petuate strife, a party spirit, and divisions in the Christian church; yet it is to be hoped that one good end will be answered by it, quite contrary to their intention: It is to be hoped that it will prove a standing memento that Britons will not be slaves, and a warning to all corrupt counsellors and ministers not to go too far in advising to arbitrary, despotic measures.

To conclude: Let us all learn to be free and to be loyal; let us not profess ourselves vassals to the lawless pleasure of any man on earth; but let us remember, at the same time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with. It is our happiness to live under a prince who is satisfied with ruling according to law, as every other good prince will. We enjoy under his administration all the liberty that is proper and expedient for us. It becomes us, therefore, to be contented and dutiful subjects. Let us prize our freedom, but not "use our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness." There are men who strike at liberty under the term licentiousness; there are others who aim at popularity under the disguise of patriotism. Be aware of both. Extremes are dangerous. There is at present amongst us, perhaps, more danger of the latter than of the former; for which reason I would exhort you to pay all due regard to the government over us, to the king, and all in authority, and to "lead a quiet and peaceable life." And, while I am speaking of loyalty to our earthly prince, suffer me just to put you in mind to be loyal also to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, "by whom kings. reign and princes decree justice;" to which King, eternal, immortal, invisible, even to "the only wise God," be all honor and praise, dominion and thanksgiving, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

" d

a 1 Peter ii. 16.

b 1 Tim. ii. 2.

c Prov. viii. 15.

d 1 Tim. i. 17.

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DISCOURSE

On "the good News from

a far Country."

Deliver'd July 24th.

A Day of Thanks-giving to Almighty GoD,
throughout the Province of the Massachusetts-
Bay in New-England, on Occafion of the
REPEAL of the STAMP-ACT; appointed
by his Excellency, the GOVERNOR of faid
Province, at the Defire of it's Houfe of RE-
PRESENTATIVES, with the Advice of his
MAJESTY'S COUNCIL.

f the

y all

and

thly

also

By CHARLES CHAUNCY, D.D.
A Paftor of the first Church in Boston.

ings King,

ough

17.

BOSTON: N. E.

Printed by KNEELAND and ADAMS, in Milk-street, for THOMAS LEVERETT, in Corn-hill.

MDCCLXVI.

EDITOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.

>

THE origin of the Stamp Act can be best understood by a glance at the previous political relations of the colonies to the mother land.

England, "a shop-keeping nation," 1 gained her riches by the commercial monopoly under the "Navigation Acts," a system invented by Sir George Downing, the one whose name stands second on Harvard College catalogue. These acts were modified as the changes of commerce required, and the " 'Stamp Act," but one of the series, was intended to retain the old monopoly of American trade, which was greatly endangered by the conquest of Canada. This was its origin and motive.

The dispute resolved itself into this naked question, whether "the king in Parliament 2 had full power to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever," or in none.

The colonists argued that, by the feudal system, the king, lord paramount of lands in America, as in England, as such, had disposed of them on certain conditions. James I., in 1621, informed Parliament that "America was not annexed to the realm, and that it was not fitting that Parliament should make laws for those countries;" and Charles I. told them "that the colonies were without the realm and jurisdiction of Parlia

1 This phrase is from a tract, 1766, by Tucker, Dean of Gloucester. At that date he advocated "a separation, parting with the colonies entirely, and then making leagues of friendship with them, as with so many independent states;" but, said he," it was too enlarged an idea for a mind wholly occupied within the narrow circle of trade," and a "stranger to the revolutions of states and empires, thoroughly to comprehend, much less to digest."

2 The answers of the Massachusetts Council, January 25th, and House of Representatives, January 26th, to Governor Hutchinson's speech, January 6th, 1775, are rich in historical illustrations of this point, presented with great force of reason, and are decisive.

ment." The colonists showed that the American charters were compacts between the king and his subjects who "transported themselves out of this kingdom of England into America," by which they owed allegiance to him personally as sovereign, but were to make their own laws and taxes: for instance, a revenue was raised in Virginia by a law "enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the General Assembly of the Colony of Virginia." They denied the authority of the legislature of Great Britain over them, but acknowledged his Majesty as a part of the several colonial legislatures.

But the colonies, while jealous of their internal self-control, had permitted the British Parliament to "regulate" their foreign trade, and, upon precedent, the latter now claimed authority to bind the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." Relying upon the royal compact in their charters, the spirit of the British constitution, and "their rights as Englishmen," the Americans denied the jurisdiction of their "brethren" in England.

"Nil Desperandum, Christo Duce," was the motto on the flag of New England in 1745, when her Puritan sons conquered Louisburg, the stronghold of Papal France in the New World, and thus gave peace to Europe. This enterprise, in its spirit, was little less a crusade than was that to redeem Palestine from the thraldom of the Mussulman, and the sepulchre of Jesus from the infidels. One of the chaplains carried upon his shoulder a hatchet to destroy the images in the Romish churches. "O," exclaimed a good old deacon, to Pepperell, "O that I could be with you and dear Parson Moody in that church, to destroy the images there set up, and hear the true gospel of our Lord and Saviour there preached! My wife, who is ill and confined to her bed, yet is so spirited in the affair .. that she is very willing all her sons should wait on you, though it is outwardly greatly to our damage. One of them has already enlisted, and I know not but there will be more." 1 "Christo Duce!" The extinction of French dominion was quickly completed by the conquest of Canada in 1759-60, and at the same moment ceased the colonial need of the red-cross flag of St. George, whose nationality had been their protection against the aggressions of the French. The French being driven from Canada, New England could stand alone. This was the point "in the course of human events" when the sovereignty of England over the colonies was ended, though their formal “Declaration of American Independence," and of the dissolution of "the political

1 Life of Pepperell, by Usher Parsons, M. D. 3d ed., 1856, p. 52.