man can oblige or subject himself to any The Masters power does not arise from the Servants subjecting himself man or creature by any Act of his will for no Act of any mans will can have any power of himself Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud every active power is the cause of alteration in another body the Act therefore of a mans will can make no obligation in his body who does will it Besides it is against all rules of relation that to bind and to be bound can be in the same thing therefore it is much more absurd to suppose the whole man should be obliged by a part of himself that is by his will Add hereunto that if a man be obliged to his will then is the most wilful man the most just man and every man is obliged to do any thing because he hath willed it then which there is nothing can be more immoral and destructive to all society with mankind 8. If the Masters power did arise from the Servants subjecting himself to him which is an Act of the Servants will then an Act of the Servants Nor from the Masters accepting his Servants submission Annot. will may have a power and obligation upon his Master which is absurd for this makes the Master to obey his Servant Yet in usual speaking voluntas is confounded with conatus as wee say that God did accept Abrahams will for the deed in that he was willing to have offered up his son Isaac whereas in proper speaking God did will or command Abraham to offer up his son and Abraham did obey that is receive or accept Gods will and did endeavor not will for it had been unnatural and murder in Abraham to have willed without cause the death of Isaac to have done it when God restrained him and so God was pleased to accept of Abrahams endeavor to have pleased him And so when any servant does endeavor to do his Masters will though he be not able to perform it yet ought the Master to accept it because he does what he can not to do any act of his own will but to perform an act of his Masters 9. But suppose the Declaration of the Servants will does evade into The Masters power does not arise from the Servants promise his promise given to his Master yet cannot the Masters power arise from thence because men are obliged to the performance of their promises by the Law of nature only and that Law does oblige only in Conscience but the Masters power obliges to corporal punishment I say therefore that no Masters power arising from any Act of the Servants will or promise nor from the Masters acceptance no Regal power can arise from the Princes acceptance of their Subjects submission for a great family is a kingdom and a little kingdom is a family saies Tho. Hobbes cap. 8. art 1. de Cive 10. If the Masters Power did arise from the Law of Nature then were The Masters power does not arise from the Law of Nature the power of a Master over his servant eternal and incommunicable but the contrary of this is evident in all places of the world for there is no place where the Power of Masters is not only dissolvible by the Laws and consents of the Master and Servant but where it is not slavery there the Masters power is terminated to years moneths weeks daies or houres c. which expiring the relations of Master and Servant are dissolved the Masters power therefore is not from the Law of Nature 11. If the Masters power did arise from Divine positive institution Nor by Divine positive institution then where Gods revelation of himself in the Scriptures is not received and believed have Masters no power over their Servants But this is evidently false for not only before Gods revelation of himself in the Scriptures had Masters every where power or dominion over their Servants but also every where in the world Masters have power over their Servants as well where the Scriptures are not received as where they are The Masters power therefore does not arise from Divine positive institution 12. Nascitur servus says Aristotle most truly There was no man that From whence the Masters power does arise was ever born in the world unless a posthumous King but was born in a threefold subjection first to the Laws of God secondly to the Laws of his Parents and thirdly to the Laws of his Country And the Laws of every Country obliging men to the performance of their pacts and contracts the Law of the place is the efficient cause by the Contract of the Master and Servant being the instrumental causes of the Masters power and not only gives the Master a power over his Servant but also obliges the Master to perform all his promises specified in the Contract to his Servant It is evident therefore that where there is no precedent Humane Law Annot. obliging there cannot be any Family for the Law by the Masters Contract with his Servant gives him the power over his Servant All Grotius his Government then founded upon the Contracts of Men is utterly false and by consequence no one true Proposition can follow from thence Yet truly it is an error pardonable in him who with his first milk sucked in this Popular principle No question but he was a man as eminent in Humane learning as any man of this last Age and I doubt not but of a sincere and peaceable disposition It is the excellency of Truth that it is plain and easie to be perceived whereas Falshood with all art and learning is rendred more obscure by how much more is added to it And it is strange for a stander by to see what monstrous absurdities Grotius runs into to uphold his fabrick For he makes God at the Creation and Flood lib. 2. cap. 2. par 2. to give Mankind a natural right viz. all men alike over all things and this natural right to be immutable by God himself and yet without giving lib. 1. par 10. any reason for it he makes it mutable by the will of man and Dominion which he there says was brought in by the will of man he says is Jus naturale too So Jus naturale does signifie that which God gave to mankind and Jus naturale does signifie that which mans will brought in contrary to what God gave to mankind then which what can be more absurd But Mr. Hobbs cap. 2. art 9. makes a Contract the act of two or more Annot. 2. mutually transferring their rights and a Pact to be when one or both is trusted and he who is trusted does promise that he will perform and supposeth the Civitas institutive to take its first being from the Pacts of men Which will not help him for such Pacts as well as Contracts receive their obligation from precedent humane laws And therefore all his book de Cive which is
and impossible things to come from Men otherwise so learned For though Mr. Hobbs does lay down his Principles and persue his method much more clearly then Grotius does yet his Principles are so monstrous That to me it is impossible any ingenuous Man should assent to them Indeed if Mr. Hobbs would have supposed that the state of Man had been either in Society or out of Society and that out of Society Men had been in such a state as he makes them in his state of pure Nature I should never have stumbled at it But he forsooth requires it for a Yet thus much I will tell Mr. Hobbs he may as wel suppose a Brute an intellectual or rational Creature or a man no intellectual or rational Creature as no sociable or out of Society Principle That all Men jure naturali are in a parity and equal condition and may kill one another without any offence or sin and that Men continue in this estate until by their civil Pact they oblige themselves to one another that the will of the civitas shall be the will of them all Notwithstanding this I must needs say of Mr. Hobbs That if Men have so little understanding as to make Jus naturale to be contrary to Lex naturalis and so little grace as to believe that the civitas hath all its power from the Pacts and wills of Men and yet impossible to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature which he says is the Law of God and tyranny to be onely ab exercitio when as it is impossible for Kings to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature and all Faith and Ghostly Power which our Saviour left in his Church to be instrumental and subservient to it and never look how little he understands a Pact or from whence Men become obliged to it the cives of this Vtopia may do well enough If I edified but little by Mr. Hobbs yet I received much less satisfaction from Grotius for Mr. Hobbs defines his terms so clearly as to me he was easily understood whereas all Grotius his Principles are so perplexed and equivocal that it is not possible for any Man to understand any thing clearly from him As the first thing in his Preface he confounds is Societas Communitas whereas Societas is as different from Communitas as black is from white Societas according to the definition of Aristotle being Pol. lib. 1. cap 5. Vnum quid it a constans ex diversis personis ut sit unum quod imperet alterum quod pareat Society is one thing so made up of divers persons that one may command another obey Whereas community is where any company of Creatures are without the offices of commanding and obeying Well but having got out of his Preface after some Propositions of his Method c. he in the Tenth Paragraph of the First Chapter of the First Book De jure Belli Pacis defines Jus Naturale in a tedious general thing to be dictatum rectae rationis c. and this to be the Law of God and about the middle to be immutable by God himself and towards the latter end to continue but for a certain space and towards the beginning he makes the Dominion which is now in use to be brought in by the will of Man and this to be Jus Naturale too Now let any ingenuous Man judge what can be clearly deduced from Jus Naturale which is the Law of God and immutable by God and yet to continue but for a certain time until a Dominion brought in by the will of Man should abrogate what was immutable by God and this Dominion thus brought in against this Jus Naturale to be Jus Naturale too If I have slandered Grotius let any Man see the Paragraph aforesaid It was to me an admirable thing to consider that men so learned should one of them define the Law of Nature to be Dictamen rectae rationis the other Dictatum rectae rationis Well I will therefore see what Ratiocinatio is and what Dictamen or Dictatum rectae rationis which is the same thing and whether this can to any ingenuous man be any probable definition of the Law of Nature Aristotle Eth. Lib. 6. Cap. 3. makes Ratiocination and by consequence every dictate of Reason to be from Universals and that there are some Principles which do constitute the Ratiocination of which there can be no Ratiocination These Principles for which no Reason can be given and yet the reason of all those things which can be deduced