Prophet has spoken it out of the pride of his own heart fear him not But a man may here again ask When the Prophet hath foretold a thing how shal we know whether it will come to passe or not For he may foretel it as a thing to arrive after a certain long time longer then the time of mans life or indefinitely that it will come to passe one time or other in which case this mark of a Prophet is unusefull and therefore the miracles that oblige us to beleeve a Prophet ought to be confirmed by an immediate or a not long deferr'd event So that it is manifest that the teaching of the Religion which God hath established and the shewing of a pâ—…esent Miracle joined together were the only marks whereby the Scripture would have a true Prophet that is to say immediate Revelation to be acknowledged neither of them being singly sufficient to oblige any other man to regard what he saith Seeing therefore Miracles now cease we have no sign left whereby to acknowledge the pretended Revelations or Inspirations of any private man nor obligation to give ear to any Doctrine farther than it is conformable to the Holy Scriptures which since the time of our Saviour supply the place and sufficiently recompense the want of all other Prophecy and from which by wise and learned interpretation and carefull ratiocination all rules and precepts necessary to the knowledge of our duty both to God and man without Enthusiasme or supernaturall Inspiration may easily be deduced And this Scripture is it out of which I am to take the Principles of my Discourse concerning the Rights of those that are the Supream Governors on earth of Christian Common-wealths and of the duty of Christian Subjects towards their Soveraigns And to that end I shall speak in the next Chapter of the Books Writers Scope and Authority of the Bible CHAP. XXXIII Of the Number Antiquity Scope Authority and Interpreters of the Books of Holy SCRIPTURE BY the Books of Holy SCRIPTURE are understood those which ought to be the Canon that is to say the Rules of Christian life And because all Rules of life which men are in conscience bound to observe are Laws the question of the Scripture is the question of what is Law throughout all Christendome both Naturall and Civill For though it be not determined in Scripture what Laws every Christian King shall constitute in his own Dominions yet it is determined what laws he shall not constitute Seeing therefore I have already proved that Soveraigns in their own Dominions are the sole Legislators those Books only are Canonicall that is Law in every nation which are established for such by the Soveraign Authority It is true that God is the Soveraign of all Soveraigns and therefore when he speaks to any Subject he ought to be obeyed whatsoever any earthly Potentate command to the contrary But the question is not of obedience to God but of when and what God hath said which to Subjects that have no supernaturall revelation cannot be known but by that naturall reason which guided them for the obtaining of Peace and Justice to obey the authority of their severall Common-wealths that is to say of their lawfull Soveraigns According to this obligation I can acknowledge no other Books of the Old Testament to be Holy Scripture but those which have been commanded to be acknowledged for such by the Authority of the Church of England What Books these are is sufficiently known without a Catalogue of them here and they are the same that are acknowledged by St. Ierome who holdeth the rest namely the Wisdome of Solomon Ecclesiasticus Iudith Tobias the first and the second of Maccabees though he had seen the first in Hebrew and the third and fourth of Esdras for Apocrypha Of the Canonicall Iosephus a learned Iew that wrote in the time of the Emperour Domitian reckoneth twenty two making the number agree with the Hebrew Alphabet St. Ierome does the same though they reckon them in different manner For Iosephus numbers five Books of Moses thirteen of Prophets that writ the History of their own times which how it agrees with the Prophets writings contained in the Bible wee shall see hereafter and four of Hymnes and Morall Precepts But St. Ierome reckons five Books of Moses eight of Prophets and nine of other Holy writ which he calls of Hagiographa The Septuagint who were 70. learned men of the Iews sent for by Ptoiemy King of Egypt to translate the Iewish law out of the Hebrew into the Greek have left us no other for holy Scripture in the Greek tongue but the same that are received in the Church of England As for the Books of the New Testament they are equally acknowledged for Canon by all Christian Churches and by all Sects of Christians that admit any Books at all for Canonicall Who were the originall writers of the severall Books of Holy Scripture has not been made evident by any sufficient testimony of other History which is the only proof of matter of fact nor can be by any arguments of naturall Reason for Reason serves only to convince the truth not of fact but of consequence The light therefore that must guide us in this question must be that which is held out unto us from the Bookes themselves And this light though it shew us not the writer of every book yet it is not unusefull to give us knowledge of the time wherein they were written And first for the Pentateuch it is not argument enough that they were written by Moses because they are called the five Books of Moses no more than these titles The Book of Ioshua the Book of Iudges the Book of Ruth and the Books of the Kings are arguments sufficient to prove that they were written by Ioshua by the Iudges by Ruth and by the Kings For in titles of Books the subject is marked as often as the writer The History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Scanderbeg is denominated from the subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomie ver 6. concerning the sepulcher of Moses that no man knoweth of his sepulcher â—…o this day that is to the day wherein those words were written It is therefore manifest that those words were written after his interrement For it were a strange interpretation to say Moses spake of his own sepulcher though by Prophesie that it was not found to that day wherein he was yet living But it may perhaps be alledged that the last Chapter only not the whole Penâ—… was written by some other man but the rest not Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis chap. 12. ver 6. And Abraham passed through the land to the place of Sichem unto the plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the land which must needs bee the words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the land and consequently not of
