yet have no other direction than their particular judgements and appetites nor speech whereby one of them can signifie to another what he thinks expedient for the common benefit and therefore some man may perhaps desire to know why Man-kind cannot do the same To which I answer First that men are contiâ—…ually in competition for Honour and Dignity which these creatures are not and consequently amongst men there ariseth on that ground Envy and Hatred and finally Warre but amongst these not so Secondly that amongst these creatures the Common good differeth not from the Private and being by nature enclined to their private they procure thereby the common benefit But man whose Joy consisteth in comparing himselfe with other men can relish nothing but what is eminent Thirdly that these creatures having not as man the use of reason do not see nor think they see any fault in the administration of their common businesse whereas amongst men there are very many that thinke themselves wiser and abler to govern the Publique better than the rest and these strive to reforme and innovate one this way another that way and thereby bring it into Distraction and Civill warre Fourthly that these creatures though they have some use of voice in making knowne to one another their desires and other affections yet they want that art of words by which some men can represent to others that which is Good in the likenesse of Evill and Evill in the likenesse of Good and augment or diminish the apparent greatnesse of Good and Evill discontenting men and troubling their Peace at their pleasure Fiftly irrationall creatures cannot distinguish betweene Injury and Dammage and therefore as long as they be at ease they are not offended with their fellowes whereas Man is then most troublesome when he is most at ease for then it is that he loves to shew his Wisdome and controule the Actions of them that governe the Common-wealth Lastly the agreement of these creatures is Naturall that of men is by Covenant only which is Artificiall and therefore it is no wonder if there be somwhat else required besides Covenant to make their Agreement constant and lasting which is a Common Power to keep them in awe and to direct their actions to the Common Benefit The only way to erect such a Common Power as may be able to defend them from the invasion of Forraigners and the injuries of one another and thereby to secure them in such sort as that by their owne industrie and by the fruites of the Earth they may nourish themselves and live contentedly is to conferre all their power and strength upon one Man or upon one Assembly of men that may reduce all their Wills by plurality of voices unto one Will which is as much as to say to appoint one Man or Assembly of men to beare their Person and every one to owne and acknowledge himselfe to be Author of whatsoever he that so beareth their Person shall Act or cause to be Acted in those things which concerne the Common Peace and Safetie and therein to submit their Wills every one to his Will and their Judgements to his Judgment This is more than Consent or Concord it is a reall Unitie of them all in one and the same Person made by Covenant of every man with every man in such manner as if every man should say to every man I Authorise and give up my Right of Governing my selfe to this Man or to this Assembly of men on this condition that thou give up thy Right to him and Authorise all his Actions in like manner This done the Multitude so united in one Person is called a COMMON-WEALTH in latine CIVITAS This is the Generation of that great LEVIATHAN or rather to speake more reverently of that Mortall God to which wee owe under the Immortall God our peace and defence For by this Authoritie given him by every particular man in the Common-Wealth he hath the use of so much Power and Strength conferred on him that by terror thereof he is inabled to performe the wills of them all to Peace at home and mutuall ayd against their enemies abroad And in him consisteth the Essence of the Common-wealth which to define it is One Person of whose Acts a great Multitude by mutuall Covenants one with another have made themselves every one the Author to the end he may use the strength and means of them all as he shall think expedient for their Peace and Common Defence And he that carryeth this Person is called SOVERAIGNE and said to have Soveraigne Power and every one besides his SUBIECT The attaining to this Soveraigne Power is by two wayes One by Naturall force as when a man maketh his children to submit themselves and their children to his government as being able to destroy them if they refuse or by Warre subdueth his enemies to his will giving them their lives on that condition The other is when men agree amongst themselves to submit to some Man or Assembly of men voluntarily on confidence to be protected by him against all others This later may be called a Politicall Common-wealth or Common-wealth by Institution and the former a Common-wealth by Acquisition And first I shall speak of a Common-wealth by Institution CHAP. XVIII Of the RIGHTS of Soveraignes by Institution A Common-wealth is said to be Instituted when a Multitude of men do Agree and Covenant every one with every one that to whatsoever Man or Assembly of Men shall be given by the major part the Right to Present the Person of them all that is to say to be their Representative every one as well he that Voted for it as he that Voted against it shall Authorise all the Actions and Judgements of that Man or Assembly of men in the same manner as if they were his own to the end to live peaceably amongst themselves and be protected against other men From this Institution of a Common-wealth are derived all the Rights and Facultyes of him or them on whom Soveraigne Power is conferred by the consent of the People assembled First because they Covenant it is to be understood they are not obliged by former Covenant to any thing repugnant hereunto And Consequently they that have already Instituted a Common-wealth being thereby bound by Covenant to own the Actions and Judgements of one cannot lawfully make a new Covenant amongst themselves to be obedient to any other in any thing whatsoever without his permission And therefore they that are subjects to a Monarch cannot without his leave cast off Monarchy and return to the confusion of a disunited Multitude nor transferre their Person from him that beareth it to another Man or other Assembly of men for they are bound every man to every man to Own and be reputed Author of all that he that already is their Soveraigne shall do and judge fit to be done so that any one man dissenting all the rest should break their
equally applicable to any difficulty whatsoever For the meaning of Eternity they will not have it to be an Endlesse Succession of Time for then they should not be able to render a reason how Gods Will and Praeordaining of things to come should not be before his Praescience of the same as the Efficient Cause before the Effect or Agent before the Action nor of many other their bold opinions concerning the Incomprehensible Nature of God But they will teach us that Eternity is the Standing still of the Present Time a Nunc-stans as the Schools call it which neither they nor any else understand no more than they would a Hic-stans for an Infinite greatnesse of Place And whereas men divide a Body in their thought by numbring parts of it and in numbring those parts number also the parts of the Place it filled it cannot be but in making many parts wee make also many places of those parts whereby there cannot bee conceived in the mind of any man more or fewer parts than there are places for yet they will have us beleeve that by the Almighty power of God one body may be at one and the same time in many places and many bodies at one and the same time in one place as if it were an acknowledgment of the Divine Power to say that which is is not or that which has been has not been And these are but a small part of the Incongruities they are forced to from their disputing Philosophically in stead of admiring and adoring of the Divine and Incomprehensible Nature whose Attributes cannot signifie what he is but ought to signifie our desire to honour him with the best Appellations we can think on But they that venture to reason of his Nature from these Attributes of Honour losing their understanding in the very first attempt fall from one Inconvenience into another without end and without number in the same manner as when a man ignorant of the Ceremonies of Court comming into the presence of a greater Person than he is used to speak to and stumbling at his entrance to save himselfe from falling le ts slip his Cloake to recover his Cloake le ts fall his Hat and with one disorder after another discovers his astonishment and rusticity Then for Physiques that is the knowledge of the subordinate and secundary causes of naturall events they render none at all but empty words If you desire to know why some kind of bodies sink naturally downwards toward the Earth and others goe naturally from it The Schools will tell you out of Aristotle that the bodies that sink downwards are Heavy and that this Heavinesse is it that causes them to descend But if you ask what they mean by Heavinesse they will define it to bee an endeavour to goe to the center of the Earth so that the cause why things sink downward is an Endeavour to be below which is as much as to say that bodies descend or ascend because they doe Or they will tell you the center of the Earth is the place of Rest and Conservation for Heavy things and therefore they endeavour to be there As if Stones and Metalls had a desire or could discern the place they would bee at as Man does or loved Rest as Man does not or that a peece of Glasse were lesse safe in the Window than falling into the Street If we would know why the same Body seems greater without adding to it one time than another they say when it seems lesse it is Condensed when greater Rarefied What is that Condensed and Rarefied Condensed is when there is in the very same Matter lesse Quantity than before and Rarefied when more As if there could be Matter that had not some determined Quantity when Quantity is nothing else but the Determination of Matter that is to say of Body by which we say one Body is greater or lesser than another by thus or thus much Or as if a Body were made without any Quantity at all and that afterwards more or lesse were put into it according as it is intended the Body should be more or lesse Dense For the cause of the Soule of Man they say Creatur Infundendo and Creando Infunditur that is It is Created by Powring it in and Powred in by Creation For the Cause of Sense an ubiquity of Species that is of the Shews or Apparitions of objects which when they be Apparitions to the Eye is Sight when to the Eare Hearing to the Palate Tast to the Nostrill Smelling and to the rest of the Body Feeling For cause of the Will to doe any particular