be esteemed as the greatest goddess and that the greatest power ought to be ascribed to her overcoming and triumphing over all the oppositions of Men and verisimilitudes Nor can any reason be given that Polybius Livy Plutarch c. did either write such Histories or that such Histories written by them were truer then those which are lost and rejected by Men but only a kind of divine ayre informing Men of their truth whereas those books which are falsely and factiously written are exploded and neglected in a very short time and yet whether they were truly or falsely written few or no Men can judge from any thing known to the outward sence I say few or no Man can so judge of them for in that time when they were written there were many more false and factious Historians to delude Men then true and just to inform them Nor can Men in subsequent generations from any thing in their outward sences judge or discern whether any thing they record be true or false Nay further no Historian except Caesar and Xenophon and some very few others who recorded infinitely more things not known then known to them to be true did ever know whether what he recorded were true or not To evidence this yet more fully there was scarcely except Caesars Xenophons ever any History truly written in those times wherein the things were done that men might take information from their outward senses but Men were so carried by Faction or Interest that in recording of things they record things not as true or false but as advancing their Faction and Interest whereas Men in the subsequent generation not having those Passions and Appetitions nor any sense of these things subjecting all their Passions and Affections as it were assisted by a divine Election do make Election of those things which are true and reject others which the Malice or Faction of Men had imposed upon the World And a Man is as certain that there have been such Men as Caesar Hanibal Alexander c. and as assured of their Actions as if he had seen them 46. Since all things which proceed from God immediately and for Faith is an extraordinary Gift of God which no reason can be given by any Creature may be justly required for principles by intellectual and reasonable Creatures and since the Scriptures proceed immediately from God or they could not be the Word of God are therefore the principles of Faith And since there is nothing within man naturally which may assure him that those things revealed in Scripture were Gods Revelation it does necessarily follow That Faith or the Belief of God in the Scriptures is Gods gift supernaturally and extraordinarily Nor can all the Arguments of Tradition Church Excellency of stile Truth c. move one stone to the proof of them For they were the Word of God before any Church or Tradition c. was And if they had not been the Word of God before the Church received them and delivered them to posterity their Reception and Tradition could never have made them so Besides the Church having its being from the Scriptures it can never prove the cause of its being And what was it less then the power and grace of God extraordinarily given to Moses That the Bush burned and was not consumed And of all the miracles done by him and the other Prophets and more then those done by our Saviour and the Apostles and blessed Martyrs since And that by the Preaching of a few Fishermen against all the Temporal Powers in the World Christianity should be propagated generally over the face of the Earth and that I without any thing in me or desert of mine am baptised into this Faith And he that shall dispute the truth of the grace and power of God in the Old and New Testament and since recorded in Ecclesiastical and Prophane History ought as much to be confuted with clubs and hissing as he that denies or disputes his Principles in any Art or Science 47. All Principles are true or false just or unjust good or bad either All Principles are prime and necessary either necessitate absoluta or necessitate medii necessitate absoluta or necessitate medii Principles that are true or false necessitate absoluta are so that they are immutable by God himself as that two and two added should not make four or that things equal to the same thing should not be equal to one another or that any being should be superior to the cause of its being or that contradictions should be true or else true or false good or bad just or unjust necessitate ex hypothesi And these though they are necessary and principles to those to whom they are given and immutable by them yet are they not principles and necessary to them who made and gave them As the Laws of Nature and Gods revealing himself in the Scriptures are principles necessary and immutable by all the Men in the World yet are they not principles necessary or immutable by God but he might if it had pleased him made something else the Law of Nature or otherwise revealed himself in the Scriptures So Humane Laws must be prime necessary and immutable by Subjects or their conforming or not conforming their actions to them could not be just or unjust But they cannot be prime and necessary or immutable by the Legislator but as he sees occasion may alter or make something else which was not before Laws for the Subjects to conform and direct their actions to It is therefore absurd and wilde to suppose that the Law of Nature is Annotat. simply necessary and immutable by God or that the will of Men can make it mutable 48. All Science all Learning all Reasoning and all Conclusions by Contra negantes Principia non est disputandum the Authority of Aristotle is begotten from pre-existent principles for which no reason can be given by the Learner which being granted do nemonstrate the Conclusion but by the Authority of Aristotle and all Philosophers no Science or Conclusion can demonstrate the Principles Where therefore either by a defect in the Understanding Men cannot or by a stubbornness in the Will they will not apprehend Principles there all Reasoning Learning or Discourse is at an end If therefore I would learn a Man Geometry and he either cannot or will not apprehend the Axioms or common Notions of it it is impossible I should ever make him understand the constitution of an equilateral Triangle Or if a Man denies the Laws of my Countrey I cannot teach him whether such an action be just or unjust Or if a Man denies the Law of Nature I cannot prove that he ought to honor and obey his Superior and to deal justly and uprightly with all Men Or if a Man denies or disputes the Authority of the Scriptures there cannot be any Conclusion or Inference from them whether as Christians any thing ought to be or not to be done or believed
any other way then by the established and received Laws of the Nation where mens vices and depraved manners do not require new ones I designe no more then to demonstrate that it was not your Majesties Father's and your own adherence to the established Laws but the iniquity of the times which made him a Victim and your Sacred self an Exile Nay in reason as well as justice it had been a most imprudent thing in either of your Majesties to have given up the Laws to the arbitrary lusts of your Adversaries or any one Faction For should either of your Majesties have indifferently renounced the Laws to your Adversaries being compounded of such different and contrary humors and affections then there was no visible means under Heaven to have cemented them and by consequence your Adversaries hostility and confusion continued and your own conditions no ways bettered or secured Or should either of your Majesties have renounced the Laws to have advanced any one Faction so above the rest and all your loyal Subjects that their arbitrary wills and lusts should have been the laws of all the rest and your other Subjects also yet should you not only have failed to have contented that Faction it being the nature of Faction never to bear any grateful acknowledgment for benefits received but on the contrary always abuse them to their prejudice from whom they received them and never rest until they have made themselves all and their Benefactors nothing at all or vile and miserable but have animated all the other Factions against your Majesties and it To the fulfilling of all singular and glorious Virtues in Your Sacred person is added Your being a Christian King and a Nursing Father of the Church of Christ and as if immediately sent from Heaven to cure and repair the wounds of this most miserably distracted Church although Your Majesty is descended from innumerable Royal Ancestors who have been Nursing Fathers of Christs Church yet are you not derived from any who have had the least hand in the late Sacrilege thereof And though Sir You are and ought to be a Nursing Father of Gods Church and a Patron and Defence against her ravenous and devouring Adversaries yet none of mortal men have been more Religious Sons of the Church then Your Majesty and Your Saintlike Father How unequal and how unjust then have been the sufferings of Princes so just so religious caused by Christians Your natural Subjects and these pretending Conscience whereas no School teaches men a better lesson of obedience to Princes then the Christian faith whenas the first principle or foundation of Subjects obedience to rightful Princes is founded in the Law of Nature however popular Orators and Atheists have against all sense reason nature and all authorities of sacred and profane History resolved it into the pacts and wills of men And conscience always supposes some superior law informing men to do or not do a thing or suffer when any subordinate power commands contrary to it whereas Your persecutors pretending concience trod underfoot whatsoever might be called sacred to the attaining their seditious and sacrilegious ends That God in his providence doth often permit the good and just to suffer persecution is evidently seen in all ages and places But in reason and prudence neither Your Majesties Father's nor Your own adherence to the established Government of the Church and the Rites Liturgy and Means thereof in Your adversities when they were so zealously persecuted by its and Your adversaries could be any cause thereof Neither would the desertion of it have any ways conduced to either of Your Majesties advantage for should either of Your Majesties have renounced the Church and rites thereof so as to have been a Christian King of such Miscreants who besides that they would not be of any Christian Church or society had by undue ways devoured the patrimony of the Church yet no man in his right wits could have imagined such men would long have been governed in peace or that all other men of their factions would have been content who had not made a prey thereof and there was not sufficient to content all nor indeed any at all or that the canine appetites of those men who had devoured the lands of the Church would not also have hungred after those of the Crown Or should Your Majesty have advanced any one Faction so above the rest that it should not only have tyrannized over the rest of the Factions but also Your Majesty and the rest of Your subjects yet could it not in reason have been expected that this Faction who by all Divine and Humane laws were subject to a Government founded upon our Saviour and his Apostles and by a continued series dispersed over the face of Christianity until of late it became violated in some places of Europe by seditious and sacrilegious men should so unjustly cast off their obedience so rightfully due and