as assistants or to the deriving of any successive Office from one to another Thus when MOSES had from Heaven receiv'd and long us'd his Commission to be under God the Ruler of the People the seventy Elders were by God's appointment assum'd to assist him Numb 11. 17. it being certain from the Jewish Writings tho the sacred Scripture has no occasion to mention it that the succession of the seventy Elders under the name of Sanhedrim or Council was continu'd thro all Ages by their creating others in the place of those that dy'd by this Ceremony of Imposition of Hands To this purpose are the clear words of MAIMONIDES Tit. Sanhed c. 4. MOSES our Master created the seventy Elders by Imposition of hands and the Divine Majesty rested on them and those Elders impos'd Hands on others and others on others c. So a little before the departure of MOSES out of this life when a Successor was to be provided for him God commands him to take JOSHUA and lay his hands upon Numb 27. 18 23. him And MOSES laid his hands upon him and gave him a Charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of MOSES that is deriv'd to him by this Ceremony the Authority which himself had and constituted him his Successor in that Government And so it is repeated JOSHUA Deut. 34. 9. was full of the spirit of Wisdom for MOSES had laid his Hands upon him THIS is the Doctor 's deduction of the Chirothesia or Ordination by the laying on of Hands from the Commonwealth of Israel and says he from the three Vses of this Ceremony there that is first in praying for another secondly in paternal benediction thirdly in creating Successors in power either in whole or in part derive three sorts of things in the New Testament to which this Ceremony of laying on of Hands is Book II accommodated That of Prayer simply taken was of two sorts either for the cure of Diseases or pardoning of Sins For Diseases They shall Mar. 16. 18. lay hands on the sick and they shall recover For Sins they were don away also by this Ceremony in the absolution of Penitents to which belongs 1 Tim. 5. 22. that Exhortation of PAUL to TIMOTHY Lay hands suddenly on no man that is not without due examination and proof of his Penitence lest thou be partaker of other mens Sins From the second that of Paternal Mar. 10. 16. Benediction was borrow'd first that of blessing Infants with the Ceremony of Imposition of Hands as it differ'd from Baptism And secondly that of confirming those of fuller age that had bin formerly baptiz'd Lastly to the creating Successors in any Power or communicating any part of Power to others as to Assistants is answerable that Imposition of Hands in Ordination so often mention'd in the New Testament somtimes in Acts 6. 6. the lower degree as in the ordaining of Deacons elswhere in the highest degree setting Governors over particular Churches as generally when by that laying on of Hands it is said they receiv'd the Holy Ghost wheras the Holy Ghost contains all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 requir'd to the pastoral Luke 24. 49. Function and so signifys Power from on high the Authority and Function it self so it be given by Imposition of Hands makes the parallel exact between this of Christian Ordination and that observ'd in the creating Successors in the Jewish Sanhedrim So far the Doctor Deut. 1. NOW say I if the Scripture be silent as to the Ordination of the Elders in Israel what means that place Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes and I will make them Rulers over Numb 11. you Once in their lives let them give us the sense of it or of that other where ELDAD and MEDAD are of those that were written and yet went not up to the Tabernacle Otherwise that we hear no more of these is from the silence of Divines and not of the Scripture But if the Scripture be not silent in this point is there not a great deal of fancy in going on to cure the Sick to pardon Sins to bless Infants confirm the Baptiz'd ordain Ministers nay give the Holy Ghost and all the Graces belonging to the pastoral Function from a place that has no such thing in it for if the Sanhedrim according to Scripture were not ordain'd by the Chirothesia there is no such thing to be deriv'd by the Chirothesia from the Sanhedrim The first Chirotonia indeed of the Sanhedrim was accompany'd with miraculous indowments wherfore if they will derive these Gifts and Graces from the Sanhedrim why are they sworn Enemies to the Chirotonia Again the Sanhedrim was a Civil Court or Senat wherfore then by this Title should not these Gifts and Graces be rather pretended to by the Civil Magistrat than by Divines what becoms of the Priest AARON and his Lots is he left to the Civil Magistrat while Divines derive themselves from General JOSHUA and his Chirothesia But if the Sanhedrim and inferior Judicatorys were otherwise ordain'd originally then no Magistrat in Israel was originally ordain'd by the Chirothesia but only JOSHUA It is admirable that Divines should look upon God as if in the institution of a Commonwealth he had no regard at all to human Prudence but was altogether fix'd upon their vain advantages Who made human Prudence or to what end was it made Any man that understands the Politics and considers that God was now proceding according to this Art as in his constitution of the Senat and of the People or Congregation is most obvious must needs see that this Power he indulg'd to MOSES of making his own choice of one man could not possibly be intended as a permanent Constitution Chap. 4 for wheras he intended Popular Government nothing is plainer than that a People not electing their own Magistrats can have no Popular Government How absurd is it to conceive that God having already made an express Law that the People if at any time they came under Monarchy should yet have the election of their King would now make a Law that the People being under a Commonwealth should no longer have the election of their Magistrats For who sees not that to introduce the Chirothesia as a standing Ordinance had bin to bar the People of this power Israel at this time tho design'd for a Common-wealth had no Land no foundation to balance her self upon but was an Army in a Wilderness incompass'd about with Enemys To permit to the People in this case the choice of all their Civil Magistrats was nevertheless safe enough nay best of all for at the election of wise men and understanding and known among their Tribes so far as was needful to civil administration their skill must needs have bin at any time sufficient but the Commonwealth was yet in absolute necessity of a Protector and of Dictatorian Power Now to know who was fittest in this case
Court or indeed were actually Judges in som other Court was not enough unless they might consist also of Acts 5. 21. as many as were of the kindred of the High Priest Which Rights and Privileges being all observ'd The High Priest came and they that were Chap. 5 with him and call'd the Sanhedrim and all the Presbytery of the Children of Israel that is so many of them as being assembl'd in the great Synagog represented all the Presbytery of the Children of Israel or all the Children of Israel themselves In this Assembly you have the full description of the great Synagog and when in this Synagog they had beaten the Apostles PETER and JOHN they commanded them that Act. 5. 40. they should not speak in the Name of JESUS and let them go Upon these procedings there are Considerations of good importance as first That the Cabalistical Doctors themselves did never so much as imagin that MOSES had indu'd the Sanhedrim alone or separatly consider'd from the People with any Legislative Power nevertheless that the Sanhedrim came into the place and succeded to the whole Power of MOSES they unanimously held whence even upon their Principles it must follow that in MOSES distinctly and separatly taken from the People there could be no Power of making any Law The second thing remarkable in this proceding is That the most corrupt Commonwealth and in her most corrupt Age had not yet the face without som blind of pretending to Legislative Power in a single Council The last I shall observe is That no possible security is to be given to liberty of Conscience but in the security of Civil Liberty and in that only not by Laws which are otherwise as perishing as flowers or fruits but in the roots or fundamental orders of the Government What even in these times must have follow'd as to the liberty of Conscience had there bin an equal Representative of the People is apparent in that the Captain and the Officers imploy'd by this Synagog to apprehend Acts 5. 26. the Apostles brought them without violence for they fear'd the People lest they should have bin ston'd It is true there is nothing with us more customary even in the solemnest places and upon the solemnest occasions than to upbraid the People with giddiness from the Hosanna and the Crucifige of the Jews What may be charg'd upon a multitude not under orders the fouler Crime it be is the fairer Argument for such Orders as where they have bin once establish'd the People have not bin guilty of such Crimes at least it should seem that in this case there is great scarcity of Witnesses against them seeing the Death of SOCRATES is more laid to one People than that of all the Martyrs to Kings yet were the false Witnesses by whom SOCRATES suffer'd and by the like wherto a man in the best Government may chance to suffer no sooner discover'd than they were destroy'd by the People who also erected a Statue to SOCRATES And the People who at the Arraignment of CHRIST cry'd Crucify him Mark 15. 11. crucify him were such as the chief Priests mov'd or promted and such also as fear'd the multitude Now that the People which could be Mat. 21. promted by the chief Priests or the People which could fear the People could be no other than this pretended Representative of the People but indeed a Juncta of Cousins and Retainers is that which for ought I know may be possible and the rather for what happen'd before upon the Law call'd among the Jews The Law of the Zealot which was instituted by MOSES in these words If thy Brother the Deut. 13. 6. Son of thy Mother intice thee saying Let us go and serve other Gods thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the People By this Law it is plain that as to the true intent therof it relates to no other case than that only of Idolatry The Book II execution of the same according to the Talmud might be perform'd by any number of the People being not under ten either apprehending the Party in the Fact or upon the Testimony of such Witnesses as had so apprehended him yet will it not be found to have bin executed by the People but upon instigation of the Priest as where they interpreting the Law as they list STEPHEN is ston'd Now if the Priests could have made the People do as much against CHRIST what needed they have gon to PILAT for help and if they could not why should we think that the Multitude which cry'd out Crucify him crucify him should be any other than the great Synagog HOWEVER that it was an Oligarchy consisting of a Senat and a Presbytery which not only scourg'd the Apostles but caus'd CHRIST to be crucify'd is certain And so much for the great Synagog Sect. 8 The Model of the Jewish Commonwealth THESE parts being historically laid down and prov'd it follows that the Cabalistical or Jewish Commonwealth was much after this Model BE the capacity of bearing Magistracy or giving Counsil upon the Law or any part of the Law of this Commonwealth in no other than such only as are Presbyters BE Presbyters of two sorts the one general the other particular BE Presbyters general ordain'd by the laying on of hands of the Prince of the Sanhedrim with the rest of the Elders or Presbytery of the same and by no other Court without a Licence from the Prince of the Sanhedrim and be those ordain'd in this manner eligible by the major vote of the seventy Elders into the Sanhedrim or into any other Court by the major vote of the Elders or Presbytery of that Court. BE Presbyters particular ordain'd by any Court of Justice and be these capable of giving Counsil in the Law or in som particular part of the Law according to the gift that is in them by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery BE all Presbyters capable of nomination to the great Synagog BE the Sanhedrim in Law made the supreme Magistracy or Judicatory and with a Juncta of fifty Presbyters of their Nomination the great Synagog BE the great Synagog the Legislative Power in this Commonwealth SUCH was the Government where the word of a Scribe or Doctor was avowedly held to be of more validity than the Scripture and where the usual appellation of the People by the Doctors and Pharises was populus terrae the Rascally Rabble Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis Sect. 9 Ordination in the lesser Synagog THERE were other Synagogs for other uses as those wherin the Law was read every Sabbathday each of which also had her Ruler and her Presbytery with power to ordain others to this Capacity CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 Shewing how Ordination was brought into the Christian Church and the divers ways of the same that were at divers times in use with the Apostles The form
