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SECT. XVIII. If a right of Dominion were esteemed Hereditary according to the Law of Nature, a multitude of destructive and inextricable Controversies would thereupon arise.
THere being no such thing therefore, according to the Law of Nature, as an Hereditary Right to the Dominion of the World, or any part of it; nor one man that can derive to himself a title from the first Fathers of Mankind, by which he can rightly pretend to be preferred before others to that command, or a part of it, and none can be derived from Nimrod, or other Usurpers, who had none in themselves; we may justly spare our pains of seeking farther into that matter. But as things of the highest importance can never be too fully explained; it may not be amiss to observe, That if Man∣kind could be brought to believe that such a right of Dominion were by the Law of God and Nature hereditary, a great number of the most destructive and inextricable Controversies must thereupon arise, which the wisdom and goodness of God can never enjoin, and Na∣ture, which is reason, can never intend; but at present I shall only mention two, from whence others must perpetually spring. First if there be such a Law, no Human Constitution can alter it: No length of time can be a defence against it: All Governments that are not conformable to it are vicious and void even in their root, and must be so for ever: That which is originally unjust may be justly over∣thrown. We do not know of any (at least in that part of the World in which we are most concerned) that is established, or exercised with an absolute power, as by the Authors of those opinions is esteemed inseparable from it: Many, as the Empire, and other States, are di∣rectly contrary; and on that account can have no justice in them. It being certain therefore that he or they who exercise those Govern∣ments have no right: that there is a Man to whom it doth belong, and no man knowing who he is, there is no one man who has not as good a title to it as any other: There is not therefore one who hath not a right, as well as any, to overthrow that which hath none at all. He that hath no part in the Government may destroy it as well as he that has the greatest; for he neither has that which God ordain∣ed he should have, nor can shew a title to that which he enjoys from that original Prerogative of Birth, from whence it can only be de∣rived.
If it be said, that some Governments are arbitrary, as they ought to be, and France, Turky, and the like be alledged as instances, the matter is not mended: for we do not only know when those, who deserve to be regarded by us, were not absolute, and how they came to be so; but also, that those very Families which are now in pos∣session are not of very long continuance, had no more title to the o∣riginal