they that were to be their guides had been before instructed in the way of Church regiment by Saint Paul himself so far as to be able by tradition to keep their charge upright in all things tending to Godliness and honesty according to those things which they had learned and received and heard and seen in him He in remitting Churches for the rest to be instructed by those their guides he himself had instructed did follow the example of our Saviour himself herein who for that space of fourty dayes he was on earth after his resurrection directed his Apostles in things pertaining to the Kingdome of God or government of the Church Nor can we finde any of them undertaking as before noted to comprise all the particulars of Theology at such time as they write those their most general Epistles which were for all mens direction but kept them as we may presume to be delivered to the heads of Churches amongst other things by tradition and so made use of according to the emergencies of their several Charges But yet the fundamentals of Christianity were in all their Epistles and Sermons most plainly delivered the least and shortest Epistle containing in it the doctrine of faith in Christ love to one another and also of obedience to superiours our necessary guide in performance of them both And that Saint Pauls directions in other matters given to the particular Churches contained neither all expresly that was necessary for them to do nor what was so generally fit and proper for all Churches as that to whom it was directed being to others in most things onely usefull upon occasions as presidents will appear in that Saint Paul writing a particular short Epistle to the Colossians refers them their knowledge of what is farther useful unto his Epistle written unto the Laodiceans willing them that when this Epistle is read of you You cause it to be read of the Laodiceans also and that you likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea Which two Epistles being reciprocally recommended to those particular Churches as of proper directions for them and the Epistle to the Laodiceans being now wanting is must follow that both the fundamentals were set downe in all and each of them and that other admonitions were by the Apostles given upon several occasions and considerations which because they did as heads of Churches then themselves so by their making a distinction in each Church of such as were to rule and instruct from the rest of the Church and that under the notion of such as should cause those Epistles to be read and such as were to hear them read we may also infer that though he made the general direction of his Epistles to the whole Church it was but to make their duty of obedience higher when their guides should command them And so also when he is setting downe general heads for the particular abearance of men in each order it is not his meaning to submit them to their private interpretation of what in them was their duty to perform as Subjects and so consequently leave it to their choice whether they would perform any thing of them or no but to lay on men a stronger obligation to the obedience of their superiours commands since they now finde them to have these general divine directions to that purpose To manifest that these duties of external Christian behaviour were indisputably referred to each Christian head of the Church and that all in that kind necessary was not set down in the Scripture appears in that Saint Paul writing more plentifully to the Corinthians hereof then to any other Church doth not yet profess to have set down all that was necessary but having as he conceived set down what was expedient for them according to the present occasion he concludes And the rest will I set in order when I come Thereby making a plain difference between his power in those things he was to command them as an head of the Church in order to their duty of obedience and those fundamentals of faith and love which he was to preach to them as an Evangelist or a difference in what he did as a general preacher of the Gospel and what he did as their Apostle and Teacher even as one that particularly had authority over them as Christs Ambassadour and as being their father in the Faith And that Scripture and the interpretation and enforcement of the precepts thereof was committed to the guidance and care of the heads of the Churches even under the Gospel also appears by Saint Pauls commending them unto Timothy to the end that he as a guide to the Church might make them profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God or the man having Gods authority may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works that is have sufficient light and authority to command and direct unto all good works And that this power did belong to Timothy as their present guide is made most evident from the uses there set down all of them belonging to the office of the Superiour Namely to teach to reproove to corect to instruct necessarily implying the charge of the Scriptures to be committed to those in authority that were to be eminently active herein that the man of God or the chief Officer in Gods stead like Timothy may know how to behave himself in the houshold of God the Church which is the pillar and ground of truth And where it is commended that the men of Berea searched the Scripture whether the things by Saint Paul alledged were so it is first to be considered that it was before the people had acknowledged Saint Paul their guide and so not bound to submit themselves as to one that did watch for their souls And then this searching must not be construed as if every man had done it in a Bible apart but they being a Synagogue of the Jewes the Scripture must be supposed remaining with the chief thereof onely who are to be understood the searchers and examiners thereof In whose search the rest of the Bereans trusting it made the search go in the name of the whole In effect still prooving that the interpretation and custody of Scripture was not common but belonged to those that were to exercise and not such as were to submit to authority And that the Scriptures charge and custody was entrusted unto the heads of Churches and not vulgarly dispersed in copies may appear by our not having at this day any assurance of the language some of the Gospels and Epistles were written in nor have we any Hebrew copy that we now can relye upon And all because the first copy coming to be afterwards translated into that language the people best understood it caused the care of the single original to be neglected or in time of persecution to be lost by the traditors of those times whereas had each
administration of power there also is unity of Doctrine lost and schism is also brought into the Church as well as confusion into the State The which needs the less to be wondered at in us on whom the ends of the earth are come if we consider what befel the Jews themselves when there was no King in Israel For although they had the oracles of God committed unto them that is they had not only more aboundance of divine precepts but had God himself also by his Priests and Prophets always ready to give them express direction in all doubts as from an oracle yet how plainly doth the instance of Micahs Idols tells us how subject each one is at such times to fraim to themselves not only new forms of Worship but new gods of their own devising and setting up Which by little and little may come to be taken up and countenanced by their divided authority as that was by the Danites who had many equal to and under them to be seduced by an evil example but none above them to keep them and all others conformable All which well considered may instruct us of the reason of our Saviours dark answer to such as had no minde to believe him therein when he saith My kingdom is not of this world This was true first in that this worlds kingdom being not to be compared to his Kingdom in heaven with his Father did not therefore deserve comparatively to be called his or had in that esteem which they that made this question did think of And then we must understand this denial not to reach to his right of Kingship or Super-eminence in the Church and Kingdoms of this world but to the present execution thereof by himself that probably being the very cause of Pilates demand Unto whom he having been by some reported as King of the Jews and he beholding his present mean condition so unlike that of a King it made him scornfully ask Art thou a King then aswel as afterwards scornfully write that he was so And therefore our Saviours answer can import no farther abnegation of his Kingship amongst us then to his own personal execution meaning not to be by him immediately managed here now but by Deputies whom he shall own and empower as King of Kings Whereupon he also saith The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son And he is so far from renouncing his true being a King and title hereto that he says I am a King and that the testification of this truth meaning his right in this Office was the cause of his coming into the world adding that every one that is of the truth heareth his voyce that is he believeth and obeyeth him accordingly So that we are to interpret this denial of our Saviours Kingship to be upon the same reason at this time done as he had formerly charged his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. For although he had wrought all those miracles to evince so much yet would he have them carefull not to cast pearls before swine that is he would have them to be wary in declaring his Divinity before unbelieving Jews as himself was now reserved in publishing his Kingship before a scornful Roman lest he being so straitly bound to another Master might be but the more moved thereupon to turn upon him with reproach And therefore they that think that Christ did deny his true Kingly Right and Office by that answer Thou sayest it may also by the same rule say that at the same time he did also deny himself to be Christ the Son of the living God because he also answereth to that question made by the high Priest Thou hast said it But in this place being newly spoken before the other he may be conceived to have made answer enough for both and so to adjoyn that time of fuller manifestation of his external regency and glory which was the occasion of their demand namely at that time when he as Son of man shall be sitting at the right hand of the power of God By which means his Deputies shall be endued with power of earthly dominion and at that time also when he shall make his own personal appearance in the clouds of Heaven to judge all men at the last day And that he had openly acknowledged this truth himself before appears by that request made to Pilate Write not the King of the Jews but that he said I am king of the Jews So that now unto the deniers or opposers of this truth of his Kingship by obejection of any other truth we may make demand with Pilate What is truth Unto which I suppose they can make no answer but by proposing to us some wilde fancies and collections of their own For whilst they would make the known duty of Charity producing real good by peace be interrupted by some of their speculative duties which cause division and all under pretence of preferring truth to peace they would have us leave that good which evidence of sense and experience tells us to be so in hope to enjoy some contemplative good by them called truth which we cannot apprehend But we conceive that when Christ the Way the Truth and the Life is once on our parts entertained and believed when we have once sought and attained the kingdom of God and its righteousness that is have to our utmost endeavoured to promote the glory and Administration of Christs regency in his Church the pillar and ground of truth then and there are we with gratitude to enjoy those additional blessings which peace bringeth Then and there are we to study to be quiet to seek peace and ensue it and the like which are the proper duties of such as being by Gods grace called are by the God of peace called unto peace And therefore although the Prophet Zachery speaking of the restauration of the Jews and their receipt of the Gospel would have them seek peace after truth that is prefer that truth before all worldly blessings yet where this truth is once received there peace is to be preferred to lesser truths according to good Hezekiahs saying now settled and confirmed in Gods Worship Peace and truth shall be in my days The like was promised to the Jews in their restauration or rather to the Gentile Church abundance of peace and truth And to doth holy David also put mercy before it in his blessing to Ittai saying Mercy and truth be with thee And other graces and blessings are elsewhere more often put before then after truth Nay of such advantage to the preservation of truth it self and of sanctify of life this grace is that we shall find it put first as the way to that Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently lest any man should fail of
saying of Core In which place by Cain and Baalim we may understand revenge and coveâ—ousness the two ordinary spurs to Rebellion personated as in Core we may see pride and rebellion it self brought by Gods justice to deserved punishment and so also counterfeit and dissembling prophesie to come to the like end in Baalim These are spots in your feasts of Charity when they feed with you that is they are such as would overthrow Charity by overthrowing Government and serving their own ends and feeding themselves without fear thereof Clouds they are without water carried about of winds that is all their pretensions of publike good consists in popular oratory whose fruit withereth twice dead plucked up by the roots being spiritually or civilly rotten or dead members they are sit only as thorns for the fire and destruction By raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame we may understand popular insurrections which are but to their own shame and by wandring stars we may conceive their giddâ— leaders for whose unrepented sin is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever when according to Enochs prophesie the lord shall come with ten thousand and of his Saints to execute judgement upon all to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed that is of all things done in disobedience to Gods commands and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners or sinners not fearing God have spoken against him that is against dominion set up by him For these mockers or Antichrists are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaketh great swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of andvantage All which sets forth rebellion in its cause and growth to the life but the last especially namely hope of private advantage this is that which still makes us cry up the heads of Rebellion and their Cause The like description of these Antichrists hath St. Peter but he is something more express in setting forth the way of their prevalence amongst us namely through promises of Liberty and such things as are taking with flesh and blood And this again they do as under colour of moral equity or legal right for saith he when they speak great swelling words of vanity as of the peoples paramount power and Authority they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness that is through temptations thereby to enjoy our lusts and wanton appetites those that were clean escaped from them who live in error while they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption That is although under countenance of their right to be interpreting the Law themselves they do promise liberty unto them yet it falls out otherwise for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage For if after they have escaped the pollutions of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is Pride and Lust which causeth pollution through the Gospel of love they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them namely that one Commandment which Christ gave for all the rest when he said these things I command you that ye love one another Saint Paul also warns Timothy how that in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and Doctrines of Devils that is there shall come Entâ—usiasts whom the devil shall beguile under the shape of an Angel of light and that these shall thereupon speak lies in hypocrisie or deceive others under shew of Religion Being men so wilfully set to entangle and ensnare the Conscienres of others and lead them to the ways of destruction as if their own Consciences were seared with hot irons even by prohibiting as unlawful what was in it self indifferent or lawfully enâ—oyned But more particularly he afterwards sets down the nature and practises of these men that by their unsociable dispositions shall make perilous times in the last days when he calls them lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Of all which this latter age hath had but too true and sad experience to be the fruits of those that are still putting on a form of godliness and denying the power thereof in their lives and actions even whilst they are truely found lovers of themselves and their own pleasures more then God by their covetousness and pride being lead to blaspheme and dishonor his name amongst men by their daily disobedience to their Christian Parents and superiors and thereupon also to be unthankful and unholy in their lives And while they stand partially affected to one another under the notion of more spiritual brotherhood they come to forget all natural ties and relations to the breach of all Truce and Commerce and also by being make-bates incontinent and fierce in their despightful usage and censure of such as be good and peaceable they shew themselves to be Traitors heady high-minded c. But when they are set down for such as creep into houses plainly shewing their love to Conventicles and private Meetings and there leading captive silly women laden with sins that is such weak dispositions as are by them frighted with their Sermons of damnation and also such as are led away with divers lusts or listening after novelty of Doctrine such as are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth they are yet more lively set forth For how should truth or obedience be known when these men are ready with their seditious incantations to oppose and resist the ground and piller thereof the Church and that publike Ministers of Christ that should uphold it after the same manner that Iannes and Iambres formerly withstood Mosses Being reprobate concerning the Faith or having but a false and reprobate Faith for want of that true tryal of Faith the work of Patience and work of love and so being not able to endure persecutions they shew themselves to be none of those that will live godly in Christ Jesus but evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived But our comfort is in the confinement of their prevalence they shall proceed no farther that is no farther then with such silly Auditors for their folly shall be manifest to all men as theirs also was they shall be discovered in their plots against Christs Ministers as those that formerly opposed Gods Ministery in Moses And now farther to prove
