SEASONABLE MOTIVES.  
To our DUTY and ALLEGIANCE, (by a Lover of the Peace of New-England) offered to the Consideration of his Neighbours & Countrymen  
What were the grounds and inducements that moved us to seize on the Governor and other principal Persons concerned in the Government under King James, and that we unanimously declared for the Prince of Orange shall not need here to be mentioned, I'm sure our Intention was never to departed from our Loyalty & Allegiance to the Crown of England, which now since it hath pleased God to place on the Heads of our Sovereign Lord and Lady, King William and Queen Marry, who are owned & proclaimed as such thro'out all their Majesty's Kingdoms, Territories & Dominions, and particularly by us; we are the more firmly obleiged to testify and bear Obedience to them in the best and most dutiful manner we can.  
And therefore tho' upon misinformations or mistaken notions of things, we have for sometime suffered many inconveniencies (which have produced great loss and damage to our Country and persons) in hopes of some Directions from England for our firmer Settlement, yet since those hopes by the Circumstances of Affairs in Europe, have hitherto failed us; & many things have by our search and enquiry into matters of the Government and actions of several persons, appeared to us much otherwise than they were represented, and since tho' we have had in our hands and keeping all public papers, and acquainted ourselves with the Letters and Correspondency which those in Office and Government had, both at home and in foreign parts; we cannot find any grounds to charge the Plot or Design on them of endeavouring to sell the Country, or procure any Violence to be done to, or acted upon the Inhabitants as was suggested: It is highly necessary and  for us (not regarding our past actions which speedy Amendment may the easier pass by) to consider in what state and condition we now stand with respect to our Duty & Allegiance to the King and Queen of England, as becometh good Christians and loyal Subjects; and therein these two things offer themselves propperly for our Consideration.  
1. What is required of us by our Allegiance, and whether there be not a lawful Authority, or Persons well & sufficiently authorized from that crown to rule & govern us, and whom we ought to submit to, assist and obey, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake.  
2. Whether the seeming Government now imposed on us be any ways lawful, or such as with our Allegiance and a good Conscience we ought to yield obedience to, or whether it be not in the law mere usurpation and tyranny.  
And in the first place we must know that it is required of us by our Allegiance, that we bear a true and faithful obedience and subjection to our Sovereign, This obedience is an incident inseparable to every Subject; for as soon as he is born he oweth by birth right Legiance and obedience to his Sovereign. Ligeantia est vinculum fidei. As the ligatures or strings do knit together the joints of all parts of the body, so doth Legiance join together the Sovereign and all his subjects, and therefore subjects are bound to obey their Sovereign, and he is called their Liege Lord, because he should maintain and defend them.  
We are not only to submit and yield obedience to the King as Supreme, but unto Governors as them that are sent by him, and unto all other Officers and Ministers lawfully placed in Authority under him.  
It is very well known to us all that Sr. Edmond Andros is a Governor sent by the King, appointed and Authourized by Letters Patents under the great Seal of England, to exercise authority and Government over us in this their Majesty's Territory and Dominion of New-England. And we must also know for a certain truth, That that power and authority given to him, cannot determine or be superseded by the Death or Removal of the late King James, but by their Majesty's express command, and the Grant of the Government by Letters Patents to some other person. And tho' force and violence may restrain and hinder his person from the Discharge of his duty, yet the power and authority vested in him is not thereby lessened or diminished; 'tis we are only wanting in our duty and Allegiance, and so far put ourselves out of the King's protection as we deny or refuse the means or authority he has appointed for the same.  
The King in his political Capacity never dies. Therefore is there no time when it can be said there is no King, the inconveniency would be too great if it were, and we never know the Death or Removal of one but by the proclaiming of the other, and then our Allegiance becomes due to him that is seated on the Throne: and so it is with Governors and other Officers in Government as well as private subjects. Their Allegiance and Duty is transferred to the Successor as well as ours, and they become servants of him who sits on the throne, and want no new orders or authority to maintain the Government comimtted to their Charge under the Successor, as well as under that prince who granted the powers, for it must never be admitted that any place or people can be without Government by Reason of the succession of the Supreme.  