from them are called Axiomata Dignitates or Communes Notiones and from these men by Ratiocination or Right Reason do infer Arts and Sciences a Scientia est actio ars effectio Eth. l. 6. c. 4. Both begotten by right Reason Ars est habitus ad faciendum idoneus cum verâ ratione conjunctus Nay all Ratiocination or Right reasoning whatsoever may be resolved into somewhat which is superior to this Ratiocination for which no reason can be given * These things thus premised I say it is impossible the Law of Nature should be the dictate of Right Reason and thus I prove it Every Principle which does constitute Ratiocination and for which no Reason can be given is no dictate of Right Reason But the Law of Nature is a Principle which does constitute Ratiocination and for which no reason can be given Therefore the Law of Nature is no dictate of Right Reason If Mr. Hobbs denies the Minor Proposition set him shew into what it can be further resolved or what can prove it For though God be the prime and efficient cause of all things but what proceeds from the will of man and into which all things may be ultimately resolved yet by Principles Aristotle and all Philosophers understand those things which immediately proceed from God and the Law of Nature could not be the Law of God if it did not immediately proceed from him but the Law of that thing from which it did immediately proceed the Law of Nature therefore is a Principle Well but let us suppose the Law of Nature to be the dictate of Right Reason and see the consequence Every dictate of Right Reason is of less Dignity Authority and Excellency then the Right Reason viz. The Effect then the Cause But ex hypothesi the Law of Nature viz. the Law of God the Creator is the dictate of Right Reason Therefore is the Law of the Creator of less Dignity authority and excellency then the faculty and attribute of the creature viz. Right reason then which what can be more monstrous and blasphemous Nor is this definition less ridiculous then impossible and blasphemous For the dictates of Right reason are understood by one man and not by another and may be learned and taught Suppose now one of these Masters of Reason should come to the most plain and ignorant man in the world who is
established several Laws for manners and by them have been often altered but that there is no such thing as the Law of Nature and that all men as well as other creatures are naturally carried to their profits And so there is no such thing as Justice or if there were it were the greatest folly because men by endeavoring the good of others prejudice themselves Since the Grecians and Romans were the first who in the world did make all power to be from the People I suppose that Mr. Hobbs and Grotius took their Principles from them Let us see whether by the People they understand the same thing with the Romans and Grecians or the same thing with one another By the People of Rome or Athens the Romans and Athenians understood them and them only who were civitate donati and not men born in a promiscuous rout and parity without all order and subordination but made so by violent usurpation By the People Mr. Hobbs understands the King or Court governing By the People Grotius every where I believe for he no where that I can find defines the People understands the Subjects governed and they who in a parity or equal condition constituted the Civitas Upon these and many other considerations and observations upon them I was so far from being convinc'd that I became much more firmly established then before in my Judgment for Opinion I will not have of those things wherein I am possest of the constant practice of the world in all ages places the plain undubitable and uncontrolled places of Scripture both in the Old and New Testament and no colour of allegation against them from any other places the Authority of the highest Philosopher my Country-Laws and all those Theses and Axiomes upon which almost all Reason and Philosophy are grounded and these things opposed by such monstrous feigned equivocal and silly beggings of the question which no man not blinded with faction or stupid ignorance can grant yet had not these Observations become publique if it had not been upon an odd occasion which was Upon a time being with a Brother-in-law a Kinsman of mine at dinner came to my Brothers where in discourse he asked me if I had seen a Book of Tho. Whites called The Grounds of Obedience and Government I answered no nor did I desire to see any thing of his doing having conceived a prejudice of the Mans ability and ingenuity He confidently replied that I should be convinced if I did but read it and that he would send me the book Yet was I so far from accepting his courtesie that I importunately desired him not to do it But he notwithstanding all importunity on purpose sent his man with it that night to me being at that time much afflicted with my wonted Melancholy which became more excited when I had read some part of it And seeing a thing so sensless and void of all humanity to be imposed upon the world which questionless was intended to prefer some Faction or Interest of his and yet forsooth he tells us it is a second Edition corrected and amended by the Author wheresoever therefore I name our Author I mean Tho. White Gent. I did in detestation of the Thing not of the Man for I never saw him in all my life set my self to make these Observations upon it He harps upon the same string with Mr. Hobbs and Grotius That all Supreme Power is originally created by Mens wills subject to it Yet being a fine Gentleman in quirpo he dances a Galliard by himself and most senselesly makes men out of society to be a Rational multitude and to have Property before they had Laws or Government and to be a People after they had given up their power to another to govern them But lest it should be objected that though our Author be hood-winked yet Mr. Hobbs and Grotius might be very clear-sighted and bare-faced I thought it not amiss to make these Observations upon them also As a Preparative to a Purge I pray Reader take these few Notes 1. First I say they falsly derive Government For though they all differ in the manner of it yet is all Government so far from being so derived as any of them would have it in the first Institution that if any of them can shew any one Government so derived since the beginning of the world I will yeeld the cause 2. They feign that for a Principle which never was viz. That men by nature are in a parity or equal condition For never were men since the Creation in any age or place of the world in such a condition But suppose somewhere in the world it might have been found that men in a like condition did by their acts and wills form themselves into a Society yet is it a most unreasonable thing to conclude from thence that all power in Government is from the People For Singulars are deduced and concluded from Universals not Universals by Singulars 3. The Principle they beg is destructive to all good manners for Justice is the fountain of all humane Virtues and Morality as all Philosophers and best and wisest men hold And if Justice be the duty which men owe their Superiors and that it may be truly and ultimately resolved into the first cause without any detriment or damage to it and if all order superiority and power in Government may truly and ultimately be resolved into the People or the wills of the Subjects or Party governed then the wills of the Subjects being the fountain and first cause of all Order and Justice that is Justice in the People to do what they list then which nothing can be more destructive to all Virtue Justice and Good manners 4. It is damnably destructive to Faith for All powers are of God Rom. 13. and No power can be given but from above S. John 19. 11. Nor were these Men when they wrote their several Treatises De Cive De Jure Belli Pacis and Grounds of Obedience and Government much better in their Religion if I conceive a right Notion of Religion viz. That it is Actus Divini cultus or the Publick worship and service of God in an unity form and communion then their Writings shew them to be for Justice and Government For though our Author be a Pretender to be of the Religion of the Church of Rome yet it would trouble the greatest Critique of this Age to shew where the Religion of either of the other were to be found And who but such men as these would pin their faith upon the tales and fictions of Poets before the most venerable and sacred Authority of Holy Scripture Nor can the eldest of Poets writings be compared in antiquity with the Scriptures For if it could Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae And the Theban and Trojan War hapned after the Year of the World 2750. The Trojan War about the time
have Election in their Actions Passions to inform their Will viz. appetitus timor and that they take information from both these is evident to any man for there is no Creature that pursues any Appetition but apprehending danger forbears it It is observed of the Fox that whensoever hunted to ground he never comes out but at the mouth of the Burrow he lies and vents a while and afterwards for some space runs directly into the wind and if he vents any thing which causes fear returns to ground again Having been much addicted to hunt the Fox I have observed that many times when the Fox hath been hunted to ground and watched to be taken he hath not come out further then the mouth of the Burrow if he vented the watcher who therefore lies down the wind and hath continued sometime five or six nights in the ground until he hath been almost starved whereas at no time if he were not watched but he came out that night And after they were taken they would not of a long time eat in sight of any man how hungry soever until they became so habituated to men that they apprehended no danger from them So Deer do naturally desire to eat Apples but if approaching they vent them to have been handled by man they forsake them and flee away affrighted And so all other Creatures upon apprehension of danger cease to pursue their appetite Thus we see in Creatures irrational among themselves when they rage most in their lust and appetite yet give way to them by whom they are overcome And from hence it is I conceive that irrational Creatures are not onely reclaimed from their natural fierceness but are taught to do those things which they have no appetite or natural inclination to by cunningly insinuating danger to them upon their not doing them and that this must be done by insinuation and cunning and not by outward force onely is evident for the most furious and robust man is not the