, Strong
and
Weak, Sound
and
Sickly,
&c. to exercise us in the Offices of that Charity, and those Affections, which, reflecting and reflected like mutual Light and Warmth, can alone make our Good to all Eternity.
BENEVOLENCE produces and constitutes the Heaven, or Beatitude of GOD himself: He is no other than an infinite and eternal GOOD WILL: Benevolence must, therefore, constitute the Beatitude or Heaven of all dependent Beings, however infinitely diversified through several Departments and Subordinations, agreeable to the several Natures and Capacities of Creatures.
GOD has appointed human
Power
and human
Wealth,
as a ready and sufficient Fund for human
Want
and
Weakness;
to which Fund, therefore, they have as good a Right to resort, as any other Creditors have to respective Trust or Deposits; for, though Poverty and Weakness are not Creditors, by the Laws of Man, they are Creditors by the eternal Laws of Nature and Equity; and must, here, or hereafter, bring their Debtors to account.
Every Man, when he becomes a Member of this or that Society, makes a Deposit of three several Sorts of Trusts, That of his LIFE, that of his LIBERTY, and that of his PROPERTY.
Now as every Man, in his separate or independent State, has by Nature the absolute Disposal of his Property, he can convey the Disposal thereof, to Society, as amply and absolutely as he was, in his separate Right, entitled thereto.
This, however, cannot be said of his Life, or of his Liberty. He has no Manner of Right to take away his own Life; neither to depart from his own Liberty: He cannot therefore convey to others, a Right and Authority which he hath not in himself.
The Question then occurs, by what Right it is, that the Legislative and executive Powers of Community, appoint some Persons to Death, and others to Imprisonment? My Answer is short, and follows:
It is the Right, perhaps the Duty, of every Man, to defend his Life, Liberty, and Property, and to kill or bind the Attempters. This Right he can, therefore, convey; and, on such Conveyance, it becomes the Right and Duty of the Trustees of Society, to put to Death, or imprison all who take away, or attempt the Life, Liberty, or Property of any of its Members.
This Right, however, extends to
Criminal Matters,
only; and it does not, yet appear to me, upon what Reason, or right Rule, founded in Nature or Policy, the several Societies of
