covetousness or revenge have respect onely to himself or some of his own favorites without equal justice to all according to the Laws of God Nature and his Conscience he is so far a Tyrant as he shall then press it forcibly to the overthrow of anothers Liberty or Property For in so doing he ceaseth to act in the capacity of a publike person and taking on him the affections incident to a private man he doth thereupon become tyrannical and unjust Nay more if he for favor or fear of the seeming whole people or any party thereof shall against known Equity or his Conscience put to death any one of his Subjects upon no other consideration but in complyance to them or shall not protect him to the hazard of his life or estate in case of oppression he is a murtherer to boot upon the same ground that Pilate was who by washing of his hands could not cleer his fault of deserting the innocent And of this kinde of Tyranny soft and weak Princes can hardly be free For they are ever over-ruled by seperate orders or persons of their Subjects who must in their prosecutions have partial designs For these Princes being by their unactive spirits kept from knowledge of the true state and dangers of things the threats and power of such as they are most obnoxious unto prevail with them to believe their private ends dangers and wrongs to be his and thereupon is his Authority made to become tyrannical by execution of these mens interest and revenge upon their fellow Subjects But they that are so ready to accuse and cry out against the severe Governments of Princes as tyrannies because by degrees themselves would be lawless may consider that Princes can never tyrannize that is seek to destroy or severely punish their subjects as subjects but as under the notion of their rebels and such that will not be subjects he always doth and may punish They are to consider that tyranny can never proceed from a Prince of the same Religion to any height where stubbornness did not precede as a cause and which humility might not extinguish or abate For as it is not tyranny when a Prince subjecting a forraign people that war with him punisheth them or useth them with severity no more is it when done against such of his own people as disobey or resist For they in that case taking the event upon their own hazard have their punishment as enemies and not as subjects which may be cruelty but cannot be Tyranny For that must onely be the unjust and excessive infliction of a power submitted unto and not from the degrees of triumph or possession made by a victor And those reports of such as Nero To wish all Rome one neck that it might be cut off at a blow do become his murtherers to tell more then us to believe For I cannot see how a rational man which none denied him to be should at the same time he aims at Empire and Dominion wish or plot the lessening of it And from hence most evident it is that Tyranny is as before noted but the usual term of political railing used by such as aim at total insubjection for otherwise they would have better agreed in stating of Tyranny and its marks and degrees so as Princes might have known and avoided it If usually Government it self at least such wherein themselves were not chief were not the intended extream they meant to abolish under the odium of Tyranny I would fain know why we have not found out as odious a name to express the other extream by that is the excess of Princes rewards and favors as well as that of Tyranny to express their punishments Being onely because that no man is afraid of being too much rewarded but rather would have that extream pass as a vertue that it may always be run into by Princes And upon this reason again in the severe carriage of the Master of the Family we use no such expression of Tyranny because it might come about to our selves and yet is the Father and Husband more subject to contract irreconcileable displeasure against Wife and Children then the Prince against his subjects For he may suspect his Wifes honesty and his childrens extraction which by no action complyance or submission of theirs can be avoided But the Subject cannot but be beloved in that relation of a Subject and always in his power it is to make himself known to be such an one And if severity in punishment must make Princes to be Tyrants who can judge of that or its excess or just measure but he must thereupon be above the Prince And will not all Government be more or less Tyranny because there is always more or less severity If Tyranny be when the Laws of God and Nature are transgressed as is sometimes defined we are still to seek how to be bettered by this information for who shall judge of that above the Prince also so far as to condemn him of the breach of any positive Law of God since he is as chief Magistrate under God to have their custody and interpretation or of any injustice in Government which as his trust can be tryed onely by his Conscience But this definition will inform us that Tyranny is so far from proceeding from power that it is alwayes in the want thereof For Princes are accompted Tyrants as they stand Subjects that is to the laws of God or Nature Whence we may inferr That Tyranny is the act of Oppression forceably committed by one Subject upon another For so was the taking Naboths Vineyard tyranny not solely because Ahab had private respect therein but because he proceeded according to sentence of