disaffected to Him for this since the Cause of his refusal to comply must be either that he is not so apprehensive of the danger they Dread and sees no Reason so to be or if he be as apprehensive as they yet perhaps he thinks it not within his Power to deprive the next Legal Heir of Succeeding without injury forasmuch as He judges his personal Affection or Disposition to any Opinion or Religion cannot alter and take away his Right and either or both these being the Motives which with-hold Him from proceeding as he is desired and both pertaining to Conscience which he must satisfy as well as other Men besides the Consideration of the Kings Heart being in the Hand of God and particularly directed and turned by His Providence His Subjects ought to submit to and Acquiesce in his Pleasure and so no remedy but Succeed he must and the Forfeiture not being taken Advantage of whilst he remained a Subject after He is once Possest of the Supreme Authority cannot then be taken For although that Disposition which Forfeited his Right to Succession when He was Heir may seem to Forfeit his Right to Actual Possession because no one has a Right to be Possest of that which he had no Right to take into His Possession yet the Condition of this Forfeiture is such that not being taken the Supreme Magistrate is supposed not to have judged it a Forfeiture and it belonging properly to his Cognizance to determine whether it were or no what he judged was no Forfeiture that he did not take for one and what He did not take when he is Dead no one can take for Him if to no one he Delegated Authority so to do and if a Forfeiture is made to a Superiour and the Supreme Magistrate neither by himself nor Delegate did take it no one being Superiour to the Succeeding Heir no one may take it either by forcible hindring him to Succeed or Warring against or Deposing Him when He is possest for the Crown once worn taking away all Defects as say the Lawyers and that passing over to the Heir immediately upon the expiration of the Predecessor all Previous Forfeitures or present Indispositions are of no force against Him because there is none on Earth Sufficiently Authorised to take advantage of them God indeed if he pleases by Interposing his Immediate Command may depose Him I mean not on the account of His Supreme Intendency over all the World for so He may depose a Prince though he be not so evilly affected but according to the rules of Justice and Reason as an Offender against Him whose Substitute he is by overthrowing the Ends of Government but this God rarely doth for although Saul for his grievous Offences were rejected by God yet suffered he Him to live and dye a King without proceeding to actual Deposition although Samuel had told Him from God that the Kingdom of Israel was rent from him that is from his Tribe and Family If it be Objected That though the Predecessor by a particular application of his Will did not take the forfeiture because he did not see it or believed it not Yet generally he must be supposed to Will and Design the taking it forasmuch as he Wills and Designs the Publick wellfare and so though not by a Special Act Yet by his General Intention of the Peoples good He must be supposed to have taken the advantage of it I answer That this will not stand good in Policy as it may do in many other things because such a belief would put it in the Peoples Power at their pleasure to Disinherit and Dethrone whomsoever they would forasmuch as they might frequently upon Distaste pretend him to have made a Forfeiture who made none and so depose him under the Colour of the Predecessor's Implicite and General Will to Disinherit him and this is so great an Inconvenience and Danger to the Publick that it 's far more eligible to run the hazard of Sometimes having a bad Prince than of having good ones turned off as bad or of suffering such ill Consequences as War and Bloodshed and an Unsettled Kingdom which must attend an attempt to depose even bad Ones since there is no one but has some Adherents The Scriptures command Servants Obedience not only to Gentle but froward Masters Applaud Suffering Wrongfully and the Primitive Christians did so even when they were strong enough to resist and the Souldiers were content to be decimated and to lay down their Armes to be wrongfully put to Death that is for a cause not deserving Death for professing the Christian Religion which plainly proves that both the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were as well Catechised in the Principles of Religion as we can pretend to be thought it an Article of their Faith that it was not lawful for Subjects to Depose or Resist the cruelest Tyrants though endeavouring their Spiritual destruction by obliging them to Idolatry and their Temporal by Proscribing them by Imprisoning and Murthering them if they refused and this we call Passive Obedience that is submitting to the Supreme Authority's pleasure even when we are Injured rather then Rebel against Him And thus much to shew that if the Heir be not Disinherited whilst