him with his corporall liberty For Slaves that work in Prisons or Fetters do it not of duty but to avoyd the cruelty of their task-masters The Master of the Servant is Master also of all he hath and may exact the use thereof that is to say of his goods of his labour of his servants and of his children as often as he shall think fit For he holdeth his life of his Master by the covenant of obedience that is of owning and authorising whatsoever the Master shall do And in case the Master if he refuse kill him or cast him into bonds or otherwise punish him for his disobedience he is himselfe the author of the same and cannot accuse him of injury In summe the Rights and Consequences of both Paternall and Despoticall Dominion are the very same with those of a Soveraign by Institution and for the same reasons which reasons are set down in the precedent chapter So that for a man that is Monarch of divers Nations whereof he hath in one the Soveraignty by Institution of the people assembled and in another by Conquest that is by the Submission of each particular to avoyd death or bonds to demand of one Nation more than of the other from the title of Conquest as being a Conquered Nation is an act of ignorance of the Rights oâ—… Soveraignty For the Soveraign is absolute over both alike or else there is no Soveraignty at all and so every man may Lawfully protect himselfe if he can with his own sword which is the condition of war By this it appears that a great Family if it be not part of some Common-wealth is of it self as to the Rights of Soveraignty a little Monarchy whether that Family consist of a man and his children or of a man and his servants or of a man and his children and servants together wherein the Father or Master is the Soveraign But yet a Family is not properly a Common-wealth unlesse it be of that power by its own number or by other opportunities as not to be subdued without the hazard of war For where a number of men are manifestly too weak to defend themselves united every one may use his own reason in time of danger to save his own life either by flight or by submission to the enemy as hee shall think best in the same manner as a very small company of souldiers surprised by an army may cast down their armes and demand quarter or run away rather than be put to the sword And thus much shall suffice concerning what I find by speculation and deduction of Soveraign Rights from the nature need and designes of men in erecting of Common-wealths and putting themselves under Monarchs or Assemblies entrusted with power enough for their protection Let us now consider what the Scripture teacheth in the same point To Moses the children of Israel say thus Speak thou to us and we will heare thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye This is absolute obedience to Moses Concerning the Right of Kings God himself by the mouth of Samuel saith This shall be the Right of the King you will have to reigne over you He shall take your sons and set them to drive his Chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots and gather in his harvest and to make his engines of War and Instruments of his chariots and shall take your daughters to make perfumes to be his Cookes and Bakers He shall take your fields your vine-yards and your olive-yards and give them to his servants He shall take the tyth of your corne and wine and give it to the men of his chamber and to his other servants He shall take your man-servants and your maid-servants and the choice of your youth and employ them in his businesse He shall take the tyth of your flocks and you shall be his servants This is absolute power and â—…ummed up in the last words you shall be his servants Againe when the people heard what power their King was to have yet they consented thereto and say thus We will be as all other nations and our King shall judge our causes and goe before us to conduct our wars Here is confirmed the Right that Soveraigns have both to the Militia and to all Judicature in which is conteined as absolute power as one man can possibly transferre to another Again the prayer of King Salomon to God was this Give to thy servant understanding to judge thy people and to diâ—…cerne between Good and Evill It belongeth therefore to the Soveraigne to bee Judge and to praescribe the Rules of discerning Good and Evill which Rules are Lawes and therefore in him is the Legislative Power Saul sought the life of David yet when it was in his power to slay Saul and his Servants would have done it David forbad them saying God forbid I should do such an act against my Lord the anoynted of God For obedience of servants St. Paul saith Servants obey your masters in All things and Children obey your Parents in All things There is simple obedience in those that are subject to Paternall or Despoticall Dominion Again The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chayre and therefore All that they shall bid you observe that observe and do There again is simple obedience And St Paul Warn them that they subject themselves to Princes and to those that are in Authority obey them This obedience is also simple Lastly our Saviour himselfe acknowledges that men ought to pay such taxes as are by Kings impoâ—…ed where he sayes Give to Caesar that which is Caesars and payed such taxes himselfe And that the Kings word is sufficient to take any thing from any Subject when there is need and that the King is Judge of that need For he himselfe as King of the Jewes commanded his Disciples to take the Asse and Asses Colt to carry him into Jerusalem saying Go into the Village over against you and you shall find a shee Asse tyed and her Colt with her unty them and bring them to me And if any man ask you what you mean by it Say the Lord hath need of them And they will let them go They will not ask whether his necessity be a sufficient title nor whether he be judge of that necessity but acquiesce in the will of the Lord. To these places may be added also that of Genesis You shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evill And verse 11. Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat For the Cognisance or Judicature of Good and Evill being forbidden by the name of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge as a triall of Adams obedience The Divel to enflame the Ambition of the woman to whom that fruit already seemed beautifull told her that by tasting it they should be as Gods knowing Good
