N00581:61
The character of a good ruler. As it was recommended in a sermon preached…
The character of a good ruler. As it was recommended in a sermon preached before His Excellency the governor, and the Honourable Counsellors, and Assembly of the Representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. On May 30. 1694. Which was the day for election of councillors for that province. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston.The character of a good ruler. As it was recommended in a sermon preached before His Excellency the governour, and the Honourable Counsellors, and Assembly of the Representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. On May 30. 1694. Which was the day for election of councellors for that province. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston.
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris for Michael Perry, 1694
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Take heed of any Sinister Aims in whatsoever Laws do pass: Laws made to strengthen a particular separate Interest, never did Good, but Hurt to a Body-Politic: that which may serve the present turn, may in a little time prove more Mischievous, than ever it was Advantageous. Remember, you cannot Repeal such Laws, when you will, or when you have advanced a design with them. Look then forward to the after Issues. It will be no small Aggravation of our Trouble, to be Wounded with a Shaft of our own making. Look for Changes in a World of Mutability, and lay in, as far as innocent Prudence may direct, for your Own, and your Peoples Safety.
Take heed of any Sinister Aims in whatsoever Laws do pass: Laws made to strengthen a particular separate Interest, never did Good, but Hurt to a Body-Politick: that which may serve the present turn, may in a little time prove more Mischievous, than ever it was Advantageous. Remember, you cannot Repeal such Laws, when you will, or when you have advanced a design with them. Look then forward to the after Issues. It will be no small Aggravation of our Trouble, to be Wounded with a Shaft of our own making. Look for Changes in a World of Mutability, and lay in, as far as innocent Prudence may direct, for your Own, and your Peoples Safety.
Keep to this also in all your Administration or Application of Laws. Maintain a good Conscience in it, and let the Fear of God, and a Principle of Justice make you to lay aside all Sinister Respects. Let not Persons but Things Sway you in all your Dispensations; and when the case is the same, let the same sentence proceed from you: let neither Riches nor Poverty turn the Scale; neither Friendship nor Enmity Spoil the Sentence. Take no Gift in secret ⟨p. 28⟩to stop or Pervert Justice; nor misapply your power to take private or personal Revenge. When Cases are plain, do not obscure them; and when they are dubious Search them out: and let not flattery or Impudence prevail over you, but take his advice in 2. Chron 16. 9. Thus shall you do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart, Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the good.