the end they may be the better protected by the State in the free exercise of the same they are desir'd to make choice in such manner as they best like of certain Magistrats in every one of their Congregations which we could wish might be four in each of them to be Auditors in cases of differences or distast if any thro variety of opinions that may be grievous or injurious to them should fall out And such Auditors or Magistrats shall have power to examin the matter and inform themselves to the end that if they think it of sufficient weight they may acquaint the Phylarch with it or introduce it into the Council of Religion where all such Causes as those Magistrats introduce shall from time to time be heard and determin'd according to such Laws as are or shall hereafter be provided by the Parlament for the just defence of the Liberty of Conscience THIS Order consists of three parts the first restoring the power of Ordination to the People which that it originally belongs to them is clear tho not in English yet in Scripture where the Apostles ordain'd Acts 14. 23. Elders by the holding up of hands in every Congregation that is by the suffrage of the People which was also given in som of those Citys by the Ballot And tho it may be shewn that the Apostles ordain'd som by the laying on of hands it will not be shewn that they did so in every Congregation EXCOMMUNICATION as not clearly provable out of the Scripture being omitted the second part of the Order implys and establishes a National Religion for there be degrees of Knowlege in divine things true Religion is not to be learnt without searching the Scriptures the Scriptures cannot be search'd by us unless we have them to search and if we have nothing else or which is all one understand nothing else but a Translation we may be as in the place alleg'd we have bin beguil'd or misled by the Translation while we should be searching the true sense of the Scripture which cannot be attain'd in a natural way and a Commonwealth is not to presume upon that which is supernatural but by the knowlege of the Original and of Antiquity acquir'd by our own studys or those of som others for even Faith coms by hearing Wherfore a Commonwealth not making provision of men from time to time knowing in the original Languages wherin the Scriptures were written and vers'd in those Antiquitys to which they so frequently relate that the true sense of them depends in great part upon that Knowlege can never be secure that she shall not lose the Scripture and by consequence her Religion which to preserve she must institute som method of this Knowlege and som use of such as have acquir'd it which amounts to a National Religion THE Commonwealth having thus perform'd her duty towards God as a rational Creature by the best application of her Reason to Scripture and for the preservation of Religion in the purity of the same yet pretends not to Infallibility but coms in the third part of the Order establishing Liberty of Conscience according to the Instructions given to her Council of Religion to raise up her hands to Heaven for further light in which proceding she follows that as was shewn in the Preliminarys of Israel who tho her National Religion was always a part of her Civil Law gave to her Prophets the upper hand of all her Orders Definition of a Parish BUT the Surveyors having now don with the Parishes took their leaves so a Parish is the first division of Land occasion'd by the first Collection of the People of Oceana whose Function proper to that place is compriz'd in the six preceding Orders Institution of the Hundred THE next step in the progress of the Surveyors was to a meeting of the nearest of them as their work lay by twentys where conferring their Lists and computing the Deputys contain'd therin as the number of them in Parishes being nearest Neighbors amounted to one hundred or as even as might conveniently be brought with that account they cast them and those Parishes into the Precinct which be the Deputys ever since more or fewer is still call'd the Hundred and to every one of these Precincts they appointed a certain place being the most convenient Town within the same for the annual Rendevouz which don each Surveyor returning to his Hundred and summoning the Deputys contain'd in his Lists to the Rendevouz they appear'd and receiv'd 7. Order THE seventh ORDER requiring That upon the first Monday next insuing the last of January the Deputys of every Parish annually assemble in Arms at the Rendevouz of the Hundred and there elect out of their number one Justice of the Peace one Juryman one Captain one Ensign of their Troop or Century each of these out of the Horse and one Juryman one Crowner one High Constable out of the Foot the Election to be made by the Ballot in this manner The Jurymen for the time being are to be Overseers of the Ballot instead of these the Surveyors are to officiat at the first Assembly and to look to the performance of the same according to what was directed in the Ballot of the Parishes saving that the High Constable setting forth the Vrn shall have five several sutes of Gold Balls and one dozen of every sute wherof the first shall be mark'd with the Letter A the second with the letter B the third with C the fourth with D and the fifth with E and of each of these sutes he shall cast one Ball into his Hat or into a little Vrn and shaking the Balls together present them to the first Overseer who shall draw one and the sute which is so drawn by the Overseer shall be of use for that day and no other for example if the Overseer drew an A the High Constable shall put seven Gold Balls mark'd with the letter A into the Vrn with so many Silver ones as shall bring them even with the number of the Deputys who being sworn as before at the Ballot of the Parish to make a fair Election shall be call'd to the Vrn and every man coming in manner as was there shew'd shall draw one Ball which if it be Silver he shall cast it into a Bowl standing at the foot of the Vrn and return to his place but the first that draws a Gold Ball shewing it to the Overseers who if it has not the letter of the present Ballot have power to apprehend and punish him is the first Elector the second the second Elector and so to the seventh which Order they are to observe in their function The Electors as they are drawn shall be plac'd upon the Bench by the Overseers till the whole number be complete and then be conducted with the List of the Officers to be chosen into a Place apart where being privat the first Elector shall name a Person to the first
is a greater Light which they have I do not know There is a greater Light than the Sun but it dos not extinguish the Sun nor dos any Light of Gods giving extinguish that of Nature but increase and sanctify it Wherfore neither the Honor born by the Israelitish Roman or any other Commonwealth that I have shewn to their Ecclesiastics consisted in being govern'd by them but in consulting them in matters of Religion upon whose Responses or Oracles they did afterwards as they thought fit Nor would I be here mistaken as if by affirming the Universitys to be in order both to Religion and Government of absolute necessity I declar'd them or the Ministry in any wise fit to be trusted so far as to exercise any power not deriv'd from the Civil Magistrat in the administration of either If the Jewish Religion were directed and establish'd by MOSES it was directed and establish'd by the Civil Magistrat or if MOSES exercis'd this Administration as a Prophet the same Prophet did invest with the same Administration the Sanhedrim and not the Priests and so dos our Commonwealth the Senat and not the Clergy They who had the supreme Administration or Government of the National Religion in Athens were the first ARCHON the Rex Sacrificus or High Priest and a Polemarch which Magistrats were ordain'd or elected * * Per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the holding up of hands in the Church Congregation or Comitia of the People The Religion of Lacedemon was govern'd by the Kings who were also High Priests and officiated at the Sacrifice these had power to substitute their Pythii Embassadors or Nuncios by which not without concurrence of the Senat they held intelligence with the Oracle of APOLLO at Delphos And the Ecclesiastical part of the Commonwealth of Rome was govern'd by the Pontifex Maximus the Rex Sacrificulus and the Flamins all ordain'd or elected by the People the Pontifex by the ††Tributis Tribes the King by the ‖ ‖ Centuriatis Centurys and the Flamins by the ‖ ‖ ‖ ‖ Curiatis Comitiis Parishes I do not mind you of these things as if for the matter there were any parallel to be drawn out of their Superstitions to our Religion but to shew that for the manner antient Prudence is as well a rule in divine as human things nay and such a one as the Apostles themselves ordaining Elders by the holding up of hands in every Congregation have exactly follow'd for som of the Congregations where they thus ordain'd Elders were those of Antioch Iconium Lystra Derbe the Countrys of Lycaonia Pisidia Pamphylia Perga with Attalia Now that these Citys and Countrys when the Romans propagated their Empire into Asia were found most of them Commonwealths and that many of the rest were indu'd with like power so that the People living under the protection of the Roman Emperors continu'd to elect their own Magistrats is so known a thing that I wonder whence it is that men quite contrary to the universal proof of these examples will have Ecclesiastical Government to be necessarily distinct from Civil Power when the Right of the Elders ordain'd by the holding up of hands in every Congregation to teach the People was plainly deriv'd from the same Civil Power by which they ordain'd the rest of their Magistrats And it is not otherwise in our Commonwealth where the Parochial Congregation elects or ordains its Pastor To object the Common-wealth of Venice in this place were to shew us that it has bin no otherwise but where the Civil Power has lost the liberty of her Conscience by imbracing Popery as also that to take away the Liberty of Conscience in this Administration from the Civil Power were a proceding which has no other precedent than such as is Popish Wherfore your Religion is settled after the following manner the Universitys are the Seminarys of that part which is national by which means others with all safety may be permitted to follow the Liberty of their own Consciences in regard that however they behave themselves the ignorance of the unlearned in this case cannot lose your Religion nor disturb your Government which otherwise it would most certainly do and the Universitys with their Emoluments as also the Benefices of the whole Nation are to be improv'd by such Augmentations as may make a very decent and comfortable subsistence for the Ministry which is neither to be allow'd Synods nor Assemblys except upon the occasion shewn in the Universitys when they are consulted by the Council of State and suffer'd to meddle with Affairs of Religion nor to be capable of any other public Preferment whatsoever by which means the Interest of the Learned can never com to corrupt your Religion nor disturb your Government which otherwise it would most certainly do Venice tho she dos not see or cannot help the corruption of her Religion is yet so circumspect to avoid disturbance of her Government in this kind that her Council procedes not to election of Magistrats till it be proclaim'd Fora Papalini by which words such as have consanguinity with red Hats or relation to the Court of Rome are warn'd to withdraw If a Minister in Holland meddles with matter of State the Magistrat sends him a pair of Shoes wherupon if he dos not go he is driven away from his charge I wonder why Ministers of all men should be perpetually tampering with Government first because they as well as others have it in express charge to submit themselves to the Ordinances of men and secondly because these Ordinances of men must go upon such political Principles as they of all others by any thing that can be found in their Writings or Actions least understand whence you have the suffrage of all Nations to this sense that an ounce of Wisdom is worth a pound of Clergy Your greatest Clercs are not your wisest men and when som foul Absurdity in State is committed it is common with the French and even the Italians to call it Pas de Clerc or Governo da Prete They may bear with men that will be preaching without study while they will be governing without Prudence My Lords if you know not how to rule your Clergy you will most certainly like a man that cannot rule his Wife have neither quiet at home nor honor abroad Their honest Vocation is to teach your Children at the Schools and the Universitys and the People in the Parishes and yours is concern'd to see that they do not play the shrews of which parts dos consist the Education of your Commonwealth so far as it regards Religion The Ins of Court and Chancery TO JUSTICE or that part of it which is commonly executive answers the Education of the Ins of Court and Chancery Upon which to philosophize requires a peculiar kind of Learning that I have not But they who take upon them any Profession proper to the Educations mention'd that is Theology Physic or Law
