men beyond them again an appetite above comparison both in the generality of desiring and the ability of attaining Insomuch as both in regard of their serviceableness and readiness and the largeness of mans appetite to entertain and make use of them as beforesaid we may be called little worlds by our selves having in us their vertues epitomized as well as uses stinted All things seeming but made for us and no creature exempt and useless from our imployment for benefit or pleasure What can he wish above him is an indulgent God enduing him with appetites and reason to desire and attain the objects of his content in abundant variety Below him all creatures standing obedient and thereunto serviceable CHAP. IV. Of Government as it stands in Natural Reason and of its reputed Original IN this happy estate of innocent coveting and enjoying we at first stood by the goodness of him that made the delight of all things ours and ours his until ungratefully intermitting our acknowledgement and delight upwards we forfeited our delight below by breaking that command which should have been the pledge and type of both Wherein besides Ingratitude mans fault seemed Pride or Presumption in ayming to break the link of that Golden chain and rank of Subordination wherein Nature had limited us and so balking our dependance on God be as it were gods unto our selves in the knowledge of good and evil Now is it that the most ordinary and useful parts of our bodies come to be accompted nakedness or sin which had we been content to enjoy according to the natural simplicity of our first state and the example of other creatures we had continued innocent in their use and other injuries done by self-seeking being according to nature and she being content with self-sufficency she had therein been as well our warrant as our spur Whereas now our unbridled lusts leading us beyond all bounds and measure and then having those former innocent acts mingled with our inordinate desires and so with them taken upon our own scores they thereby become sin also From hence come we to be assaulted from without with the revolt of the creature and from within by our own concupiscence which proves now both our sin and our punishment For whilst in our greedy and hasty pursuits Reason wants either ability or time to consult of good or bad our wo instead of our weal is many times embraced Before when we were content to follow the natural Laws of our kinde we could do nothing ill and now trusting to our selves we can do nothing well And seeming not content with those miseries that singly assail us our unsociable dispositions finding occasion to make others the objects of our malice and revenge pull on our selves the like or greater punishment then they did strive to inflict And again instead of those reciprocal helps in our decay which should have grown from consort-ship our enterfering desires continually engage us to mutual prejudice And then when the whole store and variety of nature can hardly satisfie the boundles appetite of one man how should they content all Whereas beasts neither covetous of Propriety nor relishing their price by difficulty are content with the simple and ready food of grass or the like They quietly and peaceably enjoy their loves and rest and after their own repasts can without envy or dislike see the satisfaction of others Whereas man in his unlimited appetite seeking to engross the common revenue of Nature and esteeming the content of others a privation to himself in a restless covetousness makes a dearth in plenty For be himself never so throughly glutted he yet grudges at the satisfaction of another and would at least have it his bounty It would trouble our Arithmetique to sum up the variety of our food apparel and other delights wherewith not nature but the satisfaction of our inordinate desires makes us perpetually industrious and when all is done it is not self-sufficiency that can please us but we become as unsatiable for quantity as kinde And further since equal things cannot but have equal desire and claim and since neither mens prerogatives amongst themselves nor proprieties over other Creatures are by Nature distinguished how should the possession of one happen without the discontent of another what 's the issue of this discontent but strife and fighting and of fighting but death to the disturbance of Nature and destruction of her chief Master-Piece The riches of the earth that without labour sprang up and satisfied the desires of our innocent Parents must now only be the reward of our travel but who will till the field before he can be assured of the Crop and if when Nature out of her general regard and intending the good of all set no bounds or distinctions for the private possession of any but that all may lay equal claim to the soil and fruit why should any take more pains when afterwards his propriety shall be but equal and as the issues of his labour so himself in defence thereof but rendred a more probable prey to the next violent hand To sum up all consider on one side the variety of Nature and the Creatures in objects for our use and delight and on the other side our proness to strife for their possession or for better instance suppose all those things free again wherein men now enjoy their unquestioned propriety and Nature as loose to make equal tender of them to all what but hatred confusion and destruction could we imagine would follow instead of our now peaceable agreement Therefore supposing as is usually done mankinde to have at first lived in this confused condition wherein equality of persons and community of goods set every one against another where while all things were all mens no man had the enjoyment of any thing and then no doubt this sense of the miseries arising by dissention would be the chief motive to bring men to submit to Government and think of some way of unity For partly out of remorse of the slaughter of others and partly out of just fear that the like might befal themselves or friends the occasions of their miseries would begin to be enquired and withal the likeliest means of preservation and peace And because quarrels had for the most part arisen about propriety propriety would be the chief thing which by Laws and Rules amongst themselves they would go about to establish In which doing besides the abatement of strife they foresaw a general positive benefit to ensue for where before they found that what was every mans profit was no mans care and while all might reap none would plough or while the herd and fleece was common the breed was neglected fear of famine and other humane indigencies quickly taught them with most reason to expect the best return of publique utility and trust where private hands might gain by managery and to make the wheel of common concentrique with that of private advantage They quickly found
being so over righteous and overwise That is to say by private useing and applying the rules of do as thou wouldest be done unto and love thy Neighbour as thy self not left unto him by the higher power Whereupon being over wise that is wise in his owne conceit he neglects the precept that said Honour thy Father and thy Mother and thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and so doth not as he would be done unto And againe he that hath not these charitable rules deep enough in his heart but shall act contrary in things remitted to him or shall strain the letter of the law to countenance his malice or private interest onely he is over much wicked and a fool and offending against charity puts himself into the same danger also For although obedience be in it self matter of Apostolical precept and rejoycing yet should we be wise unto that whis is good and simple concerning evil For alas the uncharitable designes of self interest do so often intermingle in what we do even in order to superiour command that we shall not need to fear men will not have sins enough to answer for We are all of us God knows so far the sons of Adam as to be too prone to yeild to the temptatiof tasting of the forbiddin fruit of good and evil in what is commanded whereby we lose the innocence of doves and not to be wise enough again in doing that good to our Neighbour which is left and referred to our owne discretion and power whereby we fail of the wisdome of Serpents But however if we will be innocent it must be by casting of our owne wisdome and by implicite following Christs precepts for obedience and charity to our neighbour and for what we have done otherwise we must re-estate our selves in innocence by repentance even to the degree of little children who we know obey implicitely and act without malice And this is the scope of Christs thanks giving that these things were hid from the wise and prudent that is such as trusted in their moral righteousness and were revealed unto Babes that is to such as considering the load of legal precepts should like men regenerate again in Christ take his easie yoke upon them and by lowliness and meekness the two concomitants of obedience find rest for their souls And this is the effect of our new birth whereby being as the sons of God in Christ restored to a state of innocence we come to be freed of the old leaven and that guilt of morality incurred by the old Adam And in this sence are all those and the like places to be understood how the children of God sin not Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Which places may well allude unto and are explained by our Saviour himself in his answer to the Pharisees a people that use to mak religious pretences to discountenance lawful obedience and would have made their unauthorised interpretations of the law in superstitious observation of the Sabboth and some other things act their militious designes against Christs honour and their neighbours good If ye were blinde saith Christ ye would have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth if they had not opposed their owne prying humour in the literal morality of the law against Christs authority obedience had kept them innocent but going about to establish their owne righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God For by means of their insubjection unto that manner of judgement for the which Christ came into the world they trusting to their own may of seeing came to be made blind whereas others that pretended not to see of themselves through obedience to him were made to see And if the forementioned places of Saint Matthew be well consulted we shall find the interpretation and guidance of religious precepts and duties left wholly to the supream Magistrate and that Christ by this liberty in the great legal injunction of the Sabboth shews that offices of Charity or judgment mercy and faith are the end or weightier matters of the law mercy better then sacrifice And therefore although he aver his owne authority in Church matters as being greater then the Temple yet he saith the Son of man Lord also of the Sabboth If he had said the Son of God had been Lord thereof it had been but to assert what was not questioned but as he here calls himself Son of man to countenance his deputies and stop the mouths of such as under colour of the weakness of humane authority would deny the supream Magistrates power herein so he did before instance what men they are that have it that is Kings personated in David and Priests alluded unto in Abiathar in whose dayes it was done both of them having sole trust of law And therefore as they in the law so he as a great King and Priest in the Gospel had this power also Whereupon since the observation of legal precepts as barely such cannot have as from us alone any such exact performance as to be justifiable and meritorious but this being done by Christ the morality of our works can be justified but as through him that is as done in obedience to his authority who hath bin fully meritorious therein already Hereupon it must be plicite where direct precept is or according to the general precepts of love in things remitted to us And this was the great mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh through obedience to which manifestation we come to be justified in the Spirit For Christ saith of himself as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world but being we are bidden to be obedient to our Superiour Masters in the flesh as unto Christ and in the Lord that is in his stead it follows that he that dispiseth them dispiseth him that sent them And therefore Christians in their obedience and discipleship to Christ are compared to sheep a creature best setting forth their duty of obedience by their ready simple and implicite following their Shephard and also the general duty of Christian love and charity by their inoffensive and harmless deportments one towards another And to prove that this obedience to Christs Minister is to be the pre-required condition that should justifie men in their Christian deportments we shall finde that the Apostles and such as he was to delegate as his Ambassadours are by Christ not onely called the lights of the world a City on a hill and the like to shew the largeness of their illumination but farther to shew the necessity of the conformity of our outward deportments to their directions they are also by Christ appointed to be the salt of the earth And he expresly sayes that every one shall be salted with fire that
of God That is for your good example for your patience the effect of love and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God or of these graces of God in you that makes you righteous that yee may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God both to the participation of him in his Church here and hereafter for which yee also suffer That is those tribulations which ye endure in obedience to Authority according to that righteous judgment of God who now will have righteousness and peace meet together in the good and peace of the Church is a plain argument that you your selves are true Members of that Church even by that plain demonstration given of your sense of fellow-feeling of those miseries which must attend her in case the direction of her authorized guides should be rejected For although the Law it in self were holy righteous and good and would have proved effectually so to us also if we had had sufficiency and integrity enough to have been fully comprehensive and observant of every particle thereof yet sin taking occasion by the commandment through those motions which were in the flesh unto sin made us come to lose Charity and Peace the end of the Law through a mistaken interpretation of keeping the Law according to the Letter thereof and so made it to be the Law of sin and of death And therefore are we to esteem our selves as dead unto that wherein we were held that is unto written precepts being now to serve this husband in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Meaning that through obedience made from the heart to that form of Doctrine which was delivered unto us we shall now be made free from sin and born the servants of righteousnesse That is by having our righteousness perfected after this new and living way even by obedience to that life and spirit of Christ those Precepts and directions which from the holy Ghost are received from those that represent him in Authority here amongst us By which it shall come to pass that what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flâ—sh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh and for sinn condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law or that righteousness which the Law aimed at might be fulfilled by us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for they that are after the flesh that is doe trust to their own fleshly wisdomes in the interpretation of literall precepts will from thence take occasion to minde the things of the flesh and so make it prove the law of sin and death and not of life and peace Nor is this Doctrine of the simplicity of Gospel-precepts and accomplishment of Innocence by Christian submission other then what was formerly prophesied to be the estate of the Christian Church viz. In that day shall the Lord of Hosts be for a Crown of glory and a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people and for a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battell into the Gate That is to him that shall judge them and fight their Battels which in the Jewish phrase signifies Kingly office In these words we see the spirit of judgment is plainly prophesied to reside in him that sitteth in Judgment who being also mentioned by him in the singular number and the glory and beauty of the Church being expressed under the notions of Crown and diadem it cannot but personate the Kingship of Christ and his adopted sons according to the following prophesie Behold a King shall reign in Righteousness and Princes in Judgment Then the Prophet goes on to shew whom he would teach Doctrine and Knowledge that is such as are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the breasts Meaning such as are content to obey the voice of Christs authority as little Children But the persons usually erring in this case and that think the simple food of Milk too weak for them and therefore must taste the Tree of good and evill called strong drink and wine are decyphered under the notions of Priests and Prophets the usuall leaders in disobedience For whereas the Lord said This is the rest wherewith yee shall cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing yet they would not hear but the Word of the Lord was unto them that is to their apprehension precept upon precept precept upon precept Line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little that they may goe and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken that is refusing the simplicity of Gospell-light these conceited wise men shall be taken in their own â—raft being snared in the Law of sin and death called their Covenant with death and hell Upon which ground it is that God there threatens to speak with stammering lips and another tongue to that people meaning that dark parabolicall way of delivery used in Scripture The which should be also encreased by these mens own devised phrases and select words of interpretation used amongst themselves whereby as by a sort of Canting they should speak as with stammering lips and another tongue and so be punished with darkness because of their incredulity and disobedience to him and for having trusted to their own Morall wisdomes and because also through dark and intricate instructions of legality they thought to have made lies and falshood their refuge But it is there declared who shall be the sure foundation of the Churches safety namely the Corner stone or the seat of Judgment He that believeth shall not make haste That is Christ by his owning this Throne of Kingly Judgement will be for a spirit of Judgement to him that undertaketh to be the Line and Plummet of Iudgement and Righteousness The which shall increase in strength to the treading down and overflowing these hiding places from the time it goeth forth it shall take hold for morning by morning shall it pass over by day and by night That is it shall so grow in power that it shall be to these sorts of people A vexation only to understand the report To hear of the daily increase of Kingly Office and power notwithstanding their seditious contrivances For the bed is shorter then that a Man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower then that he can wrap himself in it There is no room for lyes nor refuge for falshood to be had in the simplicity of the Gospel precepts It is God that now calls for this respect and obedience to his Vicegerent For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim he shall be wrath as in the valley of â—ibeon That he may doe his work his strange work and bring to pass his act his
injustice of some particular persons hath hitherto deprived me of In the mean time as in many other of my afflictions I have found the good hand of Providence turning all things for the best and bringing good out of evil so do I now with greater comfort submit to this diversion as foreseeing that if I had not upon these unhappy occasions been brought to discourse of the sins and remedies of uncharitableness and disobedience the usual consequents of plenty and pleasure I should then it is like have been so taken up with mens more general and more present and sensible contents arising by the other as to have rested inconsiderate and silent of these mischiefs which the enjoyments in this kinde might produce In these and other speculations and discourses as I may generally say that I am neither Thief nor prisoner to the Text or Tenet of any man so do I desire to be understood that I was not hereunto induced through arrogance or affected singularity but the small proficience in Arts towards mans use and the daily failing of publick peace and agreement notwithstanding those Rules and Maxims hitherto delivered together with the diversity of opinions concerning them causeed me for a while to lay aside all Authority but that of Scripture or Reason to see what a new disquition from these would afford In any of which if too great zeal to the Cause and end in hand have led me into error and to deviate and transcend these my propounded warrants I do here profess to be ingenuously ready to acknowledge my self a debtor to any sober and reasonable conviction In the mean time I am expecting that some mens interest should lead them to clamour and outcry on my more severe dissections made towards the cure of publick Peace which have been by others but slightly healed and skinned over But as many Land discoveries had not been had not some more daring travellers adventured beyond the road of common belief and opinion so to the increase of knowledge a latitude of enquiry and judgement must be allowed although it may in some things thwart the ordinary current of tradition For I finde that Truth and Knowledge have not a greater and more common enemy then fear of reproach that is whilst writers through fear of contradiction strive to confine themselves to the sense of such as they hold of greatest reputation for ability in that whereof they treat they leave but where they begun and proceed with such wariness to themselves that it makes them forget the errand they go about which is the farther infirmation and benefit of others In my following Discourse as I undertake to cleer things from the sinister constructions which ambitious heads have heretofore given so I doubt not but I shall be by many therein construed and my Arguments prejudiced as if coming from a Court or a Kings parasite and an a better to Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government But because they that are so do it in hope of reward from those they flatter and my self not having any encouragement therein from the present fortune or affection of any now I know not why any should think me less indulgent to my self and posterity as considered in this common relation then others to theirs so as to imploy so much labour to court and countenance our common misery For could it ever have entred into a steady thought to have enthralled whole mankinde as they stand separated amongst us in Kingdoms to no other end then to advance here and there a single person to dignity in comparison of whom thousands of themselves were and might ordinarily be presumed superior in merit And I must confess I was my self a great while pleased with the seeming reasonableness of such like common maxims how unfit it was that all should be subject to the arbitrary Government of any one and much attentive I was to all those fine inventions and contrivances for his constraint herein but when I saw that Soveraingnty must at last be somewhere and that to divide it if it might be was not to lessen but to encrease its yoak when I saw that Covernment a Government must be Arbitrary I then concluded that the burthen of one Tyrant if it must be so was easier then that of many I am not ignorant of the natural sweetness of Liberty not in man onely but in all things that have life and sense For to what end these if when by them I am made perceptible of a benefit to my self I shall at the will of another be deprived and but rendred the more miserable by being desirous It were no doubt a happy estate could a man tell how to fancy it without utter extirpation of Nature if there were sufficient of things created not onely to satisfie the use but to satiate the most greedy appetite of each thing living in such sort that each one might not covet any thing enjoyed by his equal or of others above him It were then again necessary for compleating universal content that each one had over each and every one such full and absolute Dominion that he could not by any aversion of Power or Will in them be restrained Seem these things as large and as impossible for performance as they will yet appetite as appetite cannot otherwise stint it self but the desire for enjoyment possession of power over all things and persons is as natural as over any one Creatures below us have their appetites but few so that in injoying what they seek they are but seldom and then not lasting disturbers of one another But as for man there is not from the greatest to the lowest any that desireth not the increase of his power and he that like Alexander should command all would not yet rest both from wishing more worlds to command and it is like had he been entred among the Gods would have strove for command there also Look we to things again how shall we think what is within the verge of humane reach should now pease all men when all of it formerly could not please one For so our first Parents themselves must encroach on the propriety of Deity in desiring to know good and evil And think we yet that the poorest creature living would not be immortal if the flaming sword of impossibility kept him not off But now as nature hath bordered us by her Law of irresistability so that age sickness infirmities with all their attendants are not by any attempt or insurrection of ours against her avoidable even so I could wish that some way might be had to prevent mens risings against one another Yet then since some must be subject to others what course can we fancy to make them subject and not subject that is that their obedience shall be their liberty shall we wish that every man had his desires in all things so moderated that having or not having or his having or anothers having were alike contentible then indeed would no subjection be