He remains so it will afterwards be too late and in reason and justice Impossible CHAP. IV. That Mens Throwing themselves wholly upon Providence for Averting these Mischiefs without making use of Rational and Moral Means to prevent them is Unreasonable and Absurd THe Country-man in the Fable who called upon Hercules to draw His Cart out of the Mire in which it was set was bid to apply His own Shoulders to it and thrust if he would have it out Many there are who Idely rely upon Providence to save them from the Dangers they foresee but will not step a foot themselves or use the least Industry and Care for preventing those Evils and because nothing comes to pass without Gods Permission imagine therefore that nothing is done without His Appointment and on this account leave it wholly to him to Provide for their Safety But this careless Opinion I much dislike because it often brings Men into Misery by making them to neglect those Means for their Safety which God frequently puts into their own hands and so they are undone for want of Care for presuming God will Save them without the least of their Caution and Circumspection Nay sometimes there may be some whose Honours Lives and Fortunes must stand or fall with a present Condition of a Nation who know in their Hearts and are sure if the Times turn unless they will turn with them which 't is Reasonable many times to believe they may not they must lose both Lives and Fortunes and the Spiritual Welfare of all the Subjects be Endangered yet they are not content not to endeavour the Disinheriting a Successor with whom all this Mischief comes in upon a Scruple that such a Disinheriting is Un-lawful are not content fairly
Eternal for the same Reason it ever had a beginning He Forfeits His Right to it who is disposed to a Nations extreme Hazard or Destruction to prevent all which is the only Reason he should Succeed in the Government and that there should be any such thing at all which if He will not only not prevent but is the Person who brings it about there is no Reason He should Succeed in the Government he has made a Forfeiture of His Right CHAP. III. That the Forfeiture is made to the Supreme Authority That it is none unless it be taken Advantage of whilst He continues a Subject but that a Prince once Possest of the Supreme Power cannot be Deposed That the same Reasons which Warrant to take the Forfeiture of Him whilst Heir if it be not taken then are afterwards of no Force against Him I Above put the Power of Designing a Successor either at Pleasure or else by some fixed standing Rule and Law in the Supreme Authority and therefore if the Designed Successor make Forfeiture of his Right it can be to none but Him who conveyed it to Him His Superiour for none else could Convey it to him And for another Reason the Forfeiture must be made to the Supreme Authority because the Care of the Future Welfare and Safety of the Subjects against which He was Disposed belongs properly to the Supreme Magistrate and therefore the power of preventing future Mischiefs and taking the Forfeiture which is the way to prevent doth reside solely in Him For although it cannot be denied but that the People are mainly Concerned in a matter of that Weight as is their Spiritual and Temporal Welfare and so might seem sufficiently warranted of themselves to provide for their own safety as is every one Naturally Yet may they use only such Means as are to them Lawful and as may not prove as Great or greater Inconveniences than the thing they would avoid and what such are I shall presently shew Every one Naturally hath a Power and Right to preserve himself not only by Avoiding or Flying from that which actually Assaults Him but by standing and defending Himself against it Nay by Offending and Assaulting that for the others Violence being Arbitrary that is exercised by One who had no Right or Authority so to do was Unjust and might therefore not only be Resisted but returned in the same Degree according to the just and natural Laws of Retaliation and that even Immediately and by the private hand of the Person Assaulted forasmuch as the imminent danger could not admit of the delay of expecting a publick Determination but in case one be not actually Assaulted I speak of private Persons it is not lawful either to Kill or Bind Him who you suspect will be the Aggressor but to fly from him is Lawful Or to endeavour to perswade him who bears Authority over Him to take away His Arms or confine him or make him give Security for his keeping the Peace by this way of prevention for any one to provide for his own safety is not only Lawful but Prudent and Commendable So in case a Nation fear the future Practices of Him who is now Heir they may forecast a prevention by engaging and obtaining of Him under whose Authority He is to tye him up by such Rules and Laws as will put it without his Power to Effect the dreaded Mischief or by utterly and totally removing Him out of that Place and Capacity in which alone he can hurt them But they themselves have not sufficient Authority