proved But between Independent Nations where force on one side is lawful where there is no superior Judge to determin the differences or to judge whether force were justly imposed both sides either thinking or pretending they are in the Right all Leagues and Covenants by whatever forcible means obtained are valid and the Good of Mankind which is a sufficient Reason does require it should be so otherwise Wars would be perpetual or not to be ended but by the utter Ruin of the Weaker or Conquered Party because there could be no manner of Agreement or Peace between them if they had a Liberty under pretence of Force of breaking their Promises whenever they had an opportunity In all such cases it is Lawful to Promise there being no Superior as amongst private persons to take from them the Liberty of making such Contracts and the Good of Mankind does oblige People to fulfil those Lawful Promises They cannot properly be said to be forced to Promise because it was in their power to avoid Promising Nor is their Consent Conditional but Absolute and it is their greater Good either presumed or real that obliges them to make such Contracts For the same reason all Prisoners of War are obliged to stand to their Paroles and to pay whatever they promise for their Liberties The reason is the same for paying Allegiance to the New Government whether by a just or unjust way the old one was dissolved and Mankind have all along equally submitted to Conquerors whether the Cause of Conquest were Just or not As few Conquerors have had a Just Cause for all the Mischiefs they have done The reason for Submission is not how one Man gets others into his Power or whether he had a just Cause of destroying the former Prince's Power but whether they consent to be Governed by him after they are in his Power It is for their own sake and not for his that they submit to his Government They may act against their own Good in not submitting to the Conqueror but they deny him no Right if they do not submit It is not the Conquest it self let it be never so just but the after-consent that makes them Subjects A Just Cause of War may make it no injustice to Dethrone a King becanse he gave sufficient Provocation but how can one Prince's injuring another absolve Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance and give the Injured Prince a Right to Command them who if he hath any Right besides their Consent when he has put them into a capacity to Consent must have it before the Conquest for mere Force cannot give or take away a Right it can only put him in Possession of his Right and if he had any Right to their Allegiance before Conquest I cannot see but that in Conscience they were bound to Transfer their Allegiance and join with him against their former Prince who by giving a just cause of War had Forfeited his Crown Though the Nation be not Conquered yet no reason can be urged for submitting to Conquerors but what will hold as strongly for paying Allegiance to the present Government Has not the Late King as much lost his Power to Protect the People as if he had been driven out by Conquest Is it not the Present Government alone that makes the People a Civil Society Is it not by it that they are Protected in their natural Rights or can claim any Legal ones which are the only reasons which oblige People to submit to Conquerors And are not they that endeavour to disturb it as much within the power and reach of the Government as if they were Conquered And has not the King and Parliament as Absolute a Power as any Conqueror The only difference is That without feeling any of those fatal Miseries which attend Conquest they enjoy the Protection of the Government and owe their Preservation to it and the Nation instead of losing any of their Rights and Liberties enjoy greater and are secured from the worst of Slaveries which otherwise they had inevitably fallen into So that they have infinitely stronger obligations to pay Allegiance than if they had been Conquered to which their Zeal and Loyalty ought to be proportionable CHAP. IX Of Possession ALL Writers I think allow That after a Possession of a long continuance though they extreamly differ how much time is necessary a Right does accrue to the Possessor though there are some of the Right Line still in being If it be unjust to pay the first Possessor Obedience I cannot see how a long Possession can alter the case A continuance in an injustice may make the injustice greater but not alter the nature of things and make the greatest Wrong to be Right Though all things are done in Time yet Time it self operates nothing This Mistake as a great many others are is occasioned by the parallel men draw between private Persons who are tyed up by Laws that are Enacted by the Supreme Powers and the Supreme Powers themselves By the Laws of most Nations if private men neglect to make a Legal demand of their Rights in a certain time appointed by the Laws they lose them and a Right does accrue to the possessor but this depends upon a Law Enacted by the Supreme powers who have a Right to dispose of private Estates as they judge best for the publick good whose Laws can oblige none but their own Subjects But what authority have the Subjects or the possessor to dispose of the Legal Prince's Rights Besides it might justly be imputed to a private man 's own neglect if when the Law is open he does not recover his Right It may well be presumed he hath relinquished it But that cannot be said of a Prince who has no Court of Justice to appeal to or any other likely way to recover his Right yet by bearing the Arms and Title and by other ways still asserts his Right How numerous are the instances of Princes possessed of Territories belonging to others and who have been so for a great many years Yet none dare affirm the Subjects that pay them allegiance are and have been all along Traitors To give but one instance amongst hundreds The Kings of England have a Right to the Kingdom of France and have constantly claimed it by causing themselves to be stiled Kings of France and by bearing the Arms of that Crown yet none will condemn the French as Traitors who have all along paid allegiance to the French Kings But if the Kings of England by tract of time have lost their Right to the Obedience of the French and before that time it was Treason for those of that Nation to pay allegiance to the French Kings I should be glad to know what Month or Year it ceased to be Treason for it is a thing of mighty consequence to know how long it is Treason to obey a King in possession and when it becomes Treason not to obey him In short if a King can have a
