Witnesse in himself In this Trinity on Earth the Unity is not of the thing for the Spirit the Water and the Bloud are not the same substance though they give the same testimony But in the Trinity of Heaven the Persons are the persons of one and the same God though Represented in three different times and occasions To conclude the doctrine of the Trinity as far as can be gathered directly from the Scripture is in substance this that the God who is alwaies One and the same was the Person Represented by Moses the Person Represented by his Son Incarnate and the Person Represented by the Apostles As Represented by the Apostles the Holy Spirit by which they spake is God As Represented by his Son that was God and Man the Son is that God As represented by Moses and the High Priests the Father that is to say the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is that God From whence we may gather the reason why those names Father Son and Holy Spirit in the signification of the Godhead are never used in the Old Testament For they are Persons that is they have their names from Representing which could not be till divers men had Represented Gods Person in ruling or in directing under him Thus wee see how the Power Ecclesiasticall was left by our Saviour to the Apostles and how they were to the end they might the better exercise that Power endued with the Holy Spirit which is therefore called sometime in the New Testament Paracletus which signifieth an Assister or one called to for helpe though it bee commonly translated a Comforter Let us now consider the Power it selfe what it was and over whom Cardinall Bellarmine in his third generall Controversie hath handled a great many questions concerning the Ecclesiasticall Power of the Pope of Rome and begins with this Whether it ought to be Monarchicall Aristocraticall or Democraticall All which sorts of Power are Soveraign and Coercive If now it should appear that there is no Coercive Power left them by our Saviour but onely a Power to proclaim the Kingdom of Christ and to perswade men to submit themselves thereunto and by precepts and good counsell to teach them that have submitted what they are to do that they may be received into the Kingdom of God when it comes and that the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel are our Schoolemasters and not our Commanders and their Precepts not Laws but wholesome Counsells then were all that dispute in vain I have shewn already in the last Chapter that the Kingdome of Christ is not of this world therefore neither can his Ministers unlesse they be Kings require obedience in his name For if the Supreme King have not his Regall Power in this world by what authority can obedience be required to his Officers As my Father sent me so saith our Saviour I send you But our Saviour was sent to perswade the Jews to return to and to invite the Gentiles to receive the Kingdome of his Father and not to reign in Majesty no not as his Fathers Lieutenant till the day of Judgment The time between the Ascension and the generall Resurrection is called not a Reigning but a Regeneration that is a Preparatiof men for the second and glorious coming of Christ at the day of Judgment as appeareth by the words of our Saviour Mat. 19. 28. You that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory you shall also sit upon twelve Thrones And of St. Paul Ephes. 6. 15. Having your feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospell of Peace And is compared by our Saviour to Fishing that is to winning men to obedience not by Coercion and Punishing but by Perswasion and therefore he said not to his Apostles hee would make them so many Nimrods Hunters of men but Fishers of men It is compared also to Leaven to Sowing of Seed and to the Multiplication of a grain of Mustard-seed by all which Compulsion is excluded and consequently there can in that time be no actual Râ—…igning The work of Christs Ministers is Evangelization that is a Proclamation of Christ and a preparation for his second comming as the Evangelization of John Baptist was a preparation to his first coming Again the Office of Christs Ministers in this world is to make men Beleeve and have Faith in Christ But Faith hath no relation to nor dependence at all upon Compulsion or Commandement but onely upon certainty or probability of Arguments drawn from Reason or from something men beleeve already Therefore the Ministers of Christ in this world have no Power by that title to Punish any man for not Beleeving or for Contradicting what they say they have I say no Power by that title of Christs Ministers to Punish such but if they have Soveraign Civill Power by politick institution then they may indeed lawfully Punish any Contradiction to their laws whatsoever And St. Paul of himselfe and other the then Preachers of the Gospell saith in expresse words Wee have no Dominion over your Faith but are Helpers of your Ioy. Another Argument that the Ministers of Christ in this present world have no right of Commanding may be drawn from the lawfull Authority which Christ hath left to all Princes as well Christians as Infidels St. Paul saith Col. 3. 20. Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And ver 22. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh not with eye-eye-service as meâ—…-pleasers but in singlenesse of heart as fearing the Lord This is spoken to them whose Masters were Infidells and yet they are bidden to obey them in all things And again concerning obedience to Princes Rom. 13. the first 6. verses exhorting to be subject to the Higher Powers he saith that all Power is ordained of God and that we ought to be subject to them not onely for fear of incurring their wrath but also for conscience sake And St. Peter 1 Epist. chap. 2. ver 13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it bee to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as to them that be sent by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well for so is the will of God And again St. Paul Tit. 3. 1. Put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates These Princes and Powers whereof St. Peter and St. Paul here speak were all Infidels much more therefore we are to observe those Christians whom God hath ordained to have Soveraign Power over us How then can wee be obliged to obey any Minister of Christ if he should command us to doe any thing contrary the Command of the King or other Soveraign Representant of the Common-wealth whereof we are members and by whom we look to be protected It is
