to all reciprocal duties belonging to their offices And if oaths should be taken to disable them in due performance of their offices or enjoyn them to unlawful or unfit actions beyond their respective relative duties they are invalid But although these Oaths cannot amount to a Paction yet is their use good For first the solemn manner and place of delivery being at the alter cannot but deeply imprint in Kings their duty to God to whom and his Laws they are to be obedient aswell as the meanest subject then by promising to govern according to Law Justice or the like they are put in minde that since their office is chiefly for their subjects good they are to apply these rules to that purpose at least so far as they see them thereto available And so again subjects by these oaths come to know that God aswell as the law enjoyns them obedience In Aristocraties and Democraties the capitulation is supposed between the whole state and each member but in a Monarch between the whole community and the Monarch Subjects in Polarchies have no Oaths from the collective body nor do the particular members of the state give any to the whole as the subjects in Monarchies do to the Prince And this because each member in the state as having a share in the state and the state being not the whole state or soveraignty without him he is neither in reason obliged to do it to them nor much less they to him For as in the first case his share being something it were absurd to demand of himself security for himself so in the second to give security where none is taken seems unreasonable So that the maine security which Polarchies have against the revolt of the people is in their own forces and numbers making so great a share of them that with themselves and dependants they are commonly the greater party of such as have arms And therefore subjects can never ease themselves of the oppression of Polarchies without foraign help or of some of the States against the rest or else when war hath so far wasted these heads themselves and their forces as the subjects may have strength enough to revolt But the single persons of Monarchs being disabled to prevail altogether by force must relye also upon Oaths and such obligations as may prevaile more by love then fear Now to come to the example of Kings Covenanting with their people it is oftenest urged in David Who as first of his family and one that God intended to have firmely settled in that office was thereupon to have the more solemn and notified entrance And for the peoples stronger obligation to acknowledge and serve him he was to receive his annointings again as by their appointment and consent and they also to that purpose to promise him obedience and service For surely none can think it was in Judahs or Israels power whether or no he should have been their King being before annointed by Gods direction without consent of either of them So that their former King being now dead we must suppose that in Justice they could do no otherwise secondly nor in prudence he being of such merit in himself and having besides A great host like the host of God Although these considerations as also his gifts made the Elders of Iudah first anoint him yet I finde no expression of the peoples doing it or that the people or Elders made any Covenant with him And as for Israel the Covenant spoken of must be understood in pursuance of that made with Abner who as in the chief command had made Ishbosheth Sauls son King before to whose face he threatens to give the kingdom to David And therefore when in pursuance thereof he makes a league with David to bring all Israel to him It is to be understood of a league with Abner first made for after the league between them Abner now calleth David Lord and King and saith He will gather all Israel to David to make a league with him that he might raign over all that his heart desired Here is indeed obedience and subjection promised on the peoples part when they should make this league with him but what was the engagement from this or any other King to subjects by way of Covenant I finde not But to proceed on this enquiry concerning Davids Covenanting that which was probably Abners aime besides his thirst of treacherous revenge was indemnity for his past act against David and therefore he durst not come till he had sent messengers on his own behalf Which David accepts upon condition that he should bring his wife Michal with him or else no forgiveness expressed in that phrase of anger Thou shalt not see my face except c. And likely it is Abner was taken into favor also which might appear by Davids feasting him and Ioabs envious killing him and by Davids mourning for him afterwards And therefore his Covenanting with Israel afterwards can be interpreted as before noted but a promise of indempnity from him according to and in pursuance of the promise formerly made to Abner who had before undertook and prevailed To bring Israel and Benjamin to him So that after Abners death and their Kings it was much more reason they should come to David for this Covenant then he to them And it is to be noted that they send to him he comes not to them as he did formerly to Iudah with whom it was more likely he should have made a Covenant if it had been necessary that kingly right and power had depended on Paction and consent of people Therefore this Covenant could not imply equal stipulation or resignation of any royal power because then Iudah had more reason to have pressed it as having more power to stand on their tearms with David For they being not in like trouble and confusion might have also joyned with Israel against him nor was his strength then so great and formidable as afterwards But their not doing it as not having offended by resisting David as Israel had done seven yeers together makes it evident that this covenant imported nothing but an act of oblivion or the like and that it was not at Davids suite as summoning them to settle him in his throne but at theirs to be settled by him in their liberties which were probably to be the same that their brethren of Iudah already had And therefore they say unto him We are thy bone and thy flesh because those of Iudah might else presume to much as being his kin acknowledging also to him before they speak of Covenant that God had appointed and said unto him Thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And their annointing is not ascribed to freedom in them to have refused but it is said They annointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel that is acknowledged him King as God had appointed And to shew that this League
For although the Law had been given to the whole people yet are they not to interpret it but to do according to the sentence of law which they shall teach And under the notion of the Judge that shall be in those dayes he is to be obeyed either actively or passively however tyrannical or unjust his sentence may appear because between plea and plea or where law is on both sides pleaded there the definitive sentence is to be enquired and obeyed from this supreme Judge onely that is as before said either actively by prosecuting according to their utmost devoire all his lawful commands or passively by enduring the penalty or punishment in cases plainly against the Law of God For as Gods Law in regard he is the fountaine of power and supreme Judge of all ought in the first place to be obeyed so even in that very case disobey the Magistrate they did not inasmuch as where obedience or penalty were both set before them as eligible they might chuse either of them But however active resistance or rebellion there called doing presumptuously and not hearkening is neither in lawfull or unlawfull commands that is neither on the right hand nor on the left to be tolerated but to be punished as so presumptuous an offence doth deserve with no less then death to the end that all Israel or the whole People may fear and do no more presumptuously or attempt again to rebell And least it might yet be doubted what manner of person this should be that must have such great obedience the next Verse by way of Prophesie shews the other Officer that should follow Judges that when they should come unto the Land which the Lord God gave them and should possess it and dwell therein they should both desire and have a King set over them And this being a state of Government best befitting that Peace and Plenty they were then to enjoy must needs be acknowledged given as an accomplishment and increase of their other blessings For under that notion God promiseth it to Abraham as aforesaid That Kings should come out of him and the like again he promiseth to Sarah That Kings of People should be of her the like was promised to Jacob Kings shall come out of thy Loins who again as the next Father to the Tribes gives it particularly to Judah as an high blessing to be setled on him in right of that primogeniture which his elder Brother had forfeited namely that this promised Scepter should not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till the Shiloh come In which last Promise under the notion of Lawgiver and of Scepter in the singular number we may well understand the Judge and King before mentioned All which would be well considered by those that fancy other Governments to that of Kings or think that the Israelites might at the time when they had full Possession of the Land have chosen any other Government aswell Not marking that it was as expresly foretold they should have a King as that they should possess the Land for the words run in the future When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations that are about me It is not said If thou shalt say no such conditionall but an express duty or Prophecy For the conjunction and here used And shalt possess it and dwell therein and shalt say c. makes all of them equally certain And the Peoples fault in choosing a King afterwards Gods punishment