called into employments and preferments in which they can do themselves no honor, their country no service.

man.

There is not a place in church or state of so mean a consideration, but that the public has an interest in having it supplied by a proper, and, in proportion to the duty of the office, an able When this is the case, the work of government is carried on regularly and steadily, and the influences of it are duly communicated and felt in every part; as the blood, which moves from the heart, cherishes and warms the extreme parts of the body, as long as the little vessels which convey it are in due order; but if these small channels are obstructed, or lose their proper tone, coldness and numbness will ensue, and sometimes greater evils, not to be borne, nor to be cured but by the loss of a limb.

These are the steps by which division corrupts the manners and morality of a nation. And what hopes are there of seeing a people grow great and considerable, who have lost not only the sense of virtue, but even the sense of shame; who call evil good, and good evil; and are prepared to sacrifice their reason, their true interest, the peace and prosperity of their country, to their own and their leaders' resentments? Can it be expected that men should form themselves by a virtuous and laborious course of life for the service of a country, where real worth and merit are so far out of consideration, that the affections and regards of the people are tied, like the favor of the Roman circus, to the color of the coat which distinguishes their faction?

These general observations, which I have laid before you, might be justified by numberless instances drawn from the history of the late times; but perhaps they may weigh more standing single by themselves, than being coupled with facts, in which the passions of the present age are not unconcerned. And sufficient they are of themselves to warn all honest men how they begin or foment the divisions of their country.

But yet, to do justice to my subject, and the solemn occasion of this day, it is necessary to take one step into the history of former times, and to view the works of division in its utmost rage.

I am sensible how difficult it is to speak of any thing relating to that unhappy time which this day calls to mind, and how hardly truth can be borne on any side; yet shall not this discourage me from bearing my testimony against the unnatural and barbarous treason of this day, and the acts of violence which prepared the way for it: a treason long since condemned by the public voice of the nation, in the most solemn acts of Church and State.

I shall go on therefore to illustrate my subject by some examples which the history of the late times affords, and which will reach to the full extent of the observation of my text, that ' a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.'

To put a stop to innovations, to correct the errors or abuses in government, to redress the grievances of the people by the known rules of parliament, is the true and ancient method of preserving the constitution, and transmitting it safe with all its advantages to posterity. But when this wholesome physic came to be administered, as at length it did, by the spirit of faction and division, it was so intemperately given, that the remedy inflamed the distemper; and the unhappy contest, which began about the rights of the king, and the liberties of the people, ended fatally in the destruction of both.

The contest about civil rights was rendered exceedingly hot and fierce, by having all the disputes and quarrels in religious matters, under which the nation had long suffered, incorporated with it. By this means conscience was called in to animate and inflame the popular resentments. The effect was soon felt: the church of England, which had long been the glory and the bulwark of the Reformation, fell the first sacrifice; and many who had served long and faithfully at her altars, were driven out to seek their bread in desolate places. What came in the room of the church so destroyed, time would fail me, should I pretend to account; so many and so various were the forms of religion which arose out of the imaginations of men set free from government.

The bishops of those days were generally inclined to save and support the crown. The consequence drawn from thence was, that episcopacy itself was a usurpation. My meaning is not, that this argument was ever used in the form of logic to

convince any man's judgment; but it influenced the affections of thousands, and prevailed so far as to exclude the bishops not only from this house; where they had sat from the earliest foundation of the monarchy; but from their churches also, where they had been received and reverenced as rulers and governors, for as many ages as can be counted from the days of the apostles.

But why do I mention the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords, when so much more fatal a blow was given to the liberties and constitution of England, by declaring the House of Lords itself to be useless, and excluding the peerage from a share in the legislature; a right derived to them through a long series of ancestors from time immemorial.

The nobility were not free from the infection of those times; and yet to their honor be it remembered, that the execrable fact of this day could not be carried into execution so long as the peerage of England had any influence in the government. But when once they were removed, and this last support of the sinking crown taken away, the crown and the head that wore it fell a victim to the rage of desperate and merciless

men.

It is said, (and the partiality I have for the honor of my country makes me willingly repeat it,) that few, very few in comparison, were wicked enough and bold enough to dip their hands in royal blood. But then how fatal to kingdoms is the spirit of faction and division, which could in the course of a few years throw all the powers of the kingdom into the hands of a few desperate men, and enable them to trample under foot the crowns and the heads of princes, the rights and honors of the ancient nobility, the liberties and properties of a free people, and to tear up the very foundations of our once happy and envied constitution!

Could these acts of violence, and the causes which produced them, be suffered to lie quiet in history as so many marks to point out to us the rocks and shelves on which our fathers made shipwreck, we their sons might be the wiser and the better for their calamities. But if we permit their passions and resentments to descend on us; if we keep the old quarrels alive by mutual reproaches and invectives, what else are we doing but nursing up the embers of that fire which once consumed these

kingdoms, and which may again burst out into a destroying flame? But I forbear, and will forbode no evil to my country.

The application of what has been said is so natural and obvious, that were it pardonable to omit it on this occasion, I should hardly mention it.

There is no pleasure in viewing the follies and distractions of former times; nor is there any advantage, unless it is in order to grow better and wiser by the example which history sets before us. In the present case we have the experience, which cost the nation dear, to warn both rulers and subjects how carefully they should avoid all occasions of division. The true way to do it is, for each side to maintain its own rights without encroaching on those of the other; for the constitution must suffer whenever the rights of the crown or the liberties of the people are invaded. And though every Briton is to be commended if he is fond, and may be indulged when he is over fond (if such a case can be) of the liberties of his country; yet he ought always to remember, that as the people have their liberties, so the king has his rights, which are derived from the same constitution and the same law under which the people claim their liberties : and indeed the people have an interest and inheritance in the rights of the crown, which are so many trusts lodged in the hands of the prince for the defence and protection of the people, and to enable him the better to

ment.

carry on the necessary

works of

govern

To conclude: as we have a prince on the throne under whose government, though some have complained, yet none have suffered in the least of their rights by any act of power; who has shown himself not only careful, but even jealous for the liberties of his people; let us in return yield him that share in our hearts and affections which is so justly due to him, and is a recompense the easiest for good subjects to pay, and yet the most valuable that a good prince can receive.

SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE XI.

LUKE, CHAP. X.-VERSES 36. 37.

THE case of the good Samaritan was not principally intended to show the necessity of works of mercy, &c. these have their foundation in, and are recommended by, the law of nature; but to remove various pretences or prejudices was the direct object of our Lord in stating this case: and he was led to this by the inquirer, who admitted the love of our neighbor to be a fundamental duty, though he sought after limitations and restrictions on the practice of it: this point enlarged on. The parable itself is so well known, that it is sufficient to mention the mere circumstances of it.

Taking the direction of our Saviour, as it stands explained by these circumstances, it will lead us to the following considerations: I. the nature and extent of charity: II. the value of the excuses which men often make for the neglect of it: III. the excellency of that particular charity which has given occasion to this day's meeting. First; as was before observed, our Saviour's intention was not principally to show the necessity of charitable works, or to recommend one of them above the rest. In stating a case, however, it was necessary to instance some sort of charitable work; but the conclusion, Go and do thou likewise, is not confined to that kind of work only, but is intended to show us who are our neighbors in regard to works of mercy in every kind. The works of mercy are as various as its objects, and all who are miserable are objects of pity; nor can any reason be assigned for excluding such