Honoured Sir, Your most worthy brother, Mr. Sidney Godolphin, when he lived, was pleased to think my studies something, and otherwise to oblige me, as you know, with real testimonies of his good opini...

Nature, the art whereby God hath made and governs the world, is by the “art” of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For seeing life is but a ...

Concerning the thoughts of man, I will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train, or dependence upon one another. Singly, they are every one a “representation” or “appearance” of some qualit...

Concerning the thoughts of man, I will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train, or dependence upon one another. Singly, they are every one a “representation” or “appearance” of some qualit...

That when a thing lies still, unless somewhat else stir it, it will lie still forever, is a truth that no man doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be in motion, unless some...

By “consequence,” or “train” of thoughts, I understand that succession of one thought to another, which is called, to distinguish it from discourse in words, “mental discourse.” When a man thinketh on...

The invention of “printing,” though ingenious, compared with the invention of “letters,” is no great matter. But who was the first that found the use of letters, is not known. He that first brought th...

When a man “reasoneth,” he does nothing else but conceive a sum total, from “addition” of parcels; or conceive a remainder, from “subtraction” of one sum from another; which, if it be done by words, i...

There be in animals, two sorts of “motions” peculiar to them: one called “vital”; begun in generation, and continued without interruption through their whole life; such as are the “course” of the “blo...

Of all “discourse,” governed by desire of knowledge, there is at last an “end,” either by attaining, or by giving over. And in the chain of discourse, wheresoever it be interrupted, there is an end fo...

Virtue generally, in all sorts of subjects, is somewhat that is valued for eminence, and consisteth in comparison. For if all things were equal in all men, nothing would be prized. And by “virtues int...

There are of “knowledge” two kinds; whereof one is “knowledge of fact”: the other “knowledge of the consequence of one affirmation to another.” The former is nothing else but sense and memory, and is ...

The “power of a man,” to take it universally, is his present means; to obtain some future apparent good: and is either “original” or “instrumental.” “Natural power,” is the eminence of the faculties o...

By manners I mean not here decency of behaviour; as how one should salute another, or how a man should wash his mouth, or pick his teeth before company, and such other points of the “small morals”; bu...

Seeing there are no signs, nor fruit of “religion,” but in man only; there is no cause to doubt, but that the seed of “religion” is also only in man; and consisteth in some peculiar quality, or at lea...

Nature hath made men so equal, in the faculties of the body and mind; as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reck...

“The right of Nature,” which writers commonly call jus naturale, is the liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his ...

From that law of Nature, by which we are obliged to transfer to another, such rights, as being retained, hinder the peace of mankind, there followeth a third; which is this, “that men perform their co...

A person is he, “whose words or actions are considered, either as his own, or as representing the words or actions of another man, or of any other thing, to whom they are attributed, whether truly or ...

The final cause, end, or design of men, who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others, in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in commonwealths, is the ...

The final cause, end, or design of men, who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others, in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in commonwealths, is the ...

A “commonwealth” is said to be “instituted,” when a “multitude” of men do agree, and “covenant, everyone, with everyone,” that to whatsoever “man,” or “assembly of men,” shall be given by the major pa...

The difference of commonwealths consisteth in the difference of the sovereign, or the person representative of all and every one of the multitude. And because the sovereignty is either in one man, or ...

A commonwealth “by acquisition,” is that, where the sovereign power is acquired by force; and it is acquired by force when men singly, or many together by plurality of voices, for fear of death, or bo...

Liberty, or “freedom,” signifieth, properly, the absence of opposition; by opposition, I mean external impediments of motion; and may be applied no less to irrational and inanimate creatures than to r...

Having spoken of the generation, form, and power of a commonwealth, I am in order to speak next of the parts thereof. And first of systems which resemble the similar parts, or muscles of a body natura...

In the last chapter I have spoken of the similar parts of a commonwealth: in this I shall speak of the parts organical, which are public ministers. A “public minister” is he that by the sovereign, whe...

The “nutrition” of a commonwealth consisteth in the “plenty” and “distribution” of “materials” conducing to life; in “concoction,” or “preparation”; and, when concocted, in the “conveyance” of it, by ...

