not hurt it self And whereas the preservation of Peace and Unity of Society consists in the Unity of the definitive Sentence here through the many heads the Union cannot be Or if as to the definitive part they say there may be an Union by collection of major Votes It is true so indeed that there is an Union in the major Vote to that purpose but is there not another Union in the minor Vote also against the major and then it will come to pass that this Affirmative and Negative Unions as contrary to one another will make a plain disunion and so this supposed great head of the State be two heads at least and consequently this political body being divided also it cannot resemble the natural which is therefore called individual Nor can there be any firm Unity here expected because the true cause and foundation thereof is wanting in that they can never look on one anothers proprieties or theirs below them with equal concern and interest as the Monarch doth to the generality of his Subjects For he having his honor and profit arising from all in general and each one in particular is careful of all alike whereas they unite and agree but out of necessity For at first whilst they were yet rising and were called factions they were united in their several interest by hope of common gain and now having attained it they settle upon this confederacy through a common fear of losing it So that hope chiefly unites Factions and fear chiefly keeps them so and settles Anarchies Because if their hope of gain by overthrowing their own former Authority had not exceeded their fear of so doing they had not associated ar first and so now if their common fear of loss from a Soveraign Authority did not exceed their present hopes of gaining from one another they would not so continue And farther if in States the major part be the whole why have not the Magistrates and Decrees their derivative Power from them onely If they be not the whole as indeed no part can be the whole but that it is necessary for more fulness of power that the acts proceed in the name of the whole how come the lesser and absent parties which might perhaps together make the major to be rightly brought in to authorise those actions that are not theirs but done against their consents So that to make an Unity in this head or definitive sentence since the whole body of them and each one severally was alike trusted there must be first a full Union of consent amongst themselves and then no remedy but to serve them as the Cardinals in the Popes election that is to keep them immured without Light or Food till they agree At which time it may be the minor side will be as likely to overcome the major by their gift of abstinence as the major would have before probably done them by force But as this would make the Office of a Statesman little desired so would it give causes a slow dispatch and yet till it be done I see not how the opinion of the major part can carry the sense of the whole so as to make the whole and a part to be but the same thing Again if acts must pass in the name of the whole as the body intrusted and in nature and reason more worthy then a part why must not an appeal proceed so also And since they which bring their causes thither bring them to the whole assembly until they have their unamous verdict they have not what they came for their trust to the whole being but in part satisfied Nay if things be well considered they never or seldome have the major sence of the Senate neither for to omit external force which is wont to awe them if there were such an equal number deducted from the major side as will answer those on the minor that disagreed from the major in opinon there will be many times so inconsiderable a number of persons left to make the odds that one would think it strange that three or four men should be held for and represent the whole Senate And yet it must so usually be with such that instead of multitude of Councellors would have multitude of Commanders whereupon all Publike debates come to be managed as in a kind of Lottery which none knows the issue of until the casting up of Votes be taken For none can say that reason doth at all prevaile there as of it self but as swayed by heat of passion and contention not by weight or number of arguments but by noise or number of voices And this because in taking the issue of the debate the reasons or arguments given by either side are not left to be considered of by those that are to take the resolutions of the Senate or Parliament but the greater number of persons on either side doth constantly of it self so prevaile as it cannot be called the reasonable but accidental or occasional result or determination of such or such a counsel Which is only avoidable where one person of power hath liberty to give his reasonable sentence and judgement therein and that according as he shall finde the force of the reasons given on either side to prevaile and not to be any way tyed to the blind hazard of number One person he must be and that of power above them also For if they be more you shall fall into the same hazard again of having their sentence and debate ended by meer force and number also And if this one person have not sole power but be obnoxious unto any then terror from without and not reason from within may again sway his determination But it is answered That the major part is representatively the whole Senate as the whole Senate is representatively the whole people But how I pray can this be brought to pass how can a shaddow make a shaddow or deputies make deputies Whence can the major part derive their power Not from the people they trusted the whole not from the minor part for they oppose them and cannot give what they have not Why did not the major Vote of the eleven Tribes pretend to this right against Benjamen No they knew they could not of right assume the power of the whole of themselves they being but a part therefore in absence of their Judges the next united whole on earth they take power and authority from the fountain thereof namely from God himself by whose assent and direction they came to be enabled herein and until then their resolutions in their assemblies had no rightful power for execution but should have been reckoned amongst other Anarchical acts of self-liking as wanting lawful authority otherwise to impose on their brethren and equals And if delegates have not this power of delegation in themselves where is it expressed or warranted from their originals the People And therefore supposing the voice and determination of the whole Senate may be of force to
p. 12. CHAP. VI. Of Honor p. 16. CHAP. VII Of the Laws of God leading to Government p. 24. CHAP. VIII Of the Master of the Family p. 28. CHAP. IX Of Soveraignty and its Original and of Monarchy or Kingly power p. 41. BOOK II. CHAP. I. OF Anarchy p. 79. CHAP. II. Of Faction and its original and usual supports p. 98. CHAP. III. Of Rebellion and its most notable causes and pretences p. 104. CHAP. IV. Of Liberty p. 114. CHAP. V. Of Tyranny p. 122. CHAP. VI. Of Slavery p. 126. CHAP. VII Of Property p. 130. CHAP. VIII Of Law Justice Equity c. p. 139. CHAP. IX Of Publike good Common good or Common-weal p. 158. CHAP. X. Of Paction and Commerce p. 161. CHAP. XI Of Magistrate Councellors c. p. 177. CHAP. XII Of the Right of Dominion p. 186. BOOK III. CHAP. I Of Religion in its true ground p. 213. CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received p. 116. CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholike and of the Fundamentals of Religion p. 222. CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power p. 226. CHAP. V. Of the forms of Church Government and of the jurisdiction claimed by Church-men p. 233. CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and the Scriptures interpretation p. 249. CHAP. VII Of Love and Obedience and of our state of Innocence thereby p. 261. CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian Graces p. 277. CHAP. IX Of Charity as it stands in Nature p. 299. CHAP. X. Of Patience Long-suffering Humility Meekness c. p. 310. CHAP. XI Of Idolatry and Superstition and of the power of each Church her head in the establishment of Ceremonies and divine worship p. 328. CHAP. XII Of Antichrist p. 349. CHAP. XIII Of the mystical delivery of some divine Truths and the reason thereof p. 388. CHAP. XIV Of Athiesm p. 403. BOOK IV. OF the causes of like and dislike of content and discontent and whether it be possible to frame a Government it self pleasing and durable without force and constraint p. 419. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Of Deity FRom the observation of the dependance of one thing upon another as of its Original and Cause we must come at last to fix on such a cause as is to all things Supreme and Independent For to proceed infinitely we cannot but shall lose our selves as in a circle whose ends will be as hardly brought to meet in our conceit as it is to imagine the most remote cause and most remote effect to joyn by immediate touch Observe we again That no Operation or Effect could ever have been produced in regular and orderly manner unless the direction thereof had first or last proceeded from a voluntary Agent So that when we find the Superiour Bodies Elements and other Creatures void of sense and will by their constant endeavours either pointing to any end at all or such other ends as have respect and benefit beyond themselves they must be concluded but as Passive Agents in both cases and the latter respect especially weighed will at last bring us to pitch upon one Agent or Authour of such universal power and concern in all things as to be the true Creator and Director of them all One I say for should each Element by it self or should the will of more then one be the Guider of Productions and Effects would it not follow that this Procession of chance or different aim and will must necessarily set Nature sometimes at a stand for want of sufficient power and direction what course to follow or as it were by a kinde of Civil War make her endeavours so distracted and weak that nothing but dissolution and confusion could follow From all which we may conclude both a Deity and the unity thereof and that as a free Agent no operation could have proceeded from him without an end whereby as by an immutable Law the effects and endeavours of other Creatures stand directed and limited unto certain ends and bounds which otherwise would not proceed at all or else do it infinitely or destructively to one another And upon the same reason of having the vertues and endeavours of natural Agents and Elements thus stinted and directed it will follow that as there must be such original Elements as might have fitness to answer thesâ— Laws and Rules of Providence so this pre-existent matter could not be equally eternal with Deity but must be at first created by the same hand it is now guided