that a small proportion enjoyed with security and peace renders more content and encrease to the owner then a larger which fear of disseisen makes unuseful Therefore necessity the mother of wisdom having taught them to embrace peace and unity reason farther taught this way unto it namely that as the division of their wills and appetites had before made disturbance so the only means to acquit themselves thereof was to submit to some definitive sentence and determination in all controversies hereby many became one in this grand Politique body and as in the natural though the arms legs and all other parts draw greedily for themselves apart that nourishment which is for common supply and that with self-consideration only yet all of them keeping their natural order and rules and relying on the affordment of such members as are of publike concern and trust not only their single but joynt preservations did follow For the brain affords nerves the heart arteries the liver blood to all parts as having the like interest in them all and while each member is thus supplyed according to the proportion which its oeconomy and service to the whole doth require and that Geometrically every one hath alike while they have enough why should one repine at another For if according to the old allusion the hands or feet alledging their greater pains and service should ignorantly quarrel and envy the greater rest and supplies of other parts and hereupon grow so stubborn as to refuse the directions of the common head so far as to disable it and those publique useful members of heart liver c. from performing their offices must it not follow that the whole body thus perishing the hands and feet must therewith perish also For the whole body subsisting by and being but collectively these members each of their particular growth and good made that of the whole swell also So in this Politique Body the several benefits and advancements of particular members are made by this union of will and application to be the encrease of the publique But it is by the way to be considered that in submitting thus Politiquely to have each private wil swayed by a publique which thereupon became the only legal will or sentence it is not to be supposed that the faculty of willing could be resigned for that is impossible and beyond our power it being not capable so far to reflect on it self as to will to be willing or not willing in any thing for if so such kinde of choice would proceed infinitely nor could the actions necessary for preservation of each individual have any setled certain and final sentence for direction or execution on its own behalf but the effect of our wills or the power to execute the same is that we promise and are to suspend or deny if contrary to publique allowance And as not the faculty of willing so not that of understanding and judging can be wholly left and silenced because that also is to the preservation and subsistence of each man as man that is in his separate and personal capacity and to the constitution of will it self absolutely necessary But because my private understanding taking me distinctly for a single person was for self-preservation only I can from my self claim no right farther to use or apply it but in such cases where Polity hath placed me in the relation of a subject and member of a Politique Body united for common good there it is reasonable that as my particular good is unvaluable to that of the general so my liberty and right of judging Publique benefits and expedients should be as unvaluable also And although in this course of Politique submission men could not but expect decisions many times contrary to their private opinions and desires yet since this was the only way to common peace and safety they thought it reasonable that a general good should be preferred before a particular and as we in our Natural so they in this Politique Body were curing with mutilation or patience the impotencies and griefs of particular members rather then the whole body with all other Members should run into common hazard and while striving to shew partial affection to the grieved part only the life and subsistence of all should be endangered For as when life is taken from our natural body it remains a body no longer but a carcase so Politique bodies being berest of their life which is general agreement and submission to Authority continues no longer a Commonwealth but Anarchy Wherefore we may observe that Monarchy was not only the most ancient and useful form of Government as having in it the most apparent unity But also that this chief office was that of a Judge being in all causes and over all persons supreme head and governor Not that any single benefit or the advancement or good of any one person was thereby intended because that otherwise and without this relation they were to be presumed but of equal merit And so if we shall diligently consider all those examples of more special and extraordinary favour and abilities bestowed by God Almighty in Holy Writ we shall finde that the good of the whole or some more considerable part of the people was the end of those miraculous and personal endowments and not single honor it carrying too great a disagreement to Gods justice and too plain a shew of partiality that whole Societies and Orders of men should be to no other end abased but to the advancement and good of one And to this end only were all those Prerogatives and Priviledges annexed to the persons of Princes as amongst others that of irresistible power For their chief end being the peace of the Kingdom and ceasing of strife and slaughter in the doing thereof it must be aswel in his power to decide if equity shall so lead him on the fewer and weaker side as on the more and stronger and so much his Obligation of Protection must imply Else