protection when their Offices are invaded as the Prince is to the Fathers and Monarchs again being not unanimous and active in upholding each others rights as Fathers are it is no wonder if we finde here and there an Anarchical Kingdom even daring to profess themselves so which Families do not But would Monarchs take the common interest to heart as Fathers do and be as vigilant to preserve their neighbors power as others are to overthrow them they would finde that it would be the steadiest course to maintain their own power at home and that when other Kingdoms could never have been known successful in enterprising their Kings subversion their subjects would never undertake it no more then the Children or Servants of a Family dare for the like cause attempt the like against their Father and Master The main reason that Subjects usually have to desire such Change being the example of such or such a neighboring people as have thriven therein and so making fortune and success the onely judge of right and wrong they do proceed accordingly all stories telling us that until Anarchies came into the world such a thing as limited Monarchy was not in being Let us now again see their likeness in Rebellions and its pretences The Wife if she be of greater spirit then to be confined in her proper employment takes occasion from her Husbands remisness or too great trust in her to enlarge her power in the Family and to encroach on her Husbands also With these she lays Obligations and raises dependances as to her self and having now as she believes gotten strength to stand alone or above her Husband she becomes more insolent and open Which if it shall awake him to curb by his just power then comes she to spread through the Family the charge and power she hath She saith That the power of the head of the Family grew from the Family for as the Family was in greatness or power so was the head thereof also and therefore that they as the fountains of power might use the same to their just vindication from oppression She saith that as all kindes of good is increased by communication so the good of the whole Family is to be preferred in reason to the single good of any one especially since as the case now stands that one seeks but his own hurt also led and blinded with evil Counsel In which case necessity of self-preservation will not onely justifie but duty to their Master requires the other members to joyn in a course to force these from him and take the charge of his person and Government themselves She tells them that a Family as a Family hath foundation on the Wife and that as without Religion well instructed there could be no firm obligation for subjects obedience so without a Wife no Children no Family and so no Master thereof Besides though truly she is loth to say so much her self yet her Husbands late disrespect and forwardness to cross her makes her fear as men are now easily enclined to heresie so he hath turned his affection to some other women and therefore she would divorce her self from him that so he might be as excommunicate in his Family For although it is true that obedience is to be given to him by the Law of God yet again it is as true that he is to keep Gods Laws as well as we if not we must obey God rather then men Nay when he hath neglected his duty to his Family in not providing for them as this man hath done Saint Paul expressly saith He is worse then an infidel Now whether it be not fit that one that hath denied the Faith an Infidel nay worse then an Infidel should not onely be excommunicated but put from Government she thinks none can doubt But above all through her Husbands often absence about other imployments and remitting the directive part of Government to her in many particulars she lays the greatest claim to make herself as it were Governor in chief leaving to her Husband as pertinent to him that hath none but the coercive part the honor and authority only of a subservient officer that is to execute punish according to her determination and censure No otherwise then as the popish and Presbyterian Clergy upon advantage of their sole exercise in the Office of publike instruction do come to believe at last they are supreme and uncontrolable herein and do thence infer that as the body is to be subservient to the mind so the Prince or Civil Magistrate as they call him ought with his coercive part of Government to be reckoned but as subordinate and Ministerial to what they in their spiritual capacities shall enjoyn Not remembring that all that external jurisdiction and power she exerciseth in tâ—e Family is subordinate and to be acknowledged as derived from his supreme headship even as done by her as his Wife in his family by vertue of that choice and designation he then made at the time he personally ordained her to be his Wife and so consequently took her into this consortship and share of power For although the positive power and honor belonging to her as a mother and Mistris of a family be to be derived from God onely even from the sacramental efficacy of marriage and Ordination it self yet since it cannot be imagined that the constitution of a less and subordinate power was intended to be the overthrow of a greater therefore should she have considered that she is negatively in all things by him restrainable in the execution thereof Nay more in those things which she acts as Mistress of the Family over any but her own Children she is to hold her self as well impowered as restrainable by him although in respect of that obedience or honor rather which her own children give her she be not to acknowledge any humane derivation therein but is impowered as mother both by the Laws of God and Nature and that in chief where no other head or Monarch is With these and such like insinuations she may be supposed to win Children and others of the Family into a faction and association with her by whose help she may be able to work her ends For although women be rather more desirous of Government then men yet they wanting bodily strength are forced to draw in others to their assistance by setting up of their interests also Thus Children shall be won in by hope of some parity of power with the Father as well as Peerage among themselves for by the Text of Fathers provoke noâ— your children to wrath they would both have the duty of Fathers implyed of not commanding more to their Children then what they are willing to act for fear of angring them and also that being provoked by their Father it was just and reasonable for them to prosecute this wrath of theirs unto the abating his power for the future Then the Children when they meet with an easie and
desperate as directly to profess to introduce the one by destroying the other but deceived sometimes themselves are and always they strive to deceive others by shew of Liberty and Freedom either from suffering some evil or for attaining some forbidden content For say they the more general good and content is ever to be preferred to the more particular which is the good of the whole people to that of the Rulers For look into Nature she made them equal intending no more the satisfaction of one then another And the very end and aim of Society it self was primarily the good of the governed and of the Governors but in order thereunto That hereupon all or most people subject not themselves to the arbitrary rule of the Prince but unto the known and established Law by which onely according to his oath and compact he is bound to govern For could men say they be imagined to have parted with their native freedom of Will and debar themselves of the many pleasures of life to no other end but hereby to advance to a state of felicity some one or more men unto whom they could in nothing acknowledge themselves inferior No since Kings and Rulers were set up and had obedience given unto them for the onely good of the people for of them is the whole power derived and they may at pleasure settle what Government they please and as they think fit to restrain or enlarge it therefore when they shall be found to fail of this trust and turn their power to their peoples hurt they might with good reason re-assume their own strength and imploy it to the attainment of those benefits which by the wilfulness or foolishness of the other is crossed or neglected And if in pursuance of this course civil war and slaughter do follow it must be imputed to the stubbornness of them in Authority which then must be endured as a cure to the state when as by a momentany suffering of some mens loss the perpetual hazard of all mens slavery is avoided and is no other then like tolerating a less evil to avoid a greater And this power of resistance say they must be in all limited Monarchies else the limitation is nothing but he remains as absolute as the other But because these and the like propositions have for the most part been bred and countenanced by some of the Romish and Jesuited Clergy we will by the way look thereunto leaving the farther censure of their intermedling to another place and also referring the full answer and satisfaction in other things to the ensuing chapters wherein under the titles of Liberty Slavery Property c. shall be shewed how Faction and Rebellion have unjustly laid claim to any justification under these notion A great Argument and associate of mans frailty it is that even from our best and most holy performances advantages to sin and impiety have been taken Arising chiefly from the malice of that wicked one always ready if the sowing of the Wheat cannot be wholly hindred by his Agents to cause such Tares to spring amongst and from it that for their very sakes the other might have none or at least less use and esteem For who would else have thought that that very height of Piety Religion and Devotion that caused the first nursing Fathers of the Church as in honor and duty to God to bestow divers great Priviledges and Powers upon the at that time well-deserving Clergy should by a strange and inconsiderate ingratitude prove the readiest Feathers with which the shafts were made for their own destruction For so we finde when Popes became inheritors onely of the Revenue and Prerogative of the Church and not at all of their predecessors devotion or humility they first begin to seat themselves above Kings and all that is called God and thinking they could never bring low enough that power whose due height they had just cause to fear would be a curb to their pride they not onely tread on their necks themselves but by their Agents and Factors they everywhere teach and authorise the Princes own Subjects to do the like Telling them that all civil power is originally in the people and that from them and their underived majesty it was that Kings had their Soveraignties which as they might be by them streightened as they saw occasion so were they to judge of his defaults in case of tyranny or oppression And then reserving to themselves the power of deposing and sentencing them in case of heresie or schism and of defining what they were they had poor Kings they thought beneath them low enough even as far as man is beneath God Kings being the peoples but themselves as jure divino Gods Deputies These things seem not so to be wondred at in a time when implicit devotion and superstition had caused such general ignorance that any thing almost would take but for a sort of men undertaking to reform all errors even according to Gods Word and professing such great hatred to Popery as to cast off some harmless things onely because they think them popish for these I say to contradict a thing so expresly taught in Scripture and on the contrary to assert a thing onely fraudulently brought in and by none taught but Jesuits can have no other ground but that they agree in common aim the aim of ambition and insubjection For so as the Pope puts Kings under the people to advance himself in his room as in Gods stead so do Presbyters put him under too that themselves in their consistories may dethrone and be above him as in Christs stead By which means Christ being no longer King of Kings but King of Presbyters we should for advancement of our Liberties have besides the domineering consistories a King and a Pope in every Parish Concerning the sum of which Doctrine namely that all power and that of Kings is from God onely we have already spoken but because I finde that divers learned men favorers to neither of these sects but lovers of Monarchy did yet hold by consequent the same opinions it will not be amiss to speak something hereof and of the inconveniencies absurdities arising from that conceit of derivation of power from Paction and consent leaving the more particular handling of the Nature and reality of Paction it self to its proper place These though they thought that notwithstanding this Concession they would still evince all active resistance to be unlawful even because it broke a Paction made between I know not what King and their people and so I also sometimes thought from the plausibleness of the scholly yet upon stricter enquiry an error on one hand or other cannot be avoided That is either acknowledging that this is a thing useless and serving the people to no purpose or else all those consequences of Rebellion will naturally flow from it For you admitting it the peoples right they put you to shew where you finde that they by any Paction utterly resigned
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
needful to keep of mutual injury through interfering desires But yet some kinde of guardians there must be to provide food and things necessary to cram down these appetite-less innocents lest their reward of preserving others should turn to their own destruction But if we cannot fancy desiring and not desiring equal but must acknowledge appetites the wheels of the soul then is there no way left but to admit of degrees of command amongst men themselves for our orderly enjoying those stocks of blessings by God afforded us and to keep us at unity and from the common destruction of one another To this end God placeth man at first in a state of subjection to one head so that no doubt had Adam lived he had been as natural Father so King of all mankinde But his death being sentenced left brethren as in equality should contend this power of one mans command over another was the established due of birthright for else we cannot think it personally indulged to Cain over one so much better then himself By this course if observed men should have continued in due quiet and subjection until the numerousness of the several subject families might make the common head of them assume another Title And therefore we find that where God promiseth to any person a great encrease of race and posterity he promiseth withal as a compleating of that blessing that Kings should be born of them But after such time as Ambition Covetousness Revenge and the like began so to prevail amongst men that neither Gods Precepts nor fellow-feeling of the miseries of rebellion could keep them in obedience how just is it with God to make our own stubbornness our punishments So that if we impartially look amongst all those desolations of Nations they are but the issues of their own Civil wars and contentions which had their first rise from popular discontent and insurrection An Argument more popular and pleasing I know it had been to have extolled such Kings as measured their power by Justice and their Laws but I being not now to write to Kings but to subjects and in what concerned them in order to peace shall respit that till the Kings part in order to Peace and Prenty shall be treated of Therefore writing to such onely I chose to prefer their certain benefit by obedience before Discourses that should flatter them to their ruine by insinuating unto them a power they can never make use of without the mischief of disagreement and Civil war For there is certainly a vulgar and popular flattery as well as there is a flattery which is personal and this is doubtless the most dangerous of the two as having more to seduce The which kinde of insinuation is but too apparent in many writers of this kinde wherein men considering that those that are to be their Readers and from whom they expect encouragement and applause are such as stand interessed in the relation of subjects they do thereupon deal with them in their discourses of freedom power or the like as those do that tell black women they are fair that is to be wholly respective to those their own private interects and designs to be by this courtship gained and not at all to the truth of things themselves or to the benefit of those they pretend to instruct whom they do really abuse by this their unfriendly information