Chapters containing the Creation and Fall of our first Parents the VIth VIIth VIIth and IXth giving an Account of the Deluge and Preservation of Noah's Family there remain but four more before the Call of Abraham and in those the Succession from Adam to Noah the Dispersion of Noah's Posterity for peopling the World and the Occasion of that Dispersion are contained 'T is true some things are inserted which to Us seem of less moment but besides that some account may in reason be given why they should be mentioned the Holy Spirit who indited these Books was the best Judge of That But it is also true that several other things as considerable as This are omitted likewise which we do not upon that score disbelieve such particularly as Those of Times stated and Assemblies convened for the Publick Worship of God and certainly it is as necessary and as important at least to expect a Revelation for the Solemn Service of God as for any particular Mode of Serving or Addressing to him I have now laid before my Reader the State of the Case as They who alledge Human Invention for Sacrifices have put it and in the Answer to those Arguments have given some for the Contrary Opinion That the Authorities on that Side are considerable is acknowledged but the General Sense of the Christian Church seems to incline to Divine Institution And the most reasonable account of this Matter if I apprehend it rightly stands thus That Almighty God instructed Adam how he would please to be worshipped and Adam trained his Family and Posterity both by Example and Instruction in the same Solemn Methods of Serving and Addressing to God That from the Time of a Redeemer's being promised Expiatory Sacrifices were both instituted and practised partly as an Intimation to Men of their own Guilt and the final Destruction they deserved and partly as a Shadow and Prefiguration of that Vicarious Punishment which God had promised to admit for the Sins of Men in the Redemption of the World by the perfect Sacrifice of his Son That as no Age of the World can be instanc'd in when God did not afford Men some visible Signs and Sacraments of his Favour and the Covenant between Him and Them so the Ages before the Institution of the Jewish Law which abounded with very expressive and particular Significations of this kind had Sacrifices for that purpose That the Heathen Sacrifices were not pure Inventions of Men but Corruptions of a Divine Institution Which being propagated to all the Offipring of Adam was differently received and depraved by the Uncertainty of Tradition long Tract of Time the Artifice of the Devil and Mens own Vicious Affections Of which whoever reads the Apologies for Christianity will find Proofs in abundance and be convinced that the Pagan Idolatry was built originally upon the Worship of the true God vitiated and perverted and misapplied For we must in reason be sensible that the likeliest and most usual way by which the Devil prevails upon Men is not by empty and groundless Imaginations or Inventions perfectly new but by disguising and mimicking the Truth and raising erroneous and wicked Superstructures upon a good and sound Bottom It is therefore it seems at least in my poor Opinion most probable that the Jewish Ceremonies were indeed adapted to the Egyptian and other Pagan Rites which the Israelites had been acquainted with and were not then in a Condition to be entirely weaned from But withal that those Pagan Sacrifices were Corruptions of the old Patriarchal not entirely mere Inventions of their own but Additions only and Extravagant Excrescencies of Error to which the Truth and Positive Institution of God first gave the hints and occasions For though it can very hardly be conceived how Sacrifices should be of mere human Motion yet there is no difficulty in supposing that the Thing once Instituted and once Established might be abused and depraved to very prodigious and abominable purposes As it was no doubt very early in that universal degeneracy to Idolatry from which it pleased God to rescue Abraham and his Posterity One very Remarkable Circumstance contributing to the strength of this Opinion is that almost every where the Ceremonies in the Act of Oblation seem to be very much alike which is very Natural to an Exercise and Institution derived down from One common Head and originally sixed by a Positive Command but scarce conceivable of an Invention merely Human where Men in all likelyhood would have run into as great Diversity and thought themselves as much at Liberty as they do in the Affairs of Common Life But especially the Sacrificing Beasts by way of Atonement obtained universally and the Imagination of Their Blood being necessary and effectual for Pardon Which I confess if a Dictate of Reason and Nature only is certainly the strangest and most remote from any present Conceptions we are able to form of the Dictates of Nature of Any that ever yet prevailed in the World And therefore This is scarce accountable for any other way than from the Promise of a Redeemer and Sacrifice to come which the Sacrifices of Beasts were in the mean while appointed to represent That such an Institution agrees very well with all the Ends of Sacrifice is not to be denied For the Death of the Beast though not personally felt by the Offender would yet give him a full and very expressive Idea of the fatal Consequences of Sin and the Acceptance of that Life instead of his own which was forfeited and by that Act of Sacrificing acknowledged obnoxious to Divine Justice was a lively representation of the Mercy of God But still the Apostles Argument is founded in Reason and may be an Appeal to all Mankind It is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin And therefore not only Eusebius in his Xth Chap. of Demonstrat Evang. Lib. I. ascribes this Worship to Divine Inspiration but Aquinas says that before the Law Just Men were instructed by an Inward Instinct after what particular manner God would be Worshipped as they were afterwards under the Law by External Precepts So Plato says That no Mortal Capacity can Know or Determine what is fit to be done in Holy Matters and therefore forbids the Alteration of the Established Rites and Sacrifices as Impious And the Testimonies of St. Chrysostome and Justin Martyr Taylot's Ductor Dubit B. II. Chap. 3. N. 30. have been thought to mean not so much that all Sacrifice was a Dictate of Nature as that some Circumstances relating to it were left to the Dictates of Man's Reason So that when God had taught Adam and his Posterity that they should worship in their several Manners and what he would please to accept The Manner and Measure and such like considerations were left to Choice and Reason and Positive Laws In short the Religion of our Hearts and Wills our Prayers and Praises might be natural and the result of meer Reason but
cry to laugh and other Expressions of Want and Grief and Pleasure The Reasonable and Intellectual Soul does the very same thing in Its Capacity And Thus it acts not by virtue of any Reminiscence or Recollection of any Knowledge it had before with this Union with the Body as Plato fondly imagin'd a Notion which proceeds upon the supposal of another State in which the Soul pre-existed before its Entrance into or the Formation of this Body Nor does it owe this Power to Knowledge receiv'd in at the Senses and acquir'd by Their means upon Use and Observation as Aristotle conceives who represents the Soul at the Birth to be a Perfect Blank utterly void of all Characters or Images but ready to receive Impressions of any kind But it seems rather to discharge this Office by the Original Strength of its own Native Powers It Imagines Understands Retains Argues Reasons Concludes of it self without any Instruction or additional Helps at all This Assertion I must own seems more difficult to comprehend than the Former and we can more readily assent to such a Native Aptitude in the Vegetative and Sensitive than we do in the Intellectual Soul It is manifest too that Aristotle's Authority lies in some Degree against the Thing And therefore to satisfie all these Difficulties I will allow this Matter a more particular Consideration when we come to discourse of the Intellectual Soul distinctly There remains yet one Point more concerning the Soul to be enquir'd into It s Separation Twofold Natural which relates to its Separation from the Body Now This may happen different ways and be of sundry kinds The only Usual and Natural Separation is by Death Only herein is a mighty difference between Other Animals and Mankind that when the Rest die their Soul dies too agreeably to that Rule in Philosophy That when the Subject-Matter is corrupted the Form is perfectly lost though the Matter still remain Whereas the Soul of Man is indeed separated from his Body by Death but by no means lost or annihilated So far from Perishing that it remains entire and unhurt as having the Privilege of an Immortal and Incorruptible Nature There is not in the World any One Opinion which hath been more universally entertain'd more eagerly embrac'd more plausibly defended more religiously stuck to I may well say