him with his corporall liberty For Slaves that work in Prisons or Fetters do it not of duty but to avoyd the cruelty of their task-masters The Master of the Servant is Master also of all he hath and may exact the use thereof that is to say of his goods of his labour of his servants and of his children as often as he shall think fit For he holdeth his life of his Master by the covenant of obedience that is of owning and authorising whatsoever the Master shall do And in case the Master if he refuse kill him or cast him into bonds or otherwise punish him for his disobedience he is himselfe the author of the same and cannot accuse him of injury In summe the Rights and Consequences of both Paternall and Despoticall Dominion are the very same with those of a Soveraign by Institution and for the same reasons which reasons are set down in the precedent chapter So that for a man that is Monarch of divers Nations whereof he hath in one the Soveraignty by Institution of the people assembled and in another by Conquest that is by the Submission of each particular to avoyd death or bonds to demand of one Nation more than of the other from the title of Conquest as being a Conquered Nation is an act of ignorance of the Rights oâ—… Soveraignty For the Soveraign is absolute over both alike or else there is no Soveraignty at all and so every man may Lawfully protect himselfe if he can with his own sword which is the condition of war By this it appears that a great Family if it be not part of some Common-wealth is of it self as to the Rights of Soveraignty a little Monarchy whether that Family consist of a man and his children or of a man and his servants or of a man and his children and servants together wherein the Father or Master is the Soveraign But yet a Family is not properly a Common-wealth unlesse it be of that power by its own number or by other opportunities as not to be subdued without the hazard of war For where a number of men are manifestly too weak to defend themselves united every one may use his own reason in time of danger to save his own life either by flight or by submission to the enemy as hee shall think best in the same manner as a very small company of souldiers surprised by an army may cast down their armes and demand quarter or run away rather than be put to the sword And thus much shall suffice concerning what I find by speculation and deduction of Soveraign Rights from the nature need and designes of men in erecting of Common-wealths and putting themselves under Monarchs or Assemblies entrusted with power enough for their protection Let us now consider what the Scripture teacheth in the same point To Moses the children of Israel say thus Speak thou to us and we will heare thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye This is absolute obedience to Moses Concerning the Right of Kings God himself by the mouth of Samuel saith This shall be the Right of the King you will have to reigne over you He shall take your sons and set them to drive his Chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots and gather in his harvest and to make his engines of War and Instruments of his chariots and shall take your daughters to make perfumes to be his Cookes and Bakers He shall take your fields your vine-yards and your olive-yards and give them to his servants He shall take the tyth of your corne and wine and give it to the men of his chamber and to his other servants He shall take your man-servants and your maid-servants and the choice of your youth and employ them in his businesse He shall take the tyth of your flocks and you shall be his servants This is absolute power and â—…ummed up in the last words you shall be his servants Againe when the people heard what power their King was to have yet they consented thereto and say thus We will be as all other nations and our King shall judge our causes and goe before us to conduct our wars Here is confirmed the Right that Soveraigns have both to the Militia and to all Judicature in which is conteined as absolute power as one man can possibly transferre to another Again the prayer of King Salomon to God was this Give to thy servant understanding to judge thy people and to diâ—…cerne between Good and Evill It belongeth therefore to the Soveraigne to bee Judge and to praescribe the Rules of discerning Good and Evill which Rules are Lawes and therefore in him is the Legislative Power Saul sought the life of David yet when it was in his power to slay Saul and his Servants would have done it David forbad them saying God forbid I should do such an act against my Lord the anoynted of God For obedience of servants St. Paul saith Servants obey your masters in All things and Children obey your Parents in All things There is simple obedience in those that are subject to Paternall or Despoticall Dominion Again The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chayre and therefore All that they shall bid you observe that observe and do There again is simple obedience And St Paul Warn them that they subject themselves to Princes and to those that are in Authority obey them This obedience is also simple Lastly our Saviour himselfe acknowledges that men ought to pay such taxes as are by Kings impoâ—…ed where he sayes Give to Caesar that which is Caesars and payed such taxes himselfe And that the Kings word is sufficient to take any thing from any Subject when there is need and that the King is Judge of that need For he himselfe as King of the Jewes commanded his Disciples to take the Asse and Asses Colt to carry him into Jerusalem saying Go into the Village over against you and you shall find a shee Asse tyed and her Colt with her unty them and bring them to me And if any man ask you what you mean by it Say the Lord hath need of them And they will let them go They will not ask whether his necessity be a sufficient title nor whether he be judge of that necessity but acquiesce in the will of the Lord. To these places may be added also that of Genesis You shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evill And verse 11. Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat For the Cognisance or Judicature of Good and Evill being forbidden by the name of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge as a triall of Adams obedience The Divel to enflame the Ambition of the woman to whom that fruit already seemed beautifull told her that by tasting it they should be as Gods knowing Good
