By Samuel Davies
"The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of islands be glad!" Psalm 97:1
Wise and good rulers are justly accounted an extensive blessing to their subjects. In a government where wisdom sits at the helm; and where justice, tempered with clemency, holds the balance of retribution; where liberty and property are secured; where encroaching ambition is checked; wherehelpless innocence is protected; and where universal order is established—then, consequently, peace and happiness diffuse their streams through the land. In such a situation, every heart must rejoice, every countenance look cheerful, and every bosom glow with gratitude to the happy instruments of such extended beneficence.
But, on the other hand, "Woe to you, oh land, when your king is a child," Eccles. 10:16. That is—weak, injudicious, thoughtless and peevish. This is the denunciation of Solomon, a sage philosopher, and an opulent king, whose station, capacity, and inclination, conspired to give him the deepest skill in politics. This denunciation has been accomplished in every age. Empires have fallen, liberty has been fettered, property has been invaded, the lives of men have been arbitrarily taken away, and misery and desolation have broken in like a flood—when the government has been entrusted in the hands of tyranny, of luxury, or rashness! And the advantages of beneficial climate and soil, and all others which nature could bestow, have not been able to make the subjects happy under the baleful influence of such an administration!
It has frequently been the unhappy fate of nations to be enslaved to such rulers. But such is the unavoidable imperfection of all human governments, that when, like our own, they are managed by the best minds and hands, they are attended with many calamities, and cannot answer several valuable ends. And from both these considerations, we may infer the necessity of a divine government over the whole universe and particularly over the earth, in which we are more especially concerned. Without this supreme universal Monarch, the affairs of this world would fall into confusion; and the concerns of the next world could not be managed at all. The capacities of the wisest of men are scanty, and not equal to all the purposes of government; and hence many affairs of importance will be unavoidably misconducted; and dangerous plots and aggravated crimes may be undiscovered for lack of knowledge; or pass unpunished for lack of power.
