An essay concerning obedience to the supreme powers, and the duty of subjects in all revolutions with some considerations touching the present juncture of affairs.

CHAP. I. Of Government, and the Origine of it. (Book 1)

GOvernment is, as it is usually defined, The Care of other Peoples Safety; which consists in Protect∣ing and securing them from being destroyed or

oppressed by one another, as well as by Strangers; and re∣dressing the Grievances of those that are injured, and pre∣venting the like for the future, by punishing Offenders. In order to which, the Governor must have a Right to command the Natural Force of those that expect his Pro∣tection, to enable him the better to put his Laws and De∣crees in execution. Tho without Power Government can∣not consist, yet Power and Government are not one and the same thing; a man may be in the Power of another, and yet may not be governed by him; it is necessary that this Power be made use of for Protection, without which it is impossible to be protected; so that Protection and Go∣vernment are the same thing; for where people are not protected, they are still in the state of Nature, and without Government.

It is Government alone that gives the Form, Life, and Unity to a Civil Society, or Body Politick, by which the several Members have their mutual Influence, Sympathy, and Connection; so that to be a Member of a Civil Socie∣ty, and to be under Government, is the same thing; and to be without Government, and to be in the state of Na∣ture, are reciprocal, and predicated of one another. None can pretend to be or claim any Civil Rights as a Member of a Society, without owning the actual Government that makes it a Society; and they that disown the Government of the Society they live in, do outlaw themselves, and virtually declare themselves no Members of it; because they have reduced themselves to a state of Nature, by dis∣owning there is amongst them a common Judge, who has a Right to decide their Controversies, and redress their Injuries, and in whose Determinations they are obliged to acquiesce.

God, who is the Author of every good thing, may be said in a more special manner to be so of Government, be∣cause it is absolutely necessary to the Well-being of Man∣kind;

and He, by the Law of Nature, which obliges mankind to act for their good, has instituted it, and has since by his Positive Law ratified and confirmed it; yet He did not constitute any particular Form of Government, but left mankind at liberty to dispose of themselves, as they (when they instituted Societies) thought fit. God was so far from taking this Liberty from any Nation, that when he was pleased to take upon himself the Office of King over his own People the Jews, he first required their Consent; and a Contract between God and the People (as is plain by the 19th. of Exodus) was the Foundation of the Theo∣cracy. And since it is not by God's Positive Law, That one Form of Government, rather than another, is any where established, there can remain no other way by which any Government can be erected, or that one man can have a Right to command over others, but by the Law of Nature, or by the Consent of the Parties concerned: But there is no Law of Nature for any one Form of Government, so as to make the rest unlawful; or that one person, rather than another, should have the Sovereign Administration of Affairs: Nor can there be any one Law of Nature ur∣ged, why any particular person should have a Power over so many Millions of different Families, with no manner of relation and dependance one upon another, and who are by Nature equal, being of the same rank, promiscuously born to the same Advantages of Nature, and to the use of the same common Faculties: And therefore it remains, That Government must be derived from Consent.

Object. Men are not by Nature free; because they are born subject to their Parents, (who by the Law of Nature have an Absolute Power over them): Therefore they could not chuse Governors for themselves.

Answ. The Power that Parents have over their Children, does not extend to their Lives or Properties, or hinder them from being free, tho they are born in a condition which

makes them for some time incapable to exercise their free∣dom. It is the duty of those by whose means they come into the world, to take care and provide for them until they are able to provide for themselves; which Duty Pa∣rents cannot effectually discharge, except they have a Power to correct and manage them as they think fit.

Children are obliged to take the same care for their Pa∣rents, if they chance by losing their Reason to fall into the same helpless Condition; which they cannot perform, ex∣cept they have also in their turn, a Power to govern them too, and even to use Forcible means, when they think it necessary.

Whoever has the Charge of educating a Child, whe∣ther he be his Father or a Stranger, must have the same Power over him; and this a Child, tho an Absolute King, must be forced to submit to. The information of his mind, the health of his body, and even the necessities of life, make it absolutely necessary: And if this be not incon∣sistent with Sovereign Power, much less is it with Free∣dom. A man may be said to be by Nature Free, as well as Rational, tho he be not capable of exercising both, until such an Age; and the same Age that sets him free from the Power of a Tutor, sets him free from the Power of his Parents, tho nothing can set him free from that Reve∣rence (which is not inconsistent with the state of Free∣dom) which he must for ever owe them.

