If any mischief come in such cases, it is not to be
charged upon him who defends his own right, but on him that
invades his neighbours. If the innocent honest man must quietly
quit all he has, for peace sake, to him who will lay violent
hands upon it, I desire it may be considered, what a kind of
peace there will be in the world, which consists only in violence
and rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of
robbers and oppressors. VVho would not think it an admirable
peace betwix the mighty and the mean, when the lamb, without
resistance, yielded his throat to be torn by the imperious wolf?
Polyphemus's den gives us a perfect pattern of such a peace, and
such a government, wherein Ulysses and his companions had nothing
to do, but quietly to suffer themselves to be devoured. And no
doubt Ulysses, who was a prudent man, preached up passive
obedience, and exhorted them to a quiet submission, by
representing to them of what concernment peace was to mankind;
and by shewing the inconveniences might happen, if they should
offer to resist Polyphemus, who had now the power over them.
Sec. 229. The end of government is the good of mankind; and
which is best for mankind, that the people should be always
exposed to the boundless will of tyranny, or that the rulers
should be sometimes liable to be opposed, when they grow
exorbitant in the use of their power, and employ it for the
destruction, and not the preservation of the properties of their
people?
Sec.
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