Religiously since this Doctrine is in truth the very Foundation of all Religion than That which asserts the Immortality of the Soul All this now is meant of an External and Publick Profession for alas it is but too manifest and too melancholy a Truth and the prodigious numbers of dissolute Epicures abandon'd Libertines and prophane Scoffers at God and a Future State bear Testimony to it That what Pretence soever the Generality of the World may make of receiving this Doctrine in Words and Speculation there are but very few who express an inward Sense and serious Belief of it by living like Men that believe it indeed Of that practical Assent I shall take occasion to speak more largely hereafter In the mean while give me leave to lament that so little and so poor Effects appear of an Opinion capable of producing so many and so noble For certainly there is not any one Point whatsoever the Persuasion whereof can bring greater Benefit or have a stronger Influence upon Mankind It may be objected I confess that all the Arguments which Humane Discourse and meer Natural Reason endeavour to establish it by cannot amount to a Demonstration But it must be confess'd that there are several other things which Men are content to yield their Credit to upon far more weak and insufficient Suggestions And whereinsover Reason falls short it is abundantly supply'd by Revelation which as it is the Best so is it the Proper Evidence in Matters of this kind But yet to shew the Importance of this Doctrine even Nature herself hath implanted in all Mankind a strong Inclination to think it true For it is natural for us to desire the legthening out nay the perpetuating our own Existence And no Reflection is more uneasie than That which attempts to persuade us that we must once cease to be This Disposition is interwoven with our very Frame and hath given Birth to another no less general than it self which is That anxious Care and impatient Regard for Posterity that takes such fast hold on every Man of us Nor wou'd I be so far misunderstood as to have it thought that this Disposition of Mind is the only Humane Foundation upon which our Belief of the Soul's Immortality stands For there are Two other Moral Arguments in particular which give it great Credit and to say the very least of the Case render it exceeding probable The First is that Hope of Glory and Reputation and the tender Care of preserving a Good Name when we are gone nay the Thought and Endeavour that our Fame shou'd be Immortal Now though I cannot but condemn this sollicitude of Vanity when Men pretend to place their Happiness in the Opinions of other People after themselves are dead yet the marvellous Regard and universal Concern Mankind express for it seems to say that Nature inspires those Desires and Expectations And Nature we know is a Wise Agent and does not use to cheat Men with Hopes which are altogether impossible and vain Another Reason not easie to be got over by Them who oppose this Doctrine is That common Impression that Those Crimes which are committed in secret or which otherwise escape the Observation and Punishment of Civil Justice and the Vengeance of Man are still reserv'd to a farther Reckoning that Almighty God supplies the Defects of Temporal Judicatures and hath a severe Judgment in store for such Offenders as Those cannot extend to And since we find by frequent Instances that many Enormities of this kind are not made the Marks of the Divine Vengeance in The Present World it is a good Consequence of all the Idea's we can reasonably entertain of God that He shou'd pursue the Guilty Wretches into another World and chastise them as they deserve even after Death And now I wou'd be glad to know what greater Moral Assurance can be expected for a Subject of this kind than that Humane Nature disposes every Man to look forward to it to desire and to think it probable and that the Consideration of the Divine Justice represents it as a thing not only greatly probable but absolutely necessary This last Reflexion will lead us to the Discovery of Three different Kinds and Degrees of Souls all which become proper Objects of the Divine Justice Nor need we credit it upon that Account only but even Natural Reason the Order and Harmony of the Universe will persuade us that such a sort of Being and so Immortal as we have been describing the Humane Soul is requisite to make the Series of the Creation Beautiful and Complete Of these Three sorts we may observe that Two are in Extremes The One consisting
upon and under them beginning at Those which are Private and Domestick are mentioned here with no other Design than to give a distinct View of the several States and Conditions of Men It being the Intention of this Present Book only to Know Man in all his Capacities And therefore a great Part of what might be expected upon the Head of Power and Subjection the Reader must be content to wait for till we come to the Third and last Part of this Treatise Where under the Head of Justice these several Chapters and Capacities will come under our Consideration again and the several Duties and Virtues required upon their Account will be specisied and explained But before we enter upon any of them in particular it may not be amiss to premise somewhat briefly concerning Command and Obedience in general These being the Reciprocal Exercises of the Relations here mentioned The Two Foundations and principal Causes of all that Variety of Circumstances in which Mankind have been already described CHAP. XLV Of Command and Obedience THese as I said are the Ground-work upon which all Humane Society is built And the many different Conditions Professions and Relations that go to making it up do all arise from and depend upon Them These Two are Relative Terms they mutually Regard Produce Preserve and Support each other and are equally necessary in all Companies and Communities of Men but are notwithslanding liable to Envy and Opposition Misrepresentation and Complaint All which are the Natural and Constant Effects even of That without which we are not able to Subsist The discontented Populace would reduce their Sovereign to the Condition of a Car-Man The Ambition of Monarchs would represent him greater than a God In Command is imply'd Dignity Dissiculty These Two commonly go together Goodness Ability and all the Characters and Qualities of Grandeur The Command it self that is The Sufficiency the Courage the Authority and other Qualifications of it are deriv'd from above and the Gift of God * Imperium non â—iâ—i divino fato datur Rom. xiii 1. Empire and Dominion are bestowed by the Divine Appointment and There is no Power but of God says the Apostle to the same Purpose From whence it was that Plato said God did not place some Men over others that is not Mere Men and such as were of the Common Sort and Vulgar Qualisications but the Persons whom he set apart and exalted for Government were such as exceeded others were more sinished eminent for some singular Virtue and distinguishing Gift of Heaven in short were somewhat more than Men and such as former Ages gave the Title of Heroes to Obedience is a Matter of Benesit and Advantage of Ease and Necessity The Obeying well is of the Two more conducive to the Publick Peace and Safety than the Commanding wisely and the Consequences of withstanding and refusing the Commands of our Superiours or the complying with them Imperfectly and Negligently are much more Dangerous and Destructive than Ill and Improper Commands Themselves are or want of Skill to Govern Just as in the Case of a Married Life the Husband and Wife are equally obliged to Constancy of Affection and Fidelity to the Bed and the Words in which they Solemnly engage for This are the very Same for both Parties the same Ceremonies and Formalities to signifie and confirm it but yet the Consequences are by no means equal but the Mischiefs of Disloyalty are incomparably More and Greater in an Adulterous Wife than an Adulterous Husband So likewise Commanding and Obeying are equally Duties and necessary in all manner of Societies which unite Men to one another but yet the Disobedience of the Subject draws much greater Inconveniences after it than the Unskillfulness or the real Faults of the Governour Several States and Kingdoms have held out a long Course and been reasonably Prosperous and Flourishing under not only Ignorant but very Wicked Princes and Magistrates by the mere Force of the Unity and Compliance and ready Obedience of the Subjects Which agrees well with the Answer made by a Wise Man to that Question How it came to pass that the Republick of Sparta was so remarkably Flourishing and Whether it proceeded from the Wisdom and good Conduct of their Governours Nay said he I impute it not to their Princes Commanding well but to the Subjects Obeying well But when the People break their Yoak or throw it off and refuse Obedience there is no Remedy but such a State must be ruin'd and fall to the Ground CHAP. XLVI Of Marriage NOtwithslanding the State of Marriage be antecedent to any other of the greatest Antiquity and the highest Importance The very Foundation and Fountain of all Humane