be few Besides as Nature in all things being left to her own working will by gentle and orderly steps tend to that perfection she was forcibly deprived of so it may be observed how by degrees all Governments do of their own nature and uninterrupted by violence always lead to that perfection and state of Unity again from which by force onely they were hitherto debarred And unto the undeniable proof of the natural right of Monarchical Government it may be asserted that as no Government of it self let alone in the hands of the governors without the forcible intermedling of the governed but would still come to be Monarchy so no government was ever brought from fewer to more but by the force and terror of the people upon the Governors themselves who now as in the Fable of the Serpent that would be governed by his own Tayl will be governing themselves and so make all lawfulness of Government at last vanish into forcible obtrusion There are many other particulars by which Faction useth to make its rise and support which shall be spoken of in the next chapter of Rebellion amongst other things which are the originals of that also For these two are of such like extraction and so neer a kin that what is properly the cause to one is for the most part so to the other Faction being but Rebellion in its birth and as yet but in devise and contrivance and Rebellion being but Faction brought into act and execution even as Polarchy or Anarchy is but both of them brought to such maturity and perfection as to be capable of self-subsistance CHAP. III. Of Rebellion and its most notable Causes and Pretences AS the inordinate thirst of pleasure and its consequent Liberty to attain it is in us all both natural and unlimited so where Rules and Laws of Polity and Government the onely means of restraint are not strictly enjoyned or duely obeyed it commonly falls out that what should have been a bridle proves rather a Spur and the possession of one inordinate lust doth by it self make way for another even as the abundance of drink to the drunkard is the cause of greater thirst to ensue Observe we this First in that lesser Government of a Family and you shall finde Children and Servants nowhere so unquiet and discontented as where the indulgencies of the Parent or Master do most appear And so it is in Kingdoms also where Subjects that have soft and mild spirited Princes and from whose more gentle and easie natures they having already attained many things of Liberty and Freedom do come at last to forget how inconsistent these things may be with their duty or publike peace and to think that their very asking should now be the onely rule for his granting Whereupon as it happens that there is most brawling contention and unquietness in such Families so in such Commonweals Mutinies and Rebellions do ever abound And to keep the Scripture president herein what other Reason can be given of those many murmurrings and insurrections of the Jews even while under the government of Moses one so far from oppressing their liberty that he was the meekest man on the earth And when again they had all things in such plenty as even their very Lust was supplyed with miracles what followed but that which was given for quieting them at one time proved the occasion of their mutiny at another For so while he smote the rock and the water gushed out they are still asking can he give bread can he provide flesh for his people And when they had this flesh this manna it was found too light food for their satisfaction and this very food of Angels was insufficient to stint their boundless desires Therefore while the very meat was in their mouths God was forced to cure by severity those breaches of obedience which abused Mercy and Clemency had made Look again to them under their Kings and you shall finde none so ill used as the best of them even David and Solomon In the last of whose time it is expressed Judah and all Israel was then many as the sand which is by the sea in a multitude eating and drinking and making merry And again Judah and all Israel dwelt safely every man under his own vine and under his own fig. tree from Dan to Beersheba all the days of Solomon And in whose time as the wisest and most peaceful of Kings that Kingdom had the greatest eminency and happiness of any their persons free as expresly said of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen and having riches in such abundance amongst them that he made silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones c. And yet as in a kinde of wantonness and surfet they come to his son Rehoboam to ask release of this grievous yoak of Solomon his Father But in truth we can interpret this their coming to Sechem to no other end then to make a Covenant and association to rebel and the pretence to make Rehoboam King was but the outside of their appearance when they intended to unmake him For first Rehoboams raign was not Elective but in right of his Father and Grandfather as heretofore noted and he might as well have reigned in their stead without the peoples approbation as Ishbosheth Sauls son did over them in Davids time or as Nadab in Jeroboams stead over the same Israelites without any such confirmation So that this Assembly was indeed to settle Jeroboams new Principality and not to confirm Rehoboams And therefore since they first sent for him to come in the head of them whom they knew to lay claim to the Crown this action looks purposely to aim at a quarrel and gain a denyal whereby to get a pretence to rebel And was indeed the threatned punishment of Solomons offence against God and not of Rehoboams to the people and so suffered to be done in pursuance of that end namely the punishing his offence with the rod of the children of men Whereupon this his refusing the councel of the old men must be considered as a fit and necessary means thereunto And this may seem the reason of Rehoboams answer importing a denial to the ground of the peoples Petition and answering in that manner as though experience had fully told him that since too much indulgence and concession had lost to his Father he would recover it by rigor and severity But to affirm that this Rebellion was a punishment of Rehoboams answer onely were to give God the lye both for the reasons already mentioned and as plainly crossing his direct Promise to Jeroboam saying I will rent the Kingdom out of the hands of his son and give it unto thee even ten Tribes Plainly arguing a forepassed fault to God and not of oppression to the people upon which onely Reason he is warned to desist For of that war what good issue could be To have Jeroboam beaten
