That God would divide him a portion with the great and that by these his Deputies swords he himself should divide the spoil with the strong that is when he shall have made his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed meaning more especially these his adopted Sons and by means of their ministration he shall prolong his days that is in exercise of temporal Kingship And thereby the pleasure of the Lord concerning the Churches temporal salvation and glory as well as eternal shall prosper in his hands So that the Apostles mistake in the forementioned demand was in the time and season of Christs more majestick appearance in the exercise of Kingly power in this kingdom of the Church by God given him and not in the true right he had thereunto Their mistake also was in fixing their thoughts too strictly on the Jewish Nation as if Israel in the litteral sense and not the whole Church had been the Kingdom to be thus dignified and advanced by his Government These mistakes they were also the rather led into in regard of those many promises made in particular to the Jewish Nation and also for that those promised blessings were always exemplified under the person of David whose natural son they knowing our Saviour to be it made them to expect he should thereupon be himself the executioner and undertaker thereof and so to be actually seated in the Throne of his father David as it was before promised to the blessed Virgin Yet if they had withal considered that other prediction concerning our Saviour made to Joseph namely that he should save his people from their sins they would not then have gone about to make the execution of his Office of temporal Jesuship precipitately to defeat that other his Office of saving souls But our Saviour that knew best his appointed time and manner for performance of these offices executed first the higher and greater work in his own person and leaves the other to be brought about and executed by Substitutes anointed under him He upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins and sate down at the right hand of Majesty on high In which regard although every member of his Church were equally his seed and equal to one another in reference to that Mediatorship which was consummated in his own person without other future assistance save that of the Holy Ghost yet in regard of the Prophetick and Kingly part or the part of Instruction and Government which was to be compleated by Humane deputation they were again severally dignified and differenced one from another and so might be unequally esteemed his seed as they stood in that respect nearer in relation unto him for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of â—he body of Christ. And as this difference is to be observed that we be not like children without a Father carried to and fro of every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive so is it to last till Christs second coming that we come to the stature of the fulness of Christ. So that the glory of the Church this Kingdom of God given unto Christ being to arise by these means and degrees it is the reason of that petition of Thy kingdom come Which importing no doubt its encrease and prosperity here in order to have his name more hallowed and honored thereby may be well interpreted to signifie our desire that this Church may arise at such a degree and state of eminence that it may be proportionable in splendor and dignity to admit the true Idea and Platform of Regiment used by God himself Not as if the measure of Gods Omnipotent power should be then encreased but that the manner of execution thereof in the Church should be also more conform namely That his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven For although before it Christs Will and Law for the matter of them was as truly if not more performed in the Apostles time and by the primitive Church then afterwards no otherwise then in the Jewish Church Gods service was generally more unstained before Kings then afterwards yet as amongst them the accomplishment of Gods aim and promise of having a place to put his name in was made the object of their desires as therewith importing their own promised happiness also so in the Christian Church you may find reason why it should be commanded us to conform our desires to that of Gods and that besides the matter of our own inward devotions and charity whereby we severally and privately performed his will we should desire the manner of performance of it to be outwardly glorious and uniform also that it may answer as near as may be that ready service which Angels do in heaven For if we hallow and glorifie his name and do also acknowledge his power and kingdom on earth as it is in heaven we shall no doubt then best do his will in earth as it is in heaven Whereupon concluding also that the first petition of hallowing Gods name is to be explained also on earth as it is in heaven because we have no need nor warrant to doubt or wish the doing it in Heaven it is farther evident that the petition of Kingdom come must relate to the Churches future prosperity according to whose splendor and greatness God himself and his Kingdom may be rightly said to be more or less come or present amongst us even as he is more or less majestically râ—presented in the eminence of that officer which is substituted with his authority And therefore we being to ascribe all kingdom power and glory unto him without wresting from him the right of his everlasting kingdom amongst men we may explain this petition of Thy kingdom come in our Gospel precept of prayer by that petition of the Jewish Churches prosperity included in their injunction To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Both they and we being thereby obliged to continual duty of praying for the encrease and glory of his Church and that not only when it is weak but although flourishing we are to pray for the continuance and encrease thereof And that it may the better so do we are to make prayers and supplications for such as shall be chiefly instrumental therein that is for Kings and all that are in Authority This our commanded Petition pointing at the glory and encrease of the Church and particularly under Kingship may also well be understood as proportioned and answering the many Gospel-Promises made to that purpose and those particular promises also heretofore made to Abraham and other the Church Fathers and Founders namely that their encrease of race and posterity should be crowned with the blessing of Kingship also as we have formerly noted So that besides the expression of our