Society for Families first and then Commonwealths spring out of it according to that Observation of Cicero The First Union and nearest Relation is between Man and Wife This is the Beginning of Cities the Nursery and first Plantation of all Publick Communities yet it hath had the Ill-Fortune to be disesteem'd and run down by several Persons of considerable Wit and Character who have traduc'd it as a Condition beneath Men of Understanding and drawn up several formal Objections against it in particular These that follow * Prima Societas in Conjugio est quod principium Urbis seminarium Reipublicae Cic. de Offic. Lib. 1. First of all They tell you the Covenants and Obligations they enter into by it Objections against Marriage are unreasonable and unjust we may call it a Band of Union but it is no better than the Chains and Fetters of a Captive For What Consinement can be more insupportable than That by which a Man stakes himself down and becomes a Slave as long as he lives to Care and Trouble and the Humours of another Person For this is the Consequence if the Couple are unsuccessful and unsuitable in their Tempers That there is no Remedy but a Man must stand by his Bargain be it never so bad and continue wretched without any other possible Cure but Death Now what can be more contrary to Equity and Justice than that the Folly of one half Hour should poyson the whole Term of all his Years to come That a Mistake in one's Choice or perhaps a Trick by which he was Trapann'd into this Condition but to be sure an act of Obedience many times to the Commands of a Parent or Complyance with the Advice of a Friend a submitting one's Own Judgment and Inclination to the Pleasure and Disposal of Others What Reason say They is there that any of these Things shou'd engage a Man to perpetual Misery and Torment Were not the other Noose about the Neck the wiser Choice of the Two and to end one's Days and Troubles immediately by leaping headlong from some Rock into the Sea than thus to launch out into an Eternity of Pains to have a Hell upon Earth and always live and lie by a Storm of Jealousie and Ill-nature of Rage and Madness
himself with the Event of this Engagement and be a thousand times more perplexed and mortified with any ill Success than those very Soldiers who spend their Blood and stake down their Lives in the Service In a word We must learn to understand our selves and our Condition and distinguish aright between our private and personal and our publick Capacities For every one of us is under a double Character and hath two parts to play The one external and visible but somewhat foreign and distant the other domestick and proper and essential to us Now though our Shirt be next to our Skin yet according to the Proverb we should always remember that how near soever our Shirt may be our Skin is still nearer to us A Judicious person will discharge his Duty to the Publick and fill an Office well and yet at the same time will discern the Folly and Wickedness and Cheat which a Publick Station exposes him to the practice of He will not decline the thing because it is agreeable to the Custom and Constitution of his Countrey it is necessary and useful to the Publick and perhaps advantagious to himself He will submit in many things to do as the World does because the Rest of Mankind live at the same rate and since he cannot mend the World it is to no purpose to disturb it by being singular But still he will look upon this as a matter somewhat foreign and consider this Character as adventitious and accidental not natural to him it is what he is obliged to put on and appear in but he was not born with it nor is it a part of him And therefore he will always exercise it with all due Limitations and Reservations and not so embark in Business as to be quite swallowed up in it but manage Matters so that he may still enjoy himself and be free and easy with a particular Friend or at least within his own Breast not so serve the World as to neglect and be out of a Condition to serve himself nor endeavour the Benefit of others at the Expence or Loss of a Good that is truly and properly his own CHAP. III. True and Substantial Integrity of Mind the first and fundamental part of Wisdom THE Directions laid down in the two foregoing Chapters being such Preparations as were thought necessary for disposing aright the person who aspires after Wisdom and qualifying him to make successful progress in it That is By removing the Obstructions and cleaning his Mind of Prejudices and setting it at large from the Slavery and Confinement of Popular Opinions and private Passions and also by advancing to that noble and happy Freedom of Thought and Will already described that from hence as from some advantagious rising ground he may take a full prospect and arrive at a clear and distinct Knowledge and attain to an absolute Mastery over all the Objects and Things that occur to him here below which is the peculiar Character and Privilege of an exalted and resined Soul It may now be seasonable to advance in the Method proposed at our Entrance into this Book by giving some fit Instructions and general Rules of Wisdom The Two First whereof are still in the nature of Prefaces to the Main Work necessary to be laid in the Quality of Foundations upon which to raise this Glorious Superstructure And the Former and Principal of these two designed for the Subject of This Chapter is Probity and Sincerity That true Honesty and Integrity of Heart and Life is the First the Chief the Fundamental Point of True Wisdom is an Assertion which it may perhaps be thought needless for me to give my self any great trouble in proving For in truth all Mankind agree in highly extolling and zealously pretending to it though it is but too manifest that what some do in this kind seriously and out of Conscientious regard to their Duty and the real Worth of this Virtue others put on only to set the best face upon the matter and are compelled to dissemble from Shame and Fear and the Ill-consequences of avowing the contrary Thus far then the whole World is agreed that Honesty is recommended and respected and at least complimented every Man professes to be passionately in love with it and subscribes himself its most Faithful most Affectionate and most Devoted Servant So that I may spare my self the pains of arguing in behalf of the Thing in general but I am afraid notwithstanding it will prove no such easy matter to make Men agree with the Notions of that which in my esteem is the True and Essential Honesty and to persuade the as universal Love but especially the universal practice of That which I think necessary upon this occasion For as to That which is in common vogue and usually reputed such though the World I know are generally satisfied and trouble themselves so little about understanding or attaining to any thing better that except a very few Wise Men they have no Ideas no Wishes beyond this yet I make no difficulty to affirm that it is all but a spurious and counterfeit Virtue Sham and Trick and the product of Art and Study Falshood and Disguise Now first of all We cannot but be sensible False Appcarances of it that Men are very often drawn on and pusht forward to good Actions by several sorts of Motives Sometimes such as are by no means commendable As Natural Defects and Infirmities Passion and Fancy nay sometimes by Vice and Things in their own Nature Sinful Thus Chastity and Sobriety and Temperance of all sorts may be and often are owing to a weak Body and tender Constitution which cannot support Excess Contempt of Death to Peevishness and Discontent Patience under Misfortunes Resolution and Presence of Thought in Dangers to Want of Apprehension and Judgment and a due sense how great or imminent the Danger is Valour and Liberality and Justice are often inspired and practised by Ambition and Vain-glory the Effects of good Conduct discreet Management of Fear and Shame and Avarice And what a World of renowned and noble Exploits have been owing to Presumption and Foolhardiness Rashness and Inconsideration Thus what we commonly call Actions and Instances of Virtue are in reality no better than Masks and counterfeit Appearances of it They have the Air and the Complexion but by no means the Substance of it So much resemblance there is that the Vulgar who are no Criticks in Faces may easily mistake the one for the other and so much of good there is in the Effects and Consequences of such Actions that other people may be allowed to call them Virtuous but it is impossible the person himself who does them should esteem them such or that any considering Man can either allow them this Character when nicely examined or think one jot the better of the Man that does them For Interest or Honour or Reputation or Custom and Compliance or some other Causes altogether foreign to Virtue will be found
