Certainly Rulers have no better friends than such as make 1conscience of their ways: for none can be truly loyal, but such as are truly religious, witness Moses, Joseph, Daniel, and the three Children. Sincere Christians are as Lambs amongst Lyons, as Sheep amongst Wolves, as Lilies amongst Thorns; they are exposed more to the rage, wrath, and malice of wicked men, by reason of their holy Prof•ssion, their gracious Principles, and Practices, than any other men in all the world. Now did not God raise up Magistrates, and spirit Magistrates to own them, to stand by them, and to defend them in all honest and just ways, how soon would they be devoured and destroyed? Certainly the Sword of the Magistrate is to be drawn forth for the natural good, and civil good, and moral good, and spiritual good of all that live soberly and quietly under i• Stobaeus tells us of a Persian Law, 2that after the death of their King every man had five days liberty to do what he pleased, that by beholding the wickedness and disorder of those few days, they might prize Government the better all their days after. Certainly had some hot-headed, and little-witted, and fierce-spirited men had but two or three days liberty to have done what they pleased in this great City during your Lordships Mayoralty, they would have made sad work in the midst of us. When a righteous Government fails, then, 1. Order fails, 2. Religion fails, 3. Trade fails, 4. Justice fails, 5. Prosperity fails, 6. Strength and Power fails, 7. Fame and Honour fails, 8. Wealth and Riches fails, ⟨image 3⟩9. Peace and Quiet fails, 10. All humane Converse and Society fails. To take a righteous Government out of the world, is to take the Sun out of the Firmament, and leave it no more a [Greek or Hebrew], a beautiful Structure, but a [Greek or Hebrew], a confused Heap. In such Towns, Cities, and Kingdoms where righteous Government fails, there every mans hand will be quickly engaged 3against his brother. O the sins, the sorrows, the desolations and destructions that will unavoidably break in like a Flood upon such a People.
Certainly Rulers have no better friends than such as make 1conscience of their ways: for none can be truly loyal, but such as are truly religious, witness Moses, Joseph, Daniel, and the three Children. Sincere Christians are as Lambs amongst Lyons, as Sheep amongst Wolves, as Lillies amongst Thorns; they are exposed more to the rage, wrath, and malice of wicked men, by reason of their holy Prof•ssion, their gracious Principles, and Practices, than any other men in all the world. Now did not God raise up Magistrates, and spirit Magistrates to owne them, to stand by them, and to defend them in all honest and just ways, how soon would they be devoured and destroyed? Certainly the Sword of the Magistrate is to be drawn forth for the natural good, and civil good, and moral good, and spiritual good of all that live soberly and quietly under i• Stobaeus tells us of a Persian Law, 2that after the death of their King every man had five days liberty to do what he pleased, that by beholding the wickedness and disorder of those few days, they might prize Government the better all their days after. Certainly had some hot-headed, and little-witted, and fierce-spirited men had but two or three days liberty to have done what they pleased in this great City during your Lordships Mayoralty, they would have made sad work in the midst of us. When a righteous Government fails, then, 1. Order fails, 2. Religion fails, 3. Trade fails, 4. Justice fails, 5. Prosperity fails, 6. Strength and Power fails, 7. Fame and Honour fails, 8. Wealth and Riches fails, ⟨image 3⟩9. Peace and Quiet fails, 10. All humane Converse and Society fails. To take a righteous Government out of the world, is to take the Sun out of the Firmament, and leave it no more a 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, a beautiful Structure, but a 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, a confused Heap. In such Towns, Cities, and Kingdoms where righteous Government fails, there every mans hand will be quickly engaged 3against his brother. O the sins, the sorrows, the desolations and destructions that will unavoidably break in like a Flood upon such a People.
- 1The three things which God minds most, & loves best below Heaven, are his Truth, his Worship, and his People.
- 2Stobaeus serm. 42. p. 294.
- 3Gen. 26. 12.
