Page images
PDF
EPUB

try, or to blefs God for restoring it, they must also move us to do what is in our own Power to preserve it; fince in vain do we pray for the Affiftance of God in any Cafe, whilst we neglect to ufe the Means of helping ourselves, which he has put in our

Power.

How much the Prefervation of the present Establishment depends on the Success of public Councils, every Body knows; and yet should I, by any particular Application, feem to fuppofe that your Zeal in this Cause wanted a Spur, I might well be thought to be the only Stranger in Ifrael, and not to bave known the Things which have come to pafs in thefe Days.

What private Men can do, they best know many are certainly well qualified by their Reputation, their Station, and great Abilities, to promote the Interest of their King and Country; and furely it is every Man's Duty to do what he thinks he lawfully may do, to ferve these desirable Ends. And this would be allowed to be a very reafonable Demand, were not the Nation unhappily divided into Factions, which have fwallowed up all public Duty, and transferred to themselves that Allegiance which is

due

due only to the Crown. Were there but half the Zeal to ferve the Public, which Men daily express for the Intereft of their feveral Parties, there would be but little Encouragement for a fecond Attempt to disturb, our Peace.

It is wonderful to obferve, in all Cafes, this fteady Adherence to Party: those who ascribe it to mere Corruption, and the fordid Ends of private Gain, fee but little into the true Caufe; there is another Principle more remote from common Obfervation, which has a greater Influence; a Principle in itself more generous, though oftentimes in its Confequences not lefs pernicious; I mean, the Regard which Men have for their own Credit and Reputation. This is the natural Fruit of the best Soil; every good Man has it, and it is the Life of virtuous Actions, when its Views are rightly directed. But where Kingdoms are divided into oppofite Factions, the true Standard of Reputation will always be loft, and Men will grow into Efteem, not for their virtuous Actions, but for their Party Merit. Hence it comes to pafs, that in civil Difputes, it is as reproachful to deviate from your Leader's Opinion, as it is for a private Soldier to desert his General

M

4

General in the Day of Battle. The Obligations of the public Duty, or of private Opinion, will obtain no Quarter for you; for fuch is your Cafe, that you may with lefs Hazard of Reproach commit almost any Vice, than venture to be in the right without the Support of a Majority. This Evil is the more to be lamented, because its Infection spreads most easily among the best. Helvidius Prifcus lived in the Degeneracy of the Empire, but had all the Virtues of an old Roman; yet he was observed to be appetentior famæ, quando etiam fapientibus, as the Hiftorian remarks, cupido gloriæ noviffima exuitur. But whatever may be faid in Excufe for this Paffion, in Matters which a willing Cafuift may perfuade himself to be indifferent; yet furely it is to be highly blamed, when the Profperity of our King, our Country, and our Religion are at Stake: in such a Time every Man fhould run the Hazard of being true to the Public, efpecially if he cannot defert it without being false to himself.

There is another Evil, not much unlike the former, though of a different Kind, which is owing alfo to our unhappy Divifions. If, on one Side, it may be sometimes

difficult

difficult for Men who have no ill Intention to the Public, to discharge their Duty to it; on the other, there will always be fome to rejoice when they do Wrong; though Zeal for the Government never produces a more prepofterous Effect, than when it makes Men take Pleasure in the Number, or in the Perverseness of its Enemies. Those who are fincerely and with any Judgment in the Intereft of the King, have nothing more to with, than to fee the Hearts of all his Majefty's Subjects united in Obedience and Affection to him; or, if that is not to be obtained, to fee as many as can be. But there is a little Kind of Men, who mistaking their party Zeal for Affection to the Government, feem tranfported when thofe, whom they have been taught to think their Enemies, do by any Misbehaviour render themfelves obnoxious to the prefent Powers: as they rejoice in fuch Misbehaviour, fo are they apt fometimes to provoke it, and think themselves never better entitled to plead their own Merit, than when they have urged others to fuch Things, as a wife Man and a Friend to the Government would with all his Care have laboured to prevent.

Under these unhappy Circumstances there

is

is more Reafon to wifh, than there is Ground to hope, for Peace and Unanimity at Home. It is an eafy Matter for a few defigning Men to fill the People with great, and, at the fame Time, very unjuft Apprehenfions from their Governors; though his Majefty, in his great Wisdom and Goodness, took at the very Beginning the propereft Step to prevent this Mischief, by declaring that he would always make the Conftitution in Church and State the Rule of his Adminiftration. As our Conftitution in Church has many Friends, fo to our great Misfortune has it fome Enemies; and as it cannot be diffembled, but that the Fears and Jealoufies on one side, fo it will hardly be denied, but that the Hopes and Expectations on the other, have been very unreasonable. And confidering how People, in a State of Sufpicion, watch and obferve each other, how naturally the Fears of one increase by seeing the Hopes of the other, without knowing or enquiring what Ground or Foundation there is for them; it will be neceffary, in order to quiet the angry Spirit that is among us, to fupprefs thefe Hopes, as well as to allay thofe Fears: and I pray God to reduce them both to their proper Bounds, that we

may

« PreviousContinue »