partner in the injury if for want of his seasonable interposition a good cause is lost and a false plea prevailes That therefore which in the second place he alledgeth that the Subject can have no reason to complaine of the Judge for as much as it is out of his power to remedy the case and to passe other sentence than is chalked forth by the rule of Law might as well be alledged against him in the plea of life and death wherein he will by no meanes allow the Judge this liberty of an undue commendation neither is there any just pretence why an honest and well-minded Judge should be so sparing in a case of life and so too prodigall in matter of livelyhood As for this third reason that the mis-judgement in case of a pecuniary damage or banishment may be afterwards capable of being reversed and upon a new Traverse the cause may be fercht about at further leisure whereas death once inflicted is past all power of revocation It may well inferre that therefore there should bee so much more deliberation and care had in passing sentence upon capitall matters than civill by how much life is more prcious and irrevocable than our worldly substance but it can never inferre that injustice should bee tolerable in the one not in the other Justice had wont to be painted blind-fold with a paire of scales in her hand wherefore else but to imply that he who would judge aright must not look upon the issue or event but must weigh impartially the true state of the cause in all the grounds and circumstances thereof and sentence accordingly To say then that a Judge may passe a doome formally legall but materially unjust because the case upon a new suit may be righted were no other than to say I may lawfully wound a man because I know how to heale him againe Shortly therefore whether it be in causes criminall or civill whether concerning life or estate let those who sit in the seat of Judicature as they will answer it before the great Judge of the World resolve what event soever follow to judge righteous judgement not justifying the wicked not condemning the innocent both which are equally abominable in the sight of the Almighty CASE VII Whether and in what cases am I bound to be an accuser of another TO be an accuser of others is a matter of much envy and detestation insomuch as it is the style of the Devill himselfe to be accusator fratrum an accuser of the brethren Yet not of his owne brethren in evill It was never heard that one evill spirit accused another but of our brethren Revelat. 12. 10. it was a voice from heaven which called him so Saints on earth are the brethren of the glorious spirits in heaven It is the wickednes of that malicious spirit to accuse Saints But though the act be grown into hatred in respect both of the Agent and of the Object yet certainly there are cases wherein it will become the Saints to take upon them the person and office of accusers Accusation therefore is either voluntary or urged upon you by the charge of a superiour Voluntary is either such as you are moved unto by the Conscience of some hainous and notorious crime committed or to be committed by another to the great dishonour of God or danger of the common peace whereto you are privy or such as whereunto you are tyed by some former engagemeut of vow or oath In the former kinde a worthy Divine in our time travailing on the way sees a leud man committing abominable filthinesse with a beast the sinne was so foule and hatefull that his heart would not suffer him to conceale it hee therefore hastens to the next Justice accuses the offender of that so unnaturall villany the party is committed endicted and upon so reverend though single testimony found guilty Or if in the case of a crime intended you have secret but sure intelligence that a bloudy villaine hath plotted a treason against the sacred person of your Soveraigne or a murther of your honest neighbour which hee resolves to execute should you keep this fire in your bosome it might justly burn you Whether it be therefore for the discovery of some horrible crime done or for the prevention of some great mischief to be done you must either be an accuser or an accessary The obligation to accuse is yet stronger where your former vow or oath hath fore-ingaged you to a just discovery you have sworn to maintaine and defend his Majesty's royall Person State Dignity and to make knowne those that wilfully impugne it if now you shall keep the secret counsels of such wicked designments as you shall know to be against any of these how can you escape to bee involved in a treason lined with perjury These are accusations which your conscience will fetch from you unasked But if being called before lawfull authority you shall be required upon oath to testifie your knowledge even concerning offenders of an inferiour nature you may not detract your witnesse though it amount to no lesse than an Accusation Yet there are cases wherein a Testimony thus required tending to an accusation may be refused As in case of duty and nearenesse of naturall or civill relation It were unreasonably unjust for a man to be pressed with interrogations or required to give accusatory testimonies in the case of parents or children or the partner of his bed Or if a man out of remorse of conscience shall disclose a secret sin to you formerly done in a desire to receive counsaile and comfort from you you ought rather to endure your soule to be fetcht out of your body than that seeret to bee drawn out of your lips Or if the question be illegal as those that tend directly to your own prejudice or those which are moved concerning hidden offences not before notified by publique fame or any lawfull ground of injury which therefore the Judge hath no power to ask In these cases if no more the refusall of an accusation though required is no other than justifiable But where neither the conscience of the horridnesse of a crime done nor prevention of a crime intended nor duty of obedience to a lawfull authority nor the bond of an inviolable pre-ingagement call you to the Bar It is not a more uncharitable than thanklesse office to bee an accuser Hence it is that Delators and Informers have in all happy and well-governed States been ever held an infamous and odious kinde of Cattell A Tiberius and a Domitian might give both countenance and reward to them as being meet factors for their tyranny but a Vespasian and Titus and Antonius Pius and Macrinus or what ever other Princes carryed a tender care to the peace and welfare of their Subjects whipt them in the publique Amphitheater and abandoned them out of their dominions as pernicious and intolerable And as these mercenary Flies whether of State or of Religion are justly hatefull
