truckle and submit not only to the Fickleness and Variety of infinite several Judgments but to the Changeable and Humoursome Sentiments of one and the same Person That which binds the Law upon Men's Consciences is the Authority of the Legislative Power and the Sanction it receives from thence the Reasonableness of the Duty contained in it is only an additional and collateral Obligation How many Laws have there been in the World so far from any appearance of Piety or Justice that they have really been exceeding trifling extravagant and sensless such as no Man's Reason knew what to make of And yet Mankind have submitted nay and enjoyed as much Peace and good Order and been as regularly governed as highly contented as if they had been the Justest and most reasonable that ever Human Wisdom and Policy enacted Now he that should have gone about to create a Dissatisfaction and Dislike to such Laws or attempted to repeal or to amend them would have deserved to be suspected as an Enemy to the Publick and not to be endured or harken'd to in a wise Government There are very few things but Human Nature may in process of Time reconcile it self to and when once the Difficulty is overcome and things sit easy upon People it is no better in effect than an Act of Hostility to offer at the dissetling them again We should always be content to let the World jog on in its own beaten Path for it is but too often seen that your Removers of Ancient Land-marks and busy Politicians under their plausible Pretences of Reforming spoil and ruin All. There is seldom or never any considerable Alteration made in established Laws received Opinions acknowledged Customs and ancient Ordinances and Discipline but it is of very pernicious Consequence The Attempt is always extremely hazardous there is commonly more Hurt than Good done by it at least this deserves to be duly weighed That the Mischief if less in it self is yet sooner felt for the Disorders every Change creates are certain and present but the Advantages it produces are distant and doubtful so that we exchange a Good in Possession for one in Expectation only and where we submit to That there ought to be very great Odds in value to justify the Prudence of our Proceeding This is certain that Men are but too fond of Novelties before they have tried them and Innovators never want some very fair and plausible Pretences to catch and feed their Fancies with but the more of this kind they pretend the more ought we to suspect and be aware of them For how indeed can we forbear detesting the vain and ambitious Presumption of Persons who undertake to see farther and be wiser than all Mankind besides What an intolerable Arrogance is it in such Turbulent and Factious Spirits to persuade Men into Compliance with their Humours at the Expence of the Publick Peace and to think it worth while that the Government should run the Risque of its own Ruin merely for the sake of establishing a fresh Scheme and passing a private Opinion into an Universal Law I have already hinted and do repeat it here again That we are not by any means obliged to obey all Laws and Constitutions whatsoever which our Superiors shall think fit to impose without any Distinction or Reserve For where we find them evidently to contradict the Laws of God and Nature in such case we must neither comply on the one hand nor disturb the Publick Peace by our refusing to do so on the other How Men ought to behave themselves in such Critical Junctures will fall more properly under Consideration when we come in the next Book to treat of our Duty to Princes And indeed this Inconvenience is much more frequent upon Subjects with regard to Their Arbitrary Commands than the Established Laws Nor is it sufficient that we submit to Laws and Governors upon the account of their Justice and particular Worth but this must not be done servilely and cowardly upon Motives of Fear and Force This is a Principle sit only for the Meanest and most Ignorant it is part of a Wise Man's Character to do nothing unwillingly and upon Compulsion but to delight in his Duty and find a sensible Pleasure in a reasonable Obedience He keeps the Laws for his own sake because he is jealous and tender of doing any thing he ought not and a rigid Master over himself He needs no Laws to constrain him in what is decent and good This distinguishes Him from the Common Populace who have no other Sense or Direction of their Duty but what Positive Laws can give In strictness according to the old Stoical Notions the Wise Man is above the Laws and a Law to himself But however he pays all outward Deference to them and a free voluntary Obedience This is due from him as a Member of Society as the inward Freedom of his Mind is owing to the Prerogative of a Philosopher In the Third Place I affirm it to be the Effect of extreme Levity a Presumption vain in it self and injurious to others nay a Mark of great Weakness and Insufficiency of Judgment to Condemn all those Laws and Customs abroad which are not conformable to those of our own Native Countrey This indeed is owing either to want of Leisure and Opportunity or to want of Ability and Largeness of Mind for the considering the Reasons and Grounds impartially upon which Foreign Establishments are founded It is a great Wrong done to our own Judgment to pronounce a Rash Sentence which when we come to a more perfect understanding of the Cause we shall in many Instances find our selves obliged to retract and be ashamed of And it is an Argument that we forget the Extent and Condition of Human Nature how many and how different things it is susceptible of It is a shutting the Eyes of our Mind and suffering them to be laid asleep and deluded with the often repeated Impressions of the same thing the daily Dream of Long Use and to submit so far to Precedent and Prescription that These should overbear the plainest Reason and give Example the Ascendent over Judgment Lastly It is the Business and the Character of a generous Mind and such a Wise Man as I am here drawing the Idea of to examine all things First To take each apart and consider it by it self Then to lay them one over against another and compare them together that so the several Laws and Customs of the whole World so far as they shall come to his Knowledge may have a full and a fair Trial and that not for the directing his Obedience but to assert his Right and execute his Office When This is done he ought to pass an honest and impartial Judgment upon them as he shall find them upon this enquiry to be agreeable or otherwise with Truth and Reason and Universal Justice For This is the Rule This the Standard which all of them are to be Tried and Measured
The Power of the Husband In some Places where the Paternal Authority hath been so This hath likewise Extended to Capital Punishment and made the Husband Judge and Disposer of Life and Death Dionys Halic l. 2. Thus it was with the Romans particularly For the Laws of Romulus gave a Man Power to kill his Wife in Four Cases viz. Adultery Putting False Children upon him False Keys and Drinking of Wine Thus Polybius tells us that the Greeks and Caesar says that the old Gauls gave Husbands a Power of Life and Death In Other Parts and in these already mention'd since those Times their Power hath been brought into a narrower Compass But almost every where it is taken for granted that the Authority of the Husband and the Subjection of the Wife implies thus much A Right to direct and controul the Actions to confirm or disannul the Resolutions and Vows of the Wife to Correct her when she does amiss by Reproofs and Confinement for Blows are below a Man of Honour to give and not sit for a Woman to receive and the Wife is obliged to conform to the Condition to follow the Quality the Countrey the Family the Dwelling and the Degree of her Husband to bear him Company wheresoever he goes in Journeys and Voyages in Banishment and in Prison in Flight and Necessity and if he be reduc'd to that hard Fortune to wander about and to Beg with him Some celebrated Examples of this kind in Story are Sulpitia who attended her Husband Lontulus when he was proscribed and an Exile in Sicily Erithrea who went along with her Husband Fhalaris into Banishment Ipsicrate The Wife of Mithridates King of Pentus who kept her Husband Company when he turn'd Vagabond Tacit. after his Defeat by Pompey Some add that they are bound to follow them into the Wars and Foreign Countries when they are sent abroad upon Expeditions or go under any Publick Character The Wise cannot sue or be sued in Matters of Right and Property all Actions lie against the Husband and are to be commenced in His Name and if any thing of this Kind be any where done it must be with the Leave and Authority of her Husband or by particular Appointment of the Judge if the Husband shall decline or refuse it neither can she without express Permission from the Magistrate Appeal from or be a Party in any Cause against her Husband Marriage is not every where alike nor under the same Limitations Different 〈◊〉 aâ—â—â—â— it the Laws and Rules concerning it are very different In Some Countries there is a greater Latitude and more Liberties Indulged in Others less The Christian Religion which is by much the strictest of any hath made it very close and strait It leaves Nothing at large and in our own Choice but the first Entrance into this Engagement When once That is over a Man's Will is made over too and conveyed away for the Covenant is subject to no Dissolution and we must abide by it whether we are contented with our Terms or not Other Nations and Religions have contrived to make it more Easie and Free and Fruitful Of Polygamy and Divorce by allowing and practising Polygamy and Divorce a Liberty of taking Wives and dismissing them again and they speak hardly of Christianity for abridging Men in these Two particulars as if it did great Prejudice to Affection and Multiplication by these Restraints which are the Two great Ends of Marriage For Friendship they pretend is an Enemy to all manner of Compulsion and Necessity and cannot consist with it but is much more improved and better maintain'd by leaving Men free and at large to dispose of Themselves And Multiplication is promoted by the Female Sex as Nature shews us abundantly in that one Instance of Wolves who are so extremely Fruitful in the Production of their Whelps even to the Number of Twelve or Thirteen at a Time and in this exceed other Animals of Service and common Use very much so many of which are kill'd every Day and so few Wolves And yet there are notwithstanding fewer of the Breed Breeders because fewer She-Wolves than of any other Species For as I said the true Reason is because in all those Numerous Litters there is commonly but one Bitch-Wolf which for the most Part signifies little and bears very rarely the Generation being hindred by the vast Numbers and promiscuous Mixtures of the Males and so the much greater part of them die without ever propagating their Kind at all for want of a sufficient Proportion of Females to do it by successfully It is also manifest what Advantages of this Nature Polygamy produces by the vast Increase of those Countries where it is allowed The Jews Mahometans and other Barbarous Nations as all their Histories inform us very usually bringing Armies into the Field of Three or Four Hundred Thousand fighting Men. Now the Christian Religion on the contrary allows but One to One and obliges the Parties to continue thus together though Either nay sometimes Both of them be Barren which yet perhaps if allowed to change might leave a numerous Posterity behind them But supposing the very best of the Case all their Increase must depend upon the Production of One single Woman And lastly they reflect upon Christianity as the occasion of insinite Excesses Debaucheries and Adulteries by this too severe Constraint But the true and sufficient Answer to all these Objections is That the Christian Religion does not consider Marriage upon such Respects as are purely Humane and tend to the Gratification of Natural Appetites or promote the Temporal Good of Men It takes quite another Prospect of the Thing and hath Reasons peculiar to it self sublime and noble and insinitely greater as hath been hinted already Besides common Experience demonstrates that in much the greatest part of Marry'd Persons what they complain of as Confinement and Constraint does by no means cool and destroy but promote and heighten the Affection and render it more dear and strong by keeping it more entire and unbroken Especially in Men of honest Principles and good Dispositions which easily accommodate their Humours and make it their Care and Study to comply with the Tempers of the Person to whom they are thus inseparably united And as for the Debaucheries and Flyings out alledg'd against us the only Cause of Them is the Dissoluteness of Men's Manners which a greater Liberty though never so great will never be able to correct or put a Stop to And accordingly we find that Adulteries were every whit as rife in the midst of Polygamy and Divorce Witness the whole Nation of the Jews in general and the Example of David in particular who became guilty of this Crime notwithstanding the Multitude he had of Wives and Concubines of his own On the contrary These Vices were not known for a long while together in other Countries where neither Polygamy nor Divorce were ever permitted as in Sparta for Instance and at
purpose For had This been a Thing against his Duty and such as the Authority of a Father could in no case extend to he would not they tell you ever have consented to it nor have believed that this Command had proceeded from God but rather have imputed it to some Delusion upon his own Mind if it had been no way reconcilable with Nature the Laws of which God had established in the Beginning and could not be thought so to contradict Himself as by any particular Order to appoint a thing altogether inconsistent with his own General Institution before And accordingly it is observable that Isaac never went about to make any Resistance nor pleaded his own Innocency in Bar to what his Father went about to do as knowing that he only exerted the rightful Power he had over him What Force there is in this Argument I shall not take upon me to determine It is sufficient for my present Purpose to observe That allowing all this yet it does not in any degree take off from the Commendation due to Abraham's Faith for he does not pretend to Sacrifice his Son by Vertue of any such Inherent Right over him nor upon any Provocation or Misdemeanour which Isaac had given him occasion to resent or punish but purely in obedience to the Command of Almighty God The Case does not seem to differ much under the Law of Moses allowing only for some Circumstances as to the manner of exercising this Authority which will be taken notice of by and by Of This and no less Extent the Paternal Power seems to have been formerly in the greatest part of the World and so to have continu'd till the Time of the Roman Emperours Among the Greeks indeed and the Aegyptians Diodor. it does not seem to have been altogether so absolute but even There if a Father happened to kill his Son unjustly and without Provocation the Punishment inflicted for such Barbarity was no other than being shut up with the Dead Body for Three Days together Now the Reasons The Reasons and Effects of it and the Effects of so great and unlimited a Power being allow'd to Fathers over their Children which no doubt was a great advantage for the Advancement of Virtue the Improvement of Manners and Education the restraining preventing and chastising Extravagance and Vice and of great good Consequence to the Publick too seem to have been such as These First The containing Children in their Duty begetting and preserving a due Awe and Reverence in their Minds Then a Regard to several Vices and Enormities which though very grievous in Themselves would