for should they not or should there have been no creation at all but a perpetual pre-existence of Elements before they had by the Rules of Providence their vertues and abilities harmoniously directed they must by their irregular courses have been the destruction of one another As therefore in the first case to skip and balk the more immediate and instrumental causes of things and fasten them as immediate upon God the Supreme after the usual way of the ignorant were so to confound and jumble Causes and Effects that there should not in nature be any certain Production at all because if the Supreme Cause should be an immediate cause to the most remote effect then in order backward that remotest effect must be a cause to that which was his immediate cause before and so on or else what was the immediate effect to the Supreme before will now by its removal therefrom and coming to be as immediate cause to the most remote effect want a cause for its own Production so in this latter case the like would befal if through want of good and true observation of the dependance and reason of effects and causes till we come to the Supreme Cause or Reason we should fasten the Productions of Elements or first matter on Chance for if they be constant and uniform how shall Chance own or lay claim to them Again to make them Co-eternal with Deity is to deny his Eternity or their dependance on him who must precede the Chaos in time as that again must precede the Endowment and Regulation of the qualities of the Elements themselves in time also For so fire was before heat as the cause is before the effect which had it been Eternal and the qualites of burning thereto annexed without limit which must have been had it been from it self only what would have become of the race all things else in this general conflagration which now keeping its degrees and being confined within such and such subjects and bounds by a Superiour Power is a great and necessary help to their Production That and all things else readily obeying the Law of their Maker from whom as from a most wise Omnipotent and Bountiful Creator nothing but works and operations suitable are to be expected CHAP. II. Of Providence and its Rules in general AS therefore the perfection of this Worlds Maker doth sufficiently argue the perfection of the work so doth the perfection of the work as justly plead for continuance Continue it could not by any other Power then
protection when their Offices are invaded as the Prince is to the Fathers and Monarchs again being not unanimous and active in upholding each others rights as Fathers are it is no wonder if we finde here and there an Anarchical Kingdom even daring to profess themselves so which Families do not But would Monarchs take the common interest to heart as Fathers do and be as vigilant to preserve their neighbors power as others are to overthrow them they would finde that it would be the steadiest course to maintain their own power at home and that when other Kingdoms could never have been known successful in enterprising their Kings subversion their subjects would never undertake it no more then the Children or Servants of a Family dare for the like cause attempt the like against their Father and Master The main reason that Subjects usually have to desire such Change being the example of such or such a neighboring people as have thriven therein and so making fortune and success the onely judge of right and wrong they do proceed accordingly all stories telling us that until Anarchies came into the world such a thing as limited Monarchy was not in being Let us now again see their likeness in Rebellions and its pretences The Wife if she be of greater spirit then to be confined in her proper employment takes occasion from her Husbands remisness or too great trust in her to enlarge her power in the Family and to encroach on her Husbands also With these she lays Obligations and raises dependances as to her self and having now as she believes gotten strength to stand alone or above her Husband she becomes more insolent and open Which if it shall awake him to curb by his just power then comes she to spread through the Family the charge and power she hath She saith That the power of the head of the Family grew from the Family for as the Family was in greatness or power so was the head thereof also and therefore that they as the fountains of power might use the same to their just vindication from oppression She saith that as all kindes of good is increased by communication so the good of the whole Family is to be preferred in reason to the single good of any one especially since as the case now stands that one seeks but his own hurt also led and blinded with evil Counsel In which case necessity of self-preservation will not onely justifie but duty to their Master requires the other members to joyn in a course to force these from him and take the charge of his person and Government themselves She tells them that a Family as a Family hath foundation on the Wife and that as without Religion well instructed there could be no firm obligation for subjects obedience so without a Wife no Children no Family and so no Master thereof Besides though truly she is loth to say so much her self yet her Husbands late disrespect and forwardness to cross her makes her fear as men are now easily enclined to heresie so he hath turned his affection to some other women and therefore she would divorce her self from him that so he might be as excommunicate in his Family For although it is true that obedience is to be given to him by the Law of God yet again it is as true that he is to keep Gods Laws as well as we if not we must obey God rather then men Nay when he hath neglected his duty to his Family in not providing for them as this man hath done Saint Paul expressly saith He is worse then an infidel Now whether it be not fit that one that hath denied the Faith an Infidel nay worse then an Infidel should not onely be excommunicated but put from Government she thinks none can doubt But above all through her Husbands often absence about other imployments and remitting the directive part of Government to her in many particulars she lays the greatest claim to make herself as it were Governor in chief leaving to her Husband as pertinent to him that hath none but the coercive part the honor and authority only of a subservient officer that is to execute punish according to her determination and censure No otherwise then as the popish and Presbyterian Clergy upon advantage of their sole exercise in the Office of publike instruction do come to believe at last they are supreme and uncontrolable herein and do thence infer that as the body is to be subservient to the mind so the Prince or Civil Magistrate as they call him ought with his coercive part of Government to be reckoned but as subordinate and Ministerial to what they in their spiritual capacities shall enjoyn Not remembring that all that external jurisdiction and power she exerciseth in tâ—e Family is subordinate and to be acknowledged as derived from his supreme headship even as done by her as his Wife in his family by vertue of that choice and designation he then made at the time he personally ordained her to be his Wife and so consequently took her into this consortship and share of power For although the positive power and honor belonging to her as a mother and Mistris of a family be to be derived from God onely even from the sacramental efficacy of marriage and Ordination it self yet since it cannot be imagined that the constitution of a less and subordinate power was intended to be the overthrow of a greater therefore should she have considered that she is negatively in all things by him restrainable in the execution thereof Nay more in those things which she acts as Mistress of the Family over any but her own Children she is to hold her self as well impowered as restrainable by him although in respect of that obedience or honor rather which her own children give her she be not to acknowledge any humane derivation therein but is impowered as mother both by the Laws of God and Nature and that in chief where no other head or Monarch is With these and such like insinuations she may be supposed to win Children and others of the Family into a faction and association with her by whose help she may be able to work her ends For although women be rather more desirous of Government then men yet they wanting bodily strength are forced to draw in others to their assistance by setting up of their interests also Thus Children shall be won in by hope of some parity of power with the Father as well as Peerage among themselves for by the Text of Fathers provoke noâ— your children to wrath they would both have the duty of Fathers implyed of not commanding more to their Children then what they are willing to act for fear of angring them and also that being provoked by their Father it was just and reasonable for them to prosecute this wrath of theirs unto the abating his power for the future Then the Children when they meet with an easie and
execute effects proper to deity onely so in this particular of Government by delegation to authorise and enable others which of themselves could otherwise claim neither power nor right herein it doth by conferring one another without diminution in himself so far by addition imply an augmentation of power inasmuch as self-ability simply considered is not so large as when unconfinedly all things or any thing can be made susceptible of this strength In which doing the weakness of the instrument will also increase the reputation of the Agent by having his strength made perfect and apparent in weakness when from so low a degree its honor and power shall be so advanced that it shall be as it were a second deity able to act things proper to deity onely as in right of government and that without all just pretence of arrogating to themselves or derogating from him So that now we ought rather to admire and magnifie the ways of Gods government amongst us then by such reprobate and Athiestical Tenents seek to dethrone him and set up our selves in his stead For if our Pactions and Associations here below can once make us independent on him what will they be but Conjurations and Conspiracies against Heaven and so upon the matter must he be subject to our apprehensions and appetites and either in the way of government operate as expresly and personally as in former times or else must we conclude it reasonable to deny his care or interest therein at all As if because God was onely known more immediately to create the first man therefore all now must owe their Creation to their Parents only as not having in our sense any other cause of production then the known way of generation common to us with all other things Or because God doth not now rain Manna Quails or other things from Heaven as to the Jews he sometimes