and necessarily such as the things we see hear and consider suggest unto us and therefore are not effects of our Will but our Will of them We then Captivate our Understanding and Reason when we forbear contradiction when we so speak as by lawfull Authority we are commanded and when we live accordingly which in sum is Trust and Faith reposed in him that speaketh though the mind be incapable of any Notion at all from the words spoken When God speaketh to man it must be either immediately or by mediation of another man to whom he had formerly spoken by himself immediately How God speaketh to a man immediately may be understood by those well enough to whom he hath so spoken but how the same should be understood by another is hard if not impossible to know For if a man pretend to me that God hath spoken to him supernaturally and immediately and I make doubt of it I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to beleeve it It is true that if he be my Soveraign he may oblige me to obedience so as not by act or word to declare I beleeve him not but not to think any otherwise then my reason perswades me But if one that hath not such authority over me shall pretend the same there is nothing that exacteth either beleefe or obedience For to say that God hath spoken to him in the Holy Scripture is not to say God hath spoken to him immediately but by mediation of the Prophets or of the Apostles or of the Church in such manner as he speaks to all other Christian men To say he hath spoken to him in a Dream is no more then to say he dreamed that God spake to him which is not of force to win beleef from any man that knows dreams are for the most part naturall and may proceed from former thoughts and such dreams as that from selfe conceit and foolish arrogance and false opinion of a mans own godlinesse or other vertue by which he thinks he hath merited the favour of extraordinary Revelation To say he hath seen a Vision or heard a Voice is to say that he hath dreamed between sleeping and waking for in such manner a man doth many times naturally take his dream for a vision as not having well observed his own slumbering To say he speaks by supernaturall Inspiration is to say he finds an ardent desire to speak or some strong opinion of himself for which hee can alledge no naturall and sufficient reason So that though God Almighty can speak to a man by Dreams Visions Voice and Inspiration yet he obliges no man to beleeve he hath so done to him that pretends it who being a man may erre and which is more may lie How then can he to whom God hath never revealed his Wil immediately saving by the way of natural reason know when he is to obey or not to obey his Word delivered by him that sayes he is a Prophet Of 400 Prophets of whom the K. of Israel asked counsel concerning the warre he made against Ramoth Gilead only Micaiah was a true one The Prophet that was sent to prophecy against the Altar set up by Ieroboam though a true Prophet and that by two miracles done in his presence appears to be a Prophet sent from God was yet deceived by another old Prophet that perswaded him as from the mouth of God to eat and drink with him If one Prophet deceive another what certainty is there of knowing the will of God by other way than that of Reason To which I answer out of the Holy Scripture that there be two marks by which together not asunder a true Prophet is to be known One is the doing of miracles the other is the not teaching any other Religion than that which is already established Asunder I say neither of these is sufficient If a Prophet rise amongst you or a Dreamer of dreams and shall pretend the doing of amiracle and the miracle come to passe if he say Let us follow strange Gods which thou hast not known thou shalt not hearken to him c. But that Prophet and Dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because be hath spoken to you to Revolt from the Lord your God In which words two things are to be observed First that God wil not have miracles alone serve for arguments to approve the Prophets calling but as it is in the third verse for an experiment of the constancy of our adherence to himself For the works of the Egyptian Sorcerers though not so great as those of Moses yet were great miracles Secondly that how great soever the miracle be yet if it tend to stir up revolt against the King or him that governeth by the Kings authority he that doth such miracle is not to be considered otherwise than as sent to make triall of their allegiance For these words revâ—…lt from the Lord your God are in this place equivalent to revolt from your King For they had made God their King by pact at the foot of Mount Sinai who ruled them by Moses only for he only spake with God and from time to time declared Gods Commandements to the people In like manner after our Saviour Christ had made his Disciples acknowledge him for the Messiah that is to say for Gods anointed whom the nation of the Iews daily expected for their King but refused when he came he omitted not to advertise them of the danger of miracles There shall arise saith he false Christs and false Prophets and shall doe great wonders and miracles even to the seducing if it were possible of the very Elect. By which it appears that false Prophets may have the power of miracles yet are wee not to take their doctrin for Gods Word St. Paul says further to the Galatians that if himself or an Angell from heaven preach another Gospel to them than he had preached let him be accursed That Gospel was that Christ was King so that all preaching against the power of the King received in consequence to these words is by St. Paul accursed For his speech is addressed to those who by his preaching had already received Iesus for the Christ that is to say for King of the Iews And as Miracles without preaching that Doctrine which God hath established so preaching the true Doctrine without the doing of miracles is an unsufficient argument of immediate Revelation For if a man that teacheth not false Doctrine should pretend to bee a Prophet without shewing any Miracle he is never the more to bee regarded for his pretence as is evident by Deut. 18. v. 21 22. If thou say in thy heart How shall we know that the Word of the Prophet is not that which the Lord hath spoken When the Prophet shall have spoken in the name of the Lord that which shall not come to passe that 's the word which the Lord hath not spoken but the
at his comming again gloriously to reign over his Elect and to save them from their Enemies eternally To which the opinion of Possession by Spirits or Phantasmes are no impediment in the way though it be to some an occasion of going out of the way and to follow their own Inventions If wee require of the Scripture an account of all questions which may be raised to trouble us in the performance of Gods commands we may as well complaine of Moses for not having set downe the time of the creation of such Spirits as well as of the Creation of the Earth and Sea and of Men and Beasts To conclude I find in Scripture that there be Angels and Spirits good and evill but not that they are Incorporeall as are the Apparitions men see in the Dark or in a Dream or Vision which the Latines call Spectra and took for Daemons And I find that there are Spirits Corporeall though subtile and Invisible but not that any mans body was possessed or inhabited by them And that the Bodies of the Saints shall be such namely Spirituall Bodies as St. Paul calls them Neverthelesse the contrary Doctrine namely that there be Incorporeall Spirits hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church that the use of Exorcisme that is to say of ejection of Devills by Conjuration is thereupon built and though rarely and faintly practised is not yet totally given over That there were many Daemoniaques in the Primitive Church and few Mad-men and other such singular diseases whereas in these times we hear of and see many Mad-men and few Daemoniaques proceeds not from the change of Nature but of Names But how it comes to passe that whereas heretofore the Apostles and after them for a time the Pastors of the Church did cure those singular Diseases which now they are not seen to doe as likewise why it is not in the power of every true Beleever now to doe all that the Faithfull did then that is to say as we read Mark 16. 17. In Christs name to cast out Devills to speak with new Tongues to take up Serpents to drink deadly Poison without harm taking and to cure the Sick by the laying on of their hands and all this without other words but in the Name of Iesus is another question And it is probable that those extraordinary gifts were given to the Church for no longer a time than men trusted wholly to Christ and looked for their felicity onely in his Kingdome to come and consequently that when they sought Authority and Riches and trusted to their own Subtilty for a Kingdome of this world these supernaturall gifts of God were again taken from them Another relique of Gentilisme is the Worship of Images neither instituted by Moses in the Old nor by Christ in the New Testament nor yet brought in from the Gentiles but left amongst them after they had given their names to Christ. Before our Saviour preached it was the generall Religion of the Gentiles to worship for Gods those Apparences that remain in the Brain from the impression of externall Bodies upon the organs of their Senses which are commonly called Ideas Idols Phantasmes Conceits as being Representations of those externall Bodies which cause them and have nothing in them of reality no more than there is in the things that seem to stand before us in a Dream And this is the reason why St. Paul says Wee know that an Idol is Nothing Not that he thought that an Image of Metall Stone or Wood was nothing but that the thing which they honored or feared in the Image and held for a God was a meer Figment without place habitation motion or existence but in the motions of the Brain And the worship of these with Divine Honour is that which is in the Scripture called Idolatry and Rebellion against God For God being King of the Jews and his Lieutenant being first Moses and afterward the High Priest if the people had been permitted to worship and pray to Images which are Representations of their own Fancies they had had no farther dependence on the true God of whom their can be no similitude nor on his prime Ministers Moses and the High Priests but every man had governed himself according to his own appetite to the utter eversion of the Common-wealth and their own destruction for want of Union And therefore the first Law of God was They should not take for Gods ALIENOS DEOS that is the Gods of other nations but that onely true God who vouchsafed to commune with Moses and by him to give them laws and directions for their peace and for their salvation from their enemies And the second was that they should not make to themselves any Image to Worship of their own Invention For it is the same deposing of a King to submit to another King whether he be set up by a neighbour nation or by our selves The places of Scripture pretended to countenance the setting up of Images to worship them or to set them up at all in the places where God is worshipped are First two Examples one of the Cherubins over the Ark of God the other of the Brazen Serpent Secondly some texts whereby we are commanded to worship certain Creatures for their relation to God as to worship his Footstool And lastly some other texts by which is authorized a religious honoring of Holy things But before I examine the force of those places to prove that which is pretended I must first explain what is to be understood by Worshipping and what by Images and Idols I have already shewn in the 20 Chapter of this Discourse that to Honor is to value highly the Power of any person and that such value is measured by our comparing him with others But because there is nothing to be compared with God in Power we Honor him not but Dishonour him by any Value lesse than Infinite And thus Honor is properly of its own nature secret and internall in the heart But the inward thoughts of men which appeare outwardly in their words and actions are the signes of our Honoring and these goe by the name of WORSHIP in Latine CULTUS Therefore to Pray to to Swear by to Obey to bee Diligent and Officious in Serving in summe all words and actions that betoken Fear to Offend or Desire to Please is Worship whether those words and actions be sincere or feigned and because they appear as signes of Honoring are ordinarily also called Honor. The Worship we exhibite to those we esteem to be but men as to Kings and men in Authority is Civill Worship But the worship we exhibite to that which we think to bee God whatsoever the words ceremonies gestures or other actions be is Divine VVorship To fall prostrate before a King in him that thinks him but a Man is but Civill Worship And he that but putteth off his hat in the Church for this cause that he thinketh it the House of