yet pass unpunish'd to the great Prejudice of the Publick if they could be taken cognizance of and animadverted upon by no other Ways and Persons but Legal Process and the Sentence of the Magistrate For abundance of These must needs escape such Censure partly because they would be Domestick and Private and partly because there would be no body to inform and prosecute The Parents Themselves were not likely to be so Officious the Nearness of the Relation would render it odious and the Interest of their own Family would restrain them from publishing their own Shame Or if they could be suppos'd to bring all they knew of this kind upon the Open Stage yet we know there are many Vices and Insolencies and Disorders which the Laws and Justice of Nations are not provided with Punishments for To all which we may add that there are many Family-Quarrels between Fathers and Children Brothers and Sisters upon the account of dividing Estates and Goods or several other Things which tho' sit to be canvass'd and corrected within a Man 's own Walls would by no means do well to be ript up and exposed to the World and for These as the Paternal Authority is necessary so it is sufficient to compose and quiet all Parties and put an End to Differences that concern single Families only And it was reasonable for the Law to suppose that no Father would make ill use of this Power that Men might very safely be entrusted with it because of that very tender Affection which Nature inspires all Parents with such as seems altogether inconsistent with Cruelty toward their own Off-spring And this we see the effect of Daily in the frequent Intercessions made by Fathers for the Releasing or Mitigating those publick Punishments which they cannot but be sensible are most justly inflicted there being no greater Torment to any Parent than to see his Children under Pain or Disgrace And where These absolute Prerogatives were allow'd we meet with very few Instances of the exerting their Power and going to the Extremity of it without Offences very heinous indeed so that in truth if we regard the Practice and compare That with the Power it self we shall have reason to look upon it as a useful Terrour a Bugbear to keep Children in Awe and fright them into Obedience rather than any Stretch of Rigour that was actual and in good earnest Now this Paternal Authority was gradually lost and fell to the Ground as it were of it self It s Decay for the Decay of it is in truth to be attributed to Disuse more than to any Law expresly Repealing it or Enacting the contrary and it began most remarkably to decline when the Roman Emperours came to the Government For from the time of Augustus or quickly after it sunk apace and lost all its Vigour And upon this Decay Children grew so stubborn and insolent against their Parents that Seneca in his Address to Nero Lib. 1. de Clem. says their Own Eyes had seen more Parricides punish'd in Five Years then last past than there had been for the space of Seven Hundred Years before that is from the first Foundation of Rome till That time Till then if a Father at any time killed his Children he was called to no Account nor had any Punishment inflicted upon him for the Fact as we may gather evidently by the Examples of Febvins the Senator Salust in Bell. Catalin Valer. Maxim who slew his Son for being engaged in Catiline's Conspiracy and several other Senators who proceeded against their Sons and condemn'd them to Death by virtue of their own Domestick Power such as Cassius Tratius or sentenced them to perpetual Banishment as Manlins Torquatus did his Son Syllanus There were indeed some Laws afterwards which appointed that the Father should bring Informations against the Children that offended L. inauditum ad leg Corn. F. I. in suis de I. posth I. 3. Cod. de pa. potest and deliver them over to publick Justice And the Judge in such Cases was oblig'd to pronounce Sentence as the Father should direct in which there are some Footsteeps of Antiquity And these Laws in abridging the Power of the Fathers proceeded very tenderly and did not take it away entirely and openly but with great Moderation and by halves only These later Ordinances have some Affinity to the
and Support of Humane Affairs the Cement that knits and keeps them Fast and Strong the Soul that gives them Life and Motion the Band of all Society which can never subsist without it the vital Spirit of this Body Politick that enables Men so many Thousands of Men to breath as One and compacts all Nature together Now notwithstanding the absolute Necessity and unspeakable Convenience This is of for sustaining the Universe yet is it really a very slippery and unsafe thing extremely difficult to manage and liable to infinite Changes and Dangers * Arduum subjectum fortunae cuncta regendi onus The Governing of Men and their Affairs is a very hard Undertaking a heavy Burden and exposed to great variety of Chances It often declines and languishes nay sometimes falls to the Ground by secret Misfortunes and unseen Causes And though its rising to a just Height is Gradual and Slow a Work of much Time and great Pains and Prudence yet the Ruins and Decays of it are frequently sudden and surprizing and the Constitutions which took up Ages to finish and build up are broken and thrown down in a Moment It is likewise exposed to the Hatred and Envy of all Degrees and Conditions The High and the Low watch it curiously and are Jealous of all its Proceedings and set Themselves at Work perpetually to endanger and undermine it This Uneasiness and Suspicion and general Enmity proceeds partly from the Corrupt Manners and Dispositions of the Persons in whom the Supreme Power is vested and partly from the Nature of the Power it self of which you may take this following Description Sovereignty is properly a Perpetual and Absolute Power What Sovereign Power is Subject to no Limitation either of Time or of Terms and Conditions It consists in a Right of constituting and giving Laws to all in General and to each Person under its Dominion in Particular and that without consulting or asking the Consent of such as are to be govern'd by them and likewise in being above all Restraints or having Laws imposed upon it self from any other Person whatsoever For to Impose and Command a Duty argues Superiority and That which is Sovereign can have no Superiour And as another expresses it It infers a Right Paramount of making Reservations and Exceptions from the usual Forms as the King in Courts of Equity corrects the Common Law For Sovereignty in its highest and strictest Importance implies the Contrary to Subjection or the being bound by Humane Laws either of others or its own Appointment so as not to repeal or alter them as there shall be Occasion For it is contrary to Nature for all Men to give Law to Themselves and to be absolutely commnded by Themselves in Things that depend upon their own Will * Nulla Obligatio consistere potest quae à voluntate promittentis statum capit No Obligation can continue firm none can lie there where the Person that engages hath nothing but his own Will to bind him And therefore Sovereign Power Properly so call'd cannot have its Hands ty'd up by any other whether Living or Dead neither its Own nor its Predecessor's Decrees nor the Received Laws of the Country can be Unalterable or Irreversible This Power hath been compared by some to Fire to the Sea to a Wild Beast which it is very hard to tame or make treatable it will not endure Contradiction it will not be molested or if it be it is a Dangerous Enemy a just and severe Avenger of them that have the Hardiness to provoke it †Potestas res est quae moneri doecrique non vult cistrigationem aegrè fert Power says one is a Thing that seldom bears to be admonish'd or instructed and is generally very impatient of Contradiction or Reproof The Marks and Characters which are proper to it Its Properties and by which it is distinguish'd from other Sorts of Power are the Giving Judgment and pronouncing Definitive Sentences whereby all contending Parties shall be concluded and from whence there lies no Appeal A full Authority to make Peace and War Creating and Depriving Magistrates and Officers granting Indulgences and dispensing with the Rigour of the Laws upon particular Hardships and extraordinary Emergencies levying of Taxes coining and adjusting the Value of Money ordering what shall be current in its Dominions and at what Prices Receiving of Homage and Acknowledgments from its Subjects and Embassies from Foreigners Requiring Oaths of Fidelity from the Persons under its Protection and administring them in Controversies and Tryals of Right and Wrong But all is reduc'd at last and comprehended under the Legislative Power the enacting such Laws as it shall think fit and by Them binding the Consciences of Those who live within its Dominions Some indeed have added Others which are so small and trivial in Comparison that they are scarce worth naming after the Former such as the Admiralty Rights of the Sea Title to Wracks upon the Coast Confiscation of Goods in Cases of Treason Power to change the Language the Ensigns of Government and Title of Majesty Greatness and Sovereignty is infinitely coveted by almost All. But wherefore is it Surely for no other Reason so much as that the Outside is Gay and Glorious Beautiful and Glittering but the Inside is hid from common Observation Every body sees the Plenty the Pomp and the Advantages of a Crown but few or none at a distance are acquainted with the Weight the Cares the Troubles and the Dangers of it It is True indeed To Command is a Noble and a Divine Post but it is as True that it is an Anxious a Cumbersome and a Difficult One. Upon the same Account it is that the Persons in that Dignity and Elevation are esteem'd and reverenc'd much above the Rate of Common Men. And very Just it is they should be so for this Opinion is of great Use to extort that Respect and Obedience from the People upon the due Payment whereof all the Peace and Quiet of Societies depend But if we take these great Persons apart from their Publick Character and consider them as Men we shall find them just of the same Size and cast in the same Mould with other common Men nay too often of worse Dispositions and not so liberally dealt with by Nature as many of their Inferiours We are apt to think that every Thing a Prince does must needs proceed upon great and weighty Reasons because all they do is in the Event of great and general Importance to Mankind but in truth the Matter is much otherwise and They think and resolve and act just like One of Us For Nature hath given Them the same Faculties and moves them by the same Springs The Provocation which would set Two private Neighbours to Scolding and Quarrelling makes a Publick War between Two States and what One of Us would whip his Child or his Page for incenses a Monarch to chastise a Province that hath offended him
Stones and Brands in rattling Vollies fly And all the Rustick Arms that Fury can supply If then some Grave and Pious Man appear They hush their Noise and lend a listning Ear He sooths with sober Words their angry Mood And quenches their innate Desire of Blood Mr. Dryden The greatest thing this World can shew is Authority This is the Image of the Divine Power a Messenger and Deputy from Heaven If this Deputation as to Men be Sovereign and immediately under God we call it Majesty if it be subordinate to any Human Power we then call it in a more peculiar and restrained Sense of the word Authority And this is supported upon two Bases Admiration and Fear both which must go together and jointly contribute to the keeping it up Now this Majesty and Authority is principally and properly in the Person of the Supreme Governor the Prince and Lawgiver and in him it lives and moves and acts in its utmost Vigor The next Degree of it is when lodged in his Commands Orders and Decrees that is in the Law which is a Prince's Master-piece and the Noblest Copy of that Incommunicable Majesty whereof himself is the Original And by this Law it is that Fools are reduced from Evil informed in Good governed and led to know and do what is convenient for their own and necessary for the Publick Interest Thus you see in short of what Weight and Efficacy Authority and Laws are to the World how necessary and how beneficial to the present Circumstances and the greatest part of Mankind This Authority is stated fix'd and agreed upon but there is Another Custom which comes nearest of any up to it commonly called Custom a very Powerful but withal a very Positive and Imperious Mistress This Power is all gained by Encroachment and Usurpation by Treachery and Force it get footing by Inches and steals in upon the World insensibly The Beginnings of it are small and imperceptible gentle and humble and frequently owing to Men's Tameness or Neglect their Laziness and Yielding the Influenc of Example and the Blindness of Inconsideration but when it hath once taken Root and is fix'd by Time it puts on a stern domineering Look issues out its Orders plays the Tyrant and will be observed It is to no purpose then to argue for Liberty and Right no Man is suffered to speak to move to look in contradiction to such an Establishment It stops your Mouth with Possession and Precedent which indeed are its proper and only Pleas of Title grows great and more eminent the farther it goes and like Rivers enlarges its Name and Channel by rowling insomuch that even when the Mischiefs and Inconvenience of its still prevailing are manifest yet is it not safe to reduce it to its first Infant-State and Men are oftentimes better advised in suffering under it than in attempting to disuse or reverse it If now we compare these Two together it will be found Law and Custom compared that Law and Custom establish their Authority by very different Methods Custom creeps upon us by little and little by length of Time by gentle and acceptable Means by the Favour and general Consent or at least with the Approbation of the Majority and its Beginning Growth Establishment are all from the People The Law admits none of these flow Proceedings it is Born at once and in full Perfection comes to Vigor and Maturity in a Moment it marches out with Authority and Power and receives its Efficacy from the Supreme Commander it depends not always upon the good liking of the Subjects but is frequently full sore against their Wills and yet prevails and takes place though burdensome and ungrateful to them This last Consideration is the Reason why Some have compared Law to a Tyrant and Custom to a King Again Custom though otherwise never so engaging yet never proposes Rewards or Penalties But the Law propounds both and to be sure threatens Penalties upon the Disobedient at least Yet notwithstanding these Differences the matter is so order'd that these Two are frequently capable either of strengthning and mutually assisting or of destroying and overthrowing each other For Cudestroying and overthrowing each other For Custom though in strictness it be only upon Sufferance yet when countenanc'd and publickly allowed by the Prince will be still more firm and secure and the Law likewise gets ground upon the People and stands the faster by means of Possession and long Usage On the Contrary Custom will be quashed by a Law prohibiting the Continuance of it and a Law will go down the stream and be lost to all the purposes and effects of it if a contrary Custom be connived at Thus I say they may interfere to the Prejudice of each other but usually they go hand in hand and are in reality almost the same thing considered under different respects The wiser and more discerning Men considering That as a Law which the Ignorant and Vulgar who have little Notions of a Legislative Power or its Sanctions observe purely as a thing Customary and because it hath been in use without attending how it came to be so The strange Variety of Laws and Customs which have obtained in the World Different and odd Customs and the Extravagance of some of them is really prodigious It is scarce possible to think of any Imagination so whimsical and odd but some Country or other hath received it as a Custom or established it by a Law I will give my self the trouble of instancing in several upon this occasion to convince Those who perhaps cannot easily suffer themselves to be persuaded how much Truth there is in this Observation And here not to instance in Religion which in the Idolatrous and less civiliz'd Countries especially hath had grosser Deceits more abominable Absurdities and more amazing Variety of these than any other Subject whatsoever yet because it does not fall so directly within the Compass of our present Argument I shall pas it over at present and confine my self to the Head of Civil Commerce in which alone Customs properly so called are used to take place and where the Matter being exceeding obvious to every Understanding it is so much the more astonishing that Men should be carried into such Extravagances Now Those which I think most remarkable and sit to be mentioned are such as follow The Reputing it an Instance of Affection and Duty when Parents live to a certain term of Years for their Children to Kill and to Eat them In Inns and other Publick Houses of Accommodation instead of discharging the Reckoning with Money to lend their Wives and Daughters to the Host for Payment The having Wives in common The setting up Publick Stews for Young Men The esteeming it honurable for Women to be Common and wearing Tufts of Fringe at their Garments by way of Boast and Glory to signify the Number of their Gallants The suffering Single Women to abandon themselves to all manner of Filthiness and