As for example whensoever this unhappy controversie between Prerogative on the one hand and Liberty on the other shall for decision be by both King and people referred to Law for no Kings nor no people do professedly decline them who then shall be the Judge shall the King No he is a party and to be ruled by them Well then we will suppose the Subjects no parties nor to be ruled by them but to interpret and perchance make and alter them as they shall finde cause what shall follow but that they thereupon divide into Factions again some putting the power into I know not what and how many Magistrates and some into such and such Representatives all of them as far from truth as differing from one another But as in either case they set the Law above the King so they set the Subject above the Law dealing in the one as preposterously as the other But in this as in all other cases the natural tie of self interest and respect doth so blinde and byass us in our judgement and practise that we will bring in as reasonable and practicale in the Kingdom and Commonwealth what we think highly unfit to be exercised towards our selves in our own Families that is not onely to think it lawful and convenient that more then one should be there governing at once because our selves may happily be one of that number but also we are always ready to entertain and practise all rules of restraint whereby under colour of Divine or Humane Law all that live under him as Subjects may make themselves otherwise when they please upon allegation that the Laws and rules of Justice and Reason are to be in the first place obeyed Whereas if the children or servants of our own Family should in our Government and Commands demean themselves with like stubbornness either by disputing the soleness or arbitrariness of our power in general or by scrupling their obedience to each command in particular until they finde it by God or their Prince Authorized how would we then cry out against this sin of disobedience in them when as yet we think it but duty in us that the Obedience we owe to our King the Father of our Country should be answered with such demurrers pride and prejudice always equally prepossessing us to bring down and level all power that is above as well as to subject and keep under that which is already below But say men what they will Obedience as obedience must be implicite and he that in any command of lawful Authority obeys no farther then he findes reason so to do obeys but himself and not another And yet are Princes and Governors the less to wonder at this stubborn inquisitivenes in subjectâ— since it is no other then what hath been and is daily offered to God himself in prying into the reasonableness and morality of his Laws and Justice even from our first Parents to this very hour A thing of well known advantage to that proto-Rebel whereby to rule in the Children of disobedience For if once we come so far to arrogate as to believe the reasons of Gods Actions and Councels are apparent to ours his will as of course must be submitted to ours also Therefore as then it was hath God said you shal not eat so every day still it is such and such Commands and Laws are but for such and such ends and whether those ends were expressed by Cod or no every man is ready according to his own interpretation to obey or not obey or so far and no farther even to a perpetual distraction in Religion and
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
for the governed as heretofore noted even for the necessary preservation of those relations according to that saying If I be a father where is mine honor if I be a Master where is my fear For although a willing and hearty service be most acceptable and onely rewardable as to the doer yet the benefit of others will many times be gained by the deed itself Whereas a known impunity will by example and as it finds hope to attain the like procure common detriment both by neglect of the deed it self and by common invitation to disobedience But if the subject from his own or others experience once find that his obedience in respect of other damages and inforcements in the Princes power is unavoidable he must be supposed even through discreet willingness to submit and then through custom of so doing to arrive at last at a state of natural willingness in obedience it self experience telling us that steadiest loyalty is in such subjects as have been used to greatest subjection and most discontents and rebellions in such Families and Kingdoms where children and subjects have been most free And it will ever be a most certain truth that that obedience which must unavoidably be given will ever in equal things be more ready free and unreluctant then that which may have hopes of avoidance CONCLUSION BUt it is now time to have done having perhaps as much tyred others as my self in these tedious discourses driven so vehemently on to the cure of that evil which while men are men can never enter into a steady thought should be wholly done For when all is said Government will have its faults and when in the rule of nature we see it sometimes come to pass that the stobborness of the matter is such as will not admit of that form which to her policy in general or to the production of some more perfect creature were in particular species necessary but that pestilence murrains mildews c. to the destruction of men beasts and vegitables as also monstruous and imperfect shapes incident to the generation of each race and kind do sometimes happen why should we wonder at ineffectualness herein when besides matter there is a perpetual aversion of will in the governed and alas the while the workmans skill or care in this is too often so to seek that through his default also the malady is increased Since therefore nothing in this life can be to us perfect and without its inconveniences we can only call that Government good which is best and which upon tryal hath fewest and least settled mischiefs as not arising from its form but contingent accidents in its ministration and this is that which I have propounded as the drift of this whole Treatise Yet then again as the many unavoidable diseases of our natural bodies are not at all to discommend or excuse the Physicians care and pains for their mittigation or removal so I hope in this grand disease of the politique Body called Civil War although I cannot attain to a perfect or constant cure yet if the application of those remedies I have proposed shall sometimes cause diversion and sometimes mittigation I shall have comfort in my labours But in this as all things else we must leave the success to God whose work alone it is to still as the raging of the Sea so the madness of the people Even that mad and raging humor of liberty which being blown to a rebellious height by the breath of seditious Oratory as seas by the wind it is none other then if in our natural bodies the allurement of our pallats should tempt us to that food which should bring us to a feavor And as these surfeits seldom come but from such things as are best and then again loathing of that very thing doth follow so in the politique constitution though nothing more necessary and commodious then peace yet nothing more incident to mans fickle nature then in a giddy thirst for variety to grow weary thereof which as a thing bringing Kingdoms and States to their fatal periods no otherwise then bodily surfeits and sicknesses do single persons to their natural deaths shall we say that as they are permitted for the punishment of our sins which we can never want so to this end also And then shall we say that not so much in consideration of ours or our progenitors sins as that the will of God might be made manifest are these things befallen us Shall we say that since none of themselves can be called righteous or good that it may therefore be a reason that wickedness and vice are thus suffered as to the estating us good by comparison and that even again in Government as to the adorning loyalty and other civil vertues disobedience and rebellion is permitted also and to make us thereby more sensible and thankful when peace shall again be restored But be the reasons what they will our duties of obedience and submission being plain enough it is our parts to look to that and to leave these hidden things to God whose judgements are unsearchable and â—is ways past finding out For sure I am that however God for the punishing of a sinful people permit their Princes as he did David in the fact of numbring to fall upon such unwarrantable acts as may bring on their punishments yet can this punishment never warrant any active resistance of his Authority Or be the King not good as David was but such another as Saul was yet since he is our King and the Lords anointed who can without sin lift up their hand against him And why should we be more impatient of enduring those punishments from God that come from the hands of evil Kings then those of pestilence famine or the like that come more immediately from nature since all come from the same hand and to the same end the punishment of our sins And since God owns the giving of them in his anger and the having their hearts in his hand and turning them wheresoever he pleaseth why should we think of resisting one more then another Thus is wicked Pharoahs heart hardned and his subjects the â—gyptians thereby plagued And thus as aforesaid is good Davids heart stirred up to number the people and these people thereupon punished with pestilence And who would have thought a three years famine so long after Sauls death should be the punishment of surviving subjects for a past fact of zeal done by a King so long dead Or that the house of Jehu and his people by consequent should be threatned with Gods punishment for the execution of that his justice upon the house of Ahab three hundred years after the fact done when as yet the very fact it self was so plainly appointed and warranted by divine authority In which examples of Kings sins being made causes of punishing peoples sins with plagues pestilence famine civil war or the like I would know if resisting of Kings had not been resisting of God or
OF GOVERNMENT AND OBEDIENCE As they stand Directed and Determined BY SCRIPTURE AND REASON Four Books BY JOHN HALL Of RICHMOND LONDON Printed By T. Newcomb for J. Kirton A. Roper G. Bedell and G. Sawbridge and are to be sold at their Shops in St. Pauls Church-yard Ludgate-hil and Fleet-street 1654. The Preface TO have undertaken a work of this nature was once as little in my thoughts as the occasion of it the sad distraction of my Nation But as they say of him that was born dumb that he burst into speech against those he saw ready to murther his Father even so the past and feared desolations of my native Country come with such pressing horror upon my soul that neither my general dumbness and insufficiency in all things else nor the particular difficulty of this can keep my natural affection in longer silence that is from endeavouring to warn posterity to avoid the like inconvenience for the future by discovery of both rise and cure of that which is introductive thereof namely disrespect and contempt of the present Soveraign power For they shall finde it plain that from the time that Subjects shall be taught and permitted rudely to press within those secret vails of Authority which their wiser Progenitors had set up for its support and defense that their ignorance not letting them see throughly the cause of these different respects given to Superiors more then others they shall like Cham no sooner see then despise their fathers nakedness And as with them it fareth that through remoteness and want of reading know of their King no otherwise then by report as of someting of Power Riches c. above that which is incident to ordinary men to apprehend him to be some other thing then man also even so when ambitious men finding Authority oppose them have for the peoples engagement laid open to publike view That he is but as other men are and it may be worse too that this power and greatness he hath above the people he had it but from them and for them They then begin to be so much ashamed of their old ignorance and so much taken with this new insinuating lesson that their industry and practise thereupon is not to be wondred at And as themselves are now pleased with these Schollies as matters of high discovery so each one is ready to stretch his fancy therein and in a kinde of pride we all take to seem more wise then ordinary these discourses are told and enlarged to his yet loyal neighbour with no little glory of his new illumination He looks on himself in his past ignorance and on others not yet apprehensive of so much light but as little Children admiring those Babies which themselves had drest up For he comes now to think all those Prerogatives ornaments and Ceremonies given to Majesty nay Majesty it self to be but a sort of Pageantry and shew to please the ignorant sort with And as Bell and the Dragon were sometimes made terrible that as in their names and right others might be the more superstitiously cozened by those that attended them so to no other end as they suppose was all this obedience and expence by some Polititians and Courtiers called for as of duty to this one but that themselves under colour of his name and Authority might make their private uses thereof Whenas by these and the like practises the sinews and foundation of Government and Authority shall be let loose and dissolved and men once precipitated in a course of stubbornness and insubjection all those usual Arguments and Discourses made of that respect which is to Monarchy it self due and how it was not an office and power of yesterdays devising but had the confirmation of Antiquity and Law or the like will all of them prove ineffectual to give a stop to these proceedings Even because most of the writers of this kinde to win readier belief did still argue under the same supposition of derivation of power from the people and so to Princes by Paction by force vvhereof they thought they might defend him and his Authority as in Justice against any violent or injurious attempt whence it proved that want of building on the true and sure ground made their labour unsuccessful and instead of conviction did for the most part but prompt with farther Arguments upon the same foundation to encrease perfect that structure they had already begun And although they again did strengthen their Arguments from the particular Laws and usages of the kingdom it self yet not diving deeper into the ground thereof and shewing that what is there done is but upon the general reason of Government and good of Obedience common to it with all places else the success was little For the people being once confident that power came al from them it must be supposed by them intrusted for their good and that when they saw it otherwise they might reassume it for else say they it was a dry Right without a remedy What if their Progenitors for their folly or cowardise herein had been punished with deserved slavery they would make use of the blessed opportunity to recover their native freedom with the same resolution courage that others had oppressed it before And as for Law the interpretation thereof was not in the King but them as was the Legislative power also That the sin of Rebellion was falsly imputed to them they were the supreme power and above Kings the whole people cannot rebel against the Prince more then the greater against the less In this case since Antiquity cannot be taken upon her bare word but that the reason why it was so formerly done must be also given unto men now there is no remedy but to let them see how that which hath been herein formerly appointed was for and will prove if observed the onely general good by which means people seeing their obedience to be their benefit as well as their duty cannot I conceive but more readily follow it So that now being forced to dig even to the very root of Government which could have no subsistance but by Religion nor that again without a Deity this drew us on in the first place to make some proof and discourse thereof and of that work of Creation to which Providence necessarily succeeding as Gods way of Government in all things besides was needful in some things to be here also treated of not onely as having man himself so considerable a part of it but as partly imitable in the Government of Kingdoms also For as the Laws and Rules of Nature are but for the establishment and security of Creatures in general so those for Peace and Unity in Kingdoms are for men in particular those are to make and keep all Creatures in their species serviceable one to another these to do the like between man and man Then being to consider men as linked in society it was expedient I should first search out what mans natural end