assistance in all things we are then to proceed according to the rules of Christian Faith and love in all deportments and actions not otherwise directed by our superiors who also are in this case to be looked upon as the authorized interpreters of the Scriptures as heretofore noted Else it will fall out that each one undertaking to examine and interpret them according to his own wilde fancy and weak and ungrounded method of comprehension and being also strongly through education or interest forestalled in his judgement there will arise to be as many Religions and Opinions as men and interests And that which is yet worse mens natural pride and vainglory will prompt to such presumption of extraordinary revelation that even things blasphemous and destructive of humane society shall in despite of the Church Reason or Authority be set on foot Whereas in truth in things of most private and separate concern the sense of the Church and the Analogy of Faith is to be venerably regarded even as the supreme Christian Magistrate is also in all things of publike concern For in this case we are again fallen within the limits of moral care and consideration And therefore as each mans reason is in him the best guide of what to do in the course of his own affairs so publike Reason in that which hath publike respect to the end that from the knowledge of what is there done there may be a fit and a constant way left for attaining moral prudence and obedience and that according to a well grounded experience and observation of moral and political directions and Edicts Whereby each Subject may from the constancy of the measure and manner of application used by his Prince in rewards and punishments come to frame to himself political methods and schemes of comprehension and knowledge of his duty and benefit in civil deportments as well as he may learn Philosophy by observation of that constancy which is kept up in the course of Nature For she being preserved and governed by uniform rules and laws the same Causes must ever produce the same effects if the Agent and Patient be in themselves and circumstances alike vertuous and the same the which wisdom must discover from a well grounded observation of constancy in her observations for should not natures course be constant species and individual things could not have any steady provision for existence and benefit but causes being indeterminable effects would be so also For it was from the constant observation of one thing following another in all respects alike considered that I come to know any thing even as by continually observing heat to accompany fire I know fire to be the cause of heat And from this constancy in Nature it comes also to pass that what is most naturally done is most uniformly done and so most handsomly and delightfully done Which coming to be imitated by us will be also most vertuously and wisely done but what is not done in natural imitation as following no rule is vitious and ill favoured For folly being a short and false observation in the course of things it concludes to act upon half premises Whereupon the irregular processions and effects thereof come through inequality to be inequity For as truth can be but one but errors divers even so as we noted formerly of beauty and handsom faces vertuous actions have more likeness to one another then vitious For all virtuous actions are done by certain rules and copies and as they agree to these measures their goodness is known and as they differ therefrom they do differ from themselves also and approach to vice Things being thus stated it will follow that more reason knowledge and understanding is but more observation and that an uncontradicted observation is taken for a supreme reason in it self For so for example the motion of gravity because it is observed to accompany all things none or few search the reason of it for there is not a more general or uniform rule in nature to examine it by all proof going from things more generally observed and known to such as are less Whereas to believe the Antipodes and that men upon the same reason of motion of gravity should tend in the same line towards us as we do towards them this seems as difficult for belief as it is different from the usual tendency of things as to our appearance which we call upwards and downwards Nor can it be conceivable to any that will not take pains to get it comprehended from observation elsewhere In which case if men have made and methodized observations aright it may appear that the sum and superiour bodies move in spheres even because the time they are absent and unseen is equal to that they compleat in compassing that half of the sphere which is seen from whence and the observation of eccilpses the earth must be supposed to be spherical also And if this be farther enquired into we shall find that this motion of heavy things downwards is but part of a more general motion and to be so concluded from that more general observation of union And is but the appetite thereof made more observable through this more apparent motion toward union after separation For the common knowledge and observance of boldness as they are unite and keeping close together as by so much more general then the motion of gravity as rest it self is more general then local motion for indeed what is usually called motion and rest are but these two but it is not so observable as the other because rest or union already made hath no variety to cause intent observance as variety of motion doth in the other And therefore it is onely discoverable to such as can un-ravel nature in their contemplation until they come to the bottom and first ground-work thereof For then they shall find both this constant practise of union or adhesion of bodies and also the cause thereof to be the general cause of all causes that is the will and law of God in order to his providence And although inanimates have a kind of specification amongst themselves whereby defire of proper union hath some force as may be seen in that active part of earth the Loadstone in his variation yet they follow in their whole mass the general law of matter in the common and general thirst of union For should there not be a common centre of gravity whereby all earthly things as they stood differenced in weight by dense and rare might have and keep the proper places assigned them Chaos and confusion would follow And therefore this motion of heavy things to the earth being both necessary and natural both for affording a place of receipt and production of creatures and for leaving all without so rare and transparent that the influences of superiour bodies might approach them we must conclude that as the whole earth is more then a part so hath it this attractive force of union greater also in
hath so commanded and so arive at a state of perfect freedom that is to say the highest degree of freedom which humane subjection can admit For liberty as before noted cannot consist in bare freedom to will for then all would have it alike but in liberty to act which must imply power and that the party having it must as an Agent and Superior have others again relating to him as Patients and Inferiors So that degrees of subjection being necessary men then onely come to think they have lost their liberty when they forget that necessary and sure token of duty and obedience to wit humility and proudly overlooking their equals or inferiors would still retain that freedom and power they have over those beneath and be also freed from those above him Thus an insulting Peer or proud Wife if restrained by their Prince or husband from taking their full liberty calls their subjection slavery and do repine and complain thereof usually oftner then the meaner and inferior Subjects or Servants Therefore we may say that slavery is thirst of Liberty and is not proportioned to the measure of Liberty wanting but to what is desired And enjoyment of Liberty being in regard of the Will he that cheerfully obeys twenty commands is freer then he that stomacks any one And therefore contentedness can never truely be tearmed slavery But they that seem to speak most against extream servitude say that it wholly abates the courages of men so that they become unuseful for defence of their Country A man might answer that when all Kingdoms should have due subjection all being valiant alike none would be cowards For valour is not proper to Subjects as Subjects or to be exercised without leave by one man against another And if rebellion and stubbornness can onely make valiant what if we wanted it But if it be necessary to be used against such then it is true that meaner and baser people are not on the suddain so fit for martial affairs as others But this happens rather for want of education and discourse whereby to know and apprehend sence of honor and shame For doubtless they have their lives in as little esteem as the other and should usually dare do more as less apprehensive of danger And wise men as wise must be fearful and therefore usually is the Commander better armed then the common man But the mean bred man is most subject to run because not so apprehensive of the shame And if cowardliness follow subjection then the very discipline of souldiery should amate men most for that it calls for strict obedience and duty and under such tearms of rigour and severity that nothing but necessity can make the meanest subject undertake it The truth is though men of servile condition be at first unswayed by honor the cause of valor and also for a while through ignorance causelesly scared as apprehending battails above their true danger yet experience every day tells us that of these are made good if not the best souldiers at least for foot for as sense of honor and encouragement encrease with them so will valor also Again they coming from an inferior tank and state of former obedience are more hardned against affliction then the other and are beyond them also in discipline and obedience the main supporters of an Army And however an Army of voluntiers may through suddain heat avail in some present enterprise yet an Army can never continue and long subsist of such kinde of souldiers onely But let us suppose valour to follow degrees of honor and that the Yeoman hath more then the Peasant the Gentleman more then the Yeoman the Knight the Lord the Earl Marquess Duke each above other what way shall be now taken to encrease the prowess and strength of a Nation shall we enlarge the number of Nobility or Gentry by taking in and enfranchising those below them to encrease souldiery how shall they then be free when they come by this means to be the meanest and most servile themselvs Shall we place between the Gentry and Peasantry a middle degree of Yeomandry to make the body of an