that though no Reason can prove yet no Reason can contradict justly because there is nothing in them contrary to the principles of pure Reason They are proposed unto us with such credit and urged upon us as matters of greatest concernment in the world in so much that he cannot be rational that shall refuse either to give assent unto them or make trial of them with the sincere heart which once done he shall find by reall effects in the heart not only that God did reveal them as he believed before by an acquired faith but have an intuitive knowledge that they are Gods testimony because he who spake by the Scriptures and the Ministers hath spoken to him immediately by his spirit working in his heart and then Reason is satisfied and convinced that God hath spoken and thereupon ceaseth to deny and oppose and yields a firm assent And to conclude this point whereof 〈◊〉 had formerly spoken if we will but consider what kind of men have questioned or opposed the divinity of the Scripture we shall find it in that very thing to be much honoured 〈◊〉 and the reason why men do not believe them is not onely the imperfection but the corruption of Reason and mans will For most men love darkness rather then the light and the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ as it declares a deep design of Gods Eternal Wisdom so it s directly contrary to our false notions and base lusts And this is a plain reason why an acquired faith cannot be sufficient to save any man without the powerful sanctification of the Spirit both to prepare the heart and work a Divine Faith which can never take kindly in an heart that is not prepared These Scriptures he pretends to make the rule of his ensuing discourse yet it s but a bare pretence for he followes his own fancies and false notions not the sense and genuine mind of God in them He doth not re ferre sed ferre sensum as grave Hilary saith He doth not conform his notions to the Scripture but wrests it and makes it to speak that which God never intended CAP 2. Of the third part the 33. of the Book of the Number Antiquity Scope Authority and Interpreters of the holy Scripture SEeing he had made the Scripture to be his Rule he thought good to say something of the Scripture in general And 1. Of the number of the Books and seeing herein he follows the Church of England which followed the Ancient Canon I agree with with him in this as I have no reason to the contrary neither will I debate with him in the second point of Antiquity It s the most Ancient writing in the world and the doctrine more ancient then the writing And its remarkable that though it contain the History of 4000. years yet it was written within the space of 2000. 2. That all the Writers of it if Luke be not excepted were of the seed of Abraham by Jacob and of no other Nation all of them according to the flesh kinsmen to our Saviour Christ 3. That the Prophetical part reacheth the end as the Historical did the beginning of the world and this no other book in the world doth 4. That neither Jews nor Mahumetans have any thing good just and rational but that which is contained in these books and retained by them 5. That these Scriptures are found translated into the languages of the most if not all civil Nations of the world The scope of these writings is to direct sinful man unto eternal life And because this eternal life is virtually in God and issues from him as the Fountain and Author thereof therefore in the same is revealed the Eternal Infinite glorious perfection of God in himself and also his glorious works of Creation and Preservation his supreme and universal Dominion his Laws and Judgements and special government of man And because man as sinful and guilty is no ways capable of eternal life in strict justice therefore the Scripture directs him to God as Redeemer in Jesus Christ that by the observation of the Laws of Redemption he may be for ever blessed Christ our Lord Redeemer is the principal subject of that Book of books For Moses and all the Prophets speak of him as well as the writers of the New Testament though not so clearly and the doctrine of his Laws takes up the greatest part of that Revelation though many other things are therein declared yet in reference unto the principal subject and End In a word the end of the Scripture is to teach us to believe and obey God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Creating Redeeming and Sanctifying us if it speak of civil Kingdoms Laws and judgements it s upon the by with reference to the eternal spiritual Kingdom of God Redeemer and Sanctifier This end and scope is both obscurely and confusedly declared by the Author as will more appear hereafter The Authority of the Scripture is Divine and so perfect that it cannot be improved or impaired by all the Laws of all the civil Soveraigns of the world Neither can the Angels in Heaven add any degree of Authority unto it but if any of them should as they cannot contradict it they are by the divine Apostle declared to be accursed That any person or persons do not apprehend it to be Divine that 's accidental and cannot prejudice it Therefore how vain and false is that of Mr. Hobs when he gives the supreme power of making it to be Law and interpreting the same so made unto the Civil Soveraignss There is a