have their Jurisdiction from the Soveraigns of the place wherein they exercise the same And as for that cause they have not their Authority de Iure Divino so neither hath the Pope his de Iure Divino except onely where hee is also the Civill Soveraign His fift argument is this If Bishops have their Iurisdiction immediately from God the Pope could not take it from them for he can doe nothing contrary to Gods ordination And this consequence is good and well proved But saith he the Pope can do this and has done it This also is granted so he doe it in his own Dominions or in the Dominions of any other Prince that hath given him that Power but not universally in Right of the Popedome For that power belongeth to every Christian Soveraign within the bounds of his owne Empire and is inseparable from the Soveraignty Before the People of Israel had by the commandment of God to Samuel set over themselves a King after the manner of other Nations the High Priest had the Civill Government and none but he could make nor depose an inferiour Priest But that Power was afterwards in the King as may be proved by this same argument of Bellarmine For if the Priest be he the High Priest or any other had his Jurisdiction immediately from God then the King could not take it from him for he could doe nothing contrary to Gods ordinance But it is certain that King Solomon 1 Kings 2. 26. deprived Abiathar the High Priest of his Office and placed Zadok verse 35. in his room Kings therefore may in the like manner Ordaine and Deprive Bishops as they shall thinke fit for the well governing of their Subjects His sixth argument is this If Bishops have their Jurisdiction de Iure Divino that is immediately from God they that maintaine it should bring some Word of God to prove it But they can bring none The argument is good I have therefore nothing to say against it But it is an argument no lesse good to prove the Pope himself to have no Jurisdiction in the Dominion of any other Prince Lastly hee bringeth for argument the testimony of two Popes Innocent and Leo and I doubt not but hee might have alledged with as good reason the testimonies of all the Popes almost since S. Peter For considering the love of Power naturally implanted in mankind whosoever were made Pope he would be tempted to uphold the same opinion Neverthelesse they should therein but doe as Innocent and Leo did bear witnesse of themselves and therefore their witnesse should not be good In the fift Book he hath four Conclusions The first is That the Pope is not Lord of all the world The second That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian world The third That the Pope without his owne Territory has not any Temporall Jurisdiction DIRECTLY These three Conclusions are easily granted The fourth is That the Pope has in the Dominions of other Princes the Supreme Temporall Power INDIRECTLY which is denyed unlesse hee mean by Indirectly that he has gotten it by Indirect means then is that also granted But I understand that when he saith he hath it Indirectly he means that such Temporall Jurisdiction belongeth to him of Right but that this Right is but a Consequence of his Pastorall Authority the which he could not exercise unlesse he have the other with it And therefore to the Pastorall Power which he calls Spirituall the Supreme Power Civill is necessarily annexed and that thereby hee hath a Right to change Kingdomes giving them to one and taking them from another when he shall think it conduces to the Salvation of Souls Before I come to consider the Arguments by which hee would prove this Doctrine it will not bee amisse to lay open the Consequences of it that Princes and States that have the Civill Soveraignty in their severall Common-wealths may bethink themselves whether it bee convenient for them and conducing to the good of their Subjects of whom they are to give an account at the day of Judgment to admit the same When it is said the Pope hath not in the Territories of other States the Supreme Civill Power Directly we are to understand he doth not challenge it as other Civill Soveraigns doe from the originall submission thereto of those that are to be governed For it is evident and has already been sufficiently in this Treatise demonstrated that the Right of all Soveraigns is derived originally from the consent of every one of those that are to bee governed whether they that choose him doe it for their common defence against an Enemy as when they agree amongst themselves to appoint a Man or an Assembly of men to protect them or whether they doe it to save their lives by submission to a conquering Enemy The Pope therefore when he disclaimeth the Supreme Civill Power over other States Directly denyeth no more but that his Right cometh to him by that way He ceaseth not for all that to claime it another way and that is without the consent of them that are to be governed by a Right given him by God which hee calleth indirectly in his Assumption to the Papacy But by what way soever he pretend the Power is the same and he may if it bee granted to be his Right depose Princes and States as often as it is for the Salvation of Soules that is as often as he will for he claimeth also the Sole Power to Judge whether it be to the Salvation of mens Souls or not And this is the Doctrine not onely that Bellarmine here and many other Doctors teach in their Sermons and Books but also that some Councells have decreed and the Popes have accordingly when the occasion hath served them put in practise For the fourth Councell of Lateran held under Pope Innocent the third in the third Chap. De Haereticis hath this