or at least som one of the Jethronian Courts THEY us'd also to confer this Ordination som time occasionally and for a season in this manner Receive the gift of judiciary Ordination Maimon Tit. San. cap. 4. or the right of binding and loosing till such time as you return to us in the City Where the Christian Jews still following their former Customs in higher matters as the observation of the Sabbath and of Circumcision even to such a degree that PAUL not to displease them took TIMOTHY and circumcis'd him seem to me to have follow'd this custom who when the Prophets at Antioch had inform'd them that PAUL and BARNABAS were to be separated to an extraordinary work laid their hands upon them and sent them away for otherwise Acts 13. 3. as to Ordination PAUL and BARNABAS had that before at least PAUL by ANANIAS and for any such Precept in the Christian Religion Acts 9. 17. there was none JOSEPHVS PHILO and other Authors that tell us the Commonwealth of Israel was an Aristocracy look no farther than the introduction of the Chirothesia by the Presbyterian Party which must have taken date som time after the Captivity or the restitution of the Commonwealth by EZRA there being not one syllable for it in Scripture but enough to the contrary seeing God introduc'd the Chirotonia By which it is demonstrable that a Presbyterian Party may bring a Popular Government to Oligarchy and deface even the work of God himself so that it shall not be known to after ages as also that Ecclesiastical Writers for such are the Talmudists may pretend that for many hundred years together as Divines also have don to be in Scripture which neither is nor ever was there But have I yet said enough to shew that Ordination especially as in this Example not of a Clergy but of a Magistracy whether by the Chirotonia or Chirothesia is a Political Institution or must I rack my brains for Arguments to prove that an Order or a Law having such influence upon the Commonwealth that being introduc'd or repeal'd it quite alters the whole frame of the Government must needs be of a political nature and therfore not appertain to Divines or to a Clergy but to the Magistrat unless their Traditions may be of force to alter the Government as they please All is one they can abate nothing of it let what will com of the Government the Chirothesia they must and will have Then let them have Monarchy too or Tyranny for one of these according as the balance happens to stand with or against their Chirothesia is the certain consequence either Tyranny as in Israel or Monarchy as in the Papacy and from that or the like Principle in all Book II Gothic Empires which Examples to begin with Israel well deserve the pains to be somwhat more diligently unfolded ALL Elections in Israel save those of the Priests who were eligible by the Lot being thus usurp'd by the Presbyterian Party and the People by that means devested of their Chirotonia som three hundred years before CHRIST HILLEL Senior High Priest and Archon or Prince of the Sanhedrim found means to draw this Power of Ordination in shew somwhat otherwise but in effect to himself and his Maimon Tit. San. cap. 4. Chirothesia for by his influence upon the Sanhedrim it was brought to pass that wheras formerly any man ordain'd might in the manner shewn have ordain'd his Disciples it was now agreed that no man should be ordain'd without the License of the Prince and that this Power should not be in the Prince but in the presence of the Father of the Sanhedrim or Speaker of the House Thus the Aristocracy of Israel becoming first Oligarchical took according to the nature of all such Governments long steps towards Monarchy which succeding in the Asmonean Family commonly call'd the Maccabees was for their great merit in vindicating the Jews from the Tyranny of ANTIOCHUS confirm'd to them by the universal consent and Chirotonia of the People Nevertheless to him that understands the Orders of a Commonwealth or has read the Athenian Lacedemonian or Roman Story it will be plain enough that but for their Aristocracy they needed not to have bin so much beholden to or to have stood so much in need of one Family It is true both the merit of these Princes and the manner of their free Election by the People seem to forbid the name of Tyranny to this Institution but so it is that let there be never so much Merit in the Man or Inclination of the People to the Prince or the Government that is not founded upon the due balance the Prince in that case must either govern in the nature of a Commonwealth as did those of this Family reforming the policy after the Lacedemonian Model or turn Tyrant as from their time who liv'd in the Age of the Grecian Monarchy did all their Successors till under the Romans this Nation became a Province From which time such Indeavors and Insurrections they us'd for the recovery of their antient Policy that under the Emperor ADRIAN who perceiv'd at what their Ordination being not of Priests but of Magistrats and of a Senat pretending to Soverain Judicature and Authority seem'd to aim there came says the Talmud against the Israelites an Edict out of the Kingdom of the Wicked meaning the Roman Empire wherby whosoever should ordain or be ordain'd was to be put to death and the School or City in which such an Act should be don to be destroy'd wherupon Rabbi JEHUDA BEN BABA lest Ordination should fail in Israel went forth and standing between two great Mountains and two great Citys and between two Sabbathdays journys from Osa and Sephara ordain'd five Presbyters For this Feat the Rabbi is remember'd by the Talmudists under the name of Ordinator but the same as it follows being discover'd by the Roman Guards they shot his Body thro with so many Darts as made it like a Sive Yet staid not the business here but so obstinat continu'd the Jews in the Superstition to which this kind of Ordination was now grown that wheras by the same it was unlawful for them to ordain in a foren Land and at home they could not be brought to abstain the Emperor banish'd them all out of their own Country whence happen'd their total Dispersion That of a Chap. 4 thing which at the first was a mere delusion such Religion should com in time and with education to be made that not only they who had receiv'd advantage could suffer Martyrdom but they that had lost by it would be utterly lost for it were admirable in the case of this People if it were not common in the case of most in the World at this day Custom may bring that to be receiv'd as an Ordinance of God for which there is no color in Scripture For to consult MAIMONIDES a little better upon this point Wheras says he they grant in case it
Halac San. C. 4. S. 11. should happen that in all the Holy Land there remain'd but one Presbyter that Presbyter assisted by two other Israelites might ordain the seventy or great Sanhedrim and the Sanhedrim so constituted might constitute and ordain the lesser Courts I am of opinion that were there no Presbyter in the Land yet if all the Wise Men of Israel should agree to constitute or ordain Judges they might do it lawfully enoug But if so then how coms it to pass that our Ancestors have bin so solicitous lest Judicature should fail in Israel Surely for no other cause than that from the time of the Captivity the Israelites were so dispers'd that they could not upon like occasions be brought together Now I appeal whether the clear Words of MAIMONIDES where he says that our Master MOSES ordain'd the Sanhedrim by the Chirothesia be not more clearly and strongly contradicted in this place than affirm'd in the other since acknowleging that if the People could assemble they might ordain the Sanhedrim he gives it for granted that when they did assemble they had power to ordain it and that MOSES did assemble them upon this occasion is plain in Scripture Again if the power of Ordination falls ultimatly to the People there is not a stronger argument in Nature that it is thence primarily deriv'd To conclude the Chirothesia of the Presbyterian Party in Israel is thus confess'd by the Author no otherwise necessary than thro the defect of the Chirotonia of the People which Ingenuity of the Talmudist for any thing that has yet past might be worthy the imitation of Divines IN tracking the Jews from the restitution of their Commonwealth after the Captivity to their dispersion it seems that the later Monarchy in Israel was occasion'd by the Oligarchy the Oligarchy by the Aristocracy and the Aristocracy by the Chirothesia but that this Monarchy tho erected by magnanimous and popular Princes could be no less than Tyranny deriv'd from another Principle that is the insufficiency of the balance For tho from the time of the Captivity the Jubile was no more in use yet the Virgin MARY as an Heiress is affirm'd by som to have bin marri'd to JOSEPH by virtue of this Law Every Daughter that possesses an Inheritance in any Tribe of the Children of Israel Numb 27. 8. shall be Wife to one of the Family of the Tribe of her Fathers c. By which the Popular Agrarian may be more than suspected to have bin of greater vigor than would admit of a well-balanc'd Monarchy THE second Presbytery which is now attain'd to a well balanc'd Empire in the Papacy has infinitly excel'd the pattern the Lands of Italy being most of them in the Church This if I had leisure might be track'd by the very same steps At first it consisted of the seventy Parish Priests or Presbyters of Rome now seventy Cardinals creating to themselves a High Priest or Prince of their Sanhedrim the Pope but for the Superstition wherto he has brought Religion Book II and continues by his Chirothesia to hold it a great and a Reverend Monarch establish'd upon a solid Foundation and governing by an exquisit Policy not only well balanc'd at home but deeply rooted in the greatest Monarchys of Christendom where the Clergy by virtue of their Lands are one of the three States THE Maxims of Rome are profound for there is no making use of Princes without being necessary to them nor have they any regard to that Religion which dos not regard Empire All Monarchys of the Gothic Model that is to say where the Clergy by virtue of their Lands are a third estate subsist by the Pope whose Religion creating a reverence in the People and bearing an aw upon the Prince preserves the Clergy that else being unarm'd becom a certain Prey to the King or the People and where this happens as in HENRY the Eighth down gos the Throne for so much as the Clergy loses falls out of the Monarchical into the Popular Scale Where a Clergy is a third Estate Popular Government wants Earth and can never grow but where they dy at the root a Prince may sit a while but is not safe nor is it in nature except he has a Nobility or Gentry able without a Clergy to give balance to the People that he should subsist long or peaceably For wherever a Government is sounded on an Army as in the Kings of Israel or Emperors of Rome there the saddest Tragedys under Heaven are either on the Stage or in the Tiring-house These things consider'd the Chirothesia being originally nothing else but a way of Policy excluding the People where it attains not to a balance that is sufficient for this purpose brings forth Oligarchy or Tyranny as among the Jews And where it attains to a balance sufficient to this end produces Monarchy as in the Papacy and in all Gothic Kingdoms THE Priests of Aegypt where as it is describ'd by SICULUS their Revenue came to the third part of the Realm would no question have bin exactly well fitted with the Chirothesia pretended to by modern Divines Suppose the Apostles had planted the Christian Religion in those Parts and the Priests had bin all converted I do not think that Divines will say that having alter'd their Religion they needed to have deserted their being a third Estate their overbalance to the People their Lands their Preeminence in the Government or any part of their Policy for that and I am as far from saying so as themselves ON the other side as PAUL was a Citizen of Rome let us suppose him to have bin a Citizen of Athens and about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to constitute the Christian Religion in this Commonwealth where any Citizen might speak to the People Imagin then he should have said thus Men of Athens that which you ignorantly seek I bring to you the true Religion but to receive this you must not alter your former Belief only but your antient Customs Your Political Assemblys have bin hitherto call'd Ecclesiae this word must lose the antient sense and be no more understood but of Spiritual Consistorys and so wher as it has bin of a Popular it must henceforth be of an Aristocratical or Presbyterian signification For your Chirotonia that also must follow the same rule insomuch as on whomsoever one or more of the Aristocracy or Presbytery shall lay their hands the same is understood by virtue of that Action to be chirotoniz'd How well would this have sounded in Aegypt and how ill in Athens Certainly the Policy of the Church of CHRIST admits of more Prudence Chap. 5 and Temperament in these things Tho the Apostles being Jews themselves satisfy'd the converted Jews that were us'd to Aristocracy by retaining somwhat of their Constitutions as the Chirothesia yet when PAUL and BARNABAS com to constitute in Popular Commonwealths they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chirotonizing them Elders in every Congregation CHAP. V.