and aim apart was before I discoursed of the other These I have treated of under two sorts of Pleasure one of Sence in degree common to him with other sensitives the other of Honor his intellectual pleasure and in a manner proper to him above them all Then although I concluded politick happiness or aim under two kindes that of Peace and that of Plenty yet of the first of these and how it may be best attained my present undertaking is onely intended For as life exceeds nay is indeed the subject of all other temporal enjoyments so peace in holy Scripture is usually taken as inclusive of all other blessings To this end I first shew how most of Gods Precepts and particularly those of the Decalogue aim at Peace by their express directions and by strict and often Admonitions to obedience Afterwards I shew the politick way of effecting it namely Unity and by mens submitting their differing desires amongst themselves unto the definitive sentence of one This is first shewed in the less Government of a Family to one Master and next in a Kingdom to one Soveraign all which are the Arguments of the first book After these just forms of Government I shall speak of its contrary Anarchy or breach of Unity and that as well in its birth and strugling condition called Faction and Rebellion as in its setled condition of counterseit Unity in Aristocraties and Democraties And because encouragements to Sedition and Rebellion have been taken from the deceivable notions of Liberty Tyranny Slavery Property Law and Justice Publike good Trust and Paction Councellors and Magistrates c. my next attempt is to declare and examine them and those Arguments drawn from them according to their several Chapters and Titles being not otherwise definitve then to that purpose Then I speak of the right of Dominion as it stands founded on natural example and practise to satisfie some scruples and to prevent such objections as might 〈◊〉 arise thereabout and these I make the subject of the second book The third Book is wholly spent in stating the case of Government and Obedience according to Precepts and directions drawn from Religion Under which Title as I have endeavoured to make Obedience appear Duty by Conscience as well as Reason so I would not have it expected I should undertake any methodical delivery of the body of Divinity or make any farther in road thereinto then what may serve to uphold direct the building it self Even to shew how that which is originally and was by God mostly intended and given as a tye to humane preservation and peace through interest and ignorance may be and is in these latter days too often made destructive thereof by such as under one pretence or another are despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignity and Government the most necessary means for procuring it and are everywhere so ready to kill men in a mistaken zeal of doing God good service And although that Treatise be distinguished into Chapters as intending to have had my Arguments and discourses for the Readers and mine own better help and case enclosed and directed by some method yet being therein to make use of many Texts of Scripture which besides the purpose they were exprsly brought in for did contain also farther evidence in the proof of many assertions delivered in several discourses foregoing It cannot therefore be expected that I should be always true and proper to those titles Yet if I shall be found in needless Tautologies and Repetitions I shall acknowledge them to be things as probably to be expected from my weakness as I hope they are pardonable through my strength of zeal to settle publike good by agreement on whose behalf I have ever conceived it better to erre in saying too much then too little In the mean time I am not ignorant of the prevalence of repetition it self especially in a popular Address where prejudice and contrary belief hath grown more from itreration and pressur◠of Doctrine then weight of Reason And therefore as I have purposely interwoven my Discourses with variety to encourage men to read notwithstanding such general prepossession so have I caused the same assertions many times to enter the Stage anew in a dress suitable to the present scaene For many truths may be insinuated by degrees which prejudice or ignorance would not suffer to enter all at once By which means I may also happily light on the instruction of some who like impatient spirits not able to fit out the whole Play may yet be won to the relishing of the main Plot by those Reasons which the Preface or that part they light on should afford For although it may well be expected at the hands of that Architect that is to erect a building with Timber already framed that he not onely observe exact method in the raising and setling the same but also that those pins which he shall make use of for joyning and fastening his work may be both for number so certain and also for place so setled that they are not to be removed Yet can it not be presumed that he that fells those Trees whereof these Tymbers and pins were made or he that cleaves a knotted log should be so regular and determinate in his strokes but must be forced to make often use of the same wedges again according as he shall finde those knots and stonds of his work occasionally to lye in his way He also that undertakes to compleat and adorn any building whose foundation is sound and good hath most of his skill depending upon the sightliness of his work Whereas he that is to rip up the whole Fabrick for amendment of the groundwork taking away of some decayed principles must expect his commendation from ingenuous strict and more judicious inquiry and not from the eye of the present beholder Lastly that I may have something of Ethical foundations as well as Oeconomical and Political I have in my fourth and last book considered each man in his inclinations apart to see if any Government may be found to keep him in order without fear or constraint In which many things not very pertinent hereto are put in to give light unto some discourses foregoing and to entertain the Reader with some variety after so long a discourse in a confined Argument Which being many of them but as snacht pieces from other studies where the gradations of Nature had been more Mathematically examined towards some such discoveries as were requisite to mans happy life as he stood naturally and unsubordinately considered so I have here put them down to serve as helps to the composing of those differences which have all this while been a hinderance unto them Being in good hope from that fair progress towards a right settlement in Government and equal way way of justice which already appears to be in a short time restored to an ability for proficience in those more Mechannick essays which the avarice and
so often and so expresly warranted thereby as given from God the Fountain of power and on the contrary settle it on such devised Orders and Degrees as neither for number or office had direct Authority or Example from thence But it is usual with the opposers of Monarchy to take their advantage against the evidence of Texts of this kinde as in Civil matters men are wont to do against those they contend with about any property or title For if they know the letter and plain sense of the Law run on the side of him they oppose they then finde no such ready way for his defeat as to entitle the King or some eminent superior thereunto Even so shall we finde Kings now adays used in the interpretation of many of those places of Scripture which make so plainly on their side that is when the power and perpetuity of this Office is anywhere set forth they then would have the whole sense and scope thereof to imply Christ himself and not this his immediate Deputy By which kinde of proceeding they do by fact evidently prove themselves guilty of that pride and arrogance they would reprehend in another and that it is not Christs honor that is hereby sought otherwise then in order to their own For since they do allow him to have his deputed Officers amongst us for declaration and execution of his Will will it not therefore follow that the greater the honor and power of this person thus substituted is by so much will the honor of Christ whom he doth herein represent be encreased It is not therefore to be believed that subjects of any sort would have thus justled with their Prince for precedence and going next to Christ had they not more