family. David likewise had a right to that title; for he defired, that God would fpare the people, and turn the effect of his anger against himself, and the house of his father. But Rehoboam was not their head; for though he acknowledged, that his father had laid a heavy yoke upon them, yet he told them he would add to the weight; and that if his father had chaftifed them with whips, he would chastise them with fcorpions. The head is no burden to the body, and can lay none upon it; the head cannot chastise any member; and he who does fo, be it more or lefs, cannot be the head. Jeroboam was not the head of the revolting tribes; for the head takes care of the members, and to provide for the fafety of the whole: but he, through fear that the people going to Jerufalem to worship fhould return to the house of David, by fetting up idols to fecure his own interests, drew guilt and destruction upon them. Though it should be granted, that Auguftus, by a gentle ufe of his power, had in a manner expiated the deteftable villanies committed in the acquifition, and had truly deferved to be called the head of the Romans; yet that title could noway belong to Caligula, Claudius, Nero, or Vitellius, who neither had the qualities required in the head, nor the understanding or will to perform the office. Nay, if I should carry the matter farther, and acknowledge that Brutus, Cincinnatus, Fabius, Camillus, and others, who, in the time of their annual or fhorter magiftracies, had by their vigilance, virtue, and care to preserve the city in fafety, and to provide for the public good, performed the office of the head, and might deferve the name; I might justly

justly deny it to the greatest princes that have been in the world, who, having their power for life, and leaving it to defcend to their children, have wanted the virtues required for the performance of their duty: and I fhould lefs fear to be guilty of an absurdity in saying, that a nation might every year change its head, than that he can be the head, who cares not for the members, nor understands the things that can conduce to their good, most especially if he fet up an interest in himself against them. It cannot be faid, that these are imaginary cafes, and that no prince does these things; for the proof is too eafy, and the examples too numerous. Caligula could not have wished the Romans but one head, that he might cut it off at once, if he had been that head, and had advanced no intereft contrary to that of the members. Nero had not burned the city of Rome, if his concernments had been infeparably united to thofe of the people. He who caused above three hundred thousand of his innocent unarmed fubjects to be murdered, and filled his whole kingdom with fire and blood, did fet up a perfonal intereft repugnant to that of the nation; and no better teftimony can be required to thew, that he did fo, than a letter written by his fon, to take off the penalty due to one of the chief ministers of those cruelties, for this reafon, that what he had done, was "by the command, and "for the fervice, of his royal father." King John did not pursue the advantage of his people, when he endeavoured to fubject them to the pope, or the Moors. And whatever prince feeks affiftance from foreign powers, or makes leagues with any stranger or enemy for his own

advantage

advantage against his people, however fecret the treaty may be, declares himself not to be the head, but an enemy to them. The head cannot stand in need of an exterior help against the body, nor fubfift when divided from it. He therefore that courts fuch an affiftance, divides himfelf from the body; and if he do fubfift, it must be by a life he has in himself, diftinct from that of the body, which the head cannot have.

But befides these enormities, that teftify the most wicked rage and fury, in the highest degree, there is another practice, which no man that knows the world, can deny to be common with princes, and incompatible with the nature of a head. The head cannot defire to draw all the nourishment of the body to itself, nor more than a due proportion. If the reft of the parts are fick, weak, or cold, the head fuffers equally with them; and, if they perish, muft perish also. Let this be compared with the actions of many princes we know, and we fhall foon fee which of them are heads of the people. If the gold brought from the Indics, has been equally diftributed by the kings of Spain to the body of that nation, I confent they may be called the heads. If the kings of France affume no more of the riches of that great kingdom, than their due proportion, let them also wear that honourable name. But if the naked backs, and empty bellies, of their miserable fubjects evince the contrary, it can by no means belong to them. If thofe great nations wafte and languish; if nothing be so common in the beft provinces belonging to them, as mifery, famine, and all the effects of the most outrageous oppreffion, whilst their princes and favourites

poffefs

poffefs fuch treasures, as the most wanton prodigality cannot exhaust; if that which is gained by the fweat of so many millions of men, be torn out of the mouths of their ftarving wives and children, to foment the vices of those luxurious courts, or reward the minifters of their lufts the nourishment is not diftributed equally to all the parts of the body; the oeconomy of the whole is overthrown; and they who do thefe things cannot be the heads, nor; parts of the body, but fomething diftinct from, and repugnant to it. It is pot therefore he who is found in, or advanced to the place of the head, who is truly the head it is not he who ought, but he who does perform the office of the head, that deferves the name and privileges be. longing to the head. If our author therefore will perfuade us, that any king is head of his people, he must do it by arguments peculiarly relating to him, fince thofe in general are found to be falfe. If he fay, that the king, as king, may direct or correct the people, and that the power of determining all controverfies must be referred to him, because they may be mistaken, he must shew that the king is infallible; for unlefs he do fo, the wound is not cured. This also must be by fome other way, than by faying he is their head; for fuch powers belong not to the office of the head, and we fee, that all kings do not deferve that name: many of them want both understanding and will, to perform the functions of the head; and many act directly contrary, in the whole courfe of their government. If any therefore among them have merited the glorious name of heads of nations, it must have been by their perfonal virtues, by a vigilant care of the good

good of their people, by an infeparable conjunction of interefts with them, by an ardent love to every member of the society, by a moderation of spirit affecting no undue superiority, or affuming any fingular advantage, which they are not willing to communicate to every part of the political body. He who finds this merit in himself, will fcorn all the advantages that can be drawn from mifap-plied names: he that knows such honour to be peculiarly due to him for being the beft of kings, will never glory in that which may be common to him with the worst. Nay, whoever pretends, by fuch general difcourfes as thefe of our author, to advance the particular interefts of any one king, does either know he is of no merit, and that nothing can be faid for him, which will not as well agree with the worst of men; or cares not what he says, fo he may do mifchief; and is well enough contented, that he who is fet up by fuch maxims as a public plague, may fall in the ruin he brings upon the people.

SECT. XL.

Good laws preferibe eafy and fafe remedies against the evils proceeding from the vices or infirmities of the mugiftrate; and when they fail, they must be fupplied.

THOSE who defire to advance the power of the magiftrate above the law, would perfuade us, that the difficulties, and dangers of inquiring into his actions, or oppofing his will, when employed in violence and injustice,

are