Whether the Chirotonia mention'd in the fourteenth of the Acts be indeed as is pretended by Dr. HAMMOND Dr. SEAMAN and the Authors they follow the same with the Chirothesia or a far different thing In which are contain'd the divers kinds of Church-Government introduc'd and exercis'd in the age of the Apostles EITHER I have impertinently intruded upon the Politics or cannot be said so much to meddle in Church matters as Churchmen may be said to have meddled in State matters For if the Chirotonia be Election by the many and the Chirothesia be Election by one or by the Few the whole difference between Popular and Monarchical Government falls upon these two words and so the question will be Whether the Scriptures were intended more for the advantage of a Prince of a Hierarchy or Presbytery than of the People But that God in the Old Testament instituted the Chirotonia not only in the Commonwealth as by the Election of the Sanhedrim but in the Monarchy as in the Election of the Kings is plain So if there remains any advantage in Scripture to Kings to the Hierarchy or Presbytery it must be in the New Testament Israel was God's chosen People and God was Israel's chosen King That God was pleas'd to bow the Heavens and com down to them was his choice not theirs but in that upon his Proposition and those of his Servant MOSES they resolv'd to obey his Voice and keep his Covenant they chose him their King In like manner the Church is CHRIST'S chosen People and CHRIST is the Church's chosen King That CHRIST taking flesh was pleas'd to bow the Heavens and com down in a more familiar capacity of proposing himself to Mankind was his own choice not theirs but in that the Church upon his Proposition or those of his Apostles sent by him as he was sent by the Father resolv'd to obey his Voice and keep his Covenant she has chosen him her King Whatever in Nature or in Grace in Church or in State is chosen by Man according to the Will of God is chosen by God of whom is both the Will and the Deed. Which things consider'd I wonder at Dr. HAMMOND who says Sure the Jewish and Heathen Citys to whom the Gospel by §. 36. CHRIST'S Command was to be preach'd were not to chuse their Guides or Teachers CHRIST was not chosen by them to whom he preach'd for says he ye have not chosen me He came from Heaven sent by his Father on that Errand and happy they whom he was thus pleas'd to chuse to call Book II and preach to And when his Apostles after his example go and preach to all Nations and actually gather Disciples they chose their Auditors and not their Auditors them To make short work I shall answer by explaining his Words as they fall A ROMAN chusing whether he would speak to the Senat or the People chose his Auditors and not they him Nevertheless if it were the Consul they chose him and not he them It is one thing to be a Speaker to a People that have the liberty when that 's don to do as they think fit and another thing to be a Guide whom the People have consented or oblig'd themselves to follow which distinction not regarded makes the rest of his Argumentation recoil upon himself while he procedes thus And they that give up their Names to the Obedience of the Gospel chose the Preachers as I should think of that Gospel their Guides one branch of this Obedience obliges them by their own consent it seems because before they gave up their Names to observe those that being thus plac'd over them by their consent are plac'd over them by God such not only are their Civil Magistrats who succede to their places by and govern according to the Laws which the People have chosen but also their Pastors whom the Holy Ghost either mediatly according to the Rules of Church Disciplin in Scripture or immediatly upon som such miraculous Call as the People shall judg to be no imposture has set over them From which words the Doctor not considering those Qualifications I have shewn all along to be naturally inherent in them concludes that a Bishop is made by the Holy Ghost and not by the People IF he would stand to this yet it were somthing for if the Holy Ghost makes a Bishop then I should think that the Holy Ghost ordain'd a Bishop and so that the Election and Ordination of a Bishop were all one But this hereafter will appear to be a more dangerous Concession than perhaps you may yet apprehend Wherfore when all is don you will not find Divines at least Dr. HAMMOND to grant that the Holy Ghost can ordain he may elect indeed and that is all but there is no Ordination without the Chirothesia of the Bishops or of the Presbytery Take the Doctor 's word for it § 107. Acts 20. 28. WHEN St. PAUL says of the Bishops of Asia that the Holy Ghost had set them Overseers I suppose that it is to be understood of their Election or Nomination to those Dignitys for so CLEMENT speaks of St. JOHN who constituted Bishops of those that were signify'd by the Spirit where the Spirit 's Signification notes the Election or Nomination of the Persons but the constituting them was the Ordination of St. JOHN GOD may propose as the Electors do to the great Council of Venice but the Power of the Council that is to resolve or ordain is in the Bishop says Dr. HAMMOND and in the Presbytery says Dr. SEAMAN Indeed that Election and Ordination be distinct things is to Divines of so great importance that losing this hold they lose all For as I said before whatever is chosen by Man according to the Will of God that is according to Divine Law whether natural or positive the same whether in State or Church is chosen by God or by the Holy Ghost of whom is both the Will and the Deed. To evade this and keep all in their own hands or Chirothesia Divines have invented this distinction that Election is one thing and Ordination another God may elect but they must constitute that is God may propose but they must resolve And yet GROTIUS who in these things is a great Champion for the Clergy has little Chap. 5 more to say upon this Point than this Whether we consider antient or De Imp. sum Pot. c. 10. §. 31. modern Times we shall find the manner of Election very different not only in different Ages and Countrys but in different years of the same age and places of the same Country so uncertain it is to determin of that which the Scripture has left uncertain And while men dispute not of Right but of Convenience it is wonderful to see what probable Arguments are brought on all sides Give me CYPRIAN and his times there is no danger in popular Election Give me the Nicene Fathers and let the Bishops take it willingly Give me
the Prince or Head of the Sanhedrim receiv'd him in by Imposition of Hands The Government of the Iconians was Popular that of the Jews was Aristocratical therfore the Iconians receiving the Christian Faith were bound to change their Democracy into Aristocracy The Apostles to comply with an Oligarchy had alter'd that Ordination which originally as at the Election of MATTHIAS was popular to Aristocracy therfore being now to plant the Gospel in a free State they might not alter it from Aristocracy to Democracy To please the Jews they might change for the worse therfore to please the Iconians they might not charge for the better Chap. 5 but must tell the People plainly That they were not to dispute but to believe and receive the Institutions as well as Doctrins that were brought them from the Metropolis How would this sound to a People that understood themselves Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas THE right temper of a Metropolitan to whom Popular Power is a Heathen Custom and with whom nothing will agree but Princeing of it in the Senat But with the Apostles it was otherwise who making no words of the Chirothesia where it was needless were glad of this occasion to chirotonize or elect them Elders in every Congregation by Popular Suffrage But this they will say is not to com off from the haunt but to run still upon the People in a common or public capacity Tho the Scripture speaks of great Multitudes believing believe it there is no such thing CLEMENS says they were very few their Assemblys privat and very scanty things As privat as they were by the judgment of Divines they were it seems to receive from their Pattern if that were the Sanhedrim a Form that was public enough and why might not they have receiv'd this from that public Form wherto they were accustom'd rather than from a foren Policy and one contrary to their Customs why should they suffer such Power in new and privat as they would not indure in their old and public Magistrats Or if they receiv'd the Scriptures why should they chuse that Ordination which would fit them worst rather than that which would fit them best that of TIMOTHY rather than that of MATTHIAS Or let their Assemblys have bin never so privat or scanty yet if the Apostles chirotoniz'd them Elders in every Congregation is it not demonstrable that they did receive that of MATTHIAS and not that of TIMOTHY THUS much for the Propagation of the pure or first kind of Ecclesiastical Policy to the Citys of Lycaonia The mix'd or second kind into which the Christian Presbytery delighting to follow the steps of the Jewish the former might soon degenerat continu'd in the primitive Church to speak with the least for WALLEUS brings it down to CHARLES the Great three hundred years after CHRIST which Assertion in Mr. HOBS prov'd out of AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS Dr. HAMMOND has either willingly overseen or includes in this Answer it is most visibly void of all appearance of Truth §. 138. Wherfore to the Quotation mention'd I shall add the words of PLATINA DAMASUS the second by Nation a Bavarian sirnam'd BAGNIARIUS or as som will POPO possess'd himself of the Papacy by force and without consent of the Clergy and of the People Now what can be clearer than that by this place the Clergy and the People had hitherto a right to elect the Pope The Doctor coms near the word of defiance to Mr. HOBS in a matter of fact so apparent to any judgment that I need not add what gos before in the Life of CLEMENT the second where the Emperor ingages the People of Rome not to meddle with the Election of the Pope without his express Command nor what follows after in LEO the Ninth where the whole power of Election was now confer'd by the Emperor upon the Clergy Again VICTOR the Second says the same Author obtain'd the Papacy rather by favor of the Emperor than by free Suffrages of the Clergy and the People of Rome who apprehended the power of the Emperor whose displeasure they had somtime incurr'd by creating Popes So then the People it is clear had hitherto Book II created the Popes The power of Election thus in the whole Clergy came afterwards as at this day to be restrain'd to the Cardinals only and so to devolve into the third kind of Ordination exactly correspondent to the Sanhedrim and their Chirothesia as it was exercis'd among the converted Jews when TIMOTHY was ordain'd by the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery NOW this is that with which of all others Divines are so inamor'd that they will not indure it should be said there is any other It is also propitious above all the rest to Monarchy as that which according to the inherent nature or impotence of Oligarchy must have a Prince at home or abroad to rest upon or becom the inevitable Prey of the People Herein lys the Arcanum or Secret of that Antipathy which is between a Clergy and a Popular Government and of that Sympathy which is between the Miter and the Crown A Prince receiving a Clergy with the Monopoly of their Chirothesia has no more to do than to make a Metropolitan by whom he governs them and by them the People especially if he indows them with good Revenues for so they becom an Estate of his Realm and a more steddy Pillar of his Throne than his Nobility themselves who as their dependence is not so strong are of a more stirring nature This is the Gothic Model from whence we had our Pattern and in which No Bishop no King THUS for the dignity of Ecclesiastical Policys whether in Scripture or Human Prudence Popular Government you see is naturally inclin'd to the very best and the spiritual Aristocracy to the very worst It is also remarkable that the Political Balance extends it self to the decision of the question about Ordination For as a People never offer'd to dispute with a well-balanc'd Clergy so a Clergy dismounted never gain'd any thing by disputing with the People As to the question of Empire or Government I propheti disarmati Rovivano the Apostles became all things to all His own words to Mr. Hobs. §. 122. THVS beyond all measure improsperous are this Divine'sVndertakings against Mr. HOBS and theVndertakings of Divines upon this Subject Advertisment to the Reader or Direction to the Answerer THE Answer of this Book must ly in proving that the Apostles at the several times and places mention'd introduc'd but one way of Ordination and that the same to which Divines now pretend or if the Apostles divided that is to say introduc'd divers ways of Ordination then the People or Magistrat may chuse I HAVE taken the more leisure and pains to state I think all the Cases of Controversy that can arise out of the Commonwealth of Oceana as you have seen in these two Books to the end I may be no more oblig'd to
