Since the first (as was said, q. 5) way is above nature and extraordinary, it is not to be expected that God, with a content and clear voice, should name someone from heaven; and therefore, where the second way — which is placed in electing — is in use, he who is about to depart from life and principate will be able to imitate Moses in a threefold manner. First, if he pursue the people subject to him with a certain singular love; and so may beseech God Himself — whose that people is — with frequent earnest prayers, that He deign to furnish him [with] such a one as is fitting: namely, by injecting into those in whose power the right of choosing is, a mind that they may will, seek out, find, and choose the best. Secondly, if — as often as is permitted, but most of all at the extreme time of life — he exhort the Electors to an election of this kind; may show [that] in their hand [is] the safety, [or] the destruction, of the people; may ask that they suffer not themselves to be led away from the right way of election by ambition, hatred, favor, or some other depraved affection; may make them consider what reckoning is to be given to God—
(col. 190)
—if to His sheep they set over [them] a wolf, over the men a woman, over the people a Tyrant. Thirdly, if — all those perturbations being laid aside which distort minds this way and that, and [all] the depravities of nature — he sincerely, before God, perceive some one or several [men] equal to the discharge of this office and useful to the commonwealth, [and] by indicating and commending them — unless perchance there be danger lest, by that indication, a window be opened to those nominations which flesh and blood, and not right reason and the public good, suggests; or [lest] too great a matter of lawsuits and envies be furnished, and a certain apple of contention, as it were, be left [behind]. But where only the third way of succession — the hereditary, namely — obtains, the prince about to depart from life will imitate Moses in a certain measure, if he sedulously and seriously always attend to this care: that his own children be as best as possible educated and instructed from boyhood — and that indeed especially in those arts which are necessary for [one] commanding. Which [arts] indeed are: religion and the worship of God, prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude, and those [things] which pertain to these — modesty and lowliness of mind, courtesy, and liberality or magnificence. Nor will he have small moment toward the same matter, if he procure for his heir the best counselors; if — both in life he often [admonish] them, and in death especially — he also admonish [the heir] of his duty, and give him those precepts which he shall have judged most necessary and useful; if, finally, he himself so live and rule that he leave to his heir, by [his] very deeds, an inheritance of virtue and integrity, and a true exemplar of ruling the people and of bearing honors. And all these [things], in a certain manner, even that former [prince] can [do], to whom not stock and womb, but votes and ballots are to give a successor. For if, while he is in power and surviving, he himself act so that the institution of the youth be as good as possible — and especially of that [youth] from whom a successor is to be sought — it will scarcely be able [to happen] but that, in so great a number of the well-instructed, some one [man] worthy of that place be chosen. And in the same manner, if he labor that the best senators and public counsels and cities may abound, so that among all [there] may be the greatest and first care of the divine worship and of the public good. He who does these [things] while alive, asks of God — in the manner of Moses — the best successor. Wisely and truly [says] Philo, in book 2, On Moses: “By the lack of a ruler, the affairs of kings and of subjects are overthrown” [Ἄνευ θείας ἐπιφροσύνης ἀκατόρθωτα τὰ βασιλέων καὶ ὑπηκόων πράγματα].