we shall agree to their usual definition of freedom calling him onely a Citizen and free that hath a share and voice in the Government then all under their obeysance must be reckoned slaves as indeed they are the exclusion of Tradesmen in some Commonweals the different admission of freed men and different yeers of emancipation and admission of children to be Citizens shews all their rule to be arbitrary and not depending on their pretended Paction or consent Nor is the little finger of these Polarchies heavier then the loyns of Kings in point of Liberty onely but in Property also the publike Levies and Taxes being always rateably more in them then in Monarchies that are of like extent for Territorie or number of Subjects The which must so come to pass because they can never subsist without Armies both to force their own vassals to obedience and also to keep the major part of the whole commonalty and people from having power and opportunity to set up some more eminent person in trust and charge with the Commonwealth in their stead And to conclude as we defined the Liberty of a Subject to be when he shall be suffered to enjoy his own delight and good so far as publike utility is not crossed to slavery is hereof to be deprived without the same regard but in neither case is the reason and measure left to the parties own judgement but to that which is publike and common CHAP. VII Of Property WE have formerly discoursed how pleasure is the end of all sensiâ—ives and that as man had the most variety of perfection herein so stood his obligation of gratitude and praise higher then of other creatures And this is not only remarkable in that every thing one way or other is made delightful but then farther because the stock of nature in many kinds is not of it self sufficient and because again the covetous appetites of others will not many times let things extend to general satisfaction therefore to preserve our contents and thereby invite us to thankfulness we may observe that each one hath his pleasure and delight affixed to what he possesseth even so that be it of what kind it will the possessions of others in the same or other kinde passeth with less repining For as the food we eat be it never so unlike the body it self or never so differing from other sorts doth yet by long retention and the divers concoctions and passages of the body attain at last to a perfect degree of assimulation even so our sence through daily presence of our own particular enjoyments doth at last imprint them unto the fancy with such steady delight that they come to be valued in a kinde of Identity or second self Answerable hereunto both in end and effect is that property of properties or that property that usually provokes us to seek all others namely that great love of parents towards their children which as a thing of greatest use for preservation of mankinde and esteemed of great concern to parents comes to stick so close to our affections out of no other consideration Insomuch as in all creatures this affection prevailes as acquired to its particular object and not out of any innate sympathy in nature And therefore another yongling of the same or divers kind if the dam be ignorant of the change obtains as great love as the true would do So that Hens we see and other fowl will hatch and bring up fowl of other and different sorts to their own and all because in eggs they were not easily distinguishable whereas after they have taken full notice of their own a remarkable stranger shall not be admitted So in other beasts before their sense have had time to take notice of the shape or smell of their brood part of or all their litter may be changed especially for others of the same kind where there is no disparity of size or yeers As for men mark such as have their wives in suspition how they will pick and choose among their children not as any other affection but as conceit of propriety shall lead them And again such as have just cause to suspect but yet are not at all jealous under this conceit of propriety either love all alike or distinguish not by any revealing sympathy Nay what mother at the same time of her delivery might not be cozened with a change as also while children are at nurse Their best security being that this affectionate esteem of propriety makes the poorest parent of all even loth to yeild thereunto And although our particular goods and estates as being reckoned not of so great concern nor being so long or often in our sight comes to have a less regard Yet an especial indulgence we may observe cast towards them in such sort that the true fountain from whom they flow comes many times to be forgotten For so full of pride and vain-glory are all sorts of men by nature and so heavy a burthen doth the due return of received benefits seem to our ungrateful dispositions that rather then any diminution of content through the acknowledgement of such receit shall lye upon us we are ready by all inventions we can make to shift off the plain confession of any dependance whatsoever And because