compos mentis and tell him he would instruct and teach him the most excellent dictate of Reason in the world viz. That there is one God infinitely good who is to be worshiped and served by man And that this God requires of every man that in that state wherein he hath made him he would not willingly do that to another which he would not have done to himself would not this poor ignorant man deride this Master of Reason and tell him he knew this as well as himself But suppose he should be so impudent as to deny this since Grotius is not in case I would desire Mr. Hobbs to prove it or give a right reason thereof and learn this man his Dictate of Right reason Well but let us see whether this Canting thing be worth the name of a Definition Omnis definitio est exclusio aequivoci If the Law of Nature be the Dictate of Right reason then does the Law of Nature exclude every thing else from being the Dictate of Right reason or this cannot be the definition of it I would know now of Mr. Hobbs whether all Arts and Sciences and Prudent actions be the Laws of Nature or not If they be the Laws of Nature then is every Inscientifical and Imprudent man an Unjust man If they be not the Laws of Nature and so not the Dictates of Right reason then let Mr. Hobbs shew what else does dictate them Nor is Mr. Hobbs less happy in defining a Pact upon which he grounds his Civitas It is just therefore that this man who Cap. 18. Art 4. makes all Science to be from Definitions only or Subjects without Predicates without which it is impossible there can be a Proposition and all Science to be from the memory which is common to all Beasts as well as Mr. Hobbs for so the Oxe knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib it being only retained in the memory excluding the Understanding should so rashly define things and understand them no better To believe there is a God to be worshiped and served and that no man should wilfully in that state and condition wherein God hath made him do that to another which he would not have done to himself is that Law which God hath engraven in the mindes of all mortal men wise and unwise learned and ignorant noble and ignoble in their wits and is the foundation and basis of all Humane society And this is that first and universal cause from which all moral virtues the dictates of Right reason from this cause do more genuinely and naturally flow then any Proposition in Geometry does from the Axiomes or Principles of it For what man is there in this world of what estate and condition soever but desires not to be wronged and injured Let not him then in that state wilfully wrong or injure any other of what estate soever If he be a Subject and desires to be protected in his life and fortune by the Laws of his Country from the violence and oppression of other men let not him abuse or violate the Laws of his Country to the wrong or oppression of another If he desires every man should keep promise and do justly by him let not him break his word and deal unjustly with another Is he a King he would not willingly be disseised or oppressed by another let him not therefore disseise or injustly oppress another Does any King desire not to be invaded or oppressed by his Subjects let not him therefore oppress his Subjects If he had been a Subject he would have desired protection from his Prince by an equal and moderate distribution of known Laws let him therefore equally moderately govern his Subjects by known Laws And from this Law did always men desire though ignorant of the manner to worship and serve GOD although they misplaced the Deity in the Sun Moon an Oak Apollo Jupiter c. And this is that Law which shall judge and condemn the immoral actions and vices of men in all Ages especially in this latter Age because they sinned against the Light or Law of Nature engraven in the minds of all men Now whether these men being Christians in name yet having cast off all Christian society and not being of any Christian church or religion that I ever heard of should not be content here but although they scarce agree in any thing else proceed so far as to make the Laws of God subject and depending upon the reasons and phantasies of men and not to tell them where their reasons shall begin if not at the Laws of God but every man left to go a whoring after his own inventions For what can then restrain man where his Reason is become superior to the Laws of God and to make all humane society to have its origination from the pacts and wills of men have not been as great enemies not only to Christian religion but also to all humane society as the malice of the Devil could invent let any sober unbiassed man judge or if all the confusions and distractions in Christendom to the shame and scandal of Christianity have not had their origination from this pretence Nor hath this sensless resolution of all things into Reason ended only in the distractions of State but also been the first source and fountain from whence all these distractions and confusions in the Church have arisen without any possible hope of ever reconciling them where these principles are continued Hence it is that the venerable and highest Authority of the sacred Scriptures are become the subject of all Tavern-discourses and every man that scarce understands any reason must forsooth have a reason given him why the Scriptures are the Word of God And yet in all other Authorities whatsoever men will deride the folly of others who go about to prove them by Reason for Reason is begotten alwaies from Authorities and Principles and therefore cannot Authorities and Principles be begotten from Reason I have been often almost astonished to consider how such sensless blasphemous and ridiculous things should meerly from the authority of the Assertors be imposed upon and received by the world without contradiction whereas narrowly looked into one would scarce believe the Authors had ever understood Logick or one leaf in Aristotle And for my part if I could not ultimately resolve the Dictates of my Reason as a Christian into plain places of Scripture so well as any Geometrician could any Proposition of Geometry into the Principles of Euclids Elements I would be content to let them wander for ever without any termination rather then admit them the Scriptures to be a creature of a creature and the subject of every wild phantastical conceit and opinion And if I could not ultimately resolve the reason of all my moral actions as a man into the Law of Nature which God has engraven in mens minds and not into the wills of men I would be content to conclude with Carneades that men have at divers times
in derogation to Christian Faith or Religion they might plead Conscience because the Obedience they owe thereunto is superior to all Humane Laws But when as God is to be publickly Worshipped and your Majesty obeyed by the light of Humane Nature whenas he that heareth and obeyeth not the Church is to be accounted an Infidel and Heathen man and neither your Majesty nor Church enjoyning any thing contrary to the Law of Nature or Gods Will revealed in Scriptures but conformable to these for men your natural Subjects and Born and Baptized in a Christian Church in contradiction to all these to plead Liberty of Conscience to be Atheists Hypocrites and Schismaticks is such a monstrous Paradox as is not imaginable should proceed from reasonable creatures not aiming at some further mischief And when your Majesty shall with bleeding tears reflect upon the manners of these men thus pretending Liberty of Conscience you will finde them never to have made any conscience of Liberty their Manners no whit better then their Religion but as great enemies to Humane Society as Christian Religion For they no sooner upon pretence of Liberty of Conscience got licence of action but what followed Rapine Plunder Sequestration Sacriledge Regicidism and Murder upon the Estates of the Church Crown and the Sacred Person of your Royal Father and the principal members of Church and State who were your best and most Loyal and their Fellow-Subjects when as by the Law or Light of Nature no man ought to do that willingly to another which he would not have done to himself Nor is this humor only Topical or confined within the limits of your Dominion but wheresoever men would not pay the Duty they ought to God in the first Table they have never better perform'd that to their neighbor in the second although it hath not pleased God to permit them to attain such a degree of Impiety as here in your Majesties Dominions and your Majesty may believe it that the times are changed not these mens manners and dispositions to attempt the like again whensoever they get an opportunity however these things at present will be better cured by your Majesties Christian Patience and example then by your severe Execution of the established Laws against them yet if the Laborer be worthy of his Hire then is he who is Hired worthy to Labor and these men who pretending Conscience neglect or refuse to perform the Duties of the Church are utterly unworthy the Means of the Church Mans necessity is Gods oportunity It is Gods usual way in his Providence doubtless to manifest the greatness of his Power to us Mortals here below when mens extremities are at the highest then to relieve them having it may be the least reasons or hope to expect it and indeed what less then the power and grace of God in a Christian Prince so Religious so Just so Merciful and so descended at such a time could have cured the wide wounds of our miserable Church and distracted State D'avila reports of Coligny the Admiral of France that he would usually prefer himself before Caesar or Alexander because they acquired greatness by prosperous Fortune whereas notwithstanding that Fortune was always adverse to him he still rose more formidable and terrible to his adversaries Sure it is an admirable thing that after all the adversity of your Affairs God should without force or blood exalt your Sacred Head above the Storms and Waves of such Enemies who had neither Religion Law Justice or Reason but only force and blood in stead of and against these to maintain their Cause It cannot but be a consolation to any man in adversity rightly considering how God in the ordinary nature of things does afflict men who place happiness in things of this world and reward the afflictions of men especially who suffer for a good Conscience even in this world for no man placeing happiness in things here below can so enjoy them but necessarily a time will come when he shall say I take no pleasure in them and then it will be miserum fuisse beatum whereas other men who are afflicted and suffer persecution are no ways affrighted at the terrors of death but rather with joy expect happiness in another world after they shall be freed from the cares and troubles of this or if it pleases God to free them from their afflictions here then they truly convert miserum fuisse beatum into beatum fuisse miserum Besides your Majesties individual happiness in making so right construction of your precedent affections and the advantages you have acquired by your severe education therein your Subjects like men who have been long sick will better learn to esteem health from their many sufferings in your absence will for the future learn to set a truer estimation upon your Prosperity and Presence And may the God of Peace the God of Mercy and the God of Justice so Crown the antecedent adverse fortune of You Sir the most Peaceable the most Merciful Just and best of Princes that being as Good and Just as Trajan and as Devout and Religious as Constantine the Great or Theodosius the first you may be of your Subjects as beloved as was Augustus and the Arbitrator of Christendom as well as Defender of the Christian Faith And when this your Diadem shall descend to your next Heir you may then assume a Celestial one which shall never be subject to time variation or chance Which is and always shall be the daily Payer of SIR Your most Devoted and most Obedient Subject ROGER COKE OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr THO WHITE 's GROUNDS OF Obedience Government Mr HOBBS his BOOK De Cive AND UPON HVGO GROTIVS De Jure Belli Pacis Prematur nunquam Opprimitur veritas Nulla res magis operae pretium est sive ad utilitatem fructuosior sive ad animi voluptatem jucundior esse potest quà m Justitia quâ quidem post Deum Immortalem rerum omnium Publicarum Fundamenta nituntur Corruptio verò optimi est pessima By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by T. N. for G. Bedel and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate 1660. TO THE READER I Have often with great admiration considered in my self how that all men good and bad rich and poor noble and ignoble have with one voice commended Virtue and decried Vice and yet scarce any man in a thousand hath made Virtue the rule or reason of his actions Nor is it a thing less worth admiration to consider how that all men generally have not only a natural spight against their Superiors and are unwilling to obey them but also a propense desire to attain to Liberty and do tread under foot all things which may be called sacred to the attaining thereof and yet at no time or place in the world did ever men accomplish it I did therefore conclude with my self that not only all Moral Virtue but Humane Society did proceed from higher then any humane or voluntary causes
Nor was that less abhorrent to me which men in this factious age beg for a Principle viz. That all men by Nature or the Law of Nature are in a like equal condition and that the Laws of Nature are eternal and immutable even by God himself And yet by a continued violence upon these eternal and immutable Laws men should every where in the world live in Society or in the mutual offices of commanding and obeying Yet did not I so confidently resolve these things as to exclude what I could argue against them I therefore did suppose in my self a company of such men as were in a parity of condition yet could I never conceive it possible that ever any Civitas or Supreme power could be derived or created by them For either this Civitas must be superior to the Cives or People that made it or not If it were not superior to it then could it not govern or rule them for dominion is always placed in the superior part If superior to it then was the Creature or Instrument superior to the Cause and Creator which is most absurd Nor was it to me less monstrous to imagine that any thing could give or transfer that to another which it self hath not but this people or multitude who should make this civitas had neither Jus vitae or necis nor Property seperately nor conjunctly they could not therefore endue another with that power which none of them nor all of them together had and without which there can be no supream power which may protect and defend Subjects But I did not insist onely upon this but supposed that the cives could make a civitas which should be superior to them and endew it with a power which none of them nor all of them had yet was I no less perplexed then before who these cives which should make this civil Pact should be and who should be subject to it If onely those be the cives who made this civitas and they onely subject to it then were Women and Children who were none of the cives that made this civitas free and independent from it Nor could all the people or multitude of both Sexes and all Ages in such an imaginary state be the cives which must constitute this civitas by virtue of the civil Pact For many must necessarily be so yong as not being compotes mentium they could have understanding sufficient for the doing such an act And if no Laws oblige Men to their Pacts and Contracts done under such an age then sure it must be unreasonable that Children and Infants should be obliged to their act if they then did it or therefore obliged because others had done it upon whom they had no dependence Well but suppose these men in such a condition to be qualified to do such an act yet did another doubt arise which I could no ways salve viz. Who should define at what age the Men should be who should constitute this civitas Well I went yet further I supposed it granted That it should be agreed at what age Men in such a condition might give up their wills and constitute a civitas yet was it not in reason probable that this civitas should be of one days continuance For being formally constituted of such individual cives it could not be of any longer continuance then the cause Sublata causa tollitur effectus but the next day some of the cives would be probably dead and others grown up to be of age who were none of those individuals which did constitute the civitas Well but I supposed the cives who made Formae rerum sicut numeri consistunt in indivisibili They could not therefore be the cives that did constitute the civitas and by consequence no such could remain as the civitas this civitas to be immortal and no posterity yet could not I in reason expect it to be of any continuance for cujus est velle ejus est nolle and not onely all just and legal actions but all Arts and Sciences may truly and ultimately be resolved into their first Principles without any diminution to them The People therefore constant in nothing but inconstancy could not in reason be expected constant and obedient to their Creature the civitas onely and yet so in nothing else Besides I always did believe and yet do that all Mens Pacts and Wills must be conformable to the Laws of every place and where they are against them then do they oblige no further then to Repentance Much more therefore ought all mens Wills and Pacts to conform and submit to the Laws of Nature and never transgress that and that all Pacts and Acts of mens Wills made against it oblige to nothing but Repentance Nor is there any thing more abominable then to conceive that the Acts of mens Wills should irritate the Law of Nature which they say is immutable by God Hence it is I conceive that Mr. Hobbs will not have all men to be of a like and equal condition lege naturae but jure naturae and therefore most absurdly makes jus naturae to be contrary to lex naturae and yet oftentimes in his Preface and Cap. 8. Art 10. confounds jus with lex and that the Acts of mens Wills to make them in a better estate then God hath made them should be the Law of Nature or of God Whereas on the contrary If no man that ever was born in the World which was not a Posthumus King but was born in subjection not onely to his Parents or as a Servant in a Family but to something superior to these then cannot the will of that man nor all the men in the World alter or make that man in another condition then that whereof neither any act of his will nor the will of any man else was the cause But yet did not I conclude things onely as I was an intellectual or rational Creature but being a Christian I submitted all my Reason and Understanding to the most high Authority of sacred Scripture in those plain places which admit of no Controversie where both in the Old and New Testament the first causes of supream Power are owned to be Gods Ordinance Rom. 13. By God Kings raign and Princes decree Prov. 8. Justice and there can be no power but from above Joh. 19. 11. And all power is in relation to something subject to it But because I would not seem to see only with mine own eyes I desired yet to be better informed of these things and from whom better then Mr. Hobbs and Hugo Grotius Men no doubt of as eminent learning and parts as any this last Age hath produced these Men both derive their civitas from such Principles as is before spoken of viz. From the Pacts and contracts of Men in a parity and equal condition but so far was I from being convinced that if I understand them aright I was amazed to see such inconsistible
