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Subject Area: Political Theory

SECT. VIII. - Thomas Gordon, An Essay on Government [1747]

Edition used:

An Essay on Government (London: J. Roberts, 1747).

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SECT. VIII.

SOME People to fortify the unjustifiable Power of Monarchs, think to establish them on a very sure Foundation, by making the Delegation and Appointment of God their main Pillar, and by this Means, not only traiterously destroy the supreme Power of the People, but give a Licence and Power to the executive Magistrate to break all his Oaths and trample them under his Feet, and even transgress the Laws of Nature and divine Revelation.

For if this Power comes immediately from God, they are answerable for the Exercise of it only to him, unless therefore the Divinity be affected, or the more important Points of Priestcraft and priestly Revenues, these holy Sycophants (for the Broachers of this Doctrine are all of the Tribe of Levi) declare the Magistrate is free from all Obligations or Ties whatsoever.

Tho’ this Doctrine is of all the most ridiculous, yet by rejecting it we are far from saying that we are under no Obligation to God to obey the supreme Power, as it arises from that Duty which the natural Law, of which he is the Promulgator, imposes on us, of observing our Promises, and fulfilling our Agreements; thus, indeed, God may be said to be mediately the Preserver of Governments, immediately he can never be regarded as the Author and Founder of them.

But as every Being either natural or political must have some Creator, so must Governments owe their Rise to some Person or other: If therefore the Almighty instituted not this Power, it must have been the Work of Men, i. e. the People, and indeed, they alone could do it, for no Man can be deprived of the least Degree of his natural Liberty without a Pre-consent, either tacit or express.

And even Grotius, who is far from being an Opposer of the royal Power, as we shall see immediately, makes no Scruple of denying this divine and supernatural Cause, his Words are these,—“We must remember (B. 1. C. 4. § 7. de Jure Belli & Pacis) that at first Men, convinced of the Inability of separate Families to defend themselves from violent Injuries, and not by any Precept from God, formed States, and from thence arose civil Power.