a man should say an Incorporeall Body But in the sense of cōmon people not all the Universe is called Body but only such parts thereof as they can discern by the sense of Feeling to resist their force or by the sense of their Eyes to hinder them from a farther prospect Therefore in the common language of men Aire and aeriall substances use not to be taken for Bodies but as often as men are sensible of their effects are called Wind or Breath or because the same are called in the Latine Spiritus Spirits as when they call that aeriall substance which in the body of any living creature gives it life and motion Vitall and Animall spirits But for those Idols of the brain which represent Bodies to us where they are not as in a Looking-glasse in a Dream or to a Distempered brain waking they are as the Apostle saith generally of all Idols nothing Nothing at all I say there where they seem to be◅ and in the brain it self nothing but tumult proceeding either from the action of the objects or from the disorderly agitation of the Organs of our Sense And men that are otherwise imployed then to search into their causes know not of themselves what to call them and may therefore easily be perswaded by those whose knowledge they much reverence some to call them Bodies and think them made of aire compacted by a power supernaturall because the sight judges them corporeall and some to call them Spirits because the sense of Touch discerneth nothing in the place where they appear to resist their fingers So that the proper signification of Spirit in common speech is either a subtile fluid and invisible Body or a Ghost or other Idol or Phantasme of the Imagination But for metaphoricall significations there be many for sometimes it is taken for Disposition or Inclination of the mind as when for the disposition to controwl the sayings of other men we say a spirit of contradiction For a disposition to uncleannesse an unclean spirit for perversenesse a froward spirit for sullennesse a dumb spirit and for inclination to godlinesse and Gods service the Spirit of God sometimes for any eminent ability or extraordinary passion or disease of the mind as when great wisdome is called the spirit of wisdome and mad men are said to be possessed with a spirit Other signification of Spirit I find no where any and where none of these can satisfie the sense of that word in Scripture the place falleth not under humane Understanding and our Faith therein consisteth not in our Opinion but in our Submission as in all places where God is said to be a Spirit or where by the Spirit of God is meant God himselfe For the nature of God is incomprehensible that is to say we understand nothing of what he is but only that he is and therefore the Attributes we give him are not to tell one another what he is nor to signifie our opinion of his Nature but our desire to honor him with such names as we conceiv◅ most honorable amongst our selves Gen. 1. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters Here if by the Spirit of God be meant God himself then is Motion attributed to God and consequently Place which are intelligible only of Bodies and not of substances incorporeall and so the place is above our understanding that can conceive nothing moved that changes not place or that has not dimension and whatsoever has dimension is Body But the meaning of those words is best understood by the like place Gen. 8. 1. Where when the earth was covered with Waters as in the beginning God intending to abate them and again to discover the dry land useth the like words I will bring my Spirit upon the Earth and the waters shall be diminished in which place by Spirit is understood a Wind that is an Aire or Spirit moved which might be called as in the former place the Spirit of God because it was Gods work Gen. 41. 38. Pharaoh calleth the Wisdome of Joseph the Spirit of God For Joseph having advised him to look out a wise and discreet man and to set him over the land of Egypt he saith thus Can we find such a man as this is in whom is the Spirit of God And Exod. 28. 3. Thou shalt speak saith God to all that are wise hearted whom I have filled with the Spirit of VVisdome to make Aaron Garments to consecrate him Where extraordinary Understanding though but in making Garments as being the Gift of God is called the Spirit of God The same is found again Exod. 31. 3 4 5 6. and 35. 31. And Isaiah 11. 2 3. where the Prophet speaking of the Messiah saith The Spirit of the Lord shall abide upon him the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of counsell and fortitude and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Where manifestly is meant not so many Ghosts but so many eminent graces that God would give him In the Book of Judges an extraordinary Zeal and Courage in the the defence of Gods people is called the Spirit of God as when it excited Othoniel Gideon Jephtha and Samson to deliver them from servitude Judg. 3. 10. 6. 34. 11. 29. 13. 25. 14. 6 19. And of Saul upon the newes of the insolence of the Ammonites towards the men of Jabesh Gilead it is said 1 Sam. 11. 6. that The Spirit of God came upon Saul and his Anger or as it is in the Latine his Fury was kindled greatly Where it is not probable was meant a Ghost but an extraordinary Zeal to punish the cruelty of the Ammonites In like manner by the Spirit of God that came upon Saul when hee was amongst the Prophets that praised God in Songs and Musick 1 Sam. 19. 20. is to be understood not a Ghost but an unexpected and sudden Zeal to join with them in their devotion The false Prophet Zedekiah saith to Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 24. Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee Which cannot be understood of a Ghost for Micaiah declared before the Kings of Israel and Judah the event of the battle as from a Vision and not as from a Spirit speaking in him In the same manner it appeareth in the Books of the Prophets that though they spake by the Spirit of God that is to say by a speciall grace of Prediction yet their knowledge of the future was not by a Ghost within them but by some supernaturall Dream or Vision Gen. 2. 7. It is said God made man of the dust of the Earth and breathed into his nostrills spiraculum vitae the breath of life and man was made a living soul. There the breath of life inspired by God signifies no more but that God gave him life And Job 27. 3. as long as the Spirit of God is in my nostrils is no more then to say as long as I live So