authority derived from himself in a particular wherein God had not referred any jurisdiction unto him but wherein they stood both equally subject For that God having by express command from himself during the time that state was in a Theocracy forbidden the alienation of inheritances and the People being yet bound severally to look to the external obedience of these Laws as they were set down by Moses Naboth might well make that answer he did God forbid I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee Importing that because God had expresly forbid it me to whom I am in the first place to be subject therefore I cannot alienate or give it unto thee And that this reply was more grounded on fear of displeasing God then sense of injury to himself may be also concluded by the reasonableness of Ahabs offer unto him namely of Money or exchange above the worth But because in the Jewish State although Kings were eminently entrusted the literall observation of the Law was still universally obliging and to be obeyed by each one in particular in order to the outward way of regiment God then exercised therefore could not any King therein by his command free them from guilt in such externall performances as their conscience told them were
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
is the right and Justice of Dominion between two contending Princes to depend as to manifestation thereof to subjects on the determination of the Lord of hosts manifested by victory The which undoubtedly in order to humane preservation and establishment of the peace of kingdoms may satisfie the Consciences of Subjects so far as to claim a just right to their submission and obedience however the Conquerer himself cannot farther expect peace in his own Conscience nor a blessing to himself or posterity from God then as he hath been just and Consciencious in his Claim and Conquest It faring in this case with subjects in general towards their Prince as with the Tenants of any particular Landlord For as these are to pay their Rents and Acknowledgements to him that by the present Judiciary power is put into possession without being bound to examine whether he be a deseisor or not or did by bribery or other fraud thrust out the former owner even so subjects being to pay their Obedience and Acknowledgements to their Prince as Gods Minister must likewise acknowledge him for such whom they finde by the usual way of Providence put into possession And further also as the Tenant hath no avoidance against encrease of Rent or Service at the Will of his present Lord but by leaving his Land and quitting his Tenancy even so is each subject lyable to such encrease of Taxes and personal duties as his present Prince shall impose whilst he is remaining within his Territories and Protection And as natural Reason will thus finde cause to submit to Gods rule of Providence now used for the establishment of the person of the conquering King so will the same reason lead them to suffer it to descend to his heir left they should again subject themselves to new Civil wars which is ever incident to Elective Monarchies And therefore this ought to be avoided by the observation of the Law of Primogeniture in these Offices now succeeding in paternal right of power upon the same consideration that this fixed Law of birth-right was instituted namely to avoid the like diffention and quarrel in succession to the heirship of the Family while this power was formerly seated in the natural Father thereof Nay this right of inheritance not onely follows in Reason but as graffed also and comprised in the right of meer natural possession For as the elder brother as aforesaid was to be presumed most natural heir to the Fathers Dominion in regard of his more probable degree of strength so also it is to be presumed that as being born he will have advantage of the natural way of right which is first seisure Upon which score if there were no Precepts for hereditary Monarchy natural Right as well as Reason would settle it in the possessors issue and particularly on the elder brother as heir to his Fathers acquisitions The which rule we shall finde approved by Saint Paul and upon the like words as God gave Cain the power of Eldership he confirms this right to the man over the woman saying Adam was first formed and then Eve Upon which grounds the lawfulness to Elect Monarchs or institute Poliarchies will be taken away inasmuch as the Office and Possession of Kingship in right of the Father and elder Brother having first Seisure before any other it must follow that none can have just right but God against him or his heir And if the beginnings and first rises of Kings be examined towards the proof of settlement by Conquest they will come so far short of deriving themselves from Adam in a natural line as it will appear how their Ancestors from a small stock have by success and encrease of force risen to that present height And even by this scale of Providence did David himself climbe although God had determined him the kingdom That is first by some magnanimous act to gain reputation and thereby some few friends and followers to assist upon occasion with these to encrease by degrees till he become so formidable that people had rather submit to his Government then adventure their lives in opposition In which case their power of Election is not so large as to choose him or not or him or another