II. To show that when such strong rods are broken and withered by death,
'tis an awful judgment of God on the people that are deprived of them and
worthy of great lamentation.
And that on two accounts:
1. By reason of the many _positive benefits_ and blessings to a people
that such rulers are the instruments of.
Almost all the prosperity of a public society and civil community does,
under God, depend on their rulers. They are like the main springs or
wheels in a machine that keep every part in their due motion, and are in
the body politic, as the vitals in the body natural, and as the pillars
and foundation in a building. Civil rulers are called "the foundations of
the earth," Psalm lxxxii. 5, and xi. 3.
The prosperity of a people depends more on their rulers than is commonly
imagined. As they have the public society under their care and power, so
they have advantage to promote the public interest every way; and if they
are such rulers as have been spoken of, they are some of the greatest
blessings to the public. Their influence has a tendency to promote their
wealth and cause their temporal possessions and blessings to abound: and
to promote virtue amongst them, and so to unite them one to another in
peace and mutual benevolence, and make them happy in society, each one the
instrument of his neighbor's quietness, comfort and prosperity; and by
these means to advance their reputation and honor in the world; and which
is much more, to promote their spiritual and eternal happiness. Therefore,
the wise man says, Eccles. x. 17, "Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king
is the son of nobles."
We have a remarkable instance and evidence of the happy and great
influence of such a strong rod as has been described to promote the
universal prosperity of a people in the history of the reign of Solomon,
though many of the people were uneasy under his government, and thought
him too rigorous in his administration (see 1 Kings xii. 4). "Judah and
Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from
Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon," 1 Kings iv. 25. "And he
made silver to be among them as stones for abundance," chap x. 27. "And
Judah and Israel were many, eating and drinking and making merry," [chap.
iv. 20]. The queen of Sheba admired and was greatly affected with the
happiness of the people under the government of such a strong rod: 1 Kings
x. 8, 9, says she, "Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants which
stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the
Lord thy God which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel;
because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he thee king, to do
judgment and justice."
The flourishing state of the kingdom of Judah, while they had strong rods
for the sceptres of them that bare rule, is taken notice of in our
context: "Her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she
appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches."
Such rulers are eminently the ministers of God to his people for good:
they are great gifts of the Most High to a people and blessed tokens of
his favor and vehicles of his goodness to them, and therein images of his
own Son, the grand medium of all God's goodness to fallen mankind: and
therefore, all of them are called _sons of the Most High_. All civil
rulers, if they are, as they ought to be, such strong rods as have been
described, will be like the Son of the Most High, vehicles of good to
mankind, and like him, will be as the light of the morning when the sun
riseth, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springeth out
of the earth, by clear shining after rain. And therefore, when a people
are bereaved of them, they sustain an unspeakable loss and are the
subjects of a judgment of God that is greatly to be lamented.
2. On account of the _great calamities_ such rulers are _a defence from_.
Innumerable are the grievous and fatal calamities which public societies
are exposed to in this evil world, which they can have no defence from
without order and authority. If a people are without government, they are
like a city broken down and without walls, encompassed on every side by
enemies and become unavoidably subject to all manner of confusion and
misery.
Government is necessary to _defend communities from miseries from within
themselves_; from the prevalence of intestine discord, mutual injustice
and violence; the members of the society continually making a prey one of
another, without any defence one from another. Rulers are the heads of
union in public societies, that hold the parts together; without which
nothing else is to be expected than that the members of the society will
be continually divided against themselves, every one acting the part of an
enemy to his neighbor, every one's hand against every man and every man's
hand against him; going on in remediless and endless broils and jarring
till the society be utterly dissolved and broken in pieces and life
itself, in the neighborhood of our fellow creatures, becomes miserable and
intolerable.
We may see the need of government in societies by what is visible in
families, those lesser societies of which all public societies are
constituted. How miserable would these little societies be, if all were
left to themselves, without any authority or superiority in one above
another or any head of union and influence among them? We may be convinced
by what we see of the lamentable consequences of the want of a proper
exercise of authority and maintenance of government in families that yet
are not absolutely without all authority. No less need is there of
government in public societies, but much more, as they are larger. A very
few may possibly, without any government, act by concert, so as to concur
in what shall be for the welfare of the whole; but this is not to be
expected among a multitude, constituted of many thousands, of a great
variety of tempers, and different interests.
As government is absolutely necessary, so there is a necessity of _strong
rods_ in order to it: the business being such as requires persons so
qualified: no other being sufficient for, or well capable of the
government of, public societies: and therefore, those public societies are
miserable that have not such strong rods for sceptres to rule: Eccles. x.
16, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child."
As government, and strong rods for the exercise of it, are necessary to
preserve public societies from dreadful and fatal calamities arising from
among themselves; so no less requisite are they to _defend the community
from foreign enemies_. As they are like the pillars of a building, so they
are also like the walls and bulwarks of a city: they are under God the
main strength of a people in a time of war and the chief instruments of
their preservation, safety and rest. This is signified in a very lively
manner in the words that are used by the Jewish community in her
Lamentations to express the expectations she had from her princes: Lam.
iv. 29, "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken
in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen." In this respect also such strong rods are sons of the Most High
and images or resemblances of the Son of God, viz., as they are their
saviours from their enemies; as the judges that God raised up of old in
Israel are called, Nehem. ix. 27: "Therefore thou deliveredst them into
the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their
trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and
according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved
them out of the hand of their enemies."
Thus both the prosperity and safety of a people under God, depends on such
rulers as are _strong rods_. While they enjoy such blessings, they are
wont to be like a vine planted in a fruitful soil, with her stature
exalted among the thick branches, appearing in her height with the
multitude of her branches; but when they have no strong rod to be a
sceptre to rule, they are like a vine planted in a wilderness that is
exposed to be plucked up and cast down to the ground, to have her fruit
dried up with the east wind, and to have fire coming out of her own
branches to devour her fruit.
On these accounts, when a people's strong rods are broken and withered,
'tis an awful judgment of God on that people, and worthy of great
lamentation: as when King Josiah (who was doubtless one of the strong rods
referred to in the text) was dead, the people made great lamentation for
him, 2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25: "And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he
died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all
Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah:
and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their
lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and,
behold, they are written in the Lamentations."