Magistrate such a Power as should hinder them from acting for their own Preservation when necessity required it The Magistrate having then his Power from the People it is very certain he can have no more Power than they were capable of giving him or did give him who because people who had no Arbitrary Power over the Lives of one another were not capable of giving it him can have no right to take away the life of any person except it be for the Publick Good Nor can men though at the Command of the Magistrate without being guilty of Murther deprive any of their lives when the good of the Society does no way require it Nay by the mutual Assistance which by the Law of Nature Mankind owe one another they might if he should endeavour to destroy any when it is evident it is no way beneficial to the Publick justly Oppose the Magistrate if Opposing him would not be a greater Damage to the Publick As men could not give the Magistrate a greater Power than they had over the lives of one another so the Power they gave him was not only for the defence and safety of their Lives but to secure them in the enjoyment of their Properties and to judge concerning them by known and impartial Laws Men having no Power to destroy what was beneficial to others could not give him a right to Waste or Impoverish which is the necessary effect of Arbitrary Government where the Uncertainty of the Enjoyment destroyeth all Labour and Industry what God has ordained for the Necessaries or Conveniences of Life They that Assert the Magistrate has more Power than the People could or did give him must prove he has it from God who alone could give it him but God except to the Jews gave no other Law about Government or any other matter but those of Nature And Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World did not give more or take away any Power from the Magistrate So that what ever Power was given him by Man he still enjoys the same without any addition or diminution CHAP. II. Of Passive Obedience THerefore it is very evident That whatever Rights or Liberties men did not part with to their Governors those they have still retained in themselves and no person can have a right to their Obedience in those things wherein they have given him no right to command nor are they which otherwise would be the consequence obliged to pay him more obedience than they owe him but may defend their Rights against any that has no right to take them away In the most Absolute Hereditary Government if the Governor should endeavour to alienate it or any of the essential parts of it to a Stranger he may be justly opposed because the People have not given him such a right nor is a right to dispose of a Government necessary to his governing them but such an endeavour shall be interpreted so far good because Acts are not so to be interpreted as to be of no effect as is in his power to make it good it shall be esteemed a good Resignation By the same if not greater Reason the King in a mixt Government may be opposed if he should endeavour to alienate any of the parts of the Government which are by the Legislative Power annexed to the Crown as in England the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters is There the People may oppose the King if he should attempt to separate the Supremacy from the Crown especially if he should endeavour to make the Pope Supreme because if they did not oppose him in that Attempt they must either be guilty of High Treason in owning the Pope's Supremacy or be destroyed when the Pope's Supremacy is established for refusing to be guilty of High Treason it being Treason by the Laws to own his Supremacy Whoever owns the Pope's Supremacy is incapable of being himself Supreme in Ecclesiasticals and he that cannot be Supreme in Ecclesiasticals cannot be Supreme in Civils because being united by the Legislative they cannot be enjoyed apart In a mixt Government where the Legislative Power of King Lords and Commons which is the only Supream Power because it gives Laws to all is divided part in the King and part in the People if either part invadeth the other's Right the usurping part may be justly opposed because it invadeth what is the Sovereign Right of another None can have a share in the Legislative Power but who must have a right to defend that Power because any other than a Sovereign Right to the Legislative to which all are Subject would be nonsense and whoever has the Executive Power if he had not a share in the Legislative would be subject to it And he that is intrusted with the Execution of the Laws can have no more Power than the Legislative has given him and where the People have a share in the Legislative they have the same Right to their Privileges viz. the Laws of the Land as the King has to his Prerogatives because the Consent of both is equally necessary to the altering the Laws as it was to the making of them In a mixt Government a King beyond the Limits of his Kingly Power is so far from having a Right to Obedience either Active or Passive that by assuming such an Vnlimited Power he loses all his Legal Power which consists in Governing according to the Laws enacted by the Legislative and by it abdicates the Government for he that ceases to govern according to those Laws by governing Arbitrarily and contrary to Law ceases as much to govern in the eye and intent of the Law as he that ceases to govern at all and by governing Arbitrarily the Constitution admitting of no such Governor destroys the very Essence of his Kingly Power and renounces the only Right he has his Legal Right For no person can have at the same time a Will to rule according to Law and a Will to rule contrary to Law and he that wills the latter cannot will the former and so willingly renounces his Legal Government and by making his Will the Law he assumes the whole Legislative Power to himself which wholly destroys the former Government for a new Legislative is a new Form of Government and if the whole be destroyed the share the King has in it must be so too except a part can subsist when the whole by which and in which he enjoyed his part is dissolved Whereever people have established a mixt Government they are presumed to grant all that is necessary to maintain that Government which could not be if one part had not a Right to hinder the Encroachment of the other It is Nonsence to brag of the Happiness which people enjoy in living under a Limited Monarchy if it had no other Limits than the Will and Pleasure of the King because then he would be as Absolute as the French King or Grand-Siegneur and his Subjects would be as mere slaves as the vilest of theirs since
