Adultery Doe not Kill Doe not Steal Doe not bear false witnesse Honor thy Father and thy Mother which when he said he had observed our Saviour added Sell all thou hast give it to the Poor and come and follow me which was as much as to say Relye on me that am the King Therefore to fulfill the Law and to beleeve that Jesus is the King is all that is required to bring a man to eternall life Thirdly St. Paul saith Rom. 1. 17. The Just shall live by Faith not every one but the Just therefore Faith and Justice that is the will to be Just or Repentance are all that is Necessary to life eternall And Mark 1. 15. our Saviour preached saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent and Beleeve the Evangile that is the Good news that the Christ was come Therefore to Repent and to Beleeve that Jesus is the Christ is all that is required to Salvation Seeing then it is Necessary that Faith and Obedience implyed in the word Repentance do both concurre to our Salvation the question by which of the two we are Justified is impertinently disputed Neverthelesse it will not be impertinent to make manifest in what manner each of them contributes thereunto and in what sense it is said that we are to be Justified by the one and by the other And first if by Righteousnesse be understood the Justice of the Works themselves there is no man that can be saved for there is none that hath not transgressed the Law of God And therefore when wee are said to be Justified by Works it is to be understood of the Will which God doth alwaies accept for the Work it selfe as well in good as in evill men And in this sense onely it is that a man is callod Iust or Vnjust and that his Justice Justifies him that is gives him the title in Gods acceptation of Just and renders him capable of living by his Faith which before he was not So that Justice Justifies in that sense in which to Justifie is the same that to Denominate a man Iust and not in the signification of discharging the Law whereby the punishment of his sins should be unjust But a man is then also said to be Justified when his Plea though in it selfe unsufficient is accepted as when we Plead our Will our Endeavour to fulfill the Law and Repent us of our failings and God accepteth it for the Performance it selfe And because God accepteth not the Will for the Deed but onely in the Faithfull it is therefore Faith that makes good our Plea and in this sense it is that Faith onely Justifies So that Faith and Obedience are both Necessary to Salvation yet in severall senses each of them is said to Justifie Having thus shewn what is Necessary to Salvation it is not hard to reconcile our Obedience to God with our Obedience to the Civill Soveraign who is either Christian or Infidel If he bee a Christian he alloweth the beleefe of this Article that Iesus is the Christ and of all the Articles that are contained in or are by evident consequence deduced from it which is all the Faith Necessary to Salvation And because he is a Soveraign he requireth Obedience to all his owne that is to all the Civill Laws in which also are contained all the Laws of Nature that is all the Laws of God for besides the Laws of Nature and the Laws of the Church which are part of the Civill Law for the Church that can make Laws is the Common-wealth there bee no other Laws Divine Whosoever therefore obeyeth his Christian Soveraign is not thereby hindred neither from beleeving nor from obeying God But suppose that a Christian King should from this Foundation Iesus is the Christ draw some false consequences that is to say make some superstructions of Hay or Stubble and command the teaching of the same yet seeing St. Paul says he shal be saved much more shall he be saved that teacheth them by his command and much more yet he that teaches not but onely beleeves his lawfull Teacher And in case a Subject be forbidden by the Civill Soveraign to professe some of those his opinions upon what just ground can he disobey Christian Kings may erre in deducing a Consequence but who shall Judge Shall a private man Judge when the question is of his own obedience or shall any man Judg but he that is appointed thereto by the Church that is by the Civill Soveraign that representeth it or if the Pope or an Apostle Judge may he not erre in deducing of a consequence did not one of the two St. Peter or St. Paul erre in a superstructure when St. Paul withstood St. Peter to his face There can therefore be no contradiction between the Laws of God and the Laws of a Christian Common-wealth And when the Civill Soveraign is an Infidel every one of his own Subjects that resisteth him sinneth against the Laws of God for such as are the Laws of Nature and rejecteth the counsell of the Apostles that admonisheth all Christians to obey their Princes and all Children and Servants to obey their Parents and Masters in all things And for their Faith it is internall and invisible They have the licence