considered their own honors to be thereby gained then his to be thereby lost But as the light of Scripture shines undeniably cleer every-where on the face of Monarchy so doth it in record and practise also And therefore we shall finde that when God appears for the setling the first moral Laws for men to live by there was not nor had not been in the world any but Monarchical government setled When again the King of Kings and Prince of Peace Christ himself appears as the old imposters in Oracles became silent so all Republikes and States had hid their heads under one Monarchy or another And that which may be observable in other stories is that the Greeks themselves who in restless wits were the ring leaders in Doctrines and Examples for all these Civil alterations as well as in a manner for all heresies in Religion and upon no other ground then with an affected pride to express their power and freedom in both above the rest of the world who in regard of themselves they stiled barbarous are at this day and so have long continued the examples of highest slavery and oppression in both kindes Besides these high Authorities and Examples that so evidently declare for Monarchy alone I could never tell how to settle my Reason on any other foundation being unable to fancy how Soveraignty could have been divided without dividing Obedience how unity could proceed from plurality aâ—d how Peace could be amongst Subjects when the Peace-makers themselves must be still in danger of variance with one another And farther I could by no means conceive but that proportionably as one man could not serve two Masters with equal duty and respect so on the other side that many Masters could not command or govern one or many servants with equal power and affection And therefore laying down for my ground that as death was the worst of evils to a man as a man and so also that Civil war was the worst of evils to men as sociable it was reason I should seclude these inventions as failing of that main end of Government and reckon them at best but plausible pretenders thereunto And the same reason I must also give for declining that fancyed way of founding Government and Authority on Paction For while Prince and People are hereby put to a continual question what these Pactions were as in a thing of no more evidence it must needs happen there will be produced instead of Peace and Agreement a perpetual ground to intestine dissention and rebellion In the survey of all which or any thing else delivered if any shall make objections of inconveniencies in that degree of arbitrariness I have assigned unto Princes I desire to be understood as not thinking any Government can be by men in this life exercised where no mischiefs shall sometimes happen but leaving that hope till we come to the government of God himself if the inconveniences hence probably arising proceed not from the form but the persons if they be such as are not onely to that but much more to others incident and if after and beside side all it stil appears that this form is onely of divine institution and example and so also more naturally and necessarily procuring peace the end of Government then any other I shall then confess I have arrived at the end of my whole labour which was to settle publike peace and good by obedience to Authority without reflection on the private benefit of any person therein likely to bear sway But being to write in an age wherein all men stand not only divided under that different sense of loyalty which Alexander once wittily observed in his two followers Ephestion and Craterus namely that one loved Alexander the other the King but also being to write in a Nation wherein Monarchy it self stands wholly approved or rejected as the persons therein likely to rule are differently considered as friends or enemies I cannot therefore but expect that from these so different and contrary interests of others these my writings themselves should also be obnoxious to as contrary censures that is of having reflected too much or too little towards the praise or dispraise of that person whom they according to their several engagements would have had more openly commended or disproved Whereas I who from sense of the calamities of our civil broils had been drawn to be of Craterus opinion as the best remedie I could devise thought it neither proper nor reasonable to deliver my self in any Ephestion like expression or to appear as Foe or Advocate to any man but to set down and handle the whole Argument as a Christian Philosopher in a general Treatise and Discourse of government according to Doctrines or Examples drawn from Scripture or Reason without reflection or censure of any one Nation in particular as will easily I hope appear by that which follows A TABLE Of the several Chapters contained in this following TREATISE BOOK I. CHAP. I. OF Deity p. 1. CHAP. II. Of Providence and its rule in general p. 3. CHAP. III. Of particular or self-Providence p. 5. CHAP. IV. Of Government as it stands in natural Reason and it s reputed Original p. 8. CHAP. V. Of each mans private End or Felicity
consent be neâ—â—ssary And therefore those that would wrest those words of humane Creature to import that all kindes of Regiment and power which men exercise one over another is but of humane Authority and institution would make the Apostle contrary to himself for it is plain that he writing to the converted Jews amongst other admonitions to good behavior to observe this of submission to Authority could not be imagined to have made that an Argument thereunto which should have been quite destructive thereof For if the Argument had run thus You are to submit your selves to all such forms of Government as you shall be under inasmuch as they being all but things of humane device and having no power but what they as a new sort of humane Creatures had received from those many deities their own Subjects it is therefore Reason that you should submit your selves unto them for the Lords sake even because your selves as setters of them up have power above them No certainly it is best to interpret humane Creature or Man in the general to imply and be put by way of excellence for man in particular that is for that supreme and eminent person in each Country who as the representer of all men therein had Authority to command every humane creature in his jurisdiction For we are to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man thus vertually and collectively considered and not to every Ordinance of every man else that should take upon him to command us Because this were to confound the persons submitting with those to be submitted unto and to make the injunction useless if to be fulfilled by what we as men did enjoyn to our selves or impossible if bound to submit to every man besides Whereupon we may conceive that by way of pre-occupation those words of humane Creature or humane Ordinance are put in with that latitude by St. Peter Namely the better to fasten their subjection who having had amongst themselves the office and race of their Kings so expresly designed from God himself might else have bogled at the submission to kingship elsewhere as thinking them but of humane device and power And therefore we may interpret him admonishing them who were now to have their conversation honest amongst the Gentiles to be subject to these higher powers although no such express divine designation did so appear but that their offices powers might seem but of humane Creation For they were to know