' Hearken, I say,
if thy brother cries to thee in affliction, wilt thou not hear
him? This is a commonwealth of the fabric that has an open ear
and a public concern; she is not made for herself only, but given
as a magistrate of God to mankind, for the vindication of common
right and the law of nature. Wherefore says Cicero of the like,
that of the Romans, 'We have rather undertaken the patronage than
the empire of the world.' If you, not regarding this example,
like some other nations that are upon the point to smart for it,
shall, having attained to your own liberty, bear the sword of
your common magistracy in vain, sit still and fold your arms, or,
which is worse, let out the blood of your people to tyrants, to
be shed in the defence of their yokes like water, and so not only
turn the grace of God into wantonness, but his justice into
wormwood: I say if you do thus, you are not now making a
commonwealth, but heaping coals of fire upon your own heads. A
commonwealth of this make is a minister of God upon earth, to the
end that the world may be governed with righteousness. For which
cause (that I may come at length to our present business) the
orders last rehearsed are buds of empire, such as with the
blessing of God may spread the arms of your commonwealth, like a
holy asylum, to the distressed world, and give the earth her
sabbath of years, or rest from her labors, under the shadow of
your wings.
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