established several Laws for manners and by them have been often altered but that there is no such thing as the Law of Nature and that all men as well as other creatures are naturally carried to their profits And so there is no such thing as Justice or if there were it were the greatest folly because men by endeavoring the good of others prejudice themselves Since the Grecians and Romans were the first who in the world did make all power to be from the People I suppose that Mr. Hobbs and Grotius took their Principles from them Let us see whether by the People they understand the same thing with the Romans and Grecians or the same thing with one another By the People of Rome or Athens the Romans and Athenians understood them and them only who were civitate donati and not men born in a promiscuous rout and parity without all order and subordination but made so by violent usurpation By the People Mr. Hobbs understands the King or Court governing By the People Grotius every where I believe for he no where that I can find defines the People understands the Subjects governed and they who in a parity or equal condition constituted the Civitas Upon these and many other considerations and observations upon them I was so far from being convinc'd that I became much more firmly established then before in my Judgment for Opinion I will not have of those things wherein I am possest of the constant practice of the world in all ages places the plain undubitable and uncontrolled places of Scripture both in the Old and New Testament and no colour of allegation against them from any other places the Authority of the highest Philosopher my Country-Laws and all those Theses and Axiomes upon which almost all Reason and Philosophy are grounded and these things opposed by such monstrous feigned equivocal and silly beggings of the question which no man not blinded with faction or stupid ignorance can grant yet had not these Observations become publique if it had not been upon an odd occasion which was Upon a time being with a Brother-in-law a Kinsman of mine at dinner came to my Brothers where in discourse he asked me if I had seen a Book of Tho. Whites called The Grounds of Obedience and Government I answered no nor did I desire to see any thing of his doing having conceived a prejudice of the Mans ability and ingenuity He confidently replied that I should be convinced if I did but read it and that he would send me the book Yet was I so far from accepting his courtesie that I importunately desired him not to do it But he notwithstanding all importunity on purpose sent his man with it that night to me being at that time much afflicted with my wonted Melancholy which became more excited when I had read some part of it And seeing a thing so sensless and void of all humanity to be imposed upon the world which questionless was intended to prefer some Faction or Interest of his and yet forsooth he tells us it is a second Edition corrected and amended by the Author wheresoever therefore I name our Author I mean Tho. White Gent. I did in detestation of the Thing not of the Man for I never saw him in all my life set my self to make these Observations upon it He harps upon the same string with Mr. Hobbs and Grotius That all Supreme Power is originally created by Mens wills subject to it Yet being a fine Gentleman in quirpo he dances a Galliard by himself and most senselesly makes men out of society to be a Rational multitude and to have Property before they had Laws or Government and to be a People after they had given up their power to another to govern them But lest it should be objected that though our Author be hood-winked yet Mr. Hobbs and Grotius might be very clear-sighted and bare-faced I thought it not amiss to make these Observations upon them also As a Preparative to a Purge I pray Reader take these few Notes 1. First I say they falsly derive Government For though they all differ in the manner of it yet is all Government so far from being so derived as any of them would have it in the first Institution that if any of them can shew any one Government so derived since the beginning of the world I will yeeld the cause 2. They feign that for a Principle which never was viz. That men by nature are in a parity or equal condition For never were men since the Creation in any age or place of the world in such a condition But suppose somewhere in the world it might have been found that men in a like condition did by their acts and wills form themselves into a Society yet is it a most unreasonable thing to conclude from thence that all power in Government is from the People For Singulars are deduced and concluded from Universals not Universals by Singulars 3. The Principle they beg is destructive to all good manners for Justice is the fountain of all humane Virtues and Morality as all Philosophers and best and wisest men hold And if Justice be the duty which men owe their Superiors and that it may be truly and ultimately resolved into the first cause without any detriment or damage to it and if all order superiority and power in Government may truly and ultimately be resolved into the People or the wills of the Subjects or Party governed then the wills of the Subjects being the fountain and first cause of all Order and Justice that is Justice in the People to do what they list then which nothing can be more destructive to all Virtue Justice and Good manners 4. It is damnably destructive to Faith for All powers are of God Rom. 13. and No power can be given but from above S. John 19. 11. Nor were these Men when they wrote their several Treatises De Cive De Jure Belli Pacis and Grounds of Obedience and Government much better in their Religion if I conceive a right Notion of Religion viz. That it is Actus Divini cultus or the Publick worship and service of God in an unity form and communion then their Writings shew them to be for Justice and Government For though our Author be a Pretender to be of the Religion of the Church of Rome yet it would trouble the greatest Critique of this Age to shew where the Religion of either of the other were to be found And who but such men as these would pin their faith upon the tales and fictions of Poets before the most venerable and sacred Authority of Holy Scripture Nor can the eldest of Poets writings be compared in antiquity with the Scriptures For if it could Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae And the Theban and Trojan War hapned after the Year of the World 2750. The Trojan War about the time
that Jephthah judged Israel and the Thebani War in that Age or the Age immediately before See Helv. and Sir Walt. Raleigh Hist World lib. 2. cap. 13. sect 7. For my part if in washing off the Fucus with which these men have obscured the true causes of all Society and hath no colour of verisimilitude in it the truth of all Humane Christian and Legal society may more clearly appear from their natural and genuine causes I shall then not think my time and pains utterly lost which otherwise I should If it be objected that I have transgressed the bounds of Civility in these Observations upon Mr. White and that such opposing is rather like to increase differences then reconcile them I answer that if Mr. White or at least to my understanding had not propounded some base Faction or Interest and not any Good intentions to have been his end by this Discourse of the Grounds of Obedience and Government Or if he would have been content to have made it his own case only I should have been content to have taken no notice of it But since he is not only content to prostitute all Virtue and Morality in himself and not stay there but make this publique and all men who are not of his opinion not to be * Gro. 16. end worthy the name of Men sure it is rather to be expected he should be severely reprehended and his absurdities so detected that they may be avoided by other men then to be hoped that ever he should be reclaimed from them Note neither Grotius nor our Author make any Government but only Monarchy to be dissolvible For if the Supremacie be once vested in a many-headed-Beast be it Court or People then are they so sacred and inviolable that neither of them have one word in what causes they forfeit their Soveraignties And though Grotius no where so defines the People as any man may understand any thing by it yet sure by the People they mean if they mean any thing the Subjects of any Prince or State Suppose therefore that the People may dissolve Government as oft as they see occasion yet if the People be Vnum quid made up of all the individual Subjects of any Prince then must the deposing of any Prince if it be the act of the People be the act of every individual Subject which is a thing never done nor will be unto the end of the world All Grotius and our Authors Necessities and Reasons therefore for deposing of Princes by the People are meer Cantings and invented only to nurse up Factions in the World without end until Monarchy or Regal power should be extirpated in all the World Postscript to the Reader THe Edition of Bodin de Repub. cited in these Observations and Elements is that which was printed at Lyons 1586. and afterwards sold at Paris The Edition of Grotius de Jure Belli Pacis here and hereafter cited is that printed at Amsterdam by John and Cornelius Blaeu 1642. The Edition of Mr. Hobbs his Philosophical Elements de Cive here and hereafter cited is that printed at Amsterdam 1647. by L. Elzevirius The Grounds of Obedience and Government by Tho. White Gent. is the Second Edition corrected and amended by the Author and printed by J. Flesher 1655. Reader I confess I have not always cited our Author Tho. White Gent. in his very words but if I have wronged him in the Sense there being so very little in the whole Treatise I acknowledge it a crime unpardonable Generatio Animalium cited is that printed at Amsterdam by Lewis Elzevirius 1651. By what means Men attain Arts and Sciences 1. NIhil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu saies the Of Humane reason and the manner of acquiring Knowledge from Aristotle and Doctor Harvies opinion highest Philosopher Anal. Post 2. Since only Man is a reasonable Creature and can by his reason attain to Knowledge it will not be a superfluous undertaking to endeavor to shew by what means Men attain to Knowledge and what Reason is And since that most excellent Philosopher Doctor William Harvey hath taken so much pains and more subtilly and accurately disputed the manner and Pref. Gen. Anim. order of attaining Knowledge then any Man before him wee will take him in our way He saies there is no Knowledge innate in us from the opinion of Aristotle c. In the next Paragraph he saies but from whence and how Page 25. this Knowledge comes to us I do not think it will be unprofitable here to set down as well to the more perfect understanding of the generation of living Creatures as also for the removing the doubt which any Man might have deduced from the opinion of Aristotle for he affirms that all learning Analyt Post Lib. 1. tit 1. and mental discipline is made from antecedent Knowledge from whence it may seem to follow either we have no Knowledge or that it is born with us which is dissentaneous to what was before 2. This doubt is afterwards loosed by Aristotle himself where he teaches 16. Lib. 2. cap. ult how Knowledge may be acquired for after he had taught that all certain Knowledge is to be had from a syllogisme and demonstration and had By the opinion of Aristotle made manifest that every demonstrative syllogisme is made up of prime and necessary principles at length he enquireth Quomodo principia nota fiant quis sit notificans habitus inquirit simul etiam utrum habitus cum non insint ingenerentur an cum inessent laterent Non habemus inquit eos habitus accidit enim ut eos qui habent cognitiones exquisitiores demonstratione lateant Si vero eos accipimus cum antea non haberemus quomodo notum faceremus disceremus ex non antecedente cognitione Perspicuum igitur est neque haberi nec in ignorantibus ac nullo habitu praeditis gigni posse Quare necesse est facultatem quandam haberi non tamen talem quae his praestantior sit tanquam exquisitior Videtur autem hoc inesse omnibus animalibus habent enim vim congenitam judicativam quam appellant sensum Cum autem sensus insit in aliis animalibus res sensu percepta manet in aliis non manet In quibus igitur non manet haec aut omnino aut corum quae non manent cognitionem non habent extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sentire alia vero cum sentiunt unum quid in anima retinent Cum autem multa animalia hujusmodi sint jam est discrimen quoddam adeo ut in aliis ratio fiat ex hujusmodi rerum memoria in aliis non fiat Ex sensu igitur fit memoria quemadmodum dicimus ex memoria vero saepe ejusdem rei facta fit experientia multae enim numero memoriae sunt una experientia At vero ex experientia sive ex omni universali quiescente in anima