of giving him in his anger we must impute to other circumstances as being done in a hasty humor of diffidence of Gods protection who was then their King that is till then had governed in chief himself and was to have his advice and consent asked in all great and extraordinary occasions During which time of more personal and immediate undertaking their protection their suddain desire of alteration was the same reproach to him in his providence and care for their personal securities as their murmuring for choice of food was formerly in the wilderness for as then Quailes Manna c. things in themselves good and to be acknowledged great blessings were given in anger because unseasonably and distrustfully demanded so now also this promised blessing of kingship because asked upon the fear of Nahash and the power of the Ammonites was the occasion of Gods punishing them in the first person that should have it in regard they had demanded it in a way derogatory to him as if distrusting his care or power in their preservation It was unseasonable also because they had not as yet the full possession of the land and so no time as yet according to Moses appointment for asking of kingship from God And that they were not as yet in full possession of the land nor such a state of secure dwelling therein as could be called rest appears amongst other things in that they had not as yet attempted the rooting out of Amaleck which should have been done upon their first setling according to Moses words It shall be when the Lord thy God giveth thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven thou shalt not forget it And because they neither had yet so possessed the land as to do this thing therefore did God appoint that person to do it which he had given them as King by way of anticipation in answer to their hasty unseasonable petition And that this prediction of kingship was aswell mandatory as prophetick to this their time of future rest and enjoyment of the promised land and so unseasonable as yet to be put in execution will most plainly appear by the comparison of it with that prediction and appointment of setting up a Temple when they should be in the like condition for the establishment of Gods house and of his deputy in that house as the tokens of Glory and rest of the Nation being to be accomplished together as shall be more fully declared hereafter for it was plainly then foretold them Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes Which being the very same expression as was used of them when there was no King in Israel it must import that then they should be under a higher restraint then before and that they should be confined both to one place of publike worship and to one person of publike Judicature then and not till then For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you but when ye go over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you
whereupon those commands are grounded or else it will be to be really superior and to be under but in shew onely For if the Prince like an ordinary Subject must submit his Will to the guidance of a superior understanding he is himself a Subject and if you take away his negative voice you take away his Soveraignty Which thing you also do when you deprive him of his rightful power either to chose publick Councellors or to admit of things Councelable and to limit proceedings in debates For as no man can command in what he is not himself free or with Justice demand Obedience from another to what he hath not yet approved as just in himself so ought Princes to have their Understandings and Consciences satisfied and free in themselves before they should impose on their subjects Therefore I should think that those which meet in Parliaments to represent the desires of such and such particular places and people can neither of right assemble without leave from the Prince whose Authority can onely make them a publike and lawful Convention nor Debate or Councel remedies further then they have leave and direction from him too or else they shall become both Parties and Judges Because in these expedients the whole Kingdom or a greater part then themselves and those they stand for coming many times to be involved their private interest and judgement must in reason and duty submit to that which is impartial and common Nay if the Prince should give them leave to Debate and Vote and they by joyning many private interests should by a kinde of confederacy make a joint claim to the effecting any thing to the ruine of a few all were yet free for the Prince out of his common and impartial relation to them all to approve or deny as shall stand most valuable by generality or neerness of concern according to the rules before spoken of But when persons representing particular places shall so far be suffered to proceed in Debates of remedies as to come to Vote conclude and councel what is to be done and have for their so doing no Authority but what was issuing from themselves there can be nothing more destructive to the good government of a Kingdom then it for it quite subverts the whole frame of Monarchy and runs that nation into the mischiefs of Anarchy whose absurdities have been formerly spoken off And this is none other then if a single induction or else some single appetite or affection should of it self and by its own presure upon us prevail to the determination or execution of any thing we do without taking notice of that general appetite and affection in us called Will which by reason it hath been founded upon the continual experience of the different concerns and issues of these lesser appetites can be onely able to say which and how far any of them should prevail For subjects are to be taken onely as competent Judges of pleasant and unpleasant but it is the Prince his Prerogative from God to judge of good and bad And again although a negative voice of Soveraignty should be allowed to restrain execution in these debates yet the inconvenience of the subjects discontent will necessarily follow Inasmuch as they shall finde their desires now ackowledged fit in the resolutions of so many and onely crossed by one which shall never fail to be construed out of some private interest of his own or of some neer about him Therefore as these Assemblies of Parliaments are necessary that thereby the wants and grievances of subjects may be known so do some Kingdoms wisely order to have many of them that is in every Province or Shire one by which means the peoples desires might be more particularly and distinctly known and accordingly represented to the Prince in a more general Councel to be considered of Whereupon these Assemblies of several Provinces meeting in several places cannot at the same time joyn in the same Vote as out of plot in their desires and remedies but their several requests and opinions being referred to a superior common censure and determination each one will conclude that their private desires were denyed or delayed out of publike regard And then the Prince truely knowing the general desire and grievance of his subjects may accordingly provide for them without endangering publike discontent which is like to fall out when people shall be puâ— in minde of any new suit by knowledge of their Representatives Votes which they will be always thinking the most equal and just rule to follow especially while they are consonant to their own desires And yet in truth nothing more unreasonable For suppose the major number wise and unprejudiced yet when the number of dissenters are taken out of them the over number can be onely taken as concluding that way who cannot avail in credit against the Prince the representative whole And therefore he for that very cause and for that general account and trust sake he is put into he ought in all reason to have his Conscience and judgement left free and to be first satisfied whether these proposals are correspondent to the Laws of God and Nature and truely conducent to publike benefit But partiality and interest doth so commonly cloud and byass subjects in these kinde of determinations that we may observe that in those places and those very men that do most enveigh against this negative voice in the King as leaving too arbitrary a power in him that is to rule are all that while assuming to themselves that should be ruled an indisputable power of suspention or refusal in any Law or Precept of his in case they in their judgements finde them contrary to the rules of Religion or publike Justice And since all the reason which private persons can give for this their denyal is but for some particular danger and hazard to themselves they must thereupon grant that he that is to answer for the welfare and safeties of others ought much more to have this liberty allowed him But certainly had not Scripture and Antiquity acknowledged the Prince to have an indisputable right unto a Negative voice and to be himself so supreme in all Councels and Debates as that their chief value and reputation should depend on him and not on them I see not how the frequent threats of giving Children Babes and Women to be Kings and Princes could be taken as a true woe or malediction but rather otherwise For that in such places where their Kings were restrained from personal medling by such disability it must follow that the Councellors proceeding with greater freedom in the deliberations and conclusions they shall proportionably also cause the happiness of that State or Kingdom to encrease by that encrease of uncontrolable Authority they shall by this means have By all which we may finde that it is so far from being Tyranny or Oppression that it is true prudence and duty in Princes as to admit of no Councels or Councellors
