CHAP. IV.
Of SLAVERY.
Sec. 22. THE 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 Robert Filmer
tells us, Observations, 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.
Sec. 23. This 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.
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