time and of a horse at another we conceive in our mind a Centaure So when a man compoundeth the image of his own person with the image of the actions of an other man as when a man imagins himselfe a Herâ—…s or an Alexander which happeneth often to them that are much taken with reading of Romants it is a compound imagination and properly but a Fiction of the mind There be also other Imaginations that rise in men though waking from the great impression made in sense As from gazing upon the Sun the impression leaves an image of the Sun before our eyes a long time after and from being long and vehemently attent upon Geometricall Figures a man shall in the dark though awake have the Images of Lines and Angles before his eyes which kind of Fancy hath no particular name as being a thing that doth not commonly fall into mens discourse The imaginations of them that sleep are those we call Dreams And these also as all other Imaginations have been before either totally or by parcells in the Sense And because in sense the Brain and Nerves which are the necessary Organs of sense are so benummed in sleep as not easily to be moved by the action of Externall Objects there can happen in sleep no Imagination and therefore no Dreame but what proceeds from the agitation of the inward parts of mans body which inward parts for the connexion they have with the Brayn and other Organs when they be distempered do keep the same in motion whereby the Imaginations there formerly made appeare as if a man were waking saving that the Organs of Sense being now benummed so as there is no new object which can master and obseure them with a more vigorous impression a Dreame must needs be more cleare in this silence of sense than are our waking thoughts And hence it cometh to passe that it is a hard matter and by many thought impossible to distinguish exactly between Sense and Dreaming For my part when I consider that in Dreames I do not often nor constantly think of the same Persons Places Objects and Actions that I do waking nor remember so long a trayne of coherent thoughts Dreaming as at other times And because waking I often observe the absurdity of Dreames but never dream of the absurdities of my waking Thoughts I am well satisfied that being awake I know I dreame not though when I dreame I think my selfe awake And seeing dreames are caused by the distemper of some of the inward parts of the Body divers distempers must needs cause different Dreams And hence it is that lying cold breedeth Dreams of Feare and raiseth the thought and Image of some fearfull object the motion from the brain to the inner parts and from the inner parts to the Brain being reciprocall And that as Anger causeth heat in some parts of the Body when we are awake so when we sleep the over heating of the same parts causeth Anger and raiseth up in the brain the Imagination of an Enemy In the same manner as naturall kindness when we are awake causeth desire and desire makes heat in certain other parts of the body so also too much heat in those parts while wee sleep raiseth in the brain an imagination of some kindness sâ—…ewn In summe our Dreams are the reverse of our waking Imaginations The motion when we are awake beginning at one end and when we Dream at another The most difficult discerning of a mans Dream from his waking thoughts is then when by some accident we observe not that we have slept which is easie to happen to a man full of fearfull thoughts and whose conscience is much troubled and that sleepeth without the circumstances of going to bed or putting off his clothes as one that noddeth in a chayre For he that taketh pains and industriously layes himself to sleep in case any uncouth and exorbitant fancy come unto him cannot easily think it other than a Dream We read of Marcus Brutus one that had his life given him by Iulius Caesar and was also his favorite and notwithstanding murthered him how at Philippi the night before he gave battell to Augustus Câ—…sar hee saw a fearfull apparition which is commonly related by Historians as a Vision but considering the circumstances one may easily judge to have been but a short Dream For sitting in his tent pensive and troubled with the horrour of his rash act it was not hard for him slumbering in the cold to dream of that which most affrighted him which feare as by degrees it made him wake so also it must needs make the Apparition by degrees to vanish And having no assurance that he slept he could have no cause to think it a Dream or any thing but a Vision And this is no very rare Accident for even they that be perfectly awake if they be timorous and supperstitious possessed with fearfull tales and alone in the dark are subject to the like fancies and believe they see spirits and dead mens Ghosts walking in Church-yards whereas it is either their Fancy onely or els the knavery of such persons as make use of such superstitious feare to passe disguised in the night to places they would not be known to haunt From this ignorance of how to distinguish Dreams and other strong Fancies from Vision and Sense did arise the greatest part of the Religion of the Gentiles in time past that worshipped Satyres Fawnes Nymphs and the like and now adayes the opinion that rude people have of Fayries Ghosts and Goblins and of the power of Witches For as for Witches I think not that their witchcraft is any reall power but yet that they are justly punished for the false beliefe they have that they can do such mischiefe joyned with their purpose to do it if they can their trade being neerer to a new Religion than to a Craft or Science And for Fayries and walking Ghosts the opinion of them has I think been on purpose either taught or not confuted to keep in credit the use of Exorcisme of Crosses of holy Water and other such inventions of Ghostly men Neverthelesse there is no doubt but God can make unnaturall Apparitions But that he does it so often as men need to feare such things more than they feare the stay or change of the course of Nature which he also can stay and change is no point of Christian faith But evill men under pretext that God can do any thing are so bold as to say any thing when it serves their turn though they think it untrue It is the part of a wise man to believe them no further than right reason makes that which they say appear credible If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away and with it Prognostiques from Dreams false Prophecies and many other things depending thereon by which crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people men would be much more fitted than they are for civill Obedience And this ought to
Vision or Dream Nor is there any thing in his Law Morall or Ceremoniall by which they were taught there was any such Enthusiasme or any Possession When God is sayd Numb 11. 25. to take from the Spirit that was in Moses and give to the 70. Elders the Spirit of God taking it for the substance of God is not divided The Scriptures by the Spirit of God in man mean a mans spirit enclined to Godlinesse And where it is said Exod. 28. 3. Whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdome to make garments for Aaron is not meant a spirit put into them that can make garments but the wisdome of their own spirits in that kind of work In the like sense the spirit of man when it produceth unclean actions is ordinarily called an unclean spirit and so other spirits though not alwayes yet as often as the vertue or vice so stiled is extraordinary and Eminent Neither did the other Prophets of the old Testament pretend Enthusiasme or that God spake in them but to them by Voyce Vision or Dream and the Burthen of the Lord was not Possession but Command How then could the Jewes fall into this opinion of possession I can imagine no reason but that which is common to all men namely the want of curiosity to search naturall causes and their placing Felicity in the acquisition of the grosse pleasures of the Senses and the things that most immediately conduce thereto For they that see any strange and unusuall ability or defect in a mans mind unlesse they see withall from what cause it may probably proceed can hardly think it naturall and if not naturall they must needs thinke it supernaturall and then what can it be but that either God or the Divell is in him And hence it came to passe when our Saviour Mark 3. 