that those powers were of God and that therefore they were to submit themselves for the Lords sake that was the Author of every just derived power Which words for the Lords sake as they may serve to explain the power to be of God however humane device or custom be intervenient so will they serve to restrain the generality of the object of our submission formerly set down by conferring it onely on such as can claim it for the Lords sake namely to Kings as supreme or to governors as sent of him of which more hereafter So that then our submission one to another shall be made good by giving it to our Elders or to such as from the Lord have power to require it even as also the way to honor all men which would have seemed a strange as well as difficult precept is in the same verse explained by Honor the King For by honoring him above other humane Creatures and by honoring others as he appoints I can onely rightly honor all men and give every one their due For as by fearing God above all I give fear to whom fear so by honoring the King I give honor to whom honor So that lastly by this restriction of all humane Ordinance and Authority unto Kings as supreme we may note St. Peter to be explanatory of his brother Paul who in his Epistles as he had many things hard to be understood and which the unlearned and unstable did wrest to their own destruction so this wresting and the damnation or destruction thereupon following was nowhere to be so much feared as by interpreting that those higher Powers he appoints us to be subject unto are but such as are indeed the lowest powers being but such as are ordained of our selves and not such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightfully derived powers from the true I am or original Being himself and so given by him to one Deacon or Minister here below viz. to the King to whom therefore we are to be subject for the Lords sake that is in acknowledgement of Gods power abiding in him so far as to authorize him in this his Office And therefore it will now appear a most unreasonable supposition that any should give what they never had for from whom had the people this power Why should we confound or substract their relation as subjects and instead of a capacity to be governed think they had power of governing Or if they had who was then the governed For take away one relation the other will also fall Or will you suppose in them a vain power that should never be brought into act in them as in the hands it was first put Why should we think God so unnecessary in his dispensations Is it not more agreeable with reason and truth to put this power directly into the hands of the persons that should manage it then by such long deviations first to give it to the people that the people may give it to the Prince that the Prince may again give and make use of it unto and upon the people and all to no other end but by this reciprocal dependency to be at last both of them independent on the true Author of all power which is God himself But this opinion of the Prince his dependent power on the Peoples grows usually from the observation men make of the different powers which Princes have over their Subjects in comparison of one another as thereupon concluding that if this power belong to the Office and to Kings as Kings and that from God who is no respecter of persons but gives to every man and so to Kings what is due and necessary for their callings how comes one King to be less absolute then another Is it not say they from the different stipulations with their people at their Coronations and Elections when by them they are tyed to the observation of such Laws and Customs as do more or less streighten them By which means changing the former Argument about derivation of Kingly power it self into the manner or measure of its execution they think to obtain their conclusion But the Question is not whether the proprietors of any thing by the Law of God or Nature not being particulary restrained may suspend or dispose of part of their rights or not but it is whether Princes be hereof proprietors or not And they that think Princes are impowered from their subjects have their mistake hereof because from these obtrusions or Pactions
vain without them Therefore as the miracles of the Old Testament were occasioned for confirmation of all or part of the Law and the maker thereof so when alteration in that and confirmation of the Gospel was required it was requisite as great or greater should be shewed Till these things were done it was impossible for natural discourse to assent to misteries so much above its reach Nay an infidelity it had been to have departed from truths already so firmly established without higher ground Therefore our Saviour saith If I had not done amongst them those works that never any man did they had not had sin But if when custome and education as in the other example and these of our Saviour to the Jewes was so prevalent as not to give sense the greatest assurance we have leave to discern between truth and falsehood what can be expected from men now living that have onely an historical faith in that case to relye upon For although in each Religion the proof of miracles be brought in as a divine and infalible evidence of its truth yet the truth of their story depending upon the truth of that traditional Doctrine or that Scripture out of which the relation it self is framed it must follow that where difference in these things is not made by reason Religion ordinarily must have its ground and rise from meer education And so however the founders of each religion have left unto their Disciples some set or standing record or written direction both for guidance of their belief and actions yet when the same comes to be taken into credit onely upon the score of tradition and humane authority it will follow that the proof thereof can have in our belief no higher certainty then the evidence of education and authority will bear which was all the premises we made use of to frame this conclusion by But by this means having entertained a ground work in our phancy for beliefe of some principle for our direction and guidance in all things else hence comes the Bible with Christians the Talmud with the Jewes and Alcoran with the Turks to be had in such esteem that what is in them asserted is firmly believed For although to some men there may happen such freedom and ability as sometimes to eâ—quire the foundations of things yet then as it must on the one hand distaste through a plain affront to their judgement setled the other way already so cannot it on the other hand be naturally of avail farther then as true reason can without prejudice be brought to assist in the discovery For without it pretence of divine attestation to be gathered from that particular majesty and elegancy of stile which Mahomet himself and his followers do so much brag of to be found in their Alcoran as an infalible signe that it was delivered by the holy Ghost will be far from carrying the force of demonstration to persons unprejudiced It being most apparent that since thousands have and do dayly read it without any such discovery that this assent of theirs going alwayes along with such and none but such as have in their education had it perpetually inculcated unto them that it was indeed so written can proceed from nothing else but prejudice and prepossession of judgement For they cannot but conceive that if God had intended conviction that way he could have so plainly and efficaciously have