ded the one from beftowing, and the other from receiving. For Example, no Body, or Society of Men, can transfer a Power unto thofe whom they felect and fet apart from among themselves to be Rulers over the Community; by Virtue whereof those vested with Magiftratical Authority, can withdraw their Subjects from their Allegiance to God, or act arbitrarily in prefecribing and impofing what Religion they pleafe, or deftroy the meanest Perfon, faving upon a previous Crime, and a just Demerit.

1.2. No Man of common Senfe can imagine, that at the first Propagation of Mankind, there were fuch Governments as are amongst us at this time. But in thofe Times each Father, without being fubject to any fuperior Power, govern'd his Wife, Children and Servants according to his Will and Pleasure. Now it feems very probable, that even at the Time of the Deluge there was no Magiftracy or civil Conftitution, but that the Government was lodg'd only in each Father of his Family: For it is fcarce to be imagin'd, that fuch abominable Disorders fhould have been introduc'd, where the Power of Magiftracy and Laws was exercis'd; and it is obfervable, that after once the Rules of Government were conftituted, we do not find Mankind in general, run into fuch Enormities, of which God Almighty was oblig'd to purge the World by an univerfal Punishment. Puffendorf's Introduction to the Hiftory of Europe, p. t.

1.3. Now God having, in the Inftitution of Magiftracy confined fuch as fhall be chofen Rulers, within no other Limits, in reference to our civil Concerns, fave that they are to govern for the Good of thofe over whom they come to be eftablished; it remains free and entire to the People at their firft Erection of, and Submiffion to Government, to prefcribe and define what fhall be the Meafures and Boundaries of the publick Good, and unto what Rules and Standard the Magiftrate fhall be reftrained, in order to his defending and promoting the Eenefit of the Society of which he is created the civil and political Head. And every one being equally Mafter of his own Property and Liberty, antecedently to their Agreement with one another, and to the Compact of the Univerfality, or at leaft of the Majority with him, or those whom they call to rule over them; it evidently follows, that thofe who come to be cloathed with Magiftracy, can lay claim to no more Authority over the Liberty, or pretend to no more Right in and over the Property of that Body Politick, than what the Community conferred upon them, and doth voluntarily diveft themselves of, upon the Profpect of the Advantages arifing to them from their living in Societies, and under Magiftrates. We must fuppofe all Mankind to have been infatuated, if they fhould have fubmitted themfelves to the Jurifdiction of one who had no antecedent Right to command them, meerly in order to their being in a worfe Condition than they previously were. And therefore feeing the Power, Extent and Latitude of the Magiftrate's Power muft owe its Original to fome Grant of the People, it is incumbent upon him to prove and juftifie the feveral Degrees and Meafures of Authori

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ty and Prerogative which he pretends to claim. And what he cannot derive from fome Conceffion of the Society, must be acknow ledg'd to remain ftill vefted in the People, as their referved Privilege and Right. And whatever injurious Power he affumes and exercises over 'em, which he cannot prove their Surrender of from themselves unto him, argues not only his departing from the Com pact betwixt him and the Community, by virtue whereof he was ordained and created their Ruler, but it renders him guilty of an Invafion upon the Rights of the whole Society, and upon every individual Member of it. Force or Conqueft give no juft or legal Title over a People, by which the Conqueror becomes their Magiftrate, until they, by fome Confent, either tacit, or explicit, declare their fubmiffion to, and acquiefcence in him, upon the best Terms which they can obtain, and that he is willing to grant. And as no civil Government is lawful, but what is founded upon Compact and Agreement between thofe chofen to govern, and them who condefcended to be governed; fo the Articles upon which they firft ftipulate the one with the other, become the Fundamentals of the refpective Conftitutions of Nations, and together with fuperadded pofitive Laws, are both the Limits of the Ruler's Authority, and the Measures of the Subje&s Obedience. To extend the Governor's Right to command, and Subject's Duty to obey, beyond the Laws of ones Country, is Treafon against the Constitution, and Treachery to the Society whereof we are Members: And to diffolve the Tyes by which Princes ftand confined, and overthrow the Hedges by which the referved Rights, Privileges and Properties of the Subjects are fenced about, tempts every Prince to become a Tyrant, and to make all his Subjects Slaves. All previous Agreements, Stipulations and Laws, are made infignificant by that pernicious and adulatory Doctrine of Non-refiftance, when our Rights are arbitrarily invaded, and the Conftitution and Government openly attack'd: Such a Doctrine tricks and cheats thofe that were antecedently free, into a Noofe, and State of Thraldom and Bondage, under the fpecious and gilded Pretence of the divine Rights of Princes.