did but that the Sun the Earth and other Elements together with mans industry are the onely sensible immediate conveyers and causes of all our food and other benefits we enjoy it is therefore reason that our ignorance in his ways of dispensation should forthwith exclude our acknowledgement of his care and providence and make the usual returns of thanks we give for such things appear rather to proceed from complement then duty By this Doctrine we may as well also conclude against mans right of Dominion over other Creatures because the first Dominion was immediately given to Adam and Noah onely when yet by priviledge of birth we have right to inherit also whatsoever belonged to them as men this being a natural and common and not a personal prerogative onely The like we must hold of heirship to the government of a Family not making its power dependant on the Will or any consent to be derived from Wife Children or Servants but he exercising and enjoying it as proper to the Office And what were this Doctrine but to overthrow and walk quite contrary to the Doctrine of Christianity which constitutes and commends Faith where present sense is wanting and in matters of divine doctrine or example pronounceth him happy that shall not see and yet believe For if God muâ—t be always tyed to evident demonstrations in the manifold dispensations of his Spirit and of every good and perfect gift from him proceeding then must miracles be continual as that of the fiery tongues otherwise in such spiritual donations how shall sense be sâ—tisfied we are receivers at all Or if no such manifestation now be must we thereupon make answer that we know not so much as whether there be a Holy Ghost or no or because there is now no such manifest breathings used nor no persons of equal authority to Christ or his Apostles to confer ordination must we say therefore that that power whereby Priests and Ministers exercise their spiritual Functions is meerly humane and from them onely received that are immediate workers therein What were this but as before we had thrust God out of Government and superintendency of the state by reckoning his Vicegerent as the peoples so now to interdict him any particular care or Authority of the Church also by accounting his Ministers our own But in sum this power of Kings belongs to them as Kings and by vertue of these their Offices it is that God owns the very Heathen as servants and Deputies to himself for so Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus c. held and exercised their Authorities and yet had no special revelation or Ministery for their enthroning as had Saul or David or different from other Princes And indeed if this power came not by office then are all hereditary Princes but usurpers and falsly said to reign in their fathers stead for how could they reign without power and have power without special ministration As for example Solomon held his Kingdom from God and by as good right as his Father and that by force of his Office and Unction although ministred but in the ordinary way and at his Fathers command onely he held it not from any paction of the people who rather looked on Adoniah as the true heir and accordingly joyned with him in rebellion And if any think that it was in regard of some special occasion God was to employ Nebuchadnezzar c. that they were thus particularly owned this is not denyed but the question is whether that extraordinary power or that ordinary one over their Subjects common to them with other Princes came by any extraordinary revelation or designation from Heaven so as both to enable their subjects to elect and appoint those individual persons without regard to their right otherwise and then those persons also to act and execute accordingly But although nothing extraordinarily appeared yet do these Kings confess their power from God and we finde it the custom for all Kings to write themselves Dei Gratia and acknowledge the holding their kingdoms and powers from God onely To this purpose amongst Christians especially their Crowns Scepters Swords c. as Emblems of power are first offered and then received from the Altar by the last act acknowledging their power from God onely by the other offering it to his glory and service the main end of policy And therefore though Jephtah had an ordinary way of entrance to the Government namely by making Association he was brought in by the faction and assistance of the Gileadites yet is he reckoned sent of God as well as Jerubaal Bedan and Samuel who had extraordinary ministration So that although God do leave those intervenient actions of Succession Election Conquest c. to the same ordinary event of Providence with other things in mens choice and dispose which may therefore in a sort be called a humane Creature yet the collation of power is from him onely no otherwise then in marriage the Husbands power over the Wife depends of it self and not on any resignation from 〈◊〉 although for her greater obligation toobedience her
so we again having no other direct outward precept from God or Christ himself are through faith and by our ready obedience to him actually performed to his Church in his stead as having the word of reconciliation committed unto them acquitted in all we do but if done otherwise we forfeit thereby the whole condition and as again obliged and culpable for the breach of the whole law nothing but read mission into the Covenant of Innonency by repentance can secure us from damnation CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power HAving hitherto spoken of the Reason and Foundation of the Church in general and of the necessity of our participation of her communion so now again it will be necessary to speak of each particular Church and its jurisdiction For since we cannot otherwise attain to be members of this Catholick body then as being first members of some particular Church it will therefore follow that as the necessary observation of the law of providence which we could not explicitely and perfectly do upon our owne abilities was the cause Christ became obedient to God for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him so there lies upon each member a duty of conformity and obedience to their particular Churches that thereby being made conformable to the image of his Son they may also be restored to the image of God And therefore although the Catholick Church cannot be aggregate or represented der any single head or rule but of Christ himself yet since it is integrated and by parts made up of particular Churches and in these Christs power being to be represented by other Christs or anointeds under him it will follow that our obedience to this Church and the head thereof must have of us all that obedience which unto the other we cannot give else would that precept of obedience to the Church come to nothing as indeed for the most part is intended by such as would have the Writers of their owne mind to be held for the Catholick Church onely Therefore now being to consider the Christian Church as an assembly of Believers separate from other for Gods more immediate honour and worship we cannot well appropriate this phrase to that part of the Catholick which is past and unconversant with men nor for the present to that part of it which is yet to suceeed although both the one and the other have done or are to do their personal parts herein but must interpret that notion of Catholick Church used either when those duties are in general given which are fit for the Church to observe in obedience to Christ or when againe given for her members to observe to her to intend that part of Christs body which shall be successively militant on earth to whom alone these instructions can be necessary and useful in both kinds But then again as this general duly of praising God before men can onely be performed by the visible Church because she hath onely power and opportunity therein yet since this power here on earth is subsistant by the separate jurisdiction of those particular Churches which constitute her Catholick body and she can in no other sence be termed Catholick with reference to any other head then of Christ himself it must be therefore granted that all those precepts for general obedience to the Church must be meant of every Church in particular as having onely use of jurisdiction to this purpose And as having besides according to the several inclinations of their owne people and the known affections of those of the world amongst whom they live the best and onely ability to know and command what is fittest to be done for advancing Gods glory according to the exigence of their particulars which otherwise in the strange mixture of Christianity with other religions throughout the world were not possible to be comprised under one certain or equal rule or to be known and executed by one single persons power And that the Church and civil jurisdiction of each place signifie the same and that by obedience to the Church obedience to the particular Church is ment will appear by that of our Saviour Mat. 18. where controversies are if not decideable by umperage to be told to the Church Under which name must be comprehended the present particular authority of that place because else how shall they go to it And it must be the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority also as having them conjoined because it determines particular personal injuries where brother offends against brother and one servant takes another by the throate saying pay what thou owest as the parable denotes But the conclusion is that the supream jurisdiction whilst it is Christian is the very Church we are to submit unto And those that will not hear the Church are to be unto us as Heathens and Publicans that is such as have renounced Christ by this their renoucing the Image of his authority the Christian Church whose definition and power be the thing of never so civil nature makes the breach of it a sin as on the contrary our obedience to them acquits us of guilt For it is from Christ they have this power that Whatsoever is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven So that Christ having now blotted out that hand writing of Iewish Ordinances which was against us and released them from their litteral strictness to the extent of rational and natural laws and having also answered to God for the large morallity of the whole rule of providence leaving Christians at large in all things wherein their reason or Christian precept is not transgressed and lastly having left the charge for custody and enforcing these Christian precepts to every Christian Church who are thereupon to answer to him for the faults of the people the advantage that Christians have of living in a state of innocence is unquestionable and immoveable while they contiune obedient And therefore Christs Gospel might well be called Glad tytings and we may find that our Saviour made his general encouragement to the entertainment of him and his doctrine because his yoke was easy and his burthen light Insomuch that when he came in particlar to be asked what it was he answered in one command for both Tables thou shalt love c. including under the precept of love to God and our Neighbour all the law and the Prophets that is all things of faith and charity or of faith and obedience which is charities support First for our faith and its fundamental object life eternal is to know God and Iesus whom he hath sent he is the way the truth and the life the Authour and finisher of our faith on whom whosoever believeth hath everlasting life and on him that believeth not the wrath of God abideth Which one article comes therefore to be eminently necessary
