COMMON SENSE.                              9

Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee,
for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,
THAT   I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM. According to all the
works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out
of Egypt, even unto this day ; wherewith they have forsaken me
and served other Gods ; so do they also unto thee. Now there-
fore hearken unto their voice, howbeit, protest solemnly unto them,
and shew them the manner of the king that shall  reign over them,
i. e., not of any particular king, but the general manner of
the kings of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying
after. And notwithstanding the great distance of time and
difference of manners, the character is still in fashion. And
Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people, that
asked of him a king. And he said. This shall be the manner of the
king that shall reign over you ; he will take your sons and appoint
them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and
some shall run before his chariots, (this description agrees
with the present mode of impressing men) and he will appoint
him captain over thousands and captains over fifties, and will set
them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his
instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots; and he will
take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be
brakers, (this describes the expence and luxury as well as the
oppression of kings) and he will take your fields and your
olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants,
and he will take the tenth ef your seed, and of your vineyards,
and give them to his officers and to his servants, (by which we
see that bribery, corruption, and favouritism are the standing
vices of kings) and he will take the tenth of your men servants,
and your maid servants, and your goodliest young men, and your
asses, and put them to his work ; and he will take the tenth  of
your sheep, and ye shall be his servants, and ye shall cry out in that
day because of your king which ye shall have chosen, AND THE
LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU IN THAT DAY.” This
accounts for the continuation of monarchy ; neither do
the characters of the few good kings which have lived since,
either sanctify the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the ori-
gin ; the high encomium given of David takes no notice of
him officially as a king, but only as a man after God’s own
heart. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel,
and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may
                                            C                                      be