this end of Self-preservation which thing really and truly is not according to the rule of right reason the aptest and most probable means to attain this end aforesaid this man is guilty of misusing that liberty given him guilty of transgressing the rule of right reason which obliges all men at all times in all places and guilty of acting that which is absolutely contrary and prejudicial to his own preservation the end and designe of his actions nor 〈…〉 excusable because he did that which to himself seemed most conducing to the end for as in Civil Government ignorance of the Law is no good Plea to excuse and justifie though it may somewhat extenuate a Crime in some cases so in statu-naturae errour ignorance or passion cannot excuse and justifie those actions which are really contrary to right reason or that principle of Self-preservation And seeing each man desires to justifie his actions by right reason and chiefly of all other things desires intends and indeavours Self-preservation each man hereby implies and doth acknowledge that every act contrary to right reason this Principle of Self-preservation is folly which he condemns though if you come to urge him with a particular case of his own ignorance partiality and pride because he would seem no less wise then he ought to be may make him indeavour to justifie his own actions with a gloss of reason though really and in themselves irrational and destructive to the end he aims at Now because no man is absolute Master of right reason it follows that all men are guilty of transgressing the Laws thereof amongst which Self-preservation is a Chief and this frail condition of man is agreeable to the Lessons taught by the Divine Law-givers viz. That man is born in sin and under an inavoidable necessity of sinning as he is in the state of Nature because he is not always able to regulate all his actions according to the exact Rules of right reason It is be objected That if we grant Self-preservation a constant Rule and Maxime of right reason a man in statu naturae not knowing but every one he meets may have an intent to kill him ought according to the rule of this reason to prevent the dauger if he can by killing the other first or reducing him into a condition not to be able to do him any prejudice and this act shall be good and just because rational and so by consequence all other inferiour acts of hostility therefore no active and positive justice and injustice good and evil in statu naturae To this I answer That if such act or acts be really and truly most conducing to the end of Self-preservation we will disputandi gratia suppose them good and just or not evil or injust And to try this let us examine them according to the Principles of Equality and Self-preservation agreed to by the Hobbists As first That Nature hath made men equal in power if therefore you go about to take away the Life of any man there is as much reason and probability to suspect he may take away yours as you his and so if you attempt to take away from him any other thing that he hath right to Therefore whensoever you attempt any such act consider that by reason of the equality that is betwixt you naturally you do as it were upon even terms throw Dice for your Life But this is not all suppose you conquer and kill yet doth there rest as many such Battels to be fought by you as your shall finde men in the World for the same reason which bids you suspect one and fight him bids you suspect all so that you are to throw Dice as it were for your Life not once but a hundred 〈◊〉 thousand times And were it not rather Madness then Reason to suppose that you shall win every throw And if you imagine your self to have a little more craft in the Game you are to play then another so as by cunning skill strength confederacy deceit surprizal c. you may conceive more hopes of prevailing then another you impugne the Principle of Equality already allowed the same hopes for the same reasons and all the same advantages being common to others and your self lying as obnoxious to them as they to you and you may expect to meet with as cunning Gamesters as your self and to be caught upon the same odds surprizals and disadvantages By this it appears that even in the state of Nature such attempts to take away the Life or the right of another man are not according to right reason and regulated by the well-weighed rules of Self-preservation But to kill se defendendo all Laws adjudge just and allowable To sum up in short what I have said I affirm That For a man to do that which is destructive to his own Life and happiness is against the Right and Law of Nature and Reason But for a man to do any thing or every thing which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive to be the aptest means for the preservation of his own Life oft-times is to do that which is destructive to his own Life and Happiness Ergo For a man to do any thing or every thing which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive to be the aptest means for the preservation of his own Life is oft-times against the Right and Law of Nature and Reason and no man can have any Right by Nature to act contrary to these Laws The major needs no proof the minor is proved by all men as often as by their own folly they bring mischief and destruction upon themselves which when it is too late they commonly see confess and condemn Now though there be a necessity of acting according to each mans private reason right or wrong and consequently of acting not seldom contrary to the principles of right reason and self-preservation yet is every such act a failing or sin and all men in some degrees guilty thereof amongst whom they are most excusable who indeavour most to finde out the true rules of right reason and according to these rules to regulate their own private actings they most culpable who not attending to that more Noble principle suffer themselves to be led by the bruitish part of non-sense and passion only To give more light to what hath been said and to examine more exactly the nature of right and wrong good and evil according to the granted principles of equality and self-preservation let us consider the first of these according to Mr. Hobbes his Assumption Part 1. Cap. 3. of his Leviathan in these words viz. Nature hath made all men equal in the Faculties of the body and minde as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker minde then another yet when all is reckoned up together the difference betwixt man and man is not so considerable as that one can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to