that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it But if they do they ought to expect their reward in Heaven and not complain of their Lawfull Soveraign much lesse make warre upon him For he that is not glad of any just occasion of Martyrdome has not the faith he professeth but pretends it onely to set some colour upon his own contumacy But what Infidel King is so unreasonable as knowing he has a Subject that waiteth for the second comming of Christ after the present world shall bee burnt and intendeth then to obey him which is the intent of beleeving that Iesus is the Christ and in the mean time thinketh himself bound to obey the Laws of that Infidel King which all Christians are obliged in conscience to doe to put to death or to persecute such a Subject And thus much shall suffice concerning the Kingdome of God and Policy Ecclesiasticall Wherein I pretend not to advance any Position of my own but onely to shew what are the Consequences that seem to me deducible from the Principles of Christian Politiques which are the holy Scriptures in confirmation of the Power of Civill Soveraigns and the Duty of their Subjects And in the allegation of Scripture I have endeavoured to avoid such texts as are of obscure or controverted Interpretation and to alledge none but in such sense as is most plain and agreeable to the harmony and scope of the whole Bible which was written for the re-establishment of the Kingdome of God in Christ. For it is not the bare Words but the Scope of the writer that giveth the true light by which any writing is to bee interpreted and they that insist upon
l. 36. for were r. where p. 166. l. 18. for benefit r. benefits p. 200. l. 48. dele also l. 49. for delivered r. deliver p. 203. l. 35. for other r. higher p. 204. l. 15. for and left r. if left l. 39. for write r. writt p. 206. l. 19. for of the r. over the. p. 234. l. 1. for but of r. but by mediation of l. 15. dele and. l. 38. for putting r. pulling p. 262. l. 19. for tisme r. Baptisme p. 268. l. 48. for that the r. that p. 271. l. 1. for observe r. obey l. 4. for contrary the r. contrary to the. p. 272. l. 36. for our Saviours of life r. of our Saviours life p. 275. l. 18. for if shall r. if he shall l. 30. for haven r. heaven l. 45. for of Church r. of the Church p. 276. l. 38. dele inter l. 46. dele are p. 285. l. 11. for he had r. he hath p. 287. l. 10. dele of p. 298. l. 36. for to ay r. to Lay. p. 361. l. 36. for him r. them THE INTRODUCTION NATURE the Art whereby God hath made and governes the World is by the Art of man as in many other things so in this also imitated that it can make an Artificial Animal For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs the begining whereof is in some principall part within why may we not say that all Automata Engines that move themselves by springs and wheeles as doth a watch have an artificiall life For what is the Heart but a Spring and the Nerves but so many Strâ—…gs and the â—…oynts but so many Wheeles giving motion to the whole Body such as was intended by the Artificer Art goes yet further imitating that Rationall and most excellent worke of Nature Maâ—… For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH or STATE in latine CIVITAS which is but an Artificiall Man though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall for whose protection and defence it was intended and in which the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul as giving life and motion to the whole body The Magistrates and other Officers of Judicature and Execution artificiall Joynts Reward and Punishment by which fastned to the seate of the Soveraignty every joynt and member is moved to performe his duty are the Nerves that do the same in the Body Naturall The Wealth and Riches of all the particular members are the Strength Salus Populi the peoples safety its Businesse Counsellors by whom all things needfull for it to know are suggested unto it are the Memory Equity and Lawes an artificiall Reason and Will Concord Health Sedition Sicknesse and Civill war Death Lastly the Paâ—…ts and Covenants by which the parts of this Body Politique were at first made set together and united resemble that Fiat or the Let us make man pronounced by God in the Creation To describe the Nature of this Artificiall man I will consider First the Matter thereof and the Artificer both which is Man Secondly How and by what Covenants it is made what are the Rights and just Power or Authority of a Soveraigne and what it is that preserveth and dissolveth it Thirdly what is a Christian Common-wealth Lastly what is the Kingdome of Darkness Concerning the first there is a saying much usurped of late That Wisedome is acquired not by reading of Books but of Men. Consequently whereunto those persons that for the most part can give no other proof of being wise take great delight to shew what they think they have read in men by uncharitable censures of one another behind their backs But there is another saying