of themselves thereby have made an Artificiall Man which we call a Common-wealth so also have they made Artificiall Chains called Civill Lawes which they themselves by mutuall covenants have fastned at one end to the lips of that Man or Assembly to whom they have given the Soveraigne Power and at the other end to their own Ears These Bonds in their own nature but weak may neverthelesse be made to hold by the danger though not by the difficulty of breaking them In relation to these Bonds only it is that I am to speak now of the Liberty of Subjects For seeing there is no Common-wealth in the world wherein there be Rules enough set down for the regulating of all the actions and words of men as being a thing impossible it followeth necessarily that in all kinds of actions by the laws praetermitted men have the Liberty of doing what their own reasons shall suggest for the most profitable to themselves For if wee take Liberty in the proper sense for corporall Liberty that is to say freedome from chains and prison it were very absurd for men to clamor as they doe for the Liberty they so manifestly enjoy Againe if we take Liberty for an exemption from Lawes it is no lesse absurd for men to demand as they doe that Liberty by which all other men may be masters of their lives And yet as absurd as it is this is it they demand not knowing that the Lawes are of no power to protect them without a Sword in the hands of a man or men to cause those laws to be put in execution The Liberty of a Subject lyeth therefore only in those things which in regulating their actions the Soveraign hath praetermitted such as is the Liberty to buy and sell and otherwise contract with one another to choose their own aboad their own diet their own trade of life and institute their children as they themselves think fit the like Neverthelesse we are not to understand that by such Liberty the Soveraign Power of life and death is either abolished or limited For it has been already shewn that nothing the Soveraign Representative can doe to a Subject on what pretence soever can properly be called Injustice or Injury because every Subject is Author of every act the Soveraign doth so that he never wanteth Right to any thing otherwise than as he himself is the Subject of God and bound thereby to observe the laws of Nature And therefore it may and doth often happen in Common-wealths that a Subject may be put to death by the command of the Soveraign Power and yet neither doe the other wrong As when Jeptha caused his daughter to be sacrificed In which and the like cases he that so dieth had Liberty to doe the action for which he is neverthelesse without Injury put to death And the same holdeth also in a Soveraign Prince that putteth to death an Innocent Subject For though the action be against the law of Nature as being contrary to Equitie as was the killing of Uriah by David yet it was not an Injurie to Uriah but to God Not to Uriah because the right to doe what he pleased was given him by Uriah himself And yet to God because David was Gods Subject and prohibited all Iniquitie by the law of Nature Which distinction David himself when he repented the fact evidently confirmed saying To thee only have I sinned In the same manner the people of Athens when they â—…anished the most potent of their Common-wealth for ten years thought they committed no Injustice and yet they never questioned what crime he had done but what hurt he would doe Nay they commanded the banishment of they knew not whom and every Citizen bringing his Oystershell into the market place written with the name of him he desired should be banished without actuall accusing him sometimes banished an Aristides for his reputation of Justice And sometimes a scurrilous Jester as Hyperbolus to make a Jest of it And yet a man cannot say the Soveraign People of Athens wanted right to banish them or an Athenian the Libertie to Jest or to be Just. The Libertie whereof there is so frequent and honourable mention in the Histories and Philosophy of the Antient Greeks and Romans and in the writings and discourse of those that from them have received all their learning in the Politiques is not the Libertie of Particular men but the Libertie of the Common-wealth which is the same with that which every man then should have if there were no Civil Laws nor Common-wealth at all And the effects of it also be the same For as amongst masterlesse men there is perpetuall war of every man against his neighbour no inheritance to transmit to the Son nor to expect from the Father no propriety of Goods or Lands no security but a full and absolute Libertie in every Particular man So in States and Common-wealths not dependent on one another every Common-wealth not every man has an absolute Libertie to doe what it shall judge that is to say what that Man or Assemblie that representeth it shall judge most conducing to their benefit But withall they live in the condition of a perpetuall war and upon the confines of battel with their frontiers armed and canons planted against their neighbours round about The Athenians and Romanes were free that is free Common-wealths not that any particular men had the Libertie to resist their own Representative but that their Representative had the Libertie to resist or invade other people There is written on the Turrets of the city of Luca in great characters at this day the word LIBERTAS yet no man can thence inferre that a particular man has more Libertie or Immunitie from the service of the Commonwealth there than in Constantinople Whether a Common-wealth be Monarchicall or Popular the Freedome is still the same But it is an easy thing for men to be deceived by the specious name of Libertie and for want of Judgement to distinguish mistake that for their Private Inheritance and Birth right which is the right of the Publique only And when the same errour is confirmed by the authority of men in reputation for their writings in this subject it is no wonder if it produce sedition and change of Government In these westerne parts of the world we are made to receive our opinions concerning the Institution and Rights of Common-wealths from Aristotle Cicero and other men Greeks and Romanes that living under Popular States derived those Rights not from the Principles of Nature but transcribed them into their books out of the Practise of their own Common-wealths which were Popular as the Grammarians describe the Rules of Language out of the Practise of the time or the Rules of Poetry out of the Poems of Homer and Virgil. And because the Athenians were taught to keep them from desire of changing their Government that they were Freemen and all that lived under Monarchy were slaves