the◅efore manifest that Christ hath not left to his Ministers in this world unlesse they be also endued with Civill Authority any authority to Command other men But what may some object if a King or a Senate or other Soveraign Person forbid us to beleeve in Christ To this I answer that such forbidding is of no effect because Beleef and Unbeleef never follow mens Commands Faith is a gift of God which Man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture And if it be further asked What if wee bee commanded by our lawfull Prince to say with our tongue wee beleeve not must we obey such command Profession with the tongue is but an externall thing and no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and wherein a Christian holding firmely in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian Naaman was converted in his heart to the God of Israel For hee saith 2 Kings 5. 17. Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other Gods but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant that when my Master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my hand and I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon when I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing This the Prophet approved and bid him Goe in peace Here Naaman beleeved in his heart but by bowing before the Idol Rimmon he denyed the true God in effect as much as if he had done it with his lips But then what shall we answer to our Saviours saying Whosoever denyeth me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in Heaven This we may say that whatsoever a Subject as Naaman was is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not in order to his own mind but in order to the laws of his country that action is not his but his Soveraigns nor is it he that in this case denyeth Christ before men but his Governour and the law of his countrey If any man shall accuse this doctrine as repugnant to true and unfegined Christianity I ask him in case there should be a subject in any Christian Common-wealth that should be inwardly in his heart of the Mahometan Religion whether if his Soveraign command him to bee present at the divine service of the Christian Church and that on pain of death he think that Mahometan obliged in conscience to suffer death for that cause rather than to obey that command of his lawfull Prince If he say he ought rather to suffer death then he authorizeth all private men to disobey their Princes in maintenance of their Religion true or false if he say he ought to bee obedient then he alloweth to himself that which hee denyeth to another contrary to the words of our Saviour Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you that doe yee unto them and contrary to the Law of Nature which is the indubitable everlasting Law of God Do not to another that which thou wouldest not he should doe unto thee But what then shall we say of all those Martyrs we read of in the History of the Church that they have needlessely cast away their lives For answer hereunto we are to distinguish the persons that have been for that cause put to death whereof some have received a Calling to preach and professe the Kingdome of Christ openly others have had no such Calling nor more has been required of them than their owne faith The former sort if they have been put to death for bearing witnesse to this point that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead were true Martyrs For a Martyr is to give the true definition of the word a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah which none can be but those that conversed with him on earth and saw him after he was risen For a Witnesse must have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good And that none but such can properly be called Martyrs of Christ is manifest out of the words of St. Peter Act. 1. 21 22. VVherefore of these men which have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out amongst us beginning from the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day hee was taken up from us must one one be ordained to be a Martyr that is a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection Where we may observe that he which is to bee a Witnesse of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ that is to say of the truth of this fundamentall article of Christian Religion that Jesus was the Christ must be some Disciple that conversed with him and saw him before and after his Resurrection and consequently must be one of his originall Disciples whereas they which were not so can Witnesse no more but that their antecessors said it and are therefore but Witnesses of other mens testimony and are but second Martyrs or Martyrs of Christs Witnesses He that to maintain every doctrine which he himself draweth out of the History our Saviours of life and of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles or which he beleeveth upō the authority of a private man wil oppose the Laws and Authority of the Civill State is very far from being a Martyr of Christ or a Martyr of his Martyrs 'T is one Article onely which to die for meriteth so honorable a name and that Article is this that Iesus is the Christ that is to say He that hath redeemed us aud shall come again to give us salvation and eternall life in his glorious Kingdome To die for every tenet that serveth the ambition or profit of the Clergy is not required nor is it the Death of the Witnesse but the Testimony it self that makes the Martyr for the word signifieth nothing else but the man that beareth Witnesse whether he be put to death for his testimony or not Also he that is not sent to preach this fundamentall article but taketh it upon him of his private authority though he be a Witnesse and consequently a Martyr either primary of Christ or secundary of his Apostles Disciples or their Successors yet is he not obliged to suffer death for that cause because being not called thereto t is not required at his hands nor ought hee to complain if he loseth the reward he expecteth from those that never set him on work None therefore can be a Martyr neither of the first nor second degree that have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the flesh that is to say none but such as are sent to the conversion of Infidels For no man is a Witnesse to him that already beleeveth and therefore needs no Witnesse but to them that deny or doubt or have not heard it Christ sent his Apostles and his Seventy Disciples with
