all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is, in that 
state, put into every man's hands, whereby every one has a right 
to punish the  transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may 
hinder its violation: for the law of nature would, as all other 
laws that concern men in this world 'be in vain, if there were no 
body that in the state of nature had a power to execute that 
law, and thereby preserve the innocent and restrain offenders.  
And if any one in the state of nature may punish another for any 
evil he has done, every one may do so: for in that state of 
perfect equality, where naturally there is no superiority or 
jurisdiction of one over another, what any may do in prosecution 
of that law, every one must needs have a right to do.      

     Sect. 8. And thus, in the state of nature, one man comes by 
a power over another; but yet no absolute or arbitrary power, to 
use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to 
the passionate heats, or boundless extravagancy of his own will; 
but only to retribute to him, so far as calm reason and 
conscience dictate, what is proportionate to his transgression, 
which is so much as may serve for reparation and restraint: 
for these two are the only reasons, why one man may lawfully do 
harm to another, which is that we call punishment. In 
transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to 
live by another rule than that of reason and common equity, which 
is that measure God has set to the actions of men, for their 
mutual security; and so  he  becomes dangerous to mankind, the 
tye, which is to secure them from injury and violence, being 
slighted and broken by him.  Which being a trespass against the 
whole species, and the peace and safety of it, provided for by 
the law of nature, every man upon this score, by the right he 
hath to preserve mankind in general, may restrain, or where it is 
necessary, destroy things noxious to them, and so may bring such 
evil on any one, who hath transgressed that law, as may make him 
repent the doing of it, and thereby deter him, and by his example 
others, from doing the like mischief.  And in the case, and upon 
this ground, EVERY MAN HATH A RIGHT TO PUNISH THE OFFENDER, AND 
BE EXECUTIONER OF THE LAW OF NATURE.

     Sect. 9. 1 doubt not but this will seem a very strange 
doctrine to some men: but before they condemn it, I desire them 
to resolve me, by what right any prince or state can put to 
death, or punish an alien, for any crime he commits in their 
country.  It is certain their laws, by virtue of any sanction 
they receive from the promulgated will of the legislative, reach 
not a stranger: they speak not to him, nor, if they did, is he 
bound to hearken to them.  The legislative authority, by which 
they are in force over the subjects of that commonwealth, hath no 
power over him.   Those  who  have  the supreme power of making 
laws in England, France or Holland, are to an Indian, but 
like the rest of the world, men without authority: and therefore, 
if by the law of nature every man hath not a power to punish 
offences against it, as he soberly judges the case to require, I 
see not how the magistrates of any community can punish an 
alien of another country; since, in reference to him, they can 
have no more power than what every man naturally may have over 
another.

     Sect, 10. Besides the crime which consists in violating the 
law, and varying from the right rule of reason, whereby a man so  
far becomes degenerate, and declares himself to quit the 
principles of human nature, and to be a noxious creature, there 
is commonly injury done to some person or other, and some other 
man receives damage by his transgression: in which case he who 
hath received any damage, has, besides the right of punishment 
common to him with other men, a particular right to seek 
reparation from him that has done it: and any other person, who 
finds it just, may also join with him that is injured, and assist 
him in recovering from the offender so much as may make 
satisfaction for the harm he has suffered.

     Sect. 11. From these two distinct rights, the one of 
punishing the crime for restraint, and preventing the like 
offence, which right of punishing is in every body; the other of 
taking reparation, which belongs only to the injured party, 
comes it to pass that the magistrate, who by being magistrate 
hath the common  right  of punishing put into his hands, can 
often, where the public good demands not the execution of the 
law, remit the punishment of criminal offences by his own 
authority, but yet cannot remit the satisfaction due to any 
private man for the damage he has received.  That, he who has 
suffered the damage has a right to demand in his own name, and he 
alone can remit: the damnified person has this power of 
appropriating to himself the goods or service of the offender, 
by right of self-preservation, as every man has a power to 
punish the crime, to prevent its being committed again, by the 
right he has of preserving all mankind, and doing all reasonable 
things he can in order to that end: and thus it is, that every 
man, in the state of nature, has a power to kill a murderer, both 
to deter others from doing the like injury, which no reparation 
can compensate, by the example of the punishment that attends it 
from every body, and also to secure men from the attempts of a 
criminal, who having renounced reason, the common rule and 
measure God hath given to mankind, hath, by the unjust violence 
and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against 
all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or a 
tyger, one of those wild savage beasts, with whom men can have 
no society nor security: and upon this is grounded that great law 
of nature, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
shed. And Cain was so fully convinced, that every one had a 
right to destroy such a criminal, that after the murder of his