if the stronger should of it self and notwithstanding such decision have still power by force to atchieve their own desires and refuse submission to what end should Government be for without it the stronger side did before judge and prevail for it self but now all Power being resigned into a third determinate hand it is no more of right in them but him and the offer to reassume it is the highest breach of Trust and the Treason of all Treasons even the betraying of all Order and Government it self By all which we may discern the Original reason of Government and power of one man over another we may see why every soul should be subject to the higher powers and how all powers come to be of God and why the resistance hereof as the greatest crime is to be punished with damnation For without submission to Government and Authority what peace can be hoped for and without peace what temporal good can be expected because as the care of God in the
preservation of all creatures in general is called Providence so being applyed to mans particular it is called Peace A blessing of such utility that in Scripture we may observe all other blessings included therein as the more worthy so that in our prayer for the peace of Jerusalem any other state we include all sublunary benefits it is capable of and as our God will be called the God of peace so our Saviour the Prince of Peace who as a complement of all blessings saith Peace be unto you and enjoyns it as a common and summary benediction to others Peace to this house or Peace to this City But because peace in it self seems but a Negative happiness we will now so far as is for the present needful speak of Mans end and happiness in general which by means of this peace he strives to attain and secure CHAP. V. Of each Mans private End and Felicity WE before touched how the different Perfections of Creatures arose from the different neerness to Divine resemblance and that the whole Creation took effect out of Gods intention to express his goodness and reap thereby due praise and glory and that this difference of participation and resemblance appeared most in man as a creature most lively enabled both to the rellishing and enjoying this goodness and bounty and withal of greatest engagement and ability to return due praise We are now to consider that as it would have seemed unreasonable in God to expect praise from us for such things whose use and possession we could not at all apprehend or acquire so to encrease this praise and thanks it was necessary that the objects of our felicity and our vigor in enjoying and possessing them should be encreased also And again as for to have coveted and delighted in any by means of our affections and then have wanted the benefit of reason and discourse to attain it had been and abuse so to imagine we should have ever put forth to the possession of any thing the pleasure or benefit whereof we did no ways apprehend were absurd and therefore in this necessary conjunction our reason and affections are heightned and helped by each other yet Reason doth usually play the part of the Servant or Ministerial Officer to the attaining of what we apprehend as Pleasant which Reason having assented unto on the behalf of the object out of which Pleasure is expected it is then called Good or when on the behalf of the way and means to attain it it is then called Vertue especially if it overthrow not a greater Pleasure in others to which end all Laws are framed Politically appointing punishments to keep off the seeking of such Pleasures They that have hitherto defined mans felicity have stinted it to such and such particular objects wherein for the most part guessing by the measure of their own rellishes and apprehensions they themselves thought greatest happiness to consist but we not making mans felicity narrower then the objects thereof will afford and reckoning small pleasures even to be parts thereof also do not mean to contend in what particular object or exercise this delight doth most consist leaving it to ties proper and indisputable judge each mans own appetite but do affirm mans end to be pleasure At which if any seem startled as esteeming a difference should be put between that which is good and that which is pleasant and that goodness may be had where pleasure is not their mistake ariseth from the observation that since many men and creatures take often delight in such things as procure them afterwards great harm and sorrow and on the other side finding many things which are painful in the present possession to prove afterwards good they seek thereupon to divide Good from Pleasant Not duly considering that besides God no object can have in it self a positive or perfect degree of goodness but it is in them comparative only even according to that serviceableness they yield to other things as for food cloathing or other use Therefore the measure of good received from any thing must be rated according to the rellish entertainment and serviceableness it finds in the receiver which must make it good or not For if by good we understand what is commodious and necessary for the preserving and perfecting our nature without regard whether it be pleasant or not see we not how they take away the use of sense and reason and make the felicity of living Creatures not to exceed that of stones and other Inanimates for these have this felicity conferred on them with greater constancy and assurance then Sensitives and if such kind of passive or negative happiness could dignifie would be more excellent of the two Whereas they having no apprehension rellish or delight in what they do we may justly account them excelled by Creatures of sense as they are again by man surpassing them all in the variety and vigour of his enjoyments As for instance in that intellectual pleasure of honour