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A86417 Philosophicall rudiments concerning government and society. Or, A dissertation concerning man in his severall habitudes and respects, as the member of a society, first secular, and then sacred. Containing the elements of civill politie in the agreement which it hath both with naturall and divine lawes. In which is demonstrated, both what the origine of justice is, and wherein the essence of Christian religion doth consist. Together with the nature, limits, and qualifications both of regiment and subjection. / By Tho: Hobbes.; De cive. English Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver. 1651 (1651) Wing H2253; Thomason E1262_1; ESTC R202404 220,568 406

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styled ingenuous learned skilfull what you will except prudent for this Name in regard of civill knowledge they presume to be due to themselves onely Whether therefore the worth of arts is to be weighed by the worthinesse of the Persons who entertain them or by the number of those who have written of them or by the judgement of the wisest certainly this must carry it which so neerly relates to Princes and others engaged in the government of mankinde in whose adulterate Species also the most part of me●… doe delight themselves and in which the most excellent wits of Philosophers have been conversant The benefit of it when rightly delivered that is when derived from true Principles by evident connexion we shall then best discerne when we shall but well have considered the mischiefes that have befallen mankinde in its counterfeit and babling form for in such matters as are speculated for the exercise of our wits if any errour escape us it is without hurt neither is there any losse but of time onely but in those things which every man ought to meditate for the steerage of his life it necessarily happens that not onely from errours but even from ignorance it selfe there arise offences contentions nay even slaughter it selfe Look now how great a prejudice these are such and so great is the benefit arising from this doctrine of morality truly declared How many Kings and those good men too hath this one errour That a Tyrant King might lawfully be put to death been the slaughter of How many throats hath this false position cut That a Prince for some causes may by some certain men be deposed And what blood-shed hath not this erroneous doctrine caused That Kings are not superiours to but administrators for the multitude Lastly how many rebellions hath this opinion been the cause of which teacheth that the knowledge whether the commands of Kings be just or unjust belongs to private men and that before they yeeld obedience they not only may but ought to dispute them Besides in the morall Philosophy now commonly received there are many things no lesse dangerous then those which it matters not now to recite I suppose those antients foresaw this who rather chose to have the Science of Justice wrapt up in fables then openly exposed to disputations for before such questions begā to be moved Princes did not sue for but already exercised the supreme power They kept their Empire entire not by arguments but by punishing the wicked and protecting the good likewise Subjects did not measure what was just by the sayings and judgements of private men but by the Lawes of the Realme nor were they kept in peace by disputations but by power and authority yea they reverenced the supreme power whether residing in one man or in a councell as a certain visible divinity therefore they little used as in our dayes to joyn themselves with ambitious and hellish spirits to the utter ruine of their State for they could not entertain so strange a phansie as not to desire the preservation of that by which they were preserved in truth the simplicity of those times was not yet capable of so learned a piece of folly Wherefore it was peace and a golden age which ended not before that Saturn being expelled it was taught lawfull to take up arms against Kings This I say the Antients not only themselves saw but in one of their fables they seem very aptly to have signified it to us for they say that when Ixion was invited by Jupiter to a banquet he fell in love and began to court Juno her selfe offering to embrace her he clasp't a clowd from whence the Centaures proceeded by nature halfe men halfe horses a fierce a fighting and unquiet generation which changing the names only is as much as if they should have said that private men being called to Counsels of State desired to prostitute justice the onely sister and wife of the supreme to their own judgements and apprehensions but embracing a false and empty shadow instead of it they have begotten those hermophrodite opinions of morall Philosophers partly right and comely partly brutall and wilde the causes of all contentions and blood-sheds Since therefore such opinions are daily seen to arise if any man now shall dispell those clowds and by most firm reasons demonstrate that there are no authenticall doctrines conccening right and wrong good and evill besides the constituted Lawes in each Realme and government and that the question whether any future action will prove