Page:Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886).djvu/54

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SUSANNA WESLEY.
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heir. Whether they did well in driving a prince from his hereditary throne, I leave to their own consciences to determine; though I cannot tell how to think that a King of England can ever be accountable to his subjects for any mal-administration or abuse of power. But as he derives his power from God, so to Him only he must answer for his using it. But still, I make great difference between those who entered into a confederacy against their Prince, and those who, knowing nothing of the contrivance, and so consequently not consenting to it, only submitted to the present Government, which seems to me the law of the English nation, and the duty of private Christians, and the case with the generality of this people. But whether the praying for a usurper, and vindicating his usurpations after he has the throne, be not participating his sins, is easily determined"

It appears, also, that when a national fast day was proclaimed and observed, Mrs. Wesley stayed at home instead of going to church, and she justifies her action thus: "Since I am not satisfied of the lawfulness of the war, I cannot beg a blessing on our arms till I can have the opinion of one wiser, and a more competent judge than myself, in this point, viz., whether a private person that had no hand in the beginning of the war, but did always disapprove of it, may, notwithstanding, implore God's blessing on it, and pray for the good success of those arms which were taken up, I think, unlawfully. In the meantime I think it my duty, since I cannot join in public worship, to spend the time others take in that in humbling myself before God for my own and the nation's sins; and in beseeching Him to spare that guilty land wherein are many thousands that are, notwithstanding, compara-