the People which concurring make a Law The Magistracy BUT the Law being made says LEVIATHAN is but Words and Paper without the Hands and Swords of Men wherfore as those two Orders of a Commonwealth namely the Senat and the People are Legislative so of necessity there must be a third to be executive of the Laws made and this is the Magistracy in which order with the rest being wrought up by art the Commonwealth consists of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing wherby partaking of the Aristocracy as in the Senat of the Democracy as in the People and of Monarchy as in the Magistracy it is complete Now there being no other Commonwealth but this in Art or Nature it is no wonder if MACCHIAVEL has shew'd us that the Antients held this only to be good but it seems strange to me that they should hold that there could be any other for if there be such a thing as pure Monarchy yet that there should be such a one as pure Aristocracy or pure Democracy is not in my understanding But the Magistracy both in number and function is different in different Commonwealths Nevertheless there is one condition of it that must be the same in every one or it dissolves the Commonwealth where it is wanting And this is no less than that as the hand of the Magistrat is the executive Power of the Law so the head of the Magistrat is answerable to the People that his execution be according to the Law by which LEVIATHAN may see that the hand or sword that executes the Law is in it and not above it The Orders of a Commonwealth in experience as that NOW whether I have rightly transcrib'd these Principles of a Commonwealth out of Nature I shall appeal to God and to the World To God in the Fabric of the Commonwealth of Israel and to the World in the universal Series of antâ—ent Prudence But in regard the same Commonwealths will be open'd at large in the Council of Legislators I shall touch them for the present but slightly beginning with that of Israel Of Israel THE Commonwealth of Israel consisted of the Senat the People and the Magistracy THE People by their first division which was genealogical were contain'd under their thirteen Tribes Houses or Familys wherof the firstborn in each was Prince of his Tribe and had the leading of it Numb 1. the Tribe of LEVI only being set apart to serve at the Altar had no other Prince but the High Priest In their second division they were divided locally by their Agrarian or the distribution of the Land of Josh ch 13 to ch 42. Canaan to them by lot the Tithe of all remaining to LEVI whence according to their local division the Tribes are reckon'd but twelve The People THE Assemblys of the People thus divided were methodically gather'd by Trumpets to the Congregation which was it should seem Numb 10. 7. of two sorts For if it were call'd by one Trumpet only the Princes of the Tribes and the Elders only assembl'd but if it were call'd Numb 10. 4. with two the whole People gather'd themselves to the Congregation Numb 10. 3. for so it is render'd by the English but in the Greec it is call'd Ecclesia Judg. 20. 2. or the Church of God and by the Talmudist the great Synagog The word Ecclesia was also antiently and properly us'd for the Civil Congregations or Assemblys of the People in Athens Lacedemon and Ephesus where it is so call'd in Scripture tho it be otherwise render'd Acts 19. 23. by the Translators not much as I conceive to their commendation seeing by that means they have lost us a good lesson the Apostles borrowing that name for their spiritual Congregations to the end that we might see they intended the Government of the Church to be Democratical or Popular as is also plain in the rest of their Constitutions THE Church or Congregation of the People of Israel assembl'd in a military manner and had the result of the Commonwealth or Judg. 20. 2. the power of confirming all their Laws tho propos'd even by God Exod. 19. himself as where they make him King and where they reject or depose him as Civil Magistrat and elect Saul It is manifest 1 Sam. 8. 7. that he gives no such example to a Legislator in a popular Government as to deny or evade the power of the People which were a contradiction but tho he deservedly blames the ingratitude of the People in that action he commands SAMUEL being next under himself Supreme Magistrat to hearken to their Voice for where the suffrage of the People gos for nothing it is no Commonwealth and comforts him saying They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them But to reject him that he should not reign over them was as Civil Magistrat to depose him The Power therfore which the People had to depose even God himself as he was Civil Magistrat leaves little doubt but that they had power to have rejected any of those Laws confirm'd by them throout the Deut. 29. Scripture which to omit the several parcels are generally contain'd under two heads those that were made by Covenant with the People in the Land of Moab and those which were made by Covenant with the People in Horeb which two I think amount to the whole body of the Israelitish Laws But if all and every one of the Laws of Israel being propos'd by God were no otherwise enacted than by Covenant with the People then that only which was resolv'd by the People of Israel was their Law and so the result of that Commonwealth was in the People Nor had the People the result only in matter of Law Josh 7. 16. Judg. 20. 8 9 10. 1 Sam. 7. 6 7 8. 1 Chron. 13. 2. 2 Chron. 30. 4. Judg. 11. 11. 1 Sam. 10. 17. 1 Mac. 14. Exod. 9. 3 4 5. Josh 7. 1 Sam. 10. but the Power in som cases of Judicature as also the right of levying War cognizance in matter of Religion and the election of their Magistrats as the Judg or Dictator the King the Prince which functions were exercis'd by the Synagoga magna or Congregation of Israel not always in one manner for somtimes they were perform'd by the suffrage of the People vivâ voce somtimes by the Lot only and at others by the Ballot or by a mixture of the Lot with the Suffrage as in the case of ELDAD and MEDAD which I shall open with the Senat. The Senat. THE Senat of Israel call'd in the Old Testament the seventy Elders and in the New the Sanhedrim which word is usually translated the Numb 11. Council was appointed by God and consisted of Seventy Elders besides Deut. 1. MOSES which were at first elected by the People but in what Numb 11. manner is rather
he dos not only give you his judgment but the best proof of it for this says he was the first thing that after so many misfortunes past made the City again to raise her head The place I would desire your Lordships to note as the first example that I find or think is to be found of a popular Assembly by way of Representative LACEDEMON consisted of thirty thousand Citizens dispers'd throout Laconia one of the greatest Provinces in all Greece and divided as by som Authors is probable into six Tribes Of the whole body of these being gather'd consisted the great Church or Assembly which had the Legislative Power the little Church gather'd somtimes for matters of concern within the City consisted of the Spartans only These happen'd like that of Venice to be good Constitutions of a Congregation but from an ill cause the infirmity of a Commonwealth which thro her paucity was Oligarchical WHERFORE go which way you will it should seem that without a Representative of the People your Commonwealth consisting of a whole Nation can never avoid falling either into Oligarchy or Confusion THIS was seen by the Romans whose rustic Tribes extending themselves from the River Arno to the Vulturnus that is from Fesâ—lâ— or Florence to Câ—pua invented a way of Representative by Lots the Tribe upon which the first fell being the Prerogative and som two or three more that had the rest the Jure vocatae These gave the Suffrage of the Commonwealth in * * Binis Comitiis two meetings the Prerogative at the first Assembly and the Jure vocatae at a second NOW to make the parallel all the Inconveniences that you have observ'd in these Assemblys are shut out and all the Conveniences taken into your Prerogative For first it is that for which Athens shaking off the blame of XENOPHON and POLYBIUS came to deserve the praise of THUCYDIDES a Representative And secondly not as I suspect in that of Athens and is past suspicion in this of Rome by lot but by suffrage as was also the late House of Commons by which means in your Prerogatives all the Tribes of Oceana are Jure vocatae and if a man shall except against the paucity of the standing number it is a wheel which in the revolution of a few years turns every hand that is fit or fits every hand that it turns to the public work Moreover I am deceiv'd if upon due consideration it dos not fetch your Tribes with greater equality and ease to themselves and to the Government from the Frontiers of Marpesia than Rome ever brought any one of hers out of her Pomâ—ria or the nearest parts of her adjoining Territorys To this you may add That wheras a Commonwealth which in regard of the People is not of facility in execution were sure enough in this Nation to be cast off thro impatience your Musters and Galaxys are given to the People as milk to Babes wherby when they are brought up thro four days election in a whole year one at the Parish one at the Hundred and two at the Tribe to their strongest meat it is of no harder digestion than to give their Negative or Affirmative as they see cause There be gallant men among us that laugh at such an Appeal or Umpire but I refer it whether you be more inclining to pardon them or me who I confess have bin this day laughing at a sober man but without meaning him any harm and that is PETRUS CUNAEUS where speaking of the nature of the People he says that taking them apart they are very simple but yet in their Assemblys they see and know somthing and so runs away without troubling himself with what that somthing is Wheras the People taken apart are but so many privat Interests but if you take them together they are the public Interest The public Interest of a Commonwealth as has bin shewn is nearest that of mankind and that of mankind is right reason but with Aristocracy whose Reason or Interest when they are all together as appear'd by the Patricians is but that of a Party it is quite contrary for as taken apart they are far wiser than the People consider'd in that manner so being put together they are such fools who by deposing the People as did those of Rome will saw off the branch wherupon they sit or rather destroy the root of their own Greatness Wherfore MACCHIAVEL following ARISTOTLE and yet going before him may well assert * * Che la multitudine è piu savia piu constante che un Prencipe That the People are wiser and more constant in their Resolutions than a Prince which is the Prerogative of popular Government for Wisdom And hence it is that the Prerogative of your Commonwealth as for Wisdom so for Power is in the People which tho I am not ignorant that the Roman Prerogative was so call'd à Praerogando because their Suffrage was first ask'd gives the denomination to your Prerogative Tribe THE Elections whether Annual or Triennial being shewn by the twenty second that which coms in the next place to be consider'd is 23. Order The Constitution Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative THE twenty third ORDER shewing the Power Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative Tribe THE Power or Function of the Prerogative is of two parts the one of Result in which it is the Legislative Power the other of Judicature in which regard it is the highest Court and the last appeal in this Commonwealth FOR the former part the People by this Constitution being not oblig'd by any Law that is not of their own making or confirmation by the result of the Prerogative their equal Representative it shall not be lawful for the Senat to require obedience from the People nor for the People to give obedience to the Senat in or by any Law that has not bin promulgated or printed and publish'd for the space of six weeks and afterwards propos'd by the Authority of the Senat to the Prerogative Tribe and resolv'd by the major Vote of the same in the Affirmative Nor shall the Senat have any power to levy War Men or Mony otherwise than by the consent of the People so given or by a Law so enacted except in cases of Exigence in which it is agreed that the Power both of the Senat and the People shall be in the Dictator so qualify'd and for such a term of time as is according to that Constitution already prescrib'd While a Law is in promulgation the Censors shall animadvert upon the Senat and the Tribuns upon the People that there be no laying of heads together no Conventicles or canvassing to carry on or oppose any thing but that all may be don in a free and open way FOR the latter part of the Power of the Prerogative or that wherby they are the Supreme Judicatory of this Nation and of the Provinces of the same the cognizance of
drawn departed but he to whose name a Prize was drawn or given forth became a Magistrat THEY who had thus gain'd Magistracy were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Psephisma decreed to be together of the number of the seventy Elders But wheras in the Urn of Magistracys there were two Blanks two that had bin written Competitors must of necessity have fail'd of Magistracy So ELDAD and MEDAD being of them that were Numb 11. 26 written Competitors by the Tribes yet went not up to the Tabernacle that is attain'd not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numbred among the seventy who were to sit in the Court of the Tabernacle as afterwards they did in the Pavement or stone-Chamber in the Court of the Temple IN this place I shall mind you but once more of the three Words in controversy MOSES the Legislator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituted the People chirotoniz'd and that which they had chirotòniz'd was Psephisma their Decree THERE be in these times that are coif'd with such Opinions that to shew Scripture to be Reason is to make it lose weight with them and to talk of the Talmudists is to profane it Of these I shall only desire to know how they understand that place of ELDAD and MEDAD for if they can no otherwise make sense of it than as Book II I have don it is a sufficient proof letting the Talmudists go of all that I have said What therfore has the Hierarchy and the Presbytery for their opinion that the Sanhedrim was instituted by the Chirothesia or Imposition of Hands THERE is in the Old Testament no mention of laying on of Hands by way of Ordination or Election but only by MOSES in the designation of JOSHUA for his Successor and in this MOSES did first as ROMULUS afterwards in the Election of the Prefect or Protector of Rome but upon a far greater exigence for the Common-wealth of Rome when ROMULUS did the like was seated or planted but the Commonwealth of Israel when MOSES did this was neither seated nor planted nor indeed a Commonwealth but an Army design'd to be a Commonwealth Now between the Government that is necessary to an Army and that which is necessary to a Common-wealth there is a vast difference The Government even of the Armys of Rome when she was a Commonwealth was nevertheless Monarchical in this regard MOSES himself exercis'd a kind of Dictatorian Power for his life and the Commonwealth being not yet planted nor having any Balance wherupon to weigh her self must either have bin left at his death to the care of som Man whom he knew best able to lay her Foundation or to extreme hazard Wherfore this Ordination which was but accidental regarding the present military condition of the People MOSES most prudently distinguishes from the other in that he shew'd them how they should manage their Commonwealth in this he bequeaths them the Man whom he thinks the most likely to bring them to be a Commonwealth of which judgment and undertaking of MOSES JOSHUA the next illustrious Example most worthily acquitted himself THERE is in these Elections another remarkable passage but such a one as being so far from political that it is supernatural dos not properly appertain to this discourse and so I shall but point at it When the Elders thus chosen were set round about the Tabernacle Numb 11. 