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
that a small proportion enjoyed with security and peace renders more content and encrease to the owner then a larger which fear of disseisen makes unuseful Therefore necessity the mother of wisdom having taught them to embrace peace and unity reason farther taught this way unto it namely that as the division of their wills and appetites had before made disturbance so the only means to acquit themselves thereof was to submit to some definitive sentence and determination in all controversies hereby many became one in this grand Politique body and as in the natural though the arms legs and all other parts draw greedily for themselves apart that nourishment which is for common supply and that with self-consideration only yet all of them keeping their natural order and rules and relying on the affordment of such members as are of publike concern and trust not only their single but joynt preservations did follow For the brain affords nerves the heart arteries the liver blood to all parts as having the like interest in them all and while each member is thus supplyed according to the proportion which its oeconomy and service to the whole doth require and that Geometrically every one hath alike while they have enough why should one repine at another For if according to the old allusion the hands or feet alledging their greater pains and service should ignorantly quarrel and envy the greater rest and supplies of other parts and hereupon grow so stubborn as to refuse the directions of the common head so far as to disable it and those publique useful members of heart liver c. from performing their offices must it not follow that the whole body thus perishing the hands and feet must therewith perish also For the whole body subsisting by and being but collectively these members each of their particular growth and good made that of the whole swell also So in this Politique Body the several benefits and advancements of particular members are made by this union of will and application to be the encrease of the publique But it is by the way to be considered that in submitting thus Politiquely to have each private wil swayed by a publique which thereupon became the only legal will or sentence it is not to be supposed that the faculty of willing could be resigned for that is impossible and beyond our power it being not capable so far to reflect on it self as to will to be willing or not willing in any thing for if so such kinde of choice would proceed infinitely nor could the actions necessary for preservation of each individual have any setled certain and final sentence for direction or execution on its own behalf but the effect of our wills or the power to execute the same is that we promise and are to suspend or deny if contrary to publique allowance And as not the faculty of willing so not that of understanding and judging can be wholly left and silenced because that also is to the preservation and subsistence of each man as man that is in his separate and personal capacity and to the constitution of will it self absolutely necessary But because my private understanding taking me distinctly for a single person was for self-preservation only I can from my self claim no right farther to use or apply it but in such cases where Polity hath placed me in the relation of a subject and member of a Politique Body united for common good there it is reasonable that as my particular good is unvaluable to that of the general so my liberty and right of judging Publique benefits and expedients should be as unvaluable also And although in this course of Politique submission men could not but expect decisions many times contrary to their private opinions and desires yet since this was the only way to common peace and safety they thought it reasonable that a general good should be preferred before a particular and as we in our Natural so they in this Politique Body were curing with mutilation or patience the impotencies and griefs of particular members rather then the whole body with all other Members should run into common hazard and while striving to shew partial affection to the grieved part only the life and subsistence of all should be endangered For as when life is taken from our natural body it remains a body no longer but a carcase so Politique bodies being berest of their life which is general agreement and submission to Authority continues no longer a Commonwealth but Anarchy Wherefore we may observe that Monarchy was not only the most ancient and useful form of Government as having in it the most apparent unity But also that this chief office was that of a Judge being in all causes and over all persons supreme head and governor Not that any single benefit or the advancement or good of any one person was thereby intended because that otherwise and without this relation they were to be presumed but of equal merit And so if we shall diligently consider all those examples of more special and extraordinary favour and abilities bestowed by God Almighty in Holy Writ we shall finde that the good of the whole or some more considerable part of the people was the end of those miraculous and personal endowments and not single honor it carrying too great a disagreement to Gods justice and too plain a shew of partiality that whole Societies and Orders of men should be to no other end abased but to the advancement and good of one And to this end only were all those Prerogatives and Priviledges annexed to the persons of Princes as amongst others that of irresistible power For their chief end being the peace of the Kingdom and ceasing of strife and slaughter in the doing thereof it must be aswel in his power to decide if equity shall so lead him on the fewer and weaker side as on the more and stronger and so much his Obligation of Protection must imply Else if the stronger should of it self and notwithstanding such decision have still power by force to atchieve their own desires and refuse submission to what end should Government be for without it the stronger side did before judge and prevail for it self but now all Power being resigned into a third determinate hand it is no more of right in them but him and the offer to reassume it is the highest breach of Trust and the Treason of all Treasons even the betraying of all Order and Government it self By all which we may discern the Original reason of Government and power of one man over another we may see why every soul should be subject to the higher powers and how all powers come to be of God and why the resistance hereof as the greatest crime is to be punished with damnation For without submission to Government and Authority what peace can be hoped for and without peace what temporal good can be expected because as the care of God in the
people without a King nor can any other Record instance in any state of eminence which oweth not its foundation to that form of policy For it was after-times onely that as the inordinate lusts of men began more to abound so sought they to be rid of restraint and therefore by little and little strived to take wholly away or clip the wings of Majesty that under pretence of ruling by Law and so interpreting and ruling those Laws by themselves they might at last be under no rule at all And now come Aristocracies and Democracies being but Anarchies and onely differing in number of Commanders from one another to be called Governments lawful against all Reason For since political government must be onely where there is a distinct relation in the persons of Governors and governed here they are both the same and so confounded that they are not to be known one from another and so cannot be rightly called Governments For Government is then onely when the Governor as Agent and the governed as Patient stand reciprocally ready to operate towards the Governors ends Towards the Governors ends I say for so far as the Patient or governed hath design respective to it self in any thing it cannot be called passive or subject but active rather and so no Government And although Government may be in degree more or less in comparison of one government to another as the vertue of Agency and Patibility stand in measure increased or remitted yet doth the due execution of smaller commands make government as well as the greater and obedience to the smaller Prince is as truly constitutive of Government as to the greatest whilst his Subjects stand to their powers ready to receive and obey his Laws For albeit that Government being an active quality ows its chief essence to the Governor from whence it did at first proceed and take force yet since this active quality is not of force to act otherwise then as in the Patient as its proper subject it cannot therefore be called government farther then that Correlate the Patient or Subject stands reciprocally fitted to admit the Governors power and impression Fitted I say it must be hereunto according to its relation as aforesaid so as to work as the Agent or Governor shall see cause which fitness doth then constitute Government to be and continue even whilst there is no real execution according to the vertue thereof For Government may be while this Agency is not outwardly exercised but cannot at all be where the relations themselves are not distinctly and properly ready and kept up to act according to occasions So that now in the confused fabrick of these Polarchies we can by no means finde true Government as being so disabled to finde where to fixe and place this active quality of governing and the passive quality of governed For we shall not onely finde it uncertain whether the people or their own Magistrates and Senate are Governors because sometimes the people or governed are really taking on them to act their own wills as chief but also supposing the Government in the Senate it will be still as hard so to fix it there as to make it to be Government For in that fancied equality which they have in power to one another who shall be superior and if the persons in the major Vote be Soveraigns and the lesser Vote and the rest of the people Subjects who shall then be Soveraigns when these major voters come by variety of occasions to be many of them on the minor side will not this render both relations and the Government it self thereupon founded to be a thing unfixed and uncertain or but Anarchy new-named For the whole body cannot be Soveraigns because the minor part must be still subject to the major which major part again having no personal or certain assurance it shall continue so the Government also may be so or not so and consequently the same persons be Governors or not as occasions shall lead them Take then away or unsettle the relation of Governors and that of governed will cease and be unfixed also And whereas again Monarchies receive their main assurance from the mutual oaths between Governor and governed where are the Oaths between State and people as between Monarch and people do they swear to observe the Laws or do the people swear to them Alleagiance Or if God be omitted as not seemly to call him in as party or witness to a mock Government so unlike his then the trust must be supposed implicite from the people to them and so to pass with their election Whereupon since this Election and trust is to the several and particular members all alike and equal as they came to be chosen how can some Members under a minor Vote be excluded without breach of that trust whereby they had equal power Or was the trust to the whole joyntly which is yet hard to be conceived since they must be elected personally and severally how can a Major Vote exclude John Will Thomas and it may be a hundred more of equal trust to themselves To say they trusted a major is unconceiveable because trust follows Election and Election must have a personal and definite and not a notional object such as a Major Vote is which must be always contingent and unfixed And if this major Vote have not its power from Election how comes it to have it or how differs it from the tyranny of Anarchy which is of all tyranny the worst for every man is herein oppressed of his neighbour and the weaker and fewer in continual vexation of the stronger and more in number with this aggravation also that herein they seem remediless because their many oppressors for so the major part must be have the countenance of Justice for what they do They that tell us that since it is requisite that all controversies should be ended it is therefore fit that a major part should be taken as the whole forasmuch as in few or no cases universal assent being to be expected without this rule no decision or opinion of the Assembly could be had But then I pray what necessity of putting your selves into such a condition of Government as must put you to this necessity Indeed this collection of a major Vote is many times necessary and good in Parliaments and Assemblies in Monarchies where the results and opinions of the whole Council can no otherwise appear to the Prince who for that cause assembled them and where he himself representing the whole people joyntly shall in the determination afterwards be on which side he pleaseth and so leave none uninterressed or unconsenting Joyntly I say for that in him onely as being but one person there can be an united and general consent and representation For if that rule be true that what is the concern of all should have the consent of all how shall these Shires and Burroughs that come now as minor voters to have their Representatives
