But this Priviledge belonging only to the King's Person hinders not but they may be questioned opposed and resisted who use unjust force though they pretend a Commission from him which the Law authorizes not As is plain in the Case of him that has the King 's Writ to arrest a Man which is a full Commission from the King and yet he that has it cannot break open a Man's House to do it nor execute this Command of the King upon certain days nor in certain places though this Commission have no such exception in it but they are the Limitations of the Law which if any one transgress the King's Commission excuses him not For the King's Authority being given him only by the Law he cannot impower any one to act against the Law or justifie him by his Commission in so doing The Commission or Command of any Magistrate where he has no Authority being as void and insignificant as that of any private Man The difference between the one and the other being that the Magistrate has some Authority so far and to such ends and the private Man has none at all For 't is not the Commission but the Authority that gives the Right of acting and against the Laws there can be no Authority But notwithstanding such Resistance the King's Person and Authority are still both secured and so no danger to Governour or Government 207. Thirdly Supposing a Government wherein the Person of the chief Magistrate is not thus Sacred yet this Doctrine of the lawfulness of resisting all unlawful exercises of his Power will not upon every slight occasion indanger him or imbroil the Government For where the injured Party may be relieved and his damages repaired by Appeal to the Law there can be no pretence for Force which is only to be used where a Man is intercepted from appealing to the Law For nothing is to be accounted Hostile Force but where it leaves not the remedy of such an Appeal And 't is such Force alone that puts him that uses it into a state of War and makes it lawful to resist him A Man with a Sword in his hand demands my Purse in the High-way when perhaps I have not 12 d. in my Pocket This Man I may lawfully kill To another I deliver 100 l. to hold only whilst I alight â—hich he refuses to restore me when I am got up again but draws his Sword to defend the possession of it by force I endeavour to retake it The mischief this Man does me is a hundred or possibly a thousand times more than the other perhaps intended me whom I kill'd before he really did me any and yet I might lawfully kill the one and cannot so much as hurt the other lawfully The Reason whereof is plain because the one using force which threatned my Life I could not have time to appeal to the Law to secure it And when it was gone 't was too late to appeal The Law could not restore Life to my dead Carcass The Loss was irreparable which to prevent the Law of Nature gave me a Right to destroy him who had put himself into a state of War with me and threatned my destruction But in the other case my Life not being in danger I might have the benefit of appealing to the Law and have Reparation for my 100 l. that way 208. Fourthly But if the unlawful acts done by the Magistrate be maintained by the Power he has got and the remedy which is due by Law be by the same Power obstructed yeâ— the Right of resisting even in such manifest Acts of Tyranny will not suddenly or on slight occasions disturb the Government For if it reach no farther than some private Mens Cases though they have a right to defend themselves and to recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them yet the Right to do so will not easily ingage them in a Contest wherein they are sure to perish It being as impossible for one or a few oppressed Men to disturb the Government where the Body of the People do not think themselves concerned in it as for a raving mad Man or heady Male content to overturn a well setled State the People being as little apt to follow the one as the other 209. But if either these illegal Acts have extended to the Majority of the People or if the Mischief and Oppression has light only on some few but in such Cases as the Precedent and Consequences seem to threaten all and they are perswaded in their Consciences that their Laws and with them their Estates Liberties and Lives are in danger and perhaps their Religion too how they will be hindred from resisting illegal Force used against them I cannot tell This is an Inconvenience I confess that attends all Governments whatsoever when the Governours have brought it to this pass to be generally suspected of their People the most dangerous state they can possibly put themselves in wherein they are the less to be pityed because it is so easie to be avoided It being as impossible for a Governour if he really means the good of his People and the preservation of them and their Laws together not to make them see and feel it as it is for the Father of a Family not to let his Children see he loves and takes care of them 210. But if all the World shall observe Pretences of one kind and Actions of another Arts used to elude the Law and the Trust of Prerogative which is an Arbitrary Power in some things left in the Prince's hand to do good not harm to the People employed contrary to the end for which it was given If the People shall find the Ministers and subordinate Magistrates chosen suitable to such ends and favoured or laid by proportionably as they promote or oppose them If they see several Experiments made of Arbitrary Power and that Religion underhand favoured though publickly proclaimed against which is readiest to introduce it and the Operators in it supported as much as may be and when that cannot be done yet approved still and liked the better and a long Train of Actings shew the Councils all tending that way how can a Man any more hinder himself from being perswaded in his own Mind which way things are going or from casting about how to save himself than he could from believing the Captain of the Ship he was in was carrying him and the rest of the Company to Algiers when he found him always stearing that Course though cross Winds Leaks in his Ship and want of Men and Provisions did often force him to turn his Course another way for some time which he steadily returned to again as soon as the Wind Weather and other Circumstances would let him CHAP. XIX Of the Dissolution of Governments 211. HE that will with any clearness speak of the Dissolution of Government ought in the first place to distinguish between the Dissolution of the Society and the Dissolution of the
Picture in the Front of Sr. Rbts Book and the applause that followed it required me to believe that the Author and Publisher were both in earnest I therefore took the Patriarcha of Sr. R. Filmer into my hands with all the expectation and read it through with all the attention due to a Treatise that made such a noise at it's coming abroad and cannot but confess my self mightily surprised that in a Book which was to provide Chains for all mankind I should find nothing but a Rope of Sand useful perhaps to such whose skill and business it is to raise a dust and would blind the People the better to mislead them but is not of any force to draw those into Bondage who have their Eyes open and so much Sense about them as to consider that Chains are but an ill wearing how much care soever hath been taken to file and polish them § 2. If any one think I take too much liberty in speaking so freely of a Man who is the great Champion of absolute Power and the Idol of those who worship it I beseech him to make this small allowance for once to one who even after the reading of Roberts Book cannot but think himself as the Laws allow him a Freeman and I know no fault it is to do so unless any one better skill'd in the Fate of it than I should have it revealed to him that this Treatise which has lain dormant so long was when it appeared in the World to carry by strength of its Arguments all Liberty out of it and that from thence forth our Authors short model was to be the pattern in the Mount and the perfect Standard of Politics for the future His System lies in a little compass 't is no more but this That all Government is absolute Monarchy and the ground he builds on is this That no Man is born free 3. Since there have been a generation of Men sprung up in the World that would flatter Princes with an Opinion that they have a Divine Right to absolute Power let the Laws by which they are constituted and are to govern and the Conditions under which they enter upon their Authority be what they will and their engagements to observe them never so well ratified by solemn Oaths and Promises they have denied Mankind a Right to natural Freedom whereby they have not only as much as in them lies expos'd all Subjects to the utmost Misery of Tyranny and Oppression but have also so unsettled the Titles and shaken the Thrones of Princes For they too by these Men's Doctrin except only one are all born Slaves and by divine Right are Subjects to Adams right Heir as if they had design'd to make War upon all Government and subvert the very Foundations of Human Society 4. However we must believe them upon their own bare words when they tell us we are all born Slaves and there is no remedy for it we must continue so Life and Thraldom we entered into together and can never be quit of the one till we part with the other though I do not find Scripture or Reason any where say so however these Men would perswade us that Divine Authority hath subjected us to the unlimited Will of another An admirable State of Mankind and that which they have not had wit enough to find out till this latter Age. For however Sr. Rob. Filmer seems to condemn the Novelty of the contrary Opinion Patr. p. 3. yet I believe it will be hard for him to find any other Age or Country of the World but this which have asserted Monarchy to be Iure Divino And he confesses Patr. p. 4. That Heyward Blackwood Barclay and others that have bravely vindicated the Right of Kings in most Points never thought of this but with one Consent admitted the Natural Liberty and Equality of Mankind By whom this Doctrine came at first to be broach'd and brought in fashion amongst us and what sad Effects it gave rise to I leave to Historians to relate or the Memory of those who were Contemporaries with Sibthorp and Manwering to recolect my business at present being only to consider what Sr. R. F. who is allowed to have carried this Argument farthest and is supposed to have brought it to perfection has said in it For from him every one who would be as fashionable as French was at Court has learned and runs away with this short System of Politics viz. Men are not born free and therefore could never have the liberty to choose either Governors or Forms of Government Princes have their Power Absolute and by Divine Right for Slaves could never have a right to Compact or Consent Adam was an absolute Monarch and so are all Princes ever since CHAP. II. Of Paternal and Regal Power 6. SIR R. F's great Position is that Men are not naturally free this is the Foundation on which his absolute Monarchy stands and from which it erects it self to an height that it's Power is above every Power Caput inter nubila so high above all earthly and human Things that thought can scarce reach it that Promises and Oaths which tye the infinite Deity cannot confine it But if this Foundation fails all his Fabric falls with it and Governments must be left again to the old way of being made by contrivance and the consent of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making use of their reason to unite together into Society To prove this grand Position of his he tells us p. 12. Men are born in subjection to their Parents and therefore cannot be free And this Authority of Parents he calls Royal Authority p. 12 14. Fatherly Authority Right of Fatherhood p. 12 20. one would have thought he would in the beginning of such a Work as this on which was to depend the Authority of Princes and the Obedience of Subjects have told us expresly what that Fatherly Authority is have defined it though not limited it because in some other Treatises of his he tells us 't is unlimited and unlimitable he should at least have given us such an account of it that we might have had an entire Notion of this Fatherhood or Fatherly Authority when ever it came in our way in his Writings This I expected to have found in the first Chapter of his Patriarcha But instead there of having 1. en Passant made his Obeysance to the Arcana imperii p. 5. 2 o made his Complement to the Rights and Liberties of this or any other Nation p. 6. which he is going presently to null and destroy And 3 o made his Leg to those Learned Men who did not see so far into the Matter as himself p. 7. he comes to fall on Bellarmine p. 8. and by a Victory over him Establishes his Fatherly Authority beyond any question Bellarmine being routed by his own Confession p. 11. the day is clear got and there is no more need of any Forces For having done that I observe not
expectation of Health from any one who had taken on himself the Name of Priest or Physician or thrist himself into those imployments saying I acquiess in the Absolving Power descending from Adam or I shall be cured by the Medicinal Power descending from Adam as he who says I submit to and obey the Paternal Power descending from Adam when 't is confessed all these Powers descend only to his single Heiâ— and that Heir is unknown 126. 'T is true the Civil Lawyers haâ—e pretended to determine some of these Cases concerning the succession of Princes but by our A s Principles they have medled in a matter that belongs not to them For if all Political Power he derived only from Adam and be 〈…〉 only to his Successive Heirs by the Ordinenee of God and Divine Institution this is a Right Antecedeâ—t and Paramount to all Government and therefore the positive Laws of Men cannot determine that which is it self the Foundation of all Law and Government and is to receive its Rule only from the Law of God and Nature And that being silent in the Case I am apt to think there is no such Right to be conveyed this way I am fure it would be to no purpose if there were and Men would be more at a loss concerning Government and Obedience to Governors then if there were no such Right since by positive Laws and compact which Divine Institution if there be any shuts out all these endless inextricable doubts can be safely provided against but it can never be understood how a Divine natural Right and that of such moment as is all Order and Peace in the World should be convey'd down to Posterity without any plain Natural or Divine Rule concerning it And these would be an end of all Civil Government if the Assignment of Civil Power were by Divine Institution to the Heir and yet by that Divine Institution the Person of the Heir could not be known This Paternal Regal Power being by Divine Right only his it leaves no room for human prudence or confent to place it any where else for if only one Man hath a Divine Right to the Obedience of Mankind no body can claim that Obedience but he that can shew that Right nor can Mens Consciences by any other pretence be obliged to it And thus this Doctrine cuts up all Government by the Roots 127. Thus we see how our A laying it for a sure Foundation that the very Person that is to Rule is the Ordinance of God and by Divine Institution tells us at large only that this Person is the Heir but who this Heir is he leaves us to guess and so this Divine Institution which Assigns it to a Person whom we have no Rule to know is just as good as an Assignment to no body at all But whatever our A does Divine Institution makes no such ridiculous Assignments nor can God be supposed to make it a Sacred Law that one certain Person should have a Right to something and yet not give Rules to mark out and know that Person by or give an Heir a Divine Right to Power and yet not point out who that Heir is T' is rather to be thought that an Heir had no such Right by Divine Institution then that God should give such a Right to the Heir but yet leave it doubtful and undeterminable who such Heir is 128. If God had given the Land of Canaan to Abraham and in general Terms to some body after him without naming his Seed whereby it might be known who that some-body was it would have been as good and useful an Assignment to determin the Right to the Land of Canaan as it would to the determining the Right of Crowns to give Empire to Adam and his Successive Heirs after him without telling who his Heir is For the word Heir without a Rule to know who it is signifies no more then somebody I know not whom God making it a Divine Institution that Men should not marry those who were near of Kin thinks it not enough to say none of you shall approach to any that is near of Kin to him to uncover their Nakedness But Moreover gives Rules to know who are those near of Kin forbiden by Divine Institution or else that Law would have been of no use it being to no purpose to lay restraint or give Priviledges to Men in such general Terms as the Particular Person concern'd cannot be known by But God not having any where said the next Heir shall Inherit all his Fathers Estate or Dominion we are not to wonder that he hath no where appointed who that Heir should be for never having intended any such thing never designed any Heir in that Sense we cannot expect he should any where nominate or appoint any Person to it as we might had it been otherwise and therefore in Scripture though the word Heir occur yet there is no such thing as Heir in our A s Sence one that was by Right of Nature to inherit all that his Father had exclusive of his Brethren hence Sarah suppose that if Ishmael staid in the House to share in Abrahams Estate after his death this Son of a Bond-woman might be Heir with Isaac and therefore say she cast out this Bond-woman and her Son for the Son of this Bond-woman shall not be Heir with my Son But this cannot excuse our A who telling us there is in every Number of Men one who is Right and next Heir to Adam ought to have told us what the Laws of descent are but hâ—ving been so sparing to instruct us by Rules how to know who is Heir let us see in the next place what his History out of Scripture on which he pretends wholly to build his Government gives us in this necessary and Fundamental point 129. Our A to make good the Title of his Book p. 13. begins his History of the descent of Adams Regal Power p. 13. In these words This Lordship which Adam by Command had over the whole World and by Right descending from him the Patriarchs did enjoy was as large c. How does he prove that the Patriarchs by descent did enjoy it for Dominion of Life and Death says he we find Judah the Father pronounced Sentence of Death against Thamer his Daughter-in Law for playing the Harlot p. 13. How does this prove that Iudah had Absolute and Sovereign Authority He pronounced Sentence of Death The pronouncing of Sentence of Death is not a certain mark of Sovereignty but usually the Office of Inferior Magistrates The Power of making Laws of Life and Death is indeed a mark of Sovereignty but pronouncing the Sentence according to those Laws may be done by others and therefore this will but ill prove that he had Sovereign Authority as if one should say Iudge Iefferies pronounced Sentence of Death in the late Times therefore Iudge Iefferies had Sovereign Authority But it will be said Iudah did it not by Commission from another
