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
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
summs of all the bills of expence into one sum and not regarding how each bill is summed up by those that give them in account nor what it is he payes for he advantages himself no more than if he allowed the account in grosse trusting to every of the accountants skill and honesty so also in Reasoning of all other things he that takes up conclusions on the trust of Authors and doth not fetch them from the first Items in every Reckoning which are the significations of names settled by definitions loses his labour and does not know any thing but onely beleeveth When a man reckons without the use of words which may be done in particular things as when upon the sight of any one thing wee conjecture what was likely to have preceded or is likely to follow upon it if that which he thought likely to follow followes not or that which he thought likely to have preceded it hath not preceded it this is called ERROR to which even the most prudent men are subject But when we Reason in Words of generall signification and fall upon a generall inference which is false though it be commonly called Error it is indeed an ABSURDITY or senslesse Speech For Error is but a deception in presuming that somewhat is past or to come of which though it were not past or not to come yet there was no impossibility discoverable But when we make a generall assertion unlesse it be a true one the possibility of it is unconceivable And words whereby we conceive nothing but the sound are those we call Absurd Insignificant and Non-sense And therefore if a man should talk to me of a round Quadrangle or accidents of Bread in Cheese or Immateriall Substances or of A free Subject A free-will or any Free but free from being hindred by opposition I should not say he were in an Errour but that his words were without meaning that is to say Absurd I have said before in the second chapter that a Man did excell all other Animals in this faculty that when he conceived any thing whatsoever he was apt to enquire the consequences of it and what effects he could do with it And now I adde this other degree of the same excellence that he can by words reduce the consequences he findes to generall Rules called Theoremes or Aphorismes that is he can Reason or reckon not onely in number but in all other things whereof one may be added unto or substracted from another But this privedge is allayed by another and that is by the priviledge of Absurdity to which no living creature is subject but man onely And of men those are of all most subject to it that professe Philosophy For it is most true that Cicero sayth of them somewhere that there can be nothing so absurd but may be found in the books of Philosophers And the reason is manifest For there is not one of them that begins his ratiocination from the Definitions or Explications of the names they are to use which is a method that hath been used onely in Geometry whose Conclusions have thereby been made indisputable The first cause of Absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of Method in that they begin not their Ratiocination from Definitions that is from settled significations of their words as if they could cast account without knowing the value of the numerall words one two and three And whereas all bodies enter into account upon divers considerations which I have mentioned in the precedent chapter these considerations being diversly named divers absurdities proceed from the confusion and unfit connexion of their names into assertions And therefore The second cause of Absurd assertions I ascribe to the giving of names of bodies to accidents or of accidents to bodies As they do that say Faith is infused or inspired when nothing can be powred or breathed into any thing but body and that extension is body that phantasmes are spirits c. The third I ascribe to the giving of the names of the accidents of bodies without us to the accidents of our own bodies as they do that say the colour is in the body the sound is in the ayre c. The fourth to the giving of the names of bodies to names or speeches as they do that say that there be things universall that a living creature is Genus or a generall thing c. The fifth to the giving of the names of accidents to names and speeches as they do that say the nature of a thing is its definition a mans command is his will and the like The sixth to the use of Metaphors Tropes and other Rhetoricall figures in stead of words proper For though it be lawfull to say for example in common speech the way goeth or leadeth hither or thither The Proverb sayes this or that whereas wayes cannot go nor Proverbs speak yet in reckoning and seeking of truth such speeches are not to be admitted The seventh to names that signifie nothing but are taken up and learned by rote from the Schooles as hypostatical transubstantiate consubstantiate eternal-Now and the like canting of Schoolemen To him that can avoyd these things it is not easie to fall into any absurdity unlesse it be by the length of an account wherein he may perhaps forget what went before For all men by nature reason alike and well when they have good principles For who is so stupid as both to mistake in Geometry and also to persist in it when another detects his error to him By this it appears that Reason is not as Sense and Memory borne with us nor gotten by Experience onely as Prudence is but attayned by Industry first in apt imposing of Names and secondly by getting a good and orderly Method in proceeding from the Elements which are Names to Assertions made by Connexion of one of them to another and so to Syllogismes which are the Connexions of one Assertion to another till we come to a knowledge of all the Consequences of names appertaining to the subject in hand and that is it men call SCIENCE And whereas Sense and Memory are but knowledge of Fact which is a thing past and irrevocable Science is the knowledge of Consequences and dependance of one fact upon another by which out of that we can presently do we know how to do something else when we will or the like another time Because when we see how any thing comes about upon what causes and by what manner when the like causes come into our power wee see how to make it produce the like effects Children therefore are not endued with Reason at all till they have attained the use of Speech but are called Reasonable Creatures for the possibility apparent of having the use of Reason in time to come And the most part of men though they have the use of Reasoning a little way as in numbring to some degree yet it serves them to little
use in common life in which they govern themselves some better some worse according to their differences of experience quicknesse of memory and inclinations to severall ends but specially according to good or evill fortune and the errors of one another For as for Science or certain rules of their actions they are so farre from it that they know not what it is Geometry they have thought Conjuring But for other Sciences they who have not been taught the beginnings and some progresse in them that they may see how they be acquired and generated are in this point like children that having no thought of generation are made believe by the women that their brothers and sisters are not born but found in the garden But yet they that have no Science are in better and nobler condition with their naturall Prudence than men that by mis-reasoning or by trusting them that reason wrong fall upon false and absurd generall rules For ignorance of causes and of rules does not set men so farre out of their way as relying on false rules and taking for causes of what they aspire to those that are not so but rather causes of the contrary To conclude The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words but by exact definitions first snuffed and purged from ambiguity Reason is the pace Encrease of Science the way and the Benefit of man-kind the end And on the contrary Metaphors and senslesse and ambiguous words are like ignes fâ—…i and reasoning upon them is wandering amongst innumerable absurdities and their end contentention and sedition or contempt As much Experience is Prudence so is much Science Sapience For though wee usually have one name of Wisedome for them both yet the Latines did alwayes distinguish between Prudentia and Sapientia ascribing the former to Experience the later to Science But to make their difference appeare more cleerly let us suppose one man endued with an excellent naturall use and dexterity in handling his armes and another to have added to that dexterity an acquired Science of where he can offend or be offended by his adversarie in every possible posture or guard The ability of the former would be to the ability of the later as Prudence to Sapience both usefull but the later infallible But they that trusting onely to the authority of books follow the blind blindly are like him that trusting to the false rules of a master of Fence ventures praesumptuously upon an adversary that either kills or disgraces him The signes of Science are some certain and infallible some uncertain Certain when he that pretendeth the Science of any thing can teach the same that is to say demonstrate the truth thereof perspicuously to another Uncertain when onely some particular events answer to his pretence and upon many occasions prove so as he sayes they must Signes of prudence are all uncertain because to observe by experience and remember all circumstances that may alter the successe is impossible But in any businesse whereof a man has not infallible Science to proceed by to forsake his own naturall judgement and be guided by generall sentences read in Authors and subject to many exceptions is a signe of folly and generally scorned by the name of Pedantry And even of those men themselves that in Councells of the Common-wealth love to shew their reading of Politiques and History very few do it in their domestique affaires where their particular interest is concerned having Prudence enough for their private affaires but in publique they study more the reputation of their owne wit than the successe of anothers businesse CHAP. VI. Of the Interiour Beginnings of Voluntary Motions commonly called the PASSIONS And the Speeches by which they are expressed THere be in Animals two sorts of Motions peculiar to them One called Vitall begun in generation and continued without interruption through their whole life such as are the course of the Bloud the Pulse the Breathing the Concoâ—…ion Nutrition Excretion to which Motions there needs no help of Imagination The other is Animall motion otherwise called Voluntary motion as to go to speak to move any of our limbes in such manner as is first fancied in our minds That Sense is Motion in the organs and interiour parts of mans body caused by the action of the things we See Heare And that Fancy is but the Reliques of the same Motion remaining after Sense has been already sayd in the first and second Chapters And because going speaking and the like Voluntary motions depend alwayes upon a precedent thought of whither which way and what it is evident that the Imagination is the first internall beginning of all Voluntary Motion And although unstudied men doe not conceive any motion at all to be there where the thing moved is invisible or the space it is moved in is for the shortnesse of it insensible yet that doth not hinder but that such Motions are For let a space be never so little that which is moved over a greater space whereof that little one is part must first be moved over that These small beginnings of Motion within the body of Man before they appear in walking speaking striking and other visible actions are commonly called ENDEAVOUR This Endeavour when it is toward something which causes it is called APPETITE or DESIRE the later being the generall name and the other often-times restrayned to signifie the Desire of Food namely Hunger and Thirst. And when the Endeavour is fromward something it is generally called AVERSION These words Appetite and Aversion we have from the Latines and they both of them signifie the motions one of approaching the other of retiring So also do the Greek words for the same which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Nature it selfe does often presse upon men those truths which afterwards when they look for somewhat beyond Nature they stumble at For the Schooles find in meere Appetite to go or move no actuall Motion at all but because some Motion they must acknowledge they call it Metaphoricall Motion which is but an absurd speech for though Words may be called metaphoricall Bodies and Motions cannot That which men Desire they are also sayd to LOVE and to HATE those things for which they have Aversion So that Desire and Love are the same thing save that by Desire we alwayes signifie the Absence of the Object by Love most commonly the Presence of the same So also by Aversion we signifie the Absence and by Hate the Presence of the Object Of Appetites and Aversions some are born with men as Appetite of food Appetite of excretion and exoneration which may also and more properly be called Aversions from somewhat they feele in their Bodies and some other Appetites not many The rest which are Appetites of particular things proceed from Experience and triall of their effects upon themselves or other men For of things wee know not at
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