covetousness or revenge have respect onely to himself or some of his own favorites without equal justice to all according to the Laws of God Nature and his Conscience he is so far a Tyrant as he shall then press it forcibly to the overthrow of anothers Liberty or Property For in so doing he ceaseth to act in the capacity of a publike person and taking on him the affections incident to a private man he doth thereupon become tyrannical and unjust Nay more if he for favor or fear of the seeming whole people or any party thereof shall against known Equity or his Conscience put to death any one of his Subjects upon no other consideration but in complyance to them or shall not protect him to the hazard of his life or estate in case of oppression he is a murtherer to boot upon the same ground that Pilate was who by washing of his hands could not cleer his fault of deserting the innocent And of this kinde of Tyranny soft and weak Princes can hardly be free For they are ever over-ruled by seperate orders or persons of their Subjects who must in their prosecutions have partial designs For these Princes being by their unactive spirits kept from knowledge of the true state and dangers of things the threats and power of such as they are most obnoxious unto prevail with them to believe their private ends dangers and wrongs to be his and thereupon is his Authority made to become tyrannical by execution of these mens interest and revenge upon their fellow Subjects But they that are so ready to accuse and cry out against the severe Governments of Princes as tyrannies because by degrees themselves would be lawless may consider that Princes can never tyrannize that is seek to destroy or severely punish their subjects as subjects but as under the notion of their rebels and such that will not be subjects he always doth and may punish They are to consider that tyranny can never proceed from a Prince of the same Religion to any height where stubbornness did not precede as a cause and which humility might not extinguish or abate For as it is not tyranny when a Prince subjecting a forraign people that war with him punisheth them or useth them with severity no more is it when done against such of his own people as disobey or resist For they in that case taking the event upon their own hazard have their punishment as enemies and not as subjects which may be cruelty but cannot be Tyranny For that must onely be the unjust and excessive infliction of a power submitted unto and not from the degrees of triumph or possession made by a victor And those reports of such as Nero To wish all Rome one neck that it might be cut off at a blow do become his murtherers to tell more then us to believe For I cannot see how a rational man which none denied him to be should at the same time he aims at Empire and Dominion wish or plot the lessening of it And from hence most evident it is that Tyranny is as before noted but the usual term of political railing used by such as aim at total insubjection for otherwise they would have better agreed in stating of Tyranny and its marks and degrees so as Princes might have known and avoided it If usually Government it self at least such wherein themselves were not chief were not the intended extream they meant to abolish under the odium of Tyranny I would fain know why we have not found out as odious a name to express the other extream by that is the excess of Princes rewards and favors as well as that of Tyranny to express their punishments Being onely because that no man is afraid of being too much rewarded but rather would have that extream pass as a vertue that it may always be run into by Princes And upon this reason again in the severe carriage of the Master of the Family we use no such expression of Tyranny because it might come about to our selves and yet is the Father and Husband more subject to contract irreconcileable displeasure against Wife and Children then the Prince against his subjects For he may suspect his Wifes honesty and his childrens extraction which by no action complyance or submission of theirs can be avoided But the Subject cannot but be beloved in that relation of a Subject and always in his power it is to make himself known to be such an one And if severity in punishment must make Princes to be Tyrants who can judge of that or its excess or just measure but he must thereupon be above the Prince And will not all Government be more or less Tyranny because there is always more or less severity If Tyranny be when the Laws of God and Nature are transgressed as is sometimes defined we are still to seek how to be bettered by this information for who shall judge of that above the Prince also so far as to condemn him of the breach of any positive Law of God since he is as chief Magistrate under God to have their custody and interpretation or of any injustice in Government which as his trust can be tryed onely by his Conscience But this definition will inform us that Tyranny is so far from proceeding from power that it is alwayes in the want thereof For Princes are accompted Tyrants as they stand Subjects that is to the laws of God or Nature Whence we may inferr That Tyranny is the act of Oppression forceably committed by one Subject upon another For so was the taking Naboths Vineyard tyranny not solely because Ahab had private respect therein but because he proceeded according to sentence of authority derived from himself in a particular wherein God had not referred any jurisdiction unto him but wherein they stood both equally subject For that God having by express command from himself during the time that state was in a Theocracy forbidden the alienation of inheritances and the People being yet bound severally to look to the external obedience of these Laws as they were set down by Moses Naboth might well make that answer he did God forbid I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee Importing that because God had expresly forbid it me to whom I am in the first place to be subject therefore I cannot alienate or give it unto thee And that this reply was more grounded on fear of displeasing God then sense of injury to himself may be also concluded by the reasonableness of Ahabs offer unto him namely of Money or exchange above the worth But because in the Jewish State although Kings were eminently entrusted the literall observation of the Law was still universally obliging and to be obeyed by each one in particular in order to the outward way of regiment God then exercised therefore could not any King therein by his command free them from guilt in such externall performances as their conscience told them were
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
constant as to the way and form yet through humane frailty it may many times fail in the measure and end of its efficacy The Officers that are to claim their Functions and Authority as Jure Divino are first the King or Monarch who is from and under God himself established as well in causes Ecclesiastical as Civil supreme Governor And then Fathers Masters and Husbands as Civil Governors And then those of the Clergy as spiritual guides and directors under this their chief guide and director unless it be where and when this Master or Father of the Family is insubjected and independent at which time he being himself a supreme Monarch hath as Elder Brother those Priest-like and Civil Offices of instruction and coertion by the Law of God united in the same unsubordinate person even as amongst those great and more ancient Families it fared before Nations came to be under kingship or that the Priesthood was divided from the Civil power Nor doth matter of Reason alone as already and hereafter to be shewed prove the Authority of these Functions to be Divine but the express precepts by God himself to that purpose given do beyond dispute settle these Officers and none else as of Divine right immediately to them derived for authorising them in their acts of Government and Power By which words of immediately derived we may know how to put a difference between that Power and Authority which is exercised by Kings themselves who hold of none but God above them and that which others their Magistrates perform who being ordained in their power by the Prince cannot be said to hold their powers otherwise then as immediately received from him But although in this regard of subordination it may be in some sense true that the Priest and Master of the Family may be also said to derive their power from the King where Kingship is even because in the exercise thereof they may be by him directed or limited yet is there a great difference to be put between them and Magistrates in respect of claim to divine right in performance of their Functions The Magistrate as he is positively affirmatively impowred by the Prince so is he also negatively under him in the execution thereof the Priest and Master of the Family on the other side have all their positive power of instruction and jurisdiction from God alone derived being negatively onely restrainable by the Monarch in the outward act and execution thereof whereas to the King himself it is alone peculiar as to be by none but God affirmatively impowered so to be by none but him negatively restrainable But then again although in each independent family the offices of instruction and coercion be united in chief in the person of the same Master yet between the Authorities which those of the Priesthood and the Masters of Families do severally execute where they are not united there is unto the Order of Priesthood a greater honor annexed in respect of divine Claym and Authority then to the other and that not onely because instruction must be supposed to precede coercion in time and order but also in dignity in respect or the different dignities of those that are to be the objects of their Authorities the Priestly Function presupposing always a more noble Object namely such an one as is indued with understanding and wit whereas bare coercion can reach unto neither of them And under the Gospel again a farther addition of honor and divine Authority will arise from the observation of that more spiritual charge and Function they inwardly claim towards the promotion and exercise of Gods kingdom in our hearts whereas amongst the Jews the drift of the Priests instructions had for objects the outward acts and Ceremonies chiefly In which regard of instruction and preaching the Fundamentals of Christianity taken as Gospel duties they stand by means of special ordination thereto not onely separately distinguished and enabled above other humane power as the persons to instruct and teach Gods will are distinct and in that respect above those that are to obey but also whilst they meddle not with such things as have tendency to civil Peace and Duty they are unsubordinate to the Prince himself nay above him too as his spiritual Fathers and as having their efficacy and holding their authority herein immediately from Christ as his Ministers and not of the political head of the Commonweal The Father and Master of the family enter upon their authorities and function according to natural course and equity without personal designation and appointment from the Prince and his power and are afterwards restrainable in all things as he shall think good but those of the