So
that, however it may be mistaken, the end of law is not to
abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom: for
in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there
is no law, there is no freedom: for liberty is, to be free
from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be, where
there is no law: but freedom is not, as we are told, a liberty
for every man to do what he lists: (for who could be free, when
every other man's humour might domineer over him?) but a
liberty to dispose, and order as he lists, his person, actions,
possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of
those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to
the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.
Sec. 58. The power, then, that parents have over their
children, arises from that duty which is incumbent on them, to
take care of their off-spring, during the imperfect state of
childhood. To inform the mind, and govern the actions of their
yet ignorant nonage, till reason shall take its place, and ease
them of that trouble, is what the children want, and the parents
are bound to: for God having given man an understanding to direct
his actions, has allowed him a freedom of will, and liberty of
acting, as properly belonging thereunto, within the bounds of
that law he is under.
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