deceive many more In this aptitude of mankind to give too hasty beleefe to pretended Miracles there can be no better nor I think any other caution then that which God hath prescribed first by Moses as I have said before in the precedent chapter in the beginning of the 13. and end of the 18. of Deuteronomy That wee take not any for Prophets that teach any other Religion then that which Gods Lieutenant which at that time was Moses hath established nor any though he teach the same Religion whose Praediction we doe not see come to passe Moses therefore in his time and Aaron and his successors in their times and the Soveraign Governour of Gods people next under God himself that is to say the Head of the Church in all times are to be consulted what doctrine he hath established before wee give credit to a pretended Miracle or Prophet And when that is done the thing they pretend to be a Miracle we must both see it done and use all means possible to consider whether it be really done and not onely so but whether it be such as no man can do the like by his naturall power but that it requires the immediate hand of God And in this also we must have recourse to Gods Lieutenant to whom in all doubtfull cases wee have submitted our private judgments For example if a man pretend that after certain words spoken over a peece of bread that presently God hath made it not bread but a God or a man or both and neverthelesse it looketh still as like bread as ever it did there is no reason for any man to think it really done nor consequently to fear him till he enquire of God by his Vicar or Lieutenant whether it be done or not If he say not then followeth that which Moses saith Deut. 18. 22. he hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not fear him If he say 't is done then he is not to contradict it So also if wee see not but onely hear tell of a Miracle we are to consult the Lawful Church that is to say the lawful Head thereof how far we are to give credit to the relators of it And this is chiefly the case of men that in these days live under Christian Soveraigns For in these times I do not know one man that ever saw any such wondrous work done by the charm or at the word or prayer of a man that a man endued but with a mediocrity of reason would think supernaturall and the question is no more whether what wee see done be a Miracle whether the Miracle we hear or read of were a reall work and not the Act of a tongue or pen but in plain terms whether the report be true or a lye In which question we are not every one to make our own private Reason or Conscience but the Publique Reason that is the reason of Gods Supreme Lieutenant Judge and indeed we have made him Judge already if wee have given him a Soveraign power to doe all that is necessary for our peace and defence A private man has alwaies the liberty because thought is free to beleeve or not beleeve in his heart those acts that have been given out for Miracles according as he shall see what benefit can accrew by mens belief to those that pretend or countenance them and thereby conjecture whether they be Miracles or Lies But when it comes to confession of that faith the Private Reason must submit to the Publique that is to say to Gods Lieutenant But who is this Lieutenant of God and Head of the Church shall be considered in its proper place hereafter CHAP. XXXVIII Of the Signification in Scripture of ETERNALL LIFE HELL SALVATION THE WORLD TO COME and RÉDEMPTION THe maintenance of Civill Society depending on Justice and Justice on the power of Life and Death and other lesse Rewards and Punishments residing in them that have the Soveraignty of the Common-wealth It is impossible a Common-wealth should stand where any other than the Soveraign hath a power of giving greater rewards than Life and of inflicting greater punishments then Death Now seeing Eternall life is a greater reward than the life present and Eternall torment a greater punishment than the death of Nature It is a thing worthy to be well considered of all men that desire by obeying Authority to avoid the calamities of Confusion and Civill war what is meant in holy Scripture by Life Eternall and Torment Eternall and for what offences and against whom committed men are to be Eternally tormented and for what actions they are to obtain Eternall life And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life as had he not broken the commandement of God he had enjoyed it in the Paradise of Eden Everlastingly For there was the Tree of life whereof he was so long allowed to eat as he should forbear to eat of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evill which was not allowed him And therefore as soon as he had eaten of it God thrust him out of Paradise lest he should put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and live for ever By which it seemeth to me with submission neverthelesse both in this and in all questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Common-wealth whose Subject I am that Adam if he had not sinned had had an Eternall Life on Earth and that Mortality entred upon himself and his posterity by his first Sin Not that actuall Death then entred for Adam then could never have had children whereas he lived long after and saw a numerous posterity ere he dyed But where it it is said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die it must needs bee meant of his Mortality and certitude of death Seeing then Eternall life was lost by Adams forfeiture in committing sin he that should cancell that forfeiture was to recover thereby that Life again Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for the sins of all that beleeve in him and therefore recovered to all beleevers that ETERNALL LIFE which was lost by the sin of Adam And in this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth Rom. 5. 18 19. As by the offence of one Iudgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to Iustification of Life Which is again 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. more perspicuously delivered in these words For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that Eternall Life which Christ hath obtained for them the texts next before alledged seem to make it on Earth For if as in Adam all die that is have forfeited Paradise and Eternall Life on Earth even so in
Christ all shall bee made alive then all men shall be made to live on Earth for else the comparison were not proper Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the Psalmist Psal. 133. 3. Vpon Zion God commanded the blessing even Life for evermore for Zion is in Jerusalem upon Earth as also that of S. Joh. Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcommeth I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God This was the tree of Adams Eternall life but his life was to have been on Earth The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. Joh. Rev. 21. 2. where he saith I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband and again v. 10. to the same effect As if he should say the new Jerusalem the Paradise of God at the coming again of Christ should come down to Gods people from Heaven and not they goe up to it from Earth And this differs nothing from that which the two men in white clothing that is the two Angels said to the Apostles that were looking upon Christ ascending Acts 1. 11. This same Iesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come as you have seen him go up into Heaven Which soundeth as if they had said he should come down to govern them under his Father Eternally here and not take them up to govern them in Heaven and is conformable to the Restauration of the Kingdom of God instituted under Moses which was a Political government of the Jews on Earth Again that saying of our Saviour Mat. 22. 30. that in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God in heaven is a description of an Eternall Life resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of Marriage For seeing Adam and Eve if they had not sinned had lived on Earth Eternally in their individuall persons it is manifest they should not continually have procreated their kind For if Immortals should have generated as Mankind doth now the Earth in a small time would not have been able to afford them place to stand on The Jews that asked our Saviour the question whose wife the woman that had married many brothers should be in the resurrection knew not what were the consequences of Life Eternall and therefore our Saviour puts them in mind of this consequence of Immortality that there shal be no Generation and consequētly no marriage no more then there is marriage or generatiō among the Angels The comparison between that Eternall life which Adam lost and our Saviour by his Victory over death hath recovered holdeth also in this that as Adam lost Eternall Life by his sin and yet lived after it for a time so the faithful Christian hath recovered Eternal Life by Christs passion though he die a natural death and remaine dead for a time namely till the Resurrection For as Death is reckoned from the Condemnation of Adam not from the Execution so Life is reckoned from the Absolution not from the Resurrection of them that are elected in Christ. That the place wherein men are to live Eternally after the Resurrection is the Heavens meaning by Heaven those parts of the world which are the most remote from Earth as where the stars are or above the stars in another Higher Heaven called Coelum Empyreum whereof there is no mention in Scripture nor ground in Reason is not easily to be drawn from any text that I can find By the Kingdome of Heaven is meant the Kingdom of the King that dwelleth in Heaven and his Kingdome was the people of Israel whom he ruled by the Prophets his Lieutenants first Moses and after him Eleazar and the Soveraign Priests till in the days of Samuel they rebelled and would have a mortall man for their King after the manner of other Nations And when our Saviour Christ by the preaching of his Ministers shall have perswaded the Jews to return and called the Gentiles to his obedience then shall there be a new Kingdom of Heaven because our King shall then be God whose throne is Heaven without any necessity evident in the Scripture that man shall ascend to his happinesse any higher than Gods footstool the Earth On the contrary we find written Ioh. 3. 13. that no man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man that is in Heaven Where I observe by the way that these words are not as those which go immediately before the words of our Saviour but of St. John himself for Christ was then not in Heaven but upon the Earth The like is said of David Acts 2. 34. where St. Peter to prove the Ascension of Christ using the words of the Psalmist Psal. 16. 10. Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell not suffer thine Holy one to see corruption saith they were spoken not of David but of Christ and to prove it addeth this Reason For David is not ascended into Heaven But to this a man may easily answer and say that though their bodies were not to ascend till the generall day of Judgment yet their souls were in Heaven as soon as they were departed from their bodies which also seemeth to be confirmed by the words of our Saviour Luke 20. 37 38. who proving the Resurrection out of the words of Moses saith thus That the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob For he is not a God of the Dead but of the Living for they all live to him But if these words be to be understood only of the Immortality of the Soul they prove not at all that which our Saviour intended to prove which was the Resurrection of the Body that is to say the Immortality of the Man Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those Patriarchs were Immortall not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of mankind but by the will of God that was pleased of his mere grace to bestow Eternall life upon the faithfull And though at that time the Patriarchs and many other faithfull men were dead yet as it is in the text they lived to God that is they were written in the Book of Life with them that were absolved of their sinnes and ordained to Life eternall at the Resurrection That the Soul of man is in its own nature Eternall and a living Creature inpedendent on the body or that any meer man is Immortall otherwise than by the Resurrection in the last day except Enos and Elias is a doctrine nor apparent in Scripture The whole 14. Chapter of Iob which is the speech not of his friends but of himselfe is a complaint of this Mortality of Nature and yet no contradiction of the Immortality at the Resurrection There is hope of a tree saith hee verse 7.
