Beings but is the Fountain of whatsoever is either dreadful or lovely in them hence it comes to pass that to own him for our God we are consequently to fear and love all other things with respect to the Divine Majesty from whom they derive their several Excellencies at the same time we fear or love them looking up to the Almighty and regarding them not so much for themselves as for that Majesty and Goodness which it pleas'd the Almighty to imprint upon them PART VI. How we may and ought to own God in our Bodies This done first by yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him Of which number are those concerning Invocation Praise Swearing by or Vowing to him The like effected by presenting God with external Notes of our Submission whether they be such as are performed within the Body as Bowing Kneeling and the like or such as though the Body be instrumental to yet pass from thence to other things Such as are the Building or Adorning of Temples and the setting apart certain Times for God's Worship and Service the Consecrating of certain Persons to preside in it and respecting them when they are so HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourses what Tribute is due to God from our Souls and particularly from our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections which are the several Faculties thereof it remains that we inquire 2. What Tribute is due to him from our Bodies and how we are to own him for our God in them Which is either 1. By yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him or 2. By presenting him with some external Note or Sign of our Submission The former whereof is by some call'd the Honour of the Deed the latter the Honour of the Sign I. Of the former of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is requir'd of us toward the owning him for our God For beside that the Name of God is a Name of Authority as well as Eminency and consequently implieth a necessity of Obedience in those to whom he hath that Relation God himself doth here make use of it as an Obligation to all those Commandments which we are now upon the consideration of he requiring our having no other Gods besides himself with other the Duties that follow upon the score of his being the Lord our God according as was before observ'd in his Preface to the Imposition of them But so that I may not stand upon a thing so plain doth that Lord of ours expresly require us to own him our Saviour putting by the Temptations of Satan to fall down before himself by saying It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him yea him onely shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 Now though what hath been said extend to all God's Commands because they all bear the stamp of his Authority yet is it especially to be understood of yielding Obedience to such Commands as have a more immediate aspect upon God these more immediately implying the owning of that Authority he hath over the Sons of Men. For the fuller declaration therefore of our own Duty in this behalf I will now set those Commands before you and shew how we own him for our God by yielding Obedience to them 1. To begin with Invocation or Praeyer one of the prime Acts of God's Worship and which therefore is of all others the most frequently and earnestly inculcated concerning which it is easie to shew how necessary it is to pay him the acknowledgment of a God For inasmuch as all Men desire the Preservation of their own Being inasmuch as that desire necessarily prompts them to look abroad for it if they think not themselves able to procure it in case any Man do not thus seek it of God it must be because he doth not believe it to come from him but either from himself or from meer Natural Causes But what other is this than to deny that God from whom every good and perfect gift cometh and to make a God either of ones self or Nature There being nothing more essential to the Divine Nature than the being the Author of all those Blessings by which the whole Creation is either maintain'd or adorn'd The same is to be said of that which is sometime reckon'd as a part of Prayer because a necessary attendant of it that is to say of giving Thanks to him for those Blessings by which we are at any time made happy He who refuseth thus to honour God in effect denying the coming of them from him because Nature it self hath taught us to make this return wheresoever we have been oblig'd If there be any thing farther to be observ'd concerning these two Acknowledgments it will fall in more pertinently when we come to entreat of The Prayer of our Lord to which therefore I shall reserve the consideration of it 2. From Prayer and Thanksgiving therefore pass we to Praise another Act of Adoration and no less frequently enjoyn'd And no wonder if we consider either the end for which the Tongue was given or its aptness to set forth the Excellencies of the Almighty For as if we consider the practice of Holy Men it may seem to have been given for nothing more than for commemorating the Excellencies of the Divine Nature so by the variety of its Expressions it is fitted to set forth all those Excellencies of which the Divine Nature is compos'd as neither wanting Words to express his Justice and Mercy and the like nor yet that which makes them more Divine the Infiniteness thereof 3. To Praising the Divine Majesty subjoyn we Swearing by him another Act of Adoration and no less expresly requir'd for so we find the Prophet Moses distinctly commanding and that too in the same Period where he prescribes his Fear and Service for thou shalt fear the Lord thy God saith he and serve him and swear by his Name Deut. 