nimirum uno praeter multa quod in omnibus illis inest unum idem fit principium artis scientiae artis si pertineat ad generationem viz. agenda vel efficienda scientiae si pertineat ad id quod est viz. cognitionem entis Itaque nec insunt definiti habitus nec fiunt ex aliis habitibus notioribus sed ex sensu 3. From which words of Aristotle it is cleerly manifest by what order By the opinion of Dr. Harvey the Knowledge of every Art or Science is acquired viz. from the sense the thing perceived remains still from the permanency of the thing perceived comes the memory from the memory multiplied experience from experience ratio universalis definitiones maxima sive axiomata communia cognitionis certissima principia ex gr Idem eidem secundum idem esse non esse impossibile Omnis affirmatio vel negatio aut vera est aut falsa hujusmodi alia Wherefore as we said before there is no perfect Knowledge which may be called ours which is within us unless by some means it does proceed from experiment made by us and our sense or at least by these examined proved and firmly builded it may appear above any pre-existent Knowledge in us Because without memory there can be no experience which is nothing else but multiplied memory in like manner memory cannot be without permanence of the thing perceived and the thing perceived cannot remain in what it never was c. 4. But multi multa nemo omnia vidit I do not think that all light of understanding was so shut up in Aristotles braine that all things pronounced Apology by him are to be taken for granted Principles yet do I entertain so venerable an opinion of Aristotle that I do admire him as the most eminent of all men in all humane learning among the Ancients and not to be paralleld by any of the Moderns but inventis addere is one of the chiefest ends of Mans being and there are yet and so will be until the end of the World many things received for truth which upon more search will be found but verisimilitudes and infinite things hidden from our Forefathers which will be infinitely found out by the present and subsequent generation that the Infinity of God may appear as well to the present and subsequent age as to the antecedent in all his works 5. Well then Aristotle saies and the Doctor subscribes to it that All things were nor in the senses before they are in the understanding according to the opinion of Aristotle and the Doctor Nihil est intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu I deny that there is nothing in the understanding which was not first in the senses for there are many things intelligible which are not sensible as time does every article of it intelligibly pass away not sensibly I understand that the centre of a circle is a point and that a point by the definition of it est cujus nulla pars est it cannot therefore according to the true definition of it be so expressed as to be the object of sense So a right line is longitudo latitudinis expers but neither a right line nor a point can be truly represented to the sense according to the truth of them as they arise in the understanding and so two right or supposed right lines which are not parallel cannot be infinitely produced according to sense but they will cut one another but intelligibly they may for no Man can understand so small a quantity of distance before the intersection but I can understand a smaller and another smaller then that and so ad infinitum and so Quantitas divisibilis est in semper divisibila potest infinitè augeri minui but this is only intelligibly it cannot be actually or sensibly done and so the contactus of a right line with a circle is a point in the understanding and not sensibly and so is the touching of two circles either within one another or without Nay neither Art Science nor any rational production whatsoever a priori but must necessarily be in the understanding before it can be in the senses I understand Animal to comprehend not only the Creatures I have seen but all those which are were or ever shall be and so I understand things equal to a third thing are equal to one another yet nor I nor any Man else ever saw two things equal to a third and the whole body of Geometry is of all Sciences most intelligible and yet abstracted from all sensible matter 6. If it be true that both Aristotle and the Doctor affirm that all No Art or Science arises from the Senses and memory Art and Science is acquired from the receiving a thing into the senses and that from the permanence of the thing in the sense the memory is made and from the multiplication of the memory Experience and from Experience the Principles of all Art and Science and that it be true which Aristotle saies to which the Doctor subscribes Fit ex memoriâ experientia hominibus multae etenim ejusdem res memoriae unius experientiae vim efficiunt Meta. l. 1. c. 1. Quare experientia pene simile quid scientiae ac arti esse videtur then does it most evidently and perspicuously follow that he that can longest retain things in his sense that is hath the best memory is the most scientifical and most artificial Man whereas we daily see that the Man that hath the greatest memory is usually a very blockhead and that he remembers almost all the things which are done and said yet cannot tell from what cause they did proceed but only remembers the things Nor will that which the Doctor saies Quippe sine memoria nulla fit experientia mend the matter for as I do deny any Art or Science can proceed from the sense memory and experience so do I not affirm that without the memory any Art or Science can be made I say no Art nor Science can arise from the apprehension of singulars into the sense and retaining of them there and from experiment only For Arts and Sciences are not things meerly apprehended and received into the sense and so retained in memory but something else which is truly and rightly derived from those things which are universally true and never before known to the senses or remembred 7. And as all the particular stories and things in the world retained Nor from the understanding without the memory and senses in the memory cannot move one step to the attaining of any Art or Science so cannot the apprehension of universal causes in the understanding of themselves produce any thing in order to the attaining of any Art or Science For universal causes in nature prove nothing but as meeting particular causes do determine those and specifie their Acts. The truth of both these is easily and daily seen in Men who
are very dull and yet of vast memories who remember all things but can scarcely be ever made to discourse of and understand any thing and of Men that are too light and phantastical who only talke generally without applying these generals to any particular The one is like a Ship which is overladen with Ballast and not having Sailes proportionable can scarcely be made to saile with any winde the other is like a Ship which hath no Ballast and so much saile that she is never in any steadiness but carried hither and thither upon every small puff of winde the one will upon any discourse or ratiocination be still absurdly telling particular stories which he in his defect of understanding supposes should be the universal and prime reason of the discourse whereas the other from the lightness of his phantasie and defect of memory never applies his general notion to any particular thing and so concludes nothing 8. Whereas Aristotle and the Doctor affirm that experiment proceeds Axiomes and Principles do not proceed from experiment from many memories or memory multiplied and that ratio universalis definitiones c. proceed from experiment A Man may justly deny it for it is not many things or multiplied things which can make ratio universalis but ratio universalis axioma c. is that which does not signify many things only but every thing which is comprehended in the terms and it is impossible that any Man should make experiment of all things which are comprehended under one general Notion 9. Aristotle saies Per experientiam ars scientia hominibus efficitur Nor Art and Sciences Met. lib. 1. c. 1. an finem Experientia enim ut recte ait Polus b Apud Plat. in Gorgia artem efficit imperitia vero casum to which the Doctor subscribes and saies there can be no prudent or truly knowing Man which by his proper experiment hath not throughly understood a thing to be so If this were universally true then could no wise or prudent Man understand throughly any Law which forbids Theft or Murder upon the penalty of hanging unless he should steale and commit Murder and so be hanged for his pains and for my part I will rather beleeve that if a Man puts his finger into the fire he will burn it and that if he be long over head and ears in the water he will drown himself then make experiment thereby to be accounted a wise and prudent Man Afterwards he saies From hence it is viz. for want of experience many pretenders Page 30. to knowledge and Sophisters cropping of the inventions of other Men the same things every where the order only and words changed and a few things of small moment added do confidently challenge for their own and render Philosophy which ought to be certain and perspicuons obscure intricate and confused It is true that in all argumentation a posteriori viz. from the effect to endeavor to find out the cause there can be no direction without experiment and therefore it is a very difficult if not an impossible thing that any Art or Science can be made from any conclusions in Philosophy which are drawn a posteriori which at the best cannot arise to higher then probable and opinonative and can never be certain and perspicuous And though the Doctor from his great parts and experiment in Anatomy hath probably found out things never before received yet cannot any of those conclusions ever attain to demonstrative certain and perspicuous conclusions yet it does not hold true in argumentation a priori that all things are known by experiment but that infinite things are known and understood which are abstracted from matter and experiment and are easily understood by any Man without experiment 10. Nor is it true universally that there is no knowledge innate in Man for the Laws of Nature are innate and connatural with Man and Man is not naturally without all Knowledge not acquired either by sense experiment or any thing else 11. As I have said before so do I say again that there is no Age that hath not received many things for truths which the next generation upon The manner and order of attaining to Knowledge is a subtil disquisition further inquiry and looking into them have found to be but verisimilitudes and that from things found out infinite productions will be made as long as the world indures and as it is not fairplay to carp at anothers opinion and not to set down his own and give a reason for it So will it be meer levity to contest with another if not upon superior Grounds and he that shall contest with so great a Philosopher as Aristotle in a thing so long received and uncontroverted had need take great heed and have his wits about him least instead of evicting his adversary he only acquires the repute of a light and foolish Man But least we should skip short for want of taking our run far enough back we will begin at the beginning of all things 12. As I am a Christian and therefore by the First Chap. Gen. ought There is but one first Entity and that is God to beleeve that God made Heaven and Earth Man and all other Creatures so if I had not received Gods divine revelation of himself in the Scriptures yet should I never have been a Peripatetick or Aristotelian who held that not only the world but the species of all things in it were from all eternity For there was either one first being the true prime and efficient cause of all things else or two or more first beings or no first being but all things were originally from themselves but the two latter are most manifestly absurd and contrary to sense and reason for unitas est secundum quam unumquodque eorum quae sunt unum dicitur but the first is one thing it is therefore impossible there should be two firsts or more nor is it less absurd to suppose all things to have been from eternity and so not to have proceeded from one superior being but had their being from themselves for if all things had from all eternity a power and being of themselves then might they have infinitely continued their being in their individuals and we see that every thing does naturally desire the preservation of its self but this is most manifestly false for we see all things are in their individuals resoluble into their first composition and perpetuated by generation in their species there is therefore but one first being of all things except sin which is contrary to the nature and essence of God who is all good which is God 13. All things were either originally generated of their like or from themselves or created by God But nothing could generate any thing like God in the beginning created all things it self before it was and by the precedent proposition no Creature could have its original being from its self All things
understanding cannot be any effect but from some efficient cause nor act without an agent then is it not possible but that which is in the understanding and does judge discern and phancie is superior and must precede every thing which is so judged discerned and phancied in the memory or senses All things therefore are so far from being in the senses before they were in the understanding that it is not only impossible that any thing which was in the sense should be in the understanding but also that which is in the understanding must be before it can judge discern or phancie any thing in the memory or senses And by consequence no Art nor Science can be learned or taught another who does not first understand the Principles thereof nor is it possible that the Principles of any Art or Science can be taught I know it is usual for men to confound the sense with the understanding As when a man talks unconclusively they say he talks not sense yet it may be he speaks very loud that is truly he talks not understandingly or not to be understood 39. By the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 6. the Understanding The Understanding is a ray of Divine light in the soul of man does apprehend things either abstractly or concretely Abstractly without the Reason as Principles for which no Reason can be given or concretely with the Reason as when by the Reason it apprehends things deduced from such Principles before understood and for which no reason can be given for Intellectus sit principiorum Scientia vero cum ratione conjuncta The understanding therefore of prime and universal causes for which no reason can be given can be nothing else but radius divini luminis in animabus hominum and by consequence it cannot be learned taught or communicated by any Creature or all the Creatures in the world 40. Only Man of all Creatures of this world understanding prime Only Man of all the creatures of this inferior orb is an intellectual creature necessary and universal causes and phancying things true and false just and unjust only Man is an Intellectual creature 41. * What things are Principles I. Principles by the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 3. are those things which are known to an Intellectual creature which do constitute Ratiocination and of which no reason can be given and cap. 6. are apprehended only by the Mind or Intellect Such are the Principles of Geometry and such are Idem eidem secundum idem esse non esse impossibile Omnis affirmatio aut negatio aut vera aut falsa Cujus est nolle ejus est velle c. II. Man not being only an Intellectual but a Sociable creature God hath engraven in the minds of all men certain Laws for which no reason can be given to which they ought to conform all their actions for the preservation of peace and society among men III. But because the Laws of Nature oftentimes only are ex Thesi there must be some things ex Hypothesi which must be understood and these must be prime and superior to them to whom they are given and for which they can give no reason or they cannot be the rule and reason of their actions I require Humane and Despotical Laws for Principles to those who by right or due are subject to them IV. But God having made Man not only intellectual rational and sociable but endued him with an immortal soul capable of eternal happiness He hath extraordinarily and supernaturally revealed himself in the Scriptures that men submitting themselves and their Reasons to those Divine precepts might work out their salvation with fear and trembling But if it be asked How shall I know the Scriptures to be Gods Word since they are not known to be so by the understanding nor outward sense I would ask that man if he be a Christian how he came to be so For his being a Christian implies his belief in them as the Word of God and he is required no more And if the power and grace of God were not as much shewed in converting the world to Christianity by the preaching of a company of poor Fishermen all Temporal powers persecuting and contradicting it as in all the Miracles of old under the Prophets and Patriarchs And whether the power and grace of God in his Son was not more visible under the New then in the Prophets and under the Old Law But because the Laws or Precepts of God in the Scripture command many things in Thesi only as Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. 1 Tim. 2. and Let prayers and supplications be made for all men c. But this Decencie and Order is no where prescribed or defined by the Scripture and the Church to whom the right of defining such things is given by God ex Hypothesi the Laws therefore of Church or Ecclesiastical Laws are principles and necessary for conservation of Christian society I require only Humane Ecclesiastical and Despotical Laws for principles which do not immediately proceed from God All other principles whatsoever proceed or are immediately created only by God alone 42. All Men understand that they ought to obey the Laws of their No Laws create any obligation in conscience from any thing which was in the senses superiors But by the 37. Proposition there is nothing in the understanding which was in the senses Mens Obedience therefore or their obligation in conscience to the Laws of their superiors is not from any thing which was in the senses But it does proceed from the connatural Laws of Nature engraven by God in the minds or understandings of Men or from his Grace supernaturally given to Men and by consequence those men who do not from innate good principles their duty in conscience will never from any thing feared or received into the senses be it Whipping Branding or Hanging ever be made good but only deterred from being bad 43. Belief is the assenting to a thing to be true or false not as either What is Belief known to the understanding or outward senses but as affirmed or denied by one or more who are credible persons 44. Faith is the assenting to a thing to be true or false not as known What is Faith to the understanding or outward senses but as commanded or forbidden by God extraordinarily and supernaturally 45. It is an admirable thing to consider the providence of God who Whether things only credible may be as certain as known to the senses and incidently of the divine excellency of truth above any sensible knowledge is the God of truth in the preservation of those things which impartially relate the actions of Men and the revolutions which have hapned in the world Nor is it any more then a just and equal testimony Polybius in the Proem of his History gives of Truth viz. that she ought to