yet if we consider the same Theoremes as delivered in the word of God that by right commandeth all things then are they properly called Lawes CHAP. XVI Of PERSONS AUTHORS and things Personated A PERSON is he whose words or actions are considered either as his own or as representing the words or actions of an other man or of any other thing to whom they are attributed whether Truly or by Fiction When they are considered as his owne then is he called a Naturall Person And when they are considered as representing the words and actions of an other then is he a Feigned or Artificiall person The word Person is latine insteed whereof the Greeks have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Face as Persona in latine signifies the disguise or outward appearance of a man counterfeited on the Stage and somtimes more particularly that part of it which disguiseth the face as a Mask or Visard And from the Stage hath been translated to any Representer of speech and action as well in Tribunalls as Theaters So that a Person is the same that an Actor is both on the Stage and in common Conversation and to Personate is to Act or Represent himselfe or an other and he that acteth another is said to beare his Person or act in his name in which sence Cicero useth it where he saies Unus sustineo tres Personas Mei Adversarii Judicis I beare three Persons my own my Adversaries and the Judges and is called in diverse occasions diversly as a Representer or Representative a Lieutenant a Vicar an Attorney a Deputy a Procurator an Actor and the like Of Persons Artificiall some have their words and actions Owned by those whom they represent And then the Person is the Actor and he that owneth his words and actions is the AUTHOR In which case the Actor acteth by Authority For that which in speaking of goods and possessions is called an Owner and in latine Dominus in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of Actions is called Author And as the Right of possession is called Dominion so the Right of doing any Action is called AUTHORITY So that by Authority is alwayes understood a Right of doing any act and done by Authority done by Commssiion or Licence from him whose right it is From hence it followeth that when the Actor maketh a Covenant by Authority he bindeth thereby the Author no lesse than if he had made it himselfe and no lesse subjecteth him to all the consequences of the same And therfore all that hath been said formerly Chap. 14. of the nature of Covenants between man and man in their naturall capacity is true also when they are made by their Actors Representers or Procurators that have authority from them so far-forth as is in their Commission but no farther And therefore he that maketh a Covenant with the Actor or Representer not knowing the Authority he hath doth it at his own perill For no man is obliged by a Covenant whereof he is not Author nor consequently by a Covenant made against or beside the Authority he gave When the Actor doth any thing against the Law of Nature by command of the Author if he be obliged by former Covenant to obey him not he but the Author breaketh the Law of Nature for though the Action be against the Law of Nature yet it is not his but contrarily to refuse to do it is against the Law of Nature that forbiddeth breach of Covenant And he that maketh a Covenant with the Author by mediation of the Actor not knowing what Authority he hath but onely takes his word in case such Authority be not made manifest unto him upon demand is no longer obliged For the Covenant made with the Author is not valid without his Counter-assurance But if he that so Covenanteth knew before hand he was to expect no other assurance than the Actors word then is the Covenant valid because the Actor in this case maketh himselfe the Author And therefore as when the Authority is evident the Covenant obligeth the Author not the Actor so when the Authority is feigned it obligeth the Actor onely there being no Author but himselfe There are few things that are uncapable of being represented by Fiction Inanimate things as a Church an Hospital a Bridge may be Personated by a Rector Master or Overseer But things Inanimate cannot be Authors nor therefore give Authority to their Actors Yet the Actors may have Authority to procure their maintenance given them by those that are Owners or Governours of those things And therefore such things cannot be Personated before there be some state of Civill Government Likewise Children Fooles and Mad-men that have no use of Reason may be Personated by Guardians or Curators but can be no Authors during that time of any action done by them longer then when they shall recover the use of Reason they shall judge the same reasonable Yet during the Folly he that hath right of governing them may give Authority to the Guardian But this again has no place but in a State Civill because before such estate there is no Dominion of Persons An Idol or meer Figment of the brain may be Personated as were the Gods of the Heathen which by such Officers as the State appointed were Personated and held Possessions and other Goods and Rights which men from time to time dedicated and consecrated unto them But Idols cannot be Authors for an Idol is nothing The Authority proceeded from the State and therefore before introduction of Civill Government the Gods of the Heathen could not be Personated The true God may be Personated As he was first by Moses who governed the Israelites that were not his but Gods people not in his own name with Hoc dicit Moses but in Gods Name with Hoc dicit Dominus Secondly by the Son of man his own Son our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ that came to reduce the Jewes and induce all Nations into the Kingdome of his Father not as of himselfe but as sent from his Father And thirdly by the Holy Ghost or Comforter speaking and working in the Apostles which Holy Ghost was a Comforter that came not of himselfe but was sent and proceeded from them both A Multitude of men are made One Person when they are by one man or one Person Represented so that it be done with the consent of every one of that Multitude in particular For it is the Unity of the Representer not the Unity of the Represented that maketh the Person One. And it is the Representer that beareth the Person and but one Person And Unity cannot otherwise be understood in Multitude And because the Multitude naturally is not One but Many they cannot be understood for one but many Authors of every thing their Representative saith or doth in their name Every man giving their common Representer Authority from himselfe in particular
yet have no other direction than their particular judgements and appetites nor speech whereby one of them can signifie to another what he thinks expedient for the common benefit and therefore some man may perhaps desire to know why Man-kind cannot do the same To which I answer First that men are contiâ—…ually in competition for Honour and Dignity which these creatures are not and consequently amongst men there ariseth on that ground Envy and Hatred and finally Warre but amongst these not so Secondly that amongst these creatures the Common good differeth not from the Private and being by nature enclined to their private they procure thereby the common benefit But man whose Joy consisteth in comparing himselfe with other men can relish nothing but what is eminent Thirdly that these creatures having not as man the use of reason do not see nor think they see any fault in the administration of their common businesse whereas amongst men there are very many that thinke themselves wiser and abler to govern the Publique better than the rest and these strive to reforme and innovate one this way another that way and thereby bring it into Distraction and Civill warre Fourthly that these creatures though they have some use of voice in making knowne to one another their desires and other affections yet they want that art of words by which some men can represent to others that which is Good in the likenesse of Evill and Evill in the likenesse of Good and augment or diminish the apparent greatnesse of Good and Evill discontenting men and troubling their Peace at their pleasure Fiftly irrationall creatures cannot distinguish betweene Injury and Dammage and therefore as long as they be at ease they are not offended with their fellowes whereas Man is then most troublesome when he is most at ease for then it is that he loves to shew his Wisdome and controule the Actions of them that governe the Common-wealth Lastly the agreement of these creatures is Naturall that of men is by Covenant only which is Artificiall and therefore it is no wonder if there be somwhat else required besides Covenant to make their Agreement constant and lasting which is a Common Power to keep them in awe and to direct their actions to the Common Benefit The only way to erect such a Common Power as may be able to defend them from the invasion of Forraigners and the injuries of one another and thereby to secure them in such sort as that by their owne industrie and by the fruites of the Earth they may nourish themselves and live contentedly is to conferre all their power and strength upon one Man or upon one Assembly of men that may reduce all their Wills by plurality of voices unto one Will which is as much as to say to appoint one Man or Assembly of men to beare their Person and every one to owne and acknowledge himselfe to be Author of whatsoever he that so beareth their Person shall Act or cause to be Acted in those things which concerne the Common Peace and Safetie and therein to submit their Wills every one to his Will and their Judgements to his Judgment This is more than Consent or Concord it is a reall Unitie of them all in one and the same Person made by Covenant of every man with every man in such manner as if every man should say to every man I Authorise and give up my Right of Governing my selfe to this Man or to this Assembly of men on this condition that thou give up thy Right to him and Authorise all his Actions in like manner This done the Multitude so united in one Person is called a COMMON-WEALTH in latine CIVITAS This is the Generation of that great LEVIATHAN or rather to speake more reverently of that Mortall God to which wee owe under the Immortall God our peace and defence For by this Authoritie given him by every particular man in the Common-Wealth he hath the use of so much Power and Strength conferred on him that by terror thereof he is inabled to performe the wills of them all to Peace at home and mutuall ayd against their enemies abroad And in him consisteth the Essence of the Common-wealth which to define it is One Person of whose Acts a great Multitude by mutuall Covenants one with another have made themselves every one the Author to the end he may use the strength and means of them all as he shall think expedient for their Peace and Common Defence And he that carryeth this Person is called SOVERAIGNE and said to have Soveraigne Power and every one besides his SUBIECT The attaining to this Soveraigne Power is by two wayes One by Naturall force as when a man maketh his children to submit themselves and their children to his government as being able to destroy them if they refuse or by Warre subdueth his enemies to his will giving them their lives on that condition The other is when men agree amongst themselves to submit to some Man or Assembly of men voluntarily on confidence to be protected by him against all others This later may be called a Politicall Common-wealth or Common-wealth by Institution and the former a Common-wealth by Acquisition And first I shall speak of a Common-wealth by Institution CHAP. XVIII Of the RIGHTS of Soveraignes by Institution A Common-wealth is said to be Instituted when a Multitude of men do Agree and Covenant every one with every one that to whatsoever Man or Assembly of Men shall be given by the major part the Right to Present the Person of them all that is to say to be their Representative every one as well he that Voted for it as he that Voted against it shall Authorise all the Actions and Judgements of that Man or Assembly of men in the same manner as if they were his own to the end to live peaceably amongst themselves and be protected against other men From this Institution of a Common-wealth are derived all the Rights and Facultyes of him or them on whom Soveraigne Power is conferred by the consent of the People assembled First because they Covenant it is to be understood they are not obliged by former Covenant to any thing repugnant hereunto And Consequently they that have already Instituted a Common-wealth being thereby bound by Covenant to own the Actions and Judgements of one cannot lawfully make a new Covenant amongst themselves to be obedient to any other in any thing whatsoever without his permission And therefore they that are subjects to a Monarch cannot without his leave cast off Monarchy and return to the confusion of a disunited Multitude nor transferre their Person from him that beareth it to another Man or other Assembly of men for they are bound every man to every man to Own and be reputed Author of all that he that already is their Soveraigne shall do and judge fit to be done so that any one man dissenting all the rest should break their
