a Lawful Power Secondly As a further proof of the Proposition I will examine how the Doctrine of Loyalty is established by the followers of the same Jesus and who no doubt being guided by his infallible Spirit delivered the Precepts of his Religion according to his mind whose it was St. Paul Rom. 13. 1 2 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation or if instead of Damnation there it should be read Judgment and that too be understood only of the Magistrate as some would persuade viz. That if the King catch those that resist he will hang them yet such a Prediction or Threatning or if it be less viz. a determination but of the natural tendency of such practises to lead to a shameful and untimely Death by the hand of Justice yet that sure delivered after an Apostolical Judgment upon the whole Cause is sufficient to deter any thinking Man from them But if it be indeed Eternal Damnation as this alone Reason proves because 't is a Punishment assigned for Resisting or Despising an Ordinance of God which is here threatned to those that shall resist Lawful Powers that is enough to prove obedience and submission to them a necessary Duty in Christian Religion The same Apostle also in another place viz. 2 Cor. 10. 4. tells us That the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God The Holy Jesus that gave such gifts to men of wonderful and miraculous Abilities never delegated to any of his followers the Power of controuling or resisting Magistrates which yet he could as easily have done S. Peter that with one word struck dead Ananias and Saphira Act. 5. must yet be obedient to the Decree of his Crucifixion and S. Paul that struck Elymas blind Acts 13. and did such mighty Wonders upon other occasions must yet make use of none of his Powers against Ananias Felix or Nero no Miracles to be wrought to oppose any Judicial Sentences of Magistrates The wisdom of Heaven had taken others and quite contrary measures for the founding and preserving his Church in the World St. Peter also 1 Epist 2. 13. Preaches the same Doctrine submit your self to every ordinance of man and founds it upon the Injunctions of the Holy Jesus for the Lords sake And continues the Obligation to the several Subordinations of Magistrates Ver. 14. Adding Ver. 15. that this was the will of God for the Glory and Honour of his Religion And Ver. 20. he puts the Case of unjust suffering from or oppression by Governors and directs the carriage of all Christians in such a Case If you be buffeted for your faults and take it patiently What glory is it but if you do well and suffer for it you take it patiently This is acceptable with God St. Jude also in his Epistle sharply reproves those that despise dominions and speak evil of dignities Ver. 8. denouncing God's severest Judgments against the Gnostick Hereticks for this among other of their impieties And the afore-named Apostle St. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. Ver. 1. speaking of damnable Heresies afterward Ver. 10. mentions those that despise Government and are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities I shall think now that you truly believe this Doctrine of Submission to Governors abundantly proved to be a Necessary and Essential part of Christian Religion by the concurring testimonies of the sacred Pages when I have only added that Rebellion and Sedition Heresie and Schism which are Disobediences to Governors in Church and State are ranked by the Holy Ghost among the works of the Flesh viz. as that is opposed to the Spiritual and Holy Doctrine of the Gospel Gal. 5. 19 20 Now the works of the flesh are manifest i. e. notoriously known to be impure and contrary to the commands of Jesus such as these Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Seditions Heresies Murders Drunkenness c. Now we may see by the companions which the Spirit of God has assigned to Seditions and Heresies that these are of the same Immoral and Damnable nature with the other And the Apostle affirms of these Ver. 21 That they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And Ver. 24. He pronounces of these with the rest that they are utterly inconsistent with Christs Religion For they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And now for a Conclusion to all this suffer me to repeat to you that numerous Catalogue of Prodigious Impieties in men which the same Apostle St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. foretells should over-run the World in the latter days in the midst almost of which you will find Traytors to be reckoned Men shall be Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to Parents Vnthankful Vnholy without Natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are Good Traytors Heady High-minded Lovers of Pleasure more than Lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power of it Enough it is sure to affright any man that has but a tolerable value for the Holy Book from ever being a Traytor to his Prince when he shall but consider what company the Holy Scriptures have placed such guilty and miserable Wretches with Thirdly The Divine Original of Sovereign Power proves subjection to it a necessary portion of that Religion which has God for its Author And it is a Conclusive Argument that that Religion never came from Heaven that teaches or encourages any opposition of that Authority which God himself has set up in the World For if Satan be not divided against Satan most certainly then the Wisdom of Almighty God is always consistent with it self And moreover all the greatest confusions that could happen in the World would be fastned upon the wise Governor of it if when he had ordained Powers and Sovereignty among men he should allow or encourage the resisting of them Now that the Origine of Sovereign Power is from God is evident from many places of Holy Writ Hence Kings are called Gods Psal 82. 