The theme of this reading is absolutism and revolves around the king having absolute power. The reading suggests that a king is a god, a father, and the head. The reading suggest that kings are referred to as gods by God and have God-like attributes. Kings can create or destroy, give life or send death, judge all yet not be judged, to raise things high or make them low, and to require love of the soul and the work of the body. The reading claims the king is a father as the king can give his inheritance out if he wishes, or disinherit the ones expected to receive the inheritance and prefer another. A father can make his children rich or make them beggars. A father can be near to his children or far from them. A father can forgive or cast away. Finally the reading suggest the king is like the head of a physical body in that the head directs all the members of the body and uses judgement.
Kings never had complete power because the laws did not permit the kings to have such absolute power. Even during the seventeenth century when the monarch power was "absolute" it was still limited because other politicians and high class men were still involved in political matters. Kings could not afford to lose the support of these men. What is really meant by absolute power is that the king has the highest legislative power in the kingdom. Kings were viewed as above the law, but they were still expected to observe peoples' rights and the moral law of God in their actions.
The very first sentence stands out to me: "The state of the manarchie is the supremest thing upon the earth; for kings are not only Gods lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods." I would like to see what scripture they were referring to here. The second commandment is to have no other gods before me. God did not want Israel to have a king; God wanted to be their only king. However, the people demanded to have a king so He gave them Saul, but God warned them all the king would do that would be oppressive. God always says to respect authorities and recognize that God is in control of those in power, but it doesn't sound like God to refer to any man as a "god".
This reading caused me to think of the quote, "With much power comes great responsibility". If God is allowing men to be kings on the earth, then God is trusting them to rule as He would. I would think that these rulers are especially accountable to God for their actions, because their actions affect so many. Just as the Bible says that teachers are especially accountable for the things they teach and for their pupils. The kings and the people believed that the power was given by God, so hopefully that gave them a sense of humility because God could easily take that power away. The Bible does not emphasize being first or being the most powerful as what is important. Jesus led by example and showed that being a humble servant is what we are to aim for. Humility is always key.
A modern parallel I see are monopolies like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the most popular store to buy everyday items at a cheap price. Most of Wal-Mart's products are made in China in sweatshops by people who are not being paid well. Wal-Mart has probably caused countless "mom and pop" stores to go out of business because they cannot compete with Wal-Mart's prices. Wal-Mart seems to have "absolute power" in the realm of consumerism, and it's power is not considerate of many of its employees and of course none of its competitors.
Sources:
Text Book
http://history-world.org/absolutism.htm
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