to the pravity of unbridled Custom and not as growing out of pure Nature which hath in each Creature primarily placed a desire of beneficence even so eminently and apparently that we may confidently affirm that in the worst of actions which was ever yet perpetrated by any the project and design of good and beneficence was still in intention and that that very act of Revenge it self was but executed as proceding of discontent in being therein hindred Where is then mans fault if it be not in the Will to good but for want of knowledge which he could not remedy Nor seems the disturbance of other things to be his fault either since they first make a disturbance to him and what he doth is but to remove it that thereby the intended good may proceed Yes he hath his fault in them both even because through pleasure of present revenge he neglects to consider of the prejudices and sufferings of other things through his means and this in most things he hath ability enough to do In which course if he fail through want of knowledge and ability it excuses not but adds to his fault because as heretofore declared he presumed upon the guidance of his own knowledge herein Another fault is want of equity in fancying his desires and actings higher then the poize of his equality with other things would bear and from thence comes his injustice in ballancing distributory and vindicative prosecutions For man being placed amongst others his equals cannot but with the same appetite that leads him to affect himself above others in regard he knows his own good intentions and not theirs come also in his acts to be unjust to others and this because he must be partial For taking upon him to be judge and director according to this particular light and interest he must in his proceedings be unjust Whereas onely God Almighty that hath whole and equal interest and knowledge in all things and is not capable of personal injury or wrong otherwise then by having his Creatures wronged cannot in his punishment of his Creatures be unjust because he doth it for their sakes in that he had the onely consideration of their general benefit the cause and measure thereof But man must be so far partial and unjust as he is patible in the cause he judges or differently interessed in the parties And were any like Adam at first put to be amongst all sorts of Creatures so far below him where his actions without impeachment might take place and in whose benefits he had entire and equal share he would no doubt proceed in all things with great justice according to his measure of knowledge But because there is no man but let alone would be like a God also over all his fellows and would if his wish might take place arise from one degree of eminence unto another until he had gotten absolute power of conferring all benefits and receiving all honors it became necessary in stay of those prejudices that might hereby grow for God to come in with his positive Precepts of lowliness humility brotherly love and love to our neigbour as our selves Whereby we come to be put in minde that as the honor and thanks of beneficent actions is onely at his dispose that is the fountain of good so others are of as great concern as our selves none having farther power of acting therein then from God received And that however this appetite of search of honor and pleasuring others were divine and useful we should notwithstanding in the particulars wherein anothers interest is concerned as well as our own not proceed without leave of him that hath whole interest For if men can at all be differenced from one another in their actings in respect of good and bad just and unjust so far as to make them warrantable or not it must arise from the difference of that additional light and warrant they shall be helped to from without and above themselves For since all men as bearing Gods Image are by that higher part of their minde which we call Synterysis universally and continually assenting unto to the general Rules of Justice and Probity which we call the Laws of Nature if they be not by others farther helped in the exercise of these generals at such time as they come to make them frameable to use it will happen that since each single person did from divers instances and inductions of his own framing and collection raise and conclude these maxims to himself they must also diversly as well as fallibly demean themselves when they come to descend to the particular application of them in those emergencies which concern our moral duties and sociable abearances as heretofore noted As for example all men of ordinary discourse and reason do knowingly and unfeignedly assent to those general moral maxims of God to be worshipped and served Parents to be honored Theft Murther Adultery and other vices to be punished and the like yet since this they do as thereunto lead from their own several observations of the mischiefs following or to be feared from the contrary practises or neglect of these things it must follow that as men come differently to raise these conclusions so must these prejudices and prepossessions differently byass and direct them again when they come to refer back and apply them to particular use and action Whereupon although all men do agree to the reasonableness of Gods worship and Service and the punishment of Vice and reward of Vertue yet will it be hard to finde any considerable number directly to agree wherein and in what sort this worship is to be manifested and so again how to state and bound each Vertue or Vice and to proportion their just rewards or punishments In which regard as a divers ability interest and prepossession will make men disagree in what is Adultery Murther Theft c. and how far punishable so may the like considerations generally cause aversion from entertaining other moral maxims as necessary as these nay more indeed as being their support and foundation As for example in that of implicit obedience For as publike preservation and good doth depend on the due reward and punishment of Vertue and Vice so doth the same again depend on the maintenance of his Authority that is to have the trust therein And therefore by right reason should this have been set down in the first place and next to our obedience to God had not thirst of licenciousness made men in all conclusions and maxims of subjection and obedience to fancy the greatest number of restraints and qualifications to be observed in the commands of such Superiors whose places themselves should never probably act as to Princes or the like and on the contrary place more implicite obedience towards Parents Masters c. which Offices themselves always did or were likely to supply As if those that had the greatest command and trust were upon good reason to have the least power to see the
though it might be called the evil as being the occasion of so much evil By which evil we may know he means Antichristianism by saying he that doth it hath not seen God that is hath not God or the fear of God by not having or receiving us and the doctrine of Christ namely that Christ is come or present in the flesh And so denying the Son he hath not the Father because he and his Father are one for whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God c. It is farther highly observable towards the clearing Antichristianism to consist in the breach of Charity or Love even by defeating the fruit thereof through disobedience that these two fore-alledged Writers that do most speak of this crime in direct terms are themselves the most plentiful of any in pressing and commending this duty of Charity or Love The latter of them Saint Iohn the beloved Disciple making it the chief argument of his whole Epistles and is by occasion hereof found to be more often stating and discoursing of Antichrist then the other Who yet by reason of his more frequent conversation amongst the Gentiles and those subjected unto the Roman Emperor had occasion most to speak of and discover that great man of sin the Antichrist that should hereafter in the Churches splendor axalt himself above her glorious heads called gods even as S. John again being more confined in his charge had more occasion to speak of those lesser Antichrists that for the present opposed himself and his fellow Heads whom by reason of their smaller eminence in power he writes unto under the notion of little children as shall be shewed anon But although we have not in S. Jude the name of Antichrist yet almost his whole Epistle sets forth his description and particularly by that mark of separation wherein he doth also refer back to these and like former admonitions herein given from the Apostles Remember saith he the words that were spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts these be they that separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Where by the note of Separaters to come in the last time we may well account his Mockers to be S. Johns Antichrists And farther to make the same mockers to be like and coming on to S. Pauls Antichrist he saith These filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignities the which is like unto seating themselves as gods above all that is called God Yet Michael thi Arch-angel saith he when contending with the Devil disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee And if the Devil himself in so clear a case must not be reviled but left to God what pretences can subjects have to justifie themselves by that will strike Princes for equity unless they can prove them worse then he By the expression of defilers of the flâ—sh he comes plainly home to S. Iohns dâ—niers of Christ come in the flesh and so he makes it plain he means the same Antichrists that this his brother Apostle had told should come into the world and were already entred For how else should we conceive that defiling of the flesh should be thus put properly to accompany dispising dominion dignity c. if it were not that through Christs manifestation in power in these our Masters of the flesh our dispising them came to be dispising of him The which their Antichristian humour of dispising dominion is also