it the Foundation of that Obligation to mutual Love amongst Men on which he Builds the Duties they owe one another and from whence he derives the great Maxims of Iustice and Charity His words are The like natural inducement hath brought Men to know that it is no less their Duty to Love others then themselves for seeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure If I cannot but wish to receive good even as much at every Mans hands as any Man can wish unto his own Soul how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is undoubtedly in other Men weak being of one and the same nature to have any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieve them as much as me so that if I do harm I must look to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me then they have by me shewed unto them my desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth upon me a natural Duty of bearing to themward fully the like affection From which relation of equality between our selves and them that are as our selves what several Rules and Canons natural reason hath drawn for direction of life no Man is Ignorant Eccl. Pol. Li. 1. 6. But though this be a State of Liberty yet it is not a State of Licence though Man in that State have an uncontroleable Liberty to dispose of his Person or Possessions yet he has not Liberty to destroy himself or so much as any Creature in his Possession but where some nobler use then its bare Preservation calls for it The State of Nature has a Law of Nature to govern it which obliges every one and reason which is that Law teaches all Mankind who will but consult it That being all equal and independent no one ought to harm another in his Life Health Liberty or Possessions for Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent and infinitely wise maker All the Servants of one Sovereign Master sent into the World by his order and about his business They are his Property whose Workmanship they are made to last during his not one anothers Pleasure And being Furnished with like Faculties sharing all in one Community of Nature there cannot be supposed any such Subordination among us that may Authorize us to destroy one another as if we were made for one anothers uses as the inferior ranks of Creatures are for ours every one as he is bound to preserve himself and not to quit his Station willfully so by the like reason when his own Preservation comes not in competition ought he as much as he can to preserve the rest of Mankind and not unless it be to do Justice on an offender take a way or impair the the life or what tends to the Preservation of the Life the Liberty Health Limb or Goods of another 7. And that all Men may be restrained from invading others Rights and from doing hurt to one another and the Law of Nature be observed which willeth the Peace and Preservation of all Mankind the Execution of the Law of Nature is in that State put into every Mans hands whereby every one has a Right to punish the transgressors of that Law to such a Degree as may hinder its Violation For the Law of Nature would as all other Laws that concern Men in this World be in vain if there were no body that in the State of Nature had a Power to Execute that Law and thereby preserve the innocent and restrain offenders and if any one in the State of Nature may punish another for any evil he has done every one may do so For in that State of perfect Equality where naturally there is no superiority or jurisdiction of one over another what any may do in Prosecution of that Law every one must needs have a Right to do 8. And thus in the State of Nature one Man comes by a Power over another but yet no Absolute or Arbitrary Power to use a Criminal when he has got him in his hands according to the passionate heats or boundless extravagancy of his own Will but only to retribute to him so far as calm reason and conscience dictates what is proportionate to his Transgression which is so much as may serve for Reparation and Restraint For these two are the only reasons why one Man may lawfully do harm to another which is that we call punishment In trangressing the Law of Nature the Offender declares himself to live by another Rule then that of reason and common equity which is that measure God has set to the actions of Men for their mutual security and so he becomes dangerous to Mankind the tye which is to secure them from injury and violence being slighted and broken by him which being a trespass against the whole Species and the Peace and Safety of it provided for by the Law of Nature every Man upon this score by the Right he hath to preserve Mankind in general may restrain or where it is necessary destroy things noxious to them and so may bring such evil on any one who hath transgressed that Law as may make him repent the doing of it and thereby deter him and by his Example others from doing the like mischief And in this case and upon this ground every Man hath a Right to punish the Offender and be Executioner of the Law of Nature 9. I doubt not but this will seem a very strange Doctrin to some Men but before they condemn it I desire them to resolve me by what Right any Prince or State can put to death or punish an Alien for any Crime he commits in their Country 'T is certain their Laws by vertue of any Sanction they receive from the promulgated Will of the Legislative reach not a Stranger They speak not to him nor if they did is he bound to hearken to them The Legislative Authority by which they are in Force over the Subjects of that Common-wealth hath no Power over him Those who have the Supream Power of making Laws in England France or Holland are to an Indian but like the rest of the World Men without Authority And therefore if by the Law of Nature every Man hath not a Power to punish Offences against it as he soberly Judges the Case to require I see not how the Magistrates of any Community can punish an Alien of another Country since in reference to him they can have no more Power then what every Man naturally may have over another 10. Besides the Crime which consists in violating the Laws and varying from the right Rule of reason whereby a Man so far becomes degenerate and declares himself to quit the Principles of Human Nature and to be a noxious Creature there is commonly injury done and some Person or other some other Man
in yet vacant habitations for the Father of the Family to become the Prince of it he had been a Ruler from the Beginning of the infancy of his Children and when they were grown up since without some Government it would be hard for them to live together it was likelyest it should by the express or tacit Consent of the Children be in the Father where it seemed without any change barely to continue And when indeed nothing more was required to it than the permitting the Father to exercise alone in his Family that executive Power of the Law of Nature which every Free-man naturally hath and by that Permission resigning up to him a Monarchical Power whilst they remained in it But that this was not by any paternal Right but only by the Consent of his Children is evident from hence That no Body doubts but if a Stranger whom Chance or Business had brought to his Family had there kill'd any of his Children or committed any other Fact he might condemn and put him to Death or otherwise have punished him as well as any of his Children which was impossible he should do by virtue of any paternal Authority over one who was not his Child but by virtue of that executive Power of the Law of Nature which as a Man he had a right to and he alone could punish him in his Family where the Respect of his Children had laid by the Exercise of such a Power to give way to the Dignity and Authority they were willing should remain in him above the rest of his Family 75. Thus 't was easie and almost natural for Children by a tacit and almost natural consent to make way for the Father's Authority and Government They had been accustomed in their Child-hood to follow his Direction and to refer their little differences to him and when they were Men who fitter to rule them Their little Properties and less Covetousness seldom afforded greater Controversies and when any should arise where could they have a fitter Umpire than he by whose Care they had every one been sustain'd and brought up and who had a tenderness for them all 'T is no wonder that they made no distinction betwixt Minority and full Age nor looked after one and Twenty or any other Age that might make them the free Disposers of themselves and Fortunes when they could have no desire to be out of their Pupilage The Government they had been under during it continued still to be more their Protection than Restraint and they could no where find a greater security to their Peace Liberties and Fortunes than in the Rule of a Father 76. Thus the natural Fathers of Families by an insensible change became the politick Monarchs of them too and as they chanced to live long and leave able and worthy Heirs for several Successions or otherwise so they laid the Foundations of Hereditary or Elective Kingdoms under several Constitutions and Manors according as Chance Contrivance or Occasions happen'd to mould them But if Princes have their Titles in the Fathers Right and it be a sufficient proof of the natural Right of Fathers to political Authority because they commonly were those in whose hands we find de facto the Exercise of Government I say if this Argument be good it will as strongly prove that all Princes nay Princes only ought to be Priests since 't is as certain that in the Beginning The Father of the Family was Priest as that he was Ruler in his own Houshold CHAP. VII Of Political or Civil Society 77. GOD having made Man such a creature that in his own Judgment it was not good for him to be alone put him under strong Obligations of Necessity Convenience and Inclination to drive him into Society as well as fitted him with Understanding and Language to continue and enjoy it The first Society was betwen Man and Wife which gave beginning to that between Parents and Children to which in time that between Master and Servant came to be added and though all these might and commonly did meet together and make up but one Family wherein the Master or Mistriss of it had some sort of Rule proper to a Family each of these or all together came short of Political Society as we shall see if we consider the different Ends Ties and Bounds of each of these 78. Conjugal Society is made by a voluntary compact between Man and Woman and though it consist chiefly in such a Communion and Right in one anothers Bodies as is necessary to its chief End Procreation yet it draws with it mutual Support and Assistance and a Communion of Interests too as necessary not only to unite their Care and Affection but also necessary to their common Off-spring who have a Right to be nourished and maintained by them till they are able to provide for themselves 79. For the end of conjunction between Male and Female being not barely Procreation but the continuation of the Species This conjunction betwixt Male and Female ought to last even after Procreation so long as is necessary to the nourishment and support of the young Ones who are to be sustained by those that got them till they are able to shift and provide for themselves This Rule which the Infinite wise Maker hath set to the Works of his hands we find the inferiour Creatures steadily obey In those viviparous Animals which feed on Grass the conjunction between Male and Female lasts no longer than the very Act of Copulation because the Teat of the Dam being sufficient to nourish the Young till it be able to feed on Grass the Male only begets but concerns not himself for the Female or Young to whose Sustenance he can contribute nothing But in Beasts of Prey the conjunction lasts longer because the Dam not being able well to subsist her self and nourish her numerous Off-spring by her own Prey alone a more laborious as well as more dangerous way of living than by feeding on Grass the Assistance of the Male is necessary to the Maintenance of their common Family which cannot subsist till they are able to prey for themselves but by the joint Care of Male and Female The same is to be observed in all Birds except some domestick ones where plenty of food excuses the Cock from feeding and taking care of the young Brood whose Young needing Food in the Nest the Cock and Hen continue Mates till the Young are able to use their wing and provide for themselves 80. And herein I think lies the chief if not the only reason why the Male and Female in Mankind are tyed to a longer conjunction than other Creatures viz. because the Female is capable of conceiving and de facto is commonly with Child again and brings forth too a new Birth long before the former is out of a dependency for support on his Parents help and able to shift for himself and has all the assistance is due to him from his Parents whereby the
name Property 124. The great and chief end therefore of Mens uniting into Commonwealths and putting themselves under Government is the preservation of their Property To which in the state of Nature there are many things wanting First There wants an establish'd setled known Law received and allowed by common consent to be the Standard of Right and Wrong and the common measure to decide all Controversies between them For though the Law of Nature be plain and intelligible to all rational Creatures yet Men being biassed by their interest as well as ignorant for want of study of it are not apt to allow of it as a Law binding to them in the application of it to their particular Cases 125. Secondly In the State of Nature there wants a known and indifferent Judge with Authority to determine all differences according to the established Law For every one in that state being both Judge and Executioner of the Law of Nature Men being partial to themselves Passion and Revenge is very apt to carry them too far and with too much heat in their own Cases as well as negligence and unconcernedness make them too remiss in other Mens 126. Thirdly In the state of Nature there often wants Power to back and support the Sentence when right and to give it due Execution They who by any Injustice offended will seldom fail where they are able by force to make good their Injustice such resistance many times makes the punishment dangerous and frequently destructive to those who attempt it 127. Thus Mankind notwithstanding all the Priviledges of the state of Nature being but in an ill condition while they remain in it are quickly driven into Society Hence it comes to pass that we seldom find any number of Men live any time together in this State The inconveniencies that they are therein exposed to by the irregular and uncertain exercise of the Power every Man has of punishing the transgressions of others make them take Sanctuary under the establish'd Laws of Government and therein seek the preservation of their Property 'T is this makes them so willingly give up every one his single power of punishing to be exercised by such alone as shall be appointed to it amongst them and by such Rules as the Community or those authorised by them to that purpose shall agree on And in this we have the original right and rise of both the Legislative and Executive Power as well as of the Governments and Societies themselves 128. For in the state of Nature to omit the liberty he has of innocent delights a Man has two Powers The first is to do whatsoever he thinks fit for the preservation of himself and others within the permission of the Law of Nature by which Law common to them all he and all the rest of Mankind are one Community make up one Society distinct from all other Creatures and were it not for the corruption and vitiousness of degenerate Men there would be no need of any other no necessity that Men should separate from this great and natural Community and associate into lesser Combinations The other power a Man has in the state of Nature is the power to punish the Crimes committed against that Law Both these he gives up when he joins in a private if I may so call it or particular Political Society and incorporates into any Commonwealth separate from the rest of Mankind 129. The first power viz. of doing whatsoever he thought fit for the preservation of himself and the rest of Mankind he gives up to be regulated by Laws made by the Society so far forth as the preservation of himself and the rest of that Society shall require which Laws of the Society in many things confine the liberty he had by the Law of Nature 130. Secondly The power of punishing he wholly gives up and engages his natural force which he might before imploy in the Execution of the Law of Nature by his own single Authority as he thought fit to assist the Executive Power of the Society as the Law thereof shall require For being now in a new State wherein he is to enjoy many Conveniencies from the labour assistance and society of others in the same Community as well as protection from its whole strength he is to part also with as much of his natural liberty in providing for himself as the good prosperity and safety of the Society shall require which is not only necessary but just since the other Members of the Society do the like 131. But though Men when they enter into Society give up the Equality Liberty and Executive Power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of the Society to be so far disposed of by the Legislative as the good of the Society shall require yet it being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve himself his Liberty and Property For no rational Creature can be supposed to change his condition with an intention to be worse the power of the Society or Legislative constituted by them can never be suppos'd to extend farther than the common good but is obliged to secure every ones Property by providing against those three defects above-mentioned that made the state of Nature so unsafe and uneasy And so whoever has the Legislative or supream Power of any Common-wealth is bound to govern by establish'd standing Laws promulgated and known to the People and not by Extemporary Decrees By indifferent and upright Judges who are to decide Controversies by those Laws And to imploy the force of the Community at home only in the Execution of such Laws or abroad to prevent or redress Foreign Injuries and secure the Community from Inroads and Invasion And all this to be directed to no other end but the Peace Safety and publick good of the People CHAP. X. Of the Forms of a Commonwealth 132. THE Majority having as has been shew'd upon Mens first uniting into Society the whole power of the Community naturally in them may imploy all that power in making Laws for the Community from time to time and Executing those Laws by Officers of their own appointing and then the Form of the Government is a perfect Democracy Or else may put the power of making Laws into the hands of a few select Men and their Heirs or Successors and then it is an Oligarchy Or else into the hands of one Man and then it is a Monarchy If to him and his Heirs it is an Hereditary Monarchy If to him only for Life but upon his Death the Power only of nominating a Successor to return to them an Elective Monarchy And so accordingly of these make compounded and mixed Forms of Government as they think good And if the Legislative Power be at first given by the Majority to one or more Persons only for their Lives or any limited time and then the Supream Power to revert to them again when it is so reverted the Community may dispose of it
