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DISCOURSE XIX.

RELIGION NECESSARY TO CIVIL SOCIETY.

1 PET. II. 17.

Fear God. Honour the king.

THOUGH these, considered in themselves, are two distinct and independent precepts; yet they seem to be so connected in this place by the apostle, that the latter may be looked upon as the consequence of the former; not only because it is placed immediately after it, and therefore, for coherence' sake, must be supposed to be some way deducible from it; but because it follows in the nature of things. The king can never hope to be effectually honoured, where God is not feared; and therefore the apostle bids us, a little above, 'submit ourselves to every ordinance of man' (i. e. every law imposed on us by proper authority) 'for the Lord's sake;' to whom belongeth all power, and whom if we duly fear and reverence, we cannot but obey those who act under him, and share his power in this world.

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Agreeable to this, is that passage in chap. xiii. of the Epistle to the Romans, where St. Paul bids every soul be subject to the higher powers;' for this reason, because there is no power, but of God;' and because he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God;' and 'they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation.' It is for this reason that we must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake.'

It cannot be denied, that the Christians of the first age had reasons, peculiar to themselves, for honouring the king, and obeying the civil magistrate; such as, to prevent persecution; and to shew the world, that they did not intend to stir up rebellion under pretence of introducing a new religion. These, no doubt, the two apostles had in view, when they delivered the precepts already cited; especially St.

Paul, who was then writing to such converts to Christianity as lived immediately under that power, which it would have been most scandalous and most dangerous to provoke.

But, besides these, they intended chiefly to apply our religion to the assistance and preservation of civil government in general; commanding all Christians, by virtue of their faith in Christ, as they feared God, and expected to be judged by him, to honour and obey the king, i. e. to observe the laws, to preserve the peace of society; and to submit patiently to whatsoever the supreme governor should think proper to lay upon them.

This was putting their civil obedience upon the same footing with their religious; and teaching them to make the whole strength of their Christian principles as useful to the state in this life, as they were to their souls in order to the next. This was backing their reverence of the king with their fear of God, and threatening eternal damnation to rebellion.

This doctrine, thus strongly inculcated, intimates also to us the true origin or basis of civil power, which is God. He is the sole owner and proprietor of all power, particularly of the civil. By him kings reign, and princes decree justice. He is the Lord of lords, and King of kings.' Through whatsoever channels of election, compact, conquest, or hereditary right, the civil power is derived, from this its only source, it still belongs to God, and must be accounted for to him. Now, that which the absolute supremacy of God thus authorizes, the nature of man renders perpetually necessary. Considered in himself, and without respect to God, as his supreme governor, he can neither subsist in society, nor out of it. How can a creature, so crooked and so untoward as we are in our dispositions, so corrupt and wild by nature, converse together with safety? And how, on the other hand, can creatures, so infirm and helpless as each of us is by himself, subsist apart from the rest of mankind? Our natural wants call us together, indeed, with a voice as pressing as necessity can make it; but, at the same time, selfishness, lust, pride, resentment, with a large train of violent appetites, and fierce desires, in a manner forbid all commerce with one another. It is in vain to deny, that the present nature of man, before it is moulded into a better form

by religious culture, and taught to fear and obey Almighty God, places him in this unhappy situation. His natural ignorance likewise, not only of religion, but a thousand other articles of knowledge, necessary to him in every condition of life, makes it still more evident, that, unless he hath the benefit of instruction, which God and society only can give him, he must perish, long before he can possibly acquire a competency of knowledge. Hence it may appear, that he is as absolutely dependent on society, as society is on God, for subsistence. We cannot live out of society; nor can society subsist without laws and sanctions; nor is that to be expected without magistrates. And after all, there is no integrity to be expected from the magistrates, nor honesty and obedience from the people, unless an infinitely wise, just, and powerful Being, is believed to superintend and govern the whole.