6 And the Children of the most Highest Not only as being concerned in his especial care maintenance and provision but also as partaking of his Authority and having that in them which is an emanation from and resemblance of his own Government of the World And Prov. 8. 15 By me Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice And the Prophet Daniel Chap. 2. 21. tells Nebuchadnezzar That 't is God that setteth up Kings And therefore they are called the Lords Anointed And St. Paul in the fore-quoted place affirms the Powers that be to be Ordained of God and that they which resist the Power resist the Ordinance of God which 't is evident that nothing that comes from God
were more Acts of Violence Rapine Cruelty Injustice and Irreligion committed in this our Nation during the few years of the prevailing of that Fatal and Execrable Rebellion over us than can be found in all our Histories to have been done by all the Male-Administrations of Government though surveyed with never so much prejudiced Judgments How many among us both in their Persons and Estates do bear those scars that are at once the loud Proclaimers of the Loyalty and Glory of them that wear them and also of the Tyranny and Rage of them that gave them If then it be evident as I think 't is from all has been offered on this particular that Obedience Loyalty and Submission to Governors is the undeniable Interest of Mankind it follows strongly that 't is effectually provided for and secured by the Doctrines of Jesus For the Son of God when he founded his Church by the delivering his Religion to the World that all men and particularly Princes and Governors might not want any sort of motives that might be proper to recommend it to their Love and Protection of it took effectual care by establishing the Duties of men one to another and of all men to their Rulers upon the same forcible Obligations and Penalties that he did those to God himself to secure so persuasive an Argument as that of the Interest of all Societies and Relations of men on the behalf of the Doctrine he was then to establish Fifthly I will go on to prove the truth of my Proposition from one of the Grand Designs and Intendments of Christian Religion in the World to which resisting of Governors is utterly contrary Now one of the great purposes of the Gospel was the establishing of Peace and Charity among men See how it was Prophesied before of the days of the Messiah Isa 11. 6 7 8 9 The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid And the Lyon shall eat straw like the Oxe And the Reason is given Ver. 9 For the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the Waters cover the Seas The Author of our Religion is called The Prince of Peace was born in a time of Vniversal Peace and at his Birth the Heavenly Anthem sung by Angels was Peace on Earth Good Will towards or among men When he was going out of the World his Blessing was Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you Joh. 14. 27. And while he conversed with his Disciples he makes Charity to become the very Character of a Christian Joh. 13. 35 Hereby shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another The whole Institution that he left I mean the Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace He that sent him to reveal it is the God of Peace the Message and Commands it carries do correspond Live peaceably with all men Follow Peace without which no man shall see God is the one half of that which is of so absolute necessity to happiness that it can never be attained without it But how effectually and summarily all this is defeated by resisting of Governors is so plain that it needs no Proof And moreover which was hinted before 't is utterly inconsistent with that temper of mind that Christianity requires in all that pretend to espouse it even Meekness Charity Gentleness and the like All which it requires so strictly and absolutely so universally and without the least colour of exception that 't is impossible for him to be a Hypocrite I mean to be able to pretend to the least shadow of Piety that acts contray to such a temper for he is a notorious opposer of the Religion of Christ in its greatest Fundamentals and in despight of all other Varnishes and Pretences whatever this alone pulls of the Vizard and presents him to the World as a stranger to the efficacy of Christian Principles if he be a Contentious and Vncharitable man Gal. 5. 22 23 The fruit of the spirit i. e. what it certainly works in that mind where it inhabits is Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness c. so many several names being given to the same Essential Virtue of Charity does easily teach us how it delighted the holy kind and charitable Spirit of Jesus to impress such Characters upon all that should own and believe its Revelations And again Col. 3. 