Essay on the First Principles of Government, 2nd Edition (1771)

by Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)

AN

ESSAY

ON THE

FIRST PRINCIPLES

OF

GOVERNMENT,

AND ON THE NATURE OF

Political, Civil, and Religious,

LIBERTY,

INCLUDING

Remarks on Dr. Brown's Code of Education,

AND ON

Dr. Balguy's Sermon on Church Authority.

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The Second Edition, corrected and enlarged,

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By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S.

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LONDON :
Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
MDCC LXXI.

 

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

DAVID, Earl of Buchan,

THIS ESSAY, &c.

IS,

WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT,

INSCRIBED,

BY HIS LORDSHIP'S

MOST OBEDIENT,

HUMBLE SERVANT,

⁠Joseph Priestley.

the

CONTENTS.

SECTION I.—Of the first principles of government, and the different kinds of liberty, — — — — p. 1

II. Of political liberty, — — 11

III. Of civil liberty, — — 48

IV. In what manner an authoritative code of education would affect political and civil liberty, — — — 76

V. Of religious liberty and toleration in general, — — — — 110

VI. Some distinctions that have been made on the subject of religious liberty and toleration considered, — — 137

VII. Farther observations concerning the extent of ecclesiastical authority, and the power of civil governors in matters of religion,152

VIII. Of the necessity or utility of ecclesiastical establishments, — — — 181

IX. A review of some particular positions of Dr. Balguy's, on the subject of church authority, — — 208

X. Of the progress of civil societies, to a state of greater perfection, shewing that it is retarded by encroachments on civil and religious liberty, — — 249