preservation of all creatures in general is called Providence so being applyed to mans particular it is called Peace A blessing of such utility that in Scripture we may observe all other blessings included therein as the more worthy so that in our prayer for the peace of Jerusalem any other state we include all sublunary benefits it is capable of and as our God will be called the God of peace so our Saviour the Prince of Peace who as a complement of all blessings saith Peace be unto you and enjoyns it as a common and summary benediction to others Peace to this house or Peace to this City But because peace in it self seems but a Negative happiness we will now so far as is for the present needful speak of Mans end and happiness in general which by means of this peace he strives to attain and secure CHAP. V. Of each Mans private End and Felicity WE before touched how the different Perfections of Creatures arose from the different neerness to Divine resemblance and that the whole Creation took effect out of Gods intention to express his goodness and reap thereby due praise and glory and that this difference of participation and resemblance appeared most in man as a creature most lively enabled both to the rellishing and enjoying this goodness and bounty and withal of greatest engagement and ability to return due praise We are now to consider that as it would have seemed unreasonable in God to expect praise from us for such things whose use and possession we could not at all apprehend or acquire so to encrease this praise and thanks it was necessary that the objects of our felicity and our vigor in enjoying and possessing them should be encreased also And again as for to have coveted and delighted in any by means of our affections and then have wanted the benefit of reason and discourse to attain it had been and abuse so to imagine we should have ever put forth to the possession of any thing the pleasure or benefit whereof we did no ways apprehend were absurd and therefore in this necessary conjunction our reason and affections are heightned and helped by each other yet Reason doth usually play the part of the Servant or Ministerial Officer to the attaining of what we apprehend as Pleasant which Reason having assented unto on the behalf of the object out of which Pleasure is expected it is then called Good or when on the behalf of the way and means to attain it it is then called Vertue especially if it overthrow not a greater Pleasure in others to which end all Laws are framed Politically appointing punishments to keep off the seeking of such Pleasures They that have hitherto defined mans felicity have stinted it to such and such particular objects wherein for the most part guessing by the measure of their own rellishes and apprehensions they themselves thought greatest happiness to consist but we not making mans felicity narrower then the objects thereof will afford and reckoning small pleasures even to be parts thereof also do not mean to contend in what particular object or exercise this delight doth most consist leaving it to ties proper and indisputable judge each mans own appetite but do affirm mans end to be pleasure At which if any seem startled as esteeming a difference should be put between that which is good and that which is pleasant and that goodness may be had where pleasure is not their mistake ariseth from the observation that since many men and creatures take often delight in such things as procure them afterwards great harm and sorrow and on the other side finding many things which are painful in the present possession to prove afterwards good they seek thereupon to divide Good from Pleasant Not duly considering that besides God no object can have in it self a positive or perfect degree of goodness but it is in them comparative only even according to that serviceableness they yield to other things as for food cloathing or other use Therefore the measure of good received from any thing must be rated according to the rellish entertainment and serviceableness it finds in the receiver which must make it good or not For if by good we understand what is commodious and necessary for the preserving and perfecting our nature without regard whether it be pleasant or not see we not how they take away the use of sense and reason and make the felicity of living Creatures not to exceed that of stones and other Inanimates for these have this felicity conferred on them with greater constancy and assurance then Sensitives and if such kind of passive or negative happiness could dignifie would be more excellent of the two Whereas they having no apprehension rellish or delight in what they do we may justly account them excelled by Creatures of sense as they are again by man surpassing them all in the variety and vigour of his enjoyments As for instance in that intellectual pleasure of honour wherein man seems so delighted as if he were a second Deity they have either none or small apprehension Their ears are not capable of harmony or the sweetness of eloquence nor their eyes delighted with Colours Figures method c. They want also many varieties of tastes and smells which we possess And in a word as man hath brain the root of sense in greater quaintity then they so also he exceeds them in the use and effects thereof being more various and abundant in his desires and more vigorous and steady in his possession All which will conclude that goodness in Sensitives as such cannot be where pleasure is not and that goodness is but another name for Pleasure or commonly the way our reason apprehends to it For when for the health of my body I endure Physick or other observations which are troublesom and unpleasant or for the good of my soul abstain from any thing pleasant or undergo any task or pennance see we not how that which is called good in both kindes is but in respect it is the way to what is pleasant afterwards for the appetite following Pleasure as her general end and preferring the greater to the less by the help of reason finds that in these and like cases this end is not otherwise attainable For this lasting pleasure of health doth far countervail the temporary sufferings of Physick and the reward of heaven any momentany punishment and in both cases proves not the avoidance but Pursuit of Pleasure For is any thing Pleasant to the taste for other cause eschewed but out of fear of some other detriment nor can we make an Athiest forbear his pleasure when the terror of shame or the Law are off him or the Glutton his appetite in any thing which fear of sickness forbids not From the first instance we may conclude this Maxim That slighter and less durable pain is to be suffered rather then greater as if that of Physick to that of Sickness
however be acknowledged the Author of that honor that ariseth from the work it self which as it had issue according to the vertue of the Agent so must the power thereof be ascribed unto him and so from him to God above who is the fountain of all power and beneficial acts and not to the people below who are onely passive and receivers Of whose farther care and power over us in this act of Government we shall next treate by discoursing of his Laws sent amongst us for conferring this honor on persons here below whereby we might be enabled to prevent those inconveniences in Society which the private and unlimitted seeking our own ends hitherto spoken of might else prodduce CHAP VII Of the Laws of God leading to Government THe dignity of man above other Creatures we have heretofore in part touched as also why thereupon a greater care should be taken for his preservation and therefore lest a matter of so high concern should be left unto so slender protection and guidance as that of his own reason God himself hath furnished him with Precepts and Laws from above for his direction Religion being nothing else but Gods supply of natures light for our good or an expression of Gods love and Charity to us by directing us how to be charitable one towards another And to divide the Law of Nature from having the same end with that of Religion is to divide the Author and set him against himself For although to strengthen the observation of his Laws in regard of his known power and our necessary dependance upon him he doth accept and call for our performance as a service to himself yet I see not how any can without injury to his al-sufficiency think Gods condition thereby any ways bettered But in these performances we are to consider that saying of Eliphaz in Job Can a man be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it gain to him that thou makest thy way perfect No we must with the most Religious King believe and confess that our goodness extendeth not to him but to the Saints that are on earth and such as excel in vertue that is to say to such as live in society with us which sociable living is inclusive of all vertue And although it is a Saint-like quality to be conversant in vertuous and benificent actions and to be obedient unto the good Laws of God yet is the good of keeping them their benefit onely whom we converse with on earth and not directly his And therefore Charity is the end of the Law and also of those many other precepts set down in holy writ as to diligent enquiry may easily appear and the injuries to our neighbor are reckoned in the Scriptures as sins against God But to make things a little more plain by instance we will make some observation upon the Decalogue it self as the head and ground of the rest The value and credit of all things and particularly of Laws must arise in our esteem either as they are apprehended by our own reason available for our good or else they must have the known testimony of such an Author whose wisdom and love towards us may no ways be questioned But in this case for one man without farther authority to impose upon another with what reason shall he expect success for being but my equal in nature how shall I know him my superior in wisdom Because in respect of will we being all equally enclined to seek good and avoid evil and each one doing it to himself in the first place I have no doubt in that regard reason to prefer my own wish or inclination before that of others And then also although the will cannot fail in the constant choice of good yet it being dependent on the guidance of the understanding according to the strength or weakness thereof it attains what is really so or is beguiled with appearances yet it will fall out that these appearances shall have equal credit with that which is real and more beneficial For be the measure of my understanding never so small and weak yet it being all I have and in me the supream and onely judicatory how shall I judge the insufficiency thereof For if we should have in us one understanding above another to be judge thereunto we should again need another understanding to give testimony and direction to that nor could we herein come to any pause And then farther although error commonly happen for want of true induction and sufficient enquiry into the particulars out of which our conclusions are or ought to be framed yet when education or other prejudice hath so far forestalled my judgement as already to fill and settle it it is almost bootless for any then to perswade me to new enquiry it being but is as if you should wish me to believe that my desire of my own good hath been so weak that competent care and pains hath not been taken therein or in effect to entreat me to believe another loves it more then my self Add to this that since the general acknowledgement of mans excellency above other creatures and of one man above another is chiefly accounted in respect of understanding therefore for me to acknowledge any insufficiency herein cannot be expected as concluding too much to mine own shame Whereupon we may see how scornfully the name of Fool is taken even by them that are most so for first how should he know it and then how should he like it And when men are heard to confess their insufficiency in respect of others it is for the most part fained and in complement to them thinking to commend and advance their sufficiency by their humility Or if it be real it is in such and such particulars wherein themselves have not put forth with like endeavors as our ready and common excuses for all sorts of failings may witness Which is so far from acknowledging any comparative insufficiency as my being confident that if my self had bestowed equal pains I should therein have excelled it will argue my pride rather then submission And even in practical arts and operations where sense can be judge of present good and bad how partial are we to conclude for our selves Or when the effect makes it too apparent against us we lay not the fault on want of inward sufficiency or understanding but on some corporal or external wants and impediments All which doth plainly discover the difficulty if not impossibility of one mans submission to the guidance of another And especially in matters of speculation this stubborness doth arise for so we finde in matters of Religion which all men look upon with like interest and concern and consequently concluding that they have therein taken the directest course each on becomes so inflexible that no re-examination will be admitted And to come to our purpose for making
if we proceed by such self-injuries how shall the damage of our neighbour be avoided in whose and our destruction there will happen a diminution to Gods general property in mankinde by loss of so many individuals Upon which ground we see that Kings as Gods Vicegerents and under him proprietors of their whole territories must for the enabling them in their account have account given them for the life of each one of his subjects which although destroyed by himself is yet murther and the party culpable as Felo de se. So then There is no power but of God and the powers that are are ordained of him he it is that taketh away kings and setteth up Kings a God of Gods and Lord of Kings he is and he himself by paramount right beareth rule over the kingdoms of men and giveth them to whom he will The which to deny and to ascribe this gift and power to any earthly derivation is with Nebuchadnezzar to have the â—eart and understanding of a beast onely not of a reasonable creature And Daniel farther tells Baltshazar The most high God gave thy father a kingdom and majesty and honor and glory and for the majesty that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him he put to death whom he would and whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down all which as it shews the original of power so being spoken of heathen kings what can more directly point out the largeness of authority necessarily belonging to that office as derived from God to whom all the kingdoms of the earth belong and whose Lieutenants they are Could the law of nature or any other unknown prerogative of one man over another have otherwise made the taking of mans life away other then murther had not a power herein been thus gotten from God who onely had it to be exercised by his Vicegerent to enable him as before said to put to death whom he would Which general power of the sword of justice we may find given to Kings at the same time God gave over the immediate managery thereof himself for so are we to understand the words at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man namely to denote unto us that Officer who is appointed to the execution of this power For although God will have mans blood now punished by man himself yet it is not to be done by every one but by such an one as should personate and represent every man as being every mans brother so that by the words hand and brother in the singular number we are to understand that this power of life and death is hereby put into the trust of this publike and general person now the adopted elder brother under and after the law as it was in the natural elder brother before the law And that this verse was not idlely added to the former but to signifie this common person the King will most plainly appear by comparing it with that description of Kingly office particularly given to the Jews in which this officer is there specified under that relation of brother three times and under no notion else one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother and againe it is there said that his heart be not lift up above his brethren In which places since the relation of brotherhood is so often used and not any other word or relation as of bidding them choose one of their own nation country kindred religion c. it must shew it to be a direct paraphrase on this place And that which will yet most of all clear it will be the observation that this first prediction and appointment of Kingship by God all the world over was upon the same occasion with this prophesie and appointment of kingship by Moses amongst the Jews because that in both places the relation and notion of brother is set down by occasion of the establishment of the like chief mark of their office namely supream judicature For as in this place this publike officer and judge was appointed upon occasion of Gods first setting down positive laws for men to be governed by so in this place of Moses it is set down after and upon occasion of setling the power of supreme judicature between blood and blood c. in one judge amongst that people Some have thought the judiciary power and the designation of magistracy not to be set down till the sixth verse and that in the most general terms of who so sheddeth c. But I conceive that verse to contain a general recital of Gods care of humane preservation by the vindicative prosecution of the causers of his death whither man or beast both which had been before particularly spoken to For that chap. containing expressions of Gods providence for man and beast after their former destruction we may note that as the forbidding to eat blood was sacramentally delivered to teach men clemency and abstinence in that their indulgence for dominion and food over beasts so on the other side to shew us that God careth for men too it is next added and the blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast By which words since we cannot conceive how beasts should be otherwise in that kind responsible to God then by his Minister of justice amongst us we must therefore conclude the requiring hereof at the hand of every beast and at the hand of every man is to be made good by that judiciary authority of every mans brother next following All which will plainly appear to be the sense hereof by the 21 Chap. of â—xodus where laws are set down for men and beasts in that kind offending which are to be exercised by the present judiciary power and not left to every man in the literal sense But to return to the other part of kingly power according to Daniels description By setting up and pulling down whom he pleasâ—th we may see the subordination of all estates orders and degrees of subjects unto him inasmuch as the power of all other magistrates must be reckoned but as derived from him as supreme and their power but as parts and slips of his entire trust And this was well denoted when God took part of Moses spirit to enable the subordinate Ministers to exercise their functions for although God had sufficient of his own to give as yet unbestowed yet to shew the necessity of their dependance and subordination for establishment of government he grants them portions onely of what had been entirely conferred on one before that so agreement and unity might be preserved by this unity of spirit and bond of peace which would else be distracted by plurality of persons And to this end were these persons to be at Moses choice also for the Lord said unto Moses Gather
constant as to the way and form yet through humane frailty it may many times fail in the measure and end of its efficacy The Officers that are to claim their Functions and Authority as Jure Divino are first the King or Monarch who is from and under God himself established as well in causes Ecclesiastical as Civil supreme Governor And then Fathers Masters and Husbands as Civil Governors And then those of the Clergy as spiritual guides and directors under this their chief guide and director unless it be where and when this Master or Father of the Family is insubjected and independent at which time he being himself a supreme Monarch hath as Elder Brother those Priest-like and Civil Offices of instruction and coertion by the Law of God united in the same unsubordinate person even as amongst those great and more ancient Families it fared before Nations came to be under kingship or that the Priesthood was divided from the Civil power Nor doth matter of Reason alone as already and hereafter to be shewed prove the Authority of these Functions to be Divine but the express precepts by God himself to that purpose given do beyond dispute settle these Officers and none else as of Divine right immediately to them derived for authorising them in their acts of Government and Power By which words of immediately derived we may know how to put a difference between that Power and Authority which is exercised by Kings themselves who hold of none but God above them and that which others their Magistrates perform who being ordained in their power by the Prince cannot be said to hold their powers otherwise then as immediately received from him But although in this regard of subordination it may be in some sense true that the Priest and Master of the Family may be also said to derive their power from the King where Kingship is even because in the exercise thereof they may be by him directed or limited yet is there a great difference to be put between them and Magistrates in respect of claim to divine right in performance of their Functions The Magistrate as he is positively affirmatively impowred by the Prince so is he also negatively under him in the execution thereof the Priest and Master of the Family on the other side have all their positive power of instruction and jurisdiction from God alone derived being negatively onely restrainable by the Monarch in the outward act and execution thereof whereas to the King himself it is alone peculiar as to be by none but God affirmatively impowered so to be by none but him negatively restrainable But then again although in each independent family the offices of instruction and coercion be united in chief in the person of the same Master yet between the Authorities which those of the Priesthood and the Masters of Families do severally execute where they are not united there is unto the Order of Priesthood a greater honor annexed in respect of divine Claym and Authority then to the other and that not onely because instruction must be supposed to precede coercion in time and order but also in dignity in respect or the different dignities of those that are to be the objects of their Authorities the Priestly Function presupposing always a more noble Object namely such an one as is indued with understanding and wit whereas bare coercion can reach unto neither of them And under the Gospel again a farther addition of honor and divine Authority will arise from the observation of that more spiritual charge and Function they inwardly claim towards the promotion and exercise of Gods kingdom in our hearts whereas amongst the Jews the drift of the Priests instructions had for objects the outward acts and Ceremonies chiefly In which regard of instruction and preaching the Fundamentals of Christianity taken as Gospel duties they stand by means of special ordination thereto not onely separately distinguished and enabled above other humane power as the persons to instruct and teach Gods will are distinct and in that respect above those that are to obey but also whilst they meddle not with such things as have tendency to civil Peace and Duty they are unsubordinate to the Prince himself nay above him too as his spiritual Fathers and as having their efficacy and holding their authority herein immediately from Christ as his Ministers and not of the political head of the Commonweal The Father and Master of the family enter upon their authorities and function according to natural course and equity without personal designation and appointment from the Prince and his power and are afterwards restrainable in all things as he shall think good but those of the Priesthood although they were by the laws and authority of the prince personally ordained to stand as Gods Ministers yet are they on the other side as Gods immediate Ambassadors and prophets subordinate to none And this Gospel duty of preaching besides publike prayers and administrations of the Sacraments are to remaine as the proper duties of persons in holy orders without exemption of the prince himself For although to each prince in order to peace and government the chief and general care of instruction in the wayes of righteousness doth appertain as it doth also in each family to the Master thereof yet doth the office and efficacy of instruction in the mysteries of Gods inward kingdome depend on the authority of none but God himself But these things are to be understood of the Clergy in their spiritual Functions onely and as they relate to one another as equally Gods Ministers and not as they are differenced amongst themselves in reference to that distinct proportion of external jurisdiction and power alotted them for peace and order sake For as in the first respect they are under none but God so in the second they are wholly subjected to the Prince he being as great Bishop and overseer of the whole Church to preside over the Bishops of the particular Diocesses thereof upon the same Reason and divine Authority that the Diocesan doth preside over the Parochial Minister And upon the same ground that the Prince as great and general Father and Master of the whole kingdom doth preside in the Government of each Family by means of that civil Magistracy which is exercised under him in like manner doth he as head of the Church preside over the whole Clergy in Ecclesiastical administrations by means of this Episcopal jurisdiction which is to be by him directed or restrained of all which more hereafter Having thus far premised in the declaration and distinction of Officers and Functions of Divine right for the better understanding the present Question as well as many other discourses which will hereafter follow where the same shall be farther proved by Scripture I hope it will to all unprejudiced men appear That although God doth not now as sometimes formerly so immediately expresly operate in the unction and designation of particular persons or
