KILL, To
KILL, To
To Kill or SLAY, is to be explained according to the nature of the subject spoken of.
To kill men, is utterly to destroy them.
To kill a kingdom, is to destroy utterly the power it had to act as such: for acting and living are analogical to each other.f1 And government is the life of the commonwealth. And therefore as long as the commonwealth can perform the actions of government, so long it lives; if they are stopped, that life dies.
F1 Artem. L. iv. c. 42.