best horse-breaker and pacer 29. Aristotle Eth. Lib. 3. Cap. 7. makes Virtue and Vice to be sited in the power of Man and therefore that Legislators may justly punish Vices Man is a free Lord of all his Actions and reward Virtues and that all exhortation to Virtue and dehortation from Vice were vain and ridiculous if it were not in the power of Man Yet truly I am rather of Plato's opinion who makes Virtue to be from Meno a higher cause then is in Man For though I do assent to Aristotle that all punishment for disobeying or transgressing Laws and Exhortation there unto were vain and ridiculous if it were not in our power to do them yet is it not the doing or not doing of things commanded or forbidden by them who have a right to command or forbid them a Virtue but the doing or not doing them in such a formality as they are so commanded or forbidden which makes them virtues which must needs proceed from a higher cause then is in man or can be taught him As if a Prince commands another to do something which he ought to do he does it but takes a reward or bribe from another to do it I say this is not virtue in the Agent because he did it not as commanded but bribed Whereas another does his duty without reward and it may be to his much temporal detriment this is virtue and must needs be from some higher cause then is to be found ordinarily in men 30. All Creatures have Souls but not Mindes Other living Creatures What is the Minde and whether to be found in Creatures irrational as well as Men have vegetative Souls The Minde is sometime taken for the Will rightly informed from the Understanding and Reason Plato Meno Sometime for the Understanding Arist Eth. lib. 6. c. 6. Sometime for Reason or Counsel as we say oft times My minde gives me that such a thing is or is not And Virgil. Aenead Nostram nunc accipe mentem In each sense this is proper onely to intellectual and rational Creatures Aristotle Pol. lib. 1. cap. 5. makes the animus or vegetative Soul to have dominion over the body of a Man or other Creature as a Master of a Family over his Servants who is notwithstanding commanded and in the power of the King or Civitas but the Minde or the Will informed from the Understanding and Reason to have the dominion not onely over the body but also over the sensual or vegetative Soul as a King or Civitas hath over the Masters of Families 31. Man therefore being endowed not onely with a vegetative Soul Mans Actions are more free then other Creatures void of reason which is common to all Creatures as well as Man but with a minde superior to it his actions are so much more free then other Creatures by how much more liberty he hath to make election but other Creatures actions can take information onely from their appetites and fears whereas a Man in all his actions may consult and take information from his Understanding and Reason 32. Sin is an omission or transgression of some Law but unreasonable Onely Mans Actions are sinful Creatures not having any other Law then their appetite and fear and their actions being always conformable to them they never sin But man does not always conform his actions to what he understands to be just and forbears those things which he understands and his Reason tells him he ought not to do Therefore onely Mans actions are sinful 33. It is true that Aristotle says That the minde of Man hath the dominion What are Actions and not voluntary of all his actions and passions as a King or Civitas hath over his subjects Yet many times the King cannot restrain the disorders of his Subjects nor the minde always the passions of a man And there is a Knowledge in irrational Creatures as the Ox knows his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib and the whole body of them is but the organ or instrument of their vegetative Soul And there is mad Dogs and Horses as well as men where therefore madness so far seizes upon Men or other Creatures as they know not what they do such actions are not voluntary Nor is this onely in men frantick and not compotes mentium but oftentimes in men well disposed as excess of grief or joy many times transports them into sudden and violent motions or actions which is not in their power to restrain But these actions being ignorantly done by the definition are not voluntarily done and by consequence not sinful 34. Memory is that faculty of the soul in living creatures which retains What is the Memory If Aristotle had said there is nothing in the memory which was not before in the senses I should have assented to it I do much wonder Aristotle and the Doctor should affirm that experience is subsequent to memory and is from multiplied memory whereas it is impossible but
creature until they become united into some place apted and disposed for production where from the benign influence of the Sun or celestial bodies as from a more universal and efficient cause they evade into living creatures Nor does this hold less true in the production or generation of all rational Science for the Reason by it self without matter cannot form dispose or define any thing Nor does the outward sense or memory apprehend things otherwise then as seen c. or remembred not as formed disposed or defined so as to be the subject of a Proposition Since therefore the Reason cannot prepare apt or define unless the Memory or outward senses supply matter nor the Memory without the Reason dispose prepare or define any thing so as to be the subject of a Proposition it does necessarily follow that the Reason united or conjoined with the Memory does prepare the subject of every Scientifical Proposition But in every Scientifical Proposition there must be a Predicate which comprehending the Subject must be understood The Understanding therefore is the prime and efficient cause of all rational Science and the Reason is the formal cause which does dispose and prepare the matter in the Senses or Memory to be comprehended judged or discerned by the Understanding And by consequence the Reason and Memory or Senses are but the Instruments by which the Understanding does generate and produce Science 63. Only Man can rightly infer and deduce particular Conclusions Why only Man is a reasonable creature from universal Causes and can direct his actions conformable to things in his understanding and not to his appetite and senses which is common to all living creatures as well as man only Man therefore is a rational creature 64. All men naturally desire to know And though by Aristotles judgment By what means men attain to Science all Science is begotten from preexistent Knowledge which from things granted does demonstrate the Conclusions yet must there be some manner and method which men must use by which others as well as themselves may understand this or that thing to be a Science or scientifical Conclusion Men therfore must propose that method which Euclid observes or all their science will be equivocal and obscure viz. First to define all those things of which his science is compounded in such terms that every singular or individual may be so comprehended that it may be wholly with all the parts of it contained in the definition excluding every thing else For if a man define a thing so that there be any so much as equivocation in it as that it does not signifie this only thus desined but may something else then of necessity must all the Science that bears a part of this definition be equivocal and uncertain And as the definition must not be equivocal to signifie more then the thing defined another thing as well as this so neither must it signifie less viz. any part of the thing defined for the thing for then all in which this thing is a part will be infinitely deficient and imperfect Secondly After the definitions I require such things as no ingenuous man will deny As that I may adde divide multiply convert c. these things thus defined Thirdly I set down those Axioms Principles Effata Pronuntiata Common Notions or Indemonstrable Propositions which are the first causes of the Science and do demonstrate all the Conclusions of it but in themselves are indemonstrable and for which no reason can be given but only the good will and pleasure of him that made them so And these Principles must be granted before any man can by his Reason produce any Conclusion And if a man denies these Principles all Argumentation is at an end for Contra negantem principia non est disputandum And no mans Reason can work upon nothing nor prove nor find out any thing before something be first granted by which a man may prove it or find it out 65. I have known and know many men who have vast memories Why some men are more phantastical then others and very strong phantasies who notwithstanding have been as unreasonable as any and would never admit of any discourse of any thing they fancied to themselves but upon a very slender opposition would fall into passion And the reason is because they phancie things only because they please them and do not understand them as true And if any man shews such a man some Consequence which will not follow from what he phancies or that it is inconsistible with some known universal Truth then does he seek to supply with passion what he wants in reason because he is crossed in what he desires should be true Whereas men who understand or desire to understand their Thesis or Notion not only take pleasure that nothing can be inferred from it which is false and that it is not inconsistible with any thing true whatsoever but will be so far from falling into passion with any man that opposes it that they would thank any man and take him for their friend that can shew them wherein what they suppose to be universally true is not or that it is inconsistible with something which they suppose to be universally true The Spirit of God says He is a fool that rages and is confident These light phantastical men who will phancie things for truth not because they are so but because they would have them so do not only rage when they are convinced that those things they phancie for truth are made to appear either but verisimilitudes or falshoods but will take them for illwillers who convince them and continue as confident in their foolish apprehensions as before 66. As the levity of the Phantasie which is always in agitation apprehending Why some men are more dull then others things without Reason is the cause why men too suddenly apprehend Verisimilitudes for Truth so the want of Phantasie is the cause why many men of vast memories very slowly apprehend the cause of any thing Where the Phantasie is too light there men apprehend or believe every thing for Truth they affect or desire and are soon perswaded to any thing they are not wilfully prejudiced to Where it is crass and dull and moves slowly or as we say where men are endued pingui Minerva there men are hardly moved to understand any thing 67. Sensible Knowledge is the retaining the Idea of things in the What is Sensible Knowledge memory which before were in the outward senses And there being neither Reason nor Understanding to the attaining of this Knowledge it is common to other Creatures as well as Man The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib says our Saviour 68. But all Causes from whence men do infer and discourse are not Of Argumentation à Posteriori so perspicuous as are the Axiomes in Geometry or the Laws of God and a mans Country But some Causes are known to Nature and