do them as leaning the Head on one side blowing the Nose and a hundred other such Gestures But some again there are common to all Mankind such as Reason and Contrivance hath nothing to do in but they are the effect of meer Natural Impulse as for Instance that of putting our Hands before us when we are falling which all do without thinking and some do it we see at a time when they cannot think at all CHAP. V. Of the Advantages of the Body c. THE Excellencies of the Body are Health Beauty Health preferr'd Sprightliness Agility Vigour Dexterity Gracefulness in Motion and Behaviour but Health is infinitely above all Health is the loveliest the most desirable the richest Present in the power of Nature to make It justly challenges precedence above all Temporal Blessings and Advantages Not only Learning and Knowledge Wealth and Greatness and Noble Blood but even Wisdom it self in the Judgment of the severest Philosophers is inferiour to it This is the only thing that deserves our utmost Endeavours our greatest Hazards the only one which is worth the venturing our very Lives for the acquiring and enjoyment of it For indeed our very Lives without it are flat and insipid nay they are troublesome and painful and Vertue and Wisdom languish and decay and die if this do not keep them in Beauty and Vigour and Exercise Suppose a Man of the greatest Abilities that ever Human Nature had or is capable of what Advantage wou'd all this be to him in a Fit of an Apoplex or a Fever or any other violent Distemper Certainly there can be but one thing in the World more valuable and that is Probity for Probity is to the Soul what Health is to the Body Now though this be commonly the Gift of Nature and the effect of an originally good Constituon a just and proper Temperament of Humours and fit Disposition of Parts and Vessels in the first Formation of the Body yet no doubt can be made but the Nourishment and Methods afterwards contribute very much to it also The wholsomness of the Milk and a good sound Nurse in the time of Infancy and a regular way of Living when Men come to their own Conduct and Management Sobriety and Temperance of all kinds moderate Exercise Appetites well govern'd and keeping one's self from Melancholy and all violent Passion and Disorder of the Mind do assist preserve confirm and finish what Nature and Complexion at first begun Sickness and Pain are its Opposites and Enemies and these are the sorest perhaps indeed when all things are rightly consider'd the Only Evils incident to Mankind Concerning which more will be said hereafter But both in Enjoying and Preserving this the Brutes seem to have the better of us for Man often ruins himself and pays dear for his Frolicks and Excesses The next Advantage to This in Order and Dignity is Beauty Beauty which is a very great Recommendation and of mighty influence in Conversation and Society This is the first thing that conciliates Men's Favour and unites them to one another and it is highly probable that this was the first and principal Mark of Distinction the first Consideration which gave Men any Preference and Authority over their Fellows The Power and Efficacy of this Quality is indisputable every one sees and feels it no other Accomplishment gains more Esteem none is so General and so Commanding in all the Affairs of Human Life None are so Barbarous none so Stupid or so Obstinate as not to be smitten with it It steps forward and offers it self to publick View it bespeaks our Favour prepossesses our Fancy seduces and bribes our Judgment makes strong and deep Impressions and is full of Importunity full of Authority Socrates understood its Power full well when he called it a short Tyranny upon the Mind and Plato when he term'd it the Privilege of Nature For a Man can hardly forbear thinking that the Persons to whom Nature hath been so partial in her Favours and signaliz'd with charming and uncommon Graces have a sort of lawful inborn Power over us and were made to command These when they draw our Eyes and Observation do insensibly attract our Hearts too and fasten our Affections upon them and captivate and enslave us whether we will or no. Aristotle says that Superiority and Government belongs to the Comely that They command our Veneration next after the Gods as being the liveliest and fairest Copies of those Glorious Originals and that all but the Blind must and ought to be affected with their Excellencies The three great Princes Cyrus Alexander and Coesar found This of mighty Importance and made the Gracefulness of their Persons turn to good Account in their weightiest Affairs and so did Scipio more than any of them Handsome and Good have a great Affinity and both the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek Language and the Style of Holy Scriptures seem to express this by using one and the same Word to signifie both Several great Philosophers found their Beauty Serviceable in their Study and Acquisition of Wisdom and to shew that this Recommendation is universal it is not consined to Men only but is valued and of great Request even among Brutes Now Beauty is of great Variety and may be considered in very different Respects Different Sorts of it That which is proper to Men consists chiefly in a Majestick Form and goodly Stature The other sorts of Beauty are of a softer and more Esseminate Kind they may be rather called Prettinesses and these are more peculiar to the Female Sex In each of These there is a Subdivision One which is a fixed and lasting Beauty and this consists in having the Parts well proportioned and the Colours justly mixed A Body not swelled nor bloated and yet not so thin and meager neither that the Nerves should shew themselves or the Bones start out of the Skin but full of Blood and Spirits and well in Flesh the Muscles high and clear the Skin smooth and soft the Complexion fresh and ruddy The Other is a moveable and inconstant Beauty which may be term'd Gracefulness and this consists in a good Air and becoming Motions wherein All the parts of the Body are concern'd but the Eyes more so than any of the rest The former is as it were Dead when not attended with This for all the Life and Action is in the latter There are also some Beauties of a more masculine and rough and fierce Air and others of a softer sweet tender and languishing Kind The Beauty and Excellence of the Body is more peculiarly seated in the Face Of the Face and our Measures of it are chiefly taken from thence The loveliest Thing in the Person of a Man is his Soul and in the Body of a Man it is his Face For this is as it were the Abstract the Copy and Image of the Soul It is a piece of Natural Heraldry where all the Advantages and Coats of Pretence
plerunque existunt honoris imperii potentiae gloriae Cupiditates Cic. Lib. 1. de Offic. That which renders the Case yet more deplorable It is a lofty Passion is that the Noblest and most Generous Spirits such as Nature seems to have design'd for Master-pieces and Patterns are most liable to this Passion It is in it self a tall and stately Quality and none but great Souls are capable of giving it Reception This was the Temptation which seduc'd the Angels themselves a Temptation of all others best accommodated to Their Circumstances and perhaps the Only one the Perfection of their Nature cou'd be corrupted by For Ambition is a Vice not suited to mean and little Souls Your pitiful scoundrelly Fellows cannot come up to it nor can common and indifferent Performances pretend to any Reward or Desert such as it thirsts after Glory and Renown always imply somewhat Brave and Great and of a larger Size than ordinary they are never to be bought at cheap and easie Rates but are the Recompence and Effects of Good and Beneficial shall I say nay rather of Great and Noble and very Difficult Actions of Uncommon and Wonderful Excellencies such as excite Admiration and Astonishment at the same time that they command Honour and Applause That ignoble greediness of Respect that base and beggerly way of gaining Reputation which submits to cringing and fawning upon all sorts of People and declines the use of none no not the most scandalous Methods of acquiring it is sordid and shameful Such Honours are a Scandal and Disgrace A Man must take care not to express such an Eagerness after these things as is inconsistent with the things themselves not to be exalted and puft up with vain Opinions of one's self every time he does well For he that does thus procures his own Dishonour and while he strives with great Pains to lift his Head above the Crowd discovers his Nakedness and Shame at the same time Ambition is intricate and various It operates different Ways it takes several Roads and exerts it self by very Different Methods Sometimes it goes to work openly and marches strait up to the Mark And thus Alexander and Caesar and Themistocles and other truly generous Spirits have proceeded Sometimes it works in Secret and goes in crooked Paths and thus some Philosophers and great Pretenders to Piety and Virtue have indulged themselves in the Exercise of it They fetch a Compass and come in at the Back-Door like Water-Men that row one way and look another they have laboured to get Honour by a seeming Neglect and contempt of Honour And no Doubt as Plato told Diogenes there is more Glory and greater Vanity in refusing and trampling upon Honours and Preferments than in seeking and enjoying them And Ambition never manages it self with greater Cunning and Success than when it goes out of the beaten Road and comes up to the Prize some unusual and unseen Way Ambition is without Question a very vain and foolish Passion For after all The Folly of it what does it so Zealously pursue or what can be the Gains of it when rightly computed It is giving Chase to a Vapour catching at Smoke instead of Fire and Light Embracing a Shadow in steadof Body and Substance It is making a Man 's whole Happiness precarious suspending all the Satisfaction and Content of his Mind upon Popular Opinion the Humour and the Breath of an ignorant and changing Multitude It is a voluntary and consequently the very worst and most despicable Slavery the parting with our own Native Rights and Liberties and depending upon the Arbitrary Passions of other People 'T is the putting one's self under perpetual Constraint and engaging to act contrary to ones own Sense in Hopes by displeasing and disapproving our selves to please and gain the Approbation of Standers-by T is a sacrificing our Affections and Reason to the Capriciousness of Spectators 'T is the prostituting of Conscience to common Opinion renouncing all Love of Virtue any farther than the World shall please to like and keep it in Countenance and 't is the doing of Good not for the Sake of Goodness but merely in Consideration of the Credit and Advantage to be got by it In a Word such Men are like full Vessels that must be pierced for the Liquour they contain not one Drop can be drawn from them unless you give them Vent nor any Benefit to be had of these Qualities but such as takes Air. Ambition hath no Bounds 'T is Insatiable 't is a deep Gulph without Bank or Bottom This is that true Vacuum or vast empty Space which the Philosophers after all their Study have never been able to discover in Nature a Fire that feeds and grows upon the Fewel we heap upon it And in this Respect indeed it is just to its Master and pays him for his Pains For Ambition is only just in this that it is sufficient for its own Punishment and never fails to teaze and torment it self abundantly What the Poets have couched under the Fable of Ixion is the Restless Motion of the Ambitious Man's Desires These are the Wheel that rolls to all Eternity within its own Circle and by its constant and wearisome Returns gives no quiet no relaxation to the Mind of the Vain Man that is condemned to turn it Some The Excuses for it vain who have undertaken to flatter Ambition pretend in its Vindication that it is of great Use to Virtue a Whet and Spur to brave and noble Enterprizes For Men are content to abandon many other Vices for the Sake of This and by Degrees come at last to resign this too for the Sake of Virtue But alas the Matter when critically examin'd will be sound far otherwise 'T is true Ambition covers over and conceals many Vices but it takes away and throughly reforms never a one And even that Industrious Concealment is but for a Season It rakes them up like Fire in the Embers under the Dust and Rubbish of Hypocrisy and Mischievous Dissimulation but it is only to keep the Fire from going out that it may be blown up and flame out again more fiercely than ever as soon as this Cheat hath carried its Point and Men have gain'd Authority sufficient to bear them out in Bare-fac'd Wickedness When the Man is in Power and too Big for Punishment or Controul then and not before you see what he truly is Before that trust him not for if you do you will be apt to mistake him When Serpents are numb'd with Cold they have still the same Venom in their Nature though the Effects of it be suspended for the present And the Ambitious Man hath still the same Vices the same Heat and Fury he carries it about him how Gentle and Tame and Cool soever his Disguise may be The Fish is not yet caught but when it is then he will come abroad in his true Colours and Natural Complexion and though Ambition should make so good