6.13 And indeed if we consider the nature of an Oath we shall not in the least doubt of the manner of our owning him for our God by it For an Oath being nothing else than the calling God to witness to the Truth of what we affirm he that swears by him doth not onely acknowledge God to be superior to himself but also to be a Witness of infallible Truth a Searcher of our Hearts and a most just and powerful Avenger of all Perjury and Falshood no one appealing to a Witness that is not of greater Authority than himself and with much less reason for the sincerity of his own Affirmations but where that sincerity may be known or any deviation from it be punish'd if he transgress it For what satisfaction could an Oath be to any Man if Men did not presume God to be an Avenger of Perjury and Falshood as well as a Discerner of the Truth And accordingly as for the most part such Clauses as this are generally
that is to say of thinking honourably of and expressing it in our words and gestures as moreover no question hath or can be made of that part of Honour which hath the name of Piety because Children must generally be supposed both to be of years and of a distinct Family before they can be in a capacity to relieve their Parents so as little question would be made of Obedience if men did but consider that the principal ground of it doth always abide for it being alike true at all times that the one is thy Father that begot thee and the other thy Mother that conceiv'd thee it must be alike true because that is the ground of thy Obedience that thou art always to give obedience to their commands If therefore Children be at any time free from the tie of Honour it must be as to the manner or measure which accordingly I come now to consider Thus for instance Though Reverence be always due from us to our Parents and accordingly hath by good Children been always paid to them yet there is no necessity it should be express'd after the same manner by one of full age as by one who is still under Pupillage because the same gestures become not one of full age that are suitable enough to the tenderness of the other Whence it is that though Children in their minority are always bare before their Parents yet those of Riper age have by a general custom which must be judge of matters of this nature been indulg'd a greater liberty as to that particular even by the consent of Parents themselves In like manner that I may instance in the measure Though Children dwelling in their Parents houses and under their power be to yield Obedience to all their commands and particularly those that concern the Family whereof they are Members whence it is that we find the Father in the Parable Mat. 21.28 commanding his Sons to go and work in his Vineyard yet there is not the same tie upon those that are sent out of it that have a Wife and Family of their own to provide for that are delivered over to the tuition of other persons or in fine have any publick charge upon them Not upon those that are sent out of the Family because as sent out with their leave so of necessity to intend their own proper Affairs Not upon those Children that have a Wife and Family of their own to provide for because beside the foremention'd reason by the command of God himself to forsake Father and Mother and cleave unto their Wives Gen. 2.24 The same is to be said much more of Daughters when Married because not only equally oblig'd to cleave to their Husbands but also subjected to their commands Whence it is that when Pharaoh's Daughter was brought to be a Wife to Solomon we find her exhorted to forget her own people and her Fathers house and to look upon and worship Solomon as her Lord Psal 45.10 11. But neither thirdly is there the same tie upon Children that are subjected to the Tuition of others as to those that are under their Fathers roof and power as will appear if we consider them as made Servants to another or pass'd over into another Family by Adoption for being by the Parents consent subjected to other Masters or Fathers they are now no more theirs who gave them Being but those Masters or adopted Fathers to whom they are so transferr'd This only would be added That as the Children spoken of in the former Instances are only free from their Fathers commands by means of those new Relations they have contracted so they are consequently no farther free from yielding Obedience to their Fathers commands than the necessity of serving those Relations doth exact And therefore if a Son or Daughter that is sent abroad to intend their own Affairs or one that is entred into Marriage or made a Servant or a Son and Daughter by Adoption if I say any of these have opportunity and power to serve their natural Parents there is no doubt they ought to do so no less than those who continue under their Roof For the exception of their obedience being only in regard to those new Relations they have contracted according to that known Rule of the Lawyers Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis it must strengthen the tie of Obedience where those Relations do no way hinder The only Children to be accounted for are such as have a publick charge upon them whether in the Church or in the State For though Children are not to enter into these without the consent of their Parents if under their Fathers Tuition or at least not without the call of their and their Fathers Superiours yet being entred they are in reason to prefer the discharge of their Place before any Commands of their Father the Private Good being in reason to yield to the Publick the Commands of Parents to those of Kings and Princes Onely as if the Child can without the