7:7), “Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they shall say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” Having therefore rejected God, in whose right the priests governed, there was no authority left to the priests, but such as the king was pleased to allow them; which was more or less, according as the kings were good or evil. And for the government of civil affairs, it is manifest it was all in the hands of the king. For in the same chapter (verse 20) they say, “they will be like all the nations; that their king shall be their judge, and go before them, and fight their battles”; that is, he shall have the whole authority both in peace and war. In which is contained also the ordering of religion: for there was no other word of God in that time, by which to regulate religion but the law of Moses, which was their civil law. Besides, we read (1 Kings 2:27), that “Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest before the Lord”: he had therefore authority over the high priest, as over any other subject; which is a great mark of supremacy in religion.