it will be aſked, “HOW far are we obliged to ſubmit? If we may innocently diſobey and reſiſt in ſome criſes, why not in all? Where ſhall we ſtop? What is the meaſure of our duty? This doctrine tends to the total diſſolution of civil government; and to introduce ſuch ſcenes of wild anarchy and confuſion, as are more fatal to ſociety than the worſt of tyranny.”
After this manner, ſome men object; and, indeed, this is the moſt plauſible thing that can be ſaid in favor of ſuch an abſolute ſubmiſſion as they plead for. But the worſt (or rather the beſt) of it, is, that there is very little ſtrength or ſolidity in it. For ſimilar difficulties may be raiſed with reſpect to almoſt every duty of natural and revealed religion.—To inſtance only in two, both of which are near akin, and indeed exactly parallel, to the caſe before us. It is unqueſtionably the duty of children to ſubmit to their parents; and of ſervants, to their maſters. But no one aſſerts, that it is their duty to obey, and ſubmit to them, in all ſuppoſable caſes; or univerſally a ſin to reſiſt them. Now does this tend to ſubvert the juſt authority of parents and maſterſ? Or to introduce confuſion and anarchy into private familieſ? No. How then does the ſame principle tend to unhinge the government of that larger family, the body politic? We know, in general, that children and ſervants are obliged to obey their parents and maſters reſpectively. We know alſo, with equal certainty, that they are not obliged to ſubmit to them in all things, without exception; but may, in ſome caſes, reaſonably, and therefore innocently,
