And thus, 'tis true, the paternal is a natural government, but
not at all extending itself to the ends and jurisdictions of that
which is political. The power of the father doth not reach at
all to the property of the child, which is only in his own
disposing.
Sec. 171. Secondly, Political power is that power, which
every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the
hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the
society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust,
that it shall be employed for their good, and the preservation of
their property: now this power, which every man has in the state
of nature, and which he parts with to the society in all such
cases where the society can secure him, is to use such means, for
the preserving of his own property, as he thinks good, and nature
allows him; and to punish the breach of the law of nature in
others, so as (according to the best of his reason) may most
conduce to the preservation of himself, and the rest of mankind.
So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's
hands in the state of nature, being the preservation of all of
his society, that is, all mankind in general, it can have no
other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to
preserve the members of that society in their lives, liberties,
and possessions; and so cannot be an absolute, arbitrary power
over their lives and fortunes, which are as much as possible to
be preserved; but a power to make laws, and annex such penalties
to them, as may tend to the preservation of the whole, by cutting
off those parts, and those only, which are so corrupt, that they
threaten the sound and healthy, without which no severity is
lawful.
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