the Revolution, which was
the second thing proposed, it is far from the intent of the Commons to
state the _limits and bounds_ of the subject's submission to the
sovereign. That which the law hath been wisely silent in, the Commons
desire to be silent in too; nor will they put _any_ case of a
justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution only: and _they
persuade themselves that the doing right to that resistance will be so
far from promoting popular license or confusion, that it will have a
contrary effect, and be a means of settling men's minds in the love of
and veneration for the laws_; to rescue and secure which was the _ONLY
aim and intention of those concerned in that resistance_."

* * * * *

Dr. Sacheverell's counsel defended him on this principle, namely,--that,
whilst he enforced from the pulpit the general doctrine of
non-resistance, he was not obliged to take notice of the theoretic
limits which ought to modify that doctrine. Sir Joseph Jekyl, in his
reply, whilst he controverts its application to the Doctor's defence,
fully admits and even enforces the principle itself, and supports the
Revolution of 1688, as he and all the managers had done before, exactly
upon the same grounds on which Mr. Burke has built, in his Reflections
on the French Revolution.

* * * * *

_Sir Joseph Jekyl._

[Sidenote: Blamable to state the bounds of non-resistance.]

[Sidenote: Resistance lawful only in _case_ of extreme and obvious
necessity.]

"If the Doctor had pretended to have stated the particular bounds and
limits of non-resistance, and told the people in what cases they might
or might not resist, _he would have been much to blame_; nor was one
word said in the articles, or by the managers, as if that was expected
from him; but, _on the contrary, we have insisted that in NO case can
resistance be lawful, but in case of EXTREME NECESSITY, and where the
Constitution can't otherwise be preserved; and such necessity ought to
be plain and obvious to the sense and judgment of the whole nation: and
this was the case at the Revolution_."

* * * * *

The counsel for Doctor Sacheverell, in defending their client, were
driven in reality to abandon the fundamental principles of his doctrine,
and to confess that an exception to the general doctrine of passive
obedience and non-resistance did exist in the case of the Revolution.