that is unpleasing Priests and those not onely amongst Catholiques but even in that Church that hath presumed most of Reformation CHAP. XIII Of the NATURALL CONDITION of Mankind as concernîng their Felicity and Misâ—…ry NAture hath made men so equall in the faculties of body and mind as that though there bee found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind then another yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himselfe any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he For as to the strength of body the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the fame danger with himselfe And as to the faculties of the mind setting aside the arts grounded upon words and especially that skill of proceeding upon generall and infallible rules called Science which very few have and but in few things as being not a native faculty born with us nor attained as Prudence while we look after somewhat els I find yet a greater equality amongst men than that of strength For Prudence is but Experience which equall time equally bestowes on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto That which may perhaps make such equality incredible is but a vain conceipt of ones owne wisdome which almost all men think they have in a greater degree than the Vulgar that is than all men but themselves and a few others whom by Fame or for concurring with themselves they approve For such is the nature of men that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent or more learned Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves For they see their own wit at hand and other mens at a distance But this proveth rather that men are in that point equall than unequall For there is not ordinarily a greater signe of the equall distribution of any thing than that every man is contented with his share From this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our Ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing which neverthelesse they cannot both enjoy they become enemies and in the way to their End which is principally their owne conservation and sometimes their delectation only endeavour to destroy or subdue one an other And from hence it comes to passe that where an Invader hath no more to feare than an other mans single power if one plant sow build or possesse a convenient Seat others may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossesse and deprive him not only of the fruit of his labour but also of his life or liberty And the Invader again is in the like danger of another And from this diffidence of one another there is no way for any man to secure himselfe so reasonable as Anticipation that is by force or wiles to master the persons of all men he can so long till he see no other power great enough to endanger him And this is no more than his own conservation requireth and is generally allowed Also because there be some that taking pleasure in contemplating their own power in the acts of conquest which they pursue farther than their security requires if others that otherwise would be glad to be at ease within modest bounds should not by invasion increase their power they would not be able long time by standing only on their defence to subsist And by consequence such augmentation of dominion over men being necessary to a mans conservation it ought to be allowed him Againe men have no pleasure but on the contrary a great deale of griefe in keeping company where there is no power able to over-awe them all For every man looketh that his companion should value him at the same rate he sets upon himselfe And upon all signes of contempt or undervaluing naturally endeavours as far as he dares which amongst them that have no common power to keep them in quiet is far enough to make them destroy each other to extort a greater value from his contemners by dommage and from others by the example So that in the nature of man we find three principall causes of quarrell First Competition Secondly Diffidence Thirdly Glory The first maketh men invade for Gain the second for Safety and the third for Reputation The first use Violence to make themselves Masters of other mens persons wives children and cattell the second to defend them the third for trifles as a word a smile a different opinion and any other signe of undervalue either direct in their Persons or by reflexion in their Kindred their Friends their Nation their Profession or their Name Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe they are in that condition which is called Warre and such a warre as is of every man against every man For WARRE consisteth not in Battell onely or the act of fighting but in a tract of time wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known and therefore the notion of Time is to be considered in the nature of Warre as it is in the nature of Weather For as the nature of Foule weather lyeth not in a showre or two of rain but in an inclination thereto of many dayes together So the nature of War consisteth not in actuall fighting but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary All other time is PEACE Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre where every man is Enemy to every man the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withall In such condition there is no place for Industry because the fruit thereof is uncertain and consequently no Culture of the Earth no Navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea no commodious Building no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force no Knowledge of the face of the Earth no account of Time no Arts no Letters no Society and which is worst of all continuall feare and danger of violent death And the life of man solitary poore nasty brutish and short It may seem strange to some man that has not well weighed these things that Nature should thus dissociate and render men apt to invade and destroy one another and he may therefore not trusting to this Inference made from the Passions desire perhaps to have the same confirmed by Experience Let him therefore consider with himselfe when taking a journey he armes himselfe and seeks to go well accompanied when going to sleep he locks his dores when even in his house he locks his chests and this when he knowes there
alteri ne feceris To lay downe a mans Right to any thing is to devest himselfe of the Liberty of hindring another of the benefit of his own Right to the same For he that renounceth or passeth away his Right giveth not to any other man a Right which he had not before because there is nothing to which every man had not Right by Nature but onely standeth out of his way that he may enjoy his own originall Right without hindrance from him not without hindrance from another So that the efect which redoundeth to one man by another mans defect of Right is but so much diminution of impediments to the use of his own Right originall Right is layd aside either by simply Renouncing it or by Transferring it to another By Simply RENOUNCING when he cares not to whom the benefit thereof redoundeth By TRANSFERRING when he intendeth the benefit thereof to some certain person or persons And when a man hath in either manner abandoned or granted away his Right then is he said to be OBLIGED or BOUND not to hinder those to whom such Right is granted or abandoned from the benefit of it and that he Ought and it is his DUTY not to make voyd that voluntary act of his own and that such hindrance is INIUSTICE and INIURY as being Sine Jure the Right being before renounced or transferred So that Injury or Injustice in the controversies of the world is somewhat like to that which in the disputations of Scholers is called Absurdity For as it is there called an Absurdity to contradict what one maintained in the Beginning so in the world it is called Injustice and Injury voluntarily to undo that which from the beginning he had voluntarily done The way by which a man either simply Renounceth or Transferreth his Right is a Declaration or Signification by some voluntary and sufficient signe or signes that he doth so Renounce or Transferre or hath so Renounced or Transferred the same to him that accepteth it And these Signes are either Words onely or Actions onely or as it happeneth most often both Words and Actions And the same are the BONDS by which men are bound and obliged Bonds that have their strength not from their own Nature for nothing is more easily broken then a mans word but from Feare of some evill consequence upon the rupture Whensoever a man Transferreth his Right or Renounceth it it is either in consideration of some Right reciprocally transferred to himselfe or for some other good he hopeth for thereby For it is a voluntary act and of the voluntary acts of every man the object is some Good to himselfe And therefore there be some Rights which no man can be understood by any words or other signes to have abandoned or transferred As first a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force to take away his life because he cannot be understood to ayme thereby at any Good to himselfe The same may be sayd of Wounds and Chayns and Imprisonment both because there is no benefit consequent to such patience as there is to the patience of suffering another to be wounded or imprisoned as also because a man cannot tell when he seeth men proceed against him by violence whether they intend his death or not And lastly the motive and end for which this renouncing and transferring of Right is introduced is nothing else but the security of a mans person in his life and in the means of so preserving life as not to be weary of it And therefore if a man by words or other signes seem to despoyle himselfe of the End for which those signes were intended he is not to be understood as if he meant it or that it was his will but that he was ignorant of how such words and actions were to be interpreted The mutuall transferring of Right is that which men call CONTRACT There is difference between transferring of Right to the Thing and transferring or tradition that is delivery of the Thing it selfe For the Thing may be delivered together with the Translation of the Right as in buying and selling with ready mony or exchange of goods or lands and it may be delivered some time after Again one of the Contractors may deliver the Thing contracted for on his part and leave the other to perform his part at some determinate time after and in the mean time be trusted and then the Contract on his part is called PACT or COVENANT Or both parts may contract now to performe hereafter in which cases he that is to performe in time to come being trusted his performance is called Keeping of Promise or Faith and the fayling of performance if it be voluntary Violation of Faith When the transferring of Right is not mutuall but one of the parties transferreth in hope to gain thereby friendship or service from another or from his friends or in hope to gain the reputation of Charity or Magnanimity or to deliver his mind from the pain of compassion or in hope of reward in heaven This is not Contract but GIFT FREE-GIFT GRACE which words signifie one and the same thing Signes of Contract are either Expresse or by Inference Expresse are words spoken with understanding of what they signifie And such words are either of the time Present or Past as I Give I Grant I have Given I have Granted I will that this be yours Or of the future as I will Give I will Grant which words of the future are called PROMISE Signes by Inference are sometimes the consequence of Words sometimes the consequence of Silence sometimes the consequence of Actions somtimes the consequence of Forbearing an Action and generally a signe by Inference of any Contract is whatsoever sufficiently argues the will of the Contractor Words alone if they be of the time to come and contain a bare promise are an insufficient signe of a Free-gift and therefore not obligatory For if they be of the time to Come as To morrow I will Give they are a signe I have not given yet and consequently that my right is not transferred but remaineth till I transferre it by some other Act. But if the words be of the time Present or Past as I have given or do give to be delivered to morrow then is my to morrows Right given away to day and that by the vertue of the words though there were no other argument of my will And there is a great difference in the signification of these words Volo hoc tuum esse cras and Cras dabo that is between I will that this be thine to morrow and I will give it thee to morrow For the word I will in the former manner of speech signifies an act of the will Present but in the later it fignifies a promise of an act of the will to Come and therefore the former words being of the Present transferre
