The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.

CHAP. 1. (Book 1)

The principles of Spinosa and such Bruitists against Govern∣ment and Morality recited, and confuted, and the funda∣mental reasons of Government asserted. (Book 1)

§. 1. WE have no reason to blame our Rulers, for being offended with all principles of Anarchy and Rebellion, and being jealously watchful against all real appearances of them: for that such are among us, and that the tendency of them is to per∣nicious effects, is past denyal: and all lovers of God, their Country and their King, will hate and oppose them, when they do discern them.

§. 2. What the Papists principles are, is so largly prov∣ed by Henry Fowlis, and by Doctor Barlow, the present

worthy Bishop of Lincoln, after many others, that no addition is necessary; but that such as the Coun∣terminer and many others in Press and Pulpit should lay somewhat like it to the charge either of the present Nonconformists, or to Nonconformists as such, and cry out to Rulers and people, as they love their power, Estates and lives not to tolerate us (that is, to destroy or banish us) and specially that the Parliament in the beginning of the Oxford Act which banisheth us from Corporations, should leave on record such suspicions of us as the reason of their Act, are things that have long seemed to me to make such a Defence our duty, as tendeth to the satisfaction of the sus∣pecters and accusers; Lest we seem 1. To own the charge, 2. and thereby tempt the people to think that we take not rebellion for a sin; 3. or to despise both the Law-makers, their Laws, and the said Preachers that thus accuse us.

§. 3. I have not yet heard of any such severe prose∣cutions of the Bruitists that are for Hobbes, Spinosa, Pom∣ponatius, Vaninus, &c. as have been used against truly Loyal Nonconformists. But their principles are so perni∣cious, subverting humanity, morality and Government, that I will begin with the recital of them as Spinosa lay∣eth them down, and then add the true fundamentals of Government and morality which confute them.

§. 4. Bened. Spinosa in Tractat. Theolog. polit. cap. 16. pag. 175, 176, &c. saith [

Jus naturae nihil aliud est quam,

&c. The Right of Nature is nothing but the Rule by which every thing is determined to his manner of being and operation, as fishes are to swim, and the great ones to eat the little ones. That natural Right extendeth as far as pow∣er. That every Individual hath the Highest Right, to all things that he is able to do: That it is the chief Law of Nature, that every thing do its utmost to continue in its own state, having no respect to any other, but only to it self;

that here there is no difference between men and other things, nor between rational men, and Fools or mad men: that while men live under the Empire of nature only, they live by the only Laws of Appetite, and that by the highest Right: that the natural right of every man is not determined by sound reason, but by Lust and power: All being born ignorant, it be∣ing long before they know the true reason of living, and get the Habit of Vertue, though they have good education, they are no more bound this while to live by the Laws of a sound mind (or reason) than a Cat by the Laws of Lions. Whatsoever any such shall judge profitable to himself, either by guidance of sound reason, or by the force of affection, it is lawful for him by the highest right of nature to desire it and to take it, and that by force or fraud, or request, or by what other way he easiliest can; and to take him for his enemy that would hinder the fulfilling of his desire: so that the Right and Law of nature un∣der which all are born, and for the most part live, forbid∣deth nothing, but that which no man desireth and which no man can do, not contentions, not hatred, not wrath, not frauds. Whatsoever in Nature seems to us absurd, ridiculous or evil, is because we know things but in part. It is the uni∣versal Law of humane Nature, that no man neglect that which he judgeth good (for him) but in hope of a greater good, or the fear of greater damage; nor endure any evil but to avoid a greater, or in hope of greater good: that every man of two goods choose that which he thinks best (for him) and of two evils, that which he thinks least, be it so or not: and this is so firmly written in mans nature, that it is to be numbred with the eternal veri∣ties, which no man can be ignorant of. Therefore no man is to promise without fraud, nor to stand to his promise made, to give up this right (in civil sociation) unless for fear of greater evil or hope of greater good. As if a robber force us to promise him our goods, we may frandulently promise and not per∣form it; yea if I mistakingly think I have promised a thing to