not this revelation nor were yet in being yet they are a party to the Covenant and bound to obey what Abraham should declare to them for Gods Law which they could not be but in vertue of the obedience they owed to their Parents who if they be Subject to no other earthly power as here in the case of Abraham have Soveraign power over their children and servants Againe where God saith to Abraham In thee shall all Nations of the earth be blessed For I know thou wilt command thy children and thy house after thee to keep the way of the Lord and to observe Righteousnesse and Judgement it is manifest the obedience of his Family who had no Revelation depended on their former obligation to obey their Soveraign At Mount Sinai Moses only went up to God the people were forbidden to approach on paine of death yet were they bound to obey all that Moses declared to them for Gods Law Upon what ground but on this submission of their own Speak thou to us and we will heare thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye By which two places it sufficiently appeareth that in a Common-wealth a subject that has no certain and assured Revelation particularly to himself concerning the Will of God is to obey for such the Command of the Common-wealth for if men were at liberty to take for Gods Commandements their own dreams and fancies or the dreams and fancies of private men scarce two men would agree upon what is Gods Commandement and yet in respect of them every man would despise the Commandements of the Common-wealth I conclude therefore that in all things not contrary to the Morall Law that is to say to the Law of Nature all Subjects are bound to obey that for divine Law which is declared to be so by the Lawes of the Common-wealth Which also is evident to any mans reason for whatsoever is not against the Law of Nature may be made Law in the name of them that have the Soveraign power and there is no reason men should be the lesse obliged by it when t is propounded in the name of God Besides there is no place in the world where men are permitted to pretend other Commandements of God than are declared for such by the Common-wealth Christian States punish those that revolt from Christian Religion and all other States those that set up any Religion by them forbidden For in whatsoever is not regulated by the Common-wealth t is Equity which is the Law of Nature and therefore an eternall Law of God that every man equally enjoy his liberty There is also another distinction of Laws into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall but I could never see in any Author what a Fundamentall Law signifieth Neverthelesse one may very reasonably distinguish Laws in that manner For a Fundamentall Law in every Common-wealth is that which being taken away the Common-wealth faileth and is utterly dissolved as a building whose Foundation is destroyed And therefore a Fundamentall Law is that by which Subjects are bound to uphold whatsoever power is given to the Soveraign whether a Monarch or a Soveraign Assembly without which the Common-wealth cannot stand such as is the power of War and Peace of Judicature of Election of Officers and of doing whatsoever he shall think necessary for the Publique good Not Fundamentall is that the abrogating whereof draweth not with it the dissolution of the Common-Wealth such as are the Lawes concerning Controversies between subject and subject Thus much of the Division of Lawes I find the words Lex Civilis and Jus Civile that is to say Law and Right Civil promiscuously used for the same thing even in the most learned Authors which neverthelesse ought not to be so For Right is Liberty namely that Liberty which the Civil Law leaves us But Civill Law is an Obligation and takes from us the Liberty which the Law of Nature gave us Nature gave a Right to every man to secure himselfe by his own strength and to invade a suspected neighbour by way of prevention but the Civill Law takes away that Liberty in all cases where the protection of the Law may be safely stayd for Insomuch as Lex and Jus are as different as Obligation and Liberty Likewise Lawes and Charters are taken 〈◊〉 for the same thing Yet Charters are Donations of the Soveraign and not Lawes but exemptions from Law The phrase of a Law is Jubeo Injungo I Command and Enjoyn the phrase of a Charter is Dedi Concessi I have Given I have Granted but what is given or granted to a man is not forced upon him by a Law A Law may be made to bind All the Subjects of a Common-wealth a Liberty or Charter is only to One man or some One part of the people For to say all the people of a Common-wealth have Liberty in any case whatsoever is to say that in such case there hath been no Law made or else having been made is now abrogated CHAP. XXVII Of CRIMES EXCUSES and EXTENUATIONS A Sinne is not onely a Transgression of a Law but also any Contempt of the Legislator For such Contempt is a breach of all his Lawes at once And therefore may consist not onely in the Commission of a Fact or in the Speaking of Words by the Lawes forbidden or in the Omission of what the Law commandeth but also in the Intention or purpose to transgresse For the purpose to breake the Law is some degree of Contempt of him to whom it belongeth to see it executed To be delighted in the Imagination onely of being possessed of another mans goods servants or wife without any intention to take them from him by force or fraud is no breach of the Law that sayth Thou shalt not covet nor is the pleasure a man may have in imagining or dreaming of the death of him from whose life he expecteth nothing but dammage and displeasure a Sinne but the resolving to put some Act in execution that tendeth thereto For to be pleased in the fiction of that which would please a man if it were reall is a Passion so adhaerent to the Nature both of man and every other living creature as to make it a Sinne were to make Sinne of being a man The consideration of this has made me think them too severe both to themselves and others that maintain that the First motions of the mind though checked with the fear of God be Sinnes But I confesse it is safer to erre on that hand than on the other A CRIME is a sinne consisting in the Committing by Deed or Word of that which the Law forbiddeth or the Omission of what it hath commanded So that every Crime is a sinne but not every sinne a Crime To intend to steale or kill is a sinne though it never appeare in Word or Fact for God that seeth the thoughts of man can lay it to his charge but till it appear by some thing