done it as that those miracles they put upon him might well have been spared But it is to be considered that although from reading of books containing new argumentations and reasonings men may be altered in their judgement from what they were yet in things delivered Magistrally and by way of authority onely the assent must arise from prepossession For I read not of any Proselites made amongst the Egyptians or others from those translations of the books of several Religions wherewith Ptolomies Library was furnished So that now tradition and authority being the chief evidence it will rest the chief object of enquiry even from the universality soundness and other strength thereof for reason to lay her grounds for future certainty and belief and that not onely in preferring the sacred Scriptures in general above the records of other religions but also in discovery and distinction of the true Cannon thereof from other counterfeit or Apocriphal writings For how else shall he satisfie himself amidst those many disputes that have been from time to time raised in the Church it self and by the prime members thereof what books were true and what forged as well in the Old as in the New Testament which for so great a part of them have been controverted And whilst some of those received have been disputed of how shall he know that those refused might not with more reason have been brought in in their rooms And so again of the particular Chapters and Texts in these books how shall he finde any assurance that amidst those many Heresies that have from time to time gotten such strength in the Church some of them have not been corrupted to serve their turns Which happening but to some will cause all to be suspected for unless those places could be distinguished it may for ought I know happen to be that Book or place of Scripture which I am most to relye upon In which doubts Scripture alone cannot satisfie me For besides that nothing can be an evidence to it self if one book should undertake for attesting the rest that book must still want his attestation it being impossible to be higher or other to us that stand so far removed from evidence of the miracles brought to confirm it then is our confidence of the ability and sincerity of the tradition or those several hands and conveyances by which the record and report hereof hath come unto our hand On which if we will not altogether implicitly rest and take the truth of our religion on the hazard of our Births and education we must then as in a matter of so great weight and concern make use of that stock of reason and discourse God hath blessed us withall to discover and direct us in the way we are to go Which when done with humble petition for divine assistance it usually follows that the same grace of ingenuity that made us thus able to reach above ordinary is usually accompanied with ability thus prudentially to be advised That since the light of nature and reason discover to them a deity and also a necessity of his worship although herein they can settle themselves on no demonstration yet for satisfaction of their fears and hopes which in Atheism could never be they shall finde it more reasonable to rest on the highest probability they can get then have no rest at all Nor can this prudent course be yet left off For unless we will be altogether implicite in our beliefs and rest wholly on education for the sense and meaning of these Scriptures our reason againe must be taken up to
unfold and distinguish the truth of the texts themselves For when as Christians we are fully brought to consent unto and credit the Books and parts of the Bible we become now as much amazed and dazled with too great light as with too great darkness confounded before For with too much familiarity and presumption daring to approach too boldly those glorious rayes instead of true discovery such cloudiness and mists have arisen in some understandings that their owne conceipts have been believed for divine and instead of the direct beam of truth the reflected and refracted beam of ignorance and opinion have been embraced For as he that looks against the Sun without some spectacle for his sight doth both miss his discovery there and also weaken his sight for other things so fares it with men when scorning to take in natural helps or the spectacle of reason and sense they usually instead of truth and satisfaction reap nothing but opinion and error And this because experience tells us that from it self alone no evidence can be had of its meaning And therefore to discover the rectitude or inequallity of opinions thence arising rhere must be still some such rule made use of as may direct us in our inquiry For example when we finde that all Christians do believe and relye upon the guidance and authority of the Bible and that yet because of the prejudice before mentioned that there is no Schisme or Heresie but is thence derived and endeavoured to be proved what course by me that am a lover of peace and truth should be taken For do I alleadge that no doctrine but what is proved by Scripture ought to be believed so much they confess also that oppose me and for satisfaction that they really thinke so are ready to attest it with their lives Tell I them farther that upon more strict search of the Scripture and comparing one place with another they may be convinced they will answer that As they beleive the whole Scripture to be Canonical so have they examined it all over and still find no reason but to believe as they do And why that part or those Texts of Scripture on which they ground their opinion should be otherwise or by other places interpreted must be as distasteful to their understanding as it is different from former apprehension and education because more then probable arguments being not to be brought by any it must be expected that custome and familiarity have made their entertainment both pleasant and fixed All which well considered the contemplation thereof compared to those sad effects of blood and war under which not onely whole mankind labours through distinct religions but of those more fierce and uncivil slaughters and contentions wherewith Christians themselves are so continually and impetuously carryed to mutual destruction it cannot but abate much of that peremtoriness which men usually take to themselves in phancying the truth of their owne tenents and doctrines and in condemning and punishing that of others It must methinks move the heart of any that hath at all any true intention of being a Disciple to the God of peace or of love to his brother to begin to examine somewhat better the ground of this his impetuous and bloody devotion and if a Christian to fear least that prophesie of his Saviour of killing men under colour of doing God good service may not light on his score to act when at any time he is too hastily provoked Let men take heed of phancying their merciful redeemer like a Heathen Saturn to be pleased or appeased with the sacrifice of humane blood Nor let too much self-conceitedness provoke fiery zeal to the perpetration of such actions as lead to the overthrow of Charity and his neighbours peace For since height of belief and perswasion of conscience can be of themselves no sure evidence of the goodness of a religious cause which can have but one truth amongst so many pretended ones they had need be wary in relying thereupon and careful that in their works they deny not him they so headily would serve nor do not transgress plain commands to obey obscure ones