the procincts of battell to hold together and use all advantages of force is a better stratagem than any that can proceed from subtilty of Wit Vain-glorious men such as without being conscious to themselves of great sufficiency delight in supposing themselves gallant men are enclined onely to ostentation but not to attempt Because when danger or difficulty appears they look for nothing but to have their insufficiency discovered Vain-glorious men such as estimate their sufficiency by the flattery of other men or the fortune of some precedent action without assured ground of hope from the true knowledge of themselves are enclined to rash engaging and in the approach of danger or difficulty to retire if they can because not seeing the way of safety they will rather hazard their honour which may be salved with an excuse than their lives for which no salve is sufficient Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdome in matter of government are disposed to Ambition Because without publique Employment in counsell or magistracy the honour of their wisdome is lost And therefore Eloquent speakers are enclined to Ambition for Eloquence seemeth wisedome both to themselves and others Pusillanimity disposeth men to Irresolution and consequently to lose the occasions and fittest opportunities of action For after men have been in deliberation till the time of action approach if it be not then manifest what is best to be done 't is a signe the difference of Motives the one way and the other are not great Therefore not to resolve then is to lose the occasion by weighing of trifles which is Pusillanimity Frugality though in poor men a Vertue maketh a man unapt to atchieve such actions as require the strength of many men at once For it weakeneth their Endeavour which is to be nourished and kept in vigor by Reward Eloquence with flattery disposeth men to confide in them that have it because the former is seeming Wisdome the later seeming Kindnesse Adde to them Military reputation and it disposeth men to adhaere and subject themselves to those men that have them The two former having given them caution against danger from him the later gives them caution against danger from others Want of Science that is Ignorance of causes disposeth or rather constraineth a man to rely on the advise and authority of others For all men whom the truth concernes if they rely not on their own must rely on the opinion of some other whom they think wiser than themselves and see not why he should deceive them Ignorance of the signification of words which is want of understanding disposeth men to take on trust not onely the truth they know not but also the errors and which is more the non-sense of them they trust For neither Error nor non-sense can without a perfect understanding of words be detected From the same it proceedeth that men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions As they that approve a private opinion call it Opinion but they that mislike it Haeresie and yet haeresie signifies no more than private opinion but has onely a greater tincture of choler From the same also it proceedeth that men cannot distinguish without study and great understanding between one action of many men and many actions of one multitude as for example between the one action of all the Senators of Rome in killing Catiline and the many actions of a number of Senators in killing Caesar and therefore are disposed to take for the action of the people that which is a multitude of actions done by a multitude of men led perhaps by the perswasion of one Ignorance of the causes and originall constitution of Right Equity Law and Justice disposeth a man to make Custome and Example the rule of his actions in such manner as to think that Unjust which it hath been the custome to punish and that Just of the impunity and approbation whereof they can produce an Example or as the Lawyers which onely use this false measure of Justice barbarously call it a Precedent like little children that have no other rule of good and evill manners but the correction they receive from their Parents and Masters save that children are constant to their rule whereas men are not so because grown strong and stubborn they appeale from custome to reason and from reason to custome as it serves their turn receding from custome when their interest requires it and setting themselves against reason as oft as reason is against them Which is the cause that the doctrine of Right and Wrong is perpetually disputed both by the Pen and the Sword Whereas the doctrine of Lines and Figures is not so because men care not in that subject what be truth as a thing that crosses no mans ambition profit or lust For I doubt not but if it had been a thing contrary to any mans right of dominion or to the interest of men that have dominion That the three Angles of a Triangle should be equall to two Angles of a Square that doctrine should have been if not disputed yet by the burning of all books of Geometry suppressed as farre as he whom it concerned was able Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events to the causes immediate and Instrumentall For these are all the causes they perceive And hence it comes to passe that in all places men that are grieved with payments to the Publique discharge their anger upon the Publicans that is to say Farmers Collectors and other Officers of the publique Revenue and adhaere to such as find fault with the publike Government and thereby when they have engaged themselves beyond hope of justification fall also upon the Supreme Authority for feare of punishment or shame of receiving pardon Ignorance of naturall causes disposeth a man to Credulity so as to believe many times impossibilities For such know nothing to the contrary but that they may be true being unable to detect the Impossibility And Credulity because men love to be hearkened unto in company disposeth them to lying so that Ignorance it selfe without Malice is able to make a man both to believe lyes and tell them and sometimes also to invent them Anxiety for the future time disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things because the knowledge of them maketh men the better able to order the present to their best advantage Curiosity or love of the knowledge of causes draws a man from consideration of the effect to seek the cause and again the cause of that cause till of necessity he must come to this thought at last that there is some cause whereof there is no former cause but is eternall which is it men call God So that it is impossible to make any profound enquiry into naturall causes without being enclined thereby to believe there is one God Eternall though they cannot have any
above their understanding than to define his Nature by Spirit Incorporeall and then confesse their definition to be unintelligible or if they give him such a title it is not Dogmatically with intention to make the Divine Nature understood but Piously to honour him with attributes of significations as remote as they can from the grossenesse of Bodies Visible Then for the way by which they think these Invisible Agents wrought their effects that is to say what immediate causes they used in bringing things to passe men that know not what it is that we call causing that is almost all men have no other rule to guesse by but by observing and remembring what they have seen to precede the like effect at some other time or times before without seeing between the antecedent and subsequent Event any dependance or connexion at all And therefore from the like things past they expect the like things to come and hope for good or evill luck superstitiously from things that have no part at all in the causing of it As the Athenians did for their war at Lepanto demand another Phormio The Pompeian faction for their warre in Afrique another Scipio and others have done in divers other occasions since In like manner they attribute their fortune to a stander by to a lucky or unlucky place to words spoken especially if the name of God be amongst them as Charming and Conjuring the Leiturgy of Witches insomuch as to believe they have power to turn a stone into bread bread into a man or any thing into any thing Thirdly for the worship which naturally men exhibite to Powers invisible it can be no other but such expressions of their reverence as they would use towards men Gifts Petitions Thanks Submission of Body Considerate Addresses sober Behaviour premeditated Words Swearing that is assuring one another of their promises by invoking them Beyond that reason suggesteth nothing but leaves them either to rest there or for further ceremonies to rely on those they believe to be wiser than themselves Lastly concerning how these Invisible Powers declare to men the things which shall hereafter come to passe especially concerning their good or evill fortune in generall or good or ill successe in any particular undertaking men are naturally at a stand save that using to conjecture of the time to come by the time past they are very apt not onely to take casuall things after one or two encounters for Prognostiques of the like encounter ever after but also to believe the like Prognostiques from other men of whom they have once conceived a good opinion And in these foure things Opinion of Ghosts Ignorance of second causes Devotion towards what men fear and Taking of things Casuall for Prognostiques consisteth the Naturall seed of Religion which by reason of the different Fancies Judgements and Passions of severall men hath grown up into ceremonies so different that those which are used by one man are for the most part ridiculous to another For these seeds have received culture from two sorts of men One sort have been they that have nourished and ordered them according to their own invention The other have done it by Gods commandement and direction but both sorts have done it with a purpose to make those men that relyed on them the more apt to Obedience Lawes Peace Charity and civill Society So that the Religion of the former sort is a part of humane Politiques and teacheth part of the duty which Earthly Kings require of their Subjects And the Religion of the later sort is Divine Politiques and containeth Precepts to those that have yeelded themselves subjects in the Kingdome of God Of the former sort were all the founders of Common-wealths and the Law-givers of the Gentiles Of the later sort were Abraham Moses and our Blessed Saviour by whom have been derived unto us the Lawes of the Kingdome of God And for that part of Religion which consisteth in opinions concerning the nature of Powers Invisible there is almost nothing that has a name that has not been esteemed amongst the Gentiles in one place or another a God or Divell or by their Poets feigned to be inanimated inhabited or possessed by some Spirit or other The unformed matter of the World was a God by the name of Chaos The Heaven the Ocean the Planets the Fire the Earth the Winds were so many Gods Men Women a Bird a Crocodile a Calf a Dogge a Snake an Onion a Leeke Deâ—…fied Besides that they filled almost all places with spirits called Daemons the plains with Pan and Panises or Satyres the Woods with Fawnes and Nymphs the Sea with Tritons and other Nymphs every River and Fountayn with a Ghost of his name and with Nymphs every house with its Lares or Familiars every man with his Genius Hell with Ghosts and spirituall Officers as Charon Cerberus and the Furies and in the night time all places with Larvae Lemures Ghosts of men deceased and a whole kingdome of Fayries and Bugbears They have also ascribed Divinity and built Temples to meer Accidenâ—…s and Qualities such as are Time Night Day Peace Concord Love Contention Vertue Honour Health Rust Fever and the like which when they prayed for or against they prayed to as if there were Ghosts of those names hanging over their heads and letting fall or withholding that Good or Evill for or against which they prayed They invoked also their own Wit by the name of Muses their own Ignorance by the name of Fortune their own Lust by the name of Cupid their own Rage by the name Furies their own privy members by the name of Priapus and attributed their pollutions to â—…ncubi and Succubae insomuch as there was nothing which a Poet could introduce as a person in his Poem which they did not make either a God or a Divel The same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles observing the second ground for Religion which is mens Ignorance of causes and thereby their aptnesse to attribute their fortune to causes on which there was no dependance at all apparent took occasion to obtrude on their ignorance in stead of second causes a kind of second and ministeriall Gods ascribing the cause of Foecundity to Venus the cause of Arts to Apolla of Subtilty and Craft to Mercury of Tempests and stormes to Aeolus and of other effects to other Gods insomuch as there was amongst the Heathen almost as great variety of Gods as of businesse And to the Worship which naturally men conceived fit to bee used towards their Gods namely Oblations Prayers Thanks and the rest formerly named the same Legislators of the Gentiles have added their Images both in Picture and Sculpture that the more ignorant sort that is to say the most part or generality of the people thinking the Gods for whose representation they were made were really included and as it were housed within them might so much the more stand in feare of them And endowed them
that is unpleasing Priests and those not onely amongst Catholiques but even in that Church that hath presumed most of Reformation CHAP. XIII Of the NATURALL CONDITION of Mankind as concernîng their Felicity and Misâ—…ry NAture hath made men so equall in the faculties of body and mind as that though there bee found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind then another yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himselfe any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he For as to the strength of body the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the fame danger with himselfe And as to the faculties of the mind setting aside the arts grounded upon words and especially that skill of proceeding upon generall and infallible rules called Science which very few have and but in few things as being not a native faculty born with us nor attained as Prudence while we look after somewhat els I find yet a greater equality amongst men than that of strength For Prudence is but Experience which equall time equally bestowes on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto That which may perhaps make such equality incredible is but a vain conceipt of ones owne wisdome which almost all men think they have in a greater degree than the Vulgar that is than all men but themselves and a few others whom by Fame or for concurring with themselves they approve For such is the nature of men that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent or more learned Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves For they see their own wit at hand and other mens at a distance But this proveth rather that men are in that point equall than unequall For there is not ordinarily a greater signe of the equall distribution of any thing than that every man is contented with his share From this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our Ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing which neverthelesse they cannot both enjoy they become enemies and in the way to their End which is principally their owne conservation and sometimes their delectation only endeavour to destroy or subdue one an other And from hence it comes to passe that where an Invader hath no more to feare than an other mans single power if one plant sow build or possesse a convenient Seat others may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossesse and deprive him not only of the fruit of his labour but also of his life or liberty And the Invader again is in the like danger of another And from this diffidence of one another there is no way for any man to secure himselfe so reasonable as Anticipation that is by force