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hand, and know the Penalties of tranfgreffing them. Men always knew that when Force and Injury was offered, they might be Defenders of themselves; they knew that howfoever Men might feek their own Commodity, yet if this were done with Injury to others, it was not to be fuffered, but by all Men and by all good Means to be withftood.

Finally, They knew that no Man might in Reafon take upon him to determine his own Right, and according to his own Determination proceed in Maintenance thereof, inasmuch as every Man is towards himself, and them whom he greatly affecteth, partial; and therefore that Strifes and Troubles would be endlefs, except they have their common Confent all to be ordered by fome whom they fhould agree upon.

Mr. Stanhope, in Defence of Resistance in Cafes of extream Neceffity, cites this memora· ble Paffage from Grotius;

If the King hath one Part of the Supream Power, and the other Part is in the Senate or People; when fuch a King fhall invade that Part that doth not belong to him, it fhall be lawful to oppose a just Force to him, because his Power doth not extend fo far: Which Pofition I hold to be true, even though the Power of making War fhould be vefted only in the King, which must be underftood to relate only to foreign War: For as for Home, it is impoffible for any to have a Share of the Supream Power, and

not to

have likewise a Right to defend that Share.

An

An eminent Divine, who deferves all Honour for the Obligations he has laid upon both Church and State by bis Writings on the Subject of Government, argues against Unlimited Power thus;

The Question is, Whether the Power of the Civil Magiftrate be unlimited; that is, in other Words, Whether the Nature of his Office require it to be fo But what? Is it the End of that Office that one particular Perfon may do what he pleafeth without Restraint? Or that Society should be made happy and fecure? Who will fay the former? And if the latter be the true End of it, a lefs Power than abfolute will answer it: Nay, an abfo. Lute Power is a Power to deftroy that End, and therefore inconfiftent with the End it felf.

Thefe Paffages Ithought fit to produce by way of Preface to the following Difcourfe, as carry. ing in them the Reafon and Foundation of Government it felf, and in Maintenance of what palled at the Revolution.

"I fall only beg leave to add to them one very great Living Authority, the present Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain; who in a late famous Tryal, did openly before Queen, Lords and Commons, maintain the Lawfulness of the Revolution under the Notion of Refiftance, and affert before the most folemn and au guft Affembly of Europe, that there are extraordinary Cafes, Cafes of Neceffity, which are implyed, though not expreffed in the General Rule; that is, which are fo plain and fo open to the common Senfe of Mankind, that even whilst you are declaring Refiftance in all Cafes

to

to be unlawful, you are of neceffity understood to mean, that Refiftance in fome Cafes is lawful. I am pleafed to observe, that no one ever put the Matter fo ftrongly, or carried it fo high as this great Man did upon that Critical Occafi on. At the fame time he was fo just to his Country as to declare, That fuch a Cafe undoubtedly the Revolution was, when our late unhappy Sovereign then upon the Throne, mif-led by evil Confellors, endeavoured to fubvert and extirpate the Proteftant Religion, and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom.

The

The CRISIS, &c.

I

T is every Man's Duty to correct the Extravagances of his Will, in order to enjoy

Life as becomes a rational Being; but we cannot poffefs our Souls with Pleafure and Satisfaction, except we preferve to our felves that ineftimable Bleffing which we call Liberty. By Liberty I defire to be understood to mean, the Happiness of Mens living under Laws of their own making by their perfonal Confent, or that of their Reprefentatives.

Without this, the Diftinctions amongst Mankind are but gentler Degrees of Mifery; for as the true Life of Man confifts in conducting it according to his own juft Sentiments and innocent Inclinations, his Being is degraded below that of a free Agent, which Heaven has made him, when his Affections and Paffions are no longer governed by the Dictates of his own Mind, and the Interests of Humane Society, but by the arbitrary unrestrained Will of another.

Without Liberty, even Health, and Strength, and all the Advantages beltowed on us by Nature and Providence, may at the Will of a Tyrant be employed to our own Ruin, and that of our Fellow Creatures.

Li

Liberty is effential to our Happiness, and they who refign Life it felf rather than part with it, do only a prudent Action; but those who lay it down, and voluntarily expofe themfelves to Death, in behalf of their Friends and Country, do an heroick One. The more exalted Part of our Species are moved by fuch generous Impulfes as thefe; but even the Community, the Mafs of Mankind, when convinced of the Danger of their Civil Rights, are anxious of preferving to themselves that dearest of all Poffeffions, Liberty.

The late Kingdoms of England and Scotland have contended for it from Age to Age, with too great a Price of Blood and Treasure to be given for the Purchase of any other Bleffing; but laid out Parfimoniously, when we confider they have tranfmitted this to their Pofterity.

But fince, by I know not what Fatality, we are of late grown fupine, and our Anxiety for it is abated, in Proportion to the Danger to which it is every Day more expofed, by the artful and open Attacks of the Enemies of our Conftitu. tion; it is a feasonable and honeft Office to look into our Circumftances, and let the Enemies of our present Establishment behold the Securities which the Laws of our Country have given thofe who dare affert their Liberties, and the Terrors which they have pronounced against those who dare undermine them. For, whatever is the Profpect before our Eyes, it is the Business of every honest Man to look up with a Spirit that becomes Honefty, and to do what in him lies for the Improvement of our present Condition, which nothing but our own Pufillanimity can make defperate.

The

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