82 Of Natural, Moral, and Civil Liberty. SE R M. was the more neceffary, becaufe fome pros III. felled chriftians, efpecially the yews, Rill `"v ' deeply poffeffed with their national preju- dices, and elated with the high privileges anciently granted to their fathers, imagined themfelves free from the authority of any foreign rulers, whereby they were prompted to raife unfeafonable and caufelefs rebellions to the difhonour of their religious prof& fions, and to their own deftruEtion. But thofe apoftolical declarations, fuch as Rom. xiii. from the beginning to the 7th verfe; Titus iii. t. i Peter ii. is, &c. are not to be underftood without any reftrktion, as if chriftians were univerfally bound to yield an unlimited fubmiflion to their governors, even in the molt arbitrary, cruel, and ty- rannical exercife of their power, as hath been fully proved by fome learned Proteftant writers. Let us therefore never imagine that our holy religion, fo beneficial to the nature and condition of mankind in all other refpeds, hath made it fervile in the impor- tant article of civil fociety ; and that having laid a noble foundation for the belt im- provement of our powers, and railing them to their higheft perfection in the next world, it has reduced us to a Elate of flavery in this world. But be allured we fatisfy all the obligations
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