and he shall find them managed much after the same rate Nor hath these differences onely divided these Monarchies where the Succession was never well settled at first but even those that have been better constituted and where one would belieev the Discent of the Crown had been sufficiently settled by a long Discent of Kings for many hundreds of years And of this Scotland hath been a famous Example where after the death of King Alexander III and his Grandaughter Margaret of Norway two or three several Competitors claimed a Right to succeed But omitting others it was agreed that it lay between John Baylliol and Robert Bruce Earl of Carick both of them drawing their Discent from David Earl of Huntingdon Great Uncle to the last King in whom they all agreed the Right to the Crown would have been had he survived Baylliol claimed as eldest Son to Dornagilla Grandaughter to Margaret the eldest Daughter of the said Earl David Robert Bruce claimed as eldest Son of Isabel the second Daughter of the said David So that if Baylliol alledged his Discent from the eldest Daughter Bruce was not behind-hand but pleaded though it was true he was descended but from the second Daughter yet he being a Grandson and a degree neerer ought to succeed whereas Baylliol was but great Grandson to Earl David And though Dornagilla Baylliol's Mother was in the same degree with himself yet he being a man ought to be preferred before a woman in the same Line and that if the Laws of Scotland would have given it to Dornagilla if it had been an ordinary Inheritance yet Discent of the Crown was not to be ruled by the Common Laws of other Inheritances In short this Dispute did so divide the Nobility into Factions and puzzle the Estates of the Kingdom that not being able to decide it they and all the Competitors agreed to refer the Controversie to Edward I. King of England one of the wisest and most powerful Princes of his time who upon long advice and debate with twelve of the learnedest men of both Kingdoms at last adjudged the Crown to Baylliol or as the Scotch Historians relate because he would do him Homage for it which Bruce being of a higher spirit refused Yet this did not put an end to this great Controversie for though Baylliol was thereupon admitted King yet falling out not long after with King Edward to whom he owed all his greatness and having the worst of it the Nobility and States of Scotland revived Bruce's Title and declared him King who after a long War with England enjoy'd the Crown quietly at last and left it to his Issue whose Posterity in our present King enjoy it to this day To this I shall adde one Example more from Portugal within these hundred years King Henry called the Cardinal dying without Issue there was a great Controversie who should succeed for he died suddenly just as the States of the Kingdom were assembled to settle the Succession for he declared himself unable to decide it So that he onely left by his Will twelve Governours of the Kingdom who should govern during the interregnum but that the Crown should descend to him that should appear to them to have the best Title Four eminent Competitors put in their claims 1. Antonio called the Bastard who nevertheless pretended that he was lawful Son to Don Lewis second Brother to Henry the last King So that he had no more to do but to prove himself Legitimate 2. Alexander Duke of Parma who claimed as Grandson to Mary eldest Daughter to Don Duarte youngest Brother to the last King Henry and Son to King Emanuel 3. The Duke of Braganza who claimed as Son to Katherine second Daughter of the said Don Duarte yet alledged his Title to be best because he was the next of the Bloud-Royal who was a Native of Portugal as the Heir of the Crown as he pretended ought to be by a Fundamental Law of that Kingdom yet it seems that Law was not then so well known or otherwise there was no reason why these Governors should not have admitted him King as soon as ever they met 4. Philip the second King of Spain who claimed as Son to Isabella Daughter of Emanuel King of Portugal and so a degree nearer than the rest to Henry the last King The States and Governours differing the States were dissolved and during their recess the Governours not agreeing among themselves the King of Spain raised an Army and entering Portugal seiz'd the City of Lisbon and consequently all the rest of the Kingdom submitted to him and so made himself King by force And yet we have seen in his Grandson's time the Estates of Portugal declare this Title void and the Crown setled in the Posterity of the Duke of Braganza who still enjoy it by vertue of this Fundamental Law And that this Fundamental Law could not be altered but by the consent of the Cortes or States appears by the late Alteration of this Constitution upon the Treaty of Marriage of the present Prince Regents Daughter with the Duke of Savoy And how much even Kings themselves have attributed to the Authority of their Estates appears by the League made between Philip the Long King of France and David King of Scots wherein this Condition was exprest That if there should happen any difference about the Succession in either of these Realms he of the two Kings which remained alive should not suffer any to place himself on the Throne but him who should have the Judgment of the Estates of his side and then he should with all his power oppose him who would after this contest for the Crown So that our Author without cause lays the fault upon the wilful ignorance of the People