my hurt, I may break it: whence we conclude that Covenants can have no force but for our profit sake, which being taken away, the Covenant is taken away and remaineth void. There∣fore in constituting Republicks, it's foolish to require fidelity, further than you make sure, that Covenant-breaking shall prove the breakers hurt: For every man by natural right, may deal deceitfully, and is not bound to stand to his Covenants. He hath the supreme Right over all men, who hath the greatest pow∣er, by which he can retain them by force or fear of the greatest punishment: which Right he shall have no longer, than he keep∣eth the power of executing what he list: Otherwise he shall rule precariously, and no one that is stronger than he shall be bound to obey him, unless he will. And thus societies may be formed with∣out any wrong to the right of nature: and he that hath most power is bound by no Law. And thus we are bound to execute all his com∣mands that hath most power, be they most absurd: because reason bids us chuse the less evil: But then this Right of commanding what they will, no longer belongeth to chief Powers, than they have chief power: which if they lose, they lose their Right of com∣manding, and it falls to him or them that get it and can keep it.

Then having extolled Democracy he proceedeth to shew that, There is no injury but in a Civil life (the cros∣sing of his will that hath most power) and that all things are lawful to them that are strongest, and they can do no wrong, and Justice is a constancy of mind to give every man that which by (this) civil Right belongs to him, (that is, which he can∣not get from him without his own hurt) And that if two States Covenant, none but a sool that knoweth not the right of su∣preme Powers, will expect they should stand to it, longer than is for their own ends or good; and so in matters of piety and Religion. Also, that all are to be taken for enemies save sub∣jects and confederates, though they never did us wrong: and we may compel them to subjection or confederation, if we are able, with much more to this purpose, taking off all ob∣ligations

of charity, justice and common honesty, except what mens private interest, or the will of him that is strongest doth infer. Otherwise making it as lawful, yea as much duty to murder any man, or as many as we can, as to save mens lives, to steal and rob as to forbear, to lye and be perjured as to speak truly, to be adulterous as to be chast, to be a Traitor as a Loyal subject: openly dissolving and deriding all divine obligations, save mans, and releasing all mens consciences from them: As if he proclaimed to the world, that if once they can but think it to be for their own good, they may kill any man, they may murder Kings and turn their Guns, their swords, their poysons against them, notwithstanding any oaths to the contrary, without any scruple of Conscience or fear of punishment in the world to come. And if once all mens consciences were thus turned loose, no guards, no Army could secure the lives of Kings, as the cases of Henry the 3. and Henry the fourth of France have proved. Yea he thus telleth, Every General of Armies, or any other subject that can but kill the King, and take possession of his king∣dom that he hath as much right as the King had as long as he is strongest, and that all the subjects have the same ob∣ligation to defend him that hath deposed the King, as they had before to defend the King. In a word, that no man is to be trusted by another any further than he thinketh it good for himself, nor oweth any duty to any, but himself, not excepting Parents to children or children to their Parents.

It is the will & mercy of God to Princes and to mankind thus to permit those that will be Atheists and Rebels against him to shew the consequents of it, by their inhumane and rebellious opinions against Government: That if Princes will ever set up Epicurisme, Atheisme and Infidelity, they shall set up Rebellion with it, and expose their Lives to eve∣ry man that hath but list to venture upon a secret or an o∣pen assault.

And the root of all this mans inhumanity is his Epicu∣rean principles of Philosophy about God and 〈◊〉〈◊〉, sup∣posing God to be but the Eternal necessary necess••••••ing first cause of all things and motions, as the Sun is o〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••••ght and heat, who can do no more, nor less than he doth, moving the world as a Clock or Watch by meer invariable necessi∣ty, that never did or can do a miracle, or alter the necessi∣tating course of nature: And that man hath no self de∣termining free-will at all, but is moved as necessarily as an Engine; And that God is no governour, nor hath no Laws (but mens) nor no Justice, nor Mercy, these being not to be attributed to him, but only natural mo∣tion or necessitation; And that he that lyeth, murder∣eth, stealeth, rebelleth is equally moved to it by God, as he that speaketh truth, and doth all that is just and good: and therefore it is but our narrow minds and ig∣norance, that taketh one thing to be better or worse than another, or to be sin or duty, save in respect to our com∣modity and the will of the strongest.