12 13 Put on therefore as the Elect of God i. e. as become those that are dear to and highly valued of God bowels of Mercies Kindness Humbleness of mind Meekness Long-suffering these are those parts of our Religion that are so closely recommended to us and that render us highly beloved and esteemed of God because they do constitute in us a God-like temper of mind and make us the Children of our Father which is in Heaven and because the Practise of them renders our Religion truly Glorious and Lovely in the World Now Rebellion and Disobedience to Governors must needs be wholly inconsistent with this temper of mind that is before described forasmuch as it arises from Rancour Discontent Malice Ambition Cruelty Impatience Pride Peevishness and the like evil habits of mind which how well they agree with what the Evangelick Institutes do require and promote in us let all men that know them judg Sixthly Another thing that inevitably concludes for what I have been so earnestly exhorting you to and is a result of what I last named is the consideration of that due submission to and acquiescing in the disposals of Divine Providence concerning us and all we have which we are bound to both by Natural and Revealed Religion I shall not suspect that you do so little understand your Religion as to go about to prove that contentment or a patient abiding the Will of Heaven concerning us is our Duty And a very little of Discourse will shew you how contrary resisting of supream Powers is to all that For Put the case that we be under all the Ills Hardships and Calamities that can be supposed nay and more and greater than can be supposed from our Governors is it not still the Great Ruler of the World that has appointed us this state and if we Contrive and Endeavour to free our selves from it by force of Arms what is it but violent and desperate resisting the Ordinance of God concerning our selves 'T is Rebellion against the Great Monarch of the Vniverse and declining that service he enjoyns us What is it but a wicked Resolve to break the Mighty Course of his Counsels or at best but a fruitless Attempt to free our selves by our own force from that condition of life which not so much his Vice-gerent as he himself has disposed to us 'T is telling the World and God Almighty to his face we will not be as he would have us 'T is a Gyant-like War and no less than an endeavour to fling his Providence out of the Earth which is
Loyalty Essential to Christianity BEING A SERMON Preached the Thirtieth of June 1685. Upon the Occasion of the News OF THE Damnable Rebellion IN THE WEST AND In the Course of the Constant Lecture in the Parish Church of Dedham in Essex By Thomas Grey A. M. Preacher there LONDON Printed by Henry Clark and Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXV Imprimatur C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. a Sacris Domesticis TO THE Right Honourable and Right Reverend FATHER in GOD HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. MY LORD I Am emboldned to hope for your pardon in offering to the world so mean a Discourse under the Patronage of your Lordships Name because I am very certain that you will never decline the owning that glorious subject it Treats of which in opposition to our Adversaries of both sides is the peculiar and unblemished Glory of our Church in which your Lordship does justly bear so great a Character The news of the horrid Rebellion broke out in the Western parts of this Kingdom shrouding it self under the wonted colours that all such Villanies assume occasioned my offering these following thoughts in the next ordinary course of my Preaching to my Country and plain Auditory of whom it pleases me to tell your Lordship that I hope and beleive they have heartily received the Doctrines of Loyalty to their Prince and Duty to the Church as a part of their Religion And concerning this mean Publication I will confess My Lord that I was not unwilling by it to let our Enemies know that even the most inconsiderable of the Clergy of our Church will yet do their utmost to assert the glorious Doctrines of it whenever bold and malicious men shall attempt the dishonoring of any of them And I hope 't is not amiss for your Lordship to receive some Testimonies to prove That those of us that judge ourselves the meanest of our Reverend Brethren among whom we are will yet never By Divine Assistance desert the great and hitherto victorious Champions of our Church and Cause But that by our Practising and Preaching the Doctrines of sound and undefiled Religion toward God and of entire and unfeigned Loyalty to our Prince we shall endeavour to Continue to After Ages the Memory and Records of what Principles our Church has taught us and what we have taught our People May it please your Lordship To forgive this whole Address and to accept the dutiful Tender of my Vowed Prayers My Lord Your Lordships Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant Tho. Grey Dedham July 8. 1685. TITUS III. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good Work A Doctrine that is at all times proper and useful to be taught though it has had the misfortune that attends several other excellent parts of Christian Religion I mean to be looked upon even by the greatest pretenders to Piety as a matter of but very little consequence and if it be acknowledged to contain any thing of necessity in it yet some evil instructors of our People have taught them to clog it with so many limitations that in truth it comes but to very little with some of them But however that be yet they have effectually discovered their endeavours to remove this necessary and excellent Doctrine of our Religion as far from that as they have from their own Breasts Certain it is and our sad experience has but too too much confirmed it that in despight of all our Exhortations to the contrary they had so far insinuated their own