Obsequio emnia constant For were it not for Government and Obedience all this goodly Fabrick would fall to pieces This Distinction I shall first endeavour to represent to you in the gross by the following Table The First and general Division All Power and Subjection is either 1 Private which extends to 1. Families and Houshold Government and here the mutual Relations are contracted Four Ways and the Authority is of Four Sorts 1. Conjugal between the Husband and Wife This Relation is the Source and Root of all Humane Society 2. Paternal between Parents and Children This is truly and properly Natural 3. Herile and that of two Sorts 1. Of Lords and their Slaves 2. Of Masters over their Servants 4. That of Patrons and their Dependants which is now out of Date and searce any where in use 2. Corporations and Colleges and Civil Communities such as are call'd the Lesser Communities which relates to the several Members of that particular Body 2. Publick and this again is either 1. Supreme which is of Three Sorts according to the Three known Constitutions 1. Monarchy or a Government vested in One single Person 2. Aristoâ—â—â—cy or that which is administred by a few of the best Quality 3. Democracy where the whole Body of theâ— cople have some Share in it 2. Subordinate which lieshetween Persons that are both Suporiours and Inferiours when considered in Different Respects and as Places and Persons may alter the Case and this is a Power of 1. Particular Lords in their â—â—â—eral Jurisdictions and admitting of many Degrees 2. Oâ—â—cers and Magistrates depâ—ted by the Supreme Power of which there is likewise great Variety This Publick Power whether the Supreme or the Subordinate Supreme Power Subdivided admits of several Subdivisions very necessary to be attended to The Supreme which as I observ'd is of Three Sorts according to the different Constitutions and Methods of Government executes and exerts it self in as many different ways and each of These according to the different Temper and Management hath been distinguish'd by the Titles of Kingly Arbitrary and Tyrannical Kingly is when the Supreme Power be it lodged in one or in more Hands is it self strictly Obedient to the Laws of Nature and preserves and protects its Subjects in their Natural Liberties and Civil Rights All Power in general belongs to Kings particular Properties to private Men. The King is Universal Lord and hath a Right Paramoum Others have the Right of Lordship and Possession Arbitrary Government is when the Sovereign is Lord of Mens Persons and Estates by Right of Conquest and the Subjects are Governed without any Regard to Claims or Laws or Rights but in an absolate Way as Lords use their Slaves This is rather Bondage and Captivity Subjection is too gentle a Name for it where Lives are cut off and Estates seized and rack'd and taken away at Pleasure Tyrannical Government is where the Sovereign despises and disregards all the Laws of Nature and Original Rights of Mankind and so does not only make use of but abuses the Persons and Possessions of the Subjects and this differs from the former Arbitrary way much after the same manner that a Robber differs from a Fair Enemy in the Field Now of these Three Different Constitutions the Monarchical but of the Three Tempers or Ways of Governing the Arbitrary hath been observed to be the most Antient and best Calenlated of any for Grandeur Continuance and Splendor Thus it was with the Assyrian Persian Aegyptian and at present that of Aethiopia the most Antient of any Moscovy Tartary Turkey and Pern But the Best and most Natural Estate is that manner of Government which we call Kingly according to our late Distinction of it The Famous Aristocracies were That of the Locademonians heretofore and That of the Venetians and States of Holland at this Day The Democracies were Rome Athens Carthage but the Government of all These as to its Temper and Method of Administration was what we call Kingly The Publick Power which is Subaltern Of particular Lards or Subordinate is lodg'd in particular Lords and These are of several Sorts and Degrees according to their respective Tenures and Capacities But the most Considerable are Five 1. Lords Tributary who only owe Tribute and nothing else 2. Feudatary Lords who hold their Lands in Fee 3. Simple Vaslals who owe Fealty and Homage for their Fee These Three may be Sovereign Themselves too 4. Liege Vassals that besides Fealty and Homage owe Personal Suit and Service and so cannot be truly Sovereign 5. Natural Subjects whether Vassals in Fee or in Cens or in any other Tenure and Capacity These owe Subjection and Obedience and cannot be exempted from the Power of their Sovereign Lord and yet are Lords Themselves The Publick Subordinate Power which consists in Offices under and Proper Officers employ'd by Oâ—fâ—â—ers the Supreme Power is of several Sorts but may be reduc'd to Five Degrees with regard to the Distinctions of Honour and Power which belong to or may direct us in the Consideration of them 1. The First and lowest Sort is that of Publick Executioners such as give the last Stroke and finish upon Criminals what the Courts of Justice have awarded and begun These however necessary have yet somewhat so shocking in their Employment that it hath been generally look'd upon as Odious and Scandalous and the Persons in that Office not suffered in many Places to dwell within the City 2. The Second are Men that are neither Honourable nor Dishonourable upon the Account of their Post such as Sergeants Trumpeters and the like 3. The Third Sort have Honour and Respect indeed by Virtue of their Office but no Authority by way of Cognisance or Power such are Notaries Receivers Secretaries and the like 4. The Fourth have not an empty Honour only but Power and Cognisance and yet not any Jurisdiction properly so call'd such are The King's Counsel for Example who may examine Publickly but can determine or give sinal Issue to nothing 5. The Last have Jurisdiction properly so call'd and by Virtue of This they have all the Rest And These only in Strictness of Speech are Magistrates which may be dislinguish'd several Ways particularly into these live Sorts each of which is Two-fold 1. Mayors Senators Judges Colonels c. Generals Judges 2. In Politicks or Civil Government In Military Matters 3. In Cuestions and Cases of Property and Right In Criminal Cases or Tryals of Offenders 4. Offices Titular fixt and Hereditary Offices in Particular Commission 5. Officers Perpetual of which Nature it is sit that there should be fewest and Those only of the least Consequence Officers Temporal or Removeable such as all of the Highest Importance ought to be Of the Conditions and Degrees of Men particularly according to the foregoing Table ADVERTISEMENT IT is Necessary to observe upon this Occasion that the several Divisions of this Table and the Distinction of those Powers and their respective Dependencies
upon and under them beginning at Those which are Private and Domestick are mentioned here with no other Design than to give a distinct View of the several States and Conditions of Men It being the Intention of this Present Book only to Know Man in all his Capacities And therefore a great Part of what might be expected upon the Head of Power and Subjection the Reader must be content to wait for till we come to the Third and last Part of this Treatise Where under the Head of Justice these several Chapters and Capacities will come under our Consideration again and the several Duties and Virtues required upon their Account will be specisied and explained But before we enter upon any of them in particular it may not be amiss to premise somewhat briefly concerning Command and Obedience in general These being the Reciprocal Exercises of the Relations here mentioned The Two Foundations and principal Causes of all that Variety of Circumstances in which Mankind have been already described CHAP. XLV Of Command and Obedience THese as I said are the Ground-work upon which all Humane Society is built And the many different Conditions Professions and Relations that go to making it up do all arise from and depend upon Them These Two are Relative Terms they mutually Regard Produce Preserve and Support each other and are equally necessary in all Companies and Communities of Men but are notwithslanding liable to Envy and Opposition Misrepresentation and Complaint All which are the Natural and Constant Effects even of That without which we are not able to Subsist The discontented Populace would reduce their Sovereign to the Condition of a Car-Man The Ambition of Monarchs would represent him greater than a God In Command is imply'd Dignity Dissiculty These Two commonly go together Goodness Ability and all the Characters and Qualities of Grandeur The Command it self that is The Sufficiency the Courage the Authority and other Qualifications of it are deriv'd from above and the Gift of God * Imperium non â—iâ—i divino fato datur Rom. xiii 1. Empire and Dominion are bestowed by the Divine Appointment and There is no Power but of God says the Apostle to the same Purpose From whence it was that Plato said God did not place some Men over others that is not Mere Men and such as were of the Common Sort and Vulgar Qualisications but the Persons whom he set apart and exalted for Government were such as exceeded others were more sinished eminent for some singular Virtue and distinguishing Gift of Heaven in short were somewhat more than Men and such as former Ages gave the Title of Heroes to Obedience is a Matter of Benesit and Advantage of Ease and Necessity The Obeying well is of the Two more conducive to the Publick Peace and Safety than the Commanding wisely and the Consequences of withstanding and refusing the Commands of our Superiours or the complying with them Imperfectly and Negligently are much more Dangerous and Destructive than Ill and Improper Commands Themselves are or want of Skill to Govern Just as in the Case of a Married Life the Husband and Wife are equally obliged to Constancy of Affection and Fidelity to the Bed and the Words in which they Solemnly engage for This are the very Same for both Parties the same Ceremonies and Formalities to signifie and confirm it but yet the Consequences are by no means equal but the Mischiefs of Disloyalty are incomparably More and Greater in an Adulterous Wife than an Adulterous Husband So likewise Commanding and Obeying are equally Duties and necessary in all manner of Societies which unite Men to one another but yet the Disobedience of the Subject draws much greater Inconveniences after it than the Unskillfulness or the real Faults of the Governour Several States and Kingdoms have held out a long Course and been reasonably Prosperous and Flourishing under not only Ignorant but very Wicked Princes and Magistrates by the mere Force of the Unity and Compliance and ready Obedience of the Subjects Which agrees well with the Answer made by a Wise Man to that Question How it came to pass that the Republick of Sparta was so remarkably Flourishing and Whether it proceeded from the Wisdom and good Conduct of their Governours Nay said he I impute it not to their Princes Commanding well but to the Subjects Obeying well But when the People break their Yoak or throw it off and refuse Obedience there is no Remedy but such a State must be ruin'd and fall to the Ground CHAP. XLVI Of Marriage NOtwithslanding the State of Marriage be antecedent to any other of the greatest Antiquity and the highest Importance The very Foundation and Fountain of all Humane Society for Families first and then Commonwealths spring out of it according to that Observation of Cicero The First Union and nearest Relation is between Man and Wife This is the Beginning of Cities the Nursery and first Plantation of all Publick Communities yet it hath had the Ill-Fortune to be disesteem'd and run down by several Persons of considerable Wit and Character who have traduc'd it as a Condition beneath Men of Understanding and drawn up several formal Objections against it in particular These that follow * Prima Societas in Conjugio est quod principium Urbis seminarium Reipublicae Cic. de Offic. Lib. 1. First of all They tell you the Covenants and Obligations they enter into by it Objections against Marriage are unreasonable and unjust we may call it a Band of Union but it is no better than the Chains and Fetters of a Captive For What Consinement can be more insupportable than That by which a Man stakes himself down and becomes a Slave as long as he lives to Care and Trouble and the Humours of another Person For this is the Consequence if the Couple are unsuccessful and unsuitable in their Tempers That there is no Remedy but a Man must stand by his Bargain be it never so bad and continue wretched without any other possible Cure but Death Now what can be more contrary to Equity and Justice than that the Folly of one half Hour should poyson the whole Term of all his Years to come That a Mistake in one's Choice or perhaps a Trick by which he was Trapann'd into this Condition but to be sure an act of Obedience many times to the Commands of a Parent or Complyance with the Advice of a Friend a submitting one's Own Judgment and Inclination to the Pleasure and Disposal of Others What Reason say They is there that any of these Things shou'd engage a Man to perpetual Misery and Torment Were not the other Noose about the Neck the wiser Choice of the Two and to end one's Days and Troubles immediately by leaping headlong from some Rock into the Sea than thus to launch out into an Eternity of Pains to have a Hell upon Earth and always live and lie by a Storm of Jealousie and Ill-nature of Rage and Madness
Pleasure Call its Fruitions slat and insipid if you please but yet they are solid and substantial agreeable and universal They must needs be so indeed because they are Lawful and Innocent free from the Censure of Others and the Reproaches of one's Own Mind What the World calls Love aims at nothing but Delight it hath perhaps somewhat of Sprightliness and is of a quicker and more poignant Relish but this cannot hold long and we plainly see it cannot by so few Matches succeeding well where Beauty and Amorous Desires were at the bottom of them There must be something more solid to make us happy A Building that is to stand for our whole Lives ought to be set upon sirmer Foundations and these Engagements are serious Matters such as deserve and it is Pity but they should have our utmost Discretion employed upon them That Hot Love bubbles and boils in our Breasts for a While but it is worth Nothing and cannot continue and therefore it very often happens that these Affairs are very fortunately manag'd by a Third Hand This Description is only Summary and in general Terms Another more particular one But that the Case may be more perfectly and particularly understood it is sit we take Notice that there are Two Things Essential and absolutely Necessary to this State of Life which however contrary and inconsistent they may at First Sight appear are yet in reality no such Matter These are Equality and Inequality the Former concerns them as Friends and Companions and upon the Level the Other as a Superiour and an Inferiour The Equality consists in that Entire Freedom and unreserved Communication whereby they ought to have all Things in Common their Souls Inclinations Wills Bodies Goods are mutually from thenceforward made over and neither of them hath any longer a peculiar and distinct Propriety exclusive of the other This in some Places is carried a great deal farther and extends to Life and Death too insomuch that assoon as the Husband is dead the Wife is obliged to follow him without delay There are some Countries where the Publick and National Laws require them to do so and they are oftentimes so Zealous in their Obedience that where Polygamy is indulged if a Man leave several Wives behind him they Try for it Publickly and enter up their Claims which of them shall obtain the Honour and Privilege of sleeping with their Spouse that is the Expression they soften it by and upon this Occasion each urges in her own behalf that she was the best belov'd Wife or had the last Kiss of him or brought him Children or the like so to gain the Preference to themselves Th' Ambitious Rivals eagerly pursue Death as their Crown to Love and Virtue due Prefer their Claims and glory in Success Their Lords first Nuptials are courted less Approach his Pile with Pomp in Triumph burn And mingle Ashes in one Common Urn. In other Places where no Laws enjoyned any such Thing it hath been resolved and practised by mutual Stipulation and voluntary Agreement made privately between the Parties Themselves which was the Case of Mark Antony and Cleopatra But omitting This which in truth is a Wicked Barbarous and Unreasonable