again anew into what hands they please and so constitute a new Form of Government For the Form of Government depending upon the placing the Supream Power which is the Legislative it being impossible to conceive that an inferiour Power should prescribe to a Superiour or any but the Supream make Laws According as the Power of making Laws is placed such is the Form of the Commonwealth 133. By Commonwealth I must be understood all along to mean not a Democracy or any Form of Government but any Independent Community which the Latins signified by the word Civitas to which the word which best answers in our Language is Commonwealth and most properly expresses such a Society of Men which Community does not For there may be subordinate Communities in a Government and City much less and therefore to avoid ambiguity I crave leave to use the word Commonwealth in that sence in which sense I find the word used by K. Iames himself which I think to be its genuine signification which if any Body dislike I consent with him to change it for a better CHAP. XI Of the Extent of the Legislative Power 134. THE great end of Mens entering into Society being the enjoyment of their Properties in Peace and Safety and the great instrument and means of that being the Laws establish'd in that Society The first and fundamental positive Law of all Commonwealths is the establishing of the Legislative Power as the first and fundamental natural Law which is to govern even the Legislative It self is the preservation of the Society and as far as will consist with the publick good of every person in it This Legislative is not only the supream power of the Commonwealth but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the Community have once placed it nor can any Edict of any Body else in what form soever conceived or by what Power soever backed have the force and obligation of a Law which has not its Sanction from that Legislative which the publick has chosen and appointed for without this the Law could not have that which is absolutely necessary to its being a Law the consent of the Society over whom no Body can have a power to make Laws but by their own consent and by Authority received from them and therefore-all the Obedience which by the most solemn ties any one can be obliged to pay ultimately terminates in this Supream Power and is directed by those Laws which it enacts nor can any Oaths to any Foreign Power whatsoever or any Domestick subordinate Power discharge any Member of the Society from his Obedience to the Legislative acting pursuant to their trust nor oblige him to any Obedience contrary to the Laws so enacted or farther than they do allow it being ridiculous to imagine one can be tied ultimately to obey any Power in the Society which is not the Supream 135. Though the Legislative whether placed in one or more whether it be always in being or only by intervals though it be the Supream Power in every Commonwealth yet First it is not nor can possibly be absolutely Arbitrary over the Lives and Fortunes of the People For it being but the joint power of every Member of the Society given up to that person or Assembly which is Legislator it can be no more than those persons had in a state of Nature before they enter'd into Society and gave it up to the Community For no Body can transfer to another more power than he has in himself and no Body has an absolute Arbitrary Power over himself or over any other to destroy his own Life or take away the Life or Property of another A Man as has been proved cannot subject himself to the Arbitrary Power of another and having in the state of Nature no Arbitrary Power over the Life Liberty or Possession of another but only so much as the Law of Nature gave him for the preservation of himself and the rest of Mankind this is all he doth or can give up to the Commonwealth and by it to the Legislative Power so that the Legislative can have no more than this Their Power in the utmost bounds of it is limited to the publick good of the Society It is a Power that hath no other end but preservation and therefore can never have a right to destroy enslave or designedly to impoverish the Subjects the obligations of the Law of Nature cease not in Society but only in many Cases are drawn closer and have by human Laws known Penalties annexed to them to inforce their observation Thus the Law of Nature stands as an Eternal Rule to all Men Legislators as well as others The Rules that they make for other Mens actions must as well as their own and other Mens actions be conformable to the Law of Nature i. e. to the will of God of which that is a Declaration and the fundamental Law of Nature being the preservation of Mankind no humane Sanction can be good or valid against it 136. Secondly The Legislative or Supream Authority cannot assume to its self a power to Rule by extemporary Arbitrary Decrees but is bound to dispense Justice and decide the Rights of the Subject by promulgated standing Laws and known Authoris'd Judges For the Law of Nature being unwritten and so no where to be found but in the minds of Men they who through Passion or Interest shall mis-cite or misapply it cannot so easily be convinced of their mistake where there is no establish'd Judge and so it serves not as it ought to determine the Rights and fence the Properties of those that live under it especially where every one is Judge Interpreter and Executioner of it too and that in his own Case and he that has right on his side having ordinarily but his own single strength hath not force enough to defend himself from Injuries or punish Delinquents To avoid these Inconveniencies which disorder Mens Properties in the state of Nature Men unite into Societies that they may have the united strength of the whole Society to secure and defend their Properties and may have standing Rules to bound it by which every one may know what is his To this end it is that Men give up all their natural power to the Society they enter into and the Community put the Legislative Power into such hands as they think fit with this trust that they shall be govern'd by declared Laws or else their Peace Quiet and Property will still be at the same uncertainty as it was in the state of Nature 137. Absolute Arbitrary Power or Governing without setled standing Laws can neither of them consist with the ends of Society and Government which Men would not quit the freedom of the state of Nature for and tie themselves up under were it not to preserve their Lives Liberties and Fortunes and by stated Rules of Right and Property to secure their Peace and Quiet It cannot be suppos'd that they should intend had
the whole Commonwealth in making of good Laws and Constitutions to any particular and private Ends of mine Thinking ever the Wealth and Weale of the Commonwealth to be my greatest Weale and worldly Felicity a Point wherein a lawful King doth directly differ from a Tyrant For I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of Difference that is between a rightful King and an usurping Tyrant is this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for satisfaction of his Desires and unreasonable Appetites the righteous and just King doth by the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the wealth and Property of his People And again in his Speech to the Parliament 1609 he hath these Words The KING binds himself by a double Oath to the observation of the fundamental Laws of his Kingdom Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect as well the People as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his Oath at his Coronation so as every just King in a setled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto according to that Paction which God made with Noah after the Deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease while the Earth remaineth And therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his Laws And a little after Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the Limits of their Laws And they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers Pests both against them and the Commonwealth Thus that learned King who well understood the Notions of things makes the difference betwixt a King and a Tyrant to consist only in this That one makes the Laws the Bounds of his Power and the Good of the publick the End of his Government The other makes all give way to his own Will and Appetite 201. 'T is a Mistake to think this Fault is proper only to Monarchies other Forms of Government are liable to it as well as that for where-ever the Power that is put in any hands for the Government of the People and the Preservation of their Properties is applied to other ends and made use of to impoverish harass or subdue them to the Arbitrary and Irregular Commands of those that have it There it presently becomes Tyranny whether those that thus use it are one or many Thus we read of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens as well as one at Syracuse and the intolerable Dominion of the Decemviri at Rome was nothing better 202. Where-ever Law ends Tyranny begins if the Law be transgressed to another's harm And whosoever in Authority exceeds the Power given him by the Law and makes use of the Force he has under his Command to compass that upon the Subject which the Law allows not ceases in that to be a Magistrate and acting without Authority may be opposed as any other Man who by force invades the Right of another This is acknowledged in subordinate Magistrates He that hath Authority to seize my Person in the street may be opposed as a Thief and a Robber if he indeavours to break into my House to execute a Writ notwithstanding that I know he has such a Warrant and such a legal Authority as will impower him to arrest me abroad And why this should not hold in the highest as well as in the most inferiour Magistrate I would gladly be informed Is it reasonable that the eldest Brother because he has the greatest part of his Father's Estate should thereby have a Right to take away any of his younger Brothers Portions Or that a rich Man who possessed a whole Countrey should from thence have a Right to seize when he pleased the Cottage and Garden of his poor Neighbour The being rightfully possessed of great Power and Riches exceedingly beyond the greatest part of the Son of Adam is so far from being an excuse much less a reason for Rapine and Oppression which the endamaging another without Authority is that it is a great Aggravation of it For the exceeding the Bounds of Authority is no more a Right in a great than a petty Officer no more justifiable in a King than a Constable But so much the worse in him as that he has more trust put in him is supposed from the advantage of Education and Counsellours to have better Knowledge and less reason to do it having already a greater share than the rest of his Brethren 203. May the Commands then of a Prince be opposed May he be resisted as often as any one shall find himself aggrieved and but imagine he has not Right done him This will unhinge and overturn all Politiâ—s and instead of Government and Order leave nothing but Anarchy and Confusion 204. To this I answer That Force is to be opposed to nothing but to unjust and unlawful Force who ever makes any opposition in any other Case draws on himself a just Condemation both from God and Man and so no such Danger or Confusion will follow as is often suggested For 205. First As in some Countries the Person of the Prince by the Law is Sacred and so what-ever he commands or does his Person is still free from all Question or Violence not liable to Force or any judicial Censure or Condemnation But yet opposition may be made to the illegal Acts of any inferiour Officer or other commissioned by him unless he will by actually putting himself into a State of War with his People dissolve the Government and leave them to that defence which belongs to every one in the state of Nature For of such things who can tell what the end will be And a Neighbour Kingdom has shewed the World an odd Example In all other Cases the Sacredness of the Person exempts him from all Inconveniencies whereby he is secure whilst the Government stands from all violence and harm whatsoever Than which there cannot be a wiser Constitution For the harm he can do in his own Person not being likely to happen often nor to extend it self far nor being able by his single strength to subvert the Laws nor oppress the Body of the People should any Prince have so much Weakness and ill Nature as to be willing to do it The Inconveniency of some particular mischiefs that may happen sometimes when a heady Prince comes to the Throne are well recompenced by the peace of the Publick and security of the Government in the Person of the chief Magistrate thus set out of the reach of danger It being safer for the Body that some few private Men should be sometimes in danger to suffer than that the Head of the Republick should be easily and upon slight occasions exposed 206. Secondly
Government That which makes the Community and brings Men out of the loose State of Nature into one Politick Society is the Agreement which every one has with the rest to incorporate and act as one Body and so be one distinct Commonwealth The usual and almost only way whereby this Union is dissolved is the Inroad of foreign Force making a Conquest upon them For in that Case not being able to maintain and support themselves as one intire and independent Body the Union belonging to that Body which consisted therein must necessarily cease and so every one return to the state he was in before with a liberty to shift for himself and provide for his own Safety as he thinks fit in some other Society Whenever the Society is dissolved 't is certain the Government of that Society cannot remain Thus Conquerors Swords often cut up Governments by the Roots and mangle Societies to pieces separating the subdued or scattered multitude from the Protection of and Dependence on that Society which ought to have preserved them from violence The World is too well instructed in and too forward to allow of this way of dissolving of Governments to need any more to be said of it and there wants not much Argument to prove that where the Society is dissolved the Government cannot remain that being as impossible as for the Frame of an house to subsist when the Materials of it are scattered and displaced by a Whirl-wind or jumbled into a confused heap by an Earthquake 212. Besides this over-turning from without Governments are dissolved from within First When the Legislative is altered Civil Society being a state of Peace amongst those who are of it from whom the state of War is excluded by the Umpirage which they have provided in their Legislative for the ending all differences that may arise amongst any of them 'T is in their Legislative that the Members of a Commonwealth are united and combined together into one coherent living Body This is the Soul that gives Form Life and Unity to the Commonwealth from hence the several Members have their mutual Influence Sympathy and Connexion and therefore when the Legislative is broken or dissolved Dissolution and Death follows For the Essence and Union of the Society consisting in having one Will the Legislative when once established by the Majority has the declaring and as it were keeping of that Will The Constitution of the Legislative is the first and fundamental Act of Society whereby provision is made for the Continuation of their Union under the Direction of Persons and Bonds of Laws made by Persons authorized thereunto by the Consent and Appointment of the People without which no one Man or number of Men amongst them can have Authority of making Laws that shall be binding to the rest When any one or more shall take upon them to make Laws whom the People have not appointed so to do they make Laws without Authority which the People are not therefore bound to obey by which means they come again to be out of subjection and may constitute to themselves a new Legislative as they think best being in full liberty to resist the force of those who without Authority would impose any thing upon them Every one is at the disposure of his own Will when those who had by the delegation of the Society the declaring of the publick Will are excluded from it and others usurp the place who have no such Authority or Delegation 213. This being usually brought about by such in the Commonwealth who mis-use the Power they have It is hard to consider it aright and know at whose door to lay it without knowing the Form of Government in which it happens Let us suppose then the Legislative placed in the Concurrence of three distinct Persons First A single hereditary Person having the constant supream executive Power and with it the Power of convoking and dissolving the other two within certain Periods of Time Secondly An Assemby of hereditary Nobility Thirdly An Assembly of Representatives chosen pro tempore by the People Such a Form of Government supposed it is evident 214. First That when such a single Person or Prince sets up his own Arbitrary Will in place of the Laws which are the Will of the Society declared by the Legislative then the Legislative is changed For that being in effect the Legislative whose Rules and Laws are put in execution and required to be obeyed when other Laws are set up and other Rules pretended and inforced than what the Legislative constituted by the Society have enacted 't is plain that the Legislative is changed Who-ever introduces new Laws not being thereunto authorized by the fundamental Appointment of the Society or subverts the old disowns and overturns the Power by which they were made and so sets up a new Legislative 215. Secondly When the Prince hinders the Legislative from assembling in its due time or from acting freely pursuant to those ends for which it was constituted the Legislative is altered For 't is not a certain number of Men no nor their meeting unless they have also Freedom of debating and Leisure of perfecting what is for the good of the Society wherein the Legislative consists when these are taken away or altered so as to deprive the Society of the due exercise of their Power the Legislative is truly altered For it is not Names that constitute Governments but the use and exercise of those Powers that were intended to accompany them so that he who takes away the Freedom or hinders the acting of the Legislative in its due seasons in effect takes away the Legislative and puts an end to the Government 216. Thirdly When by the Arbitrary Power of the Prince the Electours or ways of Election are altered without the Consent and contrary to the common Interest of the People there also the Legislative is altered For if others then those whom the Society hath authorized thereunto do chuse or in another way than what the Society hath prescribed those chosen are not the Legislative appointed by the People 217. Fourthly The delivery also of the People into the subjection of a foreign Power either by the Prince or by the Legislative is certainly a change of the Legislative and so a Dissolution of the Government For the end why People entered into Society being to be preserved one intire free independent Society to be governed by its own Laws this is lost when-ever they are given up into the Power of another 218. Why in such a Constitution as this the Dissolution of the Government in these Cases is to be imputed to the Prince is evident because he having the Force Treasure and Offices of the State to imploy and often perswading himself or being flattered by others that as supreme Magistrate he is uncapable of controul he alone is in a Condition to make great Advances toward such Changes under pretence of lawful Authority and has it in his hands to terrifie or