two-fold Law the one is Divine and binds the conscience immediately the other is humane and Civil and cannot bind the conscience but per accidens The Doctrine of the Scripture not onely in Morals but in Positives is Divine and the precepts thereof as being the precepts of God do bind the conscience immediately The Laws of Civil Soveraigns may bind their subjects upon peril of civil and temporal punishment to receive them as authentick But Laws they are and binding to obedience and belief though there were no civil government in the world The State and Church may declare them to be Divine but no wayes make them to be such And as our Saviour said of his Doctrine so its true of all the Scripture that if any man will do the will of God declared therein he shall know it to be of God It s not so much the imperfection of our understanding or the difficulty of the thing to be understood as our disobedience which is the cause why we do not see the divinity of these blessed Books These things being so how absurdly and falsly hath he stated the Question concerning the Authority of the Scripture so as to make it depend either upon the civil Soveraign in his Territory or upon the Pope For thus he writes The Question of the Authority of the Scripture is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraign Assemblies in Christian
A second cause of weakning and dissolving a State are certain Doctrines The first That every private man is Judge of good and evil actions G. L. Judgement is publick or private publick no private man can pass private he may and that both of his own actions and others too The acts of others are private or publick of both these he may Judge Publick acts of the Governors are Laws Judgements Execution Even of Laws he may he must within himself so far as they are a rule and bind him enquire examine and determine whether good or evil Otherwise he can perform but only a blind obedience to the best and if he conform unto the unjust he in obeying man disobeys God which no good man will do In other acts which are apparently just we may judge of them truly as they are and no otherwise Yet this must not be done to palliate our disobedience to that which is just or raise sedition or rebel but we may complain to God and by our humble prayers seek redress T. H. A second Doctrine That whatsoever a man doth against conscience is sin The conscience may be erroneous and he that is subject to no Civil Law sins in all he acts against his conscience Yet to him that is in a Common-wealth the Law is the publick conscience by which he hath undertaken to be guided G. L. Conscience is a mans knowledge of his own acts as agreeable or disagreeable to the Law of God It s not a faculty but an act of the soul and an act not of the will but understanding and the same as practical The proper act is knowledge the object is his own acts and these acts not any way but as agreeable or disagreeable to the Law of God For as Aquinas saith there must be applicatio facti ad legem Otherwise a mans understanding cannot judge of it as conformable or not unto the Law of God These acts may be considered as to be done or done In the former respect conscience binds as a Law though it be not the Law but presupposeth or includeth the knowledge of the Law In the latter respect it judgeth and is a kind of judge of himself in some sort as superiour to himself But before the tribunal of God it is a witness and doth accuse or excuse The great Question so much vexed by the Casuists is whether an erroneous conscience doth bind But let them determine what they please an erroneous conscience in proper sense is no conscience For an errour is no knowledge but a defect of knowledge or rather a plain want of knowledge and also an act contrary to knowledge Conscience is a knowledge in proper sense and knowledge is true and certain and it s a knowledge of a mans own act or acts as agreeable to the Law of God this an erroneous conscience cannot be That conscience is such a knowledge is made evident by the Apostle saying That when the Gentiles not having the Law do the things contained in the Law they having not the Law are a Law unto themselves who shew the work of the Law written in their heart by their conscience witnessing c. Rom. 12.14 15. Where we may observe 1. That the conscience could not witness accuse or excuse except there were something to be accused or excused 2. The thing accused as evil or excused as good must be something conformable or contrary to the Law of God 3. The conscience could not accuse or excuse any thing as good or evil without knowledge both of the Law and of the act that was contrary or consentaneous to that Law 4. Therefore the Apostle before he makes mention of the conscience affirmeth 1. That they did the things contained in the Law 2. They were a Law unto themselves 3. That they did by their conscience witnessing prove or demonstrate the work of the Law that is the work which the Law did command written in their heart To have the work of the Law written in their heart is to have a certain true knowledge of it not an erroneous mistake But to return to the Author Conscience in proper sense doth bind yet not as it is knowledge nor as knowledge of a mans proper act nor as knowledge of the Law in general but by vertue of