are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
Temporal Dominions and therefore may punish disturbers of the peace of the Church as well as the State Yet when the Temporal Magistrate shall arrogate to himself a power which our Saviour only left to his Church and make all Ecclesiastical rights and constitutions depending and subordinate to the Civil whereby the Enemies of our Church have taxed our Religion not for Christian but Parliamentary no doubt but it is a crying sin and I wish there had never been any such thing among us 19. And as God is to be obeyed before men in all things which concern Or the Laws of Nature Faith and Religion so in the observance of the Laws of Nature is God to be obeyed before men As if a King commands me to dishonor my parents this can be but a Humane law but to honor my parents is a law which God hath written in my heart and therefore ought to be preferred If a King commands his Subjects to dishonor him or to deny obedience to him this is but a Humane law whereas by the law of Nature I ought to honor and obey my King I therefore ought not to obey such a law Amurath the Second of that name King of the Turks upon a Vow resigned his Kingdom to his son Mahomet yet upon the League made by Uladislaus King of Pole and Hungary with other Christian Princes against him he resumed his Regal authority and so kept it until his death And so might Charls the Fifth if he had pleased nor was Philip any other then an Instrument of his Fathers during his Fathers life The King makes a Law giving the succession of the Crown from the right Heir This ought not to be received for Princes inherit by a higher Law then Humane 20. The King commands a Judge to pervert Judgment the Judge Or to pervert Judgment ought to give true Judgment for all Humane Laws in peaceable times ought to be â priori and proclaimed that all men after such a time should observe them This verbal command of the King wanting this formality and it being impossible for the Judge to observe both these commands he ought notwithstanding this verbal command to give Judgment according to Law The King when there is no necessity or publick danger commands me Quaere who am no publick Executioner without any Judicial sentence to put a man to death for which he can make no compensation As Davids commanding Joab to murder Uriah although we find David only reprehended and punished therefore yet sure if Joab had not fulfilled Davids wicked command he had not sinned But you may object Who shall judge whether this thing commanded be repugnant to Gods Majesty Mans faith Religion or the Law of Nature the King or the Subject I say though the Subject hath not an equal right of judging with the King whether this thing should be a Law or not yet every Subject hath a Conscience as well as the King which must dictate Whether Kings divest themselves of Regality by commanding what they ought not to him whether he ought to do or not to do such a thing 21. But if the King commands things contrary to Gods Majesty and Divine Laws ought he not to be obeyed in those things which do not contradict them It is so mad and wild an objection as it is scarce worth an answering unless a man will affirm that my doing of an act which I ought not to have done does divest me of Humane nature or that a Fathers or Masters commanding his Son or Servant what he ought not doth annihilate the relations of Father and Son Master and Servant or that Humane acts may dissolve Humane relations A Prince therefore ought to be obeyed in those things which he ought to command as Prince although he command such things as he ought not 22. It may be it will be objected That Temporal punishments being Though inflicting punishment for not observance the usual concomitants for not observing Humane Laws a good and conscientious man may be punished for what he ought not to have done I say his case is the same with his Lords and Saviours and all those blessed and glorious primitive Christians and Martyrs who suffered for the testimony of a good conscience Nor hath God made Heaven so easie a prize that it should be always won easily and delicately but many times by suffering and martyrdom 23. It is the most usual thing with seditious men before they enter Whether Princes ought to be resisted where they are not to be obeyed into open sedition to prepare mens mindes with certain Cases wherein Princes commanding things derogatory to Gods Honor or the Subjects Liberty that then in the preservation of themselves and Gods honor they ought to defend themselves from the raging Tyrannie of Princes and to be sure that whatsoever they command these good men will judge contrary to Gods Honor and the Liberty of the Subject It is worth the while if a mans patience will give him leave to look back upon the thing calling it self Parliament how after they had made the King grant whatsoever they could think might be beneficial to the Subjects though I might be sworne they never intended as plainly appeared afterward the good benefit or liberty of the Subject what pious ways they invented to make themselves great and so good a Prince nothing and odious to his Subjects As the demanding of six men holding intelligence with his Subjects who had been in open hostility and rebellion against him an affront not to be endured by any King to an ordinary and Legal Trial this was not only denied but Voted a Breach of the Priviledge of Parliament whenas the Priviledge of Parliament extends not to so much as breach of the Peace much less to Treason They pretend though most falsly that in case of extreme danger and necessity the Militia is in the Parliament meaning themselves excluding the King And then create Dangers and write Letters how great Fleets of Danes Swedes Hollanders c. were seen at Sea It must be from Westminster then for there were the Letters written and the Fleets never since heard of Then permit if not command the most insufferable affronts and indignities that ever were offered to Majesty yet if the King but offers to increase his Guard this is Voted no less then a raising of War against his Parliament and Subjects whilst all the while against the Lex consuetudo Parliamenti Inst par 4. 14. without any cause moving them they maintain an illegal Rout of men for their Guard and go armed themselves Nay what needs a man instance particulars All the Kings commands in prosecution of the Laws were Voted breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject We will therefore shew that this Assertion is not only contrary to all Faith in both Testaments but also destructive to all Humane Society 24. There is no man sure will deny but
Third within less then three years after the death of S. Gregory did assume the title of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church but rather by the donation of Phocas who had no more right to give it then the Parliament had to give Henry the Eighth the Head of the Church of England nor had Phocas any colour of title to the Empire and have continued it ever since 4. S. Gregory in his 76. Epistle to the Emperor Maurice says Nunquid Neither S. Gregory nor his predecessors did claim superiority over Temporal Princes ego in hac re piissime Domine propriam causam defendo Do I herein defend mine own cause O gracious Lord And Dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc Dominus omnium non eras ecce per me servum ultimum suum vestrum respondebit Christus You were then my Lord when you were not Lord of all viz. the Empire behold Christ himself shall answer by me who am his and your meanest servant And when the Emperor Maurice had made a law That no Soldier should turn Monk until his warfare were ended Gâ—eg ad Manâ— Aug. lib 3. eâ— 61. Gregory disliked the law and gave the Emperor this sense of it Ego quidem missioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas terrarum partes transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Dec minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam dominis nunciavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quid sensi minime tacui I being subject to your command have transmitted your Law to be published through divers parts 〈◊〉 2. ep 61. of the world And because the Law it self is not pleasing to Almighty God I have represented my opinion thereof to my Lords whereforee I have performed my duty on both sides in yielding obedience to the Emperor and not concealing what I thought for God And Boniface the First sent an humble supplication to Honorius desiring him by his authority to provide some remedy against the ambitious contention of the Clergy concerning the Bishoprick of Rome The Emperor Honorius at his request established Dist 92. cap. Eccle. cap. Victor a law That none should be made Bishop of Rome through ambition charging all Ecclesiastical Ministers to cease from ambition appointing moreover that if two were elected neither of them should be taken but the election to proceed further to another to be chosen by a full consent of voices as it is expressed dist 79. cap. Si duo If then S. Gregory himself were so zealous an opposer of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church and to that purpose introduced that sentence of Servus servorum Dei to deter all subsequent Bishops of Rome from such arrogance And if S. Gregory did acknowledge himself so humble a Subject to Maurice and that Boniface the First did petition Honorius by his authority to provide against the irregularities in the very election of the Bishop of Rome there was no such thing in these days as Cardinals and the Election of the Pope in the Conclave then sure in the days of S. Gregory and before neither did the Popes assume this title of Head of the Church nor a power of disposing and transferring Kingdoms at their pleasure But affirmanti incumbit probatio and let any man that affirms either prove either 5. That above one half of what is now called Britain did retain the Though S. Cregory were the first yet was he not the onely Converter of the English Saxons Christian faith notwithstanding the persecution of the Saxons is sufficiently evident if we consider Scotland and Wales which always retained Christianity since it was first planted Nor were the very Saxons themselves utterly destitute of Christianity For Berta the wife of Ethelbert King of Kent and daughter to the French King was