21. was compassed about with the multitude those of the house doubted he was mad and went out to hold him but the Scribes said he had Belzebub and that was it by which he cast out divels as if the greater mad-man had awed the lesser And that John 10. 20. some said He hath a Divell and is mad whereas others holding him for a Prophet sayd These are not the words of one that hath a Divell So in the old Testament he that came to anoynt Jehu 2 Kings 9. 11. was a Prophet but some of the company asked Jehu What came that mad-man for So that in summe it is manifest that whosoever behaved himselfe in extraordinory manner was thought by the Jewes to be possessed either with a good or evill spirit except by the Sadduces who erred so farre on the other hand as not to believe there were at all any spirits which is very neere to direct Atheisme and thereby perhaps the more provoked others to terme such men Daemoniacks rather than mad-men But why then does our Saviour proceed in the curing of them as if they were possest and not as if they were mad To which I can give no other kind of answer but that which is given to those that urge the Scripture in like manner against the opinion of the motion of the Earth The Scripture was written to shew unto men the kingdome of God and to prepare their mindes to become his obedient subjects leaving the world and the Philosophy thereof to the disputation of men for the exercising of their naturall Reason Whether the Earths or Suns motion make the day and night or whether the Exorbitant actions of men proceed from Passion or from the Divell so we worship him not it is all one as to our obedience and subjection to God Almighty which is the thing for which the Scripture was written As for that our Saviour speaketh to the disease as to a person it is the usuall phrase of all that cure by words onely as Christ did and Inchanters pretend to do whether they speak to a Divel or not For is not Christ also said Math. 8. 26. to have rebuked the winds Is not he said also Luk. 4. 39. to rebuke a Fever Yet this does not argue that a Fever is a Divel And whereas many of those Divels are said to confesse Christ it is not necessary to interpret those places otherwise than that those mad-men confessed him And whereas our Saviour Math. 12. 43. speaketh of an unclean Spirit that having gone out of a man wandreth through dry places seeking rest and finding none and returning into the same man with seven other spirits worse than himselfe It is manifestly a Parable alluding to a man that after a little endeavour to quit his lusts is vanquished by the strength of them and becomes seven times worse than he was So that I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requireth a beliefe that Daemoniacks were any other thing but Mad-men There is yet another fault in the Discourses of some men which may also be numbred amongst the sorts of Madnesse namely that abuse of words whereof I have spoken before in the fifth chapter by the Name of Absurdity And that is when men speak such words as put together have in them no signification at all but are fallen upon by some through misunderstanding of the words they have received and repeat by rote by others from intention to deceive by obscurity And this is incident to none but those that converse in questions of matters incomprehensible as the Schoole-men or in questions of abstruse Philosophy The common sort of men seldome speak Insignificantly and are therefore by those other Egregious persons counted Idiots But to be assured their words are without any thing correspondent to them in the mind there would need some Examples which if any man require let him take a Schooleman into his hands and see if he can translate any one chapter concerning any difficult point as the Trinity the Deity the nature of Christ Transubstantiation Free-will c. into any of the moderne tongues so as to make the same intelligible or into any tolerable Latine such as they were acquainted withall that lived when the Latine tongue was Vulgar What is the meaning of these words The first cause does not necessarily inflow any thing into the second by force of the Essentiall subordination of the second causes by Which it may help it to worke They are the Translation of the Title of the sixth chapter of Suarez first Booke Of the Concourse Motion and Help of God When men write whole volumes of such stuffe are they not Mad or intend to make others so And particularly in the question of Transubstantiation where after certain words spoken they that say the White nesse Round nesse Magnitude Quality Corruptibility all which are incorporeall c. go out of the Wafer into the Body of our blessed Saviour do they not make those Nessles Tudes and Ties to be so many spirits possessing his body For by Spirits they mean alwayes things that being incorporeall are neverthelesse moveable from one place to another So
meer Nature are obligatory For example if I Covenant to pay a ransome or service for my life to an enemy I am bound by it For it is a Contract wherein one receiveth the benefit of life the other is to receive mony or service for it and consequently where no other Law as in the condition of meer Nature forbiddeth the performance the Covenant is valid Therefore Prisoners of warre if trusted with the payment of their Ransome are obliged to pay it And if a weaker Prince make a disadvantageous peace with a stronger for feare he is bound to keep it unlesse as hath been sayd before there ariseth some new and just cause of feare to renew the war And even in Common-wealths if I be forced to redeem my selfe from a Theefe by promising him mony I am bound to pay it till the Civill Law discharge me For whatsoever I may lawfully do without Obligation the same I may lawfully Covenant to do through feare and what I lawfully Covenant I cannot lawfully break A former Covenant makes voyd a later For a man that hath passed away his Right to one man to day hath it not to passe to morrow to another and therefore the later promise passeth no Right but is null A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force by force is alwayes voyd For as I have shewed before no man can transferre or lay down his Right to save himselfe from Death Wounds and Imprisonment the avoyding whereof is the onely End of laying down any Right and therefore the promise of not resisting force in no Covenant transferreth any right nor is obliging For though a man may Covenant thus Unlesse I do so or so kill me he cannot Covenant thus Unlesse I do so or so I will not resist you when you come to kill me For man by nature chooseth the lesser evill which is danger of death in resisting rather than the greater which is certain and present death in not resisting And this is granted to be true by all men in that they lead Criminals to Execution and Prison with armed men notwithstanding that such Criminals have consented to the Law by which they are condemned A Covenant to accuse ones selfe without assurance of pardon is likewise invalide For in the condition of Nature where every man is Judge there is no place for Accusation and in the Civill State the Accusation is followed with Punishment which being Force a man is not obliged not to resist The same is also true of the Accusation of those by whose Condemnation a man falls into misery as of a Father Wife or Benefactor For the Testimony of such an Accuser if it be not willingly given is praesumed to be corrupted by Nature and therefore not to be received and where a mans Testimony is not to be credited he is not bound to give it Also Accusations upon