partly wrought our conversion and partly wâ—rketh nâ—w by his Ministers and will continue to work till his coming again And it is very ill Logic to say that because they cannot mis-interpret and pervert Scripture nor preach Rebellion against their natural Soveraign since Christ hath commanded subjection and obedience to them they have therefore no autority to preach at all or interpret the Scripture but must publish whatsoever the King bids them in the Name and as the Commands of God yet even that and all he hath or can say may be true if the cases of Conscience which he hath taken upon him to determine have any dependance upon or affinity with the Christian Faith or common honesty What if the office of Christs Ministers in this World is to make men believe and have Faith in Christ and that they have no power by that title to punish men for not believing or for contradicting what they say doth that defect of power of compulsion abolish that power which he hath given them of instructing and preaching and using the Keys As Christ hath trusted them to do and qualified them with peculiar circumstances to perform those Offices so he hath trusted Soveraign Princes to assist them whil'st they perform their office with integrity or to punish them if they do not with their power of compulsion that their labors may be effectual And Princes are no less obliged to give them that assistance then they are to perform the office of the Apostles and Disciples nor can any Prince think his Soveraignty impair'd by being obliged to take care that the Laws and Precepts of God his Soveraign be punctually submitted to and that they to whom in special manner the publication thereof is committed be not only protected but obeied and reverenc'd whil'st they do their duty or â—urmise that the Word of God stands in need of or can receive any dignity or autority by any thing he can add to it by his Soveraign power God hath left and requir'd them to be Nursing Fathers to his Church and from the time of their being Christians hath communicated his Scripture to them which they have receiv'd and which they are equally bound to obey as their meanest Subject and if they are not good and faithful Nurses the miscarriage of the Children shall be imputed to them There is no cause of jealousie from the Soveraign towards his Subjects which Mr. Hobbes out of his constant good will desires to kindle for there is neither Bishop nor Priest who pretends to any Power or Jurisdiction inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal matters No man can be made a Bishop but by his appointment and grant No man can be ordained a Priest but by him whom he hath nominated to be a Bishop And if either Bishop or Priest mis-behave themselves to that degree they shall by his autority be degraded and depriv'd and suffer as Lay-men are to do he being no less Soveraign over the Ecclesiastical Persons and Laws then over the Temporal and whoever so become liable are to blame and for ought I know have to answer for somthing besides the departing from their dignity In a word Prelates assume no title of Honor nor pretend to any Jurisdiction that they have not receiv'd from him and therefore deserve to be countenanc'd and supported by him amongst his best and most useful Subjects He is not concern'd if the King forbids him to believe in Christ it is a command of no effect because belief and understanding never follow mens commands but if the King commands him to say that he believes not in Christ he is very ready to obey him pag. 271. Profession with the tongue is but an external thing wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian He would be very much disappointed in the support of his monstrous Impiety if that Text ought to be rendred out of the Original as Dr Lightfoot a man eminently learned in the Hebrew positively saies at ought to be For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant for that when my Master hath gon into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he hath leaned upon my hand that I have also bowed my self in the house of Rimmon for my worshipping in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for tâ—is thing 2 Kings 5. 18. So that he craved pardon for Idolatry past and not begged leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come But admitting the Text to be according to the common Translation it can do Mr. Hobbes no good except he procures the same leave from another who hath as much autority as Elisha had Who doth not know that none of those Examples which were either enjoin'd or permitted to be don by the Divine Autority for some extraordinary end of Providence are for our imitation when they are opposite to the truth and justice and integrity of Gods Precepts He may as well justifie the breach of Faith and down-right Theft and Robbery in his Neighbors by the example of the Israelites borrowing the Jewels and other Goods of the Egyptians or the assassination of an Enemy by the example of Ehuds stabbing of Eglon and many other unwarrantable actions by the example of good men directed by the Spirit of God in the Scripture as maintain his own impiety by the example or permission if there were any of Naaman But if Mr. Hobbes be gratified by not urging the impiety nor the denunciation which St. Iohn pronounced upon him He is Anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. How will he justifie the prevarication and falseness in saying he doth not believe that which in his heart he dâ—th believe Ye shall