neglect or debasement of his Charge fulfil his Fathers Commands there is no doubt he is oblig'd so to do so there is so much of Authority in the Name of a Father that no Dignity whatsoever will make a good Son forget it where it is not contrary to a more important Concern 5. The Duty of Honour being thus explain'd and shewn in what manner and measure it is incumbent upon Children it may not be amiss to subjoyn somewhat concerning Fear and Love which I have said to be also a part of their Duty Onely because they are rather Accessaries than Principal parts of Childrens Duties I will be so much the shorter in describing the Obligation they have upon them That we are to fear our Father and Mother the Scripture hath told us Lev. 19.3 and not without cause if we consider either that it is a part of Honour or that there is in Parents a just Object of it For as Fear is a confession of the Power of those whom we have such an apprehension of so there is Power enough in Parents to excite that Passion in us and make us as well to dread as esteem them Of this nature is first the Power of Chastisement whether as to the Body or Possessions of the Son For as I shall afterwards shew that Parents have Authority to inflict either so Experience makes it evident that they want not Power especially as to the latter Chastisement it being ordinarily in the power of Parents to withhold their Possessions from such as are disobedient to them But of all the things we are to fear in a Parent there is certainly nothing more requiring it than the Power they have with God to procure a greater Punishment of our Disobedience than they themselves are able to inflict For though as the Scripture speaks the Curse causeless shall not come yet both Reason and Experience warrant us to believe that the Curses of Parents shall not be without effect where they
proceed upon a just Cause For be it which is true enough that such Curses are not lightly to be us'd be it that generally they are not suitable either to the Tenderness of a Father or the Spirit of the Gospel which will render them so much the more unlikely to have effect yet as it is evident from St. Paul's denouncing a Curse against Simon Magus and Alexander the Coppersmith that Superiours are not wholly forbid the use of them so that it is not improper for Fathers towards their disobedient Children their being a kind of Gods to us may serve for abundant evidence But then if we add thereto Noah's cursing the Posterity of Cham for making a mock of his Nakedness and that Effect which it had upon them in after-times if we moreover reflect * Jer. Taylor Duct Dubit l. 3. c. 5. Rule 1. upon the sad Examples which Heathen Stories have represented to us in the Children of Oedipus Amintor and Theseus who grew miserable upon their Fathers Curses lastly if we add that the same thing was observ'd by the Jews one of whom even the Son of Sirach observes that the Curse of the Mother rooteth out Foundations Ecclus. 3.10 so we shall not need to doubt of the Effect of their Curses and therefore neither of their being the Object of our Fear For if as the Greek Poet observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Curses of Parents are grievous upon the Earth we have reason enough to fear lest their Curses should sometime fall upon our Heads The onely thing worthy our farther inquiry is how this Fear of ours ought to be express'd which is in short by our carefulness to please them in all things For as by so doing we shall best declare the Fear we have of them Fear naturally prompting Men to seek the Favour of those they have such an apprehension of so we shall thereby secure our selves from the Effects of their Displeasure and which is more to be dreaded from the Effects of that of God From the Duty of Fear pass we to that of Love which we shall find to be no less incumbent upon us than the former as because our Saviour hath reduc'd the Whole of the Law to Love so because our Parents are of all others the justest Object of it Witness the extraordinary Love they have naturally for us their many and weighty and constant Demonstrations of it their taking care of us when we are not able to provide for themselves their continuing that care over us even when we are their furnishing us from time to time with all things necessary for our Temporal Happiness their instilling into our Minds what may make for our Eternal one their bearing with the weakness and peevishness of our Infancy and Childhood their enduring with much long-suffering the disobedience and stubbornness of our riper Years lastly their perpetual fears lest any Evil should betide us their frequent and importunate Prayers to avert any Evil from us For as out of the Bowels of a Parent such a Love will hardly be met with though you should search for it even in the most tender and affectionate ones whence it is that God to commend the Love he hath to us doth for the most part assume to himself the Person of a Father so for a recompence in the same as St. Paul speaks it is but requisite that our Hearts should be equally enlarged and express it self in the same or the like Instances that is to say in providing for them when they are not able to provide for themselves in endeavouring to lessen their Care and Trouble when they in some measure are in bearing with the weaknesses and peevishness of their declining Years in doing what in us lies either to remove or abate them in furnishing them when they lie upon their Sick-beds with our Assistance and Comfort in supplying the defects of our Endeavours by begging the Aid of the Divine lastly in giving them the satisfaction of seeing their Care and Labour