It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive we would in nothing or at least in due measure acknowledge our selves receivers The prevailence of this humor appears in all those goods and 〈◊〉 which by the bounty of God the earth and other elements and creatur◠〈◊〉 so plentifully afford us For how ready are we herein to finde out a 〈◊〉 relinquish and forget our common dependance and obligation and to impale and impropriate to our selves set portions of them answerable to our desires From which as from a stock now our own our wants being supplied our acknowledgement and gratitude comes many times to be forgotten And this is not onely practised by mankind in general against the common right of other creatures as accounting himself sole Master and Proprietor of natures common revenue but also by Kingdoms Societies and particular persons to the detriment of one another To meet with this inconvenience many things are by our All-seeing God in his law enjoyned in acknowledgement of his original and Paramount propriety for so comes a seventh of our time a tenth of our substance the first of our fruits liquors cattel nay of our own sons to be his to keep us in remembrance that we have not in our selves any unconditionate propriety not so much as over our own persons And to shew that these things are of common interest as between men so between men and beasts every seventh yeer the land is to rest and lye still That the poor may eat and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat And this consideration is expresly set to the letting the land lye fallow in the yeer of Jubilee namely that the land is
trust of sons or servants so within the verge of his own knowledge and account that he need not grant so high proprieties as the Prince must whereby to cause grumbling when any part shall be recalled But however their disagreement is but accidental and that either in regard of number or in regard of subjection For the first respect as aforesaid may make them differ in their manner of exercise and managery of power and in the latter they must differ in the measure because Families are usually included under other Governments and so the Master is tyed by the Laws of the same from exercising Arbitrary power Yet they agree in institution both of them having absolute power of Government from God For the Prince by his Laws cannot be said to give the power of Master but rather to remit it as he thinks good because the whole Family and each one in it must be looked on as subjects to him as well as the Master And indeed Families as now they stand under other Governments streightned in power may be called politick Governments for the education of children chiefly And therefore why other Creatures have it not is because they are not onely less considerable but also for that their young are so soon able to shift for themselves which women could not throughly do between childe and childe if this divine political institution of marriage had not been to engage the man also And yet though marriage or having the propriety of wives and also their subjection be from Divine positive law yet I finde not but the quantity of that subjection and number of wives is at the dispose of the higher power and where none is at the husbands But let us go on to examine the particulars of a Family how they stand in nature First the foundation of the Family is in the wife Now all say marriage is not natural but that propriety of wives was one of the first positive precepts when yet there was but one man and one woman and they could not have choice Now in nature children are the mothers as amongst all other Creatures the young belong to the female and to the male onely as having propriety in the female If it be said man hath power natural over the woman as the male of other things hath over the female this is indeed natural for the stronger to rule the weaker and not proper to the sex for such females as are stronger then males as in some Creatures it chanceth rule them too and for ought this imports a strong wife may govern a weak husband as the Nation of Amazons do practice But what is this to the ruling of women in general or to having of particular wives Now suppose the power of the father derive it self from having it over the wife and so naturally governing as in her right then the question will be How long and till what age this power shall last And what Creatures example they will follow therein If they say it is at the parents dispose this is still indeed the arbitrary government of the stronger over the weaker and unless they claim the just authority of Gods precepts nature gives them little other right I but you will say the childe is bound to the father in so high an obligation of gratitude as he can never requite But not bound to him I hope till he know him Well but suppose he is first to take his mothers word for that then we are to suppose again that as his mother hath during his infancy natural power over him so hath she with her self resigned this power to her husband In this case we must consider that gratitude is a free and intended return for a benefit which in the receivers apprehension was freely intended For if the giver were not free from constraint elsewhere in what he did or else did it according to paction with the relative party in the first case it obligeth not and in the second but as other pactions do But if it be free without indenting for return such as we call a gratuity then is the obliged as free in measuring and proportioning the return as the obliger was in bestowing the benefits and the Agents in both kinds must be reciprocally Judges For although a courtesie as in reference to the good of Society may imply a secret paction for return yet it differs much from a true paction First in that pactions have their returns exprest and next that a third superior party is called to