Of
Civil Government
Book II
Chapter 1
Of Political Power
§. 1. It having been shown in the foregoing discourse:[1]
Firstly. That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood or by
positive donation from God, any such authority over his children, nor dominion
over the world, as is pretended.
Secondly. That if he had, his heirs yet had no right to it.
Thirdly. That if his heirs had, there being no law of Nature nor positive
law of God that determines which is the right heir in all cases that may arise,
the right of succession, and consequently of bearing rule, could not have been
certainly determined.
Fourthly. That if even that had been determined, yet the knowledge of which
is the eldest line of Adam's posterity being so long since utterly lost, that
in the races of mankind and families of the world, there remains not to one
above another the least pretence to be the eldest house, and to have the right
of inheritance.
All these promises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is
impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any
the least shadow of authority from that which is held to be the fountain of all
power, "Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction"; so that
he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world
is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no
other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a
foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition, and rebellion
(things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against), must
of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political
power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it than
what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us.
§. 2. To this purpose, I think it may not be amiss to set down what I take to
be political power. That the power of a magistrate over a subject may be
distinguished from that of a father over his children, a master over his
servant, a husband over his wife, and a lord over his slave. 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 show the difference betwixt a ruler of a commonwealth, a father of
a family, and a captain of a galley.
§. 3. Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws, with
penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regulating and
preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the
execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign
injury, and all this only for the public good.
Footnotes