action which is called Volitio they assign the Faculty that is to say the Capacity in generall that men have to will sometimes one thing sometimes another which is called Voluntas making the Power the cause of the Act As if one should assign for cause of the good or evill Acts of men their Ability to doe them And in many occasions they put for cause of Naturall events their own Ignorance but disguised in other words As when they say Fortune is the cause of things contingent that is of things whereof they know no cause And as when they attribute many Effects to occult qualities that is qualities not known to them and therefore also as they thinke to no Man else And to Sympathy Antipathy Antiperistasis Specificall Qualities and other like Termes which signifie neither the Agent that produceth them nor the Operation by which they are produced If such Metaphysiques and Physiques as this be not Vain Philosophy there was never any nor needed St. Paul to give us warning to avoid it And for their Morall and Civill Philosophy it hath the same or greater absurdities If a man doe an action of Injustice that is to say an action contrary to the Law God they say is the prime cause of the Law and also the prime cause of that and all other Actions but no cause at all of the Injustice which is the Inconformity of the Action to the Law This is Vain Philosophy A man might as well say that one man maketh both a streight line and a crooked and another maketh their Incongruity And such is the Philosophy of all men that resolve of their Conclusions before they know their Premises pretending to comprehend that which is Incomprehensible and of Attributes of Honour to make Attributes of Nature as this distinction was made to maintain the Doctrine of Free-Will that is of a Will of man not subject to the Will of God Aristotle and other Heathen Philosophers define Good and Evill by the Appetite of men and well enough as long as we consider them governed every one by his own Law For in the condition of men that have no other Law but their own Appetites there can be no generall Rule of Good and Evill Actions But in a Common-wealth this measure is false Not the Appetite of Private men but
and Evill Whereupon having both eaten they did indeed take upon them Gods office which is Judicature of Good and Evill but acquired no new ability to distinguish between them aright And whereas it is sayd that having eaten they saw they were naked no man hath so interpreted that place as if they had been formerly blind and saw not their own skins the meaning is plain that it was then they first judged their nakednesse wherein it was Gods will to create them to be uncomely and by being ashamed did tacitely censure God himselfe And thereupon God saith Hast thou eaten c. as if he should say doest thou that owest me obedience take upon thee to judge of my Commandements Whereby it is cleerly though Allegorically signified that the Commands of them that have the right to command are not by their Subjects to be censured nor disputed So that it appeareth plainly to my understanding both from Reason and Scripture that the Soveraign Power whether placed in One Man as in Monarchy or in one Assembly of men as in Popular and Aristocraticall Common-wealths is as great as possibly men can be imagined to make it And though of so unlimited a Power men may fancy many evill consequences yet the consequences of the want of it which is perpetuall warre of every man against his neighbour are much worse The condâ—…tion of man in this life shall never be without Inconveniences but there happeneth in no Common-wealth any great Inconvenience but what proceeds from the Subjects disobedience and breach of those Covenants from which the Common-wealth hath its being And whosoever thinking Soveraign Power too great will seek to make it lesse must subject himselfe to the Power that can limit it that is to say to a greater The greatest objection is that of the Practise when men ask where and when such Power has by Subjects been acknowledged But one may ask them again when or where has there been a Kingdome long free from Sedition and Civill Warre In those Nations whose Common-wealths have been long-lived and not been destroyed but by forraign warre the Subjects never did dispute of the Soveraign Power But howsoever an argument from the Practise of men that have not sifted to the bottom and with exact reason weighed the causes and nature of Common-wealths and suffer daily those miseries that proceed from the ignorance thereof is invalid For though in all places of the world men should lay the foundation of their houses on the sand it could not thence be inferred that so it ought to be The skill of making and maintaining Common-wealths consisteth in certain Rules as doth Arithmetique and Geometry not as Tennis-play on Practise onely which Rules neither poor men have the leisure nor men that have had the leisure have hitherto had the curiosity or the method to find out CHAP. XXI Of the LIBERTY of Subjects LIBERTY or FREEDOME signifieth properly the absence of Opposition by Opposition I mean externall Impediments of motion and may be applyed no lesse to Irrationall and Inanimate creatures than to Rationall For whatsoever is so tyed or environed as it cannot move but within a certain space which space is determined by the opposition of some externall body we say it hath not Liberty to go further And so of all living creatures whilest they are imprisoned or restrained with walls or chayns and of the water whilest it is kept in by banks or vessels that otherwise would spread it selfe into a larger space we use to say they are not at Liberty to move in such manner as without those externall impediments they would But when the impediment of motion is in the constitution of the thing it selfe we use not to say it wants the Liberty but the Power to move as when a stone lyeth still or a man is fastned to his bed by sicknesse And according to this proper and generally received meaning of the word A FREE-MAN is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindred to doe what he has a will to But when the words Free and Liberty are applyed to any thing but Bodies they are abused for that which is not subject to Motion is not subject to Impediment And therefore when 't is said for example The way is Free no Liberty of the way is signified but of those that walk in it without stop And when we say a Guift is Free there is not meant any Liberty of the Guift but of the Giver that was not bound by any law or Covenant to give it So when we speak Freely it is not the Liberty of voice or pronunciation but of the man whom no law hath obliged to speak otherwise then he did Lastly from the use of the word Free-will no Liberty can be inferred of the will desire or inclination but the Liberty of the man which consisteth in this that he finds no stop in doing what he has the will desire or inclination to doe Feare and Liberty are consistent as when a man throweth his goods into the Sea for feare the ship should sink he doth it neverthelesse very willingly and may refuse to doe it if he will It is therefore the action of one that was free so a man sometimes pays his debt only for feare of Imprisonment which because no body hindred him from detaining was the action of a man at liberty And generally all actions which men doe in Common-wealths for feare of the law are actions which the doers had liberty to omit Liberty and Necessity are Consistent As in the water that hath not only liberty but a necessity of descending by the Channel so likewise in the Actions which men voluntarily doe which because they proceed from their will proceed from liberty and yet because every act of mans will and every desire and inclination proceedeth from some cause and that from another cause in a continuall chaine whose first link is in the hand of God the first of all causes proceed from necessity So that to him that could see the connexion of those causes the necessity of all mens voluntary actions would appeare manifest And therefore God that seeth and disposeth all things seeth also that the liberty of man in doing what he will is accompanied with the necessity of doing that which God will no more nor lesse For though men may do many things which God does not command nor is therefore Author of them yet they can have no passion nor appetite to any thing of which appetite Gods will is not the cause And did not his will assure the necessity of mans will and consequently of all that on mans will dependeth the liberty of men would be a contradiction and impediment to the omnipotence and liberty of God And this shall suffice as to the matter in hand of that naturall liberty which only is properly called liberty But as men for the atteyning of peace and conservation
time and of a horse at another we conceive in our mind a Centaure So when a man compoundeth the image of his own person with the image of the actions of an other man as when a man imagins himselfe a Herâ—…s or an Alexander which happeneth often to them that are much taken with reading of Romants it is a compound imagination and properly but a Fiction of the mind There be also other Imaginations that rise in men though waking from the great impression made in sense As from gazing upon the Sun the impression leaves an image of the Sun before our eyes a long time after and from being long and vehemently attent upon Geometricall Figures a man shall in the dark though awake have the Images of Lines and Angles before his eyes which kind of Fancy hath no particular name as being a thing that doth not commonly fall into mens discourse The imaginations of them that sleep are those we call Dreams And these also as all other Imaginations have been before either totally or by parcells in the Sense And because in sense the Brain and Nerves which are the necessary Organs of sense are so benummed in sleep as not easily to be moved by the action of Externall Objects there can happen in sleep no Imagination and therefore no Dreame but what proceeds from the agitation of the inward parts of mans body which inward parts for the connexion they have with the Brayn and other Organs when they be distempered do keep the same in motion whereby the Imaginations there formerly made appeare as if a man were waking saving that the Organs of Sense being now benummed so as there is no new object which can master and obseure them with a more vigorous impression a Dreame must needs be more cleare in this silence of sense than are our waking thoughts And hence it cometh to passe that it is a hard matter and by many thought impossible to distinguish exactly between Sense and Dreaming For my part when I consider that in Dreames I do not often nor constantly think of the same Persons Places Objects and Actions that I do waking nor remember so long a trayne of coherent thoughts Dreaming as at other times And because waking I often observe the absurdity of Dreames but never dream of the absurdities of my