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I PETER 2. Part of the

Verfe.

13th

Submit your felves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's Sake---

W

HEN the Foundation of thes ER M. Chriftian Church was to be VI. laid, it was fet forth under the

Notion of a Kingdom, of which Chrift the Meffiah was to be King. John the Baptift, his Fore-runner, proclaims his Advent in those Words cited from the Prophety of Ifaiah, Prepare ye the Way of the Lord, make his Paths ftraight, which are an Allufion to the Cuftom of levelling and ftraightning the Roads where great Princes were to pafs. And when he made his publick Entry into Jerufalem, the Multitude in Conformity to the fame Custom ftrewed their Garments, and the Branches of Trees before him, making Acclamation,

Bleffed

VI.

SERM. Bleed be be that cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hofanna in the highest, and this was likewife prophefied of Meffiah the King; Zach. 9. 9. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Sion, shout, O Daughter of Jerufalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee, he is just, and having Salvation, lowly, and riding upon an Afs. The Apostles and Difciples dignify him every where with the Title of Lord, and he frankly owned himself to be a King in his Examination before Pilate.

All this might probably poffefs the first Christians with a Notion of their being a Sort of privileged Perfons, who owed no Allegiance to Heathen Princes, and were only Subjects to their own King Jefus.

The Apostles, in order to obviate a Principle fo abfurd in itself, and fo prejudicial to the Chriftian Religion, enforced in their Epiftles to the Churches the Duty of civil Obedience to their Princes in every Country, notwithstanding their being Heathens. St. Paul is very strong and copious upon this Head in his Epiftle to the Christians of Rome, as you may read, Rom. 13. And St Peter does the fame in the Words of my Text, Submit your felves to every Ordinance of Man, for the Lord's Sake.

The

The Words plainly confift of twoS ER M. Parts,

ift, A Duty incumbent upon all Chriftians, which is Submiffion to every Ordinance of Man.

2dly, A Motive or Confideration for enforcing the fame, that is particular to Christians, which is for the Lord's Sake.

I shall begin with the Duty, and shall confider the Subjection due to the Authority of the civil Magiftrate both as it regards our civil, and our religious Actions.

ift, All Chriftians are in Duty bound to fubmit themselves to the lawful Commands of the civil Magiftrate with regard to their civil Actions.

This Duty arifes from the very Nature of human Society, and is fo effential, that it would be impoffible for Communities to fubfift without it. If every Man was to follow his own Inclinations, and even his own Judgment in dealing with other Men, the World would be a Scene of infinite Confufion and Misery; the Weak would be a

Prey

VI.

VI.

SER M. Prey to the Strong, and the Wife, and the Good, who are alway the Minority, to the Self will'd and the Wicked, and even Men of humane Tempers might do Wrong from that unperceived Biafs that naturally draws the Judgment to the Side of Self-love and Self-intereft: And if one Man might claim a Right to follow his own Inclinations or his own Judgment in his Commerce with other Men, by the fame Rule, every other Man has a natural Right to do the fame ; for in a State of Nature all Men are equal, where the Order of Relation has not created a natural Subjection and Dependency.

Every one will perceive at firft Sight, what the Confequence of this would be to Mankind; it was therefore abfolutely neceffary for the Safety and Happiness of Men, who by a fecret Magnetifm inclined to one another, and defired to live in Society, that the Right which all Men feparately claimed of judging and acting for themfelves with respect to other Men, fhould be devolved on fome one or more Perfons, who by Agreement became a common Judge between them.

And here a Magiftracy arifes at once to us; for every Man being thus divested of the Power

VI.

Power he had in a State of Nature to doS ER M. himself Right, that Power center'd in the civil Magiftrate, who inftantly became the fole Arbiter of Right and Wrong, of Rewards and Punishments, and even of Life and Death, for the whole Community.

And as in the Nature of the Thing, it is neither neceffary, nor fit, that this Compact fhould be always perfonal, it is fufficient that it was once made either exprefly or tacitly, and has been established by Acquiefcence and Enjoyment of its Benefits; and it fhall defcend, and bind Pofterity who were begotten under its Protection, and whofe Liberties and Properties are derived down to them as the Fruit of that compact originally made by their Ancestors, who had a Right to provide for their Good, when they could not do it for themselves.

Here, I fay, a Magiftracy arifes at once to our View, whether it be in the worst Form of an abfolute Government, or in the better Form of a Commonwealth, or in the best of all Form of a mixt Government, where the Will of the Prince is counterpoised and ballanced by the Will and the Judgment of the collective Body, leaving

only

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