I

To the Bishop of OXFORD.

MY LORD,

Have your lordship's of the 16th, and have acquainted his Majefty therewith, who is well fatisfied with the college's ready obedience to his command, for the expulfion of Mr. LOCKE.

SUNDERLAND.

LETTER III. in defence of RELIGION.

[The subject continued from Number V.]

T has been infifted on by fome, who would be thought the

IT

friends of mankind and advocates for publick liberty, that civil government alone is fufficient to provide and secure to man's use the neceffary accommodations of life, and, as such, might fitly supply the place of religion. But if no fuch policy appears in fact to have been ever formed, or, were this practicable, could be preserved and continued long, unless in concert with, and as it receives a fettlement from, religion; and, fecondly, that the laws of society neither are nor can be commensurate to all things in which the affociating parties are particularly interested, this, it is prefumed, will be enough to fhew the deficiency of fuch a provision for the task allotted it.

Protection and obedience are the two great and fundamental points or conditions, on which every well-framed polity turns. If governours have not the neceffary means of reftraining all injuries respecting perfon, character, and estate, how fhould protection be difpenfed, and, confequently, the ends of magiftracy answered? Under fuch an inftitution then, they will have a right to, and a claim upon the members uniting for, fuch a power. And this once fuppofed, what is more certain, than that it ought to be answered by

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a correspondent behaviour on the part of the governed? The nature of the authority muft ever determine both the kind and measure of obedience due to it. Defence and subjection, as reciprocally implying each other, are primarily and eminently contained in our idea of government raised on the principles, and framed for the purposes, all fuch conventions ought to be. And because men are naturally finite and fallible, it is fitting that both prince and people do give, one the other, proper fecurity, that their respective pretenfions fhall be fatisfied. What may reasonably be deemed fuch, comes now under confideration. That the annexing penalties to the breach of publick faith will be abfolutely infufficient to prevent it, is evident from hence. Because, firft, in many cafes fuch truft may be violated, and no one knows how or by whom; and when this is poffible, the above ap pointments can be of no force. Or, fecondly, thould accidental unforeseen circumftances confpire to bring the fact to light, ftill might others combine to favour the criminal and work his deliverance: and tho' it was publickly known he had broke the law, yet could not its fanctions lay hold on him. There are particular seasons when art and cunning, fecret machinations or open violence, fhall counteract, and eventually frustrate all attempts to bring him to juftice. To give an instance, how each may be injuriously (and yet unavoidably, if religious checks come once to be laid aside) affected by the other. The fupreme magiftrate will, of course, have numbers applying to him for places of honour and profit, that the ends of government give him a right to difpofe of. By fharing out which to thofe, who from principle and interest are led to countenance and abet his favourite schemes, he fo ftrongly and closely attaches them to him, that thenceforwards they fhall have no will but his with whose concurrence the common good fhall at every turn be facrificed to caprice or paffion, and private fatisfactions, under each competition, be more regarded than those of mul titudes, and preferred to them. And who can expect it

fhould

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fhould be otherwife? A perfon, that is armed with the force of a whole society, and has thousands ever obfequious and ready to fulfil his pleasure, will bear no oppofition to whatever he fhall chance to fet his heart upon: fince every thing which runs cross to his inclinations and obftructs his views, must vex and harrass him. And he richly deserves the name of fool, who having at command the means of exacting a compliance with his defires, fuffers himself to be made uneafy on any confideration whatfoever. Such a governour would expect all fubmiffion from his subjects, even where the yielding it would be of infinite differvice to them; and make no conceffions himself, tho' ever fo much to their happiness. And thus would liberty and property be foon fwallowed up by violence and oppreffion. Hence if there were no laws fuperiour to human conftitutions, and from which those derive their whole obligatory power, what is there an abfolute prince would not do? For impatient of contradiction and refiftence, and his humour being law, he can have no other defign in whatever he undertakes but the procuring fuch things as ease and delight him here.