God worshippeth with Divine Worship They that seek the distinction of Divine and Civill Worship not in the intention of the Worshipper but in the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceive themselves For whereas there be two sorts of Servants that sort which is of those that are absolutely in the power of their Masters as Slaves taken in war and their Issue whose bodies are not in their own power their lives depending on the Will of their Masters in such manner as to forfeit them upon the least disobedience and that are bought and sold as Beasts were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is properly Slaves and their Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other which is of those that serve for hire or in hope of benefit from their Masters voluntarily are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Domestique Servants to whose service the Masters have no further right than is contained in the Covenants made betwixt them These two kinds of Servants have thus much common to them both that their labour is appointed them by another And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the generall name of both signifying him that worketh for another whether as a Slave or a voluntary Servant So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth generally all Service but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the service of Bondmen onely and the condition of Slavery And both are used in Scripture to signifie our Service of God promiscuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because we are Gods Slaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because wee Serve him and in all kinds of Service is contained not onely Obedience but also Worship that is such actions gestures and words as signifie Honor. An IMAGE in the most strict signification of the word is the Resemblance of some thing visible In which sense the Phantasticall Formes Apparitions or Seemings of visible Bodies to the Sight are onely Images such as are the Shew of a man or other thing in the Water by Reflexion or Refraction or of the Sun or Stars by Direct Vision in the Air which are nothing reall in the things seen nor in the place where they seem to bee nor are their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the object but changeable by the variation of the organs of Sight or by glasses and are present oftentimes in our Imagination and in our Dreams when the object is absent or changed into other colours and shapes as things that depend onely upon the Fancy And these are the Images which are originally and most properly called Ideas and IDOLS and derived from the language of the Graecians with whom the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to See They are also called PHANTASMES which is in the same language Apparitions And from these Images it is that one of the faculties of mans Nature is called the Imagination And from hence it is manifest that there neither is nor can bee any Image made of a thing Invisible It is also evident that there can be no Image of a thing Infinite for all the Images and Phantasmes that are made by the Impression of things visible are figured but Figure is a quantity every way determined And therefore there can bee no Image of God nor of the Soâ—…le of Man nor of Spirits but onely of Bodies Visible that is Bodies that have light in themselves or are by such â—…nligtened And whereas a man can fancy Shapes he never saw making up a Figure out of the parts of divers creatures as the Poets make their Centaures Chimaeras and other Monsters never seen So can he also give Matter to those Shapes and make them in Wood Clay or Metall And these are also called Images not for the resemblance of any corporeall thing but for the resemblance of some Phantasticall Inhabitants of the Brain of the Maker But in these Idols as they are originally in the Brain and as they are painted carved moulded or moulten in matter there is a similitude of the one to the other for which the Materiall Body made by Art may be said to be the Image of the Phantasticall Idoll made by Nature But in a larger use of the word Image is contained also any Representation of one thing by another So an earthly Soveraign may be called the Image of God And an inferiour Magistrate the Image of an earthly Soveraign And many times in the Idolatry of the Gentiles there was little regard to the similitude of their Materiall Idol to the Idol in their fancy and yet it was called the Image of it For a Stone unhewn has been set up for Neptune and divers other shapes far different from the shapes they conceived of their Gods And at this day we see many Images of the Virgin Mary and other Saints unlike one another and without correspondence to any one mans Fancy and yet serve well enough for the purpose they were erected for which was no more but by the Names onely to represent the Persons mentioned in the History to which every man applyeth a Mentall Image of his owne making or none at all And thus an Image in the largest sense is either the Resemblance or the Representation of some thing Visible or both together as it happeneth for the most part But the name of Idoll is extended yet further in Scripture to signifie also the Sunne or a Starre or any other Creature visible or invisible when they are worshipped for Gods Having shewn what is Worship and what an Image I will now put them together and examine what that IDOLATRY is which is forbidden in the Second Commandement and other places of the Scripture To worship an Image is voluntarily to doe those externall acts which are signes of honoring either the matter of the Image which is Wood Stone Metall or some other visible creature or the Phantasme of the brain for the resemblance or representation whereof the matter was formed and figured or both together as one â—…nimate Body composed of the Matter and the Phantasme as of a Body and Soule To be uncovered before a man of Power and Authority or before the Throne of a Prince or in such other places as hee ordaineth to that purpose in his absence is to Worship that man or Prince with Civill Worship as being a signe not of honoring the stoole or place but the Person and is not Idolatry But if hee that doth it should suppose the Soule of the Prince to be in the Stool or should present a Petition to the Stool it were Divine Worship and Idolatry To pray to a King for such things as hee is able to doe for us though we prostrate our selves before him is but Civill Worship because we acknowledge no other power in him but humane But voluntarily to pray unto him for fair weather or for any thing which God onely can doe for us is Divine Worship and Idolatry On the other side if a King compell a man to it by