Canon If a King at the Popes admonition doe not purge his Kingdome of Haeretiques and being Excommunicate for the same make not satisfaction within a yeer his Subjects are absolved of their Obedience And the practise hereof hath been seen on divers occasions as in the Deposing of Chilperique King of France in the Translation of the Roman Empire to Charlemaine in the Oppression of Iohn King of England in Transferring the Kingdome of Navarre and of late years in the League against Henry the third of France and in many more occâ—…rrences I think there be few Princes that consider not this as Injust and Inconvenient but I wish they would all resolve to be Kings or Subjects Men cannot serve two Masters They ought therefore to ease them either by holding the Reins of Government wholly in their own hands or by wholly delivering them into the hands of the Pope that such men as are willing to be obedient may be protected in their obedience For this distinction of Temporall and Spirituall Power is but words Power is as really divided and as
of the resolution of the same into its first seeds or principles which are only an opinion of a Deity and Powers invisible and supernaturall that can never be so abolished out of humane nature but that new Religions may againe be made to spring out of them by the culture of such men as for such purpose are in reputation For seeing all formed Religion is founded at first upon the faith which a multitude hath in some one person whom they believe not only to be a wise man and to labouâ—… to procure their happiness but also to be a holy man to whom God himselfe vouchsafeth to declare his will supernaturally It followeth necessarily when they that have the Government of Religion shall come to have either the wisedome of those men their sincerity or their love suspected or that they shall be unable to shew any probable token of Divine Revelation that the Religion which they desire to uphold must be suspected likewise and without the feare of the Civill Sword contradicted and rejected That which taketh away the reputation of Wisedome in him that formeth a Religion or addeth to it when it is allready formed is the enjoyning of a beliefe of contradictories For both parts of a contradiction cannot possibly be true and therefore to enjoyne the beleife of them is an argument of ignorance which detects the Author in that and discredits him in all things else he shall propound as from revelation supernaturall which revelation a man may indeed have of many things above but of nothing against naturall reason That which taketh away the reputation of Sincerity is the doing or saying of such things as appeare to be signes that what they require other men to believe is not believed by themselves all which doings or sayings are therefore called Scandalous because they be stumbling blocks that make men to fall in the way of Religion as Injustice Cruelty Prophanesse Avarice and Luxury For who can believe that he that doth ordinarily such actions as proceed from any of these rootes believeth there is any such Invisible Power to be feared as he affrighteth other men withall for lesser faults That which taketh away the reputation of Love is the being detected of private ends as when the beliefe they require of others conduceth or seemeth to conduce to the acquiring of Dominion Riches Dignity or secure Pleasure to themselves onely or specially For that which men reap benefit by to themselves they are thought to do for their own sakes and not for love of others Lastly the testimony that men can render of divine Calling can be no other than the operation of Miracles or true Prophecy which also is a Miracle or extraordinary Felicity And therefore to those points of Religion which have been received from them that did such Miracles those that are added by such as approve not their Calling by some Miracle obtain no greater beliefe than what the Custome and Lawes of the places in which they be educated have wrought into them For as in naturall things men of judgement require naturall signes and arguments so in supernaturall things they require signes supernaturall which are Miracles before they consent inwardly and from their hearts All which causes of the weakening of mens faith do manifestly appear in the Examples following First we have the Example of the children of Israel who when Moses that had approved his Calling to them by Miracles and by the happy conduct of them out of Egypt was absent but 40. dayes revolted from the worship of the true God recommended to them by him and setting up a Golden Calfe for their God relapsed into the Idolatry of the Egyptians from whom they had been so lately delivered And again after Moses Aaron Joshua and that generation which had seen the great works of God in Israel were dead another generation arose and served Baal So that Miracles fayling Faith also failed Again when the sons of Samuel being constituted by their father Judges in Bersabee received bribes and judged unjustly the people of Israel refused any more to have God to be their King in other manner than he was King of other people and therefore cryed out to Samuel to choose them a King after the manner of the Nations So that Justice fayling Faith also fayled Insomuch as they deposed their God from reigning over them And whereas in the planting of Christian Religion the Oracles ceased in all parts of the Roman Empire and the number of Christians encreased wonderfully every day and in every place by the preaching of the Apostles and Evangelists a great part of that successe may reasonably be attributed to the contempt into which the Priests