prejudices into the minds of all that did but a little favour them that those of them that would not altogether disown the Obligations of our Religion in this particular portion of it did yet freely and openly censure our publick Discourses on that Subject as mean insipid and unedifying and hardly so good as Moral Preaching which by the way is a disgraceful lessening Phrase as they imagin which the Leaders of the Faction have invented thereby to render our Exhortations to the Performance of the very chiefest parts of Practical Religion despicable and so ineffectual to those for whose sakes we chiefly intended them and who in truth through the crafty insinuations of such designing Guides did most need them But indeed this was a necessary though a Hellish Policy for they did well enough foresee that if we could but persuade Men to the careful practise of Humility Peace and Charity among one another and of Submission and Obedience to their lawful Governours in Church and State Those Fundamentals of our Religion it would quickly and unavoidably have defeated all their Factious and Schismatical Designs which most palpably have succeeded but in the same Proportions that those lovely and happy Virtues have decayed among us It is evident then that a Discourse of this Nature could at no time be unseasonable to People in our Circumstances But I have judged it more peculiarly proper to entertain you with a plain and honest Exhortation to a firm and sincere Loyalty and from this particular Topick as 't is a Fundamental of the Religion we Profess now when there are found them among us that have entred into an open and damnable Rebellion against their Natural Prince upon that Pretext and that have the impudence to Publish the maintaining and supporting that for their design which they have already by their desperate Actions violated and dishonoured in one of its most sacred sanctions and which does particularly recommend the Care and Practise of it to the World I do not believe that you that hear me have any particular need to be now Admonished of this part of your Duty but yet to discover the steadiness of our own Principles that I might prevent any of you from being so much as alienated from your Duty in your Affections or wheadled into thinking well of such practises by the Cry of the Protestant Religion that I might lead you not only to a dislike but an utter abhorrence of such wretched Principles as can never tend to support or promote our Religion but to dishonour and ruin it and that are as contrary to your happiness in another World as they are destructive of your interest in this I have chosen to be obedient to this Apostolical Injunction Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good Work Two things I shall observe from these words which shall be the limits of my Discourse First That Subjection and Obedience to lawful Governors is strictly and necessarily enjoyned by Christian Religion Secondly That all Ministers of the Evangelick Dispensation are entirely obliged to exhort their several Hearers to the careful and conscionable Practise of this as their just and necessary Duty And First Of the first of these That subjection and obedience to Magistrates and lawful Governors is strictly
and necessarily enjoyned by Christian Religion And because I remember to whom I am speaking I will not therefore enter into any tedious debates of the measures of this Obedience and how far it ought to be extended For though it is most true that some Persons have used their utmost care to perplex this Doctrine with all imaginable difficulties and the Casuists of both extremes from us have equally conspired it and to that purpose have clog'd it with a whole number of Limitations and Proviso's and will be putting of Cases of Conscience they call them some hugely false others silly and impertinent that never did and 't is but just possible to suppose that ever they should need a Resolution while the World endures under any sort of Government whatever yet most certainly this Duty of Loyalty and Subjection to Governours as all other Lines of Practical Religion is in it self direct and easie to be drawn hugely intelligible and obvious to the meanest capacity difficult to none but those that are loth to practise it and in this also it agrees with the rest of those incomparable Virtues in the Christian Institution that are of equal Necessity and Glory with it self And we need nothing more to prove how easie this Duty is to be understood than to consider the meek and obliging temper of mind that Christian Religion requires in all its Votaries and which it does also where Men are truly seized with the powers of it most effectively produce and also what every one of us in all cases where we have authority expect from those that depend upon us and so are subject to us I will therefore in few words give you the sum of this whole Duty of Religion and it comes to thus much That that Obedience which by the Laws of Christianity we owe to our Governours must be Active in all cases whatsoever where we are not certain that the same Laws have laid upon us any prior Obligation to the contrary for then the Apostles St. Peter and St. John have answered for us to the Council that commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Acts 4. 