tolerated to observe the rites of Christian religion with Bishop Luidhard and this was before that S. Gregory was excited or inspired to undertake to preach to the English Saxons It is true that Ethelbert after his own conversion did endeavor to Seld. Anae Anglo Brit. lib. 2. cap. 2. pag. 62. have planted the Christian faith both in the Kingdoms of Northumberland and the East-Angles with fair hopes of good success for a season but it took not effect for within a short time both Kings and Kingdoms forsook their Religion and apostated from Christ The Kingdoms of the West-Saxons and of the South-Saxons under Kingils their King who did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy were converted by the preaching Speed in the Kings of the West-Saxons an 611. Beda lib. 3. cap. 4 5. Idem lib. 3. cap 21. Speed in the Kings of the East-Angles an 636. of Berinus an Italian by the perswasions of Oswald King of Northumberland Oswald King of Northumberland was baptized in Scotland and Religion luckily planted in that Kingdom by Aidan a Scotish Bishop Penda King of Mercia was converted and Christened by Finanus Successor of Aidan by means of a Marriage with a Christian Princess of the Royal family of Northumberland Sigibert King of the East-Angles in whose days and by whose means Religion took root among the East-Saxons was converted and Christened in France 6. No sooner was the name of Christ preached but the English presently The zeal of our Ancestors upon their conversion with such fervent devotion and zeale consecrated themselves unto Christ that they took incredible pains in propagating Christianity in celebrating Divine service performing all functions and duties of piety building Churches and endowing them with rich livings so that there was not another Region in Christendom that could make reckoning of more Monasteries richly endowed yea and divers Kings there were that preferred a religious and Monastical life before their Crown and Kingdom So that many holy men also this Land brought forth which for their firm profession of Christian Religion constant perseverance therein and sincere piety were canonized Saints that it gave place to no Christian Province in this behalf And like as Britain was called by Porphyry a plenteous province of Tyrants so England may be truly named a most fruitful Island of Saints Camb. Brit tit Angl. Sax. 7. The Bishop of Derry in his book of the Just vindication of the Church The Popes universal power was not received under the English Saxon Kings before the Conquest of England pag. 57. does affirm that not any of the petite Saxon Kings or their Subjects though some of them indebted to S. Gregory for their Conversion and all of them much weakened by their sevenfold division for at first there was of seven Kings but only one who was a Christian namely the King of Kent neither was it any of his progeny who afterward did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy much less that any of the succeeding Kings of England or of Great Britain did ever make any solemn formal or obliging acknowledgment of
your souls sad rather then instructed you with sound and wholesome Doctrine it seemed good to us being met together to send to you Barnabas and Paul who had ventured their life for the Name of Christ With them we send Judas and Sylas who shall speak the same words It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us not to impose more necessary burden then these things upon you That ye abstain from things offered to Idols and Blood and things strangled and from fornication and that ye will that which ye would other men should do to you From this one Commandment it is manifest That a man should restore every man his right neither is there need of any other Law-book This he should remember who sits a Judge over other men That he should not give that judgment upon other men which he would not have given upon himself After the Gospel of Christ was preached many Nations as also the English by Faith joyned themselves to the Word of God Some Bishops and other famous men as well in England as other Regions held a Council of wise men and these men taught by Gods mercy imposed upon every sinner a pecuniary mulct and left the power of exacting it to the Magistrates without any offence to God having obtained leave onely to the betrayer and forsaker of our Lord they did not judge fit that this light punishment should be inflicted because they deemed such a man not worthy to be spared as well because God would have such contemners of him unworthy of all mercy as also that Christ Gods Son would not have mercy on them that betrayed him to death and he bid them to worship God before any other They therefore in many Synods constituted punishments for all sins and commanded them to be written These Laws have I Alfred the King gathered together and commanded to be written a good part whereof our Ancestors have religiously observed there are also many things worthy to be observed of us with like Religion in this age yet some there are which seem less profitable to us by the advice of wise men I have altered some I have made new And because it may seem rashness for any one to command to be written more then his own Decrees as also it would be an uncertain thing how they would be esteemed afterward of which we make great account Whatsoever are worthy to be observed in the acts of Inas my Kinsman of Offa King of the Mercians or Ethelbert who was the first of Englishmen that was baptized I have collected them all and the other left And in taking them I Alfred King of the West-Saxons have used the counsel of the most wise men and it hath pleased them all to judge them worthy to be kept Of the Priviledge of the Church Cap. 2. If any man guilty of any crime shall flee to a Religious house if that belong not to the Farm of the King or some Honorable family let him there remain three nights in which let him heed his salvation unless in the interim he return into favor And if any one shall during that time weaken him with fear of stripes bonds or wounds let him be free as the custom of the Nation is with the price of his head and with fine and the damage of violation of the liberty of the Church with One hundred and twenty shillings to boot Of the Priviledge of Sanctuary Cap. 5. We do further grant this peace to every Church consecrated by a Bishop If an enemy afflict another and he implores help of the Temple let him in seven days be taken out by no man if for hunger he can live so long and not opened his way by force If a man does otherwise let him be held a breaker of the King and Church and also of a more grievous crime if he shall have stoln any thing thence If the Governor have more then ordinary occasion to use that place provide for him in another house which has not more doors then that which shuts the Church and let the Governor take care that in the mean time he gets no meat But if he will give his arms into the power of his adversaries let them keep him safe thirty days and then give him into the hands of his kindred Also the freedom of the Church is if any guilty man flee to the Church before he be accused and there confess it in Gods name he shall be remitted half of his mulct Of Sacriledge Cap. 6. If a man steal any thing in a Church let him pay the value of the thing stolne and that punishment belonging to that value and that hand wherewith he stole be cut off if he will redeem his hand and it be granted him let it be with the price of his head If a man steal upon a Sunday Christmas-day Easter-day Holy Thursday or upon a Communion-day let him pay double as also in the Fast of Lent Of them who steal money out of Churches 8. If any man shall take money out of a * * Church Minster without the Kings leave or the Bishops he shall pay 120 shillings half to the King half to the Bishop and the Lord of the Church Of the Fighting of Priests 21. If a Priest slea any man let all he has acquired be confiscate and the Bishop degrade him and let him be thrust out of the Church unless the Lord of the house will forgive him the price of his head Of him who binds himself to God or enters into Religion 28. If any other accuse a man entred into Religion or bound to God that he hath not performed something of those things which he has mentioned let him give a Fore-oath in four Churches and the other if he will justifie himself let him do it in twelve Churches Of Fight 38. This Chapter gives a Priviledge for the honor of the Church in case of Manslaughter to him who flees thither Of Mass-Holidays 39. All Freemen have freedom granted them on these Holidays but not Servants The twelve days in Christmas the day on which Christ subdued the Devil the Anniversary feast of S. Gregory and seven days before Easter and seven days after the Feast-days of S. Peter and S. Paul In Autumn the whole week which is before the Feast of Mary the Feast-days of all Saints and the four Wednesdays in Ember-weeks let servants have all holy liberty given and freedom that they may spend all their endeavor upon the benefit of those things which they have heretofore received in Gods name or for whatsoever benefit he shall hereafter earn The League of King Edovard and Guthrun Preface THese are the institutions of King Alfred and King Guthrun and then King Edoard and King Guthrun made in those very times when the Danes and English made league and bound themselves that those things which are afterward recited should be often amplified and increased to the common benefit of the Realm