Abettors of his own Will for the true Representatives of the People and the Law-makers of the Society is certainly as great a breach of trust and as perfect a Declaration of a design to subvert the Government as is possible to be met with To which if one shall add rewards and punishments visibly imploy'd to the same end and all the arts of perverted Law made use of to take off and destroy all that stand in the way of such a design and will not comply and consent to betray the Liberties of their Country 't will be past doubt what is doing What Power they ought to have in the Society who thus imploy it contrary to the trust went along with it in its first Institution is easy to determine and one cannot but see that he who has once attempted any such thing as this cannot any longer be trusted 223. To this perhaps it will be said that the People being ignorant and always discontented to lay the Foundation of Government in the unsteady opinion and uncertain humour of the People is to expose it to certain ruin and no Government will be able long to subsist if the People may set up a new Legislative whenever they take offence at the old one To this I Answer quite the contrary People are not so easily got out of their old Forms as some are apt to suggest They are hardly to be prevailed with to amend the acknowledg'd Faults in the Frame they have been accustom'd to And if there be any original defects or adventitious ones introduced by time or corruption 't is not an easy thing to get them changed even when all the World sees there is an opportunity for it This slowness and aversion in the People to quit their old Constitutions has in the many Revolutions have been seen in this Kingdom in this and former Ages still kept us to or aftersome interval of fruitless attempts still brought us back again to our old Legislative of King Lords and Commons and whatever provocations have made the Crown be taken from some of our Princes Heads they never carried the people so far as to place it in another Line 224. But 't will be said this Hypothesis lays a ferment for frequent Rebellion To which I Answer First No more than any other Hypothesis For when the People are made miserable and find themselves exposed to the ill usage of Arbitrary Power cry up their Governours as much as you will for Sons of Iupiter let them be Sacred and Divine descended or authoriz'd from Heaven give them out for whom or what you please the same will happen The People generally ill treated and contrary to right will be ready upon any occasion to ease themselves of a burden that sits heavy upon them They will wish and seek for the opportunity which in the change weakness and accidents of human affairs seldom delays long to offer it self He must have lived but a little while in the World who has not seen Examples of this in his time and he must have read very little who cannot produce Examples of it in all sorts of Governments in the World 225. Secondly I Answer such Revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in publick affairs Great mistakes in the ruling part many wrong and inconvenient Laws and all the slips of human frailty will be born by the People without mutiny or murmur But if a long train of Abuses Prevarications and Artifices all tending the same way make the design visible to the People and they cannot but feel what they lye under and see whither they are going 't is not to be wonder'd that they should then rouze themselves and endeavour to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for which Government was at first erected and without which ancient Names and specious Forms are so far from being better that they are much worse than the state of Nature or pure Anarchy the inconveniencies being all as great and as near but the remedy farther off and more difficult 226. Thirdly I Answer that this Power in the People of providing for their safety anew by a new Legislative when their Legislators have acted contrary to their trust by invading their Property is the best fence against Rebellion and the probablest means to hinder it For Rebellion being an Opposition not to Persons but Authority which is founded only in the Constitutions and Laws of the Government those whoever they be who by force break through and by force jâ—stify their violation of them are truly and properly Rebels For when Men by entering into Society and civil Government have excluded force and introduced Laws for the preservation of Property Peace and Unity amongst themselves those who set up force again in opposition to the Laws do rebellare that is bring back again the state of War and are properly Rebels which they who are in Power by the pretence they have to Authority the temptation of force they have in their hands and the Flattery of those about them being likeliest to do the properest way to prevent the evil is to shew them the danger and injustice of it who are under the greatest temptation to run into it 227. In both the forementioned Cases when either the Legislative is changed or the Legislators act contrary to the end for which they were constituted those who are guilty are guilty of Rebellion For if any one by force takes away the establish'd Legislative of any Society and the Laws by them made pursuant to their trust he thereby takes away the Umpirage which every one had consented to for a peaceable decision of all their Controversies and a bar to the state of War amongst them They who remove or change the Legislative take away this decisive power which no Body can have but by the appointment and consent of the People and so destroying the Authority which the People did and no Body else can set up and introducing a Power which the People hath not authoriz'd actually introduce a state of War which is that of Force without Authority and thus by removing the Legislative establish'd by the Society in whose decisions the People acquiesced and united as to that of their own will they unty the Knot and expose the People anew to the state of War And if those who by force take away the Legislative are Rebels the Legislators themselves as has been shewn can be no less esteemed so when they who were set up for the protection and preservation of the People their Liberties and Properties shall by force invade and indeavour to take them away and so they putting themselves into a state of War with those who made them the Protectors and Guardians of their Peace are properly and with the greatest aggravation Rebellantes Rebels 228. But if they who say it lays a foundation for Rebellion mean that it may occasion civil Wars or intestine Broils to tell the People they are absolved from
contulit ac regnum quod liberum à majoribus populo traditum accepit alienae ditioni mancipavit Nam tunc quamvis forte non eâ mente id agit populo plane ut incommodet tamen quia quod praecipuum est regiae dignitatis amisit ut summus scilicet in regno secundum Deum sit solo Deo inferior atque populum etiam totum ignorantem vel invitum cujus libertatem sartam tectam conservare debuit in alterius gentis ditionem potestatem dedidit hác velut quadam regni abalienatione effecit ut nec quod ipse in regno imperium habuit râ—tineat nec in eum cui collatum voluit juris quicquam transeraâ— atque ita eo facto liberum jam suae potestatis populum relinquit cujus rei exemplum unum annales Scotici suppeditant Barclay contra Monarchom l. 3. c. 16. which may be thus Englished 237. What then Can there no Case happen wherein the people may of right and by their own Authority help themselves take Arms and set upon their King imperiously domineering over them None at all whilst he remains a King Honour the King and he that resists the Power resists the Ordinance of God are divine Oracles that will never permit it The People therefore can never come by a Power over him unless he does something that makes him cease to be a King For then he divests himself of his Crown and Dignity and returns to the state of a private Man and the People become free and superiour the Power which they had in the Interregnum before they Crown'd him King devolving to them again But there are but few miscarriages which bring the matter to this state After considering it well on all sides I can find but two Two Cases there are I say whereby a King ipso facto becomes no King and loses all Power and Regal Authority over his People which are also taken notice of by Winzerus The first is if he indeavour to overturn the Government that is if he have a purpose and design to ruin the Kingdom and Commonwealth as it is recorded of Nero that he resolved to cut off the Senate and People of Rome lay the City wast with Fire and Sword and then remove to some other place And of Caligula that he openly declar'd that he would be no longer a head to the People or Senate and that he had it in his thoughts to cut off the worthiest Men of both Ranks and then retire to Alexandria and he wisht that the People had but one Neck that he might dispatch them all at a blow Such designs as these when any King harbours in his thoughts and seriously promotes he immediately gives up all care and thought of the Commonwealth and consequently forfeits the Power of Governing his Subjects as a Master does the dominion over his Slaves whom he hath abandon'd 238. The other Case is When a King makes himself the dependent of another and subjects his Kingdom which his Ancestors left him and the People put free into his hands to the Dominion of another For however perhaps it may not be his intention to prejudice the People yet because he has hereby lost the principal part of Regal Dignity viz. to be next and immediately under God Supream in his Kingdom and also because he betray'd or forced his People whose liberty he ought to have carefully preserved into the Power and Dominion of a Foreign Nation By this as it were alienation of his Kingdom he himself loses the Power he had in it before without transferring any the least right to those on whom he would have bestowed it and so by this act sets the People free and leaves them at their own disposal One Example of this is to be found in the Scotch Annals 239. In these Cases Barclay the great Champion of Absolute Monarchy is forced to allow That a King may be resisted and ceases to be a King That is in short not to multiply Cases In whatsoever he has no Authority there he is no King and may be resisted For wheresoever the Authority ceases the King ceases too and becomes like other Men who have no Authority And these two Cases he instances in differ little from those above mention'd to be destructive to Governments only that he has omitted the Principle from which his Doctrine flows and that is The breach of trust in not preserving the Form of Government agreed on and in not intending the end of Government it self which is the publick good and preservation of Property When a King has Dethron'd himself and put himself in a state of War with his People what shall hinder them from prosecuting him who is no King as they would any other Man who has put himself into a state of War with them Barclay and those of his Opinion would do well to tell us Bilson a Bishop of our Church and a great Stickler for the Power and Prerogative of Princes does if I mistake not in his Treatise of Christian Subjection acknowledge That Princes may forfeit their Power and their title to the Obedience of their Subjects and if there needed authority in a Case where reason is so plain I could send my Reader to Bracton Fortescue and the Author of the Mirror and others Writers that cannot be suspected to be ignorant of our Government or Enemies to it But I thought Hooker alone might be enough to satisfie those Men who relying on him for their Ecclesiastical Polity are by a strange fate carried to deny those Principles upon which he builds it Whether they are herein made the Tools of Cunninger Workmen to pull down their own Fabrick they were best look This I am sure their civil Policy is so new so dangerous and so destructive to both Rulers and People that as former Ages never could bear the broaching of it so it may be hoped those to come redeem'd from the Impositions of these Egyptian Under-Taskmasters will abhor the Memory of such servile Platterers who whilst it seem'd to serve their turn resolv'd all Government into absolute Tyranny and would have all Men born to what their mean Souls fitted them Slavery 240. Here 't is like the common Question will be made who shall be Judge whether the Prince or Legislative act contrary to their Trust This perhaps ill-affected and factious Men may spread amongst the People when the Prince only makes use of his due Prerogative To this I reply The People shall be Judge for who shall be Judge whether his Trustee or Deputy acts well and according to the Trust reposed in him but he who deputes him and must by having deputed him have still a Power to discard him when he fails in his Trust If this be reasonable in particular Cases of private Men why should it be otherwise in that of the greatest moment where the Welfare of Millions is concerned and also where the evil if not prevented is greater and the Redress
very difficult dear and dangerous 241. But farther this Question Who shall be Judge cannot mean that there is no Judge at all For where there is no Judicature on Earth to decide Controversies amongst Men God in Heaven is Judge He alone 't is true is Judge of the Right But every Man is Judge for himself as in all other Cases so in this whether another hath put himself into a State of War with him and whether he should appeal to the Supreme Judge as Iephtha did 242. If a Controversie arise betwixt a Prince and some of the People in a matter where the Law is silent or doubtful and the thing be of great Consequence I should think the proper Umpire in such a Case should be the Body of the People For in Cases where the Prince hath a Trust reposed in him and is dispensed from the common ordinary Rules of the Law there if any Men find themselves aggrieved and think the Prince acts contrary to or beyond that Trust who so proper to judge as the Body of the People who at first lodg'd that Trust in him how far they meant it should extend But if the Prince or who-ever they be in the Administration decline that way of Determination the Appeal then lies no where but to Heaven Force between either Persons who have no known Superiour on Earth or which permits no Appeal to a Judge on Earth being properly a State of War wherein the Appeal lies only to Heaven and in that State the injured Party must judge for himself when he will think fit to make use of that Appeal and put himself upon it 243. To conclude The Power that every individual gave the Society when he entered into it can never revert to the Individuals again as long as the Society lasts but will always remain in the Community because without this there can be no Community no Commonwealth which is contrary to the original Agreement so also when the Society hath placed the Legislative in any Assembly of Men to continue in them and their Successors with Direction and Authority for providing such Successors the Legislative can never revert to the People whilst that Government lasts Because having provided a Legislative with Power to continue for ever they have given up their Political Power to the Legislative and cannot resume it But if they have set Limits to the Duration of their Legislative and made this Supreme Power in any Person or Assembly only temporary Or else when by the Miscarriages of those in Authority it is forfeited upon the Forfeiture of their Rulers or at the Determination of the Time set it reverts to the Society and the People have a Right to act as Supreme and continue the Legislative in themselves or place it in a new Form or new hands as they think good FINIS * In Grants and Gifts that have their Origiginal from God or Nature as the Power of the Father hath no inferior Power of Man can limit nor make any Law of prescription against them O. 158. †The Scripture teaches that Supreme Power was Originally in the Father without any limitation O. 245. It is no improbable Opinion therefore which the Arch-Philosopher was of That the chief Person in every Houshold was always as it were a King so when Numbers of Housholds joyn'd themselves in civil Societies together Kings were the first kind of Governours amongst them which is also as it seemeth the reason why the name of Fathers continued still in them who of Fathers were made Rulers as also the ancient Custom of Governours to do as Melchizedec and being Kings to exercise the Office of Priests which Fathers did at the first grew perhaps by the same Occasion Howbeit this is not the only kind of Regiment that has been received in the World The Inconveniences of one kind have caused sundry other to be devised so that in a word all publique Regiment of what kind soever seemeth evidently to have risen from the deliberate Advice Consultation and Composition between Men judging it convenient and behovefull there being no impossibility in Nature considered by it self but that Man might have lived without any publique Regiment Hooker's Eccl. l. 1. §. 10. The publick Power of all Society is above every Soul contained in the same Society and the principal use of that power is to give Laws unto all that are under it which Laws in such Cases we must obey unless there be reason shew'd which may necessarily inforce that the Law of Reason or of God doth injoin the contrary Hook Eccl. Pol. 1. §. 16. To take away all such mutual Grievances Injuries and Wrongs i. e. such as attend Men in the state of Nature There was no way but only by growing into Composition and Agreement amongst themselves by ordaining some kind of Government publick and by yielding themselves subject thereunto that unto whom they granted Authority to rule and govern by them the Peace Tranquillity and happy Estate of the rest might be procured Men always knew that where Force and Injury was offered they might be Defenders of themselves they knew that however Men may seek their own Commodity yet if this were done with Injury unto others it was not to be suffered but by all Men and all good means to be withstood Finally they knew that no Man might in reason take upon him to determine his own Right and according to his own Determination proceed in maintenance thereof in as much as every man is towards himself and them whom he greatly affects partial and therefore that Strifes and Troubles would be endless except they gave their common Consent all to be ordered by some whom they should agree upon without which Consent there would â—e no reason that one man should take upon him to be Lord or Iudge over another Hooker's Eccl. Pol. l. 1. §. 10. At the first when some certain kind of Regiment was once appointed it may be that nothing was then farther thought upon for the manner of governing but all permitted unto their Wisdom and Discretion which were to Rule till by experience they found this for all parts very inconvenient so as the thing which they had devised for a Remedy did indeed but increase the Sore which it should have cured They saw that to live by one Man's Will became the cause of all Mens misery This constrained them to come unto Laws wherein all Men might see their Duty beforehand and know the Penalties of transgressing them Hooker's Eccl. Pol. l. 1. §. 10. Civil Law being the Act of the whole Body Politick doth therefore over-rule each several part of the same Body Hooker ibid. At first when some certain kind of Regiment was once approved it may be nothing was then further thought upon for the manner of governing but all permitted unto their Wisdom and Discretion which were to Rule till by experience they found this for all parts very inconvenient so as the thing which they had devised for a Remedy did indeed but increase the Sore which it should have cured They saw that to live by one Man's Will became the cause of all Mens misery This constrained them to come unto Laws wherein all Men might see their Duty beforehand and know the Penalties of transgressing them Hooker's Eccl. Pol. l. 1. §. 10. The lawful Power of making Laws to Command whole Politick Societies of Men belonging so properly unto the same intire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same of himself and not by express Commission immediately and personally received from God or else by authority derived at the first from their consent upon whose persons they impose Laws it is no better than meer Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which publick approbation hath not made so Hooker's Eccl Pol. l. 1. §. 10. Of this point therefore we are to note that sith Men naturally have no full and perfect Power to Command whole politick multitudes of Men therefore utterly without our Consent we could in such sort be at no Mans Commandment living And to be commanded we do consent when that Society whereof we be a part hath at any time before consented without revoking the same after by the like universal agreement Laws therefore human of what kind soever are available by consent Ibid. Two Foundations there are which bear up publick Societies the one a natural inclination whereby all Men desire sociable Life and Fellowship the other an Order expresly or secretly agreed upon touching the manner of their union in living together the latter is that which we call the Law of a Commonweal the very Soul of a politick Body the parts whereof are by Law animated held together and set on work in such actions as the common good requireth Lawâ— politick ordain'd for external order and regiment amongst Men are never framed as they should be unless presuming the will of Man to be inwardly obstinate â—rebellious and averse from all obedience to the sacred Laws of his nature in a word unless presuming Man to be in regard of his depraved Mind little better than a wild Beast they do accordingly provide notwithstanding so to frame his outward actions that they be no hindrance unto the common good for which Societies are instituted Vnless they do this they are not perfect Hooker's Ec. Pol. l. 1. §. 10. Humane Laws are measures in respect of Men whose actions they must direct howbeit such measures they are as have also their higher Rules to be measured by which Rules are two the Law of God and the Law of Nature so that Laws humane must be made according to the general Laws of Nature and without contradiction to any positive Law of Scripture otherwise they are ill made Ibid. l. 3. § 9. To constrain Men to any thing inconvenient doth seem unreasonable Ibid. l. 1. §. 10.