Torture are not to be reputed as Testimonies For Torture is to be used but as means of conjecture and light in the further examination and search of truth and what is in that case confessed tendeth to the ease of him that is Tortured not to the informing of the Torturers and therefore ought not to have the credit of a sufficient Testimony for whether he deliver himselfe by true or false Accusation he does it by the Right of preserving his own life The force of Words being as I have formerly noted too weak to hold men to the performance of their Covenants there are in mans nature but two imaginable helps to strengthen it And those are either a Feare of the consequence of breaking their word or a Glory or Pride in appearing not to need to breake it This later is a Generosity too rarely found to be presumed on especially in the pursuers of Wealth Command or sensuall Pleasure which are the greatest part of Mankind The Passion to be reckoned upon is Fear whereof there be two very generall Objects one The Power of Spirits Invisible the other The Power of those men they shall therein Offend Of these two though the former be the greater Power yet the feare of the later is commonly the greater Feare The Feare of the former is in every man his own Religion which hath place in the nature of man before Civill Society The later hath not so at least not place enough to keep men to their promises because in the condition of meer Nature the inequality of Power is not discerned but by the event of Battell So that before the time of Civill Society or in the interruption thereof by Warre there is nothing can strengthen a Covenant of Peace agreed on against the temptations of Avarice Ambition Lust or other strong desire but the feare of that Invisible Power which they every one Worship as God and Feare as a Revenger of their perfidy All therefore that can be done between two men not subject to Civill Power is to put one another to swear by the God he feareth Which Swearing or OATH is a Forme of Speech added to a Promise by which he that promiseth â—…gnisieth that unlesse he performe he renounceth the mercy of his God or calleth to him for vengeance on himselfe Such was the Heathen Forme Let Jupiter kill me else as I kill this Beast So is our Forme I shall do thus and thus so help me God And this with the Rites and Ceremonies which every one useth in his own Religion that the feare of breaking faith might be the greater By this it appears that an Oath taken according to any other Forme or Rite then his that sweareth is in vain and no Oath And that there is no Swearing by any thing which the Swearer thinks not God For though men have sometimes used to swear by their Kings for feare or flattery yet they would have it thereby understood they attributed to them Divine honour And that Swearing unnecessarily by God is but prophaning of his name and Swearing by other things as men do in common discourse is not Swearing but an impious Custome gotten by too much vehemence of talking It appears also that the Oath addes nothing to the Obligation For a Covenant if lawfull binds in the sight of God without the Oath as much as with it if unlawfull bindeth not at all though it be confirmed with an Oath CHAP. XV. Of other Lawes of Nature FRom that law of Nature by which we are obliged to transferre to another such Rights as being retained hinder the peace of Mankind there followeth a Third which is this That men performe their Covenants made without which Covenants are in vain and but Empty words and the Right of all men to all things remaining wee are still in the condition of Warre And in this law of Nature consisteth the Fountain and Originall of JUSTICE For where no Covenant hath preceded there hath no Right been transferred and every man has right to every thing and consequently no action can
to be regarded but the Truth yet this is not repugnant to regulating of the same by Peace For Doctrine repugnant to Peace can no more be True than Peace and Concord can be against the Law of Nature It is true that in a Common-wealth where by the negligence or unskilfullnesse of Governours and Teachers false Doctrines are by time generally received the contrary Truths may be generally offensive Yet the most sudden and rough busling in of a new Truth that can be does never breake the Peace but only somtimes awake the Warre For those men that are so remissely governed that they dare take up Armes to defend or introduce an Opinion are still in Warre and their condition not Peace but only a Cessation of Armes for feare of one another and they live as it were in the procincts of battaile continually It belongeth therefore to him that hath the Soveraign Power to be Judge or constitute all Judges of Opinions and Doctrines as a thing necessary to Peace therby to prevent Discord and Civill Warre Seventhly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the whole power of prescribing the Rules whereby every man may know what Goods he may enjoy and what Actions he may doe without being molested by any of his fellow Subjects And this is it men call Propriety For before constitution of Soveraign Power as hath already been shewn all men had right to all things which necessarily causeth Warre and therefore this Proprietie being necessary to Peace and depending on Soveraign Power is the Act of that Power in order to the publique peace These Rules of Propriety or Meum and Tuum and of Good Evill Lawfull and Unlawfull in the actions of Subjects are the Civill Lawes that is to say the Lawes of each Common-wealth in particular though the name of Civill Law be now restrained to the antient Civill Lawes of the City of Rome which being the head of a great part of the World her Lawes at that time were in these parts the Civill Law Eightly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the Right of Judicature that is to say of hearing and deciding all Controversies which may arise concerning Law either Civill or Naturall or concerning Fact For without the decision of Controversies there is no protection of one Subject against the injuries of another the Lawes concerning Meum and Tuum are in vaine and to every man remaineth from the naturall and necessary appetite of his own conservation the right of protecting himselfe by his private strength which is the condition of Warre and contrary to the end for which every Common-wealth is instituted Ninthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the Right of making Warre and Peace with other Nations and Common-wealths that is to say of Judging when it is for the publique good and how great forces are to be assembled armed and payd for that end and to levy mony upon the Subjects to defray the expences thereof For the Power by which the people are to be defended consisteth in their Armies and the strength of an Army in the union of their strength under one Command which Command the Soveraign Instituted therefore hath because the command of the Militia without other Institution maketh him that hath it Soveraign And therefore whosoever is made Generall of an Army he that hath the Soveraign Power is alwayes Generallissimo Tenthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the choosing of all Counsellours Ministers Magistrates and Officers both in Peace and War For seeing the Soveraign is charged with the End which is the common Peace and Defence he is understood to have Power to use such Means as he shall think most fit for his discharge Eleventhly to the