or wiles to master the persons of all men he can so long till he see no other power great enough to endanger him And this is no more than his own conservation requireth and is generally allowed Also because there be some that taking pleasure in contemplating their own power in the acts of conquest which they pursue farther than their security requires if others that otherwise would be glad to be at ease within modest bounds should not by invasion increase their power they would not be able long time by standing only on their defence to subsist And by consequence such augmentation of dominion over men being necessary to a mans conservation it ought to be allowed him Againe men have no pleasure but on the contrary a great deale of griefe in keeping company where there is no power able to over-awe them all For every man looketh that his companion should value him at the same rate he sets upon himselfe And upon all signes of contempt or undervaluing naturally endeavours as far as he dares which amongst them that have no common power to keep them in quiet is far enough to make them destroy each other to extort a greater value from his contemners by dommage and from others by the example So that in the nature of man we find three principall causes of quarrell First Competition Secondly Diffidence Thirdly Glory The first maketh men invade for Gain the second for Safety and the third for Reputation The first use Violence to make themselves Masters of other mens persons wives children and cattell the second to defend them the third for trifles as a word a smile a different opinion and any other signe of undervalue either direct in their Persons or by reflexion in their Kindred their Friends their Nation their Profession or their Name Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe they are in that condition which is called Warre and such a warre as is of every man against every man For WARRE consisteth not in Battell onely or the act of fighting but in a tract of time wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known and therefore the notion of Time is to be considered in the nature of Warre as it is in the nature of Weather For as the nature of Foule weather lyeth not in a showre or two of rain but in an inclination thereto of many dayes together So the nature of War consisteth not in actuall fighting but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary All other time is PEACE Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre where every man is Enemy to every man the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withall In such condition there is no place for Industry because the fruit thereof is uncertain and consequently no Culture of the Earth no Navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea no commodious Building no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force no Knowledge of the face of the Earth no account of Time no Arts no Letters no Society and which is worst of all continuall feare and danger of violent death And the life of man solitary poore nasty brutish and short It may seem strange to some man that has not well weighed these things that Nature should thus dissociate and render men apt to invade and destroy one another and he may therefore not trusting to this Inference made from the Passions desire perhaps to have the same confirmed by Experience Let him therefore consider with himselfe when taking a journey he armes himselfe and seeks to go well accompanied when going to sleep he locks his dores when even in his house he locks his chests and this when he knowes there
as acquired by Lot It is also a Law of Nature That all men that mediate Peace be allowed safe Conduct For the Law that commandeth Peace as the End commandeth Intercession as the Means and to Intercession the Means is safe Conduct And because though men be never so willing to observe these Lawes there may neverthelesse arise questions concerning a mans action First whether it were done or not done Secondly if done whether against the Law or not against the Law the former whereof is called a question Of Fact the later a question Of Right therefore unlesse the parties to the question Covenant mutually to stand to the sentence of another they are as farre from Peace as ever This other to whose Sentence they submit is called an ARBITRATOR And therefore it is of the Law of Nature That they that are at controversie submit their Right to the judgement of an Arbitrator And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own benefit no man is a fit Arbitrator in his own cause and if he were never so fit yet Equity allowing to each party equall benefit if one be admitted to be Judge the other is to be admitted also so the controversie that is the cause of War remains against the Law of Nature For the same reason no man in any Cause ought to be received for Arbitrator to whom greater profit or honour or pleasure apparently ariseth out of the victory of one party than of the other for hee hath taken though an unavoydable bribe yet a bribe and no man can be obliged to trust him And thus also the controversie and the condition of War remaineth contrary to the Law of Nature And in a controversie of Fact the Judge being to give no more credit to one than to the other if there be no other Arguments must give credit to a third or to a third and fourth or more For else the question is undecided and left to force contrary to the Law of Nature These are the Lawes of Nature dictating Peace for a means of the conservation of men in multitudes and which onely concern the doctrine of Civill Society There be other things tending to the destruction of particular men as Drunkenness and all other parts of Intemperance which may therefore also be reckoned amongst those things which the Law of Nature hath forbidden but are not necessary to be mentioned nor are pertinent enough to this place And though this may seem too subtile a deduction of the Lawes of Nature to be taken notice of by all men whereof the most part are too busie in getting food and the rest too negligent to understand yet to leave all men unexcusable they have been contracted into one easie sum intelligible even to the meanest capacity and that is Do not that to another which thou wouldest not have done to thy selfe which sheweth him that he has no more to do in learning the Lawes of Nature but when weighing the actions of other men with his own they seem too heavy to put them into the other part of the ballance and his own into their place that his own passions and selfe-love may adde nothing to the weight and then there is none of these Lawes of Nature that will not appear unto him very reasonable The Lawes of Nature oblige in foro interno that is to say they bind to a desire they should take place but in foro externo that is to the putting them in act not alwayes For he that should be modest and tractable and performe all he promises in such time and place where no man els should do so should but make himselfe a prey to others and procure his own certain ruine contrary to the ground of all Lawes of Nature which tend to Natures preservation And again he that having sufficient Security that others shall observe tâ—…e same Lawes towards him observes them not himselfe seeketh not Peace but War consequently the destruction of his Nature by Violence And whatsoever Lawes bind in foro interno may be broken not onely by a fact contrary to the Law but also by a fact according to it in case a man think it contrary For though his Action in this case be according to the Law yet his Purpose was against the Law which where the Obligation is in foro interno is a breach The Lawes of Nature are Immutable and Eternall For Injustice Ingratitude Arrogance Pride Iniquity Acception of persons and the rest can never be made lawfull For it can never be that Warre shall preserve life and Peace destroy it The sames Lawes because they oblige onely to a desire and endeavour I mean an unfeigned and constant endeavour are easie to be observed For in that they require nothing but endeavour he that endeavoureth their performance fulfilleth them and he that fulfilleth the Law is Just. And the Science of them is the true and onely Moral Philosophy For Morall Philosophy is nothing else but the Science of what is Good and Evill in the conversation and Society of man-kind Good and Evill are names that signifie our Appetites and Aversions which in different tempers customes and doctrines of men are different And divers men differ not onely in their Judgement on the senses of what is pleasant and unpleasant to the tast smell hearing touch and sight but also of what is conformable or disagreeable to Reason in the actions of common life Nay the same man in divers times differs from himselfe and one time praiseth that is calleth Good what another time he dispraiseth and calleth Evil From whence arise Disputes Controversies and at last War And therefore so long a man is in the condition of meer Nature which is a condition of War as private Appetite is the measure of Good and Evill And consequently all men agree on this that Peace is Good and therefore also the way or means of Peace which as I have shewed before are Justice Gratitude Modesty Equity Mercy the rest of the Laws of Nature are good that is to say Morall Vertues and their contrarie Vices Evill Now the science of Vertue and Vice is Morall Philosophie and therfore the true Doctrine of the Lawes of Nature is the true Morall Philosophie But the Writers of Morall Philosophie though they acknowledge the same Vertues and Vices Yet not seeing wherein consisted their Goodnesse nor that they come to be praised as the meanes of peaceable sociable and comfortable living place them in a mediocrity of passions as if not the Cause but the Degree of daring made Fortitude or not the Cause but the Quantity of a gift made Liberality These dictates of Reason men use to call by the name of Lawes but improperly for they are but Conclusions or Theoremes concerning what conduceth to the conservation and defence of themselves wheras Law properly is the word of him that by right hath command over others But
Law there whatsoever is inflicted hath the nature of Punishment For he that goes about the violation of a Law wherein no penalty is determined expecteth an indeterminate that is to say an arbitrary Punishment Ninthly Harme inflicted for a Fact done before there was a Law that forbad it is not Punishment but an act of Hostility For before the Law there is no transgression of the Law But Punishment supposeth a fact judged to have been a transgression of the Law Therefore Harme inflicted before the Law made is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Tenthly Hurt inflicted on the Representative of the Common-wealth is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Because it is of the nature of Punishment to be inflicted by publique Authority which is the Authority only of the Representative it self Lastly Harme inflicted upon one that is a declared enemy fals not under the name of Punishment Because seeing they were either never subject to the Law and therefore cannot transgresse it or having been subject to it and professing to be no longer so by consequence deny they can transgresse it all the Harmes that can be done them must be taken as acts of Hostility But in declared Hostility all infliction of evill is lawfull From whence it followeth that if a subject shall by fact or word wittingly and deliberatly deny the authority of the Representative of the Common-wealth whatsoever penalty hath been formerly ordained for Treason he may lawfully be made to suffer whatsoever the Representative will For in denying subjection he denyes such Punishment as by the Law hath been ordained and therefore suffers as an enemy of the Common-wealth that is according to the will of the Representative For the Punishments set down in the Law are to Subjects not to Enemies such as are they that having been by their own act Subjects deliberately revolting deny the Soveraign Power The first and most generall distribution of Punishments is into Divine and Humane Of the former I shall have occasion to speak in a more convenient place hereafter Humane are those Punishments that be inflicted by the Commandement of Man and are either Corporall or Pecuâ—…ary or Ignominy or Imprisonment or Exile or mixt of these Corporall Punishment is that which is inflicted on the body directly and according to the intention of him that inflicteth it such as are stripes or wounds or deprivation of such pleasures of the body as were before lawfully enjoyed And of these some be Capitall some Lesse than Capitall Capitall is the Infliction of Death and that either simply or with torment Lesse than Capitall are Stripes Wounds Chains and any other corporall Paine not in its own nature mortall For if upon the Infliction of a Punishment death â—…ollow not in the intention of the Inflicter the Punishment is not to bee esteemed Capitall though the harme prove mortall by an accident not to be foreseen in which case death is not inflicted but hastened Pecuniary Punishment is that which consisteth not only in the deprivation of a Summe of Mony but also of Lands or any other goods which are usually bought and sold for mony And in case the Law that ordaineth such a punishment be made with design to gather mony from such as shall transgresse the same it is not properly a Punishment but the Price of priviledge and exemption from the Law which doth not absolutely forbid the fact but only to those that are not able to pay the mony except where the Law is Naturall or part of Religion for in that case it is not an exemption from the Law but a transgression of it As where a Law exacteth a Pecuniary mulct of them that take the name of God in vaine the payment of the mulct is not the price of a dispensation to sweare but the Punishment of the transgression of a Law undispensable In like manner if the Law impose a Summe of Mony to be payd to him that has been Injured this is but a satisfaction for the hurt done him and extinguisheth the accusation of the party injured not the crime of the offender Ignominy is the infliction of such Evill as is made Dishonorable or the deprivation of such Good as is made Honourable by the Common-wealth For there be some things Honorable by Nature as the effects of Courage Magnamity Strength Wisdome and other abilities of body and mind Others made Honorable by the Common-wealth as Badges Titles Offices or any other singular marke of the Soveraigns favour The former though they may faile by nature or accident cannot be taken away by a Law and therefore the losse of them is not Punishment But the later may be taken away by the publique authority that made them Honorable and are properly Punishments Such are degrading men condemned of their Badges Titles and Offices or declaring them uncapable of the like in time to come Imprisonment is when a man is by publique Authority deprived of liberty and may happen from two divers ends whereof one is the safe custody of a man accused the other is the inflicting of paine on a man condemned The former is not Punishment because no man is supposed to be Punisht before he be Judicially heard and declared guilty And therefore whatsoever hurt a man is made to suffer by bonds or restraint before his cause be heard over and above that which is necessary to assure his custody is against the Law of Nature But the later is Punishment because Evill and inflicted by publique Authority for somewhat that has by the same Authority been Judged a Transgression of the Law Under this word Imprisoment I comprehend all restraint of motion caused by an externall obstacle be it a House which is called by the general name of a Prison or an Iland as when men are said to be confined to it or a place where men are set to worke as in old time men have been condemned to Quarries and in these times to Gallies or be it a Chaine or any other such impediment Exile Banishment is when a man is for a crime condemned to depart out of the dominion of the Common-wealth or out of a certaine part thereof and during a prefixed time or for ever not to return into it and seemeth not in its own nature without other circumstances to be a Punishment but rather an escape or a publique commandement to avoid Punishment by flight And Cicero sayes there was never any such Punishment ordained in the City of Rome but cals it a refuge of men in danger For if a man banished be neverthelesse permitted to enjoy his Goods and the Revenue of his Lands the meer change of ayr is no Punishment nor does it tend to that benefit of the Common-wealth for which all Punishments are ordained that is to say to the forming of mens wils to the observation of the Law but many times to the dammage of the Common-wealth For a Banished man is a lawfull
