Hereafter,
seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter,
and day and night, shall not cease while the earth remaineth.
And therefore a king governing in a settled kingdom, leaves to be
a king, and degenerates into a tyrant, as soon as he leaves off
to rule according to his laws, And a little after, Therefore all
kings that are not tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bound
themselves within the limits of their laws; and they that
persuade them the contrary, are vipers, and pests both against
them and the commonwealth. Thus that learned king, who well
understood the notion of things, makes the difference betwixt a
king and a tyrant to consist only in this, that one makes the
laws the bounds of his power, and the good of the public, the end
of his government; the other makes all give way to his own will
and appetite.
Sec. 201. It is a mistake, to think this fault is proper
only to monarchies; other forms of government are liable to it,
as well as that: for wherever the power, that is put in any hands
for the government of the people, and the preservation of their
properties, is applied to other ends, and made use of to
impoverish, harass, or subdue them to the arbitrary and irregular
commands of those that have it; there it presently becomes
tyranny, whether those that thus use it are one or many.
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