litter but rather as formerly discoursed like Cadmus-brood by Poets feined to that purpose in their different appetites pursuing one another in a confusion of every one against every one and that from thence they come to be a community then they make a community and agreement to arise from that which is quite contrary for how shall these disagreers be brought to voluntary and equal Parity and Paction Therefore there is no way but to say Anarchy is absence of Unity or the exercise of power without it For it is not only a privation of good by destroying precedent union in the single person that did govern but also an infliction of evil by setting up contention in the many heads now ruling And therefore to say that Anarchy is then onely when there is such a condition as that every one should be against every one is to deny that it can be For how should it come to pass Because as no settled government can be overthrown but by union of opposition and men cannot live without such relations of kindred and other interests as must keep them bound in some associations so cannot they as ab origines such as the Greeks to this purpose supposed themselves be so born or brought together without all union by former friendship and relation as to be each one to each one contra-distinguished and equal in all things Without due consideration of which impossibility and of the intervenient degrees between the perfection of unity which true Monarchy will afford and that confusion which the extream of Anarchy will yeild men are usually led to this mistake For as we may and justly do stile that a Monarchy where the last appeal and some other inseparable marks of Soveraignty do remain in one man although many prerogatives may be parted with even so on the contrary we must judge Anarchy to be where the Soveraignty is in more and if we do not this there cannot be such a thing as Monarchy aswell as no such thing as Anarchy Because as disability and remisness will occasionally more or less make Princes leave and entrust their power to others so in like manner are we to conceive of Anarchy namely that although the people viritim cannot or do not personally act or agree in all administrations to Soveraignty proper but that some one man at once may be trusted in several parts thereof whereby in respect of their approach to Monarch they are for the present so far kept from the mischiefs of absolute Anarchy yet since the right of government is at liberty claimed to be exercised by all the government must be Anarchical too although as we said one Anarchy may be less Anarchical then another in regard of their approach to unity and Monarchical administration like as also one Monarchy may be less so then another even so far as these Anarchical forms shall be mingled therewith Nor hath Monarchy gained precedence as aforesaid by the confessions of Polarchical writers but it 's open and active enemies the Polarchs themselves by their endeavors to resemble the real unity thereof in those representations of themselves by presidents speakers or the like and by contrivances to unite their votes and opinions in such sort as to be capable of command and government by making their many wills seem but one do all of them by deed and experience confess that they have neither worth nor fitness for government in themselves and are so far only good or rather so far distanced from ill as they can approach that exemplar of union which in Monarchy is essential Again if we shall observe them in their fundamentals for laws and forms of execution of their governments we shall farther finde that as themselves are usually but some fragments and scraps of Monarchies rent off by Rebellion so will the main body of their laws and semblance of policy be found such onely as were by their former Soveraigns and Kings enacted and contrived But to return if Anarchy must be supposed but the first beginnings to the overthrow of established government what shall we say of lawful conquest Or if it be in civil or intestine strifes onely then since in these men cannot strive singly but as united in Factions when shall it begin and when shall Anarchy end Shall it begin from the first underminings or from the first overt act or from which or what sort of them Shall it end when the other government is overthrown and there be no enemy left to hinder its peaceable settlement in an union by it self How shall it be known and who shall judge when this government or other opposition is wholly subdued or so far as is requisite to its establishment in a government by it self What if this government be thirty or fourty yeers destroying And what if at last it stand still on its own strength without farther fear from this opposing faction which it may be now hath set up for it self also and as a free State as they call them entred into aliance or agreement with them In which and other cases since the form of government in the faction established is the same in prevailing over one another now as it was over those that held the government before that is by force of a major part why should not the same government aswel be an Anarchy now as before And if there must be a set time when this prevailing faction ought and may though still the same people and faction take on them the title of lawful government which is it If you say when they have made agreement or utterly subdued their former Prince this I conceive can at best but acquit them of rebellion in order to himself because done against him and thereupon for a Monarchy so gained it will serve to make it a just government afterwards because it is so in its form But since Anarchy consisting in division must arise from the form of government that is from the divided heads and persons whereby it is enforced and not from the divers hands used in the managery for all governments must have such it must be confessed that Anarchy must be distinguished as a different thing from rebellion and remaine in the form of government and not in the manner or circumstances of beginning or using it or else such a thing as Anarchy cannot be at all I know the common division of government was formerly into Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and their deviations Tyranny Oligarchy and Anarchy so making six sorts But as it is since found that there is but three sorts by including their deviations as Tyranny into Monarcy Oligarchy into Aristocracy and Anarchy into Democracy so I concluding but one onely right government viz. of Monarchy have reckonnd both the other under the common deviation of Anarchy esteeming it all one whither a lesser or greater number of people preside therein which only thing doth difference Aristocracy from Democracy And as for that fancy of co-ordination it may be
reckoned an Oligarchy consisting of so many Governors and Governments as the co-ordinates are and as Monarchy is limited above or under this supposed equality in co-ordination so far is it more or less uncapable of its chief end peace and protection For as all Parity must breed confusion so dissention also and the more Parity in governors the more dissention Which as it may rationally be foreknown to arise from the very nature of that Government it self so will it by instance most lively appear in that government of family wherein notwithstanding there is greatest interest and obligations towards concordance and mutual assistance there are yet more observable disputes and differences arising between man and wife even to the bringing the whole family in divisions and sidings then between him and children or between him and servants who come not so neer to him in pretence of equality of power For as they pretending to less power are therefore probably less subject to be sensible of the loss so is he less subject to be covetous of the gain of that little Therefore it may be concluded that the greater the power of the co-ordinate is the more subject is that place to Faction and Rebellion which we will next speak of CHAP. II. Of Faction and its Original and usual Supports AS we have already shewed the necessity of self-seeking in Nature so now we are to shew that since Nature cannot be altered how in Polity her course may be steered to publike good so that men still retaining their sense of good and bad separate and distinct to themselves they might therewith and thereby also be more provoked to the good of others Therefore after the vulger manner to dream of publike spirited persons or publike souls meaning such as have no private interest is not onely untrue but could it be it would instead of benefit be the ruine of that whole State For through the distracted endeavors of so many voluntary publike undertakers the whole would perish by degrees and while each particular failed for want of due self-regard the whole would fail by consequent Experience of those many mischiefs and disturbances generally arising in the world through mens inconsiderate and violent prosecution of their own appetites and wills without due regard to the sufferings of others hath brought it into the serious doubt of many whether this Philautia be lawful to be prosecuted or no and while some as finding it natural have necessarily thought it warrantable yet have they onely thought it an allowable rule to be made the beginner but not the ender of our enterprises As though the end and design of each action must not in all voluntary and intelligent Agents be before any attempt thereof Or as if any reasonable creature could out of self-regard begin any thing which in the issue he did foresee would prove otherwise But it hath not been well considered that those very Rules of Do as thou wouldst be done unto and Love thy neighbour as thy self on which their conceit is grounded do of themselves imply and warrant each mans separate good to be both first and last preferred before that of any other Nay these Rules being chiefly intended to avoid partiality in such dealings and distributions as concern other parties and so to be used by such as are to execute the Office of Judges and Umpires doe in that case onely as hereafter shall be shewed appoint both the Judge on the one hand and the two contending parties on the other to square his sentence upon them and they their obedience unto him as fancying themselves reciprocally interessed In which case themselves not being immediate parties every act of partiality is injustice they having no rule to love one man better then another Whereas on the other side if any man be party with another all things he doth to the advantage of another against his own is not onely unnatural and foolish but unjust and sinful also What if we shall say farther that in all dealings between one man and another no man can be otherwise sinful then as he is to himself foolish and neglectfull of his own good It is not hard for men to conceive in the general that wickedness and folly fall one into another and that no man can prejudice himself but he must thereby sin nor sin but he must thereby prejudice himself All the mistake being for want of consideration that when any doth by warrant from above sense of Honor or dictate of his Conscience prefer the benefiting of another to the enjoyment of some present content of his own that even in this case it was self consideration of procuring reward or avoiding punishment to himself that was the end of this good deed he did to them In which regard so far as he had not present self design namely delight in the act it self but was considerative of an end even so far that end must have self design upon the whole issue in every voluntary Agent as it is such however they may differ from one another in degree of Wisdom and Prudence that is eitheâ— inability to apprehend and believe how these courses are available to his good or prudence in the managery or application of them accordingly Wisdom in these cases grounding herself upon her sure Rule of comparison Better forego a present less pleasure to my self by doing it to another then by not doing good to another as I am commanded to incur that punishment and lose that greater reward which is to succeed to my self in place thereof Therefore as in Natures polity in the Government of the World there is pleasure annexed to such enjoyments as are most beneficial to direct and incite us what to do in pursuit of our single preservations and so of the whole species and pain on the contrary to deter from what is hurtful so in political foundations that the whole Kingdom may be preserved the duties necessary to be performed or avoided by the several members thereof to that end are to have such rewards and punishments annexed to their Edicts that each particular member being naturally led to seek pleasure and avoid pain may in the pursuit hereof by politick designation follow the good of the Commonwealth also As for example should the Commonwealth appoint as out of duty to the whole and out of common Charity to one another that men should without any self regard have spent their whole time and labours in Tillage or otherwise they would quickly finde the Proverb verified That the common Ass is ill sadled And they would finde that since men are properly and expresly onely sensible of their own good that therefore as this stood remitted their actions would remit also Reason therefore quickly taught all Founders of Laws and Rules for sociable living that because the whole stock of common improvement must arise from private managery to annex unto publike employments and duties such private advantages and rewards as might encourage their undertakings
desperate as directly to profess to introduce the one by destroying the other but deceived sometimes themselves are and always they strive to deceive others by shew of Liberty and Freedom either from suffering some evil or for attaining some forbidden content For say they the more general good and content is ever to be preferred to the more particular which is the good of the whole people to that of the Rulers For look into Nature she made them equal intending no more the satisfaction of one then another And the very end and aim of Society it self was primarily the good of the governed and of the Governors but in order thereunto That hereupon all or most people subject not themselves to the arbitrary rule of the Prince but unto the known and established Law by which onely according to his oath and compact he is bound to govern For could men say they be imagined to have parted with their native freedom of Will and debar themselves of the many pleasures of life to no other end but hereby to advance to a state of felicity some one or more men unto whom they could in nothing acknowledge themselves inferior No since Kings and Rulers were set up and had obedience given unto them for the onely good of the people for of them is the whole power derived and they may at pleasure settle what Government they please and as they think fit to restrain or enlarge it therefore when they shall be found to fail of this trust and turn their power to their peoples hurt they might with good reason re-assume their own strength and imploy it to the attainment of those benefits which by the wilfulness or foolishness of the other is crossed or neglected And if in pursuance of this course civil war and slaughter do follow it must be imputed to the stubbornness of them in Authority which then must be endured as a cure to the state when as by a momentany suffering of some mens loss the perpetual hazard of all mens slavery is avoided and is no other then like tolerating a less evil to avoid a greater And this power of resistance say they must be in all limited Monarchies else the limitation is nothing but he remains as absolute as the other But because these and the like propositions have for the most part been bred and countenanced by some of the Romish and Jesuited Clergy we will by the way look thereunto leaving the farther censure of their intermedling to another place and also referring the full answer and satisfaction in other things to the ensuing chapters wherein under the titles of Liberty Slavery Property c. shall be shewed how Faction and Rebellion have unjustly laid claim to any justification under these notion A great Argument and associate of mans frailty it is that even from our best and most holy performances advantages to sin and impiety have been taken Arising chiefly from the malice of that wicked one always ready if the sowing of the Wheat cannot be wholly hindred by his Agents to cause such Tares to spring amongst and from it that for their very sakes the other might have none or at least less use and esteem For who would else have thought that that very height of Piety Religion and Devotion that caused the first nursing Fathers of the Church as in honor and duty to God to bestow divers great Priviledges and Powers upon the at that time well-deserving Clergy should by a strange and inconsiderate ingratitude prove the readiest Feathers with which the shafts were made for their own destruction For so we finde when Popes became inheritors onely of the Revenue and Prerogative of the Church and not at all of their predecessors devotion or humility they first begin to seat themselves above Kings and all that is called God and thinking they could never bring low enough that power whose due height they had just cause to fear would be a curb to their pride they not onely tread on their necks themselves but by their Agents and Factors they everywhere teach and authorise the Princes own Subjects to do the like Telling them that all civil power is originally in the people and that from them and their underived majesty it was that Kings had their Soveraignties which as they might be by them streightened as they saw occasion so were they to judge of his defaults in case of tyranny or oppression And then reserving to themselves the power of deposing and sentencing them in case of heresie or schism and of defining what they were they had poor Kings they thought beneath them low enough even as far as man is beneath God Kings being the peoples but themselves as jure divino Gods Deputies These things seem not so to be wondred at in a time when implicit devotion and superstition had caused such general ignorance that any thing almost would take but for a sort of men undertaking to reform all errors even according to Gods Word and professing such great hatred to Popery as to cast off some harmless things onely because they think them popish for these I say to contradict a thing so expresly taught in Scripture and on the contrary to assert a thing onely fraudulently brought in and by none taught but Jesuits can have no other ground but that they agree in common aim the aim of ambition and insubjection For so as the Pope puts Kings under the people to advance himself in his room as in Gods stead so do Presbyters put him under too that themselves in their consistories may dethrone and be above him as in Christs stead By which means Christ being no longer King of Kings but King of Presbyters we should for advancement of our Liberties have besides the domineering consistories a King and a Pope in every Parish Concerning the sum of which Doctrine namely that all power and that of Kings is from God onely we have already spoken but because I finde that divers learned men favorers to neither of these sects but lovers of Monarchy did yet hold by consequent the same opinions it will not be amiss to speak something hereof and of the inconveniencies absurdities arising from that conceit of derivation of power from Paction and consent leaving the more particular handling of the Nature and reality of Paction it self to its proper place These though they thought that notwithstanding this Concession they would still evince all active resistance to be unlawful even because it broke a Paction made between I know not what King and their people and so I also sometimes thought from the plausibleness of the scholly yet upon stricter enquiry an error on one hand or other cannot be avoided That is either acknowledging that this is a thing useless and serving the people to no purpose or else all those consequences of Rebellion will naturally flow from it For you admitting it the peoples right they put you to shew where you finde that they by any Paction utterly resigned
are equal by their own supposition But if they in their supposed way of conferring of power shall exclude children and servants and leave none but the Master power to elect then break they their supposition of equal and native freedom because the major part is excluded If they have power to elect then being so much the greater number I hope they will chuse such a government as shall now binde their Master and Father and not he them But let us go on by way of supposition These selected heads are met to chuse and empower a governor and to give them all their power that is their power of their several families that so he having power of all families may consequently have power of the whole kingdom which done they intend belike to give up house-keeping If so he will have a great task indeed If not I would know whether they mean to have less power over their families then before No they say they mean to govern them under him Well I suppose you can give this power you have over them so far as you had it and over your self too but then since the power of life and death and other things necessary for the Prince to have you neither had over them nor your self how can you give what you have not Again suppose the people the original of power and farther to make this power useful suppose they may recal it to right themselves when they finde it abused and that thereupon the liberty to appeal to them must ever lye open why then this serves to defeat the power of their representatives aswel as of Princes For these being set up also for the peoples good have no farther power neither then while they act that way the people must still retain power to hinder them from doing otherwise and consequently must have power to judge whether they do so or not And then this power must extend and exercise it self in all causes because their good or ill must be therein concerned And so I pray how shall business go on must the governor ask the governed their consent before he command What is this but as in mockery to say to them Do as you list or I will make you What is this but for people to command and Magistrates to obey Again although that maxime Salus populi suprema lex may be good in popular governments as shall be shewed anone where governing and governed are supposed alternative and the same because all come to be included but yet where there is difference there the good of both as making up the whole must be taken into proportionable and joynt consideration unless they can imagine that by contract the King should render himself purposly miserable to make others happy by his infelicity If so David and others that had promises of kingship from God by way of reward had certainly no such benefit And if this right and duty of resistance were so in the people as is alleaged why in so many thousand yeers and in the raign of so many unjust and evil Kings as are set down in the Old and New Testament do we never find Prophet Apostle or other men instructing the people in a duty of so great concern They if they had liked might as easily have said fight as obey and resist as not resist As for the Kings observation of the Laws and seeking the good of the people I believe no good Kings but will make it their imployment and in order to it no discret people but must thereupon grant that it is his part to to know and interpret what this law and good is for if it be left to be done by any other Party or Faction not he but they have now the charge For to say they will submit in all things just and reasonable and no farther is to appeal back to themselves and is not submission to another but all things are left to their private determination as before and just and reasonable must be but what they will esteem such For as before shewed men could not make question whether reason or equity should take place or no it was by all agreed it should but men differing amongst themselves on which side this right was and both parties confident of their own cause there was no possibility to avoid destraction and attain peace but by this voluntary and joynt submission to be herein governed by others So that laws of equity peace and government require that all parties submit to their common and appointed judge and sentence For as each man singly becomes a man by having a proper will and understanding even so it comes to pass that there can arise no difference against himself because understanding and will do in him alwayes unite Whereas if Thomas his will were to be guided by Iohns understand or contrary and either of them want will or understanding or have them over-born by another it were in the first place to overthrow the personal being of men and in the other to make it useless For should or could my will incline to nothing but what aforaign understanding saw good it would then be the will of him that had and not of him that wanted this understanding and for want of understanding I should want will also Or should I suppose there could be an understanding that could submit to that of another this were to destroy personality by confounding it and to imagine an impossibility fancing an understanding which should be and not to be at the same time Therefore when by the help of anothers understanding mine is so cleared as to see reason to consent to what it saw not before and upon it my will inclined to action this assent of my will is the issue of the light now apprehended in mine own understanding and not as it was before in anothers So in the body politick to keep the essence and union thereof entire there must be the same residence for understanding and councel at least for the last result thereof as is for will and execution And therefore as it would argue high arogance in any single subject to presume his own judgement better then anothers especially then his superiors so is it but the same thing from subjects to commend that councel themselves follow before that which their Prince follows For since goodness of councel doth not move by being but by being apparent and since this trial and apparency must depend on the ability and judgement of him that chuseth it none being able to take good councel but he that is in measureable to give it it must therefore be granted that the following of anothers councel after mine own choice differs little from following mine own If it should be argued that Princes may be carried away by partiallity and private interest and so some should think that the Councel of subjects should in that regard take place this were to beg the question upon a supposition against all apparant reason For
in the particulars in each kind Gods goodness and power should not have been so remarkably set forth as now Nay this very Office of Kingship will not be lost by his subjection for its chief duty being protection this will be alwayes residing more or less in his power so far as by such redresses of oppression amongst men or other creatures as shall be the occasional objects of his pity he shall prove himself actually a King herein and also so much more resembling God then he as he shall be more ready and propense thereto rateable to his small degree of power And the same order may creatures below us go untill they come to inanimates on which the lowest of sensitives taking its pleasure and content as it is thereby provoked to rejoyce which is in its kinde to thank and praise â—is Maker so that inanimate or vegetive again being not sensible of any pain or injury continues in its kinde still obliged as before For as power can be no where in perfection but in God himself so to make it subsistent in other things as approaching him it must be in making them so only in comparison of one another And as the original of power is one so the more it is diffused the more weak and unworthy it is For if all men should have power over all men after a Democratick supposition as all men have power over all other creatures or as all Lyons or other Species of creatures have power over other Species below them also how would power come to nothing for want of eminence for being thus levelled he that should have most power having but what the meanest would have had in the degree of subordination and so he that hath least having still but what he hath above other things for over his fellows he must be supposed to have none he of the lowest rank is not increased in his obligation and all the other orders are decreased in theirs So that then if there were not the necessity of subordination as for peace and government sake yet as to perfection and approach to Divine resemblance by bringing the diffused power in perfect creatures to unity and existence it would be needful to men as with Angels that from the lowest order of all it should be gathered to fewer in the next rank and so on to fewer still till after the Divine examplar it were centred in one Whereby as man is the perfection and Epitome of all other creatures and as Adam contained all men so should he or some other if our fall had not crossed have stood as the more worthy for receit of Divine favor in himself and distribution of it to others with no small advantage to the whole race even as now we finde it come to pass by that fountain of mercy but in a far higher degree since the dignifying of our nature by that one person of our Saviour and so by him having access we come to be capable of those benefits which without him could not be expected In which respect we may finde him so often expressing himself under the notion of the Son of man even as one who having taken on him the Semen or original element of our kinde should to our undoubted comfort thereby make the whole race capable of dignity and bliss also And this not only in respect of our future condition as Jesus being that fundamental Corn of wheat by whose Resurrection and exaltation the several Individual graines of mankinde should be drawn unto him but also in respect of many temporal advantages arising to us here as Christ and King In order to the receit of which temporal advantages Christ himself having in the several parts of his Church his particular deputed Christs by means of them and their representing of him amongst us it comes to pass that each particular man is again made capable of the benefit of Divine protection at least so far as concerns society and government as shall be more fully declared in the next book And therefore we may observe that when God appears in kindness it is to one at once and that he never makes a general manifestation of himself but in judgement and terror as to those stubborn Israelites who thereupon said Let God speak no more to us least we die Meaning that they would have some worthy and eminent person like Moses to beare their person and represent them to Godward The which people again although as they were then Gods peculiar Church and people and had all other nations blessed or punished as they were to them benigne or averse yet was that very love and favor God cast towards them both at first placed and afterwards continued from that more eminent love and favor setled in their first father and original In such sort that after their rejection of their and our Saviour a remnant according to the election of grace should come still to be beloved for the Fathers sakes by that God who out of particular kindness had once stiled himself the God of Abraham And so we shall again finde favors and blessings promised them even for his servant Davids sake the King and representer of that Church and people From all which it will be evident that subordination in power is from God and for the good of the people it is that one is by his providence thus set over them who should as their Representative stand for them to Godward But to come neerer to shew what that power or liberty is which is requisite or proper in political constitutions we must consider each man as having an appetite and end to follow But then inasmuch as before shewed in the attaining and pursuit of these our ends we did often cross and interfere one upon another it was necessary that Laws and Rules of Government should be setled to accommodate our actions to Peace and Agreement For the same Liberty we might before justly claim as men and due to us by Nature we cannot now expect as Subjects linked in politique Societies because as I then acted for my self onely I needed no prohibitions from evil or invitations to good but now common concern makes Liberty suspensible to common approbation And because this first natural Liberty was by our fall forfeited and would if by our corrupted wills put in full use prove our destruction it was necessary the same should by his power and Laws and such as he should therewith intrust for Society and Government sake be so far restrained as the mutual good and peace of the whole should be advanced and not the wanton affected Liberty of any part of the State or Kingdom in prejudice thereof regarded And therefore the true Liberty of Subâ—ects will appear to be in the removal of all external impediments which cross his desires without regard of more publike utility And the two extreams thereof are first Slavery when this Liberty of the Subject is not regarded at all as to his
