Justice vindicated from the false fucus [i.e. focus] put upon it, by [brace] Thomas White gent., Mr. Thomas Hobbs, and Hugo Grotius 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.

The Ninth GROUND.

Of Slavery, and the lawfulness of it.

Author. HEre our Author tells us, We must first look into the notion of Slavery, which signifies a Subjection to command in all things, and that meer∣ly for the Masters profit. Well, I will not quarrel with our Author about the notion of Slavery, but tell him, he mistakes it in all his specifi∣cations of it: For his first, It is, he says, clearly against nature for a man to submit his will so far, as to renounce his eternal bliss.

Observ. This is out of his notion, and is so monstruous, as it is not imaginable any man should do it but Witches; and any man may chuse, whether he will do it or not, for no mans will can be compelled.

Author. The like he conceives of Subjection to be killed or maimed causelesly, nay, or to be so penuriously abused, as to have no content in life; and the reason he gives, is, It is evidently against the inclination of nature, to consent to the loss either of life, or the profit of life, which is either to be well in this world, or the next: And therefore it cannot be conformable to nature, to renounce either, (so

then a man must not by our Authors rule, renounce any depraved affection or appetition in him, if it conduces to his profit in this life) especially the quiet in this world, being the means to gain bliss in the other.

Observ. And so our Author hath shut out of doors all suffering for the testi∣mony of a good Conscience, because the quiet of this world, is the means to gain bliss in the other.

Author. Nor does it scare our Author, he says, to cast his eyes upon so many holy men and women, as have put themselves voluntarily upon penurious and painful lives, because they enjoy the fruit of contemplation, and sweetness of Conscience in expecting a great reward for what they did: But for a man to renounce the content of this, who either thinks not of another, or at least hopes nothing out of his resignation, this must of necessity be extreamly irrational, and against nature.

Observ. Why, if our Author had learned thus much out of the Poet,

Oderunt peccare boni, virtutis amore; Oderunt peccare mali, formidine poenae.

He needed not to have thought it so irrational; for if the love of Vertue will not make men do their duties, the fear of stripes and halters must, or our Author will not get Paper to write his Grounds of Obedience and Govern∣ment upon. Our Authors next specification, is no more then every servant ought to do.

Now let us see what servitus or mancipium, or servitude is, and who are properly Slaves, or as we use to term them, Vilains.

Slaves happen (Bodin says) to be so five ways: Either by birth, as the posterity of the Parents who are so; or accidentally, as prisoners taken in war; or thirdly, those who for some offence or debt are condemned to slavery, either for years or life; fourthly, they who voluntarily make themselves so; and fifthly, those that are sold by Theeves and Pirates, are for the price paid slaves, to the buyers: But whether this last be truly accounted slavery, is disputable, that is, Whether such buyers may use them as slaves or no. See more hereafter, Cap. Domestical Power.

Now Slaves have nothing properly, but whatsoever they get is their Lords, who may sell them or give them away at their pleasure, and have power of life and death over them. (Here in England the Lords power over their Vilains was restrained, neither might the Lord maim his Vilain; for though the Vilain could not recover any damage against his Lord, yet after Attainder the Lord was finable to the King) See Litt. 194. And the Neife (who is the Vilains Wife or Daughter) might have an appeal of Rape against her Lord, Litt. 190. But this not being a condition for any one who bears the Image of God upon him, God did restrain it, Levit. 25. 39. to them who were not Israelites, or Proselytes onely: Wherefore I conceive that neither Mahometans, Jews, or Christians (all acknowledging the Moral Law) do not make Slaves of any who are of their Faith and Religion from this ground; neither do I understand how the use of Vilains used with us heretofore, can be justified, if they were Christians; for no question Chri∣stianity makes not men in a worse condition in this world, then if they had been Jews or Turks. What difference the Romans made between Slaves and Libertines, and what Manumission is, and how many ways Slaves be∣come free, read Bodin de Repub. cap. 5. lib. 1. And of Manumission or En∣franchising

of Villains, read Littleton, and Com. of Sir Edward Coke thereon, Cap. Villenage.

Author. And now our Author tells you, how a Nation may enslave it self by its too much wit; and most prudently and wisely takes care that it be not our case. And so goes on very prettily in Questions and Answers; as, Whether any Nation be by nature born to slavery? of Joseph, and the Nation of Egypt; of a Nation and Nature, and how like Nation sounds to Nature, (Gens to Natura) and at last concludes, Out of this Conclusion it is is easily seen, that the Turkish, Muscovitical, and other whatsoever Governments setled upon this principle, That the goods and lives of the Subjects are the Princes, not to defend (as our Laws go) but to dispose at will, &c. neither do, nor can breed any obligation of O∣bedience in the Subject, more then of Fear, and present Utility.

Observ. It seems then, neither Fear nor Utility may be expected from our Au∣thors Laws, with which his absolute Trustee is impowered. And what other means (besides the law of God which commands us to be subject to the higher Powers, Rom. 13. and S. Peter, 1 Ep. cap. 2. 13. To submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether to the King as supreme, &c.) can any Governor propound to his Subjects for their conformity to his Laws, but utility and reward for their obedience, and fear of punishment for their disobedience?