And is it not a wonder that a man should think all this to be the undoubted Light of Nature and the product of free enquiries, and of the true Universal Idea of God, when as nature taught the contrary to almost all the old Philosophers, save the Epicureans (who as Cicero sheweth were in common contempt with sober men): yea to all the most Barbarous Nations of the world, even to our American Sa∣vages at this day, for the most part: And is not that liker to be the Light of Nature, which is found in almost all man∣kind, than that which an odd Philosophical Hypothesis or dotage leads a few such Atheists to, who could not with∣out hard study, have extirpated the belief of a God (a morally Governing Deity) from their own minds: and so un••••litur〈◊〉〈◊〉 have blotted out all Morality, Religion, Hu∣manity, true Policy and Honesty at once. And because

they believe no rewards or Punishments in another life, they make man but an Ingenious Beast, and his Reason to be given him but to serve his Appetite, and sensitive Life; so that by their open principles, if any one Bedlam or Ideot could set all the City on fire for his own com∣modity, he did as well as he that would save it: and if a Traitor could but save himself by the destruction of a whole Kingdom, or the world, it were well done,

And thus, that yet Kings may not think him unkind to them, he sets them above God as to all civil obligations: for cap. 19. he over and over tells you that God hath no other Kingdom or Reign over men, but by those that rule us (that is the strongest) and therefore all Religious worship and exercise of godliness is but the determination of Rulers for the publick peace, and is wholly in their power and at their will: yea that Justice and Charity are not matters of Right and commanded, but by Rulers, and all Religion hath the force of Law or Right only by their Decree: for in the state of nature, Reason hath no more Right than Appetite; but those that live after the Law of Appetite, as well as those that live after the Law of Reason, have Right to all they can do or have: and are uncapable of sin, and not punished by God, but carried about with the Ʋniverse by natural motion: That the Jews gave God his Kingdom over them, and he had none but by their resignation of their power to him; and then it was no other than Moses his Reign; and when they had given their power to the King of Babylon, Gods Kingdom and his Right did presently cease: That God having no Kingdom but mens, cannot be conceived, as a Prince or Lawgiver, giv∣ing any Laws to men, but as involving all in necessity: That all divine documents revealed by the light of nature or pro∣phetically, have no force of a command from God immediate∣ly but from Rulers; that as to God, all things come alike to all, and Salus Populi (that is every mans commodity and

lust) is the highest Law to which all both humane and divine must be accommodated: and no man knoweth by Nature that he oweth any obedience to God, or can know it by Reason, but onl〈◊〉〈◊〉 by Revelation (which his Book is written to de∣ride) pag. 184.

We suppose the Reader will think we have tediously digressed against this Apostate Jew: but the reason is, because the pernicious book having most subtilly assault∣ed the Text of the old Testament, is greedily sought and cryed up (with Hobbes his equal) in this unhappy time, even among those whose place should make them more regardful of the interest of Magistrates at least; even by those Atheists whom God calls Fools, Psal. 14. 1. but by themselves are called Wits, and our business is more to defend the truth than our selves.

The summ of our Judgments against these pernicious principles is this, 1. That there is a God, and were there not a God, there could be nothing.

2. That God is not known to us immediately here, but in a glass, or by the means of some effects.

3. Therefore we have no Notion or Name of God which is not in some sort Borrowed, or which is formal and adequate to his Essence.

4. Yet nothing invisible is so clearly and certainly intelligible and certain to mans mind, as God, as to the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sit, that he is, and to much of the Quid sit, what he is; though imperfectly apprehended; and though no∣thing be so incomprehensible; even as no visible thing is more visible than the Sun, and its being and part of its 〈◊〉〈◊〉 furthest from uncertainty; and yet hath in it most unknown.