see performance but in gratituties as the Donor could be alone judge of the benefit intended so the grateful of the measure of benefit received and consequently what return is most proportionable both to his present power and that receit also And if you put it in the obligers power to demand return according as he shall say his intentions were you will at last leave no steady place or measure for return or obligation at all Children while little can neither apprehend benefit nor make return unless you will say that the sport of the childe is return as acceptance from the loved is requital to the loving for men are not alwayes traders in what they do but the pleasure of doing is many times the cause of doing If this be the case as having parents provoked by the affection of propriety and pleasure of doing they lay no obligation beyond self respect at least until the childe be of such yeers as to be able to discover and value truely the benefit received his return cannot be expected which can then onely be what he thinks good except Gods positive precepts strengthen his gratitude beyond nature But since this obligation of the childes is first placed for his generation and then for his education we will a little enquire into both and will begin with that of generation In this man must be considered like other males as prompted by natural appetite with no farther direct intention of laying an obligation on providence for continuance of his kinde then when the like appetite causing him to eat or sleep he thinks expresly on preservation of his individual And if the behaviour of the males be well marked after this meeting they will seldom be found in any glorying or exulting humor as confident of good done but rather shame and reluctance And again what shall we think of those that through poverty or other considerations might be unwilling to have been the parents of children at all So for the woman or female again although she besides her share in generation haâ—h paâ—t of her own substance imployed in nourishment of the young whilst it is within her and passeth her time in bearing not in pleasure but mostly in affliction yet since nothing of it is voluntary it remembers me of an undutiful but pertinent answer of one that was reproved as unnatural for slighting his mother which was That she got him for her pleasure and brought him forth for her ease But
as these our conceived figures do differ from one another so will there be difference in the opinions of the parâ—ies that do frame their conceptions from them And although men now grown to some years can remember names and words without their figures that first imprinted them yet as experience tells us we cannot remember the name of any single or distinct thing or person but his shape will first come into our fancy shewing that as natural notions and the comprehensions of separate things arose and were confirmed in us from frequent or intent admittance through outward sense So the peremptory conceipt of the fitness of Method and Rules of adjudication framed thereupon must arise also from divers essays and observations of the analogy and correspondencâ— between them And in childrens learning to speak the articulation of words is not so great a hindrance as want of fancy through want of impression of some Figure of that thing which these words should express for Pariaâ—s that can articular well enough are for this cause uncapable to speak many things or indeed any thing but what must arise from large itteration which must serve to them as an affection arising from height and sharpness or manner of sound and impression through often hearing of the same tone and not as an object of memory so distinctly figured by it self as to mind him of the object whereof he speaks although indeed their speech is usually brought on by way of memory from Figure as by the sight of persons or places that did teach or accompany their learning As the eye is the sense of largest supply to Feeling and memory so through variety of its objects fancy hath more ability to conceive and distinguish the impressions thereof then by any other of the senses For sight hath all varieties of Figure Number Proportion c. for its observation whereas the other senses are for the most part single in their objects Nay Figure alone is of such variety as there cannot be such exactness between any two things take them of leaves of the same tree stones or what natural thing you will but some such difference to the eye may still be discovered as a man may be said to know them by it But Savours and Sounds being like single colours without such remarkable difference can seldom so imploy and affect the fancy as to be remembred distinct from one another as of themselves but as accompanied with that figurate body or some other sensible accident at the time of their admittance And hence comes another advantage men have to knowledge abeve other creatures namely this greater variety of induction by relying on sight and feeling more then they For smelling which is the sense they most relye upon and make use of is capable but of little variety of impression and their knowledge and instruction gathered from difference herein serveth seldom to other imployment then to distinguish food by it being indeed but as one and the same sense with tasting or being but tasting at distance even as tasting again is but the proper sense of feeling for one part namely the stomack And it will hence follow that as the variety of the objects of sight exceed those of smell and as the variety of feeling with the hand exceeds that of feeling with the Pallat so doth mens advantage to knowledge exceed even in this respect also that of other creatures And again as Beasts relying and usuage of these more confined enquiries of Taste and Smelling can produce thereupon but little knowledge so such