CHARLES IT is a thing very worthy of great consideration To thinke how the singular virtues and eminent qualities of so good and pious a Prince should come to so cruell so unfortunate an end for in him was all those amiable qualities which in another age would have rendred him reverenced and admired So singular Piety That the Portracture of King CHARLES in his sufferings will be a Character of it beyond all expression but his own so ardent a zeale in Religion that not any Regular in Religion was a more devout observer of his Order then the King was of the Rites and Liturgy of the Church So free from Simony that the suspicion of it in any man how deserving soever otherwise was sufficient bar from any advancement in the Church So just that though he every day saw the Puritan-faction budding out more formidably both in Church or State yet did he never proceede illegally or in an extrajudiciall manner against any man before the stormes of his Adversaries broke out upon him on every side So mercifull that the Scotish Lord Balmerino An. 1634. being legally convict of Treason was pardoned by him Nor was Louden proceeded against for holding correspondency with the King of France without the Kings privity and giving him the Title of Du Roy nor in all his Reigne how formidable soever the faction grew did he before the war brake out against him put any to death except one in the Lambeth conspiracy for fomenting and contriving the conspiracy against him To these may be added a profound Judgement in the affaires both of Church State how much it appeared in the former appears in the entercourse between him and Master Hinderson nor was his Pietie to his Parents lesse conspicuous being truly the principall Mourner at his Mothers funerall and chose rather to expresse the Piety hee owed to his Father in attending his dead body to his grave although contrary to the custome of his predecessors then to insist upon nicities of State So singular was his conjugall love and chastity to his Queene that a little before his death he commanded the Princesse Elizabeth his daughter to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Jealous he was of the honour of the English Church and Nation and well understanding that where mens mindes are not well knit in Religion nothing will long keep their affections cemented He had a great desire to have finished King James his designe of uniting the Kirk of Scotland in an Uniformity with the Church of England who had made some progresse in an Assembly held at Aberdeen 1616. and afterward in another at Perth 1618. which King Charles got passed in Parliament of Scotland 1633. In him was a perpetuall love to the good and an infinite desire of doing good to all These noble vertues and graces towards God his Parents Wife and Subjects were adorned with most eminent and singular personall vertues and graces as moderation in prosperity magnanimity in adversity so wonderfull patience that after the fight of Cropredy-bridge in his march after the Earl of Essex it chanced that one of his Carriages brake in a narrow long Lane where his Majesty was to passe and gave a stop to him at a time when a great showre of rain happened to fall some of them who were neer about him offered to hew out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get some shelter in the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake the Canon upon any occasion at which some seeming to admire his patience his Majesty lifting up his hat said That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions So severe an observer of his words and actions that he was never observed to say any thing lightly or rashly or in his personall actions did any thing which might render his person or authority contemptible So temperate that in all his life he was never observed disorderly to exceed in eating or drinking affable yet conserving the dignity of his Majesty to all men free and open in his conversation little practicing the only lesson which Lewis the eleventh would learn his Son Charles the ninth Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare So frugall that though he had a Queen and plentifull Issue and expended much more in repairing the Navy for recovering the Soveraignty of the narrow seas then he received of his Subjects and the Exchequer left empty by his Father yet he encreased it before the first Scotish expedition to a greater mass then was ever found since it was exhausted by Henry the Eighth So elegant and pure a stile he had in writing that I expect to live to see it as much imitated by Englishmen as Caesar's was among the Romans Neither which is no lesse remarkable were any of these virtues stained with any suspected vice To the qualities of his mind were joyned Ornaments of his body every way answerable a venerable and gracious aspect yet best when he did not speak agility of members so disposed that in riding the great Horse running the ring vaulting shooting in the Crosbow Musket and sometime the great Ordinance He was thought to be the best Marksman and comliest manager of the great Horse of any man in the three Nations nor was lesse judicious in choosing a Winter Deere which is one of the hardest taskes of a Woodman then excellent in shooting a Deere Dr. Harvey Gen. Anim. exerc 64. pag. 422. propt med affirmes him to be delighted in observations the Dr. made of the causes of Generation from his dissection and Anatomies of the Deere in Hampton-Court c. but whether wanting that magnanimity of looking dangers in the face upon their first budding which is so necessary to the conservation of Regality or whether not having sufficiently understood that benefits conferred upon seditious men never begot any obligation of gratitude upon them but on the contrary they alwaies make advantage of them to get more untill not having more to expect grow jealous least their benefactors might by some means better reassume them then they extort them they hate them which usually ends in the murder of Princes but thinking to overcome his adversaries by his benefits example and clemency or to give satisfaction to all Factions of his Subjects he preferred all Factions in his Court and Councell though he excluded them out of the Church whereby he gave vent to all the Factions so as the veneration of the Royal name became every day more contemptible the Factions increased daily more formidable his counsels became distracted and betrayed and all the treasure he had gathered consumed in the first Northern expedition against the Scots where having many advantages to have subdued them he made a dishonorable peace with them io the increase of their reputation and losse of his own being destitute of treasure and
JUSTICE VINDICATED From the False FUCUS put upon it BY THOMAS WHITE Gent. Mr THOMAS HOBBS AND HVGO GROTIVS AS ALSO ELEMENTS OF Power Subjection Wherein is demonstrated the Cause of all Humane Christian and Legal SOCIETY And as a previous Introduction to these is shewed The Method by which Men must necessarily attain ARTS SCIENCES By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for G. Bedell and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple-Gate Fleetstreet 1660. To the Kings most Excellent Majesty CHARLES II. By the Grace of GOD KING of GREAT BRITAIN FRANCE and IRELAND Defender of the Faith IF it were not unbecoming confidence Most Eminent of Kings in Hugo Grotius who at most did owe Your Illustrious Uncle Lewis the Thirteenth but a topical and temporary obedience to dedicate his Book De Jure Belli Pacis to him founded upon such feigned and inconsistible principles because written for Justice Then will it not ill become a natural Subject of Your Majesties who by all divine and humane laws owes an indelible character of obedience to Your Majesty to implore Your patronage of Justice founded upon the true and genuine causes Nor is there any attribute of Justice which Grotius there ascribes to Your Uncle but is as properly or more due to Your Majesty For if Lewis were just because above any thing which might be spoken he did honor the memory of the great King his Father by imitating him how just then is Your Majesty when as not all the storms of adverse fortune in Your Father or Self could ever any ways shake the constant veneration You have always paid his Saintlike memory by imitating him whereas prosperity did almost ever fill the sails of Your Uncle and his great Father If he were just because he did instruct his Brother by all means but most by his own example then is not Your Majesty less just who by all means but most by Your own Example hath so well instructed Your Brethren that they in all respects answer the dignity of their high extraction and whose eminent Virtues have attained such a height of perfection that they are justly celebrated all over Christendom with admiration If he were just because he did adorn his Sisters with highest matrimonies yet certainly it was rather the felicity of his fortune then acts of his justice that he was by the marriage of his Sisters allied to all the greatest Hereditary Princes of Christendom how just then is your Majesty who hath so adorned Justice and Piety that as being by nature wedded to these though born one of the greatest Princes of the Western world You have preferred them before the enjoyment of Three Kingdoms If he were just because he did call back the almost buried Laws and opposed himself to a Generation making haste into worse Who then can express Your justice who hath recalled our buried and almost forgotten Laws and who with most manifest danger yet by Providence miraculously preserved for your Subjects deliverance did oppose your self against the Tyranny of the most perverse generation of men that ever pretended to be Christians If he were not only just but also clement whenas he took from his Subjects who by ignorance of his goodnes had transgressed the bounds of their duty nothing but the liberty of sinning nor did force their consciences differing from him in Religion Let the world then judge and admire your justice and clemency who of your own accord does refer the most perpetrated villany committed in the sight of the sun upon the person of your Royal Father not by your Subjects ignorant of his and your goodness but by those who had known his clemency and goodness and in the worst of their wickedness needed not have despaired of his favor to those of your Subjects neither convened nor elected by your authority And are so far from taking any thing from your peccant Subjects more then liberty of sinnng that you admit of a restitution to those of your Subjects who by such undue means had invaded the sacred patrimony of Gods Church and your Crown And though these things were committed upon pretence of Religion yet so tender is your Majesty that you will force no mans conscience not of these men And if it were justice and mercy in your glorious Uncle in the prosperity of his fortune to relieve oppressed people and Princes by his authority then was it no ways less justice and mercy in your Majesty that in the adversity of your fortune you did by all means endevour by your authority to relieve the oppressed and distressed Princes and people