atagem should be evil.

[34] Whatever be the social state a man finds himself in, he may be
free. For certainly a man is free, in so far as he is led by reason. Now
reason (though Hobbes thinks otherwise) is always on the side of peace,
which cannot be attained unless the general laws of the state be
respected. Therefore the more a man is led by reason--in other words,
the more he is free, the more constantly will he respect the laws of his
country, and obey the commands of the sovereign power to which he is
subject.

[35] When Paul says that men have in themselves no refuge, he speaks as
a man: for in the ninth chapter of the same Epistle he expressly teaches
that God has mercy on whom He will, and that men are without excuse,
only because they are in God's power like clay in the hands of a potter,
who out of the same lump makes vessels, some for honor and some for
dishonor, not because they have been forewarned. As regards the Divine
natural law whereof the chief commandment is, as we have said, to love
God, I have called it a law in the same sense, as philosophers style
laws those general rules of Nature, according to which everything
happens. For the love of God is not a state of obedience: it is a virtue
which necessarily exists in a man who knows God rightly. Obedience has
regard to the will of a ruler, not to necessity and truth. Now as we are
ignorant of the nature of God's will, and on the other hand know that
everything happens solely by God's power, we cannot, except through
revelation, know whether God wishes in any way to be honored as a
sovereign.

Again; we have shown that the Divine rights appear to us in the light of
rights or commands, only so long as we are ignorant of their cause: as
soon as their cause is known, they cease to be rights, and we embrace
them no longer as rights but as eternal truths; in other words,
obedience passes into love of God, which emanates from true knowledge as
necessarily as light emanates from the sun. Reason then leads us to love
God, but cannot lead us to obey Him; for we cannot embrace the commands
of God as Divine, while we are in ignorance of their cause, neither can
we rationally conceive God as a sovereign laying down laws as a
sovereign.

CHAPTER XVII

OF SUPREME AUTHORITIES

I

_Of the Right of Supreme Authorities_[36]

Under every dominion the state is said to be Civil; but the entire body
subject to a dominion is called a Commonwealth, and the