men or such creatures as are in their senses most confined whether in this kind or in any other must be also most confined in knowledge as on the contrary they that are intent on Figures have advantage to memory and so to knowledge And therefore we can never remember that which happened unto us in our infancy or very young because we had not as then throughly learned to distinguish and retain Figures But then although smelling have hereupon least influence upon us as to our intellectual and moral habits yet by reason of its vicinity and entercourse with the spirits themselves it is most strongly operative for introducing affections in us as in our natural condition and thereby to move us more strongly to liking and action then the other senses can And however we are not like other Sensitives that are not capable of making use of figurate objects and receiving impression from them lead to fancy and distinguish particular things and persons from custom and usage hence only arising but are able from those greater and more observable agreements and disparities which appear to sight and other senses and from the oftner imployment of them thereabouts many times to put a stop and controul upon what is approved by the other and to choose and stand affected from them and not from the other yet in those things that depend upon more general acquaintance and commerce and where long conversation hath grown up into habit and custom without controul or notice of other senses there the sense of smelling doth with us as well as them so far prevail as to pass into that we call Nature For and towards the liking of such sorts or species of creatures with whom we are most conversant by means of those vapours and spirits that flow from them And hence it is that as all creatures do from their more usual association come to like those of their own kind more then others so also do they by degrees do it even as each individual of the same species attains to full growth and perfection whereby they may be reciprocally enabled both to give and take from each other these more strong impressions Upon which ground each Sensitive at the time of its ripeness comes to be imbued and possessed with correspondent degree of delight in each others company and also with that high desire of more near personal union and congression even so far until by means thereof and of that mixture of more spiritous parts therein made a third creature of their own kind is made up and generated That this inclination is but emergent from that Natura Naturata those Laws of matter which the great Natura Naturans did at first impose for and towards the mutual preservation of the Universe and its Species and not from such discreet instinct and original perception as that each thing as by a kind of miracle or as being a God to its self should be knowingly led to choice and discrimination herein will plainly appear in those mixtures which are produced from those meetings of creatures of several sorts at common watering places or the like The which we might well think would be much more common and strong if any thing from its birth should have been kept to herd amongst those of that kind then can be now where at the meetings at Nilus or the like there is but a short and occasional acquaintance and that not
protection when their Offices are invaded as the Prince is to the Fathers and Monarchs again being not unanimous and active in upholding each others rights as Fathers are it is no wonder if we finde here and there an Anarchical Kingdom even daring to profess themselves so which Families do not But would Monarchs take the common interest to heart as Fathers do and be as vigilant to preserve their neighbors power as others are to overthrow them they would finde that it would be the steadiest course to maintain their own power at home and that when other Kingdoms could never have been known successful in enterprising their Kings subversion their subjects would never undertake it no more then the Children or Servants of a Family dare for the like cause attempt the like against their Father and Master The main reason that Subjects usually have to desire such Change being the example of such or such a neighboring people as have thriven therein and so making fortune and success the onely judge of right and wrong they do proceed accordingly all stories telling us that until Anarchies came into the world such a thing as limited Monarchy was not in being Let us now again see their likeness in Rebellions and its pretences The Wife if she be of greater spirit then to be confined in her proper employment takes occasion from her Husbands remisness or too great trust in her to enlarge her power in the Family and to encroach on her Husbands also With these she lays Obligations and raises dependances as to her self and having now as she believes gotten strength to stand alone or above her Husband she becomes more insolent and open Which if it shall awake him to curb by his just power then comes she to spread through the Family the charge and power she hath She saith That the power of the head of the Family grew from the Family for as the Family was in greatness or power so was the head thereof also and therefore that they as the fountains of power might use the same to their just vindication from oppression She saith that as all kindes of good is increased by communication so the good of the whole Family is to be preferred in reason to the single good of any one especially since as the case now stands that one seeks but his own hurt also led and blinded with evil Counsel In which case necessity of self-preservation will not onely justifie but duty to their Master requires the other members to joyn in a course to force these from him and take the charge of his person and Government themselves She tells them that a Family as a Family