receiveth thereby is the enjoyment of life which is equally dear to poor and rich the debt which a poor man oweth them that defend his life is the same which a rich man oweth for the defence of his saving that the rich who have the service of the poor may be debtors not onely for their own persons but for many more Which considered the Equality of Imposition consisteth rather in the Equality of that which is consumed than of the riches of the persons that consume the same For what reasonis there that he which laboureth much and sparing the fruits of his labour consumeth little should be more charged then he that living idlely getteth little and spendeth all he gets seeing the one hath no more protection from the Common-wealth then the other But when the Impositions are layd upon those things which men consume every man payeth Equally for what he useth Nor is the Common-wealth defrauded by the luxurious waste of private men And whereas many men by accident unevitable become unable to maintain themselves by their labour they ought not to be left to the Charity of private persons but to be provided for as far-forth as the necessities of Nature require by the Lawes of the Common-wealth For as it is Uncharitablenesse in any man to neglect the impotent so it is in the Soveraign of a Common-wealth to expose them to the hazard of such uncertain Charity But for such as have strong bodies the case is otherwise they are to be forced to work and to avoyd the excuse of not finding employment there ought to be such Lawes as may encourage all manner of Arts as Navigation Agriculture Fishing and all manner of Manifacture that requires labour The multitude of poor and yet strong people still encreasing they are to be transplanted into Countries not sufficiently inhabited where neverthelesse they are not to exterminate those they find there but constrain them to inhabit closer together and not range a great deal of ground to snatch what they find but to court each little Plot with art and labour to give them their sustenance in due season And when all the world is overchargd with Inhabitants then the last remedy of all is Warre which provideth for every man by Victory or Death To the care of the Soveraign belongeth the making of Good Lawes But what is a good Law By a Good Law I mean not a. Just Law for no Law can be Unjust The Law is made by the Soveraign Power and all that is done by such Power is warranted and owned by every one of the people and that which every man will have so no man can say is unjust It is in the Lawes of a Common-wealth as in the Lawes of Gaming whatsoever the Gamesters all agree on is Injustice to none of them A good Law is that which is Needfull for the Good of the People and withall Perspicuous For the use of Lawes which are but Rules Authorised is not to bind the People from all Voluntary actions but to direct and keep them in such a motion as not to hurt themselves by their own impetuous desires rashnesse or indiscretion as Hedges are set not to stop Travellers but to keep them in the way And therefore a Law that is not Needfull having not the true End of a Law is not Good A Law may be conceived to be Good when it is for the benefit of the Soveraign though it be not Necessary for the People but it is not so For the good of the Soveraign and People cannot be separated It is a weak Soveraign that has weak Subjects and a weak People whose Soveraign wanteth Power to rule them at his will Unnecessary Lawes are not good Lawes but trapps for Mony which where the right of Soveraign Power is acknowledged are superfluous and where it is not acknowledged unsufficient to defend the People The Perspicuity consisteth not so much in the words of the Law it selfe as in a Declaration of the Causes and Motives for which it was made That is it that shewes us the meaning of the Legislator and the meaning of the Legislator known the Law is more easily understood by few than many words For all words are subject to ambiguity and therefore multiplication of words in the body of the Law is multiplication of ambiguity Besides it seems to imply by too much diligence that whosoever can evade the words is without the compasse of the Law And this is a cause of many unnecessary Processes For when I consider how short were the Lawes of antient times and how they grew by degrees still longer me thinks I see a contention between the Penners and Pleaders of the Law the former seeking to circumscribe the later and the later to evade their circumscriptions and that the Pleaders have got the Victory It belongeth therefore to the Office of a Legislator such as is in all Common-wealths the Supreme Representative be it one Man or an Assembly to make the reason Perspicuous why the Law was made and the Body of the Law it selfe as short but in as proper and significant termes as may be It belongeth also to the Office of the Soveraign to make a right application of Punishments and Rewards And seeing the end of punishing is not revenge and discharge of choler but correction either of the offender or of others by his example the severest Punishments are to be inflicted for those Crimes that are of most Danger to the Publique such as are those which proceed from malice to the Government established those that spring from contempt of Justice those that provoke Indignation in the Multitude and those which unpunished seem Authorised as when they are committed by Sonnes Servants or Favorites of men in Authority For Indignation carrieth men not onely against the Actors and Authors of Injustice but against all Power that is likely to protect them as in the case of Tarquin when for the Insolent act of one of his Sonnes he was driven out of Rome and the Monarchy it selfe dissolved But Crimes of Infirmity such as are those which proceed from great provocation from great fear great need or from ignorance whether the Fact be a great Crime or not there is place many times for Lenity without prejudice to the Common-wealth and Lenity when there is such place for it is required by the Law of Nature The Punishment of the Leaders and teachers in a Commotion not the poore seduced People when they are punished can profit the Common-wealth by their example To be severe to the People is to punish that ignorance which may in great part be imputed to the Soveraign whose fault it was they were no better instructed In like manner it belongeth to the Office and Duty of the Soveraign to apply his Rewards alwayes so as there may arise from them benefit to the Common-wealth wherein consisteth their Use and End and is then done when they that have well
that the end of Miracles was to beget beleef not universally in all men elect and reprobate but in the elect only that is to say in such as God had determined should become his Subjects For those miraculous plagues of Egypt had not for end the conversion of Pharaoh For God had told Moses before that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh that he should not let the people goe And when he let them goe at last not the Miracles perswaded him but the plagues forced him to it So also of our Saviour it is written Mat. 13. 58. that he wrought not many Miracles in his own countrey because of their unbeleef and in Marke 6. 5. in stead of he wrought not many it is he could work none It was not because he wanted power which to say were blasphemy against God nor that the end of Miracles was not to convert incredulous men to Christ for the end of all the Miracles of Moses of the Prophets of our Saviour and of his Apostles was to adde men to the Church but it was because the end of their Miracles was to adde to the Church not all men but such as should be saved that is to say such as God had elected Seeing therefore our Saviour was sent from his Father hee could not use his power in the conversion of those whom his Father had rejected They that expounding this place of St. Marke say that this word Hee could not is put for He would not do it without example in the Greek tongue where Would not is put sometimes for Could not in things inanimate that have no will but Could not for Would not never and thereby lay a stumbling block before weak Christians as if Christ could doe no Miracles but amongst the credulous From that which I have here set down of thenature and use of a Miracle we may define it thus A MIRACLE is a work of God besides his operation by the way of Nature ordained in the Creation done for the making manifest to his elect the mission of an extraordinary Minister for their salvation And from this definition we may inferre First that in all Miracles the work done is not the effect of any vertue in the Prophet because it is the effect of the immediate hand of God that is to say God hath done it without using the Prophet therein as a subordinate cause Secondly that no Devil Angel or other created Spirit can do a Miracle For it must either be by vertue of some naturall science or by Incantation that is vertue of words For if the Inchanters do it by their own power independent there is some power that proceedeth not from God which all men deny and if they doe it by power given them then is the work not from the immediate hand of God but naturall and consequently no Miracle There be some texts of Scripture that seem to attribute the power of working wonders equall to some of those immediate Miracles wrought by God himself to certain Arts of Magick and Incantation As for example when we read that after the Rod of Moses being east on the ground became a Serpent the Magicians of Egypt did the like by their Enchantments and that after Moses had turned the waters of the Egyptian Streams Rivers Ponds and Pooles of water into blood the Magicians of Egypt did so likewise with their Enchantments and that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land the Magicians also did so with their Enchantments and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt will not a man be apt to attribute Miracles to Enchantments that is to say to the efficacy of the sound of Words and think the samâ—… very well proved out of this and other such places and yet there is no place of Scripture that telleth us what an Enchantment is If therefore Enchantment be not as many think it a working of strange effects by spells and words but Imposture and delusion wrought by ordinary means and so far from supernaturall as the Impostors need not the study so much as of naturall causes but the ordinary ignorance stupidity and superstition of mankind to doe them those texts that seem to countenance the power of Magick Witcheraft and Enchantment must needs have another sense than at first sight they seem to bear For it is evident enough that Words have no effect but on those that understand them and then they have no other but to signifie the intentions or passions of them that speak and thereby produce hope fear or other passions or conceptions in the hearer Therefore when a Rod seemeth a Serpent or the Waters Bloud or any other Miracle seemeth done by Enchantment if it be not to the edification of Gods people not the Rod nor the Water nor any other thing is enchanted that is to say wrought upon by the Words but the Spectator So that all the Miracle consisteth in this that the Enchanter has deceived a man which is no Miracle but a very easie matter to doe For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all men but especially of them that have not much knowledge of naturall causes and of the nature and interests of men as by innumerable and easie tricks to be abused What opinion of miraculous power before it was known there was a Science of the course of the Stars might a man have gained that should have told the people This hour or day the Sun should be darkned A Juggler by the handling of his goblets and other trinkets if it were not now ordinarily practised would be thought to do his wonders by the power at least of the Devil A man that hath practised to speak by drawing in of his breath which kind of men in antient time were called Ventriloqui and so make the weaknesse of his voice seem to proceed not from the weak impulsion of the organs of Speech but from distance of place is able to make very many men beleeve it is a voice from Heaven whatsoever he please to tell them And for a crafty man that hath enquired into the secrets and familiar confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to another of his actions and adventures past to tell them him again is no hard matter and yet there be many that by such means as that obtain the reputation of being Conjurers But it is too long a businesse to reckon up the severall sorts of those men which the Greeks called Thaumaturgi that is to say workers of things wonderfull and yet these do all they do by their own single dexterity But if we looke upon the Impostures wrought by Confederacy there is nothing how impossible soever to be done that is impossible to bee beleeved For two men conspiring one to seem lame the other to cure him with a charme will deceive many but many conspiring one to seem lame another so to cure him and all the rest to bear witnesse will