5. The Notions we have of God, though Borrowed and Analogical, are not useless nor fallacious, but imperfect and such as lead to perfect knowledge: And he that will not use these, must use none.

6. We have no immediate knowledge of any higher nobler essence than our own souls, from which to bor∣row our Notions of God: still separating all that signi∣fieth imperfection and acknowledging their defectiveness.

7. He that laying by these, will from any other lower baser Nature, form Notions of God, shall have lower, baser Notions of him.

8. Mans Soul is a Spirit, having essentially the Virtue, force, or inclined power, of Vital-Activity, Intellection and Volition (Three in one): all which are certainly no∣tified by their Acts.

9. As Vital-self-moving is more noble than the moti∣on of meer passives or inanimates, so Vitality with Vn∣derstanding and Free-will, is more noble than bruitish motion without Intellection or Free-will: else worms and Beasts were nobler natures than men, and should be our Covernours.

10. Therefore to feign God to be a meer principle of Vniversal motion as the Spring in a Watch, or the poise of a Clock, is to debase him below the Vitality of Beasts: and to feign him to be a meer sensitive principle of motion, is to debase him below humane nature. And to feign him to be a meer Vital-Intellectual mover without Will, Love and Voluntary Goodness, is to think of him in a maimed defective notion, as baser than man's, whose Will is one of his noblest faculties, without which he hath no Love to or complacency in himself or any other. Even as we think of a man of meer speculative knowledge, who nevertheless may be stark naught: (And so men think of the Devil himself).

11. Gods will is the cause and Conserver and end of all things, and therefore to deny his will is to deny all things.

12. Gods will hath all that Liberty which belongeth to Perfection, but no liberty or indifferency which imply∣eth imperfection.

13. The True Idea of Gods Nature then is, That he is a SPIRIT of LIFE, INTELLECTION and WILL, MOST PERFECT.

14. All the Being, with all the Vitality, Intellect and will, the Power, wisdom and goodness, which is in man or any Creature, being from God, he must needs have more than All himself, either formally or eminently, for he can give nothing more noble than what he hath and is.

15. Man having Vitality, Intellection and Free-will, and being a Sociable creature, each one having need of others and disposed to converse, and placed among others, is a Creature made to be Governed according to his Reason, by Verities, and according to his Free-will by proposed Good; and not meerly moved as a Stone, or Engine, nor meer∣ly moved as Bruits by sense: that is, he is to be ruled by Laws. This one of us hath so fully proved in a treatise called the Reasons of the Christian Religion, part 1. cap. 8. that it must not here be done over again.

16. If the Nature of man were not to be morally governed by proposed Truth and Good, his Reason and Will were vain; he should not be ruled as a man but as a stone or beast: sense must do all: all humane govern∣ment were impossible or evil, for want of capable sub∣jects: no Villany must be controlled: folly must bear equal sway with wisdom: children must not obey their Parents, any more than Parents their children. Yea by the Principles of this Maledictus Spinosa and his tribe, the

children that can but conquer natural instinct, and es∣cape humane punishment, may as lawfully kill their Parents to get the inheritance, as Love and Honour them: and the Parents may as lawfuly murder all their children, to avoid the trouble of keeping them, as to nourish them.

17. Man being naturally made to be Governed, God must needs be his supreme governour, as having the chief Right and sole capacity and aptitude. For 1. there is no other can rule Universally, but partially. Kings rule their Kingdoms, but God ruleth the world. 2. Else there were no Governour over Soveraigns, and so no Blasphemies, no Murders (even of Millions) no Perjuries &c. were unlawful to them, nor were it possible for them to sin. 3. Then no plagues, slames, wars or death were divine punishments, nor any to be feared here or hereafter, but men might as safely defie and blaspheme God, as Love and Honour him. 4. Else there were no Law of Nations obliging many to mutual justice, but only interest and contract. 5. Else no heart actions were morally good or evil, (because not under the Govern∣ment of men) He that hated God and Goodness and all good men, for his lusts sake, and studied to do all the mischief he could; he that longs for the murder of his own children, Parents or friends, or of his King, were as good as he that Loved them all: for where there is no Law there is no transgression: and so all morality is nullified. 6. If God were not the supreme Governour, no King or person could have true Right to govern, for there could be no effect for want of a cause. The Peo∣ple cannot give the Ruling Power which they never had (their personal Rule being of another kind) and God hav∣ing prevented them by his establishment of Government in the world, who giveth Parents their Governing Power, which is the first.