yet expect that their wills and lusts should long be received for Laws by the rest of the Factions and all other of their fellow-subjects But certainly Your constant adherence to the Church did proceed from the power and grace of God in You before any prudential or moral cause Notwithstanding that your Majesty is so constant a Preserver of Christs Church and Propagator of Christian religion and that your own conscience hath been so often attempted to be violated by men of none at all indeed yet so tender is your Maiesty of other mens that you will not force the conscience of any of your subjects pretending it A strange condescension any one will judge who considers the parties granting and expecting For should your Majesty command your Subjects any thing in derogation to the Majesty of God or forbid them the worship and service of God your Subjects might then justly plead conscience because the duty and allegiance which they owe to God is in the first place to be paid by all his creatures Or should your Majesty command any thing which were immoral or unjust as that your Subjects should dishonor your Majesty or their Parents c. they might justly plead conscience because that for Subjects to honor their King and children their Parents is founded in Nature and is a Law of God engraven in the minds of all mortal men or should your Majesty have lived in the Primeve times of Christianity when men by the light of Humane Nature apprehending a Deity to be publickly Worshipped and Served yet being ignorant of the manner misplaced it in Osyris Isis Iupiter Apollo an Oak c. then to have compelled them to have Worshipped God after the manner of Christians had been unconscionable and unchristian because they paid an acknowledgement of that Worship due to God by Nature and could not by Nature apprehend this but must wait upon God until that by the ordinary means of the Church or supernaturally inspired by God they should be converted thereunto Or should your Majesty command any thing
established several Laws for manners and by them have been often altered but that there is no such thing as the Law of Nature and that all men as well as other creatures are naturally carried to their profits And so there is no such thing as Justice or if there were it were the greatest folly because men by endeavoring the good of others prejudice themselves Since the Grecians and Romans were the first who in the world did make all power to be from the People I suppose that Mr. Hobbs and Grotius took their Principles from them Let us see whether by the People they understand the same thing with the Romans and Grecians or the same thing with one another By the People of Rome or Athens the Romans and Athenians understood them and them only who were civitate donati and not men born in a promiscuous rout and parity without all order and subordination but made so by violent usurpation By the People Mr. Hobbs understands the King or Court governing By the People Grotius every where I believe for he no where that I can find defines the People understands the Subjects governed and they who in a parity or equal condition constituted the Civitas Upon these and many other considerations and observations upon them I was so far from being convinc'd that I became much more firmly established then before in my Judgment for Opinion I will not have of those things wherein I am possest of the constant practice of the world in all ages places the plain undubitable and uncontrolled places of Scripture both in the Old and New Testament and no colour of allegation against them from any other places the Authority of the highest Philosopher my Country-Laws and all those Theses and Axiomes upon which almost all Reason and Philosophy are grounded and these things opposed by such monstrous feigned equivocal and silly beggings of the question which no man not blinded with faction or stupid ignorance can grant yet had not these Observations become publique if it had not been upon an odd occasion which was Upon a time being with a Brother-in-law a Kinsman of mine at dinner came to my Brothers where in discourse he asked me if I had seen a Book of Tho. Whites called The Grounds of Obedience and Government I answered no nor did I desire to see any thing of his doing having conceived a prejudice of the Mans ability and ingenuity He confidently replied that I should be convinced if I did but read it and that he would send me the book Yet was I so far from accepting his courtesie that I importunately desired him not to do it But he notwithstanding all importunity on purpose sent his man with it that night to me being at that time much afflicted with my wonted Melancholy which became more excited when I had read some part of it And seeing a thing so sensless and void of all humanity to be imposed upon the world which questionless was intended to prefer some Faction or Interest of his and yet forsooth he tells us it is a second Edition corrected and amended by the Author wheresoever therefore I name our Author I mean Tho. White Gent. I did in detestation of the Thing not of the Man for I never saw him in all my life set my self to make these Observations upon it He harps upon the same string with Mr. Hobbs and Grotius That all Supreme Power is originally created by Mens wills subject to it Yet being a fine Gentleman in quirpo he dances a Galliard by himself and most senselesly makes men out of society to be a Rational multitude and to have Property before they had Laws or Government and to be a People after they had given up their power to another to govern them But lest it should be objected that though our Author be hood-winked yet Mr. Hobbs and Grotius might be very clear-sighted and bare-faced I thought it not amiss to make these Observations upon them also As a Preparative to a Purge I pray Reader take these few Notes 1. First I say they falsly derive Government For though they all differ in the manner of it yet is all Government so far from being so derived as any of them would have it in the first Institution that if any of them can shew any one Government so derived since the beginning of the world I will yeeld the cause 2. They feign that for a Principle which never was viz. That men by nature are in a parity or equal condition For never were men since the Creation in any age or place of the world in such a condition But suppose somewhere in the world it might have been found that men in a like condition did by their acts and wills form themselves into a Society yet is it a most unreasonable thing to conclude from thence that all power in Government is from the People For Singulars are deduced and concluded from Universals not Universals by Singulars 3. The Principle they beg is destructive to all good manners for Justice is the fountain of all humane Virtues and Morality as all Philosophers and best and wisest men hold And if Justice be the duty which men owe their Superiors and that it may be truly and ultimately resolved into the first cause without any detriment or damage to it and if all order superiority and power in Government may truly and ultimately be resolved into the People or the wills of the Subjects or Party governed then the wills of the Subjects being the fountain and first cause of all Order and Justice that is Justice in the People to do what they list then which nothing can be more destructive to all Virtue Justice and Good manners 4. It is damnably destructive to Faith for All powers are of God Rom. 13. and No power can be given but from above S. John 19. 11. Nor were these Men when they wrote their several Treatises De Cive De Jure Belli Pacis and Grounds of Obedience and Government much better in their Religion if I conceive a right Notion of Religion viz. That it is Actus Divini cultus or the Publick worship and service of God in an unity form and communion then their Writings shew them to be for Justice and Government For though our Author be a Pretender to be of the Religion of the Church of Rome yet it would trouble the greatest Critique of this Age to shew where the Religion of either of the other were to be found And who but such men as these would pin their faith upon the tales and fictions of Poets before the most venerable and sacred Authority of Holy Scripture Nor can the eldest of Poets writings be compared in antiquity with the Scriptures For if it could Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae And the Theban and Trojan War hapned after the Year of the World 2750. The Trojan War about the time
must be reduceable to some one certain principle or they are irregular or commotions If then Christian Princes have not a right of calling Assemblies but others as well as they then must it either necessarily follow that Christian Princes have not power sufficient to govern and protect their Subjects and that their Subjects motions cannot be regular and orderly but confounded and irregular and so the law of nature and the end for which God ordained Princes inverted For my part I will not dispute the Power of God in the planting of the Church either under the old or new Law how that he did dispence with the actions and motions of his People and Ministers and set Father against Son c. and that to make his Power known he would plant his Church notwithstanding all Temporal Powers whatsoever but this I do affirm that God after the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt did give to Moses only this right of calling Assemblies as appears clearly by Numb 10. 2. for only to him is the charge of making the Trumpets to call the congregation together It is true that vers 8. the sons of Aaron shall blow with their Trumpets but neither Aaron nor the Priests had any Power to make them but only Moses they must therefore have them from him and be his Instruments and this Power was given to Moses as the supreme Magistrate and not as High Priest for Aaron was then High Priest being before consecrated Levit. 8. Nor was this Right given personally to Moses but as a Law to last for ever If any allegation be made against Moses because he was a Priest it must cease with Ioshua and the Kings after him who were none for Ioshua by virtue of this ever lasting Law did call an Assembly of all the Tribes and therefore of Levi to Sichem and vers 28. dissolved it After him did David Joshua 24. 18. 1 Chro. 15. 4. 11. call the High Priest and other Priests not to consult of any secular affair but about the removing the Ark and afterward 1 Chron. 23. 2. he gathered together all the Lords of Israel with the Priests and Levites and as he called them together so his dismissed them 1 Chron. 16. 43. The like did Solomon when the Temple was dedicated called the Assembly 2 Chron 5. 2. dissolved it cap. 7. 10. The like did Asa when Religion was restored and a solemn Oath of association for the restoring of it Jehosophat did it when 1 Chro. 15. 2 King 10. 20. 2 Chro. 34. 29 30. 2 Chro. 29. he proclaimed a publick Fast 2 Chron. 20. 