Priesthood although they were by the laws and authority of the prince personally ordained to stand as Gods Ministers yet are they on the other side as Gods immediate Ambassadors and prophets subordinate to none And this Gospel duty of preaching besides publike prayers and administrations of the Sacraments are to remaine as the proper duties of persons in holy orders without exemption of the prince himself For although to each prince in order to peace and government the chief and general care of instruction in the wayes of righteousness doth appertain as it doth also in each family to the Master thereof yet doth the office and efficacy of instruction in the mysteries of Gods inward kingdome depend on the authority of none but God himself But these things are to be understood of the Clergy in their spiritual Functions onely and as they relate to one another as equally Gods Ministers and not as they are differenced amongst themselves in reference to that distinct proportion of external jurisdiction and power alotted them for peace and order sake For as in the first respect they are under none but God so in the second they are wholly subjected to the Prince he being as great Bishop and overseer of the whole Church to preside over the Bishops of the particular Diocesses thereof upon the same Reason and divine Authority that the Diocesan doth preside over the Parochial Minister And upon the same ground that the Prince as great and general Father and Master of the whole kingdom doth preside in the Government of each Family by means of that civil Magistracy which is exercised under him in like manner doth he as head of the Church preside over the whole Clergy in Ecclesiastical administrations by means of this Episcopal jurisdiction which is to be by him directed or restrained of all which more hereafter Having thus far premised in the declaration and distinction of Officers and Functions of Divine right for the better understanding the present Question as well as many other discourses which will hereafter follow where the same shall be farther proved by Scripture I hope it will to all unprejudiced men appear That although God doth not now as sometimes formerly so immediately expresly operate in the unction and designation of particular persons or
he should therefore not have his heart lifted up above them by nation his brethren and by nature his equals but the consideration hereof imprinting the sense of compassion and fellow-feeling in him it might restraine all exorbitance in the exercise of this high power so far as not to insult or afflict beyond measure And this is the cause why succession of Princes and continuance in the same stock is so generally preferred before election namely that they are then sure to have one of their own nation or brethren Even so again by forbidding him to multiply horses or much silver and gold to himself there also expressed it was not simply to forbid him these things as unlawful for the two next and greatest Kings of eminency David and Solomon had them in great abundance without blame but to give another like caveat against pride that is least presuming upon these advantages he might be brought to forget God his strength and think to keep under his subjects more by the fear of tyranny then the love of a brother And also to admonish him that he should not put his people to unnecessary charges in supplying him beyond publike use And to cleer this by instance in multiplying horses we shall finde the prohibition point particularly towards Egypt as a prophetick admonition against their leaning of the strength of that staffe which should run into their hands which was afterwards verified in Hosea and Zedekiah who put vain trust in these Egyptian forces and the 24 and 43 Chapters of Jeremiah are full of disswasions from this Egyptian confidence and from returning again thither And as that people were extreamly inclined to set their faces towards that place so could not these admonitions but be very necessary for their King both to keep them from so doing and to forbear making flesh his arme himself To which purpose Isaiah is very full Wo to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in Chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are strong but they look not unto the holy one of Israel neither seek unto the Lord. As for the law there mentioned it cannot be understood of any particular one made for his restraint and so proper to him as King but of those general Laws of Moses given for all men to live by And therefore it is enjoyned him write it out of that which was before the Priest to whom he is now to succeed in the chief charge thereof In which charge although he differed from others yet that the Law was the same appears by the intent thereof there mentioned common to him with the rest namely that He might learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep the word of this law and statutes to do them He is not bidden you see to be affraid of his People Representative or Collective nor are they or any one earth hereby authorised to look unto his performance of this law or to resist or punish him in case he transgress the which is the thing in question and not whether Kings are subject to God and his Laws or no for none will deny but they are and are also for many considerations more obliged to keep and press these laws then any of their subjects As none on the other side will I hope say that his subjects are to be to him in Gods stead so as to judge and punish him if he do not But then it may be answered that the people have a dry right without a remedy They have a right indeed to be free from oppression but such an one as serves to no stead since it may be taken from them at the pleasure of another What shall we call an appeal to God no remedy or shall we say there is no remedy or justice for subjects but when and where themselves shall be judges and executioners in it for if so what use of this common judiciary power when one part of the people may still have power to judge of another It was the partiallity and injustice incident to this way of proceeding that made it reasonable for people to subject themselves to a common umpire or judge whose sentence should alwayes be taken as indifferent Because else they did nothing and are yet but in the same first state of Anarchy they were For he that is not supreme in all causes and things but onely such as the people shall assent unto is not truely supreme in any thing forasmuch as their judgement coming after his as of power to confirme or disanull they will still be without a supreme and their Major vote allowing his affirmative or rejecting his negative sentence will at last conclude the whole definitive sentence to be come into their hands No if rulers of policy peace and government be maintained the King onely as aforesaid can be supreme and all other of his subjects can have but derivative powers that is aâ— sent of him The complaint of misusage must still run to the higher the people cannot appeal to the people when the King their onely supreme Judge on earth hath oppressed them They have in this condition none but God above him to appeal unto he is the onely King of Kings and to him onely in this case vengeance doth belong All which was well intimated in Samuels reply foreshewing that these oppressions should irremediably happen sometimes In that day shall ye cry unto the Lord but he shall not hear you So that then after all these warnings and threats the people chusing to submit to this government and power it makes their resignation of power and trust to him to be implicite and for better or worse It makes it appear that they had considered before hand of these things as mischiefs that might sometimes befall them the which patience and sufferance not rebellion and resistance were to remedy And so far were they from pretending or desiring any caution against it that their reply Nay but me will have a King over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our King may Judge us and go out before us and fight our battailes imports an acknowledgement of his unquestionable supremacy over them and that aswell in Civil as Martial affairs which is meant by judging them and fighting their battailes And then by their proposing herein to be like other Nations whose Kings it is well known had at that time absolute Soveraignty the condition of perfect subjection will be farther manifest And again in desiring a King in the place of Judges who already had supreme authority as far as positive law went must farther imply their acknowledgements of an extraordinary obedience to this new and extraordinary power For when Samuel tells them that now God was their King meaning that in all extraordinary and urgent occasions his advice and direction was to be sought and they notwithstanding this chusing to have a King it makes that absolute
degree of submission yet more apparent which was to be given to this high Officer who should succeed in this Divine place of Authority which as it might subject them to many unavoidable miseries when evil Kings came so on the other hand they might foresee much benefit to ensue when good ones came as it proved shortly after in the days of David and Solomon So that untill this latter age of the world that men through vulgar and popular flattery could be brought both to forget Gods precepts and their own reason such Maximes and positions as are now frequent in the mouths of some seditious persons would have been abandoned as undutiful aswell as scorned as ridiculous It would have sounded strange in their ears to have heard men affirm That they had contrived a way of limitation for Kings whereby he should yet have all power left him to do good unto his people but none at all to hurt them and yet such is our present aversion to government that the hasty and inconsiderate swallowing down of such like Maxims for the limitation of Monarchical Power hath been the cause of all our publike disturbances All which right reason must say we are ever in danger of whilst Soveraignty is not entire and perfect in the person it ought to be For what shall he have such power of doing good as it shall not be in the power of others to hinder it if so then supposing him a voluntary Agent you must also suppose that if he think fit he hath power of forbearing it and so doth ill by not doing good Or if he work as an instrument and necessary Agent by the force and impulsion of another then is the power of doing good to be properly ascribed where this direction is because the Ministerial Vertue or Power of the instrument may be thereby implyed other wayes or not at all And so if you make him to carry the same force in the work of government as the Carpenters chizel doth in all his work then how shall a voluntary Agent be imagined such or what is the difference of the Kings power from that of the meanest subject when he must do so as he is directed and no otherwise And so lastly how can that be called good which is done necessarily and unwillingly But these things will be best seen by instance The power of each kingdom is in the Militia now as he that hath power hereof may benefit the kingdom by the invasion of another or by defence of his own and as he may use the same at home in maintenance of laws and equity against opposers so may he thereby do the contrary Whereupon Reason and Experience tells us how ridiculous this their device is For since the Militia must be somwhere and of absolute power if it be not in one mans hand it will be in more What will they then be the neer will they now set some in trust over these again to the end that as those were trusted above the King to hinder him from doing wrong so these again shall have power to be over them that they abuse not that their power which they before had over the King when will they have done setting of watchmen upon watchmen and must they not be men still that they shall so entrust In which respect being alike subject to transgress will they not necessarily be more in danger of injury being now under the power of many then they were before while under one And truely they that thus can fancy a possibility of stating a person in such a condition as he should alwayes have power to do good must next contrive him such a will as he shall be doing it also or else this power is but vain because he may do ill in forbearing it And they again that on the other side would take from him all