hinted to grow from the same root of insubjection we formerly noted in Isaiah that is as men would be there tasting the strong drink of Morality and Divine Precept upon Precept they should in the end be found of no farther assurance then such as dream of meat and behold he is empty c. So these that through temptations of fleshly Pride and Lust should despise Dominion in hope to gain thereby power to act without control should be found silthy dreamers also And as lust and concupiscence is the usual parent of stubborness and rebellion so is that a parent to these again as heretofore noted in the mysterie of iniquity And to euince so much and clear these places or S. Iude to intend the crime of Antichristianism he in his first description of these defilers of the flesh makes it the same with S. Iohns other description of Antichrist which we shall speak of anon where they are noted to have been such people as did profess the same faith with others and that were not manifested to be against Christ but by deserting Apostolical Communion or Authority So here S. Iude writing of the common salvation and desiring Christians to conttnd for faith once delivered to the Saints that is the faith that is accompanied with patience humility c. he tells them that certain men are crept in unawares that is they are such as professing the same common salvation or the same Jesus do thereupon creep into our Communion unespied Although their Antichristian departure or separation be not here set down as by S. Iohn yet because we cannot think them blamable for being of their Communion it is to be necessarily supposed as the cause for which these ungodly men were of old ordained to this condemnation and then the reason of their Antichristianism is plainly set down Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness that is using Christian liberty as a cloak to maliciousness they shall proceed to the fact of Antichristianism denying the only Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ which is the same with he is Antichrist that denieth the father and the son By the title of Lord added to God and Christ we may also gather that their denyal of them was in regard of power And the two instances following of the stubborn Jews and revolting Angels do farther manifest that Christian insubjection was the fault which S. Jude did here forewarn and reprove And the disobeent Angels being set out to us as such as kept not their first estate but left their habitation he gives us a farther paralel of S. Iohns Antichrists they went out from us that is they left that first estate or habitation they had under Christs Government as Angels left that they had under God Then S. Iude proceeds But these despisers of Authorities speak evil of those things which they know not that is they know not or at least will not consider what is the end or good of humane society and how the same is preserved by subjection and obedience but what they know naturally as bruit beasts in those things they corrupt themselves Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the error of Baalim for reward and perished in the gain
execution Thus when â— knifes point empowered by touch from the Load-stone or an Iron or othâ—r thing heated by fire do in such degree draw and burn as if the Loadstone or fire were present it must undeniably argue more strength in that case then where without personal presence the same could not be performed And to proceed in examination and comparison of the causes of things according to distance if there could be found a Load-stone or fire of such efficacy as to have empowered or heated any Iron to such perfection as it should have continued that vertue without itteration or could again one Load-stone or fire without so much as touch but only with one efflux of power have at distance so strongly impowered all iron that each piece and part thereof can now as of an inherent and proper vertue of its own effectually and perpetually burn and attract without farther immediate communication with its first cause or original power it should then happen that the power of that power must be acknowledged so much greater in it self although its efficatiousness herein must through its distance in operation be in a manner wholly concealed and clowded from our knowledge Even as in our sports that gamester that can make one Bowl or Ball strike another and that another in such certain places successively as to cause the last of them to rest or move as he desires is more to be admired for his power and artifice then he that can do it but with his hand and he most that can do it at greatest distance and with most itteration and repetition of successive stroaks in the Bowls or Balls After the same manner we may conceive of Deity making one thing the cause to another for the effecting of that course of providence he determined In which doing his working in and through all intervenient causes and occurrents without being seen in any and making them to do it with so great ease to himself as not to be seen therein must discover as well his real being as our ignorance in not conceiving it For to fix and fasten those effects we daily behold as issuing onely from nature chance or I know not what occult quality without through light into Deity and Providence as the prime cause is as if one cast at Dice or Bowls were more from chance then another and not necessarily depending on and following that strength of casting and those occurrences of bounds rubs c. as well as others but these having turns beyond our expectations or notice we put them on chance because we cannot see through all that variety of intervenient causes that must make them such For as the several motions and change of place in the particular Cards in shuffling and cutting if leasurely demonstrated to us would make those dealings we count most strange and depending on chance seem most reasonable even so also were we artificial enough when the hits of a Bowl or bound of a Ball is shewed us we might by estimation and measuring the effect know and measure the cause and say that Bowl or Ball that did it must come from such and such a point and be projected with such and such a strength In which regard as we finde such different abilities even amongst our selves in the comprehension and practice how these things are or may be effected so may it easily be conceived that by degrees of proportion he that could not be by any defect impeded in notice or comprehension no more then in act and execution must have both his existence and providence made apparent hereby for as the Bowl or Ball have no power to act of themselves without our impulsion or a forraign mover even so the Elements of which they are composed cannot without the influence of a Deity be reasonably presumed to have power to move and act also Although these instances of fire of Load-stone and of sports may serve to bring to our conceits something of the manner of appearance of Gods Omnipotency in his works of Providence and Government of the world yet being themselves but created bodies and vertues they must in proportion of vigor even in that kinde wherein they so much excel all other things be infinitely excelled by that power that caused it and that even by the same reason of ability of power before mentioned namely working at greater distance For as the Load-stone doth excel in vertue of attraction that of the touched knife as being thereof the formal cause so must that again which was the cause hereof in the Loadstone excel in power that also especially being the cause of other things besides and so on till we come to the universal cause of all things and their Vertues who as the more distant from the immediate effect and execution must proportionably have the prime and highest degree of energy and power ascribed unto him And then again although absence from present execution prove distance and distance prove power in that cause which is the cause of any thing yet because unto men the inward and formal causes of effects are seldom known but our knowledge is meerly experience that is to say from the experience of so many constant effects proceeding from such or such an immediate Agent to conclude that to be the sole cause thereof It is therefore hard for us to look beyond that present cause especially if its cause had but few effects and those hardly remarkable and so to look on till we come to God the cause of all As for example could the effect of the Load-stone upon iron or the Mariners Needle have been to invisibly repeated as no man could have by present sense known it to be the cause we should beyond all peradventure from the constancy of effects proceeding from the same Needle have imagined it the sole cause thereof So then we that can neither from true inspection into the formal Nature and activity of heat and of the influence of the superior bodies nor susceptibility of the lower Elements as severally mingled tell from thence that such and such species must be produced or that again cannot tell that these principles we finde in Nature were necessarily to be such and so many for maintenance of the effects of unity and propriety of place as those were again for maintenance of Creation we I say cannot be wondred at for not being able to forejudge more or other species in Nature then those we know by sense and that also in productions neerest us And since in our most ordinary and familiar sports as aforesaid we cannot judge of events although their true causes be within the compass of present sense we are still less to be wondred at when ignorance and doubtings shall often arise of a cause so far of which is never but by way of miracle made the Author of any immediate effect Whereas in truth and plain reason this Ascension and Progression of causes must as elsewhere declared end in an omnipotent
