Laws politic, ordained for external
order and regiment amongst men, are never framed as they should
be, unless presuming the will of man to be inwardly obstinate,
rebellious, and averse from all obedience to the sacred laws of
his nature; in a word, unless presuming man to be, in regard of
his depraved mind, little better than a wild beast, they do
accordingly provide, notwithstanding, so to frame his outward
actions, that they be no hindrance unto the common good, for
which societies are instituted. Unless they do this, they are
not perfect. Hooker's Eccl. Pol. l. i. sect. 10.)
Sec. 136. Secondly,* The legislative, or supreme authority,
cannot assume to its self a power to rule by extemporary
arbitrary decrees, but is bound to dispense justice, and decide
the rights of the subject by promulgated standing laws, and known
authorized judges: for the law of nature being unwritten, and so
no where to be found but in the minds of men, they who through
passion or interest shall miscite, or misapply it, cannot so
easily be convinced of their mistake where there is no
established judge: and so it serves not, as it ought, to
determine the rights, and fence the properties of those that live
under it, especially where every one is judge, interpreter, and
executioner of it too, and that in his own case: and he that has
right on his side, having ordinarily but his own single strength,
hath not force enough to defend himself from injuries, or to
punish delinquents.
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