THE GREAT LAW OF NATURE OR SELF-PRESERVATION Examined Asserted and Vindicated from Mr. Hobbes his Abuses In a small DISCOURSE Part Moral part Political and part Religious London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Will. Crook at the Green-Dragon without Temple-Bar 1673. TO THE READER READER THis small Treatise was writ two or three years ago and since hath remain'd in the hands of some friends till now at last I have adventured it to censure It is chiefly the result of a few serious thoughts upon consideration of some of M. Hobbes his strange Tenents which he would seem to ground upon that Great Law of Nature Self-preservation whereby in the judgment of the world he takes away all Foundations of Virtue and Goodness yet is he well approved of by many who would be thought like him Great Wits and to have Vnderstandings and Capacities much transcending the Doctrine and Pedantry of Moralists and Divines Knowing therefore with whom I have to do I have argued chiefly out of Master Hobbes his own Principles and thereby endeavoured to evince the grosness and folly of his Errours in making all Justice Honesty Morality Goodness and Vertue the consequences only of a Civil Government as if where there were no Civil Magistrate these things had no being and where there is a Civil Magistrate took their measures only from his Mouth So that whatsoever he pleases to call Good Just Honest Vertuous must therefore only necessarily be so and whatsoever he pronounces Evil Vnjust Dishonest and Vicious immediately for the same reason is become so to all his Subjects And these Enormous Tenents he pretends to deduce and ground upon his Definition of the Right of Nature and the Great Law of Self-preservation This shameful abuse both of God and Nature and all that dare pretend to any thing of real goodness and vertue I have endeavoured to detect and confute out of his own granted Principles which whether I have effected I must leave to thy judgment And doubt not but Truth and Reason will prevail at lengh with the Intelligent and Rational And that they may so do with all I have linked them also with Interest being assured thereby to leave none that love themselves unconcerned in the matter of the subsequent Discourse and out of the reach of the arguments and reasons thereof according to the best of my understanding ERRATA PAge 11. l. 19. for non read man page 86. l. 20 21. blot out this whole sentence viz. if others will interpose let it be at their perils THE Great Law of NATURE OR SELF PRESERVATION EXAMINED THat the Notions or Laws of Right and Wrong Just and Unjust Good and Evil are independent upon and naturally and rationally antecedent to the Constitution of any Commonwealth or Civil Government and are binding or obligatory to all men both in the state of Nature and in all Political Government proved out of Mr. Hobbes his own Principles of Self-Preservation and equality amongst men 2. From the Nature of God with a subsequent Discourse showing the unreasonableness of that Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government seeming to be vindicated and held necessary by the same Author in his said Book with another light reflection upon the Justice and Reasonableness or rather the Injustice and Unreasonableness of their Demands who in any Civil Government will challenge to themselves Liberty of Conscience or a publick free exercise of what Religion they best fancy being all grounded upon the same Principles of Self-preservation And because the greatest part of these fore-mentioned Errours seem to be deduced from Mr. Hobbes his definition of the Right of Nature I will first begin with that By the way requiring one thing only to be granted viz. That Right Reason is to be the Law and Rule of all our actions By Right Reason I do not mean as Mr. Hobbes De Cive pag. 21. every mans private Reason for who but himself did ever call this Right Reason but I mean what is commonly hereby meant an unerring Reason or that which proceeds always upon true Principles and thence deduces true Consequences and Conclusions Mr. Hobbes his Definition of the Right of Nature Examined THe Right of Nature which Writers commonly call Jus Naturale is the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own Nature that is to say of his own Life and consequently of doing any thing which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereto In his Leviathan Though we should freely assent to the first part of this definition or description of the Right of Nature which we do not yet may we be well allowed to deny the inference or consequence thence deduced For though it should be granted that the Right of Nature is the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own Nature yet is the inference guilty of a most notorious Errour viz. that it is therefore a liberty that each man hath of doing any thing which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereto for in his own judgment and reason he may and often doth conceive that the aptest means thereto which re vera is not but rather quite contrary to it and the aptest and readiest means to bring him to destruction of which infinite examples might be produced and every mans daily experience confirms this for a most undeniable truth And what rational man will pretend that because he hath a right and liberty granted him by God or Nature to preserve his own life or another mans will conclude that hereby is intended to him a Grant of a Right and Liberty to destroy himself or another Now according to the definition it self the Right of Nature is only a liberty that each man hath to use his power for his own preservation not his own destruction for this should be really to infringe the Law of Nature and Reason to the breach of which no rational man will ever pretend to any Right which commands Self-preservation and this is meant I suppose of a real preservation not a seeming or intentional only therefore the means in order to this end ought to be really and truly and not only seemingly and intentionally in the party acting conducing to the end otherwise the Law of Nature will re vera really and truly be broken contrary to designe and apparence for seeing that this is the great Law of Nature and Reason viz. Self-preservation to act that which is really and truly contrary to this Law must needs be a breach thereof though the man so acting may be so far in an errour as not to think the action to be so destructive to the end he aims at as it is And therefore I affirm that though a mans own judgment and reason prompt him to do a thing as seeming to him the aptest means to secure
as Justice Charity and Temperance to be evil or those things which are evil as Injustice Uncharitableness Intemperance to be good because always destructive to that happiness Therefore these are not things dependant upon the Constitution of a Commonwealth or the mouth of the Civil Magistrate but the Constitutions of all Civil Governments and Common-wealths are depending upon them and if not framed according to them must needs be ruinous and pernicious to as many as live under such Governments or the greatest part of them for without Natural Justice Charity and Temperance it is in vain to think any Civil Government can subsist the designe of all Civil Government being the execution of these Laws in order to Self-preservation there being no need of any Civil Magistrate if these Laws could be made to be observed without their help nor doth any benefit accrew to any people from their Magistrate and Government where these Laws and Rules are not observed and to exempt the Prince from the observation of them is to exempt the people who are to obey him and to reduce all things into a Chaos for these being the Laws of Reason and Self-preservation the non-observance of them is to act contrary to both and the consequence destruction And that these Laws even in statuâ— Naturae do oblige in foro conscientiae viz. to a desire that they should take effect Mr. Hobbes accords If then theâ— oblige to a desire wheresoever the enâ— Self-preservation and the actual exerting of that desire may consist together they certainly oblige to actual performance for whosoever is obliged to a desire that he might do a thing is certainly obliged to do it where he may do it with safety especially where with benefit and advantage to himself and others Now that the actual performance of these Laws of Nature are always consistent with Self-preservation