the Senate and in Fact and Practice the Subjects of Commonwealths are as severely governed as those of any Monarchy we know Wherefore then the true Liberty of Man in his politic Capacity as in all things else is to act as Reason that is the Interest of human Nature or the necessities of Society require namely with the most obsequious Submission To lay aside the airy Dream of original imaginary Power in him that cursed Spring of Mischief and Confusion to consider his Incompetency to judge his Governors or their proceedings to be always apt to believe the best and ready to assert the Authority which is the Cement of the establisht Government with Vigor and hearty Zeal in his place and station And this is a Notion as easy to be understood as it is just secure and safe in practice But to take the Liberty of the Subject for any Latent Direct or Positive Authority residing in them is foolish to Absurdity because it destroys the very Reason or Principle upon which the Opinion it self is founded namely the safety of the People For if we could suppose what can never be made to appear by any Example a people perfectly free and at their own dispose that which never was by general content did appoint and constitute a Prince or Governors enduing him or them with such degrees of Power as they thought fit reserving to themselves the Sovereignty such a Government I say would prove in a little time impracticable and vain For where all have Authority none have Through corruption of human Nature the Generality of Men hate their Superiors had they therefore any share in the Government or any real power it would beget such an haughty opinion of themselves raise such extravagant Passions as must necessarily put the Government into frequent danger of Dissolution It is therefore the Wisdom and Felicity of a man to preserve the Authority of his Reason from the Impositions of popular opinions prejudice and passion in these things To consider his Station and never suffer the plausible Pretences of designing Malecontents to debauch his reason or shock his Loyalty so shall he contribute to the preservation of the Government and in that to his own happiness to the free enjoyment of the liberty of his mind and will in all those other things wherein it may be justly exercised How agreeable would this Disposition under the People to their Prince and to one another what a Confidence would it raise what delight what free and cheerful Intercourse how would all Suspicion and Hypocrisy Fears Jealousies and odious Characters be banisht human Conversation And it is this this Humility and Modesty in the Subject that is the best security in the world of real Priviledges of public Interest and steddy Government There is in Man such a natural Condescension such Civility such sense of Love and Duty observed that it is an affront to the Ingenuity of Human Nature to suppose a Prince should be severe upon a willing and obedient people But those who mistake the Liberty of the Subject for sovereign Power as the Republican or for a freedom from all Coertion Laws and Government as the Enthusiast or for a Liberty of capricious Censure of controlling Princes of reducing them to Reason by force of improving and practising upon Fears and Possibilities as the factious Monarchist these I say whilst they would seem so great Asserters of their Liberty are in truth as very Slaves as any in the world They are always busied with mighty Earnestness about such matters as are above their Comprehension but there cannot be a greater misery than hot and fiery Spirits acting upon false Appearances upon crude and indistinct Notions and Apprehensions of things How is such a person galled and agitated from himself from the confusion of his own Mind and how fitly is he prepared for every cunning Patriot and designing Malecontent to act upon They are bewitched with the word Liberty as with a Charm live in perpetual passion in ignorant and imprudent Zeal they govern themselves by inconstant Principles are distracted by multiplicity of new Designs neglect their Business destroy their Virtue expose their Fortunes and centre often in an ignominious Death And thus the Proposition is undoubtedly true in our Relation to the Government that to preserve c. I will not be brought under the power of any thing in Matters Civil 4. The time will not permit me to illustrate the Apostles Rule as I proposed in the last place with Relation to Religion or in Matters Divine and Spiritual And here I intended to show that Man by natural instinct found himself oblig'd to worship God That he is endued with sufficient Abilities if he carefully employ them and have opportunity of improving them to judge of such a demeanor or habit of life as is likely to be accepted of him That every man whose Education and Opportunities will permit him is obliged to assert and exercise this Liberty of proving all things that at length when he has found the best he may hold it fast 1 Thes 5.21 1 Joh. 4.1 of determining his Faith and Practice according as his Reason after the most diligent search and faithful use of all the means of Knowledge shall direct him That Reason will prompt him to consult the Law of Nature the common Sense of man-kind the divine Revelation the consent of the universal Church the Authority of the Church he lives in That whosoever judges of true Religion by these rules which are the Principles in the study of Religion wherein alone the Mind can rest and satisfie it self acts most rationally and therefore most freely That the difficulties in the study of Religion are such that true Ingenuity of mind will dispose and oblige to a modest acquiescence in the definition of the Church That therefore Christian Liberty is not a liberty of serving God according to the suggestions of private fancy without any farther Respect that this is the unhappy fountain of most of the Heresies Schisms wild and extravagant Opinions which infest and vex the Church That therefore also it is not an exemption from Laws Ecclesiastical or restraints in the outward Celebration of Religion upon such pains as the Church and State shall find necessary that if the Theory and Practice of Religion were at the Will and Choice of every Subject it would be impossible for the Prince to preserve his people in Peace and Godliness That therefore lastly it is not an indifference to all Religion but a readiness of mind to embrace whatsoever either from the nature of the thing or from the authority with which it comes attested shall appear to be True or Good That thus to study and to inform our selves according to our opportunities in the nature and truth of Religion with due submission to Authority gives a man a steddy Confidence and Security in his Mind a sober judgment assurance in his Practice He knows how to behave himself under all the different modes and fashions of Religious Worship he cannot easily be drawn into Superstition and Idolatry on the one hand nor into Schism by Scrupulosity or Ignorance on the other He easily distinguishes Graviora Legis from the Condientia virtutis as Origen styles them finally the Religion of such a man is his own his deliberate act God is his Choice and will therefore be his Reward But whosoever takes the Measures of his Religion from the constitution of his body from vulgar opinions of Sanctity from the sense of such particular Persons as he shall happen to esteem or from any other Principle than that of his own Reason directed soberly and with all submission and deference to the Church universal and that in particular whereof he is a Member which is highly and strictly rational is under the greatest slavery that it is possible to fall into For if he be a man of any understanding he will always be perplexed in his Mind and diffident in himself always uncertain and therefore always liable to be troubled and confounded because the Principles upon which he proceeds viz. bodily temper vulgar opinion the sense of particular Persons and the like are mutable and apt to vary every day And thus as briefly as I could I have illustrated the Apostles rule or the Wisdom of preserving the authority of our Reason and the Liberty of our Will from the usurpations of Prejudice sensual Appetites and Passions I will not be brought under the power of any thing What therefore now remains but that we resolve to govern our Opinions and Practice by this Wise and Noble Rule of that Apostle How can we conceive a man more perfect than one whose understanding is free fitted to judge and always ready to receive the Impressions of Truth and Goodness whose Principles are Eternal his Opinion deliberate in Morals wise and upright in his Conversation steddy easy and indifferent whose Religion is firm and his Loyalty immoveable Others may have the Shape these only have the Form these only live the life of Men. Pulcherrimum victoriae genus est seipsum vincere It is the most glorious of Victories the highest Attainment thus to command our selves External Acquisitions may give us power and opportunities of licentious living but perfect freedom is within our selves when Prejudice and Passion Pride and Ambition Envy and Avarice and all the Legion of contracted Prejudices and Immoveable Habits shall be subdued when the Son of God by the Illuminations of his Spirit and the Operations of his Grace shall make us free then shall we be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honor Praise and Obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS
Usurpations of Prejudice and Passion to suspend our Assent till we shall be sufficiently convinced to search for Truth impartially to pursue it greedily to love it for it self and embrace it readily wheresoever we find it So shall we preserve the Beauty of our Nature and the perfection of our Being So shall we discharge our Trust and preserve that Authority in our little world which God has invested us withal Not like the Sceptic who resolves to suspend his Judgment and remain indifferent howsoever clear and full the Evidence may be this is to prevent the diseases of the Eyes by pulling them out It is true he cannot be deceived or imposed upon by particular Propositions but the thing it self or the resolution of believing nothing is the greatest Delusion and Imposition of the Mind that can be for the Mind is greedy of Knowledge our Faculties are disposed to seek it and the Divine Nature and all the appearances in the world are intended for our Speculation and Soul enjoys a Truth with the greatest delight imaginable so that whilst the Sceptic pretends to secure he really destroys the Liberty of his Mind he debars it by violence and force from the kind enjoyment of its proper Objects But Firm Well-grounded Rational Assent proceeding from a cautious search from an impartial preparation to believe upon sufficient Evidence upon universal Principles regular Deductions and credible Testimony is the true and proper Liberty of human Nature the highest Command and Authority over ones self These are the Men who alone are accomplished for the Study of Knowledge who see with their own Eyes understand by their own Judgment discover Truth improve Learning and are highly useful in the Common-wealth But the Sceptick is ignorant and useless And a Man on the other hand of a passive Spirit fond of every Opinion tenacious of his first Impressions of antient Errors of popular Opinions judging by Interest Prejudice Affection Sense or any thing but impartial Reason is a very slave to innumerable inconstant giddy Masters to every hypocritical designing Countenance to every conceited Emperick bold Assertor false