once admitted, there is an end of all government, of all commerce, and of all fociety, civil and religious. Does not every man bind his heirs, executors, and fucceffors, ⚫ as well as himself, in every civil contract? And what confufion would enfue, if heirs and executors fhould refufe to fulfil fuch engagements? Parents, at the baptism of their children, lay their children as well as themfelves under folemn engagements to God, and to the church; and what must be the confequence to religion, and to religious fociety, if these engagements are not allowed to be binding? Have not public bodies the fame right to bind pofterity by their contracts as private perfons have? Indeed they have an additional right to do it; because public bodies never die; but continue the fame, when all the individuals who compofed them are changed. This is acknowledged by all mankind to be the cafe with every paltry corporation; and who can deny that it is fo with nations too? If any of the Friends of the People were poffeffed of a note for a thousand pounds, emitted by the bank of England a hundred years ago, and fhould apply to have it paid; would he be pleafed if the directors, acting upon his own principles, fhould tell him, that they never emitted that note, that their predeceffors in office had no power to bind them by engagements entered into before they were born, and therefore he fhould have nothing? Have not all nations, fince the beginning of the world, considered their treaties with other nations as binding upon pofterity, as well as upon that generation in which they were made? Yea, did not God himself punish the people of Ifrael for breaking a treaty in the days of Saul that had been entered into by Joshua four hundred years before? And why fhould thofe contracts be of less force, that are entered into by the different parts of a

nation with one another? Is not George III. confidered, even by the Friends of the People, as bound by Magna Charta, though granted in the reign of King John? And why should not the people of England be as ftrictly bound by their engagements to the Crown, fuppofing them to be of as old a date?

4

If men could not choose a form of government, or make laws for pofterity; then not only the laws, but the very conftitution of every nation, behoved to be changed every day. Every day almost a thousand persons die in Britain; an equal number are born; and some hundreds, at least, come of age. He that comes of age to-day, may fay:-"I never confented to the form of government now fubfifting: I never had any voice in the choice "of the ruling powers, or in the making of any laws. "I will therefore be subject to no laws till I myself have "part in the making of them nor will I fubmit to any

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government, till I, in conjunction with my cotempo"raries, have framed a conftitution for ourselves."-He that comes of age to-morrow may argue in the fame manner; and infift for a general convention, in which he fhall have a voice, by himself or his representative, before he will fubmit to any government or any law whatfoever. Surely then we fhall have conventions and constitutions in great abundance!

1

Of all others, this argument comes with the worst grace from Seceders; and I am truly forry ever to have heard it from any of their mouths. We confider ourfelves, and the whole nation, as bound by the folemn vows that our ancestors came under to God in the National Covenant, and in the Solemn League. We confider it as our duty to mourn for the breach of those engagements, and to testify against it, as one of the most heinous of our national fins. But if our ancestors had

no right to bind us by contracts or covenants with men, what right could they have to bind us by fuch engagements to God? Befides, I would beg my brethren's at tention to this;-that, by thefe folemn covenants, we are as ftrictly bound to fubmit to the laws of our country, to adhere to its conftitution,-and ever to defend, with our lives and fortunes, the person and authority of its chief magiftrate, in the execution of thefe laws, as we are to any other moral duty. The exprefs words of the Solemn League and Covenant, Art. iii. are these :

"We fhall, with fincerity, reality, and conftancy,"endeavour, with our eftates and lives, to preferve the " rights and privileges of the Parliaments, and the li"berties of the kingdoms; and to preferve and defend "the King's Majesty's person and, government, in the "prefervation and defence, of the true religion and li"berties of the kingdoms-that the world may bear "witnefs, with our confciences, of our loyalty; and "that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish "his Majefty's just power and greatness."-If these engagements, come under by our ancestors in the days of Charles I. are binding upon us, how can we be otherwife than bound to defend, with our eftates and lives, the rights and privileges of the British parliament, the liberties of the united kingdom, and the person and authority of our fovereign George III.?-How far our words and actions correfpond to this obligation, God and our own confciences will one day determine.

Neither Scripture nor reason give an exclusive sanction to any particular form of government. Owing to the differences of national character, of fituation, and purfuits, one kind of government may be proper among one people; and a different conftitution may be better adapted to the circumstances of another. Thus, a mix

ed

ed government has been found moft congenial to the people of Britain: perhaps a republican government is more adapted to the circumftances of our brethren in America: and, from recent events, it may be fufpected, that, hard as their fituation was, while the king's will was their law, monarchy is the only government fuited to the constitutional levity and ferocity of our neighbours in France. There have been inftances of nations flourishing and happy under different forms of governinent. And every government is capable of degenerating into tyranny, oppreffion or anarchy, in the hands of a corrupt administration. Hence there is a great deal of truth in Mr. Pope's maxim,

"That which is beft administer'd is best."

There was once a nation whofe form of government was prescribed by God himself. He not only moulded their political conftitution; but gave them a body of municipal laws, which none had power to abolish or to alter for JEHOVAH their God was their king. That law expired with the civil ftate of the Jews; and was never confidered by Chriftians as binding upon any other nation, or in any other place but the land of Israel, But many of those laws might with propriety be adopted in every nation. And it is carefully to be obferved, that there could be nothing in their conftitution or code of laws inconfiftent with moral equity or with any of the just rights of man; because the Great Judge of all the earth must neceffarily do right. It may be pleaded that many of thefe laws were typical; intended to point out good things to come :—and this is readily granted. But neither with this, nor with any other defign, can it be fuppofed, that He, who is the original fountain of all reason, of all right, and of all juftice,-would ever establish tyranny, oppreffion, or iniquity, by a law. And therefore, no

thing that, by divine appointment, belonged to that conftitution, can be inconfiftent with the rights of the people, when adopted by any other nation.

:

But what is of the greatest importance to Christians is, that the Scriptures every where enjoin obedience and fubmiffion to that government under which it is our lot to live; whatever it is, or in what manner foever it was fet up. And, accordingly, Chriftians, in all ages and in all places, have confidered it as their duty to fubmit to the powers that be; to pray for them; and to obey them in all things not contrary to the word of God: not only for peace, but also for confcience fake. My fon, fear thou the Lord and the king, was a precept delivered by the Spirit of God. In it God still speaketh to us as to children nor is it the lefs to be regarded because it was delivered by the mouth of a king. In agreeableness to this did the people of God conduct themselves, not only towards the princes of David's line, but likewife towards all those who fwayed the fceptre among the ten tribes.Though most of these kings were ufurpers, and came to the throne by treasons, conspiracies, and maffacres; and though they were all corrupt and tyrannical in their administration, in a greater or lefs degree;-yet the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Hofea, and all other worshippers of the true God, who lived in their dominions, continued to honour them, to fubmit to their authority, and to obey them in all things lawful:-even while they teftified against their mal-administration, and reproved them fharply on that account. And when the remnant of the people were carried captive into Babylon, they submitted to the government established in that country; many of them accepted pofts under it, and under the Per

fian

Prov. xxiv. 21.