18 19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judg you But we must be certain then for we all know that a doubting conscience is no Judg neither lays any Obligation for it passes no sentence And further the safer side must be chosen which is that we do not make our selves guilty of a certain sin by declining Obedience to the Magistrate upon the score of avoiding that which we cannot affirm to be evil And moreover in such cases where 't is most plain that the Laws of our Religion will not allow us to be Active in our Obedience to the Commands of our Governours yet then the same Laws oblige us to be Subject i. e. to withdraw our positive Obedience in such cases where because of our Obligations to a greater Authority we dare not comply with theirs with Modesty Meekness Respect and Reverence to their Persons and Authority and if they please to punish us for so doing to bear it patiently and without reproaching or resisting So that this is the sum of all Our Religion obliges us actively to obey our Prince in every of his Commands where God has not interposed his Authority and to resist in no case whatsoever There are only two things that are material to be observed before I enter upon the proof of the Proposition I named The first is that when I affirm the Doctrine of Loyalty and Obedience to our Prince to be Essential to Christianity I do not intend to be understood that it is peculiar to that body of Laws or that it was first made a Law by Christ but that 't is strictly provided for by his Religion so that he cannot be a good Christian that is not a Loyal Subject nay I am sure 't is no venture to affirm That this Doctrine is better taught and more strongly enforced by the Laws of the Gospel than by those of any other Religion in the World Secondly I would have it be observed that I reckon and take it for granted that all the Laws of common Reason and Equity and such as are the foundations of all Humane Societies are part of the Laws of the Gospel so that whatever Duty we owe to Governours by virtue of any of the Laws of Nature or Society that we must acknowledg to be part of our Christian Duty And now I shall consider our Obligations to the performance of this Duty of Subjection to our Governours in the following Particulars And first Nothing can be more proper to begin with in this case than the Determinations of our great Law giver the Author and Founder of our Religion And he while he was upon Earth did with great clearness of Doctrine assert the Obedience that was due to Magistrates and did deliver it as a part of that Religion he came to establish in the World When the Question was put to him to know his Judgment about one part of the subjection we owe to Governours he delivers his mind in an Vniversal Axiom establishing all the Royal Prerogatives of a Prince commanding all his followers that they should Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Luk. 20. 25. Though there were found those that were so impudent as to accuse him of the contrary Luk. 23. 2. And we find that he puts the Case of Persecution to his Disciples and foretells them what sufferings they should undergo for the Preaching of his Religion from the Rulers of the World and gives them directions proper to that state but all of them of a complexion utterly contrary to resisting or despising Magistracy urging upon all occasions to his followers the quite different Doctrines of denying themselves taking up the Cross losing their lives in this World that they might save them in the other and every-where establishes both by Precept and Example the state and temper of Christians after him to be that of suffering and sorrow of patience and meekness and praying for their Enemies under it And there is no greater evidence of the truth of all this than that remarkable place Matt. 26. 52. Locus notandus omnibus subditis as Musculus How he reproved the eagerness of St. Peter in resisting those that came to apprehend him though it was an act sure of the greatest Violence and Injustice in the World and designed by them for the utter ruin of himself and the total suppression of his Doctrine and Religion yet he positively forbad him to proceed in what he attempted and establishes the contrary Doctrine with a minatory Prediction against all those that should dare to do otherwise All they that take the sword i. e. to whom the jus Gladii does not belong shall perish with the sword Which abundantly proves that the most innocent Person or the best Cause must not be defended by force of Arms against
can in the ordinary establishment of things teach to do Whatsoever therefore has been impiously pretended to the contrary 't is evident that the Original of Sovereign Power is Divine and consequently if our Religion be so too it must teach a reverence and submission to those that have their Powers delegate from the Great Governor of the World Fourthiy If it be considered that Obedience to Magistrates and the not resisting their Authority be absolutely necessary for the Peace of the World and to secure the undeniable Interest of all Mankind it will from thence I think clearly follow that 't is a necessary portion of Christian Religion For I think 't is a Proposition Universally true That whatsoever is truly necessary for the Interest of Mankind in their several Societies and Relations to each other is in the Moral Obligations to it effectually provided for and secured by the Laws of the Blessed Jesus Now 't is impossible but all must own that nothing can be more absolutely and immediately destructive to the Interest of all Societies of men than disobedience to and resisting of the Governors of them and consequently upon that very account it must be repugnant to the Laws of the Gospel There is nothing the whole World has more entirely