surpize of it hath made me pass by without their due reflection the contradictions he runs into by making sometimes Inheritance alone sometimes only Grant or Inheritance sometimes only Inheritance or Vsurpation sometimes all these three and at last Election or any other means added to them the ways whereby Adams Royal Authority that is his right to Supream Rule could be convey'd down to future Kings and Governors so as to give them a Title to the Obedience and Subjection of the People but these contradictions lye so open that the very reading of our A s own words will discover them to any ordinary understanding and though what I have quoted out of him with abundance more of the same Strain and Coherence which might be found in him might well excuse me from any farther trouble in this Argument yet having proposed to my self to examin the main parts of his Doctrin I shall a little more particularly consider how Inheritanee Grant Vsurpation or Eleâ—tion can any way make out Government in the World upon his Principles or derive any lawful Title to any ones Obedience from this Regal Authority of Adam had it been never so well proved that he had been Absolute Monarch and Lord of the whole World CHAP. IX Of Monarchy by Inheritance from Adam 81. THough it be never so plain that there ought to be Government in the World nay should all Men be of our A s mind that divine appointment had ordained it to be Monarchical yet since Men cannot obey any thing that cannot command and Ideas of Government in the Phansy though never so perfect never so right cannot give Laws nor prescribe Rules to the Actions of Men It would be of no behoof for the setling of Order and Establishment of Government in its Exercise and Use amongst Men unless there were a way also taught how to know the Person to whom it belonged to have this Power and Exercise this Dominion over others 'T is in vain then to talk of Subjection and Obedience without telling us whom we are to obey For were I never so fully perswaded that there ought to be Magistracy and Rule in the World yet I am never the less at Liberty still till it appears who is the Person that hath Right to my Obedience since if there be no marks to know him by and distinguish him that hath Right to Rule from other Men it may be my self as well as any other And therefore though Submission to Government be every ones duty yet since that signifies nothing but submitting to the Direction and Laws of such Men as have Authority to command 't is not enough to make a Man a Subject to convince him that there is Regal Power in the World but there must be ways of designing and knowing the Person to whom this Regal Power of Right belongs and a Man can never be obliged in conscience to submit to any Power unless he can be satisfied who is the Person who has a Right to Exercise that Power over him If this were not so there would be no distinction between Pirates and Lawful Princes he that has Force is without any more ado to be obey'd and Crowns and Scepters would become the Inheritance only of Violence and Rapin Men too might as often and as innocently change their Governors as they do their Physitians if the Person cannot be known who has a right to direct me and whose Prescriptions I am bound to follow To settle therefore Mens Consciences under an Obligation to Obedience 't is necessary that they know not only that there is a Power somewhere in the World but the Person who by Right is vested with this Power over them 82. How Successful our A has been in his attempts to set up a Monarchical Absolute Power in Adam the Reader may Judge by what has been already said but were that Absolute Monarchy as clear as our A would desire it as I presume it is the contrary yet it could be of no use to the Govrenment of Mankind now in the World unless he also make out these two things First That this Power of Adam was not to end with him but was upon his Decease conveyed entire to some other Person and so on to Posterity Secondly That the Princes and Rulers now on Earth are possessed of this Power of Adam by a right way of conveyance derived to them 83. If the first of these fail the Power of Adam were it never so great never so certain will signifie nothing to the present Government and Societies in the World but we must seek out some other Original of Power for the Government of Polity's then this of Adam or else there will be none at all in the World If the latter fail it will destroy the Authority of the present Governors and absolve the People from Subjection to them since they having no better a Claim then others to that Power which is alone the Fountain of all Authority can have no Title to Rule over them 84. Our A having Phansied an Absolute Sovereignty in Adam mentions several ways of its conveyance to Princes that were to be his Successors but that which he cheifly insists on is that of Inheritance which occurs so often in his several Discourses and I having in the foregoing Chapter quoted several of these passages I shall not need here again to repeat them this Sovereignty he erects as had been said upon a double Foundation viz. that of Property and that of Fatherhood one was the right he was supposed to have in all Creatures a right to possess the Earth with the Beasts and other inferior Ranks of things in it for his Private use exclusive of all other Men. The other was the Right he was supposed to have to Rule and Govern Men all the rest of Mankind 85. In both these Rights there being supposed an exclusion of all other Men it must be upon some reason peculiar to Adam that they must both be founded That of his Property our A supposes to arise from Gods immediate Donation Gen. 1. 28. and that of Fatherhood from the Act of Begetting now in all Inheritance if the Heir succeed not to the reason upon which his Fathers Right was founded he cannot succeed to the Right which followed from it For Example Adam had a Right of Property in the Creatures upon the Donation and Grant of God Almighty who was Lord and Proprietor of them all let this be so as our A tells us yet upon his death his Heir can have no Title to them no such right of Property in them unless the same reason viz. Gods Donation vested a right in the Heir too for if Adam could have had no Property in nor use of the Creatures without this positive Donation from God and this Donation were only Personally to Adam his Heir could have no right by it but upon his death it must revert to God the Lord and Owner again for positive Grants give no Title farther then
mighty consequence upon so doubtful and obscure a place of Scripture which may be well nay better understood in a quite different Sense and so can be but an ill Proof being as doubtful as the thing to be proved by it especially when there is nothing else in Scripture or Reason to be found that favours or supports it 113. It follows p. 19. Accordingly when Iacob bought his Brothers Birth-right Isaac Blessed him thus be Lord over thy Brethren and let the Sons of thy Mother bow before thee another instance I take it brought by our A to evince Dominion due to Birth-right and an admirable one it is for it must be no ordinary way of reasoning in a Man that is pleading for the natural Power of Kings and against all compact to bring for Proof of it an example where his own account of it founds all the right upon compact and settles Empire in the Younger Brother unless buying and selling be no compact for he tells us when Iacob bought his Brothers Birth-right But passing by that let us consider the History it self with what ufe our A makes of it and we shall find these following mistakes about it 1 o. That our A reports this as if Isaac had given Iacob this Blessing immediately upon his Purchasing the Birth-right for he says when Iacob bought Isaac Blessed him which is plainly otherwise in the Scripture for it appears there was a distance of time between and if we will take the Story in the order it lies it must be no small distance All Isaacs Sojourning in Gerar and Transactions with Abimelech Gen. 26. coming between Rebeka being then Beautiful and consequently young but Isaac when he Blessed Iacob was old and decrepit And Esau also complains of Iacob Gen. 27. 36. that two times he had Supplanted him he took away my Birth-right says he and behold now he hath taken away my Blessing words that I think signifies distance of time and difference of Action 2 o. Another mistake of our A s is that he supposes Isaac gave Iacob the Blessing and bid him be Lord over his Brethren because he had the Birth right for our A brings this example to prove that he that has the Birth-right has thereby a right to be Lord over his Brethren But it is also manifest by the Text that Isaac had no consideration of Iacobs having bought the Birth right for when he Blessed him he considered him not as Iacob but took him for Esau nor did Esau understand any such connexion between Birth-right and the Blessing for he says he hath Supplanted me these two times he took away my Birth-right and behold now he hath taken away my Blessing whereas had the Blessing which was to be Lord over his Brethren belong'd to the Birth-right Esau could not have complain'd of this second as a Cheat Iacob having got nothing but what Esau had sould him when he sould him his Birth-right so that it is plain Dominion if these words signifie it was not understood to belong to the Birth-right 114. And that in those days of the Patriarchs Dominion was not understood to be the Right of the Heir but only a greater Portion of goods is plain from Gen. 21. 10. for Sarah taking Isaac to be Heir says cast out this Bond-woman and her Son for the Son of this Bond-woman shall not be Heir with my Son whereby could be meant nothing but that he should not have a pretence to an equal share of his Fathers Estate after his death but should have his Portion presently and be gone Accordingly we read Gen. 25. 5 6. That Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the Sons of the Concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave Gifts and sent them away from Isaac his Son while he yet lived That is Abraham having given Portions to all his other Sons and sent them away that which he had reserved being the greatest part of his substance Isaac as Heir Possessed after his death but by being Heir he had no Right to be Lord over his Brethren For if he had why should Sarah desire to rob him of one of his Subjects his Slaves by desiring to have him sent away 115. Thus as under the Law the Priviledge of Birth-right was nothing but a double Portion so we see that before Moses in the Patriarchs time from whence our A pretends to take his model there was no knowledge no thought that Birth-right gave Rule or Empire Paternal or Kingly Authority to any one over his Brethren which if it be not plain enough in the Story of Isaac and Ishmael let them look into 1 Chron. 5. 12. and there he may read these words Ruben was the first Born but for as much as he desiled his Fathers Bed his Birth-right was given unto the Sons of Ioseph the Son of Israeel and the Geneology is not to be reckon'd after the Birth-right For Iudah prevailed above his Brethren and of him came the cheif Ruler but the Birth-right was Iosephs and what this Birth-right was Iacob Blessing Ioseph Gen. 58. 22. telleth us in these words Moreover I have given thee one Portion above thy Brethren which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my Sword and with my Bow whereby it is not only plain that the Birth-right was nothing but a double Portion but the Text in Chron. is express against our A s Doctrin shews that Dominion was no part of the Birth-right for it tells us that Ioseph had the Birth-right but Iudah the Dominion But one would think our A were very fond of the very name of Birth-right when he brings this instance of Iacob and Esau to prove that Dominion belongs to the Heir over his Brethren 116. 1 o. Because it will be but an ill example to prove that Dominion by Gods Ordination belonged to the Eldest Son because Iacob the Youngest here had it let him come by it how he would For if it prove any thing it can only prove against our A that the Assignment of Dominion to the Eldest is not by Divine Institution which would then be unalterable For if by the Law of God or Nature Absolute Power and Empire belongs to the Eldest Son and his Heirs so that they are Supream Monarchs and all the rest of their Brethren Slaves our A gives us reason to doubt whether the Eldest Son has a Power to part with it to the prejudice of his Posterity since he tells us O. 158. that in Grants and Gifts that have their Original from God or nature no inferior Power of Man can limit or make any Law of Prescription against them 117. 2 o. Because this place Gen. 27. 29. brought by our A concerns not at all the Dominion of one Brother over the other nor the Subjection of Esau to Iacob for 't is plain in the History that Esau was never Subject to Iacob but lived a part in Mount Seir where he founded a distinct People and Government and was himself Prince
gave not only to David but his Seed also And however our A assures us that God intends that the Issue should have the benefit of it when he chooses any Person to be King yet we see that the Kingdom he gave to Saul without mentioning his Seed after him never came to any of his Issue and why when God chose a Person to be King he should intend that his Issue should have the benefit of it more then when he chose one to be Judg in Israel I would fain know a reason or why does a Grant of Fatherly Authority to a King more comprehend the Issue then when a like Grant is made to a Judge Is Paternal Authority by Right to descend to the Issue of one and not of the other there will need some Reason to be shewn of this difference more then the name when the thing given is the same Fatherly Authority and the manner of giving it Gods choice of the Person for I suppose our A when he says God raised up Iudges will by no means allow they were chosen by the People 168. But since our A has so confidently assured us of the care of God to preserve the Fatherhood and pretends to build all he says upon the Authority of the Scripture we may well expect that that People whose Law Constitution and History is chiefly contain'd in the Scripture should furnish him with the clearest Instances of Gods care of preserving of the Fatherly Authority in that People who 't is agreed he had a most peculiar care of let us see then what State this Paternal Authority or Government was in amongst the Iews from their beginning to be a People It was omitted by our A s confession from their coming into Egypt till their return out of that Bondage above 200 Years From thence till God gave the Israelites a King about 400 Years more our A gives but a very slender account of it nor indeed all that time are there the least Footsteps of Paternal or Regal Government amongst them But then says our A God Re-establish'd the Ancient and Prime Right of lineal Succession to Paternal Government 169. What a Lineal Succession to Paternal Government was then Establish'd we have already seen I only now consider how long this lasted and that was to their Captivity about 500 Years From whence to their Destruction by the Romans above 650 Years after the Ancient and Prime Right of lineal Succession to Paternal Government was again lost and they continued a People in the promised Land without it so that of 1750 Years that they were Gods peculiar People they had Hereditary Kingly Government amongst them not one third of the time and of that time there is not the leaft Footsteps of one moment of Paternal Government nor the Re-establishment of the Ancient and Prime Right of lineal Succession to it whether we suppose it to be derived as from its Fountain from David Saul Abraham or which upon our A s Principles is the only true From Adam **** AN ESSAY Concerning the True Oringinal Extent and End OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. IT having been shewn in the foregoing Discourse 1 o. That Adam had not either by natural Right of Fatherhood or by positive Donation from God any such Authority over his Children nor Dominion over the World as is pretended 2 o. That if he had his Heirs yet had no Right to it 3 o. That if his Heirs had there being no Law of Nature nor positive Law of God that determins which is the Right Heir in all Cases that may arise the Right of Succession and consequently of bearing Rule could not have been certainly determined 4 o. That if even that had been determined yet the knowledge of which is the Eldest Line of Adams Posterity being so long since utterly lost that in the Races of Mankind and Families of the World there remains not to one above another the least pretence to be the Eldest House and to have the Right of Inheritance All these premises having as I think been clearly made out it is impossible that the Rulers now on Earth should make any benefit or derive any the least shadow of Authority from that which is held to be the Fountain of all Power Adams Private Dominion and Paternal Iurisdiction so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all Government in the World is the product only of Force and Violence and that Men live together by no other Rules but that of Beasts where the strongest carries it and so lay a Foundation for perpetual Disorder and Mischeif Tumult Sedition and Rebellion things that the followers of that Hipothesis so loudly cry out against must of necessity find out another rise of Government another Original of Political Power and another way of designing and knowing the Persons that have it then what Sr. Robt. E. hath taught us 2. To this purpose I think it may not be amiss to set down what I take to be Political Power That the Power of a Magistrate over a Subject may be distinguished from that of a Father over his Children a Master over his Servant a Husband over his Wife and a Lord over his Slave All which distinct Powers happening sometimes together in the same Man if he be considered under these different Relations it may help us to distinguish these Powers one from another and shew the difference betwixt a Ruler of a Common-wealth a Father of a Family and a Captain of a Gally 3. Political Power then I take to be a Right of making Laws with Penalties of death and consequently all less Penalties for the Regulating and Preserving of Property and of employing the force of the Community in the Execution of such Laws and in the defence of the Common-wealth from Foreign Injury and all this only for the Public Good CHAP. II. Of the State of Nature 4. TO understand Political Power a right and derive it from its Original we must consider what Estate all Men are naturally in and that is a State of perfect Freedom to order their Actions and dispose of their Possessions and Persons as they think fit within the bounds of the Law of Nature without asking leave or depending upon the Will of any other Man A State also of Equality wherein all the Power and Jurisdiction is reciprocal no one having more then another there being nothing more evident then that Creatures of the same species and rank promiscuously born to all the same advantages of Nature and the use of the same faculties should also be equal one amongst another without Subordination or Subjection unless the Lord and Master of them all should by any manifest Declaration of his Will set one above another and confer on him by an evident and clear appointment an undoubted Right to Dominion and Sovereignty 5. This equality of Men by Nature the Judicious Hooker looks upon as so evident in it self and beyond all question that he makes
