whereupon those commands are grounded or else it will be to be really superior and to be under but in shew onely For if the Prince like an ordinary Subject must submit his Will to the guidance of a superior understanding he is himself a Subject and if you take away his negative voice you take away his Soveraignty Which thing you also do when you deprive him of his rightful power either to chose publick Councellors or to admit of things Councelable and to limit proceedings in debates For as no man can command in what he is not himself free or with Justice demand Obedience from another to what he hath not yet approved as just in himself so ought Princes to have their Understandings and Consciences satisfied and free in themselves before they should impose on their subjects Therefore I should think that those which meet in Parliaments to represent the desires of such and such particular places and people can neither of right assemble without leave from the Prince whose Authority can onely make them a publike and lawful Convention nor Debate or Councel remedies further then they have leave and direction from him too or else they shall become both Parties and Judges Because in these expedients the whole Kingdom or a greater part then themselves and those they stand for coming many times to be involved their private interest and judgement must in reason and duty submit to that which is impartial and common Nay if the Prince should give them leave to Debate and Vote and they by joyning many private interests should by a kinde of confederacy make a joint claim to the effecting any thing to the ruine of a few all were yet free for the Prince out of his common and impartial relation to them all to approve or deny as shall stand most valuable by generality or neerness of concern according to the rules before spoken of But when persons representing particular places shall so far be suffered to proceed in Debates of remedies as to come to Vote conclude and councel what is to be done and have for their so doing no Authority but what was issuing from themselves there can be nothing more destructive to the good government of a Kingdom then it for it quite subverts the whole frame of Monarchy and runs that nation into the mischiefs of Anarchy whose absurdities have been formerly spoken off And this is none other then if a single induction or else some single appetite or affection should of it self and by its own presure upon us prevail to the determination or execution of any thing we do without taking notice of that general appetite and affection in us called Will which by reason it hath been founded upon the continual experience of the different concerns and issues of these lesser appetites can be onely able to say which and how far any of them should prevail For subjects are to be taken onely as competent Judges of pleasant and unpleasant but it is the Prince his Prerogative from God to judge of good and bad And again although a negative voice of Soveraignty should be allowed to restrain execution in these debates yet the inconvenience of the subjects discontent will necessarily follow Inasmuch as they shall finde their desires now ackowledged fit in the resolutions of so many and onely crossed by one which shall never fail to be construed out of some private interest of his own or of some neer about him Therefore as these Assemblies of Parliaments are necessary that thereby the wants and grievances of subjects may be known so do some Kingdoms wisely order to have many of them that is in every Province or Shire one by which means the peoples desires might be more particularly and distinctly known and accordingly represented to the Prince in a more general Councel to be considered of Whereupon these Assemblies of several Provinces meeting in several places cannot at the same time joyn in the same Vote as out of plot in their desires and remedies but their several requests and opinions being referred to a superior common censure and determination each one will conclude that their private desires were denyed or delayed out of publike regard And then the Prince truely knowing the general desire and grievance of his subjects may accordingly provide for them without endangering publike discontent which is like to fall out when people shall be puâ— in minde of any new suit by knowledge of their Representatives Votes which they will be always thinking the most equal and just rule to follow especially while they are consonant to their own desires And yet in truth nothing more unreasonable For suppose the major number wise and unprejudiced yet when the number of dissenters are taken out of them the over number can be onely taken as concluding that way who cannot avail in credit against the Prince the representative whole And therefore he for that very cause and for that general account and trust sake he is put into he ought in all reason to have his Conscience and judgement left free and to be first satisfied whether these proposals are correspondent to the Laws of God and Nature and truely conducent to publike benefit But partiality and interest doth so commonly cloud and byass subjects in these kinde of determinations that we may observe that in those places and those very men that do most enveigh against this negative voice in the King as leaving too arbitrary a power in him that is to rule are all that while assuming to themselves that should be ruled an indisputable power of suspention or refusal in any Law or Precept of his in case they in their judgements finde them contrary to the rules of Religion or publike Justice And since all the reason which private persons can give for this their denyal is but for some particular danger and hazard to themselves they must thereupon grant that he that is to answer for the welfare and safeties of others ought much more to have this liberty allowed him But certainly had not Scripture and Antiquity acknowledged the Prince to have an indisputable right unto a Negative voice and to be himself so supreme in all Councels and Debates as that their chief value and reputation should depend on him and not on them I see not how the frequent threats of giving Children Babes and Women to be Kings and Princes could be taken as a true woe or malediction but rather otherwise For that in such places where their Kings were restrained from personal medling by such disability it must follow that the Councellors proceeding with greater freedom in the deliberations and conclusions they shall proportionably also cause the happiness of that State or Kingdom to encrease by that encrease of uncontrolable Authority they shall by this means have By all which we may finde that it is so far from being Tyranny or Oppression that it is true prudence and duty in Princes as to admit of no Councels or Councellors
because it is the onely foundation for other foundation then this can no man lay and this foundation every man must lay or else all the faith and obedience to be framed thereupon will come to nothing For although their be other articles as depending on this and incident to our Christian profession which ought to be believed also even as all things by God proposed as truths are yet to add them as of themselves necessary to salvation it is to Christ and Christian faith as high derogation as to add circumcision or other observations as necessary to salvation in our Christian obedience And as for our obedience outward we are freed from those many rites ceremonies and observations of the Jewes which God in particular favour of the Jewish Nation had appointed most of them being but shadows of Christ himself and of that great and plain way which by the Gospel should be revealed Nay the very judicial part though instituted by God himself for that government bindes us not as positive laws but as useful presidents upon like occasion that is to say where their and our causes were alike which is not binding as such or such laws formerly made and authorised by God but as parts of the general law of reason For as unto them God was immediate lawgiver and being given before Kings was both God and King so was the litteral observation of them in both respects necessary that is as religious and as civil duties also For both were the same to them because God at that time undertaking the managery of the Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Estate made both one then no otherwise then his remitting both to the Prince makes both of one sort now that is under the same chief relation to duty and obedience namely that of conscience But because of Gods express undertaking herein to them it was do this and live but unto us for whom those directions were not particularly made by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified As Gods rule to them was outward and litteral so were his promises and threats for performance temporal and respecting this life onely Wherein they failed as needs they must their failing was expiated by sacrifice pointing at a Saviour to come to fulfill these things for them but Christ being now come and having fulfilled all righteousness the observation of the letter is released as to direct divine authority and we Christians standing bound but to the general precept of love and charity are referred for our particular managery and guidance therein to the higher powers whom we are to obey not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake not onely for fear of that present temporal punishment they may infflict as meer men in authority but out of conscience also of preservation of our owne innocence in preservation of our obedience to God in them All which in the Epistle to the Hebrews is plainly signified where God is brought in speaking of the difference of the Jewish and Christian Covenant and obedience according to the many Prophesies to that purpose and saying Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt that is not like as it was whilst I gave them particular precepts for all their outward duties and did lead them in all their affairs my self as if I should have taken them by the hand But this course God now changeth because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord that is because I found humane frailty so great that these litterall commands could not be kept therefore now I will put my laws into their minde and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me even from the least to the greatest that is by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts all shall be taught of God and by his Spirit led into all fundamental and saving truth so that by being all taught of God to love one another which is the life and soul of the moral law they shal by keeping that one precept of love keep the whole law But for our direction outward therein we are not come unto a mount that might not be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempests that is to hear them from such a mountain which was made inaccessible through these terrible apparitions that accompanied Gods presence thereon and the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more for they could not endure that which was commanded That is neither are we now to be terrified as by hearing God speaking with his owne voice to our outward ears but we for our outward direction are come unto mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jurusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels that is to the present Church militant and to such as do therein instruct us as Gods Messengers by their Angelical doctrine And to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect that is unto the Catholick doctrine of the Church assisted by God the judge of all and attested by those many Martyrs which like their Captain are made perfeâ—t by suffering And then that both these may be made beneficial to us and to our salvation we are come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then the blood of Abel And these Gospel duties of love and obedience we shall find to be the verry errand also of him that was to conclude the Law and the Prophets and to be Christs forerunner as it is most fully though mystically expressed by the Prophet Malachy and also by Saint Luke in their descriptions of Iohn the Baptist his office and message The first of these duties is couched in these words He shall turn the hearts of the Father to the Children that is he shall prepare them to entertain the loving of one another in as high degree as the Father doth his Child And then secondly for performance of the duty of obedience whereby to make this love to be advantagious it is added by Malachy and the heart of the children to their Fathers the which Saint Luke expounding to mean the disobedient to the wisdome of the just doth plainly shew that the preparation of the Gospel of peace and the way to make ready a people prepared for the Lord was by bringing them into such a state of
assistance in all things we are then to proceed according to the rules of Christian Faith and love in all deportments and actions not otherwise directed by our superiors who also are in this case to be looked upon as the authorized interpreters of the Scriptures as heretofore noted Else it will fall out that each one undertaking to examine and interpret them according to his own wilde fancy and weak and ungrounded method of comprehension and being also strongly through education or interest forestalled in his judgement there will arise to be as many Religions and Opinions as men and interests And that which is yet worse mens natural pride and vainglory will prompt to such presumption of extraordinary revelation that even things blasphemous and destructive of humane society shall in despite of the Church Reason or Authority be set on foot Whereas in truth in things of most private and separate concern the sense of the Church and the Analogy of Faith is to be venerably regarded even as the supreme Christian Magistrate is also in all things of publike concern For in this case we are again fallen within the limits of moral care and consideration And therefore as each mans reason is in him the best guide of what to do in the course of his own affairs so publike Reason in that which hath publike respect to the end that from the knowledge of what is there done there may be a fit and a constant way left for attaining moral prudence and obedience and that according to a well grounded experience and observation of moral and political directions and Edicts Whereby each Subject may from the constancy of the measure and manner of application used by his Prince in rewards and punishments come to frame to himself political methods and schemes of comprehension and knowledge of his duty and benefit in civil deportments as well as he may learn Philosophy by observation of that constancy which is kept up in the course of Nature For she being preserved and governed by uniform rules and laws the same Causes must ever produce the same effects if the Agent and Patient be in themselves and circumstances alike vertuous and the same the which wisdom must discover from a well grounded observation of constancy in her observations for should not natures course be constant species and individual things could not have any steady provision for existence and benefit but causes being indeterminable effects would be so also For it was from the constant observation of one thing following another in all respects alike considered that I come to know any thing even as by continually observing heat to accompany fire I know fire to be the cause of heat And from this constancy in Nature it comes also to pass that what is most naturally done is most uniformly done and so most handsomly and delightfully done Which coming to be imitated by us will be also most vertuously and wisely done but what is not done in natural imitation as following no rule is vitious and ill favoured For folly being a short and false observation in the course of things it concludes to act upon half premises Whereupon the irregular processions and effects thereof come through inequality to be inequity For as truth can be but one but errors divers even so as we noted formerly of beauty and handsom faces vertuous actions have more likeness to one another then vitious For all virtuous actions are done by certain rules and copies and as they agree to these measures their goodness is known and as they differ therefrom they do differ from themselves also and approach to vice Things being thus stated it will follow that more reason knowledge and understanding is but more observation and that an uncontradicted observation is taken for a supreme reason in it self For so for example the motion of gravity because it is observed to accompany all things none or few search the reason of it for there is not a more general or uniform rule in nature to examine it by all proof going from things more generally observed and known to such as are less Whereas to believe the Antipodes and that men upon the same reason of motion of gravity should tend in the same line towards us as we do towards them this seems as difficult for belief as it is different from the usual tendency of things as to our appearance which we call upwards and downwards Nor can it be conceivable to any that will not take pains to get it comprehended from observation elsewhere In which case if men have made and methodized observations aright it may appear that the sum and superiour bodies move in spheres even because the time they are absent and unseen is equal to that they compleat in compassing that half of the sphere which is seen from whence and the observation of eccilpses the earth must be supposed to be spherical also And if this be farther enquired into we shall find that this motion of heavy things downwards is but part of a more general motion and to be so concluded from that more general observation of union And is but the appetite thereof made more observable through this more apparent motion toward union after separation For the common knowledge and observance of boldness as they are unite and keeping close together as by so much more general then the motion of gravity as rest it self is more general then local motion for indeed what is usually called motion and rest are but these two but it is not so observable as the other because rest or union already made hath no variety to cause intent observance as variety of motion doth in the other And therefore it is onely discoverable to such as can un-ravel nature in their contemplation until they come to the bottom and first ground-work thereof For then they shall find both this constant practise of union or adhesion of bodies and also the cause thereof to be the general cause of all causes that is the will and law of God in order to his providence And although inanimates have a kind of specification amongst themselves whereby defire of proper union hath some force as may be seen in that active part of earth the Loadstone in his variation yet they follow in their whole mass the general law of matter in the common and general thirst of union For should there not be a common centre of gravity whereby all earthly things as they stood differenced in weight by dense and rare might have and keep the proper places assigned them Chaos and confusion would follow And therefore this motion of heavy things to the earth being both necessary and natural both for affording a place of receipt and production of creatures and for leaving all without so rare and transparent that the influences of superiour bodies might approach them we must conclude that as the whole earth is more then a part so hath it this attractive force of union greater also in
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