God that ordained such Sacrifices for sin as he was pleased in his mercy to accept In the Old Law as we may read Leviticus the 16. the Lord required that there should every year once bee made an Atonement for the Sins of all Israel both Priests and others for the doing whereof Aaron alone was to sacrifice for himself and the Priests a young Bullock and for the rest of the people he was to receive from them two young Goates of which he was to sacrifice one but as for the other which was the Scape Goat he was to lay his hands on the head thereof and by a confession of the iniquities of the people to lay them all on that head and then by some opportune man to cause the Goat to be led into the wildernesse and there to escape and carry away with him the iniquities of the people As the Sacrifice of the one Goat was a sufficient because an acceptable price for the Ransome of all Israel so the death of the Messiah is a sufficient price for the Sins of all mankind because there was no more required Our Saviour Christs sufferings seem to be here figured as cleerly as in the oblation of Isaac or in any other type of him in the Old Testament He was both the sacrificed Goat and the Scape Goat Hee was oppressed and he was afflicted Esay 53. 7. he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep is dumbe before the shearer so opened he not his mouth Here he is the sacrificed Gâ—…at He hath born our Griefs ver 4. and carried our sorrows And again ver 6. the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all And so he is the Scape Goat He was cut off from the land of the living ver 8. for the transgression of my People There again he is the sacrificed Goat And again ver 11. he shall bear their sins Hee is the Scape Goat Thus is the Lamb of God equivalent to both those Goates sacrificed in that he dyed and escaping in his Resurrection being raised opportunely by his Father and removed from the habitation of men in his Ascension For as much therefore as he that redeemeth hath no title to the thing redeemed before the Redemption and Ransome paid and this Ransome was the Death of the Redeemer it is manifest that our Saviour as man was not King of those that he Redeemed before hee suffered death that is during that time hee conversed bodily on the Earth I say he was not then King in present by vertue of the Pact which the faithfull make with him in Baptisme Neverthelesse by the renewing of their Pact with God in tisme they were obliged to obey him for King under his Father whensoever he should be pleased to take the Kingdome upon him According whereunto our Saviour himself expressely saith Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world Now seeing the Scripture maketh mention but of two worlds this that is now and shall remain to the day of Judgment which is therefore also called the last day and that which shall bee after the day of Judgement when there shall bee a new Heaven and a new Earth the Kingdome of Christ is not to begin till the generall Resurrection And that is it which our Saviour saith Mat. 16. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works To reward every man according to his works is to execute the Office of a King and this is not to be till he come in the glory of his Father with his Angells When our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 2. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you doe that observe and doe hee declareth plainly that hee ascribeth Kingly Power for that time not to himselfe but to them And so hee doth also where he saith Luke 12. 14. Who made mee a Iudge or Divider over you And Iohn 12. 47. I came not to judge the world but to save the world And yet our Saviour came into this world that hee might bee a King and a Judge in the world to come For hee was the Messiah that is the Christ that is the Anointed Priest and the Soveraign Prophet of God that is to say he was to have all the power that was in Moses the Prophet in the High Priests that succeeded Moses and in the Kings that succeeded the Priests And St. Iohn saies expressely chap. 5. ver 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son And this is not repugnant to that other place I came not to judge the world for this is spoken of the world present the other of the world to come as also where it is said that at the second coming of Christ Mat. 19. 28. Yee that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his Glory yee shall also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel If then Christ whilest hee was on Earth had no Kingdome in this world to what end was his first coming It was to restore unto God by a new Covenant the Kingdom which being his by the Old Covenant had been cut off by the rebellion of the Israelites in the election of Saul Which to doe he was to preach unto them that he was the Messiah that is the King promised to them by the Prophets and to offer himselfe in sacrifice for the sinnes of them that should by faith submit themselves thereto and in case the nation generally should refuse him to call to his obedience such as should beleeve in him amongst the Gentiles So that there are two parts of our Saviours Office during his aboad upon the Earth One to Proclaim himself the Christ and another by Teaching and by working of Miracles to perswade and prepare men to live so as to be worthy of the Immortality Beleevers were to enjoy at such tiâ—…e as he should come in majesty to take possession of his Fathers Kingdome And therefore it is that the time of his preaching is often by himself called the Regeneration which is not properly a Kingdome and thereby a warrant to deny obedience to the Magistrates that then were for hee commanded to obey those that sate then in Moses chaire and to pay tribute to Caesar but onely an earnest of the Kingdome of God that was to come to those to whom God had given the grace to be his disciples and to beleeve in him For which cause the Godly are said to bee already in the Kingdome of Grace as naturalized in that heavenly Kingdome Hitherto therefore there is nothing done or taught by Christ that tendeth to the diminution of the Civill Right of the Jewes or of Caesar. For as touching the Common-wealth which then was amongst the Jews both they that bare rule amongst them
and they that were governed did all expect the Messiah and Kingdome of God which they could not have done if their Laws had forbidden him when he came to manifest and declare himself Seeing therefore he did nothing but by Preaching and Miracles go about to prove himselfe to be that Messiah hee did therein nothing against their laws The Kingdome hee claimed was to bee in another world He taught all men to obey in the mean time them that sate in Moses seat He allowed them to give Caesar his tribute and refused to take upon himselfe to be a Judg. How then could his words or actions bee seditious or tend to the overthrow of their then Civill Government But God having determined his sacrifice for the reduction of his elect to their former covenanted obedience for the means whereby he would bring the same to effect made use of their malice and ingratitude Nor was it contrary to the laws of Caesar. For though Pilate himself to gratifie the Jews delivered him to be crucified yet before he did so he pronounced openly that he found no fault in him And put for title of his condemnation not as the Jews required that he pretended to bee King bnt simply That hee was King of the Iews and notwithstanding their clamour refused to alter it saying What I have written I have written As for the third part of his Office which was to be King I have already shewn that his Kingdome was not to begin till the Resurrection But then he shall be King not onely as God in which sense he is King already and ever shall be of all the Earth in vertue of his omnipotence but also peculiarly of his own Elect by vertue of the pact they make with him in their Baptisme And therefore it is that our Saviour saith Mat. 19. 28. that his Apostles should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory whereby he signified that he should reign then in his humane nature and Mat. 16. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works The same we may read Marke 13. 26. and 14. 62. and more expressely for the time Luke 22. 29 30. I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed to mee that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdome and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel By which it is manifest that the Kingdome of Christ appointed to him by his Father is not to be before the Son of Man shall come in Glory and make his Apostles Judges of the twelve tribes of Israel But a man may here ask seeing there is no marriage in the Kingdome of Heaven whether men shall then eat and drink what eating therefore is meant in this place This is expounded by our Saviour Iohn 6. 27. where he saith Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the Son of man shall give you So that by eating at Christs table is meant the eating of the Tree of Life that is to say the enjoying of Immortality in the Kingdome of the Son of Man By which places and many more it is evident that our Saviours Kingdome is to bee exercised by him in his humane nature Again he is to be King then no otherwise than as subordinate or Vicegerent of God the Father as Moses was in the wildernesse and as the High Priests were before the reign of Saul and as the Kings were after it For it is one of the Prophecies concerning Christ that he should be like in Office to Moses I will raise them up a Prophet saith the Lord Deut. 18. 18. from amongst their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words into his mouth and this similitude with Moses is also apparent in the actions of our Saviour himself whilest he was conversant on Earth For as Moses chose twelve Princes of the tribes to govern under him so did our Saviour choose twelve Apostles who shall sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel And as Moses authorized Seventy Elders to receive the Spirit of God and to Prophecy to the people that is as I have said before to speak unto them in the name of God so our Saviour also ordained seventy Disciples to preach his Kingdome and Salvation to all Nations And as when a complaint was made to Moses against those of the Seventy that prophecyed in the camp of Israel he justified them in it as being subservient therein to his government so also our Saviour when St. John complained to him of a certain man that cast out Devills in his name justified him therein saying Luke 9. 50. Forbid him not for hee that is not against us is on our part Again our Saviour resembled Moses in the institution of Sacraments both of Admission into the Kingdome of God and of Commemoration of his deliverance of his Elect from their miserable condition As the Children of Israel had for Sacrament of their Reception into the Kingdome of God before the time of Moses the rite of Circumcision which rite having been omitted in the Wildernesse was again restored as soon as they came into the land of Promise so also tâ—…e Jews before the coming of our Saviour had a rite of Baptizing that is of washing with water all those that being Gentiles embraced the God of Israel This rite St. John the Baptist used in the reception of all them that gave their names to the Christ whom hee preached to bee already come into the world and our Saviour instituted the same for a Sacrament to be taken by all that beleeved in him From what cause the rite of Baptisme first proceeded is not expressed formally in the Scripture but it may be probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses concerning Leprousie wherein the Leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the campe of Israel for a certain time after which time being judged by the Priest to be clean hee was admitted into the campe after a solemne Washing And this may therefore bee a type of the Washing in Baptisme wherein such men as are cleansed of the Leprousie of Sin by Faith are received into the Church with the solemnity of Baptisme There is another conjecture drawn from the Ceremonies of the Gentiles in a certain case that rarely happens and that is when a man that was thought dead chanced to recover other men made scruple to converse with him as they would doe to converse with a Ghost unlesse hee were received again into the number of men by Washing as Children new born were washed from the uncleannesse of their nativity which was a kind of new birth This ceremony of the Greeks in the time that Judaea was under the Dominion of Alexander and the Greeks