hath foundation on the Wife and that as without Religion well instructed there could be no firm obligation for subjects obedience so without a Wife no Children no Family and so no Master thereof Besides though truly she is loth to say so much her self yet her Husbands late disrespect and forwardness to cross her makes her fear as men are now easily enclined to heresie so he hath turned his affection to some other women and therefore she would divorce her self from him that so he might be as excommunicate in his Family For although it is true that obedience is to be given to him by the Law of God yet again it is as true that he is to keep Gods Laws as well as we if not we must obey God rather then men Nay when he hath neglected his duty to his Family in not providing for them as this man hath done Saint Paul expressly saith He is worse then an infidel Now whether it be not fit that one that hath denied the Faith an Infidel nay worse then an Infidel should not onely be excommunicated but put from Government she thinks none can doubt But above all through her Husbands often absence about other imployments and remitting the directive part of Government to her in many particulars she lays the greatest claim to make herself as it were Governor in chief leaving to her Husband as pertinent to him that hath none but the coercive part the honor and authority only of a subservient officer that is to execute punish according to her determination and censure No otherwise then as the popish and Presbyterian Clergy upon advantage of their sole exercise in the Office of publike instruction do come to believe at last they are supreme and uncontrolable herein and do thence infer that as the body is to be subservient to the mind so the Prince or Civil Magistrate as they call him ought with his coercive part of Government to be reckoned but as subordinate and Ministerial to what they in their spiritual capacities shall enjoyn Not remembring that all that external jurisdiction and power she exerciseth in tâ—e Family is subordinate and to be acknowledged as derived from his supreme headship even as done by her as his Wife in his family by vertue of that choice and designation he then made at the time he personally ordained her to be his Wife and so consequently took her into this consortship and share of power For although the positive power and honor belonging to her as a mother and Mistris of a family be to be derived from God onely even from the sacramental efficacy of marriage and Ordination it self yet since it cannot be imagined that the constitution of a less and subordinate power was intended to be the overthrow of a greater therefore should she have considered that she is negatively in all things by him restrainable in the execution thereof Nay more in those things which she acts as Mistress of the Family over any but her own Children she is to hold her self as well impowered as restrainable by him although in respect of that obedience or honor rather which her own children give her she be not to acknowledge any humane derivation therein but is impowered as mother both by the Laws of God and Nature and that in chief where no other head or Monarch is With these and such like insinuations she may be supposed to win Children and others of the Family into a faction and association with her by whose help she may be able to work her ends For although women be rather more desirous of Government then men yet they wanting bodily strength are forced to draw in others to their assistance by setting up of their interests also Thus Children shall be won in by hope of some parity of power with the Father as well as Peerage among themselves for by the Text of Fathers provoke noâ— your children to wrath they would both have the duty of Fathers implyed of not commanding more to their Children then what they are willing to act for fear of angring them and also that being provoked by their Father it was just and reasonable for them to prosecute this wrath of theirs unto the abating his power for the future Then the Children when they meet with an easie and
they think them to have their power when instead of giving they are but restrictions and abatements thereof for so upon good heed it wil be found and that these liberties of people have arisen but from the grants of former Princes and not Princes power from them even thereby acknowledging all power to spring from its proper root So that when people lay claim to any Priviledge the Charter or Grant of such and such a Prince is alledged as its ground and Authority wherein they then being petitioners and â—â—il stiling themselves subjects there is no more reason why the indulgence of former Princes or Rebellion or Force of Subjects should be of more avail to despoil Princes of their just power and Soveraignty then for Wife or Children in any Association of theirs by way of Fact to take on them the rights and power of Master of the Family For although in different Countries and places the Marital or Paternal power is more or less and so also Bishops Pastors c. are in some places restrained more then in others in Ordaining Preaching Baptizing and also in jurisdiction and government shall we therefore conclude their Offices and Powers was not at first founded and so to continue as from God but is at the liberty of Wife Children or People both how far and whether it shall be so or no. And to come yet neerer because they are usually esteemed the greatest Princes that have greatest store of Subjects it should be thence thought that their power was from people because encreased according to their power and number What shall we then think of such as have power encreased from their wealth from their Forts Magazines Arms Navy or by the valour and military discipline of their people What is power therefore first in these things and from them