to tye Him up by Laws or Disinherit Him and therefore cannot do it without Injury and if it so come to pass that the Supreme Authority will suffer him whom you suspect will Murther You to bear Arms and will not confine Him if He Assaults you being a private Man you have the power of defending your self but if the Supreme Magistrate will appoint a Successor over a Nation who that Nation has good reason to suspect will endanger their Lives and Fortunes and Corrupt them in their Religion to the hazard of their Souls they have done all that lawfully they may for preventing that Successiòn but Violently and of their own Authority which is none to go about to Disinherit or Alter the Succession upon pretence that the Injury done to him is not comparable to the Mischiefs and Injuries prevented which though true enough and there want nothing but a competent Authority to alter the Succession without Injury to the Person Disinherited yet still it remaining an Injury because they do it who have not sufficient Authority it is a breach of the Lawes of Christianity which allows not evil to be done that good may come of it or evil be prevented And supposing my self to speak to Christians I hope the Laws of our Religion will be judged to Oblige them as much as any Civil Lawes whatsoever for Christians ought to suffer Injury rather than do any Having then proved this Forfeiture to be made to the Supreme Authority that the Care and Power of preventing those ' foreboded Mischiefs resides only in it the Subject ought in Prudence and Duty to himself to endeavour their prevention by moving the Supreme Authority to prevent them but not otherwise and if he foresees no remedy ought to Arm his Conscience from Corruption in Religion and the Spiritual Danger and his resolution to suffer under the Temporal and bear Injury when it cannot without Sin be prevented or Opposed And this submission is not only necessarily enforced from the Principles of Christianity but grounded upon Civil and Sate-Policy for if it were in the Peoples Power to Disinherit whom they would no Person could ever Succeed from whom the Multitude might not have Assurance of being Complyed with in what they pleased and Mens desires being sometimes Extravagant and Sinful great Inconveniences must needs ensue too the Government by the allowance of them frequently to a Successor might be Disinherited by the Faction or ill Disposition of the most by reason of false and scandalous Imputations which they can hear and believe but not disprove or on purpose which is sometimes very Be-witching to shew their Power and this must needs make a Government unsetled and dispose it to Anarchy Ruin and Destruction Now upon reflection of the inconveniences of a Power in the People to Disinherit and of those which sometimes may happen for want of that Power in them when the Ordinary Supreme Authority which hath Power will not exercise it upon a due Occasion some Men may possibly fall into a Rage accusing their ill Fortune which unavoidably subjects them to Misery on both sides and Him who having Power will not use it to secure them from the dangers they fear but if they consider that He who refuses to Gratify them in this cannot be imagined not to wish intend his Peoples good as much as his own and several wayes formerly has procured it they have no reason to be
to give way to such a Successor without Opposition but are His best Friends Court and Complement Him most at every turn and take occasion from their Opinion of the unlawfulness to Disinherit Him to be the strongest maintainers of Him which is both Imprudent and unreasonable Flattery drudging for one who Laughs at their Sedulousness to their own Ruin In any Nation if there be any in such a case so mad they must not think themselves e're the Honester and Wiser for Courting their own Destructions submit one would where it was unlawful to resist but not invite Him who was to do one a Mischeif T is to be Confessed that Disinheriting a Prince perverting the Lineal Succession is a dangerous Precedent because of the ill Consequences it may draw with it the Right of Succession ought to be Sacred and not toucht or medled with but with the greatest Reverence and Caution and upon weighty Considerations but when once People have prevailed on a Prince to Disinherit a Legal Heir for real and great Causes they may often afterwards prove humoursom and sometime for no Causes or not equal exact and require the doing of it because they have an Example and Precedent This I say is a great inconvenience but is unavoidable because as long as Men are Men they will be subject to Faults but yet I suppose it not Impossible but such Laws and Rules may be stated and provided whereby to procede in such Cases as would much Alleviate this inconvenience But shall leave that to Wiser Heads to Determine what they must be And so much of the First Question The Second Question Whether some certain Politick Reasons may not be alone sufficient Grounds of Divorce CHAP. I. Of Marriage its Institution Ends and Obligation Of its