 Man,
Right
would consequently ensue and be enjoyed by all Men, and this would be the Perfection of CIVIL LIBERTY.
Sir, says
Harry,
I have heard some very learned Men affirm, that God, in whom is the Disposal of all Lives and all Properties, has given to Some a Right of ruling over Others. That Governours are his Vicegerents and Representatives upon Earth. And that he hath appointed the descendible and hereditary Rights of Fathers over Families, of Patriarchs over Tribes, and of Kings over Nations.
In a qualified Sense, my
Harry,
their Affirmation may be just. All the Agents and Instruments and Dispensers of Beneficence, whether their Sphere be small or great, are God's true Representatives and Vicegerents upon Earth. He hath given Authority to the Tenderness of Parents over their Progeny; and he hath invested Patriarchs and Kings with the Rights of Protection. But God never gave the Vulture a Right to rule over the Dove-cote. Never gave up the innocent Many for a Prey to the tyrannous Few. God never can take Pleasure in the Breaches of the Law of his own Righteousness and Benignity. Arbitrary Regents are no further of his Appointment than the Evils of Earthquakes and Hurricanes, as where he is said
to give the Wicked a King in his Anger;
and
to set over the Nations the Basest of Men.
The God of all Right cannot will Wrong to Any.
His Service is perfect Freedom.
It is his Pleasure to deliver from
the Land of Slavery and the House of Bondage.
He is the God of Equity and Good-Will to all his Creatures. He founds his own Authority, not in Power but Beneficence. The Law, therefore, of Safety and Well-being to All, is founded in the Nature of God himself,
eternal, immutable,
and
indispensable.
One Man may abound in Strength, Authority, Possessions; but no Man may have greater Right than Another. The Beggar has as much Right to his Cloak and his Scrip, as the King to his Ermines and Crown Lands.
To fence and to establish this divinely inherent Right, of SECURITY TO THE PERSON and PROPERTY OF MAN, has been the Study and Attempt of
Hermes, Confucius, Minos, Lycurgus, Solon, Numa,
and of all the Legislators and Systems of civil Polity, that ever warmed the World with a single Ray of Freedom.
But, so strong is the Propensity to Usurpation in Man; so dangerous is it to tempt Trustees with the Investiture of Power; so difficult to
watch
the
Watchers,
to
restrain
the
Restrainers
from Injustice; that, whether the Government were
