tion and the same penalty for the non-fulfilment of it, to have, in different nations or ages of the world, a continual alteration in the means of enabling them to do their duty in the sight of Heaven. In all the most important points of human legisla tion, therefore, what are proper enactments for the people of one nation or age, are obviously so for those of all nations and ages, seeing that all righteous human laws must ever rigorously accord with the divine law. We may repeat, that it be held in everlasting remembrance, whatever are truly the rights of men, have no reference to time, or place, or numbers; the whole human race being under the same law, and this holy law being binding on all of them, until another dispensation arrives from Heaven. What are truly the rights of men in one country or age, are the rights of men in all countries and all ages;—what are the rights of one man of the same generation (to whatever country he may belong), are the rights of the whole human race of his generation :- what are the rights of one generation, are the rights of all generations.

37. Against the infringement of that which has no existence, there can be no law either divine or human; and where no law is, there is no transgression. If, then, in any country or age, there are any who have no rights, they may be knocked in the head at pleasure by those who have. If there are, in any nation or age, any who have some rights, but not equal to those of others, how is it to be determined, conformably with the divine law, as to the present and all the coming ages of the different nations of the world, who those are who are to have all the three rights elsewhere mentioned, (13); and who those are that are to have one, two, or all such rights abstracted? Unless these questions can be decided with unerring accuracy, the situation in which all men, in all nations and ages, are, and will be placed, is this;-some in every nation and age will have one, two, or all the three rights, and some have none: but as there is no law emanating from Heaven, (if the divine law is not the sole rule of men's conduct,) by which to determine, as to any human being whatever, whether he is to have one, two, or three of the rights, or no rights at all; an utter uncertainty on this momentous subject is the portion of every man that now exists, and will hereafter exist. But this is not to be supposed. 38. This farther appears from considering, that if the divine law can be trampled upon with impunity, no lawful legislative or executive can be appointed in any nation or age-no obligations or rights can arise between any; no legal title to property in the land or other thing can be made. And if this be so, not any men that ever existed, do now, or shall hereafter exist,-ever had, or can have, any obligations or rights existing between them; that is, if any claim of one or more to the control of others, or the duty of the latter to be controlled, or

the right of any one or more to any property, can be established or maintained, in contravention of the divine law.

39. For, if in the establishment or maintenance of laws in any nation or age, contravening the divine law, the rights of men may be so affected, that a hair of any man's head may be touched, this may be extended to taking his life; and if one man's life may be thus taken, then may that of any other men, and, consequently, of all other men. Between the slightest infringement of the divine law, as regards any man, in any country or any age, and the total abrogation of it as regards all men, in all countries, and all ages, there is no restingplace.

40. And whether the divine law is departed from in the most trifling degree, as regards any one man only, or so much so as for the sole will of one despot to be the only law, and his military followers the executioners of it, he and they committing all the ungodliness and unrighteousness that is within the compass of human ability to perpetrate, and extending to as many as possible: in either case this holy law is set at nought.

41. If it is allowable, in the smallest degree, to infringe the divine law, it is allowable in a greater; so that, at length, the will of God may be utterly superseded by the abominations of men, or they may live without laws altogether.

42. And if this can be done in one nation, it can in another; and if in one age, it can in another;-and so as to all nations and ages; and, consequently, as to all the individuals that compose such nations. Thus, the Divine Being has given a law to men for no other purpose than that it may be trampled upon. And if these things may be done in our world, the same may occur throughout the universe, and the Supreme Being be virtually dethroned;-a supposition more wicked than atheism itself; it being less derogatory to the Lord God Almighty, to question his existence altogether, than, while admitting it, to imagine him capable of tolerating that which is diametrically opposite to his holy attributes of infinite wisdom, power, and benevolence.

43. In reference to all men's having to do with the determi nation of their rights, or to some having to do with the determination of the rights of others, the following observations arise. If we look at the conduct of men in all countries and ages, we find so universal is the defection, that there is none that does good, no not one. As men thus act, they must surely be incompetent to determine the great question we are considering. That they truly are so, is in nothing more clearly evinced, than the privation of good and infliction of evil, both inconceivable as to their degrees;-brought upon mankind by unlawful governments, taking upon them to determine and assign the rights of men. In reference to the liberties men have in all

nations taken with the rights of each other, it may in a less or greater degree be said of them, as was said of the builders of Babel- Nothing' has been restrained from them which they have imagined to do.'-To show how unfit men are to determine the rights of each other, we need go no further than our own laws. The English code is unquestionably an utter disgrace to the human intellect! The more rigorously such code is compared with the only legitimate standard-the divine law, the more obviously it will appear. Trifling matters are not cavilled at, but reference is made to its important features. Nothing, however, can be farther, than an intention to impute incapacity to the framers of the English code, in the various ages of its existence ;-what is here intimated, is, that they have not made a right use of their capacities.—(v. 177, 178.)

44. The whole history of mankind evinces the misery arising from unlawful governments taking upon themselves to determine and assign what they presumptuously call the rights of men. One only inquiry as to any country or age is necessary to be made, as far as human ability can scan this all-important mat

ter:

What are the nature and extent of the wrongs its unlawful government has inflicted?

How much has been, or now is, the privation of good it has caused?

And what is the extent of evil that has been sustained, or is now sustaining by the governed?

