is once settled then are they actually Lawes and not before as being then the commands of the Common-wealth and therefore also Civill Lawes For it is the Soveraign Power that obliges men to obey them For in the differences of private men to declare what is Equity what is Justice and what is morall Vertue and to make them binding there is need of the Ordinances of Soveraign Power and Punishments to be ordaine d for such as shall break them which Ordinances are therefore part of the Civill Law The Law of Nature therefore is a part of the Civill Law in all Common-wealths of the world Reciprocally also the Civill Law is a part of the Dictates of Nature For Justice that is to say Performance of Covenant and giving to every man his own is a Dictate of the Law of Nature But every subject in a Common-wealth hath covenanted to obey the Civill Law either one with another as when they assemble to make a common Representative or with the Representative it selfe one by one when subdued by the Sword they promise obedience that they may receive life And therefore Obedience to the Civill Law is part also of the Law of Nature Civill and Naturall Law are not different kinds but different parts of Law whereof one part being written is called Civill the other unwritten Naturall But the Right of Nature that is the naturall Liberty of man may by the Civill Law be abridged and restrained nay the end of making Lawes is no other but such Restraint without the which there cannot possibly be any Peace And Law was brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the naturall liberty of particular men in such manner as they might not hurt but assist one another and joyn together against a common Enemy 5. If the Soveraign of one Common-wealth subdue a People that have lived under other written Lawes and afterwards govern them by the same Lawes by which they were governed before yet those Lawes are the Civill Lawes of the Victor and not of the Vanquished Common-wealth For the Legislator is he not by whose authority the Lawes were first made but by whose authority they now continue to be Lawes And therefore where there be divers Provinces within the Dominion of a Common-wealth and in those Provinces diversity of Lawes which commonly are called the Customes of each severall Province we are not to understand that such Customes have their force onely from Length of Time but that they were antiently Lawes written or otherwise made known for the Constitutions and Statutes of their Soveraigns and are now Lawes not by vertue of the Praescription of time but by the Constitutions of their present Soveraigns But if an unwritten Law in all the Provinces of a Dominion shall be generally observed and no iniquity appear in the use thereof that Law can be no other but a Law of Nature equally obliging all man-kind 6. Seeing then all Lawes written and unwritten have their Authority and force from the Will of the Common-wealth that is to say from the Will of the Representative which in a Monarchy is the Monarch and in other Common-wealths the Soveraign Assembly a man may wonder from whence proceed such opinions as are found in the Books of Lawyers of eminence in severall Common-wealths directly or by consequence making the Legislative Power depend on private men or subordinate Judges As for example That the Common Law hath no Controuler but the Parlament which is true onely where a Parlament has the Soveraign Power and cannot be assembled nor dissolved but by their own discretion For if there be a right in any else to dissolve them there is a right also to controule them and consequently to controule their controulings And if there be no such right then the Controuler of Lawes is not Parlamentum but Rex in Parlamento And were a Parlament is Soveraign if it should assemble never so many or so wise men from the Countries subject to them for whatsoever cause yet there is no man will believe that such an Assembly hath thereby acquired to themselves a Legislative Power Item that the two arms of a Common-wealth are Force and Justice the first whereof is in the King the other deposited in the hands of the Parlament As if a Common-wealth could consist where the Force were in any hand which Justice had not the Authority to command and govern 7. That Law can never be against Reason our Lawyers are agreed and that not the Letter that is every construction of it but that which is according to the Intention of the Legislator is the Law And it is true but the doubt is of whose Reason it is that shall be received for Law It is not meant of any private Reason for then there would be as much contradiction in the Lawes as there is in the Schooles nor yet as Sr. Ed. Coke makes it an Artificiall perfection of Reason gotten by long study observation and experience as his was For it is possible long study may encrease and confirm erroneous Sentences and where men build on false grounds the more they build the greater is the ruine and of those that study and observe with equall time and diligence the reasons and resolutions are and must remain discordant and therefore it is not that Juris prudentia or wisedome of subordinate Judges but the Reason of this our Artificiall Man the Common-wealth and his Command that maketh Law And the Common-wealth being in their Representative but one Person there cannot easily arise any contradiction in the Lawes and when there doth the same Reason is able by interpretation or alteration to take it away In all Courts of Justice the Soveraign which is the Person of the Common-wealth is he that Judgeth The subordinate Judge ought to have regard to the reason which moved his Soveraign to make such Law that his Sentence may be according thereunto which then is his Soveraigns Sentence otherwise it is his own and an unjust one 8. From this that the Law is a Command and a Command consisteth in declaration or manifestation of the will of him that commandeth by voyce writing or some other sufficient argument of the same we may understand that the Command of the Common-wealth is Law onely to those that have means to take notice of it Over naturall fooles children or mad-men there is no Law no more than over brute beasts nor are they capable of the title of just or unjust because they had never power to make any covenant or to understand the consequences thereof and consequently never took upon them to authorise the actions of any Soveraign as they must do that make to themselves a Common-wealth And as those from whom Nature or Accident hath taken away the notice of all Lawes in generall so also every man from whom any accident not proceeding from his own default hath taken away the means to take notice of any particular Law is excused if
Seventh but when a man lay with a woman not his wife our Saviour tells them the inward Anger of a man against his brother if it be without just cause is Homicide You have heard saith hee the Law of Moses Thou shalt not Kill and that Whosoever shall Kill shall bee condemned before the Iudges or before the Session of the Seventy But I say unto you to be Angry with ones Brother without cause or to say unto him Racha or Foole is Homicide and shall be punished at the day of Judgment and Session of Christ and his Apostles with Hell fire so that those words were not used to distinguish between divers Crimes and divers Courts of Justice and divers Punishments but to taxe the distinction between sin and sin which the Jews drew not from the difference of the Will in Obeying God but from the difference of their Temporall Courts of Justice and to shew them that he that had the Will to hurt his Brother though the effect appear but in Reviling or not at all shall be cast into hell fire by the Judges and by the Session which shall be the same not different Courts at the day of Judgment This considered what can be drawn from this text to maintain Purgatory I cannot imagine The sixth place is Luke 16. 9. Make yee friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when yee faile they may receive you into Everlasting Tabernacles This he alledges to prove Invocation of Saints departed But the sense is plain That we should make friends with our Riches of the Poore and thereby obtain their Prayers whilest they live He that giveth to the Poore lendeth to the Lord. The seventh is Luke 23. 42. Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome Therefore saith hee there is Remission of sins after this life But the consequence is not good Our Saviour then forgave him and at his comming againe in Glory will remember to raise him againe to Life Eternall The Eight is Acts 2. 24. where St. Peter saith of Christ that God had raised him up and loosed the Paines of Death because it was not possible he should be holden of it Which hee interprets to bee a descent of Christ into Purgatory to loose some Soules there from their torments whereas it is manifest that it was Christ that was loosed it was hee that could not bee holden of Death or the Grave and not the Souls in Purgatory But if that which Beza sayes in his notes on this place be well observed there is none that will not see that in stead of Paynes it should be Bands and then there is no further cause to seek for Purgatory in this Text. CHAP. XLV Of DAEMONOLOGY and other Reliques of the Religion of the Gentiles THe impression made on the organs of Sight by lucide Bodies either in one direct line or in many lines reflected from Opaque or refracted in the passage through Diaphanous Bodies produceth in living Creatures in whom God hath placed such Organs an Imagination of the Object from whence the Impression proceedeth which Imagination is called Sight and seemeth not to bee a meer Imagination but the Body it selfe without us in the same manner as when a man violently presseth his eye there appears to him a light without and before him which no man perceiveth but himselfe because there is indeed no such thing without him but onely a motion in the interiour organs pressing by resistance outward that makes him think so And the motion made by this pressure continuing after the object which caused it is removed is that we call Imagination and Memory and in sleep and sometimes in great distemper of the organs by Sicknesse or Violence a Dream of which things I have already spoken briefly in the second and third Chapters This nature of Sight having never been discovered by the ancient pretenders to Naturall Knowledge much lesse by those that consider not things so remote as that Kowledge is from their present use it was hard for men to conceive of those Images in the Fancy and in the Sense otherwise than of things really without us Which some because they vanish away they know not whither nor how will have to be absolutely Incorporeall that is to say Immateriall or Formes without Matter Colour and Figure without any coloured or figured Body and that they can put on Aiery bodies as a garment to make them Visible when they will to our bodily Eyes and others say are Bodies and living Creatures but made of Air or other more subtile and aethereall Matter which is then when they will be seen condensed But Both of them agree on one generall appellation of them DAEMONS As if the Dead of whom they Dreamed were not Inhabitants of their own Brain but of the Air or of Heaven or Hell not Phantasmes but Ghosts with just as much reason as if one should say he saw his own Ghost in a Looking-Glasse or the Ghosts of the Stars in a River or call the ordinary apparition of the Sun of the quantity of about a foot the Daemon or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth the whole visible world And by that means have feared them as things of an unknown that is of an unlimited power to doe them good or harme and consequently given occasion to the Governours of the Heathen Common-wealths to regulate this their fear by establishing that DAEMONOLOGY in which the Poets as Principall Priests of the Heathen Religion were specially employed or reverenced to the Publique Peace and to the Obedience of Subjects necessary thereunto and to make some of them Good Daemons and others Evill the one as a Spurre to the Observance the other as Reines to withhold them from Violation of the Laws What kind of things they were to whom they attributed the name of Daemons appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods written by Hesiod one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians and partly in other Histories of which I have observed some few before in the 12. Chapter of this discourse The Graecians by their Colonies and Conquests communicated their Language and Writings into Asia Egypt and Italy and therein by necessary consequence their Daemonology or as St. Paul calles it their Doctrines of Devils And by that meanes the contagion was derived also to the Jewes both of Iudaea and Alexandria and other parts whereinto they were dispersed But the name of Daemon they did not as the Graecians attribute to Spirits both Good and Evill but to the Evill onely And to the Good Daemons they gave the name of the Spirit of God and esteemed those into whose bodies they entred to be Prophets In summe all singularity if Good they attributed to the Spirit of God and if Evill to some Daemon but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Evill Daemon that is a Devill And therefore they called Daemoniaques that is possessed by the Devill such as we call Mad-men or Lunatiques or such as had
the procincts of battell to hold together and use all advantages of force is a better stratagem than any that can proceed from subtilty of Wit Vain-glorious men such as without being conscious to themselves of great sufficiency delight in supposing themselves gallant men are enclined onely to ostentation but not to attempt Because when danger or difficulty appears they look for nothing but to have their insufficiency discovered Vain-glorious men such as estimate their sufficiency by the flattery of other men or the fortune of some precedent action without assured ground of hope from the true knowledge of themselves are enclined to rash engaging and in the approach of danger or difficulty to retire if they can because not seeing the way of safety they will rather hazard their honour which may be salved with an excuse than their lives for which no salve is sufficient Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdome in matter of government are disposed to Ambition Because without publique Employment in counsell or magistracy the honour of their wisdome is lost And therefore Eloquent speakers are enclined to Ambition for Eloquence seemeth wisedome both to themselves and others Pusillanimity disposeth men to Irresolution and consequently to lose the occasions and fittest opportunities of action For after men have been in deliberation till the time of action approach if it be not then manifest what is best to be done 't is a signe the difference of Motives the one way and the other are not great Therefore not to resolve then is to lose the occasion by weighing of trifles which is Pusillanimity Frugality though in poor men a Vertue maketh a man unapt to atchieve such actions as require the strength of many men at once For it weakeneth their Endeavour which is to be nourished and kept in vigor by Reward Eloquence with flattery disposeth men to confide in them that have it because the former is seeming Wisdome the later seeming Kindnesse Adde to them Military reputation and it disposeth men to adhaere and subject themselves to those men that have them The two former having given them caution against danger from him the later gives them caution against danger from others Want of Science that is Ignorance of causes disposeth or rather constraineth a man to rely on the advise and authority of others For all men whom the truth concernes if they rely not on their own must rely on the opinion of some other whom they think wiser than themselves and see not why he should deceive them Ignorance of the signification of words which is want of understanding disposeth men to take on trust not onely the truth they know not but also the errors and which is more the non-sense of them they trust For neither Error nor non-sense can without a perfect understanding of words be detected From the same it proceedeth that men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions As they that approve a private opinion call it Opinion but they that mislike it Haeresie and yet haeresie signifies no more than private opinion but has onely a greater tincture of choler From the same also it proceedeth that men cannot distinguish without study and great understanding between one action of many men and many actions of one multitude