not deal falsly neither lie one to another was a part of the Levitical Law and by Mr. Hobbes rules a part of the Law of Nature and so must not be violated nor can be controul'd by God himself He knows very well who is the Father of lies tho it may be he doth not enough consider what portion is allotted for his children And if they who said they were Iews and were not but did lie were pronounc'd by St. Iohn to be of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. There is very great danger that he who is a Christian in his heart upon any Kings commands shall profess with his Tongue that he doth not believe in Christ will not be admitted by our Saviour to be of his Church In vain hath the whole current of Scripture endeavor'd to raise such an awful reverence for truth that it hath scarce pronounced more severe Judgments against any Species of sins then against lying He that telleth lies shall not stay in my sight saies the Spirit of God by the Psalmist Psal. 101. 7. He that speaketh lies shall perish saies the same Spirit in the Proverbs Prov. 19. 9. Let him
any Age or Climate had never read Aristotle or Cicero and I belive had Mr. Hobbes bin of this opinion when he taught Thucydides to speak English which Book contains more of the Science of Mutiny and Sedition and teaches more of that Oratory that contributes thereunto then all that Aristotle and Cicero have publish'd in all their Writings he would not have communicated such materials to his Country-men But if this new Phylosophy and Doctrine of Policy and Religion should be introduc'd taught and believ'd where Aristotle and Cicero have don no harm it would undermine Monarchy more in two months then those two great men have don since their deaths and men would reasonably wish that the Author of it had never bin born in the English Climate nor bin taught to write and read It is a very hard matter for an Architect in State and Policy who doth despise all Precedents and will not observe any Rules of practice to make such a model of Government as will be in any degree pleasant to the Governor or governed or secure for either which Mr. Hobbes finds and tho he takes a liberty to raise his Model upon a supposition of a very formal Contract that never was or ever can be in nature and hath the drawing and preparing his own form of Contract is forc'd to allow such a latitude in obedience to his Subject as shakes the very pillars of his Government And therefore tho he be contented that by the words of his Contract pag. 112. Kill me and my fellow if you please the absolute power of all mens lives shall be submitted to the disposal of the Governors will and pleasure without being oblig'd to observe any rules of Justice and Equity yet he will not admit into his Contract the other words pag. 112. I will kill my self or my fellow and therefore that he is not bound by the command of his Soveraign to execute any dangerous or dishonorable office but in such cases men are not to resort so much to the words of the submission as to the intention which distinction surely may be as applicable to all that monstrous autority which he gives the Governor to take away the Lives and Estates of his Subjects without any cause or reason upon an imaginary Contract which if never so real can never be supposed to be with the intention of the Contractor in such cases And the subtle Distinctions he finds out to excuse Subjects from yielding obedience to their Soveraigns and the Prerogative he grants to fear for a whole Army to run away from the Enemy without the guilt of treachery or injustice leaves us some hope that he will at last allow such a liberty to Subjects that they may not in an instant be swallowed up by the prodigious power which he pleases to grant to his Soveraign And truly he degrades him very dishonorably when he obliges him to be the Hang-man himself of all those Malefactors which by the Law are condemn'd to die for he gives every man autority without the violation of his duty or swerving from the rules of Justice absolutely to refuse to perform that office Nor hath he provided much better for his security then he hath for his honor when he allows it lawful for any number of men pag. 112. who have rebelled against the Soveraign or committed some capital crime for which every one of them expects death then to join together and defend each other because they do but defend their lives which the guilty man he saies may do as well as the innocent And surely no man can legally take his life from him who may lawfully defend it and then the murderer or any other person guilty of a capital Crime is more innocent and in a better condition then the Executioner of Justice who may be justly murdered in the just execution of his office And it is a very childish security that he provides for his Soveraign against this Rebellion and defence of themselves against the power of the Law pag. 113. that he declares it to be lawful only for the dâ—fence of their lives and that upon the offer of pardon for themselves that self-defence is unlawful as if a body that is lawfully drawn together with strength enough to defend their lives against the power of the Law are like to disband and lay down their Arms without other benefit and advantage then only of the saving of their lives But tho he be so cruel as to devest his Subjects of all that liberty which the best and most peaceable men desire to possess yet he liberally and bountifully confers upon them such a liberty as no honest man can pretend to and