Now to evince, beyond all Contradiction, that these Expreffions likewife, bear not the leaft Refemblance of any Reflection, upon His Majefty's Title to the Crown, I moft humbly entreat your Honours to hear me patiently, while I represent the true defign of this Argument, and the impious Schemes againft which it militates.

First then: The Deifts, (thofe Men who wou'd turn the World, and even God and Nature, upfide down! thefe Men foolishly dream of an independent State of Nature; That is to fay, they affirm, that once upon a Time (tho' they never yet could tell when all Mankind were upon a Level, and that there was no fuch Thing as Government in the World; and that Tom, Dick, and Harry, ay, every individual Man, Woman, and Child, had a Right to the whole World; therefore, fince God had not inftituted any Government, they, the People, all of 'em met together, and (to prevent the dire Confufion that might happen upon the bloody Scramble that was like to enfue) they erected Go

vernment.

This (may it pleafe your Honours) is the Scheme of the Deifts: And I am fure I need not tell you, that it is a direct Contradiction to the Holy Scriptures; and these Deifts not believing one Word in thofe facred Pages, no Wonder they talk so wildly.

It

It was the want of Ravelation that made the ancient Sages grope fo in the dark, and have fuch strange Notions concerning the Origin of the World, of Mankind, and of Government.

The Wisdom (even) of Ariftotle could never give a Solution to this fingle Question, Which was firft, the Hen or the Egg? If The Egg

he faid

Then how came

Then

this Egg here, unless fome Hen laid it? -If he faid, the Hen was first. from whence came this Hen but from fome Egg which must be before it?

This was an inextricable Difficulty with Ariftotle. But a flender acquaintance with the first Chapter of Genefis would have informed him, that as God made the firft Hen, from which all of the fame fpecies have been derived; fo he likewife created the World and Mankind, and actually inftitued a particular Form of Government, giving to one Man the Dominion over the World, and over all that he had created in it.

The God of Order did not create a Number of People all at once, without Order aud Government, and then leave them to fcramble for Property and Dominion, as fome Deiftical Republicans would have us believe contrary to the exprefs Words of Scrip

ture.

And to fhew that I do not abuse them, tho' I could bring a Multitude of Quotations

from

from their own Writings; (but that I may not take up too much of your Honours Time) I fhall only produce three Lines from their Veteran Mercenary, their Oracle, Daniel de Foe, who certainly knew his own Scheme.

To be as free as Nature firft made Man, E'er the bafe Laws of Servitude began, When wild in Woods the noble Savage ran.

This is their wild Notion of an independent State of Nature.

But the Vanity and Falsehood of this brutal Scheme is detected, as with a Sun-beam, from the Holy Scriptures, from the firft of Genefis, and from the Book of Job, where we are told (according to one Tranflation) That vain Man is puff'd up with Pride, and thinks himself free-born like a wild Afs's Colt.

These Men wou'd have all Mankind fuch Savages. And they are fitly called Beafts, who range themselves in the natural State of Beafts, all independent, and no Government among them.

It is this impious and brutal Notion, which the Argument in this Book militates against and destroys.

Secondly, The Word PEOPLE is an indefinite Term, and the Republicans could never yet agree concerning it's true Meaning.

That

That great Man Mr. Locke exprefly fays, that the free Vote of every individual, is abfolutely neceffary to the erecting of Government, and, at the fame Time, fays that it is impoffible to be had. And nothing is more certain than this, that no Country or Nation can be produced, where every one of the People hath a free Vote in the choice of their Rulers. And it is likewife certain, that at the very Time when the Democracy was moft in Vogue, in ancient Greece and Rome, all the common People had not a Vote at the Election of their Magiftrates.

The Athenian Rabble did not chufe the Demarchi;- (Here the Chief Judge interrupted, and said, the Court can't spend their Time in hearing you talk about the Greeks and Romans. It is nothing to your Cafe.)

May it please your Honour.

By the Statutes of Magna Charta chap. 29. 5 Edw. III. chap. 9.and 23 Edw. III. chap. 5. No Man onght to be condemned without Anfwer. Coke's 4 Inftit. 38. And my Lord Coke fays in the fame Place, That the more high and abfolute the Jurifdiction of the Court is, the more juft and honourable it ought to be in the Proceeding, and to give Example of Justice to inferior Courts.

I

I was not fuffered to defend my felf in the inferiour Court; I befeech your Honours to let me make my Defence.

(The Chief Juftice faid, well, go on.)

I fay then, that the Athenian Rabble did not chufe the Demarchi;

The Ephori of Sparta were not chosen by the Spartan Mob ;

Nor did all the Roman Plebeians chufe the Roman Tribunes.

This wild and impracticable (pretended) Power of the People, was never reduced to Practice by any Nation, or among any People. And it is only againft this rude, confufed Notion, that the Argument in this Book is levell❜d.

Thus much for this licentious, unlimited, pretended Power of the People!

And as for the pretended Independent State of Nature, I'm fure that could have no Exiftence at the Time mentioned in the 10th of Genefis; when Nimrod (in prophane History called Belus) was King in Babylon, and Afour built Nineveh, the Seat of the Affyrian Monarahs; both which are mentioned in that Chapter.

And from Nimrod we have the Names of all the Monarchs, and their Succeffion, to the End of the Affyrian Monarchy.

And after that of the Medes and Perfians, the Greeks and Romans; and from the Divifion