sect. 10, where he says,
The laws which have been hitherto mentioned, i.e. the laws of
nature, do bind men absolutely, even as they are men, although
they have never any settled fellowship, never any solemn
agreement amongst themselves what to do, or not to do: but
forasmuch as we are not by ourselves sufficient to furnish
ourselves with competent store of things, needful for such a life
as our nature doth desire, a life fit for the dignity of man;
therefore to supply those defects and imperfections which are in
us, as living single and solely by ourselves, we are naturally
induced to seek communion and fellowship with others: this was
the cause of men's uniting themselves at first in politic
societies. But I moreover affirm, that all men are naturally
in that state, and remain so, till by their own consents they
make themselves members of some politic society; and I doubt not
in the sequel of this discourse, to make it very clear.
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C H A P. I I I.
Of the State of War.
16. THE state of war is a state of enmity and
destruction: and therefore declaring by word or action, not a
passionate and hasty, but a sedate settled design upon another
man's life, puts him in a state of war with him against whom he
has declared such an intention, and so has exposed his life to
the other's power to be taken away by him, or any one that joins
with him in his defence, and espouses his quarrel; it being
reasonable and just, I should have a right to destroy that which
threatens me with destruction: for, by the fundamental law of
nature, man being to be preserved as much as possible, when all
cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be
preferred: and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him, or
has discovered an enmity to his being, for the same reason that
he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such men are not under
the ties of the commonlaw of reason, have no other rule, but that
of force and violence, and so may be treated as beasts of prey,
those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to
destroy him whenever he falls into their power.
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