§. 228. But if they who say it lays a foundation for rebellion mean that it
may occasion civil wars or intestine broils to tell the people they are
absolved from obedience when illegal attempts are made upon their liberties or
properties, and may oppose the unlawful violence of those who were their
magistrates when they invade their properties, contrary to the trust put in
them, and that, therefore, this doctrine is not to be allowed, being so
destructive to the peace of the world; they may as well say, upon the same
ground, that honest men may not oppose robbers or pirates, because this may
occasion disorder or bloodshed. If any mischief come in such cases, it is not
to be charged upon him who defends his own right, but on him that invades his
neighbour's. If the innocent honest man must quietly quit all he has for peace
sake to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered
what kind of a peace there will be in the world which consists only in violence
and rapine, and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of robbers and
oppressors. Who would not think it an admirable peace betwixt the mighty and
the mean, when the lamb, without resistance, yielded his throat to be torn by
the imperious wolf? Polyphemus's den gives us a perfect pattern of such a
peace. Such a government wherein Ulysses and his companions had nothing to do
but quietly to suffer themselves to be devoured. And no doubt Ulysses, who was
a prudent man, preached up passive obedience, and exhorted them to a quiet
submission by representing to them of what concernment peace was to mankind,
and by showing [what] inconveniencies might happen if they should offer to
resist Polyphemus, who had now the power over them.