in not remembring or acknowledging the right Heir of the Crown when the ablest and wisest men of the Age they lived in could not by the meer Laws of Nature and Reason determine which was he And our Author should have done well to have set down some certain Rules how the People might be assured without a positive Law before made that they acknowledge the right Heir and not an Usurper to his prejudice CHAP. II. Observations on the Directions for Obedience in doubtful times and other places of his Patriarcha and other Treatises BUT since this Author rather than the disposal of a Crown shall fall to the decision of the People or States of the Kingdom will give an Usurper a good Right to it against all persons but him that hath the Right we will now examine how much of that is true which he lays down in his Directions for Obedience to Governours in doubtful times and how far men are bound in Conscience to obey an Usurper whilst he that hath Right is kept out by him First he takes it for granted that all those that so eagerly strive for an original Power to be in the People do with one accord acknowledge that originally the Supream Power was
the Son hath begotten But though Children may have this Right of defending their own Lives or those of their Wives and Children from their Fathers unjust violence when they can by no means else be preserved Yet I would not be here understood to give Children this right of resisting upon any less occasion as if the Father should only go about to correct his Son though without just cause it were therefore lawful for him to resist or beat his Father For we are obliged by the Law of Christ to bear smaller Injuries from others much more from a Father neither yet would I give them any right to continue this state of War and to revenge upon their Parents the Injuries they have formerly received at their hands For all Revenge taken in this sence as a satisfaction of the minde in returning of an evil or injury already received without any respect to a mans own preservation or the good of the person that did the wrong is unlawful even in the state of Nature Therefore this returning Evil for Evil which some improperly call Revenge is only justifiable for one or both of these ends either to make the party that hath done the Injury sensible of his Errour and seeing the Follies and Inconveniences of it to alter his minde and resolve to do so no more or as it may conduce to a mans own preservation for the future and be a warning to others not to injure him in like manner since they see he will not take injuries tamely But all this is still left to a mans own prudence how far he will pass them by And he is certainly obliged to leave off returning them assoon as he can be safe without it since otherwise quarrels would be perpetual Neither ought one who hath been highly obliged to a man perhaps for his life to return him evil for evil since scarce any Injury being great enough to cancel so great an Obligation Therefore since a Father who hath truely performed his Duty is the greatest Benefactor we can imagine in this life so no man ought to revenge an Injury though never so great upon him since it is not only undutiful but ungrateful and cannot serve either of those two ends for which alone this returning evil for evil is allowable For first it cannot make the Father see his fault since this correction being from a Son whom he looks upon as one highly obliged to him and so much his inferior will rather serve to exasperate than amend him Secondly Neither can this bearing of the Injury encourage others to attempt doing the like since all that know the case will likewise consider the person that did the wrong So that Patience alone is the only lawful means to make the Father see his Errour and be reconciled to his Child who ought to embrace it assoon as the Father offers it But as for the places of Scripture brought for absolute Obedience to Parents viz. the fourth Commandment Honour thy Father and thy Mother Children obey your Parents in the Lord Ephes 6.1,2 and Children obey your Parents in all things Col. 3.20 God did not intend here to give us any new Law or Precept concerning this Duty but to confirm and explain the fifth Commandment as that was but a confirmation of the Law of Nature by which men were obliged to reverence and obey their Parents long before that Law was given Therefore since the Laws of Nature which are but Rules of right Reason for the good of Mankinde are the foundation of this Commandment and of all those commands in the New Testament they are still to be interpreted according to that Rule Neither are other places of Scripture understood in any other sence such as are those of turning the right Cheek of giving away a mans Coat to him that would go to Law and the like all which we are not to Interpret Literally See Grotius and. Dr. Hammond's Annot. upon these places but according to Reason And so are likewise these words of St. Paul to be understood Children obey your Parents in all things that is in all things reasonable and lawful And this sence must be allowed of or else Children were bound to obey all commands of their Parents whether unlawful or lawful being comprehended under this general word All. Nor will the distinction of an active or passive Obedience help in this case for passive Obedience cannot be the end of the Fathers command and consequently his will is not performed in suffering since no Father can be so unreasonably cruel as to command a thing meerly