So now we begin on Locke’s Second Treatise, the positive description of the nature of government. Locke’s Second Treatise consists of 19 Chapters, each titled “Of … ” Locke has been accused even by his adherents of forsaking scripture, I disagree. In fact, he is the first modern political theorist to rely exclusively on scripture and to show how the correct law of nature will always agree with revealed law. If it does not, it is not correct. Therefore, I will take pains to underscore his references to scripture.
Of Political Power
His first act is to recap his dissection of Sir Robert Fuller’s treatise as follows taken directly:
- Firstly. That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood or by positive donation from God, any such authority over his children, nor dominion over the world, as is pretended.
- Secondly. That if he had, his heirs yet had no right to it.
- Thirdly. That if his heirs had, there being no law of Nature nor positive law of God that determines which is the right heir in all cases that may arise, the right of succession, and consequently of bearing rule, could not have been certainly determined.
- Fourthly. That if even that had been determined, yet the knowledge of which is the eldest line of Adam’s posterity being so long since utterly lost, that in the races of mankind and families of the world, there remains not to one above another the least pretense to be the eldest house, and to have the right of inheritance.
So having set aside the idea that the only valid form is government is divine right monarchy he sets about to define political power. We must settle ourselves to be no better than beasts where the strongest rules and all government is the product of violence, or there is in fact a positive manner in which people form governments. First, is the identity of that power. There are different forms of power between the ruler over a commonwealth, a father of a family, and a captain over a galley.
Locke does not treat paternal power here, nor that of a galley captain. He does have a Chapter on paternal power which we will discuss later, but suffice it to say that parental power is not unitary, shared equally by the parents: Exodus 20:12, Leviticus 19:3 and 20:9, and Ephesians 6:1. Furthermore, the parents have no power of death, but must turn a child over to a magistrate for such punishment. He does not discuss the power of galley captain at all, but suffice it to say the captain has no power to make law, only to execute it.
Political power then is the power of the ruler, of a magistrate to make laws with penalty of death, and therefore, all lesser penalties. The power to employ the force of the community execute those laws, and in defense of the commonwealth. However, this power can be used only for public good.
