This liberty of our own actions is such a fundamental privilege
of human nature, that God Himself, notwithstanding all His infinite
power and right over us, permits us to enjoy it, and that, too,
after a forfeiture made by the rebellion of Adam. He takes so much
care for the entire preservation of it to us, that He suffers
neither His providence nor eternal decree to break or infringe it.
Now for our time, the same God, to whom we are but tenants-at-will
for the whole, requires but the seventh part to be paid to Him at as
a small quit-rent, in acknowledgment of His title. It is man only
that has the impudence to demand our whole time, though he neither
gave it, nor can restore it, nor is able to pay any considerable
value for the least part of it. This birthright of mankind above
all other creatures some are forced by hunger to sell, like Esau,
for bread and broth; but the greatest part of men make such a
bargain for the delivery up of themselves, as Thamar did with Judah;
instead of a kid, the necessary provisions for human life, they are
contented to do it for rings and bracelets. The great dealers in
this world may be divided into the ambitious, the covetous, and the
voluptuous; and that all these men sell themselves to be slaves--
though to the vulgar it may seem a Stoical paradox--will appear to
the wise so plain and obvious that they will scarce think it
deserves the labour of argumentation.
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