Law there whatsoever is inflicted hath the nature of Punishment For he that goes about the violation of a Law wherein no penalty is determined expecteth an indeterminate that is to say an arbitrary Punishment Ninthly Harme inflicted for a Fact done before there was a Law that forbad it is not Punishment but an act of Hostility For before the Law there is no transgression of the Law But Punishment supposeth a fact judged to have been a transgression of the Law Therefore Harme inflicted before the Law made is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Tenthly Hurt inflicted on the Representative of the Common-wealth is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Because it is of the nature of Punishment to be inflicted by publique Authority which is the Authority only of the Representative it self Lastly Harme inflicted upon one that is a declared enemy fals not under the name of Punishment Because seeing they were either never subject to the Law and therefore cannot transgresse it or having been subject to it and professing to be no longer so by consequence deny they can transgresse it all the Harmes that can be done them must be taken as acts of Hostility But in declared Hostility all infliction of evill is lawfull From whence it followeth that if a subject shall by fact or word wittingly and deliberatly deny the authority of the Representative of the Common-wealth whatsoever penalty hath been formerly ordained for Treason he may lawfully be made to suffer whatsoever the Representative will For in denying subjection he denyes such Punishment as by the Law hath been ordained and therefore suffers as an enemy of the Common-wealth that is according to the will of the Representative For the Punishments set down in the Law are to Subjects not to Enemies such as are they that having been by their own act Subjects deliberately revolting deny the Soveraign Power The first and most generall distribution of Punishments is into Divine and Humane Of the former I shall have occasion to speak in a more convenient place hereafter Humane are those Punishments that be inflicted by the Commandement of Man and are either Corporall or Pecuâ—…ary or Ignominy or Imprisonment or Exile or mixt of these Corporall Punishment is that which is inflicted on the body directly and according to the intention of him that inflicteth it such as are stripes or wounds or deprivation of such pleasures of the body as were before lawfully enjoyed And of these some be Capitall some Lesse than Capitall Capitall is the Infliction of Death and that either simply or with torment Lesse than Capitall are Stripes Wounds Chains and any other corporall Paine not in its own nature mortall For if upon the Infliction of a Punishment death â—…ollow not in the intention of the Inflicter the Punishment is not to bee esteemed Capitall though the harme prove mortall by an accident not to be foreseen in which case death is not inflicted but hastened Pecuniary Punishment is that which consisteth not only in the deprivation of a Summe of Mony but also of Lands or any other goods which are usually bought and sold for mony And in case the Law that ordaineth such a punishment be made with design to gather mony from such as shall transgresse the same it is not properly a Punishment but the Price of priviledge and exemption from the Law which doth not absolutely forbid the fact but only to those that are not able to pay the mony except where the Law is Naturall or part of Religion for in that case it is not an exemption from the Law but a transgression of it As where a Law exacteth a Pecuniary mulct of them that take the name of God in vaine the payment of the mulct is not the price of a dispensation to sweare but the Punishment of the transgression of a Law undispensable In like manner if the Law impose a Summe of Mony to be payd to him that has been Injured this is but a satisfaction for the hurt done him and extinguisheth the accusation of the party injured not the crime of the offender Ignominy is the infliction of such Evill as is made Dishonorable or the deprivation of such Good as is made Honourable by the Common-wealth For there be some things Honorable by Nature as the effects of Courage Magnamity Strength Wisdome and other abilities of body and mind Others made Honorable by the Common-wealth as Badges Titles Offices or any other singular marke of the Soveraigns favour The former though they may faile by nature or accident cannot be taken away by a Law and therefore the losse of them is not Punishment But the later may be taken away by the publique authority that made them Honorable and are properly Punishments Such are degrading men condemned of their Badges Titles and Offices or declaring them uncapable of the like in time to come Imprisonment is when a man is by publique Authority deprived of liberty and may happen from two divers ends whereof one is the safe custody of a man accused the other is the inflicting of paine on a man condemned The former is not Punishment because no man is supposed to be Punisht before he be Judicially heard and declared guilty And therefore whatsoever hurt a man is made to suffer by bonds or restraint before his cause be heard over and above that which is necessary to assure his custody is against the Law of Nature But the later is Punishment because Evill and inflicted by publique Authority for somewhat that has by the same Authority been Judged a Transgression of the Law Under this word Imprisoment I comprehend all restraint of motion caused by an externall obstacle be it a House which is called by the general name of a Prison or an Iland as when men are said to be confined to it or a place where men are set to worke as in old time men have been condemned to Quarries and in these times to Gallies or be it a Chaine or any other such impediment Exile Banishment is when a man is for a crime condemned to depart out of the dominion of the Common-wealth or out of a certaine part thereof and during a prefixed time or for ever not to return into it and seemeth not in its own nature without other circumstances to be a Punishment but rather an escape or a publique commandement to avoid Punishment by flight And Cicero sayes there was never any such Punishment ordained in the City of Rome but cals it a refuge of men in danger For if a man banished be neverthelesse permitted to enjoy his Goods and the Revenue of his Lands the meer change of ayr is no Punishment nor does it tend to that benefit of the Common-wealth for which all Punishments are ordained that is to say to the forming of mens wils to the observation of the Law but many times to the dammage of the Common-wealth For a Banished man is a lawfull