which is utterly inconsistent with the security of Prince and People which unreasonable Indulgence of his cannot but be thought to proceed from an unlawful affection to those who he saw had power enough to defend the transcendent wickedness they had committed tho they were without an Advocate to make it lawful for them to do so till he took that office upon him in his Leviathan as is evident by the instance he gives in the next Paragraph that he thinks it lawful for every man to have as many wives as he pleases if the King will break the silence of the Law and declare that he may do so which is a Prerogative he vouchsafes to grant to the Soveraign to balance that liberty he gave to the Subject to defend himself and his companion against him and is the only power that may inable him to be too hard for the other If Mr. Hobbes did not believe that the autority of his Name and the pleasantness of his Style would lull men asleep from enquiring into the Logic of his Discourse he could not but very well discern himself that this very liberty which he allows the Subject to have and which he doth without scruple enjoy to sue the Soveraign and to demand the hearing of his Cause and that Sentence be given according to the Law results only from that condescention and contract which the Soveraign hath made with his Subject and which can as well secure many other Liberties to them as their power to sue the King for there could be no Law precedent to that resignation of themselves and all they had at the institution of their supreme Governor and if there had bin it had bin void and invalid it being not possible that any man who hath right to nothing and from whom any thing that he hath may be taken away can sue his Soveraign for a debt which he might take if it were due from any other man but can by no means be due from him to whom all belongs and who hath power to forbid any Judg to proceed upon that complaint or any other person to presume to make that complaint were it not for the subsequent contract which he calls a precedent Law by which the Soveraign promises and obliges himself to appoint Judges to exercise
alone and when it is once found to be in him alone he will not be long able to defend his own Propriety or his own Soveraignty It is Machiavels exception against the entertaining of foreign Forces that they are only mercenary and therefore indifferent in their affections which party wins or loses and no doubt those Soldiers fight most resolutely who fight to defend their own And surely they who have nothing of their own to lose but their lives are as apt to throw those away where they should not as where they should be exposed and it is the usual Artifice in all Seditions for the Leaders and Promoters of them to perswade the People that the tendency and consequence of such and such actions don by the Magistrate extends to the depriving them of all their propriety the jealousie of which hurries them into all those acts of rage and despair which prove so fatal to Kingdoms And there was never yet a wise and fortunate prince who hath not enervated those Machinations by all the professions and all the vindications of that Propriety which they are so vigilant to preserve and defend And therefore it is a wonderful propesterous foundation to support a Government to declare that the Subject hath no propriety in any thing that excludes the Soveraign from a right of disposing it and it may be easily believ'd that there is not one Prince in Europe I mean that is civiliz'd for of the absolute power of the Great Turk from whence Mr. Hobbes hath borrowed his Model we shall have occasion to discourse in another place would be able to retain his Soveraignty one whole year after he should declare as Mr. Hobbes doth that his Subjects have no propriety in any thing they possess but that he may dispose of all they have For tho they do too often invade that propriety and take somwhat from them that is not their own they bear it better under the notion of oppression and rapine and as they look upon it as the effect of some powerful Subjects evil advice which will in time be discover'd and reform'd by the justice of the Prince as hath often fallen out then they would ever do under a claim of right that could justly take away all they have because it is not the Subjects but their own And if Mr. Hobbes had taken the pains and known where to have bin inform'd of the Proceedings and Transactions of Wâ—lliam the Conqueror he would have found cause to believe that that great King did ever dexterously endeavor from the time that he was assured that his Possession would not be disturb'd to divest himself of the Title of a Conqueror and made his Legal Claim to what he had got by the Will of Edward the Confessor whose Name was precious to the Nation and who was known to have a great Friendship for that Prince who had now recover'd what had bin his And he knew so well the ill consequence which must attend the very imagination that the Nation had lost its Propriety that he made hast to grant them an assurance that they should still enjoy all the benefits and priviledges which were due to them by their own Laws and Customs by which they should be still govern'd as they were during that Kings whole Reign who had enough of the unquestionable Demesnes and Lands belonging to the Crown of which he was then possessed without a Rival and belonging to those great men who had perish'd with their Posterity in the Battel with Harold to distribute to those who had