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
Writing having once named the Text concludes presently without any more ado that the meaning is as he would have it let the Words Rule and Subject be but found in the Text or Margent and it immediately signifies the Duty of a Subject to his Prince and the Relation is changed and though God says Husband Sr. Robt. will have it King Adam has presently Absolute Monarchial Power over Eve and not only Eve but all that should come of her though the Scripture says not a word of it nor our A a word to prove it But Adam must for all that be an Absolute Monarch and so to the end of the Chapter quite down to Ch. 1. And here I leave my Reader to consider whether my bare Saying without offering any Reasons to evince it that this Text gave not Adam that Absolute Monarchial Power our A supposes be not as sufficient to destroy that Power as his bare Assertion is to Establish it since the Text mentions neither Prince nor People speaks nothing of Absolute or Monarchial Power but the Subjection of Eve a Wife to her Husband And he that would treat our A so although he would make a short and sufficient answer to the greatest part of the Grounds he proceeds on and abundantly confute them by barely denying It being a sufficient answer to Assertions without proof to deny them without giving a Reason and therefore should I have said nothing but barely deny'd that by this Text the Supream Power was setled and founded by God himself in the Fatherhood Limited to Monarchy and that to Adams Person and Heirs all which our A notably concludes from these Words as may be seen in the same Page O. 244. and desired any sober Man to have read the Text and considered to whom and on what occasion it was spoken he would no doubt have wondered how our A found out Monarchical Absolute Power in it had he not had an exceeding good Faculty to find it himself where he could not shew it others And thus we have examined the two places of Scripture all that I remember our A brings to prove Adams Sovereignty that Supremacy which he says it was Gods Ordinance should be unlimitted in Adam and as large as all the Acts of his Will O. 254 viz. 1 Gen. 28. and 3. Gen. 16. one whereof signifies only the Subjection of the inferior Ranks of Creatures to Mankind and the other the Subjection that is due from a Wife to her Husband both far enough from that which Subjects owe the Governors of Political Societies CHAP. VI. Of Adams Title to Sovereignty by Fatherhood 50. THere is one thing more and then I think I have given you all that our A brings for proof of Adams Sovereignty and that is a Supposition of a natural Right of Dominion over his Children by being their Father and this Title of Fatherhood he is pleased with that you will find it brought in almost in every Page particularly he says not only Adam but the succeeding Patriarchs had by Right of Fatherhood Royal Authority over their Children p. 12. And in the same page This Subjection of Children being the Fountain of all Regal Authority c. This being as one would think by his so frequent mentioning it the main basis of all his Frame we may well expect clear and evident Reason for it since he lays it down as a position necessary to his purpose that every Man that is born is so far from being Free that by his very Birth he becomes a Subject of him that begets him O. 156. So that Adam being the only Man Created and all ever since being begotten no body has been born free If we ask how Adam comes by this Power over his Children he tells us here 't is by begetting them And so again O. 223. This natural Dominion of Adam says he may be proved out of Grotius himself who teacheth that generatione jus acquiritur parentibus iâ— liberos And indeed the act of begetâ—ing being that which makes a Man a Father his Right of Father over his Children can naturally arise from nothing else 51. Grotius tells us not here how far this jus in liberos this Power of Parents over their Children extends but our A always very clear in the point assures us 't is Supreme Power and like that of Absolute Monarchs over their Slaves Absolute Power of Life and Death He that should demand of him how or for what Reason it is that begetting a Child gives the Father such an Absolute Power over him will find him answer nothing we are to take his word for this as well as several other things and by that the Laws of Nature and the Constitutions of Government must stand and fall Had he been an Absolute Monarch this way of talking might have suited well enough pro ratione voluntas may there be allowed But 't is but an ill way of pleading for Absolute Monarchy and Sr. Robts bare Sayings will scarce Establish it one slaves Opinion without proof is not of weight enough to dispose of the Liberty and Fortunes of all Mankind If all Men are not as I think they are naturally equal I 'm sure all Slaves are and then I may without presumption oppose my single Opinion to his and be as confident that my Saying that begetting of Children makes them not Slaves to their Fathers sets all Mankind Free as his affirming the contrary makes them all Slaves But that this position which is the Foundation of all their Doctrin who would have Monarchy to be Iure divino may have all fair play let us hear what reasons others give for it since our A offers none 52. The Argument I have heard others make use of to prove that Fathers by begetting them come by an Absolute Power over their Children is this That Fathers have a Power over the Lives of their Children because they give them Life and Being which is the only proof it is capable of since there can be no reason why naturally one Man should have any claim or pretence of Right over that in another which was never his which he bestowed not but was received from the bounty of another 1 o. I answer that every one who gives an other any thing has not always thereby a Right to take it away again But 2 o. they who say the Father gives Life to his Children are so dazled with the thoughts of Monarchy that they do not as they ought remember God who is the Author and giver of Life 't is in him alone we live move and have our Being How can he be thought to give Life to another that knows not wherein his own Life consists Philosophers are at a loss about it after their most diligent enquiries And Anatomists after their whole Lives and Studies spent in dissections and diligent examining the Bodies of Men confess their Ignorance in the Structure and Use of Many parts of Mans Body and in that Operation wherein Life consists in the