because he would have occasion to punish his Son whom he thinks must not resist him Neither do these places appoint a Son when an infant a man of full age and perhaps an old man of threescore to be all governed the same way or that the same Obedience is required of them all And this brings me to a fuller Answer to the Author's Argument and to shew that though Children are indeed always bound in Gratitude to please their Parents as far as they are able without ruining themselves and to pay a great reverence to them yet that this submission is not an absolute subjection but is to be limited according to the Rules of right Reason or Prudence And to prove this I will produce instances from the case of Adam's Children since the Author allows no Father to have had a larger authority than himself We will therefore consider in the first place Adam's power as a Father in respect of his Sons marriage Suppose then that he had commanded one of his Sons never to marry at all certainly this command would have been yoid since then it had been in Adam's power to have frustrated Gods Command to mankind of increase and multiply and replenish the Earth which was not spoken to Adam and Eve alone since they could not do it in their persons but to all mankind represented in them And likewise Adam had been the occasion of his Sons incontinency if he had lain with any of his Sisters before marriage Secondly Suppose Adam had commanded Abel to marry one of his Sisters that being the onely means then appointed to propagate mankind which he could not love can any man think that he had been obliged to do it Certainly no for it would have been a greater sin to marry a wife he knew before-hand he could not live with than to disobey his Father for else how could this be true Therefore shall a man leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife Since then Adam could not force his Sons affections but onely recommend such of his Sisters as he thought would best suit with his humour therefore if the Son could not live without marriage and that Adam could not force a Wife upon him it was most reasonable that he should chuse a Wife for himself And to come to that other great point that the Son can never separate himself from his Fathers Family nor subjection
as his Lord and Master without his consent Suppose then that Adam had been so cruel and unnatural as some Fathers are and being sensible of the profit he received from his Sons labours would never have given them leave to have left his Family and have set up for themselves nor to have had any thing of their own but onely allowing them and their Wives a bare subsistance have kept them like slaves as long as they lived the Author I suppose would reply That he might have done so if he had pleased and that the Sons had no lawful means to help themselves since he onely was Judge when or whether ever it was fit to set them free or no. But I desire to know whether Adam had this power by a natural Right or an acquired not by the latter for I have already proved that neither Generation nor Possession can confer an absolute Right over the person of another Nor yet could he have it by the Sons consent for they would never give their consent to such an absolute slavish subjection Nor yet could he have any such Right by the revealed Will of God since I have also proved that such an absolute subjection is nowhere requir'd by him in Scripture But now to return to the acquired Right of Education neither can that confer so absolute a power over any mans person as that therefore he should be a slave to his Fosterer as long as he liv'd since admitting that the Father or other person that takes upon him that care may perhaps justly claim a Right in the service or labour of the Childe to satisfie them for their trouble and charge in bringing him up Yet it does not therefore follow that this service is due as long as the Childe lives but rather until such time as they can make his labour satisfie them for their charge and trouble in keeping him which may very well be by that time the Child attains to twenty five years of age at farthest And there are those that have offered to breed up and maintain all the Foundlings and Bastard-children in England if they may be bound to serve them until about that age So that I see no reason why a few years Education should give any man a Right over another person as long as he lived But if it be urged that the Childe owed his life to his Father or Fosterer since without his assistance he must have perisht and therefore the service of the Child 's whole life is but little enough to recompence it to this I answer That the Parents are under an absolute obligation by the Laws of God and Nature to breed up their Childe and they sin if they do not perform it as they ought the end of a Father not being chiefly for the breeding up and preservation of the Child and therefore there is no reason he should acquire such a property in him meerly because he did his duty and the intent of a Father being to better the condition of his Son and not to make it worse I doubt whether an absolute or perpetual Servitude or Death it self were the better bargain and if this Right will not hold for the Father himself much less will it for a Fosterer since he is likewise obliged by the Laws of Nature and Humanity if he be able to breed up the Child he finds and not to let it perish So that the advantage he may make of the Child ought not to be the principal end of his undertaking but the doing of