Country says it to be They that think that the rectitude of the Laws of God and Nature should correct and set right the positive constitutions of men will finde great difficulty truely to number and state what these Laws are In which doing and in the interpreting and applying them so much difference and uncertainty will still arise that we shall again many times want another light to distinguish the beams of these lights from other lights and also to shew when they point directly to the business in question and when not As for instance in these Laws known to be received from God himself how ready are we to balk their litteral interpretation and judge of the fitness of their execution according as they refer to publike Utility and that by rules of our own several reasons and many times again to trust to their letteral interpretation onely Nay all that acknowledge them for rules practise sometimes one way sometimes another Wherupon denying that either way is to be wholly followed it must needs leave it doubtful whether in our so doing in each particular we lean not too much to one hand or other For so theft by them punished with restitution is in other places capital and on the contrary Adultery by them punished with death is by others censured in a less degree Look we to the Laws of Nature if thereby they intend those rules and customs which are universally common to us with beasts how shall man which so much differs from them pick competent rules of good and fitting both his and their particular What shall he live in Herds and Droves and again destroy Policy and Property to enjoy their communion And because we would not have them kill us must we with the Banians think it unlawful to kill them And in particular what Law in Nature shall we finde to found marriage upon And if we seclude man to follow some rule proper to his own species and put him for his practice and imitation to learn what is done by others you will finde this practical direction still render him as defective in ability to determine what is just and good and what not as before For here if you take in that practice of mankinde which is most common for a rule who shall be â—udge of that or shall the fewer and wiser Nations be governed by the more foolish Shall Idolatry and slavery be thought founded on Nature because so generally heretofore and yet practised If by Law of Nature you mean the best Reason who shall judge of that also Can you think that any Nation People Faction or single person will condemn themselves of imprudence and injustice in what they do And since each people hath its peculiar Reasons for what they act or determine and it may be unknown to any but themselves how shall they therin be guides to the practice of others and their Reason be found a reason every way fit for guidance of such as must necessarily differ from them But experience being so ready to testifie both these differences and their irreconcilableness amidst that partial respect each people casteth to its own customs I shall not need to instance therein but shall here somewhat examine that rule which men have more generally concluded to be so infallibly and universally binding as to suffice for application and direction in all particulars namely the rule of Do as thou wouldst be done unto This rule must in it self be acknowledged as a direction most fit and full for the steering us in our deportments and abearances one towards another being accompanied with such other helps and qualifications as hereafter shall be spoken of but if taken alone and at liberty made use of according to each ones separate judgement it will put us upon the same uncertainty almost we had before For it makes the will and choice of each man the direction for good and equity so that what I would be content another should do to me I may do to him And then considering how weak and differing the judgements and wills of men are right and wrong must have the same chance So that he that is a fool and cannot tell what is for his own avail may yet have hereby liberty to prejudice and impose on me And again he that through vitious inclination and custom cannot distinguish of good or bad just or unjust will have the same advantage over me too As for example one that is brought up or otherwise agrees in opinion with such as allow a Community of wives or other things may he not by this rule make use of my wife being himself before willing I should not do the like to his They that seem to make this Rule more pointing and express by enlarging it say that because I would not have any thing done to me against my liking I should not therefore act on another against his And then according to this rule they say the taking away a mans wife against his liking is a plain wrong and a sin I hope it is although all private parties should consent By this turning of the rule they conclude indeed against the first inconvenience but avoid not the uncertainty of the direction but onely alter it For whereas before I might act according to my own will and opinion of right and wrong now is not the Will and Opinion of the Agent but of the Patient made Judge and I am to suspend execution till the consent thereof be had and known And then what help to the discovery of right or wrong since every mans Will and judgement as before is still made Judge And besides by its limitation it will put a stand to all business For if I must not act until I know anothers liking I shall then it is to be presumed not act his liking but in what may be first apprehended to my own advantage nor he so from me And then in case of stubbornness how shall business be done and who shall judge when the denyal is just or unjust for nothing in the rule can do it Again what right hath the Will of another to be a stint and direction to mine as though my Will could not tell mine own desires and were not as infallible in judging right and wrong as anothers And take it which way you please instead of giving the rules of directions for mens Wills to follow in the choice of good and bad mens wills are made directive to it And although it be a rule certain and infallible as aforesaid in its self as to the general stating of us just or unjust before God who judgeth by the heart and general inclination as hereafter shall more appear yet in respect of us and the imbeâ—ility and partiality of our Reasons in using and applying it it comes to be but contingent and fallible in particular managery as not having direction and plainness enough to shew in each action whether we have done well or no. As for example I
superiors Whereupon we may farther say that justice and â—quity so far as it concerns a Commonwealth is to be that way and course which is most advantageous to publike utility and that Law is the rule set down by those that have chief Authority and trust therein And therefore is that maxim avowed as the ground of Law and Equity in a popular State Salus populi suprema lex For the directest course to that end is the greatest Equity and those that have the charge of the end have also the charge of the means in assigning that which is most just and fit And therefore in this case we must reckon the society as it is united for common good as one person So that then as Nature teacheth all men to benefit themselves so doth polity direct the publike But then again as each man in wronging another doth wrong himself so societies when they practice injustice oppression c. do in regard of Gods punishments feared to follow thereupon wrong themselves also and do as we before observed of particular men prefer a less and momentany benefit to a more high and lasting one Upon which ground there is another maxim avowed in Monarchy that the King can do no wrong Not denying he may do himself and others harm but so long as we do according to our duties submit to that he doth command he can do no wrong For he can of himself have no private respect but must judge all alike as out of common regard except where and when some persons or order of the people taking on them his Office of judging equity and in partiality to themselves thinking and seeking more then is already allotted make it a wrong to the other side by having the cause decided by a private and partial judgement for take away Justice in the fountain you may vainly seek it in the streams And thereupon Solomon prays to God to give him an understanding heart to judge the people and to discern between good and bad And such as are not openly denying supreme Authority to be obeyed and would yet by consequent overthrow it by allowing inferiors a liberty to judg and act beyond or otherwise then is enjoyned let them consider the answer that God gives to his chief Magistrate that would undertake to know the way and means of honoring and serving God better then himself and would make that solemn established Law of Sacrifice defeat his present command which was but extemporary namely that Obedience is better then sacrifice and to hearken better then the fat of Rams For I verily believe that no subordinate Magistrate or subject can have a fairer plea for disobeying his King commanding in Gods stead then Saul might have had here for refusing Samuel For if it had been at all lawful for inferiors to judge of fitness and morality or to set a former command or Law against a latter what more just and reasonable then first to preserve innocent creatures whose destruction on one hand could have been a benefit to none when as on the other side they being thus imployed should have so expresly advanced Gods way of service constituted so solemnly already And we might thereunto add that which some would make of highest value in judging good and bad that the importunity and request of the people ran that way also And as our prying into the reason of Gods Laws and not obeying his direct Precepts was our Original fault and a sin in the government of nature as shewing a mistrust of Gods wisdom or care of us so in obedience to civil Laws to seek out another equity then they import is not to be subject to Law but to controle it And as God said to Adam Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten the fruit I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat So Princes may say to subjects that without authority undertake to judge of publike good and bad Justice and injustice how come you to know these things except you have transgressed the bounds I set you Have you not proper stations of your own to walk in Why meddle you with mine For if thou judge the law thou art not a doer of the law but a Judge So that then all obedience to Laws must be implicite that is to Gods Laws as his and Civil Laws as the Princes For if in either sort I obey but what upon examination I finde reasonable I take the Law-makers part upon me and obey not him but my self For Law and Justice being the instruments whereby Governors Act upon the Governed they must be at the choice and guidance of the workman and agent and not of the work or patient as heretofore noted Law then is Councel imposed Justice is equity executed In Laws the Subjects are to act in Justice the Prince or Magistrate for him In Laws he shews how much of his Will Subjects shall do in Justice how much he will do himself So that Law may be called Equity taught and Justice Equity practised and is when the Judges own Councels are acted by himself whether in pursuance of Law or not For Justice and Equity may be without standing Law as in the less government of a family but not Law without them that is the Authority of the Prince Now for Justice it self it proceeding from Equity as being the sentence of the Judge upon the judged it may be blinde as to execution because that part concerns Ministerial Officers but cannot as to the sentence and Judge for taking seeing for understanding his eyes must be only open as to stating of Equity Disinterest nor equal interest alone cannot make men competent Judges because they may be so qualified and yet strangers and unknowing of the cause And therefore Judges must besides knowledge have Concern equal Concern and whole Concern and the like we must say of Power For if all the matter and persons contending be not at his dispose to what purpose his sentence Nay if his propriety be not the highest and his power highest he will in judgement proceed but faintly for want of compleat interest and courage For though the Concern and Power of the Judge may be equal in and over both or all the subject persons yet if be not supreme he must so far want the perfection of a Judge as he wants interest to make him concerned to judge at all and power to execute his sentence And more persons then one or not having authority from one cannot be competent Judges over others for they must have unequal concern through unequal passions and interests and must through unequal power also as being of different strength or courage proceed differently and partially in their sentence For whilst the same Plea or Cause is estimated by divers ballances according to that divers judgement and interest abiding in those divers persons in the seat of Justice their sentence can never be uniform to the interest of the persons and the cause they
judge however they may be in their sentence outwardly agreeing amongst themselves as in order to fear or other interests of their own Nor can two or more persons judge their own causes because of the same reasons and also for that in this equality none can have whole interest or power But to make these things plainer by instance When any two parties that are at difference shall have their cause decided by any of the ordinary Judges appointed to that purpose the failing of that Judge therein so far as to make him culpable must happen upon the grounds before noted For if he have not concern enough so as to think his duty honor and benefit to be founded and established by the practice of his imployment of a Judge he will then wholly neglect it or proceed so coldly therein as for want of through examination of the full evidence of the truth of things on both sides his judgement can be no otherwise then accidentally true and upright And this inconvenience will not only be subject to mislead him in his first sentence and decision of causes but farther also in case that bribery friendship c. have caused partial judgement through want of entire and equal concern it is the usual hindrance to all re-examination that should arise from equity by way of appeal insomuch as untill the oppressed party can find a way how to make the redress of his grivance appear of more availe and concern to the party appealed unto then it is to him in the state it now stands he can never rationally expect reparation or furtherance from him therein From all which it must come to pass that none but God Almighty can be held as the onely universal ready and upright Judge so far as to be the onely true object of appeal Because as he hath onely omniscience sufficient to know all circumstances that are necessary to the stating of Equity in each cause so hath he alwayes such whole and high interest and concern in the good of his creatures as to make him always ready to hear all complaints Whereas all other subordinate Judges must as they stand in degree below him and so differenced in respect of concern differ in their readiness to entertain appeals and make redress By which means the Monarch who hath highest interest power and trust delegated from God and hath his honor and interest of more concern in performance of Acts of Justice then any other even in such degree that he cannot find any reward else so valuable to divert him must be presumed thereupon the readiest to hear and amend when any thing in this kind shall be offered And if the ordinary grievances of the poor or meaner sort be not by him taken into consideration like the more remarkable appeals from great ones it proceeds still from the same cause of want of concern not in him who if he be an entire Monarch and no wayes made obnoxious or defective in propriety would hear poor and rich alike as equally subâ—ects but for want of concern in other persons of ranke and eminence that should present it and state it unto him Which is a thing so difficult to be done as experience tells us that it is the great obstacle of all redress namely for want of concern to make another take so much pains as throughly to examine the state of the grievance and so apply himself towards redress For we shall finde all private men to be still so full of their own business as not to be sufficiently enclined to make any other of such equal concern as to remit the present care thereof to intend his beyond respect to themselves And although the sense of pitty and Justice be in all men naturally yet the difficulty will still lye How for want of concern to make him attentive in such length of discourse as must be requisite to make my cause appear so Upon which ground it is that Fees are given to Advocates Councellors c. by those that are appellants and suters hereby engaging them to take their Clients business into concern and make it their own Men have hitherto thought Justice in the abstract to be before it in the concrete as though truth or the affections or adjuncts of things could have been before the things themselves But as Divine Justice is but the procession of that equity which resideth in God the supreme Judge of all whereby the affairs of all creatures are disposed and ordered according to the known measure and equality which their respective merits in relation to the good and Oeconomy of the whole doth require so neither was humane Justice before the administrators thereof no more then positive Law was before the Law-maker who by that did publikly determine what was fittest to be done in the Vierge of his jurisdiction also Therefore men making Justice to be juris statio or dependant on the sentence or determination of the Law could not choose but to have considered onward that that jus or law must again have dependance on the Law-maker or him that hath juris-dictio had not a kind of conspiracy in the flattery of private mens abilities towards the judging right and wrong made them determine Justice measurable by Law and Law by themselves that so onward publike Justice might be submitted to private sense of equity whereby at last all should resolve into opinion In which regard it is no wonder that subjects in general do in order to obtain their fancyed degree of liberty agree amongst themselves upon such maximes as they conceive restrictive of the exercise of their Princes power over them upon the same ground as servants use to do towards that of their masters For so experience tells us of those measures of good and bad masters which are by servants usually entertained amongst themselvs in order to deny all masters and their actions to be good farther then they are respective to or carried on towards their interests or approbations Thus the master that is most profuse for diet apparel c. is called the best and most kind by his own and by all other servants too Whereas that master that measures these things by his own conveniencies of estate c. and makes restraint accordingly is called Churle and miserable And so again such masters as permit liberty and licentiousness have the servants joynt applause as just and kinde unto them whereas such as restrain and punish them for faults are by them called cruel and unjust For how should it be expected they should like to be straightned or punished for what they had formerly approved Nor can men under servitude of any kind separate themselves so far from their interests in relation that way that is in desiring freedom as to take the interest of the correlate into equal concern with their own and not rather still to chose and fix upon such reasons and maximes as shall most confine the will of their governor to be submitted to theirs and
a vulgar and common vertue for their own applause sake amongst their Scholars have fought to define and defference it from other vertues by its object or effect without assigning unto it a proper subject by inherence whereunto it might like all other abstracted notions stand formally differenced have thereupon made it to import as large as vertue it self of which they would have it understood to be a kind For so in our apprehensions a just mans imports as large a commendation as a good man or a vertuous man But it is to be considered as before noted that this vertue can no otherwise be supposed common to all men or every man then as that man may at the same time be supposed a full superior or proprietor in the distributions or commutations he is to make and that thereupon it is not a vertue proper to him as a man but as such a man that is as relating to him in his present power and superiority in what he is to distribute and his full propriety in the thing he doth exchange And from thence it will still follow that as this occassonal relation of superiority did make the notion of Justice assignable as aforesaid so to make it capable of a constant specifical difference there is no way but to affix it to him that is by Office a constant superior For they should have considered that although this vertue cannot be without the others namely without prudence preceding and temperance and fortitude accompanying its execution yet it having its objects wholly foraign and respecting such persons onely as stand relating to other men in superiority and not as each man hath power and government over himself as the other vertues do it must thereupon have its different definition accordingly As for example Temperance that wholly relates to each one as having jurisdiction in himself for Government of his own appetites and affections must therefore belong to all men because all men have such things to govern and can have foraign jurisdiction onely as accompaning the Justice of a superior And so must prudence and fortitude that partly relate to others good and partly to our own guidance be communicable to all men likewise because of the daily and general use of both for the benefit of others and their own separate good Whereas Justice that hath its object wholly in the good of others and doth thereupon suppose the party quallified with abillity proportionable must be appropriate to such onely as have by their relations power to act accordingly And then it will come to pass that although Justcie may have perfection of degrees and be more or less a vertue as this governor is more or less prudent temperate or magnanimous yet must the notion of Justice be alwayes assigned to the actings of superiors upon inferiors as such notwithstanding occasional deviations For as to be a reasonable creature remaines the definition of all men as men yea though they be most foolish so cannot the violent actions of some deprive men in supreme authority from having the notion of Justice appropriate to that sort of men onely And this because a man in supreme Authority being the subject wherein Justice can onely reside even as mankind in general is the subject of reason It is not therefore the pravity of some Monarch or other occasional deviations in some Acts can deprive them of the definition of just more then the unreasonableness or imprudence of some men or of some actions of any man can take from them or him that definition of a reasonable creature For the question being not concerning the perfection of the predicate but of its propriety of inherence therefore as mankinde is amongst sublunary creatures the proper subject of reason because none else can so truly or perfectly have it so doth justice remain proper to men in supreme authority although they may be in degree much inferior or defective one to another And this truth we shall finde asserted by one that was incomparably wiser and more knowing in these things then any of the Philosophers even by Solomon himself Also to punish the Just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity In which words the just man and the superior stand plainly convertible as also they do in that saying of Saint John My little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous that is since God the fountain of Justice gave them power to be doers they are in their deeds alwayes just in relation to those below them of all which more hereafter And therefore lastly as the abuse of this prerogative and advantage of reason prevailes not with God to take it from mankinde because of that general good which the use of it doth ordinarily afford both in mens deportments toward one another and other creatures also no more are the accidental abuses in the seat of Justice of availe to take off and defeat that continual benefit arising to mankinde by the general exercise thereof For in these cases wisdom grounding her self upon an infallible rule of comparison raises this her maxim Better to suffer a miscâ—ief then an inconvenienceâ— better that the common benefit of Justice should be kept up notwithstanding its occasional mischiefs then the avoiding of those occasional mischiefs should defeat the common benefit of Justice And indeed the two extreams of this vertue miâ—ht have denoted the proper subject thereof had men had as great readiness to have acknowledged their Princes vertues as to mark their vices For as unto none but men of power it can be a fault to neglect Justice or extend it to tyranny or rigor so can the vertue it self be formally agreeing to none but such neither So that then we may plainly finde that they that have hitherto defined Justice to be a vertue giving every one his own by their not setting down certain rules to judge what these proprieties were and how to be known and ont determining the persons that shall have this power of distribution they have made justice that was ordained to be the great instrument of publike peace and quiet to be the occasion of Civil war They that think they have come neerer the mark by determining Justice to be Juris statio meaning the sentence of Law they have thereby indeed found out a good remedy to bridle the exorbitance or Magistrates and also to direct them in each particular execution of their charge but then since justice is not a contemplative vertue as depending upon the knowledge of the Law but upon the due execution thereof it will still follow that as Juris statio doth depend on Juris dictio and the execution of the Law is not otherwise justice then as the person executing the same hath above others power therein derived from that person that is Law-maker even so also justice it self must be acknowledged more or less such to inferiors as it is more or less in its