the Law known as a rule of his particular act For man being subject unto God and under his Laws cannot bind himself and be his own Law-giver but the Law of God not an errour truly understood by him doth bind him But let the erroneous judgement of the practical understanding be called conscience as by a Trope it may because there may be something of conscience in it yet whether can it bind or no I answer it cannot bind for an errour of the understanding cannot be a binding rule to command the will of man neither can it be a rule at all Again an erroneous judgement especially practical is a sin and against the Law of God therefore it can no waies bind only thus far most Casuists do grant that by it a man is so far bound as not to act against it yet this it doth only per accidens for per se he is bound to act otherwise then it doth dictate For because God hath made a mans reason his guide he must needs be much depraved in his will that will act contrary unto his reason And he that will not seruple to act against his erroneous judgement will be bold to act against his judgement rightly informed But the full debate of this I refer to another occasion And these things premised I return unto Mr. Hobbs that of the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and therefore whosoever acts againt saith and conscience properly so taken sinneth and for him to affirm that the true Doctrine of God revealed in the Scripture should be either false or destructive of eivil States and Governments is no waies tolerable Whereas he alledgeth that the Law of the Common-wealth is the publick conscience by which the subject hath bound himself to be guided it s too loose and fallacious if examined For 1. The Law is not the publick conscience but the publick rule of conscience in matters civil 2. It s a rule of the subjects obedience not as its a Law of the Common-wealth but as it is agreeable and not contrary to an higher Law the Law of God For the Laws civil do not immediately bind the conscience and immortal soul as the civil Soveraign hath no power to punish it for his sword cannot reach that spiritual substance Secondarily and by consequence they may oblige the soul 3. No subject may or ought to make the Law of the State his absolute guide For the Law may be against the Law of God and then how can the subject undertake to obey it and make it his rule and not offend God 4. Every subject is first bound and subject unto God before he be subjected to civil powers and is first
every one it s a meer Chimera there was never any such thing neither can he give any instance of it and therefore all that he builds upon it must needs fall As for his second reason wherein he affirms Covenants to be but words and words are but breath and of no force without a publike sword it s no waies tolerable By these words he may be proved to be an Atheist whatsoever he pretends and to deny the immortality of the soul all Religion and fear of the Deity and his providence over the world and I should be very unwilling to trust his promise upon oath for any thing I could not recover by Law The principal force of a Covenant depends upon the will and consent of the immortal soul which fears a Deity and believes a supreme Judge of the world who will render to every man according to their works yet because Covenants are but words and breath therefore he inferrs T. H. That a Soveraign cannot be made or receive his power by Covenant or upon condition for so to think is is ignorance G. L. It s true that we are ignorant fools if we think when a Monarch is made such upon condition to which he is sworn that he will part with his power though he hath forfeited his right unto it if he have a long sword and a broad conscience he will be possessor as long as he can And by this passage he seems to affirm that few Monarchs have any conscience or fear of God For though they lose their right yet they will not part with their possession though their own conscience Laws of God and the dictates of nature perswade them to keep their Covenants and not violate their Oaths In a word though Soveraigns be made by Covenant and Oath yet the Obligation is in vain because the people cannot force them to the observation thereof for they have parted with their power and delivered the sword unto their Governors Yet they never gave them the sword to maintain their injustice but to protect the just and punish the unjust Yet in a popular State this seems to be clear That the Soveraign cannot be made upon condition for thus he writes T. H. No man is so dull as to say for example The people of Rome made a Covenant with the Romans to hold the Soveraignty on such or such conditions which not performed the Romans might lawfully depose the Roman people That men see not the reason to be alike in a Monarchy and a Popular Government proceedeth from the ambition of some c. G. L. Men are not so dull as to believe that the reason of not forfeiting the supreme power is alike in a Monarchy and a Popular State For we know that in such a Common-wealth the Community and the Soveraign are the same though in some respect different but in a Monarchy or Aristocraty it s far otherwise In the State of Rome after that Tarquin was deposed and that Government reduced unto a Republick every one severally