there is a necessity of nature which maketh men in generall avoid death in generall as the thing by which he must needs expect the greatest paine for it often happens that there is little paine and people that have dyed with a sense of deaths ugliness and so with some impatience I have found complaining of common accidents and such which had no participation of death in them and no cooperation to the dissolution of soule and body by death as Aches in particular parts sometimes they were galled and that troubled them sometimes that there were clods or hardness in the Bed c. All which shewed that these paines not those of Death were more sensible then even death its selfe Sect. 9. He proceeds It is not against reason that a man doth all he can to preserve his own body and limbes both from death and paine had he put in that little word and esteemed a little thing by him justly and honestly he had said truth but alas else how unreasonable a thing it is that a man to save himself from a little pain should act things prejudiciall to the glory of God the publique good or else some greater good of his own any man who hath sense of any thing but sense and unworthy ease cannot choose but apprehend that the greater good should be chosen before the lesse such are those before specified Therefore in such Cases that they for paine or death its self are relinquished is against reason What he adde's And that which is not against reason we call right c. I agree to for certainly there is no wrong which is not against reason but his deduction It is therefore a right of Nature that every man may preserve his own life and limbes with all the power he hath This deduction by what is already said cannot be true but when his life and limbes are not opposed by some greater good CHAP. XXIII Of using or misusing meanes in order to their end The regulation of mans judgment in it The preservation of life and estate when necessary Of right and wrong Law c. Sect. 1. 1. I Come now to Number 7. which begins thus And because where a man hath right to the end and the end cannot be attained without the meanes that is without such things as are necessary to the end it is consequent that it is not against reason and therefore right for a man to use all meanes and doe whatsoever action is necessary for the preservation of his body How vile and illogicall is this had he proved that the body were the end of man or instead of body had he said for the preservation of that end his axiome explained thus might have borne him out in it but as it is puâ— there is no connexion for suppose a man hath right to the end his own happiness and by that right likewise to all meanes which conduce to it yet unlesse this body can be proved to be that end his application of it to the body is of no force Well I will examine his Aphorisme First he who hath right to the end hath not right to all meanes of getting it is apparent for he who hath right to an estate or an house hath not right to take it by force he must onely use legall meanes for the obtaining and preserving it and so though a man have right to his body or life yet he hath no right to preserve it by unlawfull actions It is a most just rule of law that a man must so use his owne as he must not hurt another a man hath right to water and a Meadow but he must not so use his water and his meadow as by overflowing his meadow he should drowne his neighbours Corne. So although a man have right to his life yet this right is not of such a transcendent power as to enable him for the preservation of that life to hurt others and destroy their lives But once again for further and clearer explication of that rule he gives concerning an end let us observe that it hath no truth but concerning the last end and in that it hath for since all mens actions are for an end that is his summum bonum his happiness every man out of necessity of nature doth what he doth for it and the utmost he can for it but this life or body is not mans happiness and for any second end there being no necessity of the end it self there is much less of any means which conduce to it and therefore of such ends of which nature mans temporall life and body are there is no manner of truth in it no more then if we should say it were right for a man to doe what he can any thing to obtain pleasure or profit upon which he sets his heart Sect. 2. His 8. Numb must be likewise examined which saith Also every man by right of nature is judge himself of the necessity of the meanes and of the greatness of the danger This hath some truth in it and yet not to be so understood that by right of nature a man may judge what he will and accordingly act and what he acts is right as he seems to imply here from hence enforces afterwards for as in our judicatures there must use be made of Judges and the decrees of those Judges will regulate and govern our possessions yet those Judges have rules by which their judicatures should be regulated and what they act contrary to those rules or Lawes although it may be effected yet it is wicked so it is in those no doubt but every man will in such an impossible state as he supposeth man judge of the meanes and necessity but yet there is a law of nature in every man by which his judgement should be guided and what he judgeth though never so congruent to his will contrary to this law is not right so that as a Judge though what he judgeth must be performed and he hath power to judge what he thinkes fit yet he hath right to judge only according to the law of that Nation which gave him the power of being a Judge all other judgement is by power but not by right so is it with this man he may act against the law of nature for the preservation of his life or Limbe but if not right it is wicked to doe so The Argument he brings for proofe of this Conclusion convinceth not me For saith he if it be against reason that I be Judge of mine own danger my self then it is reason that another may be Judge c. It is reason say I that in such a Case I am Judge but it is reason likewise that I judge according to Law and make my will be guided by reason not my reason regulated by my will because it is mine it is not therefore right but because mine according to the law of nature and right reason of which he himself afterwards
