The right of dominion, and property of liberty, whether natural, civil, or religious. Wherein are comprised the begining and continuance of dominion by armes; the excellency of monarchy, and the necessity of taxes, with their moderation. As also the necessity of his Highness acceptation of the empire, averred and approved by presidents of præterit ages, with the firm settlement of the same against all forces whatsoever. / By M.H. Master in Arts, and of the Middle Temple.

CAP. II.

1. Of the Excellency of Natural Liberty.

2. Of the Cause of Natural Liberty.

FRee Agents are by Nature most excel∣lent: For the chiefest thing in every thing is Action; and the excellency of Action is Freedom, as when it is more a∣ble to act freely, then of necessity: For those things which act by the necessity of nature, want a Superiour to order them to their ends: Whereas free Agents prescribe an end to themselves after an imperious manner.

Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.

Ʋt sine causa nihil fit, ita sine ea nihil di∣stincte, cognoscitur. As nothing is without a cause; so nothing is distinctly understood

without it; and therefore the cause of li∣berty is diligently to be enquired, which is natura naturans, or as the Poet saith, melior natura, that is God, who is liberri∣mum Agens, the freest Agent, acting what he will, and working all things according to the councel of his own will: Neither is his power astringed to the course of second causes, as the Stoicks dream.

Non Deus est numen Parcarumc arcere clausum, Quale putabatur Stoicus esse Deus.

The Divine power is not sure enclos'd In Fates close prison, as the Stoicks suppos'd.

For he can produce effects above the o∣peration of nature, as to draw water out of a Rock, and by his absolute power make creatures more noble then these: And in this also doth he transcend all other free Agents; that whereas they may be obstructed by opposite Agents from ac∣complishing their intended ends, Gods aymes are no way obnoxious to any pro∣hibition, or coaction; for who can resist his will? And in this sense is the saying of the Poet true:

Aeschines. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. There is none free but God.

That is eminenter & originaliter: For as he is the freest Agent; so all freedome floweth from him: For every Agent pro∣duceth to himselfe the like; and every creature in some sort resembleth the Cre∣ator secundum aequalem analogiam, accor∣ding to the equality of similitude: For as God was first moved by his inward will, and not for any external respect, to constitute the Universe; so hath he with∣out any relation communicated his simi∣litude to some creatures more then others, and more respectively to man: And that reasonable creatures excel others in the free and arbitray motion of the will or appetite, no other cause can be given quam quod illud principium, illa vis, illa potestas insita sit à natura aut naturae fabricatore: Then that the said principle, power and faculty is implanted by nature, or the Fa∣bricator of nature, which is God, which Fortescue comprehendeth in one Thesis, Li∣bertas est à Deo homini insita à natura. Li∣berty is given from God to man by Na∣ture.

Notes

• Praecipuum in omni re est actio. Aust. 9. Eth. c. 9.
• Jun. Aquinas.
• Eph: 1.11.
• Mel. de A∣ni.
• Scal. Ex. 249.
• Omne agens agit sibi si∣bi simile. Aqu.
• Bies. de nat.
• De laudi∣bus Leg. Angliae. L. 4. c. 2.