For since the very enduring of persecution must also testifie that those his Christian Brethren he now afflicts are also confident of their own right serving the same Master the persecuters must thereby become guilty of doing otherwise then they would be done unto both in relation to this their joynt Master that thus makes them brethren and to those their brethren and fellow members whom they ought not thus to judge but leave to stand or fal to their own Master and whom Rom. 14.4 they would be loath should get and make such use of advantages over them In consideration of all which there are that think that none should be oppressed or molested in the peaceable use of his conscience for they find that after all those heaps of blood slaughter shed over all Christendom in design and pretence to promote Christs sole truth and bring men to agreement herein that this truth is still as far from attaining farther certainty and evidence as it was before and that the stock of division is but hereby exasperated and not at all allayed To amend and put a stop to which inconveniencies and mischiefes all such as will put themselves into the number of the blessed peacemakers will find no readier way then seriously to consider as we have endeavoured to shew in our past discourses that since faith and charity are to be the foundations of our religion and we to our utmost to serve God in both it must also follow that we are to perform them with more or less zeal and order as we find the plainness of their precepts more or less evident And therefore since in matters of faith either concerning the full comprehension of deity and also of his manner of worship things have been but sparingly and darkly delivered we are to presume that no farther speculation and discovery is necessary for us herein then what God hath been pleased to impart who could have manifested himself to general conviction if he had thought it fit But since in this and in the manner of his worship he hath already done so fully as will serve for manifestation of his will and so far as to bring us to salvation what need we search farther It will therefore be necessary for them that would avoid the danger of lukewarmness and neglect of Gods service on the one hand and also the peril of breach of charity through blind zeal on the other to make a distinction between things fundamental and what is not The first he shall find in order to his salvation so plainly taught and delivered that he that runs may read and to those things onely as of immediate divine authority are we to give such firm assent as not onely to Obey God rather then men but also Though an Angel from heaven preach unto us other doctrine
in it self worthy of preservation doth by Grace restore and rectifie what in our fall had been corrupted Thus that love which Nature provokes me to express out of inward delight Religion enjoyns and directs me to execute according to explicite precept That good which for Honor or Vertue sake I seek to act as a moral man I must now for Duty and Conscience sake re-inforce and prosecute as a Christian. That degree of beneficence which in nature I might arbitrarily and differently dispense according to mine own relations of Family Friends or the like I must now according to the tye of conscience and subjection distribute indifferently or according to such rules as he that hath publike charge shall direct For our state of innocency consisteth more in negative then in positive acts that is more in being harmless then beneficial because innocence or abstinence from harm is always a praise and compatible to all men inferior as well as others but to be positively beneficial is the attribute and sole honor of the Fountain of good and is to mankind no otherwise communicable and proper then as impowered and deputed from him and acting in his stead And therefore is Lord said to be the fulfilling of the Law because it worketh no ill to his neighbor And in that Chapter as obedience to the Higher Power is most strictly enjoyned and may be understood compleating the Precepts of the first Table and so inclusive of that Law of Honor thy father and mother So is the love of our neighbors as our selves set all down in negative Precepts Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal c. Nay our justification and the forgiveness of our offences and sins against God is made to depend most on our forgiving one another which was chiefly hinted at in that perfect model of Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us Heaven it self being the reward of our innocence not of our merit and that because we cannot without derogation to Gods honor take on us to act in matters of beneficence without him And so again the Devil being the father of malice the more we take upon us to act therein the more we shew our selves his servants Of which his delight in malice contrary to the Precept of love we have a plain instance in Witches who spend their whole power in things destructive and mischievous being wholly swayed by desire of revenge which as it did at first grow from being crossed in their own designs so they had beneficence in their aims And therefore so far as any is malicious to others that is is wilfully set to prosecute his own ways of doing future good by present evil so far hath he listed himself under this Destroyer and thrust himself out of Divine favour and protection by renouncing Divine obedience whereas others may know they are passed from death to life not only because they love the brethren but also for that they are obedient to Gods minister in the manner thereof For without God every one may be truly said to act that hath not from him as great and full direction and authority as was in his power to procure even in that particular in which he acts but doth relie only on such general directions as were for ought he knows not proper to the cause in question And so not being by Gods Minister interpreted and warranted as to license therein he must remain still as much as before without true warrant to act on another and the other again without just cause of suffering at his hands For since both of these having from Reason and Scripture alike power to judge interpret and impose upon each other he must be concluded to have been most innocent and obeyed God most that hath most obeyed his Vicegerent and stuck to his direction therein And this because the positive Precepts of Scripture and Religion coming only to supply and make more applyable those general and ambiguous rules of natural reason to which end determinate Interpreters were again put to see the meaning of these Scriptures applyed to these cases and persons unto which they are proper it must thereupon follow that as those that undertake to judge cases by the light of nature only without regard therein had to Scripture cannot in so doing be guiltless so also they that undertake to be their own judges from the immediate rules of Scripture and do balk the the direction of the authorized Intepreter and Keeper they must thereby become lyable to guilt also So that now to sum up all these Discourses concerning love and obedience it is still to shew how men under the second Adam stand in respect of works in a like condition for innocence as they did at first For as then the only Precept was to forbear tasting of the knowledge of good and evil even so it is the only Precept still For so much in brief our Saviour explains saying For judgement am I come into this world that they which see not might see