waking Thoughts I am well satisfied that being awake I know I dreame not though when I dreame I think my selfe awake And seeing dreames are caused by the distemper of some of the inward parts of the Body divers distempers must needs cause different Dreams And hence it is that lying cold breedeth Dreams of Feare and raiseth the thought and Image of some fearfull object the motion from the brain to the inner parts and from the inner parts to the Brain being reciprocall And that as Anger causeth heat in some parts of the Body when we are awake so when we sleep the over heating of the same parts causeth Anger and raiseth up in the brain the Imagination of an Enemy In the same manner as naturall kindness when we are awake causeth desire and desire makes heat in certain other parts of the body so also too much heat in those parts while wee sleep raiseth in the brain an imagination of some kindness sâ—…ewn In summe our Dreams are the reverse of our waking Imaginations The motion when we are awake beginning at one end and when we Dream at another The most difficult discerning of a mans Dream from his waking thoughts is then when by some accident we observe not that we have slept which is easie to happen to a man full of fearfull thoughts and whose conscience is much troubled and that sleepeth without the circumstances of going to bed or putting off his clothes as one that noddeth in a chayre For he that taketh pains and industriously layes himself to sleep in case any uncouth and exorbitant fancy come unto him cannot easily think it other than a Dream We read of Marcus Brutus one that had his life given him by Iulius Caesar and was also his favorite and notwithstanding murthered him how at Philippi the night before he gave battell to Augustus Câ—…sar hee saw a fearfull apparition which is commonly related by Historians as a Vision but considering the circumstances one may easily judge to have been but a short Dream For sitting in his tent pensive and troubled with the horrour of his rash act it was not hard for him slumbering in the cold to dream of that which most affrighted him which feare as by degrees it made him wake so also it must needs make the Apparition by degrees to vanish And having no assurance that he slept he could have no cause to think it a Dream or any thing but a Vision And this is no very rare Accident for even they that be perfectly awake if they be timorous and supperstitious possessed with fearfull tales and alone in the dark are subject to the like fancies and believe they see spirits and dead mens Ghosts walking in Church-yards whereas it is either their Fancy onely or els the knavery of such persons as make use of such superstitious feare to passe disguised in the night to places they would not be known to haunt From this ignorance of how to distinguish Dreams and other strong Fancies from Vision and Sense did arise the greatest part of the Religion of the Gentiles in time past that worshipped Satyres Fawnes Nymphs and the like and now adayes the opinion that rude people have of Fayries Ghosts and Goblins and of the power of Witches For as for Witches I think not that their witchcraft is any reall power but yet that they are justly punished for the false beliefe they have that they can do such mischiefe joyned with their purpose to do it if they can their trade being neerer to a new Religion than to a Craft or Science And for Fayries and walking Ghosts the opinion of them has I think been on purpose either taught or not confuted to keep in credit the use of Exorcisme of Crosses of holy Water and other such inventions of Ghostly men Neverthelesse there is no doubt but God can make unnaturall Apparitions But that he does it so often as men need to feare such things more than they feare the stay or change of the course of Nature which he also can stay and change is no point of Christian faith But evill men under pretext that God can do any thing are so bold as to say any thing when it serves their turn though they think it untrue It is the part of a wise man to believe them no further than right reason makes that which they say appear credible If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away and with it Prognostiques from Dreams false Prophecies and many other things depending thereon by which crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people men would be much more fitted than they are for civill Obedience And this ought to
be the work of the Schooles but they rather nourish such doctrine For not knowing what Imagination or the Senses are what they receive they reach some saying that Imaginations rise of themselves and have no cause Others that they rise most commonly from the Will and that Good thoughts are blown inspired into a man by God and Evill thoughts by the Divell or that Good thoughts are powred infused into a man by God and Evill ones by the Divell Some say the Senses receive the Species of things and deliver them to the Common-sense and the Common Sense delivers them over to the Fancy and the Fancy to the Memory and the Memory to the Judgement like handing of things from one to another with many words making nothing understood The Imagination that is raysed in man or any other creature indued with the faculty of imagining by words or other voluntary signes is that we generally call Understanding and is common to Man and Beast For a dogge by custome will understand the call or the rating of his Master and so will many other Beasts That Understanding which is peculiar to man is the Understanding not onely his will but his conceptions and thoughts by the sequell and contexture of the names of things into Affirmations Negations and other formes of Speech And of this kinde of Understanding I shall speak hereafter CHAP. III. Of the Consequence or TRAYNE of Imaginations BY Consequence or TRAYNE of Thoughts I understand that succession of one Thought to another which is called to distinguiâ—…h it from Discourse in words Mentall Discourse When a man thinketh on any thing whatsoever His next Thought after is not altogether so casuall as it seems to be Not every Thought to every Thought succeeds indifferently But as wee have no Imagination whereof we have not formerly had Sense in whole or in parts so we have no Transition from one Imagination to another whereof we never had the like before in our Senses The reason whereof is this All Fancies are Motions within us reliques of those made in the Sense And those motions that immediately succeeded one another in the sense continue also together after Sense In so much as the former comming again to take place and be praedominant the later followeth by coherence of the matter moved in such manner as water upon a plain Table is drawn which way any one part of it is guided by the finger But because in sense to one and the same thing perceived sometimes one thing sometimes another succeedeth it comes to passe in â—…ime that in the Imagining of any thing there is no certainty what we shall Imagine next Onely this is certain it shall be something that succeeded the same before at one time or another This Trayne of Thoughts or Mentall Discourse is of two sorts The first is Vnguided without Designe and inconstant Wherein there is no Passionate Thought to govern and direct those that follow to it self as the end and scope of some desire or other passion In which case the thoughts are said to wander and seem impertinent one to another as in a Dream Such are Commonly the thonghts of men that are not onely without company but also without care of any thing though even then their Thoughts are as busie as at other times but without harmony as the sound which a Lute out of tune would yeeld to any man or in tune to one that could not play And yet in this wild ranging of the mind a man may oft-times perceive the way of it and the dependance of one thought upon another For in a Discourse of our present civill warre what could seem more impertinent than to ask as one did what was the value of a Roman Penny Yet the Cohaerence to me was manifest enough For the Thought of the warre introduced the Thought of the delivering up the King to his Enemies The Thought of that brought in the Thought of the delivering up of Christ and that again the Thought of the 30 pence which was the price of that treason and thence easily followed that malicious question and all this in a moment of time for Thought is quick The second is more constant as being regulated by some desire and designe For the impression made by such things as wee desire or feare is strong and permanent or if it cease for a time of quick return so strong it is sometimes as to hinder and break our sleep From Desire ariseth the Thought of some means we have seen produce the like of that which we ayme at and from the thought of that the thought of means to that mean and so continually till we come to some beginning within our own power And because the End by the greatnesse of the impression comes often to mind in case our thoughts begin to wander they are quickly again reduced into the way which observed by one of the seven wise men made him give men this praecept which is now worne out Respice finem that is to say in all your actions look often upon what you would have as the thing that directs all your thoughts in the way to attain it The Trayn of regulated Thoughts is of two kinds One when of an effect imagined wee seek the causes or means that produce it and this is common to Man and Beast The other is when imagining any thing whatsoever wee seek all the possible effects that can by it be produced that is to say we imagine what we can do with it when wee have it Of which I have not at any time seen any signe but in man onely for this is a curiosity hardly incident to the nature of any living creature that has no other Passion but sensuall such as are hunger thirst lust and anger In summe the Disconrse of the Mind when it is governed by designe is nothing but Seeking or the faculty of Invention which the Latines call Sagacitas and Solertia a hunting out of the causes of some effect present or past or of the effects of some present or past cause Sometimes a man seeks what he hath lost and from that place and time wherein hee misses it his mind runs back from place to place and time to time to find where and when he had it that is to say to find some certain and limited time and place in which to begin a method of seeking Again from thence his thoughts run over the same places and times to find what action or other occasion might make him lose it This we call Remembrance or Calling to mind the Latines call it Reminiscentia as it were a Re-conning of our former actions Sometimes a man knows a place determinate within the compasse whereof he is to seek and then his thoughts run over all the parts thereof in the same manner as one would sweep a room to find a jewell or as a Spaniel ranges the field till he find a sent or as a man should run
