IN War , all things in Effect follow the Will of the strongest , so far as his force reaches ; but in Peace , Right must Rule ; otherwise Peace is so far lost , or turned into a Confederacy in Iniquity . That Peace may therefore be a Blessing , and do us good in the issue of Things ; it must be in Conjunction with Righteousness . But because some think this impossible in the Peace of the Present Establishment , others are doubtful about it , others believe it may be , but upon such Principles , as being practised upon , would destroy all Peace : To secure therefore the Blessing of our Peace the better ( since God hath at last granted it to the Prayers of good Men ) it may be of some use , briefly to shew the Righteousness of the Present Establishment , by its accord with the natural Laws of Right in God's Kingdom over Men.

To me it seems very plain , that a Man's Right in a thing is nothing but the Command , which his Will hath over that thing ; and I know none otherwise minded : And it being so , ( 1. ) I cannot understand , how the thing that is at the Command of no Man's Will , is in any Man 's Right , and if it be not , it is in a State of Immunity . And , ( 2. ) If any fingle Man comes afterward to have a thing such at the Command of his Will , he has the Right in it ; therefore nothing but Possession , which is the having a thing at the Command of ones Will , is in Nature the Original Title of Right . This Possession happens either by natural Donation , or by Acquisition , which Acquisition is either by the exercise of a Man's natural Power , or the Act of another .

1. Excepting Parental Rights , or supposing them remitted by the Mancipation of the Child ; pure Nature in the first instance makes a Man himself , and none other ; the Master and Owner of his own Body and its Members , by putting them under the Command of his Will , and consequently gives him a Right and Property in them . Overlooking this , gave the fatal Occasion to an irreligious . Man , to draw up that monstrous Doctrine of Hobbs his Politicks . For though it be not more evident , that the Boughs in the Wood belong to that Tree , which they grow upon , and none other ; then it is evident , that Nature hath put my Limbs under the Command of my own Will , and of none others ; yet he will have it , That Nature makes nothing one Mans ( that is at the Command of one Man's Will ) more than another .

2. If I command these Limbs by the Dictate of my Will to procure natural Sustenance , I do but make use of my own Right ; and it is Just , because the Use of a natural Right ; and it is Good , because it is to save a Life ; and doing what is Just and Good , is the Exercise of a Vertue : So far Dominion is founded in Grace ; for excepting a Man's Right in his own Body , or Rights conferr'd upon him by the Act of another ; a Man hath no Dominion over any thing , but by the Exercise of this Vertue of Industry .

3. If by this exercise of Vertue , he compasses any thing ( in a State of Immunity ) useful for Life , a Beast , a Fowl , a Fish , Fruit , or the like ; that is then reduced under the Command of his Will , and he hath therefore a Right in it ; which Right being gained by the use of his natural Powers , may be called an acquired natural Right .

4. But that any thing was then in a posture and place where he could mancipate it , was to him a Contingency by the Disposition of Divine Providence : God therefore brought such a thing to him , and delivered it into his Hand , and consequently gave him a Right to it by this providential Disposal , as he did to his own Body by framing his Humane Nature , from whence results the sacredness of natural Rights , and the Divine Blessing in them .

5. The Possession of a thing acquired by the voluntary Act of another , gives a Right liable to be rebated , and is actually rebated , so far as the several Cases make it .

6. If another Man sees me to want what he possesses , and will spare , and out of Commiseration puts the thing into my Hand , this Possession makes the thing in my Right : For tho' I ought to bless God for blessing him with such Store , and inclining his Heart , and thank the Man for bestowing it upon me ; yet if I pay neither of these Debts , the thing is no less in my Right , and he would deprive me of my Right , should he take it from me for this neglect of my Duty to God and him ; because this was not the Condition of the things being put into my Power , but was left to the Pious and grateful Sense of my own Mind .

The same Measures held , and somewhat more strongly on both sides , if I receive his Alms upon my humbly Intreaty , because I did hereby abuse my self to him , and he condescended to one , that was not only broken in his Fortune , but in his Spirit likewise .

7. If some grateful Sign of acknowledging it a kindness be stipulated for , as the Condition of delivering the thing into my Hand : Should I upon the Receipt of it fail in this he hath a Right to require it of me , and I ought to restore it ; but he hath no Right to take it from me by Violence or Surreption , and he deprives me of my Right , if he does .