not of late understood by which they might learn truly to read one another if they would take the pains and that is Nosâ—…e teipsum Read thy self which was not meant as it is now used to countenance either the barbarous state of men in power towards their inferiors or to encourage men of low degree to a sawcie behaviour towards their betters But to teach us that for the similitude of the thoughts and Passions of one man to the thoughts and Passions of another whosoever looketh into himself and considereth what he doth when he does think opine reason hope feare c and upon what grounds he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and Passions of all other men upon the like occasions I say the similitude of Passions which are the same in all men desire feare hope not the similitude of the objects of the Passions which are the things desired feared hoped c for these the constitution individuall and particular education do so vary and they are so easie to be kept from our knowledge that the characters of mans heart blotted and confounded as they are with dissembling lying counterfeiting and erroneous doctrines are legible onely to 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 hearts And though by mens actions wee do discover their designe sometimes yet to do it without comparing them with our own and distinguishing all circumstances by which the case may come to be altered is to decypher without a key and be for the most paâ—… deceived by too much trust or by too much diffidence as he that reads is himself a good or evil man But let one man read another by his actions never so perfectly it serves him onely with his acquaintance which are but few He that is to govern a whole Nation must read in himself not this or that particular man but Man-kind which though it be hard to do harder than to learn any Language or Science yet when I shall have set down my own reading orderly and perspicuously the pains left anoâ—…her will be onely to consider if he also find not the same in himself For this kind of Doctrine admitteth no other Demonstration OF MAN CHAP. I. Of SENSE COncerning the Thoughts of man I will consider them first Singly and afterwards in Trayne or dependance upon one another Singly they are every one a Representation or Apparence of some quality or other Accident of a body without us which is commonly called an Object Which Object worketh on the Eyes Eares and other parts of mans body and by diversity of working produceth diversity of Apparences The Originall of them all is that which we call SENSE For there is no conception in a mans mind which hath not at first totally or by parts been begotten upon the organs of Sense The rest are derived from that originall To know the naturall cause of Sense is not very necessary to the business now in hand and I have else-where written of the same at large Nevertheless to fill each part of my present method I will briefly deliver the same in this place The cause of Sense is the Externall Body or Object which presseth the organ proper to each Sense either immediatly as in the Tast and Touch or mediately as in Seeing Hearing and Smelling which pressure by the mediation of Nerves and other strings and membranes of the body continued
that this kind of Absurdity may rightly be numbred amongst the many sorts of Madnesse and all the time that guided by clear Thoughts of their worldly lust they forbear disputing or writing thus but Lucide Intervals And thus much of the Vertues and Defects Intellectuall CHAP. IX Of the Severall SUBIECTS of KNOWLEDGE THere are of KNOWLEDGE two kinds whereof one is Knowledge of Fact the other Knowledge of the Consequence of one Affirmation to another The former is nothing else but Sense and Memory and is Absolute Knowledge as when we see a Fact doing or remember it done And this is the Knowledge required in a Witnesse The later is called Science and is Conditionall as when we know that If the figure showne be a Circle then any straight line through the Center shall divide it into two equall parts And this is the Knowledge required in a Philosopher that is to say of him that pretends to Reasoning The Register of Knowledge of Fact is called History Whereof there be two sorts one called Naturall History which is the History of such Facts or Effects of Nature as have no Dependance on Mans Will Such as are the Histories of Metalls Plants Animals Regions and the like The other is Civill History which is the History of the Voluntary Actions of men in Common-wealths The Registers of Science are such Books as contain the Demonstrations of Consequences of one Affirmation to another and are commonly called Books of Philosophy whereof the sorts are many according to the diversity of the Matter And may be divided in such manner as I have divided them in the following Table SCIENCE that is Knowledge of Consequences which is called also PHILOSOPHY Consequences from the Accidents of Bodies Naturall which is