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welfare of mankind ; the provision for which is the true and just end of all government . Lib . ii . Ch . xj . Absolute power made licentious by impunity , being inconsistent with a society ' s free exercise of her united and
associated force , cannot be justly called a form of government . —Since whatever tends naturally to the good of society , must naturally justify itself j whatever tends naturally to the harm , or to the enfeebling " , or to the inconvenience of society , must be as
naturally self- condemned . — Hence arises the old proverbs , Summum jus est summa injuria ; saliis populi supremo , lex . [ Law ( human ) in its rigour , is rigorous injury . The welfare of the people is the greatest law . ] That therefore , pretended privileges and customs , when the reason of them
ceases , should likewise cease , as being no longer reasonable . For that arguments from what has been to what should he of right can have no force ; —and that otherwise it may happen
that men , by entering into a society , may lose those very benefits for which they entered ; and be in a worse condition than before they entered , having thereby contributed to , and armed their trustees with their own power , to their own injury .
That , AS TO HUMAN AUTHORITY , It being impossible for any society to give a right ( which it hn& uot itself ) to do its members harm , authority abused is no authority at all . —A man may indeed be commissioned to act unjustly , but this argues nothing : for it is not commission ,
but authority which gives the right of acting ; and since no man , or body of Uten , can have in themselves any right to act unjustly , neither can they transfer such right , or authorize laws under pretence thereof or as made in pursuance thereto , or vest any such rig ht , in any other person or persons whatsoever , *
~ ' """ ^¦^¦ - ¦¦ ' ¦¦ ¦ i ¦¦¦¦¦ m ¦ — — — . hi , | , ^ , | . , ^ ., * According * to these and other like propositions of Mr . Locke , a legislature must be a body constituted by a people to specify And determine , in particular cases , circumstances and occurrences , what is the law and will of God , ( for God alome has an absolute right to our obedience ) and what rules and customs are conformable or repugnant to the divine truth .
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la defiance of their commission and presumption , the right will still con * tinue to every man to act , as freely as ever , in whatsoever is innocent , kind , justice , and universal charity , these being the standards or common measures , whereby right aad wrong * are always to be decided . —For this purpose and service were the
elders or earls among- the Jews . Exod . xxiv . 1—10 . xii . 16 . iv . 29 . They were neither Priests nor Levites , but civil , and , in modern phrase , lay-members of the community , men of property , learning and equity , and dignified by public voice for their known worth and abilities , to decide , as their -earls , elders , or inferior magistrates , in all their civil controversies , and terminate the common differences of
the people . And out of their number was chosen the Sanhedrim , which consisted of seventy-three Senators , six out of each tribe , Num . xi . 16 , to bear the burden of the people as making * one body , and their Nasi or President , who was also , not the high priest , but a civil member only . The power of this court was so supreme ,
that they not only decided in suqji causes as were brought before them , by way of appeal , from the inferior courts , but even their kingps , high priests and prophets , were under their jurisdiction . See in Calrnefs Dictionary the word Sanhedrim , paragraph the 5 th . They presided to provide , that all their civil laws and usages might be reduced and accommodated , in
all points , to the divine law * and it cannot be disputed but this must also be the business of all legislatures . There is indeed strictly , ( James iv , 12 . Isa . xxxiii . 22 , ) hut one lawgiver , who is Christ . Others therefore must be his deputies . And they tnnst be deputed to provide , 1 st , That the laws of God be not violated , and $ dly , Thai they be so extended and particularized to the several occasions and
conditions of their constituents , as to answer to them in equity . The law of God is indispensable , therefore all human laws rmrst be made to consist with it . And whereas the natural rights and prerogatives which God has given man , import his revealed trill towards nmn ; it becomes a divine iaw to all men , to secure to every
individual among them these native rights a *)*] prerogatives unhurt . These must be supported and vindicated as God's free gift and bounty , as claims and immunities against the , free and full enjoyment of which no law may be made , or being
made , be suffered to operate so as to defeat or invalidate them . The good-witt of God to man epeaits as his law for him , and , farther than this , as a law qua non tur n denique incepit Lex esse , cum scripts fwt ) sed tun cum orta fuitj or tit cut em
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402 Principles of Government .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 402, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/26/
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