CHAP. III.

Of justice in preserving the rights of men, as united together by natural relations, and as joined together in society.

III. WE will consider men as rational creatures united together by natural relations; such as parents and children, brothers and sisters, and consanguineous kindred; in which several relations they have their peculiar rights appertaining to them. Thus parents, by giving nurture and education to their children, have a natural right to be beloved and reverenced and obeyed by them; and for children to withhold these dues from them is not only a foul ingratitude, but a great injustice. They owe their parents for their lives and limbs, for the health of their bodies, and the use of their faculties; and what a small composition is there in their love and obedience for so great a debt? They borrowed their being from their parents, and therefore are their natural subjects, properties, and pensioners; and to be sure every lord hath a right to the obedience of his subject, every owner to the disposal of his property, every benefactor to the love of his pensioner; and consequently every parent, who is all these together, to all these respects and duties from their children. And so on the other hand, children have a right to be treated as children to their parents, that is, as their natural images and copies, as parts of their own substance, as flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bones, or as themselves derived and multiplied; which gives them a natural right to be dearly beloved and kindly treated, to be fed and clothed, instructed and provided for by their parents, according

to their power and ability: and for any parent not to render these dues and rights to his children, is not only an unnatural cruelty, but a barbarous injustice. And then for brethren and sisters and consanguineous relations, their partaking of the same blood and substance, as being coined in the same mint, and more immediately derived from the same root and fountain, gives them a natural right to be mutually beloved, and esteemed, and relieved, and assisted by one another; and they cannot be unkind, ill-natured, or hard-hearted towards one another, without breaking all the ties of nature, and being unjust violators of its sacred rights. These, in short, are the rights which accrue to men, as united together by natural relations.

IV. Fourthly, and lastly, We will consider men as rational creatures joined together in society: and because society is natural to men, and that not only as they are rational creatures, but as they were always born and bred in society; therefore whatsoever rights accrue to them from hence may be justly ranked among those rights which are natural. And men being by nature united in society with one another, there doth from thence accrue to us a right to all that is necessary to the obtaining the common benefits of society; otherwise our being united in society would be perfectly insignificant to us. Now the common benefit of society is mutual assistance, comfort, and support; to the obtaining of which these things are absolutely necessary: first, Love: secondly, Peace: thirdly, Truth: fourthly, Repute: fifthly, Protection: sixthly, Communication in the profits of intercourse. To all which every man must have a right by virtue of his being in society; other

wise he is in society to no purpose. These things I shall but very briefly insist on, because I have handled most of them at large upon another occasion a.

1. By virtue of our being united in society, we have a right to be beloved of one another. For being all incorporate members of one body, we naturally owe each other a mutual sympathy and fellow-feeling of each other's pains and pleasures; without which we can never be concerned as we ought to succour and relieve one another. If I partake in another's joys and sorrows, it is my interest to con→ tribute all I am able to his happiness; but unless I am partner in his fortunes, it will be indifferent to me whether he be happy or miserable. And as it is sympathy that engages us to a mutual assistance, so it is love that engages us to a mutual sympathy: it is love that confederates our souls, and causes us to espouse one another's interests; and therefore, so far as we fall short of this, we must necessarily fall short of the end of our society, which is to aid and assist one another: which we shall never do, unless we are constantly inclined to it by a mutual benevolence. But while we hate and malign one another, our being united together in society will only furnish us with surer means and fairer opportunities to wreak our spite upon each other. So that not to love one another, while we are thus associated, is not only uncharitable, but unjust; since we thereby rob one another of one of the most necessary means to obtain the end of our society. For when men's hearts are divided, it is impossible their hands should be long united in a mutual defence and assistance; so that by withdrawing our love from each other, we do, so

a Vol. i.

far as in us lies, excommunicate one another from the common benefits of society; which since we have all a natural right to, is highly dishonest and injurious.

2. By virtue of our being united in society, we have a right to peace; that is, to live peaceably and quietly ourselves, so long as we do not causelessly vex and disturb others. For society being nothing but an united multitude, it is indispensably necessary to the preservation of its union, that every individual member should quietly comport himself towards every one in that degree and order wherein he is placed; because as the health of natural bodies depends upon the harmony of their parts, so doth the common good of societies or political bodies. It is peace and mutual accord which is the soul that doth both animate and unite society, and keep its parts from dispersing, and flying abroad into atoms; which nothing but force and violence can hinder them from, when once they are broken and divided. For he that cannot enjoy his peace in society, is in a worse condition than if he were out of it, and lived in some solitary desert alone by himself: for there is no solitude so dismal as a vexatious and quarrelsome society. Whilst therefore men are of an unpeaceable temper, and do affect to live like salamanders, in the fire of strife and contention, they are the common pests and nuisances of society: for wherever they dwell, they lay an embargo on all sociable communion, stop all the interchanges of good offices between men, turn all conversations into tragedies, and convert all societies into maps and images of hell, that black and dismal region of dark hatred, fiery wrath, and horrible tumult. And whereas, by the fundamental laws of society, every man hath an undoubted right not

to be disturbed in the enjoyment of his innocent pleasures, not to be hindered in the advancing his lawful profits, not to be interrupted in the prosecution of his reasonable designs, not to be detained in his afflictions, or vexed and grieved with causeless aggravations of them; it is the proper business of litigious spirits to invade and overthrow these rights, and, so far as they are able, to turn every man out of the possession and enjoyment of them. So that they are a public offence and injury to mankind; and ought to be looked upon as so many common barretors in the world. In short, every man, by virtue of his being in society, hath a right to peace, so long as he demeans himself justly and peaceably towards others: he therefore that disturbs another man's peace, unless it be in defence of his own or other men's right or peace, is an infringer of the natural rights of human society.

3. By virtue of our being united in society, we have a right to truth; that is, we have a right to know the true sense of each other's minds and intentions, whensoever we pretend to report and discover it by our speech; for it is only our speech that capacitates us for a rational society. Our words are the credentiaries and intelligencers of the society and intercourse of our minds; and it is only by these that souls do correspond and communicate their thoughts to one another: it is by these that they mutually divert their sorrows, and mingle their mirth; impart their secrets, communicate their counsels, and make mutual compacts and agreements to supply and assist each other. And indeed words are the rudders that steer all human affairs, the springs that set the wheels of actions agoing; and the hands