A Word to Voters From William Gurnall

An extract from William Gurnall, "The Magistrate's Portrait Drawn from the Word," in The Christian's Labor and Reward, pp. 100-113:

ARGUMENT 2. Consider that your voices and suffrages are not your own, to bestow them where you list, to gratify this friend or that party. No, if you do, you give what is not your own. What Jehoshaphat said to his judges, I may with a little alteration apply to you who are electors this day. 2 Chronicles 19:6: "Take heed what you do, for ye choose not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the choice." He is with you to observe who you give your hand for, and why you give it.
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Now of what dangerous consequence is it for a people to put one into an office who is a traitor to his prince? This you do when you vote for an unfaithful person. Magistrates are said to be taken into God's throne (2 Chronicles 9:8). Now, do you dare set God's enemy on God's throne? What is this, but to set up a standard against God, and to declare to the world that you would shake off His government?...

QUESTION. You will ask, Who is fit for our votes?
ANSWER. It is a hard question, who is fit for such a place, among such a people, and at such at time. I hope you have been asking yourselves, and others wiser than the preacher, this question before you came here. It would be imprudent for me to undertake a resolution; yet I shall not be too bold if I lay a few Scripture lines together which will make an excellent portrait of a Parliament man, though I fear we must abate something of the beauty which will appear in the face of it if we choose any this day....

First, look for the fear of God in those you choose. [Ex. 18:21] ...

Second, look for wisdom and proper gifts for the work to which you choose them. [Ex. 18:21] ...

Third, inquire whether they are found in the faith, and that upon a double account:

• The care of keeping religion pure in a nation is part of the Christian magistrate's charge, and not the least part. [Deut. 17:18] ...
• Consider at what door our ruin is likely to come in upon us. [Heresies, Popery...]

Fourth, look for men of courage and resolution....

Fifth, find men that will make it their business to attend to the public affairs of the nation. [Rom. 13:6] ...

Sixth, choose men of healing spirits, who will make it their study to make up the breaches that are among us and not make them wider; though the war is over and swords put up, yet the minds of men have not come to their right temper....

Seventh, choose men who have an interest in your country by place and estate. I do not desire you to choose based upon this single characteristic, but take it in conjunction with the rest; to choose merely for estate is too much like the Israelite's folly who set up a golden calf in Moses' place....

Last, let your eye be on such as are faithful to the ministers and ministry of the gospel....I have heard that when Queen Elizabeth, coming into our county of Suffolk, observed that the gentlemen of the county who came out to meet her had every one his minister by his side, she said, "Now I have learned why my county of Suffolk is so well governed; it is because the magistrates and ministers go together." Indeed, they are the two legs on which a church and state stand....

I have no more counsel for you as to the transaction of this day. But, my dear friends, do not think that you have done all your duty to God and your afflicted country by a vote, but labor to crown the work of this day with these things:

• Follow those you shall choose with your prayers....
• Take heed that you do not obstruct your prayers for them, not their counsels for you and the poor nation, by your sins....
• In doing your duty, do not torment yourselves with care concerning the issue of this Parliament or the great revolutions of these times. God has eased us of this burden, had we but faith to take His kindness, who bids us cast our burden upon the Lord. Why should we go sweating under that load which God is willing to take off our shoulders? We should sow and plow, pray and use the means, and God will never charge it upon us if a happy harvest does not crown our labors. In the parable of the man fallen among thieves and wounded, the host was not commanded by Christ to undertake to cure him, but to take care of him. Leave the curing of the nation's wounds to God. You will be a happy people if you are found to have taken so much care of your poor nation as to discharge the duty of your place which you owe to God and it.