is Honourable because employment is a signe of Power But if it seem to proceed from a purpose to appear grave it is Dishonourable For the gravity of the former is like the steddinesse of a Ship laden with Merchandise but of the later like the steddinesse of a Ship ballasted with Sand and other trash To be Conspicuous that is to say to be known for Wealth Office great Actions or any eminent Good is Honourable as a signe of the power for which he is conspicuous On the contrary Obscurity is Dishonourable To be descended from conspicuous Parents is Honourable because they the more easily attain the aydes and friends of their Ancestors On the contrary to be descended from obscure Parentage is Dishonourable Actions proceeding from Equity joyned with losse are Honourable as signes of Magnanimity for Magnanimity is a signe of Power On the contrary Craft Shifting neglect of Equity is Dishonourable Covetousnesse of great Riches and ambition of great Honours are Honourable as signes of power to obtain them Covetousnesse and ambition of little gaines or preferments is Dishonourable Nor does it alter the case of Honour whether an action so it be great and difficult and consequently a signe of much power be just or unjust for Honour consisteth onely in the opinion of Power Therefore the ancient Heathen did not thinke they Dishonoured but greatly Honoured the Gods when they introduced them in their Poems committing Rapes Thefts and other great but unjust or unclean acts In so much as nothing is so much celebrated in Jupiter as his Adulteries nor in Mercury as his Frauds and Thefts of whose praises in a hymne of Homer the greatest is this that being born in the morning he had invented Musique at noon and before night stolne away the Cattell of Apollo from his Herdsmen Also amongst men till there were constituted great Common-wealths it was thought no dishonour to be a Pyrate or a High-way Theefe but rather a lawfull Trade not onely amongst the Greeks but also amongst all other Nations as is manifest by the Histories of antient time And at this day in this part of the world private Duels are and alwayes will be Honourable though unlawfull till such time as there shall be Honour ordained for them that refuse and Ignominy for them that make the Challenge For Duels also are many times effects of Courage and the ground of Courage is alwayes Strength or Skill which are Power though for the most part they be effects of rash speaking and of the fear of Dishonour in one or both the Combatants who engaged by rashnesse are driven into the Lists to avoyd disgrace Scutchions and Coats of Armes haereditary where they have any eminent Priviledges are Honourable otherwise not for their Power consisteth either in such Priviledges or in Riches or some such thing as is equally honoured in other men This kind of Honour commonly called Gentry has been derived from the Antient Germans For there never was any such thing known where the German Customes were unknown Nor is it now any where in use where the Germans have not inhabited The antient Greek Commanders when they went to war had their Shields painted with such Devises as they pleased insomuch as an unpainted Buckler was a signe of Poverty and of a common Souldier but they transmitted not the Inheritance of them The Romans transmitted the Marks of their Families but they were the Images not the Devises of their Ancestors Amongst the people of Asia Afrique and America there is not nor was ever any such thing The Germans onely had that custome from whom it has been derived into England France Spain and Italy when in great numbers they either ayded the Romans or made their own Conquests in these Westerne parts of the world For Germany being antiently as all other Countries in their beginnings divided amongst an infinite number of little Lords or Masters of Families that continually had wars one with another those Masters or Lords principally to the end they might when they were Covered with Arms be known by their followers and partly for ornament both painted their Armor or their Scutchion or Coat with the picture of some Beast or other thing and also put some eminent and visible mark upon the Crest of their Helmets And this ornament both of the Armes and Crest descended by inheritance to their Children to the eldest pure and to the rest with some note of diversity such as the Old master that is to say in Dutch the Here-alt thought fit But when many such Families joyned together made a greater Monarchy this duty of the Herealt to distinguish Scutchions was made a private Office a part And the issue of these Lords is the great and antient Gentry which for the most part bear living creatures noted for courage and rapine or Castles Battlements Belts Weapons Bars Palisadoes and other notes of War nothing being then in honour but vertue military Afterwards not onely Kings but popular Common-wealths gave divers manners of Scutchions to such as went forth to the War or returned from it for encouragement or recompence to their service All which by an observing Reader may be found in such antient Histories Greek and Latine as make mention of the German Nation and Manners in their times Titles of Honour such as are Duke Count Marquis and Baron are Honourable as signifying the value set upon them by the Soveraigne Power of the Common-wealth Which Titles were in old time titles of Office and Command derived some from the Romans some from the Germans and French Dukes in Latine Duces being Generalls in War Counts Comites such as bare the Generall company out of friendship and were left to govern and defend places conquered and pacified Marquises Marchiones were Counts that governed the Marches or bounds of the Empire Which titles of Duke Count and Marquis came into the Empire about the time of Constantine the Great from the customes of the German Militia But Baron seems to have been a Title of the Gaules and signifies a Great man such as were the Kings or Princes men whom they employed in war about their persons and seems to be derived from Vir to Ber and Bar that signified the same in the Language of the Gaules that Vir in Latine and thence to Bero and Baro so that such men were called Berones and after Barones and in Spanish Varones But he that would know more particularly the originall of Titles of Honour may find it as I have done this in Mr. Seldens most excellent Treatise of that subject In processe of time these offices of Honour by occasion of trouble and for reasons of good and peaceable government were turned into meer Titles serving for the most part to distinguish the precedence place and order of subjects in the Common-wealth and men were made Dukes Counts Marquises and Barons of Places wherein they had neither possession nor command and other Titles also were devised to the same end