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
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
say to know it as well as several others who live as Free-men under that Law The Affection and Tenderness God hath planted in the breasts of Parents towards their Children makes it evident that this is not intended to be a severe Arbitrary Government but only for the Help Instruction and Preservation of their Off-spring But happen it as it will there is as I have proved no reason why it should be thought to extend to Life and Death at any time over their Children more than over any body else or keep the Child in subjection to the Will of his Parents when grown to a Man and the perfect use of Reason any farther than as having received Life and Education from his Parents obliges him to Respect Honour Gratitude Assistance and Support all his Life to both Father and Mother And thus 't is true the Paternal is a natural Government but not at all extending it self to the Ends and Jurisdictions of that which is Political The Power of the Father doth not reach at all to the Property of the Child which is only in his own disposing 171. Secondly Political Power is that Power which every Man having in the state of Nature has given up into the hands of the Society and therein to the Governours whom the Society hath set over it self with this express or tacit Trust That it shall be imployed for their good and the preservation of their Property Now this Power which every Man has in the state of Nature and which he parts with to the Society in all such cases where the Society can secure him is to use such means for the preserving of his own Property as he thinks good and Nature allows him and to punish the Breach of the Law of Nature in others so as according to the best of his Reason may most conduce to the preservation of himself and the rest of Mankind so that the end and measure of this Power when in every Man's hands in the state of Nature being the preservation of all of his Society that is all Mankind in general It can have no other end or measure when in the hands of the Magistrate but to preserve the Members of that Society in their Lives Liberties and Possessions and so cannot be an Absolute Arbitrary Power over their Lives and Fortunes which are as much as possible to be preserved But a Power to make Laws and annex such Penalties to them as may tend to the preservation of the whole by cutting off those Parts and those only which are so corrupt that they threaten the sound and healthy without which no severity is lawful And this Power has its Original only from Compact and Agreement and the mutual Consent of those who make up the Community 172. Thirdly Despotical Power is an Absolute Arbitrary Power one Man has over another to take away his Life whenever he pleases and this is a Power which neither Nature gives for it has made no such distinction between one Man and another nor Compact can convey For Man not having such an Arbitrary Power over his own Life cannot give another Man such a Power over it but it is the effect only of Forfeiture which the Aggressor makes of his own Life when he puts himself into the state of War with another For having quitted Reason which God hath given to be the Rule betwixt Man and Man and the peaceable ways which that teaches and made use of Force to compass his unjust ends upon another where he has no right he renders himself liable to be destroyed by his Adversary when-ever he can as any other noxious and brutish Creature that is destructive to his Being And thus Captives taken in a just and lawful War and such only are subject to a Despotical Power which as it arises not from Compact so neither is it capable of any but is the state of War continued For what Compact can be made with a Man that is not Master of his own Life What Condition can he perform And if he be once allowed to be Master of his own Life the Despotical Arbitrary Power of his Master ceases He that is Master of himself and his own Life has a right too to the means of preserving it so that as soon as Compact enters Slavery ceases and he so far quits his Absolute Power and puts an end to the state of War who enters into Conditions with his Captive 173. Nature gives the first of these viz. Paternal Power to Parents for the Benefit of their Children during their Minority to supply their want of Ability and understanding how to manage their Property By Property I must be understood here as in other places to mean that Property which Men have in their Persons as well as Goods Voluntary Agreement gives the second viz. Political Power to Governours for the Benefit of their Subjects to secure them in the Possession and Use of their Properties And Forfeiture gives the third Despotical Power to Lords for their own Benefit over those who are stripp'd of all Property 174. He that shall consider the distinct rise and extent and the different ends of these several Powers will plainly see that Paternal Power comes as far short of that of the Magistrate as Despotical exceeds it and that Absolute Dominion however placed is so far from being one kind of civil Society that it is as inconsistent with it as Slavery is with Property Paternal Power is only where Minority makes the Child incapable to manage his Property Political where Men have Property in their own disposal and Despotical over such as have no Property at all CHAP. XVI Of CONQVEST 175. THough Governments can originally have no other Rise than that before mentioned nor Polities be founded on any thing but the Consent of the People yet such has been the Disorders Ambition has fill'd the World with that in the noise of War which makes so great a part of the History of Mankind this Consent is little taken notice of and therefore many have mistaken the force of Arms for the Consent of the People and reckon Conquest as one of the Originals of Government But Conquest is as far from setting up any Government as demolishing an House is from building a new one in the place Indeed it often makes way for a new Frame of a Commonwealth by destroying the former but without the Consent of the People can never erect a new one 176. That the Aggressor who puts himself into the state of War with another and unjustly invades another Man's right can by such an unjust War never come to have a right over the Conquered will be easily agreed by all Men who will not think that Robbers and Pyrates have a Right of Empire over whomsoever they have Force enough to master or that Men are bound by Promises which unlawful Force extorts from them Should a Robber break into my House and with a Dagger at my Throat make me seal Deeds to convey