wherein man seems so delighted as if he were a second Deity they have either none or small apprehension Their ears are not capable of harmony or the sweetness of eloquence nor their eyes delighted with Colours Figures method c. They want also many varieties of tastes and smells which we possess And in a word as man hath brain the root of sense in greater quaintity then they so also he exceeds them in the use and effects thereof being more various and abundant in his desires and more vigorous and steady in his possession All which will conclude that goodness in Sensitives as such cannot be where pleasure is not and that goodness is but another name for Pleasure or commonly the way our reason apprehends to it For when for the health of my body I endure Physick or other observations which are troublesom and unpleasant or for the good of my soul abstain from any thing pleasant or undergo any task or pennance see we not how that which is called good in both kindes is but in respect it is the way to what is pleasant afterwards for the appetite following Pleasure as her general end and preferring the greater to the less by the help of reason finds that in these and like cases this end is not otherwise attainable For this lasting pleasure of health doth far countervail the temporary sufferings of Physick and the reward of heaven any momentany punishment and in both cases proves not the avoidance but Pursuit of Pleasure For is any thing Pleasant to the taste for other cause eschewed but out of fear of some other detriment nor can we make an Athiest forbear his pleasure when the terror of shame or the Law are off him or the Glutton his appetite in any thing which fear of sickness forbids not From the first instance we may conclude this Maxim That slighter and less durable pain is to be suffered rather then greater as if that of Physick to that of Sickness
so continually nor Vniversally resident as to be able to determine all differences nay they may be conceived included in the injunction too because they exercised their present power in a patriarchal right and way as shall be hereafter noted So that in regard of this injunction to obedience under the notion of Father c. the Christian Church had resemblance with the Jewish also for their laws and commandments being given by God before they were at that heigt as to be fitted to enjoy that statute officer who should as a constant publick Father command amongst them they had likewise their precept for obedience and respect couched under the notion of Father too in the fifth Commandment within the generality thereof including as well such temporary publick officers as should immediately command as that future setled officer of King prophetically designed to be over them in both Churches Now as these Fathers and Masters had and have entire jurisdiction in their families and Kingdomes because these could have but one head in chief so must it be granted that since there can be but one Church that is to say Catholick because Christ can have but one body and that body again but one head that therefore proportionably as any other authority and head shall come between Christ and this body so much will the separation and disunion of him with his body be encreased For to represent Christ in the whole Catholick Church is not so much to represent him as head as to be head in his room And in abatement of this ambitious humour is our Saviours reply to be construed which he made to the Children of Zebedee who would have transcended their Apostolical rank of parity and have been alone sitting above their fellow heads of Churches at the right and left hand of Christ. For if their suit had been but for equality they needed not to ask it nor do I see why any of the rest should have been so angry at it But to answer these it was that our Saviour sayes that those that had highest abilities in close and holy following of him might expect a reward or Crown in heaven for it but they were not after the manner of the Gentiles to exercise domini-over one another here The like are we to conceive of that example of washing his Disciples feet and many other places where he purposely gives directions and precepts against this ayme of Vniversal Government of most of which we shall have occasion to speak in discourses following As for the other Government by an independent consistory of the Clergy it must to all unbiassed judgements appear unreasonable for since as Subjects they are included in the general jurisdiction and authority of each kingdome so for order and peace sake they should by the same authority be subject to their diocessans as they again are to be to the Prince the head of that particular Church Where by the word Church is meant that assembly of Christian Believers which is divided from others by an entire jurisdiction of their owne and do thereupon come to be called this or that Church Noâ— Clergy men onely as if these were the sole members of Christs body and so as being more immediately imployed by authority about Church matters they as more strictly called Church men and spiritual guides might be judged as some do do have the sole and absolute power of the Church and to be the onely watch-men and guide of souls No their mission and power as immediately received from Christ is onely inward unto us that is over Gods kingdome therâ— they are perswade men to turn to the Lord with purpose of heart that is so settle in our hearts the foundations of faith and love which being wroucht in us by the holy Spirit they become thereupon so far as they are Gods Ministers to be Ministers of the Spirit not of the Letter being for directing men in their outward duties to have their power from that Church and Christian authority unto which themselves are subject But because that error grew from an in