to all reciprocal duties belonging to their offices And if oaths should be taken to disable them in due performance of their offices or enjoyn them to unlawful or unfit actions beyond their respective relative duties they are invalid But although these Oaths cannot amount to a Paction yet is their use good For first the solemn manner and place of delivery being at the alter cannot but deeply imprint in Kings their duty to God to whom and his Laws they are to be obedient aswell as the meanest subject then by promising to govern according to Law Justice or the like they are put in minde that since their office is chiefly for their subjects good they are to apply these rules to that purpose at least so far as they see them thereto available And so again subjects by these oaths come to know that God aswell as the law enjoyns them obedience In Aristocraties and Democraties the capitulation is supposed between the whole state and each member but in a Monarch between the whole community and the Monarch Subjects in Polarchies have no Oaths from the collective body nor do the particular members of the state give any to the whole as the subjects in Monarchies do to the Prince And this because each member in the state as having a share in the state and the state being not the whole state or soveraignty without him he is neither in reason obliged to do it to them nor much less they to him For as in the first case his share being something it were absurd to demand of himself security for himself so in the second to give security where none is taken seems unreasonable So that the maine security which Polarchies have against the revolt of the people is in their own forces and numbers making so great a share of them that with themselves and dependants they are commonly the greater party of such as have arms And therefore subjects can never ease themselves of the oppression of Polarchies without foraign help or of some of the States against the rest or else when war hath so far wasted these heads themselves and their forces as the subjects may have strength enough to revolt But the single persons of Monarchs being disabled to prevail altogether by force must relye also upon Oaths and such obligations as may prevaile more by love then fear Now to come to the example of Kings Covenanting with their people it is oftenest urged in David Who as first of his family and one that God intended to have firmely settled in that office was thereupon to have the more solemn and notified entrance And for the peoples stronger obligation to acknowledge and serve him he was to receive his annointings again as by their appointment and consent and they also to that purpose to promise him obedience and service For surely none can think it was in Judahs or Israels power whether or no he should have been their King being before annointed by Gods direction without consent of either of them So that their former King being now dead we must suppose that in Justice they could do no otherwise secondly nor in prudence he being of such merit in himself and having besides A great host like the host of God Although these considerations as also his gifts made the Elders of Iudah first anoint him yet I finde no expression of the peoples doing it or that the people or Elders made any Covenant with him And as for Israel the Covenant spoken of must be understood in pursuance of that made with Abner who as in the chief command had made Ishbosheth Sauls son King before to whose face he threatens to give the kingdom to David And therefore when in pursuance thereof he makes a league with David to bring all Israel to him It is to be understood of a league with Abner first made for after the league between them Abner now calleth David Lord and King and saith He will gather all Israel to David to make a league with him that he might raign over all that his heart desired Here is indeed obedience and subjection promised on the peoples part when they should make this league with him but what was the engagement from this or any other King to subjects by way of Covenant I finde not But to proceed on this enquiry concerning Davids Covenanting that which was probably Abners aime besides his thirst of treacherous revenge was indemnity for his past act against David and therefore he durst not come till he had sent messengers on his own behalf Which David accepts upon condition that he should bring his wife Michal with him or else no forgiveness expressed in that phrase of anger Thou shalt not see my face except c. And likely it is Abner was taken into favor also which might appear by Davids feasting him and Ioabs envious killing him and by Davids mourning for him afterwards And therefore his Covenanting with Israel afterwards can be interpreted as before noted but a promise of indempnity from him according to and in pursuance of the promise formerly made to Abner who had before undertook and prevailed To bring Israel and Benjamin to him So that after Abners death and their Kings it was much more reason they should come to David for this Covenant then he to them And it is to be noted that they send to him he comes not to them as he did formerly to Iudah with whom it was more likely he should have made a Covenant if it had been necessary that kingly right and power had depended on Paction and consent of people Therefore this Covenant could not imply equal stipulation or resignation of any royal power because then Iudah had more reason to have pressed it as having more power to stand on their tearms with David For they being not in like trouble and confusion might have also joyned with Israel against him nor was his strength then so great and formidable as afterwards But their not doing it as not having offended by resisting David as Israel had done seven yeers together makes it evident that this covenant imported nothing but an act of oblivion or the like and that it was not at Davids suite as summoning them to settle him in his throne but at theirs to be settled by him in their liberties which were probably to be the same that their brethren of Iudah already had And therefore they say unto him We are thy bone and thy flesh because those of Iudah might else presume to much as being his kin acknowledging also to him before they speak of Covenant that God had appointed and said unto him Thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And their annointing is not ascribed to freedom in them to have refused but it is said They annointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel that is acknowledged him King as God had appointed And to shew that this League
the peoples performance For though Kings extreamly differ from God in degree of superioriry yet as superiors they have both the same reason for exercise thereof And on the behalf of both of them it must seem a thing aswell unreasonable as ungrateful for inferiors and receivers to make the good deeds of those above them in power and office to serve as a means of their deprivation Nor can that Paction but be invallid where superior and inferior treating as such should Covenant to destroy those relations whilst they yet pretend thereby to estate and settle them So if a man in his wooing promise the wife freedom of restraint or command other then what shall be to her liking or to have power to execute or manage her own or the affairs of the family independent of him this though it might induce her marriage or putting her self into his power yet it cannot take away any power necessarily belonging to his office for the good and quiet of the family but rather as the promise shewed an extraordinary affection towards her it should the more obliege her to obedience Nor can she or children or servants have any freedom against him but what a power superior to him allows For so far as law restrains his arbitrary power and doth for instance design in what cases joyntures portions and degrees of servitude shall rest in compact with him this must be derived from power of a superior and not from a power below and in themselves For they being appellants to law and a higher power shew they can have no power above him and that this superior power and not themselves alone can restrain him No more can after Pactions between Prince and people given by his free grant and promise or forced by their rebellions prevaile more to the disinvesting him of any just power then the after indulgent promises to wife children or servants for non-restraint can deprive the Master of what power is by law left him and useful in the execution of his office because as their power is given from above so can it be onely restrained from above The Master cannot give away the power that makes the office and yet continue the office nor they assume power beyond the degree of children and servants and yet continue such For when wife children or servants refuse any command of the Master they do it not as they stand in these relalations to him but as they are joynt subjects to a command superior and so this is not liberty from his power otherwise then as thraldome to anothers So when Princes command any thing contrary to Gods law the subjects suspension to do it is not to disobey him but to obey God unto whom both stand subject who if he shall own and protect them therein they are so far discharged of their obedience otherwise not Whereupon in all capitulations between Prince and people the case will have great difference from that wherein wives or servants before they are such do stand considered as Pactors with their husbands or masters because these alwayes have a present immediate superior to them both namely the Prince or his Magistrate unto whom they joyntly relating as Subjects have a ready means for decision of any differences that shall arise between them about breach of Articles if they had not the Law it self Else their stipulations would prove but the ready disturbers of that peace and charity which they intended to establish even by adding those new occasions of quarrels that should arise to them hereabouts to those formerly incident to them as men Even as we finde that amongst such as do not acknowledge God to have any present magistrate settled here above themselves to decide differences and demand obedience the like continual breaches daily to arise about the meaning of his Laws But it will plainly appear that this plot of paction was but of late times devised by sons of Beliall or such as would not be under restraint to serve their own ends and not truths if we consider that we finde not any one urging for the Jews right in chosing and impowering of their Judges And all because men being not now under the authority of such temporary officers are not so careful to devise wayes and maxims for taking to themselves power to set them up and make their restrictions by But that which is the truth herein is that since it is never urged that the Jews did challenge a right of setting up these lesser powers it proves that their meaning is mistaken by those that think they had right to set up the greater For if they could not set over them Moses Joshua and the rest why should they have power to confer the office of Kingship If they could not or did not make Moses King of Jesurun how came they to have right to make David And therefore to sum up all kingly office being by Divine institution the power necessary for execution thereof is not by Paction from inferiors but by gift from God above When Princes upon occasion promise the imparting of any power to magistrates or others of his people this as coming from a rightful superior is on them bestowed as of grace and gift and not any way arguing that the power remaining is from Inferiors to Superiors by capitulation For though those Monarchical Judges and High-Priests that ruled while Kings came had not so much power as Kings yet because they were straightned from above onely by Gods continuing King upon great and extraordinary occasions that Government was a Monarchy no otherwise then those still continue Families where Laws of superiors streighten the power of the Master most by taking the cognizance and judgement of those under him as in the relation of Subjects Therefore when Government as in neither of these cases is not straitned by power from below it continues right Government because nothing of subjection is remitted For that power the Father exerciseth not the Prince doth and what the Prince doth not nor cannot is done by God who is onely above him And again although the governeds obedience be to more then one as touching their general subjection yet since in each particular command they have but one determinate Commander and have but one in chief to appeal to their Government is still right and Monarchical CHAP. XI Of Magistrates Councellors c. AS we have hitherto declared the necessity of Government and confined it to one person so it must be supposed that so great a charge cannot be managed by any single man without the assistance of others Whereupon these assistants being in many thing the immediate executioners of power and commands in and upon the Subjects it comes many times to pass that the original of power is forgotten and the very right of Soveraignty it self usurped by and imputed to these subordinate Ministers This chiefly appears in those useful Ministers in each Kingdom to wit Councellors and Magistrates by whose help the single eys
and hands of the Prince do receive information and execution elsewhere and are thereby enabled to contrive and act what other ways in his proper person he could not The which inconvenience is not so incident to the Master of the Family because in his less charge he is able personally to look into his affairs to direct according to occasion himself and so needs but seldom to ask Counsel or to appoint standing Laws or Officers for execution therein For Magistrates are but the executioners of Laws and Laws are but the Processions of Councel and Councel again is but the result of particulars debated we shall therefore speak of it in the first place as the gound to the rest The excellency of man above other Creatures and of one man above another is in Wisdom Discourse Reason Councel c. which is imployed either in aiming at the best ends or chusing the best means for attaining them either in the knowledge and discovery of good and bad or in knowledge of prosecution or avoidance thereof Mans end we said before to be pleasure which being of different sorts and degrees according to the supply of the object and capacity of the receiver it will produce two differences of pleasure that is the difference in degree vigor and reality of fruition and difference of the time of its lasting and continuance The knowledge of the first of these belongs to each sensitive Agent even as it is such the other must depend upon Discourse as must also the difficulties and expediences in attaining it In all these things if we consider men in Nature that is separate and unsubordinate they will depend upon his own Sense and Reason but as he stands in relation or subjection to others it must have measure and approbation from them accordingly Wherefore now being to consider men as linked in society where private good is to give place to general and the judgement of what is general belongs to those that have general trust the discourse both of the lastingness of the possession and the way to acquire it must belong to others also Nay as the Prince hath charge of all in general so hath he over each one in particular and as fewer persons are not to be pleasured to the harm of more so is no one or many to harm themselves unavoidably Therefore if the whole people deceived with a false appearance of things occasioned by their own weakness or through fraudulent disguise of others should request any thing which he foresaw would not be pleasant in possession or would be overvalued in consequential inconveniences he may justly deny For it is his part as to seek the subjects continual pleasure and good so to avoid and divert what may produce their harm and affliction And the same we may say of single persons or few which if they shal choose to act without experience and deceive themselves in the true estimation of pleasure though herein they think they cross not others yet they are to be by him debarred as having the charge of each ones good For the same reason that forbids the pleasure of few to the damage of more in regard of the equal relations they all have to him as subjects forbids his permission in harming any one solitarily considered in the same relation And as when subjects are comparatively considered the pleasure of more is to be preferred to that of few and the harme of more to be diverted to that of few in things equally prejudicial and unavoidable so the pleasure or harm of all many or one is in the absence of such comparison and modification to be absolutely granted or denyed So that then all that Subjects as such can have implicite trust to be judges of is in the vigor and reality of the pleasure of what they desire and this each one can have but for himself neither For if it be of a pleasurable object which he hath not tried he may over or under conceit it as also he is less able to judge or apprehend what will be the fruition of another therein Therefore now to come to application the good of the whole Kingdom being the object Councel and the good of the whole arising from that of particulars the first enquiry must be what truely are those several desires and aims of the subjects The next must be whether they have not deceived themselves as to the valuing of their fruitions or to the consequents attending them And then whether the possession or means of attaining them be feasible and lawful that is to say unprejudicial to others All these things have their degrees of comparison to make them capable of choice or refusal according to the general maxims of a less evil to be endured before a greater and a greater good to be chosen before a less else if many subjects in a kinde of wantonness should desire a pleasure which would highly and necessarily prejudice a fewer number it is not to be granted for that the Prince having equal interest and relation the more in number would be the less in value as would be the death or ruine of one Subject to satisfie the anger or avarice of many In this case therefore the rule of comparison still stands true the less evil of displeasing many to be preferred to the greater evil of undoing few these things depend on particulars which are infinite As these considerations may give us light to judge of things debated in those more general Councels which are called Parliaments where the desires and grievances of particular Subjects go upward and are by degrees collected and represented unto the Prince the general and common sense of good and bad to the end suitable accommodations and remedies may be granted so when this common Sensory and Judge of good and bad gathering ground from hence or by information elsewhere gotten shall act downwards by those Magistrates neerest him and according to the fitness of any thing to be done or avoided make any Edict or Law to that purpose these comparative values must be acknowledged the prime guide of what is to be done both ways and thereupon that none but he hath power to admit and conclude of debates And this because if any Councel have power to admit and receive what they like and to make what conclusions thereupon they like too what shall hinder them of absolute Soveraignty For implicitly to follow Councel is all one as to follow Command And therefore this peremptoriness of Councel being proper onely to such as have the highest power because it is to be supposed the guide to power it is the reason why Christ takes it as an honorable and powerful name to be called wonderful Councellor And in the Scripture sense My son I counsel thee is the same as if it should have been said My son I command thee all of them shewing that such as are under subjection in things that are commanded must be under subjection for that counsel also
Kings as Supreum or unto others as sent of him As thus in many matters of Charity divine direction was usefull so to the particular direction of our Christian faith on which as a ground-work our Charity was to be built this direction was much more necessary For since none could come to God except he first know that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him so the stating our faith standing necessary as to the stating our obedience we we may see cause for the frequent commendation and injunctions thereof in the New Testament where it is expresly said that without it t is impossible to please God that is without confidence of his being and of his rewards and punishments following our good or bad actions we shall not be zealous of good works or duties of Charity And having so far shewed what the ground of Religion should be we will next shew what it usually is both in ground and practice CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received BEfore the knowledge of good and evil entred into man Nature was his religion and what was by her law done was also thereby justified But being once possessed with the apprehension of this discovery all our thoughts and actions were so involved herein that nothing we said or did could escape censure on one side or other and so consequently for well or ill doing we could not but expect reward or punishment But because on the one hand the natural pride and arrogancy of each man was ready to put a greater rate and desert upon his intents and doings then he saw them rewarded with in this life and on the other side knowing the great and many faults that had escaped him or others not at all espied by men or by law so throughly punished as he thought their gift required the two main guides of our nature hope and fear led on our expectations to a future reckoning in such a sort that where the souls immortallity and our resurrection are not by special revelation manifested men are yet generally found believing thereof the craft of persons in authority many times helping on and biassing these Superstitions of inferiours to sociable advantages or self respects Now the wayes men take for the obtaining of this future reward or a voiding the like punishment is their religion And then religion having its ground from conscience and each mans conscience following the light of his understanding in judging good and bad and their degree from the diversity of understanding followeth the diversity of religions which as they had their first rise and fashion from their several Authours so each one yeilds himself a Disciple as he findes his hopes or the fears of his owne conscience therewith satisfied Therefore now concluding mens religion and conscience to be according to their understanding and their understandings being not onely differing but altogether imperfect it is impossible that any Religion should be true but what is from God himself received But then again because truth doth not move by being but by being apparent and because there is no way for this apparency till it be made conceivable to my understanding will it not follow that therein also we must be subject to much difference uncertainty So that men generally acknowledging a deity that no religion can be true but what shal be from him received they do by means of this fallible guide so usually mistake in their choice For knowledg in this kinde is not innate but acquired for why else are not Children and innocents as well as men of riper capacity by priviledge of birth and species without more ado instructed Why is that long stay made until by natural course the sences and organs of the body receiving their due growth and perfection the understanding together therewith arrive also at a sufficient capacity for the same reason to work by So that then the priority and worth of divine truths being not able of themselves to enter our capacities otherwise then as let in by the senses or else made familiar by such things as formerly were so as types parables similitudes and the like it comes to pass that according to the several prepossessions of men and their several fashions in entertaining them our several beliefes and opinions do arise And although we are seldome able to remember those sensible inductions out of which they grew yet from such they must needs at first grow inasmuch as had they come in without mixture they would like truths have remained to all men the same and alike whereas now their variety shews the variety of their entertainment and admittance And therefore although naturally as men and for satisfaction of our hope and fears sake we generally adhere to one sort of Religion or another yet when we come to entertain the kindes we stand not onely disabled in our Election but for the most part use no Election at all depending rather on chance then choice For what one is there of a thousand that ever doubts of or alters the religion he was brought up in For do we not Scholly and Catechise our Children in the same opinion with our selves do we not carry and send them with directions for beliefe and attention unto such Churches and Preachers where we are sure the truth and benefit of this and the falsehood and dangers of all others shall be exemplified to the height What probability then that he should prefer an opinion unknown at least alwayes discommended before one he doth know and hears alwaies praised Whereupon we shall finde preoccupation of judgement of such force that whether they be Christian Jew Mahumetan Heathen or a distinct Sect under any of these generals yet all of them to resolute to their owne side that they will embrace Martyrdom rather then a recantation Not that all in any kinde will do so for all men stand differenced between perfect Atheism and height of belief but where such tenderness of conscience and disposition is met withall as can be subdued to entertain Myrterdome on one side the same party would also have entertained it on another had education and other fore-stalling arguments been applyed unto him And even as in Christianity it self and the sects thereof we may find both Martyrs and Renegates as strength of belief leades them so in other religions also upon tryal these kindes have been apparent For as the Magitians feigned Miracles found greater belief with the Egyptians then the true ones of Moses so a false information having nothing to contradict it or education having forestalled our judgements prevailes as true with us and the contradictory thereof as false For all men thinking it reasonable that the proof of divine authority should be evinced by something more then humane and that supernatural truths otherwaies not conceiveable by sense and so demonstrable should be ascertained and illustrated by such as were it made the founders of all Religions pretend miracles as thinking their endeavours
