strengthen one another *. In this sense they concern

us all this therefore I shall follow.

And if ever cause required exerting and joining all the strength, and all the courage we have, this is that cause. For the attack is made by our enemies, foreign and domestic at once, on every thing dear to us, civil and sacred: and conscience towards God, as well as private interest and public good, demands our utmost zeal in such a contest.

The plea, which some would use to check this ardour, as if the government we live under ought not to be supported, because the late king James and his son were set aside by the people, is absolutely groundless. For indeed king James set himself aside; abandoned the government wilfully, rather than administer it according to law: and by so doing, left the nation at liberty, or rather under necessity, to provide for itself in the manner it did; especially as he carried away the person, whom he called his son, along with him. And had he not been carried away; all the world knows, it was generally and strongly suspected, that he was not the queen's child: and the three estates of the kingdom, the only fit judges of a doubtful succession, fixed it without taking notice of him. But had none of these things been so; that unhappy king, seduced by Romish bigots, had invaded, with a high hand, the religious and civil rights of his people: instead of giving the least hope of amendment, he was going on with rapidity to the utter destruction of both. And subjects were not made for princes, to be treated as their absolute property, and descend from one to another like cattle, let them be used as they will: but princes were made for their subjects; to govern them legally,

See Gen. xxv. 22. xli. 2. 2 Kings xiv. 8. 11.

and seek their good. What is the duty of the one, is the right of the other: and where there is a right, there ought to be a remedy. Common remedies are ever to be used in common cases: and if they are insufficient, single persons ought to bear every thing ; and nations, every thing that can be borne without destruction; rather than break the public peace, and established order of government. But in extreme, imminent, universal dangers, methods of the last resort, if necessary and likely to succeed, are fully warranted; by the nature of the thing, by our original constitution, by ancient practice upon it, and royal recognitions of it.

The Scripture indeed commands what reason itself doth subjection to the supreme powers.-But how many other commands are there, which confessedly admit of proper exceptions? And were this to admit of none, yet the Scripture doth not determine, in whose hands the supreme power is lodged. And where it is divided, as it is with us, between the king and his great council, by whose joint authority every statute is expressed to be made: he, who refuses to stand to that division, as the late king James did openly, both by word and deed, renounces the authority that belonged to him under it; and other authority he hath none. Or suppose even this doubtful; the Scripture requires subjection: but to whom? To the powers that be, the actual, visible governments of every country. These it declares are ordained of God; and that they who resist shall receive damnation*. Not the least hint given, of enquiring into the justice of an establishment in its first rise long ago: a thing which few subjects can do, and perhaps few governments can bear. Not the slightest intimation, Rom. xiii. 1, 2.

of adhering for ever to the family of an abdicated prince, and going on, age after age, to ascribe the sovereign authority over a nation, to a person that hath no means of exercising any one act of authority. The necessities of mankind render it absurd: the practice and the notions of mankind have always been contrary to it. Heathens, Jews, Christians, Papists, Protestants, all the world have agreed in the point with universal consent; excepting a small handful of men in this one age and nation : persons greatly to be pitied, and highly to be esteemed, while they submit peaceably to inconveniences for conscience sake; but surely guilty of as indefensible a singularity, as ever was.

There may indeed often be a doubt, and sometimes it may last a good while, which are the powers that be: whether a government is yet to be considered as established, or not. But in our own case, if a duration of so many years, and the peaceable succession of so many princes, and the repeated acknowledgments of the whole people of these kingdoms, and of all the sovereigns and nations of the earth, do not make it a clear point, in whose hands the supreme authority of this country long hath been, and actually now is nothing of such a nature can ever be clear at all. Very few of us have either known, or lived under, any other government: we have all of us claimed, and enjoyed the protection of this: we have acted in pursuance of its authority; we have prayed continually for its preservation; we have many of us bound our souls by solemn oaths, and some of us by repeated ones, to maintain it: in so doing, we maintain at the same time, every thing that is va'uable to us and our posterity: and there cannot

be a firmer tie upon us, than these things together: nor more abandoned wickedness, than to break through it.

Strengthened thus then within ourselves, let us proceed to strengthen one another. God knows, instead of this, we have taken great pains to weaken one another, by separate interests and views, animosities and resentments, unkind suspicions, and unjust imputations. What party or sort of men hath been most to blame in this respect, were it ever so easy to say, would be very unfit: when the plain concern is, not to accuse and recriminate, but all to unite in what affects all so nearly. They therefore, who have hitherto thought the danger of such an attempt small, let them now shew they were far from wishing it greater. They who have been dissatisfied with particular measures of government, let them now give proof, that they were not disaffected to the government itself: and if possibly in any thing they may have opposed too far, take this fittest opportunity of making amends. This will demonstrate the uprightness of their intentions, give weight to their sentiments on other matters, and pull down the false hopes, that our enemies have founded on our domestic disputes. But then, at the same time, if the zeal of any for the present establishment, hath tempted them to judge too hardly concerning the affection of others towards it, they ought now candidly to acknowledge their error: embrace those as true friends, who approve themselves to be such in the day of trial; and remember for the future, that strength is attained, not by division, but by union. Indeed we should all remember, instead of aggravating what our opposers have done amiss, to reflect seriously what

we and our friends have been faulty in: and perhaps we should most of us find, it hath been a great deal too much.

But it is not mutual good temper alone, that our case requires; but mutual assistance and encouragement, to be given with spirit by each of us, according to his ability, and the nature of his station, to all around him: by ranking ourselves openly on the side we are of; joining our counsels, contributing our money, hazarding our persons, if need require it; by instructing, undeceiving, exciting, fortifying, as many others as we can. That part would be indifferent, part timorous, and all resist weakly, was the great thing that the adversaries of the government promised themselves, and its friends were apprehensive of. God be thanked, both of them in some degree have seen their mistake. Let us go on to complete the conviction, by a daily increase of resolute activity. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees: say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not *.

One thing more, to be mentioned under this head, is, that if the present endeavour to ruin us should increase, though it were considerably, the public expence necessary to defend us, we are surely neither to wonder, nor to murmur at it; but bear with cheerfulness what may be inconvenient, in order to prevent what must be ruinous; and consider well, that were this design to take place, we should probably pay much more to foreigners, as a reward for enslaving us, than now to our own governors, as the means of keeping us free.

But human means alone, human prudence and strength, be it ever so great, is no sufficient ground * Isaiah xxxv. 3, 4.