just or unjust good or ill is to be demanded of none but those to whom the supreme hath committed the interpretation of his Lawes surely he will not only shew us the high way to peace but will also teach us how to avoyd the close darke and dangerous by-paths of faction and sedition then which I know not what can be thought more profitable Concerning my Method I thought it not sufficient to use a plain and evident style in what I had to deliver except I took my begining from the very matter of civill goverment and thence proceeded to its generation and form and the first beginning of justice for every thing is best understood by its constitutive causes for as in a watch or some such small engine the matter figure and motion of the wheeles cannot well be known except it be taken in sunder and viewed in parts so to make a more curious search into the rights of States and duties of Subjects it is necessary I say not to take them in sunder but yet that they be so considered as if they were dissolved i. e. that wee rightly understand what the quality of humane nature is in what matters it is in what not fit to make up a civill government and how men must be agreed among themselves that intend to grow up into a well-grounded State Having therefore followed this kind of Method In the first place I set down for a Principle by experience known to all men and denied by none to wit that the dispositions of men are naturally such that except they be restrained through feare of some coercive power every man will distrust and dread each other and as by naturall right he may so by necessity he will be forced to make use of the strength hee hath toward the preservatiō of himself You will object perhaps that there are some who deny this truly so it happens that very many do deny it But shall I therefore seem to fight against my self because I affirm that the same men confesse and deny the same thing In truth I do not but they do whose actions disavow what their discourses approve of We see all countries though they be at peace with their neighbours yet guarding their Frontiers with armed men their Townes with Walls and Ports and keeping constant watches To what purpose is all this if there be no feare of the neighbouring power Wee see even in well-governed States where there are
and motion In the second we would have beene conversant about imagination Memory intellect ratio●ination appetite Will good and Evill honest and dishonest and the like what this last Section handles I have now already shewed you Whilest I contrive order pensively and slowly compose these matters for I onely doe reason I dispute not It so happen'd in the interim that my Country some few yeares before the civill Warres did rage was boyling ●ot with questions concerning the rights of Dominion and the obedience due from Subjects the true forerunners of an approaching War And was the cause which all those other matters deferr'd ripen'd and pluckt from me this third part Therefore it happens that what was last in order is yet come forth first in time and the rather because I saw that grounded on its owne principles sufficiently knowne by experience it would not stand in need of the former Sections I have not yet made it out of a desire of praise although if I had I might have defended my selse with this faire excuse that very few doe things laudably who are not affected with commendation but for your sakes Readers who I perswaded my selse when you should rightly apprehend and throughly understand this Doctrine I here present you with would rather chuse to brooke with patience some inconveniences under government because humane affairs cannot possibly be without some then selfe opiniatedly disturb the quiet of the publique That weighing the justice of those things you are about not by the perswa●ion and advise of private men but by the Lawes of the Realme you will no longer suffer ambitious men through the streames of your blood to wade to their owne power That you will esteeme it better to enjoy your selves in the present state though perhaps not the best then by waging Warre indeavour to procure a reformation for other men in another age your selves in the meane while either kill'd or consumed with age Farthermore for those who will not acknowledge themselves subject to the civill Magistrate and will be exempt from all publique burthens and yet will live under his Jurisdiction and looks for protection from the violence and injuries of others that you would not looke on them as fellow Subjects but esteeme them for enemies and spies and that yee rashly admit not for Gods Word all which either openly or privately they shall pretend to bee so I say more plainly if any Preacher Confessor or Casuist shal but say that this doctrin is agreeable with Gods word namely That the chief ruler nay any private man may lawfully be put to death without the chiefes command or that Subjects may resist conspire or covenant against the supreme power that ye by no means beleeve them but instantly declare their names He who approves of these reasons will also like my intention in writing this book Last of al I have propounded to my self this rule through this whole discourse First not to define ought which