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the term [he] because when the Jews put the quef tion to him, Who art thou? his anfwer was, even the fame that I faid unto you, from the beginning.

So then, the meaning of the whole fentence, I think, appears to be this, viz. you wicked Jews, who tho' you pretend to be worshippers, and fervants of the true God, yet live in a conftant violation of his Laws; if you do not give your affent to this truth, (upon that rational evidence which hath been afforded for your conviction) that I am the Meffiab or Chrift, which God hath fent into the world, to offer terms of peace and reconciliation to mankind; and if you do not accept of God's grace, on those terms on which he offers it to you by my miniftry, in turning every one of you from the evil of your ways, and by bringing forth the fruits of newness of life, ye fhall die under the guilt of your fins, without having any share in the mercy of God, which is now graciously offered to mankind and on the other fide, if you do believe that I am the Chrift, the Son, and fent of God, and

if you do accept of his gracious offer, by yielding

up yourselves a lively facrifice acceptable, and wellpleafing in his fight, ye fhall be faved.

Thus we fee, what is the true chriftian faith, with relation to the Person, and the personal character of our Lord Jefus Chrift, as we have it from his own mouth, which furely must be our beft guide, with refpect to the prefent question. So that, we are not required to believe any thing concerning his nature or effence, much lefs that he is the fupreme God, or equal to him; but only that he is the Meffiah or Chrift, the Son, and fent of God, and that the good news is true, which he is the messenger of: confequently, whoever believes in him as fuch, and fubmits to his government, and is faithful unto death, fuch an one is a true chriftian, whom Chrift will own and approve, when he shall come to judge the world, TRACT

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ENQUIRY

Concerning PROPERTY, wherein is confidered Liberty of Confcience.

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EFORE I enter upon this enquiry, I think it proper to premife, that as magiftracy, or the exercife of a regular govern ment in human fociety is the ordinance of God; fo the great and main end of government is the good and happiness of the fociety in which it is exercised, by being a fecurity to every one's property, and a keeping every one in the quiet poffeffion of his own; confequently, magiftrates or governours can have no right to invade that which the nature and end of their office oblige them to fecure. This being premised, I observe, that property is originally God's peculiar; becaufe God hath a fole property in every thing which he is the original fupreme caufe of, and that is every thing without himfelf; fo that we have no property, with refpect to God, whatever we are, and whatever we have derived from, and dependent upon him and therefore when I speak of property, mean that right and property which creatures have, with relation to one another. Property, with refpect to men, is either natural or obtained. By natural, I mean fuch property as we are born into, and which takes place with our very being, which is founded in the nature and reafon of things, and fo is independent of the will of all creatures. Thus for example, every man has a natural right

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to life, till the giver thereof fhall be pleased to take it from him. Now, this is a property which is independent of the will of all creatures, being founded in the nature and reafon of things, and takes place with our very being. We no fooner begin to live, but we have a natural right to enjoy our life, fo long as God, the giver, fhall be pleased to continue it to us, except we forfeit that right. And whofoever invades this natural property is guilty of a great injuftice. Obtained property is fuch as is not founded in nature, but depends upon industry, natural contract, free gift, or fome other like caufe. Thus, for example, if a man fhould agree with a fervant to have his la bour for a year, the fervant's labour, for that time, becomes the mafter's property; not from any natural right that he hath to another man's labour, but from that compact and agreement between the master and the fervant, in which compact, he that had the natural right to that labour conveyed it to him whofe fervant he hath put himself to be.

And as property is thus diftinguished into forts, viz. original, natural, and obtained, fo I think the degrees of property in these (if I may so speak) are in one greater than another; that is, the original property which God hath in all things is greater than that natural or obtained property, which creatures have in any thing they are poffeffed of; and the natural property which any creature hath in any thing is greater than any obtained property whatever: confequently, it must be a greater crime in any one to invade the natural than the obtained property of another, and it must be yet a greater crime to invade the original property of God than the natural or obtained property of any creature..

Again, the fubject of property may be greater or leis, tho' the property it felf, or right to enjoy

have two eftates, one of twenty pounds per annum, and the other of an hundred; and his title or right to enjoy may be equally the fame, as ta both. He has as great a right, and as just a ti¬ tle (and fo in that refpect as great a property) in the leffer as in the greater eftate; and yet it would be a much greater wrong to him, and confequently a much greater crime to have his property invaded in the greater than in the leffer, becaufe of the much greater advantage he reaps by it, tho his right to enjoy them is equally the fame.

Seeing then the great end of government is the good and happiness of the fociety in which it is exercised, by fecuring to every one his property, and keeping every one in the quiet poffeffion of his own, it will follow from hence, first, that the non-provision for the fecurity of any property in any government, is a defect in that government; and the greater that property is (whether with refpect to it felf, or with refpect to its fubject) which is non-fecured, the greater is the defect and imperfection of that government. Secondly, if any government fhould be fo far from defending any property, whether natural or obtained, as that it actually invades that property which it should fecure, this would be a crime in that government; and the greater that property is which is invaded (whether with respect to itself, or with respect to its fubject) the greater and more heinous would the crime of that government be, Thus, for example, it hath pleafed God to make man a free accountable creature, by planting in him an understanding heart, in the ufe and exercise of which he is made capable of examining and judging of the agreement or difagreement, of the fitnefs or unfitness, of the good or evil, and of the truth or falfeness of things, and of determining

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and directing his practice accordingly. Man being placed in fuch a state, it is not only his duty to examine and judge what is truth, and what is error, in all thofe cafes wherein any branch of his duty or intereft is concerned, and to determine his practice accordingly; I fay, it is not only his duty thus to do, but it is also his just right and natural property in all cases whatever, so far as he is capable of fuch an examination and judgment, except his liberty is restrained by the principles of natural or revealed religion, fuch as the examining and judging of other men's faults. And as it is every man's natural right to examine and judge for himself, in all thofe cafes wherein he is capable of fo doing, and not to be determined in his judgment by the examination and judgment of other men; fo it is the duty and bufinefs of government not only to permit and tolerate the fociety committed to its care, in the ufe and exercife of this their undoubted right, but also to defend and guard them from the infults and reproaches, the injuries and wrongs that any fhould attempt to afflict them with upon this account, and to fecure them in the enjoyment of this their natural property. But if governours fhould be fo far from fecuring, or even tolerating the fociety in the enjoyment of the aforefaid natural property, that on the contrary they fet up a fcheme of principles and opinions as the ftandard of the fociety's judgment, and require the members of that fociety to fubmit their judgments to that ftandard, forbidding them to embrace any principle or opinion which is contrary thereunto, and fo prevent every one from examining and judging for himself, and perfecute thofe that do; this is fuch a notorious invafion of the property of the fociety as is highly criminal in any government, and has been as fatal in its confequences as the invafion of any property L what

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