is evident from what I have before shewn viz. that they oblige only to do that which according to the rules of right reason is most conducing to that end the actual performance whereof must needs be always requisite and therefore to say they oblige only in foro interno or to a desire is as much as to say a man is obliged always to desire Self-preservation but must not use the means to secure it And as for that Objection That the practise of Justice and Charity in a state of Nature is not the means to preserve our selves because it would expose good men as a prey to the danger lusts and passions of evil men who would observe no such Laws in their dealing towards us To this I answer That it is neither against the Law of Nature nor Reason or every man to stand upon his guard â—o be as cautious as he can and as jealous as he pleases or sees cause of those with whom the hath to deal unless he 〈◊〉 well acquainted with their disposition and temper and it is very lawful for him to put himself in a condition to deâ—â—nd and preserve his own right but in â—o doing he must not prejudice anothers for that were to provoke and pull â—ose dangers upon himself against which he desires to secure himself for â—he Rule of Justice Do not to others what â—â—u would not others should do to you â—lls every man in the state of Nature as hath been shewn that he is not to inure another And the same Rule tells â—s that whosoever dath to us an injury â—â—at person thereby declares that he is willing to be looked upon as an Enemy and must in reason and Justice expect a like return of hostility for he who doth injuries ought in Justice and Equity to expect the same and cannot complain of injustice if the party injured take from him the power of doing him any further injuries even by taking away his life if in reason it appear he cannot otherwise secure his own But where more gentle proceedings are likely to take place there the rigorous are always to be avoided because more dangerous to our selves and destructive to others So that though by the rigour of Justice you may requite one injury with another yet according to the Rule of Charity you are to suffer injuries and do good for evil and forgive your Enemies because you desire when you offend others in the like manner to be favourably dealt with and forgiven your self besides it is more safe to spare an Enemy then prosecute him with the utmost rigours lest either he himself should in a desperate condition make as desperate a resistance or some others seeing your cruelty towards him should serve you the same sauce as with reason is to be expected You see therefore these Laws of Nature Justice and Charity do not binde up our hands and expose us to the abuses and injuries of others but gives us liberty to use the means according to right reason most likely to secure us But if we will foolishly conceit we cannot be safe unless we subdue all we see and make them our Vassals or will upon every slight injury or weak surmize of an intended injury do a real one this is not according to the rule of right reason most conducing to our preservation but will certainly and suddenly at some time or other be our destruction Much less â—an it be just and reasonable where there â—s no cause of fear nor danger from a man to abuse rob spoil wound hurt or kill him Now though it be certain that if men would live according to the Laws of Nature I do not mean that Nature which is common to man with Bruits but that which specifically constitutes mans Nature and distinguishes him from other inferiour Creatures viz. Right Reason for every one hath but so much of Man in him as he hath of Reason they might live happily and securely as in the Golden Age celebrated in the Fictions of the Poets of Old yet because men are acted very much by the inferiour principles of appetite and passion common also to the Beasts which are always strong and vigorous in them and because no man is absolute Master of Right Reason nor are all men in equal degree Masters thereof hence it is that generally they are swayed by passion blinded by ignorance byassed by self-love pride and conceit or interest which imperfections each man easily perceives and takes notice of in others but seldom can or will see or acknowledge in himself So that though every man in the state of Nature should agree for quietness and securities sake that each should have an equal share or proportion in all things and equal services done as required of him yet when these agreements come to be put in execution they would not agree in their accounts and calculations of the individual and just measure to be assigned to each in particular whence Contentions Strife and War arise To avoid those mischiefs and that each may enjoy what in Justice and Equity belongs to him without strife or danger Reason advises
them as the only remedy that they should chuse one or more to administer Justice and to sit as sole Arbitrator of all Causes and that they should unanimously agree to submit themselves to his or their judgment and determination in all their concerns who is by mutual Covenant to see Justice impartially executed But because such Judge or Judges so constituted cannot execute their charge without a Power able to force obedience in the disobedient and refractory it is also necessary that all agree to give to such Judge or Judges such Power as is necessary to bring Offenders to just punishment and defend the Common-wealth from violence and this Power is thus transferred to the Supreme Authority chosen viz. by Promise Covenant or Oath express or implicit to assist him or them with the hazard or life and estate to the utmost of each mans power in all things necessary for the executing Justice and defence of the Commonwealth of which necessity the Supreme Power to be Judge and not the Suject And this Supreme Power is not only to be Judge of what is just betwixt one of his Subjects and another but also of what is just betwixt himself and any of them or all of them together yet are not all his actions therefore just nor any of them just any further then they are conformable and consentaneous to the Law of Nature or Reason whereby he is obliged to assume to himself no greater liberty of Command over his Subjects Persons and Estates then is necessary for the accomplishing those ends for which he is constituted their Prince viz. execution of Justice and defence of the Commonwealth and if he assume any greater he is absolutely unjust unless that liberty be granted to him by the general consent of the people for though the people transfer to their Soveraign so much of their power and right as is necessary to execute Justice yet this Authorizing him to be Judge and obliging themselves to adhere to his Decrees doth not make those Decrees of his to be all just for then were it impossible in this sense for any Judge or Arbitrator to do an act of injustice which is contrary to what hath been already proved and therefore we conclude that when any Prince or Power in Authority Soveraign acts contrary to the Laws of Nature viz. Justice c. he doth wickedly and unreasonably in regard such actions tend to the destruction both of himself and people though for any such acts done he is not accountable to any Earthly Power for if you give his Subjects Authority to call him to account for his actions you must suppose the Commonwealth dissolved in so doing the Minister of Justice being disabled to execute his duty because under check and restraint and in the power of others And thus far we