Soveraign is committed the Power of Rewarding with riches or honour and of Punishing with corporall or pecuniary punishment or with ignominy every Subject according to the Law he hath formerly made or if there be no Law made according as he shall judge most to conduce to the encouraging of men to serve the Common-wealth or deterring of them from doing dis-service to the same Lastly considering what values men are naturally apt to set upon themselves what respect they look for from others and how little they value other men from whence continually arise amongst them Emulation Quarrells Factions and at last Warre to the destroying of one another and diminution of their strength against a Common Enemy It is necessary that there be Lawes of Honour and a publique rate of the worth of such men as have deserved or are able to deserve well of the Common-wealth and that there be force in the hands of some or other to put those Lawes in execution But it hath already been shewn that not onely the whole Militia or forces of the Common-wealth but also the Judicature of all Controversies is annexed to the Soveraignty To the Soveraign therefore it belongeth also to give titles of Honour and to appoint what Order of place and dignity each man shall hold and what signes of respect in publique or private meetings they shall give to one another These are the Rights which make the Essence of Soveraignty and which are the markes whereby a man may discern in what Man or Assembly of men the Soveraign Power is placed and resideth For these are incommunicable and inseparable The Power to coyn Mony to dispose of the estate and persons of Infant heires to have praeemption in Markets and all other Statute Praerogatives may be transferred by the Soveraign and yet the Power to protect his Subjects be retained But if he transferre the Militia he retains the Judicature in vain for want of execution of the Lawes Or if he grant away the Power of raising Mony the Militia is in vain or if he give away the government of Doctrines men will be frighted into rebellion with the feare of Spirits And so if we consider any one of the said Rights we shall presently see that the holding of all the rest will produce no effect in the conservation of Peace and Justice the end for which all Common-wealths are Instituted And this division is it whereof it is said a Kingdome divided in it selfe cannot stand For unlesse this division precede division into opposite Armies can never happen If there had not first been an opinion received of the greatest part of England that these Powers were divided between the King and the Lords and the House of Commons the people had never been divided and fallen into this Civill Warre first between those that disagreed in Politiques and after between the Dissenters about the liberty of Religion which have so instructed men in this point of Soveraign Right that there be few now in England that do not see that these Rights are inseparable and will be so generally acknowledged at the next return of Peace and so continue till their miseries are forgotten and no longer except the vulgar be better taught than they have hetherto been And because they are essentiall
disturbance of the Peace of the Common-wealth Secondly by falsé Teachers that either mis-interpret the Law of Nature making it thereby repugnant to the Law Civill or by teaching for Lawes such Doctrines of their own or Traditions of former times as are inconsistent with the duty of a Subject Thirdly by Erroneous Inferences from True Principles which happens commonly to men that are hasty and praecipitate in concluding and resolving what to do such as are they that have both a great opinion of their own understanding and believe that things of this nature require not time and study but onely common experience and a good naturall wit whereof no man thinks himselfe unprovided whereas the knowledge of Right and Wrong which is no lesse difficult there is no man will pretend to without great and long study And of those defects in Reasoning there is none that can Excuse though some of them may Extenuate a Crime in any man that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge because they pretend to the Reason upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime one is Vain-glory or a foolish over-rating of their own worth as if difference of worth were an effect of their wit or riches or bloud or some other naturall quality not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority From whence proceedeth a Presumption that the punishments ordained by the Lawes and extended generally to all Subjects ought not to be inflicted on them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poore obscure and simple men comprehended under the name of the Vulgar Therefore it happeneth commonly that such as value themselves by the greatnesse of their wealth adventure on Crimes upon hope of escaping punishment by corrupting publique Justice or obtaining Pardon by Mony or other rewards And that such as have multitude of Potent Kindred and popular men that have gained reputation amongst the Multitude take courage to violate the Lawes from a hope of oppressing the Power to whom it belongeth to put them in execution And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own Wisedome take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the Authority of them that govern and so to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse as that nothing shall be a Crime but what their own designes require should be so It happeneth also to the same men to be prone to all such Crimes as consist in Craft and in deceiving of their Neighbours because they think their designes are too subtile to be perceived These I say are effects of a false presumption of their own Wisdome For of them that are the first movers in the disturbance of Common-wealth which can never happen without a Civill Warre very few are left alive long enough to see their new Designes established so that the benefit of their Crimes redoundeth to Posterity and such as would least have wished it which argues they were not so wise as they thought they were And those that deceive upon hope of not being observed do commonly deceive themselves the darknesse in which they believe they lye hidden being nothing else but their own blindnesse and are no wiser than Children that think all hid by hiding their own eyes And generally all vain-glorious men unlesse they be withall timorous are subject to Anger as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt the ordinary liberty of conversation And there are few Crimes that may not be produced by Anger As for the Passions of Hate Lust Ambition and Covetousnesse what Crimes they are apt to produce is so obvious to every mans experience and understanding as there needeth nothing to be said of them saving that they are infirmities so annexed to the nature both of man and all other living creatures as that their effects cannot be hindred but by extraordinary use of Reason or a constant severity in punishing them For in those things men hate they find a continuall and unavoydable molestation whereby either a mans patience must be everlasting or he must be eased by removing the power of that which molesteth him The former is difficult the later is many times impossible without some violation of the Law Ambition and Covetousnesse are Passions also that are perpetually incumbent and pressing whereas Reason is not perpetually