motives of the

akcontents.

the nation has received from their ancestors, retains the majority in one body; whereas, the diflike of the whole, or part of the fame conftitution and government; the preference of any other, than the established religion and Principles and government; the averfion from any church or ftate establishment whatever; the withes and expectancies of the indigent and diftreffed to profit by a fyftem of equalization; the allurements of a fcramble to luft, avarice, and ambition; the perfonal envy, jealoufy, hatred, infult, injury, difappointment, or loffes of individuals, are amongst the multifarious motives, reafons, and inducements, which bring together a fet of difcordant individuals, who, from the moment, and by the terms of their engagement, facrifice their feveral heterogeneous principles to the common erected standard of difcontent; for in the political, as well as in the phyfical fyftem, the moft oppofite ingredients may, like vinegar and oil, be fo incorporated as to bear the appearance of a perfect coalition. When, therefore, I fhall in future confider or speak of this oppofite party, which I fhall in general call the minority, I fhall drop every idea of the nature of their original component parts, and diftinguish them only from their opponents by that common quality, which confti

tutes

tutes them a party of malcontents, in oppofition to the majority of the community, who are happy under, and therefore wish and intend to preserve the prefent form of their conftitution and government..

Whoever views with perfect impartiality the prefent internal political ftate of this country, will, I am confident, readily admit, that it would be a fruitless attempt to fingle out one individual from the whole minority, who fides with that party, merely from the motives, which distinguished one of the old parties of this country from the other, at the time of their original formation.

may, perhaps, be fingular, (this publication will prove how far I am warrantable) in attributing the formation, the continuance and the encrease of all fuch parties, as have at different times divided our country, to the inconfiderate and hafty, though, perhaps, well meant denial of true principles. It is no less fingular than true, that the churchman, the royalift, and the tory, admitting and wifhing to preferve the true conftitutional form. of the government in being, were fo blinded in their zeal, as to deny the truth of firft principles, upon which the puritan, the independant, and the republican, unwarrantably engrafted the falfeft doctrines. Inftead of fhewing,

9

Greatest evils inconfiderate principles.

arife from the

denial of true

fhewing, that these doctrines were not confequences deducible from the principles, (for every confequence is virtually contained in its premises), they denied abfolutely the principles, which were true, because they disapproved of doctrines, which were falfe, and which, confequently, could not be fairly drawn from true principles, Thus, when the alterations and differences of the oppofite parties came to be publicly agitated, they feldom went further, than the truth or falfity of the principles themselves; in which contefts the ftrength of the argument was.neceffarily with thofe, who contended for the principles; and whilst that party had the addrefs to keep up the controversy upon this ground only, they were fure of making profelytes of all those, who had refolution or ability to form a judgment of their own.

The misfortunes, which have heretofore happened to our unhappy country, from the contests of these oppofite parties, are of too ferious a nature not to rouze every true patriot to the exertion of his utmost efforts to prevent a repetition of them. Nothing can be more certain, than that a party of no inconfiderable number of malcontents does at this moment exift in this country; nothing more evident, than that the party will gain

or

or lose strength in proportion to the acceffion or desertion of its numbers; and nothing fo attractive, as the plaufibility and truth of the principles, which are fuppofed or represented to actuate and support the party. It is flattering to all men to judge in their own caufe; it is the favourite maxim of modern politicians, to inculcate the right of every one to judge and act for himself; and it is artfully holden out by many, that whoever is not directed by his own opinion and judgment, is kept in darkness, and deprived of that freedom, which has been given to every individual by an allwife Creator.

When I call to my recollection the effects of former attempts to deduce falfe doctrines from true principle, I am neceffitated to conclude, that if fome true principles now established and supported by the minority, are denied by the majority, the daily defertions from the one to the other will very quickly invert the prefent proportion of their respective numbers; for undeniable truth Truth will in will ever make its own way, and by degrees gain over the multitude; amongst whom more will be, in the end, left to the unbiaffed freedom of their own judgment, than to the dictates of interested power and influence. It was long ago faid, decipimur fpecie recti:

when

the end make

when depravity disposes to evil, the strongest incentive to the actual commiffion of it is a plaufible appearance of its rectitude. Much as I reprobate the modern doctrine of civil equalization, with all its tremendous train of deftructive concomitants, fo do I hold, that the denial of the truth of uncontrovertible principles must rather neceffitate, than provoke men into the adoption of any doctrine, which leaves them the liberty of a free affent to fuch felf-evident propofitions.

I am happy in being fanctioned in my principle of reafoning, by the great apoftle of modern liberty. "The jefuits," fays he, "about two centuries ago, in order to vindicate their king-killing † principles, happened,

Priestley's Effays upon the First Principles of Government, p. 27, 28.

The works of Bufenbaum, a German jefuit, were burnt by the late parliament of Paris, for teaching thefe principles. It will be candid, and, perhaps, fatiffactory to the curious, to flate the words, in which this king-killing doctrine is expreffed by this author; as the judgment upon it will vary according to the admiffibility of the doctrines of paffive obedience and nonrefillance. Ad defenfionem vitæ integritatis membrorum, licet etiam filio, religiof, & fubdito fe tueri, fi opus fit, cum occifione, contra ipfum parentem, abbatem, principem; nifi forte propter mortem hujus fecutura effent nimis magna incommoda, ut bella, c." lib. 3. pars 1. de Homicidio, art.

"To defend one's life, or limbs, it is lawful for a