Proverbs 16:12

For the throne is estaabished by righteousness.

Religious principles the best support of government

I. Righteousness most effectually answers the end and design of government. Religion consists in an acknowledgment of God as Governor of the world. Though the power be lodged in earthen vessels, there is no power but of God. This religious sense of a providential government will incline the subject to pay due reverence to the prince, because it reaches farther than his own person, and is ultimately referred to that Divine Original, whose image and representative he is. Religion fixes our duty to our sovereign upon a certain basis and derives our obedience from the noblest motives, not from a slavish fear, not from an occasional humour, not from a mercenary regard to temporal interest, but from a filial love and respect to the Lord of glory. An awful regard to God and a prevailing sense of religion possesses the subject with that justice and fidelity which cannot be shaken by any temptation, but stands unmoved against the assaults of danger and the allurements of interest. The fear of God is so powerful a principle of action that it necessarily produces happy effects, and is so mighty a restraint from sin that it almost supersedes the necessity of any other restraint.

II. Guard against those pernicious principles that subvert the throne and are destructive of government.

1. Those that remove the foundations of religion and deny the being of a God. Could these opinions prevail, fidelity and justice would cease and the distinction between right and wrong would be lost in confusion. It is the interest of every prince and people to put a stop to these fatal principles, and not only to discourage atheism itself, but every approach towards it.

2. A scornful neglect of God the Son, and an avowed denial of His divinity, may produce as dreadful effects as even the denial of God the Father. If we renounce the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority of revealed religion is absolutely cancelled.

3. Those republican doctrines which derive all power from the people.

4. The principle that makes an absolute allowance to the sincerity of every man’s persuasion and places the whole of religion and the great affair of eternal salvation upon the authority of every private judgment. This is contradictory to an article of our creed; it is fruitful of erroneous sects and impious heresies, and it has a pernicious influence upon the State. If the sincerity of men’s present persuasions will justify them in all their consequences, the more strongly they are persuaded so much the more abundantly will they be justified. And if they are hurried on to the commission of any evil action the strength of the impulse will sanctify the crime. Let us, then, show our regard to government by discharging our duty to God. (T. Newlin, M.A.)