a Monarch that hath the Soveraign Authority that is to say who shall determine of the right of Inheritance for Elective Kings and Princes have not the Soveraign Power in propriety but in use only we are to consider that either he that is in possession has right to dispose of the Succession or else that right is again in the dissolved Multitude For the death of him that hath the Soveraign power in propriety leaves the Multitude without any Soveraign at all that is without any Representative in whom they should be united and be capable of doing any one action at all And therefore they are incapable of Election of any new Monarch every man having equall right to submit himselfe to such as he thinks best able to protect him or if he can protect himselfe by his owne sword which is a returne to Confusion and to the condition of a War of every man against every man contrary to the end for which Monarchy had its first Institution Therfore it is manifest that by the Institution of Monarchy the disposing of the Successor is alwaies left to the Judgment and Will of the present Possessor And for the question which may arise sometimes who it is that the Monarch in possession hath designed to the succession and inheritance of his power it is determined by his expresse Words and Testament or by other tacite signes sufficient By expresse Words or Testament when it is declared by him in life time viva voce or by Writing as the first Emperours of Rome declared who should be their Heires For the word Heire does not of it selfe imply the Children or nearest Kindred of a man but whomsoever a man shall any way declare he would have to succeed him in his Estate If therefore a Monarch declare expresly that such a man shall be his Heire either by Word or Writing then is that man immediatly after the decease of his Predecessor Invested in the right of being Monarch But where Testament and expresse Words are wanting other naturall signes of the Will are to be followed whereof the one is Custome And therefore where the Custome is that the next of Kindred absolutely succeedeth there also the next of Kindred hath right to the Succession for that if the will of him that was in posession had been otherwise he might easily have declared the same in his life time And likewise where the Custome is that the next of the Male Kindred succeedeth there also the right of Succession is in the next of the Kindred Male for the same reason And so it is if the Custome were to advance the Female For whatsoever Custome a man may by a word controule and does not it is a naturall signe he would have that Custome stand But where neither Custome nor Testament hath preceded there it is to be understood First that a Monarchs will is that the government remain Monarchicall because he hath approved that government in himselfe Secondly that a Child of his own Male or Female be preferred before any other because men are presumed to be more enclined by nature to advance their own children than the children of other men and of their own rather a Male than a Female because men are naturally fitter than women for actions of labour and danger Thirdly where his own Issue faileth rather a Brother than a stranger and so still the neerer in bloud rather than the more remote because it is alwayes presumed that the neerer of kin is the neerer in affection and 't is evident that a man receives alwayes by reflexion the most honour from the greatnesse of his neerest kindred But if it be lawfull for a Monarch to dispose of the Succession by words of Contract or Testament men may perhaps object a great inconvenience for he may sell or give his Right of governing to a stranger which because strangers that is men not used to live under the same government nor speaking the same language do commonly undervalue one another may turn to the oppression of his Subjects which is indeed a great inconvenience but it proceedeth not necessarily from the subjection to a strangers government but from the unskilfulnesse of the Governours ignorant of the true rules of Politiques And therefore the Romans when they had subdued many Nations to make their Government digestible were wont to take away that grievance as much as they thought necessary by giving sometimes to whole Nations and sometimes to Principall men of every Nation they conquered not onely the Privileges but also the Name of Romans and took many of them into the Senate and Offices of charge even in the Roman City And this was it our most wise King King James aymed at in endeavouring the Union of his two Realms of England and Scotland Which if he could have obtained had in all likelihood prevented the Civill warres which make both those Kingdomes at this present miserable It is not therefore any injury to the people for a Monarch to dispose of the Succession by Will though by the fault of many Princes it hath been sometimes found inconvenient Of the lawfulnesse of it this also is an argument that whatsoever inconvenience can arrive by giving a Kingdome to a stranger may arrive also by so marrying with strangers as the Right of Succession may descend upon them yet this by all men is accounted lawfull CHAP. XX. Of Dominion PATERNALL and DESPOTICALL A Common-wealth by Acquisition is that where the Soveraign Power is acquired by Force And it is acquired by force when men singly or many together by plurality of voyces for fear of death or bonds do authorise all the actions of that Man or Assembly that hath their lives and liberty in his Power And this kind of Dominion or Soveraignty differeth from Soveraignty by Institution onely in this That men who choose their Soveraign do it for fear of one another and not of him whom they Institute But in this case they subject themselves to him they are afraid of In both cases they do it for fear which is to be noted by them that hold all such Covenants as proceed from fear of death or violence voyd which if it were true no man in any kind of Common-wealth could be obliged to Obedience It is true that in a Common-wealth once Instituted or acquired Promises proceeding from fear of death or violence are no Covenants nor obliging when the thing promised is contrary to the Lawes But the reason is not because it was made upon fear but because he that promiseth hath no right in the thing promised Also when he may lawfully performe and doth not it is not the Invalidity of the Covenant that absolveth him but the Sentence of the Soveraign Otherwise whensoever a man lawfully promiseth he unlawfully breaketh But when the Soveraign who is the Actor acquitteth him then he is acquitted by him that extorted the promise as by the Author of such absolution But the
Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty are the same in both His Power cannot without his consent be Transferred to another He cannot Forfeit it He cannot be Accused by any of his Subjects of Injury He cannot be Punished by them He is Judge of what is necessary for Peace and Judge of Doctrines He is Sole Legislator and Supreme Judge of Controversies and of the Times and Occasions of Warre and Peace to him it belongeth to choose Magistrates Counsellours Commanders and all other Officers and Ministers and to determine of Rewards and Punishments Honour and Order The reasons whereof are the same which are alledged in the precedent Chapter for the same Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty by Institution Dominion is acquired two wayes By Generation and by Conquest The right of Dominion by Generation is that which the Parent hath over his Children and is called PATERNALL And is not so derived from the Generation as if therefore the Parent had Dominion over his Child because he begat him but from the Childs Consent either expresse or by other sufficient arguments declared For as to the Generation God hath ordained to man a helper and there be alwayes two that are equally Parents the Dominion therefore over the Child should belong equally to both and he be equally subject to both which is impossible for no man can obey two Masters And whereas some have attributed the Dominion to the Man onely as being of the more excellent Sex they misreckon in it For there is not alwayes that difference of strength or prudence between the man and the woman as that the right can be determined without War In Common-wealths this controversie in decided by the Civill Law and for the most part but not alwayes the sentence is in favour of the Father because for the most part Common-wealths have been erected by the Fathers not by the Mothers of families But the question lyeth now in the state of meer Nature where there are supposed no lawes of Matrimony no lawes for the Education of Children but the Law of Nature and the naturall inclination of the Sexes one to another and to their children In this condition of meer Nature either the Parents between themselves dispose of the dominion over the Child by Contract or do not dispose thereof at all If they dispose thereof the right passeth according to the Contract We find in History that the Amazons Contracted with the Men of the neighbouring Countries to whom they had recourse for issue that the issue Male should be sent back but the Female remain with themselves so that the dominion of the Females was in the Mother If there be no Contract the Dominion is in the Mother For in the condition of meer Nature where there are no Matrimoniall lawes it cannot be known who is the Father unlesse it be delared by the Mother and therefore the right of Dominion over the Child dependeth on her will and is consequently hers Again seeing the Infant is first in the power of the Mother so as she may either nourish or expose it if she nourish it it oweth its life to the Mother and is therefore obliged to obey her rather than any other and by consequence the Dominion over it is hers But if she expose it and another find and nourish it the Dominion is in him that nourisheth it For it ought to obey him by whom it is preserved because preservation of life being the end for which one man becomes subject to another every man is supposed to promise obedience to him in whose power it is to save or destroy him If the Mother be the Fathers subject the Child is in the Fathers power and if the Father be the Mothers subject as when a Soveraign Queen marrieth one of her subjects the Child is subject to the Mother because the Father also is her subject If a man and a woman Monarches of two severall Kingdomes have a Child and contract concerning who shall have the Dominion of him the Right of the Dominion passeth by the Contract If they contract not the Dominion followeth the Dominion of the place of his residence For the Soveraign of each Country hath Dominion over all that reside therein He that hath the Dominion over the Child hath Dominion also over the Children of the Child and over their Childrens Children For he that hath Dominion over the person of a man hath Dominion over all that is his without which Dominion were but a Title without the effect The Right of Succession to Paternall Dominion proceedeth in the same manner as doth the Right of Succession to Monarchy of which I have already sufficiently spoken in the precedent chapter Dominion acquired by Conquest or Victory in war is that which some Writers call DESPOTICALL from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Lord or Master and is the Dominion of the Master over his Servant And this Dominion is then acquired to the Victor when the Vanquished to avoyd the present stroke of death covenanteth either in expresse words or by other sufficient signes of the Will that so long as his life and the liberty of his body is allowed him the Victor shall have the use thereof at his pleasure And after such Covenant made the Vanquished is a SERVANT and not before for by the word Servant whether it be derived from Servire to Serve or from Servare to Save which I leave to Grammarians to dispute is not meant a Captive which is kept in prison or bonds till the owner of him that took him or bought him of one that did shall consider what to do with him for such men commonly called Slaves have no obligation at all but may break their bonds or the prison and kill or carry away captive their Master justly but one that being taken hath corporall liberty allowed him and upon promise not to run away nor to do violence to his Master is trusted by him It is not therefore the Victory that giveth the right of Dominion over the Vanquished but his own Covenant Nor is he obliged because he is Conquered that is to say beaten and taken or put to flight but because he commeth in and Submitteth to the Victor Nor is the Victor obliged by an enemies rendring himselfe without promise of life to spare him for this his yeelding to discretion which obliges not the Victor longer than in his own discretion hee shall think fit And that which men do when they demand as it is now called Quarter which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking alive is to evade the present fury of the Victor by Submission and to compound for their life with Ransome or Service and therefore he that hath Quarter hath not his life given but deferred till farther deliberation For it is not an yeelding on condition of life but to discretion And then onely is his life in security and his service due when the Victor hath trusted