have argued only upon those principles which Mr. Hobbes makes use of and which are before the constitution of a Commonwealth both natura and tempore viz. equality amongst men and self-preservation And this I have done and shall do not because it is my own opinion that there are no other grounds or foundations of good and evil but this Principle of Self-preservation and Equality but to shew out of these Principles granted by Mr. Hobbes that those Eternal Laws of Justice Charity Temperance Reward Vertue c. which he by the same Principles seems to destroy or make the Daughters only of Civil Government are the Mothers and the Foundation of it and grounded in the very nature of man so as to oblige him to act according to them though there were no Civil Magistrate in the world or though the Magistrate positively command the contrary Now Reason will dictate to us another Principle from whence and the same Rules of Equality and Self-preservation already laid down the same things may be deduced and confirmed more strongly and effectually viz. that Justice and Injustice Right and Wrong Good and Evil are not consequents only of a Civil Government so as to leave no place for any Evasions to any man that will acknowledge that he ought to govern himself by the rules of reason and this principle is That there is a God which may be proved and is evident 1. From the order of causes in the world it being to every mans indifferent judgment that hath any apparent and clear that there must be a first cause 2. From the order and method of the Universe it self and the admirable frame of it and the Creatures therein which shews that they were not the effects of Chance but of some wise and skilful Architect 3. From the general consent of all men in all Nations and of the wisest men and greatest Masters of Reason that have been in the world and that which the most part of all and the most part of the wisest agree to at least is most probably true If therefore Reason tell us we ought to believe that there is a God the first Cause Creator and Architect of the Universe the same Reason will also tell us that whatsoever perfection we perceive in our selves or in the Universe besides we must conclude to be in the Creator and Giver in a far higher degree then in our selves or the Creatures for nothing can give to another what it hath not in it self Let us therefore consider what things we esteem the greatest perfections and excellencies Now above all others we set the highest value upon Power therefore in the first place we call God Omnipotent and attribute to him all Power and because Power without goodness may be idle or hurtful as we finde by experience in the second place we denominate him Good which we see verified in that he hath made use of his Power in creating us and giving us whatsoever we have that we can call good and also because Power without Knowledge or Wisdom may erre in its Operations therfore in the third place we denominate God Wise or Omniscient and in these three Attributes or Perfections are contained all others for he that hath Power and is thereby able to do all things and Wisdom and thereby knows what is best to be done and how best to do it being also Good we are not to doubt but that we are to expect from him all things that are the results of Power Wisdom and Goodness co-operating Hence therefore you may conclude that he is Eternal True and Just the Opposites of which viz. Finite False and Unjust are all contrary to the Attributes of Omnipotent Good and Omniscient It being thus demonstrated that every man according to the Rule of Right Reason must acknowledge that there is a God and that this being supposed we must necessarily believe that he is owner of all Perfections and that those Attributes afore-mentioned viz. Omnipotency Omnisciency and Goodness c. are the greatest perfections and therefore his and we being all by the right of Creation and Dominion his Subjects we ought according to the rule of reason to
believe that he will do Justice to every one according to his Nature and the Office of a Soveraign and therefore we ought to be careful to live according to the Laws of Justice already by reason determined which command us not to do to others what we would that others should not do to us and to do to others as we would that others should do to us For though we should in acting contrary foolishly hope to escape the ill consequences that we ought reasonably to expect we shall hereby draw upon our selves from the hands of men yet seeing there is no hope left to escape an Omnipotent and Omniscient Judge the Rule of Self-love or Self-preservation will command us not to do those things which if not most certainly yet certainly most probably will bring evil and destruction upon us from the hands either of God or men And this is argument sufficient to determine the judgment and actions of all men that resigne themselves to the Government of Reason and to those only I speak Now if any take notice that I have given a notion of God according to the notions that men have of perfection whereas I should have given a notion of perfection according to the true notion and Attributes of God it being fitter to say Whatsoever is in God is a perfection absolute and universal then to say Whatsoever is amongst men a perfection is a shadow or Character of God I answer seeing we can frame no other notion of God any otherwise then by attributing to him whatsoever we esteem according to reason most excellent and perfect Hereby it appears that it is the good pleasure of God that we should really believe him to be such as we have spoken him to be it being most reasonable we should think it his pleasure we should judge of all things and therefore of him according to those faculties he hath given us to judge by which we have done And seeing it is the will of God we should really believe him to be such as our faculties declare to us we ought also to believe that he really in his own Nature and Essence is such because the same faculties reasonably judge that he is no deceiver for that is an Attribute inconsistent with the former perfectious that constitute his Nature And thus I have demonstrated that every man ought to believe there is a God that this God is good and therefore just seeing Justice as we have shewn before is good and a good absolutely necessary and most conducible to the good estate of the Universe and therefore the presumption of him that does evil and yet hopes to escape the hands of men though it does for the most part bring him at one time or other to destruction even by the hands of men and is therefore unreasonable yet the consideration of a God being also in the way such presumption must be the greatest madness and absolutely contrary to the Rules of Self-preservation the Principles whereupon we have proceeded And seeing we have proceeded thus far upon these Principles of Self-preservation and the Equality amongst men by Nature as to deduce from thence the Laws men are to live by and the Nature of Good and Evil as to the Conceptions which man must necessarily in respect of himself frame thereof and thereby made it appear that Mr. Hobbes abuses and perverts his own Principles in order to another small Disecurse we will declare more at large not what Mr. Hobbes understands but what in reason ought to be understood and meant by the word Self-preservation lest any should conceive I intend no more thereby then barely the preserving of life or a bene esse in this life which would injure the notion I think