p. 12. CHAP. VI. Of Honor p. 16. CHAP. VII Of the Laws of God leading to Government p. 24. CHAP. VIII Of the Master of the Family p. 28. CHAP. IX Of Soveraignty and its Original and of Monarchy or Kingly power p. 41. BOOK II. CHAP. I. OF Anarchy p. 79. CHAP. II. Of Faction and its original and usual supports p. 98. CHAP. III. Of Rebellion and its most notable causes and pretences p. 104. CHAP. IV. Of Liberty p. 114. CHAP. V. Of Tyranny p. 122. CHAP. VI. Of Slavery p. 126. CHAP. VII Of Property p. 130. CHAP. VIII Of Law Justice Equity c. p. 139. CHAP. IX Of Publike good Common good or Common-weal p. 158. CHAP. X. Of Paction and Commerce p. 161. CHAP. XI Of Magistrate Councellors c. p. 177. CHAP. XII Of the Right of Dominion p. 186. BOOK III. CHAP. I Of Religion in its true ground p. 213. CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received p. 116. CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholike and of the Fundamentals of Religion p. 222. CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power p. 226. CHAP. V. Of the forms of Church Government and of the jurisdiction claimed by Church-men p. 233. CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and the Scriptures interpretation p. 249. CHAP. VII Of Love and Obedience and of our state of Innocence thereby p. 261. CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian Graces p. 277. CHAP. IX Of Charity as it stands in Nature p. 299. CHAP. X. Of Patience Long-suffering Humility Meekness c. p. 310. CHAP. XI Of Idolatry and Superstition and of the power of each Church her head in the establishment of Ceremonies and divine worship p. 328. CHAP. XII Of Antichrist p. 349. CHAP. XIII Of the mystical delivery of some divine Truths and the reason thereof p. 388. CHAP. XIV Of Athiesm p. 403. BOOK IV. OF the causes of like and dislike of content and discontent and whether it be possible to frame a Government it self pleasing and durable without force and constraint p. 419. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Of Deity FRom the observation of the dependance of one thing upon another as of its Original and Cause we must come at last to fix on such a cause as is to all things Supreme and Independent For to proceed infinitely we cannot but shall lose our selves as in a circle whose ends will be as hardly brought to meet in our conceit as it is to imagine the most remote cause and most remote effect to joyn by immediate touch Observe we again That no Operation or Effect could ever have been produced in regular and orderly manner unless the direction thereof had first or last proceeded from a voluntary Agent So that when we find the Superiour Bodies Elements and other Creatures void of sense and will by their constant endeavours either pointing to any end at all or such other ends as have respect and benefit beyond themselves they must be concluded but as Passive Agents in both cases and the latter respect especially weighed will at last bring us to pitch upon one Agent or Authour of such universal power and concern in all things as to be the true Creator and Director of them all One I say for should each Element by it self or should the will of more then one be the Guider of Productions and Effects would it not follow that this Procession of chance or different aim and will must necessarily set Nature sometimes at a stand for want of sufficient power and direction what course to follow or as it were by a kinde of Civil War make her endeavours so distracted and weak that nothing but dissolution and confusion could follow From all which we may conclude both a Deity and the unity thereof and that as a free Agent no operation could have proceeded from him without an end whereby as by an immutable Law the effects and endeavours of other Creatures stand directed and limited unto certain ends and bounds which otherwise would not proceed at all or else do it infinitely or destructively to one another And upon the same reason of having the vertues and endeavours of natural Agents and Elements thus stinted and directed it will follow that as there must be such original Elements as might have fitness to answer thesâ— Laws and Rules of Providence so this pre-existent matter could not be equally eternal with Deity but must be at first created by the same hand it is now guided for should they not or should there have been no creation at all but a perpetual pre-existence of Elements before they had by the Rules of Providence their vertues and abilities harmoniously directed they must by their irregular courses have been the destruction of one another As therefore in the first case to skip and balk the more immediate and instrumental causes of things and fasten them as immediate upon God the Supreme after the usual way of the ignorant were so to confound and jumble Causes and Effects that there should not in nature be any certain Production at all because if the Supreme Cause should be an immediate cause to the most remote effect then in order backward that remotest effect must be a cause to that which was his immediate cause before and so on or else what was the immediate effect to the Supreme before will now by its removal therefrom and coming to be as immediate cause to the most remote effect want a cause for its own Production so in this latter case the like would befal if through want of good and true observation of the dependance and reason of effects and causes till we come to the Supreme Cause or Reason we should fasten the Productions of Elements or first matter on Chance for if they be constant and uniform how shall Chance own or lay claim to them Again to make them Co-eternal with Deity is to deny his Eternity or their dependance on him who must precede the Chaos in time as that again must precede the Endowment and Regulation of the qualities of the Elements themselves in time also For so fire was before heat as the cause is before the effect which had it been Eternal and the qualites of burning thereto annexed without limit which must have been had it been from it self only what would have become of the race all things else in this general conflagration which now keeping its degrees and being confined within such and such subjects and bounds by a Superiour Power is a great and necessary help to their Production That and all things else readily obeying the Law of their Maker from whom as from a most wise Omnipotent and Bountiful Creator nothing but works and operations suitable are to be expected CHAP. II. Of Providence and its Rules in general AS therefore the perfection of this Worlds Maker doth sufficiently argue the perfection of the work so doth the perfection of the work as justly plead for continuance Continue it could not by any other Power then
protection when their Offices are invaded as the Prince is to the Fathers and Monarchs again being not unanimous and active in upholding each others rights as Fathers are it is no wonder if we finde here and there an Anarchical Kingdom even daring to profess themselves so which Families do not But would Monarchs take the common interest to heart as Fathers do and be as vigilant to preserve their neighbors power as others are to overthrow them they would finde that it would be the steadiest course to maintain their own power at home and that when other Kingdoms could never have been known successful in enterprising their Kings subversion their subjects would never undertake it no more then the Children or Servants of a Family dare for the like cause attempt the like against their Father and Master The main reason that Subjects usually have to desire such Change being the example of such or such a neighboring people as have thriven therein and so making fortune and success the onely judge of right and wrong they do proceed accordingly all stories telling us that until Anarchies came into the world such a thing as limited Monarchy was not in being Let us now again see their likeness in Rebellions and its pretences The Wife if she be of greater spirit then to be confined in her proper employment takes occasion from her Husbands remisness or too great trust in her to enlarge her power in the Family and to encroach on her Husbands also With these she lays Obligations and raises dependances as to her self and having now as she believes gotten strength to stand alone or above her Husband she becomes more insolent and open Which if it shall awake him to curb by his just power then comes she to spread through the Family the charge and power she hath She saith That the power of the head of the Family grew from the Family for as the Family was in greatness or power so was the head thereof also and therefore that they as the fountains of power might use the same to their just vindication from oppression She saith that as all kindes of good is increased by communication so the good of the whole Family is to be preferred in reason to the single good of any one especially since as the case now stands that one seeks but his own hurt also led and blinded with evil Counsel In which case necessity of self-preservation will not onely justifie but duty to their Master requires the other members to joyn in a course to force these from him and take the charge of his person and Government themselves She tells them that a Family as a Family hath foundation on the Wife and that as without Religion well instructed there could be no firm obligation for subjects obedience so without a Wife no Children no Family and so no Master thereof Besides though truly she is loth to say so much her self yet her Husbands late disrespect and forwardness to cross her makes her fear as men are now easily enclined to heresie so he hath turned his affection to some other women and therefore she would divorce her self from him that so he might be as excommunicate in his Family For although it is true that obedience is to be given to him by the Law of God yet again it is as true that he is to keep Gods Laws as well as we if not we must obey God rather then men Nay when he hath neglected his duty to his Family in not providing for them as this man hath done Saint Paul expressly saith He is worse then an infidel Now whether it be not fit that one that hath denied the Faith an Infidel nay worse then an Infidel should not onely be excommunicated but put from Government she thinks none can doubt But above all through her Husbands often absence about other imployments and remitting the directive part of Government to her in many particulars she lays the greatest claim to make herself as it were Governor in chief leaving to her Husband as pertinent to him that hath none but the coercive part the honor and authority only of a subservient officer that is to execute punish according to her determination and censure No otherwise then as the popish and Presbyterian Clergy upon advantage of their sole exercise in the Office of publike instruction do come to believe at last they are supreme and uncontrolable herein and do thence infer that as the body is to be subservient to the mind so the Prince or Civil Magistrate as they call him ought with his coercive part of Government to be reckoned but as subordinate and Ministerial to what they in their spiritual capacities shall enjoyn Not remembring that all that external jurisdiction and power she exerciseth in tâ—e Family is subordinate and to be acknowledged as derived from his supreme headship even as done by her as his Wife in his family by vertue of that choice and designation he then made at the time he personally ordained her to be his Wife and so consequently took her into this consortship and share of power For although the positive power and honor belonging to her as a mother and Mistris of a family be to be derived from God onely even from the sacramental efficacy of marriage and Ordination it self yet since it cannot be imagined that the constitution of a less and subordinate power was intended to be the overthrow of a greater therefore should she have considered that she is negatively in all things by him restrainable in the execution thereof Nay more in those things which she acts as Mistress of the Family over any but her own Children she is to hold her self as well impowered as restrainable by him although in respect of that obedience or honor rather which her own children give her she be not to acknowledge any humane derivation therein but is impowered as mother both by the Laws of God and Nature and that in chief where no other head or Monarch is With these and such like insinuations she may be supposed to win Children and others of the Family into a faction and association with her by whose help she may be able to work her ends For although women be rather more desirous of Government then men yet they wanting bodily strength are forced to draw in others to their assistance by setting up of their interests also Thus Children shall be won in by hope of some parity of power with the Father as well as Peerage among themselves for by the Text of Fathers provoke noâ— your children to wrath they would both have the duty of Fathers implyed of not commanding more to their Children then what they are willing to act for fear of angring them and also that being provoked by their Father it was just and reasonable for them to prosecute this wrath of theirs unto the abating his power for the future Then the Children when they meet with an easie and
execute effects proper to deity onely so in this particular of Government by delegation to authorise and enable others which of themselves could otherwise claim neither power nor right herein it doth by conferring one another without diminution in himself so far by addition imply an augmentation of power inasmuch as self-ability simply considered is not so large as when unconfinedly all things or any thing can be made susceptible of this strength In which doing the weakness of the instrument will also increase the reputation of the Agent by having his strength made perfect and apparent in weakness when from so low a degree its honor and power shall be so advanced that it shall be as it were a second deity able to act things proper to deity onely as in right of government and that without all just pretence of arrogating to themselves or derogating from him So that now we ought rather to admire and magnifie the ways of Gods government amongst us then by such reprobate and Athiestical Tenents seek to dethrone him and set up our selves in his stead For if our Pactions and Associations here below can once make us independent on him what will they be but Conjurations and Conspiracies against Heaven and so upon the matter must he be subject to our apprehensions and appetites and either in the way of government operate as expresly and personally as in former times or else must we conclude it reasonable to deny his care or interest therein at all As if because God was onely known more immediately to create the first man therefore all now must owe their Creation to their Parents only as not having in our sense any other cause of production then the known way of generation common to us with all other things Or because God doth not now rain Manna Quails or other things from Heaven as to the Jews he sometimes did but that the Sun the Earth and other Elements together with mans industry are the onely sensible immediate conveyers and causes of all our food and other benefits we enjoy it is therefore reason that our ignorance in his ways of dispensation should forthwith exclude our acknowledgement of his care and providence and make the usual returns of thanks we give for such things appear rather to proceed from complement then duty By this Doctrine we may as well also conclude against mans right of Dominion over other Creatures because the first Dominion was immediately given to Adam and Noah onely when yet by priviledge of birth we have right to inherit also whatsoever belonged to them as men this being a natural and common and not a personal prerogative onely The like we must hold of heirship to the government of a Family not making its power dependant on the Will or any consent to be derived from Wife Children or Servants but he exercising and enjoying it as proper to the Office And what were this Doctrine but to overthrow and walk quite contrary to the Doctrine of Christianity which constitutes and commends Faith where present sense is wanting and in matters of divine doctrine or example pronounceth him happy that shall not see and yet believe For if God muâ—t be always tyed to evident demonstrations in the manifold dispensations of his Spirit and of every good and perfect gift from him proceeding then must miracles be continual as that of the fiery tongues otherwise in such spiritual donations how shall sense be sâ—tisfied we are receivers at all Or if no such manifestation now be must we thereupon make answer that we know not so much as whether there be a Holy Ghost or no or because there is now no such manifest breathings used nor no persons of equal authority to Christ or his Apostles to confer ordination must we say therefore that that power whereby Priests and Ministers exercise their spiritual Functions is meerly humane and from them onely received that are immediate workers therein What were this but as before we had thrust God out of Government and superintendency of the state by reckoning his Vicegerent as the peoples so now to interdict him any particular care or Authority of the Church also by accounting his Ministers our own But in sum this power of Kings belongs to them as Kings and by vertue of these their Offices it is that God owns the very Heathen as servants and Deputies to himself for so Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus c. held and exercised their Authorities and yet had no special revelation or Ministery for their enthroning as had Saul or David or different from other Princes And indeed if this power came not by office then are all hereditary Princes but usurpers and falsly said to reign in their fathers stead for how could they reign without power and have power without special ministration As for example Solomon held his Kingdom from God and by as good right as his Father and that by force of his Office and Unction although ministred but in the ordinary way and at his Fathers command onely he held it not from any paction of the people who rather looked on Adoniah as the true heir and accordingly joyned with him in rebellion And if any think that it was in regard of some special occasion God was to employ Nebuchadnezzar c. that they were thus particularly owned this is not denyed but the question is whether that extraordinary power or that ordinary one over their Subjects common to them with other Princes came by any extraordinary revelation or designation from Heaven so as both to enable their subjects to elect and appoint those individual persons without regard to their right otherwise and then those persons also to act and execute accordingly But although nothing extraordinarily appeared yet do these Kings confess their power from God and we finde it the custom for all Kings to write themselves Dei Gratia and acknowledge the holding their kingdoms and powers from God onely To this purpose amongst Christians especially their Crowns Scepters Swords c. as Emblems of power are first offered and then received from the Altar by the last act acknowledging their power from God onely by the other offering it to his glory and service the main end of policy And therefore though Jephtah had an ordinary way of entrance to the Government namely by making Association he was brought in by the faction and assistance of the Gileadites yet is he reckoned sent of God as well as Jerubaal Bedan and Samuel who had extraordinary ministration So that although God do leave those intervenient actions of Succession Election Conquest c. to the same ordinary event of Providence with other things in mens choice and dispose which may therefore in a sort be called a humane Creature yet the collation of power is from him onely no otherwise then in marriage the Husbands power over the Wife depends of it self and not on any resignation from 〈◊〉 although for her greater obligation toobedience her