of the Gentiles of that time had brought themselves by their uncleannesse avarice and jugling between Princes Also the Religion of the Church of Rome was partly for the same cause abolished in England and many other parts of Christendome insomuch as the fayling of Vertue in the Pastors maketh Faith faile in the People and partly from bringing of the Philosophy and doctrine of Aristotle into Religion by the Schoole-men from whence there arose so many contradictions and absurdities as brought the Clergy into a reputation both of Ignorance and of Fraudulent intention and enclined people to revolt from them either against the will of their own Princes as in France and Holland or with their will as in England Lastly amongst the points by the Church of Rome declared necessary for Salvation there be so many manifestly to the advantage of the Pope and of his spirituall subjects residing in the territories of other Christian Princes that were it not for the mutuall emulation of those Princes they might without warre or trouble exclude all forraign Authority as easily as it has been excluded in England For who is there that does not see to whose benefit it conduceth to have it believed that a King hath not his Authority from Christ unlesse a Bishop crown him That a King if he be a Priest cannot Marry That whether a Prince be born in lawfull Marriage or not must be judged by Authority from Rome That Subjects may be freed from their Alleageance if by the Court of Rome the King be judged an Heretique That a King as Chilperique of France may be deposed by a Pope as Pope Zachary for no cause and his Kingdome given to one of his Subjects That the Clergy and Regulars in what Country soever shall be exempt from the Jurisdiction of their King in cases criminall Or who does not see to whose profit redound the Fees of private Masses and Vales of Purgatory with other signes of private interest enough to mortifie the most lively Faith if as I sayd the civill Magistrate and Custome did not more sustain it than any opinion they have of the Sanctity Wisdome or Probity of their Teachers So that I may attribute all the changes of Religion in the world to one and the same cause and
to be regarded but the Truth yet this is not repugnant to regulating of the same by Peace For Doctrine repugnant to Peace can no more be True than Peace and Concord can be against the Law of Nature It is true that in a Common-wealth where by the negligence or unskilfullnesse of Governours and Teachers false Doctrines are by time generally received the contrary Truths may be generally offensive Yet the most sudden and rough busling in of a new Truth that can be does never breake the Peace but only somtimes awake the Warre For those men that are so remissely governed that they dare take up Armes to defend or introduce an Opinion are still in Warre and their condition not Peace but only a Cessation of Armes for feare of one another and they live as it were in the procincts of battaile continually It belongeth therefore to him that hath the Soveraign Power to be Judge or constitute all Judges of Opinions and Doctrines as a thing necessary to Peace therby to prevent Discord and Civill Warre Seventhly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the whole power of prescribing the Rules whereby every man may know what Goods he may enjoy and what Actions he may doe without being molested by any of his fellow Subjects And this is it men call Propriety For before constitution of Soveraign Power as hath already been shewn all men had right to all things which necessarily causeth Warre and therefore this Proprietie being necessary to Peace and depending on Soveraign Power is the Act of that Power in order to the publique peace These Rules of Propriety or Meum and Tuum and of Good Evill Lawfull and Unlawfull in the actions of Subjects are the Civill Lawes that is to say the Lawes of each Common-wealth in particular though the name of Civill Law be now restrained to the antient Civill Lawes of the City of Rome which being the head of a great part of the World her Lawes at that time were in these parts the Civill Law Eightly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the Right of Judicature that is to say of hearing and deciding all Controversies which may arise concerning Law either Civill or Naturall or concerning Fact For without the decision of Controversies there is no protection of one Subject against the injuries of another the Lawes concerning Meum and Tuum are in vaine and to every man remaineth from the naturall and necessary appetite of his own conservation the right of protecting himselfe by his private strength which is the condition of Warre and contrary to the end for which every Common-wealth is instituted Ninthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the Right of making Warre and Peace with other Nations and Common-wealths that is to say of Judging when it is for the publique good and how great forces are to be assembled armed and payd for that end and to levy mony upon the Subjects to defray the expences thereof For the Power by which the people are to be defended consisteth in their Armies and the strength of an Army in the union of their strength under one Command which Command the Soveraign Instituted therefore hath because the command of the Militia without other Institution maketh him that hath it Soveraign And therefore whosoever is made Generall of an Army he that hath the Soveraign Power is alwayes Generallissimo Tenthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the choosing of all Counsellours Ministers Magistrates and Officers both