Army of and so refuse the Peasant Each Country hath its own rules herein But it is generally to be known that places of command have voluntaries enow but Souldiers as to the Bulk of them are first made from necessitous persons and then perfected by Discipline But to come to an issue Freedom and Rebellion Tyranny and Slavery are tearms of relation and are the one or the other as they exceed their due limits The Master of the Family that exceeds in his power beyond the law of God Nature and his Prince is a Tyrant and his servants slaves and so is the Prince that rules beyond the Law of God and Nature And the Prince or Master that is straightned from rules or Power below them are Slaves also And again as the Servants or Subjects that resist against such as are lawfully above them are Rebels so when their submission is no farther they are free be their service as servile as it will For the tearms of slavery and tyranny express most usually the parties hatred or anger against such or such persons or authorities and not the truths of the things themselves But if things be rightly understood and considered sociable Freedome or the true liberty of Subjects cannot be separated from subjection and obedience In which condition he is more or less Free as his Prince or Commander is more or less powerfull And this because all Laws of restraint having in their intention and aim the hinderance of the actings of some few Subjects that would else likely break forth to the prejudice of the liberty and free enjoyment of others it will follow that as Laws are more or less enforced and kept up and as Princes are more or less obeyed their Subjects will generally be more or less free that is unrestrained in their enjoyments As for example if the Laws against Murther and Theft with all their subordinate attendants to the disturbance of Subjects safeties or properties be more or less particularly and severely made and executed so will their liberties living under them be truely more or less stated also being thereby rid of the Tyranny of one another which is ever most where the persons are more So that their mistake is now evident that are so ready to teach Subjects to cal out for possession of that which as they are Subjects is no ways proper unto them inasmuch as liberty supposeth power and not subjection For as none can govern another wherein himself is not free so to suppose any one free is to suppose him a Governor for so potentially he is wanting onely a relative object of subjection to bring this power into act At which time he that stood before as a free man separately considered is now a Governor in relation to this his object of subjection And the servant or subject can be no otherwise free
a vulgar and common vertue for their own applause sake amongst their Scholars have fought to define and defference it from other vertues by its object or effect without assigning unto it a proper subject by inherence whereunto it might like all other abstracted notions stand formally differenced have thereupon made it to import as large as vertue it self of which they would have it understood to be a kind For so in our apprehensions a just mans imports as large a commendation as a good man or a vertuous man But it is to be considered as before noted that this vertue can no otherwise be supposed common to all men or every man then as that man may at the same time be supposed a full superior or proprietor in the distributions or commutations he is to make and that thereupon it is not a vertue proper to him as a man but as such a man that is as relating to him in his present power and superiority in what he is to distribute and his full propriety in the thing he doth exchange And from thence it will still follow that as this occassonal relation of superiority did make the notion of Justice assignable as aforesaid so to make it capable of a constant specifical difference there is no way but to affix it to him that is by Office a constant superior For they should have considered that although this vertue cannot be without the others namely without prudence preceding and temperance and fortitude accompanying its execution yet it having its objects wholly foraign and respecting such persons onely as stand relating to other men in superiority and not as each man hath power and government over himself as the other vertues do it must thereupon have its different definition accordingly As for example Temperance that wholly relates to each one as having jurisdiction in himself for Government of his own appetites and affections must therefore belong to all men because all men have such things to govern and can have foraign jurisdiction onely as accompaning the Justice of a superior And so must prudence and fortitude that partly relate to others good and partly to our own guidance be communicable to all men likewise because of the daily and general use of both for the benefit of others and their own separate good Whereas Justice that hath its object wholly in the good of others and doth thereupon suppose the party quallified with abillity proportionable must be appropriate to such onely as have by their relations power to act accordingly And then it will come to pass that although Justcie may have perfection of degrees and be more or less a vertue as this governor is more or less prudent temperate or magnanimous yet must the notion of Justice be alwayes assigned to the actings of superiors upon inferiors as such notwithstanding occasional deviations For as to be a reasonable creature remaines the definition of all men as men yea though they be most foolish so cannot the violent actions of some deprive men in supreme authority from having the notion of Justice appropriate to that sort of men onely And this because a man in supreme Authority being the subject wherein Justice can onely reside even as mankind in general is the subject of reason It is not therefore the pravity of some Monarch or other occasional deviations in some Acts can deprive them of the definition of just more then the unreasonableness or imprudence of some men or of some actions of any man can take from them or him that definition of a reasonable creature For the question being not concerning the perfection of the predicate but of its propriety of inherence therefore as mankinde is amongst sublunary creatures the proper subject of reason because none else can so truly or perfectly have it so doth justice remain proper to men in supreme authority although they may be in degree much inferior or defective one to another And this truth we shall finde asserted by one that was incomparably wiser and more knowing in these things then any of the Philosophers even by Solomon himself Also to punish the Just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity In which words the just man and the superior stand plainly convertible as also they do in that saying of Saint John My little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous that is since God the fountain of Justice gave them power to be doers they are in their deeds alwayes just in relation to those below them of all which more hereafter And therefore lastly as the abuse of this prerogative and advantage of reason prevailes not with God to take it from mankinde because of that general good which the use of it doth ordinarily afford both in mens deportments toward one another and other creatures also no more are the accidental abuses in the seat of Justice of availe to take off and defeat that continual benefit arising to mankinde by the general exercise thereof For in these cases wisdom grounding her self upon an infallible rule of comparison raises this her maxim Better to suffer a miscâ—ief then an inconvenienceâ— better that the common benefit of Justice should be kept up notwithstanding its occasional mischiefs then the avoiding of those occasional mischiefs should defeat the common benefit of Justice And indeed the two extreams of this vertue miâ—ht have denoted the proper subject thereof had men had as great readiness to have acknowledged their Princes vertues as to mark their vices For as unto none but men of power it can be a fault to neglect Justice or extend it to tyranny or rigor so can the vertue it self be formally agreeing to none but such neither So that then we may plainly finde that they that have hitherto defined Justice to be a vertue giving every one his own by their not setting down certain rules to judge what these proprieties were and how to be known and ont determining the persons that shall have this power of distribution they have made justice that was ordained to be the great instrument of publike peace and quiet to be the occasion of Civil war They that think they have come neerer the mark by determining Justice to be Juris statio meaning the sentence of Law they have thereby indeed found out a good remedy to bridle the exorbitance or Magistrates and also to direct them in each particular execution of their charge but then since justice is not a contemplative vertue as depending upon the knowledge of the Law but upon the due execution thereof it will still follow that as Juris statio doth depend on Juris dictio and the execution of the Law is not otherwise justice then as the person executing the same hath above others power therein derived from that person that is Law-maker even so also justice it self must be acknowledged more or less such to inferiors as it is more or less in its