agreed in than the absolute necessity of Government without which all those intolerable mischiefs would ensue which every gratification of a private Humour or Eust could Produce And Obedience to Governours stands upon the same invincible Necessities that Government it self does for without this the other is but a name and a speculation impossible to subsist or to serve any of the needs of Mankind I will name a few of those horrible mischiefs that would certainly destroy the Peace of the World if the resisting Governors were upon any pretext allowed lawful And first Every private mans Rights Liberty and Property would be exposed to every Invasion and could not possibly be fixed with any sort of certainty or safety Search the Annals of the World and see if these darlings of Mankind were not always exposed to Rapine and Ruin whenever the Sovereign Power has been resisted 't is the natural and certain Consequent of a Rebellion against the Supreme Governor to spoil and oppress particular Persons The stories of our own Late Horrible Confusions are fresh enough in mens memories to prove this to be true Liberty and Property has been the cry of the Faction a long time It was to secure these as they pretended that they raised that Horrid Rebellion during the Reign of that Royal Martyr of Blessed Memory the Father of our present Glorious Monarch and the remaining Ruins of many Families and Estates can witness how well they did it And the Present Rebellion will give a good account no question of the preservation of the Liberties and Properties of men when we shall know how many honest People are undone by their Violences and Outrages besides what the Actors in it have exposed themselves to from publick Justice which if God be merciful to us will shortly overtake them And moreover if one Traytor succeeds in his Attempts the same or better Principles will induce others to disobey him and so there is no end of Confusion and Disorder Secondly If it might be admitted lawful on any Pretext whatsoever to resist Governors unless the reserved cases were effectually stated published and owned which I think is not possible to be supposed the mischievous effects would be the same as if it might be done on any account without reserve And if this were done yet we know that the Populace is so easily wheadled by the Heads of a Faction with the noise of a few taking words and are so ready to receive any impressions that may prejudice them against their Governors and so easie and forward to determine in favour of those that dare to oppose them that if there should have been but one reserved case in which it were lawful to resist 't is no hard thing to believe that all and every thing would have been drawn to it and one such exempted case would have rendred all Government unable to preserve it self and liable to be unhinged by every Designing Rebel that has but cunning enough to manage the Many Headed Beast into the clamouring up of his Pretences and abetting his Designs than which nothing can sooner or more certainly destroy the best and wisest establishments of any Society of men in the World Thirdly Another mischievous effect of opposing Magistrates is the Letting and Disturbing the course of publick Justice in all its Branches which thing alone necessitates the decay of a Community and which naturally results from that evil I am disswading from For when Governors are forced to take care to secure themselves against Rebellion and Invasion of their Authority how can they be at Liberty or indeed have the Power if the Party that opposes them be Formidable of securing the Rights of their Subjects by the peaceable Administrations of Justice For then Malefactors that are single escape from Justice to make up the force and numbers of them that Invade it And indeed of such Dregs of Mankind do such Tumults generally consist Then private differences about Property must be delayed 'till it be seen whether the Government be able to support itself and secure the execution of its own most just Determinations And in the mean time 't is not unlikely that all that do wrong will be at least abettors of those that oppose Authority if it be but that they may the longer continue their Vsurpations upon the Rights of their Neighbours and the injured Person has his wrong greatned to him by the delay and is discouraged too in his Obedience to those that should and can't relieve him Lastly That I may Epitomize the proof of this whole matter It shall be sufficient to add the consideration of the sad stories of our Late Confusions How many are there still among us that need no more than their own Memory and Observation to convince them that nothing can be a greater plague to a Society of men in every respect than a Popular Rage And those of us that did not live in those days yet cannot sure be altogether ignorant of the wretched effects of that Vnchristian Anarchy if we have but a little considered the occurrences of our own time We can never be so liable to be injured by the worst of Monarchy as by the Invasions of Government under any pretence whatever And moreover every man I think can bear a wrong or injury from his Prince with more patience and less vexation than he can from the unruly Rage of his Inferior or Servant or those that he has maintained by his Charity and yet these we must expect and suffer whenever Rebellion breaks out as is evident from the History of the Late Times as we call them in very many Examples Tragical enough I am persuaded that I am not mistaken when I affirm that there