present to resist them and therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears their effects proceed And for Lust what it wants in the lasting it hath in the vehemence which sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easie or uncertain punishments Of all Passions that which enclineth men least to break the Lawes is Fear Nay excepting some generous natures it is the onely thing when there is apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the Lawes that makes men keep them And yet in many cases a Crime may be committed through Feare For not every Fear justifies the Action it produceth but the fear onely of corporeall hurt which we call Bodily Fear and from which a man cannot see how to be delivered but by the action A man is assaulted fears present death from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him If he wound him to death this is no Crime because no man is supposed at the making of a Common-wealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbes where the Law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance But to kill a man because from his actions or his threatnings I may argue he will kill me when he can seeing I have time and means to demand protection from the Soveraign Power is a Crime Again a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries for which they that made the Lawes had assigned no punishment nor thought it worthy of a man that hath the use of Reason to take notice of and is afraid unlesse he revenge it he shall fall into contempt and consequently be obnoxious to the like injuries from others and to avoyd this breaks the Law and protects himselfe for the future by the terrour of his private revenge This is a Crime For the hurt is not Corporeall but Phantasticall and though in this corner of the world made sensible by a custome not many years since begun amongst young and vain men so light as a gallant man and one that is assured of his own courage cannot take notice of Also a man may stand in fear of Spirits either through his own superstition or through too much credit given to other men that tell him of strange Dreams and Visions and thereby be made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things which neverthelesse to do or omit is contrary to the Lawes And that which is so done or omitted is not to be Excused by this fear but is
of naturall reason cannot choose but draw to it in all times a very considerable part of the people And the Spirituall though it stand in the darknesse of Schoole distinctions and hard words yet because the fear of Darknesse and Ghosts is greater than other fears cannot want a party sufficient to Trouble and sometimes to Destroy a Common-wealth And this is a Disease which not unfitly may be compared to the Epilepsie or Falling-sicknesse which the Jewes took to be one kind of possession by Spirits in the Body Naturall For as in this Disease there is an unnaturall spirit or wind in the head that obstructeth the roots of the Nerves and moving them violently taketh away the motion which naturally they should have from the power of the Soule in the Brain and thereby causeth violent and irregular motions which men call Convulsions in the parts insomuch as he that is seized therewith falleth down sometimes into the water and sometimes into the fire as a man deprived of his senses so also in the Body Politique when the Spirituall power moveth the Members of a Common-wealth by the terrour of punishments and hope of rewards which are the Nerves of it otherwise than by the Civill Power which is the Soule of the Common-wealth they ought to be moved and by strange and hard words suffocates their understanding it must needs thereby Distract the people and either Overwhelm the Common-wealth with Oppression or cast it into the Fire of a Civill warre Sometimes also in the meerly Civill government there be more than one Soule As when the Power of levying mony which is the Nutritive faculty has depended on a generall Assembly the Power of conduct and command which is the Motive faculty on one man and the Power of making Lawes which is the Rationall faculty on the accidentall consent not onely of those two but also of a third This endangereth the Common-wealth somtimes for want of consent to good Lawes but most often for want of such Nourishment as is necessary to Life and Motion For although few perceive that such government is not government but division of the Common-wealth into three Factions and call it mixt Monarchy yet the truth is that it is not one independent Common-wealth but three independent Factions nor one Representative Person but three In the Kingdome of God there may be three Persons independent without breach of unity in God that Reigneth but where men Reigne that be subject to diversity of opinions it cannot be so And therefore if the King bear the person of the People and the generall Assembly bear also the person of the People and another Assembly bear the person of a Part of the people they are not one Person nor one Soveraign but three Persons and three Soveraigns To what Disease in the Naturall Body of man I may exactly compare this irregularity of a Common-wealth I know not But I have seen a man that had another man growing out of his side with an head armes breast and stomach of his own If he had had another man growing out of his other side the comparison might then have been exact Hitherto I have named such Diseases of a Common-wealth as are of the greatest and most present danger There be other not so great which neverthelesse are not unfit to be observed As first the difficulty of raising Mony for the necessary uses of the Common-wealth especially in the approach of warre This difficulty ariseth from the opinion that every Subject hath of a Propriety in his lands and goods exclusive of the Soveraigns Right to the use of the same From whence it commeth to passe that the Soveraign Power which foreseeth the necessities and dangers of the Common-wealth finding the passage of mony to the publique Treasure obstructed by the tenacity of the people whereas it ought to extend it selfe to encounter and prevent such dangers in their beginnings contracteth it selfe as long as it can and when it cannot longer struggles with the people by stratagems of Law to obtain little summes which not sufficing he is fain at last violently to open the way for present supply or Perish and being put often to these extremities at last reduceth the people to their due temper or else the Common-wealth must perish Insomuch as we may compare this Distemper very aptly to an Ague wherein the fleshy parts being congealed or by venomous matter obstructed the Veins which by their naturall course empty themselves into the Heart are not as they ought to be supplyed from the Arteries whereby there succeedeth at first a cold contraction and trembling of the limbes and afterwards a hot and strong endeavour of the Heart to force a passage for the Bloud and before it can do that contenteth it selfe with the small refreshments of such things as coole for a time till if Nature be strong enough it break at last the contumacy of the parts obstructed and dissipateth the venome into sweat or if Nature be too weak the Patient dyeth Again there is sometimes in a Common-wealth a Disease which resembleth the Pleurisie and that is when the Treasure of the Common-wealth flowing out of its due course is gathered together in too much abundance in one or a few private men by