Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

2. The Goodness of God in the preserving Humane Society, is seen in setting a Magistracy to preserve it. Magistracy is from God in its Original, the Charter was drawn up in Paradise; Civil subordination must have been, had Man remained in innocence; But the Charter was more explicitly renewed and enlarged at the restoration of the World after the Deluge, and giv'n out to Man under the Broad Seal of Heaven,^* Whoso sheds Mans Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. The Command of shedding the Blood of a Murderer, was a part of his Goodness, to secure the lives of those that bore his Image. Magistrates are the Shields of the Earth, but they belong to God^*. They are Fruits of his Goodness in their Original and Authority; Were there no Magistracy, there would be no Government, no security to any Man under his own Vine and Fig-tree; The World would be a Den of wild Beasts preying upon one another, every one would do what seems good in his Eyes; The loss of Government is a Judgment God brings upon a Nation,^* when Men become as the Fishes of the Sea, to devour one another, because they have no Ruler over them. Private Dissensions will break out into Public Disorders and Combustions.

2. The Goodness of God in the preserving Humane Society, is seen in setting a Magistracy to preserve it. Magistracy is from God in its Original, the Charter was drawn up in Paradise; Civil subordination must have been, had Man remained in innocence; But the Charter was more explicitly renew'd and enlarg'd at the restoration of the World after the Deluge, and giv'n out to Man under the Broad Seal of Heaven,^* Whoso sheds Mans Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. The Command of shedding the Blood of a Murderer, was a part of his Goodness, to secure the lives of those that bore his Image. Magistrates are the Shields of the Earth, but they belong to God^*. They are Fruits of his Goodness in their Original and Authority; Were there no Magistracy, there would be no Government, no security to any Man under his own Vine and Fig-tree; The World would be a Den of wild Beasts preying upon one another, every one would do what seems good in his Eyes; The loss of Government is a Judgment God brings upon a Nation,