(5 The gift he gave he looks that we maintain, They that would have his power to be their friend, Unless they arm to fight as well as pray. This will their wifh and his defign fulfill, He works by means and means he'll love aud bless, There's not an animal a life of sense, But has fome native weapon for defence. This doctrine now doth fright our men of power, For the PHILANTHROPIST. A NEW SONG. (Tune, "Bob Shave the King.") FROM Billy's iron claws, From his unhallowed jaws, Save HAIL, By G. P--PPL--t--n. AIL, glorious day! thou e'er fhalt facred be, In Freedom's annals; thee posterity Shall blefs and venerate, when they are told, A TRUE For the Editor of the PHILANTHROPIST. A TRUE AND GENUINE CHARACTER OF A MERCENARY VORACIOUS LEVite or ClergYMAN, WHO PINCH'D A POOR COBLER IN MENDING HIS OLD SHQES. AH! rev'rend fir was it your fate, To preach as cheap as I tranflate; Or ftrive like me for daily bread, And nobly taken your degree; But thousands more explode the cheat, If tyranny. Laws they are not therefore, which public approba tion hath not made fo. Whofoever (fays Ariftotle) is governed by a man without a law, is governed by a man and by a beast. Ariftotle faith, that the whole kingdom, city or family, is more excellent, and to be preferred before any part or member thereof. By the law of nature, falus populi, the welfare of the peo_ ple is both the fupreme and first law in government, and the scope and end of all other laws, and of government itself, because the safety of the body politic is ever to be preferred before any one perfon whatfoever. No human law is binding which is contrary to fcripture or the general laws of nature. Religion doth not overthrow nature, whofe chiefeft principle is to preserve herself. As magiftrates were defigned for the public good, so the obligation to them must be understood fo, as to be fill in fubordination to the main end; for the reafon of all law and government is the public good. A just governor for the benefit of the people, is more careful of the public good and welfare, than of his own private advantage. མ The fupreme authority of a nation belongs to those who have the legislative authority reserved to them, and not only to those who have the executive, which is plainly a trust when it is feparated from the legislative power: and all trufts, by their nature import that those to whom they are given, are accountable, tho' no fuch condition is fpecified. There must be in every government a power to preserve itself not only against force from without, but against violence and every thing that is deftructive from within: As a man preferves his perfon from difeafes, as well as defends it against violence. He cannot renounce this power because selfpreservation is, and will always be a duty, neither can a people united in fociety, or government, renounce the power of maintaining that fociety or government, the inftrument Atrument of their safety and preservation; for the condition of all subjects would be alike, whether under abfolute or limited government, if it were not lawful to maintain and preferve those limitations, fince will and pleasure, and not law would be alike in both the measure of obedience; for to have liberties and privileges, unless they may be defended, and to have none at all, is the fame thing as to be governed by mere will and pleasure, or by laws subject to that will and pleasure. Laws and oaths in limited governments are ties upon king and people, and must be interpreted according to the nature of the government, fo as to prove fences for the conftitution, and not to serve for handles to overthrow it: as the coronation oath and oath of allegiance are, in effect but fwearing to the constitution, in one to govern, and in the other to be governed, according to it. But if a coronation oath be a tie upon a king only to God, and the oath of allegiance be extended to an abfolute subjection, then both king and people: fwear against the conftitution, instead of swearing to maintain it, as they ought to do. The laws are the nerves and finews of focieties; and as the magiftrate is above the people in legal capacity, fo is the law above the magiftrate or else there could be no fafety to the conftitution. He who makes himself above all law, is no member of a common-wealth, but a mere tyrant whenever he pleases, He who is for destroying the being of another, hath quitted (or has not) the reafon which God hath given to be the rule betwixt man and man, of juftice and equity, and hath put himself into the state of war with the other, and is as noxious as any favage beaft that feeks his deftruction. No man in civil fociety can be exempted from the laws of it; for if there be no appeal on earth, for redress or security against the greatest mischief the prince may do, or cause to be done by others, then every man in that fociety is in a state of nature, with respect to him, or those others. The |