as for example between the one action of all the Senators of Rome in killing Catiline and the many actions of a number of Senators in killing Caesar and therefore are disposed to take for the action of the people that which is a multitude of actions done by a multitude of men led perhaps by the perswasion of one Ignorance of the causes and originall constitution of Right Equity Law and Justice disposeth a man to make Custome and Example the rule of his actions in such manner as to think that Unjust which it hath been the custome to punish and that Just of the impunity and approbation whereof they can produce an Example or as the Lawyers which onely use this false measure of Justice barbarously call it a Precedent like little children that have no other rule of good and evill manners but the correction they receive from their Parents and Masters save that children are constant to their rule whereas men are not so because grown strong and stubborn they appeale from custome to reason and from reason to custome as it serves their turn receding from custome when their interest requires it and setting themselves against reason as oft as reason is against them Which is the cause that the doctrine of Right and Wrong is perpetually disputed both by the Pen and the Sword Whereas the doctrine of Lines and Figures is not so because men care not in that subject what be truth as a thing that crosses no mans ambition profit or lust For I doubt not but if it had been a thing contrary to any mans right of dominion or to the interest of men that have dominion That the three Angles of a Triangle should be equall to two Angles of a Square that doctrine should have been if not disputed yet by the burning of all books of Geometry suppressed as farre as he whom it concerned was able Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events to the causes immediate and Instrumentall For these are all the causes they perceive And hence it comes to passe that in all places men that are grieved with payments to the Publique discharge their anger upon the Publicans that is to say Farmers Collectors and other Officers of the publique Revenue and adhaere to such as find fault with the publike Government and thereby when they have engaged themselves beyond hope of justification fall also upon the Supreme Authority for feare of punishment or shame of receiving pardon Ignorance of naturall causes disposeth a man to Credulity so as to believe many times impossibilities For such know nothing to the contrary but that they may be true being unable to detect the Impossibility And Credulity because men love to be hearkened unto in company disposeth them to lying so that Ignorance it selfe without Malice is able to make a man both to believe lyes and tell them and sometimes also to invent them Anxiety for the future time disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things because the knowledge of them maketh men the better able to order the present to their best advantage Curiosity or love of the knowledge of causes draws a man from consideration of the effect to seek the cause and again the cause of that cause till of necessity he must come to this thought at last that there is some cause whereof there is no former cause but is eternall which is it men call God So that it is impossible to make any profound enquiry into naturall causes without being enclined thereby to believe there is one God Eternall though they cannot have any
a diversity of Nature rising from their diversity of Affections not unlike to that we see in stones brought together for building of an Aedifice For as that stone which by the asperity and irregularity of Figure takes more room from others than it selfe fills and for the hardnesse cannot be easily made plain and thereby hindereth the building is by the builders cast away as unprofitable and troublesome so also a man that by asperity of Nature will strive to retain those things which to himselfe are superfluous and to others necessary and for the stubbornness of his Passions cannot be corrected is to be left or cast out of Society as combersome thereunto For seeing every man not onely by Right but also by necessity of Nature is supposed to endeavour all he can to obtain that which is necessary for his conservation He that shall oppose himselfe against it for things superfluous is guilty of the warre that thereupon is to follow and therefore doth that which is contrary to the fundamentall Law of Nature which commandeth to seek Peace The observers of this Law may be called SOCIABLE the Latines call them Commodi The contrary Stubborn Insociable Froward Intractable A sixth Law of Nature is this That upon caution of the Future time a man ought to pardon the offences past of them that repenting desire it For PARDON is nothing but granting of Peace which though granted to them that persevere in their hostility be not Peace but Feare yet not granted to them that give caution of the Future time is signe of an aversion to Peace and therefore contrary to the Law of Nature A seventh is That in Revenges that is retribution of Evil for Evil Men look not at the greatnesse of the evill past but the greatnesse of the good to follow Whereby we are forbidden to inflict punishment with any other designe than for correction of the offender or direction of others For this Law is consequent to the next before it that commandeth Pardon upon security of the Future time Besides Revenge without respect to the Example and profit to come is a triumph or glorying in the hurt of another tending to no end for the End is alwayes somewhat to Come and glorying to no end is vain-glory and contrary to reason and to hurt without reason tendeth to the introduction of Warre which is against the Law of Nature and is commonly stiled by the name of Cruelty And because all signes of hatred or contempt provoke to fight insomuch as most men choose rather to hazard their life than not to be revenged we may in the eighth place for a Law of Nature set down this Precept That no man by deed word countenance or gesture declare Hatred or Contempt of another The breach of which Law is commonly called Contumely The question who is the better man has no place in the condition of meer Nature where as has been shewn before all men are equall The inequallity that now is has bin introduced by the Lawes civill I know that Aristotle in the first booke of his Politiques for a foundation of his doctrine maketh men by Nature some more worthy to Command meaning the wiser sort such as he thought himselfe to be for his Philosophy others to Serve meaning those that had strong bodies but were not Philosophers as he as if Master and Servant were not introduced by consent of men but by difference of Wit which is not only against reason but also against experience For there are very few so foolish that had not rather governe themselves than be governed by others Nor when the wise in their own conceiâ—… contend by force with them who distrust their owne wisdome do they alwaies or often or almost at any time get the Victory If Nature therefore have made men equall that equalitie is to be acknowledged or if Nature have made men unequall yet because men that think themselves equall will not enter into conditions of Peace but upon Equall termes such equalitie must be admitted And therefore for the ninth law of Nature I put this ' That every man acknowledge other for his Equall by Nature The breach of this Precept is Pride On this law dependeth another That at the entrance into conditions of Peace no man require to reserve to himselfe any Right which he is not content should be reserved to every one of the rest As it is necessary for all men that seek peace to lay down certaine Rights of Nature that is to say not to have libertie to do all they list so is it necessarie for mans life to retaine some as right to governe their owne bodies enjoy aire water motion waies to go from place to place and all things else without which a man cannot live or not live well If in this case at the making of Peace men require for themselves that which they would not have to be granted to others they do contrary to the precedent law that commandeth the acknowledgment of naturall equalitie and therefore also against the law of Nature The observers of this law are those we call Modest and the