successfully employ'd whilst they behold those for whom they have thus labour'd travelling equally for their Happiness and reflecting back upon them that kindly Heat which they sometime gave So doing we shall at the same time give a proof both of our Love and of our Honour pay them the Affection which is due to the Bowels of a Father and a Mother and the Respect which belongs to their Authority Now though if we look no further than the Person of our Parents what hath been already said concerning their Fear and Love and Honour will comprehend within the compass of it the whole of our Duty to them yet because a Man may be lov'd and honour'd in his Relations and Dependents as well as in his own proper Person and in like manner hated and despis'd hence it comes to pass that to complete our Duty we are to extend our Love and Honour unto them according as their several Relations do exact The sequel whereof will be 1. The paying Honour unto those which stand upon the same Level with our Parents Thus for instance though an Uncle or an Aunt can claim no Reverence or Love by vertue of the Letter of this Commandment yet inasmuch as they are the Brothers and Sisters of my Father or Mother and the Sons and Daughters of the same Common Parents if I either love or honour my Parents or theirs I must afford these a portion of it because of their near Relation In like manner though a Mother-in-law can claim no Reverence or Love of her self because none of the Stock from whence I came yet a Regard is due to her as being made one with him whom this Commandment requires me to revere Which Particular I the rather observe because contrary to all right those are usually both hated and despis'd For how can he honour his Father who despises the one half of him yea such a one as by the Laws of God and Man is become one Person with him 2. Again As Love and Honour is due to those who stand upon the same Level with my Parents by reason of their Proximity to them so an Affection though not an Honour is due from us to our Brethren and Sisters because descended from the same Common Parents and no less the Object of their Love To whom therefore as it concerns me to shew my self affectionate if I would oblige my Parents so if I shew my self churlish to them I wound my Parents Bowels through their Sides if those Parents be yet alive but if they be not their Honour 3. It is to be observ'd thirdly as the result of the foremention'd Principle That though the same Love be not due to Cousins and other remoter Kindred that is to Brethren and Sisters yet there is a Love due to them by reason of those Common Grandfathers and Great-grandfathers from whom both they and we are descended For inasmuch as they though at a greater distance contributed to our Being and consequently
they shall think fit to continue it and because that their Censure is in order to our Amendment give them such Proofs of our Sorrow and Repentance as may oblige them to receive us again into the Bosom of that Church out of which we have been ejected for our disorderliness 2. Now though it were to be wish'd that even these kinds of Honour were paid unto the Clergy partly because they are more proper to their Function and partly because the welfare of Religion is more immediately concerned in them yet forasmuch as by the Consent of the World they have been thought worthy of other Honours even such as in themselves savour more of Earth than Heaven I think it not amiss to make these also the Subject of my Inquiry and the rather because they have been of late deny'd them In order whereunto I shall lay for my Foundation that which if it had been heeded would perhaps have made this Question unnecessary I mean the Behaviour of those of Melita to St. Paul and them that travell'd with him Acts 28.20 concerning whom St. Luke there tells us that they honour'd them with many Honours and when they departed laded them with such things as were necessary For there appearing not any the least intimation of those Islanders conversion to the Faith that we should think the Honours they bestow'd upon St. Paul were other than Civil ones and St. Luke who writes the Story and had a share in those Honours remembring this Act of theirs with Commendation and Applause it is evident that Civil Honours are not onely not disagreeable to their Function but also because we are indefinitely commanded to honour them in the number of those that are to be paid For how should we think those other than due which we find both St. Paul and St. Luke to have willingly receiv'd and the latter moreover to have transmitted the Cognisance of to the World as it were by their Example to incite others to the like And though it be true the Text particularizeth not the Honours that were bestow'd upon them and leaves us to collect that they were for the kind Civil ones yet forasmuch as it makes mention of their honouring them with many Honours and moreover expresseth in the same Period their furnishing them with such things as were necessary at their departure I think it but reasonable to collect that whilst the Apostle and his Company were with them they treated them with all kind of Respect in Gesture Language and Entertainment and when they departed no less officiously than courteously accompanied them to their Ship But because in this particular we have to do with envious Men who will not easily be convinc'd of what they are unwilling to believe and because the thing whereof we speak is a matter of Interest in which whatever professions we may make Men will be apt to think we will be partial to our selves therefore to make our Cause so much the more plausible I will both instance