derived to Princes doth the Artificer receive the power or skill belonging to him as Artificer from the instruments can they make no difference between having power over and receiving power from What do Princes Treasures Militia c. convene in their underived Majesties and freely elect also have Military subjects double or treble Votes because they have more power Nay are not Princes to derive all their power from them for they usually set them up and uphold them nothing less reasonable For as that Father that hath none but weak or indigent Children is yet as much and truely a Father as he that hath rich and potent ones even so these additions do not constitute formally the power or office of any King or Monarch but are onely accessory qualifications to difference them in their comparative powers from one another And therefore although in the glory of such actions of Children or Subjects that flow not formally from their relations as such and do yet reach to the honoring of their Father or Prince it may be said that honor is in the honoring and not in the honored meaning that it is in the honoring first yet can neither they nor any subordinate Corelate as heretofore noted be truely said to be originals of any honor or power formally in them by vertue of that relation wherein Father Prince or other Superiors stood to them as principle but on the other side since they voluntarily entred not into these relations nor had been Sons or Subjects had not the intervenient acts of Generation Conquest c. made them such it must follow that what was the Author and Cause of that relation must be Author and Original of that Honor which is thereby caused and may consequently challenge the propriety and disposal thereof Whereupon we may infer that such Concessions of predecessors are no more binding then the presidents of an indulgent Parent ought of right to take from the heir that power which afterwards as Father of a Family shall come to be necessary and due unto him but as forceable Entries are in Law and Equity held invalid towards the disseisin of a true proprietor the like must be held in these usurpations and encroachments on the Soveraignty And therefore as they supposing power in the people do thence infer that as they are trusters so they are to re-assume as they think good so it now truly appearing that power is from the Soveraign if he or his predecessors have indulged more then he findes will now stand with publike good he may rightfully reassume also From all which premises we may conclude Soveraignty to be a Power deputed from God to one person for the Government of such or such a Kingdom or Society From God I call it because as elsewhere shewed all power is from him onely and to one person it must be because as the original of power affects unity in himself so was he never found equally to distribute or entrust it otherways If you will you may call Soveraignty the puissance of any Society united in one person for the attaining political ends Where by Puissance is understood that natural Force Vertue Vigor or Ability which the Subjects had before to operate externally which doth now come by this congression as the sticks of a Faggot by the band according to the usual tale or allusion of the old man to his Children for Unity to receive such augmentation of strength as to accomplish and subdue those ends and difficulties which divided were not to be done so that as without it the Major part took on them as the representative whole uncontrolable power over the Minor so the Prince being no more truely the whole hath irresistable power also By external operations is meant the prosecution of such desires as may be of a forraign concern onely or that have influence or respect beyond the party acting for otherwise my own will is still director But where loss or gain cannot be wholly centred in my self rules of association do require that application and direction be made and sought from the common center of a Commonwealth Therefore although in natural strength and bodily force the Prince continue still but of equal ability to others yet through this resignation by submission having more then all he is of power to act against all opposition according as reason and political good shall dictate Political ends or the good of association is either that of Peace or that of Plenty the one made by submitting our own several powers of decision unto the determination of one uncontrolable Judge the other by his distributing as from a Center again to people the circumference the assurances of propriety protection other benefits consistent with political utility justice This vigor is not onely gotten by way of addition or accumulation as when for the removal of the strength or opposition of a powerful faction he is assisted with the strength of others but sometimes by suspention of vigor in the subjects whereby his power comes to be more by their having less or by their obedience he grows able to command If you will have a larger description Soveraignty which
