free Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its Propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Wherefore the Apostle St. Paul when he compiles a complete Catologue of the Fruits of the Spirit reckons up only Moral Vertues Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy or Chearfulness Peaceableness Patience Gentleness Goodness Faithfulness Meekness and Temperance and elsewhere Titus 2. 11. the same Apostle plainly makes the Grace of God to consist in gratitude towards God Temperance towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Where the whole Duty of Man is comprehended in living Godlily which is the Vertue of humble Gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity § 3. So destructive of all true and real Goodness is the very Religion of those Men that are wont to set Grace at odds with Vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the Duties of Moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person i. e. void of I know not what Imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his Conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious Sinners and the Morally Righteous Man is at a greater distance from Grace than the Profane and better be lewd and debauch'd than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party Bona Opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem says Flaccus Illiricus Moral Goodness is the greatest Let to Conversion and the prophanest wretches make better Saints than your Moral Formalists And by this means they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners have found out in lieu of Moral Virtue a Spiritual Divinity that is made up of nothing else but certain Trains and Schemes of Effeminate Follies and illiterate Enthusiasms and instead of a sober Devotion a more spiritual and intimate way of Communion with God that in truth consists in little else but meeting together in private to prate Phrases make Faces and rail at Carnal Reason i. e. in their sense all sober and sincere use of our Understandings in spiritual Matters whereby they have effectually turn'd all Religion into unaccountable Fansies and Enthusiasms drest it up with pompous and empty Schemes of Speech and so embrace a few gawdy Metaphors and Allegories instead of the substance of true and real Righteousness And herein lies the most material difference between the sober Christians of the Church of England and our modern Sectaries That we express the Precepts and Duties of the Gospel in plain and intelligible Terms whilst they trifle them away by childish Metaphors and Allegories and will not talk of Religion but in barbarous and uncouth Similitudes and what is more the different Subdivisions among the Sects themselves are not so much distinguish'd by any real diversity of Opinions as by variety of Phrases and Forms of Speech that are the peculiar Shibboleths of each Tribe One party affect to lard their Discourses with clownish and slovenly Similitudes another delights to roul in wanton and lascivious Allegories and a third is best pleased with odd unusual unitelligible and sometimes blasphemous Expressions And whoever among them can invent any new Language presently sets up for a man of new Discoveries and he that lights upon the prettiest Nonsense is thought by the ignorant Rabble to unfold new Gospel-Mysteries And thus is the Nation shattered into infinite Factions with sensless and phantastick Phrases and the most fatal miscarriage of them all lies in abusing Scripture-Expressions not only without but in contradiction to their sense So that had we but an Act of Parliament to abridge Preachers the use of fulsom and luscious Metaphors it might perhaps be an effectual Cure of all our present Distempers Let not the Reader smile at the odness of the Proposal For were men obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth all the swelling Mysteries of Fanaticism would immediately sink into flat and empty Nonsense and they would be ashamed of such jejune and ridiculous Stuff as their admired and most profound Notions would appear to be when they want the Varnish of fine Metaphors and glittering Allusions In brief were this a proper place to unravel all their affected Phrases and Forms of Speech which they have learn'd like Parrots to prate by Rote without having any Notion of the Things they signifie it would be no unpleasant Task to demonstrate That by them they either mean nothing at all or some Part or Instrument of Moral Vertue So that all Religion must of necessity be resolv'd into Enthusiasm or Morality The former is meer Imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter and what-ever besides appertains to it must be subservient to the Ends of Vertue such are Prayer Hearing Sermons and all manner of Religious Ordinances that have directly no other place in Religion than as they are instrumental to a vertuous life § 4. 