he judgeth it will be more convenient for himself, and that
Community whereof he is a Member, if he submit unto anothers
Government. Nimini parere vult animus a naturà
benè informatus, nisi, &c. faith the same Cicero; that is to
say in honest English, A minde well instructed by the Light
of Nature will pay obedience unto none, but such as command,
direct, or Govern for its good and benefit: From
both which Passages and Expressions of that Oracle of humane
Wisdom, these three Inferences do naturally arise;
First, that by the Light of Nature, People are taught to be
their own Carvers and Contrivers, in the framing of that
Government under which they mean to live. Secondly,
that none are to preside in Government, or sit at the Helm,
but such as shall be judged fit, and chosen by the People,
Thirdly, that the People arc the onely proper Judges of
the Convenience, or Inconvenience of a Government when
it is erected, and of the behaviour of Governors after they
are chosen; which three Deductions of mine appear to be
no more but an explanation of this most excellent Maxim;
That the Originall and Fountain of all just Power and Government
is in the People.
This being so, that a Free-State Government by the People;
that is by their successive Representatives, or Supream
Assemblies, duely chosen is most natural, and onely suitable
to the Reason of man-kind, then it follows, that the other
Forms, whether it be of a Standing Power in the hands
of a particular Person, as a King, or of a set-number of
great ones, as in a Senat, are besides the Dictate of Nature,
being mere artificial Devices of great men, squared out only
to serve the Ends and Interests of avarice, pride and ambition
of a few, to a Vassalizing of the Community: The
Truth whereof appears so much the more, if we consider,
that the Consent and Free election of the People, which is
the most natural way and Form of Governing, hath no real
effect in the other Forms, but is either supplanted by Craft
and Custom, or swallowed up by a pernicious pretence of
Right (in one, or many) to Govern, only by Vertue of an