we ought to have of it by a great mistake for whatsoever Mr. Hobbes his Opinion is concerning Self-preservation when he makes it the great Law of Nature it is manifest to any indifferent judgment that hereby ought to be intended not only the preservation of life or a bene esse in this life but a general desire that necessarily and naturally is in every rational creature whereby they wish to themselves happiness and satisfaction which may properly be called Philautia or self-love or is grounded thereupon and is infinite as desire running parallel with Eternity it self for every man doth not only naturally desire to preserve his life or to live happily in this world but to be for ever and eternally happy freed from grievous objects and conjoyned to pleasing and desirable and this I think undeniable and hence it appears that this Philautia is the Center upon which every mans actions move and finally are determined and directed it being impossible for any one indued with a rational soul rationally and intelligently to desire to be miserable or not to desire to he happy This therefore being acknowledged for the great and necessary Law of Nature it must of necessity be granted as a consequence plainly deducible from hence that that is always to be accounted best and most Eligible by each man that conduces most to that particular mans real happiness and that most of all to be accounted of by the Universal suffrage and consent of all men joyntly that is most conducing to the benefit happiness and satisfaction of all men and it is easily visible upon the observation of the whole frame of the Universe and the nature of man in particular that if we submit to the judgment and dictates of right reason each mans private happiness will be found linked together with knit and united to the happiness and felicity of the rest of his Fellows as to this life the greatest pleasures whereof are found to consist in Society and the benefits we have by the mutual commerce company and injoyment of one another And this is the reason that people desire to unite themselves in Commonwealths and under Civil or Politick Governments and a more powerful and effective reason I think then that of fear which Mr. Hobbes seems only to insist upon though I acknowledge them both to be strong motives Now seeing that a Civil Government for the reasons before alledged in our former drscourse and this last mentioned is necessary as much conducing to the better and more comfortable estate of mankinde in this life the Dispute will arise what kinde of Government is to be desired whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy the common Species talked of I say that Government is most to be desired which is most conducing to the end for which it is desired which as hath been said is the safety and more pleasant comfortable living of all the men in the world and this I think no man can plausibly cavil at Consider then which of these disserent Species of Government last mentioned do most conduce to this proposed end viz. the general safety and comfortable living of all mankinde and not only of this or that particular person or some sort of men and I am much
Prince it being the same aâ— if hey had said We submit our wills to our will and our selves to be wholly overned according to your discretion do â— us what to you seems good we and all we have are yours and you may diâ—ose of us and ours as you think fit and â—nvenient your only Edicts and Comâ—ands shall be the absolute Laws to which we willingly submit our selves and which shall be by us inviolable This is the nature of Mr. Hobbes his Monarchical Tyranny Now let any national man judge whether the Prince whose power as to the just measure of â—â— and how far it ought lawfully to be extended is known and determined and cannot without notorious injustice and breach of Covenant be inlarged will not be more cantious in using the â—â— me according to moderation and discretion and containing himself within the Sphere and extent of Justice and â—quity then he who may according â—o the Laws of the Kingdom and Government and without seeming wrong â—r injustice to his people by reason of their consent to his Arbitrary Government do what seems most agreeable with his own fancies however extravagant and destructive to his peopleâ— in the first case the sense of the apparent injustice opens his eyes to the danger of such actions and restrains his irregular designes in the latter no fault is committed the people by the Laws of the Land can justly complain of or the Prince by any Law but Divine or natural Equity and Conscience know to be a fault and therefore I confess no such pretence of Insurrection or disobedience to the people nor sense of injury to them done in the Prince But it is most certainly true that with all bad Princes the fear of bringing mischief upon themselves from their wronged and thereby provoked and at last inraged people is a great safety and the best Shield of the people to protect and secure them from violence and injustice And when the Prince is by express Laws by Oath and Covenant with his people positively bound to the observation of their established known Laws which without the general consent of the people are unalterable Surely matters being thus reduced to a certainty as to â—he method and Laws of Government and Justice the people will even in the Princes own judgment much sooner apprehend and disgust irregular and â—njust proceedings having a constant Standard to measure them by then when all is referred only to the Princes will and pleasure where quod libet liâ—et quod licet aequum est and the Prince though he vie with all the Records of History for all forts of Tyranny and Oppression yet must be thought to do â—o evil or at least no wrong to his poor Subjects and this apprehension and doubt of the bad consequences which will probably insue upon such Tyrannical actions is a great check to Tyranny And though the Doctrine be admitted most certainly true that for no reason whatsoever any Subject ought to take up Arms or wage War against his Prince no not to preserve his own life which yet Mr. Hobbes allows of yet will this give no security at all to the Tyrannical Governour for but sew men in the world busie their brains to search out and apprehend the true reasons of things as they ought or are capable of so doing and fewer will be content to sit still and suffer wrongfully as they conceive where there is good hopes of defending and vindicating themselves from wrong let the wrong-doer be what he will The number of those that will be dissatisfied with the just and lawful proceedings of a just Prince doth often over-power their Fellows who are good and loyal-hearted Subjects as woful experience doth often teach how much more ought it to be expected that when the Prince doth contrary to Justice and the established Laws abuse and Tyrannize over his Subjects the number of the prudent Loyal and lovers of peace should be much inferiour to the number of Male-contents and Mutineers And hence the danger arises that so often overtakes the Tyranny even of lawful Princes and Governours and the fear that the Prince must necessarily stand in of falling by the number of his irritated and provoked Subjects who conceive themselves wronged by him will always put some restraint upon his extravagancy and Tyranny let him be never so wicked if he have but such an indifferent measure of prudence or consideration as to respect his own safety and estate so that the peoples sense of wrong doth