For should the King be as much hidden from our bodily sence as God is and should we again know no more of the Commissions and powers granted to Justices in each Kingdom then we do of the Laws of matter and internal forms in Nature it would be as hard to apprehend any prime Agent above those Justices in the Kingdom as to conceive the power and existence of Deity in the world A supposition that may be well made good if consideration be had of those strange conceits of the form and figure of Kings which are entertained by some ignorant people that as yet never saw any nor heard them described And the reason is the same for our ignorance in appearance of Gods operation in Creation Providence and natural Causes as is for the ignorance of these before mentioned in the knowledge of the Causes of political or artificial productions with us unless we shall impiously as well as arrogantly conclude that we should have knowledge in this life in such perfection as to see him intuitively as Angels do now or as our selves shall do hereafter Of the reason of the present course of Gods proceeding in many particulars both of Creation and Providence we did speak in the beginning and other parts of this work in which we declared the divers sympathies and natural propensities wherewith Vegetatives and Inanimates are indued all of them tending to specifical and mutual preservation and Providence We also shewed how Sensitives were provoked by the affection of pleasure naturally implanted in them and accompanying things beneficial to be continually active in pursuance of what was to themselves and others behoof-ful We also manifested how rational Creatures by the affection of love and desire of beneficence and by the thirst of honor accompanying them as their reward were provoked also unto the like continual endeavors towards mutual good and preservation All of them infallibly concluding that there must be an Author or prime Agent of such universal concern and such continual care in constituting and ordering these things as to be their original Cause and perpetual guide and support according to the method of his own good pleasure For should there not be these natural propensions to love and pitty nay to acts of justice and of submission therein to others as to honor Parents and the like it would come to pass that through that too great thirst of self-seeking heretofore spoken of and through anger and envy of being crossed therein no one man would now be left alive inasmuch as there is no man but is by one or other so much hated as to cause his death to be heartily desired were not manifold hinderances by divine Providence and appointment put in to keep off execution And in this regard was may also collect another strong proof for Deity and Providence from that awful and reverential respect which is by each one born towards Authority For experience every day tells us that those very persons that are come to that height of daring as to challenge and enter the field for a lye an abuse to their Mistress or the like where besides the equal hazard of their lives in present they must have a certain expectation to suffer according to Law in case they do out-live the other are yet so kept in order by that divine and providential terror by God impressed on his Image of Authority here on earth as not to have courage to withstand the Attachment of a publike Officer Whereupon our Discourse formerly and ordinary reason it self always testifying that these his works and the way of Government of them are such as cannot be bettered why should we think Change and Alteration any ways convenient For if it be an act proper to goodness wisdom power c. to make things well and good and afterwards to dispose them so will not constancy herein be as commendable to the same goodness wisdom and power in their continuance in that order as it was for creating and thus stating them And so if God had not made and ordered all things so as cannot be bettered he could not have been God and if he should not keep them in the same order whilst they remain the same things he should not be God neither wisdom in designation requiring constancy in prosecution and irresistible power being the necessary attendant of both And having thus far spoken in defence of the constancy of the course of Nature and Providence against such as would not believe a God because since the Fathers fell asleep all things are alike till now so also for conviction of such as from inconstancy and irregularity of the actions in voluntary Agents and Gods permission of sin and oppression would conclude against Deity too according to that divine Aphorism because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil we shall now farther speak In this saying of the wise man we may apprehend the two usual grounds that make men lean to Atheism The first is in thinking all the acts and works of men evil which they cannot apprehend as good not being many times able to look through the mistaken or present particular suffering of some few unto that real and more lasting good thereby procured to many The other in thinking that the acts permitted unto and proceeding from humane Judgement and Will as it is seated in divers persons for the guidance of their own affairs should be alike constant to those of God in the Government of the world and course of his Providence who hath an uniform end to cause steadiness of his actions therein Unto which an answer may be also made out of the same consideration before spoken of namely the sufficiency of the one above the other And if they wil allow any Creature to be so perfect as to have Will and Understanding separate they must in order to their specifical freedom of Will allow them variety of actions also especially since their private ends must differ as before noted And therefore as we must conclude Gods works must be uniform and constant in reference to his Unity of Will and end to design and all-sufficiency of power to atchieve so we must allow to things submitted to the power of inferior voluntary Agents if at all you will grant them voluntary freedom unto variety of productions and execution and that in bad as well as in good Unless we shall at once and against sense conclude all men are alike good wise or powerful and that from such plurality and disparity of Judgement Interest and Will we should think that constant procession could be expected From which liberty and freedom of action in good or bad guided according to the true light or corruption of humane judgement and Will it must also follow that the evidences and directions given for mens guidance should not be in such continuing and pressing manner repeated to each single