John Paine And The Glorious Revolution

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While John Locke was writing both the Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration there were two influences that were his inspiration for those two writings. The English Civil War (1642-1649) and The Glorious Revolution (1688- 1689). The Civil War because of disconnect between the people and the monarchy. The Glorious Revolution was a bloodless war that installed William III and Mary II into power in the country. Locke’s writing stresses two different aspects involving the issues that he saw in his government and tried to offer ways of changing them, although some of his colleagues may disagree with him.
Where both Locke and Paine believes that there should be a separation between church and state and that each individual has basic individual rights. They begin to very on which form of government was the best. Locke did not believe that Kings should be chosen by divine …show more content…

If this argument is sound, how did there come to be so many lawful monarchies in the world? To someone who accepts the argument I say: Show me any one man in any age of the world who was free to begin a lawful monarchy, and I’ll show you ten other free men who were at liberty, at that time, to unite and begin a new government of some form or other”- 113 in pdf Second Treaties of Government chapter 8
Lock argues that as long as the majority of people support the government, then there is no right to a rebellion because that is the will of the people. While Paine is completely against monarchy stating “That the king is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy” ( Line 21). The contrast between these two enlighten thinkers do very, but keep in mind that Locke and Paine lived during two separate

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