the true Faith is publickly professed any-where and in these Nations which is a Blessing cannot be bought too dear without Cruelty or Persecution For a Nation is constantly in a state of war within it self where one Party is persecuting and ruining another about things which are in themselves indifferent and no ways tend to promote the Publick Good In short There can be no advantage but what the Nation may justly expect from a King so zealous to promote their Good and so able to perform what he undertakes CHAP. XIV Some Considerations touching the Present Affairs BUT it may be objected How can the Nation propose any happiness to themselves by this Revolution since by it they are at so great Expences to maintain a war against so powerful an Enemy Answ. The more powerful the Enemy is the greater was the necessity of this Revolution for if now the Consederates are scarce an equal match for France how easily would they have been over-run if England which is the most favourable that could have been expected had stood Neuter And when they had been subdued what could have hindred the French King being then so Potent both by Sea and Land from Conquering this Island What opposition could the Militia joyned with a few raw and unexperienced Troops for it is this War has made them otherwise tho headed by a Commander of so invincible Courage as the Late King make against his regular and numerous Troops But suppose the French King who is so famous for keeping his Royal word would not have Conquered England when he might what could have hindred the Late King assisted by France from using this Nation as his Cruelty Covetousness Bigotry or Jesuits could have inspired him The French King had he been defective in so fundamental a point of Religion would have obliged him as he did the Duke of Savoy to have Extirpated all the Hereticks England would have been perhaps by this time a rendezvouz of French and Irish Apostolick Dragoons or what is worse a nest of Priests and Jesuits And what milder usage can the Nation expect if the Late King who is under such obligation to France and incensed by as he thinks ill Treatment should return Ought not they except they are ambitious of being Roasted by a Smithfield Fire or are in love with the manly exercise of Rowing in the Gallies to do their utmost endeavour to stop the farther Progress of France which only prevails because their Armies are more numerous If there were more Forces raised the Nation is so far from wanting men that it can spare about Thirty thousand by easing the Parishes of those Idle People who are burthensom to them sufficient to equal those of the French there is no reason to doubt but the English would beat them as they have always done when the Numbers have been any thing near equal and force them to quit other places as shamefully as they did Ireland The misfortune is not that we have now a War with France but that it was so long delayed and whatever the Nation now suffers they wholly owe it to the Two Late Kings who instead of hindring when they might the growing greatness of France did under-hand assist and contribute as far as they durst to increase the exorbitant Power of that Kingdom Though the Charges of the War it is true are burthensome yet they are common to almost all Europe nor are they so great as some people represent them since it does cause little or no alteration in Peoples way of Living the same excess in Apparel and every thing else and the Interest of Money being as low as ever at least it would be so did not the King 's taking up such large Sums at so great an Interest raise the Interest of Money even amongst others are a demonstration of its plenty And the Native Commodities of the Countrey bearing a much better Price than Formerly chiefly by reason so much is taken up for the King's use upon account of the Army or Fleet must more than repay the Countrey for what it contributes to the War The Taxes themselves are not so much a burden as the unequal way of raising them and obliging people to pay so much Money at one time which cannot well be prevented but by an Excise which would make them so easy and so equal that they would hardly be felt But if they were more burthensome then they are then paying of them for some time is absolutely necessary to preserve their All for ever In the Primitive times the Christians especially the Clergy would 〈◊〉 dispose of their own but even what was Dedicated to Pious Uses and sell the Place that belonged to the Altar to redeem a Soul from Slavery Why should they not be now as Zealous to secure Milions of Souls Three Nations and their Posterity from a Bondage both Spiritual and Temporal worse than Egyptian or at least encourage people by their precept and example freely to contribute to a War upon which depends the safety of the Church as well as State a War so holy that if the Cause alone could make them Martyrs all that dye in it are such But to conclude I hope I have demonstrated That it is the duty of all People to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the present Government by Reasons and Arguments which are as firm as Government it self and which will endure as long as it because built upon the same foundation The Good of Societies and which may serve for directions in all Changes and Revolutions as well as for the justification of that happy one which by the Blessing of God upon His Majesties Heroick Endeavours preserves us in the enjoyment of all our Happiness both Spiritual and Temporal FINIS