'T is certain then That the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material concerns of Religion and 't is as certain That the Civil Magistrate has Power to bind Laws concerning them upon the Consciences of Subjects So that every mans Conscience is and must be subject to the Commands of lawful Superiours in the most important matters of Religion And therefore is it not strange that when the main Ends and designs of all Religion are avowedly subject to the Supreme Power that yet men should be so impatient to exempt its means and subordinate Instruments from the same Authority What reason can the Wit of man assign to restrain it from one that will not much more restrain it from both Is not the right practice of Moral Duties as necessary a part of Religion as any outward Form of Worship in the World Are not wrong Notions of the Divine Worship as destructive of the Peace and settlement of Common-wealths as the most vicious and licentious Debaucheries Are not the rude multitude more inclined to disturb Government by Superstition than by Licentiousness And is there not vastly greater danger of the Magistrates erring in matters of Morality than in Forms and Ceremonies of Worship in that those are the main essential and ultimate Duties of Religion whereas these are at highest but their Instruments and can challenge no other place in Religion than as they are subservient to the purposes of Morality Nay is it not still more
If the latter then the former Argument returns and as to one half of the concerns of the Common-wealth there must be a perfect Anarchy and no Government at all And there is no Provision to be made against all those publick mischiefs and disturbances that may arise from Errors and Enormities in Religion the Common-wealth must for ever be exposed to the follies of Enthusiasts and villanies of Impostors and any man that can but pretend Conscience may whenever he pleases endeavour its Ruine So that if Princes should forego their sovereignty over mens Consciences in matters of Religion they leave themselves less Power than is absolutely necessary to the Peace Defence of the Common-wealths they govern In brief the Supreme Government of every Common-wealth wherever it is lodged must of necessity be universal absolute and uncontroulable in all Afairs whatsoever that concern the Interests of mankind and the ends of Government For if it be limited it may be controul'd but 't is a thick and palpable Contradiction to call such a Power Supreme in that whatever controuls it must as to that case be its Superiour And therefore Affairs of Religion being so strongly influential upon Affairs of State and having so great a power either to advance or hinder the publick felicity of the Common-wealth they must be as uncontroulably subject to the Supreme Power as all other Civil Concerns because otherwise it will not have Authority enough to secure the Publick Interest of the Society to attain the necessary and most important ends of its Institution § 11. Now from these Premisses we may observe That all Supreme Power both in Civil and Ecclesiastical Affairs issues from the same Original and is founded upon the same Reason of things namely the indispensable necessity of Society to the preservation of Humane Nature and of Government to the preservation of Humane Society a Supreme Power being absolutely necessary to the decision of all those Quarrels and Controversies that are naturally consequent upon the Passions Appetites and Follies of men there being no other way of ending their Differences but by the Decrees of a final unappealable Judicature For if every man were to be his own Judge mens Determinations would be as contradictory as their Judgments their Judgments as their Humours or Interests and so must their Dissentions of necessity be endless And therefore to avoid these and all other Inconveniences that would naturally follow upon a state of War it was necessary there should be one Supreme and Publick Judgment to whose Determinations the private Judgment of every single person should be obliged to submit it self And hence the Wisdom of Providence knowing to what passions and irregularities mankind is obnoxious never suffered them to live without the restraints of Government but in the beginning of things so ordered affairs that no man could be born into the world without being subject to some Superior every father being by nature vested with a right to govern his children And the first governments in the world were established purely upon the natural Rights of paternal Authority which afterward grew up to a Kingly Power by the increase of posterity and he that was at first but Father of a Family in process of time as that multiplied became Father of a City or Province and hence it came to pass that in the first Ages of the World Monarchy was its only Government necessarily arising out of the Constitution of humane Nature it being so natural for Families to enlarge themselves into Cities by uniting into a body according to their several Kindreds whence by consequence the Supreme Head of those Families must become Prince and Governour of a larger more diffused Society And therefore Cedrenus makes Adam the first Monarch in the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus afterwards in the division of the Earth among the Posterity of Noah the heads of Families became Kings and Monarchs of the Nations of which they were Founders from whence were propagated the several Kingdoms of the first and elder times as appears not only from the Mosaick History but also from all other the best and most ancient Records of the first Ages of the World But as for Common-wealths they are comparatively of a very late discovery being first contriv'd among the Grecians whose Democracies and Optimacies were made out of the Ruines of Monarchick Government which was but sutable to the proud factious and capricious humour