breakers Arrogant men The Greeks call the violation of this law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a desire of more than their share Also if a man be trusted to judge between man and man it is a precept of the Law of Nature that he deale Equally between them For without that the Controversies of men cannot be determined but by Warre He therefore that is partiall in judgment doth what in him lies to deterre men from the use of Judges and Arbitrators and consequently against the fundamentall Lawe of Nature is the cause of Warre The observance of this law from the equall distribution to each man of that which in reason belongeth to him is called EQUITY and as I have sayd before distributive Justice the violation Acception of persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And from this followeth another law That such things as cannot be divided be enjoyed in Common if it can be and if the quantity of the thing permit without Stint otherwise Proportionably to the number of them that have Right For otherwise the distribution is Unequall and contrary to Equitie But some things there be that can neither be divided nor enjoyed in common Then The Law of Nature which prescribeth Equity requireth That the Entire Right or else making the use alternate the First Possession be determined by Lot For equall distribution is of the Law of Nature and other means of equall distribution cannot be imagined Of Lots there be two sorts Arbitrary and Naturall Arbitrary is that which is agreed on by the Competitors Naturall is either Primogeniture which the Greek calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Given by Lot or First Seisure And therefore those things which cannot be enjoyed in common nor divided ought to be adjudged to the First Possessor and in some cases to the First-Borne
that are dearest to a man are his own life limbs and in the next degree in most men those that concern conjugall affection and after them riches and means of living Therefore the People are to be taught to abstain from violence to one anothers person by private revenges from violation of conjugall honour and from forcible rapine and fraudulent surreption of one anothers goods For which purpose also it is necessary they be shewed the evill consequences of false Judgement by corruption either of Judges or Witnesses whereby the distinction of propriety is taken away and Justice becomes of no effect all which things are intimated in the sixth seventh eighth and ninth Commandements Lastly they are to be taught that not onely the unjust facts but the designes and intentions to do them though by accident hindred are Injustice which consisteth in the pravity of the will as well as in the irregularity of the act And this is the intention of the tenth Commandement and the summe of the second Table which is reduced all to this one Commandement of mutuall Charity Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe as the summe of the first Table is reduced to the love of God whom they had then newly received as their King As for the Means and Conduits by which the people may receive this Instruction wee are to search by what means so many Opinions contrary to the peace of Man-kind upon weak and false Principles have neverthelesse been so deeply rooted in them I mean those which I have in the precedent Chapter specified as That men shall Judge of what is lawfull and unlawfull not by the Law it selfe but by their own Consciences that is to say by their own private Judgements That Subjects sinne in obeying the Commands of the Common-wealth unlesse they themselves have first judged them to be lawfull That their Propriety in their riches is such as to exclude the Dominion which the Common-wealth hath over the same That it is lawfull for Subjects to kill such as they call Tyrants That the Soveraign Power may be divided and the like which come to be instilled into the People by this means They whom necessity or covetousnesse keepeth attent on their trades and labour and they on the other side whom superfluity or sloth carrieth after their sensuall pleasures which two sorts of men take up the greatest part of Man-kind being diverted from the deep meditation which the learning of truth not onely in the matter of Naturall Justice but also of all other Sciences necessarily requireth receive the Notions of their duty chiefly from Divines in the Pulpit and partly from such of their Neighbours or familiar acquaintance as having the Faculty of discoursing readily and plausibly seem wiser and better learned in cases of Law and Conscience than themselves And the Divines and such others as make shew of Learning derive their knowledge from the Universities and from the Schooles of Law or from the Books which by men eminent in those Schooles and Universities have been published It is therefore manifest that the Instruction of the people dependeth wholly on the right teaching of Youth in the Universities But are not may some man say the Universities of England learned enough already to do that or is it you will undertake to teach the Universities Hard questions Yet to the first I doubt not to answer that till towards the later end of Henry the eighth the Power of the Pope was alwayes upheld against the Power of the Common-wealth principally by the Universities and that the doctrines maintained by so many Preachers against the Soveraign Power of the King and by so many Lawyers and others that had their education there is a sufficient argument that though the Universities were not authors of those false doctrines yet they knew not how to plant the truâ—… For in such a contradiction of Opinions it is most certain that they have not been sufficiently instructed and 't is no wonder if they yet retain a relish of that subtile liquor wherewith they were first seasoned against the Civill Authority But to the later question it is not fit nor needfull for me to say either I or No for any man that sees what I am doing may easily perceive what I think The safety of the People requireth further from him or them that have the Soveraign Power that Justice be equally administred to all degrees of People that is that as well the rich and mighty as poor and obscure persons may be righted of the injuries done them so as the great may have no greater hope of impunity when they doe violence dishonour or any Injury to the meaner sort than when one of these does the like to one of them For in this consisteth Equity to which as being a Precept of the Law of Nature a Soveraign is as much subject as any of the meanest of his People All breaches of the Law are offences against the Common-wealth but there be some that are also against private Persons Those that concern the Common-wealth onely may without breach of Equity be pardoned for every man may pardon what is done against himselfe according to his own diseretion But an offence against a private man cannot in Equity be pardoned without the consent of him that is injured or reasonable satisfaction The Inequality of Subjects proceedeth from the Acts of Soveraign Power and therefore has no more place in the presence of the Soveraign that is to say in a Court of Justice then the Inequality between Kings and their Subjects in the presence of the King of Kings The honour of great Persons is to be valued for their beneficence and the aydes they give to men of inferiour rank or not at all And the violences oppressions and injuries they do are not extenuated but aggravated by the greatnesse of their persons because they have least need to commit them The consequences of this partiality towards the great proceed in this manner Impunity maketh Insolence Insolence Hatred and Hatred an Endeavour to pull down all oppressing and contumelious greatnesse though with the 〈◊〉 of the Common wealth To Equall Justice appertaineth also the Equall imposition of Taxes the Equality whereof dependeth not on the Equality of riches but on the Equality of the debt that every man oweth to the Common-wealth for his defence It is not enough for a man to labour for the maintenance of his life but also to fight if need be for the securing of his labour They must either do as the Jewes did after their return from captivity in re-edifying the Temple build with one hand and hold the Sword in the other or else they must hire others to fight for them For the Impositions that are layd on the People by the Soveraign Power are nothing else but the Wages due to them that hold the publique Sword to defend private men in the exercise of severall Trades and Callings Seeing then the benefit that every one