should have disputed without an Adversary for me But when he makes all men Jure naturali which is superior and the cause of all Laws of Nature to be equal and in a parity of condition and every man by his own natural right to have a power over every man and to kill and destroy them whensoever it seems good unto him and yet without any sin and that this State is only to be cured by the Laws of Nature of his own making although he would have them to be Divine Laws and contrary to Natural rights is such a monstrous Paradox and absurdity as I wonder any Ingenuous man should assent to it Under the title of Empire he is not less wild and extravagant in his concessions to the thing be it King or Court created by Do or Dedi and not Dabo or Faciam For he makes it not only Soveraign Judge of all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil causes but also impossible to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature Yet he makes the Law of Nature the Law of God and this Creature of creatures to be so infallible that it is impossible to command any thing contrary to it It is not worth the examining what he would have under the title of Religion for men say the man is of none himself and complains they say he cannot walk the streets but the Boys point at him saying There goes HOBBS the Atheist It may be therefore the reason why in all his Laws of Nature he allows no place for the Worship and Service of GOD. But it is time to examine the particular Articles upon which this Body De Cive is built 1. His marginal Note upon Art 3. Cap. 1. is Homines naturâ aequales esse inter se Observ There is no one Proposition in the world more false then this nor more destructive to all faith and truth of Sacred History For whereas he says that by nature Men are equal to one another if the Scriptures be true that God made Adam an Universal Monarch as he says as well over his Cap. 10. art 3. Wife and Children as other Creatures and that since Adam God did never create any Man but the species of Mankind was continued by generation and that as he says Primogeniture is preferred by the Law of Cap. 3. art 18. Nature which Cap. 3. Art 29. is immutable then it is impossible that Cap. 4. art 15. since Adam any two Men in the world can be equal where God does not make them so Indeed if Mr. Hobbs had been an Athenian who stiled the Men of Observ 2. Attica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of the same Land or a Peripatetick who held that Men and the other things of the World were from Eternity as well as the World or an Egyptian who held that from the example of divers creatures generated out of the river Nile Men at first were generated from equivocal generation or that Men had sprung out of the ground fungorum more there might have been some small semblance for his opinion 2. His Argument to prove the Natural equality of all Men is Aequales sunt qui aequalia contra se invicem possunt At qui maxima possunt nimirum occidere aequalia possunt Ergo Homines natura aequales inter se His minor Proposition is no where proved and I am sure contrary Observ Gen. 9. 6. to what God says Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man 3. Nature hath given to every Man a Right to all things Cap. 1. art 10. Observ What thing is mine naturali jure as he says or lege naturali is mine so that it is impossible it should be aliened or made anothers by any act of my will or the will of all the men in the world For natural causes do not depend upon voluntary humane actions and therefore the natural right which Nature has given to every man remains still with every man 4. Filium in statu naturali intelligi non posse Annot. art 10. Observ And therefore from Adam to our Saviour could there be no such natural state For S. Luke cap. 3. gives a Genealogie of Adams sons and sons sons to our Saviour And since I do not think Mr. Hobbs can shew that ever there was such a state in the world 5. The state of Man in Nature is hostile And cap. 8. art 10. he says Art 12. Men in the state of Nature may kill one another so often as it seems good unto them And therefore he must invent and seek to make himself in a better condition then God hath made him and that forsooth is by seeking Art 15. cap. 1. Observ Peace which he says is the first Law of Nature Is it not strange that a thing invented and made by the wit and will of Man and that contrary to the state and condition in which God hath made Man should here prove to be a Law of Nature which is the Law of God And is not more strange that God hath made Man upright and he hath Observ 2. Eccles 7. 27. sought out many inventions and yet Man should have need of Mr. Hobbs his help to invent and make him in a better state then God hath made him or else he says his conservation cannot be long expected Art 15. Neither is it possible in such a state where all men may kill one another Observ 3. and where all things are alike and common to all men that men should make any pacts or contracts one with another For besides that where men have nothing proper there men cannot make pacts or contract for any thing also where there is no precedent humane Law obliging there cannot any man be obliged or bound to any thing by his pact or contract for to be bound is in relation and must presuppose something which does bind but if nothing binds me but my Will which is a contradiction I may unbind me when I will for my Will is free I deny that any man or any company of men can will any thing to be Observ 4. a Law to themselves For Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud And therefore the act of no mans Will can have a power or obligation upon himself and by consequence cannot any man or company of men will or make another who shall give them Laws for Nemo potest transferre id in alium quod ipse non habet 6. Legem naturalem esse dictamen rectae Rationis Cap. 2. art 1. Observ Wold any man think that these Critiques and pretended Masters of Reason did either understand Reason or Logick If Lex naturalis be dictamen rectae Rationis I ask of Mr. Hobbs what is the reason of it If it be a prime cause or principle then by the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 3. 6. does it constitute the
to the wills of men whereas Natural causes do immediately proceed from God and are above the will of man Society therefore being natural the actions of the wills of the most perverse and wicked men in the world could never make them out of society but where they would not be commanded by their rightful Superiors fell a commanding and obeying among themselves 4. They all not only invert Nature and make Wills and Pacts superior to it in the cause of Society but all of them make the natural relations of rightful Princes and Subjects to be dissolvible by the wills of men yet after a different manner Grotius when there is a necessity makes them dissolvible by the Subjects Our Author when the Subjects judge it reasonable And Mr. Hobbs when the King or Civitas will give or sell the relations Whereas Regal power being Gods ordinance is therefore superior to mens wills and cannot be aliened or dissolved by the will of man 5. They all not only invert Nature and make it alterable by the will of man but make the Law of Nature or God to take its origination from the civil pact or will of man whereas the Law of Nature is eternal and immutable by the will of man and connatural with every man and always had and ever shall have a like obligation upon all men in all ages and places 6. I say They not only blasphemously make Nature and the Law of God alienable and depending upon the will of man but also most illogically confound the relations of agencie and patiencie in the same subject and make the Cives to constitute the civil pact and to be subject to it whereas Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud 7. They invert Grammatical construction in making the Cives who constitute the Civitas the patient or governed and the Civitas who accepts the wills of the Cives to be the agent or governor Whereas the contrary is true in both for Obligans is the governor who does will and obligatus the governed who accepts the will of the governor 8. They all most ridiculously make the Creature the Civitas superior to and the Governor of the Creator viz. the Cives whereas it is impossible any Being should be prime or superior to the cause of its being 9. They all of them make the Cives to endue the Civitas with that which none of them have either separately or conjunctly viz. a power of life and death and creating property whereas Nil dat quod non habet nemo potest transferre id in alium quod ipse non habet If all these things be true and that I have not unjustly charged them in my Observations how contrary they are not only to one another but to themselves in their superstructure then let the world judge especially you my dear and native Countrymen whether grounds so unnatural so blasphemous so illogical so contrary to common sense and grammatical construction so ridiculous and impossible should be worthy to be accounted the Principles of Humane society Or whether they ought not to be exploded by mankind as fit for nothing but to abuse ignorant men and to open a gap for Sedition and Atheism If I have here or heretofore unjustly charged them two of my Adversaries are alive and of age and may answer for themselves and no question but Grotius hath followers enough who may vindicate him if he hath wrong done him Or if I have committed any of these things in these Elements let them make it appear I will thank them for it A Premonition to the Reader BEside that part of this Treatise which shews the causes and means by which men attain Arts and Sciences in this Preface Observations and Elelements I have designed three things First in the Preface I designe to demonstrate That it is impossible that the Cause of Humane Society should be originally created by the pacts and wills of men and the occasion of writing these Observations Secondly in the Observations I designe to shew That the Causes of Humane Society do not appear from these mens Grounds and Principles Thirdly in the Elements I endevour to demonstrate the Causes of all Humane Christian and Legal Society And if any of my Adversaries or any man else shall shew me any errors in any of them I profess I will ascribe it as an act of Friendship to him I have one request more to the Reader That he would look upon all these Elements and Observations except one half-sheet added to the Observations to be passed the Press before His MAJESTIES Acknowledgment or Restitution until the last Book or one sheet or two of the Fourth Book of Justice c. And to insert in pag. 9. of this Preface line 22. after For which no reason can be given what is contained in the Margin from These things thus premised c. ELEMENTS OF Power Subjection Or the Causes of all Humane Christian Legal SOCIETY Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta Patrum qui Leges juraque servat By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by T. N. for G. Bedel and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate 1660. TO THE READER MAns thoughts of Life and Living are odd things pritty Antitheses he thinks his whole Life though he should live a Thousand years too short and yet every day nay hour of his living too long Vicious Men therefore misplace their happiness in entertaining worldly pleasures thereby to delude and spend their time which they desire so much to continue in their Life that in their living it might not seem to be Virtuous Men have the same thoughts of Life and living with vicious Men but their actions discern them For those hours which in their Life would otherwise seem tedious to them they entertain either in the Contemplations of God or his Works or by doing virtuously sweeten those sowre effects which idleness causes So that the old Philosophers would affirm That not Years but Virtue should be the measure of Mans life And this reward hath God the Author of Virtue in Men as Plato divinely affirms given Meno prope finem to virtuous Men that they not onely take pleasure in remembring time past but also hope well in time to come notwithstanding all the frowns of perverse and wrinckled Fortune whereas vicious Men are onely pleased with deceiving the present time ashamed to look back upon their actions past and affrighted upon the apprehensions of death and worldly calamities which notwithstanding all their Proteus shapes and Janus faces happens to them as well as virtuous Men in time to come There is no time wherein virtuous Men may not contemplate God either as God or in his Works or do well whereas many times vicious Men though never so rich and able to maintain their Vices are either wearied with them or have not means to attain to what they call the fruition of them and then they may be truly accounted miserable because they know not what to
another if the other accepts of any thing in acknowledgement that he will do that thing both parties are obliged by the Law or upon the giving or doing of one party the Law obligeth the other 4. Absolute promises receive their obligation from a precedent or Wherein a bare promise and a Contract differ present consideration or condition as if for a benefit received or any present consideration I promise c. Contracts from a subsequent as if I promise to another that if he will do for or give me or another such a thing that then I will do for him or give him such a thing this being a conditional promise or contract upon the performance of the others consideration or conditions being subsequent to my promise I am obliged by Law to performe my promise made to him and therefore ex nudo pacto non oritur actio for I am not obliged by any act of the other to performe any thing All contracts are made by words of the futuretense as si aliquis dederit aut fecerit dabo aut faciam 5. A contract differs from a meere obligation in this a single obligation Wherein a Contract differs from a single obligation is when one or more for such a sum of Mony Lands Houses c. had and received from another acknowledgeth him or themselves liable to such a penalty to the other if they perform not such a condition as is specified in the obligation A Contract or Pact is when both or all parts are obliged to performe All Promises Vows Contracts and Obligations ought to be only of Annotat. things in possession and that are mens so as by an act of their wills they may be anothers as they are theirs and therefore where any man hath a meere right to any thing this being a shadow another having the substance or as our Lawyers say A chose in Action he cannot by any Contract or otherwise alien his right to another but he can only release it to him in possession otherwise the right remains still in him notwithstanding any Contract c. that he would alien it And I would gladly be satisfied how Mr. Hobbs in the generation of his Civitas can make meere rights to be tranferred and aliened by the Pacts of men and those natural rights too This being granted Mr. Hobbs may by his Contract with another Man make himself no Man but a Horse or an Asse notwithstanding that by nature he is a Man 6. Every Oath is either a calling God to witness that what a Man testifies is true or false or else a speech added to a promise whereby the What is an Oath promiser does renounce Gods mercy if he performs not what he promises But if a Man Promises Vows Contracts or swears to do any thing which is unlawful he ought not to performe it for it is ill done to promise c. but worse to do any thing unlawful 7. A League is when two or more do mutually give their faith to Foedus how different from a Pact observe such conditions as are agreed between them and herein it differs from a Pact or Contract A Contract or Pact is when there is a precedent humane Law obliging the parties contracting to performe all the conditions specified in the contract A league is where there is no humane Law obliging but only the Law of Nature And therefore all stipulations made by Princes one with another are confederacies or leagues not Contracts or Pacts because there is no precedent humane Law obliging them to performe their leagues 8. A Gift is what I do give to another so as it is mine do and Donum though a gift be alwaies in the present or preterperfect tense yet the Habendum may be in the future as if I make a lease freehold or create a State in taile to one and grant the reversion to another and his