of that Nation where scarce any one could pretend to a little skill in Poetry or Wrestling their two greatest accomplishments but he must immediately be an Vndertaker for new modelling the Common-wealth which doubtless was one of the main causes of their perpetual Confusions and frequent Charges in Government § 12. Having thus firmly founded all Civil Government upon Paternal Authority I may now proceed to shew That all Ecclesiastical Power bottoms upon the same Foundation For as in the first Ages of the world the Fathers of Families were vested with a Kingly Power over their own Posterity so also were they with the Priestly Office executing all the Holy Functions of Priesthood in their own Persons as appears from the unanimous testimony of Histories both Sacred and Prophane Thus we find all the Ancient Patriarchs Priests to their own Families which Office descended together with the Royal Dignity to the first-born of each Family And this custom of investing the Sovereign Power with the Supreme Priesthood was as divers Authors both Ancient and Modern observe universally practis'd over all Kingdoms of the world for well nigh 2500 years without any one president to the contrary In that among all Societies of men there is as great a necessity of publick Worship as of publick Justice the power whereof because it must be seated somewhere can properly belong to him alone in whom the Supreme Power resides in that he alone having authority to assign to every subject his proper function and among others this of the Priesthood the exercise whereof as he has power to transfer to another so may he if he please reserve it to himself And therefore this the wisdom of the elder Ages always practised in order to the better security of their Government as well knowing the tendency of Superstition and false notions of the divine worship to Tumults and Seditions and therfore to prevent the disturbances that might spring from Factions in Religion they were sollicitous to keep its management in their own immediate disposal And though in the Jewish Common-wealth the Priestly Office was upon reasons peculiar to that State separated by a divine positive command from the Kingly Power yet the Power and Jurisdiction of the Priest remained still subject to the Sovereign Prince their King always exercising a Supremacy over all persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical Nothing can be more unquestionable than the precedents of David Solomon Hezekiah Iehu Iehosaphat Iosiah c. who exercised as full a Legislative Power in Affairs of
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
Common-wealths they could not want Prudence to Judge what Circumstances were conducive to Order and Decency in Publick Worship And if we take a Survey of all the Forms of Divine Service practised in the Christian Church there is not any of them can so much as pretend to be appointed in the Word of God but depend on the Authority of the Civil Power in the same manner as all Customs and Laws of Civil Government do And therefore to quarrel with those Forms of Publick Worship that are established by Authority only because they are Humane Institutions is at once notorious Schism and Rebellion For where a Religion is Establish'd by the Laws whoever openly refuses Obedience plainly rebels against the Government Rebellion being properly nothing else but an open denial of Obedience to the Civil Power Nor can Men of this Principle live Peaceably in any Church in Christendom in that there is not a Church in the World that has not peculiar Rites and Customs and Laws of Government and Discipline § 7. But of this I shall have occasion to account elsewhere and shall rather chuse to observe here from what I have discoursed of the Use and Nature of Outward Worship the Prodigious Impertinency of that clamour some men have for so many years kept up against the Institution of Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only Use of Ceremonies as well as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be significant In that all Worship is only an Outward Sign of Inward Honour and is indifferently perform'd either by Words or Actions for respect may as well be signified by Deeds and Postures and Visible Solemnities as by Solemn Expressions Thus to approach the Divine Majesty with such Gestures as are wont to betoken Reverence and Humility is as proper a Piece of Worship as to Celebrate his Greatness by Solemn Praises And to offer Sacrifices and Oblations was among the Ancients the same sort of Worship as to return Thanksgivings they being both equally outward Signs of Inward Love and Gratitude And therefore there can be no more Exception against the Signification of Ceremonies than of Words seeing this is the proper Office of both in the Worship of God And as all Forms and Ceremonies and Outward Actions of External Worship are in a manner equally Significant so are they equally Arbitrary only some happen to be more Universally Practised and others to be Confined to some particular Times and Places Kneeling lying Prostrate being Bare-headed Lifting up the Hands or Eyes are not more naturally Significant of Worship and Adoration than putting off the Shoes bowing the Head or bending the Body and if some are more generally used than others that proceeds not from their Natural Significancy but from Custom and Casual Prescriptions and to Bow the Body when we