often conduce much to the securing them from much oppression under wicked Princes as it doth often also bring great iniseries and asslictions upon them under both good and bad Princes To restrain which natural propensity that all men have of revenging themselves even upon their Princes and Governours though with the hazard of a whole Nation where it lies in their power for an injury done or conceived to be done to them or theirs though by their Prince it is very reasonable and necessary that the Laws should be so severe as they are against Rebels and disturbers of the Peace and yet for all this all to little to curb the exuberancy of this disease for though good effects may sometimes be the result of unlawful and irregular actings yet such actings ought not therefore to be allowed or approved because such effects are but accidental and not naturally incident to them besides wâ— must not do evil that good may insueâ— but it seems a secret of Gods Providential contrivance as in many other like cases so in this that the sins of the Prince as Tyranny c. should be punished by the sins of his people as Rebellion c. and so vice versa the Rebellious humour of the people to be punished by the heavy hand of theâ— Prince or some other Usmping Tyrant Therefore I say where the Law are made and established and thing reduced to as great a certainty as is possible as to what is just or unjust lawful and unlawful both in respect â—â— Subject and Prince and one Subject and another though the interpretation â—â— these Laws and the execution of them be left solely to the Prince yet is there much more hopes the people may injoy some benefit of these Laws then where there are no Laws so established but all is left to the will and discretion oâ— the Prince to make new or revoke old or do what he list for a Prince thaâ— will pervert these Laws after they are so established and he sworn to the observation of them What would the same Prince do if there were no such Laws at all to stand in the way of his will and desire certainly be much more Irregular Tyrannical and Exorbitant Suppose the Kings of England had been all actually Kings of France or of the Turkish Empire to Rule there according to the Custom of those Countries do you think those Countries of France and the Nations under the Dominion of the Turk should have
to be absolutely Tyrannical yet de facto they are not so For in the first place each of these Countries hath its Religion established and certain besides Customes which arbitrarily to alter is not in the power of any the greatest Princes amongst them Secondly though the Princes may according to the Custumes of some of those Countries by their high Prerogative and without infringing any positive Laws take away the estate or life of any the greatest Subject without any legal proceeding or good cause shewn or real guilt contrary to the Laws here with us and so often do yet is it not in their power to change the Souls of men and make them approve and like well of such injustice and wrong Hence it is that further then their absolute power maintain'd by the strength of a Military force will uphold them to exercise these Tyrannical actions they neither can nor dare do them but the awe of the Souldiery whose interest such Princes have commonly linked with their own arbitrary Dominion and whose advantage usually arises out of the oppression oâ— the people and the custom whereby the people have been inured to such subjection makes many such oppressions and tyrannies to pass with less opposition or disturbance But then is not this Prince so arbitrary in his Government as is supposed for he can do nothing but what shall be liked and approved of by his Army or Souldiery with whom he must always carry fair oblige gratifie and please them and even they further then their own interest doth byass and incline them will never be drawn to countenance and maintain open injustice injury and oppression and the Prince is himself in the power of these by whose power he tyrannizes over his people and that it is so is often experienced they casting him off upon any displeasure conceived and setting up who they please But by reason it hath been usual with the Subjects of such Princes to be thus tyrannized over being well acquainted with the irregular proceedings of their Prince and the power of his Armies and having no established Laws but his will nor no pretence of any Law to defend them or interpose against such wrongs but only extrema necessitas or Lex Naturâ— they are content to bear much and much more then will those people who being inured to another manner of Government and having positive established Laws do no less impatiently indure the breach or infringement of those their Countries Laws and priviledges though but lightly touching their estates persons or conveniencies then the others do the greatest extremities of tyranny and oppression Hence it is that in such Tyrannical Governments the Prince having inured the people to suffer a far greater measure of wrong hardship and slavery then in some other places they have been acquainted withal may with more safety and less danger of provoking them continue the same then another Prince commanding a freer people and better acquainted with more liberty and good usage may reduce them to suffer from him a far lighter measure of injustice which if a good Prince he will never desire to do nor attempt if a bad I see not why any man should desire that he should finde an easie and uninterrupted path to help to go more chearfully and with greater facility to the execution of his bad designes in oppressing and grinding his people and making their lives unpleasant and uncomfortable Yet if any man could convince me that the people were made only for the Prince and not the Princes for the people I could perhaps be more easily induced to think that every thing that made the way more plain and open for the more absolute Dominion of the Prince and the most absolute slavery of the Subject were to be made a part of our Creed But this is a Doctrine no well-advised man methinks should ever desire to set on foot nor no wise or good Prince would ever make any use of his peoples greatest assurance of a happy estate under his Government being his own greatest glory and content And though he himself may be good and therefore need no restrictive Laws to limit him his actions yet he knows not what his Successors may prove or how fit or unfit to be trusted with so great and arbitrary a power and therefore is well contented to give the people all the security he can which may be consistent with his and their safety for injoying themselves and their estates in the best manner that Subjects can be capable of without desiring that all should be arbitrary and depend only upon the will and fancy of him that shall sit in the Roval Seat which is that which Mr. Hobbes will needs make Essential to it For saith he in his Book de Cive The rules of good and evil just and unjust honest and dishanest are Civil Laws and therefore what the Law-giver commands is to be taken for good what he forbids for evil And again Before Empires there was no such thing as just or unjust therefore lawful Kings make those things which they command just by commanding of them and what they forbid by forbidding of them they make them injust and a Subject cannot sin in obeying his Prince If this should be all taken for Gospel by all the world as Mr. Hobbes would have it there needs no more then the Succession of a bad Prince or two in each