in Peace and War For seeing the Soveraign is charged with the End which is the common Peace and Defence he is understood to have Power to use such Means as he shall think most fit for his discharge Eleventhly to the Soveraign is committed the Power of Rewarding with riches or honour and of Punishing with corporall or pecuniary punishment or with ignominy every Subject according to the Law he hath formerly made or if there be no Law made according as he shall judge most to conduce to the encouraging of men to serve the Common-wealth or deterring of them from doing dis-service to the same Lastly considering what values men are naturally apt to set upon themselves what respect they look for from others and how little they value other men from whence continually arise amongst them Emulation Quarrells Factions and at last Warre to the destroying of one another and diminution of their strength against a Common Enemy It is necessary that there be Lawes of Honour and a publique rate of the worth of such men as have deserved or are able to deserve well of the Common-wealth and that there be force in the hands of some or other to put those Lawes in execution But it hath already been shewn that not onely the whole Militia or forces of the Common-wealth but also the Judicature of all Controversies is annexed to the Soveraignty To the Soveraign therefore it belongeth also to give titles of Honour and to appoint what Order of place and dignity each man shall hold and what signes of respect in publique or private meetings they shall give to one another These are the Rights which make the Essence of Soveraignty and which are the markes whereby a man may discern in what Man or Assembly of men the Soveraign Power is placed and resideth For these are incommunicable and inseparable The Power to coyn Mony to dispose of the estate and persons of Infant heires to have praeemption in Markets and all other Statute Praerogatives may be transferred by the Soveraign and yet the Power to protect his Subjects be retained But if he transferre the Militia he retains the Judicature in vain for want of execution of the Lawes Or if he grant away the Power of raising Mony the Militia is in vain or if he give away the government of Doctrines men will be frighted into rebellion with the feare of Spirits And so if we consider any one of the said Rights we shall presently see that the holding of all the rest will produce no effect in the conservation of Peace and Justice the end for which all Common-wealths are Instituted And this division is it whereof it is said a Kingdome divided in it selfe cannot stand For unlesse this division precede division into opposite Armies can never happen If there had not first been an opinion received of the greatest part of England that these Powers were divided between the King and the Lords and the House of Commons the people had never been divided and fallen into this Civill Warre first between those that disagreed in Politiques and after between the Dissenters about the liberty of Religion which have so instructed men in this point of Soveraign Right that there be few now in England that do not see that these Rights are inseparable and will be so generally acknowledged at the next return of Peace and so continue till their miseries are forgotten and no longer except the vulgar be better taught than they have hetherto been And because they are essentiall
and in all differences between him and other Princes charmed with the word Power Spirituall to abandon their lawfull Soveraigns which is in effect an universall Monarchy over all Christendome For though they were first invested in the right of being Supreme Teachers of Christian Doctrine by and under Christian Emperors within the limits of the Romane Empire as is acknowledged by themselves by the title of Pontifex Maximus who was an Officer subject to the Civill State yet after the Empire was divided and dissolved it was not hard to obtrude upon the people already subject to them another Title namely the Right of St. Peter not onely to save entire their pretended Power but also to extend the same over the same Christian Provinces though no more united in the Empire of Rome This Benefit of an Universall Monarchy considering the desire of men to bear Rule is a sufficient Presumption that the Popes that pretended to it and for a long time enjoyed it were the Authors of the Doctrine by which it was obtained namely that the Church now on Earth is the Kingdome of Christ. For that granted it must be understood that Christ hath some Lieutenant amongst us by whom we are to be told what are his Commandements After that certain Churches had renounced this universall Power of the Pope one would expect in reason that the Civill Soveraigns in all those Churches should have recovered so much of it as before they had unadvisedly let it goe was their own Right and in their own hands And in England it was so in effect saving that they by whom the Kings administred the Government of Religion by maintaining their imployment to be in Gods Right seemed to usurp if not a Supremacy yet an Independency on the Civill Power and they but seemed to usurpe it in as much as they acknowledged a Right in the King to deprive them of the Exercise of their Functions at his pleasure But in those places where the Presbytery took that Office though many other Doctrines of the Church of Rome were forbidden to be taught yet this Doctrine that the Kingdome of Christ is already come and that it began at the Resurrection of our Saviour was still retained But cui bono What Profit did they expect from it The same which the