Deference and homage due to civil magif

trates.

congregation, I must own, is rather of an infidious nature, and without judging very rafhly, we may be allowed to think it calculated to infpire his auditors, with a difcontented contempt for their governors, and excite them to an attempt to alter or fubverts the present system and form of government. Whereas, fince, as Milton fays, the inftitution of magiftracy is jure divino, I think I need not ufe argument to prove, that it is emphatically the duty of the ministers of God, to enforce from his facred tribunal, the obligation of fubmitting to their authority. And, indeed, it must in justice be allowed, that this political evangelift does not leave his pulpit, without fhewing to his congregation, that he is fully aware of this firft duty of his station.

"There is undoubtedly a particular deference and homage due to civil magistrates, on account of their ftations and offices; nor can that man be either truly wife, or truly virtuous, who defpifes governments, and wantonly Speaks evil of his rulers; or who does not, by all the means in his power, endeavour to strengthen their hands, and to give weight to their exertions in the difcharge of their duty. Fear God, fays St. Peter. Love the brotherhood. Honour all men. Honour the

king. You must needs, fays St. Paul, be fub ject to rulers, not only for wrath (that is, from the fear of fuffering the penalties annexed to the breach of the laws), but for confcience fake. For rulers are minifters of God, and revengers for executing wrath on all that do evil." Were the whole tenor of Doctor Price's difcourfe conformable with this part of it, no other than the most defirable effects could have been produced by it; and in the encreasing duty and fubmiffion of his flock to the powers placed over them, would the fruits of their loyal paftor's address be discovered.

Mr. Locke, in the preface to his Treatife upon Civil Government, fays; "he allows its juft weight to this reflection, that there cannot be done a greater mischief to prince and people, than the propagating wrong notions concerning government, that fo at laft, all times might not have reason to complain of the drum ecclefiaftic." Now, if the congregation affembled at the Old Jewry understood and felt, as well as their pastor, that by the words, our own and ourselves, were meant and intended the whole community, completely reprefented by the king, lords, and commons, the first and third part of this

The true poli-
Dr. Price's pro-

tical sense of

pofitions.

laft affertion, viz. the right to chufe our own governors, and to frame a government for ourfelves, are certainly true, and it would be treafonable to deny them openly. The fecond part of the affertion cannot be faid to be falfe, though, from the improbability of its taking effect, it becomes childishly abfurd. It certainly is within phyfical poffibility, though without moral probability, that a king. of England should give the royal afsent to an act of parliament for cashiering himself for mifconduct; for in the prefent conftitution of our government, there can be no act of thepeople, which is not an act of parliament; nor any act of the parliament, which is not the act of the people. Now, although in this proper true political fenfe the doctrine of Dr. Price be strictly true, yet, from the manner, in which the truth appears to have been conveyed, or reprefented to his congregation, I cannot help concluding, that most of them came from the Old Jewry fully fatisfied (as indeed they probably went thither), that thefe boafted rights were poffeffed, and might at all times be exercifed by thofe particularly, who diffented from our ecclefiaftical, and were discontented with our prefent civil establishRights of the community re- ment. It was rather infidious, to foothe them prefented infi

dioufly, as the with this flattering difplay of rights, and not

rights of every

individual.

at

at the fame time inform them, that they never could be exercifed, but by the act of the majority of that community, of which they were avowedly a very decided minority; and that they were moreover amenable, collectively and individually, to the full rigour of the laws, for refifting or opposing in any manner the acts of the majority; any idea, therefore, of a perfonal enjoyment of these rights, in consequence of our own judgments, was delufive and mischievous in the extreme; and the idea of cashiering our governors for mifconduct, which in moft minds would implant the previous idea of a right of perfonal condemnation, fuperadds to the delufion and mischief a sense of indelicacy, little congenial with the deference and refpect, which our conftitution enjoins every one to pay to the fupreme governor of the state. I perhaps understand thefe three affertions of Dr. Price differently from the generality of his congregation; but, probably, not differently, from himself; for he exprefsly and truly fays, * « Were it not true, that liberty of confcience is a facred right; that power abused juftifies refiftance; and that civil authority is a delegation from the people, the revolution

The true caufe of the king's owing his crown to the choice of his people.

would have been, not an affertion, but an invafion of rights; not a revolution, but a rebellion."

There is one more paffage in this much canvaffed fermon, which has given the higheft offence to Mr. Burke. †"All things in this fulminating bull are not of fo innoxious a tendency. His doctrines affect our conftitution in the most vital parts. He tells the revolution fociety in this political fermon, that his majesty is almost the only lawful king in the world, because the only one, who owes his crown to the choice of his people. This doctrine, (he says), affirms a most unfounded, dangerous, illegal, and unconftitutional pofition." I think it clear, that Dr. Price, by the words, owes his crown to the choice of his people, did not mean, that he owed his high office to any form of popular election, as Mr. Burke infinuates, which would have been notoriously false; but that our fovereign owes his crown and station to the free affent of the people, which is the efficient cause of every free conftitution; and this I take to be true, found, and genuine revolution doctrine; and as fuch was it exprefsly delivered by Mr. Locke, immediately after the revolution had

+ Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 16.

taken