Conclusions such as those in Philosophy and Physick As I would know the reason why Summer is hotter then Winter for so I find it to be why thus I reason It cannot be from the propinquity of the Sun to the Earth in Summer more then in Winter for the Earth is but a Point in proportion to the Universe besides the Sun is nearer to the Earth in Winter then in Summer for the Orbis magnus is not Spherical or Circular but Eccentrical and Elliptical which is plain because the revolution of the Earth or the Suns motion is finished in less time from the Autumnal Equinox to the Vernal then from the Vernal to the Autumnal and therefore nearer to the Earth in Winter then in Summer It is not then from the Suns nearness to the Earth which makes the Summer hotter then the Winter I find that the higher the Sun rises in our Horizon that is the nearer it comes to our Zenith when at the Meridian the hotter it is I therefore probably conclude that the heat in Summer is caused from the reflexion of the Sun and the nearer the radii are reflected to right angles the hotter it is and the more obliquely they are reflected the colder it is Or as when a Physitian from the symptoms of his indisposed Patient endeavors to find out the causes of his distemper c. this is reasoning à posteriori from the effect to find out the cause And men may reason from uncertain and false Principles as well as true but then always the Conclusions are so And therefore all Clavius his Demonstrations in his Practical Geometry and at the end of the sixth Book of Euclid of the Quadrature of a Circle though the Demonstrations be truly deduced are uncertain because it does not certainly appear That from the imaginary motion of the two right lines he there speaks of the Quadratrix line does cut the Base so that the side of the Quadratrix is a mean proportional between the Base and the Arch of the Quadrant And the Inferences and Conclusions which have caused so much confusion and distraction in these times are drawn from feigned and false Principles But in all true Propositions whatsoever no reason can be given for the first grounds and principles of them but only the will of the great Creator of all things who therefore so made them because it so seemed good unto him Of all the creatures upon earth Man only is reasonable for Man only contemplates God and looks up to heaven as thence expecting his beatitude Ovid. Metam Pronaque cum spectant anamalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus And a little after Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc quod dominari in caetera possit Natus homo est Only Man from universal causes can by Reasoning the faculty of his understanding and memory rightly infer and conclude from them only Man has freedom in his will of doing or not doing and may if it be not his own fault in all his actions let his Will be informed by his Understanding and Reason whereas other Creatures do all things spontaneously that is by an impulse of Nature as they are moved by their objects or fears Therefore only Man does well and only Man does ill and only Man is happy and only Man is miserable Author But our Author goes on and tells you of a Tailor and a Mariner and I know not what indeed and concludes That now not the nature of two men but their words and what follows out of them ground their being active and passive This power of activity is in Latine called Jus or Justum in English Right or Due Our Author says before He that makes a promise to another man puts himself and his Promissary into a rank of agencie and patiencie upon a new score to wit that of Fidelity and Negotiating Observ Did ever man huddle up so much insignificant bumbast as here is or who in this world did from hence ever claim any Right or Property in any thing Well let us see then what we understand by Right or Due Right or Due is what any Man or company of Men claim to be his or theirs excluding all their fellow-Subjects And this Right Due or Property we no where find to be given by God immediately to any Man or Men but only the Land of Promise to the Children of Israel the Portion of whose Inheritance fell to them by Lot And by nature no Man has any property in any thing more then another if it be true as Cicero saies Privata nulla natura And Horace Non propriae telluris herum natura nec illum Nec me nec quenquam statuit What then gives it but the Law or Supreme Power of the Nation for Martial Hoc lege quod possis dicere jure meum est The Seventh GROUND Why Men desire to live in Community and of the necessity of Government Author HEre our Author tells us First It is fit to understand why Men desire to live in Flocks and Multitudes Observ Now would I know of our Author what these Men are and where to be found who desire to live so Or when did Men ever in the World in any place either live or desire to live so Indeed it is a received opinion that Man is born a living Creature apt and fit for society the Greeks called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but indeed no Man does naturally desire the society company or conversation of another Man because he is a Man and therefore Men do not nor ever did live promiscuously in flocks and multitudes as our Author saies without subordination one under another but in any the meanest and most contemptible Family that ever was the company are not all alike to one another as those are which live in flocks and herds c. But because no Infant can live nor any Man live well without the help of another naturally there is in every Man a solitude how to live and so to live that his living be not a burden or troublesom to him Man does not therefore desire the company or society of others as men for then he would desire the company and society of all men alike of Good of Bad of Vertuous of Vicious of Servants and Vile as well as Noble and Generous but accidentally as expecting Profit Honor Knowledge c. from him or them with whom he consorts or associates himself And therefore on the Exchange in Faires Markets c. Men do not Meet so as only to see one another and to make up such a Herd for then they would meet in other places as well as there but that from their buying and selling and their exchanging of Merchandise they may derive from thence profit to themselves It is an admirable thing to see what a strange Ingenuity there is in those men in acquiring those things from other places which
Father was wont to say his Son commanded all Greece For the Athenians commanded the other Grecians He commanded the Athenians his Wife him and his Son commanded his Wife How much greater power had our Author in this Government than Themistocles his Child had over the Grecians For in all our Authors Government you shall find two degrees of Comparison above the superlative viz. the peoples Power over their supreme and absolute Governor and our Authors supreme supremest Power who has a Power when he will to make what he list the Peoples Laws which shall oblige and tie up their absolute Governor And when the toy takes him they shall be the Governors Laws And Ground 11. latter end No supreme Magistrate can be bound to any Laws contrary to what our Author or Governor shall call good Government And now who would think so wise a fellow as our Author who in this Government had such a monstrous and most unlimited soveraignty should by shewing his power in giving his Rational multitude liberty to dissolve it lose it all in an instant sure this Icarus if he neither drowns nor otherwise kills himself in the fall will only rise up again to hang himself Well but let us see whether upon our Authors principles this Government can be dissolved or be in the power of his People or Rational multitude All Men who have written of the Cause and Nature of things have put a difference between Natural and Voluntary or Rational causes or things Natural causes or things are those which proceed immediately from God and are above the Will or Reason of Man Voluntary causes or things are those which do not immediately proceed from God but from the Will and Reason of Man But ex Hypothesi this Government Ground 7. page 48. is connatural and Ground 8. page 50. Natural and therefore this Government is superior to the Wills or Reason of the People and cannot be by them dissolved but the resisting of it is a violence upon Nature and not only Irrational but Immoral and unjust Thus have we seen our Author make a Government and thus have wee seen our Author marre his Government Let him tell us Ground 15 â—herein consists the Liberty of the Subject Ground 16. Of the dispossession of a Supreme Governor and his Right And Ground 17. Of a Governor dispossessed only because our Author Ground 17. tells us that Pope Urban the eight was an Intelligent generous Prince and well versed in publick Government and he made a decision that after five years quiet possession of an Estate the Church was not bound to take notice whether the title were lawful or no I will tell our Author that if Pope Urban might not take notice after five years who is the lawful Governor yet Pope Pius the fourth after above twice the time declared by Pope Urban might take notice of it as you may see Hist Con. Triden 423. and 443. So then Pope Pius may do that which Pope Urban is not bound to do or say what he will for me I am content if after all this pains on my part I shall not in the Judgment of wiser and more discerning Men then my Author or self have made my self like our Author in thus far answering him to his Grounds of Obedience and Government OBSERVATIONS ON Mr. HOBBS De Cive Observ HIs first Axiome or Principle he begs both in the Preface and second Article of the first Book De Cive is That the beginning of Civil Society is from Mutual Fear Yet in his Preface and second Annotation upon this Article He fears that some men may deny it yea it is true that very many men do deny it This therefore being