1.4. As it is by Virtue of Compacts, Stipulations, Compromifes and Agreements, that all legal Governments have their Ori ginal and Eftablishment, that various and diftin&t Forms obtain in different Countries, and that a Title and Right to exercife Authority, and the Method of arriving at it, is provided for and procur'd, fo every Subject's Allegiance is firft owing to the Conftitution, and to the Ruler only, in the Force and virtue of what every Member of the political Society is bound unto, by the Terms of the original Pact and Settlement. Abftracting from the Conftitution, and the Obligations which lays us under, no Man can challenge a Right of commanding us, nor do we owe him any Dnty of Subjection and Obedience. Whofoever he be that, under a Pretence of being constituted Sovereign, does invade and fubvert the fundamental Laws of the Society, he does thereby, ipfo facto, annul all the legal Right he had to govern, and abfolves all, who were

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before his Subjects, from the legal Engagements they were under of yielding him Obedience; fo that the immediate and natural Ef fect of a Prince's claiming what the Rules of the Constitution are fo far from entituling him unto, that they preclude him from it, is the depriving himself of all right to claim any thing,and a restoring of the People to their State and Condition of primitive Freedom; of which, as they only divested themselves by and upon the Terms of the Conftitution, fo they did not depart from it any longer than that fhould be kept facred and inviolable, nor any further than was covenanted and ftipulated in, and by the Terms and Agreements therein specified and contained. And seeing it proceeds from the Efficacy of the foremention'd Contracts, that one Perfon becomes advanced from the common Level to the Title and Authority of a Sovereign, and that all others are, by their own Confent, put into the Condition of Subjects there doth arise from thence, not only a mutual Relation betwixt him that governs, and them that are governed; but the first and higheft Treafon is that which is committed against the Conftitution, and fuch Crimes against the Perfon and Dignity of the fupreme Magiftrate, are only made and declared to be fo, by reafon of the Capacity he is put into by the Conftitution, of preferving and defending the Society, and because it is needful, in order to the Peace, Welfare, and Safety of the Community, that he fhould be covered from all Danger, and rendred facred in his Perfon, and inviolable in his regal Honour, while he anfwereth the Truft which the People, upon their affembling and uniting into a Body Politick, committed unto him, and does neither depart from the effential and fundamental Terms of the original Compact, nor from their neceffary Provifions afterwards added, and enacted for preferving the Government in its primitive State and Frame. So that they neither are, nor can be Traytors who endeavour to preferve and maintain the Conftitution; but they are the Traytors who defign and pursue the Subverfion of it; they are the Rebels that go about to overthrow the Government of their Country, whereas fuch as feek to support and defend it, are the truly loyal Perfons, and do act conformable to the Ties and Obligations of Fealty. Nor is it meerly the firft and highest Treafon in it felf, that a Member of a political Society is capable of committing, to go about to fubvert the Conftitution; but it is alfo the greateft Treafon he can perpetrate against the Perfon, Crown and Dignity of the King; for fuch an Endeavour both annuls and vacates all his Title to Superiority over those above whom he was exalted from the common Level, by virtue of the Constitution, and deprives him of all rightful and legal Claim of rectoral Authority over the Society, by deftroying the alone Foundation upon which it was erected, and by which he became vefted with it. By cancelling the Charter from which he deriveth and holdeth his governing Power, he not only makes his Title to Sovereignty precarious, but renders every Claim of that kind, and every Challenge of governing the Comniunity, to be an Lavafion and Ufurpation.

q.5. To all which I will only further add under this Head, that as all legal Government is founded upon a mutual Stipulation and Compact, fo the first and most abfolute Obligation arifing from this Agreement, lies upon the Prince towards the People; whereas the Fealty and Duty, which by the said Contract and Covenant they bind and engage themfelves unto towards him, is in order but fecondary and conditional. Whenever any Perfon is chofen from the reft of the Society,and raised to Kingship upon a foregoing and previous Contract with the Community, he becomes upon the very accepting it bound abfolutely, and without Referve, to govern them according to the Terms and Measures which they have agreed and ftipulated, and to rule them by the Tenor of the Laws, unto which they have circumfcribed and confined him. Whereas all the Obedience and Fealty which they, who by that Agreement have render'd themselves Subjects, owe unto their ordained and created Sovereign, do derive their obligatory Power over them, and become due unto him, upon his governing them accor ding to the concerted and ftipulated Conditions, and his preferving unto them their referved Privileges, Liberties and Rights.

