By Writ of Privy Seal,
PIGOTT.
The FRAME of the Government of the Province of Pensilvania in America: Together with certain LAWS agreed upon in England. By the Governor and divers Freemen of the aforesaid Province. To be further explained and continued there, by the first Provincial Council that shall he held, if they see meet.
The PREFACE.
WHEN the great and wise GOD had made the World, of all his Creatures it pleased him to chuse Man his Deputy to rule it; and to fit him for so great a Charge and Trust, he did not only qualify him with Skill and Power, but with Integrity to use them justly. This native Goodness was equally his Honour and his Happiness; and whilst he stood here, all went well; there was no need of coercive or compulsive Means; the Precept of divine Love and Truth in his Bosom was the Guide and Keeper of his Innocency. But Lust prevailing against Duty, made a lamentable Breach upon it; and the Law, that had before no Power over him, took place upon him and his disobedient Posterity, that such as would not live conformable to the holy Law within, should fall under the Reproof and Correction of the just Law without, in a judicial Administration.
THIS the Apostle teaches in divers of his Epistles: The Law (says he) was added because of Transgression: In another Place, Knowing that the Law was not made for the righteous Man; but for the disobedient and ungodly, for Sinners, for unholy and prophane, for Murderers, for Whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with Mankind, and for Men-stealers, for Liars, for perjured Persons, &c. But this is not all, he opens and carries the Matter of Government a little further: Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers; for there is no Power but of GOD. The Powers that be are ordained of GOD: Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of GOD. For Rulers are not a Terror to good Works, but to evil: Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have Praise of the same.—He is the Minister of GOD to thee for good.—Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for Wrath, but for Conscience sake.
This settles the divine Right of Government beyond Exception, and that for two Ends: First to terrify evil Doers; Secondly to cherish those that do well; which gives Government a Life beyond Corruption, and makes it as durable in the Word, as good Men shall be. So that Government seems to me a Part of Religion itself, a Thing sacred in its Institution and End. For if it does not directly remove the Cause, it crushes the Effects of Evil, and is as such (though a lower yet) an Emanation of the same divine Power, that is both Author and Object of pure Religion; the Difference lying here, that the one is more free and mental, the other more corporal and compulsive in its Operations: But that is only to evil Doers; Government itself being otherwise as capable of Kindness, Goodness, and Charity, as a more private Society. They weakly err, that think there is no other Use of Government than Correction, which is the coarsest Part of it: Daily Experience tells us, that the Care and Regulation of many other Affairs, more soft and daily necessary, make up much the greatest Part of Government; and which must have followed the Peopling of the World, had Adam never fell, and will continue among Men on Earth under the highest Attainments they may arrive at, by the coming of the blessed Second Adam, the LORD from Heaven. Thus much of Government in general, as to its Rise and End.
FOR particular Frames and Models, it will become me to say little; and comparatively I will say nothing. My Reasons are: First, That the Age is too nice and difficult for it; there being nothing the Wits of Men are more busy and divided upon. 'Tis true, they seem to agree in the End, to wit, Happiness; but in the Means they differ, as to divine, so to this human Felicity; and the Cause is much the same, not always Want of Light and Knowledge, but Want of Using them rightly. Men side with their Passions against their Reason, and their sinister Interests have so strong a Biass upon their Minds, that they lean to them against the good of the things they know.
Secondly, I do not find a Model in the World, that Time, Place, and some singular Emergencies have not necessarily altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil Government, that shall serve all Places alike.