“The lawful power of making laws to command whole politic societies of men, belonging so properly unto the same entire societies, that for any prince or potentate of what kind soever upon earth, to exercise the same of himself, and not by express commission immediately and personally received from God, or else by authority derived at the first from their consent, upon whose persons they impose laws, it is no better than mere tyranny. Laws they are not therefore which public approbation hath not made so.”
—Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity l. I sect. 10
“Of this point therefore we are to note, that sith men naturally have no full and perfect power to command whole politic multitudes of men, therefore utterly without our consent, we could in such sort be at no man’s commandment living. And to be commanded we do consent, when that society, whereof we be a part, hath at any time before consented, without revoking the same by the like universal agreement.
“Laws therefore human, of what kind soever, are available by consent.”
—Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity l. I sect. 10
“Two foundations there are which bear up public societies; the one a natural inclination, whereby all men desire sociable life and fellowship; the other an order, expressly or secretly agreed upon, touching the manner of their union in living together: the latter is that which we call the law of a commonweal, the very soul of a politic body, the parts whereof are by law animated, held together, and set on work in such actions as the common good requireth. Laws politic, ordained for external order and regiment amongst men, are never framed as they should be, unless presuming the will of man to be inwardly obstinate, rebellious, and averse from all obedience to the sacred laws of his nature; in a word, unless presuming man to be, in regard of his depraved mind, little better than a wild beast, they do accordingly provide, notwithstanding, so to frame his outward actions, that they be no hindrance unto the common good, for which societies are instituted. Unless they do this, they are not perfect.”
—Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity l. I sect. 10
“Human laws are measures in respect of men whose actions they must direct, howbeit such measures they are as have also their higher rules to be measured by, which rules are two, the law of God, and the law of nature; so that laws human must be made according to the general laws of nature, and without contradiction to any positive law of scripture, otherwise they are ill made.”
—Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity l. III sect. 9
“To constrain men to anything inconvenient doth seem unreasonable.”
—Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity l. I sect. 10
Another copy, corrected by Mr. Locke, has it thus, “Noxious brute that is destructive to their being.” ↩
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Two Treatises of Government
was published in 1689 by
John Locke.
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