Isaac Terry

“ Let us not be so weak as to imagine that they can have any real concern for religion, or the interest of their country, who can prevail with themselves, or would prevail with others, to violate the oath of God. ”

“ Irreverent carriage to the person of the prince, and the speaking contemptuously and dishonourably of him, have a direct tendency to lessen his people's veneration for him, which is a main prop of his government. The speaking evil of princes, is commonly a prelude to some attempt against them; it being found by experience, that the way to weaken and undermine their authority, is to blast their reputation. ”

“ Even they who would persuade us that there is no such being as God, or if there be, that he observes not what passes here below, cannot but own that the fear of him is a principle very friendly to government, and of great use to dispose men to be peaceable and submissive to those who are in authority. ”

“ The protection which the authority of the magistrate affords to all, lays an obligation upon all to unite in the defence of it against the attempts of its enemies, which sometimes can no otherwise be repelled than by the united endeavours of all. ”

“ The shame of acknowledging themselves to have been in the wrong, the apprehension of being reproached for deserting their companions, and the fear of suffering punishment for having accompanied them so far, will be strong temptations to them to proceed farther against the bent of their own inclinations, and the convictions of their consciences. ”

“ And since without the divine aid all human counsels and labours are vain; they who can be most serviceable to their soveraign by their wisdom, or valour, or treasure, must by no means think themselves excused from assisting him by their earnest and constant prayers. And if those, who barely omit this duty, are not to be accounted good subjects; they are certainly very bad ones, who dare to imprecate the judgments of heaven upon their governours. ”

“ Government it is clear cannot subsist, where there are none who will submit to be governed, and own their dependance upon their governours: there can be no soveraign, where there are no subjects; no commanders, where none will obey. ”

“ Hence, in Scripture, the fear of God is often used to signify the whole of Religion: because in all who live under the influence of it, it is a very powerful [5] principle of constant and uniform obedience to the divine laws. ”

“ Nothing can be more unreasonable, than to obey God's vice-gerent in opposition to God himself, and to suffer the fear of a less power, to prevail against the fear of a greater. The text teaches us, in the first place, to fear the Lord, and then the King. Should the King command not to fear the Lord, it is better to endure all that he can inflict, than to do what he commands? ”

“ Moreover, since God is the supreme Monarch of the universe, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; since [13] his power alone is unlimited and irresistible; and by consequence, the primary and most proper object of men's fear; it is manifest, that no human laws whatsoever, can bind men to act contrary to the divine. ”

“ We cannot surely be at a loss to conclude, what kind of spirits have taken possession of those men, who are not to be bound, no not with chains; who break in sunder the strongest bonds of [38] government, and cast away its cords from them.
Let our behaviour be suitable to our professions on this solemn day of humiliation. If we do indeed detest the crimes of those cruel and unreasonable men who gave occasion for the observance of it; if we would not for the world be the authors of such dreadful calamities as they by a long train of wickedness brought upon their nation ”

“ For they will have no motive to loyalty left, when they may turn rebels with impunity, and be gainers by an alteration of governnment.
But the fear of God being always the same, is a very steady principle of loyalty. It secures the obedience of subjects in many cases, where the laws either do not reach them, or cannot be executed upon them; and keeps them true to the interest of their soveraign, when other considerations might induce them [17] to betray or desert it. ”

“ I am sensible it will be said, That we do imitate them, at the same time that we blame them; that the prayers which we have now offered for the averting the divine wrath due to the sin of this day, and for the safety and prosperity of our present gracious soveraign, are a contradiction to one another; and that the late revolution was a return to the principles of those who were concerned in the great rebellion. ”

“ Which things considered, no man should offer to draw a parallel betwixt the late Revolution and the great rebellion, till he is able to demonstrate, That there is no difference between the doing no manner of hurt to the person of the King, and the executing him publickly as a malefactor; between the settling the crown upon his undoubted issue, and excluding the whole royal family from it without any other necessity than what arose from the guilt of those who excluded them; between the peoples asserting their own undoubted rights, and their invading the undoubted rights of their soveraign ”

“ Should they, notwithstanding these temptations to the contrary, resolve to be no longer directed by those who misled them; yet what they have already done, may have consequences fatal to the publick. By their assistance, the enemies of the [25] government, may be grown strong enough to compass their ends, not only without their farther concurrence, but in spite of all the opposition they can make. And it will then be a mortifying consideration to reflect, that they have been accessory to villanies which they abhor, of which, however they must be content to bear the blame. ”