But that Filial Reverence does not give his Father or Mo∣ther (to whom by the Law of God and Nature he is obliged to pay equal Honour and Reverence) a Power over his Life and Properties, or any Jurisdiction over him: (Whilst he is part of the Family, it is true he must be subject in matters that concern the Family, because there can be but one Master in a Family). If Parents had an Absolute Regal Power, all Civil Government would be unlawful, because it would deprive all Fathers of that Paternal Re∣gal

Power, which by the Law of Nature (which is supe∣rior to all Human Laws) does (upon their having Children) become their Right, and which the Government could no more justly deprive them of, than of that Duty and Ho∣nour which Children by the same Law of Nature are obli∣ged to pay them; and which too, if Government were nothing but Paternal Power, must belong to it. But if this Notion were true, this would not give Governors a Power over Parents themselves, or over those who have no Parents in being, because Paternal Power can affect none but Children: And the Supreme Magistrate, who does not beget his Subjects, can have no Natural nor any other Right to it, but as it is conveyed to him by Consent; except the First-born from Adam (which the Asserters of Paternal Power do affirm) hath an Universal Hereditary Right, (the Absurdity of which Opinion has sufficiently been exposed by a late most Ingenious Author); supposing which to be true, it is plain that no other can have the same Right; so that until that mighty Monarch prove his Claim, all the Civil Power that is now in the world, must come by Consent; and there is nothing but that, can give another a greater Power than Parents pre∣tend to over their Children; and which Children are obli∣ged to obey, even contrary to their Parents Commands; and which gives them a Power of Life and Death over their Parents, as it frequently happens in Elective Govern∣ments; which Governments it is visible have their Power from the People; and this way too at first must come the Power in all Hereditary Governments; for the first of a Family could not have an Hereditary Right.

Object. The Power of Government could not come from the People, because they have no Power over their own Lives; and therefore could not give that to another which they had not themselves.

Answ. It is true, men having no power over their own Lives, could not part with a Power they had not; yet Go∣vernors will have all the Power which is necessary for the Ends of Government, by the Peoples giving them that Power which by the Law of Nature they had over the lives of one another; for by that Law every one had a Right to take away the life of another, if he could not otherwise secure his own, or what was in order to the sup∣porting it; and might do the same in defence of any inno∣cent person, and could punish any one for injuring him or his neighbours, because by it he acted for his own and their security: And if Punishment ought then to be inflicted, some one must have a Right to inflict it; and if any one had a Right, all being by Nature equal, every one must have the same Right; the exercise of which Right men have parted with to their Governors; so that they alone have now the only Right to punish with loss of life, or any less Punishment, in all cases, except in those where upon the suddenness of the danger, Protection cannot be had from them, or where they wholly neglect, or are incapable to protect them; There mens Natural Liberties still re∣main, and they may in Defence of their own Lives, or what is necessary to support them, justly take away the lives of the Aggressors. And any Law which should take this Power from the people, would be null and void, be∣cause the people never did or could give the Magistrate such a Power as should hinder them from acting for their own Preservation, when necessity required it.

The Magistrate having then his Power from the People, it is very certain he can have no more Power than they were capable of giving him, or did give him; who, because people (who had no Arbitrary Power over the Lives of one another) were not capable of giving it him, can have no right to take away the life of any person, except it be for the Publick Good. Nor can men, though at the Command

of the Magistrate, without being guilty of Murther, de∣prive any of their lives, when the good of the Society does no way require it. Nay, by the mutual Assistance, which by the Law of Nature Mankind owe one another, they might, if he should endeavour to destroy any, when it is evident it is no way beneficial to the Publick, justly Op∣pose the Magistrate, if Opposing him would not be a greater Damage to the Publick. As men could not give the Magistrate a greater Power than they had over the lives of one another; so the Power they gave him was not only for the defence and safety of their Lives, but to se∣cure them in the enjoyment of their Properties, and to judge concerning them by known and impartial Laws. Men having no Power to destroy what was beneficial to others, could not give him a right to Waste, or Impove∣rish, (which is the necessary effect of Arbitrary Govern∣ment, where the Uncertainty of the Enjoyment destroy∣eth all Labour and Industry) what God has ordained for the Necessaries, or Conveniences of Life. They that Assert the Magistrate has more Power than the People could or did give him, must prove he has it from God, who alone could give it him; but God, except to the Jews, gave no other Law about Government, or any other matter, but those of Nature. And Christ, whose Kingdom is not of this World, did not give more, or take away any Power from the Magistrate: So that what ever Power was given him by Man, he still enjoys the same without any addition or diminution.