§. 7. And that all men may be restrained from invading others' rights, and
from doing hurt to one another, and the law of Nature be observed, which
willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of
Nature is in that state put into every man's hands, whereby every one has a
right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree as may hinder
its violation. For the law of Nature would, as all other laws that concern men
in this world, be in vain if there were nobody that in the state of Nature had
a power to execute that law, and thereby preserve the innocent and restrain
offenders; and if any one in the state of Nature may punish another for any
evil he has done, every one may do so. For in that state of perfect equality,
where naturally there is no superiority or jurisdiction of one over another,
what any may do in prosecution of that law, every one must needs have a right
to do.
