Use, A Law Not By Vertue Of Time, But Of The Soveraigns Consent 3.  When long Use obtaineth the authority of a Law, it is not the Length of Time that maketh the Authority, but the Will of the Soveraign signified by his silence, (for Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent;) and it is no longer Law, then the Soveraign shall be silent therein.  And therefore if the Soveraign shall have a question of Right grounded, not upon his present Will, but upon the Lawes formerly made; the Length of Time shal bring no prejudice to his Right; but the question shal be judged by Equity.  For many unjust Actions, and unjust Sentences, go uncontrolled a longer time, than any man can remember.  And our Lawyers account no Customes Law, but such as are reasonable, and that evill Customes are to be abolished; But the Judgement of what is reasonable, and of what is to be abolished, belongeth to him that maketh the Law, which is the Soveraign Assembly, or Monarch.

The Law Of Nature, And The Civill Law Contain Each Other 4.  The Law of Nature, and the Civill Law, contain each other, and are of equall extent.  For the Lawes of Nature, which consist in Equity, Justice, Gratitude, and other morall Vertues on these depending, in the condition of meer Nature (as I have said before in the end of the 15th Chapter,) are not properly Lawes, but qualities that dispose men to peace, and to obedience.  When a Common-wealth is once settled, then are they actually Lawes, and not before; as being then the commands of the Common-wealth; and therefore also Civill Lawes:  for it is the Soveraign Power that obliges men to obey them.  For in the differences of private men, to declare, what is Equity, what is Justice, and what is morall Vertue, and to make them binding, there is need of the Ordinances of Soveraign Power, and Punishments to be ordained for such as shall break them; which Ordinances are therefore part of the Civill Law.  The Law of Nature therefore is a part of the Civill Law in all Common-wealths of the world.  Reciprocally also, the Civill Law is a part of the Dictates of Nature.  For Justice, that is to say, Performance of Covenant, and giving to every man his own, is a Dictate of the Law of Nature.  But every subject in a Common-wealth, hath covenanted to obey the Civill Law, (either one with another, as when they assemble to make a common Representative, or with the Representative it selfe one by one, when subdued by the Sword they promise obedience, that they may receive life;) And therefore Obedience to the Civill Law is part also of the Law of Nature.  Civill, and Naturall Law are not different kinds, but different parts of Law; whereof one part being written, is called Civill, the other unwritten, Naturall.  But the Right of Nature, that is, the naturall Liberty of man, may by the Civill Law be abridged, and restrained:  nay, the end of making Lawes, is no other, but such Restraint; without the which there cannot possibly be any Peace.  And Law was brought into the world for nothing else, but to limit the naturall liberty of particular men, in such manner, as they might not hurt, but assist one another, and joyn together against a common Enemy.