Joseph Butler

“ Dropping, then, the encroachments which are made upon our liberty, peace, and quiet, by licentiousness, we are certainly a freer nation than any other we have an account of; and as free, it seems, as the very nature of government will permit. Every man is equally under the protection of the laws; may have equal justice against the most rich and powerful ”

“ And one who wishes well to his country will beware how he inflames the common people against measures, whether right or wrong, which they are not judges of. For no one can foresee how far such dissaffection will extend; but every one sees, that it diminishes the reverence which is certainly owing to authority. Our due regards to these things are indeed instances of our loyalty, but they are in reality as much instances of our patriotism too. Happy the people who live under a prince the justice of whose government renders them coincident! ”

“ Lastly, As, by the good providence of God, we were born under a free government, and are members of a pure reformed church, both of which he has wonderfully preserved through infinite dangers: if we do not take heed to live like Christians, nor to govern ourselves with decency, in those respects in which we are free, we shall be a dishonour to both. Both are most justly to be valued; but they may be valued in the wrong place. It is no more a recommendation of civil, than it is of natural liberty, [1] that it must put us into a capacity of behaving ill. ”

“ For if we could suppose men to have lived out of government, they must have run wild, and all knowledge of divine things must have been lost from among them. But by means of their uniting under it, they have been preserved in some tolerable security from the fraud and violence of each other; order, a sense of virtue, and the practice of it, has been, in some measure, kept up; and religion, more or less pure, has been all along spread and propagated. ”

“ And though that perfection of justice cannot in any sort take place in this world, even under the very best governments; yet, under the worst, men have been enabled to lead much more quiet and peaceable lives, as well as to attend to and keep up a sense of religion, much more than they could possibly have done without any government at all. But a free Christian government is adapted to answer these purposes in a higher degree, in proportion to its just liberty, and the purity of its religious establishment. ”

“ Further, if we are to pray "that we may," that it may be permitted us to "lead a quiet and peaceable life," we ought surely to live so, when, by means of a mild equal government, it is permitted us; and be very thankful, first to God, and then to those whom he makes the instruments of so great good to us, and pay them all obedience and duty; though everything be not conducted according to our judgment, nor every person in employment whom we may think deserving of it. Indeed, opposition in a legal regular way, to measures which a person thinks wrong, cannot but be allowed in a free government. ”

“ Now, in aid to this general appointment of Providence, civil government has been instituted over the world, both 244 by the light of nature and by revelation, to instruct men in the duties of fidelity, justice, and regard to common good, and enforce the practice of these virtues, without which there could have been no peace or quiet amongst mankind; and to preserve, in different ways, a sense of religion, as well as virtue, and of God's authority over us. ”

“ It is in itself just, and also keeps up the spirit of liberty. But opposition from indirect motives, to measures which he sees to be necessary, is itself immoral: it keeps up the spirit of licentiousness; is the greatest reproach of liberty, and in many ways most dangerous to it; and has been a principal means of overturning free governments. It is well, too, if the legal subjection to the government we live under, which may accompany such behaviour, be not the reverse of Christian subjection ”

“ In some other countries the upper part of the world is free; but in Great Britain the whole body of the people is free. For we have at length, to the distinguished honour of those who began, and have more particularly laboured in it, emancipated our northern provinces from most of their legal remains of slavery; for voluntary slavery cannot be abolished, at least not directly, by law. ”

“ On the other hand, a constitution of civil government without any religious establishment, is a chimerical project, of which there is no example: and which, leaving the generality without guide and instruction, must leave religion to be sunk and forgotten amongst them ”

“ For if the principle of punishing idolatry were now admitted amongst the several different parties in religion, the weakest in every place would run a great risk of being convicted of it; or, however, heresy and schism would soon be found crimes of the same nature, and equally deserving punishment. ”

“ It doubtless has a tendency, likewise, to keep up a sense of real religion, and real Christianity, in a nation; and is, moreover, necessary for the encouragement of learning: some parts of which the Scripture revelation absolutely requires should be cultivated.
It is to be remarked, further, that the value of any particular religious establishment is not to be estimated merely by what it is in itself, but also by what it is in comparison with those of other nations ; a comparison which will sufficiently teach us not to expect perfection in human things. ”

“ The Jewish church offered sacrifices even for heathen princes to whom they were in subjection; and the primitive Christian church, the Christian sacrifices of supplications and prayers, for the prosperity of the emperor and the state; though they were falsely accused of being enemies to both, because they would not join in their idolatries. In conformity to these examples of the church of God in all ages, prayers for the king, and those in authority under him, are part of the daily service of our own. ”

“ And the blessings of his reign are not only rendered more sensible, but are really heightened, by its securing us from that pretender to his crown, whom we had almost forgot, till our late danger renewed our apprehensions; who, we know, is a professed enemy to our church, and grown old in resentments, and maxims of government, directly contrary to our civil constitution ”

“ And, considering that civil government is that part of God's government over the world, which he exercises by the instrumentality of men, wherein that which is oppression, injustice, cruelty, as coming from them, is, under his direction, necessary discipline, and just punishment ”

“ Rom. xiii. 1, all authority is properly of divine appointment; men's very living under magistracy might naturally have led them to the contemplation of authority in its source and origin; the one supreme, absolute authority of Almighty God, by which he "doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth," Dan. iv. 35; which he now exerts, visibly and invisibly, by different instruments, in different forms of administration, different methods of discipline and punishment ”

“ But our religious establishment disclaims all principles of this kind, and desires not to keep persons in its communion, or gain proselytes to it, by any other methods than the Christian ones of argument and conviction. ”