heires here though the deed or gift be in the presenttense yet the reversion or Habendum is in the future But no Man can give another any thing but what depends upon his will and is his so by some positive humane law that by his giving he may so make it anothers For whatsoever is mine by the Law of Nature cannot be aliened or made anothers by my Will nor by the Will of all the Men in the world for it is impossible natural causes and relations should be dissolved by Mans Will 9. Feoffment is derived of foedum a Fee quia est donatio foedi and this A Feoffment is the most ancient and necessary Conveyance which is used by the Common Law that is that Law which concerns tenures and estates used only here in England and this deed or conveyance is either of absolute estates of corporeal inheritances absolutely passed to another by livery and seisin made according to the intent and purport of such Feoffment he which conveys such estate of inheritance being called the Feoffor he to whom such inheritance is conveyed is called the Feoffee or of absolute estates of inheritance which are not corporeal as Advousons Commons rents issuing out of lands which do lye in grant and do not pass by livery and seisin but by delivery of the deed or feoffment 10. Do or dedi as our Lawyers say which implies a warranty to A Estates-Taile and his heirs for ever makes a Feoffment Do or Dedi to A. and the heires of his body lawfully begotten or to A. and the heires male or female of his body lawfully begotten or to A. and the heirs male or female on the body of such a Woman or to a Woman and the Heirs of her body lawfully begotten or heirs male or female of her body lawfully begotten by such a man creates a state taile and he which creates such an estate is called Donor he to whom such estate is granted Donee 11. Do or Dedi to such a man or woman for term of either of their Freehold lives or to such a man or woman during the life of another creates a freehold 12. Do or Dedi or concedo or concessi to such a man if he shall live so Lease long an estate for years or to such a man and his heirs for such a term reserving or not reserving such a rent or service creates a lease In both the latter he who gives is called Lessor he who takes Lessee and humane Laws oblige as well to gifts as contracts For natural Laws oblige in conscience only but men are obliged by mulcts and corporal punishments to contracts and gifts So that in most proper speaking In every gift it is the Law which gives the property to another by an act of the Donors will and the Donor is the instrument by which the Law conveys the property of any gift to another 13. Humane Laws therefore obliging men to the performance of No Law or Legislative Right arises from any Pact or Contract their Pacts Contracts and Gifts
it is impossible they should receive their origination and first power from the Pacts and Contracts of Men For where there is no precedent humane Law obliging men can neither make Pacts Contracts or Gifts nor have any thing to give and contract for And to suppose that humane laws must precede and oblige men to thei Contracts and Pacts and that Contracts and Pacts must precede humane laws and give them their power is most manifestly absurd and contradictory THE CONTENTS of the Second Book Chap. I. HAving thus far treated of Rights and Laws which are the prime and efficient cause of all Humane Christian and Legal Society We in the first Chapter of this Book proceed to declare the Causes of all Society Chap. II. This Chap. shews the cause and end of Regal power Chap. III. Declares the attributes of it and incidently the causes of Magistrates power Chap. IV. Compares the three species of Government viz. Monarchy Democracy and Aristocracy wherein the excellency of Monarchy appears above either of the other as well by reason and experience as by the institution of God and consent of the world Chap. V. Shews the internal causes disposing men to sedition as well from the Party governing as from the Subjects or party governed Chap. VI. Declares the causes and attributes of the Fathers power And Chap. VII The causes and attributes of the Husbands power In this Chap. is demonstrated that though the Fathers and Husbands power be from the Law of Nature yet may the exercise of them be restrained by the Supreme power of any place without any wrong or prejudice to them which could not be done without a violence upon the Law of Nature if the Fathers and Husbands power were an institution of God and Supreme powers an institution of Man Chap. VIII Contains the causes and attributes of Despotical or the Masters power wherein is declared that if it be impossible for any man to make another his Master then necessarily is it impossible any man should make another his Prince or Soveraign Chap. IX Treats of the causes and attributes of Ecclesiastical power DEFINITIONS 1. SOciety Aristotle in lib. 1. Pol. cap. 5. truly defines to be made up of many What is Society divided parts or persons so that there must necessarily be Unum quid quod imparet alterum quod pareat 2. There are six sorts of Society First of Supreme powers and Subjects How manifold is the Society of Men. Secondly of Magistrates and those committed to their care or government and this is most properly called the Civitas especially where the Magistrates and those in their jurisdiction have a priviledged or exempted authority peculiar to them and not the same with that which is not contained in their jurisdiction Such are the Societies of our Civitates Boroughs and Corporations in England where the Magistrates jurisdiction is exempt and priviledged from the ordinary jurisdiction of Magistrates where these priviledges and immunities are not Thirdly of Husband and Wife and this Society the Greeks called Gamaca Fourthly of Fathers and Children which is called Patrica Fifthly of Masters and Servants which is called Despotica Besides these there is a sixth Society which is proper only to Christians viz. of Bishops Curates and Congregations committed to their charge 3. Potestas est jus imperiale in aliqua persona cujus praeceptum continet What is power rationem obedientiae 4. There are four kinds of Powers viz. Divine Humane or Natural Legal How many kinds of powers are there What is Divine power and Ecclesiastical 5. Divine power or right of Command is that power which is by highest right solely and originally in God and incommunicable to any Creature from whence all other Powers are mediately or immediately derived 6. Humane power is a right of Command created immediately by God or What is Humane power immediately derived from the Law of Nature 7. Legal power is a right of Command which is not immediately derived What is Legal power from any positive or natural law of God but from some Humane law 8. Ecclesiastical power is an institution of our Saviour and left to continue What is Ecclesiastical power What is force or Tyranny in the Church of Christ until his second coming to Judgment 9. Force or Tyranny is an usurpation of Command of any Creature or company of Creatures not created by any law of God or Man Nor is it the commanding of one alone which makes Tyranny the very Grecians could account the Athenian Thirty to be Tyrants and so could the Romans the Decemviri and Triumviri And no question but it was malice and spight which made the Grecians call all Kings Tyrants and both Romans and Grecians to make all Kings to be Ravenous creatures And all those Kings who abuse their power are by men usually called Tyrants not justly I find no such title given to Saul Ahab Ahaz Nabuchadnezzar but Wicked and Idolatrous often Nor is a Father or Husband less a Father or Husband if they abuse their powers because they have a right of Command 10. Dominion or Government is the exercise of Command by any Creature What is Dominion or Government or company of Creatures who have a right or no right of Command So that though all Government or Dominion be the exercise of Command yet is not all Government the exercise of Power as the Dominion or Government of Thieves Robbers and Pyrates c. is the exercise of Command who yet have no right of Command 11. All Power is Right but all Right is not Power as Jus Proprietatis How Potestas differs from Jus. Usufructuarium is Right not Power Common Notion ALl Created Powers are from the Law of Nature or Divine posisive Institution or Humane Laws THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. Of Society or the mutual offices of Commanding and Obeying 1. IF all Commanding and Obeying had To command and to obey is no humane artifice or invention been an Humane artifice or invention then was there a time when Men lived out of Society and in a parity or equal condition without commanding and obeying But there is no such time recorded in Sacred or Prophane history wherein Men lived so or when or who first invented or introduced these offices of commanding and obeying Besides we see that Arts and Sciences are received in one place and not in another and in the same place and by the same men at one time and neglected at another But at no time or place did ever men live out of society or commanding and obeying All commanding therefore and obeying is no Humane artifice or invention 2. If then there was never any man born but was born in subjection To command and to obey is natural and all subjection being in the predicament of relation which must suppose something commanding and if all things which are not artificial or invented are natural Then is it as evident as that Homo
but our Saviour Patriarchs and Kings were the Lords anointed Nor is Gods anointed peculiar to them not the material anointing and the receiving and believing Gods revelation of him-self in the Scriptures is essential to the making of Gods anointed here but all rightful Kings are so whether they be materially anointed or believe Gods revelation of himself in the Scriptures or not For not only Cyrus was not Isa 45. 1. materially anointed and an unbeliever yet Gods anointed but Nabuchadnezzar also a cruel persecutor and destroyer of Gods people But Lam. 4. 20. God calls them Mortal Gods too Psal 82. 6. And is it not strange that our Saviour should say No power can be but from above data desuper and that Joh. 19. 11. Men should be so impudent as to affirm that there is no power unless data de subter and that against all sense and reason as well as faith For it is impossible that any Power should be superior to the cause of its being or that any thing should give that to another which it self hath not How then can an imaginary rout of Men give a power of life and death and of creating property which not any of them nor all of them together have to another 3. Humane Laws being the accidents or effects of Regal Power they Regal power not made by Humane laws cannot be superior to give or create a being to the cause Regal Power therefore cannot be made or created by Humane Laws 4. That in Regality as well as in Subjects estates jus proprietatis The possession or exercise of Regality does not create Regal power possessionis have been divided and Regal power usurped and exercised by them who had no right thereunto is not only testified by infinite Authorities out of prophane History but also many times in Sacred Writ as in the cases of Absolom Adonijah Athaliah c. It is true indeed that there is no visible power under Heaven but only Mens Consciences that can judge between an Usurper and a rightful Prince Yet ought men principally to have a care how they offend herein for God no where denounces a more dreadful sentence nor shewed a more terrible judgement then upon such Rom. 13. Men Num. 16. And if in Regality possession alone did create a just title then were summa injuria summa justitia it being no question the highest injury to invade the highest authority or dominion of another 5. If possession conjoyned with the submission and acknowledgement Possession with the Subjects acknowledgment and submission does not create Regal power of the Subjects did create regal power or right of command which Kings have over their Subjects then were the dominion of Theeves and Pirates where others submit to them just and Jeroboams title good to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes nor the Children of Israel Rebels but true Subjects after they had quietly submitted themselves to Jeroboam But this is false for God does denounce them Rebels to the house of David unto this day 1 Kings 12. 19. And Jeroboam himself a Rebel after he was quietly 1 King 12. 19. possessed and acknowledged by the Ten Tribes 2 Chron. 13. 6. It is a very remarkable thing that the Subjects of this Nation although Annot. pretending to be Christians have against all rules of Christian Faith placed all power in Government to be from the people and their obligation to it to be from their own submission to it and have by their often forswearing themselves to this and that Government not only habituated themselves into a belief that there is no such thing as right or power in Government but only possession but also taken away all Religion and Obligation of an Oath in things lawful and indifferent God no doubt permitting it that they who would not stand and be protected by his ordinance and institution should fall into all infidelity and perjury and never be true to any thing they sweare to and set up instead of it 6. If the Law of God or Nature did create Regal Power by the acknowledgement The Law of God or Nature does not create Regal power by the submission or any act of the Subject or submission of Men thereunto or that Subjects were the essential instruments by which Regal Power was originally created and yet is continued in the world then were not Men only free from Regal or Higher Powers before they did submit thereunto but also free to make whom they would their Prince and so by consequence there can be no such thing as Hereditary Monarchy in the world which for many Hundred nay Thousand years where God was not pleased to reign himself immediately over his peculiar people was in the old time the only Government in the world For above 3000 years after the Creation was neither Aristocracy Democracy or Elective Monarchy ever heard of in the world and yet Hereditary Monarchy is in above 19 of 20 parts in the world the only Government Nor would any Government that ever was or is in the world grant this liberty to any one born in their dominion but upon resisting it or renouncing it whether he ever submitted to it or not proceed against him not as an Enemy but as a Rebel and Traitor To suppose therefore that Subjects acknowledgment and submission is previous the essential means by which God does create Regal or Higher Powers is upon the matter to give the Lye to all the Powers and Governments that are or ever were in the world 7. None of these things therefore but some higher cause must create Regal power and that Regal Power is the Ordinance of God the Apostle Regal Power is the Ordinance of God and created by the Law of Nature saies expresly where he saies Rom. 13 that he which resisteth the Higher or Regal power resisteth the Ordinance of God And that this is not Gods Ordinance only to them who receive and believe his revelation of himself in the Scriptures is evident by his ordaining of Hazael Cyrus Nabuchadnezer c. and to put all out of question the Apostle here calls Higher or Regal Power Gods Ordinance and at that time whenas there was no King in the world which did receive the Scriptures for the revealed word of God Besides Kings reign by God c. Pro. 8. 5. and that Kings reign by God not only where he is believed as having extraordinarily revealed himself in the Scriptures Job in the state of nature long before the Job 3. 6 7. Moral Law was given by Moses saies Reges in solio collocat in aeternum Regal power therefore is Gods Ordinance and from the Law of Nature 8. Regal power being Gods Ordinance and created by the Law of Adam had Dominion over all Creatures and not as Father Husband or Master of a Family Nature there was never any time wherein Men were borne out of subjection to it not but that the Laws of Nature
Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy I answer that God hath made Man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Therefore let Aristocracies Democracies answer for themselves anciently there was no Government in the world but Monarchy nor does God ever command obedience to others and the very Athenians for above 800 years could find a Government under Kings hereditarily before any footsteps of Aristocracy or Democracy was ever heard of in the world nor did they ever transgress the bounds of Europe unless in the Carthaginian State and when the Magi usurped in Persia It was Pride in the Romans and Grecians who not only esteemed all the world barbarous besides themselves and all Kings to be of the kinde of ravenous beasts but were the first inventers of these Aristocracies and Democracies and made all Power in Government to be Artificial and Political not only in the exercise which is true but also in the cause This Jus Politicum was of a more large extent with the Grecians then the Jus Civile was with the Romans For the Grecians esteemed that to be Jus Politicum which is common to all Men conjoyned with any society the Romans called that Jus Civile which is proper to any City So to buy and sell was by the Grecians called Politick the Romans called not those things Civil unless to sell by such a measure and at such a time the Romans called the Cloaks and other habits of vestments used by themselves and other people civil But let any Man judge whether these Men Mr. Hobbs White and Grotius being Christians and two of them very learned Men do reasonably not only to reject all precepts and examples of Sacred writ and all Testimonies of the consent of the present World and Testimonies of all most antient Histories from the examples of those most unreasonable Men besides the case between them is as unlike as can be For though they agree that this Jus Politicum or Civile is so as well in the cause as exercise and all power to be originally with the people yet by the people did neither Romans nor Grecians understand a company of Men in a rout or promiscuous parity but they who were Civitate donati nor did ever the People of Athens or Rome acquire their Dominion from the people subject to them by do or dedi and not dabo or faciam as these men feign all power to be originally deduced but by rapine extorting it from their rightful Kings in whom it undubitably was If it be questioned how originally this power came into the world if not Annot 3 by the Pacts of Men or consent of Families I answer Rem teneo modum nescio for the manner of it how it came originally I am not bound to give an account where the Scriptures and most antient Historians do not confirm it it is enough that I having proved it to be natural and Gods Ordinance it was never otherwise especially having the practice of the present world and the Records of all prophane and sacred History 14. It is true indeed that the Humane Laws and the exercise of Regal Not only Kings but Kingdoms have their being from God and by the Law of Natore Power is Politick Voluntary and Artificial but that these Laws are received and exercised in those places where they ought to be which makes Kingdoms is expresly said by the Prophet Dan. cap. 4. in three places The most Highest ruleth in the kingdoms of men and giveth it to whom it pleaseth him ver 7. And it was Nebuchad-nezzars punishment for his pride that he should have his dwelling with the beasts of the field untill he knew that the most Highest ruleth in the kingdoms of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will ver 25 and 32. So that it is evident not only Kings but Kingdoms not only their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Right but also Government is from God immediately and that this is a Declaration of the Law of Nature not only long before God by the Prophet Daniel speaks this were Kingdoms upon the earth but also no Kingdom or King which at the time that this was spoken that did receive or believe Gods Revelation of himself in the Scriptures Kingdoms therefore or the exercise of Regal Power is Gods Ordinance as well where the Scriptures are received as not and due by the Law of Nature and by consequence the obstinate resistance of Kings in their Government by their subjects is a violence upon the Law of Nature 15. Sir Francis Bacon in his life of Henry 7. relates that Perkin Warbeck How many waies Regality comes to pass by the often affirming himself to be Richard Duke of York second son of Ed. 4. did at last believe himself to be so indeed The violent and frequent usurpations of usurpers in this Island and some other Northern and European Region hath invested such a habit in Men that renouncing reason as well as all faith and belief of God in the Scriptures they with much confidence affirm nothing but possession or possession and submission of Subjects to be requisite with Kings Both which do no more make a rightful King then a Mans Deseisin Abetting or Intruding into the signiory of another and the Tenants attorning to him does make him rightful Lord of the Mannor But neither humane Laws nor Man nor any thing under Heaven can endue any Creature with a power over anothers life and fortune who is of the same kind with himself and without which there can be no supreme power and by consequence no society among Men. There are but four waies by which Regality can happen First When it is immediately and expresly given by God as it was to Saul David Solomon Hazael Cyrus c. Or Secondly derived from him who had Regality truly vested in him but this derivation must not be from the Election Adoption or the will of him who was invested with the Regal Power which at highest cannot amount higher then a humane Law which by the 3 para of this chap. cannot create Regal Power It must therefore be derived by Primegeniture which is derived from a higher cause then humane Laws for jura sanguinis nullo jure civili dirimi possint Or Thirdly by Lot which we have shewed to be by the Law of Nature Or Lastly Jure Primi Occupantis if its Occupant be capable thereof for Man being a sociable creature by Nature and society according to Aristotle being contained in many divided parts therefore in the society of Men there must be unum quid quod imparet alterum Lib. 1. cap. 5. Pol. quod pareat But whether Aristocracy and Democracy be unum quid that may jure imperare to me is a question neither of them being any Institution of God or from the Law of Nature but brought in by unjust usurpation and violence and against the universal consent and practice of the world for above Three
thousand years I do exclude Conquest to be any cause of Regal power where God does not give it For either this Conquest must be made by power or force If it be made by power or one who is Gods Sword-bearer no new power ariseth from thence but only a dilatation of the exercise of the old which was formerly in him But if it be done by Sword-takers then is it no other then unjust usurpation and robbery The World being large and the Men in it alwaies ambitious I will not undertake to answer for the matters of fact which Men have done in all Ages nor do I doubt but that oftentimes the alterations and conversions of Government have happened from the will of God Object But it is evident by the Prophet Daniel c. 4. 23. 25. that God ruleth in the kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomsoever he pleaseth And if that he were pleased to make Saul David Solomon and Jeroboam who reigned over his peculiar people and Hazael Cyrus c. who knew not God Kings and yet neither by Lot Primogeniture from a rightful King or by right of First possession then for ought is known these alterations which have otherwise happened and do come to pass in the world may be from the will and gift of God Sol. I answer If it may be Gods will that these alterations and confusions happen in the world it may not be Gods will affirmanti incumbit probatio Let them therefore or they that make these alterations and confusions prove that Gods will and not their own perverse will was the first cause of them It is true and I grant that God does oftentimes for the punishment of a Nation convert the succession of their Kings into another line yet did he never so far chastise any Nation as to subject it to an Aristocracy or Democracy So it is necessary offences come yet shall that never excuse them by whom they come And so it many times happens that men cannot avoid Gods judgments and die it is no consequence therefore that men should run themselves into them or kill themselves It may be it is Gods will that my Father should die or that he will destroy my Country and Laws c. It does not therefore follow that a man may kill his Father destroy his Country or endeavor to subvert the Laws thereof Men are not alwaies obliged to conform their wills to Gods will but to do what he wills and commands them I am obliged to pray for my Parents and Country when it is Gods will they should be destroyed It was Gods will that Jeroboam for Solomons sin should be King of ten 1 King 11. 13. Tribes of Israel yet because the Tribes did will it and not upon Gods command he pronounced them eternal Rebels and Jeroboam a Rebel because 1 King 12. 19. he took it upon those terms 2 Chron. 13. 6. Nor do we find that ever Israel joyed good day after For the policy of Jeroboam to continue Comparethese times with these and see the event his dominion over them must be preferred before Gods worship and service in order thereunto Jeroboam must take counsel and make Calves which he says brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt any Priests were good enough to sacrifice to them no matter whether they were Priests or of the Tribe of Levi the lowest of the people would serve the turn 1 King 12. 32 33. yea forsooth Jeroboam himself could hold forth to the people and burn incense which before was peculiar to the Priests But it is a strange thing that this invented policie of Jeroboams for the keeping of the ten Tribes in their obedience to him should be the cause of so wonderful a Captivity 2 King 17. 21 22 23. that to this day it is unknown what became of them and their posterity 16. Parum est jus nisi sunt qui possunt jura gerere And men have always The miseries of men when the Supreme power is rejected or unknown by woful experience found that all Tyranny of a rightful and known Prince is not to be compared with the miseries and calamities where the Prince is not known or rejected but every popular and ambitious Man arrogates and usurps to himself what should be justly ascribed to the lawful Prince Nor does the calamities of miserable men in such a condition end so but God no where shewed so great a judgment as upon those men viz. Corah Dathan and Abiram who rejected their rightful and known Prince Num. 16. Nor does he ever denounce a more dreadful judgment then upon those men who resist Higher powers Rom. 13. How great then will his judgment be upon them who reject them 17. He is a natural Prince of right or by the Law of Nature who Who is a Natural Prince de jure truly prescribes from such Ancestors that no mortal creature can make any just exception or superior claim And so great a Lover of Men and Truth is God that scarce in all the world was it not known in any Nation who was the rightful Prince thereof when his Subjects did reject him 18. It is true that there is no visible power under Heaven but only Where there are diversities of titles which is to be preferred mens Consciences that can direct them where Titles of Princes come in question But where diversity of Titles are alleadged that which is truly and indubitably most antient is the best for it is a true rule in all descents whatsoever that Dormit aliquando nunquam moritur jus But this must be jus apparens for De non apparentibus de non existentibus eadem est ratio Whether the Title of the Heir general or Heir male be better we shall treat more at large in Cap. of Succession 19. Jus is duplex Proprietatis Possessionis And that this Right is Who is a Natural King de facto and not de jure divisible as well in Regality as private mens Estates is demonstrated by para 4. of this Chap. And if it be true as it is that no Being can be superior or better then the Cause of its being then will it necessarily follow that all Kings who inherit from Usurpers cannot have a better title then that which the Usurpers had so long as a superior or better claim can be made by another Nor do I fear to affirm Hen. 4. Hen. 5. and Hen. 6. were natural Kings of England and did inherit the Crown of England de facto but not de jure 20. Although nothing which is naught in the beginning can be How Usurpation may be bettered bettered by the continuance of time yet may Usurpation although naught in the beginning be bettered in time viz. if the Usurpation be of that continuance that it outlives all claim that can be justly made by another for Possession is title sufficient against all men who have no jus ad rem Hence it
least Liberty and that which in other men is termed Anger in them is called Pride and Tyranny Besides in private men it is enough that they themselves do well but Princes must have a care that neither they nor their Ministers do ill 6. Tibi soli peccavi says the Psalmist Psal 50. Humane Laws are the The Supreme power is not obliged by his own Laws organs or instruments of the Power that governeth they cannot therefore extend themselves to bind him from whom they are derived for Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud Besides the Prince may free other men from the obligation of the Laws and therefore much more himself And if Supreme Princes were obliged by their own Laws then were Humane Laws as well as the Laws of Nature eternal and immutable which is absurd nor could Humane Laws protect Subjects when any thing happens which comes to pass every day that was not foreseen at the making of the Laws Humane Laws are made to oblige and preserve the governed necessitate coactionis but they cannot have any obligation upon Lawgiver who is the Supreme power unless a man will grant that an Effect may be prime and superior to the Cause Nor were ever other Governments subject to their own Laws No man hath any thing proper against the Supreme power 7. No Subject hath any Property except Ecclesiasticks but by the Laws of his Country But by the precedent Proposition no Supreme Prince can be obliged by his own Laws and therefore no Subject can have property against him If any Subject had property against the Supreme power then could not the Supreme power impose a Forfeiture of Goods in case of Praemunire Attaint Conviction of Treason or Felony But the Consequence is false and therefore the Antecedent is false That any man hath any property against the Supreme power Besides there could no Fine nor Fine and Recovery be levied or suffered if he in Reversion or Remainder had property against the Supreme power Nor could an Act of Parliament enable Tenant for life to make sale of his Estate It is remarkable that the Children of Israel should not be content to Annot. have God to reign over them immediately who did himself give them Laws being enquired of by the High-Priest Samuel might well say therefore unto them Ye shall cry in that day because of your King which not ye shall choose but which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord shall not hear you in that day 1 Sam. 8. 18. For Gods ways and actions are always perfect whereas by the reason of humane frailty the best mans actions are subject to imperfections But if it seems grievous to any man that he holds his goods at the will of another let him consider that God since Adam did never give any Nation but only the Children of Israel Property but always used the mediation of his Vicegerents And since Property must be derived from some Humane act for the Law of Nature gives none but to Supreme Princes and therefore the possessions of Kings are called Sacra patrimonia because Kings have no Superior but God Almighty Proedium Domini Regis est directum dominium cujus nullus Author est nisi Deus How Sir Ed. Co. Com. on Lit. p. 1. 6. much better is it for Subjects to hold of one Man then of many For nothing can be objected against one but will have more force against many And let any man shew me in these last five hundred years any Subjects estate taken from him without due and legal proceeding by the act of any of the Kings of England and I will shew him five hundred who not being liable to any punishment by Law have been ruined themselves and their families in seven years and that for observing the Laws and against the will of the King Obj. But many Actions have been brought against the King which if no Annot. 2. man hath Property against him may seem inconsistent Answ But the question here is not what the King may do but what he hath done Not what the King may declare Law but what he hath already declared Law 8. Majesty is from the Law of Nature immediately but the power Power of Magistrates from him of Magistrates is not so but mediately that is from him who hath the Supreme power Magistracie is the instrument or organ by which Majesty is conveyed to every place whither its own power is extended And as Majesty is restrained to the Laws of Nature and is accountable to God for all the omissions and transgressions of them so Magistrates are restrained to Humane Laws and ought to give an account of their actions to him that hath the Supreme power And as no man can offer violence or contempt to Humane Majesty but it is a contempt and violence to the Majesty of Heaven so no man can offer violence to or contemn Magistrates but it is done to Humane Majesty from whence their authority is derived Wherefore Subjects must submit to Governors who are sent by Kings 1 Pet. 2. 14. By this Proposition it is evident that although Supreme power cannot Annot. be divided yet the exercise of it may For where a King is an Enfant he cannot exercise his power who can neither act any thing nor expres what he would have done nay it is impossible for the best and wisest King that ever was to exercise his power every where for one body can be but in one place at once though the power thereof may be diffused every where as the light and influence of the Sun is diffused every where although the body of it can be but in one place And the exercise of power by Magistrates is like Gods governing the world by natural causes who being the first Mover of all things produceth natural effects by the order of second causes Jethro his counsel to Moses therefore is to be taken Thou wilt surely weare away both thou and this people that is with thee for this thing is too heavy for thee thou art not able to perform it thy self alone Exod. 18. 18. 9. Quando lex aliquid alicui concedit concedere videtur id sine quo res The Right of calling Assemblies belongs to Christian Kings ipsa esse non potest where any Law Divine or Humane does give any thing it gives all the means by which this otherwise could not be had And that God by the Law of Nature has given Kings a power to protect their Subjects we have sufficiently demonstrated but it is impossible Princes should protect and govern their Subjects if they might not rule their actions Now all actions and motions are either regular or irregular All regular motions and actions may be reduced to one certain beginning where the beginning is not one and certain there they may be called commotions or confusions rather then motions or regular actions But all Assemblies are motions and therefore they
