Page:Antidote against the infectious contagion of popery and tyranny.pdf/6

 x. 17. 2 Kings xiv. 21. 1 Chron, xiii. 38. & 2 Chron xxiii. 11. expreſly attributeth unto them, tho, Order's ſake, that Power is exerciſed by their Repreſentatives. And to imagine that ſo many Thouſands People as K. George's Dominions conſiſt of, born Slaves to him, and were his natural and hereditary Property, and that Kings are born juſt to  over others, and inaugurate to receive Honour  Advantage to themſelves, were (as one wittily expreſſes it) a making Men to be born with Saddles  their Backs, and Bitts in their Mouths, that  might have no more do but leap off, and ride them at their Pleaſure; and withal, it were an impeaching of the Wiſdom and Equity of the Great Rector of Providence, who, as he hath given the Earth to  Sons of Men in common, hath alſo given the  Dominion over the lower Parts of the Creation, left them at Freedom to uſe this their Liberty in ſuch a Way as, in their different Circumſtances and Situations, ſhould be moſt for his Glory and their Good. Conſequently Vox populi eſt vox Dei, and the ſubordinate chief End of his Conſtitution Salus & bonus populi. And, when this End is fruſtrate either wholly or in its chiefeſt Conditions, the Aggreſſors are juſtly reckoned to forfeit the Regal Power. Our famous Hiſtorian Buchanan, ''Rer. Scot. lib. 6. p. 195. in vir Kennethi, ſheweth, that for about 1025 Years the People of Scotland had in their Choice whom to or admit to ſucceed in the Government, even tho' the Kingdom was hereditary; and uſed to elect,  ſuch always who were nearest in Blood-line, but frequently ſuch as were judged moſt fit for Government being of the Progeny of Fergus: And that tho' Kenneth'' III. to cover the Murder of his elder brother Son, and prevent his, and ſecure his own Son's Succeſſion, procured this Charter for Tyranny, the Settlement of the Crown upon him and his by the Parliament: yet it was under ſuch Limitation as precluded the Succeſſion of Fools or Monſters and preſerved the People's Liberty to ſhake off