Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/21

 Laws, rugged Officers, Pillories, Whipping-Posts, Jails, and Gibbets."

This Principle, of the Sufficiency of human Laws to sufsain their own Efficacy and Power, without Regard to the Opinions or Principles of Men, hath been, at least, indirectly held forth by other Writers.

An Author, who although a sincere, was certainly an imprudent Friend of Liberty, 'peaks in the following ambiguous Stile; which, if not designed to impress the Principle here called in Question, is at least very liable to be interpreted into it. "It is foolish to say, that Government is concerned to meddle with the private Thoughts and Actions of Men, while they injure neither the Society, nor any of its Members. Every Man is in Nature and Reason, the Judge and Disposer of his own domestic Affairs; and according to the Rules of Religion and