power to do evil and yet think he may be all this while a voluntary Agent do in both respects seem to me to condemn God Almighty of imprudence or injustice in not governing all men in the world as these would do some in kingdoms That is not knowing how thus to take from men the power of doing ill without taking from them thereby also the power of doing well but suffering sin thus needlesly to raigne in the world Out of what hath been hitherto spoken we may gather the reason both for the establishment of Monarchy and also for annexing unto it those absolute degrees of Soveraignty not to be wrested or alienated from the person of the Prince by any of his subjects who cannot without overthrow of Monarchy be such sharers or engrossers of the Soveraignty as under pretence of bridling him from evil To say unto him what dost thou because he hath power by his Office to do whatsoever pleaseth him To which end we may also see the reason why Oaths of obedience and subjection are by subjects taken as for other ends so in case of resistance to take their part against all others The people being for this very subjection sake called the subjects of such and such Kings And this Oath in regard it is made in Gods name and presence and in regard it is the tye and obligation to maintaine policy and peace and thereby humane preservation the end of God also it is called the Oath of God as aforesaid And therefore to Kings are we to give obedience not onely for wrath but for conscience sake for so Solomon directs it the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon he that provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul it is not a crime in policy onely to disobey and resist him whose wrath is as messengers of death but a sin also against Religion And least any should use their Christian liberty for a cloak to their maliciousness and the better to act their own revenge or ambition pretend that in unlawful commands obedience is not due which once granted how easie would it be to make any thing unlawful we had no minde to obey we are enjoyned to be subject Not onely to the good and gentle superiors but also to the froward for this is thank worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when we be buffeted for our faults we take it patiently but if when we do well and suffer for it we take it patiently this is acceptible with God for even hereunto were we called because Christ also suffered as leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously What could have been more expresly and rationally said for perfect submission to our superiors then here for first whereas the glory of God consists as amongst other things in the prâ—servation of man and that againe by
submission to authority they are to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake or as they render Gods glory or their own good And then least any factious pretence should alienate their duties in the true object of their allegeance it is appointed unto Kings as supreme and unto other governors as to such as are sent of him for such was the will of God and their well doing that hereby they should put to silence the ignorance and foolishness of men even of such men as not knowing that the foundation of Society was laid upon the united and irresistable authority of the person had under pretence of liberty vented their maliciousness and countenanced rebellion in favouring some subordinate authority against the supreme And then lastly least any should object that because as aforesaid these governors were but for the punishment of evildoers and praise of them that do well therefore if they should do the contrary as their Commission or authority would fail so their obedience to him might faile also We shall farther finde him giving precepts of suffering patiently though they knew it wrongfully And this he confirms by the example of our Saviour himself who as he vvas infinitely more innocent so vvas his usage more hard and unjust and thaâ— many times from under Kings that had neither natural nor rightful authority over him As for one instance in the case of paying tribute for although as appears by Peters ansvver it vvas but vvhat he had used to do he makes an expostulation purposly to cleer all doubt that might be made Of whom said he do the Kings of the earth take custome or tribute of their own children or of strangers Peter saith unto him of strangers Jesus saith unto him then are the children free notwithstanding least we should offend tâ—em go thou to the sea and cast an hook and take up the fish that cometh first and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt finde a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee So that you see rather then he vvill offend them that is resist authority and give occasion to rebellion by standing out and refusing as he proved he might have done in this illegal command he vvorks a miracle to perform it and doth it for Peter also of vvhom it vvas not demanded Nor vvas this done out of fear as vvanting povver to resist if resistance had been lavvful For he was able to have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels a povver sufficient to have mastered any oppossion But he like a Prince of peace left us this example not to promote rebellion against the supreme authority but to commit all to him that judgeth righteously even to God to vvhom alone Kings are accountable and therefore to him alone vengeance in that kinde especially doth belong For as God vvas the alone author of their povver and Office so vvill he be the onely judge of their defaults therein according to that of David against thee onely have I sinned as if lying vvith another mans vvife vvere no wrong or trespass to her husband vvhich that it vvas so is cleerly evinced in that parable made by Nathan of the taking of the Evv-lamb and in Davids answer acknowledging it an offence and making a censure thereupon namely The man that hath done this shall surely dye and make restitution But although David had power thus to punish any of his subjects as having from God rightful jurisdiction over them yet when he understands himself to be the man he concludes none on earth above him but that he is subject to God onely in the said words Against thee only have I sinned Marke also the use of this kingly power in enforcing or abateing the rigor of the law For restitution was by Gods law onely set down as a punishment of theft which was the onely fault and not adultery which appeared in the parable of the Lamb but he for the punishment of a fault so aggravated by circumstances though fit to have death added and should no doubt have been therein by his subjects obeyed without imputation of guilt for using arbitrary power no more then when he took the shewbread altered the courses of the Priests erected new Offices amongst them brought in Musick and other Ceremonies into the Temple without particular direction from God or Moses law and when he commanded the numbering of the people as beforesaid and again made that law for the shares of such as stayed with the stuff both of them not onely without but against his present peoples liking To conclude therefore Soveraignty is the supreme judge and disposer of Publike interest where by â—ublike is meant whatever may be of general concern between that Kingdom and another or of mutual concern to others in the same kingdom although the same be kept as a propriety in private hands The particulars of this authority we will briefly here set down The chief is that so largely heretofore spoken of namely the sword of Justice or the last appeal aswel in Religious as Civil Causes and is inseparable and incommunicable The next is the power of making and interpreting of laws The next is to lay taxes and grant privilidges and exemptions and therefore had David and Solomon both their tribute Masters and so Saul also out of his known prerogative promised to them that should slay Goliah to make his fathers house free in Israel which power to free must suppose a power to impose The next is to make Magistrates and state officers for he having delegation from God and being the common Fountain and Center of power their power must be but derivative and part of his The next is to make peace and war all of them comprehended under those general terms of submission mentioned in the Jews first election of their Kings namely to judge them and fight their battailes And as for the other more separable and communicable markes of receiving homage coynage and valuing the mony weights and measures to grant Letters of Mart to have Crown and Scepter to have titles additions and donations of honor as they may be sometimes but complemental so may they be comprehended under some of the more general and express markes before spoken for if he have the last appeal and be in all causes and over all persons and estates in his dominions supream head and governor it will follow that he is so also in these Although in the passed Treatise the name of King be only commonly used yet what is spoken of him is to be applied unto Monarchy in general under what other title of Emperor Prince Duke Lord c. so they be free and holding of God onely For unto the Monarch in right of his Office and not to the name is the Power and Soveraignty due even as the head of the family is in relation to his wife called husband to his children
Tribes for want of a common Head exercising over one another as men of renown the whole earth came to be filled with violence For although each Family had its Government within it self and so all men within one Government or other yet since there wanted a definitive sentence or Monarch to unite these Governors amongst themselves they were in the true estate of Anarchy But to Noah and his sons that were to people the world afterwards as these mischiefs were well known so were they avoided For after that the earth came to be so fully inhabited that now Families must interfere one upon another and could not part peaceable as Abraham and Lot did we finde them under Kings as a necessary form for preservation of mankinde Which blessed Government was ever accompanied with Gods promises of fruitfulness as before recited But if by accident they were removed these people were in the sense of Antiquity if without Kings without Government also and in the estate of Anarchy and confusion And thereupon we finde it threatned Isa. 7.16 that before the overthrow of Judah and Israel the Land should be forsaken of both her Kings And so much as will suffice to convince Anarchy to be absence of Monarchy is in Holy Writ implyed when in the inter-regnum of the Judges it is said there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was righteous in his own eyes And yet were all men at the same time subject to the Fathers and chief of their Tribes as appears by the act of the Danites they had also the same Laws they had before for their direction But because there was now no single judge who might interpret and inforce this Law and give direction and command in chief it was reckoned a state of Anarchy The like at that time was imputed to the men of Laish and made a reason of their easie destruction for there was no Magistrate in the Land that might put them to shame in any thing Where by Magistrate in the singular number or heir of restraint for so the original will bear we may conceive their want of Monarchy was intended for it was always esteemed as a wo to a Land when many were the Princes thereof And indeed is the punishment of rebellion for casting off the one first head and so making many in their divided Factions and Tribes And again the state thereof is in the Text counted as preserved by having one Prince called there a man of understanding and knowledge Meaning one of such capacity as can act by himself and not leave the kingdom to be governed by others after Democratick principles They that think understanding and knowledge was here more pointed at then the unity of the person will be then troubled to finde why the plurality of Princes should be disliked since in that respect many understanding men must in quantity be more then one And again likely it was for one single person to want it and almost impossible for a number of any greatness whereupon it might upon that supposition have been set down but by many men of understanding c. But the truth is the curse and malediction is in the word many or else many understanding Princes might have