8. If he signifies , he would not deliver it into my Hand , unless I will restore it , or an equivalent to him again ; I am bound , if I take it , to Restoration accordingly ; and if I do it not , he hath a Right of making Reprizals upon me , and I have none to hinder him .

9. But though I received it upon Condition of Restoration and no otherwise , should any other Man take it out of my Possession ; he deprives me of my Right . And if he that possessed me of it , should Die without Heirs , before I actually had restored it ; I am the proper Owner of it , meerly by having it in my Possession . So much for Rights founded upon the Title of Possession , which are the Rights from which all others are derived .

10. If then another doth not actually put me into Possession of the thing , but Promises he will at such a Time ; I have at that time a Right to the thing , but no Right to take it from him , but he is bound to deliver it unto me . But if I have given him a valuable Consideration for doing of it , and he does it not , I have a Right of Reprizal , and he hath none to hinder me ; so that all Rights of this Nature , when the thing is not in the Owners Possession , are Pactitious : of which there are two Kinds , either explicitely , or implicitely ; and if Candour , Equity , Sincerity , &c. be Vertues , there is no difference in the Obligation of an explicite or implicite Pact ; and upon one of these two , are grounded all the Rights betwixt Subjects and Governours , and cannot be understood otherwise , for ought ever I could see .

11. Whether the Late King James dispossessed himself of his Kingdom , or was dispossessed by others , seeing he certainly now is not in the Possession of it ; but another is , he can have no natural Right now by the Title of Possession ; and therefore King James hath no Right at all , unless what is Pactitious : But no Man hath any Right by Pact , but what is agreed to by the Parties contracting ; now the Political Compact in England ( since the Crown is Imperial ) can have no Parties in it , but the King and the People ; and therefore it must be either betwixt the King and the People , of else betwixt the People one with another .

12. Amongst these it is agreed , the People being distributed into Lords and Commons , shall give their Consent in two Estates ; and unless these two Estates in Parliament with the King agree in the Matter , nothing shall be had to be an Article of the Agreement by the Authority of the Kingdom , which the Subject by his Allegiance or Duty of Subjection to the Sovereign is bound to observe . And therefore it is agreed , that the King shall govern thus by Laws , Quas Populus ipse sibi elegerit .

13. But it was never agreed explicitely or implicitely , betwixt King James and the People of England , that the Government should be administred by Popish Officers ; but on the contrary , King James and the People were expresly agreed , that the Government of the Land should not be administred by Popish Officers . When therefore the Late King James after Monmouth's Invasion , did in his Speech declare to the People in Parliament ( that is , the other Party in the Contract ) that he would not Govern without Popish Officers , nor suffer any one to gain-say him in it , and proved he was in very great earnest by the rest of his whole Reign ; he expresly disagreeing to the known and owned Agreement betwixt the King and People of England , there was thence forward no Agreement betwixt the King and People ( the Parties Contracting ) there was therefore no Government at all agreed unto betwixt them ; not a Government administred without Popish Officers , for that the King had solemnly disagreed unto , and resolutely persisted in , all his Time : Not a Government administred by Popish Officers , for that the People ( the other Party ) had not consented to , and therefore ( as I said ) there was then no Government agreed to betwixt them : And because no practicable Government was agreed upon , there could be no Governour actually agreed to : For to Consent to a Governour , and not to the Government , is to Consent to nothing , but an insignificant Word .

14. As we see the People in a Political State , all making one Party contracting , did not Consent in Parliament : So in their natural Persons its certain , they had not agreed one with another , that the Government should be administred in King James his Reign by Popish Officers ; wherefore there being no Agreement in the Nation about the Government of it , King James could from thence have no Right by Agreement ; that is , he had no Pactitious Right to the Government ; and since he hath none by the natural Right of Possession , its plain he hath no Right now to the Government of England .

15. When King James refused to stand to the National Compact , the People were put into a State of Deliberation ; whether they would agree to King James his Government , or not ; but there is no Reason to doubt , but they had their Choice , being certainly in no Agreement with King James about any Government at all : But though they could not be bound by the Rights of an Agreement about the Government , when there was no such Agreement ; yet were they bound to observe all the private natural Rights by Possession , and the Pactitious Rights by Private Contracts amongst themselves .

