Trained-Bands in the beginning of the late Wars did abundantly manifest and in the latter Case the Souldier if he will have Imployment at home must either engage on the bâ—half of an unjust Power or else run upon his own certain destruction to no purpose IV. Consideration of the condition of the Person 1. THis must be considered too for the different conditions of persons may make a great difference in the lawfulness or unlawfulness of their actions according to the old saying which holdeth true in this sense also no less than in that other in which it is commonly used relating to mens corrupt partialities Duo cum faciunt idem non est idem In your Friends second Letter I find a demand made as in the way of Reply to some passage of your Answer to his first Letter to this purpose Suppose two great Princes as France and Spain for instance have had long Wars together and the justice of the Cause appear neither more nor less on the one side than the other if in case a third Prince or State out of a sincere desire to Establish the Peace of Christendom after other offers and meditations for that purpose made in vain might lawfully joyn in Arms with the one party to force the other to Peace why a private person might not as lawfully having the same intention enter into Arms for the same purpose and the reason of demand thereof is because every Prince or State is in relation to other Princes and States but as one private man to another for being called to the Regiment of his own people only he is but as a private man in Aliena Republica 2. But that there is a great difference between a Sovereign Prince and a private Person in this affair it cannot be denied insomuch that I find in the very same passage put in as it were by way of Oâ—jection three very considerable differences First That Princes may and sometimes are obliged by Articles and Covenants for the defence of their Allies to take up Arms which cannot be the case of private Men. Secondly That Princes may see cause to set in for their own safety and interest lest the prevailing Party might grow too Potent and so themselves might be oppressed by him Thirdly there is a greater probability in a Prince of compaâ—sing that Noble and Glorious end The Peace of Christendom than can be in a private Man All these differences are allowed there as true but yet excepted against as not contributing any thing to the justice of the cause which is here the Question If these do not yet a Fourth difference there is that will as I conceive manifestly contribute thereunto to wit that Ius Belli is Penes Principem solum in the business of War Princes have a judicial private Men an executive power only and he that hath no power but to execute the sentence of a Judge is bound to wait the Iudges Sentence before he offer to act otherwise he shall act beyond his lawful power which is unjust Not but that Prince if he raise a War where he ought not is unjust too even as a Judge is unjust which pronounceth a wrong sentence but herein is the difference between them â—or taking up of Arms. The Prince having jus agendi in that behalf may do it justly and he may do it unjustly yet where he doth it unjustly he doth but abuti jure suo but the private person not having jus agendi in that respect cannot without the Authority of the Sovereign do it otherwise than unjustly because in so doing he doth without leave uti jure alieno which is alwaies unjust It is one thing for a Man to use whether well or ill a power that of right belongeth not to him the one is not unjust unless he abuse his Power the other is if he use it at all 4. Neither perhaps will the Reason alledged to the contrary viz. that a Prince in point of Justice and Power is in Aliena republica but as a private person bear so much weight as is laid upon it if one Point be well considered which I think will prove a truth though it be very tenderly handled otherwise it may prove very dangerous both because it may seem a Paradox to those that have been little conversant in publick Affairs as also and especially because it may by racking it too high be easily wrested to a mischievous construction for the Patronage of any Tyrannical action the point is this that justitia politica and Iustitia privata have not in all the same adequate measure Princes are bound to be just as well as the meanest private men are and obliged to keep Faith both with Friends and Enemies every whit as exactly and punctually without equivocation reservation or other eluding devices as they of all this no man doubteth but it is not therefore necessary that the Rules of Iustice whereby the Councils and Actions of Princes and States in their mutual Relations are to be measured should be precisely the same with those which measure the dealings of Private men one with another 5. And the reason of the difference is evident private Mens Controversies may be decided and their Injuries repressed or punished by the positive Laws of the State whereof they are Members and consequently subject to be ordered in all their dealings by those Laws which positive Laws together with the Law of Nature and the Divine Law which are common to all Men are the adequate Rule whereby the Iustice of private Persons and of their actions is to be measured