contriving their Titles to save the People from the shame of receiving them To have a known Right to Soveraign Power is so popular a quality as he that has it needs no more for his own part to turn the hearts of his Subjects to him but that they see him able absolutely to govern his own Family Nor on the part of his enemies but a disbanding of their Armies For the greatest and most active part of Mankind has never hetherto been well contented with the present Concerning the Offices of one Soveraign to another which are comprehended in that Law which is commonly called the Law of Nations I need not say any thing in this place because the Law of Nations and the Law of Nature is the same thing And every Soveraign hath the same Right in procuring the safety of his People that any particular man can have in procuring the safety of his own Body And the same Law that diâ—…tateth to men that have no Civil Government what they ought to do and what to avoyd in regard of one another dictateth the same to Common-wealths that is to the Consciences of Soveraign Princes and Soveraign Assemblies there being no Court of Naturall Justice but in the Conscience onely where not Man but God raigneth whose Lawes such of them as oblige all Mankind in respect of God as he is the Author of Nature are Naturall and in respect of the same God as he is King of Kings are Lawes But of the Kingdome of God as King of Kings and as King also of a peculiar People I shall speak in the rest of this discourse CHAP. XXXI Of the KINGDOME OF GOD BY NATURE THat the condition of meer Nature that is to say of absolute Liberty such as is theirs that neither are Soveraigns nor Subjects is Anarchy and the condition of Warre That the Praecepts by which men are guided to avoyd that condition are the Lawes of Nature That a Common-wealth without Soveraign Power is but a word without substance and cannot stand That Subjects owe to Soveraigns simple Obedience in all things wherein their obedience is not repugnant to the Lawes of God I have sufficiently proved in that which I have already written There wants onely for the entire knowledge of Civill duty to know what are those Lawes of God For without that a man knows not when he is commanded any thing by the Civill Power whether it be contrary to the â—…aw of God or not and so either by too much civill obedience offends the Divine Majesty or through feare of offending God transgresses the commandements of the Common-wealth To avoyd both these Rocks it is necessary to know what are the Lawes Divine And seeing the knowledge of all Law dependeth on the knowledge of the Soveraign Power I shall say something in that which followeth of the KINGDOME OF GOD. God is King let the Earth rejoyce saith the Psalmist And again God is King though the Nations be angry and he that sitteth on the Cherubins though the earth be moved Whether men will or not they must be subject alwayes to the Divine Power By denying the Existence or Providence of God men may shake off their Ease but not their Yoke But to call this Power of God which extendeth it selfe not onely to Man but also to Beasts and Plants and Bodies inanimate by the name of Kingdome is but a metaphoricall use of the word For he onely is properly said to Raigne that governs his Subjects by his Word and by promise of Rewards to those that obey it and by threatning them with Punishment that obey it not Subjects therefore in the Kingdome of God are not Bodies Inanimate nor creatures Irrationall because they understand no Precepts as his Nor Atheists nor they that believe not that God has any care of the actions of mankind because they acknowledge no Word for his nor have hope of his rewards or fear of his threatnings They therefore that believe there is a God that goeverneth the world and hath given Praecepts and propounded Rewards and Punishments to Mankind are Gods Subjects all the rest are to be understood as Enemies To rule by Words requires that such Words be manifestly made known for else they are no Lawes For to the nature of Lawes belongeth a sufficient and clear Promulgation such as may take away the excuse of Ignorance which in the Lawes of men is but of one onely kind and that is Proclamation or Promulgation by the voyce of man But God declareth his Lawes three wayes by the Dictates of Naturall Reason by Revelation and by the Voyce of some man to whom by the operation of Miracles he procureth credit with the rest From hence there ariseth a triple Word of God Rational Sensible and Prophetique to which Correspondeth a triple Hearing Right Reason Sense Supernaturall and Faith As for Sense Supernaturall which consisteth in Revelation or Inspiration there have not been any Universall Lawes so given because God speaketh not in that manner but to particular persons and to divers men divers things From the difference between the other two kinds of Gods Word Rationall and Prophetique there may be attributed to God a twofold Kingdome Naturall and Prophetique Naturall wherein he governeth as many of Mankind as acknowledge his Providence by the naturall Dictates of Right Reason And Prophetique wherein having chosen out one peculiar Nation the Jewes for his Subjects he governed them and none but them not onely by naturall Reason but by Positive Lawes which he gave them by the mouths of his holy Prophets Of the Naturall Kingdome of God I intend to speak in this Chapter The Right of Nature whereby God reigneth over men and punisheth those that break his Lawes is to be derived not from his Creating them as if he required obedience as of Gratitude for his benefits but from his Irresistible Power I have formerly shewn how the Soveraign Right ariseth from Pact To shew how the same Right may arise from Nature requires no more but to shew in what case it is never taken away Seeing all men by Nature had Right to All things they had Right every one to reigne over all the rest But because this Right could not be obtained by force it concerned the safety of every one laying by that Right to set up men with Soveraign Authority by common consent to rule and defend them whereas if there had been any man of Power Irresistible there had been no reason why he should not by that Power have ruled and defended both himselfe and them according to his own discretion To those therefore whose Power is irresistible the dominion of all men adhaereth naturally by their excellence of Power and consequently it is from that Power that the Kingdome over men and the Right of afflicting men at his pleasure belongeth Naturally to God Almighty not as Creator and Gracious but as Omnipotent And though Punishment be due for Sinne onely because by
possession And for a memoriall and a token of this Covenant he ordaineth verse II. the Sacrament of Circumcision This is it which is called the Old Covenant or Testament and containeth a Contract between God and Abraham by which Abraham obligeth himself and his posterity in a peculiar manner to be subject to Gods positive Law for to the Law Morall he was obliged before as by an Oath of Allegiance And though the name of King be not yet given to God nor of Kingdome to Abraham and his seed yet the thing is the same namely an Institution by pact of Gods peculiar Soveraignty over the seed of Abraham which in the renewing of the same Covenant by Moses at Mount Sinai is expressely called a peculiar Kingdome of God over the Jews and it is of Abraham not of Moses St. Paul saith Rom. 4. 11. that he is the Father of the Faithfull that is of those that are loyall and doe not violate their Allegiance sworn to God then by Circumcision and afterwards in the New Covenant by Baptisme This Covenant at the Foot of Mount Sinai was renewed by Moses Exod. 19. 5. where the Lord commandeth Moses to speak to the people in this manner If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then yee shall be a peculiar people to me for all the Earth is mine And yee shall be unto me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation For a Peculiar people the vulgar Latine hath Peculium de cunctis populis the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James hath a Peculiar treasure unto me above all Nations and the Geneva French the most precious Iewel of all Nations But the truest Translation is the first because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself Tit. 2. 