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Romans Ch. 13. Ver. 2.Whosoever Resisteth the Power, Resist|eth the Ordinance of God.
I. IT is not my Design to enquire into the particular Nature of the Government and Constitution of these Kingdoms; much less to pretend to determine con|cerning the Merits of the different Parties now reigning in the State. Those Topicks I profess to lie out of my Sphere, and they will probably be thought by most Men, improper to be Treated of in an Audience almost wholly made up of young Persons, set apart from the business and noise of the World, for their more convenient instruction in Learning and Piety. But surely it is in no re|spect unsuitable to the circumstances of this place to inculcate and explain every branch of the Law of Nature; or those Virtues and Duties which are equally binding in every Kingdom or Society of Men under Heaven; and of this kind I take to be that Christian Duty of not Resisting the Supreme Power implied in my Text. Whosoever Resisteth the Power, Resisteth the Ordinance of God. In Treating on which Words I shall observe the following Method.
II. First, I shall endeavour to prove, That there is an absolute unlimited Non-Resistance or Passive