3. Jehu assembled them when a solemn Sacrifice was to be performed Joash in a case of Dilapidations Josias when the Temple was to be purified and a mass of superstition to be removed Hezekiah made a law for the Priests and all their brethren to assemble and in conformity to that law they did assemble nor was this v. 15. Assembly for any other thing then to cleanse the house of God and for the affairs of the service of God being things meerly spiritual And since that God hath promised that Kings shall be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to his Church it must be meant of Christian Kings for this could not be of Josias because he was a King at the time of this prophecy or before it could not therefore be meant of him for the prophecy is de futuro Kings shall be c. Nor could it be meant of the Kings of Judah after him for they were all Idolaters and persecutors of Gods Church It was therefore meant of Christian Kings And how Kings can be Kings or Supreme powers without this right I do not understand Nor can that saying of our Saviour's causing of wars and distraction be otherwise reasonably understood but only where Kings and Supreme powers have not received the Faith And that Christian Kings did generally exercise this power after they became Christians we shall shew hereafter 10. He is a rightful Supreme Governor who is a Sword-bearer that is Who is arightful Supreme Governor whom God hath chosen to be his Minister who hath not taken the sword excited thereunto neither from any ambitious or spightful passion or affection either of himself or other men That may make and abrogate Laws determine all Controversies by himself or such Judges as he shall appoint choose Magistrates and Councellors and in whom is the power of making War and Peace Nor did God give Kings to them only over whom he did reign by Covenant but also to Heathens who had not known him as to the Persians Syrians Assyrians c. he gave Cyrus Hazael Nebuchadnezzar c. And all antique History speaks only of the Government by Kings as Justin says Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes Reges erat before any other Government was usurped and made by Men. 11. He is a Tyrant who is a Sword-taker who in stead of executing Who is a Tyrant the wrath of God upon offenders against all Law kills and murders them who are not of his own faction who hath no power from God but only force from the wills of inconstant and seditious men As Hos 8. 4. says They have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not Nor is it the Command of One which makes Tyranny The Grecians themselves called the Council of the Thirty after the Athenians were subdued by the Lacedemonians the Thirty Tyrants of Athens I am confident there was never any thing so wildly and variously Annot. 1. ghessed at as the manner how Dominion and Power came into the world by those men who derive all power from the People originally Bodin cap. 6. de Rep. p. 46. makes all Dominion to be gotten at first by force and pag. 46. d. he says It is very like that without greatest force and breaking down the Laws of Nature Liberty could not be taken away And many men will not distinguish between Force and Power but only in the possession And sure Athaliah was as much possessed of the Crown of Judah and as quietly as any King before or after her for six years and yet I do not find Jehojadah or the people reprehended for restoring Joash And the children of Israel did not rebel while they could quietly place 2 Chro. 13. 7. Jeroboam over them but Jeroboam was declared a Rebel after he was possessed 12. When they over whom God hath given power shall submit themselves What is a rightful Government to that power this is a rightful Government When all who owe their subjection shall accept and receive the Laws of him who by Right that is by Birth Revelation Lot First possession or just Conquest ought to command As the Children of Israel answered Joshua All that thou commandest we will do and whithersoever thou sendest we will go According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things so will we
Temporal Dominions and therefore may punish disturbers of the peace of the Church as well as the State Yet when the Temporal Magistrate shall arrogate to himself a power which our Saviour only left to his Church and make all Ecclesiastical rights and constitutions depending and subordinate to the Civil whereby the Enemies of our Church have taxed our Religion not for Christian but Parliamentary no doubt but it is a crying sin and I wish there had never been any such thing among us 19. And as God is to be obeyed before men in all things which concern Or the Laws of Nature Faith and Religion so in the observance of the Laws of Nature is God to be obeyed before men As if a King commands me to dishonor my parents this can be but a Humane law but to honor my parents is a law which God hath written in my heart and therefore ought to be preferred If a King commands his Subjects to dishonor him or to deny obedience to him this is but a Humane law whereas by the law of Nature I ought to honor and obey my King I therefore ought not to obey such a law Amurath the Second of that name King of the Turks upon a Vow resigned his Kingdom to his son Mahomet yet upon the League made by Uladislaus King of Pole and Hungary with other Christian Princes against him he resumed his Regal authority and so kept it until his death And so might Charls the Fifth if he had pleased nor was Philip any other then an Instrument of his Fathers during his Fathers life The King makes a Law giving the succession of the Crown from the right Heir This ought not to be received for Princes inherit by a higher Law then Humane 20. The King commands a Judge to pervert Judgment the Judge Or to pervert Judgment ought to give true Judgment for all Humane Laws in peaceable times ought to be â priori and proclaimed that all men after such a time should observe them This verbal command of the King wanting this formality and it being impossible for the Judge to observe both these commands he ought notwithstanding this verbal command to give Judgment according to Law The King when there is no necessity or publick danger commands me Quaere who am no publick Executioner without any Judicial sentence to put a man to death for which he can make no compensation As Davids commanding Joab to murder Uriah although we find David only reprehended and punished therefore yet sure if Joab had not fulfilled Davids wicked command he had not sinned But you may object Who shall judge whether this thing commanded be repugnant to Gods Majesty Mans faith Religion or the Law of Nature the King or the Subject I say though the Subject hath not an equal right of judging with the King whether this thing should be a Law or not yet every Subject hath a Conscience as well as the King which must dictate Whether Kings divest themselves of Regality by commanding what they ought not to him whether he ought to do or not to do such a thing 21. But if the King commands things contrary to Gods Majesty and Divine Laws ought he not to be obeyed in those things which do not contradict them It is so mad and wild an objection as it is scarce worth an answering unless a man will affirm that my doing of an act which I ought not to have done does divest me of Humane nature or that a Fathers or Masters commanding his Son or Servant what he ought not doth annihilate the relations of Father and Son Master and Servant or that Humane acts may dissolve Humane relations A Prince therefore ought to be obeyed in those things which he ought to command as Prince although he command such things as he ought not 22. It may be it will be objected That Temporal punishments being Though inflicting punishment for not observance the usual concomitants for not observing Humane Laws a good and conscientious man may be punished for what he ought not to have done I say his case is the same with his Lords and Saviours and all those blessed and glorious primitive Christians and Martyrs who suffered for the testimony of a good conscience Nor hath God made Heaven so easie a prize that it should be always won easily and delicately but many times by suffering and martyrdom 23. It is the most usual thing with seditious men before they enter Whether Princes ought to be resisted where they are not to be obeyed into open sedition to prepare mens mindes with certain Cases wherein Princes commanding things derogatory to Gods Honor or the Subjects Liberty that then in the preservation of themselves and Gods honor they ought to defend themselves from the raging Tyrannie of Princes and to be sure that whatsoever they command these good men will judge contrary to Gods Honor and the Liberty of the Subject It is worth the while if a mans patience will give him leave to look back upon the thing calling it self Parliament how after they had made the King grant whatsoever they could think might be beneficial to the Subjects though I might be sworne they never intended as plainly appeared afterward the good benefit or liberty of the Subject what pious ways they invented to make themselves great and so good a Prince nothing and odious to his Subjects As the demanding of six men holding intelligence with his Subjects who had been in open hostility and rebellion against him an affront not to be endured by any King to an ordinary and Legal Trial this was not only denied but Voted a Breach of the Priviledge of Parliament whenas the Priviledge of Parliament extends not to so much as breach of the Peace much less to Treason They pretend though most falsly that in case of extreme danger and necessity the Militia is in the Parliament meaning themselves excluding the King And then create Dangers and write Letters how great Fleets of Danes Swedes Hollanders c. were seen at Sea It must be from Westminster then for there were the Letters written and the Fleets never since heard of Then permit if not command the most insufferable affronts and indignities that ever were offered to Majesty yet if the King but offers to increase his Guard this is Voted no less then a raising of War against his Parliament and Subjects whilst all the while against the Lex consuetudo Parliamenti Inst par 4. 14. without any cause moving them they maintain an illegal Rout of men for their Guard and go armed themselves Nay what needs a man instance particulars All the Kings commands in prosecution of the Laws were Voted breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject We will therefore shew that this Assertion is not only contrary to all Faith in both Testaments but also destructive to all Humane Society 24. There is no man sure will deny but