Monopolies or by Farmes of the Publique Revenues in the same manner as the Blood in a Pleurisie getting into the Membrane of the breast breedeth there an Inflammation accompanied with a Fever and painfull stitches Also the Popularity of a potent Subject unlesse the Common-wealth have very good caution of his fidelity is a dangerous Disease because the people which should receive their motion from the Authority of the Soveraign by the flattery and by the reputation of an ambitious man are drawn away from their obedience to the Lawes to follow a man of whose vertues and designes they have no knowledge And this is commonly of more danger in a Popular Government than in a Monarchy because an Army is of so great force and multitude as it may easily be made believe they are the People By this means it was that Julius Caesar who was set up by the People against the Senate having won to himselfe the affections of his Army made himselfe Master both of Senate and People And this proceeding of popular and ambitious men is plain Rebellion and may be resembled to the effects of Witchcraft Another infirmity of a Common-wealth is the immoderate greatnesse of a Town when it is able to furnish out of its own Circuit the number and expence of a great Army As also the great number of Corporations which are as it were many lesser Common-wealths in the bowels of a greater like wormes in the entrayles of a naturall man To which may be added the Liberty of Disputing against absolute Power by pretenders to Politicall Prudence which though bred for the most part in the Lees of the people yet animated by False Doctrines are perpetually medling with
in Ezek. 1. 20. the Spirit of life was in the wheels is equivalent to the wheels were alive And Ezek. 2. 30. the Spirit entred into me and set me on my feet that is I recovered my vitall strength not that any Ghost or incorporeall substance entred into and possessed his body In the 11 chap. of Numbers verse 17. I will take saith God of the Spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them and they shall bear the burthen of the people with thee that is upon the seventy Elders whereupon two of the seventy are said to prophecy in the campe of whom some complained and Joshua desired Moses to forbid them which Moses would not doe Whereby it appears that Joshua knew not they had received authority so to do and prophecyed according to the mind of Moses that is to say by a Spirit or Authority subordinate to his own In the like sense we read Deut. 34. 9. that Joshua was full of the Spirit of wisdome because Moses had laid his hands upon him that is because he was ordained by Moses to prosecute the work hee had himselfe begun namely the bringing of Gods peoplâ—… into the promised land but prevented by death could not finish In the like sense it is said Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his not meaning thereby the Ghost of Christ but a submission to his Doctrine As also 1 John 4. 2. Hereby you shall know the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flâ—…sh is of God by which is meant the Spirit of unfained Christianity or submission to that main Article of Christian faith that Jesus is the Christ which cannot be interpreted of a Ghost Likewise these words Luke 4. 1. And Jesus full of the Holy Ghost that is as it is exprest Mat. 4. 1. and Mar. 1. 12. of the Holy Spirit may be understood for Zeal to doe the work for which heâ—… was sent by God the Father but to interpret it of a Ghost is to say that God himselfe for so our Saviour was was filled with God which is very unproper and unsignificant How we came to translate Spirits by the word Ghosts which signifieth nothing neither in heaven nor earth but the Imaginary inhabitants of mans brain I examine not but this I say the word Spirit in the text signifieth no such thing but either properly a reall substance or Metaphorically some extraordinary ability or affection of the Mind or of the Body The Disciples of Christ seeing him walking upon the sea Mat. 14. 26. and Marke 6. 49. supposed him to be a Spirit meaning thereby an Aeriall Body and not a Phantasme for it is said they all saw him which cannot be understood of the delusions of the brain which are not common to many at once as visible Bodies are but singular because of the differences of Fancies but of Bodies only In like manner where he was taken for a Spirit by the same Apostles Luke 24. 3 7. so also Acts 12. 15. when St. Peter was delivered out of Prison it would not be beleeved but when the Maid said he was at the dore they said it was his Angel by which must be meant a corporeall substance or we must say the Disciples themselves did follow the common opinion of both Jews and Gentiles that some such apparitions were not Imaginary but Reall and such as needed not the fancy of man for their Existence These the Jews called Spirits and Angels Good or Bad as the Greeks called the same by the name of Daemons And some such apparitions may be reall and substantiall that is to say subtile Bodies which God can form by the same power by which he formed all things and make use of as of Ministers and Messengers that is to say Angels to declare his will and execute the same when he pleaseth in extraordinary and suâ—…naturall manner But when hee hath so formed them they are Substances endued with dimensions and take up roome and can be moved from place to place which is peculiar to Bodies and thâ—…refore are not Ghosts incorporeall that is to say Ghosts that are in no place that is to say that are no where that is to say that seeâ—…ing to be somewhat are nothing But if Corporeall be taken in the most vulgar manner for such Substances as are perceptible by our externall Senses then is Substance Incorporeall a thing not Imaginary but Reall namely a thin Substance Invisible but that hath the same dimensions that are in grosser Bodies By the name of ANGEL is signified generally a Messenger and most often a Messenger of God And by a Messenger of God is signified any thing that makes known his extraordinary Presence that is to say the extraordinary manifestation of his power especially by a Dream or Vision Concerning the creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in the Scriptures That they are Spirits is often repeated but by the name of Spirit is signified both in Scripture and vulgarly both amongst Jews and Gentiles sometimes thin Bodies as the Aire the Wind the Spirits Vitall and Animall of living creatures and sometimes the Images that rise in the fancy in Dreams and Visions which are not reall Substances nor last any longer then the Dream or Vision they appear in which Apparitions though no reall Substances but Accidents of the brain yet when God raiseth them supernaturally to signifie his Will they are not unproperly termed Gods Messengers that is to say his Angels And as the Gentiles did vulgarly conceive the Imagery of the brain for things really subsistent without them and not dependent on the fancy and out of them framed their opinions of Daemons Good and Evill which because they seemed to subsist really they called Substances and because they could not feel them with their hands Incorporeall so also the Jews upon the same ground without any thing in the Old Testament that constrained them thereunto had generally an opinion except the sect of the Sadduces that those apparitions which it pleased God sometimes to produce in the fancie of men for his own service and therefore called them his Angels were substances not dependent on the fancy but permanent creatures of God whereof those which they thought were good to them they esteemed the Angels of God and those they thought would hurt them they called Evill Angels or Evill Spirits such as was the Spirit of Python and the Spirits of Mad-men of Lunatiques and Epileptiques For they esteemed such as were troubled with such diseases Daemoniaques But if we consider the places of the Old Testament where Angels are mentioned we shall find that in most of them there can nothing else be understood by the word Angel but some image raised supernaturally in the fancy to signifie the presence of God in the execution of some supernaturall work and therefore in the rest where their nature is not exprest it may be
