Civil Government the Foundation of Social Happiness

Mr. Hobart's SERMON On Psalm xi. 3.

If the Foundations be destroyed, what can the Righteous do?

George Wyllys Secr.

An Election SERMON.

If the Foundations be destroyed, what can the Righteous do?

IT is evidently agreeable to the will of God, the Sovereign Ruler of the World, that men whom He has made sociable Creatures, should live in Communities, and enjoy the Benefits and Advantages that are peculiar to the Social Life. This cannot possibly be effected without erecting & supporting Civil Government: For men in a State of Anarchy, such a State wherein every One does that which is right in his own Eyes; or rather that which gratifies his irregular Appetites without considering whether it be Right, or Wrong, or regarding how much it infringes the Right, or affects the Happiness of others, are so far from enjoying the proper Advantages of Society, that a wise man would chuse the most retired Solitude rather than such Company.

THE Nature of Government requires that there be men of different Orders, some vested with Authority to command and others under Obligations to obey; or that there be Rulers & Subjects in every Community. Different Forms p. 2of Civil Government have all along obtained in the World, and probably will do so to the End of Time. And after all the Disputes which particular Species of it is in it self most perfect and excellent, it must be owned that there is that Difference, perhaps in the very Constitution and Genius of different Nations, or certainly in their Condition and Circumstances as renders one Form of Government most suitable to one Nation, and best adapted to promote it's Happiness; while another Form shall best answer the great Ends of Government with a different People. It has not pleased God to interpose in this Case, by instituting one Form of Civil Government and obliging all Nations to submit to it; and therefore though Government in general must be owned as a Divine Institution, yet no one particular Species of it as opposed to another, can justly claim the Honour of subsisting by a strictly Divine Right. Whether we consult the Light of Nature or Revelation; we shall find Reason to conclude that all regular Forms of Civil Administration, so far as they answer the Intentions of Government, are equally agreeable to the Will of God. And perhaps, if our Views were sufficiently extended, we should see that the Good of the whole World is best promoted, and the Grand Scheme of Divine Providence in the Government of it, most effectually carried on, while p. 3diverse Nations are under different Forms of Civil Government.

p. 3PUBLIC Happiness is the original Design and great End of Civil Government. The magistrate under all Forms of Government, is according to the Intention of his Office, God's minister attending continually upon this very Thing. If we consider the magistrate's Authority as derived from God; we cannot Doubt that this is the End for which it is given. A man must certainly have very absurd Notions of the Divine Being, if he can persuade himself that God, in appointing Civil Government, aimed at nothing higher than aggrandizing Rulers; and it would be blasphemous to suppose that his Intention was, to give some men a Right to gratify their Pride and Ambition, their Cruelty, Lust, or Revenge at the Expence of the public Happiness of a whole Nation. It is evidently much more agreeable to our natural Conceptions of God, as well as to the express Revelations He has made of Himself, to suppose Him, as the indulgent Parent of mankind, aiming at and providing for their public Welfare in appointing Civil Government, than to consider Him as the Patron of Tyranny, Cruelty and Oppression, and of their genuine Consequences, Public Desolation and universal misery. And it requires but a little Reflection to be convinced, that Civil Government p. 4is wisely suited to promote it's great Design in securing the public Happiness of Human Society.

GOD will forever have the Glory of all his wise and gracious Appointments for the Welfare of his Creatures; but men through their own Folly and Wickedness may miss of the Advantage designed them. Civil Government may, and too often does fail of answering it's End; and public Happiness is not effectually secured even by this excellent method which infinite wisdom has provided for that Purpose. This sometimes happens through the weakness or wickedness of Rulers, and sometimes through the Folly and madness of Subjects, And whoever are the blameable Causes of unhinging a Government, and preventing its answering its Design, the effect will be very pernicious, and men of all Sorts will sooner or later suffer under it; tho' the Righteous, men of honest Intentions and peaceable Dispositions, will ordinarily be the first and deepest Sufferers.

p. 4THIS is beautifully expressed in the words I have chosen for the Subject of our present meditations, If the Foundations be destroyed, what can the Righteous do? In which words Civil Government is spoken of as the Foundation of the Safety, Security and Happiness of men considered as formed into Society, the Case of these Foundation's being destroyed is supposed, p. 5and upon this Supposition the Question is put, What can the Righteous do? That this is the Sense of the words seems plain from the Context. The Psalmist here flies to God & trusts in Him for Protection in a Time of Danger. In the Lord put I my Trust; how say ye to my Soul, Flee as a Bird to your mountain? ver. 1. The Danger he was in is thus expressed, for lo, the wicked bend their Bow, they make ready their Arrow upon the String; that they may privily shoot at the upright in Heart. ver. 2. In this Case it was the Duty, and it ought to have the Care of the Civil Magistrate to restrain the wicked and protect the upright: But the Government was too weak to do this; or else they who had the Administration of it, were negligent of the Duty of their Office, and would not interpose in the Case; or perhaps the Magistrate himself who ought to have defended the innocent, was the very man who in this Case attempted to destroy him. King Saul, who sought David's Life as when one doth hunt a Partridge in the Mountains [1 Sam. xxvi. 20.] , may be intended by the wicked man who had bent his Bow, and made ready his Arrow upon the String to shoot at the upright in Heart. Thus the Power of the magistrate, which was originally designed for the Protection of the innocent, was so perverted p. 6as to be used as the means of his Destruction; or at least was not so exerted as to afford him Safety and Protection. This State of Things the Psalmist describes by the Expression of the Foundations being destroyed, and in these Circumstances he demands, what can the Righteous do? which Question plainly represents men of this Character as exposed to peculiar Difficulties in such a State of Things as is here mentioned.