Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/61

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Of Government.
47

kind increaſe and multiply, ſhould rather himſelf give them all a right to make uſe of the food and raiment, and other conveniences of life, the materials whereof he had ſo plentifully provided for them ; than to make them depend upon the will of a man for their ſubſiſtence, who ſhould have power to deſtroy them all when he pleaſed, and who, being no better than other men, was in ſucceſſion likelier, by want and the dependence of a ſcanty fortune, to tie them to hard ſervice, than by liberal allowance of the conveniences of life to promote the great deſign of God, increaſe and multiply : he that doubts this, let him look into the abſolute monarchies of the world, and ſee what becomes of the conveniences of life, and the multitudes of people.

§. 42. But we know God hath not left one man ſo to the mercy of another, that he may ſtarve, him if he pleaſe : God the Lord and Father of all has given no one of his children ſuch a property in his peculiar portion of the things of this world, but that he has given his needy brother a right to the ſurpluſage of his goods ; ſo that it cannot juſtly be denied him, when his preſſing wants call for it : and therefore no man could ever have a juſt power over the life of another by right of property in land or poſſeſſions ; ſince it would always be a ſin, in any man of eſtate, to let his brother periſh for want of affording him relief out of his plenty. As

juſtice