Integrity and Piety the Best Principles of a Good Administration of Government

GEORGE WYLLYS, Sec'ry.

An Election SERMON.

II SAMUEL, XXIII. 3.

THE GOD OF ISRAEL SAID, THE ROCK OF ISRAEL SPAKE TO ME, HE THAT RULETH OVER MEN MUST BE JUST, RULING IN THE FEAR OF GOD.

IMPORTANT are the rights of mankind, to the safe and unmolested enjoyment of life, liberty and property, and to the best improvement of all their powers, with every reasonable and equitable advantage they have to promote their present and everlasting welfare. These natural rights, civil and religious, are the gifts of God, as such sacred; nor may any but He, as original proprietor, resume them at pleasure. But in such a world as this, lying in wickedness, abounding with unruly passions, mistaken views, clashing interests and violence, there can be no p. 6rational foundation for the security of them, without civil government.

THIS evinces the urgent necessity and high utility of civil institution; and proclaims it the dictate of reason, of nature, and the will of God. Divine revelation, in express and peremptory language, confirms it, "the ordinance of God." [Rom. 13. 2.] This likewise points out to view, the good of the community, to be the high end of government, and the supreme law of the state. The important rights, liberties, privileges and immunities of the community, (so far as is requisite to the end of government) being by special trust put into the hand of rulers, by God and the people, for their preservation, best enjoyment and improvement. A trust, of very high and endearing importance, by which they are constituted the immediate guardians of them.

THESE, as the salutary objects, and sublime end of government, are tacitly pointed out in the text. "He that ruleth over men," not brutes, who may be made slaves, or killed for the conveniency of others; but men, of the same rank of being, dignity of nature, and vested with the same great and essential rights with themselves, "must be just" in his attentive regard to them, "ruling in the fear of God."

p. 7UPON these principles, it is evident, that the dignity of government, and the great essential rights and privileges of subjects, must, of right, be inviolably maintained. "He that ruleth over men," must be known, duly honored and obeyed, in his exalted station. If the dignity of government, be degraded and weakened, the strength and energy of government, will be proportionably enervated, that it cannot reach, and effectuate, the great design of it. On the other hand, if the great and essential rights and privileges of the people, be invaded and supplanted, usurped and destroyed: the design of government is subverted, and the end of it frustrated, in the primary and fundamental intention of it. No exalted ideas of power and prerogative, can be just, as applying it to such destructive purposes. All the high prerogatives of power, are for the good of the subjects, their wanton exertion therefore, for the destruction of their unforfeited lives, liberties and properties, must be the perversion of them, a contravention and subversion of their true intention.

p. 7THESE two important objects, which demand every one's attention, may with great reason be supposed to be invariably united, in the constitution and nature of things—and yet, there may sometimes happen no small difficulty, to adjust p. 8and compromise both: but perhaps, this will seldom or never occur; except, where there has been a deviation, from true wisdom, good policy and righteousness: in such case, the remedy may seem equally plain and easy, in a speedy reversion of the measures, which have occasioned such perplexity in administration.

THERE is a method, in the constitution and nature of things, forever to maintain (so far as is within the power of the state to do it) the dignity of government, with the rights and privileges of subjects, in the greatest harmony. This will be found, in a good constitution of civil polity—in a good administration of civil government, pursuant to the spirit and intention of such a constitution—and in the joint concurrence and co-opperation of subjects with their rulers, to the same noble and important design.

A GOOD constitution of civil polity, by which, rulers of every rank and order from the highest to the lowest, hold all their powers and prerogatives, emoluments and honors; and the subjects, all their rights and liberties, privileges and immunities; is of very interesting importance to every free state; without which, all the rights and privileges of subjects, rest upon a very weak p. 9foundation, and are held by a very slippery and uncertain tenure, the will and caprice of rulers in power. What a miserable foundation of security this! is fatally seen and felt, in despotic and arbitrary governments through the world. Whereas, in a well framed constitution, which contains ample provision, to maintain the dignity of government, with the privileges of the people—where power and privilege are so essentially incorporated—that the one cannot of right, be held and exercised, without the protection of the other—nor the other enjoyed, without the support of the powers of government; there is the best and strongest securities, both to rulers and subjects, that can be, in the imperfect and mutable state of things, in this world. Such is the strong, the beautiful and happy complection of the British, of our own constitution.

p. 9A GOOD administration pursuant to the spirit and intention of a free and good constitution, is of like importance with the constitution itself. The best constitution cannot operate, as an efficient effectual machine to the ends of government, unless life and energy be given to it, in administration. The Jews were endow'd by the singular favour and gift of God, with an excellent constitution: adapted with infinite wisdom and goodness to their state, p. 10and to the best ends of government and religion to them; (it were easy to shew the eminent advantages of it, were there time and were it not foreign to the occasion) but the Rock of Israel said—there must be just rulers in administration,

ruling in the fear of God.