and yet it was by Gods secret appointment ordered to be done to make good the threat against Elies house namely to fulfil the word of the Lord concerning the house of Elie even so we may interpret the punishment of Sauls first fault that is the cutting off his blood from the Crown to be accomplished in Michal and his other fault in sparing Agag threatned to be punished in the rejection of his person to be made good by his untimely slaughter And the due observation of these Stories will also instruct us how that the building of the Temple signifying the glory of the Church and the settlement of Kingship and Priesthood were all accomplished together and how Kingship was the leader in this Chorus of happiness as Gods chief Instrument for compleating of them For so are we instructed by the direction which Moses gave concerning matters of Appeals wherein the expression of the Judge that shall be in those dayes not only denotes another manner of Judge then formerly but the Priests and he and the place which the Lord should choose being conjoyned must signifie their contemporary establishment for perpetuity for to none of the other Judges God had said Why have yee not built me an house nor was Kingship nor Preisthood setled but in Solomon and Zadock the sons of David and Samuel and immediate instruments in building this Temple the figure of the Christian Church to succeed Nay this Office and power of kingship is so cleer in Scripture that it is usual with the abetters of Polarchies now adays to balk it in the plain sense thereof and to hearken to Philo Josephus and I know not what Antichristian Authors to learn from them the Authority of the people of the Sanhedrim and such like Magistrates not considering the interest and prejudice wherewith these men writ For they designing to bring their Writings and Nation into the more esteem amongst the learned persons of those times and having so long lived and been so well entertained the first among the Grecians and the other amongst the Romans as to be affected with their humors and way of learning they had the same reason to commend those other Forms and to depress this Kingly Office and Power as they had to commend thereby their own writings and Country And as in Kings all power is thus united so he alone it is that is the true Representative whole and whose actions may binde the people without their consent but not theirs without his And so much is often by God acknowledged making the good or ill of the King and Kingdom all one Thus Abimilechs particular detaining of Sarai is by him apprehended as an evil threatning his whole kingdom and we finde Sauls particular act against the Gibeonites punished with the peoples famine as Davids numbring the people afterward was punished with their Pestilence And in that whole story we may observe the punishment or reward the good or ill of the people still to answer and be proportioned with the Vertues or Vices of their Princes and that though the people did offer in the high places or had not prepared their hearts to seek the God of their Fathers or the like yet if this general Representative person was upright before God even for his sake a blessing did ensue which is nowhere observed to be done in respect of any subjects piety And this may seem less strange since we finde that Adam being made Monarch of all Creatures should have the violence of his race imputed and charged on them so as to involve them in the same guilt and destruction by flood Nor is this degree of power before spoken of much more then what before was practised by Moses himself according to the advice of his father-in-Father-in-Law as we read Exod. 18.20 namely to make Laws and Ordinances for them to live by and where Law was already made by God to reserve to himself the interpretation thereof as also all appeals and all difficult and important causes and for the better dispatch sake to refer common causes to subordinate Judges All which is again farther expressed Deut. 19 to the 18. where he owns the making Judges and last appeal Our of all which it may be found that the most material marks of Soveraignty were in many of these temporary Judges as the power of making some Laws and interpreting them the last appeal and supreme decision of controversies especially in Moses because he was a King too as formerly noted and so made by God and not by the people And unto Ioshua next as made by Moses for on him by Gods appointment was he by imposition of hands to put some of his honor that all the Congregation of Israel might be obedient that is that he by receit of this justly derived power from God his Vicegerent might have full power to command them And therefore are they also called Kings as in the inte-rregnum when there was no Judge it is said there was no King in Israel and yet was these Judges power inferior to that of Kings coming after This soveraign power of Kings we may finde implyed in that answer of Samuel to the people of the manner or power of a King which had it but been equal to that of their former Judges what needed it have been told the people And they that will not have the things there set down to be in his power but that he was to give account thereof or that his actions were controleable by any order or body of the people do yet commit a greater absurdity for then to what purpose should Samuel go about to fright the people with a thing of no danger and which was in their power to remedy For so it follows that they should cry out in that day because of their King and the Lord should not hear them meaning that they had none but God in that case to appeal to by whose forbearance to hear them therein they had no lawful remedy left them For had his words imported no more terror to their understanding but what they had right and power to remedy they might have answered Nay but we will have a King under us and not over us No he shall be onely King of the less number of the people and their Representatives but unto the major part or Vote he shall be subject upon all occasions they shall think good and so making our selves Soveraigns over our Soveraign we shall prevent those threats for thereby having upon the matter no King we shall do but what unto every one seems good in his own eys And by the expression over thee so often there used must be meant over the whole people being the same thee that should choose him so that if his election were by the major part or such as stood for them as so it must be or elese it could be no Election his power must be above the major part or their
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
overborn be obliged to the determinations of a major Vote not by them elected or entrusted if by their joynt subordination to the Monarch who did before give them power thus to elect they stood not still obliged So that they that alleadge a major Vote ought of it self to prevail because it is to be presumed that in case of opposition even by by strength it would so fall out where is then their Government founded on pretended consent if meer force must be the rule For what think they shall become of Equity which alone should take place as having Reason and Wisdom for its guide what doth Equity and Reason so abound as that the major part of men in general or of any Society in particular should be always the juster and wiser if not what do we but endanger to follow a multitude to do evil and speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgement For if the minor side must acquiesse onely because it is the minor and weaker in number and power what differs this from the Government of Beasts and Fishes which prevail not by strength of Reason or Argument but by force of body and number Again if the fewer must be always overborn and governed who shall govern the other Or how can the major part be without subjection or government and yet the whole State or Society be truely said to be governed And while they shall pretend to determine the differences of the people who shall have power to determine theirs Will they set a major Vote upon a major Vote or will they as most usually remain so many Ex Lex or unbridled persons in pursuit of their own Wills onely In a word in this fained Government or political Paction how can Peace or Unity be expected where it is not so much as designed in shew or appearance For whereas the submission of all in general to some kinde of coercive and superior power is in Government on all hands necessary here the greater part are exempted and left at liberty And where political order appoints an Union in the body by means of an Union in the head in Democracy the head is made of many and by a monstrous deformity made biger then the body And where again in Monarchy the whole people are subject to the Prince and he to God so that there remains but one personate Liberty as to the Laws of the Kingdom here the greater part have no Laws to restrain them but according to the dictates of unbridled Nature good and bad Justice and injustice are at their own determination Against which it will be bootless to object that the good of the major part is in reason to be preferred to that of the fewer for that none will deny supposing it in things equally concerning them but who shall judge of that when instead of one person of common concern and interest in the whole people one faction shall thus be still judging another and so reckoning themselves the whole State endeavor the subversion of their opposites without conceit of publike detriment But that which is most direct to shew this Government null or unlawful is their want of Authority For their deriving power from the people onely must argue they sâ—ill want it because the people having it not themselves they cannot as elsewhere proved give it to others For how can the people give power to the people more then a man can be said to give power to himself whereupon these Polarchs having no mission from God or Authority from that rule of Government by him set down how can they be but in their administrations tyrannical and be in danger when they put any man to death to commit murther with the sword of Justice And where again it is alleadged That all power is founded in the Will and that voluntary submission makes Authority lawful and tolerable these forms are but so in pretence and carry on their executions by continual and irresistable terror and force in regard of their number not to be withstood Whereas the single Prince can be obeyed but voluntarily according as sense of Loyalty Duty or Love shall direct and when or so far as he shall use force so as to be called tyranny or oppression this must arise as he makes use of a major number or strength and by the force of other men prevails against a minor part which he thinks fit to punish but as King or as one person in himself considered he can never be but voluntarily obeyed For it is the gross vulgar mistake that because there is in some Republikes freedom to elect Representatives allowed to the people by such as sway in the present domineering faction that therefore they are also free and personally consenting in what these Representatives do And under this flattering disguise popular Orators prevail affirming that as we singly cannot will to destroy or harm our selves so communities also cannot be supposed to injure themselves For although say they they should enact a Law of some universal damage yet since their enacting of it must conclude this damage was to them insensible they cannot therein be harmful to themselves in general or injurious to others in particular Not harmful to themselves because upon any experience thereof they may alter it not injurious to others because according to the foresaid supposition each one being consenting the Maxim of volenti non fit injuria acquits them thereof Whereas in truth these formal Elections can never be general nor free nor can the particular actings and Laws of Governors be any more stiled the voluntary actings of the governed then any other arbitrary Authoriry for such it must be if it be any can be called the voluntary act of such as must obey But when they say a Community cannot harm it self the falacy lies under the notion of Community For they would have it comprehend in our conceits the whole people as though each one should be still personally acting and consenting in all things concerning their own harm or benefit It is true this community of Trustees and Representatives who indeed usually make themselves signifie the whole Community can never as taking them to be of one minde and interest hurt themselves irremediably but why may they not nay why must they not as a separate body have a separate interest from the people under them and so joyn for enacting such things as may concern their power or riches in general And why must they not again as having several proprieties and seperate places of Honor and Power of their own to seek seperate from these of their fellow Senators and divide amongst themselves likewise and also divide the people by siding to gain and joyn a major Vote to attain them at which time truely those that are of that part of the Community which is on the minor and weaker side will think and finde themselves harmed although the major community taking on them to be the whole community do
how can any be supposed to be so equally and universally interessed as the Prince How will they have this liberty stinted both for persons and causes And who shall be superiour to see it on all hands performed Will they allow subjects indefinitely to have power herein as they themselves shall see cause they then invert and overthrow government If these prudent considerations cannot prevaile with rational men to stop the current of rebelion yet methinks the conscientious ties of Religion and the due observation of those Gospel duties of patience humility obedience long-suffering c. might Christian Subjects should consider how Princes are of Gods setting up and not theirs so that when he that hath their hearts in his hand shall send them such an one as they deserve and in a fatherly way shall make them his rods to punish their faults they are not to attempt the throwing these rods into the fire themselves but to kiss them in acknowledgement of submission and unless they will undertake to measure their own sins they must leave it to the same hand to withdraw that did impose And to this purpose let them well consider that place of Job Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly if not to say so much less to strike Princes for equity Nay although they be such as appear to us to hate right yet being our King and Gods Minister over whom we can have no lawful jurisdiction we cannot condemn them more then he that is most just For so he must be esteemed of us and left to God for punishment Who shall in his own way and time break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead CHAP. IV. Of Liberty AS we have heretofore shewed the glory of God to be the end of creation and that this glory was encreased from the variety of creatures inasmuch as from their augmentation of benefit one above another the encrease of his praise must proportionably arise As we have also declared mankinde amongst other creatures greatest receivers and most capable of return so now as to the same end we are to consider men amongst themselves as they stand in degrees of honour and power one above another For as we shall finde them generally much elevated above other creatures so also much differenced by their own degrees of perfection Insomuch as whilst the meanest rank of men have great degrees of Divine resemblance above other creatures below them so have also men of higher stations as coming hereby to be called Gods by God himself both an advantage and obligation above those of ordinary condition to the end that as their power and eminence did encrease above others below so their gratitude upwards should encrease also For as every workman is himself expressed in his work and hath his goodness power and skil made apparent by the general perfection of all he doth so is he yet more eminently herein represented when of the same lumpe or kind again he shall cause vessels of different honor and perfection to arise In order to this as we finde that those large abilities which men in general have above other creatures do chalenge and establish their right of dominion over them so since one man hath as great almost above another it is supposeable thereby to chalenge also proportionable superiority amongst themselves Nor fares it so with man alone but it is generally observable that as the Species of creatures have more of perfection one then another so have they also more variety of degrees in the individuals thereof one above another In inanimates that have not wil their different vertues are without claim or use in the exercise of power and dominion yet comparatively we may see one Loadstone of greater efficacy then another so as to draw from him upon even tearms the same mass of Iron Look amongst plants their different perfections in the same kinds are to all apparant and how also one tree or fruit that is perfectest in the same kind or plant over powereth that which is less In such sort as when we are to set forth Gods power and bounty in the vertues and endowments of stones or plants of any kind it is our custome and duety to instance it in such as are the most rare and perfect particulars of the same kind which may by their worth eminently include the whole Beasts have their degrees of prudence and courage whereby they come to resemble men and be differenced above others of the same kind recompensed with the dominion over one another also Look above our selves and although our happiness cannot yet extend to know any thing of the true nature of Angels yet supposing them in that one known relation of ministring spirits their different degrees and orders in this office of ministration must assure to us their different gifts and abilities in performance thereof And here again we are more particularly to consider what was before spoken namely that as creatures are in their kinds more perfect so are the degrees in the same kind more various that from eminence herein eminence in power might proportionably arise For as to have made any one Species imperfect in it self could not be imagined from the power of such an Author so also not to have made some individuals thereof more perfect then others whereby as it were to confess that the Authors power by this certain stint was come to its highest pitch could not be expected from omnipotency either no more then it could from his justice or goodness not to Communicate more of his power and particular presence in things thus made perfect Not that any the lowest thing hath hereupon cause or reason to complain because each one having a stock of blessing suitable to its capacity and the smaller and greater vessel being both alike full they must in that respect be alike pleased Nor could God but hereby be much advantaged in general acknowledgement whilst in their grateful sense of enjoyment all things rest contented with the measure of their receits Thus while each superiour order of Angels in that celestial Hierarchy looks upon those successively below they must acknowledge their encreased obligations of praise whilst the lowest of all standing yet satisfied with continual benefit and also beholding it self so far enabled above other creatures all that it can do will be thought too little to requite so large a gratuity If men take also the same course how shall those of higher power have reason to acknowledge higher praise and the meanest Subject even for his being man and for that proportion of Religion Liberty Protection c. which he enjoyes above other creatures have cause also to bless that inexhaustible fountain of goodness Whereas if men and other creatures had been made for vertue or power equal in the individuals of the same kind then for want of eminent obligation and examples of vertue and power