called NATURALL PHILOSOPHY Consequences from the Accidents common to all Bodies Naturall which are Quantity and Motion Consequences from Quantity and Motion indeterminate which being the Principles or first foundation of Philosophy is called Philosophia Prima PHILOSOPH PRIMA Consequences from Motion and Quantity determined Consequences from Quantity and Motion determined By Figure ..... Mathematiques GEOMETRY ARITHMETI QU By Number .... Mathematiques GEOMETRY ARITHMETI QU Consequences from the Motion and Quantity of Bodies in speciall Consequences from the Motion and Quantity of the great parts of the World as the Earth and Starres Cosmography ASTRONOMY GEOGRAPHY Consequences from the Motion of Speciall kinds and Figures of Body Mechaniques Science of EN NEERS ARCHITECTUR NAVIGATION Doctrine of Weight PHYSIQUES or Consequences froÌ„ Qualities Consequences from the Qualities of Bodyes Transient such as sometimes appear sometimes vanish ............ METEOROLOG Consequences from the Qualities of Bodies Permanent Consequences from the Qualities of the Starres Consequences from the Light of the Starres Out of this and the Motion of the Sunne is made the Science of ...................... SCIOGRAPHY Consequences from the Influence of the Starres ............... ASTROLOGY Consequences of the Qualities from Liquid Bodies that fill the space between the Starres such as are the Ayre or substance aetheriall Consequences from the Qualities of Bodies Terrestriall Consequences from the parts of the Earth that are without Sense Consequences from the Qualities of Minerals as Stones Metalls c. Consequences from the Qualities of Vegetables Consequences from the Qualitiâ—…s of Animals Consequences from the Qualities of Animals in generall Consequences from Vision .... OPTIQUES Consequences from Sounds .... MUSIQUE Consequences from the rest of the Senses Consequences from the Qualities of Men in speciall Consequences from the Passions of Men ............ ETHIQUES Consequences from Speech In Magnifying Vilifying c. POETRY In Perswadiâ—…g RHETHORI QU In Reasoning ... LOGIQUE In Contracting The Science of 〈◊〉 and UNIUST Consequences from the Accidents of Politique Bodies which is called POLITIQUES and CIVILL PHILOSOPHY 1. Of Consequences from the Institution of COMMON-WEALTHS to the Rights and Duties of the Body Politique or Soveraigâ—… 2. Of Consequences from the same to the Duty and Right of the Subjects Place this Table between folio 40. and 41. CHAP. X. Of POWER WORTH DIGNITY HONOUR and WORTHINESSE THe POWER of a Man to take it Universally is his present means to obtain some future apparent Good And is either Originall or Instrumentall Naturall Power is the eminence of the Faculties of Body or Mind as extraordinary Strength Forme Prudence Arts Eloquence Liberality Nobility Instrumentall are those Powers which acquired by these or by fortune are means and Instruments to acquire more as Riches Reputation Friends and the secret working of God which men call Good Luck For the nature of Power is in this point like to Fame increasing as it proceeds or like the motion of heavy bodies which the further they go make still the more hast The Greatest of humane Powers is that which is compounded of the Powers of most men united by consent in one person Naturall or Civill that has the use of all their Powers depending on his will such as is the Power of a Common-wealth Or depending on the wills of each particular such as is the Power of a Faction or of divers factions leagued Therefore to have servants is Power To have friends is Power for they are strengths united Also Riches joyned with liberality is Power because it procureth friends and servants Without liberality not so because in this case they defend not but expose men to Envy as a Prey Reputation of power is Power because it draweth with it the adhaerence of those that need protection So â—…s Reputation of love of a mans Country called Popularity for the same Reason Also what quality soever maketh a man beloved or feared of many or the reputation of such quality is Power because it is a means to have the assistance and service of many Good successe is Power because it maketh reputation of Wisdome or good fortune which makes men either feare him or rely on him Affability of men already in power is encrease of Power because it gaineth love Reputation of Prudence in the conduct of Peace or War is Power because to prudent men we commit the government of our selves more willingly than to others Nobility is Power not in all places but onely in those Common-wealths where it has Priviledges for in such priviledges consisteth their Power Eloquence is power because it is seeming Prudence Forme is Power because being a promise of Good it recommendeth men to the favour of women and strangers The Sciences are small Power because not eminent and therefore not acknowledged in any man nor are at all but in a few and in them but of a few things For Science is of that nature as none can understand it to be but such as in a good measure have attayned it Arts of publique use as Fortification making of Engines and other Instruments of War because they conferre to Defence and Victory are Power And though the true Mother of them be Science namely the Mathematiques yet because they are brought into the Light by