humility and obedience as that they should give unto their superiours endued with power over them from the just One the same indisputable respect as Children did to their own Fathers and so like obedient children trust to them for the exposition of the Law of Moses and the former statutes and judgements This pronoune their being restrictively added to Fathers in the clause for obedience whereas the pronoune the is added to Fathers in the other will again shew us how large our love should be and not at all exclusive whereas our obedience is to be to our own heads or fathers So that now by means of Christs taking on him the kingly office under the Gospel and so by his Church and deputies therein affording us both places and persons continually accessible we may say of his Kingly office in like manner as was said of his taking the Priestly office upon him namely that as we have a high Priest that may be touched with our infirmities so we have a kingship also from him the King of Kings whereby as from persons knowing and sensible of our want we may be continually supplyed after a new and living way both with ghostly and temporal directions by the grace and power of him who hath uniued thesese two offices and is after the order of Melchisedec King both of righteousness and peace Upon which ground we may find a ready reason for our Saviours speech that God had given him authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man meaning that as God had made his recess under the Law before mentioned in compassion of mans weakness so under the Gospel by Christs taking our nature upon him and so being made more sensible of our wants we have also an exceeding advantage towards the Commiseration of our frailties whether in pardoning what we do amiss or in supply of what we want Whereupon it must now follow that as a medicine doth not work by being but by being applyed and that as Gods new Covenant of inward grace is to be made effectual by our outward obedience so must now our condition of innocence and fulfilling of the law by the precepts of love be interpreted then onely subsistent when we act with or not contrary to such as are by God and Christ entrusted with the custody and direction of these precepts and have power to command us accordingly And although God himself rule not in us now by Tables of Stone so much as formerly but by the fleshly tables of our hearts yet since these are still ruling by them in his stead our obedience to them is necessary and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour that we may lead quiet and peaceble lives in all Godliness and honestly and so make good on all parts his saying that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill that is not to let this inward obedience to God in the precept of love prove fruitless for want of outward obedience to Superiours directing how the same shall be usefull For we are to esteem and believe them as keepers of both Tables that is as to the outward Minstration and since in this kinde we cannot hear God plainly and expresly speaking as from the mount that cannot be touched we are yet to hear them as in his stead according to that admonition obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they who must give accompt that they may do it with joy and not with grief for this is profitable for you Which precept of obedience twice repeated under the words obey and submit sets forth this duty to be performed in the fullest manner no equivocation or delusion to be used herein For since I may obey but in what my self likes or is for mine owne ends or I may give obedience onely for fear of wrath I am also commanded to submit my self that is to do it for conscience sake to his authority as one that is in duty subjected unto it And to cut off that usual cavil against obedience to Christian authority namely the hazard of our souls we are here told that they are the watchmen of our souls and that they must give accompt thereof And this office of watching our souls they shall then perform with joy and not with grief when we shall readily yeild them this our bounden obedience and submission and consider with our selves how profitable this subjection is unto us even for securing our souls and estating us innocent And least any shold think this admonition reach to civil duties onely and not to directions for and in matters of faith the Apostle in the same chapter did before bid them remember them that have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation That is since the end of their imployment and rule overus was that we might lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honestly or to be directed by them in matters pertaining to godliness as well as honesty we are therefore to follow their faith in delivery of the meaning of the Scripture as we have already followed their authority in receiving it as the word of God And again to take off the objection of personal defect and errour which might be made to defeat obedience to some men in lawful authority let our Saviour himself be heard The Scribes and Pharisees saith he sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Where we may find by the words all and whatsoever the generallity of our obedience to the persons in Moses seat or seat of supream and just authority Against which if any exception or suspition of errour was to have been a sufficient excuse Christ would never have so enjoyned it as supposing the Scribes and Pharisees put into that seat a people which he well knew to be in many particulars erronious But yet however whilst they sat in Moses seat that is as from and under God acknowledged and taught the fundamentals of the law so long were their disciples secured in a state of innocence by obedience no otherwise then Christians are by obedience to those that are over them in Christs seat in the Church Undeniably clear to this purpose is Saint Paul to the Philippians Do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in a crooked and perverse Nation amongst whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life that I may rejoyce in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain In which words he shews what is to hold forth or make use of the word of life namely to do all things without murmurings and disputings For this obedience to Gods vicegerents will not onely make the persons themselves blameless
Church shall have distinguished between holy and prophane I conceive that in all such things as are concluded of religious jurisdiction and cognisance the Church-members of the Clergy are by the Church her head to be therein imployed more eminently then any other subject especially if they do therein acknowledge themselves subordinate and subject unto him All which I have in this part set down to avoid such umbrage as might have been by some taken at the passed discourse And for farther avoidance of mistake about those persons or orders of the Clergy by me glaâ—ced at in any censure here or elsewhere I shall also now crave leave to say that as I profess my self a dutiful son of the same Mother so do I also highly respect and honour that Classical order of the Clergy which the Church of Engand owns as hers being men that have approved themselves the true sons of Zadock the type of Evangelical Priesthood and been as eminent for loyalty as learning But the disturbances of Christendome are to be imputed to those of the Romish party who in favour to their owne head are to subject with Abiather to miscary that arke wherewith they are entrusted and to make the power and cognisance of those sacred orders which should separate them from worldly imploment to serve as a plea and pretence thereunto as in order to spiritual cognisance and jurisdiction As also to that miscellaneous brood who as in hatred to their exteram entring their ordinations at a wrong dore or not entring them at all have as shamefully demeaned theselves in the Priesthood as they did ignorantly and shamefully decline the title it self and that honotr which is thereunto due and have by those strange fires of sedition and rebellion which they every where offer under shew of reformation and zeal approved themselves the true sons of Nadab and Abihu These are they that are deare declaiming against Prelacy on purpose to gain higher preferment whilst the name of Bishop is by them declined as an unlawful jurisdiction in in the Church they are grasping after the thing and striving to exercise EEpiscopacy and oversight over both Church and State under the claim of power from Christ himself received as his immediate Ministers thereby shewing that their slighting of orders is but because they would not be by them confined to Ecclesiastical superintendency onely CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and of the Scriptures interpretations FRom what hath been hitherto spoken of our Security whilst retaining the fundamentalls of our religion as men may gather courage to resist such superstitious fears as some would put into them on purpose to draw them to their owne sects so may they plainly see it their duty these foundations being laid that their directest obedience which they can as Christians in other things give unto that person Christ hath most eminently entrusted and by whom he is most lively represented is the strongest argument of performance of their duty and obedience to himself For he being as the chief Master builder to direct us in all things towards our actual edification upon these ground works of faith and charity laid in our hearts may seem to be Gods great accomptant for the sins of the people and to prefigured unto us under the scape goat in the law who as denoting the high and uncontroleable power of his office here was both to be free and unmolested in the wilderness of this life and also to bear on him all the iniquities and transgression of the people For although Christ himself typifyed under the slain goat do onely truly and meritoriously expiate and make attonement to God for all mens sins as breaches of Gods law insomuch as no man can hope for remission of any sort of them without repentance and forgiveness in his name made and obtained yet forasmuch as we are commanded to be obedient unto them both in matters of godliness and honesty there is no doubt but the same will acquit us of guilt in all things acted by their guidance and not contrary to the foundation of faith and love which is or should be in our hearts And therefore to this purpose as formerly noted we shall find good warrant given from him that said Do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of God in the midst of a froward and perverse generation wherein ye shine as lights in the world Here is no distinction made of our duties here is no referment of us to Scripture but a general direction to universal and ready obedience which being done we shall be blameless and harmless for obeying however the thing wherein we do obey may prove harmful to others and to blameable in the Commanders And that the Apostle did hereby entend implicite and perfect obedience may farther appear by the foregoing occasion which lead him to this precept namely for avoiding of divisions and Standing fast in one Spirit with one mind unto the which implicite obedience and subjection to one head is the onely ready way And to the end they should fulfill his joy and be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde he admonisheth thâ—t nothing should be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then themselves And then he tells the way to it First by inward charity and love Look not every man on his owne things but every man on the things of others afterward he points to outward subjection to make this love useful which he doth by the true example of humility and obedience our Saviour himself viz Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men And being found in the fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross A death which was proper to such as were under the highest degree of subjection being the usual punishment for slaves And so having set forth the reward of this his humility and obedience to encourage us therein he then proceeds Wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence onely but now much more in my absence work out your owne salvation with fear and trembling Which words do plainly shew the means to salvation to be dependent on perfect obedience to Gods Minister for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That is as God is himself the worker of this inward love to make us willing so must he direct by his Minister our doing it outwardly to our Neighbours benefit under whom doing all things as aforesaid we shall be blameless as aforesaid also For his care
And from this necessary referment of the managery of many actions to the power of particular Subjects and because of the necessary submission of some deportments also to the guidance of fathers and Masters of families as proper to their charge and duty grows the reason why we finde in some of the Epistles and places of Scripture such general direction and intimation of duty namely because those or some of those precepts or presidents in them contained may be upon occasion as we said usefull to the general direction of the several persons contained in each Church when he shall either stand by his proper office or by power and leave from his Prince under no positive restraint but of God alone At which time and at all times when he is not by the Church debarred it seems highly expedient that the same person thus entrusted with the execution of affairs wherein himself or others may be concerted should have liberty to have his recourse to the Scripture for the farther enabling him in his demeanor in things and persons submitted to his trust and power and that upon the same reason and grounds that were formerly given to shew their sole custody and power of interpretation given to superiour powers namely for them to have assistance of divine guidance in execution of their charge of government also Upon which ground and consideration it became in particular manner necessary also to have the general rules of do as ye would be done unto and love thy Neighbour as thy self to be commended in common to each ones observation to the end that each one having his Neighbours good or harm more or less in his separate power might by this conscientious rule and tye of examination be more readily provoked and directed in his sociable abearance For the rule it self being but a general rule for inoffensive living by introducing a common and equall sensation or fellow feeling of each others wants and benefits that thereupon as to our selves the good of others might be sought and their harm avoided therefore is it by our Saviour placed as the sum and fullfilling of the law Meaning that as God had formerly by Moses and the Prophets given particular precepts and directions for the sociable abearance of the nation of the Jewes so the onely standing divine rule to us Christians now was this summary direction for the good of Society whereby preserving the good of our Neighbour we should also thereby to our power maintaine the glory and service of God So that the said rules of love thy Neighbour c. and whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you c. importing generally as if it had been commanded to all sorts of men to be ready according to their severall stations and degrees to promote the good and to ease and sustaine the harms of one another it must therefore follow that those persons that have publike and whole trust and power in each society are in the first place to have the interpretation and application of this rule and so each one under him as he shall entrust them therein in order to the good and welfare of that society For since the care and trust of the Prince is more then that of others it must also follow that the application of that rule which is directive therein must be primarily in him too the subject having onely liberty to guide himself in what he is to act on another as supposing the rule a fresh said unto him from Christs Minister set over him Because else as before shewed generall harm may be the consequent of general liberty independently to act by these rules whereas in our assistances to them and in our submissive deportments if we bear one anothers burdens we shall fulfill the law of Christ in maintaining the good of society the end of that law The rule of do as thou wouldest c. being thus hard to be kept as from private direction onely causeth it to fall out that our works as our works cannot justifie us before God because they cannot as proceeding from separate persons onely have throughly and on all hands charitable and perfect performance but as done in Christ that is in obedience to his or his deputies authority and failing in the faith hereof or in our impartial dealing with our Neighbours in things by authority permitted unto us it will follow that whatsoever is not of faith is sin But if in conscience to Christs authority commanding obedience to him and in him we do that which may privately make our conscience condemn us yet God is greater then our consciences and knoweth all things to wit knoweth that as his glory is to be increased by humane preservation so humane preservation is maintained by obedience and submission For if we must be judging of morallity and being under lawful authority act their commands on others no farther then the supposal of our case and suffering to be theirs will give leave I would fain know whether the Judge and other officers and executioners of civil Justice that joyne in the sentence and infliction of death on any their fellow Subjects or whether the Souldier that for press or pay doth the like on his owne country men or others do either of them imagine themselves in their case and so acquit themselves by not being instrumental in infliction of more then themselves would have again suffered from them If they do not nor need not then doth their innocence follow their obedience even by Imagining themselves to have been in their superiours case him their subject for as then they would have expected obedience to what themselves had conceived fit to be done so are they now to give it In which case by my obedience doing as I would be done unto by him that hath whole concern and represents all it must follow that I do as I would be done unto by all men else and so by my obedience have fulfilled the law of Christ. Whereupon as we finde Abrahams faith imputed for righteousness and he called Father of the Church or Faithful so was this attributed unto and made appear in a matter of obedience In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice For although Abraham had at other times obeyed yet was he herein exemplarily the Father of the Faithful because the proof of his obedience was performed in a particular wherein both the injury to another and himself might have been so highly disputed out of private judgement and interest Whereupon that which is here attributed to Abrahams Obedience is interpreted by Saint Paul his Faith who in the first Chapters to the Romans largely sets forth the necessary guilt accompanying legal precepts not done in Christ who throughly fulfilling all moral righteousness our faith and obedience in and to him makes it imputed unto us for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one
proceed to Scripture proofs in these things and in farther confirmation of the precedent chapter beginning with some out of the New Testament Saint Paul having declared somewhat to the Ephesians of his knowledge in the mystery of Christ doth it that thereby all men may see what was the fellowship of the mistery that is both the fellowship of Christian precepts amongst themselves and our fellowship or communion with Christ through obedience Which mistery from the beginning of the world hath bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ that is heretofore hid under the legal observations but is now as the unsearchable riches of Christ preached amongst the Gentiles To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places that is unto the higher powers seated and deputed by Christ might be known by the Church that is by the vertue of illumination and authority given to them through Christs headship of the Church the manifold wisdome of God And therefore Saint Pauls prayer was that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith so that they being rooted and grounded in love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height that is this mistery of the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge Namely that they may know how it should be effected and kept up by those that walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called who must do it with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that is in obedience to our owne Christian head which is the only bond of peace For by means of the building and foundation laid by these Christian heads Apostles and Prophets as then they were called given for the perfecting of the Saints and for the work of the ministry we come to be united as Citizens of the houshold of God or Catholick Church of which Christ himself is the chief corner stone The body of Christ being in this sort to be framed and built together in this life till we come to be past fear of being tossed to and fro of every winde of doctrine even by being come to the unity of faith through the knowledge of the Son of God or to have attained that measure and stature of fulness which is to be from Christ himself expected Of which Christian submission and obedience having set downe positive precepts in the names of Husbands Parents and Masters he finally exhorts them to be still furnished with the whole armour of God that is faith love and obedience that they may be able to stand against the wils of the Devil That is these his most crafty wiles and insinuations whereby we come to be tempted by him as an Angel of light under religious pretences to acts of obedience even by the Prince of the power of the aire the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience For saith he we wrestle not against flesh and blood meaning against fleshly rules or Masters for against the works of the flesh we must wrestle but against principalities and powers agaist the rules of the darkness of the world that is against spiritual wickedness in in high or heavenly places Or against the wills of the Devil working in such as under the colour of legal or moral precepts called usually darkness by their owne high power in the Church would countenance disobedience and so overthrow the mystery of Christ by the mysterie of iniquity For these are to know as Saint Paul saith to Tymothy that the end of the commandment is Charity or peaceable submission and obedience for charity sake out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From which saith he some having swearved are turned aside unto vain jangling that is unprofitable questionings of legalty desiring to be Teachers of the law when they should hearers understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully that is an obeyer of legal authority whereby to retain innocence and not as judge to become guilty Knowing this that the law is not made for the rsghteous or just man that is to condemn a just or obedient man but for the lawless and disobedient for ungodly and sinners c. Where all wickedness being reckoned after as subsequent and attendant on disobedience and by opposing the disobedient and lawless against the righteous man we must understand obedience and righteousness to be contivertible For as the fruit of the Spirit is love so the fruit thereof again is joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law that is law of condemnation And this mistical way of accomplishing our innocence is farther repeated to the Collossians that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mistery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge In which words we may plainly see that our greatest comfort ariseth from love in our hearts and from hence have we the full assuranc of understanding of right obedience to Gods law to the acknowledgement of the mistery of God even the mistical way of justification whereby being inwardly made ready and pliable to perform all acts of benificence we by our conformity and obedience to this one precept should contrary to the doctrine of the darkness of this world be estated truely innocent In which words the general name of God is first attributed to the holy Ghost for that he is the more proper efficient in the understanding of this mistery as also of the acknowledgement of the Father and of Christ. so that in participation of the Godhead by this mistery we are made comprehensive of all the reall treasures of wisdome and knowledge in being thereby guided through Gods light and not our own Which as the Apostle spake least any should beguile them with entising words that is Religious pretence which is most enticing of any so he joyes in beholding the fruit of this inward love their order and stedfastness of their faith in Christ that is their peace and agreement in the faith And thereupon proceeds to admonish them least any man spoil them through Philolosophy and vain deceit meaning through the Greekish popular Philosophy of their Country teaching righteousness to be attained by their many precepts of morall justice or vain legall deceit of the Iews amongst them after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the world or worldly wisdome and not after Christ in the simplicity of this Gospell precept of obedience For we cannot offend God whilst we are obedient to him
of mine hands in the midst of him that is such as are begotten to him through the power of mine inward Kingdom they shall sanctifie my name and shall sanctifie the holy one of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel that is shall walk righteously and obediently according to their calling They also that erred in spirit that is such as were not yet thus inwardly guided but were led by multitude of litteral precepts shall come to understond that is to know this right way of sanctifying me and they that murmured that is such as were made stubborn by relyance upon their own interpretations of legality shall learn Doctrine that is shall learn the doctrine of obedeince a fit lesson for murmurers As this Office of Teaching or Instruction is to be understood here set down as in the first place proper to Christ who was anointed to preach good tydings so because this could be but in small measure done and supplyed by himself at least amongst the Gentiles in the glory of whose Church it is to be understood that of the Jews was prophesied it is therefore to be supposed that Christian Princes are to be his chief deputies in this office of instruction also For as they under him Shall build the old wasts and raise up the former desolations of the Jewish Church by this advancement of Christs kingdome amongst the Gentiles so These strangers shall stand and feed the Churches flock and the sons of the Aliens shall be her plowmen and vine-dressers all which are the Gospel expressions for Christs Shepherds or Pastors Nor can it appear otherwise then reasonable and necessary that those that are to be in the seat of judgement under Christ should have in chief the power and office to teach and instruct as well as to censure and reform Which although not fit to be personally practised by Kings in that sence of preaching as now understood especially having under them persons in holy orders to that purpose separately ordained yet is that general Office of instruction to be esteemed so properly their right as that for the matter and measure thereof it is alwayes subordinately to be executed by others For as they are to be the keepers of both tables so upon extraordinary and exorbitant occasions they may also no doubt as Gods Ministers entrusted in chief with the advancement of his glory and service publikely and personally also perform that Office under the Gospel much more rightfully then good Josiah under the Law Who to his great commendations had formerly done the like In the ears of the Priests and Prophets and all the people both small and great and yet was the custody and interpretation of the Law much more appropriate to the Priesthood then than now Nay indeed this Office must both be in the same person and in the first place setled also or else I see not how they should have power or ability to reprove in such things where they had no power or right to constitute and ordaine And therefore we may observe that the first Mission of power which our Saviour gave was under the notion of this Office of Preachers or Evangelists and by vertue thereof and obedience thereunto did the Apostles at first claim obedience from their Churches in other things as shall more fully appear anon But to return so much of the prophesie as concerns the Church her encrease and prosperity is to be interpreted as not made good fully in Christ himself nor in some time after that is whilst the Church was so under persecution that those deputies of Christ in the seat of judgement had not power and honor enough to preserve the members from shame or fear But it is to be compleated unto the residue or latter time of the Church when God shall more eminently appear like a Crown and diadem in being the spirit of judgement and strength to them that have the crown and diadem That is when Christ as King shall raign in righteousness and his deputies of Princes shall rule in judgement then shall a man the Prince in Christs seat be for a hiding place from the winde of divers doctrines wherewith they were formerly tossed and a cover from the tempest that is of persecution he shall be as rivers of waters in a dry place That is from the spirit of truth now met in the seat of mercy and judgement he shall cause instructions to flow forth as waters in a dry land and by means of strength to him that is to turn the battle to the gate he shall be as the shaddow of a great rock even for strength and defence to the Church formerly wearied with persecution And so the Prophet goes on to shew how the eyes and ears of them that yet see and hearken to his instructions shall be reclaimed from their former rashness and come to understand knowledge By this word man set down in this second verse in the singular number saying A man shall be c. we may gather first that there should be but one at once in each Church that should supply the place of a rock and spirit of judgement although in respect of the whole number of Christs deputies in the Catholike Church they were to be Princes in the plural number under him the Churches universal head and King of Kings And then again this person being set down under the notion of a man will denote unto us that it could not be meant of Christ himself neither But this as before said shall chiefly come to pass after the former Palaces of the Jewish Church shall be forsaken and by means of the spirit from on high to be powered on the Gentile Church judgement shall dwell in the wilderness that is in the Gentile Church formerly a wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field meaning the now flourishing Gentile Church And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effects of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance for ever That is by means of righteousness looking down from heaven and so causing righteousness and judgement to kiss each other The Church shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places that is the Church by the means of this blessed protection of kingship shall be no more in danger of persecution as before These blessings of peace and prosperity to come to the Church by means of Gods judgement and righteousness given to the King and the Kings son that is Christ and his sons of oile David under the type of himself and Solomon at large setteth down in the 72 Psalm Where it being set down to last so long as the Moon shall endure we may know how to interpret Isaiahs prediction of quietness and assurance for ever and so be confirmed that these promises import temporal happiness to acrew to us by a temporal Saviour All which prophesies were to be fullfilled after
