλῶν]
[καὶ ἀγαθῶν, τὰ μὲν νέμωσι, τὰ δὲ ularrwow.—Plutarch ad Princip.]
[Indoct. ]]
democracy!. We may call the monarchy a kingdom, wherein one alone doth by just and upright laws rule all things and causes in the commonweal. For if that justice and equity be once neglected, and that this one doth against all right and reason rule all the roost, then is he a tyrant, and his power is tyranny, that is to say, wrong and injury; which is a disease of that troubled kingdom, and a vice that is, as it were, set opposite to be the destruction of that commonweal. The aristocracy is the superior power of a few peers, where a certain number of holy and upright men are chosen to be the guides and rulers of the people. And this did first begin by the fall of tyranny: for when men perceived how dangerous it was to commit the rule of their whole state into one man’s hand, they altered the order, and gave the charge thereof to an appointed number of chosen men, who did excel the common sort in power and authority. But if these chief or head men use evil means to come to authority, and, neglecting the commonweal, do hunt after their own advantage; then is their government not to be called an aristocracy, but an oligarchy, that is, the violent lust of a few, and not the good and upright government of chosen peers. So then these few violent rulers are the contrary to the estate, where upTight headmen have the pre-eminence. The democracy may be called a commonweal, wherein all the people together bear the whole sway and absolute authority. And this democracy began first by the fall of the oligarchy. For when the people saw that their headmen did abuse their power, and waxed violent rulers, they displaced them, and kept the authority to themselves, meaning that every man should freely give his voice in matters touching the commonweal. This kind of government breaketh out commonly into outrageous tumults?, I mean, into seditions and conspiracies: for no man will suffer himself to be corrected, while every man will challenge to himself full and absolute authority to do what he lusteth, because, forsooth, he is one and a member of the people, in whose hands the whole authority doth consist.
[[! On this subject of the various forms of governments and their]
[abuses, Bullinger seems to have borrowed from Aristot. Ethic. Lib.]
[vir. cap. 10.] (2 Systremma, Lat. σύστρεμμα, tumultus e concursu hominum.—]
[Hederic. Lex.]]
Now touching the excellency of these forms or kinds of government, it maketh not greatly to my purpose to dispute which ought to be preferred before other. Many have preferred the monarchy before the rest: but therewithal they added, “1 he which holdeth the monarchy be a good and upright prince.” Which, nevertheless, is rare to be found. They also, which were of that opinion, did themselves live under princes in monarchies. “But it is dangerous to speak against Jupiter.” Among many kings of Judah and Israel thou shalt find a very few good, or at least wise tolerable and indifferent, princes; whereby we may perceive that the Lord did not in vain, by the mouth of Samuel, persuade his people to keep their aristocracy, and to be ruled by their priests and elders, as God, by Moses and Jethro, the wisest in the world, had ordained long before. And yet none can deny, but that great perils and infinite discommodities are in the aristocracy, but far more many in the democracy. But such is the condition of mortal men in this corruptible flesh, that nothing among them is absolutely and on every side happy ὁ; and therefore that seemeth to them to be most excellent, which, although it be not altogether without inconveniences and some kind of vices, doth nevertheless, in comparison of other, bring fewer perils and lesser annoyance. But howsoever that case doth stand, the apostles of Christ do command us to obey the magistrate, whether he be king, or senate of chosen men. For Paul in his epistle to Titus saith: “Warn them to be subject to rule and power, and to obey magistrates.” For to the Romans he saith: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for no power is but of God, and those powers that are are ordained by GodS” Again, to Timothy he saith: “I exhort you that prayers be made for kings, and for all that are in authority?” If therefore any man live in a monarchy, let him obey the king: if in a commonweal of what title soever, let him be ruled by the consuls, tribunes,
[3 The proverb most like this occurs in Ray, as the Italian form of]
[our English one, “No jesting with edge tools, or with bell-ropes:” viz.]
[“Tresca con i fanti, et lascia star i santi; i. e. Play with children, and]
[let the saints alone.”—Ray’s Proverbs, p. 124.] [( Nihil est ab omni parte beatum. Quoted from Hor. Od. Lib. τι.]