considerate necessity of our imitation of the primitive Church according to its first manner of Government it will be necessary to speak something thereof As God hath power and will have glory alone so it is necessary in the constitution of those things in which he will have his glory more eminently to abide that he have his power making and stateing them to be more remarkably and particularly manifest Thus in the Creation that was the foundation of all things else he acts alone and so much alone that his very word was the deed In that particular designation of a Church for his glory to be more eminent amongst men that the honour of doing might be more his owne he did first make use of the weakest means in humane reason for the foundation and establishment thereof In the first Church amongst the Jews and whilst they were in their weak and wandering condition as their need was greater so his personal protection and guidance of them was more express and apparent And therefore whilst they were in this Theocraty their government was not to be managed by any setled Vniversal authority besides himself or any one who took not in all weighty things immediate direction from him least the eminence of his owne glory should be hereby abated but they were to continue in their wonted obedience to the natural fathers of their families and tribes until such time as being throughly setled in peace and security from their enemies he might make his recess and according to his former promises permit and appoint them a King of their owne Nation Who as standing in his stead and authority now and being entrusted with the future preservation and guidance of that which God had so carefully brought to perfection there was the same reason why he should have remarkable eminence and authority then as why he should not at all have it before The same course we may see taken in the founding of the Christian Church also for they during the time of their owne persecution were as their weakness required in a Theocraty too that is to say guided by the express direction of our Saviour himself given to his Apostles during the time he was on earth and particularly as being conversant with them for the space of fourty dayes and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God And in those things wherein his direction was wanting they were to wait for the promise of the Father even the promise of the holy Ghost who should lead them into all truth Thereby came those spiritual Guides and Priests of the primitive Church to be sometime called Ministers and Pastors but commonly Presbyter from which the Dutch word Priester and our English word Priest are derived being a notion in the sence of antiquity importing Seniority jurisdiction and power whereby they coming to be enabled notwithstanding the
thou didst receive it why dest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it that is since Christ hath given his power in the Church to us in chief and to all others as subordinate why should they act without us as though they had not received it from us Why should you in your popular fancy of underived power thick to raign as Kings without us For although we have suffered our selves to be accounted weak and despised that ye might be strong and honorable and also to try if by any means we might win you yet it is not to deny that we have as your father just power to command you and therefore I write not to shame you for your neglect but as my beloved sons to warn you that I may not have occasion to come with a rod but in love and in the Spirit of meekness as I have always done And therefore although S. Paul do now beseech them to be followers of him as the only way to be of the same mind and of the same judgement yet it is but what he might as an Apostle of Christ have been bold in and have commanded them in Christs name and what they as commanded in the Lord that is by the stewards of the Mysteries of God nay as labourers together with God in this building and husbandry ought to obey And therefore is it that S. Paul faith I praise you brethren that ye remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you even as I the Disciple or Follower of Christ have by vertue of my Mission from him appointed you Not as some would have it follow me no farther in any thing then you find me following Christ because this had been to overthrow all he had said before and to have given new toleration to schism under pretence of following Christ For if men be not followers of those their Supreme Heads that are followers of Christ but will make divisions by honouring God their own way then will the Author of peace be made the Author of confusion whilst some in their publike worship have a Psalm some a doctrine a Revelation and Interpretation c. to the overthrow of all true publike worship and service for want of uniformity No otherwise then if the same person in the manner of his return of thanks and service to God should be distracted in himself and not wholly intent on the thing he is about for as there are private benefits for which we are separately to be thankful so are there national ones to in which our prayers and praises are to agree by publike appointment And this is the reason why writing to the Ephesians of our publique duties of praising God he presently enjoyns them submission as the only means to make it right and uniform Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ submitting your selves one unto another in the fear of God which is the same with let every soul be subject unto the higher power because they are of God And so he goes on to state obedience in all the present Christian relations that is of wives children and servants as unto Christ and as to the Lord and not to men But by his beginning with the duty of wives and staying so long upon it we