judge however they may be in their sentence outwardly agreeing amongst themselves as in order to fear or other interests of their own Nor can two or more persons judge their own causes because of the same reasons and also for that in this equality none can have whole interest or power But to make these things plainer by instance When any two parties that are at difference shall have their cause decided by any of the ordinary Judges appointed to that purpose the failing of that Judge therein so far as to make him culpable must happen upon the grounds before noted For if he have not concern enough so as to think his duty honor and benefit to be founded and established by the practice of his imployment of a Judge he will then wholly neglect it or proceed so coldly therein as for want of through examination of the full evidence of the truth of things on both sides his judgement can be no otherwise then accidentally true and upright And this inconvenience will not only be subject to mislead him in his first sentence and decision of causes but farther also in case that bribery friendship c. have caused partial judgement through want of entire and equal concern it is the usual hindrance to all re-examination that should arise from equity by way of appeal insomuch as untill the oppressed party can find a way how to make the redress of his grivance appear of more availe and concern to the party appealed unto then it is to him in the state it now stands he can never rationally expect reparation or furtherance from him therein From all which it must come to pass that none but God Almighty can be held as the onely universal ready and upright Judge so far as to be the onely true object of appeal Because as he hath onely omniscience sufficient to know all circumstances that are necessary to the stating of Equity in each cause so hath he alwayes such whole and high interest and concern in the good of his creatures as to make him always ready to hear all complaints Whereas all other subordinate Judges must as they stand in degree below him and so differenced in respect of concern differ in their readiness to entertain appeals and make redress By which means the Monarch who hath highest interest power and trust delegated from God and hath his honor and interest of more concern in performance of Acts of Justice then any other even in such degree that he cannot find any reward else so valuable to divert him must be presumed thereupon the readiest to hear and amend when any thing in this kind shall be offered And if the ordinary grievances of the poor or meaner sort be not by him taken into consideration like the more remarkable appeals from great ones it proceeds still from the same cause of want of concern not in him who if he be an entire Monarch and no wayes made obnoxious or defective in propriety would hear poor and rich alike as equally subâ—ects but for want of concern in other persons of ranke and eminence that should present it and state it unto him Which is a thing so difficult to be done as experience tells us that it is the great obstacle of all redress namely for want of concern to make another take so much pains as throughly to examine the state of the grievance and so apply himself towards redress For we shall finde all private men to be still so full of their own business as not to be sufficiently enclined to make any other of such equal concern as to remit the present care thereof to intend his beyond respect to themselves And although the sense of pitty and Justice be in all men naturally yet the difficulty will still lye How for want of concern to make him attentive in such length of discourse as must be requisite to make my cause appear so Upon which ground it is that Fees are given to Advocates Councellors c. by those that are appellants and suters hereby engaging them to take their Clients business into concern and make it their own Men have hitherto thought Justice in the abstract to be before it in the concrete as though truth or the affections or adjuncts of things could have been before the things themselves But as Divine Justice is but the procession of that equity which resideth in God the supreme Judge of all whereby the affairs of all creatures are disposed and ordered according to the known measure and equality which their respective merits in relation to the good and Oeconomy of the whole doth require so neither was humane Justice before the administrators thereof no more then positive Law was before the Law-maker who by that did publikly determine what was fittest to be done in the Vierge of his jurisdiction also Therefore men making Justice to be juris statio or dependant on the sentence or determination of the Law could not choose but to have considered onward that that jus or law must again have dependance on the Law-maker or him that hath juris-dictio had not a kind of conspiracy in the flattery of private mens abilities towards the judging right and wrong made them determine Justice measurable by Law and Law by themselves that so onward publike Justice might be submitted to private sense of equity whereby at last all should resolve into opinion In which regard it is no wonder that subjects in general do in order to obtain their fancyed degree of liberty agree amongst themselves upon such maximes as they conceive restrictive of the exercise of their Princes power over them upon the same ground as servants use to do towards that of their masters For so experience tells us of those measures of good and bad masters which are by servants usually entertained amongst themselvs in order to deny all masters and their actions to be good farther then they are respective to or carried on towards their interests or approbations Thus the master that is most profuse for diet apparel c. is called the best and most kind by his own and by all other servants too Whereas that master that measures these things by his own conveniencies of estate c. and makes restraint accordingly is called Churle and miserable And so again such masters as permit liberty and licentiousness have the servants joynt applause as just and kinde unto them whereas such as restrain and punish them for faults are by them called cruel and unjust For how should it be expected they should like to be straightned or punished for what they had formerly approved Nor can men under servitude of any kind separate themselves so far from their interests in relation that way that is in desiring freedom as to take the interest of the correlate into equal concern with their own and not rather still to chose and fix upon such reasons and maximes as shall most confine the will of their governor to be submitted to theirs and
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
we are not to believe him But in the other things not so neccessary as we find them more darkly delivered and not fully cleared by God himself so have they their appointed Gods and interpreters here amongst us unto whom we are to be obedient as to those that watch for our souls In the first case that is in the fundamentals of our faith it behoves us to be explicite and epress for in that sence He that is not for Christ is against him whereas in the other we are to serve Christ by our implicite obedience to his Church the pillar and ground of truth and in that sence it is that he that is not against him is for him But if he do not observe these and other inducements to moderation and charity he will be very subject to persecute Christ in his members while he is about to serve and vindicate him in his truth He will be subject by his zealous prosecution under the form of godliness to lose the power thereof and even to destroy charity the end of the law through his misguided devotion to keep the law For pretend men what they will of the equity and justice of their cause whilst they are in private prosecution of one another for religion it can never be half so certain that herein they maintain that truth and doctrine which was by Christ delivered to be believed as that they transgress that precept of brotherly love commanded to be practised For the truth of their opinon is seen but to themselves onely else they migâ—t think others that endeavour to serve Christ as well as they would not as in order to their owne salvation hereafter or their present riddance from their persecution here stand so firmly to their own contrary principles Will they say that their adversaries might know this truth as well as themselves did not prejudice possess them they hereby become both uncharitable censurers and judgers and if they should impartially search their owne hearts they might hereof also condemn themselves at least may as justly suspect the rest of their owne faction as any of the other And having so far laid the ground-work of direction for those that desire to follow those things that make for peace we will next speak of the Church and of our condition of innocence in her obedience CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholick and of the Fundamentals of Religion THe end of all religion being to praise and glorifie God befoâ—e men and the praising him before men inferring such a manner of doing it as in humane judgement is most honourable and then again that which is most honourable being that which through custome and general acknowledgement is held most beneficial to man himself it still brings Gods glory to be the Alpha and Omega of all we do and the good of our Neighbour the steady and only sure means thereunto For to us men that cannot intuitively behold his face and live and so out of rapture of his express excellence glorifie him with immediate Halelujahs our approach to him must be by his back-parts his Image in our brother and our praise of him here if at all must be by such light and works before men that moveing them as men here They may thereupon glorifie God which is in Heaven At first there was no distinction of such as were to honour God before men from others whom we might thereupon call by the separate name of a Church but whilst mankind was thin the Church was as large as mankind it self But that encreasing the Nation of the Jewes were particularly chosen from the rest to have his name more eminently put and worshipped and amongst and unto them for the preservation of his more immediate service and honour he appoints a particular law to be written and observed Whereupon that sign of Circumcision that served for a mark to distinguish them from others as being the pledge of their promised obedience took on it the name of Covenant to wit the Covenant of works Not that God was not still worthily the only true object of the praises of all mankind but inasmuch as his former precepts and our natural ability had been so forgotten and insufficient that Idolatry and oppression had now in a manner wholly supplanted his worship and mutual charity except in that single family of Abraham it seemed necessary that as well an increase of direction should be given for increase of his service as an appropriation thereof to some select people for its better intention and security for the future By this means the race of Abraham come at once to receive the reward of their Father constancy in Gods service in regard of many promised blessings by them received and also by having the Oracles of God committed unto them they come to be a means for Gods honour to be more encreased even by being here as by a select Church or company of men more eminently served For from hence he might through the observation of the whole world have his name more hallowed and have greater glory given and directed to him then before Not that the common Salvation of man was lessened by this more express care of his owne glory but rather encreased For as the Jewes had open advantage by encrease of light so other Nations had the same light of reason continued to them as before with this advantage that if they were diligent there with to examine those precepts delivered to the Jewes they could not but discover as we formerly noted in the Decalogue great benefit by using them themselves And since we find no other reward or punishment then temporal annexed to legal obedience or default for works as works cannot deserve higher and since those vailes of Rites and Ceremonies were so thick that it was neer as hard for the Jewes expresly to discern Christ by faith through them as for the rest of the world to difference him by the light of reason I cannot but charitably presume that the great preserver of men might finde a way for the saving mâ—ny of them worshiping the same God though not under that notion of the God of Abraham For as the having of Circumcision did not save all that had it so neither the want of it did of it self destroy but as those which were without the law of Moses were a law unto themselves by the law of reason so it follows that at this law of reason proceeding from the same God was unequally broken or kept mens punishments or rewards no doubt succeeded Nor shall I ever make my self believe that Sardinapilus and Scipio should be alike in their future reckonings for punishment being not to be supposed equally culpable in the breach of charity the end of the law although they might equally miss heaven as being equally incredulous Yet as we said untill the law was given whereby another way of direction for mens honouring of God and sociable abearance to one
so we again having no other direct outward precept from God or Christ himself are through faith and by our ready obedience to him actually performed to his Church in his stead as having the word of reconciliation committed unto them acquitted in all we do but if done otherwise we forfeit thereby the whole condition and as again obliged and culpable for the breach of the whole law nothing but read mission into the Covenant of Innonency by repentance can secure us from damnation CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power HAving hitherto spoken of the Reason and Foundation of the Church in general and of the necessity of our participation of her communion so now again it will be necessary to speak of each particular Church and its jurisdiction For since we cannot otherwise attain to be members of this Catholick body then as being first members of some particular Church it will therefore follow that as the necessary observation of the law of providence which we could not explicitely and perfectly do upon our owne abilities was the cause Christ became obedient to God for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him so there lies upon each member a duty of conformity and obedience to their particular Churches that thereby being made conformable to the image of his Son they may also be restored to the image of God And therefore although the Catholick Church cannot be aggregate or represented der any single head or rule but of Christ himself yet since it is integrated and by parts made up of particular Churches and in these Christs power being to be represented by other Christs or anointeds under him it will follow that our obedience to this Church and the head thereof must have of us all that obedience which unto the other we cannot give else would that precept of obedience to the Church come to nothing as indeed for the most part is intended by such as would have the Writers of their owne mind to be held for the Catholick Church onely Therefore now being to consider the Christian Church as an assembly of Believers separate from other for Gods more immediate honour and worship we cannot well appropriate this phrase to that part of the Catholick which is past and unconversant with men nor for the present to that part of it which is yet to suceeed although both the one and the other have done or are to do their personal parts herein but must interpret that notion of Catholick Church used either when those duties are in general given which are fit for the Church to observe in obedience to Christ or when againe given for her members to observe to her to intend that part of Christs body which shall be successively militant on earth to whom alone these instructions can be necessary and useful in both kinds But then again as this general duly of praising God before men can onely be performed by the visible Church because she hath onely power and opportunity therein yet since this power here on earth is subsistant by the separate jurisdiction of those particular Churches which constitute her Catholick body and she can in no other sence be termed Catholick with reference to any other head then of Christ himself it must be therefore granted that all those precepts for general obedience to the Church must be meant of every Church in particular as having onely use of jurisdiction to this purpose And as having besides according to the several inclinations of their owne people and the known affections of those of the world amongst whom they live the best and onely ability to know and command what is fittest to be done for advancing Gods glory according to the exigence of their particulars which otherwise in the strange mixture of Christianity with other religions throughout the world were not possible to be comprised under one certain or equal rule or to be known and executed by one single persons power And that the Church and civil jurisdiction of each place signifie the same and that by obedience to the Church obedience to the particular Church is ment will appear by that of our Saviour Mat. 18. where controversies are if not decideable by umperage to be told to the Church Under which name must be comprehended the present particular authority of that place because else how shall they go to it And it must be the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority also as having them conjoined because it determines particular personal injuries where brother offends against brother and one servant takes another by the throate saying pay what thou owest as the parable denotes But the conclusion is that the supream jurisdiction whilst it is Christian is the very Church we are to submit unto And those that will not hear the Church are to be unto us as Heathens and Publicans that is such as have renounced Christ by this their renoucing the Image of his authority the Christian Church whose definition and power be the thing of never so civil nature makes the breach of it a sin as on the contrary our obedience to them acquits us of guilt For it is from Christ they have this power that Whatsoever is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven So that Christ having now blotted out that hand writing of Iewish Ordinances which was against us and released them from their litteral strictness to the extent of rational and natural laws and having also answered to God for the large morallity of the whole rule of providence leaving Christians at large in all things wherein their reason or Christian precept is not transgressed and lastly having left the charge for custody and enforcing these Christian precepts to every Christian Church who are thereupon to answer to him for the faults of the people the advantage that Christians have of living in a state of innocence is unquestionable and immoveable while they contiune obedient And therefore Christs Gospel might well be called Glad tytings and we may find that our Saviour made his general encouragement to the entertainment of him and his doctrine because his yoke was easy and his burthen light Insomuch that when he came in particlar to be asked what it was he answered in one command for both Tables thou shalt love c. including under the precept of love to God and our Neighbour all the law and the Prophets that is all things of faith and charity or of faith and obedience which is charities support First for our faith and its fundamental object life eternal is to know God and Iesus whom he hath sent he is the way the truth and the life the Authour and finisher of our faith on whom whosoever believeth hath everlasting life and on him that believeth not the wrath of God abideth Which one article comes therefore to be eminently necessary