father to his servants Master and yet is the same person so if a Duke or Lord as those of Edom and the Philistins sometimes were be absolute their smalness of territory debars not their right to Monarchy more then the Master of a less Family to be in his Office of government as absolute as he that hath a greater And the like may be said of a Soveraign Officer in a Commonwealth also if he be supreme and not accountable to any one earth for his actions as was that famous Cesar and other the dictators in Rome For whosoever hath the sole independent prerogative of Kan-ning from which the word King is derived he is truely a King also but so far as he hath not his soveraignty is so far defective and Anarchy introduced which shall be our next discourse THE SECOND BOOK OF GOVERNMENT AND Its Ground and Foundation according to VULGAR POSITIONS The Introduction IN pursuance of my first Proposal for establishment of publike Peace and good I have in the passed Book brought Monarchy to its just height and that from such general and obvious Arguments from Reason and Scripture as do to my thinking point directly to that end and no way else But being to write in an age where contrary prejudice will not ordinarily give men ability or leisure to attend the discovery it fareth therefore with me as with that Artificer who having brought something unexpectedly to pass is forced for the farther confirmation of the thing it self to submit it to the handling and tryal of the spectators in their own way And because it may again be objected to what purpose all this ado since these very ends are or may as well be attained by the ways already approved of and that by men of great Eminence and Learning amongst us It seems therefore now again needful to take all this Structure of Government in pieces and to examine it farther part by part according to that Fabrick and those materials which are usually brought to the constitution thereof In which Discourse having first cleered and rectified those vulgar political Maxims from their former rubbish and disguise I shall then prove that so much of each of them as is compatible with just Government and the ends thereof are to be appropriate to Monarchy onely In this my undertaking in the defence of Gods true Vicegerent amongst us there seems to lye on my part the like task as there did formerly on Moses in the manifestation of God himself that is not onely to prove the Monarch to be so by way of plain demonstration but also to extend this Reason to the eating up of all those serpentine shews wherewith these Janni and Jambri the rebellious Enchanters of our times have hitherto deceived the people and thereby kept them in a kinde of an Egyptian darkness And in this course I shall begin first with â—he head thereof the fained unity in Aristocracies and Democracies CHAP. I. Of Anarchy THey that suppose the word to imply onely that state and condition of men where no Government at all is exercised will much to seek to finde out any instance or example for proof of their Assertion or indeed any possibility how it should at all come to pass Therefore that which hath hitherto been spoken of the original of Government in the fourth chapter of the precedent book must be understood onely as supposing it to have its Reason in Nature and that thereby it might have been known although the same had been by no other light or positive Law found out and appointed and not as determining that ever men were or could be left by a careful God in such a confused condition where like a brood of Cadmus wanting all manner of Breeding and Instruction they should fall to the slaughter of one another till their bleeding wounds and not his Precepts or Providence had taught them rules of Subjection No it would be too plain and great compliance with Athiesm to think Gods Omniscience in foreseeing or his Goodness in preventing so small or slack as to leave man a Creature upon whom above all the rest he had bestowed such workmanship and care to the common hazard and condition of that which was meanest Leaving therefore these fancies aside that think men should like swarms of Bees be brought to choice of Policy without any foregone experience or knowledge of Government we must make Government the elder brother to Anarchy For so we finde that while there were but two persons in the world the woman by special appointment was to have her desires subject to her husbands and he was to rule over her And as Wives so Children and Servants were subject to the Father of the Family in such sort that no man but being either Head or Member of a Family by one relation or another either had or yeilded subjection And even before Kings to finde an Ex Lex or person like Caine under no protection and consequently under no Government was a vain attempt And this prime or more natural Prerogative of Primo-geniture and Father of the Family although it had not the name yet it had the truth and reality of Monarchy and that as well in the Authority as Unity of the person as by that phrase the father of the Moabites and Amonites to this day may appear which must signifie succcession of these Monarchical Governors in right of the firâ—t Father So that now under the name of King there is but a continuance and restitution of that ancient form by change of the name from Pater Familiae to Pater Patriae importing a continuance of Power and Office notwithstanding the encrease of tâ—rritory and number of Subjects For the length of life that gave these Ancients advantage to see many Families peopled out of their own loyns gave them also right of Government in chief But this common Parent now dead Pride Covetousness Ambition c. quickly clouded the respect due by birthright to the elder brother who by the Law of God should rule over the other and have their desires subject to him and so through stubbornness did break that course which if it had been observed would have made Monarchy perpetual but not being so Anarchies succeed For the divided Families finde many occasions of controversie amongst themselves which they in their reputed equality of Jurisdiction knew not how to determine because not submitting to that hereditary right before spoken of by the which Isaac had appointed Esau as servant to Jacob as apprehending him the elder and which Jacob also for Peace-sake gave to Judah amongst the Tribes of Israel namely to be perpetual Law-giver discord and dissention quickly broke in upon them And this no doubt was the state of the old world before the flood for we read not of any Monarchs but that as men began to multiply in the earth so began they for want of restraint to be ruled onely by their own likings which the heads of
people without a King nor can any other Record instance in any state of eminence which oweth not its foundation to that form of policy For it was after-times onely that as the inordinate lusts of men began more to abound so sought they to be rid of restraint and therefore by little and little strived to take wholly away or clip the wings of Majesty that under pretence of ruling by Law and so interpreting and ruling those Laws by themselves they might at last be under no rule at all And now come Aristocracies and Democracies being but Anarchies and onely differing in number of Commanders from one another to be called Governments lawful against all Reason For since political government must be onely where there is a distinct relation in the persons of Governors and governed here they are both the same and so confounded that they are not to be known one from another and so cannot be rightly called Governments For Government is then onely when the Governor as Agent and the governed as Patient stand reciprocally ready to operate towards the Governors ends Towards the Governors ends I say for so far as the Patient or governed hath design respective to it self in any thing it cannot be called passive or subject but active rather and so no Government And although Government may be in degree more or less in comparison of one government to another as the vertue of Agency and Patibility stand in measure increased or remitted yet doth the due execution of smaller commands make government as well as the greater and obedience to the smaller Prince is as truly constitutive of Government as to the greatest whilst his Subjects stand to their powers ready to receive and obey his Laws For albeit that Government being an active quality ows its chief essence to the Governor from whence it did at first proceed and take force yet since this active quality is not of force to act otherwise then as in the Patient as its proper subject it cannot therefore be called government farther then that Correlate the Patient or Subject stands reciprocally fitted to admit the Governors power and impression Fitted I say it must be hereunto according to its relation as aforesaid so as to work as the Agent or Governor shall see cause which fitness doth then constitute Government to be and continue even whilst there is no real execution according to the vertue thereof For Government may be while this Agency is not outwardly exercised but cannot at all be where the relations themselves are not distinctly and properly ready and kept up to act according to occasions So that now in the confused fabrick of these Polarchies we can by no means finde true Government as being so disabled to finde where to fixe and place this active quality of governing and the passive quality of governed For we shall not onely finde it uncertain whether the people or their own Magistrates and Senate are Governors because sometimes the people or governed are really taking on them to act their own wills as chief but also supposing the Government in the Senate it will be still as hard so to fix it there as to make it to be Government For in that fancied equality which they have in power to one another who shall be superior and if the persons in the major Vote be Soveraigns and the lesser Vote and the rest of the people Subjects who shall then be Soveraigns when these major voters come by variety of occasions to be many of them on the minor side will not this render both