mention the Name of Iesus is as much a natural signification of Honour to his Person as Kneeling or being Bare-headed or lifting up the Hands or Eyes when we offer up our Prayers to him But if all Outward Actions become to betoken Honour by Institution then whatsoever Outward Signs are appointed by the Common-wealth unless they are Customary Marks of Contempt and so carry in them some Antecedent Vndecency are proper Signs of Worship for if Actions are made Significant by Agreement those are most so whose signification is ratified by Publick Consent § 8. So that all the Magistrates Power of instituting Significant Ceremonies amounts to no more than a Power of Determining what shall or shall not be Visible Signs of Honour and this certainly can be no more Usurpation upon the Consciences of men than if the Sovereign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the Signification of Words For as Words do not naturally denote those things which they are used to represent but have their Import Stampt upon them by consent and Institution and and may if Men would agree to it among themselves be made Marks of Things quite contrary to what they now signifie So the same Gestures and Actions are indifferently capable of signifying either Honour or Contumely and therefore that they may have a certain and setled meaning 't is necessary their Signification should be Determined and unless this be done either by some Positive Command or Publick Consent or some other way there can be no such thing as Publick Worship in the World in that its proper End and Usefulness is to express Mens Agreement in giving Honour to the Divine Majesty and therefore unless the Signs by which this Honour is signified be Publick and Uniform 't is not Publick Worship because there is no Publick Signification of Honour So far is it from being unlawful for Governours to define Significant Ceremonies in Divine Worship that it is rather Necessary in that unless they were defined it would cease to be Publick Worship And when different men worship God by different Actions according to their different Fansies 't is not Publick but Private Worship in that they are not Publick but Private Signs of Honour So that Uniformity in the Outward Actions of Religious Worship is of the same Use as certainty in the Signification of Words because otherwise they were no Publick Expressions of Honour And therefore to sum up the whole Result of this Discourse If all Internal Actions of the Soul are beyond the Jurisdiction of Humane Power if by them the substance of Religious Worship be perform'd if all Outward Forms of Worship have no other Use than only to be Instruments to express Inward Religion and if the Signification of Actions be of the same Nature with that of Words then when the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of Outward Worship 't is after all that hideous and ridiculous Noise that is raised against it of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the Signification of all Words used in the Worship of God CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of all Actions Intrinsecally Evil and their Exemption from the Authority of Humane Laws against Mr. Hobs with a full confutation of his whole Hypothesis of Government The Contents NO Magistrate can Command Actions Internally Evil. The Reason hereof is not because Men are in any thing free from the Supreme Authority in Earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven To take off all Obligations antecedent to Humane Laws is utterly to destroy all Government Mr. Hobs his Hypothesis concerning the Nature and Original of Government proposed It s Absurdity demonstrated from its Inconsistency with the Natural Constitution of Things The Principles of Government are to be Adapted not to an Imaginary but to the Real State of Nature This Hypothesis apparently denies either the Being of God or the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence It irrecoverably destroys the Safety of all Societies of Mankind in the World It leaves us in as miserable Condition under the State of Government as we were in his supposed Natural State of
of Humane Nature but that a multitude of men hapned by chance to arise like Mushromes out of the Earth altogether who out of diffidence and jealousie one of another for want of acquaintance shun'd Society and withdrew like all other Beasts of Prey into Dens and secret retirements where they lived poor and solitary as Bats and Owls and subsisted like Vermine by robbing and filching from one another till finding this way of living lamentably unsafe and uneasie every man being always upon the guard against every man and in continual fear and danger from the whole Community they grew weary of this forlorn and comfortless way of living and thence some that were more wise or more cowardly than others when they chanced to meet in their wild rangings after Prey instead of belabouring one another with Snagsticks and beating out each others brains made signs of Parley and so began to treat of Terms of mutual Peace and Assistance and so by degrees to win others into their Party till they hearded together in small Rendezvouses like the little Common-wealths of the savage Americans which in process of time grew up into larger Societies from whence at length came the different Nations and Governments of the World But if this fortuitous Original of humane Nature