Author whose power is more rationally to be concluded the prime and sole cause of all things as standing in that supreme order he now doth then if he should be acting beneath and of but one thing at once And as he is more admirable in his own Throne of power ordering all things by his sole word and command then if he should descend to be personally doing of every thing so could we rightly consider it any one thing is in it self as miraculously and powerfully wrought in that kinde of efficiency which we call ordinary as when done in an extraordinary way So for example if wood should have been by God endued with power to draw Iron or one Iron to draw another as now the Load stone doth would not the ordinary effect that way have made the Load-stones attraction as great a miracle as it seemeth for wood to do it now And if none can give reason why other things should not have as great attractive force as these why should it not be a greater proof of Deity to be constantly powerful in all and every operation then to be so but now and then which is all the proof that miracles have And therefore as men of riper judgement and experience would much laugh at the folly and weakness of such as beholding the Mariners compass do ascribe the effect of the Needle to some hidden quality or secret property residing in it self and as again the ascribing and occult quality unto those operations of the Load-stone without farther knowledge or derivation of its cause is but a shift of ignorance as the setting down of all other hidden causes are each thing having a cause beyond it self so is there none but fools that say in their hearts or really think there is no God because they cannot discern his efficacy through and beyond intermediate causes And they are at most but middle witted men for that albeit they can from a little farther experience tell of Causes above the lowest degree of men yet are they not wise enough to search farther So that Athiesm is always bordering on folly and narrowness of comprehension being nothing else but a stubborn relyance on present sense as from the certainty of effects in things we ordinarily behold concluding those Causes within reach of our observation to be the most supreme And farther thinking that if a voluntary Agent were in those things universal Cause and Author he would as fancying his inclination by our own be more personally appearing for his greater credit-sake amongst us and make his present operation serve to direct our acknowledgements unto him Not duly considering that it would be so far from encreasing the worth as it would redound to the actors disesteem as arguing decay of the Vertue of Agency if the supreme and higher Cause should for want of strength otherwise be forced immediately to work on a lower effect for that hereby again the supreme Cause ceasing by becoming an intermediate one it must follow that as Causes were fewer Effects and Creatures must be fewer also And when all is done that supreme Cause that is now intermediate in operation would by its constancy in so doing be as far from discovering a Deity as the other was before unless they could imagine that for their onely satisfaction sake causes of things should not have been constant and uniform but on purpose various to have drawn on their notice Again if God Almighty should have been disabled to the degree of an humane Artificer and have been ineffectual farther then where his own hand hath been express as is the workmans in making the Watch then it must next follow that either Creatures must have been so few and perishable as Watches made by one hand or else they must have supposed this Agents power advanced to such degree that as a Monarch can manage a Kingdom by his Laws so as the same needed not to be afterwards guided by him but by instruments obedient to him or as the Artificer can frame and contrive a Watch to go for as long time as he pleaseth so as the same can now go without his appearance in like manner there should be also such procession of the first cause of operation and motion in these things as they shall be infinitely continued If this course could have gone on this first Cause would have been a God because his operation and existence must have been eternal But on it could not go to any degree of eternity inasmuch as all progressive operations and motions must be finite and determinate in regard that that end and rest which caused motion through desire of approach must cease it having now attained it And therefore to make things continue there must be a circulation of Causes and Effects allowed whereby each individual thing having attained that proper end for which its last Cause or next Agents produced it in Nature must return into its first matter through corruption and alteration of its last specifick forms and be ready to obey the more general Causes in Nature and the Laws of that matter which is most homogenius unto it in correspondence to the next more proper and powerful Agent Even as in the affairs and atchievements in kingdoms although the hands of the lowest sort of individual Officers is most immediate in the work yet these having their power from the next general Officer and so he again from next above him till these Officers growing higher and fewer do at last terminate in the King as Fountain of all their power so any of those next perishable individual Officers deceasing that formal power that made them such returns to the hands of those next Officers above him who constitutes others and those more or fewer in these places as they finde the exigence of that Kingdoms affairs call for in relation thereunto no otherwise then as with us a Constable dying the Justices as the more general Officers do by vertue of their Commissions and derived power constitute new in the place In which course as the affairs of the Kingdom is ordinarily managed without the Prince his appearance or again the spring can move the several wheels of the Watch without particular touch of any but that next him why may there not nay why must there not be a Deity to be the first mover in things of this universe Who according to his good pleasure ordering that the appointed continuance of this world should be maintained by perishable individuals hath in his providence to that end ordered that the corruption of one thing should be still progressive to the generation of another Why may he not again in the doing thereof be yet as far or more removed from our notice in ordinary operations as the cause of Government or the motion of Watches or the like is hid and unknown to the weaker sort of people and to other Creatures below us and are of them thought to proceed from no farther cause then what present sense can discover
For should the King be as much hidden from our bodily sence as God is and should we again know no more of the Commissions and powers granted to Justices in each Kingdom then we do of the Laws of matter and internal forms in Nature it would be as hard to apprehend any prime Agent above those Justices in the Kingdom as to conceive the power and existence of Deity in the world A supposition that may be well made good if consideration be had of those strange conceits of the form and figure of Kings which are entertained by some ignorant people that as yet never saw any nor heard them described And the reason is the same for our ignorance in appearance of Gods operation in Creation Providence and natural Causes as is for the ignorance of these before mentioned in the knowledge of the Causes of political or artificial productions with us unless we shall impiously as well as arrogantly conclude that we should have knowledge in this life in such perfection as to see him intuitively as Angels do now or as our selves shall do hereafter Of the reason of the present course of Gods proceeding in many particulars both of Creation and Providence we did speak in the beginning and other parts of this work in which we declared the divers sympathies and natural propensities wherewith Vegetatives and Inanimates are indued all of them tending to specifical and mutual preservation and Providence We also shewed how Sensitives were provoked by the affection of pleasure naturally implanted in them and accompanying things beneficial to be continually active in pursuance of what was to themselves and others behoof-ful We also manifested how rational Creatures by the affection of love and desire of beneficence and by the thirst of honor accompanying them as their reward were provoked also unto the like continual endeavors towards mutual good and preservation All of them infallibly concluding that there must be an Author or prime Agent of such universal concern and such continual care in constituting and ordering these things as to be their original Cause and perpetual guide and support according to the method of his own good pleasure For should there not be these natural propensions to love and pitty nay to acts of justice and of submission therein to others as to honor Parents and the like it would come to pass that through that too great thirst of self-seeking heretofore spoken of and through anger and envy of being crossed therein no one man would now be left alive inasmuch as there is no man but is by one or other so much hated as to cause his death to be heartily desired were not manifold hinderances by divine Providence and appointment put in to keep off execution And in this regard was may also collect another strong proof for Deity and Providence from that awful and reverential respect which is by each one born towards Authority For experience every day tells us that those very persons that are come to that height of daring as to challenge and enter the field for a lye an abuse to their Mistress or the like where besides the equal hazard of their lives in present they must have a certain expectation to suffer according to Law in case they do out-live the other are yet so kept in order by that divine and providential terror by God impressed on his Image of Authority here on earth as not to have courage to withstand the Attachment of a publike Officer Whereupon our Discourse formerly and ordinary reason it self always testifying that these his works and the way of Government of them are such as cannot be bettered why should we think Change and Alteration any ways convenient For if it be an act proper to goodness wisdom power c. to make things well and good and afterwards to dispose them so will not constancy herein be as commendable to the same goodness wisdom and power in their continuance in that order as it was for creating and thus stating them And so if God had not made and ordered all things so as cannot be bettered he could not have been God and if he should not keep them in the same order whilst they remain the same things he should not be God neither wisdom in designation requiring constancy in prosecution and irresistible power being the necessary attendant of both And having thus far spoken in defence of the constancy of the course of Nature and Providence against such as would not believe a God because since the Fathers fell asleep all things are alike till now so also for conviction of such as from inconstancy and irregularity of the actions in voluntary Agents and Gods permission of sin and oppression would conclude against Deity too according to that divine Aphorism because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil we shall now farther speak In this saying of the wise man we may apprehend the two usual grounds that make men lean to Atheism The first is in thinking all the acts and works of men evil which they cannot apprehend as good not being many times able to look through the mistaken or present particular suffering of some few unto that real and more lasting good thereby procured to many The other in thinking that the acts permitted unto and proceeding from humane Judgement and Will as it is seated in divers persons for the guidance of their own affairs should be alike constant to those of God in the Government of the world and course of his Providence who hath an uniform end to cause steadiness of his actions therein Unto which an answer may be also made out of the same consideration before spoken of namely the sufficiency of the one above the other And if they wil allow any Creature to be so perfect as to have Will and Understanding separate they must in order to their specifical freedom of Will allow them variety of actions also especially since their private ends must differ as before noted And therefore as we must conclude Gods works must be uniform and constant in reference to his Unity of Will and end to design and all-sufficiency of power to atchieve so we must allow to things submitted to the power of inferior voluntary Agents if at all you will grant them voluntary freedom unto variety of productions and execution and that in bad as well as in good Unless we shall at once and against sense conclude all men are alike good wise or powerful and that from such plurality and disparity of Judgement Interest and Will we should think that constant procession could be expected From which liberty and freedom of action in good or bad guided according to the true light or corruption of humane judgement and Will it must also follow that the evidences and directions given for mens guidance should not be in such continuing and pressing manner repeated to each single