but since Princes and States are not subject to any such positive Laws common to them both as may determine their Differences and Controversies The great necessity of Humane Affairs hath for the good of Mankind in the prâ—servâ—tion of Peace introduced by the common consent of Nations another Law of larger extent that which we pâ—culiarly call Iuâ— Gentium or the Law of Nations whereof that which we call the Law of Armes is one special part by which the Law of Nations together with the Law of Nature and the Divine Law as aforesaid the Iustice of Princes and States and of their Actions is as by the proper adequate Rule thereof to be measured Whence it cometh to pass that sundry things are by the Rules of Politique Iustice allowed as lawful and just between Princes which between private men would by the Rules of meer moral Iustice be condemned and that deservedly too as unjust and unlawful There are sundry Arcana Imperii some arts and simulations for maintaining Intelligence abroad for concealing and disguising Councils at home in the Instructions of Embassadors and managing of Embassies in making Alliances and Confederacies but especially in the pursuance and effects of War which seem much to swerve from the ordinary Precepts of moral Iustice which yet side integrâ circa dolum malum are by the consent of Nations allowed to be used and so must be or else
and of the sinful inconveniences that attend the continued purpose of fulfilling it there is a fair way open for that which is next fourthly to be done viz. That he be then earnestly moved for his Relaxation of the said Promise to the Gentlewoman which being it was but a meer Promise and no Vow as in the first Point hath already been shewed he hath in himself a full power to make and this also to be done in the presence of such Persons as they shall make choice of betwixt themselves to be witnesses of the said Release for although the Promise being utterly unlawful hath no power to bind and so there needeth no Release as of absolute necessity in reward of the thing it self yet such Release may be very behoveful in regard of the Gentlewomans person and for the quieting of her conscience in case there should remain any fears or scruples behind lest perhaps her promise should still bind her for as Satan laboureth to benum the Conscience with security to make men bold to commit sins without scruple till he has drawn them into the snare so when he seeth them offer to get out of the snare again by Repentance he is very cunning to inject needless scruples and fears if possibly he can to hold them in by means thereof wherefore I hold it very expedient that such a Release if it may be obtained be not neglected for thereby the binding power of the Promise though we should suppose it lawful should be quite taken away so as there need no scruple to remain Abundans Cautela non nocet is a safe Aphorism as wary men when they pay moneys besides seeing the Book crost will crave to have an Acquittance So it may be some satisfaction to the Gentlewomans mind to have a solemn Release before witness which say it should be more than needeth yet can do no harm howsoever Sect. 16. Fifthly that the Gentlewoman all the while before and so ever after that time only excepted when the Relaxation should be made for then it is requisite she should be personally present carefully avoid the company of that Gentleman and he likewise hers so far as conveniently may be but at leastwise by no means converse together with any familiarity especially in private lest the former unlawful affection should rekindle in either Party and so the disease after some measure of Cure grow to a relaps which many times proves more dangerous than the first malady for commonly when the unclean spirit is ejected by Repentance if once he make himself master of the heart again as he will attempt it and without a good watch happily effect it he will be sure at the re-entry to come with a new strength and that seven-fold to what he had before and needs must the end of that man be worse than the beginning she must therefore resolve to shun all likely occasions of falling again into the same snare so far as the quality of her person and condition and the common affairs of life will permit And she had need also to use her best care and diligence praying to God daily for Grace to strengthen her thereunto to withstand all wicked temptations of the flesh that she be no more foiled thereby neither entangled again in such sinful inconveniences as by God's Mercy she shall be now freed from Sect. 17. If in these Directions I be thought to deal with too much rigour and strictness it would be considered First that it 's much better to put the Patient to a little more pain at the first than by skinning the wound over to heal it deceitfully and to suffer it to rankle inward which will breed a great deal more grief at last Secondly That since all men through corrupt Self-love and privy Hypocrisie cleaving to our depraved nature are partial towards themselves and apt to deal more favourably with their own sins than they ought it is therefore safest for them in their own Cases especially to encline to severity rather than indulgence Thirdly That there may be a mitigation used of the present Directions