of Christendom To You therefore Great Sir being the Fountain and Centre of Justice in these your rightful Dominions in the lowest posture of humility do these Observations and Elements presume to offer themselves though not upon any confidence of themselves or Author but because wâ—â—ten for and in defence of Justice To You Sir who by an indifferent administration of just received and known Laws and moderating the severity of them Your Majesty being their Moderator as well as Arbitrator where it becomes impossible for your Subjects to fulfil them or inconvenient to Your self or Subjects in rigor to execute them if it be not your Subjects fault shall not less under God confer peace and happiness to all sorts of them then the Sun by its effluence does diffuse life and light to all the various creatures of the Universe This is it which in time will reduce your wandring Subjects to the secure and known paths of their Allegiance out of which they have gone astray This is it which will secure you from the imputation of Tyranny and convince your adversaries that it is not your fault in governing but theirs in disobeying if hereafter they bring upon themselves the miseries and calamities of another Civil war And this is that which will evidence to the world that then your adversaries became enemies to your Royal Father and Self when they first trod under foot the established and received Laws of their Country and that it is and always was the desire of Usurpers who having no just title but new Oppression to introduce more new Inventions of their own in place of the old Laws This is it which after your Majesties gracious Act of Oblivion for crimes past will so settle the minds of your Subjects that in the known ways of their ancestors they may expect favor and protection from your Majesty This is it which will so genuinely and equally support your Majesties Title that as it is so derived from the loins of innumerable Royal Ancestors as no man can shew where it began and so clear that in the world no man presumes to stand in competition with You so is it supported by received Laws of that continuance that they have lost their first original I presume not Sir to say this of mine own head to advise your Majesty much less have any diffidence of your Majesties governing your Subjects
any other way then by the established and received Laws of the Nation where mens vices and depraved manners do not require new ones I designe no more then to demonstrate that it was not your Majesties Father's and your own adherence to the established Laws but the iniquity of the times which made him a Victim and your Sacred self an Exile Nay in reason as well as justice it had been a most imprudent thing in either of your Majesties to have given up the Laws to the arbitrary lusts of your Adversaries or any one Faction For should either of your Majesties have indifferently renounced the Laws to your Adversaries being compounded of such different and contrary humors and affections then there was no visible means under Heaven to have cemented them and by consequence your Adversaries hostility and confusion continued and your own conditions no ways bettered or secured Or should either of your Majesties have renounced the Laws to have advanced any one Faction so above the rest and all your loyal Subjects that their arbitrary wills and lusts should have been the laws of all the rest and your other Subjects also yet should you not only have failed to have contented that Faction it being the nature of Faction never to bear any grateful acknowledgment for benefits received but on the contrary always abuse them to their prejudice from whom they received them and never rest until they have made themselves all and their Benefactors nothing at all or vile and miserable but have animated all the other Factions against your Majesties and it To the fulfilling of all singular and glorious Virtues in Your Sacred person is added Your being a Christian King and a Nursing Father of the Church of Christ and as if immediately sent from Heaven to cure and repair the wounds of this most miserably distracted Church although Your Majesty is descended from innumerable Royal Ancestors who have been Nursing Fathers of Christs Church yet are you not derived from any who have had the least hand in the late Sacrilege thereof And though Sir You are and ought to be a Nursing Father of Gods Church and a Patron and Defence against her ravenous and devouring Adversaries yet none of mortal men have been more Religious Sons of the Church then Your Majesty and Your Saintlike Father How unequal and how unjust then have been the sufferings of Princes so just so religious caused by Christians Your natural Subjects and these pretending Conscience whereas no School teaches men a better lesson of obedience to Princes then the Christian faith whenas the first principle or foundation of Subjects obedience to rightful Princes is founded in the Law of Nature however popular Orators and Atheists have against all sense reason nature and all authorities of sacred and profane History resolved it into the pacts and wills of men And conscience always supposes some superior law informing men to do or not do a thing or suffer when any subordinate power commands contrary to it whereas Your persecutors pretending concience trod underfoot whatsoever might be called sacred to the attaining their seditious and sacrilegious ends That God in his providence doth often permit the good and just to suffer persecution is evidently seen in all ages and places But in reason and prudence neither Your Majesties Father's nor Your own adherence to the established Government of the Church and the Rites Liturgy and Means thereof in Your adversities when they were so zealously persecuted by its and Your adversaries could be any cause thereof Neither would the desertion of it have any ways conduced to either of Your Majesties advantage for should either of Your Majesties have renounced the Church and rites thereof so as to have been a Christian King of such Miscreants who besides that they would not be of any Christian Church or society had by undue ways devoured the patrimony of the Church yet no man in his right wits could have imagined such men would long have been governed in peace or that all other men of their factions would have been content who had not made a prey thereof and there was not sufficient to content all nor indeed any at all or that the canine appetites of those men who had devoured the lands of the Church would not also have hungred after those of the Crown Or should Your Majesty have advanced any one Faction so above the rest that it should not only have tyrannized over the rest of the Factions but also Your Majesty and the rest of Your subjects yet could it not in reason have been expected that this Faction who by all Divine and Humane laws were subject to a Government founded upon our Saviour and his Apostles and by a continued series dispersed over the face of Christianity until of late it became violated in some places of Europe by seditious and sacrilegious men should so unjustly cast off their obedience so rightfully due and yet expect that their wills and lusts should long be received for Laws by the rest of the Factions and all other of their fellow-subjects But certainly Your constant adherence to the Church did proceed from the power and grace of God in You before any prudential or moral cause Notwithstanding that your Majesty is so constant a Preserver of Christs Church and Propagator of Christian religion and that your own conscience hath been so often attempted to be violated by men of none at all indeed yet so tender is your Maiesty of other mens that you will not force the conscience of any of your subjects pretending it A strange condescension any one will judge who considers the parties granting and expecting For should your Majesty command your Subjects any thing in derogation to the Majesty of God or forbid them the worship and service of God your Subjects might then justly plead conscience because the duty and allegiance which they owe to God is in the first place to be paid by all his creatures Or should your Majesty command any thing which were immoral or unjust as that your Subjects should dishonor your Majesty or their Parents c. they might justly plead conscience because that for Subjects to honor their King and children their Parents is founded in Nature and is a Law of God engraven in the minds of all mortal men or should your Majesty have lived in the Primeve times of Christianity when men by the light of Humane Nature apprehending a Deity to be publickly Worshipped and Served yet being ignorant of the manner misplaced it in Osyris Isis Iupiter Apollo an Oak c. then to have compelled them to have Worshipped God after the manner of Christians had been unconscionable and unchristian because they paid an acknowledgement of that Worship due to God by Nature and could not by Nature apprehend this but must wait upon God until that by the ordinary means of the Church or supernaturally inspired by God they should be converted thereunto Or should your Majesty command any thing
