"Common Sense by Thomas Paine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Paine Thomas)

there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars;
it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion. Holland
without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any
of the monarchial governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same
remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs hath
a happy something in them, which vanishes away when we come to the
history of Jewish royalty.

Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the
Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom.
It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot
for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honours
to their deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved
on the plan, by doing the same to their living ones. How impious
is the title of sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst
of his splendor is crumbling into dust!

As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified
on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the
authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared
by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government
by kings. All anti-monarchical parts of scripture have been very smoothly
glossed over in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the
attention of countries which have their governments yet to form.
RENDER UNTO CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH ARE CAESAR'S is the scripture
doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of monarchical government,
for the Jews at that time were without a king, and in a state of vassalage
to the Romans.

Now three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the
creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king.
Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases,
where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administered
by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none,
and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title
but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous
homage which is paid to the persons of kings, he need not wonder that
the Almighty, ever jealous of his honour, should disapprove of a form
of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.

Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews,
for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them.
The history of that transaction is worth attending to.

The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon
marched against them with a small army, and victory, through the
divine interposition, decided in his favour. The Jews, elate with
success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon,
proposed making him a king, saying, RULE THOU OVER US, THOU AND THY
SON AND THY SON'S SON. Here was temptation in its fullest extent;