[16 27.] [5 Titus iii. 1.] [6 Rom. xiii. 1.] I 1.Tim, ji, 1.]]
headmen, and elders of the people. For we ought rather to obey the ordinance of God, than over curiously to dispute of the kinds of governments, which is the better or worse than other. ΛΠᾺ in all cases truly, the magistrate is very necessary, bi- and cannot be missing among men; yea, he is so necessary, that without the magistrate’s help the state of men can hardly prosper, or easily stand. Neither dost thou read, that the state and commonweal of the Israelites was ever at any time in greater danger and peril of undoing, than it was in the middle time betwixt Sampson and Heli, when they were governed by no magistrates, but did every man what he thought good himself’. For all men even from their birth are blindly led with self-love, and therefore they seek their own advantage; nothing pleaseth them but what they do themselves, they utterly mislike the deeds and words of other men: yea, such is our fond affection and opinionative sense, that how evil soever our causes are, yet we will not stick to face them out with a card of ten2, and to colour them with law and equity. He that will stand in denial hereof, did never consider man’s disposition. The people of Israel, at their delivery out of Egypt, saw wonderful signs; they were marvellously fed from heaven in the desert, and did every day behold new miracles. But yet, hearken, my brethren, and consider, what Moses, the meekest and gentlest man that ever was, doth say touching this holy people, this people of God, whom God had chosen to be a peculiar people unto himself: “How shall 1 alone,” saith he to the people, “bear your trouble, your burden, and the strifes that are among you3?” What
[1 Judg. xvii. 6.] [2 Causis nostris licet pessimis jus preetexamus et justitiam, Lat.]
[The proverbial expression used by the translator occurs in Shakspeare’s]
[Taming of the Shrew, Act 1. Scene 1. ad fin. and, earlier still, in]
[Skelton: Fyrste pycke a quarell, and fall out with him then, And so outface hym with a carde of tenTh Bouge of Courte.]
[The phrase of a card of ten was possibly derived, by a jocular allusion,]
[from that of a hart of ten, in hunting, which meant a full-grown deer;]
[one past six years of age. Nares’s Glossary, in voc. Card. 1 con-]
[ceive the force of the phrase to have expressed originally the confidence]
[or impudence of one who with a ten, as at brag, faced, or out-faced]
[one who had really a faced card against him.—Ibid. in voc. to face it.] [3 Deut. i. 12.]]
VL] THE SIXTH PRECEPT OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 3813 may be thought of that moreover, that in the most sure fellowship of the ancient and apostolic church, yea, in those very vessels which were regenerate, the wrangling disposition of flesh did shew itself? For the Greeks murmured against the Hebrews, because their widows in the daily ministry were little regarded. The Corinthians also go to law before heathen judges; and therefore doth Paul very sharply rebuke them, and chargeth them to appoint honest judges among themselves to take up matters betwixt them that were at variance. Let no man therefore make this objection, and say, that the old people of Israel were a carnal pecple and not regenerate. For we see, that even in the regenerate the relics of flesh remain, which ever and anon, when occasion is offered, do shew forth themselves, and trouble the quiet state of everything. For I will not now say that the greater sort of men do rather follow the flesh than the spirit. And for that cause God, who loveth man, who keepeth and preserveth civility, peace, and human society, hath prepared and applied a medicine against those grievous diseases of men; he hath appointed the magistrate, I say, to step betwixt them that strive with the authority of law and equity, to judge and discuss matters betwixt them that are at variance, to bridle and suppress wrong and affections, and lastly, to save the guiltless and innocents. Whosoever subverteth this ordinance of God, till such time as men do leave their wayward disposition, he bringeth utter confusion to every state, and aideth wrongful dealers and violent robbers to oppress and root out the best sort of people. By this verily, which hitherto we have alleged, it is manifestly apparent, that the magistrate is ordained by God for the safeguard of the good, and punishment of the evil; I mean, for the good and quiet state of mortal men. Wherefore we read, that from the beginning there have been magistrates in the world. Vo Hereunto do appertain these testimonies of the holy seripture. Moses in the law calleth the judges Gods, and this “judgment,” saith he, “is God’s’.” From whence also Josaphat borrowed that saying, which he spake to the judges, where he saith: “See what ye do: for ye judge not to man, but
[4 Acts vi. 1.] [51 Cor. vi. 1—4.] [6 priusquam homines angelicum recipiant ingenium, Lat. ] [7 Exod. xxii. 28; Deut. i. 17.]]