So then religion is so far from dwindling down into mere human laws, and civil government, or vanishing into mere morality, according to the senseless and wicked notion now in vogue, that civil government is no government, and morality an empty name, if they do not both borrow their very soul and being from religien. When we say civil power is derived from God, we do not mean, that, like a person who once founded a kingdom, and dying, left it to his successors, he hath retired from the government, and given up his supreme authority to a succession of men. No; he is always on the throne. He interferes in all that passes; and, were it not generally believed that he does so, the race of mankind must either perish off the earth; or God must, contrary to the infinite majesty of his being, and contrary to the whole scheme of nature, assume a sensible appearance, and interpose miraculously on every particular occasion. But, without doing this, the very subsistence of society shews, he not only was the origin, but still is, and must be, the basis, of civil power; insomuch that it is impossible to assign any one act of authority in the community, wherein God is not visible to a thinking mind. From what hath been said, it follows, that the utmost care ought to be taken, in every society, to turn the attention of all its magistrates and members strongly on God's continual inspection, and future judgment.

This is undoubtedly the only true foundation to build the peace, the security, and happiness, of any state on.

First, Because no nation, nor form of government, can either long or happily subsist without virtue; nor virtue, at all, without religion. The history of all the commonwealths and kingdoms in the world verify this undeniably to us. The power of any constitution has always grown and declined, according to the rise and fall of frugality, industry, courage, and justice.

Again, It is as observable, that these virtues have always flourished exactly in proportion to the strength of religion, where any thing like a rational scheme of religion hath obtained; and still, as reverence for a divine nature, and faith in a future life, have abated, so virtue too, by the same steps, hath decreased.

All lawgivers, whether made sensible of this by maturely weighing the nature of man, or by observations made on what happened to other states before theirs, have used their utmost endeavours to propagate the expectation of a future distribution of punishments to vice, and rewards to virtue, among their people.

Some have made this observation to create a suspicion, that all religion, and the Christian among the rest, is a state trick, and owes its being to the invention of politicians. But to suppose this, is to suppose that God, who knows we cannot live out of society, and that society cannot subsist without religion, would leave us to support ourselves and society upon falsehood and imposture. But, however, this suspicion can never be rationally fixed on Christianity; since it is so well known to the knowing part of the world, that this religion, contrary to the manner of introducing and establishing all other religions, made its way into the world, and at length attained to establishment, in opposition to kings and emperors, to state-stratagem and power.

However, it is only our business at present to observe, that there hath never yet been a constitution put together, without great regard had to the establishment of some kind of religion or other; that, while that religion supported its credit, and was zealously adhered to, the virtue of particular men, and the strength of the state, grew and rested secure, in proportion to the soundness of that religion, and the

strength of that faith wherewith it was believed in; but that dissolution of manners and government both hath soon followed the contempt of religion.

From this distant view, we may easily see the stately pile of civil power, firmly founded, and highly exalted, by the influence of religion and virtue; and thrown to the ground again by the malignant effects of infidelity and vice. We may see it rise in a rude age of religion and rigid virtue; and moulder away to nothing in another refined age of religious incredulity and luxury.

But, if we afford it a nearer inspection, we shall soon perceive, that these effects are unavoidable; that, to the credit of religion, no constitution ever rose to any considerable height, without its necessary assistance; and that, to the eternal shame of infidelity, no constitution was ever ruined, but by forgetting, that there is a God who judgeth the earth;' and this, not so much by bringing the wrath of God on it (for God could never be moved to revenge the contempt of a false and idolatrous religion), as by a consequence absolutely necessary in the nature of things.

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For, wheresoever the sense of a divine presence, and the expectation of immortality, have prevailed, there honesty, humanity, and virtue of every kind, have, for the same reason, prevailed; there trade has flourished, supported by frugality and industry, the constant attendants of religion and virtue, and nourished by the security of property, in the midst of integrity and universal credit. How cheerfully could they, who believed in God and a future judgment, believe and trust each other? There the laws must have been strictly obeyed, because the obedience proceeded not from the fear of human justice, which may be biassed; not from the fear of temporal punishments, which may be evaded; but of divine justice, which there is no evading; and of eternal penalties, which there is no avoiding. There the laws must have been faithfully and impartially put in execution; because the magistrates and judges, afraid of appeals to God's judgment, could not but have had particular regard to the justice of their own. There alone the sanctity of oaths, by which all laws operate, and without which no nation can subsist, must have been religiously preserved, where religion itself was zealously cultivated.

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