in it self worthy of preservation doth by Grace restore and rectifie what in our fall had been corrupted Thus that love which Nature provokes me to express out of inward delight Religion enjoyns and directs me to execute according to explicite precept That good which for Honor or Vertue sake I seek to act as a moral man I must now for Duty and Conscience sake re-inforce and prosecute as a Christian. That degree of beneficence which in nature I might arbitrarily and differently dispense according to mine own relations of Family Friends or the like I must now according to the tye of conscience and subjection distribute indifferently or according to such rules as he that hath publike charge shall direct For our state of innocency consisteth more in negative then in positive acts that is more in being harmless then beneficial because innocence or abstinence from harm is always a praise and compatible to all men inferior as well as others but to be positively beneficial is the attribute and sole honor of the Fountain of good and is to mankind no otherwise communicable and proper then as impowered and deputed from him and acting in his stead And therefore is Lord said to be the fulfilling of the Law because it worketh no ill to his neighbor And in that Chapter as obedience to the Higher Power is most strictly enjoyned and may be understood compleating the Precepts of the first Table and so inclusive of that Law of Honor thy father and mother So is the love of our neighbors as our selves set all down in negative Precepts Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal c. Nay our justification and the forgiveness of our offences and sins against God is made to depend most on our forgiving one another which was chiefly hinted at in that perfect model of Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us Heaven it self being the reward of our innocence not of our merit and that because we cannot without derogation to Gods honor take on us to act in matters of beneficence without him And so again the Devil being the father of malice the more we take upon us to act therein the more we shew our selves his servants Of which his delight in malice contrary to the Precept of love we have a plain instance in Witches who spend their whole power in things destructive and mischievous being wholly swayed by desire of revenge which as it did at first grow from being crossed in their own designs so they had beneficence in their aims And therefore so far as any is malicious to others that is is wilfully set to prosecute his own ways of doing future good by present evil so far hath he listed himself under this Destroyer and thrust himself out of Divine favour and protection by renouncing Divine obedience whereas others may know they are passed from death to life not only because they love the brethren but also for that they are obedient to Gods minister in the manner thereof For without God every one may be truly said to act that hath not from him as great and full direction and authority as was in his power to procure even in that particular in which he acts but doth relie only on such general directions as were for ought he knows not proper to the cause in question And so not being by Gods Minister interpreted and warranted as to license therein he must remain still as much as before without true warrant to act on another and the other again without just cause of suffering at his hands For since both of these having from Reason and Scripture alike power to judge interpret and impose upon each other he must be concluded to have been most innocent and obeyed God most that hath most obeyed his Vicegerent and stuck to his direction therein And this because the positive Precepts of Scripture and Religion coming only to supply and make more applyable those general and ambiguous rules of natural reason to which end determinate Interpreters were again put to see the meaning of these Scriptures applyed to these cases and persons unto which they are proper it must thereupon follow that as those that undertake to judge cases by the light of nature only without regard therein had to Scripture cannot in so doing be guiltless so also they that undertake to be their own judges from the immediate rules of Scripture and do balk the the direction of the authorized Intepreter and Keeper they must thereby become lyable to guilt also So that now to sum up all these Discourses concerning love and obedience it is still to shew how men under the second Adam stand in respect of works in a like condition for innocence as they did at first For as then the only Precept was to forbear tasting of the knowledge of good and evil even so it is the only Precept still For so much in brief our Saviour explains saying For judgement am I come into this world that they which see not might see and they that see might be made blind And again as before noted answered those that presumed to derive Innocence and Righteousness from their own light If ye were blind ye should have no sin But now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth The which and other places are certainly plain enough to convince any whom The God of this World hath not blinded to their own destruction And however formerly amongst the Jews where God was immediate Law-giver and by plain litteral Precepts did set down his pleasure to be observed by each one in particular the differencing of obedience into active and passive was useful that thereby upon occasion subjects might perform their duties to God and his Vicegerent also as also it was before the higher Powers were Christians yet now unto Christian Subjects that have not from Christ rules set down for their external abearance one towards another but they are to be taught his commands from his Deputies and Ambassadors the case is otherwise For so the words are Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you not what I have commanded them So that when subjects are by their Christian head now commanded to be actively obedient in any thing they are then disobedient if they are not so because where doing is required their doing to their power and not their suffering must shew their obedience For as I cannot find that the Crown of Martyrdom was promised to any but such as were persecuted for the name of Christ or Christianity which in Heathenish persecutions was to come to pass so cannot I tell what other title then that of Rebel to give to such as oppose or resist their Christian Prince Nor can I find what other reason to give for that expression of our Saviours saying that God hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man then thereby to shew how
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
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
though it might be called the evil as being the occasion of so much evil By which evil we may know he means Antichristianism by saying he that doth it hath not seen God that is hath not God or the fear of God by not having or receiving us and the doctrine of Christ namely that Christ is come or present in the flesh And so denying the Son he hath not the Father because he and his Father are one for whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God c. It is farther highly observable towards the clearing Antichristianism to consist in the breach of Charity or Love even by defeating the fruit thereof through disobedience that these two fore-alledged Writers that do most speak of this crime in direct terms are themselves the most plentiful of any in pressing and commending this duty of Charity or Love The latter of them Saint Iohn the beloved Disciple making it the chief argument of his whole Epistles and is by occasion hereof found to be more often stating and discoursing of Antichrist then the other Who yet by reason of his more frequent conversation amongst the Gentiles and those subjected unto the Roman Emperor had occasion most to speak of and discover that great man of sin the Antichrist that should hereafter in the Churches splendor axalt himself above her glorious heads called gods even as S. John again being more confined in his charge had more occasion to speak of those lesser Antichrists that for the present opposed himself and his fellow Heads whom by reason of their smaller eminence in power he writes unto under the notion of little children as shall be shewed anon But although we have not in S. Jude the name of Antichrist yet almost his whole Epistle sets forth his description and particularly by that mark of separation wherein he doth also refer back to these and like former admonitions herein given from the Apostles Remember saith he the words that were spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts these be they that separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Where by the note of Separaters to come in the last time we may well account his Mockers to be S. Johns Antichrists And farther to make the same mockers to be like and coming on to S. Pauls Antichrist he saith These filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignities the which is like unto seating themselves as gods above all that is called God Yet Michael thi Arch-angel saith he when contending with the Devil disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee And if the Devil himself in so clear a case must not be reviled but left to God what pretences can subjects have to justifie themselves by that will strike Princes for equity unless they can prove them worse then he By the expression of defilers of the flâ—sh he comes plainly home to S. Iohns dâ—niers of Christ come in the flesh and so he makes it plain he means the same Antichrists that this his brother Apostle had told should come into the world and were already entred For how else should we conceive that defiling of the flesh should be thus put properly to accompany dispising dominion dignity c. if it were not that through Christs manifestation in power in these our Masters of the flesh our dispising them came to be dispising of him The which their Antichristian humour of dispising dominion is also hinted to grow from the same root of insubjection we formerly noted in Isaiah that is as men would be there tasting the strong drink of Morality and Divine Precept upon Precept they should in the end be found of no farther assurance then such as dream of meat and behold he is empty c. So these that through temptations of fleshly Pride and Lust should despise Dominion in hope to gain thereby power to act without control should be found silthy dreamers also And as lust and concupiscence is the usual parent of stubborness and rebellion so is that a parent to these again as heretofore noted in the mysterie of iniquity And to euince so much and clear these places or S. Iude to intend the crime of Antichristianism he in his first description of these defilers of the flesh makes it the same with S. Iohns other description of Antichrist which we shall speak of anon where they are noted to have been such people as did profess the same faith with others and that were not manifested to be against Christ but by deserting Apostolical Communion or Authority So here S. Iude writing of the common salvation and desiring Christians to conttnd for faith once delivered to the Saints that is the faith that is accompanied with patience humility c. he tells them that certain men are crept in unawares that is they are such as professing the same common salvation or the same Jesus do thereupon creep into our Communion unespied Although their Antichristian departure or separation be not here set down as by S. Iohn yet because we cannot think them blamable for being of their Communion it is to be necessarily supposed as the cause for which these ungodly men were of old ordained to this condemnation and then the reason of their Antichristianism is plainly set down Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness that is using Christian liberty as a cloak to maliciousness they shall proceed to the fact of Antichristianism denying the only Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ which is the same with he is Antichrist that denieth the father and the son By the title of Lord added to God and Christ we may also gather that their denyal of them was in regard of power And the two instances following of the stubborn Jews and revolting Angels do farther manifest that Christian insubjection was the fault which S. Jude did here forewarn and reprove And the disobeent Angels being set out to us as such as kept not their first estate but left their habitation he gives us a farther paralel of S. Iohns Antichrists they went out from us that is they left that first estate or habitation they had under Christs Government as Angels left that they had under God Then S. Iude proceeds But these despisers of Authorities speak evil of those things which they know not that is they know not or at least will not consider what is the end or good of humane society and how the same is preserved by subjection and obedience but what they know naturally as bruit beasts in those things they corrupt themselves Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the error of Baalim for reward and perished in the gain
S. Paul S. Peter and other of Christs own Disciples because not of them shall not be by them called Saints also no not so much as Mr. Paul c. Whenas if any Author is mentioned by them he hath the addition of Mr. as Mr. Calvin or the like And their excuse for not doing it is the greatest Argument of their pride which is because the Apostles in their parity used not to give these titles to one another therefore are they not to give it to them neither Concluding as it should seem that because they had now attained an equal pitch of sanctity with them they might thereupon say our brother Paul Peter or the like But they should remember that as God alone is the searcher of hearts in such sort as to to distinguish between men of the same outward profession and say Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile so is it becoming Christian Duty and Charity to leave men in these censures to stand or fall to their own Master To him that hath the Keys of Heaven and of Hell we must leave the judgement and distinction of those persons and their qualities that are fit for the one or the other Whereas to us that cannot discover the hypocrisie of persons nor tell who in the visible Church are of the Communion of Saints and who not it is no ways safe nor becoming to make these arrogant and deceivable distinctions so as to call some Saints count others cast-aways in regard of any secret tokens of Grace and Salvation by our selves discoverable Whereas our Saviour that could best foretel of these hypocrisies bids us have an especial regard to these kinde of men that should come in sheeps cloathing but inwardly were ravening wolves Yes ravening Wolves indeed even too plainly found to be such by those seditions and destructive courses which do every day appear to be the fruit of these Trees of shew In which respect although none on earth can judge of these hidden Graces and Endowments by which one man is preferred before another as a Citizen of Heaven yet so far as men are here to be Citizens in Christs Kingdom the Church in that respect there are again certain moral Vertues and qualities differently seated and appearing in the Meembers of each Church whereby the head thereof may in reference to publike Peace and Order judge one man better or more holy then another But because these sorts of men do usually raise their Discipline and Tenents by abusing some Texts and Phrases of Scripture as supposing them plainly appliable to their uses when they are therein but set down as mysteries we shall now shew some Reasons for the darkness therein sometimes used CHAP. XIII Of the Mystical Delivery of some Divine Truths and the Reason thereof SOme there are who contend very seriously and with many arguments to make it appear that that work of Creation which is to ordinary apprehensions set down to be the imployment of six days was wholly effected in one chiefly perswading themselves that the contrary assertions of allowing six days time was derogatory to the Almightiness of such an Agent as was occupied herein In those that oppose them there is as much invention used to shew why we should keep our selves to the belief of six days work and that the litteral sense of that story could import none other And truly were I to judge I should assign to these last the greater hold of truth as not deeming it a diminution to the sufficiency of any workman that is not bound by any thing besides his own will to be as long or as short a time as he pleaseth in the finishing of what he undertakes especially since it is not therewithal set down that he had not ability to do it sooner For if the dispatch of the Creation in one day should have argued Almightiness more then in six then they should have left him but one hour or rather but one minute for the doing thereof if they must suppose him measuring his Almightiness in his operations by the time of their production Therefore as the only will and good pleasure of God Almighty was at first the cause why all things were by him at all or in such and such manner created so was it also the only rule and guid that set measure and form to the way and means of their preservation and so consequently was it the reason why the several species of creatures came to be endued with such friendly aspects and inclinations as that they prosecuting the same naturally and continually should therewith also preserve and promote the good of their fellow creatures Which affection although to that end common to all was yet only necessarily and insensibly to themselves imposed on the lower sorts of things when as the most noble race of creatures which had more resemblance to him had also so much knowledge and will implanted as to enable them not only to be so far apprehensive as to be expresly thankful for these favours but also to furnish them with power for farther acquisition of things delightful and good and of avoidance of what was contrary as hath been heretofore observed In which course of liberty and freedom of will whereby the welfare of voluntary Agents comes to be referred to their own demeanor and guidance God makes another manner of condition with us men then he did with Angels For the Angels that fell he hath so abandoned in his justice that they cannot rise and these that do stand he hath so surrounded with his grace and providence that they cannot fall For they sinning actually and personally or else after the same manner continuing upright and obedient could not but from his justice or goodness expect personal sentence accordingly whereas to us men that sinned by imputation as transgressing in the originals and representatives of our kind we in our separate persons are neither irremediably censured to punishment nor yet to mercy or reward For although traduction made eternal death liable to all even to such as had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression yet forasmuch as we had not like our first Parents personally so sinned God appoints us another means and way of deliverance whereby it should come to pass that none should suffer for the fault of Adam in his actual disobedience against God but such as should personally afterwards incur that guilt of disobedience by renewing it against his Son Christ Jesus nor should the bite and contagion of that Serpent in Paradise prove mortal to any that should with the eye of faith look unto this Brazen Serpent for cure But then farther some of mankind being for their original fault as aforesaid in justice to be punished and some again in mercy to be freed it stood not agreeable to Gods impartial rule of administration particularly to appoint and prosecute any peremptory and unavoidable means of distinct saving of all those persons which shall hereafter