to the Lord, which is with you in the causes which ye judge: let the fear of God therefore be in your hearts!.” St Peter saith, that we must “obey the magistrate for the Lord’s sake, by whom he is ordained to the praise of the good, and terrifying of the evil2” And Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, saith: There is no power but of God, and the powers that are are ordained by God: and whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and he that resisteth shall receive to himself damnation. For rulers are not fearful to them that do well, but to the evil. For he is the minister of God, revenger of wrath on him that doth evil3” The magistrate therefore is of God; his office is good, holy, pleasing God, just, profitable, and necessary for men: and the rulers, which do rightly execute their office, are the friends and worshippers of God; they are his elect instruments, by whom he worketh man’s health and safeguard. We have examples hereof in Adam, all the patriarchs, our father Noe, Joseph, Moses, Josue, Gedeon, Samuel, David, Josaphat, Ezechias, Josias, Daniel, and many other after the time of Christ, who rightly executed the office of magistrates.
Now many there are which will have the magistrate to be of two sorts, to wit, either good or bad. The good magistrate is he who, being lawfully ordained, doth lawfully execute his office and duty. The evil magistrate is he which, when he hath by evil means got the authority, doth turn and dispose it as himself lusteth. And hereupon the question is wont to be demanded: Whether an evil, that is, a tyrannical, magistrate, be of God or no? To this I answer, that God is the author of good, and not of evil. For God by nature of 15. good, and all his purposes are good, being directed to the health and preservation, not to the destruction, of us men. Therefore the good and healthful ordaining of the magistrate, without all doubt, is of God himself, who is the author of all goodness.
But here it is requisite, that we make a difference betwixt the office which is the good ordinance of God, and the evil person that doth not rightly execute that good office. If therefore in the magistrate evil be found, and not the good for which he was ordained, that cometh of other causes, and
[1 2 Chron. xix. 6, 7.] [2 1 Pet. ii. 14.] [ Rom. xiii. 1—4.]]
the fault thereof is in the men and persons, which neglect God and corrupt the ordinance of God, and not in God, nor in his ordinance: for either the evil prince, seduced by the devil, corrupteth the ways of God, and by his own fault and naughtiness transgresseth God’s ordinance, so far, that he doth worthily deserve the name of devilish power, and not divine authority;—(we have an example hereof in the magistrate of Jerusalem: for although he were able to refer the beginning of his power by degrees unto Moses, and so unto God himself who did ordain it; yet, for because he taketh the Saviour in the garden and bindeth him, to his servants it is said, “Ye are come out as it were to a thief with swords and staves; when I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched not forth your hands against me; but this is even your hour, and the power of darkness” Lo, here he calleth the ordinary magistrate the power of the devil, when he abuseth his power. What could be more evidently spoken? But here ye must mark, that the reproach was in the person, and not in the office. Likewise also the Roman empire was ordained by God, as by the visions of Daniel it is clearly evident: and yet, when Nero, not without God’s ordinance, bare the sway in the empire, whatsoever he did as king and emperor, contrary to the office of a good king, that did he not of God, but of the devil: for whereas he hung up and beheaded the apostles of Christ? moving a bloody persecution against the church, that sprang not from elsewhere than from the devil, the father of murder. So then, verily, we ought not at any time to defend the tyrannical power, and say that it is of God: for tyranny is not a divine, but a devilish, kind of government; and tyrants themselves are properly the servants of the devil, and not of God:) or else otherwise, some people do deserve by their wicked deeds to have, not a king, but a tyrant. So then the people’s sin is another cause that evil magistrates are found in commonweals. In the meanwhile, the king is of the Lord, and sometimes he makes an hypocrite reign. Wherefore the evil magistrate is of God, even as also seditions, wars, plagues, hail, frost, and other miseries of mankind come from the Lord, as punishment of
[[ Luke xxii. 52, 53.] [5 Paul is said to have been beheaded, and Peter crucified, at Rome,]
[under Nero.—Euseb. Hist. Eccles. Lib. 11. cap. 25.]]