possession And for a memoriall and a token of this Covenant he ordaineth verse II. the Sacrament of Circumcision This is it which is called the Old Covenant or Testament and containeth a Contract between God and Abraham by which Abraham obligeth himself and his posterity in a peculiar manner to be subject to Gods positive Law for to the Law Morall he was obliged before as by an Oath of Allegiance And though the name of King be not yet given to God nor of Kingdome to Abraham and his seed yet the thing is the same namely an Institution by pact of Gods peculiar Soveraignty over the seed of Abraham which in the renewing of the same Covenant by Moses at Mount Sinai is expressely called a peculiar Kingdome of God over the Jews and it is of Abraham not of Moses St. Paul saith Rom. 4. 11. that he is the Father of the Faithfull that is of those that are loyall and doe not violate their Allegiance sworn to God then by Circumcision and afterwards in the New Covenant by Baptisme This Covenant at the Foot of Mount Sinai was renewed by Moses Exod. 19. 5. where the Lord commandeth Moses to speak to the people in this manner If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then yee shall be a peculiar people to me for all the Earth is mine And yee shall be unto me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation For a Peculiar people the vulgar Latine hath Peculium de cunctis populis the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James hath a Peculiar treasure unto me above all Nations and the Geneva French the most precious Iewel of all Nations But the truest Translation is the first because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself Tit. 2. 14. where he saith alluding to that place that our blessed Saviour gave himself for us that he might purifie us to himself a peculiar that is an extraordinary people for the word is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is opposed commonly to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as this signifieth ordinary quotidian or as in the Lords Prayer of daily use so the other signifieth that which is overplus and stored up and enjoyed in a speciall manner which the Latines call Peculium and this meaning of the place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it which followeth immediately in that he addeth For all the Earth is mine as if he should say All the Nations of the world are mine but it is not so that you are mine but in a speciall manner For they are all mine by reason of my Power but you shall be mine by your own Consent and Covenant which is an addition to his ordinary title to all nations The same is again confirmed in expresse words in the same text Yee shall be to me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation The Vulgar Latine hath it Regnum Sacerdotale to which agreeth the Translation of that place 1 Pet. 2. 9. Sacerdotium Regale a Regal Priesthood as also the Institution it self by which no man might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum that is to say no man might enquire Gods will immediately of God himselfe but onely the High Priest The English Translation before mentioned following that of Geneva has a Kingdom of Priests which is either meant of the succession of one High Priest after another or else it accordeth not with St. Peter nor with the exercise of the High priesthood For there was never any but the High priest onely that was to informe the People of Gods Will nor any Convocation of Priests ever allowed to enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum Again the title of a Holy Nation confirmes the same For Holy signifies that which is Gods by speciall not by generall Right All the Earth as is said in the text is Gods but all the Earth is not called Holy but that onely which is set apart for his especiall service as was the Nation of the Jews It is therefore manifest enough by this one place that by the Kingdome of God is properly meant a Common-wealth instituted by the consent of those which were to be subject thereto for their Civill Government and the regulating of their behaviour not onely towards God their King but also towards one another in point of justice and towards other Nations both in peace and warre which properly was a Kingdome wherein God was King and the High priest was to be after the death of Moses his sole Viceroy or Lieutenant But there be many other places that clearly prove the same As first 1 Sam. 8. 7. when the Elders of Israel grieved with the corruption of the Sons of Samuel demanded a King Samuel displeased therewith prayed unto the Lord and the Lord answering said unto him Hearken unto the voice of the People for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them Out of which it is evident that God himself was then their King and Samuel did not command the people but only delivered to them that which God from time to time appointed him Again 1 Sam. 12. 12. where Samuel saith to the People When yee saw that Nahash King of the Children of Ammon came against you ye said unto me Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King It is manifest that God was their King and governed the Civill State of their Common-wealth And after the Israelites had rejected God the Prophets did foretell his restitution as Isaiah 24. 23. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Ierusalem where he speaketh expressely of his Reign in Zion and Jerusalem that is on Earth And Micah 4. 7. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion This Mount Zion is in Jerusalem upon the Earth And Ezek. 20. 33. As I live saith the Lord God surely with a mighty hand and a stretched out arme and with fury powred out I wil rule over you and verse 37. I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant that is I will reign over you and make you to stand to that Covenant which you made with me by Moses and brake in your rebellion against me in the days of Samuel and in your election of another King And in the New Testament the Angel Gabriel saith of our Saviour Luke 1. 32 33. He shall be great and be called the Son of the most High and the Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end This is also a Kingdome upon Earth for the claim whereof as an enemy to Caesar he was put to death the title of his crosse was Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews hee was crowned in