Historian uncertain Proverb and to all who by cunning Arts and Devices go about to deceive Oh homines ad servitutem nati as Seneca speaks upon the like occasion Oh Men destin'd cut out for Slaves how monstrous is it that you should desire to have all things free your Bodies your Goods your Members and not your Spirit which yet alone is born to Liberty It is therefore a wise and happy Rule I will not be brought under the Power of any thing in Speculation or the search of Truth And as in Speculation so secondly in the Government of our Life and Actions to preserve the Authority of our Reason and the Liberty of our Will from the Vsurpations of Prejudice sensual Appetites and Passions is the Wisdom and Felicity of a Man I will not be brought under the power of any thing in Matters Moral The just and true design of Speculation or the study of Truth and Falshood is that we may the better be enabled to judge of Good and Evil. For the ultimate End or highest Perfection of Man is a steddy constant course of laudable Actions such a rational procedure as shall Improve our Faculties advance our Interest and satisfie the true Dispositions and Inclinations of our Nature To this are all the Faculties of the Soul intended to administer and into this they finally resolve we discourse compare judge and determine for this end that we may act according to right Reason All the Kinds of Being in the world excepting Man are simple and intire The Angels now are Pure and Perfect in their Will and Appetites immoveably determined to that which is good they act freely and from a vital Principle but yet their Knowledge is so distinct and clear that it is supposed impossible they should direct their choice amiss Beasts are altogether sensual moved by certain instincts and impressions which direct them to the proper satisfactions of their several desires But the nature of Man is mixt he partakes of the Perfections Quality and Inclinations of all other Kinds of Being whatsoever He is so far Divine and Spiritual as he moves and acts from himself freely and for the sake of ends and is endowed with Principles of Goodness Wisdom Knowledge and Reflection And so far also sensitive and animal as his Mind is lodg'd in an earthly Body endowed with Organs of the quickest Sense and sent into a world that is furnished with all the satisfactions of the animal Life And tho this condition neither purely spiritual nor purely animal be imperfect yet it is the most honourable that can be on earth it is the noblest nature that could be framed with an earthly body For tho the inferior Powers the sensitive Appetites are very quick and the same in us as Brutes yet every Man is Master of himself capable of understanding his whole Capacity of preserving the Beauty Harmony and Order of his frame of watching the motions of his Will and Affections of subduing the Predominancy of irregular desires and directing them to their proper Objects finally by the Grace of God of preserving his peculiar Form Intire and Perfect This is that Liberty that Authority of Man over his Desires and Actions His province indeed is very difficult viz. to improve and satisfie the several and contrary Dispositions of his nature to keep his Passions equal and his sensitive Appetites in their proper inferior place and order to prevent Diseases and Sickness Jars and Clashing in so fine and curious a Composition but his natural Power assisted by the Grace of God is every way proportionable He is able to judge by inward Impressions by his natural Necessities and by the Divine Revelation what is fit and reasonable to do or to forbear and to act accordingly It is not therefore a brutish Licentiousness or Liberty of doing what we please of gratifying the present Appetite of proceeding without the consideration of the effects and consequence of Actions suck a Liberty is utterly incompetent indeed a contradiction to rational Nature For the essential difference of Man is Consciousness or the Knowledge of himself with a power of directing his Actions according to Reason that is with respect to his real Interest estimated and measured by the Capacities of his Nature That therefore cannot be challenged as a Right or desired as a Priviledge which directly destroys our very Species Even God himself who certainly enjoys the most perfect Freedom as well as all other Excellencies has yet no Liberty to Evil. There is a rule or manner of operation implyed in the Divine Nature all his Attributes are exercised with respect and safety to each other there is an Agreement or Harmony in the Divine Perfections which is justly styled the Eternal Immutable Law of God Thus also the Liberty of Man in the management of his Life is not a Liberty of living loosly without all
Respects Bounds and Laws but of Chusing Loving and Acting with relation to his Real Interest to the true Dispositions Inclinations and Capacities of his Nature And Actions thus proceeding are the only genuine free and easy Actions of our Lives And notwithstanding these seeming Limitations this is the most honorable the most perfect state of Ingenuity and Liberty that can be imagined For it is the liberty of God himself It is this that gives us the Denomination of rational Agents It is this that enables us to live a happy Life to improve indulge and gratify as well our sensitive as intellectual Powers For he only who is loose from sensual Pleasures truly enjoys them For as Seneca well observes they that are under the power of bodily Pleasures cannot be said to have pleasure but pleasure has them we cannot be said to possess enjoy what is not under our Command This then is the Glory the noblest Prerogative of Human Nature and therefore to preserve the Authority of our Reason from the Vsurpations of sensual Appetites and Passion must surely be the Wisdom