not wont to be without grievous inconveniences whether in respect of our dreadfulnesse or their dangerous insinuations It is the great mercy of the God of Spirits that hee hath bound up the evill Angels in the chaines of darkenesse restraining them from those frequent and horrible appearances which they would otherwise make to the terrour and consternation of his weak creatures Whensoever it pleaseth the Almighty for his owne holy purposes so farre to loosen or lengthen the chaines of wicked spirits as to suffer them to exhibit themselves in some assumed shapes unto men it cannot but mainly import us to know what our deportment should be concerning them Doubtlesse to hold any faire termes of commerce or peace much more of amity and familiarity with them were no better than to professe our selves enemies to God for such an irreconcileable hostility there is betwixt the holy God and these malignant spirits that there can bee no place for a neutrality in our relation to them so as hee is an absolute enemie to the one that bids not open defiance to the other As therefore wee are wont by our silence to signifie our heart-burning against any person in that we abide not to speake unto those whom wee hate so must wee carry our selves towards evill spirits And if they beginne with us as that Devill did in in the Serpent with Eve how unsafe and deadly it may bee to hold that with them appeares in that first example of their onset the issue whereof brought misery and mortality upon all mankinde yet then were our first parents in their innocency and all earthly perfection wee now so tainted with sinne that Satan hath a kinde of party in us even before his actuall temptations As therefore wee are wont to say that the fort that yeilds to parley is halfe won so may it prove with us if we shall give way to hold discourse with wicked spirits who are farre too crafty for us to deale withall having so evident an advantage of us both in nature we being flesh and blood they spirituall wickednesse and in duration and experience we being but of yesterday they coetaneous with the world and time it selfe If you tell mee that our Saviour himselfe interchanged some speeches with the spirits whom he ejected it is easily answered that this act of his was never intended for our imitation sith his omnipotence was no way obnoxious to their malice our weakness is I cannot therefore but marvell at the boldnesse of those men who professing no small degree of holinesse have dared to hold familiar talk with evill spirits and could be content to make use of them for intelligence as the famous Jesuite in our time Pere Cotton who having provided 50. questions to be propounded to a Demoniack some concerning matters of learning some other matters of State concerning the then French King and the King of England and having them written down under his owne hand to that purpose being questioned concerningit answered that hee had licence from Rome to tender those demands as I received it upon certaine relation from the learned Dr. Tilenus with many pregnant and undeniable circumstances which I need not here expresse Although this need not seeme strange to me when I finde that Navarre determines plainly that when evill spirits are present not by our invocation as in possessed bodies it is lawfull to move questions to them so it be without our paayers to them or pact with them for the profit of others yea thus to confer with them even out of vanity or curiosity is but venial at the most Thus he with whom Lessius goes so far as to say Licitum est petere verbo à Diabolo ut nocere desinat c. It is lawfull to move the Devill in words to cease from hurting so that it be not done by way of deprecation or in a friendly compliance but by way of indignation A distinction which I confesse past the capacity of my apprehension who have not the wit to conceive how a man can move without implying a kinde of suite and how any suite can consist with an indignation It savours yet of a more heroicall spirit which the Church of Rome professeth to teach and practice the ejection of evill spirits by an imperious way of command having committed to her Exorcists a power of Adjuration to which the worst of Devils must be subject a power more easily arrogated than really exercised Indeed this over-ruling authority was eminently conspicuous not onely in the selected twelve and the seventy Disciples of Christ who returned from their Embassie with joy Luk. 10. 17. that the Devils were subject to them through his name but even in their holy Successors of the Primitive Church whiles the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost were sensibly poured out upon men but if they will be still challenging the same power why doe they not as well lay claime to the speaking of strange tongues Mar. 16. 17. 18 to the super-naturall cure of all diseases to the treading on serpents and scorpions to the drinking of poysons without an Antidote and if they must needs acknowledge these faculties above their reach why doe they presume to divide the Spirit from it selfe arrogating to themselves the power of the greatest workes whiles they are professedly defective in the least wherein surely as they are the true successors of the sonnes of Sceva Act. 19. r3 14 15 16. who would be adjuring of Devils by the name of Jesus whom S. Paul preached so they can looke for no other intertainment than they found from those Demoniacks which was to be baffled and beaten and wounded Especially if we consider the foule superstition and grosse magick which they make use of in their Conjurations by their owne vainely-devised Exorcismes feoffing a supernaturall vertue upon drugges and herbes for the dispelling and staving off all evill spirits Because the bookes are not perhaps obvious take but a taste in one or two In the treasure of Exorcismes there is this following Benediction of Rue to be put into an hallowed paper and to be carried about you and smelled at for the repelling of the Invasion of Devils I conjure thee ô thou creature of Rue by the holy Lord the Father the Almighty and Eternall God which bringeth forth grasse in the mountaines and herbes for the use of man And which by the Apostle of thy Sonne our Lord Jesus Christ hast taught That the weake should eat Herbes I conjure thee that thou bee blessed and sanctifyed to retaine thâ—s invisible power and vertue that whosoever shall carry thee about him or shall smell to thee may be free from all the uncleannesse of Diabolicall infatuation and that all Devills and all Witchcrafts may speedily fall from him as herbes or grasse of the earth through the same our Lord Jesus Christ which shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world by fire The like is prescribed to be