the Holy Ghost Separate me Barnabas and saulâ—… c. But seeing the work of an Apostle was to be a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Christ a man may here aske how S. Paul that conversed not with our Saviour before his passion could know he was risen To which is easily answered that our Saviour himself appeared to him in the way to Damascus from Heaven after his Ascension and chose him for a vessell to bear his name before the Gentiles and Kings and Children of Israel and consequently having seen the Lord after his passion was a competent Witnesse of his Resurrection And as for Barnabas he was a Disciple before the Passion It is therefore evident that Paul and Barnabas were Apostles and yet chosen and authorized not by the first Apostles alone but by the Church of Antioch as Matthias was chosen and authorized by the Church of Jerusalem Bishop a word formed in oâ—…r language out of the Greek Episcopus signifieth an Overseer or Superintendent of any businesse and particularly a Pastor or Shepherd and thence by metaphor was taken not only amongst the Jews that were originally Shepherds but also amongst the Heathen to signifie the Office of a King or any other Ruler or Guide of People whether he ruled by Laws or Doctrine And so the Apostles were the first Christian Bishops instituted by Christ himselfe in which sense the Apostleship of Judas is called Acts 1. 20. his Bishoprick And afterwards when there were constituted Elders in the Christian Churches with charge to guide Christs flock by their doctrine and advice these Elders were also called Bishops Timothy was an Elder which word Elder in the New Testament is a name of Office as well as of Age yet he was also a Bishop And Bishops were then content with the Title of Elders Nay S. John himselfe the Apostle beloved of our Lord beginneth his Second Epistle with these words The Elder to the Elect Lady By which it is evident that Bishop Pastor Elder Doctor that is to say Teacher were but so many divers names of the same Office in the time of the Apostles For there was then no government by Coercion but only by Doctrine and Perswading The Kingdome of God was yet to come in a new world so that there could be no authority to compell in any Church till the Common-wealth had embraced the Christian Faith and consequently no diversity of Authority though there were diversity of Employments Besides these Magisteriall employments in the Church namely Apostles Bishops Elders Pastors and Doctors whose calling was to proclaim Christ to the Jews and Infidels and to direct and teach those that beleeved we read in the New Testament of no other For by the names of Evangelists and Prophets is not signified any Office but severall Gifts by which severall men were profitable to the Church as Evangelists by writing the life and acts of our Saviour such as were S. Matthew and S. Iohn Apostles and S. Marke and S. Luke Disciples and whosoever else wrote of that subject as S. Thomas and S. Barnabas are said to have done though the Church have not received the Books that have gone under their names and as Prophets by the gift of interpreting the Old Testament and sometimes by declaring their speciall Revelations to the Church For neither these gifts nor the gifts of Languages nor the gift of Casting out Devils or of Curing other diseases nor any thing else did make an Officer in the Church save onely the due calling and election to the charge of Teaching As the Apostles Matthias Paul and Barnabas were not made by our Saviour himself but were elected by the Church that is by the Assembly of Christians namely Matthias by the Church of Jerusalem and Paul and Barnabas by the Church of Antioch so were also the Presbyters and Pastors in other Cities elected by the Churches of those Cities For proof whereof let us consider first how S. Paul proceeded in the Ordination of Presbyters in the Cities where he had converted men to the Christian Faith immediately after he and Barnabas had received their Apostleship We read Acts 4. 23. that they ordained Elders in every Church which at first sight may be taken for an Argument that they themselves chose and gave them their authority But if we confider the Originall text it will be manifest that they were authorized and chosen by the Assembly of the Christians of each City For the words there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is When they had Ordained them Elders by the Holding up of Hands in every Congregation Now it is well enough known that in all those Cities the manner of choosing Magistrates and Officers was by plurality of suffrages and because the ordinary way of distinguishing the Affirmative Votes from the Negatives was by Holding up of Hands to ordain an Officer in any of the Cities was no more but to bring the people together to elect them by plurality of Votes whether it were by plurality of elevated hands or by plurality of voices or plurality of balls or beans or small stones of which every man cast in one into a vessell marked for the Affirmative or Negative for divers Cities had divers customes in that point It was therefore the Assembly that elected their own Elders the Apostles were onely Presidents of the Assembly to call them together for such Election and to pronounce them Elected and to give them the benediction which now is called Consecration And for this cause they that were Presidents of the Assemblies as in the absence of the Apostles the Elders were were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Aâ—…tistites which words signifie the Principall Person of the Assembly whose office was to number the Votes and to declare thereby who was chosen and where the Votes were equall to decide the matter in question by adding his own which is the Office of a President in Councell And because all the Churches had their Presbyters ordained in the same manner where the word is Constitute as Titus 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest constitute Elders in every City we are to understand the same thing namely that hee should call the faithfull together and ordain them Presbyters by plurality of suffrages It had been a strange thing if in a Town where men perhaps had never seen any Magistrate otherwise chosen then by an Assembly those of the Town becomming Christians should so much as have thought on any other way of Election of their Teachers and Guides that is to say of their Presbyters otherwise called Bishops then this of plurality of suffrages intimated by S. Paul Acts 14. 23. in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor was there ever any choosing of Bishops before the Emperors found it necessary to regulate them in order to the keeping of the peace amongst them but by the Assemblies of the Christians in every severall Town
have all manner of Power over their Subjects that can be given to man for the government of mens externall actions both in Policy and Religion and may make such Laws as themselves shall judge fittest for the government of their own Subjects both as they are the Common-wealth and as they are the Church for both State and Church are the same men If they please therefore they may as many Christian Kings now doe commit the government of their Subjects in matters of Religion to the Pope but then the Pope is in that point Subordinate to them and exerciseth that Charge in anothers Dominion Iure Civili in the Right of the Civill Soveraign not Iure Divino in Gods Right and may therefore be discharged of that Office when the Soveraign for the good of his Subjects shall think it necessary They may also if they please commit the care of Religion to one Supreme Pastor or to an Assembly of Pastors and give them what power over the Church or one over another they think most convenient and what titles of honor as of Bishops Archbishops Priests or Presbyters they will and make such Laws for their maintenance either by Tithes or otherwise as they please so they doe it out of a sincere conscience of which God onely is the Judge It is the Civill Soveraign that is to appoint Judges and Interpreters of the Canonicall Scriptures for it is he that maketh them Laws It is he also that giveth strength to Excommunications which but for such Laws and Punishments as may humble obstinate Libertines and reduce them to union with the rest of the Church would bee contemned In summe he hath the Supreme Power in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill as far as concerneth actions and words for those onely are known and may be accused and of that which cannot be accused there is no Judg at all but God that knoweth the heart And these Rights are incident to all Soveraigns whether Monarchs or Assemblies for they that are the Representants of a Christian People are Representants of the Church for a Church and a Common-wealth of Christian People are the same thing Though this that I have here said and in other places of this Book seem cleer enough for the asserting of the Supreme Ecclesiasticall Power to Christian Soveraigns yet because the Pope of Romes challenge to that Power universally hath been maintained chiefly and I think as strongly as is possible by Cardinall Bellarmine in his Controversie De Summo Pontifice I have thought it necessary as briefly as I can to examine the grounds and strength of his Discourse Of five Books he hath written of this subject the first containeth three Questions One Which is simply the best government Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy and concludeth for neither but for a government mixt of all three Another which of these is the best Government of the Church and concludeth for the mixt but which should most participate of Monarchy The third whether in this mixt Monarchy St. Peter had the place of Monarch Concerning his first Conclusion I have already sufficiently proved chapt 18. that all Governments which men are bound to obey are Simple and Absolute In Monarchy there is but One Man Supreme and all other men that have any kind of Power in the State have it by his Commission during his pleasure and execute it in his name And in Aristocracy and Democracy but One Supreme Assembly with the same Power that in Monarchy belongeth to the Monarch which is not a Mixt but an Absolute Soveraignty And of the three sorts which is the best is not to be disputed where any one of them is already established but the present ought alwaies to be preferred maintained and accounted best because it is against both the Law of Nature and the Divine positive Law to doe any thing tending to the subversion thereof Besides it maketh nothing to the Power of any Pastor unlesse he have the Civill Soveraignty what kind of Government is the best because their Calling is not to govern men by Commandement but to teach them and perswade them by Arguments and leave it to them to consider whether they shall embrace or reject the Doctrine taught For Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy do mark out unto us three sorts of Soveraigns not of Pastors or as we may say three sorts of Masters of Families not three sorts of Schoolmasters for their children And therefore the second Conclusion concerning the best form of Government of the Church is nothing to the question of the Popes Power without his own Dominions For in all other Common-wealths his Power if hee have any at all is that of the Schoolmaster onely and not of the Master of the Family For the third Conclusion which is that St. Peter was Monarch of the Church he bringeth for his chiefe argument the place of S. Matth. chap. 16. 18 19. Thou art Peter And upon this rock I will build my Church c. And I will give thee the keyes of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place well considered proveth no more but that the Church of Christ hath for foundation one onely Article namely that which Peter in the name of all the Apostles professing gave occasion to our Saviour to speak the words here cited which that wee may cleerly understand we are to consider that our Saviour preached by himself by John Baptist and by his Apostles nothing but this Article of Faith that he was the Christ all other Articles requiring faith no otherwise than as founded on that John began first Mat. 3. 2. preaching only this The Kingdome of God is at hand Then our Saviour himself Mat. 4. 17. preached the same And to his Twelve Apostles when he gave them their Commission Mat. 10. 7. there is no mention of preaching any other Article but that This was the fundamentall Article that is the Foundation of the Churches Faith Afterwards the Apostles being returned to him he asketh them all Mat. 16. 13. not Peter onely Who men said he was and they answered that some said he was Iohn the Baptist some Elias and others Ieremias or one of the Prophets Then ver 15. he asked them all again not Peter onely Whom say yee that I am Therefore S. Peter answered for them all Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God which I said is the Foundation of the Faith of the whole Church from which our Saviour takes the occasion of saying Vpon this stone I will build my Church By which it is manifest that by the Foundation-Stone of the Church was meant the Fundamentall Article of the Churches Faith But why then will some object doth our Saviour interpose these words Thou art Peter If the originall of this text had been rigidly translated the reason would easily have appeared We are therefore to consider that the
Article Iesus is the Christ. The summe of St. Matthews Gospell is this That Jesus was of the stock of David Born of a Virgin which are the Marks of the true Christ That the Magi came to worship him as King of the Jews That Herod for the same cause sought to kill him That John Baptist proclaimed him That he preached by himselfe and his Apostles that he was that King That he taught the Law not as a Scribe but as a man of Authority That he cured diseases by his Word onely and did many other Miracles which were foretold the Christ should doe That he was saluted King when hee entred into Jerusalem That he fore-warned them to beware of all others that should pretend to be Christ That he was taken accused and put to death for saying hee was King That the cause of his condemnation written on the Crosse was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEVVES All which tend to no other end than this that men should beleeve that Iesus is the Christ. Such therefore was the Scope of St. Matthews Gospel But the Scope of all the Evangelists as may appear by reading them was the same Therefore the Scope of the whole Gospell was the establishing of that onely Article And St. John expressely makes it his conclusion Iohn 20. 31. These things are written that you may know that Iesus is the Christ the Son of the living God My second Argument is taken from the Subject of the Sermons of the Apostles both whilest our Saviour lived on earth aud after his Ascension The Apostles in our Saviours time were sent Luke 9. 2. to Preach the Kingdome of God For neither there nor Mat. 10. 7. giveth he any Commission to them other than this As ye go Preach saying the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand that is that Iesus is the Messiah the Christ the King which was to come That their Preaching also after his ascension was the same is manifest out of Acts 17. 6. They drew saith St. Luke Iason and certain Brethren unto the Rulers of the City crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also whom Iason hath received And these all do contrary to the Decrees of Caesar saying that there is another King one Iesus And out of the 2. 3. verses of the same Chapter where it is said that St. Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath dayes reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen againe from the dead and that this Iesus whom hee preached is Christ. The third Argument is from those places of Scripture by which all the Faith required to Salvation is declared to be Easie. For if an inward assent of the mind to all the Doctrines concerning Christian Faith now taught whereof the greatest part are disputed were necessary to Salvation there would be nothing in the world so hard as to be a Christian. The Thief upon the Crosse though repenting could not have been saved for saying Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kinâ—…dome by which he testified no beleefe of any other Article but this That Iesus was the King Nor could it bee said as it is Mat. 11. 30. that Christs yoke is Easy and his burthen Light Nor that Little Children beleeve in him as it is Matth. 18. 