AN ESSAY. 187 VIII. However' if any princes or any .governors would shed themselves to be fathers of their people, should they not with .il tenderness and care appoint such times and seasons for these public and established lectures, as might not give offence to the consciences of any of their' subjects as far as possible ? Nor should the penalties or very small finis for the absence of any of their subjects at such appointed seasons exceed what a tender father would see necessary for the welfare of the state to inflict on his son, who would willingly serve and obey him in those things, which yet a 'mistaken conscience and his sense of duty to God hardly permit him to perform. And in all these things let it be still observed and inviolably maintained, that no. law should ever be enacted, nor any penalty of any kind estab- lished, but what appears necessary for the good of the state or the public civil welfare ; beyond which the authority of men in civil government cannot reach*. SECT. V.The Qualifications ofcomplete Subjects of the State, and of the Magistrates there f I. Thus far then we have proceeded, and it appears that the knowledge of's God, and of the duty of obedience to gover- nors in civil things according to the laws of the land, together with moral duties that are necessary to the welfareof the com- munity and the support of government, ought to be taught to all the people, and I think the .people ought to attend and learn something of them. II. It must be always granted and allowed in all govern- ments, that during the state of infancy or minority every per- son born in the nation, and especially every child of a member of the community, is to be esteemed so far a member of it, as to receive protection from the government, upon the -allegi- ance of its parents; and to enjoy all those privileges which a minor is capable of. III. But what if we should suppose this membership arising from his parents, together with the privileges thereof should cease when he arrives at age ? 1 enquire then, whether it may not be a very proper thing that every person or at least every man, at the age of twenty-one years, should in some court of justice or before souse magistrate, be required by law to declare or profess this his veneration of a God, and his obedient regard to these moral and civil laws, which it is supposed he has learned in the great aid general articles of them, so far as they are con- sistent with his duty to-Ood and this iu order to become a per- sonal partaker of the privileges of the government for the rest v Note, this section as well as this whole Treatise was written a long time before the act about reading the law tide against the murderers of Captain Porteous io Scotland was framed or thought of.
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