may well conceive him to have herein a particular drift to set forth under the figure of womens obedience to their husbands as their heads each Churches obedience to its Husband or Head under Christ who is the head of the whole Church his spouse of which more hereafter As for the authority of that office of Priesthood so far as related to sacrifice and legal Ceremonies none make doubt of its abolition under the Gospel Whose Ministers or Preachers being now Ministers of the Spirit not of the letter themselves can by no pretence as heretofore shewed claim external jurisdiction and obedience As for the other office of Prophet it had indeed a continuance for some time in the Christian Church whilst it was in its weak condition as a necessary means to give them and their guides direction what to do in their continual distresses Thus is S. Pauls bands and ensuing death prephesied to happen in those times For as there could not under a good space of time be a sufficient number of able persons found to receive Ordination and so to be disposed of for the peculiar care of Churches as now but in this their unsetled and weak condition Christ himself by the means of the promised Holy Ghost being necessitated extraordinarily to endue men with several gifts for general edification in the absence of humane learning it was no wonder if this gift of prophesie did many times come along therewith since all proceeded from the same spirit Yet although this gift of prophesie were thus necessary to be held up from Christ for the support and direction of his Church during her weakness and infancy yet being usually accompanied with the gift of Doctrine and Instruction also it afterwards came to pass that Prophesie and Doctrine did come to signifie the same thing as in that place where it is said No prophesie of scripture is of private interpretation And indeed the predictions themselves were but instructions for those they were addressed unto how to guid themselves according as those events should happen So that it being but instruction in an object and busisiness more remote it was no wonder that the notion of Prophet came afterwards to signifie the same with the Preacher as also the word Prophesie the same with Doctrine even as the Minister or Deacon to comprehend the like function of instruction also But however even in those times there was still subordination nor was it in the power of those Prophets or any other to take on them to settle any Doctrine or Church order against or without Apostolical leave namely the leave of that general Father or Head of the Church under whom they had received their first Christian foundation and who was thereupon as a Master builder to have power over each workman that undertook their spiritual edification As was intimated to the Corinthians where S. Paul complains of this abuse in the practices of such as had ventured to build on that foundation without leave which he as head of the Church had first laid saying according to the grace of God given me have I laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take beed how he buildeth thereupon And this right of Government and Authority to be given to those persons from and under whom they had been taught and brought to Christianity we may find noted in those two forementioned places to the Hebrews where the first admonition for obedience to such
That God would divide him a portion with the great and that by these his Deputies swords he himself should divide the spoil with the strong that is when he shall have made his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed meaning more especially these his adopted Sons and by means of their ministration he shall prolong his days that is in exercise of temporal Kingship And thereby the pleasure of the Lord concerning the Churches temporal salvation and glory as well as eternal shall prosper in his hands So that the Apostles mistake in the forementioned demand was in the time and season of Christs more majestick appearance in the exercise of Kingly power in this kingdom of the Church by God given him and not in the true right he had thereunto Their mistake also was in fixing their thoughts too strictly on the Jewish Nation as if Israel in the litteral sense and not the whole Church had been the Kingdom to be thus dignified and advanced by his Government These mistakes they were also the rather led into in regard of those many promises made in particular to the Jewish Nation and also for that those promised blessings were always exemplified under the person of David whose natural son they knowing our Saviour to be it made them to expect he should thereupon be himself the executioner and undertaker thereof and so to be actually seated in the Throne of his father David as it was before promised to the blessed Virgin Yet if they had withal considered that other prediction concerning our Saviour made to Joseph namely that he should save his people from their sins they would not then have gone about to make the execution of his Office of temporal Jesuship precipitately to defeat that other his Office of saving souls But our Saviour that knew best his appointed time and manner for performance of these offices executed first the higher and greater work in his own person and leaves the other to be brought about and executed by Substitutes anointed under him He upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins and sate down at the right hand of Majesty on high In which regard although every member of his Church were equally his seed and equal to one another in reference to that Mediatorship which was consummated in his own person without other future assistance save that of the Holy Ghost yet in regard of the Prophetick and Kingly part or the part of Instruction and Government which was to be compleated