scorn with a crown of Thornes and for the proclaiming of him it is said of the Disciples Acts 17. 7. That they did all of them contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there was another King one Iesus The Kingdome therefore of God is a reall not a metaphoricall Kingdome and so taken not onely in the Old Testament but the New when we say For thine is the Kingdome the Power and Glory it is to be understood of Gods Kingdome by force of our Covenant not by the Right of Gods Power for such a Kingdome God alwaies hath so that it were superfluous to say in our prayer Thy Kingdome come unlesse it be meant of the Restauration of that Kingdome of God by Christ which by revolt of the Israelites had been interrupted in the election of Saul Nor had it been proper to say The Kingdome of Heaven is at hand ot to pray Thy Kingdome come if it had still continued There be so-many other places that confirm this interpretation that it were a wonder there is no greater notice taken of it but that it gives too much light to Christian Kings to see their right of Ecclesiasticall Government This they have observed that in stead of a Sacerdotall Kingdome translate a Kingdome of Priests for they may as well translate a Royall Priesthood as it is in St. Peter into a Priesthood of Kings And whereas for a peculiar people they put a pretious jewel or treasure a man might as well call the speciall Regiment or Company of a Generall the Generalls pretious Jewel or his Treasure In short the Kingdome of God is a Civill Kingdome which consisted first in the obligation of the people of Israel to those Laws which Moses should bring unto them from Mount Sinai and which afterwards the High Priest for the time being should deliver to them from before the Cherubins in the Sanctum Sanctorum and which Kingdome having been cast off in the election of Saul the Prophets foretold should be restored by Christ and the Restauration whereof we daily pray for when we say in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdome come and the Right whereof we acknowledge when we adde For thine is the Kingdome the Power and Glory for ever and ever Amen and the Proclaiming whereof was the Preaching of the Apostles and to which men are prepared by the Teachers of the Gospel to embrace which Gospel that is to say to promise obedience to Gods government is to bee in the Kingdome of Grace because God hath gratis given to such the power to bee the Subjects that is Children of God hereafter when Christ shall come in Majesty to judge the world and actually to govern his owne people which is called the Kingdome of Glory If the Kingdome of God called also the Kingdome of Heaven from the gloriousnesse and admirable height of that throne were not a Kingdome which God by his Lieutenants or Vicars who deliver his Commandements to the people did exercise on Earth there would not have been so much contention and warre about who it is by whom God speaketh to us neither would many Priests have troubled themselves with Spirituall Jurisdiction nor any King have denied it them Out of this literall interpretation of the Kingdome of God ariseth also the true interpretation of the word HOLY For it is a word which in Gods Kingdome answereth to that which men in their Kingdomes use to call Publique or the Kings The King of any Countrey is the Publique Person or Representative of all his own Subjects And God the King of Israel was the Holy one of Israel The Nation which is subject to one earthly Soveraign is the Nation of that Soveraign that is of the Publique Person So the Jews who were Gods Nation were called Exod. 19. 6. a Holy Nation For by Holy is alwaies understood either God himselfe or that which is Gods in propriety as by Publique is alwaies meant either the Person of the Common-wealth it self or something that is so the Common-wealths as no private person can claim any propriety therein Therefore the Sabbath Gods day is a Holy day the Temple Gods house a Holy house Sacrifices Tithes and Offerings Gods tribute Holy duties Priests Prophets and anointed Kings under Christ Gods Ministers Holy men the Coelestiall ministring Spirits Gods Messengers Holy Angels and the like and wheresoever the word Holy is taken properly there is still something signified of Propriety gotten by consent In saying Hallowed be thy name we do but pray to God for grace to keep the first Commandement of having no other Gods but him Mankind is Gods Nation in propriety but the Jews only were a Holy Nation Why but because they became his Propriety by covenant And the word Profane is usually taken in the Scripture for the same with Common and consequently their contraries Holy and Proper in the Kingdome of God must be the same also But figuratively those men also are called Holy that led such godly lives as if they had forsaken all worldly designs and wholly devoted and given themselves to God In the proper sense that which is made Holy by Gods appropriating or separating it to his own use is said to be sanctified by God as the Seventh day in the fourth Commandement and as the Elect in the New Testament were said to bee sanctified when they were endued with the Spirit of godlinesse And that which is made Holy by the dedication of men and given to God so as to be used onely in his publique service is called aso SACRED and said to be consecrated as Temples and other Houses of Publique Prayer and their Utensils Priests and Ministers Victimes Offerings and the externall matter of Sacraments Of Holinesse there be degrees for of those things that are set apart for the service of God there may bee some set apart again for a neerer and more especial service The whole Nation of the Israelites were a people Holy to God yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a Holy tribe and amongst the Levites the Priests were yet more Holy and amongst the Priests the High Priest was the most Holy So the Land of Judea was the Holy Land but the Holy City wherein God was to be worshipped was more Holy and again the Temple more Holy than the City and the Sanctum Sanctorum more Holy than the rest of the Temple A SACRAMENT is a separation of some visible thing from common use and a consecration of it to Gods service for a sign either of our admission into the Kingdome of God to be of the number of his peculiar people or for a Commemoration of the same In the Old Testament the sign of Admission was Circumcision in the New Testament Baptisme The Commemoration of it in the Old Testament was the Eating at a certaine time which was Anniversary of the Paschall Lamb by which they were put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out of their bondage in