24 25. the Lord came down in a cloud and took of the spirit of MOSES and gave it unto the seventy Elders and it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them they prophesy'd and did not cease So JOSHUA Deut. 34. 9. ◠Tim. 1. 6. was full of the spirit of Wisdom for MOSES had laid his hands upon him And PAUL minds TIMOTHY Stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands But the Talmudists themselves do not pretend that their Ordination was further accompany'd with supernatural indowments than the first Institution and if Divines were as ingenuous no less might be acknowleg'd of theirs MOSES was a Prophet the like to whom has not bin in Israel and has there bin an Apostle like PAUL in the Christian Church Every body cannot do Miracles we see they can't Take heed how you deny Sense for then bread may be flesh If we be not to make choice of a political Institution without a miraculous test or recommendation either Ordination was at first accompany'd with supernatural Gifts and from thenceforth as I conceive neither Divines methinks as such should not be so much concern'd in the Ordination of the Sanhedrim or of JOSHUA who were Magistrats as the People or the Magistrat yet if these should hence infer that their Election Ordination or Designation of persons confer'd supernatural Gifts Divines would hardly allow of it and why are the People or the Magistrat oblig'd to allow more to that of a Clergy To return Chap. 3 SUCH as I have shewn was the Ordination of the Senat or great Sanhedrim that of the lesser Sanhedrim or inferior Courts was of like nature for it follows I took the chief of your Tribes wise men and Deut. 1. 15. known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made them Heads over you Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds c. which were other Magistrats than according to our custom we should readily expect to be intimated by such words for they were the Judges of the inferior Courts those that sat in the gates of each City and others that appertain'd to the Villages as in the next Verse And I charg'd your Judges at that Ver. 10. time saying Hear the Causes and judg righteously THE next Magistrat whose Election coms to be consider'd is the Dictator or Judg of Israel Where it is said of this People that the Lord rais'd them up Judges which deliver'd them out of the hands of Judg. 2. 16. De Rep. Heb. those that spoil'd them it is to be understood says SIGONIUS that God put it into the mind of the People to elect such Magistrats or Captains over them For example when the Children of Ammon made war against Israel God rais'd up JEPHTHA whose Election was after this manner The Elders went to fetch JEPHTHA out of the Land of Judges 11. Tob and when they had brought him to Mizpeh which in those days was the place where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Congregation of Israel usually assembl'd the People made him Head and Captain over them Now that the Election of the King was as much in the Chirotonia of the People as that of the Judg is past all controversy seeing the Law speaking of the People says thus One from among thy Brethren shalt Deut. 17. 15. thou set King over thee and accordingly when the Government was chang'd to Monarchy it was not SAMUEL but the People that would have it so thus SAUL was chosen King by the Lot Where the contradiction of GROTIUS is remarkable who in this place
THEODOSIUS VALENTINIAN and CHARLES the Great than Royal Election there is nothing safer Upon the heels of these Words treads Dr. HAMMOND in this manner §. 104 That Election and Ordination are several things is sufficiently known to every man that measures the nature of Words either by usage or Dictionarys only for the convincing of such as think not themselves oblig'd to the observation of so vulgar Laws I shall propose these evidences In the Story of the Creation of the Deacons of Jerusalem there are two Acts 6. things distinctly set down one propos'd to the multitude of Disciples to be don by them another reserv'd to the Apostles that which was propos'd to the Multitude was to elect c. Election of the Persons was by the Apostles permitted to them but still the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituting is reserv'd to the Apostles Then coms Dr. SEAMAN Be it granted as it Of Ordinat p. 13. is by Protestants generally that PAUL and BARNABAS made Elders with the consent of the People their Consent is one thing and their Power another WHERE in the first place I for my particular who have had the Books of Dr. HAMMOND and Dr. SEAMAN sent to me by way of Objection need not go a step further All that I have inserted in my Oceana concerning Ordination is in these three Votes acknowledg'd and confirm'd For the Probationer to be there sent by a University to a Cure that is vacant may by a Doctor or the Doctors of the same University already ordain'd receive Imposition of Hands if that be thought fit to be added and then the Election of the same Probationer by the People dos no hurt nay says GROTIUS is of De Imp. c. 10 the right of Nature for it is naturally permitted to every Congregation to procure those things which are necessary to their conservation of which number is the Application of Function So Merchants have the right of electing of a Master of their Ship Travellers of a Guide in their way and a free People of their King The Merchant it seems dos not make the Master of his Ship the Traveller his Guide nor the free People their King but elect them As if VAN TRUMP had bin Admiral a Robber upon the Highway had bin a Scout or the Guide of an Army or SAUL a King before they were elected The point is very nice which instead of proving he illustrats in the beginning of the same Chapter by these three similitudes THE first is this The Power of the Husband is from God the Application of this Power to a certain Person is from consent by which nevertheless the right is not given for if this were by consent the Matrimony might be dissolv'd by consent which cannot be As if an apparent retraction of Matrimonial Consent as when a Wife consents to another than her own Husband or commits Adultery did not deliver a man from the bond of Marriage by the Judgments of CHRIST There is an imperfection or cruelty in those Laws which make Marriage to Book II last longer than a man in humanity may be judg'd to be a Husband or a Woman a Wife To think that Religion destroys Humanity or to think that there is any defending of that by Religion which will not hold in Justice or natural Equity is a vast error THE second Similitude is this Imperial Power is not in the Princes that are Electors of the Empire wherfore it is not given by them but applied by them to a certain Person 1 Pet. 2. 13. THIS is answer'd by PETER where he commands Obedience to every Ordinance of Man or as som nearer the Original every Power created by men whether it be to the Roman Emperor as Supreme or to the Proconsuls of Asia and Phrygia as sent by him for this is the sense of the Greec and thus it is interpreted by GROTIUS Now if the then Roman Emperor were a Creature of Man why not the now Roman Emperor THE last Similitude runs thus The Power of Life and Death is not in the Multitude before they be a Commonwealth for no privat Man has the right of Revenge yet it is appli'd by them to som Man or Political Body of Men. But if a man invades the Life of another that other whether under Laws or not under Laws has the right to defend his own Life even by taking away that if there be no other probable Remedy of the Invader So that men are so far from having bin voâ—d of the power of Life and Death before they came under Laws that Laws can never be so made as wholly to deprive them of it after they com under them wherfore the power of Life and Death is deriv'd by the Magistrat from and confer'd upon him by the consent or Chirotonia of the People wherof he is but a mere Creature that is to say an Ordinance of Man THUS these Candles being so far from lighting the House that they dy in the Socket GROTIUS has bin no less bountiful than to grant us that the People have as much right where there is no human Creature or Law to the contrary to elect their Churchmen as Merchants have to elect their Seamen Travellers their Guides or a free People their King which is enough a conscience Nor is Dr. HAMMOND straiter handed Election says he was permitted by the Apostles to the Multitude and therfore the same may be allow'd always provided the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituting be reserv'd to the Pastors or ordain'd Doctors and Preachers And Dr. SEAMAN upon condition the People will not say that it was don by their power but think it fair that it was don by their consent is also very well contented So all stands streight with what I have heretofore propos'd Let no man then say whatever follows that I drive at any Ends or Interests these being already fully obtain'd and granted nevertheless for truth sake I cannot leave this Discourse imperfect If a Politician should say that the Election and the Ordination of a Roman Consul or Pontifex were not of like nature that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contract of the Senat of Rome with the People in the Livy Election of NUMA ut cum populus regem jussisset id sic ratum esset si patres autores fierent included or impli'd the Soverain power to be in the Fathers that the Consent of this People was one thing and their Power another if I say he should affirm these or the like in Athens Lacedemon or any other Commonwealth that is or has bin under the Sun there would be nothing under the Sun more ridiculous than that Politician But should men pretending to Government of any kind be not oblig'd to som consideration of these Rules in Nature Chap. 5 and universal Experience yet I wonder how the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to constitute with which they make such a flourish did not lead them otherwise than they follow
so numerous that they began to be call'd Christians Chap. 5 there were among them Prophets so being assembl'd on occasion as I conceive of giving an extraordinary Commission after the manner of the people of Athens when they elected Ambassadors or that I may avoid strife upon a point so indifferent to chuse two new Apostles The Holy Ghost said Separat me BARNABAS and SAUL for the Work wherto I have appointed them that is for so it is render'd by all Interpreters the Holy Ghost spake those words by the mouths of the Prophets Now the Prophets being well known for such this Suffrage of theirs was no sooner given than as one that can allow Prophets to be leading men may easily think follow'd by all the rest of the Congregation So the whole multitude having fasted and pray'd the most eminent among them or the Senatorian Order in that Church laid their hands upon PAUL and BARNABAS who being thus sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed to Seleucia TO evade this apparent Election or Chirotonia of the whole Congregation wherby these Apostles or Ambassadors to the Churches of the Gentils were ordain'd Divines have nothing to say but that they were elected by the Holy Ghost As if the Chirotonia of the People were more exclusive to election by the Holy Ghost than the Chirothesia of the Aristocracy for which in the mean time they contend But if neither of these were indeed exclusive of the Holy Ghost how is it possible in this frame where tho of natural necessity an Aristocracy must have bin included yet the Aristocracy is not in the Text so much as distinguish'd from the People or once nam'd that the Power and so the Ordination should not have bin in the People The Council of the Apostles of the Elders and of the whole Church at Jerusalem and other Councils not of Apostles nor of the whole Church in other times or places us'd this form in their Acts It seems good to the Holy Acts 15. 22. Ghost and to us But dos this whether a true or a pretended stile exclude that Act from being an Act of that whole Council Or how coms it to pass that because PAUL and BARNABAS were separated by the Holy Ghost they were not ordain'd by the Chirotonia of the whole Christian People at Antioch THE Chirothesia can be no otherwise understood in nature nor ever was in the Commonwealth of the Jews than Election by the few And so even under the mere Chirothesia Ordination and Election were not two but one and the same thing If MOSES ordain'd JOSHUA his Successor by the Chirothesia he elected JOSHUA his Successor by the Chirothesia and for what reason must it be otherwise with the Chirotonia That a Pharisee could do more with one hand or a pair of hands than a Christian Church or Congregation can do with all their hands is a Doctrin very much for the honor of the true Religion and a soverain Maxim of Ecclesiastical Policy Third way of Ordination in the Church of Christ THE third Constitution of Church-Government in Scripture whether consisting of Bishops or Presbyters between which at this time a man shall hardly find a difference runs wholly upon the Aristocracy without mention of the People and is therfore compar'd by GROTIUS to the Sanhedrim of Israel as that came to be in these Grot. ad 1 Tim. 4. 14. days from whence Divines also generally and truly confess that it was taken up to which I shall need to add no more than that it is an Order for which there is no Precept either in the Old Testament of God or in the New Testament of Christ This therfore thus taken up by the Book II Apostles from the Jews is a clear demonstration that the Government of the Church in what purity soever of the Times nay tho under the inspection of the Apostles themselves has bin obnoxious to that of the State wherin it was planted The Sanhedrim from the institution of the Chirothesia for a constant Order consisted of no other Senators than such only as had bin ordain'd by the Imposition of Hands which came now to be confer'd by the Prince in the presence or with the assistance of the Sanhedrim The same Order was Grot. ad Mat. 19. 