by Humane deputation they were again severally dignified and differenced one from another and so might be unequally esteemed his seed as they stood in that respect nearer in relation unto him for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of â—he body of Christ. And as this difference is to be observed that we be not like children without a Father carried to and fro of every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive so is it to last till Christs second coming that we come to the stature of the fulness of Christ. So that the glory of the Church this Kingdom of God given unto Christ being to arise by these means and degrees it is the reason of that petition of Thy kingdom come Which importing no doubt its encrease and prosperity here in order to have his name more hallowed and honored thereby may be well interpreted to signifie our desire that this Church may arise at such a degree and state of eminence that it may be proportionable in splendor and dignity to admit the true Idea and Platform of Regiment used by God himself Not as if the measure of Gods Omnipotent power should be then encreased but that the manner of execution thereof in the Church should be also more conform namely That his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven For although before it Christs Will and Law for the matter of them was as truly if not more performed in the Apostles time and by the primitive Church then afterwards no otherwise then in the Jewish Church Gods service was generally more unstained before Kings then afterwards yet as amongst them the accomplishment of Gods aim and promise of having a place to put his name in was made the object of their desires as therewith importing their own promised happiness also so in the Christian Church you may find reason why it should be commanded us to conform our desires to that of Gods and that besides the matter of our own inward devotions and charity whereby we severally and privately performed his will we should desire the manner of performance of it to be outwardly glorious and uniform also that it may answer as near as may be that ready service which Angels do in heaven For if we hallow and glorifie his name and do also acknowledge his power and kingdom on earth as it is in heaven we shall no doubt then best do his will in earth as it is in heaven Whereupon concluding also that the first petition of hallowing Gods name is to be explained also on earth as it is in heaven because we have no need nor warrant to doubt or wish the doing it in Heaven it is farther evident that the petition of Kingdom come must relate to the Churches future prosperity according to whose splendor and greatness God himself and his Kingdom may be rightly said to be more or less come or present amongst us even as he is more or less majestically râ—presented in the eminence of that officer which is substituted with his authority And therefore we being to ascribe all kingdom power and glory unto him without wresting from him the right of his everlasting kingdom amongst men we may explain this petition of Thy kingdom come in our Gospel precept of prayer by that petition of the Jewish Churches prosperity included in their injunction To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Both they and we being thereby obliged to continual duty of praying for the encrease and glory of his Church and that not only when it is weak but although flourishing we are to pray for the continuance and encrease thereof And that it may the better so do we are to make prayers and supplications for such as shall be chiefly instrumental therein that is for Kings and all that are in Authority This our commanded Petition pointing at the glory and encrease of the Church and particularly under Kingship may also well be understood as proportioned and answering the many Gospel-Promises made to that purpose and those particular promises also heretofore made to Abraham and other the Church Fathers and Founders namely that their encrease of race and posterity should be crowned with the blessing of Kingship also as we have formerly noted So that besides the expression of our
exulting as in a benefit received God might be honored as having performed the work he intended even the expression of his power goodness so now men being to live in Society that the honor and praise of all as his onely due might therein be increased also it was expedient that our content should by natural instincts and rules be affixed most to what was most usual amongst us and our discontent upon such things only as were but few and of rare event All things do hereupon come to be loved by custom and acquaintance For so I love an English face better then another and think that worst that most differs Out of which custom also doth the Blackmore prefer his colour flat nose great lips c. to that which is contrary in us From this reason also we come to set particular affection upon some faces and although we have forgotten it to place most affection and to be soonest taken with the like face unto that of Nurse Mother or such we conversed with in our youth Which inclination and strength of appetite being by custom made familiar although by such various and insensible degrees as we did neither heretofore consider nor do now remember comes for want of farther knowledge of its original to be stiled sympathy and that which is hateful upon contrary reason of disaquaintance or from some extraordinary composure of our fancy to dislike at the time of its first impression to be called Antipathy For we must not say that God made any thing ill favoured or mis-shapen but our oftner sight of the same then other Creatures makes us even love their shape better then of such things as be hiders and do seldom appear Not but that the shapes of Rats Hedge-hogs Snakes