6. Nor could St. Paul have said 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the Foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve Nor could St. Paul himself have been saved much lesse have been so great a Doctor of the Church so suddenly that never perhaps thought of Transubstantiation nor Purgatory nor many other Articles now obtruded The fourth Argument is taken from places expresse and such as receive no controversie of Interpretation as first Iohn 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them yee thinke yee have eternall life and they are they that testifie of mee Our Saviour here speaketh of the Scriptures onely of the Old Testament for the Jews at that time could not search the Scriptures of the New Testament which were not written But the Old Testament hath nothing of Christ but the Markes by which men might know him when hee came as that he should descend from David be born at Bethlem and of a Virgin doe great Miracles and the like Therefore to beleeve that this Jesus was He was sufficient to eternall life but more than sufficient is not Necessary and consequently no other Article is required Again Iohn 11. 26. Whosoever liveth and beleeveth in mee shall not die eternally Therefore to beleeve in Christ is faith sufficient to eternall life and consequently no more faith than that is Necessary But to beleeve in Jesus and to beleeve that Jesus is the Christ is all one as appeareth in the verses immediately following For when our Saviour verse 26. had said to Martha Beleevest thou this she answereth verse 27. Yea Lord I beleeve that thou art the Christ the Son of God which should come into the world Therefore this Article alone is faith sufficient to life eternall and more than sufficient is not Necessary Thirdly Iohn 20. 31. These things are written that yee might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving yee might have life through his name There to beleeve that Iesus is the Christ is faith sufficient to the obtaining of life and therefore no other Article is Necessary Fourthly 1 Iohn 4. 2. Every spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God And 1 Ioh. 5. 1. Whosoever beleeveth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God And verse 5. Who is hee that overcommeth the world but he that beleeveth that Iesus is the Son of God Fiftly Act. 8. ver 36 37. See saith the Eunuch here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized And Philip said If thou beleevest with all thy heart thou mayst And hee answered and said I beleeve that Iesus Christ is the Son of God Therefore this Article beleeved Iesus is the Christ is sufficient to Baptisme that is to say to our Reception into the Kingdome of God and by consequence onely Necessary And generally in all places where our Saviour saith to any man Thy faith hath saved thee the caâ—…se he saith it is some Confession which directly or by consequence implyeth a beleef that Jesus is the Christ. The last Argument is from the places where this Article is made the Foundation of Faith For he that holdeth the Foundation shall bee saved Which places are first Mat. 24. 23. If any man shall say unto you Loe here is Christ or there beleeve it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders c. Here wee see this Article Jesus is the Christ must bee held though hee that shall teach the contrary should doe great miracles The second place is Gal. 1. 8. Though
Romane Church pretend to be tormented now in Purgatory For God that could give a life to a peece of clay hath the same power to give life again to a dead man and renew his inanimate and rotten Carkasse into a glorious spirituall and immortall Body Another place is that of 1 Cor. 3. where it is said that they which built Stubble Hay c. on the true Foundation their work shall perish but they themselves shall be saved but as through Fire This Fire he will have to be the Fire of Purgatory The words as I have said before are an allusion to those of Zach. 13. 9. where he saith I will bring the third part through the Fire and refine them as Silver is refined and will try them as Gold is tryed Which is spoken of the comming of the Messiah in Power and Glory that is at the day of Judgment and Conflagration of the present world wherein the Elect shall not be consumed but be refined that is depose their erroneous Doctrines and Traditions and have them as it were sindged of and shall afterwards call upon the name of the true God In like manner the Apostle saith of them that holding this Foundation Iesus is the Christ shall build thereon some other Doctrines that be erroneous that they shall not be consumed in that fire which reneweth the world but shall passe through it to Salvation but so as to see and relinquish their former Errours The Builders are the Pastors the Foundation that Iesus is the Christ the Stubble and Hay False Consequences drawn from it through Ignorance or Frailty the Gold Silver and pretious Stones are their True Doctrines and their Refining or Purging the Relinquishing of their Errors In all which there is no colour at all for the burning of Incorporeall that is to say Impatible Souls A third place is that of 1 Cor. 15. before mentioned concerning Baptisme for the Dead out of which he concludeth first that Prayers for the Dead are not unprofitable and out of that that there is a Fire of Purgatory But neither of them rightly For of many interpretations of the word Baptisme he approveth this in the first place that by Baptisme is meant metaphorically a Baptisme of Penance and that men are in this sense Baptized when they Fast and Pray and give Almes And so Baptisme for the Dead and Prayer for the Dead is the same thing But this is a Metaphor of which there is no example neither in the Scripture nor in any other use of language and which is also discordant to the harmony and scope of the Scripture The word Baptisme is used Mar. 10. 38. Luk. 12. 50. for being Dipped in ones own bloud as Christ was upon the Cross and as most of the Apostles were for giving testimony of him But it is hard to say that Prayer Fasting and Almes have any similitude with Dipping The same is used also Mat. 3. 11. which seemeth to make somewhat for Purgatory for a Purging with Fire But it is evident the Fire and Purging here mentioned is the same whereof the Prophet Zachary speaketh chap. 13. v. 9. I will bring the third part through the Fire and will Refine them c. And St. Peter after him 1 Epist. 1. 7. That the triall of your Faith which is much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with Fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ And St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 13. The Fire shall trie every mans work of what sort it is But St. Peter and St. Paul speak of the Fire that shall be at the Second Appearing of Christ and the Prophet Zachary of the Day of Judgment And therefore this place of S. Mat. may be interpreted of the same and then there will be no necessity of the Fire of Purgatory Another interpretation of Baptisme for the Dead is that which I have before mentioned which he preferreth to the second place of probability And thence also he inferreth the utility of Prayer for the Dead For if after the Resurrection such as have not heard of Christ or not beleeved in him may be received into Christs Kingdome it is not in vain after their death that their friends should pray for them till they should be risen But granting that God at the prayers of the faithfull may convert unto him some of those that have not heard Christ preached and consequently cannot have rejected Christ and that the charity of men in that point cannot be blamed yet this concludeth nothing for Purgatory because to rise from Death to Life is one thing to rise from Purgatory to Life is another as being a rising from Life to Life from a Life in torments to a Life in joy A fourth place is that of Mat. 5. 25. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilest thou art in the way with him left at any time the Adversary deliver thee to the Iudge and the Iudge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing In which Allegory the Offender is the Sinner both the Adversary and the Judge is God the Way is this Life the Prison is the Grave the Officer Death from which the sinner shall not rise again to life eternall but to a second Death till he have paid the utmost farthing or Christ pay it for him by his Passion which is a full Ransome for all manner of sin as well lesser sins as greater crimes both being made by the passion of Christ equally veniall The fift place is that of Matth. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be guilty in Iudgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother RACHA shall be guilty in the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Foole shall be guilty to hell fire From which words he inferreth three sorts of Sins and three sorts of Punishments and that none of those sins but the last shall be punished with hell fire and consequently that after this life there is punishment of lesser sins in Purgatory Of which inference there is no colour in any interpretation that hath yet been given of them Shall there be a distinction after this life of Courts of Justice as there was amongst the Jews in our Saviours time to hear and determine divers sorts of Crimes as the Judges and the Councell Shall not all Judicature appertain to Christ and his Apostles To undersand therefore this text we are not to consider it solitarily but jointly with the words precedent and subsequent Our Saviour in this Chapter interpreteth the Law of Moses which the Jews thought was then fulfilled when they had not transgressed the Grammaticall sense thereof howsoever they had transgressed against the sentence or meaning of the Legislator Therefore whereas they thought the Sixth Commandement was not broken but by Killing a man nor the
Seventh but when a man lay with a woman not his wife our Saviour tells them the inward Anger of a man against his brother if it be without just cause is Homicide You have heard saith hee the Law of Moses Thou shalt not Kill and that Whosoever shall Kill shall bee condemned before the Iudges or before the Session of the Seventy But I say unto you to be Angry with ones Brother without cause or to say unto him Racha or Foole is Homicide and shall be punished at the day of Judgment and Session of Christ and his Apostles with Hell fire so that those words were not used to distinguish between divers Crimes and divers Courts of Justice and divers Punishments but to taxe the distinction between sin and sin which the Jews drew not from the difference of the Will in Obeying God but from the difference of their Temporall Courts of Justice and to shew them that he that had the Will to hurt his Brother though the effect appear but in Reviling or not at all shall be cast into hell fire by the Judges and by the Session which shall be the same not different Courts at the day of Judgment This considered what can be drawn from this text to maintain Purgatory I cannot imagine The sixth place is Luke 16. 9. Make yee friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when yee faile they may receive you into Everlasting Tabernacles This he alledges to prove Invocation of Saints departed But the sense is plain That we should make friends with our Riches of the Poore and thereby obtain their Prayers whilest they live He that giveth to the Poore lendeth to the Lord. The seventh is Luke 23. 42. Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome Therefore saith hee there is Remission of sins after this life But the consequence is not good Our Saviour then forgave him and at his comming againe in Glory will remember to raise him againe to Life Eternall The Eight is Acts 2. 24. where St. Peter saith of Christ that God had raised him up and loosed the Paines of Death because it was not possible he should be holden of it Which hee interprets to bee a descent of Christ into Purgatory to loose some Soules there from their torments whereas it is manifest that it was Christ that was loosed it was hee that could not bee holden of Death or the Grave and not the Souls in Purgatory But if that which Beza sayes in his notes on this place be well observed there is none that will not see that in stead of Paynes it should be Bands and then there is no further cause to seek for Purgatory in this Text. CHAP. XLV Of DAEMONOLOGY and other Reliques of the Religion of the Gentiles THe impression made on the organs of Sight by lucide Bodies either in one direct line or in many lines reflected from Opaque or refracted in the passage through Diaphanous Bodies produceth in living Creatures in whom God hath placed such Organs an Imagination of the Object from whence the Impression proceedeth which Imagination is called Sight and seemeth not to bee a meer Imagination but the Body it selfe without us in the same manner as when a man violently presseth his eye there appears to him a light without and before him which no man perceiveth but himselfe because there is indeed no such thing without him but onely a motion in the interiour organs pressing by resistance outward that makes him think so And the motion made by this pressure continuing after the object which caused it is removed is that we call Imagination and Memory and in sleep and sometimes in great distemper of the organs by Sicknesse or Violence a Dream of which things I have already spoken briefly in the second and third Chapters This nature of Sight having never been discovered by the ancient pretenders to Naturall Knowledge much lesse by those that consider not things so remote as that Kowledge is from their present use it was hard for men to conceive of those Images in the Fancy and in the Sense otherwise than of things really without us Which some because they vanish away they know not whither nor how will have to be absolutely Incorporeall that is to say Immateriall or Formes without Matter Colour and Figure without any coloured or figured Body and that they can put on Aiery bodies as a garment to make them Visible when they will to our bodily Eyes and others say are Bodies and living Creatures but made of Air or other more subtile and aethereall Matter which is then when they will be seen condensed But Both of them agree on one generall appellation of them DAEMONS As if the Dead of whom they Dreamed were not Inhabitants of their own Brain but of the Air or of Heaven or Hell not Phantasmes but Ghosts with just as much reason as if one should say he saw his own Ghost in a Looking-Glasse or the Ghosts of the Stars in a River or call the ordinary apparition of the Sun of the quantity of about a foot the Daemon or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth the whole visible world And by that means have feared them as things of an unknown that is of an unlimited power to doe them good or harme and consequently given occasion to the Governours of the Heathen Common-wealths to regulate this their fear by establishing that DAEMONOLOGY in which the Poets as Principall Priests of the Heathen Religion were specially employed or reverenced to the Publique Peace and to the Obedience of Subjects necessary thereunto and to make some of them Good Daemons and others Evill the one as a Spurre to the Observance the other as Reines to withhold them from Violation of the Laws What kind of things they were to whom they attributed the name of Daemons appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods written by Hesiod one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians and partly in other Histories of which I have observed some few before in the 12. Chapter of this discourse The Graecians by their Colonies and Conquests communicated their Language and Writings into Asia Egypt and Italy and therein by necessary consequence their Daemonology or as St. Paul calles it their Doctrines of Devils And by that meanes the contagion was derived also to the Jewes both of Iudaea and Alexandria and other parts whereinto they were dispersed But the name of Daemon they did not as the Graecians attribute to Spirits both Good and Evill but to the Evill onely And to the Good Daemons they gave the name of the Spirit of God and esteemed those into whose bodies they entred to be Prophets In summe all singularity if Good they attributed to the Spirit of God and if Evill to some Daemon but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Evill Daemon that is a Devill And therefore they called Daemoniaques that is possessed by the Devill such as we call Mad-men or Lunatiques or such as had