disturbance of one another where a supreme definitive sentence is not kept up And as we usually thus search into his Councels for the Reason of his Laws so set we up models of equity of our own for measuring his Justice Insomuch as upon every extraordinary and remarkable event how peremptory are we to assign this or this for a cause each one judging his own apprehensions of right and wrong as the onely necessary patterns for Gods proceedings and intentions herein Which whilest they shall differ so much one from another and can be but one true if any be must they not charge God foolishly For example amongst us that have now felt in so high measure his deserved hand those that are of the Romish opinion say This late revolt is in Justice for our Kings deserting his Obedience to that See and our particular Schisms the punishment of our grand Schism from them and the more particular pressure thereof lighting on the Nobility and Gentry are the punishments of their ingrossing the Churches Patrimony which like the coal from the Altar hath almost consumed their nests These looking upon this kingdom as the head and pillar of Protestantism say That as Reformation of Religion was first set up by our Princes out of State designs of alteration of Government and of being independent on the power of Rome so are they now but justly punished with the same pretensions by their own Subjects who in their risings they presume have as great Authority to interpret Scripture against their Civil Governors now as formerly against their spiritual head And they farther say That as to gain strength and general assistance from the Laity was the onely reason we first made the Scriptures vulgar and common that under the obliegingness of so high a favor whereby their abilities seemed to be flattered to an equal pitch with the Clergy they might be gained to that side that therefore our present requital from popular wresting these Scriptures again to publik disturbance amongst our selves is but just also Others that are from them in opinion most contrary so are their reasons also They tell you that Popery and Superstion were here too much and too long countenanced and abetted they tell you that the Clergy were yet too high and powerful and their maintenance too great and unbecoming that things have thus happened because the true sense of Scriptures and thorough Reformation from Rome were too little regarded Others that it may be regard neither of those extreams but look on things as polititians will tell you That the assistance of the Scots formerly against their Queen the assistance of the Dutch and Rocheller against their Kings were the just causes of insurrection now and they will tell you also that the beheading of the Queen of Scots was ominous to the like fatal blow Believing it a Vice against common prudence for Princes out of consideration of any mischief to one another to do that which should be destructive to all as well as it is a sin against Religion neglecting the rule of Do as thou wouldst be done unto By all which and many more instances which might be given of like nature being first bewitched with our Understandings and then idolizing our own justice to be the same with Gods we do cause Rebellion to creep on us as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness as Idolatry That is we will then onely begin to serve God and obey his Laws when we have first interpreted them to serve our own turns which is in effect never to obey them more Whereas that more remarkable token of Obedience that was to Abraham imputed for righteousness was in fact seeming as contradictory to justice and goodness so far as humane ability could reach as it was to the stream of his own particular affection For my own part I am not more in love with those four letters that spell King then with the rest of the Alphabet And could I see probable hope how that thirst of governing might be satisfied to general liking and agreement by that soveraignty which each subject should by this means have over the common vassal the King I should have rest contented with my share therein and have rather given encouragement to this so common a benefit where first all of us should have had our contents by being real governor of this one and then that one contented again with the titles formalities and shews of his Government also then have made my self subject to so much labour and censure But as in all works that are to be done there must be the worker the work and the instruments whereby he brings it to pass the which in order to the work must be at the workmans appointment and choice so in this work of Polity and Government the commanding are workers the commanded the work and the Law Magistracy Councellors c. are the instruments for effecting it Whether Prince or people shall be workmen I will not here say onely thus much is evident that Laws Magistrates c. must be at the choice and dispose of such as rule and also above the ruled as holding necessarily a middle term to unite and agree them in the work it self If as considering how things are now practised and the many opinions to the contrary I shall be by any hastily condemned of ungrounded novelty for that not contenting my self in the modest and equal way of commending Monarchy above other Governments I have quite cast Aristocraty and Democraty out of the right number and reckoned of them but as Anarchies I shall entreat them to consider that I onely undertake to look into Government and its forms as they stand authorized in Scripture or Reason and not as they stood in humane device or practise and therefore I hold my self no further blamable then failing hereof For unto my strictest enquiry there could not be found one Text amongst those we call Canonical countenancing and mentioning any other form not so much as one word of the power of People or Nobility Parliaments Senate c. which the restless wits of men have since devised as in derogation to the other Nay when God means to express himself by titles of power common to men it is either of King or Father which as the greater and lesser Monarchs have alone divine Authority to command over mens persons And I believe all knowing men will confess that as onely God expresly appointed this form so nature also at least at first in her golden age and whilst she was at the best insomuch as for some thousands of yeers it is by all concluded there was no one sort of people otherwise governed then by Kings And therefore by that same rule of strangeness and wonder where with others may behold my Positions in condemning I may behold theirs in approving them even that a sort of men there should be that pretending their utmost and onely subjection to Gods word should yet contemn the power of Kings
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
God for had it been true that a man might have served more then one Master his Argument had been nothing And why he puts it in the notion of Master and not of Prince may be for that the Jews had not any Prince of their own at that time nor was there any Polarchy elsewhere to make instance in so as his Auditors might conceive how inconsistent plurality of Commanders is with that singleness which belongs to the duty of obedience And therefore although he instance in a Family because to them best known yet it proportionably holds in all Governments namely that intireness of obedience can onely be from entireness of command For else I see not but a man may as well serve two or more Partners in a Family as he may do Partners in a Commonwealth But although our Saviour seem not to point against Polarchy expresly herein yet St. James that knew well his minde and perceived the mystery of Antichristianism already working doth it plainly saying My Brethren be not many Masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation Surely he meant not by this word many to forbid any man to be Master of his own Servants or Family to which end as he did allow more Families then one so must he allow several Masters to them Nor could he be supposed generally to reprove Pride or any other Vice as barely Vices First for that he and others used to name such crimes more plainly that all might know them and next for that such like Vices being not allowable in any man at all it had been more fit to have said be not any then be not many And therefore I conceive the Master here meant is that one publike supreme Commander which is set over us into which rank he forbids any more then one to enter when he saith be not many And that his meaning was of these supreme Masters will farther appear by the consequential guilt likely to follow in the great account of these publike Stewards although rightfully undertaken for in many things we offend all that is we have so many offences to answer for in our seperate and private callings already in relation to things submitted to our own guidance that we need not increase them by increase of our charge and trust But if any there be that do yet doubt that these last alleadged Texts prohibiting parity in command do reach to Political or State Governors because set down many Masters onely or that the former alleadged woe of Solomon set down to attend the disability of the King were not applyable to that disability which his subjects stubbornness did cause as well as to that which his natural incapacity did produce let them here this wise man once again most plainly pronouncing them both My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The first verse expresly points out the onely Officer and person who next unto God we are to make the object of our highest obedience and fear and the other plainly sets forth the woe and ruine following both to the seditious and seduced They that would interpret the prohibition against sedition and change here set down as also the fore-recited punishment of many Princes for the wickedness of a Land not to import the admission of Polarchy in the place of Monarchy but the change of Princes one after another do then thereupon confess that all Lands and People that practise such seditious courses are wicked inasmuch as fear and obedience to an evil King might else have been excepted and subjects themselves allowed to change him for a man of understanding without consideration that they were blessings or punishments sent and set over us by God onely If it had been said For the wickedness of a Land many are the evil Princes thereof or my son fear the present good King and meddle not with them that would change him for another then we might well indeed have thought the words many and change to import succession But then why should not many Princes or men of understanding ruling successively or at once be set down as a blessing and preservative to a state as well as one For if understanding make the blessing as in it self there will as before noted be more in this many then in one And lastly what evasion will they finde against the prohibition of many masters What must it intend suddain succession too and so tolerate many at once to be in equal command either in the Family or elsewhere in such sort as we might serve God and Mammon both at once but not presently one after another so as to change Mammon to serve God No certainly the word many can admit of no such wresting especially being put in the present Tense by are it must plainly denote them to be such as are to be at the same time and all at once and not such as shall or have been successively raigning and so may come to be called many in respect of those many ages and times wherein they reigned For if so how shall we do to state and compute any Lands Malediction for want of a determinate present time wherein these many Princes might be said to raign more then then at another time For if succession be unhappiness then are all Lands so It is not therefore to be doubted but that Solomon intended Polarchy by many as the plainest expression he could give thereof having not learnt his wisdom from their Schools where the notions of Aristocracies and Democracies were invented Or if the word many should be thought importing that condition of any people wherein many competitors are at once striving for the Regality so as to introduce Civil War then is the malediction confessed to be want of Monarchy For although it be the height of Polarchical mischief to be in actual Civil War and in open Arms yet it takes not off the cause thereof from being malediction too which is that faction and siding which must always be where many Governors are at once But if any there be who from Gods permission of these Governments to be in the world do therefore think them lawful and so are slow to interpret any place of Scripture to make against them there is no better way to discover their partiality to these forms above Monarchy then by supposing the one to be put in the others stead and so to think with themselves if it had been said For the wickedness of a Land one is the Prince thereof but by many men of understanding the state thereof is preserved and so also My son fear God and this or that sort of Polarchy c. whither they would not thereupon have more readily concluded against Monarchy then now against Polarchy And hence as our Preface noted we may observe that there is not in Scripture to be found the mention of any
not hurt it self And whereas the preservation of Peace and Unity of Society consists in the Unity of the definitive Sentence here through the many heads the Union cannot be Or if as to the definitive part they say there may be an Union by collection of major Votes It is true so indeed that there is an Union in the major Vote to that purpose but is there not another Union in the minor Vote also against the major and then it will come to pass that this Affirmative and Negative Unions as contrary to one another will make a plain disunion and so this supposed great head of the State be two heads at least and consequently this political body being divided also it cannot resemble the natural which is therefore called individual Nor can there be any firm Unity here expected because the true cause and foundation thereof is wanting in that they can never look on one anothers proprieties or theirs below them with equal concern and interest as the Monarch doth to the generality of his Subjects For he having his honor and profit arising from all in general and each one in particular is careful of all alike whereas they unite and agree but out of necessity For at first whilst they were yet rising and were called factions they were united in their several interest by hope of common gain and now having attained it they settle upon this confederacy through a common fear of losing it So that hope chiefly unites Factions and fear chiefly keeps them so and settles Anarchies Because if their hope of gain by overthrowing their own former Authority had not exceeded their fear of so doing they had not associated ar first and so now if their common fear of loss from a Soveraign Authority did not exceed their present hopes of gaining from one another they would not so continue And farther if in States the major part be the whole why have not the Magistrates and Decrees their derivative Power from them onely If they be not the whole as indeed no part can be the whole but that it is necessary for more fulness of power that the acts proceed in the name of the whole how come the lesser and absent parties which might perhaps together make the major to be rightly brought in to authorise those actions that are not theirs but done against their consents So that to make an Unity in this head or definitive sentence since the whole body of them and each one severally was alike trusted there must be first a full Union of consent amongst themselves and then no remedy but to serve them as the Cardinals in the Popes election that is to keep them immured without Light or Food till they agree At which time it may be the minor side will be as likely to overcome the major by their gift of abstinence as the major would have before probably done them by force But as this would make the Office of a Statesman little desired so would it give causes a slow dispatch and yet till it be done I see not how the opinion of the major part can carry the sense of the whole so as to make the whole and a part to be but the same thing Again if acts must pass in the name of the whole as the body intrusted and in nature and reason more worthy then a part why must not an appeal proceed so also And since they which bring their causes thither bring them to the whole