It is a strange thing that the way to save Mens Souls should be such a
cunning Trade, as to require a skilful Master.
The time spent in praying to God, might be better employed in deserving
well from him.
Men think praying the easier Task of the two, and therefore choose it.
The People would not believe in God at all, if they were not permitted to
believe wrong in him.
The several Sorts of Religion in the World are little more than so many
spiritual Monopolies.
If their Interests could be reconciled, their Opinions would be so too.
Men pretend to serve God Almighty who doth not need it, but make use of
him because they need him.
Factions are like Pirates that set out false Colours, when they come near
a Booty Religion is put under Deck.
Most Mens Anger about Religion is as if two Men should quarrel for a Lady,
they neither of them care for.
_Of_ PREROGATIVE, POWER _and_ LIBERTY.
A Prerogative that tendeth to the Dissolution of all Laws must be void in
itself, _felo de se_; for a Prerogative is a Law. The reason of any Law
is, that no Man's Will should be a Law.
The King is the Life of the Law, and cannot have a Prerogative that is
mortal to it.
The Law is to have a Soul in it, or it is a dead thing. The King is by his
Sovereign Power to add Warmth and Vigour to the meaning of the Law. We are
by no means to imagine there is such an Antipathy between them, that the
Prerogative, like a Basilisk, is to kill the Law, whenever it looks upon
it.
The Prince hath very rarely use of his Prerogative, but hath constantly a
great Advantage by the Laws.
They attribute to the Pope indeed, that all the Laws of the Church are in
his Breast; but then he hath the Holy Ghost for his learned Counsel, _&c._
The People's Obedience must be _plain_, and without _Evasions_. The
Prince's Prerogative should be so too.
King _Charles the First_ made this Answer to the Petition of Right, (to
the Observation whereof he held himself obliged in Conscience, as well as
of his Prerogative.) "That the People's Liberties strengthen the King's
Prerogative, and the King's Prerogative is to defend the People's
Liberties."
That Prince's Declarations allow the Original of Government to come from
the People. Prerogative never yet pretended to repealing.
The first ground of Prerogative was to enable the Prince to do _good_, not
to do _every thing_.
If the ground of a King's desire of Power be his assurance of himself that
he will do no hurt by it; is it not an Argument for Subjects to desire to
_keep_ that which they will never _abuse_?
It must not be such a Prerogative as giveth the Government the Rickets;
all the Nourishment to go to the upper part, and the lower starved.
As a Prince is in danger who calleth a stronger than himself to his
Assistance; so when Prerogative useth _Necessity_ for an Argument, it
calleth in a stronger thing than itself. The same Reason may overturn it.
Necessity too is so plain a thing, that every body sees it, so that the
Magistrate hath no great privilege in being the Judge of it. Necessity
therefore is a dangerous Argument for Princes, since (wherever it is real)
it constitutes every Man a Magistrate, and gives as great a Power of
dispensing to every private Man, as a Prince can claim.
It is not so proper to say that _Prerogative_ justifieth _Force_, as that
_Force_ supporteth _Prerogative_. They have not been such constant
Friends, but that they have had terrible _Fallings_ out.
All Powers are of God; and between _Permission_ and _Appointment_, well
considered, there is no real difference.
In a limited Monarchy, Prerogative and Liberty are as jealous of one
another as any two neighbouring States can be of their respective
Incroachments.
They ought not to part for small Bickerings, and must bear little
Jealousies without breaking for them.
Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are
very seldom upon good Terms.
They are both so quarrelsome that they will not easily enter into a fair
Treaty. For indeed it is hard to bring them together; they ever quarrel at
a distance.
Power and Liberty are respectively managed in the World in a manner not
suitable to their Value and Dignity.
They are both so abused that it justifieth the Satires that are generally
made upon them. And
They are so in Possession of being misapplied, that instead of censuring
their being abused, it is more reasonable to wonder whenever they are
_not_ so.
They are perpetually wrestling, and have had their Turns when they have
been thrown, to have their Bones broken by it.
If they were not both apt to be out of Breath, there would be no living.
If Prerogative will urge Reason to support it, it must bear Reason when it
resisteth it.
It is a Diminution instead of a Glory, to be above treating upon equal
Terms with Reason.
