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first reported it , that a party of Levellers designed to level all men ' s estates ; and since then £ h $ late Lord-Protector knowingtbesfc foundations of freedom to be inconsistent with his designs , hath often mentioned the Levellers *
plots with malice , scorn and scan , dal ; and now of late generally , whosoever asserts the people ' s li . berties and right of government by law , and not by will , is branded as a Leveller by the flatterers .
Now I heartily wish that my countrymen may not be mistaken in uiy candid intentions in giving them this account ; 1 mean not to court them as Absalom did his
father ' s subjects ^ to make them believe , that those called Levellers , would use them better than others if power was trusted in their hands ; for our age hath given me experience , that power to enslave the people ought not to be entrusted in any men ' s hands , upon the fairest pretences and most solemn oaths that that power shall be used to establish their freedom : and it is the Levellers * doctrine , that the
government ought to be settled upon such fcqual foundations of common right and freedom , that no man , or number of men in the nation , should have the power to invade or disturb tlie . common freedom , or the common course of
impartial justice ; and therefore that every authority ought to be of small continuance ? and the several authorities to be so balanced , each b y other ^ that without such
an agreement of men against their own interests ^ as human prudence cannot think possible , the people cannot suffer any common injury '; but my meaning in this is only to prevent the division of
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my countrymen into parties with animosities each agaifrst others , by the couzenage of names or scandals , when it may be , they
would otherwise jom hands and hearts for their common rights and liberties , if they understood each other ' s minds ; and could converse each with other without
prejudice ? because of the names whereby each hath usually called the others . It is a threadsbare plot of tyrants to divide the people ^ into parties that they may the more easily master them ; but
1 wish that my countrymen would unite io the equal principles of common right , and faearkefr to reason with clearness of mind , whosoever offers it , n&t regarding
whether be that speaks it is called a Leveller , or a Sectary , or aa Anabaptist , or a Presbyter , era Cavalier , but considering what he says . ; and then the sura&er of hands to defend our liberties -and
properties would be so numerous that the ambition of one or a few could not hope for success in attempting a tyranny over us # And if this poor paper may have such an effect , that my countrymen be not deluded with the idle
scandal of levelling cast upon honest men into an opposition of their own welfare ? I and many that agree in the publication of this , shall have our ends *
Consider , therefore , what yon here read , and the JLord make you understand the things that conduce to your peace and freedom , and the glorifying his name in righteousness in this nation .
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$ 2 Principles cf the LeveiterS ) 165 £ > ..
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On the title " Sm nf given to the Evangelists . Siu , Feb . S , 1811 . It has often ocqjurred * o * n *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1811, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2413/page/28/
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