assembly until they have their unamous verdict they have not what they came for their trust to the whole being but in part satisfied Nay if things be well considered they never or seldome have the major sence of the Senate neither for to omit external force which is wont to awe them if there were such an equal number deducted from the major side as will answer those on the minor that disagreed from the major in opinon there will be many times so inconsiderable a number of persons left to make the odds that one would think it strange that three or four men should be held for and represent the whole Senate And yet it must so usually be with such that instead of multitude of Councellors would have multitude of Commanders whereupon all Publike debates come to be managed as in a kind of Lottery which none knows the issue of until the casting up of Votes be taken For none can say that reason doth at all prevaile there as of it self but as swayed by heat of passion and contention not by weight or number of arguments but by noise or number of voices And this because in taking the issue of the debate the reasons or arguments given by either side are not left to be considered of by those that are to take the resolutions of the Senate or Parliament but the greater number of persons on either side doth constantly of it self so prevaile as it cannot be called the reasonable but accidental or occasional result or determination of such or such a counsel Which is only avoidable where one person of power hath liberty to give his reasonable sentence and judgement therein and that according as he shall finde the force of the reasons given on either side to prevaile and not to be any way tyed to the blind hazard of number One person he must be and that of power above them also For if they be more you shall fall into the same hazard again of having their sentence and debate ended by meer force and number also And if this one person have not sole power but be obnoxious unto any then terror from without and not reason from within may again sway his determination But it is answered That the major part is representatively the whole Senate as the whole Senate is representatively the whole people But how I pray can this be brought to pass how can a shaddow make a shaddow or deputies make deputies Whence can the major part derive their power Not from the people they trusted the whole not from the minor part for they oppose them and cannot give what they have not Why did not the major Vote of the eleven Tribes pretend to this right against Benjamen No they knew they could not of right assume the power of the whole of themselves they being but a part therefore in absence of their Judges the next united whole on earth they take power and authority from the fountain thereof namely from God himself by whose assent and direction they came to be enabled herein and until then their resolutions in their assemblies had no rightful power for execution but should have been reckoned amongst other Anarchical acts of self-liking as wanting lawful authority otherwise to impose on their brethren and equals And if delegates have not this power of delegation in themselves where is it expressed or warranted from their originals the People And therefore supposing the voice and determination of the whole Senate may be of force to
how can any be supposed to be so equally and universally interessed as the Prince How will they have this liberty stinted both for persons and causes And who shall be superiour to see it on all hands performed Will they allow subjects indefinitely to have power herein as they themselves shall see cause they then invert and overthrow government If these prudent considerations cannot prevaile with rational men to stop the current of rebelion yet methinks the conscientious ties of Religion and the due observation of those Gospel duties of patience humility obedience long-suffering c. might Christian Subjects should consider how Princes are of Gods setting up and not theirs so that when he that hath their hearts in his hand shall send them such an one as they deserve and in a fatherly way shall make them his rods to punish their faults they are not to attempt the throwing these rods into the fire themselves but to kiss them in acknowledgement of submission and unless they will undertake to measure their own sins they must leave it to the same hand to withdraw that did impose And to this purpose let them well consider that place of Job Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly if not to say so much less to strike Princes for equity Nay although they be such as appear to us to hate right yet being our King and Gods Minister over whom we can have no lawful jurisdiction we cannot condemn them more then he that is most just For so he must be esteemed of us and left to God for punishment Who shall in his own way and time break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead CHAP. IV. Of Liberty AS we have heretofore shewed the glory of God to be the end of creation and that this glory was encreased from the variety of creatures inasmuch as from their augmentation of benefit one above another the encrease of his praise must proportionably arise As we have also declared mankinde amongst other creatures greatest receivers and most capable of return so now as to the same end we are to consider men amongst themselves as they stand in degrees of honour and power one above another For as we shall finde them generally much elevated above other creatures so also much differenced by their own degrees of perfection Insomuch as whilst the meanest rank of men have great degrees of Divine resemblance above other creatures below them so have also men of higher stations as coming hereby to be called Gods by God himself both an advantage and obligation above those of ordinary condition to the end that as their power and eminence did encrease above others below so their gratitude upwards should encrease also For as every workman is himself expressed in his work and hath his goodness power and skil made apparent by the general perfection of all he doth so is he yet more eminently herein represented when of the same lumpe or kind again he shall cause vessels of different honor and perfection to arise In order to this as we finde that those large abilities which men in general have above other creatures do chalenge and establish their right of dominion over them so since one man hath as great almost above another it is supposeable thereby to chalenge also proportionable superiority amongst themselves Nor fares it so with man alone but it is generally observable that as the Species of creatures have more of perfection one then another so have they also more variety of degrees in the individuals thereof one above another In inanimates that have not wil their different vertues are without claim or use in the exercise of power and dominion yet comparatively we may see one Loadstone of greater efficacy then another so as to draw from him upon even tearms the same mass of Iron Look amongst plants their different perfections in the same kinds are to all apparant and how also one tree or fruit that is perfectest in the same kind or plant over powereth that which is less In such sort as when we are to set forth Gods power and bounty in the vertues and endowments of stones or plants of any kind it is our custome and duety to instance it in such as are the most rare and perfect particulars of the same kind which may by their worth eminently include the whole Beasts have their degrees of prudence and courage whereby they come to resemble men and be differenced above others of the same kind recompensed with the dominion over one another also Look above our selves and although our happiness cannot yet extend to know any thing of the true nature of Angels yet supposing them in that one known relation of ministring spirits their different degrees and orders in this office of ministration must assure to us their different gifts and abilities in performance thereof And here again we are more particularly to consider what was before spoken namely that as creatures are in their kinds more perfect so are the degrees in the same kind more various that from eminence herein eminence in power might proportionably arise For as to have made any one Species imperfect in it self could not be imagined from the power of such an Author so also not to have made some individuals thereof more perfect then others whereby as it were to confess that the Authors power by this certain stint was come to its highest pitch could not be expected from omnipotency either no more then it could from his justice or goodness not to Communicate more of his power and particular presence in things thus made perfect Not that any the lowest thing hath hereupon cause or reason to complain because each one having a stock of blessing suitable to its capacity and the smaller and greater vessel being both alike full they must in that respect be alike pleased Nor could God but hereby be much advantaged in general acknowledgement whilst in their grateful sense of enjoyment all things rest contented with the measure of their receits Thus while each superiour order of Angels in that celestial Hierarchy looks upon those successively below they must acknowledge their encreased obligations of praise whilst the lowest of all standing yet satisfied with continual benefit and also beholding it self so far enabled above other creatures all that it can do will be thought too little to requite so large a gratuity If men take also the same course how shall those of higher power have reason to acknowledge higher praise and the meanest Subject even for his being man and for that proportion of Religion Liberty Protection c. which he enjoyes above other creatures have cause also to bless that inexhaustible fountain of goodness Whereas if men and other creatures had been made for vertue or power equal in the individuals of the same kind then for want of eminent obligation and examples of vertue and power
Gods and so they being but Stewards or Tennants no humane right of prescription can prevail against his original right And in a word to keep his right and our gratitude in continual memory were all those sacrifices and other feasts instituted serving but as so many Indexes and Lessons to shew that the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof And although we on whom the dregs of Time are come are too prone to forget this everlasting precept of honouring God with our substance yet as a continual remembrance of his undoubted propriety it is our custome and duty as to pray to him for what we want so to thank him for all we receive which thanks in the receit of our ordinary food is called grace as denying all right of our own and acknowledging all to be his grace and bounty Which being so all Societies and men must be looked upon but as Tennant for such term and condition as the Landlord pleaseth So that when this great King after the manner of going into a far country shall be pleased not so immediately to operate in worldly affairs and dispensations but trust the several talents of his bounty to others as namely to Kings from whom he expects account to himself onely as by him onely trusted we are still to acknowledge Gods propriety in them and For this cause are to pay tribute for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for to be as Gods unto us aswel in fastening and assuring our proprieties amongst our selves by his laws which could not be else distinguished from the common natural claim to one man more then another by any meer humane right as they are to continue again Gods universal claim and propriety by taking and demanding some part to keep us in continual memory and acknowledgement of Gods supreme right still and of this establishment of propriety by loyalty and obedience And as for Gods acknowledging his Minister herein for himself it is well set forth by that speech of Zelophedads daughters pleading that their inheritances should still remaine in propriety to them because their father had not forfeited them by any rebellion against Gods chief Minister that is against Moses the then King of Jesurun or Israel saying Our father died in the wilderness and was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Rorah but died in his own sin By which we may plainly perceive that they claim right for continuance of those the proprieties of their family which were by Gods Minister formerly settled because their family had not made any such forfeiture by Rebellion as to cause them to revert again to the first Proprietor God and the Prince Which was the reason why in the case of Naboths vineyard before mentioned Jezabel did advise to have him accused For blaspheming God and the King that under colour of these crimes she might cause that inheritance to return which could not be otherwise done And therefore as Kings are Gods Deputies and Vicegerents to us in representation of his power so are they to be acknowledged his Deputies amongst us in respect of his undoubted and unquestionable propriety even by their receit of such proportions back from their subjects out of those their proprieties by their laws made as those Ministers of God attending continually upon this very thing shall see fit either for advancement of Gods the great owners service or the good of himself or others in order thereunto Which portions in the New Testament are usually included under the general names of custome and tribute because amongst the Romans to whom these taxes and contributions were given they were the usual appellations for publike leavies And this precept of Saint Paul for acknowledging the Prince his paramount propriety under the notion of paying tribute is answerable to another of our Saviours including Caesars propriety in all things under the proper notion of money For in deciding that question of the lawfulness of paying tribute he takes a sure way towards making our proprieties to be Caesars In that calling the piece of money Caesars because it had Caesars image upon it he concludes him to have the same right to all money as to that peice for that all money had his image upon it He doth not say give unto Caesar of your money but give him his own Or give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars concluding that Gods immediate propriety being for the present entrusted and delegated to these in his stead we were now to acknowledge them so far as by our readiness in yeilding of tribute to whom tribute custome to whom custome c. we should thereby amidst our common duties of giving to all their dues give to God his due also And by our readiness in yeilding to his Ministers to this end appointed testifie our proportionable readiness to have done the like to himself in case he had demanded it And demand it no doubt he doth aswel from Christians now as from the Jews formerly nor hath he lost his true right although he be not so immediate in his claim For then because the law was instituted in the time when God himself was King that is had no such direct Officer under him amongst the Jews the acknowledgement of his propriety as under the notion of tenths and offerings was claimed in his own name and God having thereupon disposed of it takes the wrong done in Tythes and offerings as robberies of himself But although these tenths and offerings as Gods gift to them instituted by that Law which was still to continue were to remain to the Priests and Levites unalterably without the impeachment of those Kings that succeeded inasmuch as they had their taxes besides yet now amongst Christians whom that Law binds not as positive but as natural those Tythes where they are collected are or should be paid to Princes in the first place as Gods next Ministers And although Princes do upon just grounds appropriate them to the Clergies maintenance yet in acknowledgement of his headship and propriety above them also he hath tenths fifteens c. reserved from them again And this is done to each King under the Gospel even as King that is as Christs Deputy after the example of Abraham Who on the behalf of the Levites paid Tythes of all he had For as Melchisedeck the King of righteousness and of peace was a Type of our Saviour unto whom all kingdoms do belong so do the tenths and tributes as Gods and Christs right belong to Kings their Deputies now unto whose Office that of High Priest is subordinately annexed Whereupon as Kings are Tenants to God for their whole territories be they greater or less so are the people again Tenants to him according to their several allotments and trusts Upon which ground we may observe that as every Prince hath the whole power and propriety of all within
