Sec. 139. But government, into whatsoever hands it is put,
being, as I have before shewed, intrusted with this condition,
and for this end, that men might have and secure their
properties; the prince, or senate, however it may have power to
make laws, for the regulating of property between the subjects
one amongst another, yet can never have a power to take to
themselves the whole, or any part of the subjects property,
without their own consent: for this would be in effect to leave
them no property at all. And to let us see, that even absolute
power, where it is necessary, is not arbitrary by being absolute,
but is still limited by that reason, and confined to those ends,
which required it in some cases to be absolute, we need look no
farther than the common practice of martial discipline: for the
preservation of the army, and in it of the whole common-wealth,
requires an absolute obedience to the command of every superior
officer, and it is justly death to disobey or dispute the most
dangerous or unreasonable of them; but yet we see, that neither
the serjeant, that could command a soldier to march up to the
mouth of a cannon, or stand in a breach, where he is almost sure
to perish, can command that soldier to give him one penny of his
money; nor the general, that can condemn him to death for
deserting his post, or for not obeying the most desperate orders,
can yet, with all his absolute power of life and death, dispose
of one farthing of that soldier's estate, or seize one jot of his
goods; whom yet he can command any thing, and hang for the least
disobedience; because such a blind obedience is necessary to that
end, for which the commander has his power, viz.
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