14. where he saith alluding to that place that our blessed Saviour gave himself for us that he might purifie us to himself a peculiar that is an extraordinary people for the word is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is opposed commonly to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as this signifieth ordinary quotidian or as in the Lords Prayer of daily use so the other signifieth that which is overplus and stored up and enjoyed in a speciall manner which the Latines call Peculium and this meaning of the place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it which followeth immediately in that he addeth For all the Earth is mine as if he should say All the Nations of the world are mine but it is not so that you are mine but in a speciall manner For they are all mine by reason of my Power but you shall be mine by your own Consent and Covenant which is an addition to his ordinary title to all nations The same is again confirmed in expresse words in the same text Yee shall be to me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation The Vulgar Latine hath it Regnum Sacerdotale to which agreeth the Translation of that place 1 Pet. 2. 9. Sacerdotium Regale a Regal Priesthood as also the Institution it self by which no man might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum that is to say no man might enquire Gods will immediately of God himselfe but onely the High Priest The English Translation before mentioned following that of Geneva has a Kingdom of Priests which is either meant of the succession of one High Priest after another or else it accordeth not with St. Peter nor with the exercise of the High priesthood For there was never any but the High priest onely that was to informe the People of Gods Will nor any Convocation of Priests ever allowed to enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum Again the title of a Holy Nation confirmes the same For Holy signifies that which is Gods by speciall not by generall Right All the Earth as is said in the text is Gods but all the Earth is not called Holy but that onely which is set apart for his especiall service as was the Nation of the Jews It is therefore manifest enough by this one place that by the Kingdome of God is properly meant a Common-wealth instituted by the consent of those which were to be subject thereto for their Civill Government and the regulating of their behaviour not onely towards God their King but also towards one another in point of justice and towards other Nations both in peace and warre which properly was a Kingdome wherein God was King and the High priest was to be after the death of Moses his sole Viceroy or Lieutenant But there be many other places that clearly prove the same As first 1 Sam. 8. 7. when the Elders of Israel grieved with the corruption of the Sons of Samuel demanded a King Samuel displeased therewith prayed unto the Lord and the Lord answering said unto him Hearken unto the voice of the People for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them Out of which it is evident that God himself was then their King and Samuel did not command the people but only delivered to them that which God from time to time appointed him Again 1 Sam. 12. 12. where Samuel saith to the People When yee saw that Nahash King of the Children of Ammon came against you ye said unto me Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King It is manifest that God was their King and governed the Civill State of their Common-wealth And after the Israelites had rejected God the Prophets did foretell his restitution as Isaiah 24. 23. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Ierusalem where he speaketh expressely of his Reign in Zion and Jerusalem that is on Earth And Micah 4. 7. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion This Mount Zion is in Jerusalem upon the Earth And Ezek. 20. 33. As I live saith the Lord God surely with a mighty hand and a stretched out arme and with fury powred out I wil rule over you and verse 37. I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant that is I will reign over you and make you to stand to that Covenant which you made with me by Moses and brake in your rebellion against me in the days of Samuel and in your election of another King And in the New Testament the Angel Gabriel saith of our Saviour Luke 1. 32 33. He shall be great and be called the Son of the most High and the Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end This is also a Kingdome upon Earth for the claim whereof as an enemy to Caesar he was put to death the title of his crosse was Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews hee was crowned in
among them Westward in all businesse of the Lord and in the service of the King Likewise verse 32. that hee made other Hebronites rulers over the Reubenites the Gadites and the halfe tribe of Manasseh these were the rest of Israel that dwelt beyond Jordan for every matter pertaining to God and affairs of the King Is not this full Power both temporall and spirituall as they call it that would divide it To conclude from the first institution of Gods Kingdome to the Captivity the Supremacy of Religion was in the same hand with that of the Civill Soveraignty and the Priests office after the election of Saul was not Magisteriall but Ministeriall Notwithstanding the government both in Policy and Religion were joined first in the High Priests and afterwards in the Kings so far forth as concerned the Right yet it appeareth by the same Holy History that the people understood it not but there being amongst them a great part and probably the greatest part that no longer than they saw great miracles or which is equivalent to a miracle great abilities or great felicity in the enterprises of their Governours gave sufficient credit either to the fame of Moses or to the Colloquies between God and the Priests they took occasion as oft as their Governours displeased them by blaming sometimes the Policy sometimes the Religion to change the Government or revolt from their Obedience at their pleasure And from thence proceeded from time to time the civill troubles divisions and calamities of the Nation As for example after the death of Eleazar and Joshua the next generation which had not seen the wonders of God but were left to their own weak reason not knowing themselves obliged by the Covenant of a Sacerdotall Kingdome regarded no more the Commandement of the Priest nor any law of Moses but did every man that which was right in his own eyes and obeyed in Civill affairs such men as from time to time they thought able to deliver them from the neighbour Nations that oppressed them and consulted not with God as they ought to doc but with such men or women as they guessed to bee Prophets by their Praedictions of things to come and though they had an Idol in their Chappel yet if they had a Levite for their Chaplain they made account they worshipped the God of Israel And afterwards when they demanded a King after the manner of the nations yet it was not with a design to depart from the worship of God their King but despairing of the justice of the sons of Samuel they would have a King to judg them in Civill actions but not that they would allow their King to change the Religion which they thought was recommended to them by Moses So that they alwaies kept in store a pretext either of Justice or Religion to discharge them selves of their obedience whensoever they had hope to prevaile Samuel was displeased with the people for that they desired a King for God was their King already and Samuel had but an authority under him yet did Samuel when Saul observed not his counsell in destroying Agag as God had commanded anoint another King namely David to take the succession from his heirs Rehoboam was no Idolater but when the people thought him an Oppressor that Civil pretence carried from him ten Tribes to Jeroboam an Idolater And generally through the whole History of the Kings as well of Judah as of Israel there were Prophets that alwaies controlled the Kings