in one kind of Civil Honour and shew from Reason the Equity of others Now the Honour that I shall instance in is that of Maintenance because St. Paul hath so expresly asserted the paying of it to the Ministers of Religion Witness first of all that Affirmation of his 1 Cor. 9.14 Where having premis'd many Arguments concerning this Affair and inquir'd in particular whether the Corinthians were not very well satisfied that they who ministred about Holy Things in the Temple were Partakers with it he subjoyns in the next Words Even so hath the Lord ordain'd that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel In which place not onely affirming the necessity of a Maintenance but arguing that necessity from what God had establish'd among the Jews he gives us plainly enough to understand that he meant an Honourable one because the Priests among the Jews were so provided for But so the same Apostle gives us yet more clearly to understand 1 Tim. 5.17 18. where he exhorts that the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine because as he there subjoyns the Scripture hath said Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his Reward From which Reason as it is manifest that the thing whereof he entreats is the Maintenance of those who labour in the Word and Doctrine so it is no less manifest from his before expressing it under the Title of Honour and a double one that he meant such a Maintenance as should not onely afford them a Subsistence but above the common Condition of Ordinary Men. Of which even some of those who were otherwise no great Friends to the Clergy were so sensible that one of them did not stick to affirm in the late Long Parliament That they were Scandalous Livings that made so many Scandalous Ministers in the Church Now though from this one Topick because the Reason is the same of all it were easie to infer that those of whom we speak are susceptible of other Civil Honours yet I think it not amiss especially having before promis'd it to add the Suffrage of Reason also Now there are two things which Reason offers toward the confirmation of those outward Marks of Honour which this Church and almost all others have set upon the Ministers of Religion whereof the former respects the generality of those that are under their respective Charges the other the Invitation of such as are to be admitted into them For though to begin with the former there be enough in that Sacred Function to engage Mens Esteem though it had nothing to commend those who were of it beside the Dignity of their Office and the Honourableness of their Work yet forasmuch as the Common sort judge rather by their Eyes than by their Understandings and indeed cannot well do otherwise unless they had more exalted ones how is it possible to think they should ever hold such in reputation upon whom they discern no outward Marks of Honour Especially when they see all other Governours adorned with the like and appearing outwardly as Specious as they are inwardly Great and Glorious For by how much the more their Eyes are dazled with that outward Pomp and Splendor which they do every day behold those Ministers of God in the State to be compass'd with so much the less regard must they be suppos'd to have for his Ministers in the Church upon whom they discern none of the same Greatness Unless as it hapned in the Apostles times they could bear themselves above the Condition of Men and outshine the Laity as much by the miraculousness of their Works as they do them by the outward Marks of Majesty and Greatness There is the same or far greater reason for the Confirmation of those outward Marks of Honour if we consider the necessity there is of them to invite Men of Worth and Parts to
there appears not any reason why if Fornication be a just ground of dissolving the Marriage it should not also leave a liberty of a second Marriage after the dissolution of the former beside that Divorces both among the Jews and Heathen were ever understood to have this effect and therefore in reason to be so taken by our Saviour unless he had otherwise declar'd himself to have intended we may as well question by the words of our Lord whether Fornication be a just ground of the dissolution of the former Marriage as whether it makes way for a second For arguing the unlawfulness of Divorces except where they are for Fornication from the Adultery which a second Marriage involves the Parties in he plainly implieth liberty of Marriage to be a proper consequent of Divorce and consequently that where the Divorce is lawful as it is for Fornication by the words of our Lord the after Marriage also is And though there be not as much reason for the liberty of the offending Party because it is by their fault that the former Contract was rescinded yet as it is evident that among the Jews both Parties were at liberty to Marry after a Divorce had pass'd so I see not how by the Law of our Lord the knot of Wedlock can be ty'd to the one Party though the offending one and loose unto the other the offending Party after a Divorce being no more to look upon the other as a Husband or a Wife than the innocent Husband or Wife is upon the offending one as either This only would be added That though it be not unlawful by the Law of our Lord for the Divorced Parties to Marry and much less for the innocent one yet is the liberty of Marrying again of such dangerous consequence in respect of the Collusion that may be between the Parties where oftentimes they are alike weary of each other that our Church hath thought fit to take sufficient Bond of them before Divorce that neither of them should Marry again whilst the other lives But