sin and wickedness, which the Lord hath appointed to be executed, as he himself saith: “I will give them children to be their kings, and infants shall rule them; because their tongue and heart hath been against the Lord.” Likewise the Lord stirred up the cruel kings of Assyria and Babylon against his city and own peculiar people, whose living was not agreeable to their profession. op. But now, how and after what sort subjects ought to be them. affected toward such hard, cruel, and tyrannical princes, we Jearn partly by the example of David, and partly by the doctrine of Jeremy and the apostles. David was not ignorant what kind of man Saul was, a wicked and merciless fellow: yet, notwithstanding, he fled to escape his hands; and when he had occasion given him once or twice to kill him, he slew him not, but spared the tyrant and reverenced him as though he had been his father? Jeremias prayed for Joachim and Zedechias, wicked kings both, and obeyed them until they came to matters flatly contrary to God’s religion’. For where I spake touching the honour due to parents, there did I by the scriptures prove, that we ought not to obey the wicked commandments of godless magistrates, because it is not permitted to magistrates to ordain or appoint any thing contrary to God’s law, or the law of nature. Now the Acts of the Apostles teach us in what sort the apostles did behave themselves in dealing with tyrannical magistrates. Let them, therefore, that are vexed with tyrants, and oppressed with wicked magistrates, take this advice to follow in that perplexity. First, let them call to remembrance, and consider, what and how great their sins of idolatry and uncleanness are, which have already deserved the revenging anger of their jealous God: and then let them think, that God will not withdraw his scourge, unless he see that they redress their corrupt manners and evil religion. So then first, they must go about and bring to pass a full reformation of matters in religion, and perfect amendment of manners amiss: then must they pray continually that God will vouchsafe to pull and draw his oppressed people out of the mire of mischief, wherein they stick fast. For that counsel did the Lord himself, in the eighteenth after
[1 Tsai iii. 4, 8.] [2 1 Sam. xxiv. and xxvi.] [3 Jer. vii. 16, and xiv. ]]
Luke, give to those that are oppressed, promising therewithal assured aid and present delivery. But what and how the oppressed must pray, there are examples extant in the ninth of Daniel, and in ὑπὸ fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Let them also, whose minds are vexed, call to remembrance the sayings of Peter and Paul, the chief of the apostles. “The Lord,” saith Peter, ‘ knoweth how to deliver his from temptation, as he delivered Lot.” Paul saith: “God is faithful, and will not suffer his to be tempted above their strength; yea, he will turn their temptations unto the best” Letthem call to mind the captivity of Israel, wherein God’s people were detained at Babylon by the space of seventy years: and therewithal let them think upon the goodly comfort of the captives, which Esay hath expressed from his fortieth chapter unto his forty-ninth. Let us persuade ourselves, that God is good, merciful, and omnipotent, so that he can, when he will, at ease deliver us, He hath many ways and means to set us at liberty. Let us have a regard only, that our impenitent, filthy, and wicked life do not provoke the Lord to augment and prolong the tyrants’ cruelty. The Lord is able, upon the sudden, to change the hearts of princes (for the hearts of kings are in the hands of the Lord, as the rivers of water, to turn them which way he will5”’), and to make them, which have been hitherto most cruelly set against us, to be our friends and favourable to us; and them which have heretofore most bloodily persecuted the true religion, to embrace the same most ardently, and with a burning zeal to promote it so far as they may. We have evident examples hereof in the books of the Kings, of Esdras, and Nehemias, and in the volume of Daniel’s prophecy. Nabuchodonosor, whose purpose was to toast with fire and utterly to destroy the martyrs of God for true religion, was immediately after compelled to praise God, because he saw the martyrs preserved: and he himself doth by edicts given out publicly proclaim and set forth the only true God and his true religion. Darius, the son of Assuerus?, suffereth Daniel
[4 imo tentationibus etiam felicem concedet eventum, Lat. 1 Cor.]