therefore Aristotle puts it down in his Politiques lib. 6. cap. 2. In democracy Liberty is to be supposed for 't is commonly held that no man is Free in any other Government And as Aristotle so Cicero and other Writers have grounded their Civill doctrine on the opinions of the Romans who were taught to hate Monarchy at first by them that having deposed their Soveraign shared amongst them the Soveraignty of Rome and afterwards by their Successors And by reading of these Greek and Latine Authors men from their childhood have gotten a habit under a false shew of Liberty of favouring tumults and of licentious controlling the actions of their Soveraigns and again of controlling those controllers with the effusion of so much blood as I think I may truly say there was never any thing so deerly bought as these Western parts have bought the learning of the Greek and Latine tongues To come now to the particulars of the true Liberty of a Subject that is to say what are the things which though commanded by the Soveraign he may neverthelesse without Injustice refuse to do we are to consider what Rights we passe away when we make a Common-wealth or which is all one what Liberty we deny our selves by owning all the Actions without exception of the Man or Assembly we make our Soveraign For in the act of our Submission consisteth both our Obligation and our Liberty which must therefore be inferred by arguments taken from thence there being no Obligation on any man which ariseth not from some Act of his own for all men equally are by Nature Free. And because such arguments must either be drawn from the expresse words I Authorise all his Actions or from the Intention of him that submitteth himselfe to his Power which Intention is to be understood by the End for which he so submitteth The Obligation and Liberty of the Subject is to be derived either from those Words or others equivalent or else from the End of the Institution of Soveraignty namely the Peace of the Subjects within themselves and their Defence against a common Enemy First therefore seeing Soveraignty by Institution is by Covenant of every one to every one and Soveraignty by Acquisition by Covenants of the Vanquished to the Victor or Child to the Parent It is manifest that every Subject has Liberty in all those things the right whereof cannot by Covenant be transferred I have shewn before in the 14. Chapter that Covenants not to defend a mans own body are voyd Therefore If the Soveraign command a man though justly condemned to kill wound or mayme himselfe or not to resist those that assault him or to abstain from the use of food ayre medicine or any other thing without which he cannot live yet hath that man the Liberty to disobey If a man be interrogated by the Soveraign or his Authority concerning a crime done by himselfe he is not bound without assurance of Pardon to confesse it because no man as I have shewn in the same Chapter can be obliged by Covenant to accuse himselfe Again the Consent of a Subject to Soveraign Power is contained in these words I Authorise or take upon me all his actions in which there is no restriction at all of his own former naturall Liberty For by allowing him to kill me I am not bound to kill my selfe when he commands me 'T is one thing to say Kill me or my fellow if you please another thing to say I will kill my selfe or my fellow It followeth therefore that No man is bound by the words themselves either to kill himselfe or any other man And consequently that the Obligation a man may sometimes have upon the Command of the Soveraign to execute any dangerous or dishonourable Office dependeth not on the Words of our Submission but on the Intention which is to be understood by the End thereof When therefore our refusall to obey frustrates the End for which the Soveraignty was ordained then there is no Liberty to refuse otherwise there is Upon this ground a man that is commanded as a Souldier to fight against the enemy though his Soveraign have Right enough to punish his refusall with death may neverthelesse in many cases refuse without Injustice as when he substituteth a sufficient Souldier in his place for in this case he deserteth not the service of the Common-wealth And there is allowance to be made for naturall timorousnesse not onely to women of whom no such dangerous duty is expected but also to men of feminine courage When Armies fight there is on one side or both a running away yet when they do it not out of trechery but fear they are not esteemed to do it unjustly but dishonourably For the same reason to avoyd battell is not Injustice but Cowardise But he that inrowleth himselfe a Souldier or taketh imprest mony taketh away the excuse of a timorous nature and is obliged not onely to go to the battell but also not to run from it without his Captaines leave And when the Defence of the Common-wealth requireth at once the help of all that are able to bear Arms every one is obliged because otherwise the Institution of the Common-wealth which they have not the purpose or courage to preserve was in vain To resist the Sword of the Common-wealth in defence of another man guilty or innocent no man hath Liberty because such Liberty takes away from the Soveraign the means of Protecting us and is therefore destructive of the very essence of Government But in case a great many men together have already resisted the Soveraign Power unjustly or committed some Capitall crime for which every one of them expecteth death whether have they not the Liberty then to joyn together and assist and defend one another Certainly they have For they but defend their lives which the Guilty man may as well do as the Innocent There was indeed injustice in the first breach of their duty Their bearing of Arms subsequent to it though it be to maintain what they have done is no new unjust act And if it be onely to defend their persons it is not unjust at all But the offer of pardon taketh from them to whom it is offered the plea of self-defence and maketh their perseverance in assisting or defending the rest unlawfull As for other Lyberties they depend on the Silence of the Law In cases where the Soveraign has prescribed no rule there the Subject hath the Liberty to do or forbeare according to his own discretion And therefore such Liberty is in some places more and in some lesse and in some times more in other times lesse according as they that have the Soveraignty shall think most convenient As for Example there was a time when in England a man might enter in to his own Land and dispossesse such as wrongfully possessed it by force But in after-times that Liberty of Forcible Entry was taken away by a Statute made by the
King in Parliament And in some places of the world men have the Liberty of many wives in other places such Liberty is not allowed If a Subject have a controversie with his Soveraigne of debt or of right of possession of lands or goods or concerning any service required at his hands or concerning any penalty corporall or pecuniary grounded on a precedent Law he hath the same Liberty to sue for his right as if it were against a Subject and before such Judges as are appointed by the Soveraign For seeing the Soveraign demandeth by force of a former Law and not by vertue of his Power he declareth thereby that he requireth no more than shall appear to be due by that Law The sute therefore is not contrary to the will of the Soveraign and consequently the Subject hath the Liberty to demand the hearing of his Cause and sentence according to that Law But if he demand or take any thing by pretence of his Power there lyeth in that case no action of Law for all that is done by him in Vertue of his Power is done by the Authority of every Subject and consequently he that brings an action against the Soveraign brings it against himselfe If a Monarch or Soveraign Assembly grant a Liberty to all or any of his Subjects which Grant standing he is disabled to provide for their safety the Grant is voyd unlesse he directly renounce or transferre the Soveraignty to another For in that he might openly if it had been his will and in plain termes have renounced or transferred it and did not it is to be understood it was not his will but that the Grant proceeded from ignorance of the repugnancy between such a Liberty and the Soveraign Power and therefore the Soveraignty is still retayned and consequently all those Powers which are necessary to the exercising thereof such as are the Power of Warre and Peace of Judicature of appointing Officers and Councellours of levying Mony and the rest named in the 18th Chapter The Obligation of Subjects to the Soveraign is understood to last as long and no longer than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves when none else can protect them can by no Covenant be relinquished The Soveraignty is the Soule of the Common-wealth which once departed from the Body the members doe no more receive their motion from it The end of Obedience is Protection which wheresoever a man seeth it either in his own or in anothers sword Nature applyeth his obedience to it and his endeavour to maintaine it And though Soveraignty in the intention of them that make it be immortall yet is it in its own nature not only subject to violent death by forreign war but also through the ignorance and passions of men it hath in it from the very institution many seeds of a naturall mortality by Intestine Discord If a Subject be taken prisoner in war or his person or his means of life be within the Guards of the enemy and hath his life and corporall Libertie given him on condition to be Subject to the Victor he hath Libertie to accept the condition and having accepted it is the subject of him that took him because he had no other way to preserve himself The case is the same if he be deteined on the same termes in a forreign country But if a man be held in prison or bonds or is not trusted with the libertie of his bodie he cannot be understood to be bound by Covenant to subjection and therefore may if he can make his escape by any means whatsoever If a Monarch shall relinquish the Soveraignty both for himself and his heires His Subjects returne to the absolute Libertie of Nature because though Nature may declare who are his Sons and who are the nerest of his Kin yet it dependeth on his own will as hath been said in the precedent chapter who shall be his Heyr If therefore he will have no Heyre there is no Soveraignty nor Subjection The case is the same if he dye without known Kindred and without declaration of his Heyre For then there can no Heire be known and consequently no Subjection be due If the Soveraign Banish his Subject during the Banishment he is not Subject But he that is sent on a message or hath leave to travell is still Subject but it is by Contract between Soveraigns not by vertue of the covenant of Subjection For whosoever entreth into anothers dominion is Subject to all the Laws thereof unlesse he have a privilege by the amity of the Soveraigns or by speciall licence If a Monarch subdued by war render himself Subject to the Victor his Subjects are delivered from their former obligation and become obliged to the Victor But if he be held prisoner or have not the liberty of his own Body he is not understood to have given away the Right of Soveraigntie and therefore his Subjects are obliged to yield obedience to the Magistrates formerly placed governing not in their own name but in his For his Right remaining the question is only of the Administration that is to say of the Magistrates and Officers which if he have not means to name he is supposed to approve those which he himself had formerly appointed CHAP. XXII Of SYSTEMES Subject Politicall and Private HAving spoken of the Generation Forme and Power of a Common-wealth I am in order to speak next of the parts thereof And first of Systemes which resemble the similar parts or Muscles of a Body naturall By SYSTEMES I understand any numbers of men joyned in one Interest or one Businesse Of which some are Regular and some Irregular Regular are those where one Man or Assembly of men is constituted Representative of the whole number All other are Irregular Of Regular some are Absolute and Independent subject to none but their own Representative such are only Common-wealths Of which I have spoken already in the 5. last precedent chapters Others are Dependent that is to say Subordinate to some Soveraign Power to which every one as also their Representative is Subject Of Systemes subordinate some are Politicall and some Private Politicall otherwise Called Bodies Politique and Persons in Law are those which are made by authority from the Soveraign Power of the Common-wealth Private are those which are constituted by Subjects amongst themselves or by authoritie from a stranger For no authority derived from forraign power within the Dominion of another is Publique there but Private And of Private Systemes some are Lawfull some Unlawfull Lawfull are those which are allowed by the Common-wealth all other are Unlawfull Irregular Systemes are those which having no Representative consist only in concourse of People which if not forbidden by the Common-wealth nor made on evill designe such as are conflux of People to markets or shews or any other harmelesse end are Lawfull But when the