be too absurd and ridiculous to be asserted then 2. It must be supposed that there was a first Author and Creator of Mankind and if there were then whoever believes this Hypothesis must withal believe that he contrived things so ill that unless his Creatures had by chance been more provident than himself they must of necessity have perish'd as soon as they were made and therefore that the Well-being of the World is to be entirely attributed to mans Wit and not to Gods Providence who sent his Creatures into it in such a condition as should oblige them to seek their own mutual ruine and destruction so that had they continued in that state of War he left them in they must have lived and died like Gladiators and have unavoidably perish'd at one time or other by one anothers Swords and therefore that Mankind owe the comfort of their lives not at all to their Creator but entirely to themselves forasmuch as the very Laws of Nature whereby according to this Hypothesis the World is preserved were not establish'd by the Divine Providence but are only so many Rules of Art being as all other Maximes of Prudence and Policy are Inventions of humane Wit and suppose man not in the natural state and posture of War in which God left him but in a preternatural one of his own contriving But certainly the Deity that made us if we suppose him good made us not to be miserable for so we must unavoidably have been in a perpetual state of War and therefore to suppose he both made and left us in that condition is directly to deny our Creators goodness And then if we suppose him wise we cannot imagine he would frame a Creation to destroy it self unless we can believe his only design was to sport himself in the folly and madness of his Creatures by beholding them by all the ways of force and fraud to conspire their own mutual destruction and therefore if the Creation of man were a product of the Divine Wisdom or Goodness his natural State must have been a condition of Peace and not such a State of War that should naturally tend to his misery ruine and utter destruction § 5. 3. This Hypothesis irrecoverably destroys the safety of all Societies of Mankind in the World for if personal safety and private interest be the only Foundation of all the Laws of Nature or Principles of Equity i. e. If men endeavour Peace and enter into Contracts of mutual Trust if they invade not the Proprieties of others if they think themselves obliged to promote the good of the Society if they submit themselves to the Laws of the Common-wealth if they practise Justice Equity Mercy and all other Virtues if they refrain from Cruelty Pride Revenge and all other Vices only to secure their own personal safety and interest then whenever this Obligation ceases all the Ties to Justice and Equity that derive all their Force and Reason from it must also cease and when any single Person can hope to advance his own private Interest by the ruine of the Publick it will be lawful for him to effect it and War Rebellion and injuries will be at least as innocent as Faith Justice and Obedience because these are good only in order to private Interest and therefore when those chance to be as conducive to it they will then be as just and lawful So that this single Principle does as effectually work the subversion of all Government as if men were taught the most professed Principles of Rebellion as that all Government is Tyranny and Usurpation that his Majesties possession of the Crown is his best Title that whoever has wit or strength enough to wrest his Scepter from him has right to hold it For as men of these and the like perswasions will never act them but when opportunity invites and will be obedient to any Government till they can destroy it So will those other rebel as soon as they think it their Interest For when ever they can hope to mend their Fortunes by Rebellion the same obligation that restrain'd them from it does now as forcibly invite them to it that is self-interest i. e. they cannot but think Rebellion lawful as oft as they think it safe And there are no Villains so mad or foolish as to attempt it upon other grounds So that though this Author has assign'd us some not unuseful Laws of Nature yet has he effectually enervated their force and usefulness by resolving the reason of their obligation into self-interest and so laying the Fundamental Principles of all Injustice as the only Foundation of all the Rules of Justice For as 't is the Nature and Office of Justice to maintain the Common Right of all and to secure my Neighbours happiness as well as my own so the formal obliquity of all Injustice lies in pursuing of a private Interest without regard to the Common good of all and every member of the Society And therefore if private Interest be the only reason and enforcement of the Laws of Nature men will have no other Motive to obey their Constitutions than what will as strongly oblige to break them i. e. if men are just and honest for no other reason than because 't is their Interest then when 't is their Interest they may and if they are wise will be unjust and dishonest And so men that owne the Laws of 〈…〉 this Principle may be Villains 〈…〉 of all their restraints and the most lewd and profligate Wretches will as well as they be just or unjust as it serves their turns For this Principle that engages men to be honest only as long as they must will as effectually oblige them