Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/97

 Consonant with what hath been above delivered, the Principle of Conscience did not correct, but followed one or other of these various Principles, according to their Predominance and Power. And These being incurably discordant among themselves, the national Ideas of Right and Wrong, Just and Unjust, which were formed on These, could not but prove themselves of the like motley and disagreeing Complexion.

Here, then, we behold the natural and unavoidable Source of all the Dissentions that disgraced the Reigns of King and Queen. And while some affect to wonder, how so generous a System of Religion and Polity, so noble a Constitution in Church and State, could fail to produce private Virtue and public Happiness; we now obtain an additional Proof of the irresistable Power of pre-established Manners and Principles, when at Variance with the Laws of Freedom: We may see, even to Demonstration,