God Leaves To Man The Choice Of

Tis Hard To Comprehend How One Man Can Come To Be Master Of Many, Equal To Himself In Right, Unless It Be By Consent Or By Force.

Laws And Constitutions Ought To Be Weighed... To Constitute That Which Is Most Conducing To The Establishment Of Justice And Liberty.

Nay, All Laws Must Fall, Human Societies That Subsist By Them Be Dissolved, And All Innocent Persons Be Exposed To The Violence Of The Most Wicked, If Men Might Not Justly Defend Themselves Against Injustice By Their Own Natural Right, When The Ways Prescribed By Publick Authority Cannot Be Taken.

Machiavel, Discoursing On These Matters, Finds Virtue To Be So Essentially Necessary To The Establishment And Preservation Of Liberty, That He Thinks It Impossible For A Corrupted People To Set Up A Good Government, Or For A Tyranny To Be Introduced If They Be Virtuous; And Makes This Conclusion, 'that Where The Matter (that Is, The Body Of The People) Is Not Corrupted, Tumults And Disorders Do Not Hurt; And Where It Is Corrupted, Good Laws Do No Good:' Which Being Confirmed By Reason And Experience, I Think No Wise Man Has Ever Contradicted Him.

If The Public Safety Be Provided, Liberty And Propriety Secured, Justice Administered, Virtue Encouraged, Vice Suppressed, And The True Interest Of The Nation Advanced, The Ends Of Government Are Accomplished . . .