in Abundance Persons under most prodigious and unexpected Crosses such as when they happen'd threatned no less than irrecoverable Misery and Ruin and yet by a strange Turn to these very Misfortunes have owed all their future Happiness and Advancement and had but for these Accidents stuck in the Dirt never come to be significant in the World but lived and died and been buried in Obscurity and Contempt This Observation was made good to that Athenian Commander who cried out upon a like occasion He had been undone if we had not been undone Feruraâ—â—us 〈◊〉 periissemus How full and noble an Instance of this Nature is that Relation of â—osepl which Moses gives us The Envy and Spight of his Brethren the being sold as a Slave to Strangers and imprison'd upon a false Accusation were so many Steps to the Throne of Pharaoh and the Administration of one of the greatest Kingdoms in the World It must be confest indeed These are very extraordinary Events and can be ascribed to nothing less than a strange over-ruling Providence but shil Men are not without their part in it For Human Prudence is the proper Instrument which Providence makes use of for the finishing these works of Wonder and upon this account that excellent Advice of Wise Men ought to be studied by every one in these Circumstances which is To make a Virâ—â— of 〈◊〉 â—or indeed it is a Noble Instance of good Management and the boldest and most beautiful Stroke of Prudence when a Man can thus far imitate God as to bring Good out of Evil when he can give a Turn to his Affairs and get the Weathergage of Fortune with such Dexterity and Address That even Ill Accidents themselves â—â—all turn to account and whatever happens to him he will order matters so that his Condition shall be the better for it All manner of Adversity and Afflictions may be truly ascribed to one or more of the Three following Causes for they indeed are the Authors It proceeds from there Causes and the Finishers of all our Sufferings The first Inventer and Original of them is Sin this gave them a Being and without it they had never existed nor had any place in Nature at all The Second is the Anger and Justice of God who being provoked by Sin issues out his Commissions and employs these as the Ministers and Instruments of Vengeance to execute Wrath upon them that do evil The Third is the Polity of the World as it stands at present its Order disturbed its Administration corrupted and its whole Frame vitiated and Changed by Sin The State of Nature by these lamentable Alterations is like That of a Kingdom under a general Mutiny or Civil Insurrection where Every thing is out of its proper place and no part does its Duty and what can possibly be the Consequence of This but Calamity and Confusion The Miseries of such a Body Politick are like the Pains and Aches which afflict the Natural Body when its Limbs are disjointed the Bones bruised or dislocated and all the Ligaments that should knit and keep these in their Duty and proper Station loosed or cut asunder These three Causes therefore producing such dismal Effects our Resentments toward Them should be proportion'd to the Injuries they do Us. The First is the detestable Root of all our Unhappiness and This we should hate and avoid The Second is the terrible Judgment of a just and provoked Deity and This we ought to live in an awful Dread of The Third betrays us into Mischief and This we ought to beware of as an Impostor and manage our selves as would become considerate Men to That which they know will decoy them into Ruin But with regard to the Afflictions arising from all Three the best course of securing our selves will be to subdue and kill them as David did Goliah with his Own Sword that is as I said before to convert this Necessity into Virtue to make Advantage of our Afflictions and retort the very Sufferings they bring upon us back again upon heir own heads For Affliction which is in truth the genuin Fruit of Sin if well and wisely entertained will choak and kill the bitter Root that bears it It deals with its Author and Parent as the Young Viper is said to do with the Old One that hatches it and is like Oyl of Scorpions the Sovereign Remedy for All that are stung by them Thus Sin is made its own Destruction and does not only breed the Disease but provide the Cure * Patimur quina peccavimus patimur ut non peccemus We suffer because we have sinne 't is true but it is as true too that We suffer that we may not sin any more The Roughness of Adversity is like that of a File it scours off the Rust We had contracted cleanses and purifies the Soul from Vice and Filth and brightens the Mind and its Virtues By this means the Anger of God consequently is appeased the Provocation removed we released from the Prisons and Fetters which Guilt and Justice had bound us in and brought out into the free and open Air the glorious and cherishing Light of his Countenance lifted up upon us The Storms are quieted the Thunder laid aside and Grace and Mercy and a clear Sky succeeds And then as a farther Antidote against the Third Source of our Misfortune Adversity weans our Affections and calls them off from the World begets in us a dislike and dissatisfaction to a State of so much Misery and the Bitterness of our Calamities suppies the place of Wormwood which Providence like a wise Nurse puts upon the Breast to make us loath the Milk and be content to part with the luscious Delights of that deceitful Life of which we should otherwise be most immoderately fond Now One great and in reality the most effectual Expedient to qualify a Man for this Prudent Behaviour in Adversity and all the valuable Fruits of it is for a Man to be strictly Virtuous and Good For a Man of Virtue is more easy and hath a more agreeable Enjoyment of himself in Adversity than a Vicious Man hath in all the Sweets of Prosperity As Men in Feverish Distempers feel more Uneasiness from their Cold and Hot Fits than those in perfect Health from the most scorching Heat of Summer or the greatest Severity of Winter-Blasts Thus it is with Ill Men. They carry their Disease within and about with them their Conscience is feverish and disorder'd and this gives them infinitely greater Pain than any that Good Men are sensible of For these Persons are sound within and nothing from without can hurt them That which arms Affliction and gives it a deadly force is the Guilt and Reproach the Misgiving and Distrust of one's own Mind the Sense of having drawn what we labour under down upon our own heads and the Amazing Expectation of more and worse But where These do not put an Edge upon the Weapon it cannot wound very deep
and restores our Souls to perfect Liberty and true Enjoyment Instead of locking us up in the dark it sets us in the clearest and brightest Light and serves us as we use to deal by the best Fruits when we take off the Skin or Shell or other Covering that so we may see and use them and taste their Natural Excellence It removes us out of a streight inconvenient Dwelling from a Dark and Rheumatick and Diseased Place where we can see but a very little Spot of Heaven and only receive Light by Reflection and at a vast distance through Two little Holes of our Eyes into a Region of absolute Liberty confirmed and uninterrupted Health perpetual and incessant Light a Sun that never sets and Endless Day without any gloomy Intervals * Aequaliter tibi splendebit omne Coeli latus Totam lucem suo loco prope totus aspicies quam nunc per angustissimas ocuâ—orum Vias procul intueris miraris A Place where our Faculties shall be enlarged and all Heaven will display it self to us where we shall not only see Light but dwell with it in its own proper Sphere In a word It delivers us from the very Thing we dread most by making us Immortal and putting a sinal and full Conclusion to that Death which took place from the Instant we came into the World and was finished at our Passage into Eternity †Dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est For the Day we have such dreadful Apprehensions of as if it were to be our Last is really our First the joyful Birthday into a Life which can never have an End We come now to consider the Second Sort of Resentment which Men are affected with upon the account of Death which is Waiting for and entertaining it with contented and chearful Minds when it comes This is indeed the Quality of a Good a Gentle and well-governed Spirit and the Practice of it is peculiar to a plain easy way of living and to Persons who as they make the best of Life and enjoy the Quiet of it so know very well how to esteem it as it deserves but still they make Reason the Standard of all their Affections and Actions and as they are well satisfied to stay here so they readily obey when Providence thinks fit to call them out of the World This is a Medium very justly tempered a Masterly Greatness of Soul and such an Indifference to all here below as a Life of Retirement and Peace seems best qualified for and the Two Extremes between which it lies are Desiring and Dreading Courting and Running away from Death accoring to that of the Poet * Summum nec metuas diem nec optes With Courage firm and Soul sedate Attend the Motions of thy Fate And whether Death be far or near Live free from eager Wish and anxious Fear Now these Extremes except there be some very particular and uncommon Reason to give them countenance are both of them Vicious and exceeding blameable and when I