compos mentis and tell him he would instruct and teach him the most excellent dictate of Reason in the world viz. That there is one God infinitely good who is to be worshiped and served by man And that this God requires of every man that in that state wherein he hath made him he would not willingly do that to another which he would not have done to himself would not this poor ignorant man deride this Master of Reason and tell him he knew this as well as himself But suppose he should be so impudent as to deny this since Grotius is not in case I would desire Mr. Hobbs to prove it or give a right reason thereof and learn this man his Dictate of Right reason Well but let us see whether this Canting thing be worth the name of a Definition Omnis definitio est exclusio aequivoci If the Law of Nature be the Dictate of Right reason then does the Law of Nature exclude every thing else from being the Dictate of Right reason or this cannot be the definition of it I would know now of Mr. Hobbs whether all Arts and Sciences and Prudent actions be the Laws of Nature or not If they be the Laws of Nature then is every Inscientifical and Imprudent man an Unjust man If they be not the Laws of Nature and so not the Dictates of Right reason then let Mr. Hobbs shew what else does dictate them Nor is Mr. Hobbs less happy in defining a Pact upon which he grounds his Civitas It is just therefore that this man who Cap. 18. Art 4. makes all Science to be from Definitions only or Subjects without Predicates without which it is impossible there can be a Proposition and all Science to be from the memory which is common to all Beasts as well as Mr. Hobbs for so the Oxe knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib it being only retained in the memory excluding the Understanding should so rashly define things and understand them no better To believe there is a God to be worshiped and served and that no man should wilfully in that state and condition wherein God hath made him do that to another which he would not have done to himself is that Law which God hath engraven in the mindes of all mortal men wise and unwise learned and ignorant noble and ignoble in their wits and is the foundation and basis of all Humane society And this is that first and universal cause from which all moral virtues the dictates of Right reason from this cause do more genuinely and naturally flow then any Proposition in Geometry does from the Axiomes or Principles of it For what man is there in this world of what estate and condition soever but desires not to be wronged and injured Let not him then in that state wilfully wrong or injure any other of what estate soever If he be a Subject and desires to be protected in his life and fortune by the Laws of his Country from the violence and oppression of other men let not him abuse or violate the Laws of his Country to the wrong or oppression of another If he desires every man should keep promise and do justly by him let not him break his word and deal unjustly with another Is he a King he would not willingly be disseised or oppressed by another let him not therefore disseise or injustly oppress another Does any King desire not to be invaded or oppressed by his Subjects let not him therefore oppress his Subjects If he had been a Subject he would have desired protection from his Prince by an equal and moderate distribution of known Laws let him therefore equally moderately govern his Subjects by known Laws And from this Law did always men desire though ignorant of the manner to worship and serve GOD although they misplaced the Deity in the Sun Moon an Oak Apollo Jupiter c. And this is that Law which shall judge and condemn the immoral actions and vices of men in all Ages especially in this latter Age because they sinned against the Light or Law of Nature engraven in the minds of all men Now whether these men being Christians in name yet having cast off all Christian society and not being of any Christian church or religion that I ever heard of should not be content here but although they scarce agree in any thing else proceed so far as to make the Laws of God subject and depending upon the reasons and phantasies of men and not to tell them where their reasons shall begin if not at the Laws of God but every man left to go a whoring after his own inventions For what can then restrain man where his Reason is become superior to the Laws of God and to make all humane society to have its origination from the pacts and wills of men have not been as great enemies not only to Christian religion but also to all humane society as the malice of the Devil could invent let any sober unbiassed man judge or if all the confusions and distractions in Christendom to the shame and scandal of Christianity have not had their origination from this pretence Nor hath this sensless resolution of all things into Reason ended only in the distractions of State but also been the first source and fountain from whence all these distractions and confusions in the Church have arisen without any possible hope of ever reconciling them where these principles are continued Hence it is that the venerable and highest Authority of the sacred Scriptures are become the subject of all Tavern-discourses and every man that scarce understands any reason must forsooth have a reason given him why the Scriptures are the Word of God And yet in all other Authorities whatsoever men will deride the folly of others who go about to prove them by Reason for Reason is begotten alwaies from Authorities and Principles and therefore cannot Authorities and Principles be begotten from Reason I have been often almost astonished to consider how such sensless blasphemous and ridiculous things should meerly from the authority of the Assertors be imposed upon and received by the world without contradiction whereas narrowly looked into one would scarce believe the Authors had ever understood Logick or one leaf in Aristotle And for my part if I could not ultimately resolve the Dictates of my Reason as a Christian into plain places of Scripture so well as any Geometrician could any Proposition of Geometry into the Principles of Euclids Elements I would be content to let them wander for ever without any termination rather then admit them the Scriptures to be a creature of a creature and the subject of every wild phantastical conceit and opinion And if I could not ultimately resolve the reason of all my moral actions as a man into the Law of Nature which God has engraven in mens minds and not into the wills of men I would be content to conclude with Carneades that men have at divers times
Father was wont to say his Son commanded all Greece For the Athenians commanded the other Grecians He commanded the Athenians his Wife him and his Son commanded his Wife How much greater power had our Author in this Government than Themistocles his Child had over the Grecians For in all our Authors Government you shall find two degrees of Comparison above the superlative viz. the peoples Power over their supreme and absolute Governor and our Authors supreme supremest Power who has a Power when he will to make what he list the Peoples Laws which shall oblige and tie up their absolute Governor And when the toy takes him they shall be the Governors Laws And Ground 11. latter end No supreme Magistrate can be bound to any Laws contrary to what our Author or Governor shall call good Government And now who would think so wise a fellow as our Author who in this Government had such a monstrous and most unlimited soveraignty should by shewing his power in giving his Rational multitude liberty to dissolve it lose it all in an instant sure this Icarus if he neither drowns nor otherwise kills himself in the fall will only rise up again to hang himself Well but let us see whether upon our Authors principles this Government can be dissolved or be in the power of his People or Rational multitude All Men who have written of the Cause and Nature of things have put a difference between Natural and Voluntary or Rational causes or things Natural causes or things are those which proceed immediately from God and are above the Will or Reason of Man Voluntary causes or things are those which do not immediately proceed from God but from the Will and Reason of Man But ex Hypothesi this Government Ground 7. page 48. is connatural and Ground 8. page 50. Natural and therefore this Government is superior to the Wills or Reason of the People and cannot be by them dissolved but the resisting of it is a violence upon Nature and not only Irrational but Immoral and unjust Thus have we seen our Author make a Government and thus have wee seen our Author marre his Government Let him tell us Ground 15 â—herein consists the Liberty of the Subject Ground 16. Of the dispossession of a Supreme Governor and his Right And Ground 17. Of a Governor dispossessed only because our Author Ground 17. tells us that Pope Urban the eight was an Intelligent generous Prince and well versed in publick Government and he made a decision that after five years quiet possession of an Estate the Church was not bound to take notice whether the title were lawful or no I will tell our Author that if Pope Urban might not take notice after five years who is the lawful Governor yet Pope Pius the fourth after above twice the time declared by Pope Urban might take notice of it as you may see Hist Con. Triden 423. and 443. So then Pope Pius may do that which Pope Urban is not bound to do or say what he will for me I am content if after all this pains on my part I shall not in the Judgment of wiser and more discerning Men then my Author or self have made my self like our Author in thus far answering him to his Grounds of Obedience and Government OBSERVATIONS ON Mr. HOBBS De Cive Observ HIs first Axiome or Principle he begs both in the Preface and second Article of the first Book De Cive is That the beginning of Civil Society is from Mutual Fear Yet in his Preface and second Annotation upon this Article He fears that some men may deny it yea it is true that very many men do deny it This therefore being required for a Principle and the first Principle and by consequence not to be proved but to prove all that may be inferred from it and since that he grants that very many do deny this Principle Then by very many men must the whole body of De Cive be rejected For Contra negantes principia non est disputandum But if men will not grant this Principle in the Pref. and Annot. abovesaid he will prove it so that he will make them ashamed of it and how think you It will be somewhat odd sure to prove Principles He tells you That all Cities although they be at peace with their neighbors yet keep Garrisons and Soldiers upon their Frontiers And that when men go to sleep they shut their doors and that men taking a journey do it with a sword and that men treat usually before they fight Observ All Science all Learning and all Reasoning whatsoever by the authority of Aristotle is begotten from pre-existing Principles which prove the Science and Learning but by the judgment of Aristotle and all Philosophers and men in their wits no Science Learning or Reasoning can prove the Principles Besides it is a contradiction to say any thing is a Principle which can be proved for that which proves it is prime and a principle to it Would any man now think that these Critiques and pretended Masters of Reason had ever read one line in Logick or Aristotle who go about to prove Principles by such silly things as have scarce any verisimilitude in them Nor does he only make Fear to be the prime cause of all Humane Government and Civil Society but also chap. 16. art 1. he makes it the cause of all Religion and Worship of God Observ As if that men were not obliged to submit to higher Powers not only for wrath take it in what sense you will either fear of the wrath of the higher Powers or mutual fear of the wrath of other men but also for conscience sake And that God were not in gratitude to be worshiped and served by ingenuous men because he is good and created them intellectual and reasonable creatures but only by a servile fear of his Judgments from whence only vile and vitious men seem to but never truly serve or honor him A pretty institution of Religion and Government for the Men of Bedlam and Wives of Billingsgate He divides the whole Treatise into three titles viz. Liberty Empire and Religion Under the title of Liberty he speaks of men as they are in a state of meer Nature viz. of a state of men before they have by Pact given up their natural right to one Person or one Court or Company of men so that the will of this Man or Court shall be the will of all of them and this he calls cap. 5. art 9. Civitas or Persona civilis If Mr. Hobbs had by a state of Nature understood such a state as S. Paul Observ Rom. 2. 