very diligently in all times Afterwards men made use of the same word metaphorically for the knowledge of their own secret facts and secret thoughts and therefore it is Rhetorically said that the Conscience is a thousand witnesses And last of all men vehemently in love with their own new opinions though never so absurd and obstinately bent to maintain them gave those their opinions also that reverenced name of Conscience as if they would have it seem unlawfull to change or speak against them and so pretend to know they are true when they know at most but that they think so When a mans Discourse beginneth not at Definitions it beginneth either at some other contemplation of his own and then it is still called Opinion Or it beginneth at some saying of another of whose ability to know the truth and of whose honesty in not deceiving he doubteth not and then the Discourse is not so much concerning the Thing as the Person And the Resolution is called BELEEFE and FAITH Faith in the man Beleefe both of the man and of the truth of what he sayes So that in Beleefe are two opinions one of the saying of the man the other of his vertue To have faith in or trust 〈◊〉 or beleeve a man signifie the same thing namely an opinion of the veracity of the man But to beleeve what is said signifieth onely an opinion of the truth of the saying But wee are to observe that this Phrase I beleeve in as also the Latine Credo in and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are never used but in the writings of Divines In stead of them in other writings are put I beleeve him I trust him I have faith in him I rely on him and in Latin Credo illi fido illi and in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this singularity of the Ecclesiastique use of the word hath raised many disputes about the right object of the Christian Faith But by Beleeving in as it is in the Creed is meant not trust in the Person but Confession and acknowledgement of the Doctrine For not onely Christians but all manner of men do so believe in God as to hold all for truth they heare him say whether they understand it or not which is all the Faith and trust can possibly be had in any person whatsoever But they do not all believe the Doctrine of the Creed From whence we may inferre that when wee believe any saying whatsoever it be to be true from arguments taken not from the thing it selfe or from the principles of naturall Reason but from the Authority and good opinion wee have of him that hath sayd it then is the speaker or person we believe in or trust in and whose word we take the object of our Faith and the Honour done in Believing is done to him onely And consequently when wee Believe that the Scriptures are the word of God having no immediate revelation from God himselfe our Beleefe Faith and Trust is in the Church whose word we take and acquiesce therein And they that believe that which a Prophet relates unto them in the name of God take the word of the Prophet do honour to him and in him trust and believe touching the truth of what he relateth whether he be a true or a false Prophet And so it is also with all other History For if I should not believe all that is written by Historians of the glorious acts of Alexander or Caesar I do not think the Ghost of Alexander or Caesar had any just cause to be offended or any body else but the Historian If Livy say the Gods made once a Cow speak and we believe it not wee distrust not God therein but Livy So that it is evident that whatsoever we believe upon no other reason then what is drawn from authority of men onely and their writings whether they be sent from God or not is Faith in men onely CHAP. VIII Of the VERTUES commonly called INTELLECTUALL and their contrary DEFECTS VERTUE generally in all sorts of subjects is somewhat that is valued for eminence and consisteth in comparison For if all things were equally in all men nothing would be prized And by Vertues INTELLECTUALL are alwayes understood such abilityes of the mind as men praise value and desire should be in themselves and go commonly under the name of a good witte though the same word Witte be used also to distinguish one certain ability from the rest These Vertues are of two sorts Naturall and Acquired By Naturall I mean not that which a man hath from his Birth for that is nothing else but Sense wherein men differ so little one from another and from brute Beasts as it is not to be reckoned amongst Vertues But I mean that Witte which is gotten by Use onely and Experience without Method Culture or Instruction This NATURALL WITTE consisteth principally in two things Celerity of Imagining that is swift succession of one thought to another and steddy direction to some approved end On the Contrary a slow Imagination maketh that Defect or fault of the mind which is commonly called DULNESSE Stupidity and sometimes by other names that signifie slownesse of motion or difficulty to be moved And this difference of quicknesse is caused by the difference of mens passions that love and dislike some one thing some another and therefore some mens thoughts run one way some another and are held to and observe differently the things that passe through their imagination And whereas in this succession of mens thoughts there is nothing to observe in the things they think on but either in what they be like one another or in what they be unlike or what they serve for or how they serve to such a purpose Those that observe their similitudes in case they be such as are but rarely observed by others are sayd to have a Good Wit by which in this occasion is meant a Good Fancy But they that observe their differences and dissimilitudes which is called Distinguishing and Discerning and Judging between thing and thing in case such discerning be not easie are said to have a good Judgement and particularly in matter of conversation and businesse wherein times places and persons are to be discerned this Vertue is called DISCRETION The former that is Fancy without the help of Judgement is not commended as a Vertue but the later which is Judgement and Discretion is commended for it selfe without the help of Fancy Besides the Discretion of times places and persons necessary to a good Fancy there is required also an often application of his thoughts to their End that is to say to some use to be made of them This done he that hath this Vertue will be easily fitted with similitudes that will please not onely by illustration of his discourse and adorning it with new and apt metaphors but also by the rarity of their invention But without Steddinesse and
further and will not have the Law of Nature to be those Rules which conduce to the preservation of mans life on earth but to the attaining of an eternall felicity after death to which they think the breach of Covenant may conduce and consequently be just and reasonable such are they that think it a work of merit to kill or depose or rebell against the Soveraigne Power constituted over them by their own consent But because there is no naturall knowledge of mans estate after death much lesse of the reward that is then to be given to breach of Faith but onely a beliefe grounded upon other mens saying that they know it supernaturally or that they know those that knew them that knew others that knew it supernaturally Breach of Faith cannot be called a Precept of Reason or Nature Others that allow for a Law of Nature the keeping of Faith do neverthelesse make exception of certain persons as Heretiques and such as use not to performe their Covenant to others And this also is against reason For if any fault of a man be sufficient to discharge our Covenant made the same ought in reason to have been sufficient to have hindred the making of it The names of Just and Injust when they are attributed to Men signifie one thing and when they are attributed to Actions another When they are attributed to Men they signifie Conformity or Inconformity of Manners to Reason But when they are attributed to Actions they signifie the Conformity or Inconformity to Reason not of Manners or manner of life but of particular Actions A Just man therefore is he that taketh all the care he can that his Actions may be all Just and an Unjust man is he that neglecteth it And such men are more often in our Language stiled by the names of Righteous and Unrighteous then Just and Unjust though the meaning be the same Therefore a Righteous man does not lose that Title by one or a few unjust Actions that proceed from sudden Passion or mistake of Things or Persons nor does an Unrighteous man lose his character for such Actions as he does or forbeares to do for feare because his Will is not framed by the Justice but by the apparent benefit of what he is to do That which gives to humane Actions the relish of Justice is a certain Noblenesse or Gallantnesse of courage rarely found by which a man scorns to be beholding for the contentment of his life to fraud or breach of promise This Justice of the Manners is that which is meant where Justice is called a Vertue and Injustice a Vice But the Justice of Actions denominates men not Just but Guiltlesse and the Injustice of the same which is also called Injury gives them but the name of Guilty Again the Injustice of Manners is the disposition or aptitude to do Injurie and is Injustice before it proceed to Act and without supposing any individuall person injured But the Injustice of an Action that is to say Injury supposeth an individuall person Injured namely him to whom the Covenant was made And therefore many times the injury is received by one man when the dammage redoundeth to another As when the Master commandeth his servant to give mony to a stranger if it be not done the Injury is done to the Master whom he had before Covenanted to obey but the dammage redoundeth to the stranger to whom he had no Obligation and therefore could not Injure him And so also in Common-wealths private men may remit to one another their debts but not robberies or other violences whereby they are endammaged becaâ—…se the detaining of Debt is an Injury to themselves but Robbery and Violence are Injuries to the Person of the Common-wealth Whatsoever is done to a man conformable to his own Will signied to the doer is no Injury to him For if he that doeth it hath not passed away his originall right to do what he please by some Antecedent Covenant there is no breach of Covenant and therefore no Injury done him And if he have then his Will to have it done being signified is a release of that Covenant and so again there is no Injury done him Justice of Actions is by Writers divided into Commutative and Distributive and the former they say consisteth in proportion Arithmeticall the later in proportion Geometricall Commutative therefore they place in the equality of value of the things contracted for And Distributive in the distribution of equall benefit to men of equall merit As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy or to give more to a man than he merits The value of all things contracted for