Hereditary Succession. Now certainly, were there no other
Argument to prove the excellency of Government by
the People, &c. beyond the other Forms, yet this one might
suffice; that in the Peoples Form, men have liberty to make
use of that Reason and understanding God hath given them,
in chusing of Governors, and providing for their own safety
by Government; but in the other Forms of Standing
Power, all Authority being entailed to certain Persons and
Families, in a Course of Inheritance men are always deprived
of the use of their Reason about choice of Governors,
and forced to receive them blindly, and at all Adventure,
from the hand of Chance, or Fortune; which Course being
so destructive to the Reason, common Interest, and Majesty
of that Noble Creature, called Man, that he should not, in
a matter of so high consequence as Government (wherein
the Good and safety of all is concerned) have a Freedom of
choice and Judgement, must needs be the most irrationall
and bruitish in the World, and fit only to be hissed out of
the World, together with all Forms of Standing Power
(whether in Kings, or others) which have ever served for
no other end, but to transform men into beasts, and mortifie
mandkind with miserie through all generations.
The Truth of this is evident all the world over, first by
sad examples of Monarchy: For, the Kingly Form, having
been retained in a Course of Inheritance, men having
been forced to take what comes next for a Governor, whether
it be Male, or Female, a Wife man, or a Fool, good or
bad; so that the Major part of Hereditary Princes, have
been Tyrannous and wicked by Nature, or made so by Education
and opportunity; the People have for the most part
been bandied to and fro, with their Lives and Fortunes, at
the will and pleasure of some one single unworthy Fellow,
who usually assumes the greater confidence in his unrighteous
dealing, because he knows the People are tied in that
Form to him and his, though he practise all the Injustice in
the world. This was it that brought on Tyranny in Rome,
first under their Kings, afterward under Emperors, For, it