not this revelation nor were yet in being yet they are a party to the Covenant and bound to obey what Abraham should declare to them for Gods Law which they could not be but in vertue of the obedience they owed to their Parents who if they be Subject to no other earthly power as here in the case of Abraham have Soveraign power over their children and servants Againe where God saith to Abraham In thee shall all Nations of the earth be blessed For I know thou wilt command thy children and thy house after thee to keep the way of the Lord and to observe Righteousnesse and Judgement it is manifest the obedience of his Family who had no Revelation depended on their former obligation to obey their Soveraign At Mount Sinai Moses only went up to God the people were forbidden to approach on paine of death yet were they bound to obey all that Moses declared to them for Gods Law Upon what ground but on this submission of their own Speak thou to us and we will heare thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye By which two places it sufficiently appeareth that in a Common-wealth a subject that has no certain and assured Revelation particularly to himself concerning the Will of God is to obey for such the Command of the Common-wealth for if men were at liberty to take for Gods Commandements their own dreams and fancies or the dreams and fancies of private men scarce two men would agree upon what is Gods Commandement and yet in respect of them every man would despise the Commandements of the Common-wealth I conclude therefore that in all things not contrary to the Morall Law that is to say to the Law of Nature all Subjects are bound to obey that for divine Law which is declared to be so by the Lawes of the Common-wealth Which also is evident to any mans reason for whatsoever is not against the Law of Nature may be made Law in the name of them that have the Soveraign power and there is no reason men should be the lesse obliged by it when t is propounded in the name of God Besides there is no place in the world where men are permitted to pretend other Commandements of God than are declared for such by the Common-wealth Christian States punish those that revolt from Christian Religion and all other States those that set up any Religion by them forbidden For in whatsoever is not regulated by the Common-wealth t is Equity which is the Law of Nature and therefore an eternall Law of God that every man equally enjoy his liberty There is also another distinction of Laws into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall but I could never see in any Author what a Fundamentall Law signifieth Neverthelesse one may very reasonably distinguish Laws in that manner For a Fundamentall Law in every Common-wealth is that which being taken away the Common-wealth faileth and is utterly dissolved as a building whose Foundation is destroyed And therefore a Fundamentall Law is that by which Subjects are bound to uphold whatsoever power is given to the Soveraign whether a Monarch or a Soveraign Assembly without which the Common-wealth cannot stand such as is the power of War and Peace of Judicature of Election of Officers and of doing whatsoever he shall think necessary for the Publique good Not Fundamentall is that the abrogating whereof draweth not with it the dissolution of the Common-Wealth such as are the Lawes concerning Controversies between subject and subject Thus much of the Division of Lawes I find the words Lex Civilis and Jus Civile that is to say Law and Right Civil promiscuously used for the same thing even in the most learned Authors which neverthelesse ought not to be so For Right is Liberty namely that Liberty which the Civil Law leaves us But Civill Law is an Obligation and takes from us the Liberty which the Law of Nature gave us Nature gave a Right to every man to secure himselfe by his own strength and to invade a suspected neighbour by way of prevention but the Civill Law takes away that Liberty in all cases where the protection of the Law may be safely stayd for Insomuch as Lex and Jus are as different as Obligation and Liberty Likewise Lawes and Charters are taken 〈◊〉 for the same thing Yet Charters are Donations of the Soveraign and not Lawes but exemptions from Law The phrase of a Law is Jubeo Injungo I Command and Enjoyn the phrase of a Charter is Dedi Concessi I have Given I have Granted but what is given or granted to a man is not forced upon him by a Law A Law may be made to bind All the Subjects of a Common-wealth a Liberty or Charter is only to One man or some One part of the people For to say all the people of a Common-wealth have Liberty in any case whatsoever is to say that in such case there hath been no Law made or else having been made is now abrogated CHAP. XXVII Of CRIMES EXCUSES and EXTENUATIONS A Sinne is not onely a Transgression of a Law but also any Contempt of the Legislator For such Contempt is a breach of all his Lawes at once And therefore may consist not onely in the Commission of a Fact or in the Speaking of Words by the Lawes forbidden or in the Omission of what the Law commandeth but also in the Intention or purpose to transgresse For the purpose to breake the Law is some degree of Contempt of him to whom it belongeth to see it executed To be delighted in the Imagination onely of being possessed of another mans goods servants or wife without any intention to take them from him by force or fraud is no breach of the Law that sayth Thou shalt not covet nor is the pleasure a man may have in imagining or dreaming of the death of him from whose life he expecteth nothing but dammage and displeasure a Sinne but the resolving to put some Act in execution that tendeth thereto For to be pleased in the fiction of that which would please a man if it were reall is a Passion so adhaerent to the Nature both of man and every other living creature as to make it a Sinne were to make Sinne of being a man The consideration of this has made me think them too severe both to themselves and others that maintain that the First motions of the mind though checked with the fear of God be Sinnes But I confesse it is safer to erre on that hand than on the other A CRIME is a sinne consisting in the Committing by Deed or Word of that which the Law forbiddeth or the Omission of what it hath commanded So that every Crime is a sinne but not every sinne a Crime To intend to steale or kill is a sinne though it never appeare in Word or Fact for God that seeth the thoughts of man can lay it to his charge but till it appear by some thing
disturbance of the Peace of the Common-wealth Secondly by falsé Teachers that either mis-interpret the Law of Nature making it thereby repugnant to the Law Civill or by teaching for Lawes such Doctrines of their own or Traditions of former times as are inconsistent with the duty of a Subject Thirdly by Erroneous Inferences from True Principles which happens commonly to men that are hasty and praecipitate in concluding and resolving what to do such as are they that have both a great opinion of their own understanding and believe that things of this nature require not time and study but onely common experience and a good naturall wit whereof no man thinks himselfe unprovided whereas the knowledge of Right and Wrong which is no lesse difficult there is no man will pretend to without great and long study And of those defects in Reasoning there is none that can Excuse though some of them may Extenuate a Crime in any man that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge because they pretend to the Reason upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime one is Vain-glory or a foolish over-rating of their own worth as if difference of worth were an effect of their wit or riches or bloud or some other naturall quality not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority From whence proceedeth a Presumption that the punishments ordained by the Lawes and extended generally to all Subjects ought not to be inflicted on them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poore obscure and simple men comprehended under the name of the Vulgar Therefore it happeneth commonly that such as value themselves by the greatnesse of their wealth adventure on Crimes upon hope of escaping punishment by corrupting publique Justice or obtaining Pardon by Mony or other rewards And that such as have multitude of Potent Kindred and popular men that have gained reputation amongst the Multitude take courage to violate the Lawes from a hope of oppressing the Power to whom it belongeth to put them in execution And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own Wisedome take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the Authority of them that govern and so to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse as that nothing shall be a Crime but what their own designes require should be so It happeneth also to the same men to be prone to all such Crimes as consist in Craft and in deceiving of their Neighbours because they think their designes are too subtile to be perceived These I say are effects of a false presumption of their own Wisdome For of them that are the first movers in the disturbance of Common-wealth which can never happen without a Civill Warre very few are left alive long enough to see their new Designes established so that the benefit of their Crimes redoundeth to Posterity and such as would least have wished it which argues they were not so wise as they thought they were And those that deceive upon hope of not being observed do commonly deceive themselves the darknesse in which they believe they lye hidden being nothing else but their own blindnesse and are no wiser than Children that think all hid by hiding their own eyes And generally all vain-glorious men unlesse they be withall timorous are subject to Anger as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt the ordinary liberty of conversation And there are few Crimes that may not be produced by Anger As for the Passions of Hate Lust Ambition and Covetousnesse what Crimes they are apt to produce is so obvious to every mans experience and understanding as there needeth nothing to be said of them saving that they are infirmities so annexed to the nature both of man and all other living creatures as that their effects cannot be hindred but by extraordinary use of Reason or a constant severity in punishing them For in those things men hate they find a continuall and unavoydable molestation whereby either a mans patience must be everlasting or he must be eased by removing the power of that which molesteth him The former is difficult the later is many times impossible without some violation of the Law Ambition and Covetousnesse are Passions also that are perpetually incumbent and pressing whereas Reason is not perpetually present to resist them and therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears their effects proceed And for Lust what it wants in the lasting it hath in the vehemence which sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easie or uncertain punishments Of all Passions that which enclineth men least to break the Lawes is Fear Nay excepting some generous natures it is the onely thing when there is apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the Lawes that makes men keep them And yet in many cases a Crime may be committed through Feare For not every Fear justifies the Action it produceth but the fear onely of corporeall hurt which we call Bodily Fear and from which a man cannot see how to be delivered but by the action A man is assaulted fears present death from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him If he wound him to death this is no Crime because no man is supposed at the making of a Common-wealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbes where the Law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance But to kill a man because from his actions or his threatnings I may argue he will kill me when he can seeing I have time and means to demand protection from the Soveraign Power is a Crime Again a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries for which they that made the Lawes had assigned no punishment nor thought it worthy of a man that hath the use of Reason to take notice of and is afraid unlesse he revenge it he shall fall into contempt and consequently be obnoxious to the like injuries from others and to avoyd this breaks the Law and protects himselfe for the future by the terrour of his private revenge This is a Crime For the hurt is not Corporeall but Phantasticall and though in this corner of the world made sensible by a custome not many years since begun amongst young and vain men so light as a gallant man and one that is assured of his own courage cannot take notice of Also a man may stand in fear of Spirits either through his own superstition or through too much credit given to other men that tell him of strange Dreams and Visions and thereby be made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things which neverthelesse to do or omit is contrary to the Lawes And that which is so done or omitted is not to be Excused by this fear but is