execution Thus when â— knifes point empowered by touch from the Load-stone or an Iron or othâ—r thing heated by fire do in such degree draw and burn as if the Loadstone or fire were present it must undeniably argue more strength in that case then where without personal presence the same could not be performed And to proceed in examination and comparison of the causes of things according to distance if there could be found a Load-stone or fire of such efficacy as to have empowered or heated any Iron to such perfection as it should have continued that vertue without itteration or could again one Load-stone or fire without so much as touch but only with one efflux of power have at distance so strongly impowered all iron that each piece and part thereof can now as of an inherent and proper vertue of its own effectually and perpetually burn and attract without farther immediate communication with its first cause or original power it should then happen that the power of that power must be acknowledged so much greater in it self although its efficatiousness herein must through its distance in operation be in a manner wholly concealed and clowded from our knowledge Even as in our sports that gamester that can make one Bowl or Ball strike another and that another in such certain places successively as to cause the last of them to rest or move as he desires is more to be admired for his power and artifice then he that can do it but with his hand and he most that can do it at greatest distance and with most itteration and repetition of successive stroaks in the Bowls or Balls After the same manner we may conceive of Deity making one thing the cause to another for the effecting of that course of providence he determined In which doing his working in and through all intervenient causes and occurrents without being seen in any and making them to do it with so great ease to himself as not to be seen therein must discover as well his real being as our ignorance in not conceiving it For to fix and fasten those effects we daily behold as issuing onely from nature chance or I know not what occult quality without through light into Deity and Providence as the prime cause is as if one cast at Dice or Bowls were more from chance then another and not necessarily depending on and following that strength of casting and those occurrences of bounds rubs c. as well as others but these having turns beyond our expectations or notice we put them on chance because we cannot see through all that variety of intervenient causes that must make them such For as the several motions and change of place in the particular Cards in shuffling and cutting if leasurely demonstrated to us would make those dealings we count most strange and depending on chance seem most reasonable even so also were we artificial enough when the hits of a Bowl or bound of a Ball is shewed us we might by estimation and measuring the effect know and measure the cause and say that Bowl or Ball that did it must come from such and such a point and be projected with such and such a strength In which regard as we finde such different abilities even amongst our selves in the comprehension and practice how these things are or may be effected so may it easily be conceived that by degrees of proportion he that could not be by any defect impeded in notice or comprehension no more then in act and execution must have both his existence and providence made apparent hereby for as the Bowl or Ball have no power to act of themselves without our impulsion or a forraign mover even so the Elements of which they are composed cannot without the influence of a Deity be reasonably presumed to have power to move and act also Although these instances of fire of Load-stone and of sports may serve to bring to our conceits something of the manner of appearance of Gods Omnipotency in his works of Providence and Government of the world yet being themselves but created bodies and vertues they must in proportion of vigor even in that kinde wherein they so much excel all other things be infinitely excelled by that power that caused it and that even by the same reason of ability of power before mentioned namely working at greater distance For as the Load-stone doth excel in vertue of attraction that of the touched knife as being thereof the formal cause so must that again which was the cause hereof in the Loadstone excel in power that also especially being the cause of other things besides and so on till we come to the universal cause of all things and their Vertues who as the more distant from the immediate effect and execution must proportionably have the prime and highest degree of energy and power ascribed unto him And then again although absence from present execution prove distance and distance prove power in that cause which is the cause of any thing yet because unto men the inward and formal causes of effects are seldom known but our knowledge is meerly experience that is to say from the experience of so many constant effects proceeding from such or such an immediate Agent to conclude that to be the sole cause thereof It is therefore hard for us to look beyond that present cause especially if its cause had but few effects and those hardly remarkable and so to look on till we come to God the cause of all As for example could the effect of the Load-stone upon iron or the Mariners Needle have been to invisibly repeated as no man could have by present sense known it to be the cause we should beyond all peradventure from the constancy of effects proceeding from the same Needle have imagined it the sole cause thereof So then we that can neither from true inspection into the formal Nature and activity of heat and of the influence of the superior bodies nor susceptibility of the lower Elements as severally mingled tell from thence that such and such species must be produced or that again cannot tell that these principles we finde in Nature were necessarily to be such and so many for maintenance of the effects of unity and propriety of place as those were again for maintenance of Creation we I say cannot be wondred at for not being able to forejudge more or other species in Nature then those we know by sense and that also in productions neerest us And since in our most ordinary and familiar sports as aforesaid we cannot judge of events although their true causes be within the compass of present sense we are still less to be wondred at when ignorance and doubtings shall often arise of a cause so far of which is never but by way of miracle made the Author of any immediate effect Whereas in truth and plain reason this Ascension and Progression of causes must as elsewhere declared end in an omnipotent
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
person as that by peremptory conviction to good his liberty to ill should as heretofore noted by consequence be debarred But that God should be as mysterious and reserved in the dispensation of his Providence in Nature as in his Precepts in Scripture It is enough that there is Moses and the Prophets such sufficient revelation already given to all men in general as to save any one in particular when as a miraculous extraordinary defeat or conviction of every evil action like one risen from the dead destroys not onely mans liberty but will look like partiality yielding hereby greater light to direct evil persons then was before given to good ones And to instance in that which yet comes neerer our present business for the conviction of the demi-Athiest of the world such as oppose God in that God he hath placed over us if there should in all such Enterprises new Advertizements from Heaven be given to prevent or always infelicity follow to deter then could no such things as Loyalty and Rebellion have been existent Whereas now God permitting the stubborn and obdurate hearted sometimes to prosper in that evil as he thereby leaves us to our freedoms so yet by means of those many Precepts against it and examples of punishment he leaves us unexcusable for all our attempts therein notwithstanding success may for a time attend this as well as it doth other sins Which success we may well conjecture also tolerated for a just punishment as well to subjects Rebellion which on their parts caused it by having the woe of many Princes as also for a common punishment to other Princes and Monarchs themselves who out of their greater hatred and malice to one another and covetous desire of gain have suffered these common disturbers and enemies to them all thus to settle and prosper divine permission ordering those things in such sort that we may well believe that as an adequate punishment for these faults on both sides these lesser Antichrists shall like the great one before noted continue in the World till Christs second coming in brightness also Again as the essential freedom of Will must produce variety of actions so must the privacy thereof and of its inclination and aym in atchieving them cause or endanger such mens mistake that undertake to judge and censure them either to good or bad And the like must also happen through ignorance of Circumstances accompanying the acts themselves and also through ignorance of former merit or demerit in the parties now prosperous or unsuccessful all which may alter the state of the present event from what we now see and apprehend to be called just or otherwise Besides since the best of humane actions cannot be in full degree perfect if evil ones had not been permitted all would have been not onely naught comparatively as being much beneath the perfection of God or Angels but naught also in the highest degree as having none worse Whereupon Gods justice against sin might have lighten upon whole mankinde as equally evil and guilty and the work of mercy in saving some could not for want of disparity take effect without partiality whereas now by his fixed rule of Providence he hath so bounded the power of the most wicked as they cannot make destruction in this life to any great height And this because the pleasures and appetites of Food and Generation the natural affection of Storge pitty and sense of honor will be so perpetually prevalent to the advance and preservation of specifical and personal being that the most malicious and tyrannical Athiests cannot make any contrivance or have any certainty to be generally prevalent to destroy others but they shall withal thereby injure themselves here besides most assured destruction by this means brought to themselves hereafter At which time the good shall also have their reward it being unreasonable that that sentence and reward which must have respect to the actions of mens whole life should be expected until after it is finished And therefore as to the other part of the wise mans Reason given for entertainment of Athiesm and wickedness amongst men namely Gods forbearance to execute sentence speediâ—y against and evel work as the forepassed reasons may in part satisfie why he should so do so is there a farther ground thereof Which is our inconsiderate measuring Gods time and motives in execution of Justice to be the same with ours and according to our own present sense thereof For because when any thing is done against our Commands or Authority we should our selves be presently and personally shewing our mislike and proceed to correction or reproof even so we may imagine God should do also not duly weighing those differences between him and us that might justly make alteration herein As first we our selves being personally and more immediately affected with the injuries which are wrought unto us must out of natural desire and delight in acts of revenge needs be more personally and presently pressing to self-repairation and that without thought of the prejudices of others to arise thereby Whereas God Almighty being not patible himself nor otherwise to be prejudiced then by those harms done to others of his Creatures and that disturbance which our sins do cause in the course of his Providence cannot be imagined to be so hastened in the course of his punishments as thereby to cause a greater and more general harm to ensue but as he doth punish but in order to universal care and Providence so to contrive and watch such means and opportunity for doing it as may best advance the general good of all Again unto us that have but an uncertain and momentary time of abidance in this world it must therefore seem necessary that we should be always as speedy as we can in execution of all acts of Justice for fear it will not be after in our power here and knowing it will not be at all in our power hereafter whereas these hazards being not compatible with Gods eternity both in existence and power as well in this life as that to come he cannot thereupon be streightned in time like us Whereupon since a thousand yeers are with him but as one day therefore are we to answer these scoffers with S. Peter that that which some men count slackness is not to be attributed to God but we are rather gratefully to admire his long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And could men but silence or suspend that partial respect and estimation which each one is ready to cast towards the justice of their own Cause and also that natural impatience and thirst of present revenge and reparation which he expects should appear in maintenance of his right and in vindication of his sufferings he might then finde great reason why God should not expresly appear in his redress although his case should be as deplorable and his usage as injust as himself doth now judge it to
rigor his happy life be not defeated And no otherwise then as it rests as the highest proof of each single mans judgement and ability to carry himself in such a just and seasonable moderation between Epicurism and Stoicism between natural enjoyment and vertuous restraint that neither the vigor of youth may be suffered to defeat its own or after pleasures by intemperate abuse nor the too great care for enjoyment hereafter not onely needlesly deprive him of present possession but render him unfit for delight for the future like him that hath lost his stomack through too long fasting or like him that hath borrowed beyond ability to repay All which reasons seem to me of so much weight that I cannot but in humility joyn with that unerring wisdom and truth in esteeming him a fool that saith in his heart there is no God And all because they are become corrupt and abominable in their own doings being ignorant wherein true pleasure doth consist and because also they would with greater freedom act in their own way of licenciousness and continue in their rapine and uncharitableness eating the people of God as they would eat bread and then flatter themselves with a belief that God seeth it not For Religion must be acknowledged the onely thing that can steadily keep loyalty and and all other vertues in perfection For the terrors of shame and the Law may through secrecy power and corruption of manners be many times wholly defeated of their force of restraint but to him that believs the eye of an all-seeing God is perpetually over him as no severity can be found sufficient to scare him from goodness so no encouragement can arise valuable to entice him to evil No no no certainly let men boast of their godliness or of eying or seeking God while they will if they were but so far removed from Atheism as really to believe his power and continual presence over them those daily acts of disloyalty and uncharitableness would not then be so frequently sounding in our ears Can we think that if any one did verily believe that to resist the higher powers were to receive to himself certain damnation that he would then adventure his salvation upon such nice grounds and distinctions as for any temporal hope or gain to make doubt of obeying his King as supreme did not his belief of Gods veracity and this fear of offending him grow slack and Ambition Pride or Covetousness on the other hand more forcibly draw him on to perpetrate such actions as he had stronger belief should yield him a present gain then was that terror of forbearing them out of a more remote and less feared punishment to ensue In the mean time however want of Conscience may make such as these forget God yet generally such as have more real thoughts and aims of publike good and humane conservation are for want of sufficient judgement and insight wherein general and more publike good doth consist led to the mistake of divine Providence even when the private sence of the sufferings of themselves or friends amidst those changes and calamities which are incident to the sons of men do press them to be impatient for want of present redress Yet could we separate our selves from our Passions and interests why might we not plainly see that Rebellion Civil war and the like ways of humane destruction were like Plagues and Famines many times by God sent and permitted for the general good of men also For these naturally and ordinarily happening but unto such places and people that are so crouded with company that the blessings and benefits of Nature cannot through the envye and strife of neighbors one towards another be by any one truely and quietly enjoyed why may we not in this case suppose God even by way of Providence to make use of our sins and the punishment of them and hereby to cut off and take away such as are most haughty and entermedling that the more meek and patient may through their more free and quiet enjoyment have greater cause to praise him then before Nay why might we not herein perceive him to be most truly and impartially vindictive also For since himself in his good pleasure and secret wisdom and for reasons heretofore given had determined not to be personally and expresly intermedling in the present judging and vindication of humane affairs what cleerer way could there be to argue both Almightiness Justice and Providence then to make the sins themselves to be the constant punishments to the offenders Thus personally may we finde that lust intemperance and the other exorbitances which each person entertains contrary to the rules of Vertue or modesty are to himself prejudicial also And so in polity again disobedience insurrection and all disloyal acts which are introductive of publike disturbance and Civil war are by means of the same Civil war a certain punishment to the Authors Wherein although those that have perhaps had the least share of introducing them may for tryal of their Loyalty or Patience be the greatest sufferers yet as none can say but he hath suffered far under his deserts and may well think themselves happy that in this life their portion of punishments and afflictions have been shared so are the other in the life to come to expect that fuller measure of punishment which their more full contribution in these violations of Charity may claim from the divine and impartial Justice of that great presever of men In the mean time because none as bearing Gods Image and because of that inward plantation of love can be without some charitable deeds and intentions therefore as that their portion of prosperity which they shall be in this life possessed of may be understood as a full reward for what hath been by them well done here so is that measure of happiness they therein have above others but like the advantage that fatted Oxen have above lean even while they in their jollity are filling up that measure of wickedness which may provoke divine vengeance both to deprive them of life here and also bring them to eternal punishment hereafte Thus far have I laboured in setting forth that perfect harmony which is between the voice of Scripture and Reason and declaring as far as was to our present purpose necessary how they do joyntly conspire and point to the same ends Gods glory and mans good â—etween which too great a divorce hath been hitherto apprehended and made use of by some who discovering how in some particulars they seem to cross and turn several ways have thereupon in a hasty zeal followed one alone with such neglect and direliction of the other that they have not endeavoured to finde where they do again meet and unite Thus because it hath been often observed that men in the prosecution of their own benefits or pleasures do interrupt or grow careless of Gods service and glory a conclusion is thereupon presently drawn that mans profit or pleasure
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