[x. 13. So Erasmus expounds; dabit et exitum bonum.—Amnnotat. in]
[loc. cit.] (6 Prov. xxi. 1.] [ὁ Dan. iii.] [7 See Prideaux. Connect. Vol. 1. pp. 72, 104, 122, ed. MCaul.]
[1845. See also above, page 51, note 3.]]
to be cast into the lions’ den: but straightway he draweth him out again, and shutteth up Daniel’s enemies in the same den, to be torn in pieces by the famishing beasts. Cyrus, the puissant king of Persia, advanceth true religion: Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose surname was Artaxerxes, did by all means possible aid and set forward the godly intent of God’s people in building up again their city and temple. Let us not doubt therefore of God’s aid and helping hand. For God sometime doth utterly destroy, and sometime he chasteneth, untoward tyrants with some horrible and sudden disease: as it is evident that it happened to Antiochus? Herod the Great3, and to his nephew, Herod Agrippa, to Maxentius also, and other enemies of God and tyrants over menS. Sometime he stirreth up noble captains and valiant men to displace tyrants, and set God’s people at liberty; as we see many examples thereof in the books of Judges and Kings. But lest any man do fall to abuse those examples, let him consider their calling by God: which calling if he have not, or else do prevent, he is so far of from doing good in killing the tyrant, that it is to be feared lest he do make the evil double so much as it was before. Thus much hitherto. Now I return to that which by my digression remaineth yet unspoken of.
Here I have to speak somewhat touching the election of magistrates: and first, to whom the choice and ordering of the magistrate doth belong; secondarily, whom and what kind of men it is best to choose to be magistrates; and lastly, the manner and order of consecrating those which once are chosen.
Touching the election of magistrates, to whom that office should belong, no one and certain rule can be prescribed.
[[ The Artaxerxes, who so much befriended the Jews in the days]
[of Ezra and Nehemiah, and whom, no doubt, Bullinger means, was]
[Artaxerxes Longimanus. Yet the Jewish tradition makes Darius]
[Hystaspis to be Artaxerxes, and Bullinger, perhaps, followed it.—]
[See Prideaux. Con. Vol. 1. pp. 201, 244. ed. Μ’ Caul, 1845.] [2 Prideaux’s Connect. Vol. 11. p. 189.] [3 Ibid. p. 613. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Lib. 1. cap. 8.] [ Acts xii. 21—23, grandson of Herod the Great;—nepoti, Lat.—]
[Euseb. Eccles. Hist. Lib. 11. cap. 10.] [5 Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, &c. Vol. i. chap. xiv. p. 232. ed.]
[1820. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. Lib. 1x. cap. 9.] [6 See Jewel’s Works.—Parker Soc. ed. pp. 977—8.]]
For in some places the whole commonalty doth choose their peers”; in other places the peers do choose the magistrates; and in other places princes come to it by succession and birth. In discussing which of these orders should be the best, it were but folly to make much ado. For to every kingdom and every city is worthily left their country fashion, unless it be altogether too too corrupt, and not to be borne withal. But where princes come to it by birth, their earnest prayer must be made to the Lord, that he will grant them to be good.
