xviii,
4, _Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues._ But, blind to his avenging
hand, and deaf to this summons, Great Britain, once without, is now
again returning into a most unlawful communion to support this adjudged
power, by which she constitutes herself a partner in its sins, and
thereby exposes herself to a portion of its plagues. In vain will it be
urged as a plea of justification, that the authors of the revolution in
France, having overturned the constitution of their own country, and
spread desolation through the wide extent of it, menaced other nations,
and us also; and that, therefore, Britain, acting on the first principle
of nature's law, self-preservation, joined the allied powers for her own
defense. Though the Presbytery are by no means to be understood as
giving their suffrage for the lawfulness and justice of the war on our
side; yet, for the sake of argument, allowing the plea--what then? Will
this sanctify the measures adopted by Britain, in recovering, supporting
and propagating the cause of Popery, that the conquest of the enemy, and
her own safety are the ends ultimately to be gained by them? The
Christian maxim, that evil is not to be done that good may come, binds
as strongly nations as individuals.
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