relations and the Government it self thereupon founded to be a thing unfixed and uncertain or but Anarchy new-named For the whole body cannot be Soveraigns because the minor part must be still subject to the major which major part again having no personal or certain assurance it shall continue so the Government also may be so or not so and consequently the same persons be Governors or not as occasions shall lead them Take then away or unsettle the relation of Governors and that of governed will cease and be unfixed also And whereas again Monarchies receive their main assurance from the mutual oaths between Governor and governed where are the Oaths between State and people as between Monarch and people do they swear to observe the Laws or do the people swear to them Alleagiance Or if God be omitted as not seemly to call him in as party or witness to a mock Government so unlike his then the trust must be supposed implicite from the people to them and so to pass with their election Whereupon since this Election and trust is to the several and particular members all alike and equal as they came to be chosen how can some Members under a minor Vote be excluded without breach of that trust whereby they had equal power Or was the trust to the whole joyntly which is yet hard to be conceived since they must be elected personally and severally how can a Major Vote exclude John Will Thomas and it may be a hundred more of equal trust to themselves To say they trusted a major is unconceiveable because trust follows Election and Election must have a personal and definite and not a notional object such as a Major Vote is which must be always contingent and unfixed And if this major Vote have not its power from Election how comes it to have it or how differs it from the tyranny of Anarchy which is of all tyranny the worst for every man is herein oppressed of his neighbour and the weaker and fewer in continual vexation of the stronger and more in number with this aggravation also that herein they seem remediless because their many oppressors for so the major part must be have the countenance of Justice for what they do They that tell us that since it is requisite that all controversies should be ended it is therefore fit that a major part should be taken as the whole forasmuch as in few or no cases universal assent being to be expected without this rule no decision or opinion of the Assembly could be had But then I pray what necessity of putting your selves into such a condition of Government as must put you to this necessity Indeed this collection of a major Vote is many times necessary and good in Parliaments and Assemblies in Monarchies where the results and opinions of the whole Council can no otherwise appear to the Prince who for that cause assembled them and where he himself representing the whole people joyntly shall in the determination afterwards be on which side he pleaseth and so leave none uninterressed or unconsenting Joyntly I say for that in him onely as being but one person there can be an united and general consent and representation For if that rule be true that what is the concern of all should have the consent of all how shall these Shires and Burroughs that come now as minor voters to have their Representatives
not hurt it self And whereas the preservation of Peace and Unity of Society consists in the Unity of the definitive Sentence here through the many heads the Union cannot be Or if as to the definitive part they say there may be an Union by collection of major Votes It is true so indeed that there is an Union in the major Vote to that purpose but is there not another Union in the minor Vote also against the major and then it will come to pass that this Affirmative and Negative Unions as contrary to one another will make a plain disunion and so this supposed great head of the State be two heads at least and consequently this political body being divided also it cannot resemble the natural which is therefore called individual Nor can there be any firm Unity here expected because the true cause and foundation thereof is wanting in that they can never look on one anothers proprieties or theirs below them with equal concern and interest as the Monarch doth to the generality of his Subjects For he having his honor and profit arising from all in general and each one in particular is careful of all alike whereas they unite and agree but out of necessity For at first whilst they were yet rising and were called factions they were united in their several interest by hope of common gain and now having attained it they settle upon this confederacy through a common fear of losing it So that hope chiefly unites Factions and fear chiefly keeps them so and settles Anarchies Because if their hope of gain by overthrowing their own former Authority had not exceeded their fear of so doing they had not associated ar first and so now if their common fear of loss from a Soveraign Authority did not exceed their present hopes of gaining from one another they would not so continue And farther if in States the major part be the whole why have not the Magistrates and Decrees their derivative Power from them onely If they be not the whole as indeed no part can be the whole but that it is necessary for more fulness of power that the acts proceed in the name of the whole how come the lesser and absent parties which might perhaps together make the major to be rightly brought in to authorise those actions that are not theirs but done against their consents So that to make an Unity in this head or definitive sentence since the whole body of them and each one severally was alike trusted there must be first a full Union of consent amongst themselves and then no remedy but to serve them as the Cardinals in the Popes election that is to keep them immured without Light or Food till they agree At which time it may be the minor side will be as likely to overcome the major by their gift of abstinence as the major would have before probably done them by force But as this would make the Office of a Statesman little desired so would it give causes a slow dispatch and yet till it be done I see not how the opinion of the major part can carry the sense of the whole so as to make the whole and a part to be but the same thing Again if acts must pass in the name of the whole as the body intrusted and in nature and reason more worthy then a part why must not an appeal proceed so also And since they which bring their causes thither bring them to the whole assembly until they have their unamous verdict they have not what they came for their trust to the whole being but in part satisfied Nay if things be well considered they never or seldome have the major sence of the Senate neither for to omit external force which is wont to awe them if there were such an equal number deducted from the major side as will answer those on the minor that disagreed from the major in opinon there will be many times so inconsiderable a number of persons left to make the odds that one would think it strange that three or four men should be held for and represent the whole Senate And yet it must so usually be with such that instead of multitude of Councellors would have multitude of Commanders whereupon all Publike debates come to be managed as in a kind of Lottery which none knows the issue of until the casting up of Votes be taken For none can say that reason doth at all prevaile there as of it self but as swayed by heat of passion and contention not by weight or number of arguments but by noise or number of voices And this because in taking the issue of the debate the reasons or arguments given by either side are not left to be considered of by those that are to take the resolutions of the Senate or Parliament but the greater number of persons on either side doth constantly of it self so prevaile as it cannot be called the reasonable but accidental or occasional result or determination of such or such a counsel Which is only avoidable where one person of power hath liberty to give his reasonable sentence and judgement therein and that according as he shall finde the force of the reasons given on either side to prevaile and not to be any way tyed to the blind hazard of number One person he must be and that of power above them also For if they be more you shall fall into the same hazard again of having their sentence and debate ended by meer force and number also And if this one person have not sole power but be obnoxious unto any then terror from without and not reason from within may again sway his determination But it is answered That the major part is representatively the whole Senate as the whole Senate is representatively the whole people But how I pray can this be brought to pass how can a shaddow make a shaddow or deputies make deputies Whence can the major part derive their power Not from the people they trusted the whole not from the minor part for they oppose them and cannot give what they have not Why did not the major Vote of the eleven Tribes pretend to this right against Benjamen No they knew they could not of right assume the power of the whole of themselves they being but a part therefore in absence of their Judges the next united whole on earth they take power and authority from the fountain thereof namely from God himself by whose assent and direction they came to be enabled herein and until then their resolutions in their assemblies had no rightful power for execution but should have been reckoned amongst other Anarchical acts of self-liking as wanting lawful authority otherwise to impose on their brethren and equals And if delegates have not this power of delegation in themselves where is it expressed or warranted from their originals the People And therefore supposing the voice and determination of the whole Senate may be of force to