strange act That is God shall be powerfull present in assisting his Vicegerents as formerly with David and Ioshua and by these that sit in Iudgement and turn the battail to the gate shall cause the waters of Mount Perazim to overflow their hiding places and the hailstones of his wrath to sweep away the refuge of lyes And then shall those Prophets Rulers and Seers finde themselves so confounded by the spirit of deep sleep from the Lord that their delusive speculations shall afford them no better satisfaction then the dream of Meat or drink to him that is hungry or thirsty And all because of these pretenders to serve God in another way then by the direction of their Superior Do but draw near to him with their mouth and honour him with their lips but their hearts is far from him in vain making semblance of worshipping him teaching for doctrines the commandments of Men That is preferring the rule of righteousness or judgment of their own setting up before those set up by my authority which was our Saviours own interpretation of this prophesie who no doubt best knew the meaning thereof The like also doth St Mark set down to be the interpretation of this prophesie namely that this pharisaicall pretension of legal or traditional sanctity under the notion of Corban serves but to defeat the positive precept of Gods Vicegerent Therefore saith the Prophet behold I will proceed to doe a marvailous work amongst this people even a marvailous work and a wonder for the wisdome of their wise Men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent Men shall be hid That is the wisdom of these pretenders shall come to nought And therefore it is added Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsell from the Lord and their works in the dark and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us That is they finde such multiplication of contrivances as if they would out-wit God Almighty But he saith Surely your turning of things upside down a fit expression for such as will be judging their Iudge shall be esteemed as the Potters clay for shall the work say of him that made it he made it not Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it he had no understanding That is shall man be wiser then his Maker Will they not allow God his own way and season for things Why will they be again seeking to be under Morall righteousness and legall bondage as when the Lord himself led them by the hand and so would have God tyed to harder conditions then the Plowman Who when he hath made plain the face of the Earth and cast in his appointed grain doth not then continue ploughing himself still but expecting such Crop as this prepared earthy Heart of man will yeeld he doth afterwards by divers afflictions cause those severall sorts of Grain to be cleansed and made acceptable But as for them that think there can be no fruitful place where God is not the immediate holder of the Plough and where are not many Precepts from him given he adds Is it not a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field shall be esteemed as a forrest and in that day shall the deaf eares hear the word of the Book and the eyes of the blinde shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness That is the Jewes that had heretofore had Gods precepts and worship so plentifull amongst them shall be darkned and the Gentiles formerly sitting in darkness shall have a marvailous light appear and by reason of that precept of Love by God inwardly taught them they shall know and perform the words of the Book or precepts of the Law and so being made obedient to the Gospel and become of the number of Meek and Poor they shall increase their joy in the Lord For the terrible one is brought to nought and the scorner is consumed and all that waiteth for Iniquity is cut off Even suck kinde of men as would scare men with the multitude and strength of their Precepts as if they were all expresly Divine and doe again scorn the simplicity of the Gospel-rule and so make themselves workers of iniquity That make a Man an offender for a Word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the Gate and turn aside the just for a thing of naught Which verse cleerly expresseth all their practice first by making Religious and Divine precepts to stretch to every thing they cause men to be in danger to be offenders to God for ordinary matters and so make him that is in the seat of judgement appear a stumbling block or rock of offence seeming to them an usurper of authority in offering to direct and reprove us thereby causing the just or the rule of Justice to cease and desist upon no occasion As though a King sitting in the seat of judgement did not scatter away evil with his eyes as though he that doth righteousness were not righteous as though judgement and righteousness had not a certain line and plummet for their measure or that the weight or measure of justice appointed by Cods Vicegerents were not to be the true standard but that men might make divers weights and measures thereof For when subjects take on them to interpret and judge of righteousness and justice by any other way and rule then that set up by Christs deputy they then make him a stumbling block to them as Christ himself being laid as the chief corner stone for the Churches direction was made unto the Jews who would be still following legal righteousness and not submit to that which was of faith in Christ. By means of these snares laid for him that reproveth in the gate we may also interpret that these Priests and Prophets should not onely through strong drink err in vision and stumble themselves in judgement but that they should thereby sometimes ensnare those persons sitting in judgement and so cause them also to err through wine and strong drink that is in too much listening to their shews of Divine revelation and authority But generally the ensnaring there spoken of is in regard of those vulgar errors which should prevaile in the Christian Church notwithstanding this judgement seat of Christ executed by his deputies even as it formerly had done amongst the Israelites called there the drunkards of Ephraim Therefore saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob Jacob shall not now be ashamed neither shall his face wax pale In which words God expressing himself under the notion of Redeemer shews the condition of the Christian Church the house of Iacob under Christ their Redeemer typified under Iacob himself namely that all cause of fear and shame shall be banished through the succeeding glory of the Christian Church For so it followeth But when he seeth his children the work
and on the contrary indignation and wrath unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth if besides the benefits arising to mankinde by this Vertue formerly spoken of we also consider its efficacy in advancement of the Praise and Honor of God amongst us also For where Patience and Humility are practised as all outward strife ceases so general contentment will arise Wherupon Kings as well as subjects being reciprocally pleased in having and yeilding ready obedience men on all hands will have cause to Thank and Praise their Maker whose greatest delight being in the good of his Creature and their grateful acknowledgement thereupon so is their murmuring and affliction to him most unpleasant as abating the sense of his goodness and praise From which grounds we may easily discern the Reason why this Vertue should be so especially commended to us by that great preserver of men So that since it was necessary that in token of our zeal and love to his service something of difficulty should be enjoyned what in the eye of his all-seeing Providence more fit then this whereby as his glory is upheld by the establishment of the Kingdoms peace here so are the Patient themselves besides the reward of his Grace in this life to receive the deserved Crown thereof in the world to come Wherefore now lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and seeing also we are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin namely of rebellion that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto c. For though no chastning for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeildeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby For although here at the pleasure of fleshly Fathers we be for a few days câ—astened yet God turns it to our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness By this proper note of persecutions and afflictions left unto us as a Legacy by him that was the Author and finisher of our Faith and that once so highly suffered for us we stand in a peculiar manner not onely distinguished from the rest of the world as in testimony of the truth of our Religion above theirs who as an Argument of their humane device and extraction are still closing with Nature in promises of sensual delights but according to the true and sanctified use of these afflictions again by the several members of the Church each Christian professor therein comes to be a more true Disciple and Christian one then another Inasmuch as my being by my profession and belief a Christian cannot of it self make me a true one because it may be a thing not of my choice or bestowed on me out of particular Grace and Election but happening for ought I know from no other ground or assurance nor having other reason or influence then the hazard of birth or Education Had I been born and educated where other Religions are professed I had in all probability been even such an one in belief as they and those others of those Religions had doubtless upon like change been of mine In which case as I should have thought it hard that they for their good fortune of being Christened when I was Circumcised should be thereupon rewarded and I punished so cannot I reasonably now think that as regeneration must be something else then this so also that that Baptism that must purge out the old man must be where it may be had something else then that of outward washing the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire must be added to that of John Yea and baptism of afflictions rightly applyed it must also be For that else it may be again that as they came but occasionally upon me so was I by my own natural constitution and softness of temper drawn both to the search after God by these afflictions and to the Patient enduring of them It may be ignorance or inability to resist or avoid my sufferings in the condition I am now in makes me as in a kinde of Melancholly revenge appeal to Heaven for reparation and for want of natural fortitude dejectedly to yeild and sit down in some Stoical contempt or melancholly retirement If so what praise can I expect for my seeming neglect thereof when it was but what I cannot overcome and avoid In which doing I may also naturally reap inward satisfaction and so far flatter my self in this my degree of Patience and well-doing that I may go yet one step farther and receive consolation and content by my endurance of those things and be yet no true partaker of that baptism with which the Captain of my salvation was made perfect If I finde not my self still ready for fresh encounters and that out of sense of duty and publike regard as one that is strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness but do now hide or cloyster up my self from being any more publikely beneficial to others onely because I am afraid I shall be thereby prejudiced my self and be rendred obnoxious again what do I but thereby acknowledge that I am both privately affected in being thus regardful to my self alone and also to be as poorly spirited since I am so over mastered by their weight that I can endure no more And as Patience may in it self alone be an uncertain sign of true Regeneration so may faith also For if in many a Christian we should examine the ground of this too it would be found grounded on Nature also even although it should be so strong as to submit to martyrdom For since I in another Religion or another in mine might have so dyed had we been so brought up it can in it self evidence little of the truth of that duty we profess but oftentimes may have issue from peevishness or stubbornness without respect to Love or Obedience And certainly to suffer for disobedience to Christian Authority can scarce deserve the honor of Martyrdom onely due to those that undergo it for the honor of Christs Name For that Childe deserves little pitty that would rather die under the rod and perish by famine then accept of such wholsom food as is appointed him by his Father onely because it is not such or so dressed as to be altogether suitable to his present fancy Nay neither is love only a sure sign of this Regeneration for this also may proceed from natural propension and respect to honor and thanks may make us Charitable as well as Martyrs Whereas he that is the true Christian and fitted with grace of Regeneration is never slothful but stands always diligent in works and labour of love because God who is not unrighteous will not forget to be continually assisting him with his grace of perseverance here or reward hereafter therefore
Government that is of the Indicative and Vindicative not allowing to the same person as well a power to direct how to live and do well as to punish for doing otherwise and all because he doth not personally execute this Office of Instruction but leaves it to others may upon like ground deny his right and power in condemning and punishing because the same is performed by others also From all which we may see the Kings Title and Right now as Gods Minister and Steward to order things pertaining to his Worship as well as we may finde that the Title of each individual Prince to this Office of Gods Minister and Head of the Church doth rest now upon the same evidence of right which each person hath to the enjoyment of his own propriety in severalty from others For as God made such and such Creatures for the general use of men so did he institute such and such Offices for their use too In the vacancy of which Offices there lies an equal right to the next possessor upon the same natural reason as there doth to the next possessor of Land Cattel or any other goods which have for the present no rightful proprietor And if any should think the Christian Prince now debarred from claim to Apostolical succession and power in ordering of Church-discipline and affairs according to the exegencies of times and places as the Apostles by their Traditions formerly did and all because they are not now like them miraculously inspired and assisted they may upon the same reason even forbid the use of preaching and instruction to be by any now exercised also until by some miraculous attestation and proof those separated to that Function can evidence their Call and Authority herein to be more then ordinary and to have been conferred on them by hands as holy as those of the Apostles also But as this more express appearance of divine assistance approbation of persons is not now to be expected or relyed upon so neither in justice can it be brought as a bar to the divine right of execution of the one more then another nor to regal super-intency in both Therefore as we have formerly shewed the necessity of our submission to the Prince his guidance in our outward observation of that Law of the second Table Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self so must we conclude it much more necessary that that form and manner of service which is requisite to express our devotions in fulfilling that Precept Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart c. should not be left to the hazard of each ones fancy but be at the dispose of Gods chief Minister even for the avoiding scandal which must always be subject to private and new devices and forms but cannot be to what is of publike practice and institution For if the authorized worship of any Kingdom should be subject to be sin or scandal to any the subjects of the same kingdom and professing the same Religion also then can God never be outwardly worshipt nor any Religion publikely exercised but the parties must commit sin in doing it because some or other will still be of a contrary minde and so take offence and scandal thereat And therefore scandal must ever arise from the fewer number to the greater For although the use and continuance of some Jewish and heathenish Ceremonies were in the Primitive times scandalous they were not called so because Jews or Heathens used them but because a few men having now included themselves in the common profession and number of Christianity would therein dissent from the common practice