Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/17

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Of Government.
3

from thenceforth our author's ſhort model was to be the pattern in the mount, and the perfect ſtandard of politics for the future. His ſyſtem lies in a little compaſs, it is no more but this,

That all government is abſolute monarchy.

And the ground he builds on, is this,

That no man is born free.

§. 3. In this laſt age a generation of men has ſprung up amongſt us, that would flatter princes with an opinion, that they have a divine right to abſolute power, let the laws by which they are conſtituted, and are to govern, and the conditions under which they enter upon their authority, be what they will, and their engagements to obſerve them never ſo well ratified by ſolemn oaths and promiſes. To make way for this doctrine, they have denied mankind a right to natural freedom; whereby they have not only, as much as in them lies, expoſed all ſubjects to the utmoſt miſery of tyranny and oppreſſion, but have alſo unſettled the titles, and ſhaken the thrones of princes: (for they too, by theſe mens ſyſtem, except only one, are all born ſlaves, and by divine right are ſubjects to Adam's right heir;) as if they had deſigned to make war upon all government, and ſubvert the very foundations of human ſociety, to ſerve their preſent turn.

§. 4. However we muſt believe them upon their own bare words, when they tell us, we

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