Custom The Equality which is and ought to be between Man and Wife extends it self to the Administration of Affairs and Inspection over the Family in common from whence the Wife hath very justly the Title of Lady or Mistress of the House and Servants as well as the Husband that of Master and Lord over them And this joint Authority of Theirs over their own private Family is a Picture in Little of that Form of Publick Government which is termed an Aristocracy That Distinction of Superiour and Inferiour which makes the Inequality consists in This. Inequality That the Husband hath a Power and Authority over his Wife and the Wife is plac'd in Subjection to her Husband The Laws and Governments of all Nations throughout the World agree in this Preeminence Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent Victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis Ora perusta viris but the Nature and the Degrees of it are not every where the same For These differ in Proportion as the Laws and Customs of the Place differ Thus far the Consent is Universal That the Woman how Noble soever her Birth and Family how great soever her Fortunes or any other personal Advantages is not upon any Consideration exempted from Subjection to her Husband This Superiority and Inferiority may well be general and be the Opinion of All when it is so plainly the Condition of All. For in truth it is the Work of Nature and founded upon that Strength and Sufficiency and Majesty of the One Sex and the Weakness and Softness and Incapacities of the Other which prove it not equally qualified nor ever designed for Government But there are many other Arguments besides which Divines fetch from Scripture upon this Occasion and prove the Point indeed substantially by Them For Revelation here hath backed and enforced the Dictates of Reason by telling us expresly that Man was made first that he was made by God alone and entirely by Him without any Creature of a like Form contributing any thing towards his Being That he was Created on purpose for the Pleasure and Glory of God his Head That he was made after the Divine Image and Likeness a Copy of the Great Original above and Perfect in his Kind For Nature always begins with something in its just Perfection Whereas Woman was created in the Second Place and not so properly Created as Formed made after Man taken out of his Substance * See 1 Corinth xi 7.8 The Man is the Image and Similitude of God but the Woman is the Similitude of the Man So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similis sum not Glory as we read it which is foreign to the rest of the Words and the whole Scope of that Argument Fashioned according to that Pattern and so His Image and only the Copy of a Copy made Occasionally and for particular Uses to be a Help and a Second to the Man who is himself the Principal and Head and therefore She is upon all these Accounts Imperfect Thus we may argue from the Order of Nature But the thing is confirmed yet more by the Relation given us of the Corruption and Fall of Man For the Woman was first in the Transgression and sinned of her own Head Man came in afterwards and by her Instigation The Woman therefore who was last in Good in order of Nature and Occasional only but foremost in Evil and the occasion of That to Man is most justly put in Subjection to Him who was before Her in the Good and after Her in the Evil. This Conjugal Superiority and Power hath been very differently restrained or enlarged
Rome for a considerable time after the Founding of that City It is therefore most foolish and unjust to asperse Religion and charge That with the Vices of Men which allows and teaches nothing but exquisite Purity and strict Continence This Liberty taken in Polygamy Polygamy differently practised which hath so great an Appearance of Nature to alledge in its behalf hath yet been very differently managed according to the several Nations and the Laws of those Communities where it was allow'd and practis'd In Some Places All that are Wives to the same Man live alike and in common Their Degree and Quality the Respect and Authority is equal and so is the Condition and Title of their Children too In Other Places there is one particular Wife who is the Principal and a sort of Mistress above the rest the Right of Inheritance is limited to the Children by Her They engross all the Honours and Possessions and Pre-eminences of the Husband after his Death As for the Others they are lodg'd and maintain'd apart treated very differently from the former In some Places they are reputed Lawful Wives in some they are only stiled Concubines and their Children have no Pretension to Titles or Estates but are provided for by such annual Pensions or other precarious ways of Subsisting as the Master of the Family thinks fit to allow them As various have the Practice and the Customs of Men been with regard to Divorce Divorce differently practised For with some as particularly the Hebrews and Greeks and Armenians they never oblige Themselves to alledge the particular Cause of Separation nor are they allow'd to take a Wife to them a Second time which they have once divorc'd So far from it that they are permitted to Marry again to others But now in the Mahometan Law Separation must be appointed by a Judge and after Legal Process except it be done by the free Consent of both Parties and the Crimes alledg'd against the Woman must be some of so high a Nature as strike directly at the Root of this Institution and are destructive and inconsistent with the State of Marriage or some of the principal Ends of it such as Adultery Barrenness Incongruity of Humours Attempts upon the Life of the other Party and after such Separation made it is lawful for them to be reconcil'd and cohabit again as oft as they think sit The Former of these Methods seems much more prudent and convenient that so there may be a closer Restraint both upon the Pride and Insolence of Wives when they lie at Mercy and may be cast off at Pleasure and also upon the Humoursome and Peevish Husbands who will be more apt to check and moderate their Resentments when there is no Return nothing to be got by repenting after once Matters have flown so high as to provoke and effect a Separation The Second which proceeds in a Method of Justice brings the Parties upon the Publick Stage exposes their Faults and Follies to the World cuts them out from Second Marriages and discovers a great many things which were much better kept conceal'd And in case the Allegation be not fully prov'd and so they continue oblig'd to cohabit still after all this mutual Complaining and Disgrace What a Temptation is here to Poysoning or Murder to get rid that way of a Partner of the Bed which in Course of Law cannot be remov'd And many of these Villanies no doubt have been committed of which the World never had the least Knowledge or Suspicion As at Rome particularly before Divorce came in use a Woman who was apprehended for Poysoning her Husband impeached other Wives whom she knew to have been guilty of the same Fact and They again others till at last Threescore and Ten were all Attainted and Executed for the same Fault of whom People had not the least Jealousie till this Discovery was made But that which seems the worst of all in the Laws relating to a Married Life is that Adultery is scarce any where punish'd with Death and all that can be done in that Case is only Divorce and ceasing to cohabit Which was an Ordinance introduc'd by Justinian One whom his Wife had in perfect Subjection And no wonder if She made use of that Dominion as she really did to get such Laws enacted as made most for the Advantage of her own Sex Now this leaves Men in perpetual danger of Adultery tempts them to malicious Desires of one another's Death the Offender that does the Injury is not made a sufficient Example and the Innocent Person that receives the Wrong hath no Reparation made for it Of the Duty of Married Persons See Book III. Chap. 12. CHAP. XLVII Of Parents and Children THere are several Sorts and several Degrees of Authority and Power among Men Paternal Authority Some Publick and others Private but not any of them more agreeable to Nature not Any more absolute and extensive than that of a Father over his Children I choose to instance in the Father rather than the Mother because she being herself in a State of Subjection to her Husband cannot so properly be said to have her Children under her Jurisdiction But even this Paternal Authority hath not been at all Times and in all Parts of the World equal and alike In some Ages and Places and indeed of Old almost every where it was universal Dion Halicar lib. 2. Antiq. and without restraint The Life and Death Estates and Goods the Liberty and Honour the Actions and Behaviour of Children was entirely at Their Will They sued and were sued for them They disposed of them in Marriage the Labours of the Children redounded to the Parents Profit nay They themselves were a kind of Commodity for among the Romans we sind this Article Rom. 1. in Suis ff de lib. posth in that which was call'd Romulus his Law * Parentum in Liberos omne Jus esto relegandi vendendi occidendi The Right of Parents over Children shall be entire and unlimited they shall have Power to abdicate and banish to sell and to put them to death Only it is to be observ'd That all Children under Three Years old were excepted out of this Condition because they could not be capable of offending in Word or Deed Aul. Gel. lib. 20. Aristot Ethic. lib. 8. Caesar lib. 6. de Bell. Gall. Prosper Aquit in Epist Sigism nor to give any just Provocation for such hard Usage This Law was afterwards confirm'd and renew'd by the Law of the Twelve Tables which allow'd Parents to sell their Children Three times And the Persians as Aristotle tells us the Antient Gauls as Caesar and Prosper agree the Muscovites and Tartars might do it Four times There want not some probable Reasons to persuade us that this Power had some Foundation or Countenance at least in the Law of Nature and that Instance of Abraham undertaking to slay his Son hath been made use of as an Argument to this
Cowardice and base Degeneracy of Spirit for Lords made Men Slaves because when they had them in their Power and Possession there was more Profit to be got by keeping than there could be by killing them And it is observable that heretofore one of the most valuable sorts of Wealth and that which the Owners took greatest Pride in consisted in the Multitude and the Quality of Slaves In this respect it was that Crassus grew rich above all other Romans for besides Those that continually waited upon him he had Five Hundred Slaves kept constantly at hard Work and all the Gain of their several Arts and Labours was daily brought and converted to his Advantage And this tho' very great was not all the Profit neither for after that they had made a vast Account of their Drudgery and kept them a great while thus in Work and Service their very Persons were a Marketable Commodity and some farther Gain was made in the Sale of Them to other Masters It would really amaze one to read and consider well the Cruelties that have been exercis'd upon Slaves The Cruel Usage of Slaves and Those not only such as the Tyranny of an inhumane Lord might put him upon but such as even the Publick Laws have permitted and approv'd They us'd to Chain and Yoke them together and so make them Till the Ground like Oxen and they do so to this Day in Barbary lodge them in Ditches or Bogs or Pits and deep Caves and when they were worn and wasted with Age and Toil and so could bring in no more Gain by their Service the poor impotent Wretches were either sold at a low Price or drown'd and thrown into Ponds to feed their Lord's Fish They killed them not only for the slightest and most insignificant Offence as the Breaking of a Glass or the like but upon the least Suspicions and most unaccountable Jealousies Nay sometimes merely to give Themselves Diversion as Flaminius did who yet was a Person of more than ordinary Character and reputed a very Good Man in his Time It is notorious that they were forc'd to enter the Lists and combat and kill one another upon the Publick Theatres for the Entertainment of the People If the Master of the House were Murdered under his own Roof let who would be the Doer of it yet all the Slaves tho' perfectly innocent of the Thing were sure to go to Pot. And accordingly we find that when Pedanius a Roman was killed notwithstanding they had certain Intelligence of the Murderer yet by express Decree of the Senate Four Hundred poor Wretches that were his Slaves were put to Death for no other reason but their being so Nor is it much less surprizing on the other hand to take notice of the Rebellions Insurrections and Barbarities of Slaves when they have made Head against their Lords and gotten them into their Power And That not only in Cases of Treachery and Surprize as we read of one Tragical Night in the City of Tyre but sometimes in open Field in regular Forces and form'd Battles by Sea and Land all which gave Occasion for the use of that Proverb That a Man hath as many Enemies as he hath Slaves Now in proportion as the Christian Religion first How they came to lesson and afterwards the Mahometan got ground and increas'd the Number of Slaves decreas'd and the Terms of Servitude grew more easie and gentle For the Christians first and afterwards the Mahometans who affected to follow the Christians Examples made it a constant Practice and Rule to give all those Persons their Freedom who became Proselytes to their Religion And this prov'd a very great Invitation and powerful Inducement to convert and win Men over Insomuch that about the Year Twelve Hundred there was scarce any such thing as a Slave left in the World except in such places only where neither of these Two Persuasions had gain'd any Footing or Credit But then it is very remarkable withal that in the same Proportions And the Poor to increase as the Number of Slaves fell away and abated that of Poor People and Beggars and Vagabonds multiply'd upon us And the Reason is very obvious for Those Persons who during the State of Slavery wrought for their Patrons and were maintain'd at Their Expence when they were dismist Their Families lost their Table at the same time they receiv'd their Liberty and when they were thus turn'd loose into the World to shift for Themselves it was not easie for them to find Means of supporting their Families which by reason of the great Fruitfulness of People in low Condition generally were very numerous in Children and thus they grew overstockt themselves and filled the World with Poor Want and extreme Necessity presently began to pinch these kind of People Return to Servitude and compelled them to return back again to Servitude in their own Defence Thus they were content to enslave Themselves to truck and barter away their Liberty to set their Labours to Sale and let out their Persons for Hire meerly that they might secure to Themselves convenient Sustenance and a quiet Retreat and lighten the Burden which the Increase of Children brought upon them Besides this pressing Occasion and the Servitude chosen upon it the World hath pretty much relapsed into the Using of Slaves again by means of those continual Wars which both Christians and Mahometans are eternally engag'd in both against each other and against the Pagans in the East and Western Countries particularly And though the Example of the Jews be so far allow'd as a good Precedent that they have no Slaves of their own Brethren and Countrymen yet of Strangers and Foreigners they have and These are still kept in Slavery and under Constraint notwithstanding they do come over to the Profession of their Master's Religion The Power and Authority of common Masters over their Servants is not at all domineering or extravagant nor such as can in any degree be prejudicial to the Natural Liberty of Them who live under it The utmost they can pretend to is the chastizing and correcting them when they do amiss and in This they are oblig'd to proceed with Discretion and not suffer their Severities to be unreasonable and out of all Measure But over those who are hired in as Workmen and Days-men this Authority is still less There is only a Covenant for Labour and Wages in Exchange but no Power nor any Right of Correction or Corporal Punishment lies against These from their Masters The Duty of Masters and Servants is treated of Book III. Chap. 15. CHAP. XLIX Of Publick Government Sovereign Power and Princes AFter the Account already given of Private Power The Nature and Necessity of Pub-blick Government the next thing that falls under our Consideration is the Publick or that of the State Now the State that is to say Government or a Determinate Order and Establishment for Commanding and Obeying is the very Pillar
vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi haberi videtur Lucret. Lib. 5. And hence we fancy unseen Powers in Things Whose Force and Will such strange Confusion brings And spurns and overthrows our greatest Kings Creech To summ up all in a Word The Condition of Sovereign Princes is above all Others incumbred with Difficulties and exposed to Dangers Their Life provided it be Innocent and Virtuous is infinitely laborious and full of Cares If it be Wicked it is then the Plague and Scourge of the World hated and cursed by all Mankind and whether it be the One or the Other it is beset with inexpressible Hazards For the greater any Governour is the less he can be secure the less he can trust to Himself and yet the more need he hath to be secure and not to trust Others but Himself And this may satisfie us how it comes to pass that the being betray'd and abus'd is a thing very natural and easie to happen a common and almost inseparable Consequence of Government and Sovereign Power Of the Duty of Princes see Book III. Chap. 16. CHAP. L. Of Magistrates THere are great Differences and several Degrees of Magistrates with regard both to the Honour and the Power that belongs to them For These are the two considerable Points to be observ'd in distinguishing them and they are entirely independent upon one another They may be and often are each of them single and alone Sometimes Those Persons who are in the most honourable Posts have yet no great Matter of Authority or Power lodg'd in their Hands as the King's Council Privy-Counsellors in some Governments and Secretaries of State Some have but One of these two Qualifications others have Both and all have them in different Degrees but those are properly and in strict speaking Magistrates in whom both Honour and Power meet together Magistrates are in a middle Station and stand between the Prince and Private Men subordinate to the One but superiour to the Other They carry Justice home and hand it down from above but of this they being only the Ministers and Instruments can have no manner of Power inherent in Themselves when the Prince Himself who is the Fountain of Law and Justice is present As Rivers lose their Name and their Force when they have emptied and incorporated their Waters into the Sea and as Stars disappear at the Approach of the Sun so all the Authority of Magistrates in the Presence of the Sovereign whose Deputies and Vicegerents They are is either totally suspended or upon sufferance only And the Case is the same if we descend a little lower and compare the Commissions of Subalterns and inferiour Officers with Those in a higher and more general Jurisdiction Those that are in the same Commission are all upon the Level there is no Power or Superiority There over one another all that they can do is to consult together and be assisting to each other by concurrence or else to obstruct and restrain each other by opposing what is doing and preventing its being done All Magistrates judge condemn and command either according to the Form and express Letter of the Law and then the Decisions they give and the Sentences they pronounce are nothing else but a putting the Law in execution or else they proceed upon Rules of Equity and reasonable Consideration and then this is call'd the Duty of the Magistrate Magistrates cannot alter their own Decrees nor correct the Judgment they have given without express Permission of the Sovereign upon Penalty of being adjudged Falsifiers of the Publick Records They may indeed revoke their own Orders or they may suspend the Execution of them for some time as they shall see Occasion But when once a Cause is brought to an Issue and Sentence given upon a full and fair Hearing they have no Power to retract that Judgment nor to mend or try it over again without fresh Matter require it Of the Duty of Magistrates See Book III. Chap. 17. CHAP. LI. Lawgivers and Teachers IT is a Practice very usual with some Philosophers and Teachers to prescribe such Laws and Rules as are above the Proportions of Virtue and what the Condition of Humane Nature will suffer very few if any at all to come up to They draw the Images much bigger and more beautiful than the Life or else set us such Patterns of Difficult and Austere Virtue as are impossible for us to equal and so discourage many and render the Attempt it self Dangeous and of ill Consequence to some These are merely the Painter's Fancy like Plato's Republick Sir Thomas More 's Utopia Cicero's Orator or Horace his Poet. Noble Characters indeed and a Collection of acknowledged Excellencies in Speculation but such as the World wants living Instances of The Best and most perfect Law-giver who in marvelous Condescension was pleased himself to be sensible of our Infirmities hath shewed great Tenderness and Compassion for them and wisely consider'd what Humane Nature would bear He hath suited all Things so well to the Capacities of Mankind that those Words of His are True even in this Respect also My Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Now where these Powers are not duly consulted the Laws are first of all Unjust for some Proportion ought to be observ'd between the Command and the Obedience the Duty imposed and the Ability to discharge it I do not say These Commands should not exceed what is usually done but what is possible to be done for what Vanity and Folly is it to oblige People to be always in a Fault and to cut out more Work than can ever be finished Accordingly we may frequently observe that these rigid Stretchers of Laws are the First that expose them to publick Scorn by their own Neglect and like the Pharisees of old lay heavy Burdens upon others which they themselves will not so much as touch with one of their Fingers These Examples are but too obvious in all Professions This is the Way of the World Men direct one Thing and practise another and That not always through Defect or Corruption of Manners but sometimes even out of Judgment and Principle too Another Fault too frequent is That many Persons are exceeding Scrupulous and Nice in Matters which are merely Circumstantial or free and indifferent in their own Nature even above what they express themselves in some of the most necessary and substantial Branches of their Duty such as the Laws of God or the Light of Nature have bound upon them This is much such another Extravagance as lending to other People while we neglect to pay our own Debts A Pharisaical Ostentation which our Heavenly Master so severely exposes the Jewish Elders for and is at the Bottom no better than Hypocrise a mocking of God and Miserable deluding of their own Souls Seneca indeed hath said something concerning the Impracticableness of some Duties which if rightly observ'd is of
should think they might go together Hand in Hand or leave them to dispute the Priority out among Themselves But if I were press'd and must deliver my Sense freely and particularly sure it is equal in Honour to These or at least the very next after them Now as Sciences differ from each other according to the Subjects of which they treat and the Matters they are employed about and also in the Manner of acquiring and attaining to a Mastery in them so do they likewise in the Usefulness the Reputableness the Necessity the Decency the Fame and the Gain of them Some are purely Speculative and aim at nothing farther than merely Contemplation the entertaining informing improving brightening our Intellectual Faculties Others are Practical and lead us directly on to Action Some again are Real and Conversant in Things they bring us acquainted with Matters that are without us either Natural or Supernatural Objects Others are Nominal They concern Discourse only teach us Languages explain Terms of Arts help us to express our selves properly and to reason regularly and closely Now from this short Account we may boldly say That upon a Review of the foregoing Distinctions Those Sciences which are most Manly and Reputable most Useful most Necessary and have least of Glory and Vanity and sordid mercenary Profit attending them are infinitely Preferable to the rest By the same reason then it follows beyond all Contradiction that the Practical Sciences are of all others the most excellent such as propose the Good and Happiness of Man for their End and direct all their Instructions thither that teach us to live and to die well to command and govern to submit and obey as becomes us and therefore These are worthy our most Serious Application Who ever pretends to Wisdom must lay out his Study and his Time here and of such this Book is design'd to be a Compendious Summary and Abridgment that is of Morals Oeconomicks and Politicks the First for governing our Selves well the Second for mannaging our domestick Affairs and presiding over our Families well and the Third for discharging our publick Offices well if we be call'd to any part in the Administration of the Government or if we be private and subordinate only in both the last Capacities then to consider and make good the Duties incumbent upon any the meanest and most inferior Character Next to these Practical Sciences the Natural are to be regarded and esteemed which let us into the Knowledge of this System and Fabrick of the Universe and the infinite Variety of Creatures contained in it and that both for our own Use and Benefit so far as they can be serviceable to us and also to excite our Wonder and Praise and most Humble Adoration of His incomprehensible Majesty and Goodness and Wisdom and Power who is the Great Master-Builder the constant Preserver and Governour of All and every Part of it As for all the rest they are empty and frothy Things in Comparison and though we may call in upon them by the by and for a little while yet ought we not to set up our Rest there nor make them the Business of our Lives because the Use and Effect of them is of no great Consideration and they contribute nothing at all towards the making us one whit better Men. To what purpose then is all that Time and Trouble and Expence and how can we think it otherwise than lost or misemploy'd which we see Studious Men sometimes lay out so liberally upon them It is true they may serve to get Money or to raise something of a Reputation among the People but it is where Men are Ignorant or ill-governed only For otherwise they will seek and encourage such Studies as bring solid Comforts and Advantages and are built upon a firm Bottom CHAP. LXII Of Riches and Poverty THese are the two Foundations and Beginnings the Root and Source of all the Troubles and Calamities the Disorders and Disturbances that confound and put the World out of Course For excess of Plenty and Riches exalts and puffs up the Possessors renders them haughty and insolent swells them with Pride and Disdain prompts them to Luxury and Extravagance to Sensuality and all manner of unlawful Pleasures encourages them to use their Inferiours contemptuously and to insult over their Wants and their Miseries makes them bold and daring and in conâ—idence of their Power puts them upon seditious and dangerous Attempts The extreme Poverty of Others subdues and dejects their Spirits poysons them with Envy and restless Jealousie with Indignation and Spight Discontent and Despair and since Matters they think cannot be worse provokes them to try their Fortunes and make a desperate Push in hopes they may be better Plato calls the Poor the Bane and Flâ—gne of a Commonwealth So that both these sorts of Men are very dangerous but whether of the Two is more so Considering People have not agreed Aristotle is of Opinion that Abundance is more formidable to the Publick than Want for the State hath not much to fear from Them who desire no more than a bare Subsistence but it hath reason to be jealous of Those whose Wealth makes them Ambitious and Aspiring and whose Interest and Authority upon the account of that Wealth gives them Power and Opportunities to be very troublesome Plato thinks Poverty the worse for when Poor People are grown desperate they are furious and terrible Creatures when they are irritated and enrag'd with want of Bread and cannot live upon their Work when Trading is dead and they are overburden'd with Taxe then Necessity which is a great Mistress and finds her Scholars very apt teaches them That which they would never have ventur'd upon in better and more easie Circumstances and this makes them bold as Lions For tho' each of them single can do little or no hurt yet their Numbers are always great and these give them Confidence But whatever the Disease be 't is certain the Remedy is more ready at hand and the Cure easier for the Poor than for the Rich this Mischief is quickly restrain'd and may be timely prevented For so long as they have Necessaries so long as they can carry on their Trades and maintain their Families by them they are generally contented And therefore it highly concerns all Governours to preserve and encourage Trade because in so doing they are sure to keep good Order among the laborious and hardy and most necessitous which to be sure are generally the most numerous part of their Subjects In the mean while we may observe this very remarkable Difference between them that the Rich have the Temptation within Themselves and are formidable upon the account of their own Personal Vices and the Circumstances they are in but the Poor are not so from Themselves nor their Condition but if ever They minâ—ster just cause of Fear it is commonly thro' the Indiscretion or the Cruelty of their Governours who suffer them to be driven to the last