13. observ'd by the Jewish Synagogues of which each had her Archon nor would the Jews converted to the Christian Faith relinquish the Law of MOSES wherto this way of Ordination among other things tho erroneously was vulgarly attributed whence in the Church where it consisted of converted Jews Ordination was confer'd by the Archon or first in order of the Presbytery with the assistance of the rest Hence PAUL in one place exhorts TIMOTHY thus 1 Tim. 4. 14. Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And in another thus 2 Tim. 1. 6. Wherfore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the Gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands I GRANT Divines that Ordination by this time was wholly in the Presbytery what say they then to the distinction of Ordination and Election Are these still two distinct things or may we hence at least compute them to be one and the same If they say Yes why then might they not have bin so before If they say No who in this place but the Presbytery elected Why says Dr. HAMMOND §. 106. it is plain that the Spirit of Prophecy elected But to give account of no more than is already perform'd were the spirit of History rather than of Prophecy to which it appertains to tell things before they be don as did the Prophets now living in this Church that TIMOTHY should com to be ordain'd So the place is interpreted by GROTIUS and how it should be otherwise understood I cannot see But putting the case som Act preceded as SAUL and DAVID were elected Kings by Prophecy yet did ever man say that for this SAUL or DAVID were any whit the less elected Kings by the People To the contrary in every well-order'd Commonwealth a Jove principium the disposing of the Lot and of the Suffrage too has universally bin attributed to God THE Piety of Divines in persuading the People that God elects §. 134. for them and therfore they need not trouble themselves to vote is as if they should persuade them that God provides their daily Bread and therfore they need not trouble themselves to work To conclude this point with Dr. HAMMOND'S own words upon the same occasion this distinction of Ordination and Election is in Divines the procreative §. 111. Mistake or Ignorance producing all the rest THE reason why PAUL ordain'd now after this manner among the Jews is to me an irrefragable argument that he ordain'd not after this manner among the Gentils for wheras the first Ordination in the Christian Church namely that of MATTHIAS was
perform'd by the Chirotonia which by degrees came now in complacence with the Jews to the Chirothesia it seems he was contented not to alter the worst of political Institutions or Customs where he found them confirm'd by long and universal Practice and if so why should any man think that he would go about to alter or weed out the best where they had taken like root That this Administration of the Jews was Chap. 5 of the very worst is clear in the nature of the Politics there being no example of a pure Aristocracy or of a Senat such as was now the Sanhedrim without a popular balance that ever govern'd with Justice or was of any continuance Nor was the Chirothesia by which means this work came to effect in Israel introduc'd by the prudence of God but by the corrupt arts of Men. Now that the Governments at the same time of the Gentils all balanc'd by the Chirotonia of the People were in their nature more excellent and indeed more accommodated to antient Prudence as it was introduc'd by God himself in the Commonwealth of Israel has bin already sufficiently prov'd nevertheless to refresh your memory with one example more CRETE having bin as is affirm'd by the Consent of Authors the most antient and the most excellent Commonwealth in human Story was founded by RHADAMANTHUS and MINOS an Age before the Trojan War These were held to have learnt their Arts by familiar Discourse with JUPITER and from point to point to have fram'd their Model according to his direction Nor tho all acknowlege MINOS to have bin a King did he found his Government upon any other than a popular Balance or a fundamental regard to the Liberty of the People For the whole Commonwealth was made up of these three Epitome of the Common-wealth of Crete parts the College the Senat and the People The College consisted of the annual Magistrats call'd the Cosmi these had the whole extentive Power som in leading forth the Armys and others in judging the People which Functions were accordingly assign'd by the Orders to each in particular That which was common to them all was to propose such things as they had debated or prepar'd in their College or Council to the Senat. The Senat being elective for life was the Council to which appertain'd the Debate of whatever was to be propos'd to the Congregation The Congregation or Assembly of the People of Crete had not the right of Debate but in enacting of Laws and election of Magistrats had the ultimat Result of the Commonwealth Such was the Copy after which LYCURGUS wrote himself so famous a Legislator And thus stood this Frame to the six hundred and eighth year of Rome when this People having bin too favorable to Pirats then infesting those Seas turn'd the Arms of the Romans upon themselves and by these under the conduct of QUINCTUS METELLUS thence call'd CRETICUS Crete was made a Province tho the chief Citys being first freed it should seem by CICERO'S second Oration against Antony that the whole Iland was at length restor'd to her antient Liberty However by the manner observ'd by the Romans as was shewn in Provincial Government the Citys under their Magistrats who while the Common-wealth was a Province perhaps might have exercis'd the Office of the Cosmi were not yet depriv'd of their Popular Assemblys at least in their distinct Citys electing all Magistrats for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiar or domestic Government Such was the State of Crete when PAUL having appeal'd from the Jews to CAESAR and being therupon conducted by Sea towards Rome touch'd in his way upon this Iland where he left TITUS to constitute Elders in every City The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constitute our Divines will have to signify ordain by Imposition of Hands and Imposition of Hands to signify an act of Power excluding the People But why PAUL who among the Jews had compli'd with their Customs should injoin or how TITUS had it bin so Book II injoin'd should accomplish this where the Power was Popular they have not shewn nor consider'd To introduce Religion or Government there be but two ways either by persuasion or by force To persuade the people of Crete in whom was the Power to this new way of Ordination TITUS must have spoken to this effect Men of Crete MINOS being a King could not chuse but have a natural inclination to popular Power wherfore his pretence that JUPITER told him Power was to be in the People may be suspected to have bin imagin'd merely for his own ends or this is a certain sign that JUPITER is no true but a feign'd God seeing the true God will have it that the People should have no Power at all but that such upon whom his Ambassadors shall confer power be without all dispute obey'd How are you starting at this are you solicitous for your Commonwealth It is true that upon carnal principles or human prudence without Power in the People there can be no Common-wealth but Israel was a Commonwealth without power in the People where MOSES made all the Laws by the power invested in him by God and created all the Magistrats not by popular suffrage but by his Chirothesia Wherfore Men of Crete know ye that on whomsoever I lay my hands the same is in all spiritual Affairs or matters of Church-Government to be obey'd by you after the same manner that you have hitherto obey'd such Magistrats or Priests as have bin ordain'd by your own Election or Chirotonia Of what other nature the Arguments of TITUS to the pretended purpose could have bin I am not able to imagin nor how this should have don less than provoke the People to a dangerous jealousy of such a Doctrin But Divines to set all streight think it enough to repeat the words of PAUL to TITUS in Greec Tit. 1. 5. De Corond For this cause left I thee in Crete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou shouldst ordain Elders in every City It is true that DEMOSTHENES speaks somwhat like words concerning the Expedition of PHILIP of Macedon in Peloponnesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he had ordain'd Tyrants in every City but then PHILIP had an Army what Army did PAUL leave with TITUS Or if he ordain'd his Elders neither of these two ways I see no other than that only by the known and legal Chirotonia or Suffrage of the People But if this be clear the Clergy com from Crete not upon the Wings of TITUS but of ICARUS whose ambitious Wax is dissolv'd by the Sun SO much I conceive is now discover'd concerning Church-Government as may shew that it was not of one but of three kinds each obnoxious to the nature of the Civil Government under which it was planted in as much as the Chirotonia or Ballot of Israel being first introduc'd pure and without any mixture as at the Ordination of MATTHIAS came afterwards to receive som mixture of the Chirothesia
Liberty of the People which sense also is imply'd by their upbraiding him in Scripture Is it a small thing that thou hast Numb 16. 13. brought us up out of the Land that flows with Milk and Hony to kill us in the Wilderness except thou makest thy self altogether a Prince over us But wheras the Scripture in all this presumes these Incendiarys to have That Moses was no King bely'd MOSES som will have all they thus laid to his charge to be no more but less than truth in as much as they will needs have MOSES not only to have bin a King but to have bin a King exercising Arbitrary Power and such Arbitrary Power as being without any bounds fully amounts to Tyranny Sect. 2 That Moses propos'd his Laws to the People and their Suffrage THE word King is not a sufficient definition of the Magistrat so stil'd Between a Lacedemonian King and a Persian King or between either of these and a King of England there was a vast difference Both the Kings in Lacedemon were but as one Duke in Venice The Venetians therfore if it had so pleas'd them might as well have call'd their Duke a King Certainly it is that he is not so much in the Commonwealth as are a few of his Counsillors and yet all Acts of the Government run in his name as if there were no Common-wealth Deut. 34. 4. In what sense Moses may be call'd a King IT is said according to our Translation MOSES commanded us a Law c. according to the Original MOSES propos'd or gave us a Law which is an Inheritance to the Congregation of JACOB The Duke of Venice has a right to propose or give Law in the Congregation or great Council of Venice where he who sees him sitting would believe he were a King And if MOSES were King in Jesurun Ver. 5. or Israel it was when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gather'd together PAUL epitomizing the story of the Acts 13. People of Israel in his Sermon to the Antiochian Jews shews how God chose their Fathers exalted the People destroy'd for their sakes seven Nations in the Land of Canaan and divided their Land to them by Lots but speaks not a word of any King given to them till expresly after their Judges But if MOSES were a King yet that he did not propose but command by his power the Laws which he gave to Israel dos not follow For DAVID was a King who nevertheless did no otherwise make any Law than by Proposition to the People and their â— Chron. 13. free Suffrage upon it DAVID consulted with the Captains of thousands and hundreds and with every Leader of which Military Disciplin of the Congregation of Israel more in due place will be shewn and DAVID said to all the Congregation If it seems good to you and that it be of the Lord our God tho he was a King and a man after God's own heart he makes the People Judges what was of God let us send abroad to our Brethren every where that are left in all the Land of Israel and with them also to the Priests and Levits that are in their Citys and Suburbs that they to the end this thing may be perform'd with the greatest solemnity may gather themselves to us and let us bring the Ark of God to us for we inquir'd not at it in the days of SAUL 1 Sam. 4. In the days of ELI the Ark was taken by the Philistins who being smitten till there was a deadly destruction throout all the City and their Divines attributing the cause therof to the detention of the Ark after seven months sent it to Bethshemesh whence it was brought to Kirjath-jearim and there lodg'd in the house of AMINADAB before SAUL was King where it remain'd till such time as DAVID propos'd in the manner shewn to the People the reduction of the same Upon this Proposition the People giving Suffrage are unanimous Chap. 1 in their result All the Congregation said that they would do so not 1 Chron. 13. 4. that they could do no otherwise by a King for they did not the like by REHOBOAM but that the thing was right in the eys of all the People Moreover DAVID and the Captains of the Host separated to Chap. 25. the Service som of the Sons of ASAPH and of HEMAN and of JEDUTHUN who should prophesy with Harps with Psalterys and with Cymbals that is propos'd these Laws for Church Disciplin or Offices of the Priests and Levits to the same Representative of the People of which more in other places Thus much in this to shew that if MOSES were a King it dos not follow that he propos'd not his Laws to a Congregation of the People having the power of Result To say that the Laws propos'd by MOSES were the Dictat of GOD is not to evade but to confirm the necessity of proposing them to the People seeing the Laws or Dictats of GOD or of CHRIST can no otherwise be effectually receiv'd or imbrac'd by a People or by a privat man than by the free suffrage of the Soul or Conscience and not by Force or Rewards which may as well establish the Laws of the Devil That there lay no appeal from the 70 Elders to Moses Numb 11. 16. BUT for another way such a one as it is of crowning MOSES Sect. 3 som are positive that there lay an appeal from the seventy Elders to Him Now the Command of God to MOSES for the institution of the Seventy is this Gather to me seventy men of the Elders of Israel that they may stand with thee Upon which words let me ask whether had MOSES thenceforth a distinct or a joint political Capacity If the Seventy stood with MOSES or it were a joint Capacity then MOSES was no King in their sense and if it were distinct then lay there to MOSES no appeal even by his own Law for thus in the case of Appeals it is by him directed If there arises a Controversy too Deut. 6. hard for thee in Judgment thou shalt com to the Priests and Levits that is to the seventy Elders According to the sentence of the Law which they shall tell thee thou shalt do And the man that will do presumtuously and will not hearken even that man shall dy In which words all color of appeal from the seventy Elders is excluded BUT whether MOSES were a King or no King either his Sect. 4 Power was more than that of King DAVID or without proposition to and result of the People it is plain that he could pass no Law Now the Senat Sanhedrim or seventy Elders came in the place of MOSES or stood with him therfore their Power could be no more than was that of MOSES So that if the Power of MOSES were never more in the point of Lawgiving than to propose to the People then the power of the Sanhedrim
