But to proceed to slay
and rob subjects, ravish maidens, and the like, turns fear into
indignation and the civil state into a state of enmity.
5. We see, then, in what sense we may say, that a commonwealth is bound
by laws and can do wrong. But if by "law" we understand civil law, and
by "wrong" that which, by civil law, is forbidden to be done, that is,
if these words be taken in their proper sense, we cannot at all say,
that a commonwealth is bound by laws, or can do wrong. For the maxims
and motives of fear and reverence, which a commonwealth is bound to
observe in its own interest, pertain not to civil jurisprudence, but to
the law of nature, since (Sec. 4) they cannot be vindicated by the civil
law, but by the law of war. And a commonwealth is bound by them in no
other sense than that in which in the state of nature a man is bound to
take heed, that he preserve his independence and be not his own enemy,
lest he should destroy himself; and in this taking heed lies not the
subjection, but the liberty of human nature. But civil jurisprudence
depends on the mere decree of the commonwealth, which is not bound to
please any but itself, nor to hold anything to be good or bad, but what
it judges to be such for itself. And, accordingly, it has not merely the
right to avenge itself, or to lay down and interpret laws, but also to
abolish the same, and to pardon any guilty person out of the fullness of
its power.
6. Contracts or laws, whereby the multitude transfers its right to one
council or man, should without doubt be broken, when it is expedient for
the general welfare to do so.
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