for transgressing the Religion and sometimes also for Errours of State as Jehosaphat was reproved by the Prophet Jehu for aiding the King of Israel against the Syrians and Hezekiah by Isaiah for shewing his treasures to the Ambassadors of Babylon By all which it appeareth that though the power both of State and Religion were in the Kings yet none of them were uncontrolled in the use of it but such as were gracious for their own naturall abilities or felicities So that from the practise of those times there can no argument be drawn that the Right of Supremacy in Religion was not in the Kings unlesse we place it in the Prophets and conclude that because Hezekiah praying to the Lord before the Cherubins was not answered from thence nor then but afterwards by the Prophet Isaiah therefore Isaiah was supreme Head of the Church or because Iosiah consulted Hulda the Prophetesse concerning the Book of the Law that therefore neither he nor the High Priest but Hulda the Prophetesse had the Supreme authority in matter of Religion which I thinke is not the opinion of any Doctor During the Captivity the Iews had no Common-wealth at all And after their return though they renewed their Covenant with God yet there was no promise made of obedience neither to Esdras nor to any other And presently after they became subjects to the Greeks from whose Customes and Daemonology and from the doctrine of the Cabalists their Religion became much corrupted In such sort as nothing can be gathered from their confusion both in State and Religion concerning the Supremacy in either And therefore so far forth as concerneth the Old Testament we may conclude that whosoever had the Soveraignty of the Common-wealth amongst the Jews the same had also the Supreme Authority in matter of Gods externall worship and represented Gods Person that is the person of God the Father though he were not called by the name of Father till such time as he sent into the world his Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins and bring them into his Everlasting Kingdome to be saved for evermore Of which we are to speak in the Chapter following CHAP. XLI Of the OFFICE of our BLESSED SAVIOUR WE find in Holy Scripture three parts of the Office of the Messiah The first of a Redeemer or Saviour The second of a Pastor Counsellor or Teacher that is of a Prophet sent from God to convert such as God hath elected to Salvation The third of a King an eternall King but under his Father as Moses and the High Priests were in their severall times And to these three parts are correspondent three times For our Redemption he wrought at his first coming by the Sacrifice wherein he offered up himself for our sinnes upon the Crosse our Conversion he wrought partly then in his own Person and partly worketh now by his Ministers and will continue to work till his coming again And after his coming again shall begin that his glorious Reign over his elect which is to last eternally To the Office of a Redeemer that is of one that payeth the Ransome of Sin which Ransome is Death it appertaineth that he was Sacrificed and thereby bare upon his own head and carryed away from us our iniquities in such sort as God had required Not that the death of one man though without sinne can satisfie for the offences of all men in the rigour of Justice but in the Mercy of
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
Reason and â—…loquence though not perhaps in the Naturall Sciences yet in the Morall may stand very well together For wheresoever there is place for adorning and preferring of Errour there is much more place for adorning and preferring of Truth if they have it to adorn Nor is there any repugnancy between fearing the Laws and not fearing a publique Enemy nor between abstaining from Injury and pardoning it in others There is therefore no such Inconsistence of Humane Nature with Civill Duties as some think I have known cleernesse of Judgment and largenesse of Fancy strength of Reason and gracefull Elocution a Courage for the Warre and a Fear for the Laws and all eminently in one man and that was my most noble and honored friend Mr. Sidney Godolphin who hating no man nor hated of any was unfortunately slain in the beginning of the late Civill warre in the Publique quarrell by an undiscerned and an undiscerning hand To the Laws of Nature declared in the 15. Chapter I would have this added That every man is bound by Nature as much as in him lieth to protect in Warre the Authority by which he is himself protected in time of Peace For he that pretendeth a Right of Nature to preserve his owne body cannot pretend a Right of Nature to destroy him by whose strength he is preserved It is a manifest contradiction of himselfe And though this Law may bee drawn by consequence from some of those that are there already mentioned yet the Times require to have it inculcated and remembred And because I find by divers English Books lately printed that the Civill warres have not yet sufficiently taught men in what point of time it is that a Subject becomes obliged to the Conquerour nor what is Conquest nor how it comes about that it obliges men to obey his Laws Therefore for farther satisfaction of men therein I say the point of time wherein a man becomes subject to a Conquerour is that point wherein having liberty to submit to him he consenteth either by expresse words or by other sufficient sign to be his Subject When it is that a man hath the liberty to submit I have shewed before in the end of the 21. Chapter namely that for him that hath no obligation to his former Soveraign but that of an ordinary Subject it is then when the means of his life is within the Guards and Garrisons of the Enemy for it is then that he hath no longer Protection from him but is protected by the adverse party for his Contribution Seeing therefore such contribution is every where as a thing inevitable notwithstanding it be an assistance to the Enemy esteemed lawfull a totall Submission which is but an assistance to the Enemy cannot be esteemed unlawful Besides if a man consider that they who submit assist the Enemy but with part of their estates whereas they that refuse assist him with the whole there is no reason to call their Submission or Composition an Assistance but rather a Detriment to the Enemy But if a man besides the obligation of a Subject hath taken upon him a new obligation of a Souldier then he hath not the liberty to submit to a new Power as long as the old one keeps the field and giveth him means of subsistence either in his Armies or Garrisons for in this case he cannot complain of want of Protection and means to live as a Souldier But when that also failes a Souldier also may seek his Protection wheresoever he has most hope to have it and may lawfully submit himself to his new Master And so much for the Time when he may do it lawfully if hee will If therefore he doe it he is undoubtedly bound to be a true Subject For a Contract lawfully made cannot lawfully be broken By this also a man may understand when it is that men may be said to be Conquered and in what the nature of Conquest and the Right of a Conquerour consisteth For this Submission is it implyeth them all Conquest is not the Victory it self but the Acquisition by Victory of a Right over the persons of men He therefore that is slain is Overcome but not Conquered He that is taken and put into prison or chaines is not Conquered though Overcome for he is still an Enemy and may save himself if hee can But he that upon promise of Obedience hath his Life and Liberty allowed him is then Conquered and a Subject and not before The Romanes used to say that their Generall had Pacified such a Province that is to say in English Conquerea it and that the Countrey was Pacified by Victory when the people of it had promised Imperata facere that is To doe what the Romane People commanded them this was to be Conquered But this promise may be either expresse or tacite Expresse by Promise Tacite by other signes As for example a man that hath not been called to make such an expresse Promise because he is one whose power perhaps is not considerable yet if he live under their Protection openly hee is understood to submit himselfe to the Government But if he live there secretly he is lyable to any thing that may bee done to a Spie and Enemy of the State I say