product is more worth than the Inheritance where there being more Land than the Inhabitants possess and make use of any one has liberty to make use of the waste But there Conquerours take little care to possess themselves of the Lands of the vanquished No damage therefore that Men in the state of Nature as all Princes and Governments are in reference to one another suffer from one another can give a Conquerour Power to dispossess the Posterity of the vanquished and turn them out of that Inheritance which ought to be the Possession of them and their Descendants to all Generations The Conquerour indeed will be apt to think himself Master And 't is the very condition of the subdued not to be able to dispute their Right But if that be all it gives no other Title than what bare Force gives to the stronger over the weaker And by this reason he that is strongest will have a right to whatever he pleases to seize on 185. Over those then that joined with him in the War and over those of the subdued Countrey that opposed him not and the Posterity even of those that did the Conquerour even in a just War hath by his Conquest no right of Dominion They are free from any subjection to him and if their former Government be dissolved they are at liberty to begin and erect another to themselves 186. The Conquerour 't is true usually by the Force he has over them compels them with a Sword at their Breasts to stoop to his Conditions and submit to such a Government as he pleases to afford them but the enquiry is What right he has to do so If it be said they submit by their own consent then this allows their own consent to be necessary to give the Conquerour a Title to rule over them It remains only to be considered whether Promises extorted by Force without Right can be thought Consent and how far they bind To which I shall say they bind not at all because whatsoever another gets from me by force I still retain the Right of and he is obliged presently to restore He that forces my Horse from me ought presently to restore him and I have still a right to retake him By the same reason he that forced a Promise from me ought presently to restore it i. e. quit me of the Obligation of it or I may resume it my self i. e. chuse whether I will perform it For the Law of Nature laying an obligation on me only by the Rules she prescribes cannot oblige me by the violation of her Rules such is the extorting any thing from me by force Nor does it at all alter the case to say I gave my Promise no more than it excuses the force and passes the right when I put my hand in my Pocket and deliver my Purse my self to a Thief who demands it with a Pistol at my Breast 187. From all which it follows that the Government of a Conquerour impoposed by force on the subdued against whom he had no right of War or who joined not in the War against him where he had right has no obligation upon them 188. But let us suppose that all the Men of that Community being all Members of the same Body Politick may be taken to have join'd in that unjust War wherein they are subdued and so their Lives are at the Mercy of the Conquerour 189. I say this concerns not their Children who are in their Minority For since a Father hath not in himself a Power over the Life or Liberty of his Child no act of his can possibly forfeit it so that the Children whatever may have happened to the Fathers are Free men and the Absolute Power of the Conquerour reaches no farther than the Persons of the Men that were subdued by him and dies with them and should he govern them as Slaves subjected to his Absolute Arbitrary Power he has no such Right of Dominion over their Children He can have no Power over them but by their own consent whatever he may drive them to say or do and he has no lawful Authority whilst Force and not Choice compels them to submission 190. Every Man is born with a double Right First A Right of Freedom to his Person which no other Man has a Power over but the free Disposal of it lies in himself Secondly A Right before any other Man to inherit with his Brethren his Father's Goods 191. By the first of these a Man is naturally free from subjection to any Government though he be born in a place under its Jurisdiction But if he disclaim the lawful Government of the Countrey he was born in he must also quit the Right that belong'd to him by the Laws of it and the Possessions there descending to him from his Ancestors if it were a Government made by their consent 192. By the second the Inhabitants of any Countrey who are descended and derive a Title to their Estates from those who are subdued and had a Government forced upon them against their free consents retain a Right to the Possession of their Ancestours though they consent not freely to the Government whose hard Conditions were by force imposed on the Possessors of that Countrey For the first Conqueror never having had a Title to the Land of that Country the People who are the Descendants of or claim under those who were forced to submit to the Yoke of a Government by constraint have always a Right to shake it off and free themselves from the Usurpation or Tyranny the Sword hath brought in upon them till their Rulers put them under such a Frame of Government as they willingly and of choice consent to which they can never be supposed to do till either they are put in a full state of Liberty to chuse their Government and Governours or at least till they have such standing Laws to which they have by themselves or their Representatives given their free consent and also till they are allowed their due Property which is so to be Proprietors of what they have that no body can take away any part of it without their own consent without which Men under any Government are not in the state of Free-men but are direct Slaves under the force of War And who doubts but the Grecian Christians Descendants of the antient Possessors of that Countrey may justly cast off the Turkish Yoke they have so long groaned under when-ever they have a Power to do it 193. But granting that the Conquerour in a just War has a Right to the Estates as well as Power over the Persons of the Conquered which 't is plain he hath not nothing of Absolute Power will follow from hence in the continuance of the Government Because the Descendants of these being all Free-men if he grants them Estates and Possessions to inhabit his Countrey without which it would be worth nothing whatsoever he grants them they have so far as it is granted Property in The