King in Parliament And in some places of the world men have the Liberty of many wives in other places such Liberty is not allowed If a Subject have a controversie with his Soveraigne of debt or of right of possession of lands or goods or concerning any service required at his hands or concerning any penalty corporall or pecuniary grounded on a precedent Law he hath the same Liberty to sue for his right as if it were against a Subject and before such Judges as are appointed by the Soveraign For seeing the Soveraign demandeth by force of a former Law and not by vertue of his Power he declareth thereby that he requireth no more than shall appear to be due by that Law The sute therefore is not contrary to the will of the Soveraign and consequently the Subject hath the Liberty to demand the hearing of his Cause and sentence according to that Law But if he demand or take any thing by pretence of his Power there lyeth in that case no action of Law for all that is done by him in Vertue of his Power is done by the Authority of every Subject and consequently he that brings an action against the Soveraign brings it against himselfe If a Monarch or Soveraign Assembly grant a Liberty to all or any of his Subjects which Grant standing he is disabled to provide for their safety the Grant is voyd unlesse he directly renounce or transferre the Soveraignty to another For in that he might openly if it had been his will and in plain termes have renounced or transferred it and did not it is to be understood it was not his will but that the Grant proceeded from ignorance of the repugnancy between such a Liberty and the Soveraign Power and therefore the Soveraignty is still retayned and consequently all those Powers which are necessary to the exercising thereof such as are the Power of Warre and Peace of Judicature of appointing Officers and Councellours of levying Mony and the rest named in the 18th Chapter The Obligation of Subjects to the Soveraign is understood to last as long and no longer than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves when none else can protect them can by no Covenant be relinquished The Soveraignty is the Soule of the Common-wealth which once departed from the Body the members doe no more receive their motion from it The end of Obedience is Protection which wheresoever a man seeth it either in his own or in anothers sword Nature applyeth his obedience to it and his endeavour to maintaine it And though Soveraignty in the intention of them that make it be immortall yet is it in its own nature not only subject to violent death by forreign war but also through the ignorance and passions of men it hath in it from the very institution many seeds of a naturall mortality by Intestine Discord If a Subject be taken prisoner in war or his person or his means of life be within the Guards of the enemy and hath his life and corporall Libertie given him on condition to be Subject to the Victor he hath Libertie to accept the condition and having accepted it is the subject of him that took him because he had no other way to preserve himself The case is the same if he be deteined on the same termes in a forreign country But if a man be held in prison or bonds or is not trusted with the libertie of his bodie he cannot be understood to be bound by Covenant to subjection and therefore may if he can make his escape by any means whatsoever If a Monarch shall relinquish the Soveraignty both for himself and his heires His Subjects returne to the absolute Libertie of Nature because though Nature may declare who are his Sons and who are the nerest of his Kin yet it dependeth on his own will as hath been said in the precedent chapter who shall be his Heyr If therefore he will have no Heyre there is no Soveraignty nor Subjection The case is the same if he dye without known Kindred and without declaration of his Heyre For then there can no Heire be known and consequently no Subjection be due If the Soveraign Banish his Subject during the Banishment he is not Subject But he that is sent on a message or hath leave to travell is still Subject but it is by Contract between Soveraigns not by vertue of the covenant of Subjection For whosoever entreth into anothers dominion is Subject to all the Laws thereof unlesse he have a privilege by the amity of the Soveraigns or by speciall licence If a Monarch subdued by war render himself Subject to the Victor his Subjects are delivered from their former obligation and become obliged to the Victor But if he be held prisoner or have not the liberty of his own Body he is not understood to have given away the Right of Soveraigntie and therefore his Subjects are obliged to yield obedience to the Magistrates formerly placed governing not in their own name but in his For his Right remaining the question is only of the Administration that is to say of the Magistrates and Officers which if he have not means to name he is supposed to approve those which he himself had formerly appointed CHAP. XXII Of SYSTEMES Subject Politicall and Private HAving spoken of the Generation Forme and Power of a Common-wealth I am in order to speak next of the parts thereof And first of Systemes which resemble the similar parts or Muscles of a Body naturall By SYSTEMES I understand any numbers of men joyned in one Interest or one Businesse Of which some are Regular and some Irregular Regular are those where one Man or Assembly of men is constituted Representative of the whole number All other are Irregular Of Regular some are Absolute and Independent subject to none but their own Representative such are only Common-wealths Of which I have spoken already in the 5. last precedent chapters Others are Dependent that is to say Subordinate to some Soveraign Power to which every one as also their Representative is Subject Of Systemes subordinate some are Politicall and some Private Politicall otherwise Called Bodies Politique and Persons in Law are those which are made by authority from the Soveraign Power of the Common-wealth Private are those which are constituted by Subjects amongst themselves or by authoritie from a stranger For no authority derived from forraign power within the Dominion of another is Publique there but Private And of Private Systemes some are Lawfull some Unlawfull Lawfull are those which are allowed by the Common-wealth all other are Unlawfull Irregular Systemes are those which having no Representative consist only in concourse of People which if not forbidden by the Common-wealth nor made on evill designe such as are conflux of People to markets or shews or any other harmelesse end are Lawfull But when the
all written Lawes that may concerne his own future actions The Legislator known and the Lawes either by writing or by the light of Nature sufficiently published there wanteth yet another very materiall circumstance to make them obligatory For it is not the Letter but the Intendment or Meaning that is to say the authentique Interpretation of the Law which is the sense of the Legislator in which the nature of the Law consisteth And therefore the Interpretation of all Lawes dependeth on the Authority Soveraign and the Interpreters can be none but those which the Soveraign to whom only the Subject oweth obedience shall appoint For else by the craft of an Interpreter the Law may be made to beare a sense contrary to that of the Soveraign by which means the Interpreter becomes the Legislator All Laws written and unwritten have need of Interpretation The unwritten Law of Nature though it be easy to such as without partiality and passion make use of their naturall reason and therefore leaves the violaters thereof without excuse yet considering there be very few perhaps none that in some cases are not blinded by self love or some other passion it is now become of all Laws the most obscure and has consequently the greatest need of able Interpreters The written Laws if they be short are easily mis-interpreted from the divers significations of a word or two if long they be more obscure by the diverse significations of many words in so much as no written Law delivered in few or many words can be well understood without a perfect understanding of the finall causes for which the Law was made the knowledge of which finall causes is in the Legislator To him therefore there can not be any knot in the Law insoluble either by finding out the ends to undoe it by or else by making what ends he will as Alexander did with his sword in the Gordian knot by the Legislative power which no other Interpreter can doe The Interpretation of the Lawes of Nature in a Common-wealth dependeth not on the books of Morall Philosophy The Authority of writers without the Authority of the Common-wealth maketh not their opinions Law be they never so true That which I have written in this Treatise concerning the Morall Vertues and of their necessity for the procuring and maintaining peace though it bee evident Truth is not therefore presently Law but because in all Common-wealths in the world it is part of the Civill Law For though it be naturally reasonable yet it is by the Soveraigne Power that it is Law Otherwise it were a great errour to call the Lawes of Nature unwritten Law whereof wee see so many volumes published and in them so many contradictions of one another and of themselves The Interpretation of the Law of Nature is the Sentence of the Judge constituted by the Soveraign Authority to heare and determine such controversies as depend thereon and consisteth in the application of the Law to the present case For in the act of Judicature the Judge doth no more but consider whither the demand of the party be consonant to naturall reason and Equity and the Sentence he giveth is therefore the Interpretation of the Law of Nature which Interpretation is Authentique not because it is his private Sentence but because he giveth it by Authority of the Soveraign whereby it becomes the Soveraigns Sentence which is Law for that time to the parties pleading But because there is no Judge Subordinate nor Soveraign but may erre in a Judgement of Equity if afterward in another like case he find it more consonant to Equity to give a contrary Sentence he is obliged to doe it No mans error becomes his own Law nor obliges him to persist in it Neither for the same reason becomes it a Law to other Judges though sworn to follow it For though a wrong Sentence given by authority of the Soveraign if he know and allow it in such Lawes as are mutable be a constitution of a new Law in cases in which every little circumstance is the same yet in Lawes immutable such as are the Lawes of Nature they are no Lawes to the same or other Judges in the like cases for ever after Princes succeed one another and one Iudge passeth another commeth nay Heaven and Earth shall passe but not one title of the Law of Nature shall passe for it is the Eternall Law of God Therefore all the Sentences of precedent Judges that have ever been cannot all together make a Law contrary to naturall Equity Nor any Examples of former Judges can warrant an unreasonable Sentence or discharge the present Judge of the trouble of studying what is Equity in the case he is to Judge from the principles of his own naturall reason For example sake 'T is against the Law of Nature To punish the Innocent and Innocent is he that acquitteth himselfe Judicially and is acknowledged for Innocent by the Judge Put the case now that a man is accused of a capitall crime and seeing the power and malice of some enemy and the frequent corruption and parâ—…iality of Judges runneth away for feare of the event and afterwards is taken and brought to a legall triall and maketh it sufficiently appear he was not guilty of the crime and being thereof acquitted is neverthelesse condemned to lose his goods this is a manifest condemnation of the Innocent I say therefore that there is no place in the world where this can be an interpretation of a Law of Nature or be made a Law by the Sentences of precedent Judges that had done the same For he that judged it first judged unjustly and no Injustice can be a pattern of Judgement to succeeding Judges A written Law may forbid innocent men to fly and they may be punished for flying But that flying for feare of injury should be taken for presumption of guilt after a man is already absolved of the crime Judicially is contrary to the nature of a Presumption which hath no place after Judgement given Yet this is set down by a great Lawyer for the common Law of England If a man saith he that is Innocent be accused of Felony and for feare flyeth for the same albeit he judicially acquitteth himselfe of the Felony yet if it be found that he fled for the Felony he shall notwithstanding his Innocency Forfeit all his goods chattells debts and duties For as to the Forfeiture of them the Law will admit no proofe against the Presumption in Law grounded upon his flight Here you see An Innocent man Judicially acquitted notwithstanding his Innocency when no written Law forbad him to fly after his acquitall upon a Presumption in Law condemned to lose all the goods he hath If the Law ground upon his flight a Presumption of the fact which was Capitall the Sentence ought to have been Capitall if the Presumption were not of â—…he Fact for what then ought he to lose his goods This therefore is
no Law of England nor is the condemnation grounded upon a Presumption of Law but upon the Presumption of the Judges It is also against Law to say that no Proofe shall be admitted against a Presumption of Law For all Judges Soveraign and subordinate if they refuse to heare Proofe refuse to do Justice for though the Sentence be Just yet the Judges that condemn without hearing the Proofes offered are Unjust Judges and their Presumption is but Prejudice which no man ought to bring with him to the Seat of Justice whatsoever precedent judgements or examples he shall pretend to follow There be other things of this nature wherein mens Judgements have been perverted by trusting to Precedents but this is enough to shew that though the Sentence of the Judge be a Law to the party pleading yet it is no Law to any Judge that shall succeed him in that Office In like manner when question is of the Meaning of written Lawes he is not the Interpreter of them that writeth a Commentary upon them For Commentaries are commonly more subject to cavill than the Text and therefore need other Commentaries and so there will be no end of such Interpretation And therefore unlesse there be an Interpreter authorised by the Soveraign from which the subordinate Judges are not to recede the Interpreter can be no other than the ordinary Judges in the same manner as they are in cases of the unwritten Law and their Sentences are to be taken by them that plead for Lawes in that particular case but not to bind other Judges in like cases to give like judgements For a Judge may erre in the Interpretation even of written Lawes but no errour of a subordinate Judge can change the Law which is the generall Sentence of the Soveraigne In written Lawes men use to make a difference between the Letter and the Sentence of the Law And when by the Letter is meant whatsoever can be gathered from the bare words 't is well distinguished For the significations of almost all words are either in themselves or in the metaphoricall use of them ambiguous and may be drawn in argument to make many senses but there is onely one sense of the Law But if by the Letter be meant the literall sense then the Letter and the Sentence or intention of the Law is all one For the literall sense is that which the Legislator intended should by the letter of the Law be signified Now the Intention of the Legislator is alwayes supposed to be Equity For it were a great contumely for a Judge to think otherwise of the Soveraigne He ought therefore if the Word of the Law doe not fully