Pol. Lib. 1.
Sect. 6. But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is
not a state of licence: though man in that state have an
uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions,
yet he has not liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any
creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its
bare preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law
of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason,
which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it,
that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm
another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for men
being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely
wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into
the world by his order, and about his business; they are his
property, whose workmanship they are, made to last 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.
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