Egypt and in the New Testament the celebrating of the Lords Supper by which we are put in mind of our deliverance from the bondage of sin by our Blessed Saviours death upon the crosse The Sacraments of Admission are but once to be used because there needs but one Admission but because we have need of being often put in mind of our deliverance and of our Alleagance the Sacraments of Commemoration have need to be reiterated And these are the principall Sacraments and as it were the solemne oathes we make of our Alleageance There be also other Consecrations that may be called Sacraments as the word implyeth onely Consecration to Gods service but as it implies an oath or promise of Alleageance to God there were no other in the Old Testament but Circumcision and the Passeover nor are there any other in the New Testament but Baptisme and the Lords Supper CHAP. XXXVI Of the WORD OF GOD and of PROPHETS WHen there is mention of the VVord of God or of Man it doth not signifie a part of Speech such as Grammarians call a Nown or a Verb or any simple voice without a contexture with other words to make it significative but a perfect Speech or Discourse whereby the speaker affirmeth denieth commandeth promiseth threatneth wisheth or interrogateth In which sense it is not Vocabulum that signifies a Word but Sermo in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is some Speech Discourse or Saying Again if we say the Word of God or of Man it may bee understood sometimes of the Speaker as the words that God hath spoken or that a Man hath spoken In which sense when we say the Gospel of St. Matthew we understand St. Matthew to be the Writer of it and sometimes of the Subject In which sense when we read in the Bible The words of the days of the Kings of Israel or Iudah 't is meant that the acts that were done in those days were the Subject of those Words And in the Greek which in the Scripture retaineth many Hebraismes by the Word of God is oftentimes meant not that which is spoken by God but concerning God and his government that is to say the Doctrine of Religion Insomuch as it is all one to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Theologia which is that Doctrine which wee usually call Divinity as is manifest by the places following Acts 13. 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everiasting life loe we turn to the Gentiles That which is here called the Word of God was the Doctrine of Christian Religion as it appears evidently by that which goes before And Acts 5. 20. where it is said to the Apostles by an Angel Go stand and speak in the Temple all the VVords of this life by the Words of this life is meant the Doctrine of the Gospel as is evident by what they did in the Temple and is expressed in the last verse of the same Chap. Daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Christ Iesus In which place it is manifest that Jesus Christ was the subject of this Word of life or which is all one the subject of the VVords of this life eternall that our Saviour offered them So Acts 15. 7. the Word of God is called the Word of the Gospel because it containeth the Doctrine of the Kingdome of Christ and the same Word Rom. 10. 8 9. is called the Word of Faith that is as is there expressed the Doctrine of Christ come and raised from the dead Also Mat. 13. 19. VVhen any one heareth the VVord of the Kingdome that is the Doctrine of the Kingdome taught by Christ. Again the same Word is said Acts 12. 24. to grow and to be multiplyed which to understand of the Evangelicall Doctrine is easie but of the Voice or Speech of God hard and strange In the same sense the Doctrine of Devils signifieth not the Words of any Devill but the Doctrine of Heathen men concerning Daemons and those Phantasms which they worshipped as Gods Considering these two significations of the WORD OF GOD as it is taken in Scripture it is manifest in this later sense where it is taken for the Doctrine of Christian Religion that the whole Scripture is the Word of God but in the former sense not so For example though these words I am the Lord thy God c. to the end of the Ten Commandements were spoken by God to Moses yet the Preface God spake these words and said is to be understood for the Words of him that wrote the holy History The Word of God as it is taken for that which he hath spoken is understood sometimes Properly sometimes Metaphorically Properly as the words he hath spoken to his Prophets Metaphorically for his Wisdome Power and eternall Decree in making the world in which sense those Fiats Let their be light Let there be a firmament Let us make man c. Gen. 1. are the Word of God And in the same sense it is said Iohn 1. 