If the People were designed to be the sole Property of the supream
Magistrate, sure God would have made them of a differing and subordinate
Species; as he hath the Beasts, that by the Inferiority of their Nature
they might the better submit to the Dominion of Mankind.
If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there
would not be many freed Men in the World.
When the People contend for their Liberty, they seldom get any thing by
their Victory but new Masters.
Liberty can neither be got, nor kept, but by so much Care, that Mankind
generally are unwilling to give the Price for it. And therefore, in the
Contest between Ease and Liberty, the first hath generally prevailed.
_Of_ LAWS.
Laws are generally not understood by three Sorts of Persons, _viz._ by
those that make them, by those that execute them, and by those that
suffer, if they break them.
Men seldom understand any Laws but those they _feel_.
Precepts, like Fomentations, must be rubbed into us; and with a rough Hand
too.
If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers
in the first Place.
There is more Learning now required to explain a Law made, than went to
the making it.
The Law hath so many Contradictions, and Varyings from itself, that the
Law may not improperly be called a Law-breaker.
It is become too changeable a thing to be defined: it is made little less
a _Mystery_ than the _Gospel_.
The Clergy and the Lawyers, like the Free-Masons, may be supposed to take
an Oath not to tell the Secret.
The Men of Law have a Biass to their calling in the Interpretations they
make of the Law.
_Of_ PARLIAMENTS.
The Parliaments are so altered from their original Constitution, that
between the Court and the Country, the House, instead of being united, is
like Troops of a contrary Party facing one another, and watching their
Advantage.
Even the well-meaning Men who have good Sense too, have their Difficulties
in an Assembly; what they offer honestly for a good End, will be skilfully
improved for an ill one.
It is strange that a gross Mistake should live a Minute in an Assembly;
one would expect that it should be immediately stifled by their discerning
Faculties. But Practice convinceth that a Mistake is no where better
entertained.
In Parliaments, Men wrangle in behalf of Liberty, that do as little care
for it, as they deserve it.
Where the People in Parliament give a good deal of Money in exchange for
any thing from the Crown, a wise Prince can hardly have an ill bargain.
The present Gift begetteth more; it is a Politick kind of Generation; and
whenever a Parliament does not bring forth, it is the Unskilfulness of the
Government, that is the cause of the Miscarriage.
Parliaments would bind and limit one another, and enact that such and such
things shall not be made _Precedents_. There is not a word of Sense in
this Language, which yet is to be understood the Sense of the Nation, and
is printed as solemnly as if it was Sense.
_Of_ PARTIES.
The best Party is but a kind of a Conspiracy against the rest of the
Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the _Jews_
to the _Gentiles_, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.
Men value themselves upon their Principles, so as to neglect Practice,
Abilities, Industry, _&c._
Party cutteth off one half of the World from the other, so that the mutual
Improvement of Mens Understanding by conversing, _&c._ is lost, and Men
are half undone, when they lose the advantage of knowing what their
Enemies think of them.
It is like Faith without Works; They take it for a Dispensation from all
other Duties, which is the worst kind of _dispensing Power_.
It groweth to be the Master Thought; the Eagerness against one another at
home, being a nearer Object, extinguisheth that which we ought to have
against our foreign Enemies; and few Mens Understandings can get above
overvaluing the Danger that is nearest, in comparison of that more remote.
It turneth all Thought into talking instead of doing. Men get a habit of
being unuseful to the Publick by turning in a Circle of Wrangling and
Railing, which they cannot get out of: And it may be remarked, that a
_speculative_ Coxcomb is not only unuseful, but mischievous: A _practical_
Coxcomb under discipline may be made use of.
It maketh a Man thrust his Understanding into a Corner, and confine it
till by degrees he destroys it.
Party is generally an Effect of Wantonness, Peace, and Plenty, which beget
Humour, Pride, _&c._ and that is called Zeal and publick Spirit.
They forget insensibly that there is any body in the World but themselves,
by keeping no other Company; so they miscalculate cruelly. And thus
Parties mistake their Strength by the same reason that private Men
overvalue themselves; for we by finding fault with others, build up a
partial Esteem of ourselves upon the Foundation of their Mistakes: So Men
in Parties find faults with those in the Administration, not without
reason, but forget that they would be exposed to the same Objections, and
perhaps greater, if it was their Adversary's turn to have the
fault-finding part.