receives damage by his transgression in which Case he who hath received any damage has besides the Right of punishment common to him with other Men a particular Right to seek Reparation from him that has done it And any other Person who finds it just may also joyn with him that is injur'd and assist him in recovering from the Offender so much as may make satisfaction for the harm he has suffer'd 11. From these two distinct Rights the one of Punishing the Crime for restraint and preventing the like Offence which right of punishing is in every body the other of taking reparation which belongs only to the injured party comes it to pass that the Magistrate who by being Magistrate hath the common right of punishing put into his hands can often where the public good demands not the Execution of the Law remit the punishment of Criminal Offences by his own Authority but yet cannot remit the satisfaction due to any Private Man for the damage he has received That he who has suffered the damage has a Right to demand in his own name and he alone can remit The damnified Person has this Power of appropriating to himself the Goods or Service of the Offender by Right of self Preservation as every Man has a Power to punish the Crime to prevent its being committed again by the Right he has of Preserving all Mankind and doing all reasonable things he can in order to that end And thus it is that every Man in the State of Nature has a Power to kill a muderer both to deter others from doing the like injury which no reparation can compensate by the Example of the punishment that attends it from every body and also to secure Men from the attempts of a Criminal who having renounced reason the common Rule and Measure God hath given to Mankind hath by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one declared War against all Mankind and therefore may be destroyed as a Lion or a Tiger one of those wild Savage Beasts with whom Men can have no Society nor Security And upon this is grounded that great Law of Nature who so sheddeth Mans Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And Cain was so fully convinced that every one had a Right to destroy such a Criminal that after the Murther of his Brother he cries out every one that findeth me shall slay me so plain was it writ in the Hearts of all Mankind 12. By the same reason may a Man in the State of Nature punish the lesser breaches of that Law It will perhaps be demanded with death I answer each transgression may be punished to that Degree and with so much Severity as will suffice to make it an ill bargain to the Offender give him Cause to repent and terrifie others from doing the like Every Offence that can be committed in the State of Nature may in the State of Nature be also punished equally and as far forth as it may in a Common-wealth for though it would be besides my present purpose to enter here into the particulars of the Law of Nature or its measures of punishmentâ— yet it is certain there is such a Law and that too as intelligible and plain to a rational Creature and a Studier of that Law as the positive Laws of Common-wealths nay possibly plainer As much as reason is easier to be understood then the Phansies and intricate Contrivances of Men following contrary and hidden interests put into Words For truly so are a great part of the municipal Laws of Countries which are only so far Right as they are founded on the Law of Nature by which they are to be regulated and interpreted 13. To this strange Doctrine viz. That in the State of Nature every one has the Executive Power of the Law of Nature I doubt not but it will be objected That it is unreasonable for Men to be Judges in their own Cases that self love will make Men partial to themselves and their Friends And on the other side ill Nature Passion and Revenge will carry them too far in punishing others And hence nothing but confusion and disorder will follow and that therefore God hath certainly appointed Government to restrain the partiality and violence of Men I easily Grant that Civil Government is the proper Remedy for the Inconveniences of the State of Nature which must certainly be Great where Men may be Judges in their own Case since 't is easiy to be imagined that he who was so unjust as to do his Brother an Injury will scarce be so just as to condemn himself for it But I shall desire those who make this Objection to remember that Absolute Monarchs are but Men and if Government is to be the Remedy of those Evils which necessarily follow from Mens being Judges in their own Cases and the State of Nature is therefore not to be endured I desire to know what kind of Government that is and how much better it is then the State of Nature where one Man commanding a multitude has the Liberty to be Judge in his own Case and may do to all his Subjects whatever he pleases without the least question or controle of those who Execute his Pleasure And in whatsoever he doth whether lead by reason mistake or passion must be submitted to Which Men in the State of Nature are not bound to do one to another And if he that Judges Judges amiss in his own or any other Case he is answerable for it to the rest of Mankind 14. 'T is often asked as a mighty Objection where are or ever were there any Men in such a State of Nature To which it may suffice as an answer at present That since all Princes and Rulers of Independant Governments all through the World are in a State of Nature 't is plain the World never was nor never will be without numbers of Men in that State I have named all Governors of Independent Communities whether they are or are not in League with others For 't is not every compact that puts an end to the State of Nature between Men but only this one of agreeing together mutually to enter into one Community and make one body Politic other promises and compacts Men may make one with another and yet still be in the State of Nature The promises and bargains for Truck c. Between the two Men in Soldania in or between a Swiss and an Indian in the Woods of America are binding to them though they are perfectly in a State of Nature in reference to one another for Truth and keeping of Faith belongs to Men as Men and not as Members of Society 15. To those that say there were never any Men in the State of Nature I will not only oppose the Authority of the Judicious Hooker Eccl. Pol. Li. 1 Sect. 10. where he says The Laws which have been hitherto mentioned i. e. the Laws of Nature do bind Men Absolutely even as they
are Men although they have never any settled fellowship never any Solemn Agreement amongst themselves what to do or not to do but for as much as we are not by our selves sufficient to furnish our selves with competent store of things needful for such a Life as our Nature doth desire a Life fit for the dignity of Man therefore to supply those defects and imperfections which are in us as living single and solely by our selves we are naturally induced to seek Communion and Fellowship with others this was the Cause of Mens uniting themselves at first in Politic Societies But I Moreover affirm that all Men are naturally in that State and remain so till by their own consents they make themselves Members of some Politic Society and I doubt not in the Sequel of this Discourse to make it very clear CHAP. III. Of the State of War 16. THE State of War is a State of Enmity and Destruction And therefore declaring by Word or Action not a passionate and hasty but sedate setled Design upon another Mans Life puts him in a State of War with him against whom he has declared such an Intention and so has exposed his Life to the others Power to be taken away by him or any one that joyns with him in his Defence and espouses his Quarrel it being reasonable and just I should have a Right to destroy that which threatens me with Destruction For by the Fundamental Law of Nature Man being to be preserved as much as possible when all cannot be preserved the safety of the Innocent is to be preferred And one may destroy a Man who makes War upon him or has discovered an Enmity to his being for the same Reason that he may kill a Wolf or a Lion because they are not under the ties of the Common Law of Reason have no other Rule but that of Force and Violence and so may be treated as a Beast of Prey those dangerous and noxious Creatures that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their Power 17. And hence it is that he who attempts to get an other Man into his Absolute Power does thereby put himself into a State of War with him It being to be understood as a Declaration of a Design upon his Life For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his Power without my Consent would use me as he pleased when he had got me there and destroy me too when he had a phansy to it for no body can desire to have me in his Absolute Power unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the Right of my Freedom i. e. make me a Slave To be free from such force is the only security of my Preservation and reason bids me look on him as an Enemy to my Preservation who would take away that Freedom which is the Fence to it so that he who makes an attempt to enslave me thereby puts himself into a State of War with me He that in the State of Nature would take away the Freedom that belongs to any one in that State must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away every thing else that Freedom being the Foundation of all the rest As he that in the State of Society would take away the Freedom belonging to those of that Society or Common-wealth must be supposed to design to take away from them every thing else and so be looked on as in a State of War 18. This makes it Lawful for a Man to kill a Theif who has not in the least hurt him nor declared any design upon his Life any farther then by the use of Force so to get him in his Power as to take away his Money or what he pleases from him because using force where he has no Right to get me into his Power let his pretence be what it will I have no reason to suppose that he who would take away my Liberty would not when he had me in his Power take away every thing else And therefore it is Lawful for me to treat him as one who has put himself into a State of War with me i. e. kill him if I can For to that hazard does he justly expose himself whoever introduces a State of War and is aggresser in it 19. And here we have the plain difference between the State of Nature and the State of War which however some Men have confounded are as far distant as a State of Peace Goodwill mutual Assistance and Preservation and a State of Enmity Malice Violence and Mutual Destruction are one from another Men living together according to reason without a common Superior on Earth with Authority to judge between them is properly the State of Nature But force or a declared design of force upon the Person of another where there is no common Superior on Earth to appeal to for relief is the State of War And 't is the want of such an appeal gives a Man the Right of War even against an aggressor though he be in Society and a fellow Subject Thus a Theif whom I cannot harm but by appeal to the Law for having stolen all that I am worth I may kill when he sets on me to rob me but of my Horse or Coat because the Law which was made for my Preservation where it cannot interpose to secure my Life from present force which if lost is capeable of no reparation permits me my own Defence and the Right of War a liberty to kill the aggressor because the aggressor allows not time to appeal to our common Judge nor the decision of the Law for remedy in a Case where the mischief may be irreparable Want of a common Judge with Authority puts all Men in a State of Nature Force without Right upon a Mans Person makes a State of War both where there is and is not a common Judge 20. But when the actual force is over the State of War ceases between those that are in Society and are equally on both sides Subject to the Judge And therefore in such controversies where the question is put who shall be Iudge It cannot be meant who shall decide the controversie every one knows what Iephtha here tells us that the Lord the Iudge shall Judge Where there is no Judge on Earth the Appeal lies to God in Heaven That question then cannot mean who shall Judge whether another hath put himself in a State of War with me and whether I may as Iephtha did appeal to Heaven in it Of that I my self can only be Judge in my own Conscience as I will answer it at the great day to the Supream Judge of all Men. CHAP. IV. Of SLAVERY 22. THE natural Liberty of Man is to be free from any Superiour Power on Earth and not to be under the Will or Legislative Authority of Man but to have only the Law of Nature for his Rule The Liberty of Man in Society is to be under
share with the Father 65. Nay this power so little belongs to the Father by any peculiar right of Nature but only as he is Guardian of his Children that when he quits his Care of them he loses his power over them which goes along with their Nourishment and Education to which it is inseparably annexed and belongs as much to the Foster-Father of an exposed Child as to the Natural Father of another So little power does the bare act of begetting give a Man over his Issue if all his Care ends there and this be all the Title he hath to the Name and Authority of a Father and what will become of this Paternal Power in that part of the World where one Woman hath more than one Husband at a time Or in those parts of America where when the Husband and Wife part which happens frequently the Children are all left to the Mother follow her and are wholly under her Care and Provision And if the Father die whilst the Children are young do they not naturally every where owe the same Obedience to their Mother during their Minority as to their Father were he alive And will any one say that the Mother hath a legislative Power over her Children that she can make standing Rules which shall be of perpetual Obligation by which they ought to regulate all the Concerns of their Property and bound their Liberty all the course of their Lives and inforce the observation of them with Capital Punishments For this is the proper power of the Magistrate of which the Father hath not so much as the shadow His Command over his Children is but temporary and reaches not their Life or Property It is but a help to the weakness and imperfection of their Non-age a Discipline necessary to their Education and though a Father may dispose of his own Possessions as he pleases when his Children are out of danger of perishing for want yet his power extends not to the lives or goods which either their own industry or anothers bounty has made theirs nor to their liberty neither when they are once arrived to the infranchisement of the years of discretion The Father's Empire then ceases and he can from thence forwards no more dispose of the liberty of his Son than that of any other Man And it must be far from an absolute or perpetual Jurisdiction from which a Man may withdraw himself having Licence from Divine Authority to leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife 66. But though there be a time when a Child comes to be as free from subjection to the will and Command of his Father as he himself is free from subjection to the will of any body else and they are both under no other restraint but that which is common to them both whether it be the Law of Nature or municipal Law of their Country yet this freedom exempts not a Son from that honour which he ought by the Law of God and Nature to pay his Parents God having made the Parents Instruments in his great design of continuing the Race of Mankind and the occasions of Life to their Children as he hath laid on them an obligation to nourish preserve and bring up their Off-spring so he has laid on the Children a perpetual obligation of honouring their Parents which containing in it an inward esteem and reverence to be shewn by all outward expressions ties up the Child from any thing that may ever injure or affront disturb or endanger the happiness or life of those from whom he received his and engages him in all actions of defence relief assistance and comfort of those by whose means he entred into being and has been made capable of any enjoyments of life From this obligation no State no freedom can absolve Children But this is very far from giving Parents a power of command over their Children or an Authority to make Laws and dispose as they please of their Lives or Liberties 'T is one thing to owe honour respect gratitude and assistance another to require an absolute obedience and submission The honour due to Parents a Monarch in his Throne owes his Mother and yet this lessens not his Authority nor subjects him to her Government 67. The subjection of a minor places in the Father a temporary Government which terminates with the minority of the Child And the honour due from a Child places in the Parents a perpetual right to respect reverence support and compliance to more or less as the Father's care cost and kindness in his Education has been more or less And this ends not with minority but holds in all parts and conditions of a Man's Life The want of distinguishing these two powers which the Father hath in the right of tuition during minority and the right of honour all his Life may perhaps have caused a great part of the mistakes about this matter For to speak properly of them the first of these is rather the priviledge of Children and duty of Parents than any Prerogative of Paternal Power The nourishment and Education of their Children is a Charge so incumbent on Parents for their Childrens good that nothing can absolve them from taking care of it And though the power of commanding and chastising them go along with it yet God hath woven into the principles of humane nature such a tenderness for their Off-spring that there is little fear that Parents should use their power with too much rigour the excess is seldom on the severe side the strong biass of nature drawing the other way And therefore God Almighty when he would express his gentle dealing with the Israelites he tells them that though he chasten'd them he chasten'd them as a man chastens his Son Deut. 8. 5. i. e. with tenderness and affection and kept them under no severer discipline than what was absolutely best for them and had been less kindness to have slacken'd This is that power to which Children are commanded obedience that the pains and care of their Parents may not be increased or ill rewarded 68. On the other side honour and support all that which gratitude requires to return for the benefits received by and from them is the indispensible duty of the Child and the proper priviledge of the Parents This is intended for the Parents advantage as the other is for the Childs though Education the Parents duty seems to have most power because the ignorance and infirmities of Childhood stand in need of restraint and correction which is a visible exercise of Rule and a kind of Dominion And that duty which is comprehended in the word honour requires less obedience though the obligation be stronger on grown than younger Children For who can think the Command Children obey your Parents requires in a Man that has Children of his own the same submission to his Father as it does in his yet young Children to him and that by this Precept he were bound to obey all his Father's Commands