though never so great was a subject and all joyntly was their Soveraign for in that form singuli subduntur universis universi praesunt singulis yet the universality of the people as a Community could not act and exercise the Soveraignty and therefore Consuls and other Officers were trusted with great power but not with the supreme and these might forfeit and be deposed by the people In all States we must distinguish between the constitution and the administration or as others use to express themselves Inter Statum exercitium They who are trusted only with the administration as such are not supreme though they will endeavour to usurp and possess that power Therefore the Authoreither is very ignorant or else goes about to delude his ignorant Reader The question therefore is whether a Soveraign may forfeit That he cannot is not at all by so much as a probable argument yet evinced 1. That he may forfeit unto God there is no doubt 2. That if any forfeit God will in his due time take the forfeit pass Judgement upon the party forfeiting and execute the same either by himself or by Angels or by forrein forces or by civil wars or some other way and in all this God is just though men may be unjust 3. Monarchs and Princes only trusted with the power of Execution and Administration may forfeit and justly be restrained or reduced or deposed 4. Absolute Princes may forfeit their right unto the Soveraignty when they pervert all Laws of God and man oppress murther raise war unjustly against their own subjects to butcher them as so many wild beasts violate their Oaths and Covenants without any fear of God or man For such as such are hostes humani generis rebels against God and agents for the Devil All powers are ordained of God and from him they receive Commssion to protect their subjects not destroy them and to punish the bad not to protect them and advance them and use them for the destruction of the good If any man dare plead for these let him I dare not 5. If the Author had stated the question and informed us of the several titles of Soveraigns which are many or had instanced in particulars and informed us of their particular titles it had been easie to determine the controversie Princes acquire their power many waies as by Election Succession Marriage the Sword and by that either justly or unjustly usurping the power which is not due and that out of revenge or covetousness or ambition with a desire to be great not do good The question is not whether a Soveraign according to the Apostles definition Rom. 13. can forfeit to his subjects as his subjects for so he cannot do but it is this whether a Soveraign may not cease to be a Soveraign and the subjects cease to be his subjects and to this the Author hath said nothing T. H. No man can without injustice protest against the institution of the Soveraign declared by the major part G. L. 1. There are very few Soveraigns thus instituted and if this be the only way what title have the greatest part of Soveraigns in the world 2. If they be not thus instituted whether is it lawful to protest against them or no of this the Author saith nothing 3. Suppose the major part be a faction and institute one of their own party Soveraign not for publick good so much as for private interest whether may not the dissenters protest 4. In all Assemblies and Societies which proceed by way of suffrage the major part concludes and determines for the whole to avoid confusion and dissention and to preserve unity and order Yet so that the major part may err because they are not infallible and one good reason being evident should prevail against ten millions of votes We find that most men in their suffrages follow the example of some eminent person or persons or their own affection few are determined by reason And
the guily he may justly suffer Some are one person with the guilty by nature as children with parents some by consent as sureties with the principal guilty of non-payment or by Laws civil as the subjects with the Soveraign 6. The just execution of judgement is a means to avert Gods wrath to protect the just to preserve the State and procure Gods mercy Rewards are contrary to punishments and are due to such as are loyal and obedient subjects doing well These either are ordinary and general as protection of life liberty estate or extraordinary and more special and such as enrich or advance or give priviledges immunities and exemptions And these latter should never be disposed of but according to desert and by this means they would encourage the subject and breed gallant men Thus far his constitution of the Leviathan the great monstrous animal hath been examined and viewed and is found to consist of an absolute power and absolute slavery The head is an absolute Soveraign the body and members absolute slaves CAP. XIII Of the Second Part. And the twenty ninth of the Book Of those things which weaken and tend to the dissolution of a Common-wealth ALL bodies Politick are truly mortal as the Author saith though not so mortal as the individual persons whereof they are constituted be For by reason of succession of these singular and several persons they are of longer continuance and therefore said to be immortal the proper meaning whereof is that they are not so mortal Many States are constituted