There are Men who shine in a Faction, and make a Figure by Opposition, who
would stand in a worse light, if they had the Preferments they struggle
for.
It looketh so like _Courage_ (but nothing that is like is the same) to go
to the _Extream_, that Men are carried away with it, and blown up out of
their Senses by the wind of popular Applause.
That which looketh _bold_ is a great Object that the People can discern;
But that which is _wise_ is not so easily seen: It is one part of it that
it is not seen, but at the _End_ of a Design. Those who are disposed to be
wise too late, are apt to be valiant too early.
Most Men enter into a Party rashly, and retreat from it as shamefully. As
they encourage one another at first, so they betray one another at last:
And because every Qualification is capable of being corrupted by the
Excess, they fall upon the extream, to fix mutual Reproaches upon one
another.
Party is little less than an Inquisition, where Men are under such a
Discipline in carrying on the common Cause, as leaves no Liberty of
private Opinion.
It is hard to produce an Instance where a Party did ever succeed against a
Government, except they had a good handle given them.
No original Party ever prevailed in a turn; it brought up _something
else_, but the first Projectors were thrown off.
If there are two Parties, a Man ought to adhere to that which he disliketh
least, though in the whole he doth not approve it: For whilst he doth not
list himself in one or the other Party, he is looked upon as such a
Straggler, that he is fallen upon by both. Therefore a Man under such a
Misfortune of Singularity, is neither to provoke the World, nor disquiet
himself, by taking any particular Station.
It becometh him to live in the Shade, and keep his Mistakes from giving
Offence; but if they are his Opinions, he cannot put them off as he doth
his Cloaths. Happy those who are convinced so as to be of the general
Opinions.
Ignorance maketh most Men go into a Party, and Shame keepeth them from
getting out of it.
More Men hurt others, they do not know why, than for any reason.
If there was any Party entirely composed of honest Men, it would certainly
prevail; but both the honest Men and the Knaves resolve to turn one
another off when the Business is done.
They by turns defame all _England_, so nobody can be employed that hath
not been branded: There are few Things so criminal as a Place.
_Of_ COURTS.
The Court may be said to be a Company of well-bred fashionable Beggars.
At Court, if a Man hath too much Pride to be a Creature, he had better
stay at home: A Man who will rise at Court must begin, by creeping upon
All-four: A Place at Court, like a Place in Heaven, is to be got by being
much upon _one's Knees_.
There are hardly two Creatures of a more differing Species than the same
Man, when he is pretending to a Place, and when he is in Possession of it.
Mens Industry is spent in receiving the Rents of a Place, there is little
left for discharging the Duty of it.
Some Places have such a corrupting Influence upon the Man, that it is a
supernatural thing to resist it.
Some Places lye so fair to entertain Corruption, that it looketh like
renouncing a due Perquisite, not to go into it.
If a getting Fool would keep out of Business, he would grow richer in a
Court than a Man of Sense.
One would wonder that in a Court where there is so little Kindness, there
should be so much _whispering_.
Men must brag of kind Letters from Court, at the same time that they do
not believe one Word of them.
Men at Court think so much of their own Cunning, that they forget other
Mens.
After a Revolution, You see the _same Men_ in the Drawing-room, and within
a Week the same _Flatterers_.
_Of_ PUNISHMENT.
Wherever a Government knows _when_ to _show_ the Rod, it will not often be
put to _use_ it. But between the want of Skill, and the want of Honesty,
Faults generally either escape Punishment, or are mended to no Purpose.
Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.
Wherever a Knave is not punished, an honest Man is laugh'd at.
A Cheat to the Publick is thought infamous, and yet to accuse him is not
thought an honourable part. What a Parodox! 'Tis an ill Method, to make
the Aggravation of the Crime a Security against the Punishment; so that
the Danger is not to _rob_, but not to _rob enough_.
Treason must not be _inlayed Work_ of _several Pieces_, it must be an
entire Piece of itself. _Accumulative_ in that case is a murdering Word,
that carrieth Injustice, and no Sense in it.
An _Inference_, though never so rational, should go no farther than to
justify a _Suspicion_, not so far as to inflict a _Punishment_. Nothing is
so apt to break with Stretching, as an _Inference_; and nothing so
ridiculous, as to see how Fools will abuse one.