special Rights and Privileges in the State of Christianity I Am very Sensible this Second Question carries so much the more Difficulty than the First as it has been less Controverted and consequently less Understood that it lies under a far greater Disadvantage by reason of the many more Actually Interested and concerned in it the Right of Marriage being more Mens than is Right to Succession and Heir-ship in Government and they generally Prejudicated in their Opinions about it And lastly so much the harder Case as it concerns the Dispossession of those who are Actually in Possession of a Right and so owned to be but the other only the prevention of Succeeding into such Actual Possession But in order to its Discussion I will proceed in the same Method I used in the First that by inquiring into its Institution Rights and Ends we may better judg of the true Causes of its Dissolution The Institution of Marriage seems not to have been Occasional and by accident as the appointment of most things by God was but Cotemporary with the very Creation and Formation of man it self so that He was no sooner shaped into the form of Body which we see he has but he seemed to be Incompleat and Solitary till such a Companion were given him for the use and enjoyment of which in order to another end Procreation His Body both in its inward and outward Fabrick provision and design of Nature appeared to have been purposely Framed and by it self as to that end to be useless and imperfect Nay Marriage must have been Instituted and Pre-ordained even before Mans Creation for if God when He said Let Us make Man had an Exemplar or Idea before Him of what manner of Creature He was about to make He then both saw that the Creature He should make according to that Pattern would want such a Companion because of his inability to procreate without Her and yet for which Procreation his Body appeared purposely Designed by reason of its proper natural and convenient Composure for it Nay further Designedly and on Purpose made him such a Creature as should have such a Companion in order to Procreation because else all that Aptitude and Structure which now serves to that end would have been useless and God have done what He and Nature never do something in vain Now the Institution or Reason of Ordaining Marriage depending on its End and its Immediate and Natural End being Procreation and Propagation of a Species of Creatures and Man's Body apt and suitable for such Procreation at the Moment of His formation Compleated it follows that at the Moment of his formation Compleated when he was an apt and fit Creature for the End of Marriage Procreation the Institution of Marriage if not before yet then Commenc'd because the Natural Frame of Man did Necessarily suppose such a thing as Marriage and therefore its Institution was Original and Natural not Occasional it was designed by Nature it self and therefore needed not to be Instituted with any formal Ceremony Law or Circumstance whatsoever I confess that a secondary end of Marriage namely mutual Society help and Comfort seems to have been Occasional for after God had made Man and placed Him in the Garden He said Gen. 2. 18. That it was not good that Man should be alone that He would make Him an Help meet for Him as if upon consideration of his Solitariness as having no Creature capable of Conversing with Him He resolved for remedy of that evil to give Him a Wife and Adam in the 23 ver of that Chap. gives another Reason why a Man should leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife because she was taken out of Him was Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh not that this was the only Reason of Marriage because Woman was taken out of Man but that it should be a strong Motive of Love and Inclination to Woman because she was a piece of Man himself and therefore He should prefer Her before the Dear Relations of Father and Mother By which very words Father and Mother Adam seems to have understood the end of Marriage to be Procreation and what Procreation was else He could not have known what the words Father and Mother signify unless you will suppose those Words not Adams but the Holy Pen-mans by a Prolepsis From what has been said 't is clear that the two great Ends of Marriage are Procreation and mutual help and that He who Marries is Obliged to intend none other but those Ends. Having shewed that the Institution of Marriage was Cotemporary with Mans first Creation that the natural Disposition and Frame of Mans Body was its very Institution in Nature it self without further Ceremony Law or Circumstance that Adams Marriage was Consummate and Perfect without such yet now since the World is Increased there is something more requisit to be done I mean as to the Contracting and Solemnization of Matrimony For when there were none in the VVorld but one Man and one VVoman and both naturally loving one another Circumstance and Ceremony were needless since they are significative only of our minds to others but there being no others but themselves and their