born such shares and run such hazards in his prosperous adventure And those Laws and Customs which were before the Conquest are the same which the Nation and Kingdom have bin since govern'd by to this day with the addition of those Statutes and Acts of Parliament which are the Laws of the successive Kings with which they have gratifi'd their Subjects in providing such new security for them and advantages to the public as upon the experience and observation of the Ages and Times when they were made contributed to the honor and glory of the King as well as the happiness of the People many of which are but the Copies and Transcripts of ancient Land-marks making the Characters more plain the legible of what had bin practic'd and understood in the preceding Ages and the observation whereof are of the same profit and convenience to King and People Such were the Laws in Tullies time which Mr. Hobbes wonderfully cites to prove that which Tully never heard of and which indeed is quite contrary to the end of his Discourse Pag. 127. Is it possible that Tully could ever have said Let the Civil Law be once abandoned or but negligently guarded not to say oppressed and there is nothing that any man can be sure to receive from his Ancestor or to leave to his Children and again take away the Civil Law and no man knows what is his own and what another mans I say he could never have mention'd and insisted upon this grand security of man-kind if he had understood the Law to be nothing but the breath of the Soveraign who could grant and dissolve or repeal this Law with the speaking a word that his will or fancy dictates to him How can any man receive from his Ancestor or leave to his Children if he ben oâ— sure that his Ancestor had and that his Children shall have a propriety It was the importance of and delight in this propriety that produc'd that happy and beneficial agreement between the Soveraign power and the naked Subject which is mention'd before that introduc'd the beauty of Building and the cultivating the Earth by Art as well as Industry by securing men that they and their Children should dwell in the Houses they were at the charge to build and that they should reap the harvest of those Lands which they had taken the pains to sow Whatsoever is of Civility and good Manners all that is of Art and Beauty or of real and solid Wealth in the World is the product of this paction and the child of beloved Propriety and they who would strangle this Issue desire to demolish all Buildings eradicate all Plantations to make the Earth barren and man-kind to live again in Tents and nurish his Cattle by successive marches into those Fields where the grass grows Nothing but the joy in Propriety reduc'd us from this barbarity and nothing but security in the same can preserve us from returning into it again Nor will any man receive so great prejudice and damage by this return as the Kings and Princes themselves who had a very ample recompence which they still enjoy by dividing their unprofitable propriety with their Subjects having ever since receiv'd much more profit from the propriety in the hands of the Subjects then they did when it was in their own or then they do from that which they reserv'd to themselves and they continue to have the more or less
such constitution of his can be repeal'd and made void but in the same manner and with his consent But we say that he may prescribe or consent to such a method in the form and making these Laws that being once made by him he cannot but in the same form repeal or alter them and he is oblig'd by the Law of Justice to observe and perform this contract and he cannot break it or absolve himself from the observation of it without violation of justice and any farther obligation upon him then of justice I discourse not of For the better cleering of this to that kind of reason by which Mr. Hobbes is swai'd let us suppose this Soveraignty to reside and be fix'd in an assembly of men in which kind of Government it is possible to find more marks and foot-steps of such a deputing and assigning of interests as Mr. Hobbes is full of then we can possibly imagine in the original institution of Monarchy If the Soveraign power be deputed into the hands of fifteen and any vacant place to be suppli'd by the same Autority that made choice of the first fifteen may there not at that time of the election certain Rules be prescrib'd I do not say conditions for the better exercise of that Soveraign power and by the accepting the power thus explain'd doth not the Soveraign tho there should be no Oath administred for the observation thereof which is a circumstance admitted by most Monarchs tacitly covenant that he will observe those Rules and if he do's wilfully decline those Rules doth he not break the trust reposed in him I do not say forfeit the trust as if the Soveraignty were at an end but break that trust violate that justice he should observe If the Soveraign power of fifteen should raise an imposition for the defence of the Common-wealth if they should appoint this whole imposition to be paid only by those whose names are Thomas when Thomas was before in no more prejudice with the Common-wealth then any other appellation in Baptism may not this inequality be call'd a violation of Justice and a breach of trust since it cannot be suppos'd that such an irregular autority was ever committed to any man or men by any deputation Of the Prerogative of necessity to swerve from Rules prescrib'd or to violate Laws tho sworn to