18. Gods actual Laws do prove him to be a Lawgiver: even those of Nature, which all such Atheists shall ne∣ver be able commonly to obliterate. And the consent of all mankind still do and will condemn such principles as deny them.

19. A law is the signification of the Rulers will, con∣stituting what shall be due from and to the subject, as an in∣strument of Government.

20. Gods Laws are first natural, and next by special Reve∣lation.

21. Gods Law of Nature is all That in the stated natura rerum in all the world, by which his will is signified to us as aforesaid about our duty.

22. So that Gods Law univocally and properly is in genere objectivo, and in genere signi.

23. Mans own nature as in order it standeth related and disposed towards God and all things and persons circumstant, is the chief part of this objective Law of Nature; from whence his duty resulteth, and Gods will is notified.

24. When the Law is said to be written in our Hearts, it is called the Law univocally, antecedently to the Heart reception, and the reception it self is not another Law.

25. This reception is by the Intellect, will, or executive power: And 1. to know a Law, is not a Law; 2. To will or Love a Law is not a Law; 3. To be ready or disposed to pra∣ctise a Law is not a Law, unless equivocally.

26. They that confound these things by the name of a Light or Law within us, and then talk of the sufficiency of it, do but deceive when they are deceived.

27. What can they (with sense) mean by [The Light or Law within us] but, 1. either the Reception of the objective light or Law which containeth, 1. the

Act, 2. with its object (as it is become an Ens Intenti∣onale Essential to the Act, as in it self it is Ens Reale) or else an innate disposition hereunto: 2. Or else some influx of God (natural or supernatural) by which as the chief efficient he exciteth the faculties to receive the Objective Light or Law? And if they meant this second (that all men have sufficient help from Gods influx) they should say so, that men might understand them. If they mean that all have sufficient knowledge, faith, Love and Goodness; even Infants and wilful despisers of know∣ledge, and those that think it service to God, to kill his servants, and all the blinded sinners in the world, why do these men pretend to teach them more or blame their errours; and do not forbid all teaching in the world even of Parents or any other? Why did Christ and his Prophets and Apostles teach men that were born wise enough? If they mean that all mens Nature it self is a sufficient intellectual objective Light and Law, with∣out any external light or objective Law, that is without seeing or hearing or thinking of any creature of God but ourselves, then they that are born blind and deaf, have all the same Light and Law as others. If they mean only that mens faculties are sufficiently ca∣pable and receptive of the effects of Gods objective Law of Nature, what doth the confounding Metaphor of a Light within us do to the notifying of their minds? But men that neither understand the matter nor themselves, will trouble the world with teaching them that they need no teaching.

28. We call those Revelations natural, which the or∣dinary nature of things in themselves, and effects, exhi∣biteth to us: and we call those Revelations special and supernatural, which God exhibiteth to us, by means ex∣traordinary, quite out of the way of his common opera∣tions,

and such as no natural cause useth to produce, (as to raise the dead, to cause the fire not to burn one, to send an Apparition, an Angel or a voice from heaven, &c.) Though we pretend not to know how much of any natural cause unknown to us may be used by God in any of these.

29. It is impudency in them that pretend to Carte∣sian clarity and certainty in all that they will receive, yet to take on them to be so well acquainted with God and his operations, and the frame of nature as to tell the world, that Liberty of will is inconsistent with Gods nature, that he never doth a miracle, nor altereth the course of the smallest particle in nature, nor doth nothing in the world which is not the necessary effect of natural second causes, as well as of his own will, as he put them in a set course of motion from eternity, or from the creation, with abun∣dance of such dreams, which whatever they are in them∣selves are certainly unknown to them to be so, and there∣fore an unfit medium whence to infer the nullity of all divine Government, Laws and morality.

