Sect. 22THE natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior
power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of
man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of
man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that
established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of
any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall
enact, according to the trust put in it. Freedom then is not what Sir
R[obert] F[ilmer] tells us, O[bservations]. A. 55. a liberty for every
one to do what he lists, to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by
any laws: but freedom of men under government is, to have a standing
rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the
legislative power erected in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all
things, where the rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the
inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man: as
freedom of nature is, to be under no other restraint but the law of
nature.
Sect. 23This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary
to, and closely joined with a man’s preservation, that he cannot part
with it, but by what forfeits his preservation and life together: for a
man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his
own consent, enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the
absolute, arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he
pleases. No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that
cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.
Indeed, having by his fault forfeited his own life, by some act that
deserves death; he, to whom he has forfeited it, may (when he has him in
his power) delay to take it, and make use of him to his own service, and
he does him no injury by it: for, whenever he finds the hardship of his
slavery outweigh the value of his life, it is in his power, by resisting
the will of his master, to draw on himself the death he desires.
Sect. 24This is the perfect condition of slavery, which is nothing
else, but the state of war continued, between a lawful conqueror and a
captive: for, if once compact enter between them, and make an agreement
for a limited power on the one side, and obedience on the other, the
state of war and slavery ceases, as long as the compact endures: for, as
has been said, no man can, by agreement, pass over to another that which
he hath not in himself, a power over his own life. I confess, we find
among the Jews, as well as other nations, that men did sell themselves;
but, it is plain, this was only to drudgery, not to slavery: for, it is
evident, the person sold was not under an absolute, arbitrary,
despotical power: for the master could not have power to kill him, at
any time, whom, at a certain time, he was obliged to let go free out of
his service; and the master of such a servant was so far from having an
arbitrary power over his life, that he could not, at pleasure, so much
as maim him, but the loss of an eye, or tooth, set him free, Exod. xxi.
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