6. As Great Britain has been the most provident and careful of all Countries in referving to it felf, upon the firft Institution of, and Submiffion to Regal Government, all fuch Rights, Privileges, Liberties, as were neceffary to render it either renown'd, and ho nourable abroad, or fafe, happy, and profperous at home; fo it hath, with a Courage and Magnanimity reculiar unto it, maintain'd its Privileges, and Liberties thro' a long Series of Ages, and either re-affur'd and fecur'd them by new and fuperadded Laws, when there were Endeavours to undermine and fupplant them, or elfe hath vindicated them with a generous Courage, even to the Depofition and Abdication of treacherous, ufurping and tyrannical Princes, when more gentle, mild and Senatorian Methods were found weak and ineffectual to cover and protect them to themselves, and to convey and tranfmit them to fuch as were to come after. The People of Britain have the fame Title to, and Security for the Enjoyment of their Liberties and Properties, that our Kings have to their Crowns, or for Defence of the Regal Dignity. For as they can plead nothing for what they enjoy or claim as Kings, but fundamental and pofitive Laws; fo the Subjects Intereft in his Liberty and Property is convey'd unto him, by the fame Terms and Chanels, and fenced about with the fame Hedges and Pales. Horn tells us in his Mirror, Chap. 1. That the Saxons having put an end to the Heptarchy, by reason of the continual Wars that attended the Reigning of fo miany Kings in fo narrow a Compafs of Land, they chofe themselves one King to maintain and defend their Perfons and Goods in Peace, by Rules of Law, and made bim fwear, that he fhould be obedient to fuffer Right as well as his People fhould be. For according to Bracon, Lib. 3. C. 9. The whole Power of the King of England is to do Good, and not to do Hurt; nor can be do any thing as a King but what he can legally do. And as we know no King, but a King by Law; fo we are affured

by Fortefcue, Lib. 1. c. 8. and 3. c. 9. That he governs not his People by a Regal and an Abfolute Power, but by a Politick, i. e. by a Limited Legal Power. Hence our Princes were and are bound to fwear at their Coronation, That they would govern according to Law, and preferve unto them all their Customs and Francbifes, (Stat. of Provif. 25. Ed. 3.) Nor can we have a clearer Evidence of the legal Extent of the King's Authority, and of the Dimenfion of the Obedience which the Subject is bound unto, than that which we have in the Oath of Fealty, formerly taken by the Subject; namely, That he should be obedient to all the King's Laws, and to every Precept and Process proceeding from the fame. (Wilkins's Treat. Coron. &c. Court-Leet, &c. p. 140.) Nor is that unworthy our Obfervation, which Hen. I. writ to the Pope, when attack'd by him about the Matter of Inveftitures, viz. That he could not diminish the Rights either of the Crown or of the Kingdom, and that if he fhould be fo abject and mean as to attempt it, the Barons and People of England reprefented in Parliament would not allow or permit it. 'Tis upon this Account affirm'd of an English King, That he can do no Wrong, because he can do nothing but what the Law impowers him. For tho' he hath all things fubjected to his Authority, while he ads according to Law, yet there is nothing left to his arbitrary Will. The feveral Charters, efpecially that filed The Great Charter, in and by which our Rights itand fecured, fworn and entail'd unto us, and to our Pofterity; were not the Grants and Conceffions of our Princes, but Recognitions of what we have referv'd unto our felves in the original Inftitution of our Government, and of what had always appertain❜d unto us by common Law and immemorial Cuftoms. And tho' these Privileges and Liberties came to be more diftinctly expreffed and fignally ratify'd in the Great Charter, than they had been before; yet they had not only been acknowledg'd and tranfmitted down in the Laws of Edward the Confeffor, as the Birth-right of every Englishman; which alfo, William, the firft Norman King ratified as fuch: But they had long before been collected into a Body by King Edgar the Saxon, and were only revis'd, repeated and confirm'd by the Confeffor. But amongst all the Rights and Privileges appertaining unto us, that of having a Share in the Legiflation, and being to be govern'd by fuch Laws as we our felves fhall chufe, is the most fundamental and effential, as well as the most advantageous and beneficial: For thereby we are enabled to make fuch fucceffive and continual Provifions, as to the Prefervation of the Society, and the promoting either the temporal or eternal Welfare of the Subject, fhall be found needful or expedient. And as by our being poffefed of fo great a Portion of the Legislative Power, and by our having a Right by feveral pofitive Laws to annual Parliaments, we can both relieve our felves from and against every thing that either threat neth, endangereth, or oppreffeth us, and furnifh, and accommodate the whole Community with all legal Succours and Means that are neceffary for Peace, Prefervation and Profperity; fo herein lies our fignal Advantage and Felicity, that what

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