Page:St. Paul's behaviour towards the civil magistrate.pdf/23

 to it in others. And, lest we should not be moved to a change, the argument is sometimes turned, and we are to be informed, that our whole notion of liberty is a mistaken chimera and nonsense; that whereas we think we have laws to govern us, it is only the will of the executive which rules; that whereas we think these laws are made by the consent and authority of the representatives of the people, it is no such thing; that it is the prince only who enacts that no other have any share in the legislature; that it hath all the treason possible in it, to say that the parliament hath a co-ordinate power in legislation; that our constitution abhors coordinate legislative powers; that our constitution is one sovereign whose supremacy is indivisible, and both the legislative and executive are in it, notwithstanding that all our laws are said to be enacted not only by the prince, but by the authority of the lords and commons, in the same sentence; and consequently that the executive power, being the only legislative, can dispense, annul, destroy laws as it pleaseth; that the people without distinction are the sons of Belial, a company of vassals, that live and subsist by the concession of their master only and the like: positions which I would not mention, but that they are exposed to light and propagated with heat, every day: though I hope