DIALOGUE VI.

ON THE

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

BETWEEN

SIR JOHN MAYNARD, MR. SOMERS,

AND

BISHOP BURNET.

DIALOGUE VI.

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE

ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

SIR JOHN MAYNARD, MR. SOMERS,

BISHOP BURNET.

OUR

TO DR. TILLOTSON.

next meeting at Sir JOHN MAYNARD'S was on the evening of that day, when the war was proclaimed against France. What the event of it will be, is a secret in the counsels of Providence. But if the goodness of our cause, his Majesty's known wisdom and ability, and, above all, the apparent zeal and firmness of all orders amongst us in support of this great undertaking, may give a prospect of success, we cannot, I persuade myself, but indulge in the most reasonable hopes and expectations.

DIALOGUE

VI.

Perhaps, the time is approaching, my dear friend, which the divine goodness hath decreed for putting a stop to that outrageous power, which hath been permitted for so long a course of years to afflict the neighbouring nations. It may be, the season is row at hand, when God will vouchsafe to plead the cause of his servants, and let this mighty persecutor of the faithful know that he may not be suffered any longer to trample on the sacred rights of conscience. He may be taught to feel, that the ravages he hath committed in the fairest provinces, and the cruelties he hath exercised on the best subjects, of his own kingdom, have at length awakened the divine displeasure against him. And he may live to find in our great prince (raised up, as I verily believe, to this eminence of place and power to be the scourge of tyrants, and the vindicator of oppressed nations) an insurmountable bulwark against that encroaching dominion, which threatens to deform and lay waste the rest of Europe.

I have already lived to see those providences, which may encourage a serious and good mind to believe that some great work is preparing in our days. I was very early in my life a witness to the high measures which were taken