N00957:26
The way for a people to live long in the land that God hath…
The way for a people to live long in the land that God hath given them. A sermon preached before His Excellency, the governor, the Honoured Council and Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, on the 26. of May 1703. At the election of Her Majesties Council there. / By Solomon Stoddard, A.M. and Pastor of Northampton.The way for a people to live long in the land that God hath given them. A sermon preached before His Excellency, the governour, the Honoured Council and Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, on the 26. of May 1703. At the election of Her Majesties Council there. / By Solomon Stoddard, A.M. and Pastor of Northampton.
Boston: printed by Bartholomew Green and John Allen for Benj. Eliot, 1703
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.
Quest. What is the work of Rulers to the People?
A. 1. To do the work of their particular Office faithfully. The Government of a People is not entirely in one hand; but it is distributed among many: Many persons have an hand in the Government. Some are fixed in an higher Orb, and some in a lower; some of them are Counsellors, some Judges, some Representatives, some Justices; and it is every ones duty to do the work of his own Office. 2 Chron. 19. 6. He said to the Judges, take heed what you do, for ye Judge not for man, but for the Lord: & ver. 11. Amariah is over you in matters of the Lord, and Zebadiah the Ruler of the House of Judah for all the Kings matters. It is not the duty of one Ruler to fulfil the Office of another, but every one is bound to attend the work of his own Office. They do not discharge their duty by complaining one of another, but by fulfilling their own work. Col. 4. 17. Say to Archippus, take heed to the Ministry that thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
2. To be good examples to the people. Rulers are Leaders, and their actions are presidential. They may not pull down with one hand, what they build up with the other: The practices of Rulers have a great influence as well as their Laws; Rulers teach others as well by their Conversation, as by their Laws and Sentences. Good Carriages in men of Public Place, do stir up others to imitation; their good carriages make others fear to carry badly, and sometimes to love to carry well; but if the head be ill, the whole ⟨p. 6⟩body will be out of order. The ill behaviour of Rulers is greatly Infectious; bad examples in such embolden others to carry badly: bad examples in such draw and invite others to carry badly; bad examples in such, are made an apology for others that carry badly: Bad Carriages in such, make them to lose much of their Authority.