quently have conceived a better, and might have fet up a right more plaufible in those days, in quality of Chrift's vice-gerents upon earth, to dispose of rights holden by this spiritual jure divino tenure, than of fuch as were merely of a secular or temporal nature. For the popes have always been allowed, by all Roman catholics, a power to difpenfe, in certain cafes, with spiritual obligations, such as vows or promises made by individuals immediately to Almighty God; but never to dispense with, or annul a civil or moral obligation of one individual to another, so as to weaken or defeat the rights of a third perfon. The learned prelate, however, very fairly accounts for the former prevalence of the oppofite doctrine throughout this nation. * "The proteftant divines went into the other extreme; and to

fave the person of their fovereign, preached up the doctrine of divine right. Hooker, fuperior to every prejudice, followed the truth; but the rest of the reforming and reformed divines fuck to the other opinion, which, as appears from the homilies, the Inftitution of a Christian Man, and the general ftream of writings in thofe days, became the opinion of the church, and was, indeed, the received pro

Dr. Hurd's Moral and Political Dialogues, vol. ii.

P. 301.

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testant

The mainte

nance of falfe

principles attri

buted to a lau

dable motive.

teftant doctrine: and thus unhappily arose in the church of England, that pernicious. fyftem of divine indefeafible right of kings, broached indeed by the clergy, but not from thofe corrupt and temporizing views, to which it has been imputed. The authority of thofe venerable men, from whom it was derived, gave it a firm and lafting hold on the minds of the clergy; and being thought to receive a countenance from the general terms, in which obedience to the civil magistrate is ordained in fcripture, it has continued to our days, and may, it is feared, ftill continue to perplex and mislead the judgment of too many amongst us.” I am particularly happy in being able to adduce the high and unbiaffed authority of fo refpectable a prelate, in fupport of reafoning.

my own

Not being warped by any party prejudice or principle, I am free to own my astonishment, that fo many learned and refpectable perfonages of every profeffion and description fhould fo long have fhut their eyes, or stopped their ears, or steeled their hearts against the truth of fift principles. This refpectable prelate has endeavoured to account for it; though he is very far from juftifying it. "The

*<< The growth of puritanism, and the republican spirit, in order to juftify its attack on the legal conftitutional rights of the crown, adopted the very fame principles with the jefuited party. And, under thefe circumftances, it is not to be thought ftrange, that a principle, however true, which was disgraced by coming through fuch hands, fhould be generally condemned and execrated. The crown and mitre had reafon to look upon both thefe forts of men as their mortal enemies. What wonder then, that they should unite in reprobating the political tenets, on which their common enmity was justified and fupported?"

Dr. Priestley has faid, with much truth, what I hope he will allow me to apply to my readers. "I make no apology for the freedom, with which I have written. The fubject is, in the highest degree, interesting to humanity; it is open to philofophical discuffion, and I have taken no greater liberties, than becomes a philofopher, a man, and an Englishman. Having no other views, than to promote a thorough knowledge of this im

* Dr. Hurd's Moral and Political Dialogues, vol. ii. P. 303.

Preface to Dr. Pricftley's Effays on the First Principles of Government, p. xiii.

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portant

Proper apology freely upon injeas. terefting fub

for writing

1

Neceflity of forming our principles of policy.

portant fubject; not being fenfible of any biass to mislead me in my inquiries, and confcious of the uprightness of my intentions, I freely fubmit my thoughts to the examination of all impartial judges, and the friends of their country and of mankind. They, who know the fervour of generous feelings, will be fenfible, that I have expreffed myfelf with no more warmth, than the importance of the fubject neceffarily prompted, in a breast not naturally the coldeft; and that to have appeared more indifferent, I could not have been fincere."

I am fenfible, that I have undertaken a very perilous task; periculofe plenum opus alea. From the open and boafted wishes, and the actual attempts of many individuals

to alter or fubvert the prefent form of our government, I have found it incumbent upon me to examine and regulate my fubordinate civil duties upon fome fixt principles of immutable policy. I entered upon the task with much earneftnefs, and perfectly unbiassed by any party; in my progrefs I have seen and trembled at many rocks, against which whole parties have appeared to me blindly and voluntarily to have run; by varying my course, I flatter myself I have avoided them; and if my discoveries be juft, I know of no confideration,

confideration, that can dispense with my submitting to my countrymen a new chart of that coast, upon which fo many of them have unfortunately perished.

Whatever divifions of parties have exifted in our country for these three laft centuries, whether between the retainers and reformers of the old religion, between the church and the prefbytery, the round heads and the royalifts, the whigs and the tories, the nonjurors and the revolutionists, the original · efficient caufes of the feveral divifions into party have ceafed or nearly disappeared in the variety and change of circumstances, which the kingdom has fince experienced. Such (if any) of thefe parties as ftill fubfift, feem rather to have received a mere nominal existence by hereditary defcent, than to retain any of their constituent parts or fundamental properties. The nation, in fact, at prefent appears to me to be divided into two parties only, which have abforbed all the other; the contents with the prefent establishment, and the non-contents. The former far exceed the latter in numbers; and from the nature of the divifion, the majority must be actuated by a more uniform principle, than the minority. For the approbation of the particular conftitution and government, which

the