How fallacious it is to judge of the nature of things by the ordinary and inconstant use of words, appeareth in nothing more than in the confusion of counsels and commands, arising from the imperative...

By “civil laws,” I understand the laws that men are therefore bound to observe, because they are members, not of this or that commonwealth in particular, but of a commonwealth. For the knowledge of pa...

A sin, is not only a transgression of a law, but also any contempt of the legislator. For such contempt is a breach of all his laws at once. And therefore may consist, not only in the “commission” of ...

A punishment “is an evil inflicted by public authority on him that hath done or omitted that which is judged by the same authority to be a transgression of the law; to the end that the will of men may...

Though nothing can be immortal which mortals make, yet if men had the use of reason they pretend to, their commonwealths might be secured, at least from perishing by internal diseases. For by the natu...

The office of the sovereign, be it a monarch or an assembly, consisteth in the end for which he was trusted with the sovereign power, namely, the procuration of “the safety of the people”; to which he...

That the condition of mere nature, that is to say, of absolute liberty, such as is theirs that neither are sovereigns nor subjects, is anarchy and the condition of war: that the precepts by which men ...

I have derived the rights of sovereign power, and the duty of subjects, hitherto from the principles of Nature only; such as experience has found true, or consent concerning the use of words has made ...

I have derived the rights of sovereign power, and the duty of subjects, hitherto from the principles of Nature only; such as experience has found true, or consent concerning the use of words has made ...

By the Books of Holy “Scripture,” are understood those which ought to be the “canon,” that is to say, the rules of Christian life. And because all rules of life, which men are in conscience bound to o...

Seeing the foundation of all true ratiocination is the constant signification of words; which in the doctrine following, dependeth not, as in natural science, on the will of the writer, nor, as in com...

The “Kingdom of God,” in the writings of divines, and specially in sermons and treatises of devotion, is taken most commonly for eternal felicity, after this life, in the highest heaven, which they al...

When there is mention of the “word of God,” or of “man,” it doth not signify a part of speech, such as grammarians call a noun or a verb, or any simple voice, without a contexture with other words to ...

By “miracles” are signified the admirable works of God: and therefore they are also called “wonders.” And because they are for the most part done for a signification of His commandment, in such occasi...

The maintenance of civil society depending on justice, and justice on the power of life and death, and other less rewards and punishments, residing in them that have the sovereignty of the commonwealt...

The word Church (Ecclesia) signifieth in the books of Holy Scripture divers things. Sometimes, though not often, it is taken for “God’s house,” that is to say, for a temple wherein Christians assemble...

The father of the faithful, and first in the kingdom of God by covenant, was Abraham. For with him was the covenant first made, wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him, to acknowledge and ob...

We find in Holy Scripture three parts of the office of the Messiah: the first of a “Redeemer” or “Saviour”; the second of a “pastor,” “counsellor,” or “teacher,” that is, of a prophet sent from God to...

For the understanding of “power ecclesiastical,” what, and in whom it is, we are to distinguish the time from the ascension of our Saviour into two parts; one before the conversion of kings, and men e...

The most frequent pretext of sedition, and civil war, in Christian commonwealths, hath a long time proceeded from a difficulty, not yet sufficiently resolved, of obeying at once both God and man, then...

Besides these sovereign powers, “divine” and “human,” of which I have hitherto discoursed, there is mention in Scripture of another power, namely (Eph. 6:12), that of “the rulers of the darkness of th...

Besides these sovereign powers, “divine” and “human,” of which I have hitherto discoursed, there is mention in Scripture of another power, namely (Eph. 6:12), that of “the rulers of the darkness of th...

The impression made on the organs of sight by lucid bodies, either in one direct line or in many lines, reflected from opaque, or refracted in the passage through diaphanous bodies, produceth in livin...

By “Philosophy” is understood “the knowledge acquired by reasoning, from the manner of the generation of anything, to the properties: or from the properties, to some possible way of generation of the ...

Cicero maketh honourable mention of one of the Cassii, a severe judge amongst the Romans, for a custom he had, in criminal causes, when the testimony of the witnesses was not sufficient, to ask the ac...

From the contrariety of some of the natural faculties of the mind, one to another, as also of one passion to another, and from their reference to conversation, there has been an argument taken, to inf...