required for a Principle and the first Principle and by consequence not to be proved but to prove all that may be inferred from it and since that he grants that very many do deny this Principle Then by very many men must the whole body of De Cive be rejected For Contra negantes principia non est disputandum But if men will not grant this Principle in the Pref. and Annot. abovesaid he will prove it so that he will make them ashamed of it and how think you It will be somewhat odd sure to prove Principles He tells you That all Cities although they be at peace with their neighbors yet keep Garrisons and Soldiers upon their Frontiers And that when men go to sleep they shut their doors and that men taking a journey do it with a sword and that men treat usually before they fight Observ All Science all Learning and all Reasoning whatsoever by the authority of Aristotle is begotten from pre-existing Principles which prove the Science and Learning but by the judgment of Aristotle and all Philosophers and men in their wits no Science Learning or Reasoning can prove the Principles Besides it is a contradiction to say any thing is a Principle which can be proved for that which proves it is prime and a principle to it Would any man now think that these Critiques and pretended Masters of Reason had ever read one line in Logick or Aristotle who go about to prove Principles by such silly things as have scarce any verisimilitude in them Nor does he only make Fear to be the prime cause of all Humane Government and Civil Society but also chap. 16. art 1. he makes it the cause of all Religion and Worship of God Observ As if that men were not obliged to submit to higher Powers not only for wrath take it in what sense you will either fear of the wrath of the higher Powers or mutual fear of the wrath of other men but also for conscience sake And that God were not in gratitude to be worshiped and served by ingenuous men because he is good and created them intellectual and reasonable creatures but only by a servile fear of his Judgments from whence only vile and vitious men seem to but never truly serve or honor him A pretty institution of Religion and Government for the Men of Bedlam and Wives of Billingsgate He divides the whole Treatise into three titles viz. Liberty Empire and Religion Under the title of Liberty he speaks of men as they are in a state of meer Nature viz. of a state of men before they have by Pact given up their natural right to one Person or one Court or Company of men so that the will of this Man or Court shall be the will of all of them and this he calls cap. 5. art 9. Civitas or Persona civilis If Mr. Hobbs had by a state of Nature understood such a state as S. Paul Observ Rom. 2. 14. does viz. of men who have only the Law of Nature and not Gods Divine Law supernaturally revealed in the Scriptures to be their rule and guide and that men in such a state not having the Law may by Nature do the things contained in the Law for this Law is ingraven in the hearts of all men he
Lex naturae is that which is so willed or commanded by God I deny therefore that any Creature can have Jus divinum but that all right which any Creature hath is either from some Divine or Humane law Jus naturae is superior and must precede Lex naturae By Art 3. cap. 1. Every man hath Jus naturae Therefore every man hath a right above the Law of Nature and so Mr. Hobbs may save himself the trouble of his Philosophical Elements De Civie For since he makes every man above the Law of Nature sure he can never make him subject to any Humane Law 25. It is impossible for the Civil Law to command any thing contrary to Cap. 14. ar 10. the Law of Nature Observ Is it not a wonderful thing that this man should make the Civitas to be a humane Artifice and invention and the Law of Nature to be the immutable Law of God and yet that it should be impossible that this Artifice or created Deity to command any thing contrary to this immutable Law of God Sure the greatest Papalian never ascribed so much to the Pope in Cathedra I will then tell him wherein the Civitas may command Wherein the Civitas may command contrary to the Law of Nature contrary to the Law of Nature and wherein he is mistaken The Laws of Nature are either upon supposition of Humane Laws or not upon supposition of Humane Laws as Thou shalt not steal supposes a Humane Law which gives Property but Honor thy Parents Be grateful for benefits received c. supposes no Humane Law And therefore if the Civitas commands me to dishonor my Parents or to be ingrateful for benefits received which de facto it may this being but a Humane Law I am notwithstanding obliged to honor my Parents and be grateful for benefits received But Mr. Hobbs supposing no Laws of Nature but upon supposition of Humane Laws is the reason I conceive why he says It is impossible for the Civitas to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature Yet will he have one exception viz. That the Civitas commands nothing Ibidem Observ 2. to the contumely of God If a man should ask him whether there be no Law of Nature but the Honoring of God If there be no other Law of Nature then to what purpose are all his Laws of Nature of standing to Pacts of seeking Peace c. Well but if men by the Law of Nature are obliged to honor God and it be impossible as he says for the Civitas to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature then is it impossible for the Civitas to command any thing to the contumely of God and so he has made a needless exception But it may be he does not think that men by the Law of Nature are bound to honor God for he has not so much as mentioned it in his Laws of Nature For then they are no Laws Mr. Hobbs Yes the Statues of Omri were Statutes although they commanded to the contumely of God and so was Nebuchadnezors command for the worshiping Observ 3. the Golden Image a Law though made to the contumely and dishonor of God Whereas he saies Quid sit Adulterium does depend upon the Civitas I would know of him whether it were Adultery in David in lying with Bathsheba Observ 4. during Uriahs life if it were then is it not true which Mr. Hobbs here saies if it were not then did God unjustly so severely to punish him therefore Tyranny is not a State of a City different from rightful Monarchy Cap. 7. art 3. Observ True upon your false and feigned Principles where the wills and pacts of men are made the cause and origination of all Power in Government where Mens wills are made their Laws then which nothing can be more destructive to all Laws divine and humane and the most Wilful man should be the most Just man for to what purpose should there be any Laws Divine or Humane if a Man 's own will be a rule and Law to himself and by this Mans principles it is only mens wills from which all Power in Government is derived and to which Men ought to be subject Yet good Man some difference he makes viz. only in the exercise Mr. Hobbs of their Power he forsooth is a King that rules well and he is a Tyrant that rules otherwise Observ As if Absoloms kissing the Israelites when they came to demand Justice and his desire to judge the people righteously had made him a good Title to the Crown of Israel or that Jeroboam or Athaliah had not been Usurpers but very Rightful Princes if they had ruled well But though he makes no difference between Swordbearers and Swordtakers between Gods Ministers and Theeves and Robbers yet the Holy Ghost does for Gods Minister is a Swordbearer and if he be not Gods Minister and a Rom. 13. 4. Swordbearer but a Swordtaker as our Saviour calls them who have not a St. Matth. 26. 52. just Authority then whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man And if ever Man had a just Gen. 9. 6. cause to have taken the sword then had St. Peter in defence of his Lord God and Master but our Saviour reprehends him telling him that whosoever takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword And it is not wicked men whom Usurpers Tyrants and Swordtakers so much murder for it is no better as vertuous and honest The worst of private Malefactors may justly with the Whore in Terence answer to the best of Swordtakers if there be any degree of goodness in any of them quamvis ego digna sum hac contumelia maxime indignus tamen tu qui feceris And whereas he only makes Tyrannus ab exercitio it is false for the abuse of a thing does not alter the nature of a thing as a Man is a Man although a bad Man who abuses those good parts which God hath given him so is a Father and a Master a Father and Master yet bad ones where they abuse their Power and so is a King a King although he abuses his Power and the Holy Ghost many times calls them wicked and idolatrous Kings c. but never Tyrants as this Man does I would here gladly be satisfied of Mr. Hobbs how if God made Man Cap. 1. art 12. and Cap. 8. art 10. in the state of pure nature as he saies in such a cut-throatly condition and so much worse than any other creature that men might jure naturali everlastingly kill one another and commit no offence if the King or Civitas does not restrain it God could in justice have punished Cain for killing Abel Cap. 6. art 16. if Cain or Abel had not gone to Do or Dedi and not to Dabo or Faciam with Adam and made him their King or Civitas over them and Adam have given them