which in them cannot be as also they must want observation of the signs themselves and motives unto them both for want of time and for want of that affection that should spur thereunto Nor can these signs be of much force again on men or creatures very ancient where want of spirits in the brain must leave the appetite and affection to these very dull and almost delete and leave also the nerves and organs of the body so empty and hollow that they represent not with any steadiness or strength as also the experience of danger to arise must make them slow in new undertakings But to return to enquiry after the rise of knowledge and reason from instance in reading and learning At first every letter must by its often admission through the vissual nerve receive an answerable impression and figure in the brain before any difference can be estimated and valued between it and another letter by comparison for else could there be no difference put between any thing but what the eyâ— could see at once And this comprehension cannot be well made at first sight but according to appliableness of the organ and intention of mind in the learner and therefore in teaching of Birds and Beasts we use watchings corrections and rewards to make them attend In children that have their brain of a more tender substance and less distorted by former figures and have also according to their bigness more store of it then men we find how easie it s to teach them to read over older folks notwithstanding they have not usually the like desire and intention of mind So that the first step to knowledge is to feel and see well and to have good senses the next is to compare and make differences Younglings coming first to see look upon every thing with like amazement but because the light is the most usual thing they behold for the various session thereof makes colours they therefore after they have by custom past over its first dislike caused through strangeness first like the brightest and such colours as shew it most lively And hence they come to be pleased with glasses candles c. before shapes and figures and Babies come to be but after-plays to toys of shew for they see nothing without light but many shapes and figures besides those of men and women which shape again as being oftenest notified in comparison of all others comes to be most familiar pleasing And upon like reason come yonglings to like of that particular party that is most present to their sense it being much encreased by experience of indemnity So Ducks will follow the Hen that hatched them and so children that Nurse or other body that is most conversant familiar and kind unto them and they like and dislike others of the same kind as they resemble or differ most from these The pleasure of motion which young ones have in being rocked or in playing one with another seems to affect from that accustomed tumbling they had in the womb for feeling is the first of senses coming with life it self if not the same But then as the brain and animal spirit of each creature stands chiefly imployed in the womb in the motion and sense of feeling of the limbs and outward parts and doth thereupon prompt to exercise and delight in like agitation and motion afterwards yet when objects from the senses do afterwards come to imploy the brain and spirits inwardly and when sense from the inward parts do draw the fancy and intention that way then by degrees doth the exercise and delight in the motion of the limbs cease and men become not only sedentary and studious as in relation to figures entertained in the brain but also to be strongly affected with the pleasures of eating and drinking and such other enjoyments as may be performed with least shaking and dislocation of the stomack and other inward parts Those loud and harsher noises that prevail in quieting of children that cannot please from custom do take their effect from diversion that is by recalling their imagination from the sense of some other suffering to attend this strange noise now in their ears and not from pleasure of the noise it self which can please but by comparison of a less affliction to a greater But all our delights while very young are most corporal and have like to other Sensitives reference to our own sensible Customs But when we come to observe what rate the sense and custom of others put upon things persons or actions we then according to our own particular sense of the ability of the persons so rating them judge and conclude of their worth or otherwise which we call honour and dishonor And hence it comes that bigger Childrens most eager sports are usually made in imitation of what they see men do and the end of them to aim at victory and pre-excellence one above another And as we come to be in liking of persons and then of actions so children at first are imitating the actions of such they most converse with and take notice of so that sometimes they are washing sweeping making fires or the like from their converse and familiarity amongst servants but when they come abroad into the world persons of greatest honor come through the observation of the respect by others given that way to be most observed by them and consequently those actions that are performed by and to them to please above other actions For these having uniformity as being regulated by Law and Custom must affect above the lose incoherent and disorderly actions of others as handsome faces and good hands do above those that are common For it is not the persons but the dignity we affect And all actions and things that refer not to sensible good refer to honor and things come to have esteem as attendants and causes of honor For as honorable actions draw on our observation and esteem so self-respect leads us to affect and pursue the causes of them But unto the observation of the causes of honor children seldom reach for the effect must first so highly please as to provoke to ambition And therefore with them and the more ordinary sort of people flattery is apprehended to be the same with honor And for want of observatoin and intelligence wherein true honor doth consist they take all kind of praises and commendations to be the same with it And upon this score they may well indeed conclude that honor is in the honoring first and not in the honored for that there being no true cause or reason in the party this way honored why this praise or honor should be given but the cause and design of it taking issue from the flatterer it must thence follow that as honor is in the honored first so flattery in the flattered first From the custom of feeling before spoken of it is that very young infants or creatures finding nothing under them for support as they had in the
vertue or goodness And hence it comes that we not onely stand liking and disliking others as they are friends or enemies to our prime favorite but because love and hatred do arise and encrease by comparison it may be also observed how that in the same family that greater affection which one brother or servant carrieth towards another above the rest doth by consequence draw him into as great hatred and dis-esteem of others in the same relation upon that onely consideration Insomuch as we shall find anger and revenge no where so implacably prosecuted as by one brother against another No otherwise then as subjects in the same Kingdom are ready to break into factions and sidings through those diversities of sects and opinions amongst themselves whereby we see it come to pass that by reason of that continual exasperation which must arise from the daily sight and discourses of such things wherein they stand contrary this repeated difference doth more strongly engage them to mutual discontent and deadly hatred then it doth against strangers and such as do more differ from them Insomuch as there are more Christians slain by one another upon the score of Religion then are by them upon others or those of all other Religions upon them upon the like ground nay we too truly find it that even in the sub-divisions and sects of Christianity those that have lesser differences will yet by reason of vicinity be drawn into more and more dangerous quarrels against one another then against that sect which differs most from them both In which case if the publike rule and judgement for determination be not regarded it will fare with them as it doth with men falling out about a mistaken word gesture look or the like even that for want of a sit means of reconciliation the discontent and hatred will daily encrease until it come to be determined in the field The names of Sympathy and Antipathy are usually given to the affections of both sorts as well to those strong likings and aversions introduced at the nostrils as those at the eyes but if we respect more occult naturalness herein then those of the first sort may be onely called natural because they take their impression so inwardly and by such insensible degrees as seldom to admit controulment by other senses or the impressions drawn from them Whereas the other that hath its rise from more artificial collections as loving or liking other things according to their conformity to these Figures or Ideas of perfection which in each kind are raised in mens fancies may in both respects be brought to be controuled and examined by other Figures and Methods as they shall be called up and judged by the Spirits and Humors which in the other case cannot be because these Spirits themselves do in the affections that way brought in become tainted in their own nature and substance Those kinds of aversions which proceed from sight as from difference and abhorrence of figure may be easily reconciled and made familar by an ingenious patience nor is it dangerous to give them of that food to eat Whereas those things that have contrariety to the particular humors or temperament of the stomach are not in that kinde to be jested with for that although outward smell or taste should not be perceptive of difference which many times it wonderfully is in that case yet it is not to be questioned but the vitiated stomack of the party will quickly nauseat and disgust it and therefore we find that these sorts of longings or aversions are incident to the weaker and more sickly constitutions Here and in other places we have been the more copious for setting down the more concealed causes of those operations which use to pass under the rank of natural instincts that by placing every wheel of providence in its due order and motion the real existence wisdom and power of God might be more readily seen and acknowledged The usual ground that leads men to Atheism and doubt whether there be any God at all being many times scandal taken at the vulgar and ordinary assignation of effects unto God himself as if they were by him immediately done when as they coming to find the same like other things to have their own natural cause of production also they thereby come to think that men are mistaken in the one as well as the other When as by help of a through insight and sufficiency of their own to discover how noâ—hing is by chance done but that the greatest and most important things being by divine wisdom and order brought to pass by those things which to us do appear most weak and contemptible they may thereby and by means of that obseavable gradation of causes come to discern a God at the top of all From whom as they did at first take their source and original as being in their whole mass but rays of divine bounty so do they in all their variations amongst themselves still make some expressions and demonstrations of that perfection and simplicity which at first gave them their being Thus the natural desire of union induced through custom is by providence directed towards variety and multiplication as before declared In which again as the individuals do through their natural pursuit of pleasure attain to their several perfections they do then again as in pursuit of the highest of these natural provocations aim at a new union and coition also By successive repetitions whereof as each man and each sensitive seems to reintegrate it self into that first Parent of their kind so doth the submission of them in their several kinds to the same common Laws of Adam or first matter bring on a confession also that there is a common Parent and cause of union for them all In which course custom and variety are affections semblably made use of for the sustentation of Sensitives as motion and rest are for prrservation of Naturals Whereby it comes to pass that as matter doth naturally affect closeness and settlement which is answerable to union and rest so doth it by customary degrees observed in motion release it self in and of that tendency to separation which its own sublimed part by means of heat had forced upon it All things cheerfully dancing those rounds which are by Divine Rule and Providence appointed unto them As we are thus prevailed upon by custom to cast a different choice and liking towards things and persons as they are in their naturals so come we through custom and constancy in company and conversation to stand diversly affected towards them also as in relation to their morals there being a gracefulness and winning insinuation taken from behaviour as well as from person And this especially towards years when as time sufficient hath passed for making observation of difference herein and naturalizing our fancies to those garbs and habits which cohabitation brings within our notice at which time the other affections induced from personal beauty c. do
and command us cannot fail of a constant power to govern guide us also and thereupon they depending not so wholly on sense but being usually above its controul are not in like danger of a defeat by a negative from thence For Logick must assertain us by the rule of all or none whereas the other needs but look like truth and by joyning with that which hath been so fully assented unto already stands always generally proved where it is not totally contradicted To prove that there is a God a Resurrection and future judgement and the like faith is enabled by absence of negatives from sense by degrees to silence doubtings and to contract a positive assurance In which case when that which from authority or report of others or conceit raised in my self is at first apprehended as a thing that may be it will afterwards through absense of dissent or denial shake off its first state of doubting and become as a certaine conclusion of that which most assuredly is when neither experience in my self nor sufficient aurhority elsewhere doth or can demonstratively contradict Demonstratively and highly demonstratively it must be also after such time that this opinion hath once fastened it self upon these prevailing affections Even as we find that children will be so far scared by formidable tales and the apprehensions of such objects things as they could never from sense have notice of as to avoid being in the dark lying alone or the like And although these conceits were first entertained from the ungrounded reports of such persons as are of much less credit with them for ability and learning then those that do contradict it yet can it not take off the prevalence of that which hath so steady a support within and hath not strong experiments to contradict it from without This steady and effectual way of prevalence it pleased the All-seeing providence to make use of in the propagation of the Gospel it self divine wisdom never overthrowing nature but by his grace steering and directing her For although at the first for the remove of pre-occupation and making an impression in the hearts and affections of men he did extraordinarily appeal to sense by miracle yet had the encrease of the Christian faith its ordinary and next dependance on this effectual way of preaching even as that had again on the efficacy of the holy Ghost Towards the furtherance whereof as well in the first receipt as growth afterwards it pleased God Almighty also to make that natural thirst to be always living and that imbred sense of Morality accompanied with that continual humor of each mans adjudication for his own merit and for the demerit of others to serve as steps and degrees whereby to enter as well as preside in the belief of mankind and that in a more high and steady degree of energy and effectual operation then could be done by any doctrine brought in and made dependant on such philosophical disputes as were then raised in the Grecian Schools For although it be not hard to prove both a Deity and the excellency of the Christian faith by such like disputations as S. Paul once used in the School of Tyranus which may also be sometimes necessary for conviction of such as are capable of impressions that way soonest yet considering that even the wise and best learned are swayed by natural affections as well as others it is not to be doubted but that the reliance on these two mastering passions of hope and fear would render the instructer to be most generally and steadily prevalent even by proposal and pressing upon them rewards and punishments of so great height as were above the degree of any former comprehension In which case of exaltation of and pressure upon these affections especially that of fear we shall be often drawn to seek or avoid benefits or dangers which are neither present nor can have other sensible assurance that they will be and in the mean time stand neglectful of those which sense it self demonstrates both to be and to be formidable For there is none that can have equal assurance of the reality of Purgatory or Hell fire as of that which is in his kitchin yet by reason of this so often and pressing presentations thereof to the fancy and so to the affections by fear he will through the instigation thereof have his will inclined to take notice of that which he believes is most to be feared and so consequently will prosecute or avoid all those courses which he is made believe will acquit him of the danger hereof These things well considered there will be good cause found even in reason also for that prevalency and spreading ability which attended the Professors of the Protestant Religion over those of the Church of Rome For those more nice and retired speculations of the Schoolmen could not with all their fine subtilties so accurately delivered in their Books and Disputations be reasonably presumed half so efficatious for conviction in those things where reason was but subservient as was those more familiar insinuations which the Protestant Preachers applied themselves unto in their sermons made suitable to the affections of their present Auditors For first there are more that hear Sermons then read Books and again the Preacher can better know and distinguish the temper and inclination of his Auditory then the writer can of those that shall read him And besides there is a great efficacy to be attributed to elocution and gracefulness of delivery And in the sub-divisions of Protestants again we find that side still most prevalent and encreasing that is most sedulous in this course of Preaching also and that also in the plainest manner For that language and exact method that would hecome a Sermon made at S. Maries would be unfit and ineffectual to be used in a Country Auditory In the first it is expected he should be exact in his observation of Order and Scholastick Rules and Expressions whereas he that makes a Sermon or writes a Book of a vulgar address it behoves him to be more copious and plain in his delivery even so far as he conceives his hearers or readers not fitted with pre-notion enough to conceive and understand him in a more compendious and exact method and in case he find them possessed with strong aversions and pre-occupations he is then to enlarge himself and to make use of repetition and inculcation of Doctrine whereby he may be able to convict at several times and by degrees such as could not or would not be won at once and on a sudden the which I hope may serve as an apology for my self in those itterations and ways of pressure I have used all along this present Treatise by which or by transferring and reflection on my self if I have become a fool for truths sake and for conviction of such as are puffed up against one another and against Christs Ministers too I am not wanting of good Authority and