done in Church is against conscience no minding of what is their duty all their talk is judging their superiors and this buzzed into the heads of light and inconstant men begets all the talk of the Country and is beleeved with the same Faith they beleeve the Gospel or their Creed and if Authority shall endeavor to suppress the further growth of such seditious practice by punishing the Authors it will be deemed by the well-affected no less then an invasion upon the liberty of the subject and persecution of the Gospel 6. If Lex lata had any obligation upon the Legislator then were the Creature subject to the Creator and the Father obliged to what he commands That supream Princes are obliged by their own Laws is a seditious opinion his Son and the Master to what he bids his Servant and God to what he commands Man which is absurd nor is it less absurd that the supreme power should be obliged by the Laws given to Subjects They who assert that supream Princes are obliged by their own Laws should do well to make their Children shooes and cloathes to serve them when they are men For as mens vices and manners vary so must humane Laws But men neither consider themselves nor Princes in asserting this For Princes are in a more vile condition then the poorest man not to have the freedom of will and they themselves are left to the rigor of the Law without hope of mercy How can any man accuse Hen. 7. for his rigid exacting the penal laws when by this opinion he had not power to remit any thing of them And why do men tax H. 8. for a cruel man and a Tyrant because he put so many men to death for not acknowledging his headship of the Church the not subscribing the six Articles c. if he were obliged by his own Laws Nay they do not allow Queen Mary a power to releive any Protestant given over to the secular power by Bishop Bonner From this very opinion sprang all the miseries for these last 18 years Scots had liberty to invade us but the King was obliged by his own Laws not to relieve his oppressed and afflicted Subjects This was that which gave the Turks first entrance into Christendom for while the wrangling Grecians not content with their rightful Emperors place usurpers in their rooms who to gratifie them again and to strengthen themselves against the right heirs care not what they grant their well-affected Subjects which so weakned the power of the Grecians that contesting with their Emperors about their liberties and priviledges which their usurping Emperors had granted them and neglecting their common and at first despised enemies the Turks they were all overcome in a short time by a handful of men obedient to their Prince And what private man can assume to himself the knowledge of good and evil that is ascribe to himself a power over his Superior by judging whether he hath transgressed the Law or not And let any man shew that ever our Parliaments as they call themselves Councils of State or Safety were ever obliged by their own Laws and I will submit that rightful Princes are obliged by their own Laws 7. There is nothing more to be wished in this world then that the That supreme power may be moderated Will of them which command might be moderated and restrained to Reason as that Kings Fathers and Masters should never exact any thing of their Subjects Children and Servants but what were reasonable But it is impossible that the Supreme power can be moderated unless it be divided or subject to the Moderators It is therefore a seditious opinion That Supreme power may be moderated 8. All right that any Creature hath to any thing is either from the That any man has any thing proper against the Supreme power Law of Nature or from some Humane Law but no Subject can have Praedium directum cujus nullus author est nisi Deus Sir E. Co. Com. Lit. pag. 1. b. qui dominium non habet dominus non est And he that holds of none is Lord of all which no Subject can be It is therefore a seditious opinion That any Subject hath any thing proper against his Soveraign 9. There has not any thing for more then this last Century caused so That the people may reform where Princes will not much dissention and bloodshed among Christians to the shame of Christianity as the specious pretence of Reformation The Turk either restrained by God or not willing to be an Enemy to Mankind hath been only a spectator not actor in this Tragedy The end doth sanctifie the means was a doctrine generally received among these Reformers if the end were Reformation it was no matter by what means it was brought to pass Hence it was that every where in the Western world men disposed to sedition made Reformation their pretence No Prince must use his power to restrain them if he do Calvin gives them a lesson Abdicant se potestate terreni Comment on Dan. 6. 21. Principes dum insurgunt contra Deum immo indigni sunt qui censeantur in hominum numero potius ergo oportet conspuere in illorum capita quam illis parere ubi sic proterviunt ut velint spoliare Deum jure suo Earthly Princes do divest themselves of power when they set themselves against God yea they are not worthy to be accounted in the number of men Men ought therefore rather to spit upon their heads then obey them where they deal so saucily as if they would spoil God by their right And Luther Ab omnibus hominum legibus exempti sumus libertate nobis Christiana per Lib. de captiv Babil de baptismo baptismum donata We are freed from all Laws of Men liberty being given us by Baptism Et scio nullam rempublicam feliciter legibus administrari I know there is no Commonwealth happily governed by Laws And Turpe enim est iniquiter servile Christianum hominem qui liber est aliis Cap. de matrimonio quam coelestibus divinis subjectum esse legibus It is a filthy and unjust servile thing that a Christian man which is free should be subject to any Cap. de sacrord but Heavenly and Divine laws And whether these mens followers have not well practised their Lectures wheresoever they have been tolerated either in Germany Bohemia Austria Upper and Lower Hungaria Transilvania Sweden France England Scotland Low-Countries Geneva c. let any man who hath read the Combustions of Christendom judge and the Anabaptists and all other Sects may from their principles justifie all their actions 10. There is nothing more manifestly commanded by God in the That temporal good follows in order to spiritual Old and New Testament then obedience to Temporal Princes yet there is nothing more endeavored to the shame of Christians then by pretence of Religion to usher in Rebellion By
derived from this begging the question is false Indeed Mr. Hobbs is no question a man of most exquisite parts and learning and possibly might have a peaceable intention in making the Civitas the Judge of all matters of faith as well as manners But sure many things in his generation of it can never consist as his making Jus and Lex contrary one to another his making the Legislator to depend upon the Citizen for without his consent and proper pact either express or understood the Legislative right can be conferred upon none And yet he says Wherefore doest Cap. 12. art 3. thou call him Tyrant whom God hath made King His making the Civitas to receive all power from the pacts and wills of men and making the Civitas Head of the Church and Judge of Faith makes the power of the Church and all Faith to be a thing invented and to receive their beginnings from the wills and pacts of men then which what can be more destructive to Faith and Religion But for our Author Tho. White Gent. he is not worthy the name of a learned rational nor honest man 13. Slaves are born or made so Slaves born are the children of such Slaves as were so Slaves made so happen two ways For being condemned for some crime committed against some humane Law and therefore by the Condemned persons Law condemned to it Where the Law condemns it is the will of the Supreme power which condemns and therefore not the will of the Slave that makes it so I deny therefore that where the Law does not make Slavery any man can make himself a slave to another nor can any man use another as a Slave where he is not made so by Law Or else Slaves are Prisoners taken in War There is no man will affirm Prisoners by War the taking of another man prisoner gives the taker a power over the others life for then all men falling into the hands of Thieves and Pirates the Thieves and Pirates have a power over their lives and so commit no murder in putting them to death But Slaves from being made Prisoners is when there is competition between two Supreme powers and they give their Subjects power over all their Enemies which they shall take Prisoners It is not therefore the taking of another Prisoner which gives a man power over anothers life but a precedent humane Law which gives this power over those Enemies which any Subject shall take Prisoner and sure no man was ever taken Prisoner by an act of his will It is false therefore that Bodin says That a man may make himself a Slave of his own accord lib. 1. c. 5. p. 31. de repub a man may as well offer violence or kill himself and that a man bought for a price of Thieves and Pirates is a Slave to the Buyer for he is not made so by any humane law Nor can any act of force ever give another any power nor can any continuance of time make any thing good which originally was not so and therefore if all commands were originally from force as he affirms then are no commands now any better and so no difference Pag. 46. de rep between the commands of Thieves and Pirates and of Fathers and Kings Although a man lawfully taken prisoner by another be in his power Slavery moderated so as it is in the Takers power to have taken away his life and so an act of grace in granting it yet the Law which originally gave this power may moderate it as here in England the Law hath restrained the Lord from killing or maiming his Vilain Slaves have nothing proper against their Master 14. Apprentices are when the Father or Mother do oblige a Child Apprentices for such a term to serve such a Master and this act is binding because by the Law of Nature the Father hath an absolute power over his Children But because of the impotencie of Children who cannot by reason of their youth and want of art and experience do any thing which may at first compensate their diet and clothes if the poverty or negligence of parents be such that they cannot or will not procure a Master for their Children and where Children are Orphans they may be bound and compelled to serve Apprentiships in such manner as is prescribed by the publique humane Laws of the place 15. Neither naturalis nor delegata potestas can be communicated nor What power is alienable aliened But acquisita potestas as the power of Masters over their servants and slaves may be sold aliened or otherwise given away And therefore Guardian in Chivalry may give or sell to another the Guardianship of his Ward but Guardian in Socage cannot for his is delegata potestas 16. The Master of every family deriving his power from the humane The Masters power restrained to humane laws Caveat laws of every place his power is restrained to the laws of that place therefore ought he not to command his servant any thing which is against the laws of the place When I say by humane laws such a thing is to be done or not done I always except those laws which God did give to the Israelites and peculiar only to them when he pleased immediately to reign over them which laws did supply those humane laws by which his Vicegerents do procure peace among us CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiastical power THat there is a GOD who is the Author of all good past present By the light of nature God is to be worshiped and to come and that He is to be worshiped and adored not only for the present past and future blessings in this world but also in hope of eternal happiness in the world to come is so naturally ingraffed into the minds of all men that not scarce one man compos mentis in an That there is a God and this God to be worshiped and served is innate in the minds of all men Plato Euthyphro requires as the first axiom of all virtue age did ever deny it It is no wonder therefore if men attaining to such a height of impiety as to sell their inheritance in Heaven unjustly to purchase possessions upon Earth do always make the specious pretences of Religion and Reformation as the easiest way to work upon the giddy and inconstant multitude carried hither and thither with every wind of doctrine the Exordium of all their Enterprises for Quoties vis fallere plebem Finge Deum 2. But how they should worship him aright from the imperfect use of The difficulty of pleasing God from the light of nature their reason prejudiced by their appetitions and affections is not to be imagined For to worship and serve God not according to the will and pleasure of God is superstition and not to worship God is atheism It is therefore an impossible thing without the special assistance of Gods grace that men should not fall either into superstition
