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
express words of Scripture not capable of another meaning will not satisfie him who pretends to build wholly on Scripture is not easy to imagine The Text says God Blessed Noah and his Sons said unto them i e. as our A would have it unto him for saith he although the Sons are there mentioned with Noah in the Blessing yet it may best be understood with a Subordination or Benediction in Succession O. 211. That indeed is best for our A to be understood which best serves to his purpose but that truly may best be understood by any body else which best agrees with the plain construction of the words and arises from the obvious meaning of the place and then with Subordination and in Succession will not be best understood in a Grant of God where he himself put them not nor mentions any such Limitation But yet our A has reasons why it may best be understood so The Blessing says he in the following words might truly be fulfilled if the Sons either under or after their Father enjoy'd a Private Dominion O. 211. which is to say that a Grant whose express words give a joynt Title in present for the Text says into your hands they are delivered may best be understood with a Subordination or in Succession because 't is possible that in Subordination or Succession it may be enjoy'd which is all one as to say that a Grant of any thing in present possession may best be understood of reversion because 't is possible one may live to enjoy it in reversion If the Grant be indeed to a Father and his Sons who is so kind as to let his Children enjoy it presently in common with him one may truly say as to the event one will be as good as the other but it can never be true that what the express Words grants in possession and in common may best be understood to be in reversion The summ of all his reasoning amounts to this God did not give to the Sons of Noah the World in common with their Father because 't was possible they might enjoy it under or after him a very good sort of Argument against an express Text of Scripture But God must not be believed though he speaks it himself when he says he does any thing which will not confist with Sr. Robt's Hypothesis 33. For 't is plain however he would exclude them That part of this Benediction as he would have it in Succession must needs be meant to the Sons and not to Noah himself at all Be Fruitful and Multiply and Replenish the Earth says God in this Blessing this part of the Benediction as appears by the sequel concerned not Noah himself at all for we read not of any Children he had after the Flood and in the following Chapter where his Posterity is reckon'd up there is no mention of any and so this Benediction in Succession was not to take place till 350 Years after and to save our A s imaginary Monarchy the Peopleing of the World must be defer'd 350 Years for this part of the Benediction cannot be understood with Subordination unless our A will say that they must ask leave of their Father Noah to lye with their Wives But in this one point our A is constant to himself in all his Discourses he takes only care there should be Monarchs in the World but very little that there should be People and indeed his way of Government is not the way to People the World For how much Absolute Monarchy helps to fulfil this great and primary Blessing of God Almighty be Fruitful and Multiply and Replenish the Earth which contains in it the improvement too of Arts and Siences and the conveniences of Life may be seen in those large and rich Countries which are happy under the Turkish Govermnent where are not now to be found 1 3 nay in many if not most parts of them 1 30 perhaps I might say not 1 100 of the People that were formerly as will easily appear to any one who will compare the Accounts we have of it at this time with Ancient History but this by the by 34. The other Parts of this Benediction of Grant are so expressed that they must needs be understood to belong to Noahs Sons not with a Subordination or in Succession but as far forth and equally as to Noah himself The fear of you and the dread of you says God shall be upon every Beast c. Will any Body but our A say that the Creatures feared and stood in awe of Noah only and not of his Sons without his leave or till after his death And the following words into your hands they are delivered are they to be understood as our A says if your Father please or they shall be deliver'd into your hands hereafter If this be to argue from Scripture I know not what may not be proved by it and I can scarce see how much this differs from that Fiction and Phansy or how much a surer Foundation it will prove then the Opinions of Philosophers and Poets which our A so much condemns in his Preface 35. But our A goes on to prove that it may best be understood with a Subordination or a Benediction in Succession for says he it is not probable that the private Dominion ' which God gave to Adam and by his Donation Assignation or Cession to his Children was Abrogated and a Community of all things instituted between Noah and his Sons Noah was left the sole Heir of the World why should it be thought that God would disinherit him of his Birth-right and make him of all Men in the World the only Tenant in Common with his Children O. 2. 11. 36. The Prejudices of our own ill grounded Opinions however by us called Probable cannot Authorize us to understand Scripture contrary to the direct and plain meaning of the Words I grant 't is not probable that Adams private Dominion was here Abrogated because it is more then improbable for it will ever be proved that ever Adam had any such Private Dominion and since parallel places of Scripture are most probable to make us know how they may be best understood there needs but the comparing this Blessing here to Noah and his Sons after the Floud with that to Adam after the Creation 1 Gen. 28. to assure any one that God gave Adam no such Private Dominion 'T is Probable I confess that Noah should have the same Title the same Property and Dominion after the Floud that Adam had before it But since Private Dominion cannot consist with the Blessing and Grant God gave to him and his Sons in Common 't is a sufficient Reason to conclude that Adam had none especially since in the Donation made to him there is no words that express it or do in the least favour it And then let my Reader Judge whether it may best be understood when in the one place there is not one word for it not