president therein But to return to the discourse of Figure although particular words did arise from and were made conceivable by particular figurate things and their accidents yet when we can make notions and sentences by joyning particular words it is because many figures may be by use so brought into one as to be conceived all at once even as the whole story of any thing wherein are several figures painted may by often sight be brought into one figure in our fancy in such sort as if it were but one figure as it is now but one whole piece And as again in this whole piece or figure we are able to distinguish upon occasion the several figures therein one from another according to their several postures and scituations so in each figurate body these adjuncts of Number Scite Habit Proportion c. are but parts of figure it self as constituting his whole form Nay motion it self is not otherwise conceivable then as altering the Figure of a body from what it was while it was resting and quiessent And therefore as any of them are change the whole figure must be changed also in regard the lines from thence issuing to our sight will not be the same they were before Whereupon it will also follow that as that party shall never so little alter his standing or divers other persons shall be beholding the same object it must by means of those several lines issuing from the diversly scituated parts thereof unto the eyes of the several beholders put on a differing representation of shape and figure except it be in pictures or the like which have such real levels and smoothness as not to make an alteration in the return of the beam through inequality of the object As words and figures so Sciences collect into totals in our fancies under the general notion of good and bad and useful or not For we can no more seriously consider any thing without respect to our selves then we can see with other mens eyes or judge of them by their reason for particulars had their admission through hope and fear like or dislike And from hence it is we find that subjects especially such as look not to have share in the mannagery of them are ever finding fault with the execution and rigour of the Laws and will ever like those Laws best that themselves may interpret and mannage And hence it is also that Merchants and such as propound to raise themselves by trade and action will not be brought to attend the discourses and speculations of schollers and contemplative persons nor they again descend to the imployment of the others each of them having long fancied their honor and benefits to arise their own way soonest which they now apprehending themselves skilful in are not to be expected so far to remit their intention of benefit their own way as to divert to an imployment that can but betray their ignorance Although as we said knowledge flow from sense and beasts have them in equal number with us it will not follow that therefore they should be as wise For first they ordinarily come short of us in quickness of feeling and although they have equal acuteness of sight yet they usual trust to smelling as aforesaid which can yield little observation or variety but chiefly they want time to learn for they are at their perfection before children of like years have learnt any thing But most of all they want so much quickness of sense by reason of their hard breeding and thick senced skins as to make them sensible of want And again their appetites are so few and cold that they want spur to enquiry and so to knowledge Which last consideration appears in Innocents who are always laughing and so far pleased with what they get or see that they put not themselves forth to any enquiry after the possession or removal of any thing whereby to encrease their understanding Though this stupidity have its original cause from numbness of feeling as beasts have for we find that they will endure pain or smart better then wise folk who are commonly thinnest skinned yet the nearest reason is easie content and satisfaction And as we see beasts of prey to be the wisest of such as live not with us because their food is of hardest acquisition so of those that are domestique those that through necessity of getting food from us do observe us most are consequently most crafty For craft is but particular wisdom as theirs is which reacheth only at getting food or avoiding of blows But wisdom beasts cannot have for it must be a general know and compleatness of comprehension in some measure proportioned to humane ability For as all things in nature are dependant upon one another so no one can be throughly known without something be known of all in such sort as nothing may be left to stand so far wanting or negative as to the spoiling of our Method And therefore as in the Mathematicks he is to be held for the ablest Architect or Engineer that through natural sufficiency and foregoing observation is endued with a capacity to retain and most exactly to comprehend in his brain the entire and precise models and methods of several buildings and engines whereby upon occasion of erection of house or engine he may be able out of those frames and plots conceived in his fancy by way of theory and out of knowledge of the true nature and use of materials to contrive afterwards such a house or engine as may correspond with his end and desire or to know whether it be feasiable or no Even so in matters of polity also they are to be held as the most sufficient artists that being most knowing of all those several parts whereof the political body is framed and of their true nature and use can frame to themselves the largest and most comprehensive methods and schemes of government even such as by an entire configuration may include each several rank and order of men so disposed of and set on work as that the whole political frame or building may be held up unto that way of work and rule which is fittest for it Whereas he that will go about to contrive an engine for motion or the like without precedent knowledge of the Trochlick and Statick principles and of the true natures of those materials whereof it is to be framed and without full and exact comprehension of every part useful and necessary to his work or he that will undertake to reform or set up a Government without fore-consideration of the true differences and properties of command and obedience and of the natural tempers and inclinations of men in their several orders and how they may be made appliable and useful therein and who is not also entirely comprehensive hereof so as in his Scheme or Model to place every one in such a proper station as by union and application of endeavour the whole frame may be preserved and kept in
if any such thing could have averted their punishment but rather aggravated their offences by adding this rebellion against their Prince to their former against God and so breaking more of his Laws For suppose the people never so innocent as in some of the alledged cases may appear or suppose as all of us are ready to flatter our own hypocrisies that neither we nor our Fathers have sinned as to those punishments but that the Will of God might be made manifest Oh let us not resist that Will who owns all the evils that befalls each City that is to say publike evils lest while we will not be punished as he appoints by a King in his anger he by suffering him to be taken away should by Anarchy plague us in his wrath In tender sense of publick Peace and Charity and the blessed condition of the Peace makers themselves and those that are promoters and assistants in it I shall now appeal to the Consciences and Judgements of all such as are wont to gild over their own Covetousness and Ambition with the shews of Justice and Religion and are so forward to kill all that will not submit and joyn in opinion with them you that will undertake to controle Heaven in its dispensations and under colour of Tyranny or Usurpation of wrong rule or wrong entry will at your pleasure be withdrawing your own and others obedience from your present Prince give me leave to summon your thoughts to a serious consideration of all those sad consequents that must attend it that by calling your self to an accompt before the time of that general accomptcom you may be both eased in your own reckoning then and have your Conscience here eased of those sins and miseries which your stubbornness must produce Suppose then that you with all those fair declamations of Law and Justice or of Religion and Zeal which you in your popular Oratory are so copious and ready in shall be able to seduce and draw to your party such a considerable number of your fellow Subjects as to form the same into a Civil war wherein thousands must lose their lives as well on one side as the other suppose I say these several parties through thy perswasion slain by each other in the height of uncharitableness should now present themselves before thee with their wounded and macerated bodies and all besmeared with gore and blood and with grim and ghastly visages stare thee in the face as the horrid spectacles of thy confusion and amazement But this is not all seest thou that throng of desolate Widdows and Orphans and of disconsolate Parents who as in sacrifice of thy ambition or avarice are by the death of each other bereft of comforts and left to a necessity of dying while they live and so the never dying monuments of thy cruelty and Rebellion Let the shrikes and yellings of defloured and ravished Virging and Matrons the groans the tears the sighs of such as are in every corner after the manner of civil war murthered plundered imprisoned or otherwise dispoyled of life or livelihood let all those arise to thy remose If not nor the thought of that Forrest-face which thy native country must now put on in respect of that destruction which must be introduced on its goodly Edifices Corn and Cattel can move thee as in Honor or Charity yet let Piety Piety I say if thou hast any the sense of the Honor of that God thou seemest to worship let this move thee to think how in these Civil wars those publike Oratories and publike places of worship dedicated to his name must be alway in danger of ruine and sacriledge also and how then canst thou persist in a course that must at once destroy all bonds of Love Loyalty and Religion that must at once and that with so high hand offer such violence the utmost violencence in thy power to thy neighbour to thy Prince to thy God Doth not thy heart yet feel remorse Heark the Trumpet calls thee to the Judgement-seat of that great God himself whose Honor and Authority on earth thou hast so often slighted and offended Now for a Mountain now for a Rock to cover thee from the face of the all-incenced Deity Dost thou not now finde that the common Cause of condemnation against Christians is made for living and dying in hatred and malice and how many are there now eying thee as the Author of and ring-leader in those Civil disturbances where Christian against Christian have by thousands killed each other in the height and heat of uncharitableness And seest thou not again how the sentence of blessed runs to the meek to the patient to the peace-makers while thou art setting forward thy trembling limbs and stepping in with an Apology for thy Rebellion how hath new confusion seized thee at the sight of that King and Prophet who did so often flye from his persecuting Prince and had his heart smiting him but for cutting off but the hemn of his Garment what seest thou now where are thy Texts of Scripture thy Pretexts of Law See if thou canst make thy warrant and call unto publike Authority and Command in any degree apparent and equal to his or canst make thy sufferings equal to all that other therefore glorified company of Martyrs and Confâ—ssors who amids all those dismal persecutions even for the most righteous cause of all and plainly so durst not lift up against him that was but a heathenish Prince but chose to follow both the Precept and Example of him who is now in the highest Throne of Honor as a reward of his Patience Oh horror of horrors what is thy Judge become a party too a Mountain a Mountain a Mountain No sooner hath thy all-dispairing soul caused thine all confounded eys to sink and settle on objects below but oh torment of torments Who is this that is now to be thy Prince and under whose Dominion thou must now for ever live Thou shalt not need here to study pretensions of Tyranny and Oppression against thy Prince nor invectives and standers against his Officers and Ministers What is it which thou truly feelest now Oh If this be the expectation as without Repentance it can be none other of all that are promoters of civil disturbance how necessary then is it that we should timously thinking of bridling our covetous and unruly appetites and learn patiently to submit unto that Regiment and condition of life wherein Providence hath places us When discontent of any sort assaults us to impatience think we then this is not our rest No happiness to be here expected all things in this life comes to us mingled as well to manifest and draw down our acknowledgement of Deity and Providence for the receipt of what is good as to wean and withdraw our affections from this world to a better in such sort that those very things wherein our greatest temporal preservation and good doth consist are attended and accompanied with such as are
superiors Whereupon we may farther say that justice and â—quity so far as it concerns a Commonwealth is to be that way and course which is most advantageous to publike utility and that Law is the rule set down by those that have chief Authority and trust therein And therefore is that maxim avowed as the ground of Law and Equity in a popular State Salus populi suprema lex For the directest course to that end is the greatest Equity and those that have the charge of the end have also the charge of the means in assigning that which is most just and fit And therefore in this case we must reckon the society as it is united for common good as one person So that then as Nature teacheth all men to benefit themselves so doth polity direct the publike But then again as each man in wronging another doth wrong himself so societies when they practice injustice oppression c. do in regard of Gods punishments feared to follow thereupon wrong themselves also and do as we before observed of particular men prefer a less and momentany benefit to a more high and lasting one Upon which ground there is another maxim avowed in Monarchy that the King can do no wrong Not denying he may do himself and others harm but so long as we do according to our duties submit to that he doth command he can do no wrong For he can of himself have no private respect but must judge all alike as out of common regard except where and when some persons or order of the people taking on them his Office of judging equity and in partiality to themselves thinking and seeking more then is already allotted make it a wrong to the other side by having the cause decided by a private and partial judgement for take away Justice in the fountain you may vainly seek it in the streams And thereupon Solomon prays to God to give him an understanding heart to judge the people and to discern between good and bad And such as are not openly denying supreme Authority to be obeyed and would yet by consequent overthrow it by allowing inferiors a liberty to judg and act beyond or otherwise then is enjoyned let them consider the answer that God gives to his chief Magistrate that would undertake to know the way and means of honoring and serving God better then himself and would make that solemn established Law of Sacrifice defeat his present command which was but extemporary namely that Obedience is better then sacrifice and to hearken better then the fat of Rams For I verily believe that no subordinate Magistrate or subject can have a fairer plea for disobeying his King commanding in Gods stead then Saul might have had here for refusing Samuel For if it had been at all lawful for inferiors to judge of fitness and morality or to set a former command or Law against a latter what more just and reasonable then first to preserve innocent creatures whose destruction on one hand could have been a benefit to none when as on the other side they being thus imployed should have so expresly advanced Gods way of service constituted so solemnly already And we might thereunto add that which some would make of highest value in judging good and bad that the importunity and request of the people ran that way also And as our prying into the reason of Gods Laws and not obeying his direct Precepts was our Original fault and a sin in the government of nature as shewing a mistrust of Gods wisdom or care of us so in obedience to civil Laws to seek out another equity then they import is not to be subject to Law but to controle it And as God said to Adam Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten the fruit I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat So Princes may say to subjects that without authority undertake to judge of publike good and bad Justice and injustice how come you to know these things except you have transgressed the bounds I set you Have you not proper stations of your own to walk in Why meddle you with mine For if thou judge the law thou art not a doer of the law but a Judge So that then all obedience to Laws must be implicite that is to Gods Laws as his and Civil Laws as the Princes For if in either sort I obey but what upon examination I finde reasonable I take the Law-makers part upon me and obey not him but my self For Law and Justice being the instruments whereby Governors Act upon the Governed they must be at the choice and guidance of the workman and agent and not of the work or patient as heretofore noted Law then is Councel imposed Justice is equity executed In Laws the Subjects are to act in Justice the Prince or Magistrate for him In Laws he shews how much of his Will Subjects shall do in Justice how much he will do himself So that Law may be called Equity taught and Justice Equity practised and is when the Judges own Councels are acted by himself whether in pursuance of Law or not For Justice and Equity may be without standing Law as in the less government of a family but not Law without them that is the Authority of the Prince Now for Justice it self it proceeding from Equity as being the sentence of the Judge upon the judged it may be blinde as to execution because that part concerns Ministerial Officers but cannot as to the sentence and Judge for taking seeing for understanding his eyes must be only open as to stating of Equity Disinterest nor equal interest alone cannot make men competent Judges because they may be so qualified and yet strangers and unknowing of the cause And therefore Judges must besides knowledge have Concern equal Concern and whole Concern and the like we must say of Power For if all the matter and persons contending be not at his dispose to what purpose his sentence Nay if his propriety be not the highest and his power highest he will in judgement proceed but faintly for want of compleat interest and courage For though the Concern and Power of the Judge may be equal in and over both or all the subject persons yet if be not supreme he must so far want the perfection of a Judge as he wants interest to make him concerned to judge at all and power to execute his sentence And more persons then one or not having authority from one cannot be competent Judges over others for they must have unequal concern through unequal passions and interests and must through unequal power also as being of different strength or courage proceed differently and partially in their sentence For whilst the same Plea or Cause is estimated by divers ballances according to that divers judgement and interest abiding in those divers persons in the seat of Justice their sentence can never be uniform to the interest of the persons and the cause they