and they that see might be made blind And again as before noted answered those that presumed to derive Innocence and Righteousness from their own light If ye were blind ye should have no sin But now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth The which and other places are certainly plain enough to convince any whom The God of this World hath not blinded to their own destruction And however formerly amongst the Jews where God was immediate Law-giver and by plain litteral Precepts did set down his pleasure to be observed by each one in particular the differencing of obedience into active and passive was useful that thereby upon occasion subjects might perform their duties to God and his Vicegerent also as also it was before the higher Powers were Christians yet now unto Christian Subjects that have not from Christ rules set down for their external abearance one towards another but they are to be taught his commands from his Deputies and Ambassadors the case is otherwise For so the words are Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you not what I have commanded them So that when subjects are by their Christian head now commanded to be actively obedient in any thing they are then disobedient if they are not so because where doing is required their doing to their power and not their suffering must shew their obedience For as I cannot find that the Crown of Martyrdom was promised to any but such as were persecuted for the name of Christ or Christianity which in Heathenish persecutions was to come to pass so cannot I tell what other title then that of Rebel to give to such as oppose or resist their Christian Prince Nor can I find what other reason to give for that expression of our Saviours saying that God hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man then thereby to shew how
corruption of manners or the deceivableness of unrighteousness as well as Heresie of Doctrine or belief of a lye do follow as a necessary train this sin of insubjection to Christs Authority and so make the Antichrist deservedly to be stiled the man of sin and son of perdition And this may be the reason why the name of Antichrist is not by Saint Paul given to this great one even because he should appear in the latter age of the world wherein the consequences of heresie and corruption of manners should be more notorious in him then was their first main cause the sin of stubbornness and rebellion which by that time should through possession and blinde devotion have gained to it self a shew of right It faring no otherwise in this respect with the application of this Gospel term of Rebellion then it formerly did under the Law with that other proper name of Rebels viz. sons of Belial For as that in after times came from the experience of that concomitant degree of lewdness vileness which always attended disobedient and ungovernable persons to be applyed to persons notoriously wicked as well as to such as were formally Rebels even so in this latter age it is no wonder if the notion of Antichristianism be otherwise used also then in the strict sense of insubjection Like as the vertue and grace of obedience upon a contrary reason is in usual speech made comprehensive of all or any other commendation unto that person unto whom it is given And that he was called Antichrist in opposition to Unction and Monarchical Government may undeniably appear by that which hindred him from taking upon him publikely this power namely the Roman Emperor For had his Antichristianism consisted in such Doctrines as had concerned Christian Faith onely why should the Emperor be at that time a let therein liking them one no better then another But because the Apostle saw such Doctrines set on foot as would overthrow Christs Regency in his Deputies afterwards he calls it the mystery of iniquity already working and concludes the onely let to keep it from being actually in the person of the Antichrist was the Emperors present possession And this was the reason why the actual Session of the Pope in this Authority is called Antichrist revealed even as the broaching of the Doctrines tending thereto was called the mystery of iniquity or Antichrist working aim and possession of jurisdiction making him properly Antichrist in both and not Heresie in Doctrine Having thus far shewed in brief how Antichristianism consists in opposing Christ that is in regard of his Regency it must farther follow that since this opposition cannot be to him now in Heaven otherwise then as done against such as are anointed under him here which are to act in his name and Authority that thereupon Antichristianism is to oppose Christian Monarchs who onely now are anointed as proper immediate Officers under him and who are holding their Office in the Christian Church according to prophetick designation of what should befal her in her flourishing condition namely to have sons whom she should set as Princes in all Lands And this farther appears according to that model of the Christian Church in the eight last Chapters of Ezekiel where the Priesthood also being designed the chief of them is put under such a Name and Notion as may minde them continually of their duty of loyalty and submission to Princes since from a King their predecessor Zadock was first preferred to that Office as heretofore noted And to take off Presbyterial parity from this Antichristian hope of Regency Ezekiel in the 34 Chapter reproving and setting forth the mischiefs arising from their Anarchical rule prophesies that God will set up one shepherd over them and he shall feed them even his servant David Which as it was to be understood first in Christ himself as coming of Davids natural loyns so to be executed by his adopted sons of oyle in the several Territories of his Church We shall finde this future condition of Monarchy prophesied plainly by Jeremy to accompany also the flourishing estate of the Church saying their Nobles shall be of themselves and their Governor should proceed from the midst of them that is shall be my servants also And I will cause him to draw neer and he shall approach unto me that is as I have the hearts of Kings in my power so will I guide his for who is this or who else is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord. Where noting Governor He and His to be set down in the singular number we may infer Monarchy to be meant And then follows Gods more remarkable owning his Church when his Kingdom shall be thus come amongst us and ye shall be my people and I will be your God The like we may observe done largely by Isaiah in the 49 Chapter both to express the increase and flourishing estate of Christs Church to arise and recover by degrees from its former distress and also that this should come to pass in the time of Christs adopted sons and through that glorious addition of kingship following the Gentile Princes entertainment of the Gospel and acknowledgement of their fealties unto him The Children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other shall say again in thine ears the place is too straight for me give place to me that I may dwell Then shalt thou say in thine heart who hath begotten me these seeing I have lost my Children and am desolate a captive and removing to and fro and who hath brought up these Behold I was left alone these where had they been Thus saith the Lord God Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my Standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carryed upon their shoulders And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me The like we shall finde in the 60 Chapter the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And again the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and Kings shall minister unto thee For in my wrath I smote thee but in my favor have I had mercy on thee Therefore shall thy gates be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the wealth of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought c. Which and many more places shewing the glory and increase of the Church under Kingship must be understood to be compleated in Christs adopted sons since in his own person he had while he lived neither form nor comliness and as to