any Coelum Empyreum or other aetheriall Region saving that it is called the Kingdome of Heaven which name it may have because God that was King of the Jews governed them by his commands sent to Moses by Angels from Heaven and after their revolt sent his Son from Heaven to reduce them to their obedience and shall send him thence again to rule both them and all other faithfull men from the day of Judgment Everlastingly or from that that the Throne of this our Great King is in Heaven whereas the Earth is but his Footstoole But that the Subjects of God should have any place as high as his Throne or higher than his Footstoole it seemeth not sutable to the dignity of a King nor can I find any evident text for it in holy Scripture From this that hath been said of the Kingdom of God and of Salvation it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the WORLD TO COME There are three worlds mentioned in Scripture the Old World the Present VVorld and the VVorld to come Of the first St. Peter speaks If God spared not the Old VVorld but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly c. So the first World was from Adam to the generall Flood Of the present World our Saviour speaks Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this VVorld For he came onely to teach men the way of Salvation and to renew the Kingdome of his Father by his doctrine Of the World to come St. Peter speaks Neverthelesse we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth This is that WORLD wherein Christ coming down from Heaven in the clouds with great power and glory shall send his Angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds and from the uttermost parts of the Earth and thence forth reign over them under his Father Everlastingly Salvation of a sinner suppposeth a precedent REDEMPTION for he that is once guilty of Sin is obnoxious to the Penalty of the same and must pay or some other for him such Ransome as he that is offended and has him in his power shall require And seeing the person offended is Almighty God in whose power are all things such Ransome is to be paid before Salvation can be acquired as God hath been pleased to require By this Ransome is not intended a satisfaction for Sin equivalent to the Offence which no sinner for himselfe nor righteous man can ever be able to make for another The dammage a man does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompence but sin cannot be taken away by recompence for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible But sins may bee pardoned to the repentant either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept That which God usually accepted in the Old Testament was some Sacrifice or Oblation To forgive sin is not an act of Injustice though the punishment have been threatned Even amongst men though the promise of Good bind the promiser yet threats that is to say promises of Evill bind them not much lesse shall they bind God who is infinitely more mercifull then men Our Saviour Christ therefore to Redeem us did not in that sense satisfie for the Sins of men as that his Death of its own vertue could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with Eternall death but did make that Sacrifice and Oblation of himself at his first coming which God was pleased to require for the Salvation at his second coming of such as in the mean time should repent and beleeve in him And though this act of our Redemption be not alwaies in Scripture called a Sacrifice and Oblation but sometimes a Price yet by Price we are not to understand any thing by the value whereof he could claim right to a pardon for us from his offended Father but that Price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand CHAP. XXXIX Of the signification in Scripture of the word CHURCH THe word Church Ecclesia signifieth in the Books of Holy Scripture divers things Sometimes though not often it is taken for Gods House that is to say for a Temple wherein Christians assemble to perform holy duties publiquely as 1 Cor. 14. ver 34. Let your women keep silence in the Churches but this is Metaphorically put for the Congregation there assembled and hath been since used for the Edifice it self to distinguish between the Temples of Christians and Idolaters The Temple of Jerusalem was Gods house and the House of Prayer and so is any Edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ Christs house and therefore the Greek Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords house and thence in our language it came to be called Kyrke and Church Church when not taken for a House signifieth the same that Ecclesia signified in the Grecian Common-wealths that is to say a Congregation or an Assembly of Citizens called forth to hear the Magistrate speak unto them and which in the Common-wealth of Rome was called Concio as he that spake was called Ecclesiastes and Concionator And when they were called forth by lawfull Authority it was Ecclesia legitima a Lawfull Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when they were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamor then it was a confused Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the Congregation though not actually assembled that is to say for the whole multitude of Christian men how far soever they be dispersed as Act. 8. 3. where it is said that Saul made havock of the Church And in this sense is Christ said to be Head of the Church And sometimes for a certain part of Christians as Col. 4. 15. Salute the Church that is in his house Sometimes also for the Elect onely as Ephes. 5. 27. A Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemâ—…sh which is meant of the Church triumphant or Church to come Sometimes for a Congregation assembled of professors of Christianity whether their profession be true or counterfeit as it is understood Mat. 18. 17. where it is said Tell it to the Church and if hee neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Gentile or Publican And in this last sense only it is that the Church can be taken for one Person that is to say that it can be said to have power to will to pronounce to command to be obeyed to make laws or to doe any other action whatsoever For without authority from a lawfull Congregation whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people it is the particular act of every one of those that were present and gave their aid to the performance of it and not the act of them all in grosse as of one body much lesse the act