Country says it to be They that think that the rectitude of the Laws of God and Nature should correct and set right the positive constitutions of men will finde great difficulty truely to number and state what these Laws are In which doing and in the interpreting and applying them so much difference and uncertainty will still arise that we shall again many times want another light to distinguish the beams of these lights from other lights and also to shew when they point directly to the business in question and when not As for instance in these Laws known to be received from God himself how ready are we to balk their litteral interpretation and judge of the fitness of their execution according as they refer to publike Utility and that by rules of our own several reasons and many times again to trust to their letteral interpretation onely Nay all that acknowledge them for rules practise sometimes one way sometimes another Wherupon denying that either way is to be wholly followed it must needs leave it doubtful whether in our so doing in each particular we lean not too much to one hand or other For so theft by them punished with restitution is in other places capital and on the contrary Adultery by them punished with death is by others censured in a less degree Look we to the Laws of Nature if thereby they intend those rules and customs which are universally common to us with beasts how shall man which so much differs from them pick competent rules of good and fitting both his and their particular What shall he live in Herds and Droves and again destroy Policy and Property to enjoy their communion And because we would not have them kill us must we with the Banians think it unlawful to kill them And in particular what Law in Nature shall we finde to found marriage upon And if we seclude man to follow some rule proper to his own species and put him for his practice and imitation to learn what is done by others you will finde this practical direction still render him as defective in ability to determine what is just and good and what not as before For here if you take in that practice of mankinde which is most common for a rule who shall be â—udge of that or shall the fewer and wiser Nations be governed by the more foolish Shall Idolatry and slavery be thought founded on Nature because so generally heretofore and yet practised If by Law of Nature you mean the best Reason who shall judge of that also Can you think that any Nation People Faction or single person will condemn themselves of imprudence and injustice in what they do And since each people hath its peculiar Reasons for what they act or determine and it may be unknown to any but themselves how shall they therin be guides to the practice of others and their Reason be found a reason every way fit for guidance of such as must necessarily differ from them But experience being so ready to testifie both these differences and their irreconcilableness amidst that partial respect each people casteth to its own customs I shall not need to instance therein but shall here somewhat examine that rule which men have more generally concluded to be so infallibly and universally binding as to suffice for application and direction in all particulars namely the rule of Do as thou wouldst be done unto This rule must in it self be acknowledged as a direction most fit and full for the steering us in our deportments and abearances one towards another being accompanied with such other helps and qualifications as hereafter shall be spoken of but if taken alone and at liberty made use of according to each ones separate judgement it will put us upon the same uncertainty almost we had before For it makes the will and choice of each man the direction for good and equity so that what I would be content another should do to me I may do to him And then considering how weak and differing the judgements and wills of men are right and wrong must have the same chance So that he that is a fool and cannot tell what is for his own avail may yet have hereby liberty to prejudice and impose on me And again he that through vitious inclination and custom cannot distinguish of good or bad just or unjust will have the same advantage over me too As for example one that is brought up or otherwise agrees in opinion with such as allow a Community of wives or other things may he not by this rule make use of my wife being himself before willing I should not do the like to his They that seem to make this Rule more pointing and express by enlarging it say that because I would not have any thing done to me against my liking I should not therefore act on another against his And then according to this rule they say the taking away a mans wife against his liking is a plain wrong and a sin I hope it is although all private parties should consent By this turning of the rule they conclude indeed against the first inconvenience but avoid not the uncertainty of the direction but onely alter it For whereas before I might act according to my own will and opinion of right and wrong now is not the Will and Opinion of the Agent but of the Patient made Judge and I am to suspend execution till the consent thereof be had and known And then what help to the discovery of right or wrong since every mans Will and judgement as before is still made Judge And besides by its limitation it will put a stand to all business For if I must not act until I know anothers liking I shall then it is to be presumed not act his liking but in what may be first apprehended to my own advantage nor he so from me And then in case of stubbornness how shall business be done and who shall judge when the denyal is just or unjust for nothing in the rule can do it Again what right hath the Will of another to be a stint and direction to mine as though my Will could not tell mine own desires and were not as infallible in judging right and wrong as anothers And take it which way you please instead of giving the rules of directions for mens Wills to follow in the choice of good and bad mens wills are made directive to it And although it be a rule certain and infallible as aforesaid in its self as to the general stating of us just or unjust before God who judgeth by the heart and general inclination as hereafter shall more appear yet in respect of us and the imbeâ—ility and partiality of our Reasons in using and applying it it comes to be but contingent and fallible in particular managery as not having direction and plainness enough to shew in each action whether we have done well or no. As for example I
judge however they may be in their sentence outwardly agreeing amongst themselves as in order to fear or other interests of their own Nor can two or more persons judge their own causes because of the same reasons and also for that in this equality none can have whole interest or power But to make these things plainer by instance When any two parties that are at difference shall have their cause decided by any of the ordinary Judges appointed to that purpose the failing of that Judge therein so far as to make him culpable must happen upon the grounds before noted For if he have not concern enough so as to think his duty honor and benefit to be founded and established by the practice of his imployment of a Judge he will then wholly neglect it or proceed so coldly therein as for want of through examination of the full evidence of the truth of things on both sides his judgement can be no otherwise then accidentally true and upright And this inconvenience will not only be subject to mislead him in his first sentence and decision of causes but farther also in case that bribery friendship c. have caused partial judgement through want of entire and equal concern it is the usual hindrance to all re-examination that should arise from equity by way of appeal insomuch as untill the oppressed party can find a way how to make the redress of his grivance appear of more availe and concern to the party appealed unto then it is to him in the state it now stands he can never rationally expect reparation or furtherance from him therein From all which it must come to pass that none but God Almighty can be held as the onely universal ready and upright Judge so far as to be the onely true object of appeal Because as he hath onely omniscience sufficient to know all circumstances that are necessary to the stating of Equity in each cause so hath he alwayes such whole and high interest and concern in the good of his creatures as to make him always ready to hear all complaints Whereas all other subordinate Judges must as they stand in degree below him and so differenced in respect of concern differ in their readiness to entertain appeals and make redress By which means the Monarch who hath highest interest power and trust delegated from God and hath his honor and interest of more concern in performance of Acts of Justice then any other even in such degree that he cannot find any reward else so valuable to divert him must be presumed thereupon the readiest to hear and amend when any thing in this kind shall be offered And if the ordinary grievances of the poor or meaner sort be not by him taken into consideration like the more remarkable appeals from great ones it proceeds still from the same cause of want of concern not in him who if he be an entire Monarch and no wayes made obnoxious or defective in propriety would hear poor and rich alike as equally subâ—ects but for want of concern in other persons of ranke and eminence that should present it and state it unto him Which is a thing so difficult to be done as experience tells us that it is the great obstacle of all redress namely for want of concern to make another take so much pains as throughly to examine the state of the grievance and so apply himself towards redress For we shall finde all private men to be still so full of their own business as not to be sufficiently enclined to make any other of such equal concern as to remit the present care thereof to intend