Frogs Owls Bats c. are as good as those of Horses or Dogs or that the braying of an Ass is a worse noise then the crowing of a Cock but the new and unusual presentation of these things to our senses puts our already settled and composed fancies to a sudden startle and new labour Therefore when we will paint a Devil or set forth any thing as ugly the usual way to do it is by most unusal shapes But because nothing can come from the pencil but what was before in the fancy nor from fancy but what came in by sense we are constrained to make up this deformity by misapplication of members in the intire constitution of a body together with some unusal figure or colour all which apart and in their proper creatures or posture had been nothing terrible or strange So that to put wings to a Beast or four feet to a Bird a mans head to a Beasts body or a Beasts head to a mans cannot but disaffect And if any shape hath in it self priority then mans would have it and thereupon the Ape a creature most like him would be handsomest which now with us not used to such a shape is esteemed ugly upon the same reason that Devils are painted white by Blackmores And as several Species and Shapes come to affect by their own oftner appearances one above another so do they by common resemblance one to another whereby things most like come by this means to be oftner in presence then things of more proper shapes Thus Hogs though we may be more used to the sight of them then Deer are yet from their different shapes and qualities to that of other four footed creatures in general esteemed less lovely upon which ground Bears appear more ugly then Lyons or Leopards So again though those women c. that are accounted most beautiful are more rare and few then the ill-favoured it is to be conceived that they are so only as to the general and whole number of them but divide the ill favoured ones into sorts according to their likeness to one another and you shall find fewer of any sort of the ill favoured and greater difference between those sorts compared one to another then between handsome faces compared one to another And with us that use not to go naked a man is not so comely naked as adorned with cloathes which also by custom of wearing is distinguished into fashions and so made pleasant And those people that cloath not themselves have their accustomed decorums of painting or the like for setting forth of their shapes and bodies shewing that custom and not natural shapes of themselves please us And so farther although there be more ill then good hands written yet the best hands are those that come nearest that copy which is in each Country esteemed most perfect of the kind which must thereupon be more like one another then bad ones because they maintain method through evenness of line and equality of distance and proportion in the letters which bad ones do not and so come more or less to disaffect As we see that those coloured horses which we call pye-bald are because of strangeness called and counted ugly For first few horses are of these so different colours in their bodies in such sort placed and mingled but are usually of one and the same colour and with like marks And then again these Pye balds have as great difference amongst themselves as they have to the rest Whereas Spaniels that are not usually of an entire or like colour and mark do please in this varity A Tune takes above other confused noises for that because of the method therein used we are able to remember and conceive it But an Outlandish Tune is unpleasant at first to us and ours to them as they differ from the usual ayrs of each other Nor are they nor any new Tune made pleasant until by our fancy they are apprehended and made familliar in such degree as we are able to conceive the cadences thereof before they are founded And those fashions and tunes which we ordinarily call new are but small variations from those generals formerly entertained and yet please us not at first sight or hearing so well as afterwards So that Custom frames appetites and appetite provokes the will to particular applications of good and bad of like and dislike Besides our wills there is nothing that can be properly called ours for the desire of property and enjoyment of others things is but in order to that nay my very body and the parts thereof are valued as they are useful to the reaching and fruition of such content as fancy offereth not to be enjoyed without them So that should I want arms legs or any or more parts not depriving me of life and so of will I should yet be I and those parts reckoned as additional not essential even as they are my arms my legs c. and we may properly enough say my body my soul because the will arising from the harmony of both is not either of them but the individual is there only where the unity of direction and application is whereas in separated parts the general Laws of Nature in corruption
this peculier erected posture yet for further ease of the weight thereof wanting support like other Creatures that use four feet some way of leaning and standing comes to be affected bringing on crookedness and so farther shortning the trunk also Upon which consideration we may suppose mens Limbs fitted for upright going even as Parats have one claw turned backward that is because the whole race of them feeding out of their feet and not being able to hold their meat to their mouths without turning their claws it came at last so to settle although the distortion be still apparent And yet why may not men naturally enough go on their hinde feet onely as we see some horses born amblers for as in them custom and habit do often pass by traduction so all men being goers why should not children be naturally walkers and since it may be presumed that Adam and Eve were set upright why not their posterity