14. does viz. of men who have only the Law of Nature and not Gods Divine Law supernaturally revealed in the Scriptures to be their rule and guide and that men in such a state not having the Law may by Nature do the things contained in the Law for this Law is ingraven in the hearts of all men he
an Intellectual creature 3. All Virtue is either Theological Moral Humane Familistical How manifold is Virtue Personal or Prudential 4. Virtue being by the definition the Dictate of Right reason from From whence Theological virtue is derived some superior cause or notion Theological virtue is a Dictate of Right reason from some revelation of God in the Scriptures which otherwise had been impossible for any man by the light of humane nature to have attained to By Theological virtues I do not mean only those three most eminent virtues of Faith Hope and Charity but all those actions of obedience due to them who have oversight of me in the Lord as a Christian and to whom I owe my obedience not by any Law of Nature but as commanded by God in the Scriptures 5. Moral Virtues are those Dictates of Right reason which flow from What are Moral virtues and from whence derived What are Humane virtues and from whence caused What are Familistical virtues What are Personal virtues that light of Nature engraven in the minds of Men for the conservation of peace and society among Men so long as they live in this world 6. Humane Virtues are those Dictates of Right reason by which Subjects Wives and Children conform their actions to the Laws or Precepts of Supreme powers Husbands and Parents 7. Familistical Virtues are those actions of Servants done in conformity to the commands of the Masters of Families 8. Personal Virtues are those actions which are dictated to divers men from principles of innate good nature of Temperance Continency Patience Liberality and Frugality whose contrary extremes are vices and sins 9. Prudential Virtues are not dictated from any Divine or Humane What are Prudential virtues and from whence derived Laws but from some Principles known to the understanding which are more or less as men are more or less intelligible whereby some Princes govern more prudently then others and some Masters of families govern their servants more prudently then others And these Virtues have not reference only to the government of Men but to other actions as Prudence in managing of an Estate is a Virtue or in mens governing their actions so that they are esteemed and not despised by other men are Virtues yet these actions are no where commanded or forbidden by any Divine or Humane Laws These Virtues are always placed in Empire not in Obedience 10. God having made Man a rational creature and endued him with The ratio finalis of all virtues and how they differ First of Theological virtues an immortal Soul capable of eternal happiness hath revealed himself supernaturally in the Scriptures to Men as reasonable creatures so that they directing their actions conformable to his precepts therein contained might by faith or believing on him hope for eternal happiness 11. The end of all Moral Virtue is that men may preserve peace and The end of Morality society so long as they live in this world And God hath made Man a sociable creature as well as intellectual and rational and therefore hath engraven these eternal and immutable Laws of Nature in the minds of all mortal men that by conforming their actions thereunto they might preserve peace and society with men And though these of themselves are not sufficient to pully man up to eternal happiness yet let no man hope that despising these Laws of the great God of Nature upon a pretended Faith he shall ever attain it 12. But because the Law of Nature does oftentimes command in Thesi The end of humane virtue only and Humane Laws ex Hypothesi as Thou shalt not steal and shalt give every man his due is from the Law of Nature but that this thing is mine and that thing another mans is by positive Humane laws So though Moral virtues be always the same yet Humane virtues differ accordingly as Laws in divers places are different Thus it is a Moral virtue in Wives and Children to honor and obey their Husbands and Parents but as a Humane virtue the doing of such a thing may be Virtue at one time and Vice at another as it is commanded or forbidden by the Husband or Parents So that Humane virtues in Subjects Wives and Children are necessary to the conservation of society where the laws or principles of such actions are not plainly repugnant to Divine laws 13. The end of all Familistical virtue is that Servants by all just and The end of Familistical virtues lawful means intend the good of their Masters and make no dissentions or discontents in their Families 14. God having made man after his own image as well in body as in The end of Personal virtues soul for He that sheds mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man It is not therefore to be expected that any man should without sin against God abuse the highest and noblest part of Gods creation All men therefore in the first place ought by all just and lawful means to do well to themselves and not by any excess or intemperance to abuse that body which God hath made in his own image 15. Theological virtues relate to the attaining of Eternal happiness The difference between Theological Moral Humane Familistical and Personal virtues Moral Humane and Familistical to the conservation of society and peace in their several places Personal virtues to the preservation of that body which God hath entrusted every man with keeping so long as he lives We have spoken of the end and difference of Prudential virtues Parag. 9. 16. In all prudent and profitable actions Prudentis est fortunam semper Whether just and moral actions or virtues are to be enquired into by fortune as are Prudential in concilio adhibere But that man who directs his just and moral actions to Fortune or the time and tide of mens affections shall soon be accounted a Weathercock and Time-server In all prudent actions or virtues there is no other obligation or penalty more then the reward or profit of the action and loss for the folly of imprudent actions But in just and moral actions men must consider their duties not profit and are obliged to them notwithstanding temporal loss or trouble CHAP. IV. Of Particular Moral Virtues 1. SInce that the Law of Nature is That there is one God infinitely Religion is the first and chief of Moral Virtues good to be worshipped and served and that all men should in their several stations endeavor by all just and lawful means to preserve Peace and Society in this World Then is Religion or the Publick Worship and Service of a Deity the first and chief of all Moral Virtues and so conspicuous was this Virtue in all ages and places to good men by the Light of Nature onely that it was always their first care to be in a Society of Men where God however misplaced in an Oak Osiris Iris Jupiter Apollo
unto thee only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Whosoever he be that does rebel against thy commandment and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death Jos 1. 16 17 18. 13. Anarchy is like a vacuum in Nature so abhorrent that the World The state of Man out of power is Tyranny will rather return into Chaos then suffer it And therefore Cicero lib. 3. de legibus says truly Sine imperio neque domus ulla nec civitas nec gens nec hominum universum genus stare nec ipse denique mundus potest 'T is no wonder therefore if seditious men when they have put themselves out of power are glad to submit to Tyranny rather then be overwhelmed with the Chaos and confusion of Anarchy Yet it is said Judg. 17. 6. 21. 25. In those days there was no King in Annot. Israel but every man did what was right in his own eyes So it may seem that men may subsist in an Anarchy It is true indeed there was no man that was King in those days in Israel nor was there then that absolute necessity of one for God had given them Property and did govern the Israelites and they did enquire judgment of God who did answer cap. 20. 18. And men did in those dayes commerce and exchange one with another which is evident by Micha's contracting with her Levite-Priest for ten shekels of silver by the year a suit of apparel and his victual ch 17. 10. 