concerns the justice of single actions but leave thē to be determined by the laws Next not to dispute the laws of any government in special that is not to point which are the laws of any country but to declare what the laws of all countries are Thirdly not to seem of opinion that there is a lesse proportion of obedience due to an Aristocraty or D●mocraty then a Monarchy for though I have endeavoured by arguments in my tenth Chapter to gain a belief in men that Monarchy is the most commodious government which one thing alone I confesse in this whole book not to be demonstrated but only probably stated yet every where I expresly say that in all kind of Government whatsoever there ought to be a supreme and equall power Fourthly not in any wise to dispute the positions of Divines except th●se which strip Subjects of their obedience and shake the foundations of civill government Lastly lest I might imprudently set forth somewhat of which there would be no need what I had thus written I would not presently expose to publique interest wherefore I got some few copies privately disperst among some of my friends that discrying the opinions of others if any things appeared erroneous hard or obscure I might correct soften and explain them These things I found most bitterly excepted against that I had made the civill powers too large but this by Ecclesiasticall Persons that I had utterly taken away liberty of conscience but this by Sectaries that I had set Princes above the civil Laws but this by Lawyers wherefore I was not much moved by these mens reprehensions as who in doing this did but do their own business except it were tye those knots somewhat faster But for their sakes who have a litle been staggered at the Principles themselves to wit the nature of men the authority or right of nature the nature of compacts and contracts and the originall of civill government because in finding fault they have not so much followed their Passions as their common sense I have therefore in some places added some annotations whereby I presumed I might give some satisfaction to their differing thoughts Lastly I have endevoured to offend none beside those whose Principles these contradict and whose tender mindes are lightly offended by every difference of opinions Wherefore if ye shall meet with some things which have more of sharpnesse and lesse of certainty then they ought to have since they are not so much spoken for the maintenance of parties as the establishment of peace and by one whose just grief for the present calamities of his country may very charitably be allowed some liberty it is his only request to ye Readers ye will deign to receive them with an equall mind The Index of the Chapters under the titles of LIBERTY CHAP. I. OF the State of men without civill society 1 CHAP. II. Of the Law of nature concerning contracts 16 CHAP. III. Of the other Lawes of nature 34 CHAP. IV. That the Law of nature is a divine Law 58 EMPIRE CHAP. V. OF the causes and first Originall of civill government 73 CHAP. VI. Of the right whether we consider it in an Assembly or in one Person 〈◊〉 which he hath who is endued with supreme authority 82 CHAP. VII Of the three kindes of government Democraty Aristocraty and Monarchy 100 CHAP. VIII Of the right which Lords and Masters have over their Servants 126 CHAP. IX Of the rights which Parents have over their children and of a Kingdome Paternall 173 CHAP. X. A comparison of the three kinds of government each with other according to the inconveniences of each one 146 CHAP. XI The places and examples of Scripture concerning the right of government which make for proof of the foresaid Doctrines 165 CHAP. XII Of the inward causes which dissolve all civill government 172 CHAP. XIII Of the duties of those men who sit at the Helm of State 189 CHAP. XIV Of Lawes and Sinnes 208 RELIGION CHAP. XV. OF Gods government by
Law to take away other mens goods they commanded that these goods should not bee accounted other mens but their own who took them and therefore such surreptions were no thefts In like manner copulations of heathen Sexes according to their Lawes were lawfull marriages XI It s necessary to the essence of a Law that the Subjects be acquainted with two things First what man or Court hath the supreme power that is to say the Right of making Lawes Secondly what the Law it self sayes for he that neither knew either to whom or what he is tyed to cannot obey and by consequence is in such a condition as if he were not tyed at all I say not that it is necessary to the essence of a Law that either one or the other be perpetually known but onely that it be once knowne and if the Subject afterward forget either the Right he hath who made the Law or the Law it self that makes him no less● tyed to ohey since he might have remembred it had he had a will to obey XII The knowledge of the Legislator depends on the Subject himselfe for the right of making Lawes could not be conferr'd on any man without his owne consent and covenant either exprest or suppos'd exprest when from the beginning the Citizens doe themselves constitute a forme of governing the City or when by promise they submit themselves to the Dominion of any one or suppos'd at least as when