Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Works of George Berkeley, D.D, Vol. 2 of 2: Bishop of Cloyne, Including His Letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, &C. &C., To Which Is Prefixed an Account of His Life
I. IT is not my design to inquire into the particular nature of the government and constitution of these kingdoms; much less to pretend to determine concerning the merits of the different parties now reigning in the state. Those topics I profess to lie out of my sphere, and they will probably be thought by most men, improper to be treated of in an audience almost wholly made up of young persons, set apart from the business and noise of the world, for their more convenient instruction in learning and piety. But surely it is in no respect unsuitable to the circum stances of this place to inculcate and explain every branch of the law of nature; or those virtues and duties which are equally binding in every kingdom or society of men under heaven; and of this kind I take to be that Christian duty Of not resisting the supreme power implied in my text. Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. In treating on which words I shall Observe the following method.
II. First I shall endeavour to prove, that there is an absolute, unlimited non-resistance or passive obedience due to the supreme civil power, wherever placed in any nation. Secondly, I shall inquire into the grounds and reasons of the contrary opinion. Thirdly, I shall consider the objections drawn from the pretended consequences of non-resistance to the supreme power. In hann dling these points I intend not to build on the authority of holy scripture, but altogether on the principles of reason common to all mankind; and that, because there are some very rational and learned men, who being verily persuaded, an absolute passive subjection to any earthly power is repugnant to right reason, can never bring themselves to admit such an interpretation of holy scripture (however natural and obvious from the words) as shall make that a part of Christian religion, which seems to them in itself manifestly absurd, and destructive of the original inherent rights of human nature.
III. I do not mean to treat of that submission which men are either in duty or prudence obliged to pay inferior or executive powers; neither shall I consider where or in what persons the supreme or legislative power is lodged in this or that government. Only thus much I shall take for granted, that there is in every civil community, somewhere or other, placed a supreme power of making laws, and enforcing the Observation of them. The ful filling Of those laws, either by a punctual performance of what is enjoined in them, or, if that be inconsistent with reason or con science, by a patient submission to whatever penalties the supreme power hath annexed to the neglect or transgression of them, is termed loyalty; as on the other hand, the making use of force and open violence, either to withstand the execution of the laws, or ward off the penalties appointed by the supreme power, is properly named rebellion. N ow to make it evident, that every degree of rebellion is criminal in the subject; I shall in the first place endeavour to prove that loyalty is a natural or moral duty; and disloyalty or rebellion in the most strict and proper sense, a vice or breach of the law of nature. And secondly, I propose to show that the prohibitions of vice, or negative precepts of the law of nature, as, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, Thou shalt not resist the supreme power, and the like, ought to be taken in a most absolute, necessary, and immutable sense: insomuch that the attainment of the greatest good, or deliverance from the greatest evil, that can befall any man or number of men in this life, may not justify the least vio lation of them. First then I am to show that loyalty is a moral duty, and disloyalty or rebellion in the most strict and proper sense a vic...