3. All things were made by it and without it was nothing made that was made And Heb. 1. 3. He upholdeth all things by the VVord of his Power that is by the Power of his Word that is by his Power and Heb. 11. 3. The worlds were framed by the VVord of God and many other places to the same sense As also amongst the Latines the name of Fate which signifieth properly The word spoken is taken in the same sense Secondly for the effect of his Word that is to say for the thing it self which by his Word is Affirmed Commanded Threatned or Promised as Psalm 105. 19. where Joseph is said to have been kept in prison till his VVord was come that is till that was come to passe which he had Gen. 40. 13. foretold to Pharaohs Butler concerning his being restored to his office for there by his word was come is meant the thing it self was come to passe So also 1 King 18. 36. Elijah saith to God I have done all these thy VVords in stead of I have done all these things at thy Word or commandement and Ier. 17. 15. VVhere is the VVord of the Lord is put for VVhere is the Evill he threatned And Ezek. 12. 28. There shall none of my VVords be prolonged any more by words are understood those things which God promised to his people And in the New Testament Mat. 24. 35. heaven and earth shal pass away but my VVords shal not pass away that is there is nothing that I have promised or foretold that shall not come to passe And in this sâ—…nse it is that St. John the Evangelist and I think St. John onely calleth our Saviour himself as in the flesh the VVord of God as Ioh. 1. 14. the Word was made Flesh that is to
and they that were governed did all expect the Messiah and Kingdome of God which they could not have done if their Laws had forbidden him when he came to manifest and declare himself Seeing therefore he did nothing but by Preaching and Miracles go about to prove himselfe to be that Messiah hee did therein nothing against their laws The Kingdome hee claimed was to bee in another world He taught all men to obey in the mean time them that sate in Moses seat He allowed them to give Caesar his tribute and refused to take upon himselfe to be a Judg. How then could his words or actions bee seditious or tend to the overthrow of their then Civill Government But God having determined his sacrifice for the reduction of his elect to their former covenanted obedience for the means whereby he would bring the same to effect made use of their malice and ingratitude Nor was it contrary to the laws of Caesar. For though Pilate himself to gratifie the Jews delivered him to be crucified yet before he did so he pronounced openly that he found no fault in him And put for title of his condemnation not as the Jews required that he pretended to bee King bnt simply That hee was King of the Iews and notwithstanding their clamour refused to alter it saying What I have written I have written As for the third part of his Office which was to be King I have already shewn that his Kingdome was not to begin till the Resurrection But then he shall be King not onely as God in which sense he is King already and ever shall be of all the Earth in vertue of his omnipotence but also peculiarly of his own Elect by vertue of the pact they make with him in their Baptisme And therefore it is that our Saviour saith Mat. 19. 28. that his Apostles should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory whereby he signified that he should reign then in his humane nature and Mat. 16. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works The same we may read Marke 13. 26. and 14. 62. and more expressely for the time Luke 22. 29 30. I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed to mee that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdome and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel By which it is manifest that the Kingdome of Christ appointed to him by his Father is not to be before the Son of Man shall come in Glory and make his Apostles Judges of the twelve tribes of Israel But a man may here ask seeing there is no marriage in the Kingdome of Heaven whether men shall then eat and drink what eating therefore is meant in this place This is expounded by our Saviour Iohn 6. 27. where he saith Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the Son of man shall give you So that by eating at Christs table is meant the eating of the Tree of Life that is to say the enjoying of Immortality in the Kingdome of the Son of Man By which places and many more it is evident that our Saviours Kingdome is to bee exercised by him in his humane nature Again he is to be King then no otherwise than as subordinate or Vicegerent of God the Father as Moses was in the wildernesse and as the High Priests were before the reign of Saul and as the Kings were after it For it is one of the Prophecies concerning Christ that he should be like in Office to Moses I will raise them up a Prophet saith the Lord Deut. 18. 