Reader,
thou
hast
here
the
beginning
and
end
of
a discourse concerning government;
what
fate has
otherwise
disposed
of
the
papers
that
should
have
filled
up
the
middle,
and
were
more
than
all
the
rest,
it
is
not
worth
while
to
tell
thee. These,
which
remain, I
hope
are
sufficient
to
establish
the
throne
of
our
great
restorer,
our
present
King
William;
to
make
good
his
title,
in
the
consent
of
the
people,
which
being
the
only
one
of
all
lawful
governments,
he
has
more
fully
and
clearly,
than
any
prince
in
Christendom;
and
to
justify
to
the
world
the
people
of
England,
whose
love
of
their
just
and
natural
rights,
with
their
resolution
to
preserve them, saved
the
nation
when
it
was
on
the
very
brink
of
slavery
and
ruin.
If
these
papers
have
that
evidence, I
flatter
myself
is
to
be
found
in
them,
there
will
be
no
great
miss
of
those
which
are
lost,
and
my
reader
may
be
satisfied
without
them:
for
I imagine, I
shall
have
neither
the
time,
nor
inclination
to
repeat my pains,
and
fill
up
the
wanting
part
of
my answer,
by
tracing
Sir
Robert
again,
through
all
the
windings
and
obscurities,
which
are
to
be
met
with
in
the
several
branches
of
his
wonderful
system.
The
king,
and
body
of
the
nation,
have
since
so
thoroughly
confuted
his
Hypothesis,
that
I
suppose
no
body
hereafter
will
have
either
the
confidence
to
appear
against
our
common
safety,
and
be
again
an
advocate
for
slavery;
or
the
weakness
to
be
deceived
with
contradictions
dressed
up
in
a
popular
stile,
and
well-turned periods:
for
if
any
one
will
be
at
the
pains, himself,
in
those
parts,
which
are
here
untouched,
to
strip
Sir Robert's discourses
of
the
flourish
of
doubtful expressions,
and
endeavour
to
reduce
his
words
to
direct, positive,
intelligible
propositions,
and
then
compare
them
one
with
another,
he
will
quickly
be
satisfied,
there
was
never
so
much
glib
nonsense
put
together
in
well-sounding English.
If
he
think
it
not
worth
while
to
examine
his
works
all
thro',
let
him
make
an
experiment
in
that
part,
where
he
treats
of
usurpation;
and
let
him
try,
whether
he
can,
with
all
his
skill,
make
Sir
Robert
intelligible,
and
consistent
with
himself,
or
common
sense. I
should
not
speak
so
plainly
of
a gentleman,
long
since
past answering, had
not
the
pulpit,
of
late
years, publicly owned
his
doctrine,
and
made
it
the
current
divinity
of
the
times.
It
is
necessary
those
men,
who
taking
on
them
to
be
teachers,
have
so
dangerously
misled others,
should
be
openly
shewed
of
what
authority
this
their
Patriarch
is,
whom
they
have
so
blindly
followed,
that
so
they
may
either
retract
what
upon
so
ill
grounds
they
have
vented,
and
cannot
be
maintained;
or
else
justify
those
principles
which
they
preached
up
for
gospel;
though
they
had
no
better
an
author
than
an
English
courtier:
for
I
should
not
have
writ
against Sir Robert,
or
taken
the
pains
to
shew
his
mistakes, inconsistencies,
and
want
of
(what
he
so
much
boasts of,
and
pretends
wholly
to
build on) scripture-proofs,
were
there
not
men
amongst
us, who,
by
crying
up
his
books,
and
espousing
his
doctrine, save
me
from
the
reproach
of
writing
against a
dead
adversary.
They
have
been
so
zealous
in
this
point, that,
if
I
have
done
him
any
wrong, I cannot
hope
they
should
spare
me. I wish,
where
they
have
done
the
truth
and
the
public wrong,
they
would
be
as
ready
to
redress
it,
and
allow
its
just
weight
to
this
reflection, viz.
that
there
cannot
be
done
a
greater
mischief
to
prince
and
people,
than
the
propagating
wrong
notions
concerning government;
that
so
at
last
all
times
might
not
have
reason
to
complain
of
the
Drum
Ecclesiastic.
If
any
one, concerned really
for
truth,
undertake
the
confutation
of
my Hypothesis, I
promise
him
either
to
recant
my mistake,
upon
fair
conviction;
or
to
answer
his
difficulties.
But
he
must
remember
two
things. First,
That
cavilling
here
and
there,
at
some
expression,
or
little
incident
of
my discourse,
is
not
an
answer
to
my book. Secondly,
That
I
shall
not
take
railing
for
arguments,
nor
think
either
of
these
worth
my notice,
though
I
shall
always
look
on
myself
as
bound
to
give
satisfaction
to
any
one,
who
shall
appear
to
be
conscientiously
scrupulous
in
the
point,
and
shall
shew
any
just
grounds
for
his
scruples. I
have
nothing
more,
but
to
advertise
the
reader,
that
Observations
stands
for
Observations
on
Hobbs, Milton, &c.
and
that
a
bare
quotation
of
pages
always
means
pages
of
his
Patriarcha,
Edition
1680.