according as the state of the Patient in the several variations thereof shall require but that for the avoiding of partiality not to be permitted to the sole liberty of the party himself but rather to be done by the advice of a Ghostly Physitian who if he be a man of such wisdom and moderation as is meet will I doubt not allow a greater indulgence in case she see it expedient than it could be safe for the Party her self to take of her own head Fourthly That in all this Discourse I take not upon me to write Edicts but to give my advice that is to say not to prescribe to the judgment of others if any shall see cause to dissent but to deliver my own opinion being requested thereunto by a Reverend Friend with such a faithfulness and freedom as becometh me to do and truly those Parties whom it most concerneth ought not to blame me for it howsoever inasmuch as there can be no cause to suspect that I should be carried with any personal respects to be partial either for or against either of them so God is my witness whom I desire to serve I had not any intimation at all given me neither yet have so much as the least conjecture in the World who either of them both might be The CASE of a MILITARY LIFE SIR IN referring over your friend to me you have pitched upon one of the unfittest persons in the World to be consulted in cases of that nature who am altogether a stranger to the Publick Affairs of Christendom and understand nothing at all of the mutual Interests Relations or Transactions of Forein Princes or States yea so little curious have I been to inform my self so much as where the Stages lay of the chiefest Actions of these latter times abroad or what persons were engaged therein that I have something pleased my self perhaps too much with my own ignorance in our home Affairs accounting it among the happinesses of my privacy and retiredness in these unhappy times that amidst so much fury and bloodshed on every side it was never my hap to be within the view of any Battle or Skirmish nor did I ever see so much as a Pistol discharged or a Sword drawn against any single person since the beginning of the War I could have wished therefore since my opinion herein is desired that I had had the opportunity to have advised with some more knowing Men and of greater experience and judgment than my self in these matters or at lest that you had sent me together with the two enclosed Letters a transcript of your Answer whose judgment I do with great reason very much value unto the former of them for there I assure my self I should have met with such Materials as would have served me for a good foundation to work upon yet to satisfie your desire so far as in me lieth and
the rather for the Gentlemans sake your friend who though unknown to me by face or till the receipt of your Letter so much as by Name yet by his Letters appeareth to be a person of Piety and Ingenuity and a great Master both of Reason and Language I have endeavoured with reservation of Place for second thoughts and submission to other Judgments to declare what my present apprehensions are concerning the whole business wherein the resolution of such doubts as in point of Conscience may arise or of the most and chiefest of them will as I conceive very much depend upon the consideration and right application of thâ—se Four things viz. I. The different sorts of Mens imployments in general II. The nature of the Souldiers imployments in particular III. The end that Men may propâ—se to themselves in following the War or what it is that chiefly induceth them thereunto IV. The condition of the Person so imployed or to be imployed I. Considerations of Mens Imployments in General 1. MEns imployments are of two sorts The one of such as any man may without blame from others or scruple within himself follow meerly upon his own score if he find himself in some measureable for it and have a mind thereunto he hath a power in himself and that jure proprio by a primitive and original right without any necessary derivation from others to dispose of himself his time and industry in that way for the exercise of which power there needeth no special or positive warrant from any other person but it is presumed he is as in relation to others sufficiently warranted thereunto in this in that he is not by any Superior Authority Divine or Humane forbidden so to do and upon this account it is that men betake themselves upon their own choice and liking to Husbandry Merchandize Manual Occupations the study of the Law c. 2. But another sort of Imployments there are whereunto a man hath not a just right primitively and of himself neither may he lawfully exercise the same meerly upon his own choice but it is necessary that that power should be derived upon him from some such person or persons as have sufficient Authority to warrant him for so doing Such is the Imployment of a Iudge a Constable an Aâ—bitrator c. which are therefore said to be juris delegati because the right that aâ—y man hath to such Imployments accrueth unto him by virtue of that Authority which he receiveth by Delegation of Deputation from some other that hath a right by Command Election Nomination or otherwise to Impower him thereunto whence are those usual forms Quo jure Quo warranto