If a people be contented with their government, it
is a certain sign that it is good, and much good do them with it.
The sword of your magistracy is for a terror to them that do
evil. Eumenes had the fear of God, or of the Romans, before his
eyes; concerning such he has given you no commission.
"But till we can say, here are the Romans, where is Eumenes?
do not think that the late appearances of God to you have been
altogether for yourselves; 'He has surely seen the affliction of
your brethren, and heard their cry by reason of their task
masters.' For to believe otherwise is not only to be mindless of
his ways, but altogether deaf. If you have ears to hear, this is
the way in which you will certainly be called upon; for if, while
there is no stock of liberty no sanctuary of the afflicted, it be
a common object to behold a people casting themselves out of the
pan of one prince into the fire of another, what can you think,
but if the world should see the Roman 'eagle again, she would
renew her age and her flight? Nor did ever she spread her wings
with better omen than will be read in your ensigns; which if,
called in by an oppressed people they interpose between them and
their yoke, the people themselves must either do nothing in the
meantime or have no more pains to take for their wished fruit
than to gather it, if that be not likewise done for them.
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