bred up in without more ado condemns and expresses the greatest Detestation of them imaginable and rails at the people as Rude and Uncivilized or else he gives no credit to these accounts but looks upon them as the Romantick Tales of Travellers who take liberties of representing Foreigners very oddly to those that cannot disprove them so absolutely enslaved are his Judgment and Assections to his own Municipal Constitutions so impossible is it as he thinks that any but These should be true or agreeable to Nature and therefore he is verily persuaded they must needs or at least should be Universal too It is exceeding common to traduce every thing with the Reproachful name of Barbarism that we do not fancy or see frequently practised at home and to depend upon the Example and the Ideas of the Persons with whom we converse the Notions and the Usage of our own Countrey for the Test to distinguish Truth and Reason by Now This is a mean and brutish debasement of the Soul which we ought to get above and to enlarge it by looking no longer upon this Picture of Nature in Little but take a view of her as she is drawn at length and in all her full proportions The just Idea of Nature is to consider her as the Common Mother of us all an Universal Queen whose Authority and Dominion hath the same limits with the World nay extends to more Worlds if as some eminent persons have thought more Worlds there be This would inspire us with becoming and Great Apprehensions of her Majesty and Beauty There we should behold as in an exquisite painting a constant and endless variety of Things and the longer we gazed the more our Entertainment and our wonder would be Infinite Difference in Humours disagreeing Judgments Opinions Customs and Laws Innumerable Disorders Commotions and Alterations in States and Kingdoms surprizing turns of Fortune in the Affairs of private Men a World of Victories and Triumphs buried and lost in the Rubbish of Time many Noble Entries and Processions Pomps and Grandeurs utterly vanished and as if the Courts and Princes celebrated by them had never been at all And by taking such a prospect as this and observing how such different Things and Events like Colours well mingled conspire to make up a general Portraicture of the World we shall learn our own littleness and be surprized at nothing nor esteem things at all new or incredible nor be over-tenacious and positive in vindicating our own and condemning the Practice of others since it is not necessary or at all Essential to Beauty that all who pretend to it should be of Our Complexion And that the Darkness and Difference of other Nations like the Shades in drawing make a more grateful Variety and are all agreeable and useful for setting forth the Skill of the Great the Divine Artificer whose Workmanship the Orginal and the Life is This large brave open and universal Disposition of Mind is indeed scarce to be found and hard to be compassed and it is not every common Man that can aspire to it Nature hath not cut out all her Children for such an Excellence no more than she hath qualified them all for that Wisdom and Perfection it leads to But yet there are several Considerations that may be serviceable in helping us toward it Such is First what you find already insisted upon in the foregoing part of this Treatise concerning the wonderful Variety B. 1. Ch. 37 38. and vast difference observable in men according to those qualities of Body and Mind which Nature hath distributed so very unequally among them Secondly Those Differences Men have made among themselves by the disagreeing Laws and Customs which obtain in several Nations and Constitutions To both which may be added the Strange Variety of Opinions which we find the Ancients received and delivered down to Posterity concerning the Age the Condition and the Changes of the World which yet to Us seem to be very Romantick and Extravagant * Concerning those Egyptian and Assyrian Calculations see Bishop Pearson en the Creed Art 1. Page 58 59. where he plainly refutes the Account according to the common computation of years from their own Authers The Egyptian Priests told Herodotus that since the Reign of their first King from which they reckoned down above Eleven thousand years and shewed the Statues of Him and all his Successors in the draughts taken from the Life the Sun had changed his course four several times The Chaldaeans in Diodorus his time as He and Cicero both say kept a Register and Annals comprehending the Space of Four hundred thousand years Plato tells us that the Citizens of Sais had Memorials in Manuscript of Eight thousand years standing and yet they owned that the City of Athens was built a thousand years before that of Sais Aristotle and Pliny and others pretend that Zoroaster lived Six thousand years before Plato was born Some have advanced a Notion of the World 's Existing from all Eternity that it hath been destroyed and revived again several times and hath and will for ever hereafter go through many such Vicissitudes Others and Those some of the most renowned Philosophers have held the World to be a God but yet of so inferior a Quality as to derive its Form and present Being from another and much greater God or else as Plato and some others have been induced by the Motions of it to affirm with some degree of Confidence that it is certainly an Animal consisting of Body and Spirit That the Soul or Spirit is lodged in the Centre of the Universe but though its chief Residence be there yet it expands it self all over to the very utmost parts of the Circumference and that its Influences are conveyed and communicated in Musical Numbers That the several parts of it too thus animated and directed as the Heaven and the Stars for instance are made up of a Body and Soul and these though Mortal in respect of their compounded Nature are yet Immortal by the determination of their Almighty Creator Plato says That the World puts on quite another face that the whole Scene is shifted that the Heaven and Stars vary so much in their motions as quite to change sides so that Before shall be Behind and the Point which is East at one time comes to be the West at another There hath also been an Opinion of great Authority much countenanced and promoted by the most eminent Philosophers suitable to the Power and Majesty of God and grounded upon fair and probable Reasons that there is a Plurality of Worlds for we see no other thing single or solitary but This if This be so All Species are multiplied in numbers and therefore it is not unlikely that God hath not left this part of his Workmanship quite desolate and alone nor exhausted his whole power and skill in the forming of an Individual Nay even Divinity assures us that God can make as many Worlds as he
and Women for the sake of Pleasure and indeed several other Sins committed upon occasions though they be not reigning and habitual such as Men think and consult upon and at last resolve wrong where the Will is manifestly concerned or where the Complexion of the Man is apt against his Reason and better Sense to determine him Now the First of these Three sorts are past repenting by ordinary Means These Thr comparea and nothing less than an unusual and almost miraculous Impression from Heaven can be supposed to reclaim them For they are as the Apostle expresses it past feeling and commit evil even with Greediness The Stings and Prickings of Wickedness are very sharp and piercing indeed but these Men's Consciences are so tough and harden'd that nothing can enter them Besides The Understanding as was observed is brought over to an Approbation of the thing and so all Sense of Remorse must be lost which proceeds chiefly from acting against our better Judgment The Soul is entirely corrupted the Distinctions of Good and Evil obliterated and worn away and consequently the Will can be under no sollicitude to restrain or refuse The Third sort of Men though they may appear in some measure to repent and condemn themselves yet in reality and properly speaking they do not Take the Fact by it self as a matter unlawful and unbecoming and so they disallow it but view it drest up in all its gay Attire with all the Circumstances of Pleasure and Profit that recommend and set it off and you shall find them of another Opinion They think the Advantage of their Sin a sufficient Compensation for the Guilt and cannot be said to repent of That which had the full and free Consent of their Reason and Conscience and with which they are always ready to close as often as it shall proffer it self upon the same Terms So that in Truth the Second sort seem to be the only persons that are seriously concerned to repent and reform And since we are now upon the mention of Repentance I shall take this opportunity to say one word upon that Subject Repentance is a Disposition or rather an Act of the Will Repentance whereby the Man disclaims and so far as in him lies undoes again what he had done before It is a Grief and Sadness of Heart but differing in this one respect from all other Pains and Passions of that kind arising from external Causes That Reason begets and heightens This whereas it mitigates and expels Those Repentance is wholly internal the Ground and Foundation of it is from within and upon that account it is more violent than any other As the Cold of Agues and Heat of Fevers is more fierce and insupportable to the Patient than any which is ever occasioned by Objects from without Repentance is the Physick of the Soul the Death of Vice the only Health of Wounded Consciences and Depraved Wills But though all Mankind must agree in the Excellent Effects and Commendations of the thing yet many mistake it and therefore good care should be taken to distinguish aright and be perfectly informed in this matter As First There are some sorts of sin of which Men very hardly and seldom repent as was observed just now concerning old inveterate Vices such as Custom hath made in a manner natural and necessary and the Corruption of the Judgment hath given Authority to by determining in their Favour For while a Man continues under the power of such Habits and the Blindness of such an erroneous Choice the sense of his Mind is with him and he feels no Check or Reluctancy at all so that Repentance which implies such Regret is usually speaking terminated in Accidental and Occasional Miscarriages the sudden and surprizing Faults where there is not leisure for Deliberation to interpose or the Violent Sallies of Passion where the Judgment is over-power'd and under some Constraint to do amiss Another sort of things there are which a Man cannot be said with any Truth or Propriety of Speech to repent of and those are Such as are out of a Man 's own Power At these indeed we may conceive a Just Indignation or be much concerned and extremely sorry for them but we cannot be said to Repent of them because This implies not only Sorrow but the blaming and condemning our selves and failing in what we might have done better Nor does That displeasure of Mind deserve this Name which proceeds from the disappointment of our Expectations or Events contrary to our Wishes and Intentions We laid as we thought a very wise Project and had a very fair prospect of Success but Matters have happen'd quite otherwise than we imagined it likely or possible for them to do and some unforeseen Accident steps in betwixt and blasts the whole Design Now pray What is all this to the Matter in hand or what ground can here possibly be for Repentance The Design and the Method were well and justly contrived every wise and good Man would have taken the same Course You have done your Duty but you have not succeeded in it And is that any fault of Yours You advised well and proceeded regularly and this is the utmost Man can do For we can neither command Events nor have any positive knowledge before-hand what they will be The Uncertainty of the Issue is the foundation of all Prudence and good Conduct for were This sixt and foreknown no place could be left for Deliberation and Management And therefore there is not a greater weakness nor a more unreasonable pretence in the world either for tormenting our selves or entertaining meaner thoughts of others than Want of Success Advice and Conduct are by no means to be judged by the Event for there is an unseen and an unaccountable Providence that directs all the Chances that sometimes defeats the wisest and prospers the weakest and most unpromising Counsels and Undertakings Again Repentance is not as some fondly suppose that Change of Mind which proceeds from Old Age Impotence want of Opportunity or want of Inclination or any such Disrelish as either Satiety and Excess or a natural Alteration of Palate brings upon us For there is a mighty Disserence between forsaking Vice and being forsaken of it between denying our Appetites when they are keen and eager and gratifying them by a pleasing Abstinence from what they are cloyed with already Besides To like any thing the worse upon these accounts is really a Corruption of and a Reflection upon our Judgment For the things are still the same the same Approbation or the same Dislike was due to them heretofore no less than now All the Change is in our Selves only and that too is a Change in no degree voluntary or chosen but purely necessary or accidental the effect of Age or Sickness We speak most improperly when we say that a Man is grown wiser or better in such cases for all the Reformation that proceeds from humour or discontent from disrelish or
discouraging Circumstances out of sight How miserably do we betray our want of Judgment by never considering that our Neighbours Misfortunes to day may be Ours before to morrow that we are by no means exempt and out of reach But how foolishly do They argue who prefer a blind Fool-hardiness before it and pretend that a Computation of probable Accidents would discourage and put a stop to all Action As if a Man might not be prudent without Despondency nor distrust Fortune without Irresolution and Cowardice and Panick Fear Whereas if we would represent Things to our selves according as they really are and as Reason directs we should be so far from Surprize at Crosses and Disappointments that it would rather appear matter of Wonder and Astonishment that so very few befall us in comparison of what we had ground enough to expect and when so many Accidents are always dogging us close at the Heels that they should be so long before they overtake us and when they have us in their Clutches and we lye at their Mercy that they should not treat us more ruggedly than the Generality of them do For He that sees another Person 's Ill Fortune and regards it as a thing so usual and common that his own turn may very probably be next This Man is armed against it and hath vanquished his Foe before he makes his Approaches Nothing in these Cases should be left unconsider'd and it is very advisable to reckon upon the worst thus Events will mend upon us and a great part of what comes will be clear Gains But it is foolish to sink under a Misfortune and think to excuse one's Weakness by alledging We never imagined Matters would be so bad It is a very common Saying That when a Man is surprized he is half beaten and then by the Rule of Contraries a Man forearmed is worth Two others A wise Prince will make Preparations for War in the Times of profoundest Peace a skilful Sailor lays in fresh Tackle and all manner of Provisions for the weathering a Storm and refitting after it before ever he sets sail out of Port For when the Mischief is actually upon us 't is too late to provide against it Besides There is this farther Advantage attends a Premeditation that let a thing be never so difficult in it self every Man finds himself dextrous to a wonder in Matters that he hath been a great while prepared for Presence of Mind Prudence in Choice and Boldness in Execution give infinite Advantage in such Cases and almost insure the Success Whereas on the other hand ther eis nothing so obvious and easy in its own Nature but Men are confounded and at a loss if they be utterly unacquainted with it * Id videndum ne quid inopinatum sit nobis qui◠omnia novitate graviora sunt This therefore should be our constant Care That nothing happen unlook'd for because the being new and strange to us is really a very great Aggravation of any Accident whatsoever Thus much I easily persuade myself that were we in any tolerable degree so provident as we might and ought to be all that Amazement and Perplexity would be saved which we so commonly see in the World For what is it that confounds Thee Man You expected the thing and it is come upon you Astonishment is not the effect of having our Expectations answered but the direct contrary Let us therefore order our Affairs so considerately that it may never be in the Power of Fortune to surprize us let us stand upon our Guard discover things at a distance and observe how they make their Approaches toward us * Animus adversus omnia firmandus ut dicere possimus Non ulla laborum O Virgo nova mî facies inopinave surgit Omna praecepi atque animo mecum ipse peregi Tu hodie ista denuncias ego semper denuntiavi Hominem paravi ad Humana The Mind should be fortified against all that can possibly happen that we may be able to say with that Hero in the Poet No Terror to my View No frightful Face of Danger can be new Inur'd to suffer and resolv'd to dare Mr. Dryden The worst that Fate can do hath been