authorise a reasonable Sentence to supply it with the Law of Nature or if the case be difficult to respit Judgement till he have received more ample authority For Example a written Law ordaineth that he which is thrust out of his house by force shall be restored by force It happens that a man by negligence leaves his house empty and returning is kept out by force in which case there is no speciall Law ordained It is evident that this case is contained in the same Law for else there is no remedy for him at all which is to be supposed against the Intention of the Legislator Again the word of the Law commandeth to Judge according to the Evidence A man is accused falsly of a fact which the Judge saw himself done by another and not by him that is accused In this case neither shall the Letter of the Law be followed to the condemnation of the Innocent nor shall the Judge give Sentence against the evidence of the Witnesses because the Letter of the Law is to the contrary but procure of the Soveraign that another be made Judge and himself Witnesse So that the incommodity that follows the bare words of a written Law may lead him to the Intention of the Law whereby to interpret the same the better though no Incommodity can warrant a Sentence against the Law For every Judge of Right and Wrong is not Judge of what is â—…ommodious or Incommodious to the Common-wealth The abilities required in a good Interpreter of the Law that is to say in a good Judge are not the same with those of an Advocate namely the study of the Lawes For a Judge as he ought to take notice of the Fact from none but the Witnesses so also he ought to take notice of the Law from nothing but the Satutes and Constitutions of the Soveraign alledged in the pleading or declared to him by some that have authority from the Soveraign Power to declare them and need not take care before-hand what hee shall Judge for it shall bee given him what hee shall say concerning the Fact by Witnesses and what hee shall say in point of Law from those that shall in their pleadings â—…hew it and by authority interpret it upon the place The Lords of Parlament in England were Judges and most difficult causes have been heard and determined by them yet few of them were much versed in the study of the Lawes and fewer had made profession of them and though they consulted with Lawyers that were appointed to be present there for that purpose yet they alone had the authority of giving Sentence In like manner in the ordinary trialls of Right Twelve men of the common People are the Judges and give Sentence not onely of the Fact but of the Right and pronounce simply for the Complaynant or for the Defendant that is to say are Judges not onely of the Fact but also of the Right and in a question of crime not onely determine whether done or not done but also whether it be Murder Homicide Felony Assault and the like which are determinations of Law but because they are not supposed to know the Law of themselves there is one that hath Authority to enforme them of it in the particular case they are to Judge of But yet if they judge not according to that he tells them they are not subject thereby to any penalty unlesse it be made appear they did it against their consciences or had been corrupted by reward The things that make a good Judge or good Interpreter of the Lawes are first A right understanding of that principall Law of Nature called Equity which depending not on the reading of other mens Writings but on the goodnesse of a mans own naturall Reason and Meditation is presumed to be in those most that have had most leisure and had the most inclination to meditate thereon Secondly Contempt of unnecessary Riches and Preferments Thirdly To be able in judgement to devest himselfe of all feare anger hatred love and compassion Fourthly and lastly Patience to heare diligent attention in hearing and memory to retain digest and apply what he hath heard The difference and division of the Lawes has been made in divers manners according to the different methods of those men that have written of
disturbance of the Peace of the Common-wealth Secondly by falsé Teachers that either mis-interpret the Law of Nature making it thereby repugnant to the Law Civill or by teaching for Lawes such Doctrines of their own or Traditions of former times as are inconsistent with the duty of a Subject Thirdly by Erroneous Inferences from True Principles which happens commonly to men that are hasty and praecipitate in concluding and resolving what to do such as are they that have both a great opinion of their own understanding and believe that things of this nature require not time and study but onely common experience and a good naturall wit whereof no man thinks himselfe unprovided whereas the knowledge of Right and Wrong which is no lesse difficult there is no man will pretend to without great and long study And of those defects in Reasoning there is none that can Excuse though some of them may Extenuate a Crime in any man that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge because they pretend to the Reason upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime one is Vain-glory or a foolish over-rating of their own worth as if difference of worth were an effect of their wit or riches or bloud or some other naturall quality not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority From whence proceedeth a Presumption that the punishments ordained by the Lawes and extended generally to all Subjects ought not to be inflicted on them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poore obscure and simple men comprehended under the name of the Vulgar Therefore it happeneth commonly that such as value themselves by the greatnesse of their wealth adventure on Crimes upon hope of escaping punishment by corrupting publique Justice or obtaining Pardon by Mony or other rewards And that such as have multitude of Potent Kindred and popular men that have gained reputation amongst the Multitude take courage to violate the Lawes from a hope of oppressing the Power to whom it belongeth to put them in execution And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own Wisedome take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the Authority of them that govern and so to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse as that nothing shall be a Crime but what their own designes require should be so It happeneth also to the same men to be prone to all such Crimes as consist in Craft and in deceiving of their Neighbours because they think their designes are too subtile to be perceived These I say are effects of a false presumption of their own Wisdome For of them that are the first movers in the disturbance of Common-wealth which can never happen without a Civill Warre very few are left alive long enough to see their new Designes established so that the benefit of their Crimes redoundeth to Posterity and such as would least have wished it which argues they were not so wise as they thought they were And those that deceive upon hope of not being observed do commonly deceive themselves the darknesse in which they believe they lye hidden being nothing else but their own blindnesse and are no wiser than Children that think all hid by hiding their own eyes And generally all vain-glorious men unlesse they be withall timorous are subject to Anger as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt the ordinary liberty of conversation And there are few Crimes that may not be produced by Anger As for the Passions of Hate Lust Ambition and Covetousnesse what Crimes they are apt to produce is so obvious to every mans experience and understanding as there needeth nothing to be said of them saving that they are infirmities so annexed to the nature both of man and all other living creatures as that their effects cannot be hindred but by extraordinary use of Reason or a constant severity in punishing them For in those things men hate they find a continuall and unavoydable molestation whereby either a mans patience must be everlasting or he must be eased by removing the power of that which molesteth him The former is difficult the later is many times impossible without some violation of the Law Ambition and Covetousnesse are Passions also that are perpetually incumbent and pressing whereas Reason is not perpetually present to resist them and therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears their effects proceed And for Lust what it wants in the lasting it hath in the vehemence which sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easie or uncertain punishments Of all Passions that which enclineth men least to break the Lawes is Fear Nay excepting some generous natures it is the onely thing when there is apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the Lawes that makes men keep them And yet in many cases a Crime may be committed through Feare For not every Fear justifies the Action it produceth but the fear onely of corporeall hurt which we call Bodily Fear and from which a man cannot see how to be delivered but by the action A man is assaulted fears present death from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him If he wound him to death this is no Crime because no man is supposed at the making of a Common-wealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbes where the Law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance But to kill a man because from his actions or his threatnings I may argue he will kill me when he can seeing I have time and means to demand protection from the Soveraign Power is a Crime Again a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries for which they that made the Lawes had assigned no punishment nor thought it worthy of a man that hath the use of Reason to take notice of and is afraid unlesse he revenge it he shall fall into contempt and consequently be obnoxious to the like injuries from others and to avoyd this breaks the Law and protects himselfe for the future by the terrour of his private revenge This is a Crime For the hurt is not Corporeall but Phantasticall and though in this corner of the world made sensible by a custome not many years since begun amongst young and vain men so light as a gallant man and one that is assured of his own courage cannot take notice of Also a man may stand in fear of Spirits either through his own superstition or through too much credit given to other men that tell him of strange Dreams and Visions and thereby be made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things which neverthelesse to do or omit is contrary to the Lawes And that which is so done or omitted is not to be Excused by this fear but is
and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament have had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God 1. in Moses and the Priests 2. in the man Christ and 3. in the Apostles and the successors to Apostolicall power For these three at several times did represent the person of God Moses and his successors the High Priests and Kings of Judah in the Old Testament Christ himself in the time he lived on earth and the Apostles and their successors from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on them to this day It is a question much disputed between the divers sects of Christian Religion From whence the Scriptures derive their Authority which question is also propounded sometimes in other terms as How wee know them to be the Word of God or Why we b◅leeve them to be so And the difficulty of resolving it ariseth chiefly from the impropernesse of the words wherein the question it self is couched For it is beleeved on all hands that the first and originall Author of them is God and consequently the question disputed is not that Again it is manifest that none can know they are Gods Word though all true Christians beleeve it but those to whom God himself hath revealed it supernaturally and therefore the question is not rightly moved of our Know edge of it Lastly when the question is propounded of our Beleefe because some are moved to beleeve for one and others for other reasons there can be rendred no one generall answer for them all The question truly stated is By what Authority they are made Law As far as they differ not from the Laws of Nature there is no doubt but they are the Law of God and carry their Authority with them legible to all men that have the use of naturall reason but this is no other Authority then that of all other Morall Doctrine consonant to Reason the Dictates whereof are Laws not made but Eternall If they be made Law by God himselfe they are of the nature of written Law which are Laws to them only to whom God hath so sufficiently published them as no man can excuse himself by saying he knew not they were his He therefore to whom God hath not supernaturally revealed that they are his nor that those that published them were sent by him is not obliged to obey them by any Authority but his whose Commands have already the force of Laws that is to say by any other Authority then that of the Common-wealth residing in the Soveraign who only has the Legislative power Again if it be not the Legislative Authority of the Common-wealth that giveth them the force of Laws it must bee some other Authority derived from God either private or publique if private it obliges onely him to whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveale it For if every man should be obliged to take for Gods Law what particular men on pretence of private Inspiration or Revelation should obtrude upon him in such a number of men that out of pride and ignorance take their own Dreams and extravagant Fancies and Madnesse for testimonies of Gods Spirit or out of ambition pretend to such Divine testimonies falsely and contrary to their own consciences it were impossible that any Divine Law should be acknowledged If publique it is the Authority of the Common-wealth or of the Church But the Church if it be one person is the same thing with a Common-wealth of Christians called a