good to mankind and the advantage is to be considered onely as an encouragement not as the onely motive to his duty since he is obliged to do the same thing though he were sure the Childe would either die or be taken away from him before it could be with him half long enough to satisfie him Neither does this reason hold true according to the Scripture-rules of Gratitude that a man hath Right to exact of one to whom he hath done a Courtesie or bestowed a Benefit a Return as great as the Benefit bestowed since this were not beneficence but meer bartering or exchange And a man who had his life saved by anothers assistance suppose by pulling him out of the water was obliged by this principle to leave his life at his disposal ever after Therefore I see no reason from all that hath yet been said why a Son when he comes to be a man able to shift for himself may not in the state of nature marry and separate himself from his fathers Family even without his Fathers consent if he cannot otherwise obtain his liberty by his entreaty and all fair means Not but that the Father may if he please disinherit his Son for so doing or for marrying without his consent since every man is free to dispose of his own upon what conditions he thinks fit And the Son was to have considered before-hand which he valued most his own Liberty or his Fathers kindness and the hopes of his share of his Estate after his death But I now come to the Author 's main Argument from Scripture-Examples That the Patriarchs by a Right derived from Adam did exercise as Heads of their respective Families a dominion as absolute as that of any Monarch And so instances in Thamar brought out to be burnt by her Father-in-law Judah Touching War Abram 's commanding an Army of 318 Souldiers of his own Family Esau 's meeting his Brother with 400 men at Arms For matter of Peace Abram 's making a League with Abimelech And that these acts of judging in capital Crimes of making War and Peace are the chiefest marks of Soveraignty that are found in a Monarchy All which I shall endeavour to answer First The instance of Judah rather makes against him for he confines this power before to the chief Father of the Family and will never have Children to be free from subjection to their Fathers whereas in this case Judah as Head of his own Family exercised an absolute power of Life and Death and so was free from subjection to his Father Jacob who was then living And suppose as the Text Gen. 38. expresses Judah went down from his Brethren to a certain Adullamite and there married and set up a distinct Family yet this will not help the Author since p. 33. he will not allow the Fatherly Authority to be confined to one Family if the Families were at such a distance as they might receive their fathers commands which lies upon him to prove And therefore this subjection was not perpetual Secondly I shall shew by another Example that the Head of a Family hath not absolute power of the lives of his Children and Grandchildren and that is from Reuben's pathetical Speech Gen. 42. to his Father Jacob when he refused to send Benjamin with him into Egypt Slay my two sons says he if I bring him not unto thee Now if Jacob had this absolute power as a Father it had been impertinent
in Reuben to have spoke thus since he knew his Father had power to slay his Sons if he thought fit whether he gave him such an authority or not But if it be replied that Jacob when his Sons married might set them at liberty and so give them power of Life and Death that is make them absolute in their respective Families This is gratis dictum and no proof brought of it out of Scripture and therefore may as well be otherwise Nor is it likely that Jacob should thus manumit his Sons since it is apparent they did not then set up distinct Families for we finde Jacob still commanding them as Head of the Family to go down and buy Corn in Egypt saying Go down and buy us that is the whole Family whereof they were Members a little food And yet these Sons did not think their Fathers command so absolute but that they tell him plainly they will not go down unless he send Benjamin with them As for the other Examples of Abram's exercising the full power of a Prince in making War and Peace I will not deny that the Heads of separate Families being out of Commonwealths have many things analogous to them though they are not Commonwealths themselves And the reason why I do not allow them to be so is because the ends of a Family and a Commonwealth are divers and so many parts of a Monarchical Empire are not to be found in Families yet the Heads of such Families may notwithstanding exercise a power of Life and Death in great Offences and also of making War and Peace And this being for the good of the Family they govern and by their implyed consents no body will contradict him in the exercise of this power But this being matter of fact does not prove an absolute and unquestionable Right in the Father of such a Family of doing whatsoever he please and that no Member of the Family hath power in any case to contradict his will for it is rational to conceive that this Father of a Family having had an authority over his Children and Servants born perhaps in his house from their very Infancy and if he be a wise and a good man and hath carried himself as a good Father or Master ought to do toward them should even by their consents as knowing none more worthy than himself retain the exercise of that Authority after they are gown up to be men in which he