not hee does any Injustice for acts of open Hostility bear not that name but that he may be justly put to death Likewise if a man when his Country is conquered be out of it he is not Conquered nor Subject but if at his return he submit to the Government he is bound to obey it So that Conquest to define it is the Acquiring of the Right of Soveraignty by Victory Which Right is acquired in the peoples Submission by which they contract with the Victor promising Obedience for Life and Liberty In the 29. Chapter I have set down for one of the causes of the Dissolutions of Common-wealths their Imperfect Generation consisting in the want of an Absolute and Arbitrary Legislative Power for want whereof the Civill Soveraign is fain to handle the Sword of Justice unconstantly and as if it were too hot for him to hold One reason whereof which I have not there mentioned is this That they will all of them justifie the War by which their Power was at first gotten and whereon as they think their Right dependeth and not on the Possession As if for example the Right of the Kings of England did depend on the goodnesse of the cause of William the Conquerour and upon their lineall and directest Descent from him by which means there would perhaps be no tie of the Subjects obedience to their Soveraign at this day in all the world wherein whilest they needlessely think to justifie themselves they justifie all the successefull Rebellions that Ambition shall at any time raise against them and their Successors Therefore I put down for one of the most effectuall seeds of the Death of any State that the Conquerors require not onely a Submission of mens actions to them
for the future but also an Approbation of all their actions past when there is scarce a Common-wealth in the world whose beginnings can in conscience be justified And because the name of Tyranny signifieth nothing more nor lesse than the name of Soveraignty be it in one or many men saving that they that use the former word are understood to bee angry with them they call Tyrants I think the toleration of a professed hatred of Tyranny is a Toleration of hatred to Common-wealth in generall and another evill seed not differing much from the former For to the Justification of the Cause of a Conqueror the Reproach of the Cause of the Conquered is for the most part necessary but neither of them necessary for the Obligation of the Conquered And thus much I have thought fit to say upon the Review of the first and second part of this Discourse In the 35. Chapter I have sufficiently declared out of the Scripture that in the Common-wealth of the Jewes God himselfe was made the Soveraign by Pact with the People who were therefore called his Peculiar People to distinguish them from the rest of the world over whom God reigned not by their Consent but by his own Power And that in this Kingdome Moses was Gods Lieutenant on Earth and that it was he that told them what Laws God appointed them to be ruled by But I have omitted to set down who were the Officers appointed to doe Execution especially in Capitall Punishments not then thinking it a matter of so necessary consideration as I find it since Wee know that generally in all Common-wealths the Execution of Corporeall Punishments was either put upon the Guards or other Souldiers of the Soveraign Power or given to those in whom want of means contempt of honour and hardnesse of heart concurred to make them sue for such an Office But amongst the Israelites it was a Positive Law of God their Soveraign that he that was convicted of a capitall Crime should be stoned to death by the People and that the Witnesses should cast the first Stone and after the Witnesses then the rest of the People This was a Law that designed who were to be the Executioners but not that any one should throw a Stone at him before Conviction and Sentence where the Congregation was Judge The Witnesses were neverthelesse to be heard before they proceeded to Execution unlesse the Fact were committed in the presence of the Congregation it self or in sight of the lawfull Judges for then there needed no other Witnesses but the Judges themselves Neverthelesse this manner of proceeding being not throughly understood hath given occasion to a dangerous opinion that any man may kill another in some cases by a Right of Zeal as if the Executions done upon Offenders in the Kingdome of God in old time proceeded not from the Soveraign Command but from the Authority of Private Zeal which if we consider the texts that seem to favour it is quite contrary First where the Levites fell upon the People that had made and worshipped the Golden Calfe and slew three thousand of them it was by the Commandement of Moses from the mouth of God as is manifest Exod. 32. 27. And when the Son of a woman of Israel had blasphemed God they that heard it did not kill him but brought him before Moses who put him under custody till God should give Sentence against him as appears Levit. 25. 11 12. Again Numbers 25. 6 7. when Phinehas killed Zimri and Cosbi it was not by right of Private Zeale Their Crime was committed in the sight of the Assembly there needed no Witnesse the Law was known and he the heir apparent to the Soveraignty and which is the principall point the Lawfulnesse of his Act depended wholly upon a subsequent Ratification by Moses whereof he had no cause to doubt And this Presumption of a future Ratification is sometimes necessary to the safety a Common-wealth as in a sudden Rebellion any man that can suppresse it by his own Power in the Countrey where it begins without expresse Law or Commission may lawfully doe it and provide to have it Ratified or Pardoned whilest it is in doing or after it is done Also Numb 35. 30. it is expressely said Whosoever shall kill the Murtherer shall kill him upon the word of Witnesses but Witnesses suppose a formall Judicature and consequently condemn that pretence of Ius Zelotarum The Law of Moses concerning him that enticeth to Idolatry that is to say in the Kingdome of God to a renouncing of his Allegiance Deut. 13. 8. forbids to conceal him and commands the Accuser to cause him to be put to death and to cast the first stone at him but not to kill him before he be Condemned And Deut. 17. ver 4 5 6. the Processe against Idolatry is exactly set down For God there speaketh to the People as Judge and commandeth them when a man is Accused of Idolatry to Enquire diligently of the Fact and finding it true then to Stone him but still the hand of the Witnesse throweth the first stone This is not Private Zeale but Publique Condemnation In like manner when a Father hath a rebellious Son the Law is Deut. 21. 18. that he shall bring him before the Judges of the Town and all the people of the Town shall Stone him Lastly by pretence of these Laws it was that St. Steven was Stoned and not by pretence of Private Zeal for before hee was carried away to Execution he had Pleaded his Cause before the High Priest There is nothing in all this nor in any other part of the Bible to countenance Executions by Private Zeal which being oftentimes but a conjunction of Ignorance and Passion is against both the Justice and Peace of a Common-wealth In the 36. Chapter I have said that it is not declared in what manner God spake supernaturally to Moses Not that he spake not to him sometimes by Dreams and Visions and by a supernaturall Voice as to other Prophets For the manner how he spake unto him from the Mercy-Seat is expressely set down Numbers 7. 89. in these words From that time forward when Moses entred into the Tabernacle of the Congregation to speak with God he heard a Voice which spake unto him from over the Mercy-Seate which is over the Arke of the Testimony from between the Cherubins he spake unto him But it is not declared in what consisted the praeeminence of the manner of Gods speaking to Moses above that of his speaking to other Prophets as to Samuel and to Abraham to whom he also spake by a Voice that is by Vision Unlesse the difference consist in the cleernesse of the Vision For Face to Face and Mouth to Mouth cannot be literally understood of the Infinitenesse and Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature And as to the whole Doctrine I see not yet but the Principles of it are true and proper and the Ratiocination solid For I ground the Civill Right