by degrees not in a moment or any short time and in the like manner they decay by little and little until they utterly vanish in a total dissolution And though both constitution and dissolution seem sometimes to be fortuitous yet they are not so for its God who in his mercy plants and builds and in his just judgement plucks up and pulls down This is the place assigned by Authors to the head of Politicks which delivers the causes of the alteration corruption and subversion of States Alterations of the forms of Government are sometimes for the better and so they are a blessing sometimes for the worse and so they are the same with corruption Corruption is from man subversion from God as the supreme and universal Judge Corruption goes before subversion follows And this corruption is from the sins and crimes of the Governors or governed or both The crimes of Governors are either Personal or Political Personal are many times the same with the offences of the people sins of them as men Political are such as make them guilty as they are Governors as ignorance imprudence negligence in justice Political and these not only in assuming and acquiring power but in the administration of the same The sins of the people as subjects are impatiency when they will not endure the severity of just Governors good Laws and impartial Judgement a desire of innovation and alteration of Government without just and necessary causes open rebellion secret treachery and conspiracy sedition and such like The sins of both which are personal are impiety against God injustice and unmercifulness towards man the abuse of peace and plenty to bravery drunkenness gluttony lewdness and such like Vices And when in these they become impudent incorrigible and universally delinquent their ruine is fatal and unavoidable the harvest is ripe and the sickle of Gods vengeance will cut them off The Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans cap. 13. gives a perfect model of the best and most lasting States 1. The higher powers must so ascend the Throne as that it may be truly said they were ordained of God and advanced not only and meerly by his permission but Commission and Command 2. They must have a sword and a sufficient coactive power 3. They must use the same according to just judgement and wholsom Laws for the protection of the good and the punishment of the bad 4. The people must be subject not only out of fear but conscience 5. They must obey their good and wholsom Laws 6. They must give them such allowance as shall be sufficient to maintain and make good their just power 7. They must love one another 8. They must not live in rioting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness nor in strife and envying In a word they must be sober in themselves just towards man devout towards God But when Prince Priest and people refuse to follow these Laws they draw Gods judgements from heaven upon the Common-wealth Idle filthy and abominable Sodom must be destroyed Gold-thirsty and blood-thirsty Babylon cannot stand Idolatrous and Apostate Israel and Judah must be wasted with sword famine pestilence their Countrey made desolate and the remnant carried captives and dispersed in remote parts and in the midst of their enemies But let us examine the causes of the weakening and dissolution of States determined by the Author T. H. The 1 is when a man to obtain a Kingdom is content sometimes with a less power then to the peace and defence of the Common-wealth is necessarily required G. L. This may prove to be a cause yet very rarely Princes and Monarchs for of them he speaks offend usually on the other hand If they can they will assume and challenge far more power then either God will or man can give them for they desire to be absolute Lords Few of them are of brave Theopompus his mind who willingly made his power less that it might be more lasting To be Dukes of Venice can in no wise satisfie their vast ambitious desires The Lacedemiun Ephori are terrible to them The Justitia Arragoniae cannot be endured Legislative and judicial Parliaments do too much restrain and limit their power 〈◊〉 with them its treason to affirm that there be any lawful means to reduce them into order when they apparently transgress the Laws of nature which are the Laws of God The people indeed must be kept in awe and order and this cannot be without power But what is here understood by power It s not potestas but potentia strength and force which may be great in a Leviathan yet without wisdom and justice can never long keep the people in subjection His examples of the Roman and Athenian free-States are not fully applyed neither do the applyed come home unto the point Rome was strong enough to subdue a great part of the world before she became imperial and Athens in that Law concerning Salamis had power enough but wanted wisdom and therefore were reformed by the wise folly of Solon That which is here spoken of the power of Kings is not to derogate the least from that power which is due unto them by the constitution of the State wherein they raign Some have more some have less Yet none should have less then is sufficient for the full discharge of their place And it is to be wished every one of them would keep the bounds determined by God and the Constitution T H.