whatever be the effect of a Divorce for Fornication which is not so well agreed upon among Divines most certain it is which is a thing that would be added to the former Considerations that not the Parties themselves but they who are entrusted with the Authority of God in Affairs of this nature are to pronounce the Divorce between them partly because it is God that join'd them together and partly because neither together nor apart are they competent persons to make that separation between themselves It being not impossible where the separation is desir'd by one only Party for that Party to pretend Adultery in the other when there is no such thing as where it is desired by both Parties to agree together to offend that so they may have the liberty to espouse new and more desired loves But because the Question is not so much concerning a Divorce for Fornication together with its effect or pronouncer as whether there be any other just ground of the dissolution of Marriage therefore proceed we in the second place to make that also the subject of our enquiry or rather to shew that there is not any just ground of doubting in it In order whereunto the first thing I shall represent is that though among the Jews there were a greater liberty as to this matter by the permission of God himself yet even there as appears from * Deut. 24.1 Deuteronomy a Divorce was not allowable save where there was some Vncleanness in the Party Divorc'd For how is it possible to think that Christ who pretends to so much more strictness in this matter than Moses did should allow of a Divorce for less than Fornication when even Divorces among the Jews were not allowable save where some kind of turpitude preceeded I observe secondly that as there is reason to believe both from the purport of Moses Law and our Saviours setting his own above it that less than Fornication cannot be look'd upon as a ground of Divorce so our Saviour in the place before quoted hath proscrib'd all other causes save that of Fornication only So that to make it out that there are other allowable causes of Divorce it must be said either that the Greek word is not rightly rendred Fornication or that other sins are included in or deducible from it But beside that the proper notion of the Greek word is no other than Fornication as that imports the highest act of Uncleanness and consequently where it is in a Married Person that which we call Adultery See Hammond's Six Queries and particularly that concerning Divorces beside that the Christian Church have ever so understood it here even by the confession of those who have endeavour'd to oppugn it where it is taken otherwise as I deny not but it sometimes is it either imports that which is above it as unnatural Lusts or is taken not strictly but metaphorically the former whereof as it will not at all avail those who would find out some lower Causes of Divorces so it is not to be imagin'd that the latter should be of any force here because our Saviour is discoursing of a Man's putting away his Wife for the Ground whereof it is certainly more proper to assign a literal Fornication as being an express Violation of the Marriage-Vow than that which is but metaphorical and consequently of less affinity with it All therefore that remains to be said toward the evacuating the force of our Saviour's Testimony is That other Sins are to be suppos'd to be included in it or deducible from it it being not unusual for one thing onely to be nam'd where others are intended to be understood And indeed if they who thus argue mean no other than Sins of the same kind and such too as are of as foul or fouler a nature than Fornication so I think they should say nothing but what the Text it self would well bear and the Suffrage of Reason warrant For as a better Reason cannot be rendred of our Saviour's making use of the Word Fornication in stead of Adultery which is otherwise more proper than that he intended under that name to comprehend unnatural Lusts as well as the Act of Adultery so Reason requires the looking upon such Sins rather as a ground of Divorce which are not onely of the same kind but of a much more criminal nature than the other But as the same is not to be said of lesser Sins though of the same Species because it was manifestly our Saviour's Design to set his Law above that of Moses which allow'd not of Divorces where lesser Uncleannesses preceded not so much less is it to be said of Sins of another Species though no way inferiour in guilt to Fornication because God by whom the Married Parties are joyn'd and who hath commanded not to separate them without his leave hath both in the Old Law and New restrain'd the making of Divorces to greater or
yet he really doth as because the violence that is offered cannot reach unto his Will which deceit and errour does so because his consent is full and absolute the present state of things considered For though if the party set upon were free from his fears he would not make a promise of paying a sum of money to him that did so yet he would not if he were wise considering the danger he is in but make such a promise to him it being more eligible undoubtedly to redeem a mans life from danger than refuse to bind himself by a Promise which is only disadvantageous to his Estate But neither is it of any force as to the nulling of such a Promise that the party that exacts it hath by his course of life violated his own Faith both to God and Man For though by so doing he makes himself unworthy of any benefit yet nothing hinders but we may bestow one on him and consequently but that having promised it we actually should Beside though as a Malefactor he