§. 16. The state of war is a state of enmity and destruction; and therefore
declaring by word or action, not a passionate and hasty, but sedate, settled
design upon another man's life puts him in a state of war with him against whom
he has declared such an intention, and so has exposed his life to the other's
power to be taken away by him, or any one that joins with him in his defence,
and espouses his quarrel; it being reasonable and just I should have a right to
destroy that which threatens me with destruction; for by the fundamental law of
Nature, man being to be preserved as much as possible, when all cannot be
preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred, and one may destroy a
man who makes war upon him, or has discovered an enmity to his being, for the
same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion, because they are not under the
ties of the common law of reason, have no other rule but that of force and
violence, and so may be treated as a beast of prey, those dangerous and noxious
creatures that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their power.