where the person of the buyer is not to be considered whether greater or lesser richer or poorer but an equal value or price is and to be taken by the vendor for such a commodity be the buyer rich or poor Distributative Justice consists he says in Geometrical proportion and is Distributative referred to the dignities and merits of men so that here men ought to respect the person and the quality of him to whom any thing is attributed or given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more to him who is more worthy and less to him who is less worthy 37. It is true indeed That if in Promutation a man sets such a value Corrective Justice examined upon such a thing and does not respect the person or quality of any buyer that then such vendor does equally to all sellers and in exchanging observes Arithmetical proportion But if it be true as it is that he says That he is a Eth. l. 5. c. 2 3. just man that keeps the Laws and that there be no Law which sets a price upon what thing the seller exchanges or sells to another then it cannot be a sin of Injustice for any vendor not to observe this Arithmetical Rule which Aristotle propounds in Promutation 38. Nor is it less true That if a Prince in conferring honor or otherwise Distributative Justice examined rewarding a man for any merit or great service done to him or his Countrey gives more honor or reward to such a man then to another deserving less then such a Prince does a prudent action and observes Geometrical proportion in it but what is this to Justice For if there be no Law commanding such a thing then cannot the not doing of it be a sin of Injustice nor is it properly a sin of injustice not to reward or repay benefits but of ingratitude Grotius Lib. 1. Para. 8. disputes against the opinion of Aristotle That Grotius his opinion of Justice Justice is properly distinguished into Arithmetical and Geometrical proportion but Paragraph 9. where he should declare what Justice is he onely confounds Jus Lex Justitia and instead of setting down what Justice is which he neither does here nor any where else that I know of he forsooth divides Jus into Jus naturale voluntarium which may signifie either of them or both together hum drum Community and Property the Law of God immutable by God himself and yet mutable by the will of Man In the Dedication of this Jus Belli Pacis he makes Lewis the Thirteenth to be just because he does by imitating him honor the memory of his Father yet do I think there were scarce ever two men more unlike and just because he does by his example instruct his Brother and just because he gave his Sisters great Portions just because he inflicts no great punishment upon his rebellious Subjects sure never man took Mercy for Justice before and just because he allows his Subjects Liberty of Conscience CHAP. II. Of Obedience 1. OBedience is the accepting of the Law or Command of him who Obedience what by right commands when I by no act of my will put any obsticle whereby such Law or Command may be executed or received 2. Obedience differs from Justice as a part differs from the whole Obedience How Obedience differs from Justice is implyed in Justice Patience is onely necessary to Obedience but Agency to Justice Every just man must be an obedient man but the converse do not always hold That every obedient man is a just man As a Prince commands such a man to be a Justice of Peace c. in such a Town or Division he is received by them of the Town or Division This is an act of Obedience in them of such a Town or Division not of Justice because they are Patients onely and not Agents 3. Disobedience is the refusing to accept the Law or Command of How Disobedience differs from Injustice him who by right commands Injustice is the counterfeiting Obedience to Laws and yet abusing them to the prejudice of another As he who by right commands me to do such a thing if I refuse to do it This is a Sin of Disobedience If I undertake to do it and instead of upright doing of it I abuse it to the prejudice of any man this is a Sin of Injustice 4. Obedience is not only a virtue in it self but also the first and only The Excellency of Obedience Introduction to all virtues Theological and Moral For not only in Moral virtues I must subject my will to the rule and precept of him who by right commands but also in Theological virtues my will must be the patient and admit of Gods grace as the prime and efficient cause before it be possible that I should be qualified to do any virtuous action either Theologicall or Moral and God being all good and a lover of Man and hating nothing Philanthropos that he hath made freely offers this his grace to all men and it is mans fault and stubbornness that he refuses to admit of this grace of God without which nothing can be good nothing can be just or virtuous without which no man can reasonably hope for any Temporal happiness in this world or eternal Beatitude in the world to come 5. It is not alwaies the doing or abstaining from what is commanded Gods Grace only is the true and efficient cause of virtue in men or forbidden which is virtue but only the ingenuous and upright doing or abstaining from that which is commanded or forbidden as it is commanded or forbidden by him who by right may command or forbid I say that Ingenuity integrity and abstraction from all affections of profit pleasure love hate feare c. are essential to all virtues for if the doing or forbearing any action proceeds from any of these causes then is not that action virtuous but profitable pleasant lovely hateful fearful c. Jehu did what God commanded him in executing Gods judgements upon Ahabs posterity but not doing uprightly what God commanded him in that formality as God commanded him but if ye be mine and will hearken to my voice take ye the heads of your Masters Sons and come to me to Jezreel to morrow 2 Kings 10. 6. by this time and then instead of pittying so great a calamity upon so many young Princes insulting over them he in derision saies to the people Ye be righteous behold I conspired against my Master and slew him but who slew all Vers 9. these hence it was that God said I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the Hosea 1. 4. house of Jehu say Interpreters But it was a virtue in David to forbear the killing of Saul whenas he could have done it and was promised by God to be King after him and in Jehodajah to preserve Joash although by danger of his life It was not virtue in Amnon to abstain
Yet this can be no objection by those men who ascribe all infallibility to the Pope and that all his Acts and Decrees are to be received and obeyed by an implicite faith as Divine oracles Well but suppose these determinations of the Pope were not concerning matters of Faith as no doubt they were not then how comes the Pope because he is infallible in the Faith that he takes upon him to be Judge and Determiner of those things which no ways appertain to it but are as much where Christianity is not planted as where it is Object Yet it will be objected That if the Church be not Judge of what conduceth to the peace and safety of the Kingdom and Church then who shall and so farewell to all Government and peace in Church or State But before I answer this Quaere I would be resolved one Question or two Who shall be Judge whether the Pope or a General Council be superior Who shall judge whether in any Determination of the Popes it be concerning matter of Faith or not or whether it be determined in Gathedra or not In the many Schismes of the Papacy who should judg who was the true Pope or who shall judg whether Alexander the tenth be now the true Pope or who ever gave the Cardinals who were an humane institution many hundred years after our Saviour this power of Election of the Pope that whosoever they should so elect should be universal Bishop and St. Peters successor Although I might justly insist hereupon nor can these things upon these mens principles who maintain the Popes infallibility at least in my understanding be solved and so are they for all their boast of unity among themselves in as much confusion and dissention even in their very principles as other men yet am not I ashamed to give an account of my obedience both to my Church and King Answer I say that God hath made man a sociable intellectual and reasonable creature and endewed him with an immortal soule potentially capable of eternal happiness Nor will God be served by man having so made him only by a base servile feare and without the intellectual and rational faculties of the soule and therefore has engraven by nature in the heart of every man certain rules by which he is to direct his actions which are the first principles and foundations upon which I honor my Parents King and them who are set over me for my direction in order to my eternal good And although that out of the Church and not being preserved by humane Laws I can neither hope for safety in this world nor salvation in the world to come yet who he is from whom all humane Laws are derived or what is the Church in which I must hope for salvation there is no visible Judge under Heaven but only mens consciences to direct them viz. those directions which God either by nature has given to men or revealed supernaturally in the Scriptures Nor does a mans conscience thus informed leave him after it be informed who it is from whom he ought to expect protection and to whom he owes his obedience as well spirituall as temporal for though there be no visible means for men to hope for peace in Church or State yet does it not follow that by all men all things which may be commanded for the Laws of the Church and State are to be observed as the Laws of Church and State as if the Church command men to worship Images or any creature for the Creator which under the old Law it many times did nor do I understand how it can be excused in the Church of Rome or if men be commanded by higher powers immoral things as to dishonor them or their Parents or whenas temporal powers command things plainly derogatory to the ghostly power of the Church or the Church commands things contrary to the duty men owe to their King and Country which we daily see both the one and the other do which makes some men in their passion ultimately resolve their Temporal and Ecclesiastical obedience into the Church others into the secular power and many deny all obedience to either and set up themselves or something else in stead of either But though mens affections carrie them several waies yet ought not all reason therefore and conscience to forsake all men for although I ought not to judge either King or Church if they command any thing they ought not yet have I and every man else a conscience to direct them whether I ought to do all things whatsoever commanded by King or Church Nor ought men to be frighted out of their consciences viz. the Law of God by nature informing them or his Law supernaturally revealed by his grace directing them because a perverse company of Schismatical and seditious men have abused all Temporal and Ecclesiastical Laws and Powers by pretending conscience Nor will a blind obedience in all things to the Church of Rome cause unity and peace among Christians although it be so much magnified by them for let any man read the lives of H. 4. 5. 6. and 7. and Frederick 1. and 2. Emperors whenas the whole Empire was of the Roman Catholick Religion and see if ever greater broyles were in the Christian World and let them judge whether Obedience to the Popes by so great a part of the Empire were not the cause of them or whether all the Wars in Christendom caused by Boniface the eight and Julius the second were not against Christians in the communion and form of the Church of Rome But where secular or ecclesiastical Laws do plainly command things not plainly derogatory to Gods Law for where they do God is in all things to be obeyed before man so as it is doubtful whether they do repugne Gods Law or not then certainly the best way is to submit to them for a mans conscience wrong informed does not excuse him from any Article of his duty and if it may be the Laws do repugne Gods Law it may be they do not and in controverted and doubtful cases the Law is alwaies presumed to be on the Governors part Nor shall any mans conscience ever excuse him if the Laws either of Church or Country do command things repugnant to Gods word from the duty and obedience he owes to them in all things where they do not repugne it Nor does it free any man from his subjection to higher power but where he cannot submit he ought to suffer And no question that where two evils unavoidable happen the least is to be taken as if a man in the communion of the Church of Rome be reduced to that necessity of simply conforming himself to all things used in the Church of Rome although his conscience cannot digest many things or be excluded out of the visible Church of Christ he had better be of such a Church then of none at all Sure God never affixt such infallibility to men how great or good soever
12. twenty nine Abbots and Priors for so many then were Lords of Parliament It is declared That where by divers sundry old authentique Histories and Chronicles it was manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and has been so accounted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial crown of the same unto whom a Body Politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spirituality and Temporality been bound and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience He being also institute and furnished by the goodness of God with plenary whole and entire power preheminence authority prerogative and jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk resiants or subjects within this his Realm in all causes matters debates and contentions happening to occur insurge or begin within the limits thereof without restraint or provocation to any Forein Princes or Potentates in the world The body Spiritual whereof having power when any cause of Law Divine happened to come in question or of Spiritual Learning that it was declared interpreted and shewed by that part of the said body Politique called the Spiritual body then being usually called the English Church which always hath been reputed and also found of that sort that both for knowledge integrity and sufficiency of number it has been always thought and was also at that houre sufficient and meet of it self without the intermedling of any exterior person or persons to declare and determine all such doubts and to administer all such offices and duties as to the the rooms Spiritual did appertain For the due administration whereof and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection the Kings noble Progenitors and Antecessors of the Nobles of this Realm have sufficiently endowed the said Church both with honor and possessions And the Laws Temporal for trial of Property of Lands and Goods and for the conservation of the people of this Realm in unity and peace without rapine and spoil was and yet is administred adjudged and executed by sundry Judges and Ministers of the other part of the said Body Politique called the Temporalty And both their Authorities and Jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of Justice the one to help the other This Statute does moreover affirm that Ed. 1. Ed. 3. Rich. 2. H. 4. and other Kings did make divers Laws Ordinances Statutes c. for the entire and sure conservation of the prerogatives liberties and preheminences of the said Imperial Crown and of the Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal of the same to keep it from the annoyance as well from the See of Rome as from other Forein Potentates and does make all Causes determinable by any Spiritual jurisdiction to be adjudged within the Kings authority All First-fruits and all contributions to the See of Rome by any Bishop St. 25. H. 8 cap. 20. were forbidden upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods and cattals for ever and all the Temporal lands