been a blessing as well as one But why this one Prince is here set down on the other side as a man of understanding is because Princes that want understanding are great oppressors and so could not be counted as the preservers of Countries Whereas we shall never finde the having of one Prince as one to be otherwise given then as a blessing nor of many as many and that in supreme Authority at once to be otherwise given then as a punishment It being for the inconvenience of being governed by Democratick principles in the interim of any Monarchs insufficiency that makes the nonage and other disabilities of Princes come to be esteemed the Lands woe For if at all the equal Government of Peers or People either independently amongst themselves or as joyntly sharing therein with the King had been good or commendable then this nonage of the King which must necessarily produce it should not have been reckoned as in it self a woe But so we shall finde it undenyably to be accompted if we look into the third chapter of Isa. where God threatens the Jews to give them Children to be their Princes and Babes to rule over them And in the next verse tells the consequential punishment that should follow the Anarchical rule of others in their names and rooms viz. and the people shall be oppressed every one by another and every one by his neighbor And there being want of power in the person that should be the fountain of power and Government it shall soon follow in the inferior relations so that the childe shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable But then because these mischiefs had been by them observed to rise from want of Monarchical power a man shall take hold of his Brother of the house of his Father saying Thou hast cloathing be thou our Ruler and let this ruine be under thy hand But because God had determined to punish them they shall be herein denyed also Which desolation to follow the absence or inability of the Monarch is again expressed in the twelfth verse viz. as for my people children are their oppressors and women rule ever them under which notions of women and children oppressors we are to conceive persons disabled in the execution of their Governments themselves through personal disability and want of power and judgement For since we cannot think women and children could do it most in their own persons we must thereupon conceive their punishment oppression to arise from that divided Aristocratick way of Government which the Nobility or others should act by reason of this want of superior restraint Whereupon in the following verses God in the disability or absence of his Deputy undertakes the cause of the oppressed himself The Lord standeth up to plead and standeth up to judge the people the Lord will enter into judgement with the ancient of his people and the Princes thereof for ye have eaten up the vineyard the spoile of the poor is in your houses what mean you that you beat my people to pieces and grinde the faces of the poor saith the Lord of hosts And if we look into the New-Testament and the time of our Saviour we shall finde not onely this malediction actually removed from the world by the presence of him that came not to destroy mens lives but to save them but it will also appear that this error and absurdity of Polarchy was by that time so well known that the fountain of truth makes the impossibility of its right in Government amongst men to be the medium of his Argument against admission of any equality in our subjection to
party and those that joyn not enemies to the publike ill-affected c. By this means having gotten such strength as to be able to pursue their own interests in opposition to lawful Authority they proceed with less fear towards the accomplishment thereof whether it be that more neer interest the advantage of pleasure belonging to each ones person commonly included under riches and desire of property or that which is more distant as of Wives Children Kindred Friends c. which may be ranked under the sense of Honor. For still our pursuit in attaining them is heightned as we conceive our propriety and interest in them to lye Now as the leaders private ends were as beforesaid Ambition Covetousness or Revenge so to joyn interest and engage the people they flatter them with the notions of Liberty Propriety and Justice corresponding with their own aims before mentioned For Liberty answers Ambition both proceeding from Pride and impatience of Government The desire of increase of Propriety answers Covetousness And popular Justice is nothing else but Cruelty and Revenge And now have they engaged all affections too For Ambition is the extream of Honor the pleasure of the Minde Covetousness includes all the pleasures that sense can desire And Revenge is the utmost bound of our malice against the things we hate tending to the satisfaction of the irrascible faculty as the other did of the concupiscible Therefore the Leaders never defining or telling what civil Liberty Property or Justice is or ought to be they leave it for the people who have them promised as great matters to think that by Liberty they mean not onely freedom from all subjection themselves but because they are told all Power comes from them and is at their dispose they think they shall now have power over others also By Propriety they are led to think not onely to have their own estates altogether independâ—nt but to be freed of all Taxes and Obligations besides For the meanest cannot but expect if he be not directly promised that upon overthrow of the enemy great encrease will then come to his share And then as the weakest Natures are ever most revengeful and cruel so Subjects can never want objects of this kinde whom under shew of publike Justice they will always implacably prosecute Nor do the Leaders of Factions hide themselves and meanings on the naming of things onely but of persons also For having themselves cast off subjection and teaching others to do the like they use not the name of Subject any longer it is now the people a word which as used in Anarchies signifies insubjection and therefore can be never proper but in Anarchy and sometimes it is the Commons they represent and stand for And then there is none so low but thinks he is included in one of these notions there is not one of the meanest servants in a Family but is in his conceit one of the People or one of the Commons at least and answerably he is ready to take the side that makes him such fair promises And he may hope also that as the greater includes the less so a free-born Subject as he is shall be freed of Master as well as Prince for he is sure that all his bondage hath been from the one and not from the other They poor souls little thought that by People and Commons are meant onely such as the Leaders shall choose after they have made themselves by their helps Masters of the other party to stand as for the People or to choose or to be their Representatives At which time I hope being the people themselves they will not break their former Promises of having no intention but the good of the People Upon occasion of which deceits and mistakes it comes to pass that the generality of the people are ever murmuring against these Governments and more ready to change again then the Subjects in Monarchies as now finding that those large promises of general Liberty c. comes to none other end then to be at the continual dispose of their fellows and that their own share in power or riches answers not that great hopes they had thereof when they deposed their former Prince When this Association or Faction divides against the Ecclesiastical Government it is called by a peculiar name of Schism which is seldom wanting where the other is For Religion being taken of general concern to all the reaping up of abuses herein cannot but deeply engage and in order to this the peoples Liberty in interpreting Scripture must be asserted and then having set up Levites to scholly them to their purpose Conscience comes to be engaged for them also in this pretended Reformation and as much as much as may be drawn from the other side But now as all Faction hath in its aim the overthrow of Government so it is from its own divisions again always a ruine to it self as it had been to the Kingdom by division before For the common enemy as they call them now subdued which was the cause of their uniting they begin to reflect upon themselves both in the division and managery of the power and profits now come into their hands and also of the neerer prosecution of those particular interests that brought them into this association Both which occasions will again necessarily break them into sub-divisions and lead them to finde out new associations of such as come yet neerest to correspond with them against such as are farthest off and upon like Grounds and Arguments as they had associated against others before they associate against one another now Nor can this well be otherwise because as I said publike good was not the cause of their joyning except a forraign fear yet remain or do arise to keep them united or except the Leaders be allyed by kindred or have all of them a common interest The last commonly happens when claim is laid to the Crown and Government For then as one mans interest made them associate it will keep them so The other is when the heads are few and their interests so agreeing that more is probably to be got by a great and sure share now possessed in the Government then in adventuring for all Therefore the present successors to Monarchies overthrown by Faction are Aristocracies but these many times so short-lived as their Government is not to be setled and known For one or some amongst them as courting more the people will still by their help set themselves in the Throne or if that fail rather then submit again to his incensed fellows he perswades and sets up the peoples general power above them under shew of more liberty and so comes usually Democracies which if they fall not into Monarchy again by the force and choice of their souldiery grow by degrees more Aristocratick For those that call themselves the people secluding always as many as they can and taking in none to share with them in power their number at last must
in order thereunto to fancy as we see it come to pass that there are general rules and laws whereby justice and right are as measurable by inferiors as others yea even whilst they are inferiors But suppose there is in every man implanted the maximes and grounds of general Justice as God to be worshiped parents and superiors to be honoured every man to have his own or the like yet since they were in several men variously concluded from several inductions and observations in the course of humane affairs for they encrease and differ in men as yeers and ability do it must come to pass that when they come to refer back and are to be applyed to particular occasions they must be both different and falible also as not determining how to worship God or wâ—erein to obey susuperiors or what every mans due is Upon which grounds it is no wonder that Astraea was fained to leave the world about the same time when Laws began most to abound and men undertook to fancy that that obedience to the Laws which was constitutive of Magistrates and subjects justice towards one another was also to be definitive and bounding of justice in the original But if we make not justice to be residing in that sentence and determination of equity which each rightful superiour imposeth then hath it indeed no certain aboad amongst men Or if they bound it by any other positive Law then what is to be by him interpreted and enforced then they not onely take away all justice from the golden age of the world which was therefore chiefly called so because the publike person to whose sence of equity things were intrusted did particularly judge in emergencies and so more exactly measure causes then can be now by standing rules and laws but they also for the present take it from fathers masters of families and the like where right and justice is depending on their arbitrary and accasional directions And therefore as Divine Justice or the general rule of equity in government of the world is dependent on the Divine Edict and determination of God who hath the government hereof and as the rule of justice of the family is dependant on him that hath that charge also so is the same to be granted in each kingdom even to be the