the peoples performance For though Kings extreamly differ from God in degree of superioriry yet as superiors they have both the same reason for exercise thereof And on the behalf of both of them it must seem a thing aswell unreasonable as ungrateful for inferiors and receivers to make the good deeds of those above them in power and office to serve as a means of their deprivation Nor can that Paction but be invallid where superior and inferior treating as such should Covenant to destroy those relations whilst they yet pretend thereby to estate and settle them So if a man in his wooing promise the wife freedom of restraint or command other then what shall be to her liking or to have power to execute or manage her own or the affairs of the family independent of him this though it might induce her marriage or putting her self into his power yet it cannot take away any power necessarily belonging to his office for the good and quiet of the family but rather as the promise shewed an extraordinary affection towards her it should the more obliege her to obedience Nor can she or children or servants have any freedom against him but what a power superior to him allows For so far as law restrains his arbitrary power and doth for instance design in what cases joyntures portions and degrees of servitude shall rest in compact with him this must be derived from power of a superior and not from a power below and in themselves For they being appellants to law and a higher power shew they can have no power above him and that this superior power and not themselves alone can restrain him No more can after Pactions between Prince and people given by his free grant and promise or forced by their rebellions prevaile more to the disinvesting him of any just power then the after indulgent promises to wife children or servants for non-restraint can deprive the Master of what power is by law left him and useful in the execution of his office because as their power is given from above so can it be onely restrained from above The Master cannot give away the power that makes the office and yet continue the office nor they assume power beyond the degree of children and servants and yet continue such For when wife children or servants refuse any command of the Master they do it not as they stand in these relalations to him but as they are joynt subjects to a command superior and so this is not liberty from his power otherwise then as thraldome to anothers So when Princes command any thing contrary to Gods law the subjects suspension to do it is not to disobey him but to obey God unto whom both stand subject who if he shall own and protect them therein they are so far discharged of their obedience otherwise not Whereupon in all capitulations between Prince and people the case will have great difference from that wherein wives or servants before they are such do stand considered as Pactors with their husbands or masters because these alwayes have a present immediate superior to them both namely the Prince or his Magistrate unto whom they joyntly relating as Subjects have a ready means for decision of any differences that shall arise between them about breach of Articles if they had not the Law it self Else their stipulations would prove but the ready disturbers of that peace and charity which they intended to establish even by adding those new occasions of quarrels that should arise to them hereabouts to those formerly incident to them as men Even as we finde that amongst such as do not acknowledge God to have any present magistrate settled here above themselves to decide differences and demand obedience the like continual breaches daily to arise about the meaning of his Laws But it will plainly appear that this plot of paction was but of late times devised by sons of Beliall or such as would not be under restraint to serve their own ends and not truths if we consider that we finde not any one urging for the Jews right in chosing and impowering of their Judges And all because men being not now under the authority of such temporary officers are not so careful to devise wayes and maxims for taking to themselves power to set them up and make their restrictions by But that which is the truth herein is that since it is never urged that the Jews did challenge a right of setting up these lesser powers it proves that their meaning is mistaken by those that think they had right to set up the greater For if they could not set over them Moses Joshua and the rest why should they have power to confer the office of Kingship If they could not or did not make Moses King of Jesurun how came they to have right to make David And therefore to sum up all kingly office being by Divine institution the power necessary for execution thereof is not by Paction from inferiors but by gift from God above When Princes upon occasion promise the imparting of any power to magistrates or others of his people this as coming from a rightful superior is on them bestowed as of grace and gift and not any way arguing that the power remaining is from Inferiors to Superiors by capitulation For though those Monarchical Judges and High-Priests that ruled while Kings came had not so much power as Kings yet because they were straightned from above onely by Gods continuing King upon great and extraordinary occasions that Government was a Monarchy no otherwise then those still continue Families where Laws of superiors streighten the power of the Master most by taking the cognizance and judgement of those under him as in the relation of Subjects Therefore when Government as in neither of these cases is not straitned by power from below it continues right Government because nothing of subjection is remitted For that power the Father exerciseth not the Prince doth and what the Prince doth not nor cannot is done by God who is onely above him And again although the governeds obedience be to more then one as touching their general subjection yet since in each particular command they have but one determinate Commander and have but one in chief to appeal to their Government is still right and Monarchical CHAP. XI Of Magistrates Councellors c. AS we have hitherto declared the necessity of Government and confined it to one person so it must be supposed that so great a charge cannot be managed by any single man without the assistance of others Whereupon these assistants being in many thing the immediate executioners of power and commands in and upon the Subjects it comes many times to pass that the original of power is forgotten and the very right of Soveraignty it self usurped by and imputed to these subordinate Ministers This chiefly appears in those useful Ministers in each Kingdom to wit Councellors and Magistrates by whose help the single eys
Kings as Supreum or unto others as sent of him As thus in many matters of Charity divine direction was usefull so to the particular direction of our Christian faith on which as a ground-work our Charity was to be built this direction was much more necessary For since none could come to God except he first know that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him so the stating our faith standing necessary as to the stating our obedience we we may see cause for the frequent commendation and injunctions thereof in the New Testament where it is expresly said that without it t is impossible to please God that is without confidence of his being and of his rewards and punishments following our good or bad actions we shall not be zealous of good works or duties of Charity And having so far shewed what the ground of Religion should be we will next shew what it usually is both in ground and practice CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received BEfore the knowledge of good and evil entred into man Nature was his religion and what was by her law done was also thereby justified But being once possessed with the apprehension of this discovery all our thoughts and actions were so involved herein that nothing we said or did could escape censure on one side or other and so consequently for well or ill doing we could not but expect reward or punishment But because on the one hand the natural pride and arrogancy of each man was ready to put a greater rate and desert upon his intents and doings then he saw them rewarded with in this life and on the other side knowing the great and many faults that had escaped him or others not at all espied by men or by law so throughly punished as he thought their gift required the two main guides of our nature hope and fear led on our expectations to a future reckoning in such a sort that where the souls immortallity and our resurrection are not by special revelation manifested men are yet generally found believing thereof the craft of persons in authority many times helping on and biassing these Superstitions of inferiours to sociable advantages or self respects Now the wayes men take for the obtaining of this future reward or a voiding the like punishment is their religion And then religion having its ground from conscience and each mans conscience following the light of his understanding in judging good and bad and their degree from the diversity of understanding followeth the diversity of religions which as they had their first rise and fashion from their several Authours so each one yeilds himself a Disciple as he findes his hopes or the fears of his owne conscience therewith satisfied Therefore now concluding mens religion and conscience to be according to their understanding and their understandings being not onely differing but altogether imperfect it is impossible that any Religion should be true but what is from God himself received But then again because truth doth not move by being but by being apparent and because there is no way for this apparency till it be made conceivable to my understanding will it not follow that therein also we must be subject to much difference uncertainty So that men generally acknowledging a deity that no religion can be true but what shal be from him received they do by means of this fallible guide so usually mistake in their choice For knowledg in this kinde is not innate but acquired for why else are not Children and innocents as well as men of riper capacity by priviledge of birth and species without more ado instructed Why is that long stay made until by natural course the sences and organs of the body receiving their due growth and perfection the understanding together therewith arrive also at a sufficient capacity for the same reason to work by So that then the priority