the hearts of too many Christians as if the contributions to their ministers were a matter of meer almes which as they need not to give so they are apt upon easy displeasures to upbraid But these men must be put in minde of the just word of our Saviour The laborer is worthy of his wages The ministery signifies a service a publique service at Gods Altar whereto the wages is no lesse due then the meat is to the mouth of him that payes it No man may more freely speak of tithes then my selfe who receive none nor ever shall do Know then ye proud ignorants that call your Ministers your almes-men and your selves their Benefactors that the same right you have to the whole they have to a part God and the same lawes that have feoffed you in your estates have allotted them their due shares in them which without wrong ye cannot detract It is not your charity but your justice which they presse for their owne Neither think to check them with the scornfull title of your servants servants they are indeede to Gods Church not to you and if they doe stoop to particular services for the good of your souls this is no more disparagement to them then it is to the blessed Angels of God to be ministring spirits Heb. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Shortly it is the Apostles charge ratified in heaven that they which labour in the word and doctrine should be remunerated with double honour that is not formall of words and complements but real of maintenance which he laies weight upon his Timothy to enioyn 1. Tim. 5. 17. 10. And surely how necessary it is that we should bee at som certainty in this case and not left to the meere arbitrary will of the givers it too well apears in common experience which tell us how ordinary it is where ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they doe but upon som just reproofe gall the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach som truth which dis-relishes the palat of a prepossessed auditor how he straight flies out and not only withholds his own pay but also withdrawes the contributions of others so as the free-tongued teacher must either live by ayre or be forced to change his pasture It were easy to instance but charity bids mee forbeare Hereupon it is that these sportulary preachers are faine to sooth up their many masters and are so gaged with the feare of a starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing And if there were no such danger in a faithfull and just freedom yet how easy is it to apprehend that if even when the laws enforce men to pay their dues to their ministers they yet continue so backward in their discharge of them how much lesse hope can there be that being left to their free choyce they would prove eyther liberall or just in their voluntary contributions Howsoever therfore in that innocent infancy of the Church wherein zealous Christians out of a liberall ingenuity were ready to lay downe all their substance at the Apostles feet in the primitive times immediately subsequent the willing forwardness of devout people tooke away all need of raysing set maintenances for Gods ministers yet now in these depraved and hard hearted times of the Church it is more then requisite that fixed competencies of allowance should by good lawes be established upon them which being done by way of tithes in those countries wherein they obtaine there is just cause of thankfulnesse to God for so meet a provision none for a just oppugnation CASE VIII Whether it bee lawfull for Christians where they find a countrey possessed by savage Pagans and Infidels to drive out the native inhabitants and to seize and enjoy their lands upon any pretence and upon what grounds it may be lawfull so to doe WHat unjust and cruel measure hath been heretofore offered by the Spaniard to miserable Indians in this kind I had rather you should receive from the relation of their own Bishop Bartholomaeus Casa then from my Pen. He can tell you a sad story of millions of those poor savages made away to make room for those their imperious successors the discovery of whose unjust usurpation procured but little thanks to their learned professors of Complutum and Salamanca Your question relates to our owne case since many thousands of our nation have transplanted themselves into those regions which were prepossessed by barbarous owners As for those countries which were not inhabited by any reasonable creatures as the Bermudas or Summer-Islands which were only peopled wih Hogs and Deer and such like bruite cattle there can be no reason why they should not fall to the first occupant but where the land hath a known master the case must vary For the decision whereof some grounds are fit to be laid No nation under heaven but hath som Religion or other and worships a God such as it is although a creature much inferiour in very nature to themselves although the worst of creatures evil spirits and that religion wherein they were bred through an invincible ignorance of better they esteem good at least Dominion and propriety is not founded in Religion but in a naturall and civill right It is true that the saints have in Christ the Lord of all things a spiritual right in all creatures all things are yours saith the Apostle and you are Christs and Christ is Gods but the spirituall right gives a man no title at all to any naturall or civill possession here on earth yea Christ himselfe though both as God and as Mediator the whole world were his yet hee tells Pilate My kingdom is not of this World neither did he though the Lord Paramount of this whol earth by virtu of that transcendent soveraignty put any man out of the possession of one foot of ground which fell to him either by birth or purchase Neither doth the want of that spirituall interest debar any man from a rightfull claim and fruition of these earthly inheritances The barbarous people were lords of their owne and have their Sagamores and orders and formes of government under which they peaceably live without the intermedling with other nations Infidelity cannot forfeit their inheritance to others no more then enmity professed by Jewes to Christian Religion can escheat their goods to the Crownes under which they live yea much lesse for those Jewes living amongst Christian people have or might have had meanes sufficient to reclaime them from their stubborn unbeleefe but these savages have never had the least overture of any saving helps to wards their conversion they therefore being as true owners of their native inheritances as Christians are of theirs they can no more be forced from their possessions by Christians then Christians may be so forced by them certainly in the same