28. General testimonies of Scripture on the sanctity of the royal person

It is vain to object, that that command was specially given to the Israelites. For we must attend to the ground on which the Lord places it - "I have given the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar; therefore serve him and live."(Jer. 27). Let us doubt not that on whomsoever the kingdom has been conferred, him we are bound to serve. Whenever God raises any one to royal honour, he declares it to be his pleasure that he should reign. To this effect we have general declarations in Scripture. Solomon says - "For the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof," (Prov. 28: 2.) Job says "He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle," (Job 12: 18.) This being confessed, nothing remains for us but to serve and live.

There is in Jeremiah another command in which the Lord thus orders his people - "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace," (Jer. 29: 7.) Here the Israelites, plundered of all their property, torn from their homes, driven into exile, thrown into miserable bondage, are ordered to pray for the prosperity of the victor, not as we are elsewhere ordered to pray for our persecutors, but that his kingdom may be preserved in safety and tranquillity, that they too may live prosperously under him. Thus David, when already king elect by the ordination of God, and anointed with his holy oil, though ceaselessly and unjustly assailed by Saul, holds the life of one who was seeking his life to be sacred, because the Lord had invested him with royal honour. "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." "Mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the Lord's anointed," (1 Sam. 24: 6, 11.) Again, - "Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?" "As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle, and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed," (1 Sam. 26: 9-11.)