and inseparable Rights it follows necessarily that in whatsoever words any of them seem to be granted away yet if the Soveraign Power it selfe be not in direct termes renounced and the name of Soveraign no more given by the Grantees to him that Grants them the Grant is voyd for when he has granted all he can if we grant back the Soveraignty all is restored as inseparably annexed thereunto This great Authority being Indivisible and inseparably annexed to the Soveraignty there is little ground for the opinion of them that say of Soveraign Kings though they be singulis majores of greater Power than every one of their Subjects yet they be Universis minores of lesse power than them all together For if by all together they mean not the collective body as one person then all together and every one signifie the same and the speech is absurd But if by all together they understand them as one Person which person the Soveraign bears then the power of all together is the same with the Soveraigns power and so again the speech is absurd which absurdity they see well enough when the Soveraignty is in an Assembly of the people but in a Monarch they see it not and yet the power of Soveraignty is the same in whomsoever it be placed And as the Power so also the Honour of the Soveraign ought to be greater than that of any or all the Subjects For in the Soveraignty is the fountain of Honour The dignities of Lord Earle Duke and Prince are his Creatures As in the presence of the Master the Servants are equall and without any honour at all So are the Subjects in the presence of the Soveraign And though they shine some more some lesse when they are out of his sight yet in his presence they shine no more than the Starres in presence of the Sun But a man may here object that the Condition of Subjects is very miserable as being obnoxious to the lusts and other irregular passions of him or them that have so unlimited a Power in their hands And commonly they that live under a Monarch think it the fault of Monarchy and they that live under the government of Democracy or other Soveraign Assembly attribute all the inconvenience to that forme of Common-wealth whereas the Power in all formes if they be perfect enough to protect them is the same not considering that the estate of Man can never be without some incommodity or other and that the greatest that in any forme of Government can possibly happen to the people in generall is scarce sensible in respect of the miseries and horrible calamities that accompany a Civill Warre or that dissolute condition of masterlesse men without subjection to Lawes and a coërcive Power to tye their lands from rapine and revenge nor considering that the greatest pressure of Soveraign Governours proceedeth not from any delight or profit they can expect in the dammage or weakening of their Subjects in whose vigor consisteth their own strength and glory but in the restiveness of themselves that unwillingly contributing to their own defence make it necessary for their Governours to draw from them what they can in time of Peace that they may have means on any emergent occasion or sudden need to resist or take advantage on their Enemies For all men are by nature provided of notable multiplying glasses that is their Passions and Selfe-love through which every little payment appeareth a great grievance but are destitute of those prospective glasses namely Morall and Civill Science to see a farre off the miseries that hang over them and cannot without such payments be avoyded CHAP. XIX Of the severall Kinds of Common-wealth by Institution and of Succession to the Soveraigne Power THe difference of Common-wealths consisteth in the difference of the Soveraign or the Person representative of all and every one of the Multitude And because the Soveraignty is either in one Man or in an Assembly of more than one and into that Assembly either Every man hath right to enter or not every one but Certain men distinguished from the rest it is manifest there can be but Three kinds of Common-wealth For the Representative must needs be One man or 〈◊〉 and if more then it is the Assembly of All or but of a Part. When the Representative is One man then is the Common-wealth a MONARCHY when an Assembly of All that will come together then it is a DEMOCRACY or Popular Common-wealth when an Assembly of a Part onely then it is called an ARISTOCRACY Other kind of Common-wealth there can be none for either One or More or All must have the Soveraign Power which I have shewn to be indivisible entire There be other names of Government in the Histories and books of Policy as Tyranny and Oligarchy But 〈◊〉 are not the names of other Formes of Government but of the same Formes misliked For they that are discontented under Monarchy call it Tyranny and they that are displeased with Aristocracy called it Oligarchy So also they which find themselves grieved under a Democracy call it Anarchy which signifies want of Government and yet I think no man believes that want of Government is any new kind of Government nor by the same reason ought they to believe that the Government is of one kind when they like it and another when they mislike it or are oppressed by the Governours It is manifest that men who are in absolute liberty may if they please give Authority to One man to represent them every one as well as give such Authority to any Assembly of men whatsoever and consequently may subject themselves if they think good to a Monarch as absolutely as to any other Representative Therefore where there is already erected a Soveraign Power there can be no other Representative of the same people but onely to certain 〈◊〉 ends by the Soveraign limited For that were to erect two Soveraigns and every man to have his person represented by two Actors that by opposing one another must needs divide that Power which if men will live in Peace is indivisible and thereby reduce the Multitude into the condition of Warre contrary to the end 〈◊〉 which all Soveraignty is instituted And therefore as it is absurd to think that a Soveraign Assembly inviting the People of their Dominion to send up their Deputies with power to make known their Advise or Desires should therefore hold such Deputies rather than themselves for the absolute Representative of the people so it is absurd also to think the same in a Monarchy And I know not how this so manifest a truth should of late be so little observed that in a Monarchy he that had the Soveraignty from a descent of 600 years was alone called Soveraign had the title of Majesty from every one of his Subjects and was unquestionably taken by them for their King was notwithstanding never considered as their Representative that name
Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty are the same in both His Power cannot without his consent be Transferred to another He cannot Forfeit it He cannot be Accused by any of his Subjects of Injury He cannot be Punished by them He is Judge of what is necessary for Peace and Judge of Doctrines He is Sole Legislator and Supreme Judge of Controversies and of the Times and Occasions of Warre and Peace to him it belongeth to choose Magistrates Counsellours Commanders and all other Officers and Ministers and to determine of Rewards and Punishments Honour and Order The reasons whereof are the same which are alledged in the precedent Chapter for the same Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty by Institution Dominion is acquired two wayes By Generation and by Conquest The right of Dominion by Generation is that which the Parent hath over his Children and is called PATERNALL And is not so derived from the Generation as if therefore the Parent had Dominion over his Child because he begat him but from the Childs Consent either expresse or by other sufficient arguments declared For as to the Generation God hath ordained to man a helper and there be alwayes two that are equally Parents the Dominion therefore over the Child should belong equally to both and he be equally subject to both which is impossible for no man can obey two Masters And whereas some have attributed the Dominion to the Man onely as being of the more excellent Sex they misreckon in it For there is not alwayes that difference of strength or prudence between the man and the woman as that the right can be determined without War In Common-wealths this controversie in decided by the Civill Law and for the most part but not alwayes the sentence is in favour of the Father because for the most part Common-wealths have been erected by the Fathers not by the Mothers of families But the question lyeth now in the state of meer Nature where there are supposed no lawes of Matrimony no lawes for the Education of Children but the Law of Nature and the naturall inclination of the Sexes one to another and to their children In this condition of meer Nature either the Parents between themselves dispose of the dominion over the Child by Contract or do not dispose thereof at all If they dispose thereof the right passeth according to the Contract We find in History that the Amazons Contracted with the Men of the neighbouring Countries to whom they had recourse for issue that the issue Male should be sent back but the Female remain with themselves so that the dominion of the Females was in the Mother If there be no Contract the Dominion is in the Mother For in the condition of meer Nature where there are no Matrimoniall lawes it cannot be known who is the Father unlesse it be delared by the Mother and therefore the right of Dominion over the Child dependeth on her will and is consequently hers Again seeing the Infant is first in the power of the Mother so as she may either nourish or expose it if she nourish it it oweth its life to the Mother and is therefore obliged to obey her rather than any other and by consequence the Dominion over it is hers But if she expose it and another find and nourish it the Dominion is in him that nourisheth it For it ought to obey him by whom it is preserved because preservation of life being the end for which one man becomes subject to another every man is supposed to promise obedience to him in whose power it is to save or destroy him If the Mother be the Fathers subject the Child is in the Fathers power and if the Father be the Mothers subject as when a Soveraign Queen marrieth one of her subjects the Child is subject to the Mother because the Father also is her subject If a man and a woman Monarches of two severall Kingdomes have a Child and contract concerning who shall have the Dominion of him the Right of the Dominion passeth by the Contract If they contract not the Dominion followeth the Dominion of the place of his residence For the Soveraign of each Country hath Dominion over all that reside therein He that hath the Dominion over the Child hath Dominion also over the Children of the Child and over their Childrens Children For he that hath Dominion over the person of a man hath Dominion over all that is his without which Dominion were but a Title without the effect The Right of Succession to Paternall Dominion proceedeth in the same manner as doth the Right of Succession to Monarchy of which I have already sufficiently spoken in the precedent chapter Dominion acquired by Conquest or Victory in war is that which some Writers call DESPOTICALL from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Lord or Master and is the Dominion of the Master over his Servant And this Dominion is then acquired to the Victor when the Vanquished to avoyd the present stroke of death covenanteth either in expresse words or by other sufficient signes of the Will that so long as his life and the liberty of his body is allowed him the Victor shall have the use thereof at his pleasure And after such Covenant made the Vanquished is a SERVANT and not before for by the word Servant whether it be derived from Servire to Serve or from Servare to Save which I leave to Grammarians to dispute is not meant a Captive which is kept in prison or bonds till the owner of him that took him or bought him of one that did shall consider what to do with him for such men commonly called Slaves have no obligation at all but may break their bonds or the prison and kill or carry away captive their Master justly but one that being taken hath corporall liberty allowed him and upon promise not to run away nor to do violence to his Master is trusted by him It is not therefore the Victory that giveth the right of Dominion over the Vanquished but his own Covenant Nor is he obliged because he is Conquered that is to say beaten and taken or put to flight but because he commeth in and Submitteth to the Victor Nor is the Victor obliged by an enemies rendring himselfe without promise of life to spare him for this his yeelding to discretion which obliges not the Victor longer than in his own discretion hee shall think fit And that which men do when they demand as it is now called Quarter which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking alive is to evade the present fury of the Victor by Submission and to compound for their life with Ransome or Service and therefore he that hath Quarter hath not his life given but deferred till farther deliberation For it is not an yeelding on condition of life but to discretion And then onely is his life in security and his service due when the Victor hath trusted