is measured by the Appetite of the Contractors and therefore the just value is that which they be contented to give And Merit besides that which is by Covenant where the performance on one part meriteth the performance of the other part and falls under Justice Commutative not Distributive is not due by Justice but is rewarded of Grace onely And therefore this distinction in the sense wherein it useth to be expounded is not right To speak properly Commutative Justice is the Justice of a Contractor that is a Performance of Covenant in Buying and Selling Hiring and Letting to Hire Lending and Borrowing Exchanging Bartering and other acts of Contract And Distributive Justice the Justice of an Arbitrator that is to say the act of defining what is Just. Wherein being trusted by them that make him Arbitrator if he performe his Trust he is said to distribute to every man his own and this is indeed Just Distribution and may be called though improperly Distributive Justice but more properly Equity which also is a Law of Nature as shall be shewn in due place As Justice dependeth on Antecedent Covenant so does GRATITUDE depend on Antecedent Grace that is to say Antecedent Free-gift and is the fourth Law of Nature which may be conceived in this Forme That a man which receiveth Benefit from another of meer Grace Endeavour that he which giveth it have no reasonable cause to repent him of his good will For no man giveth but with intention of Good to himselfe because Gift is Voluntary and of all Voluntary Acts the Object is to every man his own Good of which if men see they shall be frustrated there will be no beginning of benevolence or trust nor consequently of mutuall help nor of reconciliation of one man to another and therefore they are to remain still in the condition of War which is contrary to the first and Fundamentall Law of Nature which commandeth men to Seck Peace The breach of this Law is called Ingratitude and hath the same relation to Grace that Injustice hath to Obligation by Covenant A fifth Law of Nature is COMPLEASANCE that is to say That every man strive to accommodate himselfe to the rest For the understanding whereof we may consider that there is in mens aptnesse to Society
them For it is a thing that dependeth not on Nature but on the scope of the Writer and is subservient to every mans proper method In the Institutions of Justinian we find seven sorts of Civill Lawes 1. The Edicts Constitutions and Epistles of the Prince that is of the Emperour because the whole power of the people was in him Like these are the Proclamations of the Kings of England 2. The Decrees of the whole people of Rome comprehending the Senate when they were put to the Question by the Senate These were Lawes at first by the vertue of the Soveraign Power residing in the people and such of them as by the Emperours were not abrogated remained Lawes by the Authority Imperiall For all Lawes that bind are understood to be Lawes by his authority that has power to repeale them Somewhat like to these Lawes are the Acts of Parliament in England 3. The Decrees of the Common people excluding the Senate when they were put to the question by the Tribune of the people For such of them as were not abrogated by the Emperours remained Lawes by the Authority Imperiall Like to these were the Orders of the House of Commons in England 4. Senatûs consulta the Orders of the Senate because when the people of Rome grew so numerous as it was inconvenient to assemble them it was thought fit by the Emperour that men should Consult the Senate in stead of the people And these have some resemblance with the Acts of Counsell 5. The Edicts of Praetors and in some Cases of the Aediles such as are the Chiefe Justices in the Courts of England 6. Responsa Prudentum which were the Sentences and Opinions of those Lawyers to whom the Emperour gave Authority to interpret the Law and to give answer to such as in matter of Law demanded their advice which Answers the Judges in giving Judgement were obliged by the Constitutions of the Emperour to observe And should be like the Reports of Cases Judged if other Judges be by the Law of England bound to observe them For the Judges of the Common Law of England are not properly Judges but Juris Consulti of whom the Judges who are either the Lords or Twelve men of the Country are in point of Law to ask advice 7. Also Unwritten Customes which in their own nature are an imitation of Law by the tacite consent of the Emperour in case they be not contrary to the Law of Nature are very Lawes Another division of Lawes is into Naturall and Positive Naturâ—…ll are those which have been Lawes from all Eternity and are called not onely Naturall but also Morall Lawes consisting in the Morall Vertues as Justice Equity and all habits of the mind that conduce to Peace and Charity of which I have already spoken in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters Positive are those which have not been from Eternity but have been made Lawes by the Will of those that have had the Soveraign Power over others and are either written or made known to men by some other argument of the Will of their Legislator Again of Positive Lawes some are Humane some Divine And of Humane positive lawes some are Distributive some Penal Distributive are those that determine the Rights of the Subjects declaring to every man what it is by which he acquireth and holdeth a propriety in lands or goods and a right or liberty of action and these speak to all the Subjects Penal are those which declare what Penalty shall be inflicted on those that violate the Law and speak to the Ministers and Officers ordained for execution For though every one ought to be informed of the Punishments ordained before-hand for their transgression neverthelesse the Command is not addressed to the Delinquent who cannot be supposed will faithfully punish himselfe but to publique Ministers appointed to see the Penalty executed And these Penal Lawes are for the most part written together with the Lawes Distributive and are sometimes called Judgements For all Lawes are generall Judgements or Sentences of the Legislator as also every particular Judgement is a Law to him whose case is Judged Divine Positive Lawes for Naturall Lawes being Eternall and Universall are all Divine are those which being the Commandements of God not from all Eternity nor universally addressed to all men but onely to a certain people or to certain persons are declared for such by those whom God hath authorised to declare them But this Authority of man to declare what be these Positive Lawes of God how can it be known God may command a man by a supernaturall way to deliver Lawes to other men But because it is of the essence of Law that he who is to be obliged be assured of the Authority of him that declareth it which we cannot naturally take notice to be from God How can a man without supernaturall Revelation be assured of the Revelation received by the declarer and how can he be bound to obey them For the first question how a man can be assured of the Revelation of another without a Revelation particularly to himselfe it is evidently impossible For though a man may be induced to believe such Revelation from the Miracles they see him doe or from seeing the Extraordinary sanctity of his life or from seeing the Extraordinary wisedome or Extraordinary felicity of his Actions all which are marks of God extraordinary favour yet they are not assured evidences of speciall Revelation Miracles are Marvellous workes but that which is marvellous to one may not be so to another Sanctity may be feigned and the visible felicities of this world are most often the work of God by Naturall and ordinary causes And therefore no man can infallibly know by naturall reason that another has had a supernaturall revelation of Gods will but only a beliefe every one as the signs thereof shall appear greater or lesser a firmer or a weaker belief But for the second how he can be bound to obey them it is not so hard For if the Law declared be not against the Law of Nature which is undoubtedly Gods Law and he undertake to obey it he is bound by his own act bound I say to obey it but not bound to believe it for mens beliefe and interiour cogitations are not subject to the commands but only to the operation of God ordinary or extraordinary Faith of Supernaturall Law is not a fulfilling but only an assenting to the same and not a duty that we exhibite to God but a gift which God freely giveth to whom he pleaseth as also Unbelief is not a breach of any of his Lawes but a rejection of them all except the Laws Naturall But this that I say will be made yet cleerer by the Examples and Testimonies concerning this point in holy Scripture The Covenant God made with Abraham in a Supernaturall manner was thus This is the Covenant which thou shalt observe between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee Abrahams Seed had
disturbance of the Peace of the Common-wealth Secondly by falsé Teachers that either mis-interpret the Law of Nature making it thereby repugnant to the Law Civill or by teaching for Lawes such Doctrines of their own or Traditions of former times as are inconsistent with the duty of a Subject Thirdly by Erroneous Inferences from True Principles which happens commonly to men that are hasty and praecipitate in concluding and resolving what to do such as are they that have both a great opinion of their own understanding and believe that things of this nature require not time and study but onely common experience and a good naturall wit whereof no man thinks himselfe unprovided whereas the knowledge of Right and Wrong which is no lesse difficult there is no man will pretend to without great and long study And of those defects in Reasoning there is none that can Excuse though some of them may Extenuate a Crime in any man that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge because they pretend to the Reason upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime one is Vain-glory or a foolish over-rating of their own worth as if difference of worth were an effect of their wit or riches or bloud or some other naturall quality not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority From whence proceedeth a Presumption that the punishments ordained by the Lawes and extended generally to all Subjects ought not to be inflicted on them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poore obscure and simple men comprehended under the name of the Vulgar Therefore it happeneth commonly that such as value themselves by the greatnesse of their wealth adventure on Crimes upon hope of escaping punishment by corrupting publique Justice or obtaining Pardon by Mony or other rewards And that such as have multitude of Potent Kindred and popular men that have gained reputation amongst the Multitude take courage to violate the Lawes from a hope of oppressing the Power to whom it belongeth to put them in execution