Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/203



HE friends and advocates for church power, generally found their system on the necessity of establishing some religion or other, agreeably, they say, to the custom of all wise nations. This being admitted, it is evident, they think, that the supreme civil magistrate must have the choice of this religion, and being thus lodged in the hands of the chief magistrate, it is easily and effectually guarded. Thus the propriety of a most rigid intolerance, and the most abject passive obedience are presently, and clearly inferred; so that the people have no right to relieve themselves from