30. Both natural and supernatural Laws or Re∣velations are to make man wise and good: and so are said to be written and put into his heart, when they have these effects. But if the effects themselves were all Gods Law, then, 1. God had as many Laws as persons in the world; 2. And his Law in the same person chang∣ed, as his knowledge and goodness changed; 3. And those that can but keep themselves ignorant and bad enough, shall therefore not be bad or have no sin because they have no Law.

31. There is no actual knowledge born in man (unless pos∣sibly an unexpressible consciousness of our own being); but only a Disposition in the Intellective faculty to know some things presently, and easily, and some things hardly and by slow degrees.

32. What ever the understanding can know at last with the most diligent search, it had naturally some power to know from its Original. For nothing doth that which it cannot do (mediately or immediately): therefore the noble nature of the soul is better gathered from the attain∣ments of some, than the baseness of it from the Ignorance of others, that excite not their natural faculties.

33. Gods Law of Nature bindeth mankind (ordina∣rily) to live in Governed societies, and hath not left it free to them to do otherwise. Parental Authority is con∣junct with our first being, and natural necessity obligeth to the rest.

34. Civil Ecclesiastical and Economical Governours, being instituted by God, are his Officers, and receive their power from his Institution and Universal Laws, and not from the people, who do but choose, or consent to the person that shall receive it.

35. God only is the Universal Ruler, and no Pope or mortal man is capable of it: and God only maketh Univer∣sal Laws (what ever General Councils may pretend to.)

36. Gods Laws bind Kings as well as subjects, and give force to their Laws, and nothing of man's is obligatory to us, which is against them; for none can dispense with them.

37. All Government that is lawful is for Gods Glory and the Common Good. And Laws that are certainly and notoriously against God and the common Good, have no true obliging power to formal obedience on the soul.

38. Yet such particular Laws disoblige not the sub∣ject from subjection, nor from keeping up the honour of Governours, while they Govern for God and the com∣mon Good in the main.

39. Though the common description of Tyrants in Po∣liticians and Lawyers is (quoad exercitium) that they are

such as Govern not for the common good, but for their own, yet men must take heed, that hence they in∣fer nor either, 1. that we are made judges of the secret intentions of our Rulers hearts, or 2. that one or a few Laws or actions may denominate them such, 3. yea though we knew that they preferred themselves in their in∣tents, it is enough to us, if they preserve the common good in their practice. Else almost all ungodly Rulers would be Tyrants, for it is their common vice to be most for themselves.

40. This Atheistical Politician, who alloweth every man to prefer himself before all the world, doth make that in Princes, which all men have called Tyranny, to be the very Law of Nature.

41. One man is less worth than multitudes caeteris paribus; and every man is a part of the Universe, and is not born for himself alone: therefore howsoever sense may reach but to the Individual fleshly interest; common reason tells us that he liveth not like a man, who preferreth himself before his Country, and had rather Millions or Kingdoms perished than he alone.

42. Our common Nature telleth us, that mans will was made to Love Good as Good, and not to Love our personal commodity alone: and that an excellent per∣son or thing in another part of the world, is amiable, though never like to be a commodity to us: therefore the greatest Good should be greatliest loved, even in our Neighbours as well as in our selves, and our Country above our selves.

43. Though a Prince have not Authority to make Laws to the hurt of the Common-wealth as such, or sub hac ratione, yet he hath Authority to judge what is for the good of the Common-wealth as a Ruler, and sub∣jects must acquiesce in his judgement, when cogent evi∣dence

of the contrary doth not forbid them. And when they know that a Law is against the common good, and obligeth not to formal obedience, yet because the ge∣neral Law of Honouring our Rulers still continues, and sometimes disobeying may tend more to the common hurt, than the obedience of that hurtful Law may do, where God himself forbids it not, material obedience in such cases is a duty.

