this Charter or any part or Clause thereof or contrary to the true Intent and meaning thereof without the Consent of the Governour his heirs or Assigns and six parts of seven of the said ffreemen in Provincial Council and General Assembly.
24. And lastly that I the said William Penn for myself, my heirs and Assigns have Solemnly declared granted and confirmed and do hereby solemnly declare grant and confirm that neither I my heirs nor Assigns shall procure or do anything or things whereby the Liberties in this Charter contained and expressed shall be Infringed or broken And if anything be procured by any person or persons contrary to these premises it shall be held of no force or Effect. In witness whereof I the said William Penn have unto this present Charter of Liberties Set my hand and Broad Seal this ffive and Twentieth day of the Second Month vulgarly called April in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and Two.
Signed sealed and delivered by the within named William Penn as his Act and Deed in the presence of
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Christopher Taylor Charles Lloyd William Gibson Richard Davies N. Moore Tho. Rudyard Harb. Springett |
James Claypoole Frans Plumsted Thomas Barker Philip Ford Edward Pritchard Andrew Sowle |
FRAME OF GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA—1682[1]
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 before had no power over him, took place upon him, and his disobedient posterity, that such as would not live comformable to the holy law within, should fall under the reproof and correction of the just law without, in a judicial administration.
- ↑ From Votes and Proceedings, note b, ante, p. 3044, pp. xxvii, xxviii.
