II.] POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 33 



if he thought fit to communicate them to others, he 

 might, at least, be thus furnished with an opportunity 

 of laying obligations on the rest of mankind. Hence, 

 when properties were once established, men obtained 

 a power, not only of exercising commerce to their 

 mutual advantage and gain, but likewise of dispen- 

 sing more largely in the works of humanity and be- 

 neficence; whence their diligence had procured them 

 a greater share of goods than others : whereas before, 

 when all things lay in common, men could lend one 

 another.no assistance but what was supplied by their 

 corporeal ability, and could be charitable of nothing 

 but of their strength. Further, such is the force of 

 property, that the proprietor hath a right of delivering 

 his goods with his own hands ; even such as he is 

 obliged to give to others. Whence it follows, that 

 when one man has anything owing from another, he 

 is not presently to seize on it at a venture, but ought 

 to apply himself to the owner, desiring to receive it 

 from his disposal. Yet in case the other party refuse 

 thus to make good his obligation, the power and pri- 

 vilege of property doth not reach so far as that the 

 things may not be taken away without the owner's 

 consent, either by the authority of the magistrate in 

 civil communities, or in a state of nature, by violence 

 and hostile force. And though in regard to bare 

 Natural Right, for a man to relieve another in extrem- 

 ity with his goods, for which he himself hath not so 

 much occasion, be a duty obliging only imperfectly, 

 and not in the manner of a debt, since it arises wholly 

 from the virtue of humanity ; yet there seems to be 

 no reason why, by the additional force of a civil ordi- 

 nance, it may not be turned into a strict and-perfect 

 obligation. And this Seldon observes to have been 

 done among the Jews; who, upon a man's refusing 

 to give such alms as were proper for him, could force 

 him to it by an action at law. It is no wonder, there- 

 fore, that they should forbid their poor, on any account, 

 to seize on the goods of others, enjoining them to take 

 only what private persons, or the public officers, or 

 stewards of alms, should give them on their petition. 