and Felicity of a Man For where the Will is directed by due consideration by a well weighed Judgment there is Health Ease and Satisfaction Our Lives will be conformable to God our Knowledge will be clearer and more copious our Appetites indifferent and obsequious our Affections equal proportion'd to the value of the Object our Passions calm and regular Seneca says of such a Man that he is Immoveable as God compell'd of nothing attempting nothing in vain never disappointed always safe unhurt and free It is this that is true Nobility true Generosity of Soul and Greatness of Mind these are the most perfect of Men and therefore the most beautiful and honor'd in the sight of all their Minds are free their Faculties improved their Judgment ready apt for Council Trust Managery without Hypocrisy Design or private Interest And those things which flow from a Mans self are his real Honor. But as for those who break the Order of this inward Government who chuse and pursue according to the first appearance and love without deliberation who by reason of their constant Conversation with sensual Objects look no farther but understand esteem Judge and love with Respect to these alone they are under a force and coaction of Soul their natural power over their Desires and Actions to direct them according to Reason and Interest is usurped upon by those rebellious Passions which of right are subject and ought to wait the Resolution of deliberate Judgment And when once this Order is broken what tumult what contest must it necessarily raise in the Minds of Men How insatiable are inordinate Desires how inconsistent and yet how importunate to be gratified Whilst Ambition prompts to that which Envy disallows Pride commands what Covetousness forbids Vrget enim mentem Dominus non lenis acres Subjectat lasso stimulos Or as St. Paul expresses it They are holden prisoners of Satan at his Will 2 Tim. 2 26. And as in Speculation and in the general institution of Life So thirdly in the particular management of ones self as a Member of Society To preserve the Authority of our Reason from the impositions of false Opinion Prejudice and Passion is the Wisdom and Felicity of a Man I will not be brought under the power of of any thing in matters Civil The Authority of Princes cannot be more highly asserted nor the Obedience of Subjects more strictly enjoyned by than St. Paul in many passages of his Epistles And yet in my Text the same St Paul may seem a great Bigot of Liberty and upon the question peremptorily resolve that He would not be brought under the power of any the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and may be interpreted of Persons as well as things Wherefore since a contradiction in the Apostle is abhorrent to conceive we may be sure there is a fair Accommodation and intire Obedience according to the firm injunction of the Apostle may be reconciled and proper Liberty of a man with the just asserted in the Text. And indeed as hath been already noted and cannot be too well considered the Liberty of Man in any matter whatsoever is not an exorbitant power of acting as he pleases but of doing what is most rational in its nature and conducive to his happiness And this very notion of Liberty were it throughly imbibed would be a sufficient Antidote against the Delusions of Hypocrites and the Impositions of the Seditious Government is the defence and safety of the weak the foundation of Property the encouragement of Civility Arts Learning and Religion Without this the Human Nature would be the most savage in the world Reason would degenerate into Craft and Malice and be but an addition of Strength to vex molest and prey upon one another Wherefore one of the first and most obvious resolutions of Reason is that we are subject naturally and of right And amongst the many Kingdoms and Societies of the world common Sense will teach us to account our selves the undoubted Subjects of that particular Polity in which we are Born and under whose Protection and Influence we live And because the very Form and Essence as well as the Beauty and Strength of any Government is final determination or absolute Authority therefore Reason peremptorily commands the most cheerful Observation of whatsoever Laws concerning any matters that are not plainly determined by the Laws of God to whom we are primarily obliged Wherefore then the most patient resignation of our selves our private Will and Interest to the Will and Authority of the Government we live under is therefore our truest Liberty because it is the evident Resolution of Right Reason For any Government by how much the more intire positive and absolute it is by so much the better it is enabled to support it self It is fitted for defence secret in Councils in deliberation Wise and Bold without Hypocrisie or Fear in execution Potent where the Interest is but one the subjects will be as easy as they are secure and the Neighbors just and awful But all Reservations of positive or real Power in the People all Exemptions in the Modes or external Celebrations of Religion or in any other indifferent matter from the Jurisdiction of the Government are pernicious to Societies they nourish a continual Ferment support and continue divers Interests ingender Emulation Stirs Heats Rebellion and Civil Wars intoxicate the common People and fill their Minds with Curiosity Conceit and Pride furnish Envy and Ambition Faction and Discontent with plausible disguises and colors for their Malice and Iniquity In a word they clog and prejudice the Government but it is impossible in the nature of the thing that they should secure or serve the Real Interest of any people in the world For the Authority of the people is indeed a meer Chymera a word of Art to conciliate poor deluded Slaves to the oppressions and tyrannies of