these things life or death are such some men have thought this temporall life a misery clothed with these circumstances they possesse it with like a rotten house which when the winds and raine drives in is worse then the open fields like a Prison it were better have no house then that such is the body to the soul and therefore men may and have often wished to be delivered out of it and death to some men is as desired as a freedome from a Gaole This Gentleman talkes up and downe in these books not only like a natural man but like the worst of them and the wickedest for wise men among them have written much in contempt of these sensual temporal things in which he placeth the only aime and happiness of man Sect. 4. Certainly even in Nature the life of man is not the principal thing of man's happinesse and then not of mans intention and care for Life is a thing which a man enjoyes in common with Beasts and Trees and therefore if man's happinesse should be in that he were no better yea much worse then they whose excellency consists in a relation to man to live only is to be a Beast a Plant only but to live vertuously and reasonably to glorifie that God who gave him those abilities by which his life is happy that is the end of man and of mans life which he is to leave then when he cannot enjoy it upon these conditions and to a Christian man as to the best of Philosophers who had thoughts and assurance of Eternity this life hath been reputed of little value and to die no misery because it is but the passage to a better and more spirituall life although perhaps there may be some difficulties in opening the gate yet it is not to be compared with the happiness it admits into nay it hath been of such esteem amongst men of honour alwaies that they would choose to die vertuously rather then live dishonourably Instances would be numerous out of the Roman story so that it is impossible in that absolute sense without limitation in which he speaks it to be true that this is the whole right of Nature as his Leviathan or his chiefe or principal as his Corpus politicum to preserve this life or to avoid this enemy death which for multitudes may and for not a few reasons ought to be despised These phrases which he useth Sect. 5. From whom we expect the lesse of power he meane's Death and the greatest of bodily paines in the loosing must be censured next and first of the first By death we doe not loose all power yea without doubt like a man out of prison he is more active and able then he was within so is the soul when it is broke out of this gaole or dunghill its natural corruptible body nor can he say that he meant bodily power for then he would not have left out that word Bodily in this which he joyned with Paine in his following sentence men without question who have hopes of that better life hereafter do not expect the losse of all power by this death but rather the increase of it and therefore suppose he should say he meant bodily power which indeed must needs be lost by death yet who is troubled to loose a bag of Silver when in its room shall be left a bag of Gold to loose bodily power and gaine spirituall It was said of our Druids in England who taught the Immortality of the soule Ignavi est rediturae parcere vitae it was a poor dull thing to spare that life which would returne again but then if they had pryed into and could have considered the glorious immortall existence which men shall have hereafter for the mortall and contemptible being here it might have been said that it were not only a dul but a beastly thing for a man so much to affect the sensual pleasures of this fleshly life as to be unwilling for the losse of them to gaine Spirituall perfections we cannot then say that we expect to loose by death all our power and if we do leave bodily powers we are not loosers but gainers by it Sect. 6. His next phrase is That by death we expect in the losing these Powers the greatest bodily paine This Gentleman I guesse hath only looked upon Death in those horrid vizards and disguises which fearfull men masque it with he hath not been so often in the house of mourning as I have and there made this observation that Death is not so horrid as many men conceit it nor the paines so great that Death is not so fearful is apparent not only in experience of those Martyrs who have dyed for the glory of CHRIST and so by their blessed sufferings for him have had an assurance that they shall reigne with him but even in those who with heroick spirits have confronted Death in politique concernments yea sought it which shewed that there is not a necessity of nature to preserve Life or that they expected the greatest paine in the losing it I could fill divers sheets with instances both ancient and moderne these I let passe lest they kick me in the teeth whilest I follow them in the Chase for the former consider how many wicked men have killed themselves for feare of worse paines alive so Sardanapalus so Cleopatra so Nero multitudes esteeming the paines of Death deliverance from the pains of unhappie life and themselves made choice of death upon such Conditions but take one instance where men were not concerned in the benefit of death themselves but took it in relation to others good we may read in the life of Otho or rather in his death that when after his losse in that great and fatal battell betwixt his forces and those of Vitellius he being retreated and discontented his Souldiers flocked to him beseeching him to head them again and regaine the losse of that day promising how that they were all ready to dye in that cause with and for him if there should be necessity and to give him assurance of what they said one of the most obscure and meanest sort of Souldiers drew his sword and killing himself told him know O Caesar that we are all provided thus to die for thee this man had no end for himself but onely to encourage Otho either for his Countries good or his owne to engage againe yet go on and we shall find that Otho unmoved with this or any thing else killed himself likewise and his souldiers carrying him to his funeral Pile many more slew themselves there to dye with him so that as love of his Country or Otho's imagined vertues provoked the first so a bare love to his person inflamed the rest to dye with him now certainly there could not be a necessity of Nature in these men to expect the greatest pains in death nor indeed can I think there is such paine Old men weare out questionless