to the wills of men whereas Natural causes do immediately proceed from God and are above the will of man Society therefore being natural the actions of the wills of the most perverse and wicked men in the world could never make them out of society but where they would not be commanded by their rightful Superiors fell a commanding and obeying among themselves 4. They all not only invert Nature and make Wills and Pacts superior to it in the cause of Society but all of them make the natural relations of rightful Princes and Subjects to be dissolvible by the wills of men yet after a different manner Grotius when there is a necessity makes them dissolvible by the Subjects Our Author when the Subjects judge it reasonable And Mr. Hobbs when the King or Civitas will give or sell the relations Whereas Regal power being Gods ordinance is therefore superior to mens wills and cannot be aliened or dissolved by the will of man 5. They all not only invert Nature and make it alterable by the will of man but make the Law of Nature or God to take its origination from the civil pact or will of man whereas the Law of Nature is eternal and immutable by the will of man and connatural with every man and always had and ever shall have a like obligation upon all men in all ages and places 6. I say They not only blasphemously make Nature and the Law of God alienable and depending upon the will of man but also most illogically confound the relations of agencie and patiencie in the same subject and make the Cives to constitute the civil pact and to be subject to it whereas Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud 7. They invert Grammatical construction in making the Cives who constitute the Civitas the patient or governed and the Civitas who accepts the wills of the Cives to be the agent or governor Whereas the contrary is true in both for Obligans is the governor who does will and obligatus the governed who accepts the will of the governor 8. They all most ridiculously make the Creature the Civitas superior to and the Governor of the Creator viz. the Cives whereas it is impossible any Being should be prime or superior to the cause of its being 9. They all of them make the Cives to endue the Civitas with that which none of them have either separately or conjunctly viz. a power of life and death and creating property whereas Nil dat quod non habet nemo potest transferre id in alium quod ipse non habet If all these things be true and that I have not unjustly charged them in my Observations how contrary they are not only to one another but to themselves in their superstructure then let the world judge especially you my dear and native Countrymen whether grounds so unnatural so blasphemous so illogical so contrary to common sense and grammatical construction so ridiculous and impossible should be worthy to be accounted the Principles of Humane society Or whether they ought not to be exploded by mankind as fit for nothing but to abuse ignorant men and to open a gap for Sedition and Atheism If I have here or heretofore unjustly charged them two of my Adversaries are alive and of age and may answer for themselves and no question but Grotius hath followers enough who may vindicate him if he hath wrong done him Or if I have committed any of these things in these Elements let them make it appear I will thank them for it A Premonition to the Reader BEside that part of this Treatise which shews the causes and means by which men attain Arts and Sciences in this Preface Observations and Elelements I have designed three things First in the Preface I designe to demonstrate That it is impossible that the Cause of Humane Society should be originally created by the pacts and wills of men and the occasion of writing these Observations Secondly in the Observations I designe to shew That the Causes of Humane Society do not appear from these mens Grounds and Principles Thirdly in the Elements I endevour to demonstrate the Causes of all Humane Christian and Legal Society And if any of my Adversaries or any man else shall shew me any errors in any of them I profess I will ascribe it as an act of Friendship to him I have one request more to the Reader That he would look upon all these Elements and Observations except one half-sheet added to the Observations to be passed the Press before His MAJESTIES Acknowledgment or Restitution until the last Book or one sheet or two of the Fourth Book of Justice c. And to insert in pag. 9. of this Preface line 22. after For which no reason can be given what is contained in the Margin from These things thus premised c. ELEMENTS OF Power Subjection Or the Causes of all Humane Christian Legal SOCIETY Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta Patrum qui Leges juraque servat By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by T. N. for G. Bedel and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate 1660. TO THE READER MAns thoughts of Life and Living are odd things pritty Antitheses he thinks his whole Life though he should live a Thousand years too short and yet every day nay hour of his living too long Vicious Men therefore misplace their happiness in entertaining worldly pleasures thereby to delude and spend their time which they desire so much to continue in their Life that in their living it might not seem to be Virtuous Men have the same thoughts of Life and living with vicious Men but their actions discern them For those hours which in their Life would otherwise seem tedious to them they entertain either in the Contemplations of God or his Works or by doing virtuously sweeten those sowre effects which idleness causes So that the old Philosophers would affirm That not Years but Virtue should be the measure of Mans life And this reward hath God the Author of Virtue in Men as Plato divinely affirms given Meno prope finem to virtuous Men that they not onely take pleasure in remembring time past but also hope well in time to come notwithstanding all the frowns of perverse and wrinckled Fortune whereas vicious Men are onely pleased with deceiving the present time ashamed to look back upon their actions past and affrighted upon the apprehensions of death and worldly calamities which notwithstanding all their Proteus shapes and Janus faces happens to them as well as virtuous Men in time to come There is no time wherein virtuous Men may not contemplate God either as God or in his Works or do well whereas many times vicious Men though never so rich and able to maintain their Vices are either wearied with them or have not means to attain to what they call the fruition of them and then they may be truly accounted miserable because they know not what to
Realm in Treason against the King and Queen and the indictment concluded contra ligeantiae suae debitum For he owed the King a Local Obedience but if he have issue here that issue is a Natural born Subject and it is not caelum nec solum neither clymate nor soyle but Ligeantia which makes a natural Subject and therefore if Enemies possess any fort c. the issue borne there is no Subject of the Kings by as much reason those Subjects borne after Conquest by any King of England are his Natural Subjects 6. Legal Ligeance is when at suit of the King the Subject takes the Oath of Ligeance to the King which is You shall sweare that from this day â—igeantia Leâ—â—â—â—s tit 4. â—â—g 6. 7. forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign the Lord King Charles his Heirs and truth and faith shall beare of life and member and Terrene honor and you shall neither know nor heare of any ill or damage intended unto him that you shall not defend so help you Almighty God The substance and effect hereof is due by the Law of Nature ex institutione natura the form and addition of the Oath is ex previsione hominis In this Oath five things are observed 1. For the time it is indefinite and without limit from this day forward Five observable things in the Oath of Ligeance 2. Two excellent things are required that is to be true and faithful 3. To whom To our Soveraign Lord the King and his heirs 4. In what manner And faith and troth shall bear c. of life and member that is until the letting out of the last drop of our dearest blood 5. Where and in what places ought these things to be done In all places whatsoever for You shall neither know nor hear of any ill or damage c. that you shall not defend c. So as Natural Ligeance is not circumscribed within any place 7. Subjection as well as Regality being by the Law of Nature Quae The consequent upon Subjects endeavoring to dissolve their subjection Deus conjunxit nemo separet And let no man or men ever think to mend what God hath made For besides the innocent blood which will be shed besides the rapine plunder sacrilegious profaning of all sacred things in the mending if God in his judgments doth permit seditious men to prosper in their wickedness so as they suppose they have attained their Ends yet their Ends never end in peace among themselves For abstracting from the general fear common to them all of the right Heirs recovering his right it cannot be expected that all Competitors will be pleased some will think others too great none will think themselves great enough They themselves have made a president to evade all subjection and obedience to Laws and Government by pretending Liberty and Reformation So that after so much bloodshed what can be expected but the shedding of more without ever hoping to have an end Well therefore says Sir Edward Coke Inst 3. p. 36. Peruse over all our Books Records and Histories and you shall find a principle in Law a rule in Reason and a trial in Experience That Treason does ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attaineth to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto And therefore let all men abandon it as the most poisonous bait of the Devil of Hell and follow the precept of holy Scripture Fear God honor the King and meddle not with the seditious But it may be objected That though Subjects Allegiance be natural Object 1 or due by the Law of Nature yet since there cannot be any visible power under Heaven which can judge between an Usurper and rightful Prince what rule have Subjects to direct them to whom they owe their subjection or obedience Sol. It is true there is no visible Power under Heaven which can judge between an Usurper and rightful Prince but the Consciences of men Yet being natural a man may as well ask how a man shall know whether every Being be of less excellency then the Cause of its being or that things equal to a third are equal to one another I am confident that where the confusion was not made by Popular rage and usurpation since the begining of the world God did scarce ever leave men so destitute but they were morally certain to whom they did owe their Topical and Natural obedience But if Regal power be the Ordinance of God and Primogeniture be Object 2 preferred by the Law of Nature then can there be but one rightful King in all the world and he the first-born from Adam which no man can believe Answ I answer That though Primogeniture be preferred by the Law of Nature and immutable by the will of Man yet is not God subject thereunto but before the Flood he rejected Cain though the first-born of Adam and made him a Vagabond and none of the Patriarchs So in the first age after the Flood God subjected Canaan although the son of Ham Japhets elder brother to Japhet And so did God prefer Jacob before Esau and Gen. 9. 27. Ephraim before Manasses and Solomon before Adonijah Yet where and when God did not reveal himself to Man otherwise was ever Primogeniture preferred Nor can it in reason be expected that God should be so cruel a Taskmaster to require subjection upon penalty of Damnation if it were not evident to whom this subjection were due It is sufficient that Subjects pay their obedience to him against whose title no just or superior title can be taken Yet is not this subjection always to be understood of active subjection For no man is bound Government being intended for mans preservation not destruction actually so to submit to rightful Governors that he be morally certain of destruction therefore Yet ought every man rather to suffer death then actually to renounce or resist rightful Governors to whom by the Law of Nature they owe obedience Quaere 8. But suppose there be such a succession from an Usurper that not only the Heir to the Usurper but all men in his Government were born Subjects to him and his Ancestors from whom he is descended as in the time of Henry 6. when all men were born either in subjection to him his Father or Grandfather who had no colour or title to the Crown whether in such case may Subjects so born assist such a Prince against the right Heir I say I pray God avert the like from ever being again in the English Nation 'T is true the right Heir hath a just title of war against such a Prince but whether Subjects so born their being so born being no act of their will but was caused by a higher cause viz. the will of God may actually assist him to whom they were so born in subjection against him who hath the superior title I leave to God and mens consciences 9. But this Quaere can only
