Of the Extent of the Legislative Power. All which distinct powers happening sometimes together in the same man, if he be considered under these different relations, it may help us to distinguish these powers one from another, and shew the difference betwixt a ruler of a common-wealth, a father of a family, and a captain of a galley. In which way of arguing there are two manifest falsehoods. the preservation of the rest; but the disposing of his goods has nothing to do with it. Four hundred armed men then, however got together, are enough to prove him that leads them, to be a king and Adam’s heir. That not only the constitution of power in general, but the limitation of it to one kind, monarchy, and the determination of it to the individual person and line of, power, or join others with him; and what was given unto. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, Lev. and how will it appear, that propriety in land gives a man power over the life of another? Accordingly we read, Gen. xxv. Sometimes those, whether a few or a multitude, that govern the common-wealth, p. 23. or in Solomon, his younger son and successor in the throne? Of Monarchy, by Inheritance from Adam. God’s Moreover I have given thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite, with my sword and with my bow. 14. CHAP. And last of all, which is most admirable, he tells us, p. 100. eldest parents: for I believe, if land had been assigned or granted to him, and the eldest parents of his family, he would have thought it had needed an interpreter; and it would scarce have been known to whom next it belonged. Whosoever curseth his father or his mother, Lev. And by this time, I hope it is evident, that he that gave dominion over every living thing that moveth on the earth, gave Adam no monarchical power over those of his own species, which will yet appear more fully in the next thing I am to shew. Edition: current; Page: [301] Those who are united into one body, and have a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them, and punish offenders, are in civil society one with another: but those who have no such common people, I mean on earth, are still in the state of nature, each being, where there is no other, judge for himself, and executioner; which is, as I have before shewed it, the perfect state of nature. Since then those, who liked one another so well as to join into society, cannot but be supposed to have some acquaintance and friendship together, and some trust one in another; they could not but have greater apprehensions of others, than of one another: and therefore their first care and thought cannot but be supposed to be, how to secure themselves against foreign force. Edition: current; Page: [257] down to posterity, without any plain natural or divine rule concerning it. during his, not one another’s pleasure: and being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our’s. being as the fathers of them, watching over them for their good, the government was almost all prerogative. had given him. Again he says, All kings either are, or are to But to save others the pains, were there any need, he is not sparing himself to shew, by his own contradictions, the weakness of his own doctrine. which unlawful force extorts from them. Edition: current; Page: [131] sensible to the greater part, the people, who are more disposed to suffer than right themselves by resistance, are not apt to stir. a man may be said to have attained so far forth the use of reason, as sufficeth to make him capable of those laws whereby he is then bound to guide his actions: this is a great deal more easy for sense to discern, than for any one by skill and learning to determine. Every effort has been taken to translate the unique features of the printed book into the HTML medium. It follows, p. 19. Edition: current; Page: [292] Though it be never so plain, that there ought to be government in the world, nay, should all men be of our author’s mind, that divine appointment had ordained it to be monarchical; yet, since men cannot obey any thing, that cannot command; and ideas of government in the fancy, though never so perfect, though never so right, cannot give laws, nor prescribe rules to the actions of men; it would be of no behoof for the settling of order, and establishment of government in its exercise and use amongst men, unless there were a way also taught how to know the person, to whom it belonged to have this power, and exercise this dominion over others. a heady prince comes to the throne, are well recompensed by the peace of the public, and security of the government, in the person of the chief magistrate, thus set out of the reach of danger: it being safer for the body, that some few private men should be sometimes in danger to suffer, than that the head of the republic should be easily, and upon slight occasions, exposed. This any number of men may do, because it injures not the freedom of the rest; they are left as they were in the liberty of the state of nature. Thus we see how our author, laying it for a sure foundation, that the very person that is to rule, is the ordinance of God, and by divine institution, tells us at large, only that this person is the heir, but who this heir is, he leaves us to guess; and so this divine institution, which assigns it to a person whom we have no rule to know, is just as good as an assignment to no body at all. John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (c. 1681) is perhaps the key founding liberal text. we may well suppose, Adam, from whom the world was to be peopled, had by this time, that these were grown up to be men, more sons than these two: whereas Abel himself is not so much as named; and the words in the original can scarce, with any good construction, be applied to him. He that can think this arguing from scripture, may from thence make out what model of an Eutopia will best suit with his fancy or interest; and this fatherhood, thus disposed of, will justify both a prince who claims an universal monarchy, and his subjects, who, being fathers of families, shall quit all subjection to him, and canton his empire into less governments for themselves; for it will always remain a doubt in which of these the fatherly authority resided, till our author resolves us, whether Shem, who was then alive, or these 72 new princes, beginning so many new empires in his dominions, and over his subjects, had right to govern, since our author tells us, Adam and the patriarchs had absolute power of life and death, p. 35. Observations, 155. 9. The necessities of his life, the health of his body, and the information of his mind, would require him to be Whoever therefore, from thenceforth, by inheritance, purchase, permission, or otherways, enjoys any part of the land, so annexed to, and under the government of that common-wealth, must take it with the condition it is under; that is, of submitting to the government of the common-wealth, under whose jurisdiction it is, as far forth as any subject of it.