build their arguments relating to matters of that nature; and the apoftle, from better authority, declares, That rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil: wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shall have praife of the fame; for be is the minister of God unto thee for good; but if thou do that, which is evil be afraid, for be beareth not the fword in vain; for he is the minifter of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. And the reafon he gives for praying for kings, and all that are in authority, is, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honefty."

I have hitherto confidered only the right, which each community effentially retains of forming and modelling the government, to which it chuses to fubject itself. I will now proceed to examine more minutely, upon what this right is founded.

* «Because no one of them is obliged to enter into the fociety, that the rest may constitute, he cannot enjoy the benefit of that fociety, unless he enter into it. He may be gone, and fet up for himself, or fet up another with fuch, as will agree with him; but if he enter into the fociety, he is obliged by

* Algernoon Sydney's Difcourfe concerning Government, p. 80, 81.

the

:

the laws of it; and if one of those laws be,
that all things fhould be determined by the
plurality of voices, his affent is afterwards
comprehended in all the refolutions of that
plurality. In the like manner, when a num-
ber of men met together to build Rome,
any man who had difliked the defign, might
justly have refused to join in it; but when he
had entered into the fociety, he could not by
his vote invalidate the acts of the whole, nor
deftroy the rights of Romulus, Numa, and the
others, who by the fenate and people were
made kings; nor thofe of the other magif-
trates, who, after their expulfion, were legally
created.

"This is as much, as is required to establish
the natural liberty of mankind in its utmost
extent; for till the commonwealth be esta-
blished, no multitude can be feditious, be-
cause they are not fubject to any human law;
and fedition implies an unjust and diforderly
oppofition of that power, which is legally
eftablished; which cannot be when there is
none, nor by him who is not a member of
the fociety, that makes it; and when it is
made, fuch as entered into it are obliged to
the laws of it."

The true and real bafis then of the civil

or political power or fovereignty, which ex

*

ifts in each state, is the original agreement, compact, or contract of the fociety or community, which forms that ftate, to depute and delegate the rights, which were in them individually in the state of nature, to those, whofe duty it should become, to rule, protect, and preserve the community. For in this confifts the whole duty both of the fupreme and fubordinate magiftracy. It would be nugatory to queftion the reality of this original contract, because the particular time and place, when and where it was entered into, cannot be named, nor the written charter or document, in which it is expreffed, be produced for the fatisfaction and benefit of all future generations. "The chief question is not, whether there was ever fuch a contract formally and actually made; but whether mankind had not a right to make it: for if they had, civil government, in the ordinary courfe of things, could be rightfully founded upon nothing else, but this, or what is equivalent to it, a tacit confent of the governed. And fince the latter must be of the fame effect with the other, this may be fufficient for our present purpose, unless perfons

Vid Hoadley's Defence of Hooker's Judgment, p. 158. & feq.

↑ Idem. p. 168.

think fit to call alfo for the original draught of a tacit confent." The actual affemblage of the multitude forming themselves into a particular fociety, was the formal ratification of this original contract, though it were done by tacit confent; and by this each individual of our ancestors became bounden to the power of the whole cominunity, or, in other words, to the fovereignty of the ftate. The free continuance of each of their fucceffors in the community is the bond, by which they become more folemnly and firmly obligated to the contract, by grounding their tacit confent upon the valuable confiderations and daily encreasing advantages, of the experience and improvements of their predeceffors. This is a multiplying principle, that acquires vigour from every incident of human life; as each revolving day brings with it fresh reafons and motives, why the living members of the community fhould ratify and confirm the original contract entered into by their deceased ancestors. The perpetuation therefore of the community, is the unceasing renovation and confirmation of the original contract, in which it was founded.

The thorough confideration, and proper application of this principle, will demonftrate the folly and falfity of fome newly broached F

doctrines,

Futility of fome

modern doc

trines.

doctrines, which modern fophifts pretend to establish as the neceffary confequences of the true principles of government, which are denied by none.

* « There never did, there never will, and there never can exift a parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, poffeffed of the right or the power of binding and controuling posterity to the end of time, or of commanding for ever how the world fhall be governed, or who fhall govern it; and therefore all fuch clauses, acts, or declarations, by which the makers of them attempt to do, what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void.

"When man ceafes to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing, who fhall be its governors, or how its government fhall be organized, or how administered.

"Thofe, who have quitted the world, and thofe, who are not yet arrived at it, are as remote from each other, as the utmost stretchof mortal imagination can conceive; what

Payne's Rights of Man, p. 9, 10, 11.

poffible