might be spoiled of what he is already possessed of as having forfeited those rights he sometime had yet inasmuch as the party promising deals not with him as such Vid. Grot. de Jure Belli ac pacis li. 2. c. 11. li. 3. c. 19. but as a Contractor bonae fidei he doth thereby both remit of that advantage which he might otherwise have taken of him and obliges himself to perform his own promise to him Very apposite to this purpose is that of Nabis in * Livi. Hist li. 34. pag. 36. Edit Lugd. Livy when Quinctius Flaminius objected Tyranny to him and by that means thought to free himself from the consequence of that League which he had made with him Concerning the name of Tyrant saith he this I can answer that whatever I now am I am the same that I was when thou O Titus Quinctius enteredst into a confederation with me Then I remember you called me King now I see I am called a Tyrant If therefore I had changed the name of the Government I ought to have been accountable for my inconstancy when you change both my name and your own behaviour to me there is the same reason you should give an account of yours It being thus evident what is or is not to be looked upon as a valid Promise or Compact which I have insisted so much the longer on lest that which is no breach of any valid Promise should either fall under the same censure with that which is or give countenance to the admission of it proceed we to shew wherein the criminalness of that which is the breach of a valid Promise consisteth which the grounds before * See Explic. of this Commandment Part 3. laid down will easily discover For a simple Promise becoming obligatory by the hopes it gives to the party concerned of enjoying what is promised the disappointment whereof cannot be received without grief of mind to the party disappointed and it may be too not without prejudice to his Affairs through the neglect the Promise may occasion in him of supplying himself some other way the breach of such a Promise will consequently become criminal by that grief and prejudice which a disappointment doth naturally produce Again Forasmuch as Humane Society cannot be maintained without a Commerce of Benefits nor that Commerce often pass but by Promises and Compacts because the benefits we desire of each other are not always in our present power to bestow or not needful at the present time to the party that craves them he that violates such Promises or Compacts shall destroy that necessary means of Commerce and consequently also make a breach upon Humane Society which cannot well be maintained without it Whence it is that though other falsities have sometime met with excuse or patronage yet breach of Faith hath been always so exploded that it hath not been allowed of even towards an Enemy and from whom men were like to receive but a very ill requital for observing it For thus when Regulus had plighted his Faith to the Carthaginians Tull. de Offic. li. 3. that he would return to them again if he did not obtain from the Senate of Rome the deliverance of their Captives he not only disswaded the Senate from delivering them up as conceiving the detaining of them to be of more advantage to his Country than his own release who by reason of his old age was become unuseful to it but readily returned himself though he could not well promise himself any other usage than he afterwards met with And though there was not the like Faith in those Ten Roman Gentleman who after the Battel at Cannae were sent by Hannibal to Rome to procure the redemption of some Captives of his own yet as it appears by the Story though delivered with some variety that several of them returned to the Camp of the Carthaginians according as they had promised to do so he of them who thought to have freed himself from that Obligation by returning back immediately after his departure as if he had forgotten something was by the Decree of the Senate as Tully * Tull. de Officiis loco citato etiam li. 1. ej tractat tells the Story out of Polybius remanded back to Hannibal bound So hateful a thing was it always adjudged either to violate the Faith men have once given or use any collusion in it and not without cause if we consider the destructiveness of it to Humane Society or the Oath of God which is commonly affixed to it He who violateth a Faith which is so sealed offering no less despight to that God whom he invokes than injury to those men whom he deceives I will shut up this Discourse with a passage of St. Paul which I alledge to shew the agreement there is in this particular as well as in all others between the Scripture and the light of Reason and Nature 'T is in the First to the Romans and the 31. where among other the gross Offenders of the Gentiles and such whom he afterwards pronounceth worthy of death he reckons * Rom. 1.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. exponente Hesychio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant-breakers or such as abide not by those Compacts they have made PART V. Concerning Officious Falsities and that meerly as such they are not allowable because however they may be profitable to those persons for whose advantage they are told yet they may be pernicious to Humane Society by rendring those external marks uncertain whereby we are to communicate our Thoughts each to other An enquiry thereupon whether there be any case in which they do not render those external marks uncertain This resolved by pointing at some particular cases such as are 1. Where Officious Falshood is allowed of by the same general consent by which words are agreed upon as the declarers of Men's Minds Of which number are those Falsities that are