his beyond respect to themselves And although the sense of pitty and Justice be in all men naturally yet the difficulty will still lye How for want of concern to make him attentive in such length of discourse as must be requisite to make my cause appear so Upon which ground it is that Fees are given to Advocates Councellors c. by those that are appellants and suters hereby engaging them to take their Clients business into concern and make it their own Men have hitherto thought Justice in the abstract to be before it in the concrete as though truth or the affections or adjuncts of things could have been before the things themselves But as Divine Justice is but the procession of that equity which resideth in God the supreme Judge of all whereby the affairs of all creatures are disposed and ordered according to the known measure and equality which their respective merits in relation to the good and Oeconomy of the whole doth require so neither was humane Justice before the administrators thereof no more then positive Law was before the Law-maker who by that did publikly determine what was fittest to be done in the Vierge of his jurisdiction also Therefore men making Justice to be juris statio or dependant on the sentence or determination of the Law could not choose but to have considered onward that that jus or law must again have dependance on the Law-maker or him that hath juris-dictio had not a kind of conspiracy in the flattery of private mens abilities towards the judging right and wrong made them determine Justice measurable by Law and Law by themselves that so onward publike Justice might be submitted to private sense of equity whereby at last all should resolve into opinion In which regard it is no wonder that subjects in general do in order to obtain their fancyed degree of liberty agree amongst themselves upon such maximes as they conceive restrictive of the exercise of their Princes power over them upon the same ground as servants use to do towards that of their masters For so experience tells us of those measures of good and bad masters which are by servants usually entertained amongst themselvs in order to deny all masters and their actions to be good farther then they are respective to or carried on towards their interests or approbations Thus the master that is most profuse for diet apparel c. is called the best and most kind by his own and by all other servants too Whereas that master that measures these things by his own conveniencies of estate c. and makes restraint accordingly is called Churle and miserable And so again such masters as permit liberty and licentiousness have the servants joynt applause as just and kinde unto them whereas such as restrain and punish them for faults are by them called cruel and unjust For how should it be expected they should like to be straightned or punished for what they had formerly approved Nor can men under servitude of any kind separate themselves so far from their interests in relation that way that is in desiring freedom as to take the interest of the correlate into equal concern with their own and not rather still to chose and fix upon such reasons and maximes as shall most confine the will of their governor to be submitted to theirs and
it as an evil in it self onely tolerable to avoid a greater insomuch as if right to command should depend on general approbation there is no Prince but must come to be disobeyed and in that case we shall be much troubled who there shall be to state it and to appoint what number or quality of Subjects may be thought fit to be hearkened unto herein But since I cannot finde how any in the condition of a Subject stands answerable for the guilt thereof if he have been passive onely or that he is obliged to search into his Soveraigns Right or break his Allegeance upon any jealousie of his Title who being to rule over others besides himself there is no appearing reason his single judgement or Conscience should bear sway against theirs I therefore saw no lawful way of prevention or redress but what must come from God He he if we will at all conceive him to be or to be regardful of humane affairs must with submission be lookt upon as a setter up and guider of persons and affairs of so great import which have the good or ill of so many depending on them When any Prince by force or craft shall ascend the Throne although the several Victories by him gained and Plots by him laid as also all those ways and contrivances by which they were brought to pass be to us fully discovered and they do thereupon look but like things of ordinary production and hazard what shall we thereupon acknowledge no deity but that of Fortune Or that which is worse shall we acknowledge his power and Government and yet so far mistrust his Wisdom or Goodness as to think he hath not done it with due respect to his own glory and our deserts In which case how can disobedience become us who cannot at all be knowing of Gods intentions herein and therefore ought with patience to expect the event for many times he that subjects may for the present look upon as an Usurper may be by him that can onely search Kings hearts sent as a blessing in the place of him that in ordinary humane judgement had a greater right thereunto But when I say this may so happen it is not to grant Subjects any liberty to assist any one against their present Prince under hopes or colour of any such blessing or to excuse them that did so for this were to overthrow what was said before towards publike Peace and of submission to the present Soveraign That which I would have men in this case seriously to consider of is that if they will not admit possession to have right in those Changes then they must conceive the Government of each Christian Nation to be for perpetuity impropriate to one single Family by God Almighty as that of the Jews was to the lyneage of David so as notwithstanding any irreligious unjust or oppressive acts in them no alteration from Heaven should be expected either for abdication of that lyneage or dispossession of the right heir by any other of the same Family But if there be neither president or hope that such an establishment hath ever anywhere been or can reasonably be looked for then it must fall out that all bonds of Government and Allegeance stand now dissolved upon failance of just Title or else it is to be justly claimed by possession For certainly the heirs of Conquerers and Usurpers can reign by no higher right then was that of their predecessors from whom their Title was derived but it may be often lower as failing of the vertue of their first founder And I do for my part believe that Caesar had a greater right to the Soveraignty of Rome then any of his posterity not because he conquered more forraign Nations or added more to the Roman Territory then they for that he did not but for such like crafts and policies whereby he purchased that his perpetual Dictatorship and for those very Conquests he made at home by all which he became enabled to assume which others may interpret usurp the Soveraignty to himself For having hereby power to keep those his warlike Country-men at peace and Agreement amongst themselves and restore them to their general liberty from the Tyranny of all those factious heads who like true Usurpers indeed had engrossed all liberty and power to themselves by pretence of being Keeepers of the Liberties of the people and were so continually ready to engage their Nation in Civil war through their own sidings he might I say more truely in that case be called his Countries preserver then where a Forraign enemy is onely resisted by how much Civil war is more destructive and dangerous then any other and by how much the establishment of good Government and order in our native Country is more heroick then to do it abroad In which respect also Caesar may worthily have precedence in his parallel with Alexander who on the other side quietly at home succeeded in a Monarchy already setled by his victorious Father and his Conquests over other Nations were but victories to his own honor and benefit and not to their encrease of liberty being under Monarchs before And although Caesars victories are usually thought more honorable as being more dangerous and difficult yet it is not hardness alone in the means but goodness of the end that must compleat true honor In consideration of all which as I see not how the imputation of an Usurper or the like can in Conscience make any good excuse for Subjects resistance or insubjection to that present Soveraign which is now by divine Providence set over them and who is thereupon to be taken as the Ordinance of God so not in prudence neither inasmuch as their opposing or repining at him is but the likely way to make him that was an Usurper before against the right of another to become hereby also a Tyrant against them as fearing their insurrections Whereas else it is like he will by milde and meritorious usages towards them strive to gain by vertue what he wants in Title More safe therefore no doubt it is for subjects to acquiesce and in this case to testifie their obedience and submission to God by submission to this higher power by his Providence set over them who as his Vicegerent and by reason of that present Office he is by him put in is as it were espoused into part of his power and cannot from thenceforth and whilst he continues their Soveraign be any more charged with any personal faults and failings then a married Wife can by those of the Family be taxed with any former dishonest act whereby that respect due to her as Mistress of the Family should be taken off nay although formerly she had been but one of their own fellow servants because this duty is not due to her as such a woman seperately considered but according to her present relation as being such a mans Wife and so comes to be part of that duty they owe to their Master Nor
