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the Saviour's adorable Person; and the rather, as this living Law agrees with the Expreffions of the Councils held at Conftantinople. The Emperors of the Eaft always affected to be accounted the Lord's Reprefentatives and Vicars; Characters which the Popes of Rome foon after found it convenient to affume. How fond the Eastern Emperors were of these Appellations, authentically appears in their Medals and Ornaments.

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Is it not further evident, that God has fubjected the Laws to the Monarchs? Are they not to be enforced, explained, amended, and even altered, according to Times, Emergencies, and the Occafions of Men; in a Word, according to Equity? And to whom does this belong but to Monarchs? Is not this the natural Senfe of the Word ToréJane, used by the learned Emperor? It must needs be known, that there is is an eternal and, immutable Law of Justice, the facred Source and Model of all human Laws, written or oral; and that there is also an Architectonic, which enjoins the proportioning of Juftice to the Weakness and Infirmity of Men; and this is the fupreme Law of Equity. Now, this human Weakness and Infirmity being continually and fucceffively

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ceffively changing, there refults a Neceffity of continual Reformations in human Laws; to amend, or even abrogate fome, to substitute others, and introduce new cnes: And who fhall make these Alterations, but he who is the Depofitary, the Protector, and the Arbiter of the Laws?

WILL any take upon them to infinuate, that the People having divested themselves of the executive, have still reserved to themselves the legislative Power? This Propofition is fo abfurd, as to require no diffufe Confutation. Thofe Civilians, whom their Attachment to natural Liberty has led into it, would be puzzled to prove, that Children, in an equal State of Freedom with their Fathers, could be bound by Laws impofed upon them by their Fathers without their Confent. Is it not a received Maxim, that a Father cannot compel his Children to hard Terms relating to any Poffeffions not originally derived from him, without a fecure Equivalent? But, after all, is this legislative Power equally inherent in all Men? Is it in the Majority? And wherefore? Is it among the wife and virtuous Few? But who is the competent and allowed Judge of Men's Wisdom and

Virtue

Virtue In fine, thefe Contradictions will never be at an End, without acknowledging the legislative Power to be a divine Emanation, and entrusted by the Deity to Minifters of his own Defignation and Appointment.

CHA P. XII.

OT but that every Thing, which paffes the Hands of Men, however excellent in itself, is liable to Corruption, and as fuch to produce bad Effects. This is fo true, that the Law itself, though holy, just; good, and neceffary, has been almost accounted to be the Caufe of Tranfgreffion: The Law worketh Wrath: For where no Law is, there is no Tranfgreffion, Rom. iv. 15. Until the Law, Sin was in the World: But Sin is not imputed, when there is no Law, v. 13. The Law entered, that Sin might abound, 20. What shall we fay then? Is the Law Sin? God forbid. Nay, I kad not known Sin, but by the Law: For I had not known Luft, except the Law had faid, Thou Shalt not covet. But Sin, taking Occafion by the Commandment, wrought in me all Manner of Concupifcence: For without the Law Sin was dead. For I was alive without the Law once :

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But, when the Commandment came, Sin revived, and I died. And the Commandment, which was ordained to Life, I found to be unto Death. For Sin, taking Occafion by the Commandment, deceived me, and by it flew me. Wherefore the Law is boly, and the Commandment boly, just, and good, Rom. vii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster, Gal. iii. 24. No Civilian in the World has a clearer Elucidation of this important Article: And what has been obferved of the Law reflects a strong Light on the Interests of Monarchs, they being of divine Institution, no lefs than the Law itself.

LET us then be upon our Guard against the Deceptions of certain Arguments and Po fitions which the Knavery of fome, and the Ignorance of others, have propagated with unhappy Industry, fo as to be common in moft Parts of Europe: An imaginary Defpotifm is the continual Cry, in order to run down Monarchy, by affixing to it an arbitrary Idea, which has not the leaft Relation to the Greek Word dozora, from which it is deriv ed: Nor is Practice lefs contrary than Theory to the Interpretation put upon it; and it is not without Reason, that I take the ftat pro ra

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tione voluntas to be no more than sporting with Words, that have no Reality, but are invented to impose upon the World.

IF Men have a Will, it is certainly to arrive at last to a State of perfect Happiness: From the greatest Monarch on Earth, to the most abject Wretch imaginable, this is an irradicable Sentiment in the human Heart: And all the Difference lies in the Object and Means of our Happiness, in which we may eafily be, and too often are deceived. Though the Objects, which our Illufion presents to us, be often no more than Appearances void of Reality, yet is our general Will no lefs determined by them: But this feductive Determination does not vitiate or deftroy the natural leading Principle: The indelible inward Will ftill preffes with unwearied Eagerness towards the true Happiness of Mankind, and makes its Way through all Illufions and Mistakes to that great End, of which it has not yet a clear and diftinct Idea. When once its Error is removed by fome kind Inftructor, then is seen what it truly wills, and whither it is carried by its own Nature, which it can never counteract,

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