but whether they will take him on such terms as he proposeth or put lives liberties and all to the hazard of war In which condition since fear was their guide how are people more free before Election then afterwards when Princes for fear of punishment are obeyed in then Governments and commands And why should not fear be a wiser Passion then love For they that are governed in their choice by love consult not of dangers or inconveniences that may happen for this fear is against the nature of love and therfore the loved hath always power over the loving and not on the contrary And none do so usually curb the people as those that through flattery of the noise of liberty have gotten to be their darlings and so come to have sole trust and power at which time discretion bids him hold the streight reins of power upon their wavering affections lest by another using his policy he should be again supplanted When as all Princes entrances which are made through fear are made with as great deliberation and policy as may be at least with as much as the adverse Faction hath present power to use And it is probable that he that findes himself afterwards thus streightned through the peoples fearing him in his entrance will as in order to his own honor and release of fear seek as far as he may to gain their love And the truth is Princes cannot well rule without both the great difficulty resting when to use one when another And if any Prince should be by people elected into a Government hereditary out of particular love and affection to his person yet since his person and those Electors could not always have it alike or were sure at least to have sufficient degree of power and respect there might be occasion for him but much more for his successor to have power and force in readiness to make use of if reason should offer For as there might be reasons of mutual trust between the first Prince and people so of distrust in the other because nothing is more giddy or uncertain then popular liking So that although the present Prince his vertues were equal or alike to the others at first setled by them yet they being not the same people or having changed their mindes it is not reason he should be so much their enemy as not by force to keep them from forcible alteration and injuring themselves by Civil war And as for such Princes as come in by Conquest I see not why force in the continuance should not be as lawful as in acquisition more necessary to him I am sure it is at least to have it in readiness And this not onely in respect of custody answerable to that common rational maxim that
declamations are from them to be expected for taking away the right by Conquest and for branding and enfeebling it with the odious terms of Tyranny and Usurpation whilst others although not so personally interessed yet being discontented with that share of riches or preferment which the present settlement hath allotted them are willing to call out for the peoples right to choose and to joyn with and accompany them in any thing of change and alteration in the Government in hope that from that new shuffling of fortunes and interest which must hence arise they shall have a better game dealt them then before not at all regarding that general mischief and confusion which must follow hereupon For will they say that it is fit this power should follow publike and free election then to bring any Prince this way into power without danger of Civil war they must first imagine that that whole Nation out of which he is to be chosen hath but one person fit for this employment and also that that person hath so publikely and equally demeaned himself in his merits and favors that they should be always so equally known and equally beneficial as to engage each one in an unanimous consent and agreement in his election Will they for peace-sake put it to the Major Vote how shall it be known except voices and consent be taken viritim And how shall it be done but under government where some must be imagined with general Authority to give direction herein In which case how shall those in present power be thought willing to submit to the suffrages of such as have none whether they shall continue in it or no or have their enemies it may be chosen in their rooms If the major or stronger party do elect and by force or fear of it prevail against the other then what differs this from the course before spoken of where the conquering Faction sets up its own chief in supreme power Will they say that since Princes are to be chosen more for eminence in wisdom then in valor and prowess that therefore his election for fitness is to be tryed out by force of Argument and not by force of hands then what hopes in this case to have an end of the controversie since the minor party will no more conceive it self justly overcome this way then the other For when do we see any person yeild to another in any Argument that is to be tryed out by discourse Whereas victory will presently decide the contest of two Combatants Besides what greater assurance and demonstration of wisdom then those effects thereof whereby this greatness was acquired Unless they would have it judged by talk onely and not by action For mine own part I do not believe there hath been any more studious then my self to finde out a way how Subjects might free themselves from these kinde of inconveniences as of Tyranny Usurpation c. and