the Falling Sicknesse or that spoke any thing which they for want of understanding thought absurd As also of an Unclean person in a notorious degree they used to say he had an Unclean Spirit of a Dumbe man that he had a Dumbe Devill and of Iohn Baptist Math. 11. 18. for the singularity of his fasting that he had a Devill and of our Saviour because he said hee that keepeth his sayings should not see Death in aeternum Now we know thou hast a Devill Abraham is dead and the Prophets are dead And again because he said Iohn 7. 20. They went about to kill him the people answered Thou hast a Devill who goeth about to kill thee Whereby it is manifest that the Jewes had the same opinions concerning Phantasmes namely that they were not Phantasmes that is Idols of the braine but things reall and independent on the Fancy Which doctrine if it be not true why may some say did not our Saviour contradict it and teach the contrary nay why does he use on diverse occasions such forms of speech as seem to confirm it To this I answer that first where Christ saith A spirit hath not flesh and bone though hee shew that there be Spirits yet hee denies not that they are Bodies And where St. Paul saies We shall rise spirituall Bodies he acknowledgeth the nature of Spirits but that they are Bodily Spirits which is not difficult to understand For Air and many other things are Bodies though not Flesh and Bone or any other grosse body to bee discerned by the eye But when our Saviour speaketh to the Devill and commandeth him to go out of a man if by the Devill be meant a Disease as Phrenesy or Lunacy or a corporeal Spirit is not the speech improper can Diseases heare or can there be a corporeall Spirit in a Body of Flesh and Bone full already of vitall and animall Spirits Are there not therefore Spirits that neither have Bodies nor are meer Imaginations To the first I answer that the addressing of our Saviours command to the Madnesse or Lunacy he cureth is no more improper than was his rebuking of the Fever or of the Wind and Sea for neither do these hear Or than was the command of God to the Light to the Firmament to the Sunne and Starres when he commanded them to bee for they could not heare before they had a beeing But those speeches are not improper because they signifie the power of Gods Word no more therefore is it improper to command Madnesse or Lunacy under the appellation of Devils by which they were then commonly understood to depart out of a mans body To the second concerning their being Incorporeall I have not yet observed any place of Scripture from whence it can be gathered that any man was ever possessed with any other Corporeall Spirit but that of his owne by which his body is naturally moved Our Saviour immediately after the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a Dove is said by St. Matthew Chapt. 4. 1. to have been led up by the Spirit into the Wildernesse and the same is recited Luke 4. 1. in these words Iesus being full of the Holy Ghost was led in the Spirit into the Wildernesse Whereby it is evident that by Spirit there is meant the Holy Ghost This cannot be interpreted for a Possession For Christ and the Holy Ghost are but one and the same substance which is no possession of one substance or body by another And whereas in the verses following he is said to have been taken up by the Devill into the Holy City and set upon a pinnacle of the Temple shall we conclude thence that hee was possessed of the Devill or carryed thither by violence And again carryed thence by the Devill into an exceeding high mountain who shewed him thence all the Kingdomes of the world Wherein wee are not to beleeve he was either possessed or forced by the Devill nor that any Mountaine is high enough according to the literall sense to shew him one whole Hemisphere What then can be the meaning of this place other than that he went of himself into the Wildernesse and that this carrying of him up and down from the Wildernesse to the City and from thence into a Mountain was a Vision Conformable whereunto is also the phrase of St. Luke that hee was led into the Wildernesse not by but in the Spirit whereas concerning His being Taken up into the Mountaine and unto the Pinnacle of the Temple hee speaketh as St. Matthew doth Which suiteth with the nature of a Vision Again where St. Luke sayes of Judas Iscariot that Satan entred into him and thereupon that he went and communed with the Chief Priests and Captaines how he might betray Christ unto them it may be answered that by the Entring of Satan that is the Enemy into him is meant the hostile and traiterours intention of selling his Lord and Master For as by the Holy Ghost is frequently in Scripture understood the Graces and good Inclinations given by the Holy Ghost so by the Entring of Satan may bee understood the wicked Cogitations and Designes of the Adversaries of Christ and his Disciples For as it is hard to say that the Devill was entred into Judas before he had any such hostile designe so it is impertinent to say he was first Christs Enemy in his heart and that the Devill entred into him afterwards Therefore the Entring of Satan and his Wicked Purpose was one and the same thing But if there be no Immateriall Spirit nor any Possession of mens bodies by any Spirit Corporeall it may again be asked why our Saviour and his Apostles did not teach the People so and in such cleer words as they might no more doubt thereof But such questions as these are more curious than necessary for a Christian mans Salvation Men may as well aske why Christ that could have given to all men Faith Piety and all manner of morall Vertues gave it to some onely and not to all and why he left the search of naturall Causes and Sciences to the naturall Reason and Industry of men and did not reveal it to all or any man supernaturally and many other such questions Of which neverthelesse there may be alledged probable and pious reasons For as God when he brought the Israelites into the Land of Promise did not secure them therein by subduing all the Nations round about them but left many of them as thornes in their sides to awaken from time to time their Piety and Industry so our Saviour in conducting us toward his heavenly Kingdome did not destroy all the difficulties of Naturall Questions but left them to exercise our Industry and Reason the Scope of his preaching being onely to shew us this plain and direct way to Salvation namely the beleef of this Article that he was the Christ the Son of the living God sent into the world to sacrifice himselfe for our Sins and