world that did or could considerately and unprovoked by self-respect act or intend the harm and prejudice of another Which natural quality of Love and Charity belonging unto sensitive Agents and Creatures as such and according to their approach to divine resemblance and that degree of Will and Understanding which the divine fountain of these things hath made them partakers of in order to be the assisting instruments in the course of his Providence appears most eminently in man as having most of God in him that is of this love and desire of benificence And although Women and Children for want of intention or understanding sufficient do not place their Love and Charity on so high and worthy objects as men unto whom the true ends of Society and honor are more apparent yet that this affection of love and benificence is naturally and perpetually existent in them is manifest by their constant exercise hereof towards Dogs Birds Monkeys and the like Nay we shall finde girls that cannot in judgement reach so high as those providing apparel and food for their Babies with most high and great indulgence as supposing they do hereby as really pleasure and benefit these as their Parents do them Observe we again in them what aversion they have on the other side to the doing of harm even so that from the time they do once begin to know what death is they will not be induce to kill any thing especially if it have not been represented or made known unto them as a Creature very harmful to others at which time their appetite of more general benefit may well be supposed to lead them thereunto And when any doth carelesly and in sport kill innocent Creatures it is onely want of remembrance and full apprehension of the true loss and suffering thereof for had we not by incogitancy and custom been led thereunto a man should no more kill a Fly then a souldier without other engagement would kill a Man Nay farther that vindicative prosecution of other things as it hath its aim in Justice and intends natural security is a part of our divine resemblance and that pravity of our Wills therein may seem to arise from the want of right understanding of right and wrong and of the true intentions and provocations of others to our prejudice and not out of premised purpose of harming them without self-respect For it is no more possible for any man to intend another any ill otherwise then out of self-consideration then it is for him to un-man himself The particulars of our failings and deviations from divine exemplar in harming of other things so as to cause sin is therefore chiefly incogitancy cy either harming them ignorantly or above the measure of the harme received So that self-respect is so far from being the sole fault that misleads us in the punishment of other things that it is all the warrant or reason we can have for doing it Nay so far as we do it not we are then transgressors of Natures Law being then onely become unlike to God our pattern when without or beyond just self-consideration we neglect their good or procure their harm And as the state of things did thus stand good in point of Nature and Reason so still God having given every man charge concerning his neighbor and bidden us love our neighbors as our selves it alters not the first end and intention of loving my self best but rather directs a way to it when it doth by consequence make others good to be mine As for example God having now by the Light and Precepts of Religion reserved to himself all execution of injury and revenge and the better to provoke our reasonable Wills to the obedience hereof and to the entertainment of patience having annexed promises and threats of highest nature to encourage and deter us herein it will follow that since divine command is now stept in the case of benefit arising by private revenge stands altered in true Reason and will if pursued prove a ready course to bring upon my self the like or greater mischief it strived to inflict by making me lyable in that regard to the vengeance of an irresistable and all powerful deity Whereas if I love and serve God or do good to my neighbor as my self as God requires I shall thereby most assuredly do and seek mine own good as Nature enjoyns Now as all Sensitive Agents have as we said so much of God in them as to have a continual readiness and inclination to acts of beneficence as may appear by their readiness in acts of pity and succor so man hath it most as most resembling him Insomuch as there is not any one but had he unlimited and irresistable power would make it his whole endeavor afâ—er personal supplies are satisfyed to be continually undertaking such acts as should procure to others greatest benefit and to himself thereupon greatest thanks Nor can he act or intend the harm of any thing as it stands a Creature in Nature but onely as in consideration of its inclination and readiness to harm others which must still carry on the proof of maâ—s general intention to beneficial performances Nay in our most firce pursuits of revenge against any one or few it is still by us designed and intended as a way to acquire advantage to the atchieving a more high and general benefit to others For let all our endeavours be observed for the attaining power or riches beyond personal use or expence and they will be found of direct intention that we may thereby be able to lay obligations on others As this I say will be found true in the first intentions of all such as do set themselves for the gaining any eminence of honor or greatness so from hence we may discover the ground of that peremptory desire and presumtion of success that each one concludes should answer the reasonableness of their own designs Which as it is made good use of by Fortune-tellers in their constant promises of good luck so is it the great cause of State alterations even because each one being to himself more presuming of his good intentions and deserts then of the contrary he is thereupon more ready to entertain hopes of increase by change then fear of miscarriage therein from the examples of other mens misfortunes happening upon like occasion of whose good intentions he could have no knowledge at all but might well have observed them to have done both imprudently and ill In which or the like enterprizes being again by the will of others hindered hence it is also that those passions first of Anger and then of Revenge do in each one arise namely from the testimony of his own Conscience of the benefit and goodness of his own ends by him designed when he shall be seated in his power For although Custom of Revenge do like Custom in all other sins beget many times prosecution even out of the pleasure thereby onely arising yet this must be ascribed
Office of Christ or King to be accomplished by Christian Kingship in the submission of the Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles that shall bring him presents then this limitation of earthly time had not been so proper as now if it had not foretold of something wherein more remarkably the whole earth should be filled with his glory that is by the glorious appearance of these his Deputies who shall on their several Mountains and little hills in his stead be judging the poor of the people save the Children of the needy and break in pieces the Oppressor whereby the rod of his power out of Sion being generally manifest men shall fear him so long as the Sun and Moon endure Whereas in respect of his own personal Dominion over his holy Church it shall be truely for ever and longer then the Sun and Moon shall endure And again those acts of protection here set down are the proper Offices of Kings or Gods on earth as appears by the like duties appointed for them to do in the 82 Psalm defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy rid them out of the hand of the wicked All in effect declaring that God being unto them a spirit of judgement and putting a divine sentence in the lips of the Christian Kings as Solomon did prophesie they should now by their due and diligent execution of their Offices bring all these things to pass and so make righteousness and peace to kiss each other Wherefore now the glory and prosperity of the Church Gods house and kingdom being thus promised under the blessing of kingship we are to esteem them Antichrists or sons of Belial most especially that do oppose Kings And by those words of David the man that toucheth them must be fenced with iron and the staffe of a spear we may understand this opposition chiefly predicted to happen from within her self when the Church shall have arisen to that strength to be thus fortified That is when Christs succeeding deputies as he foretold to his Apostles should have taking to themselves both Purses and Swords and so under Kingship make use of those Swords and that Mammon at which time although forraign force should harm the Church no more yet sons of Belial should And into the onely hands of these deputies of Christ any may observe them put that shall mark this speech at both times particularly directed to his then Deputies the Apostles and shall farther observe how these things could be accomplished by those persons that were not to fight but in their prosecutions to flye from one City to anothher Who were for attaining their Kingdom that is in attaining the Kingdom of Heaven to sell what they had and give Almes and so provide Treasure in Heaven that faileth not Therefore in their case of more immediate divine protection they could not serve God and Mammon but were to take no thought for their life c. But now because we have before spoken of that prediction of the swords we shall here speak something more of the other And he said to his Desciples There was a certain rich man which had a Steward c. Which whole Parable sets plainly out unto us an alteration to happen to Gods Stewards in his houshould the Church in regard of their trust but whether that more immediate way of protection and illumination given to the first