those prophesies concerning Christs humiliation in his own person should have an end and also his own prophesies concerning those miserable times of calamity that should for sometime befall his Church after his departure In which respect it is that he is come to send fire on earth and a sword c. meaning persecution and also to set men in neerest relations at variance one against another meaning that for fear thereof they should betray one another For if we be not regardful of the true times of compleating the prophesies of universal peace of the Church we shall be at a loss to finde their accomplishment For I conceive the prophesies of universal peace as of beating swords into pruning-hooks c. to have accomplishment at the general peace when Christ the Prince of peace came and our Saviours prophesies of his Churches persecution to have an end in Constantines time After whom I look on the Christian Church in her relapses under Julian the Apostate c. as in a temporary trembling motion till she fix in her state of quietness and assurance For we are not to expect that Christ should cry or cause his voice to be heard in the streets of the world as a King Untill he had sent judgement into victory that is untill by means of victories obtained by these his deputies in the seat of judgement he shall have made himself notable for his power For the expression of sending judgement into victory must import his doing these things by others even by these anointed persons under him In the mean time those his former Deputies Apostles Bishops Patriarchs c. that like weak and feeble reeds were shaken to and froe of the winde of persecution he should not break or quench the smoaking or dimnly burning flax That is should both powerfully defend them against others breaking and should also promote the encreasing state of his Church which like to smoaking flax should shortly burn forth brightly under Monarchy and by means of these nursing fathers of the Church should shew judgement to the Gentiles This fault of mens adding precept to precept and of Forsaking the fountain of living water and digging to themselves broken Cisterns that can hold no water we may finde plentifully reproved by other of the Prophets also but most of all by this Evangelical Prophet who in the latter part of his eight Chapter is censuring thereof and warning us against this covenanting with death and hell almost in the same words Say ye not a confederacy to all them whom this people shall say a confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of hoasts himself and let him be your fear and your dread that is sanctifie him according to the precepts of faith and love his inward law written in your hearts And then He shall be for a sanctuary a place of safety to you but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And many among them that is all such as will trust to their own light and neglect the simplicity of Christs Gospel-light shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken And then he proceeds to tell what this new and living way is and how the letter of the Law is to be made lively and effectual by means of a living keeper and so he brings in Christ speaking Binde up the testimony seal the law among my Disciples that is let judiciary power be in those that rule in Christs name and stead And I will wait for the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Iacob that is such of them as sacrifice to their own snares and will look for him Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel because our way agrees not with the interests of their moral contrivances After which the admonition comes against our listening to these diviners and such as would finde Christ in the secret places When they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar Spirits such as make frequent brags of their own gifts and illuminations and unto them that peep and that matter such as have canting ways and expressions of their own do not follow such for should not a people seek unto their God Is it fit that they should seek for the living sense of the Law to the dead letter But if they do seek to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word namely shewing how all Law is fulfilled in this one word of love it is because there is no light in them that is because God hath suffered the God of this world to blinde their mindes Else they might see that these Precepts of love are plainly there set down as the sum of the Law also and other particular Precepts as they were litterally delivered were but appropriate to the Jewish Nation onely and not universally binding as divine And therefore they that thus dig deep to hide their Councels from God shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry they shall be caught in their own snares and be as him that dreameth of meat and behold he is an hungry And it shall come to pass when they be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and look upward That is the shame and confusion of their own deceitful way shall drive them into so great desparation that instead of amendment by obedience to God to be shewed to the King his Minister they shall curse the parties themselves that is curse God by cursing their King whereby they shall curse upward as well as look upward The which is the issue of all such blinde guidance namely to finde trouble darkness dimness anguish and the like which way soever they shall look And this consequence of dimness and anguish as we finde by example to have been the issue of the absence of Monarchical direction in the Idolatry Civil war and other wickedness of the Israelites When they had no King but every man did what seemed good in his own eys that is interpreted and followed the letter of the Law as he thought good so is it also foretold to happen to Israel and in them to the Christian Church when she shall be an empty Vine or fruitless by bringing forth fruit unto himself that is serve God after his own invention signified by increasing his Altars and goodly Images For then when their heart is divided that is are not single and entire in their service and obedience they shall be found faulty and their Altars and Images shall be broken down which is the same as to be snared and taken They shall then finde their sin of disobedience to prove their punishment For they shall say we have now no King
in it self worthy of preservation doth by Grace restore and rectifie what in our fall had been corrupted Thus that love which Nature provokes me to express out of inward delight Religion enjoyns and directs me to execute according to explicite precept That good which for Honor or Vertue sake I seek to act as a moral man I must now for Duty and Conscience sake re-inforce and prosecute as a Christian. That degree of beneficence which in nature I might arbitrarily and differently dispense according to mine own relations of Family Friends or the like I must now according to the tye of conscience and subjection distribute indifferently or according to such rules as he that hath publike charge shall direct For our state of innocency consisteth more in negative then in positive acts that is more in being harmless then beneficial because innocence or abstinence from harm is always a praise and compatible to all men inferior as well as others but to be positively beneficial is the attribute and sole honor of the Fountain of good and is to mankind no otherwise communicable and proper then as impowered and deputed from him and acting in his stead And therefore is Lord said to be the fulfilling of the Law because it worketh no ill to his neighbor And in that Chapter as obedience to the Higher Power is most strictly enjoyned and may be understood compleating the Precepts of the first Table and so inclusive of that Law of Honor thy father and mother So is the love of our neighbors as our selves set all down in negative Precepts Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal c. Nay our justification and the forgiveness of our offences and sins against God is made to depend most on our forgiving one another which was chiefly hinted at in that perfect model of Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us Heaven it self being the reward of our innocence not of our merit and that because we cannot without derogation to Gods honor take on us to act in matters of beneficence without him And so again the Devil being the father of malice the more we take upon us to act therein the more we shew our selves his servants Of which his delight in malice contrary to the Precept of love we have a plain instance in Witches who spend their whole power in things destructive and mischievous being wholly swayed by desire of revenge which as it did at first grow from being crossed in their own designs so they had beneficence in their aims And therefore so far as any is malicious to others that is is wilfully set to prosecute his own ways of doing future good by present evil so far hath he listed himself under this Destroyer and thrust himself out of Divine favour and protection by renouncing Divine obedience whereas others may know they are passed from death to life not only because they love the brethren but also for that they are obedient to Gods minister in the manner thereof For without God every one may be truly said to act that hath not from him as great and full direction and authority as was in his power to procure even in that particular in which he acts but doth relie only on such general directions as were for ought he knows not proper to the cause in question And so not being by Gods Minister interpreted and warranted as to license therein he must remain still as much as before without true warrant to act on another and the other again without just cause of suffering at his hands For since both of these having from Reason and Scripture alike power to judge interpret and impose upon each other he must be concluded to have been most innocent and obeyed God most that hath most obeyed his Vicegerent and stuck to his direction therein And this because the positive Precepts of Scripture and Religion coming only to supply and make more applyable those general and ambiguous rules of natural reason to which end determinate Interpreters were again put to see the meaning of these Scriptures applyed to these cases and persons unto which they are proper it must thereupon follow that as those that undertake to judge cases by the light of nature only without regard therein had to Scripture cannot in so doing be guiltless so also they that undertake to be their own judges from the immediate rules of Scripture and do balk the the direction of the authorized Intepreter and Keeper they must thereby become lyable to guilt also So that now to sum up all these Discourses concerning love and obedience it is still to shew how men under the second Adam stand in respect of works in a like condition for innocence as they did at first For as then the only Precept was to forbear tasting of the knowledge of good and evil even so it is the only Precept still For so much in brief our Saviour explains saying For judgement am I come into this world that they which see not might see and they that see might be made blind And again as before noted answered those that presumed to derive Innocence and Righteousness from their own light If ye were blind ye should have no sin But now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth The which and other places are certainly plain enough to convince any whom The God of this World hath not blinded to their own destruction And however formerly amongst the Jews where God was immediate Law-giver and by plain litteral Precepts did set down his pleasure to be observed by each one in particular the differencing of obedience into active and passive was useful that thereby upon occasion subjects might perform their duties to God and his Vicegerent also as also it was before the higher Powers were Christians yet now unto Christian Subjects that have not from Christ rules set down for their external abearance one towards another but they are to be taught his commands from his Deputies and Ambassadors the case is otherwise For so the words are Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you not what I have commanded them So that when subjects are by their Christian head now commanded to be actively obedient in any thing they are then disobedient if they are not so because where doing is required their doing to their power and not their suffering must shew their obedience For as I cannot find that the Crown of Martyrdom was promised to any but such as were persecuted for the name of Christ or Christianity which in Heathenish persecutions was to come to pass so cannot I tell what other title then that of Rebel to give to such as oppose or resist their Christian Prince Nor can I find what other reason to give for that expression of our Saviours saying that God hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man then thereby to shew how
the good of men might be still really and truly held and reputed as Gods anointed In which sense we are to interpret that saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Given to such as exercised their power by Patriarchal right before Kingship under the Law as also other phrases of Unction in the New Testament given to such as by means of some extraordinary gift in teaching and instruction exercised Church power in an Apostolical or Priestly right before Kingship under the Gospel Upon which grounds we must say also of the first Heads of Churches the Apostles and such like that although they could not because of their subjection to heathen Kings make much use of their power in Government over mens persons yet were they as heads of Churches thereunto as rightfully empowered as if they had been Kings and had had material unction the power as before noted belonging to Christs Vicar and not to the notions of Apostle King or the like But in after times amongst the Jews when the Power and Office of Kingship did succeed those former Unctions of power did now resolve and unite into this which was of highest eminence above any other and this stile of Gods Anointed was appropriate to Kings And although those other Functions of Priests and Prophets as parts clipt from the entire trust of Monarchy were therefore formerly sharers in this Unction and so were sometimes materially anointed also yet for that their anointings did signifie but some particular reservation of trust it might make them sons of oyl but could not confer on them the eminent stile of the Lords Anointed Which in the first place was due to the Christ that had all Power given him and next to his Adopted Christs in the Church And therefore we shall observe in Sacred Story that those Kings that were most upright in their Offices and Trusts towards God had least of their power shared by these other anointed persons Thus will you find David and Solomon and other good Kings not only in Supreme power and exercising their Authority without impeachment of these other anointed Officers but also some of them prophesying themselves and using authority over the Priests Whereas in the times of Jeroboam Ahab and such like you shall find the Prophets in greatest power and most intermeddling and to that end was Elisha anointed And also to warn these Kings and people from taking such courses as might draw down Gods vengeance to their destruction and so proceed to the overthrow of the Monarchy of that Church before the appointed time that the great Monarch of the Christian Church should change that former way of administration And as we before noted the first stiled Prophets to be such as were sharers of the unction of power of the first stiled King and that the Kings Saul David and Solomon had also this spirit of Prophesie in testimony of their right thereto for enabling them in their Offices of Government so shall we find this spirit of Jewish prophesie to expire with the last person that had this unction of power remaining namely Caiphas the high Priest being the last person that succeeded in that Church in the Seat and Authority of Moses and the Law For so it is plainly there set down that he Spake not this of himself but being high Priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should dye for that Nation c. And so again this his Prophesie is afterwards plainly set down to be the same with Counsel where it is said Caiphas was he that gave Counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should dye for the people And if we make not this Prophetick Office and Trust a part of Monarchical and Kingly Function and so for some time executed by the High Priest I see not how any footsteps or remains of the Government and Scepter of Judah could be found visibly continuing until the coming of our Saviour So that now since the time of Christs uniting these Offices in himself and thereby also abolishing the necessity of any fixed Ceremonial Law and consequently of any external Priestly jurisdiction separate from that of the Monarch and again by the division of the kingdom government of his Church amongst so many heads subordinate unto him that there need not as amongst the Jews where was but one nation be any distinct settlement of the Prophetick to direct against the overthrow of kingship therein there seemed no such use of reservation because if one or two should through iniquity or indiscretion fail yet all could not Therefore it cannot now be reasonably contradicted that the power of each Churches jurisdiction is wholly centred in the person of each Christian Prince by deputation from that supreme head thereof that was Priest and Prophet as well as King The full proof of this connexion will appear by due consideration of that place of Moses where he recounting again Gods recess from Government and instruction as from himself and commending the peoples desire herein promiseth that God will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto him from whose mouth they shall receive all Gods commands By which words of a Prophet like unto me we are to understand a chief Ruler or King like unto Moses for the notion of Prophet seperately considered was never rightly given to Moses And so doth Nathaniel interpret this Prophet to be the King of Israel And generally so did that whole Nation expound it also as may appear by the peoples readiness to make him a King when they perceived he was that great Prophet that should come into the world Whence we may plainly perceive that as to be a Prophet in chief imports to the same as to be a Governor in chief so is the Governor in chief to be reputed and obeyed as the Prophet or instructer in chief Prophesie signifying the same with Instruction and Instruction being proper to persons in Authority And therefore if the Apostles and other heads of Churches in the Primitive times had this power over persons miraculously gifted by God and whom themselves had not set up in Authority being extraordinarily by God Called and Ordained thereunto How much more may the heads of Churches now claim it over such as have not extraordinary revelation from Heaven nor any Church jurisdiction but what is from themselves derived For these may now challenge as supreme Christian heads of each Church the re-union of that power which was separately by other Christian heads enjoyed whilst they were none and upon the same reason of infidelity that made their former Christian subjects deny them obedience in some things they are now being Christians to claim it as entire to themselves And therefore as we before noted the Apostles and such like former Christian heads to have sole rightful power whilst the King was not a Christian and that he was but an usurper in what he did in the Church so
and in the heart and so may carry some flattery of conscience along with them like unto Balaam who thought he might now go so long as according to Gods direction yet in such cases where a plain Precept is transgressed even so plain that every vulgar capacity like Balaams Ass may reprove the madness of the Prophet for men to think of venturing upon their own interpretations and think they can stop soon enough in their rebellious journey must be always dangerous as rendring them subject to be beguiled by the Prince of the ayr instead of an Angel of Light And we are by so much the more in danger of abuse and misinterpretation of Scripture by how much the design and advantage thereby to arise is more general as leaving none to contradict or bring us to rights therein as doth too evidently appear in the interpretation of all those Texts where insubjection is aimed at For each one being himself a subject and having a desire and interest towards encrease of freedom it is to be expected that all wayes of plausible addition should be still found out for advancement of a speculation so pleasing to all Whereas in the divided interests and opinions between Sect and Sect the violence of one is kept in moderation by the fear of his opposite who will be sure to use all the skill and diligence he can to detect him of error and to extol his own contrary tenent even so that an indifferent adjudication may be made between them And therefore if we put not on the whole armour of God and have not our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace that is with meekness and poorness of spirit we shall not be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil nor his stratagems devised to the breach of Charity nor be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked Those many arguments which he and his children of disobedience make use of for setting whole Kingdoms on fire by Rebellion But because many now under the Gospel have been the more drawn into these and other errors in matter of their practise out of their mistaken liberty in the imitations of some such presidents as they find in the Old Testament recorded without reproof it will not be amiss to discourse somewhat of their and our different conditions that so making it appear how their doings might be lawful in such things and how it comes otherwise to pass in ours we may then take off the ground of so much abuse After man had taken on him the knowledge of good and evil he stood thereby obliged as heretofore declared to the performance of all such explicite pious duties as were requisite for Gods service and all such vertuous moral actions as were advantagious for the good of others And albeit under the Law these were abreviated and under the Gospel contracted again into one Precept yet until that time it still remained so much their duties that men were more or less good or evil as they more or less kept or violated these Rules And from thence it again followed that those promises made to Adam as in the state of innocence and those threats sentenced on him as lapsed remained for rewards and punishments differently due and proper to his race The first great transgressor in this kind was Cain in the cruel slaughter of his brother and on him and his race as now exiled from Gods more particular care and right of the Creature we shall find the first curse of sterility to be again particularly laid And so himself understands it as appears by his answer Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid c. But when Seth is born and his first son reckoned you will presently find the distinction of the righteous seed from the other and that it is said Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord And then we may next gather him and his for this cause estated in the right of their Fathers promises as the other was of his Curse For it is after said That Adam beg at a Son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth So that he being represented in his Sonship to Adam under very same expressions of Image and likeness as Adam was made the Son of God we may conclude their undoubted propriety But when afterwards these Sons of God began to mingle and learn the vices of the other then by degrees did the whole world become corrupt and had been universally involved in natural death and destruction by flood had not Noah as a person upright in his generations found favour with God and to stopped specifical ruine So that we are henceforth to look that those promises made to mankinde in Adam should be renewed to him and his righteous seed Amongst whom we may again find this separation made and men still to be distinguished in regard of more eminent acts of Justice and Iudgement until the promises come more remarkably to descend and be conferred on Abraham and on his seed that is to the particular Nation of the Jews Unto whom those common blessings of nature were so often particularly promised as if they were their onely right whereas we shall find little mention in Holy Writ of the rest of the world other then as in relation to their affairs with this peculiar people In which we shall find them blessed as they were to them more kind or punished or destroyed as to them more malignant as the utter overthrow of Amaleck and the compleating of those many prophesies against all Nations that had any ways distressed them makes it plainly to appear These considerations being well weighed we may find reason for that right which the Israelites had unto the Land of Canaan We may finde a good right they had unto the Egyptians goods And of that right also which Moses had of being a god unto Pharaoh in demanding liberty of him for the Israelites departure to wit because these things were done and enjoyned in the name of that God that was supreme Lord of all as it was both to the Israelites and Pharaoh evidenced by miracles And so we may find a good right Iacob had unto the Amorites goods too although his sons had unjustly taken them away because done without his authority and so of divers other instances which would be by men now adays reduced into practise not considering our different conditions and how our Saviour the second Adam took not on him to restore or establish the rights of any particular People or Nation but dyed for all mankind and that in him the right of the creature became equally and universally restored For that now the wall of Separation being taken down there is no distinction in these things between the posterities of Cain and Seth or Cham and Iaphet but as the Christian duty of
