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Fourthly, This Duty of Subjection to our Superiors doth also imply great Warinefs and Caution in pronouncing against their Judgment and Determinations, for by the Laws of Christian Modesty we are obliged to believe our Governours to be wiser than we, because they have a larger Profpe& of things, and greater Advantages of en quiring into them; and therefore tho' we may have fome little Probability that their Judgment is falfe, or their Command unlawful, yet we ought not presently to determine it fo, unless it be in fuch plain and evident Cafes as do not only outweigh the Probability of their Opinion but the Authority of it too; for he who rafhly rejects the Command of his Superiors as unlawful, plainly fhews that 'tis not fo much the Sin of their Command that difpleafes him as the Authority of it, and that 'tis not his Confcience that takes Offence at it, but his Humour; for if it were Confcience, the Reverence which he bears to the Authority which commands him would inspire him with an awful Refpect to the Judgment of his Superiors, and a modeft Sufpicion of his own: He therefore who upon every

flight Appearance of Probability against the Judgment of his Superiors immediately pronounces it falfe and erroneous, plainly fhews that he had too little Deference to them and too much to himfelf; and while he thus undervalues their Wisdom and overvalues his own, its evident that he wants a great deal of that Modesty and Humility that becomes a dutiful and obedient Subject.

Fifthly and Laftly, This Duty of Subjection to our Superiors alfo implies our meek and patient Submiffion to the Penalties of their Laws, when upon a full Perfuafion of the Unlawfulness of them we cannot actually comply with them; for when the Commands of our Prince do interfere with the Commands of God, it is an undoubted Rule that we must obey God rather than Man 15 but then at the fame time that our Allegiance to the Throne of Heaven obliges to refuse active Obedience to our temporal Prince, it indispensably obliges us to render paffive, and not to use any Violence against him, though it be in the Defence of our Eftates, or Liberties, or Lives, or which ought to be dearer than all, our Religion; for the just Use of Violence is founded in

a just Authority over the Perfon upon whom it is exercised, and supposes a right in him that uses it to call the Perfon to account against whom he uses it, and punish him according to his Demerit, without which Right the Ufe of Violence is an injurious Outrage and Oppreffion; but fovereign Princes are in their several Dominions next to and immediate under God, the most high Sovereign of the World, and therefore having no Authority but his above them are accountable only to his Tribunal so that for Subjects in any Cafe whatfoever to offer Violence to their Prince is to ufurp the Throne of God, and invade his fovereign Tribunal, for in offering Violence to them we claim a Superiority over them, and in fo doing impiously trefpafs on the peculiar of the Almighty, and arrogate his divine Prerogative of being King of Kings and Lord of Lords; for fince God alone is placed above them, as being the fole King of fovereign Kings, how can we affume Superiority over them without fetting our felves in the Place of God? Unless therefore we will render our felves guilty of the highest Affront to, and Prophanation Q

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of the divine Majefty, we have no other Remedy, whenever we are reduced to that Extremity as that we cannot obey our Prince without disobeying God, but to discharge our Duty couragioufly and faithfully to God, and meekly and quietly to fubmit to the unjuft Perfecutions of our Prince, referring our Caufe to that fovereign Tribunal before which Princes and Peasants must one Day give an Account together for every unjust and unrighteous Action: And though this may feem a hard Chapter to those who confider only one fide of the Cafe, yet there is nothing more apparent than that the Liberty of refifting Princes would prove a far greater Mischief to the World than all the Cruelties and Oppreffions of the most barbarous Tyrants; for what though there never was any Governour fo wife and good as not to be chargeable with fome Faults and Miscarriages, we ought to confider that our World must be governed by Men and not by Angels, and that perhaps there never was any lawful Prince fo bad, the Benefits of whofe Government did not far out-weigh the Mischiefs of his Tyranmy; and that therefore it is wifely eli

gible for us rather to fuffer a lefs Evil than to deprive our felves of a greater Good. It is a notable faying of Tacitus, where he brings Cerialis the Roman General thus bespeaking his revolted Soldiers, Quomodo fterilitatem, nimios imbres & cætera nature mala, fic luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate: Vitia erunt donec Homines, fed neque hæc continua, & meliorum interventu pensantur; i. e. you must bear the Luxury and Covetousness of your Rulers as ye do Barrenness and unseasonable Showers; there will be Faults as long as there are Men, but bad Men are not always, and we are generally compenfated for them with a Succeffion of good. But had God left us at Liberty to resist when we are oppreft, the Confequence of this must have been an eternal state of War, in which instead of fuffering the Oppreffions of one Tyrant, we should every one turnTyrant to every other, and therefore 'tis apparently for our good that he hath tied up ourHands. And thus with all poffible Brevity I have explained the Particulars included in this Duty of Subjection.

I now proceed to the third and last
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