18. from amongst their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words into his mouth and this similitude with Moses is also apparent in the actions of our Saviour himself whilest he was conversant on Earth For as Moses chose twelve Princes of the tribes to govern under him so did our Saviour choose twelve Apostles who shall sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel And as Moses authorized Seventy Elders to receive the Spirit of God and to Prophecy to the people that is as I have said before to speak unto them in the name of God so our Saviour also ordained seventy Disciples to preach his Kingdome and Salvation to all Nations And as when a complaint was made to Moses against those of the Seventy that prophecyed in the camp of Israel he justified them in it as being subservient therein to his government so also our Saviour when St. John complained to him of a certain man that cast out Devills in his name justified him therein saying Luke 9. 50. Forbid him not for hee that is not against us is on our part Again our Saviour resembled Moses in the institution of Sacraments both of Admission into the Kingdome of God and of Commemoration of his deliverance of his Elect from their miserable condition As the Children of Israel had for Sacrament of their Reception into the Kingdome of God before the time of Moses the rite of Circumcision which rite having been omitted in the Wildernesse was again restored as soon as they came into the land of Promise so also tâ—…e Jews before the coming of our Saviour had a rite of Baptizing that is of washing with water all those that being Gentiles embraced the God of Israel This rite St. John the Baptist used in the reception of all them that gave their names to the Christ whom hee preached to bee already come into the world and our Saviour instituted the same for a Sacrament to be taken by all that beleeved in him From what cause the rite of Baptisme first proceeded is not expressed formally in the Scripture but it may be probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses concerning Leprousie wherein the Leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the campe of Israel for a certain time after which time being judged by the Priest to be clean hee was admitted into the campe after a solemne Washing And this may therefore bee a type of the Washing in Baptisme wherein such men as are cleansed of the Leprousie of Sin by Faith are received into the Church with the solemnity of Baptisme There is another conjecture drawn from the Ceremonies of the Gentiles in a certain case that rarely happens and that is when a man that was thought dead chanced to recover other men made scruple to converse with him as they would doe to converse with a Ghost unlesse hee were received again into the number of men by Washing as Children new born were washed from the uncleannesse of their nativity which was a kind of new birth This ceremony of the Greeks in the time that Judaea was under the Dominion of Alexander and the Greeks
it to the Schools Plato that was the best Philosopher of the Greeks forbad entrance into his Schoole to all that were not already in some measure Geometricians There were many that studied that Science to the great advantage of mankind but there is no mention of their Schools nor was there any Sect of Geometricians nor did they then passe under the name of Philosophers The naturall Philosophy of those Schools was rather a Dream than Science and set forth in senselesse and insignificant Language which cannot be avoided by those that will teach Philosophy without having first attained great knowledge in Geometry For Nature worketh by Motion the Wayes and Degrees whereof cannot be known without the knowledge of the Proportions and Properties of Lines and Figures Their Morall Philosophy is but a description of their own Passions For the rule of Manners without Civill Government is the Law of Nature and in it the Law Civill that determineth what is Honest and Dishonest what is Iust and Vnjust and generally what is Good and Evill whereas they make the Rules of Good and Bad by their own Liking and Disliking By which means in so great diversity of taste there is nothing generally agreed on but every one doth as far as he dares whatsoever seemeth good in his owne eyes to the subversion of Common-wealth Their Loigque which should bee the Method of Reasoning is nothing else but Captions of Words and Inventions how to puzzle such as should goe about to pose them To conclude there is nothing so absurd that the old Philosophers as Cicero saith who was one of them have not some of them maintained And I beleeve that scarce any thing can be more absurdly said in naturall Philosophy than that which now is called Aristotles Metaphysiques nor more repugnant to Government than much of that hee hath said in his Politiques nor more ignorantly than a great part of his Ethiques The Schoole of the Jews was originally a Schoole of the Law of Moses who commanded Deut. 31. 