shall be spoken to in its due time It needs not be suppos'd but must be confess'd that the Laws of every Country contain more in them concerning the rights of the Soveraign and the common administration of Justice to the people then can be known to and understood by the person of the Soveraign and he can as well fight all his Battels with his own hand and sword as determine all causes of right by his own tongue and understanding The consequence of any confusion which Mr. Hobbes can suppose would not be more pernicious then that which would follow the blowing away all these maxims of the Law if the Kings breath were strong enough to do it It is a maxim in the Law as is said before that the eldest Son shall inherit and that if three or four Females are heirs the inheritance shall be equally divided between them Doth Mr. Hobbes believe that the word of the King hath power to change this course and to appoint that all the Sons shall divide the Estate and the Eldest Daughter inherit alone and must not all the confusion imaginable attend such a mutation All Governments subsist and are establish'd by firmness and constancy by every mans knowing what is his right to enjoy and what is his duty to do and it is a wonderful method to make this Government more perfect and more durable by introducing such an incertainty that no man shall know what he is to do nor what he is to suffer but that he who is Soveraign to morrow may cancel and dissolve all that was don or consented to by the Soveraign who was yesterday or by himself as often as he changes his mind It is the Kings Office to cause his Laws to be executed and to compel his Subjects to yield obedience to them and in order thereunto to make choice of Learned Judges to interpret those Laws and to declare the intention of them who pag. 140 by an artificial perfection of reason gotten by long study and experience in the Law must be understood to be more competent for that determination then Mr. Hobbes can be for the alteration of Law and Government by the artificial reason he hath attain'd to by long study of Arithmetic and Geometry No Eminent Lawyer hath ever said that the two Arms of a Common-wealth are Force and Justice the first whereof is in the King the other deposited in the hands of the Parliament but all Lawyers know that they are equally deposited in the hands of the King and that all justice is administred by him and in his name and all men acknowledg that all the Laws are his Laws his consent and autority only giving the power and name of a Law what concurrence or formality soever hath contributed towards it the question only is whether he can repeal or vacate such a Law without the same concurrence and formality And methinks the instance he makes of a Princes pag. 139. subduing another people and consenting that they shall live and be govern'd according to those Laws under which they were born and by which they were formerly govern'd should manifest to him the contrary For tho it be confess'd that those old Laws become new by this consent of his the Laws of the Legislator that is of that Soveraign who indulges the use of them yet he cannot say that he can by his word vacate and repeal those Laws and his own concession without dissolving all the ligaments of Government and without the violation of faith which himself confesses to be against the Law of Nature Notwithstanding that the Law is reason and pag. 139. not the letter but that which is according to the intention of the Legislator that is of the Soveraign is the Law yet when there is any difficulty in the understanding the Law the interpretation thereof may reasonably belong to Learn'd Judges who by their education and the testimony of their known abilities before they are made Judges and by their Oaths to judg according to Right are the most competent to explain those difficulties which no Soveraign as Soveraign can be presum'd to understand or comprehend And the judgments and decisions those Judges make are the judgments of the Soveraigns who have qualified them to be Judges and who are to pronounce their sentence according to the reason of the Law not the reason of the Soveraign And therefore Mr. Hobbes would make a very ignorant Judg when he would not have him versed in the study of the Laws but only a man of good natural reason and of a right understanding of the Law of Nature and yet he saies pag. 154. that
is one of the grounds and principles which he concludes to be against the express duty of Princes to let the People be ignorant of If Mr. Hobbes had a Conscience made and instructed like other mens and had not carefully provided that whilst his judgment is fix'd under Philosophical and Metaphysical notions his Conscience shall never be disturb'd by Religious speculations and apprehensions it might possibly smite him with the remembrance that these excellent principles were industriously insinuated divulged and publish'd within less then two years after Cromwels Usurpation of the Government of the three Nations upon the Murder of his Soveraign and that he then declar'd in this Book pag. 165. that against such Subjects who deliberately deny the autority of the Common wealth then and so established which God be thanked much the major part of the three Nations then did the vengeance might lawfully be extended not only to the Fathers but also to the third and fourth generation not yet in being and consequently innocent of the fact for which they are afflicted because the nature of this offence consists in