Governors had need be very well Principled, and good Natur’d, to keep
their Passions in Order and Obedience: But when an Absolute Power shall
come to be put upon the Stretch by an Outragious Humour, there’s no
Living under it. By a _Raging Lion_, is meant an Unruly and a Cruel
Governor, which is a sad Calamity, but not without somewhat of Dignity
yet in the Misfortune; for ’tis a _Lion_ still, how Mad soever. Now if it
had been a Raging _Ape_, the Fancy had been Ridiculous and Scandalous to
the Last Degree; and therefore the Moral is Restrain’d to the True and
Genuine Character of Sovereignty, without Descending to the Counterfeit.
The Moralists that make this Raging of a _Lion_ to be a Surcharge of
One Madness upon another, must not be Understood Simply, as if they
took Government for a Burden and an Oppression; but it refers to the
Infelicity of that State where an Impotent Will puts an Unbounded Power
upon the Tenter. But let the Oppression be never so Sanguinary, there’s
no Appeal left from the Tyranny; for if a General Insurrection had been
thought Lawful, the Fable would not have made the Case so Desperate:
So that this is only to Insinuate the Sacredness of Power, let the
Administration of it be what it will: And the Reason of it is so plain,
that it is impossible for Human Frailty to be better Secur’d then it is
by the Determinations of Providence in this Particular. An Unlimited
Power ’tis true is a strong Temptation, and where ’tis Screw’d up to the
Highest Pitch, ’tis a great Unhappiness; but it is not for Men that have
their Fortunes and their Stations in this World Assign’d them, to take
upon themselves to be their own Carvers, and to Grumble at the Orders and
Resolutions of their Masters and Rulers. ’Tis a Great Unhappiness to lye
at the Mercy of a _Raging Lyon_; but it is a Christian Duty nevertheless
to suffer Patiently under the Justice of such a Judgment.