The First Treatise of Government

Locke explains that his purpose is to “make good” King William III’s claim to the English throne by grounding that claim in the “consent of the people” (I). Some pages of Locke’s original draft have disappeared—he does not say how—but he believes that what remains will be more than enough to answer Filmer’s divine-right argument. Although Filmer is deceased, others have taken up the divine-right mantle, citing Patriarcha as their sacred text. Locke addresses First Treatise, therefore, not to Filmer but to his disciples.

Filmer’s Patriarcha argues for the divine right of kings to absolute power. Locke regards this doctrine as an attack on all government and a deliberate subversion of society. Neither Scripture nor reason support it. Furthermore, the doctrine is new. It originated in the era preceding the English Civil War (1642-51), when Anglican clergymen such as Robert Sibthorpe and Roger Maynwaring preached divine-right sermons. Locke explains that his purpose in First Treatise is not to review the history of this doctrine but to refute Filmer’s argument for it.