and worth of divine truths being not able of themselves to enter our capacities otherwise then as let in by the senses or else made familiar by such things as formerly were so as types parables similitudes and the like it comes to pass that according to the several prepossessions of men and their several fashions in entertaining them our several beliefes and opinions do arise And although we are seldome able to remember those sensible inductions out of which they grew yet from such they must needs at first grow inasmuch as had they come in without mixture they would like truths have remained to all men the same and alike whereas now their variety shews the variety of their entertainment and admittance And therefore although naturally as men and for satisfaction of our hope and fears sake we generally adhere to one sort of Religion or another yet when we come to entertain the kindes we stand not onely disabled in our Election but for the most part use no Election at all depending rather on chance then choice For what one is there of a thousand that ever doubts of or alters the religion he was brought up in For do we not Scholly and Catechise our Children in the same opinion with our selves do we not carry and send them with directions for beliefe and attention unto such Churches and Preachers where we are sure the truth and benefit of this and the falsehood and dangers of all others shall be exemplified to the height What probability then that he should prefer an opinion unknown at least alwayes discommended before one he doth know and hears alwaies praised Whereupon we shall finde preoccupation of judgement of such force that whether they be Christian Jew Mahumetan Heathen or a distinct Sect under any of these generals yet all of them to resolute to their owne side that they will embrace Martyrdom rather then a recantation Not that all in any kinde will do so for all men stand differenced between perfect Atheism and height of belief but where such tenderness of conscience and disposition is met withall as can be subdued to entertain Myrterdome on one side the same party would also have entertained it on another had education and other fore-stalling arguments been applyed unto him And even as in Christianity it self and the sects thereof we may find both Martyrs and Renegates as strength of belief leades them so in other religions also upon tryal these kindes have been apparent For as the Magitians feigned Miracles found greater belief with the Egyptians then the true ones of Moses so a false information having nothing to contradict it or education having forestalled our judgements prevailes as true with us and the contradictory thereof as false For all men thinking it reasonable that the proof of divine authority should be evinced by something more then humane and that supernatural truths otherwaies not conceiveable by sense and so demonstrable should be ascertained and illustrated by such as were it made the founders of all Religions pretend miracles as thinking their endeavours
unfold and distinguish the truth of the texts themselves For when as Christians we are fully brought to consent unto and credit the Books and parts of the Bible we become now as much amazed and dazled with too great light as with too great darkness confounded before For with too much familiarity and presumption daring to approach too boldly those glorious rayes instead of true discovery such cloudiness and mists have arisen in some understandings that their owne conceipts have been believed for divine and instead of the direct beam of truth the reflected and refracted beam of ignorance and opinion have been embraced For as he that looks against the Sun without some spectacle for his sight doth both miss his discovery there and also weaken his sight for other things so fares it with men when scorning to take in natural helps or the spectacle of reason and sense they usually instead of truth and satisfaction reap nothing but opinion and error And this because experience tells us that from it self alone no evidence can be had of its meaning And therefore to discover the rectitude or inequallity of opinions thence arising rhere must be still some such rule made use of as may direct us in our inquiry For example when we finde that all Christians do believe and relye upon the guidance and authority of the Bible and that yet because of the prejudice before mentioned that there is no Schisme or Heresie but is thence derived and endeavoured to be proved what course by me that am a lover of peace and truth should be taken For do I alleadge that no doctrine but what is proved by Scripture ought to be believed so much they confess also that oppose me and for satisfaction that they really thinke so are ready to attest it with their lives Tell I them farther that upon more strict search of the Scripture and comparing one place with another they may be convinced they will answer that As they beleive the whole Scripture to be Canonical so have they examined it all over and still find no reason but to believe as they do And why that part or those Texts of Scripture on which they ground their opinion should be otherwise or by other places interpreted must be as distasteful to their understanding as it is different from former apprehension and education because more then probable arguments being not to be brought by any it must be expected that custome and familiarity have made their entertainment both pleasant and fixed All which well considered the contemplation thereof compared to those sad effects of blood and war under which not onely whole mankind labours through distinct religions but of those more fierce and uncivil slaughters and contentions wherewith Christians themselves are so continually and impetuously carryed to mutual destruction it cannot but abate much of that peremtoriness which men usually take to themselves in phancying the truth of their owne tenents and doctrines and in condemning and punishing that of others It must methinks move the heart of any that hath at all any true intention of being a Disciple to the God of peace or of love to his brother to begin to examine somewhat better the ground of this his impetuous and bloody devotion and if a Christian to fear least that prophesie of his Saviour of killing men under colour of doing God good service may not light on his score to act when at any time he is too hastily provoked Let men take heed of phancying their merciful redeemer like a Heathen Saturn to be pleased or appeased with the sacrifice of humane blood Nor let too much self-conceitedness provoke fiery zeal to the perpetration of such actions as lead to the overthrow of Charity and his neighbours peace For since height of belief and perswasion of conscience can be of themselves no sure evidence of the goodness of a religious cause which can have but one truth amongst so many pretended ones they had need be wary in relying thereupon and careful that in their works they deny not him they so headily would serve nor do not transgress plain commands to obey obscure ones For since the very enduring of persecution must also testifie that those his Christian Brethren he now afflicts are also confident of their own right serving the same Master the persecuters must thereby become guilty of doing otherwise then they would be done unto both in relation to this their joynt Master that thus makes them brethren and to those their brethren and fellow members whom they ought not thus to judge but leave to stand or fal to their own Master and whom Rom. 14.4 they would be loath should get and make such use of advantages over them In consideration of all which there are that think that none should be oppressed or molested in the peaceable use of his conscience for they find that after all those heaps of blood slaughter shed over all Christendom in design and pretence to promote Christs sole truth and bring men to agreement herein that this truth is still as far from attaining farther certainty and evidence as it was before and that the stock of division is but hereby exasperated and not at all allayed To amend and put a stop to which inconveniencies and mischiefes all such as will put themselves into the number of the blessed peacemakers will find no readier way then seriously to consider as we have endeavoured to shew in our past discourses that since faith and charity are to be the foundations of our religion and we to our utmost to serve God in both it must also follow that we are to perform them with more or less zeal and order as we find the plainness of their precepts more or less evident And therefore since in matters of faith either concerning the full comprehension of deity and also of his manner of worship things have been but sparingly and darkly delivered we are to presume that no farther speculation and discovery is necessary for us herein then what God hath been pleased to impart who could have manifested himself to general conviction if he had thought it fit But since in this and in the manner of his worship he hath already done so fully as will serve for manifestation of his will and so far as to bring us to salvation what need we search farther It will therefore be necessary for them that would avoid the danger of lukewarmness and neglect of Gods service on the one hand and also the peril of breach of charity through blind zeal on the other to make a distinction between things fundamental and what is not The first he shall find in order to his salvation so plainly taught and delivered that he that runs may read and to those things onely as of immediate divine authority are we to give such firm assent as not onely to Obey God rather then men but also Though an Angel from heaven preach unto us other doctrine
