第99章 OF THOSE THINGS THAT WEAKEN(4)

Sometimes also in the merely civil government there be more than one soul:as when the power of levying money,which is the nutritive faculty,has depended on a general assembly;the power of conduct and command,which is the motive faculty,on one man;and the power of making laws,which is the rational faculty,on the accidental consent,not only of those two,but also of a third:this endangereth the Commonwealth,sometimes for want of consent to good laws,but most often for want of such nourishment as is necessary to life and motion.

For although few perceive that such government is not government,but division of the Commonwealth into three factions,and call it mixed monarchy;yet the truth is that it is not one independent Commonwealth,but three independent factions;nor one representative person,but three.In the kingdom of God there may be three persons independent,without breach of unity in God that reigneth;but where men reign,that be subject to diversity of opinions,it cannot be so.And therefore if the king bear the person of the people,and the general assembly bear also the person of the people,and another assembly bear the person of a part of the people,they are not one person,nor one sovereign;but three persons,and three sovereigns.

To what disease in the natural body of man I may exactly compare this irregularity of a Commonwealth,I know not.But I have seen a man that had another man growing out of his side,with a head,arms,breast,and stomach of his own:if he had had another man growing out of his other side,the comparison might then have been exact.