It is he then only that is vested with lawful Power from our Sovereign, him therefore we ought in duty and conscience to obey, and all Officers and Ministers authorized under him: for they are not his but the King's Officers and ministers, the King being the Head of the Government, and the Governor only his chief Officer or minister here entrusted and authorized to act in their Majesty's name and behalf, and this we must do if we either regard Loyalty or Conscience, which out of Love to you all, cannot forbear to press and move you to.  
In the second place, the seeming Government now imposed upon us, as it hath no foundation or Authority, so cannot be able to support itself: and if we endeavour by force and Violence to keep it up, we both wrong our consciences before God, and make ourselves criminal to our Sovereign in the highest nature, and at once divest their Majesties of the Chiefest Jewel of their Crown, which is Power, they having the command of all their People to rule and govern, and not they them. Besides, another great mark of 
Shep. grand Abridgemed.  their Sovereignty, is Omnipresence, for they are present in all their Courts and with all their Officers and Ministers in their Offices, and therefore any abuse or contempt offered to them is done to the King and Queen, in respect of the Authority they are clothed with.  
The Pretence of power to govern by virtue of the Charter granted to the late Governor & Company of the Massachusets Bay in N. England, is most weak & groundless, for that Charter was several years since by due Course of Law in the King's Courts at Westminster, Condemned, made Null, and Cancelled, and on an Exemplification of the Judgement against it under the broad Seal of England and power of Government given to a Precedent and Council, Anno 1686. The then Governor and Company laid down the Government and left it to the Precedent and Council who took upon them the Government accordingly: by virtue whereof the body politic of that Corporation was dissolved, and the Succession determined. And there is no possibility by law for any that were formerly Members of that Corporation, to take upon them that Government, until they are again lawfully established into their former political Capacity, which they cannot be, without their Majesty's new Grant, and so are now in no other capcity but as private persons; and as such to take upon them the Government, and to make Rates and Taxes upon the people, is but mere Ursurpation and Tyranny, which none ought to submit to or obey but declare and protest against and endeavour to apprehend and secure the Actors as the greatest Traitors and criminals to their Majesty's and Country.  
The Vote or Consent of Ten Thousand though it may give greater force and Violence, yet gives no more right or power in Law than the Vote or Consent of one private person; and therefore there can be no colour of Authority for Government but such as is lawfully derived from the Supreme head.  
'tis not too late to think of these things, for we have suffered enough already for want of being in the right way and having a lawful power over us. If anything in the Governors' Commission seem to absolute, or that which we understand not well, or that possibly may be amiss, it is not our interests to condemn the Whole for that for doubtless the power of Government is in the King and Queen only, and all inferior Officers and Ministers ought to be appointed by them, therefore we must not lay them all aside at once and leave ourselves without any Authority or Government. The worst Government is better than none; and we had better support that which hath real Authority, and may help to protect us, than that which is only imaginary, without any Authority, and can only hurt and ensnare us, and bring miseries on ourselves and posterity.  
These Things are well worth our Consideration seasonably; and if well Resolved and put in practice may help to gloss and excuse any past mistaken Actions, save our Country from further spoil & Desolation, and in great measure regain our good names and Credit abroad, and put us and our Neighbours into a firm Unity whereby we may be enabled not only to protect and defend ourselves against the French, but to Annoy them, of which never was greater need than at this Time, when our Weakness in Government and Divisions expose us to imminent Danger incase of an Attack, as we hear hath been already made on other of their Majesty's Dominions.  
I have no other end herein than to bring you into the ways of God & Peace; to which, Obedience to lawful Government & Authority, I'm sure is a principal step, and which, in my Opinion (considering the face of things in Europe, and the latest News we have from our friends there) can only give present Ease to our injured & Distressed Country.  
I am in all love & c. A. B.   

Philadelphia. printed by Will. Bradford. Anno 1689.