or at least ought to be a Presbyter but every Presbyter is not a Bishop For St. Paul saies Against an Elder or Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses 1 Tim. 5. 19. But equals cannot judge equals therefore Timothy as a Presbyter could not judge a Presbyter therefore he should judge him as being Bishop and so by consequence Presbyters are subject to the judgment of Bishops that is in Episcopal jurisdiction Besides Bishops have power of ordination of Presbyters in every City 1 Tit. 5. 1 Tim. 5. 22. but it is no where found that ever Presbyters did ordain Bishops It is not therefore Ecclesiastical practice only that is the universal practice of all Christians in all ages untill John Calvin but the institution of our Saviour by which Bishops do excell and govern Presbyters It was after the destruction of Jerusalem that Episcopi Presbyteri caepere appellari Pontifices sacerdotes as the most learned Estius observes and that the name of Priest is not a Jewish Distin 24. l. 4. pag. 35 36. word is evident for Melchisedech was not a Jew and yet a Priest and our Saviour a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech 11. What St. Paul in the end of his Epistle to Timothy calls Bishop of An Apostle and Bishop the same the Ephesians St. John Revel 2. 1. calls Angel of the Church of the Ephesians So St. Paul and St. John understand the same thing by Angel and Bishop but Angelus and Apostolus are the same and therefore Episcopus and Apostolus are the same But what need that be proved by deduction which the Apostle Gal. 1. 19. expresseth For James was none of the twelve yet being Bishop of Jerusalem St. Paul testifies him to be an Apostle Besides it is evident Episcopatus is the office as well of an Apostle as a Bishop Act. 1. 20. There is therefore no difference between an Apostle and a Bishop only Apostles constituted by our Saviour had their function universal whereas the Bishops or Apostles ordained by the Apostles had but a Topical function that is the exercise of their power was restrained to their City or Diocess And all Ecclesiastical writers do affirm that St. James did preside in the Council of Jerusalem although St. Peter with other of the Apostles were Members of it 12. Our Saviour having promised the ghostly power of Confirmaion Ordination The Power of Bishops which Priests have not c. to be with his Church to the end of the world and the power of Ordination Confirmation and Excommunication being bequeathed only to the Apostles the power of Ordination Confirmation and Excommunication descend only to the Apostles successors viz. Bishops rightly ordained 13. Not the voice and letter but the genuine and true sense of the Of the interpretation of Scriptures Word of God is the Canon of Christian Doctrine for the minde cannot be governed by Scriptures unless understood It is necessary therefore that Scriptures be interpreted before they be made a rule It will therefore follow that either God hath left a Power which may interpret Scripture or else that God hath revealed himself to Men without sense or meaning but the latter of these is most false and blasphemous therefore it is true that God hath left a power upon earth which may interpret the Scriptures 14. If the Scriptures were as Arts and Sciences which are derived from The Scriptures cannot be interpreted by themselves that is one place by another higher Principles or Axiomes which though they cannot be proved but are as Aristotle calls them indemonstrable propositions yet are so clear and manifest that no exception can be taken to them then indeed the Scriptures as well as Arts and Sciences might be proved one place by another untill they were resolved to their first Principles which though granted cannot be proved But it is far otherwise with the Scriptures for there is no Scripture which is not of like Authority with any other every Scripture being the Word of God one place of Scripture therefore cannot be interpreted by the consequents which may follow from another any more then the consequents which follow from Quae eidem sunt aequalia inter se sunt aequalia may be interpreted by Omne totum est majus sua parte 15. There is no prophesie of the Scripture of any private interpretation Not all they who do translate the Scriptures are the intepreters of them 2. Pet. 1. 20. It is not therefore every one who can translate the Scripture out of one language into another with his own private conceptions upon them which renders them to be interpreted by him What then hath God revealed himself to mankind in general without sense or meaning No it does not follow for as in temporal Laws no man can interpret them but he that made them either by himself or them whom he shall constitute yet every man may by his reason and discourse direct his own actions in conformity to those Laws but if he shall do any act upon misconstruction or interpretation of his own his mistaking the meaning of the Law shall not excuse him So private men may endeavor to direct their actions accordingly as they suppose God hath directed them in the Scriptures yet if upon their own heads they undertake to interpret the Scriptures although in order only to their own actions their misunderstanding the Scriptures shall never excuse any unjust act 16. Every Law of God is the Word of God but every Word of God is not the Law of God as Jacob went into Egypt is the Word but not the To whom the Authority of the interpretation of Scripture doth belong the Law of God The Scriptures contain Political Historical Moral and Natural things which are not rules of the mystery of Christian Faith and Religion Those things which concern Morality and Temporal power and Government our Saviour made no alteration in them for he saies St. Matth. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil And therefore quid est homicidium quid furtum quid sit meum vel tuum c. belongs to the Temporal power as much since our Saviour as before and truly I do not think I should do the Church of England any wrong if I should with Lindwood affirm that not only the Probate of Wills but also the cognisance of Tithes was in the Church ex consuetudine Angliae but those things which relate to mysteries of Christian faith as our Saviors being the Son of God took humane nature upon him and was born of a Virgin preached repentance died upon the cross for the sinnes of the world rose again the third day c. God to make his power known by the preaching of a few mean men and Fishermen and from the mouths of babes and sucklings all Temporal power not only not permitting but
Yet this can be no objection by those men who ascribe all infallibility to the Pope and that all his Acts and Decrees are to be received and obeyed by an implicite faith as Divine oracles Well but suppose these determinations of the Pope were not concerning matters of Faith as no doubt they were not then how comes the Pope because he is infallible in the Faith that he takes upon him to be Judge and Determiner of those things which no ways appertain to it but are as much where Christianity is not planted as where it is Object Yet it will be objected That if the Church be not Judge of what conduceth to the peace and safety of the Kingdom and Church then who shall and so farewell to all Government and peace in Church or State But before I answer this Quaere I would be resolved one Question or two Who shall be Judge whether the Pope or a General Council be superior Who shall judge whether in any Determination of the Popes it be concerning matter of Faith or not or whether it be determined in Gathedra or not In the many Schismes of the Papacy who should judg who was the true Pope or who shall judg whether Alexander the tenth be now the true Pope or who ever gave the Cardinals who were an humane institution many hundred years after our Saviour this power of Election of the Pope that whosoever they should so elect should be universal Bishop and St. Peters successor Although I might justly insist hereupon nor can these things upon these mens principles who maintain the Popes infallibility at least in my understanding be solved and so are they for all their boast of unity among themselves in as much confusion and dissention even in their very principles as other men yet am not I ashamed to give an account of my obedience both to my Church and King Answer I say that God hath made man a sociable intellectual and reasonable creature and endewed him with an immortal soule potentially capable of eternal happiness Nor will God be served by man having so made him only by a base servile feare and without the intellectual and rational faculties of the soule and therefore has engraven by nature in the heart of every man certain rules by which he is to direct his actions which are the first principles and foundations upon which I honor my Parents King and them who are set over me for my direction in order to my eternal good And although that out of the Church and not being preserved by humane Laws I can neither hope for safety in this world nor salvation in the world to come yet who he is from whom all humane Laws are derived or what is the Church in which I must hope for salvation there is no visible Judge under Heaven but only mens consciences to direct them viz. those directions which God either by nature has given to men or revealed supernaturally in the Scriptures Nor does a mans conscience thus informed leave him after it be informed who it is from whom he ought to expect protection and to whom he owes his obedience as well spirituall as temporal for though there be no visible means for men to hope for peace in Church or State yet does it not follow that by all men all things which may be commanded for the Laws of the Church and State are to be observed as the Laws of Church and State as if the Church command men to worship Images or any creature for the Creator which under the old Law it many times did nor do I understand how it can be excused in the Church of Rome or if men be commanded by higher powers immoral things as to dishonor them or their Parents or whenas temporal powers command things plainly derogatory to the ghostly power of the Church or the Church commands things contrary to the duty men owe to their King and Country which we daily see both the one and the other do which makes some men in their passion ultimately resolve their Temporal and Ecclesiastical obedience into the Church others into the secular power and many deny all obedience to either and set up themselves or something else in stead of either But though mens affections carrie them several waies yet ought not all reason therefore and conscience to forsake all men for although I ought not to judge either King or Church if they command any thing they ought not yet have I and every man else a conscience to direct them whether I ought to do all things whatsoever commanded by King or Church Nor ought men to be frighted out of their consciences viz. the Law of God by nature informing them or his Law supernaturally revealed by his grace directing them because a perverse company of Schismatical and seditious men have abused all Temporal and Ecclesiastical Laws and Powers by pretending conscience Nor will a blind obedience in all things to the Church of Rome cause unity and peace among Christians although it be so much magnified by them for let any man read the lives of H. 4. 5. 6. and 7. and Frederick 1. and 2. Emperors whenas the whole Empire was of the Roman Catholick Religion and see if ever greater broyles were in the Christian World and let them judge whether Obedience to the Popes by so great a part of the Empire were not the cause of them or whether all the Wars in Christendom caused by Boniface the eight and Julius the second were not against Christians in the communion and form of the Church of Rome But where secular or ecclesiastical Laws do plainly command things not plainly derogatory to Gods Law for where they do God is in all things to be obeyed before man so as it is doubtful whether they do repugne Gods Law or not then certainly the best way is to submit to them for a mans conscience wrong informed does not excuse him from any Article of his duty and if it may be the Laws do repugne Gods Law it may be they do not and in controverted and doubtful cases the Law is alwaies presumed to be on the Governors part Nor shall any mans conscience ever excuse him if the Laws either of Church or Country do command things repugnant to Gods word from the duty and obedience he owes to them in all things where they do not repugne it Nor does it free any man from his subjection to higher power but where he cannot submit he ought to suffer And no question that where two evils unavoidable happen the least is to be taken as if a man in the communion of the Church of Rome be reduced to that necessity of simply conforming himself to all things used in the Church of Rome although his conscience cannot digest many things or be excluded out of the visible Church of Christ he had better be of such a Church then of none at all Sure God never affixt such infallibility to men how great or good soever