be thought unreasonable as the ready was to defeat all Military Discipline so must it likewise be held destructive in Civil proceedings also which is but a more stationary and setled Army as the Army is a more moveable Commonwealth in a more warlike posture Obedience being the Life and Soul of both But if the Prince upon some Reasons known to himself command any of his Subjects to carry a Reprieve or be otherwise instrumental in the saving of any person condemned for Murther or Theft or the like is that person that hath the life of this man now in his power to suspend or deny the prosecution of this Precept because for ought appears to him the condemned party is not guiltless If the condemned party shall be saved by his Obedience to his Prince his Command and shall afterwards commit more Murthers or Thefts or the like on whose score score shall all these light For it is certainly as well a fault to justifie and acquit the wicked as to punish or condemn the just but surely it is imputable to him that is by Office to command and not to him that is by his Relation to Obey Which case well applyed and considered will inform us that it is not Justice as it is truely and really so but that in these kindes of determinations we are carryed away with the natural sense of pity and sense of honor and vulgar reputation inasmuch as it appears more noble to be instrumental in the acts of mercy and benificence then in punishments or condemnations But if after all this the truth of what hath hitherto been delivered finde but slow belief and practise it is not to be wondred at Considering first that the thing it self is a mystery even hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto Babes that is to them that like Babes and Sucklings can be content innocently to relye on Christs sincere milk of the Word his Precept of Love and to draw it from the Breasts of the nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church To these humble souls will God give his Grace but will resist the proud in their prudent speculations For how is it otherwise to be hoped but that since men do fancy themselves to have sufficiency of discretion and integrity which all more or less do so proportionably they shall also balk all guidance but their own or which is all one such onely as themselves like of For since the Reason why I decline the others guidance to follow theirs is onely because I first found their Principles and Commands were such as were agreeable to mine own judgement or interest it must then be granted that I follow therein but my self and also obey none other They therefore that can well be content to acknowledge that Faith in Christ is necessary for making us capable of the blessing of Deity will yet make a stand to confess it to be solely that Faith that worketh by love or is always ready so to do and that then as we cannot be Members of Christ otherwise then as by being Members of his Church so neither of his Church otherwise then by obedience to that power therein residing in his stead But now for Conclusion of this Discourse we will see how far these things stand good and justifiable in the very light of Nature also to the end it may finde readier entertainment when they shall appear reasonable in humane prudence as well as divinely positive both that there should be an inward Plantation of Love and Charity in the Creature to serve towards mutual affordment in the work of Providence and that to make this love effectual to the same end there should be Order and Regulation appointed lest through the pursuance of benificence separately and unlimitedly undertaken the contrary might be produced For as we have in this whole work propounded Scripture and Reason for our onely proof and Authority so in this particular as well as in all the rest it is our endeavor to let men see the agreement of those two and that Scripture is nothing but Reason enlightened and rectifyed and so bringing sundry sorts of truth more neer to our understanding CHAP. IX Of Charity as it stands in Nature AS some there are who in their height of admiration of those many excellent endowments and Prerogatives of mankinde have left unto us their Eloquent and abundant discourses of his perfection and felicity so others again there are who in contemplation of his many weaknesses pravities and imperfections have been as excessive in their pathetick expressions of his misery and wretchedness And observe whom you will that write of this Subject and do consider man in a separate condition and you shall finde them falling into intemperance on one hand or other Not that man is not the same he was but the object of the comparison they still make unto him having between him and them such large degree of perfection or meaness of beatitude or goodness we need not wonder if from such different conference man arise with such like different censure and estimation For one sort comparing him to God or such things as are in their specifick degree more happy or perfect it cannot be expected but that from such a comparison he should arise other then a Creature of low and most miserable condition and esteem The other again comparing him to other sensitives and Creatures below him must in contemplation of those many abilities of his in Understanding and Will above them and of his more lively Image of his Maker in the appetite of good make their Discourses high in his comendations But however his Felicity or Vertue be thus abased or extolled we cannot but justly esteem him positive in both and that though from God he differ most highly in all things in degree of perfection yet in reality of resemblance he doth most remarkably retain his image and favor and that in both kindes As for that state of felicity which is proportionable to his degree and proper to him as a man none can make doubt of that attentively considers him nor can those miseries that befall him be ascribed to other then accidental causes and not as arising from his natural incapacity And let this pravity and corruption of manners be again weighed and they will for the most part be found accidental and unnatural also insomuch that there is no man nay no sensitive that hath not his Will wholly averted from evil as known to be such And further since nothing can be sin or evil but wherein mine own or some other Creatures prejudice is reached to prove it is not primarily natural in us it is to be noted that there is no Creature but doth unfainedly and continually covet the good of both And although the good and benefit of others be for reasons heretofore shewed in case of present competition post-posed yet are they positively and continually existent in our Wills even so as there was never Creature in the
Christian Monarchies to wit least too much should be arrogated by them in right of succession or derogated from Gods honor by that continued obedience given to such a race only which by Gods appearance in a remarkable change is taken off So also we may finde reason both why the Direction and Precepts for Monarchy and Obedience should be so many as in maintenance of so necessary a duty and why again they should not only be sometimes darkly delivered but why also there should be some scattered examples that seemed to speak the contrary permitted to stand in the Scripture without express censure Thus shall you find Amaziah slain and no mention of any justice done by his Son on the Murthers as himself had before commendably done on those that murthered his Father Joash Thus shall you find David offering to fortifie Kelaih against Saul without any noted remorse as he had when he cut off the skirt of his Garment Thus shall you find Eliah not only disobeying the King in not appearing before him but as in a seeming president for resistance causing fire to come from Heaven upon the Messengers until an Angel better admonisheth him and bids him go The which was suffered to pass uncensured likewise until the Heady Disciples of our Saviour would on the behalf of a far greater then Eliah have been imitating him in this fiery example of revenge against a cruel and more unjust authority And so shall you find the same revengeful spirit that had caused Elisha to curse and thereby slay the little children in pursuance of mistaken Legal Justice of An eye for an eye c. to provoke him also not only to call his King the Son of a Murtherer but with intention of returning evil for evil to instigate the Elders of his City to resistance also as thereby shewing himself subject to like passions with others And so farther as there may be examples picked from Scripture of some Prophets reproving their Kings without any express mention of their warrant from God so to do which might yet be evidently enough presumed so are there such now to be found as by vertue of their Priestly power would from thence gather warrant for their boldness to vent their open reproofs in the face of Majesty pride or interest carrying them so headily herein as not to consider that the very calling and spirit of these Prophets was both extraordinary and miraculous and their power and office as heretofore noted was instituted to the very intent of being extraordinary Monitors towards the preservation of that Nation and Kingdom And therefore if some find Isaiah set down as coming to reprove Hezekiah without such express direction as Nathan and others had they will be thence collecting that those of the Clergy may do the like now without marking that it is afterwards by Isaiah declared as a message to come extraordinary from God and not by him pronounced by vertue of any Text of the Law Whereupon since we shall never find those of the Priesthood who were the Statute-Officers for instruction and interpretation of Law offering to reprove any Prince and yet it is plain that these Laws have been by their Kings manifestly broken as in the prohibition of multiplying treasure and horses and other things it is most apparent that there can be no just claim to any such Authority for reproof challenged by any of the Priest-hood now having no pretence of claim to higher Authority then those formerly And therefore from all these and like instances we may in truth as soon gather arguments for Rebellion as others do for Drunkenness Incest or Adultery from the facts of Noah Lot Judah