of Christians which ran otherwise And then again since God himself doth not prescribe the whole outward form of expressing our Love and Praises of him and that he doth it is yet recommended for execution to the supreme Magistrates trust it must follow that so often as we decline his Rule we must be scandalous and in danger of error and sin And to this purpose we shall finde Saint Paul very express when he gives the Romans warning to avoid scandal or offences saying Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause division and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Where we may see the doctrine received is to be as the ancient land-mark which set up by our Fathers is not to be removed but remain as a standing rule for decision and enclosure of differences For if he had said that that side is schismatical and scandalous that departs most from the truth of Christs Doctrine then since each side did still pretend to that truth this could not have been a way of decision but had referred privâ—te judgements and interpretations back to themselves And then again if there had been divers sorts of disagreers that Sect could have been scandalous onely that departed most whereas now each one is scandalous so far as they differ from their standing plain rule even by so far departing from Christ and leaning to themselves as they depart from his Minister and therefore he says they that are such that is which cause divisions contrary to the Doctrine learned serve not our Lord Jesus Christ that is do not rightly obey him though they pretend it by not obeying his chief Minister but their own belly and by fair speeches deceive the heart of the simple And to prove farther that innocence from scandal is in obedience he after expresseth his joy that their obedience is come abroad to all men For if as before proved obedience be a necessary duty to be observed towards the making our Love and Services to our neighbors effectual it must be concluded much more necessary and expedient to be imployed in keeping up that which is the end thereof the glory and publike worship of God And therefore as it would seem absurd in our actions to drive at such an end which we did never intend to perform and enjoy as it would be to be always practizing Offices tending to mutual preservation that thereby God might have the greater number of Praisers and yet never practice this duty of Praise and Worship so must we thence infer that in and towards the stating and exercise of this duty obedience is most especially required as to the meritorious and final object of all the rest So that if by means of our obedience to Christ in the Church his Kingdom here upon earth there be not an uniformity kept up in our publike exercises of all those duties that serve for the advancement of Gods Kingdom in our hearts and for setting forth his Worship and praise for benefits received that Unity and Coition of the Christian Graceâ— and Precepts amongst themselves formerly spoken of will come to be made void and useless For however it may be allowable to each single man as best sensible of his own enjoyments and wants to thank God or pray to him privately in such manner and
words as himself findes most warrantable and behoofeful yet must it be acknowledged reasonable that all those publike forms of Worship and Praise whose practise is necessary for constituting each place an unite and distinct Christian Church or Assembly should be at the dispose and appointment of that publike person onely who under Christ is the supreme and entire head and Representativâ— thereof Even out of necessary consideration of keeping up conformity therein and by that means keeping Gods publike Worship in existence which else by mens differing practises in opposition to one another would come to be defeated and lost no otherwise then would our practises in the Precepts of Charity if not by uniform obedience directed For these things have a natural and necessary coherence the Unity of the end requires Coition and Unity in the means and that again requires uniformity in the directions themselves as well as Unity in the person directing all of them to be made useful by the Grace of Obedience before noted But because much dissention hath hitherto arisen about that Officer or person we are to give the obedience unto in regard of the different names of power in Scripture used We will speak something farther here of that Coition or succession of this supreme Officer now under the Gospel This we shall finde briefly done by Christ himself when he is impowring these several little ones Where he begins with those that should first represent him namely such as should presently succeed as his own Desciples and followers he that receiveth you receiveth me c. Under which no doubt the first Apostles were to be comprized who in regard of their mean worldly condition might sometimes be objects of Charity also even to the receiving a cup of cold water The next object of our obedience is set down under the notion of Prophet he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Under this notion we may comprehend Episcopal or Patriarchical power succeeding which had power of instruction but little of jurisdiction the which was reserved for the last more glorious Officer the just man or righteous man And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward That is shall be made capable of justice or justification by means of his obedience to this chief representer of Christs Authority who is thereupon called a just or righteous man this appellation of righteous man being equivalent with that of Ruler in chief as divers places of the Old-Testament do also Warrant In which the attribute could not be formally due to him whose words were perverted by gifts Whenas by reason of the place they execute they ought always to be respected as righteous by those under them And therefore unto him as the person of jurisdiction and power shall those other Offices of Prophesie or Instruction be annexed and made subserviâ—nt no otherwise then in the Jewish Church it at first was unto Moses their first King For so we shall finde it plainly delivered concerning Aaron and him Thou shalt speak unto him meaning Moses to Aaron and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do Which is the same with being a spirit of judgement or Mishpat and of being in the mouth of their seed and seeds seed for ever before spoken of And then follows the subordination of the Prophets and he shall be thy spokesman or Angel unto the people and he shall be even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth and thou shalt be to him as a God And in the first verse of the seventh Chapter he is expresly called Moses Prophet Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet or Angel The which doth plainly foreshew the Coincidence of Christian Authority under each Christian King and Monarch to make useful the coition of the means before spoken of For he as the last most glorious deputed Minister to Christ amongst us is to claim our obedience in his name in all things done towards the stating of Charity and as Steward in the mysteries of God is to be obeyed in all our outward religious deportments Nay that very Argument of mysteriousness and profoundness in matters of divine truth and worship which some would urge in bar to the Kings intermedling in causes of Religion as the true Steward of the mysteries of God is by the wisest King and Preacher made to be the proper glory and part of his Office saying It is the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honor of Kings is to search out a matter In which words Kings being set in the plural number makes it appear that this of liberty searching into the mysteries of God was not reserved to Solomon onely but was belonging to each King as Gods Vicegerent on earth Nor was it so set down as to denote that every individual King could personally attain to such ability but to shew that each King being Gods chief Steward that therefore those things which by means of his Seers and Prophets under him were performed should be accompted to the honor of the King as being done by him because of their subordination to his supreme Authority therein And those persons that are most subject to inveigh against publike forms as Will-worship Superstition and Scandal are themselves the onely men that are truly guilty of Will-worship and Scandal by relying on their own private Wills and Judgements and preferring their own devises and forms to the practises of all others whereby to introduce general offence and scandal And so again when they refuse to joyn with others in their publike services out of the fear of superstition in giving too much and do choose to proceed in contrary or negative performances this as being induced and carryed on by superstitious and ungrounded fear to displease offends in the worse extream and turns to be true Superstition indeed And I verily believe that men are generally more superstitious in avoidance of Ceremonies then they are in observing them for this is Superstition upon Superstition For the truth is if publike reason and appointment be excluded in appointing forms of Gods Service and Worship then since himself hath appointed no form to us Christians as such he can now have no right external Worship given to him at all which doubtless for honor sake is eternally due to him as God and by way of gratitude to be returned from us But although he knew it to be a thing necessary to be done yet knowing also that we now have Moses and the Prophets as useful presidents for general directions in what we are to do that is since we have all that light which was formerly given to any people if these and those many general Precepts since given cannot be sufficient together without great helps of natural learning and reason
administration of power there also is unity of Doctrine lost and schism is also brought into the Church as well as confusion into the State The which needs the less to be wondered at in us on whom the ends of the earth are come if we consider what befel the Jews themselves when there was no King in Israel For although they had the oracles of God committed unto them that is they had not only more aboundance of divine precepts but had God himself also by his Priests and Prophets always ready to give them express direction in all doubts as from an oracle yet how plainly doth the instance of Micahs Idols tells us how subject each one is at such times to fraim to themselves not only new forms of Worship but new gods of their own devising and setting up Which by little and little may come to be taken up and countenanced by their divided authority as that was by the Danites who had many equal to and under them to be seduced by an evil example but none above them to keep them and all others conformable All which well considered may instruct us of the reason of our Saviours dark answer to such as had no minde to believe him therein when he saith My kingdom is not of this world This was true first in that this worlds kingdom being not to be compared to his Kingdom in heaven with his Father did not therefore deserve comparatively to be called his or had in that esteem which they that made this question did think of And then we must understand this denial not to reach to his right of Kingship or Super-eminence in the Church and Kingdoms of this world but to the present execution thereof by himself that probably being the very cause of Pilates demand Unto whom he having been by some reported as King of the Jews and he beholding his present mean condition so unlike that of a King it made him scornfully ask Art thou a King then aswel as afterwards scornfully write that he was so And therefore our Saviours answer can import no farther abnegation of his Kingship amongst us then to his own personal execution meaning not to be by him immediately managed here now but by Deputies whom he shall own and empower as King of Kings Whereupon he also saith The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son And he is so far from renouncing his true being a King and title hereto that he says I am a King and that the testification of this truth meaning his right in this Office was the cause of his coming into the world adding that every one that is of the truth heareth his voyce that is he believeth and obeyeth him accordingly So that we are to interpret this denial of our Saviours Kingship to be upon the same reason at this time done as he had formerly charged his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. For although he had wrought all those miracles to evince so much yet would he have them carefull not to cast pearls before swine that is he would have them to be wary in declaring his Divinity before unbelieving Jews as himself was now reserved in publishing his Kingship before a scornful Roman lest he being so straitly bound to another Master might be but the more moved thereupon to turn upon him with reproach And therefore they that think that Christ did deny his true Kingly Right and Office by that answer Thou sayest it may also by the same rule say that at the same time he did also deny himself to be Christ the Son of the living God because he also answereth to that question made by the high Priest Thou hast said it But in this place being newly spoken before the other he may be conceived to have made answer enough for both and so to adjoyn that time of fuller manifestation of his external regency and glory which was the occasion of their demand namely at that time when he as Son of man shall be sitting at the right hand of the power of God By which means his Deputies shall be endued with power of earthly dominion and at that time also when he shall make his own personal appearance in the clouds of Heaven to judge all men at the last day And that he had openly acknowledged this truth himself before appears by that request made to Pilate Write not the King of the Jews but that he said I am king of the Jews So that now unto the deniers or opposers of this truth of his Kingship by obejection of any other truth we may make demand with Pilate What is truth Unto which I suppose they can make no answer but by proposing to us some wilde fancies and collections of their own For whilst they would make the known duty of Charity producing real good by peace be interrupted by some of their speculative duties which cause division and all under pretence of preferring truth to peace they would have us leave that good which evidence of sense and experience tells us to be so in hope to enjoy some contemplative good by them called truth which we cannot apprehend But we conceive that when Christ the Way the Truth and the Life is once on our parts entertained and believed when we have once sought and attained the kingdom of God and its righteousness that is have to our utmost endeavoured to promote the glory and Administration of Christs regency in his Church the pillar and ground of truth then and there are we with gratitude to enjoy those additional blessings which peace bringeth Then and there are we to study to be quiet to seek peace and ensue it and the like which are the proper duties of such as being by Gods grace called are by the God of peace called unto peace And therefore although the Prophet Zachery speaking of the restauration of the Jews and their receipt of the Gospel would have them seek peace after truth that is prefer that truth before all worldly blessings yet where this truth is once received there peace is to be preferred to lesser truths according to good Hezekiahs saying now settled and confirmed in Gods Worship Peace and truth shall be in my days The like was promised to the Jews in their restauration or rather to the Gentile Church abundance of peace and truth And to doth holy David also put mercy before it in his blessing to Ittai saying Mercy and truth be with thee And other graces and blessings are elsewhere more often put before then after truth Nay of such advantage to the preservation of truth it self and of sanctify of life this grace is that we shall find it put first as the way to that Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently lest any man should fail of
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
