15. After Joshua’s death follow the times of the Judges until king Saul; in which it is manifest that the right of the _kingdom_ instituted by God, remained with the _high-priest_. For the _kingdom_ was by covenant _priestly_, that is to say, God’s government by priests. And such ought it to have been, until that form, with God’s consent, were changed by the people themselves; which was not done before that requiring a king God consented unto them, and said unto Samuel (1 Sam. viii. 7): _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._ The supreme civil power was therefore _rightly_ due by God’s own institution to the high-priest; but _actually_ that power was in the prophets, to whom (being raised by God in an extraordinary manner) the Israelites, a people greedy of prophets, submitted themselves to be protected and judged, by reason of the great esteem they had of prophecies. The reason of this thing was, because that though penalties were set and judges appointed in the institution of God’s priestly kingdom; yet, the right of inflicting punishment depended wholly on private judgment; and it belonged to a dissolute multitude and each single person to punish or not to punish, according as their private zeal should stir them up. And therefore Moses by his own command punished no man with death; but when any man was to be put to death, one or many stirred up the multitude against him or them, by divine authority, and saying, _Thus saith the Lord._ Now this was conformable to the nature of God’s peculiar kingdom. For there God reigns indeed, where his laws are obeyed not for fear of men, but for fear of himself. And truly, if men were such as they should be, this were an excellent state of civil government; but as men are, there is a coercive power (in which I comprehend both right and might) necessary to rule them. And therefore also God, from the beginning, prescribed laws by Moses for the future kings (Deut. xvii. 14-20). And Moses foretold this in his last words to the people, saying (Deut. xxxi. 29): _I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you_, &c. When therefore according to this prediction there arose another generation (Judges ii. 10-11) _who knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam_; to wit, they cast off God’s government, that is to say, that of the _priest_, by whom God ruled; and afterward, when they were overcome by their enemies and oppressed with bondage, they looked for God’s will, not at the hands of the _priest_ any more, but of the prophets. These therefore _actually_ judged Israel; but their obedience was _rightly due_ to the high-priest. Although therefore the priestly kingdom, after the