like a Candle those deaths which this Gent. speakes of are by the assaults of enemies or condemnation of superiours these are suddain and although there should be great paine yet finishing their work quickly are to be lesse valued but I doe not think that there is such paine and therefore as it is reported of Cato so it happens to many that when they have wounded themselves and are somwhat holpen they yet kill themselves again for so it was with Cato as Plutarch describes him after his wounding himself and fall from his Bed that his bowels gushed out and his Physician having found them unhurt had put them up into their owne place againe he returning to himself sure he was in the porch of death and had viewed it throughly thrust his Physician away tare his wound wider let out his bowels and with them his life this is familiar in Common experience now if there were so much paines in death although they who were ignorant of it might easily adventure upon it yet not they who knew it as Cato and those other for without doubt the paines of death were passed by Cato when his Physician came to him and he had lost his senses so likewise the death of Arria Paelus his wife which is Celebrated by Martials excellent Epigram Casâ—a suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto Quem de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis Crede mihi vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod tu facies hoc mihi Paete dolet The story goes thus she stole to her Husband in prison bring 's him a sword under her Coat invite's him to kill himself with it he was fearefull she to encourage him drawes her sword runne's it into her own body first gives her self a deadly wound then give 's it him with this high expression of kindnesse Beleeve me Paetus this wound grieves not me That wound 's my griefe which must be made by thee Now although we may allow the manner the sweetnesse the elegancy of this kindness to be the Poets yet the ground of the expression we may conceive to be reall that she desired to have her Husband dye as some thought honourably which he having received some of Mr. Hobbes his Principles was fearefull to doe she encouraged him to it by her owne example and then told him it was no hard matter to dye Now if it had been so full of paine as Mr. Hobbes would have it that paine would not have given her leave to have attended his good in the middest of it To the same purpose I can tell a story of a Child of mine own somewhat above foure years old who being sickly I put out to a neighbours house in whose care I confided to attend her she grew weaker and weaker unto death and almost immediately before her death the man of the house coming home from his business she called the woman whom she usually called old Mother old Mother said she goe give the old man his breakfast he will be angry else and leave such a boy to rock me in my Cradle and so straightway dyed This is my Collection if death had been so painfull this Child could not have had so much leasure fâ—om the anguish of it as to have attended that ease of her own rocking or that kindness to the old man Sect. 7. I have I thank God seen divers dye without any apprehension of any great paines in them yea like a sleep so hath Death seized upon them so like sleepe as by the by-standers it could not be discerned from it and hath made me often think that Death is to a dying man as sleep to a sleepie and as much desired when the body hath been tyred out with long labour it hath so gone to his long rest which to us who have assurance of the Resurrection is no other and to this purpose I remember a Story related by Plutarch that when Diogenes was towards his death having taken his Cicuta which was the sleepie medicine that he and Socrates and divers others used his Physician raising him up even as he was about to die and asking him whether he felt any trouble Diogenes answered no for saith he the brother ushers in the sister meaning he was asleep as men seeme to us many times before their death And I can second this Story with another out of mine own family of a Son of mine who was but two yeares old and when death laid hands upon him he still cryed out to goe to sleepe now he would sleep in this mans arms then on the Bed sleepe is often called an Image of Death but death came to him in the image of sleep he had been oft acquainted with sleep had never heard Death abused by those invectives which sensual men use against it and when Death came he took it for sleepe nay so like to many is that repose of death to that of sleepe that when they are forced from it by the importunate clamours or halings and pullings of friends it is just as a man awaked from sleep and many men have complained of it as of an unjust violence It is therefore the ugly Sceletons and pictures of death which men see and the abusive language and Rhetorique which hath been used towards it which makes death so fearfull as it is amongst men and therefore I could tell of some who having heard death in the common manner calumniated when upon their death-bed they have been told of its approach have wondred that that was death which had so little anguish and grief in it I doe not here say that no men have paine in death there are three periods of time into which death may be divided Sect. 8. There is that tract of time when first a sicknesse gets such a head as it is deadly there is secondly that interim in which man grows insensible and there is thirdly that instant in which the soule of man is separated from the body in regard of which last it was truly spoke of Seneca when he said Death should not be fearfull which when it comes is not discerned for Death taken in this last acceptation cannot be perceived no not in the second but taking Death in the first way it is many times more many times lesse painfull of which I would dilate Physically but avoyd tediousness It is a thing as apparent as almost death its self that sometimes in that tract of time there may be paine and most oft is but there are greater paines I beleeve to many people that out-live their sicknesses then those when diseases grow deadly and I am perswaded that the same disease unless by wounds and many times in them too I say the same disease is most oft more painful when it is curable before it be deadly then afterwards because the spirits are quicker the man more sensible therefore I conclude that it is not true that