Common-wealth because it consisteth of men united in one person their Soveraign and a Church because it consisteth in Christian men united in one Christian Soveraign But if the Church be not one person then it hath no authority at all it can neither command nor doe any action at all nor is capable of having any power or right to any thing nor has any Will Reason nor Voice for all these qualities are personall Now if the whole number of Christians be not contained in one Common-wealth they are not one person nor is there an Universall Church that hath any authority over them and therefore the Scriptures are not made Laws by the Universall Church or if it bee one Common-wealth then all Christian Monarchs and States are private persons and subject to bee judged deposed and punished by an Universall Soveraigne of all Christendome So that the question of the Authority of the Scriptures is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraigne Assemblies in Christian Common-wealths be absolute in their own Territories immediately under God or subject to one Vicar of Christ constituted of the Vniversall Church to bee judged condemned deposed and put to death as hee shall think expedient or necessary for the common good Which question cannot bee resolved without a more particular consideration of the Kingdome of God from whence also wee are to judge of the Authority of Interpreting the Scripture For whosoever hath a lawfull power over any Writing to make it Law hath the power also to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the same CHAP. XXXIV Of the Signification of SPIRIT ANGEL and INSPIRATION in the Books of Holy Scripture SEeing the foundation of all true Ratiocination is the constant Signification of words which in the Doctrine following dependeth not as in naturall science on the Will of the Writer nor as in common conversation on vulgar use but on the sense they carry in the Scripture It is necessary before I proceed any further to determine out of the Bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may render what I am to inferre upon them obscure or disputable I will begin with the words BODY and SPIRIT which in the language of the Schools are termed Substances Corporeall and Incorporeall The Word Body in the most generall acceptation signifieth that which filleth or occupyeth some certain room or imagined place and dependeth not on the imagination but is a reall part of that we call the Vniverse For the Vniverse being the Aggregate of all Bodies there is no reall part thereof that is not also Body nor any thing properly a Body that is not also part of that Aggregate of all Bodies the Vniverse The same also because Bodies are subject to change that is to say to variety of apparence to the sense of living creatures is called Substance that is to say Subject to various accidents as sometimes to be Moved sometimes to stand Still and to seem to our senses sometimes Hot sometimes Cold sometimes of one Colour Smel Tast or Sound somtimes of another And this diversity of Seeming produced by the diversity of the operatiō of bodies on the organs of our sense we attribute to alterations of the Bodies that operate call them Accidents of those Bodies And according to this acceptation of the word Substance and Body signifie the same thing and therefore Substance incorporeall are words which when they are joined together destroy one another as if
fault that Jonathan had committed in eating a honey-comb contrary to the oath taken by the people And Iosh. 18. 10. God divided the land of Canaan amongst the Israelite by the lots that Ioshua did cast before the Lord in Shiloh In the same manner it seemeth to be that God discovered Ioshua 7. 16 c. the crime of Achan And these are the wayes whereby God declared his Will in the Old Testament All which ways he used also in the New Testament To the Virgin Mary by a Vision of an Angel To Ioseph in a Dream again to Paul in the way to Damascus in a Vision of our Saviour and to Peter in the Vision of a sheet let down from heaven with divers sorts of flesh of clean and unclean beasts and in prison by Vision of an Angel And to all the Apostles and Writers of the New Testament by the graces of his Spirit and to the Apostles again at the choosing of Matthias in the place of Judas Iscariot by lot Seeing then all Prophecy supposeth Vision or Dream which two when they be naturall are the same or some especiall gift of God so rarely observed in mankind as to be admired where observed And seeing as well such gifts as the most extraordinary Dreams and Visions may proceed from God not onely by his supernaturall and immediate but also by his naturall operation and by mediation of second causes there is need of Reason and Judgment to discern between naturall and supernaturall Gifts and between naturall and supernaturall Visions or Dreams And consequently men had need to be very circumspect aud wary in obeying the voice of man that pretending himself to be a Prophet requires us to obey God in that way which he in Gods name telleth us to be the way to happinesse For he that pretends to teach men the way of so great felicity pretends to govern them that is to say to rule and reign over them which is a thing that all men naturally desire and is therefore worthy to be suspected of Ambition and Imposture and consequently ought to be examined and tryed by every man before hee yeeld them obedience unlesse he have yeelded it them already in the institution of a Common-wealth as when the Prophet is the Civill Soveraign or by the Civil Soveraign Authorized And if this examination of Prophets and Spirits were not allowed to every one of the people it had been to no purpose to set out the marks by which every man might be able to distinguish between those whom they ought and those whom they ought not to follow Seeing therefore such marks are set out Deut. 13. 1 c. to know a Prophet by and 1 Iohn 4. 1. c. to know a Spirit by and seeing there is so much Prophecying in the Old Testament and so much Preaching in the New Testament against Prophets and so much greater a number ordinarily of false Prophets then of true every one is to beware of obeying their directions at their own perill And first that there were many more false then true Prophets appears by this that when Ahab 1 Kings 12. consulted four hundred Prophets they were all false Impostors but onely one Michaiah And a little before the time of the Captivity the Prophets were generally lyars The Prophets saith the Lord by Ieremy cha 14. verse 14. prophecy Lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them nor spake unto them they prophecy to you a false Vision a thing of naught and the deceit of their heart In so much as God commanded the People by the mouth of the Prophet Iâ—…remiah chap. 23. 16. not to obey them Thus saith the Lord of Hosts hearken not unto the words of the Prophets that prophecy to you They make you vain they speak a Vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Seeing then there was in the time of the Old Testament such quarrells amongst the Visionary Prophets one contesting with another and asking When departed the Spirit from me to go to thee as between Michaiah and the rest of the four hundred and such giving of the Lye to one another as in Ierem. 14. 14. and such controversies in the New Testament at this day amongst the Spirituall Prophets Every man then was and now is bound to make use of his Naturall Reason to apply to all Prophecy those Rules which God hath given us to discern the true from the false Of which Rules in the Old Testament one was conformable doctrine to that which Moses the Soveraign Prophet had taught them and the other the miraculous power of foretelling what God would bring to passe as I have already shewn out of Deut. 13. 1. c. And in the New Testament there was but one onely mark and that was the preaching of this Doctrine That Iesus is the Christ that is the King of the Jews promised in the Old Testament Whosoever denyed that Article he was a false Prophet whatsoever miracles he might seem to work and he that taught it was a true Prophet For St. Iohn 1 Epist. 4. 2 c. speaking expressely of the means to examine Spirits whether they be of God or not after he had told them that there would arise false Prophets saith thus Hereby know ye the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is is approved and allowed as a Prophet of God not that he is a godly man or one of the Elect for this that he confesseth professeth or preacheth Jesus to be the Christ but for that he is a Prophet avowed For God sometimes speaketh by Prophets whose persons he hath not accepted as he did by Baalam and as he foretold Saul of his death by the Witch of Endor Again in the next verse Every Spirit that confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of Christ. And this is the Spirit of Antichrist So that the Rule is perfect on both sides that he is a true Prophet which preacheth the Messiah already come in the person of Jesus and he a false one that denyeth him come and looketh for him in some future Impostor that shall take upon him that honour falsely whom the Apostle there properly calleth Antichrist Every man therefore ought to consider who is the Soveraign Prophet that is to say who it is that is Gods Vicegerent on Earth and hath next under God the Authority of Governing Christian men and to observe for a Rule that Doctrine which in the name of God hee hath commanded to bee taught and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with miracle or without shall at any time advance and if they find it contrary to that Rule to doe as they did that came to Moses and complained that there were some that Propecyed in the Campe whose Authority so to doe they doubted of and leave to the
any Coelum Empyreum or other aetheriall Region saving that it is called the Kingdome of Heaven which name it may have because God that was King of the Jews governed them by his commands sent to Moses by Angels from Heaven and after their revolt sent his Son from Heaven to reduce them to their obedience and shall send him thence again to rule both them and all other faithfull men from the day of Judgment Everlastingly or from that that the Throne of this our Great King is in Heaven whereas the Earth is but his Footstoole But that the Subjects of God should have any place as high as his Throne or higher than his Footstoole it seemeth not sutable to the dignity of a King nor can I find any evident text for it in holy Scripture From this that hath been said of the Kingdom of God and of Salvation it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the WORLD TO COME There are three worlds mentioned in Scripture the Old World the Present VVorld and the VVorld to come Of the first St. Peter speaks If God spared not the Old VVorld but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly c. So the first World was from Adam to the generall Flood Of the present World our Saviour speaks Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this VVorld For he came onely to teach men the way of Salvation and to renew the Kingdome of his Father by his doctrine Of the World to come St. Peter speaks Neverthelesse we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth This is that WORLD wherein Christ coming down from Heaven in the clouds with great power and glory shall send his Angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds and from the uttermost parts of the Earth and thence forth reign over them under his Father Everlastingly Salvation of a sinner suppposeth a precedent REDEMPTION for he that is once guilty of Sin is obnoxious to the Penalty of the same and must pay or some other for him such Ransome as he that is offended and has him in his power shall require And seeing the person offended is Almighty God in whose power are all things such Ransome is to be paid before Salvation can be acquired as God hath been pleased to require By this Ransome is not intended a satisfaction for Sin equivalent to the Offence which no sinner for himselfe nor righteous man can ever be able to make for another The dammage a man does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompence but sin cannot be taken away by recompence for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible But sins may bee pardoned to the repentant either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept That which God usually accepted in the Old Testament was some Sacrifice or Oblation To forgive sin is not an act of Injustice though the punishment have been threatned Even amongst men though the promise of Good bind the promiser yet threats that is to say promises of Evill bind them not much lesse shall they bind God who is infinitely more mercifull then men Our Saviour Christ therefore to Redeem us did not in that sense satisfie for the Sins of men as that his Death of its own vertue could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with Eternall death but did make that Sacrifice and Oblation of himself at his first coming which God was pleased to require for the Salvation at his second coming of such as in the mean time should repent and beleeve in him And though this act of our Redemption be not alwaies in Scripture called a Sacrifice and Oblation but sometimes a Price yet by Price we are not to understand any thing by the value whereof he could claim right to a pardon for us from his offended Father but that Price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand CHAP. XXXIX Of the signification in Scripture of the word CHURCH THe word Church Ecclesia signifieth in the Books of Holy Scripture divers things Sometimes though not often it is taken for Gods House that is to say for a Temple wherein Christians assemble to perform holy duties publiquely as 1 Cor. 14. ver 34. Let your women keep silence in the Churches but this is Metaphorically put for the Congregation there assembled and hath been since used for the Edifice it self to distinguish between the Temples of Christians and Idolaters The Temple of Jerusalem was Gods house and the House of Prayer and so is any Edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ Christs house and therefore the Greek Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords house and thence in our language it came to be called Kyrke and Church Church when not taken for a House signifieth the same that Ecclesia signified in the Grecian Common-wealths that is to say a Congregation or an Assembly of Citizens called forth to hear the Magistrate speak unto them and which in the Common-wealth of Rome was called Concio as he that spake was called Ecclesiastes and Concionator And when they were called forth by lawfull Authority it was Ecclesia legitima a Lawfull Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when they were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamor then it was a confused Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the Congregation though not actually assembled that is to say for the whole multitude of Christian men how far soever they be dispersed as Act. 8. 