Wesley Corpus

34. To inflame them still more, you go on: “Liberty is more or less complete, according as the people have more or less share in the Government.” This is altogether contrary to matter of fact: The greater share the people have in the Government, the less liberty, either civil or religious, does the nation in general enjoy. Accordingly, there is most liberty of all, civil and religious, under a limited monarchy; there is usually less under an aristocracy, and least of all under a democracy. What sentences then are these: “To be guided by one's own will, is freedom; to be guided by the will of another, is slavery?” (Page 11.) This is the very quintessence of republicanism; but it is a little too barefaced; for, if this is true, how free are all the devils in hell, seeing they are all guided by their own will ! And what slaves are all the angels in heaven, since they are all guided by the will of another ! See another stroke: “The people have power to model Government as they please.” (Page 12.) What an admirable lesson, to confirm the people in their loyalty to the Government ! Yet again: “Government is a trust, and all its powers a delega tion.” (Page 15.) It is a trust, but not from the people: “There is no power but of God.” It is a delegation, namely, from God; for “rulers are God’s ministers,” or delegates. 35. How irreconcilable with this are your principles ! Concerning our Governors in England, you teach, “A Parlia ment forfeits its authority by accepting bribes.” If it does, I doubt all the Parliaments in this century, having accepted them more or less, have thereby forfeited their authority, and, consequently, were no Parliaments at all : It follows, that the Acts which they enacted were no laws; and what a floodgate would this open You teach further: “If Parlia ments contradict their trust,” (of which the people are to judge,) “they dissolve themselves.” And certainly, a Parlia ment dissolved is no Parliament at all. And seeing “a state that submits to such a breach is enslaved,” what should the people do? Knock them on the head, to be sure.