How outrageously have been, or now are, both the governed and God insulted?

45. The following are examples of the miseries brought by unlawful governments, in different countries and ages, on those they have misruled:

Deprivation of the property in the land.

Condemnation of men to toil from morn till night, and from one end of the week to another, and from one end of the year to another, and from the beginning to the end of their earthly existence without respite. And notwithstanding this, to enjoy less of the necessaries of life than the beasts that perish; and this in the midst of filth and misery unutterable, surrounded by half-famished infants, crying for food which the wretched parents have not to give.

The abstraction from the labourers of the produce of their labour, (for as to property multitudes have none;) to whatever extent their masters may please, or dare to take from them.

Being placed in that state of slavery, where they may be bought and sold like bales of goods.

Seeing their children sold before their face, to be sent Heaven only knows whither.

Being kept in so gross a state of ignorance and demoralization, as not to know that they have any rights in this world, or any hope of a mitigation of their miseries in another.

Being kept so miserably debased, as only to know, by some uncertain report, of the existence of the Divine Being. (i. 2.)

Having their backs cut to pieces by that diabolical torture, military flogging,

Being subject to the grossest insults from boys young enough to be their grandchildren; and if they venture to lift their hands against them, being liable to be put to death for it.

Being torn from their families by conscription laws, and sent to a foreign country to murder others, and be murdered by others, in unjust wars. Being kidnapped in the high streets, at noon-day, and sent on board men-ofwar, for the same iniquitous purpose.

Sons being made to murder their fathers, brothers their brothers, in civil wars; to settle the disputes of miserable wretches, that pretend to a miscalled right of ruling their countries, when neither of such wretches, in any case whatever, have any more real right than they have to govern Heaven.

Being burned alive, for not professing to believe that which it is impossible to believe.

Being murdered in cold blood, only because they are enslaved.

And, in consequence of men being acted on, in all these ways, other unspeak able mischiefs brought on nations,—for example,

Standing armies, maintained for no other purpose than to maintain the relation of tyrants and slaves among men, and thence all the evils we are considering.

Also,

Popular discontents.

Tumultuous meetings.

Opposition and bloodshed on the part of the military, and the rest of the people.

The shadow of liberty the oppressors allow the oppressed, further attenuated by new legislative enactments.

Imprisonments.

Fines.

Banishments.

Perjuries.

Seditions.

Conspiracies.

Plots.

Espionage.

Suicides.

Private and public assassinations.

Executions,

Civil wars.

Revolutions.

Internal commotions, causing the aid of foreign nations to be called in, oftentimes to the extreme prejudice of a disturbed country.

Foreign wars brought upon the disturbed country, and all the crimes and miseries consequent thereon.

War carried by the disturbed country into other countries.

Subjugation of foreign nations to the power of a country internally disturbed, but tending only to involve the latter in ruinous wars. of France remarkably exemplifies.

This the history Total subjugation of a country to the power of another, from its internal disputes.

46. In brief, for men to have to sustain from one another, in a less or greater degree, the privation of every earthly good, and the endurance of every earthly ill, which the damnable wickedness of their brethren can bring upon them.

47. Nor let it be forgotten, that it is not a few men, or a few hundreds, or a few thousands; but millions, and hundreds of

millions, through a long line of many generations, that have been, and hundreds of millions that now are; suffering under the unspeakable evils superinduced by unrighteous governments. Is it possible to question, then, that all these can be brought upon men without infringing the divine law? Do men educe nothing but the highest degree of good to their fellows conformably with the Law of Nature? Do they love them as themselves? Do they do to others all things they would have done unto themselvs, conformably with the Law of Revelation;-when they bring any of the evils we have mentioned on them? But it may be objected, that evils may be brought on men under democratic governments;-to this the reply is, that such governments being alone conformable with the will of God, to whatever evils arise, good men, after vainly endeavouring to remedy, must submit: and God will ultimately make all things work together for their benefit.—It is also obvious, that under the democratic form of government, men have always both the right and the power to supersede their governments. Any other form of government being unlawful, the governed have always the right of superseding it, but frequently many of the governed, whatever their sufferings may be, have not the

power.

48. The whole world, from the creation to the present hour, has been but one scene of confusion, from the wrong determination and misapplication of the rights of men.

49. If the settlement of the rights of men is determinable by human authority, otherwise than interpreting the divine law, in accordance with the will of God; it must be by delegation from Heaven, to one, a part of, or the whole human race; but no licence from above can be pretended by any human being, or all human beings. And as the whole human race is but an aggregate of individuals, if any one of them is a nonentity as to any matter, and all are in the same situation; the whole aggregate of mankind must be as absolute a nonentity, as it is possible to conceive, as far as it has any authority to determine what are the rights of any or all the individuals of which it is composed; numbers making no difference whatever, just as no number of ciphers, however great, will make a unit.

50. Had men any thing to do either with the determination of their own rights, or some could determine what the rights of others were; precisely to the degree interference in either case was exercised, it would be altering the provision the Creator has made for the support and happiness of his creatures, both in time and eternity; and, to a less or greater extent, determining the two great points before mentioned. (1.),

51. It is also obvious, that for God to have allowed men to fix what their own rights were to be, would in a less or greater degree have been making sinners their own law-makers and