put into words; for so truly are a great part of the municipal laws of
countries, which are only so far right, as they are founded on the law of
nature, by which they are to be regulated and interpreted.
Sect. 13. To this strange doctrine, viz. That in the state of nature
every one has the executive power of the law of nature, I doubt not but
it will be objected, that it is unreasonable for men to be judges in
their own cases, that self-love will make men partial to themselves and
their friends: and on the other side, that ill nature, passion and
revenge will carry them too far in punishing others; and hence nothing
but confusion and disorder will follow, and that therefore God hath
certainly appointed government to restrain the partiality and violence of
men. I easily grant, that civil government is the proper remedy for the
inconveniencies of the state of nature, which must certainly be great,
where men may be judges in their own case, since it is easy to be
imagined, that he who was so unjust as to do his brother an injury, will
scarce be so just as to condemn himself for it: but I shall desire those
who make this objection, to remember, that absolute monarchs are but men;
and if government is to be the remedy of those evils, which necessarily
follow from men's being judges in their own cases, and the state of
nature is therefore not to how much better it is than the state of
nature, where one man, commanding a multitude, has the liberty to be
judge in his own case, and may do to all his subjects whatever he
pleases, without the least liberty to any one to question or controul
those who execute his pleasure and in whatsoever he cloth, whether led
by reason, mistake or passion, must be submitted to7 much better it is in
the state of nature, wherein men are not bound to submit to the unjust
will of another: and if he that judges, judges amiss in his own, or any
other case, he is answerable for it to the rest of mankind.
Sect. 14. It is often asked as a mighty objection, where are, or ever
were there any men in such a state of nature? To which it may suffice as