cannot be contradicted without disorder and mischief to the whole Family So that indeed this submission of the Children and Servants is by a tacite consent to obey the Father or Master in all things tending to the common good of the Family But this proves not this absolute despotick power the Author contends for but onely the most reasonable way of acting for the Families good and whilst the Father exercises this Authority onely for that end which when he transgresses his Right to govern ceases for if this Author would have but considered the state of some parts of Africa he should have found that where the Father will exercise this absolute power and sell his Children for slaves the Children make as little scruple where they are strong enough to put the same trick upon their Fathers Nor can they be justly blamed for so doing until any man can shew me that the Father hath some better Right than meer Custom or Power I shall now proceed to the consideration of those other places he produces out of Scripture for the natural Right of Fathers to be Kings over their Descendants Patriarcha p. 16. First As for the example of Nimrod that makes against him for here the Grandson of Ham who ought to have been a Servant to the Children of Shem and Japhet interrupting this Paternal Empire domineers and tyrannizes not onely over his own Family but the Descendants of the elder Brethren But Sir Walter Rawleigh of which opinion the Author himself is will have him to be Lord over his own Family by Right of Succession but to enlarge his Empire against Right by seizing violently on the Rights of other Lords of Families But however after the confusion of Tongues the Author will have it revive again and the distinct Nations thereupon erected were not confused Multitudes without Heads or Governours and at liberty to chuse what Governours they pleased but they were distinct Families which had Fathers for Rulers over them whereby it plainly appears that even in this confusion God was careful to preserve the Fatherly Authority by distributing the diversity of Languages according to the diversity of Families For so it appears by the Text Gen. 10.5.20.22 But these places will not prove what the Author quotes them for viz. the Monarchical or Kingly power of Fathers for neither does the Scripture or Josephus mention that this division of the World by Noah's Posterity was performed by the Fathers of these Families as absolute Monarchs but it rather seems that their Children and Descendants followed them as Volunteers as retaining a Reverence and Affection to their persons for their great age experience and care of their Families Which * Sir Will. Temple's Essay of Government p. 67. an ingenious modern Author conceives to be the natural original of all Governments springing from a tacite deference to the Authority of one single person And of this opinion is excellent Pufendorf And of this kind were those first Kings which Aristotle calls Heroical whom the People did obey of their own accord because they deserved well of them and either by teaching them Arts or by warring for them or by gathering them together when they were dispersed or by dividing Lands among them Secondly If it were true that these Fathers of Families were so many absolute Kings yet it quite destroys the Author's Hypothesis who will have but one true Heir to Adam who if he could be known had a natural Right to be Monarch of the whole world And though Kings now Patriarch p. 19. are not the natural Parents of their Subjects yet they all either are or are to be reputed Heirs to those first Progenitors who were at first natural Parents of the People and in their right succeed to the exercise of Supreme Jurisdiction and such Heirs are not only Lords of their own Children but also of their Brethren and all others that were subject to their Fathers Whereas we see here no such right of Eldership observed neither among the Sons of Noah nor their descendants but every one as appears from the words of the Text was an independant Head Leader of his own Family by these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided c. and by these viz. the descendants of Shem were the Nations divided c. So likewise the other places he brings concerning the Sons of Ishmael and Esau do destroy the Authours notion of an Heir to the Authority of the Father or that any Son is more Lord of his Brethren than another For all the
Commonwealth do onely owe a passive obedience to its Laws But to let you see more plainly that upon such a devolution of the Government as the Author grants not onely the Masters of Families as Fathers ought to have Votes but all others that are at their own dispose I will ask any of his opinion what he thinks of a single man living in a house alone or with a Wife without either Children or Servants or perhaps boarding in another mans house for their money why they should not have Votes as well as those that are his independant Fathers and Masters I can see no reason nor I believe they neither So though the Author by the words Supream and Independant Heads of Families seems to exclude all Sons from having Votes whilst their Fathers are alive although they are married and have separated into distinct Families yet since I have proved that neither Paternal Authority nor Filial Subjection is absolute or perpetual in the state of Nature into which the Commonwealth is by the death of the Prince now supposed to be resolved and if it were otherwise yet unless they will void all those