decision of him that hath Legislative power and trust to determine of things towards the stating political peace or happiness To which purpose some have conceived the word jus to be the abrievation of Jovis os which we may call the Divine sentence in the lips of the King making it the positive decree of the soveraign power For although this Synterisis or inward assent to the general maxims of equity be usefully in all men because they must more or less have dominion yet for inferiors or â—quals as such at any time to use them upon their own authority cannot make the execution take the name of Justice however the sentence may be in it self equal or proportionable to the equity of the cause And indeed that common definition of this vertue of giving every one his own would have caused men necessarily to conclude this the proper vertue of the person in supreme power and propriety for how else shall he have right to distribute had not as before noted private covetousness and arrogance of judgement made men conclude it not to be justice except under that notion of his own each man had such distribution as should not onely be directed by positive Law but by it according to their interpretation also As though there could be private propriety against the publike or that the Prince the Master of a Family or other publike superior were to regard the good and propriety of the contenders or any other separate private persons without regard to the whole propriety and good and not rather make his distributions of the publike stock of honor riches c. to private persons with repsective care to the whole In which respect we may again call publike Justice The exercise of authority proceeding from each rightful superior as his sense of equity in particular distributions shall lead them with regard to publike advantage So that he judging according to sense of equity as between two both the parties contending are to be taken as one and decission is to be so made between them that the other more worthy party the Commonwealth be Geometrically considered And this although the whole present people be present contenders in the two parties yet is the succeeding community or their own future inconveniencies to be considered From whence we may conclude a just man and a governor to be convertible as also is the notion of Justice with that of government having both issue from his authority and determination Saving that under the notion of government as more general we usually comprehend both equity and justice that is both the directive and coercive parts but by Justice we commonly conceive but the bare vindicative part to be acted separate from the Legislative If in this his sentence he bear such particular eye to the parties in competition as to forget or neglect common interest he is unjust to God his superior as failling in his general trust however to his inferiors he must alwayes upon the same reason be acknowledged just We are also accustomed to apprehend the notion of justice to have in reference to the persons subjected a more particular regard then that of government namely when then the Justiciar shall more expresly respect the comparative fitness or interest of any two separate parties at which time the governor being more remarkable by an explicite determination it may thence be called particular government as government it self may be called general and implicite Justice both of them being stated and defined by the due exercise and receit of that power which caused their relations that is of the governor or Justiciar as agent upon the governed or justified as patient In which case the Agent and patient standing reciprocally constituting each other according to their relations to impose and receive it follows that where the governor is not endued with his proper power to impose on the governed according to his vertue of Agency and the governed on the other hand endued with the vertue of receit and patibillity there cannot be government But in proportion as the inferior invades the power of Agency or is insusceptible of the others Agency so far the political harmony and order is broken and inverted and approach is made unto Anarchy And many times also we difference Justice from Government by its object as making it conversant about the Government of our proprieties and apprehending the notion of the Government to have most particular reward to the Subjects personall liberties and this way that definition of giving every man his own and of the division of Justice into distributive and commutative may seem to look Philosophers in their usual Scholy desiring to make it
execution approaching and derived from its originall Whereupon we must say that when the tearm of Justice is given to inferiors as denoting their upright dealing in the discharge of any trust it is then as before noted confounded with the vertue or honesty for honesty is the proper commendation of any in that case even as denoting trust and inferiority Whereas to do justice or justly supposeth a power to impose and distribute But when we do suppose any inferior person as such to be capable of justice so far as he hath been equal to the rule and proportion of his trust we do thereby grant justice not to be any wayes originally in him but to be properly onely assignable where the rule is that is to the party that holds the ballances as being possessed of power And therefore is Justice painted with a sword in the right hand and scales in the lest as betokening that the estimation and decision of causes and controversies is the proper office of him that is in the supreme seat of authority and power who is to be conceived the Trustor and not on the judgement or censure of such as are inferior or trusted And this because the Trusted's justice or equal dealing being to be measured by the Trustor or superior he can no otherwise be just then by him justified which is not to be actively or formally just but proportionably so For although he might have been upright or honest in his return as having herein done to the utmost of his abillity or conscience yet cannot he be therefore truely called just because the superior in his trust might have had other ends or intentions in the assignment of the trust then hath been or could be by him adequately returned in which case falling short of the rule he failes in point of Justice also And to manifest these things more clearly namely that the Justice of superiors is not dependent on the judgement and sentence of men below and that againe our own conscience cannot justifie alone we shall finde Saint Paul saying With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you or mans judgement yea I judge not mine own self for I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified but he that justifieth me is the Lord. From whence we may truly infer that no man can be just before God in this life not onely because not fully knowing his will but also in respect of inabillity in coming short thereof even when we are most conscientious And so again taking injustice to import negatively that is absence of justice we may call all inferiors more or less unjust and that also whilst to their utmost they are most honest Even as on the contrary we may say all inferiors are more or less just as more or less justified Upon which ground the Publican a neglecter of the Law went away rather justified then the Pharisee a most exact keeper thereof In which regard justification being according to supremacy in power it follows that any man may be called just when justified before God the fountain of all rule and power although to his Prince or Parents he may in some particulars fall short of his trust like as upon the same rule again the justification of the Prince may include justice to any subject notwithstanding his failing in any inferior charge So that now the attribute of Justice being formally proper onely to supreme power hence it comes that the acts of no superior but God can be universally and strictly called just For Princes being as his chief Magistrates in some things restrained and to be directed by his Laws they can in those things be no farther esteemed just in execution then as they are observant of them Whereas in other things by God referred to them as to his next entrusted Deputies the stating of right or law must be dependant again on their sentence In which case as those Magistrates by them entrusted with execution of their Laws must have above other subjects power to interpret and act according to their own sense of equity and right which is to be obeyed as justice by all others even so again the actions of Princes as Gods supreme Magistrates must as in duty to God be submitted unto by subjects in general And we must farther also say that as Gods universal power and interest makes his actions to be alwayes equal and just even because they are his even so in proportion Princes must be held in their actions more or less just as they are more or less powerful or whole proprietors in what they judge And farther that as no man can be the proper and formal subject of justice but he that stands in relation a superior so none unjust but as he stands by relation an inferior even as failing of or exceeding in the execution of that trust of power and propriety received from such as were herein above him And from the premises we may farther say that as the true stating and observance of the relations of governing and governed makes government and the execution of this government makes Justice so in Republicks where these relations are not fixed and certain but that the governed as Agents do sometimes act on the governing as patients there Justice must be proportionably wanting or uncertain Out of all hitherto spoken it will I hope appear to be each mans duty now as he would be freed of the guilt of doing ill aswell as that of stubborness and disobedience not to take upon him to judge of the morality of laws and institutions above or without the leave of his superior For as sin in the wil must proceed from error in the understanding if I respite my particular inquisitivenes and suffer my self to be guided by the general perswasion that right and wrong are better known to these I am bound to obey then to my self the result of my actions whether they did what was good or no must yet be safer to me that perform them by implicite obedience then they can be otherwise For if they be right and good the merit of that obedience by which they were done will encrease their good and if otherwise it will abate it as being therein my just excuse For the less will I had therein the less sin I must also have as shall be more fully discoursed of when we treat of Religion And bootless it is to say that obedience to humane authority is to be given in things indifferent For if the doing or not doing be indifferent for legality or benefit in my conceit I yeild to authority not as out of duty as such but as doing what I should have done to any ordinary request Or if besides the sense of duty I go to set my self a rule how far and how far nâ—t my own reason and conscience is to submit so far as I take on me to juâ—ge of the equity of the precept and the measure of my obedience so