my early Care You foretel these things now I have told them to my self long ago I have allalong contemplated them for I considered I was a Man and made provision against all that could possibly befall me as such CHAP. VIII Obedience to the Laws Compliance with the Customs and Observance of the Ceremonies in use How and in what sense necessary WHAT a Man is in comparison of a Beast the same is a sise Man in comparison of a Fool and as the Qualities so likewise the Methods of ordering and managing Them resemble one another The Wild Beasts and such as live by Prey will not suffer themselves to be taken nor willingly submit to the Discipline and Government of Man they either flee from his Presence and hide themselves in Dens and Coverts or grow enraged and make at him if he offer to come near them So that a Mixture of Arms and Artifice of Fraud and Force is necessary to tame and make them tractable Just thus is Folly restive against Reason deaf and inflexible to Wisdom it runs wild grows peevish and angry and more extravagantly foolish when mild Instructions gentle Reproofs and cool Arguments endeavour to reclaim it so that Means more forcible are necessary it must be managed and subdued taken short and kept in Awe and affrighted into Obedience that by these terrifying and compulsive Methods it may at last be brought to hand and submit to Discipline and Instruction Now he proper course of effecting this Reformation is by some over-bearing Authority some Power whose Severity may be perpetually thundring in its Ears and whose amazing Splendor may be ever flashing in its Eyes and like some God in Human Shape command Submission and Compliance For as is well observed * Sola Authoritas est quae cogit stultos ut ad sapientiam festinent Nothing but Authority can prevail with Fools to make any tolerable Advances toward Wisdom The Efficacy of this is very often seen in the sudden composing of Mutinies and Management of the Rabble kby the Address and Credit of some one Person of Reputation and Eminence and proves that the People are to be led by the Persuasion of Others much better than guided by their Own Judgment A very lively and beautiful Description whereof Virgil presents us with in that Similitude †Veluti magno in populo cùm saepe coorta est Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Jamque Faces Saxa volant Furor Arma ministrat Tum Pietate gravem ac Mento si forte Virum quem Conspexere silent arrectisque auribus astant Ille regit dictis animos pectora mulcet AEneid Lib. 1. As when in Tumults rise th' Ignoble Crowd Swift are their Motions and their Tongues are loud And
of great Dignity and Importance for Life much less suffer them to be hereditary and descend in the same Family nay it is dangerous indeed to continue These for any long Term of Years lest Men by this Means should strengthen their Party and at last become a Match for their Master And whoever shall consult Histories both Ancient and Modern and there examine the Causes of Powerful Factions and the most surprising and fatal Revolutions of States and Empires will find the greatest part of them owing to the Exorbitant Riches and Power of some over-grown Subject or the Influence and Interest of some old and important Officer So that Seneca had good Reason to say * Nil tam utile quam brevem potestatem esse quae magna sit Nothing is so convenient and advantageous to the State as the frequent Change of high Offices no Trust no Power which is Great ought to be continued long in the same Hand These are fair Against Tyranny and honest Means agreable to Justice becoming the Character of a Prince and fit for him to use for the acquiring and supporting himself bothin the Good Affections of the World and in a Venerable Authority with them Upon these Terms he may be loved and seared both and so it is necessary he should be For though a convenient Mixture of these Two be desirable and excellent yet either of them singly and destitute of the other is neither Reasonable in its self nor any Security to the Government Upon which Account it is that we detest and abhor a Tyrannical Authority a Fear absolutely repugnant to and destructive of Affection and Love such as reners the Person an Object of all Men's Hatred at the same time †Oderint dum metuant Let them hate me so they fear me is a brutish and savage Declaration no one that is really a Man would be content with Power and Greatness at that Rate and this Authority if it be sit to allow it so honourable a Name is such as Barbarous and Arbitrary and Wicked Men procure to themselves not by the Exercise but by the Abuse of their Power The Qualities and Character of a good Prince and a Tyrant have no manner of Resemblance to one another The Distance is so vast the Disparity so notorious that it is scarce possible for a Man not to distinguish between them In short they all turn at last upon these Two Points One is The observing the Laws of God and Nature with a Religious Strictness or the trampling both under Foot with the greatest Insolence and Contempt The other making the publick Good and true Interest of one's Subjects the End and Measure of all one's Actions or the making every Thing truckle to his own Will and by every Action and Design serving and aiming at nothing else but private Profit and Pleasure Now the Prince who will answer his Character and be what so glorious a Station requires must constantly remember that as it is the peculiar Happiness and Prerogative of Power to do whatever he hath a Mind to So it is also the true Prerogative of the Will and the most certain Mark of real Greatness to have a Mind to such things only as are Just and Lawful and becoming * Caesari cum omnia licent propter hoc minus licet Ut foelicitatis est posse quantum velis Sic magnitudinis velle quantum possis vel potius quantum debeas Caesar says Pliny hath less in his Power than Common Men upon this very account that every thing is in his Power For as it is a Happiness to be able to do what you please so it is true Greatness to will only such things as you can do or rather indeed to desire and will no more than you ought to do for in strict speaking a Man can do no more than lawfully hemay do The greatest Misfortune that any Prince is capable of is the being possessed with an Opinion that his Will is his Rule and that all that is possible is lawful for him As soon as ever he hath given way to this vile Imagination his whole Temper and Manners presently grow corrupt and from a good Man he is transformed into a wicked Wretch and a Monster Now this Opinion commonly insinuates it self by Sycophants and Parasites Flattery infuses and blows it up for Persons of that Dignity never want enough and too many to preach up to them the Greatness of their Power because this is a pleasing Doctrine and tickles the Ear but the Obligations of Duty carry a harsh and grating Sound and there are few but very few Servants so hardy in their Fidelity as to entertain their Master upon this necessary Subject But of all sorts of Flattery That is the most dangerous when a Man flatters Himself In other Cases a Man may stop his Ears against the treacherous Insinuation he may enjoyn Silence forbid all Discourse of that kind avoid the Presence and Company of the nauseous Wretches that use and hope to ingratiate themselves by it But when the Person who gives and he who receives the Flattery are one and the same What shall he do or whether shall he run from such destructive Conversation And therefore a Prince above all other People is highly concern'd to deal honestly by himself to decline and despise the fulsom and base Soothings of other People who hope to make their court this way and especially to be a severe Inquisitor and Judge of his own Actions and not to cajole himself into Ruine After all that hath been said and too much cannot be said against Tyranny and Arbitrary Administration it is necessary to add that sometimes such critical Junctures of Affairs will happen such Intricacies and Perplexities in Publick Business with regard to Time Person Places Occasions or some accidental Circumstances that a Prince will be driven to a necessity of doing some things which at first view may look like Tyranny As for instance When the Matter depending before him is the suppressing of another Tyranny the Licentiousness I mean of a head-strong hair-brain'd People whose ungovernable Fury is the most absolute most destructive Tyranny in the World Or when he is to break some close Cabal or powerful Faction of the Nobility and Persons of Wealth and Figure in their Country Or when the publick Treasures are reduced and wasted the King driven to extreme Wants and knows not where to furnish himself with needful Supplies and so is compelled for the Relief of the State in its present Exigency to raise Moneys irregularly and borrow from the Rich by such Loans as they are not perfectly contented with Of these Extremities and the Methods and Remedies proper for them I have spoken formerly and the only design of renewing the mention of them here is to persuade People to give the best and most favourable Interpretation to Cases of necessity and not immediately clamour against them and represent them in their worst and most
of their Favour and good Graces To say nothing in their Company tending to the Matter in controversie but to talk altogether of indifferent Things or at least such as we personally know to be true or are otherwise very well assur'd of If we touch upon the Dispute to say what may be for the Service of both and may tend to their reconciliation and better Understanding But by no means submitting to that vile practice of reporting idle Stories or groundless Surmises or aggravating things that have some Foundation or currying Favour by discommending or railing at the Adversary of Him with whom we converse For Matters here ought to be carry'd with such an even Hand that nothing should pass in Company with the one which we would not speak if the other were by nay that nothing should be said to the one which we would not say to the other in his Turn too allowing only for some little Alterations in the Forms and Manner of our Address which the different Circumstances of the Persons or the Relation or Authority we pretend to with them or some other accidental Consideration foreign to the Subject of the Quarrel it self may render seasonable and seem to require from us Justice the Second Cardinal Virtue CHAP. V. Of Justice in General JUSTICE consists in rendring to every one whatsoever of Right belongs to him What it is paying first to himself his Own Duty and then to others Theirs And according to this Definition it comprehends all manner of Duties and Offices which each particular Person can be any way oblig'd to Now these as I hinted before are of Two sorts according to the Objects of them which are Two The First terminate in a Man 's own Person the Second in other People All which in their utmost Latitude sall within the compass of that most extensive Command which hath express'd the Substance and Summ of all Justice in those very few but significant Words Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self For here it is very observable that the Duty to others is put in the Second place that the Love and Duty we owe to our selves is laid as the Ground-work upon which that to our Neighbour is superstructed and the Model by which it is to be proportion'd For as the old Hebrews and not They only but all the World use to say Charity begins at home The Beginning then and Foundation of all Justice is to be sought for within our selves Primitive and Original Justice and the most Ancient and Fundamental Right of all others is that Dominion which Reason hath over the Sensual part of us A Man must be able to command and govern himself before he can be qualify'd to exercise this Authority in demanding Subjection from others And this Government of one's Self consists in reserving to Reason the Power of bearing Sway and keeping the Appetites under reducing and restraining them to their just Measures and Degrees and bowing their stubborn Necks till they become flexible and obedient to Discipline The preserving our Souls in this Order and Posture is what we may call Primitive Original and Internal Justice the most genuine the brightest and infinitely most beautiful of any thing that goes by that Name This Sovereignty and Dominion of the Rational over that sensual and brutish part of the Soul which is the Source of all our Passions and by Them of all our Troubles and Disorders hath been by some Authors not unfitly resembl'd to a Rider managing his Horse keeping himself firm in the Saddle and the Rein constantly in his Hand by which he rules and turns the Beast under him at pleasure To give an exact and nice Account of that Justice Distinguished which goes abroad and is exercis'd in our Dealings with other People it is necessary to observe first of all that there are two sorts of it The One Natural Universal Generous and Brave Rational and Philosophical the Other in a great degree Artificial Particular Positive and Political contrived and cramp'd up according as the Exigencies of particular Countries and Constitutions would allow it a larger or have confin'd it to a narrower Compass The Former of these is much the more regular and uniform more firm and inflexible clearer and fairer of the Two But alas it is antiquated and obsolete capable of doing very little Service to the World as it now stands This occasion'd that Complaint * Veri Juris germanaeque Justitiae solidam expressam essigiem nullam tenemus umbris imaginibus utimur That the Substance and express Image of true Right and Justice was long since fled and gone and all we live by now is only some faint Shadows and imperfect Copies of that Original Representation taken from the Life it self These are like the first Sketches of a Night-piece but they are such as Mankind must be contented with since tho' the Darkness of their Condition need a stronger Light yet their present Infirmities cannot bear any thing so exquisitely bright This is what they say of Polycletus's Rule Inflexible Unalterable The other is more slack and limber and pliable it comes to and accommodates it self to the Necessities and the Weaknesses of Mankind nay of the generality and That to be sure is the worst and most ignorant part This is a Leaden and a Lesbian Rule a Nose of Wax that bends into any Form and may be wrought into any Figure and indeed is bow'd and chang'd perpetually according to the different Exigencies and Circumstances of Time and Place and Person the Posture of Affairs and the variety of Accidents This in case of necessity and convenience dispenses with allows nay approves of several things which the other will not so much as connive at but must absolutely condemn and cannot admit upon any Consideration whatsoever This establishes some Vices and gives them not only the Countenance but sometimes the Sanction of a Law and rejects several Actions in themselves Innocent and Good as unlawful and not to be practis'd Natural Justice looks only at the Reason the Equity the Virtue the Decency and Fitness of the thing But Positive and Political Justice proceeds upon other sort of Considerations it hath a great I might almost say principal Regard to the Advantage the Convenience at least its main Aim and Business is to reconcile these two and make Profit and Probity go Hand in Hand and so mutually promote and assist each other Since therefore This is the only kind which the World is manag'd by and the Design of the present Treatise is to reform Men's Manners and to better them in such Points as are practicable we will confine our selves wholly to this latter sort For it must needs be to very little purpose to insist upon the Former of which there is nothing now but the Idea and bare Speculation left Now this Justice at present in common use Of Justice as now in use and that which is esteem'd the Judge and Standard