power from the people did generally take encrease so came the lower house to be the upper house afterwards the sole house of Parliament as being thought the peoples only true Representors So that at last a King beset with all these limitations did look like a Duck in a Garden brought to eat up the Snailes and Worms and then tied up by the leg for fear of trampling over the flowers or meuting in the Walks But the examples of inconveniences arising from Kings exorbitant use of Power by their strong and fresh impression making me on the sudden heedless how by bridling his Power to do ill I did also take away the power of doing good and then also there having been no president in stories of a perpetual or unlimitted Parliament and consequently of any evil thence arising I came to be so taken up with the apprehension of the good they might do according to that power they had anciently practised that I did not then consider withal I mean for a great while I did not that if one man that did acknowledge himself subject to Law could by his power do so much mischief what then might be feared where a multitude shall joyn in a mischief who shall say they are above Law But it fareth with men in entertaining those narrow Schems for comprehension of any thing as it doth in making knots and plats for Gardens or Building which each one at the time of doing will think done after the best manner because done according to advisement of workmen or the like and according to that stock of materials he then knew of or stood furnished with But when he shall make observation farther and find both other materials and other methods more fit and capable of their receit he will then alter his own method of adjudication also For it is to be conceived that in this course of methodising our fancy carrieth the form of a Pyramid wherein the particulars observable in nature make the Basis which lessens towards the top as the particulars unite and agree in such generals as we may call notions But then as these notions come to be imployed and to receive approbation from experience they are again for ready ease and use collected into other totals called affections which having obtained settlement from the harmony of experiments come to guide us in what we do without reference back to particulars more then he that can now read should be put to make use of spelling For so Beauty Honor c. have place in my desire but the particulars out of which I did at first come to the general liking of them are out of my memory nor indeed could their variety and repetition be remembred being the observation of my whole life of the common rate and esteem of these things by others which could never serve us for use and proficience in knowledge unless we did proceed to this way of abreviation For particulars whilst they are remarkable are the objects of memory but after they are made familiar by instances of the like kind they are amassed altogether and pass into notions and affections Unto the constitution of which notions as each sense carrieth his part so are they soveraigns in their own order that is where they are not in particular objects dependent upon one another there their inductions pass as peremptorily and uncontroulably into affections one as another Even as we formerly noted in Religion and the Opinions and Doctrines thence derived which having not Charity for their object but depending on the ear only come through often repetition and commendation to prevail and pass into affections and sciences upon the same grounds that by sight this or that Figure Fashion or Face comes to please And so it is in the particular smells and tastes we are accustomed unto wherein former repetitions growing too numerous for memory of particulars custom is then uncontrolable and begets affections and science in inductions proceeding from them as observations from sight breed affections in things objected unto it In this way of discovering causes by various coincidence of effects and of common causes to them again according to their concurrence until we come to the prime cause of all things Gods glory we seem to reintegrate our knowledge and comprehension as if received from the fountain by intuition For hereby if rightly proceeded in we are able to judge of all things within the verge of humane sense even as taught by themselves And as we learn upwards so we judge and discourse downwards that is from general notions to particulars We will for better instance and application in these things look more nearly into our learning it self and the labour therein used We that read now having forgot the difficulties that attended us in our learning thereof do wonder at the backwardness of others First in distinguishing letters one from another then in knowing and distinguishing their several values and pronounciations then having understood their agreements and disagreements amongst themselves how to collect apply and place them in syllables Then how in like manner to make of these syllables words and of these words again to frame sentences or notions And lastly how to apply and judge of these sentences as they shall seem consonant and proper to those several artificial methods by me entertained already which we call Affections which having good for their object do accordingly relish and transmit things to the common affection the will to determine how it stands in interest with other affections and also to have the approbation of the understanding whether it be attainable or no For will disputes not whether the affections propound what is good that is to say pleasant or no but whether this pleasure be so continuing and attainable as to make it good But it is to be considered that the fancy doth differently imploy itself in the methodising of particulars towards the constitution of affections and passions over it doth in methodising and retaining such other particulars which are to be imployed by way of Discourse and Reason In the first way particulars are amassed according to their genus and so from a broad foot or basis as we said do agree and point in streight lines towards the constitution of some affection in us The which affection being that which provokes us to delight and action doth as the end by degrees instigate the fancy and fit it self therein with a proper method of comprehension how amongst all the other observations made and collected things may be so chosen and so ordered and placed as to be instrumental and serviceable to the furtherance of this end So far as impressions are topically figurately and particularly retained they have still reference to the objects and do penetrate the brain only being used but as instruments and servants to the attaining of that which each affection doth prompt to the enjoyment of For each affection and appetite hath its proper method of judication and
womb do when we would make shew of letting them fall put their bodies and parts into posture of resistance and aversion not against falling it self as knowing the danger or damage to follow thereupon but because they find their present posture strange and uneasie And therefore for want of the like sustentation to be left under them they are teady to catch at new hold and support For to a childe new born that hath not apprehended the difference of sights the fright of falling from a precipice will be but equal to that of falling out of its Nourses lap And children receive displeasure at first from lying on any thing that makes them not sensible of a like general and equal sopport they had in the womb And therefore we find them laid on beds and laps made even and yet hardly enduring the unequal application of arms or legs under them until they are so swadled up that these partial supports seem thereby to be equal and even For the motion of gravity or propriety of place being a necessary property of all bodies and their parts it will follow to be soonest and so consequently most universally known Therefore this strugling of children is caused through sense of feeling to avoid a present injury it now feels through uneasiness and not out of innate conception of danger as some do think For if such instincts and knowledge were then would children be afraid of drowning or burning or the like This instance hath been prosecuted to give occasion to discover how we may come to be habituated and affected to certain postures in the exercise and enjoyment of our minde and will as well as of our bodies and how that thereupon those restraints which Government imposeth upon our liberties in the one most cause reluctance and desire of release as well as in the other and that sense and experience of alteration and discomposure is the cause of dislike in our wills aswel as our bodies When therefore these things are ascribed to nature it must be understood of secondary or acquired nature For children or creatures new born for want of experience and observation stand affected from no sense but that of feeling Nor do the objects of other senses please or displease at first unless they imprint and move so violently as to induce feeling by affecting the heart and other parts and habits of the body by means of those inward pares of nerves Whereupon the humors and parts within do heighten as it were by their proper experience the relish of that figure or object in the brain to like or dislike after the rate they stood themselves formerly made sensible thereof from it And therefore time and experience