Wesley Corpus

But one single consideration will bring the question to a short issue. It is allowed, no man can dispose of another's life, but by his own consent: I add, No, nor with his consent; for no man has a right to dispose of his own life: The Creator of man has the sole right to take the life which he gave. Now, it is an indisputable truth, Nihil dat quod non habet,-“None gives what he has not.” It follows, that no man can give to another a right which he never had himself; a right which only the Governor of the world has, even the wiser Heathens being judges; but which no man upon the face of the earth either has or can have. No man, therefore, can give the power of the sword, any such power as gives a right to take away life: Wherever it is, it must descend from God alone, the sole disposer of life and death. 31. The supposition, then, that the people are the origin of power, or that “all government is the creature of the people,” though Mr. Locke himself should attempt to defend it, is utterly indefensible. It is absolutely overturned by the very principle on which it is supposed to stand, namely, that “a right of choosing his Governors belongs to every partaker of human nature.” If this be so, then it belongs to every individual of the human species; consequently, not to freeholders alone, but to all men; not to men only, but to women also; not only to adult men and women, to those who have lived one-and-twenty years, but to those that have lived eighteen or twenty, as well as those who have lived threescore. But none did ever maintain this, nor probably ever will; therefore, this boasted principle falls to the ground, and the whole superstructure with it. So common sense brings us back to the grand truth, “There is no power but of God.” 32. I may now venture to “pronounce, that the principles on which you have argued, are incompatible with practice,” even the universal practice of mankind, as well as with sound reason; and it is no wonder “that they are not approved by our Governors,” considering their natural tendency, which is, to unhinge all Government, and to plunge every nation into total anarchy.