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Show (" 43 )- (42) eral diiiipa~ rive llations. There has been a gen neglect tion among us for a long time; a great gnation of bufinefs. Even the poor, and {la om and labouring part of the community, wh ch very far from defpifing, have had fo mu I am cs, in the to fay about government and politi on, late times of danger, tumult and confufi had that many of them feemed to forget, they w be any thing to do. Methinks, it would no expedient for them, and perhaps for theft of ing us, to do fomething more, and talk fometh and to lefs; every one " fludying to be quiet, (Io/m awn bufinefs ;" letting things return peace~ s, ably into their old channels, and natural courle after fo long an interruption. My immediate aim in what I now fay, being only to recon]: mend indullry, good order and harmony, I will not meddle with the thorny quellion, whether, or how far, it may be jufiifiable for private men, at certain extraordinary conjunct tures, to take the adminillration of governmen in fome relpeéls into their own hands. - Selfprefervation being a great and primary law of t to nature, and to be confidered as anteceden all civil laws and inflitutions, whieh are lubor~ ht «dimte and fubfervient to the other ; the rig of lo doing, in lome circumliances, cannot well be denied. But certainly,there is no plaufible pretence for fneh a conduél among us now. That which may be excnfeable, and perhaps laudable, on iome very fingular emergencies, on:i "furnish". a: «other times be pragmatical, (editi an and high-handed prefumption. Letall there. fore nowjoin with heart and hand in fupporting; the lawful, conllitutional government over us: in itsjull dignity and vigor; in liipporting his Majelty's Reprefentative, the civil magifirates, and all perfons in authority, in the lawful.cx~, ercife of their feveral offices. No true friend of liberty can reafonably objeé't againf'r this ; and if any perfons fliould,it'would lhew that, while they fpeak great fwelling words of vanity, ma-e king liberty the pretext, they themfelves are the fervants of corruption, the ignoble flaves of fin. Without this due regard to government and laws, we (hall {lill be miferable, my friends, notwithflanding'all that God and the King have done to make us happy. If one had wings like a dove, it were better to fly far away, and remain alone in the wildernefs, where he might be at tell, than to live in a fociety where there 33 no order, no fubordination ; but anarchy and confulion reign. Of thefe we have furelyhad enough already ; tho' at the fame time I blefs God, that there has not been much more, confidering the great danger in which we have been,with the general alarm and conflernation, by reafon of that which is faid to make " even a wife man m‘ad,‘"‘and mUch morethe rafh and indifcrete, of whom there isa great proportion in all communities ; confidering alfo the :1belute neceflity there was, or at leafl feemed to be, of fume very uncommon flruggles and exertions, in order to break the fimrc, and the natural |