vero Regi prout ipsa feret facti ratio satisfacito aut graves sceleris admissi poenas rex ipse repetito Christiana siquidem fide imbuti regis est Deo illatas graviter pro facti ratione ulcisci injurias If any one entred into Holy Orders or one living with him be imposed upon or cheated in those things which belong to his estate or life then let the King himself unless he can procure it otherwise be to him in place of Patron and Kindred but the Cheator shall make the King satisfaction according to the valure of the fact or the King himself shall take great punishment of the wickedness committed for it is the part of a King endued with Christian religion severely to punish injuries according to the quality of the deed offered to God 10. For the proving of this Sir Edward Coke in the Proeme to the The antient Common-law did not admit of Appeals to Rome in cases Spiritual sixth Part of his Reports cites an Act of Parliament made 10 H. 2. an 1164. where it was enacted As concerning Appellations if any shall arise from the Archdeacon they must proceed to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and if the Archbishop do fail in doing Justice it must lastly come to the King that by his precept the controversie may be ended in the Archbishops Court so that there ought not to be any proceeding further without the assent of the King And that this among many other might not taste of innovation the Record saith This recognition or record was made of a certain part of the customs and liberties of the Predecessors of the King to wit of Henry his Grandfather and of other Kings which ought to be observed in the Kingdom and held of all for the dissentions and discords often arising between the Clergy and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Justicers and the Peers of the Realm And all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Clergy with the Earls Barons and all the Nobles c. have sworne and assuredly promised in the word of mouth in one consent to keep and observe the said recognition toward the King and his heirs in good sooth without evil meaning for ever 11. The Revenue of Danegelt was first enacted because of Pyrates The Kings before the Conquest by their own authority did impose Taxes upon Church-lands For infesting the Country they did persist as much as they could to the devastation of it And to repress their insolence the yearly return of Danegelt was enacted viz. Twelve pence for every Hide of all the Country Mr. Selden in lib. 2. cap. 4. Analecton Anglobritannicon fol. 77. makes a Hide of land to be as much as could be tilled by one plough in a year Mr. Lambert in the Laws of King Edward fol. 128. makes a Hide to be one hundred acres of land to maintain them who should resist the irruption of the Pyrates when they met them But from the Danegelt every Church should be free and quiet and all land which was in the dominion of the Church wheresoever it lay paying nothing at all in such redemption for men did more confide in the prayers of the Church then in the defence of arms But if Lex vult non supervacaneum then is it clear that the Church-lands were liable to be taxed by the King for it had been a supervacaneous thing to have excepted the lands of the Church in this Law if the lands of the Church had not been liable to have been taxed at all And to manifest more clearly that the exemption of Church-land from Taxes was a meer concession of our Kings take the Stat. of Ethelulph the successor of Egbert written Analect Angl. lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 77. with his own hand Our Lord reigning for ever Whilst that we see perillous times in our days the fire of war the taking away of our goods together with the cruel depredations of our destroying enemies and barbarous Pagan nations do lie upon us the multiplied tribulations do afflict us even to utter destruction Wherefore I Ethelulph King of the West-Saxons with the councel of the Bishops and my Princes giving wholsom councel and the only remedy have consented I have determined that every portion given to the holy Church whether of either Sex serving God or to miserable Lay-men always the tenth Mansion where it is least or the tenth part of all Goods be made for ever free that it be safe and defended from all secular services yea from the Kings greater or lesser tributes or the taxations which we call Winterden and that it be free of all things for the forgiveness of our souls and sins to serve God alone without Expedition building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle 12. If King Ethelbert were obliged to S. Gregory for the Conversion At what time the Pope first usurped jurisdiction over the Crown of England of the English Saxons to the Faith Prince Edgar Athelin was smally beholding to Pope Alexander 2. For Edgar being Grandson to Edmund Ironside and the undoubted Heir to the English Monarchy after the death of Edward the Confessor Alexander not only allows the Conquerors pretensions to the Crown of England but interdicts all those who should Speed fol. 405. par 27. See the effects of the Popes curse Speed fol. 415. par 2. oppose him So that though Harold were an Usurper yet was his Holiness his Interdiction as much against the undoubted Title of Edgar as against Harold Nor were all titles of rights and interests of the English Monarchy ever perfect and compleat from that time until they were all united and perfected in King James 13. How far the Britanick Churches were from any dependence upon At what time the first contest hapned between the King Pope about the investiture of Bishops the Church of Rome we have already shewed And so free were the Churches of England under the Saxon Kings before the Conquest that before the Appeal of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury to Pope Paschal 2. scarce any Appeal was ever made to Rome but that of Wilfreds which was overruled by the King and Church So that for near a thousand years after the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith although by means of S. Eleutherius and Gregory the Great we do not find any thing which may prove the superiority of the Roman Church over either the Britanick or English And how strange a thing the investiture of the English Bishops by the Pope was to the King and Kingdom of England appears by the Letter of Paschal to Anselm in answer to Anselm's Significasti Reges De Elect. Pet. cap. 4. Regni Majores admiratione promotos c. You have signified to me that Kings and Nobles were moved with admiration that the Pall was offered to you by our Ministers upon condition that you should take an Oath which they brought you written from us And the King not only opposed
Before all things they propounded one God to be devoutly and holily worshiped and that there should be no Heathen worship c. Therefore they first decree that the peace of the Church be kept within Cap. 1 the walls holily and inviolably and also that tranquillity which is delivered into the Kings hand Furthermore if any man shall renounce the Christian faith so as by words or deeds he advance the Heathen worship he shall forfeit the price of his head or the punishment of the Law according to the offence If a man entred Religion or bound to God by promise steal or fight or forswear or commit adultery he shall forfeit the price of his head or suffer punishment for transgressing of the Law according to the nature of the crime at least he shall satisfie God according to the rules of the Church and be cast into prison if he cannot find Sureties If a Priest upon Feasting-days or Fasting-days shall go astray if it be among Englishmen let him be fined thirty shillings but if it happen among the Danes let him pay half a mark If a Mass-priest upon appointed days provide not Oil or deny Baptism as the use is among the English let him be fined and with the Danes the breach of the Law is twelve * * Quaere the value of an Oran Oran If any man of Religion commit any thing worthy of death let him be taken and held to the Bishops judgment Of Incest Furthermore it seemed good to the wise men that of men guilty of Incest the King shall have the higher and the Bishop the lower unless he shall abundantly make recompence to God and men and shall perform what is enjoined them by the Bishop If two brethren or two of the same alliance commit fornication with the same wife let them be fined the value of their head or be punished for the transgression of the Law according as is meet and as the crime deserves If a man condemned to death desires ingenuously to confess his sins to a Priest let it be granted him And let all men Gods laws so follow that they obtain Gods mercy and be acquitted of wise men If a Dane pay not his Tythes let him undergo the punishment of the breach of the Law let an Englishman be fined If a Dane withhold what is due to Rome let him be punished for the breach of the Law let an Englishman be fined If any Dane pay not to the Candles let him be punished for breach of the Law let an Englishman be fined If a Dane shall not pay the just Alms of the Plough let him be punished for breach of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law let an Englishman be fined If a Dane shall suppress or retain any Divine Laws or Duties let him be punished for breach of the Law let an Englishman be fined If any man wilfully wound another offering Divine service let him be guilty of death but if he shall die let him be outlawed and all Ministers of Justice apprehend him hurt or unwilling And if it were his fault that he was stricken or did against Gods law or resisted the King if a man so flatter himself let him be without recompence or as we say he has the means in his own hands Of working on Holidays If a Dane sell any thing upon Sunday let him forfeit the thing and twelve Ora's an Englishman thirty shillings