and possessions of every Archbishoprick or Bishoprick during the time that he or they who offend contrary to the said Act shall possess and enjoy the said Archbishoprick or Bishoprick And that if any presented to the See of Rome by the King to a Bishoprick and he be there delayed he may be consecrated by an Archbishop in England and that an Archbishop presented to the See of Rome to be there consecrated and there letted may be consecrated by two Bishops of England And because the Pope hereof informed did not redress and reform the said exactions nor give answer to the Kings mind therefore the said Statute did prohibit any man to be presented to the See of Rome for the dignity of an Archbishop or Bishop or that any Annates or First-fruits be paid to the Bishop of Rome and that upon the avoidance of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick the King his heirs and successors may grant to the Prior and Covent or Dean and Chapiter of the Cathedral Churches or Monasteries where the See of such Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a Licence under the Great seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Archbishop or Bishop of the See so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose and for default of such Election the King by his Letters Patents may nominate an Archbishop or Bishop and that every Archbishop Bishop to whose hands any such presentment or nomination shall be directed shall with speed invest and consecrate the person nominated and presented by the King his heirs and successors And if any Archbishop or Bishop Prior and Covent Dean and Chapiter shall for the space of twenty days next after such Licence or Nomination come to their hands neglect or shall execute any Censures Excommunications Interdictions c. contrary to the execution of any thing contained in this Act that then they incur the penalty of a Praemunire An act concerning the exoneration of the Kings subjects from exactions St. 25. H. 8. cap. 21. and impositions before that time paid to the See of Rome and for having Licences and Dispensations within this Realm without suing further for the same The King shall be reputed Supreme Head of the Church of England St. 26. H. 8. cap. 1. and have authority to reform and redress all Errors Heresies and abuses in the same Every Archbishop and Bishop disposed to have a Suffragan may elect 26 H. 8. c. 14. discreet Spiritual persons being learned and of good conversation and present them under their seals to the King making humble request to his Majesty to give to one of the two such title name stile and dignity of Bishop of such of the Sees as the King shall think fit and that every such person to whom the King shall give any such stile and title of the Sees abovenamed viz. the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colchester Dover Gilford Southampton Taunton Shaftsbury Molton Marlborough Bedford Leicester Glocester Shrewsbury Bristow Penrith Bridgwater Nottingham Grantham Hull Huntington Cambridge and the Towns of Perth and Barwick S. Germans in Cornwal and the Isle of Wight shall be called Bishop Suffragan of the same See whereunto he shall be named and that every Archbishop and Bishop for their own peculiar Diocese may and shall give to every such Bishop Suffragan such Commissions as have been accustomed for Suffragans heretofore to have or else such Commissions as by them shall be thought requisite reasonable and convenient And that no Suffragan shall use any ordinary jurisdiction or Episcopal power otherwise nor longer time then shall be limited by such Commission upon pain of the penalties mentioned in the Statute of Provisions made the 16. of Rich. 2. The King shall have authority to name Thirty two persons sixteen
are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
expected in this World and if that may then by what means it is to be attained but that I might by degrees accomplish my end I begin with man in his first Cause and being Man then in his first being is to be considered either as created or begotten as created sure no man in his wits will deny but that God was the prime and only efficient cause of his creation who without any ordinary concurrence of naturall causes did so create him and that this was not from a confluence of naturall causes is evident for otherwise it had been a Generation not a Creation and necessarily something must be Created before any thing can be Generated of it Nor is God if a man rightly considers it lesse the prime and efficient cause of man in his Generation then in his Creation for it must needs be evident to every man That male and female are not the first cause of Generation because then they would alike of themselves without the influence of a superiour cause be apted for Generation and so every Creature of it selfe in a like power of Generating one as much as another the contrary of which every one daily sees Nor are all Creatures at all times alike disposed to Generation but apted and disposed thereunto from some exterior cause as we see in Foxes about the Brumall solstice and Ravens in January other creatures generally about the Vernal Equinox and Deere about the Autumnall which without all doubt doth proceed from the influence of the Sun which in those seasons disposes them thereunto but that the Sun is not the prime and efficient cause of Generation is confessed by Aristotle where hee faith * That in omni creature divinum quid reperiri respondens Elemento stellarum Lib. 2. cap. 3. de Gen. Anim. esseque omnipotentis creatoris vicarium It is not therefore the Sun nor male and female which can be the first cause of a man or any other creature but that minde or Soul which governs the innumerable and vast bodies of the Univers and by a perpetuall motion of the Earth from West to East according to the new Hypotheses in Astronomy or of the Sun from East to West after the former Hypotheses through the divers Regions of the Earth doth apt and dispose all things therein to their production and dissolution So that God is the prime efficient cause as wel in the generation as creation of man other creatures the manner only is different God in generation from the confluence of necessary contingent causes doth Generate Man and other creatures and originally did create them without any confluence of causes Nor is God lesse the prime preserver of all Creatures then the first cause of the Creation and Generation of them for not all the sublunary meanes of eating drinking sleeping exercise physick c. can preserve any creature thus Generated or Created but some internall cause whether it be called anima or pars animae or quid animae or aliquid habens animam aut intellectus aut denique numen and this is it in every Creature which doth worke towards its end and orders all these things with unimitable and incomprehensible art and providence alwaies procures what is best as well for its being as well-being as well for defence as ornament Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem Virg Aenei And though all these outward things however necessary for the preservation of every Creature are accidentall and may be more or less acquired and communicated by every creature yet this internall cause this numen this Lar familiare or anima which disposes and orders all these outward causes is not to be acquired or communicated by any Creature So that a man must needs confesse That in all Creatures as well as Man there is some particle of divine Aire which doth order and dispose of all sublunary meanes in a wonderfull and diverse manner towards their preservation untill by a propense naturall disposition they all resolve into their first Principles But these outward meanes are acquired and communicated by severall Creatures divers and severall waies Some doe acquire these outward meanes from an innate impulse never with understanding or reason moving them others rarely without their understanding or reason and this latter only is Man Yet how fraile a mans reason and understanding is even to the acquiring of things necessary for his preservation is evidenly seen almost in all men for there is no man in this world who can by his understanding and reason so govern his actions that those things so directed by him have alwaies a like event nay often times the same thing propounded by the same man upon the same grounds and reasons hath so contrary an event that at this time it ruins him which other while was of much advantage to him And this is daily seen among all sorts of men so that it is most manifest that a mans understanding or reason cannot preserve him as he is an intellectuall rationall Creature nor Justice Religion and Piety as a sociable but somthing superior to these What then shall we say to these things Is Religion Justice and Piety and a mans understanding and reason of no account because they cannot procure peace and preservation Nothing lesse for God having first created man and other creatures without the confluence of naturall causes did ever after their first creation cease to make any other but the species of all things have ever since been renewed by Generation but in Generation God doth not renew the species of all creatures from an absolute act of his own but from the coition of male and female disposed thereunto in perfect creatures oftentimes from matter disposed many creatures are aequivocally generated without the coition of male and female which thing is evidently seene from the yeerly renuing of of frogs caterpillars c. The antient Aegyptians from the observation of the very many creatures thus generated in the River Nile did believe that all perfect creatures were originally not from creation but from aequivocal generation Yet though these spurious and imperfect creatures are thus generated yet do they all generate their like Aristotle Hist Anim. only excepts the Eele and I could never yet see either Row or Milt in any of them But though God be the prime efficient cause of the generation all creatures and therefore absolutely necessary to the production of every creature and though the conditions which he hath ordained be absolutely necessary to the generation of every creature yet are not these conditions alwaies performed from any absolute necessity of the part of God but oftentimes from contingent causes and the will of the creature For example it is necessary that the influence of the Sun from matter disposed in standing pools should produce Frogs yet are not alwaies those Pooles necessary to be but are often made and often filled up
from voluntary and contingent causes of man so contactus naturalis in bodies apted and disposed doth necessarily generate yet is there no necessity that this contactus should bee but it might not have beene c. Universall causes in nature produce nothing of themselves but as meeting with particular and materiall causes disposed to production the universall causes are alwaies prime and necessary but their meeting with particular causes are not alwaies so but often times contingent and voluntary As God by the confluence of naturall causes is alwaies the first cause of all creatures by Generation so is he the first cause of the preservation of all Creatures yet doth not he preserve them by any absolute necessity of his part alone but by such meanes as he hath ordained for every Creature I say this meanes doth not alwaies come to passe from inevitable necessity of the part of God but often times from the will of men and contingent causes for example no man lives but as he daily repaires nature by eating and drinking yet there is no necessity that he should eat or drink but he may choose whether he will or not Nor is God less the prime preserver of intellectuall and rationall creatures yet doth he not preserve them as other creatures void of understanding but thus using the intellectuall and rationall faculty of their Soul yet there is no man but may chuse whether he will use his understanding and reason in his actions and that man who doth not use his understanding in his actions but only his affections and passions how great soever he be will live to see misery enough And though Religion and Justice cannot of themselves preserve men in Peace and Happinesse but some superior cause which must order and dispose them thereunto yet so necessary are they for the preservation of peace and happiness that whersoever they are neglected men did ever degenerate into straction confusion and prophanenesse this superior cause which dignifies men above all other creatures as well intellectuall as sociable is God who is the prime efficient and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among sociable Creatures and Religion and Justice are the necessary meanes which he hath ordained therefore But though Religion and Justice be necessary for the peace and happinesse of any Nation yet is it not alwaies necessary on Gods part men should be Religious and Just but men may chuse whether they will do religious and just acts or not God therefore is the first and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among men and Religion and Justice the necessary meanes which he hath ordained thereunto and this to be performed by man and let no man thinke that God will save any man in this world or blesse him in the world to come against his Will when men will not endeavor these things by such meanes as hee hath ordained Man therefore by Religion and Justice ought to endeavour through God's blessing to attaine to Peace and Happinesse as well in this World as in the next without which hee cannot reasonably hope for eyther Having thus far treated of the causes of all society and vindicated the Government and Lawes of my native Country and mother-Church of England It will not be amisse before I conclude to add a word or two in vindication of Sir Edward Coke my most honored Ancestor since by words and writing he is so traduced as indeed Quis ille a tergo quem nulla aconia pinsit by men so maliciously or ignorantly or both Among the rest one a late writer of a Pamphlet I will not call it because of the subject being the life of our late Soveraigne yet it is without name although I thinke few men but are sufficiently assured of the Author upon a seditious and reproachfull speech he sayes tending to the dishonour of his Majesties Government made by Mr. Coke after the wonted rate of his lavish pen without any more adoe makes him a Chip of the old Block But of all men I am content he next after one of our Mercuries should say it since if he be not traduced unjustly hee can asperse the Nobility upon the faith of a Mercury and so many others upon none at all and his Quotations upon his Geography So fals that upon search made by a Reader and scarce any to be found to be true upon the reprinting he blotted out the pages and only quoted the Authors and left the Reader to finde them where he could If these be true then certainly his ipse dixit is of small account if false then let him deny them But I can tell our Historian newes of his Soldier whom he page 156. made openly to be shot to death in Saint Pauls Church yard for as is confidently reported and beleeved he was apprehended about Whitehall June 17. and is at this time in faire election of being hanged And being no lesse a more famous Geographer then Historian though his second Edition suffers much for want of his expunged pages to finde out his quotations hee page 123. makes the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall command on that narrow channell which runs between the County of Carnarvan and the Isle of Anglesey whereas the Town and Castle of Conway stand upon the River Conway which parts Denbighshire from Carnarvanshire a little below the mouth of the River Gessen nay let any man see whether the River Conway falls not into the Irish or Virgivium Sea but whether it fals into the Irish or Virgivium Sea or not yet certainly it cannot fall into the narrow Channell which parts Carnarvanshire from Anglesey which begins at Abermenay ferry and ends at Porthathir ferry whereas the mouth of Conway is little lesse distant from Porthathir ferry then that is from Abermenay Porthathir ferry being upon the matter equidistant from either What heed then is to be taken to the ipse dixit of such a Geographer and Historian let any man Judge Sure he had more need mend his own Errors then be so rash and lavish a Censurer of other mens Although I take not this mans tongue to be any slander so not worth an answering or at most a bare denyall of what he sayes were sufficient which I doe since it is but gratis dictum yet since other men have assumed to themselves such licence of aspersing him it will not ill become mee to shew how unjustly he is aspersed in those things whereof they traduce him as first this man makes him a seditious man certainly it is very strange that in the living of 83 yeeres the many of his writings and his many imployments doth not produce so much as any suspicion thereof that I ever heard of One thing yet pleases me that in all these seditious commotions Judge Jenkins and almost all the assertors of the Kings Cause have next after Divine Laws maintained it principally out of his writings nor doe I remember that any of the adverse part I am sure