On the other hand, where is the improbability that a number of men, acted by like impetuofity of appetite, and joining in one confederacy, fhould contrive measures for diftreffing the government, tho' pursuing the proper, perhaps (all things confidered) the propereft method of obtaining publick happinefs? And it requires no great warmth of fancy to paint in lively colours the dismal effects which will neceffarily attend popular infurrection on the one hand, or a continued series of tyranny on the other. Who, that thinks on the cafe, but can be affected with it?

To have done; Were the above, as in fact it is, a real and precise state of the affair, neither king nor fubject would be fafe, if civil fanctions were the principal restraints, under a fuppofed poffibility of evading them, the fole prefervative of publick faith and justice when in danger of being invaded and born down by pleasure and profit; the two

baits which, more or lefs, do influence and feduce each individual of the fpecies; and in certain circumftances have prov'd too hard for virtue, even under the sense of a divine providence discountenancing and controuling them: and what indeed at no time are to be refifted but by great care and attention on man's part, a particular attention to confequences and the like. To act with vigour and conftancy therefore on fuch occafions, fome more moving and powerful confiderations fhould be called in to the affiftance of human penalties, whofe forces, in conjunction, may be an over-match for the ftrongest temptation; fufficient to check the moft licentious and abandoned propenfity. Now the wit of man could invent nothing more binding than oaths. But what avail oaths, if men disbelieve a Deity? Nothing at all. To impose an oath upon an atheift, or for him to offer to take it as a foundation of credit with others, is to the laft degree ridiculous and ab→ furd. The matter perhaps may be fet in a fuller light thus.

Every government must have fuch legal provifions as will answer both its ordinary and extraordinary wants. The purport of which is, to prevent injuries by punishing delin quents, to determine differences regarding life, liberty, and property by fome common digeft, lying open to all and comprehending the moft material cafes which may fall out betwixt man and man; and to raise money for the service of the ftate. Those laws must be made either by one man or by a number of men. If but a fingle individual is employed in the drawing up and publishing them, he would, on supposition of not being accountable to a fuperiour legisla tor, adapt them to his own fantastical humour, which might properly be fubftituted in their room. And tho' fovereignty has the firmest and most durable establishment, as alfo fhines with the brightest luftre when rais'd on principles of pub lick liberty, (for who so glorious a prince as him that makes the fubje&t's happiness his own?) yet the defire of universal

rule

209 rule is of fo bewitching a nature, softly infinuating itself into man's breaft, and received, entertained, and cherished there with fuch particular marks of tenderness, that his fond imagination figures to itself a thousand agreeables from its poffeffion. Hence one degree of power ufually (I had almoft faid naturally) aspires after a higher, and this on to a higher ftill, whilst in time and by degrees it encloses and absorbs the whole: If the laws are made by a determinate body of men under no ties from religion, nothing hinders, but that by mutual confent and steps previously taken they might frame those institutes to accord with their own private detached interests, when fuch could be promoted at the expence of thofe of the aggregate body: it would be a miracle if they did not. In one cafe the common good is fcandalously neglected, in the other wilfully opposed.

And when laws have once received their proper form and establishment, to make them effectually conducive to the purposes they were intended for, fome should be empowered to supervise their execution; for they cannot execute themfelves. Where subjects are remifs and careless, to enforce a more strict conformity; when violated, to impofe the fanction impartially and without respect of perfons. Hence the neceffity of men acting in diftinct particular spheres with capacities and difpofitions fuited to the dignity and importance of each refpectively. And without a faithful and confcientious discharge of the duties refulting from those relations, and paying a strict and invariable regard to the general intereft in the offices they fill, great confufions will unavoidably be introduced, which, as they multiply and enlarge, muft quickly bring on a thorough diffolution of the whole politi

cal machine.

Since then the multitude of cafes with which fociety is. concerned neceffarily requires a regular fubordination of officers, what but the fenfe of a being, who will exact a juft and equal account of the good or bad ufe of thofe powers every one is entrusted with, can be a fufficient motive to serve the Numb. VI. publick,

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