Alexander Ross on private property and our duty to the state

[Reformed Covenanter]

Cap. 29. He [Thomas Hobbes] is angry with those who say, [That every private man hath a property in his goods.] Among the Turks [Muslims] indeed no private man hath any property at all; under Christian Princes private men live more happily, who enjoy a property, yet not simply absolute, if we consider that the Prince hath a right to our goods in cases of necessity, as in his own, and Country’s defence, and such like cases, in this regard no man is born for himself, nor hath any man an absolute property in his own life, which he ought when occasion urgeth, lay down for his Country: Dulce & decorum pro patria mori; therefore Plato saith well, That our Country requires a share in our birth; the property then of the subject excludeth not the Princes right in cases of necessity, but only his arbitrary power.

For the reference, see Alexander Ross on private property and our duty to the state.