in his opinion requires it But because no political Society can be nor subsist without having in it self the power to preserve the property and in order thereunto punish the offences of all those of that Society There and there only is political Society where every one of the Members hath quitted this natural Power refign'd it up into the hands of the Community in all cases that exclude him not from appealing for protection to the law established by it And thus all private judgment of every particular Member being excluded the Community comes to be Umpire and by understanding indiffâ—â—ent rules and men authorised by the community for their execution decides all the differences that may happen between any Members of that Society concerning any matter of right and punishes those offences which any member hath committed against the Society with such penalties as the law has established whereby it is easy to discern who are and are not in political Society together Those who are united into one Body and have a common establish'd Law and Judicature to appeal to with Authority to decide Controversies between them and punish Offenders are in civil Society one with another but those who have no such common Appeal I mean on Earth are still in the state of Nature each being where there is no other Judge for himself and Executioner which is as I have before shew'd it the perfect state of Nature 88. And thus the Commonwealth comes by a power to set down what punishment shall belong to the several transgressions they think worthy of it committed amongst the Members of that Society which is the power of making Laws as well as it has the power to punish any injury done unto any of its Members by any one that is not of it which is the power of War and Peace and all this for the preservation of the property of all the Members of that Society as far as is possible But though every Man enter'd into Society has quitted his power to punish offences against the Law of Nature in prosecution of his own private Judgment yet with the Judgment of offences which he has given up to the Legislative in all Cases where he can appeal to the Magistrate he has given up a right to the Commonwealth to imploy his Force for the Execution of the Judgments of the Commonwealth whenever he shall be called to it which indeed are his own Judgments they being made by himself or his representative And herein we have the original of the Legislative and Executive Power of Civil Society which is to judge by standing Laws how far offences are to be punished when committed within the Commonwealth and also by occasional Judgments founded on the present circumstances of the fact how far injuries from without are to be vindicated and in both these to imploy all the force of all the Members when there shall be need 89. Whereever therefore any number of Men so unite into one Society as to quit every one his Executive Power of the Law of Nature and to resign it to the publick there and there only is a political or civil Society And this is done whereever any number of Men in the State of Nature enter into Society to make one People one Body Politick under one Supream Government or else when any one joins himself to and incorporates with any Government already made For hereby he authorizes the Society or which is all one the Legislative thereof to make Laws for him as the publick good of the Society shall require to the Execution whereof his own assistance as to his own decrees is due And this puts men out of a state of nature into that of a Commonwealth by setting up a Judge on Earth with Authority to determine all the Controversies and redress the injuries that may happen to any Member of the Commonwealth which Judge is the Legislative or Magistrates appointed by it And whereever there are any number of Men however associated that have no such decisive power to appeal to there they are still in the state of Nature 90. And hence it is evident that Absolute Monarchy which by some Men is counted for the only Government in the World is indeed inconsistent with civil Society and so can be no Form of civil Government at all For the end of civil Society being to avoid and remedy those inconveniencies of the state of Nature which necessarily follow from every Man 's being Judge in his own Case by setting up a known Authority to which every one of that Society may appeal upon any injury received or Controversy that may arise and which every one of the Society ought to obey Where-ever any persons are who have not such an authority to appeal to and decide any difference between them there those persons are still in the state of nature And so is every absolute Prince in respect of those who are under his Dominion 91. For he being suppos'd to have all both Legislative and Executive Power in himself alone there is no Judge to be found no appeal lies open to any one who may fairly and indifferently and with authority decide and from whence relief and redress may be expected of any injury or inconveniency that may be suffered from him or by his order So that such a Man however intitled Czar or Grand Signior or how you please is as much in the state of nature with all under his Dominion as he is with the rest of Mankind For wherever any two Men are who have no standing Rule and common Judge to appeal to on Earth for the determination of Controversies of Right betwixt them there they are still in the state of Nature and under all the inconveniencies of it with only this woful difference to the Subject or rather Slave of an absolute Prince That whereas in the ordinary state of Nature he has a liberty to judge of his Right and according to the best of his power to maintain it but whenever his Property is invaded by the Will and Order of his Monarch he has not only no Appeal as those in Society ought to have but as if he were degraded from the common state of rational Creatures is denied a liberty to judge of or defend his Right and so is exposed to all the Misery and Inconveniencies that a Man can fear from one who being in the unrestrained state of Nature is yet corrupted with Flattery and armed with Power 92. For he that thinks absolute Power purifies Mens Bloods and corrects the baseness of humane Nature need read but the History of this or any other Age to be convinced of the contrary He that would have been insolent and injurious in the Woods of America would not probably be much better in a Throne where perhaps Learning and Religion shall be found out to justifie all that he shall do to his Subjects and the Sword presently silence all those that dare question it For what the
Protection of Absolute Monarchy is what kind of Fathers of their Countries it makes Princes to be and to what a degree of Happiness and Security it carries civil Society where this sort of Government is grown to perfection he that will look into the late Relation of Ceylon may easily see 93. In Absolute Monarchies indeed as well as other Governments of the World the Subjects have an Appeal to the Law and Judges to decide any Controversies and restrain any violence that may happen betwixt the Subjects themselves one amongst another This every one thinks necessary and believes he deserves to be thought a declared Enemy to Society and Mankind who should go about to take it away But whether this be from a true Love of Mankind and Society such a Charity as we owe all one to another there is reason to doubt For this is no more than what every Man who loves his own Power Profit or Greatness may and naturally must do keep those Animals from hurting or destroying one another who labour and drudge only for his Pleasure and Advantage and so are taken care of not out of any Love the Master has for them but Love of himself and the Profit they bring him For if it be asked what Security what Fence is there in such a State against the Violence and Oppression of this Absolute Ruler The very Question can scarce be born They are ready to tell you that it deserves Death only to ask after Safety Betwixt Subject and Subject they will grant there must be Measures Laws and Judges for their mutual Peace and Security But as for the Ruler he ought to be Absolute and is above all such Circumstancés because he has a Power to do more hurt and wrong 't is right when he does it To ask how you may be guarded from harm or injury on that side where the strongest hand is to do it is presently the Voice of Faction and Rebellion As if when Men quitting the state of Nature entered into Society they agreed that all of them but one should be under the restraint of Laws but that he should still retain all the Liberty of the state of Nature increased with Power and made licentious by Impunity This is to think that Men are so foolish that they take care to avoid what Mischiefs may be done them by Pole-Cats or Foxes but are content nay think it Safety to be devoured by Lions 94. But whatever Flatterers may talk to amuze Peoples Understandings it never hinders Men from feeling and when they perceive that any Man in what Station soever is out of the Bounds of the civil Society they are of and that they have no Appeal on Earth against any harm they may receive from him they are apt to think themselves in the state of Nature in respect of him whom they find to be so and to take care as soon as they can to have that Safety and Security in civil Society for which it was first instituted and for which only they entered into it And therefore though perhaps at first as shall be shewed more at large hereafter in the following part of this Discourse some one good and excellent Man having got a Preheminency amongst the rest had this Deference paid to his Goodness and Vertue as to a kind of Natural Authority that the chief Rule with Arbitration of their differences by a tacit Consent devolved into his hands without any other caution but the assurance they had of his Uprightness and Wisdom yet when time giving Authority and as some Men would perswade us Sacredness to Customs which the negligent and unforeseeing Innocence of the first Ages began had brought in Successors of another stamp the People finding their Properties not secure under the Government as then it was Whereas Government has no other end but the preservation of Property could never be safe nor at rest nor think themselves in civil Society till the Legislative was so placed in collective Bodies of Men call them Senate Parliament or what you please by which means every single person became subject equally with other the meanest Men to those Laws which he himself as part of the Legislative had established nor could any one by his own Authority avoid the force of the Law when once made nor by any pretence of Superiority plead exemption thereby to license his own or the Miscarriages of any of his Dependants No Man in civil Society can be exempted from the Laws of it For if any Man may do what he thinks fit and there be no appeal on Earth for Redress or Security against any harm he shall do I ask whether he be not perfectly still in the state of Nature and so can be no Part or Member of that civil Society unless any one will say the state of Nature and civil Society are one and the same thing which I have never yet found any one so great a Patron of Anarchy as to affirm CHAP. VIII Of the Beginning of Political Societies 95. MEN being as has been said by Nature all free equal and independent no one can be put out of this Estate and subjected to the Political Power of another without his own Consent which is done by agreeing with other Men to join and unite into a Community for their comfortable safe and peaceable living one amongst another in a secure Enjoyment of their Properties and a greater Security against any that are not of it This any number of Men may do because it injures not the Freedom of the rest they are left as they were in the Liberty of the state of Nature When any number of Men have so consented to make one Community or Government they are thereby presently incorporated and make one Body Politick wherein the Majority have a Right to act and conclude the rest 96. For when any number of Men have by the consent of every individual made a Community they have thereby made that Community one Body with a power to act as one Body which is only by the will and determination of the majority For that which acts any Community being only the consent of the individuals of it and it being one Body must move one way it is necessary the Body should move that way whither the greater force carries it which is the consent of the majority or else it is impossible it should act or continue one Body one Community which the consent of every individual that united into it agreed that it should and so every one is bound by that consent to be concluded by the majority And therefore we see that in Assemblies impowred to act by positive Laws where no number is set by that positive Law which impowers them the act of the majority passes for the act of the whole and of course determines as having by the Law of Nature and Reason the power of the whole 97. And thus every Man by consenting with others to make one Body Politick
prevention of any inconveniencies that lye on or threaten the People 155. It may be demanded here what if the Executive Power being possessed of the force of the Commonwealth shall make use of that force to hinder the meeting and acting of the Legislative when the original Constitution or the publick Exigencies require it I say using Force upon the People without Authority and contrary to the Trust put in him that does so is a state of War with the People who have a right to reinstate their Legislative in the Exercise of their Power For having erected a Legislative with an intent they should exercise the Power of making Laws either at certain set times or when there is need of it when they are hinder'd by any force from what is so necessary to the Society and wherein the safety and preservation of the People consists the People have a right to remove it by force In all states and conditions the true remedy of Force without Authority is to oppose Force to it The use of Force without Authority always puts him that uses it into a state of War as the Aggressor and renders him liable to be treated accordingly 156. The Power of Assembling and dismissing the Legislative placed in the Executive gives not the Executive a superiority over it but is a Fiduciary Trust placed in him for the safety of the People in a Case where the uncertainty and variableness of humane affairs could not bear a steady fixed rule For it not being possible that the first Framers of the Government should by any foresight be so much Masters of future Events as to be able to prefix so just periods of return and duration to the Assemblies of the Legislative in all times to come that might exactly answer all the Exigences of the Common-wealth the best remedy could be found for this defect was to trust this to the prudence of one who was always to be present and whose business it was to watch over the publick good Constant frequent meetings of the Legislative and long Continuations of their Assemblies without necessary occasion could not but be burthensome to the People and must necessarily in time produce more dangerous inconveniencies and yet the quick turn of affairs might be sometimes such as to need their present help any delay of their Convening might endanger the publick and sometimes too their business might be so great that the limited time of their sitting might be too short for their work and rob the publick of that benefit which could be had only from their mature deliberation What then could be done in this Case to prevent the Community from being exposed sometime or other to eminent hazard on one side or the other by fixed intervals and periods set to the meeting and acting of the Legislative But to intrust it to the prudence of some who being present and acquainted with the state of publick affairs might make use of this Prerogative for the publick good And where else could this be so well placed as in his hands who was intrusted with the Execution of the Laws for the same end Thus supposing the regulation of times for the Assembling and Sitting of the Legislative not setled by the original Constitution it naturally fell into the hands of the Executive not as an Arbitrary Power depending on his good pleasure but with this trust always to have it exercised only for the publick Weal as the Occurrences of times and change of affairs might require Whether setled periods of their Convening or a liberty left to the Prince for Convoking the Legislative or perhaps a mixture of both hath the least inconvenience attending it 't is not my business here to inquire but only to shew that though the Executive Power may have the Prerogative of Convoking and dissolving such Conventions of the Legislative yet it is not thereby superiour to it 157. Things of this World are in so constant a Flux that nothing remains long in the same State Thus People Riches Trade Power change their Stations flourishing mighty Cities come to ruine and prove in time neglected desolate Corners whilst other unfrequented places grow into populous Countries fill'd with Wealth and Inhabitants But things not always changing equally and private interest often keeping up Customs and Priviledges when the reasons of them are ceased it often comes to pass that in Governments where part of the Legislative consists of Representatives chosen by the People that in tract of time this Representation becomes very unequal and disproportionate to the reasons it was at first establish'd upon To what gross absurdities the following of Custom when Reason has left it may lead we may be satisfied when we see the bare name of a Town of which there remains not so much as the ruins where scarce so much Housing as a Sheepcoat or more Inhabitants than a Shepherd is to be found send as many Representatives to the grand Assembly of Law-makers as a whole County numerous in People and powerful in riches This Strangers stand amazed at and every one must confess needs a remedy Though most think it hard to find one because the Constitution of the Legislative being the original and supream act of the Society antecedent to all positive Laws in it and depending wholly on the People no inferiour Power can alter it And therefore the People when the Legislative is once Constituted having in such a Government as we have been speaking of no Power to act as long as the Government stands this inconvenience is thought incapable of a remedy 158. Salus Populi Suprema Lex is certainly so just and fundamental a Rule that he who sincerely follows it cannot dangerously err If therefore the Executive who has the Power of Convoking the Legislative observing rather the true proportion than fashion of Representation regulates not by old custom but true reason the number of Members in all places that have a right to be distinctly represented which no part of the People however incorporated can pretend to but in proportion to the assistance which it affords to the publick it cannot be judg'd to have set up a new Legislative but to have restored the old and true one and to have rectified the disorders which succession of time had insensibly as well as inevitably introduced for it being the interest as well as intention of the People to have a fair and equal Representative whoever brings it nearest to that is an undoubted Friend to and Establisher of the Government and cannot miss the Consent and Approbation of the Community Prerogative being nothing but a Power in the hands of the Prince to provide for the publick good in such Cases which depending upon unforeseen and uncertain Occurrences certain and unalterable Laws could not safely direct Whatsoever shall be done manifestly for the good of the People and establishing the Government upon its true Foundations is and always will be just Prerogative The Power of Erecting new Corporations and