prejudices of others just more then can the actings by other robbers do the like For as he that takes a purse by force upon the high way is as culpable as he that steals it and as theeves that shall come so armed and accompanied as to beat off Guards and Watch are as much robbers as others so is it not publication of the act which can but denote their present power that can make Democratick censures lawful more then if thieves before they kill or spoil a man should first hold a formal court of judicature amongst themselves and there sentence him For in neither case it takes off the guilt or illegallity of the fact where parties become judges over their equals but aggravates it rather through imprudence and impunity And therefore although what was before alledged in justification of the dealings of one faction towards another might be allowable as in order to self-defence and for security of the invaded party against the others force as beforesaid yet can it not establish them in a right to continue doing wrong to others for it was onely allowable as a course that should have prevented it It is also to be understood that in Christian policy it is onely practicable in the absence of Monarchy as a temporary way to safety and that neither numbers nor prescription can ever make it a lawful government For if there be a Monarch then is that party that obeys and acts in his name not to be called a faction but subjects and those that appose them oppose him and are Rebells In which case prevalence of number or power nor all the specious pretences of leaglity can no more make attempts against their fellows lawful then can the like pretences warrant any association of the servants of a family to attempt the like against such of their fellows as are put into office and authority by their Master For in that case the loyal and faithful subjects and servants while their Prince or Master continue in their offices and while they pursue their quarrel and stand up against their enemies are to be presumed as lawfully acting because acting by an authority from God derived And unto them being so united in the interest and cause of one supreme person is the dealing of one party against another warrantable and allowable For they in pursuance of the loyal quarrel or their own safeties may deal with the other as lawful enemies but the other party cannot do so towards them for that they not onely want a supreme joynt authority amongst themselves whereby to difference subjects from enemies but do also still oppose him they have in opposing their fellow subjects that take his part Whereupon it will follow that in case the revolted party have overthrown the other they are now to count all their actions unlawful farther then they can derive them from an officer authorized by God Almighty who is onely superior to them both In conscience whereof when they shall return to their old form again under one head nature and policy come to be satisfied in all their claims For first the subdued faction or party will by this means be freed from the partiallity of dominion under so many professed adversaries and have one indifferent Judge to them both and so it must be reckoned as done with their consents Then the prevailing faction must be supposed to do it willingly as it is likely to a common favorite and as being singly weary of each others precessure And then lastly supposing himself willing to undertake it there comes consent all along And then because as men we cannot quite shake off the natural way of gaining power by force we are next to consider how these prevailing factions were again prevailed over by their own chief head In which last deed we must remember what was formerly allowed to man as one of his proper wayes of conquest namely craft For how else shall one man conquer and keep under so many be it by money flattery or the like it skilleth not But he being now in power as the conquering party had before taken security of others against their fears so much more may he being but one and having so many that have natural power to hurt also use it if he see danger Of which securities the most usual is the force of guards for his person after the example of the best of Kings David himself Which if not done when occasion of just fear requires the former prevailing faction may at liberty oppress the other still and themselves also be still in danger of mutual mischief for want of restraint from injuring one another And to speak truely this is so far from force that there is but this way to make known the strength or desires of a people and to know whether they have any or no. For as their strength and desires must be known by such as appear therein and not by polling the whole so the strength and desires of these appearers must in what they act be taken for the deed of all And as when an Army of one country conquers another although they be far the less number and not elected by the people yet we usually phrase it that such a Nation have overcome such a Nation even so things properly concerning action being to be measured by the active part onely it follows that what is done by the active and prevailing parts of the people must be reckoned the act of the whole people especially if the other do acquiess or else they can have no action attributed to them at all And upon no other ground then extraordinary eminence and appearance are the actions of Princes made the actions of the whole people For as all vertue gathers strength by union so are the fewer united herein to be reckoned to have both the vertue and appearance of the whole For in this regard it fareth with those associations made by the more active people of any place or country as it doth with those more active and pressing affections and passions whereby every particular man is provoked unto action to wit that as the will in each person could never be brought to any determinate design and execution if those differing passions and affections which are in every single man naturally abiding should be severally and continually pressing upon him with equal importunity and vigor so neither could any nation or people be brought to any attempt at all or conceived to be such or such a dictinst company of men united and associated in a Commonwealth did not the sence of honor popularity ambition covetousness or the like finde so great and continual a prevalence in some as to unite and provoke them to publike undertakings whilst the rest again being of a more dull and fearful temper are content to sit still and enioy with quietness their present fortunes or to move onely in the condition of followers to that party that promiseth greatest advantage and security And as
because it is the onely foundation for other foundation then this can no man lay and this foundation every man must lay or else all the faith and obedience to be framed thereupon will come to nothing For although their be other articles as depending on this and incident to our Christian profession which ought to be believed also even as all things by God proposed as truths are yet to add them as of themselves necessary to salvation it is to Christ and Christian faith as high derogation as to add circumcision or other observations as necessary to salvation in our Christian obedience And as for our obedience outward we are freed from those many rites ceremonies and observations of the Jewes which God in particular favour of the Jewish Nation had appointed most of them being but shadows of Christ himself and of that great and plain way which by the Gospel should be revealed Nay the very judicial part though instituted by God himself for that government bindes us not as positive laws but as useful presidents upon like occasion that is to say where their and our causes were alike which is not binding as such or such laws formerly made and authorised by God but as parts of the general law of reason For as unto them God was immediate lawgiver and being given before Kings was both God and King so was the litteral observation of them in both respects necessary that is as religious and as civil duties also For both were the same to them because God at that time undertaking the managery of the Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Estate made both one then no otherwise then his remitting both to the Prince makes both of one sort now that is under the same chief relation to duty and obedience namely that of conscience But because of Gods express undertaking herein to them it was do this and live but unto us for whom those directions were not particularly made by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified As Gods rule to them was outward and litteral so were his promises and threats for performance temporal and respecting this life onely Wherein they failed as needs they must their failing was expiated by sacrifice pointing at a Saviour to come to fulfill these things for them but Christ being now come and having fulfilled all righteousness the observation of the letter is released as to direct divine authority and we Christians standing bound but to the general precept of love and charity are referred for our particular managery and guidance therein to the higher powers whom we are to obey not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake not onely for fear of that present temporal punishment they may infflict as meer men in authority but out of conscience also of preservation of our owne innocence in preservation of our obedience to God in them All which in the Epistle to the Hebrews is plainly signified where God is brought in speaking of the difference of the Jewish and Christian Covenant and obedience according to the many Prophesies to that purpose and saying Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt that is not like as it was whilst I gave them particular precepts for all their outward duties and did lead them in all their affairs my self as if I should have taken them by the hand But this course God now changeth because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord that is because I found humane frailty so great that these litterall commands could not be kept therefore now I will put my laws into their minde and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me even from the least to the greatest that is by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts all shall be taught of God and by his Spirit led into all fundamental and saving truth so that by being all taught of God to love one another which is the life and soul of the moral law they shal by keeping that one precept of love keep the whole law But for our direction outward therein we are not come unto a mount that might not be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempests that is to hear them from such a mountain which was made inaccessible through these terrible apparitions that accompanied Gods presence thereon and the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more for they could not endure that which was commanded That is neither are we now to be terrified as by hearing God speaking with his owne voice to our outward ears but we for our outward direction are come unto mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jurusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels that is to the present Church militant and to such as do therein instruct us as Gods Messengers by their Angelical doctrine And to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect that is unto the Catholick doctrine of the Church assisted by God the judge of all and attested by those many Martyrs which like their Captain are made perfeâ—t by suffering And then that both these may be made beneficial to us and to our salvation we are come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then the blood of Abel And these Gospel duties of love and obedience we shall find to be the verry errand also of him that was to conclude the Law and the Prophets and to be Christs forerunner as it is most fully though mystically expressed by the Prophet Malachy and also by Saint Luke in their descriptions of Iohn the Baptist his office and message The first of these duties is couched in these words He shall turn the hearts of the Father to the Children that is he shall prepare them to entertain the loving of one another in as high degree as the Father doth his Child And then secondly for performance of the duty of obedience whereby to make this love to be advantagious it is added by Malachy and the heart of the children to their Fathers the which Saint Luke expounding to mean the disobedient to the wisdome of the just doth plainly shew that the preparation of the Gospel of peace and the way to make ready a people prepared for the Lord was by bringing them into such a state of