If a Freeman do any work upon an Holiday let him forfeit his freedom or be fined and punished for breach of the Law let a Servant be beaten or be made to fear being beaten If a Dane shall make his Servant work upon a Holiday let him be punished for breach of the Law and an Englishman be fined Laws Ecclesiastical made by King Aethelstan Who began to reign in the year of our Lord 924. I Aethelstan King by the prudent counsel of Walshelmes mine Archbishop and other my Bishops command all Governors that are in my Government in the name of God and all his Saints and for their good will towards them that before all things they pay just Tythes as well out of our property as the duties of living creatures and fruits of the earth and that all Bishops Ealdermen and Sheriffs do the same thing And I will that my Bishops and Sheriffs who sit in judgment upon other men that they observe this rule and that they finish all these things upon the day we have appointed viz. the Anniversary of S. John Baptist beheaded Further when we think with our self what the most excellent Father Jacob said to God I will offer my tythes and a peace-offering to thee and what the Lord spake in the Gospel To the all-having man shall be given and he shall abound We moreover may think on those things which are so terribly written in this very book If you will not pay your tythes giving us only the tenth part the nine parts shall be taken from you Also we are admonished that Heavenly things are more excellent then Earthly and eternal things then our frail bodies Whensoever therefore ye hear what the Lord commands and what we ought to follow those things only I would have you to do which you can justly and lawfully prepare Of Church-breaking Cap. 5. Concerning the Ordal see Versteg an Seld. annal Anglo lib. 2. cap. 8. and Lamberts pref Saxon laws Cap. 23. And we command concerning Church-breaking if he be a man of the threefold * Ordal let him give satisfaction as is rehearsed in the Judgment-book Of them willing to undergo the Ordal If any man will undergo the Ordal then let him come three days before the Mass-priest hallow it and feed himself with bread and salt and water and worts before he go to Trial and let him go to Mass every day and The trial of the Ordal was either to be soused over head and ears in cold water or to thrust his hand a cubit deep into boiling hot water or to go barefoot or hold a burning hot iron in the Triers hand If they neither shak'd the rope to be pulled out of the water nor burned nor scalded their hands or feet they were acquited offer his gift and upon the day he shall undergo the Ordal let him take the Eucharist and swear that he is innocent and knows nothing of the wickedness whereof he is accused If it be of cold Water that the Question made let him be plunged over head and ears half an ell in the water but if it be of Iron let him hold it three days before he put it out of his hand And the Accuser shall proceed to follow the oath he made before and both shall fast by the command of God and the Bishop and let there be on neither side above twelve men but if the Accused comes with more then twelve men then unless they will depart let the Ordals be void And upon each Friday let every one of Gods Ministers in every Church
an Englishman or thus deny it let him take eleven and he be the twelfth c. Of Homicides by men Ordained Cap. 73. If a Bishop kill a man let it be recorded and let him repent twelve years seven years in bread and water and five let him fast three days in a week and on others let him use common sustenance If a Priest kill a man or a Monk let him lose his Order and repent ten years six in bread and water and four let him fast three days in a week on others let him use his meat If a Presbyter wound a man let him fast one hundred day If a Deacon kill a man let him be degraded and repent seven years four in bread and water and three let him fast three days in a week upon other let him use common meat If a Clerk shall kill a man let him repent six years four in bread and water two years three days in the week If a Laick kill a man let him repent five years three in bread and water and two years let him fast three days in the week If a man kill a man in Orders or his neighbor let him depart out of his Countrey and go to Rome and make the Pope and his Councel let him in like maner repent of Adultery or Fornication or lying with a Nun. These Laws are likewise set out by Mr. Abraham Whelock in the Appendix to his History of Bede Sir Ed. Coke Candrys Case says Henry the first did Ordain Anno 16. Regni sui as well in regard of his Ecclesiastical as Regal power that whensoever the Abbot of Reading shall die that all the Possessions do remain entire and free But how this should make any thing for the Kings Ecclesiastical Right in all Cases I do not understand for this Ordinance was onely concerning the Possessions of the Abbey and it is no Question but all the Bishopricks as well as Abbeys were originally of the Kings foundation and it appears by the Margent that the King was the particular Founder of this Abby what then hinders but that the King might dispose of the Revenues as he should think fit without having any Ghostly power in him Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the third Magna Charta FIrst we have granted to God and by this our present Chapter have confirmed Cap. 1. for us and our heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable Reserves to all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Templars Hospitalers Cap. 38. According to Sir Edward Coke Inst 2. yet the Statute-book in large divides this Act but into thirty seven Chapters and all persons Ecclesiastical all their free Liberties which they have had in time passed and all these Customs and Liberties aforesaid which we have granted to be holden within this Realm as much as appertains to us and our heirs we shall observe And all men as well Spiritual as Temporal as much as in them is shall observe the fame against all persons likewise And for this our Gift and Grant of these Liberties and of other contained in our Charter of Liberties of our Forest Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Knights Freeholders and other our Subjects have given to us the fifteenth part of their moveables and we have granted to them on the other part that neither we nor our heirs shall procure or do any thing whereby the Liberty in this Charter contained shall be infringed or broken And if any thing be procured by any person contrary to the premisses it shall be of no force nor effect In the Reign of Hen. 3. Cawdries Case 3 H. 3. tit Proh 13. 4 H. 3. c. In all the time of Henry 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England and ever since if any man did sue afore any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not any lawful cognisance the King did ever by his Writ under the Great Seal prohibit them to proceed Answ It is true indeed that not only Probate of Testaments but Cognisance of Tythes Granting of Letters of Administration Mortuaries Pensions Reparation of Churches do not belong to Ecclesiastical cognisance by any Divine positive institution but by allowance and custom of England And if all Customs suppose some Grant originally from Supreme humane Powers then what hinders but that the King might prohibit any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not lawful conusance for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle And if the suggestion made to the Plea King whereupon the Prohibition was grounded were after found untrue then the King by his Writ of Consultation under the Great Seal did allow and permit them to proceed Also in all the Reign of H. 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England if any Issue were joyned upon Loyalty of Marriage General Bastardy or such like the King did ever write to the Bishop of the Diocese as Mediate Officer and Minister of his Court to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage Bastardy or such like All which prove that those Courts were under the Kings jurisdiction and commandment It is true that not only all Courts and planting of Christianity were originally by the Kings command or permission but the persons of all men within the Realm are in his power And Marriage and Bastardy being so essential and whereupon the strength of mens estates and inheritances do depend what hinders the King to write to the Bishop to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage And if it pleases him to do it as his mediate officer who shall contradict is Well let it be granted the Kings of England in cases of Bastardy and Loyal Matrimony have written to the Bishop of the Diocese as his mediate officer yet it will not follow that the Bishop is the Kings mediate officer in all things and cases which relate to his Episcopal function and jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the First THe King willeth that the peace of the holy Church be maintained in Stat. West an 3. Ed. 1. 1275. all points and that Religious Houses shall not be overcharged nor any Purveyance be made of any Prelate without the owners consent They who shall offend and be thereof attainted shall be committed to the Kings prison and after shall make fine and be punished according to the quantity and manner of the trespass and after as the King in his Court shall think fit c. It is provided also That when any Clerk is taken for guilty of felony Cap. 1. and is demanded by the Ordinary he shall be delivered to him according to the priviledge of the holy Church on such peril as belongeth to it after the custom aforetimes used And the King admonisheth the Prelates and enjoineth them upon the faith that they ow to him and for the common profit and
St. 27 H. 8. cap. 15. Spiritual and sixteen Temporal to examine the Laws and Constitutions heretofore made according to the Statute of 25 H. 8. 