Servants to bind hand and foot the man that had not on his Wedding garment and to cast him out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Externall darknesse or Darknesse without which though translated Vtter darknesse does not signifie how great but where that darknesse is to be namely without the habitation of Gods Elect. Lastly whereas there was a place neer Jerusalem called the Valley of the Children of Hinnon in a part whereof called Tophet the Jews had committed most grievous Idolatry sacrificing their children to the Idol Moloch and wherein also God had afflicted his enemies with most grievous punishments and wherein Josias had burnt the Priests of Moloch upon their own Altars as appeareth at large in the 2 of Kings chap. 23. the place served afterwards to receive the filth and garbage which was carried thither on t of the City and there used to be fires made from time to time to purifie the aire and take away the stench of Carrion From this abominable place the Jews used ever after to call the place of the Damned by the name of Gehenna or Valley of Hinnon And this Gehenna is that word which is usually now translated HELL and from the fires from time to time there burning we have the notion of Everlasting and Vnquenchable Fire Seeing now there is none that so interprets the Scripture as that after the day of Judgment the wicked are all Eternally to be punished in the Valley of Hinnon or that they shall so rise again as to be ever after under ground or under water or that after the Resurrection they shall no more see one another nor stir from one place to another it followeth me thinks very necessarily that that which is thus said concerning Hell Fire is spoken metaphorically and that therefore there is a proper sense to bee enquired after for of all Metaphors there is some reall ground that may be expressed in proper words both of the Place of Hell and the nature of Hellish Torments and Tormenters And first for the Tormenters wee have their nature and properties exactly and properly delivered by the names of The Enemy or Satan The Accuser or Diabolus The Destroyer or Abaddon Which significant names Satan Devill Abaddon set not forth to us any Individuall person as proper names use to doe but onely an office or quality and are therefore Appellatives which ought not to have been left untranslated as they are in the Latine and Modern Bibles because thereby they seem to be the proper names of Daemons and men are the more easily seduced to beleeve the doctrine of Devills which at that time was the Religion of the Gentiles and contrary to that of Moses and of Christ. And because by the Enemy the Accuser and Destroyer is meant the Enemy of them that shall be in the Kingdome of God therefore if the Kingdome of God after the Resurrection bee upon the Earth as in the former Chapter I have shewn by Scripture it seems to be The Enemy and his Kingdome must be on Earth also For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God For Gods Kingdome was in Palestine and the Nations round about were the Kingdomes of the Enemy and consequently by Satan is meant any Earthly Enemy of the Church The Torments of Hell are expressed sometimes by weeping and gnashing of teeth as Mat. 8. 12. Sometimes by the worm of Conscience as Isa. 66. 24. and Mark 9. 44 46 48 sometimes by Fire as in the place now quoted where the worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched and many places beside sometimes by shame and contâ—…mpt as Daâ—… 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to Everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt All which places design metaphorically a grief and discontent of mind from the sight of that Eternall felicity in others which they themselves through their own incredulity and disobedience have lost And because such felicity in others is not sensible but by comparison with their own actuall miseries it followeth that they are to suffer such bodily paines and calamities as are incident to those who not onely live under evill and cruell Governours but have also for Enemy the Eternall King of the Saints God Almighty And amongst these bodily paines is to be reckoned also to every one of the wicked a second Death For though the Scripture bee clear for an universall Resurrection yet wee do not read that to any of the Reprobate is promised an Eternall life For whereas St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. to the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again saith that the body is sown in corruption and is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weaknesse it is raised in power Glory and Power cannot be applyed to the bodies of the wicked Nor can the name of Second Death bee applyed to those that can never die but once And although in Metaphoricall speech a Calamitous life Everlasting may bee called an Everasting Death yet it cannot well be understood of a Second Death The fire prepared for the wicked is an Everlasting Fire that is to say the estate wherein no man can be without torture both of body and mind after the Resurrection shall endure for ever and in that sense the Fire shall be unquenchable and the torments Everlasting but it cannot thence be inferred that hee who shall be cast into that fire or be tormented with those torments shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burnt and tortured and yet never be destroyed nor die And though there be many places that affirm Everlasting Fire and Torments into which men may be cast successively one after another for ever yet I find none that affirm there shall bee an Eternall Life therein of any individuall person but to the contrary an Everlasting Death which is the Second Death For after Death and the Grave shall have delivered up the dead which were in them and every man be judged according to his works Death and the Grave shall also be cast into the Lake of Fire This is the Second Death Whereby it is evident that there is to bee a Second Death of every one that shall bee condemned at the day of Judgement after which hee shall die no more The joyes of Life Eternall are in Scripture comprehended all under the name of SALVATION or being saved To be saved is to be secured either respectively against speciall Evills or absolutely against all Evill comprehending Want Sicknesse and Death it self And because man was created in a condition Immortall not subject to corruption and consequently to nothing that tendeth to the dissolution of his nature and fell from that happinesse by the sin of Adam it followeth that to be saved from Sin is to be saved from all the Evill and Calamities that Sinne hath brought upon
of them if there had appeared in their Rods nothing like a Serpent and in the Water enchanted nothing like Bloud nor like any thing else but Water but that they had faced down the King that they were Serpents that looked like Rods and that it was Bloud that seemed Water That had been both Enchantment and Lying And yet in this daily act of the Priest they doe the very same by turning the holy words into the manner of a Charme which produceth nothing new to the Sense but they face us down that it hath turned the Bread into a Man nay more into a God and require men to worship it as if it were our Saviour himself present God and Man and thereby to commit most grosse Idolatry For if it bee enough to excuse it of Idolatry to say it is no more Bread but God why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians in case they had the faces to say the Leeks and Onyons they worshipped were not very Leeks and Onyons but a Divinity under their species or likenesse The words This is my Body are aequivalent to these This signifies or represents my Body and it is an ordinary figure of Speech but to take it literally is an abuse nor though so taken can it extend any further than to the Bread which Christ himself with his own hands Consecrated For hee never said that of what Bread soever any Priest whatsoever should say This is my Body or This is Christs Body the same should presently be transubstantiated Nor did the Church of Rome ever establish this Transubstantiation till the time of Innocent the third which was not above 500. years agoe when the Power of Popes was at the Highest and the Darknesse of the time grown so great as men discerned not the Bread that was given them to eat especially when it was stamped with the figure of Christ upon the Crosse as if they would have men beleeve it were Transubstantiated not onely into the Body of Christ but also into the Wood of his Crosse and that they did eat both together in the Sacrament The like Incantation in stead of Consecration is used also in the Sacrament of Baptisme Where the abuse of Gods name in each severall Person and in the whole Trinity with the sign of the Crosse at each name maketh up the Charm As first when they make the Holy water the Priest saith I Conjure thee thou Creature of Water in the name of God the Father Almighty and in the name of Iesus Christ his onely Son our Lord and in vertue of the Holy Ghost that thou become Conjured water to drive away all the Powers of the Enemy and to eradicate and supplant the Enemy c. And the same in the Benediction of the Salt to be mingled with it That thou become Conjured Salt that all Phantasmes and Knavery of the Devills fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art sprinkled and every unclean Spirit bee Conjured by Him that shall come to judg the quicke and the dead The same in the Benediction of the Oyle That all the Power of the Enemy all the Host of the Devill all Assaults and Phantasmes of Satan may be driven away by this Creature of Oyle And for the Infant that is to be Baptized he is subject to many Charms First at the Church dore the Priest blows thrice in the Childs face and sayes Goe out of him unclean Spirit and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter As if all Children till blown on by the Priest were Daemoniaques Again before his entrance into the Church he saith as before I Conjure thee c. to goe out and depart from this Servant of God And again the same Exorcisme is repeated once more before he be Baptized These and some other Incantations are those that are used in stead of Benedictions and Consecrations in administration of the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper wherein every thing that serveth to those holy uses except the unhallowed Spittle of the Priest hath some set form of Exorcisme Nor are the other rites as of Marriage of Extreme Unction of Visitation of the Sick of Consecrating Churches and Church-yards and the like exempt from Charms in as much as there is in them the use of Enchanted Oyle and Water with the abuse of the Crosse and of the holy word of David Asperges me Domine Hyssopo as things of efficacy to drive away Phantasmes and Imaginary Spirits Another generall Error is from the Misinterpretation of the words Eternall Life Everlasting Death and the Second Death For though we read plainly in holy Scripture that God created Adam in an estate of Living for Ever which was conditionall that is to say if he disobeyed not his Commandement which was not essentiall to Humane Nature but consequent to the vertue of the Tree of Life whereof hee had liberty to eat as long as hee had not sinned and that hee was thrust out of Paradise after he had sinned lest hee should eate thereof and live for ever and that Christs Passion is a Discharge of sin to all that beleeve on him and by consequence a restitution of Eternall Life to all the Faithfull and to them onely yet the Doctrine is now and hath been a long time far otherwise namely that every man hath Eternity of Life by Nature in as much as his Soul is Immortall So that the flaming Sword at the entrance of Paradise though it hinder a man from coming to the Tree of Life hinders him not from the Immortality which God took from him for his Sin nor makes him to need the sacrificing of Christ for the recovering of the same and consequently not onely the faithfull and righteous but also the wicked and the Heathen shall enjoy Eternall Life without any Death at all much lesse a Second and Everlasting Death To salve this it is said that by Second and Everlasting Death is meant a Second and Everlasting Life but in Torments a Figure never used but in this very Case All which Doctrine is founded onely on some of the obscurer places of the New Testament which neverthelesse the whole scope of the Scripture considered are cleer enough in a different sense and unnecessary to the Christian Faith For supposing that when a man dies there remaineth nothing of him but his carkasse cannot God that raised inanimated dust and clay into a living creature by his Word as easily raise a dead carkasse to life again and continue him alive for Ever or make him die again by another Word The Soule in Scripture signifieth alwaies either the Life or the Living Creature and the Body and Soule jointly the Body alive In the fift day of the Creation God said Let the waters produce Reptile animae viventis the creeping thing that hath in it a Living Soule the English translate it that hath Life And again God created Whales omnem animam viventem which in the English is
