If any body should ask me, when my son is of age to be
free? I shall answer, just when his monarch is of age to
govern. But at what time, says the judicious Hooker, Eccl.
Pol. l. i. sect. 6. a man may be said to have attained so far
forth the use of reason, as sufficeth to make him capable of
those laws whereby he is then bound to guide his actions: this is
a great deal more easy for sense to discern, than for any one by
skill and learning to determine.
Sec. 62. Common-wealths themselves take notice of, and
allow, that there is a time when men are to begin to act like
free men, and therefore till that time require not oaths of
fealty, or allegiance, or other public owning of, or submission
to the government of their countries.
Sec. 63. The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting
according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason,
which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself
by, and make him know how far he is left to the freedom of his
own will. To turn him loose to an unrestrained liberty, before
he has reason to guide him, is not the allowing him the privilege
of his nature to be free; but to thrust him out amongst brutes,
and abandon him to a state as wretched, and as much beneath that
of a man, as their's. This is that which puts the authority
into the parents hands to govern the minority of their
children.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62