Who made thee a Iudge By what Authority dost thou those things Or Who gave thee this Authority A man may betake himself to the Study and so to the Practice of the Laws of his own accord but he may not take upon him to be a Iudge without Commission from his Sovereign so he may follow Husbandry and Merchandry upon his own choice but he may not do the Office of a Constable unless he be chosen by the Neighbours or of an Arbitrator unless chosen by the Parties thereunto 3. Now although as well the one sort as the other after a man hath addicted himself to the one or is deputed to the other may not unfitly be termed his Particular Calling and the latter perhaps with better propriety than the former for the word Calling properly importeth the Action of some other person yet according to the common Notion which by custom of speech among us we have of these terms The General and the Particular Calling the Imployments of the former sort are usually taken to be the Particular Calling of Men and those of the latter sort will be found if well considered to fall rather under the General Calling as branches or parts thereof inasmuch as the exercise of such Imployments is a part of that moral duty which all men according to their several respective Relations ought to perform to others being by them impowred thereunto upon the tie of Obedience Contract Friendship c. but for distinction sake as the Latins make a difference between vitae institutum and munus we may call those of the former sort Mans Profession and those of the latter sort his Office so a Man is by Profession a Lawyer by Office a Iudge by Profession an Husbandman by Office a Constable 4. To bring this Discourse home to the present business we are next to enquire to whether sort of the two the Imployment of a Souldier doth more properly appertain that is whether we are to conceive of it as a Profession which a man may at his own choice fix upon as his particular vocation or rather as an Office of duty and service which he is to undergo when by the command of his Prince he shall be thereto appointed and so to come rather under the notion of a General Calling To me it seemeth clearly to be of the latter sort For 1. in the passage of St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.4 No man that warreth entangleth himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a Souldier the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to him that warreth with the note of Vniversality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annexed seemeth to imply as if he supposed that no man might go to war unless he were chosen for that service by some other person that might command it Nor do I see 2. what good construction can be otherwise made of that speech of our Saviour Matt. 29.57 All they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword or what should be the crime there intended to be signified by this Phrase of taking the Sword if it be not this for a man to take the Sword into his hand by his own Authority before it be put into his hand by that Supream Power whom God hath immediately trusted with the bearing and managing of it Now 3. can that be said to be a Mans Profession or particular Calling which men of all Professions are in obedience to their Governors and for the service of their Countrey bound to perform whensoever they shall be by Lawful Authority called and appointed thereunto 5. If these premises will be granted it will soon appear that the answer to the Question proposed in the beginning of the former Letter as it standeth there in Terminis and in Thesi abstractly from the consideration of the person in the said Letter charactered and those other circumstances which may vary the Case must be in the Negative viz. That it is not lawful to be a Souldier upon the same account that men apply themselves to Trades to the practice of the Laws and to other like civil Imployments II. Consideration of the Souldiers Imployment in particular 1. THe care that ought to be in every Man that taketh upon him the exeâ—cise of any Office to be well assured that he
EIGHT CASES OF Conscience Occasionally Determined BY The late Reverend Father in god ROBERT SANDERSON Lord Bishop of LINCOLN HEB. XI 4. He Being Dead yet speaketh LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S t Paul's Church Yard 1673 EIGHT CASES OF Conscience Occasionally Determined BY The late Reverend Father in GOD ROBERT SANDERSON Lord Bishop of LINCOLN HEB. xi 4. He being Dead yet speaketh LONDON Printed for Henry Brome Iames Collins and Christopher Wilkinson 1674. A LETTER from a Friend concerning the ensuing CASES SIR HAving perused the Papers you sent me I can safely vouch them for Genuine and not in the least Spurious by that resemblance they wear of their Reverend Author and therefore you need not fear to bring them to the Publick Test and let them look the Sun in the face 'T is true their first Commission was but short and long since expired they being designed only to visit and respectively satisfie some private Friends yet I cannot see what injury you will offer to his sacred ashes if by renewing that you send them on a little farther Embassie for the common good Indeed the least remains of so matchless a Champion so