ference.  In  its  essential  idea  the  doctrine  had  been
at  work  in  English  politics  from  the  days  of
Henry  VIII.  So  long  as  there  was  much  to  be
apprehended  from  the  side  of  those  who  claimed  a
Divine  right  to  control  the  state  in  the  interests  of
an  ecclesiastical  organization,  it  was  necessary  to  lay
stress  on  the  religious  side  of  the  argument  for
kingship.  But  as  this  danger  tended  to  disappear,
and  the  doctrine  had  begun  to  do  its  work,  secular
^  politics  were  free  to  develope  on  their  own  lines.
Theological  systems  of  politics  and  purely  theological
arguments  were  no  longer  needed  to  meet  the
claims  of  Pope  or  Presbytery,  and  politics  entered


FROM  JAMES  I.   TO   THE  JACOBITES  161

upon  the  modern  stage.  The  theory  of  natural
rights  is  inevitably  the  next  stage  of  developement.
It  abandons  the  attempt  to  discover  in  Scripture
the  sanctions  of  civil  society,  and  its  direct  institu-
tion by  God.  Yet  it  retains  the  conception  of
an  immutable  system  of  politics,  rooted  in  the
nature  of  man,  and  not  to  be  changed  through
motives  of  mere  expediency.  Like  the  theory  of
Divine  Right,  the  doctrine  of  natural  rights  is  an
attempt  to  determine  a  priori  the  nature  of  govern-
ment, the  limits  of  obedience,  and  the  principles
which  should  govern  state  action.  Less  even  than
the  theory  of  Divine  Right  does  it  take  account  of
circumstances  or  historical  causes.  It  proclaims  a
system  of  politics,  clear,  universal,  and  unalterable,
based  not  on  the  uncritical  study  of  Scripture,  but
on  what  are  believed  to  be  the  teachings  of  nature
and  the  dictates  of  pure  reason.  Many  supporters  of
Divine  Right  confined  their  view  to  special  states,
and  peculiar  circumstances,  whatever  their  system
might  claim  of  abstract  truth  and  universality.