44. No private personal injury may be revenged up∣on the King, nor upon the Common-wealth: no not by words.

45. The Soveraign or the Body of the Common-wealth may neither of them seek the hurt, much less the de∣struction of each other; nor do any thing that tendeth thereunto: for their union is the Existent Constitution, which dissolution destroyeth.

46. Those that dispute for a Power in the Body of the Common-wealth to destroy the Head, or a Power in the Soveraign to destroy the Body, if he please, do (either as ignorant or cunningly treacherous enemies of both) sow the seeds of suspicion and enmity betwen them, and seek to make them afraid of each other as of Tygers or enemies, and by the terrible word of [A power to destroy] make them apprehend Destruction as at the door, and a civil war almost begun: and such are the most perni∣cious and unsufferable Counsellors.

47. And so various and cross are personal interests, and so weak mens judgements, and so many their errours; lusts and passions, their temptations and ill Counsellors, that if it be maintained lawful for the Head or Body to destroy each other, and all the safety of each lie meerly in the others will, it will scarce be possible long to keep up a mutual confidence, without which societies are sick or lifeless.

48. Those that perswade Rulers to Govern only by a frighting force, do treacherously tempt them to seem to the people as their enemies.

49. God hath not made any one form of Government universally necessary, Monarchy, Aristocracy or Demo∣cracy; and who hath the highest power, and in what degree, and under what limits, is not to be decided by Divines from the word of God alone, but by Law∣yers from the Constitutions of the respective Common-wealths. And it is usually of ill consequence, when Di∣vines are too forward to go out of their calling, and to be determiners herein; Especially when few of them use to be well studied in the Laws of the Land; at least not comparably to Lawyers, who have made it the bu∣siness of their lives.

50. Those who dissolve the obligation of Oaths and Vows are most perfidious enemies to Kings and Com∣mon-wealths: much more those Infidels, who make every mans personal sensuality and lust to be the High∣est Law of Nature, besides which nothing obligeth him to keep his Covenants or vows, nor to spare the lives of Kings, Parents or any neighbours. And though it is true that every man loveth himself and feareth him that can hurt him, yet so cross are mens sensual interests, so blind and various are their opinions, so violent their lusts, so desperate their passions, so cunning their contrivances, so many their opportunities and temptations, that the lives of Kings are never safe, if all mens consciences are once disobliged from the bond of Oaths and divine commands: which if the Atheists themselves did not perceive, they would not make Religion a necessary humane project for keeping Vulgar Wits in obedience: but they will shortly find that it was necessary from a nobler foundati∣on and to a nobler end.

In summ, They that, 1. make man but a subtile beast, and make his Reason but a projecting Servant to his sense, 2. and deny all the Law of Nature save sen∣suality, 3. and make all the vitiosity of man to be his natural Law, 4. and then take up an answerable Idea of God, as being no moral Governour to whom no man oweth obedience, not just, not merciful, but only the equal spring of an unalterable engine called the universe, 5. and make all things that man can do to be lawful, and all that ever is done to be equally good, as being all but the effect of necessitating premotion, 6. and that no man oweth Love, justice or duty to Parents, King or Country, but what his personal sensuality perceiveth to be a fit means for it self, 7. and that it is no sin to kill King or Parents or Children or Neighbours; if he can scape revenge and hurt, and serve his lust thereby, 8. and that no Oaths bind him to his King or Country, longer than he finds it for his sensual good, 9. and that he that can kill or depose the King, and get possession, hath as good a Title, as he had, 10. and that all men are to be held by us as enemies except Subjects and confederates, 11. and that no man is to fear any punishment, nor hope for any reward from God in this life or in the life to come, 12. and so that Epicurean Physicks are the sole Phloso∣phy, and morality is nothing but a vulgar deceit: I say they that hold and publish this, are such as we hold more worthy to be banished five miles from all Cities and Corporations, than our selves: And we leave their Prin∣ciples and ours to the judgement of posterity, wishing (in vain) that those Conformists who are thought suf∣ficient for the sacred work without us, and have access to those whom we may not coverse with, had proved more sufficient to have preserved Cities and Corporations and the Land from Infidelity, Popery and raging sensuality.