renouncing of subjection which is a relapse into the condition of War commonly called Rebellion and they that so offend suffer not as Subjects but as Enemies And truly he may very reasonably believe surely more then many things which he doth believe that the veneme of this Book wrought upon the hearts of men to retard the return of their Allegiance for so many years and was the cause of so many cruel and bloody persecutions against those who still retain'd their duty and Allegiance for the King And methinks no man should be an Enemy to the renewing war in such cases but he who thinks all kind of war upon what occasion soever to be unlawful which Mr. Hobbes is so far from thinking that he is very well contented and believes it very lawful for his Soveraign in this Paragraph of cruelty to make war against any whom he judges capable to do him hurt The Survey of Chapter 30. MR. Hobbes having invested his Soveraign with so absolute Power and Omnipotence we have reason to expect that in this Chapter of his Office he will enjoin him to use all thâ— autority he hath given him and he gives him faiâ— warning that if any of the essential Rights of Soveraignty specified in his eighteenth Chapter which in a word is to do any thing he hath a mind to do and take any thing he likes from any of his Subjects be taken away the Common-wealth is dissolv'd and therefore that it is his office to preserve those Rights entire and against his duty to transfer any of them from himself And least he should forget the Rights and Power he hath bestowed upon him he recollects them all in three or four lines amongst which he puts him in mind that he hath power to leavy mony when and as much as in his own conscience he shall judg necessary and then tells him that it is agaist his duty to let the People be ignorant or mis-informed of the grounds and reasons of those his essential Rights that is that he is oblig'd to make his Leviathan Canonical Scripture there being no other Book ever yet printed that can inform them of those rights and the grounds and reason of them And how worthy they are to receive that countenance and autority will best appear by a farther examination of the Particulars and yet a man might have reasonably expected from the first Paragraph of this Chapter another kind of tenderness indeed as great as he can wish of the good and welfare of the Subject when he declares pag. 175. That the office of the Monarch consists in the end for which he was trusted with the Soveraign power namely the procuration of the safety of the People to which he is obliged by the Law of Nature and to render an account thereof to God the Author of that Law But by safety he saies is not meaâ—â— a bare preservation but also all other contentments of life which every man by lawful industry without danger or hurt to the Common-wealth can acquire to hâ—mself Who can expect a more blessed condition Who can desire a more gracious Soveraign No man would have thought this specious Building should have its Foundation after the manner of the foolish Indians upon sand that assoon as you come to rest upon it molders away to nothing that this safety safety improv'd with all the other contentments of life should consist in nothing else but in a mans being instructed and prepar'd to know that he hath nothing of his own and that when he hath by his lawful industry acquir'd to himself all the contentments of life which he can set his heart upon one touch of his Soveraigns hand one breath of his mouth can take all this from him without doing him any injury This is the Doctrine to be propagated and which he is confident will easily be receiv'd and consented to since if it were not according the principles of Reason he is sure it is a principle from autority of Scripture and will be so acknowledg'd if the Peoples minds be not tainted with dependance upon the Potent or scribled over with the opinions of their Doctors One of the reasons which he gives why his grounds of the rights of his Soveraign should be diligently and truly taught is a very good reason to believe that the grounds are not good because he confesses pag. 175. that they cannot be maintain'd by any Civil Law or terror of legal punishment And as few men agree with Mr. Hobbes in the essential Rights of Soveraignty so none allows nor doth he agree with himself that all resistance to the rights of the Soveraignty be they never so essential is Rebellion He allows it to be a priviledg of the Subject that he may sue the King so there is no doubt but that the Soveraign may sue the Subject who may as lawfully defend as sue and every such defence is a resistance to the Soveraign right of demanding and yet I suppose Mr. Hobbes will not say it is Rebellion He that doth positively refuse to pay mony to the King which he doth justly owe to him and which he shall be compell'd to pay doth resist an essential Right of the King yet is not guilty of Rebellion which is constituted in having a force to support his resistance and a purpose to apply it that way And as the Law of Nature is not so easily taught because not so easily understood as the Civil Law so I cannot comprehend why Mr. Hobbes should imagine the Soveraign power to be more secure by the Law of Nature then by the Civil Law when he confesses That the Law of Nature is made Law only by being made part of the Civil Law and if the Civil Law did not provide a restraint from the violation of Faith by the terror of the punishment that must attend it the obligation from the Law