Laws and Constitutions that have been before settled both for descent of Inheritances and the distinguishing of Property So that if these Laws stand in force during this interregnum unless they will fall to absolute confusion these Sons so making divers Families and having Estates distinct from their Fathers ought likewise to have Votes in the Government upon the Authours own principles since the Laws of the Country have set them free from all Paternal subjection more than what the Rules of Piety and Gratitude oblige them to And as for such Sons as though of mature age yet remain as Servants in their Fathers Families and so are under a greater subjection than those that are separated from it I see no reason why they may not appoint their Father as him they could best trust to vote for them and represent them in the choice of a Governour and then they are as much obliged as any man can be by the act of a person whom he hath impowered to act for him or as these Fathers of Families would be by Representatives of their own chusing it being morally impossible if this devolution of the Government should happen in a populous Country for all the Authors independent Heads or Fathers of Families ever to meet in Person to chuse a King these being vastly numerous and divided from each other at great distances Anarchy of a mixt Monarch p. 269 So that all the Author's Objections against a mixt Popular Election will prove as strong against this of Fathers alone For how except by some secret miraculous instinct should they all meet at one time and place What one Head of a Family or Company less than the whole Body of these Fathers of the People can have power to appoint either time or place of Election where they are all free and independant by Nature and without a lawful Summons it is most unjust to binde those that are absent So neither can the whole Body of the Fathers of Families summon it self One man is sick another is lame a third is aged and a fourth though a Father of a Family may be under years of discretion or not in his right senses and many more may have business of their own which they cannot leave to run two or three hundred miles up to the chief City to chuse a King So that either the People may elect or else his Fathers of Families cannot for the same reasons And if the major part of these Fathers should agree to chuse Representatives how can this Agreement of the major part bind the minor that did not consent Patriarcha pag. 44. Where the Arguments against Elections by a major part are proposed at large since according to the Authors principles in Assemblies that take their original from the Law of Nature no one man or multitude can give away the Right of another So that though the Author seems to have been so good-natured as to have given these independent Fathers of Families a Power in this case of Escheat to chuse a Governour yet all this signifies nothing since they can never all meet or agree to chuse Representatives They are still like to be his Slaves who can make a Party strong enough to seize the Government and usurp an Authority over them Whom yet they must obey since he either is or represents the right Heir of Adam and so no body hath a better Right than himself who is in by the permissive Will of God which how long it will last no body can tell And God does but adopt Subjects into the obedience of another Fatherly Power or else they must fall into a down-right Anarchy and every Father of a Family may set up for an absolute Prince But to return whither we have digressed for I have said this onely to shew that this Authors principles as well as those of others contradict themselves in this subject and either these Fathers of Families are the People and consequently cannot according to this Authour ever meet or agree to chuse a Prince or else the whole People may as well But since it may be objected that it does not serve to find out truth or settle the Question in hand barely to recriminate and shew the same flaws in his Principles as he finds in those of others Patriarcha p. 41. let us see if his Objections against Bellarmine and Suarez and all those who place Supream Power in the People be such terrible things that the poor Jesuits are absolutely run down in this Dispute He therefore first asks If their meaning be that there is but one and the same Power in all the People of the World so that no Power can be granted except all the men upon the Earth meet and agree to chuse a Governour To which Suarez answers That it is scarce possible nor yet expedient that all the men in the world should be gathered together into one Community It is likelier that either never or for a very short time this Power was in this manner in the whole Multitude of men collected together but a little after the Creation men began to be divided into several Commonwealths and this distinct Power was in each of them To which our Author replies That this Answer of scarce possible nor yet expedient c. begets a new doubt how this distinct Power comes to each particular Community when God gave it to the whole Multitude onely and not to any particular Assembly Can they shew or prove that ever the whole Multitude met and divided this Power which God gave them in gross by breaking it into parcels and by appointing a distinct Power to each Commonwealth Without such a Compact I cannot see according to their own Principles how there can be an Election of a Magistrate in any Common-wealth but a meer Vsurpation upon the Priviledge of