"Though the general doctrine of non-resistance, the doctrine of the Church of England, as stated in her Homilies, or elsewhere delivered, by which the general duty of subjects to the higher powers is taught, be owned to be, as unquestionably it is, _a godly and wholesome doctrine_,--though this general doctrine has been constantly inculcated by the reverend fathers of the Church, dead and living, and preached by them as a preservative against the Popish doctrine of deposing princes, and as the ordinary rule of obedience,--and though the same doctrine has been preached, maintained, and avowed by our most orthodox and able divines from the time of the Reformation,--and how _innocent a man_ soever Dr. Sacheverell had been, if, _with an honest and well-meant_ zeal, he had preached the same doctrine in the same general terms in which he found it delivered by the Apostles of Christ, as taught by the Homilies and the reverend fathers of our Church, and, in imitation of those great examples, had only pressed the general duty of obedience, and the illegality of resistance, without taking notice of any exception," &c. * * * * * Another of the managers for the House of Commons, Sir John Holland, was not less careful in guarding against a confusion of the principles of the Revolution with any loose, general doctrines of a right in the individual, or even in the people, to undertake for themselves, on any prevalent, temporary opinions of convenience or improvement, any fundamental change in the Constitution, or to fabricate a new government for themselves, and thereby to disturb the public peace, and to unsettle the ancient Constitution of this kingdom. * * * * * _Sir John Holland_. [Sidenote: Submission to the sovereign a conscientious duty, except in cases of necessity.] "The Commons would not be understood as if they were pleading for a licentious resistance, as if _subjects_ were left to _their_ good-will and pleasure when they are to _obey_ and when to _resist_. No, my Lords, they know they are _obliged by all the ties of social creatures and Christians, for wrath and conscience' sake, to submit to their sovereign_. The Commons do not abet _humorsome, factious arms_: they aver them to be _rebellions_. But yet they maintain that that resistance at the Revolution, which was so _necessary, was lawful and just from that necessity_." [Sidenote: Right of resistance how to be understood.] "These general rules of obedience may, upon a _real necessity,_ admit a lawful _exception_; and such a _necessary exception_ we assert the Revolution to be. "'Tis with this view of _necessity_, only _absolute necessity_ of preserving our laws, liberties, and religion,--'tis with _this limitation_, that we desire to be understood, when any of us speak of resistance in general. The _necessity_ of the resistance at the Revolution was at that time obvious to every man."