c. which are all set down without reproof But in the discovery of this and other sins as there is still plainness enough used to enable him to hear that hath ears to hear so darkness sufficient to let him that is filthy be filthy still Which was the reason of S. Pauls words when he said we speak the wisdom of God in a mysterie but not so to them that are perfect but unto them that perish Nor need we wonder that these and such like presidents should prevail with men now amidst their many worldly temptations when our Saviours own Disciples as before noted would have had him been imitating Eliah by fire from heaven in the pursuit of this revengeful and resisting humour So that when we finde the particular instances of Jeoiadah or the peoples sole or more remarkable intermedling recorded as instrumental in setting the Crowns on Jehoash and Azariahs Head made now adays by Priests or Subjects as good arguments to wear them when they have doneour admiration will be well abated by consideration of that degree of self-interest and prejudice which prevails with men usually to search the Scripture and its examples to serve as proofs of those things they like already and not to submit their wills to be guided by it In which respect it is no wonder if we come forth ten times more the children of wrath then before For in this case it will fare with men balking plain Precepts and seeking to find Gods pleasure to be in some other places of Scripture signified more consonant to their aims and interests as it did with Balaam who being tempted with riches and preferment and loving the wages of unrighteousness did thereupon make a demur upon Gods plain Precept Thou shalt not go with them and doth therefore upon another enquiry find God saying Rise up and go with them Even so I say such as come with pre-possession to search the Scriptures as being blinded with ambition covetousness or the like and are thereupon willing to find God Almighty contradicting of himself shall never fail of an answer in the night contrary to the plain Precepts they received before the which their worldly lusts and engagements shall make them readily obey in the morning without farther search as Balaam did Thus in that plain Precept of Honor the Lord with thy substance c. Covetousness will prompt them with Texts of limitation and excuse against all this waste c. The true Worshippers are those that worship in spirit and truth and the like Whereby under colour of rendring the Church more glorious within the former cloathing of wrought gold and needle work shall be thought unbecoming a Kings Daughter And so again to elude those plain texts of Let every soul be subject and that for conscience sake also and the like the text of Fear not them that can kill the body and some oothers will readily be embraced as limitations of their duty by such who being resolved on a course of stubbornness and insubjection may thereupon think they do still yield obedience to their Prince whilst they obey him in such Civil matters as they shall think fit even as they may think they serve and honor God well enough whilst they say they do it inwardly
acquisition as it had its own method and way of amassing from particulars whilst it was making its inward impression and resentment in the heart which is now its seat from whence the brain is set on work as a Minister to produce figures conformable when an object of import is presented Each affection rangeth particular objects in her method as the Gardener doth flowers in his knots and borders even as they are accounted prisable and delightful However we have used the terms of fancy and method severally yet they are the same being the orderly collection and configurations of particulars in the brain contrived for the use of each affection And so again we may conceive memory and imagination to be the same being the impresses and representations of particular objects and figures whereby the often or serious observation of them as presented to the sense from without doth cause us to imagine we still see hear c. them in the same manner and form within And as affections did at first arise from particular outward objects relishing them according to experience of the pleasure accompanying them so also do they take encrease from the methodical application of objects as a means to this end And thereupon also as figures were first impressed from particular and more distinct objects and did thereupon by degrees come to the comprised in Methods and Configurations amongst themselves so likewise do they unite and become serviceable towards the constitution of other or new Methods Even as the several persons ranged in a Scene or Antimask may be comprehended under one figure or as the several hounds in hunting may be considered as one pack or their several barkings taken as one cry Whereby also through use that which was at first cast into this method for the use of other affections may become an affection by it self For it is to be supposed that the same figures impressions of the brain may stand diversely considerable and affecting us as they have already passed into affections by their use or else are no farther pleasurable then what the now use and application of them in some methodical course must afford towards the service of some affection In one sort they are considered as true in the other as good The figure of a letter is a different thing from its value the which continues the same as to its use in making of words although the letter it self may be figured in a diverse character and those words and sentences made of them are differently considered in the spelling and pronounciation over they are in their signification and import As affections do come to be thus bred in us from outward objects and also by degrees to encrease in strength so there is more reason for will to follow the guidance of affections so bred in estimating good and bad then is for it to follow authority for the inductions framed by my self are the observations of mine own sense but my grounding on the discourses of others is grounding on their senses which is not farther prevalent then corresponding with mine own And inductions from Authority move as other inductions by uniformity and consent and that according to such paterns of truth as are fore-conceived else a single Authority by joynture of my former affections and inductions may prevail in my acceptance as over-numbring the contradictors Like as we may find in particular it fareth with the weaker and more credulous sort in matters of belief unto whom as not able to contradict from contrary collection and experience in themselves or to apprehend their Reasons and Arguments those few Authorities they imbrace come to be followed as of unquestionable power and force For these sort of people being not able to apprehend many things of Divinity in general or indeed any principle on its true ground and foundation have their hopes and fears for the most part terminated in certain select phrases and expressions of Scripture which themselves not well understanding they are through their ambiguity brought to fancy them in all uses as carrying the sense of the whole Scriptures themselves and thereupon to make use of them in judging of what is fiâ— and lawful for themselves or others in all kinds of actions and deportments as though they had been the very particular directions which were proper thereunto Insomuch as where the translator is at a loss for rendring the genuine and true sense of an Hebraism or the like they are wont to take up those phrases and expressions so affectedly as to fâ—ame in a manner a new Religion to themselves out of their customary use and approbation of them In which case it fareth with them as it doth with children who are by way of sport turning themselves often round not only for pride and affectation sake to see who can turn oftenest but on purpose also that they may then stand delighted with those transient and giddy figures and apprehensions which are then made in their brain Even so it befalleth those sorts of men in these vertigoes and intoxications made in them by their affected use of unintelligible and insignificant forms and phrases When as out of pride to excel others in degree of speculation whom they see already so much before them in the ordinary and intelligible course they are thereupon lead to fancy this course Which having in it no correspondence or ground-work in Nature or Reason both because the terms themselves are destitute of Figure and Comprehension and because they cannot be configurated by other real bodies and figures neither they must consequently remain like men in a Maze without a clew of Method to direct them But they become hereupon so wedded that whosoever in offering to convert or farther instruct these people shall not for admission into their conceits hide his meaning under these their familiar expressions shall lose his labour and that not only as being unconceived by them for want of sufficient prenotion but as contradicting as they conceive such plain truths as by the customary use of these phrases they conceive their opinions as to be And as observation and practise of particulars become at last affections in such things as are performed and fancied in our selves so also the the often sight and notice of the signs and figures of these affections in others come by degrees to affect also so far as to promote and induce the same in us even as yawning affects to imitation both of that action and of the drowsiness it denotes and the signs and attendants of the lust and fear of others affects thereunto also No otherwise then the â—xamples of success and impunity of persons in their courses of stubbornness or the conversation and discourses of them are strong motives for other children and subjects to do the like But then this works not in children and creatures very yong until practise and contemplation hath so rooted and conformed these affections in our selves as they have strength to take rebound from others