10. that at the end of every seventh year at the Feast of the Tabernacles it should be read to all the people that they might hear and learn it Therefore the reading of the Law which was in use after the Captivity every Sabbath day ought to have had no other end but the acquainting of the people with the Commandements which they were to obey and to expound unto them the writings of the Prophets But it is manifest by the many reprehensions of them by our Saviour that they corrupted the Text of the Law with their false Commentaries and vain Traditions and so little understood the Prophets that they did neither acknowledge Christ nor the works he did of which the Prophets prophecyed So that by their Lectures and Disputations in their Synagogues they turned the Doctrine of their Law into a Phantasticall kind of Philosophy concerning the incomprehensible nature of God and of Spirits which they compounded of the Vain Philosophy and Theology of the Graecians mingled with their own fancies drawn from the obscurer places of the Scripture and which might most easily bee wrested to their purpose and from the Fabulous Traditions of their Ancestors That which is now called an Vniversity is a Joyning together and an Incorporation under one Government of many Publique Schools in one and the same Town or City In which the principall Schools were ordained for the three Professions that is to say of the Romane Religion of the Romane Law and of the Art of Medicine And for the study of Philosophy it hath no otherwise place then as a handmaid to the Romane Religion And since the Authority of Aristotle is onely current there that study is not properly Philosophy the nature whereof dependeth not on Authors but Aristotelity And for Geometry till of very late times it had no place at all as being subservient to nothing but rigide Truth And if any man by the ingenuity of his owne nature had attained to any degree of perfection therein hee was commonly thought a Magician and his Art Diabolicall Now to descend to the particular Tenets of Vain Philosophy derived to the Universities and thence into the Church partly from Aristotle partly from Blindnesse of understanding I shall first consider their Principles There is a certain Philosophia prima on which all other Philosophy ought to depend and consisteth principally in right limiting of the significations of such Appellations or Names as are of all others the most Universall Which Limitations serve to avoid ambiguity and aequivocation in Reasoning and are commonly called Definitions such as are the Definitions of Body Time Place Matter Forme Essence Subject Substance Accident Power Act Finite Infinite Quantity Quality Motion Action Passion and divers others necessary to the explaining of a mans Conceptions concerning the Nature and Generation of Bodies The Explication that is the setling of the meaning of which and the like Terms is commonly in the Schools called Metaphysiques as being a part of the Philosophy of Aristotle which hath that for title but it is in another sense for there it signifieth as much as Books written or placed after his naturall Philosophy But the Schools take them for Books of supernaturall Philosophy for the word Metaphysiques will bear both these senses And indeed that which is there written is for the most part so far from the possibility of being understood and so repugnant to naturall Reason that whosoever thinketh there is any thing to bee understood by it must needs think it supernaturall From these Metaphysiques which are mingled with the Scripture to make Schoole Divinity wee are told there be in the world certaine Essences separated from Bodies which they call Abstract Essences and Substantiall Formes For the Interpreting of which Iargon there is need of somewhat more than ordinary attention in this place Also I ask pardon of those that are not used to this kind of Discourse for applying my selfe to those that are The World I mean not the Earth onely that denominates the Lovers of it Worldly men but the Vniverse that is the whole masse of all things that are is Corporeall that is to say Body and hath the dimensions of Magnitude namely Length Bredth and Depth also every part of Body is likewise Body and hath the like dimeâ—…ions and consequently every part of the Universe is Body and that which is not Body is no part of the Universe And because the Universe is All that which is no part of it is Nothing and consequently no where Nor does it follow from hence that Spirits are nothing for they have dimensions and are therefore really Bodies though that name in common Speech be given to such Bodies onely as are visible or palpable that is that have some degree of Opacity But for Spirits they call them Incorporeall which is a name of more honour and may therefore with more piety bee attributed to God himselfe in whom wee consider not what