Popes expected to have a Soveraign Power over the People For what is it for men to excommunicate their lawful King but to keep him from all places of Gods publique Service in his own Kingdom and with force to resist him when he with force endeavoureth to correct them Or what is it without Authority from the Civill Soveraign to excommunicate any person but to take from him his Lawfull Liberty that is to usurpe an unlawfull Power over their Brethren The Authors therefore of this Darknesse in Religion are the Romane and the Presbyterian Clergy To this head I referre also all those Doctrines that serve them to keep the possession of this spirituall Soveraignty after it is gotten As first that the Pope in his publique capacity cannot erre For who is there that beleeving this to be true will not readily obey him in whatsoever he commands Secondly that all other Bishops in what Common-wealth soever have not their Right neither immediately from God nor mediately from their Civill Soveraigns but from the Pope is a Doctrine by which there comes to be in every Christian Common-wealth many potent men for so are Bishops that have their dependance on the Pope and owe obedience to him though he be a forraign Prince by which means he is able as he hath done many times to raise a Civill War against the State that submits not it self to be governed according to his pleasure and Interest Thirdly the exemption of these and of all other Priests and of all Monkes and Fryers from the Power of the Civill Laws For by this means there is a great part of every Common-wealth that enjoy the benefit of the Laws and are protected by the Power of the Civill State which neverthelesse pay no part of the Publique expence nor are lyable to the penalties as other Subjects due to their crimes and consequently stand not in fear of any man but the Pope and adhere to him onely to uphold his universall Monarchy Fourthly the giving to their Priests which is no more in the New Testament but Presbyters that is Elders the name of Sacerdotes that is Sacrificers which was the title of the Civill Soveraign and his publique Ministers amongst the Jews whilest God was their King Also the making the Lords Supper a Sacrifice serveth to make the People beleeve the Pope hath the same power over all Christians that Moses and Aaron had over the Jews that is to say all Power both Civill and Ecclesiasticall as the High Priest then had Fiftly the teaching that Matrimony is a Sacrament giveth to the Clergy the Judging of the lawfulnesse of Marriages and thereby of what Children are Legitimate and consequently of the Right of Succession to haereditary Kingdomes Sixtly the Deniall of Marriage to Priests serveth to assure this Power of the Pope over Kings For if a King be a Priest he cannot Marry and transmit his Kingdome to his Posterity If he be not a Priest then the Pope pretendeth this Authority Ecclesiasticall over him and over his people Seventhly from Auricular Confession they obtain for the assurance of their Power better intelligence of the designs of Princes and great persons in the Civill State than these can have of the designs of the State Ecclesiasticall Eighthly by the Canonization of Saints and declaring who are Martyrs they assure their Power in that they induce simple men into an obstinacy against the Laws and Commands of their Civill Soveraigns even to death if by the Popes excommunication they be declared Heretiques or Enemies to the Church that is as they interpret it to the Pope Ninthly they assure the same by the Power they ascribe to every Priest of making Christ and by the Power of ordaining Pennance and of Remitting and Retaining of sins Tenthly by the Doctrine of Purgatory of Justification by externall works and of Indulgences the Clergy is enriched Eleventhly by their Daemonology and the use of Exorcisme and other things appertaining thereto they keep or thinke they keep the People more in awe of their Power Lastly the Metaphysiques Ethiques and Politiques of Aristotle the frivolous Distinctions barbarous Terms and obscure Language of the Schoolmen taught in the Universities which have been all erected and regulated by the Popes Authority serve them to keep these Errors from being detected and to make men mistake the Ignis fatuus of Vain Philosophy for the Light of the Gospell To these if they sufficed not might be added other of their dark Doctrines the profit whereof redoundeth manifestly to the setting up of an unlawfull Power over the lawfull Soveraigns of Christian People or for
therefore Aristotle puts it down in his Politiques lib. 6. cap. 2. In democracy Liberty is to be supposed for 't is commonly held that no man is Free in any other Government And as Aristotle so Cicero and other Writers have grounded their Civill doctrine on the opinions of the Romans who were taught to hate Monarchy at first by them that having deposed their Soveraign shared amongst them the Soveraignty of Rome and afterwards by their Successors And by reading of these Greek and Latine Authors men from their childhood have gotten a habit under a false shew of Liberty of favouring tumults and of licentious controlling the actions of their Soveraigns and again of controlling those controllers with the effusion of so much blood as I think I may truly say there was never any thing so deerly bought as these Western parts have bought the learning of the Greek and Latine tongues To come now to the particulars of the true Liberty of a Subject that is to say what are the things which though commanded by the Soveraign he may neverthelesse without Injustice refuse to do we are to consider what Rights