introduc'd by Christ into his Church Matth. 19. 28. WE do not find that CHRIST who gave little countenance to Sect. 1 the Jewish Traditions ordain'd his Apostles or Disciples by the imposition of hands his Apostles were twelve whom he compares to the twelve Princes of the Tribes of Israel and his Disciples were seventy in which number it is receiv'd by Divines that he alluded to the seventy Elders or Sanhedrim of Israel So thus far the Government of the Church instituted by CHRIST was according to the form instituted by MOSES But CHRIST in this form was King and Priest not after the institution of MOSES who separated the Levits to the Priesthood but as before MOSES when the Royal and Priestly Vid. Grotium videat Grotius in Epist ad Hebraeos Function were not separated and after the order or manner of MELCHISEDEC who came not to the Priesthood by proving his Pedegree as the High Priest in Israel by Father or as the King Priest in Athens by Mother but without Father and Mother Or be what has bin said of MELCHISEDEC approv'd or rejected such for the rest as has bin shewn was the form introduc'd by CHRIST into his Church The first way of Ordination Acts 1. CHRIST being taken up into Heaven his Disciples or Followers Sect. 2 in Jerusalem increas'd to about one hundred and twenty names and the Apostles decreas'd by one or by JUDAS who was gon to his place PETER whether upon the Counsil or Determination of the eleven Apostles as is most probable beforehand or otherwise stood up and spoke both to the Apostles and Disciples assembl'd upon this occasion That one out of the present Assembly might be ordain'd an Apostle and they that is the Congregation or why was this propos'd to them appointed two by Suffrage for how otherwise can an Assembly appoint These were BARSABAS and MATTHIAS which Names being written in scrols were cast into one Urn two Lots wherof one was a blank and the other inscrib'd with the word Apostle being at the same time cast into another Urn. Which don they pray'd that God would shew which of the Competitors by them so made he had chosen when they had thus pray'd they gave forth their Lots that is a scrol out of the one Urn and then a name to that scrol out of the other Urn and the Lot fell upon MATTHIAS or MATTHIAS was taken wherupon MATTHIAS was number'd or rather decreed with the eleven Apostles For * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psephisma being a word which properly derives from such Stones or Pebbles as popular Assemblys of old were wont to ballot with or give suffrage by not only signifys a Decree but especially such a Decree as is made by a popular Assembly Now if this was Ordination in the Christian Church and of Apostolical Right then may there be a way of Ordination in the Christian Church and of Apostolical Right exactly conformable to the Ballot or way us'd by MOSES in the institution of the seventy Elders or Sanhedrim of Israel Book II AFTER the conversion of som thousands more most if not all Sect. 3 of which were Jews a People tho converted yet so tenacious of their The second way of Ordination Acts 4. 4. Laws and Customs that even Circumcision hitherto not forbidden by the Apostles was continu'd among them the twelve Apostles call'd the multitude of Disciples to them So MOSES when he had any thing Acts 6. to propose assembl'd the People of Israel And when the twelve had thus call'd the Disciples they said Look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom we may appoint over this business So MOSES said to the Congregation of Israel Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you And the saying of the Apostles pleas'd the whole multitude So the People of Israel were wont to answer to MOSES The thing which thou sayst is good for us to do This saying of the Apostles being thought good by the whole multitude the whole multitude elected seven men whom they set before the Apostles and when they had pray'd they laid their hands on them To say in this place as they do that the Act of the People was but a Presentation and that the Apostles had power to admit or refuse the Persons so presented is as if one should say That the act of electing Parlament men by the People of England was but a Presentation and that the King had power to admit or refuse the Persons so presented And seeing the Deacons henceforth had charge of the Word to say that by this choice the Deacons receiv'd not the charge of the Word but the care to serve Tables is as if one should say That Parlament men by their Election receiv'd only the care to levy Mony or Provision for the King's Table but if upon such Election they debated also concerning Laws that Power they receiv'd from the King only BUT if this was a way of Ordination in the Christian Church and of Apostolical Right then there may be a way of Ordination in the Christian Church and of Apostolical Right consisting in part of the Orders of the Israelitish Commonwealth and in part of the Orders of the Jewish Commonwealth Sect. 4 The third way of Ordination 1 Tim. 4. 14. LASTLY PAUL writing to TIMOTHY concerning his Ordination has in one place this expression Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophesy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery So the Presbytery of a Jewish Synagog laid their hands on 2 Tim. 1. 6. the Party ordain'd And in another place he has this expression Stir up the Gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands So the Ruler of a Jewish Synagog did lay his hands also on the Party ordain'd Moreover the Apostle in these words The Gift that is in thee by laying on of hands tho in relation to Gifts beyond comparison more excellent uses the Phrase known upon the like occasion to have bin common with the Jews Wherfore if this were a way of Ordination in the Christian Church and of Apostolical Right then may there be a way of Ordination in the Christian Church exactly conformable to the Jewish Commonwealth and yet be of Apostolical Right Nor is it so strange that the Apostles in matters of this nature should comply with the Jews of which so many were converted seeing it is certain that not only the Apostles but all such as in these times were converted did observe the Jewish Sabbath nay and that PAUL himself took TIMOTHY and circumcis'd him because of the Jews that is to comply with them or to give them no offence Nor do our Divines any where pretend imposition of hands to be deriv'd from CHRIST but unanimously confess that it was taken up by the Apostles from the
Jewish Sanhedrim The Providence of God in the different way of Apostolical Ordination NOW in these several ways of Ordination there is a most remarkable Sect. 5 Providence of God For wheras States and Princes in receiving of Religion are not at any point so jealous as of an incroachment upon their Power the first way of Apostolical Ordination destroys Monarchical Power the last wholly excludes the Power of the People and the second has a mixture which may be receiv'd by a Commonwealth or by a Monarchy But where it is receiv'd by a Commonwealth the imposition of hands coms to little and where it is receiv'd by a Monarchy the Election of the People coms to nothing as may be farther consider'd in the original and progress of the Conge d' Elire THE ways of Ordination or of Church Government lying thus in Scripture the not receiving of the Christian Religion is not that wherof any State or Prince thro the whole world can be any ways excusable The Conclusion Shewing that neither GOD nor CHRIST or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Vses of this Book TO sum up this second Book in the Uses that may be made of it Sect. 1 Certain it is of the Greec and Roman Storys that he who has not som good Idea or Notion of the Government to which they relate cannot rightly understand them If the like holds as to the Scripture Story som light may be contributed to it by this Book Again if som gifted Men happening to read it should chance to be of the same judgment it is an Argument for acquir'd Learning in that for the means of acquir'd Learning and in the means of acquir'd Learning for Universitys For how little soever this performance be had it not bin the fashion with the English Gentry in the breeding of their Sons to give them a smack of the University I should not have don so much The present use of this Book BUT letting these pass If there were Commonwealths or Governments Sect. 2 exercising Soverain Power by the Senat and the People before that of Israel as namely Gibeon If the inferior Orders and Courts in Israel as those instituted by MOSES after the advice of JETHRO a Heathen were transcrib'd out of another Government tho Heathen as namely that of Midian If the order of the Church introduc'd by CHRIST in his twelve Apostles and his seventy Disciples were after the pattern of Israel namely in the twelve Princes of the Tribes and the seventy Elders If there were three distinct ways of Ordination introduc'd by the Apostles one exactly according to the Ballot of Israel as namely in the Ordination of MATTHIAS another exactly according to the way of the Jewish Sanhedrim or Synagog as namely that of TIMOTHY and a third compos'd of these two as namely that of the Deacons Then is it a clear and undeniable result of the whole That neither GOD nor CHRIST Book II or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Sect. 3 The Consequence of this Vse AN Observation of such consequence as where it has bin rightly consider'd there the truth of Religion and of Government once planted have taken root and flourish'd and where it has not bin rightly heeded there has Religion or the pretence of it bin the hook and the line and the State the prey of Impostors and false Prophets as was shewn in the hypocritical Pharises for ever stigmatiz'd by the word of Truth AND for Might let her be never so much exalted in her self let her Sword be never so dreadfully brandish'd the Government not founded upon Reason a Creature of God and the Creature of God whose undoubted right in this part is by himself undeniably avow'd and asserted is a Weapon fram'd against God and no Weapon fram'd against God shall prosper Sect. 4 A transition to the next Book THE Principles of Human Prudence and in them the Art of Lawgiving being shewn in the first Book and vindicated throout the whole course of Scripture by this second I com in the third to shew a Model of Government fram'd according to the Art thus shewn and the Principles thus vindicated THE THIRD BOOK CONTAINING A MODEL OF Popular Government Practically propos'd according to Reason confirm'd by the Scripture and agreable to the present Balance or State of Property in England The PREFACE Containing a Model of Popular Government propos'd Notionally THERE is between the Discourses of such as are commonly call'd Natural Philosophers and those of Anatomists a large difference the former are facil the latter difficult Philosophers discoursing of Elements for example that the Body of Man consists of Fire Air Earth and Water are easily both understood and credited seeing by common Experience we find the Body of Man returns to the Earth from whence it was taken A like Entertainment may befal Elements of Government as in the first of these Books they are stated But the fearful and wonderful making the admirable structure and great variety of the parts of man's Body in which the Discourses of Anatomists are altogether conversant are understood by so few that I may say they are not understood by any Certain it is that the delivery of a Model of Government which either must be of no effect or imbrace all those Muscles Nerves Arterys and Bones which are necessary to any Function of a well order'd Commonwealth is no less than political Anatomy If you com short of this your Discourse is altogether ineffectual if you com home you are not understood you may perhaps be call'd a learned Author but you are obscure and your Doctrin is impracticable Had I only suffer'd in this and not the People I should long since have left them to their humor but seeing it is they that suffer by it and not my self I will be yet Book III more a fool or they shall be yet wiser Now coms into my head what I saw long since upon an Italian Stage while the Spectators wanted Hoops for their sides A Country fellow came with an Apple in his hand to which in a strange variety of faces his Teeth were undoubtedly threaten'd when enter'd a young Anatomist brimful of his last Lesson who stopping in good time the hand of this same Country fellow would by no means suffer him to go on with so great an Enterprize till he had first nam'd and describ'd to him all the Bones Nerves and Muscles which are naturally necessary to that motion at which the good man being with admiration plainly chopfallen coms me in a third who snatching away the Apple devour'd it in the presence of them both If the People in this case wherof I am speaking were naturally so well furnish'd I had here learn'd enough to have kept silence but their eating in the political way of absolute necessity requires the