3. where it is said that Saul made havock of the Church And in this sense is Christ said to be Head of the Church And sometimes for a certain part of Christians as Col. 4. 15. Salute the Church that is in his house Sometimes also for the Elect onely as Ephes. 5. 27. A Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemâ—…sh which is meant of the Church triumphant or Church to come Sometimes for a Congregation assembled of professors of Christianity whether their profession be true or counterfeit as it is understood Mat. 18. 17. where it is said Tell it to the Church and if hee neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Gentile or Publican And in this last sense only it is that the Church can be taken for one Person that is to say that it can be said to have power to will to pronounce to command to be obeyed to make laws or to doe any other action whatsoever For without authority from a lawfull Congregation whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people it is the particular act of every one of those that were present and gave their aid to the performance of it and not the act of them all in grosse as of one body much lesse the act
Witnesse in himself In this Trinity on Earth the Unity is not of the thing for the Spirit the Water and the Bloud are not the same substance though they give the same testimony But in the Trinity of Heaven the Persons are the persons of one and the same God though Represented in three different times and occasions To conclude the doctrine of the Trinity as far as can be gathered directly from the Scripture is in substance this that the God who is alwaies One and the same was the Person Represented by Moses the Person Represented by his Son Incarnate and the Person Represented by the Apostles As Represented by the Apostles the Holy Spirit by which they spake is God As Represented by his Son that was God and Man the Son is that God As represented by Moses and the High Priests the Father that is to say the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is that God From whence we may gather the reason why those names Father Son and Holy Spirit in the signification of the Godhead are never used in the Old Testament For they are Persons that is they have their names from Representing which could not be till divers men had Represented Gods Person in ruling or in directing under him Thus wee see how the Power Ecclesiasticall was left by our Saviour to the Apostles and how they were to the end they might the better exercise that Power endued with the Holy Spirit which is therefore called sometime in the New Testament Paracletus which signifieth an Assister or one called to for helpe though it bee commonly translated a Comforter Let us now consider the Power it selfe what it was and over whom Cardinall Bellarmine in his third generall Controversie hath handled a great many questions concerning the Ecclesiasticall Power of the Pope of Rome and begins with this Whether it ought to be Monarchicall Aristocraticall or Democraticall All which sorts of Power are Soveraign and Coercive If now it should appear that there is no Coercive Power left them by our Saviour but onely a Power to proclaim the Kingdom of Christ and to perswade men to submit themselves thereunto and by precepts and good counsell to teach them that have submitted what they are to do that they may be received into the Kingdom of God when it comes and that the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel are our Schoolemasters and not our Commanders and their Precepts not Laws but wholesome Counsells then were all that dispute in vain I have shewn already in the last Chapter that the Kingdome of Christ is not of this world therefore neither can his Ministers unlesse they be Kings require obedience in his name For if the Supreme King have not his Regall Power in this world by what authority can obedience be required to his Officers As my Father sent me so saith our Saviour I send you But our Saviour was sent to perswade the Jews to return to and to invite the Gentiles to receive the Kingdome of his Father and not to reign in Majesty no not as his Fathers Lieutenant till the day of Judgment The time between the Ascension and the generall Resurrection is called not a Reigning but a Regeneration that is a Preparatiof men for the second and glorious coming of Christ at the day of Judgment as appeareth by the words of our Saviour Mat. 19. 28. You that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory you shall also sit upon twelve Thrones And of St. Paul Ephes. 6. 15. Having your feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospell of Peace And is compared by our Saviour to Fishing that is to winning men to obedience not by Coercion and Punishing but by Perswasion and therefore he said not to his Apostles hee would make them so many Nimrods Hunters of men but Fishers of men It is compared also to Leaven to Sowing of Seed and to the Multiplication of a grain of Mustard-seed by all which Compulsion is excluded and consequently there can in that time be no actual Râ—…igning The work of Christs Ministers is Evangelization that is a Proclamation of Christ and a preparation for his second comming as the Evangelization of John Baptist was a preparation to his first coming Again the Office of Christs Ministers in this world is to make men Beleeve and have Faith in Christ But Faith hath no relation to nor dependence at all upon Compulsion or Commandement but onely upon certainty or probability of Arguments drawn from Reason or from something men beleeve already Therefore the Ministers of Christ in this world have no Power by that title to Punish any man for not Beleeving or for Contradicting what they say they have I say no Power by that title of Christs Ministers to Punish such but if they have Soveraign Civill Power by politick institution then they may indeed lawfully Punish any Contradiction to their laws whatsoever And St. Paul of himselfe and other the then Preachers of the Gospell saith in expresse words Wee have no Dominion over your Faith but are Helpers of your Ioy. Another Argument that the Ministers of Christ in this present world have no right of Commanding may be drawn from the lawfull Authority which Christ hath left to all Princes as well Christians as Infidels St. Paul saith Col. 3. 20. Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And ver 22. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh not with eye-service as meâ—…-pleasers but in singlenesse of heart as fearing the Lord This is spoken to them whose Masters were Infidells and yet they are bidden to obey them in all things And again concerning obedience to Princes Rom. 13. the first 6. verses exhorting to be subject to the Higher Powers he saith that all Power is ordained of God and that we ought to be subject to them not onely for fear of incurring their wrath but also for conscience sake And St. Peter 1 Epist. chap. 2. ver 13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it bee to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as to them that be sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well for so is the will of God And again St. Paul Tit. 3. 1. Put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates These Princes and Powers whereof St. Peter and St. Paul here speak were all Infidels much more therefore we are to observe those Christians whom God hath ordained to have Soveraign Power over us How then can wee be obliged to obey any Minister of Christ if he should command us to doe any thing contrary the Command of the King or other Soveraign Representant of the Common-wealth whereof we are members and by whom we look to be protected It is
authority to preach he sent not all that beleeved And he sent them to unbeleevers I send you saith he as sheep amongst wolves not as sheep to other sheep Lastly the points of their Commission as they are expressely set down in the Gospel contain none of them any authority over the Congregation We have first Mat. 10. that the twelve Apostles were sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and commanded to Preach that the Kingdome of God was at hand Now Preaching in the originall is that act which a Crier Herald or other Officer useth to doe publiquely in Proclaiming of a King But a Crier hath not right to Command any man And Luke 10. 2. the seventy Disciples are sent out as Labourers not as Lords of the Harvest and are bidden verse 9. to say The Kingdome of God is come nigh unto you and by Kingdom here is meant not the Kingdome of Grace but the Kingdome of Glory for they are bidden to denounce it ver 11. to those Cities which shall not receive them as a threatning that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodome than for such a City And Mat. 20. 28. our Saviour telleth his Disciples that sought Priority of place their Office was to minister even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Preachers therefore have not Magisteriall but Ministeriall power Bee not called Masters saith our Saviour Mat. 23. 10. for one is your Master even Christ. Another point of their Commission is to Teach all nations as it is in Mat. 28. 19. or as in St. Mark 16. 15. Goe into all the world and Preach the Gospel to every creature Teaching therefore and Preaching is the same thing For they that Proclaim the comming of a King must withall make known by what right he commeth if they mean men shall submit themselves unto him As St. Paul did to the Jews of Thessalonica when three Sabbath dayes he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Iesus is Christ. But to teach out of the Old Testament that Jesus was Christ that is to say King and risen from the dead is not to say that men are bound after they beleeve it to obey those that tell them so against the laws and commands of their Soveraigns but that they shall doe wisely to expect the coming of Christ hereafter in Patience and Faith with Obedience to their present Magistrates Another point of their Commission is to Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost What is Baptisme Dipping into water But what is it to Dip a man into the water in the name of any thing The meaning of these words of Baptisme is this He that is Baptized is Dipped or Washed as a sign of becomming a new man and a loyall subject to that God whose Person was represented in old time by Moses and the High Priests when he reigned over the Jews and to Jesus Christ his Sonne God and Man that hath redeemed us and shall in his humane nature Represent his Fathers Person in his eternall Kingdome after the Resurrection and to acknowledge the Doctrine of the Apostles who assisted by the Spirit of the Father and of the Son were left for guides to bring us into that Kingdome to be the onely and assured way thereunto This being our promise in Baptisme and the Authority of Earthly Soveraigns being not to be put down till the day of Judgment for that is expressely affirmed by S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 22 23 24 where he saith As in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive But every man in his owne order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christs at his comming Then commeth the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power it is manifest that we do not in Baptisme constitute over us another authority by which our externall actions are to bee governed in this life but promise to take the doctrine of the Apostles for our direction in the way to life eternall The Power of Remission and Retention of Sinnes called also the Power of Loosing and Binding and sometimes the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven is a consequence of the Authority to Baptize or refuse to Baptize For Baptisme is the Sacrament of Allegeance of them that are to be received into the Kingdome of God that is to say into Eternall life that is to say to Remission of Sin For as Eternall life was lost by the Committing so it is recovered by the Remitting of mens Sins The end of Baptisme is Remission of Sins and therefore St. Peter when they that were converted by his Sermon on the day of Pentecost asked what they were to doe advised them to repent and be Baptized in the name of Iesus for the Remission of Sins And therefore seeing to Baptize is to declare the Reception of men into Gods Kingdome and to refuse to Baptize is to declare their Exclusion it followeth that the Power to declare them Cast out or Retained in it was given to the same Apostles and their Substitutes and Successors And therefore after our Saviour had breathed upon them saying Iohn 20. 22. Receive the Holy Ghost hee addeth in the next verse VVhos 's soever Sins ye Remit they are Remitted unto them and whose soever Sins ye Retain they are Retained By which words is not granted an Authority to Forgive or Retain Sins simply and absolutely as God Forgiveth or Retaineth them who knoweth the Heart of man and truth of his Penitence and Conversion but conditionally to the Penitent And this Forgivenesse or Absolution in case the absolved have but a feigned Repentance is thereby without other act or sentence of the Absolvent made void and hath no effect at all to Salvation but on the contrary to the Aggravation of his Sin Therefore the Apostles and their Successors are to follow but the outward marks of Repentance which appearing they have no Authority to deny Absolution and if they appeare not they have no authority to Absolve The same also is to be observed in Baptisme for to a converted Jew or Gentile the Apostles had not the Power to deny Baptisme nor to grant it to the Un-penitent But seeing no man is able to discern the truth of another mans Repentance further than by externall marks taken from his words and actions which are subject to hypocrisie another question will arise Who it is that is constituted Judge of those marks And this question is decided by our Saviour himself If thy Brother saith he shal trespasse against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then