several Nation to destroy the Generation of Mankinde from off the earth What brave sport would some of those Roman Emperours as Nero Caligula c. have made if all their Subjects would have been so exactly obedient to their Commands Yet in some cases Mr. Hobbes will allow the Subject to deny obedience to his Prince For saith he soon after We must not obey the Prince if he command us to dishâ—â—our God or not to worship him for to dishonour him or not to worship him can be by none understood for any manner of worship Nor had any one before the Constitution of a Civil Government the Right to deny honour due to God and therefore could not transfer such Right upon the Civil Power Well then Mr. Hobbes grants the Law-giver is not always to be obeyed When is it then lawful to disobey saith Mr. Hobbes When he commands us directly to dishonour God or not to worship him And why may we not dishonour God or not worship him Sure I think for no other cause but because it is directly contrary to the light of Reason Therefore by consequence whensoever the Law-giver commands us any thing directly concrary to the light of Reason we are no obliged to obey according to Mr. Hobbes his Concession and such are all Commands contrary to the Laws of Nature viz. Justice Charity Temperance c. as hath been shewn But Mr. Hobbes will say such Commands must be directly contrary to the Light of Reason and not by consequence only I will not trouble my self with the meaning of this distinction but affirm
that whatsoever is by a clear consequence contrary is directly contrary to reason and even according to Mr. Hobbes the Subject in this case is necessarily to be Judge himself whether the thing be directly contrary to reason or not which is commanded And whereas Mr. Hobbes saith That no man before the Constitution of a Civil Government had the right to deny honour due to God and therefore could not transfer such right upon the Civil Magistrate and therefore may deny obedience I have likewise already proved that before the Constitution of a Civil Government these Laws of Nature Justice Charity and Temperance were obligatory and no man had any right to break them or dispence with them and therefore neither in these cases could transfer any such right upon the Civil Magistrate But sure Mr. Hobbes had forgot his definition of the Law of Nature when he said We must not obey the Prince if he command us to dishonour God For a Prince may command such a thing on penalty of life and then the very Law of Nature gives us a right to save our lives which is with him Suprema Lex Having thus spoke to the concerns of men in respect of this life let us look a little or rather a great way further that is to his concerns after this life is ended to all Eternity and by the same principle whereby actions relating to our present estate are guided and directed by the same is that also viz. Philautia self-love or self-preservation taken in a more liberal sense for God himself hath made that the great business of every intelligent rational being as hath been before intimated and by his infinite and gracious wisdom and goodness hath made those actions which most conduce to that end of self-preservation to be the same with what his own Eternal and also late Laws have appointed and directed to be done So that insisting in that path and closely pursuing that end we shall infallibly please our great Creator and do those things which are consonant and agreeable to his will and his very Nature and Essence as we ought to believe for seeing he is good infinitely and wise infinitely out of his infinite goodness and wisdom he hath conjoyned our interest with our duty for certainly we could never have thought that goodness in God according to the notion we necessarily frame to our selves of goodness which should have made our interest inconsistent with his will and where in endeavouring our own felicity we should have crossed his Laws Therefore as hath been said we ought to believe that God out of his wisdom and goodness hath closely conjoyned and united our interest happiness and felicity to all Eternity with his own glory his good will and pleasure his own Eternal Laws of goodness and wisdom which then we shall be sure most closely to pursue and follow when we most closely pursue our own interest our own real happiness and felicity and this being granted confirms and establishes those fore-mentioned Laws of Justice Charity and Temperance c. without which it is impossible for men to live securely or comfortably in this life without which there can be no Civil Society and without which the Generation of Mankinde must of necessity in short time be destroyed and perish from off the earth Therefore it ought to be concluded by all that Justice Charity and Temperance c. are things in themselves absolutely good because absolutely requisite and necessary both to our well being and the very being of all future Generations and so strictly to be observed even according to the Law of Nature and whatsoever Religion or Opinion crosses or impugnes these Laws confutes it self This being proved before let 's consider what Religion ought to be established in a Common wealth for though Justice Charity and Temperance and some other Vertues be granted to make a necessary part of it yet may other matters be admitted no less necessary in some respects so as they be not inconsistent with these and herein are men at a great loss and a mighty stir is made in the world and not without reason for seeing Religion is that which respects our eternal happiness and well being no wise man but will think himself therein more concern'd then in all the comforts and conveniencies of this short life so as he will rather chuse to lose all those benefits and advantages together with life it self then lose himself eternally Now certainly that Religion which hath the best foundation in Reason and Authority to ground it selt upon â—â—â—ght by any reasonable man to be chosen and that the Christian Religion is such hath sufficiently been proved by the Learned Pens and Arguments of many great and wise men and that it is not only consistent with but strictly injoyns the observation of those great Laws of Justice Charity and Temperance c. we all know and acknowledge And that the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Books wherein this Religion of ours is fully comprehended and taught or at least that all that is in them comprehended is true and authentick is generally agreed to by most that profess Christianity only the several Comments upon the Text the various Expositions of men who differ in their Opinions and Judgments is the great occasion of that confusion that is amongst us and the great differences about Religions all pretending to ground their Tenents upon equal Authorities of Scripture for where it is agreed on all hands that the concerns of the life which is to come are to be preferred before this present as being of infinite greater and larger consequence because relating to our eternal good or bad estate Hence it is most clear and evident that according to the Laws and Rules of Self-love or Self-preservation every man is obliged to do those things that may assure or secure unto him his future everlasting happiness and for no consideration regard or respect of any temporary or transitory pain penalty pleasure or profit to lose or hazard the loss of himself as to his future estate And although according to the same Laws he ought only to pursue those steps that lead directly towards this end of a future eternal happiness without treading awry or erring to the right hand or the left yet because no man is infallible but each one subject to many failings and errours in point of judgment as well as otherwise all that can be done is only for every man to do that which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive the aptest means to this end praying Gods assistance and to him referring the event and the dictates and determinations of this judgment and reason of his is that which he calls his Conscience which though certainly in many things erronious and mistaken yet seeing that to him it appears otherwise he must needs think himself obliged to observe and pursue the resolutions thereof and therefore looking still upon the End Eternal