his successors may probably enough have crept into the Religion of the Jews But seeing it is not likely our Saviour would countenance a Heathen rite it is most likely it proceeded from the Legall Ceremony of Washing after Leprosie And for the other Sacrament of eating the Paschall Lambe it is manifestly imitated in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in which the Breaking of the Bread and the pouring out of the Wine do keep in memory our deliverance from the Misery of Sin by Christs Passion as the eating of the Paschall Lambe kept in memory the deliverance of the Jewes out of the Bondage of Egypt Seeing therefore the authority of Moses was but subordinate and hee but a Lieutenant to God it followeth that Christ whose authority as man was to bee like that of Moses was no more but subordinate to the authority of his Father The same is more expressely signified by that that hee teacheth us to pray Our Father Let thy Kingdome come and For thine is the Kingdome the Power and the Glory and by that it is said that Hee shall come in the Glory of his Father and by that which St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. 24. then commeth the end when hee shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father and by many other most expresse places Our Saviour therefore both in Teaching and Reigning representeth as Moses did the Person of God which God from that time forward but not before is called the Father aud being still one and the same substance is one Person as represented by Moses and another Person as represented by his Sonne the Christ. For Person being a relative to a Representer it is consequent to plurality of Representers that there bee a plurality of Persons though of one and the same Substance CHAP. XLII Of POWER ECCLESIASTICALL FOr the understanding of POVVER ECCLESIASTICALL what and in whom it is we are to distinguish the time from the Ascension of our Saviour into two parts one before the Conversion of Kings and men endued with Soveraign Civill Power the other after their Conversion For it was long after the Ascension before any King or Civill Soveraign embraced and publiquely allowed the teaching of Christian Religion And for the time between it is manifest that the Power Ecclesiasticall was in the Apostles and after them in such as were by them ordained to Preach the Gospell and to convert men to Christianity and to direct them that were converted in the way of Salvation and after these the Power was delivered again to others by these ordained and this was done by Imposition of hands upon such as were ordained by which was signified the giving of the Holy Spirit or Spirit of God to those whom they ordained Ministers of God to advance his Kingdome So that Imposition of hands was nothing else but the Seal of their Commission to Preach Christ and teach his Doctrine and the giving of the Holy Ghost by that ceremony of Imposition of hands was an imitation of that which Moses did For Moses used the same ceremony to his Minister Joshua as wee read Deâ—…teronomy 34. ver 9. And Ioshua the Son of Nun was full of the Spirit of VVisdome for Moses had laid his hands upon him Our Saviour therefore between his Resurrection and Ascension gave his Spirit to the Apostles first by Breathing on them and saying Iohn 20. 22. Receive yee the Holy Spirit and after his Ascension Acts 2. 2 3. by sending down upon them a mighty wind and Cloven tongues of fire and not by Imposition of hands as neither did God lay his hands on Moses and his Apostles afterward transmitted the same Spirit by Imposition of hands as Moses did to Joshua So that it is manifest hereby in whom the Power Ecclesiasticall continually remained in those first times where there was not any Christian Common-wealth namely in them that received the same from the Apostles by successive laying on of hands Here wee have the Person of God born now the third time For as Moses and the High Priests were Gods Representative in the Old Testament and our Saviour himselfe as Man during his abode on earth So the Holy Ghost that is to say the Apostles and their successors in the Office of Preaching and Teaching that had received the Holy Spirit have Represented him ever since But a Person as I have shewn before chapt 13. is he that is Represented as often as hee is Represented and therefore God who has been Represented that is Personated thrice may properly enough be said to be three Persons though neither the word Person nor Trinity be ascribed to him in the Bible St. Iohn indeed 1 Epist. 5. 7. saith There be three that bear witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these Three are One But this disagreeth not but accordeth fitly with three Persons in the proper signification of Persons which is that which is Represented by another For so God the Father as Represented by Moses is one Person and as Represented by his Sonne another Person and as Represented by the Apostles and by the Doctors that taught by authority from them derived is a third Person and yet every Person here is the Person of one and the same God But a man may here ask what it was whereof these three bare witnesse St. Iohn therefore tells us verse 11. that they bear witnesse that God hath given us eternall life in his Son Again if it should bee asked wherein that testimony appeareth the Answer is easie for he hath testified the same by the miracles he wrought first by Moses secondly by his Son himself and lastly by his Apostles that had received the Holy Spirit all which in their times Represented the Person of God and either prophecyed or preached Jesus Christ. And as for the Apostles it was the character of the Apostleship in the twelve first and great Apostles to bear Witnesse of his Resurrection as appeareth expressely Acts 1. ver 21 22. where St. Peter when a new Apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas Iscariot useth these words Of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out amongst us beginning at the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day that hee was taken up from us must one bee ordained to be a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection which words interpret the bearing of Witnesse mentioned by St. John There is in the same place mentioned another Trinity of Witnesses in Earth For ver 8. he saith there are three that bear VVitnesse in Earth the Spirit and the VVater and the Bloud and these three agree in one that is to say the graces of Gods Spirit and the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper which all agree in one Testimony to assure the consciences of beleevers of eternall life of which Testimony he saith verse 10. He that beleeveth on the Son of man hath the