be For since these injust and oppressive acts are usual amongst men nay since in all kinde of judicature and dealing one party or another will think himself defrauded or oppressed if therefore divine Justice should interpose in all cases where wrong were done it must also proceed to reparation of the party wronged upon him that did it to the utter disheartening and defeat of humane Judicature where many times for want of sufficiency of judgement or information wrong sentence is given against their Wills Or should God appear but in some more remarkable occasions of redress how would their discontent be hereupon increased who were not in their distresses so righted and relieved also Each one being to be presumed to carry as partial a valuation of his own merits and to be as impatient in the sense of his own sufferings as he must be presumed to be separately persceptible of them by his proper Understanding and sense and not that of another It must therefore come to pass that either God Almighty by his remarkable appearance in some mens Causes must consequently leave others but so much the more discontented or else altering that more majestick way of Providence and Government he now exerciseth descend to judge in every case whatever Which done what neerer hope of general content since even therein the Verdict and Sentence can but pass on one side still and must thereupon leave the other as it were directly discontented with God himself and it will besides submit the justice of his proceedings to the censure of every one also Whereas now the party that by prosperity enjoys the things of this world is not at all taken off from the acknowledgement of Gods supreme guidance and favour and the other laying his misfortunes on humane partiality and corruption is the more stirred up to seek and relye upon supernatural redress and sustentation the sense of affliction and oppression here being by divine Providence made the most ordinary and effectual means of any for the bringing men to be Religious and to acknowledge both himself and his goodness as heretofore declared And then again why may we not from example in our selves finde reason on the other side to conclude both for Gods existence and Providence and that even from this his concealment from present sense in this case likewise For is it not usual with Parents Masters and persons in Authority out of design to reap to themselves the highest assurances they can of the loves and faithfulness of their Children and Servants wholly to leave unto their full dispose the execution of some Commands and Directions and then so to withdraw and conceal themselves as that the parties put in trust herein shall suppose them without the compass of any knowledge of theirs whether they have in these things done their duties or no And again is it not with them usual as to fix this tryal upon such objects and imployments wherein they had first used such Providence and circumspection that in case of failance of duty the evil thereby to happen should neither be general nor great so also it is usual not to take notice of the performance or neglect of duty in the present act but to suspend the reward and punishment thereupon due to be expressed in a fuller measure afterwards Even so may we conceive of God Almighty as on the one side trying our love and respect to him through these great obscurities and difficulties so also respiting our punishments or rewards till the world to come Beyond all which as that divers necessary regard which humane preservation doth require should be thereunto continually had with due respect to men as they are either naturally or politickly to be considered will in the conduct of these things lay such an exigence of having both a continual and steady and yet of a secret and impartial care so when it shall be well weighed it will be found a work proper and superable by Almightiness onely between things and actions in themselves so jarring and enterfering to carry so even and respective a hand to both that man shall neither be pined through want of care in one nor suffocated through indulgence in the other Should that natural thirst to pursue and obtain things pleasurable be unto men permitted as unto other Sensitive Agents without any stint of positive Rule or Law how soon as heretofore shewed should we finde this heady pursuit of each ones delight to prove each ones torment and ruine Or if again in all the actions and emergencies of mans life he should be onely considered as a sociable Agent and by strict rules of polity be wholly limited in his desires and attempts by the good of others and not permitted to follow in any thing his own pleasure must it not then follow that as each single man did by this way of restraint come to be defeated of his separate content so consequently must all men want it since all must needs want that which no one man could have And thereupon that natural way of serving and honoring that great God of all beneficence must for want of relish and more fresh resentment of the particulars of his bounty come to be smothered or lost As the necessity therefore of having regard to both is the reason on the one hand of all those natural instincts and abilities and of those large affordments of the Creature for mans use and delight so on the other hand is it the cause of all those positive Edicts and Precepts whereby in reference to Society we come to be directed and bounded in their use When therefore we finde God Almighty in the general way of sustentation of his Creation both working at distance and also by second Causes and yet doing it so strongly and assuredly as to manifest both care and Almightiness in him through weakness of the intermediate Agent and constancy of operation so in rules of Government and Society and in those ways and directions to be set for mens restraint it was on the other side likewise expedient that he should be no more apparently and convincingly express then in the other but ordinarily to submit and entrust to his Authorised Deputies the execution of those affairs which he held necessary for prosecuion of that course degree of providence which was by him appointed In the atchievement whereof as the Prince or Magistrate without his supreme influence and sustentation could be no more effectual to preserve mankinde politikely then second Causes could of themselves preserve them naturally so would it seem partial and destructive for God to appear more express in one then another as well as it would be a derogation to his Almightiness to be ordinarily express and personally working in either sort Even as we see in Kings and Governors the greatest difficulty to rest in their even carriage between acts of severity or indulgence in such ordering of positive Laws for preservation of mans life that through their abundance or
assistance in all things we are then to proceed according to the rules of Christian Faith and love in all deportments and actions not otherwise directed by our superiors who also are in this case to be looked upon as the authorized interpreters of the Scriptures as heretofore noted Else it will fall out that each one undertaking to examine and interpret them according to his own wilde fancy and weak and ungrounded method of comprehension and being also strongly through education or interest forestalled in his judgement there will arise to be as many Religions and Opinions as men and interests And that which is yet worse mens natural pride and vainglory will prompt to such presumption of extraordinary revelation that even things blasphemous and destructive of humane society shall in despite of the Church Reason or Authority be set on foot Whereas in truth in things of most private and separate concern the sense of the Church and the Analogy of Faith is to be venerably regarded even as the supreme Christian Magistrate is also in all things of publike concern For in this case we are again fallen within the limits of moral care and consideration And therefore as each mans reason is in him the best guide of what to do in the course of his own affairs so publike Reason in that which hath publike respect to the end that from the knowledge of what is there done there may be a fit and a constant way left for attaining moral prudence and obedience and that according to a well grounded experience and observation of moral and political directions and Edicts Whereby each Subject may from the constancy of the measure and manner of application used by his Prince in rewards and punishments come to frame to himself political methods and schemes of comprehension and knowledge of his duty and benefit in civil deportments as well as he may learn Philosophy by observation of that constancy which is kept up in the course of Nature For she being preserved and governed by uniform rules and laws the same Causes must ever produce the same effects if the Agent and Patient be in themselves and circumstances alike vertuous and the same the which wisdom must discover from a well grounded observation of constancy in her observations for should not natures course be constant species and individual things could not have any steady provision for existence and benefit but causes being indeterminable effects would be so also For it was from the constant observation of one thing following another in all respects alike considered that I come to know any thing even as by continually observing heat to accompany fire I know fire to be the cause of heat And from this constancy in Nature it comes also to pass that what is most naturally done is most uniformly done and so most handsomly and delightfully done Which coming to be imitated by us will be also most vertuously and wisely done but what is not done in natural imitation as following no rule is vitious and ill favoured For folly being a short and false observation in the course of things it concludes to act upon half premises Whereupon the irregular processions and effects thereof come through inequality to be inequity For as truth can be but one but errors divers even so as we noted formerly of beauty and handsom faces vertuous actions have more likeness to one another then vitious For all virtuous actions are done by certain rules and copies and as they agree to these measures their goodness is known and as they differ therefrom they do differ from themselves also and approach to vice Things being thus stated it will follow that more reason knowledge and understanding is but more observation and that an uncontradicted observation is taken for a supreme reason in it self For so for example the motion of gravity because it is observed to accompany all things none or few search the reason of it for there is not a more general or uniform rule in nature to examine it by all proof going from things more generally observed and known to such as are less Whereas to believe the Antipodes and that men upon the same reason of motion of gravity should tend in the same line towards us as we do towards them this seems as difficult for belief as it is different from the usual tendency of things as to our appearance which we call upwards and downwards Nor can it be conceivable to any that will not take pains to get it comprehended from observation elsewhere In which case if men have made and methodized observations aright it may appear that the sum and superiour bodies move in spheres even because the time they are absent and unseen is equal to that they compleat in compassing that half of the sphere which is seen from whence and the observation of eccilpses the earth must be supposed to be spherical also And if this be farther enquired into we shall find that this motion of heavy things downwards is but part of a more general motion and to be so concluded from that more general observation of union And is but the appetite thereof made more observable through this more apparent motion toward union after separation For the common knowledge and observance of boldness as they are unite and keeping close together as by so much more general then the motion of gravity as rest it self is more general then local motion for indeed what is usually called motion and rest are but these two but it is not so observable as the other because rest or union already made hath no variety to cause intent observance as variety of motion doth in the other And therefore it is onely discoverable to such as can un-ravel nature in their contemplation until they come to the bottom and first ground-work thereof For then they shall find both this constant practise of union or adhesion of bodies and also the cause thereof to be the general cause of all causes that is the will and law of God in order to his providence And although inanimates have a kind of specification amongst themselves whereby defire of proper union hath some force as may be seen in that active part of earth the Loadstone in his variation yet they follow in their whole mass the general law of matter in the common and general thirst of union For should there not be a common centre of gravity whereby all earthly things as they stood differenced in weight by dense and rare might have and keep the proper places assigned them Chaos and confusion would follow And therefore this motion of heavy things to the earth being both necessary and natural both for affording a place of receipt and production of creatures and for leaving all without so rare and transparent that the influences of superiour bodies might approach them we must conclude that as the whole earth is more then a part so hath it this attractive force of union greater also in
vertue or goodness And hence it comes that we not onely stand liking and disliking others as they are friends or enemies to our prime favorite but because love and hatred do arise and encrease by comparison it may be also observed how that in the same family that greater affection which one brother or servant carrieth towards another above the rest doth by consequence draw him into as great hatred and dis-esteem of others in the same relation upon that onely consideration Insomuch as we shall find anger and revenge no where so implacably prosecuted as by one brother against another No otherwise then as subjects in the same Kingdom are ready to break into factions and sidings through those diversities of sects and opinions amongst themselves whereby we see it come to pass that by reason of that continual exasperation which must arise from the daily sight and discourses of such things wherein they stand contrary this repeated difference doth more strongly engage them to mutual discontent and deadly hatred then it doth against strangers and such as do more differ from them Insomuch as there are more Christians slain by one another upon the score of Religion then are by them upon others or those of all other Religions upon them upon the like ground nay we too truly find it that even in the sub-divisions and sects of Christianity those that have lesser differences will yet by reason of vicinity be drawn into more and more dangerous quarrels against one another then against that sect which differs most from them both In which case if the publike rule and judgement for determination be not regarded it will fare with them as it doth with men falling out about a mistaken word gesture look or the like even that for want of a sit means of reconciliation the discontent and hatred will daily encrease until it come to be determined in the field The names of Sympathy and Antipathy are usually given to the affections of both sorts as well to those strong likings and aversions introduced at the nostrils as those at the eyes but if we respect more occult naturalness herein then those of the first sort may be onely called natural because they take their impression so inwardly and by such insensible degrees as seldom to admit controulment by other senses or the impressions drawn from them Whereas the other that hath its rise from more artificial collections as loving or liking other things according to their conformity to these Figures or Ideas of perfection which in each kind are raised in mens fancies may in both respects be brought to be controuled and examined by other Figures and Methods as they shall be called up and judged by the Spirits and Humors which in the other case cannot be because these Spirits themselves do in the affections that way brought in become tainted in their own nature and substance Those kinds of aversions which proceed from sight as from difference and abhorrence of figure may be easily reconciled and made familar by an ingenious patience nor is it dangerous to give them of that food to eat Whereas those things that have contrariety to the particular humors or temperament of the stomach are not in that kinde to be jested with for that although outward smell or taste should not be perceptive of difference which many times it wonderfully is in that case yet it is not to be questioned but the vitiated stomack of the party will quickly nauseat and disgust it and therefore we find that these sorts of longings or aversions are incident to the weaker and