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
at his comming again gloriously to reign over his Elect and to save them from their Enemies eternally To which the opinion of Possession by Spirits or Phantasmes are no impediment in the way though it be to some an occasion of going out of the way and to follow their own Inventions If wee require of the Scripture an account of all questions which may be raised to trouble us in the performance of Gods commands we may as well complaine of Moses for not having set downe the time of the creation of such Spirits as well as of the Creation of the Earth and Sea and of Men and Beasts To conclude I find in Scripture that there be Angels and Spirits good and evill but not that they are Incorporeall as are the Apparitions men see in the Dark or in a Dream or Vision which the Latines call Spectra and took for Daemons And I find that there are Spirits Corporeall though subtile and Invisible but not that any mans body was possessed or inhabited by them And that the Bodies of the Saints shall be such namely Spirituall Bodies as St. Paul calls them Neverthelesse the contrary Doctrine namely that there be Incorporeall Spirits hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church that the use of Exorcisme that is to say of ejection of Devills by Conjuration is thereupon built and though rarely and faintly practised is not yet totally given over That there were many Daemoniaques in the Primitive Church and few Mad-men and other such singular diseases whereas in these times we hear of and see many Mad-men and few Daemoniaques proceeds not from the change of Nature but of Names But how it comes to passe that whereas heretofore the Apostles and after them for a time the Pastors of the Church did cure those singular Diseases which now they are not seen to doe as likewise why it is not in the power of every true Beleever now to doe all that the Faithfull did then that is to say as we read Mark 16. 17. In Christs name to cast out Devills to speak with new Tongues to take up Serpents to drink deadly Poison without harm taking and to cure the Sick by the laying on of their hands and all this without other words but in the Name of Iesus is another question And it is probable that those extraordinary gifts were given to the Church for no longer a time than men trusted wholly to Christ and looked for their felicity onely in his Kingdome to come and consequently that when they sought Authority and Riches and trusted to their own Subtilty for a Kingdome of this world these supernaturall gifts of God were again taken from them Another relique of Gentilisme is the Worship of Images neither instituted by Moses in the Old nor by Christ in the New Testament nor yet brought in from the Gentiles but left amongst them after they had given their names to Christ. Before our Saviour preached it was the generall Religion of the Gentiles to worship for Gods those Apparences that remain in the Brain from the impression of externall Bodies upon the organs of their Senses which are commonly called Ideas Idols Phantasmes Conceits as being Representations of those externall Bodies which cause them and have nothing in them of reality no more than there is in the things that seem to stand before us in a Dream And this is the reason why St. Paul says Wee know that an Idol is Nothing Not that he thought that an Image of Metall Stone or Wood was nothing but that the thing which they honored or feared in the Image and held for a God was a meer Figment without place habitation motion or existence but in the motions of the Brain And the worship of these with Divine Honour is that which is in the Scripture called Idolatry and Rebellion against God For God being King of the Jews and his Lieutenant being first Moses and afterward the High Priest if the people had been permitted to worship and pray to Images which are Representations of their own Fancies they had had no farther dependence on the true God of whom their can be no similitude nor on his prime Ministers Moses and the High Priests but every man had governed himself according to his own appetite to the utter eversion of the Common-wealth and their own destruction for want of Union And therefore the first Law of God was They should not take for Gods ALIENOS DEOS that is the Gods of other nations but that onely true God who vouchsafed to commune with Moses and by him to give them laws and directions for their peace and for their salvation from their enemies And the second was that they should not make to themselves any Image to Worship of their own Invention For it is the same deposing of a King to submit to another King whether he be set up by a neighbour nation or by our selves The places of Scripture pretended to countenance the setting up of Images to worship them or to set them up at all in the places where God is worshipped are First two Examples one of the Cherubins over the Ark of God the other of the Brazen Serpent Secondly some texts whereby we are commanded to worship certain Creatures for their relation to God as to worship his Footstool And lastly some other texts by which is authorized a religious honoring of Holy things But before I examine the force of those places to prove that which is pretended I must first explain what is to be understood by Worshipping and what by Images and Idols I have already shewn in the 20 Chapter of this Discourse that to Honor is to value highly the Power of any person and that such value is measured by our comparing him with others But because there is nothing to be compared with God in Power we Honor him not but Dishonour him by any Value lesse than Infinite And thus Honor is properly of its own nature secret and internall in the heart But the inward thoughts of men which appeare outwardly in their words and actions are the signes of our Honoring and these goe by the name of WORSHIP in Latine CULTUS Therefore to Pray to to Swear by to Obey to bee Diligent and Officious in Serving in summe all words and actions that betoken Fear to Offend or Desire to Please is Worship whether those words and actions be sincere or feigned and because they appear as signes of Honoring are ordinarily also called Honor. The Worship we exhibite to those we esteem to be but men as to Kings and men in Authority is Civill Worship But the worship we exhibite to that which we think to bee God whatsoever the words ceremonies gestures or other actions be is Divine VVorship To fall prostrate before a King in him that thinks him but a Man is but Civill Worship And he that but putteth off his hat in the Church for this cause that he thinketh it the House of
God worshippeth with Divine Worship They that seek the distinction of Divine and Civill Worship not in the intention of the Worshipper but in the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceive themselves For whereas there be two sorts of Servants that sort which is of those that are absolutely in the power of their Masters as Slaves taken in war and their Issue whose bodies are not in their own power their lives depending on the Will of their Masters in such manner as to forfeit them upon the least disobedience and that are bought and sold as Beasts were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is properly Slaves and their Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other which is of those that serve for hire or in hope of benefit from their Masters voluntarily are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Domestique Servants to whose service the Masters have no further right than is contained in the Covenants made betwixt them These two kinds of Servants have thus much common to them both that their labour is appointed them by another And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the generall name of both signifying him that worketh for another whether as a Slave or a voluntary Servant So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth generally all Service but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the service of Bondmen onely and the condition of Slavery And both are used in Scripture to signifie our Service of God promiscuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because we are Gods Slaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because wee Serve him and in all kinds of Service is contained not onely Obedience but also Worship that is such actions gestures and words as signifie Honor. An IMAGE in the most strict signification of the word is the Resemblance of some thing visible In which sense the Phantasticall Formes Apparitions or Seemings of visible Bodies to the Sight are onely Images such as are the Shew of a man or other thing in the Water by Reflexion or Refraction or of the Sun or Stars by Direct Vision in the Air which are nothing reall in the things seen nor in the place where they seem to bee nor are their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the object but changeable by the variation of the organs of Sight or by glasses and are present oftentimes in our Imagination and in our Dreams when the object is absent or changed into other colours and shapes as things that depend onely upon the Fancy And these are the Images which are originally and most properly called Ideas and IDOLS and derived from the language of the Graecians with whom the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to See They are also called PHANTASMES which is in the same language Apparitions And from these Images it is that one of the faculties of mans Nature is called the Imagination And from hence it is manifest that there neither is nor can bee any Image made of a thing Invisible It is also evident that there can be no Image of a thing Infinite for all the Images and Phantasmes that are made by the Impression of things visible are figured but Figure is a quantity every way determined And therefore there can bee no Image of God nor of the Soâ—…le of Man nor of Spirits but onely of Bodies Visible that is Bodies that have light in themselves or are by such â—…nligtened And whereas a man can fancy Shapes he never saw making up a Figure out of the parts of divers creatures as the Poets make their Centaures Chimaeras and other Monsters never seen So can he also give Matter to those Shapes and make them in Wood Clay or Metall And these are also called Images not for the resemblance of any corporeall thing but for the resemblance of some Phantasticall Inhabitants of the Brain of the Maker But in these Idols as they are originally in the Brain and as they are painted carved moulded or moulten in matter there is a similitude of the one to the other for which the Materiall Body made by Art may be said to be the Image of the Phantasticall Idoll made by Nature But in a larger use of the word Image is contained also any Representation of one thing by another So an earthly Soveraign may be called the Image of God And an inferiour Magistrate the Image of an earthly Soveraign And many times in the Idolatry of the Gentiles there was little regard to the similitude of their Materiall Idol to the Idol in their fancy and yet it was called the Image of it For a Stone unhewn has been set up for Neptune and divers other shapes far different from the shapes they conceived of their Gods And at this day we see many Images of the Virgin Mary and other Saints unlike one another and without correspondence to any one mans Fancy and yet serve well enough for the purpose they were erected for which was no more but by the Names onely to represent the Persons mentioned in the History to which every man applyeth a Mentall Image of his owne making or none at all And thus an Image in the largest sense is either the Resemblance or the Representation of some thing Visible or both together as it happeneth for the most part But the name of Idoll is extended yet further in Scripture to signifie also the Sunne or a Starre or any other Creature visible or invisible when they are worshipped for Gods Having shewn what is Worship and what an Image I will now put them together and examine what that IDOLATRY is which is forbidden in the Second Commandement and other places of the Scripture To worship an Image is voluntarily to doe those externall acts which are signes of honoring either the matter of the Image which is Wood Stone Metall or some other visible creature or the Phantasme of the brain for the resemblance or representation whereof the matter was formed and figured or both together as one â—…nimate Body composed of the Matter and the Phantasme as of a Body and Soule To be uncovered before a man of Power and Authority or before the Throne of a Prince or in such other places as hee ordaineth to that purpose in his absence is to Worship that man or Prince with Civill Worship as being a signe not of honoring the stoole or place but the Person and is not Idolatry But if hee that doth it should suppose the Soule of the Prince to be in the Stool or should present a Petition to the Stool it were Divine Worship and Idolatry To pray to a King for such things as hee is able to doe for us though we prostrate our selves before him is but Civill Worship because we acknowledge no other power in him but humane But voluntarily to pray unto him for fair weather or for any thing which God onely can doe for us is Divine Worship and Idolatry On the other side if a King compell a man to it by