II. WE should next have compared our princi∣ples of subjection with those of the Pa∣pists, that it might be seen whether we are more wor∣thy to be driven from our Superiours, from Cities and Corporations, than they: But their Doctrine and Practice is so copiously cited out of the express words of multi∣tudes of their chiefest Writers, lately by Henry Fowlis, after abundance more that have done it heretofore, that we will not now desire of the unsatisfied any more than to read the words of the seventh Council at Rome under Gregory 7. in Bin. Tom. 3. par. 2. pag. 1288. [Agite nunc Patres & Principes Sanctissimi, ut omnis mundus in∣telligat & cognoscat, quia si potestis in coelo ligare & solvere, potestis in terrâ Imperia, Regna, Principatus, Ducatus, Marchias, Comitatus & omnium hominum possessiones, pro meritis tollere unicuique & concedere. Si enim spiritualia judicatis, quid de saecularibus vos posse credendum est? & si Angelos dominantes omnibus superbis Principibus judicabitis, quid de illorum servis facere potestis? Addiscant nunc Re∣ges & omnes saeculi Principes quanti vos estis, quid potestis: & timeant parvipendere jussionem Ecclesie vestrae.] Go to now most Holy Fathers and Princes, that all the world may understand and know, that if you can bind and loose in Hea∣ven, you have power on earth to take away from every man or give Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, Dukedomes, Markquisates, Earldoms and all mens possessions according to their merits. For if you judge things spiritual, what is to be believed that you can do about Temporals? and if you shall judge Angels who Lord it over all proud Princes, what can you do with those that are their servants? Let Kings and all the Princes of the world now learn, how great you are and what you can do, and let them fear to slight the command of your Church].

And Concil. Rom. 3. ibid. p. 1282. where Gregory the 7. depriveth the Emperour of all his Dominions, and absolveth all Christians from their Oaths to him, and forbiddeth them to serve him.

And that he will but read Can. 1. and 3. Concil. ge∣neral. Later. sub Innocent. 3. where it is Decreed that [the Metropolitane shall excommunicate all Temporal Lords that exterminate not Hereticks (who deny Transubstantiation) from their Dominions, and if they amend not, the Pope shall give their dominions to others, and absolve their Vassals from their fidelity].

Where note, 1. That one Heresy here is Believing the senses of all sound men, that Bread is Bread and Wine is Wine, when they see, feel, smell and tast it: and whereas Spinosa alloweth sense to be the Law of Nature, these men make it Death and Damnation to believe our senses: and so we must not only renounce Reason and Humanity, but all our senses; and Temporal Lords must lose their Dominions that will suffer men, that renounce not manhood and sense too, to be their subjects. A hard lesson to Princes and people! 2. Note that this is an appro∣ved General Council; and though charitably questioned by Bishop Tayler, Bishop Gunning and Bishop Peirson and some others, yet fully owned by the Papists, and defend∣ed by the Answerers of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Peirson: so that whether the Canons be Authentick in themselves or no, is nothing to the point in hand, while they are taken to be such by them: Surius saith [no man in his wits can doubt but it was an Oecumenical famous Council in which &c.] Binius (To. 3. par. 2. p. 1449.) calls it Con∣cil. Later. Oecum. 12. Approb. in Crab. To. 2. p. 945. they are called decreta concil. General. In Caranza, Acta Con∣cil. Lateran. &c. 3. Note that General Councils are the Religion it self of the Papists and not refusable by any

as private Doctors opinions are. We desire the Reader to compare our Doctrine with theirs. We take nothing for our Faith or Religion but the Scripture, and therefore can have no seditious Religion, unless the Scripture be such; which if any man misinterpret, it is his Private opinion: which being proved against him, he only is ac∣countable for, and therefore to be banished five miles from Cities and Corporations if he deserve it, and not his Neigh∣bours for his sake.