14. Princes do transgress their power when they command any Wherein Princes do transgress their power thing contrary to what God hath commanded or derogatory to the worship and service of God when they make unjust War when they pronounce Judgment not according to the declared and known Laws but punish either by passion or to please factious men as in the Earl of Straffords Case or pass sentence against one unheard as in Cromwell Earl of Essex his Case I say not punish upon passion or to please men For as the state of Annot. affairs may be stated Princes may punish though not in a Judicial manner as when Subjects are in Arms against their Soveraign Nor do I think that any uninterested Casuist will deny that Henry the Third of France did justly put Henry Duke of Guise to death though not judicially the Duke having taken Arms against him and made him flie out of Paris fomented seditions against him and taken pensions of the King of Spain to maintain war in France and become so popular as the King had no means to proceed legally against him 15. * How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making of Laws The perfection of Government consists first and chiefly that the Governor have a perfect and indubitable Title against which no just exception can be taken Secondly that the Governor makes it his chiefest care that the Religion or Worship and Service of God be duly administred And thirdly that he does endeavor by known and established Laws to administer Judgment and Justice indifferently to his Subjects with careful moderation of the severity of the Laws whereas men by no fault of theirs incur the severity of them And lastly by all just and due means to endeavor the preservation of his Subjects from the oppression and violence of Foreiners and to maintain Peace and Commerce with his neighboring Nations Such was our Government before our unhappy differences and such by Gods grace do I hope to see it again 16. It were a fine may-game to be a King if Kings might make their How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making Laws Will the rule of their actions It is true indeed God hath not in all things commanded Kings what Laws they shall govern their Subjects by yet this natural law are all Princes obliged to that their Laws by which they govern do more relate to the good of their Subjects in general then their own particular interest And no question but a King commits a more grievous sin doing any unjust thing to any of his Subjects then if another had done it in regard of the relations which are between them as a Fathers doing an unjust thing to his Child is a greater sin then if another had done it by how much by the Law of Nature he ought to have done well to his Child rather then another Princes therefore by the Law of Nature in governing ought to have more respect to the general good of their Subjects then their own particular interest Yet is Magnificence a Royal virtue and therefore ought not the Revenues of the Crown to be parted with by which it should be maintained Nor would it conduce to the benefit of the Subjects in general to make the Revenues of the Crown poor Where Majesty grows contemptible the exercise of Regal power is never permanent Princes therefore ought to have a great care that by their vices prodigality of the Revenues of the Crown remiss governing or by so giving it over to others that they so much neglect it in themselves as to make themselves vile and contemptible 17. Though God hath not commanded Kings in all things what are Princes ought not to be obeyed when they command in derogation of Gods Majesty 1 Sam. 12. 14. vers 25. the Laws by which they shall govern and therefore divers Kings govern their Subjects by several Laws as their Subjects differ in nature and manners Yet hath he forbidden all Kings to make Laws derogatory to his Divine Majesty Samuel therefore threatens Saul as well as the Israelites that if he or they disobey God and do wickedly they shall perish both they and their King And it was to Saul that God said that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness as the wickedness of idolatry Nor was the sin of the Israelites in committing idolatry under the Kings of Judah and Israel the less though the King commanded it Nor did God scarce 1 Sam. 15. 23. ever shew a greater miracle then in delivering the Three Children and Daniel disobeying the Kings wicked commandment Princes therefore ought not to be obeyed in commanding things derogatory to the Majesty of God 18. Nor ought Princes to be obeyed when they command any thing Or contrary to Religion contrary to Religion for The kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof is first to be sought But the kingdom of Heaven is only to be sought by Faith and Religion Daniel therefore sinned not when he obeyed not Darius in praying to God Nor do all our Parliamentary Laws add any thing to the obligation of mens worship and service of God in the Unity and Form of the Church of England for men were as much obliged in Conscience before such Laws as after Not but that Kings ought to have as great or greater care of preserving unity and peace in Gods Church as in their
done in Church is against conscience no minding of what is their duty all their talk is judging their superiors and this buzzed into the heads of light and inconstant men begets all the talk of the Country and is beleeved with the same Faith they beleeve the Gospel or their Creed and if Authority shall endeavor to suppress the further growth of such seditious practice by punishing the Authors it will be deemed by the well-affected no less then an invasion upon the liberty of the subject and persecution of the Gospel 6. If Lex lata had any obligation upon the Legislator then were the Creature subject to the Creator and the Father obliged to what he commands That supream Princes are obliged by their own Laws is a seditious opinion his Son and the Master to what he bids his Servant and God to what he commands Man which is absurd nor is it less absurd that the supreme power should be obliged by the Laws given to Subjects They who assert that supream Princes are obliged by their own Laws should do well to make their Children shooes and cloathes to serve them when they are men For as mens vices and manners vary so must humane Laws But men neither consider themselves nor Princes in asserting this For Princes are in a more vile condition then the poorest man not to have the freedom of will and they themselves are left to the rigor of the Law without hope of mercy How can any man accuse Hen. 7. for his rigid exacting the penal laws when by this opinion he had not power to remit any thing of them And why do men tax H. 8. for a cruel man and a Tyrant because he put so many men to death for not acknowledging his headship of the Church the not subscribing the six Articles c. if he were obliged by his own Laws Nay they do not allow Queen Mary a power to releive any Protestant given over to the secular power by Bishop Bonner From this very opinion sprang all the miseries for these last 18 years Scots had liberty to invade us but the King was obliged by his own Laws not to relieve his oppressed and afflicted Subjects This was that which gave the Turks first entrance into Christendom for while the wrangling Grecians not content with their rightful Emperors place usurpers in their rooms who to gratifie them again and to strengthen themselves against the right heirs care not what they grant their well-affected Subjects which so weakned the power of the Grecians that contesting with their Emperors about their liberties and priviledges which their usurping Emperors had granted them and neglecting their common and at first despised enemies the Turks they were all overcome in a short time by a handful of men obedient to their Prince And what private man can assume to himself the knowledge of good and evil that is ascribe to himself a power over his Superior by judging whether he hath transgressed the Law or not And let any man shew that ever our Parliaments as they call themselves Councils of State or Safety were ever obliged by their own Laws and I will submit that rightful Princes are obliged by their own Laws 7. There is nothing more to be wished in this world then that the That supreme power may be moderated Will of them which command might be moderated and restrained to Reason as that Kings Fathers and Masters should never exact any thing of their Subjects Children and Servants but what were reasonable But it is impossible that the Supreme power can be moderated unless it be divided or subject to the Moderators It is therefore a seditious opinion That Supreme power may be moderated 8. All right that any Creature hath to any thing is either from the That any man has any thing proper against the Supreme power Law of Nature or from some Humane Law but no Subject can have Praedium directum cujus nullus author est nisi Deus Sir E. Co. Com. Lit. pag. 1. b. qui dominium non habet dominus non est And he that holds of none is Lord of all which no Subject can be It is therefore a seditious opinion That any Subject hath any thing proper against his Soveraign 9. There has not any thing for more then this last Century caused so That the people may reform where Princes will not much dissention and bloodshed among Christians to the shame of Christianity as the specious pretence of Reformation The Turk either restrained by God or not willing to be an Enemy to Mankind hath been only a spectator not actor in this Tragedy The end doth sanctifie the means was a doctrine generally received among these Reformers if the end were Reformation it was no matter by what means it was brought to pass Hence it was that every where in the Western world men disposed to sedition made Reformation their pretence No Prince must use his power to restrain them if he do Calvin gives them a lesson Abdicant se potestate terreni Comment on Dan. 6. 21. Principes dum insurgunt contra Deum immo indigni sunt qui censeantur in hominum numero potius ergo oportet conspuere in illorum capita quam illis parere ubi sic proterviunt ut velint spoliare Deum jure suo Earthly Princes do divest themselves of power when they set themselves against God yea they are not worthy to be accounted in the number of men Men ought therefore rather to spit upon their heads then obey them where they deal so saucily as if they would spoil God by their right And Luther Ab omnibus hominum legibus exempti sumus libertate nobis Christiana per Lib. de captiv Babil de baptismo baptismum donata We are freed from all Laws of Men liberty being given us by Baptism Et scio nullam rempublicam feliciter legibus administrari I know there is no Commonwealth happily governed by Laws And Turpe enim est iniquiter servile Christianum hominem qui liber est aliis Cap. de matrimonio quam coelestibus divinis subjectum esse legibus It is a filthy and unjust servile thing that a Christian man which is free should be subject to any Cap. de sacrord but Heavenly and Divine laws And whether these mens followers have not well practised their Lectures wheresoever they have been tolerated either in Germany Bohemia Austria Upper and Lower Hungaria Transilvania Sweden France England Scotland Low-Countries Geneva c. let any man who hath read the Combustions of Christendom judge and the Anabaptists and all other Sects may from their principles justifie all their actions 10. There is nothing more manifestly commanded by God in the That temporal good follows in order to spiritual Old and New Testament then obedience to Temporal Princes yet there is nothing more endeavored to the shame of Christians then by pretence of Religion to usher in Rebellion By