Stewards were the sooner taken from them for personal default as the Parable may seem to denot is not so much material But we may observe this alteration plainly told to come to pass and I say unto you make unto your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations In which words the command of making this friendship being given to them that had not been unjust Stewards and that could neither fail themselves of the continuance of Gods extraordinary trust and assistance and had again a caveat against the trust to this Mammon it must be understood as a direction and warrant what those future Heads of the Church whom they did personate were to do when these former miraculous assistances stould fail At which time for the preservation of publick Peace and Good it might be commendable and lawful for the latter more glorious deputies to support their dignities by keeping back part of those revenues which were in the hands of their subjects since the propriety of the whole was undeniably in that their great Lord and Master whose steward he was And as for the everlasting habitations it is to be meant that the Church and her future Heads should by Gods assistance relieve themselves this way unto the end of the world as in the words For ever formerly spoken of hath been noted That Parable where God suffers himself to be put under the notion of an unjust Judge will farther clear to us that the meaning was to foreshew that alteration and not the whole withdrawing of trust and protection as through abuse For there it is noted how God in his recess should seem not to hear because not so apparently and presently avenging and protecting as formerly insomuch as infidelity should generally infect the earth at Christs coming And therefore this great friend of the Church having brought her to a state of self-subsistance may be supposed to have shut to the door of miraculous assistance which was formerly granted to those his persecuted children now at rest with him and will answer many times but to importunity only And to shew that this alteration was not substraction of trust of Stewardship it is after added that the future Stewards fidelity in their trust of this Mammon shall make them as acceptable as those that were formerly trusted with goods of more Divine Nature He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also â—n much So that now the glory and protection of Christs Church being conjoyned with and made subsistent by that of its Head and the glory of protection of its Head being now to be maintained also by these helps of swords and mammon it follows that as any do go about to bereave them of these trusts by God and Christ put into their hands for the good of the Church they do also thereby rise against the Church and oppose Christ himself and so are Antichrists And if we look to experience for proof of these Prophesies there is nothing more plain then that as Christian kingship did increase in glory or number so did the Church Christs kingdom increase also and that again as those Nursiing Fathers of the Church were through the insurrections and oppositions of those many or the Antichrist eclipsed or lessened so did heresies encrease and the truth decay Our own present senses being able to witness that where this unity is lost in the person that should represent Christ in the
of things actions persons c. as to Civil hope Conscience hath not his correlate as shame which is opposite to Honor unless the passion of Hope be taken in Honor and shame respect reward and punishment present or rather carry it with them Conscience that which is hereafter And thereupon one regards the Sentence and Judgemen of such as have present power the other the commands and power of such as shall judge for the future So that one sort of good Conscience may be want of memory or unaccusing but Honor must be active Absence of guilt contents the one but the other must be possessive And as Conscience is an affection upon affections as they relate to guilt and punishment hereafter so Honor governs affections as they have judgement of things c here and as the known Will of that God I fear can onely oblige me in the one so the Will of those men I esteem in the other And indeed all our affections are as instigated so Governed by hope and fear For under these two as under the desire of attaining good or avoiding bad in the general all things are included and all other affections in the choice of objects have respect towards them that is from observation to judge what expectations of good or harm that is pleasure of sense or honor or pain of sense or shame here or hereafter is like to proceed from them or their different managery and application But then as more go to Heaven by the way of Hell and we had rather have our commendable actions suppressed then the contrary much divulged so fear is stronger then hope for although pleasure be the object of the one and pain of the other yet because pleasure is never so perfect as pain nor can be so fixed and continuing nor again without fear of loss it must therefore belooked upon as the most general and steady guide of our actions Upon which ground we need not wonder at the commonness of superstition nor why as children are scared with Hobgoblins c. so some men little differing from them should be so obnoxious to the terrors and affrights of such as they credit In which case it may happen to these that are negatively superstitious as being scandalized at some Ceremonies which they understand not themselves but which their guides are pleased to blast as under the notion of humane inventions or the like as it doth with that way of affrightment of children also by telling them of Raw head and bloody bones for as to them that for the present understand not that all living things should be so these things are apprehended as really dangerous and terrible because terribly delivered even so under the odium of humane invention Popery or the like are we many times brought to be superstitiously flying those things that are in themselves good and are also by so much the better as being by Christian Authority approved as having the more ancient and Catholike President of the Christian Churches usage For doubtless they cannot be so weak as seriously to believe that those that do refuse communion with the Papists even for that very difference sake which is in many things between them should at the same time they account them erroneous in the service of God and in matters of Ceremonies also implicitely follow them in some other things and upon no other score but because they do so But by these and such like arts it is usual with seditious persons to steal away peoples hearts from their own Church guides and Rulers For upon the same reason that a second dis-affects so far as to spoil the whole harmony so one crossing and unexpected fear raceth that whole method of belief and perswasion we stood before possessed of as to the goodness of our Religion or of our practice therein And that fear is more pressing and prevalent then hope appears in that our hope to attain good can never want our fear of missing it nor can the possession of pleasure want the fear of deprivation We may also observe that deaf men do ever suspect things are spoken to their ill or prejudice even when they may as likely speak to their good The like jealousie is entertained when any whisper in our Company or speak to one another in a language we understand not Nay pleasure is but absence of pain especially that of sense and then we need not wonder why a positive thing should affect more then a negative For pain being as before noted when the spirits are stopped in their wonted motions and it must still happen but they should be more or less so pleasure can neither be high nor lasting but at best mixed and be but by comparison of a less pain to a greater Upon knowledge and due consideration of the prevalence of this passion of fear towards the guidance of men as in a state of subjection it seemed good in the eye of divine wisdom to rank his service and all our returns of duty and obedience as under that notion Nay we may observe that he doth not onely set down the commendations of such as have been dutiful and obedient unto him under the oppression of such as feared him but also for the encrease of this return of duty and service towards himself he is wont to promise a new increase and implantation of fear into the hearts of those parties and people from whom he expects it as being the only steady grace that is effectual herein If we look unto Creatures below us we shall finde that onely such of them are disciplinable and to be made tame and cohabitable as can be brought to be made sensible and subject to our corrections and also kept in such a continual fear of us as not to resist or rise against us to our prejudice Whereas Lions Wolves Foxes and the like which cannot be constantly awed are called Salvage amongst which sort we come to reckon mankinde it self when it shall once arive at that degree of temerity as to be incorrigible and disrespective to Law and Government being then become indisciplinable and impolitical For as to be informidable is to be indomitable so to be indomitable is to be unsociable Because if it were not for this mutual fear every man would be daily affronted and injured by every man Nay the boys and youths as we passed the streets might be inclined even for sport sake to abuse us with dirt or stones or the like did not the terror of punishment to come from us or their Master keep them in aw In which case as it is to be considered that as they are most ready to offer these abuses to other boys or those of their own rank because less to be feared either for personal revenge or complaints so were it not for fear sake especially for that fear which must come from Authority no society could be maintained especially in cases of great import where revenge is ready to work more