observe this Monarchical administration so much owned by God as to declare the absence thereof as the fittest and surest token of his dereliction and punishment of a people that had been first false to himself and were now repudiated by him as may appear in that other Prophesie For the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince without a Sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim And by the last words we may observe by the way not onely a depravation in religion and Church order to follow this no King in Israel by making use of Teraphim in the Ephod instead of Urim as the man Michah did but this disorder should increase till that remaining Priesthood who by their consistorial parity were as the Teraphims in this Ephod should be taken away also For this use of Teraphim amongst Israelites was to bee looked upon but as a shift in Jeroboam who wanting that order of Aaron and his Sons made use of the meanest of the people but in the Christian Church and when Christ typified in David shall be their King then also shall those several Kings under him maintain and settle order amongst the Priesthood and in religion it self as David also did Now concerning that separate jurisdiction which some Church-men would claim under colour of dividing our duties into religious and civil it cannot I conceive but plainly appear that notwithstanding sacred pretence this division is but of humane invention being not to be found in the Scripture and as it is for the most part made of no other use but to make division and discord by abating our obedience to the Magistrate under colour of giving it to God so are men not at agreement in stating thereof For while some think that whatever the Magistrate commands it but of civil obedience and so lyable to temporal reward and punishment onely and again what is of Gods command that is expresly set down in Scripture is to be only obeyed out of conscience of divine authority and then leaving men to private judgement what precepts are thence deduceable or when the Magistrates commands be such they must consequently leave them no certain rule whereby either to preserve duty or unity As also those other sort do who distinguishing men in their several relations by them phancied say that in whatever we do as subjects and men linked in Society the same is of civil cognizance and duty but in whatever we act as Christians we are to be guided by precept from God alone In which doing also being neither able to bring from Scripture all things that concern Gods outward worship and finding many precepts of Ethical Political and Oeconomical nature and which do concern our duty and good even as men although we had not been Christians they must needs fall themselves and drive others by these doubtfull precepts from giving any right obedience at all instead of directing them therein For although as to some intents men may be usefully considered in these different relations yet when the same person is now both a man and a Christian such distinctions as should â—imply a possibility of personal devision again so as for the same Christian to act as a man in any thing without being a Christian must besides absurdity bring upon us the many inconveniences of rebellion and civil war And therefore although in our being Christian we lose not the reality of manhood more then in being rational creatures or men we lose the properties of sensitive Creatures yet inasmuch as being rational Creatures and so having a greater and surer light to direct our actions all that we do answerable to other meer sensitives is therefore now to be attributed to us in the capacity of men as of the nobler and higher relation Even so also it fareth with us after and while we are Christians namely that all those actions in which in execution and direction I mean so far as is humane we resemble other meer natural men onely yet these things being by us now acted under the inseparable relation of Christians are although not of express litteral divine precept yet if done in obedience to lawful authority a Christian duty or if acted against it a Christian fault And it will follow that what was in us as men before but moral vertue or vice is now righteousness or sin even to the degree of an idle word And so again considering us as subjects those things that are onely by the light of nature investigable as civil duties when they come to be enforced by a Superiour having his power and office from God have the obligations of religious actions as being part of our obedience to that God who said them to be in that respect Gods also and children of the most high Therefore when God sometimes commands what would concern us and be our benefit as men although we had not been Christians as indeed if we had reason enough all precepts for outward direction would appear such or when again many things appertaining to our religion it self and our outward worship therein are by the Churches authority enjoyned whether the same be found in Scripture or no they are both of them to be held as religious dutyes to us and we being not able while we are Christians to act in any other personal capacity must be obedient and subject as in and to the Lord that is till something be enjoyned to overthorw Christianity we as Christians must obey in all things and it is as sinful to disobey Supream authority in the payment of taxes as in the observation of the Sabboth For God not now giving particular precepts as unto the Iewes but leaving us herein to the direction of the higher power ordained for that purpose of him we are to be obedient to our Masters in the flesh as unto Christ and willingly to do them service as unto the Lord and not as men That is we are now always to obey him as Christs Minister and head of our particular Church and not left at liberty to obey as in a religious tye no farther then we please For the actions and precepts of each State Kingdom are upon their conversion to Christianity to be called and reputed the actings of such or such a Church and not of such or such a State the name and notion of Church including that of State even as in the particular members whereof it is compounded the notion of man is involved in that of Christian. So that now as the entire trust power of Vniversal headship of the Catholike Church is unto Christ resigned and he thereupon to be obeyed as under a religious tye in all causes whatsoever by all such as acknowledge themselves Christians although they seem of never so civil a nature even so his supream deputy in each Christian Church or Kingdome being entirely entrusted like him from whom his power is derived is
the grace of God That is lest failing of the usual concommitant and conveyer of grace ye should through the lack thereof lack grace also Lest any bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby may be defiled Where malice hatred c. the attendants on war being also set down under the name of bitterness we are warned to avoid them by keeping peace for else these malicious bitter prosecutions will not only outwardly trouble but inwardly defile us And to let men see that by this peace the civil peace is meant it is called Peace with all men And again to let them see it is wrought by patience chiefly it follows the large commendations thereof set down in the twelfth to the Hebrews However to make answer to some that would have us endanger both peace and truth by putting the name of truth always in to prevent peace we have made instances of Peace being put before truth and also before Holiness yet the truth hereof is they are so coincident and depending one upon another that Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other They do become inseparable in themselves and are so inseparably our duties to follow and practise that we can never truly do the one whilst we are not highly regardful of the other also and must then be guilty when we prefer as some do a very uncertain discovery of truth to a certain loss of peace and so under colour of new Gospel-light lose the benefits of the Gospel of Peace and make it cease to be an Evangel or glad tidings And if men would consider what hath been hitherto spoken concerning Gods owning the Seat and Throne of Christian judgement now settled amongst us and so being according to his promise A spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement they might thereby perceive how amongst other things of salvation and glory which should come to the Church that mercy and truth are met together and that righteousness and peace as aforesaid have kissed each other So that now truth shall spring out of the earth as from this earthly Throne of judgement by means of righteousness that shall look down from heaven according to the former Prophesie of that good King and Typical Head of the Church made concerning the Churches future state and prosperity where it is set down that God hath now given his own Mishpat or rule of right judgement to the King Christ himself and his righteousness or justice to the Kings Son Christs adopted sons of oyl that so in these there being these unions of Mercy and truth and of righteousness and peace they may be enabled to judge Gods people with righteousness and his poor with judgement And having thus far spoken of the Antichrist according to S. Pauls description we will again re-assume and speak farther of the many Antichrists mentioned by S. John Although S. Paul gives the liveliest discovery of the one and S. John only names the other yet are they both of them as Ring-leaders in the breach of Charity and publike Peace the subject and occasion of many Precepts in holy Writ the admonitions and examples that way given taking up a very considerable part thereof and being for the greatest part the object and aim of what our Saviour either did or suffered For as this general good or charity consisted in or at least had dependance upon the reciprocal duties of commanding and obeying so are we from him furnished with Precepts and Examples of both kinds To this end he rides to the Temple and there by exercising his authority over the Temple the type of the Christian Church as a King he leaves example and authority for the higher powers to demand subjection not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and that either to Kings as Supreme or to others as sent of him To this end again as being the harder duty he not only sets down those many Precepts of Humility but in his own Person becomes the patern to all admiration of Patience and Long-suffering We being to learn of him to be lowly and meek and in the testimony of our Discipleship unto him to take up our cross and follow him Which we must testifie chiefly by our following him in our deeds of meekness and patience under subjection patience and subjection differing from one another no otherwise then in generality For I may do many things whilst a subject which sort with mine own liking and wherein no patience is required but I can do nothing as patient but where subjection must be presupposed But ordinarily patience doth define and constitute true subjection as vertue doth the vertuous And as heretofore shewed Gods glory is the end of Charity and Charity the end of Government and subjection so is subjection the end and aim of patience for what need of patience in what I may avoid That the formal cause of Antichristianism is insubjection to Christian Headship S. John makes plain saying of the many Antichrists of his time they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us that is they were like such as receive seed amongst thorns Go forth and are choaked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and so minding division and separation they do for their sakes overthrow Charity and bring not fruit to perfection But nothing can to my thinking be a clearer evidence that this sin of Antichristianism is the same with Rebellion of one or more Church members against their Christian Head then to consider that we shall never find this phrase of Antichrist set down by any in the plain terms but by S. Iohn the only person whom we shall plainly and expresly read of to be in that sort opposed and disturbed For although S. Paul by his Corinthians and others puffed up against him who had raigned as kings without him might be induced through the sense of the mysterie of iniquity already working to speak so largely of the Antichrist to come yet doth he not name him as doth the other Who is recorded to be notoriously opposed by Diotrephes in his jurisdiction and exercise of Church power in not receiving or submitting unto him and as loving that pre-eminence which was only due to the other their sole Head And not being content therewith that is with his own departure doth neither himself receive or take into his care and protection the brethren such members as have no head and so doth not make his preeminence lawful as over a charge of his own but forbiddeth them that would that is such as would come to S. Iohn and casteth them out of the Church or takes upon him to excommunicate where he hath no authority This fault he warns his beloved Gaius against under the general notion of evil as
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
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
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