“ Peter, set themselves to resist [E] every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, turning faith into faction, and religion into rebellion: who under a specious pretext of reforming the Church, filled their native country with blood and desolation, trampled upon its laws, and triumphed in the ruin of its constitution: who fasted and prayed, not for the safety of the King, and all that were in authority, that under them they might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty ”

“ The authority of the supreme magistrate must of necessity be exercised by many subordinate officers: and to dishonour or disobey these, is, in effect, to dishonour and disobey him, by whose commission they act. And tho' it be for the interest of the publick, that they should account for wilful abuses of the power committed to them; yet all unreasonable clamours against them, are of dangerous consequence to the government, and do indeed threaten the soveraign himself, who may be mortally wounded thro' the sides of his ministers. ”

“ Many perhaps, who are instrumental in spreading scandalous reports of their governours, have no such wicked intention; but if they have not, they are certainly very serviceable to those that have; nor are they to be excus'd who listen and give credit to them. Such, tho' at present they are not active in carrying on any traiterous designs, yet give grounds to hope that they may be wrought upon, and in time made fit for purposes, to which, as yet they are, strangers. When once men have cast off all inward awe of their prince, and have given entertainment to an ill opinion of him ”

“ By often hearkening to the plausible discourses of seditious persons, utter'd with a seeming concern for the publick welfare, many come at length to approve of them, and highly to esteem those who make them, for their great understanding, and honesty, and disinterested zeal for the good of their country; and to believe that their governours are not so good as they ought to be, and that some changes for the better are both possible and needful. ”

“ And they who can suffer their affections to be by those means alienated from their present soveraign, will not be long pleased with any: nor can any government be quiet, or secure, where these artifices are practised with success. ”

“ And even private persons, when the present laws of their country are very inconvenient and prejudicial to the interests of the people, may lawfully desire an alteration of them, and may commendably endeavour to effect it in a legal manner, by making humble and dutiful application to those who are vested with the legislative power. ”

“ As it ought to be the earnest prayer and endeavour of all good men and loyal subjects, that no such wickedness may hereafter be committed among us, to the reproach of our nation, and of the holy Religion which we profess: so is it particularly incumbent on the ministers of the Gospel, to press upon men the due observation of those laws, which the most high hath enacted for the security and support of his vice-gerents on earth ”

“ For they sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. Wherefore they cannot be too diligently guarded against, by those who would preserve themselves not only from guilt, but from trouble and perplexity and ignominy, and from that calamity and ruin, which (as we are informed by the verse following my text) shall come suddenly upon them that are given to change, and upon those who meddle with them. ”

“ On the other hand, it is incumbent on the people to see, that their grievances are real, and not pretended; that their complaints are founded not upon meer surmises and jealouses, but upon notorious facts; and that while they are asserting their own right, they do not invade that of their soveraign, nor make any thing matter of demand, but the restoring and securing to them what is their due, by laws already established. ”

“ They too who by any kind of disloyal Behaviour, or seditious discourse, manifest their aversion to the established government, may with reason be suspected of being given to change; altho' it be not yet their avowed design to effect a change. ”

“ And when men are once engaged, they [24] themselves cannot tell where they shall stop. One wickedness may introduce them to another, till they become principal actors in the execution of designs, with which they could not have been safely trusted at their first setting out. ”

“ Should they industriously lay unnecessary ones in his way, his designs for their safety and benefit, must in all likelyhood miscarry.
They who can be helpful no other way, have surely great reason to sollicit heaven, to guard, and guide, and assist those who are continually watching for their welfare. ”

“ And they who have got thus far, will be too apt to be prevailed upon, to take some unlawful steps towards the reforming of supposed disorders, without imagining what purposes they are serving, and how far their leaders intend to carry them. ”

“ And there are two sorts of men, who, tho' opposite enough to each other, will be apt to concur in making this objection: the one with a design to justify the murther of the Royal Martyr, or at least the measures which prepared the way for it ”

“ It is no easy matter, to converse much with men of a factious and turbulent spirit, without being infected by them. The best way to preserve ourselves, both from their crime and their punishmenr, [23] is to keep at a distance from them. ”