for the Churches Salvation because he hath commanded her to follow the Popes directions But this Reason is invalid unlesse he shew when and where Christ commanded that or took at all any notice of a Pope Nay granting whatsoever was given to S. Peter was given to the Pope yet seeing there is in the Scripture no command to any man to obey St. Peter no man can bee just that obeyeth him when his commands are contrary to those of his lawfull Soveraign Lastly it hath not been declared by the Church nor by the Pope himselfe that he is the Civill Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and therefore all Christians are not bound to acknowledge his Jurisdiction in point of Manners For the Civill Soveraignty and supreme Judicature in controversies of Manners are the same thing And the Makers of Civill Laws are not onely Declarers but also Makers of the justice and injustice of actions there being nothing in mens Manners that makes them righteous or unrighteous but their conformity with the Law of the Soveraign And therefore when the Pope challengeth Supremacy in controversies of Manners hee teacheth men to disobey the Civill Soveraign which is an erroneous Doctrine contrary to the many precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles delivered to us in the Scripture To prove the Pope has Power to make Laws he alledgeth many places as first Deut. 17. 12. The man that will doe presumptuously and will not he arken unto the Priest that standeth to Minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Iudge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evill from Israel For answer whereunto we are to remember that the High Priest next and immediately under God was the Civill Soveraign and all Judges were to be constituted by him The words alledged sound therefore thus The man that will presume to disobey the Civill Soveraign for the time being or any of his Officers in the execution of their places that man shall die c. which is cleerly for the Civill Soveraignty against the Universall power of the Pope Secondly he alledgeth that of Matth. 16. Whatsoever yee shall bind c. and interpreteth it for such binding as is attributed Matth. 23. 4. to the Scribes and Pharisees They bind heavy burthens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders by which is meant he sayes Making of Laws and concludes thence that the Pope can make Laws But this also maketh onely for the Legislative power of Civill Soveraigns For the Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses Chaire but Moses next under God was Soveraign of the People of Israel and therefore our Saviour commanded them to doe all that they should say but not all that they should do That is to obey their Laws but not follow their Example The third place is Iohn 21. 16. Feed my sheep which is not a Power to make Laws but a command to Teach Making Laws belongs to the Lord of the Family who by his owne discretion chooseth his Chaplain as also a Schoolmaster to Teach his children The fourth place Iohn 20. 21. is against him The words are As my Father sent me so send I you But our Saviour was sent to Redeeem by his Death such as should Beleeve and by his own and his Apostles preaching to prepare them for their entrance into his Kingdome which he himself saith is not of this world and hath taught us to pray for the coming of it hereafter though hee refused Acts 1. 6 7. to tell his Apostles when it should come and in which when it comes the twelve Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones every one perhaps as high as that of St. Peter to judge the twelve tribes of Israel Seeing then God the Father sent not our Saviour to make Laws in this present world wee may conclude from the Text that neither did our Saviour send S. Peter to make Laws here but to perswade men to expect his second comming with a stedfast faith and in the mean time if Subjects to obey their Princes and if Princes both to beleeve it themselves and to do their best to make their Subjects doe the same which is the Office of a Bishop Therefore this place maketh most strongly for the joining of the Ecclesiasticall Supremacy to the Civill Soveraignty contrary to that which Cardinall Bellarmine alledgeth it for The fift place is Acts 15. 28. It hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that yee abstain from meats offered to Idoles and from bloud and from things strangled and from fornication Here hee notes the word Laying of burdens for the Legislative Power But who is there that reading this Text can say this stile of the Apostles may not as properly be used in giving Counsell as in making Laws The stile of a Law is VVe command But VVe think good is the ordinary stile of them that but give Advice and they lay a Burthen that give Advice though it bee conditionall that is if they to whom they give it will attain their ends And such is the Burthen of abstaining from things strangled and from bloud not absolute but in case they will not erre I have shewn before chap. 25. that Law is distinguished from Counsell in this that the reason of a Law is taken from the designe and benefit of him that prescribeth it but the reason of a Counsell from the designe and benefit of him to whom the Counsell is given But here the Apostles aime onely at the benefit of the converted Gentiles namely their Salvation not at their own benefit for having done their endeavour they shall have their reward whether they be obeyed or not And therefore the Acts of this Councell were not Laws but Counsells The sixt place is that of Rom. 13. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God which is meant he saith not onely of Secular but also of Ecclesiasticall Princes To which I answer first that there are no Ecclesiasticall Princes but those that are also Civill Soveraignes and their Principalities exceed not the compasse of their Civill Soveraignty without those bounds though they may be received for Doctors they cannot be acknowledged for Princes For if the Apostle had meant we should be subject both to our own Princes and also to the Pope he had taught us a doctrine which Christ himself hath told us is impossible namely to serve two Masters And though the Apostle say in another place I write these things being absent lest being present I should use sharpnesse according to the Power which the Lord hath given me it is not that he challenged a Power either to put to death imprison banish whip or fine any of them which are Punishments but onely to Excommunicate which without the Civill Power is no more but a leaving of their company and having no more to doe with them than