dship
with those Gentlemen who, as Burgermeisters, and as old and as new
Members of Council, have for long years made themselves renowned
among us, I will entertain, in respect of the former [the old] a firm
confidence That the zeal they have so strongly manifested for behoof of
the most serene Archducal House of Austria will henceforth burn in them
for our most Beloved Land's Prince whom God has now given us; that the
fire of their lately plighted truth and devotion, towards his
Royal Majesty, shall shine not in words only, but in works, and be
extinguished only with their lives. [Can that be, O Spener or Speer? Are
we alarm-clocks, that need only to be wound up, and told at what hour,
and for whom?] God, who puts Kings in and casts them out, has given to
us a no less potent Sovereign than supremely loving Land's-Father, who,
by the renown of his more than royal virtues, had taken captive the
hearts of his future subjects and children still sooner than even by his
arms, familiar otherwise to victory, he did the Land. And who shall
be puissant and mighty enough, now to lead men's minds in a contrary
direction; to control the Most High Power, ruler over hearts and Lands,
who had decreed it should be so; and again to change this change? [Hear
Spener: he has taken great pains with his Discourse, and understands
composition!]

"This change, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic persuasion], is
also for you a not unhappy one. For our now as pious as wise King will,
especially in one most vital point, take pattern by the King of all
Kings; and means to be lord of his subjects only, not of the consciences
of his subjects. He requires nothing from you but what you are already
bound by God, by conscience, and duty, to render: to wit, obedience and
inviolable unbroken fidelity. And by that, and without more asked than
that, you will render yourselves worthy of his protection, and become
partakers of the Royal favor. Nay you will render yourselves all the
worthier in that high quarter, and the more meritorious towards our
civic commonweal, the more you, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic
persuasion], accept, with all frankness of colleague-love and amity,
me and the Evangelical brother Raths now introduced by Royal grace and
power; and make the new position generously tenable and available to
us;--and thereby bind with us the more firmly the band of peace and
colleague-unity, for helping up this dear, and for some years gre