we passe away when we make a Common-wealth or which is all one what Liberty we deny our selves by owning all the Actions without exception of the Man or Assembly we make our Soveraign For in the act of our Submission consisteth both our Obligation and our Liberty which must therefore be inferred by arguments taken from thence there being no Obligation on any man which ariseth not from some Act of his own for all men equally are by Nature Free. And because such arguments must either be drawn from the expresse words I Authorise all his Actions or from the Intention of him that submitteth himselfe to his Power which Intention is to be understood by the End for which he so submitteth The Obligation and Liberty of the Subject is to be derived either from those Words or others equivalent or else from the End of the Institution of Soveraignty namely the Peace of the Subjects within themselves and their Defence against a common Enemy First therefore seeing Soveraignty by Institution is by Covenant of every one to every one and Soveraignty by Acquisition by Covenants of the Vanquished to the Victor or Child to the Parent It is manifest that every Subject has Liberty in all those things the right whereof cannot by Covenant be transferred I have shewn before in the 14. Chapter that Covenants not to defend a mans own body are voyd Therefore If the Soveraign command a man though justly condemned to kill wound or mayme himselfe or not to resist those that assault him or to abstain from the use of food ayre medicine or any other thing without which he cannot live yet hath that man the Liberty to disobey If a man be interrogated by the Soveraign or his Authority concerning a crime done by himselfe he is not bound without assurance of Pardon to confesse it because no man as I have shewn in the same Chapter can be obliged by Covenant to accuse himselfe Again the Consent of a Subject to Soveraign Power is contained in these words I Authorise or take upon me all his actions in which there is no restriction at all of his own former naturall Liberty For by allowing him to kill me I am not bound to kill my selfe when he commands me 'T is one thing to say Kill me or my fellow if you please another thing to say I will kill my selfe or my fellow It followeth therefore that No man is bound by the words themselves either to kill himselfe or any other man And consequently that the Obligation a man may sometimes have upon the Command of the Soveraign to execute any dangerous or dishonourable Office dependeth not on the Words of our Submission but on the Intention which is to be understood by the End thereof When therefore our refusall to obey frustrates the End for which the Soveraignty was ordained then there is no Liberty to refuse otherwise there is Upon this ground a man that is commanded as a Souldier to fight against the enemy though his Soveraign have Right enough to punish his refusall with death may neverthelesse in many cases refuse without Injustice as when he substituteth a sufficient Souldier in his place for in this case he deserteth not the service of the Common-wealth And there is allowance to be made for naturall timorousnesse not onely to women of whom no such dangerous duty is expected but also to men of feminine courage When Armies fight there is on one side or both a running away yet when they do it not out of trechery but fear they are not esteemed to do it unjustly but dishonourably For the same reason to avoyd battell is not Injustice but Cowardise But he that inrowleth himselfe a Souldier or taketh imprest mony taketh away the excuse of a timorous nature and is obliged not onely to go to the battell but also not to run from it without his Captaines leave And when the Defence of the Common-wealth requireth at once the help of all that are able to bear Arms every one is obliged because otherwise the Institution of the Common-wealth which they have not the purpose or courage to preserve was in vain To resist the Sword of the Common-wealth in defence of another man guilty or innocent no man hath Liberty because such Liberty takes away from the Soveraign the means of Protecting us and is therefore destructive of the very essence of Government But in case a great many men together have already resisted the Soveraign Power unjustly or committed some Capitall crime for which every one of them expecteth death whether have they not the Liberty then to joyn together and assist and defend one another Certainly they have For they but defend their lives which the Guilty man may as well do as the Innocent There was indeed injustice in the first breach of their duty Their bearing of Arms subsequent to it though it be to maintain what they have done is no new unjust act And if it be onely to defend their persons it is not unjust at all But the offer of pardon taketh from them to whom it is offered the plea of self-defence and maketh their perseverance in assisting or defending the rest unlawfull As for other Lyberties they depend on the Silence of the Law In cases where the Soveraign has prescribed no rule there the Subject hath the Liberty to do or forbeare according to his own discretion And therefore such Liberty is in some places more and in some lesse and in some times more in other times lesse according as they that have the Soveraignty shall think most convenient As for Example there was a time when in England a man might enter in to his own Land and dispossesse such as wrongfully possessed it by force But in after-times that Liberty of Forcible Entry was taken away by a Statute made by the
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