delighted with the observations of this place and some other more frequently observed but as I was delighted with this so I did admire to find Plato in his Phoedo or de anima describing the heaven where happy souls shall be when they are departed from thâ—s life by those stones which Saint Iohn doth the heavenly Ierusalem Rev. 21. Plato set's down three of them a Sardius a Iasper a Smaragdos with an c. that there were more St. Iohn in the 19. verse put 's them down in another order a Iasper a Sardius and the third a Chalcedony the fourth an Emerald which fourth in the Greek is Smaragdos now I could not but justly wonder at this Consent and perhaps may think that there is some greater Mystery in it then is yet discovered howsoever this serve 's my turn to shew that St. Iohn never avoided the language and expressions of these preceding Philosophers but used them This Dialogue called Phoedo in Plato contain's that Discourse which Socrates delivered to his friends at the day of his death and his whole Comportment in it amongst other passages having philosophized concerning the immortality of the soul and answered all their objections he fall's to treating how it fared with souls departed which died wicked good better best and therein describing the habitations of those happy souls put 's down these very stones which St. Iohn mention's with an Et caetera This being then apparent that these gallant and great Philosophers both before and after St. Iohn used this Term Word as he doth and that St. Iohn no where avoid's their expressions it is reasonable to think he should not do so here unless we would find some greater violence offered to the sense of the Text by it then is yet discovered or unless by some other interpretation we might discern the meaning more clearly expounded when by their way every term is wrested as will appear Sect. 15. Well to proceed this Word being taken for the Son of God is said according to his Divinity to be in the beginning absolutely without any limitation when things first leaped out of nothing and saith St. John the word was with God Socinus expound's this thus hâ—c est that is Jesus as he was the word of God before he was manifested by the preaching of the Baptist Soli Deo notus erat was onely known to God marke this word onely Therefore Valentinus Smalcius was very much to blame when in the third part of Smiglecius cap. 26. pag. 234. editione Racov. 1613. he saith in expresse termes that Socinus doth not adde Deo soli known to God onely but to God and not to men I shall endeavour to confute both what Socinus and what he saith they both agree and so doth Valkelius and the rest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as to be seen or known of God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render with signifye's to be discerned but they are not so elegantly expresse as they were before to tell us by what figure but they insist much upon the negative part first that Christ was not known by any but God before St. John's preaching known he was but not to be the word I have shewed that he was not the word in their sense before he was preached but that they may have all the Scope that may be he was not known that he should be the Word before but onely to God suppose I granted all this would it follow that to be with God is to be known of God it can hardly be deduced for then to be with God should signifie nothing but the common condition which bring 's to all things past present and to come for all are known of him but they seeme to parallel this with the first Epistle of this Evangelist Chap. 1.2 where he speaking of eternall life which was with the Father and was manifested to us there the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used as if it were say they was manifest to the Father take Socinus his own words Quod perinde est which is as much as if he should say we declare to you eternall Life which before this no man knâ—w because it was only known to God who had decreed to give it you this is in his fifteenth page for understanding which place we may observe that it is true that this eternal word of God which is mentioned in St. Johns Gospell was hid with God from all bodily eyes untill the manifestation of it by the incarnation and nativity of our Saviour and that because he was with God in the bosome of the Father as it is expressed John 1.18 but after the birth of Christ in that personall union it was seen and heard as the first verse of this first chap. of his first Epistle expresseth it but in relation to their sense give me leave to expound that second verse of the first chap. of the first Epistle of St. John so much of it as concerne's our businesse which is thus much we declare to you eternall life which was with the Father and is now manifested to us this eternall happy being which we hope to enjoy hereafter so much I find consented unto now saith Socinus this Life was only known to God for was with the Father must be so understood by them I deny this for without doubt the Angels know it which then enjoyed it and those blessed Souls which were admitted into Abraham's bosome the Prophets saw it and taught this eternall Life many Philosophers knew it as I have shewed you and could produce Twenty more if it were needfull nor as they answer concerning the word can they say they did not know the quale or the quantum the quality or the quantity of it for they did know the quality to consist in the beatifical vision they did know the quantity that it was eternall so that then this phrase which was with God cannot be understood of being known to him by being decreed such so that this phrase may if not must thus be expounded in the latter part of the preceding verse the Apostle call's our Saviour the word of life we shall find in the fourth verse of the first chap. of his Gospel in him the word was life in this fiâ—st verse and the words this is applyed to the word was with God this life then must needs be with him because in the word which was with him not onely because known by him but then when our Saviour had divulged the Gospell then this life which was in the word with the Father was manifested to us that is divulged not onely to Prophets by revelation or Philosophers and Wise men by reason and contemplation but even to us men who cannot soare in so high Speculations with our discourse to apprehend it by faith and not only so but to apprehend the way of getting it by the merits of Jesus Christ so that then the Socinian glosse upon