Now for the good election of magistrates, the Lord himself declareth whom and what kind of men he will have to be chosen, in these very words: “Look over all the people, consider them diligently, and choose from among them men of courage, such as fear God, speakers of truth, and haters of covetousness, and make them rulers over thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, to judge the people at all seasons.” Four things the Lord requireth in a good governour. First, that he be a man of courage, of strength or force, that is, which hath ability to do the thing whereunto he is appointed. That ability consisteth in mind rather than in body. For it is required, that he be not a fool, but wise and skilful in that which he hath to do: because the office of a captain is to know how to set his army in order of battle, rather than to fight himself; as also the duty of a surveyor of works is to know how buildings must be erected, rather than to work himself; or as a chariot-man ought rather to know how to guide his cart in driving, than to draw it himself. And therewithal too, there is demanded a boldness of stomach to dare to do the thing that he already knoweth; for constancy and sufferance are very needful in every captain. In the second place that is set down, which indeed is the first; let him fear God, let him be religious, and not superstitious. No idolater preserveth the commonweal, but rather destroyeth it; and a wicked man defendeth not truth and true religion, but persecuteth and driveth them out of his jurisdiction. Let this magistrate of ours therefore be of the right religion, sound in faith, believing the word of God, and knowing that God is present among men and doth repay to whom he list according to their deserts. And for that cause Justinian, the emperor, in Novellis Constitutionib. 109, doth freely confess that all
[7 optimates, Lat.] [8 Exod. xviii. 21.]
his help is of God; and that therefore it is convenient, that the making of all laws should depend upon him alone. Immediately after he saith: “It is known very well to all men, that they in whose hands the empire was before it came to us, and especially that Leo of worthy memory, and the most sacred prince Justin our father, did in their constitutions flatly forbid all heretics to be admitted soldiers in any warfare, or dealers in matters concerning the commonwealth, that the less occasion might be given, by receiving them into the fellowskip of war or handling of public affairs, for any to think that they corrupt the members of God’s holy catholic and apostolic Church. And this decree do we establish.” Thus saith the emperor. And the godly man verily prayeth to God, and receiveth wisdom at the Lord’s hand. And where the princes are God’s friends, and have often conference with God, there is hope that those commonweals shall prosper and flourish. But, on the other side, there must needs be feared an unhappy end of that commonweal, where the enemies of God have the pre-eminence. Thirdly, there is required of him, which must be chosen and called to be magistrate, that he be true in word and deed, so that he be not found to be an hypocrite, a liar, a deceiver, a turncoat, nor one which out of one mouth doth blow both hot and cold; but faithful, simple, a plain dealer, and blameless. He must not be more liberal in promising than in performing. He must not be one that setteth light by an oath, not a false swearer, nor a perjured man. Fourthly, because many that are in office desire riches, and seek to increase their wealth by bribes, the Lord removeth such from the magistracy, and forbiddeth good magistrates to be covetous: yea, he doth expressly charge them to hate and abhor
[1 Μίαν ἡμῖν εἶναι βοήθειαν ἐπὶ παντὶ τῷ τῆς ἡμετέρας πολιτείας τε Kai]
[βασιλείας βίῳ τὴν εἰς Θεὸν ἐλπίδα πιστεύομεν εἰδότες ὅτι τοῦτο ἡμῖν καὶ]
[τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τὴν τῆς βασιλείας δίδωσι σωτηρίαν ὥστε καὶ τὰς]
[νομοθεσίας τὰς ἡμετέρας ἐκεῖθεν ἠρτῆσθαι προσήκει. Ἴσασι τοίνυν]
[ἅπαντες, ὡς οἱ πρὸ ἡμῶν βεβασιλευκότες, καὶ μάλιστα Λέων ὁ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς]
[μνήμης, καὶ ᾿Ιουστῖνος ὁ τῆς θείας λήξεως ἡμῶν πατὴρ, ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν]
[διατάξεσι, τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς ἅπασιν ἀπηγόρευσαν ὥστε μηδεμίαν αὐτοὺς μετ-]
[ἰέναι στρατείαν, μήτε δὲ τὴν οἱανοῦν ἐπὶ δημοσίαις φροντίσι μετουσίαν]
[ἔχειν ὅπως ἂν μὴ προφάσει τῶν στρατεῖων τῶν τε δημοσίων ἐπιταγμάτων]
[τῷ τῆς ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς ἐκκλησίας μέρει φανεῖεν]
[λυμαινόμενοι” καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο mempayapev.—Justin. Anth. Collat]
[ὙΠ]. tit. 9. Novell. 109. Preefat. p. 431. Gotting. 1797.]]