more sickly constitutions Here and in other places we have been the more copious for setting down the more concealed causes of those operations which use to pass under the rank of natural instincts that by placing every wheel of providence in its due order and motion the real existence wisdom and power of God might be more readily seen and acknowledged The usual ground that leads men to Atheism and doubt whether there be any God at all being many times scandal taken at the vulgar and ordinary assignation of effects unto God himself as if they were by him immediately done when as they coming to find the same like other things to have their own natural cause of production also they thereby come to think that men are mistaken in the one as well as the other When as by help of a through insight and sufficiency of their own to discover how noâ—hing is by chance done but that the greatest and most important things being by divine wisdom and order brought to pass by those things which to us do appear most weak and contemptible they may thereby and by means of that obseavable gradation of causes come to discern a God at the top of all From whom as they did at first take their source and original as being in their whole mass but rays of divine bounty so do they in all their variations amongst themselves still make some expressions and demonstrations of that perfection and simplicity which at first gave them their being Thus the natural desire of union induced through custom is by providence directed towards variety and multiplication as before declared In which again as the individuals do through their natural pursuit of pleasure attain to their several perfections they do then again as in pursuit of the highest of these natural provocations aim at a new union and coition also By successive repetitions whereof as each man and each sensitive seems to reintegrate it self into that first Parent of their kind so doth the submission of them in their several kinds to the same common Laws of Adam or first matter bring on a confession also that there is a common Parent and cause of union for them all In which course custom and variety are affections semblably made use of for the sustentation of Sensitives as motion and rest are for prrservation of Naturals Whereby it comes to pass that as matter doth naturally affect closeness and settlement which is answerable to union and rest so doth it by customary degrees observed in motion release it self in and of that tendency to separation which its own sublimed part by means of heat had forced upon it All things cheerfully dancing those rounds which are by Divine Rule and Providence appointed unto them As we are thus prevailed upon by custom to cast a different choice and liking towards things and persons as they are in their naturals so come we through custom and constancy in company and conversation to stand diversly affected towards them also as in relation to their morals there being a gracefulness and winning insinuation taken from behaviour as well as from person And this especially towards years when as time sufficient hath passed for making observation of difference herein and naturalizing our fancies to those garbs and habits which cohabitation brings within our notice at which time the other affections induced from personal beauty c. do
president therein But to return to the discourse of Figure although particular words did arise from and were made conceivable by particular figurate things and their accidents yet when we can make notions and sentences by joyning particular words it is because many figures may be by use so brought into one as to be conceived all at once even as the whole story of any thing wherein are several figures painted may by often sight be brought into one figure in our fancy in such sort as if it were but one figure as it is now but one whole piece And as again in this whole piece or figure we are able to distinguish upon occasion the several figures therein one from another according to their several postures and scituations so in each figurate body these adjuncts of Number Scite Habit Proportion c. are but parts of figure it self as constituting his whole form Nay motion it self is not otherwise conceivable then as altering the Figure of a body from what it was while it was resting and quiessent And therefore as any of them are change the whole figure must be changed also in regard the lines from thence issuing to our sight will not be the same they were before Whereupon it will also follow that as that party shall never so little alter his standing or divers other persons shall be beholding the same object it must by means of those several lines issuing from the diversly scituated parts thereof unto the eyes of the several beholders put on a differing representation of shape and figure except it be in pictures or the like which have such real levels and smoothness as not to make an alteration in the return of the beam through inequality of the object As words and figures so Sciences collect into totals in our fancies under the general notion of good and bad and useful or not For we can no more seriously consider any thing without respect to our selves then we can see with other mens eyes or judge of them by their reason for particulars had their admission through hope and fear like or dislike And from hence it is we find that subjects especially such as look not to have share in the mannagery of them are ever finding fault with the execution and rigour of the Laws and will ever like those Laws best that themselves may interpret and mannage And hence it is also that Merchants and such as propound to raise themselves by trade and action will not be brought to attend the discourses and speculations of schollers and contemplative persons nor they again descend to the imployment of the others each of them having long fancied their honor and benefits to arise their own way soonest which they now apprehending themselves skilful in are not to be expected so far to remit their intention of benefit their own way as to divert to an imployment that can but betray their ignorance Although as we said knowledge flow from sense and beasts have them in equal number with us it will not follow that therefore they should be as wise For first they ordinarily come short of us in quickness of feeling and although they have equal acuteness of sight yet they usual trust to smelling as aforesaid which can yield little observation or variety but chiefly they want time to learn for they are at their perfection before children of like years have learnt any thing But most of all they want so much quickness of sense by reason of their hard breeding and thick senced skins as to make them sensible of want And again their appetites are so few and cold that they want spur to enquiry and so to knowledge Which last consideration appears in Innocents who are always laughing and so far pleased with what they get or see that they put not themselves forth to any enquiry after the possession or removal of any thing whereby to encrease their understanding Though this stupidity have its original cause from numbness of feeling as beasts have for we find that they will endure pain or smart better then wise folk who are commonly thinnest skinned yet the nearest reason is easie content and satisfaction And as we see beasts of prey to be the wisest of such as live not with us because their food is of hardest acquisition so of those that are domestique those that through necessity of getting food from us do observe us most are consequently most crafty For craft is but particular wisdom as theirs is which reacheth only at getting food or avoiding of blows But wisdom beasts cannot have for it must be a general know and compleatness of comprehension in some measure proportioned to humane ability For as all things in nature are dependant upon one another so no one can be throughly known without something be known of all in such sort as nothing may be left to stand so far wanting or negative as to the spoiling of our Method And therefore as in the Mathematicks he is to be held for the ablest Architect or Engineer that through natural sufficiency and foregoing observation is endued with a capacity to retain and most exactly to comprehend in his brain the entire and precise models and methods of several buildings and engines whereby upon occasion of erection of house or engine he may be able out of those frames and plots conceived in his fancy by way of theory and out of knowledge of the true nature and use of materials to contrive afterwards such a house or engine as may correspond with his end and desire or to know whether it be feasiable or no Even so in matters of polity also they are to be held as the most sufficient artists that being most knowing of all those several parts whereof the political body is framed and of their true nature and use can frame to themselves the largest and most comprehensive methods and schemes of government even such as by an entire configuration may include each several rank and order of men so disposed of and set on work as that the whole political frame or building may be held up unto that way of work and rule which is fittest for it Whereas he that will go about to contrive an engine for motion or the like without precedent knowledge of the Trochlick and Statick principles and of the true natures of those materials whereof it is to be framed and without full and exact comprehension of every part useful and necessary to his work or he that will undertake to reform or set up a Government without fore-consideration of the true differences and properties of command and obedience and of the natural tempers and inclinations of men in their several orders and how they may be made appliable and useful therein and who is not also entirely comprehensive hereof so as in his Scheme or Model to place every one in such a proper station as by union and application of endeavour the whole frame may be preserved and kept in
if any such thing could have averted their punishment but rather aggravated their offences by adding this rebellion against their Prince to their former against God and so breaking more of his Laws For suppose the people never so innocent as in some of the alledged cases may appear or suppose as all of us are ready to flatter our own hypocrisies that neither we nor our Fathers have sinned as to those punishments but that the Will of God might be made manifest Oh let us not resist that Will who owns all the evils that befalls each City that is to say publike evils lest while we will not be punished as he appoints by a King in his anger he by suffering him to be taken away should by Anarchy plague us in his wrath In tender sense of publick Peace and Charity and the blessed condition of the Peace makers themselves and those that are promoters and assistants in it I shall now appeal to the Consciences and Judgements of all such as are wont to gild over their own Covetousness and Ambition with the shews of Justice and Religion and are so forward to kill all that will not submit and joyn in opinion with them you that will undertake to controle Heaven in its dispensations and under colour of Tyranny or Usurpation of wrong rule or wrong entry will at your pleasure be withdrawing your own and others obedience from your present Prince give me leave to summon your thoughts to a serious consideration of all those sad consequents that must attend it that by calling your self to an accompt before the time of that general accomptcom you may be both eased in your own reckoning then and have your Conscience here eased of those sins and miseries which your stubbornness must produce Suppose then that you with all those fair declamations of Law and Justice or of Religion and Zeal which you in your popular Oratory are so copious and ready in shall be able to seduce and draw to your party such a considerable number of your fellow Subjects as to form the same into a Civil war wherein thousands must lose their lives as well on one side as the other suppose I say these several parties through thy perswasion slain by each other in the height of uncharitableness should now present themselves before thee with their wounded and macerated bodies and all besmeared with gore and blood and with grim and ghastly visages stare thee in the face as the horrid spectacles of thy confusion and amazement But this is not all seest thou that throng of desolate Widdows and Orphans and of disconsolate Parents who as in sacrifice of thy ambition or avarice are by the death of each other bereft of comforts and left to a necessity of dying while they live and so the never dying monuments of thy cruelty and Rebellion Let the shrikes and yellings of defloured and ravished Virging and Matrons the groans the tears the sighs of such as are in every corner after the manner of civil war murthered plundered imprisoned or otherwise dispoyled of life or livelihood let all those arise to thy remose If not nor the thought of that Forrest-face which thy native country must now put on in respect of that destruction which must be introduced on its goodly Edifices Corn and Cattel can move thee as in Honor or Charity yet let Piety Piety I say if thou hast any the sense of the Honor of that God thou seemest to worship let this move thee to think how in these Civil wars those publike Oratories and publike places of worship dedicated to his name must be alway in danger of ruine and sacriledge also and how then canst thou persist in a course that must at once destroy all bonds of Love Loyalty and Religion that must at once and that with so high hand offer such violence the utmost violencence in thy power to thy neighbour to thy Prince to thy God Doth not thy heart yet feel remorse Heark the Trumpet calls thee to the Judgement-seat of that great God himself whose Honor and Authority on earth thou hast so often slighted and offended Now for a Mountain now for a Rock to cover thee from the face of the all-incenced Deity Dost thou not now finde that the common Cause of condemnation against Christians is made for living and dying in hatred and malice and how many are there now eying thee as the Author of and ring-leader in those Civil disturbances where Christian against Christian have by thousands killed each other in the height and heat of uncharitableness And seest thou not again how the sentence of blessed runs to the meek to the patient to the peace-makers while thou art setting forward thy trembling limbs and stepping in with an Apology for thy Rebellion how hath new confusion seized thee at the sight of that King and Prophet who did so often flye from his persecuting Prince and had his heart smiting him but for cutting off but the hemn of his Garment what seest thou now where are thy Texts of Scripture thy Pretexts of Law See if thou canst make thy warrant and call unto publike Authority and Command in any degree apparent and equal to his or canst make thy sufferings equal to all that other therefore glorified company of Martyrs and Confâ—ssors who amids all those dismal persecutions even for the most righteous cause of all and plainly so durst not lift up against him that was but a heathenish Prince but chose to follow both the Precept and Example of him who is now in the highest Throne of Honor as a reward of his Patience Oh horror of horrors what is thy Judge become a party too a Mountain a Mountain a Mountain No sooner hath thy all-dispairing soul caused thine all confounded eys to sink and settle on objects below but oh torment of torments Who is this that is now to be thy Prince and under whose Dominion thou must now for ever live Thou shalt not need here to study pretensions of Tyranny and Oppression against thy Prince nor invectives and standers against his Officers and Ministers What is it which thou truly feelest now Oh If this be the expectation as without Repentance it can be none other of all that are promoters of civil disturbance how necessary then is it that we should timously thinking of bridling our covetous and unruly appetites and learn patiently to submit unto that Regiment and condition of life wherein Providence hath places us When discontent of any sort assaults us to impatience think we then this is not our rest No happiness to be here expected all things in this life comes to us mingled as well to manifest and draw down our acknowledgement of Deity and Providence for the receipt of what is good as to wean and withdraw our affections from this world to a better in such sort that those very things wherein our greatest temporal preservation and good doth consist are attended and accompanied with such as are