Tribute or of St. Peter Cap. 20. Who shall deny the peny of St. Peter the peny let him pay by the Justice of the Church and thirty pence forfeiture and if he will be impleaded concerning it by the Justice of the King let him forfeit to the Bishop thirty pence and forty shillings to the King Of Religion and the publick Peace 51. First of all we Ordain above all things That one God be worshipped all over our Kingdom and the one Faith of Christ be always kept inviolate c. The Laws are Translated out of the Original set forth by Mr. Abraham Whelock in his Appendix to the History of Bede from page 150. to 107. Sir Ed. Coke in Caudrys Case cites a quare Impedit 7 Ed. 3. tit 19. where it is agreed that no man can make an appropriation of any Church having cure of souls being a thing Ecclesiastical and to be made by some person Ecclesiastical but he that hath Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but William the first of himself without any other as King of England made appropriation of Churches with cure to Ecclesiastical persons wherefore it does follow he had Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Here is nothing but argumentum à facto ad jus and a man may as well infer that Saul Jeroboam and Azariah did offer sacrifice and burn incense and therefore they had Sacerdotal power in them or that King John did give the Crown and received it again from him and therefore the Crown of England is holden of the Pope Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the first Who began to Reign in the year of Christ 1100. THese at last are the happy joys of the long wished for peace and liberty Proem by which the glorious Cesar Henry doth shine forth to his whole kingdom in Divine and Secular Laws written Institutes and Exhibitions of good Works Moderate Just Valiant Prudent whom God may make to command with happy auspices and healthful prosperity of body and minde with his famous wife Maud the second and their children for ever and the everlasting peace of this Nation His Epistle to all his Leigmen 1. Henry by the Grace of God King of Englishmen to all Barons and his Leigmen French English health Know that I by Gods mercy and the Common Counsel and consent of the Barons of the Kingdom of England am Crowned King of the Kingdom aforesaid and because the Kingdom was oppressed by unjust exactions I in respect of God and the love which I have towards you all first of all make the Church of God free so that I will neither sell nor let to farm nor after the death of an Archbishop or Bishop or Abbot will take any thing of the Demesns of the Church or her men until the successor be come in c. Of the propriety of Causes Cap. 5. In all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular legally and in order to be handled some are Accusers some Defenders some are Witnesses some are Judges In every discussion of honesty fitting men are to be joyned together and that without any exaction until the quality of the Causes and the intention of the Accused the manner of Witnesses and election of Judges be weighed with upright scrutiny Let there be no foreign Judgements nor celebrated by their improper Judge in place or time nor in a doubtful case or the party accused being absent the sentence being pronounced notandum that for all if the accused had competent warning and lawful leave of answering and defending he be not denied or impleaded or outlawed or circumvented by some stealth or judged by deceit If he be satisfied in the Witnesses Judges and Persons If he consent to the Judges or hurt or contradict It is not altogether so in Ecclesiastical business as Secular in Secular business after that any is called shall come and begin to plead in the Court it is not lawful to go back before the Cause be determined although they shall agree but in Ecclesiastical business it is lawful to go back in the Cause aforesaid If a man suspect a Judge or think himself oppressed surely Judges ought not to be so nisi quos impetitus Elegerit Neither may any one be heard or give judgement before that they be chosen and he who refuses to consent to the elected let no man communicate with him until he obey but if in judgement there arises dissention among the parties of which a strife comes forth let the sentence of the more prevail It is Enacted in the Cause of Faith or of any Ecclestastical Order he ought to judge who neither takes reward nor is of another Law and will do nothing without an accuser For God and our Lord Jesus Christ did know Judas to be a Thief but because he was not accused therefore he was not rejected and whatsoever he acted among the Apostles for the dignity of his Office remained firm As also Clerks ought not to receive Laiks Accusers so ought not Laicks to receive Clerks to be Accusers of Clerks in their Accusations and Informations and Witnesses ought to be legitimate and present without any infamy or suspition or manifest spot because they cannot rightly accuse Priests who cannot be Priests nor of their Order nor is it needful to Judge a man before he hath had lawful Accusers present and accepts a place of defence to wash out his crimes And it is our pleasure as often as many crimes are objected to Clerks by Accusers and they cannot make good one of the first of which they are accused they shall not be admitted to the rest And a Bishop shall not be condemned unless by seventy two Witnesses nor the Archbishop be judged of any A Presbyter-Cardinal Note the preheminence of a Bishop in England at this time above a Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by forty four Witnesses a Deacon-Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by twenty six Witnesses nor a Sub-Deacon under seven nor let the greater despair for the force of the lesser men and there always the Cause may be Pleaded where the Crime is admitted If a man stricken will he may plead his cause before his Judge and if he will not before his Judge he may hold his peace and as for men stricken as often as they desire respit let it be granted And every man which objects a crime let him write that he will prove it and if before he be changed he will not follow he is convinced no crime is to be accounted But if he will prosecute if he shall not prove what he objects let him undergo the penalty which he brought the Apostle says Against a Presbyter a writing is not to be received without two or three approved witnesses how much more against Bishops if these things be observed of Presbyters and other faithful men If any one will accuse any of the Clerks in an accusation of Fornication according to the precept of St. Paul two or three testimonies are required from him but if he
expected in this World and if that may then by what means it is to be attained but that I might by degrees accomplish my end I begin with man in his first Cause and being Man then in his first being is to be considered either as created or begotten as created sure no man in his wits will deny but that God was the prime and only efficient cause of his creation who without any ordinary concurrence of naturall causes did so create him and that this was not from a confluence of naturall causes is evident for otherwise it had been a Generation not a Creation and necessarily something must be Created before any thing can be Generated of it Nor is God if a man rightly considers it lesse the prime and efficient cause of man in his Generation then in his Creation for it must needs be evident to every man That male and female are not the first cause of Generation because then they would alike of themselves without the influence of a superiour cause be apted for Generation and so every Creature of it selfe in a like power of Generating one as much as another the contrary of which every one daily sees Nor are all Creatures at all times alike disposed to Generation but apted and disposed thereunto from some exterior cause as we see in Foxes about the Brumall solstice and Ravens in January other creatures generally about the Vernal Equinox and Deere about the Autumnall which without all doubt doth proceed from the influence of the Sun which in those seasons disposes them thereunto but that the Sun is not the prime and efficient cause of Generation is confessed by Aristotle where hee faith * That in omni creature divinum quid reperiri respondens Elemento stellarum Lib. 2. cap. 3. de Gen. Anim. esseque omnipotentis creatoris vicarium It is not therefore the Sun nor male and female which can be the first cause of a man or any other creature but that minde or Soul which governs the innumerable and vast bodies of the Univers and by a perpetuall motion of the Earth from West to East according to the new Hypotheses in Astronomy or of the Sun from East to West after the former Hypotheses through the divers Regions of the Earth doth apt and dispose all things therein to their production and dissolution So that God is the prime efficient cause as wel in the generation as creation of man other creatures the manner only is different God in generation from the confluence of necessary contingent causes doth Generate Man and other creatures and originally did create them without any confluence of causes Nor is God lesse the prime preserver of all Creatures then the first cause of the Creation and Generation of them for not all the sublunary meanes of eating drinking sleeping exercise physick c. can preserve any creature thus Generated or Created but some internall