OCR Text |
Show ( 2 5 3‘ t 24 ) tion of thoi'e liberties and privileges, to which The apoftle Peter makes a natural tranfition from flaring God to honoring the ng. Let me, accordingly, in the next place, exhort you, they were juitly intitled ; and ifthe uf'ual ti is and fervor of their loyal affection is in an:r my friends and brethren, to arefpeétful, lbyal the readinefs which his Majeity has Hiewn to hear and redrefs his people's wrongs, ought to give a new lpring, an additional vigor to their loyaltyand obedience. Naturalparents, thro' human frailty, and mif'takes about feels and circumlianees,fbmetimes prove/he t/yez'r c/Ji/a'rcvz ta twat/2, tho' they tenderly love them,and iincere- ly defire their good. But what affeé‘tionate and dutiful Child ever harboured relentment on any and dutiful manner of fpeech and conduét, reo fpefiing his Majefty and his government ; thereby making a fuitable return to him For the redrefs of our late grievances. I am, indeed, well ap- prifed of the firm attachment of thefe colonies in general, and of our own province in particular, to the King's perfon, and to the proteflant fuc» ceflion in his illuf'rrious Houfe ; for the prefer- vation of which, there is hardly a native of New-England, who would not, upon conflitutional rinciples, which are thofe of liberty, chearf'ully liazard his life ; or even more lives than one, if he had them to lay down in [0 good a caufe. 'I have not the leali fufpicion of any difaflbftion‘. in you to his Majclly: But yet the duty of {ub- jefts to Kings, and to all that are in authority, is frequently to be inculcated by the minifters of the gofpel, if they will follow the example of the apoftles in this refpeét. And the prefent occafion feems particularly proper to remind you of that important dUty ; fince we have now before us a recent and memorable proof of his Majefly's moderation, his attention to the Welfare of his people, and readinefs, To far as in him lies according to the confiitution, to redrefs their gric‘ vances, on reafonable and humble complaint, If any perfons among us have taken it unkindly, that his Majelty {hould have given his royal alient to an aft, which they think was an infracnon degree abated on that account; yet, finely, fuch account, if the grievance was removed, on a dutiful reprel‘entation of it P Hardly any thing operates f0 {irongly on ingenuous minds, tho' perhaps of quick refentment, as the mild eondefcenfion of a fuperior to the force ofreafon. and right on the part of the interior. I [hall make no application of this, any farther than. to remind you, that Britilh kings are the po» litical FATHERS oftheir people, and the peo~ ple their CHILDREN; the former are not: tyranrr, or even 7120/}er ,- the latter are not: flaver, or even/e "trams. Let me farther exhort you to pay due ref- peft in all things to the Britilh Parliament ; the Lords and Commons being two branches of the fupreme legiflative over all his Majetiy's dominions. The right of parliament to fuper» intend the general affairs of the colonies, to direct, check or controul them, feems to be i‘uppol'ed in their charters; all which, I think, E while |