yet all that while maintain publike peace but when I had throughly considered all those ways of redress that in this case I could think upon and compared their probable benefit with those more certain consequents of Civil war which would attend them I was at last forced to reckon these chances amongst those irremediable miseries which humane condition stood subject unto and which God as in his more secret Justice had to himself reserved for punishment of our sins even in this very case making us sensible of that our original pride and insubjection to him which had now brought us from his more immediate care and rule over us to be thus made subject to the oppression of such as are in Nature our equals and thereupon to resolve that no way could so assuredly prevent those torrents of Civil war which upon these pretences would be continually let in then by making a stop at that first gap made for entrance For experience doth tell us that under pretence of the unlawfulness of the first seisure by Conquest and Usurpation Princes of a long continued race have been opposed and by Civil War dispossessed as Usurpers thereby plainly shewing that no Government or Governor can be in security or publike peace kept up if a discontented party may be still hearkened unto For if we admit Usurpation a just excuse for disobedience to a present Prince and any party or order of the Subjects to be judge thereof there will never want a party who will make all Conquest to be the same inasmuch as none can usurp Regal Authority to the dispossession of another who were not by Conquest holpen in And if it were unlawful for the first to command and govern by that claim then is it so to all that succeed to govern as upon his right I considered that Usurpation and Tyranny were usually the expressions of Passion and Interest many times laid without desert and that by the fewer in number also for had not the greatest part thought them otherwise they could never have got in And hence it grew that the old Prince was over called Tyrant and the new one Usurper by those parties that were their enemies And whilst some out of their interests against Monarchy would reject all Government as denying either the ways of Conquest or Usurpation to have Lawfulness of title there are others again that are ready to yield to the right of Conquest made by a forraign Prince but strongly urge against Usurpation of a Subject Whilst those on the side of the Usurper say That all Conquest is not onely Usurpation but with this aggravation that thereby a forraigner makes entrance and rules in despight of a whole Nation Whereas the other cannot come in without the assistance and consent of the major part and being a native is not so like to alter their Laws and Religion as the other and they are ready to give instances for it amongst the Jews When I foresaw that when all was done Subjects were upon their removal still to run the same hazard from the next Possessor when I foresaw that there was no other remedy against Usurpation and Tyranny then what was certainly accompanyed with a greater evil then the disease it self and yet all that while no certainty of cure I then concluded that I could not go lower then I have done in asserting submission to the present Prince in possession unless I should have been false to my main design of publike peace and good Nay truely I looked upon loyalty and subjection as the onely sure remedy to defend people against usurpation Inasmuch as none being able to dispossess another already in power but by the help of his own subjects disloyalty must precede and be a cause of Usurpation And therefore if nothing but Civil war will remedy it better to be loyal then by it cure one Usurpation by another And I shall ingenuously say that could any yet inform me how it may be done I shall more heartily recant and withdraw my former Tenents then I did propose them looking upon
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
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
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
is to be laid aside as we do in any case aim at the honor and glory of God whereas if they had but ability or Patience enough to consider it they might finde how both of them do still meet in that very point of humane content and preservation as heretofore declared And so again such as have reflected upon the many self-respects and designes by some Princes practised after they attained unto their great pitch of power and that without due regard to Gods glory whose servants they are or to the good or welfare of their subjects one main end of their greatness they think that they have then arrived at no small height or reputation when they have so far abased that worth and respect which is due to him in comparison of what it due to God of men shall in a manner be brought to judge them as enemies and contrary to one another and to conceive there is no duty or respect due to them at all Not duly weighing how these things do-again meet and conspire in the same end and how it is not the honor or good of Princes personally and separately considered of men which is hereby aimed at But that it is to be given him in reference to that representation of power he hath from God himself and in respect of that preservation and good of man-kinde by this means brought to pass which is Gods end as well as ours And having so far proceeded