ordained And therefore in all Common-wealths of the Heathen the Soveraigns have had the name of Pastors of the People because there was no Subject that could lawfully Teach the people but by their permission and authority This Right of the Heathen Kings cannot bee thought taken from them by their conversion to the Faith of Christ who never ordained that Kings for beleeving in him should be deposed that is subjected to any but himself or which is all one be deprived of the power necessary for the conservation of Peace amongst their Subjects and for their defence against foraign Enemies And therefore Christian Kings are still the Supreme Pastors of their people and have power to ordain what Pastors they please to teach the Church that is to teach the People committed to their charge Again let the right of choosing them be as before the conversion of Kings in the Church for so it was in the time of the Apostles themselves as hath been shewn already in this chapter even so also the Right will be in the Civill Soveraign Christian. For in that he is a Christian he allowes the Teaching and in that he is the Soveraign which is as much as to say the Church by Representation the Teachers hee elects are elected by the Church And when an Assembly of Christians choose their Pastor in a Christian Common-wealth it is the Soveraign that electeth him because t is done by his Authority In the same manner as when a Town choose their Maior it is the act of him that hath the Soveraign Power For every act done is the act of him without whose consent it is invalid And therefore whatsoever examples may be drawn out of History concerning the Election of Pastors by the People or by the Clergy they are no arguments against the Right of any Civill Soveraign because they that elected them did it by his Authority Seeing then in every Christian Common-wealth the Civill Soveraign is the Supreme Pastor to whose charge the whole flock of his Subjects is committed and consequently that it is by his authority that all other Pastors are made and have power to teach and performe all other Pastorall offices it followeth also that it is from the Civill Soveraign that all other Pastors derive their right of Teaching Preaching and other functions pertaining to that Office and that they are but his Ministers in the same manner as the Magistrates of Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders of Armies are all but Ministers of him that is the Magistrate of the whole Common-wealth Judge of all Causes and Commander of the whole Militia which is alwaies the Civill Soveraign And the reason hereof is not because they that Teach but because they that are to Learn are his Subjects For let it be supposed that a Christian King commit the Authority of Ordaining Pastors in his Dominions to another King as divers Christian Kings allow that power to the Pope he doth not thereby constitute a Pastor over himself nor a Soveraign Pastor over his People for that were to deprive himself of the Civill Power which depending on the opinion men have of their Duty to him and the fear they have of Punishment in another world would depend also on the skill and loyalty of Doctors who are no lesse subject not only to Ambition but also to Ignorance than any other sort of men So that where a stranger hath authority to appoint Teachers it is given him by the Soveraign in whose Dominions he teacheth Christian Doctors are our Schoolmasters to Christianity But Kings are Fathers of Families and may receive Schoolmasters for their Subjects from the recommendation of a stranger but not from the command especially when the ill teaching them shall redound to the great and manifest profit of him that recommends them nor can they be obliged to retain them longer than it is for the Publique good the care of which they stand so long charged withall as they retain any other essentiall Right of the Soveraignty If a man therefore should ask a Pastor in the execution of his Office as the chief Priests and Elders of the people Mat. 21. 23. asked our Saviour By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority he can make no other just Answer but that he doth it by the Authority of the Common-wealth given him by the King or Assembly that representeth it All Pastors except the Supreme execute their charges in the Right that is by the Authority of the Civill Soveraign that is Iure Civili But the King and every other Soveraign executeth his Office of Supreme Pastor by immediate Authority from God that is to say in Gods Right or Iure Divino And therefore none but Kings can put into their Titles a mark of their submission to God onely Dei gratiâ Rex c. Bishops ought to say in the beginning of their Mandates By the favour of the Kings Majesty Bishop of such a Diocesse or as Civill Ministers In his Majesties Name For in saying Divinâ providentiâ which is the same with Dei gratiâ though disguised they deny to have received their authority from the Civill State and sliely slip off the Collar of their Civill Subjection contrary to the unity and defence of the Common-wealth But if every Christian Soveraign be the Supreme Pastor of his own Subjects it seemeth that he hath also the Authority not only to Preach which perhaps no man will deny but also to Baptize and to Administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to Consecrate both Temples and Pastors to Gods service which most men deny partly because they use not to do it and partly because the Administration of Sacraments and Consecration of Persons and Places to holy uses requireth the Imposition of such mens hands as by the like Imposition successively from the time of the Apostles have been ordained to the like Ministery For proof therefore that Christian Kings have power to Baptize and to Consecrate I am to render a reason both why they use not to doe it and how without the ordinary ceremony of Imposition of hands they are made capable of doing it when they will There is no doubt but any King in case he were skilfull in the Sciences might by the same Right of his Office read Lectures of them himself by which he authorizeth others to read them in the Universities Neverthelesse because the care of the summe of the businesse of the Common-wealth taketh up his whole time it were not convenient for him to apply himself in Person to that particular A King may also if he please sit in Judgment to hear and determine all manner of Causes as well as give others authority to doe it in his name but that the charge that lyeth upon him of Command and Government constrain him to bee continually at the Helm and to commit the Ministeriall Offices to others under him In the like manner our Saviour who surely had
first that of Luke 22. 31. Simon Simon Satan hath desired you that hee may sist you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not and when thou art converted strengthen thy thy Brethren This according to Bellarmines exposition is that Christ gave here to Simon Peter two priviledges one that neither his Faith should fail nor the Faith of any of his successors the other that neither he nor any of his successors should ever define any point concerning Faith or Manners erroneously or contrary to the definition of a former Pope Which is a strange and very much strained interpretation But he that with attention readeth that chapter shall find there is no place in the whole Scripture that maketh more against the Popes Authority than this very place The Priests and Scribes seeking to kill our Saviour at the Passeover and Judas possessed with a resolution to betray him and the day of killing the Passeover being come our Saviour celebrated the same with his Apostles which he said till the Kingdome of God was come hee would doe no more and withall told them that one of them was to betray him Hereupon they questioned which of them it should be and withall seeing the next Passeover their Master would celebrate should be when he was King entred into a contention who should then be the greatest man Our Saviour therefore told them that the Kings of the Nations had Dominion over their Subjects and are called by a name in Hebrew that signifies Bountifull but I cannot be so to you you must endeavour to serve one another I ordain you a Kingdome but it is such as my Father hath ordained mee a Kingdome that I am now to purchase with my blood and not to possesse till my second coming then yee shall eat and drink at my Table and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And then addressing himself to St. Peter he saith Simon Simon Satan seeks by suggesting a present domination to weaken your faith of the future but I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail Thou therefore Note this being converted and understanding my Kingdome as of another world confirm the same faith in thy Brethren To which S. Peter answered as one that no more expected any authority in this world Lord I am ready to goe with thee not onely to Prison but to Death Whereby it is manifest S. Peter had not onely no jurisdiction given him in this world but a charge to teach all the other Apostles that they also should have none And for the Infallibility of St. Peters sentence definitive in matter of Faith there is no more to be attributed to it out of this Text than that Peter should continue in the beleef of this point namely that Christ should come again and possesse the Kingdome at the day of Judgement which was not given by this Text to all his Successors for wee see they claime it in the World that now is The second place is that of Matth. 16. Thou art Peter and upon this rocke I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it By which as I have already shewn in this chapter is proved no more than that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the confession of Peter which gave occasion to that speech namely this that Iesus is Christ the Sonne of God The third Text is Iohn 21. ver 16 17. Feed my sheep which contains no more but a Commission of Teaching And if we grant the rest of the Apostles to be contained in that name of Sheep then it is the supreme Power of Teaching but it was onely for the time that there were no Christian Soveraigns already possessed of that Supremacy But I have already proved that Christian Soveraignes are in their owne Dominions the supreme Pastors and instituted thereto by vertue of their being Baptized though without other Imposition of Hands For such Imposition being a Ceremony of designing the person is needlesse when hee is already designed to the Power of Teaching what Doctrine he will by his institution to an Absolute Power over his Subjects For as I have proved before Soveraigns are supreme Teachers in generall by their Office and therefore oblige themselves by their Baptisme to teach the Doctrine of Christ And when they suffer others to teach their people they doe it at the perill of their own souls for it is at the hands of the Heads of Families that God will require the account of the instruction of his Children and Servants It is of Abraham himself not of a hireling that God saith Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his Children and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord and do justice and judgement The fourth place is that of Exod. 28. 30. Thou shalt put in the Breastplate of Iudgment the Vrim and the Thummin which hee saith is interpreted by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Evidence and Truth And thence concludeth God had given Evidence and Truth which is almost Infallibility to the High Priest But be it Evidence and Truth it selfe that was given or be it but Admonition to the Priest to endeavour to inform himself cleerly and give judgment uprightly yet in that it was given to the High Priest it was given to the Civill Soveraign For such next under God was the High Priest in the the Common-wealth of Israel and is an argument for Evidence and Truth that is for the Ecclesiasticall Supremacy of Civill Soveraigns over their own Subjects against the pretended Power of the Pope These are all the Texts hee bringeth for the Infallibility of the Judgement of the Pope in point of Faith For the Infallibility of his Judgment concerning Manners hee bringeth one Text which is that of Iohn 16. 13. When the Spirit of truth is come hee will lead you into all truth where saith he by all truth is meant at least all truth necessary to salvation But with this mitigation he attributeth no more Infallibility to the Pope than to any man that professeth Christianity and is not to be damned For if any man 〈◊〉 in any point wherein not to erre is necessary to Salvation it is impossible he should be saved for that onely is necessary to Salvation without which to be saved is impossible What points these are I shall declare out of the Scripture in the Chapter following In this place I say no more but that though it were granted the Pope could not possibly teach any error at all yet doth not this entitle him to any Jurisdiction in the Dominions of another Prince unlesse we shall also say a man is obliged in conscience to set on work upon all occasions the best workman even then also when he hath formerly promised his work to another Besides the Text he argueth from Reason thus If the Pope could erre in necessaries then Christ hath not sufficiently provided