cause whether it be called anima or pars animae or quid animae or aliquid habens animam aut intellectus aut denique numen and this is it in every Creature which doth worke towards its end and orders all these things with unimitable and incomprehensible art and providence alwaies procures what is best as well for its being as well-being as well for defence as ornament Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem Virg Aenei And though all these outward things however necessary for the preservation of every Creature are accidentall and may be more or less acquired and communicated by every creature yet this internall cause this numen this Lar familiare or anima which disposes and orders all these outward causes is not to be acquired or communicated by any Creature So that a man must needs confesse That in all Creatures as well as Man there is some particle of divine Aire which doth order and dispose of all sublunary meanes in a wonderfull and diverse manner towards their preservation untill by a propense naturall disposition they all resolve into their first Principles But these outward meanes are acquired and communicated by severall Creatures divers and severall waies Some doe acquire these outward meanes from an innate impulse never with understanding or reason moving them others rarely without their understanding or reason and this latter only is Man Yet how fraile a mans reason and understanding is even to the acquiring of things necessary for his preservation is evidenly seen almost in all men for there is no man in this world who can by his understanding and reason so govern his actions that those things so directed by him have alwaies a like event nay often times the same thing propounded by the same man upon the same grounds and reasons hath so contrary an event that at this time it ruins him which other while was of much advantage to him And this is daily seen among all sorts of men so that it is most manifest that a mans understanding or reason cannot preserve him as he is an intellectuall rationall Creature nor Justice Religion and Piety as a sociable but somthing superior to these What then shall we say to these things Is Religion Justice and Piety and a mans understanding and reason of no account because they cannot procure peace and preservation Nothing lesse for God having first created man and other creatures without the confluence of naturall causes did ever after their first creation cease to make any other but the species of all things have ever since been renewed by Generation but in Generation God doth not renew the species of all creatures from an absolute act of his own but from the coition of male and female disposed thereunto in perfect creatures oftentimes from matter disposed many creatures are aequivocally generated without the coition of male and female which thing is evidently seene from the yeerly renuing of of frogs caterpillars c. The antient Aegyptians from the observation of the very many creatures thus generated in the River Nile did believe that all perfect creatures were originally not from creation but from aequivocal generation Yet though these spurious and imperfect creatures are thus generated yet do they all generate their like Aristotle Hist Anim. only excepts the Eele and I could never yet see either Row or Milt in any of them But though God be the prime efficient cause of the generation all creatures and therefore absolutely necessary to the production of every creature and though the conditions which he hath ordained be absolutely necessary to the generation of every creature yet are not these conditions alwaies performed from any absolute necessity of the part of God but oftentimes from contingent causes and the will of the creature For example it is necessary that the influence of the Sun from matter disposed in standing pools should produce Frogs yet are not alwaies those Pooles necessary to be but are often made and often filled up
from voluntary and contingent causes of man so contactus naturalis in bodies apted and disposed doth necessarily generate yet is there no necessity that this contactus should bee but it might not have beene c. Universall causes in nature produce nothing of themselves but as meeting with particular and materiall causes disposed to production the universall causes are alwaies prime and necessary but their meeting with particular causes are not alwaies so but often times contingent and voluntary As God by the confluence of naturall causes is alwaies the first cause of all creatures by Generation so is he the first cause of the preservation of all Creatures yet doth not he preserve them by any absolute necessity of his part alone but by such meanes as he hath ordained for every Creature I say this meanes doth not alwaies come to passe from inevitable necessity of the part of God but often times from the will of men and contingent causes for example no man lives but as he daily repaires nature by eating and drinking yet there is no necessity that he should eat or drink but he may choose whether he will or not Nor is God less the prime preserver of intellectuall and rationall creatures yet doth he not preserve them as other creatures void of understanding but thus using the intellectuall and rationall faculty of their Soul yet there is no man but may chuse whether he will use his understanding and reason in his actions and that man who doth not use his understanding in his actions but only his affections and passions how great soever he be will live to see misery enough And though Religion and Justice cannot of themselves preserve men in Peace and Happinesse but some superior cause which must order and dispose them thereunto yet so necessary are they for the preservation of peace and happiness that whersoever they are neglected men did ever degenerate into straction confusion and prophanenesse this superior cause which dignifies men above all other creatures as well intellectuall as sociable is God who is the prime efficient and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among sociable Creatures and Religion and Justice are the necessary meanes which he hath ordained therefore But though Religion and Justice be necessary for the peace and happinesse of any Nation yet is it not alwaies necessary on Gods part men should be Religious and Just but men may chuse whether they will do religious and just acts or not God therefore is the first and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among men and Religion and Justice the necessary meanes which he hath ordained thereunto and this to be performed by man and let no man thinke that God will save any man in this world or blesse him in the world to come against his Will when men will not endeavor these things by such meanes as hee hath ordained Man therefore by Religion and Justice ought to endeavour through God's blessing to attaine to Peace and Happinesse as well in this World as in the next without which hee cannot reasonably hope for eyther Having thus far treated of the causes of all society and vindicated the Government and Lawes of my native Country and mother-Church of England It will not be amisse before I conclude to add a word or two in vindication of Sir Edward Coke my most honored Ancestor since by words and writing he is so traduced as indeed Quis ille a tergo quem nulla aconia pinsit by men so maliciously or ignorantly or both Among the rest one a late writer of a Pamphlet I will not call it because of the subject being the life of our late Soveraigne yet it is without name although I thinke few men but are sufficiently assured of the Author upon a seditious and reproachfull speech he sayes tending to the dishonour of his Majesties Government made by Mr. Coke after the wonted rate of his lavish pen without any more adoe makes him a Chip of the old Block But of all men I am content he next after one of our Mercuries should say it since if he be not traduced unjustly hee can asperse the Nobility upon the faith of a Mercury and so many others upon none at all and his Quotations upon his Geography So fals that upon search made by a Reader and scarce any to be found to be true upon the reprinting he blotted out the pages and only quoted the Authors and left the Reader to finde them where he could If these be true then certainly his ipse dixit is of small account if false then let him deny them But I can tell our Historian newes of his Soldier whom he page 156. made openly to be shot to death in Saint Pauls Church yard for as is confidently reported and beleeved he was apprehended about Whitehall June 17. and is at this time in faire election of being hanged And being no lesse a more famous Geographer then Historian though his second Edition suffers much for want of his expunged pages to finde out his quotations hee page 123. makes the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall command on that narrow channell which runs between the County of Carnarvan and the Isle of Anglesey whereas the Town and Castle of Conway stand upon the River Conway which parts Denbighshire from Carnarvanshire a little below the mouth of the River Gessen nay let any man see whether the River Conway falls not into the Irish or Virgivium Sea but whether it fals into the Irish or Virgivium Sea or not yet certainly it cannot fall into the narrow Channell which parts Carnarvanshire from Anglesey which begins at Abermenay ferry and ends at Porthathir ferry whereas the mouth of Conway is little lesse distant from Porthathir ferry then that is from Abermenay Porthathir ferry being upon the matter equidistant from either What heed then is to be taken to the ipse dixit of such a Geographer and Historian let any man Judge Sure he had more need mend his own Errors then be so rash and lavish a Censurer of other mens Although I take not this mans tongue to be any slander so not worth an answering or at most a bare denyall of what he sayes were sufficient which I doe since it is but gratis dictum yet since other men have assumed to themselves such licence of aspersing him it will not ill become mee to shew how unjustly he is aspersed in those things whereof they traduce him as first this man makes him a seditious man certainly it is very strange that in the living of 83 yeeres the many of his writings and his many imployments doth not produce so much as any suspicion thereof that I ever heard of One thing yet pleases me that in all these seditious commotions Judge Jenkins and almost all the assertors of the Kings Cause have next after Divine Laws maintained it principally out of his writings nor doe I remember that any of the adverse part I am sure