in giving proofs and reasons to confirm those Propositions we have delivered our next work shall be to shew those grounds whereby many shall come to receive prejudice against them and think them otherwise which we shall do in that which follows THE FOURTH BOOK OF GOVERNMENT and OBEDIENCE AS They stand grounded on and relating to each ones natural inclination and affection The Introduction AS that general good to arise by publike Peace and Agreement was the end of this whole undertaking so were those many and sad examples of Civil disturbance every day set on foot upon the score of Religion the cause also why in the passed Book I made such particular discourses on that subject that upon a short view of Religion as in it self and a more strict enquiry into such Texts as did look most directly that way it might be found whether these Wars and Fightings could be rightly attributed to that faith which we profess or were not rather to be imputed to our lusts which war in our members By the which suffering our selves to be too impetuously swayed it doth thereupon come to pass that when Authority doth oppose us in any thing of our desired enjoyments we do presently cast about how our cause may be made Gods that so under colour of more near relation and subjection unto him we may shake off all that our bounden duty which by the Laws we owe to our Prince his Vice-gerent That Pride and Interest and not desire of any Self-Reformation is the usual cause of mens extraordinary search of the Scriptures may appear from the manner of choice therein made even for that no places are so much quoted and insisted upon as those that are Prophetique and most Mysterious such as are those texts of the Revelation a Book the most controverted of any other as being the greatest stranger to the Apostles times which some would seem wholly to relic upon and having in it least instructions of any how to steer our selves in the course of our lives But because the understanding hereof is generally acknowledged most difficult and because again by reason of this mysteriousness no good agreement can be yet found where justly and precisely to fix those descriptions of the Beast The Whore of Babylon Antichrist and the like therefore as well for renown and glory sake in the discovery as for anger and revenge against those they most hate shall we find some so resolute and peremptory in their expositions as if they would have us believe that these Prophesies were but respective to their interests not only to bring them honor by interpretation but thereby prove themsâ—lves the Saints and People of God there spoken of In these following Discourses I shall therefore let men see how our natural and proper constitutions educations customs c. nay our own interests also do inter-weave themselves in all we do and that as wâ—ll our Opinions and Tenets in Religion as those in Polity and Government do take tincture from these So that as in my second Book I took that Political body again into pieces which I had reared up in the first to handle and examine its grounds according to such notions and parcels of policy as were vulgarly entertained and insisted upon so now in further proof of this third Book I shall take man himself into pieces and search him in his very first principles and the natural rise and cause of both his appetites and affections and of his dislike aversions to the end that each one discerning how these things come to be framed in us and how all along they receive such influence from our breeding and manner of life aâ— easily to pre-occupate and mislead us he may be the sooner induced to an ingenuous review of his own opinions and before he grow too magistral in any thing be careful he is not overtaken by any of these prejudices But then as in this Tract I bring in these more Philosophical Speculations but by way of illustration and farther proof of what was formerly handled in the dâ—scourses of Religion and Polity so is it not to be expected that I should here deliver any thing of this kind as in an entire Treatise or make any such long stay as generally to accommodate them with a proper method or demonstration or with definition of terms since they are now only to be Probationers and Remonstrants themselves and in that kinde to be attendant on that which all this while hath been our main Argument BOOK IV. Of the Causes of LIKE and DISLIKE OF CONTENT DISCONTENT AND Whether it be possible to frame a Government in it self pleasing and durable without Force and Constraint IN many of the Discourses hitherto Government hath been treated of as having its rise and also its efficacy and support from constraint and force that is from the exercise of the power of the Governor upon the Governed which being the occasion of that continual reluctance and resistance in the Subjects and consequently the author of all Civil broils it will not be amiss to enquire what remedy may be herein found or whether any may be found or no It may therefore be doubted since as before shewed the love of our selves was only purely natural how those forraign affections come to havâ— their rise and being Whereupon we must again consider that as Gods praise and glory was the end of all things and accordingly as heretofore shewed the reason why things naturally done should be pleasurable also to wit that the Creature thereby
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