on the contrary what interpretation shall we give besides the literall sense of the words of Solomon Eccles. 3. 19. That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dyeth so doth the other yea they have all one breath one spirit so that a Man hath no praeeminence above a Beast for all is vanity By the literall sense here is no Naturall Immortality of the Soule nor yet any repugnancy with the Life Eternall which the Elect shall enjoy by Grace And chap. 4. ver 3. Better is he that hath not yet been than both they that is than they that live or have lived which if the Soule of all them that have lived were Immortall were a hard saying for then to have an Immortall Soule were worse than to have no Soule at all And againe Chapt. 9. 5. The living know they shall die but the dead know not any thing that is Naturally and before the resurrection of the body Another place which seems to make for a Naturall Immortality of the Soule is that where our Saviour saith that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are living but this is spoken of the promise of God and of their certitude to rise again not of a Life then actuall and in the same sense that God said to Adam that on the day hee should eate of the forbidden fruit he should certainly die from that time forward he was a dead man by sentence but not by execution till almost a thousand years after So Abraham Isaac and Jacob were alive by promise then when Christ spake but are not actually till the Resurrection And the History of Dives and Lazarus make nothing against this if wee take it as it is for a Parable But there be other places of the New Testament where an Immortality seemeth to be directly attributed to the wicked For it is evident that they shall all rise to Judgement And it is said besides in many places that they shall goe into Everlasting fire Everlasting torments Everlasting punishments and that the worm of conscience never dyeth and all this is comprehended in the word Everlasting Death which is ordinarily interpreted Everlasting Life in torments And yet I can find no where that any man shall live in torments Everlastingly Also it seemeth hard to say that God who is the Father of Mercies that doth in Heaven and Earth all that hee will that hath the hearts of all men in his disposing that worketh in men both to doe and to will and without whose free gift a man hath neither inclination to good nor repentance of evill should punish mens transgressions without any end of time and with all the extremity of torture that men can imagine and more We are therefore to consider what the meaning is of Everlasting Fire and other the like phrases of Scripture I have shewed already that the Kingdome of God by Christ beginneth at the day of Judgment That in that day the Faithfull shall rise again with glorious and spirituall Bodies and bee his Subjects in that his Kingdome which shall be Eternall That they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage nor eate and drink as they did in their naturall bodies but live for ever in their individuall persons without the specificall eternity of generation And that the Reprobates also shall rise again to receive punishments for their sins As also that those of the Elect which shall be alive in their earthly bodies at that day shall have their bodies suddenly changed and made spirituall and Immortall But that the bodies of the Reprobate who make the Kingdome of Satan shall also be glorious or spirituall bodies or that they shall bee as the Angels of God neither eating nor drinking nor engendring or that their life shall be Eternall in their individuall persons as the life of every faithfull man is or as the life of Adam had been if hee had not sinned there is no place of Scripture to prove it save onely these places concerning Eternall Torments which may otherwise be interpreted From whence may be inferred that as the Elect after the Resurrection shall be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned so the Reprobate shall be in the estate that Adam and his posterity were in after the sin committed saving that God promised a Redeemer to Adam and such of his seed as should trust in him and repent but not to them that should die in their sins as do the Reprobate These things considered the texts that mention Eternall Fire Eternall Torments or the Worm that never dieth contradict not the Doctrine of a Second and Everlasting Death in the proper and naturall sense of the word Death The Fire or Torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna Tophet or in what place soever may continue for ever and there may never want wicked men to be tormented in them though not every nor any one Eternally For the wicked being left in the estate they were in after Adams sin may at the Resurrection live as they did marry and give in marriage and have grosse and corruptible bodies as all mankind now have and consequently may engender perpetually after the Resurrection as they did before For there is no place of Scripture to the contrary For St. Paul speaking of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. understandeth it onely of the Resurrection to Life Eternall and not the Resurrection to Punishment And of the first he saith that the Body is Sown in Corruption raised in Incorruption sown in Dishonour raised in Honour sown in Weaknesse raised in Power sown a Naturall body raised a Spirituall body There is no such thing can be said of the bodies of them that rise to Punishment So also our Saviour when hee speaketh of the Nature of Man after the Resurrection meaneth the Resurrection to Life Eternall not to Punishment The text is Luke 20. verses 34. 35 36. a fertile text The Children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be counted worthy to obtaine that world and the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Neither can they die any more for they are equall to the Angells and are the Children of God being the Children of the Resurrection The Children of this world that are in the estate which Adam left them in shall marry and be given in marriage that is corrupt and generate successively which is an Immortality of the Kind but not of the Persons of men They are not worthy to be counted amongst them that shall obtain the next world and an absolute Resurrection from the dead but onely a short time as inmates of that world and to the end onely to receive condign punishment for their contumacy The Elect are the onely children of the Resurrection that is to say the sole heirs of Eternall Life they only can die no more it is they that are equall to the Angels and that are the children of God
and not the Reprobate To the Reprobate there remaineth after the Resurrection a Second and Eternall Death between which Resurrection and their Second and Eternall death is but a time of Punishment and Torment and to last by succession of sinners thereunto as long as the kind of Man by propagation shall endure which is Eternally Upon this Doctrine of the Naturall Eternity of separated Soules is founded as I said the Doctrine of Purgatory For supposing Eternall Life by Grace onely there is no Life but the Life of the Body and no Immortality till the Resurrection The texts for Purgatory alledged by Bellarmine out of the Canonicall Scripture of the old Testament are first the Fasting of David for Saul and Ionathan mentioned 2 Kings 1. 12. and againe 2 Sam. 3. 35. for the death of Abner This Fasting of David he saith was for the obtaining of something for them at Gods hands after their death because after he had Fasted to procure the recovery of his owne child assoone as he knew it was dead he called for meate Seeing then the Soule hath an existence separate from the Body and nothing can be obtained by mens Fasting for the Soules that are already either in Heaven or Hell it followeth that there be some Soules of dead men that are neither in Heaven nor in Hell and therefore they must bee in some third place which must be Purgatory And thus with hard straining hee has wrested those places to the proofe of a Purgatory whereas it is manifest that the ceremonies of Mourning and Fasting when they are used for the death of men whose life was not profitable to the Mourners they are used for honours sake to their persons and when t is done for the death of them by whose life the Mourners had benefit it proceeds from their particular dammage And so David honoured Saul and Abner with his Fasting and in the death of his owne child recomforted himselfe by receiving his ordinary food In the other places which he alledgeth out of the old Testamēt there is not so much as any shew or colour of proofe He brings in every text wherein there is the word Anger or Fire or Burning or Purging or Clensing in case any of the Fathers have but in a Sermon rhetorically applied it to the Doctrine of Purgatory already beleeved The first verse of Psalme 37. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure What were this to Purgatory if Augustine had not applied the Wrath to the fire of Hell and the Displeasure to that of Purgatory And what is it to Purgatory that of Psalme 66. 12. Wee went through fire and water and thou broughtest us to a moist place and other the like texts with which the Doctors of those times entended to adorne or extend their Sermons or Commentaries haled to their purposes by force of wit But he alledgeth other places of the New Testament that are not so easie to be answered And first that of Matth. 12. 32. Whosoever speaketh a word against the Sonne of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not bee forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Where he will have Purgatory to be the World to come wherein some sinnes may be forgiven which in this World were not forgiven notwithstanding that it is manifest there are but three Worlds one from the Creation to the Flood which was destroyed by Water and is called in Scripture the Old World another from the Flood to the day of Judgement which is the Present World and shall bee destroyed by Fire and the third which shall bee from the day of Judgement forward everlasting which is called the World to come and in which it is agreed by all there shall be no Purgatory And therefore the World to come and Purgatory are inconsistent But what then can bee the meaning of those our Saviours words I confesse they are very hardly to bee reconciled with all the Doctrines now unanimously received Nor is it any shame to confesse the profoundnesse of the Scripture to bee too great to be sounded by the shortnesse of humane understanding Neverthelesse I may propound such things to the consideration of more learned Divines as the text it selfe suggesteth And first seeing to speake against the Holy Ghost as being the third Person of the Trinity is to speake against the Church in which the Holy Ghost resideth it seemeth the comparison is made betweene the Easinesse of our Saviour in bearing with offences done to him while hee himselfe taught the world that is when he was on earth and the Severity of the Pastors after him against those which should deny their authority which was from the Holy Ghost As if he should say You that deny my Power nay you that shall crucifie me shall be pardoned by mee as often as you turne unto mee by Repentance But if you deny the Power of them that teach you hereafter by vertue of the Holy Ghost they shall be inexorable and shall not forgive you but persecute you in this World and leave you without absolution though you turn to me unlesse you turn also to them to the punishments as much as lies in them of the World to come And so the words may be taken as a Prophecy or Praediction concerning the times as they have along been in the Christian Church Or if this be not the meaning for I am not peremptory in such difficult places perhaps there may be place left after the Resurrection for the Repentance of some sinners And there is also another place that seemeth to agree therewith For considering the words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 29. What shall they doe which are Baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why also are they Baptized for the dead a man may probably inferre as some have done that in St. Pauls time there was a custome by receiving Baptisme for the dead as men that now beleeve are Sureties and Undertakers for the Faith of Infants that are not capable of beleeving to undertake for the persons of their deceased friends that they should be ready to obey and receive our Saviour for their King at his his coming again and then the forgivenesse of sins in the world to come has no need of a Purgatory But in both these interpretations there is so much of paradox that I trust not to them but propound them to those that are throughly versed in the Scripture to inquire if there be no clearer place that contradicts them Onely of thus much I see evident Scripture to perswade me that there is neither the word nor the thing of Purgatory neither in this nor any other text nor any thing that can prove a necessity of a place for the Soule without the Body neither for the Soule of Lazarus during the four days he was dead nor for the Soules of them which the