16. And for the Re-establishing of the Government , the measures to be observed in a State of Deliberation ( wherein Men must be supposed free ) are Counsels directed by the Rule of Charity ; the Sum of which is , to do that , which upon a true Estimation of all Particulars , is best for the whole : What that is , was difficult to be Resolved , whilst King James was upon the Throne ; and therefore it s no wonder , if even good Men differed in their Opinion about it , some being for establishing a new Governour , others not . But when that King was out of Possession , the Case was but thus ( it being equally Just to have either ) whether was most for the Good and Benefit of England , to have King James , or the Prince anti Princess of Orange established in the Government ; and the Body of the Nation being Protestants , this was no hard Question to be Resolved .

17. King James his Refusal to stand to the Agreement taken precisely , is in strict Propriety not to be called a wrong to the People of England ; but unkind , unmerciful , ungrateful , uncharitable , &c. For though the People are bound absolutely to obey according to the Agreement , yet the King by the Contract is not bound to govern , no not by the Coronation Oath ; but only , if that he will govern , to govern no otherwise then is agreed ; but he may Resign when he will without Violation of his Oath ; which if he does , and the People have another Sovereign ; if he would reassume his Government , we are Traytors and Rebels , if we assist him to recover his Late Right : If he will attempt it by Force , he is to be Resisted as an Enemy ; and so he is , if he attempt it , being faln from his Right any other Way .

18. Because not the owning , but the sitting in a Seat , fills the Seat ; if no one sits in the Seat , the Seat is empty , tho' it hath an owner ; for he that sits in the Seat , hath the Seat in Occupation or Possession ; if then no one hath the Throne in Possession , the Throne is plainly Vacant , whether it be Hereditary or no. But , unless the then Prince of Orange by taking upon him ( at the Request of the Lords and others ) the Administration of Publick Affairs , was in Possession of the Throne ; it is certain , when King James had withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom , in the Manner he did ; neither He , nor any one else , was in Possession : Therefore the Throne was then Vacant , according to the Lords and Commons Vote .

19. Both Houses acknowledging the Crown Hereditary ; we must first observe , every Heir that inherits , enters by Vertue of a Right , that was inherent in the Dying Person , and by Death , and no other Way , immediately devolves upon him . So that no one can enter upon the Government by the Title of King James his Heir , whilst himself is Living ; and since King James has lost his Right ( as was shewed above ) no Right of Governing inherent in him at his Death ( rebus sic stantibus ) can be derived from him to any Heir whatsoever ; and because it is thus impossible for any to Inherit the Crown from King James Living or Dying ; when that King parted with the Right of the Government , as he did from himself , he likewise parted with it from his Heirs ; having made it naturally impossible for the Crown to descend at all by the Right of Inheritance .

20. The Ground being Cleared , The Convention were to take Care to re-establish the Government for the good of the Nation . If then they left us not in Anarchy , but set up a Government , and that Monarchical , not Aristocratical , or Democratical ; Hereditary , not Elective , in the Royal , and no other Family ; by the next in the Right Line , as far as can be known , taking no Notice of one , of whom no Notice was or could be given sufficient for the reasonable belief of the main Body of the Nation ; that is , if they placed one as the Presumptive Heir ( when there was in Truth no Heir Apparent ) upon the Throne of the Kingdom , and established the same Rights , Laws , Liberties , Priviledges , and Religion , nothing could be more wisely ordered , so far as Man can see .

21. If the Throne was not filled by Vertue of the Heirs Title , as in an ordinary Case ; King James , having rendred that impossible to be done in Nature , must bear the blame of that , the People of England are Free . The present King , and then Prince of Orange , had merited an Admission into a Confort-ship in the Sovereignty with his Wife , by the Judgment and Joyful Acknowledgment , of the next in the Right Line ; and the People , which accordingly was consented to by them the Parties in the Covenant . And the Princess being a Subject of England , as such , Consents to the Acts of the Legislator ; and therefore all her Political Rights in the Kingdom , are secured , and none violated by the present Establishment ; wherein , because all Rights are saved , which King James left naturally possible to be saved , may Heaven and Earth say Amen , Amen , to its Peace and Prosperity .