241. But farther, this question, (Who shall be judge?)
cannot mean, that there is no judge at all: for where there is no
judicature on earth, to decide controversies amongst men, God in
heaven is judge. He alone, it is true, is judge of the right.
But every man is judge for himself, as in all other cases, so in
this, whether another hath put himself into a state of war with
him, and whether he should appeal to the Supreme Judge, as leptha
did.
Sec. 242. If a controversy arise betwixt a prince and some
of the people, in a matter where the law is silent, or doubtful,
and the thing be of great consequence, I should think the proper
umpire, in such a case, should be the body of the people: for in
cases where the prince hath a trust reposed in him, and is
dispensed from the common ordinary rules of the law; there, if
any men find themselves aggrieved, and think the prince acts
contrary to, or beyond that trust, who so proper to judge as the
body of the people, (who, at first, lodged that trust in him) how
far they meant it should extend? But if the prince, or whoever
they be in the administration, decline that way of determination,
the appeal then lies no where but to heaven; force between either
persons, who have no known superior on earth, or which permits no
appeal to a judge on earth, being properly a state of war,
wherein the appeal lies only to heaven; and in that state the
injured party must judge for himself, when he will think fit to
make use of that appeal, and put himself upon it.
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