And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own Wisedome take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the Authority of them that govern and so to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse as that nothing shall be a Crime but what their own designes require should be so It happeneth also to the same men to be prone to all such Crimes as consist in Craft and in deceiving of their Neighbours because they think their designes are too subtile to be perceived These I say are effects of a false presumption of their own Wisdome For of them that are the first movers in the disturbance of Common-wealth which can never happen without a Civill Warre very few are left alive long enough to see their new Designes established so that the benefit of their Crimes redoundeth to Posterity and such as would least have wished it which argues they were not so wise as they thought they were And those that deceive upon hope of not being observed do commonly deceive themselves the darknesse in which they believe they lye hidden being nothing else but their own blindnesse and are no wiser than Children that think all hid by hiding their own eyes And generally all vain-glorious men unlesse they be withall timorous are subject to Anger as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt the ordinary liberty of conversation And there are few Crimes that may not be produced by Anger As for the Passions of Hate Lust Ambition and Covetousnesse what Crimes they are apt to produce is so obvious to every mans experience and understanding as there needeth nothing to be said of them saving that they are infirmities so annexed to the nature both of man and all other living creatures as that their effects cannot be hindred but by extraordinary use of Reason or a constant severity in punishing them For in those things men hate they find a continuall and unavoydable molestation whereby either a mans patience must be everlasting or he must be eased by removing the power of that which molesteth him The former is difficult the later is many times impossible without some violation of the Law Ambition and Covetousnesse are Passions also that are perpetually incumbent and pressing whereas Reason is not perpetually present to resist them and therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears their effects proceed And for Lust what it wants in the lasting it hath in the vehemence which sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easie or uncertain punishments Of all Passions that which enclineth men least to break the Lawes is Fear Nay excepting some generous natures it is the onely thing when there is apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the Lawes that makes men keep them And yet in many cases a Crime may be committed through Feare For not every Fear justifies the Action it produceth but the fear onely of corporeall hurt which we call Bodily Fear and from which a man cannot see how to be delivered but by the action A man is assaulted fears present death from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him If he wound him to death this is no Crime because no man is supposed at the making of a Common-wealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbes where the Law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance But to kill a man because from his actions or his threatnings I may argue he will kill me when he can seeing I have time and means to demand protection from the Soveraign Power is a Crime Again a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries for which they that made the Lawes had assigned no punishment nor thought it worthy of a man that hath the use of Reason to take notice of and is afraid unlesse he revenge it he shall fall into contempt and consequently be obnoxious to the like injuries from others and to avoyd this breaks the Law and protects himselfe for the future by the terrour of his private revenge This is a Crime For the hurt is not Corporeall but Phantasticall and though in this corner of the world made sensible by a custome not many years since begun amongst young and vain men so light as a gallant man and one that is assured of his own courage cannot take notice of Also a man may stand in fear of Spirits either through his own superstition or through too much credit given to other men that tell him of strange Dreams and Visions and thereby be made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things which neverthelesse to do or omit is contrary to the Lawes And that which is so done or omitted is not to be Excused by this fear but is
ought to attribute to him Existence For no man can have the will to honour that which he thinks not to have any Beeing Secondly that those Philosophers who sayd the World or the Soule of the World was God spake unworthily of him and denyed his Existence For by God is understood the cause of the World and to say the World is God is to say there is no cause of it that is no God Thirdly to say the World was not Created but Eternall seeing that which is Eternall has no cause is to deny there is a God Fourthly that they who attributing as they think Ease to God take from him the care of Man-kind take from him his Honour for it takes away mens love and fear of him which is the root of Honour Fifthly in those things that signifie Greatnesse and Power to say he is Finite is not to Honour him For it is not a signe of the Will to Honour God to attribute to him lesse than we can and Finite is lesse than we can because to Finite it is easie to adde more Therefore to attribute Figure to him is not Honour for all Figure is Finite Nor to say we conceive and imagine or have an Idea of him in our mind for whatsoever we conceive is Finite Nor to attribute to him Parts or Totality which are the Attributes onely of things Finite Nor to say he is in this or that Place for whatsoever is in Place is bounded and Finite Nor that he is Moved or Resteth for both these Attributes ascribe to him Place Nor that there be more Gods than one because it implies them all Finite for there cannot be more than one Infinite Nor to ascribe to him unlesse Metaphorically meaning not the Passion but the Effect Passions that partake of Griefe as Repentance Anger Mercy or of Want as Appetite Hope Desire or of any Passive faculty For Passion is Power limited by somewhat else And therefore when we ascribe to God a Will it is not to be understood as that of Man for a Rationall Appetite but as the Power by which he effecteth every thing Likewise when we attribute to him Sight and other acts of Sense as also Knowledge and Understanding which in us is nothing else but a tumult of the mind raised by externall things that presse the organicall parts of mans body For there is no such thing in God and being things that depend on naturall causes cannot be attributed to him Hee that will attribute to God nothing but what is warranted by naturall Reason must either use such Negative Attributes as Infinite Eternall Incomprehensible or Superlatives as Most High most Great and the like or Indefinite as Good Just Holy Creator and in such sense as if he meant not to declare what he is for that were to circumscribe him within the limits of our Fancy but how much wee admire him and how ready we would be to obey him which is a signe of Humility and of a Will to honour him as much as we can For there is but one Name to signifie our Conception of his Nature and that is I AM and but one Name of his Relation to us and that is God in which is contained Father King and Lord. Concerning the actions of Divine Worship it is a most generall Precept of Reason that they be signes of the Intention to Honour God such as are First Prayers For not the Carvers when they made Images were thought to make them Gods but the People that Prayed to them Secondly Thanksgiving which differeth from Prayer in Divine Worship no otherwise than that Prayers precede and Thanks succeed the benefit the end both of the one and the other being to acknowledge God for Author of all benefits as well past as future Thirdly Gifts that is to say Sacrifices and Oblations if they be of the best are signes of Honour for they are Thanksgivings Fourthly Not to swear by any but God is naturally a signe of Honour for it is a confession that God onely knoweth the heart and that no mans wit or strength can protect a man against Gods vengeance on the perjured Fifthly it is a part of Rationall Worship to speak Considerately of God for it argues a Fear of him and Fear is a confession of his Power Hence followeth That the name of God is not to be used rashly and to no purpose for that is as much as in Vain And it is to no purpose unlesse it be by way of Oath and by order of the Common-wealth to make Judgements certain or between Common-wealths to avoyd Warre And that disputing of Gods nature is contrary to his Honour For it is supposed that in this naturall Kingdome of God there is no other way to know any thing but by naturall Reason that is from the Principles of naturall Science which are so farre from teaching us any thing of Gods nature as they cannot teach us our own nature nor the nature of the smallest creature living And therefore when men out of the Principlès of naturall Reason dispute of the Attributes of God they but dishonour him For in the Attributes which we give to God we are not to consider the signification of Philosophicall Truth but the signification of Pious Intention to do him the greatest Honour we are able From the want of which consideration have proceeded the volumes of disputation about the Nature of God that tend not to his Honour but to the honour of our own wits and learning and are nothing else but inconsiderate and vain abuses of his Sacred Name Sixthly in Prayers Thanksgiving Offerings and Sacrifices it is a Dictate of naturall Reason that they be every one in his kind the best and most significant of Honour As for example that Prayers and Thanksgiving be made in Words and Phrases not sudden nor light nor Plebeian but beautifull and well composed For else we do not God as much honour as we can And therefore the Heathens did absurdly to worship Images for Gods But their doing it in Verse and with Musick both of Voyce and Instruments was reasonable Also that the Beasts they offered in sacrifice and the Gifts they offered and their actions in Worshipping were full of submission and commemorative of benefits received was according to reason as proceeding from an intention to honour him Seventhly Reason directeth not onely to worship God in Secret but also and especially in Publique and in the sight of men For without that that which in honour is most acceptable the procuring others to honour him is lost Lastly Obedience to his Lawes that is in this case to the Lawes of Nature is the greatest worship of all For as Obedience is more acceptable to God than Sacrifice so also to set light by his Commandements is the greatest of all contumelies And these are the Lawes of that Divine Worship which naturall Reason dictateth to private men But seeing a Common-wealth is but one Person it ought also to exhibite