come hereafter to speak of this Matter in its proper place you will see that nothing less than a very extraordinary Cause can render them so much as excusable To desire and pursue Death is very criminal for it is very unjust to throw away one's Life without a sufficient Reason it is spightful to the World and injurious to our Friends to grudge them the longer Use and Continuance of a thing which may be serviceable to them It is the blackest Ingratitude to God and Nature thus to slight and throw back again the best and most valuable Present they can make us as if it were a Trifle or a Burden not worth our keeping It savours too much of Peevishness and Pride and shews us humoursome and difficult when we cannot be easy and bear the Lot that falls to our share but will needs quit our hands of the Station God hath called us to when there is nothing extraordinary to render it cumbersome And on the other hand to fear and flee Death when summoned to it is an Offence against Nature Justice Reason and every Branch of our Duty since Dying is Natural Necessary and Unavoidable Reasonable and Just First It is Natural Dying is Natural it is a part of that Great Scheme by which the Order of the Universe is established and maintained and the whole World lives and subsists And who are We that all this Regularity should be broken and a new System contrived in Our Favour Death is really one of the Principal and most Material Articles in the Constitution and Administration of this vast Republick and of infinite Use and Advantage it is for determining the Continuance and promoting a Constant Succession of the Works of Nature The Failure of Life in One Instance propagates it afresh in a Thousand others * Sic Rerum Summa novatur Thus Life and Death successive keep their round Things dye to live and by decays abound But which comes nearer home Death is not only a part of this Great Complex and Universal Nature but of thy Own Nature in particular and That every whit as essential a part as that Birth which gave Thee Life So that in cherishing an Aversion and running away from This thou attemptest to flee from thy own self Thy Being is divided equally between Death and Life These are the Two Proprietors and each claims a share and hath an indefeasible Right in every one of us These are the Terms upon which Thou wer't created and Life was given with a Purpose and upon Condition of being taken away rather indeed it was only lent and like all other Trusts or Debts must be demanded back and may be called in at pleasure If then the Thoughts of Dying discontent Thee consider that the Hardship does not lye here but carry thy Reflections higher and be concerned that ever thou wast born For either there is no cause of Repining in either case or else the Ground of all the Complaint lies in having lived at all You had Neighbours Fare and purchased Life at the Market Price which is The laying it down again no body hath it cheaper and therefore they who do not like the Bargain and are loth to go out again should have refused at first and never come into the World at all But this is what Men were they capable of such a Choice would never do if their Fondness of Life be so excessively great The First Breath you drew bound you fast and all the Advances you made toward a more perfect Life were so many Steps toward Death at the same time †Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Asson as born we dye and our Live's End Upon its first Beginning does depend Manil. Ast 4. To be concerned then that we must Dye is to be concerned that we are Men for every one that is so is Mortal And upon the strength of this Impression it
was that a Wise Man when the News of his Son's Death was brought him received it with all the Sedateness and seeming Unconcernedness that could be and only made this calm Reply I knew very well that my Child was Mortal Since then Death is a thing so Natural so Essential to all Nature in general and contributes so much to the Order and Well-being of the Whole World and since it is likewise so to your own Being and the Condition of That in particular why should you conceive such horrible Ideas why hold it in such irreconcilable Detestation In This you act in contradiction to Nature I allow indeed that the Fear of Pain is very Natural but I cannot admit the same Plea for the Fear of Death For how is it possible that Nature should ever have infused into us a Principle of Hatred and Dread against an Ordinance of her own Institution and such as she receives such a mighty Benefit from the due Execution of And as an incontestable Evidence that she does not so it appears plainly that where Nature works entire without any Depravation or Restraint there little or no Marks of this Passion are to be found Little Children for instance and Brutes who are not capable of being corrupted with Prejudice are so far from betraying any Fear of Death that they meet it chearfully and seem pleased to undergo it The Gay and Smiling Countenances of these Creatures are enough to assure us that Nature does not teach us to fear Death but we learn That from some other hand But all the Direction we have from Nature upon this occasion is to expect and wait for Death and whenever it comes to receive it with Submission and Chearfulness as considering that it is of Nature's sending and express appointment Secondly Necessary It is necessary a Sentence past for it and irreversible and Thou who distractest thy Soul with Fears and bewailest this Fate of thine art satisfied at the same time that there is no possibility of avoiding it And what more exquisite Folly can a Man be guilty of than the tormenting himself industriously when he knows 't is to no purpose Where do you find any Man so stupidly silly to spend his Time and his Breath in Intreaties and importunate Addresses to One whom he knows incapable of granting or inflexible and never to be prevailed upon for his Requests Or to knock eternally at a Door that will not cannot be opened And What more inexorable more deaf to all our Supplications than Death If any Calamities be proper Objects of Fear they are such as are barely Contingencies which may indeed but may not happen too And Those that are capable of Remedy or Prevention are fit to have our Thoughts and Care employed upon them But Those that are fix'd and must come which is the Case of Death we have nothing to do but to expect and to provide for and all that is to be done with that which cannot be cured is to fortify our Souls and resolve to endure it The Ignorant and Inconsiderate fear and flee from Death The Rash and Fool-hardy courts and pursues it The Wise Man waits its Approach and is ready to follow and obey the Summons but neither runs away from it nor advances to meet it But certainly our Lamentations are very Idle and Extravagant where they are sure to do no Good and so are our Anxieties and Fears where there are no means of Escape * Feras non culpes quod vitari non potest You must bear and not complain when the thing is unavoidable The Behaviour of David was really very prudent 2 Sam. xii and an admirable Pattern he hath set us in it When his Servants informed him that the Child whose Sickness he had express'd a most passionate Concern for was dead the next thing he did was to wash and dress himself and return to his ordinary way of Eating and usual demonstrations of Chearfulness This indeed was somewhat out of the common Road and those about him who knew no better were much astonished at his proceeding but the Account he gave of himself was solid and substantial That while the darling Infant was yet alive and consequently it was yet uncertain how God would please to dispose of him he fasted and wept because he did not know whether his Prayers might be heard and God would be gracious in letting the Child live But as soon as he understood it was dead he changed his Course because all Hopes of that kind were then past Life could not be recall'd nor his Tears and melancholy Humiliations be of any farther use in this Case I know well enough that foolish People have a Reply ready for all this They will tell you that when a Thing is beyond all Remedy it is then the fittest Object of our Grief and that our Concern is at no time so seasonable as when we cannot be better than we now are But This is the very Extremity of Senslessness this compleats nay doubles the Folly It is most truly said * Scienter frustra niti extremae dementiae est That the greatest Madness a Man can possibly be guilty of is to struggle and fret himself when he sees and knows all he does is in vain Since then the Matter now before us is so absolutely necessary so unalterably fix'd so perfectly unavoidable it is not only to no manner of purpose to torment our selves with the fear of it but if we would take right Measures and make any Profit of this Consideration our Method must be to make a Virtue of Necessity and if this grim Guest will come to put on all our good Humour and prevail with our selves to receive him decently and bid him welcome For the best thing we can do is to be beforehand with him It would better become Us to make some Advances and meet Death than suffer It to overtake Us and to lay hold on That than to be surprized and apprehended by It. Thirdly Just and Reasonable It is highly agreeable to Reason and Justice that Men should dye For what more reasonable than that every thing should come to the place of its Final Rest and be safely deposited where no new Change no fresh Removal awaits it If Men are afraid of arriving at this Long Home they should not move towards it but stand still or go back again or get out of the Road But none of these are in their Power to do What more reasonable again than that you should go off this Stage of the World and make room for new Actors and a new Scene as your Predecessors made room for You If you have plaid your Part well you go off with Applause and That ought to content you If you have enjoyed your Self and the World you have had a good Entertainment enough to Satisfy and Feast your Appetite and therefore you ought to rise from Table in Good Humour If you had not the Wit to
