§. 191. By the first of these, a man is naturally free from fubjection to any government, tho' he be born in a place under its jurifdiction; but if he difclaim the lawful government of the country he was born in, he must also quit the right that belonged to him by the laws of it, and the poffeffions there defcending to him from his ancestors, if it were a government made by their confent.

§. 192. By the fecond, the inhabitants of any country, who are defcended, and derive a title to their eftates from those who are fubdued, and had a government forced upon them against their free confents, retain a right to the poffeffion of their ancestors, though they confent not freely to the government, whose hard conditions were by force impofed on the poffeffors of that country: for the first conqueror never having had a title to the land of that country, the people who are the defcendants of, or claim under those who were forced to fubmit to the yoke of a government by conftraint, have always a right to shake it off, and free themselves from the ufurpation or tyranny which the fword hath brought in upon them, till their rulers put them under fuch a frame of government as they willingly and of choice confent to. Who doubts but the Grecian chriftians, defcendants of the ancient poffeffors of that country, may justly caft off the Turkish

yoke

in a

yoke, which they have fo long groaned under, whenever they have an opportunity to do it? For no government can have a right to obedience from a people who have not freely confented to it; which they can never be fuppofed to do, till either they are put full state of liberty to chufe their government and governors, or at least till they have such standing laws, to which they have by themselves or their reprefentatives given their free confent, and also till they are allowed their due property, which is so to be proprietors of what they have, that no body can take away any part of it without their own confent, without which, men under any government are not in the state of freemen, but are direct flaves under the force of war.

S. 193. But granting that the conqueror in a juft war has a right to the eftates, as well as power over the perfons, of the conquered; which, it is plain, he hath not: nothing of abfolute power will follow from hence, in the continuance of the government; because the defcendants of these being all freemen, if he grants them eftates and poffeffions to inhabit his country, (without which it would be worth nothing) whatsoever he grants them, they have, fo far as it is granted, property in. The nature whereof is, that without a man's own confent it cannot be taken from bim.

§. 194.

7

§. 194. Their perfons are free by a native right, and their properties, be they more or lefs, are their own, and at their own difpofe, and not at his; or elfe it is no property. Suppofing the conqueror gives to one man a thousand acres, to him and his heirs for ever; to another he lets a thousand acres for his life, under the rent of 50l. or 500l. per ann. has not the one of thefe a right to his thousand acres for ever, and the other, during his life, paying the faid rent? and hath not the tenant for life a property in all that he gets over and above his rent, by his labour and induftry during the faid term, fuppofing it be double the rent? Can any one fay, the king, or conqueror, after his grant, may by his power of conqueror take away all, or part of the land from the heirs of one, or from the other during his life, he paying the rent? or can he take away from either the goods or money they have got upon the faid land, at his pleasure? If he can, then all free and voluntary contracts cease, and are void in the world; there needs nothing to diffolve them at any time, but power enough: and all the grants and promifes of men in power are but mockery and collufion for can there be any thing more ridiculous than to fay, I give you and your's this for ever, and that in the fureft and most folemn way of conveyance can be devifed; and yet it is to be understood, that I have

right, if I please, to take it away from again to morrow?

you

§. 195. I will not dispute now whether princes are exempt from the laws of their country; but this I am fure, they owe fubjection to the laws of God and nature. No body, no power, can exempt them from the obligations of that eternal law. Those are fo great, and fo ftrong, in the case of promifes, that omnipotency itfelf can be tied by them. Grants, promifes, and oaths, are bonds that bold the Almighty: whatever fome flatterers fay to princes of the world, who all together, with all their people joined to them, are, in comparison of the great God, but as a drop of the bucket, or a duft on the balance, inconfiderable, nothing!

§. 196. The fhort of the cafe in conquest is this: the conqueror, if he have a just caufe, has a defpotical right over the persons of all, that actually aided, and concurred in the war against him, and a right to make up his damage and coft out of their labour and eftates, fo he injure not the right of any other. Over the reft of the people, if there were any that confented not to the war, and over the children of the captives themselves, or the poffeffions of either, he has no power; and fo can have, by virtue of conqueft, no lawful title himself to dominion over them, or derive it to his pofterity; but is an aggreffor, if he attempts upon their properties, and

thereby

thereby puts himself in a state of war against them, and has no better a right of principality, he, nor any of his fucceffors, than Hingar, or Hubba, the Danes, had here in England; or Spartacus, had he conquered Italy, would have had; which is to have their yoke caft off, as foon as God shall give thofe under their fubjection courage and opportunity to do it. Thus, notwithstanding whatever title the kings of Affyria had over Judah, by the fword, God affifted Hezekiah to throw off the dominion of that conquering empire. And the lord was with Hezekiah, and be profpered; wherefore he went forth, and be rebelled against the king of AfSyria, and ferved him not, 2 Kings xviii. Whence it is plain, that shaking off a power, which force, and not right, hath set over any one, though it hath the name of rebellion, yet is no offence before God, but is that which he allows and countenances, though even promises and covenants, when obtained by force, have intervened: for it is very probable, to any one that reads the story of Abaz and Hezekiah attentively, that the Affyrians fubdued Ahaz, and depofed him, and made Hezekiah king in his father's lifetime; and that Hezekiah by agreement had done him homage, and paid him tribute all this time.

Bb 2

7.

CHAP.