they make use of the benefit of the Realme and Lawes for their protection and conservation against others for to whose Dominion we require our fellow Subjects to yeeld obedience for our good his Dominion we acknowledge to be legitimate by that very request and therefore ignorance of the power of making Lawes can never be a sufficient excuse for every man knowes what he hath done himselfe The knowledge of the lawes depends on the Legislator who must publish them for otherwise they are not Lawes for Law is the command of the Law-maker and his command is the Declaration of his Will it is not therefore a Law except the will of the Law-maker be declar'd which is done by promulgation Now in promulgation two things must be manifest whereof one is that he or they who publish a Law either have a right themselves to make Lawes or that they doe it by authority deriv'd from him or ●hem who have it the other is the sense of the Law it selfe Now that the first namely publisht Lawes proceed from him who hath the supreme command cannot be manifest speaking exactly and philosophically to any but them who have received them from the mouth of the Commander the rest beleeve but the reasons of their beliefe are so many that it is scarce possible they should not believe And truly in a Democratical City where every one may be present at the making of Laws if he will he that shall be absent must beleeve those that were present but in Monarchies and Aristocraties because it s granted but to few to be present and openly to heare the commands of the Monarch or the Nobles it was necessary to bestow a power on those few of publishing them to the rest And thus we beleeve those to be the Edicts and Decrees of Princes which are propoūded to us for such either by the writings or voices of them whose office it is to publish them But yet when we have these causes of beliefe that we have seen the Prince or supreme Councell constantly use such Counsellors Secretaries publishers and scales and the like arguments for the declaring of his will that he never took any authority from them that they have bin punisht who not giving credit to such like promulgations have transgrest the Law not onely he who thus believing shall not obey the Edicts and Decrees set forth by them is every where accus'd but he that not believing shall not yield obedience is punisht for the constant permission of these things is a manifest signe enough and evident declaration of the Commanders will provided there be nothing contain'd in the Law Edict or Decree derogatory from his supreme power For it is not to be imagin'd that he would have ought taken from his power by any of his Officers as long as he retaines a will to governe Now the sense of the law when there is any doubt made of it is to be taken from them to whom the supreme authority hath committed the knowledge of causes or Judgements for to judge is nothing else then by interpretation to apply the lawes to particular cases now we may know who they are that have this Office granted them in the same manner as we know who they be that have authority given them to publish Laws XIV Againe the civill law according to its two fold manner of publishing is of two sorts written unwritten By written I understand that which wants a voice or some other signe of the will of the ●egislator that it may become a Law For all kind of Laws are of the same age with mankinde both in nature and time and therefore of more antiquity then the invention of letters and the Art of writing wherefore not a writing but a voice is necessary for a written law this alone is requisite to the being that to the Remembrance of a Law for we reade that before letters were found out for the help of memory that Lawes contracted into Meetre were wont to be sung The unwritten is that which wants no other publishing then the voice of nature or naturall reason such are the lawes of nature For the naturall Law although it be distinguisht from the civill for as much as it commands the Will yet so farre forth as it relates to our actions it is civill for example this same Thou shalt not covet which onely appertaines to the minde is a naturall Law onely but this Thou shalt not invade is both naturall and civill for seeing it is impossible to prescribe such universall Rules whereby all future contentions which perhaps are infinite may be determined it s to be understood that in all cases not mentioned by the written lawes the law of ●aturall equity is to be followed which commands us to distribute equally to equals and this by the vertue of the civill law which also punisheth those who knowingly and willingly doe actually transgresse the lawes of nature XV. These things being understood it appeares first That the Lawes of Nature although they were describ'd in the Books of some Philosophers are not for that reason to be termed Written lawes and that the Writings of the Interpreters of the Lawes were no Lawes for want of the Supreme Authority nor yet those orations of the Wise that is to say Judges but so farre forth as by the consent of the Supreme power they part into custome and that then they are to be received among the Written lawes not for the Customes sake which by its own force doth not