it; as he doth also, in another place, not only forbid them to take bribes, but also command them to shake off and rid their hands of all rewards? Covetousness and greedy desire of bribes are the very plagues that choke good magistrates. By covetous men and takers of bribes law, judgment, liberty, justice, and the country itself, is set to sale and sold to the devil for money. And now, though in this place the Lord hath named only the most pestilent mischief of all other, yet there is no doubt but that he doth inclusively debar all other vices and evils of that sort, commanding them to be strange and far off from the good magistrate and godly governor. Those vices are pride, envy, anger, dicing, surfeiting, drunkenness, whoredom, adultery, and whatsoever else is like to these.
This place is made more manifest by conferring it with other places in the law of God. Moses, in Deuteronomy, saith to the people: “” Bring men of wisdom, of understanding, and of an honest life, according to your tribes” Three things here again doth the wise man, Moses, require in them that are to be appointed magistrates in his commonweal. First, saith he, let them be wise. But the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Let them therefore be ordained magistrates, that are friends to God and true religion; let them be wise, and not foolish idiots. Secondarily, they must be men of understanding; that is, men of experience, who by long and continual exercise in handling of matters are able at the first brunt to deal in all cases according to the law. Lastly, they must be men of honest report, whose life and sound conversation are by their deeds perfectly tried and sufficiently witnessed of unto the people: and finally, they must be such as bear authority, and not be despised as rascal and vile knaves.
In the book of Numbers also Moses saith: “Let the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation, which may go in and out before them, and lead them in and out, that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep without a shepherd.” By these words of the holy prophet we learn who are to be chosen, and how they are to be chosen, into the office of magistrates. Moses prayed to the Lord for a fit and a convenient man: and we therefore must pray to
[2 Tsai. xxxiii. 15.) [3 Deut. i. 13.] (+ Numb. xxvii. 16, 17.] 21 [BULLINGER.]]
God, who searcheth all men’s hearts, that he will vouchsafe to send such men to be our magistrates as are meet for that room and calling. The outward shew doth many times deceive us, and we judge him to be a good and godly man who is indeed a notable hypocrite. God alone doth know the mind: we must beseech him, therefore, that he suffer us not in our choice to err or choose amiss. Let him be thought the best and meetest for the purpose, who is instructed with the Holy Spirit of God. Furthermore, he that is appointed to that office must still be the first and the last, and always at one end in all matters of weight and public affairs. Some unprofitable and idle drones there are, that drive other forward, and after the first onset do themselves take their ease. And some wicked fellows there are, which will appoint other what to do, but will themselves do nothing of that which by right belongs unto their office. The guide of the people must be a man of choice elected to be magistrate, whose care is day and night to have an eye that the flock of the Lord be not scattered, endangered, nor utterly destroyed. And thus have I hitherto told you what kind of men they ought to be, to whom the charge is to be committed over the Lord’s people.
Last of all, touching the manner of consecrating magistrates, sundry cities and countries have sundry customs. Let every country freely retain their own usual order. I for my part think best of that manner of consecrating, wherein sumptuous pomp is little or none, but what reason and decency seem to allow. The best and most profitable way is, in consecrating them that are once chosen, to use a certain moderate ceremony, and that too in the face of all the people, that every one may know who they be that are the fathers of the people, to whom they owe honour, whom they ought to obey, and for whose health and welfare they ought to pray. The people of God had a certain prescribed ceremony, which we read that they used in consecrating their kings and magistrates: and it is certain that it was profitably and for good causes first invented, and then commanded by God himself.
The rest that is yet behind to be spoken touching the magistrate I mean to defer until to-morrow. And now to end with thanksgiving, let us praise the Lord, το.
[1 a Deo inventum atque traditum, Lat. ]]
Of the Office of the Magistrate? Whether the Care of Religion Appertain to Him or No
And Whether He May Make Laws and Ordinances in Cases of Religion. The Seventh Sermon
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