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
the sustaining of the same when it is set up or to the worldly Riches Honour and Authority of those that sustain it And therefore by the aforesaid rule of Cui bono we may justly pronounce for the Authors of all this Spirituall Darknesse the Pope and Roman Clergy and all those besides that endeavour to settle in the mindes of men this erroneous Doctrine that the Church now on Earth is that Kingdome of God mentioned in the Old and New Testament But the Emperours and other Christian Soveraigns under whose Government these Errours and the like encroachments of Ecclesiastiques upon their Office at first crept in to the disturbance of their possessions and of the tranquillity of their Subjects though they suffered the same for want of foresight of the Sequel and of insight into the designs of their Teachers may neverthelesse bee esteemed accessaries to their own and the Publique dammage For without their Authority there could at first no seditious Doctrine have been publiquely preached I say they might have hindred the same in the beginning But when the people were once possessed by those spirituall men there was no humane remedy to be applyed that any man could invent And for the remedies that God should provide who never faileth in his good time to destroy all the Machinations of men against the Truth wee are to attend his good pleasure that suffereth many times the prosperity of his enemies together with their ambition to grow to such a height as the violence thereof openeth the eyes which the warinesse of their predecessours had before sealed up and makes men by too much grasping let goe all as Peters net was broken by the struggling of too great a multitude of Fishes whereas the Impatience of those that strive to resist such encroachment before their Subjects eyes were opened did but encrease the power they resisted I doe not therefore blame the Emperour Frederick for holding the stirrop to our countryman Pope Adrian for such was the disposition of his subjects then as if hee had not done it hee was not likely to have succeeded in the Empire But I blame those that in the beginning when their power was entire by suffering such Doctrines to be forged in the Universities of their own Dominions have holden the Stirrop to all the succeeding Popes whilest they mounted into the Thrones of all Christian Soveraigns to ride and tire both them and their people at their pleasure But as the Inventions of men are woven so also are they ravelled out the way is the same but the order is inverted The web begins at the first Elements of Power which are Wisdom Humility Sincerity and other vertues of the Apostles whom the people converted obeyed out of Reverence not by Obligation Their Consciences were free and their Words and Actions subject to none but the Civill Power Afterwards the Presbyters as the Flocks of Christ encreased assembling to consider what they should teach and thereby obliging themselves to teach nothing against the Decrees of their Assemblies made it to be thought the people were thereby obliged to follow their Doctrine and when they refused refused to keep them company that was then called Excommunication not as being Infidels but as being disobedient And this was the first knot upon their Liberty And the number of Presbyters encreasing the Presbyters of the chief City or Province got themselves an authority over the Parochiall Presbyters and appropriated to themselves the names of Bishops And this was a second knot on Christian Liberty Lastly the Bishop of Rome in regard of the Imperiall City took upon him an Authority partly by the wills of the Emperours themselves and by the title of Pontifex Maximus and at last when the Emperours were grown weak by the priviledges of St. Peter over all other Bishops of the Empire Which was the third and last knot and the whole Synthesis and Construction of the Pontificiall Power And therefore the Analysis or Resolution is by the same way but beginneth with the knot that was last tyed as wee may see in the dissolution of the praeterpoliticall Church Government in England First the Power of the Popes was dissolved totally by Queen Elizabeth and the Bishops who before exercised their Functions in Right of the Pope did afterwards exercise the same in Right of the Queen and her Successours though by retaining the phrase of Iure Divino they were thought to demand it by immediate Right from God And so was untyed the first knot After this the Presbyterians lately in England obtained the putting down of Episcopacy And so was the second knot dissolved And almost at the same time the Power was taken also from the Presbyterians And so we are reduced to the Independency of the Primitive Christians to follow Paul or Cephas or Apollos every man as he liketh best Which if it be without contention and without measuring the Doctrine of Christ by our affection to the Person of his Minister the fault which the Apostle reprehended in the Corinthians is perhaps the best First because there ought to be no Power over the Consciences of men but of the Word it selfe working Faith in every one not alwayes according to the purpose of them that Plant and Water but of God himself that giveth the Increase and secondly because it is unreasonable in them who teach there is such danger in every little Errour to require of a man endued with Reason of his own to follow the Reason of any other man or of the most voices of many other men Which is little better then to venture his Salvation at crosse and pile Nor ought those Teachers to be displeased with this losse of their antient Authority For there is none should know better then they that power is preserved by the same Vertues by which it is acquired that is to say by Wisdome Humility Clearnesse of Doctrine and sincerity of Conversation and not by suppression of the Naturall Sciences and of the Morality of Naturall Reason nor by obscure Language nor by Arrogating to themselves more Knowledge than they make appear nor by Pious Frauds nor by such other faults as in the Pastors of Gods Church are not only Faults but also scandalls apt to make men stumble one time or other upon the suppression of their Authority But after this Doctrine that the Church now Militant is the Kingdome of God spoken of in the Old and New Testament was received in the World the ambition and canvasing for the Offices that belong thereunto and especially for that great Office of being Christs Lieutenant and the Pompe of them that obtained therein the principall Publique Charges became by degrees so evident that they lost the inward Reverence due to the Pastorall Function in so much as the Wisest men of them that had any power in the Civill State needed nothing but the authority of their Princes to deny them any further Obedience For from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten
to be acknowledged for Bishop Universall by pretence of Succession to St. Peter their whole Hierarchy or Kingdome of Darknesse may be compared not unfitly to the Kingdome of Fairies that is to the old wives Fables in England concerning Ghosts and Spirits and the feats they play in the night And if a man consider the originall of this great Ecclesiasticall Dominion he will easily perceive that the Papacy is no other than the Ghost of the deceased Romane Empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof For so did the Papacy start up on a Sudden out of the Ruines of that Heathen Power The Language also which they use both in the Churches and in their Publique Acts being Latine which is not commonly used by any Nation now in the world what is it but the Ghost of the Old Romane Language The Fairies in what Nation soever they converse have but one Universall King which some Poets of ours call King Oberon but the Scripture calls Beelzebub Prince of Daemons The Ecclesiastiques likewise in whose Dominions soever they be found acknowledge but one Universall King the Pope The Ecclesiastiques are Spirituall men and Ghostly Fathers The Fairies are Spirits and Ghosts Fairies and Ghosts inhabite Darknesse Solitudes and Graves The Ecclesiastiques walke in Obscurity of Doctrine in Monasteries Churches and Church-yards The Ecclesiastiques have their Cathedrall Churches which in what Towne soever they be erected by vertue of Holy Water and certain Charmes called Exorcismes have the power to make those Townes Cities that is to say Seats of Empire The Fairies also have their enchanted Castles and certain Gigantique Ghosts that domineer over the Regions round about them The Fairies are not to be seized on and brought to answer for the hurt they do So also the Ecclesiastiques vanish away from the Tribunals of Civill Justice The Ecclesiastiques take from young men the use of Reason by certain Charms compounded of Metaphysiques and Miracles and Traditions and Abused Scripture whereby they are good for nothing else but to execute what they command them The Fairies likewise are said to take young Children out of their Cradles and to change them into Naturall Fools which Common people do therefore call Elves and are apt to mischief In what Shop or Operatory the Fairies make their Enchantment the old Wives have not determined But the Operatories of the Clergy are well enough known to be the Universities that received their Discipline from Authority Pontificiall When the Fairies are displeased with any body they are said to send their Elves to pinch them The Ecclesiastiques when they are displeased with any Civill State make also their Elves that is Superstitious Enchanted Subjects to pinch their Princes by preaching Sedition or one Prince enchanted with promises to pinch another The Fairies marry not but there be amongst them Incubi that have copulation with flesh and bloud The Priests also marry not The Ecclesiastiques take the Cream of the Land by Donations of ignorant men that stand in aw of them and by Tythes So also it is in the Fable of Fairies that they enter into the Dairies and Feast upon the Cream which they skim from the Milk What kind of Money is currant in the Kingdome of Fairies is not recorded in the Story But the Ecclesiastiques in their Receipts accept of the same Money that we doe though when they are to make any Payment it is in Canonizations Indulgences and Masses To this and such like resemblances between the Papaâ—…y and the Kingdome of Fairies may be added this that as the Fairies have no existence but in the Fancies of ignorant people rising from the Traditions of old Wives or old Poets so the Spirituall Power of the Pope without the bounds of his own Civill Dominion consisteth onely in the Fear that Seduced people stand in of their Excommunications upon hearing of false Miracles false Traditions and false Interpretations of the Scripture It was not therefore a very difficult matter for Henry 8. by his Exorcisme nor for Qu. Elizabeth by hers to cast them out But who knows that this Spirit of Rome now gone out and walking by Missions through the dry places of China Japan and the Indies that yeeld him little fruit may not return or rather an Assembly of Spirits worse than he enter and inhabite this clean swept house and make the End thereof worse than the Beginning For it is not the Romane Clergy onely that pretends the Kingdome of God to be of this World and thereby to have a Power therein distinct from that of the Civill State And this is all I had a designe to say concerning the Doctrine of the POLITIQUES Which when I have reviewed I shall willingly expose it to the censure of my Countrey A REVIEW and CONCLUSION FRom the contrariety of some of the Naturall Faculties of the Mind one to another as also of one Passion to another and from their reference to Conversation there has been an argument taken to inferre an impossibility that any one man should be sufficiently disposed to all sorts of Civill duty The Severity of Judgment they say makes men Censorious and unapt to pardon the Errours and Infirmities of other men and on the other side Celerity of Fancy makes the thoughts lesse steddy than is necessary to discern exactly between Right and Wrong Again in all Deliberations and in all Pleadings the faculty of solid Reasoning is necessary for without it the Resolutions of men are rash and their Sentences unjust and yet if there be not powerfull Eloquence which procureth attention and Consent the effect of Reason will be little But these are contrary Faculties the former being grounded upon principles of Truth the other upon Opinions already received true or false and upon the Passions and Interests of men which are different and mutable And amongst the Passions Courage by which I mean the Contempt of Wounds and violent Death enclineth men to private Revenges and sometimes to endeavour the unsetling of the Publique Peace And Timorousnesse many times disposeth to the desertion of the Publique Defence Both these they say cannot stand together in the same person And to consider the contrariety of mens Opinions and Manners in generall It is they say impossible to entertain a constant Civill Amity with all those with whom the Businesse of the world constrains us to converse Which Businesse consisteth almost in nothing else but a perpetuall contention for Honor Riches and Authority To which I answer that these are indeed great difficulties but not Impossibilities For by Education and Discipline they may bee and are sometimes reconciled Judgment and Fancy may have place in the same man but by turnes as the end which he aimeth at requireth As the Israelites in Egypt were sometimes fastened to their labour of making Bricks and other times were ranging abroad to gather Straw So also may the Judgement sometimes be fixed upon one certain Consideration and the Fancy at another time wandring about the world So also