Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/212

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198
Of Civil-Government.

during his, not one another's pleaſure: and being furniſhed with like faculties, ſharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be ſuppoſed any ſuch ſubordination among us, that may authorize us to deſtroy one another, as if we were made for one another's uſes, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our's. Every one, as he is bound to preſerve himſelf, and not to quit his ſtation wilfully, ſo by the like reaſon, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preſerve the reſt of mankind, and may not, unleſs it be to do juſtice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preſervation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.

§. 7. And that all men may be reſtrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the law of nature be obſerved, which willeth the peace and preſervation of all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is, in that ſtate, put into every man's hands, whereby every one has a right to puniſh the tranſgreſſors of that law to ſuch a degree, as may hinder its violation: for the law of nature would, as all other laws that concern men in this world, be in vain, if there were no body that in the ſtate of nature had a power to execute that law, and thereby preſerve the innocent and reſtrain offenders. And if anyone in the ſtate of nature may puniſh another for any evil he has

done,