9. But no Laws or Constitutions shall be made without the Kings assent nor contrary to the Kings Prerogative or the Laws of the Land If any person shall extoll the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he shall 28 H. 8. c. 10. incur the penalty of a Praemunire provided Anno 16 Ric. 2. Every Ecclesiastical and Lay-Officer shall be sworne to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void And the refusing of the said Oath to be Treason Makes all Bulls and Dispensations from the Bishop or See of Rome to 28 H. 8. c. 16. any of the Subject of this Realm void The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops 31 H. 8. c. 9. Cathedral Churches and endow them with such possessions as he will 1. If any person by word writing printing ciphering or otherwise do preach teach dispute or hold opinion That in the blessed Sacrament 31 H. 8. c. 14. called the Statute of the Six Articles of the Altar under form of bread and wine after the consecration thereof there is not really the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said consecration there remains any substance of bread or wine or any other substance but the substance of Christ God and man Or that in the flesh under the form of bread is not the very blood of Christ Or that with the blood under the form of wine is not the very flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together Or affirm the said Sacrament to be of other substance then is aforesaid Or deprave the said blessed Sacrament Then he shall be adjudged a Heretick and suffer death by burning and shall forfeit to the King all his lands tenements hereditaments goods and chattels as in case of High Treason 2. Or if any person preach in any Sermon or Collation openly made or teach in any Common School or Congregation or obstinately affirm or defend That the Communion of the blessed Sacrament in both kinds is necessary for the health of mans soul or ought to be administred in both kinds Or that it is necessary to be received by any person other then by Priests being at Mass and consecrating the same 3. Or that any man after the Order of Priesthood received may marry or contract matrimony 4. Or that any man or woman which advisedly hath vowed or professed or should vow or profess chastity or widowhood may marry or contract marriage 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be used or be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular confession is not expedient and necessary to be used in the Church of God He shall be adjudged suffer death and forfeit lands and goods as a Felon If any Priest or other man or woman which advisedly hath vowed chastity or widowhood do actually marry or contract matrimony with another Or any man which is or hath been a Priest do carnally use any woman to whom he is or hath been married or with whom he hath contracted matrimony or openly be conversant or familiar with any such woman both man and woman shall be adjudged Felons Commissions shall be awarded to the Bishop of the Diocese his Chancellor Commissary and others to enquire of the Heresies Felonies and offences aforesaid And also Justices of Peace in their Sessions and every Steward Under-Steward and Deputy of Steward in their Leets or Law-day by the oath of twelve men have authority to enquire of the Heresies Felonies and offences aforesaid See the 7. Chap. of B. Bramhalls Just Vindication of the Church of England where he endeavours to shew that not only the Emperor the King of France nay and the King of Spain have in effect done the same things with Henry the Eighth upon occasion or at least plead for it although for their interests they have not continued the exercise of their Jurisdiction as the Kings of England have done A short view or reflexion upon Henry the Eight and his Reformation How zealous a Defender of the Pope and See of Rome Henry the Eight K. H. 8. a zealous defender of the Pope and Papacy was in the beginning of his Reign is evident by his book written against Martin Luther For not being born Henry the seventh's eldest son his Father being a wondtrful frugal Prince and observing good natural parts in him bred him up in literature and destinated him to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury as being the cheapest and highest preferment he could give him But his elder brother being dead and after him his father The King esteeming it a great honor to imploy himself in so famous a controversie as was then maintained by the Wits of Christendom in defence and opposition of the Church of Rome wrote a book of the Seven Sacraments defending also the Papacy and oppugned the Doctrine of Luther This thing was so grateful to the Pope that Leo 10. honored him with the Title of Defender of the Faith But after he had been married to his brothers wife above twenty years and inflamed with lustful affection to Anne Bullein a Paragon and Minion From what cause the King became estranged from the Pope of the Court he became he said troubled in conscience for having married his brothers wife and therefore desired that the Pope would examine the case and satisfie his scruple of conscience It is a very remarkable thing that this ungodly Dispensation of Julius 2. for H. 8. his marrying with his brothers wife should be the cause of the King and Kingdoms defection from the Papacy under Clement 7. The Pope to satisfie the King gave the Cardinals Wolsey and Campeius a power Legatine to hear and determine the validity or invalidity of the marriage but the Queen refusing to submit to their determination appealed from them to the Pope The Pope had now a Wolf by the ears whom he could neither keep nor well let go For in pronouncing the marriage void he feared to incense Charls the Fifth being Nephew to Queen Katherine and the most potent Prince in Christendom and in confirming it he feared to lose Henry the then most beloved Son of the Church and great Defender of the Papacy not only in writing but also in joining with and assisting the French King Francis the First for freeing him from captivity being a prisoner under Charls The Pope therefore desires the advantage of time and proceeds slowly towards a determination The King as impatient in his desires expects a sentence from the Pope which not being to be had he procures Instruments from the Universities of Cambridge Oxford and Paris together
in derogation to Christian Faith or Religion they might plead Conscience because the Obedience they owe thereunto is superior to all Humane Laws But when as God is to be publickly Worshipped and your Majesty obeyed by the light of Humane Nature whenas he that heareth and obeyeth not the Church is to be accounted an Infidel and Heathen man and neither your Majesty nor Church enjoyning any thing contrary to the Law of Nature or Gods Will revealed in Scriptures but conformable to these for men your natural Subjects and Born and Baptized in a Christian Church in contradiction to all these to plead Liberty of Conscience to be Atheists Hypocrites and Schismaticks is such a monstrous Paradox as is not imaginable should proceed from reasonable creatures not aiming at some further mischief And when your Majesty shall with bleeding tears reflect upon the manners of these men thus pretending Liberty of Conscience you will finde them never to have made any conscience of Liberty their Manners no whit better then their Religion but as great enemies to Humane Society as Christian Religion For they no sooner upon pretence of Liberty of Conscience got licence of action but what followed Rapine Plunder Sequestration Sacriledge Regicidism and Murder upon the Estates of the Church Crown and the Sacred Person of your Royal Father and the principal members of Church and State who were your best and most Loyal and their Fellow-Subjects when as by the Law or Light of Nature no man ought to do that willingly to another which he would not have done to himself Nor is this humor only Topical or confined within the limits of your Dominion but wheresoever men would not pay the Duty they ought to God in the first Table they have never better perform'd that to their neighbor in the second although it hath not pleased God to permit them to attain such a degree of Impiety as here in your Majesties Dominions and your Majesty may believe it that the times are changed not these mens manners and dispositions to attempt the like again whensoever they get an opportunity however these things at present will be better cured by your Majesties Christian Patience and example then by your severe Execution of the established Laws against them yet if the Laborer be worthy of his Hire then is he who is Hired worthy to Labor and these men who pretending Conscience neglect or refuse to perform the Duties of the Church are utterly unworthy the Means of the Church Mans necessity is Gods oportunity It is Gods usual way in his Providence doubtless to manifest the greatness of his Power to us Mortals here below when mens extremities are at the highest then to relieve them having it may be the least reasons or hope to expect it and indeed what less then the power and grace of God in a Christian Prince so Religious so Just so Merciful and so descended at such a time could have cured the wide wounds of our miserable Church and distracted State D'avila reports of Coligny the Admiral of France that he would usually prefer himself before Caesar or Alexander because they acquired greatness by prosperous Fortune whereas notwithstanding that Fortune was always adverse to him he still rose more formidable and terrible to his adversaries Sure it is an admirable thing that after all the adversity of your Affairs God should without force or blood exalt your Sacred Head above the Storms and Waves of such Enemies who had neither Religion Law Justice or Reason but only force and blood in stead of and against these to maintain their Cause It cannot but be a consolation to any man in adversity rightly considering how God in the ordinary nature of things does afflict men who place happiness in things of this world and reward the afflictions of men especially who suffer for a good Conscience even in this world for no man placeing happiness in things here below can so enjoy them but necessarily a time will come when he shall say I take no pleasure in them and then it will be miserum fuisse beatum whereas other men who are afflicted and suffer persecution are no ways affrighted at the terrors of death but rather with joy expect happiness in another world after they shall be freed from the cares and troubles of this or if it pleases God to free them from their afflictions here then they truly convert miserum fuisse beatum into beatum fuisse miserum Besides your Majesties individual happiness in making so right construction of your precedent affections and the advantages you have acquired by your severe education therein your Subjects like men who have been long sick will better learn to esteem health from their many sufferings in your absence will for the future learn to set a truer estimation upon your Prosperity and Presence And may the God of Peace the God of Mercy and the God of Justice so Crown the antecedent adverse fortune of You Sir the most Peaceable the most Merciful Just and best of Princes that being as Good and Just as Trajan and as Devout and Religious as Constantine the Great or Theodosius the first you may be of your Subjects as beloved as was Augustus and the Arbitrator of Christendom as well as Defender of the Christian Faith And when this your Diadem shall descend to your next Heir you may then assume a Celestial one which shall never be subject to time variation or chance Which is and always shall be the daily Payer of SIR Your most Devoted and most Obedient Subject ROGER COKE OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr THO WHITE 's GROUNDS OF Obedience Government Mr HOBBS his BOOK De Cive AND UPON HVGO GROTIVS De Jure Belli Pacis Prematur nunquam Opprimitur veritas Nulla res magis operae pretium est sive ad utilitatem fructuosior sive ad animi voluptatem jucundior esse potest quà m Justitia quâ quidem post Deum Immortalem rerum omnium Publicarum Fundamenta nituntur Corruptio verò optimi est pessima By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by T. N. for G. Bedel and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate 1660. TO THE READER I Have often with great admiration considered in my self how that all men good and bad rich and poor noble and ignoble have with one voice commended Virtue and decried Vice and yet scarce any man in a thousand hath made Virtue the rule or reason of his actions Nor is it a thing less worth admiration to consider how that all men generally have not only a natural spight against their Superiors and are unwilling to obey them but also a propense desire to attain to Liberty and do tread under foot all things which may be called sacred to the attaining thereof and yet at no time or place in the world did ever men accomplish it I did therefore conclude with my self that not only all Moral Virtue but Humane Society did proceed from higher then any humane or voluntary causes