are modal Whereby that which at first had entity and existence by Creation in respect of those affections and that serviceableness it carries to other things comes afterwards in the rule of Providence to be held as good And my will differs from my understanding as knowledge abstracted doth from that which hath reference to me and my use And it is as natural for the understanding to affect truth and enquiry as it is for the will to affect good and the exercise thereof And therefore as I may want personal liberty to perform my will so may I want liberty in my understanding when I want Method to conceive or variety suitable thereunto for making farther discovery being then subject to be lead by the judgement of others which is indeed the greatest thraldom of any But the want of this I cannot know because the want and the wanter are all one but experience will inform in the other So now we may call Method an Art proper to every fancy of registring its own particular observations in a kind of total For after that I have from induction observed that every single man is more rational then other creatures I conclude also thereby differencing men from other things And when again I come to observe that he agrees with them in the search of things pleasurable I then conclude this done as out of some principle common to them all wherein they must agree as Sensitives For as knowledge or memory precedes being the observation of things in particular so method succeeds in collecting these particulars and placing them in totals with other things of the same kind and agreeing in properties And when fancy hath an object not so placed already or comprisable in some rank or classis of our entertained method it is troubled For if it be a thing altogether unknown so as I cannot discover between the homogenial and heterogenial properties thereof or if those properties are not reducable into some classis of comprehension of that Method I have already framed what use or pleasure can I make thereof and all those Arts and Sciences we have entertained are but methodical collections of those distinguishable inclinations effects and properties of men creatures and things which Authors have made and agreed upon and are true or false as they are more or less comprehensive and exactly discussive of all those particulars they undertake In which course of proceeding the subject is usually considered as it hath reference to pleasure and benefit And those Arts and Sciences that seem most speculative have yet through Method pleasure in speculation but generally knowledge and enquiry look to good as mony doth to commodity that is although it be not pleasurable in it self yet is the general ready thing for procuring what is so humane benefit being the end of the Art it self and private gain or honor of the Artist Now as all men have aims and those higher or lower according to their way of breeding so have they their proper Method and means for accomplishing them answerable to their understandings And although the true aims of great men in respect of honor and generosity may not be discovered by the vulgar yet the greatness it self and the advantages thereof being necessarily always observed by them Hence it comes to pass that their conceptions are still running along to fancy their method and aim to be according to their own Thus children that for want of engagement and observation are not yet able to apprehend the true benefit or value of riches or honor or to conceive upon what inducements men are led to most of their actions must also want method and understanding in themselves to approve and like of what they do for play and liberty being their end and having fancied other things as they stood in order thereunto they cannot be imagined to bend their studies to the attaining of food or apparel because they always found these things ready when as being debarred in the other it caused them to use contrivance therein And therefore they are not able to conceive that their Parents should be put to such labour and study in getting their maintenance but do think that in these acquisitions and in their commerce with other men they are but following their own liberty and pastimes as themselves do with their play-fellows And so again the vulgar sort of men having only riches and some other more sensual enjoyments in their aims and having also another and more short way of getting those things amongst themselves must needs be as much at a loss and mistake in their censures when they come to look into the actings of great men or their Governors For being themselves neither able to fancy the way and difficulty of getting this greatness or of protecting them therewith nor the true end and use of this power more then children do apprehend the difficulty and cost of their breeding and maintenance they are ready according to those conceits within themselves to think that these things came by their good fortune and were accordingly no otherwise useful then to enable them to live splendidly and deliciously and to exercise arbitrary power in extolling or abasing some few as they saw good because if themselves were in like condition their aims should not be other then the reward or punishment of friends or enemies And if at any time they be brought into some speculation of the means of entrance end of this power this as being a thing altogether beyond their own comprehension they must be supposed as well implicitely following those methods which ambitious heads have put upon them herein as also delightfully and eagerly doing it even for that the method and satisfaction which they now find therein must needs fill them with the belief of so much knowledge as to think they have arrived at the top thereof And therefore being not able for want of sufficient observation and insight into Divine or Political matters to discover the true ground and reason of things they presently judge all those actions which are not agreeable to those rules of scripture of pacton of consent or the like which they find interpreted and scholied by their guides to be superstitious and unjust The which also is much helped on aswell out of desire to avoid the shame of being ignorant as out of vain-glory to appear wise and knowing in things of such difficulty And this peremptoriness of opinion and judgement is most incident to our first inlet into these discoveries For then it is to be supposed that we are most swayed with delight of these new speculations and do also most want time to examine whether the particulars we now apprehend are every way agreeable and comprehensive of those things we undertake to judge or no or else that we are not carried on by our own partialities and interests so as to judge that Person a Tyrant an Usurper or the like whom we have no interest in nor hope of but by