Belief and stedfast Hope of them is very hardly consistent with the Fear and Loathness to dye For sure if this Principle were pursued through all its Consequences the Effect must needs be to make us dissatisfied with Life and weary of being confined here so long and at so great a distance from our Happiness Life upon these Terms should be barely supportable but Death our Choice and the Object of our Love and Desire To such Men Living must needs be a Toil and a Burden and Death an Ease and Refreshment after much Suffering and hard Labour St. Paul's Declarations and Wishes would then be in the Hearts and Mouths of all Good Men. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. i. Rom. vii which is far better To me to dye is Gain And Oh wretched Man who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Of such Efficacy I say in all Reason must these Expectatons be when duly cherished and enforc'd And I cannot but acknowledge those Reproaches upon some Philosophers and Christians both Ancient and Modern to have a great deal of Justice in them whom Men called Hypocrites and Publick Impostors For what better Notions can be entertained of Persons profuse in the Proofs of an Immortal State and in the Glorious Commendations of a Bliss inexpressible in the Life to come and yet at the same time Pale and Shivering for Fear declining Death by all possible Means and trembling at the very Mention of its Approach though this very Thing to which they are so exceeding averse is confess'd to be the Passage into their so much admired Eternity the only Method of putting them into actual Possession of those Joys the very Hope and Reversion whereof they pretend to value above this whole World The Fifth and last particular mention'd upon This Occasion Killing ones self is only a Putting in execution that which was mention'd before For what is Dying by one's Own hand but the Gratification and Accomplishment of a Man's Desire of Death This indeed hath at first blush a good fair Appearance and seems to proceed from Virtue and Greatness of Spirit And certain it is that the Allowance and the Practice of it hath been both Frequent and Antient Many Instances of this kind live in Story Persons eminently Great and Good of almost every Countrey and every Religion Greeks and Romans Egyptians Persians Medes Gauls Indians Philosophers of all Sects nay Jews too as is evident from the Fact of old Razias who hath the Honourable Character of The Father of his Countrey given him 2 Mac. xiv and is constantly mentioned with Commendation of his Virtue Another Instance the same History gives us likewise in those Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus 2 Mac. vi who after they had Circumcised their Children cast Themselves down headlong from the Wall with them Nay not only Jews but Christians too witness those Two Holy Women Pelagia and Sophronia Canonized for their Piety and Courage the former of which with her Mother and Sisters cast her self into a River that by drowning they might escape the Rudeness and Violence of the Soldiers and the latter stabb'd her self to prevent the outragious Lust of the Emperor Maxentius And as if single Persons were not sufficient to justify this Practice we have whole Cities and Nations giving Authority to it by their Example Thus did the Citizens of Capua to avoid being taken by the Romans thus did Astapa and Numantia in Spain upon the same account Thus the Abidaeans when hard pressed by Philip and a City of the Indians when Alexander had encamped against it This hath likewise had the yet more Authentick Approbations of Laws and Publick Sanctions and several Commonwealths have not only permitted but recommended and in some Cases brought it into a Custom as Marseilles heretofore the Isle of Cea in the Negropont and some Northern Nations in particular where the Publick Justice regulated the Times and the Methods of doing this Nor is it only upon Precedents that the Favourers of this Opinion do rely but they think it abundantly supported by Reason and particularly that several Arguments of Weight may be deduced from the former Article to justify it For say They if a Desire and Willingness to dye be not Allowable only but Commendable too if we may Wish and Pray for a Release if we may put our selves in the way of it and be glad when it is offered why may we not Give this Relief to our Selves Is the Desire it self a Virtue and the Execution of that Desire a Sin What is permitted in the Will why do you call forbidden in the Act That which I may be pleased with from Another hand why should I be condemned for from my Own Indeed why should I wait the tedious Approach of that from other means which I can at any time give to my self For is it not better to Act in this Case than to be purely Passive Is it not more Manly and Generous to Meet Death than lazily to sit still and attend its Motions The more Voluntary our Death is the more like a Man of Honour Again What Law does this offend against There are Penalties indeed ordained for Robbers and Pick-pockets but is any Man liable to them for taking his Own Goods By the same Reason the Laws against Murder do not concern Me. They provide for every man's Security against the Insults of Others See the Animadversions at the End of this Chapter they tye my Neighbour's hands from taking My Life and Mine up from taking His because this is supposed to be an Act of Violence and want of Consent in the Sufferer makes it an Injury but what is all This to the purpose or how does it render a Man guilty who voluntarily and deliberately takes away his own Life These are the Principal I think indeed the Whole of those Arguments commonly alledg'd in Defence of this Practice but then there are Others a great deal more Substantial and more Obligatory that use to be produced for the Contrary Side of the Question First then As to Authorities This Practice however countenanced by some but very few States in comparison hath yet been absolutely disallow'd and condemned by the Generality of Mankind and not only by Christians but Jews too See Joseph de Bell. Judaie L 3. C 14. as Josephus shews at large in the Oration he made to his Officers in the Cave at the Taking of Jotapata By the Generality of Philosophers and Great Men as Plato and Scipio and Others who all impute this manner of proceeding to a Defect rather than any Sufficiency of Courage and reproach it not only as an Act of Cowardice misbecoming a Brave Man but of Heat and Impatience unworthy of a Good Man For what can we say better of it than that This is skulking and running out of the way to hide one's self from the Insults of Fortune Now a Virtue that is vigorous and stanch
wre there not so there could be no scruple That which is altogether unjust and manifestly so all Men agree 〈◊〉 condemning even the vilest Wretches alive have not yet put off all Distinctions of Right and Wrong all Sense of Guilt and Shame But what they allow themselves in the practice of even that they disallow in Profession and Pretence But the Case is otherwise in mixt Actions there are Arguments and Appearances of Reason at least Examples and Authorities on both sides and a Man that enters into the Disquisition does not find it easie what Resolutions to take At least he finds somewhat to give Countenance to what his Convenience persuades and that which hath divided Men's Judgments and made it a moot Point he thinks will be sufficient for his Vindication Abundance of Cases of this nature might be specify'd but at present I shall content my self with a few that now occur to me and leave it to the Reader to put others like or parallel to these as he sees fit What shall we say first to the ridding ones Hands of a troublesome pestilent Fellow that propagates Faction and Disorder and is eternally breaking the publick Peace by getting him taken off secretly without any legal Process This Man take notice is supposed to deserve Death but the Circumstances of the Offender and of the Prince are such that without manifest Danger to the State he cannot be brought to Justice nor made an Example in the common way Here is they tell you no material Injustice in all This the