to be only ab exercitio which make not only all Lawes of Nature but the Ghostly power ordained by Christ in the Scriptures instrumentall and subservient to it and by consequence all Lawes of Nature and Divine Institution in the Scriptures to be subservient to this voluntary creature of a creature this do or dedi not dabo or faciam from whence it must necessarily follow that not only every man who hath not entred into the civil part is neither subject to the Law of Nature or what God commands in the Scriptures but every man who hath may make himself free from them when he will if that rule be true as it is cujus est velle ejus est nolle unumquodque dissolvi potest eo ligamine quo ligatum est And these are the excellent foundations upon which the body de cive is builded or if they be not Master Hobbs may deny any of them if he please Reader these observations and Elements were designed to have come forth some moneths sooner then now which in regard of the slownesse of the presse I could not accomplish and many of the sheets were printed off before the restauration of his Majesty wherein the calamity of this Nation are mentioned and wherein I have endeavored to demonstrate that there was no visible meanes under heaven to cure them but his Majesties restitution If in endeavoring to shew that the originall causes of our distempers were as unjust as the continuance of them I have rubbed some sores which are not convenient to be touched at this time I say that it is impossible for any man to cure any malady who first doth not inquire into the causes and those were printed off in our distractions and discomposures If any thing herein may conduce to the glory of God the good and Peace of my native Country as either advancing the Christian Religion or the Peace and Prosperity of it I shall give God the glory and thus far account my selfe a happy man that I have not only lived to my selfe but imployed my time in some measure to the benefit of other men Et Pergrata Deus nobis haec otia fecit Optimus est Patriae jura referre labor I Have made no Index conceiving the Contents of the Chapters and Heads of the Paragraphs to be sufficient for a Treatise of this nature but in regard of the ordinary failures of the presse which encreased by my absence in the Country the Reader is desired to correct these faults before he begin ERRATA so correct other smaller faults of literall errors and pointing the Readers candour may passe over PReface ob line 15. for equally moderately read equally and moderately By what means c. Parag. 25. l. 3. dele to Obser pag. 5. ground 3. for ground read beliefe Obser pag. 20. last line but 3. chief govenment read chief men government p. 30. l. 28. for any Bishops r. any other Bishops p. 47. l. 8. for Legall r. Regall p. 52. margin for 512. place 768. Appa pag. 3. l. 20. for brood r. breed p. 4. l. 10. for to direct r. so direct Ele. p. 34. l. 7. for the essentiall r. and the essentiall p. 16. l. 22. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 31. para 14 l. 4. for to them r. to it Para. 19. p. 41. l. penult dele Henry 4. Title Para. 15. p. 49. dele and read wherein consists the perfection of Government pag. 57. para 3. l. 5. for Silus r. Silius P. 58. margin for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 60. para 10. l. 2. for cap. r. cap 2. pap 106 l. 2. for all r. are pag. 35. dele of fact FINIS
c. was publickly worshipped and served And men who were of no Religion were always stigmatised with the most opprobrious name of Atheists as the most vile of Men. * Flaminem assiduum Jovi Sacerdotalem creavit Liv. lib. 1. Numa Pompilius therefore in the first place took care for the institution of a Religion among the Romans and to this end he created a Priest who should daily offer Sacrifice to Jupiter And so zealous were the * Selden Annal Angl. lib. 1. c 4. Caesar de Bell. Gal. lib. 6. Gamb Brit. p. 12. Druides in the old age of our Ancestors before Christianity was planted among us in their Religion or Publick Forms of Worshipping of God that none but the Priests and Schollars might learn them nor would they commit them to Letters both because they would not have them divulged least they should grow contemptible by being exposed to the view of the rude and ignorant multitude as also that their Schollars might the better retain them in their memory * Nicias Orat. Thucid. lib. 7. Nicias as the chief Argument of his justification and hope of belief from the gods in his greatest adversity says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have worshipped the gods frequently according to Law And heretofore in the Church of England set Forms of Prayers were not onely ordained that her sons of her Religion might meet at publick times to worship and serve God but the Minister or Priest was obliged every day to offer up the publick worship and service of God whether there were any present but himself or not for all sorts of men in their several vocations and stations That as the fire upon the Altar among the Jews might never go out so among us Christians might no day pass wherein the Publick Service of God was not offered up for all sorts of men 2. That Men honor and obey their Superiors Subjects their Soveraigns Children their Parents Servants their Masters 3. That Men be not Tale-bearers or Back-biters but avoid evil communication 4. That Men do not make advantage of anothers weakness to his damage 5. That Man in all things keep his Integrity that is not to answer so Integrity to another as to deceive him by equivocation or mental reservation if it does not appear that there is evil intent in the question 6. That Men perform their promise made although it be to their hinderance Promise 7. That Men bear a grateful minde for benefits received that is that Gratitude they do not suffer him from whom they receive a benefit to be in a worse condition then he was before he conferred it And if they have not in their power wherewith to satisfie yet that they bear it so in their mindes as to be ready to satisfie to their power Some Creatures who are not endued with Reason do imitate this Virtue the Storks when their Parents are viete and broken with age do relieve them by feeding and providing for them wherefore the Greeks called the Stork 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beneficiorum retributorem See Grotius Annotations upon his Preface De Jure Belli Pac. 8. That men do well to their Wives Children and others as by nature and affinity allied unto them 9. That men be merciful wherein men ought not so much to observe the quantum as the cause of shewing mercy or pitty 10. That in revenge men do not respect the evil past but minde the future good which may happen from the punishment 11. That they neither by deeds words or countenance use another contumeliously 12. That they be not high-minded or over-conceited of their birth person or parts 13. That they be lowly minded and modest 14. Not to accept or respect persons in judgment 15. Where no Law gives propriety there ought community to be 16. Those things which can neither be divided or used in common that the decision be by lot 17. That the first-born be preferred and the Male before the Female 18. * That no man endeavor c. For that which is any mans by Divine Institution cannot be aliened neither by his will nor the will of all the men in the world and therefore cannot Episcopacy or Priesthood after Consecration and Imposition of hands be transferred because they are by Divine Institution Yet whatsoever Bishop or Priest shall endeavor for reward or price to alien it or deny it for safety of his life may as well be esteemed a prophane person as Esau was That no man endeavor to transfer or alien by Pact or Promise that right which God by the Law of Nature or Divine Institution hath given him 19. That Protection be granted to Ambassadors and Mediators of Peace 20. That no man seek private Revenge for any supposed Injury 21. That Judgment be pronounced without hope of reward or for applause of men 22. That where Evidence of Fact does not clearly appear that they take information from Witnesses 23. That the Judge be indifferent not byassed to either party either by Natural relations or by any precedent Obligation 24. These Moral Virtues are commanded by the Moral Law and are most truly and properly so as they are revealed and declared to mankinde by God in the holy Scriptures For the Will of God commanding in the Scriptures that is in the Old and New Testament is in all things by highest right to be obeyed and followed And because God hath created man with an immortal and eternal Soul and does not will the death that is the eternal death of a sinner he offers every man grace who does not refuse it by preferring some other things to lay hold of those means which he hath revealed in them for the obtaining of his eternal happiness 25. But because a man cannot well bear all these Virtues in his minde The sum or cause of all Moral Virtues contained in the Second Table in every action which a man intends if he would know whether it be against the Law of Nature or not Let him suppose himself in place of him with whom he intends this action and if he be not willing that this thing should be done to him let him not do it to another for upon this short and easie rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them depends all the Law and the Prophets Matth. 7. 12. CHAP. V. Moral Virtues are commanded by God in the holy Scripture 1. THe Lord said Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying On this wise Religion or the worshiping of God in a Publick set form was instituted by God under the old and new Testament shall ye bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them Numb 6. 22