power from the people did generally take encrease so came the lower house to be the upper house afterwards the sole house of Parliament as being thought the peoples only true Representors So that at last a King beset with all these limitations did look like a Duck in a Garden brought to eat up the Snailes and Worms and then tied up by the leg for fear of trampling over the flowers or meuting in the Walks But the examples of inconveniences arising from Kings exorbitant use of Power by their strong and fresh impression making me on the sudden heedless how by bridling his Power to do ill I did also take away the power of doing good and then also there having been no president in stories of a perpetual or unlimitted Parliament and consequently of any evil thence arising I came to be so taken up with the apprehension of the good they might do according to that power they had anciently practised that I did not then consider withal I mean for a great while I did not that if one man that did acknowledge himself subject to Law could by his power do so much mischief what then might be feared where a multitude shall joyn in a mischief who shall say they are above Law But it fareth with men in entertaining those narrow Schems for comprehension of any thing as it doth in making knots and plats for Gardens or Building which each one at the time of doing will think done after the best manner because done according to advisement of workmen or the like and according to that stock of materials he then knew of or stood furnished with But when he shall make observation farther and find both other materials and other methods more fit and capable of their receit he will then alter his own method of adjudication also For it is to be conceived that in this course of methodising our fancy carrieth the form of a Pyramid wherein the particulars observable in nature make the Basis which lessens towards the top as the particulars unite and agree in such generals as we may call notions But then as these notions come to be imployed and to receive approbation from experience they are again for ready ease and use collected into other totals called affections which having obtained settlement from the harmony of experiments come to guide us in what we do without reference back to particulars more then he that can now read should be put to make use of spelling For so Beauty Honor c. have place in my desire but the particulars out of which I did at first come to the general liking of them are out of my memory nor indeed could their variety and repetition be remembred being the observation of my whole life of the common rate and esteem of these things by others which could never serve us for use and proficience in knowledge unless we did proceed to this way of abreviation For particulars whilst they are remarkable are the objects of memory but after they are made familiar by instances of the like kind they are amassed altogether and pass into notions and affections Unto the constitution of which notions as each sense carrieth his part so are they soveraigns in their own order that is where they are not in particular objects dependent upon one another there their inductions pass as peremptorily and uncontroulably into affections one as another Even as we formerly noted in Religion and the Opinions and Doctrines thence derived which having not Charity for their object but depending on the ear only come through often repetition and commendation to prevail and pass into affections and sciences upon the same grounds that by sight this or that Figure Fashion or Face comes to please And so it is in the particular smells and tastes we are accustomed unto wherein former repetitions growing too numerous for memory of particulars custom is then uncontrolable and begets affections and science in inductions proceeding from them as observations from sight breed affections in things objected unto it In this way of discovering causes by various coincidence of effects and of common causes to them again according to their concurrence until we come to the prime cause of all things Gods glory we seem to reintegrate our knowledge and comprehension as if received from the fountain by intuition For hereby if rightly proceeded in we are able to judge of all things within the verge of humane sense even as taught by themselves And as we learn upwards so we judge and discourse downwards that is from general notions to particulars We will for better instance and application in these things look more nearly into our learning it self and the labour therein used We that read now having forgot the difficulties that attended us in our learning thereof do wonder at the backwardness of others First in distinguishing letters one from another then in knowing and distinguishing their several values and pronounciations then having understood their agreements and disagreements amongst themselves how to collect apply and place them in syllables Then how in like manner to make of these syllables words and of these words again to frame sentences or notions And lastly how to apply and judge of these sentences as they shall seem consonant and proper to those several artificial methods by me entertained already which we call Affections which having good for their object do accordingly relish and transmit things to the common affection the will to determine how it stands in interest with other affections and also to have the approbation of the understanding whether it be attainable or no For will disputes not whether the affections propound what is good that is to say pleasant or no but whether this pleasure be so continuing and attainable as to make it good But it is to be considered that the fancy doth differently imploy itself in the methodising of particulars towards the constitution of affections and passions over it doth in methodising and retaining such other particulars which are to be imployed by way of Discourse and Reason In the first way particulars are amassed according to their genus and so from a broad foot or basis as we said do agree and point in streight lines towards the constitution of some affection in us The which affection being that which provokes us to delight and action doth as the end by degrees instigate the fancy and fit it self therein with a proper method of comprehension how amongst all the other observations made and collected things may be so chosen and so ordered and placed as to be instrumental and serviceable to the furtherance of this end So far as impressions are topically figurately and particularly retained they have still reference to the objects and do penetrate the brain only being used but as instruments and servants to the attaining of that which each affection doth prompt to the enjoyment of For each affection and appetite hath its proper method of judication and
motion without neglect or leaving out of any or suffering them to croud one upon another even he shall find himself as much mistaken in his Politicks as the other in his Mathematicks And the danger of falling short and running into mistake is by so much the more to be feared in making schemes and methods of this sort then of the other by how much we are less capable of autoptical figures and means of connection and juncture here then there For he that is to frame an engine cannot but from sight and experience be informed how one board or piece of wood is ordinarily joyned to another by taking part from one and part from another and so making them even and as it were one intire piece and also how that is holpen on and upon occasion farther secured in fastness and strength by pins nails plates of iron or the like Whereas to the framing of Polity and Society it is not so easie to conceive how the natural implantation of love is by Precepts of Religion enjoyning to bear one another burthens made efficacious for fastening of one man to another and how again the application of divine and positive Rules and Laws like pins and bolts for the farther and more orderly securing of this political fabrick and structure are necessary to be applyed also for accomplishment of the entire frame according as he that hath charge and oversight of the whole work shall think fit Vulgar capacities can easily make to themselves a representation of a King riding abroad and occasionaly righting or relieving of a single person because these and such like stories use to be figured and represented in Tales and Ballads and they can also because of instance in themselves and their own prompting desires and hopes be able to raise a figure of two persons appealing before him in his judgement seat to give sentence between them in like manner as the two harlots are painted before Solomon his majestical Throne when as yet it will be very hard for such as have not been conversant in Histories and often ruminated on the causes of Civil disturbance to fancy how the whole people may be divided into two parties and factions even as it were two persons and how in that case there is no way to peace and to prevent the danger of the whole by their quarrel but by their joynt submission to the same Soveraign power also But most of all they want prenotion enough to conceive wariness enough to consider that the most common and usual way for men to be lead into these sidings and divisions amongst themselves and into associations and insurrections against Authority is from the doctrines of dis-affected persons vented in private Meetings and Congregations In which case to hope that the seeds of separation and discontent shall not be farther sowed by such as from dislike of what is already publikely taught and allowed have already begun and set up this division is as if one should permit those fires that used to burn publickly on the hearth of his house to be now carried into several corners thereof on belief that in requital of this liberty it will now be neglectful of its own nature and amidst variety of combustible matter obey him saying Good Fire burn so discreetly as not to endanger that Fabrick wherein thou art maintained So that as men from the time they begin to be apprehensive and knowing of morality do stand affected with a different sense of honor and conscience so do they accordingly proceed to make methods and collections towards the satisfaction of those strong affections of hope and fear and that in their several kinds In which doing as we come to attain knowledge and discovery in the nature and course of things from the instigation of appetites to attain satisfaction so do we differently attain wisdom and knowledge as these appetites and affections do differently engage in discovery and in ploting of means and methods for attaining them and do more hardly or easily arrive at satisfaction So for example a fool can neither be much or stadily covetous or ambitious especially the letter or indeed have much of any virtue or vice which grow chiefly from society because things of Society are by him little regarded and understood farther then to the outside and pride thereof and so also must want virtue or vice because so far as he wants understanding he wants will So then it should seem necessary that the concupiscible and irascible appetites should precede knowledge and that I must have sense of want before I can have instigation to attain the means of content For he that is content and cannot give a reason of his content is a fool and the more content the more folly and the less hope of wisdom and the more sense of want the more enquiry and the more enquiry the more wisdom And therefore as the proverb is true that of an unknown thing there can be no desire because as before shewed observation and knowledge of particulars do grow into affections and appetites so is it true again that of undesired things there can be no knowledge because none will contrive or invent any means to attain any thing which they have not first a liking unto But as Wisdom is generally found of such as seek her so in every particular men are more or less knowing and crafty as their desire to the thing hath made their diligence and attention to exceed And towards our instigation to knowledge and discovery we are much holpen on by the humour of choller for by its irritation we are kept as it were awake and intent on objects and provoked also towards action But then again for wisdom and moderation in our actions we are beholding to the humor of melancholly for by its dulness and fearfulness we are brought to hesitation and advisement Hence we may learn what insinuations are best for youth towards their proficience in wisdom namely things of hardest acquisition and that have their benefit arising through engagements to largest enquiry And these are chiefly sense of Religion and sense of honor for these oblige us to diligent attention and search in all things and all the circumstances of them also insomuch as nothing can be looked upon but as through these considerations both generally and differently concerning us in our benefit or harm And these two may well go hand in hand fixing them upon right objects that is works of Beneficence and Charity for as Conscience directs us to love and to do good to our neighbour in obedience to God so doth honor prompt us to do the like by encouragement and direction of the Laws and Rules of our Prince and Country By these means all engagements will be taken in because intervening with their concerns in all we do we shall in those secret things and occasions where honor cannot reach be tyed by conscience to hearty performance also But then we are to consider that conscience
the publike and general way for decision of common Justice and good should be interrupted it would procure sickness and disease in the body politick no otherwise then obstructions do in our natural bodies For as each body hath its proper constitution and habit for measure and motition of its humors so hath each kingdom its proper method and proportion of Laws and politick executions the which when accordingly followed doth not onely keep that kingdom in health but also by their free passage according to custom administer content and delight to all the members And this is made most apparent in those two great objects of Government Liberty and Property It being evident that the happy and contented estate in either of them is not in greatness of extent and proportion but in that pleasure which custom bringeth For since the greatest possessors in these kindes have desire of addition and since in the lowest possession natural necessity is supplied all the rest will be but as coveted for Credit or Honor sake which honor and estimation being more sought by great and rich persons thereunto used then by the low and poor it will follow that the condition of the servant and poorer sort of men hath generally more steady and equal content and that therefore the stating and measuring the publike Liberty must be referred to publike judgement and care and that the grants herein must regard the real benefit of all and not importunity of demanders onely In which respect of judging and estimating of the reality and value of publike benefits the Prince as the heart in the body politick is again to be looked upon as doing that other office as in the body natural before set down that is by vertue that life and soul-ship whereby he animates the whole kingdom to be ready to give true evidence and demonstration whether the things disputed and stroven for are things that have real beings and entities or are not fictions and apparitions entertained by weak and credulous persons and how far also they are practicable and conducent to publike benefit Else it may happen with easie Princes as with indulgent Parents who to still their children leave them knives or the like which instead of use turn to their dammage no otherwise then uncontrolable priviledges of subjects turn to their ruine through civil dissention as heretofore observed And therefore we see by experience that those very children that have their private Wills and Affections least satisfied are in the general best pleased and contented as being least crossed through least coveting whereas those that have them most are most restless and clamorous for more For as that course and manner of life must be much more uniform and constant that is directed by Law or one universal method or order then that which having no certain and determinate restraint but being at liberty to and chose as it thinks good in objects that concern others as well as himself is left irregular and must consequently have more crosses by how much he deals with more objects and aims to hinder him by which means his liberty proving his restraint it were much better and happier for him to have his present liberty subjected by one to his momentany discontent then by taking it upon him to have it crossed by many to his continual torment For as an unusual posture will at first displease which yet through custom of enduring may become as pleasant as walking it self so when I using liberty in many things am thereby put to many postures of restraint this must continually displease no otherwise then when the parts of our natural bodies are put into any other method or posture then hath been hitherto familiar And as a natural body is not an individual longer then it is guided by a single Will no more is the body politick this or that kingdom that is guided in publick actions by more wills then one And as again the parts separated in a natural body do not by their absence demolish the essence of the whole while those that remain continue subject to uniform direction whenas by being seperate they fal like as natural divided parts do into the general accidents of corruption even so politick parts fall into Anarchy after their separation from the common Affection and Will But while they remain conformable thereto they will like bodily members gain to themselves joint content and the reputation of symetry and comeliness For if subjects do at at any time finde fault with their government it is either occasioned through some new and extraordinary injunctions in not keeping a way of Government constant enough which makes arbitrary Government so much cryed out upon or else because some other particular interest or pleasure draws their appetite so strongly another way that it grows weary and insensible of this No otherwise then dogs and other creatures who having the acquisition of food and generation only in pursuit and contemplation stand affected with those smells onely that tend thereunto through eagerness herein being made unapprehensive of the danger of runing into new pastures nor delighted with the content and security they enjoy already And the like as is said of liberty may be said of property wherein covetousness provokes to the same inconvenience which too much liberty doth for as one is covetousness of riches so is the other covetousness of Will and then as sense of want must precede desire so all covetousness is poverty and in these two cases men must be looked upon as so strongly respective to their own interests and concerns as hastily to fall upon schemes and methods of adjudication and contrivance without any equal regard to comprehend or take in the interests of others For if the partial desires of any party order or faction of the people should be suffered to pass and act for it self in relation to liberty or property or the like it would soon be found that all others would be thereby dis-impropriate and made slaves And this upon the same ground that in the course of Nature and Providence the good of Succession and Posterity would be defeated if that natural desire not to die might be fulfilled to such as are for the time alive For men that can from the pressure of their own affections well enough fancy themselves possessing of such a part of the earth and of being thereon as on a Stage acting their parts amongst amongst divers others cannot yet be ordinarily ingenuous and comprehensive enough to consider onward by enlarging of their figure that divers other persons are thereon to act their successive parts also and that thereupon it must necessarily follow as well for order sake as to make room for others that each person must withdraw when that part is acted which was assigned him for as himself is now possessing of his fathers stock and possession upon occasion of his death so must he by his death make room for the possession of others else the whole plot
subjects should be thereby only told their duties and not to have Magistrates to see them do it and direct them in cases of doubt the same would also happen in the Laws of God himself which considering the blindness of our understandings and aversion of our wills and affections to obey at all as well as difference in doing it have much more need of such direction and constraint The Prince being always to be regarded as the living Law that is to say the life thereof because Law without an Interpreter to give it understanding and an inforcer to give it will is but a dead Letter and for the most part useless So that since Laws cannot live or go without the two supports of reward and punishment if there be not a present powerful judge to see these kept up the performance of Law will be but arbitrary for why should any fear a punishment or hope for a reward from a present authority that is uncertain or unable Nay unto those very Laws which by God himself are sent for our Government what from incredulity and what from natural reluctance little observance can be expected whilst his Minister shall be thought to bear the sword in vain For can men once find means to avoid his coercion therein they are then left to the partialities of their own interpretations to make them signifie but what they please And then considering the general infection of Atheism and the wrong and partial conceits of divine retribution what likelihood of terror or hopes of prevailing when the evil day or day of judgement shall be put so far from them since experience tells us present terrors cannot many times do it Upon no other consideration then this namely want of present appearance in acts of terror and Government it doth fall out as before noted that the divisions and differences between child and child and between subject and subject do by degrees amount unto such deadly heights they being nothing else but the mutual encroachments of censure and controul exercised upon one another after an extemporary and occasional way of rule and authority for want of a common and present superior Government for restraint of this liberty in them all For as it is most true that each one stands strongly perswaded towards the goodness of his own actions and enterprises or else he would not do them so must he of consequent dissent from those of others and also do his utmost for reducing them to conformity with himself which being nothing else but the execution of Power and Government it must follow that such families and Kingdoms which are under such indulgent Parents or milde and fearful Princes must be perpetually in danger of such mutinies and quarrels because for want of those bands of reverential fear and respect towards him that mutual â—ye of love towards each other comes to be dissolved For it being the nature of love as all things else to gather strength and steadiness by that confederacy and union which is made against it by an outward and common fear of disturbance so must it fall out that there being now no such binding dread of Authority kept up for the uniting and associating of them to one another through consent and fellow feeling of equal condition that thereupon there will be time and oportunity left to those natural apperites of Censure and Rule to break forth to publike disturbance For as the Prince or Parent shall defist or neglect to make use of fear and power those his proper instruments to rule by so consequently must subjects and children be supposed ready to take them up and in contention thereabouts to forget and neglect their own equal ties of Love and Charity And to speak directly if Gods and Natures Laws have not a living coercive force for obedience even as positive constitutions of the Supreme Magistrate they will be of much less avail to guide us in outward deportments then the Civil Constitutions of the Prince without subordinate Magistrates to determine their civil suites inasmuch as the Prince being more personally present with us might decide many of his subjects differences himself And therefore as God would have all obedience to him go by the name of fear and threatens even such large temporal punishments to the breakers of his Law as well knowing that we should be more certainly guided by an affection of such universal and near concern then by any other more private affection which would be but of doubtful concern so must it follow that as this fear will be more or less as it is more or less present there must therefore be some present Minister for our good or fâ—r wrath to execute rewards and punishments here accordingly For since in this life in respect of reward or punishment executed by God himself none is able to distinguish of good or evil of all that is before him so that we may observe with the wise man that all things come alike to all there is one event to tho righeeous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not As is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath It must therefore be granted that fince these Laws were made for our guidance here they must have their living Magistrate here also to reinforce them as to execution in respect of those rewards and punishments which in regard of his present Power he is enabled to make use of And therefore in reference to this essential support and relation which fear carrieth towards the establishment of subjection and obedience we may call obedience a correspondence efâ—action and deportment of the inferior according to the command of the superior through the sense of duty and fear For as sense of duty or conscience must keep up obedience so sence of fear must keep up conscience By which definition as we may know how to distinguish between that subjection and obedâ—ence which other creatures give who obey out of fear only and not of sense of duty as wanting understanding to apprehend it so may we also perceive that since sense of duty must bring on a submission of will that therefore hope can be very seldom and love never made the proper cause of obedience as heretofore noted For hope of benefit or advantage to arise by any thing commanded to be done being the proper end and motive by which the superior was led to make this his command and direction it must therefore follow that hope of benefit cannot be also directly assigned as an end to him that obeys But here again degrees are to be admitted and considered of and that according as the Commander is more or less All-sufficient and powerful in himself or defective and obnoxious When God commands any thing as he cannot in himself be any ways respected as indigent or necessitated for assistance to the atchieuing his designs as to those