being required to make fear or other passions strong we find that mandkind till they come to ripeness and tryal stand not apprehensive or averse to Government After which sense and knowledge of its use and benefit and also of his own suffering thereunder makes him proportionably contented or reluctant Proportionably I say for that as Reason and Religion do out of sense of duty more or less bear sway over the more natural and bodily sense of suffering and restraint of will so will Government be to each one more or less offensive there being but these two great motives for children and subjects obedience sense of benefit and interest and sense of conscience and duty For want of true experience and knowledge whereof the family as well as the Kingdom comes to be troubled with mutinies and insurrections even for that ignorance and incogitancy of the benefit or harm to arise to themselves by obedience or the contrary leaves them to be lead by the present sense of trouble in being guided by the direction of another which must thereupon come to be by them that are not able to apprehend their own advantages by peace and submission nor that their benefits are reciprocal interpreted as done out of private interest and design of their Prince and father only Nor need we wonder that in the course of our lives Custom should bear such sway since life it self is but custom that is a Methodical and Customary motion of an active spirit which by means of his circular and regular course is diverted from eager pursuit of penitration and ascension For the heat of the Sun or parental body by degrees turning into spirit or ayr such portion of seed or first matter as is apt to sublime this spirit according to its lighter nature grows presently motive and restless as seeking a more high and open habitation but partly out of similitude of the matter whereof it was bred and the similitude and constancy of the same degree of heat it now hath to that which begot it and partly through the present succession of skinny enclosure arising from the slymy nature of the matter it self and partly through those other inclosures of skins and shels in Wombs Eggs c. it is invited and contented at length to satisfie its proneness to direct upward motion with this circular passage as being from habit cozened to take and choose this easier way rather then to press earnestly any more to that direct course in which it had been so often diverted by such high difficulties And as this Spirit is by reason of its tenuity made motive and naturally desirous of enlargement and aire so again by reason of its smaller and more indifferent degree of sublimation as being generated by that moderate heat of the body of a substance which is neither suffered to addle through cold nor harden through heat it is therefore kept so well allayed as to be retarded both in ability and desire of penetration Which is also holpen on by the closeness of those vessels and cells where it is contained and by the likeness and proximity of that matter whereof it is generated and wherewith it is accompanied which is not only the same with that whereof it was begotten but also is but one degree beneath it in thinness For it is to be supposed that the Chylus being turned into blood as it doth attain some degree towards sublimation it self So also that most attenuated and concocted spirit which is in the cells of the brain doth likewise still retain a good degree towards condensation even so as according to course and vicissitude to be again apt to be turned back into sâ—eam and so into blood Like as also the blood on the contrary stands ready and affected to turn into steam and so into spirit in their circulation and passage up and down the body In which course of Version and Transmutation they are holpen by the mediation of the humour remaining in the arteries being as it were a mixture of spirit and blood caused through the refinement of the blood in its passage through the heart Whereupon we find that nature hath provided a thicker coat for them then for that thicker blood which is contained in the veins even as the finer animal spirit
assistance in all things we are then to proceed according to the rules of Christian Faith and love in all deportments and actions not otherwise directed by our superiors who also are in this case to be looked upon as the authorized interpreters of the Scriptures as heretofore noted Else it will fall out that each one undertaking to examine and interpret them according to his own wilde fancy and weak and ungrounded method of comprehension and being also strongly through education or interest forestalled in his judgement there will arise to be as many Religions and Opinions as men and interests And that which is yet worse mens natural pride and vainglory will prompt to such presumption of extraordinary revelation that even things blasphemous and destructive of humane society shall in despite of the Church Reason or Authority be set on foot Whereas in truth in things of most private and separate concern the sense of the Church and the Analogy of Faith is to be venerably regarded even as the supreme Christian Magistrate is also in all things of publike concern For in this case we are again fallen within the limits of moral care and consideration And therefore as each mans reason is in him the best guide of what to do in the course of his own affairs so publike Reason in that which hath publike respect to the end that from the knowledge of what is there done there may be a fit and a constant way left for attaining moral prudence and obedience and that according to a well grounded experience and observation of moral and political directions and Edicts Whereby each Subject may from the constancy of the measure and manner of application used by his Prince in rewards and punishments come to frame to himself political methods and schemes of comprehension and knowledge of his duty and benefit in civil deportments as well as he may learn Philosophy by observation of that constancy which is kept up in the course of Nature For she being preserved and governed by uniform rules and laws the same Causes must ever produce the same effects if the Agent and Patient be in themselves and circumstances alike vertuous and the same the which wisdom must discover from a well grounded observation of constancy in her observations for should not natures course be constant species and individual things could not have any steady provision for existence and benefit but causes being indeterminable effects would be so also For it was from the constant observation of one thing following another in all respects alike considered that I come to know any thing even as by continually observing heat to accompany fire I know fire to be the cause of heat And from this constancy in Nature it comes also to pass that what is most naturally done is most uniformly done and so most handsomly and delightfully done Which coming to be imitated by us will be also most vertuously and wisely done but what is not done in natural imitation as following no rule is vitious and ill favoured For folly being a short and false observation in the course of things it concludes to act upon half premises Whereupon the irregular processions and effects thereof come through inequality to be inequity For as truth can be but one but errors divers even so as we noted formerly of beauty and handsom faces vertuous actions have more likeness to one another then vitious For all virtuous actions are done by certain rules and copies and as they agree to these measures their goodness is known and as they differ therefrom they do differ from themselves also and approach to vice Things being thus stated it will follow that more reason knowledge and understanding is but more observation and that an uncontradicted observation is taken for a supreme reason in it self For so for example the motion of gravity because it is observed to accompany all things none or few search the reason of it for there is not a more general or uniform rule in nature to examine it by all proof going from things more generally observed and known to such as are less Whereas to believe the Antipodes and that men upon the same reason of motion of gravity should tend in the same line towards us as we do towards them this seems as difficult for belief as it is different from the usual tendency of things as to our appearance which we call upwards and downwards Nor can it be conceivable to any that will not take pains to get it comprehended from observation elsewhere In which case if men have made and methodized observations aright it may appear that the sum and superiour bodies move in spheres even because the time they are absent and unseen is equal to that they compleat in compassing that half of the sphere which is seen from whence and the observation of eccilpses the earth must be supposed to be spherical also And if this be farther enquired into we shall find that this motion of heavy things downwards is but part of a more general motion and to be so concluded from that more general observation of union And is but the appetite thereof made more observable through this more apparent motion toward union after separation For the common knowledge and observance of boldness as they are unite and keeping close together as by so much more general then the motion of gravity as rest it self is more general then local motion for indeed what is usually called motion and rest are but these two but it is not so observable as the other because rest or union already made hath no variety to cause intent observance as variety of motion doth in the other And therefore it is onely discoverable to such as can un-ravel nature in their contemplation until they come to the bottom and first ground-work thereof For then they shall find both this constant practise of union or adhesion of bodies and also the cause thereof to be the general cause of all causes that is the will and law of God in order to his providence And although inanimates have a kind of specification amongst themselves whereby defire of proper union hath some force as may be seen in that active part of earth the Loadstone in his variation yet they follow in their whole mass the general law of matter in the common and general thirst of union For should there not be a common centre of gravity whereby all earthly things as they stood differenced in weight by dense and rare might have and keep the proper places assigned them Chaos and confusion would follow And therefore this motion of heavy things to the earth being both necessary and natural both for affording a place of receipt and production of creatures and for leaving all without so rare and transparent that the influences of superiour bodies might approach them we must conclude that as the whole earth is more then a part so hath it this attractive force of union greater also in