to the same priviledge and then will it be impossible for any Civil Government to take place or continue where every man may be allowed the liberty to do what seems good in his own eyes without respect to the established Laws for who knows or rather who knows not to what extravagancies mens consciences or hypocritical wicked men under pretence of Conscience which is the same are often carried and therefore Liberty in this kinde is necessarily to be restrain'd within certain bounds and limits of which the Supreme Authority ought only to be Judge Object And now having through all these several discourses adhered so closely to the Law of Self-preservation or Self-love perhaps some will hence take occasion to say this selfish Principle is base and unworthy a Christian nay even a generous Heathen our duty to God and respect to the universal good of all mankinde being things to be preferred before all self-ends Answ They who have well considered what I have said before will save me the trouble of answering this Objection and be able to do it themselves and to the rest I say again for I have said as much before Our duty to God and respect to the general good of mankinde are things inseparable from our interest there being nothing so absolutely necessary to our well-being as to do our duties to our Creator and to do good to our Fellow-creatures which is commanded by the Law of Nature and by the example of God himself whereby in imitation of him in all things to be imitated and into a shadow of whose perfections we are to endeavour to form and model our selves as far as our natures are capable of it we are obliged and injoyned to do good to all which indeed is not only our duties upon the aforesaid accounts but is also one of the most pleasing and delightful things to all good dispositions and well-tempered spirits that can be conceived or imagined and they little better then Devils that are of a contrary sense and judgment But if you will urge me further and say Suppose those duties we owe to God and our Neighbours were really disunited from our interest what were then to be done I say the very supposition is wicked and injurious both to God and man for it is as much as if we should suppose God could cease to be or be otherwise then good an Attribute and Perfection inseparable from his Nature For certainly it could never be judged goodness in God but its contrary to make our duties to himself and our Neighbours inconsistent with our interest I speak not here of petty worldly ends and advantages which some base-minded men account their only interest but that I account our interest which is eternally so and upon which our future estate and happiness to all Eternity doth depend and whatsoever is a means conducing to that end and that only I account our interest and if others will interpose it it is to be at their perils If after all this it be objected still that if we permit every private man to be Judge of good and evil just and unjust right and wrong and that every man doth and must of necessity govern himself and direct his actions according to his own private judgment and conscience in order to his well-being it must necessarily follow that many mens private Opinions as Experience teaches us every day will make them refractory and disobedient to the Prince and may be a cause of Rebellion Sedition and War I answer It hath been ever so since the World began and ever will be so till all mens private judgments jump in one Nor is there any remedy for this mischief as I conceive but what I have already mentioned viz. to perswade men to lay aside pride prejudice and self-conceit and be well advised before they oppose their private Opinions to the publick and the common remedy which is that he who hath so great and probably over-weening Opinion of his own private judgment and conscience as to oppose them against the Publick Authority he doth it at his own peril and is obnoxious to the Law which if he think it more for his true interest and happiness to oppose then submit to he doth but observe the Rule of Self-love or Self-preservation in so doing and he cannot do otherwise unless he could alter his Opinion of the means in order to that end the greatest seeming good being always most prevailing with the judgment to determine it For it is impossible for any man to renounce or resigne the power of determining himself what is good and evil and absolutely to be therein governed by another mans judgment if he act rationally the understanding not being otherwise to be determined but by an apparent good and where several apparent goods offer themselves the understanding must necessarily be swayed by that which appears to be the greatest and it is impossible for any man to make whatsoever another man pleases to call so to seem to his reason and judgment an apparent good or the greatest apparent good even as much as it is impossible for any man to believe black to be white or white black pain pleasure or pleasure pain or that two is a greater number then three only because another man bids him believe them to be so And therefore that we should all believe the Commands of the Civil Magistrate to be the only Rule of good and evil is not only unreasonable and destructive to Humane Society as hath been shewed but also impossible unless a man could believe what he listed yet still so long as we all agree that such disobedience in the Subject to the Civil Magistrate is punishable according to the Laws ordained though private conscience put men upon such acts of disobedience the Government may remain firm enough whilst every private man satisfies the Law either by active or passive obedience obeying or suffering for his disobedience and if the Laws against such Dissenters as cannot be allowed or tolerated with safety in a Civil Government be strictly executed men will be well advised of the grounds upon which they refuse obedience to Authority before they thrust their fingers into the fire FINIS Books since the fire in London 1666. printed for and are to be sold by William Crooke at the Green-Dragon without Temple-Bar 1673. THe Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the Crying of the Sin of Marther With his Miraculous Discoveries and severe punishments thereof in 30 several Tragical Histories committed in divers Countries beyond the Seas with Pictures resembling all the passages Written by J. Reynolds Fol. Printed 1670. price 10 s. Sylva Sylvarum or a Natural History in ten Centuries Whereunto is newly added the History of the Prolongation of Life with the New Atlantis and Articles of inquiry about Metals and Minerals by Francis Lord Verulam To which is added the Authors Life by Dr. Rawley in Fol. Printed 1670. price 8 s. The Jesuites Morals collected by a Doctor of