And here our Author calls them Tyrannical, &c. What's the matter? Have they too much power? They have no more then God hath given them; and in having less, they should soon actually have none at all, and Aristocraties and Democraties assume as much; Do they eat too good meat, or wear too good clothes? Why sure Nature intended that the best things should be used, and who better use them then the King? What, are many of their Subjects poor and miserable? 'Tis not their fault; 'tis the curse of God upon the ground for Adams sin in not giving up his will to Gods command, that in sorrow man should eat of it all the days of his life, Gen. 3. 17. And if any of these Tyrannical Governors (as our Author calls them) should divest themselves of all their power and greatness, yet there would not be fewer poor laboring men: And let our Author shew me in any of these Goverments half so many Slaves and miserable men, as I will shew him have been under the Romans and other popular States. Nor need any man in any of these be a Slave, if he will become Renegado to his Faith and Religion; whereas under the Romans, &c. they were necessitated to it at the will of their Lords. Will they, if they fear the power of any man to grow too great, use means not fully warrantable in the known Laws, either to make it less, or none at all? why, the Portian Law prescribed only banishment to the Citizens of Rome, in any offence; yet Cethegus, Lentulus, Longinus, &c. were put to death for being agents in Catilines Conspiracie. The Athenians would by their Ostracism banish any man that they but suspected would grow too great. Will they make unjust war without any cause given? why, the Romans undertook the protection of the Mamertines, (Livy lib. 16.) a company of Hellhounds who had murdered their Hosts the Messanians, and took possession of Messana against the Carthaginians, which was the ground of the first Punick war. And when Greece was divided amongst Athenians, Lacedemonians, Arcadians, Corinthians, Achaeans, &c. when was there any faith or troth among them, but the weaker still bandying against the stronger, till they were all brought

in subjection to Philip the father of Alexander. Will they put men to death upon no sufficient proof of crime against them? why, what proof of su∣spicion of crime was there against the most excellent and divine Philoso∣pher Socrates? or against the victorious Athenian Captains at the battel of Arginusae? Will they not reward their good Servants and Captains? what reward had Camillus, Coriolanus, both the Scipio's, African and Asiatick, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Hermocrates, the noble Syracusan, Dion? &c. Will they take severe revenge upon their enemies, although it may be they had no just occasion given? The poor Melaeans, who were content not to have medled in the wars between the Athenians and Lacedemonians, and no occasion of war against them but the will of the Athenians, after they were forced to yield up their City at discretion, were all of military age slain, the women and children made slaves, and Melos made a Colony to Five hundred of these cursed Demagogues, as you may see at the end of the 5. book of Thucidides. And see Plutarch in the Life of Sylla, what came upon the Athenians who first called the Romans into Greece, when Sylla took Athens. Will they take severe revenge, where (as our Authors calls it) the obeyer does not understand that it is his own profit which the action aims at, (that is to say, when the Subject will not obey?) Let him see the fate of the Capuans in Livy lib. 26. and of the Mytileneans and Scionians in the 3. and 5. book of Thucidides. What, do they not govern their Subjects in peace? Where was there ever any such dissention and confusion as in De∣mocratical and Aristocratical States? And the Grecians have seen less war and disquiet two hundred years together under the Turk, then ever they saw in three years, when it was divided into so many Aristocraties and Democraties.

But our Author will not endure that the Subject should be protected in his life and estate by the Law of these Tyrannical Governors. Why, what greater obligation of obedience can there be to Government on the Subjects part, then that he is thence protected in his life, and from thence holds whatsoever may be called his? And since there never was, nor can be a fourth species of Government, how much better is it for a Subject to obey one Individual Prince, then by an imaginary liberty to make his obe∣dience to many? for, Quantae molis erit, dominis servire duobus?

Author. Well, but let us compare one of these Tyrannical Governors with our Authors Absolute Governor; (For though our Authors Absolute Governor be a Mungrel, extracted from equivocal generation, and such a Beast as Nature never intended, and (Ground 8.) tied up to certain Laws and Limits of the People, yet for all that, our Author can have a course too with his Lycisce, though tied up in a line: But then it must be agreed between our Author and his Lycisce, that they say it be for the good of the People; and then (Ground 11.) they are his Laws, (alack the while, what is become of the Peoples Laws! &c.) And (Gr. 13. p. 101.) The lawfulness of a Soveraign Commander is no other, then that he truly thinketh to be for the good of the Commonwealth.

Observ. So now, Casting of Dollars, and Coining of Dollars, is all the dif∣ference between our Authors Trustee, and one of these Tyrannical Governors; the same thing differently called by the Author.

Notes

• Horace.
• Bodln, cap. 5. lib. 1. de Re∣pub.
• Sir Walter Raleigh, book 5. ch 3.
• See Dio Sicu∣lus Bib lib 13. Where the Sy∣racusans, be∣fore Dionysius his time, made it their pastime to reward the vertue of their worthiest Com∣manders with death or ba∣nishment. And Nicias lost the whole Atheni∣an Army in Si∣cily, consisting of above forty thousand men, for fear if he had preserved them, he should have been pro∣scribed or put to death by the Athenians. Thucid. lib. 7.