should not violate our Faith that is a commandement to obey our Civill Soveraigns which wee constituted over us by mutuall pact one with another And this Law of God that commandeth Obedience to the Law Civill commandeth by consequence Obedience to all the Precepts of the Bible which as I have proved in the precedent Chapter is there onely Law where the Civill Soveraign hath made it so and in other places but Counsell which a man at his own perill may without injustice refuse to obey Knowing now what is the Obedience Necessary to Salvation and to whom it is due we are to consider next concerning Faith whom and why we beleeve and what are the Articles or Points necessarily to be beleeved by them that shall be saved And first for the Person whom we beleeve because it is impossible to beleeve any Person before we know what he saith it is necessary he be one that wee have heard speak The Person therefore whom Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and the Prophets beleeved was God himself that spake unto them supernaturally And the Person whom the Apostles and Disciples that conversed with Christ beleeved was our Saviour himself But of them to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spake it cannot be said that the Person whom they beleeved was God They beleeved the Apostles and after them the Pastors and Doctors of the Church that recommended to their faith the History of the Old and New Testament so that the Faith of Christians ever since our Saviours time hath had for foundation first the reputation of their Pastors and afterward the authority of those that made the Old and New Testament to be received for the Rule of Faith which none could do but Christian Soveraignes who are therefore the Supreme Pastors and the onely Persons whom Christians now hear speak from God except such as God speaketh to in these days supernaturally But because there be many false Prophets gone out into the world other men are to examine such Spirits as St. Iohn adviseth us 1 Epistle Chap. 4. ver 1. whether they be of God or not And therefore seeing the Examination of Doctrines belongeth to the Supreme Pastor the Person which all they that have no speciall revelation are to beleeve is in every Common-wealth the Supreme Pastor that is to say the Civill Soveraigne The causes why men beleeve any Christian Doctrine are various For Faith is the gift of God and he worketh it in each severall man by such wayes as it seemeth good unto himself The most ordinary immediate cause of our beleef concerning any point of Christian Faith is that wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God But why wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God is much disputed as all questions must needs bee that are not well stated For they make not the question to be Why we Beleeve it but How wee Know it as if Beleeving and Knowing were all one And thence while one side ground their Knowledge upon the Infallibility of the Church and the other side on the Testimony of the Private Spirit neither side concludeth what it pretends For how shall a man know the Infallibility of the Church but by knowing first the Infallibility of the Scripture Or how shall a man know his own Private spirit to be other than a beleef grounded upon the Authority and Arguments of his Teachers or upon a Presumption of his own Gifts Besides there is nothing in the Scripture from which can be inferred the Infallibility of the Church much lesse of any particular Church and least of all the Infallibility of any particular man It is manifest therefore that Christian men doe not know but onely beleeve the Scripture to be the Word of God and that the means of making them beleeve which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily is according to the way of Nature that is to say from their Teachers It is the Doctrine of St. Paul concerning Christian Faith in generall Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing that is by Hearing our lawfull Pastors He saith also ver 14 15. of the same Chapter How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach except they be sent Whereby it is evident that the ordinary cause of beleeving that the Scriptures are the Word of God is the same with the cause of the beleeving of all other Articles of our Faith namely the Hearing of those that are by the Law allowed and appointed to Teach us as our Parents in their Houses and our Pastors in the Churches Which also is made more manifest by experience For what other cause can there bee assigned why in Christian Common-wealths all men either beleeve or at least professe the Scripture to bee the Word of God and in other Common-wealths scarce any but that in Christian Common-wealths they are taught it from their infancy and in other places they are taught otherwise But if Teaching be the cause of Faith why doe not all beleeve It is certain therefore that Faith is the gift of God and hee giveth it to whom he will Neverthelesse because to them to whom he giveth it he giveth it by the means of Teachers the immediate cause of Faith is Hearing In a School where many are taught and some profit others profit not the cause of learning in them that profit is the Master yet it cannot be thence inferred that learning is not the gift of God All good things proceed from God yet cannot all that have them say they are Inspired for that implies a gift supernaturall and the immediate hand of God which he that pretends to pretends to be a Prophet and is subject to the examination of the Church But whether men Know or Beleeve or Grant the Scriptures to be the Word of God if out of such places of them as are without obscurity I shall shew what Articles of Faith are necessary and onely necessary for Salvation those men must needs Know Beleeve or Grant the same The Vnum Necessarium Onely Article of Faith which the Scripture maketh simply Necessary to Salvation is this that JESUS IS THE CHRIST By the name of Christ is understood the King which God had before promised by the Prophets of the Old Testament to send into the world to reign over the Jews and over such of other nations as should beleeve in him under himself eternally and to give them that eternall life which was lost by the sin of Adam Which when I have proved out of Scripture I will further shew when and in what sense some other Articles may bee also called Necessary For Proof that the Beleef of this Article Iesus is the Christ is all the Faith required to Salvation my first Argument shall bee from the Scope of the Evangelists which was by the description of the life of our Saviour to establish that one
for the future but also an Approbation of all their actions past when there is scarce a Common-wealth in the world whose beginnings can in conscience be justified And because the name of Tyranny signifieth nothing more nor lesse than the name of Soveraignty be it in one or many men saving that they that use the former word are understood to bee angry with them they call Tyrants I think the toleration of a professed hatred of Tyranny is a Toleration of hatred to Common-wealth in generall and another evill seed not differing much from the former For to the Justification of the Cause of a Conqueror the Reproach of the Cause of the Conquered is for the most part necessary but neither of them necessary for the Obligation of the Conquered And thus much I have thought fit to say upon the Review of the first and second part of this Discourse In the 35. Chapter I have sufficiently declared out of the Scripture that in the Common-wealth of the Jewes God himselfe was made the Soveraign by Pact with the People who were therefore called his Peculiar People to distinguish them from the rest of the world over whom God reigned not by their Consent but by his own Power And that in this Kingdome Moses was Gods Lieutenant on Earth and that it was he that told them what Laws God appointed them to be ruled by But I have omitted to set down who were the Officers appointed to doe Execution especially in Capitall Punishments not then thinking it a matter of so necessary consideration as I find it since Wee know that generally in all Common-wealths the Execution of Corporeall Punishments was either put upon the Guards or other Souldiers of the Soveraign Power or given to those in whom want of means contempt of honour and hardnesse of heart concurred to make them sue for such an Office But amongst the Israelites it was a Positive Law of God their Soveraign that he that was convicted of a capitall Crime should be stoned to death by the People and that the Witnesses should cast the first Stone and after the Witnesses then the rest of the People This was a Law that designed who were to be the Executioners but not that any one should throw a Stone at him before Conviction and Sentence where the Congregation was Judge The Witnesses were neverthelesse to be heard before they proceeded to Execution unlesse the Fact were committed in the presence of the Congregation it self or in sight of the lawfull Judges for then there needed no other Witnesses but the Judges themselves Neverthelesse this manner of proceeding being not throughly understood hath given occasion to a dangerous opinion that any man may kill another in some cases by a Right of Zeal as if the Executions done upon Offenders in the Kingdome of God in old time proceeded not from the Soveraign Command but from the Authority of Private Zeal which if we consider the texts that seem to favour it is quite contrary First where the Levites fell upon the People that had made and worshipped the Golden Calfe and slew three thousand of them it was by the Commandement of Moses from the mouth of God as is manifest Exod. 32. 27. And when the Son of a woman of Israel had blasphemed God they that heard it did not kill him but brought him before Moses who put him under custody till God should give Sentence against him as appears Levit. 25. 11 12. Again Numbers 25. 6 7. when Phinehas killed Zimri and Cosbi it was not by right of Private Zeale Their Crime was committed in the sight of the Assembly there needed no Witnesse the Law was known and he the heir apparent to the Soveraignty and which is the principall point the Lawfulnesse of his Act depended wholly upon a subsequent Ratification by Moses whereof he had no cause to doubt And this Presumption of a future Ratification is sometimes necessary to the safety a Common-wealth as in a sudden Rebellion any man that can suppresse it by his own Power in the Countrey where it begins without expresse Law or Commission may lawfully doe it and provide to have it Ratified or Pardoned whilest it is in doing or after it is done Also Numb 35. 30. it is expressely said Whosoever shall kill the Murtherer shall kill him upon the word of Witnesses but Witnesses suppose a formall Judicature and consequently condemn that pretence of Ius Zelotarum The Law of Moses concerning him that enticeth to Idolatry that is to say in the Kingdome of God to a renouncing of his Allegiance Deut. 13. 