Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction/Section 11

 

SECT.XI.

 

Of the general State of Manners and Principles, about the Time of the Revolution.

 

AT this famed Period, it is evident, that the Manners and Principles of the Nation did, upon the Whole, tend to the Establishment of Liberty; otherwise, Liberty had not been established. This Revolution was perhaps the noblest public Reform that ever was made in any State: And such a Reform, nothing but the Prevalence of upright Manners and Principles could have effected.

The religious Principle of Protestant Christianity seems to have taken the Lead, even of the Love of civil Freedom. The Dread of Popery was, at least, equal to That of arbitrary Power: The national Honour and Conscience (on the whole) coincided with, and confirmed the Christian Principle: These three united Powers raised Liberty to the brightest Throne she ever sat on: A Throne which nothing but their Contraries can shake.

Yet notwithstanding the unrivaled Excellence of this civil and religious Establishment, there could be little Hope of its immediate and perfect Efficacy. Declaimers may express their Wonder, that a System so perfect should not at once attain its End: But they who take a nearer View of the Manners and Principles of those Times, will rather say, that the Tumults and Dissentions which instantly arose, were in their own Nature inevitable.

The Manners of the Times, tho' in the Main favourable to Liberty, were mixed with a gross Alloy of private Licentiousness: And hence, factious Measures of Course arose, from the Prospect of Power or Gain.^[1] The preceding Age had caught a strong Tincture of Vice, from the prevalent Example of a debauched Court. The Education of Children was still left in an imperfect State: This great Revolution having confined itself to the Reform of public Institutions; without ascending to the first great Fountain of political Security, "the private and effectual Formation of the infant Mind."

The religious Principle, though chiefly consonant with the new Constitution, and indeed its leading Support, was in Part at Variance with it.—A numerous Body of Papists held a whole System of Principles diametrically opposite to its most essential Dictates.—Another Body of Protestant Jacobites were at War with the Principles of the State: For they held an hereditary and unalienable Right of Kings, founded on certain mistaken Passages of the sacred Scriptures.—A third Body of Men, though they allowed the Necessity and Justice of the Revolution, on the Principle of an Abdication, yet still retained an Opinion at Variance with the State: They asserted an independent Hierarchy, vindicated a religious Intolerance, and on some misconstrued Passages of Scripture, affirmed the Duty of a passive Obedience without Limitation.—A fourth Body was That of some bigoted Dissenters, who not content with a religious Toleration which had been justly granted them, aimed, on a mistaken Principle of Religion, to erect their own System upon the Ruins of the established Church.—All these Parties held religious Principles at Variance with the Laws of Freedom.

The Principle of Honour, tho' in many, and great Instances, co-operating with that of Religion; yet when not founded on it, was often at Variance with it. This Principle, as it hath appeared in modern Times, was in its Origin chiefly Military. Hence it hath generally taken Cognizance of Actions, not as they are just or unjust, but merely as they are splendid or mean, brave or cowardly: Thus, it overlooks all Laws, both human and divine: Hence unbounded Contempt of Enemies, furious Party-Rage, unlimited Resentment and Revenge, were and still are its favourite Dictates. Thus it hath come to pass, that Honour often forbids what Religion approves; and approves what Religion forbids. This uncontrouled and dangerous Principle mixed itself with the licentious Manners of the Times: Hence, Attachments, Resentments, and Party-Rage, arose and were persisted in, essentially contradictory to the Principles of Freedom.

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 William and Queen Anne. 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, that the Animosities of Those Times were not incidental, but inevitable.

1. See Estimate, V. i. Part 2.