of among Mankind till it was revealed to us by the Divinity of this last Age nor ever allowed Paternal Power to have a right to Dominion or to be the Foundation of all Government And thus much may suffice to shew that as far as we have any light from History we have reason to conclude that all peaceful beginnings of Government have been laid in the Consent of the People I say peaceful because I shall have occasion in another place to speak of Conquest which some esteem a way of beginning of Governments The other Objection I find urged against the beginning of Polities in the way I have mentioned is this viz. 113. That all Men being born under Government some or other it is impossible any of them should ever be free and at liberty to unite together and begin a new one or ever be able to erect a lawful Government If this Argument be good I ask how came so many lawful Monarchies into the World For if any body upon this supposition can shew me any one Man in any Age of the World free to begin a lawful Monarchy I will be bound to shew him Ten other free Men at liberty at the same time to unite and begin a new Government under a Regal or any other Form It being demonstration that if any one born under the Dominion of another may be so free as to have a right to command others in a new and distinct Empire every one that is born under the Dominion of another may be so free too and may become a Ruler or Subject of a distinct separate Government And so by this their own Principle either all Men however born are free or else there is but one lawful Prince one lawful Government in the World And then they have nothing to do but barely to shew us which that is Which when they have done I doubt not but all Mankind will easily agree to pay obedience to him 114. Though it be a sufficient Answer to their Objection to shew that it involves them in the same difficulties that it doth those they use it against yet I shall endeavour to discover the weakness of this Argument a little farther All men say they are born under Government and therefore they cannot be at liberty to begin a new one Every one is born a Subject to his Father or his Prince and is therefore under the perpetual tie of Subjection and Allegiance 'T is plain Mankind never owned nor considered any such natural subjection that they were born in to one or to the other that tied them without their own consents to a subjection to them and their Heirs 115. For there are no Examples so frequent in History both sacred and prophane as those of Men withdrawing themselves and their Obedience from the Jurisdiction they were born under and the Family or Community they were bred up in and setting up new Governments in other places from whence sprang all that number of petty Commonwealths in the beginning of Ages and which always multiplied as long as there was room enough till the stronger or more fortunate swallow'd the weaker and those great ones again breaking to pieces dissolved into lesser Dominions All which are so many testimonies against paternal Soveraignty and plainly prove That it was not the natural right of the Father descending to his Heirs that made Governments in the beginning since it was impossible upon that ground there should have been so many little Kingdoms but only one universal Monarchy if Men had not been at liberty to separate themselves from their Families and their Government be it what it will that was set up in it and go and make distinct Commonwealths and other Governments as they thought fit 116. This has been the practice of the World from its first beginning to this day nor is it now any more hindrance to the freedom of Mankind that they are born under constituted and ancient Polities that have established Laws and set Forms of Government than if they were born in the Woods amongst the unconfined Inhabitants that run loose in them For those who would perswade us that by being born under any Government we are naturally Subjects to it and have no more any title or pretence to the freedom of the state of Nature have no other reason bating that of Paternal Power which we have already answer'd to produce for it but only because our Fathers or Progenitors passed away their natural Liberty and thereby bound up themselves and their Posterity to a perpetual subjection to the Government which they themselves submitted to 'T is true that whatever Engagements or Promises any one made for himself he is under the obligation of them but cannot by any Compact whatsoever bind his Children or Posterity For his Son when a Man being altogether as free as the Father any act of the Father can no more give away the liberty of the Son than it can of any body else He may indeed annex such Conditions to the Land he enjoyed as a Subject of any Commonwealth as may oblige his Son to be of that Community if he will enjoy those Possessions which were his Fathers because that Estate being his Fathers Property he may dispose or settle it as he pleases 117. And this has generally given the occasion to the mistake in this matter because Commonwealths not permitting any part of their Dominions to be dismembred nor to be enjoyed by any but those of their Community the Son cannot ordinarily enjoy the Possessions of his Father but under the same Terms his Father did by becoming a Member of the Society whereby he puts himself presently under the Government he finds there established as much as any other Subject of that Commonweal And thus the Consent of Free-men born under Government which only makes them Members of it being given separately in their turns as each comes to be of Age and not in a multitude together People take no notice of it and thinking it not done at all or not necessary conclude they are naturally Subjects as they are Men. 118. But 't is plain Governments themselves understand it otherwise they claim no Power over the Son because of that they had over the Father nor look on Children as being their Subjects by their Fathers being so If a Subject of England have a Child by an English Woman in France whose Subject is he Not the King of England's for he must have leave to be admitted to the Priviledges of it Nor the King of France's for how then has his Father a liberty to bring him away and breed him as he pleases and who ever was judged as a Traytor or Deserter if he left or warr'd against a Countrey for being barely born in it of Parents that were Aliens there 'T is plain then by the Practice of Governments themselves as well as by the Law of right Reason that a Child is born a Subject of no Country nor Government He is under his
Father's Tuition and Authority till he come to Age of Discretion and then he is a Free-man at liberty what Government he will put himself under what Body Politick he will unite himself to For if an English-Man's Son born in France be at liberty and may do so 't is evident there is no Tye upon him by his Father's being a Subject of that Kingdom nor is he bound up by any Compact of his Ancestors and why then hath not his Son by the same reason the same liberty though he be born any where else Since the Power that a Father hath naturally over his Children is the same where-ever they be born and the Ties of natural Obligations are not bounded by the positive Limits of Kingdoms and Commonwealths 119. Every Man being as has been shewed naturally free and nothing being able to put him into subjection to any earthly Power but only his own Consent It is to be considered what shall be understood to be a sufficient Declaration of a Man's Consent to make him subject to the Laws of any Government There is a common distinction of an express and a tacit Consent which will concern our present Case No body doubts but an express Consent of any Man entering into any Society makes him a perfect Member of that Society a Subject of that Government The difficulty is what ought to be look'd upon as a tacit Consent and how far it binds i. e. how far any one shall be looked on to have consented and thereby submitted to any Government where he has made no Expressions of it at all And to this I say that every Man that hath any Possession or Enjoyment of any part of the Dominions of any Government doth thereby give his tacit Consent and is as far forth obliged to Obedience to the Laws of that Government during such Enjoyment as any one under it whether this his Possession be of Land to him and his Heirs for ever or a Lodging only for a Week or whether it be barely travelling freely on the High-way and in Effect it reaches as far as the very being of any one within the Territories of that Government 120. To understand this the better it is fit to consider that every Man when he at first incorporates himself into any Commonwealth he by his uniting himself thereunto annexed also and submits to the Community those Possessions which he has or shall acquire that do not already belong to any other Government For it would be a direct Contradiction for any one to enter into Society with others for the securing and regulating of Property and yet to suppose his Land whose Property is to be regulated by the Laws of the Society should be exempt from the Jurisdiction of that Government to which he himself and the Property of the Land is a Subject By the same Act therefore whereby any one unites his Person which was before free to any Commonwealth by the same he unites his Possessions which were before free to it also and they become both of them Person and Possession subject to the Government and Dominion of that Commonwealth as long as it hath a being Who-ever therefore from thenceforth by Inheritance purchases Permission or otherwise enjoys any part of the Land so annext to and under the Government of that Commonweal must take it with the Condition it is under that is of submitting to the Government of the Commonwealth under whose Jurisdiction it is as far forth as any Subject of it 121. But since the Government has a direct Jurisdiction only over the Land and reaches the Possessor of it before he has actually incorporated himself in the Society only as he dwells upon and enjoys that the Obligation any one is under by Virtue of such Enjoyment to submit to the Government begins and ends with the Enjoyment so that when-ever the Owner who has given nothing but such a tacit Consent to the Government will by Donation Sale or otherwise quit the said Possession He is at liberty to go and incorporate himself into any other Commonwealth or agree with others to begin a new one in vacuis locis in any part of the World they can find free and unpossessed whereas he that has once by actual Agreement and any express Declaration given his Consent to be of any Commonweal is perpetually and indispensably obliged to be and remain unalterably a Subject to it and can never be again in the liberty of the state of Nature unless by any Calamity the Government he was under comes to be dissolved 122. But submitting to the Laws of any Countrey living quietly and enjoying Priviledges and Protection under them makes not a Man a Member of that Society 't is only a local Protection and Homage due to and from all those who not being in a state of War come within the Territories belonging to any Government to all parts whereof the force of its Law extends But this no more makes a Man a Member of that Society a perpetual Subject of that Commonwealth than it would make a Man a Subject to another in whose Family he found it convenient to abide for some time though whilst he continued in it he were obliged to comply with the Laws and submit to the Government he found there And thus we see that Foreigners by living all their Lives under another Government and enjoying the Priviledges and Protection of it though they are bound even in Conscience to submit to its Administration as far forth as any Denison yet do not thereby come to be Subjects or Members of that Commonwealth Nothing can make any Man so but his actually entering into it by positive Engagement and express Promise and Compact This is that which I think concerning the beginning of Political Societies and that Consent which makes any one a Member of any Commonwealth CHAP. IX Of the Ends of Political Society and Government 123. IF Man in the state of Nature be so free as has been said If he be absolute Lord of his own Person and Possessions equal to the greatest and subject to no Body why will he part with his Freedom this Empire and subject himself to the Dominion and Controul of any other Power To which 't is obvious to Answer that though in the state of Nature he hath such a right yet the Enjoyment of it is very uncertain and constantly exposed to the Invasion of others for all being Kings as much as he every Man his Equal and the greater part no strict Observers of Equity and Justice the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe very unsecure This makes him willing to quit this Condition which however free is full of fears and continual dangers and 't is not without reason that he seeks out and is willing to join in Society with others who are already united or have a mind to unite for the mutual preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates which I call by the general
devolve into the hands of those that gave it who may place it a-new where they shall think best for their safety and security And thus the Community perpetually retains a Supream Power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of any Body even of their Legislators whenever they shall be so foolish or so wicked as to lay and carry on designs against the Liberties and Properties of the Subject For no Man or Society of Men having a Power to deliver up their Preservation or consequently the means of it to the absolute Will and arbitrary Dominion of another when ever any one shall go about to bring them into such a Slavish Condition they will always have a right to preserve what they have not a Power to part with and to rid themselves of those who invade this Fundamental Sacred and unalterable Law of Self-Preservation for which they enter'd into Society And thus the Community may be said in this respect to be always the Supream Power but not as considered under any Form of Government because this Power of the People can never take place till the Government be dissolv'd 150. In all Cases whilst the Government subsists the Legislative is the supream Power For what can give Laws to another must needs be superiour to him and since the Legislative is no otherwise Legislative of the Society but by the right it has to make Laws for all the parts and every Member of the Society prescribing Rules to their actions and giving power of Execution where they are transgressed the Legislative must needs be the Supream and all other Powers in any Members or parts of the Society derived from and subordinate to it 151. In some Commonwealths where the Legislative is not always in being and the Executive is vested in a single Person who has also a share in the Legislative there that single Person in a very tolerable sense may also be called Supream not that he has in himself all the Supream Power which is that of Law-making but because he has in him the supream Execution from whom all inferiour Magistrates derive all their several subordinate Powers or at least the greatest part of them having also no Legislative superiour to him there being no Law to be made without his consent which cannot be expected should ever subject him to the other part of the Legislative he is properly enough in this sense Supream But yet it is to be observed that though Oaths of Allegiance and Fealty are taken to him 't is not to him as Supream Legislator but as Supream Executor of the Law made by a joint Power of him with others Allegiance being nothing but an Obedience according to Law which when he violates he has no right to Obedience nor can claim it otherwise than as the publick Person vested with the Power of the Law and so is to be consider'd as the Image Phantom or Representative of the Commonwealth acted by the will of the Society declared in its Laws and thus he has no Will no Power but that of the Law But when he quits this Representation this publick Will and acts by his own private Will he degrades himself and is but a single private Person without Power and without Will The Members owing no Obedience but to the publick Will of the Society 152. The Executive Power placed any where but in a Person that has also a share in the Legislative is visibly subordinate and accountable to it and may be at pleasure changed and displaced so that it is not the Supream Executive Power that is exempt from Subordination but the Supream Executive Power vested in one who having a share in the Legislative has no distinct superiour Legislative to be subordinate and accountable to father than he himself shall join and consent so that he is no more subordinate than he himself shall think fit which one may certainly conclude will be but very little Of other Ministerial and subordinate Powers in a Commonwealth we need not speak they being so multiply'd with infinite variety in the different Customs and Constitutions of distinct Common-wealths that it is impossible to give a particular account of them all Only thus much which is necessary to our present purpose we may take notice of concerning them that they have no manner of Authority any of them beyond what is by positive Grant and Commission delegated to them and are all of them accountable to some other Power in the Commonwealth 153. It is not necessary no nor so much as convenient that the Legislative should be always in being But absolutely necessary that the Executive Power should because there is not always need of new Laws to be made but always need of Execution of the Laws that are made When the Legislative hath put the Execution of the Laws they make into other hands they have a power still to resume it out of those hands when they find cause and to punish for any mall-administration against the Laws The same holds also in regard of the Federative Power that and the Executive being both Ministerial and subordinate to the Legislative which as has been shew'd in a Constituted Common-wealth is the Supream The Legislative also in this Case being suppos'd to consist of several Persons for if it be a single Person it cannot but be always in being and so will as Supream naturally have the Supream Executive Power together with the Legislative may assemble and exercise their Legislative at the times that either their original Constitution or their own Adjournment appoints or when they please if neither of these hath appointed any time or there be no other way prescribed to convoke them For the Supream Power being placed in them by the People 't is always in them and they may exercise it when they please unless by their original Constitution they are limited to certain Seasons or by an Act of their Supream Power they have Adjourned to a certain time and when that time comes they have a right to Assemble and act again 154. If the Legislative or any part of it be of Representatives chosen for that time by the People which afterwards return into the ordinary state of Subjects and have no share in the Legislature but upon a new choice this power of chuseing must also be exercised by the People either at certain appointed Seasons or else when they are summon'd to it and in this latter Case the power of convokeing the Legislative is ordinarily placed in the Executive and has one of these two limitations in respect of time That either the Original Constitution requires their Assembling and acting at certain intervals and then the Executive Power does nothing but Ministerially issue directions for their Electing and Assembling according to due Forms Or else it is left to his Prudence to call them by new Elections when the occasions or exigencies of the publick require the amendment of old or making of new Laws or the redress or