It is a Diminution instead of a Glory, to be above treating upon equal Terms with Reason. If the People were designed to be the sole Property of the supream Magistrate, sure God would have made them of a differing and subordinate Species; as he hath the Beasts, that by the Inferiority of their Nature they might the better submit to the Dominion of Mankind. If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the World. When the People contend for their Liberty, they seldom get any thing by their Victory but new Masters. Liberty can neither be got, nor kept, but by so much Care, that Mankind generally are unwilling to give the Price for it. And therefore, in the Contest between Ease and Liberty, the first hath generally prevailed. _Of_ LAWS. Laws are generally not understood by three Sorts of Persons, _viz._ by those that make them, by those that execute them, and by those that suffer, if they break them. Men seldom understand any Laws but those they _feel_. Precepts, like Fomentations, must be rubbed into us; and with a rough Hand too. If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers in the first Place. There is more Learning now required to explain a Law made, than went to the making it. The Law hath so many Contradictions, and Varyings from itself, that the Law may not improperly be called a Law-breaker. It is become too changeable a thing to be defined: it is made little less a _Mystery_ than the _Gospel_. The Clergy and the Lawyers, like the Free-Masons, may be supposed to take an Oath not to tell the Secret. The Men of Law have a Biass to their calling in the Interpretations they make of the Law. _Of_ PARLIAMENTS. The Parliaments are so altered from their original Constitution, that between the Court and the Country, the House, instead of being united, is like Troops of a contrary Party facing one another, and watching their Advantage. Even the well-meaning Men who have good Sense too, have their Difficulties in an Assembly; what they offer honestly for a good End, will be skilfully improved for an ill one. It is strange that a gross Mistake should live a Minute in an Assembly; one would expect that it should be immediately stifled by their discerning Faculties. But Practice convinceth that a Mistake is no where better entertained. In Parliaments, Men wrangle in behalf of Liberty, that do as little care for it, as they deserve it. Where the People in Parliament give a good deal of Money in exchange for any thing from the Crown, a wise Prince can hardly have an ill bargain. The present Gift begetteth more; it is a Politick kind of Generation; and whenever a Parliament does not bring forth, it is the Unskilfulness of the Government, that is the cause of the Miscarriage.