Page:St. Paul's behaviour towards the civil magistrate.pdf/24

 not with such force as to disengage our affections from a happiness, without which, I know not whether it had not been as well for us to have been born to a wilderness and a den.

As laws therefore have turned the desart of this world into a paradise, and the wildness of mankind into human society: so let us of this kingdom acknowledge our part in this happiness to be much above that of others; and let our zeal for it rise in proportion to the value of the thing itself. Let our government by laws be the chief object of our worldly concern: and as we value that, let our value and estimation rise for the supreme head, and every branch of the executive power, under which we live so happy and easy at home, whilst they all join in making the laws the measure of their whole administration. But above all, let our thankfulness at this time rise to the great Disposer of all events, who hath given us a farther prospect of the continuance of the same happiness to future generations, by a great and important victory abroad, in which Justice, Laws, and Liberty, have triumphed ever Injustice and Arbitrary Power; and which we may reasonably look upon as a growing security of our good estate against the designs and attempts of all who fight against it both at home and abroad: which God grant it may be, for the sake of Jesus Christ, &c.