No body can give more power than he has himself; and he
that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power
over it. Indeed, having by his fault forfeited his own life, by
some act that deserves death; he, to whom he has forfeited it,
may (when he has him in his power) delay to take it, and make use
of him to his own service, and he does him no injury by it: for,
whenever he finds the hardship of his slavery outweigh the value
of his life, it is in his power, by resisting the will of his
master, to draw on himself the death he desires.
Sec. 24. This is the perfect condition of slavery, which
is nothing else, but the state of war continued, between a
lawful conqueror and a captive: for, if once compact enter
between them, and make an agreement for a limited power on the
one side, and obedience on the other, the state of war and
slavery ceases, as long as the compact endures: for, as has been
said, no man can, by agreement, pass over to another that which
he hath not in himself, a power over his own life.
I confess, we find among the Jews, as well as other nations,
that men did sell themselves; but, it is plain, this was only to
drudgery, not to slavery: for, it is evident, the person sold
was not under an absolute, arbitrary, despotical power: for the
master could not have power to kill him, at any time, whom, at a
certain time, he was obliged to let go free out of his service;
and the master of such a servant was so far from having an
arbitrary power over his life, that he could not, at pleasure, so
much as maim him, but the loss of an eye, or tooth, set him free,
Exod.
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