insomuch as there should be no sort of people without this posture It may be so if we could have spoken without teaching but as Adam was to have his knowledge infused and not acquired from childhood so the faculty of upright going also if he had it otherwise it is like he would not have so gone more then spoken But this gate no doubt is of great advantage to mans use in some things and that even in the exercise of the faculties of his minde and judgement because he is hereby able to carry his head and neck more steadily then when they should be prominent and hang out fore-right whereupon the senses Nerves and parts of the body may have a more direct and steady entercourse with the brain so as to hold on and keep fresh such objects and figures as shall be entertained therein that so by summoning all its concomitant impressions after each parties artificial way of topical method and adjudication a full discovery may be made to serve for instruction or use against another time before that figure be parted with And therefore we may observe that while we are in great inquiry and study concerning any thing we hold our heads very steady whereas those that have a loose carriage of their necks are proportionably weak in their intellectuals And truly to be a good Peripatetick is a great step to be a good Philosopher because in this erect gate the bones being in a straight line do bear the weight of the body so as the brain may not be diverted from its inward work and agitation to any great supply of the Nerves and Muscles without And besides this we have some advantage to knowledge by keeping our hands by this means more tender whereby to imprint more exactly by feeling with them But then again there is no doubt but in many bodily exercises the other motion and gate would be advantageous as in leaping running climbing and all sorts of nimbleness And for tryal sake hereof it were not amiss that some children were so brought up and nourished as to be without sight of company that they might take their natural course herein until some degree of years at least those that come to them to feed or teach them to speak should come upon all four and then sit after the eastern fashion but the greatest and best advantage would be if men could conveniently be brought to use both ways of gate upon occasion but this by the way Now as there is an creation of body so is there an erection of minde wherein indeed the pourtrait and image of God is to be sought And unto this estate of upright walking and looking towards heaven we are by more slow and difficult degrees reduced in our souls then we are in our bodies even because of those natural and inbred affections of Pride Covetousness Sensuality Stubbornness and the like whereby we are carryed with a perpetual delight to lye groveling on the things of this world The first great help to this straightness of minde are those swathings of Precepts and discipline wherewith and whereby from our infancy and from the same time we begin to go we have the Rebellion and irregularities of our nature rectifyed by the Laws and Rules of our Parents by the due application and exercise whereof while our affections as well as our limbs are yet pliant and tender we come to be well fitted and prepared to undergo and act as Christians and subjects in our political relation that measure of duty and submission which in our Oeconomical relation we had been habituated unto as children when either our heavenly Father or the Father of our Country shall have farther occasion to make tryal of our growth and steadiness in perfection by those afflictions and hardships which through humility and obedience to them we shall be put unto So that there will be these differences between the erection of the body and that of the soul. All the difficulty of upright going in the first sort rests in our infancy even in keeping the limbs of our body straight whereas the difficulty of upright walking in the other sort is chiefly afterwards when by reason of obdurate natural stubborness and crookedness of disposition we stand in more need of the ligaments and tyes of Laws and Discipline then before After we come to growth the elevation of our minde is helping to the body in continuance of this his elevation even through pride and affection as striving to excel in that which we see to be so generally practised whereas to the true elevation and upright walking of the inward man the pride and haughtiness of the outward man is altogether averse and there is no surer way to the true raising and dignifying of our mindes then by the depressing and keeping under of our bodies when as by due applycation and use of afflictions and Patience we may make those true Christian graces of humility and lowliness of minde in our own and worldly esteem to become our true glory and exaltation in the sight of God For it is to be considered that there are ghostly and gracious habits as well as bodily and natural ones and that these as the more worthy ought to take up our chief endeavour To proceed farther into search of the degrees of knowledge and comprehension we may observe that those that can perfectly read are past the trouble of spelling and those that can do that well do it so without disturbance to their fancy that they can intend the matter treated of without distraction through notice of the words more then the action of walking doth disturb the party from entertaining other objects and thoughts As for the usual tryal and difficulty of rubbing with one hand and patting with another both at once it proceeds from want of custom whereby the brain cannot accommodate it self to both actions at the same instant but through practice and custom both may be done and yet the fancy have ability and leisure to intend something else even as Turners and Spinsters