8. forbids to conceal him and commands the Accuser to cause him to be put to death and to cast the first stone at him but not to kill him before he be Condemned And Deut. 17. ver 4 5 6. the Processe against Idolatry is exactly set down For God there speaketh to the People as Judge and commandeth them when a man is Accused of Idolatry to Enquire diligently of the Fact and finding it true then to Stone him but still the hand of the Witnesse throweth the first stone This is not Private Zeale but Publique Condemnation In like manner when a Father hath a rebellious Son the Law is Deut. 21. 18. that he shall bring him before the Judges of the Town and all the people of the Town shall Stone him Lastly by pretence of these Laws it was that St. Steven was Stoned and not by pretence of Private Zeal for before hee was carried away to Execution he had Pleaded his Cause before the High Priest There is nothing in all this nor in any other part of the Bible to countenance Executions by Private Zeal which being oftentimes but a conjunction of Ignorance and Passion is against both the Justice and Peace of a Common-wealth In the 36. Chapter I have said that it is not declared in what manner God spake supernaturally to Moses Not that he spake not to him sometimes by Dreams and Visions and by a supernaturall Voice as to other Prophets For the manner how he spake unto him from the Mercy-Seat is expressely set down Numbers 7. 89. in these words From that time forward when Moses entred into the Tabernacle of the Congregation to speak with God he heard a Voice which spake unto him from over the Mercy-Seate which is over the Arke of the Testimony from between the Cherubins he spake unto him But it is not declared in what consisted the praeeminence of the manner of Gods speaking to Moses above that of his speaking to other Prophets as to Samuel and to Abraham to whom he also spake by a Voice that is by Vision Unlesse the difference consist in the cleernesse of the Vision For Face to Face and Mouth to Mouth cannot be literally understood of the Infinitenesse and Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature And as to the whole Doctrine I see not yet but the Principles of it are true and proper and the Ratiocination solid For I ground the Civill Right
Redemption Church the Lords house Ecclesia properly what Acts 19. 39. In what sense the Church is one Person Church defined A Christian Common-wealth and a Church all one The Soveraign Rights of Abraham Abraham had the sole power of ordering the Religion of his own people No pretence of Private Spirit against the Religion of Abraham Abraham sole Judge and Interpreter of what God spake The authority of Moses whereon grounded John 5. 31. Moses was under God Soveraign of the Jews all his own time though Aaron had the Priesthood All spirits were subordinate to the spirit of Moses After Moses the Soveraignty was in the High Priest Of the Soveraign power between the time of Joshua and of Saul Of the Rights of the Kings of Israel The practice of Supremacy in Religion was not in the time of the Kings according to the Right thereof 2 Chro. 19. 2. After the Captivity the Iews â—…ad no setled Common-wealth Three parts of the Office of Christ. His Office as a Redeemer Christs Kingdome not of this woâ—…ld The End of Christs comming was to renew the Covenant of the Kingdome of God and to perswade the Elect to imbrace it which was the second part of his Office The preaching of Christ not contrary to the then law of the Iews nor of Caesar. The third part of his Office was to be King under his Father of the Elect. Christs authority in the Kingdome of God subordinate to that of his Father One and the same God is the Person represented by Moses and by Christ. Of the Holy Spirit that fel on the Apostles Of the Trinity The Power Ecclesiasticall is but the power to teach An argument thereof the Power of Christ himself From the name of Regeneration From the compariâ—…on of it with Fishing Leaven Seed Fâ—…om the nature of 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1. 24. From the Authority Christ hath lâ—…st to Civill Princes What Christians may do to avoid persecution Of Martyrs Argument from the points of their Commission To Preach And Teach To Baptize And to Forgive and Retain Sinnes Mat. 18. 15 16 17. Of Excommunication The use of Excommunication without Civill Power Acts 9. 2. Of no effect upon an Apostate But upon the faithfull only For what fault lyeth Excommunication Ofpersons liaable to Excommunication 1 Sam. 8. Of the Interpreter of the Scriptures before Civil Soveraigns became Christians Of the Power to make Scripture Law Of the Ten Commandements Of the Iudiciall and Leviticall Law The Second Law * 1 Kings 14 26. The Old Testament when made Canonicall The New Testament began to be Canonicall under Christian Soveraigns Of the Power of Councells to make the Scriptures Law John 3. 36. John 3. 18. Of the Right of constituting Ecclesiasticall Officers in the time of the Apostles Matthias made Apostle by the Congregation Paul and Barnabas made Apostles by the Church of Antioch What Offices in the Church are Magisteriall Ordination of Teachers Ministers of the Church what And how chosen Of Ecclesiasticall Revenue under the Law of Moses In our Saviours time and after Mat. 10. 9 10. * Acts 4. 34. The Ministers of the Gospel lived on the Benevolence of their flocks 1 Cor. 9. 13. That the Civill Soveraign being a Christian hath the Right of appointing Pastors The Pastor all Authority of Soveraigns only is de Jure Divino that of other Pastors is Jure Civili Christian Kings have Power to execute all manner of Pastoral function * John 4. 2. * 1 Cor. 1. 14 16. * 1 Câ—…r 1. 17. The Civill Soveraigne if a Christian is head of the Church in his own Dominions Cardinal Bellarmines Books De Summo Pontifice considered The first book The second Book The third Book * Dan. 9. 27. The fourth Book Texts for the Infaâ—…ibility of the Popes Judgement in points of Faith Texts for the same in point of Manners The question of Superiority between the Pope and other Bishops Of the Popes â—…mporall Power The difficulty of obeying God and Man both at once Is none to them that distinguish between what is and what is not Necessary to Salvation All that is Necessary to Salvation is contained in Faith and Obedience What Obedience is Necessary And to what Laws In the Faith of a Christian who is the Person beleeved The causes of Christian Faith Faith comes by Hearing The onely Necessary Article of Christian Faith Proved from the Scope of the Evangelists From the Sermons of the Apostles From the Easinesse of the Doctrine From formall â—…ud cleer texts From that it is the Foundation of all other Articles 2 Pet. 3. v. 7 10 12. In what sense other Articles may be called Nâ—…cessary That Faith and Obedience are both of them Necessary to Salvation What each of them contributes thereunto Obedience to God and to the Civill Soveraign not inconsistent whether Christian Or Infidel The Kingdom of Darknesse what * Eph. 6. 12. * Mat. 12. 26. * Mat. 9. 34. * Eph. 2. 2. * Joh. 16. 11. The Church not yet fully â—…reed of Darknesse Four Causes of Spirituall Darknesse Errors from misinterpreting the Scriptures concerning the Kingdome of God As that the Kingdome of God is the present Church And that the Pope is his Vicar generall And that the Pastors are the Clergy Error from mistaking Consecration for Conjuration Incantation in the Ceremonies of Baptisme And in Marriage in Visitation of the Sick and in Consecration of Places Errors from mistaking Eternall Life and Everlasting Death As the Doctrine of Purgatory and Exorcismes and Invocation of Saints The Texts alledged for the Doctrines aforementioned have been answered before Answer to the text on which Beza inferreth that the Kingdome of Christ began at the Resurrection Explication of the Place in Mark 9. 1. Abuse of some other texts in defence of the Power of the Pope The manner of Consecrations in the Scripture was without Exorcisms The immortality of mans Soule not proved by Scripture to be of Nature but of Grace Eternall Torments what Answer of the Texts alledged for Purgatory Places of the New Testament for Purgatory answered Baptisme for the Dead how understood The Originall of Daemonclogy What were the Daemons of the Ancients How that Doctrine was spread How far received by the Jews John 8. 52. Why our Saviour controlled it not The Scriptures doe not teach that Spirits are Incorporeall The Power of Casting out Devills not the same it was in the Primitive Church Another relique of Gentilisme Worshipping of Images left in the Church not brought into it Answer to certain seeming texts for Images What is Worship Distinction between Divine and Civill Worship An Image what Phantasmes Fictions Materiall Images Idolatry what Scandalous worship of Images Answer 〈◊〉 the Argument from the Cherubins and Brazen Serpent * Exod. 32. 2. * Gen. 31. 30. Painting of Fancies no Idolatry but abusing them to Religious Worship is How Idolatry was left in the Church Canonizing of Saints The name of Pontifex Procession of Images Wax Candles and Torches lighted What Philosophy is Prudence no part of Philosophy No false Doctrine is part of Philosophy No more is Revelation supernaturall Nor learning taken upon credit of Authors Of the Beginnings and Progresse of Philosophy Of the Schools of Philosophy amongst the Athenians Of the Schools of the Jews The Schoole of the Graecians unprofitable The Schools of the Jews unprofitable University what it is Errors brought into Religion from Aristotles Metaphysiques Errors concerning Abstract Essences Nunc-stans One Body in many places and many Bodies in one place at once Absurdities in naturall Philosopy as Gravity the Cause of Heavinesse Quantity put into Body already made Powring in of Soules Ubiquity of Apparition Will the Cause of Willing Ignorance an occult Cause One makes the things incongruent another the Incongruity Private Appetite the rule of Publique good And that lawfull Marriage is Unchastity And that all Government but Popular is Tyranny That not Men but Law governs Laws over the Conscience Private Interpretation of Law Language of Schoole-Divines Errors from Tradition Suppression of Reason He that receiveth Benefit by a Fact is presumed to be the Author That the â—…hurch Militant is the Kingdome of God was first taught by the Church of Rome And maintained also by the Presbytery Infallibility Subjection of Bishops Exemptions of the Clergy The names of Saceâ—…dotes and Sacriâ—… The Sacramentation of Marriage The single life of Priests Auricular Confession Canonization of Saints and declaring of Martyrs Transubstantiation Pennance Absolution Purgatory Indulgences Externall works Daemonology and Exorcism School-Divinity The Authors of spirituall Darknesse who they be Comparison of the Papacy with the Kingdome of Fayries