Offender hath but his Due and as Matters stand the Publick is better served by his having it in this way than it could be by punishing him after the manner of other Offenders of the like Nature So that the most you can make of this is a Breach of the Forms and Methods prescribed by Law and surely they tell you the Sovereign Prince is above Forms The next is Clipping the Wings and giving a Check to the Wealth and Power of some Great Man who is growing Popular and strengthening his Interest and both from his Ability and Inclination to do Mischief becomes formidable to his Prince The Question here is whether a Prince may not lower and cut such a potent Subject short in time without staying so long for a fair Provocation that he stall be grown too big to be dealt with and if any Attempts be made either against the publick Peace in general or the Life of the Prince in particular it will not then be possible to prevent or to punish them though we would never so fain Another is In an extreme Exigence and when no other Supplies are to be had seizing upon private Stocks and so compelling soe of the wealthiest Subjects to furnish the Publick Necessities when the Nation is not able by all its Publick Funds to support it self A Fourth is Infringing and Vacating some of the Rights and Privileges which some of the Subjects enjoy when the Authority of the Prince is prejudiced and diminished and his Grandeur eclipsed by the Continuance of them The Last is a Point of Prevention when a Fort or a Town or a Province very commodious to the Government is seiz'd and got into a Prince's Hands by interposing first and to keep it out of the Possession of some other powerful and very formidable Neighbour who by making himself Master of this Pass would have been in a Condition of doing great Injury and giving perpetual Disturbance to this Prince and his Country who are now the first Occupiers All these things I know sound harsh and are hardly if at all to be reconciled with the common Notions of Justice Matters of State are neither fit nor safe for me to give a Judgment in thus much only I think may not misbecome this place to say That as on the one hand the indulging and having frequent recourse to such Actions is very dangerous gives just matter of Jealousie to the Subject and will be apt to degenerate into Tyranny and Exorbitant use of Power so on the other it is plain Subjects ought to be modest and very spring in censuring the Actions of their Prince and the Steps he makes for the publick Safety however bold they may seem and beyond the Lengths which are commonly gone And this suspending at least of our Judgments in matters of another and very distant Sphere will appear the more reasonable when I have shewed you that very eminent Men Persons of acknowledged Virtue as well as vast Learning and Wisdom have approved all those Practises already mention'd and think them not amiss provided the Success be good and answer their Intentions And to this purpose I will quote you here some of those Sentences and Remarks which they have left us upon such Occasions In order to preserve Justice in greater and more important Matters there is sometimes a necessity says Plutarch of deviating from it in those of less Moment And in order to doing Right to the generality and in the gross it is allowable to put some Hardships and be guilty of some Wrong to particular Persons * Omne magnum Exemplum habet aliquid ex iniquo quod adversus singulos utilitate publicâ rependitur Commonly speaking says Tacitus the bravest Exploits and most celebrated Examples carry somewhat of Injustice in them But in this Case what Private Men suffer is abundantly compensated by the Benefit which the Publick receives from it †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in fine Flamin A Prudent Prince says Plutarch again must not only know how to govern according to Law But if a necessary occasion require it he must learn to govern even the Laws themselves When they fall short of their End and cannot do what they would he must stretch and correct and give a new Power to the Laws where they happen to be defective that is if they are not willing he should do what is fitting in that Juncture he must make them willing ₠Non speciosa dictu sed usu necessaria in rebus adversis sequenda esse Q. Curt. Lib. 5. When the State is in Confusion and things brought to a Plunge the Prince says Curtius must not think himself obliged to follow that which will look or sound best to the World but that which the present Extremity calls for And again * Necessitas magnum imbecillitatis humanae patrocinium omnem Legem frangit non est nocens quicunque non sponte est nocens Senec. Necessity says Seneca That great Refuge and Excuse for Humane Frailty breaks thro' all Laws and he is not to be accounted in fault whose Crime is not the Effect of Choice but Force Aristotle's Rule is If a Prince cannot be good in every part of his Government 't is enough that he be so in the greater or at least an equal part but let him be sure not to be bad in every part And Democritus That it is impossible for the best Princes
thy Native Light is shed abroad And every Breast is fill'd with a Domestick God And yet notwithstanding this general Consent in the Speculative part The Rarity of it Men differ extremely and in practice contradict themselves For the World is full of Treachery and Falshood and very few shall we be able to find who are truly and entirely True and Just in their Dealings Nay even those who make a Conscience of being so yet are frequently guilty of Breach of Faith such as not only the World does not easily discover but such as they themselves who commit it are not sensible of For if they can but six upon any colourable Pretence to varnish over such an Action and give it a tolerable good Face they presently persuade themselves that all is well and they have done nothing amiss Others there are eternally upon the Hunt for Niceties and subtle Evasions by which to justifie their Proceedings and here they retreat and shelter themselves If the World take upon them to censure their Doings or their own Conscience be either Scrupulous before or Clamorous afterward they cast up an Intrenchment of Distinctions round about them and under this Covert go on without boggling or being asham'd of any thing Now in order to the clearing all the Difficulties that may arise upon this Occasion I shall endeavour to set this whole Matter in its true Light and direct Men how to behave themselves And the whole I think of what needs to be said may conveniently enough be reduc'd to Four Considerations The Person that engages his Faith the Party to whom that Engagement is made the Subject-Matter or the Thing covenanted for and the Manner or Form of entring into that Engagement First As as to the Person engaging his Faith it is one necessary Qualification to the rendring that Promise valid and legal that he have Power to promise and to make it Good If he be under the Direction and at the Disposal of an other he is in no Condition to engage at all nor is there any Force in such a Covenant till it be ratified and confirmed by the Person under whose Authority the Promiser is Thus God himself hath determined and stated the Matter at large under the Levitical Law Num. ch xxx where the Vows of Wives and Children and others in a State of Pupillage and Subjection are declared of none Effect till known and approved by their Husbands or Parents or Guardians And the Reason of this is plain because Nature and Duty have vested these Persons with an Original and Antecedent Right in those under their Care which no After-act of such without Their Consent can convey away or disannul They have nothing to give and therefore they promise what is none of their own Thus in the Roman Story the Tribune Saturninus and his Accomplices are esteemed to have been justly put to Death notwithstanding they quitted the Capitol which they had rebelliously invaded and possest themselves of upon the Consuls Word of Honour For these very Consuls were Subjects to the Common-wealth and Ministers of Publick Justice only and therefore they had no Right to promise Indemnity for Crimes against the State and People of Rome in general But when a Man is entirely at his own Disposal and covenants for such Things as he hath an indisputable Right to make Good he is obliged to keep his Word punctually let him be otherwise never so Great never so Absolute The rather indeed upon these Considerations because the more Absolute he is the more Free he is to Promise and the better Able to Perform And therefore that common Maxim is a very Just and True One That the bare Word of a Prince ought to be as Sacred and Obligatory as the solemnest Oath of a Private Man As to the Person to whom the Engagement is made This is a Consideration which makes but little Difference in the Case for let him be Who or What he will it ought to be discharged There are but Two Exceptions which are sufficient to dissolve this Obligation according to the Judgment of Those who have discuss'd this Point The One is if he did not accept of this Engagement so as to rest satisfied in or