Wesley Corpus

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. This, in truth, is the tendency of the whole book; a few passages of which I shall now recite, begging leave to make a few remarks upon them. But I must ask the reader’s pardon, if I frequently say the same thing more than once; for, otherwise, I could not follow the author. 33. “All the members of a state” (which necessarily include all the men, women, and children) “may intrust the powers of legislation with any number of delegates, subject to such restrictions as they think necessary.” (Page 8.) This is “incompatible with practice:” It never was done from the beginning of the world; it never can; it is flatly impossible in the nature of the thing. “And thus, all the individuals that compose a great state partake of the powers of legislation and government.” All the individuals | Mere Quixotism ! Where does that state exist? Not under the canopy of heaven. “In this case, a state is still free,” (but this case has no being,) “if the representatives are chosen by the umbiassed voices of the majority.” Hold !