invincible an Advocate in foro Theologico like the filings and fragments of Gold ought not to be lost and pity the world was not worthy many more of his learned Labours But Praestat de Carthagine tacere quà m pauca dicere far be it from me to â—pinion the wings of his Fame with any rude Letters of Commendation or by way of precarious Pedantry to court any man into a belief of his worth since that were to attempt Iliads after Homer and spoil a Piece done already to the life by his own Pencil the works whereof do sufficiently praise him in the gates All I aim at is to commend and promote your pious intention to give the world security by making these Papers publick that they shall never hereafter stand in need of any other hand to snatch them out of the fire a doom you say once written upon them I have no farther trouble to give you but to thank you for those excellent Pieces of the same Hand and Stamp as every Intelligent Reader will easily discern with which as an accession to this Edition your Care and Piety hath obliged the Publick Only again let me bespeak your vigilance over the Press which by her daily teeming and expertness or at least negligence of the Midwife is wont of late to spoil good births with monstrous deformities and unpardonable Errata so you will avoid a double guilt contracted by some without fear or wit of abusing your critical Reader on the one hand and your most judiciously exact Writer on the other and if that may contribute any thing more very much gratifie the most unworthy of his Admirers The Eight Cases Determined I. Of the Sabbath 1 II. Of Marrying with a Recusant 20 III. Of Unlawful Love 30 IV. Of a Military Life 59 V. Of Scandal 94 VI. Of a Bond taken in the King's Name 101 VII Of the Engagement 107 VIII Of a Rash Vow 134 Imprimatur Iohn Hall R.P.D. Episc. Lond. à Sac. Domestic May 30. 1665. ERRATA PAge 5. line 7. read not at all p. 6. l. penult dele so long as p. 15. l. 12. r. change p. 2. l. ult r. with p. 23. l. 16. r. she ibid. l. 22. r. it is p. 32 l. 4. r. unto p. 42. l. 24. dele of p. 43. l. 10. r. married p. 45. l. 21. r. sayings ibid. l. 24. r. muta p. 51. l. 7. r. Premisses p. 52. l. 9. r. to whom ibid. l. 25. r. should p. 53. l. 23. r. with all p. 56. l. 12. r. haply p. 57. l. 23. r. herself ibid. l. ult r. he p. 67. l. 3. r. doth but p. 72. l. 12. r. artis ibid. l. 17. r. nearer p. 84. l. 19. r. mediations p. 86. l. 11. r. a Prince ibid. l. 26. after right add belongeth to him and another to assume a power that of right p. 96. l. 23. r. or what means p. 99. l. 5. for to r. do p. 106. l. 7. r. whereunto p. 107. l. ult dele in p. 119. l. 13. dele to p. 120. l. 23. dele the p. 136. l. 19. r. maketh p. 137. l. 4. r. parts p. 141. l. 21. r. voideth p. 142. l. 6. r. place The Case of the Sabbath To My very Loving Friend Mr. Tho. Sa. at S. B. Nottingh March 28. 1634. SIR WHen by your former Letter you desired my present Resolution in two Questions therein proposed concerning the Sabbath although I might not then satisfie your whole desire being loath to give in my opinion before I had well weighed it yet that I might not seem altogether to decline the task imposed on me by you I engaged my self by promise within short time to send you what upon further consideration I should conceive thereof Which promise so far as my many distractions and occasions would permit I endeavoured to perform by perusing the Books you sent me in the one whereof I found written on the spare paper with your hand a Note moving a third Question about the Name of the Sabbath also and by looking up and reviewing such scattered Notes as I had touching that Subject But then I met with difficulties so many and great whereof the more I considered the more still I found them to encrease that I saw it would be a long work and take up far more time then I could spare to digest and enlarge what seemed needful to be said in the three Questions in such sort as was requisite to give any tollerable satisfaction either to my self or others Wherefore I was eftsoons minded to have excused my self by Letter to you from farther medling with these Questions and to have remitted you over for better satisfaction to those men that have both better leisure to go about such a business and better abilities to go through with it than I have for to questions of importance better nothing be said than not enough And the rather was I minded so to do when I perceived there were rumors spread in these parts occasioned as I verily suppose by some speeches of your good friend Mr. Tho. A. as if I were writing a Treatise of the morality of the Sabbath Which besides that it might raise an expectation of some great matters which I could in no wise answer it might also expose that little I should have done to the mis-censures of men wedded to their own opinions if after I had laid mine open it should have happened in any thing as in some things like enough it would to have disagreed from theirs Yet because by your late kind Letter wherein whilst I was slack in making it you have prevented mine excuse I perceive the continuance of your former desire I have therefore since resolved to do somewhat though not so much as I first intended hoping that you will in friendly manner interpret my purpose therein I