place his Dependence upon it but required some other Security and rested his Faith upon That For as the Giving of Faith ought to be look'd upon as Sacred so should the Receiving it be too and Distrust in the one Party is no less a Disparagement to it than Fallacy and Trick in the other If it be not relied upon for the Sake of its own binding Force the Confidence is lost and broke and it ceases to be mutual Faith any longer The demanding of Hostages and keeping Men under Guard and so entring into Caution and requiring Pledges of any sort is not trusting to Men's Truth but to their Security and it is Ridiculous and Senseless to call This trusting to Men's Honesty He that is confined either by a Keeper or a Prison hath been false to no Engagement if he make his Escape nor can he be said to have deceived those who never repos'd any Confidence in him Had such an one been left at large upon his Parole or had he prevail'd with others to stand bound for his Appearance Honour and Conscience would have obliged him to suffer any Inconvenience rather than falsify his Word or give up his Bail or any manner of way disappoint the Expectations and betray the Trust of those who depended upon him And therefore the Reason of that Roman seems to carry a great deal of Force * Vult sibi quisque credi habita Fides ipsam sibi obligat Fidem Fides requirit Fiduciam relativa sunt Every Man is desirous to find Credit and a Promise is then binding indeed when an entire Dependence is repos'd in it For Faith is mutual it implies and requires Trust and Belief in the Person to whom it is given These two are Relatives and as such stand and fall together The other Exception is If the Promise were conditional and mutual and the Person to whom it was made broke Articles first For in this Case say some old Authors Men are to be paid in their own Coin and †Fragenti fidem fides frangatur eidem Quando Tu me non habes pro Senatore nec ego Te pro Consule He that breaks his Word gives those he deals with a Priviledge of doing so too according to that Declaration of the Roman Senator When you cease to treat me as a Member of the Senate I shall think my self dispensed with from paying you the Respect due to a Consul The false and perfidious Man hath forfeited all his Natural Right to Truth and Fair-dealing For the Obligations of this kind so far as they are founded in Nature are Reciprocal and Universal and therefore whatever such an one can challenge must be from some Supervening Title But whatever is indented for by Positive Agreement
this Sense of the Word three several ways and a different sort of Behaviour is requir'd from Subjects with regard to each of them First he may be so by violating the Laws of God and Nature acting contrary to the establish'd Religion of his Country the express Commands of God or the Native Liberty of Men's Consciences In this Case we must by no means obey him according to the Maxims laid down in Holy Scripture that We ought to obey God rather than Men and to fear Him who hath power over the whole Man more than Him who hath power over one part of the Man only and that the less and more inconsiderable part of him too But then if we can have no Relief by Law or Justice we must not have Recourse to Violence which is the contrary Extreme to a sinful Compliance but keep the middle Way which is to flee or to suffer The Second Case is not quite so bad as the former because it offers no Violence to the Consciences of Men but to their Bodies and Estates only by abusing his Subjects resusing to do them Justice taking away the Liberty of their Persons and the Property of their Estates And here the three Duties mention'd before Honour and Obedience good Wishes and Prayers ought still to be paid with Patience and Submission and a Sense and Acknowledgment of the Wrath of God let loose upon them in this Scourge of an Unjust Prince For there are Three Considerations fit to be attended to upon such Occasions One is That all Power is of God and he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God * Principi summum Rerum judicium Dii dederunt Subditis obsequii gloria relicta est Bonos Principes voto expetere qualescunque tolerare The Gods says a very wise and judicious Heathen have committed the Supreme Judgment and last Determination of Humane Affairs to the Prince The Glory of Obedience is the Subject's Portion we must therefore wish and pray that we may have none but Good Princes but when we have them we must endure them whether they be Good or Bad. The Ground and formal Reason of our Obedience does not lie in the Consideration of their Personal Virtues or just and commendable Administration but in their Character and Superiority over us There is a vast difference between True and Good and he who is truly our Governour tho' he be not a good Governour is to be regarded as the Laws themselves are which bind us not upon the Account of their Justice or Convenience but purely upon the Account of their being Laws and having the Sanction that is requisite to give them Authority A Second Reflection upon this Occasion shou'd be That God permits Hypocrites and sets up wicked Men to bear Rule for the Sins of a People and in the Day of his fierce Anger He makes a barbarous unjust Prince the Instrument of his Vengeance and therefore This must be born with the same Temper of Mind with which we submit to other Calamities made use of by God for that Purpose †Quomodo Sterilitatem aut nimios Imbres caetera Naturae mala sic Luxum Avaritiam Dominantium tolerare Like a Blast or a Barren Year Inundations and excessive Rains or other Evils in the Course of Nature so shou'd the Avarice and Luxury of Princes be endur'd by those they oppress says Tacitus Instances of this kind we have in Saul and Nebuchadnezzar and several of the Roman Emperors before Constantine's Time and some others as wicked Tyrants as was possible for them to be and yet Good Men paid them these Three Duties notwithstanding and were commanded so to do by the Prophets and Preachers of those Times in Agreement to our Great Master the Oracle of Truth it self who directs his Disciples to obey those that sat in Moses's Chair tho' in the same Breath he charges those very Governours with Wickedness and Cruelty with binding heavy Burdens Matt. xxiii and laying upon Men's Shoulders more than cou'd be born The Third Case concerns the State in general when the very Fundamentals of Government are endeavour'd to be torn up or over-turn'd when he goes about to change or to take away the Constitution as if for Instance a Prince wou'd make that which is Elective Hereditary or from an Aristocracy or Democracy or any other such mixt Government wou'd engross all to himself and make it an Absolute Monarchy or in any other Case like or equivalent to these shall attempt to alter the State from what it was formerly and ought to continue In this Case Men may and ought to withstand him and to hinder any such Attempts from taking place upon them and That either by Methods of Legal Justice or otherwise For a Prince is not the Master and Disposer of the Constitution but the Guardian and Conservator of it But then This must be done regularly too for the setting such Matters right does not belong to all the Subjects indifferently but to those who are the Trustees of the State or have the Principal Interest in it Who these are the Constitutions of the respective Countries must determine In Elective Kingdoms the Electors in others the Princes of the Blood In Republicks and those Places which have Fundamental Laws the States-General assembled And This I conceive to be the only Case which can justifie Subjects in resisting a Tyrant in this Second Sense of the Word with regard to the Exercise of his Power and the Pretence of Male-Administration What I have hitherto deliver'd upon this last Case is meant of Subjects that is of Those who are not permitted in any Circumstances or upon any Provocation to attempt any thing against their Sovereign of Them I say who are by the Laws declar'd guilty of a Capital Crime if they shall but Counsel or compass or so much as imagine the Death of their King And if so much be allowable to Men under these Obligations and Penalties then no doubt it is lawful nay it is highly commendable and a glorious Action in a Stranger or Foreign Prince to take up Arms for the Defence and Revenge of a whole Nation labouring under unjust Oppression To redress their Wrongs and deliver them from the heavy Yoke of Tyranny as we find Hercules in his Time and afterwards Dion and Timoleon and not long since Tamerlane Prince of the Tartars who defeated Bajazet the Turkish Emperor at the Siege of Constantinople Such is the State of a Subject's Duty to his Prince during his Life-time but when Princes are dead it is but an Act of Justice to examine into their Actions It is indeed a Customary thing so to do and a very reasonable and useful Custom no doubt it is The Nations that observe it find mighty Benefit from this Practice and all good Princes will have reason to encourage and desire it because thus that common Complaint wou'd be quite taken away that all Princes are treated alike and