§. 137. Absolute arbitrary power, or governing without settled 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 supposed that they should intend, had they a power so to do, to give any one
or more an absolute arbitrary power over their persons and estates, and put a
force into the magistrate's hand to execute his unlimited will arbitrarily upon
them; this were to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of
Nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries
of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded
by a single man or many in combination. Whereas by supposing they have given up
themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have
disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases; he
being in a much worse condition that is exposed to the arbitrary power of one
man who has the command of a hundred thousand than he that is exposed to the
arbitrary power of a hundred thousand single men, nobody being secure, that his
will who has such a command is better than that of other men, though his force
be a hundred thousand times stronger. And, therefore, whatever form the
commonwealth is under, the ruling power ought to govern by declared and
received laws, and not by extemporary dictates and undetermined resolutions,
for then mankind will be in a far worse condition than in the state of Nature
if they shall have armed one or a few men with the joint power of a multitude,
to force them to obey at pleasure the exorbitant and unlimited decrees of their
sudden thoughts, or unrestrained, and till that moment, unknown wills, without
having any measures set down which may guide and justify their actions. For all
the power the government has, being only for the good of the society, as it
ought not to be arbitrary and at pleasure, so it ought to be exercised by
established and promulgated laws, that both the people may know their duty, and
be safe and secure within the limits of the law, and the rulers, too, kept
within their due bounds, and not be tempted by the power they have in their
hands to employ it to purposes, and by such measures as they would not have
known, and own not willingly.