no other Legislative Power but that established by consent in the Commonwealth nor under the Dominion of any Will or Restraint of any Law but what that Legislative shall enact according to the Trust put in it Freedom then is not what Sr. R. F. tells us O. A. 55. A Liberty for every one to do what he lists to live as he pleases and not to be tyed by any Laws but Freedom of Men under Government is to have a standing Rule to live by common to every one of that Society and made by the Legislative Power erected in it A Liberty to follow my own Will in all things where that Rule prescribes not not to be subject to the inconstant uncertain unknown Arbitrary Will of another Man As Freedom of Nature is to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature 23. This Freedom from Absolute Arbitrary Power is so necessary to and closely joyned with a Man's Preservation that he cannot part with it but by what forfeits his Preservation and Life together For a Man not having the Power of his own Life cannot by Compact or his own Consent enslave himself to any one nor put himself under the Absolute Arbitrary Power of another to take away his Life when he pleases No body can give more Power than he has himself and he that cannot take away his own Life cannot give another Power over it Indeed having by his fault forfeited his own Life by some Act that deserves Death he to whom he has forfeited it may when he has him in his Power delay to take it and make use of him to his own service and he does him no injury by it For when-ever he finds the hardship of his Slavery out-weigh the value of his Life 't is in his Power by resisting the Will of his Master to draw on himself the Death he desires 24. This is the perfect condition of Slavery which is nothing else but the State of War continued between a lawful Conquerour and a Captive For if once Compact enter between them and make an agreement for a limited Power on the one side and Obedience on the other the State of War and Slavery ceases as long as the Compact endures For as has been said no Man can by agreement pass over to another that which he hath not in himself a Power over his own Life I confess we find among the Iews as well as other Nations that Men did sell themselves but 't is plain this was only to Drudgery not to Slavery For it is evident the Person sold was not under an Absolute Arbitrary Despotical Power For the Master could not have Power to kill him at any time whom at a certain time he was obliged to let go free out of his service And the Master of such a Servant was so far from having an Arbitrary Power over his Life that he could not at pleasure so much as maim him but the Loss of an Eye or Tooth set him free Exod. XXI CHAP. V. Of PROPERTY 25. WHether we consider natural Reason which tells us that Men being once born have a right to their Preservation and consequently to Meat and Drink and such other things as Nature affords for their Subsistence Or Revelation which gives us an account of those Grants God made of the World to Adam and to Noah and his Sons 't is very clear that God as K. David says Psal. CXV xvj has given the earth to the Children of men given it to Mankind in common But this being supposed it seems to some a very great difficulty how any one should ever come to have a Property in any thing I will not content my self to answer That if it be difficult to make out Property upon a supposition That God gave the World to Adam and his Posterity in common it is impossible that any Man but one universal Monarch should have any Property upon a supposition That God gave the World to Adam and his Heirs in Succession exclusive of all the rest of his Posterity But I shall endeavour to shew how Men might come to have a Property in several parts of that which God gave to Mankind in common and that without any express Compact of all the Commoners 26. God who hath given the World to Men in common hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience The Earth and all that is therein is given to Men for the Support and Comfort of their being And though all the Fruits it naturally produces and Beasts it feeds belong to Mankind in common as they are produced by the spontaneous hand of Nature and no body has originally a private Dominion exclusive of the rest of Mankind in any of them as they are thus in their natural state yet being given for the use of Men there must of necessity be a means to appropriate them some way or other before they can be of any use or at all beneficial to any particular Men. The Fruit or Venison which nourishes the wild Indian who knows no Inclosure and is still a Tenant in common must be his and so his i.e. a part of him that another can no longer have any right to it before it can do him any good for the support of his Life 27. Though the Earth and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men yet every Man has a Property in his own Person This no Body has any Right to but himself The Labour of his Body and the Work of his Hands we may say are properly his Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided and left it in he hath mixed his Labour with it and joined to it something that is his own and thereby makes it his Property It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in it hath by this labour something annexed to it that excludes the common right of other Men. For this labour being the unquestionable Property of the Labourer no Man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to at least where there is enough and as good left in common for others 28. He that is nourished by the Acorns he pickt up under an Oak or the Apples he gathered from the Trees in the Wood has certainly appropriated them to himself No Body can deny but the nourishment is his I ask then when did they begin to be his When he digested or when he eat Or when he boiled Or when he brought them home Or when he pickt them up And 't is plain if the first gathering made them not his nothing else could That labour put a distinction between them and common That added something to them more than Nature the common Mother of all had done and so they became his private right And will any one say he had no right to those Acorns or Apples he thus appropriated because he had not the consent of all Mankind to make them
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