of the resolution of the same into its first seeds or principles which are only an opinion of a Deity and Powers invisible and supernaturall that can never be so abolished out of humane nature but that new Religions may againe be made to spring out of them by the culture of such men as for such purpose are in reputation For seeing all formed Religion is founded at first upon the faith which a multitude hath in some one person whom they believe not only to be a wise man and to labouâ—… to procure their happiness but also to be a holy man to whom God himselfe vouchsafeth to declare his will supernaturally It followeth necessarily when they that have the Government of Religion shall come to have either the wisedome of those men their sincerity or their love suspected or that they shall be unable to shew any probable token of Divine Revelation that the Religion which they desire to uphold must be suspected likewise and without the feare of the Civill Sword contradicted and rejected That which taketh away the reputation of Wisedome in him that formeth a Religion or addeth to it when it is allready formed is the enjoyning of a beliefe of contradictories For both parts of a contradiction cannot possibly be true and therefore to enjoyne the beleife of them is an argument of ignorance which detects the Author in that and discredits him in all things else he shall propound as from revelation supernaturall which revelation a man may indeed have of many things above but of nothing against naturall reason That which taketh away the reputation of Sincerity is the doing or saying of such things as appeare to be signes that what they require other men to believe is not believed by themselves all which doings or sayings are therefore called Scandalous because they be stumbling blocks that make men to fall in the way of Religion as Injustice Cruelty Prophanesse Avarice and Luxury For who can believe that he that doth ordinarily such actions as proceed from any of these rootes believeth there is any such Invisible Power to be feared as he affrighteth other men withall for lesser faults That which taketh away the reputation of Love is the being detected of private ends as when the beliefe they require of others conduceth or seemeth to conduce to the acquiring of Dominion Riches Dignity or secure Pleasure to themselves onely or specially For that which men reap benefit by to themselves they are thought to do for their own sakes and not for love of others Lastly the testimony that men can render of divine Calling can be no other than the operation of Miracles or true Prophecy which also is a Miracle or extraordinary Felicity And therefore to those points of Religion which have been received from them that did such Miracles those that are added by such as approve not their Calling by some Miracle obtain no greater beliefe than what the Custome and Lawes of the places in which they be educated have wrought into them For as in naturall things men of judgement require naturall signes and arguments so in supernaturall things they require signes supernaturall which are Miracles before they consent inwardly and from their hearts All which causes of the weakening of mens faith do manifestly appear in the Examples following First we have the Example of the children of Israel who when Moses that had approved his Calling to them by Miracles and by the happy conduct of them out of Egypt was absent but 40. dayes revolted from the worship of the true God recommended to them by him and setting up a Golden Calfe for their God relapsed into the Idolatry of the Egyptians from whom they had been so lately delivered And again after Moses Aaron Joshua and that generation which had seen the great works of God in Israel were dead another generation arose and served Baal So that Miracles fayling Faith also failed Again when the sons of Samuel being constituted by their father Judges in Bersabee received bribes and judged unjustly the people of Israel refused any more to have God to be their King in other manner than he was King of other people and therefore cryed out to Samuel to choose them a King after the manner of the Nations So that Justice fayling Faith also fayled Insomuch as they deposed their God from reigning over them And whereas in the planting of Christian Religion the Oracles ceased in all parts of the Roman Empire and the number of Christians encreased wonderfully every day and in every place by the preaching of the Apostles and Evangelists a great part of that successe may reasonably be attributed to the contempt into which the Priests of the Gentiles of that time had brought themselves by their uncleannesse avarice and jugling between Princes Also the Religion of the Church of Rome was partly for the same cause abolished in England and many other parts of Christendome insomuch as the fayling of Vertue in the Pastors maketh Faith faile in the People and partly from bringing of the Philosophy and doctrine of Aristotle into Religion by the Schoole-men from whence there arose so many contradictions and absurdities as brought the Clergy into a reputation both of Ignorance and of Fraudulent intention and enclined people to revolt from them either against the will of their own Princes as in France and Holland or with their will as in England Lastly amongst the points by the Church of Rome declared necessary for Salvation there be so many manifestly to the advantage of the Pope and of his spirituall subjects residing in the territories of other Christian Princes that were it not for the mutuall emulation of those Princes they might without warre or trouble exclude all forraign Authority as easily as it has been excluded in England For who is there that does not see to whose benefit it conduceth to have it believed that a King hath not his Authority from Christ unlesse a Bishop crown him That a King if he be a Priest cannot Marry That whether a Prince be born in lawfull Marriage or not must be judged by Authority from Rome That Subjects may be freed from their Alleageance if by the Court of Rome the King be judged an Heretique That a King as Chilperique of France may be deposed by a Pope as Pope Zachary for no cause and his Kingdome given to one of his Subjects That the Clergy and Regulars in what Country soever shall be exempt from the Jurisdiction of their King in cases criminall Or who does not see to whose profit redound the Fees of private Masses and Vales of Purgatory with other signes of private interest enough to mortifie the most lively Faith if as I sayd the civill Magistrate and Custome did not more sustain it than any opinion they have of the Sanctity Wisdome or Probity of their Teachers So that I may attribute all the changes of Religion in the world to one and the same cause and
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