Romane Church pretend to be tormented now in Purgatory For God that could give a life to a peece of clay hath the same power to give life again to a dead man and renew his inanimate and rotten Carkasse into a glorious spirituall and immortall Body Another place is that of 1 Cor. 3. where it is said that they which built Stubble Hay c. on the true Foundation their work shall perish but they themselves shall be saved but as through Fire This Fire he will have to be the Fire of Purgatory The words as I have said before are an allusion to those of Zach. 13. 9. where he saith I will bring the third part through the Fire and refine them as Silver is refined and will try them as Gold is tryed Which is spoken of the comming of the Messiah in Power and Glory that is at the day of Judgment and Conflagration of the present world wherein the Elect shall not be consumed but be refined that is depose their erroneous Doctrines and Traditions and have them as it were sindged of and shall afterwards call upon the name of the true God In like manner the Apostle saith of them that holding this Foundation Iesus is the Christ shall build thereon some other Doctrines that be erroneous that they shall not be consumed in that fire which reneweth the world but shall passe through it to Salvation but so as to see and relinquish their former Errours The Builders are the Pastors the Foundation that Iesus is the Christ the Stubble and Hay False Consequences drawn from it through Ignorance or Frailty the Gold Silver and pretious Stones are their True Doctrines and their Refining or Purging the Relinquishing of their Errors In all which there is no colour at all for the burning of Incorporeall that is to say Impatible Souls A third place is that of 1 Cor. 15. before mentioned concerning Baptisme for the Dead out of which he concludeth first that Prayers for the Dead are not unprofitable and out of that that there is a Fire of Purgatory But neither of them rightly For of many interpretations of the word Baptisme he approveth this in the first place that by Baptisme is meant metaphorically a Baptisme of Penance and that men are in this sense Baptized when they Fast and Pray and give Almes And so Baptisme for the Dead and Prayer for the Dead is the same thing But this is a Metaphor of which there is no example neither in the Scripture nor in any other use of language and which is also discordant to the harmony and scope of the Scripture The word Baptisme is used Mar. 10. 38. Luk. 12. 50. for being Dipped in ones own bloud as Christ was upon the Cross and as most of the Apostles were for giving testimony of him But it is hard to say that Prayer Fasting and Almes have any similitude with Dipping The same is used also Mat. 3. 11. which seemeth to make somewhat for Purgatory for a Purging with Fire But it is evident the Fire and Purging here mentioned is the same whereof the Prophet Zachary speaketh chap. 13. v. 9. I will bring the third part through the Fire and will Refine them c. And St. Peter after him 1 Epist. 1. 7. That the triall of your Faith which is much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with Fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ And St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 13. The Fire shall trie every mans work of what sort it is But St. Peter and St. Paul speak of the Fire that shall be at the Second Appearing of Christ and the Prophet Zachary of the Day of Judgment And therefore this place of S. Mat. may be interpreted of the same and then there will be no necessity of the Fire of Purgatory Another interpretation of Baptisme for the Dead is that which I have before mentioned which he preferreth to the second place of probability And thence also he inferreth the utility of Prayer for the Dead For if after the Resurrection such as have not heard of Christ or not beleeved in him may be received into Christs Kingdome it is not in vain after their death that their friends should pray for them till they should be risen But granting that God at the prayers of the faithfull may convert unto him some of those that have not heard Christ preached and consequently cannot have rejected Christ and that the charity of men in that point cannot be blamed yet this concludeth nothing for Purgatory because to rise from Death to Life is one thing to rise from Purgatory to Life is another as being a rising from Life to Life from a Life in torments to a Life in joy A fourth place is that of Mat. 5. 25. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilest thou art in the way with him left at any time the Adversary deliver thee to the Iudge and the Iudge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing In which Allegory the Offender is the Sinner both the Adversary and the Judge is God the Way is this Life the Prison is the Grave the Officer Death from which the sinner shall not rise again to life eternall but to a second Death till he have paid the utmost farthing or Christ pay it for him by his Passion which is a full Ransome for all manner of sin as well lesser sins as greater crimes both being made by the passion of Christ equally veniall The fift place is that of Matth. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be guilty in Iudgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother RACHA shall be guilty in the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Foole shall be guilty to hell fire From which words he inferreth three sorts of Sins and three sorts of Punishments and that none of those sins but the last shall be punished with hell fire and consequently that after this life there is punishment of lesser sins in Purgatory Of which inference there is no colour in any interpretation that hath yet been given of them Shall there be a distinction after this life of Courts of Justice as there was amongst the Jews in our Saviours time to hear and determine divers sorts of Crimes as the Judges and the Councell Shall not all Judicature appertain to Christ and his Apostles To undersand therefore this text we are not to consider it solitarily but jointly with the words precedent and subsequent Our Saviour in this Chapter interpreteth the Law of Moses which the Jews thought was then fulfilled when they had not transgressed the Grammaticall sense thereof howsoever they had transgressed against the sentence or meaning of the Legislator Therefore whereas they thought the Sixth Commandement was not broken but by Killing a man nor the
the terrour of Death or other great corporall punishment it is not Idolatry For the Worship which the Soveraign commandeth to bee done unto himself by the terrour of his Laws is not a sign that he that obeyeth him does inwardly honour him as a God but that he is desirous to save himselfe from death or from a miserable life and that which is not a sign of internall honor is no Worship and therefore no Idolatry Neither can it bee said that hee that does it scandalizeth or layeth any stumbling block before his Brother because how wise or learned soever he be that worshippeth in that manner another man cannot from thence argue that he approveth it but that he doth it for fear and that it is not his act but the act of his Soveraign To worship God in some peculiar Place or turning a mans faâ—… towards an Image or determinate Place is not to worship or honor the Place or Image but to acknowledge it Holy that is to say to acknowledge the Image or the Place to be set apart from common use for that is the meaning of the word Holy which implies no new quality in the Place or Image but onely a new Relation by Appropriation to God and therefore is not Idolatry no more than it was Idolatry to worship God before the Brazen Serpent or for the Jews when they were out of their owne countrey to turn their faces when they prayed toward the Temple of Jerusalem or for Moses to put off his Shoes when he was before the Flaming Bush the ground appertaining to Mount Sinai which place God had chosen to appear in and to give his Laws to the People of Israel and was therefore Holy ground not by inhaerent sanctity but by separation to Gods use or for Christians to worship in the Churches which are once solemnly dedicated to God for that purpose by the Authority of the King or other true Representant of the Church But to worship God as inanimating or inhabiting such Image or place that is to say an infinite substance in a finite place is Idolatry for such finite Gods are but Idols of the brain nothing reall and are commonly called in the Scripture by the names of Vanity and Lyes and Nothing Also to worship God not as inanimating or present in the place or Image but to the end to be put in mind of him or of some works of his in case the Place or Image be dedicated or set up by private authority and not by the authority of them that are our Soveraign Pastors is Idolatry For the Commandement is Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image God commanded Moses to set up the Brazen Serpent hee did not make it to himselfe it was not therefore against the Commandement But the making of the Golden Calfe by Aaron and the People as being done without authority from God was Idolatry not onely because they held it for God but also because they made it for a Religious use without warrant either from God their Soveraign or from Moses that was his Lieutenant The Gentiles worshipped for Gods Jupiter and others that living were men perhaps that had done great and glorious Acts and for the Children of God divers men and women supposing them gotten between an Immortall Deity and a mortall man This was Idolatry because they made them so to themselves having no authority from God neither in his eternall Law of Reason nor in his positive and revealed Will. But though our Saviour was a man whom wee also beleeve to bee God Immortall and the Son of God yet this is no Idolatry because wee build not that beleef upon our own fancy or judgment but upon the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures And for the adoration of the Eucharist if the words of Christ This is my Body signifie that he himselfe and the seeming bread in his hand and not onely so but that all the seeming morsells of bread that have ever since been and any time hereafter shall bee consecrated by Priests bee so many Christs bodies and yet all of them but one body then is that no Idolatry because it is authorized by our Saviour but if that text doe not signifie that for there is no other that can be alledged for it then because it is a worship of humane institution it is Idolatry For it is not enough to say God can transubstantiate the Bread into Christs Body For the Gentiles also held God to be Omnipotent and might upon that ground no lesse excuse their Idolatry by pretending as well as others a transubstantiation of their Wood and Stone into God Almighty Whereas there be that pretend Divine Inâ—…piration to be a supernaturall entring of the Holy Ghost into a man and not an acquisition of Gods graces by doctrine and study I think they are in a very dangerous Dilemma For if they worship not the men whom they beleeve to be so inspired they fall into Impiety as not adoring Gods supernaturall Presence And again if they worship him they commit Idolatry for the Apostles would never permit themselves to be so worshipped Therefore the safest way is to beleeve that by the Descending of the Dove upon the Apostles and by Christs Breathing on them when hee gave them the Holy Ghost and by the giving of it by Iâ—…position of Hands are understood the signes which God hath been pleased to use or ordain to bee used of his promise to assist those persons in their study to Preach his Kingdome and in their Conversation that it might not be Scandalous but Edifying to others Besides the Idolatrous Worship of Images there is also a Scandalous Worship of them which is also a sin but not Idolatry For Idolatry is to worship by signes of an internall and reall honour but Scandalous Worship is but Seeming Worship and may sometimes bee joined with an inward and hearty detestation both of the Image and of the Phantasticall Daemon or Idol to which it is dedicated and proceed onely from the fear of death or other grievous punishment and is neverthelesse a sin in them that so worship in case they be men whose actions are looked at by others as lights to guide them by because following their ways they cannot but stumble and fall in the way of Religion Whereas the example of those we regard not works not on us at all but leaves us to our own diligence and caution and consequently are no causes of our falling If therefore a Pastor lawfully called to teach and direct others or any other of whose knowledge there is a great opinion doe externall honor to an Idol for fear unlesse he make his feare and unwillingnesse to it as evident as the worship he Scandalizeth his Brother by seeming to approve Idolatry For his Brother arguing from the action of his teacher or of him whose knowledge he esteemeth great concludes it to bee lawfull in it selfe And this Scandall is Sin and a Scandall given But